Xiaomi starts crowdfunding for Mi Polarized Wayfarer and Mi Polarized Aviators in India starting at Rs. 699

Month after launching Mi Crowdfunding in India back in April with Selfie Stick Tripod and Bluetooth Audio Receiver, Xiaomi today started crowdfunding for its Polarized glasses - Mi Polarized Wayfarer and Mi Polarized Aviators in India. Both these promise 100% UV protection against UVA, UVB & UVC rays up to 400 nanometers. The company also says that these polarized glasses minimizes glare, enhances contrast, are scratch resistant and will reduce eye strain. These have O6 layered lens technology that is formulated to provide throughout elimination of glare, polarized light and harmful UV rays. The Wayfarer glasses have a flexible TR90 frame, while the Aviators have a 304H Metal Frame. The Xiaomi Mi Polarized Wayfarer come in Blue and Grey colors and Mi Polarized Aviators come in Blue and Green colors in limited numbers - 800 and 1200 units for crowdfunding through Mi.com at Rs. 699 and Rs. 899, respectively, which the company says these are Rs. 300 less than the original price. These will start shipping from  1st January 2019 after successful funding.

Apple iPhone XR demand lower than expected, shipment estimations slashed: Kuo

According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the Apple iPhone XR demand has been lower than expected. Kuo has slashed his overall iPhone shipment forecast by 20% for the first quarter of 2019. However, Kuo now expects Apple to move 38-42 million iPhones in the quarter, down from an original estimate of 47-52 million.  Apple reported sales of 52.2 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2018, which corresponds with the Q2 of Apple's fiscal year. This means that 38 million shipments in the first quarter of 2019 would be a significant year-over-year decline. As for the iPhone XR in particular, Kuo has revised his shipment estimate to 15-20 million for the Q1 2019, down from 20-25 million. Kuo estimates annual iPhone shipments will fall between 205 million and 210 million in 2018 and based on that, forecasts that annual iPhone shipments in 2019 will decline up to 10% to a range of 188 million to 194 million. This would fall below Wall Street's consensus estimate of around 212 million units in 2019. Apple will no longer be disclosing unit sales in its quarterly earnings reports going forward, so investors will have to look towards iPhone revenue to determine how well the handset is selling. If sales are ...

Top 100 worst passwords of 2018 revealed – ‘123456’ and ‘password’ retain top spots, ‘Donald’ joins the list

According to SplashData’s eighth annual list of 'Worst Passwords' of the Year and after evaluating more than 5 million passwords leaked on the Internet, the company found that users continue using the same predictable, easily guessable passwords. The “123456” and “password” continue in the number one and two spots, respectively. The US President Trump debuted on this year’s list with “donald" showing up as the 23rd most frequently used password. Each year, SplashData evaluates millions of leaked passwords to determine which passwords were most used by computer users during that year. The company says that even with the risks well known, many millions of people continue to use weak, easily-guessable passwords to protect their online information. 2018 was the fifth consecutive year that “123456” and “password” retained their top two spots on the list. SplashData estimates that almost 10% of people have used at least one of the 25 worst passwords on this year’s list, and nearly 3% of people have used the worst password, 123456. According to SplashData, over five million leaked passwords evaluated for the 2018 list were mostly held by users in North America and Western Europe. Passwords leaked from hacks of adult websites were not included in this report. To ...

Apple Music integration on Amazon Echo speakers finally goes live

After announcing Apple Music support on Amazon Echo speakers, the update is now rolling out in the US through the Alexa app on iOS and Android a few days ahead of schedule. You can now connect your Apple Music account with Echo speakers through the Alexa app and use Apple’s music streaming service with Alexa voice control. Once you connect your Apple Music account to Alexa, you can set the music service as your default music library source and default music station source. Apple Music on Alexa will have access to your personal music library including playlists that you create or add to your library from Apple Music. Apple Music’s integration with Alexa is a neat new addition for Echo customers who subscribe to Apple Music. Alexa integration is capable of controlling your music playback, tell you about currently playing music, and even play Apple Music on speaker groups that you create in the Alexa app. However, you can’t yet control Apple Music with Alexa on non-Echo speakers like Sonos even if those speakers support Apple Music on their own. Alexa also supports features that aren’t available on HomePod like setting alarms to music Amazon also supports music automation through a feature called Routines. Source

Facebook API bug allowed apps to access unposted photos of up to 6.8 million users

Facebook has clarified that its team has discovered a photo API bug that may have affected people who used Facebook Login and granted permission to third-party apps to access their photos. Though it fixed the bug, some third-party apps might have accessed to a broader set of photos than usual in the period between September 13th to September 25th.  The bug potentially gave developers access to all photos including those shared on Marketplace or Facebook Stories. The bug also impacted photos that people uploaded to Facebook but chose not to post. Facebook says that around 6.8 million users are affected and up to 1,500 apps built by 876 developers. The only apps affected by this bug were ones that Facebook approved to access the photos API and that individuals had authorized to access their photos. The company said it will be rolling out tools for app developers that will allow them to determine which people using their app might be impacted by this bug. It will be working with those developers to delete the photos from impacted users. It will also notify the users potentially impacted by this bug via an alert on Facebook. The notification will direct them to a Help Center link where they'll be ...

