Samsung Christmas Carnival, Youtube music subscription, Apple 2018, Nokia Android Smartphones will get, Bitcoin Soars

Samsung Christmas Carnival sale: Discount available on Galaxy S8, S8+, Note 8

South Korean electronics company Samsung is organizing a "Christmas Carnival" sale that will start from December 8 and end on December 15. The customers will be able to purchase items from Samsung Shop. Samsung has tied up with Paytm Mall to provide a discount of Rs 8000 on Galaxy S8, S8+ and Note 8 handsets. The price of Galaxy Note 8 is Rs 63,900 whereas Galaxy S8 and S8+ involve price tag of Rs 53,900 and Rs 58,900 respectively.

Oppo launched F5 Youth with 6-Inch Bezel-less Display at Rs 16,990

Samsung has collaborated with Bajaj Finserv to give no-cost EMI choice on some devices.

With the help of Cashify, the purchasers will receive free accidental and liquid damage protection for at least one year. The customers can also get discount by purchase from LazyPay, which permits users to purchase the gadget and pay money later.

Under the Christmas Carnival, the user will get 10 per cent MobiKwik supercash discount on Galaxy S7, Galaxy On Max, On Nxt (64GB), On5, On5 Pro, J7 smartphones.

The customers will also get offer on Samsung Gear S3 Frontier smartwatch which has actual cost of Rs 30,799. After offer, it can be purchased at a cost of Rs 28,900.

Xiaomi launched Redmi 5, Redmi 5 Plus smartphone with Bezel-Less Design

On the other hand, the company is giving discount on Bottle Speakers too. It can be bought at Rs 4,270 against its original price of 4,999. While, Level U headphones can be purchased at Rs 2,270 down against actual rate of Rs 2,999. Level Box Slim water-resistant Bluetooth speakers are available at Rs 5,149 against Rs 6,699.

YouTube music subscription service could be launched in March 2018

It looks like Apple's music streaming services will get a major competitor early next year. According to a Bloomberg report citing sources familiar with the development, YouTube is prepping to launch a paid music service in March next year.

YouTube has inked a deal with Warner Music Group and is in discussion with Sony Music Entertainment, Merlin, and Universal Music Group, a group of independent labels. This service will let YouTube compete with Apple Music and Spotify. Also, the music labels those have been pushing for money from the video streaming site with Youtube's music service.

The report adds that Music is one of the most popular and sought-after genres of video on YouTube and it attracts over a billion users in a month. Eventually, it makes sense for YouTube to launch a music subscription service to cater to the needs of the users.

YouTube is referring to this music streaming service internally as Remix and is said to include the on-demand streaming as in Spotify along with the YouTube-only elements such as video clips. YouTube has been contacting artists for help by promoting the service. The video streaming site has been involved in negotiations with Sony and Universal for over a year regarding the same, the report adds.

As per the report, YouTube will have to overcome various hurdles in order to meet the March 2018 launch date of the music subscription service. For instance, major record labels state that the growth would be more significant if it is not for YouTube as they criticize the same for not compensating them appropriately given the number of people who use the site to listen to music.

Google, another service from Alphabet introduced Google Play Music as a streaming service in 2011. Also, YouTube launched the ad-free, subscription-based YouTube Red in 2016 with exclusive video content from popular creators.

Apple's 2018 iPhone X successor could be more power-packed with 10% more efficient 1-cell L-shaped battery

Apple turned many heads with the new full-screen design and other interesting features in the iPhone X this year. If a new report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is to be believed, the Cupertino-based tech giant is prepping for even more changes in the 2018 iPhone X successor.

In his latest note to investors, Kuo wrote that Apple was collaborating with LG to bring L-shaped batteries to the 6.5-inch and 5.8-inch OLED iPhones next year, allowing for increased capacity and significantly improved battery life in the new handsets.

The current iPhone X packs a two-cell design for its L-shaped battery, but Kuo predicted that the phone's 2018 successor with a 5.8-inch display would feature a more efficient one-cell design.

