New 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard Announced

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May 6, 2020

New 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard Announced

Apple Announces the New 13-inch MacBook Pro with Magic Keyboard

On Monday, Apple announced a new edition of the MacBook Pro with a 13-inch display and magic keyboard. According to the latest post from The Verge, this edition of MacBook Pro features optional Intel 10th Generation processors and its price starts at USD 1,299. This new upgrade represents the end of an era of laptops with butterfly keyboard mechanism, adds the post.

The new MacBook Pro comes with a 256GB base storage equipped with 8GB RAM. However this new model can be upgraded to 32GB RAM and 4TB storage. It is rated to deliver a higher performance of up to 80%. According to Apple, the 10th Gen Intel processors have a turbo boost up to 4.1Ghz. Also, the new Intel Iris graphics support the Pro Display XDR at the full 6K resolution.

13-inch MacBook Pro features:

The new MacBook Pro features the 13.3 inches LED-backlit IPS display. The display panel has a resolution of 2560×1600 pixels which brings a 227ppi pixel density with 500 nits brightness. The base configuration still uses 8th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU as in older versions. The CPU has a base clock speed of 1.4 GHz and boost up to 3.9 GHz along with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage.

However, significant changes can be seen in premium variants. It is equipped with a quad-core 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor with a turbo boost up to 3.8GHz. Powered by 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD, RAM upgradeable up to 32GB. Customers can upgrade to 16GB of RAM which is available for $100. The MacBook Pro 13-inch model has the Magic Keyboard instead of the old butterfly keyboard.

The new MacBook Pro is already available for order on Apple’s website and will arrive in “select Apple Stores and Apple Authorised Resellers later this week”. Education customers can avail the discount and save $100 on the base model’s price.

5G’s Dwindling Future in the Times Of the Pandemic

By

Aniket Pawar

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May 4, 2020

The inception of the evolution of cellular network technology started in the 1980s. And now, the advancement in the field of technology has enabled us to broaden the spectrum of cellular network technology. The 5G cellular technology is now ready to hit the markets to set out a global impact, that would be a mark of commencement for the 4th Industrial Revolution.

The USA Giving a Tough Fight

The major countries to introduce this revolutionary up-gradational change are- South Korea, China, and the USA. Among these, China has emerged to be the largest 5G network. But slowly, the 5G adoption rate in the USA has started to boom. The figures are quite astounding because now, the USA has a higher adoption rate than China.

Graph that shows the weekly adoption rate of 5G handsets across China and US — Image: AndroidHeadlines

According to a recent study, when there are 10 5G models sold in the USA, it is 29 in China. So, as per the current pace of adoption in the USA, it is predictable that the numbers are surely going to rise with a robust thrust. But suddenly there was a bit drop in the sales while heading into April. The reason for this downfall was the lack of availability of 5G networks in the USA. The buyers felt that they were investing a huge amount on these gadgets for flagships, but they still aren’t in the position to access it.

Like, in the USA, the sale of the Samsung models- Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S10 were at peak with an average sale for the first ten weeks above 200000. At the same time, the new Galaxy S20 series didn’t perform comparatively as well as these models did. the reason being the same, lack of the 5G network in the USA. As a result, the sales were not able to hit the target like the other two models and remained below the mark of 100000 units.

Is 5G’s Future Bright?

In the current situation, customers want phones that are affordable and convenient to access. Thus, making the 5G model sales quite stagnant for now. With the global handset market rising towards 5G in the forthcoming years, it is expected that sales, acceptability, and affordability will upsurge.

Talking about India and its current cellular network status, it is far behind the USA and China to foster this technological up-gradation. The launching of the 5G model in the market can provide momentum to the handset market towards faster adoption of the 5G network. At the same time, may eventually lead to a probable downfall in the sales of 4G models.

The Condition of Distress – Coronavirus Impacting 5G Phone Markets

Due to the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, the last few months have turned out to be a doomsday for a lot of industries and markets, the handset market is one amongst them. China is one of the major manufacturers and suppliers of handset especially the 5G ones. Which has now started to drastically affect the market due to its ongoing battle with the pandemic. Due to the restriction of trade in most parts of China, it has resulted in the slowdown of the 5G model supply throughout Asia and the rest of the world. According to Counterpoint Research, China’s smartphone sales have declined by 22% in the first quarter due to weak demand and its inability to ship products.

Smartphones Sales Share % of Key OEMs in China — Image: Counterpoint

At this point, the market is too volatile and the world is trying to recover so are the markets. Let’s wait for the 5G trend to get back in business.

We at AndroidFist are extremely grateful to all the people helping directly and indirectly by doing their part to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Stay home, stay safe.

Windows 10 May 2020 Update is a Boon for Old PC (HDD) Users

By

Punkaj Kumar

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May 4, 2020

The introduction of Windows by Microsoft has made it the most popular operating system for personal computers. Since the first release of Windows 1.0 in 1985 to the Windows 10 May 2020 update of today, a lot has changed in its evolution. Every update comes with improvements in stability, performance, and added features.

The new Windows 10 May 2020 update may be announced anytime soon this month. This update is the next major update for MS’ operating system and comes with a quite clever feature to help make your PC faster than before.

