Nokia and Qualcomm achieve 5G NR Interoperability

Back in September last year, Qualcomm and Nokia announced plans to conduct interoperability testing and over-the-air field trials based on the 5G New Radio (NR) Release-15 specifications being developed by 3GPP. Today both the companies have announced that they have successfully completed interoperability testing in the 3.5Ghz and 28Ghz spectrum compliant with the global 3GPP 5G NR Release 15 standard using Nokia AirScale base station and device prototypes from Qualcomm Technologies. Nokia, Qualcomm Technologies and operators including BT/EE, Deutsche Telekom, Elisa, KT, LGU+, NTT DOCOMO, Optus, SKT, Telia and Vodafone Group are already committed to working together in verifying and trialing 5G NR technology. This will be based on the successful interoperability tests of the flexible 5G NR interface from Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies which will support a wide array of 5G services and various deployment scenarios. As announced last year, Nokia and Qualcomm Technologies continue working closely in driving the industry, leading to widescale 5G deployments in 2019 based on 3GPP standard-compliant 5G infrastructure and devices. This will enable timely commercial network launches in 2019, in particular in the United States, China, Japan, Korea and Europe. Source

Hike partners with Airtel to bring ‘Total’ app to smartphones

Hike today announced a strategic partnership with Airtel to embed Total app by Hike on smartphones under the under Airtel's 'Mera Pehla Smartphone' initiative. Starting from March 2018, selected smartphones under the ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ will be shipped with 'Total' as a pre-installed feature. Hike  introduced the Total app last month with an aim to bring internet to the next billion users, and it is also capable of delivering essential services like messaging, news, recharge and more without needing an active data connection. It also brings easy access to data plans for as low as Rs. 1. The Hike Total interface is very simple with single level login through phone number with access to services like messaging, news, horoscopes, cricket scores, recharge, rail Info even without data at their disposal. The Total is built on Hike’s proprietary technology USSD protocol which the job of encrypting, compressing and transmitting data. On the other hand, the Airtel’s ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ was launched in October 2017. It is an initiative which is aimed at offering low-cost Android phones with 4G to every India. Airtel has partnered with multiple mobile manufacturers including Karbonn, Celkon, Intex. Commenting on the same, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Founder, and CEO, Hike, said With ‘Total’ on ‘Mera Pehla Smartphones’, first-time users will find it easy understand ...

Huawei P20 Lite gets certified by the FCC, reveals top-notch, Android 8.0 and more

Huawei is expected to introduce its flagship smartphones in the P20 series at separate event in March in Paris. Some case renders of the smartphones surfaced, now the P20 Lite smartphone with the model number ANE-LX1  has been certified by the FCC. This reveals about 6-inch display for the smartphone, iPhone X-like top-notch along with IR sensor for face unlock, vertical dual rear camera arrangement, as revealed in renders and 148mm height. It also reveals that it will run Android 8.0 (Oreo), even though recent reports revealed that the P20 will come with Android 8.1 with EMIUI 8.1. It further reveals a 2900mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging, Hybrid Dual SIM support and WiFi 802.11n support. Earlier rumors indicated that the phone will come in Midnight Black, Klein Blue and Sakura Pink colors. We should know more details about the phone in the coming weeks. Source | Via 1, 2

Google might be cancelling ‘Chrome Home’ bottom address interface

Google has been working on the new Chrome Home interface with bottom address bar design for over a year now. The interface with bottom address bar first appeared in October 2016 and later in August 2017, the company changed the U.I again. However, it now looks like Google is canceling the Chrome Home. Despite being in testing for quite some time, the redesigned interface never made it to the public and was only limited to beta and Canary. Though the Chrome 64 put pieces together, it still didn't. Now Google might be finally giving up on it. A few days ago, several bug reports related to the interface were marked as 'WontFix' on the Chromium bug tracker. The bug report also added a comment saying "We are ending the current Chrome Home experiment and closing the corresponding Chrome Home bugs. Thanks for the feedback and support!" However, the comment can be taken in multiple ways, it could also mean that Google is finally ready to roll out the new U.I, or could also mean that Google is ending the experiment. Adding to the fuel, the Chrome Home with bottom address bar which was previously enabled for canary and beta users is now disabled. Even re-installing the app didn't help ...

Telegram 4.8 for Android adds video streaming and auto-night mode, brings login for websites

Telegram 4.8 for Android brings video streaming features which eliminate the need to download the video and can now start watching videos right away without having to fully download it first. The app also gets the ability to automatically turn on the night mode or dark mode after nightfall or in low-light conditions. With today's update, Telegram for Android lets you can stream videos directly from Telegram apps, and you can see the caching progress as a light grey strip. On the other hand, you can set up the Auto-Night Mode from Settings > Theme > Auto-Night Mode. It also has support for a multitude of custom themes from where you can choose which theme the app will switch to using the ‘Preferred Night Theme’ setting. Apart from these two major updates to Android, Telegram is also bringing new Telegram Login Widget for external websites when you use Telegram login for the first time. The widget will ask for your phone number and sends you a confirmation message via Telegram to authorize your browser. Once this is done, you get a two-click login on every website that supports signing in with Telegram. Once you click accept, Telegram will send your name, username, and your profile picture to the website owner. However, your phone number will remain hidden. Telegram will also send you ...

