HTC, CRY comes together with initiative 'Aarzoo: ek wish har Arzoo poori karne ki' to improve quality education access for girls

Sonal (Name Changed) is an activist and she is only 12 years old. She is a member of the "Little star children's group" from Shahbad dairy that works towards educating children on protecting themselves against abuse. Like the other members of the group, she has been working with other children from the basti who are yet not associated with the children group.

She is a part of Aarzoo – a movement, a promise to fulfill dreams of countless young girls from the lower income group families by facilitating guidance and resources to supplement their dedication and enthusiasm. In association with 'CRY - Child Rights and You', and as a part of its corporate social initiative, HTC Corporation, a leading innovator in mobile and virtual reality technology, has launched the initiative ‘Aarzoo: ek wish har Aarzoo poori karne ki’’ in India.

The initiative brings together HTC and CRY in an effort to create education and basic training opportunities for the girl child from the under privileged sections of our society. As a part of this initiative, beginning February 2017, HTC will, for a period of six months, contribute part of consumer sales proceeds towards delivering an on-ground impact on girl child education for 1500 girls through CRY.

‘Aarzoo’ aims to bring positive changes in the lives of the under-privileged girls by giving them the opportunity to learn whilst working towards recognizing, promoting and protecting their rights. In order to build mass reach and awareness and establish connect it will involve the use of Digital consumer connect campaigns as well as on ground activation via events and activities. HTC employees will also join the drive by donating their time towards the cause – volunteer for CRY. The initiative will culminate with a large children festival in Delhi.

Speaking on the association, Mr. Faisal Siddiqui, President-South Asia, HTC said, “According to DHS data around the world, female literacy rates are improving but India ranks 38th among the 51 developing countries for which comparable data is available. Indonesia, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Tanzania — all rank higher than India. We firmly believe that education is the birthright of every child, especially girls as their education and awareness helps build a better and progressive society. We are pleased to associate with a reputable organization like CRY, which has been dedicatedly working towards providing a better childhood to children to take a step forward towards fulfilling this vision of ours. I would like to reiterate our commitment towards providing quality education and enable better prospects for the girl child in the country."

                       

Welcoming this initiative, Ms Soha Moitra, Regional Director- North, Child Rights and You (CRY) said, “Education is a powerful tool with which we can empower the girl child. It not only helps them to become confident individuals but also goes a long way in fighting several social evils and issues like child marriage, abuse, maternal and child mortality, malnutrition etc. Educating a girl child is the first step towards transforming society and we are extremely glad that HTC is championing this cause and supporting us in making education accessible to every child. We believe this initiative will go a long way in empowering girls and bringing them into the mainstream.”

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Reliance JIO Free Offer extended till 15 April, Summer Surprise offer for prime members on recharge of 303 or above

When every thought that they might be using the JIO freebies for the last time today, Mr. Mukesh Ambani yet again made it official that the offer is extended for last time. This time the offer is extended for 15 another days, i.e. you can enjoy the existing offer till 15th April, 2017. Along with that the members who have opted for prime membership will be entitled to first Surprise of many surprises to come. As 'Summer Surprise' Offer, prime members who recharge for Rs 303/- or more will get services for the initial 3 months on complimentary basis. That means you get Unlimited Data (28 GB at 4G speed, with 1 GB FUP per day) for 3 months with recharge of Rs 303/-.

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The letter from Mr. Ambani also states that over 72 million people have already enrolled for prime membership and they are still counting. As per the letter this 15 days window is to ensure smoother transition from free to paid services. The official letter reads:

"Jio’s free service period is COMING TO AN END. Users who do not recharge by the extended date of 15th April will experience degradation and/or discontinuation of services.

But, I am conscious that this is the largest migration from free to paid services in history.We are committed to doing this gradually, so that both Jio and Jio customers have the time to adjust, fine tune and perfect this transition."

The letter from JIO MD also touched upon the investment and efforts organization is putting into getting infrastructure ready for seamless experience for customers.Below is the text from the letter.

"Jio has created the world’s largest greenfield 4G LTE wireless broadband network, with over 100,000 mobile towers. And we will add another 100,000 towers to our network in the coming months. This greenfield investment – of over Rs 200,000 crores – is the largest anywhere in the world. We are acutely aware that we have small pockets of congestion on our network. With our investment in network expansion, you will see a dramatic improvement in service quality in the coming weeks.

