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Saturday 14 September 2013

Electronic giant Samsung has already announced that its latest phablet offering, the Galaxy Note 3, will be launching in India on September 17. And we already got our hands on the price tag of the device. But it now looks like the Note 3, along with the Galaxy Gear smartwatch, is already up for pre-booking on the company’s official India online store. From what can be seen, it looks like the company is offering both devices as a combo deal for a pre-booking amount of Rs 2,000. The Galaxy Note 3 is also available for a pre-booking amount of Rs 2,000 without the Galaxy Gear. A quick look at the specs of the Galaxy Note 3 shows a 5.7-inch full HD display along with the latest Exynos 5 Octa processor clocked at 1.9GHz as well as a 13-megapixel camera. Samsung has also added a leather layer on the rear cover and improved the TouchWiz UI to enhance the S-Pen’s functionality. The phablet comes with the latest Android Jelly Bean 4.3 running the show and a massive 3GB of RAM. Have a look at our specifications review for more details about the phablet. abc The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Galaxy Gear smartwatch up for pre-booking for Rs 2000 The Galaxy Gear is the company’s first brush with the smartwatch segment. The wearable comes with a 1.9-megapixel camera and will initially offer 70 apps. The Gear comes with S-Voice and also allows users to both receive and make calls directly from it when it is paired with a compatible device. The company has, so far, made the wearable compatible only with the Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 edition), although there is talk of expanding the range to include the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 and Note II. There is still no word on how much the combo deal will set users back, but it is expected to be in the Rs 70, 000 price tag bracket. Be that as it may, the September 17 launch is around the corner and we will be giving you all the details about the Galaxy devices Samsung is planning to bring to India.

Boston (CNN) -- Mmmm, a hot fudge sundae. The diet is supposed to start today, but surely it can wait until tomorrow -- or maybe the next day.
Many people know what's good for them and choose to do the exact opposite, especially when it comes to diet and exercise. Researchers are turning to the brain to find out what's behind this lack of self-control, a topic discussed in length at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston earlier this year.In the future, there may be brain-based solutions to help you avoid that sundae; for now, researchers say, we can shape our environments to help us avoid temptation, and make firm commitments to change.

Value judgments and willpower
ate

Pinpointing complex behaviors in the brain isn't simple; we weren't born with the words "impulsivity" and "willpower" etched into particular places on our heads. Scientists are still in the early stages of figuring out how billions of cells called neurons generate particular outcomes, and which circuits do what. But some clues have emerged from recent experiments.When people who are trying to lose weight are confronted with meal choices, it appears there are two major factors in their decision: taste and health, said Todd Hare, assistant professor of neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich.


