T3 India

CES

LG announces portable ProBeam projector

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LG will be showcasing their new laser projector, the LG ProBeam, at CES 2017 early next year. It is aimed at consumers who seek a high performance and versatile device.

The LG ProBeam HF80J is equipped with an advanced laser engine that produces upto 2,000 lumens of brightness letting users watch videos even in rooms with bright lighting. It has a slim design and a weight of 2.1kg thanks to its I-shaped laser engine. With the use of Sound Sync Adjustment, the LG ProBeam can be paired with any Bluetooth audio product like headphones or external speakers.

Its Wireless Mirroring feature takes advantage of Miracast to project content from smart devices onto a projection screen. The four corner keystone and vertical auto keystone allows users to find the best image setting and balance images easily. Users will also have access to streaming services and relevant programs according to their preferences via LG’s WebOS platform. Additionally, LG’s MagiC Remote Control allows for easy navigation of the WebOS Smart TV interface. The content will vary from region to region.

Pricing and availability will be revealed at CES 2017.

LG unveils 5 smartphones ahead of CES 2017

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LG has revealed the existence of 4 K Series smartphones and a new Stylus 3 which will be showcased at the upcoming CES 2017. The new mid-range devices are designed to bring popular features from the higher end flagship smartphones such as 120 degree wide angle front camera lens and rear fingerprint sensor. According to LG, the genesis behind the varied series was “that all customers do not want the same things in a smartphone”.

The K10 has a 5.3″ HD In-cell touch display, 5MP front camera with 120 degree wide angle selfie (front camera) lens and a 13 MP rear camera found on LG flagship G series. In addition it has been built using a metallic U-frame with a 7.9mm thickness while a 2.5D Arc Glass adorns the screen.

The K8 uses a 5″ HD In-cell touch display, 5MP front camera, 13MP rear camera with LG UX features like Auto Shot and Gesture Shot for selfies. When a face is detected then Auto Shot automatically triggers the front camera’s shutter while Gesture Shot takes a selfie in response to a hand signal.

The K4 features a 5″ In-cell touch display along with 5MP front and rear cameras with Auto Shot, Gesture Shot found in K8. It also has a 7.9mm thickness just like the K10 with a removable 2,500mAh battery and microSD slot.

The K3 comes with a 4.5″ In-Cell touch display, 5MP rear and 2MP front camera with Gesture Shot. It is powered by a 2,100mAh removable battery and microSD slot.

The mid-range Stylus 3 is bundled with a 1.8mm diameter fiber-tip stylus to emulate a real pen when writing on the screen. It has an enhanced UX with Pen Pop 2.0, Pen Keeper and Screen-off Memo.

Pricing is expected to be announced at CES 2017.

K10 Key Specifications:
Chipset: MediaTek 6750
Display: 5.3-inch HD In-cell Touch (1280 x 720 / 277ppi)
Memory: 2GB LPDDR3 RAM / 32GB eMMC ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)
Camera: Front 5MP (Wide) / Rear 13MP (Standard)
Battery: 2,800mAh (removable)
Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat
Size: 148.7 x 75.3 x 7.9mm
Weight: 142g
Color: Black / Titan / Gold

K8 Key Specifications:
Chipset: Snapdragon 425
Display: 5.0-inch HD In-cell Touch (1280 x 720 / 294ppi)
Memory: 1.5GB LPDDR3 RAM / 16GB eMMC ROM / microSD (up to 32GB)
Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat
Size: 144.8 x 72.1 x 8.09mm
Weight: 142g
Color: Silver / Titan / Gold / Dark Blue

K4 Key Specifications:
Chipset: Snapdragon 425
Display: 5.0-inch FWVGA In-cell Touch (854 x 480 / 196ppi)
Memory: 1GB LPDDR3 RAM / 8GB eMMC ROM / microSD (up to 32GB)
Operating System: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
Size: 144.76 x 72.6 x 7.94mm
Weight: 135g
Color: Black / Titan

