Raees Technical and Commercial Informatics.

Xiaomi/Weibo HIGHLIGHTS MIUI 10 will focus on artificial intelligenceXiaomi wants to make MIUI an "unfinished business"Xiaomi made the announcement at an MIUI event in China Xiaomi  has announced the development of  MIUI  10, its upcoming firmware based on Android. Hong Feng, vice president of Xiaomi, is said to have announced the MIUI 10 at an assembly meeting in China. At the annual event, the company discusses and reveals key developments of their MIUI milestones every year. Meanwhile, Xiaomi has already started to  roll out  the MIUI 9.2 update for some smartphones that are on  MIUI 9  already. Also, recently Xiaomi had  listed  the 40 smartphones that are eligible for the MIUI 9 update on Weibo. According to a  report  in MyDrivers, Xiaomi has said major research and development efforts of the MIUI team will now be moved from MIUI 9 to MIUI 10. Additionally, Xiaomi also  shared an image  of the event on Chinese m...

Nokia's comeback story is set to continue at this year's Mobile World Congress with the company set to launch a slew of new phones. HMD Global, the company that brought Nokia back into the smartphone game has sent out media invites for an event on February 25 - a day ahead of MWC 2018. Let's take a look at what Nokia is expected to announce at MWC 2018 in Barcelona: Nokia 9 HMD Global's first high-end flagship is expected to be slot in above the Nokia 8 and compete with the iPhones and Galaxy Notes of the world. The Nokia 9 is set to be powered by the Snapdragon 835 processor and come with dual cameras on the front as well as the back, a 3,250mAh battery and 128GB of internal storage. In a case of better late than never, Nokia is set to finally embrace the bezel-less mania with the Nokia 9 which is expected to come with a 5.5-inch OLED display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The Nokia 9 is also expected to carry forward the Bothie and OZO Audio features HMD Global intro...

Image Courtesy: PCWorld.com Windows 10 Build 17083 is today rolling out to the Windows Insiders on the Fast Ring and for those who opted in to Skip Ahead. Windows 10 Build 17083 is from the Redstone 4 branch and it comes with a series of new features which would improve your user experience. Windows 10 Build 17083 introduces a series of improvements but the software giant is removing the highly-anticipated Sets interface. With the latest Insider build, Microsoft is bringing Fonts to the Windows 10 App Store, introducing new privacy tools, improving Timeline feature and fixing the bugs. Windows 10 Build 17083 Full Changelog Fonts in the Microsoft Store Last year, we reported that Microsoft is experimenting with adding fonts to the Microsoft Store, as the software giant is in the process of making the store app the one destination for everything. Microsoft is now allowing users to download the Fonts from the Store with just a click. Fonts such as Arial Nova is alr...

Apple  on Tuesday announced a February 9 release date for its smart speaker called the  HomePod  - allowing the company that first popularised virtual assistants through its smartphones to finally enter the market for virtual assistants in the home. The looming question for the company, though, is whether it is too late. Apple is releasing its smart speaker nearly three years after the  Amazon Echo  and after the  Google Home , which launched in 2016. Apple also originally scheduled the HomePod to hit the market in December 2017 before the critical holiday shopping season. But the device was delayed until early 2018, past the time for avid shopping and gift giving. For those wondering whether they should buy Apple's new thing -- pre-orders are set for Friday -- here's a look at how the HomePod stacks up. By setting the price of the HomePod at $350 (roughly Rs. 22,200), Apple appears to be hoping consumers will see it as a premium device. For that...

Qualcomm was slapped with a €997 million ($1.2 billion) fine by the EU. The chipset company paid Apple to shun competitors between 2011 and 2016. According to the European Court, “billions of dollars” were involved in the deal for the 4G chips in iPhones and iPads. Margrethe Vestager, EU Competition Commissioner, said the deal meant that “no rival could effectively challenge Qualcomm in this market, no matter how good their products were”. The agreement between Qualcomm and Apple shut out mostly Intel, who supply iDevices since the launch of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. Vestager also added that the fine, equal to 4.9% of Qualcomm's income, must serve as a warning to other tech companies. She said Apple is in clear since there is no evidence of wrongdoing. The case against Qualcomm has parallels with the 2009 Intel lawsuit - a conglomerate pays off to computer manufacturers to shut out smaller competitors. The company is currently under investigation ...

