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A Russian man has pleaded not guilty to charges he hacked three U.S. technology companies, potentially compromising personal details of more than 100 million users, including on LinkedIn, after being extradited from the Czech Republic. Yevgeniy Nikulin, 30, of Moscow, entered his plea in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, after having fought his extradition following his 2016 arrest in Prague. His case had turned into a battle over whether he should be sent to the United States or Russia, where a Moscow court had in November 2016 issued an arrest warrant for his alleged theft seven years earlier of $3,450 via a site called Webmoney. The U.S. Department of Justice accused Nikulin of illegally accessing computers belonging to US-based social media firms LinkedIn, Dropbox and Formspring in 2012, including by using the credentials of LinkedIn and Formspring employees. LinkedIn, now owned by Microsoft, has said the case was related to a breach that might have compromised informa...

Jio Prime subscription will be provided for another year on complimentary basis to the customers who have already paid the Rs. 99 membership fee before March 31, 2018. This essentially means any Jio user who has paid for Prime does not have to buy it again, and will receive the benefits associated with it free of cost. However, those who join the Jio network and opt for Prime after April 1 will have to pay Rs. 99 as the membership cost. As before, the Prime benefits will be provided to customers for a period of 12 months, i.e. March 2019. However, existing users will have to go through an opt-in process to avail the free service for another year. The ongoing Jio Prime subscription ends for all customers tomorrow, March 31, regardless of whether they purchased it in March or August or January. All existing Prime users are eligible to avail the complimentary membership for 12 months. Users will find the option to avail the service for another year in the MyJio app. And as mentioned pre...

Reliance Jio has topped the 4G download speed chart for the month of February 2018, data revealed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) showed. The report – generated by TRAI’s MySpeed app – shows Airtel in second place, Vodafone in third, and Idea in the fourth. Jio’s download speeds in February were slightly higher than its performance in January, but significantly lower than its record showing in December, and slightly lower than its results in November. All three other operators had marginally lower speeds in February when compared with January, making Jio the only operator to see a rise during the month. 4G download speeds in India As we mentioned, Reliance Jio topped the list with 21.3Mbps download speeds, while Airtel clocked 8.8Mbps download speeds, Vodafone clocked 7.2Mbps download speeds, and Idea Cellular clocked 6.8 Mbps download speeds. As we mentioned, Jio saw a slight jump over its 19.4Mbps download speeds in January, but the rest saw drops – Airtel had...

With Far Cry 5 finally available for PC gamers the world over on Steam, and also Ubisoft’s own storefront Uplay, we took a look at what the PC version has to offer. The Far Cry series has had a mixed response on PC, with the very first game in the series (developed by Crytek) being a graphical showcase back in the day. Some later entries such as Far Cry 4 were far from optimised and prone to crashes and stutter at launch. Far Cry Primal fared a bit better in comparison but was just as taxing in its hardware requirements. All of this made us take Ubisoft’s claims of taking the PC version seriously with a gallon of salt. Far Cry 5 PC requirements Announced back in January, Far Cry 5’s PC specifications seem to be a lot more welcoming with support for video cards such as the GeForce GTX 670 dating back to 2012. That being said, you’ll need at least an Intel Core i5 class processor to get the game running, and 8GB RAM too. Far Cry 5 PC requirements (minimum) OS: Windows 7 SP1, Window...

Apple on Tuesday at its education-focused event in Chicago launched a new entry-level 9.7-inch iPad, what is being called the iPad (2018). Priced the same as the previous budget model, it also supports the Apple Pencil stylus that was first introduced with the iPad Pro in 2015. The move by Apple is the Cupertino giant’s attempt to take on Google and its massive presence in the US education market, which is dominated by Chromebooks as well as budget Windows laptops. Alongside the launch of the iPad (2018), the company launched new versions of its Keynote, Numbers, and Pages apps, part of its iWork productivity suite, all of which now support the Apple Pencil. At the same event, Apple also announced education programmes, such as the Everyone Can Create curriculum. Let’s get back to the iPad (2018). In the US, the new iPad is priced starting at $299 (roughly Rs. 19,400) for schools, and $329 (roughly Rs. 21,300) for consumers. This gives it the same price as the previous 9.7-inch iPad, ...

