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• Nothing Phone 1 Launch Date Revealed, Arriving Very Soon
• Apple iPhones to Get a Major Change After Two Years
• Airtel Networks Restored After Going Down on Wednesday
• Asus ROG Phones Haven’t Brought Company Any Profits
• Vi and Airtel Are Unlikely to be Affected by the Interest Rate Hikes
• Apple is Building a Stronger Ecosystem Lock than Ever
• Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Other OTT Players Will Love Indian Market After This
• COAI Shares Hard Stance on Private 5G Networks in India
• Oppo K10 5G Launched in India: Check Price and Specifications
• YouTube Premium Membership Available for Free in India
• Bharti Airtel Investors Would Love to Hear This
• BSNL Prepaid Plan for Streamers With Heavy Data Consumption

Nothing Phone 1 Launch Date Revealed, Arriving Very Soon Posted: 08 Jun 2022 09:05 AM PDT Nothing, a consumer electronics company, led by the co-founder of OnePlus, Carl Pie, has announced the launch date of its first smartphone – Nothing Phone 1. The smartphone has been confirmed to launch on July 12, 2022. Nothing said that it would live stream the launch event through its media channels. This means that we are just a month away from the launch of the first-ever smartphone from Nothing, and the hype of the device has been in the market for one simple reason – a unique experience promised by the company. Nothing's philosophy is to build products that are exciting from their core. The company's first smartphone is also allegedly designed to reflect the same philosophy. Nothing Launcher Already Available It is worth noting that Nothing had already released its launcher on the Google Play Store for Android users. Multiple devices, including smartphones from Google, OnePlus and more, can install and run the launcher. To be quite honest, the launcher seemed pretty normal while using. But in all fairness, it was definitely an incomplete product just meant as a tool to collect feedback from the Android users without officially rolling it out with the Nothing Phone 1. Since the launch is not far away, we will definitely get some more leaks and official announcements about the smartphone in the coming days.

Apple iPhones to Get a Major Change After Two Years Posted: 08 Jun 2022 08:53 AM PDT Apple's been widely loved by users across the globe for making seamless iPhones. But the company has often come under criticism from the tech enthusiasts for not including the Type-C port. Right now, all the iPhones are charged and connected physically by a lightning port. It is just not as fast as what Type-C ports can deliver and also shows the lack of standardising initiative from Apple. The Cupertino tech giant has not addressed the issue of missing Type-C port even in 2022. Well, it is not really an issue technically, but a very big inconvenience indeed. However, in the near future, that might change. Apple iPhones USB Type-C Port Might Become a Reality in 2024 The iPhones in 2024 (iPhone 16 series) are expected to come with a Type-C port. This is because of the EU laws, which make it mandatory for all the smartphones launched in the country to come fitted with a Type-C port. Not just smartphones, but the new EU law for including a Type-C port will be applicable to all the tablets, earphones, gaming consoles, and more. iPhones will naturally come under this law and will be required to have a Type-C port. Apple wouldn't want to miss out on the opportunity of selling iPhones in Europe, one of its biggest markets. Post the formal adoption of the law by Europe; the tech companies will be given two years to bring the Type-C ports into their devices. This means that if the law gets formal in 2022, Apple will have about two years to include the Type-C port in iPhones. It will be something that even Apple might have been planning for a long time now. But the way things work in Apple is slower than what we see in the Android smartphone market. Apple is in its own league and often lazes around in bringing what customers demand most from it.

