At its Windows event in San Francisco today, Microsoft announced the next release of its operating system. Known until now as codename Threshold, the successor to Windows 8 will officially be known as Windows 10. Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Operating System, unveiled the name, after saying Windows is used by about 1.5 billion people. “Windows is at a Threshold and now it’s time for a new Windows,” Myerson said at the event. “It wouldn’t be right to call it Windows 9.”

The new operating system will offer a tailored experience for each device, but a single store will offer apps and updates across all devices. Windows 10 “will deliver the right experience on the right device at the right time,” Myerson said.

The Start menu not only has live tiles, but you can resize them, which impacts the overall size of the menu itself. You can also search the Web and receive results without opening up a browser.
While showing off the new operating system, Joe Belfiore, Corporate Vice President, Operating Systems Group at Microsoft, said today that going from Windows 8 to Windows 10 is like going from a Prius to a Tesla. “They don’t have to learn any new way to drive.”





Despite the focus on the mice and keyboard today, Microsoft will keep the touch part of Windows 8 around. The argument here is that touch users have higher satisfaction on Windows 8 devices than on Windows 7 devices. The opposite is true for mouse and keyboard users. As a result, Microsoft wants businesses to think of Windows 10 as a merging of Windows 7 and Windows 8.

“One of the most important customers for Windows is the enterprise,” Myerson said at the event. Redmond is very interested in communicating that it has been hard at work to move away from Windows 8, which many have criticized for not being as easy to use with a mouse and keyboard.
The next version of Windows was widely expected to arrive sometime next year. Even the Wi-Fi password at the event was chosen to remind everyone of this: “Windows2015.”

Karbonn partnered with Microsoft earlier this year to launch Windows Phone devices. Karbonn Titanium Wind W4, the company’s first Windows Phone device is now available from Amazon.in. Priced at just Rs.5,999, this is the cheapest Windows Phone 8.1 smartphone with Dual SIM support in India currently, cheaper than the Nokia Lumia 530 Dual SIM that was launched recently.



It has a 4-inch WVGA screen, powered by a a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon (probably Snapdragon 200) processor and a 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash and a front-facing camera, according to the listing. Other specifications are similar to the Lumia 530, but no word on the battery capacity yet.

Karbonn Titanium Wind W4 Specifications :

• 4-inch (800 x 480 pixels) display
• 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor
• 512MB RAM, 4GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD
• Windows Phone 8.1 OS
• Dual SIM
• 5MP autofocus rear camera with LED flash
• front-facing camera
• 3G, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth, GPS

The Karbonn Titanium Wind W4 comes in black, white and red colors, but currently only the white variant is on sale. Xolo launched the Win Q900s, the company’s first Windows Phone handset recently.

Acer launches new Acer Aspire E series laptops are available in 29.464cm (11.6 inch), 35.56cm (14 inch) and 39.624cms (15.6 inch) models.
New E series price starting from Rs. 20,999 to Rs. 59,999, the new Acer Aspire laptops are : ES1-511, E3-111, E5-511, E5-471, E5-571 and E5-571G.

• Windows 8.1 and Linux Operating Systems
• NVIDIA GeForce 800M series card
• GB: up to 12GB of RAM and 1TB hard disk
• Precision Touchpad (PTP) that supports six-core Windows 8.1 TouchPad gestures
• 4th Generation Intel Core i7 processor

The New Aspire E5-571 comes up with graphics and non-graphics variants and available in five color (Midnight Black, Titanium Silver, Sapphire Blue, Tiger’s Eye Brown and Garnet Red. While the Aspire E5-471 notebook comes in 35.56 cms (14 inch) screen size that is available in P.

