TECH POP-UPS

The Note 3 boats a beautiful large screen, cutting edge tech and hardware design that shows Samsung is finally taking looks seriously. The Galaxy Note family is credited with not only starting the phablet craze, but also resurrecting the stylus though - the special screen digitalizer and a button on the S Pen work their magic to speed and options. 

Other than that the Galaxy Note 3 phablet continues the tradition of being the current generation's Galaxy S phone on steroids - a large 5.7' screen (in a body the size of the Note II), choice of Snapdragon 800 or Exynos 5420 chipsets, 2160p (a.k.a. UHD) video recording, USB 3.0 (a first on a pocket able device) and Samsung's ever-growing list of software features available right out-of-the-box.

The display of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is the highlight feature alongside the S Pen support. The diagonal has been bumped by 0.2" (from 5.5' to 5.7), while the resolution has more than doubled (1080 x 1920, up from 720 x 1280) resulting in a pixel density of 386ppi, which effectively (for the first time in Note history) crosses the Retina 300ppi threshold. The display technology is, again , Super AMOLED but Samsung has abandoned the RGB design from the Note II and gone for a diamond-shaped Pen Tile matrix instead, However, at these insane pixel density levels there's no visible pixilation whatsoever, even if you have 20/20 vision. 

The modest increase in battery capacity was a bit of a question mark hanging over the Samsung Galaxy  Note 3, considering the screen resolution has more than doubled. Yet , the 3,200mAh battery powering the whole thing (up from 3, 100 in the Note II) did quiet well. The power-efficient Super AMOLED screen was made to count in  video-playback and helped the Note 3 achieve an excellent score despite the huge estate to light up. Talk time is great too, web browsing the only element where the Note 3 ailed to show a meaningful improvement over its predecessor.

Anyway, with an overall rating of 75 hours, the Note 3 is well ahead of the other phablets we've tested so far. What this number means is that the Note 3 should manage three full days on a single charge if used for one hour each of call, web browsing and video playback daily. 

The Saumsung Galaxy Note 3 comes with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean - the latest release of the Google platform available at the moment - and a laundry list of new TouchWiz features. The Galaxy Note 3 combines the best of both worlds and while it seems familiar, there's plenty new below the surface - so much in fact that you'd and motion gestures in action. 

We start with the locksreen, which features the widgets introduced with Android with Android 4.2.2, that we saw on the Galaxy S4. The default lockscreen shows the time along with a personal message overlaid on beautiful photos pulled from TripAdvisor (with text at the bottom about where the photo was taken).

You can choose what effect to add to the unlocking. The options include Oil paint and watercolor, which blur the color on a shortcut for the camera (as in pure Android). Another nice trick is the Quick glance option we first saw on the Galaxy Note II. It uses the proximity sensor to detect you reaching for the device and it lights up the screen and shows the time, missed call and message counters, battery charge and music track info. The toggles is the display brightness solider compete with an Auto toggle. You can remove this solider to get more room for notifications. The notifications themselves have not changed - they can be expanded to reveal more info and collapsed to save space or helpful  buttons on them like "Call back" and "Send SMS" on a missed call notification.

The home-screen looks mostly the same if you're coming from a Galaxy S4. The app drawer hasn't changed too much since the early days of Nature UX. The app shortcuts are presented as a customization grid, alphabetized grid or list and you can hide shortcuts  (good for bloatware you can't uninstall), view only downloaded apps, uninstall apps and add folders. You can also disable apps straight from the App drawer, which is a good feature because they won't take any RAM or appear unwanted in the Task manager.

The Galaxy Note 3 comes with Multi-window which now allows launching two instances of the same app - i.e. You can have two Chrome widows next to each other. There is also dedicated shortcut that lets you switch the places of the two opened apps. Copying stuff from one of the opened apps to the other is now available and is done is just three tabs. It's a definite improvement and something the multi-window feature needed badly. The settings menu has been redone in the latest. TouchWiz version. Instead of a scrollable grid of icons and sections Samsung has went with a tabbed interface. On top you get four tabs - Connection. My device, Accounts and More and you can find the relative features in their corresponding place - display, for instance, is in the My device tab. It makes navigating the settings menu much faster and more intuitive. 

