Delhi metro smart cards could be linked to biometrics to offer fare concessions to students and senior citizens

In a bid to to offer fare concession to students and senior citizens, smart cards for the Delhi Metro could soon be linked to your biometrics, according to a report by Financial Express. The report also notes that the DMRC has the technology to link biometrics to smart cards and it’s ready. Only the physical implementation of the same will take some time.

The announcement was made by the Housing and Urban affairs minister Hardeep Singh Puri who said the DMRC has zeroed-in on a technological solution to offering fare concessions to students and senior citizens. How much of the fare will be discounted as concession will be decided by the Fare Fixation Committee (FFC).

Integration of biometrics with smart cards will mean they won’t be transferrable. The card will be linked to the individual user who won’t be able to share the card with anyone else.

The system will essentially be used to identify the beneficiaries, but how the DMRC will go about it remains unknown. The report does not clarify how the government plans to collect the required data to identify who is a student or a senior citizen. There’s also no clarity where the sensitive biometric user data will be stored, and who will get the tender to build the system.

Biometric authentication is swiftly becoming common in public services in India. For instance, Delhi International Airport recently started a facial recognition program at checkpoints before boarding an airplane while other airports plan to do the same by 2020.

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LG W30 Pro with 62-inch display, 4050mAh battery and more launched in India for Rs 12,490

LG has expanded its W-series with the launch of LG W30 Pro. The smartphone was launched alongside the W10, W30 and W30 Pro at an event in India, back in June. While the LG W10 and W30 went on sale in July, LG W30 Pro has been made available to buy through Amazon, now. The smartphone sports a waterdrop-style notch, triple rear camera setup and a 4050mAh battery. It is available to buy for Rs 12,490 and comes in two colour options,  Midnight Blue and Midnight Purple. 

LG W30 Pro features a  6.21-inch HD+ FullVision Display with a 19:9 aspect ratio. The company claims it offers an 86.83 percent screen-to-body ratio. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 632 chipset, paired with 4GB RAM. It comes with 64GB inbuilt storage that can be expanded up to 512GB through a microSD card. 

On the optics front, LG W30 Pro sports a triple rear camera setup: a 13MP primary sensor + a 5MP secondary sensor + an 8MP wide-angle sensor. It comes equipped with a 16MP selfie camera. Further, the smartphone packs a 4,050mAh Li-polymer battery that supports fast charging. 

LG W30 Pro connectivity options include 4G VoLTE, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/ A-GPS, USB with OTG support. As for the sensors, the smartphone comes with an accelerometer, ambient light, fingerprint, gyroscope, and a proximity sensor. The phone measures 157.7x75.9x8.3mm and weighs 172.7 grams.

As mentioned earlier, the LG W30 price in India is Rs 12,490. Amazon has listed exchange offers, no-cost EMI options, 10 percent instant discount on Yes Bank credit card and credit card EMI transactions, and 10 percent instant discount up to Rs. 2,000 on Citibank Credit Card and Credit Card EMI transactions. 

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Mi Note 10 with 108MP camera to launch on November 5 alongside Mi Watch, Mi TV 5 Series

The Xiaomi Mi CC9 has been making rounds on the internet. Now, Xiaomi has confirmed that the global version of the Mi CC9 Pro will be called Mi Note 10. The Chinese company has already announced that the Mi Note 10 will be sporting five rear cameras along with a 108MP primary sensor. Further, Xiaomi has also teased the launch of its first smartwatch and the Mi TV 5 series of smart TVs. Alleged hands-on images of Mi Note 10 have also leaked online.

According to the first render shared on Weibo, Xiaomi Mi Note 10 will feature a glossy finish with a jade green colour. The smartphone is shown sporting five rear cameras. The main sensor will be the 108MP Samsung ISOCELL Bright HMX sensor. Also, it is said to offer 5x optical zoom support. Moreover, leaked images also show a curved display, a waterdrop notch, and hint at a tall aspect ratio.

A Xiaomi phone codenamed “Tucana,” which is expected to be the Xiaomi Mi Note 10, has also been spotted on Geekbench. The smartphone is tipped to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset, paired with 6GB RAM. It may run Android 9 Pie out of the box. 

Xiaomi is also said to unveil its first smartwatch in the November 5 event. It may be accompanied by Xiaomi's Mi TV 5 series. The official Mijia Weibo account has also posted a render of its upcoming smartwatch. The teaser shows that Mi Watch will have a design similar to that of the Apple Watch. The watch is said to offer features like calling, music playback, messaging and more.

The new Xiaomi Mi Note 10, Mi Watch and Mi TV 5 series will be announced on November 5 at an event in China. Availability and price are yet to be known.

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Google could be buying Fitbit, according to reports

Alphabet, the parent company of Google is reportedly looking forward to acquiring the U.S wearable device maker, Fitbit. The report comes from Reuters, which says Google may join the likes of Apple and Samsung in developing wearables. However, there is no certainty that the negotiations will lead to any deal. Further, the exact price offered by Alphabet is not known.

According to the report, the matter is confidential and both Google and Fitbit have declined to comment. Google has been involved in the wearable market with Wear OS supported by a range of companies including Fossil, LG and more, but has struggled to compete with the Apple Watch. To recall, Google acquired smartwatch technology from Fossil for $40 million, and it is still unclear what that technology was. As Fossil stated, it was a “new product innovation that’s not yet hit the market.”

Over the past couple of years, rumours have suggested that Google has been interested in foraying into the wearable market. In 2016, it was reported that Google almost released a smartwatch, but axed the plans over concerns that the smartwatch could bring down the name of the Google hardware brand.

