The most recent speculations suggest that the Galaxy S9 would come with smaller bezels, especially at the bottom. Samsung has been rumoured to unveil its Galaxy S9 in the first quarter next year. One of the biggest alterations coming to the new flagship will be an increased screen-to-body ratio which could reach up to 90 per cent.
Several rumours hinted Samsung could achieve the high ratio with the upcoming device. The Galaxy S9 is also said to be taller than its predecessor. But a report from Dutch website GlaxyClub claims otherwise. The report says Samsung will use the same 18.5:9 display ratio as the Galaxy S8. However, the company would increase the screen-to-body ratio in a different manner, and the one that makes more sense. The most recent speculations suggest that the Galaxy S9 would come with smaller bezels, especially at the bottom where Samsung is trying to make them nearly invisible. The Galaxy S9 lineup will comprise of two models, just like the previous generations. This indicates we will get a 5.8-inch Galaxy S9 and a Plus-sized 6.2-inch Galaxy S9+. The smaller variant could feature a single-lens camera and 4GB of RAM, while the bigger variant will incorporate a dual camera setup along with 6GB RAM. The devices are most likely to be showcased in March at a dedicated event and will hit the shelves in April. Chinese smartphone maker Oppo has been given green clearance to set up a mobile manufacturing unit in Greater Noida at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore, a senior government official said. The Union Environment Ministry has granted the environment clearance to its Indian subsidiary Oppo Mobiles India Pvt Ltd for the proposed project. "The clearance has been given to the Oppo's project after taking into account the views of an expert green panel. It is subject to compliance of certain conditions," the government official said. The environment clearance certificate has already been issued to the company, the official added. As per the proposal, Oppo wants to set up a smartphone manufacturing unit in 110.04 acres in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. The project will comprise of factory, offices, dormitory, canteen and play area. The project cost is estimated to be at Rs 2,200 crore. The company has informed the government that about 13,043 kg per day solid waste will be generated in the proposed project. Bio-degradable waste will be processed, while the non-biodegradable waste will be handed over to local vendors. The state electricity board will supply power to the proposed project, it said. The proposed project will generate direct and indirect employment opportunities for both skilled and unskilled labour during construction and operation phase, the company added. To make India a global hub for electronics manufacturers, the government is giving incentives through the Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) and Electronic Development Fund (EDF). Tom's Guide performed charging tests on the top 10 flagships. This bargain model came out on top. You just realized that your phone is low on juice, and panic sets in. How much charge can you get in a limited amount of time? We tested 10 of the top flagship phones and found that the OnePlus 5T is the fastest in the land. The good news is that most of the premium Android phones these days offer some form of quick charging via their USB-C adapters. In the case of the latest iPhones, you can get fast charging, but only if you pay extra for both a 29-watt power adapter and a USB-C-to-Lightning cable (about $68 total). For our first round of testing, we wanted to find what battery percentage these phones could reach in 30 minutes of charging with their included adapters. The phones were on, but the screens were turned off. With the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, we used both the standard AC plug and the fast-charging gear to bring you both sets of results. The OnePlus 5T led the pack, reaching an impressive 59 percent in 30 minutes. The advantage for the OnePlus? Unlike most other Android phones, it doesn't use Qualcomm's QuickCharge technology. Instead, it employs the proprietary Dash Charge, which delivers higher amperage than QuickCharge and uses dedicated circuitry in the charger itself for heat management. (Android Central has a great explainer on how Dash Charge works.)
However, it's important to note that these iPhones charge slower than the rest of the field even with their included adapters. For instance, the iPhone X hit only 17 percent after 30 minutes. Among other phones, the Galaxy Note 8, S8 and S8+ were all in the same ballpark, at 35 to 38 percent, and the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL had comparable results. So how about after an hour? The OnePlus 5T once again took the prize, reaching 93 percent in 60 minutes. The LG V30 snagged second place, at 86 percent, and the latest iPhones all vied for third place, though the iPhone X had the most capacity, at 81 percent. And, yes, you could argue that you need to cheat to hit these numbers with the iPhone, because you have to buy extra gear. Overall, if filling up your phone fast is a top priority, the OnePlus 5T is the champ. And at $499, it's also the most affordable phone you can get that comes with flagship-level specs and performance. GOOGLE ANNOUNCED ANDROID OREO (GO EDITION) FOR ENTRY-LEVEL SMARTPHONES, A NEW SET OF PRE-INSTALLED LIGHTER GOOGLE APPS AND MORE. Firming up its commitment to connect the next billion Indians, Google on Tuesday announced several India-first products and features that will be rolled out in other developing countries in the coming months.
