James Bond returns to action twice this fall: This month he reunites with Pussy Galore in Anthony Horowitz’s Trigger Mortis, a new novel commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate, and in November Daniel Craig completes his fourth tour of duty on Her Majesty’s secret service in SPECTRE. One thing never changes: After more than 60 years on the road, 007 still drives too fast.

AF archive / Alamy

1953

In the first 007 novel, Casino Royale, Bond’s vehicle is a 1930, 4.5-liter “Blower Bentley” with an Amherst Villiers supercharger. “Bond drove it hard and well,” Fleming wrote, “and with an almost sensual pleasure.” A similar Bentley has a cameo in the second Bond movie,From Russia with Love, and features a gadget rare for the era: a car phone. A 1929 Blower Bentley set a then record for British cars at auction in 2012 when it sold for $7.9 million.

AF archive / Alamy

1964

The ne plus ultra of Bond vehicles makes the first of many appearances onscreen in Goldfinger. The silver Aston Martin DB5 (above) comes with a few extras from Q Branch, including revolving license plates, machine guns and, famously, an ejector seat. In 2010 one of the two cars used in the movie sold at auction for more than $4 million.

Newscom

1974

Bond enters a bleak era of movie cars when producers sign a $5 million product-placement deal with American Motors for 007 to drive its cars–making Roger Moore the only Bond who didn’t drive an Aston Martin onscreen. In The Man with the Golden Gun Moore gets behind the wheel of the least deadly Bond car of all time: the two-door hatchback AMC Hornet.

AF archive / Alamy

1977

A high point for 007 cars. In The Spy Who Loved Me Roger Moore’s Bond drives a white Lotus Esprit S1, an amphibious vehicle that became a submarine. In 2013 one of the production vehicles used in the film surfaced at a London auction and sold for $997,000. The buyer was Tesla founder Elon Musk, who admitted he was “disappointed to learn that it can’t actually transform.”

1987

Another new movie Bond means another new Aston Martin. In The Living Daylights Timothy Dalton drives a V8 Volante convertible equipped with missiles, lasers and a rocket booster. The car used in the film belonged to Aston Martin Lagonda’s then chairman, whose name could have doubled as a Bond villain’s: Victor Gauntlett.

Everett Collection

1995

Although Pierce Brosnan takes a woman for a spin in an Aston Martin DB5 in GoldenEye , Bond’s car of choice for the next two movies is a BMW–most notably the BMW Z3, which came with an ejector seat–thanks to a product-placement deal worth an estimated $25 million.

2015

In Daniel Craig’s first Bond movie, Casino Royale, he wins a silver 1963 Aston Martin DB5 in a poker game. But for SPECTRE, 007 gets a modern upgrade developed expressly for the movie—an Aston Martin DB10 (above). The car, however, won’t be sold to the public–all ten will be used in the film—meaning it’s for James Bond only

Analyst On Google Becoming Alphabet: 'The Numbers Support The Letters'

It’s been a little over a month since Google announced it was changing its name to Alphabet. The move, which siphons the company’s core money-making businesses off from its ambitious “moonshot” projects, has been widely viewed by Wall Street as positive news for shareholders.

The hope is that under the new structure investors will get a clearer sense of where Google is making money — and where it is blowing it. “We believe the new corporate structure will increase visibility,” said SunTrust analyst Robert Peck in a note to clients on Monday, who thinks such visibility could support “material appreciation” in the stock.

Investors have long been irked by Google’s predilection for funneling cash made from the company’s core, money-making businesses into the long-shot projects that co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are so fond of, like attempts to extend human life and create self-driving cars.

Now they’ll at least get a better sense of what’s going on. While it’s still unclear how much of a window investors will get into the details of Google’s various projects, and it doesn’t mean any of Google’s spending habits will change, Wall Street is optimistic that its insights into the goings-on will only get better. 

“The announcement that Google will reorganize itself into a holding company structure is a strong step to delivering on the promise of openness and more shareholder friendly structure laid out by Page and new CFO Ruth Porat – the main focus of investors,” wrote Peck. ”Post the transition, while we still may not have sufficient details by product line, we believe the overall cost structure and leverage potential should be clearer.”

