Xiaomi India has unveiled its new 4K Smart TV X Series.

Smart TV X Series comes in three sizes - 43", 50" and 55", with support for Dolby Vision, 30-speakers and more.

With the announcement of the Xiaomi Smart TV X Series, Xiaomi India today added a new range of TVs to become a part of their already big TV presence in India. Xiaomi says that the new Smart TV X Series slots in between their 5A and 5X Series, with more premium offerings like the Q1 and OLED TVs on sale as well.

Xiaomi Smart TV X Series Availability & Price

As for the availibility, Xiaomi says you can purchase the new TVs from mi.com, Flipkart, and offline retail stores. The price for the smaller Smart TV X 43" variant is kept at Rs 28,999, with the bigger options - Smart TV X 50" and Smart TV X 55" coming in at Rs 34,999 and Rs 39,999 respectively.

Xiaomi Smart TV X Series Specifications

When it comes to the display technology, all three TVs support Reality Flow MEMC, Xiaomi’s tweaked Vivid Picture Engine, Wide Colour Gamut, 94% DCPI-3 color gamut, HLG and HDR 10. The resolution stays 4K across the board.

Audio is often subjected to neglect when it comes to mid-range TVs but Xiaomi is claiming to solve this by offering 30-watt speakers on all three models. In addition, the TVs also carry the support for DTS Virtual X and Dolby Atmos (through HDMI pass-through only).

During the briefing conducted by Xiaomi, it was also confirmed that the Smart TV X Series does not come with any ‘real’ gamer-friendly features. There is no support for technologies like VRR. However, the maximum refresh rate stands at 60 fps and gamers can expect 5 m/s response time and Auto Low Latency Mode or ALLM, which isn’t bad for playing console games.

Moreover, the Xiaomi Smart TV X Series features a quad core A55 CPU, 2GB RAM, 8GB ROM, dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, and I/O including two USB A ports, 3 HDMI (eARC x 1), ethernet port, 3.5mm audio jack and optical out for audio.

The Bluetooth TV remote supports the Google Assistant considering Xiaomi Smart TV X Series is based on the Android TV 10 platform.

The new Smart TV X Series comes in three sizes - 43", 50" and 55" and features a new Patchwall 4 UI with support for YouTube integration and changes that allow the content to be displayed more intuitively on the home screen. The new Patchwall 4 UI will be rolled out to other Xiaomi TVs as well. In addition to 75+ free live channels and Universal Search across 30+ OTT platforms, PatchWall 4 comes with IMDb ratings for every movie.
https://mobileinfoworld.com/smart-tv-x-series-launched-by-xiaomi/

Brands like Xiaomi, Realme and Oppo have limited the growth for the domestic industry in India and reports suggested the Government wanted to put a break on their momentum.

Reports says Indian government could stop Chinese brands from selling smartphones under Rs 15,000 in the country. Xiaomi, Realme, Vivo and Oppo come in this segment and would have faced massive issues running their business in the country. But now the Government has finally clarified that it has no plans to impose such bans on these companies.

The Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology said, There’s no such proposal. It’s the government’s obligation and duty to build Indian brands. If due to unfair trade practices, there’s an exclusion of Indian brands, we’ll intervene and resolve it.

The report from Bloomberg suggested that banning Chinese brands in this price bracket will allow Indian brands to reignite their focus on local production in India. But Chandrasekhar refuted such claims and suggested that the Government wants these Chinese brands to set up shop in India and export their products to other countries from here.

The likes of Karbonn, Lava and Micromax have been unable to compete with the products from Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Realme and Oppo.

“We are asking foreign brands to choose India as a global base and export from here. The PM’s vision is of a robust, vibrant, and innovative electronics ecosystem consisting of foreign majors and viable Indian brands,” he added.

From these statements it is clear that none of the Chinese brands face operational issues in India, but recent events suggest the Ministry is closely monitoring their businesses and how they manage their revenues earned in the country.

