Xiaomi Mijia Quartz Watch Hybrid Smartwatch with up to 6 months battery life announced

Xiaomi has introduced new Quartz Watch under its Mijia or Mi Ecosystem. It is a hybrid smartwatch that comes with a standard 40 mm dial that is just 3.2 mm at its thinnest point. The small dial shows step count and connects to Android or iPhone over Bluetooth. Call notification, Reminder and Alarm with vibration. It has a stainless steel case, water-resistant body and a curved back. It uses a replaceable CR2430 coin cell that promises up to 6 months of battery life. Xiaomi Mijia Quartz Watch specifications 40mm dial with tempered glass protection Bluetooth 4.0 LE to connect to devices running Android 4.4 or iOS 7.0 and later 316L stainless steel case Pedometer for step tracking, Vibration alters for calls, alarms and reminder Water resistant up to 3 ATM (30 metres) Length: 240 mm x 11.9 mm; Weight: 42g CR2430 320mAh (typical) / 270mAh (minimum) battery with up to 6 months of battery life The Xiaomi Mijia Quartz Watch comes in Black, White and Gray colored dials with matching straps expect for the White which comes with a Blue strap. It is priced at 349 yuan (US$ 52 / Rs. 3,575 approx.) and will go on sale in China July 17th. Source

US commerce department lifts ban on ZTE after Final deposits of $1.4 billion penalty

The US Secretary of Commerce Department on Friday has lifted the ban on American firms selling products to China’s ZTE Corp. With this, the company is removed from all hurdles to start rebuilding its business. The ban was lifted after ZTE has paid the final penalty of $400 million from the $1.4 billion in escrow at a U.S. bank.  The announcement further says that the $1.4 billion paid under the new settlement agreement is in addition to the $892 million in penalties ZTE has already paid to the U.S government under a March 2017 settlement agreement after pleading guilty to violating sanctions. ZTE according to the new agreement, will need to establish a special team coordinator selected by and answerable to the Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for a period of 10 years. The functioning of this is to monitor ZTE on a real-time basis about the company's compliance with U.S. export control laws. This marks the first time BIS has achieved such stringent compliance measures in any case. However, the new agreement yet again imposes a denial order that is suspended, this time for ten years, which BIS can activate in the event of additional violations during the ten-year probationary period. ZTE also has replaced the entire ...

Huawei Mate 20 Pro with flexible OLED display to launch later this year

Huawei just might be prepping a fitting reply to Apple's rumored iPhone X Plus with 6.5-inch OLED display. The company is planning on launching a flagship smartphone dubbed "Strategic" which is a bulked up variant of the Mate 20 Pro.  Previous reports suggested that Huawei might be using Samsung's 6.9" flexible OLED displays for the Mate 20 Pro, but recent reports claim that  Huawei will diversify supplies with the Chinese BOE which slowly has been pushing into OLEDs ever since it became evident that these panels are becoming a thing. Production of such OLED panels is still a problem. Since the company invested heavily in a 6th-gen OLED plant last year, it perhaps this is why it sees a chance to bounce by backing up supplies for the Mate 20 Pro. The flagship will pack a new chipset, camera configuration which at least as good as the triple one on the P20 Pro. Huawei proved to the world with its Mate RS flagship that it knows how to create beautiful phones with curved OLED displays. The Huawei's Mate 20 Pro is due for later this year, so until then the room for speculations and rumors is wide open. Source

Weekly Roundup: OPPO Find X, Microsoft Surface Go, Sony Xperia XA2 Plus, Huawei Nova 3, 2018 MacBook Pros and more

