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Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K is Cheaper & is Beating its Predecessors

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After shipping the Fire TV Cube ($120) and third-generation Fire TV ($70, now discontinued), last year, Amazon has now launched a much cheaper yet outperforming 4K HDR video streaming device, named Fire TV Stick 4K. The device claims to provide better performance and costs only $50.

This time the remote of the device has got more features than the device itself, as now this tiny Alexa voice remote can control the TV with the power, volume, and mute buttons. With the remote, the user can control the TV’s current HDMI input, the attached soundbar, as well as can tune the channels, on the satellite set-top boxes.

Fire TV Stick
Image Source: timeincuk.net

The previous Fire TV devices can also be paired with the remote and can be bought separately. Also, the new Fire TV Cube will now be available in the market, with this new Alexa remote. Alexa enabled device can help the user to check the weather, control the smart lights, pull up a feed from the doorbell cam, or access Alexa’s other functionalities with a simple voice request. To use Alexa in the handsfree mode, the user just needs to pair the Fire TV stick with an Echo device.

The predecessors of the Fire TV Stick were built on the 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, that too is improved in the newly launched device, as it is powered by the 1.7 GHz quad-core processor. The high-performance device, now includes the hardware-accelerated MPEG-2 video, enabling the user to plug-in the HDHomeRun Connect TV tuner into the Wi-Fi router, and enjoy over-the-air channels from an antenna. This enables the users to watch full broadcast quality channels on their home TVs.

The Fire TV Stick 4K has got the support for both Dolby Vision and HDR10+, that its predecessors, Fire TV pendant and Fire TV Cube, lacked and supported the basic HDR10 format. The device also converts the standard dynamic videos to HDR. The device is connected to the TV with a USB port, streaming excellent picture and sound. The Fire TV Stick has got various inbuilt apps, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and also streams the live TV services such as PlayStation Vue and Hulu. Still, the device does not have an app for Walmart’s Vudu service.

The device is the cheapest to stream the Dolby Vision, and it has provided a lot of content to the users to scroll over, keeping the business strategy clear in mind. The faster software handling and more sensitive voice command functionality of the device, at such a price, is making a huge difference with the performance as compared to the Roku and even the Apple TV. The Fire TV Stick, currently, is only available for the Amazon Prime members.

Apple Gadgets Receives the Much-Awaited Updates in Apple’s Hardware Event 2018

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First time ever, Apple’s hardware event held at the Brooklyn city, in New York. The event has just taken place after about a month of its previous hardware event held in this year. Apple during the event unveiled the refreshed version of its iPad Pro, MacBook Air and Mac Mini. For the past few years, the gadgets were getting only a few changes in their features. But this time the products have been redesigned, loading them with new air.

Apple
Image Source: theblogroom.com

The MacBook Air is now having a 13.3 inches screen and a narrow black glass bezel. After spending six years with the same high-resolution feature, the MacBook Air is now has got the Retina display with 4 million pixel resolution. The device is also equipped with the touch ID sensor, on the third-gen Butterfly Keyboard, with a larger trackpad. The device has been upgraded to the 8th Gen 1.6-GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor. The storage variant for different versions of the MacBook Air ranges from 128GB to 1.5TB, and the RAM size is between 8GB to 16GB. The MacBook Air also consists of two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports and 3.5 mm headphone jack. The device has got updates on its looks, too, and is available in Gold, Silver, and Space Gray colours.

Apple has also announced the redesigned iPad Pro, having two different screen sizes 11-inch and 12.9-inches, having a retina display. The new iPad Pro is solely inspired by the new iPhones. The home button is all gone and is replaced by the swipe up gesture. The iPad has got the face ID feature and black slimmer bezels. The iPad can be paired with the smart keyboard Folio and other Bluetooth keyboards, making it work as a laptop. The iPad also has got the stylus support with a second generation Apple Pencil that is enabled with the gesture control. Sadly, the new stylus is only compatible with the new devices and does not support the older ones. The storage available with the iPad ranges between 64 GB to 1 TB. The device comes with a USB-C port and no headphone jack.

