Android Pay and Google Wallet payment platforms merge into Google Pay

Google just announced that it is combining Android Pay and Google Wallet, into a single brand - Google Pay, making it an unified payment solution. Google Wallet peer-to-peer payments service was introduced back in 2011, which was launched in India as Tez last year. Google introduced Android Pay mobile payment service in 2015 to lets users pay with their Android phones.  Google Pay makes it less confusing so that it will be easier for you to use the payment information saved to your Google Account to speed through checkout. "Over the coming weeks, you will see Google Pay online, in store, and across Google products, as well as when you’re paying friends," said Google. It also said that these experiences will be coming to Tez users in India soon. To entice people to sign up, Google is working with a lot of retailers on promotional items, such as $10 off any $50+ order at B&H, $5 off a Fandango ticket and $10 off your Instacart order of $35+. Google Pay is already available on Airbnb, Dice, Fandango, HungryHouse, Instacart with more coming soon. Source

Airtel launches VoLTE services in Coimbatore

After Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra & Goa, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Karnataka and Chennai, Airtel has launched its 4G VoLTE services in Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. This lets Airtel customers enjoy HD quality voice calls along with faster call set up time compared to normal voice calls on their VoLTE-compatible 4G handsets. Airtel promises seamless connectivity and in the case of non-availability of 4G, Airtel VoLTE calls will automatically fall back on 3G/2G network, said the company. It will also allow customers to continue with their data sessions at 4G speeds while the call is in progress. Airtel says that customers with Dual-SIM handsets should insert their Airtel SIM in SIM slot 1 and network mode should be set as "4G/3G/2G (Auto)" for VoLTE to work properly. The  company says that the handset manufacturer need to upgrade the smartphone’s software to support Airtel VoLTE, even though there are hundreds of 4G smartphones in the market with VoLTE support. You can check out the complete list of Airtel VoLTE compatible smartphones here. Airtel already said that it plans to roll out VoLTE across the country over the next few months without any time frame. Commenting on the launch, Manoj Murali, HUB CEO, Kerala & Tamil Nadu, Bharti Airtel said: We are delighted to extend our VoLTE footprint in Tamil Nadu with the launch ...

Sennheiser CX 6.00BT in-ear wireless earbuds and HD 820 closed-back headphones announced

Sennheiser at the CES 2018 introduced new CX 6.00BT, the company's latest Bluetooth wireless headset and HD 820 premium closed-back headphones.  The CX 6.00BT features ear-canal earbuds joined by a cable around the neck for a lightweight design, superior fit and comfort. The Sennheiser HD 820 closed-back dynamic stereo headphones have unique glass transducer cover that minimizes resonances and for realistic and natural sound field. Highlights of Sennheiser CX 6.00BT Bluetooth 4.2 and Qualcomm apt-X Low Latency compatibility enhances gaming or video viewing by keeping audio transmission perfectly in sync with the visuals Ultra-light 14-gram frame Frequency response: 17-21,000 Hz , Sound pressure level (SPL) - 112 dB (1kHz/0 dBFS), THD + N, total harmonic distortion and noise - <0.5% (1kHz, 100dB) Integrated microphone and the 3-way calling support. Three button remote lets you control your music and calls with your fingertips. Convenient voice prompts notifies you about incoming calls and the battery status Comes with ear adaptors in four sizes (XS, S, M, L) 6 hour battery life with fast charging option via USB that for two hours listening with just ten minutes of charging Highlights of Sennheiser HD 820 Innovative technology that makes them sound breathtakingly transparent and natural. Soft comfortable microfiber ear pads are hand crafted, ...