Hare's research shows that dieters who successfully turn down fatty temptations such as ice cream put more emphasis on the healthiness of food and relatively less emphasis on the taste.
It is the opposite for dieters who can't say "no" to sweets, he said. They say they're trying to eat healthy, but "they seem unable to shift away from the more automatic, stronger representation of taste," Hare said.
By using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, scientists can see how a brain region called the ventral medial prefrontal cortex becomes active in valuing options in predicaments like this.
The ventral medial prefrontal cortex also appears to get involved in certain monetary decisions -- for instance, when researchers present participants with the choice of accepting a large reward later or a smaller reward immediately. Hare's research on this is not yet published, but the phenomenon was described in a 2011 research review.
Scientists have also located a second important brain area for these kinds of decisions: the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. There is more activity in this region when participants choose options that appear better for them in the long run -- the healthy food item or the larger monetary reward that will arrive later.
The interaction between these two brain regions -- the ventral medial prefrontal cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -- is stronger for people who show greater self control with either money or food, Hare said.
"They're working together to shape the way you're going to make your choices."
Tell us your story!
We love to hear from our audience. Follow @CNNHealth on Twitter andFacebook for the latest health news and let us know what we're missing. 
Scientists are also investigating brain areas associated with turning down temptations.
University of Cambridge neuroscientist Molly Crockett and her colleagues suggested in a study earlier this year that "precommitment" -- voluntarily restricting one's access to temptation -- is more effective at promoting self control than willpower.
In the experiment, men viewed erotic images that they rated according to personal preference. Then, in one task, they could decide in advance that they would not have the option to see the images they rated poorly. In exchange, they could see the higher-rated images after a greater time delay. This is called "precommitment."
In a different task, men were challenged to use willpower to actively resist viewing the lower-rated images while they waited for the higher-rated images. Precommitment appeared to be a better strategy on average.
In impulsive participants in particular, researchers saw more activation in the ventral striatum and ventromedial prefrontal cortex areas during precommitment. These relationships between brain activation patterns and impulsive tendencies suggest that people in general may have some self-awareness about their own self-control abilities.
Are self control problems, such as overeating and overspending, the result of poor willpower or impaired ability to precommit, or both? Further research on these issues could help the development of behavioral or pharmacological interventions, according to the study.
Can we alter brain function for the better?
Currently, we don't have drugs designed to target such brain impairments associated with lack of self control.
But, in theory, a drug of the future could stimulate key brain areas to help people with self-control problems diet or save money, according to David Laibson, professor of economics at Harvard University.
If that sounds too much like science fiction, consider that many drugs are already on the market to alter brain function for the better -- for example, methylphenidate (Ritalin) for attention deficit disorder and anti-depressants for depression.
Outside the pharmacy, there is a drug to combat exhaustion and enhance attention, used by millions of Americans every day: caffeine. Laibson argued that if these substances are widely accepted, why shouldn't there be options for people who want better control of their food decisions?
The practical realities for a self-control drug are complex, however. Hare cautioned that these brain areas would be hard to target with medicine because a lot of other brain areas would be hit at the same time. No drug could selectively increase activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex alone, for example.
A different approach, which has not been tried, would be to use transcranial magnetic stimulation to temporarily enhance the activity of regions of the brain near the skull. This technique -- in which magnetic fields generate small electrical currents, activating cells in a specified part of the brain -- is being explored for depression patients who don't respond to medication.
2010 Nature Neuroscience study used transcranial magnetic stimulation to temporarily inhibit the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, and showed that this led to participants making more impatient decisions.
Theoretically, this technology could be applied in the opposite way -- to train relevant brain circuitry to come online during problematic food choices among dieters, so that eventually the person's brain would respond naturally in this way, Hare said.
"If there's enough success with this in conditions such as depression, then I could see that that would be the logical next step," Hare said.
Scientists may also be able to develop behavioral interventions based on brain research -- i.e. how to train and promote self-control. Psychologists, for example, may be able to derive behavioral therapies from the "brain circuit differences that we see in people with different kinds of self control problems," said Joshua Buckholtz, assistant professor of psychology at Harvard University.
Buckholtz has unpublished research suggesting that people with high BMIs and non-obese impulsive people have similar brain chemistry patterns.
Committing to change
To recap: We're bad at self control. Scientists are looking at the brain to figure out how self control breaks down at the neurological level. Such insights could directly lead to interventions in the form of pharmaceuticals or brain stimulation.
In the meantime, what can we do to help ourselves behave more in line with our good intentions, even in the face of temptations?
"The more we recognize the commonality of this problem, the more prepared we'll be to develop solutions to solve a problem, because the solutions end up being the same across all the different domains," Laibson said.
The basis of nonpharmaceutical solutions is the big C-word: commitment. To some extent, most of us are already entrenched in a system of commitments that keep us in line. It's called the workplace.
Journalists publish articles, cashiers scan groceries and teachers grade papers because of systems built into our society that commits them to perform certain tasks, with the threat of punishment -- or not getting paid -- looming over their heads, Laibson said. Managerial structures ensure that employees at every level do what they're supposed to be doing.
"We built this system that is actually well tuned to who we are psychologically," he said. "We're not relying completely on our willpower to do everything. We are letting the system take care of us."
When it comes to money, for instance, many companies offer savings plans that automatically place a fixed percentage of your paycheck into a 401(k) account, with strict penalties if you try to access that money before retirement. Once you sign up, you don't have to think about making the choice every week; it just happens in the background.
"We don't want people to tell us what to do so that we have no freedom, but we do need a little bit of help so that we actually get to work and have a productive day instead of rolling in at 11 a.m.," Laibson said.
Applying that method to food is a lot trickier. Your boss can make you go to a 9 a.m. meeting, but you don't have a Food Manager who prods you to avoid potato chips and count calories at every single meal. Even if your workplace's cafeteria has reasonably sized portions, including small desserts, no one will stop you from buying two or three cookies.
To encourage healthy habits in an already structured workplace, companies could instead institute standing desks and hold standing or even "walking meetings," in which people move around while they discuss business instead of sit in a conference room. These interventions should, however, be tested scientifically before being widely promoted, Laibson said.
Government intervention is another way that self control could be imposed, but a controversial one. The city of New York tried to limit sugary drinks sold to 16 ounces each last year, but an appeals court ruled in July that this was "arbitrary and capricious." In Laibson's view, such a policy needs scientific evidence that it has positive health outcomes before being broadly enacted.
But you don't necessarily need a boss or government official threatening to punish you for breaking rules you already want to follow for the sake of your health. You can set up a system in which you discipline yourself.
Through the Internet, you can wager your own money to commit yourself to your own diet and exercise aspirations. A website calledStickK allows you to put your own money on the line in support of whatever goal you may have; if you don't fulfill it, you lose the money. As Yale economist Dean Karlan, co-founder of StickK, told CNN in 2008, "It's a contract to make slothfulness more expensive."
So, think how much money your health-conscious self would offer your sweet-tooth self to keep the ice cream in the freezer, or not buy it at all.


