IntellectBeat

YouTube on Tuesday added interactive, 360-degree animation video to its line-up, with help from the makers of "Wallace and Gromit." Dubbed "Spotlight Stories," the new feature will be viewable on the YouTube  app of an array of Android-powered smartphones. Showcasing the technology was a Santa-themed short film from Academy Award-winning studio Aardman Animations, entitled "Special Delivery." The animated short centers on a building custodian trying to find a "mysterious stranger" who remains just out of sight but leaves behind a trail of gifts. Designed by  Google  as a new form of storytelling, the immersive films allow users to drill down into sub-stories within their plot by moving their phone towards what they want to see. "The sensors on your phone allow the story to be interactive, so when you move your phone to various scenes, you unlock mini-stories within the story," technical project lead Rachid El Guerrab said in a blo...

Predicting the future is a dangerous game. It's easy to speculate and easier still to hope, but what we have to do is carefully look at all the promising developments we've seen in the recent past and then evaluate how we think they'll keep going, and what else they'll lead to. Some companies are kind enough to provide roadmaps and projections, but surprises can pop up out of anywhere, anytime. We've looked at the state of tech and of the world at large to bring you our list of ten things we think will be significant in the world of personal technology in 2016. From global-scale trends that will shape politics and policy to the individual features of our next smartphones, there's a lot to think about. 1) The death of the traditional desktop OS With Microsoft taking full control of Windows 10 updates and doing whatever it can to push users to its latest OS, the traditional notion of the OS is dead in 2016. From forced updates to a dependency on being complete...

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has reportedly asked Reliance Communications (RCom) to put Facebook's Free Basics service on hold until it reaches a conclusion to its  latest consultation paper  on differential pricing. Free Basics, formerly Internet.org, which bundles a specific set of Internet services including Facebook for free, was made available nationwide on Reliance Communications  last month , after it was  launched in six states  in February this year.  In a news report published  by ET on Wednesday, a  Trai  source told the newspaper that Reliance Communications has sent a compliance report confirming it has stopped the service. Gadgets 360 has written to Trai asking for a confirmation of the report, but we are yet to receive a response yet to receive a response confirming or denying the development. "We are committed to Free Basics and to working with Reliance and the relevant authorities to help people in In...

Nasa is calling off its next mission to Mars because there isn't enough time to fix a leaky seal on a key science instrument. The InSight spacecraft was set for launch in March. The problem is with a protective pouch around the lander's seismometer, which was designed to measure ground movement on the red planet. Nasa managers and French designers of the instrument said Tuesday they must now decide whether the pouch's vacuum seal needs to be repaired, redesigned or the mission scrapped. The next opportunity to launch the InSight lander is in May 2018 since the best chances of launching missions between Earth and Mars occur for just a few weeks every 26 months. "We're close enough to launch but unfortunately we don't have enough time to try to identify the leak, fix it and recover and still make it to the launch pad in March," said John Grunsfeld, Nasa's science mission chief. The goal of the mission was to explore the interior core, mantle and cr...

A day after SpaceX pulled off an upright landing of its powerful Falcon 9 rocket, the head of France's space agency called it a "technological feat" but warned of more work ahead. CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall told AFP why cost and technology show reusable launchers are not yet a game-changer. What do you think of SpaceX's successful landing? "What they did yesterday is clearly a technological feat, everyone is unanimous on that point. That said, there are two things to keep in mind. The first is that they made just the first step by recovering (the rocket) but not reusing it yet. The launcher worked once, it returned and landed perfectly. Let's see first if it's possible to use it again and whether a lot of a work will need to be done to make it flight-ready. We should not forget that reusable launchers already exist, with space shuttles being one example. But when they have to be re-readied for flight the costs have been significant." Wh...

Google, part of Alphabet Inc, is building a new mobile messaging application to better compete with rival services such as those offered by Facebook Inc, the Wall Street Journal reported. The new service would tap into Google's artificial intelligence know-how, integrating chatbots, or software programs that answer questions, inside a messaging app, the Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The new app will enable users to text friends or a chatbot, which will search the Web and other sources for information to answer a question. It is unclear when the service will be launched, or what it will be named, the report said. Source:- Reuters

SBI launches new mobile app on banking services. State Bank of India today said it has launched a mobile phone application that will enable its customers avail a range of services without visiting the branch. "State Bank of India launched a mobile app ' State Bank Samadhaan ' on Google Play Store. This is a Self-Service app and will enable SBI customers to avail a range of services and obtain commonly sought information, without visiting the branch," the state-run lender said in a statement. The app will provide information about deposits, advances, internet banking, mobile banking, EMI calculation, SBI branch and ATM locations, SBI Holidays and give direct access to various mobile apps viz SBI Freedom, SBI Anywhere, SBI Buddy, SBI Quick.

Huawei starts selling Honor smartphones offline Press Trust of India. Telecom company Huawei today announced its partnership with mobile commerce firm Zopper to sell Honor smartphones through retail stores to strengthen its market share in India. "We have decided to introduce Honor smartphones in the offline sales channel, which starts with the tie-up with Zopper, which allow customers to choose the retailer offering the best price for a product," Huawei India President of Consumer Business Group Allen Wang said in a statement. Till date, Honor smartphones were only available in India, online, on the e-commerce portals Flipkart.com and Snapdeal. Zopper is an app that allows a customer to choose the retailer with the best price for a product. Honor in collaboration with Zopper will reach out to 267 outlets in Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Vellore, Pondicherry and Bengaluru and provide them with exciting offers on the Honor products. The products would sell at the same prices t...

As the Christmas and New Year celebrations kick in, Google is here with its first holiday doodle that is inspired by papercraft models and cut outs. The 1st of its holidays 2015 doodles has been created by doodler Robinson Wood and shows off several festive characters and items including little stars, candies, and also a horizontal Christmas tree. Papercrafting is an ancient art form and is believed to date back to 1440. One could easily see the craft forming the core of the modern day 3D printing in which akin to the old craft, a pattern is first conceptualised onto the computer and later printed to form an object. Over the years, Google has been posting a series of doodles with the onset of the holiday season.