Gears of War 4 Launch Date Revealed. Possible PC Port on Release Day.

Microsoft has announced that the latest entry in its cover-based third-person shooter series, Gears of War 4 has a release date. It launches worldwide on October 11 this year.

"Gears of War 4 marks the beginning of an epic new saga for one of gaming's most celebrated franchises, as a new band of heroes rises to confront a fearsome new threat. Harkening back to the dark and intense roots of the original classic, fans can expect a familiar, yet distinct evolution of gameplay, including brutal and intimate action, a heart-pounding campaign, genre-defining multiplayer and stunning visuals powered by Unreal Engine 4," wrote Adam Fletcher, Director of Community for the game's developer The Coalition on the official Xbox website.

What's interesting is that the post has no mention of platforms, further leading credence to therumours of a possible Windows 10 PC launch much like Quantum Break. Although non-Xbox One owning gamers would hope its a better PC port than Quantum Break or Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, both of which have been poorly received by the PC gaming community. We won't be surprised to see a Gears of War 4 Windows 10 PC announcement at E3 2016.

(Also see: Xbox One Exclusives Gears of War 4, Scalebound Coming to Windows 10 PC: Report)

However Fletcher does mention the dates on which you can play the Gears of War 4 beta.

"Beginning on April 18, fans who've played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Xbox One or Windows 10 will be able to join the beta on Xbox One, which will expand to all Xbox Live Gold members on April 25," the post continues.

Apple iPhone SE teardown reveals manufacturing cost at only Rs 10,500

While Apple prepares for the launch of the iPhone SE in India on April 8, which is likely to sport a price tag of Rs 39,000, research firm IHS have revealed that the manufacturing cost of the device is actually only $160 which translates to around Rs 10,574.

A report by IHS points out that analyst Andrew Rassweiler, who supervised the teardown for the 16GB variant suggested that the version is priced specifically to encourage consumers to opt for the 64GB version when making their buying decision.

“The iPhone SE represents an amalgamation of three iPhone generations, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, rolled into something altogether new,” said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of cost benchmarking services at IHS. “Despite its physical resemblance to the iPhone 5s, the resulting product is far superior. In fact, the only significant trade offs a consumer would make with the iPhone SE against the iPhone 6s is smaller size and lower screen resolution.”

Many parts of the iPhone SE have been recycled from previous devices too. In addition, the display which cost $41 back in 2013, is now for less than half the price at $20. With the iPhone 5S, the display was made by Sharp or JDI, but this time around, LG is Apple’s vendor.

Xiaomi’s toy tablet turns itself into a Transformers robot

Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi in collaboration with Hasbro’s Transformers has crowd-funded a project to create a robotic model called Soundwave.

It basically looks like the Mi Pad 2 that turns itself into a Transformer- like bot. This special edition Mi Pad 2 is a toy made by the company to commemorate its birthday as it turns six years old on April 6, primarily made for Xiaomi fans in China.

“R&D worked really hard to ensure that the colour, details and feel are exactly the same as Mi Pad 2. They were challenged at turning such a slim 7mm tablet into a 3D robot, but they managed to do so with a 30-step folding assembly, said Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra on his Facebook page.

The Mi Pad 2 Transformers edition will only be available in China and starts shipping on May 13 only if the crowd funding goal is achieved. Users be reminded that it’s not a standard working tablet.

The original Mi Pad 2 comes with a 7.9-inch display with a 2048 x 1536 resolution, a 2.24GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor bundled with 2 GB of RAM. The device packs a 6190 mAh battery which the company claims offers 649 hours of standby time and comes with support for fast-charging technology.

In terms of cameras, the tablet sports an 8-megapixel rear camera along with a 5-megapixel front facing camera. Connectivity options on the Mi Pad 2 include a When it Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the latest USB Type C connectivity. However, there is no support for 4G LTE or GPS.

Airtel Expands 4G Mobile Services to 40 Towns in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

Airtel on Tuesday said its high speed 4G services are now available in 40 towns in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Airtel 4G is available to customers across a range of smart devices, including mobile phones, dongles, 4G hotspots and Wi-Fi dongles, the company said in a statement.

Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel for Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, said, "We launched Airtel's first 4G Network in Hyderabad last May and in just 10 months, our 4G presence has spread to 40 major towns in both the States."

Late last month, Airtel announced the commercial launch of its 4G services in Goa. Customers in the above mentioned regions can avail of SIM swap and home delivery.

