Smart TV penetration in Japan will reach 50% by 2019

Smart TV adoption has improved in many developed regions, along with China, as consumers increasingly seek streaming content from online video services. By 2019, more than 50 percent of TV households in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany will have smart TVs, according to IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), the leading global source of critical information and insight.

According to the latest information from the IHS TV Sets Intelligence Service, smart TV household penetration in Japan has already reached 50 percent and will rise to 63 percent in 2019, followed by the United States at 57 percent. Among Western European countries, Germany and the United Kingdom are expected to reach 53 percent penetration for smart TVs in 2019, followed closely by France at 50 percent.

“Increasing demand for 4K resolution, the debut of high dynamic range (HDR) for both hardware and content, and access to streaming content that supports these features will accelerate smart TV demand globally,” saidHisakazu Torii, Senior Director of Consumer Device Research for IHS Technology. “Growing availability of 4K content from online video providers will also support this trend, as will the introduction of ultra-high-definition Blu-ray in 2016.”

Although China is considered to be an emerging TV market, smart TV household penetration is expected to reach 46 percent by 2019, which is higher than other emerging regions. Smart TV is an essential feature on TVs sold in China, because many Chinese consumers seek out online content services. “With content providers and smart-device manufacturers, such as Alibaba, LeTV, Xiaomi, now entering the TV set market, Chinese consumers have more smart TV choices than ever before,” Torii said. “Increased sales of 4K TVs will accelerate these trends in the Chinese market.”

Unlike the high adoption expected in most developed countries and China, smart TV household penetration in other emerging countries will remain low, due to a lack of online video content and insufficient infrastructure to deliver the required broadband Internet content to the home. For those reasons, smart TV household penetration in Brazil and Russia will only reach 36 percent in 2019 and just 3 percent in India.

via [technology.ihs.com]

Rs. 251 smartphone by Ringing Bells

Ringing Bells a Indian smartphone manufacturer is launching Rs.251 smartphone in Indian market on 17th February 2016.  The event is honored by Indian Defense Minister Mr. Manohar Parrikar.

The Freedom 251 specifications are 4-inch display, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage (expandable up to 32GB), 3.2-megapixel back camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, and a 1450mAh battery.

It will available for sale on freedom251.in with registration. Appears to be the project has government support.

Ringing Bells says that the smartphone is in line with India Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to connect every Indian and enrich their lives.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 wearable oriented SOC

Adding to the league of Samsung Exynos 3250 and Apple S1, Qualcomm announced the new SOC for wearable devices named Snapdragon 2100.

The Snapdragon Wear 2100 is a quad-core Cortex A7 running at up to 800MHz or 1.2GHz (Qualcomm at various points states both) with an Adreno 304 GPU and 400MHz LPDDR3. The choice of using a Cortex A7 is warranted by the fact that Cortex A53s are too power hungry for wearables and that it's likely too early to see Cortex A35 based SoCs as ARM announced the core only a couple of months ago. A big advantage that Qualcomm has with the Wear 2100 is that it's able to offer an integrated X5 modem for basic cellular connectivity. 

The Snapdragon Wear platform is ideally suited for smartwatches, as well as for kid and elder trackers, sports watches, connected headsets, smart eyewear, and more. Numerous wearables powered by the Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor are already in development; smartwatches are expected to be commercially available in the second half of this year.

IBIS - Inbody Image Stabilization a Olympus technology review

Olympus definitely deserves high praises for its in-body image stabilization (IBIS) system in its OM-D E-M5 II mirrorless camera to shift its sensor in order to create multiple images, then merge them together to create one super high-resolution image. Thanks to this technology, the OM-D E-M5 II, which has a native resolution of 16 MP can shoot large 40 MP images. 

The way Olympus implemented its high resolution mode is by shifting its sensor by half a pixel in a clockwise direction, creating a total of eight 16 MP images, which it automatically captures in a sequence using its electronic shutter (you don’t hear any shutter actuations in between). Those eight images are then stitched together to form a single 40 MP image. Very clever and cool technology for sure!

Get the detailed review at Photographylife.

Sony A6300 Mirrorless camera introduced

Sony has introduced the long-awaited update to its popular a6000 mirrorless camera: the a6300. Featuring a newly developed 24 Megapixel APS-C sensor and a completely revamped '4D' AF system with 425 phase-detection AF points, the a6300 sits at the top of Sony's APS-C mirrorless lineup. It also appears poised to break down one of the last remaining strongholds of DSLR by a live feed of the action in between frames, with minimal blackout, at a respectable 8 fps shooting rate, with AF.

Key Features:

• 24MP CMOS APS-C sensor with copper wiring
• 425-point on-sensor phase-detection AF system
• 11 fps continuous shooting (8fps continuous live view)
• Silent shooting in continuous drive (3 fps with AF/AE)
• Max ISO of 51200
• 4K video capture up to 100 Mbps
• Phase-detect AF compatible with A-mount lenses via LA-EA3 adapter

Capable of continuous shooting at up to 11 fps with AF, the a6300's 425-point hybrid AF system features 'high-density' tracking, which dynamically activated AF points around a subject and adjusts them depending on the motion of the subject itself. The 425 phase-detect points, impressively, reach all the way out to the corners of the frame.

Perhaps the biggest news is that the a6300 is capable of uninterrupted live view at up to 8 fps, potentially addressing one of the biggest shortcomings of mirrorless cameras when it comes to fast action shooting. Traditionally, mirrorless cameras tend to show only a stop-motion sequence of last-shot images at the highest shooting frame-rate, which makes it hard to follow a subject and keep an AF point over it. Live view in between short blackouts at 8 fps brings the a6300 much closer to the experience of a DSLR with optical viewfinder. At the launch event in New York this morning, Sony showed a video reminiscent of Nikon's recent DSLR vs. mirrorless comparison for fast action shooting at CES, albeit comparing the a6300 to a $1000 DSLR. Results looked impressive.

Notably, the a6300 can use all of its 425 phase-detect points to quickly focus A-mount lenses using a LA-EA3 adapter, which indicates this is now a standard feature that will be available across future E-mount cameras. We also expect phase-detect AF to work with other 3rd party lenses using adapters like the Metabones Smart Adapter.

The a6300 is capable of 4K video capture at up to 100 Mbps. The camera uses a 20MP (6K) region of the sensor to offer 2.4x oversampled 4K video with full pixel readout, and no pixel binning. Videographers should be able to expect sharp, low noise footage, even in low light since almost the entire sensor is sampled.

While the progress in technology is impressive, lack of true weather sealing, a touchscreen, or direct AF point selection with a dedicated joystick or control will continue to be problematic for some. The a6300 will be available in March for $1000 body only.

via [dpreview.com]

Some of the best Android launchers from 2015

Android launcher apps have long been an integral part of the Android experience. If you don’t like the way your home screens look or act, you can simply download an app to change all of it. There is no doubt that Android launcher apps have a far more diverse set of features than any other genre of application and you can really do some amazing things with these apps. Let’s take a look at the best ones! As of 2015.

Check it at AndroidAuthority.com