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|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Leading smartphone company, Xiaomi, launched the Redmi 3S in India, extending the successful Redmi legacy with a beautifully-crafted device that has a super long-lasting 4100 mAh battery. Redmi 3S will be priced at Rs. 6,999 while Redmi 3S Prime, the higher memory model which also features a fingerprint sensor, will retail for Rs. 8,999. Both models will be initially available exclusively on Mi.com and Flipkart, starting with Redmi 3S Prime on 9 August.

Xiaomi has sold 110 million Redmi phones across the world in three years, equivalent to 1.2 units sold every second. With its Redmi series, Xiaomi has disrupted the smartphone industry in India and redefined the sub-10K category with high-quality devices that simply blow the competition out of the water.

Earlier this year, Redmi Note 3 was the first ever smartphone in India to be equipped with the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 650 processor. Redmi 3S continues to raise the bar by being the first ever smartphone in India that is powered by the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor. Along with the Adreno 505 GPU, Redmi 3S is able to run the latest high-performance games very smoothly.

Crafted with a premium metal body, Redmi 3S has a 5-inch HD display. Despite being extremely lightweight at only 144 grams, Redmi 3S can power through up to two days of regular usage thanks to its large, high-density 4100 mAH battery. Even with almost twice the battery capacity of Redmi 2, Redmi 3S has a metal body that is 10% thinner than Redmi 2.

Redmi 3S has a camera that builds on the success of last year’s Redmi 2, which saw users producing amazing photos often compared to those taken by flagship smartphones. The 13MP rear camera on Redmi 3S comes with PDAF [phase detection auto-focus] for faster focusing, and supports 1080P video recording. It also features HDR and HHT [handheld twilight] modes for various shooting conditions. Redmi 3S supports expandable memory up to 128GB microSD cards. It supports 4G LTE and VoLTE out of the box, covering all India LTE bands – Bands 3, 5 and 40.

In addition to all the great features of Redmi 3S, Redmi 3S Prime comes with a fingerprint sensor with ultra-fast phone unlocking and enhanced security and privacy, as well as 3 GB RAM and 32 GB storage.

In a sign of continued commitment to India, every unit of Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime sold in India is being made in India. Xiaomi joined the Make in India initiative a year ago, and the first Mi phone to be manufactured in India was a Redmi device — Redmi 2 Prime. To date, over 75% of Xiaomi’s smartphones that are currently sold in India are made in India.

Hugo Barra, Vice President, Xiaomi commented

I am thrilled to be introducing a Redmi device and once again change the game in the sub-10k smartphone industry in India. Redmi 3S packs a punch with a large 4100 mAh battery that easily powers through two days of usage on a single charge, and is the first smartphone in India powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 octa-core processor. Coupled with an amazing 13 MP camera built into a premium metal finish body, we believe that Mi fans will love Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime for their amazing features at simply incredible prices.

Speaking on the occasion, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Head – Category Design Operations at Flipkart said

Having created a history in the past with record breaking sales, Xiaomi undeniably is one of the top mobile brands on Flipkart and we have seen tremendous response for all MI devices launched till date on Flipkart. He added: “Flipkart is the leading retailer in smartphones and we constantly work at making the best in Smartphone technology available and affordable to all our consumers. The launch of Redmi 3S and 3S prime exclusively on Flipkart is a step in that direction.