Welcome back to our weekly recap of news you can use from the world of tech. This week, one of the highlights was the India launch of the Vivo V9, priced at Rs. 22,990. The phone was first launched in Thailand and the Philippines, and then launched in India a day later. The Vivo V9 is the latest in a line of Android phones that have a notch on an otherwise bezel-less display, similar to the iPhone X. The Vivo V9 is being sold in just one configuration in India, packing a 24-megapixel front camera, 4GB RAM, and 64GB internal storage. It has a 6.3-inch display with a 19:9 aspect ratio, and dual cameras on the back with a primary 16-megapixel sensor and a secondary 5-megapixel sensor. It also has a 3260mAh battery. Vivo is the first Android phone manufacturer to bring a phone with notch to India, but Asus has already unveiled phones like ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 5z, which will launch in India at some point. A similar selfie smartphone is set to launch on Monday – the Oppo F7 – on...

The Oppo F7 India launch event is set for Monday, March 26, and will see the launch of yet another smartphone with design similar to iPhone X, down to the notch. Some features and specifications of the new Oppo F7 have already been revealed officially in a press note, but there’s a lot more that recent leaks have given away. Of course, the Oppo F7 price in India and release date remain a mystery so far, which will be announced at the launch event. For those unaware, Oppo’s sister compare Vivo launched the V9 smartphone just a day ago, featuring a notch and a similar design. Oppo F7 specifications Oppo F7 will have a 6.2-inch full-HD+ (1080×2280 pixels) Super Full Screen display panel with aspect ratio of 19:9 and 89.09 percent screen-to-body ratio. A recent leak says the smartphone will be powered by the oct-core MediaTel Helio P60 chip (four Cortex A73 cores at 2GHz and four Cortex A53 cores at 2GHz). It is said to have the Mali-G72MP3 GPU and 6GB of RAM. For optics, the smartphone...

Epic Games’ Fortnite may have just launched on iOS this month but it appears to have surpassed battle royale sensation PUBG handily even before that. According to a recent report, Fortnite has made more money than PUBG on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, surpassing PUBG Corp’s game in terms of revenue from February of this year. Since this is from February, information on either game’s performance on mobile is not included. Though it’s unlikely if that would make a difference since PUBG Mobile does not have micro-transactions enabled just yet. As per gaming intelligence firm SuperData Research in a post titled ‘Fortnite is eating PUBG’s lunch’, Fortnite revenue passed PUBG by $23 million (approximately Rs. 149 crore) with a total of $126 million (roughly Rs. 818 crore). Till then PUBG had earned $103 million (around Rs. 669 crore). This isn’t all. Even in terms of viewership Fortnite has taken the lead. The colourful, cartoony shooter hit a total of 14 million unique viewers on Twitch vers...

Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft has revealed that it will be opening a new studio in India. The company has selected the upscale Powai neighbourhood in Mumbai as the location for its second India studio, the first being Ubisoft Pune. The Ubisoft Mumbai studio will participate in AAA game development and live operations for Ubisoft’s existing games. Ubisoft Mumbai will report directly to Jean-Philippe Pieuchot, Managing Director of the Pune studio. The Ubisoft Mumbai team will work closely with Ubisoft Pune, collaborating on the development of Ubisoft’s AAA console games. Several senior team members from Pune will also join the new studio in Mumbai to build the core team and help new recruits to ramp up quickly. Ubisoft Mumbai opens its doors in June. “This year marks the tenth anniversary of Ubisoft’s presence in India. Our commitment to India is now strengthened by the new expansions in Mumbai. Mumbai being one of the biggest cities in the world, the opening of a new studio here...

At the Game Developers Conference 2018 (GDC 2018) Microsoft and Nvidia announced initiatives to ensure upcoming games are as true to reality as they can be with a technique known as ray tracing. Ray tracing is a method of generating an image with a computer by ‘tracing’ the path of light as pixels and simulating its encounters with virtual objects. What this means is Ray tracing calculates what a pixel would look like if a virtual world had real light. This technique preserves the 3D world and visual effects like shadows, reflections and indirect lighting are a natural consequence of the raytracing algorithm, not special effects, leading to visuals that are closer to reality. Microsoft’s implementation of this is called DXR or DirectX Raytracing while Nvidia’s method, based on DXR is called Nvidia RTX.   “Today, we are introducing a feature to DirectX 12 that will bridge the gap between the rasterization techniques employed by games today, and the full 3D effects of tomorr...

