Buzz is before Shraddha Kapoor was roped in for Prabhas-starrer Saaho, Alia Bhatt was in consideration. The actor apparently refused the part as she felt it was small as compared to the Baahubali star's role. This, despite the fact that her mentor Karan Johar was keen that she make her regional presence, but Alia stuck to her guns. Only meaningful roles for her.
Shraddha Kapoor
Alia Bhatt
Kangana Ranaut-starrer Queen (2014) is currently being simultaneously remade in four southern languages, in France. Yesterday, the lead female actors came together for an interaction. Kajal Aggarwal (Paris Paris; Tamil), Tamannaah Bhatia (Queen Once Again; Telugu), Parul Yadav (Butterfly; Kannada) and Manjima Mohan (Zam Zam; Malayalam) together made for a royal moment under the sun.
Parul Yadav, Kajal Aggarwal, Manjima Mohan and Tamannaah Bhatia
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Flamboyant Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh has been awarded with a doctorate degree in Philosophy Honoris Causa (Ph.D h.c.) by ITM University, Gwalior. The institute awarded the Doctorate to Yuvraj for his 'extraordinary sporting prowess and as a catalyst of change with great integrity and humility'. Along with Yuvraj, eminent personalities like Dr. A.S. Kiran Kumar (Space) Govind Nihalani (Film), Dr. Ashok Vajpayi (Poetry), Rajat Sharma (Media), Dr. R.A. Mashelkar (Science & Technology and Aruna Roy (Social Work) also received the honour.
Yuvraj Singh
Accepting the doctorate, Singh said, 'I am honoured to have been awarded this doctorate. In a way, it gives me an additional responsibility of holding the honour with great integrity and continue to live by example in everything I do.' Yuvraj, who has over 10,000 international runs in over 400 appearances, has been Indian cricket team's go-to player on numerous occasions. The Chandigarh-based cricketer has always kept his best for the biggest stage, be it hitting six sixes off English bowler Stuart Broad during India's triumphant 2007 T20 World Cup campaign or winning the `Man of the Tournament` in 2011 World Cup winning feat. A humanitarian himself, Yuvraj started a non-charitable organization - YouWeCan Foundation in 2012 under the Bombay Trust Act 1950. After he was diagnosed with cancer and survived, Yuvraj drew inspiration from the Livestrong Foundation in the USA and emerged as a crusader in the fight against cancer.
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Veteran actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan has resumed the shooting of his long-delayed project Vishwaroopam 2 (Vishwaroop 2 in Hindi). The final schedule of spy thriller film is taking place at the Officers Training Academy (OTS) here. Haasan, who has written, directed and is playing the lead role of a RAW agent in the film, shared a photograph with few army officers on Twitter on Thursday.
Kamal Haasan
"Shooting for 'Vishwaroopam 2' and Hindi 'Vishwaroop 2'. Last stint. Exciting. OTA Chennai makes the nation and me proud. The only academy that trains lady officers in India. I salute the ladies and especially my most favourite lady...India. Maa tujhe salaam," he captioned the image.
The film, which has been delayed over multiple reasons for past few years now, is a sequel to 2013 hit film "Vishwaroopam". It also features Shekhar Kapur, Rahul Bose and Pooja Kumar. The movie has been simultaneously shot in Hindi and Tamil. A release date for the same is yet to be announced.
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Virender Sehwag and Sohail Khan of the Maratha Arabians. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
Former India opener Virender Sehwag feels that 10-over cricket is the ideal format to make cricket part of the Olympic Games. "If the International Cricket Council (ICC) is thinking about putting cricket into the Olympics then this is the right format. In this way, more nations can take part and play cricket," Sehwag said. The blaster was speaking at yesterday's launch of Maratha Arabians, a team that will take part in T-10 cricket league to be played in the UAE from Dec 14 to 17. Co-owner of Maratha Arabians, actor Sohail Khan was also present at the launch. Sehwag will lead the side.
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England all-rounder Moeen Ali is a doubt for the second Ashes test against Australia as he struggles to recover from a cut on his index finger, captain Joe Root said on Friday. Moeen, whose bowling was affected by the cut during England's 10-wicket defeat at the Gabba, would probably be retained as a batsman at Adelaide Oval in the match starting Saturday even if were unable to bowl, said Root. "We'll have another look at things after practice and see how he is then and see if there's any more damage to it and then we'll have to make a decision from there," Root told reporters at Adelaide Oval.
England skipper Joe Root
"His batting's been a huge part of our team for a long period of time now so I think he would still play as a batter. "He's a top class batter and he's someone who has the potential to go on and become one of the best batters in the world." The skipper did not rule out a potential debut for 20-year-old legspinner Mason Crane, though. "I think we'll have to look at the situation with Moeen, see how bad it is, look at the conditions but it's definitely not out of the question," Root added. Root said it was still too early to confirm a team for the match but one certain inclusion was former captain Alastair Cook, despite a meagre return of nine runs from two innings at the Gabba.
"Cookie is a world-class act," said Root. "He's scored over 11,000 test runs, he's been one of our most consistent performers for over 10 years. He's not had the ideal start to the series, but ... I'm not going to lose any sleep over him. "I'm pretty sure that during this series he's going to make a massive contributions and he's going to perform really well for us." With England 1-0 down in the series, Root took some comfort from the damp "English" conditions that he thought might favour the tourists in the first day-night Ashes test. "(But) I think it's really important that we don't get too excited about that," he cautioned. "We just need to make sure we perform like we did in the first three days of the first test match for the whole game. "If we do that and recognise the key moments of the game then we give ourselves the best chance of winning."
