NBA 2K League, Tencent Sign Deal for Chinese Broadcasts

The NBA 2K League has partnered with Internet giant Tencent to stream games in China for the first time.

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BSNL introduces Star 498 membership programme, brings exclusive discounts on STVs for Star customers

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has launched a new membership programme. Subscribers can avail it by recharging with the Rs 498 prepaid recharge plan. The new membership programme is called “Star 498”, and it offers benefits such as unlimited voice calls (in all circles except Delhi and Mumbai), 1,000 SMS messages, and 30GB data. The data is valid for 30 days. However, the plan’s validity is for 365 days. Customers connecting with the Star 498 membership programme will also get discounts on future recharges, The programme will compete with Bharti Airtel’s “Airtel Thanks” loyalty programme.

As of now, the Star 498 plan is being offered in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana circles. There are listings on the circle websites that have detailed bundled benefits of the plan. A banner on the BSNL Telangana site has revealed that, alongside the usual bundled benefits, Star 498 brings Star membership access. As noted by Telecom Talk, this brings discounts on future recharges. Hence, if you have the Star membership access, you will get the Rs 447 plan at Rs 407, and the STV 99 prepaid plan worth Rs 99 at Rs 76.

While the Star 498 plan is presently listed only in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana circles, BSNL should, however, expand the plan in the future. 

Recently, the state-owned telecom launched the Abhinandan-151 plan in all circles. It comes with a validity period of 24 days and offers benefits such as unlimited local, STD, and roaming calls. Additionally, it also offers 1GB data per day that comes to 24GB data in total and 100 SMS messages per day for the subscribers. Moreover, earlier this month, BSNL upgraded its Rs 186 and Rs 187 prepaid recharge plans to offer 2GB data per day. Furthermore, the Rs 96 plan now comes with a validity of 180 days and offers unlimited local and STD calls to any network including roaming except to Mumbai and Delhi circles.

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Xiaomis new patent hints at triple and quad camera smartphone designs

Smartphone manufacturers keep coming up with new designs and features for their offerings to entice and attract consumers. We have already seen how companies like Samsung, Huawei and others are betting big on foldable phones. However, many other companies are still trying to innovate with the standard ongoing design. Xiaomi is also one such company, which was recently granted a patent at the CNIPA (Chinese National Intellectual Property Agency) for a couple of new smartphone designs. The first patent shows off a handset with a slider design, similar to what we have seen on the Mi Mix 3, and on the back is a quad-camera setup. 

The camera module shown off in the first patent is circular in design and it reminds us of some recent Motorola handsets. However, the fingerprint sensor is nowhere to be seen, hinting at the presence of an in-display fingerprint sensor. The slider mechanism is shown to house dual front-cameras with what is possibly an LED flash. At the bottom, there’s a USB Type-C port but there’s no 3.5mm audio jack. Moving on to the second patent design, the handset is shown with a wider notch that houses two cameras and blends into the bezel. On the back is a triple-rear camera setup, which is vertically stacked. While Xiaomi has obtained the patent for the two aforementioned designs, there’s no guarantee that the company will surely use it. 

Speaking of patents, Xiaomi is not the only company that is applying for them. Samsung recently obtained a rollable display phone patent, even though the Galaxy Fold foldable smartphone isn’t doing so well. The company’s patent shows how a display can be extended on a phone with the help of a display rolled into the phone. The display is touted to extend by up to 60 percent after the rollable display is expanded. 

Via

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Trumps ban on Huawei impacts sales of Honor devices in India, company scales down and cuts jobs

The fallout of Huawei’s US ban has resulted in a drop in demand of Honor and Huawei snartphones in India.  A report by The Economic Times claims Honor is scaling down operations in India and has already started downsizing. The report cites two unnamed executives from the company who confirmed that the first wave of downsizing has started.

A drop in sales has led to the downsizing in various departments. Huawei, Honor’s parent company, employs around 6,000 people in India, which includes those who are on the company’s payroll and those who are hired on a contractual basis. Because of poor sales in the past quarter, Honor is reportedly asking employees to resign across various departments.

Between the two, Honor drives the most amount of sales for the company in India. While Huawei phones target the mid and premium range segment, Honor operates in the affordable and budget segment. The latter has been more popular over the past few years.

Most affected are those in R&D, marketing, retail, and design. "Retail is being impacted the most as more employees are involved in the function. It looks after both Huawei and Honor brands of products… after-sales is getting impacted too,” an unidentified executive reportedly told ET.

The company has also put a freeze on hiring for the past three months, and executives are being laid off even after several officials agreed to take a pay cut to align with the change.

In a statement to the press, Honor said, "HONOR is a merit based employer. We are proud of our transparent work culture and ensure that every employee gets equal opportunities within the organization. Based on business requirements we believe in optimally leveraging our talent. In line with this, we have also hired employees in different verticals to ensure we drive our company’s goals for the market and remain competitive in the industry. HONOR is a global smartphone e-brand and we consider India as a pillar of strength in our growth story. We have received a positive response from Indian consumers for all our new offerings and will continue to strengthen our position in the Indian market.”

Huawei and Honor’s sales of smartphones have been affected by the announcement of the ban on trading with US companies. According to Counterpoint Research, shipments of Honor phones declined by 18 percent after March till May and that is going to increase to 25 to 30 percent by the end of July.

