It's been a long time coming and it's finally here. A solution to crappy built-in speakers on any kind of TV. With 8 distinct speaker units, the Mi Soundbar offers the much-needed high quality audio experience for your living room. It looks good, feels good and is both powerful and rich when it comes to producing sounds. At a price of Rs. 4,999, it might be one of the best value for money sound bars available in the market, so what is it like?
The design of the Mi Soundbar is tastefully done. It's a white plastic body with a gray fabric cover for the speakers.
It can be wall-mounted or just lay flat anywhere.
There are a couple of round volume control buttons at the top, with 5 input switches. They correspond to all the kinds of audio input this device can take.
They are — Bluetooth, SPDIF, Optical, Aux in and Line in. These pretty much cover all kinds of TVs and with Bluetooth support, it could just become your phone's speaker as well, if needed.
I just connected it with the Mi TV 4X Pro via Bluetooth and it worked flawlessly. Suddenly the difference in the quality of sound seemed so evident. ...
It's been a long time coming and it's finally here. A solution to crappy built-in speakers on any kind of TV. With 8 distinct speaker units, the Mi Soundbar offers the much-needed high quality audio experience for your living room. It looks good, feels good and is both powerful and rich when it comes to producing sounds. At a price of Rs. 4,999, it might be one of the best value for money sound bars available in the market, so what is it like?
The design of the Mi Soundbar is tastefully done. It's a white plastic body with a gray fabric cover for the speakers.
It can be wall-mounted or just lay flat anywhere.
There are a couple of round volume control buttons at the top, with 5 input switches. They correspond to all the kinds of audio input this device can take.
They are — Bluetooth, SPDIF, Optical, Aux in and Line in. These pretty much cover all kinds of TVs and with Bluetooth support, it could just become your phone's speaker as well, if needed.
I just connected it with the Mi TV 4X Pro via Bluetooth and it worked flawlessly. Suddenly the difference in the quality of sound seemed so evident. ...
Update - January 10th, 2019 - Honor has announced that the View20 pre-bookings will begin 15th January 2019 exclusively on Amazon.in. All pre-bookings will get a free free Honor Sport BT earphones worth Rs. 2999. To pre-book, you need to get a Rs. 1000 Honor View20 Gift Card that can be redeemed when you buy the phone on January 30th. You will get the Honor Sport BT coupon by February 15th that can be redeemed on Amazon.
Update - January 8th, 2019 - Honor has confirmed that the View20 will be launched in India on 29th January 2019 exclusively on Amazon.in, a week after the global launch at an event in Paris, France. The company has confirmed that it will be available in 6GB RAM with 128GB storage and 8GB RAM with 256GB storage variants.
Earlier: Huawei's Honor brand introduced the Honor V20 smartphone in China yesterday. Now Honor India has started teasing the launch of the global variant of the smartphone - Honor View20 in the country on Amazon.in. You can also click 'Notify Me' to get notified about the launch in the country.
To remind you the phone has a 6.4-inch Full HD+ All-View screen with 91.82% screen-to-body ratio, 25-megapixel in-display front camera in the small 4.5mm cut ...
As rumored earlier, Samsung has sent out invites for its Galaxy Unpacked event 2019 event in San Francisco on February 20th, where it will unveil its flagship Galaxy S10 series. This is before other companies unveil their flagships at the MWC 2019 in Barcelona from February 25th.
Earlier rumors reveled three variants of S10 with 5.8-inch, 6.1-inch, and 6.4-inch Infinity- O screens to house an in-screen camera, and there will e Qualcomm-built in-display fingerprint scanner for top-end S10 and S10 models, while the Galaxy S10 E (Lite) is said to skip it for a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.
The flagships will be powered by the Exynos 9820 8nm SoC with Tri-cluster CPU, integrated NPU, up to 2Gbps LTE-Advanced Pro modem while the variant that will sell in the U.S. will be powered by the upcoming Snapdragon 855. Camera details and other specifications are still a mystery.
Earlier rumores revealed that the phone will be available for pre-order soon after the announcement and go on sale from 8th of March. We should know more details soon.
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HMD Global, going by the leaks and reports seems to have a big line-up to unveil in the coming days. We have the Nokia 9 with Penta cameras, Nokia 8.1 Plus with a punch-hole display and now we hear about yet another device- the Nokia 6.2 (2019) edition. Much like the rumored 8.1 Plus, the 6.2 is also said to come with an in-display camera on the front.
