India's Taj Mahal Among Top Google Street View Destinations in Asia

Agra's tourist attraction Taj Mahal has emerged as one of the most popular in Asia for global 'virtual travellers' using Google's Street View service to explore world heritage sites.

"Taj Mahal has emerged as one of the most popular Asian places for global virtual travellers. The fascination with this grand, symmetrical white marble mausoleum also holds within Asia, with the Taj Mahal ranking as one of the most globally viewed destinations by people in Singapore, Australia, Korea, Philippines, Malaysia and of course, India," a Google blog post said last week.

"Last year, global virtual tourists had favoured Japan for its trails weaving up Mount Fuji, its colourful canal at Dotonbori and its secluded ruins at Hashima Island, as the most popular Google Street View destinations in Asia," it said.

This year, the top 10 Street View destinations in Asia that get the most views from around the world are - Japan's Hashima Island, Japan's Mount Fuji, India's Taj Mahal, Japan's Biel Furano, Japan's Dotonbori Canal, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, Cambodia's Bayon Temple, Japan's Sendai area, Japan's Yufuin, and Japan's Tokyo Station Hotel.

HTC One M9 Launch Delayed Because of Software Issues: Report

The new HTC One flagship launch in Taiwan on Monday has been delayed, according to several reports.

The HTC One M9 was expected to go on sale starting Monday in Taiwan; though the company has confirmed the delay via an email to Central News Agency (CNA), the state news agency of China. The company however didn't specify any reason for the delay; though the handset is said to be hit by software issues, which has led to delay in launch.

(Also see: HTC One M9's Likeness to Earlier Models Explained by Firm's Design Chief)

Focus Taiwan reports that HTC has suggested it is still working to provide the "latest version of software" for the One flagship and will be releasing it in local markets "as soon as possible." The Taiwanese company however is yet to reveal an exact release date for the HTC One M9 in Taiwan.

The report cites some potential HTC One M9 buyers who pre-ordered the handset and received text messages from HTC stores saying that shipments of the 32GB model have been postponed from Monday to Friday. The 64GB variant of the HTC One M9 is said to be delayed further and is expected to launch by the end of this month.

(Also see: HTC One M9 First Impressions: Do the Evolution)

The report also adds that the software issues affecting the HTC One M9 could lead the handset to boot failures.

HTC at MWC, without revealing price of the new One flagship, had confirmed that the handset would be available globally starting mid-March. Unfortunately, there is still no further word on availability in other regions yet.

Last week, HTC reportedly confirmed Taiwanese pricing of the One M9 flagship - the 32GB model is said to be priced at TWD 21,900 (approximately Rs. 43,400), while the 64GB variant to be available at TWD 23,900 (approximately Rs. 47,400).

(Also see: HTC One M9 vs. HTC One (M8))

Some of the highlight features of the HTC One M9 include an all-metal unibody design running Android 5.0 Lollipop with the company's brand new Sense 7 UI on top. Under the hood, it is backed by the 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 octa-core (quad-core 2GHz + quad-core 1.5GHz) processor coupled with 3GB of RAM. The new flagship sports a 20-megapixel autofocus rear camera that comes with sapphire cover lens, BSI sensor, f/2.2 aperture, dual-LED flash, and 4K video recording. The One M9 packs a 4-UltraPixel front-camera.

Android 5.1 Lollipop Said to Boost Google Nexus 6 Performance, Battery Life

A developer has tipped changes in Android 5.1 that are responsible for the perceived boost in the performance of the Nexus 6.

While a number of changes have been observed beyond the official changelog of Android 5.1 Lollipop, which started rolling out earlier this month, a few new changes have been reported by a developer that optimise the performance and battery life of the Google Nexus 6.

According to Francisco Franco, a developer, Google has made some changes inAndroid 5.1 Lollipop for the Nexus 6 smartphone which makes it faster. The developer states that after the update, all the four cores in Snapdragon 805 run all the time. Previously some cores were left idle based on the performance load, and the change apart from boosting performance while all cores are in use is said to save time by not activating cores based on need.

Of course, the reason for not running all cores at the same time was to conserve battery life. With all cores running simultaneously, an obvious drop in battery life is to be expected, rather than a boost. However, Google appears to have made adjustments to ensure battery life is boosted instead of adversely affected.

