Tech News

We are living in a data-centric age. Everyone is on the move to discover data, no matter how small it may be. The good news is there are thousands of data sources on the internet where anyone can go and extract data. These repositories provide free access to data from governments, private and public organizations. However, accessing and even using such data is not always a smooth ride, especially when you are dealing with thousands of data at a time.

Google Dataset Search

To make the task of accessing data repositories easier, Google has launched a new tool known as Dataset Search. This is a tool that scientists, geeks, journalists, and other people can use to find the exact data that they are looking for to back up their work.

The working mechanism of Dataset Search is quite similar to that of Google Scholar. It gives you the power to find datasets from whichever locations they are hosted. This can be from the organization’s website or from the personal website of an individual who published the data.

Also, Read: Google’s “What-if” tool analyzes ML Models without writing code

In order to facilitate a seamless access of dataset, Google has created a set of guidelines which dataset providers can use to make their data accessible to Google search. The search engine should be able to understand the content of their data. Some of this information include:

• A brief information about the data
• The creator of the data
• The person who collected the data
• The methods that were used during data collection
• The date when it was published
• The terms for using the data

Using the above information, Google will analyze the data and collect a set of different versions of the same dataset that may be existing on the internet. It uses the schema.org standard which is an open standard for describing data on the internet. Data providers are encouraged to use the same standard to describe their data.

A variety of references

Dataset Search provides a wide source of references of any given dataset that it has collected. Although environmental and social sciences are some of the main sources of references, governments and news organizations are also the main sources of data. The fact that most of more data repositories are embracing the use of schema.org standard to describe their data means that Dataset Search is able to access lots of data at any given time. This also gives room for the growth of this tool.

Also, Read: 5 Best Websites By Google for Programmers and Developers

Dataset Search is multilingual. There are plans to incorporate more languages into the tool. It also has a user-friendly interface making it easy to use. You simply need to type the information that you are looking for and the rest of the job will be done for you.

The launch of Dataset Search is one of the recent moves that Google has been making to improve the accessibility of data. Unlike other initiatives that focused on particular groups of people, Dataset Search targets a broader audience. It will be of great use to anyone who is looking for critical data from governments and news outlets. However, the availability of data depends on the metadata that the publishers provide.

Apple, the first ever company to touch down $1 trillion mark and one of the tech giants popular for its high quality, expensive and top-notch products, is no doubt have proven their domination over the whole tech world but, is the case same that Apple holds for the Indian market?

A recent research and study depict that Apple has been facing failures in India especially with the sales of expensive ranked iPhones which are way more expensive and you have to sell your organs to own them. In this article, I will try to figure out why iPhones have to face a bit of criticism in India? So, let us get started.

The Stats

Apple iPhones are demanding products around the world. If you give a gauge at the stats shown below that is about the iPhone market share then, the numbers show that after the Android eco-system, iOS is the most popular and trusted OS among the users.

Source: Statcounter

And takes about 18.91% market share. If I talk about the iOS users in market share by reason then we have the following data.

• North America about 48% of the total users
• Oceania in Australia about 48.34% of the total users
• Europe about 24.06% of the total users
• In Asia and South America, it has about 10% of  total users
• Lastly, in Africa, the market share is about 7% of the total users.

Pointing out the Asia Pacific reason, its just 10% don’t you feel awkward! Countries like India with a population of more than 1 billion and such a small per cent.

Also, the unpopularity can be clearly seen from this image below.

When it comes to sales, Apple is nowhere on the table. If I talk about the market share of MacBooks then also scenario doesn’t change. The below picture is the laptop’s market share of Q1(2018). The reason is clearly the price that the laptops of Apple hold for the same configuration that other companies provide at a lower price.

Why is this so?

India is the world second-biggest phone market where each company pays extra attention to satisfy the needs of the people but Apple is gambling with the sentiments of people by pricing their phone in lacks because, In India, Apple products are more often treated as a symbol status rather than a smartphone with camera and internet connectivity and Apple understand this very well.

When Tim Cook visited India way back in 2016, he said,

 Apple was in the country for a “thousand years.”

But, with iPhone sales continuously going in the downward trajectory,  this seemed like a joke by him and Unfortunately for Apple, any good joke often contains a grain of truth.

According to Counterpoint Research; in the first half of this year, Apple shipped fewer than 1 million iPhones in India which is very less when compared to Samsung, that shipped about 17.4 million smartphones in the same time period, while Xiaomi shipped nearly 19 million units.

Over the years, Apple’s jagged policies to seek profitability per handset over erect volume has never really competed with the likes of Samsung in terms of overall smartphone shipments in India. Apple shipped 2.6 million iPhones in India in 2016, a growth of over 50 percent compared to the year before.

That number rose to 3.2 million in 2017, but by the end of last year, there were signs that the growth was going down according to Counterpoint. Apple’s share of the Indian smartphone market has dropped to just 1 percent as of Q2 (April to June) 2018 and all thanks to the expensive iphones touching the price of 1.3 lack.

Here are some reasons that can actually justify the downfall of Apple products in India.

