Data Roaming Charges To End In Eu Within Two Years

Data roaming charges are set to be abolished within the European Union by June 2017, it has been announced.

The ban will be preceded by a 14-month interim period, in which companies can still add surcharges - but at a reduced rate.

A deal, reached on Tuesday, also sets out rules requiring telecom operators to treat most internet traffic equally.

But the net neutrality rules will allow firms to favour some services, such as internet TVs.

From April 2016, telecoms operators will be able to add a surcharge of no more than:

• €0.05 (3.5p) extra per minute for calls
• €0.02 extra per SMS sent
• €0.05 extra per megabyte of data used

The cap would make roaming within the EU 75% cheaper during the interim period, the European Commission said.

The agreement is the culmination of years of campaigning to cut roaming charges and to define the EU nations' approach to regulating internet traffic - particularly in light of the US adoption of net-neutrality rules.

It largely follows proposals put forward in March this year, which analysts said were a weaker version of what European regulators had originally promised.

But it will enshrine the principle of net neutrality, which stops internet service providers (ISPs) favouring some internet traffic, in European law for the first time.

However, as mooted in March, there will be exceptions to those rules.

ISPs will be able to favour services that require high-quality internet connections, such as internet TVs, as long as they do not impinge on the overall quality of internet traffic.

The commission said they would also be able to throttle traffic if it was in the public interest to do so.

For example, to combat the proliferation of images of child sexual abuse or a terrorist attack.

The agreement will be presented to the EU's member states between July and December this year for formal adoption.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) - the fourth largest grouping of MEPs in the European Parliament - has previously criticised regulators for trying to water down plans to end data roaming.

But it welcomed Tuesday's announcement.

The president of the ALDE group, Guy Verhofstadt, said the "great roaming rip-off" was to be brought to an end.

The group blamed the delay in successfully negotiating the deal on member states, which have been accused of seeking to protect their national operators in the past.

But Marietje Schaake MEP, another member of the group, renewed the attack on the net-neutrality deal, saying: "The compromise reached now is a watered-down version of the strong ambitions of the European Parliament."

Renata Avila, global campaign manager at the World Wide Web Foundation added: "Despite claiming to protect net neutrality, the deal agreed by the Commission, Parliament and Council has decided to allow 'specialised services', but has then failed to define what is meant by this, leaving the door open for a two-tier internet... specialised services should be tightly defined and seen as the exception, not the rule."

However, Gunther Oettinger, the commissioner for the digital economy and society, defended the net-neutrality proposals as a "pragmatic" approach.

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Kid-Invented Device May Calm Dogs' Separation Anxiety

Brooke Martin, 13, was inspired by her dog Kayla (both shown here) to invent iCUPpooch, a device that allows video chat and treat dispensing remotely to keep separation anxiety at bay.

Brooke Martin's golden retriever Kayla hated being left alone, and Martin, now 13, wanted to help her. She wondered: "What if you could talk to your dog if you were gone?" and "What if you were able to give them a treat while you were away?"

Then the answer came to her: video chat and dog treats dispensed remotely.

Her invention, called iCUpooch, has earned her a spot competing against nine other finalists in a young scientist competition for middle-school students. These finalists, selected based on their short video presentations, are collaborating with mentors over the summer before heading to the final competition in St. Paul, Minn. [Fun Middle-School Science Fair Projects]

Even before hearing about the competition, Martin knew what she wanted to do, and had been working on prototypes in the garage of her Spokane, Wash., home.

"I have always been an entrepreneur at heart," she said.

After Martin's video put her among the 10 finalists in the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, she was paired with Delony Langer-Anderson, a product development scientist in 3M's consumer health care division.   

The two communicate by phone and email. "I just lead her down the product development path," Langer-Anderson told LiveScience. This path includes guidance on how to test the potential product, which combines a video chat device that answers automatically on the dog's end with a dog treat dispenser the owner can remotely activate.

"One thing I have thought about a lot is, what happens if while the device is on the floor, what if your dog knocks it over, or scratches the screen?" Martin said. She and Langer-Anderson discussed this, and Martin is now testing materials at a local dog shelter by taping them to the kennel floors to see how well they withstand canine claws.