Key features of Redmi 3S

  • 4100 mAh battery
  • 1.4 GHz Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
  • Premium metal body
  • 13MP rear camera with PDAF, 5MP front camera
  • 5-inch HD display, dual SIM [Nano- and Micro-SIM]
  • LTE and VoLTE support
  • 2GB RAM + 16GB Flash
  • IR blaster
  • Available in Dark Grey, Silver and Gold

Key features of Redmi 3S Prime

  • 4100 mAh battery
  • 1.4 GHz Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430
  • Premium metal body
  • Rear fingerprint sensor
  • 13 MP rear camera with PDAF, 5 MP front camera
  • 5-inch HD display, dual SIM [Nano- and Micro-SIM]
  • LTE and VoLTE support
  • 3 GB RAM + 32 GB Flash
  • IR blaster
  • Available in Dark Grey, Silver and Gold

Redmi 3S & Redmi 3S Prime will be initially available exclusively on Mi.com and Flipkart with no pre-registrations.  Redmi 3S Prime will be available at INR 8,999 starting 9 August from 12 Noon onwards and Redmi 3S will be available at INR 6,999 starting 17 August.

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Skyscanner, the global travel search engine have announced that travellers will be able to search for hotels and car hire from the existing flights app. Planning travel will now be super easy with flights, hotels and car hire searches all addressed in one app.

With growing smart phone penetration and social media revolution, Indian travellers are increasingly logging onto the internet to plan their vacations. According to the IAMAI-IMRB [Internet and Mobile Association of India-Indian Market Research Bureau], online travel accounts for 61% of Indian ecommerce and the online travel industry is expected grow at around 40% to reach Rs 122,815 crore by end of 2016.

The trend for both searching and booking travel on mobile has accelerated dramatically in recent years, with the Skyscanner apps having been downloaded over 40 million times worldwide. 45% of all Skyscanner searches in India are now made using a mobile device*, while the last year alone has seen a 24% increase in people booking via smartphones in India**.

In an effort to make searching and booking travel even easier, the free Skyscanner app [compatible with both iOS and Android devices] will continue to deliver personalized, relevant and inspirational travel information, in addition to exciting brand new features designed to save travellers time and money.

New SkyScanner features to save money

A new Explore Top Deals section provides easy to navigate deals including:

  • Summer holiday deals – For those on the hunt for sunshine this summer, find all the best options per month from your chosen airport
  • City breaks – Travellers can find the cheapest options for a last minute weekend city break with this new feature
  • Everywhere – For those with set travel dates yet totally flexible on destination, challenge Everywhere to find the top deals from your chosen airport
  • Timeline view – This view allows travellers who have searched for a specific destination in the Explore Top Deals section the chance to easily find the best flight options for the near future

New SkyScanner features to save time

The Quick Search section also has a number of new and refined features, including:

  • Hotels and car search sync – Hotels and car hire are now automatically synchronized with flights search so travellers no longer have to re-input check in times, destinations, pick up locations, etc
  • Revamped hotels booking view – Quick snapshots of all the key information (images, reviews, price) for hotel results with the revamped hotels booking view
  • Instant flight search – Search results are instantly refreshed, and as new parameters are set the search automatically starts in the background so no waiting for new results to load and as new parameters are set the search automatically starts in the background so no waiting for new results to load
  • Ratings – To help travellers to pick the best flights for them quickly and easily, search results can be ordered by price, duration or ‘rating’ – the latter of which takes into account the price, number of stops and duration and is reflected in a colour coded smiling/frowning face and score out of 10

Kavitha Gnanamurthy, Senior Marketing Manager, Skyscanner said

We at Skyscanner understand the demands of the evolved traveller, providing them with the opportunity to plan a cost effective trip. With our unified app, we become the perfect travel partner to design an easy and smart trip, incorporating all of ones travel needs under one roof.

Balint Orosz, Head of App Product, from Skyscanner said

At Skyscanner we believe it’s important to continue to innovate and develop technology as the needs of our customers evolve. We’ve incorporated all of the learnings and user feedback from our standalone hotels and car hire apps into this new, upgraded offering, making it the ultimate app to serve all your travel needs.

Visit Skyscanner.net/mobile for more information and how to download the Skyscanner app.

