Google to launch handset under $50 after conceding Android One 'didn't meet expectations'

Google will release phones under $50 in a bid to revamp the underwhelming Android One.

The new model, aimed at developing markets, has failed to take off since the launch last September with a $100 price cap.

Now, the firm's South East Asia managing director Rajan Anandan reveals they are going back to the drawing board, starting with a cut-price version in India.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Anandan conceded the product has 'not delivered to expectations' but said, 'it is like any company when you try to launch a new initiative – we had a few hiccups.' 

Google will launch phones under $50 to revamp the underwhelming Android One in developing markets

Though no details have been released about the new version, being announced 'in the next few weeks', Mr Anandan said it will be priced between $31 and $47.

And the firm will also look at providing offline maps and services such as YouTube for the vast swathes of South East Asia with poor internet connection. 

This step comes as Google rolls out its Project Loon - balloons built to carry internet connection to remote regions - in places such as Sri Lanka.

It is a fighting attempt at keeping a shoe in the door of a soon-to-be crucial market for mobile phone manufacturers and network providers.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3192813/Google-launch-handset-50-conceding-Android-One-didn-t-meet-expectations.html#ixzz3iaeSBEU1
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Robots strut their stuff at $3.5M DARPA Robotics Challenge in Pomona

Running Man, from the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition out of Pensacola, FL, exits a vehicle as it navigates the course Friday June 5, 2015 during the first day of the DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015 at Fairplex in Pomona. 25 teams from around the world compete for $3.5 million in prizes on a simulated disaster-response course at Fairplex in Pomona at the DARPA ...

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Running Man, from the Institute of Human and Machine Cognition in Pensacola, Florida, breaks through a piece of drywall as it navigates the course Friday at the $3.5 million DARPA Robotics Challenge 2015 at Fairplex in Pomona. will lester —staff photographer

POMONA >> Like something out of science fiction, nearly two dozen blinking, lumbering metal robots — with legs, arms and a spinning sensor for eyes — drove vehicles, stepped over debris, turned valves and cut holes in walls on Friday as part of the two-day, $3.5 million DARPA Robotics Challenge at Fairplex.

The world’s top robotics researchers competed in what has been called a historic effort to develop more robust and advanced robots that could assist humans in the event of a disaster or other emergency.

“We think this is one of the seminal events that we’ll look back on for when humanoid robotics and actually mobile robotics become a more permanent presence in the world around us,” said Paul Backes, program manager at Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which entered a monkey-like robot, called RoboSimian.

“The hope is obviously robots will someday be partners with humans, contributing to our well-being obviously in times of disaster and lending us a hand and extending independence to our own personal lives,” said Jared Adams, a spokesman for the Department of Advanced Research Projects Agency, which develops new technology for the Defense Department.

Leader of the robotics pack after Friday’s competition was Team Tartan Rescue from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, followed by Team NimBro Rescue, from the University of Bonn, Germany, and JPL’s RoboSimian, according to a DARPA app for the event.

• Photos: DARPA Robotics Challenge

The competition concludes Saturday. First-place finisher wins $2 million.

Joel Burdick, a Caltech professor of mechanical engineering and robotics, was on the JPL team, helping with programming RoboSimian’s movements.

“This (competition) is the first step to where robots can actually manipulate and maneuver and actually do serious complicated physical tasks,” Burdick said. “This represents where robotics is today with respect to those new challenges that have not been addressed before in an integrated way.”

The semi-autonomous robots, controlled by humans, according to officials, could go into scenarios that would normally be too hazardous for people.

Each team gets two competitive runs, with the first on Friday and the other today.