Apple said to be working on satellite technology to beam data directly to devices

Apple has been secretly hiring more minds for a project that is studying satellite and communications technologies to find ways to beam data like internet connectivity, maybe even software updates directly to its devices; Bloomberg reports. The company has hired multiple engineers in the field of aerospace, satellite and antenna design industries and more to begin working on a project that Apple wishes to see results within the next 5 years. The goal of the project is maybe to find way to deliver data directly to user devices, eliminating the dependence on wireless carriers. The tech can also be used for linking devices to each other without a traditional network for improved maps and location data. The project is still in its early stages but Apple's CEO Tim Cook has shown interest in the project, which promises company priority in it. The project is led by former aerospace engineers Michael Trela and John Fenwick, who were previously part of a software imaging company called Skybox Imaging. Apple has hired a bunch of software and hardware experts for the team along with executives in companies from fields of  Satellite communications, Content delivery, etc. Source

Google Translate offline update with transliteration support, more accurate translation rolling out globally

Google Translate offline is a pretty nifty feature for those situations when your data connection is unreliable or non-existent. Now Google has pushed an update that makes offline translation about 12% more accurate for 59 languages and added transliteration support for 10 languages. For those 59 languages, the 12% increase in accuracy is noticeable with improved word choice, grammar and sentence structure. For languages like Japanese, Korean, Thai, Polish, and Hindi, the quality gain is more than 20 percent. For Indian users, Translate offers the option of Transliteration too. For example, if you convert "Hello" from English to Hindi, the app would show both "Namaste" and “नमस्ते”. This is helpful for those who find it difficult to read in the original text that was translated. Translate currently offers transliteration support for 10 new languages: Arabic, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. To use these two features users must update to the latest software version and update their offline files. Users who haven't used offline translate before can tap the arrow next to the language name to download that language. Google Translate is available for download on both the App Store and Play Store. Source

Airtel starts testing Voice over Wi-Fi in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore

Airtel rolled out Voice over Wi-Fi services officially starting from Delhi NCR and called it Wi-Fi Calling. Today the company has announced that it has started testing it in Hyderabad, Chennai & Bangalore starting today. Even though the company said that it will work only through Airtel Broadband network, it worked for use on iPhone, OnePlus devices and K20 Pro even when it was connected to other networks. It is displayed as Airtel WiFi on iPhone, VoWiFi on OnePlus and there is a WiFi symbol with a phone receiver on the top . This lets Airtel users make VoWi-Fi calls in compatible handsets offering improved indoor coverage, faster connectivity and says it will offer crystal clear conversations as if you are next to each other. Latch on to your Airtel Wi-Fi network and place a call from your Vo-Wifi enabled handset. This automatically boosts the signal quality across your home, said the company. Airtel Wi-Fi Calling Compatible Handsets: iPhone XR, iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro OnePlus 6, OnePlus 6T, OnePlus 7, OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus 7T, OnePlus 7T ...

LG G8X ThinQ with 6.4-inch FHD+ OLED display, Snapdragon 855 and LG Dual Screen launched in India for Rs. 49999

LG just launched the G8X ThinQ smartphone in India after it was introduced back in September at the IFA. It packs a 6.4-inch FullVision FHD+ OLED display, is powered by Snapdragon 855 with 6GB of RAM, runs Android Pie with improved user interface with a cleaner design, refreshed icons and tabs such as Dial, Call logs, and Contacts moving to the bottom of the display so that users can get even more done with only one hand, has dual rear cameras, 13MP 136-degree super wide-angle and 12MP standard sensor. There is also a 32-megapixel camera that merges four pixels to form large 1.6μm pixels for better output. The new 6.4-inch OLED FHD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) 19.5:9 LG Dual Screen has an additional 2.1-inch Mono Cover Display that lets users check the time, date, battery charge, notifications and other useful information without opening the Dual Screen. The new Dual Screen adopts a new 360 Freestop Hinge to allow for viewing at any angle (0, 104° and 180°), just like a laptop. It can connect to the phone via USB instead of Pogo Pins in the previous generation. The phone doesn’t have ToF sensor like the G8 ThinQ, but comes with an in-display ...

Facebook building its own OS for its future AR glasses other devices: Report

It seemed inevitable that Facebook would eventually decide to make its own operation system to reduce its dependancy on Google for Android, Apple, etc. In a report by theinformation.com, Facebook is currently looking into developing an OS from the ground up for its future hardware devices. According to the report, Facebook has given the role of building a social networking capable operating system from scratch to Mark Lucovsky, who was a co-author in building Microsoft's Windows NT. With its own OS, Facebook could get freedom to deeply integrate its social products into its current and future devices. To be clear, Facebook isn't ditching Android for its apps anytime soon though. These decisions from Facebook can be explained as protection from from being too dependant on Google. They do not want the risk of a potential disagreement between Facebook and Google to derail future device roadmaps. One of the main devices that is under development currently is Facebooks Augmented Reality Glasses and that is another reason why Facebook is building an OS. Some of the other devices that could benefit from Facebook's own OS is their Portal video conferencing device and its Oculus VR headset. In the report, Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s VP of Hardware ...

