A Sellout Well Paid

 A SELLOUT WELL PAID

(Lakshay Raja)

Hold the strings, tied to the mouths of the sick top media house owners and watch the nation dance as you wish to. An uneasy statement to accept, seeing such handwork and their stories of raising these giant media groups, projected repeatedly to hide the filthy game. We don’t question their rise, for the youth has always been more about the change and the right, even for anybody with the blood of a ‘sellout.’

Check the link:

Subhash-Chandra-Bets-On-BJP-Support-For-Rajya-Sabha-Entry

And so it had always been under any little principles we write these articles with and for us to not directly name these misleaders, but then, how does one hold enough, and watch them get the price of the constant biased reporting; blindly followed by the interns and the once ambitious journalists, let alone the impact on a common man.

Yet how do you not challenge your conscience, watching the entire Zee group constantly justifying them being among the few non biased media houses and with absolutely no solid proof anywhere of any paid reporting. It seemed foolish at a point to even imagine the sum, a party would be willing to pay to a media house with an operating profit of four hundred million dollars already. What else could make an entire group bark for a party and lose its audience, if not the money? A promised recommendation for the Rajya Sabha seat by the ruling party? Now we are talking. As if there has ever been any other successor to money but power.

So a little thought after reading the headline, “Subhash-Chandra-Files-Nomination-For-Rajya-Sabha” (With the back of BJP) seemed rather an obvious move for there has never been a finer seat to surrender yourself after the retirement and shut anyone mocking your flop motivational speeches. Are those still on? Unarguably, no channel would dig the meaning out of it, for the bond they owe to each other; and the news would pass, as it would have, had the channel been caught in any paid reporting. Guess who comes to play here?

UEFA Champions League: Fortune Favors the Lucky

Fortune Favours The Lucky

                                     

The football season 2015/16 ended last night with Real Madrid's win in the UEFA Champions League, beating city rivals 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. Real captain Sergio Ramos haunted the Atleti fans again by scoring the opening goal. Right after the 2nd half kicked off, Atleti got a penalty kick. Later, Antoine Griezmann had the chance but the ball hit the post and La Rojiblancos missed a crucial chance.

Atleti’s coach Diego Simeone made a very important and effective substitution which was the turning point of the game as he brought in the Belgian player, Yannick Carrasco, and after this substitution Atleti dominated the game and later went on scoring the equaliser in the 79th minute.

GAME ON!!! Now, Atleti were hunting for the 2nd goal and had an advanced of the two left substitutions whereas Real Madrid had used all three.

After the ninety minutes, even the extra time wasn’t enough to decide the winner and the match went on to the penalties. The defining moment of the match came when Atleti’s Juanfran missed his penalty and got everyone shocked. Guess who came upon to score the final kick for Real Madrid? Cristiano Ronaldo! He came, he saw and scored! It’s over! Real Madrid have won the Champions league for a record 11th time!

The atmosphere at Milan was fixed. Sadness and happiness; it hurt me to see one of my favourite player Fernando Torres crying...

 Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos were  awarded ‘The Man of The Match’ titles.

Now, let’s rewind a little and see the ‘Route To Milan’. Atletico, in the Round of 16 faced Dutch Champions PSV, 2 legs of 90 mins wasn’t enough to decide the winner and Atleti won 8-7 on penalties. On the other hand, Real faced Italian team Roma who were having a rather average season, Real beated them 4-0 on aggregated, Quarter finals came and Atleti faced the defending champions and current Spanish champions Barcelona, after losing the controversial first leg 2-1. Atleti won the 2nd leg 2-0 and went on to the semi's. Real faced Wolfsburg who were not so great this time but the ‘Wolves’ won 2-0 against Madrid thinking of having the upper hand in the 2nd leg, remember that 90 mins at Bernanbeu are very long, a hattrick from Cristiano Ronaldo was enough to send Real into the semi-finals, the draws were made, Atleti faced the mighty German Champions Bayern Munich and Real faced Manchester City, a team which played their 1st ever semifinal and was battling for the 4th place in the EPL. The 1st leg at Calderon Saul scored a marvellous solo run goal for the 1-0 victory and lost with 2-1 at Allianz Arena In Munich, keeper Jan Oblak saved Thomas Muller’s penalty and Atleti went on with the goals. Now, on the other side 0-0 at Etihad. No Ronaldo, at Madrid a deflected own-goal from Fernando (cross from Gareth Bale) was the only goal of the game and Real were in the finals and again Madrid Derby.

It was heart breaking  to see Simeone’s soldier to lose as such, they beat 2 of the best teams in the world to reach so far and with such limited funds. No Hate on Madrid, Zinedine Zidane really improved Madrid from Rafa Benitez’s nightmare spell and he became the 7th person to win UCL both as a coach and player.

