Apple to setup iPhone Manufacturing Unit in Bengaluru

Apple plans to make iPhones for the Indian market in Bengaluru. Wistron, a Taiwanese OEM maker for Apple, is setting up a facility in Peenya, the city's industrial hub, to manufacture the iPhones. The facility will start production from next April.

Foxconn, Apple's largest Taiwan-based OEM, earlier committed to setting up a manufacturing plant in Maharashtra. The assumption was the plant would make only Apple products. But Foxconn has tied up with other players like Xiaomi and OnePlus for local manufacture and not necessarily to only make Apple products there.

This will be Apple's second big announcement for Bengaluru. In May, Apple announced a design and development accelerator in the city to grow the iOS developer community and also to guide Indian developers to leverage Apple's programming language Swift and build apps for Apple TV and Apple The facility will open early next year.

The Bengaluru manufacturing facility underscores India's importance for the Cupertino-based company.

Apple CEO Tim Cook's multi-city India tour earlier this year signaled the growing importance of India powered by the demand for Apple products by a burgeoning middle class.

Nubia Z11 and N1 Available on Amazon

Two new Smartphones from Chinese Smartphone maker Nubia will be available on Amazon. The devices are named Nubia Z11 and another device Nubia N1.

Available at a price of Rs 29,999, Nubia Z11 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor with 6GB of RAM, has 64GB of internal storage and sports 16-megapixel rear-facing camera with Sony IMX298 sensor.

The second device, Nubia N1, is priced at Rs 11,999 and is equipped with Nubia's NeoPower technology and a massive 5,000mAh battery.

The device sports a 5.5-inch full-HD screen, and features 13MP rear and front camera, runs on Android 6.0 Marshmallow-based Nubia 4.0 UI and supports a hybrid dual-SIM slot.

Both the Smartphones will be available starting 12 noon on Amazon from December 26.

Airtel to Acquire Orascom's share in MENA

Bharti Airtel has declared that its subsidiary Network i2i has entered into a definitive agreement with Egyptian firm Orascom to acquire the latter's entire equity stake in Middle East North Africa Submarine Cable Systems for an undisclosed amount.

The agreement has been signed with Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding SAE.

Middle East North Africa Submarine Cable Systems (MENA-SCS) is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Orascom.

It is live and operational, connecting Mumbai - Oman - Saudi Arabia - Egypt and Italy. It further has the branching options to connect to other countries in Europe, Africa and Middle East via branching options to Cyprus, Greece, Djibouti, Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, Libya and Sudan.

MENA-SCS owns and operates a submarine cable network between India and Europe covering Middle East, with options to extend the network to Africa. It is a submarine optic network capable of carrying multi tera bits per second of data speeds.

The proposed acquisition of MENA-SCS is aimed at further strengthening Airtel's global network that currently runs across 225,000 route kilometers, covering 50 countries and 5 continents.

Asus Zenfone 3 Max5.5 ZC553KL goes on Sale

Zenfone 3 Max 5.5 ZC333KL, the big-battery Smartphone from Asus has gone on sale in India. The Smartphone is available at Rs 17,999. The device was launched last month. The Smartphone's 5.2 inch variant (ZC520TL), which too was launched last month along with Zenfone 3 Max 5.5, is already available at Rs 12,999.

Zenfone Max 3 offers massive 4,100mAh battery, which according to the company, offers 30 days of standby time and up to 20 hours of talk time on 3G. The Smartphone can also work as a power bank, and comes with a USB OTG cable to enable users to connect and charge other devices.

The handset boasts of metal uni body design with 'diamond cut' chamfered edges and a 2.5D contoured glass. The device features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display with an inbuilt Bluelight filter. It runs Zen UI 3.0 based on Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

The handset has 3GB RAM and packs 32GB storage capacity, expandable up to 128GB with micro-SD card. The 4G LTE Smartphone comes with fingerprint sensor in the front and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor with Adreno 505.

The battery-focused Smartphone includes a 16MP rear camera with f/2.0 aperture, dual-LED flash, PDAF (Phase Detection Autofocus), Laser autofocus and Electronic Image Stabilisation. On front, there is an 8MP camera for selfies and video chats. The camera includes a host of filters and modes to help users tweak images as required.

LG G6 To Be Waterproof

There are rumors about LG’s upcoming flagship Smartphone LG G6. The Smartphone will succeed the company's last year flagship Smartphone LG G5 and launch in February 2017 at the Mobile World Congress (Barcelona).

Latest rumors about the device suggest that it will be waterproof. The waterproofing material is also being said to be added to the USB connector, earphone terminal as well as camera cover glass.

Also unlike G5 Smartphone, LG G6 will not be a modular Smartphone. Many feel that it is not easy replacing so many modules. The modular structure is the key highlight of LG G5.
Earlier this week, LG launched its dual-screen Smartphone V20 in India. Priced at Rs 54,999, the Smartphone is available exclusively on Amazon's India website.

The LG V20 is the first non-Google Smartphone to come with Android Nougat 7.0 out-of-the-box. It's also the first handset to use Google's 'In Apps' feature that lets users find content from built-in apps including contacts, emails, text messages and photos and user-installed apps.

Like the V10, the LG V20 also comes with dual-screen feature. The Smartphone features a 5.7-inch Quad HD display of 1440x2560 pixel resolution and a 2.1-inch secondary display with 160x1040 pixel resolution. As per LG, the second screen offers enhanced visibility with double the brightness and a 50% larger font size as compared to V10. It shows notifications and other piece of information for increased productivity.

The LG V20 is powered by a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC paired with 4GB RAM and 64GB of internal storage, expandable further up to 2TB via microSD cards.

Boasting of lightweight aluminum body, V20 sports a 16MP rear camera with dual-LED flash, 75-degree lens, f/1.8 aperture and OIS. It has a Hybrid Auto Focus (HAF) integrating three AF mechanisms -- Laser Detection AF, Phase Detection AF (PDAF) and Contrast AF for both videos and photos. 

The dual-camera setup at the back comprises an 8MP module for capturing wide-angle shots. In addition, a 5MP front-facing snapper is included for selfies.