“We are excited to partner with Acer in announcing the launch of the new Aspire E series from Acer based on the Windows 8.1 OS. The new OS provides users with an even more familiar and convenient experience across touch, keyboard and mouse inputs, while improving efficiencies. Activities like powering down and switching between apps are easier than before, navigating with the mouse and keyboard will feel more intuitive and finding great new apps to make the most of the software is simpler than before. We are sure consumers will be pleased with their experience of the new Windows 8.1 OS on the equally new Acer Aspire E series.” said Mr. Neeraj Gill, Group Director – OEM, Microsoft India

There is nothing quite like being able to rely on the power of collaboration and synergy when trying to achieve an objective, in particular, one that might seem to be impossible for a single person. Having said that, Google Maps have proven itself to be extremely helpful in delivering a comprehensive guide to those who are traveling to unfamiliar places. However, since nothing is perfect in this world, locals know best, which is why Google will now enable users to include missing places and points-of-interest to Maps straight from the mobile app itself.

In order to gain access to this particular feature, all that you need to do is to simply tap anywhere on a map, where the full details of the address will appear. Choose the ‘Add a Missing Place’ link, and you can then fill up the nitty gritty such as Place Name, Category, Phone Number, and Website.

As for the kinds of categories which will be part of the mix, they cover just about everything, ranging from Bars to Shops, Cinemas, Schools, Parks and Hospitals. Prior to hitting ‘Send’, Google will inform you that you will be on the receiving end of updates on the status of these changes to the associated Gmail address, and they can also be published under your account where the Google Map Maker is concerned.

iBall has launched the Slide WQ32, the company’s first Windows 8 tablet. It has a 8-inch (1280×800 pixels) IPS screen and is powered by an quad-core Intel Atom Z3735D processor. It has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It comes with free Microsoft Office license for one year, 1TB OneDrive cloud storage and Windows Defender Antivirus and Firewall.

iBall Slide WQ32 Specifications

• 8-inch (800 x 1280 pixels) multi-touch IPS display with Zero Air Gap touch, 178-degree viewing angle
• 1.33GHz quad-core Intel Atom Z3735D processor (burst up to 1.86GHz)
• 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM, 16GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB with micro-SD slot
• Windows 8.1 OS
• 5-megapixel auto focus rear camera with LED flash
• 2-megapixel front-facing camera
• 3G (via SIM card slot), WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, micro HDMI, and microUSB
• 14 Wh battery

The iBall Slide WQ32 is priced at Rs. 16,999. The company plans to launch a 10.1-inch 2-in-1 hybrid by the end of this month.

Commenting on the launch,  Sandeep Parasrampuria, Director iBall said,

iBall is excited to present the Intel based Windows Tablet PC. The latest association with the IT stalwarts Intel and Microsoft further reinforces our position as one of the leading brands in Tablet PCs. We are proud to work with Intel and Microsoft who have been trend setters in technology.

Toshiba has announced the launch of 7 inch Encore Mini Windows 8.1 tablet. Priced at $119.99, the tablet has 1024×600 resolution and is powered by an Intel Atom Z3735G processor and 1 GB of RAM. The Encore Mini sports a slim 0.43-inch profile and weighs just 12.5 ounces. It has a 2 MP rear and 0.3 front facing camera, 16GB storage and a microSD card slot.  Other specs include micro USB 2.0 port and support for 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.

Toshiba is also giving a one-year subscription to Office 365 Personal and 1TB of OneDrive storage to users. The Encore Mini is now available for $119.99 (U.S.) at major retailers including online and direct from Toshiba on toshiba.com/us. It available in Germany, France, and the UK later this year.

“With Encore Mini, we worked hand-in-hand with Microsoft to deliver a high-quality small-screen Windows 8.1 tablet at an entry-class price point. Our product portfolio of Windows tablets continues to grow, enabling us to deliver more screen size choice to consumers at a lower price point, while still maintaining a consistently high-level of quality and features for a greater value.” said Philip Osako, senior director of product marketing, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Digital Products Division.

