Heena Sharma Blog

Chinese smartphone brand Realme is hosting a three-day open sale where it is offering its recently launched flagship smartphone the Realme 3 Pro at a discount. It's most affordable offering, the Realme C2, ia also available with an extended warranty. Named Realme Million Days, the sale is valid on its online partner platform Flipkart, Realme online portal and over 8,000 partner offline stores. Realme Million Days sale details In the three-day sale, the company is offering a flat Rs 1,000 discount on its flagship Realme 3 Pro’s 6GB RAM variant. The discount is valid on both 64GB and 128GB storage models. In retrospective, the Realme 3 Pro was launched at Rs 15,999 and Rs 16,999 for the 6GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB variants, respectively. In the sale, the Realme 3 Pro with 6GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB RAM and storage configurations are available at Rs 14,999 and Rs 15,999, respectively. The company is also offering a Rs 500 instant discount on the Realme 3 Pro’s 4GB RAM and 64GB storag

South Korean electronics major LG’s recently launched affordable smartphones, the LG W10 and the LG W30, go on sale on July 10, exclusively on Amazon India . Part of the company’s India-centric W-series smartphones, the LG W10 and LG W30 are priced at Rs 8,999 and Rs 9,999, respectively. The LG W10 comes in tulip purple and smoky grey colours. The LG W30 comes in thunder blue, platinum grey and aurora green colours. As a part of the launch offers, both devices have a 10 per cent instant cashback on equated monthly instalment (EMI) transaction made through Yes Bank credit cards. Reliance Jio customers can also avail Rs 4,950 cashback offer, which is valid on recharge of Rs 299. In this offer, Jio customers get Rs 1,700 cashback in the form of recharge vouchers and Rs 3,250 discount coupon redeemable at ClearTrip portal to book flights, hotels, etc. LG W10 specifications and features The LG W10 is the most affordable offering in the company’s W-series smartphones. It boasts a

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Vivo on Wednesday introduced in India the Z-series smartphone with the launch of the Vivo Z1Pro . The phone comes in three RAM and storage variants – 4GB/64GB, 6GB/64GB and 6GB/128GB – priced at Rs 14,990, Rs 16,990 and Rs 17,990, respectively. The phone will go on sale from July 11, exclusively on Flipkart and Vivo e-store. It will be available in three colour options - sonic black, sonic blue and mirror black. Vivo Z1Pro specifications The Vivo Z1Pro is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 system-on-chip (SoC). It sports a 6.53-inch screen of fullHD+ resolution (2340x1080 pixels), stretched in tall 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The screen boasts a punch-hole design to accommodate the selfie camera under the display. It is the only smartphone in its segment offering Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 SoC and punch-hole design display. Vivo Z1Pro camera The Vivo Z1Pro has a triple camera module on the back and an in-display camera on the front. The triple camera

Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad launched its new budget phone Cool 3 in India on Wednesday. The phones starts at Rs 5,999 for the 2GB RAM + 16GB storage variant, while its 3GB RAM + 32GB storage option has been priced at Rs 6,499 and will go on sale on July 2. "We are thrilled to launch the Coolpad Cool 3 Plus which will transform the definition of budget smartphones in the country. While designing the smartphone, we have kept in mind the needs of young millennials who look for products that exceed their expectations," Coolpad India CEO, Fisher Yuan said. "The Indian smartphone industry is at a cusp of innovation and with the launch of our latest product, we aim to provide Indian customers with the best of technology and upgrade the smartphone era. To further this, we will soon be launching 5G-ready smartphones in India with 800+ patents under its name," Yuan added. The smartphone features a 5.71-inch 'Dewdrop' HD+ display with a 19:9 aspect r

