Today Google in its I/O conference unveiled its plans to make the Google Assistant available to Apple iPhone users. This makes Google Assistant a direct competitor to Apple's own digital assistant Siri.
Google Assistant for iOS
Google is currently the market leader in the world of smartphones. And, this is a bold move on behalf from them to try and capture the iOS market too. Though Apple being vastly behind in sales numbers to Google's Android operating system, is having a strong hold on the market where people spend a lot of cash for products and services.
It is no new news that the smartphone market has widely been captured, and is currently showing stagnant growth. Thus companies like Amazon, Google, and Apple have forayed into the artificially intelligent digital assistant market with products like the Amazon Echo Show. These digital assistants are having huge potential for driving up sales as quoted by many industry leaders due to their capability of changing the way people interact with technology.
Humans are interacting with computing in more natural and immersive ways. We’ve been using voice as an input across many of our products. And we’ve had significant breakthroughs.
Sundar Pichai, CEO Google Inc.
Google had showcased its Google Assistant for Android last year in the Google I/O. While also showing interest in extending it to various other operating systems offered by other manufacturers.
Google also launched -
Alongside all this, they also unveiled a tonne of new features for the Google Home, A major addition to which was HBO Now being integrated into the device. They also announced that to Photos application will now offer physical photo albums too.
Recently, the iPhone 8 has filled everyone's news feed with rumours and leaks. We thought to give these rumours a little rest and give you guys a chance to win the iPhone 7 Plus. This giveaway will run here for one month. After which we will select a random winner at the end of the giveaway.
iPhone 7 Plus Giveaway
We just did a Samsung Galaxy S8 giveaway and the response was great. Which encouraged us to do an iPhone giveaway for the Apple fanboys who read Beetel Bite. The winner of the previous giveaway will be listed here.
We will be giving away a voucher worth the amount of the Apple iPhone 7 Plus 128GB to the winner so that he/she can go ahead and purchase the smartphone.
Winner: Bill Ryan (We have sent an email to the winner if he doesn't respond we will be selecting another winner)
The Rules are simple you just have to complete the entries below. The giveaway is open to the whole world anyone can enter.
Apple Inc. has acquired Beddit a Finnish sleep tracking hardware and application maker. Beddit manufactures monitoring devices that track heart rate, breathing, and sleep quality and time when placed on a bed.
Apple Buys Beddit
They currently sell their monitors in Apple stores for an MSRP $149.95. These monitors are accompanied by their own application where all the data is collected, analysed, and displayed.
They announced this deal between Apple and them on their website privacy policy.
Both, Apple and Beddit were contacted for a quote but both declined to say anything upon the deal details.
Though the privacy policy on their website did state -
Beddit has been acquired by Apple. Your personal data will be collected, used and disclosed in accordance with the Apple Privacy Policy.
Also, Apple has assured us that users will see no significant changes in the application or how the data is collected following the deal. Though, we are sceptical as Apple does usually collect a lot of data from their users why would they not do the same with this company.
Amazon has launched the Echo Show, an Amazon Alexa device with a touchscreen. This allows you to video call, watch clips online and obviously lets you make use of the popular voice assistant service from Amazon, Alexa.
OnePlus has teased their latest offering the OnePlus 5 on a Chinese social website Weibu. This teaser has confirmed the name as well as the launch date of this rumoured smartphone from OnePlus.
Hello 5
The tagline reads "Hello 5", implying it will be called OnePlus 5 and not the OnePlus 4. Looks like the company Decided to skip the number 4 after all. The main reason being 4 is considered unlucky in china and is associated with death.
Along the image, OnePlus also put a caption “Hey Summer! Give me five!”, which basically gives away the fact that the OnePlus 5 will be released in the summer months. There is still no final date, but it the caption suggests it might be in June end or July start.
As of now, OnePlus hasn’t confirmed any other details regarding the upcoming flagship. We have come across a few rumours claiming that the OnePlus 5 will feature a 5.5-inch display with Full HD or QHD resolution, and will be powered by the latest Snapdragon 835 chipset. It’s also expected to sport a dual-camera setup on the back and a larger 3,600mAh battery, which should get fully charged a lot faster (by 25 percent) when compared to its predecessor.
What do you think of the OnePlus 5? OnePlus 3T is already taking on many of the high-end devices? Will the OnePlus 5 live up to the expectations set by the 3T? Let us know your opinions down below.
