Category Archives: Latest Trends

Jio working on its own Payments Bank and is set to launch by December: Report

After ruling the telecom space, and then shifting its focus on the mobile manufacturing business with JioPhone, Reliance Jio is reportedly working to introduce Jio Payments Bank. A report coming from Livemint reveals that Jio will be launching its Payments Bank sometime by the end of this year. The report also mentions that the upcoming Jio Payments Bank is basically an 70:30 joint venture between Reliance Industries and State Bank of India, and is said to directly counter Airtel’s Payment Bank. The operation of the Jio Payments Bank is scheduled to begin by December 2017.

This bit of information about the Jio Payment bank has been revealed to Livemint by sources who are well aware of the plans. Jio, it seems was supposed to start the Payment Bank operation in October, however it got delayed as RBI reportedly asked Jio to explain how the Payment Bank will operate to ensure it’s a glitch-free launch.

“The payments bank was expected to launch its operations in October. The launch got delayed as the RBI had asked them (Jio Payments Bank) to demonstrate its capabilities to ensure it is ready for a glitch-free launch. The launch will now be in December,” sources aware of the plan told Livemint.

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/jio-is-working-on-its-own-payments-bank-and-is-set-to-launch-by-december-report/1/1065267.html

Samsung Galaxy Duos explodes in man’s pocket, company says it’s due to third-party battery

Samsung phone reportedly went up in flames in a hotel in Indonesia on September 30. The incident was caught on video, which was later posted on YouTube. The phone was an old Galaxy device — Samsung Galaxy Duos that was launched in 2013. Samsung said that the phone was being used with a third-party battery and that led to the incident. The video showed that the phone exploded in its owner’s shirt pocket.

After reports of the incident came out, Samsung released an official statement stating that the reason behind the battery explosion was third-party battery that the user had put inside the phone.

Smartphone makers always recommend that their customers use only original batteries manufactured by the company, and not put any bought from third-party vendors. However, smartphone users often tend to use third party, probably because these batteries are much more affordable compared to the original ones as well as more readily available. Similar seems to be the case in this incident as well.

The Samsung Galaxy Duos caught fire in the user’s shirt’s pocket, after which the owner of the phone — as shown in the video — fell down while he was trying to take off his shirt to save himself. The user was not hurt in the incident.

The incident was reported by Channel News Asia. In a statement released to CNET, Samsung says that the company isn’t at fault. Samsung notes that the phone user was using a third party battery and not the one manufactured by Samsung, and this is what resulted in the explode. Similar incidents have occurred in the recent past.

The South Korean phone maker said, “We sincerely wish for our customer’s swift recovery, and strongly recommend all our consumers to use Samsung’s genuine or approved batteries that have been specifically designed for use in Samsung products.”

According to the Channel News Asia report, this incident took place in a hotel based in Indonesia called the Hotel Ciputra Semarang, and the man has been identified as hotel staff – name Yulianto. The victim of the incident – Yulianto speaks to Daily Mail and says, “There was a strong sensation of heat and I felt something start to shake. Before I knew what was happening there was fire and I panicked. I took off my shirt as quickly as I could.”

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/samsung-galaxy-duos-explodes-in-mans-pocket-company-says-its-due-to-third-party-battery/1/1064458.html

BlackBerry Motion with full touchscreen, 4000 mAh battery unveiled

BlackBerry Motion, a new smartphone from TCL, has been unveiled and this one sports a Full Touchscreen with no keyboard, unlike the previous BlackBerry KeyOne. TCL is showcasing the BlackBerry Motion at the ongoing GITEX Tech Week in Dubai and the smartphone will be launching in the Middle East first. There’s no word on when the BlackBerry Motion will be made available in India.
BlackBerry Motion, which had the code name Krypton was recently leaked in an image by Evan Blass on Twitter. The new phone matches the leaked images and this one will be sold in Middle East for around $460, according to reports.
In terms of specifications, BlackBerry Motion has mid-range specifications with a 4000 mAh battery on board. The phone doesn’t have a bezel-less display and sticks with the more traditional 16:9 aspect ratio. BlackBerry Motion is running Android Nougat 7.1, and there’s no Android Oreo on this one.
BlackBerry Motion has a 5.5-inch Full HD LCD display and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC processor. The mobile has 4GB RAM on board coupled with 32GB storage, which is on the lower side consider 64GB has become the base variant in this particular price range.
BlackBerry a 4000mAh battery and also sports IP67 water resistance, which is one feature not seen on many of the mid-range smartphones. On the camera front, TCL has not gone for any fancy dual rear option and stuck with a 12MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture for the BlackBerry Motion. The smartphone sports a 8MP front camera. There’s also a fingerprint scanner on the front in the home button.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/mobile-tabs/blackberry-motion-with-full-touchscreen-price-release-date-features-4881479/

OnePlus 5 goes out of stock in the US; OnePlus 6 launch imminent?

