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Android Go (Oreo Edition) is an Android operating system based on Oreo 8.1 designed for phones with low-RAM. The company started rolling Go edition apps one after the other. It recently rolled out the Gboard Go, YouTube Go, and Maps Go. Today is has released the Assistant Go app on the Google Play Store.
The Assistant Go will come pre-installed on Android (Go edition) devices. It is also supposed to do the same things that a regular Assistant does but will use lesser resources. However, talking about the things that it can't do which include setting up reminders, controls for smart home devices, Actions on Google, and Device Actions.
For now, the Assistant Go will only support French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai, but the company promises to bring more languages soon. With Google Assistant Go you can find local info like weather, restaurants, business hours, navigations, make calls, send SMS, alarms, timers, calendar, play media, etc.
The App is already available on the Play Store, since it is aimed at low-cost Android phones running on Android 8.1 Oreo, it isn't available for higher-specced phones. You can get the Google Assistant Go from Play Store here for supported phones.
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Apple's Taiwan manufacturer Wistron Corp is said to be on the verge of closing a land deal in Bengaluru and is also is likely to invest about $157 million to develop the site, according to a latest report from Reuters.
It is rumored earlier that Wistron’s who currently assembles Apple’s low-cost iPhone SE in India, has been scouting for some land in Bengaluru, and now reports coming claim that some of the Wistron’s global executives and its India's head met with the industries minister of Karnataka earlier this month and a deal on the land lease may be struck in a few weeks.
Apple, Wistron and Karnataka government body that deals with investment proposals are yet to comment on the ongoing development. While the part of the land bought by Wistron will be used to set up new assembly lines for Apple. On the other hand, on a different note, another source claim that Apple is likely to start assembling its iPhone 6s models in India through Wistron soon in order to cost cut and diversify its production base. Since 6s is still one of the top sellers for Apple, it makes sense.
Since ICT has recently won federal approval to import machinery from China into India, ...
OnePlus has finally started rolling out stable Android 8.0 (Oreo) update for the OnePlus 5T smartphone with OxygenOS 5.0.2, as it had promised at the launch. This comes a month after the first Oreo open beta update. The same version of OxygenOS stable update is also available for the OnePlus 5 that brings Face Unlock and enhancements to EIS when recording videos.
The update also includes new CPU security patch, updates to OnePlus applications as well as general bug fixes and improvements for both the phones.
OnePlus 5T OxygenOS 5.0.2 Changelog:
System
Upgraded Android version to Oreo(8.0)
New design for Quick Settings
General bug fixes and improvements
Applied CPU security patch: CVE-2017-13218
Applications
Updated Launcher to v2.2
Updated Gallery to v2.0
Updated Weather to v1.9
Updated File Manager to v1.7.6
OnePlus 5 OxygenOS 5.0.2 Changelog:
System
Added Face unlock function
Applied CPU security patch: CVE-2017-13218
General bug fixes and improvements
Applications
Updated Launcher to v2.2
Updated Gallery to v2.0
Updated Weather to v1.9
Updated File Manager to v1.7.6
Camera
Enhanced EIS for video recording
The OnePlus 5T OxygenOS 5.0.2 update is 1688MB in size and the update for the OnePlus 5 is 1658MB in size. Both these still have Android security patch for December 2017.
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Huawei's Honor brand launched its flagship Honor View 10 smartphone in India last month. We already brought you the review of the phone, here we have the battery life test results of the phone. It packs a 3750mAh (typical) / 3650mAh (minimum) battery and supports fast charging . It has a 5.99-inch FHD+ FullView display, is powered by Kirin 970 SoC, has 6GB of RAM, runs on Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.0. Check out the test results.
Talk Time
It lasted for 33 hours and 31 minutes in our talk time test.
3G Browsing
It lasted for 8 hours and 27 minutes in our 3G browsing test.
WiFi Browsing
It lasted 12 hours and 47 minutes in our WiFi Browsing test.
Video Playback
It lasted for just 11 hours and 14 minutes in our video playback test.
Charging Time
It took 1 hour and 22 minutes to charge the phone to 100% and just 32 minutes for 0 to 50%, thanks to Huawei's fast charging technology.
