iQOO 3 5G smartphone with Snapdragon 865 launching in India this February on Flipkart

Last month Vivo's iQOO (stands for ‘I Quest On and On’) sub-brand confirmed that it will launch its first product for the Indian market in February powered by Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform and with 5G support. Last week it also launched iqoo.com/in/ website. Today the company has confirmed that it is the iQOO 3 and will be launched in India on Flipkart. It is the same phone which will be introduced in China on February 25th. The company has also posted the first teaser video. Hardcore doesn't show out there. But, deep down it belongs to everyone. #iQuestOnAndOn Coming Soon pic.twitter.com/xY3gMC2OcS — iQOO (@IqooInd) February 13, 2020 The phone will come with up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and will be the first phone to come with UFS 3.1 storage. TENAA listing already revealed the specifications of the phone. Vivo iQOO 3 (V1955A) rumored specifications 6.44-inch (2400 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 20:9 Super AMOLED 2.5D curved glass display 2.84GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 865 7nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 650 GPU 6GB/8GB/12GB LPDDR5 RAM with 128GB / 256GB (UFS 3.1) storage Android 10 with Funtouch OS 10 Dual SIM (nano + nano) 64MP primary camera with Sony IMX686 sensor, LED flash, 13MP ultra wide sensor, 13MP telephoto / ...

WhatsApp crosses 2 billion users worldwide

WhatsApp which was acquired by Facebook in 2014 crossed 1 billion users worldwide in July 2017 and undoubtedly, it is popular among many users worldwide. After crossing a 1.5 billion user milestone in 2018, WhatsApp has now announced that it has hit the next milestone. Facebook's WhatsApp has crossed 2 billion users globally and the rate at which the messaging app has grown is incredible. In a dedicated blog post, the company has detailed the features of WhatsApp and tells us how it has connected users worldwide. It also details how users can make use of the platform to reach their loved ones no matter where they are, how businesses can grow by connecting with their customers, and more. The blog post also emphasizes on WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption and adds that the company won't compromise on security and it works with top security experts to employ industry-leading technology. In related news, WhatsApp recently got approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and this means, WhatsApp Pay could officially roll out for all users in India soon. WhatsApp in a blog post said: We are excited to share that, as of today, WhatsApp supports more than two billion users around the world. Source

OPPO India appoints Elvis Zhou as president

OPPO today announced that it has appointed Elvis Zhou as the President of its India Operations who will be spearheading OPPO’s business strategy in India. He will report to Charles Wong, Vice President, Global Sales at OPPO. He has spent over 11 years with OPPO in various roles starting as the regional manager of OPPO East Guangdong wherein he was responsible for sales in the region. He played a critical role in the global expansion of OPPO to the Indian market in 2013 and has been associated with OPPO India for over 6 years now. He also served as the general manager of OPPO Mumbai. Welcoming Mr. Zhou on board, Charles Wong, Vice President of Global Sales, OPPO said: Elvis has been an integral part of the OPPO India. His experience in the smartphone industry makes him the ideal person to lead our ambitious India growth strategy as we expand our operations. We extend a warm welcome and congratulate him on his new role. Commenting on his new role, Elvis Zhou, President of OPPO India said: OPPO has emerged out to be a leading smartphone player in the Indian market under Mr. Wong’s guidance. I am extremely excited to take on this new role at ...

OPPO Reno3 Pro with 44MP dual punch-hole front camera teased ahead of India launch

OPPO has started teasing the Reno3 Pro smartphone on its website, Flipkart and Amazon.in ahead of India launch in the next few weeks. This is completely different from Reno3 Pro 5G smartphone which was introduced in China back in December. "OPPO Reno3 Pro with its #DualPunchHole Camera is coming soon to let you witness the world, Clear in Every Shot," says the company. It has also posted a new short ad starring actor Vidyut Jammwal. It also has #TwoIsBetterThanOne. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Lqd8w_fm6o In the first teaser image it says: Introducing Dual Punch Hole Camera in OPPO Reno3 Pro. It helps create dream-like images with Dual Lens Bokeh. The Dual Front Camera provides a Binocular Bokeh Effect by sharpening the edges and producing background gradient. The OPPO Reno3 Pro sports 44MP punch-hole front camera, making it the first phone in the world to sport the same, and the secondary camera is a  2MP depth sensor for portrait. In comparison, the Reno3 Pro 5G sports a single punch-hole front camera to the left. We should know more details including the launch date of the phone in the coming days.

GSMA cancels MWC Barcelona 2020 due to coronavirus concerns

Novel coronavirus outbreak has impacted a lot of people in China, and several companies already announced that are cancelling their major launch events at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2020 due to global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak. Now the GSMA has announced that it has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 which was originally scheduled from February 24th to 27th. In a statement it said that it was not possible for the GSMA to hold the event due to global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances. This is the first time GSMA is canceling the yearly event since the first edition of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in 2006. It added that the Host City Parties respect and understand this decision and said that the GSMA and the Host City Parties will continue to be working in unison and supporting each other for MWC Barcelona 2021 and future editions. Since the MWC even has been cancelled, all the companies that originally planned to introduce their new devices are expected to announce separate event sometime next month. Source