Amazon.com is making a push for merchants on its website to sell goods into other countries, setting the stage for greater competition with rival marketplaces run by eBay and potentially Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. More than a quarter of all revenue for sellers on Amazon globally was from cross-border transactions in 2017, up more than 50 percent from the year prior, Amazon Vice President Eric Broussard said in an interview, ahead of his Tuesday speech at the ShopTalk conference in Las Vegas. That amounts to between $50 billion and $75 billion (roughly Rs. 3.26 and 4.9 lakh crores) for merchants selling to customers in another country, based on analysts’ estimates for Amazon’s total gross merchandise sales. Amazon does not disclose the figure. The cross-border increase – outpacing Amazon’s 31 percent rise in overall net sales – represents a massive opportunity for the world’s largest online retailer. That is why Amazon has encouraged merchants to list ever-more products on ...

The Asus ZenBook Flip S UX370UA convertible laptop with ultra-thin and lightweight design has been launched in the Indian market. Priced at Rs. 1,30,990, the new ZenBook Flip S UX370UA laptop will be available at retail outlets across the country. It comes with Gen 8 Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB LPDDR3 RAM, weighs 1.1kg, and measures 11.2mm in thickness. The premium Asus laptop comes in metal finish and the company claims it is 50 percent stronger than standard aluminium alloy. The new Asus ZenBook Flip S UX370UA laptop has a 13.3-inch anti-glare, touchscreen display with full-HD (1920×1080 pixels) resolution and 300 nits brightness. This Windows 10 laptop has 1.8GHz Intel Core i7-8550 processor (up to 4GHz), Intel UHD Graphics GPU, as well as 512GB SSD. There’s a VGA camera for video calls, fingerprint sensor, and a 2-cell Li-ion battery that delivers up to 11 hours of battery life. Connectivity suite of the new model consists of USB-Type C 3.1, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.1 (Dual Ba...

Welcome back to our weekly news recap. One of the highlights this week was the launch of the Redmi 5 in India. Xiaomi has launched three variants of its latest smartphone, starting at Rs. 7,999 for the 2GB RAM/ 16GB storage variant. The 3GB/ 32GB variant of the Redmi 5 is priced in India at Rs. 8,999, and the 4GB/ 64GB variant will be available at Rs. 10,999. Launch offers include a Rs. 2,200 cashback for Reliance Jio, as well as a 5 percent discount on Amazon India and Mi.com for SBI credit cards holders. The Redmi 5 has an 18:9 aspect ratio 5.7-inch HD+ display, is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 450 SoC, and it has a 12-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front camera, and a 3300mAh battery. It measures up well to other mid-range phones from the company on paper, although our detailed review of the Redmi 5 will be coming soon, so stay tuned to Gadgets 360 for that. With the launch of the Redmi 5, the company also announced a price cut for the Xiaomi Redmi 4. ...

Apple’s lineup of MacBook laptops is likely to show better year-over-year (YoY) growth in shipments in 2018 – between 13-16 percent – which will be better growth than the company’s iPad and even iPhone lineups will see in the same period, a new report by Taiwan-based market research firm KGI Securities said. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo – arguably the most trusted Apple analyst globally – is positive on the outlook for Apple MacBook, which is expected to see the best YoY shipments growth among Apple’s (US) main product lines in 2018. In comparison, Kuo says iPhone shipments are expected to grow just 4-6 percent and iPad shipments 7-10 percent, 9to5Mac reports. Kuo also reiterated his prediction of a new more-affordable MacBook Air in the pipeline for release in Q2 this year. A separate report by Digitimes recently claimed Apple is also working on a new entry-level MacBook, apart from a refresh to its entry-level iPad and top-end iPad Pro lineups. Apple this week announced ...

Redmi 5 has been launched in India, the final piece of Xiaomi’s popular affordable smartphone range. Launched last year in China, the Redmi 5 comes with an overhauled design compared to its predecessor, a faster processor, selfie flash, and — once again — a competitive price tag. It will be up for grabs starting next week, in weekly flash sales. We take a closer look at the key design elements of the new Redmi 5. Redmi is a mass market smartphone aimed at the affordable segment of the Indian mobile phone industry. It is positioned between its siblings Redmi 5A and Redmi Note 5, and competes directly with the Redmi Y1 in pricing and features. The new Redmi 5 has a 5.7-inch HD+ (720×1440 pixel) display with 18:9 aspect ratio. Its bezel-less design allows the handset to pack a much larger display panel in a body roughly the same size as the predecessor. It runs on Android Nougat-based MIUI 9 customer software, and keeping everything running is the 1.6GHz octa-core Snapdragon 450 So...

