Quick Shots-306

Nothing Phone (1) price increases in India

The Nothing Phone (1) unveiled last month just got costlier in India by INR1,000 ($13/€12), so you’ll now have to shell out INR33,999 ($427/€420) for the 8GB/128GB variant, INR36,999 ($464/€457) for the 8GB/256GB model, and INR39,999 ($502/€494) for the 12GB/256GB version. The smartphone will be available for purchase through Flipkart later today at new prices with two color options – Black and White.

Mr. Manu Sharma – VP and GM of Nothing India – said the company had to increase the price of the Phone (1) in India due to the fluctuating currency exchange rates and rising component costs. However, customers in other regions can still purchase the Phone (1) at its original price.

From Gsmarena

Motorola’s latest Edge phone aims to be a $499 5G disruptor

Motorola is today announcing its latest smartphone for the US market. And while I wish it were the sleek new 2022 Razr — currently only available in China — we’re instead looking at another entry in the company’s Edge lineup. The Edge phones are designed to offer several flagship-tier features at an accessible price point. (Motorola’s Edge Plus, meanwhile, directly competes in the premium, more expensive bracket.)

With the 2022 edition of the Edge, Motorola is concentrating on familiar strengths: a 144Hz OLED display, lengthy battery life, comprehensive 5G support, and camera upgrades.

Priced at $499 for a limited time — Motorola won’t say how long — before an eventual jump to $599, the company describes this phone as one of its thinnest and most compact Edge devices yet. It has a 6.6-inch FHD Plus OLED screen with a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz. That display can boost up to a peak brightness of 1,300 nits in its “high brightness” mode, and it supports HDR10 Plus.

From The Verge

Samsung India celebrates 50,000 pre-bookings for Z Fold4 and Z Flip4 (combined) in just 12 hours

Samsung India is reporting that fans have pre-booked a total of over 50,000 Galaxy Z Flip4 and Z Fold4 units in the first 12 hours. There was a special Samsung Live event, which gave early birds a free Wireless Charger Duo (₹5,200) with each phone, plus a Slim Clear Cover (₹2,000) for those getting a Z Flip4 Bespoke Edition.

That offer ended yesterday, buy you can still get ₹8,000 cashback if you pre-book a Galaxy Z Fold4 or ₹7,000 for a Z Flip4 (using an HDFC credit or debit card). Alternatively, you can have that money as an Upgrade Bonus when trading-in an old device.

The discount for Samsung Care+ (50% off) is still available, as is the discount for the old Galaxy Watch4 Classic (46mm for the Z Fold4 and 42mm for the Z Flip4, Bluetooth in both cases).

From Gsmarena

MediaTek’s new Pentonic 700 SoC for smart TVs offers support for 4K 120Hz displays with optional VRR capabilities

In November last year, MediaTek announced the Pentonic 2000 SoC for flagship TVs offering support for up to 8K 120Hz displays. Built on TSMC’s 7nm manufacturing process, the Pentonic 2000 was the first all-in-one chip for TVs with support for 8K 120Hz displays and the first commercial 8K TV chip with Versatile Video Coding (VCC) H.266 media support. MediaTek claimed that the chip offered the TV industry’s fastest CPU and GPU, coupled with an ultra-wide 6-channel memory bus, UFS 3.1 storage, support for Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail, and support for MediaTek’s new Wi-Fi 6E or 5G cellular modems. MediaTek has now announced the Pentonic 700 chipset for premium smart TVs, which brings some of the new technologies introduced with the Pentonic 2000 SoC down to a more affordable price point.

The all-new MediaTek Pentonic 700 SoC for premium 4K 120Hz smart TVs features a powerful AI processing engine for AI-powered picture quality enhancements, Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail support, integrated 4K 120Hz MEMC, and gaming optimizations. Like the Pentonic 2000, the new chip features an AI processing unit (APU) with support for MediaTek’s AI-Super Resolution, AI-Picture Quality (PQ) Scene Recognition, and AI-PQ Object Recognition technologies for advanced edge smoothing and detail reconstruction. Furthermore, the Dolby Vision IQ with Precision Detail support on the Pentonic 700 helps enhance picture quality by improving the contrast in bright and dark spots.

