Emporio Armani launched their new line of hybrid smartwatches.

Emporio Armani, the famous clothing company, has recently decided to join the already crowded market of wearable devices. They have recently announced a new line of hybrid smartwatches called Emporio Armani Connected. The devices will be built by Fossil.

The first thing you have to know about this new device from Armani is that it only have limited features compared to standard smartwatches. Nonetheless, the few smart functions it has are bound to be among the most useful for users. For example, every new hybrid smartwatch in their line of devices will feature Bluetooth. This is a way to connect it to a smartphone, which will allow users to option to control their music from their watch, as well as remotely taking photos with their smartphone.

Other interesting and useful features of the Emporio Armani hybrid smartwatches include the function to monitor the sleep pattern of users, set alarms, find a lost smartphone to which it is connected to. Unfortunately, it won’t display notifications or messages but will vibrate every time your phone receives one.

One last feature and probably the most important and useful one for a watch is the ability to keep telling time at 100 percent precision, according to Emporio Armani. Additionally, it will also be able to switch between time zones easily.To power it all up, the watch will have a quartz battery which provides more autonomy than most smartwatches have. According to some reports, the battery can last up to six months on a single charge.

In regards to design, Emporio Armani proves that it’s expertise in the design of clothing has been useful in the development of the watch. The devices will be very stylish with a silvery stainless steel casing encompassing the analog display, with three small buttons on the left. It will come in a variety of colors such as black, rose gold, and gunmetal. Potential customers can choose to have either a leather or a metal three-piece link strap.

The watch is already available for purchase on the website of Emporio Armani or in their shops around the world. The starting price is $250 but it can go up to $400 depending on the model. It remains to be seen how the devices will perform in the declining market of smartwatches.

Are you interested in buying an Emporio Armani Watch?

Image source: Emporio Armani

Many snow leopards are killed every year.

Recent reports reveal that many snow leopards are killed every year because some people see these big cats as a threat to livestock.

These enigmatic animals are known as ‘mountain ghost’ for their white black-spotted pelt and can be found in the mountains of Central Asia, whereas the population may vary depending on the area.

According to wildlife officials, there might less than 4,000 snow leopards left in the wild, although the IUCN and the Word Wildlife Fund have joined their efforts to save this endangered species. Even so, scientists from Panthera, a protection group for big cats, claim that the current snow leopard population is around 4,500 to 10,000 wild specimens.

Around 221 and 450 snow leopards have been hunted down and killed every year since 2008, according to the experts’ statistics. However, this is just an approximation as the numbers might be higher because monitoring illegal trade is a challenging process.

This species lives in 12 distinct countries, but over 90 percent of the poaching occurs in Tajikistan, India, Pakistan, Mongolia, and China. What makes it worse is that herders kill more than fifty percent of these snow leopards because they attack livestock killing cattle and sheep.

These big cats are very strong as a single specimen is capable of taking down up to twenty goats or sheep. These herders live in communities that depend only on livestock, so wild predators represent a threat to their survival.

Poachers kill around 21 percent of the snow leopards for their bones, claws, teeth, and pelts, which they illegally sell on the black market. However, there is also the chance that herders kill snow leopards to protect their livestock and then, end up selling the dead animal for a small profit.

These statistics point out to the fact that many efforts must be made to protect and preserve this endangered species, and the first step would be to reduce the conflicts between humans and leopards.

Also, herders should be educated to avoid any encounters with a snow leopard as much as possible. Thanks to this initiative, herders would receive money from the government to make up for any lost animals.

In addition, illegal trading must be prevented. Although they are endangered, snow leopards can recover if mountain communities and wildlife officials will work together.

Image Source: 1Zoom

over 90 percent of Apple chargers sold on Amazon US are fake.

In a recent lawsuit filed by Apple, the company claims that 90 percent of ‘official’ Apple chargers are fake. The products were listed as genuine, but it they may do more bad than good to Apple users who bought as replacements.

Apple is currently in the process of suing for trademark infringement a company named Mobile Star LLC. According to the filed documents, Apple is stating that they have made numerous counterfeit chargers with their brand name and for specific devices, which were marketed as genuine products on various sites, most notably on the US version of Amazon.

