BlackBerry KEY2 LE brings its cheap QWERTY chops to Blighty

The affordable QWERTY mobe is available to pick up for £349 SIM-free at the BlackBerry website.

The smartphone - which is being made under licence by TCL, the Chinese collector of knackered Western brands - follows on from the release of the BlackBerry KEY2, which replaced the KEYone, a QWERTY keypad toting phone that we're still convinced no one really wanted, despite evidence seemingly being to the contrary.

The KEY2 LE follows on with the example set by its predecessor, with the QWERTY keyboard present and correct.

But it has a few nips and tucks, notably a dual rear camera array sporting 13MP and 5MP lenses, and an 8MP front camera, supporting modes like 'Face Beauty' and Wide Selfie - panoramic self-shot photos for the uninitiated. Google Lens is also built-in to enable information to be sucked up from photos.

For business types, the KEY2 LE comes with BlackBerry's refreshed DTEK security app that sniffs out any security threats trying to cause problems on the handset.

It can also separate business and personal accounts, so users can search and download grot onto the phone without worrying it'll end up in an email attachment to their boss. With the dual SIM model of the KEY2 LE, users can also have two WhatsApp accounts running at once, which will be great news for drug dealers.

Under the hood, the KEY2 LE uses a Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 processor, paired with Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0, 4GB of RAM and up to 54GB of storage, so it's decently specced for a mid-range mobile.

Xiaomi expands Poco sub-brand to offline channel, as consumers shop more during Diwali

Xiaomi’s sub-brand Poco is the newest to shift its strategy from online-only to sell devices in the offline channel as well. The Chinese smartphone maker has announced that it will start selling its handset through Mi preferred partners and Mi Home stores across the country.

The devices will be available in the offline retail channel starting October 13, reports Economic Times. The idea of selling Poco phones in the offline market is said to be driven by strong demand for smartphones in the offline segment during the Diwali season. The move could be seen as a way for the company to drive sales for the new smartphone and reach new volumes for Poco brand in the country.

“We want to bring Poco smartphones to more users in India, whereby we are now coming to the offline channel. We were getting a lot of demand from the consumers,” C Manmohan, General Manager of Poco India told ET. He added that the device is priced higher than other Xiaomi devices and consumers want to experience it before buying the smartphone.Poco brand from Xiaomi made its debut in mid-August and launched its first smartphone, the Poco F1, at a starting price of Rs 20,999. It is one of the cheapest smartphone in the Indian market to feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chipset. Manmohan told the newspaper that the device will be available at an aggressive pricing close to what it offers in the online retail channel.

Xiaomi, which according to IDC, is the leader in India’s smartphone segment, has little or no presence in the premium segment. It mostly sells smartphones in the sub-Rs 20,000 price segment, leaving room for rivals including OnePlus, Huawei and Samsung to take a big piece out of the premium smartphone segment. With Poco, Xiaomi aims to win customers way from these premium brands. The introduction of Poco has forced the likes of Samsung to concentrate on bringing flagship features to the mid-range segment.By offering the Poco sub-brand in the offline market, Xiaomi is essentially trying to drive consumers looking at Redmi Note 5 Pro towards the Poco F1, which offers faster processor but does not cost a whole lot more. It needs to be seen whether Xiaomi’s strategy will work when its primary rival OnePlus is also expanding its footprint in the offline channel.

You will soon be able to buy alcohol online and have it home delivered, thanks to the Government of Maharashtra

The Government of Maharashtra is reportedly planning to make home delivery of alcoholic beverages legal across the state. In some good news that you could raise your glass to, people living in Mumbai and other cities in the Western state can now buy alcohol just by sitting at home. Buying alcohol hasn’t exactly been an easy process so far. Not only does one have to brave the traffic but also has to wrestle one’s way through the throng of people at the counter just to place a simple order. But according to a report carried by the Times of India, the Maharashtra Government is now planning to introduce a policy that will legalise home delivery of liquor.