Like Martin's invention, the other students' projects propose possible solutions to everyday problems. The finalists create prototypes they can test, with the guidance from a mentor. Other projects include a fuel cellthat converts cut grass into electricity and an app that rewards drivers for not texting or calling.

Langer-Anderson tries to help the students work through the scientific method, testing their hypothesis, in an affirming way, "so the kids don't get buried in data," she said. But that doesn't mean guaranteed success.

"I try to encourage my students I mentor that sometimes it is just as good to learn what doesn't work, and they should all experience that at some point," Langer-Anderson said.

Martin, who starts ninth grade this year, has yet to test her device on dogs other than her own: Kayla and, now, Zoey. Both of them respond well to it, but Kayla no longer suffers from separation anxiety, thanks to Zoey's presence, Martin said.

"This idea could be a cheaper solution to getting another dog," Martin said. She has started a Kickstarter campaign to fund work on iCUpooch.

The winner of October's competition is expected to receive $25,000, a trip from Discovery Student Adventures and the title "America's Top Young Scientist."

Brooke Martin's invention iCUpooch lets owners "video chat" with their dogs remotely and even dispense treats.

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Top 10 Museums and Galleries

Acropolis Museum: Athens, Greece

British Museum: Museum in London, England

Hermitage Museum: Saint Petersburg, Russia

Museo Nacional Del Prado: Museum in Madrid, Spain

Rijksmuseum Museum: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Smithsonian Institution and Museum: United States

The Louvre: Museum, Paris, France

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: New York, United States

Uffizi Gallery Museum: Florence, Italy

Vatican Museums: Roma, Italy

Top 10 Islands in the World

Andaman Sea

Canary Islands

Capri

Channel Islands

Fair Isle

Isles of Scilly

Lord Howe Island

Nantucket

Saba

Tahiti

Man Builds Giant Computer At Home

For many tech companies the race is on to build ever smaller computer processors, but one British man has gone in the opposite direction.

James Newman is building a 14m (45ft) computer processor in the lounge of his bungalow in Cambridge.

Mr Newman's 16-bit "mega processor" will contain 14,000 individual transistors and 3,500 LED Lights.

So far the project had taken him three years and cost about £20,000, he told the BBC.

Mr Newman said he hoped it would have educational value but it would be hard to transport as it was likely to weigh about half a tonne once finished.

Bits of the processor light up as they operate, but other than that the entire machine operates just the same as a standard chip-sized microprocessor found in all computers.

"I was taken with the idea of being able to see how the thing works," Mr Newman, a digital electronics engineer, said.

"I have a visual way of thinking about things, I wanted to be able to see how a computer works and how things flow around within it.

"I intended it as a learning exercise, and I have learned a lot."

He said his enthusiasm for the project had ebbed and flowed over the years but he hoped to complete it by the end of 2015.

Mr Newman is now relying on "determinedness" to finish his creation, but he is concerned about the space the processor, which is 2m high, will take up.

"When it's set up and running in the living room, there won't be much space for living," he said.

"One of the fantasies is to line the hallway with it."

He said the first programs he intended to run on his mega processor were likely to be Tetris, noughts and crosses and 1970s evolutionary simulation Life by mathematician John Conway.

Mr Newman said: "My mother keeps asking, 'What can it do?' I keep saying, 'It's a computer, it can do anything.'

"My friends think it's mad, but I think they are also slightly jealous that I can allow myself to do it."

Original Article Source

Google’s Homemade Self-Driving Cars to Hit Roads This Summer

Here’s something that irks Chris Urmson: Sometimes people will get in self-driving cars, the spectacularly complex piece of technology he runs at Google and to which he has devoted most of his scientific career, and leave with a shrug.

Once, Urmson was riding in one of Google’s Lexus SUVs down a freeway. Several minutes in, his fellow passenger turned to him, nonplussed.

“That’s it?”

