IntellectBeat

2016 is touted as the year of VR and the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is the first of many such occasions this year to witness the power of virtual reality. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who made an unscheduled appearance at one of the events shared an interesting picture on his social media page which proves exactly that. Zuckerberg-VR-MWC The photograph taken at Samsung's 'Galaxy Unpacked' event shows Zuckerberg walking towards the stage as the audience on his left is engrossed in their respective 'virtual' world through individual VR headsets. A little unnerving, this picture - which has garnered over a whopping 443,227 likes- says a lot about the future of virtual reality in the real world; something that has the potential to open many a new channels of communication and contribute to the fields of gaming, medicine, architecture and astronomy among others, but at the same time also hints at a more individual consumption of media. The medium of c...

A book reportedly written by a Canadian serial killer has been removed from Amazon 's website within hours of being put on sale online. Outskirts Press, which published the book, issued a statement Monday saying it had asked Amazon to remove the book from its website and apologizing to victims' families. Robert Pickton was convicted in 2007 of six counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of sex workers. Pickton slaughtered the women at his pig farm and fed some remains to his pigs. He was sentenced to life in prison. By Monday afternoon, the 144-page memoir titled "Pickton: In His Own Words" was no longer available from online retailer Amazon. Canadian Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told Parliament the Correctional Service of Canada is investigating how the manuscript was smuggled out of prison.

The 2016 edition of Google Science Fair- the global online science competition for children- has kick-started and individuals or teams from 13-18 years of age are invited to participate in the coveted battle of science and technology. With #HowCan W e hashtag, the search giant intends to spark curiosity and innovation in children through science to make the world better. To participate in the competition, interest applicants can submit their projects till May 18, 2016. Regional finalists and community impact winners will be announced on July 18, 2016 while global finalists will be announced on August 11, 2016. Awards to novel and revolutionary ideas will be given away on September 9, 2016. The competition is free for everyone and all the details related to the Google Science Fair can be found here . Find Video at Youtube

Human beings' fascination with photography shows no signs of ebbing in spite of moving images making inroads into the living rooms (television) and on digital and virtual world (YouTube). A proof to this effect is the birth and explosion of the photo and video sharing social media website Instagram. It is not only the millennial generation (Generation Y) sharing and viewing of photos on Instagram but also the digitally precocious and audience - and constituents - conscious politicians across the continents both directly elected and indirectly world leaders. Only via app! One cannot open an account on Instagram through a desktop, laptop or tablet computer but only with an internet-connected mobile phone. Only after that one can access one's account on another (traditional and old) platform. This ensures that the account holder's movements are also stored on Instagram (just in case), and possibly to monetise the data (mining) at a later stage for one or the other reason (if...

Google is shuttering Google Compare, its US comparison-shopping site for auto insurance, credit cards and mortgages after one year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The quick reversal is a setback to the Alphabet unit's efforts to use its enormous reach to provide consumers with niche shopping services and financial-services tools, the Journal said. The company said in an email to its partners on Monday that Google Compare's US and UK services would start winding down this month and terminate on March 23, according to the Journal. Google said the service didn't meet its expectations and that the company will now focus on AdWords and future innovations, the paper reported citing the email. Google could not immediately be reached for comment outside US business hours.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg said today he was "sympathetic" with Apple's chief executive Tim Cook in his stand-off with the US government over breaking into the iPhone of a mass shooter. "I don't think that requiring back doors to encryption is either going to be an effective thing to increase security or is really the right thing to do. We are pretty sympathetic to Tim and Apple," he said at a the world's biggest mobile congress in Barcelona. "At the same time we feel we have a really big responsibility running this big networking community to help prevent terrorism and different types of attacks. "If we have opportunities to basically work with the government to make sure there are not terrorist attacks, obviously we are going to take those opportunities." The controversy emerged earlier this month when Apple refused to help the FBI break into an iPhone belonging to the late Syed Farook, who along with his wife went on a deadly sh...

As the future of the world's cheapest smartphone - Freedom 251 - still looks bleak, a spoof website freedom651.com is leaving no stone unturned to take a dig at both the maker of the Rs 251 smartphone and the phone itself, which the site claims has been crafted 'from components found only on planet Mars.' The spoof website says that in order to build its Freedom 251-lookalike Freedom 651 phone by a fictional 'Doesn't Ring Bells Pvt Ltd' ( a take on the original Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd) has tied up with Standard Fireworks in Sivakasi to make 20 million of their rockets and in order to send humans to Mars by tying them to the crackers, they need the upfront payment of Rs 650. From the 'Do not Buy' button, a delivery date of 30th June, 2026, a customer care number which reads- 0420-420420, 4200420, and a separate 'Contact Us' section that asks for a user's grandfather's, neighbour's details and still warns not to even try submitting the...

