Samsung likely to launch Galaxy S6, S6 Edge in India on Monday

Samsung India will be hosting an event on Monday for the launch of the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge. The device was officially showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this month.

IndiaToday.in has learnt that Samsung will launch the two devices in India on Monday, but the product will not be available before April 10. This is in lines with the global announcement, which clearly states that the roll out for the devices will happen on April 10.

Retailers also claim that pre-orders for the phone will go live in the last week of March, though it could happen earlier.

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge has received a positive response. In South Korea, Samsung's home market, the device has already received 20 million pre-orders.

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are expected to compete with phones like the LG G-Flex 2, which was announced yesterday in India. The G-Flex 2 will launch later in the month forRs.55,000. The Galaxy S6, however, could be slightly more expensive. Even in the UK pre-orders for the device stand at Euro 700 for the 32GB model, which converts to around Rs.47,000, but if one takes into account taxes and duties, the price of the phone could end up at around Rs.55,000 or a little more.

The Edge variant will be more expensive. Like the Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Note Edge we could be talking about a premium of around Rs.6,000-Rs.10,000. In the UK, pre-orders suggest a starting price of 850 Euros, which is roughly Rs.57,000, so again the price could go well beyond the Rs.60,000 mark.

The Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge are considered to be Samsung's most well design phones. The devices mark a design renaissance of sorts for the Korean company, which is often criticised for the monotonous design of its products.

Both the devices pack, a speedy 64-bit Exynos 7 octa-core processor manufactured using a new 14nm FinFET process, 2GB of DDR4 RAM and variants ranging from 32GB to 128GB of storage. On the back, the phones have a 16-megapixel camera with optical image stabilisation and dynamic focusing capabilities. On the front, Samsung has stacked a 5-megapixel sensor.

The screens are notable as Samsung has added 5-inch Super AMOLED panels with 2K resolutions. However, on the Edge, the screen is curved and slops outwards from both the sides.

Samsung is also talking up new fast charging battery technologies, a new biometric scanner, and a new cashless payment system called Samsung Pay. Software wise too, Samsung claims that the device has a cleaner user interface that's faster based on the underpinnings of Android 5.0 Lollipop.

Notably, Samsung has also preloaded Microsoft's apps - OneDrive, Skype, and OneNote on the device, in addition to the standard suit of Google's cloud services.

The Galaxy S6 is a crucial device for the South Korean company as it grapples with depleting sales of its smartphone division, which is a major money spinner for the company.

Xiaomi starts selling products through its India website

Xiaomi has finally started selling its products through its Indian website. However, the popular handsets from the Chinese company are still not on sale through the official website but accessories like earphones and phone-covers are available directly on the website.

Xiaomi has been selling its handsets exclusively through Flipkart, the biggest online retailer in India. If Xiaomi continues to expand the product list on its official website there will be no need for the company to pay any kind of commission to a third party retailer.

Currently, the website is only selling a total of five accessories which include two earphones and two phone-cases and its powerbanks. The website is already showing the Mi In-ear headphones Basic as out of stock. The rest of the accessories are available as of now and can be ordered through the manufacturer's website.

Interestingly, the Mi Power Bank, which has been out of stock on Flipkart for quite a while now, is available on the Mi India website.

In China Xiaomi conducts the flash sales on its own website but for now there is no confirmation regarding the Indian counterpart if it will conduct any flash sale as of now.

Delhi-Lahore bus service restricted

For the first time since the Pak-India Dosti bus service was launched between New Delhi and Lahore, Pakistan has restricted its entry here and Nankana Sahib cities, citing increased "terror threats".

The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation has said the Pak-India Dosti bus service will now on be operated only up to Wagah Border, reported PTI.

"The PTDC has shifted the entire bus operation at its sub-office at Wagah. Passengers leaving for New Delhi and Amritsar from here will now have to catch the bus at Wagah.

 

Similarly, those arriving here from across the border by the service will disembark at Wagah too," an official of PTDC said.

He said the decision has been taken in the wake of growing terror threats.

After the Taliban militants killed 150 people mostly children at an army-run school in Peshawar on December 16, the Nawaz Sharif government is not taking chances with regard to security matters.

Earlier, police used to escort the buses from Wagah to Lahore's Gulberg and Nankana Sahib terminals. Similarly, the police used to provide escort to the Dosti buses from Gulberg and Nankana Sahib to Wagah.

"Although it will cause hassle for the passengers of the both sides but we have taken the steps for their security," the official said, adding the government might consider restoring the old terminals (Gulberg and Nankana Sahib) after reviwing the law and order situation.

The bus service between the two countries was started March 16, 1999 primarily to enhance people-to-people contact.

Sunanda Pushkar case: Murderer was smart

Doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Tuesday said that it would not be easy to find out the absolute cause of Sunanda Pushkar's death. The AIIMS doctors, who conducted the autopsy of former Union minister Shashi Tharoor's wife, however, maintained that she had died of poisoning.

"Our duty was to give an opinion to the police, and we have already done it. Whatever I had said earlier were my findings, not my stand. Our report doesn't mention death is homicidal in nature. It is due to poisoning. Now it is for the police to probe further," said Dr. Sudhir Gupta, one of the doctors in the forensic science department of AIIMS, who conducted Sunanda's post-mortem.

Asked whether it is a murder or suicide, Gupta said it was the job of the police to find out. Gupta had earlier alleged that two former Cabinet ministers pressured him to show Sunanda's death as natural. On Tuesday, however, he chose to keep quiet. Doctors at the premier institute said it would take some more time to conclude the case.  Sunanda Pushkar death: Stunned it's now a murder case, says Shashi Tharoor

"This is a sensitive and highprofile case. The murderer (if proved) would have planned it in a smart way so that it would be tough to identify the exact poison. She couldn't have been killed with any normal poison. There have been several cases in which the exact poison, used to kill somebody, was identified even 10 years after the crime was committed," said a doctor who was part of the medical panel that examined Sunanda's case.

"So far, we have given three reports to the police. The police have shown a lax attitude towards the case. It will be very difficult to find out the poison because there are several limitations and restrictions in laboratory facilities in India. By the time the police take a stance on taking the viscera samples to some other country for investigation, the intensity of certain poisons may also diminish with time. That is why it is always said that such cases should be investigated as soon as possible," the doctor said.

Doctors have said the samples would require "quantitative estimation". In India, quantitative estimation is done only for alcohol.

"Homicidal poisoning is a rare entity. The murderer would have certainly chosen a different idea to kill her. This matter still needs meticulous investigation. When we visited the crime scene last time, we found some urine spots on the bed cover and sent them for investigation. Even the urine sample showed poison, which proved that it was metabolised through her body," the doctor said.

"The police will need to find a motive and then catch the murderer. Some medicines were also found from the crime scene. Interestingly, any medicine can prove fatal, if consumed in high quantities," he said. Delhi Police Commissioner B. S. Bassi said the Delhi Police, which is investigating the case, would have to send the samples abroad (see accompanying story) since the quantification of poisons could not be done in India.

"In order to do so, the Delhi Police had to register a case; thereby we have done the needful. We have registered a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code," Bassi added.