A particularly cool feature that is exclusive to the Galaxy Note 3 is the one-hand opteration. Unlike previous version of the feature, though, it is not limited to the keypad and the calculator. This time you can minimize the whole interface with a simple double swipe and you are effectively making the Galaxy Note 3 use only a corner of its screen for its UI. The volume buttons are also brought to the tip of your fingers so you can operate the handset as if it was a 4" (or slightly more - custom resizing is available) rather than 5.7" screen. That's a really useful feature and will be appreciated by all those that love the huge screen and its excellent multimedia performance, but need to be able to operate their smartphones with one hand frequently.

We like what Samsung has done with the latest iteration of TouchWiz. Despite pilling feature upon feature, the end result does not feel cluttered and intuitive and well organized. Placing widgets, rearranging menu and homescreen panes, getting to your important settings, etc. is now faster than ever.

S-PEN

Now lets talk about new S-Pen features. You'll find pretty much every S-Pen-enabled app that premiered with the previous Notes pre-installed on the Note 3. But once you pull the S-Pen out, you won't be greeted with the old S-Pen dedicated home pane. Instead, the OS will pop up the new Air Command menu. The new menu is available everywhere throuout the UI too, you just need to press the side button on the S-Pen. The Air Command menu is a virtual ring with five shortcuts Action Memo, Scrap Booker, Screen Write, S Finder and Pen Window. The action Memo lets you write stuff and then use it to initiate an action - i.e. add contact name and number to your phonebook, or check out and address on Google Maps. You just need to mark a part of the text and send it to one of the supporting apps. The handwriting recognition works impressively fast and accurately - it handles just about everything you throw at it. 

S VOICE AND GOOGLE NOW

S Voice is Samsung's answer to Apple's Siri and is present on the Galaxy Note 3. S Voice can be used to initiate a call, dictate text, play music, open an app, change a setting, make a memo (including voice memo). add a reminder, schedule an even, set an alarm or timer, check the weather, do a search on the internet, look for local listings (e.g. nearly restaurants) and even get an answer to a question. S Voice does duplicate parts of Google Now, but being less search focused it tries to do more on the actual phone and it has some added features. Some of these are available outside of S Voice too, so you can set the Galaxy  Note 3 to answer a call, snooze an alarm, take a photo and what not by voice commands even when S Voice isn't running. The only problem with S Voice is not nearly as fast or as accurate at recognizing your speech input as Google Now.

Naturally, being a Jelly Bean smartphone, the Galaxy Note 3 also comes with Google Now. 

The Saumsung Galaxy Note 3 comes with same 13 MP snapper that we found and love on the Galaxy S4 but with some additional perks, like the Photo Sphere-like Surround Shot. The 13 MP camera is good for photos of up to 4128 x 3096 pixels in its native 4:3 aspect. The user interface is based on the Galaxy Camera interface. A single viewfinder handles both still and video capture, so you don't have to switch modes. However, this is certainly not the most convenient solution as, if you're shooting full resolution 13 MP photos, you'll have to frame your videos using a 4:3 viewfinder.

The Saumsung Galaxy Note 3 has an impressively long list of connectivity features. Let's start off with the basics - quad-band GSM/FPRS/EDGE and quad-band 3G (AWs is missing though). The 3G connectivity is backed by HSDPA (42Mbps downlink, 5.76Mbps uplink). The Note 3 has an LTE0A-enabled version too, which uses the Snapdragon 800 chipset (the Exynos 5 Octa 5420 comes without 4G). The LTE0A speeds are 150Mpps down and 50Mbps up. The Wi-Fi support covers a/b/g/n as well as the latest as standard, with both 2.4GHZ and 5GHZ band compatibility. Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA are part of the package, of course. The third-generation phablet also has Bluetooth 4.0 LTE. It incorporates Bluetooth 3.0, but also includes the efficient Low Energy mode. It also supports the high-qualiyy Apt-X audio codec.

While the interface of the Android web browser hardly has changed, the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has the hardware specs to propel it to great heights of user experience. The huge, ultra sharp display with great color makers reading a joy. The browser supports both double tap and pinch zooming along with the two-finder tilt zoom. There are niceties such as multiple tabs, text reflow, find on page and so on. A neat trick is to pinch zoom out beyond the minimum - that opens up the tabs view.