Nokia 6.2 (6 2019): 6.2-inch display with camera hole-punch, Snapdragon 632, 4/6GB RAM, 16MP Dual-rear Zeiss Camera,OZO Audio, First market China. Coming Jan end/Feb 2019.
— Nokia_Leaks (@LeaksNokia) January 10, 2019
Furthermore, the Nokia 6.2 (2019) edition is said to be powered by the Snapdragon 632 coupled with 4GB RAM and another variant with 6GB RAM. It is rumored to pack a 16MP Dual-rear Zeiss Camera with OZO Audio. However, it will go official in China first and would gradually expand worldwide under the Android One program.
Since this is the first time we hear about the device, not all the information available could be true, and things might change anytime. As for the launch date, the device is said to launch by the end of this month or early February in China. Since the wait ...
According to reports, Amazon is said to be planning on bringing game streaming service. The kind of service we are talking about brings the ability to play games without downloading or buying discs. The Amazon's cloud gaming service which could launch as soon as 2020.
This new report corroborates with Amazon's job hiring in Seattle and California for engineers to specifically work on “Cloud Games.”Another job posting for a “Lead Cross Platform Game Engineer” which explicitly says that Amazon has a new game business up its sleeves. With Amazon having expertise in cloud computing and has the ability to make cloud gaming a reality, it only makes sense for the company to introduce such service.
Microsoft already announced the xCloud cloud gaming service at E3 2017, which might allow you to stream games to a tiny new Xbox, as well as existing consoles, computers, and phones. This isn't the first time we are hearing about Amazon's cloud gaming as the company has been experimenting with cloud gaming for a long time now. If the new report does end up being true, soon we might see a stiff competition between the internet giants for the future of gaming.
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After announcing price cuts for Mi A2, Redmi Note 5 Pro, Redmi Y2 and Redmi 6 Pro smartphones, Xiaomi has announced a price cut for Redmi 6 smartphone in India. The 3GB+32GB version is back to the original price of Rs. 7999, after a price hike by Rs. 500. The 64GB storage version that was launched for Rs. 9499 has received a Rs. 500 price cut and is available for Rs. 8999. It is available at new rates on Flipkart, Mi.com and offline stores.
To remind you, it has 5.45-inch HD+ display 18:9 aspect ratio display with 80.7% screen-to-body ratio, is powered by MediaTek Helio P22 12nm processor, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with MIUI on top, packs a 12-megapixel rear camera with LED flash along with a secondary 5-megapixel camera for AI portrait shots. It has a 5-megapixel front camera with face unlock and AI portrait as well as AI beautify features.
It has a polycarbonate back panel with a brushed metal-like finish, features a fingerprint sensor on the back, has dedicated dual SIM and microSD card slots and Dual 4G VoLTE support that lets you keep two 4G or 4G VoLTE SIM cards active in your phone, in standby so that you can receive VoLTE call in any of your SIM cards at any one time. ...
Apple Maps in India after many years into existence is getting turn-by-turn navigation. We found this feature to be working just as intended in Secunderabad area where the maps showed turn-by-turn navigation. The feature shows you directions for driving and walking.
Additionally, you can also book a cab through the Uber and Ola right within the Maps app under the ride section. However, the information about public transport options isn’t available yet. Apple despite the ability to collect data and produce better results has been lacking in the competition when compared to Google Maps which is miles ahead. Better late than never, at least now, Apple is taking steps towards implementing a change.
The app also displays additional information about the desired destination such as working hours, exact address, contact number, and much more. Either way, it is too soon to say if Apple users in India would switch to Apple Maps, but it is an alternative.
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Vivo Apex in 2018 was the start of a true bezel-less display trend and this year too, the company seems to be taking this forward as Vivo is said to be working on a smartphone with 'Crazy' Design, according to leakster. The Vivo's mysterious smartphone is code-named "The Waterdrop."
vivo "The Waterdrop" second photo, side view, what did you find? pic.twitter.com/1XZdPd7xKq
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) January 10, 2019
The leakster has revealed the partial images of the device showing the back and side view, leaving so much to the imagination, and speculations. According to the partial images posted on Twitter, this could be a true edge to edge screen phone, without any notches, bezels, or physical buttons for that matter. The back and front merger could be smooth without any metal frame or antenna bands.