Nubia has brought its new M series smartphone to India. Today, they have announced the availability of the new Nubia M2 Lite smartphone in India. The highlight of the new M2 Lite is that it comes with a 16MP front camera with a soft LED flash. Nubia has partnered up with amazon to sell this smartphone exclusively on their platform.
The Nubia M2 Lite comes with a 5.5-inch 2.5D gorilla glass display on a metal unibody design. The phone comes in with a sleek design of 7.5mm and weighs 164g. It will be available in two colours Black and Gold.
The M2 Lite takes stunning pictures due to the 2μm virtual pixel size (pixel-binning technology) and an F2.0 wide-aperture lens. The 16MP front camera also comes with 9 beauty modes and 90 other modes to capture the perfect photo.
The Nubia M2 Lite comes sporting 4GB RAM and 32GB storage expandable up to 128GB. it is powered by Mediatek Helio P10 64-bit Octa-Core processor. 3,000mAh battery with 118 power optimisation features.
Nubia as a brand identifies with the youth. In India, we see young people with a lot of energy, passion and desire to do more in society. M2 Lite is a product inspired by such youngsters who are creating a mark in society. We have created a product that looks stylish, matches the aspiration levels and performs superlatively. Be yourself is not just a tagline we believe in it and with the M2 Lite our customers can capture moments that our true to their style.
Mr. Eric Hu, Country Head, Nubia India
NeoVision 6 for M2 series
NeoVision is a customised version of the camera system for the Nubia M2 series. It enables the camera to perform much better due to a lot of enhancements made in the ROM.
With NeoVision 6 all the following modes are made possible -
Multi Exposure; Light Painting; Electronic Aperture; Slow Shutter; Star Trail; SLO-MO; Time-Lapse; Video Maker; Trajectory; DNG; Clone; Marco Camera; PANO. Get timer snapshots and shutter speed adjustment with DNG camera 2.0.
Customized for you
Work and Life on One Phone: With the ability to have two accounts on one phone, you can manage different sides of your life with ease. Supports popular apps, including WhatsApp and Facebook.
Split Up the Screen Anyway You Like: You can quickly and conveniently split the screen into two by swiping up from the bottom of the screen. The screen will be split into the upper and lower sections in portrait mode, and into left and right sections in landscape mode. The M2 lite's split screen feature supports most third party apps.
Long Screenshot: When you want to share insightful articles or funny pictures with friends, the long screenshot feature helps you to capture everything as you scroll down the screen with one click. You can customize the length of your capture, free draw on the image as you want and cover sensitive content with a mosaic blur.
Free Snapshot: The Free Snapshot feature fills your shots with creativity and fun. The heart-shaped snapshot shows your love. With freehand drawing, you can let your imagination fly and share your work with friends.
Screen Recording: Record videos of the operations you perform on screen and generate video clips for easy uploading and sharing.
Pricing and availability
The nubia M2 Lite will be available in India at Rs.13,999/- exclusivelyon Amazon India. The sale of this smartphone will be starting from May 09, 2017 at 12:00 PM.
Specifications
Tech Specs
Basic Information
Height: 155.73mm
Width: 76.73mm
Thickness: 7.68mm
Weight: 164g
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 32GB
Colors: Black Gold
Camera
Rear camera
13MP
Stacked CMOS
High-transparency Organic Glass Lens
5-pieces Motor Drive Lens
F2.2 Aperture
NeoVision 6.5
Front camera
16MP
BSI CMOS
5P Lens
F2.0 Aperture
79.8° Wide Angle
Skin Retouching 2.0
Display
Size: 5.5 inch
Resolution: 1280x720
Color saturation: 80%
Display technology: TFT Display
Manufacturing process: GFF
Processor
MTK MT6750
Quard Core 4xA53 1.5GHz
Quard Core 4xA53 1.0GHz
28nm HPM Process
64-bit
Mali-T860 GPU, 700 MHz
Memory
RAM
4GB
Single channel
LPDDR3 667MHz
ROM
32GB
eMMC 5.1
MicroSD（TF）card: up to 128GB
OTG supported : up to 128GB
Wireless function
802.11 b/g/n/a wireless networks
Supports 5GHz and 2.4GHz
Reliance Jio, yesterday launched a new scheme for their JioFi 4G device. In this scheme, Jio will offer a 100 percent cash back to users who will exchange their old dongles, datacard, and hotspot routers they are currently using for a JioFi datacard.