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India opener Shikhar Dhawan posted this picture with family and friends sitting on grass on Instagram yesterday. He captioned it, "Dhoop sekne ka maza hi alag hai ghaas pe baith ke, aur ek glass chai ka doston ke saath... wah wah... @navneetkalra16 @kittykalra @aesha.dhawan5 [It's fun to bask in the sun sitting on the grass with friends and sipping on a cup of tea]."
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Former Australia captain Michael Clarke sent out an emotional birthday wish to late teammate Phillip Hughes on social media yesterday. Hughes, who played 26 Tests, died in November 2014 after he was hit on the neck by a rising ball during a domestic match in Sydney. He would have turned 28 yesterday, and Clarke posted this picture of his daughter Kelsey Lee, holding a candle with a photograph of Hughes on it.
"Happy Birthday, Uncle Phillip," Clarke captioned the picture. Australia opener David Warner also wished late Hughesy. "Happy birthday, little man," wrote Warner alongside a picture that read: "May the angels sing to you the most joyous of chorus of Happy Birthday today. Rest peacefully"
Happy Birthday Uncle Phillip 💖 http://pic.twitter.com/gm1RqVFIVE
— Michael Clarke (@MClarke23) November 29, 2017
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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) today formally initiated a legal battle against the BCCI by filing a compensation claim of USD 70 million before the ICC for not honouring a bilateral cricket series agreement. The PCB has sent a Notice of Dispute to the International Cricket Council, requesting the world body's Disputes Resolution Committee to take up the matter with the Indian Cricket Board for failing to play two series in 2014 and 2015 as part of a memorandum of understanding signed between the two boards.
Najam Sethi
"We want that the ICC committee now start all legal procedures to arbitrate on our compensation claim," a top PCB official told PTI today. The PCB had initiated proceedings in May this year, when it sent a dispute notice to the BCCI. But the Indian officials had not responded to the notice. "Since the BCCI has not responded, we have consulted our legal advisors and filed the claim with the ICC committee," the official said. The ICC disputes resolution committee is headed by Michael Beloff QC and includes code of commission representatives, Mike Heron QC and Justice Winston Anderson.
"The ICC has received a Notice of Dispute from the PCB's lawyers, which will be forwarded to the Chairman of the Dispute Resolutions Committee next week," an ICC spokesman said. The committee will also have independent lawyers from Africa, Americas, Europe and Asia, besides the ICC chief of the audit committee, Ethics officer and Management support. The PCB said it has allocated around one million pounds to cover the legal costs of the compensation claim. The BCCI's stance has been that all bilateral matches with Pakistan are governed and subject to clearance from the government.
The Indian board insisted that since they didn't get government clearance they could not play with Pakistan. The arch-rivals have not played a full bilateral series since 2007. India halted all bilateral sports with Pakistan in the wake of 2008 Mumbai attacks, which India blamed on terrorists based in Pakistan. Referring to doubts that the Pakistan Board would gain nothing from the compensation claim, the PCB official said that decision to file the claim with the ICC was taken only after proper consultations with law firms in London and Dubai and after being convinced that they had a good chance of winning the case.
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Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly supported the pay hike for the national team cricketers, saying the players deserve to get a share of the BCCI's ever increasing revenues. India captain Virat Kohli and his predecessor MS Dhoni's demand for a pay hike for the team was today accepted by the Committee of Administrators (CoA). "Absolutely… players should get money, why not? The Board makes so much money, the players should also get it. When Virat Kohli plays, the entire country watches him," Ganguly said at promotional event in Mumbai.
Sourav Ganguly
The former left-handed batsman also said that the players should be looked after well by the cricket authorities as their careers are short. "Players should be very well looked after because the (career) span is only 15 years. Not many (players) play for 15 (years), very few play for 20 (years). So, I am a big supporter of that (pay hike)," Ganguly said. "The BCCI does that. If you look at the way the players are looked after these days, it's phenomenal. I have actually seen the entire circle. When I played in 1991, for the entire trip in Australia, I got paid Rs 30,000, and when I finished in 2013, I could see the drastic change. It's in every profession," he added.
Kohli and Dhoni met CoA chief Vinod Rai, Diana Edulji and BCCI CEO Rahul Johri in the Capital yesterday. The Indian cricketers' central contracts saw more than two-fold rise during their last hike with top players in Grade A allotted Rs 2 crore annually. Earlier, they were drawing Rs 1 crore. Meanwhile, Ganguly said if skipper Kohli is keen to sort out the FTP issue with the Board, it would be done. Kohli recently complained of lack of time to prepare for the upcoming tour of South Africa for which the team is scheduled to leave on December 27, just a couple of days after winding up the ongoing home series against Sri Lanka. "Virat is the captain, if he sorts the issue out, it will get done. I don't see much problem there. Before going on tours, I think they should clear it out. It isn't difficult to sit down and talk about this and clear things," the Cricket Association of Bengal chief said. "All the players are playing well. They are all hitting centuries. Virat is in top form, so it's okay, let them play," he added. Kohli had stressed on the necessity to space out two successive series, as he felt that the team needed to do its preparation differently for a bigger series such as the upcoming one in South Africa.
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India captain Virat Kohli today described his 141 against Australia in Adelaide in the 2014 tour as his best Test century, saying that the confidence the team got in that match under his captaincy laid the foundation of the current status as a top side in the world. India could not chase down the fourth innings target of 364 as they were all out for 315 to lose the first Test by 48 runs. "I think from the transition point of view, the hundred in the second innings at the Adelaide Test (in December 2014) where we almost won the match was something special to me. I will always remember that match," said Kohli after he received the 'Popular Choice Special Achievement Award' by CNN-News18 Indian of the Year 2017 Award.
