Nikon D7200 DSLR Camera, Coolpix P900 With 83x Zoom Lens Launched

Nikon's latest Coolpix P900 puts all other superzooms to shame with its massive 83x zoom lens and on the other hand, from the looks of it, the D7200 is just an evolutionary upgrade to the D7100 launched back in 2013. Both these cameras were launched this week and will be available in the US starting next month. The Coolpix P900 carries a price tag of $600 (approximately Rs. 37,300) whereas the D7200 is priced at $1,200 (approximately Rs. 74,600), body-only, and a DX NIKKOR 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6G kit will be available for $1,700 (approximately Rs. 1,58,000).

The Coolpix P900 has a bridge design and a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor inside it, which is a bit of disappointment. The zoom lens can go as wide as 24mm and on the telephoto end it can hit 2000mm. To counter the inevitable lens shake, Nikon makes use of an advanced image stabilisation system that offers 5 stops of shake reduction. It has an minimum-maximum aperture range of f2.8-f6.5 and it can go as close as 1cm of the subject in macro mode. Also, the Coolpix P900 is not a light camera by any margin at 899g. It includes a 3-inch variangle LCD with a 921k dots resolution and also has a viewfinder with the same resolution. There is in-built Wi-Fi and the Coolpix P900 also supports the NFC protocol fro wireless connectivity/transfers.

Motorola Moto Turbo With 5.2-Inch QHD Display Launched at Rs. 41,999

Motorola India over the weekend teased launch of the Motorola Moto Turbo in the country, and now, Flipkart on Monday has started taking pre-orders for the smartphone, which is priced at Rs. 41,999. The Flipkart page notes that the smartphone will be released in the third week of March.

The online retailer is also giving away launch day offers such as 100 percent cashback for 25 consumers and extra 10 percent off on the handset if purchased with American Express Cards. Notably, both the offers are only valid for the Monday.

The Motorola Moto Turbo is a new variant of the Motorola Moto Maxx, which is the global variant of the Motorola Droid Turbo that is exclusive to US mobile carrier Verizon. In February, Flipkart teased launch of the high-end Moto Turbo on Flipkart without revealing more details about the handset.

Asus ZenFone 5 Variant With the 1.2GHz SoC, 8GB Storage Launched at Rs. 7,999

Asus has launched a new variant of its  popular ZenFone 5, called the ZenFone 5 (A501CG-2B509WWE), priced at just Rs. 7,999. The new ZenFone 5 variant is now available to buy on Flipkart.
One of the most notable differences in the new ZenFone 5 variant is it packs a dual-core Intel Atom Z2520 processor with Intel Hyper Threading Technology clocked at 1.2GHz. Meanwhile, the original ZenFone 5 (A501CG) is powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Atom Z2560 processor.
It's worth noting that this is the company's fourth ZenFone 5 model launched in India, the other three are the ZenFone 5 (A501CG), ZenFone 5 (A500CG), and ZenFone 5 (A502CG) - all including slightly different specifications mainly between the chipsets and the screen resolutions.
The Asus ZenFone 5 (A501CG-2B509WWE) comes with 2GB of RAM, which is again a highlight of the device at this price point. There is 8GB of built-in storage on the device. Other specifications of the new variant are identical to the 8GB model of the ZenFone 5 (A501CG).
It features a 5-inch HD (720x1280 pixel) IPS display; an 8-megapixel rear camera; a 2-megapixel front facing camera; inbuilt storage expansion via a microSD card (up to 64GB), and 2110mAh battery to back them all. Much like other ZenFone series handsets, the ZenFone 5 (A501CG-2B509WWE) runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with the company's proprietary Asus ZenUI.
Earlier this month, Asus announced a price cut of its ZenFone 5 16GB model in India to Rs. 9,999, down from the Rs. 12,999.
The price cut was seen as an attempt of the Taiwanese company to compete against the likes of Xiaomi's Redmi Note 4G and Micromax's Yu Yureka - both priced below Rs. 10,000.

An Epic Yaarana: MR.Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan Pay Tribute to Ilaiyaraaja

Moments like these are hard to come by in real life, plentiful though they be on reel.On January 20, Superstars Rajinikanth, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan attended a double celebration in Mumbai  at which the music of Shamitabh was launched and its composer Ilaiyaraaja was felicitated for his 1,000th film score . Also present were actress Sridevi, who has co-starred often with all three actors, Mr Bachchan's Shamitabh co-stars and his family.
 

Nasa's Curiosity Rover All Set to Drill Into Crystal-Rich Rock on Mars

Nasa's Curiosity Mars rover is all set to drill into a crystal-rich rock on the Red planet to find out salt mineral left behind when lake water evaporated, says an Indian-American scientist associated with this project.
The rock target called "Mojave" at Gale Crater displayed copious slender features - slightly smaller than grains of rice - that appear to be mineral crystals.
"The crystal shapes are apparent in the earlier images of Mojave but we do not know what they represent," said Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.
"We are hoping that mineral identifications we get from the rover's laboratory will shed more light than we got from just the images and bulk chemistry," he added.
To begin with, Curiosity is beginning a "mini-drill" test to assess the rock's suitability for deeper drilling which collects a sample for on board laboratory analysis.
This is the fourth new version of the on board software since the rover's August 2012 landing.
The "Mojave" drilling begins Curiosity's third round of investigating the basal layer of Mount Sharp exposed at an area called "Pahrump Hills".
Curiosity's Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin) can identify specific minerals in rock powder from a drilled sample.
Analysis of the drill hole and drill tailings may also reveal whether the crystals are only at the surface, like a salty crust, or are also deeper in the rock.
There could be a fairly involved story here.
"Are the salt crystals left from a drying lake? Or are they more pervasive through the rock, formed by fluids moving through the rock? In either case, a later fluid may have removed or replaced the original minerals with something else," Vasavada asked.

Xiaomi Mi Note Pro With 5.7-Inch QHD Display, Snapdragon 810 SoC Launched in India

Xiaomi, apart from launching the Mi Note phablet, also revealed the Mi Note Pro. The company stress on that the Mi Note Pro is even better than the Mi Note - and looking at the specifications, it would certainly appear to be.
The Xiaomi Mi Note Pro has been priced at CNY 3299 (approximately Rs. 32,900) and will enter mass production by the end of March.
The highlight of the Mi Note Pro is that it packs an octa-core 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor (quad-core ARM Cortex A57 and quad-core Cortex A53) alongside 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM and Adreno 430 GPU. Running Android 4.4.4 KitKat-based MIUI 6, the Mi Note Pro supports a single SIM.

Actor Sanjay Dutt to Go Back to Jail As the Parole Extension is Rejected

 Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt is likely to return to prison today after the Yerwada Prison authorities in Pune rejected the plea for extending his furlough.

Mr Dutt had sought an extension of 14 days after exhausting the two weeks granted to him by jail officials. The decision came after the Mumbai police sent its report to  Yerwada prison.

"We are told that the city police report was positive. Hence we have no idea as to why it was rejected," Mr Dutt's lawyer Hitesh Jain told.

However, Mr Jain pointed out that as per a new circular issued by the prison department if an inmate doesn't report back to jail on the 29th day after the "initial 14 days and a 14 day extension taken as granted", only then it would be a violation.

But the actor won't be taking any chances, Mr Jain assured," I have advised him to surrender today itself."

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis reiterated in Delhi that Mr Dutt would not be given any special treatment. "Our government will neither favor anyone nor will it do any kind of discrimination," he said.

Mr Dutt is serving his sentence after being convicted in the 1993 Bombay Blasts Case for illegal possession of weapons.