Urmson, recalling the story on Google’s Mountain View campus earlier this week, threw up his hands: “Do you have any idea how hard this is?!”

Soon, there may be many more blasé reactions to one of Google’s most audacious moonshots. On Friday, the Internet giant announced that the first autonomous vehicle it has manufactured — a squat two-seater, unveiled a year ago, with no steering wheel or brakes — will begin rolling out on public roads in northern California this summer. Urmson and his team have assembled 25 of the cars, which, for now, are just called “prototypes.” (Re/code has dubbed them “clown cars”; Google may be more partial to the “Koala car” nomenclature.) When they hit the roads, they will not exceed 25 miles per hour. And, due to current state regulations, they must be equipped with brakes, an accelerator pedal and a steering wheel.

But ultimately, Google wants to strip those out.

The company’s stated goal is shepherding fleets of vehicles that can drive with no need for human intervention, a bid to curtail the time wasted in traffic and aide those unable to drive. “At that point, the steering wheel and brake pedal just don’t add value,” Urmson said during the demonstration at the new Google X headquarters in Mountain View. “Over the last few years, we’ve been focused almost purely on tightening the technology. The big next step is bringing it into the community and seeing how it mixes with people.”

At its event to show off the car, Google mixed with people. Along with press, Google invited local community members and disability advocates onto its spacious, secure rooftop. Sergey Brin, the co-founder behind Google’s futuristic ventures, made an appearance. He reiterated Urmson’s point, arguing that for one target market of the technology — several blind community members were given lifts in the car — steering wheels aren’t the issue. “That doesn’t address the mission of access,” Brin said.

Google’s announcement comes on the tail of sharp criticism. On Monday, the Associated Press reported that Google’s Lexus vehicles were involved in three accidents since September, when California required autonomous vehicle testers to declare a permit. 

Read more Google’s Homemade Self-Driving Cars to Hit Roads This Summer

OnePlus One vs Xiaomi Mi4: Which one you should buy?

With both Xiaomi and OnePlus trying to play the one-upmanship game in terms of price points of their flagship devices – the Mi4 and One, respectively – it is ultimately the consumer who gets a good deal on both devices. Now while that is a good thing, for many it has also led to a sort of confusion – which phone to buy between the two. So here’s our take on the Mi4 vs OnePlus One.

Before we start off with the recommendations, let us have a quick look at how the price points of the phones currently stand. Xiaomi Mi 4 is priced at Rs 14,999 for the 16GB variant and Rs 19,999 for the 64GB variant. OnePlus One is priced at Rs 18,998 for the 16GB variant and Rs 19,998 for the 64GB variant. Now while the OnePlus One price is valid on Amazon and on the Flipkart app till Wednesday June 24, the Xiaomi Mi 4 offer stays.

For many consumers, the price points may seem like a no brainer, considering both the phones come with similar specifications. But for others, who are left wondering if they should buy the OnePlus One or Mi 4 over the next two days, here are some points you need to consider.

What we loved in the Xiaomi Mi 4 

When we had reviewed the Xiaomi Mi 4 back in February, the 16GB variant was priced at Rs 19,999. At that time, we were disappointed with the price, since for Rs 2,000 more you could get the OnePlus One 64GB variant. But now the Mi 4 64GB variant is selling for Rs 2,000 less than OnePlus One 64GB variant (barring the special offer days till June 24).

Xiaomi Mi 4 comes with a 5-inch full HD display, so for those who do not want a large screen device, the Mi 4 makes sense. In terms of performance, the Mi 4 offers the goods and is great with heavy apps as well as 3D gaming. We did not face issues such as slowing down or random shut down of apps when using the device.

The camera on the Mi 4 has a slight edge over the OnePlus One, especially during the low light conditions. Agreed, the Mi 4 does not offer the best low light photographs, but in comparison with the OnePlus One, the image quality is relatively better. So if you are a photography enthusiast, between the two the Mi 4 is the better option.

Xiaomi also has more service centres than OnePlus across various states in India. Also if you are a fan of accessorising your phone, the Xiaomi has a wider range than OnePlus.

