Apple to acquire majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business in a deal valued at $1 billion

After reports, Apple and Intel have confirmed that Apple will acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem business in a transaction valued at $1 billion. Approximately 2,200 Intel employees will join Apple, along with intellectual property, equipment and leases. Intel closed its 5G modem business in April this year after Apple and Qualcomm announced a settlement and prior to this, Intel became the sole third-party provider of modems of the iPhones launched in 2018. "Combining the acquired patents for current and future wireless technology with Apple’s existing portfolio, Apple will hold over 17,000 wireless technology patents, ranging from protocols for cellular standards to modem architecture and modem operation," said Apple. Intel will retain the ability to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, internet-of-things devices and autonomous vehicles. It added that this will not impact to Intel’s 4G smartphone modem business. Buying Intel' 5G modem business will help Apple to work on its own 5G modem which is said to be used in iPhones in 2022 or 2023. Intel also reported second-quarter revenue of $16.5 billion, down 3% year-over-year (YoY),  and profit was down $4.2 billion down 17% year-over-year (YoY). The company said that the second quarter results exceeded its expectations on both revenue and earnings. The transaction is expected to close in ...

OPPO A5s 4GB RAM variant gets a price cut in India, now available at Rs. 11990

OPPO launched the A5s smartphone in the 'A Series' recently and it was available in 2GB RAM with 32GB storage initially and the 4GB RAM with 64GB storage went on sale later. After a month of going sale, now, OPPO A5s 4GB RAM variant has now received a Rs. 1000 price cut in India. OPPO A5s 4GB RAM with 64GB storage is now available at Rs. 11,990 against its original price of Rs. 12,990. The 2GB RAM with 32GB storage is listed at Rs. 8990 and 3GB RAM with 32GB storage is listed at Rs. 9990. The revised price is applicable from today on Flipkart, Amazon.in, Paytm Mall and in offline stores. Smartphone Old Price New Price OPPO A5s 4+64GB  Rs.12,990 Rs.11,990 To recall, OPPO A5s has a 6.2-inch HD+ Waterdrop notch screen with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio P35 SoC with up to 4GB of RAM,  run on Android Oreo with ColorOS on top, has a 13-megapixel rear camera along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera and an 8-megapixel camera on the front. It has a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, comes with dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots and packs a 4230mAh battery.

Nokia 8.2 with 32MP pop-up front camera, 8GB RAM, Android Q surfaces

Nokia 8.1 was launched by HMD Global last year and is due for a refresh now. Today, according to a new report, Nokia 8.2 smartphone is said to be the Nokia's first smartphone to come with a pop-up camera, expected to run on Android Q and more. According to the report, Nokia 8.2 is said to come with a 32MP pop-up front camera which we have seen on smartphones from Vivo, OPPO and Redmi Y3 recently. It is expected to come with 8GB RAM with 256GB internal storage and run Android Q operating system. It is said to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 700 Series or Snapdragon 735 processor. While Nokia launched a smartphone with an in-screen camera earlier this year, Nokia 8.2 is said to be Nokia's attempt at a pop-up camera unit. There is no information on the launch date yet, but considering Google is launching Android Q next month, we can expect the smartphone to launch soon after that. We should know more information in the coming months. Source 1, 2

Moto E6 with 5.5-inch HD+ display, splash-resistant body announced

Motorola just announced Moto E6, the company's latest budget smartphone in the 'E series'. It has a 5.5-inch HD+ Max Vision display, is powered by Snapdragon 435 with 2GB RAM, runs Android 9.0 (Pie), features a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front camera. It comes with dual SIM support depending on the markets, has a unibody design, water-repellent P2i coating and packs a 3000mAh battery, compared to 4000mAh in the E5. Moto E6 specifications 5.5-inch (1440 × 720 pixels) HD+ 18:9 Max Vision IPS display 1.4GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 435 Mobile Platform with Adreno 505 GPU 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD Android 9.0 (Pie) Dual SIM 13MP rear camera with LED Flash, f/2.0 aperture, 1.12um pixel size, PDAF 5MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, 1.12um pixel size Dimensions: 149.7 x 72.3 x 8.57 mm; Weight: 159g 3.5mm audio jack,  Front-ported speaker, Dual microphones, FM Radio P2i water-repellent nano coating 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz & 5GHz), Bluetooth 4.2, GPS, Micro USB 3000mAh battery The Moto E6 comes in Starry Black and Navy Blue colors is priced starting MSRP of US$149.99 (Rs. 10,360 approx.) and will go on sale in the United States starting today from Verizon and ...

Facebook fined $5 billion by US Federal Trade Commission for privacy violations, brings rigorous new privacy standards

The US Federal Trade Commission has fined Facebook a whopping $US 5 billion for violating a 2012 FTC order on consumers’ privacy. It is is the largest ever imposed on any company for privacy violations and almost 20 times greater than the largest privacy or data security penalty ever imposed worldwide. The order by FTC will require Facebook to restructure its approach to privacy from the corporate board-level down and establish strong new mechanisms to ensure that the company's executives are accountable for the decisions they make about privacy. Facebook undermined consumers’ choices despite promises that users could control how their personal information is shared on the social media platform. According to the investigation by FTC, Facebook used "deceptive disclosure and settings" and this allowed the company to share users’ personal information with third-party apps that were downloaded by the user’s Facebook friends while the users were unaware that Facebook was sharing such information. FTC has also imposed a set of requirements on Facebook that is aimed at increasing transparency and accountability and privacy at Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger. The order by FTC imposes new privacy requirements and here are how things will change at Facebook: Facebook must exercise greater oversight over third-party apps, including by terminating ...

