Bluedio Q5 Bluetooth headset review

It's not easy to find a good Bluetooth sports headset. The units either end up being too big, or have an additional control box dangling, making the headset feel heavier than it should. If not that, then they do cost a pretty penny. Bluedio Q5 seems to not have any of these issues.

Design and Specifications

To begin with it looks great. The headset earpiece itself is a little bigger than what you'd be used to, but the in-ear speaker unit is ergonomically tilted to fit cozily into the ear canal. The rubber cushioning comes in three sizes to fit all ears and also a set of T-light ear tips that are meant to prevent the earphones from falling during workout. I didn't particularly feel the need to add that though, as the headset managed to stay put in our tests to the point where I didn't even feel the unit in my ear after a while, which is always a sign of good design.

The two earphones are connected by a flat rubber cable, with no additional control box. Everything you need is right there in the right earpiece. There's a USB charging port on top, volume control at the back and the action button right on on the outside. It's all quite easy to reach and can be used while on a jog as well.

Before we move on, here are the specs for the Bluedio Q5:

Bluetooth version: V4.1+EDR

Supported profiles: A2DP, AVRCP, HSP, HFP

Drive: 10mm

Speaker impedance: 16ohm

SPL: 110dB

Frequency response: 20Hz-20KHz

Operating distance: up to 10m

Talk time: about 7hrs

Music time: about 7hrs

Standby time: about 220hrs

Fully charged time: about 2hrs

Headset size: 35.8x30x29.5mm

Headset weight: 16g

Performance

The first thing you'll notice about the Bluedio Q5 is that it's quite bass heavy. That's a good thing when you're working out and need something peppy, but if you're using these as your primary headphones, it will not be the best option for all forms of music. The heavy bass does well with hip-hop, pop and certain forms of EDM, but when you're listening to something a bit purer like jazz, that's where you notice the shortcomings. The overall sound is a bit flat with the mids being a bit on the higher side.

While all that can easily be fixed with equaliser settings in your music player, it's still not the best options for slow ballads, jazz, or classical. Is that a bad thing? Not at all, considering there's not much of a crowd that will listen to those forms of music while working out to begin with. Moreover, there are very few Bluetooth earphones out there that do justice to minute sound notes.

Using the headphones as a handsfree unit for your phone works pretty well. Considering that the speaker is based in the earphone unit itself, your voice will sound muddled with ambient noise. That said, your voice will still be audible as long as you're not in a noisy or excessively windy environment.

As you can see in the specs, Bluedio claims a seven-hour listening time per charge, which seems about right. In fact I counted a little over seven hours (more like seven and a half hours), while using the headset for a mix of music and phone calls. I coudn't test the standby time by itself, but the 220 hours mentioned may just be accurate, as I could leave the headphones around for days and still find enough charge to go around.

Verdict

The Bluedio Q5 looks great as a sports headset, and features just about everything you're looking for in that category. Even in performance, it's no slouch either - delivering good quality audio for just about all popular music categories. Is it perfect? Not really. But it's still one of the best sports Bluetooth headset you can get for Rs 1,899.

Source : techradar.in

Guy creates handheld railgun with a 3D-printer

An ambitious maker has built a partly 3D-printed railgun that can fire aluminum or graphite projectiles at over 250 meters per second (560 mph). No, this isn't Quake, but it's no janky, all-plastic gun, either. The "handheld" weapon houses six capacitors that weigh 20 pounds and deliver over 1,800 joules of energy per shot. And it indeed works just like a full-sized railgun, using parallel electrodes to fire an "armature" bullet. The creator, David Wirth, added an Arduino Uno R3 to monitor charging levels, temperature and other factors, and tweaked the rails after he noticed "plasma damage."

The resulting design was complex enough that he even made a 3D CAD drawing that would do DARPA proud (above). The test shots with graphite and aluminum projectiles were far less lethal than a regular gun, as you can see in the videos below. Nevertheless, the aluminum "bullet" still put a half-inch dent in the steel-backed plywood target, and the graphite projectile "probably just vaporized," according to the Wirth.

Source : engadget.com

How Websites Are Getting Caught In Apple-Google War

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple wants mobile devices to be filled with apps. Google supports a world where people browse the web for most things. Now websites are increasingly caught in the middle of those competing visions.

Consider The Atavist Magazine, an online publication run by Evan Ratliff. To attract the broadest audience possible, Ratliff said he felt pressure to do everything twice: Once for the web and once for the magazine's app. But maintaining a website and getting readers for it while also building an audience of iPhone users with an app, took time — too much time, Ratliff said. So last month, The Atavist shut down its app and decided to publish only on the web.

