Lenovo K3 Note launched for Rs 9,999

Lenovo’s budget 4G handsets are becoming quite popular in India. The Lenovo A6000, A6000 Plus and A7000 have been quite popular in India and the latest one to be launched is the K3 Note. The Lenovo K3 Note has just been launched in the country at a price of Rs 9,999 and it will be available exclusively on Flipkart.


The registrations for the device have just commenced 2pm today and the first flash sale will take place on 8th July. It will be available in black, white and yellow colours. It has support for the Indian 4G LTE bands and comes with Dolby ATMOS for a rich audio experience. Post the K3 Note hitting the online retail shelves, the A6000 Plus and A7000 will be made available in offline stores. All other futureet u K-series smartphones will be sold in India via the online-only sales model.

Lenovo K3 Note specifications:

• 5.5-inch IPS LCD display, 1920 x 1080 pixels, 401ppi
• Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system with Vibe 2.5 UI
• 1.7 GHz Octa-Core MediaTek MT6752M processor, Mali-T760MP 2 GPU, and 2GB RAM
• 16GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
• 13-megapixel rear camera with LED Flash and a 5-megapixel front camera
• 4G LTE, 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and dual micro SIM connectivity
• 3,000 mAh battery

Oppo Joy 3 budget smartphone with ColorOS 2.0 gets listed

Oppo has quietly listed the Joy 3 budget smartphone on its global website. The Joy 3 takes over from the Joy Plus that was launched earlier this year. Oppo has focused on the build quality of the device and has used a metallic frame construction for it. Barring this, all its specs are quite uninspiring.

The device features a 4.5-inch FWVGA display runs Android 4.4 KitKat based ColorOS 2.0 in this day and age when the low cost handsets are making the shift to Android Lollipop. There’s just 4GB of internal storage present on board which can be expanded by a microSD card but then you won’t be able to install your apps on the memory card either.

It draws its processing power from a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek chipset which joins hands with 1GB of RAM. Let us quickly go through its specifications:

Oppo Joy 3 specifications:

• 4.5-inch IPS TFT display, 854 x 480 pixels
• Android 4.4 KitKat based ColorOS 2.0
• MediaTek MT6582 chipset, 1.3GHz quad-core CPU, Mali-400MP2 GPU
• 1GB RAM
• 4GB internal storage, expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB)
• 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, 2-megapixel front camera
• Dual SIM (3G+2G), Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, and USB OTG
• 2,000 mAh battery

Micromax announces its slimmest phone ever, Canvas Sliver 5, for Rs. 17,999

Micromax has just announced the Canvas Sliver 5 in the country for Rs. 17,999. The company is claiming that it is the thinnest and lightest smartphone ever. The device has a thickness of just 5.1mm from end to end and weighs just 97 grams. It has an aircraft-grade aluminium frame. Micromax has focussed heavily on the build quality of the device and has opted in for a set of mid-range specifications.

The Canvas Sliver 5 is a 4G LTE enabled device, and has a a 4.8-inch HD AMOLED display. The Canvas Sliver 5 boots Android 5.0.2 Lollipop, and comes with a 64-bit Snapdragon 410 processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, but lacks storage expansion slot. THere’s an 8-megapixel primary camera and a 5-megapixel secondary camera. There’s 4G LTE connectivity and 2,000 mAh battery. It will come with an on-site after-sales care service under which Micromax will pick up your phone for service if there’s any issue with it, and will deliver it back in 7 days. It will be available in black and golden colours.

Micromax Canvas Silver 5 specifications:

• 4.8-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels and Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• Android 5.0.2 Lollipop operating system
• 64-bit Snapdragon 410 chipset, 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, Adreno 306 GPU, and 2GB DDR3 RAM
• 16GB internal storage (no microSD card slot)
• 8-megapixel rear-facing camera (Sony IMX219 sensor), autofocus, LED flash, 1080p video recording, and Blue Glass filter
• 5-megapixel front-facing camera
• 4G LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and single SIM
• 2,000 mAh battery

Xiaomi's Latest device Is the Rs. 199 Mi LED Light

China's Xiaomi has launched its latest toy in India. The Xiaomi Mi LED Light is now available for purchase from the company's online store at Rs. 199 in blue and white colours.

Xiaomi Mi LED Light looks very similar to the cheap USB lights available via eBay and other websites, though the colours do give it a little bit of more appeal than its no-name brethern. The light has a flexible frame and is powered by a standard USB port, which means you can plug it into any USB charger, your computers's USB port, or indeed any power bank with a USB port. Do remember that Mi.com offers free shipping only on orders above Rs. 500, so you'll need to pay a Rs. 50 delivery charge if you are thinking of picking up just a single piece of the Xiaomi Mi LED Light for yourself.

Now buy apps from Google Play Store without debit or credit cards.

After launching it in 28 countries, Google has finally launched Play Store gift cards in India – the 29th country to get Google Play Store prepaid vouchers – after the likes of Denmark, Belgium, Ireland, Finland, Sweden, the US, the UK, and Norway. Users can purchase these prepaid vouchers to buy any kind of digital content from the Play Store that is available in India, be it apps (as well as in-app purchases), games, live wallpapers, e-books, or movies. Movies can either be rented or purchased using these prepaid vouchers.

