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OnePlus Confirms It Won’t Have Project Treble On The OnePlus 5T

OnePlus held an AMA and answered quite a few questions about the new OnePlus 5T. One user asked if the OnePlus 5T or any other OnePlus smartphone will be updated to support Project Treble, which basically means if any OnePlus device will be fast-tracked for updates. OnePlus confirmed that neither the OnePlus 5T, nor any other OnePlus phone, will be updated to support Treble.

Android software updates have been a painfully long process for devices other than the Pixel or Nexus. That has mainly been due to other OEMs going through their own long process of customising the new version of Android and then slowly rolling out their version of Android to its users.

But, a few months ago Android gained a “Vendor Interface” (VI), largely due to a new development effort from Google called Project Treble. The VI’s aim is to separate the “Vendor Implementation” (that is, “the device-specific, lower-level software written in large part by the silicon manufacturers”), from the Android OS framework.

The new VI is supposed to sit between the Android OS framework and Vendor Implementation. And the new VI will be validated by a Vendor Test Suite (VTS), which is analogous to the Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) that Google has been using for API testing of apps. The VTS ensures forward-compatibility of the VI.

What project Treble brings to the table is quite evident from the two images above. Before, the VI needed to be reworked after every single Android OS framework update, while from now on that won’t be the case anymore.

So, what does it mean for the OnePlus 5T? It means that unless OnePlus is quick with its testing and back-end engineering, the OnePlus 5T will be slow to get the latest Android software update, just like a lot of other Android phones.

November 22, 2017
OnePlus 5 Will Be Discontinued

Soon after the launch of the OnePlus 5T, it has been confirmed that the OnePlus 5 will be discontinued as soon as the stocks run out.

In an interview, the General Manager of OnePlus India Vikas Aggarwal indulged into the Chinese smartphone maker’s product launch strategy and why the company released the OnePlus 5T so soon:

If you look at our previous phone, the OnePlus 3T the last batch was sold out during Diwali and now the product will be discontinued. The same goes for the OnePlus 5, which will also be sold out in sometime, and we’ll have only one product – OnePlus 5T – in the market.

OnePlus 5

Aggarwal says the changes on the OnePlus 5T are not significant enough to classify as a whole new product. Instead, the OnePlus 5T is a “variant” that offers a better display for improving the overall experience.

So as a company which focuses on premium segment, we need to make sure our phones compete with the current available flagships in the market. The OnePlus 5T will do just that, and given this is an extension of the current product line, there was no need for us to raise the price.

It is worth noting that just because OnePlus has discontinued the production of the OnePlus 5, it will stop the software support as well. OnePlus has promised that the OnePlus 5 will receive an update to Android 8.0 Oreo and Android P in 2018 (or early 2019). However, if OnePlus continues to launch a ‘T’ variant after every 5 or 6 months of it launching a flagship, then people will definitely be hesitant before investing in the first flagship of the year and indeed hold off their credit cards for the ‘T’ variant.

OnePlus 5T, as expected, is an incremental upgrade over the OnePlus 5. The most noticeable difference being the display, the OnePlus 5T has a more 2017 look with a 6 inch AMOLED display which has a 2160 x 1080 px resolution and thin bezels.

November 21, 2017
Amazon Will Now Deliver SIM Cards To Your Doorstep

Amazon, the e-commerce giant will now start delivering Airtel and Vodafone SIM cards. The company claims to deliver free SIM cards, however, Airtel is asking for a security deposit of Rs 200 and Vodafone costs Rs 15.

Both, Airtel and Vodafone are offering Postpaid SIM cards along with a few good plans. The Airtel connection is available for Rs 499, Rs 799, Rs 1,199 and Rs 1,599. On the flip side, consukers who want to buy a Vodafone SIM can opt for RED plans including Rs 499, Rs 699, Rs 999, Rs 1,699, Rs 1,999 and 2,999.

A user can also avail cash back on the first recharge of operators. Airtel customers get flat Rs 75 cash back on recharge of above Rs 349, Jio users will receive a cash back of Rs 99 on the payment of Rs 399 or more, while Aircel customers can avail up toRs 75 on an unlimited plan, and for the rest of the operators, you can get a cash back of Rs 50 on the first payment.

Apart from this, Amazon has also listed a host of international SIM cards as well, which include connections of the countries such as US, UK, Portugal, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong, Australia, Belgium and more.

November 21, 2017
Technical Glitch Confirms Samsung Is Making The Galaxy X

The Samsung Galaxy X, a foldable smartphone that goes into your pocket as a mid-sized smartphone and when its time to watch a video, it becomes a tablet. The Galaxy X is real and Samsung may have accidentally confirmed that the phone is close to its launch date.

