Reliance Jio reports Rs. 510 crore profit in Q4, has over 186 million customers

Reliance Jio today reported Rs. 7,128 crore revenue, up 3.6 % QoQ and a net profit of 510.44 crore, up 1.2% QoQ for its third quarterly financial performance for the period that ended 31st March, 2018. Jio’s rival Airtel earlier this week reported 652.30 crore crore net loss for the same quarter. Jio reported Standalone earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 2,694 crore, up 2.5% QoQ, EBITDA margin of 37.8%, and Standalone earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) of 1,495 crore, up 4.1% QoQ . Consolidated value of services stood at 8,404 crore, up 3.6% over trailing quarter. It crossed 186.6 million subscribers in the January to March quarter, and has added 26.5 million subscribers during the quarter, compared to 21.5 million in the previous quarter. Average revenue per user (ARPU) during the quarter – 137.1 per subscriber per month compared to 154 in the previous quarter Total wireless data traffic – 506 crore GB (9.6 GB per subscriber per month) Average voice traffic - 37,218 crore minutes per day (716 minutes per user per month) Video consumption per subscriber per month – 240 crore hours (13.8 hours per user per month) During the quarter, RIL announced a strategic transaction for combination of JioMusic with Saavn, a ...

Nokia X with a 19:9 aspect ratio display, dual rear cameras showcased, to be announced on May 16

Earlier this week there were rumors that Nokia X or X6 will be announced on April 27th, which is today. The company after the event in Sanlitun experience store in Beijing confirmed that the phone will officially introduced on May 16th. It has also shared the official image of the phone with a notch and an 19:9 aspect ratio display. Unlike the earlier renders, the Nokia branding is in the middle of the bottom bezel. The company did not confirm the specifications of the phone. The phone is rumored to feature a 5.8-inch 19:9 aspect ratio display and is powered by Snapdragon 636 or MediaTek Helio P60 SoC. It has dual rear cameras, which is said to come with ZEISS dual camera. There is also a fingerprint sensor one the back and the phone runs Android Oreo. The phone will be showcased at the Sanlitun experience store from today, April 27 till May 2nd. Someone will probably find out the detailed specifications of the phone during this time, before it goes official on May 16th. Source 1, 2

OPPO A3 with 6.2-inch FHD+ 19:9 display, 128GB storage, face unlock, Android 8.1 announced

OPPO has announced A3, the company's latest mid-range smartphone in China, as rumored. This has a similar 6.23-inch Full HD+19:9 aspect ratio display with 88% screen-to-body ratio, is powered by MediaTek Helio P60 with up to 6GB RAM, runs on ColorOS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo) and has a 16-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, as the F7, but this has an 8-megapixel front camera instead of 25-megapixel front camera on the F7. It has multi-layered metallic and glass back cover that replicates a diamond-like glow and light refractions, with triangular-cut patterns that shimmer bright and dark shades when seen from different angles. It doesn't have a fingerprint sensor, but has face unlock that can unlock the phone in just 0.08 seconds. OPPO A3 specifications 6.2-inch (2280 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 IPS display Octa Core MediaTek Helio P60 (MT6771) 12nm processor (Quad 2GHz Cortex A73 + Quad 2GHz Cortex A53 CPUs) with 800MHz ARM Mali-G72 MP3 GPU 4GB RAM, 128GB storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD Dual SIM ColorOS 5.0 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo) 16MP rear camera with LED flash 8MP front-facing camera 3.5mm audio jack, Dirac HD Dimensions: 156×75.3×7.8mm ; Weight: 159g 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz ...

Samsung Galaxy A6+ with 6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display, dual rear cameras gets certified

Samsung is gearing up to launch the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy  A6+ smartphones. Earlier this week we have seen the press images of the A6+ surfacing on the internet, and today the device is back again, but this time it surfaces in live images. Falling in-line with the earlier rumors and leaks, it packs a unibody metal design, dual rear cameras, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor. Furthermore, there is a dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots on the left, loudspeaker grill on the right and front flash. In terms of specifications, the A6+ is said to sport a 6-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED 18:9 display, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-Core SoC,  even though earlier rumors said it would be Samsung Exynos 7870. It is said to pack 4GB RAM, 32 or 64 GB of internal storage and Android 8.0 Oreo with Experience 9.0 on top. Since the phone looks like it has completed most of the required formalities before it goes official, Samsung might not take long before it officially introduces the phone to the world. The A6 and A6+ will be launched in Europe, Russia and the Middle East initially and might expand to other markets. We are yet to learn details about cameras, ...

Microsoft reports $7.4 billion net income in FY18 Q3, up 35% YoY, Cloud and commercial services surge

Microsoft today released its earnings report for FY18 Q3. It as recorded a $26.8 billion revenue which is 16% up compared to same time last year. The company reported a $7.4 billion in net income with 35% YOY increase compared to the $5.5 billion in net income in 2017. The company's diluted earnings per share was $0.95 which is an increase of 36%, and the operating income was $8.3 billion with an increase of 23% YoY. This quarter witnessed growth in Microsoft's cloud and commercial services. Office related consumer products and cloud services surge 12%, LinkedIn shows a 37% increase in revenue. On the other hand, server products and cloud services revenue which are a part of the Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud business grew 20%. Windows OEM revenue increased 4%, Surface increased 32%, gaming surged 18%. Search advertising revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs increased 16%, and this is driven by higher revenue per search and search volume. Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, said: Our results this quarter reflect the trust people and organizations are placing in the Microsoft Cloud. We are innovating across key growth categories of infrastructure, AI, productivity, and business applications to deliver differentiated value to customers. Source

