Europe

Microsoft Teams, the video conferencing service by Microsoft, is getting a host of new updates, including the ability to use custom photos as background images during video calls. The feature is available to users of the platform’s free version and Indian customers of Teams can use it as well. Users of Microsoft Teams free version

Chinese gaming giant NetEase on Monday announced a strategic partnership with Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment to develop a new Lord of the Rings mobile game, bolstering its pipeline following its secondary listing in Hong Kong. The new officially licensed strategy game, The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, is based on the hugely popular

OnePlus 8 Pro is set to go on sale in India today, at 12pm (noon) IST. The first OnePlus 8 Pro sale that comes exactly two months after its official launch will take place through Amazon and OnePlus.in. The smartphone was originally planned to go on sale on May 29, though it was delayed. Last

Indian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries raised a total of Rs. 6,441.3 crores ($847 million) from the sale of two stakes in its digital unit Jio Platforms, the group said on Saturday. Global investment firm TPG will buy a 0.93 percent stake for Rs. 4,546.80 crores ($598 million), while private equity firm L Catterton will pick

Google said Sunday it would explore why the picture of Britain’s World War II leader Winston Churchill disappeared from a top search results list of former UK prime ministers, during controversy over his record on racism. The search giant said the photo’s removal from its horizontal list atop search results for former British premiers was

Redmi 9A has supposedly reached the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) with a model number M2006C3LG. The new Redmi phone is likely to be a watered-down option of the Redmi 9 that was launched earlier this week. The purported details of the Redmi 9A that are said to have appeared on an FCC listing suggests

OnePlus Pods appears to be the name of the company’s upcoming truly wireless (TWS) earbuds that are rumoured to debut next month. The Android 11 Beta 1 release that OnePlus brought for its OnePlus 8 series earlier this week has shown some references about the earbuds — including their name and some key features that

Apple Maps has enabled the Nearby feature in India to let users find nearby establishments including food delivery, groceries, medical shops, petrol pumps, and restaurants, among others. Alongside the new change for Indian users, Apple has also expanded real-time transit information on its Maps app across Canada, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The real-time transit feature

MIUI 12 Pilot Testing Program has been kicked off in India for the Redmi Note 8 Pro, Redmi Note 7 Pro, Redmi Note 7, and Redmi Note 7S users. The registration window is now open until June 17. Participants will get access to a MIUI 12 Global ROM that is yet to be available publicly.

Poco X2, Samsung Galaxy M21, Redmi Note 8, Redmi 8, Redmi 8A Dual, and Realme C3 are the six smartphones that have received a price hike in the last one month. In some cases, smartphone makers have confirmed that the increase happened mainly due to supply constraints caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It is, however, important

Snapchat is getting major updates with new features that make use of augmented reality. Snap today announced several fresh updates to its Snapchat app at the Snap Partner Summit 2020. Some of the new features are already rolling out to Snapchat users around the world. Snapchat is also getting new camera and augmented reality experiences,

Oppo seems set to upgrade its existing fast charging technology called SuperVOOC 2.0 by introducing its new version in 2021. The new technology, which would debut as SuperVOOC 3.0, is rumoured to offer an 80W fast charging experience. This is notably 15W higher than 65W charging support available through the existing SuperVOOC 2.0 technology that

Xiaomi Mi Notebook and Mi Notebook Horizon Edition will make their debut in India today. These will be the first laptops by the company in the country, having already released multiple laptops in China in the past. While not a lot is known about the specifications of these laptops, several teasers have hinted at some

Intel has announced its first hybrid CPUs that combine its high-power and low-power architectures, usually used in the separate Core and Atom product lines. The new ‘Lakefield’ CPU series models are targeted at ultra-portable laptops and new form factors including dual-screen and folding-screen models. Two CPUs have been announced, the new Intel Core i5-L16G7 and Core

Google’s Pixel series reportedly saw its best shipments figures in 2019 despite the lacklustre Pixel 4 launch response, research firm IDC executive claims. Associate VP for EMEA Devices at IDC, Francisco Jeronimo says that 2019 was the best performing year for the Pixel series, and the shipment numbers outpaced OnePlus as well. He attributed the