• A boost in “Made in India” campaign by the Indian government has forced most of the tech giants to establish their manufacturing plants in India. Since import duties on mobile have been increased and imports of the components required for local assembly has been done duty-free, or taxable at lower rates so, the Indian government has been pushing smartphone makers to set up shop in the country.
•  The rise in sticker prices of Apple products is a major concern for most of the middle-class buyers. It’s cheaper to buy a return ticket to the UK, but buying an iPhone XS, XSMax or even X is far beyond the capability of Indian customers.
•  Feature phones. Yes, in 2018 even. The stats showed us that they still account for over 50 percent of all mobile phones shipped in the country as of the third quarter last year. Thanks to the Jio Phone that captured nearly 36 percent of the feature phone market in India in Q1 2018, which is still bigger than the smartphone market in India in terms of pure volume.
• Lack of Dual Sim feature in the Phone. This feature is existing from 2000 but, why Apple is not offering this feature is still a mystery for most of us. Though, XS and XSMax and XR are now having an electronic sim which will take Indian buyers to digest for a while.
• Apple seems to be selfish by degrading the older models. This is a weird strategy from one of the finest company in the world to force people to buy their new models.
• A smaller screen size and poor screen resolution than most of the mid-range range devices available in the Indian market.

Conclusion

By this post, I really don’t want to hurt the sentiments of Apple fans as I am my self an Apple Fan Boy and I buy it because of its solid build quality, finish, and durability. But, don’t deny the truth as its always bitter to taste that people in India buy an Apple product just to show other people. You may say that I do the same thing but what’s wrong in this let’s accept it, I accept this, you should even accept this.

Apple has been really lucky enough to gain such kind reputation in the World that its products are the best and most valuable but hey, I really don’t think so that the products are value for money in any means. Majority of Indian users buy cheaper devices. According to Counterpoint Research, the “premium smartphone market” in India is around Rs. 30,000, or roughly $450. This is the reason why iPhone SE and 5s  is most sold in India.

Companies like MI, OnePlus, Oppo and Vivo have realized this fact and the prices of their devices lie under 40K even for their flagships. I am not saying this to suggest Apple but if this continues then Apple’s market will go down the same route as Sony or HTC anytime soon.

Globally, the iPhone is doing as well, and with the launch of new iPhone models, it will do well only but, unless the company decides to introduce a cheaper iPhone for Indian market it’s hard to see how Apple can start selling more units in a way that will gain them significant market share.

We cannot deny the fact that there has been a tremendous improvement in the streaming technology. Companies have put efforts to enable consumers to access content easily by streaming. Whether you want to stream video or music, you simply need to visit your preferred streaming service and watch or listen to the content that you want.

However, there is one frontier that has been elusive to many companies. This is game streaming. However, Google is trying to fill this void with its new solution known as Project Stream. This solution is designed to help Google Chrome users to stream video games through this browser.

Google’s Project Stream

To many, this may sound impossible especially when we consider the technical aspects of video games. However, we should expect anything with Google. After all, it has all the resources to actualize this technology.

You should take note that this streaming service is nothing close to Twitch. You won’t be streaming a video of yourself playing a video game. Instead, it will enable gamers to play video games through their Google Chrome browser. In other words, you won’t have to download a video game and save it in your hard drive. Everything will be taking place on the browser with the support of a seamless internet connection.

One of the solutions that Project Stream technology is expected to solve is the storage space requirements. Most video games are hardware-intensive. They require large storage spaces which in some cases can exceed 100GB. Since the streaming service will be available online, there will be no need for gamers to worry about storage space. The project also intends to explore the possibilities of coming up with games which will allow players to play on subscription modes. This can be a major boost to gaming companies that want to minimize the cost of hardware.

Buffering and Latency

When we talk about online streaming there are tow issues that we cannot avoid to talk about. These are: latency and buffering. While you may be comfortable with some seconds of buffering when watching movies or streaming music, your feelings will definitely change when it comes to gaming. These two issues can have a negative impact on your gaming experience.

Project Upstream intends to minimize the latency time, especially when streaming high-quality video games. It should not degrade the quality of graphics in the game.

In order to ensure that the final consumers get a practical solution that will improve their gaming experience, Google decided to bring in an established gaming company-Ubisoft. The company agreed to stream their upcoming blockbuster game: Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on the Google Chrome. Gamers are invited to test this game on their Google Chrome browsers.

Google is not the first company to venture into live game streaming. Other gaming companies such as Nvidia are testing similar products. If successful, the project will boost the level of creativity in the video gaming industry as creators who are held back by the lack resources will still be able to publish their video games. It will also make more video games affordable.

For a very long period of time, Google has been and is the world’s top search engine due to the precise search results it provides. However, it has always been willing to pay for this title and is now set to add $9 billion to the Apple coffers this year in order to remain as iPhone’s default search engine. This estimate was calculated by Rod Hall of Goldman Sachs, who calculated the $9 billion figure based on how many searches Apple users come from Siri or the Safari browser.

This is, however, not a new phenomenon. Many highly regarded analysts have revealed information about Google and it having a past of paying large sums of money to preserve their number one position, especially to Apple. These amounts have only been increasing over the past few years. A respected analyst from Bernstein estimated an amount of $3 million at one time, and this number grew staggeringly to $1 billion in 2013.

Furthermore, the payment in 2019 could be as astronomical as $12 million. But in contrast to this, the Wall Street Journal revealed information in May which hinted towards a slowdown in payment growths made to Apple. However, this is only an estimate, given that both Apple and Google have not released any statements confirming or denying this information.

It is well known that Google pays for each and every iPhone user. BMO Capital Markets estimated that in 2017, there were around 715 million iPhone users. In addition, it is estimated that annually, Google pays around $10 per iPhone user.

Google and Apple have always maintained an intriguing relationship. When the iPhone was first introduced by Apple to the world, it was a very easy decision to utilise Google as the default search engine, due to Google’s reputation as the world’s most powerful search engine.

Although Apple has used Google as its automatic search engine on iOS, they have also made use of the Bing platform in a variety of other places, for example, when searching the web through Siri. This is quite interesting, given Bing wasn’t even a thing until 2009. But Rod Hall has maintained that for Google, Apple still remains one of its biggest sources of gaining traffic.