A silent gap of around nine months, smartphone maker Motorola, owned by Chinese electronics firm Lenovo, recently launched the Motorola One Vision in India. Priced at Rs 19,999, this is the first smartphone in the country with an ultra-tall 21:9 aspect ratio screen with a punch-hole for the front camera. Besides a new screen format, the midrange phone also boasts a 3,500 mAh battery with fast-charge support, high-resolution cameras with a quad-pixel technology on the rear and front, and stock Android Pie operating system with the Android One promise. On paper, the phone appears to be a strong player in the midrange segment. But is it? Let’s find out: Design The Motorola One Vision is one of the smartphones with an unconventional form factor, but it feels comfortable to hold and operate. The phone’s tall stance, thanks to a screen with a 21:9 aspect ratio, is both functional and stylish, and the glass-metal sandwich design is sturdy. The punch-hole on the phone’s screen is a

On a recent afternoon at the Lao Thai Kitchen restaurant, the telephone rang and the caller ID read “ Google Assistant .” Jimmy Tran, a waiter, answered the phone. The caller was a man with an Irish accent hoping to book a dinner reservation for two on the weekend. This was no ordinary booking. It came through Google Duplex, a free service that uses artificial intelligence to call restaurants and — mimicking a human voice — speak on our behalf to book a table. The feature, which had a limited release about a year ago, recently became available to a larger number of Android devices and iPhones. The voice of the Irish man sounded eerily human. When asked whether he was a robot, the caller immediately replied, “No, I’m not a robot,” and laughed. “ It sounded very real,” Tran said in an interview after hanging up the call with Google. “It was perfectly human.” Google later confirmed, to our disappointment, that the caller had been telling the truth: He was a person working in a

The discovery that hackers could snoop on WhatsApp should alert users of supposedly secure messaging apps to an uncomfortable truth: “End-to-end encryption” sounds nice — but if anyone can get into your phone’s operating system, they will be able to read your messages without having to decrypt them. According to a report in the Financial Times on Tuesday, the spyware that exploited the vulnerability was Pegasus, made by the Israeli company NSO. The malware could access a phone’s camera and microphone, open messages, capture what appears on a user’s screen, and log keystrokes — rendering encryption pointless. It works on all operating systems, including Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android, and Microsoft’s rarely used mobile version of Windows. The cybersecurity community has known about it for years, and activists have been raising hell about its use against dissidents and journalists in dozens of countries — although NSO itself says it doesn’t sell Pegasus to unsavory regimes and t

Amazon.com Inc is rolling out machines to automate a job held by thousands of its workers: boxing up customer orders. The company started adding technology to a handful of warehouses in recent years, which scans goods coming down a conveyor belt and envelopes them seconds later in boxes custom-built for each item, two people who worked on the project told Reuters. Amazon has considered installing two machines at dozens more warehouses, removing at least 24 roles at each one, these people said. These facilities typically employ more than 2,000 people. That would amount to more than 1,300 cuts across 55 U.S. fulfillment centers for standard-sized inventory. Amazon would expect to recover the costs in under two years, at $1 million per machine plus operational expenses, they said. The plan, previously unreported, shows how Amazon is pushing to reduce labor and boost profits as automation of the most common warehouse task of picking up an item is still beyond its reach. The c

Smartwatches can recognise a range of hand motions and identify what the wearer is doing, scientists have found, paving the way for novel health-related apps that could monitor activities such as brushing teeth or smoking a cigarette. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in the US have used a standard smartwatch to figure out when a wearer was typing on a keyboard, washing dishes, petting a dog, pouring from a pitcher or cutting with scissors. By making a few changes to the watch's operating system, they were able to use its accelerometer to recognise hand motions and, in some cases, bio-acoustic sounds associated with 25 different hand activities at around 95 per cent accuracy. Those 25 activities are just the beginning of what might be possible to detect. "We envision smartwatches as a unique beachhead on the body for capturing rich, everyday activities," said Chris Harrison, assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon. "A wide variety of apps could

