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Back in October 2017, DeepMind Artificial Intelligence startup became a part of the Alphabet, and its WaveNet technology which is a deep neural network for generating raw audio waveforms is used in producing better and more natural sounding speech for Google Assistant in English and Japanese languages.
Google today announced that it is bringing this technology to Google Cloud Platform with Cloud Text-to-Speech open for developers or business that needs voice synthesis on tap, whether that’s for an app, website, or virtual assistant.
The company says that it can be used in a variety of ways including power voice response systems for call centers (IVRs), enabling real-time natural language conversations, have IoT devices talk back to you, convert text into the spoken format like audiobooks, etc.
There are 32 basic voices to choose from, across 12 languages. Cloud Text-to-Speech correctly pronounces complex text such as names, dates, times and addresses for authentic-sounding and it also allows you to customize pitch, speaking rate, and volume gain and supports a variety of audio formats, including MP3 and WAV.
The improved WaveNet model generates audio 1,000 times faster than the original model, fidelity has also been increased to 24,000 samples per second, and the resolution has been bumped up from 8 to 16 bits all of which producing ...
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Apart from the P20 series, Huawei has also announced the Porsche Design Mate RS. Huawei has a tradition of bringing the Porsche Design variant for every flagship it launched. The Porsche Design Mate RS comes with 6-inches OLED FullView display, is powered by the Kirin 970 with 6GB RAM and up to 512GB storage.
The Huawei Porsche Design Mate RS features triple rear camera powered by Leica; the main 40MP sensor is RGB, that comes with f/1.8 aperture, 20MP Monochrome sensor with f/1.6 aperture, and finally an 8MP Telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture.
The rear camera module comes with PDAF, CAF, Laser + Depth autofocus, 5x Hybrid Zoom, HUAWEI AIS (HUAWEI AI Image Stabilisation), Master AI, 960 fps super slow motion video recording, and ability to record 4K videos. On the front, it has a 24MP selfie shooter. It comes with an under display fingerprint reader, you can hover your finger over it to wake the phone and touch the screen to unlock it. It also has another fingerprint sensor on the back. The device runs on Android 8.1 Oreo with EMUI 8.1 on top.
Huawei Porsche Design Mate RS Specifications:
6.0-inch (2880 x 1440 pixels) Quad HD+ 18:9 OLED display with 538 ppi, 83.93% Screen-to-body ratio, 90000:1 contrast ratio
Octa-Core Huawei Kirin 970 ...
Apple at the Creative Education event in Chicago has introduced a new refreshed 9.7-inches iPad with Apple Pencil support. The new iPad is powered by the A10 Fusion chip which is used on the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. The new Apple iPad features familiar hardware, it sports a 9.7-inch Retina display.
With Apple Pencil support, the documentation app, Pages is now compatible with “Smart Annotation” which essentially lets users scribble over a file. Furthermore, the new iPad features Touch ID, an HD FaceTime camera, 10 hours of battery life, an 8-megapixel rear camera which can record 1080p videos, LTE option. The iBooks author app lets Teachers stitch digital books together. It runs on iOS 11.
Apple iPad 9.7-inch (2018) specifications
9.7 inch (2048×1536 pixels) Fully laminated Retina Display with 264 ppi, Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating, Supports Apple Pencil
A10 Fusion chip with M10 coprocessor motion coprocessor
32/128GB variants
Touch ID fingerprint sensor
iOS 11
8 MP 1080p camera, f/2.4 aperture, Panorama (up to 43MP)
1.2MP HD front-facing FaceTime HD camera, f/2.2 aperture
4G LTE (optional), Wi‑Fi (802.11a/b/g/n/ac); dual channel (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and HT80 with MIMO, Bluetooth 4.2
Dimensions: 240x 169.5x 7.5mm; Weight: 469g (WiFi) / 478g (WiFi + Cellular)
32.4-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery with up to 10 hours ...
Last year OnePlus CEO said that that the OnePlus 6 with Snapdragon 845 will be introduced by the end of Q2 2018. Earlier this week a mysterious phone surfaced in benchmarks, which is rumored to be OnePlus 6. Now the first image of the phone has surfaced, thanks to @evleaks.
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This shows bamboo back for the phone with a metal frame, dual rear cameras arranged vertically and a fingerprint sensor below it, unlike the OPPO R15. It also shows a 3.5mm audio jack, USB Type-C port and loudspeaker grill on the bottom. The phone might come in several versions, including a Ceramic version. It is not clear if there will be different StyleSwap back covers just like the OnePlus One.