According to him, this design change would allow Apple to boost the battery capacity from 2716mAh in the iPhone X to somewhere between 2900mAh and 3000mAh for the 2018 model, accounting for an increase of as much as 10 percent.

When it comes to the bigger 6.5-inch OLED successor, Apple is expected to continue using a two-cell battery design. However, the larger size of the battery could still allow it pack a capacity in the range of 3300mAh to 3400mAh.

Considering that battery life has long been a major concern for iPhone users, a 10 percent increase in battery capacity will be a notable improvement that could possibly provide an extra hour or two to the phone's battery life as a whole.

Here's what Kuo had to say about the battery improvements in the 6.5-inch and 5.8-inch iPhone X successors:

Two new 2H18 iPhone models could adopt L-shaped battery (6.5" & 5.8" OLED models), with capacity upgraded for all models. In order to extend battery life, we believe it is necessary to expand battery capacity because all three new 2H18 models will be equipped with TrueDepth Camera, which consumes more power. We think Apple (US) is developing a 1-cell L-shaped battery in collaboration with LGC (KR). If the new battery enters mass production on time, the 5.8" OLED iPhone model will come with a battery with larger capacity (2,900-3,000mAh with higher RFPCB ASP $2.1-2.4).

In addition to the OLED iPhones, Apple is also reportedly working on an affordable 6.1-inch LCD model. Kuo said that this particular iPhone model would retain the rectangular battery design as a cost-cutting measure, but with improved capacity over the iPhone 8 series.

Rumours are rife that Apple will be launching three iPhones next year, out of which one will be a low-cost model with LCD display measuring 6.1 inches. With the budget-friendly model, Apple is also reportedly reverting to a metal back design seen in the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, suggesting that the device will likely ditch the wireless charging support.

Nokia Android smartphones will not get Project Treble, confirms HMD

HMD Global has confirmed that the existing Nokia Android smartphones will get the Android Oreo update soon. While the users await the rollout of the update, the company has confirmed that Google's Project Treble will not be supported by any of the available Nokia phones and this includes the entry-level Nokia 2 and the flagship Nokia 8.

Google announced Project Treble back in May at the Google I/O 2017 conference. It will enable faster Android updates by minimizing the hassles faced by the device manufacturers. The Project Treble is available on Android Oreo as an architectural change.

With the increasing number of queries regarding the rollout of Project Treble, an HMD moderator took to Nokia's community forums to state that the latest development will not make its way to the Android smartphones those were launched with Android Nougat. The moderator wrote, 'HMD is fully committed to implementing Project Treble on all new Android Oreo products in the near future, and we apologise for any disappointment this may cause.'

Also, clarifying on this, Juho Sarvikas, the Chief Product Officer at HMD tweeted that the company has not provided a separate vendor partition in the internal storage space and this is needed to enable Project Treble on the devices that run Android Oreo. Sarvikas also mentioned that the absence of the Treble support will leave no impact on the end users and assured that they are committed to rolling out future updates.

Notably, HMD rolled out the Android 8.0 Oreo update for the Nokia 8 units across the world sometime in November. This adheres to the company's commitment to rolling out the latest iteration of the mobile OS by the end of this year. Eventually, the Nokia 6, Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 smartphones are all set to get the Android Oreo update soon. We even came across a report that the company plans to skip the Android 7.1.2 Nougat to Nokia 3 and update it directly to Android Oreo.

For those concerned on the lack of support for Project Treble on Nokia smartphones, HMD is not the only vendor to not bring this feature to its existing devices. Even OnePlus announced that the existing devices including OnePlus 5T and its predecessors will not receive Project Treble.

Bitcoin soars then falls back; banks raise risk concerns

The concerns about its volatility have led some banks and trade groups to raise concerns about the implicatio

The price of bitcoin swung wildly Thursday, rising to more than $19,000 only to fall sharply within minutes, as both the euphoria and anxiety surrounding the virtual currency escalated just days before trading in bitcoin futures begins on a major US exchange.