“Today we are releasing Build 19041.208 to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview ring. While we originally thought that Build 19041.207 would be the final build, we made the decision to take in one more fix we felt was important to have before making the May 2020 Update generally available. We believe that Build 19041.208 is the new final build and still plan on continuing to improve the overall experience of the May 2020 Update on customers’ PCs as part of our normal servicing cadence.” said the official Windows blog post.

What Makes the PC Faster in This Update?

windows 10 may 2020 update. — Image Courtesy: WindowsLatest

The new feature in this update involves a tweak to the Windows Search. This will improve Windows Search so it no longer causes high disk usage when indexing your files. This update will benefit Windows 10 users with old PCs equipped with traditional spinning Hard Disk Drives. HDDs have much slower read and write processes than SSDs which increases the disk usage upon indexing files. This update fixes this problem and will make your PC much faster than before.

Speed Boosts Tests

After running multiple tests on various PCs and virtual machines with different configurations, the Windows Latest team confirmed that the update indeed boosts speeds.

If you have a PC equipped with HDD then you would be able to notice a significant improvement in the speed of your PC. However PCs with SDDs may not notice a significant change.

What does this all mean?

It just means that everyone having older PCs containing spinning HDDs, their reduced performance could be improved with the installation of up-coming Windows 10 May 2020 update this month. Others should also look forward to many other changes arriving with this update.

Shop App: Shopify Rebrands and Unveils its New Consumer App

By

Punkaj Kumar

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May 3, 2020

Shop App: Shopify Rebrands and Unveils its New Consumer App — Image courtesy: Shopify

The leading e-commerce platform Shopify powers more than 1 million businesses to sell their products online. On Tuesday, 28 April, Shopify announced the first-of-its-kind consumer shopping application. This will enhance the experience of shopping for all shoppers. This new app, called Shop is an updated and rebranded version of the Arrive from Shopify. It provides users the ability to quickly discover local businesses and purchase products from their favorite brands. Consumers can now buy products within the single app from any of the 1 million merchants who use Shopify’s platform for their business.

Shop: A New App From Shopify — Image courtesy: Shopify

Shopify has combined the features of an accelerated checkout from Shop Pay and the orders tracking system from Arrive. This will make the purchasing and order tracking a smoother experience for users.

Features of Shop app:

Local filters: Shoppers can now locate nearby merchants. This will help a lot in supporting local businesses. Shop app identifies businesses that are offering shipping and pick-up. It also highlights the return policies.
Seamless payment and accelerated checkout: With the help of Shop Pay, users can have fast and easy checkout for all brands within a single app.
Orders Tracking: With the technology of orders tracking system from Arrive, all order and tracking information is stored at a single place. Tracking provides real-time updates of the order status.
Personalized recommendations: Through customized recommendations, like deals and offers from the brands that users like; Shop makes it possible for customers to find the products from their favorite brands easily.

Shop - The New App From Shopify — Image courtesy: Shopify

Shop is available for both Android and iOS in their respective app stores. You may visit the official webpage of Shop here.

If you are an android user, then you can download it from Google Playstore.

For more information about the app and it’s features, you may like to visit the official website of Shopify at shopify.com/shop

Boston Dynamics Robot Now in the Fight Against COVID-19

By

Ayushman Thakur

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April 26, 2020

Boston Dynamics Robot — Source: Boston Dynamics

Novel Coronavirus is spreading like a forest fire all over the world. In its quest, it is affecting the medical staff providing restless care to COVID-19 patients as well. Keeping the security of the health workers in mind it is the time to seek help from the robots. Spot, the Boston Dynamics robot, famous for its appearance in football, is now in the battle against the virus. With a recent blogpost, Boston Dynamics announced the successful use of Spot in a hospital. Also, they have announced their next agenda and their step against COVID-19.

Boston Dynamics has shared the initial work deploying robot with Bringham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusets. They have also open-sourced the hardware and the software designs involved with the robot. If you are interested to see their code, here is a link to the GitHub repository.

Overview of the solution

Boston Dynamics re-purposed their robot Spot for taking the healthcare staff out of the range of COVID-19 patients. The medical teams are using Spot as a mobile telemedicine platform to cure the patients with Coronavirus. Boston Dynamics are listening to the feedback from the staff of Brigham and Women’s Hospital to improvise the robot.

Medical staff can control Spot via an iPad exchanging signals with the two-way radio mounted on the robot’s back. This also allows the medics to video chat with the patients. Thus, by reducing direct exposure to potentially affected patients the medical staff are being less prone to the virus. This helps to keep the medical department healthy during the crucial pandemic time.

Future Plans of Boston Dynamics

The next agenda of Boston Dynamics is to figure out how to remotely measure some key parameters –

Patient’s body temperature
Repository Rate
Pulse Rate
Oxygen Saturation

and other important parameters for doctors and other medical staff. They are also planning to use UV-C light or similar technology to disinfect surfaces.

We at Android Fist are extremely grateful to all the people helping directly and indirectly to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Don’t forget to wash your hands. And stay home, stay safe.

Find more useful resources: hospital finance solutions