Latest Technology News & Smartphone Advice

Xiaomi is all set to introduce its next budget Redmi smartphone in India on May 16th which is expected to be the Redmi 4. Today it has announced that it has sold over 4 million or 40 lakh units of the Redmi 3S smartphone (including Redmi 3S Prime version) in India making it the highest selling phone ever in online India, in 9 months of launch. Xiaomi launched the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime in India back in August starting at Rs. 6999. These are still the best selling smartphones in the range, and sells out in minutes every week when it goes on sale on Flipkart and Mi.com. Back in November last year Xiaomi said that it sold over 1 million or 10 lakh units of the phones in 3 months of launch. So it took only 6 more months to sell 3 million phones. To remind you, both the smartphones have a 5-inch HD screen, are powered by an Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 SoC and run Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) based on MIUI. These have a 5-megapixel camera on the fro

Press render of the Moto Z2 Play surfaced a few weeks back showing off its metal design, fingerprint sensor on the front and dual-tone LED flash for the front camera. Thanks to @evleaks, we now have the specifications of the phone. According to the leak, the phone is expected to pack the same 5.5-inch 1080p display, but the battery will be reduced from 3510mAh to 3000mAh, which is a bummer since the battery life on the Moto G5 Plus with the same display size and battery is not impressive when compared to the Z Play. It will be much thinner than the predecessor at just 6mm on its thinnest point since there is a camera bump visible in the press shot and will also be lighter at 145 grams. It is said to be powered by Octa-Core Snapdragon 626 with 4GB of RAM and the larger fingerprint sensor is expected to offer easy navigation using One button nav feature, similar to latest Moto G5 series of phones. The phone is also expected to use the same front and rear cam

Amazon and Flipkart have announced their Summer sale. Amazon’s Great Indian Sale is scheduled from May 11th till 14th. Flipkart’s Big 10 Sale for completing 10 years in the e-commerce space starts the day when the Amazon’s sale ends and continues till May 18th. Amazon says that it will offer up to 40% discounts on Moto devices, up to 33% discount on Lenovo devices, up to 20% off on Samsung devices, up to 50% discount on mobiles and accessories and flat 2000 off on Kindle Paperwhite. Amazon will also offer 15% cashback on app and 10% on site for Citibank debit and credit card customers and flat Rs. 1000 off on domestic hotel bookings on orders of Rs. 500 and above on the Amazon app. It is also teasing 1 lakh prize every hour in Amazon Pay Load and Win. We should know more details about the offers next week on Amazon Great Indian Sale page. Flipkart is offering deals on fashion, home appliances & more from 14th-18th May and is offering deals on mobiles

Xiaomi launched its budget Redmi smartphone –  Redmi 4A in India back in March, now it is gearing up to launch a new Redmi series smartphone, which is expected to be the Redmi 4, according to a latest teaser. Redmi 4 was announced back in November in two variants, the standard variant has a 5-inch HD 2.5D curved glass display, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 430 SoC and has 2GB of RAM. The high-end version has a 5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass display and is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 625 SoC. Xiaomi Redmi 4 Standard version specifications 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS 2.5D curved glass display, 1000: 1 contrast ratio, 72% NTSC color gamut Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 ( 4 x 1.2 GHz Cortex A53 + 4 x 1.5 GHz Cortex A53) 64-bit processor with Adreno 505 GPU 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD MIUI 8 based on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) Hybrid Dual SIM (micro + nano / microSD) 13MP rear camera

The ongoing battle between Apple and Qualcomm is escalating further and may affect U.S consumers next. According to a latest report from Bloomberg, Qualcomm is reportedly seeking to ban the import of iPhones into the United States. “Qualcomm is preparing to ask the International Trade Commission to stop the iPhone, which is built in Asia, from entering the country”, said the report. Apple had sued Qualcomm in January this year saying that Qualcomm has been charging royalties for technologies they have nothing to do with. Qualcomm responded to Apple suit over patent licensing and filed countersuit including charge of limiting performance of Qualcomm modem chips in iPhone 7. The ongoing dispute took a next step last week when Apple stopped paying iPhone royalties to Qualcomm. The United States International Trade Commission could potentially put a stop to iPhone shipments to the United States should the ITC side with Qualcomm. This could jeopardize the U.

Facebook has officially announced the commercial launch of Express Wi-Fi in India. The social network was testing this service in the country since August last year. Facebook has launched 700 hotspots across the four Indian states of Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Meghalaya. Facebook has been working with internet services providers (ISPs) and over 500 local entrepreneur retailers for Express WiFi launch. In addition to India, Express WiFi is currently live in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria and Indonesia. Facebook has also teamed up with  Bharti Airtel to launch an additional 20,000 hotspot. These hotspots will begin to be deployed over the next few months. Express Wi-Fi is designed to complement mobile data offerings by providing a low-cost, high bandwidth alternative for getting online and access apps, download and stream content. Ajai Puri, Chief Operating Officer (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, We are delighted to be a part of this in

Homegrown cab aggregator Ola has raised $100 million (Rs 670 crore) in the latest round of funding. Investors in the latest round of funding comes from Falcon Edge Capital and Ratan Tata’s UC-RNT capital, a joint venture between Tata and and the University of California Investments, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies on May 2. The Registrar of Companies show that Falcon Edge has infused Rs 402 crore, RNT Capital has invested Rs 268 crore. Ratan Tata had first invested in Ola back in July 2015. Ola posted a consolidated loss of over Rs 2,311 crore — about Rs 6 crore a day — during fiscal 2015-16. The losses were mainly attributed to heavy spending on promotions. The company is expected to use the raised capital to further gain its share in the online cab market and continue to give Uber a tough competition. Ola had raised $100 funding from Falcon Edge in August 2015 that led the company valuation to $5 billion. The company has a