This week OPPO finally launched its flagship Find X smartphone in India, and also launched the mid-range A3s. Microsoft introduced Surface Go, its most-affordable Surface 2-in-1, Sony introduced the Xperia XA2, a bigger version of the Xperia A2 which was introduced earlier this year, and Apple announced the most-expected Macbook Pro refresh for this year. Check out all the new launches and announcements from this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnMdAjh4clM OPPO  launched its flagship Find X smartphone. It has a 6.42-inch Full HD+ AMOLED Panoramic Arc Screen with 19:5:9 aspect ratio and 93.8% screen-to-body ratio, is powered by Snapdragon 845 with 8GB of RAM and runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with ColorOS 5.1 on top. It has a motorized sliding dual rear cameras with a 16-megapixel primary and a 20-megapixel secondary camera set up with LED flash, OIS, AI portraits and AI Scene Recognition. It has 3D face unlock that uses 3D Structured Light Technology which scans 15,000 facial points. It has a 25-megapixel front camera with AI.  It has a 3D glass body with Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection both on the front and the back. It packs a 3730mAh battery with support for VOOC flash charge fast charging technology that promises 2 hours of talk time with ...

Samsung Galaxy Note9 with 4000mAh battery, Bluetooth S Pen said to be priced similar to the Galaxy Note8

Samsung is all set to launch the Galaxy Note 9 on August 9th except for the pricing and availability of the flagship, everything is out in the open and this information will more or less be a mystery until the Unpacked event. The latest report suggests that the Galaxy Note 9 will be available for purchase from August 24th, two weeks after the announcement . According to Spider’s Web claims, who seems to have received information from one of Samsung’s employees, the Galaxy Note 9 will reportedly be priced at PLN 4299 (US$ 1163 / 995 Euros / Rs. 79,680 approx.) , in Poland. The pricing is for the base variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It further claims that it was able to confirm the price by talking to a retailer and that the Note 9 will be available in Black, Blue, and Purple color options. Whats interesting is that the Galaxy Note8 from last year was also launched at the same price and if the company manages to pull off the Galaxy Note 9 with Bluetooth S Pen, 4000mAh battery and improved hardware at the same price as the Note 8, i.e, within the sub $1000 price range, it definitely ...

Adobe said to launch full version of Photoshop app for Apple iPad in Strategy Shift

Adobe, the popular maker of digital design programs is said to be launching a full-blown version of its Photoshop exclusively made for the Apple iPad. This as a part of its new strategy to make its products compatible across multiple devices and boost subscription sales.  The company is said to be planning on launching the new version at the annual MAX creative conference in October, according to the sources. However, the app will be out only in 2019 unless there are any engineering delays. Adobe shifted all of its apps to the cloud in 2012 and launched a new subscription-based business model that went to score more than double sales through the end of this fiscal year. Recently, Adobe has also begun pitching its products to hobbyists, who on the other hand is focusing on the mobile devices rather than PCs, however, the company is yet to fully transition its best-known apps to smaller screens. Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer of Creative Cloud, confirmed that the company was working on a new cross-platform iteration of Photoshop and other applications, but didn't mention any timeframe for the launch. Adobe currently has apps like Photoshop, Premiere and Illustrator on Mac and Windows computers, and companion mobile apps including ...

Moto E5 Play Android Oreo (Go Edition) with 5.34-inch 18:9 display, fingerprint sensor announced

Motorola introduced the Moto G6 series and the Moto E5 series, including the Moto E5 Play smartphone recently. Now it has introduced the new Moto E5 Play Android Oreo (Go Edition) version. It has a 5.34-inch  FWVGA+ 18:9 aspect ratio display compared to the 5.2-inch HD screen on the standard E5 Play model. It is powered by the same Snapdragon 425 SoC, but this has 1GB of RAM. Cameras, front-ported loudspeaker and the fingerprint sensor on the back, on the Moto logo are similar, but this has a slightly smaller 2100mAh battery.   Moto E5 Play Android Oreo (Go Edition) specifications 5.34-inch (480 x 960 pixels) FWVGA+ 18:9 display 1.4GHz Quad-Core Snapdragon 425 Mobile Platform with Adreno 308 GPU 1GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 128GB with microSD Android 8.1 (Oreo Go Edition) Dual SIM Water repellent coating (p2i) 8MP rear camera with LED Flash 5MP front-facing camera with LED flash Dimensions:147.88 x 71.2 x 9.19mm. ; Weight: 145g Fingerprint sensor 3.5mm audio jack, Front-ported speaker, Dual microphones 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS 2100mAh battery The Moto E5 Play Android Oreo (Go Edition)  comes in Black, Dark lake and Flash gray colors, is priced at €109 (US$ 127 / Rs. 8,730 approx.) in Europe ...

