TechTalks Now

by  NDTV Correspondent  ,  16 September 2015 In a bizarre incident, two men in China's eastern Jiangsu Province apparently tried to sell their kidney for Apple's latest offering, the iPhone 6s. One of the men identified as Wu, wanted an  iPhone 6s  but could not afford it. His friend Huang suggested they sell a kidney each for money. The two found an illegal agent on the internet who asked them to take medical examinations at a hospital in Nanjing, state-run China Daily  reported . However, when they arrived at a hospital, the agent did not turn up as promised. They later reconsidered selling the organs. Wu told his friend, Huang, to stop the plan but Huang did not listen. Wu then called the police, but Huang ran away and has been out of reach ever since. This is not the first time people in China have gone to crazy lengths to get their hands on Apple products. Two years ago, a Chinese couple illegally put their third child up for ...

by  Harpreet Singh  ,  14 September 2015 This week we have the MacBook Pro, iPhone 5s and iPhone 6, Panasonic smart LED TV and more at great discounts. 1. Apple MacBook Air 13-inch The entry level variant of the 13-inch MacBook Air is now available at an all-time lowest effective price of Rs. 52,499 (effective after cashback). The last lowest price was around Rs. 55,000. The same variant sells at the price point of Rs. 62,500 at major online stores. Use the coupon code A10K to receive Rs. 10,000 as cashback in your Paytm Wallet. You can use this cashback to pay bills, recharge pre-paid connections or pay for your purchases. You can also use this cashback to pay on websites that accept Paytm Wallet. The MacBook Air 13-inch is powered by the Intel Core i5 processor, supported by 4GB of RAM. It comes with a 128GB SSD and runs OS X Yosemite out of the box. You'll be able to upgrade it to OS X El Capitan when it releases by the end of September this year....

If there is a gadget that shows us the future of  Apple 's strategy, then it is the  iPad Pro . Readers of tea leaves had suggested that a  larger iPad was on the way  after WWDC 2015, and that rumour turned out to be true. Combine a beautiful high-resolution display with raw processing power and you might just have finally witnessed a device that could one day replace laptops. The changes in iOS 9 - true multitasking, split screen, and picture-in-picture mode - had hinted that the iPad was finally ready to become  more than just a bigger iPhone . The iPad Pro shows what Apple had been planning all along. The most important addition to justify the iPad's 'Pro' moniker is raw power. Apple claimed that the new A9X chip in the iPad Pro is faster than up to 80 percent of portable PCs that shipped in the past one year. Many of these portable PCs can't open 10 tabs in a browser without freezing, but they cost a lot less the the iPad Pro, which mak...

The dealerships span across Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Raipur and Nagpur. The BMW 360 degree program enables prospects to select the BMW model of their choice, the tenure of financial contract and the per annum mileage criterion. Basis this an assured buyback ensuring low down payment, affordable monthly installments, complimentary service and maintenance for 3 years can be availed. This provides the freedom to upgrade, retain or return the vehicle at the end of the tenure.The BMW  3 Series , the BMW  5 Series  and the BMW  X3  are available now with the new BMW 360 degree program in India.The BMW 360 degree program is exclusively available at the select BMW  dealerships across the country. Mr. Philipp von Sahr, President, BMW Group India said, "With BMW 360 degree program, our cars are future proof for customers by giving them an assured buyback value. The program is specifically designed to provi...

While travelling there is always a chance that your tyre might get punctured but most of the times, you tend to go to a puncture repair shop and get it fixed. In India, especially in metros it is easy to get help at such times but what if you are travelling and the closest town is about 20 odd kms away?   Help may not be around all the time and you have to know what to do in such emergencies. Here are some guidelines you can use.   Stop the car The first thing you must do if your car tyre gets punctured is stop. Do not drive with a flat tyre as it may cause harm to the mechanicals and also the wheel. Take it to the side and switch on the hazards so that the other cars know that your vehicle has a problem and they can avoid the car.   Know your Jacking Points Jacking points are essentially where the car jack goes and this enables it to lift the car so as to change the tyre. The Jacking points have been given specifically because these points h...

It’s a space that has grown over the past 2 years and has seen manufacturers make alterations in their plans to actually get into this segment. The rise of the compact SUVs has been a significant one and no one can ignore that the developments have been pushed by the booming demand for the cars by customers. With quite a few cars in the segment already, and more coming our way and the latest in this segment is from the Mahindra stable and it’s called the TUV 300 and we try and figure out how it stacks up against its rivals. To begin with, the Mahindra TUV300 is the shortest of the lot and closely contested only by the Ford EcoSport as these two are the only vehicles that are sub-4 metre. The Hyundai Creta comes in third place by the Renault Duster. The TUV 300 score high in the department of the wheelbase too as it has the longest 2860mm followed by the Duster, Creta and finally the EcoSport. It is because of ...

B Post the introduction of the Audi A6 Matrix in the diesel avatar, the German car maker has now introduced a petrol variant of the car - the A6 35 TFSI. The company has priced the car at  R s.  45.90 lakh (ex-showroom New Delhi and Mumbai) The new 1.8-litre turbocharged engine which is 200cc smaller than the outgoing engine brings the two worlds of power and efficiency together. According to the folks at  Audi , the fuel efficiency of the Audi A6 35 TFSI is increased by 12.7 percent and the power is further increased by 5 percent. The car is also efficient thanks to the Auto Engine Start/Stop system with Energy Recovery The car features LED headlights, rear lights with dynamic turn indicators, restyled bumpers and the Audi Single frame grill. Inside, the Audi A6 35 TFSI has been spruced up with seat upholstery in Milano Leather and Fine Grain Ash Natural Brown Inlays. The front seats can be electrically adjusted and come with the driv...