A support page went up on Samsung’s website for an SM-G888N0 handset, which was spotted by Dutch-language site MobielKopen. Samsung’s support document did not offer any insight into what the SM-G888 device is supposed to be, but that model number has been linked with the Galaxy X a few times in the past. According to same website that spotted the page, the SM-G888 already received various certifications from regulators, including the Bluetooth SIG, the Wi-Fi Alliance, and South Korea’s National Radio Research Agency.

As a modern-day smartphone, it is hard to keep any phone under the wraps till its launch and in a little while, it appears that the Galaxy X will also start getting its fair share of leaks. The Samsung Galaxy X is expected to be unveiled during CES in early 2018.

However, not everyone should be too excited about the Galaxy X as it might see a very limited release. A report from the South Korea Herald suggested that the production of the Galaxy X would be on 100,000 orders, making it an extremely limited edition device. If this happens, the Galaxy X would be the most difficult Galaxy phone to get your hands on.

The foldable smartphone is being touted as the “next big innovation” in the smartphone industry, which has been stagnant for a while in terms of exciting innovations.

A number of patents as well as Samsung’s own concept video from CES 2013 tell us what to expect from the Galaxy X. Samsung is most likely to start small, with a smartphone that folds halfway like a wallet. Another design, in line with Samsung’s prototype unveiling, could see the phone unfold into a full-size tablet.

November 21, 2017
Apple Might Launch The iPhone SE 2 In Early-2018

After launching the highly successful iPhone X in September of 2017, the company has already started setting goals for 2018. A new report suggests that the tech giant is planning a mid-cycle iPhone launch and unveil the successor to the iPhone SE, the iPhone SE in the first half of 2018. The iPhone SE 2 will be the mid-range offering from Apple who still prefer the 4-inch display form factor in the age of 5-inch smartphones being called ‘Mini’.

As was with the iPhone SE, the iPhone SE 2 will have a small form factor as compared to modern-day smartphones and sport a 4-inch display. Even though certain reports have suggested that Apple will adopt the iPhone X design across the board for its 2018 marquee smartphones, the iPhone SE 2 will still have large bezels and a home button with Touch ID.

The iPhone SE 2 is expected to have the upgraded Apple A10 Fusion chipset and 32GB, 64GB and 128GB storage variants.

Even though entry-level phones have started coming out with dual-cameras (the implementation can be questioned), the iPhone SE 2 will retain the single camera setup from the original iPhone SE.

The Apple iPhone SE is manufactured in India and retails for a price of Rs 21859 for the 32GB storage variant. The iPhone SE 2 will enter the budget segment around the 25-30K price bracket and essentially replace the iPhone SE 2. It will be interesting to see Apple advertises the new iPhone SE 2 as a ‘Made In India’ product and try to appeal the average consumers that won’t usually buy an iPhone because of its higher price tag.

November 21, 2017
The New Xiaomi “i” Product Is The Made In India Mi Power Bank 2i

Xiaomi has announced the launch of a new power bank, the Mi Power Bank 2i in two capacity variants, one with 10000 mAh and the other with 20000 mAh. The 10000 mAh power bank is priced at Rs 799 while the bigger capacity power bank is priced at Rs 1499. The power banks will first go on sale on Mi.com and Mi Home Stores on the 23rd of November. From December, the two power banks will be sold via Amazon and Flipkart and offline, they will be sold via various stores such as Big Bazaar, Vijay Sales and more from December.

Xioami had been teasing a new product with the letter “i” on social media for the past few days. As the speculations of the Redmi Not 5 launch grew taller, it has been announced that the letter “i” indeed stands for ‘India’.

"i" is coming soon!

Any guesses what is this? ? @XiaomiIndia pic.twitter.com/rfmXuA8dfq

— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) November 18, 2017

The Mi Power Bank 2i, as Xiaomi has said, is “Made In India, Made For India.” Xiaomi has also announced that it will produce 7 power banks per minute in India. The power bank, just like the previous ones from Xiaomi will have an aluminium built. The power bank is made of anodised aluminium and the chipset will be made by Texas Instruments.

The 20000 mAh power bank also supports single port QuickCharge 3.0.

Since the new Mi Power Bank 2i is made for India, it is also extremely efficient since the Chinese tech giant has introduced dual USB ports for the first time in power bank lineup.

To give you an idea about how much capacity the 10000 mAh Mi Power Bank 2i has, it can charge the Redmi Note 4 (which has a 4100 mAh battery) 1.5 times and a Xiaomi Mi A1 up to 2.2 times on a single charge.