The Football Fiesta’s isn’t over peeps, the Euros in France , Copa America in The US and Olympic football in Brazil are coming up to hold up our breaths this summer! Stay tunes!

~Mahin Malhotra 

WWDC 2016

The WWDC is just around the corner and Apple is expected to release a couple of updates and announcements this year. WWDC for those of you who don’t know is a annual Worldwide Developers Conference held by Apple in San Francisco, California. This year conference will be held June 13–17.

So, what can we expect from this event?

Macbook Lineup

Macbook fans were not able to see the upcoming models of the MacBook lineup during the company's spring event in March, as they are long overdue but they are keeping their hopes up with this event. 

Rumours suggest that the New Macbook lineup 2016 will have a design refresh that could potentially include Touch Id integration, reduced bezels and OLED touch bar. It is most certain that the lineup will now include screen size of 14-inch and 16-inch display in the same form factor basically by reducing bezels and and these will be powered by the latest Intel Skylake processors.

iOS 10

Apple is most likely to unveil iOS10 at this event. Reports suggest that Apple Pay could be in for an update, with a new person-to-person payment feature. The update may also include Apple pay support for web browsers which would allow Apple pay to make purchases through web browsers.

 And it is almost certain that iOS10 would include a Siri SDK to allow developers to build Siri support into their apps. More 3-D touch integration throughout the entire OS could be seen.

Mac OS

Rumour has it that Apple will be changing the name of its desktop OS to fit with other platforms like iOS,tvOS. Rumours also claim that biggest update will include integration of Siri on MacOS. 

Siri may be accessible using an icon in the Menu bar or an app icon. Potentially Siri would be able to open apps, tweak system settings, answer user’s queries and much more. And the update in photos app could also be seen.

Apple TV improvements

Apple has long been rumored to be working on a streaming TV service to take on Netflix although it’s pretty unlikely. As far as improvements go, it's possible Apple could further open up Apple TV to developers by allowing more gaming options. 

Currently all Apple TV games are required to support the Siri Remote, which limits what game makers can do. It’s possible that Apple could allow game developers to make cambs that require a control pad. This would allow for much more feature-rich, console-level games. Seems interesting, huh?

Have any news about the conference? Share it with us. 

~papa smurf

Android N: Top Features(with images)

Android N: Top Features 

Google surprised everyone with the early release of Android N developer’s preview when Android M was released only six months prior to this update. Now android N does not have a name yet but google is letting the users decide the name. You can help Google choose the new Android N name here. Just enter your suggestion and hit Submit.

So here are the top Android N (developer edition) features:

Redesigned Notifications

The notification part has been completely overhauled in Android N. Now notifications efficiently takes up full width of the screen making it visually appealing. Not only that notifications are more functional too for example now they can be stacked as per application and now it is possible to respond to messages directly from the notifications.

Split Screen support

This is the feature we have all seen in iOS or even skins of android but it’s pretty neat to have this feature built-in to the OS. This feature can be activated within any open application by pressing down the phone’s Overview button, from there you can select the second app you want to have on-screen and customize display using an on-screen slider.

Settings Menu

Settings menu went through some visual changes. The first thing users will notice is that there are now suggestions for things you may not have done with your phone yet at the top, like set up email accounts or voice commands. Each option on the list also offers some useful information, so you can check your storage capacity, your current Wi-Fi network, your data usage etc. right from the menu. 

Instant Apps

Google introduced the idea of Instant Apps, which will enable users to test an app without downloading or purchasing it. Instant Apps could help bridge the gap between mobile apps and web apps by enabling you to use native apps almost instantly just by tapping a URL. With Instant Apps, developers will need to partition their apps into small parts that can start within a few seconds that will make the experience of using new apps as seamless as possible. However, it might take some time before you see Instant Apps in the wild.

Doze Mode

If you don’t know yet, doze is a battery saving setting that halts background computing that kicks in when your phone is not in use and sitting still. Android N brings further improvements including Doze on the Go, which will offer the benefits of Doze anytime the screen is off, not just when the phone is motionless.

Other features

Android N will bring support for Unicode 9, which among other things will see the introduction of 72 new emoji’s! There are also a ton of themes for the stock Google keyboard. You can choose various colors, or even set a photo as a backdrop.

Since the beginning of their time, this company never fails to amaze me with what they do. I must say, they are more of an inspiration that anything else.

But what about you? Do you think Android N is going to be a huge release for google as well? Tell us in the comments below...

