Tech Roundup: Oculus VR, Android Wear & More
[A recurring feature on the latest in Science & Technology.]
Effects of climate change irreversible, says UN's IPCC:
A new report released by United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today, the draft version of which was leaked last November, warns that effects of climate change are being already felt across the globe, adding they will be "severe, pervasive and irreversible" in the forthcoming years. The comprehensive report, prepared in collaboration with more than 300 authors in over 70 countries, concludes that rising global temperatures are having visible impacts on agriculture, human health and water ecosystems, putting food supplies, infrastructure and economies at severe risk.
Coincidentally, UN's World Health Organization (WHO) also published a report according to which there have been about 7 million deaths in 2012 - one in eight of total global deaths - due to air pollution exposure. "This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world's largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives," the report goes on to add.
Yet another deal shocker from Facebook; acquires virtual reality firm Oculus VR for US$2 bn:
If you thought Facebook was going to lie low after its US$19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, you are badly mistaken. The ever ambitious social network, now keen to diversify into other realms much like Google back in the good old days, announced it's acquiring virtual reality technology firm Oculus VR for US$2 billion, giving it a much-needed hardware boost. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is indeed betting big on virtual reality as the future communication platform and it looks like he already has grand plans for it.
"We're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home," wrote Zuckerberg in a Facebook post announcing the acquisition. While all this might be good, early Kickstarter investors of Oculus are visibly displeased and have been voicing their concerns against the move. The company has so far released a prototype head-mounted display Oculus Rift, which is still in development and is expected to hit the consumer market later this year or early 2015.
Meanwhile, the Facebook-WhatsApp merger has also come under criticism from privacy groups who have asked US's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to halt the acquisition until there's a clear understanding of what Facebook intends to do with the instant messaging service's humongous user data. It may be noted that Facebook will end up paying US$2 billion to WhatsApp if the deal fails to materialize.
Google unveils its next step towards human dominance - Android Wear:
It's clearly a battle between Google and Facebook as to who will own the future, and by extension us. If Facebook has Oculus, WhatsApp and solar powered drones by its side, Google's biggest trump card has been ANDROID (robotics, Project Loon and Google Glass aside). With tech companies emphasizing on hardware like never before to push their software platforms, Google's Android Wear - the search giant's Android based operating system for smartwatches - is a very logical step forward.
From the looks of it, the watches themselves look very attractive with Google Now doubtless taking centre-stage to monitor all your activities. The watches will also connect with your Android smartphones (ahem!) for receiving all your notifications from your installed apps. Motorola, HTC, LG and Samsung are said to be making their first Android Wear smartwatches, though Sony seems to be contended with its own version of SmartWatch for the moment. Now that the floodgates are finally open, it will be interesting to see what Apple does with its rumoured iWatch.
Sony Xperia Z2, Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8:
Every year we see many flagship Android smartphones. 2013 was dominated by HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z/Z1 (excluding Nexus devices for the sake of comparison). This year too we have the HTC One (again), Galaxy S5, and Xperia Z2. While none of these phones are truly revolutionary, they are an evolution of their predecessors, offering beefier specs and fixing the obvious hardware and software issues observed in them.
There's no doubt that all the three are excellent devices, and hence choosing one would be a matter of personal preference. But I were in the market for a new smartphone, I would definitely like to lay my hands on the new HTC One (Xperia Z2, though equally well-designed, is too big a slab for my taste). Beautifully designed (except for the placement of second camera lens on the top that's used as a depth sensor) and crafted to perfection, the One, inarguably the worst leaked device in recent history, is definitely the iPhone of Android. And if you don't like HTC's Sixth Sense, the sixth version of Sense UI, a Google Play Edition is up for sale as well. The biggest question however is whether such an iterative update like this is enough to pull the Taiwanese handset maker from its teething financial troubles.
Flipboard does a Facebook; acquires Zite from CNN in return for publishing its content:
Zite has been my go-to news reading app ever since I tried it on my Nokia Lumia 800 two years back. And this journey will soon unfortunately come to an end, thanks to its acquisition by Flipboard, a fellow news aggregator app. In a way it makes perfect sense. There's one less news app (read: competitor) to deal with and Flipboard gets to use Zite's impressive recommendation engine to its benefit. Writing in a blog post, CTO Mike Klaus says, "our goal is to get the things that are great about Zite into Flipboard before shutting it down. We will also build a way for you to transition your data from Zite into Flipboard. Until then (for six months at a minimum), we will continue supporting Zite."
Apple announces iPhone 5c 8GB version:
I thought Apple relaunching the iPhone 4 in India Rs. 23,000 was the worst strategy ever, but it seems like the company had more such things in the pipeline. For a start, it has announced an 8GB variant of iPhone 5c in the UK. And here I was, thinking Apple should phase out the 16GB variant altogether in its upcoming devices! But as a consolation, the tech giant has finally phased out the second generation iPad in favour of iPad 4.
In other news:
Effects of climate change irreversible, says UN's IPCC:
A new report released by United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) today, the draft version of which was leaked last November, warns that effects of climate change are being already felt across the globe, adding they will be "severe, pervasive and irreversible" in the forthcoming years. The comprehensive report, prepared in collaboration with more than 300 authors in over 70 countries, concludes that rising global temperatures are having visible impacts on agriculture, human health and water ecosystems, putting food supplies, infrastructure and economies at severe risk.
Coincidentally, UN's World Health Organization (WHO) also published a report according to which there have been about 7 million deaths in 2012 - one in eight of total global deaths - due to air pollution exposure. "This finding more than doubles previous estimates and confirms that air pollution is now the world's largest single environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives," the report goes on to add.
