Hands on with the Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro

While Xiaomi unveiled the Redmi 6 Pro in China in June this year, the company’s latest budget smartphone was launched in India today.

The budget and mid-range smartphone market in India is very crowded and Xiaomi has reveled in this chaos with a phone at every couple of thousand rupees – at certain points, more than one. With this launch, Xiaomi has nine Redmi phones (plus different memory variants of each device) in the market in India all under 15,000 rupees or about $200, along with non-Redmi devices like the Mi A2.

While the confusion to pick a device that fits one’s needs is a tad tedious, the wide choice for customers isn’t actually a bad thing. I spent a few days with the Redmi 6 Pro before the launch, and here are my initial impressions of the device.

Design

The Redmi 6 Pro looks like, well, most other Redmi smartphones. Xiaomi has settled on this design language for a while, and although it has started to get boring, apparently, most users don’t mind. There’s no differentiation in design, but the ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ approach works for the company and the aluminum body with rounded edges looks just fine.

The front is where one sees an aberration. The Redmi 6 Pro is the first Xiaomi smartphone with a notch on top of the display, although the company was one of the earliest ones to offer an all-screen bezel-less display with its premium Mi MIX series. You can hide the notch if you so prefer.

There’s a tall 5.84-inch Full HD+ display with a 19:9 aspect ratio with a pixel density of 432 pixels per inch. It’s a good display for a phone in this segment, but nothing exceptional.

Specifications

The Redmi 6 Pro is powered by the Snapdragon 625 processor, Xiaomi’s staple ingredient for most of the devices that it cooks for this segment. A good balance of horsepower and efficiency on a budget makes it a fine choice, really.

The phone comes in two memory variants and packs in 3GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage or 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage which can be expanded up to 256GB with microSD card. It comes with 2+1 slots allowing you to use two nanoSIMs as well as a dedicated memory card.

The internals make for a fine combination for an affordable smartphone and packs in enough punch for most users. In the limited time I spent with the higher spec’d device, I didn’t encounter any wobbles or lags, and even extensive multitasking or multi-tabbed browsing was a breeze.

The Redmi 6 Pro boasts of a large 4000mAh battery – clearly one of the highlights of the device. We’ll get to the battery life and charging times in our complete review. There’s microUSB instead of USB Type-C which is a relic of the past that most affordable smartphones stick with even in 2018.

The Redmi 6 Pro runs MIUI 9.6 out of the box, the company’s proprietary UI layer over Android 8.1 Oreo. It will be soon upgraded to MIUI 10, which is also based on Android Oreo. No word on Android Pie though. There’s a fingerprint sensor at the back as well as Face Unlock feature.

Display	5.84-inch Full HD+ (2280 x 1080) 19:9 aspect ratio
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 Octa-core 2.0 GHz
GPU	Adreno 506
RAM	3GB/4GB
Storage	32GB/64GB Expandable up to 256GB with microSD card
Rear Camera	12MP (Sony IMX486) + 5MP f/2.2 aperture 1.25µm pixel size PDAF Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS)
Front Camera	5MP
Battery	4000mAh
Software	Android 8.1 Oreo with MIUI 9.6
Dimensions and weight	149.33 x 71.68 x 8.75mm; 178g

Camera

The Redmi 6 Pro sports a vertically-mounted dual camera setup at the back. The primary camera is a 12MP f/2.2 sensor combined with a 5MP secondary sensor. There’s PDAF and the usual AI shenanigans too like the AI portrait mode. The Redmi 6 Pro comes with Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) as well.

This is the same setup we saw on the Redmi Note 5 Pro which arguably offers the best camera performance in the segment.

On the front, there’s a 5MP camera. The front camera too sports AI portrait and AI beauty modes.

Pricing and Availability

Priced at 10,999 rupees ($153) for the 3GB+32GB variant and 12,999 rupees for the 4GB+64GB variant ($180), the Redmi 6 Pro will be available exclusively on Amazon.in as well as on mi.com starting September 11 at 12 noon and subsequently at Mi Homes, Xiaomi’s own retail stores.

The Redmi 6 Pro will come in four color variants – Black, Blue, Gold, and Red – and it comes with a protective case bundled in the box.

What are your initial thoughts on the Redmi 6 Pro, and would you like to pick one up? Let us know in the comments. Stay tuned for our complete review!

Vivo V11 Pro review: well done basics with half-baked extras

Vivo has been making waves recently by adopting futuristic technologies ahead of anyone else. It’s at the forefront of the bezel-free display movement and was the first to put an under-glass fingerprint scanner in a device.

Just six months after the launch of the iPhone X-like Vivo V9, the V11 is now here, complete with an in-display fingerprint scanner and tiny teardrop notch. This is the Vivo V11 Pro review.

