Google unveils two new Nexus phones 5X and 6P

Sep 29, 2015: Google has announced two new Nexus phones in the series of its own design and pure android smartphones. Nexus 5X and 6P, made by LG and Huawei respectively are unveiled in a Nexus event at San Francisco. The full metal body, 7.3 mm thin, comfy Nexus 6P has a display of 5.7 ", Snapdragon 810 64 bit processor underneath, 3450 mAh battery. The flagship phone owns a Type C USB port, 3GB RAM and low light sensitive camera of 12.3 MP/ 8MP. The camera provides you best low light experience (indoor photography) with 1.55 micro pixels and best selfie with HDR plus feature. The phone is known to be running on new Android 6.0 Marshmallow. Hardware wise, Google brings new finger print scanning features with Nexus imprint with the sensor in the back. The phone is priced at 500 $, with availability sometime in October. 

Nexus 5X is relatively low end with plastic built 136 gm weight, 5.2 inch display and 2700 mAh battery. The plastic phone comes with 64 bit Snapdragon 808, 2G RAM. Most of the hardware features are same as 6P like Camera and Nexus imprint feature. The camera as they told outperforms the previous edition of Nexus and iPhone 6S in low light due to higher pixel density, laser detect auto focus but 5X has 5M camera in the front. The phone supports Slow motion video and smart burst for animated GIFs. The camera is known to be missing the Image stabilization feature as found on the other flagship phones. Nexus 5X is priced at $379, and is available for pre-order at Google stores in two dozen countries.

Well the prices have gone down when I compare it with Nexus 6. Hardware and features have gone up, but I wait the videos of experience for both the phones to have more details. 

Both the phones will be running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.

Features of Marshmallow:

• improved lock screen with google voice in swipe left, charging indicator.
• Animations changed in opening screens.
• Learning the pattern of the apps by user and notify accordingly.
• Improved head-up notifications.
• Reduced pre-loaded apps.
• Now on tap feature to provide power of google to phone fast.
• Voice actions: sending text or alarms.
• Always on Google on.
• New doze mode to go deeper sleep mode for saving battery.

Apart from two new Nexus phones, Google announced family plan for Google play music, Nexus protect and improved Google photo applications.

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How to find your phone through Google Search

April 17, 2015: Whether you have lost your phone outside or you are sure it is just around your home but could not figure it out, now you could easily spot your phone with the latest feature from Google. You can simply go to Google in your PC and search for "find my phone", then it will show the location of your Android phone with the last online date through Android Device Manager. But make sure you have logged into the same Google account in your PC that is in the phone that you are searching. You can also ring your phone for 5 minutes through a button "Ring" in case you know it is near to you somewhere below pillow, sofa or some corner. Once you find your phone, you have to press the power button to stop ringing. Similarly if you know the phone is stolen, you can even lock the phone and erase the data or reset the password. As I tried with my phone and tablet, all other worked with the search except for the online date which was one week earlier. The location for my phone showed exactly the same point of my house with accuracy of 22 meters whereas for my GPS less Tablet, the search could not locate the point though it was online. As Google can easily tell the location of devices with internet though there is no GPS, it may be due to the disabling of location sharing feature in my Tablet settings.

The feature is now only available to search from PC and may be later available to phones/tablets as well. This sort of feature is already there for iPhone with iCloud or Find my phone app. Whether it is Android phone or Apple, you can only find the location of the phone if it is connected to the internet with the logged in Google or Apple account.

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Google to use network of ballons for internet in remote areas.

Google's next big announcement after project glass and driver less car is an innovation to provide internet access in remote areas. As 2 out of 3 people on earth are out of reach to internet, Google intends to use hot air ballons, flying 20 km above the earth to provide wireless coverage below where terrestrial connectivity is too much to get.

Named as project loon, Google experiments the use of series of solar powered ballons that flows with the wind in the stratosphere (above airplanes and weather) to provide 3G like internet speed. 13 meter high such ballons are equipped with special radio frequency devices to connect with each other and then to the ground (40 km in diameter coverage to earth per single ballon). Each user in the coverage area also need to have special antenna fixed in their home for connectivity with the ballons. The operational frequency is known to be in ISM band (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) that is freely available to anyone. The ballons are also known to be having GPS, parachutes and other equipment for monitoring weather conditions to keep itself in the right place.

As the pilot program for the project is just launched in New Zealand for 50 testers from 30 ballons, it is still being tested for problems and complexity before making it available worldwide. Some people even dub it as a cellular network with ballon instead of towers. 

If the project loon is found viable and launched worldwide, then the internet ballons will be beneficial to reduce the global digital divide: the gap between have and have nots, enabling advancement in education, agriculture, health, small business sectors in countries like Nepal with remote areas where terrestrial internet is a big challenge and also not forgetting the internet reach in disaster affected areas. But there are still some chances if the project turns out to be a loony one (as the name has it), due to the challenges in stability of the ballons and other complexities. We all wait for the future.

Here is a video in YouTube for the introduction of project loon.

Source: www.nepalitelecom.com

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