Samsung has done it again - and it made it look so easy. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 can pretend it has no competition, while otherwise remarkable rivals know they'll will have to live with - but not quite live up to - comparisons to the gadget that defines an entire segment. Three generation into it, Samsung is returning to a playground which now has to be shared with others. There are bigger screens out there, waterproof bodies, impressive cameras and immensely powerful chipsets. But the Galaxy Note 3 is in no mood to share the spotlight, and is keen to show everyone that it doesn't break the rules - but makes them. Samsung Galaxy Note 3 didn't need a massive screen to make its point. What Samsung did instead looks like a smart move. The new leather-look finish is great but that's not the only advantage in terms of design. The new Note is the size of the Note II, but thinner, lighter and with a bigger higher-res screen and even ampler battery. It's also powered by two of the best chipsets available and come with the whopping 3GB of RAM.

Samsung it well aware though that specs can be matched and eventually beaten. It's the experience that counts, and the Galaxy Note 3 is bursting at the seams with all the premium features of the Galaxy line of smartphones.

It was a rather productive (and busy) year for Twitter's engineers. With the site now fielding 500 million daily tweets, a number of product updates were introduced throughout the year in order to enhance the experience for everyone involved. The most important Twitter updates of 2013 were:

In January, Twitter introduced the app that's provided the portal for some of 2013's funniest video moments; Vine. Essentially, Vine allowed users to post visual tweets in the form of 6 second looping videos. At the time many people wondered just how much you could really say or do with 6 seconds or less but the true potential of Vine as a medium for entertainment and for business has really been proven in the last 11 months and it's popularity continues to grow. Clever recruiters have used the medium to tweet creative and visually pleasing job offers and employer branding efforts.

In August, Twitter added blue and grey lines to our screens in an attempt to organise conversations between users in chronological order. Now, even if a user responds to a tweet hours after it was posted, both the original and the response are grouped together and linked by a conversation line. The update wasn't popular with everyone but certainly for recruiters, being able to see when and how a candidate responded to Twitter engagement is extremely useful.

One of the most obvious and certainly most lucrative of Twitter's updates was the introduction of preview images for images attached to tweets. For the first time, users didn't have to click into a tweet to view an image, now a mini preview version brightened up our streams and the need to waste time clicking into individual images was done away with. The update not only made or streams a happier, more colorful place to be, but preview images also meant big business for corporate brands desperate to get their images and ads out there in front of users' beady eyes. The same could be said for recruiters wanting to catch the eye of potential candidates with relevant images that would lead them to click and discover the perfect job for them.

In September, Twitter started pushing out recommendation notifications to users, providing them with information regarding the activity of their followers e.g. if numerous followers were retweeting the same tweet. Perfect for recruiters looking to see what members of their hiring industry are talking about and excited about.

In the past, you were only allowed to direct message another Twitter user if they were following you but in November the feature was opened up to everyone on LinkedIn regardless of their follow status. This one teeny update made a huge difference to how recruiters could connect with potential candidates on Twitter. Twitter was now letting recruiters contact potential candidates for free in a casual environment and in one that is actually opened and read by candidates unlike many email efforts.

The ability to  filter search results using a variety of media types including photos, video, news and people was launched in mid-November. Not only were users now able to pinpoint their searches by certain topics, they were also able to elect when their search results should be from. Users began to have a choice between results from a selection of 'top' tweets (which are often older), and ‘all’ tweets (which gives you a much more current set of results). The new update also meant that users' search could be broken down even further to reveal local content, rather than just stuff from ‘everywhere’ as it had been since the function began. For recruiters looking to find and hire people in a particular area, having the ability to search local content, in real time is priceless. By filtering tweets and content by topics related to the skills you seek in a candidate, recruiters are able to see influential tweeters in action and approach them on Twitter by making reference to the candidate's latest tweets.

source: New York Times

Facebook is going to examine the patience of its some users in against of hundreds of million of dollars it could make on video advertisement. Ads will be placed into some news feeds -  Facebook page will display the stream of items. Now starting from this week some of Facebook users will see video ads in their news feeds. In the beginning Facebook will only make visible video ads at a short span of people. 

