Month: July 2015

NASA – Chip that reflects Wi-Fi to save smartphone battery. #NASA #WIFI

Anything to save smartphone power is a bonus and of course it is been worked on by all manufacturers worldwide,at that we have power saving options on our devices and settings to adjust but it does not cut it for many power user’s especially ,also on top of this we now see batteries getting bigger but often the case it proves pointless due to the phones internal spec and screen’s which again is getting more powerful year by year,after this we have the option of portable chargers and so on…

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Popular Science reports  –  A researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, Adrian Tang, working with UCLA professor M.C. Frank Chang, has developed a Wi-Fi chip for use in mobile electronics that uses 100 times less power than traditional receivers. This could extend battery life in nearly every device that uses Wi-Fi, and Tang is trying to focus on the expanding market for wearables.

To do something on the internet (like view this website), your smartphone generates and sends a signal out to your router, and your router generates and sends a new signal back to it. Tang’s Wi-Fi chip reflects a constant signal sent by a specialized router, instead of generating its own original signal. Data is imprinted on the signal when it’s reflected, so all the heavy lifting is essentially done on the router’s side.

“Because you’re only imprinting on a Wi-Fi signal, you’re not generating it, you don’t need power,” Tang said.

The researchers claim to have reached speeds of 330 megabits per second when transferring files with this technique, which outpaces a majority of consumer Wi-Fi routers. (In more real-world terms, 330 megabits per second is just over 40 MB/s.) They did this test with a mock wearable, built in their lab

“When you send a signal to the room, the whole room reflects back to you,” Tang said. “So you need to figure out what’s coming from the wearable and what’s coming from the background and get rid of the background.”

NASA and UCLA have joint ownership of the idea and are in talks with a commercial partner to bring the technology to market, but they also see this technology being used to conserve energy in space.

This all sounds pretty cool and if NASA is involved it surely will be….

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Retrace all your steps with Google’s new #YourTimeline feature #Google #Maps

Google want to know everything and probably know more than we think but now they have announced a new feature which retraces your steps,this is gradually being rolled out and is based from location services on your mobile device..Something i turn off also something which is set to default on first set up on a new Android device as a rule I always untick this….for some they might find this useful and perhaps not for others..the good news is that it is private and only you can see it.

“We hope you find Your Timeline a valuable and helpful tool as you explore the world around you.” says production manager ,hmmm….

Your Timeline allows you to visualize your real-world routines, easily see the trips you’ve taken and get a glimpse of the places where you spend your time. And if you use Google Photos, they will show the photos you took when viewing a specific day, to help resurface your memories.

 

Your Timeline is private and visible only to you; and you control the locations you choose to keep. This means you can easily delete a day or your full history at any time. You can edit any place that appears in Your Timeline, including removing a specific location or giving a frequented spot a private name like — Mom’s House or My Favorite Running Spot. This spot will then appear right in Google Maps when you’re logged in.

Available on desktop and Android, you can access Your Timeline if you’ve opted-in to store your Location History with Google. If you have this setting enabled, you may already be familiar with the useful experiences it can offer across our products, such as providing Now notifications when there are traffic incidents along your commute or reminding you where you parked your car.  With Your Timeline, you have even more ways to view and control your location data. And with last month’s launch of My Account, you can easily access and manage your Location History setting and all your Google settings in one place.

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First Aid App by Irish Red Cross,everyone should have it. #FirstAid #Android #iOS

Ever came across an accident or seen somebody suddenly get unwell and not knowing what to do ?  It happens to us all and if not yet it will do at some stage in your life,for some it has happened more than once and not knowing what to do could be the difference between life and death in some cases…

With technology getting better and people having access to smartphones of all ages now, there is ways that we can help out easily and there is no excuse not to have such information at hand at all times.First Aid app from the Irish Red Cross is one example here who have apps on Android and iOS so you should download them right away…

FEATURES

 

Simple step-by-step instructions guide you through everyday first aid scenarios.
• Fully integrated with 112 (the EU emergency phone number), so you can contact an Ambulance, the Fire Brigade, the Gardai, or the Coast Guard directly from the app.
• Videos and animations make learning first aid fun and easy.
• Safety tips for everything, from severe winter weather to flooding or fire, help you prepare for emergencies.
• Preloaded content means you have instant access to all safety information at anytime, even without reception or an Internet connection.
• Interactive quizzes allow you to earn badges that you can share with your friends and show off your lifesaving knowledge.