We used the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Samsung Galaxy S9+ for a week to find out whether it pushes the boundaries in terms of performance or if it’s a conservative upgrade with not much better than the S8. Deputy reviews editor Roydon Cerejo joins host Pranay Parab to talk about the smartphone. We begin the episode by sharing our first impressions of the smartphone and we talk about the Samsung Galaxy S9’s design and build, iris scanner, software tweaks, headphone jack, and Bixby. Then we talk about the biggest talking point from Samsung Galaxy S9’s launch event – the camera. We discuss the hardware changes Samsung has made to the camera, performance for photos and videos, and the rather fun super slow-mo videos. We talk about how each of these elements is better or worse than the iPhone X and the Pixel 2. We then discuss the battery life of the two Samsung flagship phones and whether it fares well under heavy use. We also compare the battery life of the S9 with that o...

Micromax Bharat 5 Pro was launched in India on Wednesday, in a move that appears to be aimed to take on Xiaomi’s Redmi 5 launch that happened on the same day. The two phones share the same price – specifically, the base model of the Redmi 5. The biggest highlight of the Bharat 5 Pro is its 5000mAh battery, complete with a reverse charging feature that lets the smartphone be used as a power bank. Other highlights include a face unlock feature, and an LED flash module for the front camera. Micromax Bharat 5 Pro price in India The Micromax Bharat 5 Pro price in India has been set at Rs. 7,999, which as we mentioned is the same price as the base model of the Redmi 5. Notably, the Redmi 5’s base model features just 2GB of RAM and 16GB of inbuilt storage, which stands in stark contrast to the Bharat 5 Pro’s 3GB RAM and 32GB storage offering. Micromax Bharat 5 Pro specifications The dual-SIM Micromax Bharat 5 Pro runs Android Nougat. It sports a 5.2-inch HD (720×1280 pixels) display, an...

If you don’t have a voter identity card, you aren’t eligible to cast your vote in India. You need to have a voter ID card and your name should be present on the voter list. It’s quite easy to get a voter ID card in India even if the process takes a bit of time – you can even apply for one online. Before you do that, you’ll need a few documents. How to Check if Your Name Is on the Voter List in India Documents required to get a voter ID in India To get a voter identity card, you need two types of documents, which you can scan and upload. These are as follows. One age proof document (such as the ones listed below): Birth certificate issued by municipal authorities or district office of the Registrar of Births & Deaths or Baptism certificate Birth certificate from the school (Government / Recognised) last attended by the applicant or any other recognised educational institution If a person in class 10 or more pass, he should give a copy of the marksheet of class 10, if it co...

Fornite Battle Royale developer Epic will support cross-platform play between Xbox One, PC, iOS and Android. The news was revealed during Microsoft’s debut Inside Xbox broadcast on Saturday, March 10. Last week, the developer announced that PS4, PC, iOS and Android users will be able to play the same version of the game together. Thanks to Sony and Microsoft’s ongoing feud with regards to cross-platform play, PS4 and Xbox One owners will not be able to play Fornite Battle Royale together. “Contrary to what may have been implied, Microsoft has long been a leading voice in supporting cross-platform play, connecting players across PC, mobile and all consoles. We’ve been working together with them over the last several months to make this possible, and will bring this functionality to Fortnite players on Xbox right along with other platforms,” a post on Epic’s blog announcing Xbox cross-platform play for Fortnite said. That tone is interesting to say the least, given that Epic Games co-...

After launching its 55-inch, 4K and HDR compatible Mi TV 4 in India in February, Xiaomi this week launched two new televisions, the Mi TV 4A 32-inch and 43-inch models. These are smaller, and also run at lower resolutions – the 43-inch model has a 1080p display, while the 32-inch television only has a 720p display. The new Mi TV 4A models sport the same PatchWall UI as the 55-inch TV, which features integration with content from set top boxes. The 43-inch Mi TV 4A price in India has been set at Rs. 22,999 at launch, while the 32-inch model is priced at Rs. 13,999. The two will go on sale from March 13, and will be available on Mi.com, Flipkart, and Mi Home stores. The Mi TV 4A models are powered by an Amlogic quad-core SoC that’s coupled with 1GB of RAM. The TVs come with 8GB of internal storage.   Only the top-end Mi TV4 supports HDR, but the smaller Mi TV4a televisions have a better response rate, which will matter to gamers. The 55-inch TV also comes wit...