"Getting someone to download an app is way harder than targeting them and sending them stories through social media," said Ratliff, co-founder of the magazine. The decision was difficult because The Atavist's app had a following, and it is "hard to give up any audience once you have it," he said. But in the end, the app's limitations were too great, he said.

The internet was supposed to be a place where billions of potential users could be reached in one place, simply and inexpensively. But as Apple focuses on apps and Google pushes the mobile web, businesses are grappling with a fragmenting online world.

The two tech giants' competing visions have a common denominator: Money. Apple's main business is selling devices, so it favours apps that make its iPhone a must for consumers. Google makes its money showing people ads that are tailored to their web searches, so it favours a free and open web.

Both are such big companies that there is considerable overlap. Google also makes money selling apps and owns popular programs like Gmail and YouTube, while Apple has growing advertising and search businesses.

 But even those differences are tied to the vision of their core products, with some Apple search tools being most useful for searching its devices and apps, and Google's many efforts to help people navigate apps fitting into its mission to build a simple search box for anything and everything online.

The competing strategies have made it particularly tough for publishers, which straddle apps and the web more than most mobile categories. That is because publishers tend to use apps to cater to the most loyal users and use the web to be found by new readers. As a result, many have invested lots of time and money on a website and an app, which is a huge burden for small publishers that cannot afford a large technology staff.

That situation has been made even harder by some recent moves by Apple and Google. Last month, Apple enabled ads to be blocked on mobile websites on iPhones and iPads, which threatened to hurt publishers that relied on such ads for revenue. And next month, Google will start penalizing websites that use pop-up screens to promote their apps by placing them lower in search engine results, a move that some have called "app blocking."

At the same time, Google has many projects to make the mobile Web faster, including a publisher-focused initiative called Accelerated Mobile Pages, or AMP, which aims to ensure that news and other articles will load more quickly on the mobile web.

"I'm not surprised that the war between them has become an issue for publishers" given that Apple and Google have pushed competing ways to make money from content for years, said Maggie Mesa, the head of publisher development at Manage.com, a company that sells ads in apps. "I'm surprised that it's taken this long."

An Apple spokeswoman said: "The App Store and apps have transformed what people do with mobile devices and have revolutionized the entire industry. Our incredible developer community has created over 1.5 million of the most innovative apps in the world, and they have earned over $33 billion on the App Store. Whether iOS users choose apps or the web for enjoying content they will have a great experience."

Google said by email: "People want content to be fast, discoverable, and accessible. Both apps and the mobile web are important to publishers and we're investing in both."The apps-versus-web-debate seems to be a no-brainer for some websites. Apps appear to have largely defeated the mobile web, with Americans spending about 60% of online time in a mobile app, about 30% on a desktop computer and just 9% in the mobile web, according to a recent Goldman Sachs report on digital advertising.

Yet for some publishers, the cost of an app can be onerous. Publishers have to market the app, often by buying things like mobile ads that ask readers to install the app. Such costs drove The Magazine, a long-form digital magazine, out of business last year, even though it had 35,000 app subscribers at its peak in February 2013 and grossed about $750,000 over 28 months.

"It was just too hard to stand out in the noise," said Glenn Fleishman, The Magazine's founder.

By comparison, the web can seem to be an attractive option. Sites like Atavist can use social media to cut marketing costs.

"Even though there are problems with the mobile web, I see very few publications starting with an app now," said Ratliff of Atavist. After jettisoning the app, he said he could focus more on finding ways to distribute articles through Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. "These places drive traffic," he said

Source : techgignews.com

Facebook, Google, Amazon and other tech giants slam proposed US cybersecurity law

 The tech industry is not a fan of the proposed Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA) currently being deliberated by the US Congress.The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), which represents Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and more big tech companies, has published a blog post slamming CISA, arguing it "does not sufficiently protect users' privacy or appropriately limit the permissible uses of information shared with the government."

CISA is intended to help facilitate the sharing of companies' data with the US government in order to prevent and tackle crime. If passed, A US citizen wouldn't be able to sue Google, say, using privacy/antitrust laws for passing on their data to US law enforcement. It also provides immunity from the Freedom of Information Act, The Guardian reports. But it has become the subject of vocal criticism from privacy activists.

After industry group BSA (which includes Salesforce, IBM, Adobe, and others) wrote a letter apparently supporting CISA, internet activist group Fight For The Future launched a campaign called YouBetrayedUs.org lambasting the group's members over it.