This file photo taken on November 26, 2017 shows Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli celebrating after scoring a double century (200 runs) on the third day of the second Test cricket match between India and Sri Lanka at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. National team skipper Virat Kohli has demanded a greater share of India's growing cricket wealth for players ahead of contract talks this week, officials said. Top players saw their annual basic deals doubled to $300,000 this year. Pic/AFP
"Instinctively from my heart, it came to me that I should speak to the team. I had a chat with the players at the team bus after fourth day's play and Australia had not declared their innings. I told them whatever target they give us tomorrow, we will go for it," he said. Kohli, who captained the side in the absence of an injured Mahendra Singh Dhoni, said he asked the players if anybody has any objection or hesitation, he should say immediately. "Nobody objected and then I told them to go to their rooms with the thought that we are going for the target tomorrow," said 29-year-old who has scored 19 hundreds from 62 Tests.
"We came out (on the fifth day) thinking that we can do it (win). I was convinced that we can win the match. Not crossing the line hurt us but what we did as a team has given us a lot of belief that we can compete with any team in the world and beat anyone anywhere. We carried forward that attitude and now we are here," said Kohli. Coach Ravi Shastri spoke about India's upcoming tour to South Africa and said that key to success there would be the team's consistency. "South Africa tour will be an opportunity to prove ourselves. The key to success abroad is consistency. And this team has it in them to win abroad. I don't see any reason why these boys can't perform," Shastri said at the function.
Former captain Kapil Dev, who was also present on the occasion, said that the current Indian team can beat any side. "I think the team has reached a level where they can beat anyone. Be it South Africa..or Australia, I think we have a captain who understands how the team functions," Kapil said. "The only problem that the team is going to face is that whom they are going to pick in the playing XI, as we have a very strong bench," said the 58-year-old former all-rounder and 1983 World Cup-winning captain. Indian women's cricket captain Mithali Raj, who also received a special award on behalf of her team, said the runners-up finish at the World World Cup earlier this year had changed the perception of fans towards women's cricket.
"It feels great that all of them are getting their due, and that people are finally recognising them," the 34-year-old said. "I've come so far playing cricket in an era where it was not really appreciated, but the World Cup final had changed that perception though not winning it hurt us. "There are so many people who inspire me every day, not one person. But if I do have to name someone, it's got to be Virat Kohli, for bringing the focus on fitness. Be it the men or women, everyone wants to be the best in international cricket," Raj added.
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In 2013, Samsung released its first smartphone with a flexible AMOLED display: The Galaxy Round. A year later, the Galaxy Note Edge hit the market with a curved display. The Galaxy Round and the Note Edge had limited availability, and it took 2015’s Galaxy S6 Edge to make curved displays really popular.
It’s telling that Samsung doesn’t sell a mainstream flagship smartphone with a flat display anymore. And if a new patent is any indication, it’s not stopping at displays — its next phone might fold around itself.
Following on the heels of Samsung’s patent for a foldable phone user interface, LetsGoDigital found a series of new patents in the WIPO (World International Property Office) database for a device with a curved display on both sides. It doesn’t merely have a curved-edge display — instead, the proposed smartphone has a 180-degree curved display that curves all the way to the rear. In the patent, Samsung says it offers a “completely new user experience” and an “improved grip”.
The patent’s first sketch shows a traditional curved-edge display for comparison. The second sketch describes the manufacturing process for the 180-degree screen design, implying that Samsung’s thought seriously about developing it into a finished product — though it’s impossible to say for sure.
A fully curved smartphone with a 180-degree curved display would be something completely different from what we’ve seen, but it might also never advance beyond the planning stages. Either way, we’re eagerly awaiting Samsung’s next move.
Google has released two generations of virtual reality (VR) headsets of its own so far, both based on its Daydream VR platform. But while it announced a bevy of Daydream VR partners at its Google I/O developer conference this past summer, few third-party products made to store shelves. If Huawei has its way, it might just be one of the first: On Thursday, the smartphone maker’s custom-designed Daydream VR controller passed through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
Google’s Daydream VR platform is in many ways an evolution of Google Cardboard, a cheap, affordable answer to Samsung’s Gear VR. Daydream VR, which runs off of a compatible Android smartphone, has its own application store, development kit, and certification process. It’s even got its own internal Google division, Daydream Labs, dedicated to exploring new VR experiences. Google Cardboard was great for what it does, but Daydream VR takes things to the next level.
Google had a number of requirements for Google Cardboard partners from the get-go, and the same is true of Daydream VR. They were fairly stringent, which is one possible reason there hasn’t been much of an uptake yet. Another is market dynamics: HTC announced this past summer that it was working on a standalone Daydream VR headset, but cancelled that project in light of financial woes.
The FCC documents seem to indicate that Huawei is close to releasing something Daydream VR-related. It’s similar to the Daydream VR controller that ships with the Daydream View, but Google affords original equipment manufacturers (OEM) a bit of design freedom, so it’s not exactly the same. Still, all of the Daydream controller’s most familiar elements are there, including volume up and down buttons, a touch-sensitive directional pad, a return button, and home button.
Here’s hoping we learn more about it soon.
Despite the advent of 4G LTE, mobile data continues to be an expensive and unreliable proposition in many parts of the world. But at the same time, data consumption has increased exponentially — and with it the need to track it. Newer versions of Android have built-in management tools that keep tabs on data consumption, but for folks who need something a bit more robust, there’s Datally, a new data-tracking application from Google.
Datally — a rebrand of Triangle, a data management application that Google released in June — can help users save more and do more with their data. It’s designed to help users do three things, Google says: Understand, control, and save data.
Datally helps users understand their data consumption by generating hourly, daily, weekly and monthly reports. It also recommends ways they can save data by changing their usage habits.
Datally also has Data Saver, a feature that blocks application background data and tracks the real-time usage of every application on a given device. If an application is using an abnormal amount of data, users can cut off its internet access with one tap.
