SberPay from Sberbank

Sberbank launches its own payment service SberPay, with which it will be possible to pay for purchases both online (via the Sberbank Online application) and offline. For offline payment, the user will need to have an Android smartphone with NFC function and a connected Visa card (in the future, it is planned to add cards of other payment systems). SberPay will also work on smartphones without Google Mobile Services (GMS) pre-installed, so that owners of Huawei and Honor smartphones will be able to use the service without restrictions. You can pay through Sberbank POS terminals in all trade organizations that accept contactless payments. The SberPay service for individuals will be provided free of charge. The cost of SberPay services for business will not differ from the tariffs for regular acquiring and will be charged depending on the field of activity, transaction volumes and other factors. Sberbank expects that SberPay will be able to become a worthy competitor to such popular services as Google Pay and Apple Pay.

With SberPay, I cannot understand why this service is being compared to Google Pay and Apple Pay. Payment service of one bank, which is available only for the clients of this bank, and even at the moment it works only with one Visa. Only owners of Huawei / Honor without Google services will be happy with such a gift, and even then if they are already clients of the green bank. For the rest, including even Sberbank cardholders, it is much easier to use solutions from Google and Apple. And, if I’m not mistaken, Tinkoff Bank had or has a similar solution that allows contactless payments through an application from a smartphone.

Huawei Flagship Coming Soon

The Chinese company Huawei has unveiled its new flagship smartphone Huawei P40 Pro + on the Russian market, which stands out for its design and Leica camera with five lenses and 100x digital zoom. The manufacturer emphasizes that the camera system has the largest sensor available today with a resolution of 50 MP and a diagonal of 1 / 1,28 inches.

The back of the smartphone has a multi-stage ceramic coating that includes a specially developed polishing technique. The smartphone received an OLED screen with narrow frames and streamlined edges with a diagonal of 6.58 inches and a resolution of 2640 × 1200 pixels with a refresh rate of 90 Hz. A fingerprint scanner is built into the screen.

The new flagship of Huawei is built on the basis of its own 7nm Kirin 990 5G processor with an integrated 5G modem, hardware support for artificial intelligence and high energy efficiency. Wi-Fi 6+ technology provides high-speed data transfer up to 2 Mbps. In addition to the powerful 400mAh battery, the Huawei P4200 Pro + is equipped with 40W SuperCharge fast wireless charging. Pre-order for Huawei P40 Pro + will be open starting from July 40, and the cost of the model will be 13 rubles.

Well, I don’t know, for 99 rubles to take now Huawei P990 Pro + without Google services is very brave. Yes, the situation with applications in Huawei’s own store is gradually improving, the software is being finalized, the same applications from Yandex no longer ask for Google services, and more and more new software appears in the store. The same SberPay appeared, Alice as a voice assistant. But still, for an amount of 40 rubles, the buyer has a wide selection of models for every taste, in which one does not even need to think about any compromises, as is the case with Huawei.

You can read about Huawei P40 Pro + in the material from the product presentation:

And I also recommend you our fresh material about activating the call recording function on Huawei devices:

Spotify coming to Russia?

According to the Music Business Worldwide publication, which Variety refers to, and all other media already refer to them, the Spotify service will officially start working in Russia on July 15. Two things confuse me in this story. The first is that MTS is called the partner of the launch of Spotify in Russia, and the second is that no more leaks were leaked to the network a week before the official launch. It’s just that MTS already has its own service, MTS Music, which is based on the competing product Yandex.Music. And the leaks should have already appeared, yet this is not an announcement of a new iPhone, although even Apple can no longer hide anything, so the information should have appeared at least in bits. And so, of course, we’ll see, on July 15 next week, and we’ll find out for sure whether Spotify will finally start with us or, as a couple of times over the past six months, it will be just information stuff.

Yes, and about MTS, the operator presented a new “My Smart”, the details are in a separate article:

Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2020

Samsung has officially announced the launch date for Galaxy Unpacked 2020. It will be held on August 5 entirely online, as predicted by numerous leaks. First of all, the event will be dedicated to the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Note20 line, which directly confirms the silhouette of the stylus at the beginning of the teaser video, but the Koreans are also expected to show Galaxy Fold 2 and other devices with flexible displays as part of the event. The online broadcast starts at 17:00 Moscow time.

And we have gained experience in operating the Samsung Galaxy Fold, read:

Beeline gives a subscription to YouTube Premium

The Beeline operator gives its subscribers a four-month subscription to the YouTube Premium service, which not only disables ads in videos, but also gives access to the YouTube Music service, as well as advanced features such as watching videos offline and playing in the background. The promotion will last until December 31, and new users of the service or those who have not previously used the free promotional period in YouTube Premium can connect to it. The offer is good, and from experience I will say that after 4 months you will want to renew your subscription, since YouTube without ads appears simply in a different light.

Android 11 will be released in September

The first beta version of Android 11 for Pixel smartphones and devices from several other manufacturers was released last month. Yesterday, the owners of Google devices got access to the second beta, and at the same time the release date of the final version of the OS became known. Google held a closed conference for developers in the field of smart home devices, one of the slides from which was on the network. On it, the company says that the release of Android 11 is scheduled for September 8. It is worth recalling that Android 10 became available last year on September 3, so the information is most likely accurate. The only thing that can affect its change is the situation with the coronavirus pandemic. The third beta is also expected to be released before the release of the public version.

The first devices to receive Android 11, of course, will be Pixel smartphones from Google itself, but how quickly other manufacturers will catch up is, as usual, unknown. But it is worth waiting for the presentation of new devices on the 11th version of the operating system, apparently, at the same time in September, when the IFA exhibition will take place or separate online announcements will take place, it all depends on the situation in the world.

Last week we released a review of the TWS headphones Google Pixel Buds – interesting headphones that I myself would not mind testing:

Mercedes-Benz will present the new MBUX

Simultaneously with the premiere of the flagship S-class sedan 2021, the German automaker will also unveil the second generation of its MBUX system. The engineers of the company divided the display of the system, leaving one screen, as it was, in front of the driver, in the form of a virtual dashboard, but they lowered the second down, simultaneously increasing it in size to 12.8 ”. It turns out that you will have such an iPad Pro 12.9 in your car. All climate control and other settings have now been taken out on the display, so you will probably have to forget about physical buttons and knobs. The location of the screen is also interesting, it is not built vertically in the center, as, for example, in Volvo, and is not raised on the panel, as it was before, but is located at an angle closer to the driver, as, for example, if the lower display in Audi was raised and combined with the top. How convenient this arrangement of the display and full touch control will be remains to be seen, however, it is said that most of the functions can be controlled by voice using the improved Mercedes assistant. Yes, I would also like to note that Mercedes-Benz will add augmented reality to the projection screen, so that the possibilities of the latter will become much more interesting.

What is the first generation MBUX, you can find out from our material:

“Yandex.Auto” began to show movies

Yandex is expanding the capabilities of its Yandex.Auto automotive system. So, last week the platform received a new application “KinoPoisk HD”, so now it is possible to watch movies and TV shows in the car. True, viewing is possible only while parking, and traffic will not be included in the free package offered by operators in special rates for Yandex.Auto.

You can learn about the capabilities of the Yandex.Auto platform from our material:

… and dessert

Ballantine Books has announced the release of Ernest Cline’s new book Ready Player Two on November 24. It is a sequel to the 2011 bestselling Ready Player One, which Steven Spielberg directed in 2018 for the movie of the same name.

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