All this really confirms is that overall, Apple and Google’s relationship remains mutually beneficial. Apple is very much gaining free money and Google still remains as popular as ever among users of Apple devices. This is providing even more growth for Apple, with its hardware sales gaining more and more traction. Applications such as Apple music and iCloud storage are seeing huge progress.

These separate segments of the Apple machine are making their own revenues – services revenue broke $36 billion over the last year, meaning that the company isn’t any longer so dependent upon the sales of their hardware, which can have their peaks and troughs due to changes in demand. In summary, the fact that people are constantly paying for services and product enhancements means it is a continuous win-win situation for Apple.

Android Pie users may have noticed something strange on their smartphones. After charging their phones to full capacity, they were surprised to see the battery saving option switched on.

With the battery saving option enabled, power is directed to the essential parts of the phone. Other features like GPS and phone brightness are disabled. Android 9’s Adaptive Battery feature goes a step further, disabling apps that run in the background that aren’t used often.

The android pie bug confused users who had the full capacity with battery saving enabled. At critical times, there were unable to use features and apps they should have access to. As the comparisons swirled around sites like Reddit, users realized the bug was on phones like the Essential Phone, Google Pixel 2, One Plus 6, and a host of others.

Google Responds To The Android Pie Bug

The noise online rattled Google who recently issued an apology, citing that they were aware of the issue. The tech giant indicated the change was a controlled experiment by their engineering team. They were testing the battery saving features of Android Pie, to improve its reliability.

The intended test targeted a small group of devices. Unfortunately, it was rolled out to a larger group of phones.

They have since reverted the affected phones to their default settings and removed the bug from affecting other devices. Google maintains that testing was safe. No phones or data was adversely affected and measures will be put in place to prevent a repeat of the issue. “Sorry for the confusion,” Google said in its statement.

Should Android Users Panic?

Android users did not take lightly to the apology. Many were upset that the changes were made without prior consent. For a feature that worked perfectly, it was confusing that Google will implement a bug to disrupt the experience of the user. Don’t they care about them?

Other users felt that Google showed its users that it has dominion over the operating system. Although users made changes to their settings, this self-inflicted android pie bug was able to stop them.

The android pie bug raised another concern. Can Google change settings on each phone? It’s easy to conclude this if they were able to target a select group of phones and toggle one setting. The entire suite of phones on Android Pie was not harmed. Therefore, Google has shown that it can not only collect data on your app and phone usage, it can also see how you customize your device. And change it.

This simple error may raise the conversation on data protection again.

Changes Mean Continuous Testing

At the same time, Google has made several changes to its new Android Operating-System with Adaptive Battery & Adaptive Display. It is part of the company’s intention to integrate Artificial Intelligence in Operating Systems. Adaptive Battery looks at when, and how you use apps.

It determines which apps deserve more battery. This gives a better battery experience. Adaptive Brightness tracks the brightness you prefer in different environments. It then predicts and adjusts accordingly. Both features improve the user’s battery experience.

Changes like these mean that Google will continuously test its technology, to ensure that it is working in all situations. Admittedly, these tests should be managed better. The argument could be raised that users should expect Google to have control over the ecosystem if they wish to benefit from these features.

The What-If Tool For Probing Machine Learning Models

When it comes to building a Machine Learning(ML) system, training a model is not enough. Instead, you need to ask lots of questions. Rather than just behaving a like a typical programmer, you need to act as a detective whereby you ask tons of questions. By being inquisitive, you will have a better understanding of how the model works.

Some of the questions that you need to ask include: Do the changes on a datapoint affect the predictions that the model will make? Does the model perform in a different manner when exposed to various groups? Is the dataset that I am testing my model on diverse? If so, what is the magnitude of the diversity?

As you can see getting concrete answers to these types of questions is not an easy process. Most ML programmers usually opt to write a one-off code that will be used to analyze the whole model. This option creates many loopholes and it is highly inefficient. For instance, it locks out the non-programmers and they won’t be able to participate in the process even when it is necessary.

This is one of the things that Google AI PAIR initiative aims to address. It wants to bring in different people in the whole process of examining, evaluating and debugging machine learning systems.

Google has already taken the first step toward achieving this goal. It has launched the What-If Tool. This is a completely new feature of the TensorBoard application that allows all interested users to analyze a Machine Learning model without having to write a single line of code. The What-If Tool uses dataset and pointers to a TensorFlow to produce an interactive interface which can be used for exploring the results of the model.

Finding the Counterfactuals

The What-If Tool is capable of visualizing the database on its own while at the same time is capable of editing the examples that you presented in your dataset. You simply need to click a button and you will be able to find the exact point where the model gives a different prediction. Such points are known as ‘Counterfactuals’ and they play a critical role in determining the decision boundaries of the model.

Analyze the Performance and determine the fairness of the Algorithms

You can also use the What-If Tool to explore the effects of using different classifications especially when you consider some constant constraints.

Demos of What-If Tool

To show the effectiveness of the What-If tool Google has released some demos which use the pre-trained models. These demos are used for:

• Detecting the misclassifications of plants
• Analyzing and assessing the fairness of binary classification models
• Analyzing the performance of the model on different subgroups.

Putting the What-If Tool in Practice

To ensure that the What-If tool is effective in real-life ML applications, Google put it into various tests. Different teams tested it on different applications. One team discovered that the model was not detecting the whole feature of the dataset. This forced them to fix a bug in the model. In another team, the tool was used to organize their examples visually so that they discover familiar patterns. In overall everyone is hoping that the What-If tool will give a better understanding of the ML models.