Google now lets you book hotels and flights from search results

Google just made it easier to book hotels and flights right from the search results. It helps users explore more options and make the booking right from your smartphone's search results. It also sorts the hotel searches with better price filtering, easier-to-find amenity information and more.  Google is rolling the update to flights as well, for suppose if you search for a flight in Google Flights, you can swipe right to access “Hotels” at the top of the page. This also lets you easily click over to check hotel availability and prices in your destination city for the dates you’ve already selected. This also works the same way when you search for hotels as well. For flights as well, Google will now let you check prices, fare options, and easily book your flight when you’re ready. It will return same results when you want to learn about a specific place, or when searching for things to do there. Clicking on the 'More destinations' in the top left will show search results of other destinations, weekend getaways and trips you might be interested in. Google is also including a feature called 'Your Trips' that helps you see all your upcoming and past travel reservations from Gmail at ...

Google Motion Stills for Android brings new AR stickers, redesigned UI and more

Google launched the Motion Stills app last year for better video capture and viewing experience. Later the company redesigned and introduced the new motion photos feature in Pixel 2. Today Google has bought a major update to the Motion Still by adding the new 'AR Mode' bringing AR stickers to most Android phones. With the new AR Mode, users now place fun, virtual 3D objects on static or moving horizontal surfaces by touching the viewfinder. This allows for seamless interaction with a dynamic real-world environment. You can also record and share the clips as GIFs and videos. The new AR Mode is powered by the instant motion tracking which is a six degree of freedom tracking system built upon the technology that powers motion stills in iOS and the privacy blur on YouTube to track static and moving objects accurately. It uses accelerometer sensor to provide the initial orientation of the phone concerning the ground plane; one can track the six degrees of freedom of the camera. This allows to accurately transform and render the virtual object within the scene making them look like real-life objects. Any Android phone with gyroscope sensor can take advantage of the new AR Mode in the Motion Still app. Apart from the ...

Lava Red OnePlus 5T back in stock in India for limited period with No cost EMI, instant discount and more

OnePlus launched Lava Red edition of the OnePlus 5T smartphone in India last month and the phone went on sale in the country for Rs. 37,999 through Amazon.in, oneplusstore.in as well as Croma stores and OnePlus experience zones a couple of weeks back, but it sold out after a week. Now the company has stocked the phone again in limited numbers, just in time for the Valentine's Day. It also comes with several offers from February 7th to 11th: Rs. 1,500 instant discount for SBI Credit Card users 3-months no cost EMI on popular Credit cards Purchases on official e-store- oneplusstore.in or the OnePlus Experience Store in Bangalore get Rs. 1500 cash back offer as well as get the assured best value on exchange of old smartphone on all OnePlus 5T variants OnePlus has also announced a new referral program and extended warranty exclusively for OnePlus 5 and 5T customers through Amazon.in. All customers who have purchased the OnePlus 5 and 5T before January 30th, 2018, will receive two unique referral codes via email. Any purchases of the OnePlus 5T made between 7th-21st February 2018 using any of these referral codes, makes both the referrer as well as the referee eligible for a complimentary 3-month brand warranty extension. The referrer ...

iOS 11.3 beta 2 adds new ‘Battery Health’ feature, iPhone X, 8, 8 Plus less affected by performance management

Apple has rolled out the iOS 11.3 beta 2 update to the developers adding a new 'Battery Health' Feature in the battery department. This inclusion details more about the battery, the maximum capacity of your iPhone's battery and whether or not it is able to operate at peak capacity. Apple has gained a lot of criticism for throttling the performance on iPhones with aged batteries. Though the company did it to preserve the iPhones from unexpected shutdowns, it didn't settle the dust. However, Apple later clarified that in the future iOS 11 software updates it will add a toggle that will enable or disable the power management and show more details about the battery and its maximum capacity. With 11.3.2, Apple enabled the feature which of course is still in beta for now. In the battery settings now you will see the maximum capacity of the battery, more the capacity, better the performance. Below the battery capacity, you will see 'peak performance capacity.' There are various cases to this; when the battery condition can support normal peak performance and no performance management is applied you will see the message "Your battery is currently supporting normal peak performance."  And, if your battery can't handle peak ...

Turing Robotics files for bankruptcy in Finland, CEO Syl Chao says company is not going out of business

Turing Robotics, the force behind Turing phone has filed for a bankruptcy in Finland. The company which has started off as a promising brand by launching an ultra-secure smartphone in 2015 with Android 5.1 has soon taken a drastic turn and decided to settle down to Sailfish OS. After delaying the production of the phone, again and again, has finally filed for bankruptcy. The news came out first on February 3 from Finnish newspaper Salon Seudun Sanomat, who was closely following CEO Steve Syl Chao's progress in Salo, Finland where Turing rented an empty warehouse. The report from Salon Seudun Sanomat states that the creditors filed a claim with the company in 2017 and all of the company's movable property has been seized. [HTML1] However, CEO Chao has posted an update on the Facebook couple of days ago saying that filing was initiated to temporarily suspend the manufacturing intentions in Salo, and it doesn't mean that TRI is bankrupt. He further added that he will be posting the latest developments concerning the future of TRI in the coming Further to the initial report, Salon Seudun Sanomat in a fresh news earlier today claims that the Chao is very relentless about TRI not being in debt and not being able to move ...