New Delhi: If you’re planning to upgrade your smartphone and buy an Apple iPhone device, this could be the right time. For instance, Apple iPhone 11 is selling for Rs 32,100.
Currently, the Apple iPhone 11 smartphone is selling for a retail price of Rs 49,900 for the 64GB variant in Green. Customers can use the exchange offers to buy the smartphone at an attractive rate.
Flipkart is offering an exchange discount of up to Rs 17,800 on the purchase of the Apple iPhone 11 smartphone. Combining the exchange offer, you will be able to buy the smartphone at a discounted price of Rs 32,100.
The price of the Apple iPhone 11 smartphone depends on the colour and storage. You can also buy other Apple smartphones at impressive discounts by combining exchange offers.
In addition to the exchange offer, customers can avail of a 5% cashback for buying Apple iPhone 11 smartphone via a Flipkart Axis bank credit card.
Google has been working on a "new interaction language" for years, and today it's sharing a peek at what it's developed so far. The company is showcasing a set of movements it's defined in its new interaction language in the first episode of a new series called In the lab with Google ATAP. That acronym stands for Advanced Technology and Projects, and it's Google's more-experimental division that the company calls its "hardware invention studio."
The idea behind this "interaction language" is that the machines around us could be more intuitive and perceptive of our desire to interact with them by better understanding our nonverbal cues. "The devices that surround us... should feel like a best friend," senior interaction designer at ATAP Lauren Bedal told Engadget. "They should have social grace."
Specifically (so far, anyway), ATAP is analyzing our movements (as opposed to vocal tones or facial expressions) to see if we're ready to engage, so devices know when to remain in the background instead of bombarding us with information. The team used the company's Soli radar sensor to detect the proximity, direction and pathways of people around it. Then, it parsed that data to determine if someone is glancing at, passing, approaching or turning towards the sensor.
Google formalized this set of four movements, calling them Approach, Glance, Turn and Pass. These actions can be used as triggers for commands or reactions on things like smart displays or other types of ambient computers. If this sounds familiar, it's because some of these gestures already work on existing Soli-enabled devices. The Pixel 4, for example, had a feature called Motion Sense that will snooze alarms when you wave at it, or wake the phone if it detected your hand coming towards it. Google's Nest Hub Max used its camera to see when you've raised your open palm, and will pause your media playback in response.
Approach feels similar to existing implementations. It allows devices to tell when you (or a body part) are getting closer, so they can bring up information you might be near enough to see. Like the Pixel 4, the Nest Hub uses a similar approach when it knows you're close by, pulling up your upcoming appointments or reminders. It'll also show touch commands on a countdown screen if you're near, and switch to larger, easy-to-read font when you're further away.
While Glance may seem like it overlaps with Approach, Bedal explained that it can be for understanding where a person's attention is when they're using multiple devices. "Say you're on a phone call with someone and you happen to glance at another device in the house," she said. "Since we know you may have your attention on another device, we can offer a suggestion to maybe transfer your conversation to a video call." Glance can also be used to quickly display a snippet of information.
Google
What's less familiar are Turn and Pass. "With turning towards and away, we can allow devices to help automate repetitive or mundane tasks," Bedal said. It can be used to determine when you're ready for the next step in a multi-stage process, like following an onscreen recipe, or something repetitive, like starting and stopping a video. Pass, meanwhile, tells the device you're not ready to engage.
It's clear that Approach, Pass, Turn and Glance build on what Google's implemented in bits and pieces into its products over the years. But the ATAP team also played with combining some of these actions, like passing and glancing or approaching and glancing, which is something we've yet to see much of in the real world.
For all this to work well, Google's sensors and algorithms need to be incredibly adept not only at recognizing when you're making a specific action, but also when you're not. Inaccurate gesture recognition can turn an experience that's meant to be helpful into one that's incredibly frustrating.
ATAP's head of design Leonardo Giusti said "That's the biggest challenge we have with these signals." He said that with devices that are plugged in, there is more power available to run more complex algorithms than on a mobile device. Part of the effort to make the system more accurate is collecting more data to train machine learning algorithms on, including the correct actions as well as similar but incorrect ones (so they also learn what not to accept).
Google
"The other approach to mitigate this risk is through UX design," Giusti said. He explained that the system can offer a suggestion rather than trigger a completely automated response, to allow users to confirm the right input rather than act on a potentially inaccurate gesture.
Still, it's not like we're going to be frustrated by Google devices misinterpreting these four movements of ours in the immediate future. Bedal pointed out "What we're working on is purely research. We're not focusing on product integration." And to be clear, Google is sharing this look at the interaction language as part of a video series it's publishing. Later episodes of In the lab with ATAP will cover other topics beyond this new language, and Giusti said it's meant to "give people an inside look into some of the research that we are exploring."
But it's easy to see how this new language can eventually find its way into the many things Google makes. The company's been talking about its vision for a world of "ambient computing" for years, where it envisions various sensors and devices embedded into the many surfaces around us, ready to anticipate and respond to our every need. For a world like that to not feel intrusive or invasive, there are many issues to sort out (protecting user privacy chief among them). Having machines that know when to stay away and when to help is part of that challenge.
Bedal, who's also a professional choreographer, said "We believe that these movements are really hinting to a future way of interacting with computers that feels invisible by leveraging the natural ways that we move."
She added, "By doing so, we can do less and computers can... operate in the background, only helping us in the right moments."
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MediaTek is not resting on its laurels, and to prove this point it has launched another premium chipset for smartphones as part of the Dimensity series. The new Dimensity 8000 lineup includes the Dimensity 8000 and the Dimensity 8100 octa-core SoC that you’ll be seeing on smartphones very soon. Xiaomi and Realme are the first benefactors of this chipset, who are bringing phones with this hardware in the coming months.
