TechCrooks™

It's unlikely you've heard of Evidson before, and we hadn't either until it got in touch with us and sent its products for review. This small operation is based in Cochin, Kerala, and is run by a group of audio enthusiasts. The company's products can be found in specialist stores across various southern states. Evidson currently has a small range of affordable headphones, ranging in price from Rs. 449 to Rs. 1,149. Today, we're reviewing the top-end Evidson Audio Sport W6 in-ear headset, which is available in three colour options: white, black, and pink. The headphones are designed to sit securely in your ears when you're working out, and we'll test that and much more in our review. Specifications, design, and comfort The Evidson Audio Sport W6 uses dynamic drivers, and has a rated impedance of 16Ohms. Frequency response ranges from 20-20,000Hz, and sensitivity measures in at 118dB. The headset has a standard 1.3m rubber cable, along with a microphone a...

After a solid albeit technically poor debut , Hitman's second episode, called World of Tomorrow is now available digitally on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It takes place in the coastal town of Sapienza, Italy. Is it a return to form or a damp squib? Read on to find out. Your mission is to assassinate two scientists working on a designer virus that could put your employers, the ICA out of business, aside from well, leaving the world in chaos. Honourable (or not so honourable) intentions aside, you're also tasked with destroying the said virus. While it might sound like a script out of a cheesy 1990s action movie, the reality is a lot more understated. Akin to the Paris mission, you'll infiltrate the location and keep an eye out for opportunities to complete your goals or simply turn it into a playground of death - and a rather opulent one at that. There's a golf course, bio-lab, projector room, graveyard, and a whole lot more you can use to your advantage. The sprawling e...

Amazon is clearly entering its Prime. Meaning, of course, its $100 annual membership program, now a decade old, which has accomplished the remarkable feat of convincing millions of people to pay an annual fee for the privilege of, well, shopping. Prime is now central to Amazon's strategy of dominating the world of commerce. What started as a yearly fee for free two-day shipping now offers a sometimes bewildering array of perks, including household product subscriptions, one and two hour Prime Now delivery, streaming music and video, e-books, groceries (for an additional $200 a year), photo storage and more. "Prime has become an all-you-can-eat, physical-digital hybrid," Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in his annual shareholder letter in April. He wants the service to be such a good deal that you'd be "irresponsible" not to sign up, he wrote. Why the emphasis on Prime? Simply put, members of the loyalty program shop more frequently and spend mo...

The week began with the arrival of Game of Thrones' sixth season , airing simultaneously across the world from Brazil on Sunday night to Australia on Monday morning . Also on Monday, the entire cast behind David Lynch's Twin Peaks revival was revealed, which includes newcomers Monica Bellucci, Naomi Watts, and Amanda Seyfried alongside returning members in Kyle MacLachlan and David Duchovny. Later in the week, Comcast announced that its media subsidiary NBCUniversal had acquired animation studio DreamWorks - maker of Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon - for $3.8 billion (roughly Rs. 25,270 crores ). The deal will come into effect later this year, and serves as a challenge to the Disney-Pixar team-up. Over in the world of video game adaptations, Ex Machina star Alicia Vikander will be the next Lara Croft in a Tomb Raider reboot, set to focus on the origin story of the character. That's still very much into the future for now. Here at The Weekend Chill , we are ...

April was a big month with the release of Quantum Break and Dark Souls III , not to forget Dirt Rally arriving on the consoles and Ratchet & Clank exclusively for PlayStation 4. All of those titles impressed one way or another, and the next month looks promising at first glance - especially for fans of first-person shooters. Here's everything you can look forward to in the world of video games in May: Battleborn Developed by Gearbox Software, maker of the Borderlands series and Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, Battleborn is a first-person shooter with multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) elements. Upon release on May 3 for PS4, Xbox One, and Windows PCs, you will have access to 25 characters - all of them with different abilities and weapons. Apart from that, players will also have access to a campaign mode, which can be played solo or with four other players in a co-op fashion. When we played the preview at Gamescom 2015, it looked like Dota 2 with Pixar characters . (...

