The MWC 2015 is here: All you need to know

Today we take a look at what Sony, LG, Asus and Lenovo are expected to bring to the Mobile World Congress:

Sony

Sony, according to the rumour mills, will have a showcase booth instead of a keynote. The company had a particularly bad time towards the end of last year after hacker group Guardians of Peace carried out a massive Cyber attack on its servers. The group claimed that it had 100TB of data from the company, and began releasing chunks of information. In one such leak, it ended up leaking out confidential emails between Sony employees. One victim of that leak was a mail which was a marketing pitch for the Xperia Z4 in the upcoming James Bond movie, containing photo attachments of the device.

Most of the content of the email talked about budgeting fees for the product placement of Sony Xperia Z4 and future phones in the movie. The Xperia Z4 renders showed a change in the design philosophy, going with a flatter approach, and a mirrored back and front design along with bevelled edges.

But according the buzz in the industry, Sony may not really have a big announcement at the MWC or launch the Xperia Z4 for that matter. It is most likely slated for a summer launch.

That hasn’t stopped people from discussing the specifications of the device though.

For starters, it is most likely expected to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC. As regards the display, there are two rumours going around – that it will sport either a 5.5-inch Quad HD display or a 5.2 inch full HD display. There are also rumours that the Xperia Z4 will support Qi wireless charging and will come with improved waterproofing. On the camera front, the most likely candidate appears to be Sony’s own 21MP EXMOR RS IMX230 stacked CMOS sensor.

According to the press release, this sensor will start shipping in April 2015, so that may be another indicator that the Xperia Z4 may indeed not be announced at MWC. Apart from the Xperia Z4, Sony is expected to release the Xperia Z4 Tablet, Xperia Z4 Compact and Xperia Z4 Ultra.

LG

Just like Sony, there are speculations that LG too will stay away from launching its next flagship smartphone – the LG G4 – at MWC. LG launched the G Flex 2 at CES just last month, so it sort of makes sense to keep some gap between that and the G4 launch.

However, some leaks suggest that the LG G4 will come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset, and the heating issues with the Snapdragon 810 might be one reason why the launch of the G4 will likely be delayed. It will come with a 16MP rear camera, will keep the Quad HD resolution on the display whose size is expected to be over 5-inches. Just like the Samsung Galaxy Note 4, the LG G4 is also expected to come with a stylus.

LG will also unveil a new range of budget smartphones at the upcoming event which will take place early next month. The devices are better known as LG Magma, LG Spirit, LG Leon and LG Joy and will all run on Android 5.0 Lollipop. You can read about each of those devices here. This wouldn’t technically be a rumour, as LG has already sent out a press release regarding these phones to international sites. So expect to see these at Barcelona.

The company is most likely going to release its next gen smartwatch codenamed LG Watch Urbane. The device closely resembles the company’s LG G Watch R which was launched in October 2014.

The new device will also sport a full circular Plastic OLED (P-OLED) display with a natural leather strap that can be replaced with any other 22mm wide band. It offers a stainless steel body which is available in polished silver and gold finish variants. The LG Watch Urbane will also have a thinner profile to target both men and women.

President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company Juno Cho said that, “LG Watch Urbane is an important part of our strategy to develop wearable devices that are worn and viewed as everyday accessories, not electronic gadgets.”

The LG Watch Urbane features a touch-based user interface that is compatible with smartphones running Android 4.3 and above. The 1.3-inch display will have a resolution of 320 x 320 pixels along with a 245ppi. It will also feature a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. The smartwatch will have a built in storage of 4GB and will sport 512MB RAM. It measures 45.5 x 52.2 x 10.9mm.

Asus

Just like LG, Asus had also launched quite a lot of its phones including the 4GB RAM and 3x optical zoom sporting Zenfone 2. We haven’t really heard much rumours about the phones themselves. But according to a report in GigaOm, Asus is all set to launch its Vivo Watch smartwatch which will most likely run Microsoft software. According to the report, Asus had applied for a "Asus Vivo Watch" trademark in January, according to which the watch could monitor the wearer’s heart rate and exchange this data with a mobile device which is paired with the watch.

