Realme A1 Tipped to Be Realme's Next Budget Smartphone in India

Realme A1 is rumoured to carry a price tag close to the Rs. 10,000 mark and come in Black and Yellow colour options. http://bit.ly/2LAzGd5

How one entrepreneur went from homeless to $50K a month

Leveraging your talents can get you much farther than you think. Here's how one man converted his struggle to success in eight months. https://tek.io/2ENvq8I https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

In fresh e-comm battle, it's Indian govt vs Narayana Murthy-Amazon

Government's revised FDI policy could throw a spanner in the joint venture between the world’s largest e-tailer and NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures’ Cloudtail India, billed as one of the top three sellers on its platform. http://bit.ly/2Q5xviz https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Myntra's Vector E-commerce registers 90% revenue fall in FY18

This is another instance of e-commerce platforms reducing dependence on their top few sellers following a government regulation in 2016 directing that a single merchant could not have more than 25% of overall sales on any e-commerce platform http://bit.ly/2rWMx0w https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

New e-commerce norms will hit Amazon & Flipkart's affiliated sellers

Big sellers like RetailNet, SuperComNet and OmniTech Retail on Flipkart and its fashion affiliate Myntra besides Cloudtail and Appario on Amazon India form over 60% of these platforms' sales. http://bit.ly/2rUrefQ https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Big electronics retailers to stop sale of Bosch, Siemens products

The biggest retailers in the south including Viveks, Vasanth, Girias, Darling, Shahs and Sathya have issued a written trade advisory in this regard. http://bit.ly/2EOUIDG https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Online-exclusive brands seek clarity on new e-commerce FDI policy

Brands like BPL, TCL’s iFFalcon, MarQ, Blaupunkt TV, Sanyo, Tenor, Thomson, Amazon Basics and Meizu are operating as online exclusives in India through either Amazon or Flipkart. http://bit.ly/2LBl39z https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

E-tailers, traders hail new norms but small vendors fret over 25% limit

Small and medium-sized vendors appreciated the norm barring e-commerce firms from discrimination among vendors in any form but questioned the feasibility of its implementation by platforms. http://bit.ly/2LHuAw1 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The new FDI guidelines likely to shakeup the e-commerce biz in India

A new rule inserted in the policy bars any entity related to ecommerce platforms from selling on that site and imposes a limit on how much one vendor can sell on a particular portal. http://bit.ly/2BDNfE0 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

E-commerce cos will now find it difficult to offer discounts and cashbacks

The new Press Note says that ecommerce marketplace entities cannot exercise ownership or control over inventory. http://bit.ly/2ETqTCw https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Uber partners with Delhi Metro for last mile connectivity

The first phase of this partnership kicked off recently where kiosks were set up at Sikanderpur, Dwarka Sec-21 and Rajiv Chowk metro stations in New Delhi. http://bit.ly/2V7gJU1 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Indian govt tightens norms for e-commerce companies

The decision comes in the backdrop of several complaints being flagged by domestic traders on heavy discounts being given by e-commerce players to consumers. http://bit.ly/2QOPajI https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Fortnite was down temporarily, but is now back in action

The popular battle royale game, Fortnite, was down for a few hours. TechCrunch reports that players reported long load times when queueing, which eventually time out, as well as issues when logging into Fortnite’s servers. The company has acknowledged the issue and says that it has since rectified it. “We've deployed a fix addressing the issues encountered earlier today. Login and Game Services have been restored and the elf is back on the shelf. Players who have earned the Take The Elf Emote will now receive it as a gift or immediately after completion,” the company tweeted. An employee of Epic Games explained the problem on Reddit. According to the post, the problem stemmed from another bug that caused the Elf Challenge reward to not be granted. This apparently exposed a latent bug in the profile migration code that fixes up players. This caused players to be kicked and triggered the waiting room.  The company notes in the reddit post, “Quick summary is that deploying a fix for elf challenge reward not being granted exposed a latent bug in our profile migration code (the code that fixes up players). This caused players to be kicked etc and triggered our waiting room. We fixed the issue and deployed a new backend, however didn’t see recovery in login success. This ended up due to “sticky session” configuration having been lost on our waiting room load balances when moving them to ALBs. This meant that there was a 90% chance of having to requeue after hitting the front of the line. D’oh. This should all be fixed now and we are seeing recovery in numbers / login throughout / waiting room / etc,” The outage came around the time of the holidays. So it did lead to some outrage amongst the players who planned to game in their free time. Thankfully, Epic Games managed to fix the problem within a few hours.   We've deployed a fix addressing the issues encountered earlier today. Login and Game Services have been restored and the elf is back on the shelf. Players that have earned the Take The Elf Emote will now receive it as a gift or immediately after completion. — Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 26, 2018   http://bit.ly/2RkRBKa