This also coincides with the recently video render by someone called Concept Creator who has also promised to put up a full video tomorrow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tChsTPx_ATg
The phone is said to pack Snapdragon 845 SoC, 6GB RAM, 64GB storage, Android 8.1 and a Full HD+ display. We should know more details of the phone soon.
Source
Facebook was expected to introduce the smart Home-Speaker at the F8 event in May but now it looks like the company has delayed its plans amid data-privacy practices and the outrage surrounding it, according to industry sources.
The company's new hardware products, connected speakers with digital-assistant and video-chat capabilities are currently under review to ensure that they make the right trade-offs with the user data. The new hardware products are a part of the Facebook’s plan to become more involved with users’ everyday social lives taking advantage of the artificial intelligence much like how Amazon is doing with its Echo devices.
With user-data privacy violations, FTC investigation and outrage among common users now is the wrong time for Facebook to make an announcement of the same. As expected, Facebook declined to comment on the reports. However, Facebook is still planning to launch the products later this year when the crisis gets over. It is expected that the company would reveal new, more restrictive rules about what kind of information Facebook can collect on their users.
Source
Huawei just unveiled the P20 and P20 Pro flagship smartphone at an event in Paris yesterday. We got to check out the P20 at the event, here is the hands-on and photo gallery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuM_0HaLOK8
The P20 has a 5.8-inch (2240 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ LCD RGBW 2.5D curved glass display with a notch and is powered by Octa-Core Huawei Kirin 970 10nm processor with i7 co-processor,Mali-G72 MP12 GPU and NPU. It runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.1 on top.
Similar to most of the latest Android smartphone, it has a notch, which houses the earpiece, front camera and the sensors. It has a 24-megapixel front-facing camera with AI beautification. 3D portrait lighting and support for face unlock.
You can also hide the notch with an option in the settings that blackens the top area. The fingerprint sensor is present on the bezel, below the display.
[gallery link="file" columns="2" size="medium" ids="247873,247880,247871,247872"]
The volume rockers and the power button are present on the right side and the dual SIM slot is present on the left. There are dual loudspeakers and USB Type-C ports on the bottom and the phone has Hi-Res audio support and Dolby Atmos. The phone doesn't have a 3.5mm audio jack or microSD slot. It measures 149.1 x 70.8 x ...
Huawei yesterday introduced the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS at an event in Paris. It is the company's latest smartphone in the Porsche Design series. It sports a 6-inches OLED FullView 18:9 aspect ratio OLED display. Since it is a Porsche Designed phone, it comes with a premium build and an in-display fingerprint sensor. We have got our hands on the phone so let’s take a detailed look at hardware and specifications of the phone.
The Porsche Design Mate RS comes with 6-inches OLED FullView 18:9 aspect ratio OLED display. The phone is powered by the Huawei Kirin 970 SoC with 6GB RAM and up to 512GB storage.
Unlike the P20-series, there is no top notch at the front for the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS. Up front, there is a 24MP front-camera present right above the display along with earpiece, microphone and the usual set of sensors. The phone comes with 83.93% Screen-to-body ratio and an 18:9 aspect ratio. There are ultra slim bezels on all corners since it packs FullView display.
[gallery link="none" ids="247905,247906,247907"]
The volume rockers and the power button are present on the right side. While the SIM card tray is present on the right side. The main speaker grill, USB Type-C port, primary microphone are present on the bottom are present on the bottom. The ...
HMD Global introduced the Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 8 Sirocco and new Nokia 6 Android One smartphones at the MWC 2018 last month. Earlier this week it launched the Nokia 1 Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphone. Today it has sent out an invite for an event in in India on April 4th where it is expected to introduce the new Android One phones. It is not clear Nokia 8110 feature phone as well. The invite says next milestone of Nokia phones will be unveiled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtrs8ZapOQE
Nokia 7 Plus specifications
6-inch (2160 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection
Octa Core Snapdragon 660 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs) with Adreno 512 GPU
4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB (eMMC 5.1) internal storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Single / Dual SIM
Android 8.0 (Oreo), upgradable to Android 8.1
12MP rear camera with f/1.75 aperture, 1.4µm pixel size with ZEISS optics, 13 MP secondary camera with 1.0µm pixel size, f/2.6 aperture with ZEISS optics, dual-tone LED flash
16MP front-facing camera with ZEISS optics
Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions: 158.38 x 75.64 x 9.55 mm
3.5 mm headphone jack, Three microphones with Nokia OZO Audio
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + ...
