IntellectBeat

Global printing and personal computer major HP Inc on Thursday launched world's thinnest HP Spectre laptop - weighing 1.1 kg and as thin as an AAA-battery at just 10.4 mm with sixth generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors. The $1,249 (India prices yet to be announced) notebook will be available in the Indian market from mid-June this year. The device packs in superb entertainment experience with full HD 13.3-inch diagonal edge-to-edge display and a lightning fast PCIe solid-state drive (SSD) with storage up to 512 GB with up to 8 GB of memory. It has an innovative hybrid battery split into two thinner pieces that delivers the same charge as a single battery for up to nine and half hours of battery life. "HP Spectre is the thinnest notebook in the world and unlike the majority of other super thin PCs on the market, this laptop doesn't compromise power or features," said Anneliese Olson, vice president of personal systems business, HP Asia Pacific and Japan. A ...

There has been much buzz about WhatsApp rolling out full end-to-end encryption for its billion plus users around the world. This means that all WhatsApp messages will now be accessible only to the sender and recipient, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp. While this development has privacy advocates and human rights pleased, security agencies are concerned that it could be misused by anti- national elements for achieving their nefarious designs. Apple also uses end-to-end encryption for its iMessage service but WhatsApp's user numbers are far greater than that of iMessage (which is limited to iPhones) and therefore the recent changes affect a larger set of users. WhatsApp's method of end-to-end encryption is said to be more secure than iMessage's because WhatsApp also provides a security code that senders and recipients can use to verify a message came from someone they know — and not from a hacker posing as a friend. Also many iMessage users back up their messages...

If early Mars was as barren and cold as it is today then the bombardment of the Red Planet some four billion years ago by comets and asteroids may have made its climate more conducive to life, according to a study. The impacts would have produced regional hydrothermal systems on Mars similar to those in Yellowstone National Park, which today harbour chemically powered microbes, some of which can survive boiling in hot springs or inhabiting water acidic enough to dissolve iron nails, said study co-author Stephen Mojzsis from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Scientists have long known there was once running water on Mars, as evidenced by ancient river valleys, deltas and parts of lake beds, Mojzsis added. In addition to producing hydrothermal regions in portions of Mars' fractured and melted crust, a massive impact could have temporarily increased the planet's atmospheric pressure, periodically heating Mars up enough to "re-start" a dormant water cycle. Publis...

Security agencies have expressed concern over the new encryption feature introduced by popular messaging giant WhatsApp saying it could be misused by anti- national elements for achieving their nefarious designs. The just-introduced end-to-end encryption of WhatsApp will protect texts and voice calls and gives no access to the security agencies, making it much tougher for them to tackle any situation arising out of messages, videos being circulated through the messaging service. WhatsApp has puts out a one-line advisory to its users: Messages you send to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryption. "The move is a potential security threat," said a security official. WhatsApp's action came close on the heels of a legal battle between Apple and FBI over the US agency's demand that the iPhone maker help unlock its mobile phones. The popular messenger was being used excessively in Jammu and Kashmir by separatists and anti-national elements for spre...

New data from Kantar Worldpanel shows that for the first time in almost two years well-heeled Chinese consumers are looking beyond Apple for a premium phone or phablet. "For the first time since August 2014, iOS share did not grow in urban China in the three months ending February," said Tamsin Timpson, strategic insight director at Kantar Worldpanel ComTech Asia. "iOS declined 3.2 percentage points between February 2015 and February 2016." This blip in China isn't unique or down solely to Android handset makers' ability to promote their devices better as gifts for the Chinese New Year. Kantar figures, based on a combination of interviews with a global panel of consumers and data from other sources, shows that the Chinese are not alone in moving away from Apple. In the US, and across four of Europe's five biggest markets -- the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain -- the iPhone also slipped while Android climbed. In fact only Italian, Japanese and Aus...