A Note on the Vivo V11 Pro review: In this Vivo V11 Pro review we’ll primarily be talking about the global version known as the V11. The V11 Pro in India is the same phone, just with 64GB of storage. I used the Vivo V11 for a week during IFA 2018 on the Blau.de network and Wi-Fi. The phone received multiple updates during the review period, but for the majority was running FunTouch OS 4.5 on Android 8.1 Oreo with build number PD1814F_EX_A_1.6.7. A final update to PD1814F_EX_A_1.7.2 arrived just before publication but didn’t deliver any significant changes.

Vivo V11 Design

To say the Vivo V11 has shaken off the V9’s iPhone X exterior would be an understatement. The tiny teardrop notch is unique and far less intrusive than the broad notch of the V9. The in-display fingerprint scanner delivers a little bit of the future and the gradient color on the back adds a touch of flair. The Vivo V11 is a really striking-looking device.

The tiny teardrop notch is unique and far less intrusive than the broad notch of the V9.

The starry night colorway I have shifts from a blueish purple at the bottom to an inky blue-black at the top. There’s a little bit of sparkle to the color at the bottom, shifting between blue when viewed front-on to purple at an angle. It’s a relatively superficial accent, but it definitely adds a little character. The other color option is called nebula and shifts from purple at the bottom to blue at the top.

Like its predecessor, the V11’s shiny polycarbonate back panel collects fingerprints very quickly. It’s quite a light device and feels a little cheap compared to the glass sandwiches common today. Nevertheless, plastic has many benefits, like impact resistance, cellular reception, and weight, so it’s far from a bad choice.

At 156 grams, the Vivo V11 is lightweight and durable, but expect micro-abrasions to start appearing almost immediately. The gradient design covers these imperfections admirably, but if you like a scratch-free phone put a protective case on it. Vivo includes a free clear plastic case in the box for just this reason. There’s a screen protector pre-applied too, but it was so prone to picking up scratches, I (perhaps counterintuitively) ended up taking it off.

Vivo V11 Display

The Vivo V11 display is really good, making the jump to a Super AMOLED panel. With side bezels of just 1.76mm combined with a teardrop notch and a small chin, the 19.5:9 screen occupies 91.27 percent of the V11’s footprint. At 6.41 inches, the display is really big, but the V11 never feels like a large phone. It’s FullHD+ with a 2,340 x 1,080 resolution and a pixel density of 402ppi.

At 6.41 inches, the display is really big, but the V11 never feels like a large phone.

The colors are rich, the contrast is great, the blacks are suitably deep, and the V11 gets plenty bright enough outdoors. There is an always-on display option in the lock screen settings, and you should definitely take advantage of it now that the V11 uses OLED display technology. Because this is the global version, WhatsApp is now supported alongside phone and message notifications.

The small notch at the very top of the screen is discrete and far less invasive than other notches. Unfortunately, you can’t disguise it in the settings, so you’ll have to get used to it.

Despite the notch’s small size, you still get truncated app notification icons in the status bar. You can remove some icons in the settings, like the network speed indicator, but the order is all out of whack. If network speed and cellular reception were on the other side of the notch next to the Wi-Fi signal and battery icons, there’d be more room for notification icons on the left.

The in-display fingerprint scanner occupies a small space at the bottom of the screen and it does just fine. While it works most of the time, it’s noticeably slower than some other in-display scanners and far slower than your average capacitive scanner. You also need to give it a decent press to recognize your print. Still, the fact there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner on a mid-range smartphone already is a good sign of things to come.

Vivo has improved its infrared face unlocking too, using 1,024 facial feature points to unlock your device, even in the dark. In my experience, the V11 unlocks faster by using your face than your fingerprint. I highly doubt it’s as secure as a fingerprint, but it rejected the faces of multiple other people every time. It even works at fairly sharp angles, which adds to the convenience on the one hand and to my security suspicions on the other.

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Vivo V11 Hardware

The Vivo V11 specs break the V9’s mold, adding a higher-powered Snapdragon 660 AIE with eight Kryo 260 cores and an Adreno 512 GPU, along with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. The Indian “Pro” version drops the storage to 64GB.

The Vivo V11 adds the higher-powered Snapdragon 660 AIE along with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.

There’s a 3.5mm headphone jack here, but for a phone as futuristic-looking as the V11, the inclusion of micro-USB for charging beggars belief. One can only assume it was a cost-cutting decision, but on a near bezel-less phone with an under-glass fingerprint scanner, it’s a retrograde choice. Another cost-cutting omission worth mentioning is the lack of an IP rating.

There’s no NFC here either, though the V11 supports USB OTG and USB 2.0 connection speeds. There are two nano-SIM card trays and a dedicated microSD card slot for expandable storage. Bluetooth 5 is supported and you can switch out your preferred audio codec to SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD, or LDAC if you’re using Bluetooth headphones.

There’s a single bottom-firing speaker next to the micro-USB port and it’s the only speaker used for music or media playback. It’s loud and actually sounds pretty good, with crisp, clear highs and decent mids, though bass isn’t as strong as I would like. So far so good.

