Popular Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has taken the wraps off its next upcoming product — the Redmi Note.
Previously, signs pointed to a second generation of its budget Android smartphone, the Redmi (previously known as the Hongmi in China), being released in April. However, Xiaomi has now unveiled the device as the Redmi Note on its Sina Weibo official account — with pre-orders taking place on Wednesday in collaboration with Qzone , a social networking website operated by Tencent, while it will be officially launching on March 26.
As per previous rumors, the Redmi Note has a 5.5-inch HD display and is powered by an MTK6592 octa-core processor — essentially falling into the category of what’s known as a phablet. In a Sina Weibo posting , Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun describes the new device as having good performance and power-saving capabilities. UPDATE: Lei has revealed that the device runs on a 3200mAh battery, which can last for two days without a charge.
The price of the new device is as yet unknown — in fact, Xiaomi is asking its fans to guess the price in order to win one out of the 50 Redmi Notes it is giving away.
The 4.7-inch Redmi is the lowest-priced smartphone in Xiaomi’s range, costing $130 in China. Other than being the company’s key to unlocking the potential of cheaper devices, the Redmi is also a crucial part of Xiaomi’s march overseas. In its first global expansion, Xiaomi chose to bring the Redmi to consumers in Singapore first before launching its flagship Mi-3.
Releasing different sizes of the same line of products is an uncannily similar strategy to Korean giant Samsung (even the ‘Note’ name is similar to Samsung’s Galaxy Note) — and the Redmi Note seems to be a first step as Xiaomi goes all out to offer a diverse range of products to challenge Samsung in particular.
Headline image via Xiaomi
Flapit is a physical social metrics counter for your business, available from today
Want to show off your cupcake business’ Facebook fan count, Twitter followers or Yelp rating in your store? Flapit can do just that, sitting by your cash register, in your window front or on your wall, for $299.
Citing market research that shows a majority of customers are likely to trust brands and stores with a social network presence, Flapit believes that it’s important for businesses to display their online popularity to gain customers’ trust – even offline.
To that end, the company has developed a physical social metrics counter that features a split-flap based design reminiscent of classic alarm clocks and airline status displays. It connects to a business’ social media accounts and shows key stats from 11 platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp, Instagram, Google+, Swarm, Weibo, qzone, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki and Google Analytics.
The Wi-Fi enabled device can also be customized via a web app and Flapit’s API to display promotional prices and discounts, welcome messages and even internal stats like sales figures – allowing Flapit to fit into shops, hotels, restaurants, and company reception desks and boardrooms.
Businesses interested in waving their social media flags high can pre-order the Flapit counter starting today for $299, and expect to receive their devices in March next year.
➤ Flapit
Notifications meet speed-reading on the Uno Noteband
Most wearables we’ve seen hit the market so far aim to cut down the number of times you check your phone for notifications. But how much information can you really consume on such a small watchface? Uno believes you can read plenty on a two-inch screen – and fast.
Based on Spritz’s no-training-necessary speed-reading technology , the Uno Noteband is an ambitious project that displays notifications one word at a time, to let you get through them quickly and without the need to scroll. With Spritz, users can go as fast as 700 words per minute on the device.
Uno Noteband pairs with your phone and delivers the usual barrage of alerts about your incoming calls, texts, email, social network updates and calendar events. Notably, it also plugs into Xbox Live, PlayStation and Steam to let you know about invitations to matches on your preferred gaming network.
It’s also a capable fitness tracker that records your daily steps and activity levels and syncs the data with Apple Health and Google Fit. Sweetening the deal is a battery that can run for over five days on a single charge – a lot more than the upcoming Apple Watch or the already available Moto 360.
Is it for you? At $59, the Uno Noteband is a good deal, packing an OLED screen into a plastic body with a rubber wristband. It’s also simple enough to use – the band vibrates when you receive a notification, and you can just touch the device to read it.
However, you’ll have to wait until April to strap one onto your wrist, as the company is hard at work raising funds to enable manufacturing over at Indiegogo. Get a better look on the Uno site or the Noteband campaign page .
➤ Uno Noteband / Indiegogo campaign