Tech talk#3 Poco X2 , Apple close China stores, Clean ditches facebook,Realme fitnesband leaks
Published on 2/ Feb/2020
1.
Poco X2 Launch Date, Samsung Galaxy A51 on Sale, Realme C3, and More Tech News This Week
Poco X2 launch is set for February 4 in India and it will be sold via Flipkart, Mi.com, Mi Home Stores
Poco X2 launch date announcement and the news of Realme C3's arrival next week were two of the biggest tech developments that took place this week. Additionally, Samsung launched its Galaxy A51 smartphone in the country and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled the union budget with a number of announcements for the technology sector. Further, WhatsApp stopped working on older Android and iPhone models. Read on for more on these and other major tech news stories from this week.
Poco X2 launch date, specifications
After a long wait, Poco is ready to launch a new smartphone, however, all signs indicate that we aren't going to get a Poco F1 successor just yet. The Xiaomi spin-off brand revealed this week that it will Launch off Poco X2 on February 4 as its next phone. Poco X2 is believed to be a rebranded Redmi K30 4G variant that is a mid-range smartphone. Although Poco X2 is yet to be officially unveiled, all the teasers that the brand has released until this point indicate the Redmi K30 4G variant rebranding bit is credible.
As mentioned, POCO India I has announced that it is hosting a press event on February 4 where it will be unveiling the Poco X2. The launch event will take place in New Delhi and will kick off at 12pm on the day. It is likely to be streamed live on YouTube and other social media channels.
Whether or not Poco X2 turns out to Redmi K30 4G variant, we already have a confirmation on a number of the specifications of the phone. First, Poco has revealed that the Poco X2 will feature a display with 120 refresh rate and support for 27watt fast Charging. Additionally, the teaser images posted by the company show the presence of a side-mounted fingerprint sensor, USB Type-C port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The liquid cooling support has also been teased and the company has also noted the presence of a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip.
Realme C3 launch next week, specifications
Realme is another smartphone maker that is gearing up to launch a new smartphone next week. The company will be introducing this model in its budget Realme C-series and it will be called the Realme C3. The company has already announced a number of specifications and features of the smartphone. As per the invite shared by the Chinese smartphone maker, the Realme C3 launch event will kick off at 12:30pm on February 6.
Realme C3 will feature a 6.5-inch display with a waterdrop-style notch and Corning Gorilla Glass protection. The phone is going to have 89.8 percent screen-to-body ratio. Among other specifications, Realme C3 will pack octa-core MediaTek Helio G70 SoC, paired with 3GB and 4GB RAM options. The phone is also said to be carrying a 5,000mAh battery and up to 64GB of onboard storage.
On the imaging front, there is going to be a dual camera setup on the back with a 12-megapixel main shooter and an LED flash. Realme has also said that the Realme C3 will be the first smartphone to come with Realme UI out of the box.
Samsung Galaxy A51 goes on sale
Samsung introduce its new Galaxy A51 smartphone in India this week and the phone has already gone on sale. The Samsung Galaxy A51 price in India is set at Rs. 23,999 for the sole 6GB + 128GB variant. The phone comes in Blue, White, Black Prism Crush colour options. It can be purchased via leading e-retailers, offline retailers, Samsung.com, and Samsung Opera House. Samsung Galaxy A51 joins the company's growing Galaxy A-series in the country.
Samsung Galaxy A51 runs Android 10 with One UI 2.0 on top and features a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED full-HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) Infinity-O Display and in-display fingerprint sensor. The phone comes with octa-core Exynos 9611 SoC, coupled with 8GB of RAM. There is the quad rear camera setup that includes a 48-megapixel primary sensor with an f/2.0 lens, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera with an f/20 aperture, a 5-megapixel macro camera with an f/2.4 aperture, and a 5-megapixel depth sensor with an f/2.2 lens. The handset also has a 32-megapixel selfie camera sensor with an f/2.2 lens.
Samsung has also provided 128GB of internal storage that is expandable via microSD card (up to 512GB). Connectivity options on the Samsung Galaxy A51 include 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS/ A-GPS, and USB Type-C port. Besides, the phone packs a 4,500mAh battery that supports 25W fast charging.
Budget 2020: Announcements for technology sector
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday unveiled the budget for the next fiscal year. The budget has include various announcements for technology sector, including a scheme to encourage electronics manufacturing in the country as well as investment in quantum computing. Sitharaman said the electronic manufacturing scheme will be detailed soon and will look to boost mobile phone, electronics equipment, and semiconductor manufacturing in the country.
