"Tez" Google’s new payment app for India that uses Audio QR to transfer money

After several weeks of speculation and leaked details, today Google officially unveiled its first big foray into mobile payments in Asia. Google has introduced a new payment app in India called Tez (the Hindi word for “fast”). Tez features a technology called audio QR that allows users to transfer money using sounds to pair two devices.

“Send money home to your family, split a dinner bill with friends, or pay the neighbourhood chaiwala. Make all payments big or small, directly from your bank account with Tez, Google’s new digital payment app for India,” Google notes in its information portal about the new app.

Tez is Google’s play to replace cash transactions and become a more central part of how people pay for things, using their mobile to do so. But it’s also a chance for the company to push out some new technologies — like audio QR (AQR), which lets users transfer money by letting their phones speak to each other with sounds — to see how it can make that process more frictionless, and therefore more attractive to use than cash itself.

There are 300 million smartphone users in India, and phones with NFC are still relatively rare and expensive, with many users instead favoring entry-level and mid-tier devices. Tez is a step beyond Android Pay, because it allows users to link payment apps from Indian banks — it works with all of the country’s 55 banks on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). UPI is a system that allows numerous bank accounts to be linked into one mobile app, and enables secure peer-to-peer payment. According to Bloomberg, digital transactions have surged after the Indian Government banned high-value cash notes late last year.

Tez has already gone live on Google’s Play Store, and Apple’s App Store on iOS as well. Google’s Tez is based on UPI platform, which stands for United Payments Interface and has been made by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). UPI allows for easy transfer for payments within bank accounts. With UPI, a user can just rely on the mobile number of the VPA (Virtual Payment Address) to make a payment straight to the bank account, rather than requiring the full bank account number, IFSC code, etc as is needed in most cases.

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Time to go Anonymous.

Facebook reportedly working on a mobile app that would allow to chat with people anonymously.

Facebook defied its strict Real-Name policy as the users had little complaints and some shifted to Ello.Now, it looks like Facebook's responding to complaints with a mobile app "that allows users to interact inside of it without having to use their real names." That's according to two people speaking with The New York Times, anyway; the sources also said the app is set to launch "in the coming weeks."

Nvidia 970 & 980 on-the-go GPUs

Nvidia announced their GTX  970 and 980 GPUs  for desktop at Game24,last month.Today they announced their Maxwell structure based mobile GPU components i.e. GeForce 970M and 980M for smoother gaming.

Similar to its desktop-bound brethren, expect the new line of GPUs to improve certain aspects of the rendering process - like multi-frame sampling anti-aliasing and dynamic super resolution - by nearly two-fold while keeping the bottom panels cool to the touch.

Google to enable faster search on slow mobile network in India

Google has been increasing its focus on the Indian market, bringing out products designed to cater to the price and quality-conscious people in the country.

Aimed at strengthening its foothold in the Indian mobile Internet space, tech giant GOOGLE Inc. will enable a faster search capability for mobile phones with slower network connections.

Using a new streamlined version of its search results page, the US-based company will automatically check if a user has a slow wireless connection and deliver a fast loading version of search.

“Increasingly, people in India are accessing the Internet through mobile devices such as their smartphones. However, not all of these devices come with fast, cheap connections,” Google distinguished software engineer Bharat Mediratta said in a blogpost.
Fewer bytes means users get answers faster and cheaper, he added.

“Google’s high-quality results will remain the same, but elements such as images and maps will only show up when they are an essential part of the result,” he said.

This is just another step Google is taking to organize the world’s information and make it accessible to everyone, including those who do not have fast mobile connections, Mediratta added.

Google has been increasing its focus on the Indian market, bringing out products designed to cater to the price and quality-conscious people in the country.
Last month, it launched its Android One  initiative in the country first, saying it was originally conceived with India in mind.

Under the Android One initiative, Google had initially partnered with three handset makers— Micromax, Karbonn and Spice—to bring out handsets priced Rs.6,399, aimed at making affordable smartphones available to a larger number of people.

It has now extended the programme to more manufacturers and is also expanding it to other countries like Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The US-based firm is also working to adding more options for searches in more local languages in India. Currently, Google has search options in nine languages in India (for PCs).

