Tech

Apple’s Dynamic Island feature has been a part of iOS and iPhone for a few years, starting with the iPhone 14 Pro. While the feature (which is a combination of hardware and software), was Apple’s shift from a dated U-shaped display notch to a more modern capsule-shaped cavity placed in the centre at the top of its iPhone displays, it was not well received. Initially reserved for its Pro models only, the feature finally arrived on the standard iPhone models with the launch of the iPhone 15. Now, a tipster claims that Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro line is set to introduce another feature, which may get rid of the Dynamic Island capsule when not in use, leaving a very Android-like hole-punch cavity visible for its selfie camera.

According to Digital Chat Station’s recent Weibo post, Apple might be readying a new feature for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, set to be unveiled in 2026. Giving out the details about their respective displays, the tipster states that the iPhone 18 Pro will have a 6.27-inch panel while the bigger 18 Pro Max will get a 6.86-inch OLED panel. These will be LTPO panels with a 1.5K resolution.

While the above sounds pretty normal in the case of iPhone, the tipster also mentions that Apple will use HIAA technology for the selfie camera while the underlying Face ID array will be pushed under the display, leaving only the selfie camera exposed.

This is very unlike the current Face ID implementation which Apple has masked with a Dynamic Island feature with a capsule-shaped software bubble that expands and contracts depending on the task or Live Activities being displayed. For those not in the know, Dynamic Island isn’t really an “island” but consists of one oblong camera cutout (Face ID system) and a circular camera (selfie camera) cutout placed alongside one another with a black software layer of the display filling up the pixels in between to make it appear like a neat capsule.

With Apple said to be switching to HIAA or Hole-in-Active-Area, means that only the selfie camera will be visible to the user, while the Face ID system will be hidden just below the display. It will definitely be impressive to see how the Face ID system and its array of flood illuminators and cameras (which use infrared light) work through the display panel, but many will be happy to see the black blob gone. That will then become a premium or “Pro” feature.

If this is indeed the implementation that Apple goes ahead with next year for its premium Pro models, it then remains to be seen what becomes of Dynamic Island, as the Face ID system (which includes the selfie camera) will only be reduced to a dot. Apple could indeed animate a fake capsule-like blob around it, but it seems unnecessary given that the hardware has shrunk and does not need the cover-up anymore.

As it stands, the recently launched iPhone 16e is the only new smartphone in Apple’s lineup to not get the Dynamic Island treatment as it is the first affordable iPhone to transition from the older Touch ID to Face ID this year. Touch ID is still being used on Apple’s MacBooks and affordable iPad models today.

iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are the crown jewels in Apple’s latest smartphone lineup. While these devices usually command a premium price, they can be purchased at reduced rates. Flipkart has rolled out offers on both handsets for a limited time, enabling buyers to take advantage of discounts, bank offers, and no-cost EMI options. Further, the e-commerce platform also allows them to trade-in their old handsets to get the iPhone 16 Pro or the iPhone 16 Pro Max at lower prices.

iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max Offers

iPhone 16 Pro price in India starts at Rs. 1,19,900 for the base 128GB variant. Flipkart has rolled out a discount of eight percent on the handset, lowering its price to Rs. 1,09,900. The 256GB variant, which retails for Rs. 1,29,900, can be purchased for Rs. 1,22,900, translating into a five percent price cut.

The offer is valid on all four Black Titanium, Desert Titanium, Natural Titanium, and White Titanium colour options of the iPhone 16 Pro.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 16 Pro Max 256GB variant is currently listed for Rs. 1,32,900, down from its retail price of Rs. 1,44,900. This also translates into a discount of eight percent on the handset. Buyers can also purchase the 512GB and 1TB models, which originally cost Rs. 1,64,900 and Rs. 1,84,900, at a price of Rs. 1,57,900 and Rs. 1,77,900, respectively.

In addition to direct discounts, the e-commerce platform also offers up to Rs. 48,150 off on exchange. However, the offered amount depends on the model and condition of the old handset, as well as the offer availability at your location.

There are bank offers too. Buyers can get a 5 percent discount of up to Rs. 4,000 on transactions carried out with Flipkart Axis Bank Credit cards. Flipkart Axis Bank Credit Card Non EMI transactions are offered with up to Rs. 2,000 off, whereas there’s also a Rs. 3,000 discount on all credit card transactions. Flipkart also offers no-cost EMI options for those who do not wish to pay the full invoice amount in one go.

