The Big Freedom Sale is Flipkart’s answer to Amazon’s Great Indian Sale, announced this week. Amazon vs. Flipkart, featuring the two e-commerce giants taking on their respective sales this week. With both ecommerce giants struggling for a slice of your wallet, it means better discounts for everyone. The Flipkart Big Freedom Sale starts on August 9 and ends on August 11. Deals on several high-profile mobile devices are already listed on Flipkart.
This includes the Moto M and Moto G5 Plus, usually priced at Rs. 15,999 and Rs. 16,999, respectively will be available for Rs. 12,999 and Rs. 14,999, respectively, during the Flipkart sale. In addition, the Lenovo K5 Note (Rs. 12,499) is available for purchase at Rs. 9,999, while K6 Power (Rs. 9,999) will have Rs. 1,000 off and up for grabs at Rs. 8.999. The price of the Google Pixel XL is reduced by the official Rs. 67,000 to Rs. 48,999 during the Flipkart sale. The company hints that iPhone 6 32GB will also get a price cut. Additionally, the Redmi Note 4 sale will run for the Flipkart sale, with buyers getting Rs. 1,000 on the trade-in value of their old phone.
That’s not all; TVs and laptops are also seeing discounts, with the company teasing bargains on the Sony HD Ready LED Smart TV, Vu’s 45-inch UDH Smart TV, Intel Core i3 laptops, the Canon 1300D DSLR camera, and Skullcandy headphones. to name a few. Flipkart runs Spotlight of the Hour deals and offers new arrivals and exclusive launches in the TV and mobile categories during the Big Freedom Sale.
Meanwhile, the Amazon Great Indian Sale will see up to 35 percent on iPhone models and up to Rs. 5,000 off Lenovo smartphones. Discounts up to Rs. 2,000 on Samsung, OnePlus, and Moto phones will also be available, and see Honor models up to Rs. 1,000 discount. Prices of Samsung and BPL TVs will be cut by up to 35 percent, while Sanyo and TCL TVs will receive discounts of up to 33 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Laptops from Apple, Dell, Lenovo, and HP will be up to 20 percent cheaper during the Amazon sale.
Let’s see what else has been in the news today.
This time it’s Airtel. The company has announced a new plan that offers 84 GB of data for 84 days at Rs. 399. Airtel offers 84 GB data for 84 days at Rs. 399 To Defeat Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan’s OfferAnother Week, Another Plan To Counter Reliance Jio. Users get unlimited local and STD calls and 84 GB of data, with a FUP of 1 GB daily. Airtel has clarified that the new prepaid plan only applies to 4G SIM cards and cannot be combined with any other program or offered by the company.
New iPhone 8, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone SE refresh rumors In the run-up to Apple’s annual iPhone event, a series of leaks gave us an idea of what to expect. The latter, derived from the HomePod’s firmware code that was accidentally made public, suggests that the iPhone 8’s Face ID recognition system will work even when the phone is lying flat. The code contains the words ‘rest’ and ‘unlock’. Another leak shows the vertical alignment of the iPhone 8’s dual camera and comes from tipster Benjamin Geskin. The smartphone appears to have two camera sensors on the rear panel, with Geskin adding that the smaller one represents the wide-angle lens and the larger one the telephoto lens.
The iPhone 7s Plus could charge wirelessly, according to dummy images by tipster Sonny Dickson. The dummy has a glass back, hinting at the inclusion of the wireless charging feature that has been long anticipated for the iPhone series.
The iPhone 8 and iPhone 7s Plus aren’t the only phones to see leaks. According to a report citing the company’s supply chain, the budget-focused iPhone SE could receive a refresh early next year. The report adds that India will be the first market to receive the new iPhone SE before it becomes more widely available. Wistron will manufacture it at its plant in Bengaluru. Wistron is the same supplier that started assembling the current-generation iPhone SE units in the country earlier this year. The new iPhone SE is said to ship in the first quarter of next year.
With Paytm, you can automatically add money to your wallet and send postcards. Paytm has added postcards to both iOS and Android versions of its app. If you’re wondering what these postcards do, they allow you to send money to your loved ones with customization options and personalized text messages. In addition, the company also introduced Paytm Automatic, which automatically tops up your Paytm wallet balance. Paytm Automatic is currently only available in the Android app and allows users to set a certain amount as the minimum balance for the wallet and the top-up amount when the balance falls below the minimum. This would essentially top up the user’s credit when it’s low.
The rollout of the OnePlus 5 OxygenOS 4.5.8 update begins after the game stuttering issue. This new update brings the same changes as the bug-laden update without the stuttering issue.
In its post on the official forum, OnePlus said of the OxygenOS 4.5.8 update: “OxygenOS 4.5.7 has been withdrawn. Instead, we are pushing the incremental rollout of OxygenOS 4.5.8 OTA for the OnePlus 5.” As a reminder, earlier this month, it was reported that OnePlus started rolling out its OxygenOS 4.5.7 update, the ability to record videos in 4K resolution with Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) on OnePlus 5.
LG Q6 India launch set for Thursday LG Q6, one of LG’s first Q-series phones, is coming to India this week. Its exclusive online retail partner Amazon is teasing a launch on August 10, hinting that India will get the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage variant. In case you missed all the hype last month, LG’s Q-series packs a lot of premium features seen in the G-series flagship in a more affordable package. The LG Q6 variant launching in India also supports dual SIM cards and runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat.
Amazon India Officially Launches ‘Local Finds’ Amazon India has finally opened up its Local Finds platform to customers in India. Local Finds is a platform that allows Amazon users in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai to find and sell used and new goods to others in their city. Before the official launch of Local Finds, the Bengaluru pilot saw about 600 merchants; up to the launch, 30,000 customers have used the service in all four cities. Amazon takes care of the delivery and payments for Local Finds transactions. The company prides itself on customers adding “handmade and rare products” daily
Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will get an on-screen fingerprint sensor: KGI. According to a report by KGI Securities, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 smartphone will see an in-display fingerprint sensor instead of the Galaxy S9. Of the Galaxy S9 flagship models next year, as with the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. According to KGI’s report, Samsung does not need to risk the rapid implementation of the under-display fingerprint scanner with Galaxy S-series models, as Apple planned with the iPhone 8. The company predicts that Samsung will place the fingerprint scanner on the back.
However, in its report, KGI has said that the Galaxy S9 models will come with several other selling points, including advanced iris recognition and dual cameras. These features would give the company the time it needs to introduce an under-display fingerprint scanner in a market-ready way.
TRAI summons speed test apps to understand their methodologies The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is gathering major speed test apps for a presentation to “understand” their method. This should result in a ‘paper’ that will be made public in the coming months. The industry regulator plans to meet with 7-8 mobile internet speed testing companies, including Ookla, in the next one or two months. The move takes on significance as Airtel has historically used Ookla results to assert itself as the fastest network, a claim disputed by Reliance Jio. TRAI hopes that its initiative will help raise consumer awareness of the different apps and choices available to users and could lead to improvements in its MySpeed app.
Apple Watch Series 3 reportedly offers LTE connectivity Apple is said to be planning to launch a version of the Apple Watch with cellular connectivity. According to those familiar with the matter, thiss will reduce the dependency on the iPhone. Intel will reportedly provide LTE modems for the new watch. Apple is in talks with carriers in the US and Europe. It could debut its new watch models alongside the new iPhone, as it did last year.
Disclosure: Paytm’s parent company, One97, is an investor in Gadgets 360.
