Chinese smartphone maker OPPO on Wednesday launched its OPPO F17 series smartphones in India. The series includes the OPPO F17 Pro and its vanilla edition, the OPPO F17. While the latter is a successor to the OPPO F15, the Pro edition, a new addition to the line-up, brings most of the things you expect in a midrange smartphone — a lightweight design, AMOLED display, big-capacity battery with fast charging, multi-optic camera system, and refined user interface. Check out the phone’s hands-on and first impressions:OPPO F17 Pro: Design

The OPPO F17 Pro is easily one of the most ergonomically built smartphone. It has a compact form factor (7.48 mm thin) and lightweight design (164g) unmatched by peers in the budget and midrange segments. Moreover, the design is accentuated by a two-tone gradient reflective cover on the back that looks familiar but intriguing.Read Complete Article

Facebook on Tuesday said it removed 453 accounts, 103 Pages, 78 Groups and 107 Instagram accounts that were operating from Pakistan and focused on spreading misinformation in India.

The people behind this network relied on fake accounts – some claiming to be based in India – to post content and manage a handful of Indian military fan Pages and Groups.

“The vast majority of the accounts, Pages and Groups engaged in coordinated reporting of content and people that were critical of Pakistan’s government or supportive of India, and some engaged in spam,” the social network said in a statement.

The people behind these malicious accounts also used a browser extension to automate reporting.

“They posted primarily in English and Hindi about regional news and current events including memes and content about social and political issues in Pakistan and India, such as India’s policies toward China, the Indian military, criticism of the Indian government and its handling of the coronavirus pandemic,” Facebook said.

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Expanding its foldable devices portfolio, Samsung on Tuesday launched the Galaxy Z Fold 2 in international markets. Successor to the Galaxy Fold, the second-generation bendable screen device from the stable of South Korean electronics maker brings host of improvements, including enhanced hinge mechanism, big screens, new optics and Android 10 operating system customised for its dual-screen set-up. Let’s take a look at specifications and other details of this $2000 foldable device:Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 specifications

The second-generation Galaxy Fold gets a big screen on both outside and inside. On the front, the device gets a 6.2-inch screen of HD+ resolution stretched in tall 25:9 aspect ratio. It is a super AMOLED panel, which covers the entire front (one-side) leaving limited bezels on its sides. On the inside, the secondary display is now a 7.6-inch unit with no massive notch but a Infinity-O shaped punch-hole for front camera. It is a dynamic AMOLED 2X screen of 120Hz refresh rate and QXGA+ (2208 x 1768) resolution. For longevity, the secondary screen is covered with Samsung Ultra Thing Glass (UTG), which is touted to be stronger compared to the one seen on the Galaxy Fold.ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy Fold future hands-on

Samsung has improved the hinge mechanism on the Galaxy Z Fold 2. Named Hideaway Hinge, it leaves limited gap between the body and hinge housing to repel dust and undesirable particles, according to Samsung. The new hinge mechanism allows the device to stand on its own at 75 to 115 degree angles.Read Complete Article

OPPO F17 series is set to launch today through an online event, which will livestream at 7 pm (IST) on Chinese smartphone maker OPPO’s digital properties and social media channels, including Facebook Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

Successor to the OPPO F15 series, the OPPO F17 series will come in two models, the OPPO F17 Pro and its vanilla edition the OPPO F17.

With regard to changes, the OPPO F17 Pro and the OPPO F17 are set to bring several improvements over the predecessors. However, design seems to be one of the areas where the phones improve by leaps and bounds.

ALSO READ: OPPO beats Samsung in Q2 as top vendor in Southeast Asian smartphone market

According to the OPPO F17 Pro listing page on the company’s official portal, the Pro edition will measure 7.48 mm thick and touted to be the slimmest smartphone of 2020.

Interestingly, the company also give away expected price in a disclaimer where it mentioned that the phone will be slimmest in under Rs 25,000 segment. Besides, the phone will be one of the lightest smartphones in its segment and is touted to weigh just 164 g.

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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a one-of-its-kind gaming notebook that serves even better as an all-round productivity laptop for content creators. It might not be the thinnest or the most lightweight laptop, but ergonomically it easily has the best build among gaming machines in this segment. From design to components, this notebook should appeal to PC gamers and content creators alike.

Speaking of design, the ROG Zephyrus G14 lacks the flashy elements you expect in a gaming notebook, but it does not fail to impress. Its overall design is appealing, thanks to a neatly built magnesium alloy chassis with matte texture that looks premium and has good touch feedback. The design is accentuated by a semi-perforated display lid on the outside with LEDs underneath. Called Anime Matrix display, these LEDs are customisable and work in tandem to create an animation effect for both text and images. Also, it supports different profiles – animation, audio and system.