The perk that could be hiding in plain sight, said Peck, is that while Google’s revenue might be “modestly lower” after the reorganization, its margins could be “materially higher.” By his estimates, margins could approach 60%, back where they were before Google began shooting for the moon. In the last quarter, Google’s non-GAAP margins were half this at 34%.

Google, which stands out among its peers for never having returned a dime to shareholders, has alarmed investors with its rising expenses. Alluding to this in the company’s last quarterly earnings report, new chief financial officer Ruth Porat said: “We are focused every day on developing big new opportunities across a wide range of businesses. We will do so with great care regarding resource allocation.”

With the new structure (which Google plans to implement starting with its fourth quarter results), investors can better understand the revenue and profits of Google’s core search and ad businesses, while also enjoying exposure to its side projects, says Peck.

For instance, look at Google’s private investments in more than 300 companies — among them Uber, SurveyMonkey and Cloudera — for potential for a big payout down the road. Peck likens these investments to Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba, saying many investors missed their chance with Yahoo and could similarly miss their chance with Google by overlooking these investments.

Google’s own forays into next-generation technology — like smart homes, self-driving cars and fiber-optic cable – are still in early days, but these projects could prove immensely lucrative down the road.

In an August letter to investors explaining Alphabet and the company’s philosophy, Brin wrote: “We’ve long believed that over time companies tend to get comfortable doing the same thing, just making incremental changes. But in the technology industry, where revolutionary ideas drive the next big growth areas, you need to be a bit uncomfortable to stay relevant.”

With further visibility into the company, Peck is on board with the risk to reward level. “The numbers support the letters,” he concludes.

Google’s stock, which got a sizable boost from August’s Alphabet announcement, are up more than 6% over the last 12 months.

New app to help you record erratic food habits and curb bad food habits

Two Indian-American scientists have designed a new smartphone app that will record your erratic eating habits throughout the day and help you not only cut some bad habits but also prevent “metabolic jetlag”.Satchidananda Panda and Shubhroz Gill from the Salk Institute have developed the app that can collect, analyse and interpret patterns of food intake in humans.

“The study is about developing methods and offers some preliminary insight into what and when people eat,” said Panda, associate professor in the Salk Institute’s regulatory biology laboratory.

The duo have kept the app simple, only requiring users to send pictures of everything they ate or drank, whether it was an entire water bottle or a few bites of a cookie.

Each click also captured metadata (such as the location where food was consumed) and recorded a timestamp.

Users were healthy males and females between the ages of 21 and 55 who were not actively managing their diet.

“One pleasant surprise was how many participants got used to taking a picture of anything they ate or drank; it almost became their second nature,” noted Gill, post-doctoral associate in Panda’s group.

The context of the pictures spoke volumes. For example, when taken next to a keyboard, in bed, watching TV, on the sidewalk, in the car or while filling gas.

“This is an example of a new class of research studies that have become possible due to the massive adoption of smartphones,” Gill added.

In addition to cutting out some bad habits, the authors feel that the app can also prevent “metabolic jetlag” – when differences in day-to-day or weekday/weekend meal times cause metabolic organs to become out of sync with the body’s overall circadian rhythms.

The app could also be a powerful tool for personalised medicine.

For example, the pictures revealed that nearly two-thirds of participants took some kind of nutritional supplement or vitamins, but the time at which they took these pills varied from day to day.

The same held true for medication.

In addition, the data revealed cultural food practices, such as people’s’ consumption of coffee and milk in the morning, alcohol in the evening, and tea throughout the day.

Also, yogurt was a morning food, sandwiches and burgers were primarily reserved for lunchtime while vegetables and ice cream were saved for the evening.

Photos of chocolate and candy were recorded from pretty much 10 a.m. Onward.

Panda now hopes to test the benefits of time-restricted feeding under different conditions of sleep, activity and disease.

Everything you need to know about Windows 10 privacy settings

Microsoft's new Windows 10 system offers more personalization than before, but it also collects more data than people might be used to on PCs, from contacts and appointments to their physical location and even Wi-Fi passwords.

