This story sounds very familiar if you have followed the journey of the likes of OnePlus or Mi in the market recently. Both the tech players are just as new as some of the other new entrants like Vivo, Oppo or newer than the likes of Gionee in the Indian market, yet if you were to ask an average Joe on the street, he is more likely to recognize the names of a OnePlus or a Xiaomi than say a Vivo....

That’s a question that many a tech writer has had to encounter from their readers. And these questions become even more frequent when brands are in literally release spree mode – launching one device after another. Which is the case right now. Blame it on releases that piled up because of the lockdown caused by the pandemic or just brands trying to make the most of an open market, what cannot be denied is that the past few weeks have seen the sort of launch activity that one normally associates with the festival season in India....

A little bit of context – the 1984 ad was supposed to showcase how the Macintosh was radically different from all the other computers out there. How it represented a different world from the uniform, predictable one which was being controlled by a “Big Brother” (IBM in that case) who was actually restricting you for its own benefit. The Macintosh was the hammer thrown at that world of uniformity. And while its competitors DID hit back, they were rocked badly by the move to a graphic user interface and the addition of a mouse....

But unfortunately, not all video-converting programs manage to live up to their claims. While some fall short in terms of the formats they support, others fail to maintain the video quality upon conversion. WinX Video Converter comes as an exception here. It can be used to convert videos from a wide range of devices and file formats, including 4K/UHD footages. Moreover, the software also doubles up as a video editor: to help you edit out certain elements of your footage; and a video downloader: to assist you in downloading videos from various video-sharing websites....

The embargo was simple: certain members of the media were given access to a product before its release date and were asked not to write about it until a certain, which often was the release date. The reason for this was simple as well: to make sure the public had access to reviews of the product soon after it was released, and while doing so, also ensuring that the media had a level playing field....

To give you some background, Xiaomi has been selling its laptops, both under Mi and Redmi brands, in China for quite some time now. And for the past six months or so, there have been constant rumors about its launch in the Indian market. Although, the company did not come out with anything that solidified the claims. However, this time around, the Xiaomi India head, along with a few other team members have started teasing the launch of a new product....

Xiaomi Mi8 Highlights The Xiaomi Mi 8 features a 6.21-inch Samsung AMOLED FHD+ display with an 18:7:9 aspect ratio. The now ubiquitous notch marks its presence on the Mi 8 as well. Thanks to the thinned bezels and the reduced jaw, Xiaomi has been able to achieve an 88.5-percent screen to body ratio. Other specifics of the display include a brightness range of up to 600nit and a 60000:1 contrast ratio....

The Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S comes equipped with a 6-inch FHD+ display. Design wise the new Mi Mix 2S borrows heavily from its predecessor. The curved ceramic back and the aluminum frame blend in beautifully and the display seem to sit flush within the panel with no inconsistencies whatsoever. Thankfully, Xiaomi has decided not to go for a front notch and this means that the front camera unit still sits in the bottom jaw of the screen....

The leaked screenshot is allegedly taken from the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Note 2 Pro and reveals many a vital information regarding the internals of the smartphone. As per the screenshot of the ‘About Phone’ menu of the Mi Note 2 Pro, the device comes powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chip with four cores clocked at 2.6GHz. This apparently, corresponds with the previous leaks that revealed the presence of this new Qualcomm chip inside the Note 2 Pro....

Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 The Redmi Note 5 comes equipped with a 5.99-inch FHD+ display that offers a pixel density of 403ppi. Xiaomi has retained the onscreen buttons and the display offers a maximum brightness of 450-nit. The company claims to have achieved a 12.5% more display area by using a rounded display that matches the corners of the device. The Redmi Note 5 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 and is paired with a 3GB/4GB RAM....

— Rahul Sharma (@rahulsharma) December 4, 2015 The Cyanogen OS 12.1 update is expected to build several improvements to Yuphoria, and below are the most important ones listed out by the folks at YU. Cyanogen OS 12.1 was first rolled out to OnePlus One devices back in August this year, followed by Yureka, Yureka Plus and now Yuphoria. The 12.1 update brings a host of goodies starting with a smarter screen to increased playback support that users can take advantage of on their Yuphoria device....

For starters, it’s worth noting that the ZTE Axon Mini was launched towards the end of the last year and was among the first phones to come with the much touted 3D/Force Touch (or whatsoever you may call it) feature. The Axon Mini is in fact a part of the Axon Elite, Axon Pro and Axon Max lineup, so it’s quite disappointing to see ZTE delay the India launch. That said, the ZTE Axon Mini marks the entry of the company’s Axon lineup of phone in the country, thereby making us believe that we may end up seeing more phone with this branding....

ZUK apparently has shifted from using CyanogenOS in its devices in selected markets to using their own ZUI across all devices selling globally. ZUK Z1 (First Impressions) available in India however, still runs on the CyanogenOS. The Chinese sub brand recently launched their ZUK Z2 and Z2 Pro in China, thereby becoming one of the first smartphone makers to make use of a 6GB RAM chip. For those unaware, ZUK Z2 sports a 5....

I hope this finds you well wherever you are in India. Welcome to our country. We were aware that you were coming to India, but alas, could not get to see you, not because of a clash of schedules (heavens, we wish we could EVER be that busy), but simply because we did not know you would be talking to only “select media.” No, this is not a rant at not being invited to an event where you spoke or interacted with the media....

And he leads a life that is hectic. Although very much a Delhi person, he ends up traveling a lot. “Everyday in the morning I get up, and I have to orient myself, which hotel, which city, which place is it,” he laughs and proceeds to tell its how he resolves matters. “If my dog is waking me up, then I know I am at home. If he is not waking me up, then definitely I am not at home....

Yes, Facebook provides me an option to Hide and free myself from all such alerts. But the issue is that I see that there are many such apps (with different names) but doing the same thing. The app lures the users by promising to reveal which of their friends are checking out their Facebook profiles recently. You must know by now that Facebook clearly states that such a thing is very much against their privacy policy....

LinkedIn started building the direct messaging option similar to the ones already offered by Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The roll out will be slow and incremental, starting with just “10 percent ramp to English global members.” LinkedIn will be last in line to launch the messaging product and although users could send private messages it was more like a e-mail interface with a not so intuitive interface. The new feature will open up new avenues for the professional networking site and it might also introduce a premium messaging services for the recruiter....

What is WhatToWatch? As you can guess by its name, WhatToWatch is a show and movie recommendation service, which helps you find your next title to binge-watch on your favorite platform. It is completely free to use and does not display annoying ads on its interface, unlike some of the other show/movie recommendation services. What’s even interesting about WhatToWatch, is that it recently got featured on Product Hunt — a product discovery platform that allows creators to share their latest creation with the world and users to find new products that interest them....

The Meizu Pop is primarily designed for workouts and hence, offers a lightweight build which weighs only 5.8 grams. In addition, the buds themselves have an ergonomic, curved exterior that prevents them from falling out of your ears during extreme activities. They’re also touch-sensitive letting you perform a host of actions with a bunch of gestures like double-click, long-press for playback, volume control, what have you. To withstand sweat and other minor water damages, the Meizu Pop is IPX-5 certified too....

Here is an extract from MSLT. It is quite common these days for people to have a desktop as well as a notebook at home. So, it will be unfair to buy multiple licenses of MS office in order to use it on both the PCs. That must be the reason behind this not so well publicized licensing. The same logic holds good for other productivity suites as well. So make sure you do the painful reading of the license terms before buying an additional license....