Good news for Google users.

Help Google Translate and You Could Win 1 of 50 Android One Phones

Google has announced Translatathon 2015, a campaign aimed at improving translations for nine Indian languages. This is the second consecutive year when Google has kept a Translatathon for translations and validation for words and sentences in the Google Translate Community.

This year, Google has included nine Indian languages, namely - Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, and Punjabi. Contributors can participate on their phones or computers. They are required to just type, swipe, or tap translations in the languages they speak. Contributors will have the option to either translate phrases directly, or validate existing translations. The Translatathon 2015 will end on December 30.

The search engine giant has announced that in return, the 50 participants with highest score will each receive an Android One smartphone. The company's initiative is to reach to the next 300 million Indian users online who are not English speakers.

"Today in India, just about every person who speaks English is online. However, most of the next Web users will not be English speakers and we are committed to bring to each and every one of them the best possible internet experience. This is why our teams are working hard to improve Google Translate for many Indian languages, including Hindi," said Google.

Barak Turovsky, Product Lead, Google Translate in a blog post revealed that the first Translatathon saw participation of 20,000 people who contributed over one million new Hindi translations and helped improve the overall quality of Hindi content online. "Millions of people in India are coming online for the first time and most of them don't speak English. Bringing more Indian language content online, and improving Indian language translation quality, will help them have a better experience on the Web," said Turovsky.

Flexible Camera Developed That Can Be Wrapped Around Objects

A team led by an Indian-origin professor at Columbia University has created a novel sheet camera that can be wrapped around everyday objects to capture images that cannot be taken with one or more conventional cameras. "Cameras today capture the world from essentially a single point in space. While the camera industry has made remarkable progress in shrinking the camera to a tiny device with ever increasing imaging quality, we are exploring a radically different approach to imaging," said Shree K Nayar, computer science professor at Columbia University. "We believe there are numerous applications for cameras that are large in format but very thin and highly flexible," added Nayar who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, in 1984. Nayar's team designed and fabricated a flexible lens array that adapts its optical properties when the sheet camera is bent. This optical adaptation enables the device to produce high quality images over a wide ...

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, Yahoo back Apple in its fight over encryption with FBI

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 ...

Samsung Galaxy S7: 5 Features That Stand Out

Klutzes of the world should rejoice Friday, as Samsung officially starts sales of its new water-resistant Samsung Galaxy S7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. The phones, which the company first unveiled last month, are now widely available in all their dunkable glory. The latest two Samsung's high-end smartphones are supposed to be able to withstand submersion up to five feet for as long as 30 minutes. So you're in luck if you drop your phone in the drink - as long as you fish it out reasonably fast. Samsung provided me with a review unit of the Galaxy S7, a 5.1-inch smartphone. Once I opened the box, I duly dropped the high-performance, expensive phone into my sink while doing the dishes. Apart from the mild palpitations I gave myself, there was no damage at all. The phone's touchscreen didn't work under water, but it continued on without a hiccup and was unharmed and still working perfectly when I pulled it out. It was just as impressively zippy as ever and no worse for ...

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