Realme Buds Air 3 coming this month, live shots confirm design
Images of the Realme Buds Air 3 appeared last month, and today we also get some live shots of the TWS earphones. The source of those confirms the launch is scheduled for this month, February, and the first market where they’ll arrive is India.
From Gsmarena
Samsung Galaxy A53 5G gets more certifications, may ship with 25W charger
Samsung’s Galaxy A53 5G has literally been leaking for months at this point, and yet it’s still not official. Until Samsung finally fixes that, all we can do is bring you more leaks.
Today, the device has been certified by both NBTC and FCC. The latter of those is interesting, because the handset visited the agency along with a 25W charger. This strongly hints that at least one version of the A53 might ship with a 25W charger in the box. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, but can’t be sure just yet. It may just be that the FCC wanted to see how the phone behaves when paired with a charger that supports the same maximum charging, or something like that.
From Gsmarena
Realme’s color-changing 9 Pro series phones will debut on February 16
Realme is soon expected to unveil two new additions to its “Number Series” of budget phones. Ahead of their formal unveiling later this month, Realme has detailed the new “Light Shift Design” of the upcoming Realme 9 Pro series.
The Sunrise Blue variant of the two phones will have a color-changing back cover that apparently “transitions from blue to red in five seconds under sunlight or ultraviolet light.” It fades back into blue when the phone is out of direct light.
Realme says the new “Light Shift Design” is inspired by photochromism and organic photochromic materials. To achieve the “chameleon” effect on the 9 Pro series phones, Realme had to use new techniques such as altering the molecular structure to enable the material to change colors and fade back again quickly.
Realme first created the pioneering dual-layer photochromic process and added an organic composite layer which not only guarantees the desired effect but also increases the colour rendering rate
From Android central
iQOO 9 survives torture test and gets dissembled
The iQOO 9 series has been out for over a month now and PBKreviews got to work with a teardown and torture test to see how the new non-Pro phone would perform.
The durability test starts out with a 30 second water submersion test to check how the phone holds up despite its lack of an official IP rating. There seems to be no issue here so the host proceeds to a screen scratch test using several Mohs’ mineral picks which reveals light imprints at at level six and seven and deeper grooves at a level eight and nine.
From Gsmarena
Xiaomi India will bring MIUI 13 to 10 devices in Q1 2022
Xiaomi India promised an MIUI 13 roadmap yesterday, and today it delivered. Ten phones will be part of the first wave and will get the new interface by the end of next month – six 11-series phones (four Mi 11 and two Xiaomi 11) and four Redmi variants are in line.
Here’s the full list of the first wave in Q1 2022:
- Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite
- Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra
- Xiaomi Mi 11X
- Xiaomi Mi 11X Pro
- Xiaomi 11T Pro
- Xiaomi 11 Lite NE 5G
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro Max
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
- Xiaomi Redmi 10 Prime
From Gsmarena
iPhone sales are soaring in India — and that should worry Samsung and Xiaomi
In what comes as bad news for Xiaomi and Samsung, Apple has finally started making headway in the Indian smartphone market.
As per data from market research firm Counterpoint Research, Apple’s iPhone sales in India jumped 34% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to reach 2.3 million units (via Bloomberg). While Samsung sold 7.2 million phones during the same period, Xiaomi remained in the lead with total shipments of 9.3 million units. Apple’s market share in the country, however, still remained unimpressive at a little over 5%.
Despite being significantly behind Xiaomi and Samsung in terms of shipments, Apple is said to have raked in more revenue. Since its devices are a lot more expensive than Samsung and Xiaomi’s best budget Android phones, Apple is estimated to have made $2.09 billion from iPhone sales in India in Q4 2021. Samsung, on the other hand, reportedly pulled in about $2 billion.
From Android Central
Pixel 6 and 6 Pro officially go on sale in Italy and Spain at the Google Store
After an extended wait, the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro are now officially available in Spain and Italy after going on sale via the Google Store in both regions.
Initially launched in just nine nations — but announced in eight — this latest expansion is the first since the Made by Google smartphone duo was officially unveiled back in October 2021. The Google Store in Italy and Spain has quietly listed the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro and coincides with the Pixel 4a being officially discontinued just a few short days ago.
Unfortunately, this delayed launch means that those in Spain and Italy miss out on the impressive Pixel 6 series pre-order bonuses that were offered in other European regions including the United Kingdom, France, Republic of Ireland, and Germany. This does, however, mean that the Pixel 6 is now available in 11 global territories, which expands to 12 when Puerto Rico is factored in.
After an apparent “quarterly sales record” for the Pixel 6 series, this first expansion of the smartphone line since launch could help imbue the series in yet more global markets. The official “Devices & services country availability” support pages still omit the new regions and even the Republic of Ireland despite all three areas offering the handsets.
From 9to5Google
Apple urges US lawmakers against bill to allow iOS apps outside the App Store
Apple is once again fighting against bills that try to force the company to allow distribution of iOS apps outside the App Store. This time, the company urged US lawmakers to reject an antitrust bill in the US Senate that would allow users to install any apps on iPhone and iPad.
As reported by Bloomberg, Apple has written a letter to Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin and Republican Chuck Grassley claiming that the S. 2710 bill will “hurt user privacy and security” if passed. The legislation would make Apple allow “sideloading” on iOS, which is the process of installing software downloaded through the web or sources other than the official App Store.
Apple fears that “big media platforms” will bypass Apple’s guidelines for protecting user data if sideloading on iOS is allowed. Tim Powderly, Apple’s head of government affairs in the Americas, also said that enabling software installation outside the App Store would make it easier to spread malware and scams among iOS users.
As noted by the report, the bill has a high chance of being approved by the committee since it has bipartisan co-sponsors. However, getting approval from the full Senate will be a difficult task. Multiple US states have been trying to pass bills to end App Store exclusivity on iOS, but so far none of them have been successful.
From 9to5Mac
History made: Facebook daily use declined for first time ever last quarter
Over the past few years, Facebook has had its fair share of controversies. The Cambridge Analytica scandal was a big one, but the various security breaches were also pretty bad. However, none of this stopped people from actually using the site. Every quarter, like clockwork, the average number of daily users went up or at least stayed stagnant.
That streak just ended (via The Verge). As a true sign of Facebook decline, parent company Meta reported its first-ever drop in average daily Facebook users. This past quarter, the site saw 1.929 billion daily users. In the quarter prior, it saw 1.93 billion.
Sure, that’s only a difference of one million people, but it represents a larger shift of the public away from Facebook.
Outside of Facebook, Meta’s other properties saw fairly flat growth, with only 10 million daily users added for Instagram and WhatsApp.
In addition to this poor growth, Meta announced lower-than-expected ad revenue. The Facebook decline and low revenue caused Meta’s stock to drop by around 20%, instantly wiping $200 billion off its market value.
From Android Authority
Scientists Say They’ve Created a Blood Test for Detecting Early Lung Cancer
Scientists in China say they’re well on their way to developing what would be an important achievement in medicine: a blood test that can detect the early stages of the most common form of lung cancer. In a new study this week, they’ve shown evidence that the test was over 90% accurate in identifying these tumors in samples taken from real life patients. More research, including clinical trials, will be needed before this test will be able to reach the public, however.
From Gizmodo
