Category:

Tech Update

TarDisk’s MacBook Storage-Expanding Card Adds Cloud Storage

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

TarDisk Pear 2.0

Not much to report on aesthetically, by the folks at the unfortunately named startup TarDisk hit CES with an upgraded version of their extremely cool SD Card-sized MacBook storage extender.

The big update here is the addition of the company’s cloud-backup service, addressing the question of what happens when the hardware fails. Otherwise, the device is pretty much the same.

Just slip into into a MacBook’s SD slot, follow the onscreen software prompts, and boom, you’ve increased your laptop’s storage by up to 256GB. Though, as with before, you’ll need to say goodbye to your SD slot -and $149 for the 128GB version and $399 for 256.

Oh, and the new backup service will run $50 a year after a 14 day free trial.

[“source-techtimes”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Tech Update

What Are The Benefits Of Watching Salesforce Training Videos?

by admin April 4, 2024

written by admin

Salesforce is considered to be one of the leading CRM software plans currently available on the market. Businesses in all sectors are enjoying the advantages of using this system in their organizations. Although Salesforce CRM is easy software to learn, there is a learning curve for new users to effectively use the software as it can present some challenges to those who are unfamiliar with it. Fortunately, there are Salesforce training videos that can help users better understand the software.

The Advantages Of Salesforce Training Videos

One of the biggest advantages to using Salesforce training videos when learning new skills is very obvious. When you are learning something new, it is often best to watch hands on demonstration without having to read too many details. Reading allows users to learn about Salesforce in a theoretical way, videos allow users to learn about Salesforce in a practical way.

Videos combine theory with visuals to help create the best learning experience. Users can follow along with the video during each step to ensure they understand the complete process. You also have the ability to pause the video in order to get a better understanding of a concept, or rewind a certain part of the video.

A training video also makes it easier for users to better understand the meaning of features, icons and terms that would be ambiguous in a written training manual. These are just some of the reasons why these types of tutorials are the easiest way to learn the different tasks that can be accomplished in Salesforce CRM.

Accuracy

Unfortunately, there are a lot of rehashed and badly written articles, blogs and tutorials on the Internet. Written materials can be spun or fabled and not contain any relevant information. Not everything that is written about Salesforce online is true, and may not have the information you are looking for.

On the other hand, it is more difficult to fabricate a video. They typically do not contain any fluff, and contain a full length video demonstration. This means that there is little time left in Salesforce training videos to spun content or make up information.

Unfortunately, there will be some people who will try to manipulate videos and fill them with affiliate links. These videos can be easily spotted because they are typically of low quality. A high quality tutorial typically avoids this type of manipulation.

Learning Resources

There are many training videos available on several online platforms. Salesforce users will be able to find plenty of training videos on YouTube. It should not be difficult to find a video about a specific Salesforce topic. Look for high quality videos that have graphics and very clear visuals. As you watch different videos, you will be exposed to different viewpoints.

There are many advantages to watching Salesforce training videos. The videos can be shared offline to help others who need assistance with different tasks. Videos are also more enjoyable to watch than reading an article or written tutorial. They also help to increase the intensity the user’s learning.

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Tech Update

Pay It Forward In 2016: Top Charitable Apps To Help You Help Those In Need

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

Charity App

Smartphone users who want to make the world a better place may donate money to a myriad of causes, and we’ve listed down the best apps to make that easy and cost free.

Charity Tap

The developers behind the free app Charity Tap turned donating into a playful activity. Charity Tap is a simpler version of FreeRice, an online word game owned by the World Food Programme (WFP). The app donates one grain of rice per screen tap. The more you hit your screen, more rice reaches those in need, through the WFP. The money comes from the ads displayed while you play.

A series of achievements keep you hooked and make the competitive users want to do more. Statistics enthusiasts might enjoy using the app as it counts taps per second and the number of donated rice grains mounting up.

The free app is available for iOS.

Charity Miles

Charity Miles is a way for all of us to become sponsored athletes, as the app donates according to your dynamic workout routines. Also, it allows you to raise awareness about every workout session by launching the app, choosing a charitable organization, and doing any form of movement. The app simply measures how many miles you check on your routine and makes donations based on that.

For bicycle lovers, the app donates 10 cents per mile whereas runners earn 25 cents for each mile.

The free app is available for iOS and Android.

Tin Box

Because of its novel concept, Tin Box sounds too good to be true, and we cannot wait for it to go live.