On the inside, the display lid houses a 14-inch screen with minimal bezels on the top and sides but a thick one at the bottom. It is a QWHD+ (2560 x 1440) resolution IPS-level panel with an anti-glare coating.

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The Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE) Main for admission to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) has begun with precautions amid COVID-19 on Tuesday, despite protests by Opposition parties and some students.

Before entering the exam halls, the temperature of students was checked and sanitisers were also given to them in Delhi.

“I am carrying my own sanitiser and I had also undergone a temperature check,” said Pranjal while speaking to ANI outside his examination centre at Arwachin Bharti Bhawan Sr Sec School in Vivek Vihar in New Delhi.

Even in Kolkata, candidates appearing for the exam were seen standing in queues while abiding by the social distancing norm at TCS Gitobitan.

In Gorakhpur as well, announcements were being made for the candidates to maintain social distancing and other measures in the wake of COVID 19 spread.

In Kaluchal Chenab College of Education in Jammu, the candidates appearing for the JEE Main exam were standing at a distance for the temperature check and had covered their faces with a mask to contain the spread of the deadly virus.Read Complete Article

India’s 9Unicorns Accelerator Fund (9Unicorns) announced its first close of Rs 100 crore ($14 million). The fund will invest in over 100 early stage start-ups, with the goal of writing the first external cheque.

9Unicorns is targeting a total corpus of Rs 300 crore ($42 million), with the rest of corpus to be targeted from multiple sources including corporations, family offices and institutions from across the ten countries and beyond that have already participated in the first close.

The fund intends to offer US$100,000 for 5-7% equity per start-up. They would go through 3 months of its acceleration programme while being mentored by successful founders. Performing start-ups would then be eligible for a follow-on round of US$500,000 to $2 million funded by a syndicate of VCats Network and global VC funds. The fund is sector agnostic and geared towards Indian startups.

9Unicorns is founded by the Venture Catalysts (VCats) founding team including Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Anuj Golecha, Anil Jain and Gaurav Jain.

The fund already backs over 75 home-grown start-ups in India including BharatPe, Beardo, PeeSafe and Fynd in which VCats was a seed-stage investor among others.

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Specialty chemicals manufacturers have been left bleeding, as demand from most end-user industries has dried up in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which make up as much as 30-35 per cent of the industry, have been hit particularly hard.

Many SMEs have reduced capacity utilisation as downstream demand fell, and are expected to see realisation decline amid lower crude oil prices. Additionally, SMEs are having difficulties in accessing working capital, and may face a liquidity crunch. While the world is slowly opening up, there has been no major recovery in demand from key end-user industries such as automobiles, electronics and textiles. We expect demand from the food-packaging and health care segments to sustain, though.

In this milieu, exports offer a ray of hope. India’s chemical exports logged a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 13 per cent between 2015 and 2019, compared with about 7 per cent for China. The key sub-segments likely to benefit from higher exports would be colourants and agrochemicals, with export shares of 45-50 per cent and 50-55 per cent, respectively.

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American chipmaker Qualcomm on Monday unveiled the Snapdragon 732G mobile processor. Successor to the Snapdragon 730G, the Snapdragon 732G is touted to bring processor and graphic related improvements and it will debut on the upcoming smartphone from Chinese mobile phone maker POCO.

“Snapdragon 732G will deliver a powerful gaming experience, sophisticated on-device AI, and superior performance,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. He added, “We’re excited to work with POCO on the new POCO smartphone powered by the enhanced Snapdragon 732G globally.”

The Snapdragon 732G will get following enhancements over the Snapdragon 730G:

·        Qualcomm Kryo 470 CPU Prime core clock speed at up to 2.3 GHz

·        Bolstered Qualcomm Adreno 618 GPU for improved graphics rendering

Besides, the Snapdragon 732G brings Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming experiences, and features 4th generation Qualcomm AI Engine and Qualcomm Snapdragon X15 LTE Modem.

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Ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in Bihar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leaders have said that the ticket distribution for each constituency would be done on the basis of the popularity of candidates.

Tej Pratap Yadav, the state’s former Health Minister and elder son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad, said that an internal survey is currently underway in Bihar and the agency involved in the exercise is interacting with voters and taking their feedback.

“Based on the reports, the party’s core committee will decide the eligibility of candidates. It is a democratic process to choose winning candidates for the party. It will also minimise chances of less eligible candidates to bag ticket on the basis of good contacts with top leadership,” he said.

Tej Pratap also said that “ticket distribution is extremely secret operation within the party”.

“Even, I did not know from which constituency I would be fielded,” he added.

In the 2015 Assembly election, he won from the Mahua constituency in Vaishali.

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