Checkout the top 5 Podcasts in India

A podcast is an episodic series of spoken word digital audio files that a user can download to a

personal device for easy listening. Streaming applications and podcasting services provide a

convenient and integrated way to manage a personal consumption queue across many podcast

sources and playback devices.

A podcast series usually features one or more recurring hosts engaged in a discussion about a

particular topic or current event. Discussion and content within a podcast can range from

carefully scripted to completely improvised.

• KHABRI

Khabri is on of India’s fastest growing vernacular audio platform targeted at next billion internet users. Knowledge through spoken word has been the cornerstone for the upward economic movement of any society for ages, and we at khabri are committed to deliver that in the most advanced way in the current era. 

Fundamentally, we are looking at changing the very operating system of India , which would eventually add to the economic and social growth for 1/6th of humanity.

We were backed at the very inception stage by the likes of YCombinator, GSF accelerator and a lot many marquee entrepreneurs turned investors who have been at the very epicentre of tech making life better for the common folks, and who believed in our dream.

While offering listeners to discover and consume enriching audio content which is informative and helps users to prepare for government job exams in various formats for passive consumption. khabri also offers users an opportunity to create content and get discovered. Given the ease of content creation in Audio, khabri is a big hit among audiences from tier II & III cities of India. Khabri offers an exclusive array of creators who range from popular YouTubers to eminent educators. Each creator comes with a unique style and flavour to give the user choice to find content best suited to him. The app is free of cost and offers users the optipon to download the content and consume it offline, as well.

Recently, during pandemic, Khabri witnessed an unprecedented growth of 6x in terms of users & 4x in number of creators respecttively. Subsequently,  Khabri again became a choice for worlds leading investors who belived in the value khabri is creating for the next billion users from Bharat.

• AAWAZ.COM

Agrahyah Technologies has launched aawaz.com, an audio on demand platform with professionally generated content in vernacular languages. With this, people can listen to podcasts, chat shows, interviews and also read articles and features. Aawaz.com is currently available in Hindi, and as both website and Android app.

Aawaz.com will also have ML (machine learning) and AI (artificial capabilities) based capabilities to recommend and personalize content based on user’s preferences. With the app, people can listen to over 150 hours of audio content which is scripted, recorded, and presented as podcasts and shows. Both audio and text content are spread across multiple genres includingentertainment, lifestyle, health, fiction, literature, devotional, comedy, humor and more.

• AUDIOMATIC

Audiomatic is India’s first podcast network that launched in April, 2015. As of June 2015, the website hosts four programmes, each of which has episodes ranging from 15–20 minutes. The podcasts are either weekly or fortnightly, and offer content in genres such as food, science, culture, current affairs, entertainment and humour.

As of June 2015, Audiomatic has four podcasts – The Real Food Podcast, The Intersection, Ask Aakar Anything and Our Last Week. All the programmes are in English, and release a new episode fortnightly, except Ask Aakar Anything, which is a weekly podcast. The Real Food Podcast is hosted by food writer Vikram Doctor, who explores ingredients and Indian food habits and obsessions. According to the show’s page on Audiomatic’s website, the podcast offers information about the origins of and legends associated with various Indian ingredients and recipes.

• HEADFONE

Headfone specializes in vernacular podcasts, talk shows, short stories, and other forms of audio content. Its podcasts on religion and spirituality, kids and family, news and politics (including the PM’s Mann Ki Baat) are quite popular. Interestingly, Headfone lets users record their own podcasts and publish them on a public profile. 

• CASTBOX

Castbox is an app that distributes free podcasts. As of 2019, it has about one million podcasts available through it, including about fifty million podcast episodes. It also has a premium platform. In June 2019, Castbox integrated with Waze, allowing playback controls to pause, skip, or restart episodes. 

In addition to its library of podcasts from other distributors, Castbox also produces its own shows. In 2018, Castbox partnered with Heard Well on the podcast series Heard Well Now, which highlights early career musical artists.As of 2018, Castbox produced 25 different original podcasts, with This Sounds Serious being released in 2019. 

 

• APPLE PODCASTS

 

Podcasts is a media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts from the iTunes Store. It is available for the iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS operating systems.

A standalone Podcasts app was initially released for iOS on June 26, 2012, after formerly being a section of the iTunes app. It was followed by launches on Apple TV on September 24, 2012, tvOS on January 26, 2016, and watchOS on September 17, 2018. It was released with macOS Catalina on October 7, 2019 as one of three applications created to replace iTunes.