Video ads will be nestled between photos of giggling babies, some personal items on the site, video will kick off by default in muted mode. Facebook users will have to pocket the new ads, particularly in their mobile Facebook. In the start of year, Facebook was criticized a lot due to its sluggish development in mobile devices. Now, half of the company’s advertising revenue is derived from its mobile audience, which helped push the company’s share price up 100 percent over the last year, to $54 a share.

The video ads, if poorly received, could risk that growth, but they also present a tremendous opportunity. Digital video advertising spending is expected to hit $4.15 billion by the end of this year, a 23 percent increase over last year, according to the market research company eMarketer. YouTube has the biggest slice of that spending, at about 20 percent.

Sterne Agee, a research firm, projects Facebook could command as much as $3 million a day in video ads, which could represent as much as 10 percent of the company’s advertising dollars in 2014. Facebook had $1.8 billion in advertising revenue in its most recent quarter.

Facebook has taken steps to assure people its video ads won’t be too annoying. The videos are silent unless a user taps, clicks on the ad or enlarges it to a full screen.

For data-guzzling mobile devices, the company said that videos would be downloaded in advance when the device was connected to Wi-Fi. So if someone checks Facebook when a device is connected through a cellular network, it will rely on predownloaded versions of the video ads, keeping it from consuming too much data, a concern for people whose phone contracts have a monthly limit on the amount of data they can use.

At the end of each video ad, Facebook will show two other video advertisements that users can click or tap to view, if they choose.

To start, Facebook is working with Summit Entertainment to show video previews promoting a coming movie called “Divergent,” a science-fiction thriller starring Shailene Woodley and Kate Winslet.

Facebook plans to eventually introduce the video ads to a broader audience, though it did not indicate when that would happen. But if early reactions on social media are any indication, Facebook has work ahead convincing users that its ads won’t be a problem.

“Thanks for implementing a feature that will slow my browsing down considerably, and eat into my monthly data allowance,” a user by the name of English Davis wrote on Facebook. “Really appreciate how much you care about your actual users! All this ad revenue won’t mean anything when you’ve driven everyone away.” Another user, named Brigette Meskey, wrote, “If it irritates me as much as I expect it will, I will be using FB a lot less.”

Facebook said that it had been testing video content on its site since September, and that the early response led it to continue with the introduction.

“As a result, we’ve seen views, likes, shares and comments increase more than 10 percent,” the company wrote in a blog post.

Reaction on Wall Street was muted, with Facebook’s share price up 1.95 percent Tuesday.

This is not the first time that Facebook has had to balance its desire to increase ad sales with the demands of customers. The company has long tinkered with its site design and has frequently introduced changes to its privacy settings.

Andrew Frank, an analyst at the research company Gartner, said that Facebook would tread lightly with the mobile ads and would use the limited test as a trial balloon, but he added that he doubted users would mind very much.

“I find it hard to believe it’s going to move the needle very much or have an outcome that will contribute to a mass exodus from Facebook or anything,” Mr. Frank said.

The bigger goal, he said, is probably grabbing even a tiny slice of television advertising, which is worth $66 billion annually, according to eMarketer.

“Clearly, there are a lot of ifs in that question,” Mr. Frank said. “What’s at stake is whether or not Facebook is an attractive vehicle” for the kinds of branding ad campaigns so often seen on television.

There are a whole host of new features introduced in Windows 7 though some are more noticeable than others. You’ll find improved previewing features on the taskbar thumbnails, and a new jump lists feature that offers easy access to key functions and recent documents (right-click on a taskbar entry to try it). Networking functionality has been improved with the introduction of a new HomeGroup tool that can share files and stream media around the home across a LAN. Hardware support has been enhanced too, and you’ll now find a superior interface through which to access connected printers and other devices. You can discover more about Windows 7 at www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7

As technology has advanced, the ability of an average user to perform at par with professionals in any field has increased many folds. Be it computer and web programming, designing, mobile app development, video editing, mobile app development, video editing, photo editing - a lot can be achieved and learned by anyone who has an interest simply by exploring the internet. All these advancements have traditionally been limited to software - but a couple of recent developments, mostly spearheaded by start-up companies, have now brought robot engineering in the realm of everyday use.

