Tuesday 14 April 2020

OnePlus 8 series with first quad-camera setup launched: Check price, specs

Tuesday 14 April 2020 - 0 Comments

OnePlus 8 series with first quad-camera setup launched: Check price, specs

OnePlus 8 series is a successor of the OnePlus 7 series, launched last year, and has a flurry of significant upgrades from its predecessor

The OnePlus 8 series was launched through an exclusive live streaming owing the novel coronavirus outbreak in the world

After releasing several teasers before, with some from OnePlus CEO Pete Lau, the Chinese smartphone giant launched its much-awaited next-generation flagship of the year, OnePlus 8 series today. The smartphone displays a curved-glass back with matte-glossy finish. With today's launch, OnePlus 8 series finally arrives with an IP 68 rating for water and dust resistance.

The OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro were launched through an exclusive livestreaming on the company's official website and its YouTube channel today evening owing the novel coronavirus outbreak in the world.

The event unveiled the OnePlus 8 series with a bevy of features such "All in 5G" support and a 120Hz Fluid Display. The flagship is powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC processor which is capable of supporting high-end games on a phone. Earlier, Lau claimed that the device will get a frost finish on the upcoming flagship but better ergonomics to make the device feel lighter.

OnePlus 8 series price, availability

Available in four colour variants — the Ultra Marine Blue, the Onyx Black and also a fresh Glacial Green colour, and a special Interstellar Glow exclusive for OnePlus 8 — the OnePlus 8 series are the company's first flagship phones to launch this year. The OnePlus 8 is available at a starting price of $699 for its 8GB RAM And 128GB internal storage, and $799 for its 12GB RAM and 256GB internal storage. On the other hand, the OnePlus 8 Pro with 8GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage is available for $899 and the 12GB RAM with 256GB internal storage variant retails $999.

The first sale of the 8 series will commence on 29 April for the United States, however, there are no details of its official sale date for India yet.

Along with that, the company also unveiled Bullets Wireless Z headphones for $49.95 and also showcased a number of attractive phone cases for its latest smartphones.

OnePlus 8 series specifications:

With 5G support and massive battery capacity, the OnePlus 8 series is a significant upgrade to its outgoing OnePlus 7 series. The OnePlus 8 supports a 6.55-inch full-HD+ Super AMOLED display, while the OnePlus 8 Pro comes with 6.78-inch QHD+ Super Fluid AMOLED. With the same Snapdragon 865 SoC processor on both the smartphones, the OnePlus 8 series comes with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage as well.

Coming to the cameras, the OnePlus 8 Pro has a quad-camera setup with two 48 MP sensors, one of them for ultra-wide shots an 8MP secondary sensor, along with a 5MP sensor as well. On the front, the device houses a 16MP selfie camera with AI features a plethora of other modes.

The OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro were launched through an exclusive livestreaming on the company's official website and its YouTube channel today evening owing the novel coronavirus outbreak in the world.

On the other hand, the OnePlus 8 houses a triple-camera setup with one 48MP primary sensor, a 16MP secondary sensor as well as a 2MP sensor. The selfie camera specifications remain the same as the OnePlus 8 Pro.

One of the other major highlights of the series is the powerful battery. The OnePlus 8 Pro houses a 4510 mAh battery and the OnePlus 8 comes with 4.300 mAh capacity. Bith the smaryphones also come with 30W Warp Charge 30T technology. This essentially means that the smartphones can charge with the company’s proprietary wireless charger up to 30W. OnePlus has claimed that the wireless charger will be able to charge the phone from 0 to 50% in 30 minutes. The smartphone also comes with IP certification for dust and water proofing, a first for OnePlus.

Covid-19: LIC announces 30-day extension for premiums due in March and April

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Covid-19: LIC announces 30-day extension for premiums due in March and April

LIC's policyholders can pay premiums through LIC's digital payment options without any service charge
Premiums can also be paid by downloading mobile app LIC Pay Direct

Mumbai: Life Insurance Corporation on Saturday announced an extension of 30 days for payment of premium due in March and April 2020 to mitigate the hardships being faced by policyholders in the wake of COVID-19.

For February premiums, where grace period was expiring after March 22, relaxation is allowed up to April 15, LIC said in a statement here.

Further, it said wherever policies can be revived without any evidence of good health, this can also be done online.

LIC's policyholders can pay premiums through LIC's digital payment options without any service charge.

It also informed that policyholders do not need to register on the website for paying premium but can directly pay by giving basic details.

Premiums can also be paid by downloading mobile app LIC Pay Direct.

Policy premiums are accepted through Net banking, Debit Card, Credit Card and on payment apps such as Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, BHIM, UPI among others.

Premiums can also be paid at all IDBI and Axis Bank branches and in cash through Common Service Centres (CSC), operating at block level.

The insurer assured its policyholders that the death claims arising due to COVID-19 will be treated at par with other causes of death and payments shall be made on an urgent basis.

Corona virus has already claimed many lives and efforts are being made by LIC officials to locate Covid-19 victims on the basis of lists provided by the government authorities to help the families.