Friday 13 September 2013

Dual-SIM version of Nokia Lumia 720 could be in the works

Anew Nokia smartphone is in the news today and this time it's not a phablet, but a dual-SIM Windows Phone smartphone. A new leak from prolific tipster @evleaks says the Finnish company is possibly working on a dual-SIM variant of the Lumia 720. The tweet simply says,“Dual-SIM Lumia 720 may be on the way.” Other details about the expected phone are, unfortunately, missing. Taking the track record of the tipster into account, though, it can be assumed that Nokia is working on such a device.

Nokia originally launched the Lumia 720 along with the Lumia 520. The former comes with a 4.3-inch display and has a Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1GHz SoC under the hood as well as 512MB of RAM. The smartphone comes with 8GB of in-built storage which can be expanded up to 64GB via a microSD slot. Photography-wise, the smartphone comes with a 6.7-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front shooter. Connectivity options like Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi and 3G are all supported. The device weights 128grams and measures 127.9x67.5x9.0mm. Rounding up the package is a 2000mAh battery. Take a look at our review of the Lumia 720 to know more about the smartphone.


caption
The Lumia 720


This is not the only device that Nokia has been reported working on. The Finnish company has reportedly been working on its first phablet offering, the Lumia 1520 aka Bandit. The device will reportedly come with a 6-inch full HD display as well as a quad-core processor. NDTV Gadgets has reported that Nokia may be planning a September 26 launch for the device. With the number of leaks making headlines, it definitely looks like Nokia plans to expand its stable of smartphones considerably before the end of this year.

Tuesday 10 September 2013

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Thursday 5 September 2013

Richard III's last battle: New 'War of the Roses' over royal remains?


York and Leicester, England (CNN) -- A year ago, historians held their breath as archaeologist Jo Appleby painstakingly dusted centuries of dirt and debris from the curved spine and staved-in skull of a skeleton uncovered under a parking lot in the English city of Leicester.
The story of the long-lost king buried beneath a car park made headlines around the world -- but 12 months on, excitement has given way to anger, as enthusiasts and experts argue over what should happen to Richard III's remains.
The once-missing monarch -- best known as the Shakespearean villain accused of murdering his nephews, the Princes in the Tower, to take the throne -- faces one final battle before he can be left to rest in peace: the increasingly bitter fight over where his bones (minus his feet, lost at some point during the past 500 years) will be interred.
The judge in the case, Mr. Justice Haddon-Cave has even gone so far as to plead with all concerned "to avoid embarking on the (legal) Wars of the Roses, part two," warning that such legal wrangling would be "unseemly, undignified and unedifying," and urging them to call in an independent panel of experts to rule on the burial. The original War of the Roses was a bloody civil war which divided England for decades, and eventually saw Richard's family, thePlantagenets, swept from power.
While the experts who carried out the search for Richard III's remains are keen to see him reinterred in Leicester, others believe it was the medieval king's wish to be buried in York -- the city they claim was closest to his heart.
The king in the parking lot
English rules and regulations governing exhumations should mean that the decision is a straightforward one -- such bodies are usually reburied in the nearest consecrated ground to the archaeological dig site -- but in fact it is proving anything but, with the launch of legal action to try and halt the plans.
Those behind the project had always planned for any bodies they uncovered in their search for Leicester's long-lost Greyfriars Friary to be reburied at the city's cathedral, just a stone's throw away from the now-famous car park.
Back then Richard Buckley, lead archaeologist on what he admits to initially thinking of as a "harebrained scheme," told CNN how he had applied for a license to exhume any human remains with the words "In the unlikely event that we find the remains of Richard III..."
But it is this very license that now finds itself at the center of a court battle between the authorities in Leicester and a group calling itself the Plantagenet Alliance, who say more thought should have gone into the reburial.
The Alliance -- made up of people who claim to be distantly related to Richard III, and headed by Stephen Nicolay, his 17th great nephew -- objects to the lack of consultation over where the newly-rediscovered king's bones should be laid to rest.
They say that given the remains' royal status, it should not be a simple case of "finders keepers." Instead, they believe that the location of the new grave should be up for discussion.
Richard III's last battle
"What we're saying is that for a significant historical figure such as Richard III, his remains should be the subject of a broad consultation," explains Matthew Howarth, the lawyer representing the Alliance. "All the interested parties should be able to have their say, state their case as to where the bones should be buried... It shouldn't be a closed decision."
The Alliance eventually wants to see the bones taken to York, a northern city packed to the gills with historic sites and, the group says, with links to Richard III.
It is a plea backed up by others in the city.
"Richard was the last northern king," explains Paul Toy, of York's Richard III Museum. "He had lots of estates and he was constantly moving around, but certainly he would identify himself as northern, and York was a city that was very close to his heart... He was very much part of the civic fabric."
By contrast, say the "Yorkists," the ill-fated monarch had little or no connection to Leicester -- other than the fact he was slung into a hastily-dug grave there following his death at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
Not true, say those in the Leicester camp.
"There's considerable historical evidence that Richard spent quite a lot of time at his castle here in Leicester," says the city's mayor, Peter Soulsby. "It was from Leicester that he chose to ride out to what would prove to be his last battle, and it was to Leicester that he was returned, and where he was buried on the orders of the new king, Henry.
"And frankly, to be buried by royal command in a city is pretty powerful evidence that this is where he ought to remain."
Richard III: Hero or villain? 