They have dropped down the market share charts in the past few years, not even making it to the top 10 in India. It is believed that the government wants to give them a fair chance to rekindle their business but we are yet to see that materialise.
https://mobileinfoworld.com/govt-is-about-banning-affordable-chinese-phones-in-india/

What is WPA3

- Wi-Fi 5 & 6 access points to obtain certification through the Wi-Fi Alliance, they must support WPA3.

- Wi-Fi 6 will bring enhanced security to Wi-Fi users with Wi-Fi Protected Access 3 (WPA3), the successor to WPA2.

- WPA3 provides the latest security protocols, robust authentication, It builds upon and improves WPA2, which was released around 2004.

- We’re still waiting for widespread support from device manufacturers.

- Newer devices with Wi-Fi 6 capability must support WPA3.

Why Use WPA3

It is mandatory to support WPA3 in Wi-Fi 6/6E. There are a few enhancements in WPA3 that improve Wi-Fi security.

Protected Management Frames

We’ve seen quite a few deauthentication attacks from spoofed access points which result in devices disconnecting from the Wi-Fi network.Protected Management Frames (PMF) or Management Frame Protection (MFP) is now mandatory. PMF is not new. In fact, it is optional in previous Wi-Fi generations. PMF provides protection against deauthentication attacks, honeypots, and evil twin attacks.

Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE)

SAE is not new. It was introduced in 802.11s for mesh networking and is robust against passive attacks and dictionary attacks.The predecessor, WPA2, had vulnerabilities attacking the way cryptographic keys were processed. Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) improves the security of password-based authentication and protects the 4-way Handshake.

Encryption

Critical for keeping data private over Wi-Fi is the use encryption. WPA3-Enterprise introduces 192-bit encryption mode. The benefit is having much stronger cryptography.

WPA3 modes

Not all devices currently support WPA3. There is a transition configuration to allow both WPA2 and WPA3 devices.

Those two transition modes are:

- WPA3-Personal Transition

- WPA3-Enterprise Transition

In a transition mode, we are ensuring WPA3-supported devices connect to Wi-Fi using WPA3. And clients that do not support WPA3 connect to Wi-Fi using WPA2.

The WPA3-only modes:

- WPA3-Personal

- WPA3-Enterprise

The the latter two modes, we eliminate the use of legacy and deprecated security functions.

WPA3 configuration in the Mist dashboard

When Should You Migrate

You can start transitioning today with WPA3 transition mode. This will enable both WPA2 and WPA3, allowing unsupported devices to continue to connect and allowing WPA3-capable devices to move on to the next iteration of Wi-Fi security.

Device support will dictate how quickly we can move away from WPA2.

By using a transition mode, you can broadcast a single SSID, instead of provisioning a second.

Take inventory of your devices to understand what security functions they support. Ideally, it is better to migrate to WPA3 to strengthen your Wi-Fi security posture but not at the expense of stranding unsupported devices.

See how to configure WPA3 in the Mist dashboard

https://youtu.be/ifl3ig6CAtY
https://mobileinfoworld.com/what-is-wpa3-encryption/

A change to Meraki’s underlying algorithm for Client Balancing is getting an overhaul in version MR29.1.

In early July 2022, Meraki released a public beta of MR29.1 which includes a change in the way Client Balancing is handled.

At Packet6, we’ve always recommended disabling Client Balancing due to how devices negatively reacted.

Prior to MR29.1, a Meraki access point would reject a device association. As a result, the user experience would be poor - often considered as Wi-Fi not working or experiencing long times to connect.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss what’s different in Client Balancing and how it might be useful.

What is Client Balancing?

Client Balancing is a method of steering devices to an access point with less load (or number of devices associated).

There are a few metrics taken into consideration for Client Balancing:

- Load

- Best AP

- Best AP Load

- Best AP RSSI

Load (on the target AP) will identify how many devices are currently associated on the access point. Client Balancing will know the Best AP for a device to associate to, along with how many devices are associated to that AP (called Best AP Load), along with that AP’s RSSI view of the device.

Meraki access points share a database with other nearby Meraki access points containing a list of associated and nearby devices.