Redmi Note 9 Pro Max is all set to go on sale in India today at 12pm (noon) IST. The phone will be available via Amazon India and Mi.com. The Redmi Note 9 Pro Max is priced starting at Rs. 16,499 and it offers impressive specifications, like a large 5,020mAh battery and is powered by

Mira Robotics developed its “Ugo” robot to reinforce greying Japan’s shrinking workforce, but as the coronavirus threat persists, the Japanese startup is offering its machine as a tool in the fight against the outbreak, the company’s CEO said. “The coronavirus has created a need for robots because they can reduce direct contact between people,” Ken

Flipkart has introduced an AI voice assistant in its grocery store app, Supermart. This voice assistant can understand commands in English and Hindi right now, however the company plans to add support for vernacular languages in the future. Flipkart aims to assist customers in bagging groceries just by their voice with the new feature. This

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the state-owned telco, has extended its existing 1500GB FTTH plans to new cities in Tamil Nadu, after introducing it in only Chennai and Telangana circles earlier this year. The BSNL 1500GB Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) plan offers a speed of 200Mbps up to 1500GB data with unlimited local and STD calls to

Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia is seeing a pick up in orders as its broadband clients race to upgrade networks to meet higher user demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, a company executive said. Many customers had planned to grow their network by 30 percent to 40 percent over the next few years assuming a similar

OnePlus Z, the upcoming mid-range phone by the Chinese company, has resurfaced online with major leaks hinting at the specifications, price in India, and release date. As per one of the leaks, the phone will come with triple rear cameras, a 90Hz refresh rate screen, an in-display fingerprint scanner, and more. It is expected to

OnePlus 8 is all set to go on sale once again today via Amazon and OnePlus website in India. The new OnePlus smartphone that was launched alongside OnePlus 8 Pro was supposed to go on open sale late-last month; however, following production difficulties due to COVID-19 pandemic, the company has indefinitely postponed the release of

Reliance Jio has announced its Disney+ Hotstar offer just days after teasing it on social media and MyJio app. The telecom operating is giving one-year subscription of Disney+ Hotstar VIP to all prepaid users who recharge their account with Rs. 401 plan, Rs. 2,599 plan, Rs. 612 data voucher, or Rs. 1208 data voucher. Notably,

A mobile game developer founded in Russia registered record profits during coronavirus lockdowns around the globe as more people downloaded games while confined to their homes, one of its founders said. Playrix, based in Dublin since 2014, recorded 16.5 crores downloads of its games between mid-March and mid-May, nearly double the number in the two

Carry Minati, a popular YouTuber, is back in news with his new rap song that hit the video sharing platform late-Friday. With the rap that is called Yalgaar, Carry Minati aka Ajey Nagar is calling out YouTube, TikTok creator Amir Siddiqui, another Youtuber Dhruv Rathee, and popular comedian Kunal Kamra. Nagar is miffed since YouTube

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite will launch in India on June 8, an Amazon India listing suggests. The e-commerce site has published a dedicated page teasing the start of pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite, and has even made the ‘Notify Me’ button live. The South Korean company has also started taking registrations

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series and the Galaxy Fold 2 may launch on August 5, according to an online report. The phones are expected to be unveiled via an Unpacked 2020 digital event due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Samsung is yet to make any official announcement regarding the matter. The Samsung Galaxy Fold 2

Germany and France on Thursday launched a project to set up a European cloud computing platform that they hope will enhance European economic sovereignty in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and break the continent’s dependence on US and Chinese companies. The platform, entitled GAIA-X, is meant to be up and running — at least

China said Facebook was unfairly targeting its biggest media companies on Friday after the network began attaching disclaimers to pages run by the country’s state-controlled news outlets. Pages managed by news agency Xinhua and the fiery nationalist tabloid Global Times are now labelled “China state-controlled media”, after a policy change by the world’s largest social

Honor 8S (2020) has been quietly launched in the UK and the phone is up for grabs via the company’s website. The budget phone is offered in a sole Navy Blue colour option and it comes with a single rear camera. The phone is identical to last year’s Honor 8S with the main difference being