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POCO C3 could be a rebranded Redmi 9C, to be launched in India on October 6.

By
Alex Infant
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Image Credit: gizbot.com

Yet another POCO device is soon going to be launched by the company and this time it will be called the POCO C3. The phone is expected to be the rebranded version of the Redmi 9C and will feature a triple camera setup on the rear, which is expected to provide the best camera performance in its segment. POCO shared a short video with its users on Twitter which shows only the camera setup on the back. The phone is expected to be launched on October 6 in an online event at 12PM. 

The phone is already available in Malaysia as Redmi 9C and was launched in June this year. The phone is expected to come with 4GB of RAM as well. The 20-second video on Twitter does not show much but focuses more on the triple camera module, which has a 13-megapixel main camera, a 2-megapixel macro sensor, and a 2-megapixel depth sensor. The expected variant of the phone will be 4GB/64GB and the price can be expected in the Indian market between Rs10,000-Rs11,000. 

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If the phone takes the same specification as of Redmi 9C, then it will also have a  6.53-inch HD+ LCD screen and will be powered by octa-core MediaTek Helio G35 SoC. The phone could also have a 5000mAh battery along with 10W charging. The phone will also have a 3.5mm audio jack, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, and Micro-USB port for charging. However, these specs are not yet clear and the original specs will only be revealed at the event.

Google Play Store removes 17 apps that were affected by Joker Malware.

By
Alex Infant
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0
Image Credit: thehindubusinessline.com

Google has always been stringent about the apps that possess a threat to the user’s smartphone and have been removing such apps regularly. In the same attempt, Google Play Store has removed 17 apps from Google Play Store again, which had traces of Joker Malware. California based IT security company called Zscaler monitored the 17 applications and found they were infected with the Joker malware. The infected application included scanners, Messengers, Photo editors, and translators. 

Joker Malware has been one vulnerability that has been found in many applications before as well and removed. However, the malware is regularly detected in many apps on the Google Play store and immediately removed. The joker malware makes its way into the application by employing changes in its code, execution methods, or payload-retrieving techniques.  The spyware is designed to steal SMS, contact lists, and device information and also gain access to the WAP protocol. The malware then makes the attempt to steal the money from the users as well as steal all their private information stored on the phone. Below is the list mentioned in the banned apps.

  • All Good PDF Scanner
  • Mint Leaf Message-Your Private Message
  • Paper Doc Scanner
  • Private SMS
  • Unique Keyboard – Fancy Fonts & Free Emoticons
  • Tangram App Lock
  • Meticulous Scanner
  • Care Message
  • Hummingbird PDF Converter – Photo to PDF
  • Direct Messenger
  • Desire Translate
  • One Sentence Translator – Multifunctional Translator
  • Style Photo Collage
  • Talent Photo Editor – Blur focus
  • Part Message
  • Blue Scanner
  • All Good PDF Scanner
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If you already have any of these apps on your smartphone, then remove it as soon as possible. These apps have around 120,000 downloads already and might have affected many users. As per the official statement from Zscaler, “We recommend paying close attention to the permission list in the apps that you install on your Android device. Always watch out for the risky permissions related to SMS, call logs, contacts, and more.“

Google to launch Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G to the Indian market soon.

By
Ramana Rishi
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Image Credit: theverge.com

On September 30, Google launched its new smartphone in the US market, which was the all-new Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G. Google made the launch of these smartphones especially for the US market which is the key ground for the company. However, Google did not make it clear when smartphones will be launched in other markets. Looking at the current market growth it seems that Google will be launching its new generation of Pixel phones to the Indian market soon. 

Google was unable to sell the Pixel 4 and 4 XL devices in India previously, due to its ‘Soli Radar chip’ on the front, which utilized the 60GHz frequency band banned for commercial use in India. However, Google has now removed the Soli Radar chip which makes it compatible devices to be sold in the Indian market. Currently, Google has listed nine countries that could sell Pixel 5 and 4a 5G. These countries are the US, Canada, Japan, UK, Germany, France, Ireland, Australia, and Taiwan. But with the removal of the Soli Radar chip, it seems that the phone will now be available in countries like India, Singapore, Italy, and Spain. 

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Google does not have a big share of the smartphone market and there have been multiple reasons for it. But the company is now trying to build better smartphones and is also targeting European markets, which was earlier dominated by Huawei. Google needs to launch in other countries at a very competitive price if they really want the Pixel sales to take off.

Microsoft Xbox Series X and S will give users the option to delete a part of the game.

