4 Archives - Triadoro

Boys, 11 And 12, Named For UP Cow Slaughter; Spent 4 Hours With Police

Two children, 11 and 12, have been named as accused in a case filed over cow slaughter allegations that led to a frenzied mob murdering a police officer in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandhshar.

The boys, who are cousins, are among seven named in a complaint of cow slaughter filed after carcasses were found strewn around in a forest near village Nayabans in Bulandshahr.

The complainant, Yogesh Raj, is a Bajrang Dal activist who is the main accused in mob killing of inspector Subodh Kumar Singh. He is missing since the incident.

Yogesh Raj is seen in a video arguing with the police and demanding action against cow slaughter on Monday, shortly before the situation went out of hand and a mob attacked policemen, burnt the police outpost and set vehicles on fire.

Yogesh Raj’s complaint includes two children, one man who does not live in the village anymore, and three names the villagers have never heard.

Inspector Subodh Kumar was killed in mob frenzy over cow carcasses found near a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Bulandshahr

The village is stunned that children have been named for cow slaughter. The father of one of the boys says they were not even in the village the day of the incident.

“The police came to our house, called us to the police station and kept us there for four hours. They took the names of the boys and took my phone number. I was told we should be called again if required,” the father said.

So six of the seven names in the cow slaughter case are doubtful, NDTV learnt from inquiries in the village. One of the “accused” lives in Faridabad in Haryana and has not stayed in the village in 10 years.

[“source=ndtv”]

Apple Watch Series 4 With Bigger Display, ECG Capability Launched

Apple Watch Series 4 price starts at $399 in the US; price in India not revealed yet

HIGHLIGHTS

Apple Watch Series 4 comes with a 30 percent larger display
It has a casing made of black ceramic and sapphire crystal
Pricing in the US starts at $399 for the GPS-only model

Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of the fourth generation of its Apple Watch at an event in the company’s Steve Jobs Theater in Apple Park, Cupertino. The latest smartwatch from Apple comes with a new design and larger display – one with thinner bezels compared to last year’s model. It also features ECG functionality that has been given a ‘De Novo’ classification by the US FDA. Other highlights include a ceramic build, optical heart sensor, swimproof capabilities, and more.

At the launch event, CEO Tim Cook claimed that the Apple Watch is the highest selling watch in the world. The company is focusing on connectivity, fitness, and health as the three core elements of its smartwatch strategy. “Apple Watch has become an intelligent guardian for your health,” said Jeff Williams, COO, Apple. “Everything has been redesigned and reengineered.”

Apple Watch Series 4 price

The Apple Watch Series 4 has been priced at $399 (roughly Rs. 28,700) for the GPS-only, non-Cellular variant, and $499 (around Rs. 35,900) for the variant with both GPS and Cellular capabilities. This pricing is the same as that of last year’s Apple Watch Series 3. The latest Series 4 will be available for pre-orders starting September 14 and will go on sale starting September 21 in 26 markets at launch for the GPS-only variant, and 16 markets for the GPS+Cellular variant at launch. Apple’s new watchOS 5 will be available for other Apple Watch models starting September 17.

It will be available in three aluminium finishes, and there is a brand-new Gold stainless finish apart from Silver and Space Grey. Backward compatible is available on the part of wristbands.

Apple Watch Series 3 gets a price cut and is available starting at $279 (roughly Rs. 20,100).

As far as India is concerned, pricing and availability details haven’t been revealed yet.

Apple Watch Series 4 specifications, features

The display on the Series 4 is 30 percent larger than last year’s model and comes in new 40mm and 44mm casing options, that are claimed to fit in a smaller footprint than last year’s variants. In terms of design, the latest Apple Watch Series 4 resembles the Series 3 except the near-edge-to-edge design new placement of its microphone for echo reduction.

The smartwatch features the new Apple S4 SoC which contains a 64-bit dual-core processor and a new GPU, with up to two times faster performance when compared to the Series 3. The Series 4 also has a next-gen accelerometer and gyroscope with up to 2x dynamic range and up to 32 g-forces.

The Digital Crown now gets haptic feedback that helps navigate easily in apps like Calendar and Podcasts. The speaker on the Apple Watch Series 4 is 50 percent louder, and the microphone has been moved away from the speaker to reduce echo. Williams also said the back of the new Apple Watch is made entirely of black ceramic and sapphire crystal.