Specs comparison: Vivo Y81i vs RealMe U1

The Vivo Y81i is launched in India a few weeks back with a 6.21-inch screen and a MediaTek Helio chipset. The phone has been priced at Rs 8,490 in India. On the other hand, we have the RealMe U1, which is the world’s first smartphone that comes with a MediaTek Helio P70 processor and sports a water drop notch on top of it. Let’s do a quick specs comparison to know which device would be the right buy in terms of specifications.  Let’s do a detailed comparison of the two to know the difference. The RealMe U1 sports a 6.3-inch FHD+ display that sports a dew-drop notch on top of it. On the other hand, the Vivo Y81i sports a slightly smaller 6.22-inch display that offers a resolution of 720 x 1520 pixels.  When it comes to the processor, the RealMe U1 is the world’s first device that is powered by a MediaTek Helio P70 processor, which is coupled with 3GB RAM and 32GB internal memory. On the other hand, the Vivo Y81i is powered by a MediaTek Helio P60 octa-core processor, which is clocked at 2.0GHz. The phone packs 2GB RAM and 16GB internal memory that is expandable to up to 256GB.  As far as the cameras are concerned, if you’re looking for a device with a dual camera setup then the RealMe U1 might be the smartphone you can look forward to. The phone has a dual 13MP + 2MP camera set up at the back along with a 25MP sensor on the front. The Vivo V81i has a 13MP sensor at the back with a 5MP unit on the front.  The RealMe U1 comes with two variants 4GB/64GB and 3GB/32GB, while the Vivo Y81i is available in 2GB/16GB storage model.  The RealMe U1 3GB/32GB variant is available in India for Rs 11,999, while you can get the Vivo Y81i for Rs 8,490. http://bit.ly/2EQAhXH

NASAs spacecrafts New Year plans are literally out of this world

Your New Year plans could be cool, but what NASA’s spacecraft New Horizons has in store is way cooler. The unmanned spacecraft flew past the dwarf planet Pluto for the first time in 2015 and is now about to get a close view of Ultima Thule (2014 MU69), the farthest known object in the Solar System. New Horizons will fly by the irregular-shaped Kuiper Belt object on its optimal path from a distance of 3,500 kilometres. It will be at its closest viewpoint on January 1 at 11:03 PM IST (12:33 PM EST). Ultima Thule orbits the Sun at a distance of 1.6 billion kilometres from Pluto. The twelve-member hazard watch team that remotely monitors and controls New Horizons confirmed on December 15 that the spacecraft was on the right path towards Ultima Thule. The team used the spacecraft’s telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) to look for rings, tiny moons, and other potential dangers along the way. “The spacecraft is now targeted for the optimal flyby, over three times closer than we flew to Pluto,” commented Alan Stern, the team’s Principal Investigator in a news release. “Ultima, here we come!” Yesterday, New Horizons entered Encounter Mode, a sort of safe mode that ensures mission objectives are carried out even if the spacecraft malfunctions, explains CNET. Normally, the spacecraft would call home in case something went wrong. But now, as each signal takes 12 hours to reach Earth, the spacecraft will continue on its own as instructed until the mission is complete. The spacecraft recently captured the highest resolution image of Ultima Thule yet from a distance of 10 million kilometres (seen above). We’ll know more about this mysterious object when New Horizons gets close to it next week. Ultima Thule is officially designated 2014 MU69 but got its nickname earlier this year from the New Horizons team. Ultima Thule is a traditional name for any place that’s beyond the known world. Ultima Thule has an orbital period of over 295 Earth years around the Sun and a low inclination compared to other objects in the Kuiper Belt. It was originally discovered by the New Horizons team on June 26, 2014 using the Hubble Space Telescope. The object supposedly measures 30 kilometres in diameter. Whether it has a ring system or any moons is something we’ll know only when New Horizons performs its flyby on New Years Day. Godspeed, brave little spacecraft! Cover and inline image courtesy: NASA http://bit.ly/2ENjyDL