Well if you’re an “Apple FanBoy” then you should stop right now and do something better with your Apple device cos your battery lasts 3 hrs (that’s what she said).

Apple recently became a Trillion Dollar company and I’m not gonna emphasize on how that happened, but to sum up the past few years, it relies “Heavily” on the Business model of “Create a Problem and Sell the solution”. Fast forward to 2017, we got the iPhone X after iPhone 8, cos 7 ate 9 (get it?) Enter 2019, the year where Uber has started planning on bringing flying taxis while Elon Musk already put one in the space; Apple here introduces us to the technology of “Dual Sim”. I mean Apple got Swiftkey recently, this is too much for Apple fans to handle man gee, Give them a break Tim Cook!!

The new iPhones

So the new phones are named iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR which stand for Expensive and Stupid, Maximum Expensive and Stupid and iPhone X Refurbished/Refresh?? (See where I’m going?). Anyway, the cheaper among the three musketeers is, of course, the XR, and only XS and XS Max seem to have received a decent upgrade if any and let’s not forget the Dual Sim feature. But a decent upgrade is merely a small amount considering you’re paying a stupid amount of money to buy a phone. Oh wait, its major user base is the stupid demography, makes sense!!

Let’s talk Specs

So Tim Cook quoted some really big numbers on the Keynote, let’s see if the following table knock I mean make sense.

The Upgrades

So, design wise there have been minor improvements in screen size and resolution along with IP68 certification which OK. But the battery is also a big deal for iPhone users as it tends to drain out faster than a regular Android priced similarly. To make it fishier, Apple has chosen to display reference values such as 1hr more battery than the iPhone X and such comparative numbers in battery section of new iPhones which makes me question what does the R stand for in XR again? but of course, it’s Apple.

Coming to the newest “Dual SIM” feature, which rest of the world started using since 2000 thanks to “Technological Marvel” BenefonTwin phone, released by Benefon. It took Apple 18 years to adapt to the Dual SIM technology but also it’s not exactly Dual SIM you see. It’s a combination of an eSIM and a physical nano SIM so, well played Apple.

The selling point of the XR (doesn’t even have a 1080p display) here has to be the 5 colour variants and it’s iPhone for everyone price as quoted by Tim Cook which is $749 or ₹76,900 for the 64GB model. And from there it tops at $1,499 or ₹1,34,900 for the 512GB XS Max. In other words, the newer storage options are so high that even some of Apple’s MacBooks don’t even come close, man I’m gonna store all my movies on my phone and maybe even edit/store my YT videos on the fly as well.

Should you buy one?

Well well well, if you wonder what really has been upgraded? it’s not the company’s motto nor is it the consciousness of the consumer (you never know) but the price and maybe a few minor improvements here and there. If you’re just a regular consumer who wants a good phone at a decent price then please take a look at the Android Hemisphere, you’ve got great options such as OnePlus 6 and Galaxy Note 9 or maybe even budget options which don’t cost an organ. If you’re a hardcore Apple fan, do go for it as we’ve already established what the S stands for.

Please don’t get offended, if you are offended then, I don’t care. Do check out more tech Youtuber’s thoughts on the same for more in-depth review. See you guys in the next one!!

Uber, as we know it, is an online Taxi/bike sharing/carpooling/food delivery company that has millions of users worldwide. Uber started as a Taxi Company in 2009 and since then has gone to capture the Taxi market by a storm.

Uber Air Taxi

The Taxi giant which currently offers Cab service through bike or car, food delivery; is looking to spread its wings and explore the unconquered air for public transport services. Uber, thus has planned to bring out Air Taxi and intends to launch through three cities initially that can sustainability support Air Taxi and help in cutting major time spent in traveling.

Currently, it has chosen Dallas and Los Angeles to be its two launch cities along with Mumbai possibly being the third city (in talks with the authority). Check the following brief video of what could Air Taxi bring to the public.

Additionally, Uber has shortlisted five countries – India, Japan, Australia, Brazil and France – and one of them will become the first Uber Air City outside of the US. Eric Allison, chief executive, Uber Aviation Program, illustrated that the 100-minute road journey from the city airport in the western suburbs to downtown Churchgate in South Mumbai can come down to 10 minutes using the futuristic service.

Eric, after a meeting with India’s PM regarding this agenda, highlighted the importance of Air Travel in a heavily populated country like India and how innovation can bring about significant changes to the public transport.

What to Expect

If all goes well, then we could be looking at a revolutionized transport system by 2023 where traveling is just a small part of our life rather than being the major part in Metropolitan cities of our country. Coming to the vehicles that make Air Travel happen, we are looking at Vertical Take-Off Landing (VTOL) similar to the way a Helicopter works.

By using multiple smaller rotors to fly while reducing the space consumed by the jets, and also implantation of Electric Motors to make this initiative Green makes it icing on a cake.

This futuristic tech could also bring about positive changes in the Environment in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. I just wish for the betterment of this country and hope we make our peace with Transportation problems.

It would not be wrong to divulge that Apple has been dominating the Smart Watch market for the past few years. Companies like Samsung are nowhere as close to the sale of Apple’s watch. In the last two year, we have experienced and substantiated the Apple Watch models i.e. Series 2 and Series 3 with LTE support but the design was more or less the same and they just upgraded the wearable’s components with a faster chip, a water-resistant case, and cellular support.

In this article, we will highlight the all-new Apple watch 4 series, its changed design, rumored hardware specs and price that you had to pay to afford and wear this flagship device.

