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Lenovo K8 Plus India Launch, Jio 4G Download Speeds, WhatsApp Monetisation Plans, and More: Your 360 Daily

Lenovo K8 Plus India Launch, Jio 4G Download Speeds, WhatsApp Monetisation Plans, and More: Your 360 Daily

By Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 6 September 2017 23:01 IST

Highlights

Lenovo K8 Plus is priced is Rs. 10,999
Jio, Vodafone, and Idea saw a dip in their 4G peak download speeds
WhatsApp is testing features letting businesses chat with clients

Lenovo has launched the K8 Plus in India today as a Flipkart-exclusive. It follows the Lenovo K8 Note by sporting a dual rear camera setup, a large 4000mAh battery, apart from running stock Android 7.1.1 Nougat. The K8 Plus also features a dedicated music button on the left panel that controls playback and can be further customised as a launcher. Another highlight of the new Lenovo smartphone is its Dolby Atmos support for better speaker and headphone performance. The Lenovo K8 Plus price in India is Rs. 10,999, and it will go on sale via Flipkart on Thursday, September 7. Other specifications include an octa-core MediaTek Helio P25 SoC coupled with 3GB and a 3-megapixel Purecel Plus sensor with and a second 5-megapixel depth sensor.

Jio continues to lead in 4G download speeds
According to TRAI's MySpeed app, Jio continues to lead when it comes to 4G download speeds. The telecom giant recorded a 18.331Mbps peak download speed for the month of August. Vodafone (9.325Mbps) and Idea (8.833Mbps) also saw their 4G peak download speeds decline marginally in August, while Airtel’s (9.266Mbps) continued to rise for the second straight month. In 4G upload speeds, Idea leads the pack at 6.292Mbps, followed by Vodafone (5.782Mbps), Jio (4.225Mbps), and Airtel (4.123Mbps).

WhatsApp for businesses officially announced
We've known now for a while that WhatsApp's new business feature was in the works, and now, Facebook has officially announced plans to make some money using it. "We're building and testing new tools via a free WhatsApp Business app for small companies and an enterprise solution for bigger companies operating at a large scale with a global base of customers, like airlines, e-commerce sites, and banks," according to the blog post. The pilot program as already begun and we should soon see a public roll out of this new feature.

Truecaller adds Number Scanner and Fast Track Numbers to Its Android app
One of India’s most popular apps, Truecaller is adding new features to its app for better convenience. Number Scanner will let you scan numbers from billboards, business cards, and pretty much anything else by simply using your phone's camera, while Fast Track Numbers integrates curated toll-free numbers across various categories like Airlines, Banks, Emergency Services, Hotels, and more into the app. The new features will be available via the Truecaller app for Android v8.45, which is rolling out to users this week.

YouTube introduces 'Ultra Low-Latency' feature for live streaming
YouTube Live now has an "ultra low-latency" feature that makes it easier for the users to interact with their audiences in real-time. Apart from this, the live streaming service from YouTube has also received new chat moderation tools. Finally, iOS users will now be able to live stream through more apps from their devices, with the YouTube app now supporting Apple's ReplayKit framework. Talking about the newly introduced ultra low-latency feature first, the company says in its Creators Blog that it makes it possible to stream videos with just a couple seconds of latency. This means that the users will be able to answer fan questions and get input from viewers faster than before. The company says that the new feature is easy to set up and doesn't require any special software or encoders to work.

Panasonic P9 smartphone launched in India
Panasonic has launched its P9 smartphone with Android 7.0 Nougat in India at Rs. 6,290. In terms of features, the Panasonic P9 comes with a 'Quick Switching' feature that allows users to shuffle between the most recently used apps. Further, the Panasonic phone comes with the 'Quick Reply' feature that allows users to reply to messages directly from the notification without opening the full-scale app. The smartphone is available in the company's brand shops as well as retail outlets.

Apple's refusal to approve India spam app antagonises TRAI
Apple's refusal so far to approve the government's anti-spam iPhone app is infuriating regulators, potentially harming the company's efforts to sell more products in the country. TRAI has been trying unsuccessfully to get its Do Not Disturb software included in the App Store. The program lets people share spam call and text message logs with the agency, which uses the data to alert mobile operators to block the spammers. Apple has said the app violates its privacy policy, according to the regulator.

In other news, TRAI came out with proposals on machine-to-machine communications that include a new kind of permit for companies keen on providing services. The machine-to-machine (M2M) communication is expected to be the norm among households to control consumer durables like TV, washing machine, air conditioner and the like with the help of mobile phones from a remote location.

Facebook Watch video platform now available to everyone in the US
After its initial trial run for a select few users, the company has now rolled out "Watch" video platform for everyone in the US. According to a report, Watch will be available on Facebook's native mobile apps, desktop site and TV apps. For now, Facebook is primarily highlighting reality shows as they are cheap and quick to produce.

At the same time, Facebook is reportedly paying music labels and other right holders for copyright videos, instead of taking them down. The report claims that it's more of a makeshift arrangement, as a system to detect and take down copyright infringing content would likely take at least one more year.

Windows 10 S users can now upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free
Microsoft launched the Windows 10 S operating system for education in May this year, and now, Microsoft is offering a chance to upgrade to Windows 10 Pro for free till March 31, 2018. This addition of three more months has been announced by Microsoft on its latest blog detailing the availability expansion of the Surface Laptop to 20 more countries in different colour options.

Google Pixel 2, Pixel XL 2 won't be powered by the Snapdragon 836 SoC
While there's still some time for the Google's second generation of Pixel devices to hit the scene, there were already some rumours claiming it will be powered by the unannounced Snapdragon 836 processor. Now, a new report claims that such an SoC doesn't exist, which means the phones will most likely use a Snapdragon 835 chipset. The Pixel 2 and Pixel XL 2 smartphones are tipped to launch on October 5. The HTC-manufactured Pixel 2 is expected to feature a EdgeSense style frame, the Pixel XL 2 is expected to be made by LG, and sport a bezel-less 18:9 display. Both will reportedly run on Android 8.0.1 Oreo.

In more Android news, a Redditor who goes by the name 'Unusual_Sauce' has claimed that Android Oreo might have a bug. Apparently Android Oreo continues to use mobile data, even when connected to Wi-Fi. Some of the other users on the website have pointed out that the Android 8.0 Oreo update causes the "mobile data always active" setting under Developer Options to be enabled.

Huawei surpasses Apple in global smartphone sales
Chinese smartphone maker Huawei had a hat-trick, as it managed to surpass Apple for the first time in global smartphone sales consistently for June, July and August. While this streak could be temporary, considering the annual iPhone refresh is just around the corner, it nevertheless underscores the rate at which Huawei has been growing.

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