Centric L3 with 5-inch display, fingerprint sensor launched for Rs. 6749

Centric today launched L3, the company’s latest budget smartphone in India. It has a 5-inch HD  2.5D curved glass display, is powered by a quad-core MediaTek SoC, runs on Android 7.0 (Nougat), has a 13-megapixel rear camera with  LED flash and an 5-megapixel font-facing camera. It has a  fingerprint sensor on the front, has dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots and has a 3050mAh battery. Centric L3 specifications 5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD On-cell IPS 2.5D curved glass display 1.3GHz Quad-core MediaTek MT6737 64-bit Processor with Mali T720 GPU 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD Android 7.0 (Nougat) OS Dual SIM 13MP autofocus rear camera with LED Flash 5MP front-facing camera 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio Fingerprint sensor Dimensions: 141x70.5x8.6mm 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS 3050mAh battery The Centric L3 Quartz Grey and Raisin Black colors, is priced at Rs. 6749 and is available through offline stores. Commenting on the launch, Manish Agarwal, Founder, Centric Mobiles said: At CENTRiC, we know how important a smart phone with good technological specifications is for the young generation of our country. And, that’s why we have launched L3 which has all the desired specifications in the right budget. With L3, we aim to become the category ...

Xiaomi Mi Explorer Overview

Xiaomi’s MIUI is amongst the most popular Android skins with more than 300 million worldwide users. MIUI is a heavy skin on top of Android, but what sets it apart from other Android skins is its feature richness and customizations. MIUI focuses towards providing a complete user experience and to achieve this MIUI is loaded with many system apps like Explorer, Calculator, Recorder, Mi Drop, Mi Video, Yellow pages and many more. A couple of months ago, Xiaomi listed it’s feature packed Mi Explorer app on Play Store, the app recently came out of Beta phase and in this post we will be looking at the features Mi Explorer offers. There are three main sections of the app which Xiaomi calls Recent, Categories and Storage. Recents shows the file you worked with or updated recently. Suppose user takes a screenshot or crops a already saved image, it will be shown at the top in recents whenever Explorer app is opened. In Categories sections files are organised on basis of their formats, there are six categories as of now, Videos, Docs, Images, Music, APKs, Archives, user can see all the videos/images stored in device simply in a click. Folders for frequently used apps are ...

Garmin Speak Plus with Amazon Alexa, built-in dash cam for vehicles announced

Garmin today announced the Garmin Speak Plus with Amazon Alexa, built-in dash cam for vehicles. In addition to the newly integrated dash cam, it can automatically record and save files when an incident is detected.  With the Amazon’s cloud-based Alexa voice service, drivers can take advantage of the hands-free access to music, news briefings, sports scores, exclusive GPS navigation from Garmin, and much more. It also introduces advanced driver assistance features that include Forward Collision and Lane Departure Warnings. The company claims that the Garmin speak plus will increase drivers awareness by helping with forward collision, lane departure warnings, and Go Alerts that will notify drivers when stopped traffic ahead begins to move. The Garmin Speak Plus packs a 1.5-inches size and features LED light ring indicating Amazon Echo, bright OLED display showing lane guidance arrows to guide drivers to their destination. Alexa has support for Amazon music, Pandora, and Sirius XM and Amazon is offering 2 months free music subscription. With Garmin app, the driver has access to more controls. The Garmin Speak Plus costs $229.99 (Rs. 14,605 approx.) and will be available to customers starting mid-February through Garmin, Best Buy, Amazon and other retailers. The company is offering a special limited time pre-order price of $199.99 ...

Garmin Forerunner 645 Music GPS running watch with on-device music storage announced

Samsung's Gear Fit2 and Gear IconX were one of the first devices with support for on-device music storage, now Garmin has introduced the first smartwatch that lets you store music for offline listening. It can store up to 500 songs so that you can connect a Bluetooth headset and play them when you are working out, without the need of a smartphone. It has 24/7 heart rate monitoring2, advanced running dynamics, performance monitoring tools, connected features and more. It has a metal bezel, chemically strengthened glass and interchangeable bands. Training status automatically evaluates previous exercise and fitness levels to let athletes know if they are training productively, peaking or overreaching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWe40bzIAgA Highlights of Garmin Forerunner 645 Music 1.2-inch (240 x 240 pixels) sunlight-visible, transflective memory-in-pixel (MIP) always-on Garmin Chroma Display with chemically strengthened glass Bluetooth Smart and ANT+, Compatible with Android and iPhone Store up to 500 songs to your watch, and connect with Bluetooth headphones (sold separately) for phone-free listening Syncs music from select streaming services for offline listening Garmin Pay contactless payment solution lets you make convenient payments with your watch Provides advanced running dynamics, including ground contact time balance, stride length, vertical ratio and more Uses wrist-based heart rate to offer performance monitoring features, including evaluating your ...

