Kerala students win 1st prize in 72-hour CODE19 Online Hackathon

CODE19, a 72-hour long online hackathon aimed at finding immediate solutions to India’s challenges against the COVID-19 Coronavirus has ended and the winners have been announced. The event was held on April 10 and total prize money of $34,000 has been awarded to the winners.

Ms Asha Jadeja Motwani, the Founder of Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation, stated, “We have been overwhelmed by the quality of entries at CODE19 online hackathon and the deep enthusiasm shown by all the participants. A community of hackers and mentors, especially young students from all parts of the country and around the world, came together to enable India’s fight against Coronavirus. I believe that the qualitative, open-source projects created at this hackathon would help mitigate the impending Corona-inflicted challenges in India. I am also hopeful that the total prize money of $34,000 that was awarded to winning teams will enable them to realize their solutions and bring them to market.” 

The first prize was awarded to Abhinand C and Shilpa Rajeev, two students from the Government College of Engineering in Kannur, Kerala. The team were awarded $10,000 for their entry, iClassroom. It created a virtual classroom that connected students with teachers through a social media-type interface for uninterrupted learning.  

The second prize of $5,000 was awarded to six students from the Manipal Institute of Technology. The team had developed a solution called TeleVital that captured a patient’s vital statistics remotely via a webcam and a browser, and enabled remote diagnosis of COVID-19 patients. Thereby reducing the risk of infection for healthcare workers. 

The third prize was divided into three categories, and then winners of each of these categories were awarded $3,000. These included SoloCoin, a system that gamifies social distancing by awarding solo coins’ to people for staying at home. These can then be redeemed for rewards from various merchants. The second awardee was the COVID19 Fact Checker that checked news by leveraging authentic government, scientific and public health information to bust misinformation about the pandemic. The final awardee was Grape Community, which is an open platform that connects people with their neighbourhood shopkeepers and suppliers.

To know more about the CODE19 hackathon, click here.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2SiGZeb

OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro pre-orders live on Amazon India: How to pre-book, launch offers and more

OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro are up for pre-orders on Amazon India after the company announced the phones globally in a virtual event on April 14. Due to the Coronavirus outbreak, smartphone sales in many countries including India have been suspended as the government prohibited e-commerce companies from accepting orders of mobile phones, laptops and more.

However, OnePlus has started accepting pre-orders of its latest smartphone line-up and could go on an open sale from May 11 in India. The company has also announced the Bullets Wireless Z and Warp Charge 30 wireless charging dock priced at Rs 1,990 and Rs 3,990 respectively by there’s currently no word around the availability of these in India.

In case you need a new phone and you have had your eyes set on the OnePlus 8 or OnePlus 8 Pro since their launch, here’s how to pre-book the phone on Amazon India.

How to pre-order OnePlus 8 or OnePlus 8 Pro on Amazon India

The OnePlus 8 series of smartphones are up for pre-booking on Amazon India and interested buyers could head over to the e-tailer’s website to pre-order a OnePlus 8 for themselves.

Go to the Amazon Gift Card page here.

Purchase a Gift card valued Rs 1,000 or more between April 29 and May 10.

A link with the gift card will be emailed to you.

OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will go on sale from May 11 and you can use the gift coupon code to purchase either of the phones until June 30.

Amazon India is also offering an additional Rs 1,000 cashback on the successful purchase of a OnePlus 8 phone and the amount will be credited to the Amazon Pay balance within 30 days from order.

**Drumroll** We finally get to say the 3 magic words we couldn’t hold back any more: Pre-booking Live Now!

— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) April 28, 2020 OnePlus 8 series pricing and availability

OnePlus 8 starts at Rs 41,999 in India while the OnePlus 8 Pro starts at Rs 54,999 for the base variant. The OnePlus 8 comes in three variants-- 6GB RAM / 128GB storage at Rs 41,999, 8GB RAM / 128GB storage at Rs 44,999 and 12GB RAM with 256GB storage at Rs 49,999.