Google, which offers voice-based search in 47 languages globally, also expects to roll out services in Indian regional languages in the future, though no specific timelines have been set for the same.

Google is working on another messaging app -Report

Google is working hard to launch a messaging service similar to WhatsApp. Because what the world definitely needs is another messaging app.

While every tech company under the suns continues to try and crack messaging once and for all without ever really seeming to know how to go about it— the Times suggests  that Google is working on a WhatsApp competitor, initially focused on emerging markets like India.

What’s more, the report claims , the app won’t require users to use a Google login, and it will be free to use. That is, in isolation, arguably not a bad idea; after all, emerging markets are where WhatsApp started, and where much of its popularity continues to lie.

But of all the things that Google needs to offer, yet another messaging app is not one of them. With a cluttered array of ways to receive messages from our nearest and dearest, what the world needs is unification of messaging — not further fragmentation. Hopefully that’s the next trick up its sleeve. 

Matter=Anti-matter ?

credit:azdani Lab, Princeton University

As we all know the matter and anti-matter are totally opposites to each other,as they have protons and anti-protons,which will attack each other when they are placed close.But the scientists have successfully imaged the Majorana particle which is matter and anti-matter at the same time.They created it by placing a string of iron atoms on top of a lead superconductor, forming pairs of electrons and antielectrons -- except for one lone electron at the end of the chain, which exhibited properties of both.

Though more testing is required to confirm its existence.Also it cant exist out of super-conductor.Many physicists believe that neutrinos are really Majorana particles, and proving that this is possible would go a long way toward supporting their theory.

Regional Navigation

ISRO will launch the third of seven series of satellites to put in place India's own navigation system on par with US' Global Positioning System (GPS) from the spaceport of Sriharikota on October 10. The launch has been scheduled at 1.56 AM on October 10, ISRO said today.

The IRNSS 1C satellite would be launched on the 28th flight of India's PSLV-C26 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, some 100 km from here. 

As part of its aspirations to build a regional navigational system equivalent to Global Positioning System of the US, ISRO plans to send seven satellites to put in place the Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System (IRNSS). The first two satellites in the series, IRNSS 1A and IRNSS 1B were launched from Sriharikota on July 1 2013 and April 4 this year respectively.

ISRO needs to launch at least four of the seven satellites to start operations of the IRNSS, ISRO officials said.

The official twitter handle of ISRO tweeted, 

source:dna

Royalty-Fueds

In a glimpse of the financial stakes in the smartphone-patent wars, Microsoft Corp.Microsoft said Friday that Samsung Electronics Ltd,paid the software giant more than $1 billion for an annual fee to use Microsoft technology in Samsung phones.

Samsung sells smartphones and tablets powered by Google In Google’s Android software. But Microsoft has said some of its patents are included in Android technologies, such as methods for displaying multiple windows in a Web browser. Therefore, Samsung and other smartphone makers pay royalty fees to Microsoft for each Android device they sell.

Though,both of these giants were shy to bring this partnership to the world.

In the legal fight that started this summer, Microsoft complained that Samsung failed to honor a 2011 patent-licensing contract between the two companies. Samsung said Microsoft’s purchase ofNokia Corp.Nokia’s mobile-phone business in April violated the terms of a business contract between the companies, according to the court filing.

Microsoft is asking a judge to enforce the terms of the 2011 contract with Samsung and declare that the Nokia acquisition doesn’t invalidate the companies’ pre-existing agreement. Microsoft also is seeking $6.9 million in damages because Samsung was late paying the $1 billion royalty payment owed last fall.

source:TWSJ

Cyanogen refuses Google's offer

Cyanogen

Cyanogen has refused the google's money in order to keep the Android 'open'.

For a lot of start ups, winning Google's interest is the goal. Not Cyanogen. According toThe Information, the Cyanogen CEO Kirt McMaster told shareholders that it recently shrugged off Google SVP of Android Sundar Pichai's interest in purchasing the company -- choosing instead to focus on obtaining a $1 billion valuation to aid in its third round of funding. The company's grounds for that number, and perhaps Google's interest for the company, lie with its long-term goal: to become the third most popular mobile ecosystem. Considering the fact that Cyanogen's third-tier mobile OS is essentially a more "open" version of Android, it's no surprise the company has Mountain View's attention.

