2015 – 2020: Indian brands, from dominant to dead Sounds hard to believe? Well, five years ago, in 2015, the top five smartphone brands in the Indian market were: Samsung, Micromax, Intex, Lenovo (Motorola), and Lava, as per Counterpoint Research. And that is not all, there were others – Karbonn, Spice, Lyf, iBall, and Celkon, to name a few. Even brands that were known for other electronic products like Onida, BPL, and Videocon had phone divisions....

In order to get this feature on your Android smartphone, you will have to download the latest version of WhatsApp (v2.12.339) for Android from the official website. The new feature is yet to make its way to the app available on Google Play but we can expect the company to rollout the latest update to Google Play in the near future. The new Starred Messages bookmarking feature can be used by tapping and holding a message which would then be saved in a separate new Starred Messages tab....

The version number for this WhatsApp beta update is 2.18.179. Apart from the addition of that label, the release is otherwise a minor one. It’ll be a few weeks at least before the company begins seeding this out to every one of its users and platforms. If you’d like to try it today, there are two ways you can do that on Android — either sign up for the beta channel and update the app or sideload the APK file which you can download from here....

WhatsApp Web is available for Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone and recently they also expanded the services for the iOS. Security firm Check Point claims to have unearthed a vulnerability in the software, which would let hackers take control of user’s computer and install ransomware or as a matter of fact any kind of malware. The hacker could simply inject a command in the name attribute of the vCard file and when executed, Windows will run all lines in the files just like a usual Windows Batch file, thus executing the malicious code....

Turning tablets into laptops – Hybrids There is a recent trend in tablet computers, and it’s bound to catch on soon. Instead of releasing a standalone tablet, a few manufacturers have sold tablets along with keyboard docks. The result is a thin, lightweight, and ultra portable laptop computer. Manufacturers such as Asus, with the Transformer Prime, have led the charge here. Third party accessory manufacturers have gotten in, too, creating keyboard docks for many popular tablet lines, including the iPad....

More than 3 billion devices run on Windows because of its simple-to-use approach and the fact that it now supports mobile architecture (ARM). Microsoft Windows XP & Windows 7 were the foundation for Windows 10 & Windows 11 operating systems we use today. Windows 10 brought along some major gaming-centric features like support for DirectX 12, better compatibility for older and upcoming titles, Xbox app, Game Bar, and overall performance enhancements....

However, imagine that you are stuck in a situation where your most used application happens to freeze, and you cannot force quit the application because Task Manager does not work. Moreover, your only option is to restart the entire PC to fix the problem. Sounds annoying, isn’t it? And this is exactly what most users online are annoyed about, as the issue of Windows 11 Task Manager not working has become a big problem for them as they are forced to restart their PCs to get rid of the frozen app, wasting their valuable time....

Windows 7 was launched officially last week amidst launch parties and fanfare. As always, Microsoft gave its customers an option to get the Windows 7 DVD from retail stores or download the Windows 7 ISO directly from its servers online. But the catch is, Microsoft never makes available, the official download links that allow retail customers to download setup installer or ISO image of Windows 7, despite digital downloads have been the sole distribution channel for many who purchase from online store or via MSDN or TechNet subscriptions....

That being said, the Xbox One S will only launch on October 5, and while the 500GB Forza 3 bundling costs Rs 29,990, the 1TB variant will be available for Rs 34,990. On a separate note its slightly disappointing that Microsoft didn’t bother to bring in the more recent Xbox One X. As with all the gaming consoles in India the Xbox One S is priced a lot a higher (import duties) in India as opposed to the U....

Lei Jun led Xiaomi plans to raise something between $4.7 billion to $6.1 billion from its IPO at the Hong Kong stock exchange. This, while being markedly lower than Xiaomi’s initial expectation of around $10 billion, is still a substantial amount. The capital raised from its initial public offering is said to fuel its growth in international markets, especially in countries of South Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Xiaomi is currently going strong in China and India and has recently expanded to a European market with its entry into Italy....