Also Read:  Apple MacBook Air 2018: Release Date, Specs, Price, And Rumours

Here’s everything about the rumored new Apple Watch 4

1.The All New Apple Watch Design

The upcoming months are going to be hectic for the Apple as rumors are, the company is all set to thrill their fans with the all-new series of products. Well, this watch from the Apple will actually be the fifth watch model and is expected to release in September 2018.

Apple might keep up the same pattern, and likely to introduce new Apple Watch models soon, possibly second week in September. Also, Apple is planning to introduce for the first time its new Apple Watch industrial design since the product line was first revealed in 2014, and believe me this might be the biggest change in terms of design and the sales for the expected watch might break the record of its own series 3 model.

The series-3 model was a great hit for the company and since its release, they are ruling over the smart-watch industry as the company sold more watches last quarter than Rolex, Omega, and Swatch combined. Why is this so? Here is the answer. According to the reports,

Features like fitness tracking and the ease of taking phone calls from the wrist have been most profound and perhaps given the Apple Watch an edge over traditional timepieces in the long run, especially as new capabilities are added such as bigger full HD display and Siri Assistance and water resistance.

If you had a series 2, 3 or earlier, nobody will able to identify the difference in terms of design as they all look identical. You basically get two options from the above watches i.e a 38mm and 42mm diameter that cost somewhere between 1200-1400$. We would have appreciated if Apple might have gone for a circular design pattern as they have some patents over the design as well but according to the reports and leaked news, only the size of the screen is going to be increased as follows.

• 1.57″ for 38mm model from 1.5″
• 1.78″ for the 42mm model from 1.65″

Thus the bezels will get thinner, enhancing the overall looks, the user experience of the watch and you not only be able to see more contents on the screen but every single watch face will be quite larger.

2. The Battery Life

Since its release, the watch was not so efficient, I would not say that it was poor but it needed some improvements. Apple has tried to make the battery as efficient as possible but this time we will notice a much better performance form new watch model.

According to the reports by KJ’s Securities and again “Min-chi-Kao” states that the 2018 Apple watch might be getting an overall 15% increase in the battery life. It seems like Apple might redesign the logic board from scratch in order to achieve the mentioned functionality.

3. The price

All the previous generations were nowhere close to the affordability of the general public and the scenario is not likely to change this time. The Series 2 and 3 generation weighed your pocket for about 1100 to 1400US dollars. This new model is supposed to come with a price tag of 1300 to 1500$ costing well enough then a MacBook Air.

Conclusion

The overall design, performance, and improvements in functionality such as a better talk droid tracking especially for detecting some heart rate conditions etc might be the best option for the people who can afford this flagship watch from Apple. I am really over-welled and waited for its release and hope as you are so let us see what Apple has to offer us in September.

Well, it has been a long time since we have not witnessed the new series of products from the Tech-giant Apple. But, now your long-term waiting will finally come to an end as Apple is all set to launch new Macs, MacBooks, and iPads in a major launch expected within months i.e usually in September every year.

The new devices are intended to address everybody attention especially the fans and mac lovers. In this article, we will discover all the changes that you can expect to hold in your hands from the new MacBook Air So, let’s relax and hold our breath right.

The MacBook Air 2018

In the past few years, Apple has faced a bit criticism in the department of value for money products especially for the price of MacBook Air, that cost around (11-1300$) which made it unaffordable for most of the mid-range laptop buyers.

This scenario might change this year as Apple is planning for the new MacBook Air 2018 with a low-cost price tag, “HopeFully!”. Since its release back in 2008 by Steve Jobs, first-generation MacBook Air was a 13.3″- the only model, initially promoted as the world’s thinnest notebook, is one of the iconic products of the company.

After a long gap of 10 years, we will finally witness the all-new design pattern of the Air. In 2010, it was redesigned a bit with a 13″ and 11″ models to choose from. Since then there was no major update in design if you leave the specks behind. The present model that has the following specs:

• 13.3″ Retina eye low-resolution display
• Intel 5th generation processor
• 8GB of DDR3 Ram
• 128,256,512 GB SSD
• Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MB

has completely ripped off in 2018 so, the company finally decided to upgrade the MacBook Air with all new design and hardware specs. It will be fair to say that this launch of MacBook Air could wholly replace the Air lineup with something new.

Release Dates

It might happen that Apple won’t ever update the MacBook Air again, but there are also reasons to hope. Apple publicly announced that low-cost machine i.e. the Mac mini and Air, “is still important” for the company’s profit. Also, the company believes that there is still a significant market for the MacBook Air, according to Bloomberg sources.

We thought that in WWDC 2018, Apple might reveal the curtains from the new computing machine but, that was certainly not the case. The new rumors say Apple might launch the Air in the October/November this year.

Another report from the  DigiTimes supply-chain sources in April 2018, 13in Mac laptop isn’t expected to ship until the third quarter of this year, which could suggest a September introduction alongside new iPhones, or maybe something sooner if Apple wants to get its new laptop out in time for the College Admissions.

But, Apple is facing some problems with the release because of the processors, a “key component”. Other reports indicate that Apple has given up waiting for Intel’s Cannon Lake processor, which won’t be ready until 2019 so, the company might shift for the uses of  Kaby Lake refresh chips.

The Price and Specs

Rumors suggest that the new model of the Air will cost less than a 1000$ which is just insane for the Mac enthusiast. This might sound strange as the current price of the Air is more than 1000$. “Min-Chi Kao” who is perhaps the best when it comes to Apple leak, said that Apple is working on developing the most affordable Air.