Samsung India on Friday opened pre-booking for its newly-launched Galaxy 'S10' series smartphones that will start from Rs 55,900. The 1TB Galaxy S10+ smartphone will be available for Rs 1,17,900 while 512GB and 128 GB storage variants of S10+ will be priced at Rs 91,900 and Rs 73,900, respectively. Priced at Rs 84,900, the 512 GB variant of Galaxy S10 will be available in prism white colour, whereas the 128 GB variant will cost Rs 66,900 in prism black, prism white and prism blue colours. The cheapest of the lot, Galaxy S10e comes with 128 GB storage variant in prism black and prism white colours for Rs 55,900, the company announced. "Customers will be able to pre-book their Galaxy S10 devices until March 5 through Samsung website, Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, Tata CLiQ and select retail outlets. "All variants of Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10e will be available across retail and online stores from March 8. Deliveries for pre-booking customers wil

Samsung India on Friday opened pre-booking for its newly-launched Galaxy 'S10' series smartphones that will start from Rs 55,900. The 1TB Galaxy S10+ smartphone will be available for Rs 1,17,900 while 512GB and 128 GB storage variants of S10+ will be priced at Rs 91,900 and Rs 73,900, respectively. Priced at Rs 84,900, the 512 GB variant of Galaxy S10 will be available in prism white colour, whereas the 128 GB variant will cost Rs 66,900 in prism black, prism white and prism blue colours. The cheapest of the lot, Galaxy S10e comes with 128 GB storage variant in prism black and prism white colours for Rs 55,900, the company announced. "Customers will be able to pre-book their Galaxy S10 devices until March 5 through Samsung website, Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm, Tata CLiQ and select retail outlets. "All variants of Galaxy S10+, Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10e will be available across retail and online stores from March 8. Deliveries for pre-booking customers wi

It's February and if you are still single and unhappy with your pictures on social media , there's a new photo application that can help you ease your agony. A Korean app, called SOVS (short for SomeOne Very Special), is the one thing you'll need. You will need to ask strangers to take your pictures and be sure they will be perfect. You hand over your phone to a stranger to take a picture of you and often end up with unflattering pictures. This is where SOVS comes into the picture, literally. The app allows you to choose from a number of poses which are basically white outlines in which all that your stranger has to do is fit you while taking the picture. As The Verge reports, the outlines can either appear in the captured photo or can be used as a guide while capturing. The app is currently only for iOS users. The SOVS app costs 99 cents and is dedicated to solo shots. The SOVS2 is a free version and comes with poses for group photos. Read More Article

In a bid to improve understanding of neurological disorders , researchers have created a fast and energy-efficient simulation of part of a rat brain by using computer chip manufacturer NVIDIA's Artificial Intelligence (AI) compute platform. Developing faster and more efficient simulators could increase the level of understanding the brain function and identify how damage to a particular structure in neurons can lead to deficits in brain function. For creating the simulator, the researchers used computer hardware designed for 3D games, according to the study published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. The study showed that a single Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) was able to achieve processing speeds up to 10 per cent faster than is currently possible using either a supercomputer or the SpiNNaker neuromorphic system, a custom-built machine. The team was also able to achieve energy savings of 10 times compared to either the SpiNNaker or supercomputer simul

Finding ways to hide information in text, unveiling state-sponsored trolls, a plane with no moving parts, wood as strong as titanium and even efforts to go beyond the corporeal to life beyond death... there was seemingly no end to tech innovations in 2018 . It was a year that saw technology take a quantum leap to touch virtually every aspect of our lives, and even beyond it maybe, from terrestrial to the skies above. In a first, a plane with no moving parts -- no turbines, propellers or even fans -- took flight in November. Developed by researchers at US' Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the small prototype was powered by "ionic wind" -- the flow of ions produced by the plane that generates enough thrust to push it through the air for a sustained, steady flight. This is the first-ever sustained flight of a plane with no moving parts in the propulsion system," Steven Barrett, associate professor at MIT, said in a statement. Anothe

Loneliness , as a leading cause of depression and obesity, is believed to cost £6,000 per person in health and social care services. Loneliness is especially prevalent during the winter holidays, perhaps intensified by the short days, bad weather and the impression that everyone else is enjoying the festive season with family and friends. While loneliness is experienced by all ages, it is especially pronounced in older people. In the UK, 51% of all people aged 75 and over live alone and approximately 6% of older adults leave their house once a week or less. An increasing proportion of these older adults live in rural areas. In an age when services and information are increasingly available online, might technology play a role in addressing loneliness and social isolation ? Our research was conducted in South Lakeland – a rural community of Cumbria in Northern England. Residents aged 65 years and older account for 24.2% of the population here, against a national average

