Samsung Galaxy A80 has gone on sale in India today. A few weeks ago, Samsung had officially announced the arrival of the Galaxy A80 smartphone in India. Prior to this, Samsung Galaxy A80 was launched globally in April this year. The smartphone had gone up on pre-orders from July 22 to July 31.
Samsung Galaxy A80 has today gone on sale on the company’s official website, offline stores, and all the leading online stores. The key highlights of the smartphone include rotating camera setup, a bezel-less display and features like Super Steady Mode and Live Focus videos. The device is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 SoC. Here are all the sale details that you should know about:
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Samsung Galaxy A80 price in India, launch offers
Samsung Galaxy A80 has been launched in a single variant in India that has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The smartphone is priced at Rs47,990. Samsung Galaxy A80 is available in three colour variants: Angel Gold, Ghost White, and Phantom Black. The newly launched device is up for sale on Samsung India website, Amazon India and Flipkart. The device will also be available for purchase on all the leading retail stores as well as the Samsung Opera House.
Coming to the launch offers, the company is offering five percent cashback for the Citibank credit card users. Samsung is also offering an additional discount of Rs 3,000 on the exchange of old smartphones. On the other hand, Flipkart is offering a 5 percent cash back to the Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card users. On the purchase of the smartphone using HDFC Bank debit cards, Amazon is offering a cashback of 5 percent.
Samsung Galaxy A80 specifications
Samsung Galaxy A80 comes with a 6.7-inch full-HD+ (1080×2400 pixels) super AMOLED ‘New Infinity Display’ that has an aspect ratio of 20:9 along with an in-display fingerprint sensor. The smartphone runs Android Pie with One UI baked on top. The Galaxy A80 is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 730G SoC coupled with 8GB of RAM. The device offers a 128GB of internal memory and it houses of a 3,700mAh battery that supports 25W fast charging.
On imaging duties, Samsung Galaxy A80 sports a rotating camera module that includes a 48MP primary sensor with an f/2.0 lens, an 8MP secondary ultra-wide-angle sensor and a 3D depth camera with an IR sensor. When the user goes for the selfie mode, the camera module automatically slides up and rotates. In addition to this, it comes with a Super Steady mode that claims to lessen video shake. It comes with pre-loaded with other numbers of features that improve the photography experience of the user.
The connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, and USB Type-C.
Payment apps are a boon in today’s time. It is because of these apps that digital payments are slowly replacing transactions with traditional money. While five years back people felt helpless on forgetting their wallet at home, today, it is really no big deal as most of the payments can be made via smartphones. However, a major downside to digital payments is that it is hard to recognize suspicious transactions. To help users identify them with ease, Google Pay will be sending them app notifications and SMS alerts to inform them that approving the request would deduct money from their account.
Google has also added that the additional notification will be going live in India first. Speaking about this, Ambarish Kenghe, Director, Product Management, Google Pay said in a blog post, “We are mindful that at Google Pay, users are entrusting us with their most sensitive asset – their money. We are conscious of the responsibility that comes with this trust.” He also added, “The above security features, and a lot more ongoing work in this direction, are a small example of how we keep our users safe.”
It is worth mentioning that in the last two years, a number of Indians have started preferring to make payments via instant bank-to-bank transfers via Unified Payments Interface (UPI). After demonetisation of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes were announced by the government, scores of Indians had adopted digital payments for the first time.
The company has also said in the blog post that Google Pay has a number of its security infrastructure like scam protections. The app uses Machine Learning-based scam prevention models and it displays explicit warnings of ‘scam’ and ‘stranger’ in case a request that the user receives comes from a suspicious person. It does the same when the request is made by someone who is not in the user’s contacts.
Google Pay has some other security features besides scam protection that are already present in it. These include secure access via PIN, exhaustive risk relations check to block fraudsters and warnings during collect requests.
The technology giant has also said in its blog post that it had launched Google Pay with “the best of Google’s security infrastructure, leveraging our experience of 20 years of bringing some of the world’s most helpful technology products to billions of users worldwide.”
Google is known to regularly add new features to its various apps and services to make it more useful for users. What do you think of the latest feature that has come to Google Pay? Let us know in the comments below!
Chinese technology company Vivo has launched its Vivo Z5 smartphone in its home country. The device is the company’s latest mid-range offering and it comes with a waterdrop-shaped notch on its display and is powered by Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 712 SoC clubbed with up to 8GB of RAM. The handset has a Super Night View 2.0+ that is said to boost low-light camera quality. The device also comes with Multi-Turbo for enhanced gaming performance.
Vivo has also added a beauty mode that is backed by artificial intelligence to recognise 103 different facial features. According to the company, this results in better selfies. The Vivo Z5 also has support for OTG reverse charging and it works with 22.5W flash charge. Here’s a look at the price details and specifications of the Vivo Z5 smartphone:
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Vivo Z5 price
The Vivo Z5 is available in four storage variants in China. While three come with 6GB of RAM, their storage capacities are 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The price of the three variants of Vivo Z5 is CNY 1,598 (approximately Rs 16,000), CNY 1,898 (approximately Rs 19,000), and CNY 1,998 (approximately Rs 20,000) respectively. The most high-end variant of the Vivo Z5 has 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage that costs CNY 2,298 (approximately Rs 23,000).
The handset is available in Aurora Illusion, Bamboo Forest Night, and Holographic Illusion colour variants in China. The three variants that come with 6GB of RAM have gone on sale from Vivo’s online store already, however, the 8GB RAM model will be going on sale starting August 6.
Vivo Z5 specifications and features
Vivo Z5 has support for dual SIM cards and runs Android 9.0 Pie skinned with FunTouch OS 9.1. The smartphone comes with a 6.38-inch full-HD+ Super AMOLED display and is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 712 SoC. The device comes with up to 8GB of RAM and it has up to 128GB of internal storage.
For imaging duties, Vivo Z5 comes with a triple rear camera setup that comprises of a 48MP primary sensor that has an f/1.79 aperture, an 8MP wide-angle sensor that has an f/2.2 lens and a 2MP third sensor that has an f/2.4 lens. For selfies and video calls, there is a 32MP sensor that comes with an f/2.0 aperture.
The new offering from Vivo houses a 4,500mAh battery that has support for 22.5W Flash Charge and for connectivity, it has 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Micro-USB with OTG support, Bluetooth, GPS and a 3.5mm headphone jack. The handset also comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner.
According to a new report by Counterpoint Research OnePlus has become the leading premium smartphone brand in India. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer managed to capture 42 percent of the premium market share. As per the report the growth has been achieved by the launch of OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro in the country in the period of the second quarter of 2019. OnePlus is the first Chinese smartphone brand that has achieved the highest market share in the country.
Commenting on the report, Vikas Agarwal, General Manager, OnePlus India said, “OnePlus focuses on offering the premium technology experience. Our user-driven product philosophy has helped us sustain the remarkable growth despite the slowdown in the industry. We are especially excited about growing the premium smartphone segment that is under-penetrated for several years with less than 5% share of the total smartphone segment”.
Brands like Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, and Huawei have also entered this segment. The report says that this segment is going to be hyper-competitive in the second half of 2019. Looking at the competitive background, the combined share of OnePlus, Samsung and Apple was 85% during the quarter down from 88% level a year ago.