The Mac Mini also gets its share of updates, after its launch with the iPhone 6, back in 2014. The Mac Mini is a small but stylish grey desktop PC, powered by the Intel Core i3 processor. The basic model of Mac Mini consists of 8GB of RAM and a 128 GB hard disk. The new Mac Mini is sleeker and has accomplished with more hardware facilities. The Mac Mini now does have the 4 USB-C Thunderbolt ports and two USB-A ports as well as the HDMI for displays.

Apple claims that the MacBook Air as well as the Mac Mini, both have been built with 100 per cent recycled Aluminium, costing $1,200 for the basic model of MacBook Air and $799 for the basic model of Mac Mini. The iPad Pro is at the higher end of the price, costing $799 for the 11 inches iPad Pro and $999 for the 12.9 inches iPad Pro. As the launch of the Apple gadgets has taken place before the starting of the holiday season, the availability of the same can be expected during the holiday season.

AT&T Planning the Trials of New Android-based Streaming Device in 2019

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AT&T, after facing a decline in its traditional pay-TV business, has decided and buckled up for launching its new streaming device, that, AT&T is, currently, beta testing. The streaming device, named as Osprey, is a set-top box, that targets to run on the Android TV and allows the access to other streaming apps. The news was officially announced by John Donovan, the CEO of AT&T Communications, on the third earnings call of AT&T.

Android TV
Image Source: 9to5google.com

AT&T went through a net loss of 346,000 traditional TV customers. Still, it has gained 49,000 for its DirecTV Now, streaming service and with the increasing popularity of Android TV, AT&T has figured out the way to recover its losses and lost customers. Developing a device basically to run with an Android TV can be considered a remarkable move for the business of AT&T.

Donovan said, “we expect this service to be EBITDA positive, and over time, it should lower the acquisition cost of our premium video service.” Last year, Variety reported the development of such device that was later, confirmed by AT&T.

The set-top box will support the voice remote, 4K playback, and also, will run the third-party Android apps. The company is more focused on improving profitability and will adopt more deliberate strategies, to break the deals. Donovan added, “Evaluating our channel lineups and taking a fresh look at how we can align content cost with the price.”

The device will be running on the DirecTV Now and the new DirecTV streaming version. AT&T will provide the same contracts and number of channels, in the new set-top-box, but mainly it is focused on eliminating the traditional satellite dish. The trial for the device is expected to start in early 2019, and there has been no statement about the final launch of the device in the market.

The Chinese Amphibious AG600 Completes its First Waterborne Take-off

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AG600
Image Source: chinaplus.cri.cn

China, on Saturday, successfully, completed the first takeoff and landing of its amphibious aeroplane, on water, at a reservoir in China’s central Hubei province. The plane is called the Kunlong AG600. Kunlong is a Chinese word, that means Water Dragon. The AG600 is the world’s biggest amphibious plane and has been built by China independently. The aircraft is one of the three largest aircraft of China, including the Y-20 military transport aircraft and the C-919 commercial passenger airliner. During the Saturday’s trial, the AG600 completed a 14-minute ride, successfully.

The Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) began the production of the prototype of the seaplane, in 2014, after China announced the AG600 program, in 2011. The aircraft was first unveiled in July 2016, in Zhuhai city of southern China. The Aircraft carried out its first trial flight, in August 2018, from the Zhuhai airport in the Guangdong province of China, to the Jingmen airport in Hubei province of China.

The aircraft possesses four WJ-6 turboprop engines, the Chinese-made versions of a Russian engine. It is 37 meters long, and the wings are 38.8 meters widespread. The plane can carry 50 people and can hold a maximum take-off weight of 59 tons on land, and 54 tons on the water. AVIC has claimed that the AG600 can stay airborne for up to 12 hours, and its cruising speed can reach up to 500 kilometres per hour. Without the refuelling, the operational range for the aircraft can be about 4,500 kilometres at max.

