IntellectBeat

Xiaomi has announced the launch of the Mi Bluetooth speaker in India. Priced at Rs 1,999, the wireless speaker will be available in India from the third week of March. It will come in gold, blue and pink colour options. Encased in an aluminium case, the Xiaomi Mi Bluetooth Speaker is of the size of a pencil case and is said to offer 90dB(A) @0.5m sound. It has been further adjusted for tonal balance and delivers low distortions at high volumes, says Xiaomi. The speaker includes a microSD card slot and the built-in microphone offers hands-free support during calls. The Mi Bluetooth Speaker is powered by a 1500mAh battery that is claimed to offer up to 8 hours of music playback. The speaker was unveiled in India at the Redmi Note 3 launch event on Thursday, where Hugo Barra, VP, Xiaomi, also said that the company will launch its flagship Mi 5 handset in the next one month.

Video-streaming service provider Netflix has released the fourth season of the Netflix original series, 'House of Cards', on March 4 in India. And with the launch of the fourth season, Netlfix is also releasing all previous seasons of the series for Netflix members in India. Based on the BBC miniseries of the same name, House of Cards is an uncompromising exploration of power, ambition and the American way. The political thriller drama slithers beneath the curtain and through the back halls of greed, sex, love and corruption in modern Washington DC. This series is produced by David Fincher of 'Social Network' and 'Gone Girl' and stars Kevin Spacey and Robin Wright. Spacey plays Francis Underwood who is a politician's politician - masterful, beguiling, charismatic and ruthless. Robin Wright plays the role of his wife, Claire, who is a powerful lobbyist in the show. Critically acclaimed series 'House of Cards' received three Emmy awards in 2013 an...

Ever since Ringing Bells announced the launch of the Rs 251 Freedom 251 smartphone last month, the company has been embroiled in a long string of controversies. After being questioned over the price of the phone by customers and also the government, accused of cheating and fraud by its customer service provider, and having faced queries by the Income-Tax Department and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) over its financial structure, the Noida-based company now has been reported to be not conducting its operations from its registered office. Ringing Bells, reportedly, is shutting down its office in Noida, as there is a dispute over the land it is built on. But the company has moved itself away from this controversy saying that the dispute is between their landlord and the Noida Authority, and the company has nothing to do with the dispute. "While speculation is rife regarding the legitimacy of our occupying the premises we operate from, i.e., our corporate office at B-44, Sector...

China-based Xiaomi launched its 'Redmi Note 3' smartphone in India on Thursday following which the phone was the most trending Google search in India. It was most looked up in Manipur, Mizoram, Haryana and Punjab. 'INDIA vs UAE', 'Arsenal', 'Shraddha Kapoor', 'Rahul Gandhi' and 'London Has Fallen' were also trending on the same day in India.

Amazon unveiled two devices Thursday in the family of its Alexa voice-activated personal assistant, aiming for a bigger foothold in the smart-home market. The US online giant announced it would sell the Amazon Tap, a $130 voice-activated portable speaker, which connects to WiFi or a mobile hotspot "to play music, read the news, provide weather reports, and even order a pizza." The second device is called the Echo Dot, a basic $90 sibling of the original Echo which can control light switches, thermostats and other connected devices by voice command. The Dot will only be made available to customers with existing Amazon devices, and may only be ordered with the voice command, "Alexa, order an Echo Dot." Amazon launched its effort in 2014 with its Echo speaker, using the same kind of artificial intelligence employed by Apple's Siri, Google Now and Microsoft's Cortana, among others. Internet titans such as Apple and Google are eager to make their platforms ...

The nation's leading tech companies joined security experts, independent programmers and civil liberties advocates who filed court papers backing Apple in its fight with the FBI over an encrypted iPhone used by an extremist killer. Several law enforcement groups, meanwhile, filed briefs in support of federal authorities who are seeking Apple's help in hacking an encrypted iPhone used by Syed Farook, one of the San Bernardino mass shooters. These "friend of the court" briefs come in advance of a March 22 hearing in which Apple is asking U.S. Magistrate Sheri Pym to reverse an order requiring Apple to create a software program that overrides iPhone security features. That program would let authorities try to unlock Farook's phone by guessing its passcode; Apple says it would make all other iPhones more vulnerable to future attacks. Relatives of five people who were killed, along with one survivor of the December 2 attack, also filed a brief saying the FBI's ...

Amazon.com has quietly dropped support for disk encryption on its Fire tablets, saying the feature that secures devices by scrambling data was little used by customers. Privacy advocates and some users criticised the move, which came to light on Thursday even as Apple was waging an unprecedented legal battle over US government demands that the iPhone maker help unlock an encrypted phone used by San Bernardino shooter Rizwan Farook. On-device encryption scrambles data so that the device can only be accessed if the user enters the correct password. Cryptologist Bruce Schneier said Amazon's move to remove the feature was "stupid" and called on the company to restore it. "Hopefully the market will tell them to do otherwise," he said. Amazon joined other major technology companies in filing an amicus brief supporting Apple on Thursday, asking a federal judge to overturn a court order requiring Apple to create software tools to unlock Farook's phone. Amazon ...