Instagram and its parent company Facebook have rolled out new features on Monday aimed to support small businesses. The new features are specifically intended for small businesses to cope with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In the recent official blog post, Facebook said, “As many stores remain closed and social media serves as an online Main Street, the shift to doing business online is more urgent than ever.”
To drive traffic to these small businesses, Facebook has introduced a new section titled Businesses Nearby. This feature will help people see the latest posts from nearby businesses. As per TechCrunch, the geographic radius can be varied from 1 mile to 500 miles. So users will be able to connect with business up to 500 miles away from them. People can see timings, delivery options, make bookings, or send messages to the business. Facebook describes it as a more quick way to find essential products and services.
Image: Facebook
Tools to Support Small Businesses
Facebook-owned Instagram also started a “Support Small Business” sticker that users can use in their Insta Stories to tag their favorite small businesses. This way other Instagram users will also be able to see who is using the sticker. This will raise awareness and visibility for those businesses. On the other hand, Facebook on its platform introduced the hashtag #SupportSmallBusiness using which users can show their support for small businesses.
Changes to Messenger
The social networking giant is also making it possible for businesses to access their business page inbox through messenger. This means that business owners will be able to see messages sent to their business page, right through their personal messenger. This way businesses will be able to communicate with customers very easily without even having to enter the page. Facebook is also allowing businesses to tag all their COVID-19-related posts from the Page composer.
Image: Facebook
In addition to this, Facebook is also posting COVID-19-related information, tools, and tips for small businesses. On both the Facebook and Instagram apps, the features are already live.
Gaming phones have become popular over the last few years and have almost carved a dedicated market for themselves. These devices feature RGB lighting, new thermal technologies, air triggers, and high refresh rate screens along much more. SoC makers are pulling up their socks to match the demand of this market and are developing gaming-centric technologies. The newly launched Snapdragon 768G is the right example.
Image Courtesy: Cnet.com
It’s not new for Qualcomm to release overclocked versions of its SoC’s. The Snapdragon 855+ and the custom-overclocked 845 for the ROG Phone were notable examples. The 768G is an overclocked 765G, which was, in fact, an overclocked 765! These specialized versions usually tend to give higher frame rates in games and eSports titles. We saw the arrival of Snapdragon 765/765G back in November 2019 and there are very few phones that ever shipped with the chipset. This chipset is realistically an overclocked version of the 765G 5G. Qualcomm says the new chip will “deliver immersive gaming experiences and truly global 5G”.
What does the Snapdragon 768G bring to the table?
The Snapdragon 768G improves upon previous variants by boosting up the clock speed of various components in the chip. It has boosted the Prime Core from 2.4Ghz to 2.8Ghz and the Adreno 620 GPU by 15%. This is a similar gain in GPU performance which was seen from 765 to 765G. It also features an integrated modem(X52), 5th gen AI engine, and Elite Gaming features. It is the first budget chip to support updateable GPU drivers, which will be a delight to gamers.
The Snapdragon X52 modem supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G along with offering compatibility with standard non-5G networks. The 768G is mainly targeted towards devices that offer improved gaming experiences over previous generations. The Xiaomi Redmi K30 5G Racing Edition will be the first smartphone to use this new chip, packing in a 120Hz display, and 64MP quad-camera setup.
Image Courtesy: Xiaomi
We’re going to see more devices utilizing this chip in the future and it currently sits atop Qualcomm’s mid-range product line. It will offer better battery life and price to performance ratio v/s the Snapdragon 865 and should attract a large market. For people owning the 730G or the 720, this won’t be the upgrade you should consider, as the perceivable difference will hardly be distinguishable unless an extra 10FPS matters to you. The 5G tax would not return value either until 2022 in India.
The new Honor 9X is an elegant phone with a punch-hole design which gives the selfie camera space to fit in. But the main reason to buy this phone is its quad camera and a powerful battery backup. Its phone has also integrated with the fast charging technology. Overall, it’s a spectacular phone at such a budget-friendly price which is expected to be Rs 22,090.
Display and Performance
Honor 9X Pro has a 6.59-inch screen display with a screen resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. The pixel density is 391 PPI. The IPS LCD bezel-less display is accompanied with a waterdrop notch on top.
