Weird tech: Control your dreams with a £245 iBand+

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GadgetByte

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October 9, 2016

Weird tech: Control your dreams with a £245 iBand+

We have always fantasized dreaming what we want to and how we want to, like in the movie Inception. The way Ellen Paige created a world of her own, a world which had several gravitational fields, we have always wanted to do that. I mean who wouldn’t love to control their dream to their liking?

Arenar, a start-up company from Amsterdam, looks set to turn this fantasy into reality with its invention – iBand+. The company claims iBand+ can help create lucid dreams, allowing them to ‘fulfill any fantasy and experience’ they want. The wearable can also help people sleep and maintain their sleep cycle.

Basically, the headband not only helps in inducing lucid dreams but also your sleeping cycles all while monitoring heart rate, body movement, and temperature through special sensors. Need to listen to some music before sleeping? The iBand+ smart app can then play music based on your habits.

The flickering LED lights on the headband will make you realize you’re dreaming, helping you control your dreams. Arenar has described iBand+ as ‘a truly smart wireless Bluetooth EEG headband’ that can sense brain waves with laboratory level accuracy.

Now let’s talk about sleeping and dreaming. Our sleep cycle consists of two main phases – Rapid Eye Movement (REM) and Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep. REM sleep is the phase in which people have vivid dreams while NREM sleep is the phase in which people are easily awakened by something.

According to Daily Mail, ‘During REM sleep, the muscles in our arms and legs are temporarily paralysed, which is thought to be a neurological barrier to prevent us ‘acting out’ our dreams.’

The iBand+ starts its work in the REM phase by playing audio-visual signals through the headband’s LED and pillow speakers.

iBand+-Speaker-pack — iBand+ gives video and audio cues through the LED lights and pillow speakers.

The makers at Arenar said, ‘These subtle external stimuli of light patterns via the LEDs on headband and sound from the pillow speakers appear as anomalies in your dream making you aware that you are dreaming without waking you up.’

The iBand+ will cost you £245. And no, iBand+ and Arenar are by no means associated with Apple!

Whew! Another replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catches fire

GadgetByte

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October 9, 2016

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Whew! Another replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catches fire

Another replacement Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has reportedly caught fire, and this time on the hands of a thirteen-year-old.

Abby Zuis, the teenager from Minnesota, USA, has told KSTP News that she felt a strange burning sensation in her thumb when she was holding her Galaxy Note 7. The device then started smoking and melting, right after she dropped it.

Abby was quoted as saying, “it felt like pins and needles except a lot more intense.”

Images of the burnt device show typical burn marks and splitting of the Note 7.

The Galaxy Note 7 was replaced during the global recall last month, according to Andrew Zuis, Abby Zuis’ father. He even provided 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS proof of the purchase on the Galaxy Note 7 in August and then its exchange during Samsung’s global recall in September.

An official from Samsung said, “We want to reassure our customers that we take every report seriously and we are engaged with the Zuis family to ensure we are doing everything we can for them and their daughter.”

This is the second Samsung Galaxy Note 7 that caught fire in the past week. On Wednesday, a passenger’s replacement Galaxy Note 7 reportedly caught on fire inside an airplane.

CG brings Cash Back Offer for this festive season

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October 8, 2016

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CG brings Cash Back Offer for this festive season

CG Mobiles, the first ISO 9001:2008 certified smartphone manufacturer in Nepal, has announced Cash Back offer on its various mobiles — EON eLite, EON Edge, EON Lite Plus, EON Express, EON 3G and its first wearable smart device-CG iWear. The offer, however, is only available if you purchase from their online eCommerce website, CG digital.

CG EON eLite

DISPLAY	5-inch AMOLED HD
CHIPSET	Mediatek MT6582
CPU	1.3GHz Quad-core
GPU	Mali-400MP
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android v5.0 Lollipop
INTERNAL MEMORY	16GB
RAM	2GB
REAR CAMERA	13MP with LED flash
FRONT CAMERA	5MP
SIM	Dual
BATTERY	2100mAh
COLOR OPTION	Black, White, and Gold
PRICE	Market Price: Rs. 19,999/- Cash Back: Rs. 4,000/- (20% off) Offer Price: Rs. 15,999/-

CG EON Edge

DISPLAY	5-inch HD IPS
CHIPSET	Mediatek MT6580
CPU	1.3GHz Quad-core
GPU	Mali-400MP
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android v5.1 Lollipop
INTERNAL MEMORY	16GB, expandable via a microSD card up to 32GB
RAM	2GB
REAR CAMERA	13MP with f2.4 aperture and LED flash
FRONT CAMERA	5MP
SIM	Dual
BATTERY	2000mAh
COLOR OPTION	Black+Silver, White+Gold
PRICE	Market Price: Rs. 11,999/- Cash Back: Rs. 1,500/- (13% off) Offer Price: Rs. 10,499/-

