IntellectBeat

The year that has just begun will be the year of large screens and videos, the demand for cheaper smartphones will grow and 3G and 2G users will continue to co-exist over the next few years in India, Micromax, one of the country's leading smartphone makers, has predicted. In 2016, entry of Chinese and Indian brands in mobile manufacturing market would be a key driver for new business models to emerge to ensure unit level profitability, the Micromax study noted, adding that it may be difficult for Chinese companies to enter and flourish if the Goods and Service Tax (GST) is implemented. It also pointed out that e-commerce might flatten out and mobile internet ecosystem would grow beyond the 150-200 million smartphone users. “The massification of smartphones will continue in India to keep on catering to the needs of first time smartphone users and the growth will depend on vernacular usage, access costs and penetrating distribution and awareness,” the findings showed. Alt...

Hewlett-Packard (HP) is reported to be set to unveil its first Windows 10-powered smartphone early next year. The surprise announcement about what is being called the "HP Falcon" flagship smartphone may come during the upcoming Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, Spain, from February 22-25, Bidness Etc reported . The  HP  Falcon is rumoured to be powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset and Adreno 530 GPU, with at least 2GB of RAM and 5.8-inch QHD display. The device may have 64GB of inbuilt storage and will feature a 20-megapixel rear camera with a 12-megapixel front camera. These specifications may make it well ahead of other Windows 10 smartphones like recently launched  Lumia 950  and  Lumia 950XL . According to the report, the launch of HP Falcon will present Windows lovers with more choices and may force  Microsoft  to go ahead with its Surface smartphone. Notably, the name and specifications of the HP Falcon were tipped earl...

Say hello to Nadine, an unconventional robot with her own personality, mood and emotions. She is friendly, can greet you back and remember your name and your previous conversation with her. Powered by intelligent software similar to Apple's Siri or Microsoft's Cortana, Nadine is the latest social robot developed by scientists at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore. Nadine can be a personal assistant in offices and homes in future. And she can be used as social companion for the young and the elderly, the researchers said. "This is somewhat like a real companion that is always with you and conscious of what is happening. So in future, these socially intelligent robots could be like C-3PO, the iconic golden droid from Star Wars, with knowledge of language and etiquette,"  said Nadine's creator  Nadia Thalmann, professor at NTU. A humanoid like Nadine is just one of the interfaces where the technology that the NTU scientists developed can be applied....

Samsung Addresses a Growing Mobile Health Market with Industry’s First Smart Bio-Processor   Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, announced that it is addressing the growing trend of quantified health with an all-in-one advanced system logic chip for the health-oriented wearables market, the Bio-Processor. The Samsung Bio-Processor, now in mass production, is specifically designed to allow accelerated development of innovative wearable products for consumers who are increasingly monitoring their health and fitness on a daily basis.   “With improvements in smart, fitness devices and an increase in consumer health consciousness, more and more people are looking for ways to monitor various personal bio-data, or fitness data, to constantly manage their health” said Ben K. Hur, Vice President of marketing, System LSI business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung’s Bio-Processor, which can process five different bio...

Amidst the growing debate on net neutrality in India, caller identification app Truecaller has also joined the campaign against social networking giant Facebook's Free Basics service. The controversial Internet platform, earlier titled Internet.org, was recently renamed as Free Basics and offers free access to a set of websites and services with the objective of introducing Internet to the people. However, Internet advocates have been voicing concern about the initiative with Truecaller being the latest joining the league. The app's founder Alan Mamedi posted a tweet about his support for net neutrality. @Truecaller  is pushing this message out to over 100M users in India right now. Let the people chose by understanding pic.twitter.com/p2SB2K98fE — Alan Mamedi (@AlanMamedi) December 23, 2015 Truecaller has been sending out push messages to over the 100 million users it has in India asking them to choose wisely if they want the dubious free basics or the idea of equal...

Tablets for kids getting more advanced amidst increased competition Associated  Kiddie tablets have grown up. Tablets designed just for kids are getting more sophisticated as they face increased competition from regular tablets. The new products also have better screens, speedier chips and fashionably slim bodies. They let older children do more, yet hold their hands until they're ready for unsupervised access. Although many of the tablets were originally conceived as educational toys for kids as old as middle schoolers, they've been more popular with younger children. Older kids have been apt to reject them in favor of their parents' tablet or smartphone. That shift has prompted companies to focus more on preschoolers and kindergarteners, as they create super-durable products that can withstand repeated abuse and develop games and apps that teach reading and math. But now, some of those companies are looking to take back some of the sales to older kids that they...

Facebook has suspended a 175-year-old British pub's social media account over its "offensive" name, saying it was derived from a black cockerel -- a male chicken, the media reported. The manager of the Blackcock Inn in Llanfihangel Talyllyn, a small village in Wales, in November this year received a message from Facebook saying the pub's account he created had been suspended for "racist or offensive language", he told the Independent in an interview. Garrett has since been unable to log into the account and all its posts have been removed, he said, adding that his pub's name is derived from a black cockerel -- a male chicken -- and nothing else. While the company makes clear in its 'Terms of Service' that users should have the right to freedom of speech, it reserves the right to remove postings or accounts that may negatively affect others. Facebook follows a strict policy on user accounts. In recent years, it has been removing all kinds of ...