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Chinese electronics maker Xiaomi is gearing up to announce a new phone in their affordable Redmi lineup. The Redmi 7 has been spotted on TENAA, the certification agency behind Chinese telecommunications authority. From the pictures, we can deduce that the phone will have a gradient design on the back and from the looks of it, the rear panel is made out of polycarbonate.

In addition, some key specifications of the Redmi 7 were also revealed through the TENAA listing.

Redmi 7 specifications

The listing states that the Redmi 7 will feature a 6.26-inch HD+ (1520 x 720 pixels) display, is thick at 8.4mm and weighs around 180g. This also indicates that the phone will have a notch design on the front. Xiaomi debuted its dot-notch display during the launch of the Redmi Note 7 and it is quite possible that the Redmi 7 follows it up with the same u-shaped notch design.

It is powered by an octa-core processor clocked at 1.8GHz and will come in three variants. The base model has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage while the second variant offers 3GB of RAM and 32GB storage. There’s a high-end variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage option as well. As per a second report, the Redmi 7 is expected to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 632. The SD632 has an octa-core CPU which is clocked at 1.8GHz, in line to the TENAA listing.

Coming to the cameras, the Redmi 7 will have a dual camera setup on the back and a single selfie camera on the front. The twin cameras consist of a primary 12MP sensor and a secondary depth-sensing camera. On the front, there’s an 8MP selfie camera.

The Redmi 7 has a 3,900mAh battery and a fingerprint sensor on the back panel. It will come in Black, red, blue, pink, white, green, purple, gray colour options.

Xiaomi is hosting an event on March 18 where it is going to announce the Redmi Note 7 Pro and it is expected that the Redmi 7 could also debut alongside.

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It’s been rumored for years, but now the Switch console is finally getting virtual reality support by way of Nintendo Labo.

The complete Nintendo Labo: VR Kit, priced at $79.99 (roughly £60 / AU$113) comes bundled with five cardboard sets along with the VR goggles and software, including Wind Pedal, Camera, Elephant, Bird and Blaster. 

Nintendo is also offering a Starter Kit, priced at $39.99 (about £30 / AU$57) that includes just the googles and Blaster design. Two additional expansion packs (Camera + Elephant, or Bird + Wind Pedal) will be available to purchase at a later date for $19.99 (around £15 / AU$28).

“We wanted to design an experience that encourages both virtual and real-world interactions among players through passing around Toy-Con creations,” said newly-appointed Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser.

Nintendo’s two Labo VR sets will be available in the US from April 12, 2019, with releases in the UK and Australia expected to arrive around the same time. 

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With headphones of all types, colours and styles flooding the market, it’s hard knowing which ones to pick – do you go for the premium model you’ve always wanted, or are you better off just grabbing a cheap set from the discount bin?

Well, it’s worth remembering that cheap headphones are cheap for a reason, so even if saving money is priority we can’t recommend those $2 discount-bin variety that you find all over the world. And, as you’ll find out below, you don’t always have spend a lot of dosh to snag a great set of headphones either.

To save you the time and effort, we’ve put together this dedicated guide to the best bargains on great-sounding headphone. We constantly monitor major Aussie retailers and go a-huntin’ to bring you the most worthwhile deals on a variety of sets – from in-ear buds to noise-cancelling cans – so check out our continually updated list below to discover the best current headphones deals in Australia.

Best cheap over-ear headphones this week

Best cheap in-ear headphones this week

The best deals on our favourite headphones

To help you decide which headphones work best for you, we’ve decided to put together a little buying guide with a list of our favourite recommendations. 

The headphones you’ll find here have tons of features to help you to get the most out of your music, or any other form of audio-visual entertainment you prefer, however you like to listen to it.

1. Sony WH-1000XM2

Acoustic design: Closed | Weight: 23g | Cable length: N/A | Frequency response: 4Hz-40kHz | Drivers: 40mm | Driver type: Dynamic | Battery life: 30 hours | Wireless range: 9m | NFC: Yes

If you are looking to practice beginner level photography and need a feature-rich DSLR,  cameras under Rs 50,000 can suffice. Fortunately, Canon, Nikon and now Sony do have their best offerings in the price range in India. 