 Traditionally, robotics has been a very specialized field and anyone interested in getting stared with robotics would fine is not so easy to learn electronics, mechanics, soldering, and then programming to control simple movements. Only engineering students were supposed to do or know anything about robotics. That has now changed with projects like The Dash.

The Dash is a cockroach inspired robot made up of advanced electronics and all cardboard material. The beauty of this small, lightweight robot is that the entire kit ships in a package that can be assembled in an hour's time. At a price tag of 65$, it is amazingly low cost as well which means it becomes accessible to all those looking to jump start their engineering projects, enthusiastic hobbyists, students or just about anyone who is interested in experimenting with robots. At present, these Dash kit orders are being taken only for US and Canada but the company is planning international shipments as well. Just like OLPC project aimed at getting a low cost laptop in hands of every children particularly where computers are least affordable, the Dash has aimed to bring robotics kits to anyone worldwide.

Unlike other expensive robot kits available in the market, the Dash doesn't require any soldering at all. Since the body is made up of cardboard (cut precisely using laser), the Dash is often called an origami robot. Users have to just follow the video instructions to assemble the 'cockroach' can be controlled simply by using a smartphone or tablet PC using the company's free app which connects with the Dash through Bluetooth. With the on-board USB cable chargeable battery, the range of this 'cockroach' is more than 1.5 miles with a top speed of 1.5 meters per second - thanks to its design inspired by insects which can run very fast using their legs. The Dash can move very quickly and is pretty much all-terrain which includes rocks and other uneven surfaces as well.

From its current version - called Alpha Dash - the project seem a bit basic, but the underlying technology is quite advanced. It had been under development at UC Berkley's biometric lab in 2009, and after 5 teary, the product has matured enough with a future plan convincing enough to get a listing as crowd source funded project where people from all around the world contribute financially for success of an innovative project, instead of a few venture capitalists investing huge sums in a starup. The future plans of Dash team are interesting and will take the Dash to all new level. The on-board processor is being finalized and is expected to bring more customization for users. Addition of LED lights, sensors to make  the Dash identify obstacles and light will make it behave much more like an insect.

 On board extension ports will mean a number of possibilities   limited only by availability of right sized devices which the small lets can easily carry and move around. The gyroscope which is present even in the Alpha model gives Dash the amazing capability to recover from a 90-feet fall and get up and running again. Another limitation of Alpha which Beta will overcome is capability to steer. Right now, the Alpha Dash can move only in a straight line motion, but the Beta will be able to turn according to user commands given through tirelessly connected smartphone or tablet PC app.

The Dash is no doubt an ambitious project. Years of research which included understanding the biology of real insects has paid off in term of a product actively under development. The engineering behind the Dash project are four PhDs in robotic engineering from UC Barkeley, which has given a lot of credibility to the project listed at Dragon innovation for funding. The project has already crossed its &64,000 target funding, and has been able to raise about $10,000 more. Having this generous funding available, the Dash team is expected to initially ship 1,000 Dash kits to their funding donors, followed by Beta Dash delivery by 2014. Applicability of Dash goes beyond hobbyists only.

 It can be an extremely effective educational tool since it is programmable. The low cost means schools worldwide can order large quantitative when available, and use them to let children hone their computer programming, networking , physics and electronic skills. Right now, science projects or contests would mean students have to start form scratch, as there's no such starup kit present which can be utilized or leveraged to create more complex or problem solving machines.

 With a Dash kit, this changes dramatically as a platform with basic movement mechanics, controlling, sensors, and ability to program the 'insect' functions all out of the box. From here on, developers and students can extend the capabilities  and applications of this tiny super-fast robot. One application cited over Internet is the ability to participate in search and rescue operations where identifying people beneath rubbles after after earthquakes or other disasters can make a difference between life and death. Other applications can be mobile smoke detector, traffic conditions monitoring, weather monitoring , remote surveillance or even collaborative geo-mapping by gathering data from a large number of such Dash machines roaming around in a vicinity. All this can be reality as Dash is termed as one of the world's fastest robots, and that too without wheels.

The founders of the Dash operate DashRobotics.com where more information about the project can be obtained. There are a lot of expectations from the Dash and 2014 is the year for which we all can keep our fingers crossed to finally get our hands on of these neat 'cockroaches'!