November 21, 2017
Face ID Has A Useful Feature That You Probably Don’t Know About

The iPhone X has brought back the excitement that used to surround an iPhone for so many years. With a new design and a lot of new features, the iPhone X has been one of the best iPhones ever made. One of the most talked-about feature of the iPhone X however, has been Face ID.
Face ID has a lot of neat tricks up its sleeve, most notably being the infamous ‘Animoji’.

Animoji On iPhone X

If you are not a morning person, you have faced the the annoyance of your iPhone’s loud alarm tone blaring at you early inj the morning. And at such an early time, you tend to struggle to pick up the phone and shut the alarm. And while you are still struggling to get hold of your phone, that alarm tone is at its peak volume still annoying you.

You may also like – I Spent A Day With The iPhone X And I Am Done With The Home Button

Keeping that in mind, a new little nifty feature in the iPhone X was revealed on Reddit.

Woke up this morning to my iPhone alarm and when I looked at my X, I noticed the volume lowered itself. I tried this again to make sure I wasn’t just imagining it after waking up, and it does!

That is such a little thing that didn’t need to be a feature, but the fact that it is, is amazing. Now when I wake up and look at my phone its a softer volume instead of continually blaring the alarm at me. Little things like this are awesome.

When you think about it, this feature won’t sell iPhone Xs in bulk. It will never make it to the advertisements as a “marquee feature.” But, the fact that this feature exists and tackles such a trivialised issue is a great thing.

November 21, 2017
MIUI 9 Will Be The Last Update For These Xiaomi Phones

Xiaomi recently announced its plans of rolling out MIUI 9 to its Indian smartphones. Along with the launch of the Xiaomi Redmi Y1 Lite and Redmi Y1, the company released a list of smartphones that will get the MIUI 9 stable ROM update in the coming weeks. However, in a recent blog post, it also announced that for Mi 2/2S, Mi 4i, Redmi 1S, Redmi Note 4G, Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, and Mi Note, MIUI 9 will be last update ever.

In a blog post, Xiaomi wrote:

To ensure the best performance of MIUI, we have to make a tough decision of suspending the update of 6 devices after a long-time discussion and evaluation about the release time of devices, active users, hardware performance, etc.

As far as the final MIUI 9 Global stable ROM is concerned, it will be gradually rolled out to aforementioned devices from December 2017 to January 2018.

Users who flashed the MIUI 9 beta version on their smartphone should have a keen eye on the Xiaomi forums as the company will be posting instructions for flashing to the MIUI 9 Global Stable ROM. Xiaomi has also said that MIUI Global Beta ROM 7.11.16 will be the last beta update for the smartphones that are mentioned above.

Here is a list of smartphones that will receive the new MIUI 9 update-

Mi 2, Mi 3, Mi 4, Redmi Note 4G, Mi Note, Mi 4i, Redmi 2, Redmi 2 Prime, Redmi Note 4G Prime, Redmi Note 2, Mi Mix, Mi Note 2, Mi 5, Mi 5s, Mi Max, Mi Max Prime, Redmi Note 3, Redmi 3, Redmi 3S, Redmi 3S Prime, Mi Mix 2, Mi Note 3, Mi 6, Mi Max 2, Redmi Note 4, Redmi Note 4xX, Redmi Note 5A, Redmi 4, Redmi 4A, Redmi Y1 and Redmi Y1 Lite.

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November 21, 2017
Samsung Galaxy S9 To Take On iPhone X’s Face ID

As 2017 comes to an end barely any exciting smartphone launches left to look forward to, the Galaxy S9 is the next phone everyone wants to talk about. It appears that Samsung has plans of taking on Apple in more than just advertisements. A new report suggests that the Galaxy S9 will have a new and improved iris scanner to compete with the iPhone X’s Face ID feature.

Samsung is developing a new software to make facial recognition on the Galaxy S9 faster than the Galaxy S8. It appears that Samsung is not favouring any hardware upgrade, and the Galaxy S9 will basically be an incremental upgrade as far as specifications are concerned. However, Samsung is planning to introduce a host of software tweaks to reduce the delay in recognising the face and scanning the iris of users.

This means that Samsung will avoid going for a “notch” at the top of the phone since it will rely mostly on the software to do its job rather than stuffing a host of sensors along with the front facing camera.

The rumours of what the Samsung Galaxy S9 will look like and what it will offer have increased ever since the iPhone X was launched. A recent benchmark listing reveals that the upcoming flagship phone will most likely be powered by the new Exynos 9810 chipset, which was announced earlier in November. The phone scores 2680 on the single-core Geekbench 4 test and a 7787 on the multi-core test. While the scores are impressive, the smartphone doesn’t even come close to iPhone X‘s single-core score of 4197 and multi-core score of 10051.

