Qualcomm Announces World’s First 5G Modem

We have barely even caught up to the rest of the world with 4G and now a company is announcing the first 5G modem already.

Qualcomm one of the most popular smartphone chip makers has revealed the world’s first 5G modem. Known as the Snapdragon X50, it will support speeds of upto 5Gbps. The global average 4G speeds are only 13.5Mbps so you’re not alone in thinking that 5Gbps is unlikely so early in the game. Do keep in mind however, that these are only theoretical speeds and this 5Gbps milestone, can only be achieved under lab conditions,

Heading to South Korea First:

5G is going to launch in South Korea in 2018 and will be slowly rolled out in US and UK by 2020. There is no commercial network currently capable of supporting speeds that high. South Korea is the leader in the internet race with the fastest global average internet speed for 4G. The fixed internet connection speeds in South Korea are also one of the fastest with an average of 98.7Mbps. All things considered it makes sense for South Korea to be the first country to be rolling out 5G.

Lenovo Announces its Latest Generation Gaming PC - All in One

Gaming PCs have been one of the best-looking things you can buy right now and Lenovo has only carried that notion forward. Its newest gaming PCs then, no surprises, look other-worldly and have enough power too.

IdeaCentre Y710 Cube

The IdeaCentre Y710 Cube, following the philosophy of Mac G4 Cube, is a system which is easy-to-carry and has a handle on top. It weighs just 7.4 kilograms and has multiple LEDs on the front.

Under the hood, you get a 6th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080, and up to 32 GB of RAM. You also get a storage of up to a 256 GB SSD, or a 2 TB hard drive. Lenovo says this should be enough for 4K gaming, VR and high-quality streaming.

You also get Dolby Audio, 4 USB ports and Killer DoubleShot Pro Wi-Fi. There is also an option to buy it together with Lenovo’s mechanical keyboard and precision mouse. Pricing starts at $1299 for the version with GTX 1070 though we know where most of the cost in going.

IdeaCentre AIO Y910

The second machine Lenovo announced was the all-in-one IdeaCentre AIO Y910. This one comes with a 27-inch borderless display on the front with QHD (2560 x 1440) resolution.

The hardware is the same at a 6th generation Intel Core i7, up to a GTX 1080 GPU and 32 GB of RAM.

Pricing starts at $1799. Both these systems will be available in October.

MIUI 8 for Xiaomi Devices Announced Globally

Xiaomi announced its latest Android based OS version, MIUI 8, back in May. The UI update was released as a beta version in China back then. Today, the company has announced the global release of its MIUI 8. The global version of the ROM will consist of all the features found in the Chinese MIUI 8, plus some extra ones.

MIUI 8 is bringing a whole lot of visual changes to the interface while maintaining the same fluid animations and lag-free experience. The company claims they are “Using color in unlimited ways”.

Notification Drawer

The biggest change can be seen in the notification drawer which shifts from a two-pane one to single-pane one. The notification drawer now has a weather panel at the top which changes colors and animations according to the weather data.

Previously, the toggles used to be on the right pane. Now they have been moved to a single one and sit below the weather panel. The toggles can be edited and arranged as well.

Other changes include a color changing status bar with new animations across the whole UI, based on the apps in use. Xiaomi has kept an option for users to switch back to the old two-pane notification drawer, if they prefer the older one’s functionality.

Dual Apps

The most unique and the probably the best feature on the MIUI 8 is Dual Apps. Don’t mistake it for split screen multitasking. It is actually a change which allows users to have two instances of the same app installed simultaneously. For example, you can have two WhatsApp accounts for two different SIMs. This is unique and a great feature, something desired by users for quite a while.

Dual Spaces

Spaces are like having two different phones in one pocket. Each space has its own workspace, with its own separate set of apps, settings, customisations, image gallery. It is sort of like having two accounts on a single phone. One can be used for work, the other one for personal use.

While Android supports multiple accounts since Lollipop, Xiaomi has changed the original feature to make it more useful. Users can set different passcodes for each space and enter either one by simply entering the respective code. No need to switch again and again.

Another use-case for this is that people with tablets, or those who share their phones, can separate stuff from each other without much hassle.

Scrolling Screenshots

MIUI 8 brings another cool new feature, scrolling screenshots. Often, screenshots are limited since you can only show so much on such a small screen. This feature lets you take one long screenshot across a page by combining multiple images. The final image can then be cropped as well.

Quick Ball

It’s a small circular ball on the screen. The ball consists of quick shortcuts, basic functions like home, back and task manager plus shortcuts to apps of the user’s choice.

A similar feature has been available on rooted phones for quite some time but this is probably the first time an OEM has incorporated such a feature and improved it for daily use.

Other Features

Xiaomi has added some other nifty utilities into the mix as well:

• Smart Caller ID and Spam Alert
• Improved Mi Cloud Photo Sync (Saves storage automatically)
• Built-in video editing tools
• Revamped Task manager with music controls
• Math Problem Solver
• Multi-Window management
• Power Saving mode
• Wallpaper Carousal
• New Animations for calls

Release Info

The public beta for the MIUI 8 Global ROM will be released as an OTA update on 11 July while the stable release will hit all devices starting August 16.