The production of the AG600 targets at bringing out the maritime search-and-rescue operations and the aerial fire-fighting operations. The aircraft requires a water depth of 2.5 meters for landing and take-off. And, is capable of taking off and land in waves up to 6.5 feet high. The AG600 can resist two-meter-high waves. The aircraft is useful for carrying supplies and military personnel, during any of the Chinese maritime military operations. However, China claims that the AG600 will only be a part of the marine monitoring and safety patrol, the development of the world’s largest amphibious aircraft has raised many eyebrows as well.

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 675 Processor Supporting Tripple Camera & Advanced AI

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Qualcomm, best known for its next-generation mobile technologies and powerful Snapdragon processors, has just launched the new Snapdragon 675, the latest high to the mid-range mobile computing platform. The production of the Snapdragon 625 is basically focussed on the better gaming experience, photography, and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Snapdragon 625 is being considered as an upgrade over the Snapdragon 670 SoC that was launched in August this year. The Snapdragon 625 chipset has the Kryo 460 architecture that is built on the ARM’s Cortex-A76 cores. The architecture is specially designed for high-end smartphones. It is the first time that the processor has been manufactured using the 11nm process. The processor has got two 2.0GHz performance cores, four 2.8GHz performance cores that are based on the Cortex-A75, and six 1.78GHz efficiency-based cores, making the processor faster.

SND
Image Source: droidsans.com

With Snapdragon 625, Qualcomm has brought the features, that were only available for high-end smartphones, to the mid-range smartphones. Snapdragon 625 has got a new Qualcomm Spectra 250L ISP for 14-bit image signal processing supporting a triple-camera setup, with 5x optical zoom, 48 megapixels, portrait mode, etc.

The processor is also focussed on improving the gaming experience and the AI features. According to the company, the AI features have been improved by 50% than the previous processors, with the help of third-generation Qualcomm AI Engine. The processor supports the Qualcomm Neural Processing Engine SDK, resulting in the addition of features like the adaption of user’s voice, working with multiple voice assistants, etc.

Also, the processor has faster performance, supporting high-end games like PUBG, Best NBA, Honor of Kings, Knives Out, etc. The processor uses the Adreno 612 GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan, and DirectX 12. Snapdragon X12 LTE modem supports up to 600Mbps LTE connectivity that provides a support for playing the online games without any interruption.

The Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset is used in every other smartphone. The Snapdragon 625 can be considered Qualcomm’s attempt to provide the users of mid-range smartphones a better experience with its high-end features. By the first quarter of next year, you can find the Snapdragon 625 processors out in new Smartphones.

Paytm Partners with Soft Bank to Enter Japan with the QR-based Payment App PayPay

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It has been almost eight years since Paytm has been around helping people with their digital payments. It became the most used digital payment app in India, way before the PM Modi’s Digital India campaign even started. After gaining huge success in India, Paytm is all set to approach other countries with its amazing digital payment technology. Last year, during the launch of Paytm in Canada, the founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, had indicated that the company is also planning to expand in Japan and Europe.

paytm
Image Source: paytm.com

Collaborating with the SoftBank and Yahoo Japan Corporation, Paytm has developed a similar app named as PayPay, that, it has launched for the people of Japan. The PayPay app is based on the QR technology, that users can use on their smartphones for their payment settlements. The users can easily transfer their money from the bank accounts to the PayPay app wallet and use the wallet for the payments.

“Paytm is the leader in smart electronic payment services in India, and has achieved great success. It is a great strength to introduce Paytm’s high technology and solution, to PayPay, and I am confident that it will greatly contribute to the expansion of users in Japan,” said Ichiro Nakayama, the President & Representative Director CEO of PayPay Corporation.

Paytm has used the same strategy for its new client base in Japan as it has used in India at its initial stage. Paytm, through the PayPay app, will provide its users with various offers, including the ones with cash back. The user will also receive 500 yen, after the successful completion of their registration with the app, through a valid Japanese mobile number. Also, PayPay is providing the users with free of cost transactions till September 2021.

Paytm already have 300 million customers and over 9.5 million offline merchants registered with the app, in India. After the launch of PayPay, the Soft Bank and the Yahoo Japan are intended to draw their client base to register with PayPay, and Yahoo Japan will also shut down its Yahoo Wallet, to integrate PayPay on Yahoo! Japan.