Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro will have to be 100 imported from China, will Indians bear the extra cost

Xiaomi has promised more premium play in India this year. The company recently held a roundtable with noted tech publications to announce it’s bringing back Mi flagships to India and compete in the premium segment. And now that the Xiaomi Mi 10 has launched, there are high expectations that it will make its way to India soon. However, there may be a caveat in place.

Hot on the heels of the launch in China, Xiaomi India VP Manu Kumar Jain tweeted asking fans whether they would like to see the smartphone come to India. However, he also mentioned that India presently lacks the state of the art facilities to manufacture the Mi 10 series in India. As a result, if Xiaomi decides to bring the flagship series to India, it will have to import all the units from China, thereby adding to the final price.

 

However, making such a device requires state of the art facilities, which are not available in India. We will have to import 100% of units if we launch the #Mi10 in India. Hence, it will have a different pricing model than usual. RT with #Mi10 if you want to see it in India. https://t.co/FbRGe4tvjL

— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) February 13, 2020

 

"We will have to import 100% of units if we launch the #Mi10 in India. Hence, it will have a different pricing model than usual,” Jain wrote in his tweet.

Testing waters before hitting premium

With the Tweet, Xiaomi may just be testing waters to see if there’s enough demand to launch the flagship in India. Whether Indians will dish out a higher premium for a device that’s 100% imported from outside India. And there’s good reason for that.

If imported from China, the Mi 10 series could very cost a lot more than the best performing premium smartphones presently. The government announced a hike in import duties for electronic items in 2020. There’s now an additional 10 percent service welfare cess imposed which was previously waived on for electronics. The government did that to encourage domestic manufacturing of electronic goods sold in India. Turns out, the facilities at present are not good enough to get these cutting-edge Xiaomi flagships at an affordable price.

The very fact that Xiaomi had to softly mention it may have to consider new pricing models means it’s wary of the Indian audience calling out the product for being overpriced, something that happened with the K20 series previously.

Why does the Mi 10 Series have to be imported from China?

Manu Jain cited the cutting-edge hardware inside the Mi 10 series as the reason behind it not being manufactured in India. The Mi 10 series is powered by the Snapdragon 865 and supports 5G connectivity. Furthermore, it has a 108MP sensor as the primary camera along with three other cameras. The Snapdragon 865 already adds a lot more to the BOM cost reportedly, in comparison with the older Snapdragon 855 particularly for the Snapdragon X55 5G modem that it comes paired with. Xiaomi must also had to rework the antennae arrangements to enable 5G connectivity.

Now all this is offered in China starting CNY 3,999 (roughly Rs 40,000) for the Mi 10 and CNY 4,999 (Rs 50,000 roughly) for the Mi 10 Pro. Considering the present circumstances, the Mi 10 and the Mi 10 Pro could launch at a much higher price in India. Will you be interested in paying more than Rs 50,000 for a Xiaomi flagship?

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Samsung Galaxy A70e renders leak online, suggest 61-inch screen, microUSB port

Samsung has been flooding the market with new smartphones since the start of the year across all price ranges. In the last two months, we’ve seen the introduction of the Galaxy A51, Galaxy A71, Galaxy S10 Lite, Galaxy Note10 Lite, and—more recently—Galaxy S20 series. Now, it appears this list is about to grow longer still. According to leaked renders found online on CompareRaja, Samsung could introduce a new Galaxy A-series model called Galaxy A70e. It is likely to be priced below the outgoing Galaxy A70 and Galaxy A70s models.

The leaked renders suggest that the Galaxy A70e—if that is indeed the final model name—is a mid-range model with a triple camera setup on the back panel. It is seen in black and white colours so far. In the images, the handset is seen sporting a rear-mounted square fingerprint scanner, a tiny waterdrop notch on top of the display for the single selfie camera, a 3.5mm audio jack, a single speaker grille, and surprisingly, a microUSB charging port. The dimensions of the Galaxy A70e are reportedly 156.8mm x 76.45mm x 9.35mm (WHD). The depth value takes the camera bump into account.

