technology news 2019

Amazon India on Wednesday announced two sales for products of Apple and Oppo. Called the Apple Days and Oppo Fantastic Days sales respectively, they feature offers on smartphones, smartwatches, accessories, laptops, and tablets from the two companies. The Apple Days sale on Amazon will see up to Rs. 23,000 discount on iPhone models as its main highligh, while on the Oppo side of things, the Oppo Reno 10x Zoom Edition gets a price cut, while its other phones get additional exchange discounts amongst other offers. Both sales started today and will go on till November 15. Amazon Apple Days Sale As we mentioned, Amazon India says buyers can get up to Rs. 23,000 off on iPhone models during the Apple Days Sale. HDFC Bank credit card, debit card, and EMI transaction customers will get Rs. 7,000 instant discount on iPhone 11 Pro Max, and Rs. 6,000 discount on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. The iPhone XR will be priced at Rs. 42,990 and gets ...

Google is set to celebrate Children's Day 2019 by announcing the National winner of 'Doodle for Google' on Thursday, November 14. The 2019 version of the annual Doodle for Google contest, which was open for entries until September 30, was held in four distinct groups and four entries from each group brought 20 national finalists. Of these finalists, a cumulative score based on public voting, scores by guest judges, and a panel of Google executives will choose the National Winner, the company said while elaborating this year's 'Doodle for Google' contest. The winning entry will be featured as Google doodle on this Children's Day. Since 2009, Google is hosting its Doodle for Google for school children in India every year to invite them to create their own doodle for Google India homepage. The contest this year was themed "When I grow up, I hope..." encouraging young netizens to showcase their imagination through distinct artworks. Nation fi...

Redmi 8 will be made available to buy today in its weekly flash sale via Flipkart and Mi.com. The budget smartphone was launched last month in the country, and features a massive 5,000mAh battery as its biggest highlight. The Redmi 8 also bears a dual rear camera setup, and the company's 'Aura Mirror' design. Read on for more details about the Redmi 8 sale today, including its price in India, specifications. Redmi 8 price in India, sale timing The Redmi 8 is priced starting at Rs. 7,999 for the 3GB + 32GB storage variant, going up to Rs. 8,999 for the 4GB + 64GB storage variant. However, for the first 5 million units, only the 4GB + 64GB storage variant will be made available at an introductory price of Rs. 7,999. The sale will start at 12pm IST, via Flipkart, Mi.com, and Mi Home stores. The  Redmi 8  will be in Emeral Green, Onyx Black, Ruby Red, and Sapphire Blue colour variants. To recall, the Redmi 8 was launched by Xiaomi in India...

Instagram has announced a new programme called “Born on Instagram” in India, which it claims “will celebrate, discover and showcase creators in big and regional cities, and give them collaboration and mentorship opportunities.” Born on Instagram will roll out starting this year in 15 cities, though the Facebook-owned photo and video-sharing app didn't detail what those cities would be. Additionally, Instagram also unveiled a new content series called “Unlabel” in partnership with youth media platform Yuvaa, which features “young Indians challenging stereotypes to be their authentic selves” from cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, and Tura. Facebook's   director and head of partnerships in India, Manish Chopra, said “Born on Instagram” is about three key objectives: a) find more talent and help them create better content; b) connect them with the creators they love and follow, who will mentor them in turn; and c) r...

Showing a sign of recovery, the global smartphone market saw 380 million units in shipments, as compared to 379.8 million units in Q3 2018, Counterpoint Research said on Thursday. Samsung led the market with 21 percent share with strong demand for its A and Note smartphone series, while Huawei reached a record high with 18 percent share. Realme was the fastest growing brand, reaching the seventh spot globally. "The global smartphone market ended a long period of continuous YoY declines in Q3 2019 due to increased shipments in India and China," said Shobhit Srivastava, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research.

Nintendo said on Friday it would begin testing a multiplayer option for its Mario Kart Tour mobile game in December, a step towards the full multiplayer mode demanded by players and seen as essential to boosting the title's revenues. A major test of Nintendo's shift to mobile, Mario Kart Tour currently lacks the option to race against friends, leaving the game without a key element that has helped make it one of Nintendo's longest running franchises. Nintendo's shares jumped almost seven percent on Friday, a day after the Japanese gaming company also reported strong demand for a low-cost version of its hybrid home-portable Switch console. Nintendo said on Thursday it sold almost two million units of its handheld-only Switch Lite device in the 10 days after its September launch, with the company's operating profit doubling in the second quarter. Switch Lite is being purchased by many gamers as a second device and is also gaining traction a...