Standby Time
It lasted for 53 days in our standby test.
In achieved a One Charge Rating of 16 hours and 27 minutes which is good, thanks to Honor’s power management. Check out our battery life test procedure, to know more about our tests in detail.
After teasers, Xiaomi has launched the Rose Gold variant of the Redmi 5A smartphone. The smartphone was introduced back in November last year in Dark Grey, Champagne Gold and Rose Gold colors, but only the Gold and Grey color variants of the smartphone went on sale starting from December. Earlier this month the company said that it has sold over 1 million or 10 lakh units of Redmi 5A smartphones in India.
Apart from the color, other specifications are similar, including a 5-inch HD display, quad-core Snapdragon 425 SoC, MIUI 9 based on Android 7.1 (Nougat), 13-megapixel rear camera with PDAF, LED flash, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, dedicated SIM slots, unibody design with matte finish and a 3000mAh built-in battery.
Xiaomi Redmi 5A specifications
5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display with 1000: 1 contrast ratio, 72% (typ) / 68% (min) color gamut
1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform with 500MHz Adreno 308 GPU
2GB RAM with 16GB internal storage,3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD
Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with MIUI 9
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with PDAF, LED Flash, f/2.2 aperture, 1080p video recording
5MP front-facing camera, f/2.0 aperture
Infrared sensor
Dimensions: 140.4 x 70.1 mm x 8.35 mm ;Weight: 137g
4G ...
Google Flights has received two new features to help your travel experience. One among them is the ability to predict flight delays, and another is the new fare type option to show cheap fares.
The new fare type feature includes options like "Basic Economy" for those who are traveling on a budget. To make it more comfortable, Google will also include additional charges like overhead bin space, ability to select your seat and baggage fees. This feature is available for flights on American, Delta, and United.
On the other hand, Google will now use historic flight status data, and machine learning algorithms to predict delays even when this information isn’t available from airlines yet and Google says that it will flag a delay status if it is at least 80% confident. However, Google advices you to reach the airport beforehand.
To know the status, one simply needs to search for the flight or the airline and flight route, and these details will appear right in your search results. This really is a nifty little feature to have, but the availability seems to be limited to selected regions right now.
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Qualcomm today announced that the company and Samsung Electronics have signed a multi-year strategic relationship agreement over various technology areas and across a range of mobile devices. This agreement will also expand the companies relationship as technology partners.
The agreement will also cover mobile devices and infrastructure equipment and as a part of the agreement, Samsung will now withdraw its interventions in Qualcomm’s appeal of the KFTC decision against an $868m fine in 2016 over excessive” licensing fees in the Seoul High Court.
Qualcomm did not disclose any terms and conditions of the amended deal but said it consistent with global-handset pricing. Both Qualcomm and Samsung are also said to work together for Qualcomm’s processors that also include the transition to 5G. Qualcomm early last week signed similar commitments with Lenovo, OPPO, Vivo, and Xiaomi in China.
Commenting on the agreement, Cristiano Amon, president, Qualcomm Incorporated said:
The announcement today underscores the importance of our longstanding strategic relationship with Samsung in driving core mobile technology into many different segments. As Qualcomm continues to lead the world to 5G, the opportunities between our companies are growing and this agreement sets us both on a path for continued success.
TM Roh, executive vice president and the head of mobile R&D, Samsung Electronics said:
We ...
It is already known that Huawei has backed out of the MWC 2018 event with the P20 announcement and now it is learned that the flagships will be announced at a separate event in March. Press invites for the event have already been sent out to the media. The new report falls in-line with the earlier rumored information.
Though the invite doesn't explicitly mention about P20, the "new flagship devices" are probably going be P20 and P20 Plus. The P20 duo is the successors to the P10 flagships that were introduced back in 2017 at the MWC 2017. The March 27th data is exactly a month after the MWC 2018 event.
The rumored specifications of the P20 include a larger display and will be powered by the Kirin 970 SoC and is also said to feature a 40-megapixel triple rear camera with 5x hybrid zoom, along with a 24 MP front-facing camera. It will run on Android Oreo 8.0 or 8.1 with EMUI on top. Like the Mate 10 series, the P20 series might also pack the A.I enhancements.