In essence, the Mi Box builds on the idea that, over time, regular TVs or even older smart TVs for that matter succumb to the growing demands of users and fail to deliver and live up with the pace of ever-growing technology. And that, while some people may upgrade to a newer smart TV, there are others who prefer some workaround to avoid the extra cost and still get a decent experience....

Mi Credit is an all-new finance solution from Xiaomi, which is essentially a curated online marketplace for lending, to provide personal loans for Mi Fans. The platform is claimed to be built as the first personal loan choice specifically targeting young professionals. Currently, its list of lending partners onboard includes NBFCs or Fintechs such as Aditya Birla Finance Limited, Money View, EarlySalary, Zestmoney, and CreditVidya. The new credit lending platform offers users a more intuitive interface and makes the application process for securing loans easier....

The Xiaomi Mi TV 4A (43-inch) Youth Edition comes with an FHD panel and a refresh rate of 60GHz. The display offers viewing angles of 178-degrees while the entire setup weighs at 7.58kgs. That apart, the Mi TV 4A (43-inch) Youth Edition borrows the same quad-core 64-bit Amlogic T962 processor clocked at 1.5GHz. The only difference is that the “Youth Edition” comes equipped with 1GB of DDR4 RAM and 8GB of internal storage....

It is a question that has been asked a number of times in different ways, once even in an expletive embellished headline on a notable blog, ever since Xiaomi started selling phones in India. The company might have made itself one of the most noteworthy players in the intensely competitive Indian smartphone market, thanks to its ability to offer well-designed and well-specced devices at surprisingly affordable prices, but its mostly online-only sales model has tended to rub consumers up the wrong way more often than not....

Xiaomi has been sticking to the deadlines when it comes to the MIUI updates, but the same is not true for the Android versions. For the sake of context, MIUI is Xiaomi’s overlay and is based on different versions of Android. Although Xiaomi ensures to update really old devices to newer MIUI versions, the actual Android OS version bump is hard to come by. Most of the devices including Mi Max 2, Mi 5C and the Redmi 4X will be treated to a Nougat update as well....

Manu Kumar Jain, Global VP of Xiaomi tweeted the official teaser image with the confirmed date of launch and apparently seven hints related to the smartphone hidden within the image. Since the device was already launched in China sometime back, we more or less have the confirmed specifications of the device, except for a few region-specific changes that Xiaomi might make, like different RAM/storage variants. Mi Fans, mark the date!...

It was AOL and Yahoo Messenger which hooked me to the Internet almost two decades ago. Currently the market is crowded with hundreds of Messaging apps trying to make a place for themselves. Among these Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, Viber etc are ruling the roost. This time around, Yahoo claims that it has designed the app from ground up – something that was long pending. Let’s check out what the new Yahoo Messenger promises and if it delivers....

The page now shows a comprehensive view of all devices that have been active on an account in the last 28 days, or are currently signed in. You can also the city and the country from where the Google account is being accessed. So, in case any suspicious activity is noticed, there’s a setting that allows to take the right steps to secure an account and change a password. The above screenshot shows how my current dashboard looks like....

The postpaid service, which Ola says will roll out to everyone in the coming months, will essentially let passengers to avoid paying as soon as their trip is ended and pay for all the bills together at the end of the monthly cycle — just like they would in the case of their phone charges. Called Ola Money Postpaid, the feature is primarily designed to bring more users onboard with Ola’s digital payments service....

Okay, here’s what you need to know — The ZTE Axon M (terrible name, though) features two 5.2-inch 1080p panels instead of the usual one. The secondary display can be flipped around back and fourth whenever you need it. The phone achieves this fitting a hinge in the middle that also causes the phone to become 12.1mm thick and 230 grams heavy. You can either put the additional panel against the primary one and turn it into a tablet of slots or run two entirely different instances on both....