"The Waterdrop" is inspired by the cosmic detector in the novel "Three-body"
I can guarantee that you have never seen a similar phone design, this is the first time in the history of mobile phones. pic.twitter.com/hPzljSAat2
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) January 10, 2019
Since there might not be any physical buttons, the phone will feature gesture navigation and pressure-based integration. Ice Universe who posted the phone says that the "Waterdrop” is inspired by the cosmic detector in the novel ...
Mobiistar has launched X1 Notch, the company's latest mid-range smartphone in India. It has a 5.7-inch HD+ screen with a notch, is powered by MediaTek Helio A22 12nm SoC with up to 3GB of RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo), has a 13-megapixel camera on the front and back with AI features, face unlock, fingerprint sensor on the gradiant back, Dual 4G VoLTE, dedicated dual SIM and microSD card slots and a 3020mAh battery.
Mobiistar X1 Notch specifications
5.7-inch (1498 × 720 pixels) HD+ 2.5D curved glass display
2GHz Quad-Core MediaTek Helio A22 12nm processor with IMG PowerVR Rogue GE8300
2GB RAM with 16GB storage / 3GB RAM with 32GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD
Android 8.1 (Oreo)
Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD)
13MP rear camera with LED Flash
13MP front-facing camera
Dimensions: 145.78x70.8x8.7 mm; Weight: 161g
3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio
Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS
3020mAh battery
The Mobiistar X1 Notch comes in Gradient Shine, Midnight Black, and Sapphire Blue colors, is priced at Rs. 8499 for the 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version and the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version costs Rs. 9499. It is available from offline stores across India.
Commenting on the ...
Xiaomi launched the Redmi 6A, successor of last year’s Redmi 5A in India back in September, however the phone was only available through weekly sales. Today the company has announced that it will go on open sale through Amazon.in and Mi.com starting today midnight. The phone got a price hike, but it came back to original price last month and now starts at Rs. 5999
Here goes. #Redmi6A is India's bestselling smartphone since its launch as per @IDC.
And to celebrate this BIG news, we've something special. Desh ka Naya smartphone, #Redmi6A, will be on open sale for the first time ever, starting midnight. How's this for a bada announcement? pic.twitter.com/FWJYfrY5iF
— Redmi India (@RedmiIndia) January 11, 2019
It has a 5.45-inch HD+ 18:9 aspect ratio display with 80.5% screen-to-body ratio, is powered by the MediaTek Helio A22 12nm Quad-Core SoC with 2GB of RAM, has a 13-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front camera both with AI Portrait mode, AI beautify, polycarbonate back panel with a brushed metal-like finish. It has face unlock, comes with dedicated dual SIM slots, Dual 4G VoLTE and packs a 3000mAh built-in battery.
Three new Samsung smartphones - Galaxy A9 (2018), Galaxy A7 (2018) and Galaxy J6 that were launched last year have received a price cut in India. The quad-ccamera Galaxy A9 and triple-camera Galaxy A7 have received Rs. 3000 price cut from that current MOP, while the Galaxy J6 has received Rs. 1000 price cut from current MOP.
That Galaxy A7 was launched starting at Rs. 23990, so the price has gone down by Rs. 5000 since the launch in September. The Galaxy J6 was launched starting at Rs. 13990, so it has received Rs. 3500 price cut for the 3GB + 32GB and Rs. 4500 for the 4GB + 64GB version since the launch in May last year.
Samsug Galaxy A9 (2018) 8GB + 128GB - Rs. 36,990 (Rs. 3000 price cut)
Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) 6GB + 128GB - Rs. 33,990 (Rs. 3000 price cut)
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) 6GB + 128GB - Rs. 22,990 (Rs. 3000 price cut)
Samsung Galaxy A7 (2018) 4GB + 64GB - Rs. 18,990 ( Rs. 3000 price cut)
Samsung Galaxy J6 4GB + 64GB - Rs. 11,990 ( Rs. 1000 price cut)
Samsung Galaxy J6 3GB + 32GB - Rs. 10,490 ( Rs. 1000 price cut)
All the phones are available at new rates ...
Amazon has announced Great Indian Sale, its first sale for the year from January 20th to 23rd. It will offer 10% instant discount for HDFC card users, No cost EMI for purchases over Rs. 3000, exchange offers and more. It will offer additional exchange discount on OnePlus 6T and Honor 8X, and discounts on iPhone X, Redmi Y2, Huawei Nova 3i, Vivo Y9 Pro and more.
