By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) – Apple Inc said it plans to argue that it faces abundant competition in the market for video game transactions to defend itself against antitrust allegations by “Fortnite” maker Epic Games, the iPhone maker said on Thursday.

Epic sued Apple last year in federal court in California, alleging the 15% to 30% commissions that Apple charges for the use of its in-app payment systems and Apple’s longstanding practice of exercising control over which apps can be installed on its devices amount to anticompetitive behavior. The dispute arose after Epic tried to implement its own in-app payment system in the popular “Fortnite” game and Apple subsequently banned the game from its App Store.

The case is to be heard in May in Oakland, California, by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who will have to rule on which notion of a “market” is the correct one for analyzing Apple’s moves for signs of anticompetitive conduct.

Epic has framed its case around the idea that Apple’s iPhones, with an installed base of more than 1 billion users, represent their own distinct market for software developers. Epic has argued that Apple has monopoly power over that market because it decides how users can install software on the devices and says it abuses that power by forcing developers to deliver their software through the App Store, where developers are subject to fees on some transactions.

In a filing that Apple planned to make Thursday, the company rejected that notion and said the proper market to analyze the case is the video game transaction market, which includes platforms such as Nintendo Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp’s Xbox gaming consoles, which also limit the software that can run on their hardware and charge fees to developers.

Apple said it plans to argue that consumers have many choices on how to carry out video game transactions, including purchasing virtual tokens from game developers on other platforms such as Windows PCs and using the tokens on iPhones with no fees to the game developer.

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Zoom’s decision to stop access to its service for Russian state agencies should lead to the development of domestic alternatives to this popular video communication app, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

“We need to switch to alternatives, they do exist,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday, according to a report by TASS news agency.

His comments came after Zoom reportedly decided to restrict access by the Russian state-owned companies to its software.

“Of course, our app developers will need to work hard to put the finishing touches on their products. We still have shortcomings in this area. Nevertheless, they (similar services) exist and they will be able to countervail the absence of such a popular service as Zoom. As the saying goes, nature abhors a vacuum,” Peskov explained.

“In general, we can only express our regret and bewilderment as to why Russian state institutions and higher educational institutions are now deprived of the opportunity to renew existing corporate contracts (with Zoom) and sign new ones,” the Kremlin spokesman added, commenting on the situation.

Earlier, Russia’s Kommersant daily reported that Zoom Video Communications had prohibited its distributors from selling its online conference services to government agencies and state-owned firms in Russia.

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Realme C20, Realme C21, and Realme C25 will make their India debut on Thursday. They are all budget phones. The brand has been trying to expand its portfolio in India, recently launching the Realme 8 series smartphones. A virtual live event has been scheduled for the launch through the company’s social media accounts.

The three smartphones are already available in other parts of the world. While Realme C20 made its debut in Vietnam in January, Realme C21 and Realme C25 were unveiled in March in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The India launch event for Realme C20, Realme C21, Realme C25 will start at 12:30pm IST and the smartphones will be available on Flipkart.

Realme C20 specifications

The Realme C20 smartphone comes with a 6.5-inch HD+ (720×1600 pixels) IPS display. It’s a dual sim (nano) smartphone and it runs on Realme UI which is based on Android 10. The smartphone is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Helio G35 SoC which is supported by 2GB of RAM. It has an internal storage capacity of 32GB and supports expansion up to 256 GB. In the camera department, the smartphone has an 8MP camera at the back with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera at the front. The phone is packed with a powerful 5,000 mAh battery.

Realme C20 price

The India price has not been revealed yet, but we can roughly guess the price from its launch in other markets. The Realme C20 was launched in Vietnam for VND 2,490,000, which in Indian Rupee converts to approximately Rs 7,900.

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HMD Global new smartphone will be launched in India on Thursday. It is likely to be a new Nokia C20, according to media reports. The company has not revealed much detail about the smartphone. The Nokia C20 has appeared on many certification websites.

The entry-level smartphone will replace the Nokia 1.X series and it is likely to have four variants based on storage capacities. It has bagged Bluetooth SIG certification, meaning the phone will come with a Unisoc processor under the hood.

Nokia C20 specifications

HMD Global has not revealed much about the phone yet. However, leaked reports suggest that the phone will have a 5.99-inch LCD IPS display with a pixel density of 269 ppi. It will be a dual sim (nano) smartphone which will support 4G. It will run on Android 10 and will be powered by Unisoc SC9863A processor. It is expected to have 1 GB of RAM and an internal storage of 16GB which can be expanded up to 128 GB.

