Kult, a home-grown mobile brand that debuted in the Indian smartphone industry with Kult 10 back in 2015, on Monday launched its new smartphone, Kult Impulse. The key features of the budget smartphone include a 5.99-inch 18:9 TruView 2.5D curved glass display, Face Unlock, 13-megapixel rear and front cameras, a quad-core processor, and more. The smartphone will come in two colour variants - Black and Blue.

In terms of pricing, the Kult Impulse costs Rs. 8,999 and will be available across India starting Tuesday (May 15). Also, the smartphone comes with a Reliance Jio cashback offer worth Rs. 2,200, applicable on select recharge plans for new and existing Jio subscribers. At its price range, the Kult Impulse will compete against Xiaomi's Redmi smartphones.

Commenting on the launch, Nitesh Gupta, Director, New Product Development, Kult, said, "KultImpulse is designed, keeping in mind, the inspirers' attitude. The beautiful built, powerful features and affordability together really pack a punch. At Kult, our focus has been to offer the best possible technology, innovation and an immersive experience to the users."

The dual-SIM (Micro and Nano) Kult Impulse runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The smartphone sports a 5.99-inch HD+ (720x1440 pixels) 2.5D Curved display with TruView technology. It is powered by the quad-core MediaTek MTK6739 processor clocked up to 1.5GHz, with ARM Mali-T720 MP1 650MHz GPU. The handset is equipped with 3GB RAM.

In terms of optics, the Kult Impulse features a 13-megapixel rear camera with auto-focus, dual-LED flash, and f/2.0 aperture. On the front, the smartphone sports a 13-megapixel selfie camera with LED flash and f/2.0 aperture. As mentioned, the front camera comes with facial recognition technology. The Kult Impulse comes with 32GB of inbuilt storage, expandable via microSD card (up to 64GB).

Connectivity optics in the Kult Impulse include 4G VoLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, OTG support, Micro-USB, 3.5mm jack, and FM radio. Sensors on board the smartphone are an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, and proximity sensor. It also has a fingerprint scanner.

The Kult Impulse is powered by a 4000mAh battery. In terms of dimensions, the smartphone measures 164.8x76.74x8.65mm.

An updated version of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, tailored for eventual crewed missions for NASA, made its debut launch on Friday from Florida's Cape Canaveral carrying a communications satellite for Bangladesh into orbit.

The newly minted Block-5 edition of the Falcon 9 - equipped with about 100 upgrades for greater power, safety and reusability than its Block-4 predecessor - lifted off at 4:14 p.m. EDT (2014 GMT) from the Kennedy Space Center.

Minutes later, the rocket's main-stage booster flew itself back to Earth to achieve a safe return landing on an unmanned platform vessel floating in the Pacific Ocean.

The recoverable Block-5 booster is designed to be reused at least 10 times with minimal refurbishment between flights, allowing more frequent launches at lower cost - a key to the SpaceX business model.

Enhanced rocket reusability also is a core tenet of SpaceX owner and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk's broader objectives of making space travel commonplace and ultimately sending humans to Mars.

SpaceX has safely return-landed 24 of its boosters and reflown 11 of them.

Friday's flight marked the ninth SpaceX launch so far this year, compared to five orbital-class missions the company had logged at the same point in 2017, according to Musk.

It came a day after the original launch countdown was halted one minute before blastoff due to a technical problem detected by the rocket's onboard computers. Friday's second attempt by SpaceX, formally known as Space Exploration Technologies, appeared to have gone off without a hitch.

The rocket's payload, the Bangladeshi government's first communications satellite, Bangabandhu-1, was placed into Earth orbit at 4:47pm EDT, just 33 minutes after launch, according to SpaceX.

The achievement was hailed by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a livestream appearance from the country's capital, Dhaka.

"Today is a very delightful and glorious day for our motherland, Bangladesh, and Bangalee nation," she said. "With launching of Bangabandhu Satellite-1, we are hoisting our national flag in the space."

The Block-5 also marks another milestone for Musk's California-based company. It is expected to be the first SpaceX vehicle to satisfy NASA's standards for its Commercial Crew Program to carry agency astronauts to the International Space Station. NASA requires seven successful flights before the new rocket receives final certification for a manned mission.

Besides missions to the space station, the new rocket will be used to launch U.S. Air Force global positioning satellites and other high-value, military and national security payloads.

Block-5 marks the final version of the Falcon 9 lineup before SpaceX introduces its super heavy-lift launch vehicle, dubbed the Big Falcon Rocket, or BFR, which will be designed to send manned missions to Mars.