Though these rumored specifications might not be from credible sources, we shall know more details as we inch closer to the launch. The Huawei P20 ...
OPPO launched the A71 smartphone in India back in September last year, now the company has introduced the A71 (2018) in Pakistan and Taiwan. This has similar specifications as the predecessor, including a 5.2-inch HD display, Android 7.1 (Nougat) OS with ColorOS on top, 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and 5-megapixel front-facing camera, but this is powered by Snapdragon 450 SoC instead of MediaTek MT6750 SoC. It also has only 2GB of RAM compared to 3GB of RAM in the predecessor.
It also has A.I. Beauty Recognition technology that uses artificial intelligence to recognize skin tone and type, the gender and age of all subjects within an image and analyze environment lighting conditions by referencing other facial images from a massive global photo database, to beautify a selfie shot.
It has an unibody metal design with dedicated dual nano SIM slots and a separate microSD expansion slot and packs a 3000mAh battery. It doesn't have a fingerprint sensor.
OPPO A71 (2018) specifications
5.2-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS display
1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU
2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Android 7.1 (Nougat) with ColorOS 3.2
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED Flash, PDAF, f/2.2 aperture
5MP front-facing ...
Microsoft today has reported a 12% YoY increase in revenues in FYQ2 2018 in the latest earnings report for the quarter that ended December 31, 2017. The company's total estimated revenue is close to $28.9 billion and a net income of $7.5 billion with a solid 12% increase. Cloud platform still continues to grow and fuel the earnings. GAAP net loss was $6.3 billion and non-GAAP net income was $7.5 billion.
Microsoft's Azure cloud platform revenue has increased by a massive 98 percent. The company's operating income is estimated at $8.7 billion with a 10% increase. On the other hand, the Surface revenue is up by just 1%, because of just 1 Surfacebook launch; the Surface Book 2 in November. Microsoft has also returned $5 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends in the second quarter of the fiscal year 2018.
The revenue in product and business processes combined came up to $9 billion which is a good 25% increase. The Office commercial products and cloud services revenue increased 10% and the Office 365 commercial revenue grew by 41% and the subscribers count increased to 29.2 million. LinkedIn in its 3rd full quarter inclusion has also posted a good $1.3 billion revenue contribution during the quarter.
Windows ...
HMD Global launched its flagship Nokia 8 smartphone in India back in September last year for Rs. 36,999. Now the phone has received a Rs. 8000 price cut and is available for Rs. 28,999. The Nokia 5 3GB RAM version that was launched for Rs. 13,499 has received a Rs. 1000 price cut and is available for Rs. 12,499, but some offline retailers are selling it for as low as Rs. 11,299.
After the price cut, the Nokia 8 will be one of the best smartphones in the range. It packs a 5.3-inch Quad HD display with sculpted Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection, is powered by an Octa-Core Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform with 4GB RAM, has 13-megapixel dual rear cameras, one with a color sensor and the other with a monochrome sensor for low light and dedicated black and white photography. It also has ZEISS optics, OIS and also Splashproof with IP54 ratings.
The Nokia 8 got Android 8.0 (Oreo) update back in November last year, and even got the Android 8.1 (Oreo) beta update recently. Android Oreo update for the Nokia 5 smartphone started rolling out earlier this week. Nokia 8.
Amazon has started selling the Nokia 8 the new rate, and Flipkart is expected to start selling the Nokia 5 at ...
Android Go (Oreo Edition) is an Android operating system based on Oreo 8.1 designed for phones with low-RAM. The company started rolling Go edition apps one after the other. It recently rolled out the Gboard Go, YouTube Go, and Maps Go. Today is has released the Assistant Go app on the Google Play Store.
The Assistant Go will come pre-installed on Android (Go edition) devices. It is also supposed to do the same things that a regular Assistant does but will use lesser resources. However, talking about the things that it can't do which include setting up reminders, controls for smart home devices, Actions on Google, and Device Actions.
For now, the Assistant Go will only support French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai, but the company promises to bring more languages soon. With Google Assistant Go you can find local info like weather, restaurants, business hours, navigations, make calls, send SMS, alarms, timers, calendar, play media, etc.