In the camera department, the smartphone will carry an 8MP primary camera at the back along with LED flash and a 5MP selfie camera at the front.

The phone will be powered by a 3,040 mAh battery. It will also have a micro-USB port. The phone will come in 2 colours — black and gold. For connectivity, the phone will have USB charging, microUSB 2.0, Bluetooth 4.2, and WIFI 802.11. The phone will also have a 3.5 mm audio jack.

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SanDisk has launched iXpand Flash Drive Luxe, a storage device with a lightning port on one end and a USB Type-C port on the other end.It can be used with iPhones and iPads with a lighting port, and with the modern iPads with a USB Type-C port. The SanDisk iXpand Flash Drive Luxe can also be used with most Android smartphones, tablets, and laptops with a USB Type-C port.Once files are on the drive, they can be transferred using the USB 3.0 connector to a USB Type-C-compatible computer.

For privacy, users can also password-protect their files and photos with the iXpand Drive app. The app can also be used to free up space on an iPhone or to automatically back up photos, videos, documents, and contacts. The drive is available in 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage variants, allowing more space for photos, videos, and games.

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By Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics Co Ltd likely saw a 45% jump in profit for January-March on robust sales of smartphones, TVs and home appliances, though chip division earnings are seen tumbling after a storm suspended production at its U.S. plant.

Spending more time at home due to the coronavirus pandemic, consumers have splashed out on an array of high-margin consumer electronics which in turn has helped cause a global shortage of semiconductors.

Operating profit for the South Korean tech giant in the quarter is expected to have climbed to 9.3 trillion won ($8.2 billion), according to a Refinitiv SmartEstimate drawn from 16 analysts. SmartEstimates assign more weight to forecasts from consistently accurate analysts.

That would mark Samsung’s highest operating income level for the first quarter since 2018. Revenue likely rose 12%.

Samsung is scheduled to announce preliminary first-quarter results on Wednesday.

In particular, its mobile division looks like it had a stand-out quarter, benefiting from the launch of its Galaxy S21 series in mid-January – more than a month ahead of the flagship model’s usual annual release schedule.

The world’s largest smartphone maker is estimated to have cornered roughly 23% of global market in the quarter, thanks to that launch and cheaper-than-usual pricing for its premium devices, according to Counterpoint Research. The S21, for example, was priced $200 lower than the S20.

That compares with 20% market share in the same quarter a year ago and 16% market share in the previous quarter when arch-rival Apple Inc released the iPhone 12.

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With pandemic disrupting businesses and with remote working becoming reality, cyber criminals have been busy exploiting vulnerabilities. Year 2020 saw one of the largest numbers of data breaches and the numbers seem to be only rising.

According to Kaspersky’s telemetry, when the world went into lockdown in March 2020, the total number of bruteforce attacks against remote desktop protocol (RDP) jumped from 93.1 million worldwide in February 2020 to 277.4 million 2020 in March—a 197 per cent increase. The numbers in India went from 1.3 million in February 2020 to 3.3 million in March 2020. From April 2020 onward, monthly attacks never dipped below 300 million, and they reached a new high of 409 million attacks worldwide in November 2020. In July 2020, India recorded its highest number of attacks at 4.5 million.

In February 2021—nearly one year from the start of the pandemic—there were 377.5 million brute-force attacks—a far cry from the 93.1 million witnessed at the beginning of 2020. India alone witnessed 9.04 million attacks in February 2021. The total number of attacks recorded in India during Jan & Feb 2021 was around 15 million.

A data breach, irrespective of the modus operandi, has grown many folds in India. However, the disturbing trend in India has been firms’ failure to acknowledge that a breach has happened, which then makes individual users wonder if their data is safe at all.

Take the instance of the recent data breach at the payment firm Mobikwik. It was reported that the data breach incident has affected 3.5 million users, exposing know-your-customer documents such as addresses, phone numbers, Aadhaar card, PAN cards and so on. The company, till now, has maintained that there was no such data breach. It was only after the regulator Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked Mobikwik to get the forensic audit conducted immediately by a CERT-IN empanelled auditor and submit the report, that the company is working with requisite authorities.

