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Apple iPhone 12 launch delayed to November, battery specs leaked

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Sriram
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Image Credit: Forbes.com

Apple is all set to release its new generation of iPhone 12, and news has started to emerge related to it. The latest news does not seem to be very positive for Apple fans, as the iPhone 12 might have been delayed to November this year. Information about the battery capacity has also been leaked, which does come as a spoiler for people expecting something more from the new iPhone.

The details from Macotakara mentioned that the launch of the iPhone 12, which is a 5G model, will be delayed to November 2020. The major reason for the same is “multiple Chinese suppliers” who have been facing many issues related to production, amid the Coronavirus pandemic. 

Due to this, it is expected that Apple will launch the lite version of the iPhone 12 in October, which is not 5G. At the same time, the 5G variant will be launched in November. Apart from these details, a tweet also disclosed that the iPhone 12 pro’s battery capacity would be just 2775 mAh, discovered in South Korea’s SafetyKorea agency’s database. If the rumors are true, then the device’s battery capacity will be smaller than the iPhone 11 models, which was 3046 mAh.

Last month, another rumor came up that the company will not be including any charging brick and cable in the box. The box will have the iPhone device and the necessary documentation. No matter which details are made public, Apple consumers are still waiting for the device’s official launch. Once the official date comes in, we will update the same to our readers.

Spotify brings in Videocast to its platform

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Sriram
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Image Credit: Spotify.com

Spotify has been fairly popular among the users and has a large user base in the US. Spotify recently announced that they would be bringing in Video Podcast features to its platform, with multitasking support, if you prefer to listen instead. The company has mentioned that the feature will not be available to all programs initially and will be provided to a handful of Spotify’s programs only.

The selected programs are Book of Basketball 2.0, Fantasy Footballers, the Misfits Podcast, H3 Podcast, the Morning Toast, Higher Learning with Van Lathan & Rachel Lindsay, and the Rooster Teeth Podcast. The feature can be accessed by both the premium and free users of Spotify. The best part about this feature will be the availability of all regular podcast features. 

The users will be able to hear the podcast, and it will keep running in case users lock the phone or are working on a different application. Through multitasking support, the user can easily work on anything else while the app will seamlessly work. Although these programs will be available on video podcasts, the audio for the same can still be downloaded and accessed by the user in the offline mode.

The app can be easily used to download the podcast and listen to it anywhere without mobile data or WiFi. Apart from these new features, Spotify is adding up many more updates in the future and will be adding new things to their platform. The video podcast feature will soon be expanded to many other programs as well.

Periscope Telephoto cameras coming to iPhone

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Sriram
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Image Credit: Businessinsider.com

Apple iPhone is known for its groundbreaking camera technology, which has improved and got better with time. It will not be wrong to say that the camera on an iPhone is one of the best among any smartphone and even competes with some of the low range DSLR cameras. Adding up to this, Ming-chi Kuo, the analyst of TF Securities, has provided information that Apple will be using a periscope telephoto camera in the iPhone lineup in 2022.

The news was found on 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, and MacRumors. The details of this information came out when Semco, a South Korean company, was reported to contribute autofocus motors to this year’s new iPhone models and is said to be in line to provide about half of the supply periscope optics.

Periscope cameras are a way of enabling long focal lengths in devices like smartphones, where physical depth is at a premium. These kinds of cameras use prisms and mirrors to reflect light in the sensors. Chinese mobile manufacturers also use the same technique like Oppo and Huawei, where their phone cameras can provide up to zoom 5x. The same technology will also be used by Apple competitor Samsung in the new Galaxy range of premium smartphones.

Apple currently uses 2x zoom in all their models, which they started using in iPhone 7. With the shift to periscope design for cameras, it is expected that we will see iPhone in 2022 with up to 5x zoom out even more. Apple has been quiet about this development and has not made any official statement on this news.

However, since it has been a lot of time after the iPhone 7, the company is soon expected to change the camera setup to something better. We do hope that we get to see more camera improvement apart from using a periscope camera.

Netflix added to Google Nest platform

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Sriram
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Image Credit: Theverge.com

Netflix has been expanding its domain and try to reach as many users as possible. To do that, it is now available to stream to Google’s Nest Hub and its Nest Hub Max. It is a great feature for users who already own a Google Home Setup, as they can connect their device to it or the Google Assistant app for viewing content from Netflix.

To promote this and many other new features, Google promotes a discount on its Google Home products. Currently, Google nest is already streaming from video services like Hulu, CBS, Disney+, and much more. The addition of Netflix to the platform will add many users as Netflix is already one of the most subscribed video streaming services.

