Flipkart sale: Best laptops under Rs 35,000

If you have been considering buying a new entry-level laptop for a while, now's a good time. Flipkart is offering as much as 30 percent off on some laptop models, giving you a chance to replace your old desktop or laptop with something relatively new. We think Flipkart is giving some of the best deals on the following models:

Acer Aspire 3 (Buy it here)

If you're in the market for a cost-effective entry-level laptop that you can take to college or school, check the Acer Aspire 3 out. The variant on sale on Flipkart is powered by an Intel 8th Gen Core i3 CPU and 4GB of RAM. Storage is taken care of by a 1TB hard drive. The display is a 15.6-inch LED-backlit TFT panel with a Full HD resolution. Though it has no optical disc drive, the laptop comes with Windows 10 pre-installed. The Aspire 3 has a claimed battery life of 7 hours.

Current price: Rs 27,990 Original price: Rs 39,999 Discount: 30 percent

Asus VivoBook 14 (Buy it here)

If you want your next laptop to be a Thin and Light model, look no further than the Asus VivoBook 14. Launched earlier this year with some significant changes to its design, the VivoBook 14 is ideal for fast computing. The variant on sale on Flipkart is powered by an Intel 7th Gen Core i3 CPU and 4GB of RAM. Storage is handled by a 256GB solid-state drive. Windows 10 comes pre-installed on this 1.5-kilogramme device.

Current price: Rs 33,990 Original price: Rs 41,271 Discount: 17 percent

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (Buy it here)

If you're looking for a budget laptop that fits your short list of requirements, the Lenovo IdeaPad 130 is an ideal choice. The variant on sale on Flipkart is powered by an Intel 7th Gen Core i3 CPU and 4GB of RAM. Storage is taken care of by a 1TB hard drive. The display is a 15.6-inch LED-backlit anti-glare TN panel with an HD resolution. Bear in mind that the IdeaPad 130 comes without an optical disc drive or bundled OS, which means you're free to choose a Linux flavour, if you prefer something open source.

Current price: Rs 25,490 Original price: Rs 30,611 Discount: 16 percent

Asus VivoBook X505 (Buy it here)

Here's a model that's recommended specifically to AMD fans. The VivoBook X505 is a model for those seeking something mainstream around the 30k mark. The variant on sale on Flipkart is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 Quad-core processor and 4GB of RAM. Storage is taken care of by a 1TB hard drive. The display is a 15.6-inch Full HD LCD panel. With no optical disc drive included, the Asus laptop weighs 1.68 kilogrammes. Windows 10 Home comes pre-installed on the laptop.

Current price: Rs 31,790 Original price: Rs 34,990 Discount: 9 percent

HP 14q (Buy it here)

Those seeking a Thin and Light laptop model from HP needn't look any further than the HP 14q. It's a crisp lightweight laptop for everyday computing. The variant on sale on Flipkart is powered by an Intel 7th Gen Core i3 CPU and 4GB of RAM. Storage is handled by a 1TB hard drive. In Jet Black, the laptop weighs 1.47 kilogrammes. The display is a 14-inch LED-backlit LCD panel with an HD resolution. Windows 10 comes bundled with the laptop.

Current price: Rs 28,990 Original price: Rs 33,996 Discount: 14 percent

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Apple denies favouring its own apps over others in App Store search results

On July 23, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an investigative report revealing that Apple’s own mobile apps are often first in the App Store search results ahead of its competitors’. “The company’s apps ranked first in more than 60 percent of basic searches, such as for ‘maps.’ Apple apps that generate revenue through subscriptions or sales, like Music or Books, showed up first in 95 percent of searches related to those apps,” the report said. However, Apple has denied the allegations.

In categories like maps and books, Apple apps are less popular than those from Google and Amazon. Based on data from SensorTower, an app analytics platform, Apple Books is ranked 223rd, as compared to Amazon Kindle, which occupies the 3rd spot. According to the report, Apple’s App Store's dominance gives it an “upper hand” as it generates $50 billion (Rs. 345,053 crores) in annual spending. 

In another example, the report highlights the case of the Audiobooks.com app: it held the first spot in the audio books category on the App Store for over two years when it was overtaken by Apple’s own Books app last September. However, Ian Small, the General Manager of Audiobooks.com, told WSJ that the change was “literally overnight”. It is worth noticing that the app had over 35,000 customer reviews and a 4.8-star ranking, as mentioned in the report.

