Author: Vipul Vij

Samsung CEO Kwon Oh-hyun Resigns Under Mysterious Circumstances

Kwon Oh-hyun, CEO of Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display, vice chairman and head of Samsung’s components division has announced his resignation. He will step down from the role as well as his position on the board in March 2018.

Kwon Oh-hyun said in a letter to the employees:

It is something I had been thinking long and hard about for quite some time. It has not been an easy decision, but I feel I can no longer put it off. As we are confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, I believe that time has now come for the company start anew, with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to challenges arising from the rapidly changing IT industry.

There are no words to describe how proud I am that we built together one of the most valuable companies in the world. We have come a long way to create a company that truly changes how people live, work and communicate with each other. But now the company needs a new leader more than ever and it is time for me to move to the next chapter of my life.

Kwon joined Samsung in 1985, rising to lead its semiconductor business before his appointment as the CEO. He was appointed CEO of Samsung Electronics in 2012 and in 2016, he became the CEO of Samsung Display.

Samsung has had a very successful finanical year but, all may not be well in its leadership. The South Korean tech giant, Samsung expects its operating profit to nearly triple year on year, demonstrating a very strong recovery after the equivalent period in 2016 saw the infamous Galaxy Note7 recall. In his letter, Kwon cites “unprecedented crisis,” he might be referring to the arrest of Lee Jae-yong, the de facto leader of the entire Samsung group, on corruption charges. It looks like the scandal will slowly show the repercussions and Kwon Oh-hyun’s resignation seems like the fist indication. Samsung is yet to announce a replacement. It seems like one of the two “co-CEOs”, BK Yoon and JK Shin would replace Kwon. Will this internal turmoil affect Samsung and its future plans? We don’t think so.

October 13, 2017
Razer Smartphone Specifications Leaked

Razer took to Twitter on October 11th to reveal that it will be announcing its first ever smartphone on the 1st of November. Now, it seems like the specifications of the first ever Android phone made by Razer might have been leaked. A listing on GFXBench appears to be of the upcoming Razer smartphone with high-end specifications.

As per the listing, the phone will have a 5.7 inch display with a Quad HD 2560 x 1440 px resolution. Under the hood, the smartphone will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset and 64GB onboard storage. The standout spec here is the RAM. While most of the flagship smartphones cap out with 4GB of RAM, with the exception of OnePlus 5 which has a 8GB RAM variant, the Razer smartphone will also have 8GB of RAM. Extra RAM makes sense as Razer will market this as a gaming device as Razer itself is gaming accessories company.

While a specs listing doesn’t clearly tell us what the cameras will be like on this phone, it appears that the Razer Phone will have a 12MP sensor on the back and an 8MP camera on the front. The camera at the back will record 3840 x 2160 px videos as well.

The listing shows that the phone will run Android 7.1 Nougat and apparently it will have a custom skin on top. In January 2017, Razer acquired Nextbit, the company that made the Robin phone. Razer may use the assets as well as the core management and employees for making its smartphone and features like the deep cloud storage integration.

WATCH for our biggest unveiling…
??https://t.co/gwrwrxbhf9 pic.twitter.com/OyBFVocHOF

— R ? Z ? R (@Razer) October 11, 2017

More information about the phone will be leaked in the coming days, as is with every smartphone launch. The official announcement of the phone is set for 1st November.

October 13, 2017
LG V30+

The LG V30 was officially launched on August 31 at IFA 2017 Berlin and it was launched in India at a price of Rs. 44990. Unlike the previous V series devices from LG, the V30 does not have a secondary display and instead features a floating bar which can be disabled if not needed. Just like the G6, the V30 also has a dual-camera setup with a secondary wide-angle lens. However, there is no official word on its date of launch in India as of now.

