LG Gear Watch And Samsung Gear Live Available On Google Play Store In India

It was expected that we will get to see the Android Wear at the Google I/O 2014. And the company did not disappoint us even the tinniest bit as it showcased the LG Android Wear, the Samsung Gear Live, and also shared its plans for the Moto 360. Sundar Pichai in its Keynote address had mentioned that the Samsung and the LG Android Wear will go live on the Play Store later in the day.

Little did we know at that time that they will go live even on the India Play Store. So yes, these watches are now available. The LG G Watch costs $229 in the US and in India, the LG G Watch is priced at Rs 14,999. Both the black and white color options are available for the LG G Watch. While the Samsung Gear Live will be available for Rs 15,990. The device will start shipping from July 8, 2014.



We must say that this was a welcome surprise for all of us here in India.

The G Watch's rectangular display feels like a slab compared to the newly announced Samsung Gear Live. It sits relatively flat on the wrist. Don't forget to read our hands on for Samsung Galaxy Live and LG G Watch and stay tuned for the review, which too will be coming out soon.

So are you also excited about the news of LG G Wear and Samsung Galaxy Live launch in India? Also, are you planning to order the LG G Watch or Samsung Galaxy Live? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Would You Use Facebook For Your Work Chats?

TechCrunch is reporting that Facebook could be building an at-work version of the social network. But would you like it if your company insisted that work communications all took place in Zuck's little blue boxes?

The site's source claims that FB@Work, as it's referred to, could be used in place of email or IM. "Everyone at Facebook uses Facebook for work," one ex-Facebook employee told TechCrunch. "Most of their communication and planning is done through Messages and Groups. It's a really fast and efficient way to get things done."

But would you want to chat that way? Or do you prefer good ol' fashioned email? On the one hand, it's nice to have a separation of church and state. On the other, it's not like you're not on Facebook all day at work anyway. 

Micromax Unite A092 Available Online For Rs 6490

After launching the affordable Windows smartphone and a new flagship, there is a new Micromax smartphone that has gone on sale. It is dubbed Micromax Unite A092.

The Micromax Unite A092 comes with a 4-inch WVGA IPS display. Under the hood, the smartphone is powered by 1.2 GHz quad-core processor along with 1GB of RAM. There is 8GB of internal storage available on the smartphone, which can be further expanded via microSD card.

The connectivity options available on Micromax Unite A092 are Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Much like the other affordable smartphone, this one too supports dual SIM connectivity.

For camera, there is a 5MP rear camera and a VGA one on the front. The smartphone runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) and not Android 4.4 (KitKat), which is available for Micromax Canvas Unite 2.

There is no word on whether the company will be rolling out an OTA update to Android 4.4 (KitKat) for Micromax Unite A092. It comes with 1,500mAh battery. Micromax Unite A092 will be available in five color options - Classy Black, Pristine White, Mystic Grey, Vibrant Yellow, and Fiery Red. However, as of now, the online retailer Flipkart has listed only two color variants - Classy Black and Pristine White.

The price of Micromax Unite A092 is Rs 6,490.

Micromax Unite A092 Specifications

4-inch WVGA IPS
Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean)
1.2GHz quad core processor
1GB RAM, 8GB storage
Dual SIM, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
5MP rear, 0.3MP front
1500mAh

Micromax Canvas Beat Available Online In India At Rs 9,499

If you were waiting to buy a new smartphone from popular domestic handset maker Micromax, here's the good news for you. Micromax Canvas Beat A114R is now available at Rs 9,499 via e-commerce website Homeshop 18. The phone is likely to hit offline stores very soon.

For those unaware, the Canvas Beat (A114R) can be considered to be a variant of an already launched Indian smartphone, the Canvas 2.2 (A114). The R prefix probably signifies that it is for the Russian market. Notably, the two phones don't share the same processor and battery specifications.

Micromax Canvas Beat (A114R) run on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean operating system and is a dual-SIM phablet (GSM+GSM). The device features a 5 inch qHD (540x960 pixels) IPS (In-plane switching) display. The smartphone is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core Broadcom BCM23550 processor along with 1GB of RAM. The Canvas 2.2 (A114), on the other hand, is equipped with a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582M processor along with 1GB of RAM.

Looking at the camera specifications, the Canvas Beat sports an 8 megapixel autofocus rear camera accompanied by LED flash and also includes a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Observing the storage capacity, we notice that the smartphone comes with 4GB inbuilt storage and expandable storage up to 32GB supported via microSD card. The Micromax Canvas Beat also packs a 1900mAh battery, as compared to the Canvas 2.2's 2000mAh one.