While you may be able to enjoy home delivery of alcohol even now in metro cities in Maharashtra, getting your alcohol delivered directly by shops and third party vendors is prohibited by law. But not for long, as State Minister for Excise Chandrashekhar Bawankule was quoted as saying to the press, this move would be a game changer for the liquor industry. The minister also touched upon the fact that home delivery of liquor is mainly to cut down the cases of accidents that happen due to drunken driving.

Once the policy is introduced, alcoholic beverages will be retailed across Maharashtra via e-commerce websites, just like the vegetable and grocery retail that happens right now. According to a report on Business Today, to make sure that the buyer is above the legal drinking age, sellers will be directed to take complete Aadhaar details of the buyers before delivering alcohol. The legal age for drinking beer is 21 in Maharashtra while in order to consumer other alcoholic beverages, you need to above 25.

The Minister also said that this move would additionally curb the sale of spurious liquor and alcohol smuggling as a bottle could be tracked all the way from its manufacturer to the sale. The geo-tagging of the bottle will be done at the cap of the bottle and would be able to track all the way until the consumer.

Paytm Claims 33% Market Share Of UPI Payments, Sets Aside $27 Mn For Further Promotion

Registering over 137 Mn Unified Payments Interface (UPI) transactions in the month of September 2018, One97 Communications, which owns digital payments brand Paytm, today (October 15) announced that it contributed over 33% of overall UPI transactions.

The company is enabling and promoting BHIM UPI for offline payments and more than 5 Mn offline merchants out of its 9.5 Mn merchant base now accept Paytm UPI. The company has also set aside $27.07 Mn (INR 200 Cr) to promote UPI transactions this year.

UPI, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)’s instant interbank payment system, recorded a total of 405.87 Mn transactions in September for a value of $8.18 Bn (INR 59,835 Cr). Of this total amount, the government-backed BHIM UPI registered 16.33 Mn transactions worth INR 7,064.86 Cr in September, compared to 16.5 Mn transactions (amounting to INR 6,872.57 Cr) in the previous month.

Key Drivers Of Growth For Paytm

Paytm claims to offer “the most comprehensive payment use cases as well as modes of payment” on its app. As of now:

More than 20% of all payments on Paytm are made using BHIM UPI
Mobile Recharge & payments, electricity and water bills and DTH recharges have witnessed the highest adoption rate
Paytm BHIM UPI has been witnessing constant growth and has surpassed credit cards and net-banking for on-app and offline payments
Deepak Abbot, Senior Vice President, Paytm, said that India is embracing digital payments for its everyday use cases. Paytm has built an ecosystem where users can make payments for various services such as mobile recharges, electricity and water bills, metro commute, and also at offline stores.“It is encouraging to see the widespread adoption of Paytm BHIM UPI as it is fast becoming a preferred payment method for millions of users making us the leader in UPI payments. We will continue to invest our efforts to introduce more consumers and merchants to the convenience of Paytm UPI for online and offline use cases,” he added.

Current Status Of PhonePe, Google Pay & WhatsApp Pay

Paytm’s arch-rival PhonePe is yet to disclose its UPI transactions volume for September. It must be noted that in July, PhonePe claimed itself to be the single largest player on the UPI network, ahead of payment apps such as Paytm and Tez (now Google Pay).

PhonePe also crossed the 100Mn transaction mark in July, driving nearly 70% of overall merchant transactions on the UPI network in that month.

Sameer Nigam, CEO and Co-Founder of PhonePe earlier said in a media statement that the company’s growth in market share is largely fuelled by two factors:

PhonePe has added lakhs of new offline and online merchants on its platform in recent months and is seeing exponential growth in merchant transactions.
Two, the NPCI recently started blocking any UPI transactions where the sender and receiver bank account number are the same. This move has effectively limited the ability of certain companies to incentivise shell transactions and artificially inflate their UPI numbers.
“As a result of these two factors, our market share of UPI transactions has jumped to 40% in July,” he added.

