Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

Snap launches new Spectacles version to push augmented reality

Snap has struggled to make money from its Spectacles business, and wrote down $40 million in unsold glasses in 2017. https://ift.tt/33x6AE2

Apple-supplier Foxconn's second-quarter profit falls less than expected

Taipei-based Foxconn, which manufactures the bulk of Apple's iPhones in China for sale in the United States, faces even more challenging quarters ahead as Washington plans to impose additional tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese imports including smartphones from Sept. 1. https://ift.tt/2TsDa5D

Vivo S1 Review

The Vivo S1 has a catchy design and a new MediaTek Helio P65 SoC, but is that enough to beat the competition? We review to find out. https://ift.tt/2NbZrnd

Amazon Said to Near Deal for Stake in India's Second Largest Retailer

Amazon.com is in late-stage talks to acquire as much as 10 percent of India's Future Retail, people familiar with the negotiations said. https://ift.tt/2OSVgPq

Facebook Confirms It Paid Contractors to Transcribe User Audio Files

Facebook confirmed that it had been transcribing users' audio and said it will no longer do so, following scrutiny into other companies. https://ift.tt/2Z2DGwj

Apple AirPods, HomePod, Watch Will Not Escape Trump's China Tariffs

The administration said on Tuesday that some major items, such as laptops and cellphones, including Apple's MacBook and iPhone products, will not face tariffs until December 15. https://ift.tt/301lh06

Chandrayaan-2 Now on Way to Moon After Final Orbital Manoeuvre

ISRO said the final orbit raising manoeuvre of Chandrayaan-2 was successfully carried out at 2:21am by firing the spacecraft's motors for 1,203 seconds. https://ift.tt/2KIx8JV

Huawei Y9 Prime offline sale in India kicks off: Price, offers, and specifications

The newest Huawei phone, the Huawei Y9 Prime is all set to be available through retail stores starting today, August 14. The smartphone went on sale online on August 7, but it didn’t go on sale via the offline medium then. Huawei launched the Y9 Prime at Rs 15,990. Although, the global variant of phone was unveiled in May, the availability and price had not been detailed until August 1. The smartphone comes with a pop-up camera design, a 4,000mAh battery, and more.

Huawei Y9 Prime price, and offline launch offers

The Huawei Y9 Prime went on sale through online channels last week. Starting today, August 14 it will be made available via retail stores like Croma and Poorvika. Also, in the first wave of offline sale, it will be made available across cities like Mumbai, Pune, Delhi NCR, Cochin, Chennai, and Bengaluru. However, more cities will be added in the second wave.

The Huawei Y9 Prime costs Rs 15,990 in India, and it was up for pre-booking post launch. Those who pre-booked the smartphone before August 10 will receive free Huawei Sports BT headphones, and a 15,000mAh power bank, which equals to a total of Rs 4,598. Additionally, buyers can avail no-cost EMIs for up to 12 months, and benefits from Reliance Jio worth Rs 2,200 in the form of 125GB additional 4G data on the recharge of Rs 198 or Rs 299.

Huawei Y9 Prime specifications

The Huawei Y9 Prime sports a 6.59-inch full-HD+ LCD display with an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and a resolution of 1080 x 2340 pixels. It is powered by an Octa-core Kirin 710 processor, paired with 4GB of RAM. The Huawei Y9 Prime comes in a single variant of 4GB RAM + 128GB of storage. Furthermore, one can increase the storage to up to 512GB using the available microSD card slot. The phone packs a 4000mAh battery and runs EMUI 9 baked on Android 9 Pie.

On the optics front, the latest Huawei smartphone features a triple rear camera setup: a 16MP primary sensor, an 8MP wide-angle camera, and a 2MP depth sensor. A 16MP selfie camera is housed in the pop-up camera module, which according to the company, can take up to 15kg of weight and one second to pop up.

You can read about our first impressions of the Huawei Y9 Prime here.

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Tech companies get a reprieve thanks to a reversal from the President on tariffs

President Donald Trump and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative have issued technology companies some temporary tariff relief.

Citing an unwillingness to hit consumers with higher prices on things like computers, mobile phones, laptops, video game consoles, computer monitors, clothes and shoes before the holidays, the President and his trade reps are holding off on slapping additional tariffs on those products coming from China.

The President could also have been motivated by growing concerns that the ongoing trade war could trigger a global recession and hurt his chances for re-election in 2020.

Whatever the reason, the news sparked a stock market rally on Tuesday with investors ignoring the rising prices that 10% tariffs on imports that don’t include consumer goods would cause.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 indices were both up 1.4% on the day, while the Nasdaq rose 1.9% — thanks in large part to a surge of Apple stock. The company’s stock rose $8.49 or over 4.2% to close at $208.97.

At the beginning of the month, President Trump said he would slap a 10% tariff on $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, which sent markets tumbling. An ensuing slight devaluation of the Chinese currency further pushed markets into a tailspin before they began to recover.

The news on Tuesday all but erased those earlier losses.

These market whipsaws between fear and trembling and irrational exuberance won’t end until the U.S. and China come to some sort of agreement in the trade war.

Earlier in the day, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer spoke with their Chinese counterparts Vice Premier Liu He and Commerce Minister Zhong Shan about the ongoing trade battle. The two Chinese officials issued a protest against the duties that were set to take effect in September. The two trade representatives have a called scheduled for another two weeks.

OnePlus 7 vs Asus 6Z: Which is better camera smartphone under Rs 35,000

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RBI, HDFC Bank warned you about this app, here’s how scammers are using it to steal your money

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OnePlus TV name and logo officially confirmed

As if to dispel any last doubts about there being a OnePlus TV coming out in the near future, OnePlus has confirmed the name and logo of its upcoming line-up of smart televisions. Yes, as expected, it will be called the OnePlus TV and bear the logo seen in the cover image of this news report. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer sent out a press release about the official confirmation of the sub-brand’s name and logo earlier this morning. It was originally announced in the OnePlus Community by Community Consultant dsmonterio. You can find the post here.

Though little has been known about the upcoming OnePlus TV until now, today’s press release from the brand states that it will be “the company’s first smart display/TV device”, thus making us believe that it could even be something other than a television. But if our guess is as good as yours, then we can expect a smart TV that’s quite similar to the Mi line-up from Xiaomi. “The OnePlus TV will feature smart capabilities coupled with the company’s ‘burden-less’ design philosophy to offer users a smooth and connected experience,” writes OnePlus in its press release.

In the brand’s forum, OnePlus Community Consultant dsmonterio goes into detail about why OnePlus chose such a logo for its new sub-brand. “The gap between the "+" and the logo edge is twice as the one between the "+" and the letter "T", which is also twice as the one between "T" and "V".” The thickness of the OnePlus logo and the letters adjacent to it matches. “We were inspired by classic geometric progression, which can be seen from so many classic art forms, such [as] the ancient Hindu symbol, the mandala, and the famous ancient Greek temple, Heraion of Argos.”

What’s more, OnePlus is offering a prize to the participants of the OnePlus TV: You Name It contest. In addition, the company is handing out a big prize to the one who first called it the OnePlus TV. Though we have nothing more than a logo and name to go on for now, we’re confident that we’ll soon learn more about OnePlus’ new smart television set. A couple of days ago, we received word that OnePlus might launch the OnePlus TV in the last week of September. You can read more about that here.

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