The Apple Watch Series 4 comes with built-in fall detection that can alert emergency services and SOS contacts immediately. Other additions include a ‘low heart rate’ notification, alerts for atrial fibrillation, and electrocardiogram (ECG). Williams stated this is the first ECG product available over the counter, directly to the customer. The results of the new ECG app will be stored in the Health app on your iPhone, and can be shared in the form of a PDF file. These new health features will be available for US customers later this year.

The new smartwatch is touted to be swimproof, has Bluetooth v5.0, and has an optical heart sensor. Apple Watch Series 4 is powered by the latest watchOS 5 – with the UI optimised for the larger display. Apple also showcased certain new watch faces including a new modular face, one with the ability to add several health and fitness statistics, and three new minimal faces to cut down on the amount of information for users who prefer it that way. New watch faces based on fire, water, and vapour effects were also introduced.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

Black Mirror Season 4 Episode 1 ‘USS Callister’ Shows How Technology Enables Creeps

HIGHLIGHTS

Black Mirror season 4 is available on Netflix
“USS Callister” is the first episode of new season
Charlie Brooker co-wrote, stars Jesse Plemons

Spoilers ahead for Black Mirror season four episode one, “USS Callister”. If you haven’t seen the episode, turn away and come back later.

At its surface, “USS Callister” – the first episode of anthology sci-fi series Black Mirror’s fourth season, out since Friday on Netflix worldwide – seems like a parody of Star Trek. It’s how the poster, stills, trailer, and the title have been set up, but that’s merely because marketing any episode of Black Mirror is a challenge, given its reliance on twists. (It’s also why Netflix prohibited us critics from revealing much about it.) The one in “USS Callister” appears less than 10 minutes into the episode, when it’s revealed that it’s all just a locally-stored Trek-themed fork of a popular virtual reality game.

From that moment on, the Trek inspiration turns merely into elaborate dressing, from the clothes to the sets, which hews as closely as possible to Gene Roddenberry’s vision with the 60s original series, without getting the CBS lawyers off their cushy seats. The real target of the episode are the power fantasies of human beings, and how can they can go very quickly from harmless to beyond creepy with advances in technology. Black Mirror has always been fascinated with digital consciousness – first with “White Christmas”, then “San Junipero”and now this – though it gets a much heavier focus on “USS Callister”.

Out in the real world, Robert Daly (Jesse Plemons) is the brains behind the online multiplayer VR creation, but he’s always been the ignored nice guy. He doesn’t get the credit unlike the public-facing Walton (Jimmi Simpson) – the CEO calls himself the “shiny front-end”, and refers to Daly as the back-end – he’s laughed at by his colleagues at the company, and he doesn’t get the reception he expects from the receptionist. Black Mirror makes it easy to sympathise with him, and view him as someone who can’t catch a break, but then turns that image on its head over the next hour.

black mirror season 4 uss callister nanette Black Mirror season 4 USS Callister

Annoyed and incensed by how he’s treated, Daly has created a modded version of the game, and he’s slowly introduced digital clones of his co-workers by stealing their DNA from the office, and using high-end tech to recreate them in the virtual reality. New employee Nanette (Cristin Miloti), who admires Daly professionally, is pulled in after he overhears her dismissing the idea of liking him in personal capacity. There, he expects her to be nice to him and forces her to comply when she refuses, like he’s already done with everyone else. In short, he’s the God.

But unlike, say, in a game of The Sims, his actions are far from harmless. The digital clones can think and feel pain like their counterparts outside, so when Daly demands a kiss from every female crew member at the end of each playthrough, or torments someone by creating a clone of their son and killing him in front of them repeatedly, that carries a lot more weight than starving a Sims baby to death. Black Mirror has always tried to warn us about the unanticipated dangers of new technology, and “USS Callister” posits how it can enable harmless creeps – Daly doesn’t seem bold enough to be a criminal – from acting out their fantasies.

That doesn’t make his actions any less criminal, though whether the laws in “USS Callister” have caught up to the available technologies is entirely unknown. Is Daly as bad as someone who would torture people in real life? Since the in-game versions of his co-workers have consciousness too, should Daly pay the same price as a criminal would in our world? And should a citizen be allowed to own a device that can help you digitally clone someone in the first place? Those are all questions raised by the episode, which has been directed by Toby Haynes (Doctor Who, Sherlock).