Even so, dismissing Google's interest is a pretty bold move -- especially considering that the company is now looking for more funding on top of the $30 million it collected last year. There's confidence there, however: Cyanogen investors are being told that the company has struck a deal with Micromax to build Cyanogen-based phones, echoing its partnership with OnePlus to bake its flavor of Android into the One. It's still too early to say if Cyanogen's efforts will pay off in the long term, but the company is definitely on Google's radar, and that's something.

SOURCE: The Information

Microphone with a Molecule

"Microphone" this word does suggest something very small,but can it be as small as a molecule?
Yes the scientists have figured out a way to use a single molecule to sense the vibrations made by the  sound.



Although we talk about "hearing" rather than "feeling" sound, sound is made up of the physical vibrations through some medium, usually air but any other liquid or gas would do too. (And when those vibrations hit our eardrums, we perceive it as sound.) When those vibrations hit a single molecule of dibenzoterrylene (DBT), according to a new study published in Physical Review Letters, it fluoresces according to the sound's pitch.

To get that molecule of dibenzoterrylene to work as a microphone of sorts, scientists had to trap several molecules of it in a crystal of anthracene. When a sound wave gently rocks the crystal, DBT molecules are knocked around inside. This movement changes the interaction between the electron clouds of DBT and anthracene, which ultimately result in a slight shift in DBT's fluorescence. By tracking the fluorescence of just a single molecule of DBT, the scientists could track the frequency of the sound.

So what's the use of just a tiny and delicate acoustic sensor? Probably not much in your everyday life, since the setup needs to be very, very cold to work properly. (Air molecules at room temperature move around too much.) But this neat little feat could be put to use in physics labs, where researchers are looking for quantum effects in very small vibrating systems—a tiny sensor for tiny things.

source:Gizmodo

Top 6 Windows 10 features

Windows is about to get a big upgrade.From a resurrected Start Menu to new multitasking tools, the latest Microsoft operating system is designed to remedy the frustrations caused by the confusing Windows 8. Here’s the best of what you can look forward to in Windows 10 when it comes to market in mid-2015.  
1) Start Menu Returns

It’s what Windows 8 detractors have been clamoring for, and Microsoft has finally brought back the Start Menu. Now, when you click on the Start button at the bottom left of the screen, you get two panels side by side, with the left column showing pinned, recently and most-used apps.

You also get a power button at the top for options such as Hibernate, Standby and Shutdown, and an all apps option a la Windows 7. The right column features a selection of live tiles that you can customize, resize and reorganize. 

2) Universal Search in Start menu

The Search tool at the bottom of the Start menu now not only searches your programs and files (as it does on Windows 7), but also looks up related results on the Internet. Presumably powered by Microsoft’s web search engine Bing, this means you won’t have to open up a browser to find a particular Wikipedia entry. It’s not entirely clear yet what other sources this Universal Search will pull from.

3) Multiple Desktops

Think of it as having a different monitor on which you run another set of windows, but without the physical monitor. The Multiple Desktops feature is similar to Apple’s Spaces feature on OS X, and helps you manage your multitude of open windows and apps.

Now, instead of having multiple windows open on top of each other on one desktop, you can set up a whole other virtual desktop for those programs to reside in. Set up one specifically for home and leave your apps such as Netflix and Amazon open, and create another desktop for work on which you keep Word, Excel and Internet Explorer open. 

4) Task View Multitasking

With the new desktops comes a new way to keep track of your open apps on Windows 10. On the new operating system, you can either hit the new Task View button on the task bar or swipe in from the left edge of the screen to pull up a one-page view of all your open apps and files. It’s not much different from using the Alt-Tab combination shortcut on your keyboard, but this presents a convenient way for touch-oriented users to get an overview of what’s running.