The maxed-out version also comes in an Interstellar Glow gradient finish alongside Glacial Green and Onyx Black.

OnePlus 8 Pro starts at Rs 54,999 for the base variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage and Rs 59,999 for the top-end model with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage. The maxed-out variant is also available in a third, Ultramarine Blue colour.

 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2VN68ju

COVID-19 impact: India saw a massive 19 decline in smartphone shipments in March 2020

The past two months saw no activity whatsoever in the smartphone market because of the ongoing lockdown in India. Counterpoint Research data indicates that the smartphone market in India grew at 4% YoY in Q1 2020. Shipments surged in January and February as compared to last year, and then came crashing with a 19% drop due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Xiaomi, Vivo and Samsung now command the top three positions in the market, while Realme, Oppo and Apple are the fastest-growing OEMs.

Despite stiff competition from Xiaomi and other Chinese brands, strong sales of the iPhone 11 and multiple pricing promotions saw Apple’s market share surge in Q1 2020. The analyst firm claims, Apple was third-fastest growing brand in India with a whopping 79% growth. In the second position is Oppo with 83% YoY growth while Realme is the fastest growing with a 119% growth in shipments, YoY in Q1 2020.

How did the Indian smartphone market perform in Q1 2020?

Apple also topped the charts in the ‘ultra-premium segment’ with a majority 53% market share. Yet, Apple still doesn’t command a major share of the pie in the overall market. Xiaomi, Vivo and Samsung are the top three overall.

Xiaomi led the market with a 30% market share in Q1 2020,  showing a 6% growth YoY, driven by a strong performance of the Redmi Note 8 series along with offline expansion, affordable pricing and more. Vivo also grew by 40% YoY in Q1 2020, surpassing Samsung, driven by the strong performance of the Y-series. Counterpoint notes that Vivo exited the quarter with low inventory which will help the brand in planning new launches once the lockdown lifts. The company was supposed to launch the Vivo V19 in India in March.

Samsung fell to the third position with new launches targeting diverse price tiers. The Korean giant’s growth saw a sharp 84% decline YoY owing to a decline in shipments in the sub 10K segment which was dominated by Xiaomi, Realme and Vivo.

Realme and Oppo are the next success stories in India with a healthy 119% and 83% YoY growth respectively. Poco also re-entered India as an independent brand and capture 2% market share in March 2020. Poco was one of the top 5 brands in the 15-20K segment.

Expect growth to pick up from Q3 2020

Counterpoint Research data indicates the Indian smartphone market grew in January and February with new launches and aggressive promotions. However, March saw a steep decline of 19 per cent, restricting overall growth to 4 per cent this quarter. The report states “any signs of recovery will likely only start from the third quarter onwards. As a result, we are estimating that overall smartphone shipments will decline by 10% for the full calendar year.”

Commenting on the market dynamics, Prachir Singh, Senior Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research said, “The COVID-19 effect on India was relatively mild until mid-March. However, economic activities declined as people save money in expectation of an extended period of uncertainty and an almost complete lockdown. Almost all smartphone manufacturing has been suspended. Further, with the social distancing norms, factories will be running at lower capacities even after the lockdown is lifted. Consumer demand will have a larger impact on smartphone sales, as people will focus on saving and therefore limit discretionary purchases. As entry-level smartphone consumers will be the worst-hit by the lockdown, the demand for the entry-level smartphones will decline in the near-term. We believe demand will shift to the second part of the year. Even if the situation stabilizes by mid-year, people may hold-off purchasing until the festive season.”

OEMs will need a lot of work to restart operations once the lockdown is lifted. They will have to manage existing inventory across their distributor and retail network, helping retailers sell off the older inventory. Factory production will also struggle to hit full capacity with social distancing norms in place. Furthermore, the lockdown may only lift in areas marked as green zones. Brands will have to restructure their strategies to focus more on green zones and drive sales in non-affected areas.

