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Back in October 2017, DeepMind Artificial Intelligence startup became a part of the Alphabet, and its WaveNet technology which is a deep neural network for generating raw audio waveforms is used in producing better and more natural sounding speech for Google Assistant in English and Japanese languages.
Google today announced that it is bringing this technology to Google Cloud Platform with Cloud Text-to-Speech open for developers or business that needs voice synthesis on tap, whether that’s for an app, website, or virtual assistant.
The company says that it can be used in a variety of ways including power voice response systems for call centers (IVRs), enabling real-time natural language conversations, have IoT devices talk back to you, convert text into the spoken format like audiobooks, etc.
There are 32 basic voices to choose from, across 12 languages. Cloud Text-to-Speech correctly pronounces complex text such as names, dates, times and addresses for authentic-sounding and it also allows you to customize pitch, speaking rate, and volume gain and supports a variety of audio formats, including MP3 and WAV.
The improved WaveNet model generates audio 1,000 times faster than the original model, fidelity has also been increased to 24,000 samples per second, and the resolution has been bumped up from 8 to 16 bits all of which producing ...
Huawei yesterday introduced the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS at an event in Paris. It is the company's latest smartphone in the Porsche Design series. It sports a 6-inches OLED FullView 18:9 aspect ratio OLED display. Since it is a Porsche Designed phone, it comes with a premium build and an in-display fingerprint sensor. We have got our hands on the phone so let’s take a detailed look at hardware and specifications of the phone.
The Porsche Design Mate RS comes with 6-inches OLED FullView 18:9 aspect ratio OLED display. The phone is powered by the Huawei Kirin 970 SoC with 6GB RAM and up to 512GB storage.
Unlike the P20-series, there is no top notch at the front for the Porsche Design Huawei Mate RS. Up front, there is a 24MP front-camera present right above the display along with earpiece, microphone and the usual set of sensors. The phone comes with 83.93% Screen-to-body ratio and an 18:9 aspect ratio. There are ultra slim bezels on all corners since it packs FullView display.
[gallery link="none" ids="247905,247906,247907"]
The volume rockers and the power button are present on the right side. While the SIM card tray is present on the right side. The main speaker grill, USB Type-C port, primary microphone are present on the bottom are present on the bottom. The ...
HMD Global introduced the Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 8 Sirocco and new Nokia 6 Android One smartphones at the MWC 2018 last month. Earlier this week it launched the Nokia 1 Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphone. Today it has sent out an invite for an event in in India on April 4th where it is expected to introduce the new Android One phones. It is not clear Nokia 8110 feature phone as well. The invite says next milestone of Nokia phones will be unveiled.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vtrs8ZapOQE
Nokia 7 Plus specifications
6-inch (2160 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla glass 3 protection
Octa Core Snapdragon 660 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Kryo 260 + Quad 1.8GHz Kryo 260 CPUs) with Adreno 512 GPU
4GB LPDDR4 RAM, 64GB (eMMC 5.1) internal storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Single / Dual SIM
Android 8.0 (Oreo), upgradable to Android 8.1
12MP rear camera with f/1.75 aperture, 1.4µm pixel size with ZEISS optics, 13 MP secondary camera with 1.0µm pixel size, f/2.6 aperture with ZEISS optics, dual-tone LED flash
16MP front-facing camera with ZEISS optics
Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions: 158.38 x 75.64 x 9.55 mm
3.5 mm headphone jack, Three microphones with Nokia OZO Audio
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + ...
Vivo launched the V9 smartphone with a notch, dual rear cameras and a 24-megapixel front camera in India last week. We recently unboxed the smartphone. Check out the unboxing and first impressions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIAsOkNJ9zA
Box Contents
Vivo V9 smartphone in Champagne Gold
2-pin charger (5V-2A)
Micro USB cable
Headset
Clear protective case
SIM Ejector tool
Quick start guide and warranty information
The Vivo V9 has a 6.3-inch (2280 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 IPS display with a notch and a 90% screen-to-body ratio, thanks to 1.75mm slim bezels. It is powered by Snapdragon 626 with 4GB RAM and runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Funtouch OS 4.0 on top.
