Unbelievable! Get Dell laptop for only one rupee

Computer maker Dell India has an unbelievable offer for laptop buyers. Dell's 'Back to School' programme, allows students (and parents) to buy a new laptop at just Re 1.

The rest of the amount can be paid in EMIs.

Here is what to do for registration.

Dell Inspiron All In One Tower/ Desktop products and select Inspiron Notebooks can be made in India through the authorized Dell Outlets having a valid SA Code or www.compuinida.com

Successful registered customers will be provided with a unique registration reference ID instantly and the same will be intimated through the registered mail and phone number.

The registration will be validated and approved within 3 working days, post which the customer will be intimated to pay the expediency fee of 999 (depending on availed offer) through the designated online payment gate way.

Here are important dates to remember:

Offer Period: 22nd March 2016 to 31th May 2016.

Registration to be completed within 7days from the date of purchase.

Post registration approval mail, eligible customers are requested to make payment of the expediency charges as per the Redemption Guidelines within 7 days from the date of receipt of the communication.

Purchases made on or after 31th May 2016 are required to register on or before 7th June 2016.

Apple’s 6 most important announcements from today’s big event

There are two big events that hardcore Apple fans look forward to most each year: WWDC and the September iPhone event. Today’s “Let us loop you in” press conference was neither. While there’s no question that Apple’s first big event of 2016 was less exciting than what we’re used to with Apple, it was still quite a show and we came away with a number of new products to check out.

In this post, we’ve rounded up all of the most important announcements from today’s Apple event so you can read about them in one place.

Liam

Liam isn’t a product that will make its way to people’s homes anytime soon, but it’s still one of the coolest things Apple showed off on stage on Monday.

What is Liam? It’s a special robot that Apple developed to disassemble old iPhones that can’t be revived. Liam pulls the phones apart and separates all of the components that can be reused like screws. It also pulls out components made of recyclable materials like gold — yes, there’s gold in your iPhone — and separates them out to be repurposed

Apple Watch news

Apple said that about a third of Apple Watch owners change their bands often, so it announced a bunch of new colors for the Sport band and new leather band colors. Apple also announced a new line of nylon straps.

But the biggest news might be a price drop: the Apple Watch Sport now starts at just $299.

Apple TV news

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that there are already more than 5,000 apps for the new fourth-generation Apple TV, and he gave a whole bunch of examples on stage. More importantly, Cook announced some sweet new features that will be added to the new Apple TV in Apple’s new tvOS update.

The new version of the software will include folder support and support for dictation, which will allow you to perform searches or even enter usernames and passwords using Siri.

The new version of tvOS will be released today, and it’ll be a free upgrade.

iPhone SE

First and foremost, Apple announced a new iPhone on Monday called the iPhone SE.
The iPhone lineup is Apple’s big moneymaker and it just received its first new addition of 2016. While the SE certainly isn’t the flagship iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus we’re all anxiously awaiting, it is a smart move on Apple’s part.

Apple’s new iPhone SE features a familiar design and a familiar screen size: 4 inches. That’s right, iPhone users who are still holding onto their old iPhone 5 or iPhone 5s handsets finally have a new iPhone to upgrade to if they want the latest and greatest Apple features without buying a larger phone that doesn’t fit in the hand as comfortably.

Incredibly, tons of people are also still buying 4-inch iPhones — more than 30 million were sold in 2015 alone.

Apple’s A9 chip powers the iPhone SE, which is the same chip that powers the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. That means the new 4-inch iPhone will be 2 times faster than the iPhone 5s with 3 times better graphics performance.

The iPhone SE will also sport better battery life than the iPhone 5s, and it includes the same 12-megapixel camera as the 6s series. Live photos will also be supported, though the iPhone SE screen doesn’t support 3D Touch.

Apple’s new iPhone SE will start at just $399 and it launches next week on March 31st. Preorders will open on Thursday, March 24th.

iOS 9.3

Night Shift… new 3D Touch shortcuts… a completely revamped Notes app… big Apple News updates including a top stories section and editor’s picks… Car Play enhancements… and that’s only the beginning.

iOS 9.3 will be available for compatible devices for free beginning today.

iPad Pro

Apple’s iPads aren’t anywhere near as exciting as its iPhones these days, but that might change at least a little bit when people check out Apple’s newest iPad: the iPad Pro. That’s right, it has the same name as the larger 12.9-inch model.

The 9.7-inch iPad is the tablet that started it all, spawning a totally new market that other consumer electronics companies like Samsung and Amazon would go on to attack as well. Apple was the first to create this new generation of light-duty consumer tablets though, and it’s still the best.

