The Viewsonic X-100 4K+ is a projector brimming with features usually seen on much more expensive ones. It is an LED-based projector of higher lumen range and lifespan compared to conventional lamp-based projectors. Besides, the projector has built-in speakers tuned by Harman Kardon and Aptoide apps store for standalone utility. Priced at Rs 3,85,000, the Viewsonic X-100 4K+ seems to be a good option to recreate the cinema experience at home. Is it? Let’s find out:

Viewsonic X-100 4K+: Build and design

The X-100 4K+ is unlike the usual projectors; it is bulky and quite heavy (close to 7kg). But it is not a usual type, it is a tech-rich projector with standalone utility best suited for ceiling mounted set-up where neither its weight nor size hinders its functioning.

The projector has a motorised lens cover on the front side, and horizontal and vertical lens shift and a zoom ring to adjust the projection size on the top. On the lower right side, there is a power adapter input port and one of the two Harman Kardon-tuned speakers – the other speaker is on the left placed next to the flap covering a keypad for projector controls. The left edge is where an array of connectivity ports are placed. The rear has two huge but silent functioning fans for heat

There is pretty much every connectivity port one would need here, including the HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2, USB 2.0 Type A and Type C, Audio In and Out, RJ45, Ethernet port, ports for speakers, and Wi-Fi input.

The projector comes with a petite looking remote control with backlit keys and a ring on it for image focus correction, besides the usual buttons for navigation, Bluetooth, power, and zoom functions.

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Chinese conglomerate Huawei has reached a patent license agreement with a supplier of Volkswagen Group. According to reports, it was Luxembourg-based Rolling Wireless.

Huawei expects more than 30 million vehicles to be licensed under its patents based on existing license agreements.

The deal covers 4G connectivity in the vehicles.

The agreement includes a license under Huawei’s 4G standard essential patents (SEPs), which covers Volkswagen vehicles equipped with wireless connectivity.

This agreement marks Huawei’s largest licensing deal in the automotive industry, the company said on a statement late on Wednesday.

“As an innovative company, we own a leading patent portfolio for wireless technologies, which creates great value for the automotive industry. We believe this license will benefit worldwide consumers with our advanced technology,” said Song Liuping, Chief Legal Officer of Huawei.

Over the past 20 years, Huawei has entered into more than 100 patent license agreements with major global companies across Europe, the US, Japan, and South Korea.

After facing US sanctions, the company has said it needs to diversify in order to reverse a revenue decline.

In April, the company reported first quarter sales were down 16.5 per cent, largely because Huawei sold off its Honor smartphone brand.

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Homegrown earwear and wearables brand boAt on Wednesday launched an affordable smartwatch called Xtend that offers seven-day battery life, over 50 Watch faces, heart rate, SPO2 and sleep monitoring.

The boAt Xtend is available at an introductory price of Rs 2,999 with a one-year warranty on Amazon and boAt website, the company said in a statement.

The smartwatch comes with built-in Alexa voice assistant.

“We are thrilled to introduce a smartwatch with built-in Alexa which adds a whole new dimension and capabilities to the smartwatch category as whole,” said Aman Gupta, Co-Founder, boAt.

The audio brand in January raised approximately $100 million (over Rs 731 crore) from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a leading global private equity fund, towards ramping up manufacturing and go global.

The significant investment will enable boAt, that has emerged as the leading brand in India’s true wireless stereo (TWS) market, further fortify its leading market position while widening its R&D capabilities and product portfolio.

The company said that boAt XTEND smartwatch comes with onboard sensors and health monitors such as stress monitor, SPo2 monitor, heart-rate monitor, step counter, sleep monitor as well as a daily activity tracker.

The device features a bright LCD display for great outdoor visibility. It sports a 1.69-inch square ‘capacitive display’ for a smooth experience.

Xtend comes in Olive Green, Sandy Cream, Pitch Black and Deep Blue colours.

The smartwatch also comes with notification alerts for calls, texts, alarms, hydration as well as third-party social media apps.

boAt Xtend packs a 300mAh battery to power through for up to a week on a single full charge.

A 5ATM water resistance allows the watch to survive a depth of up to 50 metres for 30 minutes, the company said.

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LG Group, South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate, is apparently looking to beef up its business relationship with Apple, industry insiders said on Tuesday, amid rumours that its electronics affiliate may sell the US tech titan’s products at its retail shops.

LG recently held a special promotion for iPhones, iPads and other Apple products on Lifecare, its online shopping mall for group employees, according to the sources.

This was reportedly the first time that the group offered mobile devices from another smartphone manufacturer for its employee purchase programme, reports Yonhap news agency.

The move came amid growing speculations that LG Electronics may sell Apple products to local consumers at its 400 stores nationwide following its departure from the mobile business.

