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Reliance Jio Disconnections, New Samsung Galaxy S8+ Variant, WhatsApp 'Change Number' Feature, and More: Your 360 Daily

Reliance Jio Disconnections, New Samsung Galaxy S8+ Variant, WhatsApp 'Change Number' Feature, and More: Your 360 Daily

By Gadgets 360 Staff | Updated: 17 April 2017 22:41 IST

Highlights

Reliance Jio has started disconnecting numbers who haven't recharged
But Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer is still up for subscription
New WhatsApp feature could help users transition to a new number easily

Reliance Jio has started the process of disconnecting users who haven't recharged their Jio number yet. With time running out on the Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer, anyone who's not paid at least once for Jio services faces disconnection. Earlier, Reliance Jio had stated that users who had not signed for the Jio Summer Surprise Offer could sign up for its new offer by subscribing to Jio Prime membership plan and buying the Rs. 309 or Rs. 509 recharge by April 15 in order to "to avoid degradation and/ or discontinuation of services" and get free data benefits of 1GB/ day and 2GB/ day respectively.

Many users who did not subscribe still have active services, but Gadgets 360 has learnt that Reliance Jio has now started disconnecting services of such numbers. Based on what we have learned, this process is not going to happen all at once. Apparently, some Jio users have already received the message about the disconnection, while for others it will take a little longer, and over the next couple of days it will happen for all users who have not recharged.

At this point, any Reliance Jio user who has not recharged still has the option of getting the Dhan Dhana Dhan offer along with Jio Prime - so if your phone gets disconnected, you can simply go to a Jio store or head over to the Jio website or MyJio app, and pay Rs. 408 (Rs. 99 for Prime, and Rs. 309 for the offer) to get 84 days of data use with 1GB 4G data free per day.

Earlier, Reliance Jio had said that the last date for subscribing to Prime would be March 31, but this was later extended to April 15 along with the Summer Surprise Offer. Now however, Reliance Jio is going to continue offering Jio Prime (and the Dhan Dhana Dhan offer) for the near future, though it's unclear for how long. One of the Jio effects is competition like Airtel offering upto 30GB of free data to postpaid customers.

Samsung Galaxy S8+ dual camera variant with optical fingerprint scanner tipped
Before the official launch of the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+, the larger variant was tipped to sport the dual camera setup, but we didn't see it launch at the event in New York. Samsung later launched a 6GB RAM, 128GB storage variant in South Korea and China, and now a fresh leak suggests that a dual camera variant may also be in the offing.

A live image leak on Weibo suggests that a Samsung Galaxy S8+ variant with dual camera setup may be in the works. The two sensors at the back are placed vertically below each other, with the heart rate sensor and flash placed right after them. Interestingly, there is no fingerprint scanner at the back, or at the front, and Samsung is expected to embed a fingerprint reader underneath the screen.

Apparently, Samsung was not satisfied with the optical fingerprint technology before launching the Samsung Galaxy S8 last month, but is now confident enough to launch it on its new variant. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 expected to launch later this year, will also introduce this new technology for fingerprint scanning. Reportedly, Samsung has worked with Synaptics to make the onscreen fingerprint sensor. All the other specifications of this variant are expected to be similar to that of the Galaxy S8+.

LG G6 India pre-registrations now open
After starting the global rollout of its flagship LG G6 smartphone earlier this month, LG has now opened up the pre-registrations for the smartphone in India. While the India launch date for the device has still not been announced by the South Korean company, users can go to its Indian website and express their interest for the phone.

For those who are unfamiliar with the term, pre-registrations do not require you to deposit any amount and is simply meant to express your interest in a product. This is different from pre-booking, which effectively means booking the product with a nominal amount ahead of its official availability. The phone was made available in South Korea at a price of KRW 899,800 (roughly Rs. 51,200) but we will have to wait and see if the Indian price for the phone is in a similar range.

Ola, Uber Drivers' unions threaten to strike in Delhi-NCR on Tuesday
Commuters in Delhi-NCR may face hardship in hiring taxis tomorrow as the drivers of two app-based cab aggregators Ola and Uber have threatened to go off roads for a day against "low fares". This is the second round of strike called by the drivers. They had gone on strike in February too, which had lasted 13 days, causing inconvenience to commuters in Delhi, Noida, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

The strike might hit private transport service in Delhi and other neighbouring cities as some groups of tourist taxi providers, autorickshaw union, as per agitating Sarvodaya Drivers' Association, have extended their support to it.

