Realme XT review: Impresses with camera, comes close to be a game changer

Realme has been on a launching spree, especially in the budget and midrange smartphone category. Last month, it launched Realme 5 and Realme 5 Pro with quad cameras. It’s new product is called Realme XT, which has has the first 64MP camera in smartphones.

Here is our review of the device:

Design: Realme has shed polycarbonate back for a glass body (Corning Gorilla Glass 5) to improve its looks and avoid fingerprints, too. The quad camera setup sits on the left and a metal frame around it highlights it well. The phone features a 6.4-inch full-screen AMOLED display with 16-megapixel camera housed under dew-drop notch. The bezels on the sides are minimal but the bottom bezel is slightly thick. There is an in-display optical fingerprint scanner.

The speaker grille, USB-C port, microphone and headphone jack sits on the bottom. The SIM tray and the volume buttons are on the left while the right of the phone has the power button. The buttons are accessible to fingers and make one-handed operation a bit easy.

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Smartphone firms storm smart TV market, thanks to low data tariffs

Leading smartphone brands such as Xiaomi, Micromax, Redmi (a sub-brand Xiaomi) and OnePlus are set to disrupt the smart television space, which has so far been dominated by electronics giants Sony, LG, Samsung and Panasonic. Internet-enabled smart TVs, which are a relatively new segment in India, are expected to see a major boost on the back of lower data tariffs, which have resulted in a massive uptick in online video consumption.

While Xiaomi is already present in this space, its sub-brand Redmi, whose smartphones are quite popular in India, is expected to launch smart TVs soon. Given the value it offers for its price point in the smartphone space, Mi TVs are also likely to be available at competitive prices.

This week, OnePlus, the maker of the hugely popular OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T handsets, too announced that it would come out with smart TVs in September. The Chinese phone-maker is expected to woo consumers with smart TVs that are as aggressively priced as its feature-rich phones. Read Complete Article

Under TPV’s banner, Philips eyes spot among top 5 Indian TV producers

Taiwan-based TPV Technology is eyeing a slot amongst the top five television producers in India after it relaunched the Philips brand towards the end of last year.

Sony, along with Samsung and LG, make up 75 per cent of the market with Panasonic and other brands comprise the remaining market share. TPV, which will have its first year of full operations after relaunching the Philips brand, is aiming for a 8-10 per cent market share by the end of 2020.

Under an agreement, TPV has global licensing rights to manufacture and sell Philips branded TV and audio, while Philips receives royalty. Back in 2012, Philips and TPV Technology formed TP Vision where Philips had a 30 per cent stake and the rest was owned by TPV. It had licensing rights to develop, manufacture and market Philips branded TV sets in Europe, Russia, Middle East, Latin America and selected countries in Asia-Pacific. Later, in 2014, Philips sold its stake to TPV. However, in India, the agreement was inked last year.

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Emmy 2019: Game of Thrones breaks ‘NYPD Blue’ record with 32 nominations

The divisive final season of “Game of Thrones” smashed the record for most Primetime Emmy nominations by a drama series in a single year, earning a whopping 32 nods Tuesday.

HBO’s fantasy epic enraged fans with its bumpy conclusion but still trounced the competition to strengthen its iron grip on the small-screen equivalent of the Oscars.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — Amazon’s story of a 1950s housewife-turned-stand up comic — was a distant second on 20 nominations.

“Thrones” is the most decorated fictional show in the awards’ seven-decade history, and now has 161 nominations overall — including 47 wins.

ALSO READ: The science of Game of Thrones

“For those who will be adding 2019 to their long list of nominations and or wins from other years — it never gets old!” said Television Academy chairman and CEO Frank Scherma.

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Amazon faces boycott call for selling toilet seats with Hindu gods’ images

Amazon.com faced a social media backlash in India on Thursday after toilet seat covers and other items with images of Hindu gods were spotted on the US retailer’s website, making #BoycottAmazon the country’s top trending topic on Twitter.

Thousands of Twitter users backed the call for the boycott, with some tagging Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and urging her to take action against the world’s biggest online retailer.

Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The episode is reminiscent of an incident in 2017 when New Delhi took the Seattle, Washington-based company to task after its Canadian website was spotted selling doormats resembling India’s flag.

Swaraj at the time threatened to rescind visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from its site.Reuters found several listings of toilet seat covers, yoga mats, sneakers, rugs and other items depicting Hindu gods, or sacred Hindu symbols, on Amazon’s US website.

Some of the items were no longer available for purchase, suggesting that Amazon may have been withdrawing some of the items, as it did in 2017. Read Complete Article