Author: Anthony M. Smith

Travel n Tour

US travel advisory on possible terror attacks will not impact tourist arrivals into IndiaUS government’s advisory to its citizens about possible terrorist attacks in India will not impact foreign tourist arrivals, say tour operators. The US is the number one source market for Indian tourism. In 2015, over 1.2 million US citizens visited India, accounting for 15 per cent of India’s foreign tourist arrivals.
“We do not see much impact due to the advisory. Those who have booked months in advance will not cancel their trips, though there could be some deferrals. Overall, the impact of the advisory will not be more than one-two per cent,” Subhash Goyal, chairperson of Stic Travel, said.
Inbound tourism is expected to grow 10 per cent this year, with strong growth from Asian markets, said Goyal. Arrivals from the US too are increasing, he added.
According to Karan Anand, head, relationships, Cox & Kings, “Tourism to India has been on an upswing and such advisories do not change the perception of India being a safe destination. In the past 12 months, there have been terrorist attacks in Europe but it has not deterred travelers from visiting the continent. Compared to them, India has been incident-free and we expect the same momentum in tourist arrivals.’’ According to the tourism ministry, India is expected to receive a record nine million foreign tourists in 2016, up over 12 per cent of the eight million visitors last year.
The government’s e-visa initiative is said to have contributed to the growth.
On Tuesday the US embassy in New Delhi issued a security message to American citizens in India on Tuesday to be vigilant following reports that Islamic State may be planning to attack targets there.
“Recent Indian media reports indicate ISIL’s desire to attack targets in India,\,” the advisory said, warning of an increased threat to places frequented by Westerners such as religious sites, markets, and festival venues.
ISIL is an acronym for the jihadist organization, which has seized territory in Iraq and Syria.

 

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LG X Power With 4G VoLTE Support, 4100mAh Battery Launched at Rs. 15,990LG on Thursday launched its 4G VoLTE-enabled X Power smartphone in India, priced at Rs. 15,990. It will be available for sale “pan India in a day or two”, the company said, in Black and Gold color variants.
The LG X Power, which runs Android 6.0 Marshmallow out of the box, is a dual-SIM smartphone. It sports a 5.3-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) In-Cell Touch display and is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6735M processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. It comes with 16GB of inbuilt storage, which is expandable via microSD card.
In terms of optics, the LG X Power comes with a 13-megapixel rear camera, tagged with LED flash, and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera for taking selfies. The smartphone houses a large 4100mAh battery. The connectivity options for the smartphone include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, GPS, and Bluetooth 4.1. The smartphone measures 148.9×74.9×7.9mm and weighs 139 grams.
The smartphone comes with PE+technology, which helps the smartphone to charge at a faster rate, the company claims. “Its Fast Charging technology PE+ makes it almost [twice as fast to charge compared to] other batteries,” the company said in its release. Other features of the phone auto shot, the film effect, the gesture selfie, the quick share, the company said.
“We are relentless in our pursuit to ensure that all our products enable peoples’ life to become easier, efficient and help them work smarter. Today in India, we all are witnessing the 4G LTE evolution at a very fast pace and this technology brings the excessive use of videos, music, streaming etc., which are battery consumption intensive features. Keeping in view of consumer’s needs, LG XPower brings huge 4100mAh battery that runs longer under heavy multimedia use,” Marketing Head – LG Mobiles, Amit Gujral, was quoted as saying in the release.

 