About Skyscanner

  • Skyscanner is a leading global travel search company providing free search of flights, hotels and car hire.
  • Founded in 2003, Skyscanner helps meet the travel planning needs of over 50 million people each month.
  • Skyscanner is available in 30 languages.
  • Skyscanner’s highly-rated free mobile apps have been downloaded over 40 million times.
  • The privately-owned company employs over 700 staff and has ten global offices in Edinburgh, London, Singapore, Beijing, Shenzhen, Miami, Barcelona, Glasgow, Sofia and Budapest. For more information, please visit Skyscanner

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

With its vision to help make India a global hub of high-quality mobile developers, Google have launched the Android Skilling program in India that will aim to train two million mobile developers by unveiling a slew of initiatives to skill up, educate and certify millions of students and developers in Android Development.

Image Source* – Google

Recognising the need to provide an in-person training course targeted at students in universities, Google announced the launch of a specially designed instructor led training program on Android Fundamentals. This will be made available across public and private universities and training institutes of the National Skill Development Corporation of India. The in-person training module integrated into the course curriculum will be introduced within this calendar year at no additional fee.

The Android Fundamentals course will also be available, free of charge on NPTEL [an initiative of the IITs and IISc] as part of its Online Mobile Computing course starting 18th July 2016. Additionally, Google has tied up with training partners like Edureka, Koenig, Manipal Global, Simplilearn, Udacity and UpGrad who will operate as Authorized Android Training Partners in India. Google will train their trainers & to update their Android course-ware to prepare students for the Android Certification and a career in Android development.

Speaking at the launch, Caesar Sengupta, VP, Product Management at Google said

India is expected to have the largest developer population globally, overtaking the US, by 2018 with four million developers. But today only 25% of developers are building for mobile. We believe India is uniquely placed to innovate and shape the Internet experience of billions of users who are and will come online on the mobile platform. By building a world class curriculum and making it easily accessible to millions of students and developers in India, we want to contribute to the Skill India initiative and help make India the global leader in mobile app development.

Google also announced the launch of its globally recognised job-oriented Associate Android Developer Certification – a performance-based exam that will help successful candidates to get an entry-level Android Developer jobs in the Industry. After training, aspiring candidates can log on to the Google Developer training website and take the certification exam priced at INR 6,500.

Sharing more details about the program, Peter Lubbers, Head of Google Developer Training said

We introduced the Android Nanodegree program in India last year with Udacity and today, we have over 11,500 students in India enrolling every month in our Android courses. For university students we have now—for the first time—introduced a instructor led Android Fundamentals course to be incorporated into university curricula in India

We also realise that India has a huge base of developers seeking opportunities for employment. And for that, we are introducing a globally recognised, job-oriented Google Developer Certification. The certification sets a benchmark for the industry to evaluate developer capabilities and is mapped to an actual job already in the industry, as determined by job task analyses

In addition to partnering with Universities, NPTEL and industry training partners, Google will also open-source all Android Developer Fundamentals practicals and course-ware and make these available to everyone for free. All details of the program and courses can be found here.

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

LYF Smartphone+, the True 4G smartphone brand from Reliance Retail, has pushed the envelope of affordability in the Indian smartphone space by announcing a very aggressive price of Rs. 2999 on four of its Flame models – Flame 3, Flame 4, Flame 5 and Flame 6. This makes LYF India’s most affordable VoLTE smartphone & opens the doors to a digital life for millions of consumers, a move which resonates with the Prime Minister’s vision of a digitally-connected India.


Like all LYF devices, the Flame series too offers smartphones equipped with VoLTE – a technology that enables the device to provide advanced features such as faster call setup, high-definition [HD] voice and video calling, seamless switching between voice and video calls and multi-party conferencing on a 4G LTE network.

It is perhaps for the first time in the history of Indian smartphone industry that such advanced communication features have moved within the reach of the common feature phone user who has been using the phone for simple voice-based communication.

