IntellectBeat

Amazon released its Fire HD 10 tablet last year. It’s a good tablet with respectable specifications but if there was one thing in particular that prevented you from purchasing this tablet, the company has now fixed it. Amazon has quietly swapped out the plastic for a metal shell as a result of which the Fire HD 10 tablet looks more classy and premium now. A new storage option has also been launched. There has been no change in pricing, so the 16GB Amazon Fire HD 10 tablet still starts at $229 even though it now has a metal shell instead of plastic. The new aluminum designed is accompanied by a 64GB storage option. Nothing has changed aside from the major cosmetic upgrade. It still has the very same 10.1 inch 1280×800 pixel resolution display, 1.5GHz quadcore processor with 1GB RAM and a 5 megapixel front facing camera. All of the specifications are exactly what they were when this tablet arrived last year. The new 64GB version of this tablet has been priced...

Foraying into the Indian market, Zuk, which is a new subsidiary of Lenovo, announced the launch of its first smartphone for the country. Named Zuk Z1, the new phone comes to India with a price tag of Rs 13,499. The phone will be available in India from May 19 exclusively on Amazon India . The Zuk Z1 is said to be designed for power users and features a fingerprint sensor, Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 64 GB eMMC storage, 4100 mAh battery and a USB 3.0 Type-C port. The handset, as the company claims, features a unique variant of the Android home button, the U-Touch. The U-Touch, as Zuk describes, has a 508 DPI low-power fingerprint sensor offering 0.31 second identification speed with high accuracy. Talking about the power, the phone is claimed to support 120-minutes of talk time on a 5-minute charge. "The Z1 is the world's first mobile phone supporting USB 3.0 Type-C, enabling a 500 MB/s bandwidth, 10 times faster than USB 2.0," said Zuk. The phone also has USB...

In the race to capture the burgeoning global smartphone market, British automotive brand Jaguar Land Rover, currently owned by Tata Motors, is all set to launch smartphones and accessories by early 2017. For this, Land Rover has tied up with consumer electronics company Bullitt Group to develop a bespoke smartphone and range of accessories. “Incorporating iconic Land Rover design and innovative technology into the mobile phone sector with Bullitt Group presents an exciting challenge and fantastic opportunity to take the brand into a new dimension,” said Lindsay Weaver, director of licensing and branded goods at Jaguar Land Rover, in a statement recently. “An engineering and design team from Jaguar Land Rover special operations will be assigned to the partnership and subsequently deliver a number of bespoke applications tailored to Land Rover brand and product values,” Weaver added. According to Bullitt Group, the firm will partner with Land Rover to define ...

In tune with expectations, Samsung announced the launch of its new pair of mid-range smartphones in India at an event in New Delhi. The Galaxy J5 (2016) and Galaxy J7 (2016) are successors to the last-gen phones by the same name that were launched in India last year. The Galaxy J5 (2016) is priced at Rs 13,990 and the Galaxy J7 at Rs 15,990. Both the phones will be available exclusively via Flipkart from May 10. Both the phones are 4G-enabled, run Android 6.0 Marshmallow, feature a 13 megapixel camera at the rear and a 5 megapixel front snapper. Both phones feature F1.9 lenses in both the front and rear cameras. The Galaxy J5 (2016) comes with a 5.2-inch AMOLED display and a quad-core processor paired with 2 GB of RAM, the J7 (2016) includes has a 5.5-inch AMOLED display and an octa-core chipset coupled with 3 GB of RAM. The J5 has a 3100 mAh battery and the J7 has a larger 3300 mAh battery. The devices are available in colour of Radiant Gold, Midnight Black and Pearl White....

Scientists have detected atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere for the first time since the last observation 40 years ago. Atomic oxygen - an elemental form of oxygen that does not exist in Earth's atmosphere - affects how other gases escape Mars and therefore has a significant impact on the planet's atmosphere.  An instrument onboard the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) - a joint project of Nasa and the German Aerospace Center - helped detect these atoms in the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere known as the mesosphere, Nasa said in a statement. "Atomic oxygen in the Martian atmosphere is notoriously difficult to measure," said SOFIA project scientist Pamela Marcum.  "To observe the far-infrared wavelengths needed to detect atomic oxygen, researchers must be above the majority of Earth's atmosphere and use highly sensitive instruments, in this case a spectrometer. SOFIA provides both capabilities," Marcum noted. The s...

Apple on Thursday expanded efforts to make its devices must-have business tools, unveiling an alliance with German workplace software giant SAP. The partnership sets out to "revolutionise the mobile work experience" by blending iPhone and iPad applications with capabilities of the SAP software platform for business known as HANA, according to a joint statement. "This partnership will transform how iPhone and iPad are used in enterprise by bringing together the innovation and security of iOS with SAP's deep expertise in business software,” Apple chief executive Tim Cook said in the statement. Cook described SAP as the leader in enterprise software, with some 76 per cent of business transactions touching one of the Germany-based company's systems. A kit will be released to let software developers build applications taking advantage of HANA and Apple mobile operating system capabilities, according to the companies. "We will help deliver live data to peopl...

Tesla Motors said it was stepping up production plans for its upcoming Model 3 mass-market sedan and would build a total of 500,000 all-electric vehicles in 2018, two years ahead of schedule, but warned that spending will ramp up in tandem. The company, which three months ago aimed to make a net profit in the final quarter of this year, gave no profit target on Wednesday and said capital spending would rise about 50 per cent more than previously forecast this year, to around $2.25 billion. New shares and debt will likely be issued at some point, Chief Executive Elon Musk added. Tesla, which produces the luxury Model S sedan and Model X sport utility vehicle, aims to become a high-volume automaker in a matter of years and already is valued on par with some of the biggest car companies in the world. Shares of the company, run by tech entrepreneur Musk, rose more than 5 per cent in after hours trade after it announced its first-quarter results and beefed-up production targets. Musk...