Honor schedules an event in India on July 24, Honor 9i (2018) with 5.84-inch FHD+ display, dual rear cameras expected to launch as Honor 9X

Huawei's Honor brand just sent out invites for the launch of its next Honor smartphone in India on July 24th. The invite just has #NOORDINARYBEAUTY in Blue and Purple colors and two O's that hint at a smartphone in different colors and dual rear cameras. This could be the Honor 9i (2018), successor of last year's Honor 9i. According to a recent report this will likely launch in the country as Honor 9X. Honor 9X / 9i 2018 specifications 5.84-inch (1080 x 2280 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 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 4GB RAM, 64GB / 128GB 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 LED flash, secondary 2MP camera 16MP front-facing camera Fingerprint sensor Dimensions: 149.2×71.8×7.7mm; Weight: 152g 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS / GLONASS 3000mAh (typical) / 2900mAh (Minimum) battery The Honor 9X is expected to come in Black, Blue, Green and Purple colors. It was introduced starting at 1399 yuan (US$ 218 / Rs. 14,640 approx.). We should know the price of the ...

LG V30 Plus Android Oreo update in India brings AI Cam, ThinQ branding

LG is finally rolling out the Oreo update to the LG V30 Plus which will turn the phone into LG V30 ThinQ with AI Camera. After updating, the start screen of the device will now show LG V30ThinQ branding instead of LG V30 Plus. The update comes with build number OPRR1.170623.026 and software version V20b-IND-XX.  It's time to upgrade your #LGV30Plus to LG V30 ThinQ smartphone with AI Camera! The latest version of Android 8.0 Oreo rolls out today. Visit your nearest store Now! pic.twitter.com/4NocJog9yY — LG India (@LGIndia) July 13, 2018 The update brings AI cam which analyzes the subjects in the frame and recommends one of 4 different filters, and these recommendations are based on a total of 8 categories; people, pets, food, flowers, city, landscape (sea/sky), sunset or sunrise. It also brings the new June security patch along with OS upgrade. To update, make sure the phone is connected to a Wi-Fi network and enough battery charge. Though the update has just started rolling out, it is available to most of the users in India. It it is not, it will take a day or two before it reaches everyone. You can manually check for the update in the system settings.

OPPO A3s with 6.2-inch 19:9 FullView display, dual rear cameras, Android 8.1, 4230mAh battery launched in India for Rs. 10990

OPPO has launched A3s, a re-branded version of the  A5 smartphone that was introduced in China last week. It has a 6.2-inch HD+ 19:9 aspect ratio display with a notch and  87.8% screen-to-body ratio, is powered by Snapdragon 450 with 2GB of RAM and runs ColorOS 5.1 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo). It has a 13-megapixel rear camera along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera for portrait shots and an 8-megapixel front camera with AI beautify features that intelligently recognizes 296 facial features. It has dedicated dual SIM and microSD card slots and packs a huge 4230mAh battery that promises 14 hours of video playback and 11 hours of gaming. It comes only in 2GB RAM with 16GB storage version, unlike  the A5 that comes in 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version. OPPO A3s specifications 6.2-inch (1520 x 720 pixels) 18:9 FullView 2.5D curved glass display 1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 450 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, expandable memory up to 256GB with microSD ColorOS 5.1 based on Android 8.1 (Oreo) Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD) 13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/2.2 aperture, secondary 2MP camera with f/2.4 aperture 8MP front-facing camera, f/2.2 aperture Dimensions: 156.2×75.6×8.2mm; Weight: 168g 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, ...