Another report suggests that Bluetooth SIG has certified an Asus VivoWatch for various Bluetooth 4.0 functionalities. It describes the watch as a ‘health watch which can detect heart rate and sleep data.’ The Vivo branding has been used by Asus for its Windows OS based mini PCs as well as for VivoTab line. So it is most likely that the VivoWatch will continue the tradition and be Asus’s first Windows based smartwatch. We will have to wait for MWC to see if this is indeed true.

Lenovo

If rumours are to be trusted, Lenovo is expected to expand its Vibe series line with a plethora of launches. According to a report in GSMArena, Lenovo is supposed to show off a range of phones named Lenovo Vibe S1, Vibe X3, Vibe P1, Vibe P1 Pro and the Vibe Max.

The Lenovo Vibe Max will be powered by a 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC along with 3GB of RAM. It is expected to come with 32GB internal storage and has support for microSD cards as well. The Vibe Max is expected to be the successor of the Vibe Z2 Pro and will have a 6-inch Quad HD display as well along with a stylus and a fingerprint sensor.

Image: MXphone.com

The Lenovo Vibe X3 will feature a 5.5-inch full HD display and stereo speakers. It will come with Lenovo Hi-Fi 3.0 software. It comes in a metallic frame and has a fingerprint sensor below the rear camera. The rear camera is expected to have a 20.7MP resolution.

The Vibe S1 will come in multiple colours such as pink, aqua blue, purple and is addressed at the younger generation. It is speculated to have a higher megapixel front-facing camera for selfie enthusiasts. There aren’t much details out on the hardware.

The Lenovo Vibe P1 and P1 Pro will come with LTE and 64-bit octa-core processors. While the Vibe P1 will house a 4,000 mAh battery, the P1 Pro is expected to come with 5,000 mAh battery.

All the phones leaked above will come with the Android 5.0 Lollipop OS according to speculations.

google chrome tips

Shortcut Keys	Description
Alt + Home	Open your home page.
Backspace or Alt + Left Arrow	Back a page.
Alt + Right Arrow	Forward a page.
F5	Refresh current page, frame, or tab.
F11	Display the current website in full screen mode. Pressing F11 again will exit this mode.
Esc	Stop page or download from loading.
Ctrl + (- or +)	Zoom in our out of a page '-' will decrease and '+' will increase. Ctrl + 0 will reset back to default.
Ctrl + 1-8	Pressing Ctrl and any number 1 through 8 will move to the corresponding tab in your tab bar.
Ctrl + 9	Switch to last tab.
Ctrl + Enter	Quickly complete an address. For example, type computerhope in the address bar and press CTRL + ENTER to get http://www.computerhope.com.
Ctrl + Shift + Del	Open the Clear Data window to quickly clear private data.
Ctrl + D	Add a bookmark for the page currently opened.
Ctrl + Shift + O	Open the Bookmark manager.
Ctrl + J	Display the download window.
Ctrl + K or Ctrl + E	Move the cursor to the browser address bar.
Ctrl + N	Open New browser window.
Ctrl + Shift + N	Open a new window in incognito mode.
Ctrl + P	Print current page or frame.
Ctrl + T	Opens a new tab.
Ctrl + F4 or Ctrl + W	Closes the currently selected tab.
Ctrl + Shift + T	Undo the close of a window.
Ctrl + Tab	Moves through each of the open tabs.
Spacebar	Moves down a page at a time.
Shift + Spacebar	Moves up a page at a time.
Alt + Down arrow	Display all previous text entered in a text box and available options on drop down menu.

YouTube for Android will now let users trim videos before uploading

YouTube app on Android has been updated with a new feature that lets users trim the video before uploading it to the web.

Announcing the new feature in a Google+ post, YouTube Creators wrote, “We’re proud to introduce a new video-trimming feature and inline video previews for our app.  Now you can select the exact frame where the video starts and ends, giving you precise control of your trims in a simple, intuitive way.”

With the new feature, users can set the beginning and end points of the video with control points on the timelines when they start uploading. In addition, it also comes with an inline video preview before the video is uploaded.  YouTube also promises faster video uploads.

YouTube has started rolling out the new feature, but it isn’t live for everyone yet, points out The Verge. The YouTube app for Android is available for download on Google Play Store.