Well, how does Apple will come up to reduce the price tag? will it be a compromise in the quality or the design and components used? First of all the design will look more like 12″ MacBook and Apple probably include an I3 or I5 Intel processors for the baseline models with a power consumption of 15 to 38watts. The Ram will be 8GB as standard with a minimum storage of 128 Gigabytes SSD.

There are no reports for the ports and compatibility but Apple might include 2 type C ports as they give in their higher variant of Pro models and this might be little at the inconvenient side. But, the biggest improvements will be observed in the screen department. The reports suggested that LG has started the production of the Retina-Eye display for the Apple with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 px which is exactly the same resolution for the 13″ MacBook Pro. If I talk about the color then this time apart from Space-Grey and Silver, Rose Gold and Gold might also be included.

Conclusion

The price that Apple is eying might be a challenge for the company and is probably the biggest question mark to wait and watch out for. But, one thing is very clear and transparent i.e. this time Apple will certainly produce a product that will be worth buying and will be value for money.

NVIDIA RTX Hybrid Graphics Made Possible by AI and Ray Tracing Inventions; Delivers 6x Performance Boost; September Availability

NVIDIA today unveiled the GeForce RTX™ series, the first gaming GPUs based on the new NVIDIA Turing™ architecture and the NVIDIA RTX™ platform, which fuses next-generation shaders with real-time ray tracing and all-new AI capabilities.

This new hybrid graphics capability represents the biggest generational leap ever in gaming GPUs. Turing — which delivers 6x more performance than its predecessor, Pascal™ — redefines the PC as the ultimate gaming platform, with new features and technologies that deliver 4K HDR gaming at 60 frames per second on even the most advanced titles.

“Turing opens up a new golden age of gaming, with realism only possible with ray tracing, which most people thought was still a decade away,” said Jensen Huang, founder, and CEO of NVIDIA, speaking before Gamescom, the world’s largest gaming expo. “The breakthrough is a hybrid rendering model that boosts today’s computer graphics with the addition of lightning-fast ray-tracing acceleration and AI. RTX is going to define a new look for computer graphics. Once you see an RTX game, you can’t go back.”

GeForce RTX — New Family of Gaming GPUs

The new GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, 2080 and 2070 GPUs are packed with features never before seen in a gaming GPU, including:

• New RT Cores to enable real-time ray tracing of objects and environments with physically accurate shadows, reflections, refractions and global illumination.
• Turing Tensor Cores to perform lightning-fast deep neural network processing.
• New NGX neural graphics framework integrates AI into the overall graphics pipeline, enabling AI algorithms to perform amazing image enhancement and generation.
• New Turing shader architecture with Variable Rate Shading allows shaders to focus processing power on areas of rich detail, boosting overall performance.
• New memory system featuring ultra-fast GDDR6 with over 600GB/s of memory bandwidth for high-speed, high-resolution gaming.
• NVIDIA NVLink®, a high-speed interconnect that provides higher bandwidth (up to 100 GB/s) and improved scalability for multi-GPU configurations (SLI).
• Hardware support for USB Type-C™ and VirtualLink™⁽¹⁾, a new open industry standard being developed to meet the power, display and bandwidth demands of next-generation VR headsets through a single USB-C™ connector.
• New and enhanced technologies to improve the performance of VR applications, including Variable Rate Shading, Multi-View Rendering, and VRWorks Audio.

Designed by NVIDIA for Gamers

NVIDIA is releasing special Founders Edition versions of the new GeForce RTX GPUs. Designed and built to the company’s high standards, the GPUs’ key features include:

• Factory-overclocked design out of the box, with a next-gen 13-phase iMON DrMOS power supply and sub-millisecond power management for maximum overclocking.
• Dual 13-blade axial fans produce 3x higher airflow and ultra-quiet acoustics.
• Forged and machine-finished diecast aluminum cover with diamond-cut edge detailing provides a rigid, lightweight frame for an open design with beautifully smooth, continuous curves.
• First full-card vapor chamber, which is 2x larger to maximize heat spreading and heat transfer to the finstack.
• Enhanced DisplayPort 1.4a with DSC allows a single connector to drive an 8K monitor at 60Hz.

Industry-Wide Support for GeForce RTX

The world’s top game publishers, developers and engine creators have announced support for the NVIDIA RTX platform to bring the holy grail of real-time ray tracing and the power of AI to gamers everywhere. They include Battlefield V, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Metro Exodus, Control, and Assetto Corsa Competizione. Developers include EA, Square Enix, EPIC Games, and more.

The NVIDIA RTX platform has quickly emerged as the industry standard for real-time ray tracing and artificial intelligence in games.

The RTX platform is also being adopted by a large number of developers of professional rendering applications, including Adobe, Autodesk, and Pixar.

Starting at $499, Pre-Orders Today, Availability Sept. 20 

Starting at $499, GeForce RTX graphics cards, including the NVIDIA Founders Edition, will be available worldwide, across 238 countries and territories. They will be sold by partners including ASUS, Colorful, EVGA, Gainward, Galaxy, Gigabyte, Innovision 3D, MSI, Palit, PNY, and Zotac.

Pre-orders on nvidia.com and at over 100 participating partners starts today for GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and GeForce RTX 2080, with availability starting on Sept. 20. GeForce RTX 2070 will be available in October. Indian customers can check availability here.

* Equivalent aggregate math operations contributed by the Turing Shaders, CUDA Cores, Tensor Cores, and RT Cores needed to render RTX graphics. Result applies to Founders Edition version.

Alright, so there is no denying the fact that when it comes to intensive tasks such as Gaming or Mining, a good and powerful Graphics Card is a must. If you have an old and outdated Graphics Card installed on your Computer, you would not be able to enjoy the latest Heavy Game titles. That being said, one of the major players in the Graphics Card industry, the NVIDIA is now launching their latest Graphics Card at the Gamescom.