By
Sriram
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0
Image Credit: news.xbox.com

Microsoft Xbox Series X is one of the anticipated launches of the year, which will happen in November. As per the company, the new generation of gaming consoles will offer a unique and completely new experience to gaming and many customizations in comparison to PS5. Working on that feature, a few details reveal that Xbox series X will allow the users to uninstall parts of games instead of the entire game itself to free up storage space. This will be a new management feature that will be available in both the series X and series S gaming consoles.

 Xbox director of program management Jason Ronald explained the concept in a podcast, where it was mentioned that it will be an optional feature that developers will be able to opt into. Improvements with features like this would make the use of space like one 1 TB even more effective. Ronald said, “Even beyond the hardware, we’ve actually made user interface improvements to make it easier for you to manage your storage. As an example, one of the new features we’re adding is actually for, if a title chooses to support it, the ability to selectively uninstall different components of the game.” 

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One of the best examples that he gave was, if a player has finished the campaign and wants to focus on multiplayer, then he will be able to uninstall the campaign part of the game while still having the multiplayer option and keeping the game on the drive. Hopefully, this feature will soon come on the new generation consoles and will really be useful for players.

Apple working on a foldable phone with a self-healing display.

By
Sajin Vargheese
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0
Image credit: tweaktown.com

When it comes to the latest in smartphone technology, no one can neglect the foldable smartphones which have become one of the most premium offerings by companies the world over. We have already noticed foldable phones by Samsung, Huawei, and Motorola, and they have some really unique features on offer as well. However, nothing similar has been yet announced by Apple which is known to provide the best of smartphone technology. However, it seems that Apple is soon going to launch a new foldable smartphone. 

Apple has recently filed a new patent, which reveals a folding screen and a self-healing display, which can fix the normal tear and wear on the screen by itself, including scratches and dents. Now if this turns out to be true then it would be an amazing feat by Apple in display technology. The patent that has been filed is named as “Electronic Devices With Flexible Display Cover Layers“. As the name suggests the display is all about minimizing the damage and taking an action if it occurs. The technology and concept are still under work by Apple and far from reality. 

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However, it can be expected that the company can launch the device anytime next year, most probably in the 3rd or 4th quarter. The patent does suggest that the display will be a single piece display and not two separate ones. However, since Apple has already placed an order for folding displays to Samsung for at least one year, we will probably not see the self-healing display in the first version of the phone. However, the self-healing technology in the display is totally going to be a game-changer for foldable smartphones.

Twitter is making changes to its automated image cropping feature.

By
Shanmugam
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0
Image Credit: Kuulpeeps.com

Twitter will be changing the automated image cropping feature on their platform. The company first introduced the feature in 2018 to let the users highlight the salient areas of the image using the neural network algorithms to predict where someone is likely to look. The feature did bring out some really interesting results with the user’s photograph, with one being the AI cropping, which tends to pick lighter-skinned people, regardless of the original framing. The users did conduct many interesting experiments with the algorithm with images of humans, animals, cartoons, and a lot more. 

The issue soon became popular and was tagged by some as a feature with racial or gender biases. However, Twitter did acknowledge the issue and confirmed that this is just a feature of the algorithm which will be tweaked in the future and is not based on any ground. The did acknowledge that the feature should have been launched after more tweaking and designing. The company is now making changes to the feature and have made clear that the image cropping will work on the principle of “what you see is what you get”. So the photo in Tweet composer is exactly what you will find in the Tweet. 

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The company has not yet confirmed as to when the update will be released or the issue will be, however, the company has acknowledged the issue and is working to fix it. The company has also apologized to people whom they might have unintentionally hurt and have assured that Twitter is fair and equal to all its users, no matter who they are or where they are from.

The New Jio smartphone, codenamed “Orbic” found listed on Google Play Console with basic specs.

By
Sajin Vargheese
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0
Image Credit: indiatvnews.com

Jio is one of the biggest mobile operators in India right now and they have been providing new offers to the regular and new Jio customers. Jio has released a few different phones in the past as an exclusive combo to their mobile sim connection. Now the company is expected to launch a new Android smartphone with the connection, which will not only provide the latest smartphone features but also some exclusive Jio features built-in the phone.

The Phone has been codenamed “Orbic(RC545L)” and is expected to launch for the Indian customer in December this year. What would be the main USP of this smartphone, is the pricing. 