Google working on Reader Mode for Chrome, will remove unnecessary elements on websites

Google Chromium leader François Beaufort hinted on his Google+ profile that the company is currently experimenting with a Readers Mode for Chrome Browser on desktop and mobile devices. The Reader Mode is designed to make on-screen reading a lot more convenient by removing unnecessary pictures, boxes, buttons and ads.

With this project, Google aims to provide a reader-friendly interface to users. This project is based on Chromium’s open-source DOM Distiller.

A report by Engadget shares that Reader Mode has been hidden in the background of Chrome for mobile devices since late last year. For users who want to access the feature, they have to navigate to chrome://flags#enable-reader-mode-toolbar-icon in their mobile Chrome browser and click on “Enable”. The Reader Mode icon pop up will be visible in the toolbar for applicable pages, only after a restart. For the desktop, users will need to run Chrome with the –enable-dom-distiller switch to unlock the “Distill page” menu option.

Alongside, Apple’s Safari has always had a Reading Mode with extensions such as Readability which offer the same service.

Earlier, Google had launched Chrome Remote Desktop, an app for iOS devices that can log into computers from iPhones or iPads. Called Chrome Remote Desktop app, the iOS version lets users remotely control their computer using their smartphone or tablet

Samsung Galaxy S6 revealed: What a full-glass body and front speakers will mean

A rather unique-looking Samsung Galaxy S6 with a full-glass body.

Samsung Norway has decided to tease out new images of the soon to be launched Galaxy S6 and boy they are shocking. Before you’re convinced that S6 will look like the image on top, don’t worry, Samsung Norway was just taking potshots at all the rumours circulating the web about the upcoming Galaxy S6. The images released show a smartphone that is totally unique. Unique because it’s so unlikely that the phone will look anything like this.

Samsung Norway has made fan-boy version of the Galaxy S6 based on the rumours that have been going around. It has mocked rumours like the full-glass body, the full frontal speakers, durability, the extendable screen, the three-sided screen and the curved display. Indeed the Samsung Galaxy S6 looks like a very odd device if any of these rumours are to come true.

Here are the photos of the ‘Galaxy S6′ created by the company.

The frontal speakers on the Samsung Galaxy S6.

Durability will be key to the Samsung Galaxy S6

A unique 3D screen indeed.

The curved display of the Galaxy S6

Samsung S6 will have an extendable screen.

While the ‘faux’ Samsung Galaxy S6 images make for a great joke by the company, rumour mills and Samsung’s own teaser videos have given us generous hints about the phone.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 will have a full-metal body, there will be a version with Edge screens on both sides like the kind we’ve seen on the Galaxy Note Edge. It is also rumoured that the Galaxy S6 will have a 5.3-inch 4K AMOLED display, a 64-bit Exynos 7420 or Snapdragon 810 processor depending upon the country, 5-megapixel front camera, 20-megapixel rear camera and Broadcom’s new sensor chip.

Facebook adds new gender option for users called ‘fill in the blank’

Facebook users who don’t fit any of the 58 gender identity options offered by the social media giant are now being given a rather big 59th option: fill in the blank.

“Now, if you do not identify with the pre-populated list of gender identities, you are able to add your own,” said a Facebook announcement published online Thursday morning and shared in advance with The Associated Press.

Facebook software engineer Ari Chivukula, who identifies as transgender and was part of the team that made the free-form option, thinks the change will lead to more widespread acceptance of people who don’t identify themselves as a man or woman.

Alison C.K. Fogarty, a gender identity researcher at Stanford University, said giving users control over the words describing their gender is a significant step in social recognition of a growing trans community, especially coming from the world’s largest social media company.

“People are still fighting to make room for gender identity within the socially constructed binary of male and female,” Fogarty said.

In February 2014, Facebook expanded gender identity from male and female to a list of dozens of options, including Androgyne, Gender Fluid, Intersex, Neither and Transgender. Those choices will all still be available.

People who choose a custom gender can also choose the pronoun they would like to be referred to publicly: he/his, she/her or they/their. Facebook has a setting for users to control the audience who sees their gender.

Last year’s changes created an online stir, with thousands of comments — some grateful, others confused or hostile. But staff at Facebook said there was full support to take it even further this year, from CEO Mark Zuckerberg on down.

