iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus: A new generation of iPhone

Featuring New Glass & Aluminium Design, Retina HD Displays, A11 Bionic Chip, New Single & Dual Cameras with Support for Portrait Lighting, Wireless Charging & Optimised for Augmented Reality.

The new iPhone features a new glass and aluminium design in three beautiful colours made out of the most durable glass ever in a smartphone, Retina HD displays and A11 Bionic chip, and is designed for the ultimate augmented reality experience. The world’s most popular camera gets even better with single and dual cameras featuring Portrait Lighting on iPhone 8 Plus, and wireless charging brings a powerful new capability to iPhone. 

“iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are a new generation of iPhone that improve on everything we love about iPhone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus have new glass and aluminium designs, new Retina HD displays and A11 Bionic — the smartest chip ever in a smartphone. Packed with more advanced cameras with Portrait mode and Portrait Lighting, and the highest quality video capture in a smartphone, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus enable the freedom of wireless charging, all with AR optimisation like no phone ever before.”

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus introduce a beautiful glass back design made with the most durable glass ever in a smartphone in three new finishes: space grey, silver and gold. The glass finish is made using a seven-layer colour process for precise hue and opacity, delivering a rich depth of colour with a colour-matched aerospace-grade aluminium bezel, and is water and dust resistant.

The new 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch Retina HD® displays with the addition of True Tone® adjust the white balance of the display to match the surrounding light for a more natural, paper-like viewing experience. The vibrant wide colour gamut Retina HD display offers the best colour accuracy in the industry. Redesigned stereo speakers are up to 25 percent louder and deliver deeper bass, enabling richer-sounding music, videos and speakerphone calls.

A11 Bionic, the most powerful and smartest chip ever in a smartphone, features a six-core CPU design with two performance cores that are 25 percent faster and four efficiency cores that are 70 percent faster than the A10 Fusion, offering industry-leading performance and energy efficiency. A new, second-generation performance controller can harness all six cores simultaneously, delivering up to 70 percent greater performance for multi-threaded workloads, giving customers more power while providing the same great battery life. A11 Bionic also integrates an Apple-designed GPU with a three-core design that delivers up to 30 percent faster graphics performance than the previous generation. All this power enables incredible new machine learning, AR apps and immersive 3D games.

The cameras on iPhone 8 Plus are custom tuned for the ultimate AR experience. Each camera is individually calibrated, with new gyroscopes and accelerometers for accurate motion tracking. AR benefits from A11 Bionic, which handles world tracking, scene recognition and incredible graphics at 60fps, while the image signal processor does real-time lighting estimation. With ARKit, iOS developers can take advantage of the world’s largest AR platform, creating games and apps offering fantastically immersive and fluid experiences that go far beyond the screen.

The world’s most popular camera gets even better, featuring an improved 12-megapixel camera with a larger and faster sensor, a new colour filter and deeper pixels. A new Apple-designed image signal processor delivers advanced pixel processing, wide colour capture, faster autofocus in low light and better HDR photos, while a new quad LED True Tone Flash with Slow Sync results in more uniformly lit backgrounds and foregrounds. All this adds up to outstanding photos with vibrant, realistic colours and more detail.

The new camera also delivers the highest quality video capture ever in a smartphone with better video stabilisation, 4K video up to 60fps and 1080p slo-mo up to 240fps. The Apple-designed video encoder provides real-time image and motion analysis for optimal quality video. With iOS 11, both iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus support HEIF and HEVC for up to two times compression and storage for twice the photos and videos.

iPhone 8 Plus features dual 12-megapixel cameras and introduces Portrait mode with Portrait Lighting, bringing dramatic studio lighting effects to iPhone, allowing customers to capture stunning portraits with a shallow depth-of-field effect in five different lighting styles.

Portrait Lighting is based on extensive research into the art and science of portraiture and core photographic lighting principles. It uses the dual cameras and the Apple-designed image signal processor to recognise the scene, create a depth map and separate the subject from the background. Machine learning is then used to create facial landmarks and add lighting over contours of the face, all happening in real time, giving customers even more power to express themselves through photography.

The glass back design enables a world-class wireless charging solution. Wireless charging works with the established Qi ecosystem, including two new wireless charging mats from Belkin and mophie, available from Apple Authorised Resellers.