Google Nest provides the user with paid services where the users cannot only access the video streaming services but also many other streaming services are also available. Both Netflix and Google Nest has been trying to expand its domain from the last couple of years. Netflix has been trying to integrate with as many platforms to provide a Netflix presence on every device.

Products like Android TV or Amazon Fire TV sticks etc can always be found with Netflix as an integrated service. Adding itself to the Google Nest platform will surely benefit the company as Google Nest has many users and increases. Simultaneously, Google is also trying to add more features to Google Nest paid subscription to increase the number of users by providing multiple services on one platform.

All New Android phones will now have at least 2GB RAM

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Sriram
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Image Credit:en.wikipedia.org

Android has been one of the most used operating systems globally, and due to this, Google is constantly trying to update and improve the OS to improve the performance on the device. However, sometimes the device configuration makes it very hard for the company to improve the performance by simply providing software updates. Therefore, Google has announced that from now on, every Android phone needs to have at least 2GB of RAM on the phone, and it will be a mandate globally.

The decision was expected as Android’s software requirement is constantly increasing, and so is the hardware requirement. Therefore, smartphones that cost less RAM will never work in the future. Also, since premium smartphones are coming up to 12GB of RAM, expecting at least 2GB RAM in an Android smartphone is easily possible. 

The decision will help make the Android ecosystem more easily accessible in terms of performance, especially for people using entry-level smartphones. Starting Q4 of 2020, every entry-level phone on Android, running the OS version 10 and 11, needs to have at least 2GB of RAM. However, smartphones with less than 2GB of RAM will only run Android Go as the operating system. Due to this, the company has also decided that the Android Go phones will have at least 1GB of RAM.

This mandatory change is going to bring a big improvement for people using entry-level smartphones. It will improve the performance on these smartphones and lead the user to try various other android features, which they were unable to use earlier. Users can also expect to see a lot more Android Go devices with up to 2GB RAM as well.  

Netflix might come with a new streaming plan in India

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Sriram
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Image Credit: Popsci.com

Netflix is one of the best and the most popular streaming apps in India, with more users on its platform than all others combined. Currently, Netflix works on India’s subscription plan, where the user has to pay a monthly amount based on the plan they have selected. It has recently been found that Netflix might be working on a new subscription plan, specifically for India, where the focus will be on smartphones and laptops. Currently, Netflix is the most widely used app on the mobile platform, adding the same for Laptop, will not only increase the user base but will also give the users a chance to upgrade their plan and view it on the bigger screen. 

The details reveal that the new plan will be called Mobile Plus, which will provide HD quality content to the user, with computers as permitted devices along with their smartphones. The plan’s expected price can be Rs349 per month, which seems to be cheaper than the lower quality basic tier.

The same details were spotted by AndroidPure (via TechCrunch), where the plan would provide a maximum streaming quality of 720p resolution. Although it does provide users with an additional option, it is still higher in cost when compared to the other streaming services in India.  Disney Plus Hotstar’s Premium tier comes in at Rs 299/month, which is lower than Netflix’s Mobile+ tier. 

Also, Amazon Prime Video is the lowest in price at Rs 129 per month compared to Netflix. Netflix has over 200 million users in the US, but they are still facing some fierce competition in the Indian Market. It will be interesting to see if Netflix comes up with the Mobile Plus plan at the same price or a discounted price for the long term. However, the company has to consider the price war if they are looking to attract new customers.

Google brings Google Lens to KaiOS

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Sriram
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Image Credit: Prixindia.com

Google Lens has been one of Google’s most interesting features, which is currently present in all Android and iOS devices. One can simply point the camera to a written text in a different language and translate it into their native language. Recently Google has announced bringing Google Lens to phones running KaiOS in India. The KiaOS phones were phones with keypad, for which Google introduced Assistant in 2017. There was a dedicated voice key provided as Voice assistant help in such phones. Now Google will also add a new Camera translate button, which will provide direct access to the Google Lens features. 

google lens assistant for kaios

The button will open the camera lens, where the user will be prompted to picture the text. Once the user confirms the cropped image, Google will automatically translate it into a language you understand. The translation feature for KaiOS also provides a lot of Indian languages to choose from, such as Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, or Tamil, with Kannada and Gujarati, many of which will be coming soon.

The feature of Google Lens is now made available for KaiOS, where the core functionality remains the same, but the interface and a lot of other elements have been customized for the OS. Google has already added many other features to phones running on KaiOS, such as voice-enabled typing, voice-enabled language change, and other features like Google Maps and Youtube. 

Google has also partnered with Jio in India to bring affordable smartphones in India, based on the Android platform. They are creating new features that will remove any kind of boundaries people are facing due to language. With many users still using phones with keypads, it is essential to add services like Google Lens so that language becomes more accessible to everyone.

