WhatsApp is a cross-platform messaging application which has become a lot popular over the years. The application allows users to send messages and media over the internet for free. The easy to use interface and a ton of features have made the application much more popular than any other application. As the application is free and almost anyone with a smartphone can download it, people now tend to block others. When a person blocks the other on WhatsApp, they both cannot contact each other via any means using the application.
Here are few ways to know if someone has blocked you on WhatsApp
Open the contact list on WhatsApp and see if you can see the particular contact's status
Open that particular contact and try loading his display picture
In the above two ways, the possibility is that the contact might have configured his privacy options or might not have kept a display picture.
A user can also try sending messages and if not getting more than one tick could mean the person has blocked you. However, this could also mean that the person does not have an internet connection for the time.
If a user still needs confirmation, you can follow these steps.
Open WhatsApp
Tap on the three dots and then tap on New Group
A contact list will show up. Select the contact you want to see if he/she has blocked you.
Tap Next
Type a group name and then click next
If you are greeted by an error and the contact is not added to the group, the person has blocked you on WhatsApp.
BlackBerry recently launched its Android flagship, the KEYone Limited Edition Black in India. The smartphone was earlier launched in other regions and came in a Limited Edition to India. The Limited Edition had an all-black finish when compared to the regular KEYone which comes with a pinch of silver. The highlight of the smartphone is the presence of a physical keyboard. Here is our full in-depth review of the BlackBerry KEYone Limited Edition Black.
Specifications
The BlackBerry Keyone features a 4.5-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1620x1080 pixels and a pixel density of 434ppi. The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC which is a 64-bit octa-core chipset clocked at 2.0GHz. The KEYone Limited Edition Black comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage which is further expandable up to 2TB using a microSD card. Under the hood, there is a 3505mAH battery powering up the device. The smartphone runs on Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box.
RAM
Storage
Software
On the optics front, the KEYone sports a 12-megapixel rear camera with a dual-tone LED flash. Up front, the phone features an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with a f/2.2 aperture for selfies and video calling.
Design
The design and the build quality is where the BlackBerry Keyone stands out. The smartphone comes with a great build quality and feels really premium in hand. The physical iconic keyboard makes a conversation starter. The keyboard is not just a keyboard, it is touch-enabled which makes scrolling easy.
Also, the alphabet keys on the smartphone can be reassigned to do a task or open a certain application. The shortcuts also work with long press making a total of 52 assignable shortcuts on the phone. During our review, we assigned F to Facebook and I to Instagram which made opening applications easy.
The sides and edges of the smartphone look premium and do give a premium feeling when held in hand. The back of the smartphone gives a soft feel which makes the in-hand feel even better. Also, the back gives a grip so that the phone does not fall off easily.
The BlackBerry KEYone runs on Google's Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box. The smartphone delivers a very stock-like Android experience with few tweaks made here and there. The phone also comes with a bunch of BlackBerry applications pre-loaded. The applications like Hub and Password Keeper are really useful and productive. The Hub manages all the notifications at one place for an easy glance. Also, it is worth mentioning that the stock launcher also gives a bunch of customizations including change of icon packs. However, the overall software experience was excellent.
Lock Screen
Home Screen
Performance
The BlackBerry KEYone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 coupled with Adreno 506 GPU. The smartphone performs decent and was able to play games like Subway Surfers and Temple Run 2 smoothly. We even played Asphalt 8 and there was certainly no noticeable lag whatsoever. However, the device did tend to heat up a bit when heavy tasks thrown at it or during excessive usage.
AnTuTu
PC Mark
Camera
The camera on the BlackBerry KEYone can take some really great pictures. The camera sensor is the same as found on the Google Pixel which was one of the highest rated camera. However, the Snapdragon 625 processor does not allow the HDR+ mode which enhances the image quality. Despite the missing HDR+ feature, the 12-megapixel camera on the phone does take some great shots. Also, the phone was able to take decent photographs even in low lighting because of the dual-tone LED flash. The camera is also capable of shooting 4K videos at 30fps.