The app allows users to donate $1 daily, but not from their own money. Instead, the donations come from funds of the corporate sponsors. Of course, there is a catch: the sponsors get to display their ads on the mobile device’s screen for a time of five seconds tops.

A plus for Tin Box is that the causes focus on specific niches, such as educational programs for girls or a floating hospital in developing countries. This means that each user can target his donations with transparency and precision.

The app is currently under development.

Give 2 Charity

If you fancy the idea of turning time and distance into money, then Give 2 Charity is the app for you.

Give 2 Charity permanently registers your location and computes the distance that you travelled with the phone in your pocket. After reaching certain checkpoints or time limits, users receive points. To earn $2, users must win 1,500 points. For $5, 3,000 points are required. The money then goes to a charity of the user’s choice. The location data allows the app to send out a number of surveys to its users, but the developers swear that the data is well-protected.

The app might not be the first choice for privacy-conscious smartphone users. But then again, if you do have a handset with GPS capabilities, you are probably not a conspiracy theorist in the first place.

The free app is available for iOS and Android.

Donate a Photo

Johnson & Johnson is behind the Donate a Photo app, which uses a neat system to help users donate money for no cost whatsoever. Each photo you “donate” prompts Johnson & Johnson to send a $1 donation to the charitable organization of your choice. There is a cap of one photo donation per day, amounting to an annual sum of $365.

To donate your snapped images, just download the app and sign in. If you want, you may also connect your social media (Facebook and Twitter), but it is not mandatory.

Some of the charities you may donate to are Operation Smile, Born Free Africa and Save the Children. The app offers in-depth details on every organization, including how the spending is distributed.

The free app is available for iOS and Android.

[“source-techtimes”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Tech Update

You Might Not Get a New Assassin’s Creed Game This Year

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

You Might Not Get a New Assassin's Creed Game This Year

Much like Call of Duty and FIFA, Assassin’s Creed is one of the few franchises you could count on to have a yearly release. Last year we saw the excellent Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and the year prior, Assassin’s Creed Unity for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and Assassin’s Creed Rogue for the PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. Since 2010, Ubisoft has diligently doled out game after game in its long-running historical murder simulator. This however, might change for 2016.

According to sources speaking to gaming blog Kotaku, and those on 4Chan compiled on gaming forum NeoGAF claim that we will not see a mainline Assassin’s Creed game this year, instead opting for a 2017 release. This however, will not impact the already announced side scrolling stealth Assassin’s Creed Chronicles games set in India and Russia. What’s more is that the new mainline Assassin’s Creed game is set in Egypt.

“[The game will take place in] Egypt. There won’t be an AC in 2016. You may screen cap this and refer to it when nothing is shown in E3 2016. You’ll have to wait until 2017 for it. The reason: It will be a complete revamp of the series. The game is going for a Witcher feel, with player progression, freeform combat system. Horse is back, and boats too. It’s made by the Black Flag team. You may leave any question you want answered,” reads a post on 4chan from a user who claims to be a Ubisoft developer.

The Egyptian setting was also corroborated by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier.

“Although I haven’t been able to confirm the veracity of this 4chan poster–whose posts are compiled on NeoGAF here–everything he wrote matches up with what I’ve heard independently for months. I’d heard last year from three different people familiar with goings-on at Ubisoft that the next big Assassin’s Creed would be set in ancient Egypt,” wrote Schreier. “Since this morning, two other independent sources have contacted me to corroborate that. I heard about the code name Empire from two of those sources. Three of them told me the game would indeed launch in 2017.”

In the past, Kotaku has been accurate with what to expect from Ubisoft. December 2014 saw the blog break news of Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s existence (codenamed: Victory). Schreier goes on to state that we can expect a sequel to 2014’s open-world hacking adventure Watch Dogs set in San Francisco (the first game was set in Chicago) in its place.

Would you play an Assassin’s Creed game set in Egypt or has franchise fatigue well and truly set in? Let us know in the comments.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Tech Update

There’s a Bit of The Last of Us in Final Fantasy XV

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

There's a Bit of The Last of Us in Final Fantasy XV

With Final Fantasy XV due for release this year, the director of the long awaited role-playing game, Hajime Tabata, let slip some details on what to expect from its plot. Final Fantasy games are known for their solid storytelling. For most part it doesn’t impede on gameplay mechanics. You can expect the same from Final Fantasy XV, which, according to Tabata, borrows from games such as The Last of Us.

“It’s important that the story progresses through the gameplay in a very unforced way, in a similar way that it was done with The Last of Us, for example,” he said in an interview with the Examiner.