The number of people worldwide with internet access reached 3.2 billion at the end of 2015, but the remaining 4.1 billion still could not get online, a Facebook-sponsored study showed. Facebook's second annual "State of Connectivity" report, released late Sunday, showed that 200 million people gained internet access in 2015, due to "more affordable data and rising global incomes." The report said the remaining world population needs help to gain access to the internet and the economic opportunities it enables. "The developed world is largely online, but the developing world is a long way behind," the report said. "Urban areas are connected, many rural areas are not. The less money you have, the less likely you are to be online. In many countries, women use the internet far less than men. And even if the entire world lived within range of the necessary infrastructure, nearly a billion people remain illiterate or otherwise unable to benefit from...

For humans to arrive at the Red Planet with the available technology, it will approximately take five months to touch down on the Martian surface. NASA researchers are now working on a new laser technology that can send humans to Mars in flat three days. The idea is to use lasers to propel spacecraft with giant sails to Mars in just three days and this is no science fiction. The new “photonic propulsion” system relies on the momentum of photons - particles of light - to move forward. But instead of photons from the Sun's rays, the design from NASA scientist Philip Lubin will involve a push by giant Earth-based lasers to the spacecraft, sciencealert.com reported. According to Lubin, the technology is very much readily available and that the system could easily be scaled up. “There are recent advances that take this from science fiction to science reality. There is no known reason why we cannot do this,” Lubin was quoted as saying. Despite not having any ma...

HTC Vive virtual reality system is to retail at an introductory price of $799, more than the Oculus Rift's $599, as expected. The five-piece virtual reality kit, comprising a high spec HD visor, two location-sensing cubes, and a pair of controllers, is set for an April launch, with pre-orders opening February 29 at 10am EST (3pm UTC). Designed and manufactured in partnership with PC gaming giant Valve Corporation ("Dota 2," "Portal," "Half-Life" and the Steam store), the hardware company also unveiled another trick for its piece of premium VR kit. A Vive Phone Service will allow users to make and take calls, compose text messages, and check up on calendar appointments all while within the Vive's virtual world. Hardware requirements are more or less on a par with the $599 Oculus Rift: computers powering a Vive will need an Nvidia GTX970 or AMD R9 290 graphics card, and an Intel i5 or AMD FX 8350 CPU chip, but a minimum 4GB of RAM compared to the...

Alongside new smartphones and a virtual reality camera, Samsung will be demonstrating Samsung Connect Auto at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. Described by its makers as ushering in "a new era of driving experience", the Samsung Connect Auto is a dongle that plugs into the diagnostics port of potentially any car built since the 1990s in order to bring it up to date technologically speaking. "We have been listening to our customers and pushing boundaries to create a connected car ecosystem that seamlessly integrates our products and partner services for a better driving experience," said Dr. Injong Rhee, Executive VP and Head of R&D, Software and Services, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics. "Through collaborations with valuable partners and experts across many industries, we are carrying out our vision of bringing IoT technology to people's everyday lives." The device offers WiFi, monitors driving beh...

In its battle with Apple over an extremist's iPhone, the FBI says neither the company nor anyone else has anything to fear. Although they want to compel assistance from Apple to unlock a phone used by San Bernardino mass shooter Syed Farook, officials say the techniques they propose are limited in scope and pose no risk to the privacy of other iPhone users. Security experts say it's not so simple. "It's a very dangerous proposition to claim that this capability could not be re-used," said Will Ackerly, chief technology officer at Virtru, a computer security firm he co-founded after working 8 years at the National Security Agency. Federal prosecutors have asked a court to force Apple to produce special software that would help the FBI guess the passcode to an iPhone found in Farook's car. Federal officials say Apple will be free to destroy that software once the iPhone is open to investigators. Apple argues it's unrealistic to think that governments, bo...

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Monday tried to extend an olive branch to mobile phone companies, on which the popular social network company increasingly relies, but which are also among his biggest critics. Speaking for the third straight year to an annual gathering of telecoms executives at the Mobile World Congress here, Zuckerberg sought to show his company could be a valuable, if truculent, ally to the wireless industry. He described a new project Facebook is working on with major telecom players, including Nokia, Deutsche Telekom, SK Telecom and Intel to help rapidly build far faster mobile networks at lower costs. But while listing the various ways Facebook was prepared to help network operators contend with spiralling consumer appetites for data, he also criticised and made more demands on the industry. Zuckerberg challenged the priorities for next-generation 5G networks, which the industry is gearing up to deliver around 2020. He called them "faster conn...