Since Homeshop 18 is a third-party online store, one cannot be certain if this will be the official launch price when the Canvas Beat is unveiled in India.

The Micromax Canvas Beat was first spotted by a website named Gadgets To Use.

Swatch's Sistem51 Will Finally Be Available On July 1

There's some great news for watch aficionados who haven't already found a friend in Europe to buy and ship them Swatch's new Sistem51 timepiece. The watch features a genuine Swiss mechanical movement that's assembled through an automated process that means it can be mass produced on the cheap, but not cheaply made.

The case is hermetically sealed and through the use of some clever engineering it will never need maintenance. It even boasts a 90-hour power reserve, but surprisingly, a price tag that doesn't soar into the thousands of dollars. In the states you'll be able to pick one up for just $150.

New Yorkers will be the first to be able to get their hands on the Sistem51 starting at 9:51am on July 1 at Swatch's flagship store in Times Square. And a week later on July 8, watch fans in San Francisco will be able to get one from the Swatch store at the corner of Grant and Greary. For anyone not interested in strapping a hefty smartwatch to their wrist, this is a stylish alternative that still boasts some innovative technologies. [Swatch]

Things You Must Know If The Police Try To Search Your Phone

In a rare unanimous Supreme Court decision yesterday, all seven Justices agreed that, yep, searching your phone without a warrant is indeed illegal. So if a police officer ever does try to dig through your digital dirt unlawfully, this is what you need to do.

The often controversial Chief Justice John Roberts summed the whole thing up with a few delightfully biting lines in the court's decision:

The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what the police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple - get a warrant.

In other words, the law is on your side, and The Daily Dot put together a nice little primer on how to handle any unlawfully snooping cops. It all boils down to the following.

1. Keep your smartphone locked.

If they ask you to unlock it, you have every right to refuse. And this way, should you be stuck in handcuffs, they won't be able to pore through your phone even if they wanted to.

2. Calmly repeat the following: "I do not consent to this search."

Repeating the phrase means there's no room for any ambiguity. And staying calm means (hopefully) no angry officers.

3. If you're not under arrest, really don't consent.

While a warrantless search of your phone when you're under arrest is illegal, doing so when you're not under arrest is extraillegal.

4. If the officer still ignores you, whatever you do, don't get physical in any way.

If you're at the point where a cop has snatched your phone from you, you're probably in the middle of being arrested. And in those situations, physically intervening is just about the worst thing you can do. Remember the cop's name for later, because even if they find anything questionable, the cop can't use it if it was obtained illegally.

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Of course, there are still some situations where a cop can lawfully search your phone without obtaining a warrant first. AsThe Daily Dot notes:

This includes, for example, the abduction of a child, when police suspect a person is in imminent harm, or "some imminent threat of evidence destruction."

For the most part, though, this should have you covered. You can head over to The Daily Dot to see the full breakdown of your rights here. [The Daily Dot]

Project Tango Hands-On by google

Google's Project Tango tablet can see in 3D, but I didn't really understand why I, human person, would actually care about the technology beyond an abstract appreciation of the ideas behind it. Until I strapped one to my face, with an Oculus Rift-like head mask.

Until I strapped the mask on, I never really believed that Project Tango could be more than just a concept. At best, I thought, it would end up being a gimmick, sold to sucker consumers who didn't know how to shop. I was so wrong.

Announced earlier this year, Project Tango wants "to give mobile devices a human scale understanding of space and motion." It uses a motion-sensing camera, a 3D depth camera (basically a really sophisticated Kinect), as well as a regular visual camera. All of the data is pulled in and processed in real-time by two computer vision processors.

The tablet version of the hardware uses Nvidia's Tegra K. In the words of one Google employee, "it's basically the most powerful tablet in the world right now." And the tech works very well! During Lee's presentation today, he says that the team has achieved just 1 percent drift when using the tablets to map complicated spaces by walking around in them.

But it goes beyond just developer edition dreams. Project Tango's technical lead Johnny Lee announced that in addition to the dev-focused tablets, LG will make a consumer version. For normals. Seriously.

