Tech talks #9Multiple software error Boeing,Xiaomi growth, Honor magic

        Published on 9/Feb/2020

1.

Multiple Software Errors Doomed Boeing Starliner Crew Capsule Test: NASA

Multiple software issues and a poor radio link doomed a test flight of Boeing's crew capsule late last year, NASA said Friday, revealing for the first time a glitch that could have destroyed the spaceship on its re-entry.

The Starliner's December 20 mission, an uncrewed test flight, was ended early when it failed to engage its thrusters on time, due to a previously reported faulty timer.

NASA said in a statement Friday that the problem arose because it incorrectly pulled time from its Atlas V launch rocket, creating an 11-hour mismatch.

The second problem was intermittent space-to-ground communications, impeding the flight control team's ability to command and control the vehicle.

A third issue was confirmed by NASA and Boeing for the first time: a coding error in the program that governs Starliner's preparation for reentry into Earth's atmosphere.

The error would have caused the service module, which contains the spacecraft's support systems and is supposed to detach prior to re-entry, to be pushed toward the crewed module.

This could have resulted in impact, destabilizing the ship or damaging its heat shield, said Jim Chilton, senior vice president of Boeing's Space and Launch division.

The error was caught and fixed via a software patch the night before landing, said John Mulholland, project manager for the Starliner.

Douglas Loverro, a senior NASA official, said the multiple errors pointed to "insufficient" oversight by his agency, but he also added: "It looks as if there could possibly be process issues at Boeing. And so, we want to understand what the culture is at Boeing, that may have led to that."

Starliner's failure was the latest serious setback for Boeing, which is still reeling from two fatal crashes of its 737 Max aircraft. The crashes, in October 2018 in Indonesia and in March 2019 in Ethiopia, claimed a total 346 lives.

The findings of an independent review into the latest failure will be ready in late February.

NASA officials have refused to be drawn on what it all means for the future of Starliner, which is scheduled to take its first astronauts to the International Space Station in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Boeing's space rival SpaceX is preparing for its first crewed flight with its Crew Dragon, likely in the second quarter, according to boss Elon Musk.

NASA has committed to pay the two companies $8 billion in return for six trips carrying four astronauts each to the ISS. The US has relied on Russian rockets to carry its crews to the space station since ending the Space Shuttle program in 2011.

2.

Xiaomi Growth Flat in Indian Smartphone Market, Realme Shipments Spiked in 2019: IDC

Realme C3 is the latest budget smartphone from the Chinese brand

The three smartphone brands from the China-based BBK Group -- led by Realme -- were the fastest growing brands in the Indian smartphone market in calendar year 2019, while Xiaomi remained flat and Samsung went into negative growth (year-over-year), the International Data Corporation (IDC) said on Friday.

Xiaomi led the market with 28.6 percent share and registered annual shipments of 43.6 million units in 2019 -- the highest ever smartphone shipments made by any brand in a year -- but the growth slumped to 9.2 percent (YoY) in 2019 from 2018, IDC reported.

Realme at fifth position with 10.6 percent market share saw a massive 263.5 percent growth, Vivo with 15.6 percent market share registered 67 percent growth and Oppo with 10.7 percent market share logged 60.5 percent growth in the calendar year 2019.

Samsung with 20.6 percent market share saw - 2.8 percent growth in 2019. Its Galaxy M series, particularly Galaxy M30s, performed well in the online segment, according to the IDC 'Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.'

Overall, the BBK Group -- sans its OnePlus brand -- registered 36.9 percent market share.

"Vivo became the leader in the offline channel. The continued focus on its offline channel, despite the exclusive lineup in online channel and presence across price segments, led to this phenomenal rise in 2019," said the IDC report.

Oppo climbed to the fourth position in the fourth quarter in 2019, with a huge YoY growth of 88.4 percent on the back of its affordable A series and successful Reno 2 series.