The notch houses the earpiece, usual set of sensors and a 24-megapixel camera with support for A.I face that promises to capture a perfect image event in low-light or glare. It also has support for face unlock.
Similar to the V7 series, the V9 has a dedicated dual SIM and a microSD slot.
On the back there is a 16-megapixel camera along with a secondary 5-megapixel camera to capture the depth information for portrait shots. There is also a fingerprint sensor.
It has a metal finish on the back, while the top and bottom parts have plastic finish where the antennas are present. The back is prone ...
Motorola has announced a temporary price cut on range of its smartphones on Flipkart, Amazon.in as well as offline stores as a part of Moto Fest sale. This includes its popular Moto E4 Plus, Moto G5S Plus, Moto X4 and Moto Z2 Play.
Offers on Moto smartphones during Moto Fest
Moto Z2 Play – Rs. 21,999 (Rs. 6000 off + up to Rs. 16,000 off on exchange)
Moto X4 3GB + 32GB – Rs. 20,999 (up to Rs. 19,000 off on exchange)
Moto G5s Plus – Rs. 12,999 (Rs. 2000 off ) - Also on Moto Hub
Moto E4 Plus – Rs. 9,499 (Rs. 500 off + up to Rs. 9,000 off on exchange) - Also on Moto Hub
Additionally, customers can avail benefits such as No Cost EMIs Options with Zero Processing Fee options on the range of products through Bajaj Finserv and Home Credit. These offers will be available till 29th March across all retail channels including Amazon, Flipkart, retail stores and Moto Hubs across the country.
2018 has been the year of Android phones with iPhone X-style top-notch and for many obvious reasons, there has been a negative fuss surrounding it claiming to be a blunt rip off of the iPhone X. Truth be spoken, there is no better alternative to bring in more screen real-estate without including a top notch. Yes, Apple has included a bunch of sensors including the Face ID in the top notch, and, Android-powered smartphones just have the regular sensor and front camera, but there is no better way to bring in an impressive screen-to-body ratio without designing it with a notch.
Cut to the chase, the upcoming OnePlus flagship (for now dubbed as the OnePlus 6) is also said to feature the notch. However, the company says that it will be more than just another iPhone copycat. Following the negativity, Android phones with notch-designs have been receiving since the MWC 2018 launches, OnePlus has reached out to The Verge to make its point and why it thinks the change in design is a good thing.
The company is far from backing out with the notch design at this stage and OnePlus like every other phone maker is opting to go this design route and is ...
Xiaomi unveiled the Mi MIX 2S this week, but it did not feature an in-display fingerprint sensor as rumored earlier. Xiaomi smartphone code-named dipper surfaced in benchmarks with Snapdragon 845, 6GB RAM and Android 8.0, which is rumored to be Mi 7. According to the source code, the Mi 7 might not come with a fingerprint sensor, however Xiaomi is testing an in-display fingerprint scanner on dipperold, which could be the Mi 7 Plus.
Dipperold’s firmware reveals two fingerprint sensors are sourced from Synaptics and Goodix. The name goodix_fod could be "fingerprint on display". The source code also classes with the name “Gxzw” with strings referencing both of the fingerprint scanners mentioned in dipperold’s firmware.
The Xiaomi Mi 7 Plus is code-named ursa, which might come with an OLED display with a notch, Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC and a 4,000 mAh battery. Even though it is not confirmed that the device will be called the Mi 7 Plus, it is confirmed that Xiaomi is testing an in-display fingerprint sensor for its next flagship.
Source
HMD Global started rolling out Android 8.1 Oreo update for the Nokia 8 smartphone last month. Now the company has started rolling out Android 8.1 (Oreo) update for the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 (2017) users in several countries including India.
Android 8.1 brings several new features including Neural Networks API, hamburger emoji fix and developer APIs (API level 27), along with the latest optimizations, bug fixes, and security patches. The update also brings battery saving navigation buttons, revamped power menu, new settings menu and Bluetooth battery percentage, as mentioned in the changelog.
The Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 Android 8.1 Oreo update (V5.580)are about 866MB and 933MB in size, respectively and includes Android security patch for March 2018. The company already confirmed that the Nokia 2 will get Android 8.1 update directly from Android 7.1 and will also include memory management features. Nokia 3 should also get Android 8.1 soon.