Yahoo Mail Update

YAHOO MAIL UPDATE

(Mayank Arora)

No harm in pulling the new strings to get the right tune and in the race to uprise in the concerts of technology, looks as if Yahoo ain’t gonna limp around anymore. Well, the latest update atleast promises, in some ways. 

The once everything, Yahoo mail, looked as if, faded itself in some dark corner over the years, not to mention the little updates, yet the ones the giant Gmail had adapted before. Well, the new update does promises something to its audience, something unique enough to get its name back. 

The Yahoo mail now supports third party emails like Google, Aol and outlook, providing an entire setup to all your emails at one place, along with all your contacts, your recent two hundred emails from each account and gmail archives. It doesn’t just stop there and provides 1TB cloud storage for free on a new yahoo account. 

One terabyte. Has anyone been even remotely close to it? Slow claps, Yahoo. Brave move indeed.  The mail app. is available to download for iOS and android devices.

Microsoft Band 2

Microsoft Band 2 : Everything You Need To Know

Microsoft has redesigned it’s fitness-focused band which is loaded up with new features and sensors. The Band 2 features a streamlined look which is finished with a curved display , gorilla glass 4 and a better touch experience packed with two days of battery life.

Its impressive set of features includes GPS, better heart rate sensor , step , sleep tracking ,calorie tracking , cortana integration and smart notification alerts. The new device includes a barometer to measure atmospheric pressure and keep track of your altitude during those long hikes. Also now Band 2  includes readings for VO2 Max, a key metric for fitness buffs looking to measure their maximum oxygen intake, which typically requires expensive equipment and a long monitoring session to calculate.

As for notifications and smart alerts , Band 2 supports a broader range of apps , Facebook , Twitter , Starbucks , Uber are a few mentioned in the event.

Preorders starts today and The new Band will go on sale at the end of October for US$249.99 in the United States. Details of international availability has not yet been released yet. Microsoft Band 2 works with smartphones running Android, iOS and Windows.

ALPHABET

GOOGLE'S NEW PARENT COMPANY: ALPHABET

(Mayank)

It is official , Google has morphed into a company called Alphabet, which is basically a parent  corporate company that houses subsidiaries like Google, Nest Labs, Google X, Calico, Google Ventures, Google Capital, Google Life Sciences. The structural improvements are intended to shed all of its research projects from core Google company.

Alphabet will be run by Google co-founder Larry Page and each of its businesses will have its own chief executive. Google will be having the same number of shares of Alphabet of which shares of  Class C Capital Stock and shares of Alphabet Class A Common Stock will continue to be traded under the same ticker symbols under GOOG and GOOGL.

Investors are glad with this move for it would give them a greater visibility into financial performance of Google’s core business which was Larry’s aim in the first place.

iPhone RELEASE DATE - INDIA

iPhone RELEASE DATE - INDIA

(Chitvan)

Here’s something up for Indian apple iphone fans! The release date of the new iPhone has officially been announced by the apple India; right, the much awaited apple product would be hitting the Indian stores on 16th October 2015. 

The largest Indian mobile retailer - The Mobile Store is accepting pre-bookings for the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus at Rs. 2000 with EMI option starting from October 2, 2015, while the other electronics store Reliance Digital offers a pre book at a subsequent low price of Rs. 1000.

The new iPhone offers three variants of 16gb, 64gb and 128gb. Although the pice has yet not been confirmed for the Indian market, the iPhone 6S is expected to start at a price range of about fifty five thousand, while you gotta pay around ten thousand more for the 6S plus.

As per the source, the sales of the new iPhone will began at the midnight of 15th October. So no surprise seeing those huge queues outside the electronic retailers at the midnight. After all, the only thing that’s changed is everything.

THE UPCOMING HONDA B-RV

THE UPCOMING HONDA B-RV

(Chitvan)

The rising demand of the SUV segment in India has got Honda up for yet another notable launch - Honda B-RV, a mid SUV that shares its core with Honda’s compact crossover C-RV. 

The GAIKINDO Indonesia International Auto Show 2015 marked the launch of this much awaited beast. The first look of B-RV in India can be seen in Auto-expo 2016.

The familiar 1.5 litre i-Dtec and 1.5 litre i-Vtec engine, like its other peak sitters like Honda City powers the car and produces an apposite 100 bhp for the diesel variant, with a possibility of the update. It will have the similar wheel base that we have seen in Honda Mobilio. 

Being late in the mid - SUV segment got the company to add the additional features to make it stand out to its competitors like Creta and Terrano. This includes the four wheel drive option that hasn’t been seen yet in the segment.