Further, in September, PhonePe also announced that it has registered a phenomenal 20X growth in payment transactions across offline stores. PhonePe also crossed the 2 Mn transaction mark last month at its offline organised outlets and is looking to set to scale up to 10 Mn by December.

WhatsApp is still struggling to get the final approval from the authorities (NPCI and RBI) for the full-fledged rollout of its digital payment service, WhatsApp Pay. The company has also built a system recently to store payments-related data locally in India.

Google Pay has not shared the transactions detail for September so far but claims to have a user base of 25 Mn in the country.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 officially arriving on October 25

Two weeks ago we heard that Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 might eventually arrive on October 15. Since we are already in the second half of the month, the Chinese company technically delivered an announcement - it announced the launch date of the new flagship. The Mi Mix 3 will arrive on October 25, and it appears the sliding camera mechanism is real, according to the teaser on Weibo.Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 was initially teased with a Find X-esque notch that comes up, but after further investigation, it might be 100% screen-to-body front with a sliding back. There’s also the technical possibility that the display is sliding and the back is stationary, depending on your point of view.

We are yet to learn more about the specs of the phone, but we already heard the Mi Mix 3 might arrive with AI dedicated button that will activate Xiao AI. The service came preloaded with Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, but this is the first time Xiaomi is implementing a hardware solution for its assistant.

Amazon just announced a new water-resistant Kindle Paperwhite that costs $130

Amazon upgraded its popular Kindle Paperwhite eReader on Tuesday with new features that align it more with last year's Kindle Oasis — but this device is more than $100 cheaper.

The Kindle Paperwhite is probably the e-reader you should buy if you're in the market for a new one, but only if the following features sound like they're worth the upgrade.

The new device is water-resistant, which means it can be dropped into a pool or up to 6 feet of water for 60 minutes without getting damaged. Amazon also added Bluetooth and support for Audible so users can switch back and forth between listening and reading if they connect headphones or a speaker. You still need to own the Audible and eBook formats for this to work.

The Kindle Paperwhite is thinner and lighter than last year's model and has one additional LED light that makes the screen brighter even when it's used in the dark.

Amazon is adding new presets to its fonts, too. You might read a book in a certain font and size, but then hand it off to a child who prefers a different setting. It's a useful feature if you share your Kindle with multiple people, or if you wear glasses occasionally but want to toggle between certain fonts and sizes at different times of day.

Amazon will sell two versions of the Paperwhite: an 8GB model that starts at $130 and a $160 model with 32GB of storage (better for storing more Audible books.) Those prices are for the "Special Offers" models, which show Amazon ads on the screen when the Kindle is idle. Each version is an additional $20 without Special Offers.

Nokia 7.1 Plus (Nokia X7) launched in China, prices start at Rs 18,000

HMD Global owned Nokia has been on a roll this year, coming out with three new smartphones within a span of three months, one for each budget segment. You have the Nokia 3.1 Plus to compete against Redmi 6 Pro, the Nokia 6.1 Plus to compete against the Mi A2 and finally the Nokia 5.1 Plus that is pitted against the Redmi Note 5 Pro. Add one more to the point-one lineup and you have the Nokia 7.1 Plus.

The Nokia 7.1 Plus was launched in China on Tuesday as the Nokia X7. With prices starting at 1,699 Yuan (about Rs 18,000) for the base 4GB/64GB variant, Nokia is really trying to get the grab of the mid-range smartphone market. Going by Nokia’s tradition of launching phones in the Chinese market, the Nokia 7.1 Plus can be expected to come to India by mid-November.