Additionally, the government has proposed to provide Rs. 6,000 crores to the BharatNet programme in 2020-2021 to enable digital connectivity in all public institutions at the Gram Panchayat level like Anganwadis, health and wellness centres, government schools, post offices, police stations, and more. Further, Sitharaman proposed an investment of Rs. 8,000 crores over a period of five years for the National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications. Lastly, the government will introduce a policy to enable the private sector to build data centre parks across the country.
Realme 5 Pro price cut, Realme X2 Pro update, Realme phones on Amazon
In other Realme news, the company revived the price of Realme 5 Pro in the country this week. Realme 5 Pro now starts at Rs. 12,999 for the 4GB + 64GB model. The 6GB + 64GB and 8GB + 128GB variants of the phone can be purchased at Rs. 13,999 and Rs. 15,999, respectively . The phone was earlier being sold at Rs. 13,999, Rs. 14,999, and Rs. 16,999 for the three storage versions, respectively. You can buy the phone from Flipkart, Realme C3, Amazon, and various Realme partner offline stores in the country.
2.
Coronavirus Outbreak: Apple to Close All China Mainland Stores Through February 9
The city where the virus outbreak originated is home to several Apple suppliers
Apple to close all China mainland stores due to virus outbreak (Reuters) - Apple Inc on Saturday said it would shut all of its official stores and corporate offices in mainland China until Feb 9 as fears over the coronavirus outbreak mounted and the death toll more than doubled to over 250 from a week ago.
"Out of an abundance of caution and based on the latest advice from leading health experts, we're closing all our corporate offices, stores, and contact centers in mainland China through February 9," Apple said in a statement
The company said looked forward to re-opening stores "as soon as possible". Earlier this week, Apple closed three stores in China due to concerns about the spread of the virus.It's joining a handful of overseas retailers, including Starbucks Corp and McDonald's Corp to temporarily shut storefronts as a precautionary measure.Many other companies, meanwhile, have called for employees in China to work from home and cease non-essential business travel in the first week of February.
Normally, businesses in China would be preparing to return to normal operations following the end of the week-long Lunar New Year Holiday. Apple remains heavily reliant on China both for smartphone sales as well as for its supply chain and manufacturing.
Many factories in Hubei province, including plants run by AB InBev and General Motors Co, have temporarily suspended production due to the virus. In a recent earnings call, Apple CEO Tim Cook the company was working out mitigation plans to deal with possible production loss from its suppliers in Wuhan
The city where the virus outbreak originated is home to several Apple suppliers.
3.
CERN Ditches Facebook's Workplace App Over Data Privacy
CERN's presence on Workplace ended on January 31
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research or CERN has decided to shun enterprise connectivity platform Workplace by Facebook, citing concerns around the management of user data by the social networking giant. Announcing that CERN's presence on Workplace ended on January 31, the organisation said the decision was taken because of a lack of usage by CERN members and concerns about data privacy.
"Reactions were not always positive. Many people preferred not to use a tool from a company that they did not trust in terms of data privacy. To date, about 1,000 members of the CERN community have created a Workplace account and there are roughly 150 active users of the platform per week," CERN said in a statement.
In October 2016, Facebook made workplace availableto any company or organisation.
4.
Realme Fitness Band Leak Gives Us First Credible Look at the Smart Band
Realme fitness band spotted on Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth’s hand
Realme India CEO Madhav Sheth had confirmed in his latest #AskMadhav episode that the first Realme fitness band will be launched in India next month. With little time left for the launch, it's only logical that the company will be testing out the product to see if there are any glitches that need to be ironed out. Sheth has now been snapped using the fitness band in Delhi, and a photo has surfaced online giving us a somewhat first look at the fitness wearable.
Folks at Beebom spotted Sheth at the Spanish Visa centre in Delhi, and he was seen to be wearing the Realme fitness band. The photo shows that the band has a yellow colour strap and a large curved display panel. The band doesn't wrap around the display like it does on the Mi Band, but fits at the edges. The display is unfortunately turned off, so we can't be sure whether the wearable sports a colour display or not. There is very little that is known about the device as of now, but if we were to fathom a guess, then it should be priced aggressively to compete with the Mi Band series.
The Realme fitness band is likely to come with the regular steps and calorie counting features, alongside sleep tracking as well. It remains to be seen whether the band integrates heart rate monitoring feature, and the different types of sports modes that will be integrated are unknown at the moment as well. What we know for sure is that the fitness band is releasing next month, and the company should start teasing its arrival soon.
5.
Amazon Now Employs 798,000 People Worldwide, 500,000 in the US
Analysts at Benchmark said the results were a "not-so-subtle reminder Amazon is still king."
Need more proof that Amazon is big? It came this week. Amazon's U.S. workforce has topped 500,000 for the first time, up 43% from the year before and more than triple what it was five years ago, the company said Friday. It gained 150,000 workers last year, more than the size of Apple's entire workforce.