Franco in his Google+ account added that Android 5.1 Lollipop also disables the built-in thread migration boost routines. For those unaware, this Qualcomm feature boosted the clock speed of core A when it was handed a thread from core B to reduce perceived lag. The disabling of this feature has reportedly also resulted in a battery life boost. "So these two changes balance themselves out, and I can imagine that 100 percent stock users will be pleasantly surprised by the improved battery life," he added.

The developer also points to improvements in Android Runtime (ART) and framework optimisations for the performance boosts. He adds, "I don't know what other improvements they did on the Kernel, the source is not up yet, this is all I know for now."

Officially, Android 5.1 Lollipop brings support for multiple SIM cards, Device Protection and HD voice on compatible devices. Apart from this, Android 5.1 Lollipop is said to have brought several changes under settings section, fixes for crashing of apps and numerous notification improvements, the details of which can be seen in our previous reports.

Last week, Google acknowledged a memory leak issue in Android 5.1, and said it had created a fix internally but did not provide a time-frame for release. The fix is expected to make its way to users with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop. The firm might also be planning its own VPN service for Android users, if recently reported details about changes in Android 5.1 Lollipop are to be believed.

Study Claims to Decode Why Super Mario Runs From Left to Right

Ever wondered why 'Super Mario' runs from left to right? It may be due to a common visual bias!

There may be a fundamental bias in the way people prefer to see moving items depicted in pictures, according to new research.

An analysis of photos of people and objects in motion revealed a common left-to-right bias.

Researchers said this widespread evidence for such a left-to-right bias could indicate a possible fundamental bias for visual motion, and would explain why all the main characters in the side-scrolling video games popular in the 1980s and 1990s such as Super Mario run from left to right.

They inspected thousands of items in Google Images for the study published in the journal Perception.

"What artistic conventions are used to convey the motion of animate and inanimate items in still images, such as drawings and photographs?" psychologist Dr Peter Walker of Lancaster University said.

"One graphic convention involves depicting items leaning forward into their movement, with greater leaning conveying greater speed. Another convention, revealed in the present study, involves depicting items moving from left to right," Walker said.

However, this bias does not apply to people or objects which are stationary, researchers said.

"Whereas a rightward bias is found for photographs of animate and inanimate items in motion (more so the faster is the motion being conveyed), either no bias or a leftward bias is found for the same items in static pose. This could indicate a fundamental left-to-right bias for visual motion," said Walker.

This left-to-right bias is also observed when designers italicise text to convey notions of motion and speed.

It even applies to typography in Hebrew where the reader's eyes scan from right-to-left, researchers said.

"It was the inspection of the availability of italic fonts in Hebrew that suggested an additional artistic convention for conveying motion, based on a fundamental bias, confirmed in the present study, for people to expect to see, or prefer to see, lateral movement (real or implied) in a left to right direction, rather than a right to left direction," Walker added.

Thousands Stranded in Jammu-Srinagar Highway After Landslides

SRINAGAR:  Thousands of people have been stranded in the Jammu-Srinagar highway for two days without food or water. The highway has been closed for the last three days after rains and snow caused landslides in the area.

More than one-foot deep snow had piled up on the road in the Banihal area, but it is landslides at several places along Udhampur- Ramban sector which have blocked the highway.

More than 2000 trucks carrying supplies and passenger vehicles are stranded. Passengers and truckers report multiple hardships.
"We have been without food and water for last two days. There is no grocery shop around even to buy anything," said Shabir Ahmad, a truck driver. "We request the government to at least send some water tankers."

The Valley witnessed uninterrupted day-long snowfall on Monday, which disrupted surface and air traffic and cut it off from the rest of India.

Electric supply snapped at many places. Train service from Baramulla to Bannihal had to be suspended due to the accumulation of snow on the tracks.

With the weather conditions improving, officials say they may be able to clear a way for the stranded vehicles by this evening.

On Sunday, landslides claimed the lives of three persons, one of them a woman.

"People living in avalanche prone areas of the valley have been advised to exercise extreme caution. People must avoid moving out of their homes in such areas," said an official from the disaster management office.