The one that made me giggle (joyful, not mocking) the most was an augmented reality headset built by Durious. The company already makes a Dive headset that lets you insert a phone so you can use it for VR experiences like an Oculus Rift. At Google I/O, though, Durious showed off a prototype developed especially for Project Tango, as well as a little demonstration app, that overlays an aquarium in front of your face. Fishes flying around right in front of Google's booth personnel. You can even move in and out of the water by kneeling and standing up. It takes all of the 3D gaming and immersive experience potential of the Oculus Rift but steps it up because it can see the world in front of you as well. Sure, the application is a little silly, but it shows you the potential of what's possible with Google Tango used as a head mounted display.

It's also an interesting expansion on the other VR concept Google is showing off at I/O. The simple concept uses a very basic cardboard design to turn your smartphone into a VR headset-so it's basically like a Dive made out of cardboard instead of Dive.

Gaming is one of the main development focuses for Project Tango team, and they've gone to lengths to build out a few different gaming experiences as well as partnering with studios like Epic Games. At I/O, Google showed off a few sample games, including a zombie killer in which you aim by moving the tablet around. Killing zombies is fun! But the most compelling experiences were some relatively empty maps you might find in a 3D shooter, which use Project Tango's 3D sensing capabilities. When you take a step forward in real life, the tablet notices you've moved and moves you inside the map you're looking at. As with the augmented reality experience above, it adds a new dimension to the the 360 VR you get from Oculus or Cardboard.

Then there are more utilitarian applications that let you map the real world in front of you. In one very simple app, you walk to the four corners of a room, and Google Tango rends a very precise SketchUp outline of the space.

In another, designed by AutoCad, you can precisely measure and model a room and its contents so that it's easier to do a little interior designing. No more going back and forth from the furniture store to measure something over and over. No more guess how much carpeting you need to buy.

More than anything else, I was impressed at just how well the technology works. Some of the real-time rendering in front of you can be a little a choppy and buggy, but when it comes to the actual measurements that the technology is making, they're ultra-precise. Project Tango works, and it's got real-world potential. It just needs some regular people polish now.

Over the last month or so I've spoken with several of the partner companies that actually built the technology that underlies Project Tango about what exactly Google hoped to do-and what it should do with Project Tango going forward. According to Farshid Sabet, SVP of Movidius, a company that makes one of the computer vision processors in the Tango hardware, Google really wants to illustrate that the technology is more than just a professional tool or a wonky concept. And to make it more than tool for professionals, the software has to work in a dead simple way, because we're not going to put up with the hiccups the way a developer or a member of ATAP might.

Today, I got my first taste of what Google's been cooking up, and I can't wait to try to whole thing. And what might be most amazing is that it won't be long before we all get to

DARPA's Robotics Challenge Finals

DARPA's Robotics Challenge Finals Just Got A Whole Lot Harder

DARPA just announced the details of the final round of its years-long Robotics Challenge, and boy, do they sound difficult. Not only will all the robots have to work wirelessly and without human intervention, the course must be completed all at once. If a robot falls and can't get it up, it's done.

If you paid attention to the Robotics Challenge Trials a little over six months ago, you'll realize how difficult these new guidelines are. Not only were the robots allowed to be tethered to communication lines and power with wires, they also had to do just one challenge at a time. The tasks involved simple things like climbing a ladder and cutting a hole in the wall, and they varied in difficulty. But the teams always had a chance to regroup in between.

For the finals, things aren't going to be so easy, and that's the whole point. The challenge aspect of the DARPA Robotics Challenge involves building robotic technology that could be deployed in manmade and natural disaster. (We can only assume the Pentagon counts war as a manmade disaster.) DARPA said in a conference call with journalists on Thursday that the trials went better than expected so they're upping the difficultly in order to make the finals better resemble a disaster.

And now, the wires are coming off. The competing robots will not only need to handle communications with their human operators wirelessly, they'll also need to carry enough batteries to stay powered up during the course. Imagine the moment in Pinocchio when the strings are cut,and the doll becomes more like a real boy. This is happening with robots, and that's awesome.

DARPA is pushing the date for the finals back six months to give the 11 competing teams a little bit of extra time to prepare. The event will now take place June 5 and 6 at the Fairplex in Pomona, California. Each robot will be required to complete eight prepared tasks as well as one surprise task-again, they must finish all the tasks without human intervention-and each task will be more difficult than the last.

One other piece of news from the competition: Team SCHAFT, the winner of the trials last December that's pictured at the top of this post, will not be in attendance. The team's owner, Google, decided to pull it from the competition and commercialize the technology instead. Because why work with the government when you can sell robots straight to the people?