Xiaomi teases new product launch for March 16 What could it be

Xiaomi India’s Twitter handle has tweeters a teaser which reads, “One less wire to deal with. Mi fans, it's time to #CutTheCord. All the power you need without any hassle. Guess what this is.” The video teaser shows a power icon. Speculations circulating the internet are a buzz suggesting that it could be a power bank or a wireless charger. Since we are just speculating, how about a power bank with wireless charging?

Xiaomi India is currently selling two power banks - one with 10000mAh capacity and the other with a 20000mAh capacity.  Speaking of the 10000mAh power bank, it is available in three colour options - red, black and blue priced at Rs 899. It has two USB ports and also supports 18W fast charging. It also has an LED indicator to show you the charge level of the power bank. To put its charging capabilities into perspective, the power bank can charge an iPhone 8 3.5 times. 

Moving to the 20000mAh power bank, it is available in black only and is priced at Rs 1499. It has two USB ports and also supports 18W fast charging. It also has an LED indicator to show you the charge level of the power bank. To put its charging capabilities into perspective, the power bank can charge an iPhone 8 7.2 times. 

Whether the company announces a power bank or a wireless charger is something we will know on March 16.

 

One less wire to deal with. Mi fans, it's time to #CutTheCord. All the power you need without any hassle. Guess what this is. pic.twitter.com/bpDR6t21AU

— Mi India #108MP IS COMING! (@XiaomiIndia) March 13, 2020

 

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Comparing the two most-powerful phones: Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra vs Apple iPhone 11 Pro

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YouTube swaps Trending tab for Explore tab on iOS and Android app

If you’ve recently updated the YouTube app on your iOS or Android smartphone, then you’ve probably noticed that the Trending tab in the UI is now replaced with the Explore tab. This tab sits between the home and the subscriptions tab. YouTube has been testing the Explore tab for some time and the option has now officially started rolling out to users. With Explore, users not only get access to trending videos but also to destination pages for popular categories like Gaming, Music, Fashion & Beauty, Learning, News, Movies and Shows and more – all from one place. So if the latest Bollywood music is trending and that's not what you want to see, you can simply jump to the category of your choice to see the trending videos in your favourite categories. This is a nice way to give users access to popular content based on their interests. 

Users can simply tap the Explore buttons and get access to the various destination pages – Music, Gaming, News, Movies & Shows, Fashion & Beauty, and Learning. YouTube plans to add more destination pages over time and is open to feedback on the same. So let them know what it is that you like watching. A dedicated section for cat videos perhaps?

According to YouTube, “As you scroll through your Explore feed, you’ll see “Creator on the Rise” and “Artist on the Rise” before other trending videos. New creators and artists emerge on YouTube every day, so we hope this makes it easier for you to discover their content and connect with them and their communities!” So for example, if there is a new popular game streamer who is doing content similar to what you enjoy, then this is the place you'll get exposed to him. 

If you are someone that liked the Trending section then worry not. The Trending page will continue to have its own section in Explore. The goal here is to show users what’s happening on YouTube and in the world right now.

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OnePlus 8 Pro spotted in Robert Downey Jrs hands

The OnePlus 8 Pro was spotted in Robert Downey Jr. AKA Iron Man’s hands. The image has been making the rounds on the internet and was captured during the shoot of a OnePlus 8 commercial. Robert Downey Jr. has been the brand ambassador of OnePlus phones since 2019 so it's no surprise he is back for the OnePlus 8. The 54-year old actor is holding the phone in his right hand giving us a clear look at the back which houses the camera sensor. There seems to be an additional sensor next to the camera bump and information circulating the internet suggests that it could be a TOF sensor. It also appears that the smartphone will appear in a new colour option.

OnePlus is expected to launch the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro soon and all speculations point at an April launch. Ahead of the official announcement, the OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro have been spotted on Chinese telecoms regulatory agency TENAA. The devices are listed with model number OnePlus IN2010 for the OnePus 8 and OnePlus IN2020 for the 8 Pro. Both smartphones are expected to support 5G. 

