Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 Camera Samples

Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 5 smartphone in India last week. We recently brought you the unboxing and first impressions of the smartphone, here we have the camera samples from the phone. The Redmi Note 5 has a 12-megapixel rear camera with 5-element lens, f/2.2 aperture and large 1.25μm pixel size, compared to 1.12μm pixel size on the Redmi Note 4. It also comes with dual-tone LED flash. It has a 5-megapixel front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture and selfie flash. The camera UI is familiar with other Xiaomi smartphones with flash and HDR toggles on the top, front camera toggle on the bottom along with option to select modes (Panorama, Timer (3 to 10 seconds), Audio trigger, manual mode to adjust white balance and ISO (100 to 3200), Straighten, Beautify, HHT (Hand held twilight), Scene and Tilt-shift to blur a part of an image. It has image preview window, camera and video buttons on the right side. For the front camera, it has beautify mode, pro mode and smart mode that guesses your age using facing recognition algorithm. Coming to the image quality, daylight shots are good in bright conditions, but some images are a bit dull. HDR shots are better, and macro shots are good as well. Since ...

Weekly Roundup: Xiaomi Redmi Note 5, Note 5 Pro, Mi TV 4, Moto Z2 Force and more

This week Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 5 series of phones and also launched the most-expected Mi TV 4 in India, Motorola launched the Moto Z2 Force with TurboPower Mod, OPPO launched the A71 (2018) Edition, and lots most in our weekly roundup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfGmpzHh6Ng Xiaomi launched the Redmi Note 5 with 5.99-inch FHD+ 18:9 full-screen display, Snapdragon 625 with up to 4GB of RAM, Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with MIUI 9.2, 12-megapixel rear camera with 1.25μm pixel size sensor, dual-tone LED flash, 5-megapixel front-facing camera with selfie flash, fingerprint sensor on the back and a 4000mAh battery. https://youtu.be/qUSzcpRBt_U It comes in Black, Gold, Rose Gold and Lake Blue colors, is priced at Rs. 9999 for the 3GB RAM with 32GB storage version and the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version costs Rs. 11,999. It will be available exclusively from Flipkart as well as Mi.com and Mi Home Stores starting from February 22nd. It also comes with Rs. 2200 cashback offer and 100% additional 4G data for Reliance Jio customers. Along with the Redmi Note 5, Xiaomi also launched the Redmi Note 5 Pro.It has the same 5.99-inch Full HD+ 2.5D curved glass screen and runs Android 7.1.2 (Nougat) with MIUI 9.2 on top, but this is powered by Snapdragon 636 SoC with up to 6GB RAM, has a ...

BlackBerry Athena with Snapdragon 660, Luna and Uni smartphones surface

BlackBerry is expected to launch at least three new phones this year, and the and they are currently code-named as Athena, Luna, and Uni. These smartphones over the past few weeks, have been making their appearance on Geekbench, through configuration files, and in European device registration databases. BlackBerry already confirmed that it would launch two KeyOne phones this year and now it looks like the brand is taking a turn and launch three instead. Starting off with Uni, letsgodigital have recently discovered with patent and trademark files of the phone owned by BlackBerry and TCL. The findings revealed that the phone is expected to look identical to the BlackBerry Priv. With TCL already having a Uni named phone; the Alcatel Uni360, it is starting to look suspicious. Complicating further, The BlackBerry Uni shares same registration codes as the Uni360 leading us to believe that it could be a successor to the phone. Since it a BlackBerry device and chances of TCL mixing its brands are less, one needs to closely look at the patents which mostly focus on the camera module instead of the device. Meaning the 'device' used in the patent could very well be just a reference point. Moving along, the Athena is the most heard name in the recent times, ...

Microsoft Cortana gets IFTTT integration, now works with more smart home devices

Microsoft today announced that Cortana is adding new home automation skills, new smart home devices, such as the Ecobee, Honeywell Lyric, and LIFX. And it also now works with IFTTT. You can now open Cortana on Windows 10 or launch the Cortana app to add new products to the Connected Home menu. With IFTTT you can now connect and customize your experience by creating your own phrases to use with services. Furthermore, you can also use triggers and responses on IFTTT to make Cortana your truly personal assistant. You can use the Applets on IFTTT with Cortana to trigger multiple actions with one phrase. This is really interesting; now instead of waiting for 3rd party services to add Cortana skills, you can already use the existing services on IFTTT’s platform to connect to Cortana-enabled devices. To set up your connected home products with Cortana, you need to open Cortana on Windows 10 or Cortana app on your phone, click Notebook, then click Connected Home from where you can connect your favorite smart home accounts and control your devices from anywhere you use Cortana. The company back in October last year announced that you could use Cortana to manage smart devices through Samsung SmartThings, Nest, Philips Hue, Wink, and Insteon. Source ...

Twitter is shutting down Twitter for Mac app, support ends in 30 days

Twitter today announced that it will be ending support for its Mac application in the next 30 days in favor of the web client. The app will no longer be available to download from today. The company suggests users use the web client to get the full experience. The Twitter app for Mac which was once very popular when it was originally dubbed "Tweetie" is now been lying around for quite some time with no updates or additions. Third-party clients like  Tweetbot or Twitterific have taken over the MacOS. This also goes to indicate that Mac App store itself is a failure where most apps mimic popular websites and lack the punch. [HTML1] On the other hand, there are also rumors that Twitter is working along with Apple under NDA to bring its iOS app onto the Mac platform, this news indeed gained some traction on social media over the past few weeks. Whatever it is, the Twitter app for Mac has just 30 days to live, post which it is only the web client for Mac users. With the Twitter app just lying there no major changes and updates, users have already migrated to a better third-party app client.