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[section label=”Latest News”]

Latest News

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October 13, 2017
Nokia 9 Renders Show Thin Bezels And No Headphone Jack

Nokia has re-entered the smartphone market with a slew of Android powered phones in different price segments. Its latest entrant was the Nokia 8, the first Nokia branded Android flagship phone. The rumours of Nokia 9 have been doing the rounds for quite some time now and new renders show a 360-degree view of the smartphone.

The Nokia 8, although a flagship, has thick bezels around the display which a lot of 2017 flagships don’t. The Nokia 9 renders show a more modern look with thin bezels. The dual-camera setup retains its place and the fingerprint sensor is moved to the back. As far as rumoured specifications go, the Nokia 9 in all likeliness will feature a 5.5-inch 2880 x 1440 px AMOLED display. The phone will have Qualcomm’s MSM8998 Snapdragon 835, 4GB RAM and either 64GB or 128GB storage. Features like OZO sound, ‘Bothie’ are expected to be featured in the Nokia 9 as well since HMD Global really used these features to market the Nokia 8. One big omission in the renders is that of the 3.5mm headphone jack. After Google ditched it in its new Pixel 2 smartphones, there are rumours that other big Android phone manufacturers will follow suit.

In the photography department, there’s a vertically stacked dual-lens camera. The specifications in the camera department aren’t clear yet.

With the Nokia 8 launching just a couple of months ago, it will make sense for HMD Global to give the phone some breathing space and launch a new flagship in 2018 with the new flagship chipset, presumably Snapdragon 845. Using the Snapdragon 845 for its devices early on in 2018 might be a little tricky after reports of a deal between Samsung and Qualcomm surfaced a few days which would give Samsung exclusive access to an early batch of the new chips. There is no word on the launch of the smartphone and the company hasn’t taken to social media to drop any hints either.

October 13, 2017
Amazon Kindle Oasis Waterproof Launched

Amazon has launched the first ever waterproof Kindle E-Book reader. The new Kindle is a new version of the Oasis, which was launched last year and it has IPX8 waterproof reading. The Kindle Oasis is up for pre-orders in India, and will start shipping from the week of November 13. The new Kindle Oasis is priced at Rs 21999 for the 8GB variant and Rs 28999 for the 32GB variant (Wi-Fi + free 3G).

The new updated model of the Oasis has a six-week battery life and a slightly larger 7 inch screen with a 300 ppi. Amazon claims that the new display is brighter than the one on last year’s Oasis. Unlike last year’s Kindle Oasis, which used a magnetic case you attached to the tablet to extend its battery life, the new Oasis relies entirely on its built-in battery. It has a similar physical design, with one thicker side that tapers down on the other side, for one-handed reading. There are physical page-turn buttons, and the touchscreen page-turn option. Amazon says it’s worked on both the hardware and software side of things to make page-turning feel faster.

The new e-reader also has Bluetooth and has the Audible app built-in. This means that you can stream audio books to wireless headphones or speakers. Amazon also unveiled a new cover for the new Kindle Oasis, which can be transformed into a stand. Water-safe fabric covers are priced at Rs 2999, and are available in Indigo, Charcoal and Sandstone colours, while premium leather covers are priced at Rs 3999, and available in Black and Merlot colours.

October 12, 2017
Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 With Bezel-Less Design Leaked

Xiaomi has been known to launch multiple smartphones across the price range in a year and 2017 seems to be no different. After launching the Mi A1 with stock Android and the Mi Mix 2 with tri-bezel less display, it looks like the Redmi Note 5 is not too far away from an announcement. Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 seems to have been leaked and the images reveal a large display and very thin bezels. Large displays aren’t new to the Redmi Note lineup but, considering its entry-level price point, a bezel-less display looks like very interesting.

One thing that might change from the leaked image to the actual device could be the white bezels. As far as specifications are concerned, there isn’t much known about the Redmi Note 5. Xiaomi might go for the Helio P25 or P30 chipset this time around. Prior Redmi Note devices have had the Snapdragon chipset and previous reports hinted towards a Snapdragon 660 chipset. As is with all Redmi Note phones, it will be a powered by a massive battery, probably a 4000 mAh battery.

