Highlights: Citroën brand launched in India Its first model in India will be the C5 Aircross SUV The compact SUV will be showcased before the end of 2021 If you’re a motoring enthusiast, chances are you’ve heard of Citroën before. You’ve probably even seen the French brand of cars and vans in films and on your trips outside the country. Well, you’ll be happy to know that parent company Groupe PSA has just announced the launch of the Citroën brand in India for the first time. Partnering with CK Birla Group, the French marque will manufacture its cars and powertrains in Tamil Nadu and showcase the C5 Aircross SUV sometime before the end of 2021. “To support our range of unique new products and our in-depth study of the Indian market, we have planned for a unique customer experience, which will enable us to be the new digital reference for a seamless customer experience in the Indian automotive market,” said Roland Bouchara, Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing of Citroën India. “We are planning to introduce a unique digitally disruptive, omni-channel customer journey to deliver ATAWADAC (AnyTime AnyWhere AnyDevice AnyContent) experience to customers. Our Network focus will be to develop lean & phygital (physical + digital) formats with a ‘brick to click’ orientation. This seamless experience will be brought alive by personalized digital sales and service processes for our customers.” Part of Groupe PSA since 1976, Citroën was founded in 1919 by French industrialist André-Gustave Citroën. It developed the world’s first hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system in 1954. A year later, it launched the DS, the first mass-produced car with modern disc brakes. Its current lineup in Europe includes models like the Citroën C-Zero, C1, C3, C3 Aircross, C4 Cactus, and the India-bound C5 Aircross SUV. The Citroën C5 Aircross SUV is expected to come to India with both petrol and diesel engine options. In Europe the compact SUV is sold with four engine options: a three-cylinder 1.2-litre PureTech 130 turbocharged petrol motor followed by a four-cylinder 1.6-litre variant of the same, a four-cylinder 1.5-litre BlueHDi diesel motor with a 2.0-litre turbocharged variant. The gearbox is either a six-speed manual or eight-speed automatic. When launched in India, the Citroën C5 Aircross SUV is expected to compete with models like the Honda CR-V and Jeep Compass. Related Read: MG Motor unveils iSMART Next Gen for upcoming MG Hector, an internet-based connectivity solution 
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Highlights: Both JioSaavn and Gaana have slashed their annual subscription prices by 70 percent. The hombrewed services aim to keep users locked-down for a uear. Gaana also has a student plan that is further discounted. With the entry of Spotify and YouTube Music, the music streaming market in India now has almost every major streaming giant vying for the top spot. But hombrewed players like JioSaavn and Gaana are not going down without a fight. Taking the fight to the global players, both JioSaavn and Gaana have slashed their annual subscription rates to take on the competition. JioSaavn’s premium tier now comes for Rs 299, a whopping 70 percent down from Rs 999 while Gaana Plus can be availed at Rs 298 per year instead of Rs 1098. Additionally, Gaana also offers a discounted annual plan for students for Rs 149. The price-cuts are effective immediately. In comparison, Spotify’s annual plan for its premium service at Rs 1,198 and YouTube Music’s monthly subscription of Rs 99, both now abnormally high in comparison to Saavn and Gaana. Interestingly, it’s only the annual plans that got discounted indicating that the homebrewed players are attempting to lock-in users in their platform for a whole year giving them the time to add new features and improve the service. However, it’s also worth noting that both JioSaavn and Gaana are technically free-to-use. The premium versions of the services allow ad-free streaming, offline downloads and the likes. YouTube Music and Spotify are the new entrants in the streaming market in India. Spotify is offering a month’s free trial while YouTube Music lets you stream and watch original content for three months for free, but you won’t get background play during the trial period if you don’t pay. Meanwhile Amazon Prime Music and Apple Music have kept their subscription rates unchanged. Related Reads: Spotify India Free vs Premium: Comparing the two tiers
Highlights: Airtel Books app launched on Android and iOS. The new app is said to offer over 70,000 ebooks for both Airtel and other customers. There is also a Readers Club in-app subscription service. Airtel has launched its new Airtel Books app for smartphone users on Android and iOS. The new app adds to the company’s suite of apps like Wynk Music and Airtel TV but unlike some of its apps that are exclusive to Airtel customers, the new Airtel Books app will be available for all. The company says that with the app, users will currently be able to access over 70,000 titles from both Indian and international authors. The company plans to expand the collection on the app by partnering with leading publishers and leveraging its partnership with Juggernaut Books. All users who install and use the Airtel Books app will get a 30-day free trial and access ‘Free’ titles from the Readers Club. This Readers Club is a subscription service in the app, which is priced at Rs 129 for 6 months and Rs 199 for a year. One can also purchase individual books within the app with some offers. Airtel subscribers will get to avail an exclusive one-time benefit and will be able to access any five paid books from the Readers Club, which is said to be a collection of over 5000 e-books. “Airtel Books is another major milestone in our journey towards building a world-class digital content portfolio. E-books is a fast growing segment along with music and video, thanks to large screen smartphones becoming the cornerstone of digital lifestyle,” says Sameer Batra, CEO of Content and Apps, Bharti Airtel. “We are delighted to roll out this initiative and take it to the smartphone users across India through our deep distribution reach. As we have demonstrated with Wynk Music and Airtel TV, our aim is to use deep customer science to curate great reading content for our users and add to their smartphone experience on our best-in-class network.” Airtel is not the only telecom operator that has an app to entertain its customers. Jio has JioTV, JioNews and multiple other apps that are aimed at luring customers with exclusive access. Vodafone and Idea, all have their own respective apps that are meant to entertain their customers. Related Reads: Airtel Digital TV, Dish TV may consolidate operations to take on Reliance Jio: Report Airtel 4G Hotspot free on six month plan subscription, monthly recharge plans revamped to start at Rs 399 