In April, LG Electronics announced that it will withdraw from the smartphone business by July after years of losses.

Industry insiders said LG Group is looking to boost business ties with Apple for its future growth. The group already has been providing electronics parts, including displays and camera modules, to Apple.

Recently, its electric vehicle (EV) parts joint venture with Magna International Inc., LG Magna e-Powertrain Co., has been linked with Apple’s possible self-driving car development.

LG Uplus, the group’s telecommunications unit, also started to develop an office working system compatible with Apple iOS for employees using iPhones.

Following LG’s exit from the mobile business, Apple has been trying to expand its presence in the South Korean smartphone market that is dominated by its archrival Samsung Electronics.

Apple recently launched a trade-in programme in South Korea to woo consumers with LG smartphones.

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Smartphone brand Xiaomi has announced that it has recorded strong and speedy growth in the premium smartphone segment by capturing a 14 per cent market share in the Rs 20,000-45,000 segment.

According to May 2021 tracker by market research firm Counterpoint, the company captured a 14 per cent market share in the 20K-45K category, thereby emerging as one of the fastest-growing and leading premium smartphone brands.

A strong and clear portfolio of smartphones such as Mi 10i, Mi 11X, and Mi 11X Pro led to the growth of the Mi brand in India, the company said in a statement.

“With Mi, we have focused on bringing breakthrough technologies and setting newer benchmarks for mobile innovation,” said Manu Kumar Jain, Managing Director, Mi India.

“With the launch of Mi 10 and Mi 11 series in the market, we have empowered our users with a premium experience, on the back of the superior design, best in class features and functionality,” Jain added.

Recently, the company announced that its Mi 11X series of devices has witnessed record sales worth over Rs 300 crore in just 45 days of its launch.

Both Mi 11X and Mi 11X Pro feature revolutionary cameras, the latest flagship Snapdragon 870 and 888 series chipsets, powerful Dolby stereo speakers, 120Hz E4 Super AMOLED display and fast charging capabilities that aims to offer a premium smartphone experience.

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Garmin India on Monday two new and advanced GPS smartwatches in its Venu series that comes with stainless steel bezel and comfortable silicone band and packs plethora of health and fitness tools.

The Venu 2 and Venu 2S smartwatches come with 45mm watch case and 40mm watch case, respectively. Venu2 is available for Rs 41,990 while Venu 2S will come for 37,990 on various online and offline channels.

The smartwatches feature more than 25 built-in sport applications with preloaded enhanced high intensity workouts, animated cardio, strength, yoga and Pilates.

“The Venu and Venu SQ have received an impressive response from our customers in India and other parts of the world. To advance the fitness regime of our customers, we have brought in the new Venu 2 and Venu 2S to guide the users with their workouts and drive them towards an active lifestyle,” said Ali Rizvi, Director, Garmin India.

The Venu series offer Corning Gorilla Glass 3 touchscreen with AMOLED display, new Health Snapshot feature providing in-depth report of the workout, enhanced battery life with rapid battery recharge and new battery saver mode.

The latest edition of the Venu series comes with newly built-in Health ‘Snapshot’ feature, enabling the users to log a 2-minute session to record key health stats, including heart rate, heart rate variability, Pulse Ox2, respiration and stress, generating a report via the Garmin Connect app to monitor the statistics, the company said in a statement.

The smartwatches are integrated with wide range of features ranging from respiration tracking, Pulse Ox sensor, body battery energy monitoring, stress tracking, pregnancy and menstrual cycle monitoring, sleep monitoring along with other additional health monitoring metrics to track the users’ fitness goals and progress.

The users can enjoy an enhanced battery life of up to 11 days in smartwatch mode and up to 8 hours in GPS mode on the Venu 2 and 10 days on smartwatch mode and up to 7 hours in GPS mode on Venu 2S and with rapid recharging, the company said.

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South Korean tech giant is all set to launch its upcoming smartphone –Galaxy Z Fold3 and Galaxy Z Flip3 — on August 11, media report says.

The new report claims that at the next Samsung Unpacked event the company will unveil the new smartphones along with a watch.

The event will start at 10 a.m. ET and will be streamed on YouTube. Notably, Samsung has not publicly confirmed these details just yet, citing DigitalDailyNews, 9To5Google reported.

A recent report said that the Galaxy Z Fold3 will feature an under-display camera and support the S-Pen stylus. Its next clamshell foldable Galaxy Z Flip3 is expected to have a bigger outer display.

The Galaxy Z Flip3 is expected to feature a larger external display of 1.83 inches. It has a dual-camera system, which reportedly includes a 12MP main snapper and a 12MP ultrawide snapper.

