Mercedes SUV GLA set for Sept 30 India launch

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
German luxury carmaker Mercedes Benz will launch its entry-level SUV GLA on September 30 with a petrol and diesel variant. The competitor to Audi Q3 and BMW X1 is likely to be priced between Rs. 30 lakh and Rs. 38 lakh and will be imported from Germany.
The car, which would come with a 2.0-litre petrol engine, develops 181 bhp power and 300 Nm of torque. The diesel engine in the car is a 2,143 cc turbocharged motor — an iteration of the one also available in the A class small car and B class sports tourer — with an estimated peak power of 134 bhp and 300 Nm of torque.
The GLA, however, would not have an all-wheel drive capability, though the ground clearance has been raised in India to 183 mm. Compared to the Audi Q3 and BW X1, the power and torque figures are on the lower side for the GLA, but it is also a significantly lighter car. Mercedes, which is scripting a revival in India, expects GLA to bring in more volumes to its kitty.
“The GLA is a very important product for us in India and we have high expectations from it,” said Eberhard Kern, managing director and chief executive officer, Mercedes Benz India. “We have grown strongly in the first half of this year and our new products including the GLA in the second half of the year will ensure another full year of strong growth.”

Mercedes began production of the SUV in Germany in the fag end of last year and it hit the roads in Europe.

3D Printing Goes Mainstream

The 3D printing market is maturing rapidly, as attention and influence shifts from the companies that manufacture these amazing devices to a broad range of industries where the technology is finding distribution and practical applications. That’s one key finding from the new Appinions Industry Influence Study, released today. The report lists the ‘Ten Most Influential Companies’ including Autodesk (ADSK), Amazon (AMZN), Home Depot (HD), GE (GE), and Makerbot (recently acquired by Stratasys), as well as the ‘Ten Most Influential Executives’ in the 3D printing market.
The momentum that 3D printing is enjoying is highlighted by the diversity of industries that earned spots in the report, which includes firms and executives from retail, traditional manufacturing, automotive, aviation, finance, construction, and electronics. Pure-play 3D startups like Formlabs, CreoPop, Shapeways, and Sculpteo remain an active part of the conversation as well.

Facebook goes down for some us readers

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook Inc went down briefly for an unknown number of US users on Wednesday afternoon in what appeared to be the latest outage to affect the world's largest social network.                                                                                                                                                             Several users had earlier reported getting an error message, "unable to connect to the Internet" when attempting to sign in.
Facebook said the log-in problems arose after what it called an infrastructure-configuration adjustment.

Samsung partners Facebook's Oculus for Gear VR virtual reality headset

Samsung has unveiled its foray into the world of virtual reality with the Gear VR headset unveiled at simultaneous events in Berlin, New York and Beijing ahead of IFA 2014.

For the Gear VR, Samsung has partnered with Oculus, which Facebook has recently purchased.

The Gear VR can give users a full 360 3D video experience. The Samsung Gear VR will be available only in a Forst White colour through Samsung's online stores and by selected mobile operaters later this year.The headset includes accelerator, gyrometer, magnetic and proximity sensors. It measures 198mm x 116mm x 90mm and connects to the just launched Samsung Galaxy Note 4 via a microUSB connection

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge Launched

As expected, Samsung has launched the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge at its pre-IFA 2014 event, Samsung Unpacked 2014 Episode 2.

The two new Samsung smartphones feature almost identical specifications, except the Galaxy Note Edge also features a curved display. 

Both feature the new S Pen stylus with improved pressure sensitivity, as well as the new Smart Select feature, apart from the new calligraphy and signing pen writing options.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat, and features a 5.7-inch Quad-HD (1440x2560 pixel) Super AMOLED display with a pixel density of 515ppi. It weighs in at 176 grams, and is 8.5mm-thick. 

The Galaxy Note 4 will be made available in 4G LTE and 4G LTE Cat.6 (LTE Advanced) variants depending on the region. It will also be available in two variants, one with a 2.7GHz quad-core processor, the other with a 1.9GHz octa-core (1.9GHz quad-core + 1.3GHz quad-Core) processor. Both feature 3GB of RAM.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 features a 16-megapixel autofocus rear camera with Smart OIS, and a 3.7-megapixel front-facing camera with a f/1.9 lens. It comes with 32GB of built-in storage, and expandability via microSD card (up to 64GB). Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (HT80) MIMO PCIe, GPS with Glonass, NFC, Bluetooth v 4.1 (BLE,ANT+),
IR LED, USB 2.0, and MHL 3.0.

Sensors onboard the Galaxy Note 4 include an accelerometer, geo-magnetic, gyroscope, RGB, IR-LED, proximity, barometer, hall sensor, finger scanner, UV, heart rate monitor. It features a 3220mAh battery.

Samsung is also touting the Multi-Window feature available from the Recent button. 

As for the Note Edge, it features a 5.6-inch Quad-HD+ (1440+160x2560 pixel) Super AMOLED display, and is powered by a quad-core 2.7GHz processor. Once again, it will be available in 4G LTE and 4G LTE Cat. 6 (LTE Advanced) variants. 

The rest of the specifications of the Galaxy Note 4 and Note Edge are identical, except that the latter will also come in a 64GB built-in storage variant. It has dimensions 151.3x82.4x8.3mm, and weighs in at 174g. It also has a slightly smaller battery, with a 3000mAh offering. 

The company has also launched the Samsung Gear VR alongside the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge.