Micromax Canvas Pace 4G Q416 launched via eBay for Rs 6,821

The budget 4G smartphone market is heating up with Lenovo, Phicomm and ZTE already in the sub-Rs 5,000 segment. Micromax has now thrown its hat in the ring with the Canvas Pace 4G, albeit with a relatively higher price tag of Rs 6,821.

The handset is only available via eBay India for now and is available freely with none of the pre-registration brouhaha. Despite featuring 4G LTE on board, the smartphone has a very sub-par hardware specs sheet, so it seems like the company has only focused on the 4G aspect of the device.
The processor used here is the low-end Snapdragon 210, so don't expect insanely great performance from the phone. Micromax is only offering the smartphone in a solitary black color option, so color choices are relatively limited for the customers.

We think a price cut would make the smartphone a very attractive offering in India. But for Rs 6,821, the Canvas Pace 4G will fail to make any sort of impact on the market, considering how there are similar (or even better) offerings available for under Rs 5,000 in the region.

Hardware specifications of the Micromax Canvas Pace 4G:

· 5-inch FWVGA (480x854) display
· 8.8mm thickness
· 1.1 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 210 processor
· 5MP rear camera
· 2MP front camera
· 1GB RAM
· 8GB storage (expandable up to 32GB)
· Android 5.1 Lollipop
· 2,500 mAh battery
· 4G LTE with dual SIM support

Read More

Get ready for Li-Fi, a technology 100 times faster than Wi-Fi

Get ready for Li-Fi, a technology 100 times faster than Wi-Fi.

 

The world might eventually have to shift its reliance on Wi-Fi to Li-Fi, an alternative technology that scientists say can reach speeds of 1 Gbps in real-world use - 100 times faster than average Wi-Fi speeds.

At those speeds, you could download a high-definition movie in just a few seconds.

A company called Velmenni told the IBTimes UK that it took the technology out of the labs and into real-world offices and industrial environments in Estonia, where it was able to achieve those speeds.

Li-Fi transmits data using LED lights, which flicker on and off within nanoseconds, imperceptible to the human eye. It was invented in 2011, and in the lab, has been able to reach a mindblowing 224 Gbps.

Unlike Wi-Fi signals which can penetrate walls, Li-Fi is based on light and can't, so its range is theoretically more limited. However, because of that limit, Li-Fi is also potentially more secure from external sniffing.

Li-Fi also opens more possibilities for smart home appliances. In the future, LED lightbulbs for the home could serve two functions — lighting up a room and helping to create a network in the house for devices to talk to each other.

Besides Velmenni, several companies have already sprung up to bring Li-Fi to customers, like Oledcomm and pureLiFi, the latter established by Li-Fi's inventor himself, Harald Haas.

Both companies offer kits to early adopters to install Li-Fi networks in the office and home, and pureLiFi claims speeds of 10 Mbps with his current offering.

 

Read More

Facebook makes Internet.org accessible to everyone and everwhere in India

  Facebook makes Internet.org accessible to everyone and everwhere in India.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg put out a post today announcing that the company’s Internet.org initiative will now be accessible nationwide on the Reliance Network. The service that runs from the recently re-branded Free Basics app (available on Android smartphones) was launched in May this year and saw a lot of controversy around the topic of net neutrality.


While Internet.org was launched on the Reliance network, it was only made available in few areas in India allowing those who cannot afford internet access to freely access internet services related to health, jobs, education and communication. The same Internet.org app soon got re-branded as Free Basics, which today went India-wide.

In his post, CEO Mark Zuckerberg pointed out his reason for pushing for India-wide access, giving an example of how basic internet access can benefit the common man. In his example, Zuckerberg details the story of how a farmer in Maharashtra doubled his crop yield despite being a region that is often plagued by droughts:

“Ganesh struggled with traditional farming methods in a region plagued by droughts, but last year he started using Free Basics – accessing services like AccuWeather, which helped him work better through the monsoon season, and Reuters Market Light, which helped him understand commodity prices and get a better deal for his crops.”
The CEO went on to point out how nearly a billion people in India still do not have access to the internet and hope’s that the company’s initiative will help benefit the same.

 

Read More