Quick Shots-189

Xiaomi’s budget Redmi 10 launches in India with the most unergonomic fingerprint scanner imaginable

Xiaomi’s Redmi and Redmi Note lineup of budget and mid-range smartphones are massively popular in India, where they sell millions of units every year. These handsets consistently push the boundaries of price-to-performance, offering flagship-grade features at a significantly lower price point. Now, following the Redmi Note 11 series launch, the company has brought the Redmi 10 to India.

Xiaomi is known to release rebranded versions of its phones launched from China in India. The Redmi 10 (2022) is no different, effectively a rechristened variant of the Redmi 10C that recently made its debut in the company’s home market. This low-end device features a 6.71-inch IPS LCD panel with HD+ resolution protected by Gorilla Glass, a Snapdragon 680 chipset, 4/6GB RAM, and up to 128GB of UFS 2.2 storage. The textured back houses a dual-camera setup consisting of a 50MP primary shooter and a 2MP depth sensor. Interestingly, the fingerprint sensor is also a part of the camera housing itself, likely making it a bit difficult to reach. A 5MP selfie shooter is housed in the punch-hole of the display.

The Redmi 10 misses out on 5G connectivity, though given that network itself is nowhere ready to launch India, this shouldn’t be a concern for too many users.

From Android Police

OnePlus Nord 3 could have a massive screen and incredibly fast charging

We haven’t heard much about the OnePlus Nord 3 yet, but a new specs leak suggests that it could be a significant upgrade on the OnePlus Nord 2, with the highlight being 150W charging.

That’s according to leaker Digital Chat Station posting on Weibo (a Chinese social network). For reference, the Nord 2 offers 65W charging, which is already pretty speedy, and even the OnePlus 10 Pro tops out at 80W, so for the Nord 3 to have almost twice as much charging power as OnePlus’s latest flagship would be odd but not impossible.

The leaker also claims that this phone has a 6.7-inch 1080 x 2412 screen, making for a much larger display than the 6.43-inch one on the OnePlus Nord 2.

Other listed specs include the upper mid-range Dimensity 8100 chipset, 12GB of RAM, a 4,500mAh battery, an in-screen fingerprint scanner, a 16MP front camera, and a triple-lens rear camera, with 50MP, 8MP and 2MP sensors.

For the most part then that all sounds impressive, especially for a mid-range phone, though being a leak we’d take this with a pinch of salt. There’s also the possibility that these specs are right but that the phone in question is something other than the OnePlus Nord 3, as the source doesn’t mention the phone by name.

But the mid-range chipset would fit with the Nord range, and the camera specs and battery size are in line with the OnePlus Nord 2, so the Nord 3 is our best guess, especially as that phone is expected to land in the next few months.

From Techradar

Apple Made an Additional $6.5 Billion USD by No Longer Providing Accessories With New iPhones

A recent report has determined that Apple has made over $6.5 billion USD in profit by no longer providing chargers and earphones with its latest iPhone purchases.

Back in 2020, Apple introduced the move with the intention of cutting down its waste. The tech giant received praises from environmentalists when it claimed it plans to reduce annual carbon emissions by two million tons. However, although consumers do not receive the charger or headphones, the products are promised to feature upgraded hardware and higher quality in general. Apple argues that the tradeoff on maintaining the same cost is that the iPhone comes with more premium features.

Both the earphones and chargers retail for $19 USD each and since these items are usually cheaper to produce, Apple is saving approximately $35 USD per device. The removal of these accessories also means smaller packaging for the iPhones, thus contributing to the growing profit for the company. Apple has also promised that by 2023, its supply chain and product usage will become entirely carbon neutral.

From Hypebeast

Google Home app to see major redesign

The new app update will bring the iOS app closer to the way the Android 11+ app looks and functions. Instead of having large icons to identify each device and you tapping them to change values (i.e., brightness, volumes, etc.), the icons will be new interactable tiles. You’ll still be able to control simple on/off commands by a quick tap of the tile, but you will also be able to change those values by sliding left and right. Next, you can long-press the tiles to get full device controls; for example, for a multi-colored light, you can change the hues and saturation levels. Lastly, the background of the tiles will quickly convey the state of the device; dimmed means the device is off, while light means the device is on.

Google seems to be changing the design language for a couple of reasons. First, we get to have feature and design parity between the two operating systems. Secondly, it claims to want users to “quickly find what you’re looking for, dim your compatible lights, and change the music volume in a snap.”

From Digital Trends

Chrome OS readying support for Variable Refresh Rate displays, just in time for Steam

Just in time for Steam to be making its way to the platform, Google is adding support for variable refresh rate displays to Chrome OS.

Spotted by Kevin Tofel over at About Chromebooks, Chrome OS 101 rolling out now in the Dev Channel adds support for variable refresh rate display output. The functionality doesn’t appear to be live by default, but rather hidden behind a flag.

Enable Variable Refresh Rate

Enable the variable refresh rate (Adaptive Sync) setting for capable displays

Google’s wording around this feature likely points to it as something meant only for external displays, rather than a Chromebook’s built-in panel. Still, it could open the door to future Chromebooks integrating such panels natively.

