Srivatsan Sridhar | Fone Arena

Airtel launches India’s first Payments Bank, pilot begins in Rajasthan

Airtel Payments Bank, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel today rolled out a pilot of its banking services in Rajasthan across 10,000 Airtel retail outlets, ahead of a full scale pan Indian launch. Customers in towns and villages across Rajasthan will now be able to open bank accounts at Airtel retail outlets, which will also act as Airtel banking points and offer a range of basic, convenient banking services such as cash deposit & withdrawal facilities. Airtel said that this is the first payments bank in the country to go live.

Continue reading “Airtel launches India’s first Payments Bank, pilot begins in Rajasthan”

Asus ZenBook 3 available in India from Nov 27 starting at Rs. 1,13,990, Transformer 3 Pro available from Jan 2017

asus-zenbook-3

Asus launched the ZenBook 3, slim laptop and Transformer 3 Pro in India back in August. Today the company has announced that the ZenBook 3 will be available in the country from November 27th. ZenBook 3 has an ultra-sleek 11.9mm chassis crafted from aerospace-grade aluminum alloy and weighs just 910 grams with battery. Continue reading “Asus ZenBook 3 available in India from Nov 27 starting at Rs. 1,13,990, Transformer 3 Pro available from Jan 2017”

OnePlus Gear lifestyle products now officially available in India, starts at Rs. 999

oneplus-gear

OnePlus gave away some Gear accessories like T-shirts during Diwali Dash Sale last month. It started selling these Gear line of lifestyle products on its global store earlier this month and the company said that these products have been inspired by their fans around the world. Now these are available for purchase in India through its official store, as it had promised. Continue reading “OnePlus Gear lifestyle products now officially available in India, starts at Rs. 999”

Google releases Android 7.1.1 Developer Preview 2 for Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9 and Pixel C

Android N_fonearena

Google released Android 7.1 Nougat developer preview for older Nexus devices last month, now it has released final Android 7.1.1 Developer Preview 2 for these devices that adds the developer features already available on Pixel and Pixel XL devices. In addition it adds optimizations and bug fixes. Continue reading “Google releases Android 7.1.1 Developer Preview 2 for Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9 and Pixel C”

Samsung Galaxy On8 Battery Life Test

Samsung launched the Galaxy On8 smartphone in the ‘On Series’ last month exclusively on Flipkart during Big Billion Days sale for Rs. 15,900. We reviewed the smartphone recently, here we have the battery life test results of the phone. The Galaxy On8 has a 3300mAh removable battery. It has a 5.5-inch 1080p Super AMOLED display and is powered by an Octa-Core Exynos 7580 processor. Check out the battery life test results below. Continue reading “Samsung Galaxy On8 Battery Life Test”

TRAI reduces transaction cost for USSD-based mobile banking and payment services from Rs. 1.50 to 50 paise

Following Demonetisation, The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has reduced tariff for the use of USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) for USSD-based mobile banking and payment services from Rs 1.50 to Rs. 50 to promote digital transactions through the USSD channel. Continue reading “TRAI reduces transaction cost for USSD-based mobile banking and payment services from Rs. 1.50 to 50 paise”

Xiaomi will introduce a new product at the CES 2017 on January 5

xiaomi-ces-2017-invite

Xiaomi has scheduled an event at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas for the first time, where it will introduce a new product. This is an invite-only event that is schedule for January 5th from 11 AM to 11:45AM PT (12:30 AM to 1:15 AM IST). Continue reading “Xiaomi will introduce a new product at the CES 2017 on January 5”

Panasonic Eluga Mark 2 with 5.5-inch display, 3GB RAM, fingerprint sensor, 4G VoLTE launched for Rs. 10499

panasonic-eluga-mark-2

Panasonic has launched Eluga Mark 2, the company’s latest 4G smartphone with VoLTE support. It has a 5.5-inch (1280 x 720 pixels) HD IPS on-cell display, is powered by a 1.3 GHz Quad-Core MediaTek MT6753 processor and runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow). It has a 13-megapixel rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera. Continue reading “Panasonic Eluga Mark 2 with 5.5-inch display, 3GB RAM, fingerprint sensor, 4G VoLTE launched for Rs. 10499”

