Google at the Pixel event back in October last year had announced Assistant Routines, and they are finally rolling out replacing 'My Day.' This feature is meant to allow a single phrase to initiate multiple commands and the feature is now live on the Google Assistant's / Google Home app's settings.
You can find these controls with Home control, Music, and Shortcuts. The functionality lets you take your device off the silent mode and adjust smart home appliances, like the temperature on a thermostat and more. There are six routines; Good Morning, Bedtime, Leaving home, I'm home, Commuting to work, and Commuting home. Obviously, the last two routines are only accessible from your phone.
The Good Morning routine will replace the previous 'My Day' feature. These routines will be voice-dependent, so you and the other people in your home will be able to trigger your own actions for each one. After running through Routine commands, users can start using Assistant normally again. To further customize, users can start changing and adding multiple phrases to trigger one Routine.
Each routine will have a limited set of predefined actions, for example, sleep sounds are only accessible from the night related Routine. But for now only 'Good Morning' routine is live, we can expect ...
Google at the Pixel event back in October last year had announced Assistant Routines, and they are finally rolling out replacing 'My Day.' This feature is meant to allow a single phrase to initiate multiple commands and the feature is now live on the Google Assistant's / Google Home app's settings.
You can find these controls with Home control, Music, and Shortcuts. The functionality lets you take your device off the silent mode and adjust smart home appliances, like the temperature on a thermostat and more. There are six routines; Good Morning, Bedtime, Leaving home, I'm home, Commuting to work, and Commuting home. Obviously, the last two routines are only accessible from your phone.
The Good Morning routine will replace the previous 'My Day' feature. These routines will be voice-dependent, so you and the other people in your home will be able to trigger your own actions for each one. After running through Routine commands, users can start using Assistant normally again. To further customize, users can start changing and adding multiple phrases to trigger one Routine.
Each routine will have a limited set of predefined actions, for example, sleep sounds are only accessible from the night related Routine. But for now only 'Good Morning' routine is live, we can expect ...
Infinix launched the Hot S3 smartphone with a 20-megapixel front camera with dual LED flash, 5.65-inch HD+ 18:9 display and Android 8.0 Oreo with XOS Hummingbird V3.0 last month. As it had announced recently, the company has started rolling out Face unlock feature for the smartphone via over-the-air (OTA) update.
The update also brings Android security patch for March 1, 2018, update to Google GMS Package, battery life improvements, camera effect optimization and system stability as well as performance improvements.
How to enable Face Unlock
Step 1: Go to Settings and click on Security & location, select Face ID
Step 2: Set up a lockscreen passcode and click on “Go to set up lockscreen passcode
Step 3: Select one of the option from Pattern, PIN or Password as your Unlock Selection
Step 4: Enter your 4 digit PIN and click on “Continue”
Step 5: Click on Yes for Secure Start-up
Step 6: In the face ID window, add Face ID,
Step 7: You are in Face ID window now. Click on “Add Face ID”, scan your face within the circle. After complete scan, it will show “Face ID successfully enrolled”
Step 8: Your Face ID has been set up successfully.
Step 9: to check ...
After launching Bharat 5 and 5 Plus, Micromax today launched the Bharat 5 Pro that comes with Face Unlock and a similar 5000mAh battery. The latest budget segment device from Micromax in the Bharat series, sports a 5.2-inches HD display and has 3GB of RAM.
The Bharat 5 Pro runs on Android Nougat and has a 13-megapixel rear and 5MP front camera. Since it comes with a massive 5000mAh battery, you can use it as power bank as well by connecting the other phone via USB OTG. The phone also comes with auto face unlock, but it lacks a Fingerprint sensor. The company didn't mention the chipset it is using on the phone, but it is powered by a Quad-Core processor.
Micromax Bharat 5 Pro specifications
5.2-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD display
1.3GHz quad-core processor
3GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, expandable memory through microSD
Android Nougat
Dual SIM
13MP rear camera with LED Flash
5MP front-facing camera with LED flash
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
5000mAh battery
The Micromax Bharat 5 Pro is priced at Rs. 7,999 and will come in Black color.
Commenting on the launch, Shubhodip Pal, Chief Marketing and Chief Commercial Officer, Micromax Informatics said:
We at Micromax have always ...
