Quick Shots-75

Samsung Galaxy A13 to come with a 50MP camera

Samsung introduced the affordable Galaxy A12 last November, and now it is time for the successor, tentatively called Galaxy A13. According to sources from South Korea, the main camera will be equipped with a new 50MP sensor, while the rest of the shooters will remain unchanged.

From Gsmarena

Motorola to launch three new feature phones – Moto A10, A50, A70

Motorola is expected to launch three new feature phones in the Indian market. The Moto 10, Moto 50, and Moto 70 have 1,750 mAh batteries, dual SIM support and a two-year replacement guarantee scheme.

The Moto A10 and Moto A50 both will come with an MT6261D chipset by Mediatek. They will also share a 1.8” color screen, as well as a torch, activated with a physical button. There is a micro SD card slot (up to 32GB) and a 3.5mm audio jack on top. The A10 has no camera whatsoever, while the A50 has one on the back.

The Moto A70 has a similar appearance, but the screen is bigger – 2.4”. Sources report the phone will have a Unisoc chipset on the inside, but the rest remains the same – one camera on the back, LED torch, wireless FM, call recording, etc.

The Moto A10 is expected to arrive in five Indian states for INR1,500 (about $20). The Moto A50 and Moto A70 will be under INR2,000 (about $25), but the final pricing and availability details will be unveiled once the devices are launched.

From Gsmarena

Netflix launches first games on smartphones

Netflix is launching its first games worldwide as it seeks to break into the game subscription market.

Starting Tuesday, the company will roll out updates to its Netflix app on Android smartphones, showing what games are available for download.

To begin with, five mobile games are included for Netflix subscribers.

The company is promising more to come – with no adverts in the game and no in-app purchases like those common in other mobile games.

This week’s release is only for Android phones and tablets. Netflix said that games would come to iOS devices “in the coming months”.

Apple has previously resisted attempts by other companies to put “stores inside stores” – particularly around gaming.

From BBC

Razer expands productivity line with new Pro keyboard, mouse, and mat

If you’re looking for an easy, aesthetically unified way to burn through $270 (not including taxes), check out Razer’s new additions to its productivity line of PC accessories. For $159, you can grab its Pro Type Ultra keyboard, or you can go with its $79 Pro Click Mini mouse and $29 Pro Glide XXL mouse mat.

The Pro Type Ultra keyboard advertises quiet clicking capabilities courtesy of its silent mechanical Razer switches. Plus, it’ll give you wrist support with a leatherette wrist rest. And it supports USB-C, Razer HyperSpeed wireless 2.4GHz, and Bluetooth connections.

Meanwhile, the Pro Click Mini can survive up to 15 million clicks, according to Razer (meaning gamers into Cookie Clicker and all those one-handed visual novels on Steam are in for a treat!). As for the mouse mat, it’s big, features high-density rubber foam, and utilizes a textured micro-weave cloth surface so your mouse movements are on-point.

All these products are available on Razer’s site right now.

From Windows Central

MacBook Air Drives 6.5 Million Apple Laptop Shipments in Q3 2021

Apple shipped 6.5 million laptops in the third quarter of this year, thanks in large part to high demand for the M1-powered MacBook Air.
That’s according to research firm Strategy Analytics, whose data put Apple as the fourth largest seller of laptops between July and September, earning it 10% of the global market share and 10% growth year-on-year.

Lenovo took first place in the top five by shipping 15.3 million units, amounting to 23% market share, while HP and Dell shipped 14.3 million and 12.2 million units to earn 21% and 18% market share, respectively.

According to the report, most vendors grew on top of record 2020 levels, while Dell topped growth rates with a massive 50% increase year-on-year. At the same time, consumer spending increased thanks to higher discounts on premium products like ‌MacBook Air‌.