Finally, Datally helps users save their data by alerting them whenever they’re near a public Wi-Fi network. The application helps them connect to the network and allows them to rate its network quality.
Google says that it has been testing Datally in the Philippines over the past few months, and that during its testing, users saved up to 30 percent of their data.
If you’d like to give a whirl yourself, Datally is available globally on the Play Store for all phones running Android 5.0 Lollipop and higher.
Beaming an old webpage to your TV is harder than it looks, which is why it’s sometimes helpful to have a built-for-TV web browser at your disposal. Sure, it’s probably easier to pull up the troublesome website on your smartphone or tablet, but there’s no substitute for the big screen. That’s why Amazon brought Silk Web Browser, its in-house browser for Fire OS devices, to its Fire TV set-top box lineup this week.
Bing is the default search engine for the Silk Web Browser on the Fire TV, and it’s the first thing you see after you launch the application. (Luckily, you can change it to Yahoo! or Google’s homepage by digging through the settings menu.) Otherwise, the experience on is a dead ringer for the Silk Web Browser on Amazon’s Fire tablets, especially when it comes to playing videos — you get a full array of playback controls including play/pause, fast forward, and rewind, which map to the Fire TV remote’s physical buttons.
Silk Web Browser has been in the works for a while, it turns out. Evidence emerged in March of this year, when a few crafty folks discovered that you could sideload the tablet version of the Silk Web Browser onto Fire TV devices and it would work with the remote control. A few months later, an official beta version of the Silk Web Browser prematurely appeared in the Amazon Appstore.
Unfortunately, Amazon hasn’t made a lot of progress on compatibility in the interim. Silk Web Browser only supports the 1st and 2nd generation Fire TV, the 2nd generation Fire TV Stick, and all version of Element and Westinghouse’s Fire TV Edition televisions. The 3rd generation Fire TV is the odd one out, oddly, but it’s a safe bet that Amazon’s working on a fix.
There’s no doubt that Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app for Android and iOS, is more popular than it’s ever been — it hit 500 million daily active users in September. But it could always use an update. On Thursday, The Next Web discovered unannounced features lurking in an unreleased Instagram client, including the ability to “regram” — or repost — photos and videos, archive old Stories, and more.
Republishing another user’s Instagram photo has never been easy, but ‘regrams’ promise to change that once and for all. They appear to be a way to reshare content from someone you follow, which previously required saving images or videos and publishing them on your own account. Instagram’s work-in-progress regram button saves you the trouble by sharing content from someone you follow with all of the people who currently follow you.
If Instagram’s other feature in testing, GIF search, sounds familiar, that’s because social and messaging applications such as WhatsApp and Allo have popularized it in recent months. It’s pretty much like it sounds: Type in the name of the GIF you’d like, and you’ll get a gallery of choices you can add to Stories. From what we can tell, Giphy’s supplying the content, here.
Ever wished you could save a Story forever? Good news: Instagram’s testing an archive feature for Stories. There’s also a new friends category, “Closest Friends,” that lets you add people to a special list that not everyone can see. The next time someone who’s using Closest Friends shares something, they’ll be prompted to make it public or keep it private.
That’s not all that Instagram’s testing. The Next Web spotted evidence of an iOS beta program, WhatsApp integration, a list of trending emoji and hashtags in Instagram’s search bar, the ability to follow hashtags, and a pinned thread option in direct messages.
All of these features are in development, of course, and they may or may not make their way into the public Instagram app. With the evidence we’re seeing, though, it looks like they’re far along in the development cycle. Here’s hoping they come to light.
In light of the OnePlus 5T’s launch, some OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T owners expressed concern that their phones wouldn’t receive as much attention from OnePlus as they had in the past. But OnePlus allayed those fears with the launch of the Android Oreo-based OxygenOS open beta in early autumn. And on Thursday, it released new updates for the OnePlus 3 (v28) and OnePlus 3T (v18).
The open beta updates — which include the same changes thanks to OnePlus’s unified update system — focus on the phones’ home screen, gallery and contacts applications, and behind-the-scenes system behavior.
Specifically, OnePlus says it’s optimized the OnePlus Launcher’s application shortcut menu and tweaked the Shelf’s visual style. The Gallery application, meanwhile, now has a map that shows where photos were taken by location, and the contacts application now lets you add emergency information (ICE) to your personal information.
The rest of the updates’ changes are mostly under-the-hood. Wireless hotspot management has been optimized, and both the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 4T now support the aptX/aptX HD Bluetooth audio codec. The Quick Settings menu has been spruced up a bit; there’s a fix in place for slow charging issues; Wi-Fi performance is improved; battery usage statistics are more accurate; and the latest Android Security Patch was applied.
But as stable as the update might look, don’t expect it to run flawlessly. You’ll occasionally run into a long-press problem with the home button, the only recourse for which is a device restart. If you experience it or any other issue, OnePlus asks that you submit a bug report.
It’s no secret that the most important and high-paying jobs of the future reside in the world of tech and web development. It is somewhat of a secret, however, that the skills you need to break into this thriving sector can be obtained entirely online, at a tiny fraction of what you’d pay for a traditional computer science degree.
Online learning packages like the Learn to Code 2018 Bundle will teach you everything you need to know about some of the most popular, powerful, and in-demand programming languages and platforms around, and it’s available for absolutely any price you want to pay.
Here’s how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you’ll instantly unlock one of the collection’s 10 courses. Beat the average price paid, and you’ll get the remaining 9 at no extra charge.
With 10 individual courses covering a different element of the development process, this bundle will turn you into a full-fledged coding wizard in no time, even if you’re a complete novice going in. You’ll learn how to code with Python (one of the most powerful and versatile languages on the planet), make top-selling apps for the iPhone using Swift 4, utilize the power of JavaScript in order to build interactive websites, and much more.