The Nokia 7.1 Plus sports a 6.18-inch Full HD+ LCD display at the front. From the first look at the official images released by Nokia, it is hard to not appreciate how far off to the edges Nokia has stretched the screen. Powering the device is a rather unique Snapdragon 710 processor clocked at 2.2GHz with eight Kryo 360 cores. It comes in three variants of 4GB RAM/64GB internal storage, 6GB RAM/64GB internal storage and 6GB RAM/128GB internal storage.

The back of the phone features a 12MP+13MP AI enabled dual camera with Optical Image Stabilisation. The lens of the rear camera is made by ZEISS. The front camera is an AI-enabled 20MP clicker.

The phone runs on Android One based on Android Oreo 8 which means it’s on the priority list for latest security and firmware upgrades from Google.

The phone is backed by a 3,500mAh battery and supports 18W fast-charging.

BSNL partners Nokia for private 4G service to businesses

State-run BSNL has partnered with telecom gear maker Nokia to offer businesses private 4G services, the two companies said in a joint statement.
"Nokia and BSNL are working together to implement the next level of industrial automation, leveraging 4G LTE technology to enable greater operational efficiency at Nokia's Chennai plant," it said.The first project under the partnership has been deployed at Nokia's Chennai plant using 4G connection from BSNL's network.
"BSNL has a limited presence in Tamil Nadu with 2100 Mhz band on which it is trialling 4G. The deployment at Chennai factory draws on that network to create a private LTE network that is meant for enterprise/business segment," a spokesperson from Nokia said.The state-run firm has requested the government to provide an additional spectrum for 4G services.
BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said the implementation of new 4G technology for industrial purpose shows that the solution can be scaled for 5G services as well.
"This network deployment for Industry 4.0 at Nokia's Chennai factory that can be scaled to 5G demonstrates our preparedness to take advantage of new opportunities that will emerge with 5G and IoT in India," Shrivastava said.
Working together on this project, Nokia and BSNL are demonstrating the ability to leverage automation across the industries, showing how it can be replicated in sectors such as oil and gas, mining, public safety and disaster management, the statement said.

Limited Edition Spider-Man PS4 Pro Now Available in India

The Limited Edition Spider-Man PS4 Pro console is now available in India. While the rest of the world received this special PS4 Pro variant on the Spider-Man PS4 release date of September 7, Sony India has only brought it to the country right now. And much like the God of War PS4 Pro console, it's not cheap. The Limited Edition Spider-Man PS4 Pro console price is Rs. 49,690.  It includes a fully customised 'Amazing Red' 1TB PS4 Pro console featuring the iconic Spider-Man logo, a matching DualShock 4 wireless controller, Spider-Man game on Blu-ray disc, and a PlayStation Store download voucher for The City That Never Sleeps DLC. Like most collector's edition consoles, expect this to be on sale in limited quantities. Gadgets 360 has heard between 70 and 80 units have made it to the country. Check your local game store or online stores like Flipkart, which has it listed at the moment.

At the moment there's no news of the Limited Edition Spider-Man PS4 Slim that was also released in time for the game's launch. It has a 1TB PS4 'Amazing Red' console in the special Spider-Man design, a matching DualShock 4 wireless controller, Spider-Man game on Blu-ray disc, and a PlayStation Store download voucher for The City That Never Sleeps DLC.

Also missing is the Spider-Man PS4 Collector's Edition that was to make it to the country albeit after 20 to 25 days. In fact, Sony refuses to bring up the status of this variant of the game to retailers Gadgets 360 has learned. This is in the wake of the Spider-Man PS4 Special Edition cancellation for India. It isn't the first time Sony India has messed up the release of its games in India. Earlier, Shadow of the Colossus was delayed due to logistics issues and Horizon Zero Dawn failed to make its date for the same reason as did the limited variants of God of War.

Flipkart claims to have beat Amazon in fashion, mobile phones, large appliances during sale season

Led by dominance in key categories like fashion, mobile phones and large appliances, Walmart-backed e-commerce major Flipkart today claimed to have cornered over 70% market share in the Indian e-commerce market during the festive season sale.