The sale will offer up to 60% off on hard drives, headphones and gaming accessories, up to Rs. 35,000 off on laptops, minimum Rs. 5000 off on Canon, Nikon and Sony cameras, up to 50% off on activity trackers, smartwatches smart TVs and large-screen LED TVs, up to 40% off on printers, speakers and tablets, up to 30% off on Soundbars and lots more.
As usual, it will offer deals on its Echo and Kindle products, as well as its Fire TV Stick during the sale. There will be app-only deals from 8PM till midnight that will offer up to 60% discount on products.
Amazon Prime members get access to the deals at 12 noon on January 19th before others. You can check out more details about the sale on Great Indian Sale page on Amazon.in.
Google for a while now has stopped making its Chromecast Audio streaming adapter and going forward, it will instead focus on smart speakers. The company's spokesperson has confirmed that Chromecast Audio is being discontinued.
Google's Chromecast Audio is introduced to bring music streaming to existing stereo systems and speakers with line-in connectivity in 2015. It worked very much like the regular Chromecast, but didn't offer an HDMI port, and only worked with audio apps. The company in 2016 introduced the original Google Home speaker, a cheaper Home Mini later, and a better-sounding Google Home Max, and recently, it launched smart display devices like the Google Home Hub.
The decision to discontinue Chromecast Audio isn't a surprise and is not something completely unexpected: The device had been on sale across a variety of retailers for $15 since last month, down from its original price of $35.
Google's Spokesperson said:
Our product portfolio continues to evolve, and now we have a variety of products for users to enjoy audio. We have therefore stopped manufacturing our Chromecast Audio products. We will continue to offer assistance for Chromecast Audio devices, so users can continue to enjoy their music, podcasts and more.
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Apple said to have held talks with Samsung Electronics and MediaTek Inc. along with existing vendor Intel Corp to supply 5G modem chips for 2019 iPhones, according to an Apple executive’s testimony at a trial between Qualcomm Inc and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Apple, between 2011 and 2016, relied on Qualcomm as the sole supplier of chips which helped iPhones connect to wireless networks. However, in 2016 the company split its business Intel and Qualcomm, and in 2018, it completely moved to Intel for its newest iPhones. Apple supply chain executive Tony Blevins testified to the court that Apple has also considered MediaTek and Samsung to supply the chips for 5G.
The FTC is suing Qualcomm alleging the company engaged in anti-competitive patent licensing practices to preserve a dominant position in the premium modem chip market. On the stand at a federal courthouse in San Jose, California, Blevins testified that Apple has long sought multiple suppliers for modem chips but signed an agreement with Qualcomm to exclusively supply the chips as the chip supplier offered deep rebates on patent license costs in exchange for exclusivity.
The company in 2013 has stopped its work with Intel to start supplying modems for iPad Mini 2 ...
The Wireless Power Consortium is a group of companies for developing and promoting the Qi wireless charging standard. OPPO has now joined the organization, indicating that future Oppo and OnePlus phones will have Qi wireless charging.
OPPO is now listed on the WPC's member list, however, it is not clear when they joined. Joining the consortium is a requirement for creating devices that use Qi wireless charging, none of OPPO's current or past phones have Qi support. The company filed a patent last year for a 15W wireless charging technology, but that hasn't appeared in any products so far.
Apart from OPPO, OnePlus is another company that never included wireless charging. Since OPPO and OnePlus operate under the same parent company and frequently share technology and resources with each other, it is possible that future OnePlus and OPPO products could come with wireless charging. We'll just have to wait and see.
Source| Via
Apple is apparently planning on launching three new iPhones for 2019 and this will include a high-end model with triple rear cameras in a move to compete with Android counterparts. The company will also introduce a successor to the iPhone XR with an LCD display, alongside two other handsets.
The renders of the new 2019 iPhone with triple rear camera surfaced on the internet last-week indicating that Apple is seriously looking into the idea. However, it is not clear what the extra-camera on the rear will enable on the iPhone. Rumors have emerged that Sony is boosting its 3D camera output for chips that will power rear-facing 3D cameras on smartphones in 2019.
Additionally, Apple is reportedly considering OLED-only for its 2020 iPhone models, completely leaving LCD, according to the WSJ report. However, such a move would increase the overall selling price of Apple's iPhones next-year and this would only raise more concern about sales. Apple warned it could miss $9 billion in iPhone sales in the recent quarter due to weaker demand.