The dual-SIM slots, a characteristic feature of every Flame phone, allow users to simultaneously use a 4G SIM in either of the slots. Given that all LYF devices come with a free Jio preview offer, under which every user buying a LYF phone gets access to the entire range of Jio services, Flame series provides an ideal and highly affordable platform for users to migrate from older networks such as 2G or 3G to the more advanced 4G ecosystem. In addition to this, Flame series also offer smart aesthetic features and superior hardware technology.


With all the models being equipped with a primary camera and also a front camera, or a selfie-shooter, Flame series allows users to shoot images of all types with a range of photography features such as HDR, Panorama, Face detection, Smile shutter, Burst mode, Slow motion video, Metering, White balance, Anti-banding and ISO. These features are bound to impress the existing feature phone users, as they can now enjoy a superior photography experience and the freedom to share their memories with their near and dear ones.

All four models run on a Quad core 1.5 GHz processor which delivers a smooth and lag-free multi-tasking experience. The screens feature an Asahi Dragontrail Glass for heightened protection against dust and scratches which result from regular operation. The compact and ergonomic design of the phones also allows for easy and convenient handling. The interfaces have been customized to operate on 10 different Indian languages, so that language never comes in the way of enjoying an enhanced digital experience.

The Indian device ecosystem always featured a clear line of distinction between smartphone users and feature phone users with price acting as a major barrier. With the introduction of 4G smartphones at a price which rivals that of feature phones, LYF has made it easy for feature phone users to upgrade to smartphones.

For more information, please visit LYF Smartphone+

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab has issued warnings against a newly found mobile phone Trojan family, which has been dubbed Hummer. During the first half of 2016, the Hummer Trojan infected nearly 1.4 million devices daily at its peak. In China alone, there were up to 63,000 infections every day. According to collected evidence, this Trojan family has something to do with the underground industry chain in China.

Security researchers claim that this Trojan family is one of the largest ever, with millions of Android phones infected around the world. Based on Cheetah Mobile’s estimation, if the virus developer were able to make $0.50 USD [the average cost of getting new installation] every time the virus installed an application on a smartphone, the group behind this Trojan family would be able to make over $500,000 USD daily.

When a mobile phone is infected with the Hummer Trojan, it will root the device to obtain administrator privileges of the system. It will then frequently pop up ads and silently install unnecessary or unwanted applications (even malware) in the background, which consumes a lot of network traffic. Since the Hummer Trojan can gain the highest control over the phone system, ordinary anti-virus tools are not able to clear the Trojan thoroughly – even performing a factory reset on the device won’t get rid of it.

Cheetah Mobile has updated its anti-virus products, CM Security and Clean Master, to ensure users won’t be affected by Hummer. For those who are already infected with this virus, Cheetah Mobile’s Trojan Killer app is available for download on the Google Play Store [and can be downloaded from here] will be able to help users remove this Trojan family from their device easily.

Tracing the source of the Hummer Trojan family
After analyzing the samples, security researchers from Cheetah Mobile discovered the domain names used to update the Trojan. From the beginning of 2016, the group behind the Hummer Trojan family started using 12 domain names to update the Trojan and issue promotion orders.

Through the Whois history information, researchers found that several of the domains are linked to an e-mail account in mainland China. The researchers believe that this Trojan family originated from the underground internet industry chain in China, based on the Trojan codes that have been uploaded to an open-source platform by a careless member of the criminal group behind the Trojan family.

Hummer is now the #1 Trojan across the world
According to data collected by Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab, between January and June 2016, the average number of Hummer-infected phones is 1,190,000, which is larger than any other mobile phone Trojan.

The Hummer Trojan is spreading throughout the world. India, Indonesia, Turkey, and China have seen the largest number of infections. Below is the list of the top 25 countries that have been affected by the Hummer Trojan family in 2016.

Since India has the most Hummer Trojan infections, Cheetah Mobile Security Lab investigated deeper. Among the top 10 Trojans affecting most users in India, the second and third are members of the Hummer Trojan family, and the sixth is a Trojan that’s promoted by Hummer.