The images also reveal a dual-camera setup which will be a first for this lineup. After the Mi A1’s launch, it won’t be surprising if the Redmi Note 5 with dual cameras is launched in India. Although, the Indian variant will definitely have a Qualcomm chipset.

The company had launched the Redmi Note 4 last year in August and has completed its update cycle. Xiaomi might launch the new Redmi Note 5 early next year. As far as pricing goes, the phone might be launched in the same price segment as the previous Redmi Note devices but, due to the bezel-less design and dual cameras, the pricing could be similar to the Mi A1 or the Mi 5X.

October 12, 2017
Google Adds Video Calling Through The Phone, Contacts, Android Messenger Apps

Google is finally bringing a feature that has been in the iOS ecosystem for a while, video calling without leaving your phone app. Apple devices have had this feature for a while and it’s been appreciated by the users as well. Google posted a blog on October 12th to announce that it has integrated video calling feature in its Phone, Contacts and Android Messenger app.

We want to make it even easier to start a video call from your Android device, so we’re making video calling an integrated part of your phone. You can now start a video call directly from where you call or text message your friends, through your Phone, Contacts, and Android Messages apps. Later this year, we’ll also add the ability to upgrade an ongoing voice call to video with just a tap.

Google has accomplished this integration by tying up its video calling app Duo and the ViLTE standard, the latter of which is an extension of the existing VoLTE that focuses on increased video call quality over an LTE network. The video calls will be routed through ViLTE but, Duo will be the fall back option if your network doesn’t support the standard. This move by Google ties the Duo app deep in the Android ecosystem. Google has also promised that by later this year it will add the ability to upgrade to an ongoing voice call to video with just a tap.

There are a few things to keep in mind, the first being that you and the person you’re calling must have Duo installed and activated if ViLTE isn’t used. Next up, you must also have the latest versions of the Phone, Contacts, Android Messages, and Duo apps installed.

This feature is rolling out to Google powered devices namely the Pixel, Nexus and Android One smartphones. Google said it is working with carriers and device manufacturers to have integrated video calling across a wider variety of devices.

October 12, 2017
Razer Teases Its First Smartphone Announcement On November 1st

It seems like Razer will be joining the smartphone race and the announcement will be made as soon as 1st November. For the past few months, Razer has been dropping vague hints about its first ever smartphone and the company took to Twitter to share the news.

WATCH for our biggest unveiling…
??https://t.co/gwrwrxbhf9 pic.twitter.com/OyBFVocHOF

— R ? Z ? R (@Razer) October 11, 2017

The teaser shows a person holding what clearly seems like a smartphone.

In January 2017, Razer acquired Nextbit, the company that made the Android device Robin. This was the first major hint that the company, best known for its gaming accessories for PCs and consoles, along with high-end PC gaming laptops, was planning to enter the smartphone market.

A few weeks ago, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan confirmed that the company was going to launch a mobile device before the end of 2017, and that it would be focused on “gaming and entertainment”. Last week, a Twitter post by Tom Moss, the head of Razer’s mobile division, had him standing next to Tan, who had what appears to be a conveniently covered prototype of Razer’s phone in his pocket.

There is not much known about the smartphone except for the fact that it will concentrate on gaming and content consumption, and that it’ll be powered by Android. Considering the premium price tag of most of the products that have Razer’s name on it, the smartphone could enter the flagship category dominated by the likes of Apple, Samsung and Google.

October 12, 2017
Fujifilm Launches The New Mirrorless X-E3 Camera In India

Fujifilm has launched a new mirrorless camera in India, the X-E3 at a starting price of Rs 70,999. The company claims that the mirrorless camera market has a 25% market share in the global camera market which is currently dominated by DSLR Cameras. The situation however is expected to change as the demand for DSLR is expected to decline and mirror-less is expected to exceed DSLR market within 3 years.