Vivo launched the V9 smartphone with a notch, dual rear cameras and a 24-megapixel front camera in India last week. We recently unboxed the smartphone. Check out the unboxing and first impressions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIAsOkNJ9zA
Box Contents
Vivo V9 smartphone in Champagne Gold
2-pin charger (5V-2A)
Micro USB cable
Headset
Clear protective case
SIM Ejector tool
Quick start guide and warranty information
The Vivo V9 has a 6.3-inch (2280 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 IPS display with a notch and a 90% screen-to-body ratio, thanks to 1.75mm slim bezels. It is powered by Snapdragon 626 with 4GB RAM and runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Funtouch OS 4.0 on top.
The notch houses the earpiece, usual set of sensors and a 24-megapixel camera with support for A.I face that promises to capture a perfect image event in low-light or glare. It also has support for face unlock.
Similar to the V7 series, the V9 has a dedicated dual SIM and a microSD slot.
On the back there is a 16-megapixel camera along with a secondary 5-megapixel camera to capture the depth information for portrait shots. There is also a fingerprint sensor.
It has a metal finish on the back, while the top and bottom parts have plastic finish where the antennas are present. The back is prone ...
Amazon released Kindle Lite app for Android in Beta for low-end Android smartphones with limited storage and on 2G/3G networks last year. Now the company has launched the app for all the users in India after the best testing is complete. Kindle Lite lets you read eBooks instantly without having to wait for the entire book to download. The app less than 2MB and provides Kindle features including personalized recommendations, Whispersync (synching your eBooks across devices) as well as free eBook samples and titles across English, Hindi, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati and Malayalam.
It also has existing Kindle features such as easily buying eBooks, ability to zoom into images, night-mode for reading, changing font sizes and simply navigate through the table of contents for a better reading experience.
During the first month of launch, customers will also get 80% cashback on their first eBook purchased on Kindle Lite through Amazon Pay.
Download Amazon Kindle Lite (Free) – Android
Highlights of Kindle Lite
Lightest Reading App – Kindle Lite is less than 2MB and downloads under a minute on your phone. You don’t need to worry about running out of memory for your photos, videos or music anymore.
Read instantly– You don’t need to wait for eBooks to download ...
Garmin today launched the Vivomove HR Analog Digital Smartwatch in India. It features a crystal touchscreen with a discreet display, meaning the precision hands show the time and dynamically move away when you swipe through your messages, heart rate, and other features.
The smartwatch is capable of monitoring heart rate 24X7 continuously and has wellness monitoring tools such as all-day stress tracking and relaxation timer that will help you manage your stress levels and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It also includes other fitness tracking options like steps taken, calories burnt, distance traveled, and heart rate.
The smartwatch can last up to 5 days in smart mode and up to 2 weeks in watch mode. It automatically starts and stops the activity timer each time you begin walking. Other features like smart notifications, weather, find my phone, music control, find my watch are all accounted. It is compatible with iPhone, Android, and Windows.
The Garmin Vivomove HR Analog Digital Smartwatch comes in black color and large size and is priced at Rs. 15,999. It is available at select Helios stores and will soon be available in all the leading e-commerce portals such as Amazon.in.
Commenting on the launch of Vivomove HR, Mr. Ali Rizvi, National Sales Manager Garmin India said:
We are very happy to announce the launch of ...
Motorola has announced a temporary price cut on range of its smartphones on Flipkart, Amazon.in as well as offline stores as a part of Moto Fest sale. This includes its popular Moto E4 Plus, Moto G5S Plus, Moto X4 and Moto Z2 Play.
Offers on Moto smartphones during Moto Fest
Moto Z2 Play – Rs. 21,999 (Rs. 6000 off + up to Rs. 16,000 off on exchange)
Moto X4 3GB + 32GB – Rs. 20,999 (up to Rs. 19,000 off on exchange)
Moto G5s Plus – Rs. 12,999 (Rs. 2000 off ) - Also on Moto Hub
Moto E4 Plus – Rs. 9,499 (Rs. 500 off + up to Rs. 9,000 off on exchange) - Also on Moto Hub
Additionally, customers can avail benefits such as No Cost EMIs Options with Zero Processing Fee options on the range of products through Bajaj Finserv and Home Credit. These offers will be available till 29th March across all retail channels including Amazon, Flipkart, retail stores and Moto Hubs across the country.
2018 has been the year of Android phones with iPhone X-style top-notch and for many obvious reasons, there has been a negative fuss surrounding it claiming to be a blunt rip off of the iPhone X. Truth be spoken, there is no better alternative to bring in more screen real-estate without including a top notch. Yes, Apple has included a bunch of sensors including the Face ID in the top notch, and, Android-powered smartphones just have the regular sensor and front camera, but there is no better way to bring in an impressive screen-to-body ratio without designing it with a notch.