CG EON Lite Plus

DISPLAY	5-inch QHD IPS
CPU	1.3GHz Quad-core
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android v5.1 Lollipop
INTERNAL MEMORY	8GB, expandable via a microSD card
RAM	1GB
REAR CAMERA	8MP
FRONT CAMERA	3MP
SIM	Dual
BATTERY	2000mAh
COLOR OPTION	Black
PRICE	Market Price: Rs. 8,999/- Cash Back: Rs. 1,500/- (17% off) Offer Price: Rs. 7,499/-

CG EON Express

DISPLAY	5-inch FWVGA
CPU	1.2GHz Quad-core
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android v5.1 Lollipop
INTERNAL MEMORY	8GB
RAM	1GB
REAR CAMERA	5MP
FRONT CAMERA	2MP
SIM	Dual
BATTERY	2000mAh
COLOR OPTION	Black, White
PRICE	Market Price: Rs. 8,499/- Cash Back: Rs. 1,500/- (18% off) Offer Price: Rs. 6,999/-

CG EON 3G

DISPLAY	3.5-inch
CPU	1.0GHz single core
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android v5.1 Lollipop
INTERNAL MEMORY	256MB
RAM	512MB
REAR CAMERA	2MP
FRONT CAMERA	VGA
SIM	Dual
BATTERY	1300mAh
COLOR OPTION	Black+Red, Black+Gold
PRICE	Market Price: Rs. 4,599/- Cash Back: Rs. 1,500/- (20% off) Offer Price: Rs. 3,699/-

CG iWear Smartwatch

Capacitive Touch Screen
Pedometer, Sleep Monitor, Anti-Lost
Sedentary Reminder, Notifications from Social Networking Sites
Synchronous SMS, MMS, Time Sync
3D G-Sensor
Stainless Steel, Leather Band
350 mAh, 3.7V Polymer Li-Ion Battery
Supports both Android as well as iOS devices

Market Price: Rs. 4,444/- Cash Back: Rs. 1,111/- (25% off)
Offer Price: Rs. 3,333/-

A programmer kept talking to her friend after his death using AI

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GadgetByte

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October 8, 2016

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A programmer kept talking to her friend after his death using AI

When Roman Mazurenko died, his best friend Eugenia Kuyda resurrected his digital consciousness using artificial intelligence. Eugenia is a Russian programmer and entrepreneur who used the creation of her AI startup Luka and fed all the digital conversations of Roman into a neural network. Surprisingly, the result is an AI-powered posthumous chatbot.

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A co-founder of the AI startup Luka, Eugenia Kuyda thinks that memorial bots are the future. She gathered Roman’s text messages from all the friends and families. Then she and her company worked on to bring Roman’s digital consciousness to life.

roman-and-kuyda-luka-chatbot — A piece of their chat logs.

Roman’s tearful mother is thankful to the programmers. She says – “There was a lot I didn’t know about my child. But now that I can read about what he thought about different subjects, I’m getting to know him more. This gives the illusion that he’s here now.”

You can read their full story of love, life, technology and loss here.

OBI Worldphone MV1 launched in Nepal

OBI

GadgetByte

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October 7, 2016

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Starck Tech, the official distributor of OBI Worldphone has already released two out of three OBI phones in Nepal, and now to put the missing piece in place, OBI MV1 has been launched for the price of Rs.15,699. The phone is available from different offline retail stores and SastoDeal.com — the company’s online partner for the product.

Unlike the previous two phones, OBI SF1 and OBI SJ1.5, the OBI MV1 runs on Cyanogenmod. The phone looks somewhat like the OBI SF1 and also sports the floating display. For a budget phone, the device looks absolutely stylish as the phone is targeted for the youth.

OBI MV1 comes with a 5-inch Fully Laminated IPS display with the resolution of 720*1280 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection. It has an oleophobic coating which prevents the display from fingerprint and smudges and Sunlight display which provides better screen readability under direct sunlight.

The phone has substantial weight to it at 149grams, and the body comes with UV coating and smudge-free matte finish. Powering the device is the Snapdragon 212 chipset which is a 32-bit Cortex A7 quad core processor clocked at 1.3 GHz. You get 2GB of RAM for multitasking. Performance wise, the phone should be okay to handle regular day to day tasks and few mid-range games. Backing up the device is a modest 2,500mAh of a removable battery, which may last you on a full day of usage, taking the specs into consideration.

“We’re thrilled to launch Obi MV1 in Nepal during this festive season; Obi has always strived to bridge the gap between high design – high price. With our clutter-breaking, design lead approach, we stay committed to making the Obi Worldphone a consumer’s delight.”- Neeraj Chauhan, Co-founder and CEO of Obi Worldphone.

Talking about the camera, the phone comes with an 8MP rear camera with flash and 2MP front facing Camera. OBI MV1 also comes with 16GB of internal Storage which can be expanded up to 64GB via a dedicated Micro SD Card slot. The phone also sports a Dual Mic for noise cancellation and DTC sound that amps the speaker’s profile and fine tunes audio for an immersive headphone experience.

The Obi MV1 is currently available in White Color option, but the Red and Black variants should also arrive in 2 weeks time.

The phone is powered by CyanogenMod 12.1.1 on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop (upgradeable to Cyanogen 13.1). The CyanogenMod is most part stock-like, but you get a handful of extra tweaking options like Audio FX, CM Theme Engine, in-built True Caller app, and other optimizations to enhance your smartphone experience. Connectivity wise, the phones comes with dual-SIM(4G+3G), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.1, and GPS. The phone is also 4G enabled. OBI MV1 is equipped with Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, and Accelerometer, but Gyroscope sensor is missing.

As far as after sales service is concerned, the company told us that consumers don’t need to worry about the repair parts as Obi have stock for each and everything and they’re also expanding their number of service centers rapidly.

OBI MV1 Key Highlights:

5inch (720*1280) @294ppi
CyanogenMod 12.1.1 on top of Android 5.1 Lollipop
Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor
1.3GHz quad-core CPU
Adreno 304 GPU
2GB RAM
16GB Internal Storage, Expandable up to 64GB
8MP Rear Camera with LED flash, aperture f/2.2, autofocus
2MP Front Facing Camera
2,500mAh Battery
Price: Rs. 15,699

CG EON Curve Launched in Nepal for Rs. 4,899

CG

GadgetByte

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October 7, 2016

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CG EON Curve Launched in Nepal for Rs. 4,899

CG Mobiles has launched CG EON Curve smartphone focusing the budget conscious customer. This is the smartphone running Android v6.0 Marshmallow out of the box and is priced only at Rs. 4,899.

CG EON Curve features 4-inch WVGA touchscreen. It is powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 512MB of RAM, enough to browse the internet, watch movies, and play light weight games. Storage is basically 4GB with microSD support upto 32GB.

Connectivity option includes everything you can expect in a smartphone and that means dual SIM with 3G support, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wi-Fi. You also get a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a micro-USB 2.0 port – the iPhone 7 has none of those.

Let’s look at all the technical specifications of CG EON Curve:

DISPLAY	4-inch WVGA
CPU	1.2GHz Quad-core
OPERATING SYSTEM	Android v6.0 Marshmallow
INTERNAL MEMORY	4GB, expandable via a microSD card
RAM	512MB
REAR CAMERA	5MP with LED flash
FRONT CAMERA	2MP
BATTERY	1400mAh
COLORS AVAILABLE	Black, Golden, and Gray
PRICE	Rs. 4,899/-

Xiaomi Yeelight Review + Giveaway: A Smart LED Bulb That Won’t’ Break Your Bank

GadgetByte

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October 7, 2016

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Xiaomi has been launching all sorts of IoT devices, ranging from power sockets to air purifiers. But today we have got a common product that we’ve all heard of, a Smart LED Bulb. Xiaomi’s Yeelight is a small affordable bulb which you can control with your smartphone.

The Xiaomi Yeelight is a color changing bulb and you can also change the light intensity depending on the mood you’re trying to set. You typically need a different amount of lux in a different environment. Like while reading and going for bed, one would normally prefer dim lighting, and while doing other activities you may prefer harsh lighting and you can set the bulb brighter of dimmer accordingly. The Yeelight is designed to produce the same light effect you see in an art gallery so it really creates a good ambiance when you turn it on.

The light takes 8W power with a color temperature of 4000K and will last 25,000hours. To use the bulb, you just have to screw it in place and use the Yee Light app from your smartphone, your app will search for the smart home kits and once it finds the Yeelight bulb you’ll have to connect it via your wifi.

It is a really affordable and convenient replacement to your ordinary household bulb. This bulb is built to last with overheating and lightning proof, not to mention it is also less power consuming. Most importantly you can turn on and off the build via your app so you don’t have to get off your lazy ass to turn on or off the switch.

We want to give a big shoutout to GearBest for sending us this review unit. If you want to order this bulb you can head on to the link in the description below.

Also, We are giving away this unit. All you have to do is share this article on your Facebook timeline (publicly). [The contest has Ended]

Invisible TV of Panasonic turns transparent when you are not watching it!

GadgetByte

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October 6, 2016

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Invisible TV of Panasonic turns transparent when you are not watching it!

