With the Indian Diwali festival approaching soon, ecommerce platforms are gearing up for yet another round of mega sales. Flipkart has revealed the dates for the Big Diwali Sale, which will be held from October 14 to 17. Like most sales, the company has provided a sneak peek at some of the deals to expect. Mobile phones continue to be a big seller in such sales, and according to Flipkart, we can expect discounts on some of the popular models. In that order, the “top sellers” category has the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Lenovo K8 Plus, and Xiaomi Redmi 4A.
In contrast, the “budget phones” category has the Moto C Plus, Moto E4 Plus, and Samsung Galaxy J7-6. During this period, Flipkart also organizes flash sales every day. The e-commerce giant is currently hosting a sale of TVs and appliances.
Airtel’s ‘Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone’ Initiative Targets Jio Phone After the hype of the Reliance Jio Phone, it was only a matter of time before other telecom operators showed up with their offerings. Airtel is the first to respond with its ‘Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone’ initiative, which partners with Karbonn Mobiles to offer the Karbonn A40 Indian at an ‘effective price’ of Rs. 1,399. To get this rock bottom price, customers must deposit Rs. 2,899 for a smartphone and then perform a minimum number of top-ups over three years to receive cashbacks totaling Rs. 1,500.
In June, the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro (Review) received its first price cut, bringing the price down to Rs. 31,900 from the launch price of Rs. 36,900. Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro gets another price cut. Samsung’s first smartphone with 6G RAM receives another price cut, bringing it to an all-time low of Rs. 29,900. To recall its specs, the dual-SIM (Nano+Nano) 4G enabled has a 6-inch full HD (1080×1920) AMOLED display and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 SoC, with four cores clocked at one .95GHz and the rest at 1.4GHz.
Ola raises $1.1 billion from Chinese investors. In an ongoing battle against Uber for market dominance in India, Ola has raised $1.1 billion in its latest funding round. This money comes from the Chinese conglomerate Tencent and existing investors, including Japan’s SoftBank. The company said it would use the capital to invest in offerings, technology, and cutting-edge innovations to build for the country’s unique transportation needs. “We are delighted to have Tencent Holdings join us as new partners in our mission to build mobility for one billion Indians,” said Bhavish Aggarwal, chief executive officer and founder of Ola, in a press statement.
Honor launches 7X smartphone in China Chinese smartphone maker Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei has launched the Honor 7X in China. The successor to the Honor 6X, the new phone follows the trend of 18:9 screens and features a dual rear camera. It features a 5.93-inch full-HD+ (1080×2160 pixels) curved display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, Android 7.0 Nougat-based EMUI 5.1, octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 659 SoC, and 4GB of RAM. It also has 16-megapixel and 2-megapixel cameras on the back and an 8-megapixel camera on the front. Prices start at CNY 1,299 (approximately Rs. 12,890) and are available in various storage configurations.
Xolo and Intex launched new smartphones in India Intex has launched two budget-oriented smartphones, the Aqua Lions X1 for Rs. 7,499 and the Aqua Lions X1+ for Rs. 8,499. Both smartphones have similar features such as 5.2-inch HD displays, Android 7.0, 2800mAh battery, 13-megapixel rear camera, and 5-megapixel front-facing camera. The phones come with a one-time screen replacement offer and DataBack, a data-saving app, and the company claims it can help users save up to 500MB of data.
Xolo also launched several new smartphones, such as the Xolo Era 3X, Xolo Era 2V, and Xolo Era 3. All three smartphones are exclusive to Flipkart and will go on sale next Saturday. Xolo also offers a one-time screen replacement offer valid for one year from the date of purchase. All three new Era series smartphones are powered by a quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor clocked at 1.25GHz.
Google fixes ‘bug’ in its new Home Mini smart home speaker Google launched the Home Mini at the Made by Google hardware event in San Francisco, but devices handed out at the event appear to have a software bug. Google says this is an issue with only the first units released and that retail units won’t have this issue. Artem Russakovskii of Android Police noticed something was off when his team woke up several times a day without even using the hot word “Ok, Google.” The Mountain View company has acknowledged the bug and released a software update to fix it.
Twitter Introduces Happening Now Feature Twitter has added a new feature called Happening Now that is designed to show tweets about events and topics currently taking place. According to a report, This feature is similar to Moments, except the latter offers a more curated list based on issues and events around you. TechCrunch starts with the sports segment and will soon expand to other areas, such as entertainment and breaking news.
Lava launches Helium 12 Windows 10 laptopLava has launched a new budget series laptop, the Helium 12, priced at Rs. 12,999. The laptop weighs 1.31 kg and has a 12.5-inch HD display, an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 CPU, 2 GB DDR3 RAM, and a 10000 mAh battery. There is 32 GB of built-in storage, which can be expanded via the SD card slot. The computer runs on Windows 10 and is available in Silver and Gold colors.
It’s no secret that Apple is eyeing India as another device manufacturing center. The Indian government is considering Apple’s proposal to manufacture in India. Union minister Alphons Kannanthanam has now said the government is considering iPhone maker Apple’s proposal to set up a manufacturing facility in India. The company had reportedly sought concessions, including duty waivers on manufacturing and repair units and even a relaxation of the mandatory 30 percent local component procurement.
In other news, Apple has partnered with AR Rahman to open two new Mac Labs at the latter’s KM Music Conservatory (KMMC) in Chennai. Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Internet Software and Services, was in Mumbai to make the announcement.
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