The concerns about its volatility have led some Wall Street banks and trade groups to raise concerns about the potential implications of trading bitcoin. Banks also appear likely to limit customers' access to the futures when they first start trading.

Bitcoin was valued at $17,167 as of 6:00PM EST, according to large bitcoin exchange Coinbase, after briefly surging above $19,000 Thursday morning. At the start of the year, one bitcoin was worth less than $1,000.

Bitcoin's wild swings occurred as Wall Street prepares for bitcoin futures to start trading on the Chicago Board Options Exchange on Sunday evening and on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange a week later. The futures are designed to reflect the price of bitcoin without an investor having to physically hold the currency, not unlike how oil, gold, copper or cocoa prices are determined by futures contracts.

Yet the dawn of futures trading has some parties on Wall Street concerned. A group of banks, brokerages and clearinghouses came out and complained that federal regulators approved the futures too quickly and without properly considering the risks inherent in bitcoin.

The Futures Industry Association, a trade association that represents Wall Street banks, brokerages and clearinghouses, sent a letter to the Commodities Futures Trading Commission this week, saying the institutions should have been consulted before trading in bitcoin futures was approved. The association's members expressed concern that they could be on the hook for large sums of money if extreme volatility in bitcoin resulted in big losses for some customers.

Goldman Sachs, one of the nation biggest investment banks, said it will allow only a limited number of clients to trade the CBOE's bitcoin futures when they launch next week. Bank of America will not allow clients access to the futures.

A person familiar with the matter said JPMorgan Chase will not allow clients access to the futures on the first trading day and will make an evaluation after that based on what it sees in the futures market. This person requested anonymity because the decision hasn't yet been announced publicly.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Citigroup will also not allow clients access to bitcoin futures, although a Citi spokesman declined to comment. Morgan Stanley declined to comment.

Thomas Peterffy, chairman of the broker-dealer Interactive Brokers Group, expressed deep concerns about the trading of bitcoin futures last month, saying "there is no fundamental basis for valuation of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and they may assume any price from one day to the next."

Peterffy noted that if bitcoin futures were trading at that time, under the CBOE's rules those futures likely would experience repeated trading halts because of limits on how high or low the price can move during the trading day.

The futures signal more mainstream acceptance of the currency, but also open up bitcoin to additional market forces. Futures allow for the shorting of bitcoin - that is betting that the price of bitcoin will go down - which presently is very difficult to near impossible to do. With the currency's tremendous run-up in price in recent days, it could become a target for those who doubt that it deserves its current lofty value.

The frenzy of interest and the rapid rise in the price of bitcoin has put significant strain on the major bitcoin exchanges. Coinbase, the largest bitcoin exchange, at one point tweeted that record-high traffic had caused interruptions to its service. Bitfinex, which trades several digital currencies including Bitcoin, tweeted out that it had suffered an unusual surge in traffic the last few days.

Bitcoin is the world's most popular virtual currency. Such currencies are not tied to a bank or government and allow users to spend money anonymously. They are basically lines of computer code that are digitally signed each time they are traded.

A debate is raging on the merits of such currencies. Some say they serve merely to facilitate money laundering and illicit, anonymous payments. Others say they can be helpful methods of payment, such as in crisis situations where national currencies have collapsed.

Miners of bitcoins and other virtual currencies help keep the systems honest by having their computers keep a global running tally of transactions. That prevents cheaters from spending the same digital coin twice. Online security is a vital concern for such dealings.

In Japan, following the failure of a bitcoin exchange called Mt. Gox, new laws were enacted to regulate bitcoin and other virtual currencies. Mt. Gox shut down in February 2014, saying it lost about 850,000 bitcoins, possibly to hackers.

Earlier Thursday, NiceHash, a company that mines bitcoins on behalf of customers, said it is investigating a breach that may have resulted in the theft of about $70 million worth of bitcoin.