Qualcomm 8cx 7nm Compute Platform for thin, light and fanless always on, always connected Windows 10 PCs announced

Qualcomm has announced Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform, the world’s first 7 nanometer PC platform, and the sucessor of Snapdragon 850 on the third day of the annual Snapdragon Technology Summit. This will offer thin, light and fanless always on, always connected Windows 10 PCs and also has support for Windows 10 enterprise customers for the first time. It has new octa-core Qualcomm Kryo 495 CPU and Qualcomm  Adreno 680 GPU that will be 2X faster and 60% more efficient than Snapdragon 850 and 3.5X faster than Snapdragon 835. It is the first Snapdragon Compute platform for PCs to support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology, comes with Qualcomm Aqstic audio technology and Qualcomm aptX HD for high definition Bluetooth wireless audio and supports voice assistants like Cortana and Alexa for consumers using their PCs.  It also comes with second generation USB 3.1 over Type C, third generation PCI-E, and lets you connect two 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) monitors.  The Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE modem offering download speeds of up to 2 Gbps. Qualcomm 8cx Compute Platform specifications Octa-Core (4x performance Kryo 495+ 4x effeciency Kryo 495) CPU 7nm Process Technology Integrated X24 LTE modem Cat 20/13 speeds of up to 2 Gbps down, 7x20MHz carrier aggregation, 256-QAM, 4×4 ...

watchOS 5.1.2 brings ECG functionality to Apple Watch Series 4, irregular heart rhythm notification to Watch Series 1 or later

As expected, Apple has officially announced that it will roll out watchOS 5.1.2 update starting today that will bring the Apple Watch Series 4, an ECG app that lets customers take an electrocardiogram right from their wrist, capturing heart rhythm in a moment when they experience symptoms like a rapid or skipped heart beat and helping to provide critical data to physicians. The irregular rhythm notification feature on Apple Watch can now also occasionally check heart rhythms in the background and send a notification if an irregular heart rhythm that appears to be atrial fibrillation (AFib) is identified. Apple already said that it worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for a number of years to receive De Novo classification for the ECG app and the irregular heart rhythm notification. ECG App New electrodes built into the back crystal and Digital Crown on Apple Watch Series 4 work together with the ECG app to enable customers to take an ECG similar to a single-lead reading. To take an ECG recording at any time or following an irregular rhythm notification, users launch the new ECG app on Apple Watch Series 4 and hold their finger on the Digital Crown. As the user touches the ...

Ericsson acknowledges worldwide network outages, says it is working with operators to solve the issue

A software issue on Ericsson is said to be causing millions of mobile phone users around unable to use their smartphones. Japanese smartphone users on the SoftBank network and British customers on O2 are facing network outage as the 4G network crashed around 5 am local time in the UK. The O2 mobile network is said it was working with the supplier to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, and other telecoms companies around the world had also suffered outages. The issue is related to Ericsson equipment. which is also a supplier to SoftBank in Japan. O2 has over 32 million customers on its network including Tesco Mobile and GiffGaff.  O2 in a statement said: “One of our global suppliers has identified a global software issue in the system.” Large parts of SoftBank’s mobile network also remained out of operation across central Japan on Thursday.  In a statement on its website, SoftBank apologised to customers and said that it was “examining the cause” of the problem. The outage struck less than two weeks before a scheduled initial public offering for SoftBank’s mobile business. Source