 

UBIK UNO the No-bezel Smartphone with High-end specs hits #Kickstarter by @Tiwaash #Startup #Android

We are in the age where there are new smartphones being launched quite often and not only that but there are innovative companies which come up with great design and attractive package leaving us consumers confused on which one to go for, well I’m not complaining about it.

Today we bring to you UBIK MOBILE a start up based on a unique marketing mantra with a goal to provide us with power packed devices at an affordable price. UBIK MOBILE is ready with their first device and are currently on Kickstarter for fund raising, which if successful will start delivering the devices Mid September onwards.

Welcome UBIK UNO, a bzel free one piece aluminum frame smartphone with top notch specs. UNO comes with a 5.5″ Full HD Display and protected with the Corning Gorilla Glass3 to give some resistance against scratch. Under the hood the UNO packs an impressive True Octacore 64 bit 2.2 GHz processor with 3 GB RAM and 16 GB ROM which can be expanded up to 64GB with the external card slot.

UNO has the goodies packed in for photography lovers too with a 20 MP Sony Exmor primary camera and a 5 MP fixed focus selfie camera. UNO derives its power from a 3100 mAh battery. It also ticks all the right columns as far as connectivity is concerned with NFC & LTE on board and runs stock Android Lollipop 5.1.

I’m very impressed with the way the phone looks and the specs are right on top competing with current flagships from Samsung, LG and likes with the price tag of $280 to $320 is a great deal. If you want to get your hands on this head over to their Kickstarter campaign.

About UBIK MOBILE

UBIK MOBILE is a product of an international team of engineers with 15 years of experience creating cell phones all around the world with passion and talent to give you the highest technology, made according to your needs. UBIK’s team idea is to build on your experience and suggestions to make the necessary changes that let us remain the best product in the market. That means “UBIK WILL WORK VERY CLOSE TO YOU” UBIK is a community tailored cell phone brand and our users are going to be involved in the development design and pricing of our next product.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or tweet us using #techbuzzireland

Stay tuned for more tech buzz.

Trring – A nostalgic lockscreen for Android #Apps #Android #Trring #Rotary

We can pretty much put what we like on our lock-screens today and there is plenty of things to pick from but here is something different yet it brings back the old fashioned dialler look to our lock-screen and its also customisable which gives it a useful purpose…Trring comes in two versions,A free version which does a plenty in its state and a paid version which gives you more options to customise the app,I have to say its a neat idea and I like it..

Features of the app..

1. Customization : Different dialer styles, Fingerstop styles, different colors for Clock
2. Toggle settings like Wifi, Bluetooth, Mobile Data, Sound Profiles, etc.
3. Pocket Detector : Turn off lockscreen while in pocket.
4. Easy to add/remove/swap position of apps in dialer
5. Lock/Unlock sound

Features in Pro Version :
1. Speed Dial : Call your friends/relatvies straight from lockscreen
2. Notification Bubbles on app icon (like iPhone notification )
3. All of the toggle settings available, free version only includes 4
4. Music controls on lockscreen like Play, Pause, Next, Previous, etc.
5. More designs available for dialer

Download Trring Free

Cool Tech – Star Wars Themed R2-D2 PS4 Laptop #StarWars #PS4 #Gaming

We can customise just about anything these days but how about this,A Star Wars Themed R2-D2 PS4 Laptop.

Once a massive console fan myself with no time to play them I do have them all and this caught my eye and it looks fantastic and its the creation of Engineer Edward Zarick, builder of totally epic console mods Zarick builds custom consoles for order, but said he made this one just for a “fun challenge.” Visit Zarick’s website to see more of his creations and to place an order.

This is pretty cool and if you have a few quid to spare check out the links and take a look.

 

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Do you like the new look Twitter ? Take our poll #BlindingWhite #Poll #Twitter

Last night Twitter had an update with no warning and suddenly I found myself being blinded by a White background and then noticed the custom background was also removed,this quickly spread around and it seems many feel the same way as to how bright the background is..

 

This is a little odd as you can change the colour again in the background via the settings tab and it will appear . But after some time the background or colour will disappear again same applies if you log-out, So what gives……….

“We’re removing background images from the home and notifications timelines on web for all users,” a Twitter spokesperson told Techcrunch. “Now, background images are only available where logged-in users will see them publicly (Tweet pages, list pages and collections pages).”

