Manish Singh

In March earlier this year, Microsoft announced that it has partnered with Xiaomi to beta test Windows 10 Mobile ROM on the Chinese company’s flagship Android Mi 4 smartphone. The company has just seeded out the ROM to the phone for select beta testers.

Terry Myerson, Microsoft's executive VP of operating systems, announced earlier that "a select group of Xiaomi Mi 4 power users will be invited to help test Windows 10 and contribute to its future release later this year. These power users will have the opportunity to download the Windows 10 Technical Preview - installing it and providing their feedback to Microsoft".

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At the ongoing hardware Computex 2015 conference in Taiwan, SanDisk, a company well known for designing, manufacturing and selling storage devices, announces the availability of a bunch of new external flash drives. Among many other products, the company launches Extreme 900 Portable SSD which comes with a whopping 2TB storage space (1.92TB formatted size) priced at $999.99.

The Extreme 900 Portable SSD, which also comes in 480GB ($399.99) and 960GB ($599.99) storage options, comes cased in a compact aluminum body. The company notes that all of these SSDs have a maximum performance rating of 850 MBps -- which is about 9 times faster than a traditional portable hard drive. The SSDs also come equipped with a USB 3.1 interface with Type-A and Type-C cables supplied with the unit. SanDisk is providing three-year warranties on the new SSDs.

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Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus announces today that it is slashing $50 off the retail price of its flagship One smartphone in seven global flash sales it has planned for the phone this month. The first flash sale begins today, and the rest will run through this week.

Often referred to as the flagship killer smartphone, the 16GB Silk White variant of OnePlus One will now be available for purchase at $249 (previously $299), while the top-of-the-line 64GB Sandstone Black will be available at $299.

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Microsoft will be releasing Windows 10 -- at least some versions of it -- this summer. The company hasn’t announced a specific release date yet, but it has apparently started to notify people about the impending release of its forthcoming operating system.

As a user on Reddit notes, the Redmond-based company has started to roll out what appears to be the first push ad of Windows 10 to Windows 7 and Windows 8.x users. As seen in the screenshot above, the company is reminding users that Windows 10 will come as a free upgrade to them, and is also giving them an option to 'reserve' it. Opting into this will essentially initiate an automatic download once Windows 10 becomes available. The final version of Windows 10 will weigh around 3GB, the notification reads.

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At its developer conference I/O 2015, Google today unveiled Android M, the latest iteration to its mobile operating system. The update brings with it a handful of interesting features and other improvements. The full-fledged version of Android M will roll-out sometime later this year, but for those who want a sneak peek a developer preview version of Android M for select Nexus devices is out now. Here’s how you can install it on your smartphone or tablet.

Android M comes with a number of interesting features including Chrome custom view, built-in fingerprint scanning feature, and permission manager. The company says that with the new update it is going back to the basics -- offering bug fixes and performance improvements to the users. For instance, Android M-powered devices will have twice as much battery life compared to Lollipop-powered devices, the company claims.

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Humans understand feedback and they seek improvement over numerous trials and errors. Robots, on the other hand, don’t. Robots only understand what’s hardcoded in their algorithms, essentially making them useless without getting direct input from humans. But recent advances are offering a major shift to that.

Meet BRETT, or Berkeley Robot for the Elimination of Tedious Tasks, which is capable of figuring many of the things out on its own without any assistance from a human. The robot is able to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process which is quite similar to how we humans learn.

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Until now only when someone possessed a chemical, biological or nuclear weapon, it was considered to be a weapon of mass destruction in the eyes of the law. But we could have an interesting -- and equally controversial -- addition to this list soon. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), an agency of the United States Department of Commerce that deals with issues involving national security and high technology has proposed tighter export rules for computer security tools -- first brought up in the Wassenaar Arrangement (WA) at the Plenary meeting in December 2013. This proposal could potentially revise an international agreement aimed at controlling weapons technology as well as hinder the work of security researchers.

At the meeting, a group of 41 like-minded states discussed ways to bring cybersecurity tools under the umbrella of law, just as any other global arms trade. This includes guidelines on export rules for licensing technology and software as it crosses an international border. Currently, these tools are controlled based on their cryptographic functionality. While BIS is yet to clarify things, the new proposed rule could disallow encryption license exceptions.

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It wasn’t very long ago that computers used to be bulky and fill rooms and halls and sell for millions of dollars. But things have dramatically changed since. Over the years, computers have become cheaper and smaller. Today, we have plenty of computers available in a miniature form-factor sporting dirt-cheap price tag. And this new category is maturing and going mainstream.

