India to have 1 billion unique mobile subscribers by 2020

Nearly every Indian will be a mobile subscriber by 2020.

India is already one of the largest markets for mobile phones, internet users, and mobile subscribers, and experts believe it’s just the beginning of even bigger things to come.The country will have one billion unique mobile subscribers by 2020, up from 616 million unique users as of June 2016, according to projections by mobile trade association GSMA.Once considered a luxury, Indian telecom operators now offer new subscription at no charge (or at nominal cost). The network coverage has also improved significantly over the past two decades with many of the remote places offering LTE connectivity now. 

These factors, coupled with the prices of devices getting cheaper, will play an instrumental role in nearly 330 million people getting a mobile subscription in next four years, GSMA added.

Many of these new mobile subscribers will have access to 4G LTE network capability. GSMA says that it projects the number of 4G connections in India to grow from 3 million as of the end of 2015 to 280 million in next four years. The report adds that India will have 670 million registered connection base with access to 3G or 4G connectivity.

India crossed one billion mobile subscriber base last year, according to TRAI. The regulator of the telecom sector in India had noted at the time of the one billion million subscriptions, 902 million were active in October last year. But not all were unique mobile subscribers, TRAI had noted. GSMA forecasts that India will have 1.4 billion registered mobile subscriber by 2020.

Apple slashes prices on USB-C accessories in response to criticism

Apple heard you, MacBook Pro customers.

Less than a week after unveiling a series of legacy-port-free MacBook Pro laptops, Apple announced that it is temporarily lowering the price of USB-C (AKA Thunderbolt 3) gear, including third-party peripherals and all adapters and cables."We recognize that many users, especially pros, rely on legacy connectors to get work done today, and they face a transition. We want to help them move to the latest technology and peripherals, as well as accelerate the growth of this new ecosystem. Through the end of the year, we are reducing prices on all USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 peripherals we sell, as well as the prices on Apple's USB-C adapters and cables,” an Apple spokesperson said in a written statement.

For Apple, the move is a rapid and almost unprecedented response to criticism.

Even though USB-C is clearly the future industry standard, some worried Apple went too far, too fast.In the wake of the MacBook Pro redesign, some consumers and tech media pundits expressed outrage that the company was forcing new MacBook Pro owners to either update all their peripherals to USB-C or buy an ever-expanding collection of dongles to connect legacy equipment. The new MacBook Pros do not ship with adapters.On both the 13- and 15-inch models of the new, smaller and lighter MacBooks, Apple removed everything from the MagSafe power connector and HDMI ports to the full-size USB ports and SD card slot. It replaced them all with a collection of USB-C ports — two on the entry-level 13-inch model and four on the 13- and 15-inch models with Touch Bar technology. In all cases, the ports can be used for data and charging, and they promise data-transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps."We are extremely excited about the new MacBook Pro, which is the best pro notebook we’ve ever made. It has the fastest CPU, graphics, memory, storage and I/O, best display, the innovative Touch Bar and more. MacBook Pro uses the most advanced industry-standard connector, USB-C with Thunderbolt 3, to provide maximum performance, expandability and compatibility," the Apple spokesperson said.Even though USB-C is clearly the future industry standard and this is not even Apple's first USB-C only system, some worried Apple went too far, too fast. Certainly pro users with significant numbers of legacy equipment were not ready to switch over en masse to USB-C. At least now, MacBook Pro consumers will be able to fill their holiday stockings with cheaper USB-C gadgets, dongles and cabling.

Among the USB-C deals Apple is offering now through Dec. 31 are:

Apple-branded USB-C to USB Adapter will drop from $19 to $9

Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter drops from $49 to $29

A 1-meter USB-C to Lightning Cable drops from $25 to $19. (2-meter down to$29.)

$20 off a USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter

$20 off a USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter

In addition to 25% off all third-party USB-C peripherals sold through Apple, the company is lopping $20 off the SanDisk Extreme Pro SD UHS-II Card USB-C Reader.Apple will limit sales on these devices. Consumers can buy a max of five Apple-branded items and a max of two third-party devices.The deals will also not apply to Apple USB-C power adapters or the 2-meter USB-C Charge Cable.