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Inbase launches ‘Urban Lite Z’ smartwatch with 1.75 inch IPS Display

Inbase, a leading technology brand has launched Urban Lite Z, designed for those who prefer an adventure-driven life with a complete fitness coach on the wrist. Enabled with a bigger and brighter watch screen, the new Urban Lite Z is a premium smartwatch; available in 6 Colour options, which can steal the show with the complementing colours to match the personality and the outfit of the user, certainly making it a show-stopper. 

 

The new Urban Lite Z smartwatch comes with a big and brighter screen of 1.75-inch supporting a crystal clear and colourful display output for the users. Boasted with 240*280 resolution, the Smartwatch supports a number of watch interfaces to match the style orientation. The watch also comes with 20MM Interchangeable Silicone Strap; comfortable to wear anywhere and everywhere. The watch comes with colourful straps variants- Rose Gold, Metallic Blue, Jet Black, Gold, and Metallic Grey- so choose the watch that fits your persona. 

The smartwatch comes with a number of features to track the health vitals of the user – The heart rate monitor enables you to keep a check on the heartbeat and optimize living. It monitors the SPO2 or blood oxygen level with an inbuilt oxygen measuring device, which helps the user to perform better every day. User can track their steps to trace the goals in real-time, paving the way to a healthy lifestyle and everyday living.

 

Users can further keep a tap on Social Media through the new Urban Lite Z smartwatch, by enabling the call notification or the caller name, syncing the social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, Instagram or any third-party apps. So, users will never miss important phone and text notifications and they can be carefree. Users can further sync music with the smartwatch to keep them entertained any time. 

 

For those who believe in newness- the Urban Lite Z smartwatch comes with over 200+ customizable faces with different colours to match the persona of the user. User can also create their personalised watch faces of their choice, by using personal photos or quotes of their choice to make them feel vitalised and positive every time they look at their smartwatch. 

 

It boasts of Bluetooth 5.0 and an easy Home Button and is equipped with an advanced Nordic chipset for a smoother and faster user experience. The watch is lightweight and is protected with IPX68 certification, making it water-resistant, certainly designed for those who love to travel on rough terrains and be on active mode. 

 

Urban Lite Z smartwatch can last for up to 8 days with normal usage and 35 days of standby time with a single charge – making it a perfect fit for a long trek or weekend escapes.

It also boasts of a plethora of features like Breath Training, Weather Updates, Physiological Reminders, and more, making it an ideal tracker on the wrist to keep a check on health anywhere at any time. 

 

Users can further enjoy Dual UI, and access detailed data contents of health, weather forecast and various other functions available in the watch. The Urban Lite Z smartwatch can be synced with DaFit App which is compatible with Apple and Android enabled gadgets. 

 

Pricing and Availability:

 

Inbase Urban Lite Z Smartwatch is available exclusively through Urban Official Website (https://gourban.in/) as well as other leading retail outlets at an introductory price of INR 2,999/-. 

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HUAWEI Band 6 changes the game and becomes more than a band with large display, SPO2 monitoring

 Back in the day, smartwatches and smart bands were two completely different products. While one brought about all the smarts, interactivity and functionality, the latter was a plain wearable with no display and just a vibration or two to act as alerts. While these fitness or smart bands served a purpose of tracking, they were never fully fledged when it came to user interactivity, usually limiting to smartphone apps or at the most a minimal and monochrome display. But not anymore, decided Huawei, bringing together all the capabilities of a smartwatch into an all new smart band, enabling it to do more than what a smart band can, all while not needing the budget for one. This is the new HUAWEI Band 6.

For instance, let’s take a look at what smart bands are known for. As mentioned earlier, they are smaller, not really big on displays and focused mainly on just notifications and health alerts, all while depending on an app to display everything. With the new HUAWEI Band 6, you get all of these, but with the added bonuses of smartwatch like design and features at the more affordable smart band price.

HUAWEI Band 6

In terms of the health indicators for example, the HUAWEI Band 6 is capable of constantly monitoring your blood oxygen (SpO2) levels. An important health indicator, a drop in an individual’s SpO2 levels can result in fatigue while prolonged lower levels are more adverse. What Huawei does here is, instead of having the users scan their SpO2 levels when they feel down, the HUAWEI Band 6 monitors it all day long in the background and even alerting the wearer if there are any drops. The health monitoring doesn’t end there, because the HUAWEI Band 6 takes on board all of Huawei’s strong health monitoring systems, which allow for accurate heart rate monitoring with HUAWEI TruSeen TM 4.0, HUAWEI TruSleep TM for accurate sleep tracking and HUAWEI TruRelax TM for stress measurement and management.