Apple gave a sneak peek of AirPower™, an Apple-designed wireless charging accessory coming in 2018, which offers a generous active charging area that will allow iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus or iPhone X customers to simultaneously charge up to three devices, including Apple Watch Series 3 and a new optional wireless charging case for AirPods®.

iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus come with iOS 11, featuring incredible advancements to Portrait mode, while new effects make Live Photos™ more fun and expressive.

iOS 11 also brings augmented reality to hundreds of millions of iOS devices with a new platform for developers to build apps that let users place virtual content on top of real-world scenes. Siri® debuts new male and female voices and can translate US English phrases into Chinese, French, German, Italian or Spanish.

Source : APPLE

Samsung Galaxy Note8 Wins ‘Gadget of the Year’ Award at India Mobile Congress

Galaxy Note8, the latest flagship from Samsung, has won the ‘Gadget of the Year’ award at the inaugural India Mobile Congress (IMC), 2017. India Mobile Congress awards recognize innovations and initiatives that have helped transform the ICT ecosystem.

Samsung, India’s biggest and most trusted smartphone brand, launched Galaxy Note8 in India on September 12, offering the next level Note for people who want to do bigger things. Galaxy Note8, Samsung’s most powerful smartphone, has received overwhelming response in India.

“At Samsung, we believe in inspiring the world and bringing meaningful innovation to help make lives better. With the launch of Galaxy Note8, we have further strengthened our leadership in the premium smartphone segment in India and this prestigious award bears testimony to our efforts. Our ear to ground approach led by innovative technologies across product and service categories have made Samsung a popular choice amongst consumers and it is a great honour to be bestowed upon with this recognition,” said Mr. Asim Warsi, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, Samsung India.

With Galaxy Note8, consumers get a big, immersive Infinity Display that fits comfortably in one hand, S Pen to communicate in more personal ways, and Samsung’s best-ever true Dual Camera with dual Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) to capture stunning photos in all conditions.

Galaxy Note8 is designed for the way consumers lead their lives and lean on technology today. The incredible Note series loved by millions of consumers in India also comes with the revolutionary mobile payment service, Samsung Pay, and Samsung’s defense-grade security platform Samsung Knox.

Galaxy Note8 also comes equipped with Bixby’s voice capabilities, allowing consumers to experience a smarter way to interact with their smartphones. Staying true to Samsung’s legacy of ‘Make for India’, Bixby has been optimized to understand Indian accents.

Source : Samsung, Pic : Daily Mail

DATSUN LAUNCHES REDI-GO GOLD 1.0L LIMITED EDITION IN INDIA

To kick off the Diwali festive season and expand customer choice, Datsun India launched a new limited edition of the best-selling Datsun redi-GO: the Datsun redi-GO GOLD 1.0L, packed with exciting features and stylish enhancements.

Diwali, also known as Deepavali, is one of the most auspicious and celebrated festivals in India, especially in the northern part of the country. According to Indian mythology, it is observed to celebrate the victory of good over evil. Hence, it holds a great importance in the hearts of Indians. During the festive period, many people choose to make new beginnings in life – be it making a new purchase, starting a new business or getting married. The Datsun redi-GO GOLD limited edition is one of Datsun’s contributions to making the festive season merry and special.

The Datsun redi-GO GOLD’s prominent, gold-inspired decals on the exterior and its gold-themed seats in the interior infuse an extra dose of style. It’s available in three body colors: grey, silver and white. The Datsun redi-GO GOLD comes with a first-in-segment Ambient Lighting app for mobile phones, letting customers choose the mood lighting of the passenger cabin to suit their taste. The limited edition model will also offer smart features such as a Bluetooth audio system and a reverse parking sensor.

“Datsun will make the festive season even more special for our customers by bringing more power, style and convenience in the Datsun redi-GO GOLD 1.0L limited edition,” said Jerome Saigot, vice president, marketing and Datsun business unit, Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. “The Datsun redi-GO GOLD offers an accessible price, peppy driving performance and a refreshing exterior, which together reinforce Datsun’s commitment to offer stylish, high-value-for-money cars to our customers.”

Datsun redi-GO GOLD prices will start from 369,737 rupees and will be available across the pan-India Nissan/Datsun dealer network.

Source : Datsun

Pollution : International Conference and Exhibition on Continuous Emissions Monitoring

Accepted the  invite to attend the 12^th International Conference and Exhibition on the issue of Continuous Emissions Monitoring  at Delhi,  as since last many years, I am directly concerned with all such issues. You can take it as my Social responsibility or the Social cause that I have regularly raised  such issues. Had filed my very first RTI at that time when no one was talking about the issue & those RTIs were duly covered by Print media as well TV channels.