Commenting on the launch of Airtel 4G in the state, Ashok Ganapathy Hub CEO, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat, Bharti Airtel (India) said, "We at Bharti Airtel are extremely pleased to introduce the superfast 4G services to our customers in Goa. As an increasing number of Indians have shown a preference for consuming data and content over their mobile devices, we want our existing customers to be the first ones to enjoy the 4G experience at 3G prices.

He further added, "While launching Platinum 3G we significantly augmented our network and now have made further investments in building a robust 4G infrastructure here. For us, delivering a compelling experience to our customers is our utmost priority. Additionally, we recently launched"Project Leap", our national network transformation drive to deliver a compelling network experience for our valuable customers".

Microsoft Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL Windows 10 Mobile OS Update Adds New Features

Washington: Microsoft's mobile phone division is certainly not doing well but the company is trying hard to revive the division over time. With the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, the tech giant has played their best card.

Microsoft with the Lumia 950 and 950 XL has come out with strong devices, and this is their attempt to create a 'flagship'-like device for their users. The company has now updated the Windows 10 Mobile OS for their Lumia 950 and 950 XL devices.

The new Windows 10 Mobile OS update for Lumia 950 and 950 XL brings in many new features such as forced HDR update, which permits the users to capture HDR images any time they want without restrictions. The users of the devices can now capture HDR images even in bright-light conditions.

The latest update also features another big update where the battery life has received a significant boost. This update would improve the battery life of the devices, and the Redmond-based firm had been getting a lot of user complains about the poor battery life.

The Redmond-based company has also fixed the Skype bug which had been making problems for Lumia 950 and 950 XL users as the chat and contact images kept disappearing randomly.

Vivo launches V series smartphones, Vivo V3 and V3 Max; price starts at Rs 17,980

The company has targetted both performance and looks in these metallic body smartphones along with providing a powerful configuration. The V3Max smartphone is armed with dual fast charging engines adopted by Qualcomm QC 2.0 international standard, making for a very compatible device. The fingerprint unlocking allows the user to unlock the phone as fast as 0.2 seconds from and 0.5 seconds in sleep mode.

V3 Max smartphone features a 13.97cm (5.5) full HD display with the resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. It comes with 2.5D Corning Gorilla glass and a metal body which gives it elegant and strong appearance and presence.

The newly incorporated screen-split feature allows users to do multitasking without having to switch back and forth. Users can chat and watch videos simultaneously at the same time on one screen.

Xiaomi Mi 5 Available in First India Flash Sale Today

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is hosting a Mi festival on its India website today, where it will offer the Mi 5 on the first flash sale, along with the Redmi Note 3, and its 20000 mAh Mi Power Bank.

The Mi 5 will go for sale on the Mi.com website at 11 am. The premium smartphone costs Rs 24,999 and comes with a 5.15-inch full HD display, latest Snapdragon 820 processor, 3000 mAh battery, Android 6 and a 16 megapixel rear camera with four-axis OIS.

Xiaomi has only brought a single variant of the smartphone in India, what was unveiled as the 'standard edition' in China, featuring 32GB of inbuilt storage and 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM.

The dual-SIM Mi 5 includes a 5.15-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) with curved 3D Ceramic glass, and a pixel density of 428ppi and has Adreno 530 GPU.

The rear camera sports 4-axis OIS (optical image stabilisation) and sapphire glass protection lens. The device supports 4K video recording and includes a 4-UltraPixel front camera, with 2-micron pixels. Both cameras feature an f/2.0 aperture.

Mi 5 measures 144.5x69.2x7.25mm and weighs 129 grams. The handset supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and the company says that the Quick Charge 3.0 is 20 percent faster than its predecessor, the Quick Charge 2.0.

Oppo to start a Rs 100 crore manufacturing unit in Noida

NEW DELHI: Chinese smartphone maker Oppo will set up a local manufacturing unit in India with an investment of Rs 100 crore for the facility in Noida.

The unit, which will have a capacity of 10 million handsets, will become operational in August this year.

"Our Noida facility will become operational in August. With a capacity of 10 million units, the facility will be our own. We are investing Rs 100 crore in the project," Oppo Global VP, MD of International Mobile Business and President India operations Sky Li told .

He added that its present partnership with Foxconn to assemble phone locally will also continue.

At present, Foxconn has production lines at its Chennai factory dedicated for Oppo's smartphone requirements in the country.

Li said the company would manufacture its entire range here but the company "is not looking at India as an export hub at the moment."

