The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro has received overwhelming response from local consumers. The models that went on sale from Friday, logged up to 25 per cent growth in pre-orders over last year’s iPhone 11 series, sources said.

According to sources, in spite of coming with higher price tags, so far over 100,000 orders have been placed for iPhone 12 models. “We have registered 20-25 per cent higher bookings for iPhone 12. We had expected better sales from Apple devices this season. Since June, demand for iPhone 11 and SE (2020), MacBook Air and Pro has been high,” said a top executive from a retail chain.

“Pre-orders for iPhone 12 have surged by 15 per cent over last year. While for iPhone 12 growth is around 20 per cent, for iPhone 12 Pro, it is about 10 per cent over last year’s iPhone 11 Pro,” said another large retailer.

Analysts at Counterpoint have predicted that Apple’s handsets business will get a leg up with the iPhone 12 range in the market by November. An all-new design, 5G capability and superior performance by iPhone XR, 11, and SE (2020) are working in its favour in the market, they said

Read Complete Article

Indian short-video platform Mitron TV on Saturday announced the launch of an app discovery platform to promote homegrown apps.

The platform– ‘Atmanirbhar Apps’ — hosts a wide array of apps from categories like e-governance, utility, agriculture, gaming, entertainment, lifestyle, e-learning, among others, it said.

“The vision is to strengthen homegrown technology on a grand scale by making it easier for users to identify Indian apps for their various needs…Mitron TV wants to urge people to become ‘Vocal for Local’ and to bring the spotlight on the Indian apps from various geographies,” a statement said.

Currently, the platform hosts more than 100 apps and plans to bring 500 apps by the end of this year, it added.

These include apps like Kifayat, Grocit, Jain Thela, Home Shoppy, YourQuote, Vridhi Stores, Xploree AI Keyboard, mParivahan and others, it added.

After PM Modi’s clarion call in May this year to be Atmanirbhar and to focus on the creation of a Made in India ecosystem, we felt that it’s highly important to let users discover noteworthy Indian apps that are doing exceptional work to keep India running,”Shivank Agarwal, Co-Founder & CEO Mitron said.

Read Complete Article

Facebook has finally started to broadly roll out Dark Mode for billions of users on Android smartphones.

A company spokesperson confirmed the move to XDA Developers that the feature is being rolled out globally.

“We know people have been asking for Dark Mode, and they won’t have to wait much longer. People will start to see the option in their Facebook app settings as we roll it out globally,” a Facebook spokesperson was quoted as saying.

WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger already have the Dark Mode support.

Facebook Dark Mode interface will not be completely black like on Instagram and Messenger but a grayscale design with white accents for logos and icons.

Facebook has been slow to introduce support for Dark Mode to all of its apps.

In May, Facebook rolled out the much-awaited Dark Mode on its revamped and immersive desktop app for all users.

Read Complete Article

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an Autonomous Society set up by the Ministry of Electronics and InformationTechnology(MeitY), will float a venture capital fund to support startups & entrepreneurs from the tier II and III cities to launch new technology products.

This comes in the backdrop of technology products exports expected to increase 7-8 times in the next five years from $10 billion now as envisioned in National Policy on Software Products (NPSP).

Omkar Rai, Director General, SoftwareTechnology Parks of India (STPI) said that one of the prime focus of STPI is to disperse the industry to Tier-II and III cities and to develop & nurture the eco-system for supporting startups & MSMEs.

Meanwhile, despite the pandemic STPI has given approval for 84,360 certificates, whose export value is estimated to be around Rs 46,556 crore during the lockdown. It also took a series of initiatives to help IT/ITeS companies to navigate the current pandemic. In the last couple of months, especially during the pandemic STPI has taken various initiatives including launching of six centers of excellence (CoEs) in emerging technologies and 10-15 more CoEs are in pipeline.

Read Complete Article

The new iPhone 12 series may have a secret wireless feature to charge an external device like upcoming AirPods and the long-expected Tile-like item tracker AirTags, reports claimed on Thursday.