Indoor
With effects
With flash
The camera application itself is easy to use and offers a bunch of features including the slow-motion video recording. The application also offers various effects for shooing better images. The front-facing camera on the smartphone also did a great job in the outdoor conditions. However, the front-facing camera did tend to struggle a bit in indoor lighting conditions.
Front Camera
Outdoor Rear Camera
Battery
Under the hood of the BlackBerry KEYone, there is a 3,505mAh battery powering up the internals. The battery amount is decent enough and was able to deliver one full day of power with moderate usage. However, with heavy usage, one would need to pop in some juice in the evening. The screenshots are based on my usage which includes 4G LTE, VoLTE, NFC and Location turned on at all times. The smartphone also supports Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0.
Verdict
The BlackBerry KEYone flaunts a great design and excels in the build quality. The smartphone is just not made for every individual as not everyone would like to have a physical keyboard o the smartphone. Also, though the smartphone is able to handle heavy games, it is not made for gaming. The KEYone is more concentrated towards productivity. The smartphone makes checking and writing emails easy as we get the full display without the interference of a virtual keyboard. Social media is also handled pretty well, thanks to the scrolling via the blackberry keyboard. The physical keyboard allows scrolling through web pages and social media applications which makes the experience much better than a regular smartphone. The features offered by the company are useful, especially the convenience key. The convenience key on the side of the smartphone helps in performing a task or opening an application with just one tap.
Also, BlackBerry offers few applications like the Hub which makes the notification experience much better. The smartphone also stands out of the smartphone crowd which is now filled with glass bodies. The phone is surely a conversation starter, especially for the iconic BlackBerry branding. The keyboard is also something which is frequently talked about. Also, it is worth mentioning that the fingerprint scanner embedded in the space bar works pretty well.
The smartphone is priced was at Rs. 39,990 at the time of launch which was considered a high price for a smartphone with Snapdragon 625. However, the phone is not about performance while it is about productivity and getting things done. The KEYone is currently available for Rs. 36,990 via Amazon India.
Apple has recently introduced the iPhone 8 and the 8 Plus alongside the anniversary special iPhone X. The company also rolled out the iOS 11 software update for its devices recently, while the new devices come pre-loaded with the new operating system. However, Apple has now announced that they will be bringing new emoji characters with the next software update, the iOS 11.1. The new emoji characters will be based on the new Unicode 10. While the iOS 11.1 is under beta currently, users will soon get the software update on their Apple devices.
Apple in a press statement said, “iOS 11.1 will also include characters announced on World Emoji Day like Woman with Headscarf, Bearded Person, Breastfeeding, Zombie, Person in Lotus Position and new food items such as Sandwich and Coconut. Also included in the update is the Love-You Gesture, designed after the “I love you” hand sign in American Sign Language."
The new set of emojis included in the Unicode 10 will include characters like a zebra, horse, hedgehog, trenchcoat, baseball cap, gloves, orange heart, vampire, woman zombie, fairy, T-Rex and much more. Apart from the characters, the new set of emoticons also include Chinese takeout box, pie, dumpling, fortune cookie, sandwich and much more.
As per the company, the new set of emojis will be first introduced in the upcoming iOS 11.1 Beta 2 which will be first tested by the developers as well as the public beta testers. The beta update will roll out sometime in the coming week. Apart from the iOS devices, the new set of emojis will also be available on macOS as well as on the watchOS.
As the festive season of lights is around the corner, various companies are coming it with exciting lucrative deals in India. Sony India has now come up with promotional offers on the huge line of products the company has to offer. The customers can now get products like PlayStation4, Extra Bass headphones, 1TB External Hard Drives, 5800 mAh Sony power bank, 16 GB Pen Drive, SD Cards, Amazon Kindle, Jio-Fi & Jio 4G Data and many bundled accessories, on the purchase of various Sony products.