Things get a little weird with the wide sliver of an earpiece speaker above the notch though. It’s so small you probably wouldn’t even notice it until you answered a call. But it’s so loud it sounds like you’ve got speakerphone on, broadcasting your call to everyone around you. The only way to address this is to lower the volume to the point where you really have to line things up right to hear properly.

Given the V11’s very loud earpiece speaker, it seems strange not to use it as one half of a stereo audio pair for music.

Going as close to bezel-free as possible requires some compromise and this speaker is still preferable to weird alternatives like the piezoelectric speakers we’ve seen elsewhere. I’m guessing Vivo didn’t use the Screen SoundCasting technology from the Nex for cost reasons, but given the V11’s very loud earpiece speaker, it seems strange not to use it as one half of a stereo audio pair for music.

Vivo V11 Performance

The Vivo V11 generally handled itself well throughout the testing period. With the Snapdragon 660 and 6GB of RAM, response rates were what you’d expect and on a par with other devices with similar specs. Plastic isn’t as good a transmitter of heat as glass or metal, but I didn’t notice the V11 heating up, even during benchmarking or gaming. Here are some benchmark scores so you can compare apples to apples.

Vivo V11 Software

Because I have a global version of the V11, I didn’t suffer any of the compatibility issues I had with the Chinese version of the Nex. Google Play is installed out of the box along with a bunch of standard Google apps, and Gmail notifications came through just fine. There are a couple dozen pre-installed Vivo apps to contend with, but some of them can be uninstalled.

Vivo’s FunTouch OS 4.5 sits atop Android 8.1 Oreo (no dates for the Pie update yet, sorry folks) and delivers a lot of additional functionality. It’s still a blatant iOS ripoff, but if you don’t mind that it’s manageable. Unfortunately, there’s still no option to enable the app drawer.

The V11 supports iOS-like gesture navigation that’s a little different from what was introduced in the Pie beta, but it’s pretty easy to adapt. On the V11, a swipe up from the bottom left takes you back a step. Swiping up from the center takes you home and swiping up and holding brings up the app overview screen. A swipe up from the right opens the control center and swiping down from the top of the screen drags down the notifications shade. It’ll be interesting to see if any of this changes with the update to Android 9.

Unfortunately, if you switch to gesture nav you’ll no longer have a convenient way to summon Google Assistant, which is otherwise accessed by long pressing the on-screen home button. You also can’t switch between apps as quickly as with virtual buttons, so the additional screen real estate gesture nav enables comes at the cost of some lost functionality.

The Jovi virtual assistant is back, but there’s no dedicated hardware button like on the Nex. Jovi largely seems relegated to managing your in-game interruptions in Game Mode and handling some AI camera tricks. I can only assume Jovi still doesn’t support English and primarily only works with Chinese retailers for visual product searches, hence those not being included on the global version. Fortunately, the V11 has g and Google Lens on board, so most Westerners will likely not even notice Jovi’s limited applicability.

Because the V11 is a global unit, switching launchers is simple and doesn’t require a Chinese phone number or a Vivo account. Simply download Nova Launcher (or another launcher), tap the alert at the top of the app and select Nova as your preferred launcher. If you do this, you might want to re-enable on-screen navigation buttons, as Nova clashes with some of the V11’s swipe gestures.

There’s a convenient app safe for protecting apps and files with your fingerprint or face ID, and you can duplicate social media and messaging apps for multiple logins. There’s a bunch of gesture-based controls here too, including silencing your phone and shaking it to turn on the flashlight and so on. You can also set your own shortcut for long-pressing the volume down button while the screen is off. I opted for launching the camera but you can choose from a few options.

Vivo V11 Battery

Vivo’s FunTouch OS doesn’t list screen-on time so I can’t give you the usual battery usage stats. I can tell you the 3,400mAh battery on the Vivo V11 lasts at least a day and more like a day and a half. Even during IFA 2018 when I was on my phone far more frequently than usual, it never looked even close to running out of juice. There’s an 18W 5V/2A-9V/2A quick charging brick included in the box and Vivo’s Dual Engine Fast Charging tech fills the V11 up in less than an hour and a half.

The 3,400mAh battery on the Vivo V11 lasts at least a day and more like a day and a half.

Vivo V11 Camera

I’m of two minds about the Vivo V11 camera. It performs well enough with the basics like daytime, low light, and high-contrast shots, but only in very specific conditions. The host of AI additions here are fairly unnecessary, often serving only to butcher an otherwise decent image. If you want a basic smartphone camera for pretty good shots in most conditions, the Vivo V11 is fine. If you want all the extra bells and whistles or need a versatile camera for a variety of tricky shots, this is not the phone for you.

The V11 camera performs well enough with the basics like daytime, low light, and high-contrast shots, but only in very specific conditions.

