Knowledge Update

​Bengaluru, June 21 (IANS) Celebrating World Music Day on Tuesday, e-commerce marketplace Flipkart released a survey showing consumer shift towards premium audio brands and massive spike for the hi-tech audio devices. "Music accessories category on Flipkart has witnessed phenomenal growth in the recent months. Most of our customers are either investing or upgrading to new-age smart audio products," Adarsh K Menon, Vice President, Electronics and Auto, Flipkart, said in a statement. The findings showed that Indian youth tune into wireless music gadgets and Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad topped the charts in terms of demand for on-the-go music devices. "Music accessories category has witnessed a 40 per cent growth in the last six months. Close to 50 per cent of shoppers of audio devices are young professionals and students," the report noted. Brands like Philips, Zoook, JBL, Konerk are the frontrunners among students while shoppers are increasingly shifting towards quality and premium headphones from brands like Audio Technica, Bose and Harman Kardon. "In the last six months, bluetooth speakers, sound bars and home theatres have emerged as the most popular segments. We expect the music accessories category to grow by three folds this year. We have seen a huge shift in customer preference towards premium brand," Menon added. With 60 per cent growth in demand for wireless devices like Bluetooth speakers and headphones etc., the majority of Indians enjoy music on-the-go and are preferring products with additional features like dust proof and water resistant speakers, the survey noted. ​

​New Delhi, June 21 (IANS) After conducting a test comparing leading web browsers, tech giant Microsoft revealed on Tuesday that its browser Microsoft Edge is the most power-efficient browser on Windows 10.

New York, June 21 (IANS) Researchers from US-based Rice University have developed a technology that not only allows several devices to see what their owners see but also keep track of what they need to remember.

​New York, June 19 (IANS) A study, involving an Indian-origin researcher, has found that if people construct their robot themselves, they tend to get a more positive perception of their creation.

​New York, June 19 (IANS) A team of scientists from the US has created the world's first microchip that has 1,000 processors and is thought to be the fastest chip designed in a university lab.

New York, June 19 (IANS) US tech giant IBM has patented an eye wear like Google Glass that will have red-eyed night vision capabilities, a media report said. Although not promising a true night vision, the device is described in the patent to improve sight under low light by tricking the brain to focus on high contrast imagery. "IBM's Google Glass modifications include a sensor and 'a comparator device' designed to detect and contrast light intensity. When the light intensity drops below a set level, a pair of projectors -- one for each eye -- bathe the user's eyes in red light," a report in International Business Times (UK) said. The patent claims the effect is similar to that of dark rooms used in photography or the red-tinted glasses worn by some airline pilots. Dark environment with a red tinge cause the rod cells, which are the photoreceptors in our eye, to send high contrast images to the brain. When the user enters a low-light environment, the projector automatically projects a low-level red light in to each eye of the user. Shining red light directly into the eyes creates the same response rods as casting red light onto an environment. Which means it tricks the rod cells into sending higher contrast images to the brain. However, the company also issued a health warning. The patent read: "The wearer of current glasses such as Google Glass is subject to the risk of a phenomena referred to as binocular rivalry and phoria -- a latent deviation or misalignment of the eyes that appears when both eyes are no longer looking at the same object."​

​London, June 16 (IANS) Planning to buy a new smartphone? Remember that the device may lose half of its value in a month which is even faster than your car, says an interesting study. While cars typically lost 20 per cent of their value a year after being driven off, money-draining smartphones went down up to 65 per cent of their value in just a month of being released, musicMagpie.co.uk reported on Thursday. The findings showed that only iPhones could retain their value much better than android-based devices. While the iPhone 4 continues to retain 39 per cent of its value even five years after its launch, the iPhone 6 (16 GB) has managed to keep 50 per cent of its 539 British pounds market value a year after its release. However, iPhone 5 showed a significant depreciation, losing 66 per cent of its value after eight months, the report stated. The highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4, which released in 2014 lost half of its value within two months of appearing on the market. That's nearly a £300 loss off its original selling price of £579, the study said. HTC One M9 has suffered the worst in the android sector. It was sold for 579 British pounds when released in March 2015 but lost a staggering 65 per cent of its value in just a month. Phones go down in value because better, faster and technologically superior models replace them. Demand for a certain phone model can also affect its popularity and consequently depreciate its value, the report concluded.​

​New York, June 17 (IANS) Researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist from the University of Texas at Austin, have developed a new, open-source computer programming framework "GreenWeb" that allows people to save more battery power while browsing on mobile devices.

​New York, June 15 (IANS) Researchers including one of Indian-origin have provided a fresh insight into how human learning can foster smarter artificial intelligence (AI).

Recent breakthroughs in creating artificial systems that outplay humans in a diverse array of challenging games have their roots in neural networks inspired by information

​New York, June 15 (IANS) In an effort to allay concerns over collection of human data for corporate research, social networking giant Facebook has published details about how the website uses personal information of its subscribers for research purpose, a media report said.