You’ll take your education further as you dive into real-world projects, like working with web pages via MySQL, and you’ll even dive into courses that will show you how to be competitive in the development world by mastering C#.
There’s a truly massive amount of information crammed into this bundle, and you only have to pay what you want in order to gain access.
If you thought the spat between Qualcomm and Apple couldn’t get any worse, think again. On Wednesday, Apple filed a countersuit against Qualcomm, alleging that the chipmaker is infringing on its intellectual property.
Here’s a quick refresher: Earlier this year, Qualcomm filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in U.S. District Court and an intellectual property complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission, hoping to convince both bodies to ban the U.S. sale and import of iPhones with Intel chips. It claimed (and continues to claim) that the chips at issue use technologies it’s patented, which Apple denied (and continues to deny)
Apple’s now filed a countersuit in U.S. District Court in San Diego against Qualcomm for violating its intellectual property — specifically, eight patents governing battery-saving technologies and sleep and wake functions. It targets Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 and Snapdragon 820 chipsets, and says that Apple’s been “seeking [royalties] years before Qualcomm [filed suit].”
The legal battle between Apple and Qualcomm goes back as far as January of this year, when Apple sued Qualcomm for almost $1 billion over “unfair patent licensing practices.” The San Diego, California-based company retaliated by filing suit against Foxconn, one of Apple’s assembly and manufacturing partners, all the while settling royalty disputes with other companies in the industry.
But Apple isn’t Qualcomm’s only legal foe. It’s facing a lawsuit from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission over many of the same practices that Apple outlined in its complaints.
More than five years may have passed but Pakistan's top off-spinner Saeed Ajmal still can't "understand" how Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged not out when he was rapped on the pad by him during the 2011 World Cup semi-final. Ajmal, 40, retired from all forms of cricket after Faislabad lost to Lahore in the National T20 Championship.
Saeed Ajmal
Tendulkar, who top-scored with 85 in that game against arch-rivals India at Mohali, at times struggled to pick Ajmal's variations. It was Ajmal who finally dismissed Tendulkar. "I was totally convinced I had him in front of the stumps but how the umpires didn't give him out I still can't understand," Ajmal said. He admitted that bowling to Indian batsmen spurred him on. "It was always a test of skills when bowling to Tendulkar and company." Ajmal's controversial career finished with 178 wickets in 35 Tests.
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Former Australia captain Michael Clarke says he should have retired a year earlier than he did, admitting he struggled badly after the death of his friend and teammate Phillip Hughes. Clarke quit in 2015 after his 115th and final Test of the Ashes series against England and said he didn't allow himself to grieve at the time.
Michael Clarke
Hughes, who played 26 Tests, died from bleeding on the brain in November 2014 after being hit on the neck by a rising ball while batting in a domestic match at the SCG. "I shouldn't have played another game. My career should have stopped then. It was too hard for me," Clarke told The Weekly Review this morning.
"It took me a lot longer to grieve his loss than it should have, or that I would have liked. I didn't allow myself to grieve at the time because I had responsibility to his family, firstly, but then also as Australia's cricket captain to my teammates and getting us back out onto the field."
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Google-owned navigation application Waze is gaining new features ahead of the holiday season, and they’re some of the biggest in its history. In a blog post on Wednesday, the Waze team announced a new motorcycle mode, hands-free voice commands, and support for carpool routes.
The most popular of the bunch is likely to be the new hotword detection feature. It’s sort of like the Google Assistant’s “OK Google” phrase: When it’s enabled (Settings -> Sound & voice -> Talk to Waze -> and toggle Listen for “OK Waze” on), you can say, “OK Waze”, followed by a voice command. It’s an improvement on Waze’s existing Voice Commands suite, which already let you preview a route, send road reports, and add pit stops by shouting at your phone’s microphone. But before the update, you had to initiate Waze’s voice command mode by tapping a shortcut or gesturing with your fingers. Now, it’s entirely hands-free.
Hotword detection isn’t all that’s new. Cyclists will appreciate two new motorocycle avatars to choose from, plus a new Motorcycle mode that’s optimized for two-wheelers. After setting your vehicle type (Settings -> Vehicle Type -> Motorcycles), you’ll get specialized routing that’s optimized by Waze’s crowdsourced data. Specifically, you’ll be directed to routes where motorcyclists are riding, and you’ll get a more accurate estimated arrival time.
The last new feature is support for carpool lanes, or high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes. In 22 markets across the United States and Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal, Waze will determine the optimal route for users driving together with friends or co-workers, and will serve up additional navigational options and arrival times. (Enable it by heading to Settings > Navigation > Add Toll/HOV pass and selecting from the list of pre-populated passes, and by specifying your vehicle type in Settings > Navigation > Vehicle Type). Waze says it a first for navigation apps.
The new and improved Waze will roll out to Android and iOS users over the coming weeks.
There’s a lot of reason to be excited about the new Honor 7X phone. Every aspect of this device is a step up from the previous model, the Honor 6X, including the camera, and while pricing and availability has yet to be announced, we expect the 7X to come in at a budget-friendly price with wide availability. The main camera has 16MP and 2MP sensors. We took this phone out to shoot some footage and take some photos, to test it out. We’ll find out more next week on Dec 5 when Honor is expected to announce this phone.
For video, the phone can shoot in 1080p at 30FPS. That’s pretty standard for any budget phone, so there’s no surprises there. It was kind of nice find that it can also shoot in slo-mo at 120FPS, however this is limited to 480p resolution.
Check out these photos taken on the Honor 7X and keep an eye out for more video on this phone soon.