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It came as a delight when Google announced that India will be one of the few countries where its Pixel smartphone duo will be launched. Following that, it was just a week ago when Google’s recently launched flagship smartphones Pixel and Pixel XL went up for pre-orders in India via major retailers like Flipkart, Chroma, Reliance Digital, and others. However, it was not revealed when the smartphones will finally hit the shelves, but now the wait is over. The search giant has announced that the Google Pixel and Google Pixel XL will start shipping on October 25.
Google India on Saturday in a tweet said “The future is exciting. And by future, we mean 3 days from now. #Pixel will start reaching stores on 25th October #madebygoogle”. To recall, Google launched its Pixel smartphones at its October 4 event, along with a slew of other gadgets. At the event, Google also revealed that India will be one of the first six countries including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Germany to see the Pixel smartphones reaching the markets. Unfortunately, Google’s yet impressive Really Blue color variant of Pixel won’t be available in India, while the Quite Black and Very Silver will ship starting Tuesday.
In other news, while the Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones are yet to start shipping in India, we already have received the teardown details of the larger variant Pixel XL, courtesy iFixit. As per the full teardown, the AMOLED display packed in the smartphone is a Samsung manufactured display (part number AMS546KD09). Samsung has also given its UFS 2.0 internal flash storage RAM on the phone. The touchscreen controller comes from Synaptics (ClearPad S3708) and surprisingly enough, it’s just the battery that bears an HTC moniker.
We have already learned that HTC is the commercial manufacturer of the Pixel and Pixel XL, just like Apple has Foxconn as its manufacturer for the iPhone. Summing up the whole procedure of teardown, iFixit gave Google Pixel XL a score of 6 out of 10 in terms of repairability, which is one point lower than the iPhone 7 Plus.
The Pixel 32GB variant will cost you Rs. 57,000 while the Pixel XL 32GB will sell at Rs. 67,000. The 128GB variants are priced a bit higher at Rs. 66,000 for Pixel and Rs. 76,000 for Pixel XL.
The festive season is going on in India, and major e-retailers are giving good discounts as well as offers on various products. Apple’s recently launched iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus too entered India earlier this month with a bunch of discounts and offers to be available via almost all e-commerce companies and offline retailers as well. Samsung is still struggling with its Galaxy Note 7 fiasco with the device that could not even land in India. With Pixel and Pixel XL, Google is also eyeing to dominate the Indian smartphone market this Diwali.
Talking about the specifications of the first Android 7.1-running smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL are almost identical. The display size, of course, is different on both the devices – Pixel has a 5-inch full-HD display while the Pixel XL has a 5.5-inch QHD display. The Pixel packs a 2770mAh battery, whereas the Pixel XL has a 3450mAh battery inside. Other specifications on the Pixel smartphones include a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, Pixel Imprint fingerprint sensor, 12.3-megapixel rear cameras with a Sony IMX378 sensor, and an 8-megapixel front camera with a Sony IMX179 sensor.

 

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Sony Xperia XZ Goes on Sale in India at Rs. 49,990Sony India, as promised on Tuesday, kicked off the sale of its flagship smartphone, the Xperia XZ, in the country. Priced at Rs. 49,990, the Sony Xperia XZ is now available to buy via Amazon India and retail stores across the country. The new Sony flagship was unveiled late last month and comes with an MRP of Rs. 51,990. Customers who pre-booked the smartphone will get a free Sony SWR30 SmartBand worth Rs. 8,990 with their Xperia XZ unit My True Care.
The biggest highlight of the Xperia XZ is its three rear camera sensors. According to Sony, the CMOS sensor can track and predict the movement of objects in the frame, reducing the chances of blurred shots. The smartphone also packs a laser autofocus sensor which makes the camera better at locking focus on objects, especially in low-light conditions; and the RGBC-IR sensor aims to provide accurate color reproduction. All this is backed by the 6-element f/2.0 Sony G lens, and a 23-megapixel Exmor RS sensor as well as Sony’s own ‘Bionz for mobile’ image processor. You now also get manual control over focusing and shutter speed.
Sony claims the 13-megapixel wide-angle front camera packs an Exmor RS sensor that’s 2.6 times bigger than the selfie camera seen on “regular flagship phones”. The phone is IP68 certified, making it dust and water resistant. The 5.2-inch full-HD display features Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection. The Sony Xperia XZ variant launching in India is a hybrid dual-SIM unit, with support for 4G VoLTE on both SIMs. Additionally, this model comes with 64GB of inbuilt storage, compared to 32GB seen on the single-SIM variant. The Snapdragon 820-powered Sony Xperia XZ packs in 3GB of RAM features USB Type-C connectivity and is powered by a 2900mAh battery. The Xperia XZ was initially unveiled at IFA 2016.

