IntellectBeat

Social media giant Facebook and mobile message service WhatsApp are increasingly being used to sell weapons like AK-47s and truck-mounted machine guns in war-ravaged Libya, a media report said on Saturday. The report, based on data collected by the specialist consultancy Armament Research Services (ARES) and commissioned by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, pointed out that this dangerous trend was triggered by the fall of Muammar Gaddafi, the quasi-dictator who ruled the African nation for more than 40 years, tech website The Verge said. Gaddafi tightly controlled the arms trade during his time in power but after he was deposed in 2011, the government's stockpiles were raided and a black market sprung up, added the report. According to the ARES data, in the past 18 months, majority of the arms trade constituted handguns and rifles but more advanced armaments were also up for sale. ARES director NR Jenzen-Jones was quoted as saying that most weapons were posted on social ne...

Unlike when Google Glass was first unleashed on the world, the hype surrounding virtual reality and headsets from the likes of Oculus and HTC is clearly not misplaced. According to the latest data from research firm Strategy Analytics, revenues generated from headset sales alone are expected to generate some $895 million before the end of 2016. However, the cutting-edge VR headsets that need to be tethered to a PC or console are only now hitting the market -- the Oculus Rift started shipping in March and HTC's much lauded Vive headset won't be wowing owners until June at the earliest. Therefore, it's basic smartphone compatible devices that will account for the vast majority of the 12.8 million headsets expected to be snapped up in 2016. "Consumers will soon be exposed to an incredible diversity of virtual reality options ranging from ultra-low cost to super premium. While we expect smartphone-based viewers to take the lion's share of VR headset volumes in 2016...

In a bad news for astronomers searching for extraterrestrial life in deep space, NASA 's planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler has gone into an emergency mode 75 million miles from the Earth. The last regular contact with Kepler probe was on April 4, technology website The Verge reported, as NASA engineers tried to manoeuvre the spacecraft to the centre of the Milky Way for a new task. Unable to reach the probe till this weekend, NASA has declared a mission emergency for Kepler which has switched itself into emergency mode. The team still does not know what prompted Kepler to go into the emergency mode. A team of NASA engineers was working to fix the anomaly as communications signals take up to 13 minutes -- travelling at the speed of light -- to and from the Kepler spacecraft. Kepler mission had confirmed the first near-Earth-sized planet in the "habitable zone" around a Sun-like star. Kepler spotted nearly 5,000 exoplanets as part of its primary mission. In July 2012...

Domestic handset maker Micromax will now integrate a new wallet offering, powered by Visa and TranServ, for its smartphone users as it looks to beef up its services business. The Gurgaon-based firm, which had partnered TranServ in December last year, is relying heavily on payments as part of its overall service strategy. "Payment is very critical to the overall service strategy for Micromax... Almost all the new smartphone products will have this wallet as natively integrated in them. Existing users of Micromax smartphones will also get this upgrade," Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI. He added the company has partnered Visa and TranServ to offer unique digital solutions specifically designed to meet the demands of the "mobile-first" Indian consumers. "VISA brings together the merchant ecosystem and TranServ takes care of the technical aspect, while Micromax already has strong service ecosystem and user base in place to use this service," he sa...