Lenovo Announces The Vibe Shot And A7000 at MWC 2015

Lenovo has lately been in news for a mixed bag of reasons. That includes a much reprimanded Superfish debacle and a shock coming as reverberations to it with Lenovo website getting hacked. But ahead of all the turbulence, Lenovo has launched Lenovo A7000 and Lenovo Vibe Shot smartphones at the ongoing Mobile World Congress. With beautiful design and impressive features, these devices are set to grab attention in worldwide market.

Lenovo Vibe Shot is priced at $349 (about INR 21,500) and will be available by June. Lenovo A7000 variant would start at $169 (about INR 10,500) and will hit the markets by March. Lenovo Vibe Shot beats camera at heart. And the design too looks like one from the rear end. The buttons for camera control are placed at the right side of the device, giving a feel of point-and-click conventional camera. Rear camera is of 16MP type which is equipped with six piece modular lens. Rear camera is also coupled with a tri-colour LED flash. For getting a faster focus, the camera boasts a infrared focus feature. Camera unit has sensors to provide low-backlight illumination image rendering and optical image stabilization. There are options provided for pro and preset settings for the camera. The front camera unit is of 8MP. The secondary camera unit is of fixed focus type.

On the smartphone front, Vibe Shot holds a 5-inch full-HD (1080*1920 pixels) display. It holds a octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SoC which is coupled with 3GB of RAM space. Adreno 405 GPU will handle all the graphics related processes. Four of these cores run at 1.7GHz and the rest four at 1.0GHz. Inbuilt memory capacity is of 32GB and storage capacity can be expanded up to 128GB with the conventional microSD cards. Vibe Shot runs on Android Lollipop 5.0. Connectivity features comprise of the latest standards of WiFi and Bluetooth, LTE support will other basic necessities. This device is a dual-SIM type. It boasts battery unit of 2900mAh. With all these features, Vibe Shot is designed to target the high-end market and specially for the shutterbugs.

On the other hand, Lenovo A7000 is designed to impress the mid-range customers. It comes as a successor of A6000 and like the same this too is a dual-SIM device. This device holds a 5.5-inch 720p HD display unit. Under the hood, it holds a 64-bit MediaTek MT6752M processor which clocks as 1.5GHz. The SoC is coupled with 2GB RAM. Internal storage unit is of 8GB and the memory can be further extended to 32GB.

Primary camera unit for Lenovo A7000 is of 8MP and the secondary snapper is of 5MP. This would certainly cheer up the selfie lovers. Lenovo claims it to be the first smartphone having a Dolby Atmos surround sound feature, although it is said to have only one speaker outlet. Like Vibe Shot, A7000 too supports LTE and other connectivity features are listed as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS and micro-USB slot. Also A7000 is powered by a 2900mAh battery unit. It runs on Android Lollipop 5.0 with Vibe UI over the top.

Overall with A7000, Lenovo has made its move to increase its presence in the mid-range devices. And weighing all the features with the price tag, it can be predicted to be a hit. Along with all these Lenovo smartphones, they also launched another gadget at its MWC presentation. It is the Lenovo Pocket Projector. For this device, Lenovo claims it to be the first standalone projector which is compatible with and Miracast or DLNA-enabled smartphone be it Android, Windows or iOS operating system based. It can project up to 110-inches of screen and has dual speakers inbuilt. It claims to have 2.5 hours of battery life and supports 32GB of memory unit via microSD card.

Guest Post by Ronak Totla

Ronak is an Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer and has worked on Embedded Systems and Robotics. He likes to keep himself updated with the latest technology loves to travel in his free time.

Five Platforms To Make Yourself Digitally Accessible

Every other day, I see a new ad on TV about a new messaging app. From WeChat to Line to Hike, all these apps have tried different strategies like free recharges to cute stickers in an attempt to entice customers to download their app. Instant Messengers (IM’s) have been in the limelight after FaceBook’s acquisition of WhatsApp for a whopping 19 billion dollars, showing that there is big money out there for these. The same goes for Social Networking Sites (SNS), as many new ones keep coming up, with Ello being the latest. Do you need to be on all of them? No, but there are few that you just cannot afford to not be on, even if you are more of a calling or text person. Read on to know which.