The new 9.7-inch model weighs less than 1 lb and it features specs that are in line with the larger 12.9-inch model. It also has some big upgrades though, including Apple’s new True Tone display technology which adjusts the tones of the display based on the lighting environment in which it’s used. There’s also a four-speaker speaker system that is adaptive based on how you’re holding the tablet.

Apple’s new 9.7-inch iPad Pro starts at $599 for the Wi-Fi model with 32GB of storage, and it will top out at 256GB of storage. It will also come in Apple’s new rose gold color in addition to silver and space gray, and it begins shipping on March 31st. Preorder availability kicks off on Thursday, March 24th.

Vernee Apollo With 6GB of RAM, 5.5-Inch QHD Force Touch Display Revealed

China-based brand Vernee this week unveiled its flagship smartphone, the Apollo. The highlight of the Vernee Apollo smartphone is it packs 6GB of RAM which was seen on the recently unveiled Vivo Xplay5 Elite.

Another notable feature is it packs MediaTek's newest Helio X20 (MT6797) SoC which was revealed at an event in China on Wednesday.

According to Android Authority, the Vernee Apollo smartphone will feature a 5.5-inch QHD display with Force Touch (pressure sensitive touch display) capability and will pack 128GB of inbuilt storage. The handset is said to sport 21-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX230 sensor and also houses an 8-megapixel front camera. It is likely to come with a USB Type-C port. On design, the Apollo smartphone is said to sport all-metal design. Unfortunately, the Chinese company has not detailed all the specifications of the handset or has revealed details about the Force Touch feature on the Apollo smartphone, though it did confirm the Android 6.0 Marshmallow version.

We can expect the company to reveal all the details on innards as well as pricing and availability at the time of launch.

MediaTek at the same event confirmed that the deca-core Helio X20 (MT6797) aimed at high-end market will hit the market next month. To recall, the Helio X20 is built on top of tri-cluster CPU architecture and was first showcased last year. At the time of launch, MediaTek had also claimed that the Helio X20 was world's first mobile processor to have tri-cluster CPU architecture, which houses three processor clusters.

On the side-lines, MediaTek on Thursday also unveiled a slightly improved and more powerful Helio X25 SoC.

Source...

Gujarat Police Gets 'Smart' With New Devices, M-Governance

Police force in Gujarat is set to get "smart" with its personnel getting handheld devices and using mobile governance to reach out to citizens in distress with special focus on women.

These technology-based measures are part of a slew of initiatives announced by the Gujarat government today in the Assembly to modernise the police force, curb crime, improve detection rate and acquire people-friendly image. These steps are to be implemented from the next fiscal.

The announcement to turn Gujarat police into a "smart" force was made by Minister of State for Home Rajnibhai Patel during his speech on the budgetary demands of Home Department for the year 2016-17.

Patel said each police station will be given smart handheld devices, called "Pocket Cop", to help personnel in detecting crimes by accessing and feeding relevant information in them and ensuring foolproof investigation.

"For Pocket Cop project, we have made a provision of Rs. 5 crores in the Budget. To establish prompt police response system for women in trouble, we have alloted Rs. 50 lakh to develop a mobile App based on the 181 helpline."

The 181 helpline has been set up by the state government for women in distress.

Further, the government will set up a state-level high-tech command and control centre at a cost of Rs. 10 crores at the DGP office in Gandhinagar, said the Minister.

Patel said "for various other initiatives related to modernisation of police department, we have alloted Rs. 41 crores, while Rs. 6 crores has been earmarked for up-gradation of forensic science laboratory."

Other initiatives include procurement of anti-riot gears, intelligent traffic management systems for cities, development of m-governance system to help people in contacting police immediately, recruitment of 17,200 personnel in various posts and setting up public safety answering point (PSAP) in Surat Range, stated Patel.

Source : NDTV

Isro, Indian Railways to Sign MoU for Remote Sensing, GIS Technologies

Aiming at effective use of space technology in remote sensing and graphic information system (GIS) based applications, Railways is set to join hands with Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro).

An MoU will be signed between Railways and Isro, under Department of Space, tomorrow for developing applications in the field of remote sensing and GIS.

The MoU will enable use of space technology tools in providing passenger information for all trains, indicating next station/stoppage, real-time train-tracking, survey of new rail route alignments particularly in hilly and difficult terrains.

It will also aid in conducting track vulnerability studies, mapping of assets, audio-visual warning to road users at unmanned level crossing gates and introduction of web-enabled rail user-centric services.