The Richard III familiar to theatergoers from Shakespeare's play is a born-and-bred bad guy, a child-killing hunchback whose physical deformities echo his deeply nasty nature.
 

"Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
 
Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
 
And that so lamely and unfashionable
 
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them..."
 

"Since I cannot prove a lover," Shakespeare had had him announce, "I am determined to prove a villain."
 

But modern historians have been at pains to point out that the source material for Shakespeare's and others' portraits of him dates from the reign of his conqueror, Henry VII, and was therefore written with an agenda.
 

"Richard III was very much a man of his time," says David Baldwin, author of "Richard III". "He was no better or worse than any other nobleman of the era -- if you were offered lands, a fortune, titles, you took them.
 

"In his case, I think a lot of what happened later in his life can be traced back to his dislocated childhood. His father, his brother had been killed, he was hidden away, driven into exile by the age of nine.
 

"He was determined to strike first, and that's not surprising given his history."
Soulsby insists that the events of more recent times offer all the more reason for the monarch to be laid to rest in Leicester.
"Leicester's people have honored Richard for many generations: We have a King Richard's Road, a King Richard's School, we even have pubs called after King Richard.
"It's not just the history that compels us -- it is also the fact that it was the amazing skill of Leicester University's archaeologists that actually rediscovered the remains, and their incredible forensic work that confirmed they were the remains of King Richard.
"Leicester is where he's been for 500 years, and Leicester is where he deserves to be reburied, with proper ceremony, and in a tomb fit for a king."
Indeed, the city is speeding full-steam ahead with plans for a new tomb in the cathedral, where a memorial stone has long paid tribute to the last Plantagenet king, and for a visitor center on the site of the Greyfriars car park, telling the story of Richard's life, his death, and his rediscovery.
The council has already bought an old school which is being turned into a museum, and it is clear that there is a commercial aspect to the battle for the bones, since whichever city they end up in is likely to see a tourism boost.
Granting a judicial review of the case, Haddon-Cave noted that "the benefit in terms of prestige and increased tourism... is obvious. It is said that the foot-fall at Leicester Cathedral has increased 20-fold since the discovery."
Sitting in a quiet corner of the Cathedral Close with his wife Julia, waiting for a tour to begin, Leicestershire local -- but Yorkshire native -- Peter Farnworth believes that's another reason why the bones should stay close to where they were found.
"York has oodles and oodles of tourist attractions," he explained. "Leicester doesn't have many, and if it loses Richard, it will have one less."
The Plantagenet Alliance, though, insist that money has nothing to do with their case.
"My clients have no commercial interest in it," says Howarth. "They won't gain out of any tourism, but they have a very strong view that Richard's links to the north of England, and to York in particular, mean that he should be buried here."
For Toy, it comes down to the question of what the king himself would have wanted.

"As far as we can tell, as far as we have any idea of where he wanted to be buried himself, it seems to be in York," he told CNN. "There's a sense that Richard III is a king who has had a bad press -- an unfair bad press -- and that responding as far as we can to his known wishes would slightly even things up a bit."