Last month, Sharechat, a top vernacular content sharing platform, sued new entrant Helo for using its copying design and indulging in unfair competition. Helo, an app by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, is a lot like Sharechat. Both have a timeline and content sharing features that, brashly put, resemble Instagram. But the moot here is local languages - over two dozens of them - and a razor-sharp focus on user-generated content that works with this target group. Facebook’s and Google’s of the world have been trying this for long, so have a few local ones, but when it comes to targeting the non-English speaking users in India, Chinese apps have been far more successful than anyone else. In the last 18 months, at least half a dozen apps have entered the Indian market including players such as Helo, Like, Clip, Tik Tok, Kwai and Vigo Video with a focus on either of the three categories-- social media and content sharing, news, or user-generated video. Interestingly, except

Music streaming platform Saavn, now a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), on Tuesday launched JioSaavn , which according to the company is South Asia’s largest streaming, entertainment and artist platform. JioSaavn represents the official integration of JioMusic and Saavn , and the new JioSaavn app will be available across app stores like Jio app store, JioPhone, and www.jio.com/jiosaavn. RIL had in March this year acquired Saavn and announced at the time that the implied valuation of the combined entity, at over $1 billion, made it the most valuable music streaming platform in South Asia, and among the most popular in the world. Telecom and data company Reliance Jio Infocomm is part of the RIL group and is India’s largest digital services network with over 252 million subscribers. The integrated music app has a massive addressable market opportunity both in India as well as for the Indian diaspora, according to the company. Read More Business Stand

About 100 million users of Quora were affected by unauthorized access to one of its systems by a "malicious third party," the knowledge-sharing website said on Monday. Account information, including name, email address, encrypted password and data imported from linked networks when authorized by users may have been compromised, it said. The company said it is logging out all Quora users who may have been affected to prevent further damage. "We are in the process of notifying users whose data has been compromised," Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo said in a blog post. The breach, discovered on Friday, did not affect question and answers that are written anonymously, the company said, adding that it has also notified law enforcement officials. "We have retained a leading digital forensics and security firm to assist us," it said. Read More Business Standard

Chinese technology player Xiaomi on Friday announced Black Friday sale on "Redmi Note 6 Pro" -- just one day after its launch in India. The smartphone has been launched for Rs 13,999 for the 4GB+64GB and Rs 15,999 for the 6GB+64GB variants. As part of the sale, the device is available for Rs 12,999 for the 4GB + 64GB variant and Rs 14,999 for the 6GB + 64GB variant -- with a sale price drop of Rs 1,000 respectively -- only today, the company said in a statement. The sale is valid on Flipkart , Mi Homes and Xiaomi 's official website. Launched on Thursday, "Redmi Note 6 Pro" comes with a 6.26-inch FHD+ IPS display, 20MP+2MP AI dual camera on the front and a 12MP+5MP AI dual camera setup on the rear. The smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core processor and fuelled by a 4000mAh battery with support for Qualcomm "Quick Charge" 3.0. Read Complete Article Business Standard

Chinese electronics major Xiaomi on Tuesday announced it has opened a record 500 retail stores in rural parts of India. Called Mi Stores and opened on October 29, these are similar to the bigger " Mi Home " stores currently operational in metro cities. "The company created a Guinness record for opening the maximum number of stores in one single day. Xiaomi plans to open 5,000 Mi Stores by the end of 2019 that will create nearly 15,000 jobs," Manu Kumar Jain, Vice President, Xiaomi Global and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, told reporters here. "This new business will forever change rural retail in India," he added. Started with the online-only strategy, Xiaomi is fast expanding its presence in offline retail as well. In September, the company launched its fourth flagship "Mi Home" experience store in the country, in Bengaluru, along with a new office. With the purpose of strengthening its offline network further, Xiao