Now talking about the performance, it functions at the frequency of 2.6GHz as its equipped with HiSilicon Kirin 810 chip and an octa-core processor. It also has Mali-G52 MP6 GPU and 8GB RAM that enables great multitasking and amazing gaming experience without any lag.
Camera and Battery
Honor 9X Pro comes with a quad-camera which comprises triple primary cameras of 48MP primary sensor, 8MP secondary sensor and wide-angle lens of 2MP. The has the potential to capture great pictures that can be zoomed without any crack. The perfect 20MP front camera of this phone can give you great selfie results.
These phones have a Li-Po battery with a capacity of 4000mAh, that can support the phone with a full day power back up. It has even got the fast charging options that help you to refill your battery power quickly.
Storage and Connectivity
The Honor 9X Pro comes with an internal storage of 128GB which is adequate space for storage. You can even expand your memory up to 512GB.
It supports 4G, 3G, 2G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Mobile Hotspot, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS and USB charging, etc.
Vivo V19
Source: Mobile India
The Vivo V19 phone’s main feature is its elegantly placed quad camera. This phone has an amazing performance because of its ultra-fast processor. The phone’s price starts at Rs 24,990 for the base model.
Display and Performance
The Vivo V19 has a screen display of 6.44 inches with a Full HD+ AMOLED Dual iView E3 Super AMOLED display. The display has an in-screen fingerprint sensor for security.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 712 SoC has powered the phone with a powerful performance. It runs on Android 10 with Funtouch 10 custom software.
Camera and Battery
Vivo V19 comes with a quad camera placed in the L-shape. The quad camera consists of a 48MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro lens, and a 2MP depth sensor. And the front camera has a 32MP primary sensor and an 8MP secondary lens.
It has a 4,500mAh battery with 33W Vivo Flash Charge 2.0 tech that help the phone to charge fast and long last.
Storage and Connectivity
Vivo V19 comes with the internal storage option of 128GB/ 256GB that can be expanded up to 256GB with the help of microSD card.
Tom Cruise Wants to Shoot His New Movie in Space Using Elon Musk’s SpaceX Rocket
Hollywood actor Tom Cruise has now set his eyes upon the skies to shoot his new action movie in space. He is hoping to enter Hollywood record books by being the first actor to shoot the movie in space. He wants to shoot a movie outside the earth and has had talks with NASA and SpaceX already. The movie will be shot at the International Space Station (ISS) about 250 miles above the earth. This movie will be the first of its kind to be actually shot outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
Image courtesy: David Fisher/REX
NASA on May 5 confirmed that the agency will work with Tom Cruise to shoot a film aboard the International Space Station (ISS). NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted that NASA was excited to work with Tom Cruise on a film aboard the Space Station. Elon Musk also replied excitedly, saying “Should be a lot of fun.”
Tweet of NASA Administrator, Jim Bridenstine & Elon Musk
Tom Cruise looks hopefully towards SpaceX for providing a rocket to shoot a movie outside the Earth. For now, this is a collaboration between Tom Cruise, SpaceX, and NASA to make the first feature film outside the Earth’s atmosphere.
Details of the Movie
There are no actual details of the film but the entertainment website Deadline, which first reported the story, said that the movie is set to be an action-adventure. It added further that the movie will not be the part of Cruise’s franchise “Mission: Impossible.” Though it is not yet clear whether Tom Cruise will actually venture space or a particular footage will be filmed in space and ISS instead.
Image courtesy: Paramount Pictures
NASA has refused to provide further details for now but looks forward to possibly give it a try. “We will say more about the project at the appropriate time. Anything else would be premature.” The talks are still going on and no party has yet officially accepted to film the movie. If accepted, this could possibly be a leap for Tom Cruise and Hollywood to shoot movies outside Earth.