The information is used by Cortana, Microsoft's voice-activated digital assistant, and other new features that try to be helpful by remembering a user's likes and habits. Apple and Google have developed similar services for smartphones in recent years. Microsoft's new features are a big part of its strategy to make Windows more relevant in a world where people use multiple devices throughout the day.

Most of these features get turned on when you set up Windows 10 with the "Get going fast" option. But you can take back control and disable features in the settings. Here are some examples:

WI-FI WORRIES

A feature called Wi-Fi Sense promises to make it easy for users and their friends to connect with new Wi-Fi networks. It lets Windows 10 computers log in automatically to known networks, so your friends don't have to ask for the password when they visit.

Despite some initial reports, Wi-Fi Sense doesn't hand over your password to all your friends. Instead it stores your password online in an encrypted form. It then provides that encrypted code to your friend's Windows 10 device so it can automatically log into your network. Your friends never actually see the password, and Microsoft says your friends won't get access to other computers or files on the network.

Even so, critics say the feature shares too freely, as you can't choose which friends to share with - only with your full list of friends or contacts on Facebook, Outlook.com or Skype. To disable this, open the "Settings" menu in Windows 10, select "Network & Internet" and click on "Manage Wi-Fi Settings." You can uncheck groups you don't want to share with. You can also choose not to share access to a particular network when you log in for the first time; just uncheck the box next to "Share network with my contacts."

But if you let friends manually log into your network by giving them your password, be aware they might be able to share the password via Wi-Fi Sense with their friends. You can ask them not to, or completely block Wi-Fi Sense by changing your Wi-Fi network's name to include the underscore followed by these characters: optout.

CORTANA KNOWS YOU

Many people are used to voice-activated services like Apple's Siri or "OK Google" on smartphones and tablets. Windows 10 brings Microsoft's digital assistant, Cortana, to desktops and laptops. Cortana can answer questions, remind you of appointments and even recommend nearby restaurants. But to do that, Cortana uploads and saves information about your Web browsing, search queries and location, as well as some details from your messages, contacts and calendar.

Microsoft says it doesn't use the Cortana personalization to target ads. Nor will it use your emails, chats or personal files for advertising. But it does tailor ads to websites visited with its Edge browser and queries made on its Bing search engine, including queries through Cortana. (Google's browser and search engine do this, too.)

You can review what Cortana knows about you: Click on the search field in the lower left of your screen, then click the "Notebook" icon and select "About Me" to edit or delete individual items. If you want to turn Cortana off, open "Notebook," click on "Settings" and toggle Cortana to "Off." That clears information stored on the device, but not the data uploaded to Microsoft's servers. To get to that, open "Notebook," choose "Settings" and click "Manage what Cortana knows about me in the cloud."

MORE PRIVACY SETTINGS

Anyone concerned about privacy should take a run through the "Privacy" section of the Windows 10 "Settings" menu. This is different from the "Settings" menu for Cortana. You find it by clicking on the Windows icon in the lower left of your screen.

Windows 10 assigns each user on each device a unique "advertising ID," which lets app developers track how each person uses the device and apps. If that bothers you, you'll find the button to turn it off by going to "Settings" and opening the "Privacy" section. You might have to hit the back arrow at the top left if you're already in another section. Click on "General" in the left-hand column to turn off advertising ID. You might still get ads, but they won't be tailored to you.

Similarly, open "Privacy" and click on "Location" to turn off location-tracking or clear the history of where you've traveled with your laptop, tablet or Windows phone.

Another heading under "Privacy" has the innocuous title of "Other devices." That's where you can turn off the ability to "Sync with devices." That feature lets apps on your device share information with things like store-tracking beacons, which send you ads as you walk nearby. If that sounds creepy, turn it off.

Some critics complain that Microsoft hasn't been more up front about all the ways Windows 10 collects user information. But you can find most of them by scrolling through the nooks and crannies of the "Settings" menu. That's a good thing to do with any new software program or Internet service. It's also good to go back there from time to time to make sure the settings match your comfort level.