The expected price of this smartphone is expected to cost around less than Rs 5,000. The phones have been found listed on the Google Play Console which gives a hint that the phone is expected to be launched soon in the Indian market. As per the basic specs listed in the Google Play Console, the phone will come with Qualcomm Snapdragon QM215 and Adreno 306 as the GPU. The phone is from the budget category and will be a part of Google’s Android Go initiative, where the OS has been configured and designed to run smoothly on low power specs.

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The smartphone is expected to have 1 to 2GB of RAM. The phone will be running on the Android 10 with an HD+ screen and bezels on both top and bottom. The phone will be a perfect pair with the new tariff plans that Jio has launched recently and will be a major competitor in the budget phone segment.

Google Maps to add popular Landmarks to Live View navigation.

By
Alex Infant
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0
Image Credit: xda-developers.com

Google maps have been updating the Maps app and have been adding a lot of new features to it. Recently the app got a new feature where it can suggest the route based on the location with more corona cases. It would provide the details about the number of cases and also color code the area as per the intensity of the cases, which would help the user in selecting the appropriate route. Now Google is adding another feature that will show the famous landmarks around you. The improvement has been done for its Live View feature based on AR. 

The Live View AR will identify landmarks for better guidance and the feature will soon be rolled out on the Android and iOS smartphones. Google Maps is one of the most trusted and popular navigation apps in the world and the company launched a live view feature to the app last year. The new features are an improvement to the same feature which uses a camera and GPS to give visual clues. When you use this feature, the app will place Arrows and directions to guide you in the real world and they will turn as you start moving. 

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With the new update, adding the landmarks to the navigation will help users to better find their destination. The selected landmarks in the app will be popular buildings, iconic places, or easily spotted parks. Initially, the feature is launching in these cities, Amsterdam, Bangkok, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Dubai, Florence, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, Kyoto, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York, Osaka, Paris, Prague, Rome, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo and Vienna. The feature will soon be released for the remaining countries as well.

To resolve the iOS 14 issues, you might have to reset your phone.

By
Alex Infant
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0
Image Credit: republicworld.com

Apple iOS updates have never been perfect and have always come with its fair share of bugs and issues. This time its iOS 14 and watchOS 7 have created a lot of problems for Apple Watch and iPhone users. The users have been facing a wide variety of issues in their devices after updating. Some of the most common issues include missing fitness data, health apps that refuse to open, inaccurate reports of stored data, and increased battery drain on iPhones and Apple Watches. Users have been tweeting a lot on Apple’s page about the issues they are facing, out of which one issue is battery drain. 

One of the customers has tweeted that the iPhone battery drained from 90% to 3% in an hour. Although this is not a common problem for all users but is one of the user issues that can be seen in the iOS 14 update. Apple did release the 14.0.1 update to fix most of the bugs, but many issues still remain unfixed. Apple also stated that if the users are facing more than one issue with their device after the iOS 14 update then they simply need to unpair your iPhone and your Apple Watch, back up to iCloud, erase all content from your iPhone, and then restore your iPhone and Apple Watch from the backups. 

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This step will not restore the workout route maps, environmental sound levels, or any other missing data. Therefore, it seems like the issue will simply ask you to reset the phone, will some loss of the data. Many users have suggested not to update the phone to iOS 14 until the resolution for the issues is available through an update.

Smartphones in the Indian market get costlier as the Indian government imposes 10% import duty.

By
Sajin Vargheese
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0
business-standard.com

The display is one of the most important parts of the mobile device and it seems that the cost of the display panel is going to increase as the Indian government has imposed a 10% import duty on the same. After the import duty was applied, it can be expected that the cost of smartphones by Samsung, Apple, Vivo, Xiaomi, Oppo, and RealMe is going to increase. The decision to increase the import duty has been taken due to the Atmanirbhar Bharat Campaign, as an effort to push the manufacturing of such components within the country. 

The price hike for smartphones will range between 1.5% and 5%, as confirmed by smartphone manufacturing companies. The move can be really demotivating for smartphone brands as the festive season in India is about to come and companies are really expecting high sales at this time. Since display panels and touch panels are among the most critical components, the increase in price cannot be deflected in any way. The Indian government has been trying to implement this policy since April this year, however, it has been delayed twice to give more time to component manufacturers in setting up their base in the country. 

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Currently, there are four companies in India that are manufacturing the display panels, with Holitech and TCL among them. Companies are trying different strategies in this situation. While some companies will be increasing the price immediately, some of them have said that they will absorb the extra cost without adding it to smartphones.

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