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Amazon Web Service Drops Price for Its Storage Services With Introduction of New One

Amazon Web Services

Today, Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a significant drop in the price of its storage services. The company also introduced several new features for developers who wish to use the Glacier cold storage service of AWS.

The new prices which most of the developers will be concerned about are of S3, which is AWS’ primary cloud storage service. Unlike the six pricing tiers previously, S3 will now feature only three: 0-50 TB; 50 TB-500 TB; and 500+ TB. In most of the places, the prices for S3 will fall by about 20 percent.

In case of Glacier, which AWS’ cold storage service for data that one want to keep in a safe spot but would not be using too much, the price drops are even more significant. In three of the AWS regions (Ireland, Oregon and Northern Virginia), you can now store your data for a mere $0.004 GB/month. This is a straight 43 percent drop in the price of Amazon Glacier.

The more important news for Glacier user is the addition of 2 new retrieval choices. Glacier is set up in a way that it usually takes a while before a data is ready for download. And, this is what lets AWS to provide the service at a very low price; however it can only be used for cold storage and nothing else. Now, Amazon is introducing 2 new option to Glacier which lets users to pay a little extra to receive their data quicker — or one can save a little more by receiving it even slower than Glacier’s default 3 to 5 hour waiting period.

Now, with the new ‘expedited’ option, you will just need to pay $0.03 per 1 GB and $0.01 per request when you get back data and you will get your download within 5 minutes. Amazon Web Services claims that this feature will work best for users who have data in TBs in Glacier.

Moreover, there are 2 types of expedited data retrievals: one is on-demand and second is provisioned retrievals. While On-demand retrievals functions as per the rules mentioned above, Provisioned retrievals are different from it. They will cost about $100 per unit making sure that the facility for your expedited retrieval is available whenever you require it. Every $100 unit promises that you will be able to perform 3 expedited retrievals every 5 minutes with up to 150MB/second throughput. In case you don’t go for these extra units, the expedited retrievals will only be allowed when the capacity to accomplish them will be available.

Furthermore, in case you don’t mind how much time it takes to retrieve your data out of Glacier, then the latest ‘bulk’ options is perfect for you. In bulk option, you retrieve requests may take about 5 to 12 hours, but it will only cost $0.0025 per 1 GB and $0.025 for every 1,000 requests.

Well, a really great news for folks looking to or already are taking services from AWS.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/22/aws-drops-its-storage-prices-and-launches-new-cold-storage-retrieval-options/

Nutonomy Plans to Expand its Autonomous Testing in US

Nutonomy, a Self-driving taxi startup has decided to expand its autonomous vehicle testing to the streets of the U.S. The announcement came out after the company agreed for a partnership with city of Boston and the Massachusetts Transportation Department.

Apple Initiates a Worldwide Program to Cure ‘Touch Disease’ Issue of iPhone 6 Plus

Finally, Apple has agreed to cure the Touch Disease issue that has been bothering iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users from very long time. The ‘Touch disease’ issue makes the touchscreen of the iPhone 6 models unresponsive and a user also gets a thin grey line at the top of the phone’s display. To solve the complaints made by many users, Apple has now initiated a new program which will address this manufacturing issue for iPhone 6 models’ users.

Google is Launching PhotoScan App for Android & iOS

Google PhotoScan App

Google’s cloud photo storage and sharing service, aims to be a one stop destinations to everyone’s photographs. But till now, this service has only been offered to the digital photos and personal videos we shoot. The company is expanding the services by launching a new tool named as ‘PhotoScan’ which help convert printed photos into high-quality digital copies.

Generally, there are a couple of ways to convert printed photos into digital ones. One way is to ship them to a scanning service, second way is to buy a scanner and scan manually and the third one is use your phone to take a picture of the existing, printed photographs.

The third method is what most of the people prefer as it’s the easiest and the fastest method to turn printed photos into the digital one.

However, this doesn’t give high-quality photographs. Instead, photos snapped with Smartphone’s camera usually have some sort of glare from the surrounding light spread across the image. Also the photos generally are not aligned properly; and if not cropped, sometimes it may even show the surface on which they’re placed for taking a snap.

On the other hand, Google’s PhotoScan will help you take photos of such prints, and then it will automatically resolve such common issues. The way it resolve these issues is quite interesting. This simple mobile application will take you to the camera’s viewfinder. When overlaid on top of the print you’re about to click, you will find four white dots. You will need to direct the phone over each dot by moving, which will enable Google to take multiple clicks of the photo from several angles. This will help you get different images where the glare would have been moved around, as well.