The main camera is a 12MP f/1.8 with 1.28-micron pixels backed up by a 5MP f/2.4 camera for portrait mode bokeh shots. In the main camera settings, you can switch to 24MP, making me think Vivo is using interpolation to bump resolution without adding any extra detail. However, an app like AIDA64 lists the primary camera as 24MP, so Vivo could be downsampling a 24MP image to 12MP. I’ll update this review if I get confirmation either way. On the front, there’s a 25MP f/2.0 camera.

I was really impressed by the HDR mode on the Vivo V11. It didn’t overdo the results, nicely balancing areas of deep shadow and brightness without giving it that telltale HDR look. In fact, the camera’s HDR was its biggest standout for me.

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Daytime shots are generally good but you’ll need to stick with the primary camera. The 25MP front-facing camera just adds too much noise to make the resulting photos worthwhile. I very quickly gave up on it for selfies because the shots it took were grainy and lacked sharpness. The 12MP camera captures a decent amount of detail so you can still get some good shots, but it can’t stack up to more expensive sensors.

Low light and night-time photography was a mixed bag. Given a static subject and sufficiently steady hands, the V11 can capture some good-looking images. Add a person or moving subject to the scene and the image is noticeably worse. Just take a look at the girl’s shoe in the foreground of the image below to see what I mean. The V11 doesn’t crush blacks as much as phones like the Huawei P20, so expect a lot of noise in the dark. Blown-out highlights in things like street lights were a problem at night too, which is a shame considering how well the V11 handles dynamic range in the daytime.

Panorama stitching is very spotty, with blurry stitching points and general fuzziness across the image. In all fairness I wouldn’t recommend using it. The same goes for basically all of the “AI” camera features. The lighting effects are pretty cheesy and not terribly well done. The monochrome background effect worked well, but the color added to faces in the foreground throws things off.

Background blur in portrait mode shots still looks too fake for me, and the edge detection is just as bad here as most phones, especially around hair. If you really like portrait mode shots, you’ll probably be able to live with it, but it’s far from convincing.

AI beauty modes have never been my cup of tea, and that hasn’t changed with the V11. However, they offer a huge range of reality-bending tweaks here, from the position and size of your nose and eyes, to the length of your chin, width of your face, and your skin tone. This software was developed with the Asian market in mind, where giving yourself cartoon-like features is popular. If you’ve ever wondered what you’d look like as a pink wax alien, the V11 will get you there. Used in restraint you can get some decent effects, but as with most beauty modes the skin smoothing is just far too heavy-handed for me.

The V11 is a capable shooter if your photography needs are fairly straightforward but the majority of the gimmicky extras aren’t done well.

The AI scene recognition wasn’t quite as full on as other phones, typically doing a good job subtly tweaking the settings just enough to enhance the image. In some cases, the V11 overdid things, like the yellow leaf in the gallery, which pops so much it makes my eyes hurt. You can disable the AI scene recognition in the settings. Because it usually takes a while to kick in, you can also take one shot before and another after the AI enhancements for comparison.

Video wasn’t great on the V11. The lack of image stabilization was very noticeable unless you were resting the phone on something. There’s support for slow-motion video and time-lapse, but no 4K.

When all is said and done, the Vivo V11 camera is far from great. It is a capable shooter if your photography needs are fairly straightforward. The vast majority of the gimmicky extras ladled on are not done well enough to be impressive, only serving to clog up the camera experience. I would’ve much preferred it if Vivo had just focused on improving the consistency of the basic smartphone camera requirements and left the rest out.

There are a lot more capable smartphone cameras in this segment, so if your main concern with a phone is its camera, you might want to shop around. However, I got several updates during the Vivo V11 review period, so camera performance could well improve in time.

Vivo V11 Specs

Display	6.41-inch Super AMOLED 2,340 x 1,080 19.5:9 aspect ratio
SoC	Qualcomm Snapdragon 660
GPU	Adreno 512
RAM	6GB
Storage	128GB Expandable
Cameras	Rear: Dual camera Main: 12MP, f/1.8 aperture, 1.28 micron pixels, dual-pixel autofocus Secondary: 5MP, f/2.4 aperture Front: 25MP, f/2.0 aperture
Audio	Headphone jack
Battery	3,400mAh Non-removable
IP rating	N/A
Sensors	Accelerometer Ambient light Proximity E-compass In-display fingerprint
Connectivity	MicroUSB Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5.0
Software	FunTouch OS 4.5 Android 8.1 Oreo
Dimensions and weight	157.91 x 75.08 x 7.9mm 156g
Colors	starry night (black and blue) nebula (blue and purple)

Vivo V11 Gallery

Pricing and Final Thoughts

While the Vivo V11 has a lot going for it, a lot of it seems superficial. It’s not that there’s no substance. The phone handles the basics really well. It looks great, with a great screen, good performance, and outstanding battery life. But its camera is sub-par, and at the equivalent of $365 – $440 depending on your market, it’s competing with alternatives sporting even better specs and cameras. Exact pricing for the V11’s markets will be revealed during the official launch in India on September 6.