Microsoft's most popular instant messaging software products. Microsoft started to phase out MSN Messenger (also known as Windows Live Messenger) globally in April 2013 and it will be completely shut down on October 31st. MSN Messenger is only available in mainland China until then. In an e-mail about the changes, Microsoft suggested that users switch to Skype. As an incentive to join Skype, Microsoft is offering a free $2 credit to users that make the switch.
Microsoft launched MSN Messenger in 1999 as a competitor to AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and ICQ. MSN Messenger supported access to AIM, but America Online tried continuously to block Microsoft. As MSN Messenger grew in popularity, additional features were created like custom emoticons, games and a nudge feature that shakes the chat window. In 2005, Microsoft rebranded MSN Messenger to Windows Live Messenger. As of five years ago, Windows Live Messenger had over 330 million active users each month.

MSN Messenger was maintained in China through a partnership with Chinese media company TOM Group. The joint venture ended last year due to a dispute between TOM Group and Skype over the new users acquired by Skype during its 9 year history in China. Many people feel nostalgic about MSN Messenger shutting down, including myself. MSN Messenger was around before Gmail, MySpace, Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram. When MSN Messenger first launched, I had to use a 56k modem to log in to the service and hope that someone did not call the landline while I was chatting with my friends.

Microsoft's anticipated next version of Windows, expected to be called Windows 9 and officially codenamed Threshold, has once again come under the spotlight with reports pointing to new features such as interactive live tiles and notification centre, said to be a part of Modern UI 2.0. Also being actively speculated about is the separation of desktop from Modern UI, the release-cadence cycle of the new operating system, and the expected release of Windows 9 technical preview as early as next month.

Winbeta reports that Microsoft would modify Windows 9 to offer different features on different form factors. ARM-based Windows RT Threshold tablets (as well as smartphones, with the unifying Threshold update) will in most cases barring a few exceptional devices feature the Modern UI only, with no way to switch to the desktop mode or use regular Win32 applications.

On the other hand, laptops, desktops and AIOs would feature only the desktop mode, with the new Start Menu the only place where desktop users will be able to interact with the Modern UI and its apps - the Start Menu is also said to be expandable to full screen to become like the Start Screen.
The website also reports two new features for the Start Screen and Start Menu, namely interactive Live Tiles and a new Notification Centre. The interactive Live Tiles will enable users to perform certain tasks on the app without opening it.

The first glimpse of the interactive Live Tile was seen in April. Winbeta notes that not all apps will have interactive Live Tiles functionality, though most important ones will, and that developers will have to make sure their apps support the interface. The website also adds that the Modern UI 2.0 included in the Windows Threshold will also feature a Windows Phone 8.1-like Notification Centre. The details on the feature are still scarce. In addition, Cortana might also have a dedicated Live Tile on the start screen - just like on Windows Phone. Winbeta says it is still uncertain if Cortana can be accessed via the hardware search button or not.

While these two features are said to reach the users as a part of Windows 9 or Threshold, Winbeta says because of the rumoured separation of Modern UI from the desktop mode, Microsoft may not release a Windows RT Threshold technical preview this year - though it once again notes the uncertainly to this expectation. A separate ARM-based Windows RT Threshold technical preview is expected to be released after the x86-based Windows 9 Threshold technical preview for enterprises, which could be released as soon as next month.Foley says it is still unclear whether Microsoft will employ a subscription-based model to deliver the updates, or just provide them for free while mitigating development costs with other paid subscriptions. Of course, a very fast cadence for updates will not make enterprises or IT managers very happy, who'd prefer to test new versions and features before rolling them out to their users.

A news report indicated that Microsoft is planning to hold an event on September 30 to provide a look at a version of what is expected to be called Windows 9, and is thought to be codenamed 'Threshold'. The introduction will be aimed at developers behind programs designed for computers powered by Windows software, and Microsoft is expected to release a developer preview as early as October before releasing a public preview by the end of the year.

A study by InMobi has revealed that Indians are willing to pay between Rs 71 and Rs 129 for in-app purchases. This comes as a relief to developers who were doubtful whether it's possible to monetise their creations in the market.

