2016 is going to be quite the year when it comes to technology and electronics, for there is a lot to look forward to as the year unfolds. Selecting the right laptop just during purchase can be quite hard, but knowing what is coming up beforehand can be quite helpful towards making the right choice. Here is the roundup of the some of the best upcoming laptops of the year.
The Dell 9343 seems to be the beacon of hope in a world full of substandard windows laptops. It is a rather compact machine, promising to outdo its competition in most of the specs. With a 13.3 inch screen, it comes with an almost borderless display, I processor, 4GB of ram coupled together with 128 GB of STA-SSD hard disk. For those looking for higher ram and storage, two more variants with these upgraded specs are also available. However, it comes with a soldered and non-upgradable Ram.
Rather unheard of yet changing into an extremely sought after manufacturer; the Razer Blade Stealth is one of the perfect machines out there. With an aluminum chassis only 0.5 inches in thickness and 2.75 pounds of weight, it packs in a configuration of i7 CPU together with 4K touch display. It can be thought of as an ultrabook-cum-gaming laptop, for all you will need is the Core graphical amplifier (sold separately) in order to make it the ultimate gaming machine.
The LG Gram was announced at CES 2016, and many found it hard to distinguish this from the new MacBook. With a 15.6-inch display, options of Core i5 or i7 processor and a full HD display, it runs Windows 10 along with 8GB of RAM. Internal storage options include 256 and 512 GB variants. LG is, however, still keeping this seemingly mean machine under wraps and have not revealed as to when will the Gram actually come out.
Tablets and hybrid laptops have been all the rage in these last few years, and Samsung has been trying to take on its competitors since then. With the TabPro S, it sure is looking to make a nice entry into the laptop-cum-tablet segment. It is not only super slim but super light as well- especially when you consider it comes with a 10.5-hour battery life and is powered by a 6th generation Intel Core M dual-core processor. Not bad at all, especially along with a 12 inch Super AMOLED 2160 x 1440 display. It is expected to come with 4GB or Ram and 128/256 GB storage.
The Lenovo Yoga is what the manufacturer chose to begin its 2016 lineup with- a 12.8 mm thin laptop weighing less than a kilo. Yet, they have managed to pack it with 12-inch QHD screen, a 10.5-hour battery life and a 360-degree hinge that allows to completely flip the screen to get a tablet. With Intel Core M processor and a design that looks to be a competitor to Apple, Lenovo is for sure trying to make this one as its first MacBook beater!
The smartphone market is continuously growing, introducing more and better apps. 2015 was a great year for new ideas and interesting applications. With the development of smartphones, we saw a huge rise in the quality of apps too. Here are the top 10 Apps, developed in 2015 that you must download in 2016 on your new smartphone. These applications are platform independent, i.e. you can download them on any smartphone regardless of the Operating System it is powered by.
Quora
Quora is available for all smartphones and is an app that gives perfect answers to your questions. All you have to do is ask a question and let the professions answer it. It has 4.5 stars on Google Play and has been widely loved by the users. The app is only of 2.9M and is compatible with all latest smartphones.
SHAREit
SHAREit is currently the fastest sharing app available. It allows the user to share all kinds of file, including, pictures, text, audio or video at very fast speed. It is 200 times faster than Bluetooth and supports all operating systems. You can share files from android, iPhone, iPad, Windows, Windows Phone and Mac. One the best feature that this app offers is that it is network independent; you can share files through the app even if you are offline.
Pocket
The pocket is a simple, beautifully designed app that allows you to enjoy the best stories available on the Web, based on your interests. It provides unlimited space, allowing the user to save and share countless stories, videos, and pictures.
Truecaller
Truecaller is the smartest communication app available. It is compatible with all devices and allows the user to go beyond the phonebook. With the app installed, the user can identify an unknown call and know who it is from. It can also block unwanted calls and texts. The app is full of other interesting features that can be purchased.
MX Player
MX player is a great app for enjoying videos and watching movies. It supports almost all formats of videos and is equipped with hardware acceleration, multicore coding, zooming gestures, subtitles and has a kids lock.
Mobile Security & Antivirus by Avast
Out of all security apps, Avast’s app is the most comprehensive, easy to use and effective apps in the market while still being free. Compatible with all devices, the app keeps the device safe from Malware threats. With is amazing anti-theft features, you don’t have to worry about your personal data getting in the wrong hands.
Hitman: Sniper
Hitman: Sniper is the best smartphone action game of 2015. It is packed with details and interesting features. It has over 150 missions and the user can challenge their friends and play against the leader board.
Camera360
Camera360 is one of the best camera apps available. It offers over 200 filters, NFC photo sharing and allows fixing the pictures after they’re taken. The adjustments allowed are powerful and easy to do. It is suitable for both professional and new photographers.
Google Drive
Backing up your data and making it available on all your devices is really important these days. Google Drive is the best cloud storage app available to date. The app is easy to use and gives out free GBs of space, allowing the user to store more data.
