IntellectBeat

Harry Potter creator JK Rowling Tuesday released the first instalment of a four-part online short-story series titled 'History of Magic in North America'. The latest writing from the 50-year-old celebrated author tells the magical history of America and is available to read on her 'Pottermore' website. The first piece is titled 'Fourteenth Century - Seventeenth Century' and uncovers the world of Native American witches and wizards, revealing the truth behind the "legendary skin walkers". While these shape-shifters were rumoured to have acquired their power through killing a family member, Rowling reveals that they were actually Animagi - wizards and witches who have developed the ability to transform into an animal at will - a term used in the Harry Potter books as well. Rowling writes that "the Native American magical community and those of Europe and Africa had known about each other long before the immigration of European No-Majs in the se...

It's difficult to justify paying for a high-priced, top-end smartphone these days - unless, that is, you want to take good pictures. In this Age of Instagram, a great camera is one of the few reasons to pay $650 (roughly Rs. 43,500) or more for the latest smartphone, instead of $200 or $300 (roughly Rs. 13,400 or Rs. 20,100) for a budget phone that does texting, Facebook and Web surfing just as well. Samsung's phone cameras have shown tremendous improvement in just a few years. The new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge phones take much better pictures than last year's S6 models. In fact, they're now basically neck and neck with Apple's iPhones, meaning that you no longer have to compromise on picture quality if you prefer Android. We took more than 2,000 still shots and a few videos using 10 smartphones from Samsung,Apple, LG, Huawei, and Motorola. To make the comparison clearer, I focused on indoor and night settings, such as museums, bars and New...

You may think using a fingerprint sensor is a very secure method to lock down your smartphone, and you're right, in most cases it indeed is. But don't mistake this biometric technology as foolproof. Case in point, researchers at Michigan State University have found a way to unlock your smartphone using things like an off-the-shelf inkjet printer. The researchers say that they can utilise an inkjet printer and a special photo paper to replicate your fingerprint and use it to unlock your devices. What's even more scary is that the process takes less than 15 minutes to accomplish. The astonishing finding was published in a detailed report last month. Kai Cao and Anil Jain, the researchers, created a working copy of a fingerprint using a special ink cartridges and paper, both of which were made by Japanese company AgIC. The ink, the researchers wrote, conducts electricity when printed on this particular paper, and creates a printed circuit. The next step is to scan a fingerp...

Samsung was rumoured to be working on a mini-variant of the Galaxy J1 for months. The South Korean company has finally introduced the smartphone in Philippines. The Samsung Galaxy J1 mini is now listed on the company's Philippines site without any details about availability and pricing. We can expect the smartphone to go on sale soon. The new Samsung Galaxy J1 mini is a new variant in the company's Galaxy J series which already includes Samsung Galaxy J1,Galaxy J1 4G, and Galaxy J1 Ace. The Galaxy J1 mini features a 4-inch TFT display with a screen resolution of 480x800 pixels. The smartphone is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor clubbed with a 768MB of RAM. It packs 8GB of built-in storage and supports expandable storage via microSD card (up to 128GB). The handset sports a 5-megapixel rear camera with no flash. There is a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. The dual-SIM Galaxy J1 mini supports Micro-SIMs and comes with GPRS/ EDGE, Bluetooth...

In a shocking incident, a Chinese couple allegedly sold their new born 18-day-old baby daughter for $3,530 to buy an iPhone. A Duan, father of the child, from Fujian Province in country's southeast found a buyer for his 18-day-old child on the social media site QQ, who paid $3,530 (CNY 23,000 or roughly Rs. 2,38,000) for the baby, state-run People's Daily online reported. The man allegedly intended to buy an iPhone and a motorbike with the funds. The mother, called Xiao Mei, reportedly worked many part-time jobs while the father spent his most of time in Internet cafes. The couple met at work back in 2013 and, after plans for their marriage were shelved with neither party meeting the legal age, their child was born following an unwanted pregnancy. Both parents were 19 at the time and being short of money and finding his newborn daughter to be a financial burden, A Duan eagerly took up the opportunity to traffic her off in order to buy the material possessions he desired. M...

There have been recent reports about HTC manufacturing the next Nexus device this year in collaboration with Google. Now, a new report from China claims that Google's parent company, Alphabet, has signed a three year contract with HTC to make Nexus devices. If this comes out to be true, we may see HTC unveiling its Nexus devices as platform lead devices for the upcoming Android N version, as well as Android O and Android P in next two years. The Chinese publication claims that the deal with HTC includes manufacturing the Nexus phones only but we may see a change later. It's worth noting that the Taiwanese company launched the Nexus One - the first Nexus device - in 2010, and had also worked with Google for the Nexus 9 tablet. Considering that LG has already revealed that it won't launch a Nexus device this year, we may expect HTC to replace the South Korean maker. To recall, LG launched the Nexus 4 back in 2012, followed by the Nexus 5...

WhatsApp seems to be on a roll these days. The instant messaging application, after bringing pdf file sharing support, showing end-to-end encryption notification, and more, has this time tweaked the user Settings page for Android with a new layout, slightly better icons, and smoother animations. The new user Settings page on WhatsApp comes as a part of the version 2.12.506, which is yet to be rolled out to Google Play or the WhatsApp website, but can be downloaded as an apk file from APK Mirror website (via Android Police). You can also be a part of Google Play beta programme to get the new version. Besides the aforementioned design changes, the new WhatsApp version brings some changes in the placement of the options inside Settings page as well. The Profile settings option, which was until now seen placed at second position from top, has moved to the top and features the user's profile pic. It however, bears the same functions - letting u...

Microsoft could begin rolling out Windows 10 Mobile software update to a range of Lumiasmartphones including the affordable Lumia 520 later this month. An internal email has allegedly laid bare on the company's plan.  Roughly three months after the company was originally supposed to begin updating select Windows Phone 8.1 smartphones to Windows 10 Mobiles, VentureBeat, citing an email between Microsoft and partners, reports that Microsoft is finally ready to roll out its latest mobile operating system. The rollout will supposedly begin after the release of monthly updates to Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL.  The report claims that Microsoft will be rolling out the upgrade in two distinct processes. The rollout will begin "passively," but at some point the Redmond, Washington-based company will pick up the pace. A separate report, which cites Vodafone Italy, claims that the carrier will begin upgrading a range of Lu...