The Hummer Trojan family members are embedded with a root module, and the latest variant has as many as 18 different root methods. Again, once a phone is infected, the Trojan gains root privilege, which makes it very difficult to delete.

This Trojan continually pops up ads on victims’ phones, which is extremely annoying. It also pushes mobile phone games and silently installs porn applications in the background. Unwanted apps appear on these devices, and they are reinstalled shortly after users uninstall them. Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab made a test with the Hummer Trojan, and the findings were astonishing : In several hours, the Trojan accessed the network over 10,000 times and downloaded over 200 APK’s, consuming 2 GB of network traffic.

Cheetah Mobile’s Trojan Killer app is available for download on the Google Play Store and can be downloaded from here

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Swipe Technologies, India’s leading mobile internet company has launched a premium tablet experience that is reckoned to set a disruption in the category. Swipe X703 is a combination of innovation and technology with splendid IPS display to provide crystal clear images and a number of other compelling features that will make the tablet highly desirable for all, especially, India’s aspiring young population.

The new tablet’s highly efficient processor enables fluent multitasking with minimal lags. It is equipped with a powerful battery that never lets you run out of the juice with its triggered performance. 10.1 inch is a size which is used in not only consumer segment but also in education & enterprise segment due to its reading and multimedia experience yet being very lightweight and portable in comparison to bulky laptops.

Launching the new Swipe X703 tablet on 4th June, Shripal Gandhi, Founder and CEO of Swipe Technologies, said

As a leading player in the smartphones space in India, we are committed to offer superior products to our customers every time. After tremendous success of our previous products, it is important for us to live up to our customer’s rising expectations. We continuously seek feedback from our users and incorporate them in our new offerings. Swipe X703 is an outcome of such customer engagement and it is ready to take the experience to the next level. It is a combination of innovation and technology that is designed to provide an ultimate tablet experience to its user.

What makes Swipe X703 unique is its 25.65 cms [10.1 inch] IPS display, which offers wide viewing angle along with a splendid colour resolution. The Swipe X703 offers unmatched entertainment experience with its rich, detailed and crystal-clear colors. Its brilliant display resolution of 1280*800 pixels vastly improves your gaming & video watching experience. You can even watch your favourite TV series on this tablet with smooth streaming and amazing clarity. Its extensive screen display also provides rich detailed fragmentation to every shot that you watch.

It’s 1.3 GHz Quad-Core processor provides a smooth support for multitasking so that you can easily switch between multiple applications. It also allows you to easily stream and watch videos directly from YouTube and other video-streaming applications. It’s 1GB RAM provides an enhanced trigger to effective speed of multitasking.

It is designed with great care to capture your fondest memories with its 5MP rear camera and save your pictures on its 8GB of internal memory. The rear camera is designed in a way that you cannot miss out a single shot of perfection with rich details and fragmentation. The Swipe X703 tablet is also equipped with a 2MP front camera to click endless selfies whenever you want and wherever you are. You can upload your latest selfies and stay connected and updated socially.

Swipe X703 Tablet comes with a powerful 6000 mAh battery. The splendid back-up support of this battery allow you to play games, watch movies and videos, browse on the internet and attend long calls seamlessly. The battery is designed in such a way that you can keep going with your work all day and night long without fresh recharge. It also uplifts your user experience with the latest Android 5.1 Lollipop Operating System. The in-trend Operating System provides better Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity along with an effective maintenance of output profiles. It is designed to ensure optimum device protection all day and night long.

Swipe X703 tablet from the House of Swipe is available exclusively on Snapdeal from 4th July 2016

About Swipe Technologies

Swipe Technologies is an innovation-centric mobility solutions company, having started its operations in July 2012. Within a short span of time, Swipe has become the leading tablet and Smartphone maker in India. Swipe was started with an aim to bring exciting devices in the growing Indian market and today, it is the leading consumer brand with key innovations across products, pricing and customer support.