Modern Combat 5: Blackout
This amazing action game has set high bars for all other shooting apps. It has an interactive gameplay, allowing the user to customize the controls and even the play style. Enjoy the realistic graphics and get lost in the addictive game style.
A very tragic news has been surfaced, revealing the loss of yet another gem in the computer industry. Dennis Ritchie, the founder of ‘C’ and Unix Operating system, and Ian Murdock, founder of Debian Linux and creator of apt-get, has always been stated as two faces of the same coin. The tragic loss of these great individuals in the programming world is bewailed and the reason for extended sadness in Linux community.
The Docker Blog first put this news on the internet, which was then picked up by many communities worldwide as a shocking information. The death of Ian is questionable, as it appears to be a suicide. Ian claimed that he was involved in some police case and has been beaten by police while in custody. He later tweeted on Monday night that he would commit suicide. The followers of Ian Murdock on twitter assumed that his account was hacked, and no one actually believed that he would commit such action.
On Monday at 2:13 PM Eastern Time, Murdock apparently posted:
I’m committing suicide tonight…do not intervene as I have many stories to tell and do not want them to die with me #debian #runnerkrysty67
Ian’s twitter account has since been deleted. Public records indicate Murdock was arrested on December 27, and released on bail by the San Francisco County Sheriff’s Department, but no details were available on the charges. The cause of the death is still unclear.
Ian Murdock is responsible for forging one of the first Linux distros, a successor of Unix. Ian’s work has included many other parts of the free and open source community, including his role as CTO of the Linux Foundation, a lead of Project Indiana at +Sun, and a recent addition to the Docker team – among many other positions and achievements.
As you all know I use Ubuntu, an open source Linux distros based on Debian, on all my computers; however, Debian (2.2 “woody” to be exact) was my first experience on Linux which made me switch from Windows XP and allowed me to dwell into this amazing world. It isn’t a surprise that I have some sentimental values for the Debian community. I followed Ian’s work very closely and have been a huge admirer.
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Winner of Xiaomi Mi headphone Giveaway
Asus Zenfone 2 Laser GiveAway
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It’s hard to imagine life without screen capture tools especially if you are into writing manuals and tutorials. Whether you wish to capture a small section of your device or a video for your tutorial, you need to utilize screen capture tools which can help you in this process. The screencasts and screenshots can be used for demonstration purposes while offering a preview of a new software to the users. There are several screen capturing apps for Windows and Ubuntu. These can be downloaded easily and can be used right away for recording purposes. Here is a list of finest apps that are available for screen capturing for Windows and Ubuntu (Linux).
Windows
ShareX
This is one of the most recommended, Open Source, Screen Capture tool that boasts all the advanced features that a premium package would offer at a hefty price. It has everything to offer from a single screen grab to a more advanced ‘scrolling window’ capture and gif animated screen recording.
ShareX is mainly advertised as a tool for capturing and uploading screenshots, which can be coined as an advanced replacement of ‘GreenShot‘ that lack many essential features of ShareX, including screen recorder. That’s understandable because it offers some very unique capturing options. ShareX supports uploading to services like TinyPic, Imgur, Flickr, Photobucket, Pastebin, Dropbox, SendSpace, and many more. Encountering an issue related to downtime while using ShareX is practically unrealistic because of how many options are offered. In most cases this free tool is all you need for your personal and professional needs. It is highly recommended by DigitFreak.
Greenshot is very similar to ShareX, and one of the smallest application on this list. The executable file required to install this application was less than 2MB. Don’t be deceived by it’s a small package, it still packs advanced features and tools that you’d find on ShareX with few exclusions; You can carry out basic actions with very small resource footprint. Greenshot can be configured to upload your images to ‘Imgur,’ which can be later used to host your screenshots for online sharing.
Greenshot is inferior in terms of features and tools compared to ShareX; it lacks the scrolling window capture, video recording and ability to customize various image/file hosting websites to store your images.
Screenshot Captor is the most advanced OpenSource tool you’ll find for Windows powered PC (As far as we know). It has everything you’d need to capture a screenshot, or record the video instructions. It has all the features that you’d find on ShareX with additional advanced tools. Great special effects, including automatic active window enhancement & blur effect, ragged edge splicing, pixelation, smart text removal, Smart auto naming of files, easy renaming and format conversion, ability to embed textual comments in files or add attractive captions to images unsurpassed multi-monitor support, scrolling windows capture and much more.
It is, however, lacks the visual appeal and user-friendly UI. It follows the design language of its own, which resembles the Windows XP era. The icons and buttons are very small, which seems a little hard to get used to.
This app works on Windows platform and helps the users capture their screen for a variety of purposes. A ton of various options is offered by this app for editing the images. Screenshot can be taken in 7 different ways. This is available for free and offers unique features to the users.