Health and fitness tracking is what smart bands are supposed to do, however, what people don’t expect from a smart band actually comes down to its display, something most variants lack thereof. With the HUAWEI Band 6, you get a full-fledged 1.47” AMOLED display with a bezel less design and screen to body ratio of 42%, which means the overall experience is more immersive than ever before. This display not only gives a more interactive experience akin to smartwatches, but also gives the overall look and feel of one. Huawei maintains its promise of long battery life with the HUAWEI Band 6 as well, implementing 2 full weeks of use on a single charge with all the health and fitness features running.

If there is one thing that is constant with smart bands and trackers, is the attention to fitness monitoring and tracking data to evaluate progress. The HUAWEI Band 6 is no stranger to this either, capable of tracking up to 96 workout modes that are automatically detected and tracked to get the most accurate data. This is further complemented by the HUAWEI TruSport TM algorithm, which deeply analyzes user’s exercise capabilities based on heart rate variability and exercise data and provide detailed assessments such as oxygen intake levels, recovery time and training effects. All of this pairs well with the HUAWEI Health app, which can be used to view all the data, view breathing exercises, set goals and monitor progress and even set smart alarms and event reminders.

What truly sets the HUAWEI Band 6 apart is how it has taken the evolutionary cues from smartphones and smartwatches, to result in a device that not only provides all the stellar features one has to come to expect from the likes of a full-fledged smartwatch, but offers it all at the price point of a smart band, thereby changing the game for the product line.

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TVs that are revolutionizing Indian market

 The Indian television business is in the midst of a major transformation. When compared to the past, watching television today is an entirely different experience. Similarly, what we see on television tomorrow will be different from what we see now. The television industry has undergone a significant transformation, and today's television is more than just a television; it serves a variety of functions.

So, what has caused this rapid technical change? Growing disposable income, tailored programming, superior technology, changing consumption patterns, and increasing internet penetration are just a few of the significant themes that have altered the Indian television market. The TV industry is going through a similar period as the mobile industry, where the future will be defined by ‘Innovation as a key to success.' After that, let's take a look at a few recent launches that have proven these points.

1.     The Gaming Champion – Gaming QLED 4K Android 11 TV C728

Engineered for superior gaming on bigger screen, C728 is a premium offering by TCL for all gamers out there. It features Game Master backed by HDMI 2.1 and premium tech-driven elements such as Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM), eARC, and the company’s proprietary software algorithm, thus giving best-in-class gaming experiences to gamers. It has QLED Display Technology ensuring over 100% color volume for enhanced visual impact. And with Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision IQ, and Dolby Atmos, the C728 transforms entertainment with incredible picture and sound.

The device also offers 120Hz MEMC and offers hands-free voice control for seamless user control through simple and direct voice commands to the TV. Available in 55, 65 and 75 the TVs are priced at INR 79,990; INR 102,990 and INR 159,990 respectively.

2.     Daiwa D50F58S Smart TV

The Daiwa 49-inch TV ships with a Super Smart Remote with mouse for point and click navigation. The TV comes with a ‘Movie box’ app that offers 7,000+ free movies and is also equipped with other apps like Hotstar, Zee5, Sony Liv, Jio Cinema, Sun Nxt, Voot, and more. As for the new Big Wall UI, it will also be available on all new Daiwa Smart TVs soon. The brand claims that the new user interface offers a user-friendly display that provides intuitive navigation. It comes with the machine learning that stores users’ viewing patterns to provide relevant suggestions.

Big Wall UI supports over 1,700,000+ hours of content, including trending trailers, music, movies, TV shows and more on the home screen along with dedicated powered AI and OTA updates. The Daiwa’s new 49-inch D50F58S smart TV is priced at Rs 26,990, and the brand is offering one year of warranty.

3.     Sony A90J OLED

The best Sony 4k TV with an OLED panel that we've tested is the Sony A90J OLED. It's the premium 4k OLED from their 2021 lineup, sitting above the Sony A80J OLED. It delivers exceptional picture quality as it can turn off individual pixels, resulting in perfect blacks. This means that there's no blooming around bright objects in dark scenes. Since each pixel emits light in all directions, it has wide viewing angles, which is great if you have a large seating area because the image remains accurate when viewing from the side. Like most Sony TVs we've tested, it has excellent out-of-the-box color accuracy, and it doesn't have any issues upscaling lower-resolution content.