 

OnePlus 8 Pro.. Yes https://ift.tt/2IJP729

Jeff Bezos, Mukesh Ambani, Bill Gates and 17 other tech billionaires who’ve lost billons of dollars

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Phone companies diversify into accessories, services space to boost topline, margin

Chinese phone makers Xiaomi, Oppo and Realme have launched their financial services apps called Mi Credit, Oppo Kash and Realme Paysa to offer small ticket loans to SMEs, credit score analysis and insurance cover. https://ift.tt/2IMzqr2 https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Apple shifts annual developers conference to online-only format

Apple is the latest largest technology company to cancel or move its software developer conference online. Facebook , Microsoft and Alphabet's Google all previously did so. https://ift.tt/39Pd4kH https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Direct banks to allow crypto trade: Firms to RBI

Recent Supreme Court order struck down circular disallowing cryptocurrency trade https://ift.tt/2IJEFrg https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

White House and House Democrats agree to funding package for paid sick leave, funding for tests

Late Friday night, after nearly two full days of negotiations, the House of Representatives is finally set to pass a bipartisan plan to provide sweeping new benefits to workers and businesses affected by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the U.S.

The new bill will offer paid sick leave, stronger unemployment benefits, free virus testing and more money for food assistance and Medicaid and was approved only after 13 phone calls between the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, according to a report in The New York Times.

After its approval this evening, the Senate will have to vote to approve the measure early next week before it can be signed into law by President Trump.

While stocks rose sharply after the President’s address, delaying the bill could cause further economic uncertainty and continue what has been a wild couple of months for financial markets beset by barrage of bad news and stopgap measures designed to boost the economy, but failing to address the actual pressures impacting global markets (driving people to invest in stock markets doesn’t solve the financial shock that stems from an economy grinding to a halt in response to a national epidemic).

As cities and states encourage (or in some cases mandate) social distancing and self-quarantines as a response to limit the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, huge swaths of America’s service sectors will be affected.

That applies to startups like the retail chains b8ta and Neighborhood Goods, the beauty brand, Glossier, the Los Angeles-based arcade chain for the new millennium, Two Bit Circus; and the most celebrated of the direct to consumer startups, Warby Parker.

It’s also a factor for gig and sharing economy companies like Postmates, Instacart, Lyft, Uber, Airbnb and others — companies which were venture capital darlings for their novel approach to excess resources (be it cars, spare time, or space).

These companies have already faced criticism from lawmakers on Capitol Hill over their compensation practices for workers who may be affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Senator urges Uber, Lyft, Instacart and others to offer gig workers financial security in light of COVID-19 concerns

Hitting pause on America’s shopping and dining in malls and restaurants, entertainment in bars, theaters, concerts, and at plays, and the closure of public spaces, along with work-from-home policies that reduce foot traffic to local businesses or retail chains in business districts will hit low-income workers and hospitality staff, who don’t have paid-time-off or at risk of losing their jobs as business slows.

Those social distancing measures are also one of the best chances cities have to slow the spread of the virus, according to most experts. And paid time off has been shown to reduce the spread of disease, according to the New York Times report on the bill’s passage.

“Today, we will pass the Families First Coronavirus Response Act after reaching an agreement with the Administration,” Speaker Pelosi wrote on Twitter. “This legislation builds on the action that House Democrats took last week to put #FamiliesFirst with our strong, bipartisan $8.3 billion emergency funding package.”

For families’ economic security, #FamiliesFirst secures paid emergency leave with two weeks of paid sick leave and up to three months of paid family and medical leave. We have also secured enhanced Unemployment insurance for those who lose their jobs.

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 13, 2020

For families’ health security, #FamiliesFirst increases federal funds for Medicaid to support our local, state, tribal and territorial governments and health systems, so that they have the resources necessary to combat this crisis.

