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A new smartphone is launching. And this one costs just a little bit more than a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

Despite the ubiquity of smartphones, you’d be hard pressed to find one that you could purchase with spare change. Yet Ringing Bells, a handset manufacturer from India, has managed to create one that’s only going to cost $4.

The device is called Freedom 251 and was just very recently unveiled. Specs aside, the most impressive thing about the Freedom 251 is, by far, its price. The pricing strategy and development of the technology was anchored on Narendra Modi’s intent to ‘empower India to the last person,’ and the smartphone was a way for central government to promote inclusivity among its constituents for its digital initiatives.

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This is the ‘world’s cheapest’ smartphone.


A technology company in India is launching what it claims will be the ‘world’s cheapest’ smartphone costing just $7 or around £5.

The Freedom 251 is being built by Ringing Bells and will reportedly sell for around $7 although the BBC reports that local media are pricing it even lower at just £2.50.

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Interesting read — I must admit that today’s CEOs of large companies are not like the CEOs of my grandfather’s generation who were more like the mold of Sam Walton.


This habit for grandiose predictions seems to be contagious. Last fall, Miguel McKelvey, founder of shared office space giant We Work Cos. promised his company would be in a thousand locations “in the near future.” Given that the company at the time was present in just 52 places, this promised a growth rate north of 1500 percent—but probably had some intended influence on the company’s $10 billion valuation.

In 2013, before he left Blackberry under pressure, the company’s CEO Thorsten Heins declared that “in 5 years, I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore.”

Six years earlier Steve Ballmer of Microsoft assured the world, “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.”

I was waiting for this HIPAA’s new guidelines for mobile apps (focuses a lot on IAM); this is only the first wave. We will see more when more AI is launched.


Federal regulators have issued new guidance, including material to clarify for healthcare entities and software developers various scenarios where HIPAA regulations might apply to mobile health applications, including situations when patients use smartphones to collect or transmit personal health data.

See Also: 2015 Breach Preparedness and Response Study: The Results

Some privacy and security experts say the new mobile application guidance material from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights addresses a topic that is not only a current source of confusion for many covered entities and business associates, but also is likely to become increasingly complex as more consumers use smartphones and other devices to help manage chronic illnesses and other health issues.

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Expensive travel bags should do more than look good, and German high-end luggage manufacturer Rimowa would seem to agree. The company has developed an electronic luggage tag which displays baggage info in the same format, size and appearance of typical paper labels, but on a digital screen built into the unit and located near the handle.

The Rimowa e-tag is similar to a device tested by British Airways in 2013, which allowed travelers to attach it to any piece of luggage.

Travelers these days can easily check into a flight and secure a boarding pass, printed or digital, before they step foot in the airport. Despite that convenience, they’re often forced to stand in line to check their bags. Those with a Rimowa electronic tag-enabled bag can send their digital boarding info via Bluetooth from their smartphone to check their bag before they leave home, with details appearing on the bag’s electronic display. After arriving at the airport, they simply hand it off at the airline’s automated check-in station, avoiding at least one line.

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“There’s a reason the only robot a person is likely to have in their home today is a cleaning robot,” founder Shlomo Schwarz tells me during a recent call. “It gives added value to the person. You buy a cleaning robot because it cleans your house. You’re not buying a friend.” — when we say value; how do we know for sure. I know many consumers who bought the iRobot vacuums and don’t use them because for many of the women in my own family found it was limited in its usage.


An Israeli startup is modeling its Linux-based, Raspberry Pi-powered robot on the smartphone developer ecosystem.

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RLOL — headline alone is priceless. However, who does get blame? And, on what grounds? Negligence in the design of the product or bad product quality? What about improper application of the product because it was designed for a particular set of the population & not for a broader public use. What about the businesses using AI? Wonder what type of insurance & the amount of insurance a business would be will be required to have in place to utilize a robot cook, or robotic nurse, etc. Lots & lots of things that still require planning, restructuring, & budgeting.


Andy Rubin is best known as the creator of Android. But in 2014, he left that all behind to create his own startup called Playground, a company focused on financially backing futuristic ideas that will shape our world—hopefully for the better.

Today, Wired published a deeper look into Andy Rubin’s day-to-day at Playground, and it very well be responsible for the destruction of the human race. Now that Rubin is no longer at Google, he spends most of his time pondering and financially backing the future of artificial intelligence. You know, that technology that keeps some of the world’s greatest minds awake at night?

When is industry finally going to finally understand that the gap all along has been the lack of women leading NextGen Innovation especially around AI?

Here we go again trying to make AI more enriched. This time it is using a “dashcam” which again is a technique that is like living in a bubble looking at the world; meaning no true human experience or empathy programmed within AI. We must develop AI with an inside-out approach along with the outside-in approach; and not just an outside-in approach. And, it can be done because women understand this piece extremely well and can build AI to include this perspective because of how we interact and see the world.


Former Google exec and Android co-founder Andy Rubin has announced his latest designs for the tech industry — and his plans to take over what he considers the most important technological frontier of the decade: artificial intelligence.

Rubin laid out his latest tech endeavor, in an exclusive with Wired: a mission to more or less monopolize the artificial intelligence (AI) pocket of the market. While Rubin’s newest tech incubator Playground Global is the tech mogul’s gateway toward this endgame, it appears that the godfather of Android is only willing to concretely reveal one facet of his vision: a plan to create a visual traffic map with help from a free device and an unusual business model.