Mobile Number Portability (MNP), which allows consumers to retain their existing mobile number when they switch to Jio, is available for all consumers. Lakhs of consumers have already used this facility. If you have not done so already, I invite you to do MNP and make Jio your permanent home. For International travellers, Jio’s International roaming is now available across the world, with best voice and data rates in industry."

The zest of today's letter is that JIO is in no mood to leave any stone un-turned to gain maximum market share in Industry. The dynamics have changed a lot since JIO's entry in market as rival companies are offering a great deal on data and voice plans to compete with JIO. Vodafone's merger with Idea also brings interesting twist in the tale. We must say its all good for the consumers and the best time after initial Reliance CDMA entry which ended charges on incoming calls.

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Micromax Dual 5 with dual 13 MP rear cameras and CC EAL 5+ security certified for Rs 24,999/-

Micromax had been away from the limelight from quite a long time, once there was a time when every month or even fortnight you will hear a new phone launched from Micromax there were lot of advertisements, sponsorship and other publicity.  While some predicted that Chinese competitors had got better of it, some other analysts were hopeful that Micromax will return with a bang in smartphone market. It seems that with the launch of Dual 5 the company has hit the right chord. We must say, that we have spent just a few minutes with the device but we are impressed with the end product, I believe you will also agree with us after getting to know about the device. So let's have a look at the price, specifications and features of the phone.

Micromax Dual 5

Well till yesterday there were lot of speculations about the device and we too joined the rumor mills to get and spread the information. However most of what we got was not true apart from the fact that the phone sports dual camera at back. 

Specifications, Price and Availability:

The Dual 5 runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 Octa Core processor coupled with 4 GB RAM, 128 GB on board storage which can be further expanded upto 128 GB via MicroSD card. The phone sports a metallic body. The device comes with two 13 MP Sony IMX258 sensor one for Monochrome and another one for RGB (color) sensor both the cameras have f/1.8 aperture to capture more light. A color temperature sensor is used to combine the images captured from both the sensors to produce a high quality final product. While on the front as well the phone comes with same 13 MP camera with Sony IMX258 sensor and f/2 aperture. The front camera is also accompanied by a soft flash. The device runs on Android Marshmallow though.

The phone sports a 5.5 inch Full HD Super Amoled display with 2.5D curved Corning Gorilla glass protection. The Dual 5 is powered by 3200 mAh strong battery and supports Quick Charge 3.0 for faster charging. The device supports Dual SIM connectivity, 4G, VoLTE, BT 4.1 and Wi-Fi ac.  On sensors front the device comes with a Fast Finger print sensor, ALS, Gyroscope, IR Sensor and proximity sensor.  For charging and data transfer the device comes with USB Type-C port.

As mentioned earlier the phone is priced competitively at 24,990/- which is right between the recently launched Gionee A1 and OPPO F3 Plus. On paper the phone looks to have an upper edge and will compete with other devices in similar price range.

The Dual 5 will go on sale from 10th April, 2017. Registrations for the sale has opened from today itself at http://www.micromaxinfo.com

Features:

The most talked about feature of the phone is its beefed up security. The Dual 5 has a separate chip for safety and security, this chip is said to store all your credentials and other confidential data. The Dual 5 is EAL 5+ security certified device which makes it as secure as banking transaction devices or Military Grade security. The phone allows users to create a private profile to keep their private files, images and applications , different finger prints can be assigned to unlock phone into different profiles. The phone is also anti-theft device as its anti-theft safety switch feature allows one to block anyone from shutting down the phone if the SIM is tried to be removed which enables the tracking of the phone as well if the password is not entered within 60 minutes of the attempt the phone will self destroy the data and ensure that your confidential data is safe and secure.

Apart from security features, as the phone has dual camera setup it allows you to take photos with great details and depth and have modes like pro, pano, anti haze, HDR etc. The IR sensor allows the phone to be an universal remote. The phone will also come with a Micromax Care app pre-installed, the company has also announced 24 hour service promise along with 1 year replacement warranty.

The phone also sports an extra dedicated button on the left (power and volume rockers are on right side). This button can be customized to be used as a flash button, the camera shutter, Quick Photo, Clean App or Disable Virtual Key on screen.

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Micromax Set to launch its first Dual Camera smartphone Dual 5 tomorrow

We discussed in our earlier posts how Dual Camera is a so called tech revolution in smartphone industry that every other brand is launching atleast one of the product with dual camera setup to be in the game. Most recently OPPO launched OPPO F3 Plus with Dual Selfie camera and upped the ante, though a bit late but Micromax determined to catch up with the Chinese OEMs is all set to unveil its very own first smartphone with a dual Camera.