These companies have some real value for money DSLR cameras under Rs 50,000, with some good bundled kit lens to get you started.

Decent quality DSLR cameras start at around Rs 30,000 from companies like Canon and Nikon. For a beginner, these mid-range cameras are good to test waters with. 

However, once you move into the enthusiast category, these mid-range DSLRs may not cut it, and you may want to look for some high-end options.

You can get several great DSLR cameras under Rs 50,000 in India these days – often, you can score a great deal after discounts and cashbacks. Let’s take a look at some of these options to help you decide.

Nikon D5600

Sensor: APS-C CMOS | Megapixels: 24.2MP | Lens mount: Nikon DX | Screen: 3.2-inch articulating touchscreen, 1,040,000 dots | Continuous shooting speed: 5fps | Max video resolution: 1080p | User level: Beginner/enthusiast

Amazon may have been a fairly late entry onto the online shopping scene in Australia, but the e-commerce giant has been growing by leaps and bounds since it officially opened its doors locally in December 2017. Not only did it host its first ever Prime Day Down Under in 2018, the company also had some amazing offers over the Black Friday sale period.

Amazon also has ongoing deals and discounts through the year, giving shoppers the ability to save plenty on items small and big. And for frequent shoppers looking to save on shipping costs, Amazon Australia’s Prime subscription price is one of the cheapest in the world.

Amazon is also like a rabbit hole – the longer you spend on the site, the more items you see that you want to buy, especially when browsing through the deals section. 

However, there are usually a lot more items discounted on the site which don’t appear on the category-based deals pages. To make it easy for shoppers to find all the deals across the site, Amazon Australia has now officially launched the Outlet Store.

What is the Outlet Store?

Amazon’s Outlet Store has been around in other regions, especially in the US, for a while now, but even over there many people aren’t aware of it.

It’s the place where Amazon offers greater savings on thousands of items across the site every single day. While the offers are updated daily in the US, in Australia the selection is set to be updated weekly – every Monday – giving shoppers a week to decide on a purchase.

The Outlet Store has clearance products from brands both big and small, often going for real cheap. Right now, Amazon Australia has over 10,000 items across every category available in the Outlet Store. 

To give you an example, you can get the complete 7th season of Game of Thrones DVD for just $14, or a 2TB WD Elements USB 3.0 portable hard drive for just $87.30.

You can even scoop up a Philips Hue Smart Dimming Kit for as low as $48.60 or a White Ambiance Starter Kit for under $152.

If you’re a deal hound, the Outlet Store is well and truly worth checking out.

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With the internet now an essential part of most people’s daily lives, the router that’s at the heart of every home’s connectivity has become increasingly important. And while we all reap the benefits of that access, it’s often easy to overlook the aspects that could negatively affect your family and home if left unmonitored and unprotected. 

With threats like malicious attacks (such as malware, botware, cryptojacking and more) and content or activities that are particularly unsafe for children (not to mention rising problems such as screen and video game addiction), router-makers have started to integrate more sophisticated tools to let households deal with these issues. 

D-Link is the latest to turn its attention towards better home-network protection and has teamed up with the antivirus mavens at McAfee, to launch the new D-Fend AC2600 router in Australia and New Zealand. D-Link claims the 802.11ac Wi-Fi device has the capability to protect every device on your network, while also providing comprehensive parental controls. 

Using the router’s dedicated D-Fend app, which is available on Android and iOS, parents and home owners will be able to create personalised user profiles for each member of the household, setting individual controls over blocked websites and categories, age-appropriate content, pausing the internet entirely, setting time limits on internet usage, and even the ability to approve or deny user-submitted requests to visit specific sites. 

The D-Fend can also be set up to notify the owner whenever an outside source tries to connect to the network, ensuring that the family home remains safe from hackers and other malicious attackers.

As an added bit of convenience, the router can be voice-controlled via Amazon Alexa – although parents will want to register their voices to prevent clever children from setting their own internet usage rules.