Rajshekhar Rajaharia, cybersecurity researcher who first tweeted about the MobiKwik issue, and many such breaches in India said: “Most companies, small or big, accept that they have been breached, especially when evidence of a data breach comes forward. In my experience, this makes their customers trust them even more. In the case of MobiKwik, it is surprising why they are not admitting to having been breached. They have threatened legal action against cybersecurity researchers and the fact that the leaked data has now been taken off the dark net is possibly giving them a false sense of security.”

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Oppo F19 will make its India debut on Tuesday. Oppo had recently launched the higher-end versions of the F19 series in India with Oppo F19 Pro and Oppo F19 Pro+. Oppo F19 will mark the launch of the third version of the F19 series in India. Oppo claims F19 is the thinnest smartphone powered by a 5,000 mAh battery. The smartphone will also make its debut in Sri Lanka soon.

Oppo F19 specifications

The Chinese smartphone-maker has said that the Indian version of the F19 will have a powerful battery of 5,000 mAh. It will come with a full HD+ AMOLED display along with an in-display fingerprint scanner. It will support 33W Flash Charge fast charging technology which will help in charging the smartphone completely in 72 minutes. The company claims that the phone can give 5.5 hours of voice calling or approximately 2 hours use of YouTube with just 5 minutes of charging.

OPPO has been a leader in the industry when it comes to flash charging solutions and the latest offering, OPPO F19 is no different. It will redefine the fast charging solutions in its price segment, said the company in a statement.

According to reports, the Oppo F19 will have a triple camera setup at the back with a 48 MP primary sensor. The setup will be paired with LED flash.

In Sri Lanka, the company has already listed the specifications of the F19. However, it is possible that Indian model will have different features.

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The OnePlus 9 Pro seems to have placed Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus, known for its midrange flagships, in the league of best premium smartphone makers alongside those like Samsung and Apple. The previous-generation OnePlus premium smartphones (the OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus 7T Pro and OnePlus 8 Pro) were also good, but they lacked the imaging competence, design superiority, innovation and novelty offered by the best premium smartphone brands.

A distinct product with something exclusive to offer is what OnePlus needed to make a meaningful stride in the premium smartphone market. After struggling to get that right for some time, it may to have cracked that with the OnePlus 9 Pro. From its Hasselblad partnership for the camera system to a QHD+ resolution screen of 120Hz refresh rate, ingress protection rating and fast wireless charging support, the OnePlus 9 Pro has a lot to show for itself. It does seem to justify its price tag of Rs 69,999? Read on to know how:OnePlus 9 Pro: Design

The OnePlus 9 Pro does not look like any of its predecessor; it looks better. Made of glass and metal, the smartphone has fine ergonomics for comfortable use and good in-hand feel. The glass on the front and back has a two-side curved profile with smooth corners and edges that make the phone easy to handle and operate. That said, even as the phone is fun to use, its glossy glass back (morning mist colour – review unit) is prone to fingerprint marks and smudges. It also makes the phone susceptible to accidental drops if you are not careful in handling the phone. Therefore, the phone needs constant care with regard to cleaning and handling. On the positive side, the OnePlus 9 Pro handles everyday abuses without taking any dent or scratches. Moreover, the phone is IP68-rated for water and dust resistance. Therefore, the phone has a shot at surviving in the face of water and dust but it is strongly advised not to intentionally put its ingress protection capability to test by doing so.

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Fossil recently launched the new smartwatch Gen 5E, a stripped-down version of the Fossil Gen 5 launched in India in November 2019. The latest smartwatch features a set of sensors to measure key health metrics, a bright screen, stunning looks, and more. Besides, it allows you to receive calls and the option to shuffle among various battery modes.

Despite a fresh look and several improvements over predecessor, the Gen 5E is priced competitively to suit those looking for a premium lifestyle smartwatch. We reviewed this smartwatch to see if it balances looks and performance in everyday use. Let’s see what we found:

Looks and design

The Fossil Gen 5E has good looks with a metal strap holding the 1.19-inch AMOLED circular touchscreen with slim bezels on a 44mm stainless steel case, and a crown on the right to wake the watch up. All this in a black finish gives this smartwatch a premium appearance. The body is not too bulky, either, and the sensors sit at the bottom.

The display, with a 390×390 pixel resolution, and a pixel density of 328ppi make it crisp and colorful. In fact, it has good sunlight legibility as well. The crown, however, is not a rotating one, unlike in the Fossil Gen 5.

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