Vivo V9, the company's upcoming smartphone was expected to launch in India on March 27th, now the company has confirmed that the phone will launch in India on March 23rd. Detailed specifications and the features of the phone has been listed of official Vivo India site ahead of launch. This confirms 6.3-inch FHD+ 19:9 display, 16MP + 5MP dual rear cameras, 24MP front camera with A.I face beauty, AR Stickers, dedicated dual SIM slots, Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Funtouch OS 4.0.
Even though earlier rumor said that the phone will come with Snapdragon 660, the listing confirms Snapdragon 626 for the phone.
Vivo V9 specifications
6.3-inch (2280 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 IPS display
2.2GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 626 Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU
4GB RAM, 64GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD)
Funtouch OS 4.0 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo)
16MP rear camera with LED flash, secondary 5MP camera
24MP front-facing camera with soft LED flash
Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions: 154.81 x 75.03 x 7.89mm ; Weight: 150g
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS
3260mAh battery
The Vivo V9 comes in Pearl Black and Gold colors. We just need to wait for ...
ZTE's nubia brand has scheduled an event on March 22nd to introduced V19 smartphone in the new 'V series' in China. The company has confirmed in the invite that it will come with a 6-inch full-screen display with 18:9 aspect ratio in the size of the 5.5-inch phone. It also said that the phone will cost about 1000 yuan (US$ 158 / Rs. 10,265 approx.). The company showcased the phone at the MWC last month that also says it will come with a long battery life, which is expected to be 5000mAh, similar to the N3 that went official recently.
Nubia already confirmed that the phone will be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC and a whole lot of RAM for the best gaming experience. However the company did not share the complete specifications of the phone at that time.
Another image from MWC confirms single rear camera on the back, fingerprint sensor and a metal body. We should know more details about the phone before it goes official next Thursday.
Source 1, 2
Xiaomi launched the Redmi 5A back in November last year in India. It launched the Rose Gold variant of the smartphone last month. Today the company has launched the Lake Blue variant of the phone in the country. Earlier this year the company said that it sold 1 million units of Redmi 5A in one month of launch.
Today the company in its forum post confirmed that it has sold 5 million or 50 lakh units in just 3 months of launch. This is a huge feat since it took 6 months for the Redmi Note 4 to sell 5 million units in the country, that too with the help of its offline partners. This is the reason it increased the starting price of the phone back to Rs. 5,999 from Rs. 4999, as it had said at the launch.
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.
All the four color variants of the Redmi 5A went on sale today at 12PM, exclusively on Flipkart as well as Mi.com online starting at Rs. 5999. Next ...
Google with an aim to bring more real-world games like Pokemon Go, is opening up its Maps API for game developers to build their games. For an open-world game, developers first need to understand the physical environment around their players.
With Google Maps APIs developers can take advantage of the tired and tested model of the world in building their games. Maps offer real-time updates and rich location data which makes it easier for developers to find the best places for playing games. Furthermore, it is bringing the Google Maps to the Unity game engine and has turned the buildings, roads, and parks into GameObjects in Unity, where developers can then add texture, style, and customization that will match with the game.
https://youtu.be/MJPvtx1zymk
Game developers will now have access to 100 million 3D buildings, roads, landmarks, and parks from over 200 countries that they can use to deliver rich gaming experiences. Developers who sign up will have access to real-time Google Maps data and will be a part of the new Utility tool which is one of the most popular game engines in the world. This makes it easy to incorporate this mapping data into a game.
Google has already partnered with game developers, and the first wave of games ...
Not so long ago, Google announced that location-based reminders feature is coming to Google Home. And, just like it promised, this feature is now finally rolling out to Google Home devices. Setting up reminders on Home device is easy, and all you got to do is just tell Assistant you want to be reminded of something when you are in a certain place.
Since this is a location-based feature, you won't be reminded on your Home device, instead, you will get the reminders on your phone as you reach the specified location. You can specify a particular location or something more general. Reminders on Google Home will be synched with your Home devices and you will get the notification about the reminder as you reach the destination.
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This is a neat little feature to have and above all, it is convenient to set reminders and get notified later when you are near the location. This feature has started rolling out to Google Home devices and should be available in USA and UK.