He also commented that narrative and character development are organic and linked. So much so that the development team is “trying to aim for something where the gameplay and storytelling are really one in the same.”

Considering that Final Fantasy games have had a penchant for fantastic cinematics to tell a story, we doubt Square Enix would do away with them altogether to focus on taking the plot forward through dialogue, exploration, and party banter alone.

Last year we took the Final Fantasy XV demo, Episode Duscae for a spin and came back wishing some more time and energy was spent on fixing its clunky combat and uneven save system. Nonetheless, it’s primed for 2016 release for the PS4 and Xbox One (no exact date has been given just yet), and hopefully it will be worth the wait.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Tech Update

PSN Back Online; Sony Promises Free Extensions for PS Plus, PS Now, and Video Rentals

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

Earlier in the day, we reported that Sony’s online gaming service for the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita, the PlayStation Network (PSN) was down for some users. And while that seems to have been rectified after over 12 hours, Sony has promised to make good on the outage.

“Thanks for your patience today – stay tuned for details on PS Plus, PS Now, and video rental extensions,” tweeted the official PlayStation account.

While specific details are yet to be unveiled, we speculate that this could be in the form of a one day extension on all current PS Plus, PS Now, and digital video rentals to make up for the downtime. What’s perplexing is that the company has not given a reason for the latest PSN outage. Something that we hope doesn’t become a trend. Valve also took its own sweet time to explain why Steam was down at the end of the year.

With the PS4 dominating sales the world over, you’d expect that Sony would use its tremendous lead to bolster PSN which has long been perceived by many as the company’s Achilles’ heel. This however does not seem to be the case. The company’s CES 2016 press event takes place on Tuesday. It will be interesting to see if Sony deems that PSN’s outage warrants a mention.

How do you think Sony will compensate PlayStation owners? Let us know in the comments.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

Tech Update

Oculus to Give Free Special Edition Rift Headset to Kickstarter Backers

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

Oculus to Give Free Special Edition Rift Headset to Kickstarter Backers

In a move that is sure to win over loyalists, Oculus VR, the company behind the hotly anticipated Rift headset, announced via an update on Kickstarter that backers who supported the original Rift development kit will receive free headsets of the final edition, called the Kickstarter Edition Oculus Rift. The post calls it a small token of appreciation from Oculus VR.

These users will get an email from Kickstarter to fill in their details and get the free headsets. The Kickstarter Edition Oculus Rift will be available in the 20 countries that the Oculus Rift consumer edition is launching in, so if you’re not in one of those countries, the Kickstarter email will offer some alternatives.

Backers will get the Kickstarter Edition Oculus Rift before February 1, and according to the post, like all Rift pre-order purchasers, they will also receive a bundled copy of Lucky’s Tale and EVE: Valkyrie.

What’s not clear is whether this also puts you in the queue for the Touch controllers – Oculus founder Palmer Luckey tweeted that the Rift pre-orders will also put you in line to get the Touch controllers. Hopefully, Kickstarter Edition backers will also be on the controller pre-order list.

Giving out free headsets to backers many of whom would almost certainly have pre-ordered the Rift anyway seems like a strange decision, but for people who were unhappy when Facebook acquired Oculus VR, this might help make them feel appreciated.

Of course, given how nascent the VR industry is, this move will also go a long way in firing up the enthusiasm among early adopters. It will make these early adopters, whose support is going to be critical as VR is better explained through demos than videos or text, see Oculus in a positive light, and perhaps keep attention away from any potential competition too.

Cynicism aside, it’s still a really generous move by the Oculus team, in an industry where it usually really hurts to be an early adopter.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

News Update Tech Update

Sony at CES 2016: PS4 Global Sales Hit 35.9 Million Units

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

Sony at CES 2016: PS4 Global Sales Hit 35.9 Million Units

Sony’s PlayStation 4 (PS4) console has been a revelation of sorts. At the end of November we reportedthat the company had sold over 30 million PS4 units and became Sony’s fastest selling console ever. It’s barely been a month and the company has added 5.7 million to that number – with strong sales in the holiday season.

At the company’s CES 2016 press event, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai announced that 35.9 million PS4 consoles have been sold to consumers the world over. And went on to explain to the crowd at Sony’s CES 2016 press conference that the PS4 “sets the benchmark for our organisation in terms of collaboration, engineering, creativity, artistry, and experiential design.”

“We are absolutely delighted that so many customers have selected PS4 as the best place to play throughout this holiday season and that the PS4 community is growing more than ever,” said Andrew House, President and Global CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment in a prepared statement.