After falling behind Samsung in the First Quarter of 2019 OnePlus saw a strong growth after the launch of its flagship smartphone OnePlus 7 series that rescued the highest position. The Chinese smartphone brand managed to break into the elite club by capturing the highest shipment share of 43 percent in this segment. It widens the space between Samsung and Apple by offering premium flagship features in India at an affordable price. The report says, “With multiple model strategy, OnePlus debuted into the ultra-premium segment (Rs 45,000 or roughly US$645) with OnePlus 7 Pro and immediately captured 26% share. This ultra-premium segment is a subset of the overall premium segment and usually led by Samsung and Apple. With healthy sales of Samsung Galaxy S10-series, OnePlus 7 Pro and Apple iPhone XR the volumes in this segment almost doubled”
Samsung went down to the second position in premium-segment holding a 22% share. It saw a decline of 16 percent year on year. On the other hand, promotions for the S10 series continue to be stronger.
“Galaxy S10 Plus was the top model for Samsung despite the availability of cheaper Galaxy S10e. This shows that India consumers are ready to pay more for a premium experience.”
During the second quarter of 2019, the sales of Apple smartphones doubled after its iPhone XR received a price cut. The company is also focusing on local manufacturing within the country. This will help them save 20% on import duties and can potentially pass on to consumers or use it to build its retail footprint and upcoming festive season discounting/marketing.
PUBG Mobile has today released the patch notes of its version 0.14.0. PUBG Mobile 0.14.0 is available to download on Android as well as iOS. The new update gets the functionality as well as get new content to the game.
According to PUBG, the latest 0.14.0 update gets security improvements, in-game changes and a new vehicle to the game. Here’s a look at all the changes that have been made PUBG Mobile 0.14.0:
Android Resources Extension Pack: The size of the Android installation package and added Resource Expansion Pack has been reduced. We should mention that the latter contains some rarely used equipment and resources that are displayed with a placeholder icon until the time the user downloads the Pack.
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Mode Selection UI adjusted:
Added tier information in Classic
Matchmaking and Settings are now on the same page
Visual effects improved
Daily Mission redesigned: (Not available on the test server yet)
The number of Daily Missions are reduced and there have been changes in rewards.
Daily Missions will be released randomly. Players will also have the option of switching to random missions in the mission pool up to three times a day.
New Feature: Infection Mode
In this asymmetric PVP mode, players will randomly be divided into Zombies and Defenders. Defenders will be able to use firearms, but Zombies will only be able to use melee attacks and abilities with cooldown time.
Another notable thing is that Zombies can be revived in case they are defeated by Defenders, however, the same is not the case for Defenders. In case Defenders get killed by Zombies, they will turn into Zombies themselves. If all Defenders are infected, zombies win; but even if just 1 Defender survives by the end, then the Defenders win.
Character System:
At the beginning of the game, each player gets a character.
Characters start with one skill that is effective only in EvoGround.
The outfits, voices, emotes and MVP emotes of the characters can be customized.
Level up the characters and collect progress rewards by playing with them in any mode to earn EXP.
Level V and rewards added for some achievements:
Battle-Hardened V: Reach Ace.
Fun Times V: Complete 800 matches in Arcade.
Classic Lover V: Complete 1000 matches in Classic.
Evo Tactician I-V: Complete 5/20/50/100/200 matches in EvoGround.
Perseverance V: Log in consecutively for 60 days.
Assault Mastery V: Kill 2000 enemies with Assault Rifles.
Sniper Mastery V: Kill 1000 enemies with Sniper Rifles.
Shotgun Mastery V: Kill 1000 enemies with Shotguns.
SMG Mastery V: Kill 2000 enemies with SMG.
Melee Mastery V: Kill 200 enemies with Melee.
Pistol Mastery V: Kill 200 enemies with Pistols.
Deathbringer V: Kill 2000 enemies.
Skull Collector V: 200 Kill enemies with headshots.
Field Medic V: Revive teammates 500 times.
Predator V: Kill 20 enemies in a single Classic match.
Chicken Bucket V: Win 50 matches.
PUBG Elite V: Earn 555 SSS rating
Epic Find V: Earn 100 different permanent outfits(Legendary).
Mythic Fashion I-V: Earn 1/5/10/20/50 different permanent outfits(Mythic).
Social Butterfly V: Reach 120 in-game friends.
Brothers in Arms V: Team up with friends 1000 times.
Santa Claus V: Gift an item to a friend 100 times.
Center of Attention V: Earn 600 LIKEs.
Happy Training V: Complete 1000 Clan Trainings.
Shopaholic V: Spend 1000000BP.
Perfectionist V: Reach the highest Royale Pass rank for 6 seasons in a row.
The selection logic for firearms and vehicles has been improved.
Players can now choose to show the helmets and backpacks in the main menu
Added new zoom feature to zoom in on the character when viewing firearms, hats, glasses, face accessories and backpacks
Improved outfits: After the update, if the outfit being previewed is in conflict with the currently equipped outfit, the current outfit will be unequipped to make sure the previewed outfit displays correctly.
The company launched the Samsung Galaxy X Cover 4s smartphone last month. Now it is expected that soon the South Korean giant is planning to launch another rugged smartphone. Rumours mills were rife that in the near future the company is also planning to release the official renders of the Samsung Galaxy Active. It is the same smartphone that is considered to be the rugged version of the Galaxy S9. It was also spotted at MWC in February this year.
Now, the company has officially released the fresh renders of Samsung Galaxy Active online. The smartphone is stated to be powered by the Exynos 9810 SoC. The smartphone will be available in 4GB RAM option. The Galaxy Active is believed to be featuring a 5.2-inch display with 2,540 x 1,440 pixels resolution. The mobile is likely to house a 4,500mAh battery. Over that, it will be sporting three capacitive buttons beneath the screen. While the fingerprint sensor is placed beside the camera set up.
Now coming on the imaging duties, the Samsung Galaxy Active smartphone is expected to come up with a 12.2-megapixel rear camera along with 8-megapixel front-facing camera. The camera set up is basically similar to Samsung Galaxy S9. One can also see an AT&T logo at the back of the device. The date of its release also matches with the Galaxy Note 10’s Unpacked event. However, the company has not confirmed if the smartphone will be launched during the same event.
Image courtesy:Twitter/ Evan Blass
Unconnectedly, Samsung has also planned to announce the launch Galaxy Watch Active 2 on August 5. The smartwatch is the successor of Galaxy Watch Active. The upcoming smartwatch by Samsung will be available in three models including an LTE version. All the three models will be an LTE model, a Bluetooth-only model, and an Under Armour-branded Bluetooth version. All the three models of the smartwatch will be available either in a 44mm or 40mm case sizes. The smartwatch will come with a few heart-related features in the smartwatch at the launch event that will include alerts if the user’s heart rate jumps too high or drops too low.
Apple iPhone is considered to be the most modern and hot selling smartphone in India. The company is planning to launch its most anticipated 2019 line-up of iPhones shortly the iPhone 7 will soon receive its most awaited iOS 13. This will be rolled out by the company in a few months’ time. The iPhone 7 by Apple was launched in September 2016. It features a 4.70-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 750×1,334 pixels at a pixel density of 326 pixels per inch (ppi) and an aspect ratio of 16:9. If you wish to own an Apple’s smartphone without burning a hole in your pocket then you can buy an iPhone 7 at the cheapest price ever.
If you have a relative coming from the USA to India, you can easily avail this offer. Metro, a retailer of Apple iPhones in the USA, has launched a fresh promotion where it is offering Apple iPhone 7 at its lowest price the original price of the smartphone is USD 449 that is approximately Rs 30,902. When you subscribe to the Metro service you can buy it for a mere USD 50 that is approximately Rs 3,440. This never-before deal is applicable to only 32GB variant of iPhone 7. The smartphone is available in matte black colour only. We would like to mention that the USD 50 does not take in activation fees or any taxes. In that case, it will cost you extra or to the person bringing that here.
To avail this never-before offer the user, firstly, needs to verify their identification in its system. In order to confirm that the user should not be an existing member of Metro services. The user will not be eligible to avail this offer if he/she is found to be a member of the Metro in the past 90 days.
