Flipkart Big Diwali Sale, Jio Phone Rival Smartphone by Airtel, Samsung C9 Pro Price Cut, and More: Your 360 Daily

With the Indian festival of Diwali approaching soon, e-commerce platforms are gearing up for yet another round of mega sales. Flipkart has revealed the dates for its Big Diwali Sale, which will be held from October 14 to 17. Like most sales, the company has given a sneak peek at some of the deals that you can expect. Mobiles continue to be a big seller in such sales and according to Flipkart, we can expect discounts on some of the popular models. The 'top sellers' category has the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Lenovo K8 Plus, and Xiaomi Redmi 4A, in that order, while the 'budget phones' category has the Moto C Plus, Moto E4 Plus, and Samsung Galaxy J7-6. Flipkart will also be hosting flash sales every day during this period. The e-commerce giant is currently hosting a TV and appliances sale. 

Airtel's 'Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone' initiative targets Jio Phone
Following the hype of the Reliance Jio Phone, it was only a matter of time before other telecom operators showed up with their offerings. Airtel is the first to respond with its 'Mera Pehla 4G Smartphone' initiative, where it has tied up with Karbonn Mobiles to offer the Karbonn A40 Indian for an 'effective price' of Rs. 1,399. In order to get this rock-bottom price, customers will need to make a down payment of Rs. 2,899 for smartphone and then make a minimum amount of recharges over the course of three years to receive cashbacks totaling Rs. 1,500. 

Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro gets another price cut 
Samsung's first smartphone with 6G of RAM gets another price cut, this time, bringing it down to an all-time low of Rs. 29,900. Back in June, the Samsung Galaxy C9 Pro (Review) received its first price cut which brought the price down to Rs. 31,900 from the launch price of Rs. 36,900. To recall its specifications, the dual-SIM (Nano+Nano) 4G-enabled sports a 6-inch full HD (1080x1920) AMOLED display, and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 SoC, with four cores clocked at 1.95GHz and the rest at 1.4GHz.

Ola raises $1.1 billion from Chinese investors 
In a continued fight against Uber for market dominance in India, Ola has managed to raise $1.1 billion in its latest round of funding. This money comes from Chinese conglomerate Tencent, as well existing investors including Japan's SoftBank. The company said it will be using the capital to make investments in supply, technology, and cutting-edge innovations to build for the country's unique transportation needs."We are thrilled to have Tencent Holdings join us as new partners in our mission to build mobility for a billion Indians," said Bhavish Aggarwal, chief executive officer and a founder of Ola said in a press statement.

Honor launches the 7X smartphone in China 
Chinese smartphone maker, Honor, a sub-brand of Huawei, has launched the Honor 7X in China. The successor to the Honor 6X, the new phone follows the trend of 18:9 displays and features a dual rear camera setup. Prices start at CNY 1,299 (roughly Rs. 12,890) and it is available in various storage configurations. It features a 5.93-inch full-HD+ (1080x2160 pixels) curved display featuring an 18:9 screen ratio, Android 7.0 Nougat-based EMUI 5.1, octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 659 SoC and 4GB of RAM. It also has a duo of 16-megapixel and 2-megapixel rear cameras and an 8-megapixel front-facing camera. 

Xolo and Intex launch new smartphones in India 
Intex has launched two budget-centric smartphones, the Aqua Lions X1 at Rs. 7,499 and the Aqua Lions X1+ at Rs. 8,499. The phones come with a one-time screen replacement offer and DataBack which is data saving app and the company claims it can help users save up to 500MB data. Both smartphones feature similar features like 5.2-inch HD displays, Android 7.0, 2800mAh battery, 13-megapixel rear camera, and a 5-megapixel front camera. 

Xolo also launched a bunch of new smartphones like the Xolo Era 3X, Xolo Era 2V and Xolo Era 3. All three smartphones will be a Flipkart exclusive and will go on sale this Saturday. Xolo is also offering a one-time screen replacement offer that's valid for one year from the date of purchase. All three new Era-series smartphones are powered by quad-core MediaTek MT6737 processor clocked at 1.25GHz.

Google fixes 'bug' in its new Home Mini smart home speaker
Google launched the Home Mini at its Made by Google hardware event in San Francisco but devices given out at the event seem to have a software bug. Artem Russakovskii from Android Police noticed something amiss when his unit kept waking up multiple times a day, even without using the hot word, 'Ok Google'. The Mountain View company has since acknowledged the bug and issued a software update to address it. Google says this is an issue with just the initial units that were given out and that retail units will not have this issue. 

Twitter introduces Happening Now feature  
Twitter has added a new feature called Happening Now which is designed to show tweets about events and topics that are happening currently. This will begin with the sports segment and will soon expand to other areas like entertainment and breaking news, according to a report by TechCrunch. This feature is similar to Moments, except that the latter offers more of a curated list based on topics and events that are happening around you. 

Lava launches Helium 12 Windows 10 laptop
Lava has launched a new budget series laptop called the Helium 12, that's priced at Rs. 12,999. The laptop runs Windows 10 and will be available in Silver and Gold colours. The laptop weighs 1.31kg and features a 12.5-inch HD display, an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 CPU, 2GB DDR3 RAM, and a 10000mAh battery. There's 32GB of built-in storage which can be expanded via the SD card slot.  

Indian government considering Apple's proposal to manufacture in India
It's no secret that Apple has been eyeing India as another manufacturing hub for its devices. Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam has now said that the government is considering iPhone maker Apple's proposal for setting up a manufacturing unit in India. The company had reportedly sought concessions, including duty exemption on manufacturing and repair units and even a relaxation in the mandated 30 percent local sourcing of components.

In other news, Apple has partnered with A.R. Rahman to open two new Mac Labs at the latter's KM Music Conservatory (KMMC) in Chennai. Eddy Cue, Apple's SVP of Internet Software and Services, was in Mumbai to make the announcement.