In a statement, Flipkart said the massive market share was driven by leadership in deep penetrated and high average selling price categories like fashion, mobile phones, large appliances and furniture during The Big Billion Days sale.

Flipkart sold 3 million smartphones on October 11, making it the single largest day for smartphone sales in the country ever.

Flipkart claims to have amassed an unparalleled 85% share of online fashion market in India. In both mobiles and large appliances, the e-tailer says it has cornered 75% market share while in furniture, Flipkart says it is the largest retailer, both offline and online.

“Flipkart’s TBBD’18 has smashed all existing records to set new benchmarks for the entire Indian retail industry. Flipkart has recorded over 70% share of entire Indian e-commerce market in the 5 day TBBD’18 sale, matching scale with global marquee retail events,” the company said.

Traffic on Flipkart grew by 60% as compared with last year’s sale while transacting customers grew by 62%.

In terms of gross merchandising value, sales on Flipkart grew 80% over last year whereas units grew by close to double on a year-on-year basis.

In fashion category, the highest number of growth came from cities and towns of eastern part of India.

The large appliance (appliances and TV) category saw 105% growth over last year’s sale with around 50% of sales coming from Tier 2, 3 and beyond cities.

Flipkart claims that 2 out of every 3 TVs sold in India were sold on Flipkart during the sale.

Flipkart’s Private Brands portfolio grew by a whopping 550 times over last year’s sale with over 3 Private Brands products selling every second this season.

Google Pixel 3 XL uses an OLED display from Samsung

samsung has dominated the manufacturing of OLED panels for smartphones and televisions, but recently, LG has closened the gap between the two Korean companies. The Google Pixel 2 notably features an LG-manufactured P-OLED panel, which we highly praised in our review. Samsung, LG, and even Sony have intensified their efforts to ship the best mobile OLED display on the market: Samsung with the Galaxy Note 9, LG with the V40 ThinQ, and Sony with the Xperia XZ3. With the release of the Google Pixel 3 XL, you may be wondering which company Google is sourcing their OLED panels from. As it turns out, it’s a Samsung made panel.

While evaluating the Pixel 3 XL, I discovered a calibration file called qdcm_calib_data_S6E3HA8_ 6.3_command_mode_panel.xml which references the same Samsung DDIC used in the Samsung Galaxy S9 series. The 6.3 in the filename matches the 6.3-inches of the display on the Pixel 3 XL. There’s also a firmware file for Samsung’s S6SY761 touchscreen digitizer.

This year’s Google Pixel 3 was developed quite differently than the previous two generations. The Google Pixel’s ODM was HTC for both the regular and XL model, while the Pixel 2’s ODM was HTC and LG for the regular and XL models respectively. After acquiring the HTC engineers who worked on the Google Pixel, Google decided to develop the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL entirely in-house using Foxconn’s factories for manufacturing. There were early rumors that Google would source notched OLED panels from LG Display for the Pixel 3 XL, but neither Google nor LG confirmed the news at launch time. Thanks to iFixit’s thorough teardown of the Pixel 3 XL’s display, we can now definitively confirm that it’s Samsung we have to credit for the excellent display.

We’ll hopefully do our own display analysis of the Pixel 3 XL in the near future. For now, we can share some of our thoughts based on hands-on previews of the device.

Initial Impressions of the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL Displays

The following section was written by Dylan Raga, our display analyst.

Relative to the Pixel 2 XL, the improvements in the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL displays are impressive. Solid colors appear bright and inky, and no longer possess a grainy appearance like on the Pixel 2 XL. The absence of grain also helps text and curves appear sharper and smoother. One of the lesser-talked issues of the Pixel 2 XL display is that the top glass felt hollow, and the display itself seemed sunken in. On the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL, the lamination of the OLED is now closer to the top glass, allowing the on-screen elements to appear closer to your fingertips when pressed, and tightens the feeling of touching the screen. The Pixel 3 family also opted to ditch the Pixel 2 XL’s 3D glass curves, which possibly resulted in its hollow display due to their inexperience with working with actual curved “3D glass.” The angular color shift is also much improved for most of the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL units and falls in the acceptable range for flagship OLEDs. The smaller Pixel 2, which is commonly accepted to house the superior display panel, did not exhibit any of the above issues. However, just like last year, this year’s Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL do appear to have different characteristics between the two display panels.

