At this point, it’s quite clear that Reliance Jio intends to launch a feature phone soon. The company’s annual general meeting (AGM) is scheduled for Friday and it’s as good a day as any for the phone’s launch. The Lyf Jio feature phone is rumoured to be Internet-enabled and the phone’s price is expected to be anywhere between Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,500. At that price it is sure to appeal to feature phone buyers, which is a significant chunk of the population in India. The Jio feature phone is being manufactured by Intex and Reliance Jio may subsidise it to keep it under the Rs. 1,500 price point.
That’s not all, Gadgets 360 has some exclusive details related to the phone for you. Several developers have told Gadgets 360 that the Jio feature phone will run KaiOS, which is based on a fork of Mozilla’s Firefox OS. This means that you could see apps running HTML5. Sources have confirmed that the feature phone will have an app store and that Jio has approached developers seeking apps for the platform. Gadgets 360 understands that Jio is considering enabling the ability to remotely enable apps and services on a user’s Lyf Jio feature phone, of which it reportedly wants to sell over 20 crore units.
We also have in-depth analysis that should help you understand why Reliance Jio’s entry into the feature phone market makes a lot of sense. This is the piece to read if you want to understand why the company is stepping into that market and the state of the feature phone market in India, which is a lot better than what most smartphone users think.
Meanwhile, the Jio vs other telcos debate continued in the TRAI open house. The larger theme was Jio asking for removal of interconnection charges, with other telcos saying that those are a significant part of their revenue in rural areas.
Here’s everything else that made news in the world of technology today.
Xiaomi 3rd Mi anniversary sale begins
Xiaomi is celebrating the third anniversary since the company arrived in India by offering a whole bunch of cool discounts. The 3rd Mi anniversary deals are spread across Xiaomi’s own website, Flipkart, and Amazon India. The discounts include smartphones and several other products by the company. There are some cool card cash back offers as well, in case you’re interested in those kinds of discounts, with the highlight being several products being up for grabs at Re. 1.
What Xiaomi news is complete without information on an upcoming smartphone? The upcoming Xiaomi Mi 5X is the latest smartphone to be leaked. If these leaks are to be believed, the full specifications of the smartphone are available. These include a 5.5-inch full-HD display, Snapdragon 625 SoC, 4GB of RAM, and a 3000mAh battery.
Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra launched in India
The Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra has been launched in India. In case you’re wondering how much it costs, the price is Rs. 29,990. It features a 6-inch full-HD display, and is powered by a 64-bit MediaTek Helio P20 octa-core SoC with 4GB RAM. Sony is offering a couple of bundle offers, which include the Quick Charger UCH12 worth Rs. 1,490, and a free three months subscription to Sony LIV. The Sony Xperia XA1 Ultra is now available via retail stores across the country in Black, White, and Gold colour options.
Nokia 8 spotted on official site
Nokia’s upcoming flagship smartphone may have accidentally been leaked. The smartphone, widely rumoured to be named the Nokia 8. What lends credence to this rumour is that the phone was spotted on the company’s official Chinese website. While it’s only a matter of time before HMD Global makes the phone official, as of now rumours indicate that the phone will be priced over Indian equivalent of Rs. 43,000 and ship with the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC.
Android O details revealed in Reddit AMA
The Android O developer team invited questions on Reddit, and that revealed a whole bunch of things. Unfortunately we still don’t know the name of Android O, so you can continue to invent dessert names and hope you’re right. What we did learn is that Android O will not have much for tablets or wearables, meaning that, for now, Google doesn’t want to focus its energies on either platform.
Uber enables UPI payments option in India
Uber has enabled support for UPI on its platform, becoming the first global giant to show interest in India’s payments technology. Uber users with an Android phone will now see an option to link their UPI account in Uber app. For now, iPhone users will have to make do with the existing payments options – debit, credit cards, and Paytm – as UPI integration is still not live on iOS. In a statement to Gadgets 360, Uber said that the support for UPI on Android is the “first step“ and it sees UPI as “the future of Indian payments.”
OnePlus 5 emergency calling issue fixed
While OnePlus appeared bullish about the launch of the OnePlus 5, the smartphone has been plagued by reports of bugs and hardware issues. The latest bug – where OnePlus 5 reportedly rebooted if someone dialled emergency numbers such as 911 – has now been fixed via an OTA update, the company claims.
LinkedIn Lite Android app launched in India
LinkedIn has rolled out the LinkedIn Lite Android app, a faster and lighter version aimed to offer the LinkedIn experience to users of entry-level smartphones. The app loads extremely fast – in just under five seconds, even on 2G networks. The app itself is less than 1MB and it reduces data usage by 80 percent. The LinkedIn Lite app is available now via Google Play for all Android users in India, and will be available in over 60 markets at a later stage.
WhatsApp may soon get PIP mode for video calling
WhatsApp’s video-calling functionality is now about to receive a new picture-in-picture mode, as spotted inside version 2.17.265 of the WhatsApp app running on developer preview of Android O. It is currently unclear if WhatsApp users will be able to move the PIP window around on the screen or it will stay at a fixed position. Further it is unclear if the video chat will continue in PIP mode if users switch to other apps. We will just have to wait for this WhatsApp feature to roll out widely to get more clarity.
Intex Aqua Lions 3, Honor Band 3 launched
Indian smartphone manufacturer Intex has launched a new smartphone in India. This smartphone is called Intex Aqua Lions 3 and it is priced at Rs. 6,499. The Aqua Lions 3 has SwiftKey keyboard app integration and runs on Android 7.0 Nougat. It sports a 5-inch HD IPS display, packs a 4000mAh battery, has 16GB storage that can be expanded via a microSD card of up to 128GB.
In other news, Honor has launched an activity tracker called the Honor Band 3 in India. The fitness wearable has been priced at Rs. 2,799 and will be available exclusively via Amazon India. The Honor Band 3 is a water-resistant fitness wearable with continuous heart-rate monitoring. Honor claims that the tracker has 50-metre water resistance and that its battery lasts for up to 30 days.