Source 1, 2 | Via
Google just released the Android P developer preview for Wear OS after re-branding the Android Wear earlier this month. The Android P developer preview is now available for Huawei Watch 2 Bluetooth, and it can be installed on either the Sport or Classic versions.
Google will enhance glanceability and has switched to a UI theme with a darker / black background in Wear OS for the notifications stream and system launcher at the start of the year and now with P developer preview. It is now the default for the system theme and should improve the glanceability for wear apps. Another big change in the Wear OS apps no longer will run in the background unless it is in charge mode.
The new background restriction is more like a refinement to Doze mode on Android. However, watchfaces and complications are exceptions. The OS will now turn off the radio and will basically go into airplane mode when a user takes their watch off the body. It will only happen if the watch off for an extended period. This will be rolling out gradually so it would appear as an update that will come via the Google Play Services Framework.
WiFi will not turn on when the smartwatch is disconnected ...
Google Home just got better; the company now lets you connect your Home device to your personal Bluetooth speaker so you can control your entertainment experience simply using the sound of your voice. Firstly, you need to pair any compatible Bluetooth speaker with your Google Home.
To pair with the speakers, you need to have the Google Home app, then in the top right corner of the app Home screen, tap Devices and find the device card for the Google Home you want to pair with a Bluetooth speaker. In the settings menu, you can set the paired Bluetooth Speaker as the default. Once it is paired, you can start using it just by saying “Hey Google, shuffle my workout playlist” or “Hey Google, turn up the volume.”
Since the Bluetooth speaker will be set as default, the music will automatically play on your Bluetooth speaker without you having to tell Google the name of the device. You can also have the music follow you from your living room to other rooms as well. Just to be clear, you will still need to communicate through Google Home, but not the Bluetooth speaker.
Source
Back in October 2017, DeepMind Artificial Intelligence startup became a part of the Alphabet, and its WaveNet technology which is a deep neural network for generating raw audio waveforms is used in producing better and more natural sounding speech for Google Assistant in English and Japanese languages.
Google today announced that it is bringing this technology to Google Cloud Platform with Cloud Text-to-Speech open for developers or business that needs voice synthesis on tap, whether that’s for an app, website, or virtual assistant.
The company says that it can be used in a variety of ways including power voice response systems for call centers (IVRs), enabling real-time natural language conversations, have IoT devices talk back to you, convert text into the spoken format like audiobooks, etc.
There are 32 basic voices to choose from, across 12 languages. Cloud Text-to-Speech correctly pronounces complex text such as names, dates, times and addresses for authentic-sounding and it also allows you to customize pitch, speaking rate, and volume gain and supports a variety of audio formats, including MP3 and WAV.
The improved WaveNet model generates audio 1,000 times faster than the original model, fidelity has also been increased to 24,000 samples per second, and the resolution has been bumped up from 8 to 16 bits all of which producing ...
Xiaomi introduced the Mi MIX 2S, its latest flagship smartphone in the MIX series in China earlier this week. We got to check out the smartphone, here is a quick look at the phone in the form of photo gallery.
The Mi MIX 2S has 5.99-inch (2160 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 display with DCI-P3 color gamut, same as the predecessor. There is a small earpiece on the top along with an hidden ultrasonic proximity sensor. It is powered by the latest Snapdragon 845 with 6GB / 8GB RAM and runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with MIUI 9.5.
There is a 5-megapixel camera on the bottom right with support for AI portrait selfies with real-time background blur and face unlock.
[gallery columns="2" link="file" size="medium" ids="248035,248036"]
The power button and the volume rockers are present on the right side and the dual SIM slot is present on the left side. At the event the company said that it will support Dual 4G VoLTE.
The primary microphone, USB Type-C port and loudspeaker grill. You can also see the antenna lines. The secondary microphone is present on the top, but the phone doesn't have an infrared sensor. It measures 150.86×74.9x 8.1 mm and weighs 189 grams.
Even though the front doesn't see ...