In terms of brightness, the Pixel 3 full-screen (100% APL) brightness is similar to that of the Pixel 2 XL’s (and therefore brighter than the smaller Pixel 2), with the Pixel 3 XL slightly but noticeably edging out the two. Android Central claimed that the Google Pixel 3 and Google Pixel 3 XL displays reached a minimum of 400 nits for a full-screen image, however, we measured both the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL to have already achieved more than this for a full-screen image, so the 400 nits minimum is nothing to write home about.

The display calibrations are where the bulk of the display differences rise. Empirically, the Google Pixel 3 XL display calibration in the Natural screen color mode appears excellent and competes toe-to-toe with Apple’s latest iPhone display calibrations. The Pixel 2 XL display had near-perfect chromatic calibration but significantly overshot its display gamma, resulting in color tones that were too dark. The Google Pixel 3 XL improves upon the display gamma significantly, appearing to have a gamma very close to the desired target of 2.20, with colors remaining very accurate. However, the Pixel 3 does not seem to be garnished with the same improvement; color tones still appear to be a little bit too dark, with a display gamma visually in the neighborhood of ~2.40, like the Pixel 2 XL (2.42).

Google received harsh criticism last year for shipping their 2017 flagship phones with a color profile that targets accurate colors, a decision that most Android OEMs no longer follow, and one that Apple has always done for their phones. The Pixel 2 XL calibration wasn’t perfect, but many people attributed the color profile to resulting in the inferior panel. Many Android users are used to the punchy, over-saturated color profiles that OEMs ship with their displays, with Samsung phones being the most infamous example, shipping with their Adaptive display profile. For the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, Google caved in and defaulted the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL display panels to their new Adaptive color mode, which Google has not revealed much about yet so far. At a glance, the profile is actually different for the two phones. For the Google Pixel 3 XL, the profile seems to be similar to Samsung’s Adaptive display screen mode. The smaller Google Pixel 3, however, has an Adaptive profile that closely resembles the Saturated screen mode in the Google Pixel 2 XL. The Google Pixel 3 in this mode is noticeably more saturated than on its larger variant.

Samsung Festive Sale With Deals and Cashback Offers on Select Smart TVs, Home Appliances Now Live

Samsung on Tuesday kicked off its bunch of discounts and cashback offers under the 'Upsize Now' festive sale. Lasting until November 11, the Samsung sale brings up to 25 percent instant cashback on a range of Samsung products and an additional 15 percent cashback on purchases made through HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, and ICICI Bank credit and debit cards. There are bundled offers on the new 2018 line of televisions and air purifiers and home appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators.

The company is additionally offering top-up offers, including a 10-year no-screen burn-in warranty with Samsung QLED TVs, up to two months free subscription with select TV models, and two years of extended warranty on select Panel TVs. Notably, the ongoing offer is available on the pan-India basis, except Kerala, and is applicable on purchase of genuine products from Samsung exclusive stores, select multi-brand retail stores, modern trade stores, and major electronics stores in the country, though it can't be availed on purchases made through third-party e-commerce portals like Flipkart and Amazon.

Among other benefits during the Samsung festive sale, customers buying the latest 65-inch and above Samsung QLED TV ₹ 341,899 or Family Hub Refrigerator will get a Galaxy S9+ ₹ 57,108.48 64GB variant worth Rs. 64,900 for free. There is also a free smart TV worth Rs. 67,900 with the 55-inch Samsung QLED TV models. Further, there are free gifts such as a home theatre worth Rs. 17,900 and soundbar worth Rs. 11,500 with 65-, 75-, and 55-inch UHD TVs by Samsung. Select TV models also come bundled with the Level U Bluetooth headphones worth Rs. 2,999.

