Technology

Xiaomi has confirmed that a special edition of the Mi Note smartphone will be launching on Tuesday. Lin Bin, Co-Founder and President of Xiaomi, in a Weibo post confirmed the launch. Bin in his post also compared the Xiaomi Mi Note with the iPhone 6 In his Weibo post, Bin said (translated by Bing), "Mi Note, two-sided curved glass, much lighter and thinner than iPhone 6 Plus a larger screen, giving everyone the first feeling is amazing. Tomorrow, we will publish a special edition that looks better Mi Note. Imagine?" The post (via GSMArena) was accompanied by an image that showed the Mi Note with the date March 17 on its lock screen. At the moment, not many details about the special edition of the Mi Note phablet are known, but based on Bin's remarks, we can expect it to feature a slightly different design. Initially launched in January, the Xiaomi Mi Note flagship smartphone was priced at CNY 2,299 (roughly Rs. 23,000) for the 16GB model, while the 64GB model was price...

A developer has tipped changes in Android 5.1 that are responsible for the perceived boost in the performance of the Nexus 6. While a number of changes have been observed beyond the official changelog of Android 5.1 Lollipop, which started rolling out earlier this month, a few new changes have been reported by a developer that optimise the performance and battery life of the Google Nexus 6. According to Francisco Franco, a developer, Google has made some changes in Android 5.1 Lollipop for the Nexus 6 smartphone which makes it faster. The developer states that after the update, all the four cores in Snapdragon 805 run all the time. Previously some cores were left idle based on the performance load, and the change apart from boosting aid to save time by not activating cores based on need. Of course, the reason for not running all cores at the same time was to conserve battery life. With all cores running simultaneously, an obvious drop in battery life is to be expected, rather than a...

Nikon India on Tuesday announced the launch of 16 new cameras in its Coolpix Spring Series 2014. The cameras Coolpix S9600, Coolpix S6800, Coolpix S5300, Coolpix S6700, Coolpix S3600, Coolpix S32 and Coolpix S2800 . The Coolpix S9700 has a 16-megapixel BSI-CMOS sensor, 30x optical zoom which can be extended to 60x using the Dynamic Fine Zoom 1, built in GPS, and a travel log that maps routes on a world map. The Coolpix S9600 has a 16-megapixel backside illuminated CMOS sensor, with a 22x optical zoom, that can be extended to 44x using the Dynamic Fine Zoom1. The models in the S-series have features like Wi-Fi, anti-shake, built-in maps, high zoom water and shock proof amongst others. The Life series or 'L'-series is the next in the Coolpix line up. The cameras released in this series include, Coolpix L830, Coolpix L830, Coolpix L330, Coolpix L30 and Coolpix L29. The Coolpix L830 is a bridge camera that has a 16-megapixel BSI-CMOS sensor. On the other hand the Coolpix L330 ha...

The Nikon 1 J family is an acclaimed range of cameras by Japanese camera maker. Nikon has now launched the latest offering for the line-up - the Nikon 1 J4. Like its successor, the Nikon 1 J3, the Nikon 1 J4 is a mirrorless, interchangeable lens camera that boasts of a slew of features up its sleeve. While there are no details on the launch and the pricing, the camera will be available in four colours with an optional underwater housing case. It is important to note that the J3 was available at $600 (roughly Rs 36,000).Coming back to the Nikon 1 J4, the camera is backed by a 18.4-megapixel, super high-speed AF CMOS sensor, with no low-pass filter, and the latest Expeed 4A image-processing engine. Nikon claims it has the "world's fastest, continuous shooting sensor". Nikon also claims that the camera supports the high-speed shooting with a rate of 20fps in the burst mode and up to 60 fps when the focus is locked. In addition, it has 105 focus points with phase-detection...

In 2011, Lytro Inc dazzled the consumer gadget world when it introduced a pocket flashlight-sized gizmo that could take "living" pictures - images that could be refocused after the shutter clicked.On Tuesday, the Silicon Valley company unveiled a bigger, more expensive camera designed to make a "do-over" a reality instead of a photographer's dream.The Lytro Illum, priced at $1,599, is marketed as a legitimate tool for commercial photographers and advanced amateurs who want to differentiate their work in an age of Instagram and "commodotized imaging," Lytro founder Ren Ng said.The original camera, which was priced at $399, was mostly a niche product that sought to prove the viability of light-field Lytro has declined to provide sales figures for that model.Ng said it made the most sense for his company to target the $20 billion high-end camera market due to the growing ubiquity of smartphones. His cameras share many components, such as sensors, w...

Move over smartphones if you are interested in fitness trackers on the go. Here come headphones that can monitor your heart rate and blood pressure.What else, it can automatically alert doctors if a dangerously high reading is taken.If we believe Secret, an anonymous gossip app popular in Silicon Valley, Apple is set to launch EarPods that are also expected to contain a tiny tracking device so they can tell the user where they are if lost. Here are the Secret posts that first mentioned this device (via MacRumors):Apple's new EarPods will have sensors in them, for heart rate & blood pressure. Also iBeacons so they don't get lost. They will require the lightning port, it's why the audio jack was moved to the bottom. [...]It stores the data in a similar way to thumbprint point data, fully encrypted and nothing identifiable. But nice to send to your doctor to keep track of at which point your blood pressure started rising for example. [...] Redesigned remote to...

A lot can change in a little while. We've just seen the launch of two new flagship phones, but there have also been plenty of new launches across the board. Many of the phones that made headlines at the annual Mobile World Congress this February have now launched here, or have been announced (with official pricing) ahead of actual availability. Since you can now get a whole lot more for your money, it's time to update our Spring 2014 smartphone buyer's guide with new products, updates and pricing information.We've narrowed down the enormous number of phones available today to just a few in each price band. We've considered a huge number of parameters, including price, performance, features and versatility, build quality, camera quality, battery life, and upgradability.MethodologyWe've divided the market into a number of price bands, based on current trends and the amount a buyer can usually stretch his or her budget by after having identified a reasonable mo...