Asus has announced the launch of the ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro and ZenFone 4 Selfie in India. Interestingly, the company has introduced a new variant of the ZenFone 4 Selfie smartphone, with a single front camera for the country while the regular variant with dual front cameras has also been launched. All three smartphones are Flipkart-exclusive. The ZenFone 4 Selfie Pro is priced Rs. 23,999, the ZenFone 4 Selfie’s dual camera variant is priced Rs. 14,999, and the single front camera variant is priced Rs. 9,999. All three smartphones will go on sale on September 21, during the Flipkart Big Billion Days sale.
Meanwhile, Yu Mobiles launched the Yu Yureka 2, which will go on sale exclusively on Flipkart during the Big Billion Days sale that starts from September 20. Yu Yureka 2 is priced Rs. 11,999. Highlights include a metal body, 5.5-inch full-HD display, 2.5D glass, a Snapdragon 625 SoC, 4GB of RAM, a 16-megapixel rear camera, an 8-megapixel front camera, a fingerprint sensor, a 3930mAh battery, and Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. Yu Yureka 2 comes with 64GB of inbuilt storage. Sensors on board include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and proximity sensor. The smartphone is powered by a 3930mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3.0 for fast charging.
Here’s everything else that made news in the world of technology.
Amazon’s Great Indian Festival Sale to start on September 21
Amazon India has announced the dates for Great Indian Festival sale, which will be held from September 21 to September 24; the Flipkart sale – which starts on September 20 and ends on September 21 – will clash with it. Amazon Prime members will get early access to the deals starting noon on September 20 itself. In its banner, Amazon India says that as part of its Great Indian Festival sale, it will offer over 40,000 offers across 4 days with new deals every hour. There will be over 500 offers on mobiles and over 2,500 offers on electronic items. There will be over 10,000 offers on home appliances and 300,000 offers on Amazon Fashion items. We’ll keep you posted on the top tech deals during the sale so stay tuned.
Want fast charging on iPhone 8, iPhone X? Pay more
The fast charging feature on the new iPhones takes just about 30 minutes to get your iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus, or iPhone X to go from zero percent battery to 50 percent. The catch is you will have to separately buy a USB-C cable, which the company doesn’t offer for free with the iPhone, to make use of the feature. USB-C enables USB Power Delivery, a feature that company has made use of in select other devices including 10.5-inch iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The iPhones will however, ship with a regular Lightning-to-USB cable and a 5W USB charger.
Nintendo Switch getting Super Mario Odyssey bundle, Bethesda games
The Nintendo Switch is getting a Super Mario Odyssey bundle for the Holiday season. The price for this was not revealed at Nintendo Direct, but it is expected to be around $349 (around Rs. 22,500) on October 27. Nintendo Direct was quite exciting overall, as we saw announcements including Minecraft for 3DS, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, the release date for Skyrim, and Doom, all for Nintendo Switch.
Google Pixel 2 to launch on October 4
The Google Pixel 2 will most likely launch on October 4 as billboards from Google, which hint at the launch of a new phone, have been spotted in the US. The Google Pixel 2 might have a “squeezable frame”, similar to the HTC U11. The Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL could be powered by Snapdragon 835 or 836. The Pixel 2 XL is expected to be manufactured by LG. It could feature a 6-inch edge-to-edge display, which is fast becoming a norm in the flagship smartphone space.
Gionee A1 price slashed in India
The Gionee A1 price has been slashed in India – it was launched at Rs. 19,999 and it will now be available at Rs. 16,999. That’s quite a hefty price cut for Gionee’s flagship smartphone. The Gionee A1 has a 4010mAh battery and it can be charged from zero to 100 percent in 2 hours, according to the company. It is a dual-SIM smartphone that runs Amigo 4.0 based on Android 7.0 Nougat. It features a 5.5-inch full-HD display and is powered by a MediaTek Helio P10 (MT6755) SoC. Gionee A1 ships with a 13-megapixel camera and dual-LED flash. The phone has 64GB storage that is expandable via a microSD card, and the smartphone weighs 182 grams.
Google to launch Tez mobile payment service in India
Google wants a slice of the mobile payments pie in India. The company is going to launch a new payments service called Tez to help it realise its ambitions. The service is expected to allow people to pay via UPI, which is increasingly being seen as a game-changer in the payments space in India. Google, Facebook and WhatsApp were in talks with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to provide UPI-enabled payment on their platforms, as reported in July.
Nokia 9 benchmarks spotted
The rumour mill churns non-stop in technology and the latest one claims that the Nokia 9 will run Android Oreo when it ships. The Nokia 9 is a flagship smartphone according to leaks and it now has appeared in a benchmark listing that shows the smartphone is running Android Oreo. The Nokia 9 is also said to sport a QHD display with a screen size of either 5.2 or 5.3 inches. It could ship with Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, 4GB of RAM, Adreno 540 GPU, and 64GB of inbuilt storage.
All 1.55 lakh post offices to offer payments bank services
India Post Payments Bank is gearing up to provide its financial services through all of 1.55 lakh post offices and 3 lakh employees by the end of 2018 – which will create India’s second-largest payments bank in terms of reach. India Post will equip every postman and grameen dak sevak with a device which will provide full range of payment solutions.
