Apple unveils 3 iPhones with dual SIM, impressive cameras
San Francisco, Sep 13 : Apple officially introduced its 2018 line-up of iPhones -- the premium iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR at an event in California late on Wednesday.
The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will support dual SIM and dual standby functionality.
The premium iPhone XS and XS Max come with upgraded 12MP + 12MP camera and 2x optical zoom. There is an improved TrueTone quad-LED flash as well. Both the models have a 7MP RGB camera sensor in the front with F/2.2 aperture while the iPhone XR has a single 12MP camera at the rear.
The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max would be available in 64GB, 256GB and 512GB storage variants in space grey, silver and a new gold colour starting at Rs 99,900 and Rs 1,09,900, respectively through Apple authorised resellers in India.
The cheapest of the lot -- the iPhone XR -- has a starting price of Rs 76,900.
The premium iPhone XS is made with stainless surgical grade steel with a new glass formulation and has edge-to-edge screen, Apple said in a statement.
Both the iPhone XS and XS Max are fueled by Apple's latest A12 Bionic chipset built on 7-nm design, which allows for 6.9 billion transistors on the chip. Also, there is a new neural engine with an 8-core dedicated machine learning (ML) processor.
The iPhone X comes with a 5.8-inch OLED display while the iPhone XS has 6.5-inch OLED screen -- the biggest ever on an iPhone. Other than the size, both the models have 3D Touch and HDR.
The Face ID in these models is said to work faster this time than last year's iPhone X. The affordable iPhone XR has a 6.1-inch LCD screen with liquid Retina display and aluminium body instead of a steel one.
The Cupertino-based company also unveiled its new Apple Watch Series 4 with improved health features. Its next generation of Apple Watch features edge-to-edge display with smaller bezels, which is 30 per cent bigger.
The device brings a design overhaul to the Apple Watch as the iPhone-maker is now using a new dual-core 64-bit chipset, custom designed to improve performance.
"Apple Watch isn't just the number one smart watch, it is the number one watch in the world period," Tim Cook, CEO of Apple said. Apart from heartbeat data, the devices would now also track heart rhythm and notify users.
The new series has been approved by FDA for ECG recording as well but this feature would be limited to only US-based users initially. The tech giant said it is working to introduce this feature in other countries as well.
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In Rajasthan's Banswara LS seat, Congress campaigning against own candidate
Banswara, Apr 24: A peculiar poll battle is on the cards in the tribal-dominated Banswara-Dungarpur Lok Sabha constituency in Rajasthan where the Congress is appealing to the people not to vote for its candidate.
The reason: After much flip-flop, the Congress decided to support Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) candidate Rajkumar Roat -- a day before the last date of withdrawal of nominations -- despite fielding its own candidate Arvind Damor.
In accordance with the party’s announcement to support the BAP, Damor was supposed to withdraw his nomination papers but he was nowhere to be seen till the last date of withdrawal of nominations was over. Later, appearing before the media, Damor feigned ignorance about the developments and declared that he would contest the election.
What was supposed to be a bipolar contest between the BJP and the Congress-BAP alliance has turned into a three-way fight with Damor likely to divide the Congress votes thus, giving an edge to the saffron party candidate -- Mahendrajit Singh Malviya.
While the local leadership of the Congress has appealed to the people to vote for Roat instead of their own candidate, Damor has claimed that he has the support of a section of the party leaders who are against the alliance with the BAP.
Vikas Bamnia, a district-level leader, and the son of Congress MLA Arjun Bamnia said the party was supporting Roat.
“Our stand is clear, we are supporting the BAP candidate. We are working keeping in mind the sentiments of the people and the directions received from the party,” Bamnia said.
Another local Congress leader said, “We are asking people clearly to not vote for the Congress candidate (Damor).”
Although several local residents told PTI that the contest was primarily between Malviya and Roat, some were of the view that Damor's refusal to toe the party line was embarrassing for the Congress.
BAP, which was established in southern Rajasthan ahead of the 2023 assembly elections, has three MLAs, including Roat.
Banswara-Dungarpur is a reserved seat for Scheduled Tribes and will go to polls in the second phase of Lok Sabha elections on Friday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a rally here on Sunday.
Slamming the Congress manifesto, he had alleged that the opposition party was planning to give people's hard-earned money to "infiltrators" and "those who have more children" and referred to former PM Manmohan Singh's speech in 2006 to contend he had said that Muslims have the “first claim” on the country's resources.
In his campaigning speeches, Malviya has accused Roat of misleading the people of Banswara while he, in return, has been charged with dividing the tribal community by the Congress-BAP candidate.
“Where will these people take our tribal brothers and sisters? They are misleading the tribal community. Building a house for one person does not benefit the entire community,” Malviya, who joined the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, said.
“These people are working to spread anarchy. No matter how much they try, the BJP is going to win this seat by lakhs of votes. The alliance of Congress and BAP will not work. It only shows that the Congress did not get a candidate for the Banswara-Dungarpur seat,” he added.
Countering him, Raot said the BJP candidate was "dividing" and abusing the tribal community.
“The kind of statements Malviya is giving... he is abusing the tribal community. The BJP is trying to divide the tribal community. Our tribal people may be associated with any party, be it the BJP or the Congress, but it is our responsibility to unite them. We think above the party, we think for the tribal people,” he said.
Damor, meanwhile, said a faction of the Congress leaders was against the alliance with BAP.
"I have support from the people and the party leaders who are not in favour of the alliance. I am confident of winning the election," Damor said.
Former BJP state president Satish Poonia, who campaigned in the constituency in support of Malviya, said that Congress was nowhere in the scene.
“The condition of Congress leaders has become such that when they went to a ‘bhandara’, the ‘prasad’ was over and when they came out, their shoes and slippers were missing,” he said.
Amid the tussle, key issues like education, employment, roads and electricity have taken a back seat with each candidate trying to outdo the other to project himself as the champion of the tribal community, according to some non-tribal locals.
"The area lacks industries and job opportunities. Many people from this region work in the neighbouring state of Gujarat. Women are also seen working in farms and in labour work in large numbers," a non-tribal local resident said.
"The ideology of BAP appears to be radical and could emerge as a threat in the time to come. Issues are less important, they are polarising people in the name of the community,” he added.
Meanwhile, the need for the Congress to find an alliance partner in Banswara-Dungarpur was necessitated after Malviya -- a satrap from the Vagad region -- joined the BJP.
Malviya, who was made a cabinet minister twice in the previous Congress governments, quit the party after being denied the post of the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly in the wake of the Congress' defeat in the 2023 assembly elections.
He resigned as the MLA from Bagidora assembly constituency and joined the BJP in February.
As the Congress and the BAP -- the new party from the Vagad region -- held discussions for an alliance, the lack of consensus on seat sharing and resistance by some local Congress leaders delayed the finalisation of the coalition. On the last day of filing of nominations, the Congress decided to field Damor from Banswara-Dungarpur and Kapoor Singh from Bagidora for the bypoll.
A day before the withdrawal of nominations, Rajasthan Congress in charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa announced on social media that the party would support BAP in both elections.
However, in a rude shock for the Congress, its two candidates refused to withdraw their nominations.
Of the eight assembly segments under the Banswara-Dungarpur Lok Sabha seat, the BJP has four MLAs, the Congress has three and the BAP one.
The Congress in Rajasthan is contesting the elections as part of an alliance on two seats -- Nagaur (with Rashtriya Loktantrik Party) and Sikar (with CPI-M).