WhatsApp

This one is a no brainer. I know a lot of people who diss WhatsApp because of its groups but still end up using it as the primary mode of communication. Although the groups can get annoying, but come to think of it, that would happen on any other social network which all your friends are on. I remember an old joke where someone wrote that he loves Google Plus because it is so peaceful as no one he knows was active on it.

Jokes aside, WhatsApp is a must-have because it directly syncs with your phonebook rather than asking you to make an account. Because of this ease, everybody you know are on it. Second — it’s reliable. Instead of bombarding the user with too many features, WhatsApp built such a level of dependability, that there are probably as many or even more WhatsApp messages sent in the world than SMSs. It also works on slow 2G networks, which is remarkable considering almost every other app today is almost non-functional with the lack of high-speed internet.

WhatsApp works on most number of mobile platforms, including a lot of feature phones too. It is also a very popular medium to reach out to business contacts and several SMBs use them extensively for business purpose!

Facebook

However annoying those memes and cat pics may get, Facebook remains to be one of the best social networks to stay connected with your family and friends. The best benefit is that almost every person you know will be on it. Friend suggestions helps you meet those whom you may have forgotten to add. Like, my mother has connected with her old neighbours and school friends on Facebook after probably thirty odd years.

What also works for Facebook is that it has so many features. You can update statuses, tell the world of your activities with photos and videos, check in to places, invite people for events and what not. Facebook has separated their chat service on the mobile by making users download the Messenger app. It’s a pretty good app to have — among other things because when you’re replying to messages on the desktop, notifications won't buzz on your phone.

And while that’s not ideal, you do know that a lot of professional contacts would be closer to you on Facebook, rather than LinkedIN. Facebook eventually would try to replace some of the other communication channels and may be they will have better ideas to deal with group chats or try to make inroads into the workplace, you would do better by waiting till they gain traction.

Skype

Even today most people associate video calling with Skype. You generally hear people say “Let’s Skype”, never “Let’s OoVoo” or something like that. The good part is that Skype also has mobile apps which makes it easier to use on the go. Skype also has the facility to have a conference call with many people and even share screens (that can come in handy while providing tech support). This is great when you want to connect with a group of friends over video. Certain companies even conduct meetings/interviews on Skype.

Viber

At my home, Viber is the only app that is used to make calls to people overseas. It has become synonymous with internet calling because it brought the simplicity of WhatsApp in the VOIP space. Like WhatsApp, there is no need to create an account or sign in; just install the app and call other Viber users that are in your phonebook. This is why even though you can make audio-only calls with Skype, people tend to use Viber. Viber is also an Instant Messenger as you can also send text, photos, videos, stickers etc. But with WhatsApp planning to bring voice calling next year, Viber’s trump card feature may be marginalised.

Hangouts

Hangouts used to be known as Google Talk earlier and was extremely popular. People slowly moved from MSN & Yahoo Messenger to Gtalk, as it brought a simple, no-frills app that help people communicate without the use of animated emoticons and avatars etc. As Google integrated Hangouts in Gmail itself, it makes total sense to use it. Nine out of 10 people I know use Gmail as the primary mail, so the moment they log into their Gmail, they’re logged into Hangouts. Hangouts has an app on both Android and iOS. Just like Facebook, conversations get synced and different devices will not send out repetitive notifications (with their alert dings) too.

There are tonnes of communication & messaging  apps out there and most of them can be joined for free. But you can’t possibly be active on *all of them*. A PriceBaba survey suggests that about 70% respondents said that they are accommodating to other peoples’ mode of communication. In my opinion, the above five platforms should keep you connected to almost all the people you know.

Guest Post by Criselle Lobo

Criselle Lobo is a technology enthusiast based out of Mumbai.

Battery Saver Mode on Android Explained

The latest version of Android i.e v5.0 Lollipop is full of new features and bugs. While Google is fixing the buggy part we thought of explaining the features to the masses. Lollipop is full of tiny little updates all over with a few new features that really stand out. After covering the priority notifications feature a few days back we thought of explaining the power saver mode on Android Lollipop.