Yet another deal shocker from Facebook; acquires virtual reality firm Oculus VR for US$2 bn:
If you thought Facebook was going to lie low after its US$19 billion purchase of WhatsApp, you are badly mistaken. The ever ambitious social network, now keen to diversify into other realms much like Google back in the good old days, announced it's acquiring virtual reality technology firm Oculus VR for US$2 billion, giving it a much-needed hardware boost. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is indeed betting big on virtual reality as the future communication platform and it looks like he already has grand plans for it.
"We're going to make Oculus a platform for many other experiences. Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or consulting with a doctor face-to-face — just by putting on goggles in your home," wrote Zuckerberg in a Facebook post announcing the acquisition. While all this might be good, early Kickstarter investors of Oculus are visibly displeased and have been voicing their concerns against the move. The company has so far released a prototype head-mounted display Oculus Rift, which is still in development and is expected to hit the consumer market later this year or early 2015.
Meanwhile, the Facebook-WhatsApp merger has also come under criticism from privacy groups who have asked US's Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to halt the acquisition until there's a clear understanding of what Facebook intends to do with the instant messaging service's humongous user data. It may be noted that Facebook will end up paying US$2 billion to WhatsApp if the deal fails to materialize.
Google unveils its next step towards human dominance - Android Wear:
It's clearly a battle between Google and Facebook as to who will own the future, and by extension us. If Facebook has Oculus, WhatsApp and solar powered drones by its side, Google's biggest trump card has been ANDROID (robotics, Project Loon and Google Glass aside). With tech companies emphasizing on hardware like never before to push their software platforms, Google's Android Wear - the search giant's Android based operating system for smartwatches - is a very logical step forward.
From the looks of it, the watches themselves look very attractive with Google Now doubtless taking centre-stage to monitor all your activities. The watches will also connect with your Android smartphones (ahem!) for receiving all your notifications from your installed apps. Motorola, HTC, LG and Samsung are said to be making their first Android Wear smartwatches, though Sony seems to be contended with its own version of SmartWatch for the moment. Now that the floodgates are finally open, it will be interesting to see what Apple does with its rumoured iWatch.
Sony Xperia Z2, Samsung Galaxy S5 and HTC One M8:
Every year we see many flagship Android smartphones. 2013 was dominated by HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z/Z1 (excluding Nexus devices for the sake of comparison). This year too we have the HTC One (again), Galaxy S5, and Xperia Z2. While none of these phones are truly revolutionary, they are an evolution of their predecessors, offering beefier specs and fixing the obvious hardware and software issues observed in them.
There's no doubt that all the three are excellent devices, and hence choosing one would be a matter of personal preference. But I were in the market for a new smartphone, I would definitely like to lay my hands on the new HTC One (Xperia Z2, though equally well-designed, is too big a slab for my taste). Beautifully designed (except for the placement of second camera lens on the top that's used as a depth sensor) and crafted to perfection, the One, inarguably the worst leaked device in recent history, is definitely the iPhone of Android. And if you don't like HTC's Sixth Sense, the sixth version of Sense UI, a Google Play Edition is up for sale as well. The biggest question however is whether such an iterative update like this is enough to pull the Taiwanese handset maker from its teething financial troubles.
Flipboard does a Facebook; acquires Zite from CNN in return for publishing its content:
Zite has been my go-to news reading app ever since I tried it on my Nokia Lumia 800 two years back. And this journey will soon unfortunately come to an end, thanks to its acquisition by Flipboard, a fellow news aggregator app. In a way it makes perfect sense. There's one less news app (read: competitor) to deal with and Flipboard gets to use Zite's impressive recommendation engine to its benefit. Writing in a blog post, CTO Mike Klaus says, "our goal is to get the things that are great about Zite into Flipboard before shutting it down. We will also build a way for you to transition your data from Zite into Flipboard. Until then (for six months at a minimum), we will continue supporting Zite."
Apple announces iPhone 5c 8GB version:
I thought Apple relaunching the iPhone 4 in India Rs. 23,000 was the worst strategy ever, but it seems like the company had more such things in the pipeline. For a start, it has announced an 8GB variant of iPhone 5c in the UK. And here I was, thinking Apple should phase out the 16GB variant altogether in its upcoming devices! But as a consolation, the tech giant has finally phased out the second generation iPad in favour of iPad 4.
In other news:
- Brazil facing worst drought in decades; global coffee prices set to soar.
- Ebola virus outbreak in Guinea kills 78; spreads to Liberia and Sierra Leone as neighbour Senegal closes its land border with Guinea.
- New research finds that ancient retrovirus HERV-H copied into human DNA millions of years ago thus giving rise to pluripotency in human stem cells
- Astronomers discover a new dwarf planet 2012 VP113 beyond Sedna; makes it the farthest known object in our Solar System.
- Scientists unearth the oldest piece of rock on Earth; the zircon crystals found in Australia said to be 4.4 billion years old.
- Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich under fire over his support for California anti-gay marriage; three board members resign.
- Facebook's latest facial recognition software DeepFace is 97.2% accurate in distinguishing human faces.
- Google lets users upload music to Play Music via Chrome browser.
- Minimalist ebook reader Readmill acquired by cloud storage service Dropbox; to shut down service on July 1, 2014.
- Facebook to battle Google's balloons with solar powered drones to provide Internet for all.
- Google's predictive search assistant Google Now lands on stable channel of Chrome.
- Microsoft releases Office productivity suite for iPad; makes iPhone and Android versions free.
- Social network Tumblr adds 2-factor authentication.
- Russia ditches Apple iPad for Samsung tablets over US spying fears.
- Twitter shuts down #music app; partners with Billboard to offer real-time charts tracking music conversations.
- LG and Samsung announce Bluetooth-controlled smart bulbs that can last for 10 years.
- Google fined US$165,810 by India's Competition Commission of India for non-cooperation in its probe into search giant's anti-competitive practices.
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