Google to stop Android Updates for Older Nexus devices

Nexus always had a soft corner in the hearts of people who swear by their Android powered phones. One of the reasons being, these are generally the ones that get updated first.

The update cycle for any phone, in this case, Nexus will not continue indefinitely. An update on Nexus’s support page, released the time till when the updates for their favourite Nexus model phone can be updated.

As per their page, Google cannot guarantee support for 5X and 6P beyond September 2017. In other words, they would just receive the Android Update this year and possibly any other updates in the next year.

The Nexus 9 and Nexus 6 will be getting support till October 2016 which would mean that they would receive the update of Android N if it launches by then.

Nexus 5, Nexus 7 (2013) and Nexus 10‘s updates can no longer be guaranteed.

Coming to the aspect of security patches, the company states that “For the longer of 3 Years from availability or 18 months from when the Google last sold the device”.

This in simpler words would mean that the company would provide security patches to any model till 3 years after its launch or for 18 months after the last sale of the handset whichever is the earliest.

To all the prospective enthusiasts, kindly keep all this information before buying a Nexus Mobile.

OnePlus and Uber work together to give away Loop VR Headsets

One Plus partnered with Uber to launch OnePlus Loop VR headset. This headset is available with Uber App from 14^th of June. The users wishing to own one, will have to enter the promo code- ONEPLUS3VR in the promotions tab of the App.

After entering this code, users need to go back to the screen and click the UberVR icon. If the request gets accepted, an Uber cab will reach the respective user’s location with the LOOP VR Headset. This service is presently available in major cities in India like New Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Chennai and Chandigarh among others. This might be the last chance for the enthusiasts to get their hands on the Headset before the launch of OnePlus3 Smartphone.

The General Manager, OnePlus, India, Vikas Agarwal stated that the OnePlus loyalists are important to them and that the company is looking for the love and support from the users. As the demand of these Headsets has increased, OnePlus is going to launch OnePlus3 in VR.

Those attending the launch get the chance of purchasing the device at the same location. 

Your Smartphone can now be an Eye Tracking Device

A new Artificial Intelligence Software can enable your smartphone to be an eye tracking device.

Eye-tracking technology can pinpoint the location of people and their gaze. This technology is widely used in psychological experiments and marketing research. Until now this was kept away from consumer applications due to its cost.

This system is developed by researchers at MIT and University of Georgia. They are planning to develop technology to be more accessible, by enabling computer interfaces to help detect signs of incipient neurological diseases or mental illnesses.

As few individuals have the external gadgets that are necessary for this application to run, there isn’t big incentive to develop the application, observed an MIT Graduate student, Aditya Khosla.

That being said, he also mentioned that the team is trying its best to make this technology available to every smartphone user with a front facing camera.

As the application works on the principle of Artificial Intelligence, many training examples. These examples include gaze patterns of 1,500 mobiles.

The researchers report that in the initial round, 800 mobile devices were utilized. The system had a margin of error of 1.5 cm which was a two-fold improvement over previous experiments.

They later acquired data on another 700 people which reduced the margin of error to about a centimetre.

To collect all their training examples, they developed an application for smartphone devices. The application flashes a small dot on the screen asking for user’s attention and then briefly replaces with L or R, asking the user to either swipe left or right. Executing this will ensure that the user has shifted their gaze to left or right. During this, the application constantly monitors and captures images of the user’s face.

Though this application and technology is still in the early stages of development, the researchers believe that this might bring drastic changes to the fields of Psychology and Mental Health.    

iPhone case can now let you run Android on iOS

Tendingi’s CTO Nick Lee has decided to create a module that would let two of the major Mobile Operating Systems, iOS and Android run simultaneously on iPhone. He created a back cover case for iPhone which would enable the iPhone to turn its interface to Android temporarily.

Once the back case is plugged in, the Android interface takes charge.  The iPhone user can now access Google Play, use Calculator and browse through Android interface. The Android UI’s Widget option is also available.the user can also add his/her Google Accounts too through this feature.

To end the Android experience, the user needs to hit the home button. Doing this would get the interface of iOS back to life. The back cover is quite bulky as it has the components of another smartphone so as to work around the basic Apple construct.

Apparently, Lee managed to accomplish this task of combing two different virtual worlds in 45 hours. Though he has no plans of launching this product commercially, if he ever wishes of doing it, there would be a huge demand for this case provided it has a sleeker design.