Samsung Galaxy Note9 (SM-N960U) running Android 8.0 appeared on HTML5 test browser benchmark last month. Now the smartphone has surfaced on Geekbench listing that reveals that it will be powered by Snapdragon 845 with 6GB RAM and run Android 8.1 (Oreo). It doesn't reveal another specifications.
In Geekbench it has posted 2190 points for single-core and 8806 points for multi-core, on par with other Snapdragon 845-powered smartphones. The SM-N960U should be U.S. version with Snapdragon 845, while other countries will likely get the Exynos 9 Series 9810 SoC, similar to the S9 series.
Recent report said that Samsung will make a final decision on the in-display fingerprint sensor for the Galaxy Note9 soon. It also said that Samsung Display, the division which supplies panels for Samsung devices has said to have prepared three or four solutions to integrate a fingerprint sensor into the display.
We’ll probably hear more about the Galaxy Note9 and its features in the coming months since the phone is expected to be introduced only at the end of Q3 2018.
Source | Via
Apple just released iOS 11.3, a major update for iPhone and iPad, about three months after the release of iOS 11.2. The update brings ARKit 1.5 to offer even more immersive AR experiences to recognize and place virtual objects on vertical surfaces like walls and doors, and more accurately map irregularly shaped surfaces like circular tables for next-generation AR apps, iPhone Battery Health (Beta) to show battery health and recommend if a battery needs to be serviced. This feature is available in Settings -> Battery for iPhone 6 and later. As promised, it is now possible to disable Apple’s power management feature.
It also brings new Animoji lion, bear, dragon and skull for the iPhone X users, also brings Business Chat for users to communicate directly with businesses right within Messages, which is launching today in Beta in the US and Canada. It also includes stability improvements and bug fixes. Messages in iCloud and AirPlay 2 that appeared in Beta were removed.
The iOS 11.3 update is about 700MB in size that varies depending on the device and is already available over-the-air (OTA). It is compatible with iPhone 5s and later, all iPad Air and iPad Pro models, iPad 5th generation, iPad mini 2 and later and iPod touch 6th ...
Huawei introduced its flagship P20 and P20 Pro smartphones at an event in Paris earlier this week. We already brought you the hands-on impressions of the P20, here we have the unboxing of P20 Pro with triple rear cameras.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGYkZt8UFV0
Box Contents
Huawei P20 Pro smartphone in Black color
Earphones
2-pin fast charger with Huawei SuperCharge (5V-2A/4.5V-5A/5V-4.5A)
USB Type-C cable
SIM ejector tool
USB Type-C to 3.5mm converter
Box contents might be different in the retail unit
Unlike the LCD display on the P20, the P20 Pro features a 6.1-inch ( 2240 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ OLED 19:9 aspect ratio 2.5D curved glass display on the front with a notch. It has ultra-thin bezels and a screen-to-body ratio of 82%. It has a fingerprint sensor on the bezel, below the screen.
You can also hide the notch with an option in the settings that blackens the top area, if you think it looks awkward. The notch houses the earpiece, sensors and the 24-megapixel front-facing camera with AI beautification, 3D portrait lighting and support for face unlock.
It is powered by Octa-Core Huawei Kirin 970 10nm processor with i7 co-processor,Mali-G72 MP12 GPU and NPU, has 6GB RAM, 128GB storage and runs on Android 8.1 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.1 on top.
It has triple ...
Following the P20 launch, Huawei is now again back in the news with a foldable display. The company has patented a foldable smartphone that opens and closes like a book. The patent was filed with WIPO on September 19 last year and is only published today. The patent is titled "mobile terminal folding mechanism and mobile terminal."
Going by the patent sketches, the design more or less resembles the Microsoft Surfaces' hinge design but with a much smaller gap. The display is, however, a single panel, unlike the ZTE Axon M. When opened, the smartphone looks like a tablet and might come off as a smartphone when closed. By alternating the use of soft and hard components, the mechanism can be folded whenever you want without any problems and small gaps or holes in the design are prevented.
This is not the first time we are hearing about a foldable smartphone from Huawei. Back in October, Huawei speaking to CNET has mentioned that the company has a working sample of the phone but needs a better, flexible and a mechanical design and it still needs some more time to perfect the design before it launches. Will the company launch a smartphone with foldable a ...