The PayPal Here Card Reader Comes To U.S. With Support For EMV, Apple Pay, Android Pay & More

With the arrival of Apple Pay and, more recently, Android Pay, consumers are becoming more comfortable with alternative ways of paying that don’t involve credit card swipes. And now, with the U.S.’s transition to EMV – smart cards that store data on chips instead of magnetic stripes, which offers increased security – many business owners will have to upgrade their hardware in order to support these newer chip-and-PIN cards.

Today, PayPal unveiled its strategy to compete amid all the changes taking place in the payments landscape with the unveiling of its PayPal Here Chip Card Reader in the U.S. The reader now supports not only EMV, but also magnetic stripe cards and NFC, including Apple Pay, Android Pay, Samsung Pay, and more.

As PayPal VP and GM Brad Brodigan explains, consumers today expect to “pay anywhere, anytime and any way they please,” which is why the company needed to enter the game with a multi-functional card reader. At the same time, businesses themselves are preparing for the EMV liability shift taking place on October 1st, 2015. At that time, merchants who won’t accept chip cards will become liable for point-of-sale fraud when customers use their chip cards – a strong incentive to encourage business owners to upgrade their hardware. That’s where the PayPal Here reader comes in.

The device had previously been available in the U.K. and Australia for a couple of years, as the U.S. lagged behind in EMV adoption.

But now that merchants are facing the need to swap out their equipment, many companies – including especially point-of-sale terminal providers – have been taking advantage of the EMV transition to push their own hardware and software solutions.

Similarly, PayPal is making a play for small business merchants with this PayPal Here Chip Card Reader. The device goes on sale September 30th for $49. That price includes the PayPal Here Rebate Offer which offers a $100 credit to customers in the U.S. who process at least $3,000 within the first three months of activating the new hardware.

The reader itself costs $149 – and that’s also the price for those businesses who can’t ring up the required $3,000 in sales to achieve the discount.

The small, handheld card reader works with the PayPal Here app installed on the business owners’ phones. From the app, the merchant can either type in the amount of the sale or select items from their catalog. After pressing the charge button, all the available forms of payment display on the screen, including instructions to tap, insert or swipe a payment card.

Customers can also pay via cash, check, invoice or PayPal, of course, which makes the reader highly flexible in terms of the types of payments it can support.

When choosing to pay by credit or debit card, EMV cards can be inserted into the bottom of the device. If a PIN entry or signature is required, the customer can enter the former on reader itself or sign using their finger via the PayPal app.

Meanwhile, the reader also supports standard credit card swipes for backward compatibility, and customers can tap their NFC-enabled credit card on the card reader screen. The NFC functionality means customers can also tap their NFC-enabled smartphone on the screen as well, in order to pay via Apple Pay, Android Pay, or Samsung Pay.

Using the new PayPal Here solution doesn’t involve a monthly fee, and costs businesses 2.7 percent per U.S. swipe. That makes it fairly competitive with other card readers aimed at small businesses, including Square’s EMV card reader which is also $49 (or free, depending on eligibility for a credit), supports NFC, and costs Square’s standard 2.75 percent fee per swipe.

How to Reduce Google Chrome RAM Usage

Google has a web browser among many other online products. I am a heavy google user, and Chrome is my go to browser of choice. However, with all good things, there can be negative side effects.Google Chrome is a greedy RAM hog. This article will cover a major unwanted side effect behind Google Chrome’s technology and provide some tips on how you can address this issue.

 RAM is the memory that your computer uses to temporarily store data, programs, and more or less everything that you are working on. For instance, this web browser that I am writing this article on is sitting on my computer’s RAM temporarily. Once I shut down the browser or computer, it will be removed from RAM. Naturally, the more programs you run, the more RAM you use, and the more RAM you will need.

The technical name for this process is called “file swapping.” That’s sort of how RAM works. The water represents your programs, data, drivers, and so on. While the cup is your RAM and your container is the Hard Drive which permanently stores the data. Are you still with me? Google Chrome tends to use more memory because of the way it functions. Normally when you run a program, a process is started and all of its functions are contained within that process. You run a program such as powerpoint, and the process runs, everything you do within that powerpoint session is working within that process.