The company's decision to locally manufacture smartphones comes at a time when handset makers are tapping into the multi-billion dollar opportunity in India, one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world.

Handset makers like Samsung, Micromax, Xiaomi, Gionee, Lenovo and OnePlus have already set up assembly units in the country.

Besides, Oppo announced its association with ace cricketer Yuvraj Singh as its first sports ambassador for this cricket season.

Oppo is also focusing on the mid and premium handset segment (Rs 15,000-30,000) in India.

It launched its new handset -- F1 Plus -- for Rs 26,990 featuring 16MP front camera, focused on selfie enthusiasts.

The 4G handset has a 5.5-inch display, all-metal unibody, 2GHz MediaTek octa-core processor, 4GB RAM, 64GB memory, 13 MP rear camera and 2,850 mAh battery.

First sale of the F1 Plus will kick off from mid-April across India.

"This is our second device in the photography-focused F series in India after Selfie Expert F1, which created great market acceptance. Camera Phones are always our focus and we plan to bring out the best camera experiences to our consumers," Li said.

Why India may prefer iPhones to Android flagships

Chinese invasion in the Indian smartphone market is making mobiles more and more affordable. With shrinking profits from smartphone business, this has become a big worry for domestic players. However, the bigger issue now lies in convincing people to buy high-end Android smartphones.

The constant price war has forced each brand to somewhat dig its own grave by setting a certain price threshold. This means brands like Micromax, Intex, Xiaomi, LeEco, Coolpad, OnePlus and others will find it difficult to sell models after a certain price point.

After all, it would take a lot of effort for someone like Intex to sell a handset model at or above Rs 20,000 or for Xiaomi to sell something above Rs 30,000. Each brand now has preset a price limit for themselves (knowing or unknowingly) and consumers are forcing them to stick to that.

It is all the more difficult now for brands to have hero models in every price range -something Nokia and Samsung had mastered previously.

Read also: 4 features iPhone SE borrowed from older iPhones

The market dynamics have been successful in making consumers believe that expensive Android smartphone make little sense and offer little additional value, thus the death of flagship Android smartphones. Of course, there is still some traction but the thought of "Why spend Rs 50,000 on a flagship when you can get an equivalent handset for half the price?" has taken over.

Read also: How Samsung is regaining smartphone share in India

Are consumers eager to buy a new Android phone every year, anymore?

Android smartphones get old faster. Shorter product lifespan is obviously good for companies. But, are consumers willing to buy a new Android phone every year? And even if they are, most are slowly cutting down their budgets, as now you get good features in a smartphone at a very reasonable price. Instead of spending Rs 50,000 on a new smartphone every year, the same can be spent over a couple of years on multiple purchases.

Another reason for this can be attributed to the belief that Android smartphones mostly fail to stand the test of time - battery life, device slow down or general wear and tear.

In India, people still take pride in owning a two-year-old iPhone 5S or even flaunt the iPhone 6. But does the same hold true for older Android flagships? In our opinion, not really.

Read also | Microsoft HoloLens: 5 reasons why it is better than other VR headsets

Hardware saturation and Nokia mentality

While more cores, megapixels and memory were enough to sell smartphones in the country half a decade or so ago, it is no longer the case anymore. Instead consumers have already started to question the purpose of having 6GB RAM, 20MP camera and of course, 10-core processors. Hardware is no longer the game changer.

Also, with custom skins, brands have somewhat killed the excitement of upgrading to the latest Android version. The promise of providing timely upgrades, something very few Android players offer, cannot be the single-most important reason to attract consumers.

On the other hand, changing smartphones occasionally is not a trend any longer. The average lifespan of mobiles is around 14 months, people replace handsets for mostly reasons like new hardware, the present handset fails to deliver desired performance or a good buy back scheme to upgrade to new handset come along.

The age of Nokia has instilled in consumers that mobile phones should last for at least three years. It is something people were used to earlier, but not anymore. Slowly they have come to realize that stepping up to the smartphone trend is an expensive hobby and some even considers it as a waste.

With the Nokia-days long gone, people are still hunting for that one smartphone model, which could offer everything with years of lasting. Basically, anything that would remain new for a longer period and work without performance hiccups.

WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption service is legal in India, but it may not remain so for long

WhatsApp introduced end-to-end encryption for all its services today. This means that all user calls, texts, video, images and other files sent can only be viewed by the intended recipient, and no one, not even WhatsApp itself, can access this data. This guarantee of user privacy creates new concerns for the government.