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Huawei introduced EMUI 9.0 based on Android 9.0 (Pie) at the IFA 2018 last year. This week its online-brand Honor has started rolling out the EMUI 9.0 update for the Honor 10, Honor Play and Honor View 10 smartphone in India, as it had promised. Honor already said that the update will improve the user experience in security, AI-driven smart life features, device management and usability.
The new EMUI 9.0 update brings gestures, GPU Turbo 2.0, Translation, AI Shopping, HiVision visual search, Password Vault, Wireless Sharing (Projecting), Digital Balance dashboard, and more to Honor smartphones. "Honor smartphones with EMUI 9.0 update will react to smoother operations backed by fast App startup and thus increasing the system operations by 12.9%, said the company.
GPU Turbo 2.0 is designed to optimize intensive workloads and give an on-demand performance boost to the devices while reducing power consumption.
Password Vault feature will help users store their encrypted password with face or fingerprint for various services.
Uninterrupted Gaming Mode will help the needs of mobile gamers.
Digital Balance dashboard allows users to track device usage metrics and let them set the usage quota for each app.
Using onboard AI capabilities, EMUI 9.0 brings HiVision that enables the camera app ...
Xiaomi introduced MIUI 10 at its Mi 8 launch event back in May last year in China. Yesterday, at its Annual Meeting for MIUI division to discuss the past year and future development, the company said that it has started the development of MIUI 11. This was confirmed by Liu Ming, head of the product planning department.
At the event he said that the MIUI 11 will be a 'new and unique OS'. MIUI 10 brought full-screen hand gestures and improved recent menu to take advantage of the full-screen bezel-less displays. MIUI 10 started rolling out back in June last year and is available for all the eligible devices, as promised at the announcement. Revealing the Q3 2018 earnings in November Xiaomi said that monthly active users of MIUI increased 43.4% from 156.5 million in September 2017 to 224.4 million in September 2018.
As confirmed earlier, MIUI 11 will not be available for some older devices like Mi 5 and Redmi Note 3 Pro since Xiaomi has stopped the development for these after MIUI 10. Since the development of MIUI 11 is still in early stages, new features and design changes are still in concept stage, so we will only know when the company decides to reveal some details ...
Xiaomi has a good reputation when it comes to providing software (MIUI) support to devices, but the story changes when it comes to providing Android updates. Xiaomi hadn't updated their 2016 bestseller Redmi Note 3 (codename Kenzo) to Android Nougat which was released by tech-giant Google 5-6 months after the launch of the Redmi Note 3 and the similar story goes for 2017 bestseller Redmi Note 4 (codename Mido), but now Xiaomi seems to be changing their strategy regarding Android updates.
Xiaomi had already updated their entire lineup of devices (launched in 2018 in India) to Android Oreo including Redmi Note 5 Pro, Redmi Note 5 and Redmi 5. Back in October 2018, the company had released a list of smartphone eligible for Android 9.0 (Pie) update and now the company has updated the list. As per the updated list on MIUI China forum, Xiaomi is aiming to roll out Android Pie based MIUI China Beta ROM for Redmi Note 5 (called Redmi Note 5 Pro in India), Redmi 6 Pro, Redmi S2 (called Redmi Y2 in India) and Mi 6X in Q1 2019.
The company hasn't shared any information regarding MIUI Global ROM but now there are good chances that the company will also ...
Huawei is one of the few companies in the world apart from Apple and Samsung to have their phone's system on chips made in-house. This means a lot of things but most importantly, the research and development to do something new requires lesser time compared to the competition. The result of this advantage is that the Honor View 20 carries a lot of world's-first, but soon common-2019 features. Launching globally on the 22nd of January and in India on the 29th, the View 20 not only aims to be 2019's first 2019-phone but also be the most valuable mid range flagship.
A laser drilled hole for the front camera means maximum screen to body ratio, a 48 MP + 3d ToF camera with AI means pictures that can be blown up and accurate 3d scene mapping, a flagship Kirin 980 chip means features and performance you see only in the high end, an attractive design means the legacy of interesting looking Honor phones continues, but more than anything if they get the price right, the Honor View 20 could potentially become a OnePlus killer. These are my first impressions, read on.
Here is what you get in the box -
and here are ...
