Every day should feel like a festive occasion for anyone using a mobile phone in India. Almost every telecom operator has offered one great deal after another since Reliance Jio came along. The latest agreement to join the party is B SNL’s ‘Rakhi pe Saugaat’ recharge plan for its prepaid customers. For Rs. 74, BSNL customers can make unlimited calls over the internet, full call value, and some data benefits. The upside is that this plan is only valid for five days, and the recharge will be available from August 3 to 12.
Below that Rs. 74 BSNL subscription, there is a limit of 1 GB of data per day. This comes after B SNL’s ‘Sixer 666’ package for prepaid users that offered people 2 GB of data per day for 60 days. The company has also launched other options for Rs. 189, €. 289, and Rs. 389 before the Indian festival of Raksha Bandhan. The company has also announced more data offerings for its postpaid customers. All of this leads us to believe that as long as these plans last, anyone can make hay while the sun shines.
Here’s everything else that’s made the tech news today.
Samsung Galaxy Note 8 specifications leaked; flip phone launched Samsung has already announced that the company will launch the Galaxy Note 8 smartphone on August 23, and several leaked renders have given a pretty good idea about the handset’s design. Now, the final specs offered by the smartphone have also been revealed, suggesting that the upcoming Galaxy Note series flagship will pack 6GB of RAM. According to the leak, the Galaxy Note 8 will have a 6.3-inch QHD Infinity Display with an aspect ratio of 18.5:9. It is expected to be powered by Exynos 8895 SoC globally. Still, it uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 in the US, just like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+.
Samsung seems to be reserving all of its flip phones for China. Take the Samsung G-9298, for example. The flip phone comes with two 4.2-inch full-HD Super AMOLED displays. It is powered by a quad-core Snapdragon 821 SoC and 4 GB of RAM.
Xiaomi is growing fast in smartphones and wearables shipments; Mi 6c leaked. According to Strategy Analytics, Xiaomi’s global smartphone shipments grew 58 percent year-on-year to 23.2 million in Q2 2017. Its range of Android smartphones, including Redmi 4A, which is proving “wildly popular” in India, allowed Xiaomi to capture 6 percent of the global smartphone market share in the second quarter of 2017, taking volumes from competitors such as Micromax and Lenovo. in the country.
Xiaomi is also making steady progress in the wearables segment. According to a new research report from Strategy Analytics, Xiaomi is now the world’s largest wearables supplier, beating Fitbit and Apple’s competition. One of the reasons for this could be that Xiaomi’s wearables are priced lower than the competition, making them accessible to more people.
Meanwhile, more details about the toned-down version of Xiaomi Mi 6 – Xiaomi Mi 6c – have emerged with the usual disclaimer that comes with every bit of leaked information: take this with a grain of salt. The leaks contain enough detail to believe the Mi 6c launch is near. According to this leak, the smartphone is equipped with a home button, possibly with a built-in fingerprint sensor. The Xiaomi Mi 6c is tipped in a 4GB/64GB (RAM/storage) variant and another 6GB/128GB variant. The price is expected between CNY 2,000 (approximately Rs. 18,900) and CNY 2,500 (roughly Rs. 23,600).
Global smartphone sales decline says IDCGlobal smartphone sales fell in Q2 2017, but don’t worry; it’s not much. The top five smartphone vendors showed positive growth, while other manufacturers saw a decline. Market leaders Samsung and Apple consolidated their positions. The IDC investigation found that South Korean giant Samsung maintained its top spot by supplying some 79.8 million handsets for a 23.3 percent market share.
Netflix announces two more original series from India. Two more original series from India are coming to Netflix. The first is ‘Selection Day’, a film based on Aravind Adiga’s bestseller, The White Tiger. The second is Again, a female-led detective series set in New Delhi. It will be written by Marisha Mukerjee, known for her work in Quantico and Justified.
The company faces stiff competition in India from the likes of Amazon Prime Video, which had announced 17 originals from India, and Hotstar. There are no details on when these two shows will be available, but rest assured, it won’t be anytime soon.
iPhone glitter cases recalled after chemical burns Nearly 275,000 iPhone cases with liquid glitter had been recalled after reports that the liquid leaked out, causing skin irritation, blisters, and chemical burns. MixBin Electronics, which sold the cases, said in a statement that there was a risk that the issues would burst or break and the liquid could leak out and irritate the users’ skin. These cases were sold at Henri Bendel, Tory Burch, and Victoria’s Secret. The points sold for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6s, and iPhone 7 from October 2015 to June 2017, resemble a snow globe — with glitter floating in the liquid.
Karbonn Aura Note Play Smartphone Launched Karbonn Mobiles has launched a new Android smartphone, the Karbonn Aura Note Play, which is priced at Rs. 7,590. The smartphone runs on Android 7.0 Nougat, has a 6-inch HD display with a resolution of 720×1080 pixels, and comes with 16GB of storage that can be expanded via a microSD card (up to 32GB). The smartphone supports 4G VoLTE, is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 2GB RAM, and features an 8-megapixel rear camera with a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. It also has a pretty big 3300mAh battery.
Uber passes 500 million rides in IndiaUber has reached a major milestone as it revealed more than 500 million rides had been made on its platform in India. The taxi app has also revealed that the demand for its taxis doubled between June 2016 and June 2017. While Uber would have everyone believe that it is “winning in India”, it competes with Ola, which is still the bigger player in the market. The company also revealed many stats, such as the platform’s river and rider with the most rides. Because you are curious, the driver with the most trips in India is from Chandigarh and has made 12,574 trips. The most prolific Uber driver is from Chennai, with 3,485 visits.
Moto Hub has opened exclusive offline stores in India Lenovo has decided that its Motorola smartphones should have more offline presence. It has taken a big step in that direction by opening six Moto Hub stores in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. As is clear, these stores will only stock Motorola smartphones. The company plans to open 50 more in various cities in India by the end of this year. If you are one of those who didn’t buy a Lenovo smartphone because it was exclusively online, these stores give you a chance to check it out before buying.
With Paytm, Android users can send money to their contacts much more easily. With Paytm for Android, you can now send cash through the phone book. You can do this by going to the phonebook on your Android smartphone. The process is not complicated at all. You need to go to the contact and tap the Send money option. This could foreshadow the company’s plan to introduce a messaging service and take over WhatsApp.
Disclosure: Paytm’s parent company, One97, is an investor in Gadgets 360.
