Airtel vs Reliance Jio, Paytm Payments Bank, Samsung Galaxy A (2017) Price, and More: Your 360 Daily

It’s two days until CES 2017 officially begins, but with press events scheduled before that, we’re already seeing leaks and even formal announcements before the show from some companies. So until you hold your breath for what should be a tech-enthused week, here are your top stories for the day.

Airtel Offering 3GB free data on select plans
In what appears to be a full-on battle between the incumbent telecom operators and new entrant Reliance Jio, Airtel is offering 3GB of free data on select prepaid and postpaid plans for the next 12 months. Be sure to read the fine print.

Paytm's payments bank gets RBI nod
After launching the Wallet service three years ago, Paytm has formally received permission to open its payments bank. Payment banks fall in between prepaid wallets and full-fledged banks, and have a limit of Rs. 1 Lakh worth of deposits per customer. Also on Tuesday, the company enabled transferring money to its Wallet using Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps.

What Are Payment Banks, What They Can and Cannot Do, and Who Will They Affect?

Galaxy S8 may come with Microsoft’s Continuum-like feature
With Windows 10, Microsoft offered a unique experience of converting your smartphone into a PC, by attaching peripherals like a keyboard, mouse and monitor to it using an accessory. It is rumoured that Samsung is working on a similar feature for its upcoming Galaxy S8 smartphone.

LeEco Le 2 now with 64GB internal storage
The Le 2 by LeEco is a mid-range smartphone from the Chinese upstart. Originally available with 32GB of internal storage, a new SKU is now available with double the storage for Rs. 3,000 more, exclusively on Snapdeal.

BlackBerry teases new QWERTY phone
Steve Cistulli, President & GM of TCL Communication North America, tweeted a teaser video of what seems to be a new BlackBerry phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. TCL is making phones under the BlackBerry brand, as the once-popular Canadian smartphone maker is focusing its efforts on software now.

Lenovo announces multiple products before CES
Lenovo announced a series of products announced today, all of which will be showcased at CES 2017. These included new ‘Legion’ branded pro-gaming laptops and a VR headset that supports Microsoft’s Windows Holographic program. The famous Thinkpad line also saw refreshes to models like the Thinkpad X1 Carbon, X1 Yoga, etc. These are high-end convertible 2-in-1 laptops. Oh and not to forget an Amazon Echo competitor that’s powered by Amazon Alexa itself. But it is said to have better sound quality, which put a smile on our face.

AMD unveils FreeSync 2
AMD has unveiled FreeSync 2, which should put an end to choppy gameplay and broken frames on PCs, thereby improving the gaming experience. Check out everything that’s new in FreeSync 2.

LG to compete with Google Home, Amazon Echo
LG is set take on the popular assistant speaker systems by Google and Amazon, with “advanced robot technologies” that will be demonstrated at CES 2017. LG's new Hub Robot will work both as a smart home gateway and a personal assistant for the users. The company also unveiled Super UHD lineup of LCD TVs featuring Nano Cell technology.

Asus AR-ready phone leaked ahead of CES
The Asus ZenFone AR, a Google Tango enabled smartphone that is designed to be used for augmented reality applications, has leaked ahead of its official reveal at CES 2017. The Asus ZenFone AR is said to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 SoC. The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro launched last year was the world’s first Tango-enabled phone.

Samsung A3 and A5 2017 model pricing revealed
Samsung has announced the price of the Galaxy A3 (2017) and Galaxy A5 (2017) phones that were unveiled on Monday in Euros, and it costs roughly Rs. 23,500 and Rs. 30,600, when converted. The new Samsung Galaxy A (2017) series of smartphones sport "enhanced" cameras compared to their predecessors, optimised for low-light conditions.

iPhone 6 at less than Rs. 10,000 under exchange offer
Flipkart is offering the iPhone 6 for Rs. 31,990, but with an additional Rs. 22,000 exchange discount that’s available right now, you can buy the smartphone for as little as Rs. 9,990 - though the maximum discount is available only to owners of select smartphones.

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