Lenovo Tab V7 with 6.9-inch FHD+ display, 4G VoLTE, 5180mAh battery launched in India starting at Rs. 12990

Lenovo announced its Tab V7, the company’s latest tablet at MWC 2019 and today, Lenovo has launched the Tab V7 tablet in India. The latest tablet from Lenovo features a large 6.9-inch display, Dolby Audio, 4G VoLTE, 5180mAh battery and more. Lenovo Tab V7 flaunts a 6.9-inch Full HD+ 18:9 display with 81% screen-to-body ratio and 350 nits brightness. It is powered by an Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 with 3GB RAM with 32GB storage and 4GB RAM with 64GB storage options. It has dedicated Dual SIM slots with support for 4G VoLTE, voice calling, runs on Android 9 Pie and has dual front-firing speakers with support for Dolby Atmos audio. Regarding the optics, it sports a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel camera on the front. It comes with a microSD card slot, USB Type-C port, and 3.5mm headphone jack. It has a premium metallic rim and thin-and-light profile and has a rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. There is a 5180 mAh battery with up to 10 hours of local video playback and browsing time, and up to 30 hours of talk time. Lenovo Tab V7 specifications 6.9-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 FHD+Display with 84% NTSC Color Gamut, 350 nits brightness 1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile ...

HP launches new ZBook 14U, ZBook15U, ZBook 15, Zbook 17 and ZBook Studio X360 laptops in India

HP has launched new models of Z series of mobile workstations in India and the new range includes  ZBook 14U, ZBook15U, ZBook 15, Zbook 17 and ZBook Studio X360. HP says that these laptops are designed for creative and technical professionals, executives and students who demand high-performance computing and premium experiences. The ZBook models were announced at Computex 2019. HP Zbook 14U G6 highlights Up to Intel Core i7-8665U vPro processor, up to 4.8 GHz with Turbo Boost, 8 MB Cache AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200 / Intel UHD Graphics 620 GPU 14-inch diagonal FHD/UHD LED with 1920 x 1080 / 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution Up to 32 GB DDR4 RAM clocked at 2400MHz Up to 2 TB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD Dual stereo speakers and audio by Bang & Olufsen Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 3 Cell 50 WHr battery HP Zbook 15U G6 highlights Up to 8th Generation Intel Core i9-8950HK/Intel Xeon E-2186M vPro processor Nvidia Quadro P1000/P2000/AMD RadeonPro WX4150 GPU, Intel UHD Graphics 630 integrated on Core i7 processors and Intel UHD Graphics P630 integrated on Xeon processors. 15-inch diagonal FHD/UHD LED with 1920 x 1080 / 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution and Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection Up to 128 GB DDR4 RAM clocked ...

Nubia Z20 flagship smartphone to be announced on August 8

ZTE's nubia brand today announced that it will introduce its flagship Z20 smartphone at an event in China, Beijing on August 8th. The invite doesn't say anything other than mentioning it as the annual flagship device, and the image shows a camera lens. We don't know any other details about the successor of last year's Nubia Z18, but the company recently shared couple of samples shot on the Z20. Nubia said that the images are of Milky Way in the Southern Hemisphere., and added that it is the first time a mobile phone is capable of capturing Milky Way with this detail. Both the images are of 12MP resolution, so the phone could feature a 48MP camera offering 12MP output. The second image could hint at the loss-less or even hybrid zoom feature. We can expect the phone to be powered by Snapdragon 855 or even the latest 855 Plus and pack at least 8GB of RAM. We should know more details in the coming days. Source 1, 2

Google Sound Amplifier hearing assistance app now available for Android 6.0+ devices

Google released Sound Amplifier app back in February this year for phones running Android 9 Pie or later and it came pre-installed on Pixel 3 phones. Google has updated the app to support Android devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above. The app enhances audio from your Android device using headphones to provide a more comfortable and natural listening experience. Sound Amplifier uses machine learning that augments sound and filters out background noise for people who have hearing loss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnKt6w34I40 The app has also been redesigned with new UI and several new features, including option to launch the app directly from your phone’s home screen instead of tapping into Accessibility settings, and with the reorganized the control settings, you can easily tap between boosting your sound or filtering out the background noise. To start using Sound Amplifier, plug in wired headphones (required) then go to Settings > Accessibility > Sound Amplifier. Sound Amplifier is available on the Play Store and supports phone running Android 6.0 Marshmallow or later. Source

Samsung Galaxy Fold will finally roll out starting from September

Samsung introduced the Galaxy Fold at its Unpacked event back in February and said that it will go on sale in April. But it didn't happen since people who reviewed the device reported issues with the screen. Today the company has announced that it will now roll out in September after making improvements to the design and running rigorous tests to validate the changes. These design and construction improvements include: The top protective layer of the Infinity Flex Display has been extended beyond the bezel, making it apparent that it is an integral part of the display structure and not meant to be removed. Galaxy Fold features additional reinforcements to better protect the device from external particles while maintaining its signature foldable experience: The top and bottom of the hinge area have been strengthened with newly added protection caps. Additional metal layers underneath the Infinity Flex Display have been included to reinforce the protection of the display. The space between the hinge and body of Galaxy Fold has been reduced. Along with these improvements, Samsung said that it has also been continuously working to improve the overall Galaxy Fold user experience, including optimizing more apps and services for its unique foldable UX. After the final ...