OnePlus is celebrating it’s first anniversary by making its OnePlus One ‘flagship killer’ smartphone available without the invitation you’ve so far needed to order one. Both the white 16GB and black 64GB models are available.
The company is also offering 11% of all accessories, a prize draw to win a 64GB model and a competition to name its forthcoming custom ROM in which you can win both a phone and a trip to Hong Kong to meet the team.
The Times of India reports that the Delhi high court has banned Xiaomi from both importing and selling smartphones in India following a patent infringement claim by Ericsson.
Hearing a case filed by Ericsson India against Xiaomi, the court on Monday passed an ex parte order forbidding the popular Chinese manufacturer from importing and selling its smartphones in India […]
It is not clear if the order will impact all Xiaomi devices sold in India or specific devices that violate the patents.
However, as the patents concerned are Standard Essential Patents – patents which are so fundamental to a particular product category that the patent owner is obliged by law to license them on reasonable terms – it appears likely that the ruling applies to all Xiaomi handsets … Expand Expanding Close
Google announced today that it has started rolling out support for offline video playback in the YouTube Android app for three countries: India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The company says that the goal is to help work around limited access to high-speed internet connections.
The new mode will allow many videos to be cached directly on the phone for up to 48 hours in order to be played back later. Users will have the option of selecting what resolution they’d like to cache to make the process as efficient as possible.
Image via @<a href="https://twitter.com/rajananandan/status/542213782395555840" target="_blank">RajanAnandan</a>
Google announced during its Great Online Shopping Festival 2014 tonight that it will officially launch the Chromecast streaming device in India. The HDMI dongle will be available through online retailer SnapDeal for Rs 2,999 later tonight—a bit higher than the $35 price in the States.
Today, Google announced that people in India can now make free calls from Hangouts to folks in the US and Canada. The freebie phone calls are available via the web, or the company’s Android and iOS apps.
Google Keyboard offers a great many customization options, but dumping them all into one screen wasn’t the friendliest of ways to access them. The latest version, v3.2, splits them up into seven separate sections to make things easier to find.
The app also adds support for eight more languages, most of them aimed at India. These are Bengali, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil (India and Singapore variants), and Telugu.
The new version should be pushed to your device automatically in the coming days. If you don’t want to wait, you can scan the QR code below (courtesy of Android Police) to download and install the APK manually.
The hardware requirements for Android One devices were set by Google to deliver a good experience with the latest stock versions of Android. All three handsets are supplied with the latest KitKat 4.4.4, and Google is promising that they will receive two years of updates, starting with the Android L update … Expand Expanding Close
Chinese Android manufacturer Xiaomi may be trying to compete at the high end of Android devices with it’s iPhone-inspired Mi 3 handset and unsubtley-named Mi Pad, but it isn’t neglecting the low-end of the market. Its Redmi 1S just launched in India and, according to a tweet by former Google exec and now Xiaomi Global VP, sold 40,000 units in 4.2 seconds … Expand Expanding Close
Google today has started sending out invites to the media for a September 15 event in India. The invite teases that the event is for “an exciting new product announcement” and promises more details closer to the date of the event. Obviously, with it being held in India, the first thing that jumps to mind is that we will hear more details regarding Android One.
At Google I/O in June, Google announced a new line of Android One smartphones that it said would be affordable and marketed at emerging markets, such as India. The Economic Times is now reporting that Google is planning to launch its first smartphones of the Android One program as early as next week in India. The report also claims, however, that the devices will be more expensive than the initial $100 price point Google announced at I/O.
Google announced today the availability of 76 historical sites in India that can be viewed from Google Maps or through the Google Cultural Institute site. These 360-degree photos will let you take a tour of the Kangra Fort without having to pack a single bag. Thanks to support from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), along with previous efforts, Google’s imagery of historic shots of India has surpassed 100 pictures, with locations like the Taj Mahal and Humayun’s Tomb already available to view.
Samsung this morning began rolling out an update to European models of the Galaxy S5 only citing “improved performance” as the description. Expand Expanding Close
Google placed a lot of emphasis on Material Design and other new Android L features at Google I/O last month, but its Android One reference platform was actually one of the most important announcements made during the three-hour keynote. Android One will consist of Google supplying reference hardware to handset makers, who can use the guidelines to manufacture smartphones that will retail for $100 or less. Expand Expanding Close
Samsung, HTC and Motorola are likely to be looking a little nervously over their shoulders as Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi more than doubled its year-on-year sales. The company announced (via TNW) that it sold 26.1M phones in the first half of this year, more than it sold in the whole of 2013.
These are impressive sales for a company which sold its first smartphone just three years ago, and whose sales were initially limited to China. Its growth has been fuelled by expansion into Singapore, Malaysia, India and the Philipines, with the company now eyeing up Latin America as its next market … Expand Expanding Close
Today at Google I/O, Sundar Pichai announced a new program called Android One. The program will launch in India in the fall with partners including Karbon, Spice, and Micromax. The Android One Software Experience includes stock Android like what is found on Google’s Nexus devices with Play apps auto-installed with automatic updates. The program is intended to create high quality, affordable smartphones for developing markets using easily available parts to keep cost down. As an example, Pichai showed off a sub-$100 smartphone featuring a 4.5-inch display with dual SIM, SD card slot, and FM radio. After launching in India, Google will expand the Android One program. Expand Expanding Close
It’s election season in India and Google is counting the votes. Not in an official capacity, but the tech giant is running a real-time tally of the numbers and placing them on an interactive map to keep track of the statistics on a regional scale. Whether you’re participating in the process as one of the election’s 500 million-plus voters, or you’re someone who follows global politics, this layout is a sight to behold.