What we loved in the OnePlus One

The OnePlus One was launched at a wonderful price point for its specs. In our review, we were quite impressed with the overall performance and value proposition as well. While a lot of people were annoyed with the ‘invite-only’ model of ordering the device, the OnePlus has now made it an open sale platform. The price of Rs 21,999 for the 64GB variant has remained constant with special price of Rs 19,998 staying on since the last week.

If you are a fan of the phablet form factor, OnePlus One is the phone to go for. You also get a choice between operating systems: Cyanogen OS 12 or OnePlus’ own OxygenOS. This gives you a lot of tweaking options to customise the looks of your phone to your liking. With the Mi 4, you will get a MIUI 6, a custom skin, atop Android 5.0, which really does not have much design elements from the Android 5.0 material design. To put on another skin, you will have to root the device. Although Xiaomi does not void the warranty on rooting its devices.

One of the biggest advantage that the OnePlus One has over the Xiaomi Mi 4, is the fact that it supports 4G LTE. So if you are someone who is living in one of those 4G activated cities in India and are planning to opt for the faster 4G plans in the near future, then One is the phone to go for. Mi 4 unfortunately does not support 4G.

The Sandstone Black variant comes with a unique texture on its rear cover surface, something which the glossy plastic back of the Mi 4 does not offer. Also, thanks to the metallic frame on the Mi 4, in the high performance mode that does get warm. We faced no such issues with the OnePlus One, although it also does get warm on heavy usage. But the OnePlus One has its display slightly raised which can be problematic if you drop the device on the edges. The Mi 4 thanks to its metallic frame is more capable of absorbing the shock if the phone drops on the edge.

This Article was originally published on Tech FirstPost. See it here

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Android Version History

Android Cupcake (1.5)

Android Donut (1.6)

Android Eclair (2.0–2.1)

Android Froyo (2.2–2.2.3)

Android Gingerbread (2.3–2.3.7)

Android Honeycomb (3.0–3.2.6)

Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0–4.0.4)

Android Jelly Bean (4.1–4.3.1)

Android KitKat (4.4–4.4.4, 4.4W–4.4W.2)

Android Lollipop (5.0–5.1.1)

Who Invented WiFi?

Who Invented Wi-Fi

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Need Help Promoting Your App? Ask Google

If you're a mobile Android developer, then you're probably aware that one of the best ways to get a little traction for your particular program is to capitalize on word of mouth. And one of the best ways to capitalize on word of mouth is to build some kind of recommendation system within your app.

To help simplify the deployment of such a recommendation engine, Google has released an App Invite kit for developers. The kit standardizes the invite process and allows users to enjoy a bit more customization than your typical "spam your entire address book" kind of a setup. As TechCrunch notes, App Invite will actually recommend contacts to invite based on a user's interactions with them on Google's services—presumably, ensuring that a person is only really reaching out to his or her closest contacts, rather than every single person he or she has ever spoken to.

"If you're looking to drive usage and grow a mobile app, you're probably testing out referrals, recommendations, and the user onboarding experience. These product flows are resource-intensive to design, build, and optimize. What if you could use a set of tools that help your users share your app, and get more of the right people to download and use your app? What if you could craft a more personalized onboarding experience in your new user's journey," reads a blog post from Google.

"Now in beta, App Invites let mobile app developers increase their reach, deep link new users to custom experiences, and tap into your users' device and Google-wide contacts as a source to drive referrals," Google said. "This is available for both iOS and Android app developers."

Users will be able to send out invites within an application via email or text, and the message can include a button to install the particular application directly in the body text. If a person pulls up the message on an Android device, he or she can start downloading the application directly from Google Play—no need to load up the app's Google Play page first.

App developers will be able to target specific pages within their app during the referral process, in case they want to send App Invite users to a particular referral code or other promotional content as part of the process. Developers will also be able to tap into custom analytics reports that show just how many people downloaded the apps. Additionally, they'll be able to see how these invites were sent, when they might have been completed, and what platform people were using when they completed the invite—to name a few metrics.

This Article was originally published on PC Mag. See it here