The Coundown has begun!

Micromax is teasing with the about the new device from quite some time and it is very clear that this device sports dual cameras.

This. Is. Just. The. Beginning. Get ready. pic.twitter.com/ab4826wpFs

— Micromax India (@Micromax_Mobile) March 17, 2017

Apart from the obvious dual camera setup not much details are disclosed by the company. However, few other details are derived from a leaked image on Chinese social media platform weibo. As per reports the Dual 5 will be powered by 1.5 GHz Octa core Mediatek MT6750T processor combined with 3 GB RAM. The phone is said to packed with a decent graphics processor and 32 GB memory on board. The phone sports a 5.5 inch HD  display.

The dual camera setup at rear includes a 13 MP and another 5 MP camera, while on the front as well it is said to be sporting a 5 MP camera. For the first time Micromax seems to have got the right software and hardware combination to come with a balanced product which can be concluded by the accounts of Nimish Dubey from TechPP and Bharat Nagpal from iGyaan.

Whatever may be the exact specifications but after a long time Micromax seems to have appeared with the right product in the market. However, the road is not easy as lately the homegrown brand has seen a fierce competition from its Chinese counterparts in last one year. As it is known, we are hoping that Micromax will price it aggressively in market. We are really excited for tomorrow's launch and if you are equally excited as we are, follow us on our social pages and get all the updates related to the product.

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OPPO launches first phone with Dual Selfie Camera for Rs 30,990/- in India

It was in 2014 when we witnessed a plethora of devices focused on Selfies, it was then we reviewed devices with greater than 5 MP front camera. Just a day before Gionee launched A1 which is again a selfie oriented smartphone, Vivo have also launched another couple of months back which means smartphone companies see a lot of potential in this segment and their decision is also backed by the research done on the topic.

In last two years the industry has moved at a high pace and we have seen many innovations in specs as well as the technology overall including the camera in a smartphone. Recently every other brand launched one or more than one smartphone sporting Dual cameras at rear, OPPO having positioned itself as a Camera focused brand in past 3 years, we were expecting a flagship from OPPO carrying dual camera setup. OPPO did as expected but inspite of being late in the Dual Camera race the brand turned up as a leader as it launched first phone OPPO F3 Plus with Dual Selfie Camera on the front.

Deepika Padukone, Mr. Sky Li and Dabbu Ratnani on launch of OPPO F3 Plus

The Cameras:

The Dual Selfie cameras of OPPO F3 Plus are for specific scenarios which are- "One for Selfie and another one for Group Selfie". The camera software automatically recognizes if there are more than 3 people posing for the Selfie and changes its mode to group selfie to work with a larger view area. The 120 degree wide angle, 6P front camera gives 105% larger field of view, than a regular camera. The other front camera with 16 MP resolution, 1/3.1-inch sensor and a large f/2.0 aperture will inherit the advancement seen in previous Selfie Expert phones by Oppo like high dynamic range, vivid depth and minimized noise.

While the rear camera offers high-quality photography performance with fast focusing speed, noise reduction and advanced low-light performance. The 16-megapixel rear camera is powered by a brand-new 1/2.8-inch IMX398 sensor. This sensor is jointly developed by OPPO and Sony, which features Dual PDAF – dual phase detection autofocus technology. This new technology doubles the sensor’s pixel array area where the photodiodes are embedded, necessary for phase detection autofocus. This makes for 40 percent faster focusing speeds even in low light. Paired with the large f/1.7 aperture, the resulting images are clear and breathtaking.

Other Specifications:

The OPPO F3 Plus comes with a 4000 mAh strong battery with proprietary VOOC Flash charge technology which is claimed to provide 2 hours of Talktime in just 5 minutes of recharge. The 6-inch FHD Screen, 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass 5 screen features a pre-applied protective screen coating. The F3 Plus is powered by an octa-core processor – the Qualcomm MSM8976 Pro, 4GB RAM, 64 GB ROM backed by the ColorOS 3.0 with Avast scanner.

Price and Availability:

The F3 Plus will be available in Gold and Black. Priced at Rs 30,990, the Gold variant of the F3 Plus will be available from 1^st April 2017 both online and offline. It will be available in OPPO stores across India and online stores on Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. The pre-order starts from today till 31^st March 2017. OPPO is also giving a special gift pack for all pre – orders purchases made both online and offline. There is also a Black color variant for the F3 Plus which will be available later.

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