After the announcement of lockdown in India due to the coronavirus pandemic, all markets were shut. Now due to the ease in restrictions, many smartphone companies are selling their products in orange zones. Recently Xiaomi launched its MI 10 smartphone and many others are also beginning to release their products in India. Soon, Apple will also release its newly launched iPhone SE (2020) in India, expected to come late this month.
iPhone SE (2020) was launched last month in April, and its offering from Apple is priced in India starting at Rs. 42,500. The new iPhone SE 2020 is showcased on Flipkart with the “Coming soon” tag. The exact date of release is not shown but Flipkart provides the option of registering for a notification when the product is available. To register, use your phone number or email address and then click the “Notify me” button to receive the update on the availability of the iPhone.
iPhone SE 2020 Price in India and Offers
iPhone SE 2020 in India is priced at ₹42,500 for the base 64GB storage model and the medium storage variant of 128GB is priced at ₹47,800. The highest available storage variant of 256GB is priced at ₹58,300. The exciting thing is, the company offers an instant discount of flat ₹3,600 on HDFC Bank cards and EasyEMI, lowering the effective price of the base model to ₹38,900. The phone is available in three colors viz. Black, White, and Red.
Image courtesy: Apple
Specifications
The new iPhone SE 2020 is an upgraded version of the previous iPhone SE. The new version comes with a bigger screen than that of old iPhone SE. It comes with a Retina HD display which measures 4.7-inches. Like iPhone 8, iPhone SE 2020 comes with thick bezels on top and bottom. It is powered by Apple’s most powerful processor, A13 Bionic chipset. As said earlier, it comes in three models with 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage. The phone includes a 12MP f/1.8 aperture Wide rear camera and a 7MP front camera.
The phone will be available on Flipkart as per their banner but it is not clear when the product will be available for orders.
Amazon Prime earlier just known for its faster delivery benefits has currently over 150 million paid Prime members. Now it’s known for more than just its faster delivery benefits. The company has grown a full-fledged ecosystem of services comprising of Prime Video, Prime Music, Prime Reading, and several others too, to benefit its Prime customers. During this time when the prime customers can’t avail of the delivery services, the company wants to benefit them by offering something more.
What is the Offering?
On Wednesday, the company provided its customers the benefit of free game content. This new gaming benefit allows prime customers access to play mobile gaming content. The prime members can even access content from international mobile games. Now after providing free gaming access, the company is also providing some perks for mobile games like Mafia City, The Seven Deadly Sins, Words with Friends 2, World Cricket Championship, Black Desert Mobile, and Mobile Legends: Bang-Bang. The perks provided are in the form of collectible characters, upgrades, in-game currency, and prime-only tournaments across mobile games. Let’s discuss what perks can we expect from each of these respective games- new stadium for the World Cricket Championship, virtual currency for Mafia City, mystery box for Words with Friends 2.
Image Courtesy: BunnyGaming
A Word from the Company
“With the launch of Prime gaming, we continue to make Amazon Prime more valuable for members in India. We recognize the need for in-game content by mobile gamers to enhance their playing experience and are delighted to provide access to this content free to Prime members,” said Akshay Sahi, the Director and Head of Amazon India.
Currently, the offerings on the platform are quite limited to which he added by saying “will continue to add new in-game content for other popular games” in the future.
The prime user will even have access to upcoming content launches from games like Ludo King and more. And with the launch of new games and content, the game page will get updated every month.
Prime members can access these gaming benefits just by going to the gaming section on Amazon India’s website. From there you’ll get complete information about the available and upcoming games. These games are available on all app stores. The players can claim all of these offerings just by logging in to these games with their Amazon Prime account credentials.
OnePlus 8 series was launched almost a month back, and we took our time to analyze it. OnePlus has been making ‘Flagship Killers’ for a while now. This meant providing the fastest chipset and performance of the time, in a budget that doesn’t burn your wallet. But over time, their prices have increased quite substantially, and these devices are in the flagship territory now, both in terms of price hike and features. Continue reading to see if they are worth your attention.
Spoiler alert: Don’t get the OnePlus 8 unless you absolutely have a reason to. This article explains exactly why, along with some better alternatives offering a better bang for your buck and worth the consideration.
Unjustified Feature Differences
OnePlus started launching 2 tiers of smartphones from 2019 when it first introduced the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro. Back then, the 2 phones had very similar basics, but the Pro had some features that could be considered as a “luxury”, owing to its “Pro” moniker. They also had very different prices, and each of the options offered great value for money. With the 8 and 8 Pro, OnePlus took away too many features from the budget sibling while pricing it steeply, from 42,000 INR. It is a great phone, and let us not make you think it’s not. But for the price you pay, it’s definitely not giving the right value which the brand represented before.