Airtel Networks Restored After Going Down on Wednesday Posted: 08 Jun 2022 08:41 AM PDT Bharti Airtel, the second-largest telecom operator in India was under the spotlight of the consumers on Wednesday. The telco's networks had gone down in multiple parts of India. Airtel users in many regions of the country complained of a network outage on Twitter. Even the DownDetector data shows that a lot of people complained of network outages around 4:30 pm. The complaints have come down significantly since and many users said that the network connectivity has been restored. People from Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and multiple other states complained of losing connectivity. Multiple Outages in the Last Few Months It is worth noting that in the last few months, both Airtel and Jio users have had to go through multiple network outages. While these outages are hardly ever for a long period, they can still affect many people in a large magnitude. The telecom operators are hiking tariffs, hopefully, they can take care of such issues rapidly in the future and reduce downtime of their networks further. Vodafone Idea (Vi) is the only telecom operator whose networks haven't gone down in the last one-year months (our observation period) while Jio and Airtel users have had to go through it at least twice. However, on Wednesday, Airtel managed to bring the networks back up pretty fast.

Asus ROG Phones Haven’t Brought Company Any Profits Posted: 08 Jun 2022 08:34 AM PDT The world of the online gaming industry is booming right now. Especially in a country such as India, where the fiber connectivity is reaching fast to every corner, and data rates are very cheap. Asus, a major Chinese tech manufacturer, sells ROG Phones built for gamers who want to focus on gaming with a smartphone. The ROG Phones are expensive devices and fall in the premium category when specifications are concerned. Regardless of their distinguish nature, the company hasn't been able to turn a profit out of these devices. As per a Gizmochina report, the CEO of Asus, Xu Xianyue, recently said that the brand is still focusing on launching high-end smartphones for the esports centric market. In fact, Asus is gearing up to launch the ROG Phone 6 in the near future. The device is expected to don the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen1, the flagship chipset for Androids, this year. Why Has Asus Not Been Able to Profit Out of Premium Gaming Smartphones? Well, it is hard to give an exact reason without the company officially sharing details. But if you were to think carefully, Asus might not enjoy the benefits of scale that the other smartphone vendors do. This is because Asus is making the high-end gaming smartphones for a very niche market, and that market is way smaller than you might think. But there's no denying that Asus is one of the leading brands in the segment of gaming smartphones and enjoys a large market share globally in the gaming segment. But its devices might not appeal to everyone, given they aren't built for regular use (while they can still be used as an average smartphone). Asus will be hoping for a change with the Asus ROG Phone 6 launch in the global market. With time, the target market of Asus with the ROG Phones is definitely going to expand, and that might help the company in generating profits.

Vi and Airtel Are Unlikely to be Affected by the Interest Rate Hikes Posted: 08 Jun 2022 07:08 AM PDT The global market has been in an uneasy position since the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020. Since then, a lot has happened, including the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The global economy has been affected negatively, and it has led to governments hiking interest rates. While the hike in interest rates has affected each and every sector in India, the telecom sector has been bulletproof. Regardless of the forex fluctuations or the rising interest rates, the Indian telecom operators such as Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel are unlikely to see any negative effects. JP Morgan said this in a note which mentioned that Airtel's exposure to the forex rates and the interest rate fluctuations would impact its PAT (profit after taxes) by 1%, 2% and 3% in FY23, FY23, ad FY25, respectively. For Vodafone Idea, JP Morgan said similar figures. Indian telcos are in a safe zone because the debt from the spectrum and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues have been fixed at a particular INR rate, and thus the interest rate sensitivity is less than feared, JP Morgan said, according to an ET Telecom report. Tariff Hikes and 5G Revenues Give Investors Something to Look Forward to The tariff hikes that will be possibly implemented in the coming months, as well as the launch of 5G networks in the second half of the year, give the investors something to look forward to. The telcos have been pouring in money to develop relevant use cases for 5G, and most of the use cases successfully demonstrated so far show us that enterprises will need the services from telecom operators really soon. This means that more B2B revenues would flow in for the telecom operators, thus, increasing their overall earnings. The telecom operators have got a lot to look forward to as the economy turns digital, and the telecom sector is going to reap benefits from it.