 

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Moto Z, Moto Z Play Now Available in India: Price, Specifications, and MoreThe Moto Z and Moto Z Play modular smartphones are now available to buy in India. The two new handsets from Lenovo went on sale at 11:59pm IST on Monday. The Moto Z series handsets are up for purchase via Amazon and Flipkart Our Planetary.
The Moto Z is priced at Rs. 39,999, while the Moto Z Play is priced at Rs. 24,999.
Also up for grabs will be Moto Mods, which connect to the rear of the Moto Z and Moto Z Play smartphones via the 16-dot connector interface. The Moto Mods will be sold separately and include the JBL Soundboost priced at Rs. 6,999, the Moto Instant-Share Projector priced at Rs. 19,999, the Hasselblad True Zoom priced at Rs. 19,999, the Incipio offGRID Power Pack priced at Rs. 5,999, the Wood and Ballistic Nylon Motorola Style Shell priced at Rs. 1,099, while the Leather Style Shell is priced at Rs. 1,599.
If bought with the smartphones, the Moto Mods come at a small discount. The JBL Soundboost will be available at Rs. 5,999, the Moto Instant-Share Projector will come at Rs. 15,999, the Hasselblad True Zoom will cost Rs. 14,999, the Incipio offGRID Power Pack will come priced at Rs. 4,999, the Wood and Ballistic Nylon Motorola Style Shell will be available at Rs. 899, while the Leather Style Shell will cost Rs. 1,299.
Both Moto Z and Moto Z Play run Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and have been launched in dual-SIM (Nano-SIM) variants in India. The Moto Z will be available in Black with Lunar Grey trim, and White with Fine Gold trim color variants. The Moto Z Play will be available in Black with Silver trim, and White with Fine Gold trim color variants. Both smartphones also come with water-repellent nano-coating and a fingerprint sensor on the home button.
For specifications, the Moto Z features a 5.5-inch QHD (1440×2560 pixels) AMOLED display; Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor; 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM; 13-megapixel rear camera with laser autofocus, optical image stabilisation, 4K video recording, and dual-LED flash; 5-megapixel camera; 64GB inbuilt storage with storage expandability via microSD (up to 2TB); 4G LTE support; and a 2600mAh battery.
The Moto Z Play, on the other hand, features a 5.5-inch full-HD display; Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor; 3GB of LPDDR3 RAM; 16-megapixel rear camera with laser autofocus, dual-LED flash, and 4K video recording; a 5-megapixel camera; 32GB of inbuilt storage with expandable storage support via microSD card (up to 2TB); 4G LTE; and a 3510mAh battery.

 

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Reliance Retail on Friday launched the Lyf F1 smartphone, priced at Rs. 13,399. The smartphone will be available from Reliance Digital stores from Friday itself. The company is offering a free Bluetooth speaker worth Rs. 3,000 alongside, and announced a 10 percent cashback offer for Citibank cardholders. Purchasers will also get a Reliance Retail gift voucher worth Rs. 15,000.
The company is touting several ‘smart’ features for the Lyf F1, including Smart Ring – which helps locate the smartphone even when it is on silent mode, and Smart Play – which will pause a playing video when the user looks away from the display. The smartphone also offers carrier aggregation that, apart from faster speeds, is claimed to offer better battery life.
Reliance Retail is also touting RCS (Rich Communication Services) services, which offers enhanced rich messaging services on SMS, apart from allowing users to share files and location when on a live call. Like other Lyf phones, it will come bundled with a Reliance Jio SIM card.

The dual-SIM (Micro+Nano) Lyf F1 smartphone runs on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow, and sports a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080×1920 pixels) IPS display with Corning Gorilla Glass 4 protection and a pixel density of 400ppi. It is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 SoC (four cores clocked at 1.52GHz and four cores clocked at 1.21GHz), coupled with 3GB of RAM.
The Lyf F1 sports a 16-megapixel rear camera with PDAF and EIS, apart from an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with autofocus. It bears 32GB of inbuilt storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 128GB). Apart from 4G and VoLTE support, the Lyf F1 offers Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth v4.1, Micro-USB, GPS, and 3.5mm audio jack connectivity options Page Papi.