Talking about the new chip, Alex Chen, General Manager of MediaTek’s TV Business Unit, said, “MediaTek’s Pentonic series brings more intelligence to smart TVs with a host of AI-powered picture quality enhancements. Smart TV brands can count on Pentonic 700 to deliver incredible experiences whether consumers are watching videos or sports, gaming, or using their TV as a control center for their other smart devices.”

Along with the AI-powered enhancements, the MediaTek Pentonic 700 also features Picture-by-Picture (PBP) and Picture-in-Picture (PIP) support with PQ enhancement, allowing TVs to display content from different sources simultaneously. This feature allows users to stream multiple sporting events at the same time and video chat with friends while watching content together. The PBP and PIP support can also come in handy for professionals by allowing them to display different content streams simultaneously and offering more video conferencing options.

From XDA

OPPO ColorOS 13 (Android 13): All the new features, eligible phones, launch date, and more

With over 500 million global active users, ColorOS is one of the most widely-used Android interfaces. While initial versions of the UI were garish and lacked cohesion, OPPO cleaned up its act in 2019 with ColorOS 7, and subsequent launches have fielded a modern interface with plenty of customizability.

ColorOS 11 introduced a customizable dark mode, new battery saving modes, much more customization options, and floating windows. Last year’s ColorOS 12 built on that with a visual refresh, a Multi Connect feature that lets you connect your phone with your Windows machine and access incoming notifications, and a new Quantum Animation Engine with smoother animations throughout the UI.

As for ColorOS 13, OPPO is kicking things off with a new Aquamorphic Design language that’s vibrant and fluid. There are major tweaks to the notification pane, widgets, and changes to Multi Connect and Privacy Safe, ability to create large folders, and new privacy-focused features.

But the biggest change is the integration of OxygenOS features into ColorOS. You’ll find the Shelf here, and all the AOD styles that have been a mainstay on OnePlus devices for the last two years, including Bitmoji, Insight, and Canvas. Also new is Spotify integration that lets you control music playback directly from the lock screen, and Zomato/Swiggy integration for users in India.

All told, OPPO added a lot of features to ColorOS 13, and with the first beta now going out to the Find X5 Pro, here’s a detailed look at all the new additions, and when your phone will pick up the Android 13-based update.

From Android Central

Realme Buds T100 launch with 28-hour playback and attractively low price

Realme held an event today at which we saw a new affordable smartphone. It was accompanied by the Buds T100 – the newest audio wearables in the company portfolio.

The TWS earphones bring a fancy design, ergonomic design and plenty of sound and battery life. They are also impressively affordable, making them a worthy consideration.

Realme Buds T100 have a 10 mm dynamic bass driver that should make the sound a bit more “stable and impressive”, according to officials. It does have a PEEK+TPU Composite Diaphragm for deeper bass, but in order to have better music in the ears, there are three different EQ presets in the Realme Link app – Bright for a clearer voice, Balanced, and Bass Boost+ with a stronger atmosphere.

From Gsmarena

Apple will reportedly hold its iPhone 14 event on Sept 7

We are nearing the time when Apple is expected to launch new hardware. According to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, we could be looking at a September 7 launch event followed by a September 16 release date. “Some retail store employees have been told to prepare for a major new product release on September 16th,” writes Gurman.

Every year in September, Apple holds its annual launch event which has since switched to a hyper-polished and highly produced livestream event since the pandemic began. Apple employees have also reportedly begun recording segments for the virtual presentation.

Apple is expected to announce four new iPhone 14 models, new Mac computers, new iPads, and a new Apple Watch. The iPhone 14 lineup will drop the mini model and there will be two models with 6.1-inch displays and two models with 6.7-inch ones, marking the first time that Apple releases a non-Pro 6.7-inch iPhone.