SpaceX is one of two private companies hired by NASA to ferry astronaut crews to the space station. The other is Boeing Co.

The trailer for Rage 2 has leaked. Sequel to 2011's Rage it was first revealed via a listing on the Walmart Canada website. Now a trailer showing off what you can expect is now public thanks to pre-roll ads on YouTube before an official reveal from Bethesda that's slated for May 14. While there's no gameplay, it seems to be far less serious than the first game in terms of tone. In fact, it's quite reminiscent of the Borderlands games in its attitude. There are quick cuts of several enemy types including ghosts, scorchers, mutants, soldiers from the Authority and a huge monster similar to the one you square off against in the Dead City level of the first game. These shots of the game's enemies is coupled with an audio track inviting players to "get ready to die". 

Expect a full gameplay reveal at Bethesda's E3 2018 conference. You can watch the Rage 2 trailer right here. In the event Bethesda takes down the trailer from YouTube, Gematsu has a backup posted here.

Furthermore, Rage 2 could be out in 2018 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Since Fallout 4, Bethesda has shortened the time between revealing a game and its availability. But with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Red Dead Redemption 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Spider-Man already cued for release towards the end of the year, it would be interesting to see if Rage 2 does indeed release this year.

Apple has confirmed plans to use drones or aerial vehicles to help gather extensive information and enhance its much-lambasted Apple Maps service. This development comes right after the US Transportation Department on Wednesday announced the approval of drone licensing for 10 corporations in the North American country, including Apple. Other winners of the contract include ride services company Uber, micro chip maker Intel, delivery company FedEx, and others. Interestingly enough, projects for the world's biggest non-military drone seller, DJI, and Amazon were rejected in the round that saw a total of 149 bids.

The Cupertino giant said that it has plans to use this testing programme as an opportunity to better Apple Maps after several failures in the past. Aerial images are touted, by Apple, as the next hope to save a sinking ship for its Google Maps competitor. This development comes months after a report suggested Apple is actively looking to use drones for aerial mapping on Apple Maps. This is clearly a move to take on its ultra-popular competitor - Google Maps.

"Apple is committed to protecting people's privacy, including processing this data to blur faces and license plates prior to publication," said the tech giant to Reuters as a response to queries around usage of drones for Apple Maps. The company also stated that it plans to use the drone testing programme in North Carolina in order to gather information for improving Apple Maps.

US Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said that dozens of the unapproved projects could receive approval in the coming months subject to certain waivers or compliance to existing rules. She, also, did not rule out Amazon's project receiving approval citing a rigorous process.

Launched last year, the new US drone testing initiative puts the country on the map of countries with standardised drone regulation mechanisms, a sector where US had been lagging for the past few years.

Xiaomi Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver and Mi Selfie Stick were two products the company unveiled in India last month. They were a part of Xiaomi's Mi Crowdfunding campaign that the brand had unveiled, and it was up to the users whether they will be released in the country. At the time, Xiaomi had posted a curated list of "innovation-driven" products that it planned to sell only when a certain number of people are interested. On Saturday, Xiaomi declared the campaign to be a "great success," and made the products available officially in India.

Announced on Twitter, Xiaomi's Mi Crowdfunding for Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver and Mi Selfie Stick has been successful. The company has started to sell both the products on its India site.

The first product is the Bluetooth Audio Receiver that costs Rs. 999. The device, meant to provide wireless music, comes with a single key function that turns on the earphones, connects to Bluetooth, plays and pauses music, and answer calls as well. It comes with Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, and a headphone amplifier chip.

Xiaomi claims that the 97mAh battery onboard can be fully charged within 2 hours and support 4-5 hours of playback. The device weighs 10 grams and comes with a 3.5mm audio jack. Users can pair up to two handsets but only one of them can be connected at one time. Notably, the product does not have the volume key function of Apple and Apple certified MFI earphones. It is available in a White colour.

Next is Mi Selfie Stick Tripod, which the company has priced at Rs. 1,099. It is a selfie stick and tripod combined into one unit and comes with a Bluetooth shutter remote. It is equipped with Bluetooth 3.0, meaning it will support smartphones running Android 4.3 and higher, and iOS 5.0 and higher. The Mi Selfie Stick Tripod is able to rotate 360 degrees and comes with an adjustable grip to "accommodate the largest smartphones like Mi Max 2." The product comes in only one Black colour variant, measures 45x49.5x190mm, and weighs 155 grams. Xiaomi promises that it will be shipped within 10 days of successful completion of the project.