HMD Global aims to launch the new Nokia 3310 feature phone in India ahead of the three Nokia Android phones unveiled at MWC 2017, the company’s country head Ajey Mehta told Gadgets 360. However, this launch cycle is not confirmed yet, as are the Make in India plans, which had been reported previously. Mehta also said that HMD Global plans to sell the four Nokia phones online as well as offline; however, the devices will be platform exclusive – so, for example, if the new Nokia 3310 is sold online, it will not be available offline.
Here are other important tech news of the day you should't miss:
Reliance Jio payments bank gets RBI approval
Reliance Industries’ Jio payments bank has reportedly received RBI clearance to start operations. The Jio payments bank - a venture in partnership with SBI – is said to be launched officially in March. The bank will compete with Airtel and Paytm’s payments banks in India; while the former is already operational, the latter is expected to launch soon.
In other Reliance Jio news, the company denied reports that it will provide customers only 1,000 minutes of free calls a month, and that the calls will be chargeable after the free minutes are exhausted. Refuting the report, a Reliance Jio spokesperson told Gadgets 360 that all voice calls on its network will remain free, as mentioned on the official site.
WhatsApp may soon show more chat details, introduce 'Size' tab
The WhatsApp beta update for Windows has debuted new features that provide more in-depth details about chats. By just clicking on individual WhatsApp chats, you can find out how many texts there are, how many photos and GIFs have been shared, and so on. There's also a new Size tab that organises information on the basis of photo and videos sizes shared in chats, and not number. This is being seen as a means to help users delete media-heavy chats to clear up space quickly.
Aadhaar will soon be required to book train tickets online
IRCTC users will soon have to link their accounts with their Aadhaar number to book tickets online, as per the new business plan unveiled today by Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu. The one-time registration will help eliminate touts from registering with fake identities, a Railway Ministry official said. Aadhaar number has been made mandatory for senior citizens to avail concessions in train tickets from April 1; a three-month trial run for this is going on.
Airtel rated as India's fastest mobile network for 2016 by Ookla
Based on analysis of Internet speed tests done by users in India, an Ookla report has named Airtel as the country’s fastest mobile network. The data was collected on the millions of speed tests performed on “modern devices” by mobile users. A TRAI report in January also said that Airtel has the fastest 4G network in the country.
Gmail users can now receive emails up to 50MB in size from other email clients
Google has raised the cap on the size of Gmail attachments users receive from other email services to 50MB. However, the maximum size of attachments sent from Gmail continues to be 25MB. This effectively means that Gmail users will not be able to send files bigger than 25MB in size to others, but will be able to receive attachments will a file-size of up to 50MB. While the limit is rather low, Gmail users can always upload attachments to their Google Drive and share it over email.
Panasonic Eluga Pulse, Pulse X with 4G VoLTE support launched in India
Panasonic has launched the Pulse and Pulse X smartphones with 4G VoLTE support in the Indian market at Rs. 9,690 and Rs. 10,990, respectively. The new Panasonic Eluga Pulse sports a 5-inch HD IPS display while the Eluga Pulse X packs a larger 5.5-inch HD IPS display. Both smartphones are powered by a 1.25GHz quad-core processor, 16GB internal storage, microSD card support up 128GB, 13-megapixel rear camera, and 5-megapixel front camera. While the Eluga Pulse has 2GB RAM and 2200mAh battery, the Eluga Pulse X features 3GB RAM and 3000mAh battery.
Samsung India reportedly allowing users to sign up for early access to Samsung Pay
Samsung has reportedly started allowing users of Galaxy Note 5, Galaxy S7, Galaxy S7 Edge, Galaxy S6 Edge+, Galaxy A5 (2016), and Galaxy A7 (2016) to sign up for its Samsung Pay mobile payment service in India. Leaked screenshots show that Samsung Pay supports credit and debit cards for MasterCard and Visa from banks like Axis, HDFC, ICICI, SBI, and Standard Chartered; support for Citibank will reportedly be added soon. Users will be provided details of the Samsung Pay Early Access Program are yet to be given to those who sign up, with the users receiving an email only saying, “The Early Access Program will be available shortly, details of which will be shared subsequently.”
Facebook suicide prevention tools get AI boost, extended to Live and Messenger
Facebook has announced plans to integrate its suicide prevention tools into the Facebook Live live-streaming feature as well as Facebook Messenger. It will also use artificial intelligence to identify users will suicidal tendencies. The social media giant also said that the updated tools would give users the option to watch a live video to reach out to the person directly, and report the video to Facebook.
Disclosure: Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma's One97 is an investor in Gadgets 360.
For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.