Realme X50 5G phone with Snapdragon 765G, dual punch-hole display teased [Update: Liquid Cooling, 70% charge in 30 min with VOOC 4.0]

Update: December 20, 2019 — realme has confirmed that X50 5G  will feature 8mm 410mm³ diameter large  liquid-cooled copper tube for heat dissipation 3.0 offering five-dimensional heat dissipation that covers all the heat sources 100%. It will feature VOOC flash charge 4.0,  so that the phone is charged from 0 to 70% in 30 minutes. Update: December 10, 2019 — realme China CMO Xu Qi Chase just confirmed that the X50 5G will be powered by Snapdragon 765G SoC. The image also shows the dual punch-hole screen clearly in the top left corner. Earlier: realme already confirmed that it will launch a 5G phone this year, and recently at the realme X2 Pro launch event Madhav Seth, Chief Executive Officer, Realme India confirmed that realme will be one of the first brands to launch Qualcomm SoCs with built-in 5G in India in 2020. Today, realme China CMO Xu Qi Chase has confirmed that realme will launch the X50 5G phone in China soon. This comes after the realme X2 Pro was launched in China and Europe in October and in India last week. He has also confirmed that the phone will come with support for 5G stand alone and non-stand alone (SA/NSA) sub-6GHz ...

Samsung Galaxy Buds+ true wireless earbuds surface, expected alongside Galaxy S11 in 2020

Earlier this year Samsung introduced the Galaxy Buds, the company's latest true wireless earbuds along with the Galaxy S10 series back in February. Now images and animated video of the Galaxy Buds+, the company's next-generation earbuds have surfaced on Samsung SmartThings Android app version 1.7.41-25. This shows a familiar design along with a charging case. [embed]https://www.xda-developers.com/files/2019/12/buds2.mp4[/embed] The SmartThings app doesn’t reveal any other information, so it is not clear if the company has included ANC to compete with others. It will likely come with USB-C, fast charging support, and wireless charging similar to the predecessor, and might have better battery life. The Samsung Galaxy Buds+ is expected to come in range of colors. We should know more details in the coming weeks as the earbuds is expected to be introduced along with the Samsung Galaxy S11 series of smartphones on February 18th 2020. Source

Realme C2 update brings December Security Patch, Dark Mode Toggle, flash on call and more

realme launched the realme C2 along with realme 3 Pro in the country back in April running ColorOS 6.0 based on Android 9.0 (Pie). The company has already announced Android 10 update roadmap for its smartphones, realme doesn't follow a fixed update frequency but the company rolls out updates frequently. This post will help our readers in keeping track of ColorOS updates for realme C2, ColorOS updates rolled out for the realme C2 so far, [Dec 19, 2019]: realme has started rolling out RMX1941EX_11.A.21 with an updated December security patch. It also adds dark mode toggle in notification, flash on call and more. [Download Link] [Dec 2, 2019]: realme has started rolling out RMX1941EX_11_A.20 with an updated November security patch. The update fixes touch response issues. [Download Link] [Nov 25, 2019]: realme C2 will be upgraded to Android 10 based ColorOS 7 in Q3 2020, confirms realme. [Oct 25, 2019]: realme has started rolling out RMX1941EX_11_A.18 with an updated October security patch. The update brings system-wide Dark Mode, updated charging animation, realme laboratory along with swipe down on the home screen to expand notification center feature. [Download Link] [Sep 30, 2019]: realme has started rolling out Android Pie based RMX1941EX_11_A.17 with September 2019 security patch. ...

HUAWEI P smart Pro with 6.59-inch FHD+ display, triple rear cameras, pop-up front camera announced

HUAWEI announced the P Smart Z smartphone with a pop-up front camera earlier this year and the P smart+ 2019 under the P-series of smartphones. Expanding the lineup, the company has announced its new HUAWEI P Smart Pro with triple rear cameras, pop-up front camera, and more. HUAWEI Smart P Pro flaunts a 6.59-inch FHD+ Ultra FullView LCD display with a resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels and sports a curved glass back. It is powered by the Kirin 710F octa-core processor paired with 6GB RAM + 128GB of internal storage which could be expanded up to 512GB with microSD. It runs on EMUI 9.1 based on Android 9 Pie and it has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner. Regarding the optics, it sports triple rear cameras with a combination of 48MP primary camera with f/1.8 aperture + 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera with f/2.4 aperture + 2MP depth sensor with f/2.4 aperture as well. The front camera is a pop-up shooter with a 16MP resolution. The connectivity options include 2.4GHz WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, USB Type-C port, GPS, AGPS, and GLONASS. It packs a 4000mAh battery. HUAWEI P Smart Pro specifications 6.59-inch (2340 x 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 2.5D curved glass display Octa-Core Kirin 710F 12nm (4 ...

OnePlus announces Bug Bounty program, offers rewards up to $7000

Last year, a security breach in OnePlus systems exposed the credit card details of some customers and recently in another security breach, OnePlus customers’ names, emails, and shipping addresses have been exposed. Following the incidents, OnePlus has now announced its partnership with the security platform HackerOne and has also announced a new bug bounty program. OnePlus has set up a new Security Response Center which will offer bug bounty to security experts who discover threats and report to the company. The rewards for the bug bounty program will range from US$ 50 (Rs. 3555 approx.) to US$ 7000 (Rs. 4,97,592 approx.) and this depends on the potential impact of the threat. The potential threats can be reported to the OnePlus official website, OnePlus Community forums and OnePlus Applications. Also, OnePlus partnership with the security platform HackerOne will let the company gain insight to better uncover potential threats. This will initially begin as a pilot program and it will include selected researches who will submit their reports through HackerOne. A public version will go live later in 2020. Commenting on this, Pete Lau, CEO, and Founder of OnePlus said: OnePlus truly values the privacy of all information our customers entrust to us. The two projects ...