Sharp J-series Air Purifiers launched in India

SHARP has launched the new “J Series” Room Air Purifiers especially designed and built for India; the SHARP’s FP-J30M-B, FP-J40M-W, FP-J60M-W& FP-J80M-H. The Air Purifier can eliminate dust, PM2.5/PM10, infectious substances like fungi, mold, mites, virus etc., VOC, toxic fumes, Static electricity, and dander.  SHARP J Series deploys the high-density 'Active Plasmacluster Technology' combined with passive mechanical filtration systems; PM10 Pre Filter, Carbon Filter, and H14 Grade True HEPA Filter to trap and eliminate the harmful substances. It is also proven through IEC, Japan Safety Standards of EN1822 that the SHARP Plasmacluster Technology doesn’t produce any harmful Ozone during the Purification process. The Air Purifier comes with HAZE Mode which ensures superior purification from poisonous HAZE substances like Toluene, Benzene, NOx, Sox etc using the Plasmacluster, HEPA and Carbon Filters along with strong airflow and suction. The interactive panel in SHARP J Series displays the Wattage consumed, PM2.5 levels, Odor and Dust levels and it ensures that the panel lights are switched off as soon as the room lights are turned off. Thanks to the super sensitive light sensor mounted on the panel. These come with H14 Grade True HEPA for 99.97% efficiency, which due to charges generated inside the HEPA, particles are trapped in corners thus not clogging ...

Twitter for Android gets Tweet client indicator, video playback controls

Twitter for Android seems to be getting new features including the ability to show which client Tweets originated from, video playback controls including a skip forward or rewind a few seconds with a tap on the right or left side of the screen. However, these new features are currently available only for few users and are not widely available.  These features might still be in testing or staged rollouts in batches, so users might have to wait for a while before the company rolls out to everyone. The new video controls are the more useful feature. A quick tap on the left or right of the screen will skip back or forward, by five seconds. The YouTube app behaves similarly, although, with double-taps, it increments to 10 seconds. For now, there's no way to tell which version of the app is having these features, so it is impossible to tell when all these would make way into the final version of the app. The only to be sure is to keep the app updated. Source

Yandex.Phone with 5.65-inch FHD+ display, dual rear cameras, water-resistant body announced

Yandex, the leading Internet company in Russia has introduced Yandex.Phone, the company's latest Android smartphone. It has a 5.65-inch FHD+ 18:9 aspect ratio display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, is powered by Snapragon 630 with 4GB of RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Yandex Launcher, has a 16-megapixel rear camera with LED flash, 5-megapixel secondary camera for portait shots, and a 5-megapixel camera on the front that also has an LED flash. It has a glass back with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, IP54 ratings for dust and water resistance, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor, and a 3050mAh battery with support for fast charging. Yandex.Phone specifications 5.65-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) 2.5D curved glass display with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection 2.2 GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 630 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 508 GPU 4GB LPDDR4 RAM,  64GB internal memory, expandable memory with microSD Android 8.1 (Oreo) with Yandex Launcher Dual SIM 16MP rear camera with LED flash, 5MP secondary 5MP front-facing camera with LED flash Dust and water resistance (IP54) Fingerprint sensor 3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio Dimensions: 150.1 × 72.5 × 8.28mm; Weight: 163g 4G VoLTE, WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 5, GPS, USB Type-C 3050mAh built-in battery with fast charging The Yandex.Phone comes in Black color is priced 17,990 ...

Xiaomi smartphone with 48MP camera sensor, Snapdragon 675 to arrive in January, could use Sony IMX586 sensor

Xiaomi President Lin Bin has posted an image of a Xiaomi phone with 48-megapixel camera on weibo. This shows a large sensor along with dual LED flash. It also shows a new design and possibly a pop-up front camera offering an all-screen display like the Vivo NEX. He also shared that the phone will be released in January 2019. The smartphone could use the Sony IMX586 which was introduced as the world-first 48MP smartphone camera sensor with ultra-compact pixel size of 0.8 μm. It already started shipping to OEMs from September 2018, so Xiaomi would have already started testing it on its smartphone. Currently only the Snapdragon 675 11nm Mobile Platform supports up to 48-megapixel camera. Xiaomi at the 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong in October confirmed that the company will launch Snapdragon 675-powered smartphone next year. The Snapdragon 675 Mobile Platform based on 11nm process technology, 2 performance (based on new Cortex A76) cores and 6 effciency cores (based on Cortex A55) as well as enhanced AI Engine, Spectra 250 ISP, Kryo 460 CPUs and Adreno 612 GPU. It has support for up to three front and rear cameras, and supports features such as telephoto, wide angle, and super-wide image capture, enhanced portrait mode (Bokeh) as well as 3D face ...