Ironically, other smartphone brands like Nokia, LG, Sony, Blackberry declined by whopping 46 percent in terms of market share.

In the mid-premium ($300-500) segment, Vivo continued to lead the market with 28 percent share in 2019, on the back of the high-selling Vivo V15 Pro, followed by OnePlus at 20.2 percent share owing to the OnePlus 7 model.

3.

Honor Magic Watch, Honor Band 5 Price in India Cut

Honor Magic Watch and Honor Band 5 were launched in India last year

Honor has slashed the price of two wearable devices in India – the first-gen Honor Magic Watch smartwatch and the Honor Band 5 fitness band. The price cut on Honor's smartwatch and fitness band is now live in India, and the two devices are now available at the reduced price from Flipkart. The price cut on the Honor Magic Watch and the Honor Band 5 comes weeks after the company launched the upgraded Honor Magic Watch 2 and the more affordable Honor Band 5i in the country, both of which are currently up for grabs as well.

The Honor Magic Watch was launched in India in January last year priced at Rs. 14,999. Following the price cut that went effective on February 6, the Honor Magic Watch is now up for grabs from Flipkart at Rs. 7,999. Flipkart is also offering no-cost EMI offer and banking discounts on the wearable device. As for specifications, the Honor Magic Watch has a round 1.2-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 390 x 390 Pixels.

It is compatible with Android and iOS phones, and is claimed to last 7 days on a single charge. It relies on Bluetooth 4.2 LE for wireless pairing and supports three satellite positioning systems (GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo). Talking about fitness-centric features, the Honor Magic Watch can record workouts, swimming, and cycling among other activities. It also comes with 24x7 heart rate tracking and sleep monitoring functions.

Coming to the Honor Band 5, it is now available for Rs. 2,299 from Flipkart, down from its original launch price of Rs. 2,599. The price cut on Honor's fitness band is now visible on Amazon as well. It features a 0.95-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 120 x 240 pixels. It comes equipped with a heart rate sensor that offers continuous heart rate monitoring and is also capable of sleep pattern tracking. The watch comes with 5ATM water resistance rating and can also recognise swim strokes.

4.

Facebook Warns of Hit to Oculus Production From Coronavirus

Oculus Quest comes with touch controllers and does not need a PC to operate

Facebook said on Friday production of its Oculus virtual reality headset would be hit by the recent coronavirus outbreak, which has weighed on businesses dependent on Chinese supply lines.

Earlier in January, the world's largest social media network started restricting its employees from travelling to China, in the face of rising death toll from the flu-like virus.

"Due to the coronavirus we began taking additional safety precautions, which has compounded this issue and is why we expect additional impact on production," a Facebook spokesperson told Reuters.

Facebook unveiled Oculus Quest, which comes with touch controllers and does not need a PC to operate, in September 2018 at $399.

"Oculus Quest was already in high demand and back-ordered in several regions," the spokesperson said.

Also this week, Ericsson, LG, and Nvidia pulled out of attending the MWC 2020 trade fair in Barcelona, Spain over coronavirus fears. LG said, "This decision will prevent needlessly exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel, which most health experts have advised."

Ericsson said, "We weren't able to guarantee the safety of our employees but also all of the people who will be visiting us at the booth." Nvidia said, "Given public health risks around the coronavirus, ensuring the safety of our colleagues, partners and customers are our highest concern. We have been looking forward to sharing our work in AI, 5G and vRAN with the industry, we regret not attending, but believe this is the right decision."

5.

Google Brings Automatic Call Screening Feature to All Pixel Phones: Report

Automatic call screening keeps spam and robocalls at bay

Google rolled out the automatic call screen feature for the Pixel 4 users with the first Pixel feature drop in December last year. Back then, Google promised that the feature will make its way to older Pixel phones as well. Well, it appears that Google has made good on its commitment. The automatic call screen feature has now begun popping up for all Pixel phone users. Multiple users to have reported that they can now see the automatic call screen option on the Pixel 3a, Pixel 3, and Pixel 2 series phones. Google has also reportedly confirmed that the first-gen Pixel phones can now take advantage of the feature as well.

