Samsung reports record profits in Q4 2017, up 64% YoY, expects strong Galaxy S9 sales

Samsung has reported its earnings for Q4 2017, in which the company has made operating profit of 15.15 trillion won ($14.13 billion), up 64.3% YoY for the quarter that ended December 31, 2017. This is a new all-time high quarterly profit, due to strong sales of memory products for servers and mobile storage as well as OLED panels for premium smartphones. It reported revenue of 65.98 trillion won (61.54), a increase from 53.33 trillion won last year and net profit of 12.26 trillion won, a 72.9% increase from 7.09 trillion won for the same period a year earlier. For the whole FY17 it reported revenue of 239.58 trillion won, up 18.6% and operating profit of 53.65 trillion won, up 83.4% compared to the previous year. IM sector that includes Mobile Communications and Networks Businesses posted 25.47 trillion won consolidated revenue and 2.42 trillion won operating profit for the quarter, down 3.2% compared to 2.50 trillion won in the same quarter last year. "Earnings in the mobile business declined due to a hike in marketing costs under strong seasonality. Total smartphone shipments decreased due to the lineup optimization of low-end models, while shipments of flagship products, such as the Galaxy Note 8, increased from the previous quarter," said Samsung In 2018, Samsung ...

OnePlus 5 and 5T latest OxygenOS beta update brings SMS categorization for India, new navigation gestures for 5T and more

OnePlus has released new open betas (Beta 5 for OnePlus 5 and Beta 3 for OnePlus 5T) that brings several new features including new pick-up gesture switcher to choose which way you slide to pick up a phone call, adds CPU security patch: CVE-2017-13218 and removes the Clipboard function after feedback from users. There is a new SMS categorization function for India to auto-sorts SMS messages into categories. It also brings new Navigation gestures that lets you hide the soft buttons and have back, home and app switcher functionality using gestures, similar to iPhone X. As usual the update brings bug fixes and improvements. Check out the complete changelog below. Phone Added pick-up gesture switcher You can now choose which way you slide (up or down) to pick up a phone call System General bug fixes and improvements Removed Clipboard function Thanks for your feedback, we removed this feature based on that. Applied CPU security patch: CVE-2017-13218 Added new Navigation gestures that you can enable by going into settings and disabling the nav bar. (Only for 5T) India only Added SMS categorization function for India only This is an India only feature that auto-sorts your SMS messages into categories The latest updates are 162MB and 108MB for the OnePlus ...

You can now talk to Google Assistant in Hindi – Here’s how to enable it on your Android smartphone

Google introduced Hindi support for Google Allo over a year back and Google Assistant for JioPhone that was introduced last month had support for both English and Hindi. Now Google has silently introduced Hindi support for other smartphones as well in India. You can easily enable it by setting your language to English (India) on your Android smartphone. How to enable Hindi language support in Assistant Go to Languages & input (System -> Languages & input in Oreo devices) on your phone Go to Languages -> Add a language ->  Add English (India) from the list and set it as primary language Press and Hold the home button to open Google Assistant Press the microphone to ask a question or perform actions in Hindi The question you ask are transcribed to English, and the reply you get is also in English, but final answer you get are read out in Hindi. Till now, Google understood Hindi, but the answer you get was in English or Hinglish. It doesn't work if you change the primary language to some other language. It currently works only for voice commands, and not for text input. We tried it on Android Nougat and Oreo devices, and it worked without any issues, ...

ASUS MWC 2018 event scheduled for February 27, Zenfone 5 series with Snapdragon SoCs expected

ASUS just sent out invites for its Mobile World Congress (2018) event in Barcelona on February 27th. The invite says #BACKTO5 with the number 5 and also has "We Love Photo" tag same as the  ZenFone 4 series. It also has Qualcomm Snapdragon branding along with the ASUS branding. All these hint at the announcement of ASUS Zenfone 5 series powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs. Last week a new ASUS smartphone with codename ASUS_X00QD running Android 8.0 (Oreo) and with dual-band 802.11ac support got certified by the WiFi Alliance. This is rumored to be the  ASUS Zenfone 5 max. The ASUS ZC600KL  that got certified in Russia is said to be ZenFone 5 Lite and it is rumored to come with 6-inch 18:9 screen and Snapdragon SoC. We can expect all the Zenfone 5 series smartphones to feature 18:9 displays and dual rear cameras. We can expect more details about the upcoming Zenfone 5 series in the coming weeks. The ASUS MWC 2018 is scheduled for Tuesday, February 27th, 2018 and starts at 7:30pm CET (12:00 AM IST February 28th). As usual it will offer live stream at asus.com

Reliance Jio, MediaTek to partner for Android Oreo Go Edition smartphone

Back in October last year, a report said that Reliance Jio will stop the JioPhone production to focus on Android smartphone, but it resumed the sale of the phone later. Today at an event TL Lee, Head of Mobiles at MediaTek said that the company will partner with Reliance Jio to launch a new Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphone in India this year under the LYF brand. He also said that the phone will be powered by MT6739 SoC. JioPhone uses Spreadtrum SP9820A and Qualcomm 205 SoCs. MediaTek already announced its support for Android Oreo (Go Edition) smartphones. Android Oreo (Go Edition) is Google’s trim down version of Android for low-cost phones with 512MB to 1GB RAM. Google announced the project back in May and said that it would be available from early 2018. Android Go Edition- powered phones will have Pure and true Android experience, and Google said that Android runs well on phones with less than 1GB RAM and 8GB of storage in these phones. Google’s slimmed-down versions of core apps like Google Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, YouTube Go, Google Assistant Go, Files Go makes this possible. Micromax already confirmed that it will launch BHARAT GO Android Oreo Go Edition smartphone, which is rumored to cost around Rs. 2000. HMD ...