Talking about the launch of the X-E3 in India, Mr. Yasunobu Nishiyama, Managing Director, Fujifilm India Pvt. Ltd. said:

The X series was first introduced in March 2011 and is now the most widely accepted mirrorless camera among photographers across the world. In India too, we see much potential in the Mirrorless Camera Segment due to the rise in professional photography, increase in Wedding Photography and Commercial Photography for Brand communication and advertisements and increased use of Social Media to showcase ones work. The advantage of an X Series mirrorless camera lies in its compact size packed with cutting edge innovative technology and unique features that provide great controls along with excellent colour reproduction and image quality.

The X-E3 has a 24.3MP APS-C sized X-Trans CMOS III sensor and X-Processor Pro image processing engine. The company claims that the X-E3 has an AutoFocus speed of 0.06 seconds. The camera has a 3 inch LCD monitor which is touch sensitive. Th camera is capable of recording recording 3840 x 2160 px videos at 29.97 FPS and 1920 x 1080 px videos at 60 FPS.

The camera has built in Bluetooth 4.0 to transfer images and videos to your smartphones o tablets on the go. It has a NP-W126S Li-ion battery which has a life of 350 frames when the LCD is turned on.

In terms of pricing and colour variants, the X-E3 is available in Black and Silver colours and is priced at Rs.70,999 (Body only), X-E3 with 18-55 kit is priced at ?.102,999 and X-E3 with 23mm F2 kit is priced at ?.89,999.

October 12, 2017
Amazon Alexa Can Now Recognise Different Voices And Give Personalised Response

The smart speakers market has seen a constant one-on-one between Amazon’s Echo and Google’s Home. For a while, Amazon had a US$50 alternative, the Echo Dot to the relatively expensive Echo. On 4th October, Google unveiled a smaller and cheaper alternative to the Google Home, called the Home Mini for a price of US$50. In April of 2017, the Google Home got the ability to recognise different voices in the home and have personalised responses. Amazon has announced that Alexa can do the same thing.

This basically means that if there are three people in the house and you ask Alexa to call a friend, Alexa will look through your profile your contacts by recognising the voice. Same thing will happen with calendars and even the playlists. You can set up voice recognition using the Echo, Echo Dot, or Echo Show. Users are asked to read aloud 10 phrases, and Alexa will then use that data to create a voice profile. After that’s done, voice profiles work across other Echo devices and most of the Alexa-powered third party apps.

Amazon says:

Once you set up the feature, Alexa will learn your voice (versus your spouse/partner/roommate’s voice) and be able to deliver a more personalised experience. Today the feature is available for calling/messaging, flash briefing, shopping, and the Amazon Music Unlimited Family Plan, and it’ll be rolling out to additional Alexa features in the future.

Amazon recently announced the entry of the Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Plus in India. The purchase can be done via an invite only as of now. The cheapest of the three is the Echo Dot priced at Rs 4499.

October 12, 2017
Qualcomm Hit With a US$773 Million Fine In Taiwan

Qualcomm, theSan Diego-based chipset maker was fined for US$773 million by Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission. The Commission said that Qualcomm misused the monopoly in the smartphone business to squeeze higher licensing fees and better terms out of its customers.

The commission said that Qualcomm’s dominance in CDMA and LTE chips, as well as its major patent holdings for both technologies, let the company abuse its position and refuse to license necessary patents. It’ll now be required to end those practices and parts of unfavourable deals it forged with other companies. This is not the first time that Qualcomm has been fined, South Korea and China have also fined Qualcomm in the last 2 years and Apple is involved in a series of lawsuits globally against Qualcomm over similar practices.

On its website, FTC says:

Qualcomm holds big number of standard essential patents in CDMA, WCDMA and LTE segments and is the dominant provider of CDMA, WCDMA and LTE baseband chips. It abused its advantage in mobile communication standards, refused to license necessary patents.