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) March 13, 2020

 

Analysis: TikTok had 112M+ downloads on App Store and Google Play globally in Feb., a record month with India leading growth; TikTok has ~1.9B installs to date (Craig Chapple/Sensor Tower Blog)

Craig Chapple / Sensor Tower Blog:
Analysis: TikTok had 112M+ downloads on App Store and Google Play globally in Feb., a record month with India leading growth; TikTok has ~1.9B installs to date  —  TikTok was downloaded by close to 113 million App Store and Google Play users worldwide in February, making it the app's best month ever …

Samsung Galaxy M30s 4GB + 128GB Variant to Go on Sale in India Today

Samsung Galaxy M30s 4GB RAM, 128GB storage variant to go on sale today. https://ift.tt/2xDMMDJ

Interview with Zoom CEO on decision to remove time limits for K-12 schools impacted by COVID-19 in Japan, Italy and US, new features, and future of online work (Alex Konrad/Forbes)

Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Interview with Zoom CEO on decision to remove time limits for K-12 schools impacted by COVID-19 in Japan, Italy and US, new features, and future of online work  —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  On Thursday, on the heels of Zoom's biggest day ever for downloads the day before …

Amazon cancels re:MARS 2020 event amid COVID-19 outbreak

Amazon has canceled re:MARS 2020, an annual AI event that focuses on machine learning, automation, robotics and space, over concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was scheduled to be held June 16 to 19, 2020 in Las Vegas.

Organizers of the event said in a statement on its website that the event will be cancelled and guests who purchased tickets will receive a full refund. Here’s the statement:

Thank you for your interest in re:MARS 2020. Our top priority is the well-being of our employees, customers, partners, and event attendees. We have been closely monitoring the situation with COVID-19, and after much consideration, we have made the decision to cancel re:MARS 2020. All guests who have purchased tickets will receive a full refund of registration fees. Hotel rooms booked through our conference website will be canceled free of charge. Over the course of the coming weeks, we will explore other ways to engage the community.

Amazon launched re:MARS in 2019 and last year featured founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Landing AI founder and CEO Andrew Ng, actor and producer Robert Downey, Jr., MIT Media Lab researcher Dr. Kate Darling and Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert, and Zoox CEO Aicha Evans, among others.

COVID-19, a disease caused by a new virus that is a member of the coronavirus family and a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses. COVID-19 has caused governments and companies to cancel tech, business and automotive events around the world, including the NCAA March Madness basketball tournaments, professional sports games in the NBA  and NHL, the Geneva International Motor Show, MWC in Barcelona and the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Disneyland and California Adventure will close through the end of the month. On Friday, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency, a designation that allows the government to free up more federal resources that states can access as they respond to outbreak.

Amazon issued guidance Thursday in response to the COVID-19 outbreak recommending that global employees who are able to work from home to do so through the end of March.

“We continue to work closely with public and private medical experts to ensure we are taking the right precautions as the situation continues to evolve,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an email statement. “As a result, we are now recommending that all of our employees globally who are able to work from home do so through the end of March.”

Earlier this week, Amazon said it would provide two weeks of extra paid time off for full and part-time employees who are diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed into quarantine. The company said it will continue to pay all hourly employees, including food service, janitorial and security staff, who support its offices around the world.

Sources: Kenneth Chenault will be leaving Facebook's board following disagreements with Zuckerberg over the company's governance and political policies (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Kenneth Chenault will be leaving Facebook's board following disagreements with Zuckerberg over the company's governance and political policies  —  Board member disagreed with founder over governance and political policies  —  Kenneth Chenault will be leaving Facebook Inc.'s board …

Google contradicts Trump claims: it’s not working on a coronavirus portal

Enlarge / Dr. Deborah Birx points to a block labeled "Screening Website," showing its centrality to the plan for coronavirus testing. It later emerged that the website isn't even ready for local testing. (credit: Drew Angerer / Getty Images)

During today's press conference in which he declared the new coronavirus to be a national emergency, President Trump announced that Google was developing software that would be central to the US' containment strategy. Trump, along with Dr. Deborah Birx, a key official in the administration's Coronavirus Response Coordinator, said that Google's Web portal would be central to the process of helping US residents take advantage of a promised expansion of the country's testing capacity.

Two hours later, however, Google communications felt compelled to issue a statement saying that nearly everything about this is either not quite right or badly mistaken. The portal is being done by a different company, and isn't even ready for testing in the single location it's planned for: California's Bay Area.

Google's role in the process was mentioned twice, first by Trump himself, who said, "Google is helping to develop a website. It's going to be very quickly done—unlike websites of the past—to determine whether a test is warranted, and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location." He went on to claim that Google currently had 1,700 engineers working on the project right now.

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