Currently, there are nearly 400 million Internet users in India along with over 300 million smartphone users. "On average, a connected mobile Internet user in India today is consuming over 4GB of data per month. At the current growth rate and given the connectivity environment, we expect this number to reach 11GB per user per month in the next four years and Google is here to help connect all," Rajan Anandan, Vice President, South East Asia and India at Google, told reporters at the company's third annual "Google for India" event here. "There are 230 million Indian language users online on Google today and 170 million of them are using our messaging service. Yet, we have over 900 million Indians who aren't connected to Internet. Our mission is Internet for every Indian. We'll stay focused until every single Indian is connected," Anandan stressed. At the event, Google announced Android Oreo (Go edition) that will be available for entry-level smartphones, for which India is a huge market. Android Oreo (Go edition) is available for the Android ecosystem of developers, partners and carriers as part of Android 8.1 Oreo release on Tuesday. "Oreo devices with 512MB to 1GB of RAM will get all the optimisations that come with Android Oreo (Go edition), including a better performing OS with built-in data management features and security benefits," said Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Next Billion Users Team at Google. The company also announced a new set of pre-installed lighter Google apps, including Google Go (a new app from Google Search) and Google Assistant for Android Oreo (Go edition). Google Go is light on storage and data and works efficiently on patchy connections. "It's less than 5MB to download, and search results in Google Go are optimized to save up to 40 per cent data," Sengupta added. Google also announced "Files Go," an app that will help free up space, find files faster and share files offline on smartphones that come with less internal storage. The company also brought bill payment facilities on its digital payment app "Tez". "More than 70 billers will be supported, including utilities and direct-to-home service providers, on Tez," Sengupta told reporters here. "Tez" will support bill payments for Tata Power, MTNL, DishTV, CPDCL and other utility providers that will include national and state electricity providers, water, DTH and gas recharges. Tez has processed over 140 million transactions from nearly 12 million active users. There are more than 525,000 merchants already on Tez. To help bikers find the most suitable route in India, Google incorporated navigation routes for two-wheelers with Voice Assistant capabilities in its Maps feature. "The India-first feature is the new "two-wheeler mode" in Google Maps. India is the largest two-wheeler market in the world, and the millions of motorcycle and scooter riders have different navigation needs than drivers of automobiles," said Sengupta. Two-wheeler mode in Maps shows trip routes that use "shortcuts" not accessible to cars and trucks. The two-wheeler mode will arrive in more countries later. In a move to empower feature phone users in the country, Google announced to bring its Voice Assistant on Reliance JioPhone. The Google Assistant for JioPhone will be available in English and Hindi. This is the first time Voice Assistant will be available in any feature phone. The View 10 packs an NPU for AI features including face unlocking, 3D face construction, AI-accelerated translator and even portrait selfies Honor has launched its flagship smartphone dubbed Honor View 10 at an event in London. Honor View 10 is the global variant of the V10 smartphone launched in China last week. The phone shares many of the elements from its parent brand Huawei’s flagship Mate 10 series.
Up front, the phone comes with a 5.99-inch FullView display with 1080x2160 resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. It’s an LCD unit unlike the AMOLED one on the Mate 10. The fingerprint scanner is also mounted on the front. Under the hood, the phone is powered by Huawei’s latest Kirin 970 chipset with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage which can be expanded using the hybrid microSD card slot. The phone has it own NPU (neural processing unit) for AI features including face unlocking, 3D face construction, AI-accelerated translator, Smart Tips and even an AI-powered portrait mode for selfies. The cameras seem capable on paper with a dual 16MP+20MP shooter on the rear with RGB and BW sensors respectively. There is no Leica branding here like the Mate siblings, but the camera does have a fast lens with f/1.8 aperture. However, it lacks optical image stabilisation. The selfie camera, on the other hand, is a 13MP unit with f/2.0 aperture. Honor View 10 include 4G VoLTE, dual-band (2.4GHz + 5GHz) Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v4.2, Infrared, GPS/ A-GPS, and NFC. Sensors on board include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass, gyroscope, and a proximity sensor. Thankfully, the Honor V10 keeps the 3.5mm audio jack unlike most of the recent flagships, though there is no waterproofing. The battery at 3,750mAh is decent and then there is the proprietary 5V / 4.5A fast charge using USB type C is on board as well. The Honor View 10 price has been set at EUR 499 (approx Rs 38,000) and GBP 449 (approx Rs 38,900). The smartphone will be made available in India, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Russia, the UK, and the United States on January 8. We will keep you posted as we know more about the Indian price for the same. SEES 2X USER GROWTH IN THE COUNTRY The Indian market has been a major area of focus for Google, and the company has unveiled a new feature for Google Maps in the country. While earlier in the day, Google Maps (v9.67.1) for Android was spotted with a Two-wheeler mode, Google announced the feature at its Google for India event. The new mode is seen placed alongside the earlier alternatives – Car, Foot, and Train. We're seeing the new mode on the latest version of the Android app.