The  Substratum  Theme Engine was updated yesterday to version 953, bringing support for Sony Xperia phones running Nougat and revamping the design for the Theme Showcase among other things. Perhaps the most welcome change for Sony Xperia owners still on Nougat is the ability to apply Substratum themes in “legacy mode.” As a reminder, it was Sony who first developed the Runtime Resource Overlay and later the Overlay Manager Service for Xperia phones and contributed the  code to AOSP , which is what makes Substratum work on other phones as well. The Theme Showcase has gone through some changes to its tabs as they are now listed vertically instead of the overly swipe-tastic horizontal list in previous builds, and the theme labels are in white text in better contrast to the corresponding thumbnail images. The database of themes included in the Showcase and the process of submitting themes to the Showcase have also been changed. The under-the-hood changes to the Showcase ar...

After numerous leaks and demoing the phone at CES 2018, vivo finally officially announced the X20 Plus UD. The launch marks the arrival of the first smartphone with fingerprint scanner under the display. The phone has an AMOLED display that allows the Clear ID 9500 sensor to work, while the rest of the specs match the already available  vivo X20 Plus . The phone arrives with a 6.43” screen of 18:9 ratio and FullHD+ resolution (2160 x 1080 pixels). The RAM on board is 4 GB, while the storage is 128 GB and it can be expanded through the hybrid slot if you don't need a second SIM. vivo equipped the  X20 Plus UD  with a dual camera on the back - main one having а 12 ÐœP sensor and a f/1.8 lens, while the secondary being 5 MP, although the company advertises it as a 24 MP camera. It also comes with 12 MP front camera and LED flash. The battery that is powering the phone has 3,905 mAh capacity and is charged through the USB-C connector. There is...

While prepaid tariff plans continue to get better every day, Airtel is trying its best to retain the postpaid users. The Sunil Mittal-led company is now offering up to Rs 100 discount on the  Airtel Postpaid plans. This rental discount is valid for six months. Apart from the base Rs 399 myPlan Infinity Postpaid Plan, all Airtel postpaid plans are eligible for Rs 100 rental discount for six months. This rental discount brings down the price of the monthly rental, allowing customers to stay in the postpaid. With the Rs 399 Airtel myPlan Infinity postpaid plan, Airtel is offering Rs 50 rental discount for six months. So the price of the Rs 399 plan will be Rs 349 for the next six months excluding the taxes. And  Airtel  is providing Rs 100 rental discount on Rs 499, Rs 799, and Rs 1199 postpaid plans, meaning the monthly rental of these plans come down to Rs 399, Rs 699, and Rs 1099, respectively. And the best part is the rental discount is valid for six months, not for o...

MediaTek is preparing to launch the Helio P40 and Helio P70 midrange chipsets in the upcoming weeks, and the latter just popped on AnTuTu. The SoC scored 156,906, which is higher than the Helio X30, Snapdragon 660 and Exynos 7872. The chipset that is expected to be unveiled at MWC 2018 scored 73,969 in CPU, which is above its upper mid-range competitors, but GPU result was 30,737, which is falling behind both the SD660 and Helio X30. UX score of the upcoming midranger is 41,089, outperformed only by the flagship Helio X30 but at least it is leading the SoC race in RAM with 11,111. The cumulative score is almost 157,000 which is higher than the result of a Snapdragon 821 in the  LG G6  or a Snapdragon 835 in the  Sony Xperia XZ Premium . The Helio P70 is expected to be built on the 12nm process by TSMC. It will have octa-core CPU, Mali G72 MP4 GPU, and Category 13 LTE modem. MediaTek is yet to announce any phone makers that will use the chipset. Source   (in Chi...