The App is already available on the Play Store, since it is aimed at low-cost Android phones running on Android 8.1 Oreo, it isn't available for higher-specced phones. You can get the Google Assistant Go from Play Store here for supported phones.
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InFocus has launched A2, the company's latest budget smartphone with 4G VoLTE support. It packs a 5-inch HD 2.5D curved glass screen, is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), has a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with face beauty, camera filters and pro mode.
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InFocus A2 specifications
5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS 2.5D curved glass display
1.3 GHz Quad-core Spreadtrum SC9832 processor with Mali-400 GPU
2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 32GB with microSD
Android 7.0 (Nougat)
Dual SIM
5MP rear camera with LED Flash
5MP front-facing camera
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
Dimensions: 71.1 x 143.9 x 8.9mm
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
2400mAh battery
The InFocus A2 comes in Champagne Gold and Black colors, is priced at Rs. 5,199 (MOP) and is available from offline stores. It also comes with Rs. 300 MobiKwik SuperCash and 30GB additional 4G data for Reliance Jio users. Wonder who would choose this over Redmi 5A.
Apple has reported all-time record quarterly revenue of $88.3 billion, up 13% over last year with a all-time record net profit of $20.1 billion in their earnings for the financial year Q4 2018 that ended December 30, 2017. Apple reported quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.89, up 16% from a year ago, also an all-time record. During earnings call Tim Cook said that the growth was broad-based and a key driver was iPhone, which generated its highest revenue ever.
iPhone X has been Apple's top selling phone every week since it launched. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus rounded out the top three iPhones in the quarter. "In fact, revenue for our newly launched iPhone was the highest of any lineup in our history, driving total Apple revenue above our guidance range," said the CEO.
Apple saw double digit revenue growth in all our geographic segments, an all-time quarterly record in the vast majority of markets, including the U.S., Western Europe, Japan, Canada Australia and Korea, as well as Mainland China, Latin America, The Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe, and India.
Apple sold 77.3 million iPhones, the highest number ever for a 13-week quarter, compared to 78.3 million a year ago. ...
The quality of the budget smartphone is improving gradually with the launch of each successive smartphones in the industry. Just like flagship smartphones, they're fast, well designed, and offer a ton of extra features as well. One of the prime examples is the Honor's latest budget smartphone dubbed as Holly 4. Honor has added yet another budget device under its portfolio, offering better battery backup and camera functionalities. The Honor Holly 4 carries impressive specs for a phone at this price point.
Coming to the build quality, the Honor Holly 4 is quite impressive with a metal unibody design with the premium look and feel. The Holly 4 is sturdy, feels compact in hand, comfortable to hold and offers good grip as it has curvy back. The rear of the device features a single tone metallic finish housing rear camera with flash and fingerprint scanner. We like the design language of this device at this price point.
The Honor Holly 4 sports a 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display with no information about the Corning Gorilla Glass protection. Surprisingly, the display looks vibrant, offers good color output and viewing angles as well. The sunlight legibility is good too. However, we wish ...
Google's parent company, Alphabet today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2017. The company posted a record 24% increase in revenue with $32.323 billion compared to the $26.064 billion in Q4 2016. The company posted revenues of $110.9 billion in complete 2017.
Google’s core ad business remains strong pulling 27.27 billion in revenue with 24% YoY growth. TAC or traffic acquisition costs continue to grow as Google shifts its business focus to advertising and mobile search ads which resulted in nearly $6.5 billion, up 33% YoY in the Q4 which ended on December 31st, 2017. However, the company posted a net income of $3,020 billion which is a dip compared to the $5,333 billion YoY.
The company currently has 80,110 employees and it reported earnings per share of $9.70 which is less compared to $9.90 which was expected. Alphabet mentioned that the one-time tax hit caused a net loss of $3.02 billion in the fourth quarter. However, the revenue grew $32.323 billion which is higher than analyst expectations of $31.86 billion.
Google's cloud business, and sales of products like the Pixel smartphone and Google Home, and its Google Play app store, reported $4.69 billion in revenue. Other bets revenue reported a revenue of $409 million in Q4 2017 on operating losses of $916 ...