The big highlight of the Dimensity 8000 series is that MediaTek has borrowed some of its internals from the premium Dimensity 9000 which was announced earlier.
The chipset has been built on the 5nm production process by TSMC. The main difference between these two chipsets is that Dimensity 8000 will be positioned in the so-called affordable flagship segment.
Here are the key elements of the Dimensity 8000 chipsets that smartphones can offer later this year.
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Display: MediaTek claims both these chipsets can support a Full HD+ screen with up to 168Hz refresh rate. In the case of the Dimensity 8100, you can even get a WQHD+ resolution with 120Hz refresh rate.
Cameras: Dimensity 8000 or 8100 phones are going to ship with a 200-megapixel camera, that is if the manufacturer wants to offer. It supports 4K video recording and other advanced camera features.
Connectivity upgrades: MediaTek claims the internet speeds will be faster, and you get dual 5G standby support. Dimensity 8000 series also debuts Bluetooth 5.3 version, along with the Bluetooth LE Audio technology.
MediaTek has definitely found a new stride in the mid-range and premium segment with the Dimensity series. Most of the phones offering 5G in the sub Rs 20,000 bracket are using MediaTek SoC, and the new 9000 and 8000 series promises similar impact in the higher end of the market, where you have serious contenders like the Snapdragon 800 series chipsets.
OnePlus seems to be planning to launch its first foldable phone this year. The company’s software lead Gary Chen hinted the same during a media conference at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC 2022) that the company is working on foldable phone software alongside Google. Although the executive did not reveal anything about the device, his remarks suggest that we may see a foldable smartphone from OnePlus in 2022. “OnePlus is working with Google on flagship devices, including foldable phones, and the new features that can be introduced in OxygenOS 13.” Chen said as per Android Central.
At the news conference, Chen also said that OnePlus is working with Google to add new privacy and security features to the upcoming OxygenOS 13 operating system which is based on Android 13. As the new Android OS will include the work started in the Android 12L version, it is expected that the OS will work better on devices with larger screens including foldable smartphones. The Android 13 is rumoured to launch in fall 2022. OnePlus’ parent company, Oppo, also recently launched its first foldable smartphone, Oppo Find N, in China. The smartphone features a clamshell style design as seen on the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3.
If previous reports are to be believed, the OnePlus foldable smartphone may come with entirely new design. According to an OnePlus patent application reported by LetsGoDigital, the company is working on a tri-fold smartphone. The patent document named Mobile terminal shows a smartphone with three foldable display parts.
According to the patent application, the displays on the smartphone will be backed by double hinge which will allow the device to fold in multiple ways. As of now, Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei are the front-runners in foldable display technology, but this design patent by OnePlus is unlike any other seen in the market.
Various reports suggest that the patent document for the foldable smartphone was filed in China in 2020 and was published in July 2021. The design has also been included in the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) database. The WIPO has also given a stamp of approval and protection to OnePlus for the patented technology.
Zain Nadella, the son of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, has died at the age of 26. Microsoft recently shared the news in a message to Microsoft executives, according to Bloomberg. Zain died on Monday morning, February 28, 2022.
Zain, who was born with cerebral palsy, received treatment at the Seattle Children's Hospital in his lifetime. Satya Nadella and his wife Anu established the Zain Nadella Endowed Chair in Pediatrics Neurosciences at the Seattle Children's Center for Integrative Brain Research.
"Zain will be remembered for his eclectic taste in music, his bright sunny smile and the immense joy he brought to his family and all those who loved him," said CEO of Children's Hospital Jeff Sperring. His comments were shared with his board and, in turn, passed on to Microsoft executives.
Microsoft's message to its executives asked to hold the Nadella family in thoughts and prayers while also giving the family room to grieve privately.
For a lot of people, a 15-inch laptop is a perfect size that offers enough screen for multitasking, and in a lot of cases, some extra performance from powerful hardware. We've rounded up the best of the best at this size.
With the rise of foldable screens and alternative form factors in mobile devices, Apple’s traditional designs are being challenged by many manufacturers. Is Tim Cook and his team preparing Apple to join the foldable race and blur the lines between the MacBook and iPad?
“I’m told Apple has indeed been exploring a dual-screen, foldable MacBook/iPad hybrid that would take the second approach. It would trade in the physical keyboard and trackpad for a fully touch-screen base…the device has been in development for the past couple of years.”
...and Apple has been focusing on the move to Apple Silicon and the overwhelming volume of software required to support that move. So clearly now is the time for Apple to innovate with the hardware?
Hold on a minute. When was the last time you remember Apple making an absolute and fundamental change to the look and feel of a product? I’m not talking about the addition of a notch to get some more sensors on the iPhone X, the removal of the iPod Mini’s hard drive and an immediate end of line as the iPod Nano arrives, or the eventual arrival of Qi wireless charging. I’m talking about the impact of something like a foldable screen to a large-format iPhone.
The modern Apple rarely leads with these massive changes. While there may be suitable screens out there for a folding iPad/MacBook hybrid, I think it unlikely we’ll see them on the retail shelves in the near future. I’m sure that of you visited Apple’s Research and Development department and had the freedom to roam around you would find such a laptop. You’d probably find quite a few iterations, with various 3D printed design chassis designs, sample displays, and a big connector cable running out the back hooked into a mac Mini that acted as the ‘internals’ of the prototype.
Just like Apple’s published patents (and yes you’ll find devices like this hybrid in Apple’s patents) something may exist and be working, but that does not always mean you’re going to be able to walk into an Apple Store later this year and pick up a consumer-ready model.
Apple’s going to be late to the party. It’s been late to every party. But when the 10,000 lb elephant arrives in the room, you’ll know it has arrived.
