IntellectBeat

A US magistrate ordered Apple Inc. on Tuesday to help the Obama administration hack into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the shooters in the December attack in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people, in a first-of-its-kind ruling that pits digital privacy against national security interests. The ruling by Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym, a former federal prosecutor, requires Apple to supply highly specialised software the FBI can load onto the county-owned work iPhone to bypass a self-destruct feature, which erases the phone's data after too many unsuccessful attempts to unlock it. The FBI wants to be able to try different combinations in rapid sequence until it finds the right one. However, Apple has opposed the order saying it has implications beyond the legal case at hand. In a message to Apple customers , CEO Tim Cook has detailed what would be at stake if the company agrees to hack its own systems in order to cooperate with the law. Cook says that until now t...

Alibaba has bought nearly 33 million shares of online daily deal service Groupon. Groupon Inc.'s stock jumped more than 40 per cent in afternoon trading Tuesday. The purchase gives the Chinese e-commerce powerhouse about a 5.6 per cent stake in Groupon. Alibaba disclosed the purchase in a regulatory filing on Friday. The news comes shortly after Groupon reported a fourth-quarter adjusted profit and revenue that beat analysts' expectations. Last month Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. reported better-than-expected third-quarter results as it benefits from a shift to mobile spending and a growth in users. Shares of Chicago-based Groupon added $1.17, or 40.4 per cent, to $4.06 in afternoon trading Tuesday. US shares of China-based Alibaba rose $5.97, or 9.8 per cent, to $66.86.

The much-awaited and much talked-about sub-Rs 500 smartphone is coming to India today. Domestic handset maker Ringing Bells is all set to introduce what is believed to be the world's cheapest smartphone at an event in Delhi on February 17. Here's everything we think you should know about the upcoming phone, that could disrupt the booming handset market in the country. 1.  The highlight of the phone is its jaw-dropping price tag. The company, which had intially teased the phone saying that it would be priced under Rs 500, revealed that the Freedom 251 smartphone will carry a price tag of Rs 251. Only. 2.  Talking about the specs, the Freedom 251 handset will have a 4-inch qHD IPS display, 3.2 megapixel auto-focus rear camera, 0.3 megapixel front camera, 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal storage with SD card support, 1450 mAh battery, and Android 5.1 Lollipop OS. 3.  The phone will come with a standard warranty of 1 year. According to the company's ...

Dreams and nightmares that could shape the future took center stage Monday at the TED gathering known for brilliant minds exploring potentially world-changing ideas. Astro Teller of the boundary-pushing X lab run by Google parent company Alphabet, and television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes were among those who took to the intimate stage during the opening session of the five-day event. "This year's TED program includes speakers with truly extraordinary visions of the future," said Chris Anderson, curator of the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference. "We'll hear ideas -- some hopeful, some frightening -- that will jolt us awake." Teller, playfully nicknamed "captain of moonshots," shared insight on the inner workings of the lab known for projects including self-driving cars and wireless Internet streamed from high-altitude balloons. Google has long sponsored TED, and its founders have spoken at the conference. Teller predicted th...

Chinese smartphone maker Oppo, which aims to launch a wide range of camera-focussed phones this year, is working on optical zoom-enabled camera phone - similar to something that we have already seen in the Asus ZenFone Zoom, that was recently launched in India. In an interview with IBNLive, Marton Barcza, global community manager and product expert, Oppo, shared some of the company’s future plans. “I can say that we are certainly experimenting with all types of technologies including optical zoom,” he said, but added “whether or not we will launch a phone with optical zoom is something we are yet to figure out.” Besides this particular camera technology, the company says to have two other breakthrough camera innovations up its sleeves, which will be announced at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. On being asked to shed some more light on it, Will Yang, brand director, Oppo India, said, “We will announce two breakthrough (camera)...

Ride- and home-sharing startups shaking up the world are old concepts getting new life, founders of two prominent ventures told an "ideas conference" Tuesday. "We didn't invent anything new," co-founder Joe Gebbia said of Airbnb during a candid presentation at the prestigious annual TED gathering in Vancouver. "Hospitality has been around forever." During a separate TED talk, Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick described Uber as a modern day spin on the "Jitney," a ride-sharing trend that rocketed after being launched in California in 1914 but which was crushed under the weight of regulation in subsequent years. "It turns out there was an Uber way before Uber," Kalanick said during an on-stage talk. "If it had survived, the future of transportation would probably be here already." The name "Jitney" came from a slang reference to a US five-cent coin, which is what a car dealer in Los Angeles who noticed crowds ...

Domestic handset maker Ringing Bells has launched India's most affordable smartphone for under Rs 500 today, a move that is set to disrupt the booming handset market in the country. The launch is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's vision for "empowering India to the last person, transforming India's growth story", the Noida-based company said. "The phone will be popularly priced at under Rs 500... this event and launch stands as a true testimony of success of the latest initiatives taken by the Government of India," according to a media invite sent by the firm. At present, smartphones available in the market are priced around Rs 1,500. Last year, DataWind had announced that it is teaming up with Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications (RCOM) to launch the world's most affordable smartphone, priced at Rs 999. The phone is yet to hit the market. Established last year, Ringing Bells will start with the assembly of handsets in Phase-I ...