To recall the smartphone is powered by a 2.34GHz quad-core Apple A10 Fusion processor that offers 2GB of RAM. The Apple iPhone 7 runs iOS 12 and it houses a 1,960mAh non-removable battery. The smartphone by Apple is based on iOS 12 that comes with 32GB of inbuilt storage. It is a single SIM (GSM) smartphone that accepts a Nano-SIM card.
As far as the camera capabilities are concerned, it features a 12-megapixel camera with an f/1.8 aperture on the back panel. The rear camera setup has phase detection autofocus. On the front, it sports a 7-megapixel camera for selfies, with an f/2.2 aperture.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, GPS, Bluetooth v4.20, NFC, Lightning, 3G, and 4G. Sensors on the phone include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, compass/ magnetometer, gyroscope, proximity and fingerprint sensors.
E-commerce major Amazon India has today announced its Freedom Sale 2019 that is all set to begin from August 8 and will go on till August 11. During these three days, a number of discounts and deals will be available on Amazon India. The company has also partnered with SBI Bank to offer an instant discount of 10% to its credit card users. We should also mention that for Prime members, the sale will be beginning a day in advance on August 7 at 12 pm (noon) IST. Amazon will be offering debit card EMI, no-cost EMI and Bajaj Finserv EMI options on listed products.
In addition to this, Amazon will also be offering a 40% discount on smartphones and accessories. While devices like Samsung Galaxy M40 and Oppo K3 will be available at a discounted price, handsets like OnePlus 7 Pro have been listed at an extra exchange discount.
If you are interested in buying the OnePlus 7 Pro, you would be glad to know that the device will be listed with an extra discount on exchange and no-cost EMI options. The handset’s starting price is Rs 48,999 and the key features of OnePlus’ offering include a triple rear camera setup, a 16MP pop-up selfie sensor and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 SoC.
Besides this, the OnePlus 7, Oppo Reno, Vivo V15, Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and Oppo F11 will also be available on exchange offers. The devices that will be seeing a price cut include Samsung Galaxy S10, Samsung Galaxy M40, Samsung Galaxy M30, Samsung Galaxy M20, Redmi Y3, Oppo A7, Honor View 20 and Oppo K3. However, until now, Amazon has not revealed its exact discounted prices.
Huawei Y9 Prime 2019 smartphone has also been listed on the Freedom Sale page, however, only ‘Coming Soon’ is written beneath it and we don’t know what kind of offers can be expected. The device is all set to be launched by the company on August 1 and since it has made an appearance on the website, it can be assumed that it will be made available for purchase by the time Amazon Freedom Sale 2019 will begin.
Other than this, Amazon India will also be offering discounts on power banks, cables, chargers, Bluetooth headsets, cases and covers. Smartwatches, cameras, and accessories have also been listed to go on discount and deals will be available on headphones, speakers, laptops, televisions and air-conditioners too.
In today’s world, we are completely dependent on technology. But then, it’s not like we regret it since technology and gadgets make our lives a lot easier than what they otherwise will be. Since the last few years, even home appliances like bulbs and LEDs have become smarter because they are now advanced enough to perform more features. Such gadgets and appliances help in making our homes smarter. Here, we have listed down 10 smart home gadgets that you didn’t know you need. Take a look:
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Google Home
Google Home is a smart speaker that will make your life a lot easier than it currently is. You can consider it to be a gadget that acts as your assistant. It gives you news updates, answers queries that you ask, calculates how long it will take you to reach office, plays music, and so much more. It is backed by Google Assistant, which, as the name suggests, is the technology giant’s digital assistant. This is certainly a smart home gadget we recommend.
Syska Mini Smart Socket
Syska Mini Smart Socket is also on our smart home gadgets’ list. It can turn any device that you have into a smart device. It is basically a Wi-Fi enabled wall socket that can be used to control other devices too. The device has support for Google Assistant as well as Amazon Alexa and it can also work on 2G, 3G and 4G networks. You can read our review of the smart socket here.
Amazon Echo Show (2nd generation)
The second generation of Amazon Echo Show (review) is also a smart speaker, but unlike Google Home, it comes with a screen. Since it is from Amazon’s family, it is backed by Alexa. It has a 5MP along with four microphones and it powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 processor. You can connect it to your smartphone using Bluetooth to use it as a Bluetooth speaker. While this smart home gadget works a lot like Google Home, since it has a screen, it obviously has some extra features. For instance, if you ask Google Home for news updates, it will read them out to you. However, the Amazon Echo Show will show you a news bulletin from various news channels.
Syska 4 Spike Buster
Syska 4 Way Spike Buster is a power strip that is equipped with Spike and Surge Protection. This limits the voltage that is supplied to the device by storing the excess power and then releasing it gradually. The sockets of the power strip are designed to be compatible with Indian as well as international plugs and devices.
Orient Aeroslim Smart Fan
Orient’s Aeroslim smart fan can be controlled with the help of Orient smart app and it comes with unique features like Fan Scheduling, Reverse rotation, Built-in timer, Turbo mode, Scene Switching Light, Breeze mode and Sleep mode. It is available for purchase on Amazon India’s website and it is a smart home gadget that is very likely to improve your home.
Philips Hue Smart Bulb
Philips Hue smart bulb comes with 16 million colours and its colour temperature falls between 2000K and 6500K. The bulb can be dimmed using a smart device only and it comes with an instant 100% light output. It comes with upgradeable software. It can also be controlled wirelessly.
Voice-controlled TVs
There are a number of voice-controlled TVs that you can buy. Most smart TVs have support for voice-commands and come with support for the likes of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Pick the smart TV that fits your requirements, but then, we can tell you that getting a smart TV would really enhance your experience as they have a number of apps and also let you use social media and other browsers.
Amazon Fire TV Stick
Amazon Fire TV Stick now comes with an Alexa Voice Remote control. The Fire Stick is easy to set up and comes pre-registered to the Amazon account of the people. Users can plug it into their HDTV and then enjoy titles and personalised recommendations. It also has a dedicated power, volume and mute buttons that can be used to control TVs that are compatible.
Nest Cam Outdoor
Google Nest Cam Outdoor, as the name suggests, is a camera that lets you look outside your home at any given point in the day. It comes with 24/7 live streaming and can send activity alerts to your phone. They basically work like indoor cameras by Google. It will be a good buy for you if you value privacy.
Mi Air Purifier 2
The Mi Air Purifier 2 is simple and elegant and its design is 40% smaller than its predecessor. It offers a high 310m3/h Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) and the gadget is claimed to take only 10 minutes to circulate purified air in a 21m2 room.
OPPO has announced the launch of the ColorOS 6 Open Trial Version for its F9 smartphone. The latest ColorOS 6 Open Trial Version offers the up-to-date Android Pie mobile operating system experience along with a number of new features.
ColorOS 6 brings Android Pie’s new features along with improved interactions, higher AI capabilities and optimised underlying interface. The latest navigation gesture by Android Pie comes with cutting-edge experience for user interactions with the mobile.
Borderless design
A borderless design concept is offered to relieve user anxiety triggered by surplus information. To provide its users with a well-designed interface, Oppo has used a combination of light and delicate colours. Over that, the company provides a white background to create a simple and elegant user interface. To offer unified experience in borderless aesthetics the white background provides refined gradients. This is combined with built-in modern art wallpapers.
Improved interaction
For smoother and smarter interactions, the navigation bar has been shifted to the top of the screen. On the other hand, information hierarchy has been updated by replacing tapping with swiping. The new ColorOS 6 comes with animations that put on natural resistance to generate a more spontaneous virtual experience for operations.