Galaxy A70e appears to have a microUSB port, not USB-C

Going by the renders, the Galaxy A70e comes with a 6.1-inch flat screen, which is significantly smaller than the 6.7-inch Super AMOLED unit on the Galaxy A70 and Galaxy A70s. Being a more affordable model, there’s a good chance the Galaxy A70e ditches the Super AMOLED panel for an LCD one. But we don’t know that for sure just yet. We’ve learnt nothing about the handset’s internals so far either. Since the renders aren’t official, we suggest you don’t hold your breath for the Galaxy A70e.

Samsung recently launched the Galaxy S20 flagship series, which consists of the  Galaxy S20 (priced at Rs 66,999), Galaxy S20+ (priced at Rs 73,999), and Galaxy S20 Ultra (priced at Rs 92,999). The Korean electronics manufacturer also launched at the same time the Galaxy Buds+ truly wireless earphones, which have a claimed battery life of 11 hours on a single charge. Samsung also announced the Galaxy Z Flip, an Android-powered flip-phone with foldable glass technology. You can read more about that here.

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New TikTok Skullbreaker challenge lands youth in ICU with head injury and stitches

A new TikTok challenge is making the rounds on the internet called the Skullbreaker challenge. It is a new challenge that appears to have originated in South America but as always, no one knows who initiated it. As the name suggests, the Rompcráneos or the Skullbreaker challenge can cause fatal injuries to a person’s upper body, especially the head and possibly the spine. Before we delve deeper, we kindly request all of our readers to not attempt this challenge and discourage others from doing so. While it might seem like a harmless prank or challenge, the person affected by it could end up with serious injuries. 

What is the TikTok Skullbreaker challenge?

Here’s how the Skullbreaker challenge plays out; three people stand side by side and the one in the middle jumps as high as possible. People standing on either sides kick the legs of the one jumping, essentially making the person lose their footing. This challenge can cause grievous injuries, some of which have been reported as well. 

Latest updates around the Skullbreaker challenge

As per a report, a parent from Arizona shared the story of their son sustaining grievous injuries as a result of the Skullbreaker challenge. The post reads, “On Wednesday my son was asked to do a jumping contest with his 2 ‘friends’, when he jumped up, the 2 boys kicked him, as hard as they could, so his legs flew out in front of him. He landed hard flat on his back and head, as he struggled to get up he lost consciousness, he fell forward landing on his face.” 

“The school monitor ran to his side, all the while the 2 boys were snickering and laughing as his stiff unconscious body lay on the asphalt. Fast forward at the hospital, he has a head injury, stiches in his face, severe cuts inside his mouth and 2 front teeth I have to keep on eye on. This apparently is a Tik Tok viral prank being filmed and gaining likes on social media. This is not okay, and honestly if your kid believes this is just for fun, you have failed at being a parent. [sic]” the post continues. 

Similarly, a school in Missouri, Winfield Intermediate, is said to have posted a warning regarding the new challenge in a Facebook post. Currently, the challenge has not been spotted in India.

Where did the TikTok Skullbreaker challenge start?

The Skullbreaker challenge is currently said to be propagating amongst school kids. Santo Tomas Aquino in Venezuela is said to be the school where one of the first videos of this challenge popped up. An Instagram post by Gustavo Duque, mayor of Chacao, Venezuela,  reads: “In Chacao, we say #NoBullying to the dangerous games that some teenagers are practising in their schools. Our municipal system, for the protection of children and adolescents in Chacao, is resolving and punishing those who encourage bullying in schools. We urge parents, representatives and teachers to report these types of situations to the corresponding instances.”

