How old are you? Microsoft’s new tool now guesses your age

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By tech2 News Staff /  01 May 2015 , 15:17

Amidst the big announcements that came from Microsoft’s Build conference, looks like the company has also planned for some weekend fun. It now has a new fun tool that will guess your age. This tool uses facial recognition technology to guess ages and is currently laughed at on social media for some of its hilarious guesses.

Basically, Microsoft is playing with the new Face detection API and has decided to put it on a webpage called http://how-old.net. Users have to upload their image and the API then predicts their age and gender.

Microsoft had sent the link to a group of several hundred people to try out the feature and give feedback. However, within hours, over 35,000 users had hit the page from across the world.

“This may be hard to believe but it took a couple of developers just a day to put this whole solution together, starting with the pipeline from the web page to the Machine Learning APIs to the real time streaming analytics and real time BI. This turned out to be a great example of the power of Azure services,” Microsoft wrote in a blogpost.

Tags: Age tool, Azure, Guess age, Guess how old, Machine Learning API, Microsoft, Microsoft BUILD

LG G Flex 2 first impressions: At Rs 54,990, the smartphone will compete with Galaxy S6 Edge, iPhone 6

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By Nimish Sawant /  01 May 2015 , 16:00

TheLG G Flex2 announced earlier this year is now available in India. The 16GB model is priced at Rs 54,990.

We’ve had some hands on time with the device and here are our first impressions of the LG G Flex2.

Design and Build

LG G Flex2 comes with the curved glass design which is its USP. According to LG, the G Flex2 is curved in four areas: the front screen curved at 700R; the rear cover curved at 650R; edges curved at 550R and the top and bottom edges curved at 400R. The device looks beautiful and at 5.5-inches comes with the usual issues faced by any 5.5-inch phone. The glossy back doesn’t help matters and although not as smooth as the LG G3, the G Flex2 still needs to be gripped carefully. One handed operation is difficult for all the functions.

LG G Flex2 comes with the curved glass design.

The phone is quite light. The rear cover is removable and it comes  with a self healing back cover thanks to the polycarbonate finish on it. The battery is non removable though. You get two colour variants – red and grey. The sides are clean and like the LG G3, the power/standby button and the volume rocker buttons are located on the rear side just under the camera. The headphone jack is place on the bottom edge along side the microUSB port. On the top you have the IR blaster. The speaker section is located at the base on the rear side.

Display

The LG G Flex2 comes with a 5.5-inch full HD display. The display is sharp thanks to the Plastic OLED display which offers deep blacks. While the display is quite glossy, text legibility wasn’t an issue. We will have to test it outdoors still to give a complete verdict.

While the display is quite glossy, text legibility wasn’t an issue.

Internals

The LG G Flex2 comes with Qualcomm’s flagship 64-bit Snapdragon 810 SoC which has a 2.0GHz octa-core processor paired with 2GB of RAM. Thanks to such powerful internals, the phones response is buttery smooth. It runs Android 5.0 Lollipop OS with LG UI 3.0 which is LGs proprietary skin. The phone should run through everything you throw at it with ease including heavy gaming. But we will test that out when we get the review unit.

It comes with a 32GB internal storage and this is the only variant that will be selling in India. The phone does come with a microSD card slot.

The rear cover is removable and it comes with a self healing back cover thanks to the polycarbonate finish on it.

Camera

The LG G Flex2 comes with a 13MP rear camera with advanced OIS+ (optical image stabilisation). On the rear side just beside the camera you will notice a dark oval shape which basically hides the Laser AF system which is used for quick focussing, a feature that was also seen with the LG G3. The focus acquisition is quick indeed but with tricky lighting conditions at the demo booth, it was not always spot on.

On the front you have a 2.1MP camera which supports gesture controls for taking selfies. After taking a gesture selfies (by closing your palm into a fist) when you get the phone to view it, the camera automatically shows you the preview, also called as Gesture view.

The LG G Flex2 comes with a 13MP rear camera with advanced OIS+ (optical image stabilisation).

Battery

The LG G Flex2 houses a 3000mAh battery which may seem less when compared to other 5-inch and over phones such as the Galaxy Note 4, OnePlus One, Sony Xperia Z3 and so on. But LG claims that the battery paired with Snapdragon 810 SoC is quite efficient and lasts long. Also according to LG, you can charge the battery from 0 to 50 percent in 38 mins. Again, we will have to test these claims when we do get a review sample.

Conclusion

On first glance the LG G Flex2 looks every bit a premium device one expected from LG. It comes with a fast processor, sharp display and a decent camera. The phone is certainly a good improvement over the first gen LG Flex. We will have to see how fast it is indeed over its contemporaries as this is the first Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC sporting phone to be launched in India. At Rs 54,990, the smartphone is certainly targeted at a niche market and will be in competition with Apple’s iPhone 6 and Galaxy S6/S6 Edge. We will find out how it fares soon enough.

In the meantime, let us know what you think of the price point for the features on offer.