If you want to buy the Google Play prepaid vouchers, you can head over to selected stores of Vijay Sales and Spice Hotspot in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune, and Jaipur. They will be available in three options – Rs. 500, Rs. 1000, and Rs. 1500 – and you can pay for them using cash or any other kind of payment the store accepts.

There are many people in India who do not have access to online banking or debit/credit cards with online shopping access, and till now, there was no option for such consumers to purchase apps and games from the Play Store. With the launch of Play Store prepaid vouchers, they can easily walk into a store, buy the prepaid voucher worth their need, and redeem the amount in the Play Store to buy digital content. Google has stated in its official announcement that purchased content such as movies can be “pinned” to the device for offline access.

Free data-management and data-saving app Opera Max launched in India.

Opera Max, the free data-management & data-saving app from Opera Software finally made its debut in India where it can be downloaded from the Google Play store. Opera Max shrinks videos and photos across most apps on mobile data connections – as well as on Wi-Fi – so that users can get the most out their data plans and more control over their data usage.

With Opera Max, users can track the non-essential apps that are using valuable data without their permission and block them. Blocking also prevents the apps from tracking user information in the background and stops apps from trying to connect to mobile networks.

Opera Max will help users manage data by providing real-time, daily and monthly data-usage statistics, not only on mobile networks, but also on Wi-Fi networks. Opera Max provides data savings by compressing videos, photos, media and more for almost all apps and websites. Less data to download from the web also means faster mobile-browsing speeds for your phone. Users experiencing network congestion or on a crowded, public Wi-Fi hotspot – will enjoy a faster connection experience with Opera Max’s compression feature, and they can monitor how apps are using their data.

Opera Max is the first app of its kind that compresses videos, which could easily eat up a data plan. This compression allows users to spend less data while gaining more time to watch videos on the web. Opera Max can condense a 10 MB video down to 3 MB* – and significantly reduce instances of video buffering – without any noticeable loss of quality.

Reliance Jio’s 4G LTE service will go live in December: Mukesh Ambani

The seemingly endless wait for Reliance Jio’s 4G services is almost over. Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani announced at the company’s 41st AGM that Jio will commence its operations in December this year.

According to Ambani, the company is ready to serve all 29 states and will reach 80 percent of the Indian population at launch with a target to cover 100 percent of the population in the next three years.

The company will begin the beta-testing in the next few months and also planning to release several mobile applications. The company’s Jio Chat application is already being used by over a million users.

Reliance Jio will also introduce 4G LTE smartphones priced under INR 4,000 with the commercial launch of its 4G service. The company is working with the likes of Huawei, ZTE, Samsung and others for these smartphones.

Just yesterday, ZTE had launched a 4G LTE Android phone in the country at INR 4,999. So, under INR 4K 4G smartphones are certainly feasible.

ZTE releases Blade Qlux 4G at INR 4,999

Chinese smartphone maker ZTE has launched the new Blade Qlux 4G smartphone in the Indian market. Priced at just INR 4,999, it is the most affordable 4G smartphone to be released in the country.

“At ZTE it’s our mission to get the technology of the future in the hands of our customers today. The Indian consumer is getting ready for 4G and we want to make sure that not only compatible devices are available to the consumers, but are also available at an affordable price. We are extremely excited to introduce the ZTE Blade Qlux 4G to every Indian who wants to be tomorrow ready,” said Yuan Kang, CEO Terminal Sales South Asia, ZTE.

According to ZTE, Blade Qlux 4G will be available exclusively via Amazon India beginning June 16. The company has also partnered with Airtel to provide double data promotion to the Qlux 4G buyers.

Coming to the specifications, the ZTE smartphone sports a 4.5-inch FWVGA (854x480p) IPS display and is powered by 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6732M processor. It also packs 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage, microSD card slot and Android 4.4. ZTE has promised to offer the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for the smartphone.

In addition, the company has included 8MP rear camera with LED flash, 5MP front shooter, 2200 mAh battery and dual-SIM support in the Blade Qlux 4G.

At the given price-tag, the above specifications are quite decent and it would have been great if the phone was running Lollipop out of the box.

Opera Max is coming soon to India

Over a year after introducing its data-management and saving application “Opera Max” for Android users, Opera is ready to bring it to the Indian market. The company revealed in a blog post today that Opera Max is coming soon to the country.

Opera hasn’t shared an exact release date at this point, but expect to see the official launch sometime this month.

Opera Max basically passes all the unencrypted data coming to your phone regardless of the application or browser through its servers and compresses it. By compressing stuff like videos, photos and other media, the Opera app reduces your overall data consumption, in turn helping you get more out of your normal data plan. Also, it not only works with mobile networks, but also with Wi-Fi connections, so you get savings all around.

In addition to data compression, the Opera Max also keep track of your data usage and identifies the applications, which are using most data or using data in background, so you can prevent some (or all) of them from using your data without your permission.

As your data from applications like Facebook, Gmail, banking apps etc. is encrypted, you don’t have to worry about your privacy or security.