One of the major issue with Android phones is the mediocre battery life. While a lot of people complain about it, the only fix that really worked was buying a phone with a bigger battery. This solution didn’t work for everyone though, phones with bigger batteries were heavy, bulky and had uninspiring design. Some of them had average specifications, keeping people away from buying such phones. The ones that did really everything well — like the Samsung Note series — had a hefty price tag. One of the methods to save the battery on the Android Phone is to tweak the software on it. On Android Lollipop they have done it with the implementation of Project Volta, which will only show improvement once app developers start implementing it.. But something that works very well even now is the inbuilt Power Saver mode in Lollipop.

The main purpose of the Power Saver mode is to save the battery when it is really required. The mode is automated and can activate from 2 points — When the battery reaches 15% and when it reaches 5%. Users can choose the from these two based on their preference. Along with  the automated setting, the mode can also be activated manually at any given point of time by going to Settings>Battery> Clicking Icon on the Top Right corner and switching it on. This should be done when you are away from a charger for a really long time to save the battery from draining out.

How Does Power Saver Work?

You might be curious as to how a minor software tweak can help the battery last longer. The answer lies in the way the mode works, when it is activated it switches off one or more cores of the processor, switches off animations and reduces background data. While this does affect the overall performance of the device, it manages to save the battery in the process. The data connection is still active for you to use but apps cannot access the internet unless you are using it. This reduces the data transfer between the apps and the internet, reducing the load on the already starving processor.

Does it really work?

My first doubt was if it would work as promised, so I switched it on with around noon with 94% battery still left on my Nexus 5. The system notifies that the power saver mode is on and changes the colour of the Status Bar and the Lower System buttons to Orange. There was a noticeable lag in the performance of the device, it took longer to open apps and games. Networking apps like WhatsApp and Facebook stopped showing notifications; in fact they only refreshed when the app was launched.

The main reason for the power saver mode is to get you through your day when you cannot charge your phone, which it manages to do well. We have seen Sony use something similar to extend the battery life on their smart phones where it completely disconnects the data 15 minutes after the screen switches off. I switched it on my Nexus 5 with the battery at 94% and the phone was at 77% after 7 hours of use. Generally my phone would have dropped down to 30-40% but it seems Power Saver was doing the job rather well. With the mode being a part of Android Lollipop we can expect it on upcoming smartphones soon. But if you ask if it works when its required the most the answer is a big YES!

Flexible Screens in The Future, Thanks to Improvements in Transistors

Organic electronic building blocks are being researched upon extensively as they hold a lot of potential when it comes to building devices as they require less energy and will be cost effective. But the most promising feature concerning developments using the organic FETs(Field Effect Transistor) is the mechanical compatibility, meaning development of devices with flexible nature. Progress in this field has already given out a new paradigm, “Plastic Electronics”, which directly counters the existing “Silicon electronics”. A recent review published in Science and Technology Of Advanced Materials reports optical functionalities being integrated in the conventional transistors. Researchers also claimed that these improvements should soon be expected in manufacturing of transistors which can be used to develop paper-thin and flexible screens.

After its introduction back in 2003, there has been a lot of improvements in developing the organic field effect transistors(OFET). OFETs were first developed to give out low cost large size display screens. But the latest reviews suggest improvements in light emitting organic field effect transistors (LE-OFET). LE-OFET combine functionalities of both, the OLEDs and the OFETs. These photoactive organic field effect transistors are said to possess the properties of amplifying weak signals and of receiving light too. Field effect carrier mobility of LE-OFETs has reached 20 cm^2/Vs which makes them good enough to be used in practical applications.

The review article also suggests that light emission efficiency and brightness of these transistors will soon improve. The next versions of the LE-OFETs are supposed to be compatible with the already existing electronic setups. LE-OFETs are also being used to develop transparent and flexible computer screens. With this said one can also think of their extensive use in smartphones too. These display units are said to offer faster response time and better energy efficiency. Above all these features, such display units inculcating LE-OFETs won’t require any backlight. This being said it is implied that the power consumption is bound to go down. They are also assumed to enable the development of optical communications and optoelectronic systems, since the switching rates of these transistors is quite good.

Japanese researchers also said that there are some issues in these components and a collaborative effort by organic chemists and device physicists is required to resolve these stumbling blocks. These developments would definitely open new frontiers for both electronic and photonic worlds with properties like flexibility, light weight, optical memory storage or high-density data storage. While it is speculated that such devices with all-plastic components and flexible nature will still take a decade to become ready for the users, you can only hope for its speedy development.