This Graphics Card, just in case you don’t already know is none other than the rumored NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Graphics Card. If you are someone who checks tech blogs and channels then the chances are that you must have already seen an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Graphics Card rumor post or video.

So, today in this post, we would be covering on the topic, NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 2080 Graphics Card. Now if that sounds interesting, let us top into it.

NVIDIA to Launch GeForce RTX 2080 Graphics Card At Gamescom 

NVIDIA uploaded a New Graphics Card teaser video on their twitter handle a while back. Here is what they tweeted, just in case you missed on it.

#BeForTheGame pic.twitter.com/REIdjKRNeI

— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) August 14, 2018

20 August is the date of Gamescom. This teaser therefore directly targets at the launch of a brand new RTX Card by the NVIDIA Geforce. There were many articles on the internet for the same, some of them claimed that there would be 2 new Graphics Card series launched by the company at Gamescom. But this is not true, the only graphics Card NVIDIA would be launching officially at the Gamescom is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 series that may include RTX 2080 ti as well.

How can we be so sure? since the launch is yet to happen.- you might ask us. Well, there are quite a lot of hints scattered everywhere in the teaser Video itself if you look closely. For instance, take a look at the usernames, RoyTeX for RTX, Not_11 as not 11 series and Mac-20 and Eight Tee as 2080. Makes sense, right?

Also, one of the biggest and clearest dates is the date of the launch itself. The teaser Video revealed 4 numbers at the end of the Video. These numbers were 2, 0, 8, 0 in order. This here gives us the hint about the model number of the new Graphics Card by the NVIDIA, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080. So many hints, Right? Well, thanks to this Reddit user for the discovery of the hints.

Conclusion

So were you too able to crack the hints? What do you guys think about the specifications of the new and latest upcoming NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Graphics Card? Well, let us know your answers in the comments down below.

The social and digital phenomenon has been perfecting itself as the internet progresses, and has been professionalized as all platforms increase their security. Your computer, email, and social media accounts must be using the best security approach available at this time but, are they really secure? There are always loopholes and vulnerabilities that make them easy to hack if you give an expert a try.

The same can be said for Wi-Fi security. You might have thought that using WPA2 Encryption for a Wi-Fi password will make it impossible to hack but that’s no longer true. A new flaw for Wi-Fi password hacking has been found that makes it easier for hackers to decipher the passwords of most routers. This attack was found accidentally while looking for new ways to attack the new WPA3 security standard.

Jens Steube, the developer of “Hashcat” decryption tool, has discovered this new WiFi hack. It works explicitly against WPA/WPA2 Wi-Fi protocols with Pairwise Master Key Identifier (PMKID) based on roaming features. This innovative method allows attackers to get the Pre-shared Key (PSK) login passwords allowing them to even spy on Internet communications.

According to Jens, the previous WiFi hacking methods require attackers to wait for someone to log into a network and capture a full 4-way authentication handshake of EAPOL, which is a network port authentication protocol. But this new attack does not require a user to be on the target network to capture credentials meaning there is no need to capture a full EAPOL 4-way handshake. The new attack is made on the RSN IE (Robust Security Network Information Element) of a single EAPOL frame.

How to hack Wi-Fi password using PMKID?

1. You can use hcxdumptool (v4.2.0 or higher) to request the PMKID from the targeted access point and dump the received frame to a file.

$ ./hcxdumptool -o test.pcapng -i wlp39s0f3u4u5 –enable_status

2. Using the hcxpcaptool, the frame output can be converted into a hash format

$ ./hcxpcaptool -z test.16800 test.pcapng

3. Now you can use Hashcat (v4.2.0 or higher) tool to obtain the WPA PSK (Pre-Shared Key) password

$ ./hashcat -m 16800 test.16800 -a 3 -w 3 ‘?l?l?l?l?l?lt!’

This last step will give you the password of your targeted WIFI network but it may take some time depending on the length and complexity of the password.

At this time, we do not know for which vendors or for how many routers this technique will work, but we think it will work against all 802.11i/p/q/r networks with roaming functions enabled (most modern routers).

Steube said.

According to HashCat Forum the advantages of this technique are:

• No more regular users required
• No waiting for a complete 4-way handshake between the regular user and the AP
• Eventual retransmissions of EAPOL frames doesn’t happen (which can lead to uncrackable results)
• No more eventual invalid passwords sent by the regular user
• No more lost EAPOL frames when the regular user or the AP is too far away from the attacker
• No more special output format (pcap, hccapx, etc.) – final data will appear as regular hex encoded string

However, this new WiFi hack does not work against latest wireless security protocol WPA3, since the new protocol is “much harder to attack because of its modern key establishment protocol called “Simultaneous Authentication of Equals” (SAE).”

Since the new WiFi hack requires attackers to brute force the password, users are recommended to protect their WiFi network with a secure password that’s difficult to crack.

Following the huge success of PUBG on PC, since it’s launch, Tencent had released a Mobile Version of its massively successful game. Then Fortnite happened, took over the market by a storm and also happened to conquer the console market as well from the clutches of console exclusives. Now Tencent has launched a PUBG mobile lite version for mobile with low RAM.

What we know so far

Recently Epic Games has released a Mobile version of Fortnite with initial launches on iOS platform to cater the high-end requirements of the game. And now Epic is pushing to Android with launches in a few Samsung Galaxy devices; bypassing Google Play Store which could potentially cost $50 million a year for Google. While PUBG whose mobile version is currently playable/enjoyable on mid-high end devices, Tencent has launched a newer and Lite Version of PUBG mobile for low-end devices to rival the competition Forntite’s Android release could pose.