Dazzle Color Mode and a brand-new portrait style
ColorOS 6 comes with innovative imaging technologies. The latest update brings two new features. Namely, Dazzle Color Mode along with fresh portrait style.
The dazzle mode controls mapping algorithms that restore bright colours, converse light, and advanced shaded pictures. ColorOs 6 develops a series of scenarios that Oppo F9 imaging capabilities can handle. It uses Artificial Intelligence to scan through the most viewed images present across the social networks to modify five portrait filters. In addition to this, for facial recognition and skin tone adjustment, it employs algorithm-based optimization for beautifying the images.
Elevated gaming experience
The ColorOS 6 has upgraded OPPO’s gaming optimization program ‘Game Boost’ to version 2.0. The new update brings ‘Touch Boost’ and ‘Frame Boost’ that offers improved gaming experience and frame rate stability that delivers a 38% increase in performance.
The app ‘Game Space’ comes with various features and customisation of game limitations for the network, power consumption, messaging and much more. Additionally, ‘Game Assistant’ delivers shortcuts for a number of purposes, that includes ‘do not disturb’, background processes and split-screen, which can be customised for a personalized gaming experience.
Payment security and privacy protection
To lessen the risk of individuals data leaks in high-frequency and dangerous cases that also includes app encryption, private safe and find my device, ColorOS 6 has introduced powerful security features. It comes with payment safety applications like automatic payment blocking, payment identity verification and environment monitoring for payment apps. Eradicating dangers like induced payment, unsafe links, and fraudulent messages.
Oppo has rolled the new ColorOS 6 update for its F9 smartphone. Afterwards, it will be rolled out to Find X along with other smartphones by the company.
Mobile Accessories manufacturer Syska has launched its BT670 Boombox wireless speaker in India. The wireless speakers are light in weight and portable. The company says that it is aimed at those who enjoy listening music indoors as well as outdoors.
Syska’s newly launched Boombox speaker can be connected to a smartphone or to a music player through a Bluetooth connection or an AUX cable. The Boombox wireless speaker comes with a hands-free call button to answer or reject an incoming call and it has a play/pause music button. The device also comes with an FM radio and a micro SD card slot. It packs a 500mAh built-in battery that is touted to offer up to 6 to 7 hours of playback.
Syska BT670 Boombox wireless speaker features
Multi-function button
Bluetooth connection
Answering incoming calls, ending the call, reject incoming calls
Commenting on the launch of the Syska Boombox Bluetooth speaker, Ms Jyotsna Uttamchandani, Executive Director, Syska Group said, “We have witnessed a growing demand for wireless audio accessories such as Bluetooth speakers and wireless earphones in the last few years. Owing to this ever-increasing trend, we have introduced the sleek and stylish BT670 Boombox wireless speaker which is targeted towards music admirers across age groups at a very attractive price range. This product is also an ideal gift proposition especially for elderly people who appreciate music. We at Syska are consistent in bringing innovative and up-to-the-minute products to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers.”
Syska BT670 Boombox wireless speaker price and availability:
Syska BT670 Boombox Wireless Speaker is currently available in four vibrant colours: Black, Red, Green and Light Blue. Interested buyers can buy the product at a price tag of Rs 2,699 through all the leading retail and mobile accessories outlets.
To recall, last month Syska had launched a self-grooming kit for men called UltraGroom Pro Styling Kit HT5000K in the country. The self-grooming kit includes an LED display, power display, travel lock and a charging indicator along with a choice of trimmers. The kit consists of a 21mm cutter width, a hair trimmer that comes included with a stubble comb, a nose trimmer, a foil shaver, a precision trimmer, a body groomer along with two stubble combs, and an eyebrow trimmer with two stubble combs. The kit is accompanied by a USB cord for charging.
The product can be purchased at Rs 3,999 through all leading e-commerce platforms and retail stores.
beyerdynamic has launched its new LAGOON ANC on-ear headphones in India. The wireless headphones by beyerdynamic offer active noise cancellation along with MOSAYC sound personalization. According to the company, the newly launched LAGOON ANC headphones can offer complete, relaxing silence as well as the highest sound quality that outperforms all other ANC headphones. The company has also said that the sound quality of the headphones can adjust perfectly to the hearing capability of the listener.
LAGOON ANC uses active noise canceling with hybrid technology to eliminate environmental sounds. The headphones combine microphones on the outside of the casing with microphones inside the ear cup to detecting unwanted sounds for enhanced noise cancellation.
beyerdynamic LAGOON ANC can be connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth and the intensity of the sound output can be adjusted in two levels via Switch. As per the company, LAGOON ANC sounds better when the active noise cancellation feature is deactivated and is connected to your device via a cable. When used in wireless mode, with activated active noise cancellation, the innovative MOSAYC sound personalization offers sound without external noise and that automatically adapts individual hearing ability.
Coming to design, the company stated that the ear-pads are made of high-quality memory foam with protein synthetic leather covers that are particularly smooth. These are claimed to follow the anatomy of the ear and said to be comfortable to wear. The company has also said that the ear-pads of the headphones are designed to reduce the noise even without active noise cancellation. The shackle is made of high-quality steel that also enhances the comfort of the wearer. While traveling, the cans can be turned and folded flat and this makes their portability easy.
LAGOON ANC headphones come with a unique Light Guide System. The headphones are touch sensitive and the touchpad on the right earpiece guarantees effortless fingertip operation. The wireless headphones feature the latest audio codecs such as Qualcomm aptX, aptX Low Latency, and AAC. Qualcomm cVc technology is used for maximum speech fluency in headset operation, and voice announcements are available in both English and German.
The headphones by beyerdynamic offer up to 24 hours of battery life when the ANC is activated whereas it lasts up to 46 hours when the noise cancellation is off. The headphones can be charged via USB Type-C charging port.
Price and availability
The beyerdynamic LAGOON ANC is at present available in single Black colour variant in India. Interested buyers can purchase the headphones at Rs 29,990 via Headphonezone.in, Flipkart.com and Amazon.in.
Food delivery app Zomato took to Twitter on Wednesday to defend its decision to not change the food delivery executive allotted for a customer. The customer had a communal stance and was objecting to his food being delivered from the executive because he was a “non-Hindu”. However, the company did not find the reason appropriate enough and instead, let him go ahead in cancelling his order.
The customer then tweeted the entire incident saying, “Just cancelled an order on @ZomatoIN they allocated a non hindu rider for my food they said they can’t change rider and can’t refund on cancellation I said you can’t force me to take a delivery I don’t want don’t refund just cancel.” He added another tweet to the thread saying, “@ZomatoIN is forcing us to take deliveries from people we don’t want else they won’t refund and won’t cooperate I am removing this app and will discuss the issue with my lawyers.”
Just cancelled an order on @ZomatoIN they allocated a non hindu rider for my food they said they can't change rider and can't refund on cancellation I said you can't force me to take a delivery I don't want don't refund just cancel
He even attached screenshots of his order confirmation that showed the rider who was getting his delivery and also the ones of his conversation with a Zomato executive.
In the screenshot it can be seen that the customer had written that he wanted Zomato to either change the rider or cancel the order as it is a “holy month” and he only wanted to “order from a pure veg restaurant.” He further said that he will stop ordering from Zomato altogether if his order is cancelled and will uninstall the app.
Replying to the customer’s request, Zomato said that the company does not discriminate among its riders.
Taking a stand on its decision, the company tweeted, “Food doesn’t have a religion. It is a religion.” Zomato’s CEO Deepinder Goyal also voiced his opinion on Twitter regarding the incident. He tweeted, “We are proud of the idea of India – and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values.”