5) Improved Start Screen
The new Start screen, which is the touch-optimized page for all the live tiles and apps Windows 8 has come to be known for, now comes with a persistent taskbar and a list of programs and folders on the left. This lets you get easy access to locations such as My Documents or PC Settings directly from the home screen and makes it easy to find a specific app, thanks to the All Apps option at the bottom.

 6) Quadrant-style Split Screen Multitasking

Microsoft’s Snap View multitasking feature has been improved to now let you dock windows to the four corners of your screen. While you could split your display between up to four apps at a go before, the number of apps you could have side-by-side was limited by your device’s screen resolution.

It’s not clear yet whether this quadrant snap view is dependent on your resolution, but this new way of docking will make for far more efficient multitasking. The system will even suggest what other open apps you can use to fill up available space.

We expect more features to be announced as Microsoft gets closer to publicly releasing Windows 10, so stay tuned for more info.

HTC's new RE Camera gets approved.

last week a photos of HTC action camera called RE camera leaked in official website teasing new device.
According to the rumor RE camera will equip rugged,water-proof design
in bend shape.FCC filing doesn't reveal much about the leaked camera,though it look like the new action camera approved with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. In meantime , HTC could release a new app that works with RE Camera,though it should be able to sync on both Android and IOS platform.
HTC announced a press event scheduled on Oct. 8.Rumor has it the firm could also unveil a new variant of the one(M8) smartphone with beefed up camera apparently called M8 EYE. 

Season's Hottest Game.

Available in PS,XBOX and PCs

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is an action-packed adventure-RPG inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Exploring an original story of vengeance and redemption, the game puts players in the role of Talion, a valiant ranger whose family is slain in front of him the night Sauron and his army return to Mordor -- moments before his own life is taken. Resurrected by a Spirit of vengeance and empowered with Wraith abilities, Talion ventures into Mordor and vows to destroy those who have wronged him. Through the course of his personal vendetta, Talion uncovers the truth of the Spirit that compels him, learns the origins of the Rings of Power and ultimately confronts his true nemesis.

Every enemy that players face is a unique individual, differentiated by their personality, strengths and weaknesses. Through the Nemesis System, enemy relationships and characteristics are shaped by player actions and decisions to create personal archenemies that remember and adapt to the player and are distinct to every gameplay session. Gamers are able to craft their own battles, enemies and rewards within the dynamic world that remembers and adapts to their choices, delivering a unique experience to every player.

So are you ready for some action ?

source: IGN

Samsung's Gap Gate is said to be positive.

 After the iPhone bend gate now its time for the Galaxy gap-gate.The Galaxy Note 4 was launched in Korea.According to the South Korean press reports,some of the galaxy phablets have a large gap between the screen and the metal trim of the body,unfortunately the gap is capable of fitting your buisness card into it.

When questioned,Samsung states: "This gap is a necessary manufacturing feature and some minor rocking or vibration of parts may occur."

Futhermore: "Over time, friction between parts may cause this gap to expand slightly."

Lets hope its a positive gap as the Samsung states.

Post your reviews.Thank you.

Swimmer's Fantasy

 Water-proof smrtphones,walkmans,&now its time for water-proof headphones.Yes,Sony introduced their new water-proof headphone series,WS160.

 This headphones let you listen to your favourite music even under water.These headphones are packed with NFC and Bluetooth to wirelessly listen to your music,but inside pool you can't take your non water-proof smart-phones,so a16gb of storage is provided to listen music on-board.The headphones are capable of going under water for up-to six and half a meters.They give 7 hours of music time when charged fully,and it takes just 3 minutes to charge and provide a back-up of a hour.The headphones also come with a ring to wear,which helps in controlling the music playlist and sound,acording to customer's choice,the ring can be easily operated by the thumb under water,with eyes closed.

New devices from Microsoft lumia 930, 830 and 730

Microsoft adds three more devices to its device list by releasing lumia 930,830,730 on Wednesday.

