gadgets

The latest smartphone from HTC is yet to go on sale in India. Meanwhile, here are some first impressions… Design The new phone, called the HTC 10, follows on from last year’s HTC One M9. But while it continues the same design language such as a curved back, this is a whole new beast. The finish is smooth and looks different according to how light falls on it. The edging is much better than last year’s model, so it’s much comfier to hold. And this time the curve at the edges is, well, curvier so the phone is just 3mm thick at the edges. Quite a bit thicker in the middle, obviously, where it’s 9mm. HTC is going for a cleaner, purer look – it’s even taken the HTC logo off the front of the phone. The company has always taken the view that its products should be identifiable even if the label fell off, so it’s taking this principle to an extreme, here. The logo is there on the back, though. The phone will come in three colours: carbon grey, glacier silver and topaz gold. The silver...

The popular instant messaging app Whatsapp is said to roll out an update for the Android users. The new update will bring some tweaks to the Settings menu with a new layout and better icons. The new update is yet to hit the Google Play store or the WhatsApp website, but its APK file can be downloaded from APK Mirror website as reported by Android Police. The upgrade will introduce some changes in the placement of options in the Settings menu. For instance, the profile settings options will now be placed in the top position under the settings menu and will consist of the user's profile picture. Moreover, the profile picture will appear in a circular frame with a floating action button to change the image any time. The upgrade also adds a Data Usage feature which will enable users to manually control the download of apps and files. Users can schedule the download of files when Wi-Fi is available, which will protect the mobile data from draining. The 'Chats and calls...

The Bike Washing Machine replaces the front wheel with a washing drum It is being developed by designers at Dalian Nationalities University, China It means cyclists can save electricity by washing clothes as they exercise Finding the time to exercise when you've got heaps of housework - and laundry - piling up can be difficult, but this piece of gym kit means you've got no excuse not to work up a sweat. Chinese designers have developed an contraption called the Bike Washing Machine that contains a washing machine drum in its front wheel. When ridden, the pedalling motion causes the drum to rotate, churning your clothes inside like a traditional washer.

LONDON: James Ware, a YouTube personality in Britain, has claimed to have built the world's longest selfie stick but his unusually long monopod may not guarantee a stunning selfie, a media report said. Currently, the Guinness World Record for building the world's longest selfie stick is held by Ben Stiller, who used his 8.56 metre monopod to click selfies at the London premiere of "Zoolander 2" earlier this month. But Ware was determined to break the record, tech website cnet.com reported on Friday. So he went shopping for bits of tape and pipe that cost him around $62. Using the material, he built a selfie stick that he said measured 9.57 metres. "I'm just trying to get a new profile picture," he explained to a security officer in London's Trafalgar Square where he went to click a selfie. But the officer didn't feel secure so Ware had to go elsewhere. Although Ware successfully got his selfie using the stick, his iPhone also captured a ...

recently, whatsapp made an announcement officially on it's webite that they will be ending theur services on selected smartphone platforms by the end of 2016 .  here is what they said. "Earlier this week WhatsApp turned seven years old. It has been an amazing journey and in the coming months we're putting an even greater emphasis on security features and more ways to stay in touch with the people that you care about. But anniversary dates are also an opportunity to look back. When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people's use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia. Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time. As we look ahead to our next seven years, we want to focus ou...

What is the LG Rolling Bot? It's a few things. A remote controlled toy. A home surveillance camera. An entertainer for your cat. We kid you not - this is LG's crazy creative juices in full flow. LG didn't even intend to launch the Rolling Bot, but it was so well liked internally they decided to treat the world to it. Perhaps the success of Sphero BB-8 encouraged LG to make its own round rollable a reality. The white plastic sphere comprises of two domed wheels bolted onto a central circular control unit. Slightly smaller than a bowling ball, the Rolling Bot looks like it could belong on the set of iRobot. It feels pretty tough, but LG recommends not dropping it from anything higher than about a foot - so don't go running it down the stairs. You control the Rolling Bot with a smartphone app (available on Android and iOS), and with its built-in 8MP you get a visual from the robot as you drive it round your house.You can take pictures and record footage, and the...

A new laser weapon that can burn up targets in just a few seconds recently melted and destroyed a test drone flying over California. Known as the Compact Laser Weapons System, the futuristic, drone-shooting weapon is a smaller, more versatile version of the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD), a system developed by Boeing to be mounted on top of U.S. Army vehicles. Both weapons forgo conventional bullets for "directed energy"— a focused beam of energy that heats up and damages a target. "Think of it like a welding torch being put on a target, but from many hundreds of meters away," Isaac Neal, a Boeing engineer, said in a video about the new weapons system that was posted on the defense contractor's website. In a recent test, the laser, which is compact enough to carry around in a suitcase, was able to locate, aim and fire at a small drone flying above a testing facility in Point Mugu, California. The laser gun acts quickly (it took just 15 ...