Detel, a mobile phone maker today announced a affordable feature phone with dual-SIM support at just Rs 399. Dubbed as the Detel D1+, this feature phone succeeds the earlier launched  Detel D1 , which created a disruption in the Indian market for Rs 349. The Detel D1+ is specially designed for visually impaired, senior citizens, and kids. This device comes with an interesting feature called ‘Talking feature.’ The Detel D1+ will be exclusively available on B2BAdda.com, from January 26, 2018. Firstly, Detel introduced a new feature called ‘ Talking Feature ,’ which utilises the speaker at the rear to provide audio alerts while dialling a phone number, browsing contacts, etc. Detel launched this feature phone in the vision to  ‘Connect the Unconnected.’ Talking about the features of the Detel D1+, it offers dual SIM slot, torchlight, GPRS web browser, 3D speaker, microSD card support. Interestingly, the D1+ will be available in seven co...

The previous cashback of Rs. 10,000 has been increasedIt is applicable on HDFC card and consumer loan EMI transactionsThe offer is valid till March 11 HDFC Bank  has partnered with  Apple  India to extend a cashback of up to Rs. 12,000 on purchase of several iPhone models including the  iPhone X ,  iPhone 8 ,  iPhone 8 Plus , and more. The offer is valid on EMI transactions on HDFC Bank credit cards, debit cards, and consumer durable loans. The scheme is valid till March 11 across Apple resellers in India. Cashback will be credited on or before 90 business days, and the offer is valid on a maximum of two transactions per card per category during the given period. Cashback on the Apple iPhone X will be Rs. 12,000. Customers can  avail  Rs. 10,000 cashback on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Rs. 3,000 cashback on the  iPhone 7 and  7 Plus , Rs. 2,000 cashback on the  iPhone 6s  and  6s Plus , and Rs. 1,000 cashback on the  i...

A report in WSJ says WhatsApp Good Morning messages are clogging up smartphones in India and slowing down these mobiles. Here's how Google's Files Go app can help users to clear up space on their phone. Google Files Go app: How to delete WhatsApp ‘Good morning’ messages and more A report in WSJ says WhatsApp Good Morning messages are clogging up smartphones in India and slowing down these mobiles. Here's how Google's Files Go app can help users to clear up space on their phone. Google Files Go App: This is more than just about deleting all those WhatsApp Good Morning messages. Here’s how it works. For smartphone users in India, figuring out how to clear space on the device can often be a challenge. Yes, 32GB storage phone with microSD support might be the new standard here, but this is often never enough given the love for WhatsApp forwards in India and phones tend to fill up fast on storage. In fact,  Wall Street Journal  has reported on how WhatsApp forwards, espe...

HIGHLIGHTS Vodafone partners with Flipkart to offer a range of 4G smartphonesEffective price comes after receiving cashbacksA minimum recharge worth Rs. 150 is required to avail cashback Vodafone  on Wednesday tied up with  Flipkart  to bring a range of entry-level 4G smartphones to India at an effective price of Rs. 999. The latest partnership comes months after the telco  partnered  with  Micromax  and China's Transsion Group-owned  Itel Mobile  to make their entry-level options even more affordable. All existing and new Vodafone prepaid subscribers can avail the new offer, which is available under Flipkart's #MyFirst4GSmartphone campaign, and get cashbacks to make their purchases sweeter than before. To avail the new offer, Vodafone subscribers who purchase an eligible smartphone from Flipkart will need to recharge their prepaid accounts with a minimum denomination of Rs. 150 per month for 36 months. The recharges can be of any denomin...

KOLKATA:  Reliance Jio  Infocomm's new mass-connect Rs 98-a-month 4G plan, seen as a highlight of its second successive cut in effective rates in two weeks, is likely to cause another round of market disruption and more revenue erosion for incumbents Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and  Idea Cellular , analysts said.  Brokerage  JPMorgan  said  Jio 's Rs 98/month plan - offering 2GB of data with a 28-days validity span — "could really hurt incumbents", as it is aimed squarely "at attracting the next layer of 4G data subscribers".  This plan, the brokerage said, "would cause another round of ARPU (average revenue per user) downgrades in the industry for plans catering to entry-level data subscribers", adding that Jio's strategy in the immediate term appears to be cornering "a mass segment of incumbents' price sensitive voice/non-data subscribers on to its Rs 98/month plan, which is its most affordable 4G plan, in step with its rapid mar...