Wednesday 4 September 2013

10 months later, Hurricane Sandy's 'blessing': Treasures wash ashore

(CNN) -- Professed "Jersey girl" Christeena Hockin-Minopetros began collecting sea glass from the New Jersey shore when she was 5. She recalls that when she was younger, before the glass became scarce, you could walk home with a bucketful after a day at the beach.
Now, 10 months after Hurricane Sandy hammered the Atlantic coastline, the Florida resident says she's shocked by how many of the frosty relics she found while walking along Sea Bright Beach back home this summer."It's everywhere," Hockin-Minopetros said, explaining how she found two large bags of sea glass in a variety of hues: brown, white, blue, milky green and a "gorgeous" red piece she can't take her eyes off.We can thank Sandy for the finds, said coastal geologist Cheryl Hapke."This is an epic summer for a collection of beach glass," she said. Sea glass, or beach glass, begins essentially as garbage -- broken glass dumped into fresh or salt water. Over time, waves, water and sand smooth its sharp edges. It's the smaller pieces of sea glass that usually get brought onto shore for people to pick up, Hapke said.It's well-known that hurricanes erode seashores and hamper tourism, but, according to Hapke, a storm like Sandy -- which boasted record-high waves in late October -- can filter larger, coarse materials from the seabed and wash them onto the shoreline.That's good news for beach-side businesses that sell their finds.As Sandy swallowed beaches and deterred patrons, businesses in southern New Jersey's Cape May Point suffered, said resident Jeanette Bartolomeo. Her son-in-law's Sunset Beach Gift Shops, where Bartolomeo works as the jewelry manager, were among the few fortunate.Never mind the sea glass; Bartolomeo's eye is drawn to the "Cape May Diamonds" -- clear quartz pebbles that, when polished, resemble real diamonds -- and Sunset Beach Gift Shops are known for their collection.The pure quartz pebbles, which break off from pockets of quartz crystal in the upper reaches of the Delaware River, have always been in abundance, but bigger pieces churn up after a storm.That's why Hurricane Sandy and the February nor'easter were "a blessing," Bartolomeo said."Thank God they keep coming in," she said.Though Sandy didn't damage Cape May as much as other parts of New Jersey, many residents and visitors assumed beaches and shops there were closed, so Cape May tourism suffered and business was slower than usual, Bartolomeo said."We had people calling, 'Are you open now?' " she said. "But we were never closed."Gov. Chris Christie's administration announced last week that every public boardwalk and beach along the New Jersey shore is now open, after 10 months of renovations and "beach replenishing."Bartolomeo said she's already seen an increase in tourists this summer at Sunset Beach, where visitors can be found scouring the beach for the quarter-size "diamonds" washing up on the shore.Despite the good news for many businesses, Hockin-Minopetros is concerned that beach replenishing -- by which sand from other areas is used to revitalize an eroded beach -- might affect the abundance of sea glass, much like she worries construction and spiking insurance rates along the coast could affect the shoreline's pristine quaintness."I'm afraid New Jersey's shoreline will be one big McMansion, and that saddens me deeply," she said.In addition to the sea glass she collects to craft into jewelry, which she sells, Hockin-Minopetros also keeps a personal collection of about 500 "really fantastic" pieces, most of which she collected while living in Greece.But her best piece is one she picked up in Point Pleasant, New Jersey, she said.The heavy, 8-inch-long, clear glass is actually a deck prism, which sailors used in the upper deck of a ship to illuminate the ship's passageways below deck. It's one she won't be selling, she said."I only keep the real unusual," she said. 

Saturday 31 August 2013

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Friday 30 August 2013

ZyXEL unveils new range of 802.11ac Adapter Line for mobiles and laptops

XyXel has launched a new range of Dual Band 1200 Mbps and 600 Mbps Adapters for home and mobile users.
ZyXEL unveils new range of 802.11ac Adapter Line for mobiles and laptops


ZyXEL Communications, has introduced NWD6505 and NWD6605 802.11ac Dual-Band Wireless USB adapters that will help home and office users upgrade to the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology, for faster media streaming and online communications.

According to the company, Both the NWD6505 and NWD6605 Dual-Band Wireless USB Adapters support the latest 802.11ac technology. It offers an accelerated throughput of 802.11ac over 5-GHz frequency band that offers an optimal, lag-free experience with streaming video, web browsing, audio, VoIP, gaming and other entertainment and communication applications.

The ZyXEL NWD6605 Dual-Band Wireless AC1200 USB Adapter have data transfer rates of up to 867 Mbps on a 5 GHz channel or 300 Mbps at a 2.4 GHz channel. It features two antennas, that deliver wider coverage and wireless performance. According to the company the adapters are ideal for HD video streaming, multiple downloading, online gaming, and sharing multiple large files at the same time.
The NWD6605 supports USB 3.0 interface that is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 and supports transfer data rates of 5 Gigabit per second. ZyXEL’s NWD6505 Dual-Band Wireless AC600 USB Adapter delivers data transfer rates of 150 Mbps at 2.4 GHz frequency or 433 Mbps data transfer speed at 5 GHz. 

