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Has Google Rigged Search Results in India?

August 31, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The CCI, which is the Competition Commission of India, is investigating the big G. They think Google rigged search results in India. If found guilty, Google might be fined 10 percent of the company’s income. That’s a whooping $1.4 billion.

The CCI has received complaints from more than 30 companies around the world. Facebook, Flipkart, Hungama Digital, MakeMyTrip and Nokia’s maps division are among the companies who have told on Google.

The main issue here is that Google has been gaming search results to display their own content and services more obviously, regardless of the fact that other sources have a higher hit rate.

The report filed by CCI notes also notes that sponsored links that are shown in results show a direct correlation with the amount of money an individual, or a company, spends on adverts with sneaky-Google. Flipkart, an ecommerce portal, states that they are a victim in this case.

Google needs to respond until the 10th of September. The company has to present itself in front of a seven member commission on the 17th, a week later. The commission is headed by Chairman Ashok Chawla.

Can we say that Google rigged search results for certain? Welp, we can’t say for sure. However, what we can say is that Google is acting more mischievous than it normally does. A few months ago, in March, the CCI fined Google with $166,000 for failing to cooperate.

More so, just last week they rejected claims that they are rigging search results in Europe. Google faces the exact same charges on the EU front.

We expect a decision being made until the end of the year. If Google is found guilty, they can be fined up to $6.7 billion, or a 10 percent payment of its annual revenue.

If this goes south for G, the decision will most likely be challenged at the Supreme Court. If they still won’t win, the CCI commission will ask the company to make major changes regarding the way they do business.

This is the first time a case goes globally where an antitrust body is formed and rises against Google.

According to Ms. Vestager, who is a Danish politician, Google is also being investigated by the European Union regarding their dominance over its Android OS.

Kent Walker denied these accusations last Thursday via a blog-post. Kent added that Google hasn’t reduced online competition at all, in fact, the company has sent approximately 20 billion referrals to various Internet companies across Europe over the past 10 years. This lead to a 227 percent increase in traffic for the websites targeted.

We’ll see how our search-engine Lord and Savior gets out of this one. What do you think? Is Google knowingly profiting from their stance of top-dog?

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Meet the Ozo Nokia Spherical Camera for VR film-makers

July 29, 2015 By Cristopher Hall 2 Comments

The Ozo Nokia spherical camera for virtual reality, aimed at Hollywood film-makers, is the company’s shot to become, once again, a leader in the industry. A feat that it held, but lost for some time now.

Last night at an event in Los Angeles, Nokia officially announced Ozo. You see, this won’t be an affordable camera that can shoot VR. It’s meant to be used by Hollywood film-makers in their high-budget films.

Nokia announced that their camera will be priced in the middle five figure range. Enthusiasts, or hobbyists aren’t their target demographic. But don’t despair just yet. If it’s successful, be certain that Nokia will release something for the average Joe too.

With Microsoft writing off a staggering $7.6 billion in Nokia costs, the old phone-manufacturer turns towards other markets in order to get a grip on something.

The Ozo Nokia spherical camera can be just the thing that prompts them back as leaders of an industry. The Ozo VR camera is a next-gen device that can capture audio, and video in 360 degrees.

It’s still in pre-production, but what we’ve seen so far puts it on the Keep Your Eyes On This list. You see, virtual reality rendering can take up to a couple of days, but Ozo can do it in a few minutes. Mind you, in low quality, but film-makers need to see their footage fast. Filming costs money, and losing money isn’t on Hollywood’s plans.

Because it makes virtual reality in real-time, and because it has a live monitoring option, directors may be enticed to use it more than other devices on the market.

GoPro announced that they bought a virtual reality company in May, and that they are planning on building a spherical camera. Later in May, they announced their sort-of alliance with Google, and their new Jump tech. Even Samsung is working hard on building a VR camera.

With more and more tech industry behemoths getting themselves into virtual reality, the Ozo Nokia spherical camera won’t encounter smooth sailing. Our only hope is that it won’t be a flop, and that Nokia will release a consumer product – sometime in the future.

When you are transported in the Ozo-produced VR, everything feels more real, than virtual. The Ozo takes advantage of the fact that it can record audio, and it uses this feature to make VR feel more enjoyable, and why not, even shocking.

If you hear a dog barking behind you, you can turn around and see the animal in question.

The official price for the Ozo Nokia spherical camera isn’t known at the moment, but we’ll know more when it’s going to officially launch this Fall.

Image source: 1, 2, 3

Microsoft Lumia 640 Review

March 9, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

Microsoft really does a great job when it comes to building a budget smartphone. The company’s latest line of Lumia smartphones, the Lumia 640 and the 640 XL are very attractive and also have reasonably powerful specs, even though they’re relatively cheap.