Xiaomi is apparently working on a successor to last year's  Mi 5X , which will unsurprisingly be called Mi 6X. This model is allegedly pictured in the hands-on images you can see below, which come from two different sources. Although overall the design seems similar between the gold and black units depicted, don't take any of this for granted just yet. The Mi 6X is going with an iPhone X lookalike vertical dual rear camera arrangement, whereas its predecessor 'emulated' the design of the iPhone 7 Plus in this regard. The phone obviously sports an 18:9 touchscreen, possibly a 5.99" panel. Xiaomi might actually unveil (or at least showcase) this handset at MWC next month, and it may be powered by the company's own  Surge S2 chipset . This will have an octa-core CPU with four Cortex-A73 cores clocked at up to 2.2 GHz and four Cortex-A53 cores at up to 1.8 GHz. The GPU employed is the Mali-G71 MP8. Interestingly, the Mi 5X was also launched as the  Mi A1  in s...

Samsung is unveiling its latest flagship smartphone in Barcelona on February 25th Image: Samsung Samsung sent out invites this evening to its planned Galaxy S9 launch event next month, which is now slated for February 25th in Barcelona. We knew that Samsung was  saving the reveal of its next flagship smartphone  for the Mobile World Congress conference in Spain, which officially runs from February 26th to March 1st. It appears now we have a date and time, with the Samsung Unpacked event kicking off at 6PM CET (12PM ET / 9AM PT) a day ahead of MWC’s start. The event will be live streamed via Samsung’s website. Usually, these kinds of invites are either completely obtuse or subtly revealing, and yet Samsung’s this go around is a bit down the middle. The invite text, “Camera, reimagined,” isn’t exactly groundbreaking. Cameras are “reimagined” every year by Apple, Samsung, and every other phone maker under the sun, very occasiona...

Amidst the high-competition in the Indian market, state-run telco  Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)  has introduced a new Rs 191 tariff plan for its subscribers in Telangana region. Under the prepaid recharge plan Rs 191, BSNL is providing all benefits including voice calls, data, and SMS. The telco is calling this plan as Voice STV 191, and it’s a promotional offer, meaning it will be valid for 90 days from the date of introduction. According to BSNL’s official website, this offer is valid between January 10, 2018, to April 9, 2018. After the completion of 90 days, BSNL may extend the validity benefit or completely kill the plan. The  BSNL Voice STV 191  gives unlimited voice calling to any network while in the home circle. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer free roaming voice calls. The plan also offers 1GB data per day, but the data benefit is unlimited as post-1GB FUP every day, users can still enjoy data speed at 80 Kbps, which is enough to send and receiv...

Apple is  readying three iPhones  for this fall's big launch, according to rumors we've heard last year. Two of those will have OLED panels like the  iPhone X , and in fact one will be a direct successor to the model that's available now, featuring the exact same screen size. The third iPhone has been said to sport a 6.1" LCD display, and it's expected to become Apple's entry-level model of 2018, starting at $700 to $800. Now a new rumor out of Taiwan claims to know exactly which screen panel it will employ:  JDI's bezel-starved model  introduced last June. This comes with 18:9 aspect ratio, 2,160x1,080 resolution, and has slim bezels on all four sides - that's pretty much a prerequisite for any high-end or upper-midrange phone in this day and age. JDI's 'Full Active' LCD panel in question It thus appears that the LCD iPhone will deliver another 'full screen' look, but there may be a notch in there just to keep all three hand...

Bharti Airtel will be absorbing around two-third employees of Telenor India and Tata Teleservices' consumer mobility business after merger with both companies, The report adds that the Sunil Mittal-led telecom company may post about 15 percent of the employees from the two telcos overseas, including Africa. An Airtel spokesperson told the newspaper: "It is inevitable in a post-merger scenario that all employees will not find meaningful roles and accordingly, will be provided complete support to deal with such an outcome. An exercise is under way to map the employee pool to the post-merger requirements." Airtel  is likely to absorb as many employees as it can within the Indian telecom business while "a few will be offered opportunities across its international operations and other group companies," the spokesperson added. According to the report,  Tata Teleservices (TTSL) consumer mobility business employed around 5,000 in October while Telenor India ...