The Xiaomi Watch aka Mi Watch has been teased multiple times to build hype ahead of the official launch next week. We already know what the Mi Watch looks like and the kind of hardware it packs. More details have now been teased by Xiaomi by sharing an image of the watch bands that are available with the upcoming Mi Watch. Another teaser also showcases the Mi Watch's ability to store and stream music directly off the Internet without needing to be paired to a smartphone. The latest teaser from Xiaomi shows that the Xiaomi Watch will have four colour options when it comes to the strap of the device. It has a black, gray, white and a navy blue colour option. These straps are made out of fluoro rubber that has anti-allergic and anti-sweat properties. The bands also seem to have a watch-like clasp which should secure the watch on your wrist. Another teaser from Xiaomi showcases the ability of the Mi Watch to store and stream music directly from the watch. This ...

Realme X started receiving a ColorOS update that brought new features, but the update was paused soon after a critical bug was found by the developers. The company has postponed the rollout of the update that brought along system-wide dark mode and the October security patch for now, until the bug is fixed. Furthermore, Realme Mobiles has also revealed the Android 10 rollout roadmap for its Realme X series of phones in China. The rollout will begin as soon as Q1 2020, and the first phone to get it will be the Realme X. Realme announced on its forums that it has started rolling out the October ColorOS update for Realme X, only to pull it back and put a ‘postponed' label on it. The company says that the developers "have found a critical bug before the update reached more devices. As a consequence the update has been put off temporarily." The post will be updated as soon as the rollout is restarted, and a manual download link will then be made availabl...

Mi CC9 Pro will feature a 32-megapixel selfie camera, Xiaomi has revealed in a teaser, ahead of the phone's official launch next week. A part of the company's Mi CC9 series, the upcoming Mi CC9 Pro is expected to be released as Mi Note 10 outside China. Apart from the selfie camera details, Xiaomi has also noted that phone's rear camera setup will come with two optical image stabilisation modules. Mi CC9 Pro is set to feature a penta-camera setup on the back with a 108-megapixel primary shooter. Xiaomi revealed the presence of 32-megapixel selfie camera on Mi CC9 Pro in a post on Weibo earlier today. The company also noted that the selfie camera will support wide-angle shots and the camera app will include 12 special filters to make selfies even more stylish. In another teaser, Xiaomi has detailed the availability of optical image stablisation on two of the cameras, out of the five available on the back of the Mi CC9 Pro. The company says these OI...

Apple TV+ is now live. The iPhone maker's new streaming service is now available in more than 100 countries worldwide. In India, it costs Rs. 99 per month, for you and five family members, after a one-week free trial. (If you bought an Apple device recently, you might be eligible for a one-year free subscription.) Unlike the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which it's trying to go up against up globally, Apple TV+ only offers original content produced by Apple. That results in a paltry library comprised of less than 10 shows at launch, involving the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Battlestar Galactica creator Ronald D. Moore, Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, and Hailee Steinfeld. Apple TV+ goes live For what it's worth, Apple is going big with its originals. It has reportedly spent $300 million (about Rs. 2,131 crores) on two seasons of Aniston-led newsroom drama The Morning Show — which also stars Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell — and $240 milli...

Facebook-owned WhatsApp on Friday said it agreed with the strong statement made by the Indian government about the need to safeguard the privacy of millions of Indian citizens. IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that the government "is concerned at the breach of privacy of citizens of India on the messaging platform WhatsApp". In the first official reaction, a WhatsApp spokesperson said, "We agree with the government of India's strong statement about the need to safeguard the privacy of all Indian citizens. That is why we've taken this strong action to hold cyber attackers accountable and why WhatsApp is so committed to the protection of all user messages through the product we provide." The Home Ministry issued a separate statement on the WhatsApp controversy, saying the government "is committed to protect the fundamental rights of citizens, including the right of privacy and will take strict action against any intermediary re...