Founded by technocrat Mr. Shripal Gandhi, Swipe raised $5 million in May 2014 from the Venture Capital firm Kalaari Capital. For more details, please visit JustSwipe

|In: Android|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

Planning road trips in India just became a little easier. With the latest update on Google Maps on Android [coming soon to iOS], now you can plan your road trip with multi-stop directions.

Just open the app, enter a destination, tap the corner menu, and then click “Add stop”. To rearrange the order of your stops, tap and hold the three dot menu to the left of “Add stop” and drag it to the position you want – you can even search for types of places like petrol pumps, ATM’s or restaurants like you normally search. You can add as many stops as like and once you’re done, tap “Finished” and your multi-stop routing is complete. When you enter navigation mode you will have the same seamless driving experience you are used to, whether you are running errands or hoping beaches in Goa.

A lot of the fun of travelling is the memories created while exploring new places with friends, family or even solo. Pictures are a traditional way to remember those moments, but now with “Your Timeline”, users on Android can preserve their travel memories and info in a new way. Google Maps users that have the Location History enabled can open Your Timeline, select a date from their recent vacation or everyday life and add notes to help remember what they did that day-or save important notes for later.

Sanket Gupta, Product Manager, Google Maps, said

No matter where your travels take you this monsoon season and beyond, these new Google Maps features will get you there and help keep track of all the memories you make along the way.

Download the latest Google Maps for Android from here

|In: CleverTap|Last Updated: | 0 Comments

CleverTap, a leader in mobile analytics & engagement, announced Live User Segments, a new capability for evaluating a user’s behavior as it happens in an app. Live User Segments run continuously and act like a real-time filter on a user’s behavior. Users are dynamically added to segments the moment their behavior matches pre-defined criteria.

App developers and marketers use Live User Segments to do real-time monitoring and analysis of critical user flows such as on-boarding and conversions. Marketing campaigns using push notifications, email, SMS and browser notifications, can be automated to message users exactly when they complete a specified activity or sequence of activities, or even upon inaction, when they do not perform a desired activity within a specified amount of time, which could be in minutes, hours or days.

Revant Bhate, Head of Marketing at Faasos said

Live User Segments are the cornerstone of our app engagement strategy. We deliver thousands of meal orders during the lunch hour but if a customer doesn’t complete an order by 12:15, we’ve lost that purchase. Our Live User Segments campaigns run continuously and identify customers we’re about to lose, and send them personalized push notifications with incentives to buy. We’ve seen a 30% lift in our conversions.

Live User Segments is the latest addition to what is the most advanced behavioural segmentation tool available for businesses today. Whereas other tools allow you to segment audience based on simple rules such as a single user activity or user property, CleverTap is the only platform that allows segmentation based on any comprehensive set of actions or in-actions a user performs in an app. Segments can look backward at past user behavior or, with Live User Segments, can evaluate user behavior as it happens, adding them to a segment in real-time.

Paul Brody, Chief Product Officer for CleverTap said

The key to any app’s success is knowing who your users are and how they experience your app. Segments can be monitored against KPI’s [show me 30 day retention for 2nd time purchasers], compared to each other, used to automate engagement campaigns or sent to a web-hook endpoint for use by other systems such as a CRM. And with Live User Segments, you can now drive immediate user engagement or power the dashboard on the CEOs desk to show real-time, dynamic metrics on everything from who’s in the app right now to the total number of conversions in the past hour or day.

Live User Segments will be available to all customers in July and is included as part of all CleverTap plans. Pricing is designed to place the tool within reach of startups with affordable plans that allows up to one million events per month, free.

About CleverTap

CleverTap is the next generation mobile engagement platform. It enables marketers to identify, engage and retain users and provides developers with unprecedented code-level access to build dynamic app experiences for user groups. CleverTap includes out-of-the-box prescriptive campaigns, omni-channel messaging, un-install data and the industry’s largest free messaging tier. To learn more about CleverTap please visit clevertap.com