Google Chrome does the same, except that they care so much about your work, that they separate some of the processes by tabs. If you are running flash on one tab, and that tab crashes, Chrome doesn’t want your entire session to crash. The way they get around that is by creating separate processes. If that tab crashes and takes down Flash, no problem, your other flash tabs will be fine because Chrome created a separate task for each.

The whole idea behind that move is to protect your other tabs and work, but the downside is that there is a duplication of processes and work. Using my prior analogy, Chrome uses more water to create separate processes that are independent of each other.

What can you do to combat this memory situation?

Well, the simplest solution is to upgrade the amount of memory that you have. However, on older systems this may not be an option, or your wallet may not afford you with this option. The next best step is to optimize your computer’s usage of Chrome and other apps!

One of the simpler options you have when a memory upgrade is not feasible is to minimize the amount of windows and tabs that you have open at any one time. As established before, the less you open, the less memory you are using. You can accomplish this on Chrome by not launching too many tabs at once, being aware of what you are running and limiting the number of extensions that you use.

Google Chrome has its own task manager too. You can press Shift+Esc (or, on a Mac, go to Windows > Task Manager) and kill any tasks that are hogging up your RAM. Always save your work first.

You can also use some tools that will further help you manage Google Chrome memory usage.Here are a few that we like:

Click-to-Play

I like this extension as it prevents media from running without your approval. The plugin doesn’t run unless you “Click-to-Play.” See what I did there? This one is great because so much of what is hogging up your memory is not very apparent.

The Great Suspender
This tool unloads tabs that are inactive for a specific period of time. Thereby freeing up your browser and computer memory. The only downside is that when you click on them again the tabs need to be “reloaded” and that will take a moment.

OneTab

This one provides a very cool solution that I had sort of manually implemented and use often. This app takes all of your open tabs and saves them to one tab from where you can open them as you need them. Quite a useful tool! Please note that this one is not automatic and you have to manually execute it.

Malware Ghost Push Spotted On Android, 1,44,199 Devices Affected

Cheetah Mobile, which is one of the largest app developer group in the world has just cautioned users about a new malware called ‘Ghost Push’. This malware is seemingly impacting 14,846 types of phones consisting of 3,658 brands.

It is said that over 1,44,199 devices are said to be impacted in India alone. On a global scale, it is said that nearly 1.3 million Android devices are currently suffering from this malware.

As of now, Cheetah Mobile has managed to spot 39 applications that send out the Ghost Push malware to Android devices, although the group has not listed them out yet.

Cheetah Mobile explained that the virus works by installing unwanted apps – such as ‘Monkey test’ and ‘Time service’ – on a user’s device, which cannot be easily removed even after performing a factory reset or using typical antivirus software.

After gaining root access, the virus has been known to download ads, slow down devices, drain battery life and consume significant cellular data from the Android Device.

Ultimately, the hackers are looking to make money from these ads and apps that are being downloaded by unsuspecting users, the security researchers said.

The company said it first became aware of the issue after more and more users were asking for help on how to remove these uninstallable apps from their devices.

Luckily, the malware only affects apps that are downloaded from third party sources, so you’re probably safe if you download apps exclusively from the Google Play Store. Cheetah Mobile has mentioned that two of its apps known as Clean Master and CM Security are capable of spotting these malicious apps and will help with the removal.

If you frequently download apps from non-Play Store sources, you might want to have a look at this. Google has worked exhaustively to remove malware impacted applications from the Play Store. But given the openness of the Android platform, malware can make its way to the devices quite easily through various other sources.

Cloud Computing Providers to Backup your Gmail Account

This past weekend over 150,000 Internet users woke up to find their Gmail inboxes, contacts and chat conversations gone. The issue, according to Google, was caused by a storage software update that introduced an unexpected bug. But while the company has since begun restoring data from tape backups and will likely offer some form of compensation where applicable, the incident served as a reminder that no matter how reliable some cloud-based services are, they are certainly not infallible, and thus it might be prudent to have your own backup ready just in case things go amiss.
There are numerous ways to backup your Gmail data and deciding which way to go will largely depend on the level of effort you want to put into it. You could simply setup Gmail to forward all your mails to another email account and call it a day, for instance. But there are also a handful of other options that offer a bit more flexibility and convenience using cloud computing providers.
Below, we’ve listed a few of them, so you can choose whichever best suits your needs.