Sony might not be the top sellers in the world, but the company pushes out major updates at least to its flagships, but for how long the Xperia devices are supported is somewhat vague. This is the case with most Android phone vendors, not just Sony. However, today Sony has outlined its Android system upgrade policy and said that it would support high-end premium device for 2-years since the day it launched.
Google is the only brand that tries to stay clear for how long it will support its products both Android upgrades and security patches. While Sony premium phones get support for two-years, the mid-range and budget phones are less lucky as they get dropped half-way. Sony says that it may not choose to upgrade mid-range phone if the testing does not meet the required standards or if the hardware isn’t capable of delivering stable user experience.
Talking about the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities, Sony says that it is in the process of making the patches available to Xperia XA1, Xperia XA1 Ultra, Xperia L1. The Xperia XA1 Plus, Xperia XA2, Xperia XA2 Ultra, Xperia L2, Xperia X Performance, Xperia X, Xperia X Compact, Xperia XZ, Xperia XZ Premium, Xperia XZs, Xperia ...
Huawei's Honor brand introduced new Red edition of the Honor 7X in China back in December and it was introduced for the global markets at the CES 2018 last month. Today Amazon.in has started teasing the Red Limited Edition smartphone in India. The company also confirmed that the Honor7X is now made in India and the company in partnership with Flex has started manufacturing the phone at Flex's plant in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai
The Red variant will join the Black, Blue and Gold color variants that were launched in India in December exclusively on Amazon.in starting at Rs. 12,999. After selling the phone through flash sale every week, the phone is now available through open sale. The Red edition is expected to available in limited quantities since the company already said that only 20,000 units will be made available for the overseas market.
Regarding the Red edition, Honor at the CES 2018 said, "Red version offers customers a passionate, energetic new color and a terrific out-of-box experience". It also said that the phone will get Face unlock sometime in Q1 2018 through OTA update. The Honor View 10 recently got the Face Unlock feature.
We should know more details about the availability of the Honor 7X Red Edition ...
Google Assistant picks up few new features that include the ability to set music alarms, look up TV schedules and more. To set up music alarms, you need to store the songs that you wanted on your Google home or other assistant-enabled speakers.
To set up a music alarm, all you have to do is say “Hey Google, set an alarm for 6 AM with 'the music/musician you wish' to the Assistant on Google Home or your other Assistant-enabled speakers. Once it is done, you now can wake up to your favorite song, playlist or radio station.
Another addition is the ability to help you learn about actors or play a TV show, and also, it can now help you keep up with the TV shows that you are following. To take advantage of this ability, all you have to do is Just say “Hey Google, what channel airs 'The Flash' or “Hey Google, when does 'The Flash' air next. You can even set reminders, so you never miss a show.
Google says that it has worked closely with Netflix to make your Netflix casting experience more personal. Firstly, you need to link your Netflix account in the Google Home app or via the Google ...
Sony Corporation has reported its revenues for the third quarter of the financial year 2017 that ended December 31, 2017. Sales increased by 11.46% to 2,672.3 billion yen compared to the same quarter last year due to strong growth in its Gaming and Networking division, Semiconductors and others.
Operating profit increased to 350.8 billion yen year-on-year from 92.4 billion yen, making it Sony’s highest third-quarter profit ever, due to improvements of operating results in the Semiconductors and G&NS segments.
Its Mobile communications division reported sales of 217.5 billion yen, down 12.5% from 248.6 billion yen. Operating income was down to 15.8 billion yen, compared to 21.2 billion yen a year ago. This is mainly due to decrease in unit sales of smartphones, increase in the price of key components and negative impact of foreign exchange rates.
The company shipped 4 million smartphones, compared to 5.1 million a year earlier. It has also reduced full year smartphone shipment target to 15.5 million from 15.5 million units. As a result, it has reduced its sales forecast by 40 billion yen to 740 billion yen.
Sony expects smartphone sales to be lower than the October forecast primarily due to an expected decrease in smartphone unit sales. "The forecast for operating income remains unchanged as the impact of ...