As of Thursday, the free-form option rolled out to U.S. users, while the custom gender identity option with a list of words was available in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina and Denmark.

One thing that has not changed is an “interested in” option for Facebook users to define whom they might want to date. That option still only allows men or women, but users can click both options, one option or neither option. They can also hide it entirely.

Facebook, which has 1.23 billion active monthly users around the world, would not release how many users have chosen gender identity options beyond man or woman, citing privacy concerns and a general practice of not sharing user information.

List of web browsers

Year	Web browsers	Internet users (in millions)[1][2][3][4]
1991	WorldWideWeb (Nexus)	4
1992	ViolaWWW,  Erwise,   MidasWWW,  MacWWW (Samba)	7
1993	Mosaic, Cello,[5] Lynx 2.0, Arena, AMosaic 1.0	10–14
1994	IBM WebExplorer, Netscape Navigator, SlipKnot 1.0, MacWeb, IBrowse, Agora (Argo), Minuet	20–25
1995	Internet Explorer 1, Netscape Navigator 2.0, OmniWeb, UdiWWW,[6] Internet Explorer 2, Grail	16–44
1996	Arachne 1.0, Internet Explorer 3.0, Netscape Navigator 3.0, Opera 2.0, PowerBrowser 1.5,[7] Cyberdog, Amaya 0.9,[8] AWeb, Voyager	36–77
1997	Internet Explorer 4.0, Netscape Navigator 4.0, Netscape Communicator 4.0, Opera 3.0,[9] Amaya 1.0[8]	70–120
1998	iCab, Mozilla	147–188
1999	Amaya 2.0,[8] Mozilla M3, Internet Explorer 5.0	248–280
2000	Konqueror, Netscape 6, Opera 4,[10] Opera 5,[11] K-Meleon 0.2, Amaya 3.0,[8] Amaya 4.0[8]	361–413
2001	Internet Explorer 6, Galeon 1.0, Opera 6,[12] Amaya 5.0[8]	499–513
2002	Netscape 7, Mozilla 1.0, Phoenix 0.1, Links 2.0, Amaya 6.0,[8] Amaya 7.0[8]	587–662
2003	Opera 7,[13] Safari 1.0, Epiphany 1.0, Amaya 8.0[8]	719–778
2004	Firefox 1.0, Netscape Browser, OmniWeb 5.0	817–910
2005	Safari 2.0, Netscape Browser 8.0, Opera 8,[14] Epiphany 1.8, Amaya 9.0,[8] AOL Explorer 1.0, Maxthon 1.0, Shiira 1.0	1018–1029
2006	SeaMonkey 1.0, K-Meleon 1.0, Galeon 2.0, Camino 1.0, Firefox 2.0, Avant 11, iCab 3, Opera 9,[15] Internet Explorer 7	1093–1157
2007	Maxthon 2.0, Netscape Navigator 9, NetSurf 1.0, Flock 1.0, Safari 3.0, Conkeror	1319–1373
2008	Konqueror 4, Safari 3.1, Opera 9.5,[16] Firefox 3, Amaya 10.0,[8] Flock 2, Chrome 1, Amaya 11.0[8]	1562–1574
2009	Internet Explorer 8, Chrome 2–3, Safari 4, Opera 10,[17] SeaMonkey 2, Camino 2, Firefox 3.5, surf	1743–1802
2010	K-Meleon 1.5.4, Firefox 3.6, Chrome 4–8, Opera 10.50,[18] Safari 5, xxxterm, Opera 11	1971–2034
2011	Chrome 9–16, Firefox 4-9, Internet Explorer 9, Maxthon 3.0, SeaMonkey 2.1–2.3, Opera 11.50, Safari 5.1	2264–2272
2012	Chrome 17–23, Firefox 10–17, Internet Explorer 10, Opera 12, Safari 6	2497–2511
2013	Chrome 24–31, Firefox 18–26, Internet Explorer 11, Opera 15–18, Safari 7	2712

Indian Railways introduces SMS alert service for arrival, departure timings

For the convenience of passengers, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announced the introduction of SMS alert service informing travellers in advance about arrival and departure timings of the trains.