The smartphone is powered by a 3200mAh non-removable battery that is claimed to last all day. It measures 155.5×77.6×7.9mm and weighs in at 153 grams. Sensors on board the Lyf F1 include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, proximity sensor, and electronic compass.

 

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iPhone Sales Booming in India, Reliance Jio Starts Hurting Airtel, and More: Your 360 DailyApple announced a 50 percent growth rate in iPhone sales in India, while Xiaomi said its new phablets will give the country a miss, and Airtel admitted Reliance Jio has begun hurting its business. Check out these and other major tech news of the day in your 360 Daily.
iPhone sales rise 50 percent in India
Apple suffered its first revenue decline in 15 years, but the silver lining around that dark cloud was the 50 percent year-on-year growth in iPhone sales it registered in India. The company is also optimistic about the future growth of the iPhones in India as well on the back of its pact with Reliance Jio, improving 4G infrastructure in the country, and increasing the appetite of the middle class for smartphones.
Xiaomi Mi Note 2, Mi MIX not launching in India
Xiaomi broke the hearts of many of its fans in India today with the announcement that it currently has no plans to bring the Mi Note 2 and Mi MIX smartphones to the country. This will disappoint potential buyers who had their hearts set on the Mi Note 2 either as a replacement for the ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Note 7 or as a pocket-friendly phablet with powerful features Planet Reporter.
Reliance Jio starts hurting Airtel’s mobile business
Airtel in its Q2 earnings call said that its mobile business suffered during the period because competition from a new carrier led to slow growth in the mobile business. Gopal Vittal, the company’s managing director and chief executive for India and South Asia, said its “mobile business has experienced a slowdown in growth due to free services being offered by a new operator,” obliquely suggesting Reliance Jio, without naming the company.
Airtel also launched the new 10-day international roaming packs with free calling minutes, messages, incoming calls, and bundled data.
Apple accidentally leaks new MacBook Pro’s new feature
Just a month after it leaked the new iPhones via its Twitter account, Apple is at it again, giving the world a glimpse at some of the features fans can expect from the upcoming MacBook Pro. With the commercial release of MacOS 10.12.1 Sierra, Apple has leaked images of the upcoming MacBook Pro, just ahead of its launch event on Thursday. The images confirm the arrival of the rumored Magic Toolbar OLED touch panel, which is expected to replace the function keys on the keyboard, as well as the arrival of the Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
More Samsung Galaxy S8 features leaked
A new report claims that Samsung Galaxy S8 will feature a 5.5-inch display touting 4K resolution (2160×3840 pixels), Exynos 8895 SoC, and 6GB of RAM. This comes to a couple of weeks after a report saying that the smartphone, which has apparently been delayed, will have a 16-megapixel and 8-megapixel dual-camera setup on the back. Other rumored features of the Galaxy S8 include a bezel-less design, no Home button, and fingerprint-sensing display.
Google may be making more money on Pixel XL than Apple does on iPhone 7
In a tear-down of the Pixel XL, research firm IHS Markit has revealed that the bill of materials for the 32GB variant of smartphone stands at $285.75. This gives Google a margin of $485.35 (against the device’s selling price of $769), higher than the $424 margin that Apple makes on the iPhone 7.
Flipkart loses yet another top executive
Continuing its streak of losing top executives, Flipkart on Wednesday confirmed that its chief financial officer Sanjay Baweja would leave the company on December 31, 2016. The biggest e-commerce player in India has already started looking for Baweja’s replacement.