We are proud of the idea of India – and the diversity of our esteemed customers and partners. We aren’t sorry to lose any business that comes in the way of our values. 🇮🇳 https://t.co/cgSIW2ow9B
Zomato’s and Goyal’s responses to the customer have garnered a lot of appreciation on Twitter. There are scores of people who have retweeted the tweets shared by them and a number of people have tweeted to extend their support to the company’s decision.
Most people said that it was great to see a corporate voice taking a stand against the growing hate against minorities. A lot of netizens applauded Zomato and Goyal’s decision to call out the customer who wanted to cancel the order rather than have a non-Hindu rider deliver it to him.
However, we should mention that there were those who supported the customer who was discriminating the rider on the basis of his religion and tweeted against Zomato and Goyal’s decision.
The other day MediaTek showcased its new SoC Mediatek Helio G90T and G90 for mobile platforms. Aimed at gaming and high-end performance smartphones. After the announcement, the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi was quick to respond and say that they will be building a gaming smartphone around the new MediaTek G90 and G90T architecture.
The news came out on Xiaomi’s India’s CEO Manu Jain’s official Twitter handle. We have been told that a team of social media experts knob his social accounts, but the news is authentic and real. Xiaomi will indeed go ahead and build a not-very-expensive smartphone on the MediaTek Helio G90T architecture.
In the official tweet, Manu Kumar Jain has asked Mi Fans to gear up for some gaming action. There is no definite timeline given when the smartphone will be made official. However, it seems to be good news for Xiaomi Mi fans, most of whom have been giving flak to the Chinese major after its Redmi K20 and K20 Pro launch. As the situation became controversial after the fans saw the price. Which was not accepted by them and many said the Xiaomi K20 smartphone is steeply-priced and is not for the budget audiences at all. Also, Twitter was abuzz that the smartphone is about Rs 3,000 – 5,000 cheaper in the Chinese market. So why is it being sold at a premium in India?
To which the company CEO had issued out a statement as well on his official Twitter handle the very next day, after its launch. Now with the news of Xiaomi being the first one to jump on the MediaTek Helio G90T boat to build a smartphone might come as relief to many. As in all likelihood, the new gaming smartphone by Xiaomi India will be priced around Rs 15,000 or lower, as some industry experts have told Gadget Bridge.
At the moment no other details are available about the smartphone. RAM, battery and storage is still under wraps. However, we do know certain things, since it will officially use MediaTek Helio G90T. This chipset uses an Octa-core 2.05GHz chip with ARM Cortex A76 power cores and Cortex A55 efficiency cores. The chipset can support up to 10GB LPDDR4 RAM and a camera module comprising of up to 64-megapixel resolution. Over that, FHD+ display with up to 21:9 aspect ratio can also be braced. Not only that, a screen with a 90Hz refresh rate like the one seen on OnePlus 7 Pro can also be put in.
In a few months’ time, we will get to know exactly how many of these features will be incorporated in the new gaming smartphone by Xiaomi.
A good activity tracker or smartwatch is need of the hour if you want to stay fit. Just for that, Garmin Forerunner 245 Music has a 1.2-inch screen with240 x 240-pixel resolution. It comes with a transflective display that repels sunlight making it more viewable while using outdoors along with a bright backlight. We did not face any problem while observing the display during the day as well as night.
However, Garmin Forerunner 245 Music lacks a touch screen, but we did not find any issues as it is easier to press a button while running than swiping and tapping a touch screen. While we were going through the various screen of the sophisticated smartwatch we found various widgets that let you view the weather, calendar, notifications, workout history, heart rate, steps, health stats and can be easily added, removed and rearranged as per the user’s liking and fit. This is our review of the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music.
In This Article
Design
Garmin kept the watch simple. It comes with five metal buttons that seem durable. The first button lets you turn the device on, turn the backlight on and off and when held for a few seconds it lets you view the control menus that include a number of options. Such as power off, find my phone, timers, stopwatch, lock keys, do not disturb, sync, connected and assistance option. The middle button lets you fiddle with settings such as, widgets, data screen, options and holding it lets you view the menus.
However, it comes with so many menus and submenus that you can sometimes get easily confused about all of the watch’s features. The third select down button on the left lets the user scroll through the menu, holding the button controls the music on the Forerunner 245 music.
Now moving on to the right, here it comes with two buttons stacked. The first one is the start-stop button that can be used to start or stop the timer. It also lets you choose an option or to acknowledge a message. The straps are made of silicon rubber and there is a hint of metal on it as well. Yes, we are talking about the buckle which locks the straps together or loosens the grip.
Performance
The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music smartwatch lets the user see notifications from the smartphone, but it does not give you the freedom to reply, make a phone call. It does not support any voice calling assistants like Siri or Google’s voice assistant either.
The device comes with run centric features along with training status analyzer like Training load that keeps a track on your previous seven days of workouts. The comes along with anaerobic and aerobic Training Effect that observes the efficiency of a person’s workouts.
In addition to this, the Forerunner 245 comes with another supportive feature called Incident Detection and Assistance. For this, you must have your smartphone with you that is connected to the smartwatch throughout the run. The assistance feature will send out a message to your emergency contact in the time of need or mishap.
The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music can be connected to your Wi-Fi networks in an iffy. That will sync your watch with your smartphone without any human intervention devoid of opening the Garmin Connect App.
Music, the key highlight of the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music lets you store your much-loved songs on the Forerunner 245 Music. It gives you an option to enjoy your preferred soundtrack while you are working out without needing to carry your smartphone or iPod.
It has an ability to download up to 500 songs from your laptop onto itself. You can also choose to download the music from music apps like Spotify or Deezer if you are premium subscribers of the available app’s service.
After you sign in into your account via Garmin Connect app on the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music, you can analyse as well as sync your playlists to the smartwatch. It also lets you sync podcasts through Spotify.
The music app suggests various work out the playlist to you such as160 BPM Runner’s Club,” “Power Workout,” and “Beast Mode”. But before accessing you need to first download the songs on the list.
Throughout the run the display was vivid, and we were fond of what we saw. You can browse your overall run stats or see the metrics of the existent lap, easily.
The Garmin Forerunner 245 Music will also let you record your map run. However, you can only view the route and not a map with streets.
Over that, the device can be used to track your running, biking, treadmill, indoor track, walking, strength, cardio, yoga, elliptical, stair stepper, indoor biking, pool swimming, rowing indoors and outdoors, and much more. If you wish to add more applications you can obtain it from the provided Connect IQ Store.
The watch face comes into sight all the time while it comes included with a number of widgets namely steps, performance, health stats, My Day, Sp02, weather, notifications, calendar, heart rate, last run, last ride, music controls, calendar, Garmin Coach, body battery, stress, and more. More widgets can be downloaded as per your preference through the Connect IQ store.
The device is easy, lightweight, and well built. The battery will last for quite a lot of days, even if it is used on a regular basis, and it easily charges up.
When you initially connect it with the smartphone app you will find a screen called My Day. My day is the control panel on your smartphone that can be customized effortlessly. By scrolling down you can opt to Edit My Day. It lets you choose between different options like Heart rate, Pulse Ox acclimation, steps, intensity minutes, sleep Pulse Ox, hydration, floors, body battery, sleep, stress score, weight, and calories. This amazing device also tracks your sleep automatically. Yes, you can sleep while wearing the Garmin Forerunner 245 Music at night. It measures your sleep stages, movement, and Pulse Ox in detail that is stored in your Garmin connect app and online as well. It captures the sleep data as deep sleep, light sleep, and REM sleep, too.