Last week, Huawei  announced that it will soon start rolling out its upgraded operating system — EMUI 8.0, which is based on Android 8.0 Oreo. Now, the company has announced the list of devices that will be receiving this new software update. The list of phones includes  Honor V10 , Honor 9, Honor V9,  Honor 7X , Honor 8 Youth,  Honor 8 ,  Honor V8  and  Honor Note 8 . Interestingly, all the models which are slated to receive this new EMUI 8.0 update are powered by the company’s own Kirin chipset. However, the company’s official has said that the update for these models is still under development. The company has not yet provided any timeline for the update. Huawei has described the upgraded EMUI 8.0 as “an avant-garde technological software which is efficient, secure and above all, user-friendly.” According to the company, EMUI 8.0 — which is the successor to EMUI 5.1 — comes with artificial intelligence that makes the software e...

InFocus M7s is priced at TWD 4,290 in TaiwanThe smartphone features a 5.7-inch HD+, 18:9 displayIt sports a dual camera setup on the back InFocus  on Tuesday unveiled the  M7s  in Taiwan as its latest model with 18:9 aspect ratio-featuring display. The new model comes with a price tag of TWD 4,290 (approximately Rs. 9,300). While the handset initially exclusive to the Taiwanese market, it is likely to be available in some other global markets in the coming future. It will be available in Obsidian Black and Platinum Light Gold colour options. The dual-SIM (Nano) InFocus M7s runs Android 7.0 Nougat and features a 5.7-inch HD+ (720x1440 pixels) On-Cell IPS display with 18:9 aspect ratio and a 2.5D curved glass protection. The handset is powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6737H SoC, which is clocked at 1.3GHz and is paired with 3GB of RAM. InFocus has provided a dual rear camera setup on the M7s that has a 13-megapixel primary sensor with f/2.0 aperture and a 5-megapix...

Lenovo Yoga 920 has latest Intel 8th generation Core processors and features watchband hinge design for convertible design. Lenovo has launched Yoga 920 Vibes, a limited edition premium convertible notebook, in India with a price tag of Rs 1,27,150 excluding Goods and Service Tax (GST). As the name suggests, the newly launched Yoga 920 Vibes is the direct successor to Yoga 910, and it sits at the top of the price spectrum in Lenovo’s Yoga series. The Yoga 920 and Yoga 920 Vibes were first  showcased  at IFA 2017 in Berlin in late August, and makes use of Intel’s newest 8th generation Core processors. Like it’s predecessor, the Yoga 920 series sports a 13.9-inch touchscreen display with 4K UHD (3840×2160 pixels) resolution, and comes with support for an option stylus with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity and low lag. Lenovo’s new laptop is powered by Intel Core i7-8550U, a quad-core processor with eight threads, 6MB L3 cache and maximum clock frequency of 4GHz. Wh...

HIGHLIGHTS Hardcase H240S new feature phone is an ultra-durable mobile, says companyThe feature phone is dust and water resistantThe 4G feature phone runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow Avenir Telecom, a licensee of the  Energizer  brand, launched a new feature phone on Tuesday. The  Energizer Hardcase H240S  is a 4G feature phone.Notably, the phone runs Android, but without access to Google Play - users will have to settle for the pre-installed apps on board. The company has pitched the new feature phone as an ultra-durable mobile. It is IP68 certified, which makes it dust and water resistant handset. Avenir says that phone is designed with reinforced materials, which enables it to withstand drops from a height of up to 1.2 metres, making it shock proof. Also, the phone is also capable of immersion in up to 1.2 metres of water for 30 minutes, the company says. With a hybrid dual-SIM slot, this feature phone supports two SIM cards or a SIM card and a microSD card....

Wish you could do more with your phone than just run  Android ?  Codeweavers  is working to sort you out: it’s just  released version 3.0 of the Wine compatibility layer  for Linux-based systems, which can now be built into an APK package and installed on your Android device. Once you grab the installer from  this page  and install it on your device ( Android Police noted  that it works better on some phones like the OnePlus 5T, and crashes on others like the Google Pixel from 2016), you’ll be greeted by a full-screen  Windows  7 interface – Start menu and all. In addition, Wine v3 works better with x86 Android devices than those powered by ARM processors; if you’re on the latter, you’ll be limited to running apps that were ported to Windows RT (the XDA Developers forum has  a nice list  of them). Regardless of your processor type, you’ll need to bring your own Windows programs to the devi...