Vivo’s software experience won’t be for everyone, and the use of micro-USB is a head-scratcher to be sure. The lack of an IP rating, NFC, and wireless charging will also disappoint many, although the inclusion of the 3.5mm headphone jack partially makes up for it.

The mid-range market has seen plenty of high-performance phones bringing flagship specs at lower prices lately. The Vivo V11’s problem is it attempts to bring so many high-end features that its price point simply can’t deliver the quality those features demand.

I’m not saying mid-range phones don’t deserve flagship features, but if the attempt falls short, I for one would prefer the basics done well with no extra gimmicks at all. The Vivo V11 bites off more than it can chew, but if it had taken a slightly smaller bite it would’ve ended up being much more fulfilling.

Evernote Slashes Premium Subscription Rate Amid Reports of Company ‘Death Spiral’

Productivity app Evernote has slashed its premium subscription rates amid reports of a flurry of key staff departures at the startup.

An annual membership for the productivity suite now costs $42, down from $70, provided customers pay the fee in one lump sum. Monthly premium subscriptions remain at $7.99 per month (almost $100 over a year), so the deal is worth looking at if you’re a long-time fan of the app.

According to TechCrunch, the productivity app has lost several of its most senior executives in the last month, including CTO Anirban Kundu, CFO Vincent Toolan, CPO Erik Wrobel, and head of HR Michelle Wagner.

Evernote has not commented on the departures, but one source claiming knowledge of the matter told TechCrunch that “Evernote is in a death spiral… Paid user growth and active users have been flat for the last six years and their enterprise product offering has not caught on.”

Evernote used to be ranked as one of the most popular productivity apps in the App Store, but its popularity has gradually waned with the emergence of rival (and free) alternatives such as Apple Notes, Google Keep and Microsoft OneNote.

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Award winning robot travels through water pipes to detect leaks

It sounds unbelievable, but each day around 20 percent of clean water produced in the world is lost as the result of leaky pipes. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, this amounts to an estimated 6 billion gallons of clean water per day in the U.S. alone. The problem is exacerbated by current detection technology, which means that most of the leaks are either not found or discovered too late, after they’ve already caused sinkholes and burst pipes.

A new soft robot may be able to help, however — and it’s just netted the 2018 James Dyson Award, a design competition to celebrate up-and-coming inventors. The award-winning creation is the work of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) doctoral graduate You Wu. Called Lighthouse, the low-cost bot is designed to travel through water pipes on the hunt for leaks before they turn into major problems.

All a technician needs to do to use Lighthouse is to insert it into a water pipe by way of an existing hydrant. It then passively flows through the pipe, navigating around pipe elbows, discovering leaks due to the suction force of the puncture. It then measures the strength of the suction and records details of its location. The technician can then retrieve the robot when it’s flushed out of the pipes through a hydrant, and wirelessly download a map of leaks.

“Winning the James Dyson Award is a great recognition of my six years of effort to solve the world’s water loss problem through engineering and design,” Wu told Digital Trends. “This summer, I built my company, WatchTower Robotics, with the technology coming out of this project. The James Dyson Award is bringing publicity to my company at the perfect time. It will connect us with potential customers, team members, partners, and investors. Moreover, it will help us educate the public that the 20 percent water loss is a real and common problem — and now we have a technology to address it effectively.”

U.S. runners-up for the James Dyson Award include Infinite Cooling, a technology that recovers large quantities of clean water from power plant cooling tower plumes, and Night Loo, a portable, personal urinal for women and girls living in refugee camps.

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Instagram said to be prepping a standalone shopping app

Patrick Foto/Getty Images

A report out Tuesday suggests Instagram is planning to launch a standalone shopping app allowing users to browse and purchase products in just a few taps.

Sources claiming to have knowledge of the matter told The Verge that the app will be called “IG Shopping” and enable merchants and brands to promote and sell their wares.

According to the report, the app is still being prepped and while there may be a timeline for its possible launch or testing, the sources did not share that information.

It’s not clear if Instagram’s current ecommerce features would remain within the original app, or be moved to the dedicated shopping app.

While satisfying the shopping urges of online consumers, launching a shopping-only Instagram app could also help to persuade more businesses that a presence on Instagram — or an Instagram shopping app — is vital. Around 25 million businesses already use Facebook-owned Instagram to promote and sell their products, so the company would be able to quickly populate its dedicated shopping app with storefronts, allowing it to hit the ground running. Then it just needs people to download the app …

Paid-for business tools could also become a money-spinner for Instagram, the sources suggest, as new promotion and management tools could be introduced for the shopping-focused app.

Shopping on Instagram

Instagram introduced an in-app shopping experience in 2016 before rolling it out more widely last year. The system offers purchasing opportunities via tagged items in posted images, and more recently Instagram has been working to make the shopping experience as seamless as possible.

Given Facebook’s propensity to launch spin-off apps, the arrival of a shopping-focused Instagram app wouldn’t come as a huge surprise. The last such standalone offering from Instagram came in with the launch of IGTV in June 2018; others include Hyperlapse and video-clip-generator Boomerang.