The iPhone 14 models are expected to come with a refreshed notch design with significant selfie camera upgrades, a larger camera island on the iPhone 14 Pro, and the new Pro models will get the A16 chipset. The Pro model is also rumored to have always-on display feature.

From Gsmarena

Corsair shows off next-gen SDD with incredible 10,000MB/s speeds

 Corsair has revealed a small teaser for its upcoming PCIe Gen5 M.2 SSD, the first of its kind from the manufacturer. Called the MP700 (a straight update from the previous Gen4 MP600 series), the new SSD supposedly features a whopping 10,000MB/s read speed, with up to 9,500MB/s sequential write speeds too.

Off the back of a strong current partnership with AMD, Corsair was keen to highlight the AM5 compatibility of the new SSD, indicating that it might see a launch in September of October of this year to coincide with the release of AMD’s next generation of processors. It’s worth remembering that Intel’s Alder Lake chips already have PCIe 5.0 support, too.

If it hits the projected speeds in real-world use, the MP700 will be as much as 40% faster than the most expensive PCIe 4.0 drive Corsair produced (the MP600 Pro XT).

However, that still won’t make it the de facto best SSD – price will be an important factor, and this isn’t even the fastest PCIe 5.0 announced; Apacer’s world-first offering shown at Computex 2022 was capable of up to 13,000MB/s speeds.

From Techradar

We’ve Got More Bad News About Netflix’s Upcoming Ad-Supported Plan

Cheaper Netflix may be coming, but it will come with a lot of caveats, it seems.

According to a new report by Bloomberg, the streaming platform’s upcoming ad-supported streaming plan won’t allow downloading shows and movies for offline viewing.

The news comes from a line of text in Netflix’s app unearthed by developer Steve Moser, which literally says, “Downloads available on all plans except Netflix with ads.”

While this is a strong indication that ad-supported plans won’t support downloads, Netflix could change this before launch, and the product may have different features depending on the market. Bloomberg says that Netflix’s ad-supported plan is still several months away.

Netflix started talking about introducing an ad-supported streaming plan in April, initially indicating that it’s coming “over the next year or two.” The company seemingly accelerated the rollout, because Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in June that the ad-supported plan will start rolling out by the end of the year.

But as if ads weren’t bad enough, it appears that this new streaming plan will be limited in other ways. In July, Sarandos confirmed that the ad-supported plan will not have all of Netflix’s licensed content, though he did say that “the vast majority of what people watch on Netflix” will be available.

Netflix lost subscribers in the first two quarters of 2022, prompting the company to revisit its business strategy. Besides the announcement of the new, ad-supported plan, this has so far amounted to higher prices and clamping down on account sharing.

From Mashable

India Considering New Rules That Could Force Apple to Adopt USB-C on iPhone

Following in the footsteps of the EU, India is now in the early stages of considering imposing regulations on consumer products sold in the country that force a universal standard charger, including USB-C, by as early as 2024, Mint reports.

The EU had reached an agreement earlier this summer that would force Apple to adopt USB-C on the iPhone and AirPods by fall 2024. While the agreement has been reached, the legislation still needs to be formally approved by the European Parliament and European Council later this year before Apple is forced to change its ways.

Officials in India held a meeting earlier this week with industry stakeholders and popular consumer electronic makers to discuss the possible impacts of a common charger. “The meeting will be more of an explorative nature. We will try to learn from the stakeholders how a common charger can be adopted in India. We will also try to understand their concerns,” India’s secretary of Consumer Affairs told local media outlets.

The EU and India’s push towards adopting a “common port” would impact a wide range of devices, including, more specifically, Apple, which has kept the ‌iPhone‌ with the Lightning port since 2012, while other products, such as the Mac and iPad, have largely moved towards USB-C.

• The EU Wants All Phones to Work With Interoperable Chargers, Here’s What That Means for Apple’s Lightning Port

Amid pressure to move towards a “common port,” rumors from both Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman have said that Apple is testing a USB-C iPhone, which could debut with the iPhone 15 next year. Other Apple products such as the AirPods will follow, according to Kuo.

From Macrumors