To bring this project together, Google has leaned on Nielsen to help keep track of the results as they happen. The portal also provides fast access to each district’s local votes as they roll in, making it fairly easy to follow an entire nation’s transition of authority.
Gif courtesy of <a href="http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2014/04/google-maps-stays-neutral-by-only-showing-your-side-in-border-disputes/">Gizmodo</a>
You can’t please all of the people all of the time – but when it comes to disputed borders, Google Maps gives it a very good try.
According to this wikipedia page, there are more than 200 disputed borders in the world – territories that are claimed by more than one country. Even the USA and Canada argue about who owns two islands, three straits and one sea. That’s more than 200 opportunities for Google Maps to cause offence … Expand Expanding Close
Last week, we went on the record saying that HP was set to unveil their new smartphones within a week and here we are just 5 days later with an announcement. The quad-core Slate 6 and Slate 7 VoiceTab are (as predicted) 720P displayed “mega” phablets that will play in the same market as Samsung’s Galaxy Mega line. The initial launch country will be India but more are on the way. While no price was given, we’d imagine that since the other details were true, the $200 price point for the Slate 6 VoiceTab and $250 for the 7-inch seem like a pretty good starting point.
The phones will come with 16GB of on board storage and have a Micro-SD card for 32GB more storage. As you can see in the image above, they both have stereo speakers a la the HTC One (no word yet on Beats Branding which HP still uses and HTC once used).
It appears that HP has really done its homework here and has identified a market where it can make things happen. HP obviously has a huge brand and PC presence in India and at the same time, the market is easy to enter because the carriers aren’t gatekeepers like they are in the US.
As for the phones themselves, they actually have some styling which is a notable step up from HP’s US slate lineup. While I’ll go on the record saying that I’m not a fan of the Black on Gold appearance from the press release and Android skin they are showing off, I’m not privy to style considerations from India.
Also ringing an alarm bell is the Android 4.2 launch OS. Combined with that pretty heavy looking skin/overlay, Indian consumers are already starting 2 OSes back…and counting.
In all, though Google has to be pretty satisfied with the launch. HP is traditionally a Windows shop but since Meg Whitman’s return has gone ChomeOS and Android first with the Slate line of tablets and now their Smartphones.
Another image if the Slate 6 Voicetab and Press release below: Expand Expanding Close
Samsung is predicting a record $9.4B profit for Q3 in its latest earnings guidance, on estimated revenues of $53.9B. While both figures are estimates rather than confirmed results, Samsung’s earnings guidance is usually pretty much spot-on. If confirmed, this will build on the company’s record numbers in Q2.
HTC, in contrast, reported its first ever loss, as it warned back in July. Its revenue of $1.6B was lower than even its lower-end forecast, and it lost $101M – the company’s first ever loss in its 16-year history.
Bloomberg attributes the wildly differing performances to sales of mid-market handsets in growth markets like India and China.
While HTC has focused a revival on its flagship One handset and $12 million marketing deal with actor Robert Downey Jr., Samsung has expanded its range of mid-priced smartphones such as the Galaxy Golden and S4 Mini to capture sales in China and India … Expand Expanding Close
Google is once again leveraging its technology in the interest of aiding in humanitarian efforts. Yesterday the Mountain View company made a Person Finder available to provide a bridge for those affected by the floods in India, and today Google added a crisis map illustrating which areas were hit the hardest and noting points where attention is most needed.
This crisis map is only an early version aimed at providing quick information, such as, places affected, relief centers and road closures. As always, in times of such disaster, accurate information is hard to come by and our Crisis Response team has relied on scantily available information where available. For now, you’ll find the following information. We are hoping to add more as we go along.
Areas impacted by the floods
Relief centers and shelters
Medical Centers
Road closure information
Google encourages people to submit any information that could be helpful to uttarakhand-crisis@googlegroups.com to further support the mission to bring those affected by the floods in Uttarakhand back to stability. Expand Expanding Close
The US company will partner BK Modi’s Spice Global to set up the stores in various Indian cities, starting with New Delhi later this year. Like other such stores in Indonesia, each Android Nation store will promote and sell Android smartphones and tablets across multiple brands like Samsung, HTC, Sony, LG and Asus, to name a few. The first Indian store will open in New Delhi’s Select Citywalk, a person with direct knowledge of the situation informed ET. Google has been scouting for a 1,200-1,500 sq ft location for this store.
It actually won’t be the first time Google has opened up an Android Nation retail store. As noted in the report, Google also operates two locations in Jakarta, Indonesia through a partnership with Indonesian electronics retailer Erafone.
Google’s new efforts won’t just hit India, there are also apparently plans to expand into the Middle East, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Africa with the help of partner Spice Global. The company will also turn 50 of its 900 Spice Hotspots into Android Nation locations to expedite the expansion. Expand Expanding Close
Motorola MSI -0.74% staffers were informed by the company via email this week that “while we’re very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges.” The company email added that “our costs are too high, we’re operating in markets where we’re not competitive and we’re losing money.”
As for where the cuts might take place, we previously reported that Motorola, which was unprofitable for 14 of its last 16 quarters, planned to reduce its operations in Asia and India, but today’s report said the layoffs would hit workers in the United States, China, and India. Google also warned that further restructuring might be necessary and significant costs could be involved.
In a recent piece from The Wall Street Journal highlighting Google executives’ fear that Samsung is gaining too much dominance, Android chief Andy Rubin said the purchase of Motorola was “a kind of insurance policy against a manufacturer such as Samsung gaining too much power over Android.”
We heard in October that Google had plans