It’s a little hard to believe, but it’s been almost five years since Google released Chrome for Android. Since then, the mobile port of Google’s popular web browser has replaced the stock Android Open Source Project (AOSP) browser on most Android phones, received countless updates, and become one of the most-downloaded browsers on Android. Now, it’s gaining a new feature: Password exporting.
Last month, we reported on Google Chrome’s option to view saved passwords, which lets you view your passwords without having to sign into your Google account or visit the Google Passwords website. A new commit in the Google Git shows that Google plans to expand on that feature with a built-in password exporter tool.
Here’s the commit’s description:
[Android settings] Add a menu item to export passwords
This CL adds a menu item, behind an off-by-default feature, for exporting passwords from Chrome’s settings. The menu item currently does not perform any action.
When the feature goes live, you’ll see an Export passwords option in the top-right corner of the Passwords page in the Chrome Settings menu. Tapping on it will start the export process, which will download a file of your saved passwords to your smartphone. (The commit doesn’t specify the format of the file, unfortunately, but it presumably isn’t proprietary.)
Chrome’s passwords exporter will be a welcome addition to a robust web browser. With increasing competition from third-party web browsers such as Samsung Internet, Firefox Quantum, and Microsoft Edge, Google’s wise to keep adding features that attract users to its ecosystem. The Google Git commit shows the search giant is doing just that.
A week ago, Xiaomi said that it would launch a new Redmi smartphone in India. Some reports suggested that it was the Redmi 5A, the successor to the Redmi 4A, which launched in India in March. Those reports turned out to be true: On Thursday, Xiaomi has officially took the wraps off the India-bound variant of the Redmi 5A, an entry-level budget smartphone that doesn’t break the bank.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Redmi 5A.
The Redmi 5A, which slots just below the Redmi 4 in Xiaomi’s ever-expanding product portfolio, isn’t new. It launched in China in October, and it’s cut from the same cloth as the Redmi 4A, which is to say that it shares the same plastic materials, dimensions (140.4 x 70.1 x 8.35mm), weight (137 grams), 3.5mm headphone jack, and micro-USB port. The only differences are the Redmi 5A’s larger battery capacity, new dual SIM/microSD slot, and newer software — it’s powered by MIUI 9 out-of-the-box, based on Android 7.1.2 Nougat. All the rest of the specifications are the same.
That said, the Redmi 5A’s specifications aren’t bad for a budget phone. The Redmi 5A packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425, a 28nm SoC with four ARM Cortex-A53 cores and an Adreno 306 GPU, and a 5-inch HD (1280×720) display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and 296-pixel density (PPI). The phone’s available in two models: One with 2GB of RAM with 16GB of storage, and one with 3GB of RAM with 32GB of storage.
Both models have a microSD card slot which supports up to 128GB of expandable storage. And both have a 13MP rear camera with a f/2.2 aperture, 1.12μm pixels, 5P lens, and phase detection autofocus, and a 5MP front-facing camera with a f/2.0 aperture.
The Redmi 5A sports a 3000mAh battery, which is a bit smaller than its predecessor (the Redmi 4A had a 3120mAh battery). Xiaomi says that the battery is rated for 8 days of standby time and 7 hours of video playback, and that it rapidly charges up to 5V/1A.
Rounding out the phone’s internals are sensors including an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor, and an array of connectivity options: 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11n, Bluetooth v4.1, and GPS.
The Xiaomi Redmi 5A comes in Dark Grey, Gold and Rose Gold colors. Its price in India starts at ₹5,999 (~$93) for the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage variant. The 3GB RAM and 32GB storage variant will cost ₹6,999 (~$108), and the first five million units of the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage variant will be sold at ₹4,999 (~$77), which makes the device the cheapest Xiaomi smartphone in India for the time being. It will be available on December 7 at 12 p.m. on Flipkart and Mi.com, as well as Xiaomi’s Mi Home Stores. It will then be made available at offline retailers including Mi Preferred Partners.
| Redmi 5A | Specifications |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 140.4 x 70.1 x 8.35mm |
| Weight | 137g |
| Software | Android 7.1.2 Nougat with MIUI 9 |
| CPU | Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 (4x 1.4GHz A53) SoC |
| GPU | Adreno 306 |
| RAM and Storage | 2GB RAM with 16GB of storage and 3GB of RAM with 32GB of storage, expandable storage up to 128GB with microSD card slot |
| Battery | 3,000Ah battery (5V/1A) |
| Display | 5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) Full HD display |
| Wi-Fi | 802.11n (2.4GHz/5GHz) |
| Bluetooth | Bluetooth 4.1 |
| Ports | micro-USB, 3.5mm headphone jack, Dual SIM + Dedicated MicroSD Slot |
| Rear Cameras | 13MP rear camera with f/2.2 aperture, 1.12μm pixels, 5P lens, and phase detection autofocus |
| Front Camera | 5MP front-facing camera with a f/2.0 aperture |
Our take: The Redmi 4A has proven to be one of Xiaomi’s bestsellers, and it seems likely that the Redmi 5A will follow in its footsteps. There’s a negligible difference between the two, but Xiaomi doesn’t have much competition in the sub-$100 price segment.
The ₹1000 discount is a clever idea, as it practically guarantees the 2GB/16GB Redmi 5A will gain a foothold right away. The buyers of the first five million units will get it at a cheaper price than Chinese customers, which is a testament to Xiaomi’s persistence.
Amazon’s voice-powered virtual assistant, Alexa, has been making strides lately. It could already tell you about your commute, make shopping lists, play music, give you the news, control your smart home, and lots more. But one of the features it lacked was notifications. Luckily, Amazon’s on the case: Earlier this year, the retailer announced a developer preview of a notifications feature, and on Wednesday it expanded that preview to more developers ahead of an early 2018 launch.