The Galaxy S9 will have the same screen size as the Galaxy S8 and similarly the Galaxy S9+ will have the same screen size as the Galaxy S8+. What will be different is the size of the bezels. The top and bottom bezels will be thinner than the ones found on the 2017 flagship phones.

There were rumours that the Galaxy S9 will have a screen-embedded fingerprint sensor but, a recent report claims that Samsung will introduce this technology only in the Galaxy Note9 in late 2018. This means that the fingerprint sensor on the Galaxy S9 will remain at the back of the phone but, might have a new position.

November 21, 2017

Motorola Moto X4 Vs Moto G5s Plus

After launching the Moto X4, Lenovo-owned Motorola now has two strong offerings in the sub-20K category and the sub-25K category. The two phones are the Moto G5s Plus and the Moto X4. Both the phones offer a dual camera setup at the back, a Full HD display and run pure Android 7.1 Nougat OS.

Let’s pit these two phones together and see which phone comes out on top:

Specifications	Moto G5s Plus	Moto X4
Price	Rs 15999 Click here for latest price	Rs 20999 (3GB RAM variant) Rs 22999 (4GB RAM variant) Click here for latest price
Display	5.5 inch IPS LCD	5.2 inch LTPS IPS LCD
Display protection	Corning Gorilla Glass 3	Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Resolution	1920 x 1080 px 401ppi	1920 x 1080 px 424ppi
Protection	Water repellent nano-coating	IP68 rating for water and dust resistance
Design	Aluminium unibody with glass in front	Aluminium frame with glass on front and back
Battery	3000 mAh	3000 mAh
Chipset	Qualcomm Snapdragon 625	Qualcomm Snapdragon 630
GPU	Adreno 506	Adreno 508
RAM	4GB	3GB 4GB
Storage	64GB Expandable up to 256GB via microSD card	32GB 64GB Expandable up to 256GB via microSD card
Primary Camera	13MP f/2.0 aperture + 13MP f/2.0 aperture PDAF DUAL LED	12MP Dual Pixel senor with f/2.0 aperture + 8MP Ultra-wide sensor with f/2.2 aperturePDAF DUAL LED
Primary Camera Video	4K at 30 FPS 1080p at 60fps	4K at 30 FPS 1080p at 60fps
Secondary Camera	8MP f/2.0 aperture wide angle lens	16MP f/2.0 aperture LED flash
Other Features	Fingerprint sensor	Fingerprint sensor
Colours	Lunar Grey Fine Gold	Super Black Sterling Blue

November 21, 2017

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Listed Online As Launch Seems Imminent

Xiaomi’s most successful line of smartphones in India, the Redmi Note series might be getting its new flag bearer very soon. The Redmi Note 5, apparent successor to the hugely successful Redmi Note 4 might be coming to India soon.

A recent listing on a couple of e-commerce websites have shed some light on what the Redmi Note 5 might have to offer when it launches.

The Redmi Note 5 will sport a 5.99-inch display with a 2160 x 1080 px resolution, and as rumoured for weeks, will feature an 18:9 aspect ratio.

The listing suggests that the Redmi Note 5 will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 chipset, but, since that is an old chipset, expect the Snapdragon 630 chipset instead. The device is also expected to be launched in a couple of variants, one with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage and the other one with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage. As is with a lot of Redmi Note phones, the Redmi Note 5 is also expected to be powered by a massive battery.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4

The Redmi Note 5 is expected to have a 12MP rear-facing camera and a front facing 5MP camera.

Xiaomi recently announced a permanent price cut for the Redmi Note 4 which suggests that the company is making room for the Redmi Note 5 in that price bracket which already flooded with phones from other OEMs.

Additionally, Manu Jain, Head of Xiaomi India shared a teaser on Twitter hinting at launch of a new product.

"i" is coming soon!

Any guesses what is this? ? @XiaomiIndia pic.twitter.com/rfmXuA8dfq

— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) November 18, 2017

November 20, 2017
Google Lens Support Starts Rolling Out To Pixel And Pixel 2 Devices

Google has started rolling an update for Pixel and Pixel 2 devices which brings the Google Lens feature to these phones. 9To5Google reported that the some users have noticed the Lens feature in the Google Assistant app.

The first users have spotted the visual search feature up and running on their Pixel and Pixel 2 phones.

In Photos, Lens can be triggered when viewing an image or a screenshot. However, in Google Assistant, it is integrated right into the sheet that pops up after holding down on the home button, or squeezing the frame of the Pixel 2. Once triggered, the Lens runs an image based search and pulls out web page links, options to open another app or links to buy a certain product.