India, the big country as it is, has a huge population and also has millions of users with mobiles under the 10k-15k category. Which is why this launch seems to be more targeted towards the Asian audience where Budget Androids thrive to the core of the nation. To capture this massive audience, PUBG Mobile Lite is just icing on the cake. Having learned a lot from nearly 2 years of fixing bugs on PC and a stable Mobile version, the Lite version could easily attract the masses with its addictive gameplay.

About PUBG Mobile Lite

The game is so Lite that it literally is of 30 MB. When asked about the game’s release in India, Tenecent replied: ” We are currently testing out the LITE version of PUBG Mobile and optimizing it for Indian networks and devices, post successful testing we will release it in India in the near future”. Currently, the game is available only in the Philippines, and after some field tests, it will be rolled out worldwide.

The game currently features 40 man lobby, being parachuted down to a 2*2 km island, scout for resources to survive/ kill and be the last man standing. Such a small lobby would make the game more fast-paced and short timed. Currently, at 50,000 downloads, the game is rated 4 star on Play store with 3000+ reviews. To checkout, the game on Play Store click here.

PUBG Mobile Lite Apk

If you are impatient and can’t wait for it till they launch it in your country then you can download the APK and OBB file from here. Remember, you’ll have to use a VPN (virtual private network) and set its location to the Philippines to run the game on your budget Android device.

Conclusion

With that said, there’s a lot of room for improvement and a huge audience to address yet, but it seems the competition has just got tougher with Fortnite’s Android release. Only time will tell who’ll conquer the Android market with their addictive games. See you guys in the next one!

Discord as well all know it, is a free Gaming Chat Application that provides in-game communication services to it’s huge 150 million user-base. Recently Discord CEO announced that they are going to start selling games that are worth its user’s time.

The initial Roll-out

The initial services are being tested and the games are limited to 50,000 lucky Canadians (damn it Canada!). These users will be selected from the Discord platform’s Nitro subscribers at random. The lineup of games doesn’t include big boys like Fortnite or PUBG, but intends to start with Saints Row: The Third, Metro: Last Light Redux, Super Meat Boy, Hollow Knight, and Starbound.

Three years ago, we set out to bring people together around games. Now, we're going to bring the games to you.

We're going to launch a store and add games to Nitro. Read the plans here: https://t.co/3sJrd4MZqf pic.twitter.com/A7gOyZYNdo

— Discord (@discordapp) August 9, 2018

To purchase the games, there are currently 2 ways. One is by paying $5 a month for Discord premium that will get you access to all the games/services, while the second being buying individual games from the store.

The games that are being added to the store are currently being curated by Discord’s staff, with a goal to create a local bookstore which has the best of the best content. The company also intends to bring “First on Discord”  titles that are exclusive for 90 days on Discord, along with a Universal Library.

Recently Discord’s CMO Eros Resmini spoke to the Verge

“Discord has become a home for many gamers who use it to connect with friends multiple times a day while some people seem to live on Discord”.

He also added,

“With 150 million registered users that’s a lot of building friendships while talking about and playing games together”.

Summary

Discord is currently not at the capacity to rival Steam yet, but with its quality products, ensure that the users have a great time building friendships and playing games. Discord users will be able to play along with friends who own the same games, regardless of where they purchased it. “Our goal with Discord is to bring players together — never to fragment or add friction to gaming with friends,”  says Resmini.

There is no denying the fact that the Nvidia manufactures some of the best Graphics Card for PC. For quite a while, the internet is filled with the rumors about the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180, 1170, and 1160. Most of these leaks are just rumors about the specifications of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1100 series. Some of these leaks might get true, while others not so much.

The leaks never quoted the Release Dates for the latest NVidia GPUs. That does not mean that no one has an idea about it. We do have the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180, 1170, and 1160 Release Dates and would be going to share that with you.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180, 1170, and 1160 Release Dates Leaked

Recently, the Nvidia sent emails to its partners (via WCCFtech) regarding the launch of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180, 1170, and 1160. The mail states that the new Nvidia GeForce GTX series of GPU would be launched between August to October. Surprisingly, the mail mentions four new Graphics Cards, the GTX 1180, 1170, 11060 and 1180+. According to the reports, all the four GPUs would be for Desktop. This is not surprising though we might be able to see the Laptop versions of the GPUs soon after the launch.

Nvidia was overstocked with 10-series GPUs and the board partners are also making the transition from manufacturing GeForce 10-series to the new 11-series GPUs, the mail confirmed. This means that we can see a price drop on the Nvidia 10-series range after the launch.

Anyways, now let us take a look at the release date of the new Nvidia 11th Gen GPUs.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1100 Series release date

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180 will launch on August 30.
• The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180+ will launch on September 30.
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 1170 will launch on September 30.
• The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1160 will launch on October 30.

According to The Seeking Alpha:

“As Gigabyte’s non-GPU business is less volatile and accounted for 49 percent of total revenue in Q1 and, investors should be able to conclude that graphics card revenue dropped to the tune of 50 percent plus from Q1 to Q2.”

This suggests that the weak demand for bitcoin mining and Gaming has hit the Company hard on the face. According to the recent reports, the company faces a downtime by $6 million (which is approximately Rs. 41 crore and 9 lacs) in the second quarter of this year from around $10 million (which is approximately Rs. 68 crore and 49 lacs)in the first quarter which is insane.

Let us know what do you guys think about the new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1180, 1170, and 1160 in the comments section down below.