The products on the websites on which they were sold were actually listed as genuine products. However, to test the accuracy of their claim, Apple decided to actually buy several different chargers. The company’s engineers verified the shipped ‘official’ Apple chargers and discovered several issues with them. They were found to have inferior or missing components, and overall poorly constructed based on a flawed design.

The most dangerous aspect of these genuine Apple chargers as what Mobile Star claimed they were, had inadequate electrical insulation. This doesn’t make them just fakes but very dangerous ones at that. Apple’s engineers reported that they could actually catch fire or even electrocute users.

During Apple’s own investigation, the company bought over 100 Apple chargers, power products, lightning cables and other devices which claimed to be genuine on their Amazon pages.  The products were sold by various manufacturers. According to Apple, they found that over 90 percent of the analyzed items were declared fake.

In their lawsuit against Mobile Star, Apple has noted that the consumers bought the ‘genuine’ products trusting in Amazon’s reputation. All the devices were marketed on Amazon using Apple’s own images of the respective products.

According to lawsuit documents made public by PatentlyApple, after the results of their investigation into the official Apple chargers, the company alerted Amazon to the faulty and fake chargers sold by Mobile star. Amazon then quickly turned over all of its inventory bought from the company. Afterward, Amazon issued a statement declaring its zero tolerance

Have you ever purchased any Apple charges from different sellers on Amazon? If so, how well did it work for you?

Image source: Wikipedia

Capuchin monkey create similar stone tools to those made by human ancestors.

A recent study contests the idea that creation of stone tools was a unique skill to humans. Researchers that observed monkey saw they were also able to create stone flakes, small rocks with a sharp edge.

Researchers working in the Serra da Capivara National Park, in the eastern region of Brazil, observed capuchin monkeys gathering stones made from quartzite and intentionally smashing them against other similar stones. The researchers analyzed the respective stones and found that the monkey created stone flakes with a sharp-edge which were very similar to other stone tools attributed to our ancestors like the homonis, during the long history of our evolution.

Although the study doesn’t suggest that the monkeys are intentionally creating the stone flakes with a certain purpose in mind, the researchers have only emphasized that their production was not exclusive to humans. The findings of this new study, which were published in the journal Nature, does seem to reinforce last year’s discovery of stone flakes older than our genus.

During the observation of the behavior of these monkeys, several distinctions arise as pointed out by various scientists and experts. The monkeys hit quartz rocks against each other not with the purpose of creating flakes as they do not use them for anything, and instead just licking the quartz dust. As such, experts have stated the stone flakes although similar with earliest flakes produced by hominis, were only a byproduct and not the intended result.

Additionally, hominis created stone flakes with the purpose of cutting things while the capuchins just ignore them. The behavior of the observed monkey and the similarity with early stone flakes produced by hominis is an important lesson for archaeologists. It serves to remind them to not declare any stone flakes as early human stone tools. More research and analysis of the flakes is required in order to accurately state by who and for what purpose, it was used for.

Discovering why the monkeys exhibit the behavior of banging quartz rocks together could make for an interesting finding. Why do they lick the quartz dust produced in the process? Does it contain any nutrients or does it just taste good for the monkeys?

Image source: Wikipedia

The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 is officially releasing on October 25th during an event in China.

Despite the numerous leaks regarding the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 smartphone in the previous months, somehow the company managed to keep its release date under wraps. However, that all changed when Xiaomi has finally confirmed that their flagship device will launch on October 25^th.

Many people were expecting that the phone will launch in the first financial quarter of 2016. Seeing as that was not the case, any speculation about its release date ceased when the company officially announced it to be almost one week away. The official announcement was made by a popular actor in Hong Kong, Tony Leung. He was Xiaomi’s official spokesperson for the release date reveal on Weibo, a Chinese social media website.

He confirmed the previously mentioned date and the fact that the Xiaomi Mi Note 2 will feature a curved display. Xiaomi has planned a launch event for the smartphone in Beijing, at the Peking University Gymnasium, on the date of its release.

The Xiaomi Mi Note 2 is considered to be a phablet thanks to its 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440 curved AMOLED display. The smartphone will be powered by Snapdragon 821 64-bit Quad-core processor, as the ones installed on the Xiaomi Mi 5s and Mi 5s Plus. The device will come with different storage capacity variants from 64GB, 128GB to 256 GB. All of them will have a standard 6GB of RAM.