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Google, Apple and Microsoft redraw world maps depending on where you view them from

Google Maps is the biggest maps and navigation service with over 1 billion users worldwide. However, a new report by the Washington Post unearths the fact that the search giant changes how world borders are portrayed, depending on the country where you access the app from. Not only Google but Apple and Microsoft apparently do the same, as per the report. One example of such changes would be viewing Kashmir on Google Maps. For India-based Google Maps users, Kashmir is shown as a part of India. However, for users elsewhere, it is marked with a dotted line, denoting that it is a disputed territory. 

Such alterations, depending on where you are using the app from, are said to be quite common. Another example the report presents is how the northern border dividing Western Sahara  and Morocco is missing when Moroccans view it on Google Maps. You can see, in the image below, how the border is portrayed when viewing maps in Morocco view and in Western Sahara View. Similarly, the left portion in this article’s cover image represents how the Kashmir region is shown to people of Pakistan, which is a dotted line denoting disputed territory. On the right is the Indian version of the same map, which shows Kashmir as a part of India, with a solid line. 

The Washington Post report focuses primarily on how Google Maps modifies its maps to suit “the shifting whims of diplomats, policymakers and its own executives.” Ethan Russell, director of product management for Google Maps, said in a statement to the WP, “Our goal is always to provide the most comprehensive and accurate map possible based on ground truth. We remain neutral on issues of disputed regions and borders, and make every effort to objectively display the dispute in our maps using a dashed gray border line. In countries where we have local versions of Google Maps, we follow local legislation when displaying names and borders.”

Apple, however, is said to be responsive to local laws when it comes to displaying borders and labelling a place. Jacqueline Roy, a spokeswoman told WP, “We are taking a deeper look at how we handle disputed borders in our services and may make changes in the future as a result.” Microsoft is said to reach out to the International Court of Justice, the United Nations or academics, among others, regarding borders, or it otherwise indicates a border is disputed, as per its cartographic policy.

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Latest Windows 10 update hides user profile, data: Report

It’s no secret that Windows updates occasionally go awry and wreak havoc on hundreds of PCs. In the most recent development of this kind, Windows 10 users are reporting serious problems on their PCs after installing Update KB4532693, including loss of user-profiles and data. According to ZDNet’s recent report, this is the second bug-ridden Windows 10 update from Microsoft this month after Update KB4524244 was pulled out of Microsoft’s distribution servers. The American software giant has yet to acknowledge the issues reported by its users from the most recent update.

The report says that many users are being presented with a new Windows 10 user profile after the installation of Update KB4532693 on their PCs instead of their existing one, making them believe that all their previously-stored files are lost when, in reality, they are merely hidden on the disk with a .000 or .bak extension. This issue is reportedly caused by a faulty Windows Update service, which creates a temporary user profile during the installation procedure but fails to unload it afterwards.

If you believe you’re one among the many who are affected by Windows’ new buggy update, there’s no need to panic. You can uninstall Update KB4532693 by heading to Settings (Win + I) > Update & Security > Windows Update > View update history > Uninstall updates. Double-click the update item named ‘Update for Microsoft Windows (KB4532693)’ in the windows that pops up to begin the uninstallation. After the restart, you should be able to log in to your existing user-profiles and see your files.

Microsoft currently appears to be experiencing a season of buggy Windows updates. It recently promised to fix an issue identified in the final software update for Windows 7 even though the popular operating system is no longer supported officially. The issue reportedly causes the desktop wallpaper to go completely black when the style is set to Stretch. Microsoft has since provided a workaround for the issue, which basically involves changing the style to a different option, such as  Fill, Fit, Tile, or Center. You can read more about it here.

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Microsoft’s Project xCloud Game Streaming Service Launches in Preview on iOS, Already at Full Capacity

Microsoft on Wednesday announced that it is opening up its Project xCloud preview for iOS devices and the preview is already full. The preview was made available to 10,000 testers though Apple’s TestFlight programme.

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PUBG v6.2 Update Brings 8v8 Team Deathmatch Mode, Now Live on Test Server

The PUBG v6.2 update is now live on test server and it brings the highly anticipated Team Deathmatch mode to arcade.

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