The NWD6505 and NWD6605 adapters are meant for desktop and laptop users that need a dual-band wireless AC network connection. The devices are Microsoft Windows 8 certified, and comes with a WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup), that gives you access to a secured network with just a touch of a button. The company states that ZyXEL NWD6505 and NWD6605 devices are meant for road warriors, students, vacationers and offer great mobility and connectivity on the move.

Oppo teases plug-in camera lenses with OIS and up to 15x zoom

Oppo N1 Lense Close up Press Render
Oppo is a relatively unknown name outside of China, even though the company did make some headway with the Oppo Find 5, and is hoping to continue to establish itself on the world stage with its upcoming Oppo N1. There’s very little we actually know about the device, except for the fact that is expected to feature a rear touch panel, and house a great camera.
If you felt like the 13MP N-Lens “owl” sensor camera isn’t enough, Oppo is there to help you out. Today, the company teased a series of plug-in camera lenses that can be switched out and attached to its smartphones. The initial batch of these plug-in camera lenses use a 16MP Sony CMOS sensor with OIS (optical image stabilization), with one type featuring 10x optical zoom, and another thicker version boasting 15x optical zoom, along with support for NFC, WiFi, and SD card storage.
oppo plug in camera lens
While Sony is all set to change the smartphone camera game with the highly-anticipated Xperia Z1 and the availability of external attachable lenses for other smartphones, it’s great to see companies like Oppo looking to shake things up as well by giving consumers a choice.

There is still no information on when these plug-in camera lenses will be available, but can definitely expect to get a better look at them during the upcoming launch event for the Oppo N1.

Pressy brings a customizable hardware button to your Android handset

Pressy
So you picked up that shiny, new Android handset and now you find yourself wishing there was an easier, button-based shortcut for getting to your favorite Android functions. Wait a minute… you actually want more buttons on your smartphone? It’s 2013 folks, and less is more (unless it comes to screen size)!
To be fair, sometimes extra physical keys can come in handy, such as a button that allows you to quickly load up your camera. Most of today’s devices are lacking such physical buttons, but that’s where the new Kickstarter project Pressy comes in.
Most Android users are looking to ditch extra buttons, so we have to wonder if there is really a demand for something like Pressy.
Pressy is a tiny button that plugs into your headphone jack, allowing you to easily launch apps and services with the click of a button.
The button works in conjunction with a special Pressy app, and can be customized to do just about anything from launching a camera, to voice recording, opening up settings, launching a specific app or even calling home – the choice is yours.
Pressy isn’t just for one special function either, as it can perform multiple different tasks depending on whether you single-click the button, long click it or even double click.
This sounds pretty cool, but who wants to sacrifice the headphone jack? The good news is that you don’t have to. When you want to plug in a headphone, take out Pressy and put it into an included holder that clips to a keychain. Next, plug in your headphones and the headphone button can fully function as the Pressy key without issue – easy as that.

But is there demand for such a thing?

Most Android users are looking to ditch extra buttons these days, so we have to wonder if there is really a demand for something like Pressy. The answer appears to be a resounding yes, at least judging by the fact that Pressy has already exceeded its $40k goal with 45 days left to go. At the time of this writing, $173,532 has been pledged towards the project.
If you too are interested in getting your hands on Pressy and its accompanying app, you can head over to their Kickstarter page where a minimum pledge of $17 will land you a basic Pressy.

A word of caution, the team behind Pressy is just getting things off the ground, and so they don’t expect to ship the little-button-that-could until March of next year. Still, good things come to those that (are willing to) wait.

HomeShop 18 revamps its website with a new look, advanced features

Shopping portal Homeshop18 has revamped its website in order to offer an improved and simplified shopping experience to customers. Launched in 2011, HomeShop18 today has over 600 brands across 13 different categories. With this new look, it has synchronised all of its three mediums – Web, TV and Mobile.

The new look HomeShop18 website that boasts of some new features has been designed on a responsive model and is compatible with desktop, tablets, and mobile phones. The website now offers users the option of live-streaming the HomeShop 18 TV channel via laptops, tablets and mobile phones.
All new look
All new look


Users can also view demo videos of the product they are interested in purchasing. This feature has been added to the service after gauging consumer behaviour through primary and secondary research, and feedback. One research said Indian online shoppers feel the need to be able to touch and feel a product in order to consider buying it and viewing images simply doesn’t cut it.  

HomeShop18 now also sports an all new voice-enabled search bar. Shoppers can now simply give voice commands on the home page search bar in order for the website to throw up results. Once the order is placed, users will now be able to track it better. Important details like update of the order, the date and time of when it was placed, when your order was shipped and when it will be delivered will be displayed. 