Oppo Reno 14 5G series with MediaTek Dimensity chipsets was launched in China last month. The company has disclosed the launch date of the Oppo Reno 14 5G and Reno 14 Pro 5G in Malaysia, which is likely to be the first global market outside of China to get the series. Additionally, the Oppo Reno 14 5G series in India are confirmed to be available through Amazon and Flipkart. The China variants of the Oppo Reno 14 5G series feature 50-megapixel selfie shooters and 50-megapixel rear camera units.

The Oppo Reno 14 5G and Reno 14 Pro 5G will be unveiled in Malaysia at 6pm (3:30pm IST) on July 1, Oppo announced through its Facebook and X handles. The lineup will be launched during the OOO Music Festival. The handsets have also been listed for pre-order in the country through the Vivo Malaysia website.

Oppo is providing up to RM 200 (roughly Rs. 4,000) instant discount and gifts worth up to RM 2,396 (roughly Rs. 45,000) for customers who are pre-ordering the Reno 14 series phones.

Meanwhile, Amazon and Flipkart have created a dedicated webpage on their websites to tease the India launch of the Oppo Reno 14 5G series. Oppo has already announced that the lineup will be introduced in the Indian market soon, though an exact launch date hasn’t been revealed.

Oppo Reno 14 5G Series Specifications

Both Oppo Reno 14 5G and Reno 14 Pro 5G were launched in China in May. The Indian variants of the phone are expected to boast a similar set of specifications to their Chinese counterparts.

The Chinese variant of the Reno 14 has a 6.59-inch 1.5K flat OLED screen and MediaTek Dimensity 8350 SoC. It carries a 6,000mAh battery with 80W wired fast charging support. Key highlights of the Reno 14 Pro include a 6.83-inch OLED screen with 1.5K resolution, a MediaTek Dimensity 8450 chip, and a 6,200mAh battery with 80W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging support.

The Oppo Reno 14 5G series runs on Android 15-based ColorOS and packs up to 16GB of RAM and a maximum 1TB of onboard storage. They feature 50-megapixel rear camera units and 50-megapixel front cameras.

Google’s fight against a record EUR 4.1 billion ($4.7 billion) European Union antitrust fine suffered a blow after an adviser to the bloc’s top court said regulators were right to punish the US giant for abusing Android’s market power.  

Advocate General Juliane Kokott of the EU’s Court of Justice said in a non-binding opinion that Google’s appeal should fail because the legal arguments put forward by the US tech giant fell short. 

“Google held a dominant position in several markets of the Android ecosystem and thus benefited from network effects that enabled it to ensure that users used Google Search,” Kokott said. “As a result, Google obtained access to data that enabled it in turn to improve its service.” 

The bloc’s top court often heeds the opinions of its advisers in its final rulings, which typically follow in several months. 

Google said it’s disappointed with the opinion and that if the bloc’s top court eventually follows it, the ruling would discourage investment and harm Android users. 

The European Commission declined to comment. 

The Android fine — which was originally EUR 4.3 billion (roughly Rs. 42,890 crore) before being slightly reduced by the EU’s General Court in 2022 — is among a slew of EU penalties targeting Big Tech that has provoked a a conflict between EU watchdogs and Silicon Valley executives, with US President Donald Trump slamming the fines as tariffs against American firms.

The Android case was one of four that formed the centerpiece of erstwhile EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager’s efforts to crack down on the growing power of big tech companies. 

Before being replaced as the EU’s antitrust commissioner by Spanish socialist Teresa Ribera, Vestager fined Google more than EUR 8 billion (roughly Rs. 79796 crore) also echoed the US Department of Justice’s suggestion that Google’s advertising technology business should be broken up — a position also backed by Ribera.  

The top EU court’s final decision could prove pivotal for the future of the Android business model — which has provided free software in exchange for conditions imposed on mobile phone manufacturers. 

Such contracts provoked the ire of the commission in 2018, when the watchdog accused Alphabet Inc.’s Google of three separate types of illegal behavior that helped cement the dominance of its search engine, accompanying the order with the record fine. 

First, it said Google was illegally forcing handset makers to pre-install the Google Search app and the Chrome browser as a condition for licensing its Play Store — the marketplace for Android apps.