Already death claims due to COVID-19 under 16 policies have been settled without losing any time, it added.

During the previous financial year, LIC has settled more than 7.5 lakh death claims with only 0.75 per cent of the total death claims reported remaining outstanding.

LIC has also ensured that policy payments like Survival Benefit, Policy Maturity and Annuities are made to policyholders on due date by crediting the amount into the bank account registered with LIC.

These payments were more than two crore in numbers in 2019-20.

Apple and Google's Covid-19 Tracker Isn't a Privacy Concern, but It Is a Game-Changer

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Last week, Apple and Google announced an interesting partnership. Both companies will build technology into their mobile operating systems that will allow for large-scale contact tracing. It's a pretty big deal for two reasons: The first is that the two companies are fierce rivals, but are working together to solve a problem that affects all of us. Second, it might actually work, since the two companies power almost all mobile devices worldwide.

People understandably start to get nervous when they hear their mobile phones could be used for any kind of tracing, especially if they're not sure what that means. The basic concept is you would be able to download an app that would ping off other mobile phones you come into proximity with.

If you were to later test positive for Covid-19, you could indicate as much on the app, which would then notify the owners of the other devices you came in contact with they were potentially exposed.

Most experts agree contact-tracing is one of the most important factors to "reopening" society. That's because it will allow new cases to be isolated while pinpointing others who might have been exposed early enough that the spread can be limited.

But contact tracing during the height of a pandemic is almost impossible because it's such a manual process. What Apple and Google are building is a way to do it at scale in an automated manner.

And no, the companies aren't uploading your information to some government server to identify who has the virus. That's the other reason it's so important that Apple and Google are both involved.

Apple has a reputation for protecting user privacy in a way that not many other companies can claim. It doesn't monetize your personal information by showing you ads based on your activities, unlike Google or Facebook, for example.

Here's the thing: The Bluetooth technology that Apple and Google are working on isn't that different from what Apple already is using for its Find My service. That service uses Bluetooth to send out signals, even when your device has no service or isn't connected to the internet.

Those signals are relayed by other close-by devices, which then forward them to Apple's servers. Since the entire system is end-to-end encrypted, not only can't bad guys get access to your location or personal information, not even Apple could identify your device location.

The technology behind contact tracing works similarly. While devices communicate with each other in order to exchange a "key," that information can only be used to later notify individuals who may have been exposed, and who should be tested. No personal information is exchanged, so no, the government isn't tracking your information (at least not with this technology)

Don't fire, says PM. But where's the money to pay wages, asks industry

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Without an economic package from the government, difficult to run operations, say companies...

Despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking companies not to lay off staff,

employers across sectors have already started cutting their manpower.

Companies in sectors such as IT, aviation, travel, media and events management have already handed out the pink slips to hundreds of employees.

This is the second time that the Prime Minister has requested the companies to refrain from firing employees. In his March 19 address too, he had made the point.

But on their part, the companies argue that they are struggling to manage the wage bill, especially in the absence of direct economic help from the government.

"We have a monthly wage bill of about Rs 20 crore. Now we haven't produced anything for a month. If this goes on for a month more, how are we supposed to pay salaries," a senior executive from a manufacturing company told Moneycontrol.

So which sectors have already laid off people?

Aviation: GoAir and SpiceJet have terminated contracts of their expat pilots. Other airlines have cut pay and asked a large portion of their staff to go on leave without pay. Air Deccan has put its staff on sabbatical without pay.

IT/ITeS sector: Gurgaon-based BPO firm Fareportal laid off over 300 employees. A Pune-based IT firm has laid-off a dozen workers. According to industry estimates, close to 1.5 lakh techies could be out of job in the next 3-6 months. The sector employs about 45-50 lakh people, with the top four players accounting for about 10 lakh of the total workforce.

In the case of BPO, which employs 11 lakh people, close to 30-35 percent of the workforce is expected to let go of the job. The sector saw close to 50 percent of the population interrupted due to COVID-19.

Event management: With events across the country getting cancelled due to the lockdown, a large portion of the employees now find themselves without jobs. Due to halt on production, daily wagers like makeup artists, technicians, spots are all out of jobs. The sector provides employment to around 10 million people directly and 50 million indirectly.

Apart from these sectors, daily wagers and contractual staff across sectors have been off work for nearly a month now. The country saw a mass exodus of migrant labourers from cities, and many of them said their employers have laid them off.

Many sectors had managed to hold on till now, but had warned that if there was no help coming from the government, then layoffs are imminent. These sectors include retail and textile. Overall, retailers may have to let go 20 percent of their employees. It

Needs Government help

Many of the companies are now looking forward to the guidelines that will be released on April 15, hoping that in parts, the lockdown may be eased. And they are also hoping for economic help.

The tweet from Capital Mind founder Deepak Shenoy resonated with the industry and quickly made the rounds of WhatsApp groups. He said:

"PM may have appealed to not lay off people, but where is the cash," said Mohandas Pai, the former Infosys director and Chairman of Manipal Global, said in an interview.