My idea to accept the three day conference was that it will give me much more knowledge on the subject and will add to my experience. So very eagerly and to increase my own awareness on the issue, I started attending the Conference. There were so many speakers to talk about various issues & mostly, all of them were from overseas countries. They presented their research papers in the conference & the audience, including myself, tried to understand them wholeheartedly.

Speakers included Mr. Robert Baxter from USA, Mr. Bernhard Thull from Germany, Mr. Rod Robinson from UK, Mr. Jerome Laplagne from France, Mr. Roland Zepeck from Austria, Mr. Koh Yee Tiong from Singapore, Dr Carlo Bruno from Italy, Ms. Tuula Pellikka from Finland, as well many know persons from CSR, CPCB & other connected fields.

During the conference, I got the opportunity to meet Mr. Erkki Lamminen from DEKATI, Finland who had exhibited  an  equipment to measure the SPM 2.5. Soon we became friendly and we went outside on the road, in the open, near the CBD Ground, Karkardooma, almost at a distance of one KM from the Anand Vihar, which can be said as the most polluted area in the National Capital.

On the very first day, we checked the Real Time status of the SPM 2.5 at around 11am in the morning. Though the Average was at around 60, the PEAKS were almost 3 to 4 times of the average at that minute. The cause of concern was that while we are at that location and while the peaks were up to 3 to 4 times, if we keep inhaling there, what will happen to our Lungs?

Next morning, we again checked the status at around same time & this time, SPM 2.5 was at almost 120, while the peaks were almost double. To my surprise, Mr Lamminen told me that it Finland, the maximum SPM 2.5 was only up to 10 or 20, and while in New Delhi, he was already inhaling at at almost 5 to 10 times, and was really worried about his health.

Surprising factor is that while Chicago University in its latest study has very clearly stated that if we could comply with the WHO standards of Air Quality at Delhi, the residents here can get a life of 9 more years. But seems, no one is concerned, no one is shattered as there is no hue and cry from any corner. Residents just view the news, read and forget, as there is no time to consider for an additional life of 6 to 9 years.

SIA And Lufthansa Group Joint Venture Partnership To Launch On 1 October

28 September 2017 (Joint Release with Lufthansa Group) - Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Lufthansa Group have confirmed 1 October 2017 as the launch date for their joint venture co-operation covering flights between Singapore, Australia and Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium.

Customers can choose from a wider range of travel itineraries and fare products that will be progressively offered by the airlines under the joint venture agreement.

Since November 2015, when both airline groups signed the joint venture agreement, they have expanded capacity between Singapore and both Germany and Switzerland. This includes the introduction of new SIA-operated flights between Singapore and Dusseldorf in July 2016. In March 2017, SWISS deployed its new Boeing 777-300ER aircraft on daily flights between Singapore and Zurich. Lufthansa has also announced plans to re-introduce services between Singapore and Munich from March 2018.

These benefits will further enhance existing Star Alliance arrangements that customers enjoy on SIA, Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines. On the same date, flights operated by SIA, Lufthansa and SWISS between Singapore and Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich will be included in a revenue-sharing agreement between the two airline groups.

The two airline groups have also significantly increased codeshare ties, with over 130 city pairs now offered between key markets in Europe, Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific.

“We are pleased to launch our joint venture with Lufthansa Group, which has provided a strong foundation for us to work together to enable more flight frequency and enhanced travel options for customers of both airline groups. This joint venture demonstrates what we can achieve with the right partner, and we look forward to working even closer with Lufthansa Group,” said Mr Tan Kai Ping, Singapore Airlines Senior Vice President Marketing Planning.

Mr Dieter Vranckx, Lufthansa Group Airlines Vice President Sales Asia Pacific said, “This is a remarkable milestone for both Lufthansa Group and Singapore Airlines. With the launch of this joint venture, the two premium airline groups are jointly able to optimise the product offerings and high-quality services in a very competitive market throughout Europe, Southeast Asia and Southwest Pacific. We are very proud to team up with Singapore Airlines, a reputable and reliable high-end partner, giving our customers greater choices.”