Second, the EU said Google made payments to some large manufacturers and operators on condition that they exclusively pre-installed the Google Search app.

Lastly, the EU said the Mountain View, California-based company prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install apps from running alternative versions of Android not approved by Google.

In their September 2022 ruling at the lower General Court, judges upheld the vast majority of the commission’s arguments, but cut the fine from EUR 4.3 billion (roughly Rs. 42,904 crore) after finding that regulators hadn’t provided enough evidence for specific abuses.

As a January hearing in the appeal against that decision, Google lawyers argued that the company’s success was due to innovation, not brute force, and that the EU “punished Google for its superior merits, attractiveness and innovation.” 

Away from traditional antitrust cases, Google has also found itself under intense scrutiny via the EU’s Digital Markets Act, which sets strict guardrails on the behavior of Big Tech. 

In March, the Brussels-based executive chastised the Mountain View, California-headquartered firm for allegedly breaching the regulation by favoring in-house services across its sprawling search empire and for preventing app developers from steering consumers to offers outside of its Play Store, in a warning that could lead to more fines in the future.   

© 2025 Bloomberg LP

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 has been launched in India. The AI PC is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 9 chipset and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU based on the Blackwell architecture. Gigabyte has equipped the gaming laptop with a 16-inch OLED screen which supports a 240Hz refresh rate. The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 features voice-assisted controls for adjusting audio, cooling, and performance, powered by the GiMate AI agent.

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 Price in India, Availability

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 price in India is set at Rs. 3,15,000. It is offered in a single Dark Tide colour option and will soon be available for purchase via Amazon and Flipkart.

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 Features, Specifications

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 sports a 16-inch WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600 pixels) OLED screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio, 240Hz refresh rate, and 500 nits peak brightness. The panel is certified with Dolby Vision, Pantone, Nvidia G-Sync, and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 technologies and supports 100 percent of the DCI-P3 colour gamut.

The AI PC is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU with 24 cores and a burst clock speed of 5.4GHz. It is complemented by up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU with 16GB DDR7 Video RAM (VRAM). The laptop can be configured with up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 4TB of PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD storage. Gigabyte says it supports real-time ray tracing and LLM inference.

To manage heat dissipation, Gigabyte provides a Windforce Infinity Ex cooling solution with 230W Thermal Design Power (TDP). It comprises 158 asymmetric ultra-thin fan blades and a vapour chamber. The laptop is said to have a zero-noise operation when the 0dB mode is engaged.

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 also comes with an AI agent dubbed GiMate which can be accessed via a dedicated hotkey in the function row. It uses on-device large language models (LLMs) for adjusting performance settings, overclocking, cooling system, and audio.

The AI Audio feature automatically calibrates the sound output based on the surface the laptop is kept on. Meanwhile, AI Voice uses voice recognition to separate the speaker’s voice and suppress background noise. Then there’s AI Privacy, which is claimed to provide Screen Peek Alerts by recognising when an unauthorised user is looking at the screen and changes to a preset application or image.

Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 sports a three-zone RGB backlit keyboard with up to 1.77mm key travel. It is equipped with a quad speaker setup with support for Dolby Atmos and Smart Amp technology. The laptop also gets a full HD (1080p) web camera with a built-in array microphone. For security, it supports Windows Hello face recognition in addition to a firmware-based TPM.

Connectivity ports on the Aorus Master 16 include a DC-in port, one RJ-45 port, one HDMI 2.1 port, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A Port, and a USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt 5 on the left side of the chassis. On the right, it has another USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, one USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt 4, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone and audio combo jack. For connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 packs a 99Wh battery and ships with a 330W power adapter. It measures 357 x 254 x 23mm in terms of dimensions and weighs 2.5kg.

Vivo X Fold 5 is all set to go official in Vivo’s home country on June 25, and the Chinese tech brand is actively teasing the specifications of the upcoming foldable online. While the India launch date of the phone is yet to be revealed formally, a new leak suggests that it could take place in the second week of July. The Vivo X Fold 5 is confirmed to ship with a 6,000mAh battery with support for both wired and wireless charging. It will feature 8T LTPO displays and a Zeiss-backed triple rear camera unit.

91Mobiles, citing unnamed industry sources, reports that the Vivo X Fold 5 will be announced in India between July 10 and July 15. Meanwhile, Vivo will introduce the foldable phone in China on June 25 at 7pm local time (4:30pm IST).