The users can take screenshots of active window or of the entire screen
Tons of customizable hotkeys can be setup
The screenshots can be annotated with text, arrows and ribbon style editor which is built-in
Resize, rotate and crop the images
Effects such as color balance, sharpen and blur can be added
The screen can be magnified while capturing screenshots
After snapping, the images can be uploaded to an FTP server
FastStone Capture
This tool can be accessed for $20 and also offers few extra features while capturing screenshots. The screenshots can be incorporated in PowerPoint presentation or in the word. These can also be saved in several formats. This is a good alternative for users who do not wish to work with PicPick.
Shelr
There are many screens capturing applications available today with the prime focus on capturing the entire screen. It becomes hard to capture tutorials which lay emphasis on explaining the content on the command line. For instance, if you are explaining programming concepts to your audience, then you can incorporate screen captures to make everything clear. This free application lets you deal with such problems. This helps you record activity over the command line. This is available for Ubuntu platform.
Ashampoo Snap
Ashampoo Snap is another premium screen capture tool that I have been personally using since a long time. It is one of the most advanced screen capture tools out there, with the ability to record the screen as a video. Ashampoo Snap enables users to capture with pixel perfect accuracy, edit and share screen contents either as single images or videos. The application comes with powerful image editing capabilities.
Skitch
This is another cool app for capturing screen shots on Windows platform. This offers PicPick a strong competition in its features. This tool is simple to use. Capturing the screen, annotating and saving it as an image can be done in no time. The annotation can be done prettily and much easily.
Ubuntu
Shutter
This is another application offered for free and works perfectly if you have an Ubuntu desktop. This fits aptly in the indicator menu. This app doesn’t just allow the users to capture screenshots of the desktop screen but also lets then annotate and edit them. After the installation process has been completed, this application lets the users capture screenshots of windows, parts of desktops and menus. The users can make use of the edit tool with which the screenshots can be easily annotated. Few parts of the screenshots captured can also be buried to protect the user privacy.
GNOME screenshot tool
This is a staple tool if the users wish to capture simple screenshots and wish to do nothing else. This is installed in Ubuntu by default. This can be easily accessed by pressing the PrintScreen button from the keyboard of the device. This will capture a screenshot and a pop-up will appear prompting the users to indicate the location where the file needs to be saved.
The internet world is on fire with the rumors of Apple giving away the headphone jack to create a thinner version of iPhone 7. There are already many news in the media about Apple filing a patent for a headphone jack that is D-shaped. Also, there have also been rumors surrounding a lightning connector that serves the dual purpose of being used for charging as well as serving as a headphone jack.
Apple giving away its 3.5mm jack
With the growth in the trend of using Bluetooth headphones these days, the change in the headphone jacks would impact quite a few users. The thickness of the current iPhone 6s is 7.1mm.The 3.5mm headphone jack would be too round if Apple plans to bring down the thickness of its upcoming model.
Surprisingly, Apple is planning to ditch its 60-year-old innovation. The next generation device of Apple, iPhone 7, would be thinner than the current model by 1mm. The super slim design of the anticipated iPhone 7 would require Apple to get rid of its 3.5mm headphone jack. The rumors surrounding the use of a multipurpose lightning slot as a charger as well as a headphone port have already triggered anger amongst Apple users. There are also reports stating that Apple may start selling a converter that would let the users plug in their old headphones into their newer devices.
The latest smartphone from Apple, the iPhone 6s, is 7.1mm thick and features a jack of 3.5mm. Apple plans to reduce the device’s size by 1mm in its upcoming model by avoiding this jack. This change would also imply to those stereo headphones that are larger and those, that run on an internal battery would be able to draw power from the iPhone and other devices. Less signal interference or crosstalk would be experienced with the use of lightning-based headphones.
Third party manufacturers already sell lightning-connected earphones. Apple would want to monopolize the market by launching its accessory for its upcoming device. The company has the record of previously ditching its software and hardware support once they were believed to be obsolete.
Apple has plans to release Ear pods that are lightning-equipped. They may be included along with the accessories being offered with iPhone 7. It would also be sold separately for using with other iOS devices. If this rumor turns out to be true, this decision by the company for using a single port for charging as well as for audio output will trigger a controversy.
Ditching the 3.5mm jack would mean killing its history of 60 years
Killing the iPhone headphone jack in its upcoming new model would imply that the company is planning to ditch its history of 60 years. In the pursuit of thinness, the company is planning to lose its history. The 3.5mm jack has been there for as long as the transistor radio (which was developed during the mid-1950’s). Apple previously ditched its 30-pin connector in 2012 to bring in its the then brand new lightning plug. That shift resulted in the old charging cables not working with the new device and triggered anger among the iPhone users.
The change that is being planned by Apple with its upcoming device may also trigger the same response. Running audio through the same port as lightning implies that the users may have to purchase new headphones. Once the new device is out, we would be aware of Apple NIL the actual changes in its latest device that has already managed to create headlines.