21% of the respondents who participated in the InMobi survey said they had paid for in-app purchases for messaging software, while 18% said they would not mind spending some spare change for extras.

Line claimed to have earned $27.4 million from emoticons and stickers bought by its Japanese users in 2013. As Indian users are not keen on such features, the developers of WhatsApp and similar services will have to find other means of making money from their creations if they offeri in-app purchases in the future.

HTC has just announced the rumored HTC One (M8) for Windows smartphone running Windows Phone 8.1.1 with Cortana.  It has exactly the same design and specifications as the HTC One (M8), including a 5.0-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display, 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, Duo camera setup with a primary UltraPixel camera, secondary rear camera to capture depth information and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with wide-angle lens.

HTC One (M8) for Windows Specifications

• 5.0-inch (1920 x 1080 pixels) Full HD display
• 2.3 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with Adreno 330 GPU
• Windows Phone 8.1.1 with Cortana
• UltraPixel primary rear camera with dual LED Flash, BSI Sensor,F/2.0 aperture and 28 mm lens
• Secondary rear camera to capture depth information
• 5 MP front-facing camera
• Full HD (1080p) video recording with HDR Video
• 9.35 mm thick and weighs 160 grams
• 3.5 mm headset jack, FM radio with RDS, HTC BoomSound
• Dual front-facing stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers
• Infrared remote control
• nano SIM
• 2GB RAM,  32GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 128GB
• 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, WiFi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n (2.4 and 5 GHz), Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX codec,NFC and GPS with GLONASS
• 2600 mAh battery

The HTC One (M8) for Windows would go on sale in the U.S. today noon, exclusively through Verizon Wireless online for $99.99 with a new two-year contract for a limited time or  $29.99 per month on Verizon Edge. It would go on sale in stores tomorrow. The HTC Dot View Case and screen  protector would be available at a offer price of $25.

Microsoft owned Nokia was rumored to be working on a selfie centered smartphone under the codename ‘Superman’. First images of the phone with 5MP front facing camera have surfaced in a new leak. The photo of the Lumia 730 or the selfie phone were obtained by WP Central that shows the phone in green color. The same color scheme can be spotted on previous Lumia devices. The phone will sport a 4.7-inch 720p touchscreen and a 2000 mAh battery, said the report. Other specifications of the internal hardware of the phone are not known yet.

The device is also apparently running a new version of Nokia specific software, called “Lumia Debian Red”. According to WP Central this could be company’s version of the Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 that is expected to be available to the general public later this year. Also, this might be a codename for the update as firmware names go in alphabetical order, starting with A for Amber, Black, Cyan and now D for Debian Red, said the report.

It isn’t clear what the new update will add in terms of features. The Lumia 730 looks like a successor of Lumia 720. Last month Lumia 830 was spotted with ‘Nokia by Microsoft’ branding. Meanwhile, earlier this week, Microsoft released first Windows 8.1 update for developers.

Yesterday, there were reports stating that HTC will announce its upcoming flagship device the One W8 on August 20th and launch it on August 21st. However, today HTC has sent out press invites for an event on August 19th. It is anticipated that the company will announce a Windows Phone based on the HTC One (M8) design. No clues about the event can be drawn from the invites that are sent out. The HTC One W8 is expected to boast of similar feature to its Android counterpart with Snapdragon 801 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 16 and 32GB memory and a 5 inch 1080p display. The phone is expected to be dubbed as “One (W8) for Windows”, as per Engadgets source. It also says that it would feature voice over LTE, but it is likely to be enabled by Windows Phone 8.1 GDR1 update.

The latest Windows 8.1 update also adds support to the smart covers like the HTC Dot View case in the Windows Phone. No other details about the specs, pricing and availability of the HTC One W8 are known as of yet. We will have to wait till August 19th and see what does HTC actually has in for us.