Use a standalone backup program

Gmail Backup is a simple and easy-to-setup free alternative that does exactly what its name says. Upon installation, just type in your credentials and it will begin downloading all your e-mails, backing them up securely, and allowing you to restore them to your account should the unthinkable happen cloud computing providers. The program is free and Windows-only. Their website seems to be down due to the increased load in the past few days, but you can download Gmail Backup here from our local mirror.

If you’re willing to shell out $20, Gmail Keeper will back up Gmail messages or messages from a Google Apps Mail account as a .zip file to a local disk. It supports multiple accounts and even stores labels associated with each message, while those concerned about privacy can encrypt their mail and password protect it.

Third-party Web service

Backupify is a handy tool that automatically performs scheduled backups for a number of popular online services including Google Apps, Facebook, Twitter and others. You won’t have to put too much effort into the whole backup process — just supply the login credentials of the sites you want backed up and Backupify takes care of the rest using cloud computing providers. Be aware though that you’re essentially moving your info from one cloud to another.

The site offers both free and paid accounts with varying limitations, but given the recent Gmail blunder, Backupify is taking the opportunity to entice new users with a coupon code “savegmail” for a year of free backups with one of their premium plans, so there’s really no reason for not giving it a shot.

Use a desktop mail client

This is probably the most common approach and should take just a few minutes to set up. Gmail offers access to all your mail through desktop clients such as Apple Mail, Microsoft Outlook, Mozilla Thunderbird, and many other cloud computing providers. The latter is free and available on all major operating systems, so if you’re doing this for the first time and especially if you’re only planning to use it for backups rather than as your primary client, then Thunderbird might be the way to go.

For those unfamiliar with the setup process: After signing into Gmail, click the “gear” in the upper-right corner, choose Mail settings, then load the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab. Enable POP for all mail and set Gmail to keep its copy.

You’ll then need to setup your desktop mail client to retrieve your emails. Google offers step-by-step instructions for a number of clients and Thunderbird’s automatic configuration is usually spot on getting your settings right with just your username and password — but make sure to use POP instead of IMAP for one-way message transfers.
Messages will be downloaded automatically each time you launch Thunderbird and stored into your profile folder — which you can back up standalone as well for some added security by cloud computing providers. It’s pretty straightforward, but for those who prefer to use the web-based Gmail interface, remembering to run Thunderbird or whatever desktop email client every once in a while might be more work than they’re willing to deal with.

Google Doodle: Google celebrates its 17th birthday with a retro doodle

Google is celebrating its 17th birthday and to commemorate the occassion it has put of a retro doodle.

The doodle is a throwback to the early days of the internet, with a retro plastic PC, a lava lamp, a Linux penguin peeking from behind the monitor, among other things. The monitor display shows the first Google homescreen when it had launched back in 1998.

Here is a pictorial list of Google`s achievement in its 17 year journey.

However, some reports point out that Google is itself not sure of its birthday. It has started celebrating it on 27 September since 2006 and the year before it had celebrated it on 26 September.

The 6th birthday Doodle had gone online on 7 September 2004 and in 2003, it was put up on 8 September.

Google Photos – 8 New Features

Google Photos is a photo and video sharing and storage service by Google. Its core features were previously embedded within Google+, the company’s social network. The new Google Photos includes unlimited photo and video storage, and apps for Android, iOS, and the browser.Usersback up their photos to the cloud service, and become accessible between all of their devices connected to the service.

1. A Whole New Level of Organization

The layout and streamlined view that you get with Google Photos is extremely handy, as it sorts your pictures by the months you took them. The days of searching tirelessly through your massive amount of photos is over

2. Auto Backup for Photos and Videos

You can now download this app on all of your mobile devices and also your computer. It’s possible to set up an auto backup program which photos automatically back up to, thus saving your precious mobile storage space.

3. Find Photos By What’s Actually In Them

The new searchable function that Google created allows you to search for photos by what’s actually in them. The science behind Google search is well established, and while this new feature may see some slight bugs and issues at first, image recognition will only continue to improve. As always the standards of Google are pronounced and held in high regard.