By not providing products to its clients who don’t agree to its terms, Qualcomm is abusing the monopoly it has in the business, therefore violating the local anti trust laws. According to FTC, local companies purchased around US$30 billion worth of Qualcomm’s chips, which is way more than the fine it was dealt with.

In response to the fine, Qualcomm has said:

The fine bears no rational relationship to the amount of Qualcomm’s revenues or activities in Taiwan, and Qualcomm will appeal the amount of the fine and the method used to calculate it.

Even though Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors power most of the Android devices in the market with the only real resistance coming rom MediaTek, Qualcomm’s main money minting business is that of licensing patents. That business however, is under attack right now around the world. Countries and companies have finally decided to take action against the alleged unfair practices of Qualcomm.

October 12, 2017
Apple Could Partner With LG For Foldable Smartphones

The smartphone industry has seen a gradual slump in innovation over the past few years. Bezel-less display has been the rage of 2017 but, other than that you barely see anything new nowadays. Samsung stirred things up a little with the news of it launching a foldable Android phone in early 2018. Now, there is news that Apple might be teaming up with LG to work on a foldable smartphone.

Samsung has been at the top of its game in the OLED market but, it hasn’t yet commercialised the flexible OLED displays. LG had also revealed a foldable display at CES and has the opportunity to take over that segment of the market and that might be the reason why Apple would choose to team up with LG. This news also falls in line with another report from July about Apple potentially investing over US$2 billion in LG’s new OLED plant.

According to a report from The Bell (via The Investor), Apple will use flexible screens supplied by LG Display for an upcoming folding smartphone. Meanwhile, LG’s Innotek business is already said to be gearing up to produce the rigid flexible printed circuit boards, or RFPCBs, that would feature inside the phones. Apple would be seeking to release this device in 2020, which could give competitors like Samsung and LG itself a head-start.

Samsung already seems well on its way to launch a foldable smartphone in early 2018 with the Galaxy X getting certified in Samsung’s native country, South Korea.

All these are still speculations and as we say it always, take these rumours with a hint of scepticism.

October 11, 2017
Airtel Rivals JioPhone With A 4G Smartphone At A Price Of Rs 1399

In order to keep up with the growing rise of Jio, Airtel has decided to rival the JioPhone which was recently announced. Airtel has announced a partnership with Indian smartphone manufacturers for its ‘Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone’ initiative. First phone to come our of this initiative is in association with Karbonn, called the Karbonn A40 Indian. The smartphone is said to be available at an ‘effective price of Rs 1399’, clearly taking on the JioPhone with the same terminology.

Talking about the new initiative, Airtel has said that:

This initiative is aimed at enabling every Indian to buy a 4G smartphone and get on to the digital superhighway. This initiative will bring highly affordable bundled 4G smartphone options to the market and fulfill the digital aspirations of millions of Indians.

Raj Pudipeddi, Director – Consumer Business & CMO, Bharti Airtel said:

As the market leader and pioneer of 4G services in India, Airtel’s aspiration is to digitally empower every Indian with high speed data access. We are delighted to partner with Karbonn to remove barriers to smartphone adoption and enable millions of Indians to leapfrog to a full touchscreen smartphone experience. We plan to partner with multiple manufacturers to bring affordable smartphone options to the market and build an ‘open ecosystem’ of low cost devices. This is yet another step in our ongoing journey to deeply understand customers and bring innovation that delights them.

Airtel explained how the Karbonn A40 Indian, a smartphone which was launched in July and has a market price of Rs 3499, will be available at an ‘effective price’ of Rs. 1,399. Customers will have to make a down payment of Rs. 2899 for the device, and then make a minimum amount of recharges over the course of three years to receive cashbacks worth Rs 1500. To put things into perspective, users will need to make recharges worth at least Rs 3000 in the first 18 months to avail a Rs 500 cashback, and then make recharges worth at least Rs 3000 again over the next 18 months to avail a Rs 1000 cashback. Therefore, you are effectively paying Rs 1399 for the smartphone.