It looks like HTC is preparing a mid range smartphone as per series of tweets from popular leakster @upleaks.  Dubbed as A11, for now the device will be from HTC’s Desire line and is running on a Snapdragon 410 processor. This is the first ever 64-bit SoC from Qualcomm that was unveiled in December of last year. It has a 1.4 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 CPU, and an Adreno 306 GPU.The HTC A11 will sport a 4.7″ having a resolution of 480×854-pixels. Running on  Android 4.4.2, the device will also have HTC’s traditional Sense 6.0 UI. It will boast ofa 5MP  rear-facing and 0.3MP front facing camera. Being a mid range phone, it will not have the popular HTC Boomsound speakers. @upleaks also touted Sprint launch of the HTC A11 phone. 

BlackBerry introduced BBM in private beta earlier this month for Windows Phone users. Soon, the company started taking registration for the beta program. Now the app is available for download on the Windows Phone Store for those who have applied for beta testing.

This beta app feature all basic BBM features such as Feeds, Contacts and Chat. BlackBerry announced that features such as stickers, BBM Voice, Channels, and Location Sharing will soon be added to the Windows app in the coming months.

It must be noted that the app can be downloaded only by those who successfully registered for the Beta Program. BBM for Windows Phone will have a similar user interface as its counterparts from iOS and Android along with some elements from the Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS.
You can download BBM beta from the Windows Phone Store here.

Intel continues to plod away in the PC segment and has now tied up with retailer Croma for two new Windows 8.1 running devices. Croma has launched a 10.1-inch 2-in-1 PC, that has a keyboard attachment, while the Windows tablet will feature an 8-inch display. The eight-inch Croma 1179 tablet is priced at Rs 13,990, while the 2-in-1 has a price tag of Rs 21,990.

Both devices will be powered by Intel Atom Z3735D 1.33 GHz processors, which is the Bay Trail T chipset. While the smaller one is a Wi-Fi-only affair, the 2-in-1 gets a SIM slot for 3G connectivity. Besides both devices can take in data dongles for connectivity on the go. Internally, you will find 32GB storage, and there’s a microSD card slot too for expansion.

The 8-inch tablet will come with 2MP cameras in the front and rear and sports a healthy 2GB of RAM, along with 32GB of flash storage, and a microSD card slot It will have a 5000 mAh, that sounds quite good given the other specs. The display has a resolution of 1280×800 pixels, which sounds like a good option given the screen size.

The 10.1-inch PC will be the lowest priced 2-in-1 to hit India and will have Microsoft Office 365 pre-loaded. Microsoft and Croma are positioning this one as a solution for those working on the move, since it does have a SIM slot. The devices will initially be available only in Croma brick-and-mortar stores as well as its online retail site.

The confine of app downloads in India is prospective to discolor from 1.56 billion per annum in 2012 to 9 billion by 2015, says a new musing.

The joint-study by the Associated Architect of Doc and Business of India (Assocham) and Deloitte said it gift be a bilobate yearbook growing assess (CAGR) of nearly 75 proportionality, the cavum said Tues announcing the results of the acquire. The ruminate revealed that most of the apps are downloaded by grouping in the age unit of 16 and 30 life. The associated reflect - Digitisation and Mobility - said the class shift was brought by ethnical media crusade during the 2014 Lok Sabha election, where 29 cardinal grouping prefabricated 227 1000000 interactions on Facebook. It said most 60 million tweets were posted from the day the polls were declared to the day balloting ended.

A tracheophyte of mechanised apps are ready in app stores: Apple's devices are transistorised with iMessage, BlackBerry devices with BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and Windows Phone devices with a Windows Elastic client. Humanoid devices somebody a chain of traveler apps options, including WhatsApp and SnapChat. "Mobile TV qualified a 400 proportionality ontogenesis evaluate in viewership for the country's largest medium companies as much Indians watched TV on the go. YouTube, the most common recording app is accessed by 35 proportion of smartphone users who drop nigh 1.5 hours a period on it," Assocham supporter generalised D.S. Rawat said.