Mr Satish Padmanabhan, Sales Head, Sony India, said, “We are ready to delight our customers and enhance their festivities in this auspicious season with incredible consumer promotion offers. There is an assured gift on purchase on every BRAVIA which will help generate more excitement to the Diwali festivities of Sony fans."
“BRAVIA being one of the major categories for Sony, we are planning robust sales of over 10 lakh BRAVIA units across India during this festive season. Overall, on the back of new products across categories, attractive consumer promotion offers, finance schemes and marketing campaign, Sony aims to achieve 25% sales growth from August to November 2017 vis-à-vis same period last year,” he further added.
The promotional scheme starts from September 21 and will go on until October 19. The company is offering the Bravia KD-65A1 for Rs. 4,64,900, while the smaller variant KD-55A1 will retail for Rs. 3,64,900. The Alpha camera by the company will be on sale for Rs. 3,29,990 for the a9 ILCE-9 model.
As for the smartphones, the Xperia XZ1, the newly launched flagship will retail for Rs. 44,990, whereas the midrange XA1 Plus will come with a price tag of Rs. 24,990. However, the company has a wide range of Audio devices to offer including MHC-V50D and the MHC-V90D which will be priced at Rs. 33,990 and Rs. 65,990 respectively. Customers can also get the HT-RT40 at a price of Rs. 22,990 or the cheaper HT-CT290 for Rs. 19,990.
Apple has recently launched the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus alongside the iPhone X. Whenever a company launches a new flagship smartphone, the prices of the older ones tend to drop down. The phones which are 2-3 years old get a drastic price drop. Now customers are able to get the iPhone 6 for around Rs. 21,000 which was retailed above Rs. 50,000 in the year when it was launched. However, customers can now get their hands on an Apple device for as low as Rs. 6,299.
Snapdeal, the e-commerce website, is selling the iPhone 5C 8GB just for Rs. 6,299. But the catch here is that the phone is not new and comes in a used condition. However, it is safe to buy as the smartphone is certified by Snapdeal which makes the deal lucrative. In the buy page, there are physical conditions to choose from. The conditions available include Acceptable, Good, Very Good. It is recommended to at least go in for the Good condition as the Acceptable condition would not be satisfying. Also if you can up your budget a little bit, you can also opt-in for the Very Good condition.
Apple iPhone 5C sports a 4-inch IPS LCD display with a resolution of 640x1136 pixels. The smartphone is powered by Apple A6 chipset which is a dual-core 1.3GHz chipset. The phone comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. Under the hood, there is a 1510mAh battery powering up the device. The Apple device currently runs on iOS 10.3.3 and will not be updated to iOS 11.
Amazon India recently launched the Home Entertainment Hub which made a different section for easy shopping of home entertainment appliances. Now the e-commerce website has launched the 'Checkfit & Garage' feature which will help customers with a simplified process of identifying and purchasing suitable automotive parts. The feature will help in identifying the best part or accessory compatible with over 5,000 vehicles from their database. The company now has around 4,00,000 replacement parts and accessories for automobiles and this new feature will help in choosing the best one for your vehicle.
Commenting on the launch of the new feature, Suchit Subhas, Category Leader – Automotive & Appliances, Amazon India, said, “Buying auto parts & accessories online has been a cumbersome experience with customers relying on hours of research to purchase a product that fits in their car or motorcycle and then spending a few more hours scouting for reliable mechanics to install the parts. We worked customer backwards to create a database of close to 3,00,000 auto parts for over 5,000 cars & motorcycles to allow customers to easily shop for parts that fit their vehicle. Furthermore, we have partnered with verified service providers in Bengaluru, Gurugram and Delhi to offer free fitment services thereby simplifying the shopping experience for customers. In less than 3 months of piloting this feature, we are humbled to see more than 11 lakh customers adding vehicles to the ‘My garage’ feature indicating its usefulness.”
Along with the new feature, Amazon India has also tied up with few service providers in Bengaluru, Gurugram and Delhi for offering few fitting of the parts and accessories.