Cut to the chase, the upcoming OnePlus flagship (for now dubbed as the OnePlus 6) is also said to feature the notch. However, the company says that it will be more than just another iPhone copycat. Following the negativity, Android phones with notch-designs have been receiving since the MWC 2018 launches, OnePlus has reached out to The Verge to make its point and why it thinks the change in design is a good thing.
The company is far from backing out with the notch design at this stage and OnePlus like every other phone maker is opting to go this design route and is ...
Xiaomi unveiled the Mi MIX 2S this week, but it did not feature an in-display fingerprint sensor as rumored earlier. Xiaomi smartphone code-named dipper surfaced in benchmarks with Snapdragon 845, 6GB RAM and Android 8.0, which is rumored to be Mi 7. According to the source code, the Mi 7 might not come with a fingerprint sensor, however Xiaomi is testing an in-display fingerprint scanner on dipperold, which could be the Mi 7 Plus.
Dipperold’s firmware reveals two fingerprint sensors are sourced from Synaptics and Goodix. The name goodix_fod could be "fingerprint on display". The source code also classes with the name “Gxzw” with strings referencing both of the fingerprint scanners mentioned in dipperold’s firmware.
The Xiaomi Mi 7 Plus is code-named ursa, which might come with an OLED display with a notch, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC and a 4,000 mAh battery. Even though it is not confirmed that the device will be called the Mi 7 Plus, it is confirmed that Xiaomi is testing an in-display fingerprint sensor for its next flagship.
Source 
Reddit beta for Android is getting a new update with improvements and features like AMOLED night mode toggle in Settings, improved bottom navigation bar, and more.
The AMOLED night mode toggle in Settings switches over from the existing dark grey night mode to a pitch black AMOLED-compliant UI. This feature will definitely save battery, given if your device has an OLED display. It can also automatically switch on and off at certain hours. There are few other themes called Pony and Trees, and these have white as the main backdrop.
Furthermore, the app also packs a redesigned bottom bar as well as major and minor UI changes and improvements, a new account drawer for switching between accounts faster. Like with most app updates, Reddit for beta also brings bug and crash fixes and improvements. With the new features and improvements, Reddit is shaping up to become a perfect client application, if not better than 3rd-party applications.
However, Reddit is currently not accepting new users and applicants for beta testing. So, if you are interested in trying out the app, download the APK from here and side-load it.
Via
Back in October 2017, DeepMind Artificial Intelligence startup became a part of the Alphabet, and its WaveNet technology which is a deep neural network for generating raw audio waveforms is used in producing better and more natural sounding speech for Google Assistant in English and Japanese languages.
Google today announced that it is bringing this technology to Google Cloud Platform with Cloud Text-to-Speech open for developers or business that needs voice synthesis on tap, whether that’s for an app, website, or virtual assistant.
The company says that it can be used in a variety of ways including power voice response systems for call centers (IVRs), enabling real-time natural language conversations, have IoT devices talk back to you, convert text into the spoken format like audiobooks, etc.
There are 32 basic voices to choose from, across 12 languages. Cloud Text-to-Speech correctly pronounces complex text such as names, dates, times and addresses for authentic-sounding and it also allows you to customize pitch, speaking rate, and volume gain and supports a variety of audio formats, including MP3 and WAV.
The improved WaveNet model generates audio 1,000 times faster than the original model, fidelity has also been increased to 24,000 samples per second, and the resolution has been bumped up from 8 to 16 bits all of which producing ...
Airtel today announced a partnership with ALTBalaji, a wholly owned subsidiary of Balaji Telefilms to bring exciting digital content from ALT Balaji’s portfolio to Airtel TV app users.
With this partnership, ALTBalaji’s complete range of original shows and movies are now available on Airtel TV app for free. This will also help ALTBalaji in extending its content distribution to Airtel TV app’s fast-growing user base. Airtel already has content partnerships with Eros Now, Hooq and Sony LIV.
On the other hand, Airtel TV has further strengthened its content catalog, which according to the company is one amongst the largest in India. Currently, Airtel users can choose from over 350 + LIVE TV channels and 10,000 + movies and shows on Airtel TV app. All content on Airtel TV app is completely free for Airtel Postpaid and Prepaid customers until June 2018.