The deal of video in net collection interchange is supposed to origin from 41 proportion in 2011-12 to 64 percent in 2016-17. The ontogeny adoption of mobility devices is persuasion pay-TV and cyberspace TV providers to provide a wider select of content via smartphones, tablets and phablets. Nevertheless, the speculate said Bharat being a damage delicate order, fill are console reluctant to pay for floating games and downloading sizable file-sized games or apps despite chintzy play rates and metropolis perambulating job developers travel the Soldier marketplace.

At its Form 2014 discussion today, Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone 8.1. Among the new features is a private digital subordinate named Cortana, a new Spreading Center, as fit as support for customizable hold screens and backgrounds. Windows Phone 8.1 faculty board on devices in "real new April or azoic May."

Cortana, Microsoft's resolution to Google Now and Apple's Siri, completely replaces the hunting operate on Windows Phone, which makes import since she is supercharged by Bing. Actuation her takes you uncurving to a itemise of personalized suggestions supported on how you use your manoeuvre.

Cortana, which is propulsion as a beta, features a Notebook, which is essentially the settings writer for choosing what just the own help should have rail of. If you've ever old Google Now, it's really correspondent to the "legerdemain wand" attendant. The characteristic will get archetypical in the US, followed by the UK and Dishware in the back half of this year and further countries in 2015.

Among the options is a inaudible hours alternative to change certain she won't strain you when you're busy. You can set an innermost form of friends to cook itinerary of, which you can also prefer to either prize calmness hours or not. Microsoft's individualised supporter can resign you a inclination of restaurants (powered by Yelp), stronghold rails of your appointments, administer you reminders, track the endure, and result questions about the mankind in generic. Incomparable of all, Cortana can be sprawled with third-party apps (Skype, Hulu, and Facebook were all shown off), which is course why Microsoft is disclosing her at its developer association.

Cortana away, the Production Eye shows the assault pct, figure customizable buttons, and of teaching notifications from all your apps. The new enclosure choose implementation developers can anatomy new experiences that shows users whatsoever substance they raise.

Windows Phone 8.1 also allows users to sicken benefit of much tiles, should they greeting to hit many on the interior choose. The new "altissimo density" layout is configured low settings, interior the 'Start+Theme' region. Devices with 5-inch displays and beyond can add a 3rd shape of tiles to their place sift.

For the basic term, telephone owners faculty also be fit to set the wallpaper on their lodging protect. By cropping a photo to the conquer dimensions, Microsoft will then bed it underneath the tiles, thereby creating a uncomparable and personal visage. Windows Sound 8.1 includes a new Swype-style Phrase Line keyboard that Microsoft claims has set the humankind disc for typing on a rangy pattern.

Myce.com recently nabbed two screenshots from a purported recent build of Threshold, which is expected to be called Windows 9 when it debuts in 2015. Right now, however, these internal builds are labeled Windows 8.1 Pro—a fact that Neowin noted earlier in July when it also nabbed a screenshot of the Start menu.

 Most desktop users are excited about the notion that the Start menu will return. Even better it may actually put metro apps to good use for those of us who boot to the desktop. The Myce and Neowin shots are very similar and aren't all that different from what we saw in April, when Microsoft officially announced the Start menu was coming back. On the left-hand side of the new Start menu you'll have a list of recently used apps as well as an option to view a list of "All apps." (The terminology seems to be a catch-all for both desktop programs and Metro apps.)
Presumably, as with the original versions of the Start menu, you'll be able to pin apps to this list.
To the right of the apps list is an area with pinned metro apps for easy access and at-a-glance live tiles for apps like weather, mail, news, and calendar. The new Start menu seems to be customizable, with it tile sizes appearing adjustable, just as they are now on the Start screen.