Source : SIA

Be a part of the Indian Mobile Congress - 27th, 28th, 29th September, 2017, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

All-new S-Cross set to check into NEXA showrooms this festive season

The urban premium S-Cross from Maruti Suzuki, is all set to arrive in a brand new avatar this festive season. The all-new S-Cross will further strengthen Maruti Suzuki’s position in the premium segment. The Company today opened bookings for the all-new S-Cross at its network of NEXA showrooms across India.

All New Looks

The all-new S-Cross sports an entirely new, bold design with a powerful upright stance.

The masculine and aggressive upright stance is accentuated by a sculpted hood design and sleek headlamps. The sharp LED projector headlamps, housed neatly with the daylight running lamps (DRLs), make the all-new S-Cross more assertive.

The imposing chrome on the grille, along with the emphatic S insignia, makes the all-new S-Cross distinct and premium. The rear combination lamps (RCL), also equipped with LEDs, are cleaner, sharper and more contemporary in style. Wider tyres (215/60 R16), coupled with contrasting two-tone machine finished alloys, give it an imposing on-road presence.

Chic Classy Interiors

The interiors have also been tastefully upgraded and made classier with a satin chrome accent finish, a soft touch dashboard and well-coordinated seat fabric designs. More new-age technologies, like an intuitive touchscreen infotainment system with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay would also complement the all-new S-Cross. The piano black coloured central panel, together with a premium leather finish arm-rest, adds a dash of premium-ness to the offering.

All New Powertrain

In its newest form, the all-New S-Cross scores high not just on looks but also in technology and powertrain. The all-new S-Cross gets the DDiS 200 with Smart Hybrid technology. This is the third model in the Maruti Suzuki portfolio to host the DDiS 200 with Smart Hybrid technology. It comes packed with a host of features like idle-stop-start, torque assist, brake energy regeneration system and a gearshift indicator. Many of these features enhance energy efficiency in the S-Cross.

Ahead in safety: Tested at the company’s world-class Rohtak R&D facility, the all-new S-Cross is among the six models already compliant with advanced upcoming new safety norms - frontal offset crash, side impact and pedestrian safety. It comes with rear seat ISO-FIX child seat safety mount. These features are standard across all variants of S-Cross.

Launched in August 2015, S-Cross was the first premium offering to debut from the Company’s all new premium retail channel-NEXA. S-Cross therefore, has been instrumental in shaping the premium imagery of the channel and contributed significantly towards establishing NEXA. The Company has sold over 53,000 S-Cross in the domestic market and exported over 4,600 units.

Source : Maruti

India’s popular car WagonR scales unique feat of cumulative two-million sales

WagonR, India’s popular car from Maruti Suzuki has scaled the unique feat of two-million sales in cumulative wholesales. Launched in 1999, WagonR continues to feature among the top five best selling cars in the country for the last over 10 years.

WagonR has always attracted discerning customers, who want their car to be unique. Maruti Suzuki has consistently introduced new design as well technology upgrades in WagonR, which has made it as top choice for buyers. The Company has kept in mind that customers are aspirational and expects enhanced quality of design, features and technologies in their car. 

Maruti Suzuki has listened to its customers and progressively introduced features such as dual airbags, multiple fuel options, ABS, premium interiors and acclaimed Auto Gear Shift in WagonR. WagonR scored its first million sales in 2011, nearly 133 months after its launch. However, with gaining mass popularity and increasing mobility in the country, 

WagonR scaled its next million sales mark in just 79 months. This is the testimony of WagonR being relevant and delighting customers. 

Commenting on the success of WagonR, Mr. R S Kalsi, Senior Executive Director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki, said, “Since its inception, WagonR has been ahead of its peers. Its comfort seating, spacious interiors superior fuel efficiency, practicality and pleasure of driving have made it a popular choice. To keep it strong, Maruti Suzuki has systematically upgraded the brand with new design and features. Needless to say WagonR has continued to top the sales chart. Despite intensified competition in small car space, WagonR continues to be the preferred choice of the practical car buyers.” 

WagonR has been the blue-eyed car for first time buyers. Nearly, 45% of WagonR customers have picked it up as their first car. At the same time, close to 20% of WagonR customers have purchased the car multiple times. While the brand enjoys national appeal, cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Ahmedabad have contributed handsomely towards it total sales. Among the news features added, Auto Gear Shift trims account for over 16% sales while CNG accounts for over 20% sales. 

With this achievement, WagonR becomes the third model in the country to enter the iconic league of cars like Maruti 800 and Alto, to cross the two-million cumulative sales mark. 

