Monday, February 24, 2020

iQOO 3 to be launched in India today: Live stream, specs and more

The Vivo sub-brand iQOO is all set to launch its first smartphone in India today. The handset is teased to come equipped with a quad rear camera and feature a punch-hole display. The brand first debuted in China last year. However, it is entering as a separate legal entity. The iQOO 3 launch will be live-streamed through iQoo India's social media channels. It will begin at 12:30 PM. You can also watch the live-stream below:

iQOO 3 launch live-stream

 

iQOO 3 expected specifications

iQOO has said that it will launch both 4G and 5G variants of the smartphone in India. Both of them are confirmed to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC. The iQOO 3 is rumoured to come with a ‘Polar View Display' with a Super AMOLED panel. It is teaser to feature LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 storage. The smartphone is also tipped to have artificial intelligence (AI) based eye-tracking technology. 

The iQOO 3 will sport a 48MP primary camera sensor. It was also leaked in a Geekbench listing, which suggested at least 12GB of RAM. The handset could pack a 4410mAh battery and come with Android 10 out of the box with a new interface on top.

iQOO 3 price in India (expected)

The iQOO 3 price in India is said to start at Rs 35,000 for the 4G variant. The 5G model is tipped to cost above Rs 40,000. It is expected to go on sale through offline channels alongside its online available teased via Flipkart.

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The Open Cybersecurity Alliance introduces an open source messaging framework, OpenDXL Ontology, to create a common language between cybersecurity tools (Charlie Osborne/ZDNet)

Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
The Open Cybersecurity Alliance introduces an open source messaging framework, OpenDXL Ontology, to create a common language between cybersecurity tools  —  OpenDXL Ontology is designed for data and command sharing between cybersecurity software.  —  A new language framework designed …



Expedia is laying off ~3,000 employees, 12% of its workforce, says it has been "pursuing growth in an unhealthy and undisciplined way" in email to employees (Taylor Soper/GeekWire)

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Expedia is laying off ~3,000 employees, 12% of its workforce, says it has been “pursuing growth in an unhealthy and undisciplined way” in email to employees  —  Expedia Group is laying off 12 percent of its workforce, about 3,000 employees, in an effort to “streamline and focus” …



Intuit to buy personal finances rival Credit Karma

Intuit on Monday announced a deal to buy personal finances rival Credit Karma for $7 billion in cash and stock. https://ift.tt/390jSeA https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

We would see a very different banking sector in years to come: RBI governor

Banks would continue to be in a position of primacy in finance with them adopting technologies, RBI chief said. https://ift.tt/2TamJLy https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Mirantis co-founder Boris Renski leaves his role as CMO to launch FreedomFi, a startup open-sourcing 4G LTE and 5G on newly opened 3.5 GHz band for companies (Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols/ZDNet)

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNet:
Mirantis co-founder Boris Renski leaves his role as CMO to launch FreedomFi, a startup open-sourcing 4G LTE and 5G on newly opened 3.5 GHz band for companies  —  Boris Renski, co-founder of OpenStack and Kubernetes power Mirantis, is turning his attention to open-sourcing 4G LTE and 5G …



Gaana tops audio streaming charts with 30% share: Report

Gaana was ahead of competitors including JioSaavn (24%), Wynk and Spotify (15% each), and Google Play Music (10%), in the music streaming space last month https://ift.tt/3a7PyiB https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

India's 1st Aadhaar authenticated farmers' database likely in June

The government will launch first of its kind Aadhaar-authenticated digital data base of farmers in June, agriculture secretary Sanjay Agrawal told ET. https://ift.tt/3a138E9 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Samsung Galaxy M31 Launching in India Today: How to Watch Live Stream

Samsung Galaxy M31 is slated to launch in India today. The smartphone will feature a Super AMOLED display, a 6,000mAh battery a quad-camera setup at the back. https://ift.tt/2PlJOtg

iQoo 3 Set to Launch in India Today: How to Watch Live Stream

iQoo 3 launch in India will be live streamed through iQoo India's social media channels. The new iQoo smartphone will come with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC. https://ift.tt/2VkUWuk

Poco X2 Set to Go on Sale Today at 12 Noon via Flipkart in India

Poco X2 Smartphone to go on sale today at 12 pm on Flipkart. The base Poco X2 variant costs at Rs. 15,999 and the top model costs Rs. 19,999. https://ift.tt/37RwF1z

Assange extradition is a politically motivated ‘abuse of power', court hears

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Revolut raises $500 million at a $5.5 billion valuation

Fintech startup Revolut is raising a large Series D round of funding. TCV is leading the $500 million round, valuing the company at $5.5 billion. Over the past few years, Revolut has raised $836 million in total.