Have a Seagate wireless hard drive? You've got all the reasons to worry about. Seagate wireless hard drives ship with undocumented Telnet services, making the disk accessible with a hard-coded password, reports CERT. One of the vulnerabilities, if exploited, allows an attacker with wireless access to the device with the capability to download unrestricted file. Another vulnerability found in the device lets an attacker upload anything into the device's file-sharing directory. Seagate has issued a firmware update to patch the vulnerabilities. The majority of the work done by the CERT Division of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University is focused on government and national security efforts. The CERT team reported  three flaws in the wireless hard drives. The flaws allow anyone to easily bypass the default firewall with the username and password "root." Once exploited, one can access content available on the hard drive, as well ...

Apple at its Wednesday event revealed several new products apart from announcing release dates for iOS 9, watchOS 2, and OS X El Capitan. While the mobile and watch operating systems will release on September 16, OS X El Capitan will release on September 30. Available via the Mac App Store, it will be a free download for users. The new version of OS X bumps the version up to 10.11 and brings a host of improvements including performance enhancements to new features such as Split View.  Apple  at  WWDC had detailed  that the new OS X El Capitan and claimed that apps would switch twice as fast compared to Yosemite and apps launch would about 1.4 times quicker in general. The company also changed the system level font for OS X El Capitan to San Francisco. One of the most highlighted features of  OS X El Capitan was touted  to be Split View, which will allow users to fill the screen with two apps of their choice. Another very minor update added a n...

Think 4K is not enough? Camera maker Canon announced on Monday that it has developed a 250-megapixel image sensor. Touting the abilities of the new sensor, the Japanese technology conglomerate noted that the new APS-H CMOS sensor could distinguish an airplane flying at a distance of approximately 18km from the shooting location. Despite being the densest sensor in its size range, the company claims the new APS-H CMOS sensor is extremely fast. The company noted in a blog post that the new sensor has a readout speed of 1.25 billion pixels per second. "With CMOS sensors, increases in pixel counts result in increased signal volume, which can cause such problems as signal delays and slight discrepancies in timing," the company  said . "The new Canon-developed CMOS sensor, however, despite its exceptionally high pixel count, achieves an ultra-high signal readout speed of 1.25 billion pixels per second, made possible through such advancements as circuit mi...

Microsoft Research, the research arm of the Redmond-based company. has showcased a number of interesting technologies over the past few years. On Monday, it showed off yet another such project. Called MobileFusion, it's an app Microsoft is working on for  Android ,  iOS , and  Windows Phone smartphones that would turn their cameras into a 3D scanner. The research arm of  Microsoft  said that MobileFusion will allow users to shoot sequential images of an object -- developing a 3D image of it -- which can be later turned into a 3D model. But where will you use it? The idea is to make a replica of all the interesting things you see across you. For instance, if you see an interesting sculpture at a museum, you can take images of it and later produce its 3D-printed replica. "What this system effectively allows us to do is to take something similar to a picture, but it's a full 3D object,"  said  Peter Ondruska, a Ph.D. candidate at Oxfor...

Indo-Asian News Service  ,  10 September 2015 The National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (Natmo) is developing a digital library and within a year people would have access to an e-version of Indian maps, the department of science and technology announced in Kolkata on Thursday. "Natmo is developing a digital library and the proposal is under consideration by the DST. It will be implemented soon," Ashutosh Sharma, secretary in the department of science and technology said during the 60th anniversary celebrations of Natmo. The organisation is engaged in compilation of the national atlas of India in Hindi, English and other regional languages, as well as preparation of thematic maps based on socio-economic, physical, cultural, environmental, demographic and other issues. Sharma said thematic maps would be available in digital version within a year. This also includes launch of web applications of location-based services of the maps prepared by Natmo...

Amazon's new  "unlimited" e-book service  lets you read 600,000 books. That sounds like more than you'll ever read, but I found myself struggling to find the books I wanted. It turns out that the library of 600,000 is bit like a small bookstore with a few current titles such as "The Hunger Games," attached to a block-sized bargain bin of obscure stuff mixed with "Robinson Crusoe" and other classics that are in the public domain and available for free online anyway. Startups Scribd and Oyster both offer better value for avid readers of popular books. Though Oyster has only 500,000 books and Scribd has 400,000, both offer extensive libraries from two of the largest publishers, HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster. Kindle Unlimited doesn't. Kindle  Unlimited and Oyster both cost $10 a month, while Scribd goes for $9. All three offer the first month free. Weeks ago, as I was reviewing Scribd and Oyster, I asked colleague...

Everyone likes to be lazy. When someone else can handle a bit of our work for us, it makes our life that much easier. Fortunately, the Internet provides ample services that help you do just that. Awesome developers have been making tools help you automate mundane tasks, automating parts of your life and making it easier to send mails or write code. A lot of tools would help you make your work faster and simpler. Let's look at some of those tools that I use in everyday life. 1) IFTTT IFTTT  stands for If This Then That. And as its tagline suggests, it really puts the Internet at work for you. Automated tasks on IFTTT are called recipes; and with the right recipes, you can get a lot of work done automatically. Creating recipes is simple; you pick an IF service and action, and a then-that service and action combo. There are plenty of services available from social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, to services like SMS, notification, and location...