OnePlus 5, the latest flagship from the Chinese start-up, is now open for sale in India and available in several other countries worldwide. Those interested in buying a OnePlus 5 in India can do so through Amazon, OnePlus’ online store, or the OnePlus Experience Store in Bengaluru. The phone is available in two variants with RAM storage – a 6GB/64GB, for Rs. 32,999, and an 8GB/128GB for Rs. 37,999. When writing, Amazon’s listing said that the higher-spec variant of the OnePlus 5 would be out of stock for two days.
The reason it’s being called an “open sale” is that the OnePlus 5 was made available in limited quantities right after its launch in India late last week, both online and at pop-up events across the country. Now it is open to the general public, with several launch offers from Vodafone, SBI, and Amazon Pay that you can check out here.
Meanwhile, a Reddit AMA with OnePlus offered answers to some user concerns, such as the lack of EIS (Electronic Image Stabilization) for 4K videos on the OnePlus 5 and a Wi-Fi bug causing connectivity issues. The same Reddit thread also suggests when OnePlus 3/OnePlus 3T owners could expect Android O on their devices. It will be made available before the end of 2017, so stay there.
HMD Global, the company that revived the Nokia brand name, has confirmed it will be bringing its mid-tier Android smartphone – the Nokia 6 – to the US in early July. That’s only a few weeks away. Nokia 6 arrives at VS in a few weeks. It will be available for $229 (about Rs. 14,800) through Amazon in matte black and silver variants. You have more options as the Nokia 6 will be available in more colors later in the summer: Tempered Blue and Copper. T-Mobile will be the only one to offer full support on its network, with partial 4G LTE support on AT&T. If you have an account with those two, the Nokia 6 doesn’t work with Sprint and Verizon.
Gionee is partnering with Reliance Jio, and Paytm for deals on its phones Gionee is partnering with Reliance Jio to provide additional data on a selection of its phones purchased on June 16 or later. On its flagship devices – A1, M5 Plus, S6 Pro, and Elife E8 – you get an additional 10GB of Jio data per top-up of Rs. 309 plan or higher, with a total of six charges between now and March 31, 2018. That offering drops to an additional 5GB of Jio 4G data on Gionee’s second-tier phones and then to 2GB further down the road. As for Paytm, when you buy a qualifying Gionee phone, you will get two Paytm vouchers worth Rs. 250 each.
Another ransomware attack is underway. A new and highly virulent outbreak of malicious data encryption software appears to be causing massive disruptions worldwide, hitting businesses and governments in Europe particularly hard. The electricity grid, banks, and government offices in Ukraine were affected, and Russia and other countries also reported damage.
Apple Releases Public Betas for iOS 11 Following its reveal at the beginning of the month at WWDC, iOS 11 is now available in a public beta for users to download and install on their devices. A general release is still a few months away, as usually happens with the launch of the next iPhone around September. If you can’t wait – we recommend you do because betas can cause problems – here are the instructions to set up iOS 11. The public beta for macOS High Sierra is also on the way, and you can try that before the public release in the fall.
Xiaomi says Redmi 4 has sold 1 million units in 30 days. Xiaomi has sold more than 1 million units of Redmi 4 since its launch last month in India, the company announced on Tuesday. From Rs. 6,999 for the base variant, the Redmi 4 is a budget Android device with 6.0 Marshmallow. It has a 5-inch HD 2.5D curved glass screen, an all-metal body, and a fingerprint sensor on the back. It houses a 1.4GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 SoC, and you can get the Xiaomi Redmi 4 in three RAM storage variants: 2GB/16GB, 3GB/32GB, and 4GB/64 GB.
Lenovo K6 Power and K6 Note get Android NougatLenovo has started rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat to two budget phones in its lineup: the Lenovo K6 Power and the Lenovo K6 Note. The biggest changes you’ll see once you update are multi-window support, built-in data saver in Android settings, faster app switching, and bundled notifications, so you don’t have to wipe individual entries from one app. Lenovo also promises better battery life (thanks to Doze), and you can change the font size depending on how it suits you.
In an EU antitrust case, Google faces the largest-ever fine for a single company. The internet giant has been accused of manipulating search results and using its market dominance to favor its Shopping service, even if the results were subpar. Google insists it “disagrees with the claims” and will appeal the decision. The EU has given Google 90 days to end the practice. Otherwise, Google will face fines worth 5 percent of the average daily turnover of its parent company, Alphabet.
Facebook reaches 2 billion users; brings masks, filters, and comments to Messenger video chat Facebook now has 2 billion users, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed in a Facebook post on Tuesday. Meanwhile, masks and filters, which Facebook “borrowed” from Snapchat for its own Messenger, are now available in video chats with your friends and enthusiastic responses based on the reactions that fill your news feed. Like the former, the latter will also use facial recognition technology. For example, if you choose the “heart” emoji during a video call, your face will be outlined with multiple heart emojis, which will animate and disappear.
Galaxy Note 7 may go back on sale next week. According to Korean news agencies, Samsung will return refurbished units of the Galaxy Note 7 to stores next week. Yes, that’s the same phone that became infamous for exploding last year. After it carried out a failed recall process, Samsung was concerned that refurbished devices were shipped without proper checks, which also exploded. With the debacle costing the company billions in losses, Samsung hopes to recover some of that by selling millions of Note 7 units left over from initial production.
Meanwhile, Samsung’s latest flagship – the Galaxy S8+ – has received a new color in the Taiwanese market: Rose Pink. It is available to pre-order until June 30 and will ship early July. Should you be interested, it costs TWD 27,900 (about Rs. 59,300).
Google Talk is no more; after 12 years of existenceRemember, Google Talk, the instant messaging service stuck on the left side of your Gmail window? Well, it’s finally dead. Google has finally ended one of its oldest IM services and made Hangouts the only option for Gmail users. The company announced the move in March to restructure how it views messages. Hangouts are now seen as the business competitor to Slack/Microsoft Teams, while Allo and Duo are for personal messaging.
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