IntellectBeat

Foraying into the Indian market, Zuk, which is a new subsidiary of Lenovo, announced the launch of its first smartphone for the country. Named Zuk Z1, the new phone comes to India with a price tag of Rs 13,499. The phone will be available in India from May 19 exclusively on Amazon India . The Zuk Z1 is said to be designed for power users and features a fingerprint sensor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 64 GB eMMC storage, 4100 mAh battery and a USB 3.0 Type-C port. The handset, as the company claims, features a unique variant of the Android home button, the U-Touch. The U-Touch, as Zuk describes, has a 508 DPI low-power fingerprint sensor offering 0.31 second identification speed with high accuracy. Talking about the power, the phone is claimed to support 120-minutes of talk time on a 5-minute charge. "The Z1 is the world's first mobile phone supporting USB 3.0 Type-C, enabling a 500 MB/s bandwidth, 10 times faster than USB 2.0," said Zuk. The phone also has USB...

For the first time in 10 years, Mercury passed directly between the Earth and sun, resembling a black dot against the vast, glowing face of our star. Many stargazers turned to the Internet as NASA provided close-to-real-time images of the 7½-hour trek, courtesy of the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The planet Mercury is seen in silhouette, lower left, as it transits across the face of the sun Monday, May 9, 2016. (Image: Bill Ingalls/NASA via AP) Although the solar system's small, innermost planet appeared to be trudging along, it actually was zooming past the sun at 170,000 kmph. The cosmic show began at 4.43 PM and lasted till 7.01 PM IST on Monday. A transit of Mercury occurs only about 13 times a century. The next transit of Mercury won't occur until 2019. Then it won't happen again until 2032. This composite image of observations by NASA and the ESA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory shows the path of Mercury during its November 2006 transit. (Image: Solar a...

In the race to capture the burgeoning global smartphone market, British automotive brand Jaguar Land Rover, currently owned by Tata Motors, is all set to launch smartphones and accessories by early 2017. For this, Land Rover has tied up with consumer electronics company Bullitt Group to develop a bespoke smartphone and range of accessories. “Incorporating iconic Land Rover design and innovative technology into the mobile phone sector with Bullitt Group presents an exciting challenge and fantastic opportunity to take the brand into a new dimension,” said Lindsay Weaver, director of licensing and branded goods at Jaguar Land Rover, in a statement recently. “An engineering and design team from Jaguar Land Rover special operations will be assigned to the partnership and subsequently deliver a number of bespoke applications tailored to Land Rover brand and product values,” Weaver added. According to Bullitt Group, the firm will partner with Land Rover to define ...

Motorola will be launching the next generation of its popular Moto G series of smartphones next week, at its May 17 event in India. The release date of the next generation Moto X smartphone however is not known. In the meanwhile, multiple leaks have come forward that reveal details and images of the smartphones. Let's start with the new Moto G, which is anticipated to be called the Moto G (Gen 4) or Moto G4. Its higher-specced variant - the Moto G4 Plus - has also been leaked in the past, and is part of the latest leak as well. It was previously tipped to sport a fingerprint sensor. The new leak via WinFuture.de's Roland Quandt on Twitter points to what appears to be the Zauba listing of the two smartphones. Zauba, a tracking website for imports and exports to and from India, hints at the 'Athene' codename for the two smartphones, which are also said to be 'Made in India'. This may of course, refer to just assembling within the country. Based on the leak...

In tune with expectations, Samsung announced the launch of its new pair of mid-range smartphones in India at an event in New Delhi. The Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy J7 (2016) are successors to the last-gen phones by the same name that were launched in India last year. The Galaxy J5 (2016) is priced at Rs 13,990 and the Galaxy J7 at Rs 15,990. Both the phones will be available exclusively via Flipkart from May 10. Both the phones are 4G-enabled, run Android 6.0 Marshmallow, feature a 13 megapixel camera at the rear and a 5 megapixel front snapper. Both phones feature F1.9 lenses in both the front and rear cameras. The Galaxy J5 (2016) comes with a 5.2-inch AMOLED display and a quad-core processor paired with 2 GB of RAM, the J7 (2016) includes has a 5.5-inch AMOLED display and an octa-core chipset coupled with 3 GB of RAM. The J5 has a 3100 mAh battery and the J7 has a larger 3300 mAh battery. The devices are available in colour of Radiant Gold, Midnight Black and Pearl White....

Scientists have detected atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere for the first time since the last observation 40 years ago. Atomic oxygen - an elemental form of oxygen that does not exist in Earth's atmosphere - affects how other gases escape Mars and therefore has a significant impact on the planet's atmosphere.  An instrument onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) - a joint project of Nasa and the German Aerospace Center - helped detect these atoms in the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere known as the mesosphere, Nasa said in a statement. "Atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is notoriously difficult to measure," said SOFIA project scientist Pamela Marcum.  "To observe the far-infrared wavelengths needed to detect atomic oxygen, researchers must be above the majority of Earth's atmosphere and use highly sensitive instruments, in this case a spectrometer. SOFIA provides both capabilities," Marcum noted. The s...