IntellectBeat

Google last month released the first Developer Preview of Android N for developers introducing a host of new features including multi-window support, notification enhancements, background optimisations, number-blocking, and other new features. The company on Wednesday released the second Developer Preview of Android N in the form of factory images for eligible devices, and, OTA updates for devices enrolled in the Android Beta Program. The latest Developer Preview brings new features including Launcher shortcuts, Emoji Unicode 9 support, and more. As before, the Android N Developer Preview will be available to eligible devices including the Nexus 6,Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, and Pixel C devices. Google has also added the General Mobile 4G Android One smartphone to receive the N Developer Preview 2. In a post, Dave Burke, VP of Engineering, revealed that the Nexus Player users will have to wait a bit to receive the latest Developer Preview 2 wh...

HTC has so far caused quite a lot of confusion regarding which model of its new flagship, the HTC 10, it intends to launch in India. The company on Thursday provided a statement that intended to clarify the issue, but did little to clear the muddy waters. "We are pleased to announce that global flagship HTC 10 is coming soon to India. Stay tuned for the announcement and the availability date," Faisal Siddiqui, President HTC South Asia. We asked the company what this meant precisely, would the Snapdragon 820 variant of the smartphone launch in India? The company refused to elaborate however, so for now, your guess is as good as ours, and we can all be glad the confusion will be cleared "soon" alongside the smartphone's launch.  To recall, in its launch statement on Tuesday, the company had said it would bring launch the Snapdragon 820-based HTC 10 in some markets, and the Snapdragon 652-based HTC 10 Lifestyle in others. The HTC 10 Lifestyle with Snapdra...

Aiming to create a space for itself in the budget smartphone market, LG on Thursday introduced two new Android smartphones under the K series - the K7 and the K10, the company's first 'Made in India' phones. Both the mid-range phones appear to be promising, but do they have in them to compete against the competitors' offerings in the same price segment? We have played with both the phones, but here we will talk about how the Rs 9,500 LG K7 phone fared during the review period and where it stands in the already heated budget smartphone market. One of the most impressive features of the K7 is its premium finish. The device comes with a slightly curved display thanks to LG's 2.5D Arc Glass on top. And the rounded edges and LG’s pebble design make it an extremely eye-pleasing smartphone. The K7 comes houses all the buttons at the back, and therefore, with no button at the sides, the company has managed to give the phone a slim profile. The K7 feels comfortable to ho...

An anonymous developer who goes by the name of LibreVR has managed to develop a compatibility layer that allows you to play Oculus VR games - Lucky's Tale and Oculus Dreamdeck only for now - on the HTC Vive virtual reality headset. Called Revive, it patches over your existing game files to make it work with OpenVR. "It works by reimplementing [sic] functions from the Oculus Runtime and translating them to OpenVR calls," the developer said on the software's GitHub page. "Unfortunately Oculus has implemented a Code Signing check on the Runtime DLLs, therefore the Revive DLLs cannot be used unless the application is patched." The instructions are fairly straightforward to work with, and you shouldn't have a lot of trouble trying it if you want. But this is still an unofficial and unapproved method, considering Oculus' love for a closed system. Where on one hand the Oculus Store doesn't even recognise the HTC Vive when connected, SteamVR is happy...

LG has introduced its new budget smartphones under the K series - K7 and K10 - in India. The new 4G-enabled phones, which were first unveiled to the world in January at CES 2016, have been introduced in India for under Rs 15,000. The LG K7 is priced at Rs 9,500, while the K10 carries a price tag of Rs 13,500. Talking about the specs, the LG K7 features a 5.0-inch FWVGA (854x480) In-cell Touch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 5 megapixel front and rear cameras, 8GB ROM, 1 GB RAM, and a 2,125mAh battery. The LG K10, on the other hand, comes with a 5.3-inch HD (1280x720) In-cell Touch display, Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor paired with 2 GB of RAM, 13 megapixel rear camera, 5 megapixel front camera, 16 GB of internal storage and a 2,300mAh battery. Both the phones run Android 5.1 Lollipop and include a microSD card slot for additional storage. Both devices are equipped with Flash for Selfie on the front and have "design cues borrowed from nature", which give them a...

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 ...

Micromax is shifting to a new gear as the competition intensifies in the smartphone market. The company has redone its clenched fist logo as part of a refreshed Micromax 3.0 strategy. The company that redefined the budget smartphone market in India also announced a string of new products  including 14 phones , 3 TVs and 3 tablets. The major launch at the event was Micromax's new flagship phones - the Canvas 6 and the Canvas 6 Pro. Both the phones are priced the same at Rs 13,999 and will be up for pre-order Wednesday on micromaxinfo.com Both the phones have similar 5.5-inch FHD display. The Canvas 6 Pro has a 2 GHz octacore processor while the Canvas 6 comes with a 1.3 GHz processor. The 6 Pro has 4 GB RAM, while the 6 comes with 3 GB. Both phones have 13 megapixel rear cameras, but the front camera in the Canvas 6 is 8 megapixel compared to 5 megapixel in the Canvas 6 Pro. The Canvas 6 is the first Micromax phone to sport a fingerprint sensor. The 6 Pro doesn't have any...