But seeing that Instagram has built its success on photo sharing with ecommerce only added later, it could find it a challenge to convince ‘grammers to download an app geared toward shopping. Having said that, around 80 percent of Instagram users — that’s around 800,000 people — are known to follow at least one business, a statistic that could be enough to persuade the company that its shopping app has a chance of success.

It could be a while before a shopping app from Instagram sees the light of day, but we’ll be sure to update if it happens.

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Skype finally gets built-in call recording so you can ‘capture special moments’

Skype

Skype has finally gotten around to adding call recording to its service.

The Microsoft-owned company said the feature is available now on the latest version of Skype for desktop and mobile. But somewhat surprisingly, it’s not yet ready for Windows 10. Hang in there though — it’s coming for Windows 10 in “a few weeks.”

“When we added video to Skype calls over 10 years ago, the ability to share important moments with loved ones took a big step forward,” Skype said in a post announcing the new feature, adding, “Today, we’re introducing call recording to help capture special moments in a Skype call with your loved ones or record important meetings with your colleagues.”

It’s easy to record a Skype call. Simply hit the “+” sign at the bottom of the display, then select “start recording.”

Whenever someone in the video chat hits the record button, everyone else in the chat will be notified by way of a banner, in order to keep everything transparent.

The cloud-based feature records everyone’s video as well as any screens shared during the call — in other words, it’ll record the Skype conversation from the perspective of each caller, as the display will vary slightly for each person. When the conversation is over, you have 30 days to download it and/or share a link to it.

To save a call on desktop, go to your chat and click “more options,” and then select “save to downloads,” or “save as” if you want to put it in a particular folder.

Saving a chat on mobile is straightforward, too. Simply tap-and-hold the recorded call in the chat and then, when the menu shows up, tap “save.” The recording will then automatically download and save to your device’s camera roll.

Skype for Business customers have been able to record their calls for a while, so it’s a mystery why it’s taken so long to land for Skype’s regular service. Up to now, anyone who wanted to record their Skype calls had to download third-party software, and so it remains to be seen whether users ditch their regular recorder in favor of Skype’s built-in offering.

Skype’s call-recording feature lands in the same week that the app ditched its Snapchat-like “Highlights” feature in a series of changes designed to simplify the app after a year in which it cluttered the interface with extras that users didn’t want.

If Skype is still failing to deliver, check out Digital Trends’ suggestions for other software that offers the same kind of service.

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Skype finally gets built-in call recording so you can ‘capture special moments’

Skype

Skype has finally gotten around to adding call recording to its service.

The Microsoft-owned company said the feature is available now on the latest version of Skype for desktop and mobile. But somewhat surprisingly, it’s not yet ready for Windows 10. Hang in there though — it’s coming for Windows 10 in “a few weeks.”

“When we added video to Skype calls over 10 years ago, the ability to share important moments with loved ones took a big step forward,” Skype said in a post announcing the new feature, adding, “Today, we’re introducing call recording to help capture special moments in a Skype call with your loved ones or record important meetings with your colleagues.”

It’s easy to record a Skype call. Simply hit the “+” sign at the bottom of the display, then select “start recording.”

Whenever someone in the video chat hits the record button, everyone else in the chat will be notified by way of a banner, in order to keep everything transparent.

The cloud-based feature records everyone’s video as well as any screens shared during the call — in other words, it’ll record the Skype conversation from the perspective of each caller, as the display will vary slightly for each person. When the conversation is over, you have 30 days to download it and/or share a link to it.

To save a call on desktop, go to your chat and click “more options,” and then select “save to downloads,” or “save as” if you want to put it in a particular folder.

Saving a chat on mobile is straightforward, too. Simply tap-and-hold the recorded call in the chat and then, when the menu shows up, tap “save.” The recording will then automatically download and save to your device’s camera roll.

Skype for Business customers have been able to record their calls for a while, so it’s a mystery why it’s taken so long to land for Skype’s regular service. Up to now, anyone who wanted to record their Skype calls had to download third-party software, and so it remains to be seen whether users ditch their regular recorder in favor of Skype’s built-in offering.

Skype’s call-recording feature lands in the same week that the app ditched its Snapchat-like “Highlights” feature in a series of changes designed to simplify the app after a year in which it cluttered the interface with extras that users didn’t want.

If Skype is still failing to deliver, check out Digital Trends’ suggestions for other software that offers the same kind of service.

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Xiaomi launches the Redmi 6A, Redmi 6, and the Redmi 6 Pro in India

The Redmi 6 series offers considerable upgrades in key areas.

To call Xiaomi dominant in India would be an understatement. Four out of five best-selling phones in India are Redmi phones, and it’s clear that Xiaomi is the brand to beat in the entry-level segment.