Microsoft has announced that it has created first machine human-level Chinese to English translation. It is one of a kind Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered machine system that can translate sentences of news articles from Chinese to English with the same quality and accuracy as humans.
Researchers from both USA and Asia said that their system has achieved human parity on a commonly used test set of news stories named newstest2017 which was developed by a group of industry and academic partners and released at a research conference WMT17 last fall. Post the tests, the company says that the results are accurate and on par with human-level.
The team said that they have hired external bilingual human evaluators, who compared the Microsoft’s results to two independently produced human reference translations. The company is calling it a major milestone in one of the most challenging natural language processing tasks. The team used the dual-learning method meaning that a sentence which is sent to translation from Chinese to English, was also translated it back from English to Chinese. This method made sure the translation accurate, and it allowed the system to refine and learn from its own mistakes.
Xuedong Huang, a technical member in charge of Microsoft’s speech, natural language, and machine translation efforts said:
It ...
Motorola has been expanding its retail footprint across India rapidly. Earlier this year it opened 50 new Moto Hubs in New Delhi and it opened 25 stores in Kolkata recently. Today the company has announced the opening of 50 new Moto Hubs in Mumbai with a focus of strengthening retail store in the western region.
The Moto Hub store will house the entire portfolio of Motorola devices, including the online exclusives such as Moto X4 and Moto MODs as well as accessories like on-ear and in-ear headphones, moto shells and covers.
Few months back Motorola announced a strategic partnership with Poorvika Mobiles across 43 cities in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Karnataka and with Big C and Lot Mobile stores across 55 cities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
Motorola Moto Hubs are now present in 8 states in the country, with 25 Moto Hub stores in malls across 10 cities. The company already said that it is planning to open 1000 new Moto Hubs in top 100 cities in the second phase of retail expansion.
Commenting on the launch of new stores, Sudhin Mathur, Managing Director, Motorola Mobility India said:
Offering premium customer experience has been a key pillar of our strategy and strengthening retail footprint in Mumbai is a ...
Back in November last year Xiaomi India partnered with Cashify to launch Mi Exchange Program across its Mi Home stores offline. Today it has expanded the program to its Mi online store. This lets you exchange your old phones and get an exchange coupon on mi.com. This coupon can be used to buy a new Xiaomi smartphone on mi.com.
How to exchange your old phone with Mi Exchange program
Go to Mi Exchange page mi.com/in/miexchange
Select your device from the list of supported devices from 15 brands available under this program. Device you wish to exchange should not have cracks on screen, body dents and cracks.
You will now see the evaluated price for the phone
Provide the IMEI number (IMEI1 or IMEI2 for Dual SIM devices) of your old phone
Accept the terms and conditions and hit 'Get exchange coupon'
Your Mi account will be instantly credited with the exchange value coupon that can be used to purchase a new smartphone on mi.com
Once you place an order, at the time of delivery of your new Xiaomi smartphone, your old phone will be collected
Xiaomi says that if it finds old smartphone is not eligible for exchange, your order will be canceled and the entire ...
Samsung launched Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ smartphone in India last week for Rs. 67900. We already brought you the unboxing of the Galaxy S9+, here we have the camera samples from the smartphone. The Galaxy S9+ has a new 12-megapixel primary camera with wide-angle lens that has 1.4µm pixel size, 1/2.55″ sensor size, 77-degree FOV and OIS (Optical Image Stabilization), sames as the S8+ and Note 8, but it comes with a new dual aperture mode to switch between f/1.5 and f/2.4.
It uses a new SAK2L3 sensor that comes with dedicated DRAM memory chip. It also has a 12-megapixel secondary camera with telephoto lens, 1.0µm pixel size, 1/3.6″ sensor size, f/2.4 aperture, 45-degree FOV and OIS, offering 2x optical zoom, same as the Note8.
It has a 8MP auto focus front camera with facial recognition technology, f/1.7 aperture, 1.22µm pixel size, 1/3.6″ sensor size and 80-degree FOV with S5K3H1 sensor, same as the S8 series and the Note8.
The phone has a new camera UI that lets you just swipe to switch between the modes - Auto, Live focus, Pro ( to adjust ISO, Shutter speed, focus, white balance and exposure manually), Food, AR Emoji and Hyperlapse. You can enable Slow motion and Sports modes from the settings. You can also make use ...