Currently, Railways is using space technology for providing connectivity to Passenger Reservation System (PRS) counters and unreserved ticketing system at remote and non-rail head locations.

Besides this, the technology is used for emergency communication using satellite phones from disaster sites, Global Positioning System (GPS) for various applications like remote monitoring of locomotives, passenger information system in Mumbai suburban trains and synchronised clocks and Wi-Fi facility in select Rajdhani Express trains.

Source : NDTV

Idea Launch 4G services in Maharashtra & Goa circle

Idea Cellular plans to extend the 4G footprint to over 750 towns by June 2016.

Idea Cellular today announced the launch of its high speed 4G LTE services across 28 towns of Maharashtra & Goa,covering major towns such as Nagpur and Ahmednagar. With this launch, the company has delivered on its promise to launch its 4G LTE services in 10 circles within FY16.

Idea's 4G LTE services are also available in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu & Chennai, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Punjab and Haryana, Orissa, and North East. Presently available in over 300 towns, Idea aims to exit FY16 with its 4G LTE services covering over 550 towns in these 10 circles, and plans to extend the 4G footprint to over 750 towns by June 2016.

Commenting on the successful rollout of services, Ambrish Jain, deputy managing director, Idea Cellular said, "Beginning Dec 23, we have rapidly expanded our 4G LTE services in these 10 markets in a record time frame of just 3 months. We have revised our capex guidance for financial year 2016 from Rs.65 billion to Rs.75 billion mainly on account of accelerated 4G capex and associated fiber rollout and are fully geared up now to grow our presence, strengthen our portfolio and make more people join the digital bandwagon.”

Idea claims to have 6.1 million 4G devices, nearly 6% of its subscriber base in 10 telecom service areas, registered on its network. In comparison, on an all India basis, Idea has nearly 48.6 million customers owning 3G devices (approx. 28% of EoP) and over 9.8 million customers with 4G devices (approx. 5% of EoP).

Microsoft’s using Minecraft to boost artificial intelligence research with Project AIX

Microsoft has quietly unveiled a new platform designed to harness the power of Minecraft to expedite artificial intelligence (AI) development.

Developed by a team led by Katja Hofmann, a researcher at Microsoft’s Machine Learning and Perception Group in the company’s Cambridge-based U.K. lab, Project AIX offers computer scientists the chance to use Minecraft to test out and improve AI research. For example, a bunch of Microsoft researchers in New York have been using AIX to try to teach a Minecraft character to climb a hill without actually being programmed to do so — involving trial-and-error, the character is given the same tools and resources as a human does when learning to do new things.

Mojang, a Sweden-based game development studio that’s best known for its work on Minecraft, was acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in 2014. Since then, Microsoft has been pushing the game in a number of interesting new directions, including a partnership with Code.org to help teach kids to code using the virtual world of Minecraft. And back in January, Microsoft announced a new version of Minecraft for schools in the wake of its acquisition of MinecraftEdu.

Using games to research artificial intelligence is nothing new, but Hofmann reckons Minecraft is ideal for such uses because of the variety of opportunities the game offers. “Minecraft is the perfect platform for this kind of research because it’s this very open world,” she said. “You can do survival mode, you can do ‘build battles’ with your friends, you can do courses, you can implement our own games. This is really exciting for artificial intelligence because it allows us to create games that stretch beyond current abilities.”

Games are not only a great way of researching AI, but also demonstrating its smarts — just last week, Google’s AlphaGo AI program defeated a human at the Go board game in what was touted as a milestone moment for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

AIX is currently being used in-house at Microsoft and it has also been opened to a small group of academics — but kicking off this summer the platform will be opened to anyone through an open-source license. By adopting an open-source approach, this means Microsoft can get hundreds or thousands of researchers working to make AIX better by contributing code.

Xiaomi to launch two more phones this year apart from Mi 5: Report

Xiaomi, which is set to launch its latest flagship - the Mi 5 - in India in April this year, will launch two more phones this year.

Bin Lin, co-founder and president at Xiaomi, in an interview given to ET said that his company will launch two more phones this year - one next quarter and another in the second half. Lin said that the phones will be priced between Rs 20,000 to Rs 27,000.

The Xiaomi Mi 5 was launched in China earlier this month in three versions - one with 3GB LPDD4 RAM and 32GB inbuilt storage at CNY 1,999 (approximately Rs 21,000); another with 3GB LPDD4 RAM and 64GB storage at CNY 2,299 (approximately Rs 24,000), while an exclusive edition with 4GB LPDD4 RAM and 128GB storage will be sold at CNY 2,999 (approximately Rs 31,500).