Apple officially discontinues AirPort Wireless Router Lineup

Apple today has announced that it has officially ended development of its AirPort line of products which includes AirPort Express, the AirPort Extreme, and the AirPort Time Capsule. Apple has not updated its AirPort products since 2012 (Express) and 2013 (Extreme and Time Capsule) and in late 2016. The current AirPort engineers are being reassigned to other products. Apple with an aim to focus more on the products that generate the bulk of its revenue has reportedly started shutting down its AirPort unit in early 2016. The company has started selling third-party routers including Linksys Velop Mesh Wi-Fi System since January of 2018 following the news that Apple had shuttered the AirPort unit. Apple's AirPort offered unique benefits like built-in Time Machine backup support in the Time Capsule and AirPlay functionality for the AirPort Express and some of these features are not available through third-party. Apple will be providing service and parts for current generation AirPort Base Stations for the next five years. The company has shared support-documents to assist customers who are shifting to alternatives. However, Apple will continue to sell the three AirPort products online and in its retail stores until available supplies are exhausted and no price drop is seen as of now. Apple Spokesperson said: We're discontinuing the Apple AirPort base station ...

Swiftkey keyboard gets toolbar customization, brings new quick settings UI to beta

Swiftkey is now rolling out for new updates to stable and beta; the update to stable gets toolbar customization and brings new quick settings UI to beta. Toolbar to Swiftkey was rolled out back in March, and now it is adding better Customization to the toolbar by turning features on/off & rearrange them in the order you want. Additionally, it also gets 7 new languages support; Aja, Blackfoot, Seychellois Creole, Kazakh (Latin), K’iche’ & Quechua (Southern), location Sharing works in 24 new countries and the Emoji panel will now default to the last used tab. In addition to new features, the update also includes fixes;  SwiftKey will now won't crash when creating Photo Themes and you can now re-personalize from Gmail and Google+ without it failing. As for beta users, it brings six new language support; Dinka, Kikongo, Kituba, Mandingo, Luganda & Naro. It lists the Sticker packs that are not downloaded in a list view and most importantly, it brings refreshed Quick Settings UI and will show predictions in Vietnamese & Thai. If you are already a Swiftkey user, you can update the Swiftkey Keyboard stable from Play Store here, and update Swiftkey beta from here. Via

Google accounts get new secure account verification to prevent phishing attacks

Google is rolling out a new functionality to GSuite business users. If your organization uses SAML to sign into G Suite services, Google will now show additional steps in the process. Starting 7th May, Google will now show a new screen on accounts.google.com to confirm users' identity. This additional layer is to ensure better security and help prevent users from unknowingly signing in to an account created and controlled by an attacker. This screen will only be shown once per account per device, and it also said that it is working on ways to make the feature even more context-aware in the future. Google says that this additional screen is to ensure that the user is not signing into phishing campaign or clicking a link that would instantly and silently sign them into a Google Account the attacker controls. This also falls in-line with Google's part of a larger project to create a consistent identity across Google web services and native Chrome browser services. Google is also giving the ability to disable this feature; you can use the X-GoogApps-AllowedDomains HTTP header to identify specific domains whose users can access Google services. Users in those domains won’t see this additional screen, and this header can be set in the Chrome. Source

Entry-level 6.1-inch iPhone 2018 to feature ‘cover glass sensor’ technology, no 3D Touch: KGI

Apple's entry-level 6.1-inch iPhone has been in the news for quite some time and today, KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is back again with yet another research note where he claims that the 6.1-inch iPhone 2018 will skip 3D touch and have strong impact-resistant glass. Furthermore, the phone is said to have what he calls "Cover Glass Sensor" (CGS) technology relocating the iPhone's touch module from the display panel (in-cell technology) to the surface glass. The CGS results in a display that is lighter and more shock resistant. In addition to CGS, Apple will also add a thin-film sensor to the touch film sensor that will be included in the CGS. However, the purpose the thin-film layer is unknown. This will most definitely see a 15% increase in the cost of the touch panel, resulting in a higher purchase price of $23 to $26. To compensate the high-cost, KGI says that he believes Apple might remove the 3D Touch functionality on the 6.1-inch iPhone. This is an interesting development considering Apple's 3D touch functionality is well integrated into the OS at this point. The other two iPhone models that are said to launch in 2018 along with 6.1 are the 5.8-inch OLED iPhone X successor and the 6.5-inch OLED ...

LG G6 Android Oreo update to roll out starting next week, coming to V20 and LG G5 soon

Earlier this month LG opened first-of-its kind Software Upgrade Center in South Korea, aimed at providing customers worldwide with faster, timelier, smartphone operating system and software updates. At that time it promised Android Oreo update for the LG G6 later this month starting in Korea. Now the company has confirmed that the update will roll out starting from April 30th. Android Oreo brings a lot of new features and improvements including Background limits, Notification channels, snooze notifications, Autofill APIs, Picture in Picture (PIP) display, Adaptive icons, Support for high-quality Bluetooth audio codecs such as LDAC codec, Companion device pairing, Keyboard navigation and much more. You can check out the complete list of features here. LG said that it is also planning to add AI features to the G6 that was introduced with the V30 ThinQ.  The upgrade will be available both as OTA and through LG Bridge software. LG also confirmed that the LG V20 and LG G5 will be the next set of devices that will get the Oreo update. The company has not revealed details about global roll out yet, but it expected sometime in May. Source