Lately, reports have claimed that OnePlus could be skipping the launch of OnePlus 5T, and instead directly launch the OnePlus 6 in early 2018. While 2018 is still three months away, looks like the company is already preparing its fans for the next release. The OnePlus 5 has quietly gone out of stock in certain markets like the US. The unavailability of the flagship device has led to speculations that the next smartphone could launch sooner than expected.

In fact, according to trustedreviews.com, the OnePlus 5 stocks in the UK too have run out. The 64GB and 128GB Slate Grey variants are unavailable, and only the 64GB Soft Gold variant seems to still be on sale. While rumors are largely centered around the OnePlus 6, the company could very well launch an upgraded OnePlus 5T next month. Last year too, OnePlus launching its flagship smartphone in June, and followed it up with the launch of the OnePlus 3T in November.

In India, both the 64GB and the 128GB variants of the OnePlus 5 are still available via the OnePlus store and e-commerce site Amazon India. Recently, the company also announced that the OnePlus 5 would be available via the company’s offline stores in Bengaluru and Delhi, as well as Croma retail stores. The OnePlus 5 sports a 5.5-inch full HD Optic AMOLED display, Snapdragon 835 SoC, 6GB/8GB RAM, 64GB/128GB internal memory options, and a 3,300mAh (non-removable) battery with Dash Charge technology. ALSO READ: OnePlus now controls 57% of the online premium smartphone market in India, according to IDC

Source: http://www.bgr.in/news/oneplus-5-goes-out-of-stock-in-the-us-oneplus-6-launch-imminent/

iPhone X may earn Samsung more money than Galaxy S8: Report

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The iPhone X may be one of the most talked about smartphones in the market to date, but few know that Samsung may financially benefit more from the popularity of Apple’s latest device.

According to a report on the Wall Street Journal, Samsung Electronics. Co., Ltd. currently stands as the only company capable of producing a huge amount organic light emitting diode (OLED) screens. These will then go with every iPhone X produced by factories.

Each OLED screen will cost $110 to make or around P5,600. Multiply this amount with the global demand for the iPhone X and it’s easy to imagine how much money Samsung will make.

In essence, Samsung as a company will continue to earn profits even if the iPhone X overtakes their own Galaxy S8 in sales.

Furthermore, a previous report stated Samsung may also manufacture mobile processors for iPhones in 2018.

Samsung has the potential to earn $4 billion (about P204 billion) in revenue from making iPhone X parts in the 20 months following Nov. 3 when the device hits the market.

The Korean firm’s component business amounted to 35 per cent of their total revenue in 2016. This equals to $195 billion or somewhere along P9.8 trillion.

Apple is not completely comfortable with the current status quo so the company made moves to break Samsung’s monopoly on OLED mass production. They encouraged companies like Sharp Corp. and Japan Display Inc. to build up their capacity to make OLED screens.

Source: http://www.asiaone.com/business/iphone-x-may-earn-samsung-more-money-galaxy-s8-report

Lyf C451 and Lyf C459 effective price reduced, here is how you can buy

Reliance has put Jio Phone’s effective price strategy to its Lyf branded phones as well. While you get a Rs 1500 refund for the JioPhone (subject to several terms and conditions) making it a free device to use, the Lyf phone also got an effective price reduction with new offers bundled with the phone.

The Lyf C451 and Lyf C459 are two smartphones from the company that are eligible for the offer. The phones are available at a price of Rs 4,999 and Rs 4,699 respectively and you can buy them online from Jio.com website or Reliance stores.

But a new offer is available on these two smartphones for Jio users who already have a working Jio connection. The company calls it the Jio-Lyf Mega offer.

What is the Jio-Lyf Mega offer?
Under the latest scheme, your Jio number will be bundled with free data and free initial recharges when you buy any the two phones.

There are three free recharges bundled with a new Lyf C451 and Lyf C459 smartphone — a recharge of Rs 99 that activates Jio Prime membership on the connected number, a recharge of Rs 399 that activates free unlimited voice calling and 1GB data per day for 84 days under the Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer and 5GB additional data per recharge for 9 subsequent recharges worth Rs 201 (totaling to Rs 1,809).

Source: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/technology/story/lyf-c451-and-lyf-c459-effective-price-reduced-here-is-how-you-can-buy/1/1061592.html