Parental control app OurPact has announced the Android release of its device management that enables parents to remotely manage their children's access to internet and third-party apps. Until now, ParentsWare, the company behind OurPact, operated only on the Apple system. Now parents using Android will also be able to monitor their children's internet activities with the technology. OurPact is free and available in over 100 countries. Devices running Android 4.1 or newer can access the app through the Google Play Store.

Egypt's top prosecutor has ordered the arrest of a Facebook page administrator whose assertion on a popular television talk show that a third of married women in the conservative country are unfaithful caused a social media uproar. The public prosecutor issued an arrest warrant on Tuesday for Taymour el-Sobky, accusing him of slandering Egyptian women and damaging their honour, according to a statement from his office. Sobky caused a furore after making his conclusions on the evening talk show Mumkin, which means "It is Possible". His remarks were aired in December on privately-owned CBC channel but did not generate controversy until a clip was posted on social media this week. The show was suspended for 15 days as a result. "Thirty per cent of Egyptian women are ready for immorality, they just can't find someone to encourage them," said Sobky, whose Facebook page, "Diaries of a Suffering Husband", has more than one million followers. "Th...

In politics, it is said that all press is good press. But that does not necessarily apply to tweets. In fact, it is difficult to predict the outcome of an election based on the amount of Twitter buzz a candidate gets, according to a study from the Social Science Computer Review. The study, which focused on the 2013 German federal election, found that Twitter data was a more accurate measure of the level of interest in candidates rather than the level of support they will receive. "Negative events, such as political scandals, as well as positively evaluated events, such as accomplishments, can (both)underlie attention for a party or candidate," said the study, published on Monday. Yet scandals and accomplishments affect the level of support for a candidate in completely different ways. "The analysis does not support the simple 'more tweets, more votes' formula," the study found. For example, a video clip of a candidate's campaign gaffe broadcast on ...

Opening a new era of eternal data archiving, scientists at University of Southampton have developed the recording and retrieval processes of five dimensional (5D) digital data using ultrafast laser writing in nanostructured glass. The storage allows unprecedented properties including 360 TB (terabyte)/disc data capacity, thermal stability up to 1,000 degree Celsius and virtually unlimited lifetime at room temperature (13.8 billion years at 190 degree Celsius ), the researchers said. "It is thrilling to think that we have created the technology to preserve documents and information and store it in space for future generations. This technology can secure the last evidence of our civilisation: all we have learnt will not be forgotten,” Peter Kazansky, professor at University of Southampton in Britain, said in an official statement. As a very stable and safe form of portable memory, the technology could be highly useful for organisations with big archives, such as national archives...

Portronics on Tuesday launched Sound Wallet -- a new portable palm-sized Bluetooth speaker for people who love music on the go. Available in ultra-modern metallic casings in gold and grey colours, the easily pocketable device has a speaker with a range of almost 10 metres. Available for Rs 1,599, the speaker gives you crystal clear music and comes with an enhanced rechargeable Lithium-ion battery that on a single charge can play for up to six hours of music. The speaker can be recharged through a micro USB cable included in the box. Sound Wallet can be paired easily with iPhone, iPod, computer, iPad and other bluetooth-enabled audio devices.

The "captain of moonshots" at Google parent company Alphabet sees widespread, world-changing wireless Internet on the horizon. Astro Teller, head of the boundary-pushing X research team, shared his vision of the future during a talk at the TED Conference here late Monday. Teller shared insights into the X team's balloon-powered high-speed Internet service known as "Project Loon," which aims to get billions more people online by reaching remote or rural regions that are not yet connected. "There is a lot of different technology out there, rolling them out will be complicated," Teller said. "But, somewhere between five and ten years, it will change the world in ways we can not possibly imagine." Project Loon began its first tests in Sri Lanka on Monday ahead of a planned joint venture with the government there, the country's top IT official told AFP. It promises to extend coverage and cheaper rates for data services. Service provider...

Rene Laennec, born this day in 1781, was a French physician who invented the stethoscope- one of the most indispensable medical instruments that fundamentally changed the way lung and heart problems are detected and diagnosed. The idea behind the stethoscope came from Laennec's memory in 1816 when he observed children playing with a long stick-one scraped it with a pin while the other listened giddily to the amplified sound on the other end. From this Laennec rolled up a piece of paper and pressed it to his patient's chest and was able to listen to the beating of the heart all loud and clear. The early prototype of a stethoscope consisted of a hollow tube of wood that was 3.5 cm (1.4 inches) in diameter and 25 cm (10 inches) long and was monoaural, transmitting sound to one ear. The instrument replaced the practice of immediate auscultation in which a physician laid his ear on the chest of the patient to listen to the sounds. In 1826, Laennec died from cavitating tuberculo...