CERT-In asks Google Chrome users to update the browser to avoid vulnerabilities

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Sriram
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Image Credit: ZDnet.com

Google Chrome is one of the best web browsers and has been very popular among users. However, the browser had its issues, which were also highlighted by CERT-In in the past. This time, CERT-In has asked the Google users to update their Chrome browser immediately to the latest version to prevent any hacking or similar problems. The update will help to avoid the use of user data through the browser.

If the users are using the version before Google Chrome version 84.0.4147.89, they need to update the browser immediately. It has been found that the older version of the Google Chrome browser had many vulnerabilities with high severity, which could lead to data leaks and issues with privacy. Not updating the browser can lead to remote attacks in executing arbitrary code, bypassing security restrictions, accessing sensitive information, conducting spoofing attacks, and denying services (DoS) on the target systems. 

As per CERT-In, the reason for these loopholes in Chrome is due to the heap buffer flow, side-channel information leakage, type confusion, and an inappropriate implementation in WebRTC, among others. They have also mentioned that the issues can be found in some of the Google Chrome extensions, which were caught capturing sensitive user data. The users are suggested to check the Google extensions page to check out if any of the installed extensions are marked as malicious. These extensions can take screenshots, save sensitive information, and capture passwords and other information using keystrokes. 

Xiaomi is going to release MIUI 12 update to 23 devices

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Sriram
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Image credit: notebookcheck.net

Xiaomi was working on a new update of MIUI 12 for a while and has released the name of 23 devices, which will receive the UI update in August 2020. The update will be sent on 17 Redmi smartphones, including the latest Redmi Note9 and eight series. The update will also be rolled out on the POCO F2 pro and POCO F1. Xiaomi provided the details of the update on the Indonesian version of the MIUI.com website.

MIUI 12 release schedule
miui.com

The updates are said to start rolling out in August and be available to all the selected smartphones in batches. The rollout of the update is expected to be global for all the Xiaomi devices. The most impressive thing is that the company has also added their older devices such as Redmi 6 to the update list, which is currently running Android 8.1. Below mentioned is the list of all the devices that will receive the update.

  • Mi 10
  • Mi Note 10
  • Mi Note 10 Pro
  • Mi 8 Lite
  • POCO F2 Pro
  • Pocophone F1
  • Redmi Note 9
  • Redmi Note 9 Pro
  • Redmi Note 8 Pro
  • Redmi Note 8
  • Redmi Note 7
  • Redmi Note 6 Pro
  • Redmi Note 5
  • Redmi 9
  • Redmi 8
  • Redmi 8A
  • Redmi 8A Pro
  • Redmi 7
  • Redmi 7A
  • Redmi 6A
  • Redmi 6
  • Redmi 6 Pro
  • Redmi S2

The update will bring along Xiaomi’s Super Wallpapers on two devices: Mi 10 and POCO F2 Pro. Xiaomi also states that it will be bringing animation icons to just the Mi 10, POCO F2 Pro, Pocophone F1, and Redmi Note 8 Pro. Apart from this, the update will also bring a lot of better graphics transitions and features to the UI. MIUI 12 is said to provide many new features to different devices, based on when they were released and configuration.

Sales hit the ground for US smartphone manufacturers in Q2

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Sriram
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Image Credit: Techcrunch.com

Many mobile device manufacturers have recently revealed their sales numbers for the quarter, and the result was not up to the expectation. The same drop was also noticed among the US smartphone manufacturers in Q2 with a huge drop in sales, especially for OnePlus and Motorola. The companies did expect to see a drop in sales amid the lockdown due to Pandemic and many economies’ slowdown. However, the actual drop in sales was away more than what was expected by the companies.

Every major smartphone company has taken a brutal hit and has suffered huge losses due to a lack of sales. Companies like OnePlus, Motorola, and LG have taken the worst hit during this period, while Apple and Samsung have also seen a major drop in their sales, but significantly less than others.

Total US Smartphone Sales

The data was provided by Counterpoint, showing a huge drop in sales of smartphones in the US from mid-March to April, as the country was going through lockdown, with every store closed. However, the company claims that smartphone sales have started increasing slowly since May and might be back on track in months.

The number seemed to be very bad for smartphone manufacturers in Q2 as Samsung saw 38% fewer activation of the smartphone, Apple numbers also went down 23%. However, the strongest hit was taken by LG, which was down by 35%, OnePlus with a drop of 60%, and Motorola with a decrease of 62%. The numbers were taken down the Q2 in a bad way.

However, the companies are very positive for the coming months as the business has started to gain pace again. The companies are all set to launch new devices to the market as business is returning to normal, and most of the online and offline stores are already open for business and sales.

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