Author: Aaditya Aurobindo

Microsoft’s next Windows 10 update, called the Autumn (or Fall in the US) Creators Update, will bring a variety of new features. But one long-standing stalwart of the Windows experience has been put on the chopping block: Microsoft Paint.

First released with the very first version of Windows 1.0 in 1985, Paint in its various guises would be one of the first graphics editors used by many and became a core part of Windows. Starting life as a 1-bit monochrome licensed version of ZSoft’s PC Paintbrush, it wasn’t until Windows 98 that Paint could save in JPEG.

With the Windows 10 Creators Update, released in April, Microsoft introduced the new Paint 3D, which is installed alongside traditional Paint and features 3D image making tools as well as some basic 2D image editing. But it is not an update to original Paint and doesn’t behave like it.

Now Microsoft has announced that, alongside Outlook Express, Reader app and Reading list, Microsoft Paint has been signalled for death having been added to the “features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update” list.

Falling under the deprecated column for apps that are “not in active development and might be removed in future releases” Microsoft Paint’s ticket has been called and now it’s only a matter of time before it is removed like your favourite piece of old furniture from your childhood home.

Paint was never one of the most capable apps, and was limited to the bitmap (BMP) and PCX formats until 1998, but if you wanted to scribble something out using your mouse or make a quick cut and paste job, Paint was always there, even on work computers.

The most recent version of Paint for Windows 7 and later was much improved, but still considered feature poor compared to other free alternatives such as the third-party Paint.NET.

When Microsoft Paint will officially be removed from Windows has yet to be confirmed, while a precise date for the release of the Windows 10 Autumn Creators Update is equally up in the air. Whether, like Clippy, Windows users will celebrate or decry Paint’s removal, it will be a moment in the history of Windows as one of its longest-standing apps is put out to pasture.

In a major move, Indian e-commerce giants Flipkart have introduced a new scheme called Buyback Guarantee.

According to this, for every smartphone purchased from Flipkart there will be a guarantee of receiving a specified amount of money on it’s sale.

This comes as a great news for people who like to frequently change their smartphones. Each specific model has it’s own Buyback amount predetermined.

According to Flipkart the price for the smartphone will not change irrespective of technological and market circumstances which means that the promised amount will be delivered.

Here are a few features of Buyback Guarantee.

Future Proof

Flipkart guarantees you the best exchange value based on the technological conditions prevailing today. This means that irrespective of your phone being outdated, it will fetch the same amount of money that was promised.

Convinient

If you’re thinking that it’s going to be a pain to go drop your phone each time you want to buy a new one this is for you. Flipkart brings a free pickup and drop facility to your doorstep.

Here are some examples of smartphones and their Buyback Guarantee prices.

Senheiser is one of the most popular audio brands and the company grabbed many headlines around the world when it came up with new version of its Orpheus range of premium headphones two years ago (mostly because of the $55,000 price tag). On Thursday, the company launched the successor to Orpheus, new Sennheiser HE 1, headphones in India. If you want to put your hand to your heart for the price, now is the time to do so, as the company has priced the headphones at Rs. 45 lakhs for the country and will be made available from May 27.

If you are wondering why these headphones cost as much as a house does, it could potentially be because the company says that just the development of these headphones took around a decade. As per company’s claims, the new HE 1 premium headphones offer “a frequency response that extends beyond the range of human hearing and the lowest total harmonic distortion that has ever been measured in an audio reproduction system.”

In order to achieve improved sound, the new Sennheiser HE 1 headphones use a tube amplifier. The amplifier comes with eight vacuum tubes that are used to process the incoming signal. The company claims that the use of tube amplifiers is because of their superior impulse processing. However, as the tubes are sensitive to air-borne-noise, the company says that it crafted amplifier housing from granular, inhomogeneous Carrara marble and says that it is freely suspended with the amplifier.

“The decoupling of the tubes in combination with the damping properties of the marble has the effect of reducing structure-borne noise to an absolute minimum. The tubes themselves also have a high-quality patent-pending enclosure consisting of quartz-glass bulbs that perfectly shield them from their surroundings,” the company said in its release. The tube amplifier is coupled with a ultra-high impulse amplifier stage integrated into the earcups.

“The headphones use a completely new amplifier concept that combines the superior impulse processing of a tube amplifier with the low distortion of a transistor amplifier to perfection,” said CEO Andreas Sennheiser. The company is also touting gold-vaporised ceramic electrodes and platinum-vaporised diaphragms for better acoustic output. Another highlight is a frequency response from 8Hz to 100KHz.

Commenting on the launch, Kapil Gulati, Director Consumer Segment said “We are very thrilled to have launched the world’s finest headphones, now in India. India has emerged as one of the biggest and fastest growing markets in the audiophile industry and with the launch of these headphones we have managed to set a new benchmark yet again. We at Sennheiser always thrive for excellence and are reshaping the future of high-end audio world in pursuit of perfect sound.”

[amazon_link asins=’B00D75AB6I,B00CMQFBG8,B003LPTAYI’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’thtesh0c-21′ marketplace=’IN’ link_id=’4ae20f74-5408-11e7-b016-9b62e35134b9′]

Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable brand.

Having led for the past five years by a considerable margin, the company was finally overtaken by Google, after Apple’s  brand value tumbled by 27 per cent to $107.1 billion in 2016.

Picture: Brand Finance

Google has managed to increase to $109.5 billion, while Amazon rocketed to a close third place of $106.4 billion, an increase of 53 per cent.

Picture: Brand Finance

These rankings are according to Brand Finance’sGlobal 500 rankings.

A graphic by HowMuch.net has worked out the world’s most valuable brands, by country.

The report found that the biggest gains in brand value over the past decade were to be found in Silicon Valley.

Picture: Brand Finance