JioPhone, Reliance Jio's ambitious venture to rope in large hordes of new smartphone users from India's hinterlands with a transition phone, has now got what it had skipped—the apps that are most desired by smartphone users.

Isha Ambani, daughter of Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, today announced at Reliance IndustriesNSE -2.59 %' 41st annual general meeting in Mumbai that JioPhone would now come equipped with YouTube, Facebook and WhatsApp. The apps will work with voice commands as well which means users can use their voice to play videos. These features will be available to all JioPhone users from August 15 this year.

JioPhone 2 features:

►Operating system: KaiOS, same as JioPhone.

►512MB of RAM and 4GB of ROM

►SD card for expandable storage up to 128GB.

►Display of 2.4QVGA

►2-megapixel rear camera and VGA front-facing camera

►Backs dual-SIM, LTE, VoLTE, and VoWi-Fi

►Phone supports FM, Bluetooth, GPS, Wi-Fi, and NFC.

►Now supports Facebook, YouTube, and WhatsApp applications

Available under monsoon offer. You can replace their older JioPhone for a new JioPhone 2 for Rs 500

JioPhone 2 for Rs 500

The company also announced JioPhone 2, a high-end model of JioPhone. It is powered by horizontal screen viewing experience and a full keypad

Last year, Reliance Jio came out with its disruptive ploy—a 4G feature phone, JioPhone. Jio's second wave of disruption after freebies and cheap data targeted the predominantly rural feature phone users who wish to switch to a smartphone but find it expensive.

JioPhone, which came at an effective price of Rs 0, rattled the existing players who were likely to lose a big chunk of their low-end voice customers. It was seen to be hitting low-end handset makers as well. However, lack of Facebook, Whatsapp and Youtube apps on JioPhone was seen as a big handicap.

 

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Mexico City (AP): Iran's Embassy in Mexico on Tuesday said the country is negotiating with FIFA to move Iran's World Cup matches from the U.S. to Mexico after President Donald Trump discouraged the team from attending the tournament, citing safety concerns.

It was unclear whether such talks are happening with FIFA, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Iranian officials have previously said it is up to FIFA and the U.S. to keep the team safe during the World Cup.

The Embassy posted a statement attributed to Iranian soccer federation president Mehdi Taj saying Iran wants to move its group stage matches to Mexico to ensure the safety of players and officials.

“When Trump has explicitly stated that he cannot ensure the security of the Iranian national team, we will certainly not travel to America,” the statement said. “We are currently negotiating with FIFA to hold Iran's matches in the World Cup in Mexico.”

The World Cup is being co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico. Iran is scheduled to play against New Zealand on June 16 and Belgium on June 21 in Inglewood, California, before finishing group play in Seattle against Egypt on June 26.

Moving the games would be unprecedented less than three months before the start of the World Cup.

Trump said last week that the Iran team was welcome at the World Cup despite the ongoing war in the Middle East but “I really don't believe it is appropriate that they be there, for their own life and safety.”

Iran has sent mixed signals about its participation in the tournament after the U.S. and Israel launched attacks that killed the Islamic republic's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and dozens of other senior figures.

Sports minister Ahmad Donyamali told state TV last week that it was not possible to play "due to the wicked acts they have done against Iran.”

But after Trump's post the national team said on Instagram that “no one can exclude” it from the tournament and a government spokesman in Tehran stressed in it was the responsibility of FIFA and the U.S. as a co-host nation to keep players safe and secure.

“FIFA is the organizer of the World Cup,” Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said. “When warnings are issued at the highest level about the environment being unsafe for Iranian football players, this indicates that the host country apparently lacks the capacity and ability to provide security for such an important sporting event.”

Soccer is followed passionately in Iran, a nation of more than 90 million people which has qualified for seven men's World Cups and each of the past four editions. The team is ranked No. 20 in the world by FIFA and behind only Japan from Asia.

FIFA has not commented in recent days beyond an Instagram post by president Gianni Infantino last week that he'd received assurances from Trump that Iran was welcome at the tournament.