“We recognized the potential of the affordable smartphone segment. Building on our momentum in this space, today we introduce three new devices, Lumia 930, 830 and Lumia 730, which we believe will help us consolidate our position in the mid-priced smartphone market in India,” Ajey Mehta, managing director, Nokia India Sales, a subsidiary of Microsoft Mobile Oy said

lets have a quick look:

Lumia 930:

• 5-inch full hd ClearBlack OLED display protected with Gorilla Glass 3
• 2.2GHz quardcore Snapdragon 800SoC
• Windows 8.1
• 2GB of Ram
• 32GB internal storage
• 20mp pureview camera with dual-LED flash with optical stabilization and Carl Zeiss lens
• Front 1.2mp wide-angle shooter
• Wi-FI, Bluetooth v4.0,NFC, Micro USB ,3G and LTE
• Juiced up with  2420mAh battery.
• Price:Rs. 38,649

Lumia 830:

• 5-inch HD ClearBlack OLED display with Gorilla Glass 3
• 1.2GHz quardcore Snapdragon 400SoC
• Windows 8.1
• 1GB of Ram
• 16GB internal storage with microSD support upto 128GB
• 10mp pureview camera with dual-LED flash with optical stabilization and Carl Zeiss lens
• Front 1.2mp wide-angle shooter
• Wi-FI, Bluetooth v4.0,NFC, Micro USB ,3G and LTE
• Juiced up with  2200mAh battery.
• Price:Rs.28,799

Lumia 730(Selfie-Phone):

• 4.7-inch HD ClearBlack OLED display with Gorilla Glass 3
• 1.2GHz quardcore Snapdragon 400SoC
• Windows 8.1
• 1GB of Ram
• 8GB internal storage with microSD support upto 128GB
• 6.7mp pureview camera with dual-LED flash with optical stabilization and Carl Zeiss lens
• Front 5mp wide-angle shooter
• Wi-FI, Bluetooth v4.0,NFC, Micro USB ,3G and LTE
• Juiced up with  2220mAh battery.
• Price:Rs 15,299

Google's first social network shuts down.

 After 10 long years the Orkut is shutting down.Though Orkut was doing fine in the Brazilian markets in recent years,but now it has become nearly unused.Google wants to shut it down and focus on the other social network it owns that is the Google+.

Bye Bye Orkut.

Thank you Graphene.

 Samsung patented on using Graphene for making cheap,good,curved displays.The patent describes use of a network of nanostructures as the conductive layer of a touch screen. The nanostructures could include carbon nanotubes, nanowires, nanoparticles and/or graphene flakes. Graphene and other nanostructures are being studied as possible replacements for the costly indium tin oxide (ITO) in touch screens, which also has a disadvantage of being brittle, making it unsuitable for flexible touch screens. A network of graphene nanostructures provides an inexpensive alternative, which is also flexible and stretchable.And Graphene is proving to be trustworthy nano-structure.

Google DRIVEs it a long way.

 Google is now focusing on helping non-profitable educational organisations by providing unlimited storage in the Google Drive.It also supports uploads of an individual file up-to 5TB and automatic encryption.

“Every file uploaded to Google Drive is encrypted, not only from your device to Google and in transit between Google data centers, but also at rest on Google servers,” Ben Schrom, PM Google Apps for Education said.

Google Apps for Education also comes with a tool-set,which can be used by the teachers to provide study materials,assignments,also to have the feedbacks etc.Google Drive creates folders to save the projects uploaded and managed through Classroom,by the users.

That's a very innovative and helping stuff towards the Education

Space-Rangers Assemble

 NASA and ISRO are to be working in a collaboration as NASA tweeted" We're collaborating with @ISRO on a future Earth-observing mission & Mars exploration".This one partenership will take the advancement of science to a whole new level.

In a meeting Tuesday in Toronto, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), signed two documents to launch a NASA-ISRO satellite mission to observe Earth and establish a pathway for future joint missions to explore Mars.

While attending the International Astronautical Congress, the two space agency leaders met to discuss and sign a charter that establishes a NASA-ISRO Mars Working Group to investigate enhanced cooperation between the two countries in Mars exploration. They also signed an international agreement that defines how the two agencies will work together on the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, targeted to launch in 2020.

“The signing of these two documents reflects the strong commitment NASA and ISRO have to advancing science and improving life on Earth,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “This partnership will yield tangible benefits to both our countries and the world.”

Lets wish the collaboration a very good luck.

Source:NASA