On the home page, you will now be able to go through product recommendations by the website. These products will pop up based on your browsing history. When you go to a particular product’s page now, you will be able to see more interactive features like reviews and whether or not the review has been helpful. 

This is not the first time HS18 has forayed into design innovation. Before the new website design, HomeShop18 launched an interesting mobile shopping model called Scan N Shop at Delhi Airport in January this year which was followed by mobile apps for Android and iPhone users.

Samsung Galaxy Note 3 'Lite' rumoured to come with cheaper LCD screen

There's less than a week left for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, and yet another leak has now cropped up about the upcoming device. According to a Korean site ETNews, there will likely be two versions of the Galaxy Note 3, and one of them will feature a cheaper display. The “Lite” version of the device is also likely to feature a low-resolution 8 megapixel camera.

This isn’t the first time that news about Galaxy Note 3 variants has surfaced, with previous rumours also hinting at Samsung planning multiple varients of the Note 3. Keeping the latest leak in mind, there is not much else known apart from the trade-off on the camera and the display. The leak does bring one question to light, though. Will we see a cheaper Note 3 variant at the launch?

Just a few days back, there were reports suggesting the possibility of 4k video recordingsupport and improved audio playback for the Note 3. Another leak also gave us a glimpse at the device showing off a 5.7-inch front display panel with a highly-reduced bezel.
What will the camera on the Note 3 be like?
What will the camera on the Note 3 be like?


According to the previous leaks, it is believed that the Galaxy Note 3 will come with a slightly different design while the display will most likely be a full HD variety. It is likely to pack in a 13 megapixel camera with the new S Orb feature, but the OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) function will be given a miss according to some rumours recently. The Note 3 is likely to be available in two versions – one with a Samsung Exynos 5 Octa processor and the other with Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC. With the September 4 launch around the corner, fans who are eagerly awaiting it only have to wait a few days before seeing the final specs of the phone.

Why Western intervention in Syria will leave chaos

(CNN) -- Syria's civil war is not America's problem. Syria is surrounded by Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab nations with large standing armies and advanced military equipment. Their cowardice in acting to stop a war on their doorstep should give us pause for thought. Why will they not act, but we must?
Why is American gullibility for war so strong that countries such as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Israel can dispense of their moral duties to the American taxpayer?

Make no mistake about it: al Assad is a war criminal, having had his own civilians and soldiers slaughtered in a war to keep his family in power.
The sectarian, ethnic, and religious dimensions of the war have kept the Obama administration (rightly in my view) away from direct military involvement in the conflict.
But what has changed now? The use of chemical weapons to kill people jolts us into probable action, but millions displaced, wounded and 100,000 dead did not. Why? Because the banality of the policy shift rests on the assumptions that American cruise missiles can prevent further use of chemical weapons, provide a face-saving measure for President Barack Obama who can argue that he acted after his "red line" had been crossed in Syria, and neuter critics of Obama's Syria policy.
There is no absolute certainty as to whether al Assad used chemical weapons, or rebel factions did. Al Assad has no credible motivation to use these weapons at this stage, and in this phase of the conflict. He is not losing.
If, as the Russians claim, it was al Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusrah group or Free Syrian Army elements that used weapons to bait America into the conflict, then U.S. firepower would be futile in establishing how a ragtag army and terrorists obtained chemical weapons. No amount of surgical strikes on government facilities will prevent non-state actors from further use of these weapons.
But if we believe that al Assad used these weapons, and launch punitive attacks on Syria, what exactly are we targeting? The secretive and globally isolated nature of the Assad regime and therefore his chemical stockpiles means that we do not know where these are located.
We intervened in Libya with greater confidence because Gadhafi's chemical weapons were mostly eliminated by an international inspection arrangement prior to the Arab uprisings. By bombing Syria now we increase the risk of al Assad using chemical weapons on populations and cities that are not under government control, or to quell new rebellions. Damaging his air force and known military installation would force him to consider his more extreme options for regime survival. Syria is now a fight to the death for both sides.
U.S.-led military strikes in Syria will not change the tide of the war. That is not the mission, nor is it achievable by aerial blitzing. The Syrian opposition is not a government in waiting. It is too fragmented ideologically, overwrought by al Qaeda affiliates, deeply anti-American, and dominated by suburban fighters with little control of major cities, mercenaries who are not committed to peaceful coexistence with Syria's religious Christians, nor its Jewish neighbor.s in on Syria
Syria after al Assad will be worse. A new civil war will break out between opposition factions. By bombing Syria today, we bear the burden of the instability we leave in our wake.
President Obama imprudently mentioned a "red line" in Syria and is now hostage to fortune. The president has changed his policy stance on using illegal wire taps, closing Guantanamo Bay, gay marriage, and more.
The heat of the moment and push from the chattering classes to "do something" without knowing what will consume Obama into another Middle East war. He beat Hillary Clinton as an anti-Iraq war candidate.
By intervening, Syria may well prove to be Obama's war, bequeathed to a new president in 2016. Civilian casualties are inevitable: The images on our screens will not be Syrians using chemical weapons to kill each other, but American bombs creating carnage and killings in yet another Muslim country.