"Many of these companies have previously claimed to fight for their users' privacy rights," the website says, "but by supporting this type of legislation, they've made it clear that they've abandoned that position, and are willing to endanger their users' security and civil rights in exchange for government handouts and protection."

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff subsequently took to Twitter to distance himself from the controversial bill. "The letter clearly was a mistake and doesn't imply CISA support," he wrote. "To clarify. I'm against it."Here's what Bijan Madhani, general counsel of CCIA, wrote about CISA (emphasis ours):

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been critical of the bill, which The Guardian reports has bipartisan support. According to The Register, opponents include "champion of the free and open internet" Ron Wyden, as well as Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul - two presidential candidates.

In a statement, Fight For The Future campaign director Evan Greer hailed the CCIA's position. "Members of Congress should pay attention: nobody wants this bill. Not the public, not security experts, and not even the industry it's supposed to protect," he said. "The safety of Internet users personal information is more fragile than ever, if Congress decides to make matters worse, everyone will know it was the result of ignorance and corruption."

Source : The Times Of India - Tech

Microsoft's 1TB Surface Book will cost you a hefty $3,199

Microsoft talked about the Surface Book having up to a 1TB solid-state drive when it announced the laptop/tablet hybrid, but you couldn't actually buy it on launch -- 512GB was as good as it got. Well, that extra-capacious model is now available for pre-order... and to no one's surprise, it won't come cheap. This ultimate configuration (which also includes a Core i7, 16GB of RAM and dedicated graphics) will cost you an eye-watering $3,199, which makes the $2,699 512GB model suddenly seem like a bargain. Not that there's a rush to buy the 1TB version right away. This and most other Surface Book models won't ship for another 7 to 8 weeks thanks to brisk demand, so you might as well think it over before you drain your bank account.

Source : engadget.com

Vivo's Noida unit to become operational by month-end

NEW DELHI: Chinese smartphone maker Vivo will create over 2,200 jobs at its Greater Noida facility, which will become operational by the end of this month.

The company has already invested Rs 125 crore in the first phase for the assembling unit, which will have capacity of over one million phones per month."At the end of this month our Greater Noida assembling unit will be operational that will bring over 2,000 jobs for the product lines and around 200 managerial positions also. The maximum capacity will be one million units per month," vivo Global CMO and India CEO Alex Feng told PTI.

The company has already been hiring people for the unit.Feng said there are several stages of investment and for the first phase of assembling, the company has invested Rs 125 crore.

"Second phase investment will be made early next year for R&D and even manufacturing. We have to identify the quantum of amount we will be investing," Feng added.Many Indian and international handset players like Lenovo, Gionee, Micromax and Intex among others have already started manufacturing in India while many others have evinced interest in doing so.

The government is also offering various incentives like capital subsidy and tax benefits on setting up local units.The company, which entered the Indian market in December last year, is selling around one lakh units per month.

The Shenzhen-headquartered company plans to increase the service centres to 200 by the end of next year.It has 30 service centres, at present, and over 10,000 outlets across 100 cities of the country.

The company also employ its own staff at the retail outlets and the current staff strength for the same stands at 7,000.

The company is only selling its device offline.Asked if it is considering to embrace the online medium also, Feng said it is not planned in near future as the company wants its customers to get a feel of the device before making a purchase.

The company said it has presence in over 100 countries across the globe and last year forayed into markets Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Source : The Times Of India - Tech

Sony Confirms Some Phones Will Be Upgraded Directly To Android 6.0 Marshmallow

Sony has already confirmed which smartphones and tablets will be getting Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates in the coming months.The Japanese company even released an Android 6.0 Marshmallow concept build recently, but only for a limited number of users.

However, some of the smartphones that will get Marshmallow updates are still stuck on Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system and owners hope they will at least receive Android 5.1 Lollipop by the time Sony provides them with a much newer update.

Well, it looks like that won't happen, as Sony has decided to upgrade these devices directly to Android 6.0 Marshmallow.The first updates should land next year

As spotted by XperiaBlog, Sony has already updated the support pages for these devices, so those who own then can check them out for confirmation.

So, without any further ado, here are the devices that Sony decided to upgrade directly to Android 6.0 Marshmallow: Xperia C4, Xperia C5 Ultra, Xperia M4 Aqua, Xperia M5, Xperia Z3+, and Xperia Z4 Tablet.It's also worth mentioning that the list of devices that have been confirmed to receive Android 6.0 Marshmallow updates in the coming months is subject to changes.

This means that some devices might be removed if Sony decided so, or new ones might be added if the Japanese company feels enough pressure from users.

Source : techgignews.com