Detailed specifications of the upcoming U12 smartphone surfaced earlier this month. Now the first image of the U12+ has surfaced along with few other details, thanks to @evleaks. According to the report the phone will come with a horizontal dual rear camera arrangement, feature dual 8-megapixel front-facing cameras for bokeh effects, similar to the HTC U11 EYEs that was introduced earlier this year. The U12+ will compete with the S9+ and the company might not introduce the standard U12.
Other specifications of the phone were already revealed, including a 6-inch QHD+ screen, Snapdragon 845 with 6GB RAM, Android 8.0, 12-megapixel rear camera along with a 16-megapixel secondary camera, both with Sony IMX3 series sensors and a 3420mAh battery. It is also said to come with second generation HTC Edge Sense for an improved squeeze interaction.
HTC U12+ rumored specifications
6-inch (2880 x 1440 pixels) Quad HD+ Super LCD 6 display with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection
Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with Adreno 630 GPU
6GB RAM, 64GB / 128GB storage (UFS 2.1), expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD
Android 8.0 (Oreo) with HTC Sense UI
Single / Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD)
12MP HTC UltraPixel rear camera with dual LED flash, secondary 16MP rear camera
...
Huawei recently introduced Nova 2 lite, a budget version of the Nova 2 in Philippines and Singapore, now the phone is up for pre-order. It has similar specifications of the Honor 7C that was introduced in China earlier this week, including a 5.99-inch HD+ screen, Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.0, 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 2-megapixel secondary camera for portrait shots with bokeh effect, but this is powered by Snapdragon 430 instead of Snapdragon 450.
It has an 8-megapixel front camera with soft LED flash, fingerprint sensor on the back, comes with dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots and packs a 3000mAh battery.
Huawei Nova 2 lite specifications
5.99-inch (1440 x 720 pixels) 18:9 FullView 2.5D curved glass display
Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 ( 4 x 1.2 GHz Cortex A53 + 4 x 1.5 GHz Cortex A53) 64-bit Mobile Platform with Adreno 505 GPU
3GB RAM with 32GB internal storage, 4GB RAM with 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.0
Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD)
13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/2.2 aperture, secondary 2MP camera
8MP front-facing camera with LED flash, f/2.0 aperture
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions: 158.3 ...
After several leaks, Huawei has officially introduced the P20 Lite, the first smartphone in the P20 series in Czech Republic and the phone has been listed on official site in Poland, ahead of the official announcement of the P20 and P20 Pro on March 27th. It packs a 5.84-inch FHD+ 19:9 screen with a notch, is powered by Kirin 659 with 4GB RAM, runs Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.0 and has a 16-megapixel rear camera along with a 2-megapixel secondary camera for portrait shots.
It has a 16-megapixel front camera with face beauty, features a fingerprint sensor on the back and a 3000mAh battery with fast charging.
Huawei P20 Lite specifications
5.84-inch (1080 x 2280 pixels) Full HD+ 19: 9 2.5D curved glass display with toughened glass protection
Octa-Core Kirin 659 processor (4 xA53 at 2.36GHz + 4 x A53 at 1.7GHz) with MaliT830-MP2 GPU
4GB RAM, 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.0
Single / Dual SIM
16MP rear camera with LED flash, secondary 2MP camera
16MP front-facing camera
Fingerprint sensor
Dimensions: 148.6×71.2×7.4mm; Weight: 145g
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS / GLONASS, NFC, USB Type-C
3000mAh (typical) / 2900mAh (Minimum) battery with fast charging
The Huawei P20 Lite ...
Google today released 4th annual "Android security year in review," and announced that its Play Protection technology has successfully taken down over 39 million from Play Store in 2017. Play protect was announced back in May 2017 at the I/O event.
Play protect feature meant to shield users from Potentially Harmful Apps, and the company says that it automatically reviews more than 50 billion apps, other potential sources of PHAs, and devices themselves and takes action when it finds any. Around 60.3% of all the potentially Harmful Apps were detected via machine learning. This automatic review process removed over 39 million harmful apps last year.
Google also updated the Play Protect technology to detect harmful apps that were installed when a device was offline or had lost network connectivity. Over 35% of new PHA installations happened in such scenarios. Offline scanning feature was enabled in October 2017 and have prevented over 10 million more harmful app installations. It also It reviewed 65% more apps that were newly submitted to the Play Store compared to 2016.