Indian wearable shipments reach 897,000 units, up 17% YoY in Q3 2018; Xiaomi continues to lead: IDC

The smart wearable market in India has shipped a total of 102,000 units in Q3 2018, according to IDC. This also marks the first quarter where wearable market crossed 100,000 units shipment in the country.  The overall India wearables market saw a 17% year-over-year (YoY) growth in the third quarter as vendors shipped a total of 897,000 units in the country. However, the overall shipments declined 11% from the previous quarter largely because of the double-digit decline in the basic wearables. July and August remain flat in terms of new shipments, September did observe a recovery as vendors started gearing up for the online festival sales. As expected, Xiaomi topped the segment for the 5th consecutive quarter with 41% market share in Q3 2018. However, the shipments witnessed a decline of 20% quarter-over-quarter, but it saw a healthy growth of 77% in this quarter when compared to the same time a year ago. The newly launched Mi Band 3 helped the company. GOQii continues to hold the 2nd position with a healthy 47% YoY growth and 19% market share in Q3 2018. It remains the leading player in the commercial segment, as two-thirds of its shipments fall under the enterprises corporate wellness program. Titan phased out its ...

Apple iOS 12.1.1 update with expanded eSIM support, redesigned FaceTime with live photos and more released

Apple has rolled out iOS 12.1.1 update, it is the third update to the iOS 12 operating system since its September launch. However, it is a minor update comparatively. It brings the ability to capture a photo during FaceTime call and save the moment. It requires the person you're video chatting with to have the "FaceTime Live Photos" setting toggled on. FaceTime also includes a reworked bottom bar with new buttons for muting a call and flipping the camera. Sliding up on the bottom bar brings up additional options with conversation participants. The 12.1.1 expands eSIM support on the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR to additional carriers across Europe, including Swisscom in Switzerland, Orange in Spain, and Three in Sweden and Denmark. AT&T in the US, Rogers, and Fido in Canada, and Many Other Carriers Rolling Out eSIM Support on Latest iPhones. The eSIM support is rolling out to 1010, CSL, China Mobile, and SmarTone in Hong Kong; M1 in Singapore; APT in Taiwan, and AIS, dtac, and True Move in Thailand. Airtel and Jio in India have already rolled out eSIM support. On the iPhone XR, the iOS 12.1.1 update introduces support for Haptic Touch with notifications. Haptic Touch can now be used to ...

ASUS Zenfone Max M2 with 6.3-inch 19:9 display, Snapdragon 632, dual rear cameras, 4000mAh battery announced

Asus, along with the Zenfone Max Pro M2, also introduced Max M2 in Russia. It packs a 6.26-inch HD+ 19:9 aspect ratio display with a notch, is powered by Snapdragon 632 SoC with up to 4GB of RAM, has a 13-megapixel rear camera along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera for capturing depth information in portrait shots and an 8-megapixel camera on the front, both the LED flash. It has a metal back, comes with dedicated dual SIM and microSD slots, Dual 4G VoLTE, rear-mounted fingerprint sensor and a 4000mAh battery. ASUS Zenfone Max M2 (ZB633KL) specifications 6.3-inch (1520x720 pixels) HD+ 19:9 2.5D curved glass display 1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 632 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 506 GPU 3GB LPDDR3 RAM with 32GB storage / 4GB LPDDR3 RAM with 64GB storage, expandable memory upto 2TB with microSD Android 8.1 (Oreo) Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD) 13MP rear camera with LED flash, f/1.8 aperture, EIS, secondary 2MP camera 8MP front camera with f/2.0 aperture, LED flash Fingerprint sensor 3.5mm audio jack, NXP Smart Amp, FM radio Dimensions: 158.41x76.28x7.70mm; Weight: 160g Dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS 4000mAh battery The ASUS Zenfone Max M2 comes in Black, Blue and Gold colors, starts ...