However, Apple has denied the allegations saying that it has a total of 42 factors for ranking search results although the tech giant didn’t reveal any details about the search algorithm it uses. “Apple customers have a very strong connection to our products and many of them use search as a way to find and open their apps,” the company said. “This customer usage is the reason Apple has strong rankings in search, and it’s the same reason Uber, Microsoft and so many others often have high rankings as well.”

Moreover, Apple tells developers that App Store search results are influenced by ratings, downloads, and user reviews. Additionally, the company has a guide on how to optimise the discovery of apps on its Apple Developer site. It lists all the major organic ways in which a developer can improve the ranking of apps in search results.

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5 minors run away after being denied permission to play PUBG, rescued in Delhi days later: Report

Stories about children killing themselves over PUBG Mobile seem to be all over the news, but at least in this one case, there seems to be a relatively happy ending. According to a report in the Times of India, five boys aged between 11 and 15 years, had run away from their home in Dehradun. As per the report, the kids had run away because their parents had admonished them for playing games like ‘PUBG’ and ‘Free Fire.’ One of the boys was in class 10, while the remaining four were in class 7. Thankfully, the boys were rescued in Delhi and brought back home safely. In hindsight, it could have been worse for the five. 

The incident came to light when five separate complaints were filed at the Rajpur Police Station between July 11 and 22. The report notes that the police had noticed the similarity between the cases and the fact that all five of the children were from the same locality. After questioning the parents, it turns out all of them had stopped their children from playing games online. 

“The parents initially check with their relatives and friends. When they realised that the boys had not gone there, they approached the police,” SP City Shweta Choubey told TOI, before adding, that “the minors had tried to communicate with their relatives and friends. Working on initial clues, we traced the to New Delhi. A three-member team from the police station was formed to crack the case.” The team was led by Station Officer Natthilal Uniyal.

The report notes that two of the boys were found trying to get work at a restaurant in an area on the border of Delhi and Ghaziabad, while the remaining three were traced to Hazrat Nizamuddin Railway Station. This could have ended up really badly for the boys, but thankfully they were rescued before anything could happen. 

Parents need to understand that there is an advisable age limit on most games like PUBG Mobile. They also need to communicate to their wards about gaming addiction and mental well-being. As for the players, they need to understand that when all is said and done, it’s just a game, and no game is worth endangering their lives over. 

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Xiaomis new Mi Health app, revamped File Manager app spotted in latest MIUI beta

Xiaomi seems to be working on bringing some new changes to its mobile operating system ecosystem with the latest build of MIUI’s China Developer ROM. As per XDA Developers, the company is working on a new app called Mi Health, which is said to be available only in MIUI China Developer 9.7.23 beta build. This new app could end up replacing the currently available Mi Fit app but nothing is confirmed yet. The company’s File Manager app could also be revamped soon as XDA Developers found that in the latest MIUI beta, its interface design is changed and there are multiple new features. 

Starting with the new Mi Health app, it apparently doesn’t work with a non-Xiaomi device but one can install it as a system app, if your device is running MIUI. The fitness app would enable standard fitness tracking features like step count and it is also said to have a sleep monitoring feature that can apparently track sleep in the background. 

As per the report, the new app also enables tracking of menstruation cycles and setting exercise goals. It is touted to display Health Scores based on the user’s activity and this score would be based on one’s sleep, step count, and BMI (Body Mass Index). In addition, the app is said to recommend increasing set goals once the user starts achieving the current ones consistently.

Coming to Xiaomi’s refreshed File Manager app, the report states that, with the upcoming overhaul, the app could feature a cleaner interface with text replacing icons and softer colours. The visual elements are also touted to be flatter and follow a more materialistic design. The app will also show available storage at the bottom of the page in a simpler manner as opposed to the pie chart, which is currently used to show available storage. 

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SpaceX CEO Elon Musk praises IIT Madras team for autonomous Hyperloop Pod project

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Virgin Hyperloop One Co-Founder Josh Geigel have heaped praise on a team of Indian students for its project that can help the companies build an autonomous Hyperloop Pod. Avishkar Hyperloop, the student team from the Centre For Innovation (CFI) at IIT Madras, is working on an indigenous design and development for building the first-ever self-propelled Hyperloop Pod in India. This team was the only Asian one to enter the final round of the “SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition 2019” that was held in Los Angeles on July 21.