Google acquired a portion of HTC’s smartphone engineering team to develop its Pixel phones, similarly, we could see a new Google smartwatch if the company goes on to acquire Fitbit. 

As for Fitbit, the company launched its latest smartwatch, the Versa 2, recently. It comes with Alexa, online payments and music storage to the device’s capabilities. You can read our review of the Versa 2 here. Reuters had also reported that Fitbit was speaking to investment bank Qatalyst Partners about exploring a sale.

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Apple AirPods Pro launched with new design, active noise cancellation at Rs 24,900

Seven months after launching the second-generation AirPods in India at a starting price of Rs 14,900, Apple is back with a new pair. This one, however, is a more sophisticated set of wireless earbuds called AirPods Pro. Apple quietly launched the AirPods Pro in Cupertino, California yesterday for $249. In India though, the new pair costs Rs 24,900. Designed for a tighter fit than the original AirPods and equipped with active noise cancellation, the AirPods Pro come with new features and are currently available only in white.

Unlike the original AirPods, which don’t sport earbuds, the AirPods Pro sit deep inside the ears the way typical in-ear pairs do. According to the press release sent by Apple, the AirPods Pro come with soft, flexible silicone ear tips in three different sizes. Apple says the AirPods Pro are IPX4-rated for sweat- and water-resistance. Apple also says the new pair uses an innovative vent system to equalise pressure within the ears, thereby minimising any discomfort while wearing the earbuds.

Powered by the same 10-core Apple H1 chip that does duty on the AirPods 2 (for both sound and Siri), the AirPods Pro come with a couple of new features, including active noise cancellation. Adaptive EQ, Apple says, automatically tunes the low and mid frequencies of the sound to the shape of the wearer’s ears. Transparency mode employs the inbuilt vent system and a new force sensor on the stem of each earbud to disable the active noise cancellation feature temporarily, allowing the user to listen to their surroundings or the sound of their own voice during a call.

According to Apple, the force sensor on the stem of the earbuds can be used also to play, pause, and skip music tracks. The AirPods Pro come with the same five-hour battery life for music playback as the original AirPods. With active noise cancellation enabled, this figure drops to four and a half hours for music playback and three and a half hours for calls. Using the optional wireless charging case, says Apple, the total battery life of the AirPods Pro can be extended to 24 hours for music playback and 18 hours for calls. Users will have to update to iOS 13.2/iPadOS 13.2 on their iPhone/iPad to use the new AirPods Pro.

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Realme XT starts receiving October 2019 update with dark mode, wide-angle video, and more

Realme XT is now receiving the October OTA update with system-wide dark mode support. The company announced it will be bringing the feature to its entire portfolio of devices, and after the Realme 1 and the Realme U1, the Realme XT, Realme 5 Pro and the Realme C2 also got the feature.

The Realme XT update also brings support for wide-angle video, better camera zoom quality, and an optimised UI. The update brings the phone to version RMX1921_11_A.11 and the size of the update is 2.87GB. While most users will get the update automatically, Realme has also shared a download link to update the device manually on its support page. You can download the update through the Simple mode or Recovery mode.

Dark mode on the Realme XT is meant to improve battery life of the device. Realme has also updated the system apps to support dark mode while most of the popular apps like Twitter, Instagram and the likes already have dark mode. The changelog also mentions new camera features like improved camera zoom, optimised low-light mode, white-balance and camera noise. Furthermore, the wide-angle camera can now be used for video recording. Lastly, the update adds the October 2019 security patch.

The update also fixes a few bugs like the flash colour abnormality, reported by users. Realme said the update will be rolled out in a phased manner. The company will first push it to the limited number of users and then go for a broader rollout in a few days, provided there are no critical bugs.

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Moto G8 Plus sale in India today: Price, specs, offers and more

Motorola introduced a new member to the G-series recently. The Moto G8 Plus was launched in Spain on October 24. Now, the smartphone is all set to go on sale in India. The Moto G7 Plus successor sports a new design, better cameras and more. It will go on sale at 12 PM through Flipkart. The Moto G8 Plus' price in India is Rs 13,999 and it will be made available in two colour options, Cosmic Blue and Crystal Pink.

Moto G8 Plus specifications

Moto G8 Plus comes equipped with a 6.3-inch FHD+ IPS LCD display that has a resolution of 2280 x 1080 pixels and 19:9 aspect ratio. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chipset, paired with Adreno 610 GPU. The smartphone features 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage. Further, it supports up to 512GB of internal storage via microSD card slot. It packs a 4000mAh battery that supports 15W fast charging.

In the optics department, the Moto G8 Plus sports a triple rear camera setup: 48 MP main sensor (f/2.0, Quad Pixel) + 5 MP depth sensor (f/2.2, 1.12um) + 16MP action cam (sensor, f/2.2, Quad Pixel, 2.0um, dedicated ultra-wide camera with FOV 117° video). On the front lies a 25MP selfie shooter ((f/2.0, Quad Pixel). You can check out the camera samples in our first impressions of Moto G8 Plus here.

Moto G8 Plus also supports FM Radio, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC and more. As for sensors, it comes with a fingerprint reader, proximity, accelerometer, ambient light, sensor hub, gyroscope, ultrasonic, and e-compass. 

Moto G8 Plus price in India and launch offers

As mentioned earlier, the Moto G8 Plus costs Rs 13,999 for the lone 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant. As for launch offers, buyers will get a Reliance Jio instant cashback of up to Rs 2,200, Cleartrip coupon worth Rs 3,000 and Zoom Car Vouchers worth Rs 2,000.

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