Free JioFi for everyone
Reliance Jio will let users get a 100% exchange offer under this plan. To avail this new plan customers have to visit a nearby Jio Digital store or a Jio Care centre. And exchange their existing datacard, dongle, or router for a new JioFi device.
The users will have to pay the Rs.1,999 cost of the JioFi dongle and get the first recharge of Rs.408 which will get them 84 days of free service under the Reliance Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer. After exchanging the device the user will get a cashback of Rs.2010.
The Rs.408 recharge will get you a prime membership of Rs.99 and the Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer for Rs.309. Therefore after exchanging their old device, the customer will only have to pay Reliance Jio Rs.397 for the whole package which will last 84 days.
With these new offers introduced by Reliance Jio. Are aiming to capture the market of dongles that their rivals are currently holding. This exchange scheme will encourage users to shift to services offered by Jio, as said by experts.
Though there is a hidden catch behind the offer. The customers will not get cash back in terms of hard cash or credit. They will get 10 vouchers worth Rs.201. Which will get users 10 months of extended service. After the Dhan Dhana Dhan offer finishes. And users who do not currently have a dongle or do not want to exchange theirs. Will get 5 vouchers worth Rs.201 which will give an extended service of 5 months.
Nokia has finally opened up to when we will be able to get our hands on the new and improved Nokia 3310. This phone will start shipping today and will be available to Indians in June.
Nokia 3, Nokia 5, Nokia 6, and Nokia 3310 have started shipping
This news came from HMD Global's Nokia twitter account -
Nokia 6, Nokia 5, Nokia 3, and the Nokia 3310 is going to be launched in India in June. Now that HMD Global has started shipping these smartphones to each country means, they might be planning a global launch.
These smartphones were announced by HMD Global at MWC 2017, and have seen a lot of demand in the market. Though the new 3310 is the most awaited phone of the year, and they have definitely taken their time in launching it.
WhatsApp, the popular instant messaging service, suffered a global outage on Wednesday. Which led to WhatsApp being down for several hours. Facebook the owner of the company has said that the problem has now been resolved.
WhatsApp down for hours
The media got an email from the instant messaging application -
Earlier today, WhatsApp users in all parts of the world were unable to access the application for a few hours. We have now fixed the issue and apologise for the inconvenience
Email sent by the company
As per online reports, The application was down in India, United States of America, Canada, Brazil, and many more countries. This outage affected users of all major operating systems including Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile.
WhatsApp is now heavily relied on by the professional class in many countries. Brazil which is one of these countries had the application down for about two and a half hours. Which resulted in many users to switch to the rival application Telegram. Brazil has already had two outages from court orders and this was the third one. Due to these outages, Telegram is picking up millions of customers there.
After WhatsApp was sold to the social media giant Facebook, this kind of outage was not expected from them. Facebook has many servers and server problems should not have arisen such a problem as Facebook could have immediately changed to the backup servers.
The Apple iPhone 8 for the past few months has been plaguing every person's internet news. And, there has been a lot of speculation around it, be it leaked images, specifications, or blueprints. Websites all across the interweb have been claiming various things like placement of the Touch ID sensor, augmented reality, the orientation of the camera, bezel-less screen, and much more.
Apple iPhone 8 to launch in WWDC 2017
And now, one of JP Morgan's analyst has suggested that Apple is highly motivated to release the iPhone 8 in June while it hosts Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Though if Apple decides to do so it would be breaking a five-year-old tradition. But, this seems possible as the iPhone 7 did not perform as well as Apple thought it would. Tim Cook (CEO, Apple Inc.) said that Apple iPhone 7's sales were hurt due to rumours about the next iPhone.
JP Morgan has said that there is a high likelihood that Apple will introduce the new Apple iPhone 8 next month. However, currently, there is no hard evidence to what JP Morgan has claimed. This was a warning to their customers who invest in Apple to not be surprised by low summer sales. Also, stating this will be due to users waiting to purchase the iPhone 8 which will be showcased next month and start sales in the fall.
Although, this new release date is out of the company's tradition, but this being the tenth-anniversary edition makes sense. As Apple released its first ever iPhone in WWDC.
The actual date of the launch has not been revealed by Apple currently. And over the month's many sources have said that it might launch in October or November. While some newer reports say we might have to wait until 2018. This report has much more credit though as it has been backed by JP Morgan and 9to5Mac.
Also, an Analyst from Deutsche Bank has said that we will not see Apple's 10th-anniversary smartphone until 2018.