You can read the full report here.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2yctQfI

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Is Now the Setting for a Talk Show From Rogue One Writer Gary Whitta

Looking for a new late-night talk show? Gary Whitta — best known for co-writing the story to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — just launched one inside a video game, Animal Talking with Gary Whitta, inside the Nintendo Switch life simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

from RSS Feeds | GAMES - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2KETtbU

PUBG Now Available for Free on Google Stadia, More Games Announced at Stadia Connect

PUBG has been added to the growing library of Google Stadia games and is available for free to all Stadia users.

from RSS Feeds | GAMES - RSS Feed - NDTV Gadgets360.com https://ift.tt/2xmf0mG

WhatsApp group video call support for 8 people is now live

If you use WhatsApp to stay in touch with family and friends, then there is good news for you. The recently announced feature, that increases the number of people you can video call simultaneously is now live. The previous maximum limit on a video call was 4 and that has now increased to 8. On its official blog, WhatsApp says, “The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that many of us are isolated from friends and family. As a result, we see that people all over the world are turning to voice and video calling on WhatsApp more than ever before. Group calling has been particularly useful and our users have asked to connect with more people at once. Starting today, we’re doubling the number of participants you can have on a WhatsApp video or voice call from 4 to 8 people at a time. Over the last month, people on average are spending over 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls, well above a typical day before the pandemic. And just like written messages, all those calls are protected with end-to-end encryption. We have built group calling in a way that makes it available for as many users as possible, including people on lower-end devices and slow network conditions.”

If you cannot see the option to talk to 8 people, that's because you need to update the app on your smartphone. Simply go into the App Store on your iOS device or the Play Store on your Android device and check for an update. The update itself highlights the addition of 8 people video calls in its details. 

In other WhatsApp news, at the beginning of April, WhatsApp reduced the number of people one could forward a message to. The number which was previously 5 was reduced to 1. This was done to curb/reduce the spread of misinformation about the ongoing pandemic. WhatsApp has said that because of this they have seen a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages. You can read more about it here. Facebook-owned WhatsApp is the world's largest messaging service. It has more than 2 billion users globally of which more than 400 million users are in India alone.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/35mfbek

OnePlus Z could launch in July

OnePlus 8 series was announced on April 14 but the much-rumoured OnePlus 8 Lite a.k.a OnePlus Z was a no-show. In the heads up to the launch, we heard whispers about the phone being postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak in various parts of the world. However, the latest piece of information suggests that the OnePlus Z might just not be alive and kicking but could be eyeing a launch in July.

pic.twitter.com/wcD3wH4bVb

— Max J. (@MaxJmb) April 28, 2020

Earlier, popular leakster OnLeaks had hinted that the OnePlus Z launch has been pushed back to “upcoming summer”. Moreover, the latest information falls in line with the previous speculations and it seems like we’ll get an affordable OnePlus 8 Lite or OnePlus Z after all.

OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro are up for pre-orders in India on Amazon and are scheduled to go on open sale starting May 11. That is if the government lifts the on-going nation-wide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the country. Currently, the government has also prohibited e-commerce companies from accepting orders for non-essential products such as mobile phones and laptops on their platforms.

OnePlus Z leaked specifications

OnePlus’ upcoming budget phone could feature a 6.4-inch OLED screen with a Full HD+ resolution. According to the poster in the tweet above, the phone could have a punch-hole cutout at the top for the front-facing 16MP camera. The screen is expected to support a 90Hz refresh rate with a fingerprint reader underneath.

The OnePlus Z is rumoured to be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1000 chip with 5G support and paired with 8GB RAM and upto 256GB storage. The phone could have a triple camera setup on the back the consists of a primary 48MP camera, a 16MP camera and a 2MP depth sensor. 

OnePlus Z could come with 4,000mAh battery with support for 30W fast charging courtesy of Warp Charge 30. It is expected to be priced starting at CNY 2,999 which roughly translates of Rs 32,000 by direct conversion.

 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2KKzSH6