Xiaomi opens its first Mi Home Store in Coimbatore

Xiaomi today announced that it has opened its first Mi Home Store in Coimbatore. This is the third Mi Home store in Tamil Nadu, after two Mi Home Stores in Chennai, and it is the 21st Mi Home Store in India after Mi Home stores in Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune and Madhya Pradesh. It has also silently opened its 22nd store in Indore. [HTML1] The new Mi Home Store in Coimbatore located at Prozone Mall in Saravanampatty. Mi Home Store will let customers experience as well as buy smartphones, power banks, headphones, fitness bands, air purifiers, VR headsets as well as other ecosystem and lifestyle products that are launched in India. It is all set to open several new stores across the country in coming months. Xiaomi already said that it expects to open 100 Mi Homes across India in the next two years.

Xiaomi finally releases kernel source for Mi A1

Xiaomi has finally released kernel sources for the Mi A1 Android One Smartphone, after about five months of the launch of the phone in September 2017. But it is still based on Android 7.1 (Nougat) and not Android 8.0 (Oreo) that was recently rolled out to all the users after several issues. Even though this smartphone was launched under Google's Android One program, Xiaomi handles the software updates for the phone. At the launch Xiaomi said that the Mi A1 will also be one of the first phones to get Android P update. Even though the source code is not useful for normal users, it would be helpful for Android developers and tinkerers who would like to create custom software builds. You can download the kernel source from the GitHub source link below. Source

Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 Android 8.0 Oreo stable update starts rolling out

HMD global has started rolling out Android Oreo beta update for the Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 last month, and the Nokia 6 got the Oreo beta in India earlier this month. As promised, the company today started rolling out stable Android Oreo update for both the phones globally, including India. This was announced by the company’s Chief product officer; Juho Sarvikas on Twitter. Both the phones were launched running Android 7.1.1 (Nougat). Android 8.0 Oreo brings range of features including Background limits, Picture-in-Picture (PIP), notification channels, Wide-gamut color for apps, Adaptive icons, Companion device pairing, Keyboard navigation, AAudio API for Pro Audio and more. [HTML1] [HTML2] The update is 1822.9MB in size for the Nokia 6, has the version number 5.220 and also includes Android security update for January 2018. Since this is phased roll out, it might take some time for the update to reach everyone. The company already confirmed Oreo beta program for the Nokia 3 is coming soon and also said that the Nokia 2 will go straight to 8.1 and will include memory optimization features found in Android Oreo (Go Edition).

Instagram might get video calling feature soon

  Instagram is already feature-rich with stories, stickers, live, and it recently launched a standalone Direct messaging app which is under testing. Today we are seeing yet another new feature; video calling which is under testing by the internal Instagram team.  The new video calling icon will appear navigation bar in the chat just like how it shows in the WhatsApp. To access the feature, the user needs to open an active chat with a friend or family. You will be able to video call only if the other user has already accepted the request to chat. Otherwise, the icon won’t appear. Tapping on the video call icon will start the video call instantly, but the company seems to have not designed the other U.I elements of the video call. Instagram recently rolled out GIF stickers from Gify, and the company already allows people to join in live with others live stories. Instagram owned Facebook already supports the feature with 17 billion video chats in 2017 which is up to 2X from 2016. Since the feature just begun its development phase, it should be months before we see this in action it all Instagram decides to roll out the feature. Source

HTC U11 Android 8.0 Oreo update starts rolling out in India

HTC just as it promised has started rolling out the Android 8.0 Oreo update to U11 in India. The update has already started rolling out to users in batches and comes with version number 3.16.708.3 and is of 1.48GB in size. The phone was originally launched with Android 7.1.1 (Nougat) back in June last year. The phone got Oreo update in Taiwan back in November last year. According to the changelog, the update brings bug fixes along with Android 8.0 features including notification channels, Picture-in-Picture mode, new launcher interface, 3D touch like app shortcuts, Android Oreo helps minimize background activity in the apps you use least, Notification Dots, Smart text selection, Android Instant Apps and new emoji set. [HTML1] [HTML2] The Oreo update will also bring visual changes to the HTC's sense U.I. There is no word on Treble support, but we hope the company brings it since it will fasten the update cycle. The HTC U11 packs Edge sense technology for new squeeze interaction. It is powered by the Snapdragon 835, has support for BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition speakers, and four optimally positioned omni-directional microphones that work together to record audio from all directions. Since the update has just started rolling out, it might be a while before it reaches everyone. In case ...