K3 Key Specifications:
Chipset: Snapdragon 210
Display: 4.5-inch FWVGA On-cell Touch (854 x 480 / 218ppi)
Memory: 1GB LPDDR3 RAM / 8GB eMMC ROM / microSD (up to 32GB)
Operating System: Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow
Size: 133.9 x 69.75 x 9.44mm
Weight: 132g
Color: Black

Stylus 3 Key Specifications:
Chipset: MediaTek 6750
Display: 5.7-inch HD In-cell Touch (1280 x 720 / 258ppi)
Memory: 3GB LPDDR3 RAM / 16GB eMMC ROM / microSD (up to 2TB)
Camera: Front 8MP / Rear 13MP
Battery: 3,200mAh (removable)
Operating System: Android 7.0 Nougat
Size: 155.6 x 79.8 x 7.4mm
Weight: 149g
Color: Metallic Titan / Pink Gold

Netflix launches its service in India, starts from Rs. 500

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Netflix’s streaming service was limited to a handful of countries. However, things are looking up if Reed Hastings’ opening keynote at the CES 2016 is anything to go by. The company flipped the switch to enable it for 130 countries at the same time. The service is now live in over 190 countries, with the exception being Syria and China.

As far as India is concerned, Netflix is offering three plans that starts from Rs 500. The basic plan will allow SD videos and one screen whereas the Standard (Rs 650) option adds HD and 2 screens. The Premium (Rs 800) one can stream content in 4K resolution and allows four different screens to be streamed simultaneously.

The content currently includes a mix of English and Hindi content. What a way to start the new year!

Nvidia teams up with Volvo to test its new self-drive ‘supercomputer’

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At its CES 2016 press conference, Nvidia talked up the potential of its new AI ‘supercomputer’ for self-driving cars – the Nvidia Drive PX 2.

Volvo will launch a public test next year with 100 autonomous cars that will hit the road at Volvo’s homeground, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Nvidia chief Jen-Hsun Huang believes that self-driving vehicles will make a big contribution to society, simply because humans are the most unreliable element in driving today. But the problem, it turns out, is that driving is rather difficult. That’s the key issue for machine learning to solve.

The main thing is that a series of events on any street is not easily predictable. Hazards such as pedestrians and bad driving from other drivers just can’t be legislated for. And there are huge numbers of different objects to be learnt; not every bus will look the same, for example.

That’s where Deep Learning comes in – training on neural networks. This does take time, but GPU acceleration is helping to speed this up.

Over the course of just a few hours, Audi trained a network that can recognise German road signs at a level that beats every hand-coded computer-vision approach. It achieves better perception of road signs than a human could.

Daimler has achieved perfect pixel recognition. Also using the technology is ZMP, a Japanese company creating a self-driving taxi; and BMW, Toyota partner Preferred Networks and Ford.

Nvidia also demonstrated that the technology can now identify different classes of item on the road, such as pedestrians or motorcyclists as well as what the in-car display could look like.

As you’d expect, the Drive PX 2 itself is no slouch, with 8 teraflops of compute power, which Nvidia says is equivalent to 150 MacBook Pros (spec unspecified, of course). There are 12 CPU cores and a Pascal graphics processor – it’s all water-cooled for maximum efficiency (and you can plumb it into existing water-cooled self-drive motors for testing).

Withings Thermo is a Wi-Fi connected thermometer

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With most devices getting connected these days, Withings too has got with it. It has come up with a new thermometer that can record readings and transmit them to the app really fast. Behold Withings Thermo, a Wi-Fi-connected thermometer that records the temperature from the temporal artery. Equipped with 16 sensors, Thermo measures the temperature from the side of the head and brings up the reading so fast it can give you whiplash – about 2 seconds.

The free app compatible with both iOS and Android also enables users to transfer the reading quickly onto their smartphones via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and can be shared with a doctor for further analysis. The app also features a log for multiple users to track the older and current temperatures.

Withings is currently showcasing the Thermo at CES 2016 and plans to sell Thermo in the United States from Q1 2016 for $99.95.