The new Two-wheeler mode in Google Maps features customised routing and voice-guided navigation, apart from enhanced landmark navigation. It has has been incorporated to help bikers in the country find the route most suitable for their vehicles. Launching such a product in India makes sense as a substantial chunk of the country’s workforce travels on motorbikes and there are quite a few routes that are not wide enough for a bigger vehicle to fit in. It's evident Google has a big focus on India. Google CEO Sundar Pichai's recently commented about India playing an important role in improving Google Maps and other Google products. At the Google for India event, Google also revealed that Maps has seen a 2x user growth in India in the past year. The mode is fairly intuitive, and informs bikers about all possible road closures along the way. It also gives information about the parking situation at their destination, a handy feature that was previously seen in the car mode. WhatsApp is testing a new 'Restricted Groups' feature which will give the group administrator more powers. WhatsApp is testing a new ‘Restricted Groups’ feature which will give the group administrator more powers. According to a report from WABetaInfo, the messaging platform has submitted the “Restricted Groups” setting via Google Play Beta programme in the version 2.17.430.
Essentially, the new feature promises to give the administrator more power in a group chat. The report said that the administrator is free to restrict a member from sending text messages, photographs, GIFs, or voice messages. Once restricted, you can use the ‘Message Admin’ button to send a message to the group. You will be able to send message to the administrator of the group, who will ultimately decide whether it will be seen by other members of the group – or rejected completely. The Restricted group feature can be enabled by anyone with an administrator authority within the group chat. The settings can be changed every 72 hours, meaning group members can be silenced for a few hours at a time. WABetaInfo, which tracks upcoming WhatsApp features wrote: “WhatsApp will prevent the group creator to be deleted from the group by other administrators. This will help the group creator to have the full control of the group.· The administrators will be able to choose if other participants can modify the subject of the group, its icon and its description.” The feature is currently supported by Android and iOS beta, but WhatsApp has disabled it on its servers. At the moment, WhatsApp group administrator has the authority to add new members to the group. Members are free to post anything in the group. A few days ago, I did something incredibly stupid - I tripped, and dropped my phone face-first onto a hard tiled floor. After years of keeping phones free of scratches despite not using cases, I managed to completely slam the phone into the ground. While the screen itself survived the fall - it's amazing what you can accomplish with Gorilla Glass - the display itself wasn't so lucky. Some internal components were clearly damaged, and the left side of the display started showing a random pattern of colours that vaguely resembled a peacock feather. Funnily enough, even the dead parts of the screen were "working" in that the touchscreen was fine, the only issue was that nothing was being displayed. It was even possible to type (albeit badly) using swipe gestures. About a quarter of the right side of the display was still working normally and everything else in the phone worked fine. This was a blessing, as it was possible to plug the phone into the computer, and transfer files and back up my files. Of course, there's a lot less to physically back up these days, as between Google Photos, Google Drive, and Gmail Contacts, most of your important data already resides in the cloud. However, the one issue that came up was backing up SMS messages. The easiest option to back up SMS messages on Android requires installing a third-party application. That's not a problem though, because you can install apps on your Android device using Google Play store on the Web from any device. But once that's done, actually using the app is another matter if only a quarter of the screen is available. Why you should consider installing an app like Team Viewer on your phone Luckily, I had installed TeamViewer QuickSupport on my phone a little ahead of the accident. I had wanted to install it on a relatives phone for some troubleshooting, and had installed it on my own device first to see how easy it would be for them to use. Very easy, as it turns out, and that's what would come to my rescue as well. Before going any further, let's quickly explain what TeamViewer is, for anyone who doesn't already know. TeamViewer is a remote support tool which allows anyone who has the required details to be able to access your device, from either their phone or PC. Your entire screen is mirrored on the other person's device, and then they can operate your phone remotely - for example, you could move to a menu on screen and click on it on your PC, and the same button would be tapped on the phone. TeamViewer has proven to be particularly useful to install on a relative's computer if you have to troubleshoot their system settings and don't want to painstakingly repeat the same steps fifteen times over the phone, but it's also used by a number of businesses for tech troubleshooting. So, I started TeamViewer, and ran into the next issue - you have to share your TeamViewer ID for this to work. Luckily again, the send button was just barely visible, and I was able to mail myself the ID. With a little bit of planning, however, you can eliminate this step, as once you link your devices with your Teamviewer account, you no longer need to share the ID and password if you are logged into the same account from another device. The next step was to go to TeamViewer, type in the details, and gain remote access to my phone. According to the TeamViewer knowledge base, not all devices allow for full remote control - phones from the big brands, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sony etc., do, but a lot of others only allow remote viewing. This was still sufficient for me though, as the touchscreen was working, I just couldn't see what I was interacting with. The viewer also shows you where your last tap was, and with a little trial and error, I was able to actually work on my phone despite the display being out of commission, saving a lot of hassle and headache, ahead of actually getting the phone fixed. In the end, I was able to back up my SMS archive, which contained important information for an upcoming trip.