When it reported its quarterly performance Thursday , Amazon revealed that 150 million people were paying to be members of its Prime service, which offers faster shipping and other perks. On Friday, even while the Dow fell 600 points, Amazon shares soared passed $2,000 apiece, doubling in price in about two years.
Amazon's growth comes with increased scrutiny. Some Democratic presidential candidates want to break it up. Others want it to pay more taxes. It is a regular target of President Donald Trump, who has been tweeting similar complaints as he fights with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. Amazon has said it shouldn't be broken up, and that it pays all the taxes it owes.
Being under the microscope has not slowed its phenomenal growth. Sales during the holiday season soared. Its other businesses, including cloud computing and advertising, grew, too, despite increased competition from other big tech companies.
Analysts at Benchmark said the results were a "not-so-subtle reminder Amazon is still king."
After retreating from a proposed new headquarters location in New York City because of local opposition, it has ramped up hiring across the country, including New York City. Amazon said it has 30,000 workers in tech offices outside of its Seattle home, in cities such as Chicago, Denver, and Austin, Texas. That group of workers is up 50 percent in the last year and a half, Amazon said.
It has also increased hiring at its warehouses and delivery centres, where orders are packed and shipped.
Worldwide, Amazon had 798,000 employees by the end of last year. Only one American company beats Amazon in the size of its workforce: retail rival Walmart, which employs 1.5 million in the U.S. and more than 2 million worldwide.
Walmart, however, took 35 years to build a workforce of similar size to Amazon today. Amazon reached the milestone in 24 years, more than a decade sooner.
6.
A Spinning Binary Radio Pulsar Proves Einstein's Theory
The findings published in the journal Science are the result of two decades of tracking
An international team of astrophysicists witnessed how the spinning of a celestial body twists space and time, further confirming Einstein's theory of General Relativity.
The findings published in the journey Science are the result of an effort of two decades tracking the orbit of an exotic stellar pair, two stars rotating around each other at astonishing speeds, Xinhua reported.
A team led by Australian scientist Matthew Bailes observed a binary radio pulsar that consists of a neutron star and white dwarf, located 10,000 to 25,000 light years away. They found that the dragging of space-time caused their orbit to tumble in space.
The white dwarf is the size of the Earth but 300,000 times its density; the neutron star, only 20 kilometres in diameter, is about 100 billion times the density of the Earth.
A pulsar in orbit around such a white dwarf presented a unique opportunity to explore Einstein's theory in a new ultra-relativistic regime. If Einstein's theory was right, all rotating bodies should drag the fabric of space time around with them, according to the researchers.
The frame-dragging of the entire orbit could explain their tilting orbit and the team provided compelling evidence in support that General Relativity is alive and well.
7.
Huawei Band 4 to Go on Sale in India on February 1 via Flipkart
Huawei Band 4 weighs only 24 grams
Huawei Band 4 is all set to go on sale on February 1. The fitness band was launched in India a few days ago, and while the price was unveiled, the exact availability date wasn't mentioned then. The company has finally confirmed that the Huawei Band 4 will go on sale on Flipkart on Saturday. The wearable will be available in a single Graphite Black colour option only. Key features include up to 9 days battery life, diagnosis of a possible sleep disorder, and 5ATM water resistance.
Huawei Band 4 price in India, sale date
As already known, the Huawei Band 4 is price at Rs 1999, in India. The fitness band will go on sale on Flipkart from February 1 onwards i.e. on Saturday. Flipkart hasn't listed any launch offers yet, but it should list bank cashbacks and EMI options. As mentioned, the Huawei Band 4 comes in a lone Graphite Black option.
Huawei Band 4 features
As for features, the Huawei Band 4 has a 0-96-inch (80x160 pixels) TFT colour touch display, and an Apollo 3 microprocessor. It comes with a plug-and-charge system that eliminates the need for a cable, and attaches itself to the USB adapter directly. The Huawei Band 4 is compatible with devices running Android 4.4 or higher, and iOS 9.0 or later versions. The band offers alerts for notifications and reminders, and comes with an optical heart rate sensor.
There are over nine exercise modes such as running, cycling, walking, rowing, and more, and comes with Huawei TruSleep 2.0 technology support that is claimed to help in detection of six types of sleep disorders. The Huawei Band 4 packs a 91mAh battery that is claimed to deliver up to nine days of battery on a single charge. It weighs 24 grams, measures 56 x 18.5 x 12.5mm, and has features like Find My Phone and Remote Shutter.
Display TypeLCD
Water ResistantYes
Heart Rate MonitorYes
Battery Life (Days)9
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