Xiaomi is now looking to consolidate its position with the introduction of the Redmi 6 series. There are three models in the series — the Redmi 6A, Redmi 6, and the Redmi 6 Pro — with Xiaomi touting significant improvements in performance as well as imaging. Notably, all three phones in the series feature upgraded cameras at the back, and offer face unlock as well as AI-assisted portrait mode.

Also standard across all three models is Dual VoLTE, a dedicated MicroSD slot in addition to two SIM card slots, and EIS for video recording. The additions go a long way in making the new Redmi 6 phones a great option if you’re in the market for an entry-level phone.

Xiaomi sets the bar for aggressive pricing, and things aren’t any different with the Redmi 6 series. The Redmi 6A starts off at just ₹5,999, the Redmi 6 will be available for ₹7,999, and the Redmi 6 Pro costs ₹10,999.

Here’s what you need to know about the Redmi 6 series.

Xiaomi Redmi 6 Pro: Familiar hardware with a new design

The Redmi 6 Pro is one of the most affordable devices yet to feature a notch. The device comes with a 5.84-inch FHD+ (2280 x 1080) panel, and is powered by the Snapdragon 625. The chipset is getting a bit long in the tooth, but it is still a decent option in this segment. Also, Xiaomi has released dozens of phones over the last two years powered by the chipset, so optimizing it for MIUI shouldn’t be an issue.

The dual cameras at the back are the same as that on the Redmi Note 5 Pro — there’s a primary 12MP IMX486 module backed by a 5MP secondary sensor. The Redmi 6 Pro will come with 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, and a model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage.

There’s also a 5MP shooter up front, and a 4000mAh battery. Essentially, the Redmi 6 Pro is the Redmi Note 5 with upgraded cameras and a cutout at the top of the display.

Xiaomi Redmi 6: Octa-core chipset backed by dual cameras

With the Redmi 6, the highlight is the dual cameras at the back. The 12MP + 5MP camera configuration at the back is a major step up in this category, and should make the Redmi 6 an enticing option if camera quality is a priority for you.

The phone is powered by a 12nm MediaTek Helio P22 chipset with eight Cortex A53 cores that go up to 2.0GHz. The Redmi 6 is available with either 3GB of RAM and 32GB of storage, or 3GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Xiaomi will sell the device in black, gold, blue, and rose gold color options.

Elsewhere, there’s a 5.45-inch 18:9 HD+ (1440 x 720) display, 5MP camera up front with face unlock, and a fingerprint sensor at the back.

Xiaomi Redmi 6A: Powerful 12nm chipset, 39% uptick in performance

The key change in the Redmi 6A from a design standpoint is the 5.45-inch 18:9 HD+ (1440 x 720) panel. Under the hood, the 28nm Snapdragon 425 has made way for a 12nm MediaTek Helio A22 chipset, resulting in significantly better performance as well as improved efficiency.

Xiaomi is touting a massive 39% uptick in performance from the 2.0GHz Cortex A53 cores, and an even more significant 48% increase in efficiency from the node shrink to 12nm FinFET. The phone is available in two variants: a base model with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, and a version with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of storage.

Other specs include a 13MP camera at the back, a 5MP front shooter with face unlock, Dual VoLTE, and a 3000mAh battery.

Going on sale starting September 10

It’s interesting to see Xiaomi opting to go with MediaTek for its entry-level phones instead of Qualcomm. There were rumors at the start of the year that Xiaomi would leverage its in-house Surge SoC in entry-level phones, but that hasn’t turned out to be the case. Thus far, we’ve only seen the Surge S1 in China-exclusive devices, like the Mi 5c.

I haven’t had a chance to use either the Redmi 6 or the Redmi 6A yet, but there should be a significant uptick in performance thanks to the 2.0GHz Cortex A53 cores. Furthermore, with mobile gaming gaining momentum in recent months, it’ll be interesting to find out if Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR GPU is up to the task.

All three phones come with MIUI 9.6 based on Android 8.1 Oreo, with an upgrade to MIUI 10 planned for later this year. It’s strange that the phones aren’t launching with MIUI 10 out of the box, considering the latest version of Xiaomi’s ROM released several months ago.

Redmi 6A will be available from Setember 19, with the Redmi 6 set to hit store shelves starting Setember 10. The Redmi 6 Pro, meanwhile, will go up for sale from Setember 11. Here’s the breakdown of pricing for all the models in the Redmi 6 series:

• Redmi 6A (2GB/16GB) – ₹5,999
• Redmi 6A (2GB/32GB) – ₹6,999
• Redmi 6 (3GB/32GB) – ₹7,999
• Redmi 6 (3GB/64GB) – ₹9,499
• Redmi 6 Pro (3GB/32GB) – ₹10,999
• Redmi 6 Pro (4GB/64GB) – ₹12,999

Interestingly, Xiaomi mentions that this is an introductory price that will be in place for the first two months, following which the prices will increase. We’ll have to wait to find out by how much, but for now, what are your thoughts on the Redmi 6 series?