Reliance Jio has partnered with Paytm to offer up to Rs. 50 discount on select prepaid recharges. The recharges that are part of this offer are the newly launched Rs. 444 and Rs. 555 prepaid plans. These two Jio prepaid plans were introduced last month after IUC revisions were implied and a 6 paisa per minute fee was levied on voice calls. To offer some recluse, Paytm is now offering Rs. 40 and Rs. 50 discount on the Rs. 444, and Rs. 555 prepaid plans, respectively. These discounts are valid on recharging via Paytm only. Once you select one of these recharges, after entering your number, users will have to use the promocode SHUBHP44 while recharging the Rs. 444 Jio plan. For the Rs. 555, Jio plan, promocode SHUBHP50 needs to be used. After these promocodes are applied, a discount of Rs. 40 and Rs. 50, respectively, will be applied while checking out. This promocode is valid for use only once per Paytm account, which means subsequent recharges will not be able to avail ...

A new image of the upcoming 16-inch MacBook Pro has been leaked by macOS 10.15.1 Catalina with a discrete Touch ID sensor. The image reveals a slight change to the positioning of the MacBook Pro's Touch ID sensor. It now sits by itself at the top-right corner of the keyboard, split from the Touch Bar, the Cult of Mac reported recently. The device is also expected to include a keyboard redesign this year, switching out the old butterfly keyboard mechanism for a scissor-switch mechanism. Production of the 16-inch  MacBook Pro  has reportedly already begun and it is likely to be designed by Apple's Pro product team. As per the report, the 16-inch  MacBook Pro  may feature a 3072x1920 pixels resolution display. Rumours suggest that the product will be powered by a refresh of Intel's Coffee Lake-H mobile processor series. In addition, the device is rumoured to be the same physical size as the 15-inch MacBook Pro but will feature smaller bezel sizes for a large...

Global smartphone shipments bucked the downward trend for the first time in two years to grow in Q3 2019, research firms Canalys and Strategy Analytics claim. According to Canalys, worldwide smartphone shipments grew 1 percent year-over-year, whereas Strategy Analytics notes the growth was 2 percent. In terms of the total shipments, the smartphone makers shipped 352.4 million smartphones, as per Canalys, and 366 million, as per Strategy Analytics. Samsung, Huawei, and Apple grabbed the top three spots in both research firms' reports, followed by Xiaomi and Oppo. “Global smartphone shipments grew 2 percent annually from 359.8 million units in Q3 2018 to 366.3 million in Q3 2019," said Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. "The global smartphone market grew for the first time since the third quarter of 2017. Worldwide demand for smartphones is recovering, due to strong pricing competition among vendors and new innovations such as larger screens a...

Vivo Y19 has been launched in Thailand, and the phone seems to be a rebranded version of the Vivo U3. The phone is seen to sport a MediaTek Helio P65 SoC, instead of the Snapdragon 675 SoC present on the U3, but everything else seems to be the same. The Vivo Y19 has a triple rear camera setup at the back, a waterdrop-style notch, a rear fingerprint scanner, and a gradient back panel finish. Vivo Y19's other big USP is the large 5,000mAh battery. Vivo Y19 price, availability Vivo Y19 price is Thailand is set at THB 6,999 (roughly Rs. 16,400), and it is up for pre-order on the Lazada retail site. The phone will be made available in Magnetic Black and Spring White gradient finishes, and go on sale from November 5. Vivo Y19 specifications As mentioned, the Vivo Y19 specifications match with the Vivo U3 smartphone launched in China last month. The dual-SIM (Nano) Vivo Y19 runs Android 9 Pie with FunTouch OS 9 custom skin on top. It features a ...

Global smartphone shipments bucked the downward trend for the first time in two years to grow in Q3 2019, research firms Canalys and Strategy Analytics claim. According to Canalys, worldwide smartphone shipments grew 1 percent year-over-year, whereas Strategy Analytics notes the growth was 2 percent. In terms of the total shipments, the smartphone makers shipped 352.4 million smartphones, as per Canalys, and 366 million, as per Strategy Analytics. Samsung, Huawei, and Apple grabbed the top three spots in both research firms' reports, followed by Xiaomi and Oppo. “Global smartphone shipments grew 2 percent annually from 359.8 million units in Q3 2018 to 366.3 million in Q3 2019," said Woody Oh, Director at Strategy Analytics, in a statement. "The global smartphone market grew for the first time since the third quarter of 2017. Worldwide demand for smartphones is recovering, due to strong pricing competition among vendors and new innovations such as larger screens a...