Amazon customers will now be able to register their vehicle with details like brand, model and variant which will then be registered under the "My Garage" option. This new option will allow users to find parts easily and checkout faster. Also, once the vehicle is registered, a 'check fit' stripe will indicate on a product so that the customer can check the fitment to his own vehicle before buying.
Alcatel Mobiles have launched another budget smartphone in India calling it the Alcatel U5 HD. The smartphone brings Android Nougat and 4G VoLTE support at a budget. The highlights of the smartphone include the cameras on the device as well as the tweaks made to the camera application. The Alcatel U5 HD is exclusively available via Flipkart.
Commenting on the launch, Praveen Valecha, Regional Director at Alcatel India said, “With the new AlcatelU5 HD, first-time smartphone buyers can now enjoy a crisp and clear viewing experience on a 5-inch HD display and some really fun camera features. This smartphone is designed to give our valued customers the power to get the most out of every moment – all with an appealing price tag.”
Specifications
The Alcatel U5 HD sports a 5-inch HD IPS LCD display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels. The smartphone is powered by the MediaTek MT6737 SoC which is a 64-bit quad core processor. The device comes with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of onboard storage which is further expandable up to 128GB via a microSD card. Under the hood, there is a 2,200mAh battery powering up the device. The Alcatel U5 HD runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.
On the optics front, the U5 HD features a 13-megapixel camera sensor at the back with a LED flash. Up front, the phone comes with an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with a selfie flash for better low light selfies.
Price and Availability
The Alcatel U5 HD is available exclusively on the e-commerce website Flipkart. The smartphone retails for a price of Rs. 5,999.
BlackBerry has been secretly working on a smartphone which was earlier codenamed Krypton. The smartphone will be allegedly named as BlackBerry Motion and will be launched sometime in October 2017. We now have the image of the smartphone giving us an idea of what it will look like, thanks to tipster Evan Blass. The biggest change with the upcoming Motion is the missing physical keyboard found on the Blackberry KeyOne. The lack of keyboard will give more room for the display which means a larger display as compared to the KeyOne.
The alleged BlackBerry Motion will have a USB Type-C for charging and data syncing and will have a 3.5mm audio jack for using audio output. The leaked images suggest that the phone might have a home button at the front with BlackBerry logo embedded into it. It is also speculated that the home button will also enact as a fingerprint scanner. As per the image, the smartphone will have four buttons on the side which include Volume up, Volume down, Power button and a Convenience key which can be assigned for any task.
A previous report of the Krypton, now called Motion, showed that the device will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 or 626 SoC coupled with 4GB of RAM. The smartphone might be backed by a 4,000mAh battery. It is also suggested that the phone will come with a full HD display.
BlackBerry recently launched the KeyOne Limited Black Edition in India. The smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 SoC. The phone comes with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of onboard storage.
Micromax recently launched their infinity display smartphone, The Canvas Infinity with an 18:9 resolution display. Micromax basically is an India based company with few interesting smartphones and a great line-up of other phones. With that said it's not very successful due to its durability issues. However, the company is still growing and we expect it to get better with time. That being said here is the review of the Micromax Canvas Infinity.
Specifications
Micromax Canvas Infinity has a 5.7-inch 720x1440p HD IPS LCD display. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 64-bit 1.4GHz Processor coupled with a 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. It also has a dedicated memory card slot for expandable storage up to 128GB. In terms of optics, it has a 13MP rear camera and a 16MP front camera both with their dedicated LED flash, something which is becoming common even in budget phones these days. Also, it runs Android 7.1.1 Nougat out of the box and all of this is powered by a 2,900 mAh battery. Also, it has the micro-USB slot and a headphone jack. The best part of this phone is an 18:9 aspect ratio which looks beautiful.
Design
Front
Back
The Micromax Canvas Infinity features a beautiful design. The front looks amazing with a beautiful 18:9 display ration and almost no bezels. The back looks pretty good with the Matte Black finish. However, there are speakers on the rear instead of the font or even the bottom of the phone. That becomes an issue when you lay down the phone on the table. Also, there is a camera bump on the back of the phone. This usually is not an issue but again when you put your phone on the table it wobbles due to it.