But Microsoft may have different plans. The Verge reported late Monday that Microsoft is testing versions of the Start menu that take over the entire screen and act more like the current Start screen in Windows 8.1. However, is whether this will happen on all devices running Threshold. A report from Windows watcher Paul Thurrott earlier in July said the expanded Start menu would be the default option for tablets and other touch-based devices that lack a keyboard. This interface, Thurrott said, would be "a full-screen Start menu that looks and works a lot like the Start screen does now." Regular PCs, however, would get the more traditional Start menu as seen in the Myce and Neowin leaked screenshots. In addition to another look at the Start menu, Myce also published a screenshot showing the Windows Store operating in windowed mode.


Threshold isn't expected to roll out until April 2015, but if you can't wait that long you can put together a similar set-up using third-party tools for Windows 8.1. Check out our tutorial on how to get a Windows 7-like Start menu and windowed Metro apps right now.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced today in an email to employees that the company is preparing to layoff a total of 18,000 people within the next year. Additionally, Stephen Elop, chief of Microsoft devices, also announced that the Nokia X Android project is over. Future Nokia X designs and products will be shifted to Windows Phone devices. He notes that the company will make the shift immediately, but support and sales for existing Nokia X products will remain.

There's no further information on what's the destiny of the recently announced Nokia X2. It's an existing product technically, so it should go on sale, but given the new developments Microsoft might as well cancel it. After all, we doubt anyone will be interested in buying into the platform now that it's officially pronounced dead.

Here's an excerpt from Elop's email.

In addition to the portfolio already planned, we plan to deliver additional lower-cost Lumia devices by shifting select future Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices. We expect to make this shift immediately while continuing to sell and support existing Nokia X products

. Out of the total of 18,000 planned job cuts, the Nokia Devices and Services unit will lose 12,500 people. Each one of them will be notified over the next six months and will receive a severance package. Those 12,500 jobs are comprising of both factory workers and IT professionals.
Satya Nadella said that the workforce reductions are dictated by the need of work simplification and strategic alignment with the Nokia Devices and Services integration.

Air quality is one of those things that many of us should be more concerned about, but aren’t. According to some people, this is because we’re not easily able to know how clean the air around us really is – we just assume it’s “clean enough.” Computer scientists at the University of California, San Diego have set out to change that. They’re developing a compact, portable air pollution sensor that communicates with the user’s smartphone, to provide real-time air quality readings for their immediate surroundings.

Known as CitiSense, the device is able to measure local concentrations of ozone, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide, which are the pollutants emitted most by internal combustion vehicles. That data is wirelessly transmitted to the user’s smartphone, where it’s displayed on the screen via a custom app – along with an actual number rating, the display also utilizes the EPA’s color code scale, where green is good and purple.

Also, data gathered from a multitude of the sensors throughout a region could provide the public with much more detailed and accurate air quality reports than is currently possible. According to the university, although San Diego County measures approximately 4,000 square miles (10,360 sq km), it is currently served by only about ten air-quality monitoring stations.

The sensors presently cost US$1,000 per unit to build, but the researchers are confident that the price could be greatly reduced by mass production – they could conceivably even be incorporated into commercial smartphones. Although the constant data exchange between the prototype sensors and their paired phones is a considerable drain on the phones’ batteries, that could reportedly be addressed by limiting such exchanges to spaced intervals, or only when requested by the user.
North Carolina-based tech firm RTI International is developing a somewhat similar gadget known as the MicroPEM (Personal Exposure Monitoring device), although it doesn’t provide real-time readings. The University of Southern California has also created an Android app that uses the phone’s camera to measure particulate matter in the atmosphere, but it doesn't determine what those particles consist of.

• The Microsoft smartwatch won't be bulky like the recently announced LG G Watch or the Samsung Gear Live that run Android Wear. Instead, it will be slim, like a thinner, flatter version of the Nike Fuelband.
• It will feature a built-in heart-rate monitor.
• The display will be on the inside of the wrist unlike most current smartwatches to make it feel more natural.
• The device will be cross-platform. You will be able to use it with iOS, Android and Windows Phone (and, presumably, Windows PCs and Macs).
• There will be 11 sensors under the hood.