According to previous leaks, the Xiaomi Note 2 will include a Gorilla Glass panel on both sides. It will either feature a 21 MP camera or two 12 MP rear cameras. It has been confirmed that the camera will have a LED flash.

Android 6.01 Marshmallow will be pre-installed on the device but Xiaomi will reskin it using their MIUI 8 OS.  The exact price of the device won’t be available until the phone will be released but some reports claim it will be priced starting with $600 for the version with the least storage capacity.

Xiaomi’s CEO, Lei Jun, has stated that Mi Note 2 will feature a surprise when it will be officially launched on October 25^th. Overall, the smartphone features a comparable offering to that of Samsung’s Note 7. Hopefully, it won’t meet with the same fate.

Are you interested in trying out the new Mi Note 2?

Image source: Wikipedia

Google is working on a separate mobile search index.

According to a new report from Search Engine Land, Google is working to create a new search index for mobile users. The smartphone search index will be separate from the desktop one which won’t be as up-to-date as the mobile search index. The index will be ready in the following months.

Google initially revealed that they’re working on a new mobile search index at the SMX East event last year. Although there are no specific details about the new search index, the report does state what its purpose is going to be. By having a separate mobile search index, Google is able to provide specific mobile content rather than extracting the data from desktop content to create mobile rankings.

According to the new report, Google’s Gary Illyes has confirmed that the new mobile index will be released in a few months. He also previously discussed the index at Pubcon but never gave an exact timeline at that time.

A separate, more frequently updated mobile search index than a desktop one, is seen by many experts a natural move for Google. The company’s overall objective is to create a better mobile search experience. Their mobile-first initiative has been prevalent since 2015. This new split in the search index means that Google will be among the first to adapt to the fact that there are more mobile searches than desktop searches.

Google’s decision to prioritize mobile searches has implications for site owners and SEO alike. Currently, you need more than just to have a responsive site or a mobile version of it. The loading speed of your site has become one of the most major determinants of its success. According to a survey by Google, 53 percent of users will leave a site if it hasn’t loaded in up to three seconds.

The best way to create an optimized mobile site is publishing content through Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) technology. It addresses the problem of slow-loading sites by selectively loading the relevant information for the user. This makes the process almost instantaneous. Google says it takes less than a second for AMP page to load at it reduces up to ten times the data the site usually uses to load.

What do you think about Google’s new initiative?

Audi R8 e-tron has been canceled.

After the Audi R8 e-tron was launched last year in Geneva, the company decided to cancel the production of this vehicle, but the reason is not known yet.

Rumour has it that the Audi doesn’t have the technology yet to face its powerful competitors from top brands such as Tesla and Mercedes. According to one of Audi spokespeople, around 100 cars have been sold since last year.

The one-million-dollar car was slower than Tesla’s Model S P90D although it had rear-mounter electric motors which delivered 456 horsepower and 679 lb-ft of torque. It is worth mentioning that no unit was sold to the United States, but only in Europe.

Audi had been planning to launch the R8 model since 2009 and began with a prototype capable of reaching 100km/h in 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 200km/h for a longer battery life.

However, Tesla Model S was already in showrooms by the time the first R8 concept was revealed. In addition, the Model S had the same quality, but it was much more affordable. In 2013, the company decided to give up on the Audi R8 e-tron, but soon Audi officials understood that electric cars are the future.

Even if the engineers improved the range and pace, Mercedes SLS AMG Electric Drive and Tesla Model S updates were much better than what the latest Audi R8 e-tron promised to bring on the market.

The second-generation e-tron guaranteed that there would much to like about the latest vehicle but despite the fact that R8 was the only rear-wheel-drive model among all Audi cars, it was still not enough to make it a hit.

Also, compared to the 2010 prototype, this 2015 Audi R8 e-tron was able to reach 100km/h in 3.9 seconds. Plus, this car had a top speed of 155 mph, while the maximum speed for standard models was 130 mph.

This vehicle functioned on a 42.4 kWh lithium-ion battery powerful enough for long road trips. Although there is still a long way to go until electric cars become the main attraction of the vehicle market, Porsche is also working on a four-door electric sports car that promises to come out by the end of 2019.

An interesting fact is that Audi officials have announced that the company will continue to work on an electric-car concept better than the Audi R8 e-tron, an SUV which will be launched in 2018.

Image Source: Wikipedia