Huawei has a Porsche-branded, crazy-powerful phone

MUNICH — With Samsung’s Note7 now being permanently discontinued for battery fire issues, many users are looking into alternatives with similar specs, and Huawei has just delivered in style — but deep pockets are a requirement.The company’s new flagship, launched alongside the standard Huawei Mate 9, has been designed in collaboration with Porsche Design. Its full name is the Porsche Design Huawei Mate 9, but it’s not just a slightly redesigned Mate 9; it is in fact quite a different device. It has a slightly smaller, 5.5-inch AMOLED screen with curved edges and some seriously beefed-up specs, including 6GB of RAM and 256GB of storage memory. Although it’s smaller than the Mate 9’s 5.9-inch screen, it has a higher resolution: 2,560x1,440 pixels.

Design-wise, the phone is a matte, graphite black with a Porsche Design logo accompanying the standard Huawei signature on the back. Judging by Huawei’s promo video at the event, the phone’s curvy edges should somehow mimic the design of Porsche cars, but you’ll have to use some imagination to see that. Unlike on most Huawei phones, the PD Mate 9 has a fingerprint sensor on the front, built into the home button which also takes over the function of all three standard Android buttons, depending on how you interact with it.About those curved edges: Don’t expect any additional functionality, as seen on Samsung Note7 or S7 Edge phones; the curvature is subtle and purely aesthetic.

Boosted Board sales suspended after reports of batteries overheating

Boosted Boards, makers of the most popular electric skateboards, has urged all owners of second-generation Boosted Boards to stop riding and charging them over potential overheating issues related to their lithium-ion batteries."Please store them away from anything flammable until we complete our investigation," Dastoor wrote. "If you don’t have a convenient place to store your board, you may optionally remove the battery. These are precautions we recommend to ensure rider and home safety. We will also stop shipping boards to new riders."Dastoor also asked owners to "move the board to a safe location outside and contact the company at 650-933-5151" if they notice any signs of overheating. "We also ask that you do not dispose of the battery so our engineering team can inspect it."Unlike the original Boosted Board, the second-generation model has a removable battery for quick swapping. The company also introduced an extended battery pack that gives riders double the range.

It's been quite a year for battery-related issues. Earlier this year, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission declared hoverboards unsafe after they started catching on fire left and right. It was later determined faulty batteries with poor insulation were to blame.Then, at the end of August, Samsung Galaxy Note7 phones started inexplicably exploding, prompting a double recall and the eventual discontinuation of the device. It's widely believed the Note7 suffered from faulty batteries that may have been too large and too energy dense to fit into its svelte dimensions.Let us remind everyone again: Anything with a volatile lithium-ion battery can explode. Stay safe out there!

New antenna joins NASA's deep space network to support Mars mission

Large, white and rather dishy, NASA's latest spacecraft-tracking antenna unveiled on Thursday has an important job ahead of it.Deep Space Station 36 (DSS36) joins NASA's Deep Space Network, in which it will play a role in future interplanetary missions undertaken by humans and robots.

Its home, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC), has a long relationship with the U.S. space agency. In 2015, CDSCC was the first place to hear from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft when it flew close to Pluto.

"This antenna is the culmination of what has been a six-and-a-half-year expansion of the tracking station," Glen Nagle, CDSCC's manager of education and public outreach, toldMashable. "It gives us additional capacity to be able to talk to new spacecraft in years to come, but also to support NASA's future journey to Mars."NASA invested A$120 million ($91,603,800) in the project to expand its two-way communication capacity with spacecraft, according to the CSIRO. DSS36 joins the antenna DSS35, which launched in 2014.Nagle said the two dishes, both 34 metres wide, are beam waveguide antennas. Rather than housing their transmitter receiver systems in the dish, the systems are located underground in a concrete cylinder two storeys underground.

"That further isolates the electronics," he explained. "It helps them to be a little bit more protected from radio frequency interference from around the local region and increase their overall sensitivity."