The new Lumia smartphones from Microsoft are very similar in terms of design to the previous Nokia models. It’s true that neither of the two smartphones is to die for but they are pretty nice, not to mention that they’re both ready for the new Windows 10.

Here is our Microsoft Lumia 640 review.

Design

Microsoft tried to stay true to the styling of Nokia on every Lumia smartphone they released under its name and the Lumia 640 is definitely not an exception. The smartphone comes with a colorful case that can be removed and replaced with another from the line-up offered by Microsoft. It’s made of a very sturdy and nice plastic that doesn’t look like it’s going to break or flex when put under a small stress. This is good news, seeing how most mid-range devices suffer from this problem.

The Lumia 640 XL comes only in a matte finish, but there are plenty of colors to choose from, such as black, white, cyan, bright orange and neon green. The Lumia 640 comes in a two toned shiny plastic and is available in all of the colors listed above. The cyan back of the smaller Lumia 640 viewed in different lightings looks like it has different blue shades. The edges of the smaller smartphone also appear to be darker than its body.

However, the two-toned effect on the back of the Lumia 640 comes with a downside. The shiny look makes it a fingerprint magnet. If you’re easily upset by fingerprint smears and dust then you would be better off choosing the matte version. Other than this, the only major design distinction between the two smartphones is their size. The Lumia 640 XL comes with a 5.7 inch display, which makes the 5 inch Lumia 640 seem rather tiny by comparison. The Lumia 640 XL is the same height as Apple’s iPhone 6 Plus.

The two Lumias are relatively thin and light, mainly because of their plastic casings but they do feel a little chunkier when compared to other smartphones from Nokia. This time, however, it’s Microsoft’s name that is branded on the devices, not Nokia’s. The tech-giant put its name on the back of the Lumia 640s and on their front top.

Based on looks, the Lumia 640 and the Lumia 640 XL are right at home between the existing line-up. While the colors may not be for everyone, there is always the possibility to buy a simple black or white back. Also, the cyan back looks very nice on the smaller device.

Hardware

It’s true that the specs on these smartphones aren’t exactly top-notch, but they are mid-range, to say the least. Both phones are powered by a quad-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chip and come in two different options: 8GB of storage with 1GB RAM and 16GB storage with 2GB RAM. Both options offer a MicroSD card slot and you can expand the storage capacity by 128GB.

Both Lumias seemed responsive and fast when we tested them. Animations were really smooth, browsing was fast and everything seemed to work well. Both smartphones come with the full Office app installed and both offer OneDrive storage. On top of this, Microsoft is also offering 1TB OneDrive storage and a full year of Office 365 when buying either one of these two devices.

At this time, to have a powerful smartphone you don’t necessarily need the fastest processor on the market. This is why mid-range smartphones like these ones are very attractive. If you want a very reliable mid-range mobile phone and you don’t care if you have the best processor on the market, shiny features and a great screen resolution, the Lumia 640 may be the right choice for you.

Battery

We can’t really say if the battery will last as long as Microsoft claims it will but the batteries inside the two smartphones are quite big. The Lumia 640 XL comes with a 3,000 mAh battery and the smaller one comes with a 2,500 mAh one. Microsoft claims that the battery life on both Lumias will last for two days.

Camera

The Lumia line-up has always been great at taking shots. While the Lumia 640s don’t have incredible cameras, they both take pretty decent photos, mainly thanks to the camera software. You can adjust lighting, control exposure and have several effects at your disposal and you can also create living pictures that will show you the changes you’ve made to your image from start to finish in a format resembling GIF.

Lumia 640 shoots lesser quality photos, however. For some reason, the smaller Lumia comes with weaker cameras. It comes with an 8MP camera on the back and a 1MP camera on its front. Seeing how selfies are the new trend right now, we can’t understand why Microsoft chose to put such a small front-facing camera on its device.

The bigger Lumia 640 comes with far better cameras. It features a 13MP camera on the back and a 5MP camera on its front. The Lumia 640 XL is very capable of taking sharp selfies with its front-facing camera and great pictures with its back camera.

Windows 10

Both devices are running Windows 8.1 as Windows 10 is not yet available for mobile phones. However, both the Lumia 640 and the 640 XL are ready for Windows 10. The update to Windows 10 will come to these two devices as soon as Microsoft launches its new OS. The two smartphones perform very smoothly in Windows 8.1 and the Lumia Denim update works really well.

Wrapping up

PROS

– Great quality of plastic

– Compatible with Windows 10

– Great specs

– Lumia 640 XL has great cameras

– Both smartphones are affordable

CONS

– The devices are still running on Windows 8.1

– Lumia 640 doesn’t have great cameras

Verdict

Even though the two new Lumias from Microsoft aren’t high-end they are definitely nice. For their low prices, Microsoft clearly made some good mid-range devices.

Images source: 1, 2, 3, 4