When Lens was firs unveiled, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described Google Lens as a set of vision based computing capabilities that can understand what you’re looking at and perform actions based on that information. If you trigger Lens while pointing your phone to a book, it will scan the cover of the book and pull links to buy or read the particular book online. Google says Lens has an accuracy of over 95%.

While the rollout is still minimal, and extensive rollout to all the Pixel and Pixel 2 devices is expected to happen in the coming days.

November 20, 2017
Tesla Launches A New Power Bank And Desktop Supercharger

Tesla, one of the most talked about electric car companies, has now ventured into smartphone accessories. The American company has announced the launch of a new power bank and a desktop supercharger.

While there are plenty of power banks in the market with much more capacity, Tesla’s power bank will certainly interest people especially at a price tag of US $45.

The desktop supercharger does exactly what the name suggests. It sits on your desktop and has a USB port so that you can connect any USB cable and charge anything you want. It is also priced at US $45 and is available on the company’s official website but, the shipping of the supercharger is delayed as of now.

The smartphone accessory is launched days after the company announced two of its marquee vehicles, the Roadster 2.0 and Tesla Semi. While the Roadster 2.0 is the second iteration of the company’s first Roadster, the Tesla Semi is an electric truck which will go into production in 2020.

The Tesla power bank can charge an iPhone or an Android phone thanks to its integrated lightning cable and a detachable micro USB cable. This is done for people who own a smartphone that charges via Type C cable. It has a capacity of 3350 mAh and a maximum output of 5V/1.5A. These specifications for a modern day power bank are not mind boggling and you have to be Tesla enthusiast to invest on this power bank.

You can buy the newly launched power bank and the desktop supercharger from Tesla’s official website.

November 20, 2017
OnePlus 3 And OnePlus 3T Start Receiving Android 8.0 Oreo Update

While one would assume that a smartphone maker’s latest and greatest smartphone would have the latest Android OS running, it would be a wrong assumption when it comes to OnePlus. Soon after launching the OnePlus 5T at an event oin New York, the Chinese smartphone maker has rolled out an official update to OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T devices which upgrades the phones’ software to Oxygen OS 5 and Android 8.0 Oreo.

Hello everyone!

We are pushing out the incremental roll-out of OxygenOS 5.0, our first official Android O OTA update for the OnePlus 3 and 3T.

With the new update, the OnePlus 3 and 3T will get long awaited Android 8.0 Oreo features such as notifications dots and picture-in-picture mode and a few new Oxygen OS features. Other additions are ‘parallel apps’, auto-fill, smart text selection and more.

In the OnePlus launcher, there are new features like notification dots and a new app folder design. OnePlus has also added the option to upload photos directly to Shot on OnePlus. The company has further cleared that the OTA update is ‘incremental’ which means that only a small percentage of users will get the update right away. The blog post continues to state that a broader roll-out of the new software update will begin in some days.

The news is bittersweet for OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T users. Yes, these users will be the first to get Android 8.0 Oreo on a OnePlus device but, as the company had announced earlier, this is the last major software upgrade for the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T. OnePlus is known for dropping support for its year-old flagships and this case doesn’t seem any different.

The OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 5T are expected to get the Android 8.0 Oreo update some time in early 2018 as the beta testing on the two phones will start in early-December.

November 20, 2017
Lenovo Launches Two Budget Tablets – Tab 7 And Tab 7 Essential

Lenovo has continued its efforts of consistently launching tablets with two new additions of the Tab 7 and Tab 7 Essential. While the Tab 7 is priced at US $99.99 (Rs 6500 approx.), the Tab 7 Essential is priced even lower at US $79.99 (Rs 5200 approx.).

The Tab 7 has a 7-inch IPS LCD display with a 1280 x 720 px resolution.

Under the hood, the budget tablet has the MediaTek MT8161 chipset, 1.3GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage which can be expanded via microSD card. Lenovo has not mentioned the exact battery capacity of the tablet but, it does claim up to 15 hours of usage time.

Lenovo Tab 7

The Tab 7 runs Android 7 Nougat.

The tablet has a rear-facing 2MP camera and a front facing 5MP camera.

The Tab 7 Essential has a 7 inch IPS LCD display with a 1024 x 600 px resolution.

Under the hood, the Tab 7 Essential packs a MediaTek MT8167D, quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage. Lenovo has not mentioned the exact battery capacity of the tablet but, it does claim up to 20 hours of usage time.

Just like the Tab 7, the Tab 7 Essential also runs Android 7 Nougat.

The tablet has a rear-facing 2MP camera and a front facing 2MP camera.

November 20, 2017