The Association, which claims to represent around 1.25 lakh app-based taxis in the the Delhi-NCR, demands that fares be increased from existing Rs. 6 per km to around Rs. 20 per km. It also demands abolition of 25 percent commission the drivers are charged by companies.

Google Photos' People Folders disappearing for some users; Google working on a fix
Some users are reporting the disappearance of their 'People' folders in Google Photos. This folder essentially curates all the faces that keep appearing in your photos, and segregates them into a different folders for easy exploration at a later date. While some users are still able to see it, albeit with lots of photos missing, for many it isn't showing up at all. The complaints have been posted on Google's product forum, with many users reiterating the same issue. While some users claim that they can't see any list of people, some users say "that the list of people is now very short and missing many people."

Google has acknowledged the issue, and is working on a fix. This means that Google is not killing off the 'People' folder secretly, but it's actually just a bug that is causing the issues. The company has also recommended checking if the 'Face grouping' option is off, as turning Face grouping off will delete face groups in your account. To switch on Face grouping, open the Google Photos app. At the top left, tap Menu > Settings > Face grouping > On.

WhatsApp looks set to get 'Change Number' feature; Live Location feature spotted again
WhatsApp is testing a new feature that could make life less painful when changing your contact number. As your WhatsApp is often tied with your phone number, it is always a pain to let users known that you have changed your number, and you end up either sending a broadcast to all your contacts informing them about the change, or just let users know in due time. WhatsApp is trying to ease this transition, and is testing a feature that will notify your friends and family about your number change for you. Separately, it appears the Live Location sharing feature that was recently introduced by both Facebook and Google will make its way to WhatsApp soon.

MapmyIndia showcases Street View competitor 'RealView', partners with ISRO, Idea, and others
Maps and navigation service provider MapmyIndia announced a new app and map-powered keyboard on Monday, but also announced the next generation of its RealView technology, a Google Street View competitor. Street View was denied permission in India by the Home Ministry, creating a niche for companies to fill.

MapmyIndia says that it will be an all-India map of the outdoors and indoors areas, in 360-degrees and 3D, with the mapping data captured from on the ground and through satellite imagery. At the same time, the company continues to stress on its eLoc initiative - essentially a shortcode for physical addresses.

Apart from this, the company also announced a large number of partnerships. These include partnerships with ISRO, Reverie technologies, Idea Cellular, Udacity, and Aatapaha.

Xiaomi and Sony launch new headphones
Xiaomi launched its closed-back Mi Headphones Comfort in India at Rs. 2,999. The headphones feature a minimalist design and have intuitive controls over the left ear cup. The company says that the headphones come with breathable pads that allow users to wear them comfortably for extended number of hours. The headphones will be made available from the company's website, Mi.com, from Tuesday 12pm.

Sony launched three new pairs of EXTRA BASS headphones in India, alongside four new EXTRA BASS wireless speakers. The former will be available in India via Sony Center and other major electronics stores from Thursday, while the latter will be available from April 25. Sony MDR-XB950B1 (Rs. 12,990), MDR-XB550AP (Rs. 3,290), and MDR-XB510AS (Rs. 2,790). The first is a pair of wireless circum-aural headphones, while the other two are wired, with the MDR-XB550AP a supra-aural pair and the MDR-XB510AS an in-ear pair with dust and water resistance meant for sports. All three support voice assist functions via their built-in microphones.

Paytm Food Wallet launched, aims to help firms enable tax savings for their employees
In a strategic move, Paytm has launched a new feature called 'Food Wallet' that looks to help enterprises transfer food reimbursements to their employees under a tax-free bracket in a cashless manner. This looks to target services like Sodexo and Ticket Restaurant, by making the food allowance a digital affair preventing loss of coupons or expiry. Notably, MobiKwik launched a similar service back in March.

Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma also tweeted that the wallet will recognise your payments at a food or beverage outlet, and use the Food Wallet automatically at all partnered places.

Disclosure: Paytm's parent company One97 is an investor in NDTV's Gadgets 360.

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Further reading: Reliance Jio, Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6, Ola, Uber, Google Photos, WhatsApp, MapMyIndia, Paytm, Xiaomi Mi Headphones Comfort India Launch, Sony EXTRA BASS Headphones