As we mentioned earlier, it comes with an extreme number of settings along with available customizable options that we cannot cover in this review. For instance, in the running app, you can choose and customize data screens characterized under fields namely timer, distance, dynamics, cadence, temperature, elevation, pace, speed, heart rate, compass, navigation, muscle oxygen, etc. However, we advise you to spend a couple of hours to customize it as per your liking and needs.
Our most liked feature on Forerunner 245 Music is the stress readings that helped us to keep a track on our stress levels. Apart from that, the device also comes with a feature called body battery that measures your energy level just by studying your heart rate variability, stress and sleep. As soon as you wake up in the morning it displays your body battery meter charged up to 100% and at the end of the day when you are exhausted, it shows that your body battery is low after a hectic day.
Verdict
As the name suggests Garmin Forerunner 245 lets you store up to 500 songs either through your computer or music application like Spotify or Deezer.
There is no barometer in this watch so it does not measure the number of stairs you climb during the day. It also does not measure the running power if you are not connected to your smartphone. Advanced metrics such as cadence, stride length, the ground contact time of balance can also be analysed in order to improve running form.
It has a battery life of up to seven days in SmartWatch mode and up to 24 hours in GPS mode without music, six hours with music. It is lighter and also comfortable on the wrist. Since it uses Bluetooth, there were plenty of connectivity issues with the smartwatch, as we had to reconnect it multiple times during our time with it. At times connecting with GPS was also a problem. For the price Garmin is asking for this smartwatch, Rs 31,772, these things should have not cropped up. Overall the experience was good, barring the above issues, which play a spoilsport.
Pros:
A lot of Good modes
Good looks
Cons:
Pricey
Bluetooth and GPS connectivity was an issue at times
Lenovo has today launched its new ultraslim PC- Yoga S940 that is backed by Artificial intelligence (AI) in India. The Lenovo Yoga S940 laptop is the newest addition in the company’s Ultraslim PCs range and comes with advanced audio and display technologies.
While Lenovo Yoga S940 can be purchased at a starting price of Rs 1,39,990, the Yoga A940 all-in-one desktop’s price will start at Rs 1,69,990. It will be available at Lenovo.com, leading e-tailers and other Lenovo stores across India. Consumers also have the option of customizing and building their own S940 with the specific features they want, with Lenovo’s ‘Made to order’ program.
In addition to this, Lenovo’s ultraslim PC range includes IdeaPad S540, IdeaPad S340 and IdeaPad S145 laptops and their starting price are Rs 64,990, Rs 36,990, and Rs 23,990 respectively.
Speaking at the launch, Rahul Agarwal, CEO & MD, Lenovo India, said, “The pace of disruption in the smartphone market is raising the bar for innovation in the PC segment and consumers are demanding similar features in all their devices, including laptops. Artificial intelligence (AI) coupled with smart features like facial unlock, voice assistant, makes Lenovo’s Yoga S940 the smartest ultraslim laptop yet. Lenovo’s Yoga S940 is designed for the power users who value security and privacy, alongside a more convenient, personalised and immersive experience.”
He further added, “As the leader in the ultraslim category in India, Lenovo continues to raise the bar for innovation and the new range of ultraslim PCs promise sophisticated design with invincible performance.”
The company has touted Lenovo Yoga S940 to be the world’s first laptop to come with “Contour Glass that wraps around its bezels.” According to Lenovo, this reduces the look of its already razor-thin bezels and results in a more streamlined design.
The laptop comes with a 4K 15-inch HDR display that has up to 500 nits peak brightness, is equipped with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and comes with smart audio amplifiers. The newly launched Lenovo Yoga S940 weighs 1.2kg and is 12.2mm thin. It is powered by up to 8th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, runs Windows 10 and has up to 16GB LPDDR3 memory and up to 1TB PCIe SSD storage. On the ther side, the desktop Lenovo A940 has a 27-inch QHD IPS touchscreen display and the company has said that it will prove to be excellent for digital content creators.
Lenovo Smart Assist AI-enabled features that are present in the Lenovo Yoga S940 laptop include:
Option to automatically filter out most ambient noise and blur out distracting backgrounds during video calls.
Lenovo Yoga S940’s AI-powered sensors can detect the absence of user from the front of the screen and auto-lock the display to protect the data from others. The laptop will also be able to detect and alert the user when any uninvited person is “shoulder surfing on the screen”.
Lenovo Yoga S940 can also help in increasing the productivity by shifting open windows and content contextually to a connected external monitor. It does this on the basis of the user’s attention, intent and focus.
Lenovo Smart Assist’s built-in IR camera and Windows Hello offer support for hands-free PC log-in. It also has voice-matching personalization to respond to your voice when speaking to Alexa or Cortana even from far across the room.
Cupertino-based technology giant Apple has announced a number of new things under CEO Tim Cook’s leadership. Ranging from Apple Watch and HomePod to services like Apple TV+, the company now offers a diverse line of products for its customers and loyalists. Among these newly announced products and services by the company is the Apple Card, that was unveiled by the technology giant last spring.
At its 2019 third fiscal quarter earnings call, the company has announced that the Apple Card will start accepting applications in August this year. Speaking about it, Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “Thousands of Apple employees are using the Apple Card every day in a beta test and we will begin to roll out the Apple Card in August.”
It is worth mentioning that the Apple Card will be available in a digital as well as a titanium card form. But then, unlike traditional credit cards, Apple Card’s personal identifier would not be a traditional 16-digit number, a CVV code, or an expiration date. Instead of this, the Apple Card will generate these numbers randomly for every transaction in order to maintain security.
Furthermore, the numbers will also be generated on-device and Apple has guaranteed that Goldman Sachs, the credit, would not be able to track how the customers have spent their money. It would not have a record of where you are shopping, what all you have bought and more.
In addition to this, Apple is also offering other incentives for cashback rewards. For instance, customers will be getting 2% back on purchases that they make using Apple Pay and 3% on purchases made at Apple Store. We should mention that these are not the best rewards that are being offered if we compare them to the ones that are offered by other credit cards, but then, the Apple Card does offer a level of convenience for those who already use an iPhone and want to buy more products from the company.
While Apple has announced that the card will start accepting applications in August, it has not given an exact date of the launch of Apple Card. But then, whenever the applications open, Apple customers are expected to get an update on their Wallet app.
If you wish to read about other key new products that Apple has launched under the leadership of CEO Tim Cook, you can check out our entire list over here.
Realme X will again go on sale today in India. The smartphone will be up for sale on Flipkart as well as Realme’s official website. The key highlights of the smartphone include a pop-up selfie camera, Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 processor and an in-display fingerprint scanner. The smartphone features a 6.53-inch notch-less full-HD display and it houses a 3,765mAh battery with VOOC 3.0 fast charging. Here’s a look at the sale details:
In This Article
Realme X price in India, sale offers
Realme X is available in two RAM storage variants. The 4GB RAM/128GB storage variant comes at a starting price of Rs 16,999, and the 8GB RAM/128GB storage model is priced at Rs 19,999. The smartphone comes in two colour options: Polar White and Space Blue. Both the variants will be going on sale via Realme’s official website and Flipkart today at 12 pm IST.
Coming to the sale offers, Realme.com is offering a 10% SuperCash while purchasing the smartphone via MobiKwik and Paytm first membership. On the purchase of Realme X, Jio is offering benefits valued Rs 7,000 that is applicable when the smartphone is purchased via Realme.com or Flipkart. On the other hand, e-commerce website Flipkart is offering a 5% cashback on Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card. A 5% cashback is also available for those who purchase the device via HDFC Bank Debit Card and Axis Bank Buzz Credit Card along with up to 10% discount on their next Flipkart Fashion purchase.