Each device connected to the network will be protected by the McAfee Secure Home Platform, which is included as a complimentary service for five years – a subscription valued at around $600. Two years worth of access to McAfee’s LiveSafe internet security software for computers, smartphones and tablets is also bundled with the router for free.

The D-Link D-Fend AC2600 is priced at $499.95 (NZ$599.99) and is now available from D-Link’s Australian and New Zealand websites and authorised resellers, as well as through JB Hi-Fi.

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In the most recent Facebook blog post, Mark Zuckerberg has waxed lyrical about his ‘vision’ for the mammoth social networking and messaging platform, promising a “privacy-focused” future for the service and announcing a number of changes that he intends to eventually implement.

According to the post, Zuckerberg has been doing some thinking about the nature of the internet and the increasingly significant role that privacy plays in online interactions. It could be argued that this thinking has been provoked by the privacy breaches and user data-related incidents afflicting Facebook in recent times – it’s likely not a coincidence that the one year anniversary of the breaking of the Cambridge Analytica scandal is coming up.

Nevertheless, the post mentions the increasing popularity of “private messaging, ephemeral stories, and small groups” in online social networks, attributing it to a growing caution of permanent online records, and the desire to connect more immediately with friends, family and relevant groups.

As such, Facebook will be looking to build a “simpler platform that’s focused on privacy first”, and it hopes to achieve this with a similar approach it took to its development of WhatsApp: ”focus on the most fundamental and private use case – messaging – make it as secure as possible, and then build more ways for people to interact on top of that”.

So what will this involve?

This new approach to a platform will apparently be founded on six core principles: private interactions, encryption, reducing permanence, safety, interoperability, and secure data storage.

There seems to be a good deal of overlap in these principles, but some of their descriptions contain more elaborate explanations of what this will change in terms of actual usage. 

Privacy, encryption, safety, and permanence

One such promise is to give Messenger and WhatsApp end-to-end encryption and make them “faster, simpler, more private and more secure”. This is likely the reason for Facebook having recently moved all of its messaging services to the same platform.

While the post acknowledges the delicate balance between keeping private communications truly private, and exposing criminals who use it for nefarious purposes, Zuckerberg ultimately favors encryption, stating that Facebook would “build appropriate safety systems that stop bad actors as much as it possibly can within the limits of an encrypted service”.

Regarding the issue of permanence, Zuckerberg is considering employing an auto-deletion mechanism for all private messages that would be enabled by default, but could be altered or turned off entirely. Similarly, he proposes a limited timeframe for Facebook to store users’ message metadata, which is apparently used for “spam and safety systems”.

Interoperability

As mentioned before, Facebook had already announced its plans to integrate WhatsApp, Instagram and Messenger messaging services, and this blog post confirms that this would then enable encrypted messages to be sent between each of these services.

Furthermore, once this capability has been introduced, Facebook is considering allowing each of these services to be able to send and receive messages via SMS as well (on an opt-in basis), although given the nature of SMS messaging, this will not allow for end-to-end encryption and will only work on Android handsets due to Apple’s restrictions.

Data storage

In order to ensure it is legally able to uphold the privacy of its users’ data, Facebook has to consider where it is physically storing such information in its data centers around the globe.

“There’s an important difference between providing a service in a country and storing people’s data there,” Zuckerberg notes. “We’ve chosen not to build data centers in countries that have a track record of violating human rights like privacy or freedom of expression.”

“Upholding this principle may mean that our services will get blocked in some countries, or that we won’t be able to enter others anytime soon,” he continues. “That’s a tradeoff we’re willing to make.”

When will these changes occur?

The post concludes by noting that Facebook is in the very early stages for many of these proposed changes, and is still in the process of consulting with experts and officials around the world.

Unfortunately, the nature of the blog post is rather vague about what concrete changes will actually take place, let alone when they will occur, so we don’t expect anything to significantly shift in the immediate future.

Given the broader statements made in this post, we expect Facebook will provide more specific details about changes to its services as and when they are decided upon, developed, and released.

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