The notifications feature, which customers can opt into on a per-app basis using the Alexa dashboard, gives developers greater control over Amazon’s Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, and Alexa-enabled third-party speakers. It’s a bit like the Google Home‘s “proactive assistance”: Applications can flash or change the color of a device’s lights when a message comes in, for example, or serve up a list of alerts on Alexa-enabled speakers with screens (like the Echo Show). Users, meanwhile, can ask, “Alexa, what did I miss?”, or, “Alexa, read my notifications”, to hear new messages, and can disable or suppress notifications by putting devices in Do Not Disturb mode.
Amazon says they’re already live in Alexa applications like Life360, a family monitoring app that alerts users when loved ones arrive at designated places, and Dominos, which alerts customers about the status of their delivery.
The notifications announcement dovetails with the introduction of another new Alexa feature: Personalized responses. Amazon’s Echo speakers already had the ability to distinguish between multiple users, but early next year, the retailer will let third-party developers take advantage. Amazon’s “Your Voice” can recognize up to ten different voices associated with a single Amazon account; asking for book recommendations or a shopping list, for example, will give individualized results.
If you’re interested in playing around with Alexa’s dev tools, head to the source link to sign up for early access. Users, on the other hand, will have to wait until 2018 until notifications and personalized responses start showing up in their favorite Alexa skills.
For a few years now, it’s been the norm to find articles and videos online that “enlighten” us with useful tips and tricks to help make our daily life just a little bit easier. These so-called “Life Hacks” are everywhere nowadays and the Android ecosystem is no exception. Now, we’re not complaining, but the truth is that there’s been a sort of overabundance of life hacks floating around that quite possibly makes these little tips lose their merit. However, Life Hacks by Crumblyy is an app that’s put together a huge bag of tricks for your daily life and offers them to you in an elegant package for you to enjoy.
In the app you’ll find a handful of categories offering a ton of new grandmother-type pieces of advice related to money, food, health, technology … even tips for your relationships or when you’re ready to party hard. The enormous number of tips is constantly growing thanks to the developers who continue adding “Life Hacks” from time to time. If you ever actually manage to read them all (which would take you a really, really long time), you can always tap the “NEW” button in the lower part of the screen to discover the latest hacks that have been added.
There are plenty of apps like Life Hacks available for Android, but we’ve chosen this one to feature because it offers a fantastic UI. Scrolling through the advice cards in each category is incredibly fluid and all it takes is horizontal swipes. You can also save your favorite hacks by simply tapping the typical heart on each one, and easily access them later from the app’s main page.
Life Hacks definitely hasn’t reinvented the wheel here, but instead, it organizes all its content in a way that makes you want to use the app. The biggest strength of the app is in its tremendous ease of use, including an option to share hacks with others with just a few taps of the screen. That said, I’ll let you all in on a little life hack of my own: the “hacks” you find are not the end-all truth and many of them are more than questionable. Memorize the ones you find the most useful and keep a wary eye out for ones that don’t quite sound right. Just like we’ve always done whenever we’ve come across lists with this type of information.
Life Hacks for Android on Uptodown [APK] | Download
Updating its budget Redmi series, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi on Thursday launched the Redmi 5A (2GB RAM variant) for Rs 5,999 in India. The company is offering an additional discount of Rs 1,000 for the first five million customers who choose the 2GB RAM/16GB ROM variant, effectively bringing down its price to Rs 4,999.
Xiaomi Redmi 5A. Pic/Xiaomi India's official Twitter account
The smartphone also comes in a 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage version that will retail at Rs 6,999. Xiaomi Redmi 5A is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 chipset and houses a 3,000mAh battery. "Offering up to eight days of standby time, Redmi 5A is a successor to the hugely-popular Redmi 4A," said Manu Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, in a statement.
Redmi 5A sports a 5-inch fully-laminated HD display. There is a dedicated MicroSD card slot that can expand the memory up to 128GB along with comes with two SIM card slots that support simultaneous use 4G network.
Please welcome Redmi 5A #DeshKaSmartphone http://pic.twitter.com/tUJcgWDWdg
— Redmi India (@RedmiIndia) November 30, 2017
In terms of camera specifications, the device houses a 13MP primary camera with an aperture of f/2.2, Phase Detection Autofocus (PDAF) and flash and 5MP selfie camera. It runs the Android 7.1 Nougat operating system (OS).
The device also comes with an Infrared (IR) blaster. IR blaster is a device that emulates an infrared remote control to autonomously control a device that is normally controlled only by remote control key presses.
The smartphone will start retailing on Flipkart, Mi.com, and Mi Home stores starting December 7 in dark grey, gold and rose gold colours.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai, National and International news here
Popular Malayalam actor and a mimicry artist Abi passed away at a Kochi hospital on Thursday. He was 49. According to reports, the actor was admitted in a private hospital in Kochi due to drastic fall in platelet counts. He had performed in more than 50 films.
Malayalam actor Abi. Pic/Facebook
The actor was also the voice of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in Malayalam ads. The actor, whose real name is Habeeb Ahamed, is survived by wife Sunila and two children Ahana, Aleena and Shane Nigam.
Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here.
It was a poignant moment when India captain Virat Kohli recollected his days as an U-14 and U-16 cricketer with Bedi as the coach. "I remember when I played U-14 and U-16's for Delhi, Bedi sir would make us train too much. Now that's become a part of my life," Kohli fondly recollected in presence of Delhi legends and Sharmila Tagore, wife of former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. It was an evening to remember where the legends of Delhi Cricket came together for the inauguration of stands named after Bishan Singh Bedi and Mohinder Amarnath.
Legendary cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi felicitates Indian captain Virat Kohli at Delhi Captain Felicitation ceremony during the DDCA's 1st Annual Conclave 2017 at Ferozshah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday. Pic/PTI
"It's a huge honour to stand with all Delhi captains. I myself have been a Delhi captain," said Kohli. Bedi on his part said: "I may not agree with some of his gestures on field but I have not seen someone more intense than Virat on field. I have never seen an Indian more intense than Virat. He will mellow down for sure but how much I have learnt watching Virat is unreal."
