After Airtel and BSNL, Vodafone has also decided to acquire Reliance’s Jio Phone with its ultra-affordable smartphone, which has an “effective” price tag of Rs. 999. It’s called the Bharat-2 Ultra, and it was made in collaboration with Micromax, who also developed the 4G feature phone Bharat 1 for BSNL. The Micromax Vodafone 4G smartphone will be available in November with a deposit of Rs. 2,899, and users must charge Rs. 150 a month for the next three years to keep it going.
At the end of the first 18 months, Vodafone will deposit Rs. 900 in your Vodafone M-Pesa wallet, followed by Rs. 1,000 another 18 months later. As for the phone itself, the Micromax Bharat-2 Ultra has a 4-inch WVGA display powered by Spreadtrum SC9832, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. There is a 2-megapixel camera on the back and a 0.3-megapixel camera on the front. The Micromax Vodafone 4G smartphone runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Nokia 7 first Chinese flash sale was successful, with more than 150,000 registrations. However, there is no word on how many units have been sold. The pre-registrations for the Nokia 7 started immediately after the official launch in China on October 20.
The phone sits between the Nokia 6 and Nokia 8, considering the numbering, and it comes in two variants: 4 GB RAM for CNY 2,499 (approximately Rs. 25,000) and 6 GB RAM for CNY 2,699 (roughly Rs. 26,500). It also has a full-HD 5.2-inch IPS display, Snapdragon 630, 64GB of internal storage, a 16-megapixel f/1.8 rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Like the Nokia 8, the Nokia 7 is capable of ‘Bothie’ photos, with both sensors taking pictures simultaneously to create a single image.
OnePlus 5T teaser images leaked teaser images for the rumored OnePlus 5T have been informed via Android Authority, highlighting the minimal bezels around the screen. Android Authority adds that the OnePlus 5T may have the same chassis as the 5, allowing older accessories to work with the new phone. It is also expected to have an 18:9 aspect ratio like most of the other flagship phones out there today and launch sometime in November.
Further issues with Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XLSome Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL users have noticed other problems with their devices, reporting clicking and treble on the former and a black spot on the screen on the latter, which is the Burn-in issue is still under investigation by Google. According to members on the Pixel User Community forum, the Pixel 2 continues to produce those sounds even after a reboot or factory reset.
Google has acknowledged the problem and has promised a software patch for next week. As for the Pixel 2 XL, the black spot is a known issue for OLED panels, but it’s much worse on Google’s new phone.
Samsung and Apple go to court again. A US judge has ordered a new trial to find out how much Samsung will have to pay Apple for copying the iPhone’s appearance, ten months after the Supreme Court ordered a $399 million (approximately Rs. 2,592 crores) reserved price against the Korean giant. Koh said jury instructions during the Apple-Samsung lawsuit “didn’t accurately reflect the law” and may have biased Samsung by preventing jurors from considering whether an infringement included “something other than the entire phone.”
Facebook begins testing split news feed Facebook has already started testing a dual news feed — one for friends and family and the other for pages fun — for users in six smaller countries: Bolivia, Cambodia, Guatemala, Serbia, Slovakia, and Sri Lanka. The test will likely take months, Adam Mosseri, head of Facebook’s news feed, said in a blog post. The change could mean businesses must pay Facebook to run Friends and Family Feed ads.
HTC U11 Plus was spotted on Chinese website HTC’s rumored U11 Plus on China’s certification site, TENNA, ahead of its launch on November 2. According to the listing, it has an 18:9 display, a glass-like finish, and a fingerprint scanner on the back. Of course, the images don’t confirm the phone’s specs, which should consist of a 5.99-inch quad-HD display, Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, and Android 8.0.
Karbonn Titanium Jumbo has a 4000mAh battery. Karbonn launched the Titanium Jumbo in India on Tuesday, culminating in the 4000mAh storm. It is said to have a standby time of 400 hours and a talk time of up to 16 hours. The Karbonn Titanium Jumbo has an MRP of Rs. 7,490, although it will have a MOP (market functioning price) of Rs. 6,490. The Titanium Jumbo has a 5-inch HD IPS display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core chip, 2 GB of RAM, and 16 GB of internal storage. As for optics, you get a 13-megapixel camera on the back and an 8-megapixel camera on the front. It does have support for 4G VoLTE.
Next Android update for more secure DNS requests Google is working to include “DNS over TLS” in the next Android update, which will encrypt DNS requests to secure your browsing experience further. Typically, DNS requests are made over TCP/UDP, allowing ISPs to see which websites you visit, even if using HTTPS. But with TLS, the web address itself would be masked.
It is still not foolproof, as TLS does not protect the IP address from communication. In addition, not many DNS providers accept requests over TLS. For now, your best bet for privacy is still a VPN. DNS over TLS is available under Developer Options in Android 8.1 Oreo.
India ‘biggest contributor’ as app downloads soar in Q3 2017 A new report from App Annie claims that app revenue and downloads hit an all-time high in Q3 2017 in both the App Store and Google Play Store, with India being the ‘biggest contributor’ is on the download growth on the latter. Consumer spending reached nearly $17 billion (about Rs. 110,809 crores) with a 28 percent year-over-year growth. App Annie noted Reliance Jio’s 4G push as a major growth engine.