Source : Maruti

TVS Jupiter Crosses 2 Million Sales Mark in 4 Years

TVS Motor Company, India’s leading two and three-wheeler manufacturer in India, today, announced that their popular scooter brand, TVS Jupiter, has clocked sales of 2 million units within 4 years of its launch. 

TVS Jupiter, which was launched in 2013, has stayed true to the brand’s promise of Zyada ka Fayda, winning multiple accolades over the past 4 years. In early 2016, TVS Jupiter was the fastest scooter to reach the mark of 1 million sales, doing so in a mere 30 months. 

Commenting on this achievement, Aniruddha Haldar, Vice President (Marketing) Commuter Motorcycles, Scooters and Corporate Brand, TVS Motor Company said, “It brings us immense delight to see that TVS Jupiter is surpassing milestone after milestone since its launch. 

TVS Jupiter has the distinction of being the first scooter to reach this milestone in a short span of 4 years. This milestone is special as we now have 20 lakh happy customers in the TVS Jupiter family. It is occasions like these, which humble us, as well as, inspire us in our endeavour to continue offering superior products and complement them with dedicated customer satisfaction initiatives.” 

TVS Jupiter is powered by a next generation, all-aluminum, low-friction 110cc engine that delivers a remarkable mix of power, superior acceleration and best-in-class fuel efficiency. The metal bodied, TVS Jupiter is styled to have a substantial road presence, which delivers high performance ride quality with superior ride comfort making it a perfect, sensible companion. 

The scooter also comes with TVS patented Econometer, which guides riders in both 'Eco Mode' and 'Power Mode' and the engine delivers best-in-class fuel economy in 'Eco' mode. TVS Jupiter is available in Base variant as well as ZX and ZX with Disc Brake. The brand recently launched a Classic Edition which offers a variety of novel features such as all new sunlit ivory body colour, elegant full chrome mirrors, stylish windshield, a classy pillion cushioned backrest, along with other thoughtfully designed features like a smart USB charger and comfortable dual-tone seat. 

TVS Jupiter is also equipped with Sync Braking System (SBS) which ensures a safer and smoother riding experience. The scooter is available in colour selections of Royal Wine, Matte Blue, Stallion Brown, Titanium Grey, Midnight Black, Volcano Red, Pristine White, Jade Green and Mystic Gold.

Source : TVS

macOS High Sierra now available as a free update

Cupertino, California — Apple today announced macOS High Sierra, the latest release of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, is now available as a free update.

With macOS High Sierra, Mac users gain powerful new core storage, video and graphics technologies. A new file system ensures more efficient and reliable storage, and support for High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) brings stunning 4K video at lower file sizes. Metal 2 powers virtual reality content creation, faster performance and more. The Core ML developer framework makes it easy to create apps with powerful machine learning that predict, learn and become more intelligent. macOS High Sierra also includes a number of refinements to the apps Mac users enjoy everyday, including Photos and Safari.

“macOS High Sierra is an important update that makes the Mac more capable and responsive, while laying the foundation for future innovations,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “High Sierra introduces new technologies for VR, high-efficiency video streaming, advances in storage technology and more, while apps such as Photos, Safari, Mail and Notes are refined to give users even more reasons to love their Mac.”

New features in macOS High Sierra:

Apple File System (APFS)

• APFS is a new, advanced storage architecture providing an extensible foundation to support new features and future storage technologies on the Mac.
• APFS brings support for the latest high-capacity storage devices and delivers enhanced performance, security and reliability. 
• With APFS, common operations such as copying files and directories are nearly instantaneous.
• Data is protected from power outages and system crashes thanks to advanced data integrity features.
• APFS currently supports every Mac with all‑flash internal storage — support for Fusion and HDD Mac systems will be available in a future update.

High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) Support

• HEVC (H.265) is a new industry standard that enables extremely efficient compression, streaming and playback of video.
• HEVC enables users to watch 4K video files at full quality, while requiring 40 percent less storage space than the current H.264 standard.1 
• With HEVC, Apple is enabling high-quality 4K video streaming on networks where only HD streaming was previously possible.2
• Hardware acceleration on the new iMac and MacBook Pro delivers incredibly fast and power-efficient HEVC encoding and playback.
• Developers like Adobe, Blackmagic Design, GoPro and more are joining Apple in adopting HEVC.

 For more information, visit: apple.com/in/macos/high-sierra.