Xiaomi launches Mi Protective Glass for the Redmi Note 8 for Rs. 399

After launching tempered glass screen protector for the Redmi Note 8 Pro back in December, the company has launched Mi Protective Glass for the Redmi Note 8 smartphone. Xiaomi says that the Mi Protective Glass is made in association with Corning. Comprising of multiple layers that include an oleophobic coating, Xiaomi claims a 5X protection improvement over local soda lime tempered glass, says the company. It offers high visibility for full clarity and color and is rated with 9H hardness. Since the sensor placement and display size on older Redmi Note 7 series is same as Redmi Note 8, it should work on those phones too. Hope we can expect similar tempered glass for more Redmi phones in the future. The Mi Protective Glass for the Redmi Note 8 is available for purchase online on Mi.com for a price of Rs. 399. In the other news, Xiaomi has increased the price of Redmi Note 8 4GB + 64GB version by Rs. 500.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 (4GB + 64GB) gets Rs. 500 price hike in India

Xiaomi's Redmi unveiled the Redmi Note 8 series in the country back in October, the Pro variant has been the talk of the town since the launch but vanilla Redmi Note 8 priced at 9,999 (for the base variant with 64 GB storage) was also an incredible value for money. To recall, Redmi Note 8 packs a  6.39-inch Full HD+ LCD screen with 90% screen-to-body ratio, and is powered by Snapdragon 665 11nm Mobile Platform with up to 6GB RAM. The smartphone packs 5 cameras in total, including a quad-camera array at the back and a 13-megapixel camera on the front. Now, the company has increased price of the base variant by INR 500 making it INR 10,499 for 4GB RAM with 64GB storage. The company has not made a formal announcement for the same but the new price is already live on mi.com as well as amazon.in. Also, Redmi Note 8 64GB storage variant is now available only on prepaid orders. We are not sure what are the factors resulting in the price hike but we can hope Xiaomi to make an official announcement for the same. The price for the 6GB RAM with 128GB storage variant remains unaffected and can still ...

Sennheiser PXC 550-II Wireless ANC headphones launched in India for Rs. 29990

Sennhesier, one of the worlds top audio manufacturer has launched their latest PXC 550-II wireless headphones with adaptive noise cancellation. The top of the line headphones has been updated with Bluetooth 5.0, improved battery life, Anti-wind ANC setting and more. The PXC 550-II belongs to the class of premium ANC headphones that is populated by the Sony WH-1000M3 and the Bose 700. The changes made to the second generation model of the PXC 550 is mainly focused on its internals as its design reminds largely unchanged. Sound quality can be nearly guaranteed to live up to the Sennheiser name with outstanding clarity, balance and dynamics. Connecting via Bluetooth 5.0, the headphones support high quality AAC codecs including Qualcomm's AptX codec. Sennheiser has also added AptX Low Latency to ensure that audio and video stay in perfect sync. The adaptive noise cancellation has also been improved with a triple microphone array that can adapt to ambient noise levels to provide the exact level of suppression needed. Sennheiser has also added a new feature called Anti-Wind ANC that ensure the noise cancellation can perform well in outdoor environments. Controlling the headphones is via the Touch pad on the right ear cup, using which users can ...

ARM Cortex-M55 processor and ARM Ethos-U55 microNPU announced

ARM has announced Cortex-M55 processor and Arm Ethos-U55 NPU, which the company says it the industry’s first microNPU (Neural Processing Unit) for Cortex-M, designed to deliver a combined 480x leap in ML performance to microcontrollers. Features of Arm Cortex-M55 Processor Enhanced endpoint AI performance: The first processor based on Arm Helium technology with the highest, most efficient ML and DSP performance for Cortex-M Flexibility to differentiate: Arm Custom Instructions extends the processor’s capabilities for workload specific optimization Faster time to market: The Corstone-300 reference design offers the fastest, most secure way to incorporate the Cortex-M55 into an SoC Simplified software development: Integrated into a single developer tool chain supported by a broad ecosystem of software, tools, libraries and resources Arm Helium Technology: Helium is a new vector instruction set extension in the Armv8.1-M architecture that enables a significant uplift in DSP and ML capabilities. The vector processing extension adds over 150 new scalar and vector instructions, enabling the efficient compute of 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit fixed point data. 16-bit and 32-bit fixed point formats are used in traditional signal processing applications, such as audio processing. Floating-point Unit: The Cortex-M55 Floating-point Unit (FPU) natively supports vector and scalar half-precision and single-precision floating-point datatypes. Additionally, the ...

Samsung introduces new 108MP ISOCELL Bright HM1 image sensor with Nonacell technology, real-time HDR, 8K video recording

Samsung introduced its first 108MP ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor back in August last year, which is being used in Mi Mix Alpha and Mi Note 10 smartphones. Today it has introduced new 108MP ISOCELL Bright HM1 1/1.33" sensor, which the company says is  industry’s first to feature Nonacell technology. It also has Smart-ISO, real-time HDR and 8K video recording at 24 frames per second (fps). Highlights of Samsung ISOCELL Bright HM1 108MP sensor Nonacell, an enhanced version of Tetracell uses a three-by-three pixel structure. In the HM1, Nonacell merges nine neighboring 0.8μm pixels to mimic a large 2.4μm pixel, more than doubling Tetracell’s light absorption. Smart-ISO technology produces vivid and vibrant images by intelligently selecting the optimal ISO. High ISOs are used in darker settings while low ISOs are better for brighter environments to control light saturation. In challenging mixed-light environments for photo-taking, the HM1’s real-time HDR technology optimizes exposures, producing more natural looking videos and still photographs. By assigning the most appropriate exposure lengths to each pixel, the HM1 is able to capture scenes in multiple exposures simultaneously, generating HDR images in real-time for both preview and capture modes. Supports a gyro-based electronic image stabilization (EIS) and Super-PD, an advanced phase ...