Access points form an AP Resource Group for a nearby device, used for Client Balancing. You could consider this as a list of AP neighbors.

Client Balancing MR29.1+

Meraki’s MR29.1 improves the algorithm and operation of Client Balancing.

Previously, devices were steered passively. Starting with MR29.1, Meraki access points will steer passively and actively (using 802.11v).

That means at association and post-association to Wi-Fi, steering can occur.

Because devices ultimately decide where they want to join, having a denied association request could place an SSID on a device blocklist which is used to prevent association to a problematic SSID.

MR29.1 will reject a device association twice before accepting the request.

Wireless standards, such as 802.11v, have been around for many years to help improve roaming to nearby access points. Meraki will now implement 802.11v (for 802.11 compatible devices) as a way to transition devices to another access point.

Using a standardized method is a better improvement than proprietary vendor technology. The implementation can be compatible across vendors and device manufacturers.

How Will This Impact You?

Further testing and device support will help us determine if this is a good improvement to Client Balancing.

The number of denied associations should help prevent devices from hanging in limbo and creating a poor Wi-Fi user experience.

Before relying on proprietary vendor technology to steer devices to a more preferred access point, review your Wi-Fi design.

A well planned Wi-Fi design can help mitigate the need for features such as Client Balancing. On the contrary, these features can help mitigate the load with an influx of devices in a high density environment.

But we must remember.. the devices decide which access point they want to associate to.

Do you have 802.11v enabled on your Meraki network? There isn’t a checkbox that specifically states “enable 802.11v”.

A wireless frame capture can identify if 802.11v, BSS Transition,

Client Balancing can be enabled per RF Profile. Test Client Balancing out on a smaller scale before rolling it out to every environment.
https://mobileinfoworld.com/updates-meraki-client-balancing/

iPhone 14 India prices: Apple is expected to increase the price of its Pro series by $100 or so, and Indian users should expect to pay more.

But more than specifications and features, there is one question that is always on people’s minds when a new iPhone series is announced. And that’s around the price, especially for iPhone fans in India. iPhone remains an aspirational device for many given its premium market value and pricing. Last year with the iPhone 13 series, we saw Apple did not increase prices for India. But will it be the same this year?

Given the economic conditions, the weakening of the rupee against the US dollar and the general inflationary pressures, it is unlikely the iPhone 14 lineup start at the same price as last time. Let’s take a quick look at what can be expected and how Apple has priced the iPhone series in India in the past two years.

iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini price and iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini price in India

When Apple launched iPhone 13 last year, it was priced at Rs 79,900 for the base 128GB storage variant. iPhone 13 mini started at Rs 69,900 for the same storage. The prices were the same as the iPhone 12 series in 2020 which started at the same price.

Apple iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 14 Pro Max and iPhone 14 prices: Expect a price hike

With the iPhone 14 Pro series, a price hike is likely given the economic reasons we mentioned above.

Currently, the iPhone 13 mini starts at $699 and the iPhone 13 at $799 in the US. The iPhone 13 Pro starts at $999 and the iPhone 13 Pro Max at $1099. The India iPhone prices are much higher, even if you convert the dollar prices to rupee and that’s typically the case each year. So, while iPhone 13 costs Rs 64,000 in the US, in India, the starting price is Rs 79,900. With the Pro series, this difference is more glaring. The price of the iPhone 13 Pro translates to Rs 80,000 in India, but it costs more than a lakh.

“I estimated iPhone 14 series ASP would increase by about 15% (vs. iPhone 13 series ASP) to $1,000-1,050 (USD) due to two iPhone 14 Pro’s price hikes & higher shipment proportion.”

If the Average Selling Price (ASP) goes up by 15 per cent, then iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max will both clearly cross the $1000 mark. Meanwhile, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has predicted a $100 price increase for iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max. So, iPhone 14 Pro could start at $1100 and iPhone Pro Max at $1199. He expects the price of the base iPhone 14 to remain the same as last year.
https://mobileinfoworld.com/iphone-14-coming-soon/