Pioneer has launched the first Apple CarPlay enabled car audio system in the Indian market. The AVIC – F970BT has a 6.2-inch multi-touch display and can pair with your iPhone 5 and above to access functions such as Siri, voice navigation, music playback, calls, and messaging on your phone through the audio system display.

In case you are not aware, CarPlay is a new standard from Apple for car audio systems that allows them to seamlessly integrate with your iPhone and access the aforementioned functionality through your audio system’s display. All you have to do is plug in your iPhone 5, 5c, 5s, 6, or 6 Plus running iOS 7.1 and above into the system and you’re good to go. Read more »

Apple received a patent for a hybrid keyboard with touch-sensitive keys. The innovative setup will allow users to to apply multitouch gestures without removing their hands from the keyboard.

The keys of the “Fusion keyboard” feature capacitive touch sensors. Read more »

According to a report in 9to5Mac, the previously rumored Transit Maps feature in Apple iOS 9 will have limited availability at launch. The service will allegedly be live in 5-6 cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Transit Maps in iOS 9 might go live as early as next month in New York, San Francisco, Toronto, Paris, Berlin, and London. Read more »

Today Microsoft has announced the expansion of its strategic agreements with Android OEMs for preinstalling its productivity apps on devices running Google’s mobile operating system. The first step in this strategy was revealed in March when we found out that Samsung and Dell agreed to preinstall Microsoft’s apps on their devices along with a few smaller, regional players.

And now the software giant is adding 20 more OEMs to the list, the most well-known of which are LG and Sony. This round seems to concern only tablets, by the way. So, “in the near future”, these companies will ship tablets with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and Skype preinstalled. Read more »

Since last fall when it launched, the Asus-made Nexus Player Android TV-running console has been offered for $99 in the Google Play Store. Now, though, it’s seeing its first price cut.

If you’re in the US, you can grab a Nexus Player for just $79. That’s $20 less than before, which doesn’t seem like much. On the other hand, consider that it’s in fact a 20% price reduction. Read more »

Periscope was launched by Twitter on iOS back in March, and today it’s finally become available for Android too. The app can already be downloaded from the Google Play Store, in fact. It should work on Android 4.4 KitKat or newer versions of the OS.

Periscope arrives on Android almost a month after its chief competitor, Meerkat (which was also iOS-only for a long while). Read more »

Once again, OnePlus is teasing something via its official Twitter account. This time it looks like we’re going to see a new announcement from the Chinese company on June 1, which is next Monday.

Obviously no big clues as to what that will be are given, but as you can see from the accompanying image OnePlus is talking the big talk. Read more »

Industry sources hint at the possibility of Apple manufacturing base opening doors in India. Allegedly, Foxconn, one of the company’s biggest manufacturer, has already taken initial steps to open a manufacturing facility in Maharashtra, west India.

The states Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, has allegedly given the project a green light and views it as a splendid opportunity to open new jobs for the region and boost its economy. The new facility might be modeled after Foxconn’s plant in the Henan province. This is indicative of the manufacturing scale the company is preparing to bring to India. The plant should create at least 300,000 new jobs. Read more »

Opera’s headlining trick – compressing the web – is evolving in the time of high-powered smartphones. Opera Max enables a Turbo-like compression for any and all apps on your phone, not just the browser. And now not just mobile data either, Max can now handle your Wi-Fi usage.

“Why?” you may be asking. Simple – public Wi-Fi hotspots often suck worse than mobile data. Also, this allows Opera Max to improve your battery life too. Read more »

Microsoft has rolled its sleeves and branching out its apps as well as other services to rival platforms. Today, the company officially announced it will release its Cortana companion app for the iOS and Android platforms.

Cortana will not be a full-blown native app that it is on the Windows platform but Microsoft promises to work actively to include at least the notifications support. Read more »

The internet of things (IoT) has been a buzzword for quite some time. Various gadgets are becoming smarter and more connected, which represents a determined push towards a new interconnected lifestyle, where all of our gadgets can seamlessly interact with one another.

Naturally, the IoT revolution hasn’t skipped our cars. Automobiles have quite a lot to offer in terms of data feedback and making them connected opens up an array of new features. Serious progress is already being made in this area and today, Huawei announced a new prospective partnership with Audi Group, which could yield a lot of new advances in smart auto tech. Read more »

Today, the Sony Xperia Z3+ finally saw the light of day. Just as promised, the Xperia Z3+, also known as the Xperia Z4 in Japan, made it to international markets and along comes a the first promotional videos for the new handset.

Just popped-up in Sony Xperia’s official YouTube channel, the video promotes the phone’s battery life, which the company claims is up to two days. Frankly, this isn’t really all that impressive, but, at least, the video is nicely made, so there is that. Read more »

Smartphones serving as the brain of a laptop always sounded like a great idea, until someone actually makes one. Undeterred by the cold reception of the Motorola Atrix and its laptop dock and the low profile of the Asus Padfone, Samsung has patented a Galaxy Note-like device, which docks into a laptop host.

The patent does get a couple of things right that eluded the Atrix and the Padfone. Read more »

The Asus ZenWatch, which was unveiled by the company at IFA in September last year and went on sale a couple of months later, is now available for purchase from Best Buy at a discounted price of $180. That’s a saving of around $20 as the smartwatch usually sells for $200.

Specs-wise, the wearable is powered by a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 400 processor, and sports an AMOLED screen covered in Gorilla Glass 3 and with a 1.63-inch diagonal of a square 320 x 320px resolution. It comes with 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal storage, and has an IP55 dust- and water-resistance rating. Read more »

According to a report in Re/code, Twitter is interested in acquiring Flipboard. The social network has reportedly been holding talks with Fipboard since the beginning of this year.

An all-stock deal is said to be valuing Flipboard in excess of $1 billion. Read more »