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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Roman Mazurenko and Eugenia Kuyda
From left to right: Roman Mazurenko, Eugenia Kuyda and their friend
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.
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.
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
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:
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]
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.
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.
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 21st.
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.
Goodbye Nexus! Hello to Pixel! Google has just announced two new phones: Pixel and Pixel XL. These are basically the upgraded version of last years LG Nexus 5x and Huawei Nexus 6P with the latest software and improved hardware. This year’s Pixel and Pixel XL is manufactured by HTC.
The Google Pixel sports a 5-inch 1080P AMOLED display and Pixel XL sports a bigger 5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display. Both the phones are powered by the latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 821, and has 4GB of DDR4 RAM. Storage option include either 32GB or 128GB. Both the phones ship with the Android 7.1 (Nougat), the latest version from Google.
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In terms of camera, both the Pixel and Pixel XL boasts the same camera seen on last year’s model — a 12.3MP camera with LED flash, Sony IMX378 sensor, 1.55umpixel, f/2.0 aperture and Phase Detection AF. But, it includes Electronic Image Stabilization which will improve the overall camera performance. Up front, there is an 8MP front camera.
The fingerprint on the Google Pixel and Pixel XL is located on the rear side. Battery capacity is also different with Pixel having a smaller 2,770mAh and Pixel XL with 3450mAh. Connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11ac MIMO (2.4/5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, USB Type-C.
Color Options: Quite Black, Very Silver and limited edition Really Blue
Both the Google Pixel and Pixel XL comes in Quite Black, Very Silver and limited edition Really Blue colors. The Google Pixel is priced at $649 for the 32GB version and $749 for the 128GB version. The Google Pixel XL is priced at $769 for the 32GB version, while the 128GB version costs $869.
Google Pixel Vs Pixel XL Specs Shootout:
Google Pixel
Google Pixel XL
5-inch 1080P AMOLED display
with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection
5.5-inch QHD AMOLED display
with Gorilla Glass 4 protection
2.15 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 821 SoC
2.15 GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 821 SoC
4GB DDR4 RAM; 32/128GB ROM
(unlimited cloud storage)
4GB DDR4 RAM; 32/128GB ROM
(unlimited cloud storage)
Android 7.1 (Nougat)
Android 7.1 (Nougat)
12.3MP rear camera with LED flash, Sony IMX378 sensor
12.3MP rear camera with LED flash, Sony IMX378 sensor
These days, more and more smartphone manufacturers are targeting the Nepali market. And Coolpad Group Limited, a Chinese company that will be officially arriving in Nepal in new weeks time, is set to continue this trend.
One of the largest smartphone companies in China, Coolpad Group Limited is actually a telecommunication company that sells telecommunication equipment and smartphones among others. It is the largest Chinese domestic brand by sales outside of China.
Talking about the company, the Coolpad Group Limited got its name at the end of 2013. Previously, the company was called Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific Co. that sold smartphones under the name ‘Coolpad’ brand. The company was founded in 1993 and has been on the rise ever since.
In the last decade, the company has succeeded in being one of the leaders of mobile operating systems, radio frequency, protocols and wireless data decomposed transmission technology, etc. in China. Not only this, the company has also been a major smartphone seller outside of China in respect to the Coolpad brand. From January to June 2012, the company had a market share of shipments of 10.4%.
The Coolpad smartphone brand speaks innovation too. The Coolpad Group Limited is set to release a device with an actual frameless display. When asked about the technology, the company said, “this patented technology can render the visual effect of a smartphone’s screen to be completely frameless through a manufacturing process while delivering a seamless, edge-to-edge visual experience to the end users’. Basically, there will be no frame around the device. This is sure to be an absolute enticing display”.
This Coolpad device will be a frameless smartphone.
So, we are getting to see another budget-oriented smartphone manufacturer make their sales in Nepal. A new smartphone brand lining up to topple the established Chinese brands Huawei and Gionee. Coolpad will join the newly launched Meizu, HTC and the not-so-new ZTE in an attempt to make an impression in the Nepali market. And if the company prices their products right unlike some brands here in Nepal, it will slowly have a fair share of the smartphone market.
Today on How to section, we are discussing the ways of using Google Search effectively. Google Search is pretty good at finding what you are looking for these days, but sometimes they still come up short which makes you to use other search engines (we’ll discuss about other search engines some other time). For this case, there are few little tips and tricks which come handy and help us to use Google Search effectively. So here are some tips for better googling-
Exact phrase
The simplest and most effective way to search for something specific is to use quote marks “…” around a phrase or name.
Exclude terms
If you are not getting what you need then you can specifically exclude certain words using the minus sign.
Asterisk wildcard
Searching a phrase in quotes with an asterisk replacing a word will search all variations of that phrase. It’s helpful if you’re trying to determine a song from its lyrics, but you couldn’t make out the entire phrase.
Searching between two values
Searching for something with a qualifier between two ranges is a good way of answering questions. For instance, if you’re looking for the who were the Nepali prime ministers between 1920 and 1950 a search using Nepali prime minister 1920.. 1950 will bring up results with dates ranging between 1920 and 1950.
Search for the related sites
The related qualifier is useful for finding similar sites. Searching for related:abc.com for instance, will bring up the websites of other news organizations that Google deems the most similar to the ABC.
Definitions
You can put define: in front of the word that you want the definition of.
Calculator
For quick math problems, don’t worry about opening your calculator app. Just type the equation into Google using +, -, *, / and parentheses for basic functions.
Unit Converter
Just type what you are looking for in a sentence with the units you have and want.
Some other tips and fun tricks are listed below in the table. Use without the quote marks.
Function
Execution
To set a timer
Enter “set timer for” followed by the desired amount of time
To check the weather for a specific area
Enter “weather” followed by a zip code or city
To look up the time for a specific region
Enter “time” followed by the particular region
To look up your IP address
Enter “my ip address” in the search bar
To roll a six-sided die
Enter “roll a dice” in the search bar
To compare between foods
Use “vs” between two foods
Play Atari Breakout by searching it on Google Images