The OnePlus 8 has an inferior display(1080p & 90Hz versus 1440p & 120Hz in 8 Pro), no wireless charging, the omission of an official IP rating, an older standard of RAM (DDR4x v/s DDR5 in the 8 Pro), no telephoto camera (seen even in the 7T which it succeeds) and a smaller battery. It even omits the much better quality Ultra-wide camera and the Sony IMX689 primary sensor from the 8 Pro and uses the same primary and Ultra-wide sensors used last year. This can be quite a bummer for a lot of people, especially when feature differences were far less pronounced in the 7T series launched half a year back.
Image Courtesy: OnePlus
What To Get Then?
We suggest skipping the OnePlus 8 and waiting for the 8T if possible. The T series contains minor improvements but usually offers better value for the price. If you can somehow stretch your budget, get the OnePlus 8 Pro for 55,000 INR which is one of the best phones available in India right now, and it’s highly recommended to get one. It offers the best value at that price segment and comes with all the bells and whistles of a flagship, at much lesser of a cost. If you want a cheaper option, the OnePlus 7T might suit you. It starts in around 35000 INR currently and doesn’t lose out much. It only has half a generation older chipset, and no 5G, which shouldn’t be a big deal for the masses.
The OnePlus 8 is a good device by its own. It is a flagship with inferior specs, not a Flagship Killer.
Recently, on May 4th, 2020, singer Claire “Grimes” Boucher, wife of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, gave birth to a baby boy. Soon after, Elon took to Twitter to confirm the news after his fans’ questions. He confirmed that the baby was born and both the mom and the baby were good. In a series of tweets, Musk replied on Twitter to his fans’ questions about the baby. When one fan asked for the name of the baby, Elon Musk replied with a strange name of his son – X Æ A-12 Musk!
He did not bother to explain how to pronounce it. Even typing that “Æ” into your keyboard is something that nobody knows. But copy-paste works.
This is the couple’s first child but Musk has five other children from his previous marriage also. Two twins Griffin and Xavier and a triplet of Damian, Saxon and Kai.
After the announcement of the baby’s weird name, many people are wondering how to even pronounce that. On May 7, Musk appeared with a podcast host on The Joe Rogan Experience. When asked how to pronounce the baby’s name, Elon Musk said the name of his son is pronounced as “X Ash A 12.”
Legal Challenges for Musk in Naming Son X Æ A-12
This name may be unique but it seems to be in trouble. It is being said that the name may be against California regulations. The Washington Post reported that Musk may need to rethink the baby’s name. California allows only the 26 English letters of the alphabet to use on birth certificates. Only a few special characters are allowed which include apostrophes, hyphens, and periods. X Æ A-12 contains the symbol Æ which is not allowed as per California regulations. However it is unclear that whether the couple needs to change the name of the baby or they have already used a different name on the legal birth certificate.
It also remains unclear where the family will live. Musk claimed on Twitter that he would “own no house.”
During this afflicted time because of the pandemic, all we are yearning for is social and emotional support. Even business requires some amount of social and emotional connect too. As work from home may make them feel lonely and can affect their interest in work.
Even mental health experts are emphasizing on good social support during this tough time. According to them during, this time it’s important to find happiness in small things to uplift our day, like celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and keeping in touch with family, friends, and relatives through video calls, texts, or social media.
Millions of people are working from home. As a result, there is an abnormal demand for video calling and video conferencing applications. Let’s discuss various apps that are available to us as options.
Google Duo
Image: Google Play
Google’s Google Duo is a free to download video calling app and quite simple to use. Where you can do video call with up to 8 people. It has a special nifty feature called “Knock-Knock”, with the help of which you can have the preview of the live video before attending the call. This medium is suitable for small group chats.