Devices eligible for the upgrade are Mi 5, Mi Max, Mi Note, Mi 4i, Mi 4, Mi 3, and Mi 2. The Redmi series devices include Redmi Note 3, Redmi Note 2, Redmi Note Prime, Redmi Note, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi 2, Redmi 1s and Redmi 1.

Google Names Android N as Nougat

It isn’t Nutella and certainly not Naan Khatai, but instead Google has named the next version of Android, “Nougat”.

For the very first time, Google had asked Android fan community to suggest names for the upcoming version.

Millions of people, including myself, submitted their favorite “sweet names” and many were confident that it will be called Nutella, considering Google’s partnership with KitKat in the past.

However Google decided to go with the sweet candy.

It is still unclear about the version number that Google will assign to Nougat, it could be 7.0 or just an increment to Android 6.0.

To make it official Google also unveiled the new Android Nougat statue at its headquarters in California.

Android Nougat will bring performance and security updates and is likely to be released in September this year along with a new Nexus device.

Everything announced on Facebook F8 2016 Conference

Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference is one of the biggest events of the year, especially given how social media is changing our lives in significant ways. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, delivered a keynote speech yesterday which showcased Facebook’s vision of the future. He also listed how Facebook is expanding vigorously in other tech fields as well.

Zuckerberg’s F8 2016 keynote was mostly about Facebook’s future and some customer products. Bots took center stage just like at the Microsoft’s developer conference that was held recently. This was followed by improvements in some customer products, new Facebook features and some new tech coming from the world’s biggest social network.

Lets take a look at what Facebook is bringing for its users down the road.

Messenger Gets a Bot Platform

Facebook is going with bots after many of its competitors did so. Telegram, WeChat, Kik offer it already and Skype just got it. Now its Messenger’s turn to incorporate AI-powered bots for its 900 million users. The company took its sweet time before launching the feature. Even now, it’ll be offered with the newly launched Messenger Beta platform.

The developer platform will let businesses, including news companies, create bots which can interact with Messenger users. Bots can send and receive text, images, buttons, bubbles and calls. Facebook showed off a CNN messenger bot which was capable of reading stories, getting summaries and offered an “Ask CNN” command.

Zuckerberg says the app will learn from your actions and personalise its algorithms to evolve with time.

Facebook Bot Engine

The social network announced the beta launch of Bot Engine, a tool which lets developers teach chatbots what to say in specific situations. Developers can use the Bot Engine along with the Send/Receive API to build Messenger bots. The technology comes from the Messenger’s Wit.AI team.

Facebook Live Stream

Facebook Live is the company’s answer to Meerkat and Periscope. It lets users stream live videos to the social network which, the company hopes, will play a big role in its next growth phase. Live API now supports third-party hardware allowing people to use separate cameras to live stream content. The company has partnered with different manufacturers to build on it and release its own products within the next five years.

Internet Beaming Satellite

During F8 2016, Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s Free Basics program will soon launch its first satellite into orbit in the next few months. According to him, the free internet program is helping more than 25 million people around the world.

Facebook has also announced a Free Basics simulator which lets developers test out how their websites would look like when accessed using Free Basics.

360 Degree VR Camera

The social network just released its Oculus Rift VR headset a few weeks ago. However, it’s not stopping there. Facebook just revealed its new open-source 360-degree camera which can capture some great quality VR content. The camera boasts 17 cameras and can record 8K video at 60 frames per second. The built-in software automatically stitches the videos together.

Being open-source, developers can make their own hardware and software based on the available designs and code.

Instant Articles for Everyone

Facebook announced a couple of months ago that it was bringing Instant Articles to everyone. WordPress will be getting a plugin which will let publishers export their content to the social network. Instant Articles will be added to user feeds directly and increase reader interactions as a result.

Account Kit

The social network announced a new software called the Account Kit. Third-party developers can add it to apps, letting their users to sign in to connect with just their phone number or email address – no passwords needed.

Save To Facebook

Save to Facebook will be a new addition to the social network’s portfolio. It will let users add content to a list of things to view later. The button will be visible on websites, and work like Pinterest, Pocket or Digg.

Share Quotes Easily

Sharing quotable quotes have become quite popular on Facebook. That’s why the company is bringing a new method that will let users clip quotes they like on the web (or e-books) and share them on Facebook in a neat and clean way.

Mark’s View on VR and AR

The founder of Facebook says that virtual reality and augmented reality of the future will be accessible using a gadget not so different from a common pair of glasses. The glasses have been announced as a part of Facebook’s 10 year plan for the future. AR and VR are expected to grow to a $120 billion market by 2020.

Vine for Profile Videos

Facebook is making it much easier for people to replace their profile pictures with profile videos. The ability to upload a 7 second video instead of still pictures has been available since last year. However, users will now be able to upload videos using third-party apps.

Vine and Boomerang will be the first two partners with support for the profile video feature on Facebook.

Facebook and WhatsApp Beat Regular SMS

People use Facebook and WhatsApp to send 60 billion messages every single day, three times more than regular SMS. The figure is a clear indication of the world moving towards online methods of communication rather than the offline ones.

So there you have it folks. Which of these announcements are you excited about? Let us know in the comments below.