The Vivo X Fold 5 is expected to compete against the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, which is likely to be launched on July 9. Honor will also bring its Magic V5 foldable to the Chinese market on July 2. Notably, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro was unveiled in June last year as Vivo’s first foldable smartphone in India.

Vivo X Fold 5: What We Know So Far

Vivo has shared several teasers about the Vivo X Fold 5, giving us a fair idea about what to expect. It will feature a 6,000mAh battery with 80W wired and 40W wireless fast charging support. The handset will also support reverse charging. It is confirmed to ship with a Zeiss-tuned triple rear camera unit, comprising a periscope telephoto shooter with 3x optical zoom. It will use 8T LTPO panels on both inner and outer screens. 

Official images of the book-style foldable were posted online, showing a relatively slim design and a large circular camera cutout. The Vivo X Fold 5 will be available in Baibai (green), Quingsong (white), and Titanium (black) colour options.

Vivo X Fold 5 is advertised to offer an IPX8 + IPX9 + IPX9+ rated build for water resistance. It will have an IP5X-rated dustproof rating. It is confirmed to weigh around 216g and could measure around 9.2mm in thickness in the folded form.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday extended to September 17 a deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the US assets of short-video app TikTok despite a law that mandated a sale or shutdown without significant progress.

Trump signed an executive order pushing back Thursday’s deadline for 90 days, a step he had previously signaled.

The Republican president had already twice granted a reprieve from federal enforcement of a law that mandated the sale or shutdown of TikTok that was supposed to take effect in January, absent significant progress toward a sale.

Trump has said he wants to keep the app, which helped him woo young voters in the 2024 presidential election, active in the US.

He has also expressed optimism that Chinese President Xi Jinping would approve a deal that preserves the app, though it is unclear how significantly the topic has featured in the two countries’ ongoing talks to resolve a tariff dispute.

“We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available,” TikTok said in a statement posted on its website.

The company said it is continuing to work with US Vice President JD Vance’s office on the matter.

“It’s more time; more time to make a good deal,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing on Thursday. She added that White House lawyers and the Department of Justice believed the extension was on strong legal footing.

Leavitt said on Tuesday that, “President Trump does not want TikTok to go dark,” and added the administration would spend the next three months making sure the sale closes and protects US consumers’ data.

Trump had said on Tuesday he would “probably” extend the deadline. “Probably have to get China approval, but I think we’ll get it,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I think President Xi will ultimately approve it.”

A 2024 law required TikTok to stop operating by January 19 unless TikTok’s Chinese parent ByteDance had completed divesting the app’s US assets or demonstrated significant progress toward a sale.

Trump began his second term as president on January 20 and opted not to enforce the law. He first extended the deadline to early April, and then again last month to June 19.

In March, Trump said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with ByteDance to sell the short-video app used by 170 million Americans.

A deal had been in the works this spring that would spin off TikTok’s US operations into a new US-based firm, majority-owned and operated by US investors, but it was put on hold after China indicated it would not approve it following Trump’s announcements of steep tariffs on Chinese goods.

Some Democratic lawmakers argue that Trump has no legal authority to extend the deadline and suggest that the deal under consideration would not meet legal requirements.

© Thomson Reuters 2025

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

UK broadcaster BBC is threatening legal action against AI search engine Perplexity accusing the startup of training its “default AI model” using BBC content, the Financial Times reported on Friday.

In a letter to Perplexity Chief Executive Aravind Srinivas seen by the FT, BBC said it may seek an injunction unless the AI firm stops scraping its content, deletes existing copies used to train its AI systems, and submits “a proposal for financial compensation” for the alleged misuse of its intellectual property.

Perplexity called BBC’s claims “manipulative and opportunistic” in a statement to the FT, adding that BBC had “a fundamental misunderstanding of technology, the internet and intellectual property law.”

Perplexity and BBC did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

Since ChatGPT’s introduction publishers have raised alarms about chatbots that comb the internet to find information and create paragraph summaries for users.

Perplexity has faced accusations from media organisations including Forbes and Wired for plagiarising their content, but has since launched a revenue-sharing program to address publisher concerns.

In October, the New York Times sent Perplexity a “cease and desist” notice demanding the company stop using the newspaper’s content for generative AI purposes.

© Thomson Reuters 2025

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)