Google’s Hangout Meet
Image: Google Play
This app is suitable for business conferencing platforms. It is a free service within Google’s G Suite software. It has a capacity of up to 50 participants with good video and audio quality. The app has even announced free access to special features for educational purposes. Otherwise, normally the advance feature costs you about $13 and upgrades your capacity for meetings to 250 participants and live stream to up to 100000 viewers. You can even access google drive to record and save meetings. So, this app is more apt for professional purposes.
WhatsApp
Image: Google Play
It is the most popular app when it comes to socializing, with a user base of 2 billion active users. It is free to download app owned by Facebook, where you can make both voice and video calls. The video and audio quality are satisfactory plus it even supports group video chat. But this feature is limited to only 3 participants making it inconvenient for big group video chats. And the app has one more restriction as its desktop version allows you to chat through text but you can’t place a video call on the same.
Skype
Image: Wikipedia
The app is so famous when it comes to video calling that people usually term video calling as Skype. Skype calls are free and have a capacity of 50 people. It also provides you with the option of calling landlines and cell phones with the app itself. Decent for both personal and professional use.
Facetime
Image: App Store
This app is exclusively available only on Apple devices. If you use Face-Time you know that theirs no better video calling app than this. It serves both audios as well as video calls. It even has the feature of Group Face-Time where up to 32 people can participate. So, you can easily have a big fat group chat but yeah only with the Apple device owners, that’s where the impediment comes.
Now let’s talk about the ones that are making the most in this business.
Zoom
Image: MobiGyaan
Zoom video conferencing software has now become the new social network in the pandemic. It is a cloud-based video conferencing platform with a capacity of up to 1000 participants and up to 49 videos on a single screen. About 60% out of Fortune 500 companies use this software. It allows unlimited meetings but that too for a 40 minute and 100 participant limit. To get longer meetings and more participants you need to upgrade by paying for packages starting from $15 per month per host.
CiscoWebEx
Image: Brands of the World
It is another most popular video conferencing app, especially for business users. Providing you a good quality of video and audio. The platform is paid but it provides you a free tier with a capacity of holding meetings with 100 participants. It also provides 1GB free cloud storage for you to record and save the videocall.
House Party
Image: Houseparty
It’s a very popular free video chatting app mainly amongst the youth. In this app, you can enjoy playing games with your friends. It has a capacity of 8 people so it’s ideally suitable for small group chats.
Within this short time, the popularity of these apps has touched pinnacles by crossing 62 million+ downloads worldwide. As its one of the ways to stay positive and to care for the ones who aren’t there with you.
Fitbit Inc. launched a new, large-scale study to test its devices’ capabilities of detecting Atrial Fibrillation, or irregular heart rhythms. This phenomenon is the most common form of heart rhythm irregularity found in the human heart. It can even increase the risk of having a stroke, usually prevalent in the population above the age of 65.
Following Apple’s Path to Success
Apple has had tremendous success with its Apple Watch Series 5 with its vital stats detection capabilities. It has also been praised for countless incidents of having detected abnormal heart rates and informing the wearer of seeking medical help in time. Fitbit wants to leave no scope of being left behind after having led the market in wearable fitness devices. It specializes in wearable health-based devices and would not want Apple to take over its long grown market share. “They have the unique potential to accelerate AFib detection because their 24/7 heart rate tracking is powered by long battery life. The battery life gives users the ability to wear the devices for several days”, said Fitbit.
Image Courtesy: Apple
Fitbit devices in the past, such as the Ionic and Versa already had capable hardware. These could detect such anomalies but hadn’t matured enough to notify users of the same. Thus, Fitbit has been working on this technology for quite some time now and wants to mature it to a stage that it can roll out feature updates for its current users. They hope to enroll thousands of people for this study, but only people living in the US above the age of 22 are eligible.
Right Moves can Help Fitbit Attract Customers
Alphabet Inc (Parent company to Google) acquired Fitbit in November 2019. Fitbit announced back then, its intentions to detect irregular heart-rates to match Apple’s wearable watch series. Moreover, their plans to partner with Bristol-Myers Squibb-Pfizer Alliance on how to communicate with wearers about such medical implications were also announced. This move towards bio-technical advancement could help Fitbit expand its users to a larger population. Elders, senior citizens, or patients having cardiac health implications would also be attracted to this life-saving innovation.