Of course, the use case for this feature is quite obvious. Variable refresh rate (VRR), is used on other platforms such as Windows primarily for gaming, and recent TVs have adopted the capability for the sake of newer gaming consoles including Xbox Series X. Variable refresh rate allows the display to actively change its refresh rate to match the frames-per-second of the content on screen. In natively rendered games, this can change depending on how much is going on in a scene, or if a pre-rendered cutscene is playing as opposed to actual gameplay. Syncing the refresh rate to the display also has the benefit of avoiding screen tear.

From 9to5Google

Porsche Considering ‘Exciting’ Joint Projects With Apple

German carmaker Porsche has discussed undertaking joint projects with Apple, the company’s CEO mentioned today in its annual press conference (via Reuters).
Porsche CEO Oliver Blume said that the company has discussed “exciting common projects” with Apple, but it it is currently too soon to make any firm decisions on future projects. It is unclear exactly what the seemingly off-hand remark refers to, but it could relate to Apple’s long-rumored electric vehicle project.

Blume said that Porsche and Apple traditionally cooperate closely and are “on the same wavelength,” and managers from Porsche travelled to the United States late last year to discuss joint projects with Apple.

“We already have Apple CarPlay, we will expand on that,” Blume added. Porsche has worked closely with Apple in recent years to offer a growing number of feature-rich non-CarPlay experiences that integrate with vehicles’ infotainment systems, including a native Apple Music app with time-synced lyrics and a native Apple Podcasts app that works with Porsche’s in-car voice assistant.

From Macrumors

Android 13 will tell you which background apps are killing your battery

Smartphone battery tech has evolved considerably over the years, but battery worries persist among buyers, regardless of the operating system. The various “fixes” in place include increasing the battery capacity, improving the efficiency of various chips, increasing the battery charging speeds, and even throttling handset performance to save battery life.

On top of that, building battery-saving features in the underlying operating system, whether it’s Android 13 or iOS 16, could further improve battery life. That’s what Google is doing this year, looking to prevent Android apps from killing battery life while running in the background.

However, it’s important to remember that Android 13 will not magically fix battery issues. Especially on older devices with poorer battery health. Usually, older hardware will experience obvious battery issues, as those battery packs degraded over the years.

Also, the older the Android handset, the less likely to get the latest operating system release. Moreover, older handsets take longer to receive the latest Android version, even if they’re eligible for the upgrade.

From BGR

Here’s how Intel plans to beat future chip shortages

Intel has huge plans underway to ramp up its manufacturing capabilities in the US and Europe, and will be spending big on these respective ventures, although governments will be contributing hefty amounts of funding towards Team Blue’s cause, it has emerged.

This is all part of Intel’s strategy to move away from the high level of dependence on the APAC (Asia Pacific) region for chip manufacturing, and thus ensure a more resilient and robust supply chain, guarding against the kind of component shortages which have been wreaking havoc since the start of the pandemic.

Intel revealed back in January that a new cutting-edge chipmaking campus in Ohio, US, will be built at the initial cost of $20 billion, with a chunk of that delivered via state funding – some $2.1 billion in various incentives, as Tom’s Hardware reports – plus further money is to come from federal government. In total, this means a “significant portion” of the $20 billion investment will come from the government.

In Europe, this is even more the case, as the report makes clear that of the $18.7 billion which the new fab in Germany (Magdeburg) will run to, the state is set to stump up $5.5 billion, Bloomberg asserts (nearly 30% of the total expenditure).

That German-based project is part of an $88 billion drive in Europe happening over the next decade with Intel’s intention being to usher in a “next-generation chip ecosystem” no less

From Techradar

PayPal expands services to allow users to send money to Ukrainians

PayPal is expanding its services to allow its users to send money to Ukrainians, the company announced on Thursday.

Prior to this expansion, users in Ukraine could only use PayPal to send money out of the country. The expansion allows Ukrainian PayPal account holders to send and receive payments from friends and family around the world. Ukrainian customers who receive money in their PayPal Wallet will be able to transfer the funds to their bank account by linking an eligible Mastercard or Visa debit or credit card.

PayPal also announced that it’s temporarily waiving its fees for customers sending funds to Ukrainian PayPal accounts or receiving funds into Ukrainian PayPal accounts through June 30. Xoom, which is the company’s international remittance service, will also be waiving transaction fees for payments sent to recipients in Ukraine.

The announcement from PayPal follows a request from the Ukrainian government asking the payments company to roll out new services that would allow people in the country to receive access to payments.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation, applauded the expansion on Twitter and shared a letter he received from PayPal.

From Techcrunch

NASA’s megarocket, the Space Launch System, rolls out to its launchpad

On Thursday, NASA’s new giant rocket, the Space Launch System, emerged out into the Florida air, embarking on a torturously slow 11-hour journey to its primary launchpad at Kennedy Space Center. It was a big moment for NASA, having spent more than a decade on the development of this rocket, with the goal of using the vehicle to send cargo and people into deep space.

The rollout of the SLS was just a taste of what’s to come. The rocket will undergo what is known as a wet dress rehearsal in April, going through all the operations and procedures it will go through during a typical launch, including filling up its tanks with propellant. If that goes well, then the rocket will be rolled back to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building, the giant cavernous building where the SLS was pieced together. Following a few more tests, the rocket will be rolled back out to the launchpad ahead of its first flight, scheduled for sometime this summer at the earliest.

So there’s still some time before this megarocket actually sees space. But NASA employees, guests, and media got a treat yesterday seeing the vehicle for the first time with their own eyes, after years of only seeing what the rocket would look like as an animation.

From The Verge