Apple is Building a Stronger Ecosystem Lock than Ever Posted: 08 Jun 2022 04:37 AM PDT Apple, a globally renowned tech company, is building a very strong ecosystem lock for its consumers. One thing that's been clear about Apple's philosophy of doing business is that it doesn't want its customers to just keep one Apple gadget, but all of them. The company has been trying to do it in several ways for the last decade. But with the announcements in the recent WWDC 2022 (World Wide Developers Conference), it is clear that Apple's ecosystem is going to come with a stronger lock than ever. How is Apple Forcing Customers to Stay Within its Ecosystem? Apple recently announced new versions of iOS, macOS, watchOS, and iPadOS. With the macOS, Apple announced a continuity feature. With this, users will be able to turn their iPhones into external webcams. Note that they can't do this with any smartphone but iPhone. Then, Apple announced Passkeys. It is an advanced authentication system which aims to replace passwords. So, if you have Safari across devices, you don't need to enter a password each time you are trying to access something that is protected. You can just use Passkeys to authenticate the login from any Apple device. Suppose you want to login inside the Safari on Mac; you can authenticate the process by using Touch ID or Face ID on your iPhone. Apple said, "Passkeys are a replacement for passwords that are designed to provide websites and apps a password-less sign-in experience that is both more convenient and more secure." Passwords are prone to phishing, but Passkeys will change the game and make the experience for iOS, macOS, and iPadOS users more secure. Then, you have the iPadOS, which looks so much more like the macOS now. This is something that we will talk about some other day. But with the new macOS and iPadOS, sharing screens is going to be more fun as users can connect the two with a cable. Apple has also updated the Messages app, which will now allow users to leverage SharePlay for watching content with their loved ones and also chat in real-time. Only iPhone users can do this. This is just the top layer of things. Over the years, Apple has brilliantly executed its plans of building an ecosystem that would push a user to purchase other Apple products as well. The success of the over-expensive Apple Watch is the correct example of that.

Netflix, Disney+ Hotstar, and Other OTT Players Will Love Indian Market After This Posted: 08 Jun 2022 03:51 AM PDT The rise of the over-the-top (OTT) industry and platforms in India is inevitable. It is only a matter of when it will happen. In the last five years, many new OTT platforms have emerged in the Indian market. But for the OTT to prosper, Smart TVs have to play a big role. Smart TVs allow users to consumer OTT content directly from several platforms. Thus, OTT companies would want more Indians to buy new Smart TVs as fast as possible. There's also the factor of fiber reaching every part of the country, but that shouldn't stop users from consuming OTT content via mobile networks, however much expensive that may be. As per the data shared by Counterpoint Research, the Smart TV segment in India prospered in Q1 2022. During the quarter, the Smart TV segment grew 33% YoY and reached a market share of 89% overall which is just phenomenal. Xiaomi Was the Market Leader in Smart TVs in Q1 2022 Counterpoint data suggests that Xiaomi was the market leader with a 14.3% share during the quarter ending March 2022. Samsung was in the second position with 13% market share while LG was in the third with 8% share. This is data that OTT companies will love and be encouraged to invest more in the country. Further, this data coupled with the PLI (Production Liked Incentives) that the government is offering should motivate manufacturers to build their Smart TVs as well as components in India itself. Smart TV sales via online sales channels also grew significantly and contributed to 31% of the total sales with Flipkart dominating. Regardless, 69% of the market still took their Smart TVs from offline retail channels. It makes sense as well. Users would first want to experience the Smart TV they are purchasing. TVs are all about experiences which can only be taken by going to the store. The Counterpoint report also noted that users nowadays are more interested in going for Smart TVs with larger screens.