But Charlie Brooker, the creator of Black Mirror and co-writer on “USS Callister”, is more interested in creating an empowering story. Nanette is the true protagonist here, as it becomes clear, but the episode hides that by introducing us to the world from Daly’s eyes. We’ve all experienced situations where we’ve wanted to have control over someone, and that makes seeing Daly go through with that all the more harrowing, because there’s a bit of him in all of us.

black mirror season 4 uss callister deck Black Mirror season 4 USS Callister

“USS Callister” also ends up being accidentally timely, what with a woman having to escape from the clutches of a man who views her as an object serving as an allegory for the ongoing #MeToo social movement that erupted across the globe in the wake of sexual assault allegations levelled against major Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. In the episode, the video game versions of Callister employees are stuck in a universe where Weinstein is the only movie producer, so they have to work within those restrictions or face retribution.

While her other co-workers have chosen to give in, Nanette comes up with a strategy to free themselves from Daly’s control, which involves blackmailing her own self out in the real world. By doing so, she actually makes the original version of her self commit a crime – breaking and entering – who remains completely oblivious to how she’s helping a few digital souls escape their tormentor. We aren’t told how this impacts real-Nanette when Daly is inevitably found dead, but clone-Nanette ends up in a procedurally-generated world with infinite possibilities.

Black Mirror also gets in a dig about online gaming, with the first encounter for the digital clones being a conceited gamer – cheekily voiced by Aaron Paul’s distinctive voice – who threatens to blow them up for not serving his purpose. As an exasperated Nanette instructs her crew to warp away, he proclaims himself as ‘the king of space’, the words sounding hollow as you look at the vast virtual emptiness. The world will never be perfect, “USS Callister” argues, but you’ve always got to fight to make it better.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie Review

HIGHLIGHTS

The Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie has a 13-megapixel front camera
It is powered by a Snapdragon 430 SoC and has 3GB of RAM
It runs ZenUI 4 on top of Android Nougat

Asus launched its ZenFone 4 series in India earlier this year, with the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro, ZenFone 4 Selfie Dual Camera and the ZenFone 4 Selfie all aimed at selfie-loving buyers. We have already put the range-topping ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro (Review) to the test, and now we have our hands on the entry-level model, the ZenFone 4 Selfie. This smartphone is the entry point into Asus’ latest series and is priced at just Rs. 9,999. While this lower price makes it accessible to a lot of people, does it deliver on the promise of its name, and measure up to its competition? We review to find out.

Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie looks and design

The Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie carries the family look and has a familiar design. In fact, the ZenFone 4 Selfie, Zenfone 4 Selfie Dual Camera and the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro would look the same to a casual observer. Asus offers this model in Deep Sea Black, Rose Pink, and Sunlight Gold. We had a Sunlight Gold review unit which is nice enough to look at.

While the body of the smartphone is made of plastic it does look and feel premium. The 5.5-inch IPS display has 2.5D curved glass. Asus hasn’t specified any sort of protection for the display so you might want to be careful while handling this phone. Below the screen is a fingerprint sensor with capacitive touch buttons on either side. The front camera has its own flash, and the usual sensors are positioned right next to it.

At the back, the primary camera is positioned at the centre, with a single LED flash next to it. The phone has curved sides and rounded edges which makes it comfortable to hold. The power and volume buttons are placed on the right. We found the volume buttons to be placed a little too high, which forced us to shuffle the phone in our hand to reach them.

There’s a Micro-USB port and speaker grilles at the bottom, while the headphone jack and secondary microphone are placed on the top of the phone. It weighs 144g and measures 7.8mm in thickness which is manageable. The finish on the body makes the phone easy enough to grip, and we never dropped it accidentally.

Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie specifications and software

Smartphones in the sub Rs. 10,000 segment come packed with good hardware these days, and the ZenFone 4 Selfie is no exception. Asus has equipped this phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor, which is efficient and is found in the likes of the Nokia 6 (Review) and Moto G5S (Review). The processor has four CPU cores clocked at 1.1GHz and another four clocked at 1.4GHz. The Zenfone 4 Selfie also has 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage which can be expanded by up to 2TB using the dedicated microSD card slot.

The ZenFone 4 Selfie is a dual-SIM device and has two Nano-SIM slots. It has support for 4G and VoLTE on both SIMS but only one can latch onto a 4G network at a time. Asus has packed in a 3000mAh battery which is the average capacity we expect from most smartphones today. You get a 7W charger in the box, which takes over two and a half hours to charge the battery fully.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Display Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie Review

The screen measures 5.5 inches and has a resolution of 720×1280 pixels. It has good colour reproduction and viewing angles, and we even found it to be usable under sunlight. However, if you like saturated displays, you might be left wanting as there is no way to tweak the output. The fingerprint scanner is fairly accurate and apart from a few misses, we were able to unlock the smartphone easily. The phone is quick to register a fingerprint but takes a little longer than we would like to unlock itself.

