Nokia fans, you are waiting for the company’s big comeback in India is almost over. The launch dates of the Nokia 6, Nokia 5, Nokia 3, and Nokia 3310 (2017) will likely be announced on Monday. Gadgets 360 has received invitations to a launch from HMD Global, the company that now owns the smartphone brand Nokia. The invite calls the event “a conversation with Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer, HMD Global”“. Like you, we hope the conversation is about Nokia phones. Stay tuned for detailed coverage.
Meanwhile, we have some new details about the Nokia 6. A black variant of the smartphone was first unveiled in China, and now a silver variant has been spotted on the Yahoo Taiwan online store. The listing mentions that the smartphone has 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage, which is different from the variant available in China.
Here are other things that have made headlines in the world of technology today.
Oppo F3 launched in IndiaOppo has launched a new smartphone in India. Oppo F3 is the latest product from the company that focuses on the selfie camera. This has a double selfie camera and is the smaller brother of the Oppo F3 Plus. The Oppo F3 is available for pre-order but will not go on sale until May 13. The price is below Rs. 20,000 marks in India.
Google Pixel’s Huge ‘Price Cut’ If you couldn’t appreciate the Google Pixel’s astronomical price at launch, now might be a good time to buy the smartphone. Gadgets 360 reported earlier today that the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL have received a cashback of Rs. 13,000 through offline retailers across India. Interestingly enough, this cashback is also available for cash payments, apart from certain banks’ usual credit and debit cards. If you pay cash, you will get an instant discount of Rs. 13,000. With this discount, the Google Pixel phones are also available via Flipkart.
Xiaomi has started an electronics recycling program in India Anyone who uses a gadget is probably guilty of harming our environment. Still, smartphone recycling programs are one way to lighten some of that burden on the planet. Xiaomi has now started offering small discounts to people who pass gadgets – regardless of brand – for recycling. In other news, the company has plans to ramp up its offline presence in India. On May 11, the company will launch its first Mi Home store in India. This store is expected to be located in Bengaluru.
Express Wi-Fi launched by Facebook in IndiaFacebook’s Free Basics program was unsuccessful in India, and there is now a different approach to getting people online. Facebook’s Express Wi-Fi is a series of hotspots across the country that provide internet access to people. India is one of the five countries where the program is now live. Facebook partners with Airtel to launch 20,000 new Wi-Fi hotspots in India.
WhatsApp is tightening its active user muscles again. Numbers don’t always give an accurate picture of an app’s popularity. Still, it’s hard to argue with WhatsApp’s daily active user numbers since everyone you know and their extended families are using the app now. WhatsApp Status, the company’s clone of Snapchat Stories, now has 175 million daily active users alone. The parent company Facebook now has 2 billion monthly active users. The app suffered a brief outage, and the number of complaints we saw on other social media platforms was unbelievable.
Sennheiser launches very expensive headphones Sennheiser has launched headphones that cost more in many places than at home. We’re just going to ignore the dirty looks people are throwing at us in Mumbai and tell the rest of you that these headphones cost a mind-boggling Rs. 45 lakhs. The Sennheiser HE 1 is the successor to the company’s Orpheus headphones and will be available from May 27, so better prepare to start lining up at your nearest audio store immediately.
OnePlus five specs tipped. The key specs of OnePlus’ upcoming flagship smartphone have been listed in a new leak. The smartphone may be called OnePlus 5, and the company’s CEO has confirmed that he is working on this smartphone. It is expected to have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage.
iPhone 8 rumors pour in thick and fast. The iPhone 8 rumor mill never stops churning. Today we have an unlikely word claiming that the next iPhone will be unveiled at WWDC 2017 in June. This is highly unlikely to happen as Apple’s iPhone release schedule is usually towards the end of the year, and so far, the company has shipped new iPhones every year like timepieces. A second report details the rumored “feature area” of the iPhone 8 that will be part of the display and act as a fingerprint scanner. The rendered image looks fantastic, but if every concept image there became a real product, we’d probably be more technologically advanced than we are today.
Google Tackles Phishing Scams After reports surfaced of a highly devious Google Docs phishing scam, Google acted quickly and took decisive action against the perpetrators. The company fixed the issue a few hours after it was reported on Reddit. In related news, Gmail for Android has gained new anti-phishing features that will help protect you from such scams.
Ola raises new round of funding Indian taxi company Ola has raised Rs. 670 crores ($104.4 million) in new funding from investors such as UC-RNT Fund, a venture between the University of California and Ratan Tata, and FO Mauritius I Ltd, according to the registration filing by ANI Technologies – which Ola runs. It faces stiff competition from US-based Uber in India, and this funding round is a sign that Ola is not giving up.
Microsoft still has smartphone dreams. The Surface Phone dream lives on if we are to believe Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. The company’s efforts with Windows Phone have failed, but it looks like we may be seeing another Surface Phone. We certainly wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft called it the Surface Phone if the Surface Laptop and Surface Book have anything to offer.