Google Maps App Updated With New Events Section and Elevation Data for Walking and Cycling Routes

Google Maps received an update today that introduces a couple of potentially useful new features, including a new section that lists notable events happening nearby.

The new Events section lives at the bottom of the Explore tab, where users can find a variety of things listed depending on what’s going on in their location.

Google says Events that appear in the new section can include everything from late night comedy shows to movie screenings in the local park.

Also new in version 4.57, cycling and walking directions now feature a handy elevation chart, offering users an idea of how much physical effort they can expect to exert for the route in question.

Elevation information has been available for some time on the Google Maps website, so having the data in-app should come as a welcome addition.

Google Maps can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

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6 amazing high-tech ways science could take care of the mosquito problem

Whether it’s because of their nasty habit of carrying diseases like Zika and malaria or just their penchant for being vacation-spoiling jerks, there’s plenty of reasons to hate mosquitos. Fortunately, some of the biggest mosquito haters out there turn out to be some pretty darn smart scientists and engineers.

Thanks to them, there are a whole lot of smart anti-mosquito deterrents on the way that go far beyond the usual bug sprays, rolled-up newspapers, and other off-the-shelf solutions. Read on for six of the amazing technologies that could soon bring us a utopian world free from needle-nosed vampire insects.

Malaria-resistant mosquitoes

Malaria can be treated with the right drugs. Unfortunately, in some poorer parts of the developing world, getting the right drugs to people isn’t always easy. As a result, scientists from Johns Hopkins University have investigated a way to make mosquitos — as opposed to people — resistant to the malaria parasite.

Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, they have engineered malaria-resistant mosquitos by deleting a gene which helps malaria survive in the mosquito’s gut. In preliminary trials, the researchers have demonstrated that the malaria parasite is unable to survive long enough to mature to the point that it becomes dangerous to humans.

Photonic fence

Aside from beaming them straight to the Delta Quadrant, it’s hard to think of a more Star Trek-sounding solution to the mosquito problem than Nathan Myhrvold’s “photonic fence.” Described in a 2010 TED talk, the former Microsoft CTO suggested one way to deal with bloodsucking insects would be by shooting them down with deadly lasers.

His system locks onto mosquitos by detecting the sound of their wings flapping, and then zaps them in the air with a low-power laser — thereby killing them or severely disabling them. These devices could be erected like a fence around a settlement, and would theoretically kill around 99 percent of mosquitos who attempt to break the barrier.

Nearly a decade after the talk, we’re still not seeing photonic fences on the regular, although the technology has reportedly been licensed out to interested parties — and even the U.S. Commerce Department has shown some enthusiasm.

There’s an app for that

James Gathany / PHIL

Researchers from the University of Oxford are developing an app which uses machine learning to identify the acoustic signature of different mosquito species. This app can accurately identify the Anopheles species of mosquito — a.k.a. the one that’s responsible for spreading malaria — with around 72 percent accuracy.

To help expand the project, the team is now gathering more high-quality sound recordings that will allow the app to accurately identify all 3,600 different mosquito species. While this solution doesn’t eliminate disease-carrying mosquitoes, giving our smartphones the ability to quickly determine whether or not a mosquito is a potential disease carrier could be profoundly useful.

Drone dumping

If your goal is to get rid of mosquito-carried viruses, could the answer be… more mosquitoes? That’s the unorthodox approach being pioneered by the company WeRobotics, which plans to breed sterile mosquitoes in captivity, transport them in large numbers via drone, and then dump them in an area where they will massively outnumber (and thus outbreed) the quantity of wild males.

The hope is that this could reduce local mosquito populations by up to 90 percent.

Thunderstorm-simulating wearables

Mosquitoes may be capable of transmitting deadly viruses, but they’re still tiny, delicate insects. That means they don’t exactly love being out in storms, and feel compelled to temporarily quit the blood-drinking to seek shelter.

Taking advantage of this evolutionary quirk, the makers of the Nopixgo wristband have developed a wearable device which emits weak electromagnetic signals that convince mosquitoes that a storm is on the way.

“This is a revolutionary new way to approach mosquito bites,” Johan Niklasson, chief business development officer at NopixGlobal, told Digital Trends. “In a way, the mosquitoes’ own genetics is used against them; something they cannot adapt to and avoid. It goes deeper than just repelling with bad smells or irritating sounds. No one has ever tried this before, and the technology has not existed to make this possible until just recently.”

Genetically-engineered killer mosquitoes

When it comes to governmental missteps, releasing a bunch of genetically-engineered killer mosquitoes should probably rank fairly high. Except that, as it turns out, it might be a smart move. Developed by the Kentucky-based biotech company MosquitoMate, the project uses male mosquitoes (which are the non-biting ones) as vehicles for carrying a potent mosquito insecticide.

When the genetically-engineered mosquitoes mate with females, the resulting eggs don’t hatch. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially signed off on the plan last year, and numerous field tests have already been carried out. Watch this space!

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