“We propose to introduce an SMS alert service to inform passengers in advance the updated arrival and departure time of trains at starting or destination stations,” he said presenting the Railway Budget for 2015-16.

Similarly, SMS alert would be sent 15/30 minutes in advance of arrival of train at the destination, he said.

The Minister also said the Travelling Ticket Examiners (TTE) would be equipped with hand-held terminals for verification of passengers and downloading charts. “The (hand-held terminal) system will help us to move towards paperless ticketing and charting and expedite finalisation of refund claims apart from saving reams of paper,” Prabhu said.

Railways are also exploring the possibility of extending the facilities of SMS on mobiles as a valid proof of travel for tickets as well.

A centrally-managed Railway display network is expected to be introduced in over 2,000 stations over the next two years which will aid in providing information on train arrival and departure, reservations, general and emergency messages, the Minister said.

The world’s first anti-smartphone ‘Monohm Runcible’ is here

Tired of smartphone’s intrusion in your personal space? A new device may be your new hope to stay connected without much hassle. Monohm has announced the creation of Runcible a personal device modelled on the pocket watch.

Flaunting a high resolution, round screen, the device includes a high-performance phone and camera which is meant to “refocus users’ attention on real people and the real world”.

“People need something to let them control their digital lives in clean, quiet, simple ways,” said Aubrey Anderson, CEO and co-founder, Monohm Inc in a statement.

“Runcible is the alternative to the increasingly invasive and commodified smartphone whose app-centric approach distracts us from our lives instead of helping us live them,” Anderson added.

Runcible is built on top of Mozilla’s Open Source Firefox OS, and KDDI Corporation is Monohm’s first carrier partnership.

Runcible’s operating system is based on Open Web standards.

Unlike other systems which rely upon complicated middleware and cannot integrate across platforms, applications and devices, Runcible users can simply access the power of the web to command and control the growing number of IoT devices and connected things around us.

What’s heartening is that unlike smartphones which become obsolete within two or three years, Runcible’s parts can be removed, repaired and upgraded, enabling the device to be kept for decades.

Runcible will never beep, alert or otherwise interrupt us, enabling us to keep our attention where it was always meant to be. The device would be available by the end of this year.

IF YOU ARE AN ANDROID USER, THAN YOU SHOULD TRY THESE 32 SECRET CODES!

Simply just open the dial page and use the code your will be able access to things which are normally hidden from sight.

Try this at ur risk.........

1. *#06# – IMEI number

2. *#0*# – Service menu on devices like the Galaxy S III

3.  *#*#4636#*#* – Information about device, user statistics and battery

4.  *#*#34971539#*#* – Details on camera

5.  *#*#273282*255*663282*#*#* –Instant backup media files

6.  *#*#197328640#*#* – Activating test mode devices

7.  *#*#232339#*#* – Test for Wireless LAN

8.  *#*#0842#*#* – Test for vibration and backlight

9.  *#*#2664#*#* – Test for touch screen

10. *#*#1111#*#* – FTA software version (in 1234 within the same code will provide a view of the PDA and firmware version)

11. *#12580*369# – Information about the software and hardware

12. *#9090# – Diagnostic information

13. *#9900# –System dump mode

14. *#301279# – HSDPA / HSUPA Control Menu

15. *#7465625# – Look at the status of phone locks

16. *#*#7780#*#* –Resetting data to default settings

17. *2767*3855# – Formatting the device to default settings (warning – this deletes all date on the devices)

18. *#*#7594#*#* – After entering this code, your device will turn off

19. *#*#232338#*#* – Display Wi-Fi MAC address

20. *#*#1472365#*#* – Quick GPS test

21. *#*#1575#*#* – Extensive GPS test

22. *#*#0*#*#* – Test LCD screen

23. *#*#0289#*#* – Audio test

24. *#*#0588#*#* – Test proximity sensor

25. *#*#3264#*#* – Display RAM version

26. *#*#232331#*#* – Bluetooth test

27. *#*#232337#*# – Bluetooth address

28. *#*#7262626#*#* – Field test

29. *#*#8255#*#* – Tracking Google Talk service

30. * # * # 3424 # * # * – test function for HTC devices

31. *#*#4636#*#* – HTC info menu

32. ##8626337# – Run VOCODER