Citing a series of US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filings first spotted by VentureBeat, the report said that the iPhone 12 “supports a built-in inductive charging transmitter and receiver.”

Apple has not officially announced any such functionality yet.

“In addition to being able to be charged by a desktop WPT [wireless power transfer] charger (puck), 2020 iPhone models … also support WPT charging function at 360 kHz to charge accessories,” one of the documents read.

The list includes iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max.

The FCC documents said that “currently the only accessory that can be charged by iPhones is an external potential apple accessory in future” and that reverse charging currently “only occurs when the phone is connected to an AC power outlet.”

Apple has officially introduced MagSafe in iPhone 12 series phones, offering high-powered wireless charging and an all-new ecosystem of accessories that easily attach to iPhone.

Read Complete Article

Registering stronger sales of mass-market models in key regions including India, Samsung sold 88 million handsets in the third quarter this year, with more than 90 percent of them being smartphones and nine million tablets, the company informed on Thursday.

In India, it took Samsung two years to recapture the top slot in the smartphone market in the third quarter (July-September period) with 24 per cent share, as the Chinese major Xiaomi logged 23 per cent market share for the second spot, according to a Counterpoint Research report.

Samsung said that the overall market demand increased in the third quarter as stimulus measures helped many economies recover following lockdowns during the second quarter.

“The smartphone sales rose sharply from the previous quarter, with the launch of new flagship models such as the Galaxy Note20 and Galaxy Z Fold2, as well as stronger sales of mass-market models in key regions including India,” the South Korean major informed.

Sales increased in tablets and wearables including the Galaxy Tab S7, Galaxy Watch3 and Buds Live also contributed to the profit growth in the third quarter.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the overall market demand is expected to increase QoQ due to strong year-end seasonality and continued recovery in the overall demand.

Read Complete Article

(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Thursday it plans to launch a VPN service for consumers, which would be available with certain subscription plans for its Google One cloud storage services.

Designed for secure internet usage, virtual private networks (VPNs) are used by individuals in countries where access to certain sites and services have been barred by governments.

Google said the VPN service will roll out in the U.S. in the coming weeks through the Google One app for Android users, with plans to expand to more countries and to iOS, Windows and Mac operating systems in the coming months.

Read Complete Article

(Reuters) – Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Thursday it plans to launch a VPN service for consumers, which would be available with certain subscription plans for its Google One cloud storage services.

Designed for secure internet usage, virtual private networks (VPNs) are used by individuals in countries where access to certain sites and services have been barred by governments.

Google said the VPN service will roll out in the U.S. in the coming weeks through the Google One app for Android users, with plans to expand to more countries and to iOS, Windows and Mac operating systems in the coming months.

Read Complete Article

Section 230 makes it possible for Google to provide access to a wide range of information — including high-quality local journalism — while responsibly protecting people from harm and keeping their information private, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said.

Appearing before a US Senate hearing along with Twitter CEI Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg late on Wednesday, Pichai said: “I would urge the Committee to be very thoughtful about any changes to Section 230 and to be very aware of the consequences those changes might have on businesses and customers”.

Section 230 states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”.

Under the US law, Internet firms are typically exempt from liability for content that users post on platforms.

President Donald Trump has challenged this via executive order which threatens to strip those protections if online platforms wade into “editorial decisions”.

Pichai said that Google is deeply conscious of both the opportunities and risks the internet creates.

Read Complete Article

Section 230 makes it possible for Google to provide access to a wide range of information — including high-quality local journalism — while responsibly protecting people from harm and keeping their information private, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai has said.

Appearing before a US Senate hearing along with Twitter CEI Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg late on Wednesday, Pichai said: “I would urge the Committee to be very thoughtful about any changes to Section 230 and to be very aware of the consequences those changes might have on businesses and customers”.

Section 230 states that “no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”.

Under the US law, Internet firms are typically exempt from liability for content that users post on platforms.

President Donald Trump has challenged this via executive order which threatens to strip those protections if online platforms wade into “editorial decisions”.

Pichai said that Google is deeply conscious of both the opportunities and risks the internet creates.

Read Complete Article