Realme X specifications and details
Realme X comes with a 6.53-inch full-HD+ (1080×2340 pixels) AMOLED display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio along with Gorilla Glass 5 protection. The smartphone runs Android 9 Pie with ColorOS 6.0 on top. It is powered by the Snapdragon 710 SoC paired with Adreno 616 GPU and comes with up to 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. The device comes with the support of the in-display fingerprint sensor.
For imaging duties, the Realme X smartphone features a dual rear camera setup that includes a 48MP Sony IMX586 primary sensor with an f/1.7 aperture and a 5MP secondary sensor with an f/2.4 aperture. It sports a 16MP IMX471 pop-up front camera that has an f/2.0 aperture for selfies and video calling.
The connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS, USB Type-C port and Dolby Atmos audio. There is no microSD card slot in this smartphone. The device houses 3,765mAh battery and comes with up to 128GB storage.
Japanese electronics maker Sony has reported an 18.4% rise in its first-quarter operating profit on Tuesday. This beats market expectations and the company has said that the increase has happened because of its performance in the image sensor business. In addition to this, Sony has also surpassed the 100 million milestone in terms of PlayStation 4 sales.
Sony had posted an operating profit of JPY 230.93 billion ($2.1 billion) for its April-June quarter, which had marked an increase from the JPY 195.01 billion during the same quarter previous year. We should also mention that this was above a consensus estimate of 173.61 billion yen that was given by eight analysts who were polled by Refinitiv. The profit forecast by the company for the year ending in March was 810 billion yen.
In its earnings report, Sony has also revealed that it had sold 3.2 million PlayStation 4 consoles during the second quarter. If we compare this to the total number of consoles that have been sold by Sony at the end of Q1 – 96.8 million – it is evident that the company has passed the 100 million console units sold milestone for the PlayStation 4.
It is also worth pointing out that after seeing two years of record profits, Sony is now faced with headwinds in the game business. The gaming business is expecting larger costs to develop a next-generation console and according to analysts, it will be made available in 2020. We should point out that this will be more than five years after PlayStation 4 was launched.
However, Sony has also seen higher profits at the image sensor business, which are primarily driven by the demand for large-size image sensors and multiple-lens camera systems for smartphones. These profits have helped the company overcome the weakness that it has faced in the gaming business.
The semiconductor business of the company, which also includes the image sensors, has posted a profit of JPY 49.5 billion, that is an increase from last year’s JPY 29.1 billion.
Sony’s gaming business, on the other hand, has posted a profit of JPY 73.8 billion. However, last year, the division had managed to earn a profit of JPY 83.5 billion.
In the last quarter, sales of Sony Pictures Entertainment have also seen a rise because of Men in Black: International and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Sony has also said that its video game business has gained from better sales in its PlayStation 4 gaming consoles.
The music unit of the company has also improved as compared to the last year because of the absence of equity losses for EMI Music Publishing that has been recorded in the previous year, higher sales and streaming revenue.
Modern gamers are getting more and more used to seeing their favourite titles augmented by significant updates long after release. Just last summer you may have read here about a major new content bundle for Fortnite, and in the time since several other popular titles have hosted similarly impactful DLC. Recently though, the gaming world saw an update even more significant than most: the opening of the Grand Theft Auto Online casino.
So what exactly makes this DLC bundle such a big deal?
For starters, it’s worth noting that GTA players have waited years for this opening. The “Diamond Casino & Resort” within the game has been in place all this time, but previously intrigued gamers saw only an “Opening Soon” banner displayed as a tease outside the building’s entrance. This gave way to all sorts of fun fan theories, rumors and hoaxes speculating on what was really going on inside.
So when the game’s Diamond Casino and Resort finally opened its doors this summer, players naturally started to theorize further about what took so long. One theory, for instance, is that Rockstar, the developer behind the series, wanted to work out a virtual currency system of its own, so as to avoid any uproar over players gambling away actual money on virtual games.
Whatever the reason though, GTA Online’s new casino is here – and it looks set to stay.
What can you do at the casino?
What’s already known about the Diamond Casino is that traditional casino games such as roulette, blackjack, three-card poker and slot machines are all available. One can even partake in horse race betting, in what may be a subtle tribute to the previous series instalment, San Andreas (which offered similar activity). Players can trade actual cash for chips, and use their in-game money to play these games with the potential for in-game winnings (which cannot, in turn, be sold back for real-world money).
This marks far and away Rockstar’s deepest integration of gambling into a GTA game, and may well represent a decision by the developer to capitalize on the ever-expanding popularity of real casino gaming across the internet. Once designated largely for career poker players and those with a niche interest in slot arcades, international gaming sites have taken to offering free games and accessible experiences, which in turn have made them all the more popular. Millions-strong waves of gamers are now familiar with digital casino content, which gives Rockstar a rock-solid foundation on which to present this update.
Meanwhile, fans who wish to abstain from gambling, or just aren’t drawn to the games, aren’t left out. There are also side activities like the casino’s Lucky Wheel, which can be spun once a day for a prize with zero risk of chips or in-game cash. And even beyond this, the Diamond Casino update came with additional features such as new outfits and cars for characters.
How it affects gameplay
In addition to being a fun new stop within the game, the Diamond Casino comes with challenges for additional perks as well. For instance, completing all casino-related co-op missions by August 7th will grant players Diamond Status, which comes with benefits including livery of an Annis S80RR super car – which looks to be one of the most spectacular vehicles this auto-obsessed series has ever seen.
Yet it’s the penthouses that are central to this update. Players who ave up enough GTA cash to buy a penthouse will get VIP Silver Status. And those who shell out for a Master Penthouse can even become part of the Diamond Casino’s business itself, opening up a whole new set of additional missions.
All in all, GTA’s new online casino promises nothing but additional fun. And given the variety of new activities and challenges it offers, combined with the massive welcome mat it lays out to existing online casino enthusiasts, it’s fair to call it one of the most significant pieces of DLC we’ve seen in years.
Taiwanese smartphone maker Asus’ Zenfone Max Pro M1 smartphone was launched in the budget segment in the Indian market last year. The handset received a lot of praise for its powerful specifications and a big battery. Now, the smartphone has started receiving new software update along with new features and improvements. The update also gets the June 2019 Android security patch to the device. However, we should mention that this isn’t the latest update as Android will soon be rolling out the August 2019 security update. The new update also brings the Digital Wellbeing feature that lets the user track the amount of time they spend on each app.
Asus Max Pro M1 users have started receiving the software update in India. The over-the-air update is being rolled-out with the version number 16.2017.1906.056. The users who haven’t received the notification of the new software update can download it manually by going to the Settings menu.
According to the changelog of the update, it includes the Digital Wellbeing feature that offers you real-time stats about your app usage and lets you cut down on the time you spend on your device. In addition to this, the over-the-air update also brings the June 2019 Android security patch that now offers an improved and a faster unlocking PIN and Pattern practice. The new update also optimises the battery consumption and brings an optimised ‘Dark mode’ that facilitates superior system-wide support for the grey palette.
To recall, Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 features a 5.99-inch full-HD+ IPS Full View display that has an aspect ratio of 18:9 and runs on Android 8.1 Oreo. The device is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor paired with Adreno 509 GPU. The smartphone is available in 3GB/4GB/6GB RAM variants. While the 3GB RAM variant comes with 32GB internal storage, the 4GB and 6GB RAM variants come with 64GB onboard storage. All three smartphone variants can hold a microSD card of up to 2TB.
For imaging duties, both the 3GB RAM/4GB RAM variants come with a dual rear setup along with a 13MP Omnivision sensor and a 5MP depth-sensing sensor. For selfies and video calls, there is an 8MP front-facing camera. On the other hand, the 6GB RAM variants include 16MP+5MP dual rear cameras and it sports a 16MP selfie camera. Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1 mobile houses a 5,000mAh battery and supports 10W charging.