OPPO just launched F3, the company’s latest selfie-focused smartphone in the ‘F Series’ at an event in India, as it had promised. It is the smaller variant of the F3 Plus that was launched back in March. It has the same 16-megapixel front-facing camera with 1/3.1-inch sensor and f/2.0 aperture along with an 8-megapixel secondary front camera with 120-degree wide-angle lens for capturing better group selfies that is present on the F3 Plus. It also has a 13-megapixel rear camera with dual-tone LED flash. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p 2.5D curved glass screen, is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek MT6750T processor, has 4GB of RAM and runs on Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) with ColorOS 3.0 on top. It has a fingerprint sensor embedded into the home button that works even when your fingers are moist. It also has dedicated dual SIM slots and a microSD card slot. O PPO F3  Specifications 5.5-inch (1080 x 1920 pixels) Full HD 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gor

Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S8 series of phones come with dedicated Bixby hardware button that lets you access Bixby Voice by pressing and holding it. At the announcement Samsung said that Bixby will only understand US English and Korean. It also confirmed that Bixby Voice will only be available in Korean initially and the English version will be available later. Now it has launched Bixby Voice assistant in Korea, few weeks after the phone went on sale in the country. You can use Bixby voice commands in 10 of Samsung apps such as Samsung Health, Samsung Internet, Gallery, Calculator, Weather, Reminder, Camera, Phone, Contacts and Clock. It is testing using Bixby Labs with Samsung Pay and some third-party applications like KakaoTalk messenger, Facebook and YouTube. You can give verbal orders to change settings, sort photos and bookmark webpages. Samsung said that with Bixby Voice, users can perform over 3,000 tasks and it can learn how to recognize the wa

Google today said that it will start rolling out a new update for Maps for Android in India that will add shortcuts on the home screen to explore the app in just a few quick taps. The new home screen also loads fast even on spotty connections. When you open maps, you’ll instantly see a directions card with different modes of transportation. If you’d like to access a certain route while you’re on the go without using data, you can save the route to be used offline. Below the directions card, there are icons highlighting some of the other useful features on Maps – from getting a first impression of a place with satellite imagery, to real-time information about traffic around you, to more details about public transport lines when you’re on the road. With a tap on the download icon, you can now save a specific map area for offline use. The update should roll out for all Google Maps for Android users in India through Google Play Store by this week. Source

Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) has released a new report titled “Information Security Practices of Aadhaar (or lack thereof): A documentation of public availability of Aadhaar Numbers with sensitive personal financial information” that reveals that four government portals including National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP)’s dashboard and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)’s portal have leaked around 130 to 135 million Aadhaar numbers publicly. “While these numbers are only from two major government programmes of pensions and rural employment schemes, other major schemes, who have also used Aadhaar for DBT could have leaked PII (personally identifiable information) similarly due to lack of information security practices,” says the report. In the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) welfare programme, attributes listed in the databases of pensioners include Job card number, Bank Account Number, Name, Aadhaar Number, acco

Samsung today launched Q9, Q8 and Q7 series of its flagship premium line-up of QLED TVs in India at an event in Delhi. These come in 55-inch, 65-inch, 75-inch and 88-inch sizes with nearly bezel-less displays with 4K (3,840 × 2,160 pixels) UHD resolution, promise optimal brightness levels and stunning visual experience. The One Remote Control offers an intuitive experience, and now supports more devices and offers voice control capabilities across more Smart TV features. The new Invisible Connection cable helps manage unsightly cords and clutter with a refined, single cord system. These also have No Gap Wall-mount and the optional easel-like Studio Stand.  These use quantum dot technology for better light efficiency, stability and a wider color spectrum. The metal alloy quantum dots in QLED TV addresses all major aspects of picture quality, including color volume, brightness, bold contrast and viewing angle. QLED TV offers accurate color and achieves

Uber is bringing major changes to its privacy controls that will allow users to easily manage their data. With the latest update, the Uber app will get a dedicated “Privacy Setting” menu where users can easily control how the company collects information about them. This menu will have all your current and future privacy-related controls, including the existing “Remove Stored Contacts” setting. Uber says the idea is to make these controls easy to find in one place. You can now control which push notifications you receive from Uber on your phone including trip status alerts and discount updates. In case of location, a new screen will explain how to disable location tracking and allow users to choose whether or not to let contacts hail a ride in their location. Moreover, the update brings a new system to delete your account. With a self-service deletion process it is now easy to delete your account without having to contact Uber support. You can ev

Samsung has announced Galaxy J3 Prime, the company’s latest budget smartphone in the ‘J Series’. It packs a 5-inch HD display, is powered by an Octa-Core Exynos 7570 14nm processor, runs on Android 7.0, has a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. It also has 4G LTE support. Samsung Galaxy J3 Prime specifications 5-inch (1280 × 720 pixels) HD display 1.4 GHz quad-core Exynos 7570 14nm processor with Mali-T720 GPU 1.5GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD Android 7.0 (Nougat) 5MP camera with LED Flash 2MP secondary camera Dimensions: 139.7×69.85×8.89mm; Weight: 148g 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth 4.1, GPS 2,600mAh battery The Samsung Galaxy J3 Prime comes in Black color and is available from T-Mobile or Metro PCS in the U.S. with 24-month contract at $6.00 per month and $150 (Rs. 9645 approx.) without contract. Metro PCS even offers it at a discounted price of $69 (Rs. 4436 approx.) i