Google launched Audiobooks back in January, and today it is receiving a major update including smart resume, bookmark favorite moments, speed controls and more, more reading time with routines on the Google Assistant.
The Smart Resume feature intelligently rewind you to the beginning of the word or sentence when you pick up your audiobook again in case you are distracted when listening to a book in the middle of a sentence or word. It will let you jump right back to where you left off. It also lets you save all of your favorite moments with Bookmarks in the Google Play Books app. just tap the bookmark icon to save the moment and revisit your favorite quote anytime.
Now you can add audiobooks to your Routines on Assistant in the Google Home app, and once you added, you can just say “Ok Google, tell me about my day” for an easy transition into your morning and your book. Audiobooks also gain speed controls, it now lets you listen to audiobooks at 3x speed to get through your book even faster, or slow books down to 0.5x.
You can also share audiobooks and ebooks with up to five family members for free. This feature is now rolling out to ...
Gboard beta 7.1 is now rolling to users along that hints at bunch of new features and improvements including Auto-spacing, new emoji, GIF making, 20 new languages and dialects, handwriting settings and more.
Emoji 11.0 is set to release later this year and Gboard is preparing support for some of the upcoming ones. Today's additions are centered around superheroes and supervillains in male/female versions and multiple skin tones. However, these are not live in the app just yet, even in Android P, but digging a bit deep into the app revealed the names.
Gboard 6.8 added a handwriting keyboard. As you scribble, the keyboard scrolls to provide users with more space to input text. Now with the upcoming “Handwriting settings” it might allow users to set the speed of that scrolling and also the ability to set the thickness of strokes. The latest beta update is also adding support for the next major Android release.
Long press on the period to reveal and enter common top-level domains like .com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov is the option that always been the same. However, it now seems to be changing a bit. Looks like Gboard is now adding more country-specific ones for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.
Gboard is also working on ...
Moto Z3 Play first surfaced in render back in January revealing 6-inch 18:9 screen, smart camera and support for MotoMods and the cases for the surfaced recently. Now the smartphone has passed through the FCC with the model number XT1929 that reveals that it will come with a 6.1-inch display, which will likely be Full HD+. It also confirms Snapdragon 636 SoC, 4GB RAM with 32GB or 64GB storage variants. It will come in single SIM and dual SIM variants depending on the region.
It also reveals the dimensions as 156.23 x 76.7 mm and support for (5V-3A / 9V-1.6A / 12V-1.2A) Turbo Charging. No details about the battery capacity, but it could be larger than 3000mAh. It is not expected to come with a 3.5mm audio jack.
Moto Z3 Play rumored specifications
6.1-inch (1080 x 2160 pixels) Full HD+ display with Corning Gorilla Glass protection
1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 636 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 509 GPU
4GB LPDDR4 RAM with 32GB / 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD
Android 8.1 (Oreo)
Single / Dual SIM
12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED flash, secondary 8MP rear camera
5MP front-facing camera
Water repellent nano-coating
Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions: 156.23 x 76.7mm
4G VoLTE, ...
Details about the Moto G6, Moto G6 Plus and Moto G6 Play surfaced earlier this year. The Moto G6 got certified in China. Now all the three smartphones have been listed on an Hungarian site with images and full specifications. This reveals 18:9 display and front LED flash for all the smartphones, dual rear cameras and front-mounted fingerprint sensor for the G6 and G6 Plus and rear mounted fingerprint sensor on the Moto logo on the Moto G6 Play.
Moto G6 Plus rumored specifications
5.93-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 IPS display
2.2 GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 630 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 508 GPU
6GB RAM with 64GB internal storage, 4GB RAM with 32GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Android 8.0 (Oreo)
Single / Dual SIM
12MP rear camera with LED Flash, 5MP secondary rear camera
16MP front-facing camera with LED flash
Fingerprint sensor
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 5 LE, GPS, GLONASS, NFC
3200mAh battery with Turbo charging
Moto G6 rumored specifications
5.7-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 IPS display
1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU
3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage, 4GB RAM with 64GB internal ...