In its statement, Airtel mentioned that the phone will be with the customers and the users won’t have to return the phone to Airtel or Karbonn at any point to claim the cash benefit. S The A40 Indian is a smartphone, which means that it will have access to the Google Play Store and apps like Facebook, Instagram and more. These are the apps people use to spend their internet on, something that the JioPhone doesn’t have.

October 11, 2017
Samsung Galaxy J2 (2017) Officially Listed On Samsung India’s Website

Samsung has quietly listed the Samsung Galaxy J2 (2017) on its official India website. The price of the phone however, has not been revealed yet but, indicates that the smartphone will be available in India soon. It will be available in two colours, Metallic Gold and Absolute Black.

The Galaxy J2 2017 has a 4.7 inch 960 x 540 px Super AMOLED display. The device is powered by a 2000 mAh battery while there is no mention of the OS version the device is running but, it is fair to assume that the smartphone will run Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box. Under the hood, the device has the Exynos chipset, 1.3 GHz quad core processor, 1GB RAM, and 8GB of onboard storage which is expandable via microSD card. The Galaxy J2 (2017) comes with Smart Manager for automatic memory management which will help delete duplicate images on the device automatically, and also delete saved APK files to utilise the storage. The smartphone also comes with Ultra Data Saving mode that the company claims can help consumers save up to 50 percent data.

On the optics front, the device has a rear-facing 5MP camera with autofocus and a flash. On the front is a 2MP camera.

Prolific Mumbai-based retailer Mahesh Telecom has a history of accurately predicting the price of Samsung smartphones. The offline retailer has said that the device will be available at a price of Rs 7390. At this price, the smartphone will compete with the likes of Xiaomi Redmi 4A, Moto C and the Moto E4 Plus.

October 11, 2017
This Could Trick You Into Giving Away Your Apple ID Password
If you are an iPhone user, you must be used to the random popup asking for your Apple ID and password because of some app running in the background. It is as normal as it gets and we barely think twice before entering the password. However, there is a new phishing attack which can trick you into giving up your password and cause serious privacy concerns.

A blog post from developer Felix Krause explains how a fake popup could be easily used to trick someone into handing over their Apple ID and password. The developer explains that creating a fake popup doesn’t require extraordinary coding skills. Any iOS engineer can make the Apple ID password prompt and send that popup. The password can then be logged in the app for anyone to access it. It takes less than 30 lines of code and could seemingly be dropped in any legitimate iOS app and sneak past App Store review teams.

Showing a dialog that looks just like a system popup is super easy, there is no magic or secret code involved, it’s literally the examples provided in the Apple docs, with a custom text. I decided not to open source the actual popup code, however, note that it’s less than 30 lines of code and every iOS engineer will be able to quickly build their own phishing code.

He says he’s already filed this issue as a radar with Apple and explains that it could be fixed by Apple not allowing passwords to be entered in popups, but rather only in the Settings app/App Store. He notes in his blogs that this has been an issue with desktop browsers for years, with websites sending popups which look identical to the system popups.

This seems like a serious issue and until Apple comes up with a solution, Krause has pointed out a few ways you can protect yourself from this phishing attack:

Hit the home button, and see if the app quits:
- If it closes the app, and with it the dialog, then this was a phishing attack
- If the dialog and the app are still visible, then it’s a system dialog. The reason for that is that the system dialogs run on a different process, and not as part of any iOS app.
- Don’t enter your credentials into a popup, instead, dismiss it, and open the Settings app manually. This is the same concept, like you should never click on links on emails, but instead open the website manually
- If you hit the Cancel button on a dialog, the app still gets access to the content of the password field. Even after entering the first characters, the app probably already has your password.
October 11, 2017