Before we get into availability details, here's what call screen actually is. It is an on-device assistant-driven feature that automatically screens spam or robocalls. Once it detects an incoming robocall after matching it against Google's database, it automatically declines it without alerting the user. It can also help users know why the person on the other end is calling without actually talking to them, and also saves a transcript of the conversation.

So far, automatic call screening has been exclusive to the Pixel 4. But as per user reports on the r/Google Pixel subreddit, the automatic call screening feature is now available on the Pixel 3a and 3aXL, Pixel 3 and 3XL, and the Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a duo. A Google spokesperson has reportedly confirmed that the feature is now available for the first-gen Pixel and Pixel XL as well. However, it appears that Google's official support page is yet to be updated, as it still lists call screen as a Pixel 4-exclusive while older Pixels are limited to manual call screening.

It is worth mentioning that automatic call screening is available on previous generation Pixel phones via beta build of the Phone app, at least that's what user reports indicate. The feature currently supports English language only and is limited to the US market. However, Pixel phone users can take advantage of the manual call screening feature in Canada as well. Google is yet to reveal when the automatic call screening feature will make it to Pixel phones in other markets.

• KEY SPECS
• NEWS

Display5.70-inch

ProcessorQualcomm Snapdragon 855

Front Camera8-megapixel

Rear Camera16-megapixel + 12.2-megapixel

RAM6GB

Storage64GB

Battery Capacity2800mAh

OSAndroid 10

Resolution1080x2280 pixels

6.

Nikon Z50 APS-C Mirrorless Camera Launched in India, Priced at Rs. 72,995

Nikon Z50 has a magnesium-alloy body, which makes it lightweight and easy to carry.

Nikon announced its first APS-C mirrorless camera last year and it's now available in the Indian market at a price of Rs. 72,995 for the body only. You can also get the camera as part of a kit with the Nikkor Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR and the Nikkor Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR & Nikkor Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR lenses. The former will cost you Rs. 85,995 while the latter will cost you Rs. 1,05,995.

The Nikon Z50 has a magnesium-alloy body, which makes it lightweight and easy to carry. The 3.2-inch touchscreen display can be tilted downwards for better viewing angles. It shoots 4K videos up to 30fps and 1080p resolution at up to 120fps. The OLED viewfinder has a 2.36 million dot resolution, while the camera has a card slot that supports up to UHS-II speeds. It also features a pop-up flash.

Nikon has used the Expeed 6 image processor and a APS-C CMOS sensor for the Z50. You get an ISO range of 100-51,200 and on-sensor phase detection autofocus. The camera also features Bluetooth and built-in Wi-Fi 802.11ac connectivity.

The battery present in the Nikon Z50 is rated at 320 shots per charge. You can shoot up to 11fps burst shots with this camera. While the camera does not come with a headphone jack, you can easily add a microphone to it for recording high quality audio.

The lenses available in the kit can also be bought separately. The Nikkor Z DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 VR will cost you Rs. 31,450 while the Nikkor Z DX 16-50mm f/3.5-6.3 VR will cost you Rs. 26,450.

At CES 2020 in January, Nikon launched its D780 full-frame DSLR and Coolpix P950 Superzoom camera, both of which are successors to the company's D750 DSLR and the Coolpix P900 respectively. Safe to say that the company has started 2020 strong.

7.

Chinese government blocks Foxconn’s plan to restart iPhone production

Foxconn is a leading ODM that manufactures millions of iPhones every year in China. Due to Coronavirus outbreak, Foxconn last week announced that it is extending the leave of its factory workers until Feb 9th. While everyone was expecting Foxconn to restart its production facilities from tomorrow (Feb 10th), Chinese government has now ordered Foxconn not to restart the production for another week. All Foxconn factories in China will remain closed until Feb 15th.