Customers buying select Samsung refrigerators can get a 32-inch Samsung LED TV worth Rs. 23,900. Similarly, there is a Samsung Galaxy J6 ₹ 11,490 bundle on the purchase of select Samsung washing machines and air purifiers. A Borosil Kit is also available with select microwave ovens, whereas free installation can be availed with Samsung air conditions.


Samsung has also announced that it is offering a zero down payment option with 10, 12, and 15 months EMI offers on select products and one plus four years of extended warranty model on Magnetron in select microwave ovens. There is also up to two months free DTH subscription on select TV models. Moreover, customers can avail 10-year no-screen burn-in warranty with Samsung QLED TVs and two years extended warranty on select Panel TVs.

You can visit the official Samsung India website to see all the latest benefits through the ongoing festive sale.

"Consumers are increasingly looking at higher value products to upgrade their lifestyles and ‘Upsize Now’ is our proposition for these consumers," said Rajeev Bhutani, Senior Vice President, Consumer Electronics Business, Samsung India, in a press statement. "With our vast range of innovative products across categories, including Family Hub Refrigerator, Masala Sun-dry Microwaves, Wind Free Air Conditioners, the new 2018 line-up of Televisions and Washing Machines and range of Air Purifiers - all coupled with the irresistible festive offers, we are confident that we will further enhance our market leadership this festive season."

Apple iPhone XR will have a ‘Better Than Expected’ demand

Apple iPhone XR will sell better than the iPhone 8 did last year, claims famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. In an investor released today (via Apple Insider), Kuo said that the iPhone XR demand remains high along with improved supply in October. In fact, Apple is expected to sell anywhere between 36 to 38 million iPhone XR in the fourth quarter of 2018, up from the original estimates of 33 to 35 million units.
Kuo is expecting the iPhone XR to outsell the iPhone 8 because of its large display, longer battery life, dual-SIM support, and a new form factor. Overall, Apple could be expected to ship between 78 and 83 million iPhones in Q4 2018. The 2017 shipments for the same period stood at 77.3 million iPhones.Apple launched the iPhone XR, alongside the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max at the company’s annual hardware refresh event last month. In India, the iPhone XR will be made available for pre-orders from October 19, while its sale will begin from October 26. The iPhone XR price in India starts at Rs 76,900 for the base model.
On the specifications side, iPhone XR comes with a 6.1-inch LCD display (1792×828) resolution at 326 ppi. The phone’s design includes an all-glass body, that provides wireless charging support, and an aluminium frame on the side. Apple iPhone XR runs the A12 Bionic chipset and runs on OS 12, like the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. It sports a 12MP rear camera, a 7MP TrueDepth front camera that supports Face ID. iPhone XR is available in 64GB, 128GB and 256GB storage variants.