Xiaomi Mi Drop – Transfer files between Android phones and PC

Xiaomi announced Mi Drop, inhouse file sharing app like ShareIt during MIUI 9 launch back in November. The app has a user friendly and clean interface, Mi Drop doesn’t show annoying ads unlike other file sharing apps. [gallery link="file" size="large" ids="239751,239752,239753"] We covered it back in November to provide an overview and functionality Mi Drop offers, you can checkout the post here. During our time with Mi Drop last time we faced two major issues, Option to set username was missing, it seems Mi Drop was fetching the username from primary google account logged in device. It was resetting the WiFi Hotspot details Mi Drop recently got a major update and the issues we mentioned above no longer exist. [gallery link="file" columns="2" size="large" ids="239754,239755"] Apart from these Xiaomi has added a new feature which is not found in many other file sharing apps. FTP (also called File transfer protocol) feature has been added to Mi Drop which can be used to transfer data between Android devices and PC, the feature was earlier available in Mi Explorer app only which Xiaomi recently listed on Play Store. To open the FTP server page, user need to click on ‘Connect to computer’ option which can be found in app ...

Honor smartphone with dual front and rear cameras launching in India this month, Honor 9 Lite expected

Huawei's Honor brand launched the Honor 9i, a mid-range smartphone with dual front and rear cameras back in October last year. Today the company has announced that it will launch another smartphone with dual front and rear cameras in the country later this month. This will likely be the Honor 9 Lite that was introduced in China last month. It has a 5.65-inch full HD+ full-screen display with 18:9 aspect ratio and comes with a 13-megapixel front and rear cameras along with a secondary 2-megapixel rear camera to capture depth information. It is powered by Kirin 659 SoC, similar most other mid-range Huawei and Honor phones, but this runs on Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMIUI 8.0 out-of-the-box. It has a metal frame, glass back, has a fingerprint sensor on the back and packs a 3000mAh battery. Honor 9 Lite specifications 5.65-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 18:9 2.5D curved glass display Octa-Core Kirin 659 processor (4 xA53 at 2.36GHz + 4 x A53 at 1.7GHz) with MaliT830-MP2 GPU 3GB RAM with 32GB storage, 4GB RAM with 32GB / 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD Android 8.0 (Oreo) with EMUI 8.0 Hybrid Dual SIM (nano+nano/microSD) 13MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, LED flash, secondary 2MP camera, PDAF ...

Acer to bring Amazon Alexa voice assistant to notebooks and desktops starting Q1 2018

Acer today announced that it would roll out Amazon Alexa voice assistant to select PCs starting from Q1 2018. The list of PCs includes Aspire, Spin, Switch and Swift notebooks, as well as Aspire all-in-one PCs. Alexa voice assistant will be initially available in the US via an update through Acer Care Center, and wider support is expected to be rolled out mid-2018. Acer will be utilizing the Intel Smart Sound Technology which is an integrated audio DSP (Digital Signal Processor) built to handle audio, voice, and speech interactions. The company mentioned that the latest notebooks and desktops would support Amazon Alexa and respond to voice commands quickly while offering high fidelity audio without impacting system performance. Alexa on Acer will be able to check calendars, create lists, answer questions, play favorite music, podcasts or audiobooks; and manage smart home devices by controlling lights, thermostats, and home appliances through voice commands to Alexa. Alexa voice assistant uses the voice and four digital microphones that support far-field voice recognition from up to nine feet (2.74 m) away, while others with dual microphones will be able to activate Alexa within three feet (0.91 m). Acer has announced Alexa support for the new V6820M/i 4K UHD projector. The Acer V6820M/i wireless projector ...