WhatsApp will now find it impossible to comply with government requests for data, since WhatsApp itself will not have the decryption key. In effect, WhatsApp is doing exactly what Apple did in the Apple vs FBI battle; it’s preventing government access to data, but on a much larger scale. While Apple restricted access to users of iPhones only, now practically every user of WhatsApp on any device is protected. 51% of all users of internet messaging services in India use WhatsApp, with a total number of over 70 million users (Source: TRAI’s OTT Consultation Paper, dated March 2015). WhatsApp has now prevented government access to the messages and calls of at least 70 million Indian users.

No encryption requirements are applicable on OTTs like WhatsApp

Telecom service providers and internet service providers, like Airtel and Vodafone, have to obtain a license from the Department of Telecommunications in order to be able to provide such services in India. This license includes several restrictions, including license fees, ensuring emergency services, confidentiality of customer information and requirements for lawful interception, monitoring and the security of the network. These include encryption requirements.

For example, the ‘License Agreement for Provision of Internet Service (Including Internet Telephony)’ for internet service providers (like Reliance and Airtel), permits the usage of up to 40-bit encryption. To employ a higher encryption standard, permission will have to be acquired and a decryption key deposited with the Telecom Authority.

Apps like WhatsApp, Skype and Viber are, however, neither telecom service providers nor internet service providers. These are known as ‘Over-The-Top Services’, or OTTs. Currently, OTTs are not regulated and as such, there are no encryption requirements, nor are there any other requirements in the name of security which these have to comply with.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India came out with an OTT Consultation Paper in 2015. Discussions on the paper are closed, but TRAI is yet to issue regulations on the matter. In the absence of any regulations at present, it’s clear that WhatsApp’s new end-to-end encryption policy is perfectly legal, even though it presents a new dilemma for the government.

Impact of end-to-end encryption on proposed regulatory system

Other countries have adopted various approaches to resolve the issue of OTT services. For example, in France, Skype was made to register as a telecom operator. In Germany, Voice-Over-IP is subject to the same requirements as other telecom services because of the technology neutral approach of its Telecommunications Act. In China, VOIP calls have a separate regulatory system under the head of ‘voice based calls’. These systems will make voice-over-IP subject to the same security requirements as telecom providers. For the most part however, OTT services are unregulated abroad as well.

In a detailed discussion on the issue in TRAI’s OTT Consultation Paper, TRAI notes that OTT services circumvent all regulatory requirements by providing services which are otherwise available only through a license. It has suggested the classification of OTT services either as a communication service provider or an application service provider, and to impose similar regulatory requirements as on telecom service providers.

The proposed licensing requirements include enabling ‘lawful interception’. It can be assumed that the provisions will be along the lines of those imposed on telecom regulatory requirements. Given that a 40-bit encryption system is a much lower standard than that used by WhatsApp and also considering that WhatsApp doesn’t even possess the decryption key for deposition with the relevant authority, it remains to be seen how the government will gain access to WhatsApp messages.

Liability of WhatsApp to comply with decryption directions under IT Act

WhatsApp, being an intermediary, is expected to comply with directions to intercept, monitor and decrypt information issued under Section 69 of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Complying with such a direction will now be impossible for WhatsApp in view of its end-to-end encryption. Even before the introduction of this, since WhatsApp is not a company based in India, it may have been able to refuse to comply with such directions. In fact, compliance by such companies in regard to data requests from the Indian government has been reported to be very low.

India’s now withdrawn draft encryption policy took the first step towards overcoming these problems and obtaining access. It required service providers, from both India and abroad, which are using encryption technology, to enter into agreements with India in order to be able to provide such services. One essential requirement of these agreements was to comply with data requests as and when they’re made by the government. This will include any interception, monitoring and decryption requests made under Section 69 of the IT Act. Though it was later clarified that WhatsApp is not within the purview of this policy, this indicates the route that may be taken by the government to obtain access. If WhatsApp refuses to comply with such a regime, that would make WhatsApp illegal in India.

End-to-end encryption is not without its drawbacks. The high, unbreachable level of security and privacy available is in favour of users and against governments. It will make such systems the favorite for illegal activities as well. For example, tracing voice calls made by terrorists using Voice-Over-IP is extremely difficult because of its routing over fake networks. The issue raised in the Apple vs FBI case was also the same, whether an individual user’s privacy can be compromised in favour of the larger public interest. A balance between the two is needed, maintaining user privacy and allowing interception for lawful purposes is required.