Bottom
Left
Right
The sides are also made out of plastic like the rest of the phone. There are volume rocker and the power button on the right. The power button is textured so that's a bonus. The left side and bottom side has nothing and there is a micro-USB port and headphone jack is at the top.
There are no buttons on the front. There are on-screen buttons and their front camera and the flash are covered under the 2.5D glass on the front. The earpiece is made out of metal, so that looks good. The phone feels good and comfortable in hand except for the raise camera bump and rear speaker, the phone's design is great.
Performance
The performance of the Micromax Canvas Infinity is a little less than expected at the price range. It handles everyday tasks pretty well except for some minute lag. At the price point of ₹9,999, you expect more. The phone performs great in heavy games like the Asphalt 8. The game stretches the phone display to provide an immersive experience. Apart from occasional lag, there is no issue with the performance. Considering the competition the lag is a pretty big negative factor.
We also ran and tested these phone with the AnTuTu Benchmark and the GeekBench 4. The results were around the point we expected with the Snapdragon 425 with 3GB of Ram. The AnTuTu yielded a result of 36908 while the Geekbench yielded a 671 single core score and 1864 multi-core score.
The phone doesn't get heated even while playing games so that's a plus point.
Battery
The 2,900mAh battery simply lasts more than a day without any hiccup. The 18:9 infinity display isn't too bright. For usability the brightness needs to be bumped up to around 50% which compared to other phones we test is almost the double. This consumes more battery and the phone lasts around a little less than a day with needing to be plugged in at night. At 3,000mAh battery and the price point, this is totally expected. Sadly the phones power management system is good enough to let any ran run when it is consuming a lot of battery. This means the PC Mark's Work 2.0 battery life test fails as it consumes a lot of battery to judge the performance and we can not give you a score for that.
Camera
Outside
Inside
Surprisingly the camera is way above and beyond any competition. The rear 13MP camera takes great photos in the low light as well as normal lighting. The camera quality is beyond what you could expect at this price point. The front 16MP camera takes great selfies. The only issue there is the colours comes are unnatural sometimes. The photos look great but the colours aren't accurate.
Verdict
The Micromax Canvas Infinity for the price of ₹9,999 is a great looking phone with a great camera. Surely it has some flaws like the occasional lag but with an 18:9 resolution display and amazing camera at the price point of only Rs. 9,999 it looks like we have to make that sacrifice. The phone is definitely better than the competition in the price range, so if you are looking for something in this price range, go for it.
Amazon India has kicked off the Great Indian Festival Sale as the festive season arrives in the country. Taking advantage of the auspicious festival of lights upcoming, Amazon India has launched a new store made just for home entertainment products. The store, Home Entertainment Hub, consists of handpicked devices like media players, LED televisions and much more. Customers can now easily shop for home entertainment products from the new Home Entertainment Hub.
Speaking on the launch of the new store, Jonathan Burks, Category Leader – Consumer Electronics, Amazon India, said “We are thrilled to launch this new store along with the Great Indian Festival. The Home Entertainment Hub recommends highly rated, well-priced products that work together with Prime shipping promise based on your requirement. We put a lot of care and expertise into choosing the right product for you at the best value. With the festive season around the corner, this is an opportune time to help you transform your home entertainment experience in a simple, hassle-free and enjoyable manner.”
The store will be including products like Projectors, Soundbars, Home Theatres, Gaming Consoles, Gaming Laptops, Vinyl Players, DJ Controllers and Karaoke Players. The company will sort down the best products in the price range making the shopping experience much better.
Customers can also save money with Amazon's offers like cash back and No Cost EMI. Customers can also exchange their old TVs in order to get huge discounts on the new ones. Along with the launch of the Home Entertainment Hub, Amazon has also announced the Home Entertainment Fest which will provide great discounts on big brands. The fest will be held from 4th to 8th October.