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here
Lamenting the lack of recognition to formative coaches, former India batsman VVS Laxman today said that the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) has urged the BCCI to shift its focus from infrastructure to developing a quality pool of coaches. "We never ever gave importance to Desh Prem Azad, who identified and nurtured Kapil Dev till he played for Haryana. After that once you play at the highest level or you play first class cricket, you become mature," Laxman, who is a part of three-member CAC that also includes Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly, said.
VVS Laxman
Stressing that mentors are more important in a player's career than infrastructure, Laxman cited the example of Tendulkar's coach Ramakant Achrekar, saying that the iconic batsman was developed by his coach and not by Shivaji Park, the ground where he practised. "I believe that more than infrastructure, a lot of importance should be given to develop quality coaches and that is something, which we have recommended to the BCCI also," the 43-year-old said while addressing the inaugural session of the CII -- Sports Summit 207 in suburban Andheri here. Laxman said that he was fortunate that his maternal uncle identified talent in him when he was young.
"My uncle was my mentor. My maternal uncle identified the spark, talent in me and convinced my parents that I got a good chance of playing at the highest level. How many kids have access or an opportunity of having such a guide. I was very fortunate that I had wonderful coaches in the academy where I went to," Laxman, always remembered for his unbeaten 281 against Australia in Kolkata in 2001, said. "All the players who you talk to, who have achieved excellence they will tell that there was a mentor or a coach, who was like an elder brother or a father. Sachin was not because of Shivaji Park (a ground in Dadar), Sachin was because of Achrekar Sir.
I think the important message there is to invest money in developing those quality coaches," the stylish batsman explained. The cricketer-turned-commentator also rued the fact that parents in India are still not open about their kids taking up sports as a career option.
Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here
If you are one of those who thought the Baahubali-fan frenzy has finally subsided for good, man you are in for a surprise! During a National Basketball Association (NBA) game in Orlando, Florida, young boys and girls danced to 'Saaho Re Baahubali' from 'Baahubali: The Conclusion'. Dressed in yellow and orange, with jasmine flowers adorning their hair, the dancers show a glimpse of the magnum opus that the film 'Baahubali' is.
Baahubali
The official Facebook page of NBA India shared a video of the performance, and it has crossed 7,80,000 views ever since it was uploaded. The video was captioned, 'Orlando gets treated to some CRAZY DESI VIBES!' The movie was a huge hit in the the United States as 'Baahubali: The Conclusion' earned over Rs. 100 crore within a week of its release.
The game also saw performers from Philadelphia paying a tribute to Allen Ezail Iverson, former American professional basketball player, in a unique way ' with Punjabi beats and Bhangra dance.
When WhatsApp crashed a few weeks ago, we realised the extent to which our existence depended on the app. While this is nothing to be proud of, the news of a WhatsApp-based service that helps one eat healthier seemed like a good justification to remain hooked to it. The Food Analysts, a real-time, human calorie counting service was launched in May this year. The Dubai-based service is designed to be a personal food coach, and what sets it apart from other calorie counting apps is that you get your information from real people, and not a data-crunching algorithm.
How it works
All you have to do is send a picture of every meal (including each strip of gum) with a detailed description of its ingredients, and within minutes, their team of qualified nutritionists will send you a report of the macronutrient break up. The subscription plans start as low is Rs 665 per month (that's the amount we paid after conversion from US dollars). The service is designed to offer 80 per cent nutrition information and 20 per cent training. This means that the nutritionists don't just give you a break-up of what you eat, they study your pattern and offer suggestions for changes in your diet.
The macro breakdown of our meal
The real deal
The sign-up process is hassle-free. Once the online transaction is complete, you have to key in details such as your height, weight, lifestyle (sedentary or active) and your fitness goals; ours was to eat right and lose unwanted fat in problem areas. The experts then set your calorie and nutrient target for the day. Next, we got added to a WhatsApp group that included four experts. We were impressed right from the start.
All one has to do is click a pic and send it for analysis. Pics/Falguni Agarwal
All of our doubts and questions were answered with encouraging and relevant replies that pushed us to eat better and understand our meals. The experts were patient with each of our many queries. The analysis of every meal is presented in a tabular format that includes the fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, fibre, sugar and protein percentage and content in weight. It also shows the remaining balance of the nutrients for the day. This worked wonders, as it helped us plan our next meals and keep our target in mind. The experts are well-versed with cuisines from across the world, be it south Indian or Thai. They even managed to spot a crumb of papad next to our khichdi that we forgot to mention in our description. The only concern we had was to trust them blindly to judge the portion sizes.
What we loved the most are the small goals set by the team; in our case, starting our day with a fruit. The encouraging words effectively helped us get into the habit within a week. On days when our mealtimes went haywire, we received worried messages that asked us if we had skipped our breakfast. We also received reminders when we exceeded the nutrient or calorie limit for the day, with suggestions for dinner that would help balance the excess. And each of our messages, be it at 4 am or 8 pm, received prompt responses.
The experts suggest options one could try for different meals, like this recipe
Fifteen days into the service, the team informed us of their observations and highlighted the problem areas with solutions that included easy-to-cook recipes. The fact that someone knows and judges what we eat ultimately made us more conscious and guilty of binges.
By the end of a month, we noticed the unconscious changes we made to our eating patterns. Our nutrient balance improved too, thanks to the constant support and newfound knowledge of nutrient make-up. All the factors effectively make this service value-for-money and perfect for a working professional who is on-the-run.
LOG ON TO: thefoodanalysts.in