TikTok owner ByteDance was tipped to be working on its own smartphone earlier this year. The culmination of ByteDance's efforts has now gone official in the form of the Smartisan Jianguo Pro 3 aka Nut Pro 3 (translated) – a flagship phone that is powered by the Snapdragon 855+ SoC and comes equipped with four rear cameras. The phone offers a host of software features such as selfie lighting and also lets users directly access the TikTok app with a single swipe on the lock screen. Smartisan Jianguo Pro 3 price  The Smartisan Jianguo Pro 3 aka Nut Pro 3 has been launched in three configurations and colour options in China. The base 8GB + 128GB storage variant has been priced at CNY 2,899 (roughly Rs. 29,000) in China, while the 8GB + 256GB version carries a price tag of CNY 3,199 (roughly Rs. 32,000). Both these variants will be available in Black and White colour options. There is also a 12GB + 256GB variant that only comes in a green-ish Matsutake colour and carries a pri...

Google Pixel 4 duo's launch was marked by the debut of a more capable Google Assistant, new camera tools, and a few new apps. Among them was the awesome Recorder app that can record as well as transcribe audio in real-time, and also offers a nifty search feature. The Recorder app was thought to be a Pixel 4 exclusive, but Google has now confirmed that it plans to bring the app to older Pixel smartphones as well, but there is no official timeline as to when that will happen. Responding to a user's query regarding the absence of Recorder app on previous-gen Pixels, an official Google account on Reddit by the name ‘Pixel Community' revealed that the company plans to bring the app to older Pixel phones as well. “Thanks for expressing interest in the Recorder app. We plan to roll it out to older Pixel devices in a future software update”, the Google account wrote on Reddit. However, it is not clear which older Pixel models will get support for the Recorder app. ...

Waymo Chief Executive John Krafcik said the self-driving vehicle company is now offering limited "rider-only" trips in Phoenix, Arizona, as it looks beyond the robo-taxis business to generate future revenue. Waymo, a unit of Alphabet, has begun offering fully automated rides, without attendants in the vehicle, to a few hundred early users of its robo-taxi service in Phoenix, Krafcik confirmed on Sunday at a dinner with journalists ahead of a conference in Detroit. He did not say when or how quickly Waymo would expand "rider-only" services. Riders signed up for the fully automated service have signed non-disclosure agreements, he said. Waymo continues to look for new ways to sell its technology, beyond robo-taxi services, Krafcik said. The company is testing its so-called automated driver on Peterbilt trucks and plans to expand trucking and commercial delivery applications of its technology as part of a project known internally as "Husky," Krafc...

Google has agreed to buy Fitbit for $2.1 billion in a move giving the US tech giant an entry into the wearable technology space, the two companies announced Friday. The move comes with Google seeking to expand beyond its core business of online search into hardware, and with Fitbit struggling against rivals including Apple. "We have built a trusted brand that supports more than 28 million active users around the globe who rely on our products to live a healthier, more active life," Fitbit co-founder and chief executive James Park said in a statement by the two firms announcing the deal. "Google is an ideal partner to advance our mission. Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables category, scale faster, and make health even more accessible to everyone. I could not be more excited for what lies ahead." Rick Osterloh, Google senior vice president for devices and services, said the deal for the wearable tech pioneer is on...

India's antitrust body has sought more information from Amazon.com about its planned acquisition of a stake in India's Future Retail, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, which could potentially delay the deal. Amazon in August agreed to acquire a 49 percent stake in a unit of India's Future Group which owns 7.3 percent of Future Retail, giving the US-based company a 3.58 percent stake in the retailer which operates more than 1,500 stores in the country. The deal would help Amazon tap into the booming retail market in India, as it separately boosts its e-commerce operations, offering everything from electronics to groceries on its Indian website. Future Retail runs 290 budget department and grocery stores branded "Big Bazaar". In a notice to Amazon last month, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) said "in certain overlapping segments and areas of operation of the parties, the combined market share exceeds the threshold speci...

The US government has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co's $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,070 crores) acquisition of US social media app Musical.ly, according to three people familiar with the matter. While the $1 billion (roughly Rs. 7,070 crores) acquisition was completed two years ago, US lawmakers have been calling in recent weeks for a national security probe into TikTok, concerned the Chinese company may be censoring politically sensitive content, and raising questions about how it stores personal data. TikTok has been growing more popular among US teenagers at a time of growing tensions between Washington and Beijing over trade and technology transfers. About 60 percent of TikTok's 26.5 million monthly active users in the United States are between the ages of 16 and 24, the company said this year. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deals by ...