Google also claims that app installations outside of Google Play dropped by more than 60%. Not just that, Google also worked with OEMs to provide monthly security patches and 30% more devices received security patches than in 2016. Though ...
Sony has introduced the Seamless System updates feature to the Xperia XZ2 and XA2. Seamless System updates are the feature that Google introduced back during Nougat days. However, the feature never caught up and has not seen wide support from manufacturers. It's only the Pixel phones that have support for seamless updates until now.
Any Android smartphone that features Seamless System updates will have two partitions; A and B and when a firmware update arrives, it is downloaded and installed on the second inactive partition. Once the update is downloaded and installed, the phone will boot into the newly updated firmware.
The key motive behind this feature is user can continue using his phone during an OTA (over-the-air) update installation process with very little downtime. Moreover, it also reduces the risk of errors on a new OTA firmware and if something does happen during the update process, the phone will boot into the old partition, until the new update is tried again. Currently, Sony Xperia 2018 phones have support for the seamless updates and we expect to see the support in more premium phones in the days to come.
Source
Update: OPPO has sent out invites for the launch of OPPO F7 smartphone on March 26th. It says that it will have "the best artificial intelligence". It also said that it will be launched by 3 cricket starts - Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma and Ravichandran Ashwin. It has also confirmed AI selfie, Cover Shot and AR (Augmented Reality) stickers for the phone..
OPPO launched F5, a selfie-focused smartphone in the 'F series' India back in November last year. Today the company has confirmed that it will launch its successor - OPPO F7 in the country on March 26th, skipping the F6. It has also teased the phone with an image that shows full-screen display with a notch and minimal bezels, similar to the OPPO R15 that will launch in China later this month.
OPPO is also teasing its brand ambassador for the phone and asks its fans to guess the cricketer who is likely to be Hardik Pandya. The company has not revealed any specifications of the phone officially, but a report from ET recently said that the phone will feature a 6.2-inch Full HD+ 19:9 display with 89.09% screen-to- body-ratio.
It is also said to come with a 25-megapixel front-facing camera with improved Artificial Intelligence features ...
Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 5 Pro smartphone in India last month. The company today launched the phone in China today as Redmi Note 5 AI Dual Camera. Even though the phone has the same 5.99-inch Full HD+ 2.5D curved glass screen, Snapdragon 636 SoC with up to 6GB RAM, Hybrid Dual SIM slot, 4000mAh battery and comes with 12-megapixel rear camera, but this has a f/1.9 aperture camera compared to f/2.2 in the Indian version, however this has 1.4μm pixel size compared to 1.25μm in the Indian version. It also has Dual PD dual-core speed focus for fast and accurate focus. The secondary rear camera is the same 5-megapixel unit .
However it has a 13-megapixel front camera compared to the 20-megapixel unit in the Indian version. The Chinese version also runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Treble support and comes with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 compared to Quick Charge 2.0 in the Indian version. It also has Dual 4G VoLTE support for both the SIM cards, which the Indian version lacks.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 (AI Dual Camera) specifications
5.99-inch (2160 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display with 450 nits Brightness, 84% NTSC Color Gamut, 1500: 1 Contrast Ratio, Corning Gorilla ...
Spectre and Meltdown are two most security vulnerabilities that shook up the tech world and these mostly affected every single Intel processor that released in the past decade. These vulnerabilities gave away access to sensitive data like usernames and passwords despite being stored in protected memory.
Though Intel rolled out security patches, it later announced users and OEMs not to install it since it introduces higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior. Intel today announced that the upcoming Xeon and 8th-gen Intel Core processors that are scheduled to release later this year would include design changes and fixes for variants of the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities.
https://youtu.be/pi2ftnlfImo
Not just fixes, these new chipsets will deliver the performance improvements. As for the current models, Intel's chief executive officer Krzanich says that it has rolled out microcode updates for “100% of Intel products launched in the past five years that require protection against the side-channel method vulnerabilities discovered by Google. Krzanich says that he appreciates industry partners who worked closely with Intel to develop and test these updates and make sure they were ready for production.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said:
We have redesigned parts of the processor to introduce new levels of protection through partitioning that will protect against both Variants ...