On Tuesday this week, Truecaller found itself in trouble when a number of users took to social media to complain that the app was trying to sign them up for Truecaller Pay without their permission. As the name suggests, Truecaller Pay is the company’s UPI-based payment service.
The reports about Truecaller’s attempts to sign people up for the service without their permission initially surfaced on Twitter this morning. However, users then also started writing about the ‘Truecaller Pay’ issue on the app’s listing on Google Play Store. The company has blamed a bug that is present in the latest version of the app for unauthorized attempts.
Speaking on the matter, it said in a statement, “We have discovered a bug in the latest update of Truecaller that affected the payments feature, which automatically triggered a registration post updating to the version. This was a bug and we have discontinued this version of the app so no other users will be affected. We’re sorry about this version not passing our quality standards. We’ve taken quick steps to fix the issue and already rolled out a fix in a new version. For the users already affected, the new version with the fix will be available shortly, however, in the meanwhile, they can choose to manually deregister through the overflow menu in the app.”
A number of users took to Twitter and tagged Truecaller’s official handle and also its employees to complain about the app’s behaviour. Most of them said that they received text messages that showed that Truecaller had tried to register their bank account details for its payments service. However, since the completion of registration for Truecaller Pay requires UPI PIN and some other details, it could not be completed.
The company has said that Truecaller’s version number 10.41.6, that has been made available for Android on July 24, led to some automatic registrations. While the rollout of the version of the app has been stopped, the company has also published a new version on Google Play Store with a fix for the ‘Truecaller Pay‘ issue that will soon reach the users.
Truecaller also said, “The bug only affected a small fraction of Truecaller’s Android users in India. The rollout of the update was halted immediately after users reported the issue. Any users who have been registered for UPI services will automatically be deregistered at the back end. An updated version with the fix will be rolled out to all users soon.”
Truecaller Pay was launched in India in March 2017 and it is said to be used by over 1.5 crore people in the country.
Security researchers at Google have discovered six different Apple iOS security flaws and the Cupertino-based technology giant still has to successfully patch one among these vulnerabilities.
According to a report in ZDNet, the iOS security flaws have been discovered by two of Google’s Project Zero researchers – Natalie Silvanovich and Samuel Groß. While five of the patches were patched with iOS 12.4 update that was released by Apple last week, one still has to be fixed. We should mention that last week’s update mentioned a number of bug fixes.
The report has also added that all of the vulnerabilities that have been discovered by Google researches are “interactionless.” This basically means that they can function even without any interaction with the user. There are a number of bugs that require the user to perform certain actions to start functioning, but these seem to be more sophisticated than that. In addition to this, it has been reported that these also exploit a vulnerability in the iMessage client.
It has been added that among all the vulnerabilities that have been discovered, four of them rely on an attacker sending a message that has a malicious code to an unpatched phone. It gets executed as soon as a user opens the message. One of these four vulnerabilities is still unpatched. The other two vulnerabilities only rely on memory exploit.
It is worth adding that details of the five patched bugs have been published online, however, the final one will stay confidential until Apple addresses it. But then, we should mention that in case you have not updated your iPhone to iOS 12.4, it is a good time to do it as it will save your device from the vulnerabilities that have been patched.
Silvanovich will also be hosting a talk on the interactionless attacks on iPhone at the Black Hat security conference that is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas next week.
We should mention that it is a great thing that these vulnerabilities were discovered by researchers who were not interested in exploiting them. According to ZDNet, bugs like these are invaluable to those who manufacture intercept tools and surveillance software. The right buyer for these would be ready to pay millions for accessing them before Apple has fixed to patch the software.
So, when they revealed the bugs to Apple, these Google security researchers have done a great service to iOS users across the globe.
After postponing the launch of Samsung Galaxy Fold for several months, Samsung has confirmed to launch its foldable smartphone sometime in September. While it gave out this statement last week, it did not reveal when exactly the device will be getting launched.
Last week, the company announced that it has fixed all the issues of the Galaxy Fold handset and that it is ready to be launched. Earlier this year, Samsung was ready to launch its first foldable smartphone. But before it did that, it sent the device to some reviewers in the US, who reported about the issues in the screen and the hinge design of the Galaxy Fold. Now as per a recent report Samsung will be relaunching the smartphone sometime in the third week of September. The South Korean company will reportedly first start selling the smartphone in its home market and will bring the Samsung Galaxy Fold in a limited number of around 20,000 to 30,000 units.
According to a report by the Investor, the company will officially launch Samsung Galaxy Fold between 18 to 20 September. The report further reveals that the company is fine-tuning the release of the schedule of Galaxy Fold with telecom companies in South Korea.
It is speculated that the smartphone manufacturer will initially roll out a total of 100,000 units in the Korean market. Previously, Samsung announced that its entire production of the Galaxy Fold will arrive at a number of 1 million units.
Image courtesy: Evan blass (evleaks)
“Samsung is seeking to tout its technical prowess rather than focusing on high-volume sales with the Fold,” an official from a local telecom firm was quoted saying by media outlet Yonhap News Agency.
The report says, “Because of the new smartphone’s high price tag and concerns over durability, there is a lot of skepticism. The Fold, expected to be priced at more than 2 million won ($1,689), will likely be able to appeal to a very limited number of consumers who are willing to pay for the limited edition. In April, Samsung put off the release of the phone after finding technical flaws in its display and hinge that connects its right and left halves.”
The report further revealed that following the initial launch in South Korea and the US, the Galaxy Fold is expected to be made available in the UK, Germany, and France.
Microblogging website Twitter is primarily used for public conversations and it is probably the best way to see what is happening in India and to give one’s opinions on current happenings. Beginning conversations and dialogue about various topics has the potential of catalysing cultural exchange and in order to get this to life, Twitter has launched Global #Tweetups.
#Tweetups is the company’s way of getting its online service offline. With this, Twitter eyes to break down the barriers between “diverse cultures and ethnicities through the power of conversation.”
The company has partnered with Shared_Studios (@sharedstudios) to create portals where people will be able to connect with each other to “an almost life-like, full-screen experience.” #Tweetups has been activated by Shared_Studios in 40 locations across the globe ranging from New York to Nairobi, Seoul to Sao Paulo and Los Angeles to London.
In India, it has been set up in Delhi at Select Citywalk Mall in Saket. Another pop-up #TweetUp will be activated at Soho House in Mumbai. So, anyone can walk into the portal and talk to another person sitting anywhere in the world about any topic under the sun.
We should mention that #Tweetups will stay live till August 4. While it is live, #Tweetups will be hosting a series of “curated, experiential activities, including group conversations, bursts of music and dance, and topical discussions around women empowerment and other shared interests.”
It is also worth adding that conversations in these #Tweetups will be started and moderated by local curators.
Twitter has also stated some conversations that one should be looking forward to. These include:
On July 30th, the cast of the upcoming movie Khandaani Shafakhana, Sonakshi Sinha (@sonakshisinha), Varun Sharma (@varunsharma90) and rapper Badshah (@Its_Badshah) will have a conversation in line with their movie’s campaign ‘Baat toh Karo’, which seeks to open up and normalise the dialogue around sex and sexuality. You can also follow @sonakshisinha as she will go live from her Twitter handle sharing the experience.
On August 2nd, Ananya Pandey (@ananyapandayy) will be talking about online bullying and the importance of sensitising people towards online health in line with her initiative, SO+ (SocialPositive).
We should mention that this is Twitter’s first on-ground consumer engagement activity at a global level.
What do you think of this activity that Twitter is undertaking? Do you want to be a part of it or would you just rather put forward your opinions on various matter online?