Google Play Games v5.14 update brings Dark Theme, App shortcuts and more

Google has updated its Play Games app to version 5.14 that brings several new features including dark theme that can be enabled from the settings, app shortucuts in the launcher to quickly launch most recently played and installed games and an option to sort your achievements by rarity. The app also brings animated icons for built-in games when you scroll through the carousel. Teardown of the APK has revealed upcoming built-in game Minesweeper, Family Link controls, and easter eggs. The latest update is available from Google Play. Check out the complete changelog below. New features in Google Play Games Come to the dark side. Head over to Settings and flip the switch on our new dark theme. Sort your achievements by rarity (bragging rights automatically included) Short on time? Touch & hold the Play Games icon and get to your recent games lightning fast.

Honor 8A with 6-inch waterdrop notch display, Android 9.0 (Pie) gets certified

Huawei Honor brand is all set to introduce Honor 8A, the company's new budget smartphone as the phone has been certified by TENAA with model numbers JAT-TL00 and JAT-AL00. This doesn't have a fingerprint sensor  like the predecessor, but this reveals a waterdrop notch display with minimal bezels, two-tone design, and Android 9.0 (Pie) out of the box. Honor 8A rumored specifications 6-inch (1560 × 720 pixels) Full HD+ 19:5:9 2.5D curved glass display 2.3GHz Octa-Core Processor 3GB RAM, 32GB / 64GB storage, expandable memory up to 512GB with microSD Android 9.0 (Pie) with EMUI 9.0 Dual SIM (nano + nano + microSD) 13MP rear camera with LED flash 8MP front-facing camera Dimensions: 156.28×73.5×8.0mm; Weight: 150g 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.2, GPS + GLONASS 3000mAh (Typical) / 2920mAh (Minimum) battery Honor 8A is expected to come in Black, Blue, Gold, Red. We can expect the smartphone to go official in the coming weeks. Source 1, 2

ASUS CEO Jerry Shen steps down as company shifts focus to power users, gamers

ASUS has announced that its long-time CEO Jerry Shen is stepping down ahead of the company's "comprehensive corporate transformation" part of a major shift in mobile strategy to focus on gamers and power users. Meaning, we might see more ROG phones and fewer Zenfones. During his 11 years serving as CEO, Shen oversaw the launch of the PadFone series, Transformer series, ZenBook series, and ZenFone series. Prior to that, Shen was also credited as the main creator of the Eee PC, the small machine that kickstarted the netbook in 2006. In a statement, Shen announced that he will be running a new AIoT startup, iFast, as chairman and CEO, with its business targeting B2B applications. Despite his departure, Shen will still maintain a link with ASUS thanks to its 30% stake in his new venture. Shen added that he will "devote myself to assisting ASUS effectively transition into the AIoT industry."As for ASUS' vacant CEO role, it will be split between PC business lead S.Y. Hsu and global customer service lead Samson Hu as of January 1st, 2019. ASUS was quick to clear the air regarding the future of Zenfones; in a statement, the company said: With regard to the doubts raised by some on the ...

YouTube removed 7.8 million videos and 224 million comments in Q3 2018

Back in April, YouTube had launched a quarterly YouTube Community Guidelines Enforcement Report as part of this ongoing commitment to transparency. Further to the commitment, the company is now expanding the report to include additional data like channel removals, the number of comments removed, and the policy reason why a video or channel was removed. The company, from July to September 2018 has removed 7.8 million videos and 81% of these videos were first detected by machines. Of those detected by machines, 74.5% had never received a single view. When it detects a video that violates our Guidelines, it will remove the video and apply a strike to the channel. YouTube will terminate entire channels if they are dedicated to posting content prohibited by its Community Guidelines or contain a single egregious violation. Over 90% of the channels and over 80% of the videos that it removed in September 2018 were removed for violating the policies on spam or adult content. Over 90% of the videos uploaded in September 2018 are removed for Violent Extremism or Child Safety had fewer than 10 views. Much like the videos, YouTube uses a combination of smart detection technology and human reviewers to flag, review, and remove ...

Realme U1 3GB + 32GB version will go on open sale from December 17 on Amazon India

Realme launched its  Realme U1 smartphone in India last month starting at Rs. 11,999. It went on sale exclusively on Amazon.in starting December 5th. Today, the company has announced that the 3GB RAM and 32GB storage version will go on open sale starting from next Monday, December 17th. The next sale for 4GB RAM with 64GB storage version is scheduled for December 19th at 12 noon. You asked for it & we have done it. No more wait to buy your favourite #IndiasSelfiePro #RealmeU1 3+32GB variant as it is going to be available 24x7 starting Dec. 17th on @amazonIN: https://t.co/47xpO8WUW6 and Realme Official Website: https://t.co/N3oPmlbfWY pic.twitter.com/DMNiAVnaHc — Realme (@realmemobiles) December 14, 2018 To remind you, the phone packs a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with Dewdrop notch and 90.5% screen to body ratio, is powered by  MediaTek Helio P70 12nm SoC with AI engine and GPU acceleration with gaming mode. It has up to 4GB of RAM, runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) based on ColorOS 5.2, comes with a 13-megapixel raer camera along with a secondary 2-megapixel camera for portrait shots.  It AI features, 25-megapixel front camera with Sony IMX576 sensor, 4-in-1 pixels, AI beautify feature that scans 296 facial recognition points and studio portrait lighting modes. It has a shiny back with diffraction grading ...