Hey readers.
We're back with crisp and easy tech news from the week.
Let's get going:
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COVER
Gadgets This Week
🦅 LG's Dual Screen 'Wing'
- Supports 5G
- a triple rear camera setup
- a Snapdragon 7-series processor.
- Launches on 14th September.
(The Verge) (Share on Twitter)
🦎 Vivo's working on a colour changing phone
- A bunch of videos on Weibo and twitter demonstrate how the prototype phone changes it colours on the press of a button.
- Its possible thanks to electro-chromic glass back, that as Vivo says doesn't take much energy.
(Android Authority) (Share on Twitter)
📂 Oppo is working on a Razr-like Folding phone
- The phone folds outward.
- So when closed, it becomes a compact phone with screens on the front as well as the back.
🎮 Microsoft confirms $299 Xbox Series S console
- Microsoft describes it as "next gen performance in the smallest Xbox ever"
- Price: $299
- Same CPU as Series X
- 512GB Storage
- Microsoft confirmed it hours after it was widely leaked.
- (Watch launch trailer)
(The Verge) (Share on Twitter)
🤑 Motorola budget phone [Leak]
- Price: €255 (about $300)
- 6.8" FHD+ Display
- 128GB ROM + 4GB RAM
- 64MP Battery
- 5000mAh battery
(@rquandt)
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Week's News...
🔓Apple is delaying iOS 14’s most controversial privacy feature
- With iOS 14, Apple made advertisers ask users before they can gather data and track them on apps or the web.
- Apple is delaying this feature, to give developers some more time to comply with the changes.
- Facebook said it'll stop tracking all user data that will require user permission after this update is implemented. And it will "severely impact" it's ad network.
(The Verge) (Share on Twitter)
🕵️ Amazon reportedly spies it's Flex workers on the internet
- Reportedly, Amazon has employees and tools to spy if it's Flex drivers are planning a strike.
- Amazon confirmed after this news was published that it maintained a database of it's workers, their Facebook posts, and their activity on Facebook groups, their Sub-reddits and Twitter.
(Vice) (Share on Twitter)
💸Facebook will pay users to shut down their accounts ahead of elections.
- This is a part of Facebook's study of the impact of social media on society during the upcoming US election.
- show an Instagram pop-up asking users how much would they want in exchange deactivating their accounts.
(@lizzadwoskin) (The Verge) (Share on Twitter)
🆚 Epic's argument against Apple's removal of the game from App Store
[Read Context: Epic vs Apple, explained in 5 minutes]
- Epic says it has lost over 60% of its daily active users on iOS.
- iOS players accounts for one-third of the game's players, at around 116M. 63% of iOS players play the game on only iOS not elsewhere, which means those don't have access to the game now.
- Epic is worried it might never see these players again.
- Shadow Complex Remastered has been removed from the Mac App Store
- Apple is threatening to deny any attempts to apply for a new developer account “for at least a year." which means Epic cannot access a platform with a billion users in the future.
🇮🇳Twitter account of the personal website of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was hacked.
- The hackers claiming to be John Wick, posted tweets seeking donations for the PM's COVID-19 Relief fund in Bitcoin.
- They also tweeted, "... We have not hacked Paytm Mall" John Wick, a hacker group was alleged to be behind a major data breach at the eccomerce platform, PayTM Mall.
(ET Tech)
🇨🇳 China launched a reusable rocket that provides a "convenient and inexpensive" method of travelling to and from space.
- The crafted was launched on 4th September and landed on 6th, according to State-run, Xinhua News Agency.
"The spacecraft is new, the launch method is also different. That's why we needed to make sure there is extra security." sources said.
🚀 SpaceX launched 12th Batch of Starlink satellites
- On Thursday, a Falcon 9 took off from the Kenedy Space Centre, with this batch of Starlink aboard.
- Launch webcast commentator, Kate Tice revealed that they're well into the first phase of private beta and tests showed "super-low latency" and download speeds of over 100 megabits a second.
- Public betas will release later this year and you can sign up for them here on starlink.com
(Ars Technica) (Share on Twitter)
😷🤳Uber requires drivers to take a selfie to confirm if they're wearing a mask
- So far, 3.5M drivers and delivery partners have taken more than 100M mask verification selfies.
- If you're a rider, you don't need to do mask verification everytime you book a ride, but if a driver complains that you didn't wear a mask, you'll have to verify the next time you want to book a ride.