 

Obama is mulling the least bad option

(CNN) -- Among the most enduring urban legends about high-level policy-making in the U.S. government is the proverbial memo with three options: 1. do nothing; 2. do everything; 3. find a middle ground and muddle through.
And yet in truth, Barack Obama really does have only three options in Syria. It appears that the president, rightly the avoider-in-chief when it comes to Syria, has chosen option three, the least bad alternative. And here's why.
Do nothing

This isn't really an option. Forget the fact that the president a year ago drew his own red line against Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons. Disregard the reality that this is reportedly the largest single deployment of chemical weapons since Saddam Hussein used them against the Kurds in 1988; dismiss the fact that 100,000 Syrians have died in this civil conflict; and the president is accused of fiddling, Nero-like, while Syria burns.
Just focus on the events of the past five days in Washington. What has been emanating from administration officials both on and off the record is the most well-advertised and telegraphed military action in the history of modern warfare. Rarely do we get this kind of preview of the operation, its size and character.
Combine that with the Secretary of State John Kerry's brief but powerful statement of moral outrage the other day and the president's PBS interview, and you get as authoritative a commitment to strike as is humanly imaginable.
Indeed, forceful statements and actions of the past few days have now constituted their own red line. And if the president doesn't enforce it, he will be truly damaged goods when it comes to foreign policy for the remainder of his term.
Neither his regional allies (Israel and the Saudis) nor his adversaries (Iran, Hezbollah, Russia) will find him credible or believable. As it is now, everyone says no to the U.S. without much cost or consequence.
Do everything
From the beginning, Sens. John McCain and Lindsay Graham and a whole host of liberal interventionists and neoconservatives outside the government have repeatedly called for a more robust policy on Syria, even suggesting that the president, by not acting sooner, enabled all of this misery to unfold. Syria, the president's critics maintain, is a major threat to U.S. interests -- and to our allies in the region -- and only a takedown of the al-Assad regime through supporting the opposition and direct application of U.S. military power will begin to address the problem.
The argument has not called for boots on the ground but for extensive use of no-fly zones, the use of U.S. air and missile power to degrade the regime and military support for the opposition.
ma: SyrPresident Obama has wisely and willfully avoided this approach. And he continues to avoid it now. The reason has to do with the general problem of an open-ended military commitment and the lack of correlation between the use of U.S. military power and its relation to the end state.
Syria is in the throes of a brutal civil war. The opposition is composed of more than 1,000 disparate rebel groups, the most effective allied with al Qaeda and other Sunni extremists. A victory of the latter would be a blow to U.S. interests. Ousting al-Assad won't be cheap or easy. It took eight months to get rid of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, and he had no weapons of mass destruction, no serious air defenses or military capacity and no credible allies. And look at the end result: a post-Gadhafi environment in which there are too many guns, grievances and regional rivalries and no credible central authority.
And Libya pales in comparison with Syria's complexities. Devising a serious military strategy to get rid of al-Assad -- serious weapons for the rebels; no-fly or -drive zones; and sustained air/missile strikes against Syrian military units, infrastructure and leadership targets -- also means U.S. responsibility for what follows. Barack Obama has avoided this option because he rightly doesn't want America getting stuck with the check for Syria.
Muddle through
The option the U.S. is likely to undertake -- focused more narrowly on trying to deter the Syrians from using chemical weapons again and degrading al-Assad's military capacity in the process -- is far from ideal. Although I think the administration's military actions will be far more devastating than the limited strikes being talked about, it is unlikely to change the arc of the battlefield balance.
There are other downsides, too. Once the glass ceiling against the use of force is broken, the expectations and pressures to use it again will grow. There's always the danger too of a response by Hezbollah or Syria against Israel, however unlikely. And sooner or later, al-Assad will commit some other horror that will require another U.S. response. This kind of episodic intervention without a real strategy can undermine American credibility, too.
To be sure, there are real risks in acting on option three, and Obama most assuredly is a reluctant warrior. Indeed, in view of the parliamentary opposition to British Prime Minister David Cameron's willingness to join the U.S., he may be a lonely warrior, too. But he's going to war with Syria nonetheless. Al-Assad's apparent use of chemical weapons, the president's own words and those of others in his administration leave him no other choice.