TECH NEWS : INSTAGRAM, MOTOROLA NEW STORES, SAMSUNG A6 CERTIFICATION

Tech News

Instagram announces new features

Instagram has announced that its app will undergo timeline changes based on the user feedback. The photo-sharing service will have a 'New Posts' button that lets the user manually refresh the feed. This will prevent the automatic refresh of the feed that results in missing out on many updates. Users will now be able to manually refresh the feed without the app doing it for them.

Another change is the one users have been waiting for a long time - a chronological timeline. The previous timeline algorithm sorted the feed according to what the app thinks the user would like to see instead of the more logical reverse chronological timeline as before.

After, much criticism, Instagram will now show posts in order. Although it still won't be in a chronological order, it would still be better than the current timeline.

There also have been talks about the inability to share posts on Instagram such as retweet in Twitter and share on Facebook. A TechCrunch report has also tipped that the company is testing a similar function within its Stories feature. According to the report, users of Instagram can select a post on their feed and tap on a button in order to embed it as a part of their Stories. The quoted Stories can be customized with test, stickers, etc. before it is taken live. This is said to be called quote-Story. The report adds that those who check the story out and encounter the quote-Story can actually tap through to see the full view.

According to a report by TechCrunch, an APK of Instagram and Instagram Direct apps show files and icons for calls and video calls. APK (Android Application Packages) usually show files for unreleased features waiting to be launched. This makes us believe that Instagram is in plans to introduce voice and video calling features in its Direct standalone app.

If Instagram rolls out the voice and video calling support, then it would make the platform a better alternative to Snapchat. Notably, Snapchat introduced video calling in 2014 and came up with audio and video notes in 2016 to enhance this feature. Instagram has been mimicking Snapchat in terms of Stories and privacy controls so long.

Motorola plans to open 1000 stores

With an aim strengthen its retail presence, in southern India, Motorola plans to open 100 new Moto Hubs in Tamil Nadu including 50 Moto Hub stores in Chennai alone where users they will experience the entire portfolio of Motorola including the recently launched Moto Z2 force and Moto X4.

Sudhin Mathur, Managing Director, Motorola Mobility India said, 'We are highly focussed on sharing meaningful experiences and engage with our customers in a more effective way. Moto Hubs is a way to address customers' needs by offering them a platform to interact, engage and purchase. We will continue to expand our retail presence and enhance the customer experience by making our product portfolio accessible to them and ensure that their varying needs are met with.'

As part of the strategy to consolidate its retail presence across the country, Motorola, earlier this month announced the opening of 50 new Moto Hubs in Mumbai and 25 Moto Hub stores in Kolkata.

Furthermore, in January 2018, Motorola had announced the opening of 50 new Moto Hubs in New Delhi. Motorola has also collaborated with Poorvika Mobiles across 43 cities in Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, and Karnataka and with Big C and Lot Mobile stores across 55 cities in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to provide retail access to consumers.

All Moto Hub stores house the entire portfolio of Motorola devices, including moto e4, moto e4 plus, moto c, moto c plus, moto g families including moto g5s plus, moto g5s, moto g5 plus and moto g5 as well as moto z franchise and moto mods along with Motorola accessories like on-ear and in-ear headphones, moto shells and covers.

Motorola has been expanding its footprint in South India and according to GFK, approximately 5.5L smartphones are sold in Tamil Nadu per month out of which Chennai contributes 37 percent (2L units). Chennai has emerged as a significantly big market for smartphones in India and Motorola is amongst the top 5 smartphone brands in Chennai.

Samsung Galaxy A6 gets certified by Wi-Fi Alliance

Samsung Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6 are two mid-range smartphones that will be launching soon. The smartphones were recently spotted on Geekbench. The Galaxy A6 has now been certified by Wi-Fi Alliance. The device is listed on the certification site with model number SM-A600FN. The website doesn't reveal much about the Galaxy A6, besides that it will run on Android 8.0 right out of the box.

As stated, the Samsung Galaxy A6 last week visited Geekbench along with the Galaxy A6 . Talking about the specifications, the Galaxy A6 (SM-A600FN) was listed on Geekbench with an Exynos 7870 SoC which is an octa-core processor.

The processor is teamed with 3GB of RAM and Mali-T830 MP1 GPU. The Galaxy A3 (2017) and many phones in the Galaxy J series are powered by the same chipset.

The Galaxy A6 (SM-A605G), on the other hand, seems to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. The smartphone also has Adreno 506 GPU and has 4GB of RAM onboard. Both the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6 run on Android 8.0 Oreo operating system, which sound impressive on paper.

Do note that Samsung had not any Galaxy A6 models previously, whereas the Galaxy A5 and Galaxy A7 series are there. Presumably these models could be the first phones in the Galaxy A6 series.

Looking at the benchmark results, the Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6 will not differ much in terms of performance. The former scored 2605 points on the multi-core test and 723 points on the single core test. Whereas the Galaxy A6 obtained 739 points in the single core test and 3469 points in the multi-core test.