4. Add Movement to Your Life

A new feature of Google Photos allows you to snap a few photos in succession and create an animated GIF. I personally enjoy the app Photo for this reason, but now this feature is integrated into the most smoothly running photo organizing app ever.

5. Interactive Timeline

Who doesn’t love a good animated timeline? Especially when the timeline features all of your favorite photo and video memories. You can look back at those events in succession, and relive your past with this feature.

6. Panorama-Mania

The revamped panorama feature allows you to effortlessly combine multiple images into amazing auto-stitched panoramic photos. Get a detailed shot of everyone at a party, or capture that amazing once in a lifetime mountain top view as it’s happening without the stress of perfectly setting up a panoramic photo.

7. No More Storage Restrictions

Google Photos now allows you to upload literally as much content as you want, for free! The new feature lets you choose to upload and compress your images and does so in an exceptionally user friendly manner.

8. Beautifully Easy Google Photos Image Editor

The new look and feel of the Google Photos image editing software is incredible. It allows side by side comparisons of your editing efforts so you can see what it looks like compared to the untouched photo.

Facebook working on new standalone video app that will support 360-degree footage: Report

After acquiring the Oculus VR last year for $2 billion, Facebook is said to be working on a mobile app for viewing virtual reality videos, which are filmed in 360-degrees.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the format will be typically compiled from multiple cameras, which will allow users to change their viewing perspective by tilting their phones. The new app is said to work on Android as well as iOS platforms.

The report points out that the development of the app is in early stages and it is unclear when or if the app will launch, said the people, who declined to be named discussing the confidential project.

This new app will  help extend Facebook’s presence in virtual reality beyond Oculus and open up the technology to a wider audience. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly called virtual reality the next ‘computing platform’ after mobile devices multiple times in the past.

According to the report, Oculus is expected to ship a consumer version of its Rift headset in the first quarter of next year. The CEO hopes the Oculus headset will power a host of new “immersive” experiences, from virtual doctor appointments to live concerts to courtside seats at a basketball game.

Microsoft sends invites for 6 October event; expect new Lumia smartphones and Surface Pro 4

Microsoft has started sending invites to its next hardware event slated to take place on October 6 wherein the company is expected to launch new phones, Surface Pro 4 and maybe a new band too.

At this special Windows 10 devices launch, the company is expected to launch two handsets reportedly Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XL. It will be accompanied by the Surface Pro 4, which is the most awaited successor to the Surface Pro 3. Besides, some are also speculating the possibility of a new band at the event.

While the event is early next month, but most of the hardware could hit store shelves only during the holiday season. “I doubt any of the new Microsoft hardware will be available on October 6. I’ve heard from some contacts that the Surface Pro 4 tablets are likely to ship some time in November, still in time for the holiday season. I’d expect the Lumia phones and Bands also to be out in time for holiday,” a ZDnet report points out.

While we do not know much about its devices, the Surface Pro 4 is speculated to come with some improvements. One can expect a larger display, Windows Hello support, a refined keyboard and a fingerprint scanner could make it to the list of improvements.

A report by TheVerge also suggests the possibility of a 14-inch Surface device and also an additional Surface device.

Going by the previous reports, the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL are been codenamed Talkman and Cityman, respectively.The Lumia 950 or Talkman will reportedly sport a 5.2-inch display with 2560 x 1440 pixels of resolution. Under the hood, one can expect a hexa-core Snapdragon 808 processor coupled with 3GB RAM, 20-megapixel rear snapper, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 32GB storage and a 3,000mAh battery.

The larger, 950 XL or Cityman, will come with a 5.7-inch display, and almost a similar set of specs. Apart from the larger display, some other differentiating specs will be an octa-core Snapdragon 810 processor and a 3,300mAh battery.

Both smartphones will support Qi wireless charging and also an infrared scanner that will unlock the device in seconds. Though ZTE has already introduced he iris scanner, it is still not a commonly found feature and could turn out to become a USP of the device. Both will also feature USB Type-C and come dipped in Matte white or black polycarbonate.

On the other hand, the new band which is said to be a successor to the existing Microsoft band is a complete mystery.