The other area where B-RV gives an answer to its rivals is the seating capacity. Where most of the cars in this segment are five seater, B-RV stands apart with an additional row of seat. This makes this compact SUV a 7 seater with the seats as that of the Mobilio.

Coming to the key element that decides the success or failure of a car in tough indian market, the price. Honda B-RV is expected to hit the indian market at a price range of between 10.2-12.4 lacs.

Its quite possible of the Honda B-RV having the similar variants as that of city, so lets wait to see another success story from Honda after its very own City.

Amazon's Prime Day

 Amazon's Prime Day 

Amazon is hosting 15th July as "Prime Day" - a single day global shopping event on amazon's twentieth anniversary. Now on this day Amazon claims to generate more deals than BLACK FRIDAY!  Yeah that's right . With Black Friday still nearly four months away, people are supposably excited to find more deals on this day .
But  Prime Day is only restricted to  Prime Members! Yes Prime Membership is $99 a year , and it also comes with a 30 day trial . It would be great for customers who want to take advantage of this one day mega-event! And you will also get 2-day shipping.  The event would start by midnight with new deals coming every 10
minutes . So if you are not a member yet subscribe for the 30 day trial and enjoy the deals! click here  to sign up .

~Papa Smurf

Apple Music Is Finally Here !! 

With the new update Apple has finally released Apple Music. Now what’s new here?? Is there something compelling for the users?? Lets find out .

Now music streaming services are something people are already familiar of. There are a bunch of other alternative services like Spotify , Pandora , 8tracks that are already being used . That’s I guess the main reason Apple Music didn’t received much anticipation from the users .

But its not completely stupid, there are some additional services that users might appreciate like Beats1. Well it’s a brand-new internet-radio service which is available  24-hours a day, 7-days a week live radio station broadcasting from 3 cities - Los Angeles, New York and London . Beats 1 doesn't have ads, but like other radio stations, will have sponsored message breaks . Without a subscription, you can play these Internet radio, but you'll hear ads between songs.

And there is a new service called Connect which connects your artists with you , Its kinda like a place where you can follow your favourite musicians and get behind-the-scenes photos, videos and updates , which I think would be really compelling to some of us . 

There is also a section called “ for you “ which basically recommends songs according to your likes and the time at which you are using  . So yes this service is quite handy .

So what’s the monthly subscription for Apple music ??

Apple Music initially comes with a three month trail and afterwards it’s gonna costs $9.99 a month and it also comes with $14.99 family plan option for up to six people to add . 

Plus apple music would be available for download for Android on play store and it would also be compatible with Apple TV by the end of this year  .

But besides all this ,  it’s not something to get excited about , Atleast not for me I am happy with Spotify ! 


~Papa Smurf

New Facebook logo!

Holla Facebook’s New LOGO is here !!

Yes Facebook has a new logo now . Well it’s just a slight change not a major transformation . Instead of redesigning , Facebook just Increased the white space between the letters , there is also a slightly thin lettering which is hardly noticeable . Facebook said its “set out to modernise the logo to make it feel more friendly and approachable” . New logo might suggest some more changes to come . And this newer logo will debut in near future among all the platforms . 

~Papa Smurf

New Messenger Update

       Messenger Update

Do you sometimes feel that a perfect way to answer a conversation is emoji or animations , well then great news for you ! Facebook announced a market place of such apps in the new messenger app which would allow you to send and express your feelings in a more simpler yet cool way . You would now be able to send from a large variety of GIFs and emojis . It’s a great news for developers also as they can create third party apps for messenger . 

In the market place yes “the messenger marketplace” you can choose from a large variety of apps especially made for messenger ! Does it sound lame , well don’t be surprised but messenger has a really strong user base statistically 600 millions a month!! *sounds a lot right* 

                    

Facebook has also announced a great new way to improve the experience of online shopping , Now you can communicate with the businesses directly , yes it is kind of like a live chat but more than that . Evidently all of your stats from placing an order to delivery you can track it all down And the best part it is kind of like a substitute to the huge pile of mails delivered to your mailbox for every kinda detail , But here you get it all in a single place in form of script . Great huh !  Plus if you are a business owner you can register your business on messengers website . Some of the brands are already linked so you can check out that if you want .

And did you know that you can now signup for messenger even if you are not on Facebook !!

WHOOOAAA right , as we all know Facebook had made it mandatory for the users to download the app only for Facebook , it really annoyed most of us . But now you can use messenger app without a Facebook account all you need is a phone number and you are good to go ! 

But the best part is you are not left behind in any of the features like voice calling , video calling , payments … So yeah it is pretty good

 

And well to summarise great update for both normal user and the businesses and I assume it might be the game changer .

~Papa Smurf