NPCI gives nod to WhatsApp Payments BHIM UPI beta, says interoperability must for public launch

NPCI; The National Payments Corporation of India, the underdog for all digital payments in the country, said that all partnering bodies must follow set or predefined rules and UPI guidelines to make the platform interoperable. This was in context to the speculation of Paytm accusing NPCI giving out favoring setbacks to Whatsapp for its Payments platform. Furthermore, NPCI says that it has given its consent to roll out WhatsApp BHIM UPI beta with a limited user base of 1 million and low per transaction limit. Four banks will join the multi-bank BHIM UPI model in phases and product will be rolled out once the beta test is successful. Multi-bank model has various advantages such as transaction load distribution, helps to integrate popular apps easily with BHIM UPI. The body further said that apps would only be enabled for full-scale public launch only if and when they incorporate interoperability, generate BharatQR codes and have both intents and collect payment options. This statement from NPCI comes in the wake of Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma accused by saying "Facebook is openly colonizing our payment system and is customizing UPI to their benefit. UPI was built as an India Stack; now some American monopoly arm-twists UPI for customer implementation." The founder said that he ...

LG’s 2018 flagship with 6.1-inch MLCD+ FullVision display, Snapdragon 845, new design said to be unveiled in June

It is already known that LG will be introducing an enhanced version of the V30 smartphone with A.I features at the MWC 2018 later this months, instead of G6's successor. Now @evleaks is saying that the next LG flagship will be codenamed 'Judy' with a brand new design will be introduced in June. The phone is said to feature a 6.1-inch 18:9 FullVision display, but it will use a MLCD+ panel with white sub-pixel in RGBW matrix offering high, 800-nit brightness while consuming 35% less power compared to IPS LCD panels. It is also said to pack Snapdragon 845 SoC, but it will be coupled only with 4GB of RAM, compared to 6GB in other flagships. It is not clear if it will have an enhanced version like the V30+. It further reveals stereo speakers, 16MP dual rear cameras with f/1.6-aperture, IP68 certification, military-grade durability, wireless charging and more. LG "Judy" rumored specifications 6.1-inch FullVision MLCD+ display with a 18:9 aspect ratio Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with Adreno 630 GPU 4GB LPDDR4x RAM, 64GB internal memory, expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD Android 8.1 (Oreo) with LG UX 16MP dual rear cameras with f/1.6-aperture front camera with wide-angle lens Fingerprint sensor Water, dust resistant (IP68), MIL-STD ...

Reliance Jio Football offer launched – Rs. 2200 instant cashback on new 4G smartphone

Reliance Jio has launched Jio Football offer that offers Rs. 2,200 instant cashback  for all new smartphones getting added on to Jio’s network. When a new smartphone user does a Rs. 198 or Rs. 299 recharge for the first time, starting today until 31st March 2018, the 44 vouchers of Rs. 50 will be credited to the customers MyJio account. These vouchers can be redeemed instantly against subsequent recharges of Rs 198 or Rs. 299 on MyJio. This is available for both existing and new Jio customers and is valid for all eligible devices, activated on the Jio network for the first time, on or after 15th February, 2018 and if the first recharge of Rs 198 / 299 is done on or before 31st March 2018. This is available for 22 brands, Check out the list of Eligible devices below. Brand Name Eligible Devices LYF WATER 2, EARTH 1, WATER 1, WATER F1S, WATER 8, EARTH 2, WATER 10, WATER 11, WATER 7s, WATER F1, WIND 4S, FLAME 8, C 451, FLAME 1, WIND 3, WIND 1, FLAME 7, WIND 7, WIND 7, WATER 5, WATER 4, WATER 6, WATER 7 Samsung On 8, On 5 Pro, On 7 Pro, On Max, On Nxt, J3 2016 Xiaomi Mi Max 2, Mi Mix 2, ...

Walmart said be in talks to acquire more than 40% of Flipkart

Back in 2016 US retail giant, Walmart was in talks to invest up to whopping $1 billion Flipkart. Nothing ever happened on that, however, now according to new report from Reuters, Walmart is said to be in talks to acquire more than 40% of Flipkart.  Walmart is said to be in talks to buy existing and new shares of Flipkart and due diligence is likely to begin as early as next week, the sources said. The terms and proposals are under wraps at the moment. Flipkart would be valued at more than the $12 billion figure given that Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund took roughly a fifth of the firm last year for $2.5 billion. Neither Flipkart nor Walmart commented on the ongoing speculation just as expected. However, With Walmart acquisition, Flipkart would get a good boost in its fight against Amazon which is said to expand in India with an investment close to $5 billion that would also include online grocery delivery. Despite so many attempts to enter India, Walmart restricted itself to cash-and-carry’ wholesale business amid tough restrictions on foreign investment. The company currently operates 21 such stores in India. Flipkart's current investors include U.S. hedge fund Tiger Global Management, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd, online marketplace ...

JioPhone now available from Amazon India

Reliance Jio unveiled JioPhone, the company’s first VoLTE feature phone back in July and started pre-bookings in August, which went on sale from September through retail stores across the country. The company even stopped bookings for the phone due to huge response. Today the company has started selling the phone via Amazon.in at Rs. 1500, which will be refunded after 36 months. One the phone is delivered, you need to go to nearest Jio Store/Reliance Digital outlet with device, packaging box and Aadhar number to get it activated with a Jio connection. Amazon is also offering Rs. 50 cashback if you pay for the purchase via Amazon Pay. Additionally, if you opt for a mobile recharge using Amazon Pay balance, you will get a flat 50% cash back up to Rs. 50. Both these offers will be valid until Feb 28, 2018. JioPhone recently got Facebook app. Reliance Jio recently introduced Rs. 49 pack with free voice calls and unlimited data (1GB at high speed) with 28 days validity, especially for JioPhone users, making it the cheapest monthly plan.