Apple Watch Series 4 India price revealed, shipping starts from October 19

The Apple Watch Series 4 has been officially launched in India. Although the Apple Watch Series 4 was announced alongside the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR in September, it is only now that Apple India has revealed its price and availability details. The Apple Watch Series 4 starts at Rs 40,990 in India and will be available for buying from October 19. Online retail websites like Flipkart have started taking preorders for the Apple Watch Series 4 although not all the variants seem to be up for grabs just yet.
Here are all the prices:
Apple Watch Series 4 40mm with aluminum case (GPS): Rs 40,990
Apple Watch Series 4 44mm with aluminum case (GPS): Rs 43,990
Apple Watch Series 4 40mm with aluminum case (GPS+Cellular): Rs 49,990
Apple Watch Series 4 44mm with aluminum case (GPS+Cellular): Rs 52,990
Apple Watch Series 4 40mm with stainless steel case and sport band (GPS+Cellular): Rs 67,900
Apple Watch Series 4 44mm with stainless steel case and sport band (GPS+Cellular): Rs 71,900
Apple Watch Series 4 40mm with stainless steel case and Milanese Loop band (GPS+Cellular): Rs 76,900
Apple Watch Series 4 44mm with stainless steel case and Milanese Loop band (GPS+Cellular): Rs 80,900
While the Apple Watch Series 4 models with aluminum case will be available in Silver, Space Grey, and Gold aluminium options, the steel models will be available in standard steel, Space Black and Gold options.
An interesting bit about the new Apple Watch Series 4 is that even though it offers a 30 per cent larger display, it still occupies a footprint in line with the outgoing Apple Watch Series 4. The same bands will therefore work across the board for all Apple Watch Series 4 in case someone already owns the Apple Watch Series 3. The secret sauce here is an all new curved OLED display that stretches all the way up to the edges of the device allowing for more screen real estate in a relatively pint-sized form-factor.
The Apple Watch Series 4 rocks new hardware and new features, the most exciting being built-in ECG detection. Since selling such a device over the counter requires passing region-specific regulations, it was believed that Apple may not launch the Apple Watch Series 4 anytime soon in India. As it turns out, Apple has passed the necessary regulatory hurdles to sell the Apple Watch Series 4 in India sooner than one would have expected, so users in India will also be able to use all the new and exciting features, including fall detection and more, that the device brings to the table in line with users in the West.
Meanwhile, another Apple device that is soon to start selling in India is the iPhone XR, which is a relatively more affordable option should the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max be too expensive for buyers.

Sony enables Fortnite cross-play between PS4, Xbox One and Switch

Sony has finally done what many Fortnite gamers have been asking for since the game launched, enabling cross-play support between the PS4 and other platforms.
Starting today, a beta version of the game is being released which enables Fortnite players on PS4 to play against those on Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC/Mac, iOS and Android. Users will also be able to sync their progress and purchases.Until now, PS4 cross-play for Fortnite only worked with PC/Mac and the mobile versions but not with other consoles. Sony had previously come up with numerous excuses as to why this did not work.Today, however, the company not only enabled cross-play for Fortnite, it also admitted that players today want cross platform playability and promised policy changes within the company to better support this feature in future on other titles.

Using the Nokia 6.1? Don't ignore this security update

HMD Global has started to roll out an important security patch update for the Nokia 6.1 smartphone. Existing Nokia 6.1 users can head to settings to look out for the new update. The new September security patch fixes crucial vulnerabilities that could be exploited by a remote attacker. The security update which weighs 81 MB also takes care of several over security fixes. Experts recommend that existing Nokia 6.1 should update immediately to fix the issue and shouldn't ignore it."The most severe of these issues is a critical security vulnerability in Media framework that could enable a remote attacker using a specially crafted file to execute arbitrary code within the context of a privileged process," according to the official Android blog.
The Nokia 6.1 was launched in April this year at Rs 16,999 for the 3GB RAM version. Then in May the company introduced the 4GB variant of the smartphone at Rs 18,999. Now both the version have got a price cut of Rs 1,500. The 3GB RAM version of Nokia 6.1 is now available at Rs 15,499, while the 4GB RAM version now costs Rs 17,499.To recall, the Nokia 6.1 features a 5.5-inch full HD display with 1080x1920 pixel resolution and 16:9 aspect ratio. The device is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor and runs Android 8.0 Oreo operating system. The handset offers 3GB/4GB of RAM and 64GB internal storage. Users can further expand the storage by adding a microSD card.
The Nokia 6.1 is backed by a 3000mAh battery and comes equipped with a 16MP rear camera with LED flash. The front of the device houses an 8MP camera for selfies. On the connectivity front, the smartphone offers 4G, VoLTE, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and USB Type C.