- Further, if you cancel the ride because your driver is not wearing a mask, you'll get 100% refund.
(The Verge) (Share on Twitter)
🌊 Google's AI will notify you of floods if you live in India or Bangladesh.
- In 2018, Google started its flood prediction tool in India's Patna region.
- Now it covers all of India's flood-hit areas and some parts of Bangladesh, accounting to 240M Android users.
- Previously, Google started the world's biggest earthquake detection system, powered by your (and millions of other) Android phones.
(The Verge) (Share on Twitter)
📌 Twitter will pin tweets and add a description for hashtags on the Trending page
- Because 500,000+ people wanted to know "Why's this [a hashtag] trending?" in 2019.
- You can see it on Twitters Android and iOS apps, if you live in the selected countries that include the US and India.
🌬️ Razer launched chewing gums for gamers, available in 3 flavours
- Available in cool mint, tropical punch, and pomegranate watermelon
- Razer says these gums have been developed with an "extensive amount of R&D" boost your focus and reaction time in games
- Priced at $2.99 per 15-stick pack or $27.99 for a 10-pack on Razer.com and Amazon
👩🎤 Fortnite announced a three-week long concert series happening in-game
- It kicks off with a live performance by Dominic Fike on September 12th and will be broadcast from a brand-new Los Angeles studio built specifically for in-game concerts.
- Fortnite has a separate island for the purpose, Party Royale, a violence free space with theatres and concert stage.
(The Verge) (Share on Twitter)
🔐Apple's new Over Sharing ad shows many scenarios where you'd want some privacy.
- From A man on a bus yelling he browsed eight sites for divorce lawyers to a woman with a microphone shouting er credit card information.
- And obviously, Apple poses iPhones as the privacy hero.
- Well, not to forget, the FaceTime bug that allowed people to hear encrypted video calls and Apple's apologies for hiring human contractors to listen to Siri recordings.
- (Watch the ad)
📺 OTT Platforms like Netflix, Prime Video and Disney+ will self-regulate to avoid censorship in India
- The Internet and Mobile Association of India made OTT platforms sign a self regulatory code.
- It includes age labels and content descriptions as well as a way to report any violations of the system.
- Streaming services have to set up complaint departments, internal committees or both to deal with any issues.
(Engadget)
🚗 Uber announced that 100% of it's ride in the US, Canada and Europe will be on Electric Vehicles by 2030.
- And by 2040, 100% of all Uber rides globally will be on EVs.
- Rather than paying drivers directly to make the switch, Uber will give EV riders an extra 50¢ per ride.
- And if they use specifically battery-electric vehicle, they get $1.5 per ride.
- Uber will charge riders $1 extra if they choose to ride while saving the environment.
🛍️ Apple employees will now get paid while they wait for bag checks.
- Previously, employees of Apple's physical stores had to wait for security bag checks for sometimes upto 45 minutes beyond their paid work hours.
- A US Court ordered Apple to include those bag checks into work hours.
🍎Apple announces 'Time Flies' event on September 15th with an AR Easter Egg
- Expect 4 models of iPhone 12, and probably an updated iPad Air, Apple Watch Series 6 and an over ear headphones.
- Apple has also confirmed it won't ship the devices in September.
- Hidden in the announcement was a neat logo of the event that morphed into the text "9.15" which is the date of the event
🚫 China bans Scratch, MIT developed programming language for kids
- 3 Million Chinese kids who used Scratch to make stories, animations etc cannot now do so.
- Projects made with Scratch contains “a great deal of humiliating, fake, and libelous content about China,” a state-run news outlet reported.
🎶Oppo may launch TikTok-like video platform: Report
- Oppo conformed it will launch later this year.
- But the app would still be "Chinese", that's the reason why Tiktok was banned in the US and India.
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One liner News
▶️In an attempt to prompt users to upload their own video, YouTube added a 'Create' button in the bottom navigation bar, replacing notifications and subscriptions tabs.
(Beebom)
🤖 Microsoft Video Authenticator basically puts AI against AI to detect minute things that go unnoticed by human eye, like blending boundary of the deepfake and subtle fading or greyscale elements.
🎮 India bans PUBG Mobile and 118 other Chinese apps. PUBG Corp might take over PUBG from Tencent.
👁️🗨️Alongside it's 11th Gen processors, Intel revealed it's third gen logo
🗺️ Major Google Maps update will show you the severity of coronavirus outbreaks in your state and country
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That was it for the week.
Cheers,
The Wire Mail.
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