 

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Meizu m3s Launched in India: Price, Release Date, Specifications, and MoreLaunched first in June, the Meizu m3s has finally made its way to India. The smartphone will be sold exclusively through Snapdeal and will be made available in two RAM/ inbuilt storage bundles. The 2GB RAM/ 16GB storage is priced at Rs. 7,999 and the 3GB RAM/ 32GB storage variant will be made available for Rs. 9,299. The Meizu m3s will be available in Grey, Silver and Gold color options.
As for availability, the e-commerce giant will begin selling the device from Wednesday starting midnight. The big highlights of the smartphone are its octa-core processor, fingerprint scanner, VoLTE support, and the 13-megapixel rear camera sitting at the back. Just to recap, the Meizu m3s was launched in China for CNY 699 (2GB) and CNY 899 (3GB) respectively Plan Trustler.
To detail all of the specifications, the Meizu m3s features a 5-inch HD (1280×720 pixels) display with 2.5D curved glass protection. The dual-SIM handset runs on a (four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1.5GHz, and four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at 1GHz) MediaTek octa-core processor with Mali T860 GPU.
Apart from the inbuilt storage, there is also a microSD slot (second SIM slot) for storage expansion via card (up to 128GB). Optics include a 13-megapixel rear camera, with dual-tone LED flash, PDAF, and f/2.2 aperture. There is also a 5-megapixel selfie camera with f/2.0 aperture at the front. The Meizu m3s smartphone packs a 3020mAh battery, and comes a fingerprint scanner one the home button.

The connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz), Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS / GLONASS support. The dimensions of the Meizu m3s smartphone measure at 141.9×69.9×8.3mm, and it weighs 138 grams. It also sports a digital compass, gravity sensor, and ambient light sensor on board.

 

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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A techhnology education startup launched by two Keralites is making it easier for school students interested in science to tinker with gadgets.
BiBox also known as Brain in a Box, headquartered in Bengaluru , is a programmable electronic platform that helps students from classes V to X to build smart machines, robots, and other real-world gadgets. Founded by Sandeep Senan and Madhusudan Namboodiri in 2012, BiBox has now the presence in Kerala schools too.
BiBox, apart from the hard ware that can be easily assembled, also provides for software. Students have made traffic lights, automatic locking doors, smart room lights, drip irrigation systems and asthma detectors etc. using BiBox.
“The BiBox hardware consists of an electronic brain, programmable wirelessly by a mobile application and multiple inputs and output accessories that can be seamlessly connected to it. This plug and play system are open and scalable, enabling users to ideate and create real-world projects,” said Namboodiri, who hails from Vaikom.
He said more than 10,000 students in Kerala were undergoing BiBox programs in schools.
Namboodiri said there was pronounced need for products like BiBox and other ed-tech applications as learning in the 21st century was no more theory based. “We have stretched this system of education too far for too long. It is a time we evolve and create a system that better prepares students for the real world,” he said.
The firm has received funding from Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and Department of Science and Technology (DST) Pressography.

 

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MacBook Price in India Increased by Up to Rs. 10,000While the entire world was focussed on the launch of the new MacBook Pro, Apple India decided to quietly increase the price of the MacBook by as much as Rs. 10,000. The change happened last week, and Apple India’s website has been updated to reflect the new prices.
The 12-inch MacBook now starts at Rs. 112,900, an increase of Rs. 6,000 from last October, when prices across the entire Mac line were revised. The variant with a faster processor and double the SSD storage now retails at Rs. 129,990 139,900, an increase of Rs. 10,000. The US price of the MacBook remains unchanged, as does the India price of other Mac desktops and laptops, so the move is curious, to say the least. As always, these are maximum retail prices, and the products may be available at lower prices online as well as offline.
The MacBook was last updated in April with sixth-generation Intel Skylake processor as well as slightly faster RAM and PCIe-based flash storage. A new Rose Gold color option was also added, to go with the Space Grey, Gold, and Silver variants available at the time.
With the 11-inch MacBook Air discontinued, the MacBook is the smallest portable Mac that Apple currently offers. If the 13-inch MacBook Air is discontinued in the near future as well, it is likely that the MacBook will get a makeover and be repositioned to become the new entry-level portable Mac – when that happens is anyone’s guess.

 

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