Tags: LG G Flex2, LG G Flex2 features, LG G Flex2 first impressions, LG G Flex2 first look, LG G Flex2 India launch, LG G Flex2 India price, LG G Flex2 launch, LG G Flex2 specs, LG smartphones, new launch

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• CES 2015: LG G Flex 2 unveiled, sports Snapdragon 810 SoC, 5.5-inch full HD display and more
• LG launches G Flex2 with curved display for Rs 55,000; 105-inch 5K TV for Rs 60 lakhs

Facebook blames security bug for disappearing posts

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By tech2 News Staff /  01 May 2015 , 18:05

A Facebook bug had caused major issue for users such as disappearing posts and blocking links. The bug affected posts with links to content from outside of Facebook.

Users trying to post new links faced a security warning. Users who clicked on existing links also faced similar warnings, saying the link has been blocked for security purpose. Several posts containing links also disappeared.

The issue was first reported in Facebook’s developer’s forums.

A Facebook spokesperson told TheVerge, “An error in our system that helps block bad links on Facebook incorrectly marked some URLs as malicious or inappropriate. As a result, some existing posts were hidden, while other posts were blocked completely. We’ve resolved the issue and the remaining affected URLs are being unblocked. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused.”

“There is a security bug with Facebook that is removing posts (seemingly from the last 24 hours and page posts today) as well as a second issue with links not working properly,” the company said in a statement.

Facebook has reportedly resolved the issue.

Tags: Disappearing posts, Facebook, Facebook disappear posts, Facebook issue, Facebook security glitch

Microsoft Windows 10 preview build 10074 is now available: Find out what’s new

Image: AP

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By tech2 News Staff /  01 May 2015 , 16:55

Microsoft has now renamed its ‘Technical previews’ to ‘Insider previews’, and with that comes its latest build – 10074. The preview build 10074 comes with subtle changes and improvements in the design, along with some more evolved features. The company is reintroducing some Aero Glass elements in the UI, and also promises to make changes depending upon user feedback.

Here’s a quick look at what’s new:

Improved UX: Adding to the improvements seen in the last build, one will find a new Live Tile animation for Start. You will also find some performance and stability improvements for Live Tiles. The new build also claims to have added better support for high DPI displays. “We know many Windows Insiders are running multi-mon setups – often with 2 monitors with different DPI. You will start to see some work we’re doing to make sure core UX components in Windows scale correctly on both your monitors so things look nice regardless of DPI,” the company explains in a blogpost. Considering user feedback, the company is also working to add some Aero Glass elements from Windows 7.

Continuum: The team has been working at making Continuum better along with a simplified taskbar. Now, when you close an app in Tablet mode, you will be taken back to the Start screen instead of the desktop. “You will see general polish on snapping, and the shared divider between two snapped windows now let’s you adjust the size,” claims Microsoft.

Multi-tasking: The company has also refined further the multi-tasking experience with Windows 10. “Check out Alt-Tab, Task-View, and Snap Assist. Snap Assist also now supports the ability to close a window during Snap Assist,” the company writes in the blogpost.

Cortana: Cortana gets a visual refresh in this build. Firstly, Start and Cortana are now more tightly integrated. On searching for an app from within Start, Cortana will take over and bring back the right result, claims the company. Now, the new Windows split view control has also been added to Cortana’s left rail, adding quick access to functions like Notebook, Reminders or Feedback on how Cortana’s doing.

Cortana!

One will also find some new and updated experiences in Cortana powered by Bing Instant Answers. Cortana will try answering the questions while the user is still typing.

Music and Video Preview apps: The Music Preview app (updated to version 3.6.999.0) comes with UX improvements including a more immersive Now Playing experience with a full screen mode. The Video Preview app (updated to 3.6.999.0) lets you download movies, TV shows, and TV seasons and check progress, pause, resume, cancel the download. Now, it also lets you download, delete, and even re-download videos as many times as you want on up to three devices. The company is also looking at increasing the number of devices supported.

Xbox app: The Xbox app for Windows 10 has also been updated with Game DVR for PC games, screenshots, a Live Tile, user profiles, and real-name sharing. The drivers for Xbox controllers are now being included with Windows 10.

Windows Store Beta: Aimed at delivering a single unified Store experience in Windows 10, the Store Beta also get new improvements. It is now a blue tile instead of grey. “Xbox Live games should be working and so are in-app purchases. Apps you purchased on a PC running Windows 8.1 will now show up in the Store Beta on Windows 10 as owned (and vice-versa),” explains the blog. The Store Beta is also expanded to new markets such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, among others.

Discovering features and apps in Windows 10: The company has also introduced tips and tricks on the Lock screen. It  would help users discover high quality apps through Start, the Lock screen and Cortana.

It has also fixed several bugs such as now a user can launch Win32 (desktop) apps from the Start menu, download music in the Xbox Music and Music Preview apps and so on. However, Microsoft points out at some bugs that still need to be fixed.

Tags: continuum, Cortana, Improved UX, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows 10, Windows 10, Windows 10 apps, Windows 10 build, XBox app

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