Gionee M2017 with 5.7-inch Quad HD display, Snapdragon 653, 6GB RAM, 7000mAh battery gets certified

gionee-m2017

Gionee M2017, a new smartphone with whopping 7000mAh battery has been certified by TENAA in China. The phone has a 5.7-inch AMOLED display, is powered by a 1.95 GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 653 processor and runs on Android 6.0 (Marshmallow) with Amigo OS 3.2 on top. It also has 12-megapixel and a 13-megapixel dual rear cameras and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. Continue reading “Gionee M2017 with 5.7-inch Quad HD display, Snapdragon 653, 6GB RAM, 7000mAh battery gets certified”

OnePlus 3T now available in the U.S. and Canada, coming to 29 countries on Nov 28, India launch teased by GM

oneplus-3t-india-launch-teaser

[Update: OnePlus India GM Vikas Agarwal in an official forum post confirmed that OnePlus 3T will launch in India shortly. OnePlus will put up a Facebook ‘Truth or Dare’ poll today, allowing its fans to determine how it should reveal the launch date of the smartphone.]

Earlier: OnePlus introduced OnePlus 3T, an upgraded version of the OnePlus 3 last week. The also announced that it will go on sale in the US and Canada from November 22nd, today. It is now available for purchase in these countries through OnePlus.net. It will be available in 28 countries in Europe and in Hong Kong starting from November 28th. Continue reading “OnePlus 3T now available in the U.S. and Canada, coming to 29 countries on Nov 28, India launch teased by GM”

Vivaldi browser 1.5 now lets you control Phillips Hue lights, adds automatic screenshots in Notes and more

vivaldi-1-5

Vivaldi browser developed by a founding team of browser pioneers, lead by Jon von Tetzchner, who co-founded and led Opera Software was launched back in April this year. It had received several updates since the launch, now the latest update version 1.5 brings ability to alter smart-home lighting levels with support for Phillips Hue lights, making it the world’s first web browser that controls lights. It also brings new Reader mode, option to drag several tabs at once between windows with ease and more.

Continue reading “Vivaldi browser 1.5 now lets you control Phillips Hue lights, adds automatic screenshots in Notes and more”

HTC 10 evo with 5.5-inch Quad HD display, Android 7.0 Nougat, water-resistant body announced

htc-10-evo

HTC just announced HTC 10 evo, the company’s latest smartphone in the ‘HTC 10’ series in Taiwan and UK, as expected. It is also the global version of the HTC Bolt that was introduced for U.S. carrier Sprint earlier this month. It doesn’t have a 3.5mm audio jack and comes with HTC BoomSound Adaptive Audio, which scans your ears and the ambient noise around you to adjust audio output to suit your personal hearing capabilities. It also has Hi-Res audio that delivers 24-bit audio.

Continue reading “HTC 10 evo with 5.5-inch Quad HD display, Android 7.0 Nougat, water-resistant body announced”

Samsung could release Glossy Black Galaxy S7 in early December

Samsung introduced Blue Coral version of Galaxy S7 edge smartphone in select markets earlier this month that joined the Black Onyx, Gold Platinum, White Pearl, Silver Titanium and Pink Gold colors. Now there is a rumor that the company is planning to introduce Glossy Black version of the Galaxy S7 to compete with the Jet Black Apple iPhone 7. Continue reading “Samsung could release Glossy Black Galaxy S7 in early December”

ZTE Axon 7 Premium version with 5.5-inch QHD force touch display, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage launched in the US for $499

ZTE Axon 7

ZTE introduced Axon 7 smartphone in China back in May, later it launched the smartphone in Europe and US, today it has launched a premium version of the smartphone with force touch capabilities for the 5.5-inch Quad HD display, 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. Continue reading “ZTE Axon 7 Premium version with 5.5-inch QHD force touch display, 6GB RAM, 128GB storage launched in the US for $499”

Aircel launches new full talk time and data combo offers in AP and Telangana

Aircel has launched a range of combo products in AP and Telangana that promises the lowest per GB rate and full talk time. The combo packs – RC497, RC555, RC599 and RC799 are targeted at high-end voice and data users in the region with an objective to increase data consumption. Continue reading “Aircel launches new full talk time and data combo offers in AP and Telangana”