The Xiaomi Mi 5, which is the second smartphone in the world to come with the Snapdragon 820 processor, comes with dual SIM, a Fingerprint scanner and Android Marshmallow operating system. It has a 5.15 inch display that has full HD resolution. The phone has a 16 megapixel rear camera that has Sony IMX298 sensor, 6P lens, phase detection auto focus feature, LED flash light support, optical image stabilisation and sapphire glass protection for lens. The rear camera can record 4K videos. For selfies, the Mi 5 offers a 4 megapixel front camera.

The Xiaomi Mi 5, which measures 144.5x69.2x7.25mm and weighs 129 grams, has a 3000 mAh battery and it comes with Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 technology. It has a USB Type C port too. Other than that the Mi 5 offers WiFi (a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC.

Isro to Launch Sixth Navigational Satellite on Thursday

India is slated to put into orbit its sixth navigation satellite on Thursday evening, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) announced in Chennai on Monday.

The 1,425-kg IRNSS-1F - Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1F - would hurtle into space on board its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on March 10, the Isro said.

The rocket will blast off around 4pm from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80km from Chennai.

This will be already the second rocket launch for India in 2016. The first one was on January 20 when a PSLV rocket put into orbit the IRNSS-1E satellite in text-book style.

Till date India has launched five regional navigational satellites (IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, ID and 1E) as part of a constellation of seven satellites to provide accurate position information service to users across the country and the region, extending up to an area of 1,500km.

Though the full system comprises nine satellites -- seven in orbit and two on the ground as stand-by - the navigation services could be made operational with four satellites, Isro officials had said earlier.

Each satellite costs about Rs. 150 crores and the PSLV-XL version rocket costs about Rs. 130 crores. The seven rockets would entail an outlay of about Rs. 910 crores.

The entire IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is planned to be completed in 2016 itself.

The first satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July 2013, the second IRNSS-1B in April 2014, the third on October 2014, the fourth in March 2015, and the fifth in January this year.

The seventh satellite IRNSS-1G is expected to be launched in the second half of 2016.

Once the regional navigation system is in place, India need not be dependent on other platforms.

Freedom 251 Maker Says Pre-Booking Money to Be Refunded This Week

Noida-based Ringing Bells Pvt Ltd, makers of the controversial world's cheapest smartphone which has promised to return money to 30,000 customers who pre-booked the Rs. 251 (less that $4) device on the first day of the sale, said on Monday that the refund will reach their accounts any time this week.

According to Ringing Bells president Ashok Chadha, the money - safe and being kept in an escrow account with a bank - will positively reach the respective accounts this week.

"To refund the money that was facilitated by payment gateways CCAvenue and PayU Biz, we had given a letter to the respective bank later last week. Now, the only hiccup is what we call procedural delay and I hope that people will get back their money this week," Chadha told IANS.

Ringing Bells had received 30,000 orders on the first day and the rest of the customers for first 2.5 million handsets were to be selected on first-come-first-served basis as the company received a mammoth over 70 million registrations before the payment gateway crashed.

Mohit Goel, managing director of Ringing Bells, has also reiterated that money of all 30,000 customers is safe and is being refunded and the company will now accept cash on delivery (COD) only.

According to Chadha, Freedom 251 customers will be required to make payment only when the smartphone is delivered to them.

"The company has decided that we will, henceforth, offer 'cash on delivery' mode of payments for those who have placed an order for the Freedom 251 smartphone. This will ensure further transparency and clear any misgivings," Chadha told IANS.

On its future course of action, Chadha said the company will soon interact with the people and various stakeholders.

The company plans to give 2.5 million handsets in the first phase before June 30.

"Our humble beginning to provide a high-tech gadget that will benefit all in the hinterlands and bridge the huge gap that clearly exists between the metros and semi-urban/rural areas is in keeping with the government's initiatives," Chadha added.

Taking the world by surprise, Ringing Bells launched "Freedom 251" smartphone that, it said, has been developed "with immense support" from the government.

A top government official clarified last week that the government has nothing to do with the Freedom 251 smartphone.

"This is not a government project. 'Make in India' team has nothing to do with this," wrote Amitabh Kant, secretary of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), in a Twitter post.

Congress MP Pramod Tiwari also said the scheme of giving smartphones at Rs. 251 was the "biggest scam of the millennium" during the BJP regime.