Some existing investors are also participating in today’s funding round, but Revolut isn’t sharing names. Previous investors include DST Global, Index Ventures, Balderton Capital and many others.

If you’re not familiar with Revolut, the company is building a financial service to replace traditional bank accounts. You can open an account from an app in just a few minutes. You can then receive, send and spend money from the app or using a debit card.

On top of that, Revolut has added a ton of features that it has built in-house or through partnerships. You can insure your phone, get a travel medical insurance package, buy cryptocurrencies, buy shares, donate to charities, save money and more.

Revolut currently has more than 10 million customers, mostly in Europe and the U.K. The company doesn’t share specific numbers when it comes to transaction volume and monthly active customers, but here are some percentage-based metrics:

  • The total number of users has grown by 169% in 2019.
  • Daily active customers grew by 380% in 2019.
  • Revenue grew by 354% in 2018 (yes, 2018).
  • Revenue from premium subscription plans (Revolut Premium and Revolut Metal) have grown by 154% in 2019.

With the new influx of cash, the company says that it’ll focus on improving its product for existing users as well as revenue. It’s all about making Revolut more useful and stickier going forward.

In particular, you can expect new lending services for both retail customers as well as companies using Revolut for Business. While Revolut provides a ton of services in the U.K., customers in other markets don’t have the same feature set. For instance, Revolut recently launched savings vaults in the U.K. — customers in other markets will be able to open savings sub-accounts in the future, as well.

Other than that, Revolut wants to double down on the core features. The company will improve its two subscription tiers (Premium and Metal) and improve banking operations across Europe — you can expect full bank accounts in Europe in the future.

There are currently 2,000 people working for Revolut. “We’re on a mission to build a global financial platform — a single app where our customers can manage all of their daily finances, and this investment demonstrates investor confidence in our business model. Going forward, our focus is on rolling-out banking operations in Europe, increasing the number of people who use Revolut as their daily account, and striving towards profitability,” Revolut co-founder and CEO Nik Storonsky said in the release.

Revolut is currently live in the U.K., Europe, Singapore and Australia (in beta). While the company has announced plans to expand to a handful of countries, the main focus is on launching in the U.S. and Japan in the coming months.

Removing a GPS tracking device from your car isn’t theft, court rules

A woman in judicial robes pontificates.

Enlarge / Indiana Chief Justice Loretta Rush. (credit: Indiana Supreme Court)

An Indiana man may beat a drug prosecution after the state's highest court threw out a search warrant against him late last week. The search warrant was based on the idea that the man had "stolen" a GPS tracking device belonging to the government. But Indiana's Supreme Court concluded that he'd done no such thing—and the cops should have known it.

Last November, we wrote about the case of Derek Heuring, an Indiana man the Warrick County Sheriff's Office suspected of selling meth. Authorities got a warrant to put a GPS tracker on Heuring's car, getting a stream of data on his location for six days. But then the data stopped.

Officers suspected Heuring had discovered and removed the tracking device. After waiting for a few more days, they got a warrant to search his home and a barn belonging to his father. They argued the disappearance of the tracking device was evidence that Heuring had stolen it.

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Revolut, a UK-based digital bank and payments company, raises $500M led by TCV at a $5.5B valuation, 3x its value from Apr. 2018, bringing total raised to $836M (Ryan Browne/CNBC)

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Revolut, a UK-based digital bank and payments company, raises $500M led by TCV at a $5.5B valuation, 3x its value from Apr. 2018, bringing total raised to $836M  —  - Revolut has raised $500 million in a funding round led by TCV, an early investor in Facebook and Netflix.



Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry anti-US views are taking root worldwide (New York Times)

New York Times : Sources: the US State Department ordered embassies to push back against foreign influence campaigns, as officials worry ...