COAI Shares Hard Stance on Private 5G Networks in India Posted: 08 Jun 2022 02:03 AM PDT The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has shared its hard stance on the private 5G networks in India. The industry body, which represents the private telcos in the country, said that there's no "justification" for offering spectrum directly to the enterprises for private 5G. COAI said that licensed access service providers are fully capable of delivering all the customised solutions, including M2M / Industrial 4.0 services, in the most economical and competitive manner. Thus, there's no need to alienate the spectrum directly for the companies for captive private networks. COAI Said Private 5G Will Truncate Revenues of the Government The industry body said that if the airwaves are directly allocated to the private enterprises, that will result in a loss of revenues to the government as well as the licensed access service providers. In addition to that, it would also create a non-level playing field for the telecom service providers. But when the telcos are only given access to the licensed spectrum for offering private 5G network services, it would help with generating revenues both for the operators as well as the government. COAI said, "it is respectfully submitted that the requirement of industry verticals can be best met through operator-led private networks." Further, COAI said that if the enterprises are getting direct access to airwaves for setting up private networks, they won't have to follow through with the requirements of the "law enforcement agencies". Telcos have to do this, and thus the anti-social elements that are included in the private networks of the enterprises could mean that bypassing and intercepting messages can be done, which would be detrimental to the national security. COAI also said that since spectrum is a finite resource, it should be auctioned through a transparent process, and thus there should be no scope for enterprises to get airwaves through an administrative manner. COAI has urged the government not to reserve or de-license any spectrum which has been identified as useful for providing IMT/commercial services for private captive networks.

Oppo K10 5G Launched in India: Check Price and Specifications Posted: 08 Jun 2022 12:17 AM PDT Oppo has just launched the Oppo K10 5G in India through a virtual event. The device comes powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 810 SoC. It could be a decent chip, but we will only get to know how the device performs after reviewing it, so stay tuned for that. The Oppo K10 5G has a pretty flashy feel to it. If you are going to use the device outside the box, it is going to definitely attract some attention. Let's take a look at the complete specifications and price of the smartphone. Oppo K10 5G Specifications in India The Oppo K10 5G comes with a 5000mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. As mentioned above, the device is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 810 SoC coupled with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Oppo also allows users to expand the internal storage by up to 5GB if they have free internal storage. The device has a dual-camera setup at the rear with a 48MP primary sensor and a 2MP depth sensor. There's an 8MP sensor at the front for selfies. The Oppo K10 5G comes with a 6.56-inch HD+ display with support for 90Hz refresh rate. Out of the box, the device runs on Android 12 based on ColorOS 12.1. It weighs 190 grams and thus isn't too heavy nor too light. The 5G bands supported by the device are – 5G NR: n1/n5/n8/n28A/n41/n77/n78. Oppo K10 5G Price in India Oppo K10 5G has launched for a price of Rs 17,499 in India. It will be available in a single memory variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. The device will come in two colours – Ocean Blue and Midnight Black. There are bank offers with SBI and Axis Bank debit/credit cards through which users can get a flat discount of Rs 1500 on the purchase. The device will be available in the market starting June 15, 2022, at 12 PM IST on the Flipkart and Oppo online store.

YouTube Premium Membership Available for Free in India Posted: 07 Jun 2022 10:04 PM PDT YouTube is arguably the biggest video streaming platform in the world. Google-owned video platform had introduced a 'Premium' model of subscription for the users with which they would be able to access exclusive premium content and avoid ads disturbing their video watching experience. If you are an Indian, you can get the YouTube Premium Membership for free right now. There's a catch, though. As the phrase goes, there's no such thing as free lunch, here's what you should know about this. YouTube Premium Membership for Free, How to Get it in India YouTube Premium is currently available for free for the first three months for users on the purchase of select Xiaomi and Redmi smartphones. Xiaomi India, in a statement, said that eligible customers would get up to free three months of YouTube Premium. This is not the first time Xiaomi is doing this, though. Earlier, Poco, one of the sub-brands of Xiaomi, was also giving the same offer to the users. With YouTube Premium, users can also download content locally on their devices in very high quality and enjoy an offline music listening experience. However, note that if you have already availed of a free offer of using the YouTube Premium for free, you are not an eligible customer to get it for free again with a Xiaomi phone. Right now, if you are thinking of purchasing the Xiaomi 11, Xiaomi 12 Pro, Xiaomi 11T, or the Xiaomi 11i, you will be eligible to get three months of YouTube Premium. Some of the Redmi devices, such as Redmi Note 11, Note 11S and more, will get the offer of free YouTube Premium free for two months. The promotional offer is available on the purchase of these devices until January 31, 2023. YouTube Premium normally costs Rs 129 per month. It is cheaper than most of the other OTT (over-the-top) platforms in the Indian market right now.