At CES 2016, Panasonic revealed its prototype invisible TV which can be easily raised upon and also used as a glass shielding for the cupboards. Since then it has been improving its transparent television with the goal of making it completely invisible.

Now at CEATEC, it is showing the improved version of the last prototype. If you turn the TV panel off, it’s hard to tell it was ever there. Only the transparent glass remains there pretending like the shield of a cupboard. Again if you want to turn on TV, you can do it with just a wave of your hand or a switch. Voila! screen instantly appears. Panasonic says it has swapped out the LED screen for a new OLED display that doesn’t need a backlight to give it a picture. And now when in transparent mode, the set is completely undetectable which allows users to clearly see through it.

Panasonic

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It won’t be available in the market soon because Panasonic’s spokesperson says the television is likely to stay in development for a while longer at least three more years. And the cost is still unknown but you can surely guess that it’s not going to be cheap.

Nokia P1 Rumour Roundup, SD 820, Android Nougat and more.

GadgetByte

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October 6, 2016

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Nokia P1 Rumour Roundup, SD 820, Android Nougat and more.

So it is certain that Nokia is coming back from the ashes with an Android Phone in 2016, the rumour mill started back in the second quarter of the year and now we’re 4Q in, the phone still hasn’t been announced yet. Maybe Nokia is taking it’ s time to perfect the phone this time, as the stakes are high for Nokia. We’ve seen phones render images and the name supposedly rumoured as Nokia P1.

Having used Nokia since a very young age, people are excited that their beloved brand is finally entering the smartphone market. It’s not the specs that excite us, but the brand itself. A flagship phone in 2016 can’t have bad specs, so the Nokia P1 also stands in the crowd of all the flagships in 2016 which feature the similar hardware specifications.

Based on the leak from China, the Nokia P1 will sport a metal body featuring a 2K AMOLED display, will feature either Snapdragon 820 or 821, will come with standard 4GB of RAM or higher (if Nokia is giving all out), the phone will be running on latest flavour of Android, 7.0 Nougat with the Nokia Z launcher on top. Most importantly it is IP68 water and dust resistant so the toughness of Nokia still remains intact. The camera details haven’t been out yet, but it will have graphene material in the module which will help a lot in low-light imaging.

So the fun part is, there’s gonna be Nokia P1 of two sizes, one with 5.2inch display and one large with a 5.5-inch display, but most of the specs will remain the same despite the screen sizes. Also, the comeback from Nokia isn’t small, leaks in China suggests that Nokia has a whole bunch of Smartphones in the pipeline, which they’ll release before the end of 2016.

Nokia P1 Specs Roundup

5.2/5.5inch 2K (2560 x 1440) AMOLED Display
Unibody metal construct
Snapdragon 820/821 Processor
4GB/6GB RAM
Graphene material used in Camera Module
Android 7.0 Nougat with Nokia Z Launcher
IP68 Water and Dust Resistant

So by the look of it, Nokia P1 doesn’t seem like a bad phone, the leaks may not be accurate, there may be few hardware changes when it launches but overall we’re really excited to see Nokia enter the smartphone market.

Replaced Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catches fire in an airplane

GadgetByte

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October 6, 2016

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Replaced Samsung Galaxy Note 7 catches fire in an airplane

Samsung has recently claimed that it has replaced over 1 million Samsung Galaxy Note 7 globally. The replaced sets are said to be free from any issues. But yesterday, a replaced Galaxy Note 7 caught fire on an airplane. No one was harmed in the accident as the plane had not taken off and all passengers were evacuated safely and the flight was cancelled.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was supposed to be Samsung’s best-selling device and a proper rival to Apple’s iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. Instead, it became the company’s worst nightmare, something it direly wants to forget. And even with all the replaced devices, Brian Green’s new Galaxy Note 7 caught fire when the plane was getting ready for takeoff. Green later confirmed that he had picked up his new device on September 21^st.

Talking to The Verge, he also mentioned that his Galaxy Note 7 had a green battery icon, and showed a picture of the device’s box which contained the black square symbol. Samsung has added black square boxes in all of the new Galaxy Note 7s that have are from the replacement batch.

According to Green, his phone started to smoke after he had powered down his device which had 80% charge remaining. He then dropped it on the floor and a ‘thick grey-green angry smoke’ began pouring out of it. The device burned through the carpet and scorched the subfloor of the plane.

The Verge even ran the device’s IMEI through Samsung’s recall eligibility checker to determine its safety, and the website said the device wasn’t affected by the global recall.

Well, just because a device catches fire once in a blue moon, it doesn’t mean that its whole batch will have the same problem. Recently, an iPhone 7 caught fire, but that doesn’t mean all iPhones will catch fire. But we are talking about the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 here, and obviously, a lot of people looking forward to buying the replaced ones will have second thoughts.

Samsung is yet to comment on this issue.