Commenting on the same, Sameer Batra, CEO – Wynk said:
We are thrilled to partner ALTBalaji and bring their rich content on to Airtel TV app. This will add to the wide range of exciting digital content available to our users. As Airtel TV continues to rapidly expand its user base, we remain focused on offering our users easy access to differentiated line up of entertainment content ...
Xiaomi has silently introduced new Mi TV 4S 55-inch 4K HDR Smart TV in China. It has the same PatchWall, a UI layer on top of the Android OS that’s based on deep learning AI technology that can curate content based on recommendations and also has Dolby and DTS Audio.
It has a metal frame and also comes with multi purpose Mi Remote Control, which also has infrared in addition to Bluetooth to work with most appliances such as setup box. It has Mi Touch that replaces traditional navigation buttons so you can use gestures to control your TV. It also has Speech Recognition for voice control.
Xiaomi Mi TV 4S 55-inch specifications
55-inch (3840 x 2160 pixels) 4K display with 178-degree viewing angle, 8ms dynamic response
1.5GHz quad-core Amlogic Cortex-A53 processor with 750MHz Mali-450 MP3 GPU
2GB RAM, 8GB internal memory
MIUI TV based on Android
WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4 / 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2 LE, 3 x HDMI, AV, 2 x USB, 1 x Ethernet
Supports HDR 10 and HLG,H.264, H.265, Real, MPEG1/2/4, WMV3, VC-1
2 x 8W speaker, DOLBY AUDIO / DTS- HD audio dual decoding
The Xiaomi Mi TV 4S 55-inch is priced at 2999 yuan (US$ 476 / Rs. 31,080 approx.) and will be ...
Xiaomi introduced the Mi MIX 2S, its latest flagship smartphone in the MIX series in China earlier this week. We got to check out the smartphone, here is a quick look at the phone in the form of photo gallery.
The Mi MIX 2S has 5.99-inch (2160 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 display with DCI-P3 color gamut, same as the predecessor. There is a small earpiece on the top along with an hidden ultrasonic proximity sensor. It is powered by the latest Snapdragon 845 with 6GB / 8GB RAM and runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with MIUI 9.5.
There is a 5-megapixel camera on the bottom right with support for AI portrait selfies with real-time background blur and face unlock.
[gallery columns="2" link="file" size="medium" ids="248035,248036"]
The power button and the volume rockers are present on the right side and the dual SIM slot is present on the left side. At the event the company said that it will support Dual 4G VoLTE.
The primary microphone, USB Type-C port and loudspeaker grill. You can also see the antenna lines. The secondary microphone is present on the top, but the phone doesn't have an infrared sensor. It measures 150.86×74.9x 8.1 mm and weighs 189 grams.
Even though the front doesn't see ...
Indian mobile internet users is expected to reach 478 million by June 2018, according to a report titled Mobile Internet in India 2017 published jointly by the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] and KANTAR-IMRB.
The reports estimate around 291 million Urban mobile internet users and 187 million Rural mobile internet users as of December 2017. The number of mobile internet users increased by 17.22% from December 2016. As of December 2017, it reached 456 million users. Urban India witnessed an estimated 18.64% YoY rise, while Rural India witnessed an estimated growth of 15.03% during the same period.
However, urban India is expected to show a slowdown with 59 penetration, while Rural India with only 18% mobile internet penetration is clearly the next area of growth. Report further states that youngsters below 25 years top the internet users list in India with 46% of Urban users and 57% of Rural. On the other hand, the age range of 25 to 44 has an almost equal distribution of users in Urban and Rural Areas.
The use cases of youngsters is fairly limited to social networking and browsing; while old men stick to audio/video streaming. While working women also indulge in social networking and browsing, while non-working women ...
Samsung Galaxy Note9 (SM-N960U) running Android 8.0 appeared on HTML5 test browser benchmark last month. Now the smartphone has surfaced on Geekbench listing that reveals that it will be powered by Snapdragon 845 with 6GB RAM and run Android 8.1 (Oreo). It doesn't reveal another specifications.
In Geekbench it has posted 2190 points for single-core and 8806 points for multi-core, on par with other Snapdragon 845-powered smartphones. The SM-N960U should be U.S. version with Snapdragon 845, while other countries will likely get the Exynos 9 Series 9810 SoC, similar to the S9 series.
Recent report said that Samsung will make a final decision on the in-display fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy Note9 soon. It also said that Samsung Display, the division which supplies panels for Samsung devices has said to have prepared three or four solutions to integrate a fingerprint sensor into the display.
We’ll probably hear more about the Galaxy Note9 and its features in the coming months since the phone is expected to be introduced only at the end of Q3 2018.
Source | Via