To have a deep space network, you need antennas around the world — three stations, equidistant roughly around the planet, to have line of sight wherever the Earth is in its rotation. In addition to Canberra, DSN antennas are located in California and Madrid.There are big plans ahead for the network. Australia has been working with NASA for well over 50 years, Nagle pointed out, but for the last 40 years or so, humans have not left Earth's orbit. "Now of course, NASA is working toward the capacity with their new launch vehicles to take humans away from Earth's orbit again," he said. "To head back to the moon, to head maybe out to the nearest asteroid, and then of course on the road to Mars."The CDSCC has already been part of the first test flights of NASA's new Orion spacecraft, which is intended for deep space missions. "If that goes well, a second mission, maybe taking people that time to lunar space again, extending our capabilities," Nagle said.

"Think of it this way: We're kind of air traffic control for the universe here in Australia."

Here's how much Samsung's Gear S3 smartwatch will cost in the U.S.

                 Samsung's new Gear S3 smartwatch will launch on Nov. 18 in the U.S. starting at $349.99 for the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi model — more than an entry-level Apple Watch. Pre-orders start on Nov. 6.Consumers can pick one up from Samsung.com, Best Buy, Amazon, Macy's and participating wireless retailers including AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.Samsung announced the smartwatch in August, and it'll be available in two models: a regular "Classic" and slightly more rugged "Frontier" edition. They're Samsung's first smartwatches to feature built-in LTE and GPS.The Gear S3 also supports Samsung Pay using MST technology — the same contactless payment technology used by Samsung's flagship S7 and S7 Edge phones.The smartwatch's large 46mm (diameter) case is a departure from the more reasonably-sized 32mm Gear S2 and even 38mm and 42mm Apple Watch.

The larger case does mean room for the LTE, GPS and a larger battery, which is reportedly good for three to four days on a single charge.Size aside, the Gear S3, last I checked, looks like a solid smartwatch running Tizen and connecting to Samsung smartphones. Not to mention it has military-grade durability with an IP68 rating for resistance to water, dust and sand.

Technology Inventions

3D Printed Car

The latest technology inventions in 3d printing are rapidly changing how things are being made.It's an emerging technology that is an alternative to the traditional tooling and machining processes used in manufacturing.At the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, a little known Arizona-based car maker created a media sensation by manufacturing a car at the show.It was a full scale, fully functional car that was 3d printed in 44 hours and assembled in 2 days. The video below shows the car being made.

Car Gps Tracking

Car Gps Tracking is fairly common in new vehicles, providing drivers with tracking and navigation.
However, latest technology inventions have made car gps tracking systems more sophisticated, allowing for a wide range of additional uses.Smartbox technology is one example of how car gps tracking systems are being used to lower car insurance.A comprehensive recording of a driver's habits allows insurance companies to provide "pay-as-you-drive" car insurance.City officials in New York City are considering how car gps tracking could be used as "Drive Smart" technology.Most large cities have a limited capability to change the infrastructure of their roadways.A car gps tracking system that integrates with traffic information would give drivers the ability to select routes in real time that were more fuel efficient, less congested, faster or shorter.A driver's recorded routing selection could then be used to penalize or reward drivers by lowering or increasing their related licensing fees or by calculating mileage based "road-use" fees.Eventually, such a system would replace gasoline tax since these revenues will decline as more vehicles become less dependent on fossil fuels.

Vein Identification

Another technology innovation is the biometric identification and security device known as PalmSecure.It works by identifying the vein pattern in the palms of our hands.Similar to our fingerprints, vein patterns are unique to each individual. The purported advantages of this technology is that it is less expensive, easier to manage, and is more reliable than traditional methods of identification.

World's Fastest Motor

A new motor developed by researchers at ETH Zurich's Department of Power Electronics and marketed by the Swiss company, Celeroton, can spin in excess of 1 million revolutions per minute.
As a comparison, collapsed stars spin at 60,000 rpms, a blender at about 30,000 and high performance engines at around 10,000 rpms.The matchbook-sized motor has a titatnium shell, ultra-thin wiring and a trade secret iron formulated cylinder. The need for smaller electronic devices requires smaller holes, which means smaller, faster, more efficient drills.