The team led by Suyash Singh, however, did not win the competition. The Team TUM (Technical University of Munich), which set a new speed record of 463 km per hour, was awarded the top spot in the competition. Avishkar Hyperloop was one of the top 21 teams to be selected out of over 1,600 teams globally. The Indian team also visited Virgin Hyperloop One's facility in Los Angeles for a tour.

“The student hyperloop team stopped by our Los Angeles headquarters to learn more about our progress in India. Always encouraging to see the next generation of thinkers embracing this transformative technology!” Virgin Hyperloop One tweeted. The company is working to create a Hyperloop network in India and teased the Pune-Mumbai Hyperloop project. “Pune to Mumbai in under 30 minutes. Are you ready?” the company tweeted last month.

After the win, Musk announced in a tweet that the next year's competition would take place in a 10-kilometre vacuum tunnel with a curve. The futuristic mode of transportation, which is backed by the likes of Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson and Elon Musk, has been seen as a medium that has a potential to change lifestyles for good, an answer to congested roads, and an important cog in the development of smart cities.

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Samsung has fixed the Galaxy Fold, will launch in select markets in September

Four months after the launch, the Galaxy Fold is finally ready. Samsung announced today that it has made improvements in the foldable phone’s design and is now ready to ship it again to users. The price of the phone will remain the same as before in the US. It will retail for $1980 (roughly Rs 1,36,000) and it will be up for purchase from September.

The Galaxy Fold had a ‘protective layer’ that many reviewers who were given the device to test out thought was just a screen protector and tried to peel it off. The protective layer was put in place to prevent dust particles from getting into the hinge and damaging the screen from behind.

To improve the design, the protective layer on top of the flexible display is now extended beyond the bezel so that it’s more apparent that it’s an integral part of the device and not something you peel off right out of the box. Furthermore, there are now new reinforcements to protect the screen from external particles. The top and bottom edge of the hinge now have added protection caps and there’s an additional layer of metal underneath the display while the space between the hinge and body has also been reduced.

Faced with multiple issues, the Galaxy Fold was delayed from being launched. It was supposed to start selling from April 22 but Samsung had to cancel the pre-orders and promised to investigate the issues with the flexible display.

Earlier this week, Samobile also discovered evidence that the Galaxy Fold will likely to be restricted to a handful of markets and won’t be launched at a mass scale. As of now, the Galaxy Fold will apparently come to the US, UK, Germany, France, and India.

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Windows 10 leaked internal build reveals new app drawer-like Start menu with no Live Tiles

There's much outcry happening on Twitter and other online forums over Windows 10's new unfinished Start menu design. Spotted originally by Twitter user NTAuthority and eventually by Windows Central, the new Start menu is found in a leaked internal release of Windows 10 numbered Build 18947. The new design ditches the two-column approach with Live Tiles for something more rudimentary and unappealing. But we suggest you consider what you see with a pinch of salt because it's not the finished design.

Start. pic.twitter.com/3QvWGPdQW9

— NTAuthority (@NTAuthority) July 24, 2019

NTAuthority shared two screenshots last evening: one that shows the new Start menu in Windows 10's default desktop mode and one that shows the new Start menu in Windows 10's Tablet mode. In either case, the iconic Windows menu is nothing like what we currently know it to be. Retaining only the slim hamburger menu on the extreme left, the menu loses the two-column architecture and settles for an Android app drawer-style look. Oh, and it also has no Live Tiles, a feature Microsoft introduced in Windows 8.

Start in tablet mode. Meh. pic.twitter.com/Ou7o7ol5g2

— NTAuthority (@NTAuthority) July 24, 2019

The icons of all the installed apps and shortcuts show up on the new Start menu as unnaturally large blocks, as if someone has turned on the Magnifier accessibility tool only for the menu. Fortunately, as it's demonstrated in Windows Central's video, there's an option to take you back to the old Start menu look. The biggest difference between the Start menu in the default desktop mode and the one in Tablet mode is the placement of the entire menu. In Tablet mode, the same Start menu appears in a transparent full-screen window so the icons are more accessible.

The new Start menu also seems to place more emphasis on the user icon, which is normally found on the hamburger menu as an icon of regular size with the user's picture. In the new version of Start, the user icon is significantly larger and at the top, where it's easily found. This is not the case in the Tablet mode though. At any rate, it's hard to say if Microsoft will pursue this design for its final build. If it does, then it may spell the end for Live Tiles. We'll just have to wait and see what Microsoft does with this new design.

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