Eyeing the new Apple iPhone SE or looking for a brand new 4K smart LED TV? This week we've got you deals and discounts on both of those and a whole lot more. 1. Netgear WN3000RP-200INS universal WiFi range extender If you're having trouble getting a decent WiFi coverage across your home or office, the Netgear WN3000RP-200INS universal WiFi range extender can be a great option. Its price is down to Rs. 1779 (MRP Rs. 4465) this week on Amazon. The biggest reason why a range extender like this works is because its plug-and-play nature as opposed to painful installation process when it comes to setting up a manual WDS (wireless distribution system). Netgear's wireless range extender is compatible with almost all types of routers. An ethernet port on the extender also allows you to connect the device using a wired connection. Price: Rs. 1779 (MRP Rs. 4465) Link: Amazon 2. Audio Technica ATH-AX1iSBK headphones It's almost next to impossible to find a decent pair of h...

Little-known Indian startup Smartron was founded in 2014 but only made the news a month ago when it was announced that Sachin Tendulkar was investing in the company and would act as its brand ambassador. Smartron is now promoting itself as a homegrown Internet of Things (IoT) player, which is a very interesting space to be in at this time. We're curious to see what exactly the company will come up with and how it will position IoT products and services in India. However, it seems we're going to have to wait a little while to see how that plays out, as Smartron's focus right now is on a pair of relatively conventional products: a Windows 10 tablet and an Android smartphone. Today we're reviewing the Smartron t.book , a 2-in-1 tablet with a mid-range price and high-end aspirations . (Disclosure: The Smartron t.book is available via the Gadgets 360 Shop .) It's immediately reminiscent of Microsoft's iconic Surface line of tablets, though it should be noted that ...

A flurry of complaints from Uber drivers about an unusually high number of cancelled bookings was the spark that ignited a bitter legal fight with Ola, Uber's rival for dominance of India's $12 billion (roughly Rs. 79,820 crores) taxi market, according to court documents and a source with direct knowledge of Uber's case. A seven-member internal team was set up to investigate the drivers' complaints in November, and its findings are the basis of a lawsuit filed by Uber accusing Ola of a campaign to disrupt its business and poach its drivers, said the source. Ola , an Indian company backed by Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, denies any wrongdoing. Uber is suing Ola for $7.5 million (roughly Rs. 49 crores) to compensate for lost revenue and goodwill, alleging the Indian market leader created about 94,000 fake user accounts with the ride-hailing service and used them to make more than 405,000 false bookings. ( Also see:   Uber vs Ola in India: How Do They Stack Up? ) ...

Much like Destiny , Doom , Halo 5 , Call of Duty 3: Black Ops , and The Division , Gears of War 4 has a beta. It's now open to all , giving you a chance to experience its multiplayer modes. We checked it out to tell you what to expect. Developer The Coalition and Microsoft have waxed eloquent about Gears of War 4 running on Unreal Engine 4, and they're right to do so. Gone is the ugly pop-in and low-res textures that was commonplace with Unreal Engine 3 games. Instead we get a game that looks surprisingly good. So much so that it's a veritable showcase of what's possible. Be it urban environments, hydro-installations, or smooth character animations, everything is easy on the eyes. Visuals aside, the traversal is pretty much what you'd expect from a series in its fifth outing (the fourth game being Gears of War: Judgment). Though keep in mind it has more in common with the first three games than Judgment which felt more inline with the pace first-person shooter, w...

The tech firm Deep Space Industries (DSI) is headquartered on the second story of an aging office building at the edge of Nasa's Ames Research Center, not far from the town of Mountain View, California. Established in 1939 as a laboratory for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, a predecessor to Nasa , Ames is now part government research site, part industrial park, and part open-air museum - visitors pass rows of decommissioned rockets and the hulking skeleton of Hangar One, where the Navy once parked its experimental blimps in the 1930s. Shimmering nearby in the Pacific coast sun lies the sprawling aerospace facility owned by Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page . "The first time I came to Ames, I had the feeling I was standing between the history of spaceflight and its future," Sagi Kfir, an aviation attorney, told me when I visited earlier this year. "You've got Nasa labs here, but at the same time you're in Silicon Valley," he said...