Highlights: A bug in Skype for Android is auto answering voice and video calls. The auto-answering is working even if the feature is disabled. Microsoft is reportedly working on a fix. Skype was once the go-to app for people if they wanted to video call their friends and families, but with the rise of WhatsApp, Google Duo, among other apps that support video calling, Skype lost its ground and pivoted towards enterprise users. It could see thinning of its users due to a bug that is auto-answering the voice as well as the video calls on the Android version of the app. Several Skype users have complained that even though the auto answer feature is disabled, the app would still answer the call. Reportedly, Microsoft is fixing the bug. The bug was first reported in January on Microsoft’s forum. “My Skype on my phone automatically answers calls after a few seconds. This is even when my phone is in my pocket. It started happening since a few weeks. Skype version: 8.36.0.76. In the settings I have disabled answer incoming calls automatically. How can I stop my phone from answering automatically?” the user complained. To this, a Microsoft support team member gave numerous ways to get things straight for the victim but given the trail of messages on the forum, none of the solutions provided by the team member worked for complainant. Microsoft later said that it will have this issue investigated. Meanwhile, a second trail started in which a temporary solution to the problem has been discussed. A person says that people who have reported auto-answering issues were having a smartwatch paired with their Android devices. “This may be due to a configuration on the watch possibly aided by a change in the application. You can always try a preview release for Android to see if anything changes,” the person said. Interestingly, the solution have worked for some, while others have said they want to switch to another Skype-like app. A similar bug was discovered on iOS devices that lets a caller listen in on people's conversations when the call hasn’t even been answered by receiver. The bug in question affected Apple’s FaceTime and even gave one the ability to hear the audio of the receiver even before the call has been answered. It was due to this bug that FaceTime users can listen in on each other discreetly. Related Read: EXCLUSIVE: First look at 2019 Apple iPhone XI renders
Highlights: WhatsApp is being updated with new group privacy and invite features. Users can now choose who can add them to groups. They will get invites to join a group that will expire in three days. WhatsApp is officially getting some new privacy settings in India ahead of the General Elections 2019. The online chat app is now rolling out a new privacy setting and an invite system for the app, which is aimed at giving users more control over who can add them to a group. The new privacy setting can be enabled from the app’s settings by navigating to the Account section, then by entering Groups option under Privacy tab. Users can now select who can add them to a group by selecting from three options, “Nobody,” “My Contacts,” or “Everyone.” When a user selects the ‘Nobody’ option, they will request for being added to a group and they will need to approve it every time. Choosing ‘My Contacts’ means that the user can be added to groups only by people who are added to their contacts. When you select one of these two options, the person inviting you will be prompted to send a private invite to join their group. The invite will expire in three days if one doesn’t accept it. “With these new features, users will have more control over the group messages they receive. These new privacy settings will begin rolling out to some users starting today and will be available worldwide in the coming weeks to those using the latest version of WhatsApp,” States WhatsApp’s media release. WhatApp also recently launched a tip line to fight misinformation and fake news circulating on the platform during Lok Sabha Elections 2019. The new tip line number is +91-9643-000-888 and can be added to contacts by WhatsApp users and can be used to verify text messages, videos and photos circulating on the platform with regards to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The new tip line has been launched in partnership with PROTO, who will use texts, images and videos reported by users to create a database of rumors. It will also study misinformation during elections for Checkpoint - a research project commissioned and technically assisted by WhatsApp. Related Reads: WhatsApp reportedly working on invitation system for groups, rolls out revamped settings UI for beta users WhatsApp launches tip line to fight misinformation and fake news circulating on the platform during Lok Sabha Elections 2019
Highlights PlayerUnknown aka Brendan Greene says he doesn’t intend on making PUBG 2 Greene now heads PUBG Corps; new Special Projects Division The division plans to take his ideas and turn them into something playable Looks like we won’t be seeing a sequel to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, aka PUBG. While the game itself was massively popular and can be credited with popularising the battle royale genre, its creator doesn’t seem to want to create a PUBG 2. In an interview with gamesindustry.biz, PlayerUnknown himself, Brendan Greene notes that he is done with the battle royale concept, and plans to move on. “The last man standing concept is great, but I've done that. I don't really intend to make PUBG 2,” he says. Greene himself now heads PUBG Corps’ new Special Project Division, which was unveiled last month. He notes that the new division plans to take his ideas and “turn it into something that may be playable.” It looks like multiplayer is still on the cards as he added that he wants to “explore online experiences and how to connect people in ways that we haven't really done before.” As gamesindustry.biz notes, the phrase “connect people” seems to suggest that his new project may not be something competitive like PUBG. Greene also talked about the many battle royale games and game modes added to contemporary titles. He notes that while there is so much competition within the battle royale genre, he doesn't plan on altering his own design. “We have our own plan for what we want out of the game. Sometimes, they'll sync up with what other people are doing because we're all in the same space but I love seeing the growth of the battle royale genre. It's been wonderful -- and there's more coming. It's a good genre that has space to grow -- last man standing deathmatches, there are so many different takes you can have on that. I'm still waiting for a For Honor battle royale, something with big, big knives.” Since the launch of PUBG, many developers have launched their own take on the battle royale genre. One of the earliest and most popular was Fortnite Battle Royale. However, since then, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 and Battlefield V each got battle royale modes called Blackout and Firestorm respectively. The newest game on the block is Apex Legends which has already got itself a sizeable player base within the span of a few months. Recommended Read Apex Legends: A viable PUBG replacement? 