4.     OnePlus 55-Inch U Series 4K LED Android TV

The OnePlus TV U Series 55U1 is the latest television from the electronics manufacturer best known for its 'flagship killer' smartphones. The new television has a 55-inch 4K LED screen, with support for HDR up to the Dolby Vision format. The television runs on Android TV 9 Pie, with additional software features such as Oxygen Play and OnePlus Connect offering an enhanced smart experience to users. OnePlus also has a proven record of improving its products through frequent software updates. In terms of other specifications, the OnePlus TV 55U1 has a rated audio output of 30W though a four-speaker setup, and also supports various audio formats up to the Dolby Atmos standard.

Although black levels are less than ideal, the OnePlus TV U Series 55U1 makes up with good colours, smooth and detailed pictures, and excellent motion. It's also pretty good across resolutions, with particularly impressive upscaling of Full-HD content. Although a bit expensive for a smart 4K LED TV, the OnePlus TV 55U1 does offer additional benefits to justify the price. However, competing options are much more affordable and nearly as good, while it's also possible to buy a decent QLED TV for just a bit more money.

5.     Mi TV 4X 43-inch

The Mi TV 4X 43-inch is a TV with good build quality, relatively slim bezels, fantastic panel for its price and clear sound. Then there is the Netflix and Amazon Prime Video support directly built into the TV. The Mi TV 4X 43-inch runs Android 9.0 out-of-the-box and there's PatchWall 2.0 that accesses more content than what users would get with the last generation PatchWall.

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MG introduces Astor SUV with India’s First Personal AI Assistant and First-in-Segment Autonomous Level 2 Technology

 MG Motor India today unveiled the industry-first personal AI assistant and first-in-segment Autonomous Level 2 technology, to be featured in their upcoming mid-size SUV – Astor. MG aims to further its auto-tech focus by building on the concept of Car-as-a-Platform (CAAP) of possibilities and services.

MG is working on emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enable the development and application of services and subscriptions to support the ‘on-demand in-car’ needs of the customers. Astor is the first car to get a personal AI assistant in the company’s global portfolio.

 

The personal AI assistant is designed by the acclaimed American firm ‘Star Design’. It depicts human-like emotions & voices and can give detailed information on every topic through Wikipedia. It will engage with people in the car and is powered by i-Smart Hub. It is a platform on which the partnerships, services, and subscriptions of CAAP will reside. It will allow customers to personalize their set of services.

 

Speaking about India’s first personal AI assistant and the first-in-segment Autonomous Level 2 car Astor, Mr. Rajeev Chaba, President and MD, MG Motor India, said, 

"As an auto-tech brand, we’ve always introduced breakthrough technologies and now, we are moving forward with Artificial Intelligence. Astor is a step further and a catalyst for disruption with first-in-the-industry and best-in-class features that customers only get in premium/luxury segments. With a relentless pursuit of innovation and software at the heart of the production, our vehicles will continue to provide a smarter and safer driving experience by leveraging AI."

 

The Autonomous Level 2 MG Astor is powered by mid-range radars and a multi-purpose camera that can realize a series of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS). These include Adaptive Cruise Control, Forward Collision Warning, Automatic Emergency Braking, Lane Keeping Assist, Lane Departure Warning, Lane Departure Prevention, Intelligent Headlamp Control (IHC), Rear Drive Assist (RDA) and Speed Assist System amongst others. These functions can significantly improve driving safety and comfort, and they have been further optimized for Indian traffic conditions.

 

The name Astor is derived from Raytheon Sentinel, an airborne battlefield and ground surveillance aircraft formerly operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), UK. MG Astor shares the popular ZS platform sold by MG across the globe in countries such as the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East, Norway, Netherlands and other countries in Asia too.

 

For the first time in India, MG recently showcased CAAP with endless possibilities. Building an ecosystem of various in-car services, it hosts subscriptions and services, including maps and navigation with MapMyIndia, Jio connectivity, the first-of-its-kind Blockchain-protected vehicle digital passport by KoineArth and more. MG car owners will also get access to music on the JioSaavn app along with the industry-first feature of reserving a parking slot through a head unit (powered by Park+ - select cities to begin with) in the car. CAAP will create various possibilities which will evolve with time, creating a safer and smarter driving experience.

 

MG ASTOR DESIGN TEASED

Astor gets an all-new Bold Celestial Grille that is inspired by cosmic lines and forms which adds dynamism to the front of the car. The radial pattern concentrates the epicenter of the entire front face. The tungsten steel electroplated material forms a distinct appearance like the sun. The contrast of light and dark further highlights the three-dimensional effect of each flashing cell. The British automaker also revealed the unique ‘Dual Tone Sangria Red’ interior of Astor, which is one of the three interior themes, signifying state-of-the-art craftsmanship.]

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