Foxconn has more than a million employees working in several factories in China alone. After reviewing the factories, Chinese health authorities have informed Foxconn that there are high risks of coronavirus infection and therefore are not suitable to restart work. Compal Electronics which manufactures iPad is also extending the leave of its employees until next week.

“The local governments do not want to risk the potential virus spreading in such a labor-intensive working environment. No one wants to bear the responsibility of restarting work at this critical moment,” one of the sources told Nikkei Asian Review.

Chinese government is taking all measures to prevent further outbreak of Coronavirus inside China. They even have strict laws in place,  violation of epidemic prevention and control could potentially face the death penalty in China.

8.

Samsung Galaxy Buds+ get fully revealed in hands

Samsung Galaxy Buds+ get fully revealed in hands-on video

The Galaxy Buds+ are expected to be unveiled on February 11 alongside four new smartphones,the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20+, Galaxy S20 Ultra, and the Galaxy Z Flip. However, images of the earphones along with their detailed  specificationsh b has been leaked already. Now, a complete hands-on video of Samsung’s upcoming truly wireless earphones has appeared on the internet.

Reputable leakster Roland Quandt was able to get his hands on the Galaxy Buds+ via a European retailer, but as unbelievable as it sounds, similar things have happened in the past. He has uploaded a complete unboxing video of the unreleased wireless earbuds along with his initial impressions. As you might expect, the specs list that was leaked a few days ago turned out to be extremely accurate.

The blue variant of the Galaxy Buds+ (SM-R175N) is shown from all the angles in the eleven-minute video. The earbuds might not look very different from their predecessors, but they offer a great all-round upgrade for just $20 over the pricing of last year’s Galaxy Buds (read our review).  The newer earbuds feature AKG-tuned dual-drivers (tweeter and woofer) for improved audio quality, three microphones on each side for better call quality, and double the battery life.

The earbuds come with three pairs of ear wings and ear tips, and a USB Type-C cable in the box. Similar to the previous-generation Galaxy Buds, the newer ones feature optical sensors for automatically pausing music when they’re taken out of ears. The pill-shaped case now appears to feature a glossy paint job instead of last year’s matte finish.

Priced at just $149, Samsung’s new wireless earbuds also feature ambient sound passthrough, increased talk time, wireless charging, Spotify gesture integration, and Game Mode. The South Korean electronics giant has also released a brand new iOS companion app that offers customization features to those who want to use the Galaxy Buds+ with an iPhone. The earphones will be offered in four colors: black, blue, red, and white.

These AirPods competitors are expected to be bundled for free in a few markets for those who pre-order the Galaxy S20+ or the Galaxy S20 Ultra .

9.

Realme X50 Pro 5G specs revealed by company CMO

Chinese phone maker Realme is hosting a global launch event at Mobile World Congress (MWC) later this month, where it will unveil a new 5G flagship, which is now confirmed to be called the X50 Pro 5G.

This confirmation comes from the company CMO Xu Qi Chase through Weibo, where he posted a screenshot of the X50 Pro 5G's About Phone section, which confirms a few specs.

This is the Realme X50 5G that was announced last month

The X50 Pro 5G, bearing model number RMX2071, will be powered by the Snapdragon 865 SoC and run Android 10 with Realme UI on top. It will come with 12GB RAM and 256GB storage, but it will likely have more memory options that are yet to be confirmed.

The 5G flagship will come with NFC and support dual SIM as well, but it's unclear whether it will have a microSD card slot since the company's first flagship - X2 Pro- doesn't have one.

The snapshot also reveals that the X50 Pro 5G will sport a display having a punch hole in the top-left corner for the selfie cameras, and checking its resolution reveals the phone will pack a FullHD+ panel.

Alongside the X50 Pro 5G, Realme will also unveil it's first smart TV at MWC. We should hear more about these products as we inch closer to the launch event.