Then the PhotoScan will make use of different snaps of the same image to render a single image without any glare. Not only this, the app also offers features such as rotating, aligning, and removing the background (for example table surface).

Although, you may have come across number of similar application to PhotoScan on the store, such as Ancestry.com’s Shoebox, Photomyne, Memories, Heirloom, and some others, but while these apps only help in cropping and straightening, none of them offer such a unique feature which PhotoScan will offer.

While the updated Google Photos app is coming today, the PhotoScan is also going live today as a free download for both Android and iOS.

Source : https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/googles-new-app-photoscan-turns-prints-into-digital-photos/

Facebook is Launching ‘ROOMS’ Feature for the Messenger App

Facebook Messenger App

After the addition of end-to-end encryption and ‘Secret Conversation recently, Facebook is now planning to incorporate an additional feature in its Messenger. The feature is named as ‘Rooms and is currently under testing. ‘ROOMS’ is a bulletin board-style feature which will enable users to take part in public conversations which are focused on delicate matters. Earlier in 2014, Facebook introduced a separate ‘Rooms’ app for iOS users. The application enabled users to share audios, videos and texts which might not fit in the News Feed. However, the application was not able to get the expected traction.

Hover, the new Messenger Rooms feature focuses to rectify the errors which were present in previous application. This time, Facebook will be introducing the feature within the current application only, instead of creating a standalone application. Currently, the feature is being provided to Android users in Australia and Canada. Rest of the world will need to wait as no date has been decided for further release. Facebook Messenger users already have option to create groups and discuss about various topics. However, such conversations or discussions are private between friends. The revived ‘Rooms’ feature will encourage users to have public conversations on a different topics.

With this new feature, users will be able to discuss a wide range of topics – whether it is Baseball game, Football, Formula One, Rugby match, movies, events, concerts, movies, election etc. Each room will be having a link which users will be able to share, letting anyone with Messenger app get into the conversation. Also, users will be given an option to create a private Room, but the members will need to get a formal approval by the administrator.

Moreover, Individuals will also be having option to make their own Rooms using the Facebook Messenger Application, approve and invite new members, create nickname for themselves, configure notifications, and much more. Users will also be able to search for rooms based on a certain matter. For example, a Rugby freak will be able to search for related group by searching for his/her favorite teams, players etc.

However, one will need to wait for the worldwide release of this new interesting feature as the date is not yet revealed.

Source : http://www.bgr.in/news/facebook-is-testing-new-rooms-feature-in-messenger-that-will-let-you-chat-with-strangers/?fromNewsdog=1

Now You Can Command Siri to Send Money Via PayPal Application

PayPal subscribers will now be able to send and request payments using the simple voice commands through Siri on iOS 10 powered iPhone and iPad devices. The online payments giant is making the new feature available to users in around thirty countries. Not only this, this feature will be available in different languages, and it will only require the user to install the iOS app with a logged in user account.

Using this feature is quite user friendly as you just need to command Siri to send certain amount of money to a friend or contact by just saying their name. As said above, not only you can send money but also can ask for payment from a friend by name through Siri. After the voice command you will get a confirmation message on the screen and Siri will ask you to confirm the amount and payee for your transaction. PayPal’s intention with this useful feature seems to be regarding holiday season. During this time money transfer market will heat up significantly and PayPal would love to make the most out of it while providing a convenient method to users.

The new features become possible when Apple released third party integration for Siri in its latest iOS 10, which comprise requesting rides, sending payments, searching photos, sending messages, making VoIP calls and starting workouts.

What is PayPal and How it Work?

Once you command Siri to transfer some money, it will flash a card on screen through which it will send money. Then you can say yes to send or no to cancel the command. In case you don’t have PayPal or you don’t mention PayPal and have other payment applications installed, then Siri will ask you which one you want to go for.

Although, Siri is the only assistant on the iPhone which supports voice-controlled payments, the payee doesn’t require having an iPhone or iOS 10 powered devices. They just need to have an active PayPal account. And, in case they don’t have it installed in their phone, they will receive a prompt to install in order to to receive payment.

Moreover, you’ll have to ensure that the account details of payee are stored within the PayPal App so that Siri knows where to transfer the money.