Asus ships the ZenFone 4 Selfie running Android Nougat with Zen UI 4.0 on top. We found Zen UI to be easy to use as it has minimal changes compared to stock Android. Asus has chosen a bright theme which makes it look different, but you do have the option to change themes as per your liking. The company has also integrated shortcuts that let you launch apps and interact with the phone using only touch and motion gestures. These are disabled by default and you will need to enable them through the Settings app if you choose to use them.

You can also enable a one-handed mode by double-tapping the Home button, which shrinks the contents of the screen such that it is easier to reach everything with one thumb. The phone lets you run two instances of several apps, and has a mode called Game Genie which clears RAM before launching a game. Asus has also integrated Go2Pay into the Settings, which is a payments app that can be used to pay for bills and recharges.

There are a few preinstalled social media apps such as Facebook, Messenger and Instagram. Asus also has its own Mobile Manager app which gives you details of resource usage for the RAM, battery and storage. Selfie Master is a simple shortcut that launches the camera in beautify mode directly. The same app also includes BeautyLive which lets users stream to Facebook and YouTube with beautification on. Our review unit also had a few preinstalled Japanese apps, and hopefully, retail units will not have these.

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie Camera Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie Review

Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie performance, cameras, and battery life

While the ZenFone 4 Selfie is an entry-level phone, it does pack in powerful hardware. The Snapdragon 430 is good enough to handle day-to-day tasks without any lag or stutter. With 3GB of RAM, we rarely saw apps getting closed. The phone could multitask even with games running in the background. The ZenFone 4 Selfie managed to run most of our usual games without any issues.

We also ran this phone through a few benchmarks to see how it fares against the competition. In AnTuTu, it managed to score 44,276, and the single-core and multi-core tests in Geekbench 4 gave us 668 and 2,563 respectively. We got 10,020 in 3DMark Ice Storm Standard. Battery life is decent and the phone could deliver one day of light to medium use. In our HD video loop test, the phone managed to clock 10 hours, 3 minutes.

The Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie sports a 13-megapixel camera with phase detection autofocus at the back, and a 13-megapixel selfie camera with an f/2.0 aperture at the front. The camera app has shortcuts for HDR, Portrait mode, the timer, and the flash. There are multiple modes including panorama, time-lapse, beauty, pro, and super resolution. Pro mode gives you complete control of the camera which includes the ISO, shutter speed, exposure, white balance, and focus.

Tap to see full-sized Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie camera samples

The phone takes some time to focus and we found it to have a bit of shutter lag. Photos taken with the ZenFone 4 Selfie were just average. We observed that daylight shots lacked detail and some also had a bit of purple fringing. Zoom into a shot and you can see a watercolour-like effect to it. Taking macros is slow as you have to wait for the phone to lock focus. With portrait mode enabled, the smartphone blurs backgrounds digitally in an attempt to make subjects stand out. We found this mode to be inconsistent but it could manage good separation when it worked.

Night shots are barely usable – the phone keeps noise in check but oversharpens photos, resulting in poor output. Selfies are good though and have a good amount of detail. Selfie beautification is somewhat helpful and can improve photos. The selfie flash makes it easy to take shots in low light. Video recording maxes out at 1080p at 30fps, and there is electronic video stabilisation but we did not find it to be very effective.

Verdict
With the Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie, the Selfie series is accessible to a lot of people. Users get a decent front camera and live beautification mode can be useful if you are into vlogging or doing Facebook Live videos. For the price, the ZenFone 4 Selfie has decent hardware, but the performance of the rear camera is below average. If you intend to take a lot of selfies or use the live beautification mode, then the Zenfone 4 Selfie works as a good tool. If you don’t mind spending more, the ZenFone 4 Selfie Dual Camera at Rs 14,999 has dual front cameras consisting of one 20-megapixel selfie shooter and another 8-megapixel one with a wide-angle lens. You also get more RAM and storage, though we haven’t tested the phone out yet, so we can’t speak for its real world performance. If you are on a strict budget and looking for an all-rounder, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 (Review) would be our pick.

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Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie (ZB553KL)

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Good battery life
Dedicated microSD card slot

Bad
Average camera performance
Slow fingerprint scanner

Read detailed Asus ZenFone 4 Selfie (ZB553KL) review

Also See

Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie (Black, 32GB, 3GB RAM) – OFFER

Rs.9,999
Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie (Gold, 32GB, 3GB RAM) – OFFER

Rs.9,999
Asus Zenfone 4 Selfie (Black, 64GB, 4GB RAM) – OFFER

Rs.14,999

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]