Surprisingly, there was no mention of PSN – Sony’s online gaming service for the PS3, PS4, and PS Vita – and the recent outage that impacted its burgeoning user base for the better part of yesterday. Though the company did state that 60 percent more users had subscribed to PS Plus (which allows PS4 owners to play online) compared to the same period last year.

In October 2015, Sony’s financial report stated that it shipped four million PlayStation 4 (PS4) units for the quarter ending September 30, 2015. It predicted it will ship 17.5 million PS4 consoles by the end of the financial year. Adding 5.7 million console sales in nearly a month makes its target appear achievable.

Prior to Paris Games Week, the company celebrated hitting one million PS4s sold in the Middle East alone. As for India? In conversation with PlayStation Head, Atindriya Bose, we were told that the firmestimates hitting 100,000 PS4 console sold by April 2016. However at IGX, a representative of Sony claimed that sales were exceeding expectations due to a much-needed price cut. We won’t be surprised if it manages to better the 100,000 console sales figure that is expected.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

News Update Tech Update

Sony’s PlayStation Now Game Streaming Service Gets 40 More PS3 Games

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

Sony's PlayStation Now Game Streaming Service Gets 40 More PS3 Games

Sony’s game streaming service, PlayStation Now, has seen frequent additions to the number of games you can play through it. The last update from Sony in November 2015 saw 105 games available on it, taking the number of games on PS Now past 250. Now, the company has announced 40 PS3 console exclusives will be playable via PS Now.

“To kick things off, we’re adding more than 40 PS3 console exclusives to the expanding library of games,” wrote James Martin, Sony’s Director of Marketing for PS Now on the company blog. “With 100+ PS3 exclusives and more than 300 PS3 games to choose from, you’ll have more games than ever before in the PlayStation Now Subscription library to discover (or rediscover) this year.”

New PS Now titles include hits such as Killzone 2 and Uncharted 3 as well as critically acclaimed fare such as Journey, Flow, and Flower, ensuring there’s something for every kind of gamer.

Martin went on to add that PS Now’s limited time offer, which grants you a year’s worth of access for $99.99 (around Rs. 6,680) will end on January 11. It’s 55 percent cheaper than the usual subscription price, making it a steal if you have a high speed Internet connection with a generous data cap.

And though Sony’s CES 2016 press conference had very little in the way of PlayStation-related news, we won’t be surprised to see more updates from the company as the event progresses.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment

News Update Tech Update

Letv to Launch Smart Cycles, 3D Helmet, Bluetooth Headphones in India

by onkar April 4, 2024

written by onkar

Letv to Launch Smart Cycles, 3D Helmet, Bluetooth Headphones in India

Chinese Internet company Letv said on Tuesday it will introduce its “smart cycle” in India later this year as it looks to tap into the booming demand for smart devices in the country.

Announcing its foray into the Indian market, the company also unveiled two more gadgets – a 3D helmet and Bluetooth headphones.

“Our aim is to provide consumers with an exciting and refreshing new alternative of ecosystem based products consisting of platform, content, devices as well as applications,” Letv General Manager Smart Devices APAC Dickson Lee told reporters in New Delhi.

He further said that the company will provide more details on the pricing and other launches at an event on January 20.

The company is expected to launch two new smartphones on the occasion.

“These products should be available in the first half of the year,” he said.

Founded in 2004, the Beijing-headquartered firm has a number of businesses, spanning from Internet TV, smart gadgets, large-screen applications, e-commerce and Internet-linked super-electric cars.

Talking about the Super Cycle, Letv India Sales Head Mobile Business Anish Kapoor said the cycle is an Internet-enabled self-powered transport system.

Equipped with “Cycle” operating system, the cycle comes with 8400mAh battery that charges as one pedals, he added.

The connected bicycle comes with a walkie-talkie for communication, GPS for navigation, lighting system that lights up automatically upon sensing the surroundings as well as anti-theft technology.

The company will showcase the connected smart bike as well as its Le Superphones, the world’s first 120-inch 4K Ultra HD TV, and a selection of its popular lifestyle products.

Letv’s Le 3D Helmet sports a 5.5-inch LCD screen (2K resolution). The device weighs less than 450 grams and offers 70-degree field of view.

The LeMe Bluetooth headphones are the “world’s first” headphones with teardrop design. Working on 20-20,000MHz frequency, the headsets have 195mAh battery and weigh 240 grams.

[“source-gadgets.ndtv”]

April 4, 2024 0 comment