The likely reason is perhaps advertising some think,what do you think of the change,Take our poll below …

Take Our Poll

KillBiller launches Pre-pay Plan Support ,download the app now. #KillBiller #PrePay #IrishBiz

KillBiller has been featured here many times now since its launch and today there is good news for those who are on pre-pay,currently KillBiller was only available to those on Bill-Pay plans and many people shouted for the App to arrive for Pre-Pay users,today is the day folks.

What is KillBiller ? Its a smart, simple to use, iPhone and Android app that analyses users’ actual phone usage against all of the available plans on the market. We figure out what kind of phone user you are, and crunch numbers to accurately calculate how much you would spend on each plan. No guesswork required! • KillBiller also offers users the convenience of switching networks via the app.

KillBiller,says  “The Irish app that been used 30,000 times by Irish people to compare bill-pay mobile plans, now includes information Prepay plans from every network. Each year, Irish people waste millions of euro overspending on mobile phone bills. People save on average €292 per year when they change mobile phone plans, yet only 9% of Irish people switch provider each year1. KillBiller is a mobile app that eliminates the confusion of switching and has helped thousands of Irish consumers save money. KillBiller is now launching support for pre-pay plans, meaning that many of Ireland’s most price-sensitive phone users can easily find the best possible mobile phone package available to them.”

Prepay Plans –  New to KillBiller, “Prepay support was our most requested feature says Shane Lynn PhD. and will help price-sensitive consumers save even more money on their phone bill. With the Irish telecoms market opening up, and over 200 prepay price plans available, we aim to make it simple for the Irish consumer to switch to the best plan suited exactly to their needs, and save money in the process.”

 

In Ireland, 52% of mobile users have pre-pay plans and here are some reasons why. • Cheaper: According to statistics from Comreg pre-pay user pay on average €15.07 monthly, compared to bill-pay users who pay on average €34.69. • Flexibility: Vary from using your phone lots to a little and only paying for what your use. • Freedom: Users have the freedom to begin or end their plan whenever needed.

• Use your own phone: Choose whatever phone you like, or keep your existing. • Less surprises: Keep control of your costs, and never experience bill shock when you blow through your limits on that last youtube clip.

• The application has been used almost 30,000 times by Irish mobile phone users. • The average savings reported are over €20 per month, or between €200 and €400 per year.Everything is automatic – People don’t need to know how many minutes, texts, or megabytes they’ve use.

Celebration Competition you say? 

KillBiller has a competition to celebrate its launch for pre-pay users,details below…….

To celebrate the launch of pre-pay support, KillBiller is hosting a competition to win the average annual saving of someone who switches networks. What would you do with €292? Fly to Barcelona and back 3 times? … Go to the cinema 40 times? … Drink 64 pints of beer? … Tell us and you could win that prize!! See HERE

 

 

Team KillBiller • The KillBiller team are passionate about consumer transparency and are experts in the mobile industry and technology in general. We are happy to be interviewed around any of these topics and can present an informed, consumer driven, viewpoint. • KillBiller is an Irish start-up and our mobile phone plan comparison app is our first. http://www.killbiller.com/the-killbiller-team/

{ Download KillBiller on Android }  { Download KillBiller on iOS }

 

 

LG annouces Bello II with 5MP Selfie Camera by @Tiwaash #LG #Bello2 #Android

LG has announced Bello II, the successor of last year’s LG Bello. It comes equipped with the 5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) FWVGA screen, is powered by a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor and comes with a 8-megapixel rear camera with LED flash same as its successor. The Bello runs on Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop) and packs a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes in single and dual SIM variants depending on the market.

It has Gesture Shot that lets users to take selfies without pressing any buttons by simply opening and closing a hand in front of the camera and has Selfie Flash that turns the phone’s display into a soft flash. The back cover has grooved circular pattern that also offers better grip and texture. The LG Bello II will be available in White, Titan and Gold colors and will roll out in select markets in Latin America and India this month. It will roll out in Europe and CIS in Q3 2015.

Pricing and availability will be announced locally at the time of launch, said the company.

LG Bello II specifications

  • 5-inch (854 x 480 pixels) FWVGA display
  • 1.3 GHz quad-core processor
  • 1GB RAM, 8GB Internal memory, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
  • Android 5.1.1 (Lollipop)
  • 8MP rear camera with LED flash
  • 5MP front-facing camera
  • Dual SIM (optional)
  • Dimensions: 140.8 x 71.6 x 9.6mm; Weight: 155g
  • 3G (HSPA+ 21Mbps), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
  • 2,540 mAh battery

Stay tuned for more tech buzz.