From Macrumors

You can now buy the world’s first USB-C iPhone

Last month, Ken Pillonel – a robotics student from Switzerland showed the world his iPhone X with a fully working USB-C port. The very same phone is now being auctioned off on eBay and you can own a bit of history if you choose so. As of writing this article, the price has reached a sizeable $3,950.

The phone in question is a pre-owned 64GB iPhone X in black and only comes with the box and no accessories included. Pillonel also advises it should not be used as a daily driver phone nor restored or have its data erased.

If you want to see how the device reached its final form, Pillonel also posted a complete guide on his YouTube account detailing the whole process. In short, he reversed engineered Apple’s Lighting connector and then a replica Lightning connector which allowed him to make a flexible circuit board that managed to fit vertically inside the iPhone between the battery and Taptic Engine.

The whole project is open-sourced and you can find all the instructions on its GitHub repository if you want to have a go at modding an iPhone with USB-C yourself. Last but not least Pillonel said he will continue to tinker with USB-C on iPhones and even hinted at adding a USB-C connector to a pair of AirPods which will be an interesting project to follow.

From Gsmarena

ZipCharge Go is a suitcase-size powerbank for EVs

ZipCharge has launched a new type of charging product for EVs that might be able to convince people worried about range anxiety to switch from gas vehicles. The British startup has introduced a powerbank for EVs called ZipCharge Go at the Cop26 climate summit. It’s about the size of a suitcase and weighs around 50 pounds — plus, it has wheels and a retractable handle, so users can put it in their trunk and easily take it out when they need to charge. 

According to the company, the Go can provide up 20 miles of range after being plugged into the car for 30 minutes. A higher capacity version will be able to provide an EV up to 40 miles of range. The device works with any plug-in hybrid or EV with a Type 2 socket, and it can charge that vehicle to its full capacity between 30 minutes to an hour. Charging up the device itself is as easy as plugging it into any socket, and users will be able to control and monitor it through an app, where they can schedule future charges during off-peak hours for cheaper costs. 

From Engadget

Facebook Shuts Down Its Facial Recognition System “For The Good Of Society”

Over the coming weeks, Facebook will strip the facial recognition software from its website and delete all data related to users’ faces. Any Facebook features that rely on facial recognition will also disappear—you won’t get suggestions for who to tag in photos, and automatic alt text (photo descriptions for blind or partially sighted users) will no longer identify subjects by name.

In a press release, Jerome Pesenti cites “societal concerns” as the driving force behind this change. He says that we need to weigh the “pros and cons” of facial recognition for future products, though of course, he doesn’t mention any actual drawbacks to the technology.

The many specific instances where facial recognition can be helpful need to be weighed against growing concerns about the use of this technology as a whole. There are many concerns about the place of facial recognition technology in society, and regulators are still in the process of providing a clear set of rules governing its use.

From Reviewgeek

Move over Chrome, macOS Monterey is the new RAM-eating monster in town

Apple’s macOS Monterey operating system was only released a few weeks ago, but people are already reporting issues with it – including multiple people complaining of instances where their Macs and MacBooks are slowing to a crawl because all the system memory is being used up.

According to MacRumors, some people have found that after upgrading to macOS Monterey, certain processes launch in the background, then consume large amounts of RAM, slowing the entire device down.

More worryingly, this bug appears to be affecting all kinds of Macs and MacBooks, with people who have just bought the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) and MacBook Pro 14-inch (2021) devices complaining about the problem, as well as people on older Macs and MacBooks.

From Techradar

Scientists may have found the first extragalactic planet – can we talk to it?

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics believe they’ve discovered the first extragalactic planet ever observed by humans. In this case, the team thinks they’ve found a Saturn-sized planet in the far off galaxy called Messier 51 (M51).

About 28 million light years. That’s a big deal because the universe has a speed limit. According to the laws of physics, we can’t go faster than the speed of light.

So that tells us it’d only take us 28 million years get reach the lonely little planet we’ve discovered in M51 — if we were travelling at the speed of light and didn’t have to account for acceleration and deceleration.

From The Nextweb