The inner screen of the Z Flip3 may feature a punch-hole design with a 10MP selfie camera.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 is likely to arrive with a combined battery capacity of 4,275 mAh (2,215 mAh + 2,060 mAh) which may be advertised as 4,400 mAh.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 is rumoured to be powered by the Snapdragon 888 chipset.

Both foldable products are expected to have a lighter weight with a cheaper price than their predecessors.

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By Raphael Satter

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Between 800 and 1,500 businesses around the world have been affected by a ransomware attack centered on U.S. information technology firm Kaseya, its chief executive said on Monday.

Fred Voccola, the Florida-based company’s CEO, said in an interview that it was hard to estimate the precise impact of Friday’s attack because those hit were mainly customers of Kaseya’s customers.

Kaseya is a company which provides software tools to IT outsourcing shops: companies that typically handle back-office work for companies too small or modestly resourced to have their own tech departments.

One of those tools was subverted on Friday, allowing the hackers to paralyze hundreds of businesses on all five continents. Although most of those affected have been small concerns – like dentists’ offices or accountants – the disruption has been felt more keenly in Sweden, where hundreds of supermarkets had to close because their cash registers were inoperative, or New Zealand, where schools and kindergartens were knocked offline.

The hackers who claimed responsibility for the breach have demanded $70 million to restore all the affected businesses’ data, although they have indicated a willingness to temper their demands in private conversations with a cybersecurity expert and with Reuters.

“We are always ready to negotiate,” a representative of the hackers told Reuters earlier Monday. The representative, who spoke via a chat interface on the hackers’ website, didn’t provide their name.

Voccola refused to say whether he was ready to take the hackers up on the offer.

“I can’t comment ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ or ‘maybe’,” he said when asked whether his company would talk to or pay the hackers. “No comment on anything to do with negotiating with terrorists in any way.”

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South Korean electronics maker Samsung on Tuesday launched in India the Galaxy F22 smartphone. The Samsung Galaxy F22 comes in 4GB+64GB and 6GB+128GB configurations priced at Rs 12,499 and Rs 14,499, respectively. It will be available in Denim Blue and Denim Black colours on Samsung Online Store, Flipkart and select retail stores from July 13. As an introductory offer, Samsung is providing Rs 1,000 off to consumers on prepaid transactions on Flipkart. The introductory offer brings down the effective cost of the Galaxy F22’s 4GB+64GB and 6GB+128GB variants to Rs 11,499 and Rs 13,499, respectively.

As for the specifications, the Galaxy F22 sports a 6.4-inch HD+ super AMOLED Infinity-U screen. The screen is touted to attain brightness level of up to 600 nits in the High Brightness Mode (HBM).

The screen is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The Galaxy F22 packs a 6,000mAh battery supported by 25W fast charger. The phone, however, comes with a 15W USB-C fast charger in the box. The The phone is powered by Mediatek Helio G80 system-on-chip, paired with up to 6GB RAM and 128GB on-board storage.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy M32 review: A value play in the company’s budget portfolio

Imaging is covered by a quad-camera system on the rear, featuring a 48-megapixel primary sensor (GM2) based on Samsung’s ISOCELL Plus technology, a 5MP ultra-wide-angle sensor of a 123-degree field of view, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, the phone sports a 13MP camera sensor for selfies, videos and phone unlock mechanism. The Galaxy F22’s camera comes loaded with several camera modes like Hyperlapse, Slow motion, Food Mode, Pro mode and AR zone.

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As smartphone maker OPPO gears up to launch its most anticipated Reno6 smartphone series in the country on July 14, a top executive on Monday said that the upcoming series will prove to be another milestone and a game changer in the premium segment.

According to Tasleem Arif, Vice President and Head, R&D OPPO India, with Reno6 series devices, the company aims at attaining leadership in the premium device category.

“With Reno6 series adopting the latest technology to build upon the series’ unique strengths in superior imaging capabilities and eye-catching design, we are confident that the most-awaited Reno6 series will be a hit with consumers thanks to its fresh, next-gen experience,” Arif told IANS.

Equipped with MediaTek 5G UltraSave power-saving enhancements, the Reno6 series devices are said to be designed with the power-efficient and fully integrated 5G modems that empower users with incredible 5G experiences.

“5G is the revolutionary technology that is speeding up the advent of digitisation with a shift across industries,” Arif said.

“We want to be a part of this important revolution and relentlessly work to present innovative technologies for mankind. Innovating for advance 5G technology is a key focus area for us,” he added.

According to Arif, the India R&D team has worked relentlessly on validating Reno6 series 5G devices as per the operator needs including performing interoperability and compliance tests.

The company’s performance in the first quarter this year has been particularly strong, with data from various research firms showing that OPPO is the world’s fourth-largest smartphone brand.

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