Zotac International introduces Zbox RI323 and Zbox RI531 in its new "R" line of mini PCs. Both the models come bundled with desktop-class processors and GPUs, two DDR3-1600 slots for up to 16GB of RAM, and dual gigabit ethernet ports. But more interestingly, both models also support two 2.5-inch hard drives or SSDs in a RAID 0 or RAID 1 configuration. The Zbox RI531 model additionally equips an mSATA SSD slot. Both also support non-RAID setups, letting users choose the best storage solutions for them.

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Adblock Plus, the maker of the popular ad-blocking tool for desktop web browsers is taking a major step today in offering similar services on mobile devices. The company releases Adblock Browser for Android, which blocks ads while also offering features like the ability to block adware, boost browsing speed and save data and battery life.

Adblock Browser for Android is powered by the same popular ad-blocking tool that has been downloaded over 400 million times. The company claims that by blocking the annoying elements -- which includes ads among other annoyances -- it is able to speed up browsing as well as save data usage.

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Popular music streaming service MixRadio, which was earlier exclusively available on Microsoft’s Windows Phone, today arrives on Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store. BetaNews had exclusively reported about the company's plan to release the app to other platforms in March earlier this year.

MixRadio offers free music streaming curated in a radio-like way. Available in 31 countries including US, China, and India, the on-demand music streaming is estimated to have millions of users -- though the exact numbers have never been disclosed. The service offers more than 12,500 playlists and a catalog of over 35 million songs.

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For all you Windows enthusiasts out there who appreciated the Dell Chromebox, a miniature computer from the manufacturer, but wished that it ran Windows instead, your wish has finally come true. The American technology giant has launched the Inspiron Micro Desktop which shares the same design language as the Dell Chromebox, but runs on Windows. It will set you back by at least $179.

As for the specifications, the Inspiron Micro Desktop packs in 2 gigs of RAM alongside 32GB of storage, which can be expanded via external SD card or an external hard drive. There's an Ethernet port, one HDMI outlet, SD card reader and a DisplayPort. Regarding USB, it comes equipped with one 3.0 port and three 2.0 ports. It also supports Wi-Fi for connectivity.

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Xiaomi isn’t a household name in the western part of the world. But that is because the Chinese electronics conglomerate only sells its products in a handful of Asian regions. Despite its limited demographic, the company has managed to turn many heads. In its five years of existence, Xiaomi has become the largest smartphone vendor in its home country China and fifth largest manufacturer in the world.

Earlier this year, Xiaomi announced its plan to debut some of its products in US and UK by the end of 2015, and the company is now starting to deliver on that promise. It announces today that it will be holding a beta test flash sale on May 19 on its official Mi.com portal. The company will be accepting orders from people in the United States, United Kingdom as well as France and Germany.

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At an ongoing event in New Delhi, Google launches two new Chromebook models from Xolo and Nexian. Aimed at the education sector, both the Chromebooks are priced at Rs 12,999 ($200), and go on sale starting today.

The Xolo Chromebook sports an 11.6-inch display of 1366x768 pixels resolution packed in a glossy plastic body. It is powered by a quad-core Rockchip Cortex A17 processor coupled with 2GB RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. The notebook flaunts a decent enough keyboard with tactile feedback.

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A well-placed source tells BetaNews that Amazon is planning to launch a payment service in India. The project by the world's largest e-commerce company is currently underway in a six-month beta program.

The program allows partner sellers in the country to integrate Amazon’s payment option into their respective websites, which will supposedly make it easier for many of them to do business.

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At an event in New Delhi today Yu Televentures, a Micromax Mobile-owned subsidiary, launches Yu Yuphoria, the successor to its fairly successful dirt-cheap smartphone Yureka it launched late December. The Yuphoria is a stripped down version of the Yureka -- knocking Rs 2,000 off the original price -- making the smartphone enticing at Rs 6,999 ($100). The phone will become available for sale starting May 28 in flash sales. The registration for the first flash sale will begin today at 5PM on Amazon India.

As for the specs, the Yuphoria packs in a 5-inch HD display coated with Corning Gorilla Glass 3. It is powered by a 1.2GHz Snapdragon 410 quad-core 64-bit paired with 2 GB of RAM. As for the camera, the Yuphoria comes with 8-megapixel and 5-megapixel sensors.

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