Bharti Airtel Investors Would Love to Hear This Posted: 07 Jun 2022 08:59 PM PDT Bharti Airtel recently said that its online banking subsidiary, Airtel Payments Bank, could be a unicorn. For the unaware, unicorn is a term used for companies/startups whose valuation goes beyond a billion dollars. Airtel Payments Bank had turned profitable in 2021. For FY22, the company's profits were Rs 9 crore, and the total revenues were up by 50% to Rs 941 crore. This should ideally place Airtel Payments Bank in an even better position in FY23 with a rising customer base of Airtel's mobile business. Anubrata Biswas, Airtel Payments Bank CEO, told TOI that the company could turn profitable because it had the ability to onboard many new customers at a relatively lower cost compared to what other banks spend. But Airtel Payments Bank is not just profitable because of its B2C business; the company also made revenues from its B2B services, customer subscriptions, interest spread, and fees on transactions. Airtel Payments Bank Wants to Be Like This Biswas said that the dream state for Airtel Payments Bank is to be in a position where it is one third a bank, one third a startup, and one third an FMCG distributor. According to Biswas, if Airtel Payments Bank acted completely as a bank, they would not have been able to scale up. One of the biggest advantages for Airtel Payments Bank is the distribution it gets from Bharti Airtel's mobile business. It also helped the business in establishing trust within the Indian community. The company has over five lakh banking points spread across the country. Airtel Payments Bank might get to see a tough competition when its arch-rival, Jio Payments Bank, launches in India. For now, Airtel Payments Bank offers a suite of services to users. The company has also made the online banking experience safer for users by launching Airtel Safe Pay which is an extra layer of authentication to ensure that users are never duped of their money by frauds.

BSNL Prepaid Plan for Streamers With Heavy Data Consumption Posted: 07 Jun 2022 06:48 PM PDT Bharat Sanchar Niga Limited (BSNL) right now offers the most affordable and unique prepaid plans to users in India. There is no 4G yet from BSNL, but even that will come by the end of the year to most places in the country. If you are a heavy data user who likes to stream content online, then you want a prepaid plan that can back up your hobby. BSNL has a perfect plan for you at a very affordable price compared to what you get with the private operators. BSNL Prepaid Plan that We Are Talking About We are talking about the Rs 599 prepaid plan from BSNL. Now, the chances are that you already know about this plan. It is a very popular one from the state-run telco, and there's no other plan like this offered by the entire industry. With the Rs 599 prepaid plan from BSNL, users get unlimited voice calling, 100 SMS/day, and 5GB of daily data. None of the private operators offers a prepaid plan with 5GB of daily data. The maximum you can get with any of the private operators is 3GB of daily data. Post the consumption of 5GB of data with this plan; the speed will drop to 80 Kbps. But this is not all. If you are someone who likes to stay awake at night, then this plan is a super treat for you. BSNL offers unlimited data completely free between 12 AM, and 5 AM every night and data used during this period won't affect the user's FUP (fair-usage-policy) data limit for the day. Note that this plan carries a validity of 84 days. Users also get a free subscription to Zing, but there's no major OTT (Over-the-top) benefit bundled with this plan. Regardless, with 4G mobile networks, plans such as this will become so much more powerful and give BSNL an edge over its private competitors, who will be busy rolling out 5G.

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