How to use TeamViewer TeamViewer isn't the only app of this kind, but it's certainly the most famous, and it's pretty easy to use. If my bad experience convinced you that a safety net of this sort is useful, read on to know how to make it work. It's best to follow these steps now, beforehand, so you don't need to work things out in the least optimal conditions like I did.
The mirroring will start on your PC right away. If your phone supports remote control, you can fully control your phone from here, with clicks replacing taps. In case your phone only allows remote viewing, you can still see what's on the screen and tap on your phone, if it still supports touch input, although it will take a little bit of trial and error to get right. At the end of the day, this solution really only helps in a few very specific scenarios, but TeamViewer is a useful tool that could come in handy at other times too. You might - hopefully - never have to use it in this kind of scenario, but there could be any number of ways in which it comes in handy, so give it a try - and it might just be a lifesaver if you manage to break your display. Celebrating its third anniversary in India, OnePlus on Monday announced the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition in association with Star Wars: The Last Jedi that is due to release next week. The new Limited Edition OnePlus 5T was showcased on Saturday at the Comic-Con event in Bengaluru. OnePlus is hosting an event in Mumbai on December 14 at 7pm at IMAX Wadala in Mumbai, to formally launch the latest entrant, tickets for which will be available to the general public at Rs. 999 starting 10am, December 7.
The OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition will go sale on Amazon.in, OnePlusStore.in, and OnePlus experience zones in Bengaluru, and Noida from December 15 - the same day as The Last Jedi's release in India. Details about its price and storage variants are yet to be revealed. OnePlus has provided a white back on OnePlus 5T Limited Edition along with a Star Wars logo. The alert slider on the left has also received a red-colour paint job. Besides, as per an official teaser video on YouTube, the smartphone includes a Stormtrooper wallpaper that matches the deep black front. Specifications of the OnePlus 5T Star Wars Limited Edition are likely to be identical to its original version that was launched in India last month with a starting price tag of Rs. 32,999. The flagship features a 6.01-inch Full Optic AMOLED display with full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) resolution and 18:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by a 2.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, coupled with up to 8GB RAM and 128GB onboard storage. The handset sports a rear-facing fingerprint scanner and a pre-installed Face Unlock feature. The OnePlus 5T has a dual-camera setup with a 16-megapixel IMX398 sensor and a 20-megapixel Sony IMX350 sensor along with f/1.7 aperture lenses. A 16-megapixel Sony IMX371 sensor is available on the front. It packs a 3300mAh battery that supports fast charging through the company's Dash Charge technology. The OnePlus 5T originally debuted with Android Nougat-based Oxygen 4.7.1 but released OxygenOS 4.7.2 a couple of weeks ago with improvements for fingerprint and face unlock features. Last week, OnePlus launched the OnePlus 5T 'Lava Red' Limited Edition in China with a red colour back panel. That new variant is listed on the company's China site alongside the original 'Midnight Black' option. The next generation of Redmi devices will come with taller 18:9 display and reduced bezels. Xiaomi’s next generation of Redmi 5 devices are on their way. In a Twitter post, its director of product management Donovan Sung has just shown off the devices named Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus. The pictures suggest considerably reduced bezels and a taller aspect ratio, presumably 18:9 which is in line with recent releases from other smartphone makers. The devices will be formally unveiled on 7th December at China.
While the Redmi range isn’t the flagship line of the Chinese maker, it does contribute significant numbers to its sales and it's especially important in price sensitive market like India.The Redmi 4 and Redmi Note 4 are the two most popular phones in the country right now, according to an IDC report which has put Xiaomi just behind Samsung to claim the title of most selling smartphone brand. Sung hasn’t revealed any information about pricing though. For comparison’s sake, the Redmi 4 pricing starts at Rs 6,999 in India, which gets you a phone with a metal build, a fingerprint sensor, a 5-inch 720p display, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor, a 13MP camera, and a 4100mAh battery. We expect Xiaomi to continue its aggressive pricing stance for the foreseeable future and price these devices competitively. Stay tuned for coverage when they're revealed in full on December 7th. |
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