GadgetByte Nepal

HTC launched two new phones today as the company declared its new U series of phones– where U means you!

The first phone HTC U Ultra is a flagship phone from HTC and comes with all the flagship specs you can expect. And, the second phone is named HTC U Play, which is a mid-range phone.

The new U series is quite unique in design because their whole body is made of glass, yes even the back. HTC calls it “Liquid Surface construction”. The phone looks glossy with this new material that mimics and looks like liquid. This liquid looking design makes the exterior little slippery so you might need a case to hold it firmly.

Additionally, HTC also brings its new AI called Sense Companion in the U series. Sense Companion is a voice-controlled intelligence from HTC, much like the Google Assistant, S Voice, Siri. The Sense Companion is will respond to your commands. And, will also learn your behavior and interests to make your phone more personalized i.e more U.

Furthermore, the HTC U Ultra will have a second screen just above the main screen. The second screen will show notifications and AI responses. The reason for putting the little screen, a ticker, according to the company, is mainly so that the AI doesn’t obstruct your main screen experience. This means, AI will only interact on the second screen. Also, with the second screen, the whole display need not be turned on to show notifications during standby. This, I hope, will save the battery because the phone has low capacity battery for a 5.7 inch screen. Well, at least in the U Ultra because U Play doesn’t have the second screen.

Moreover, HTC’s U series has always-on voice detection, which allows Sense Companion to interact with you even when the is display off. You can also use voice-based bio-metric authentication to unlock the phone.

However, the HTC U Ultra and HTC U Play doesn’t have 3.5 mm headphone jack. To compensate for that, the phones will come with USonic earphones.

Specifications of HTC U Ultra:

HTC U Ultra features a dual display. The primary display is 5.7-inch Super LCD with QHD (1440×2560 pixels) resolution and sports Gorilla Glass 5 protection. While the secondary display is 2-inch with 1040x 2560 pixels resolution and has sapphire glass protection. Similarly, the phone is powered by a 2.15GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC with 4GB of RAM. The phone will be available in 64GB or 128GB storage capacity which can be expanded up to 2 TB via microSD card. Additionally, HTC U Ultra has finger-print sensor on its Home Button.

Talking about the camera, HTC U Ultra sports 12-UltraPixel rear camera with a BSI sensor, laser + phase detection auto-focus, optical image stabilization, an f/2.8 aperture, and dual-tone LED flash. The front camera is 16-megapixel with an UltraPixel mode, and a BSI sensor. The phone will have USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity. Likewise, it is powered by a 3000mAh battery with Quick Charge 3.0 support. It’s rated to deliver up to 26 hours of talk-time and up to 13 days of standby time.

Specifications of HTC U Play:

HTC U Play sports a 5.2-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) Super LCD display with Gorilla Glass. It is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio P10 SoC. The phone comes in two storage options: 3GB  RAM with 32 GB inbuilt-storage and 4GB  RAM with 64 GB inbuilt-storage. The storage is expandable via microSD card (up to 2TB). It features USB 2.0 Type-C connectivity and bears a fingerprint sensor on the Home Button.

Looking at the camera, the rear 16-megapixel camera comes with a BSI sensor, optical image stabilization, PDAF, an f/2.0 aperture, and dual-tone LED flash. While, the front camera sports a 16-megapixel sensor with an UltraPixel mode, a BSI sensor, an f/2.0 aperture with a 28mm focal length. It is powered by a 2500mAh battery with fast charging support (5V/2A). The battery will deliver up to 15.21 hours of talk-time and up to 427.54 hours of standby time.

Release Date and Price:

HTC U Ultra is available for pre-sale at $749 from HTC.com. HTC will start delivering HTC U Ultra in Taiwan by the end of January. However, the rest of the world will have to wait till March for the phone.

On the other hand, HTC U Play will be available late in Q1 2017. The price of the U Play is not revealed yet.

If you’re a Windows 10 user, you must be aware of automatic windows updates. Unlike previous versions of Windows, in Windows 10 updates are automatically downloaded and installed. There isn’t an option to disable them. You must have tried Googling how to disable windows 10 updates. Despite all your efforts, you must have ended to be in despair when you found out Windows updates can’t be disabled. But with the Microsoft’s announcement of build 15002, users can look forward to pause or postpone the updates.

It must be a relief for those mad at Windows for forcing its automatic updates in Windows 10 devices. Microsoft said: ‘We’ve added an option that will enable you to pause updates on your computer for up to 35 days.’To pause your machine, go to the Advanced options page of Windows Update Settings.’ But not everyone is happy. This new feature will only be available in Professional, Education, and Enterprise editions of Windows. If you have the Windows 10 Home edition, don’t feel low. There are some changes for you too. Microsoft said: ‘Windows Insiders with the Home edition of Windows will now also be able to leverage the increased 18 hours max window for Active Hours.’ Until now, Windows 10 home users could set the maximum of Active Hours to 12 hours. However, outside of this Active Hours, Windows 10 Home users can’t pause the update.

What else is there in Build 15002?

This new Build 15002 brings some appreciable changes along with this update pausing and postponing features. You can find out detailed information on what’s new in this build in Microsoft’s blog. I’d like to mention few of the appreciable changes that were brought in build 15002. Microsoft Edge is getting some changes. You can preview opened tabs with a click, you can restore your previously browsed tabs and you can open new private window by left clicking on edge icon in the taskbar. Now you can organize different Start tiles into a folder with a drag and drop. Plus, you can capture part of the screen by pressing “Win+Shift+S” and then can paste it as an image elsewhere that can be OneNote or Paint or similar apps. Management of Themes has now moved into the Personalization section of the Settings from the Control Panel.