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Honor 9X, 9X Pro with Kirin 810 chipset launched in China: Specs, price and all you need to know

Amid its tensions with the US, Huawei sub-brand Honor has launched the Honor 9X and Honor 9X Pro smartphones in China. The smartphones sport the same overall design with the basic differences being the RAM, storage options, and camera setup. These are the second lot of phones by Huawei Technologies that are powered by HiSilicon Kirin 810 chipset and the first Honor devices to get the mobile platform. The Chinese tech giant debuted the SoC in the Huawei Nova 5 Series phones last month.

Honor 9X price and availability

The Honor 9X is offered in three variants: 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant, which is priced at CNY 1399 (approx Rs 14,000); 6GB RAM + 64GB storage version for CNY 1599 (approx Rs 16,000); and 6GB RAM + 128GB storage model, which can be purchased for CNY 1899 (approx Rs 19.000). It will go on sale in China on July 30. The Honor 9X Pro is available in only two variants. The 8GB RAM + 128GB storage version costs CNY 2199 (approx Rs 22,000) and the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant will be available at CNY  2399 (approx Rs 24,000). The Honor 9X comes in Red, Blue and Midnight Black colours and the Pro model, which will go on sale on August 9, is offered in Phantom Blue and Midnight Black colours.

Honor 9X and Honor 9X Pro specifications

Both the Honor 9X and Honor 9X feature a 6.59-inch multi-touch display that offers 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution and 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The phones are powered by an Octa-core Kirin 810 chipset (2.27GHz A76 x 2 + 1.88GHz A53 x 6) with ARM Mali-G52 MP6 GPU. The Kirin 810 is the company’s mid-range chipset, which is based on TSMC’s 7nm process. Huawei is also the world’s first company to have two 7nm chipsets (Kirin 980 was the first). Both phones have expandable storage up to 512GB.

In the camera department, the phones have a 16MP selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture lens. The Honor 9X sports a dual camera setup on the back consisting of a 48MP sensor with f/1.8 aperture lens, and a 2MP shooter with LED Flash. The Honor 9X Pro, on the other hand features an additional 8MP ultra-wide sensor. Both devices are equipped with side-mounted fingerprint sensors, and 4000mAh batteries. They run on EMUI 9.1.1 based on Android 9.0 Pie.

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Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 specs leaked, could be launched before Galaxy Note 10

The launch of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is just around the corner, and while the phone(s) have been leaked and talked about to death, another device we’re finally starting to get details on is the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2.

New rumours shed some light on the potential specs of the new wearable from Samsung. The Galaxy Watch Active is rumoured to come in 40mm and 42mm sizes, with the display on the respective size measuring 1.2 inches and 1.4 inches. Samsung will protect the Super AMOLED display on both the watches with Gorilla Glass DX+ and the watches are expected to weigh just 31 grams for the 40mm version and 36 grams for the 42mm version. Both watches will use a steel or aluminium case that will be MIL-STD 810G certified.

While rumours have long suggested that the rotating bezel won't be present any longer on Samsung’s wearable, the Watch Active 2 is rumoured to have a touch-sensitive bezel around the watch face. This could work just as easily as the rotating dial, but it would be interesting to see how Samsung manages to separate the touch interface of the watch face from the touch input on the bezels. The Watch Active 2 will employ the same Samsung Exynos 9110 SoC as its predecessor, with 768 MB of RAM on the Bluetooth-only model and 1.5GB on the LTE-capable wearable. Both will get 4GB of internal storage.

What is interesting is that the renders leaked by @evleaks show a date of August 5 on the watch, hinting that maybe Samsung could announce the new watch ahead of the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 announcement on August 7.

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Google is buying faces of passers-by for Rs 345: Report

The news that Google is quietly developing its own Apple Face ID-like technology for its Pixel line-up of smartphones has been making the rounds on the internet for quite some time now. But Google appears to be more serious about it than we anticipated. We say this because, according to a recent report by ZDNet, Google is buying facial data of passers-by in the US for $5, which translates to about Rs 350 in India. We imagine this data will help the Android-maker train its new face unlock system better.

In a recent ZDNet report, frequent contributor Chris Matyszczyk writes about his friend George, who was, on one sunny day, ambling through a park in New York only to be encountered by a Google representative for a quick survey. “I basically had to use selfie mode and move my face around to get different angles of my face,” Matyszczyk quotes his friend as saying. In return for his time, Google reportedly offered him a $5 gift card to either Amazon or Starbucks.

From the article, we gather that Google is currently collecting data “to improve the next generation of facial recognition phone unlocking”. Google is apparently conducting this sort of survey in multiple cities across the US. While we're not entirely sure for which device Google is honing its facial recognition tech, our guess is that it's for the upcoming Pixel model, the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. Google is most likely collecting the facial data of real people to train its neural network to read faces better in the upcoming Pixel devices.

It's hard to say whether Google's public collection of people's facial data in this manner is ethically right or wrong. “Google basically has my whole life on their servers already. And removing Google from my life just isn't going to happen from a practical point of view. I don't really care about data privacy because I think it's all an illusion anyway,” Matyszczyk quotes his friend as saying while discussing data privacy.

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