Other improvements include Cortana Improvements, virtual reality support, 3D modeling, and even Braille support in Windows. This build comprises of different changes, improvements, and fixes for PC.

Did you recently drop your phone? And what do you do when the screen of your phone gets shattered? I, obviously, would prefer a new phone with new high-end features to replacing the screen– if I have the budget of course.

If you are like me and have been dropping or misplacing your phone more often these days, research shows you are doing it on purpose. Because, unconsciously, you want that latest phone.

A study carried out by researchers Josh Ackerman, Silvia Bellezza, and Francesca Ginain found that right when a new phone is released, people tend to be more reckless with their phones. The research paper was published in Journal of Marketing Research.

Researchers called it “upgrade effect” and defined it as a phenomenon in which “careless tendencies are intended to promote the acquisition of upgrade products by helping consumers justify the new purchase.”

“When we ask people if this is something you would normally do, the vast majority say no,” Ackerman said to Gizmodo of casually leaving phones behind or dropping them. “Which suggests that people just don’t realize that this behavior is going on.”

Researchers believe that this behavior of unconsciously, but to a certain degree, “deliberately” damaging or losing our product is to avoid the guilt of upgrading. If we lose or break our phone, we would get a reason to justify our upgrade.

‘We would feel guilty about upgrading without a reason – but if our current product were damaged or depleted, we’d have a justification to upgrade without appearing wasteful,’ said Columbia Business School Professor Silvia Bellezza.

In the research, the researchers looked into the IME Detective Database: online lost and found system. When people find a phone, they can search the IME number on the database to check if the owner has reported it stolen, and if there is any reward. Analyzing the figures of iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S on the database, the scientists found out that as soon as the 5S was released, iPhone 5 owners spent less time looking for their lost phones.

The “upgrade effect” applies to other products as well, according to the report. When the participants see or decide to buy a new product, they start overusing their products– their shampoos, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and perfume.

Facebook has been a great means of communication these days. Chatting, voice/video calls, writing status and mentions, we all love it. And lately, comes the reaction buttons, which acted as an icing on the cake. However, a new alteration on Facebook is going to be commenced, which many of us will not like it. Now in order to boost its revenue, Facebook is hoping to add advertisements in the middle of videos.

According to Statistica, when Facebook’s revenue was $17.928 billion, it made an annual revenue of $17.08 billion from the advertising. In the same year, each Facebook account has been a source of income of $10.73 to the Facebook. Lots us people might be in shock, how did it made so much of income from one when we had paid none. When we are not paying for the product, we will be traded as the products. That is what Facebook is doing. According to the information on our profile like age (birth date), sex, page likes, etc, Facebook builds a general outlook of the certain individual. And Facebook lures sponsors with that information and sells them. Matching those aspects, they advertise their products to us. This is the reason why we could see the advertisements of the certain commercial companies suggested by Facebook to like them. Now Facebook is planning to increase its income by adding video ads of those companies in the midst of Facebook videos.

Ads in the Facebook will be similar to the ad videos in the YouTube. However, unlike YouTube, Facebook is hoping to add video ads of around 15 seconds after the elapsed video time of 20 seconds. And this addition will be limited to the videos longer than 90 seconds. According to our source, Facebook will make a split of 55% of income from the ad sales to the creators.

This step is surely going to be profitable for sponsors, creators and obviously Facebook. This endeavor is also going to increase the job opportunities for Facebook, which is also a good thing. However, the video ads if acted terrible to the video lovers then Facebook will certainly be losing some of its products (users). However, this scheme has not yet been started. So there is more yet to see.

[where-to-buy buy_id=21541]

There are now quite a few Nepali apps that are worth using on a phone. Nepali Calendar Apps, News Portal Apps, and Card Games are the popular ones. We’ve reviewed quite a few worth considering Nepali apps. In this post, we’ll be reviewing a new Nepali Game and that’s Haku Run. This game is simply a promotional strategy for the movie LOOT 2. But this marketing strategy is a praiseworthy one. As it is trying to attract movie watching audience to try their game. Plus, the movie is getting a good promotion among the mobile game players.

Haku Run: More of a Movie promotion, Less of a game

Haku Run Game Play (Screenshots)

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Firstly, I’d like to appreciate the effort from Sroth Code to make a game with Nepali touch and feel. It is always nice to see new Nepali apps in the Google Playstore and iTunes store. However, this game is currently not available for iOS devices. Talking about the game, the UI isn’t something high end but does have some Nepali touch and feel. The characters are based on the two actors from the Loot 2. Right after I started the game for the first time, I found it to be too slow and generic type. I was just about to quit but the obstacles like “Safa Tampo”, “Nepal Yatayat”, “Sajha Bus” seemed to excite me. However, the game is easy to play. There’s not much of control to worry about; tap for a short jump and long press for a high jump. Just avoid obstacles and collect coins. That’s it.

If you don’t get bored of playing it from the first time. Keep it in mind, you better collect more coins. You can spend those coins later to extend the time of mystery powers and the backgrounds. Talking about the mystery powers in the game, they are the motorcycle, lakhey, kite, jumbo man, electric pasa and the like.

Download Haku Run

Verdict

Now it is the moment of truth. Do I really like the game? To be honest, it’s a solid “No”. But I know someone who will like this game and that’s my 7 years old Nephew. However, with so many games to choose from, He’ll switch to other games after few gameplays for sure.

Did you play the game “Haku Run”? Did you like it? Let us know in the comments.