Quick Shots-9

Designing better batteries for electric vehicles

The urgent need to cut carbon emissions is prompting a rapid move toward electrified mobility and expanded deployment of solar and wind on the electric grid. If those trends escalate as expected, the need for better methods of storing electrical energy will intensify.

“We need all the strategies we can get to address the threat of climate change,” says Elsa Olivetti PhD ’07, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering. “Obviously, developing technologies for grid-based storage at a large scale is critical. But for mobile applications — in particular, transportation — much research is focusing on adapting today’s lithium-ion battery to make versions that are safer, smaller, and can store more energy for their size and weight.”

Read More at MIT News

Twitter to give option to report misleading tweets – It’s not for all yet

Twitter – for that matter, many social media platforms – is forever facing the charge that it is isn’t doing much to stem the flow of misinformation on its network. 

Twitter’s previous attempts to come down on fake news through features like Birdwatch are still works in progress. Now in continuation of that, Twitter is allowing small groups in the US, Australia and South Korea to report tweets on the social media platform that contain misinformation.

Read More at Techradar

BGMI iOS version now available: Here’s the download link for iPhone and iPad

Battlegrounds Mobile India is now available on Apple’s App Store and can be downloaded by iOS users on iPhone and iPads. Many players have been hounding Krafton for this ever since the Android version of the game was launched back on July 2. 

The App Store page for BGMI went live today and shows some of the rewards that people will get for free when downloading the logging into the game. And like the Android version of the game iOS users will also get special free rewards when the game reaches download milestones. 

Download Battlegrounds Mobile India on iOS

Read More at Techradar

Realme launches its first laptop alongside the Realme GT series in India

Realme today announced three new products in India: a new laptop called the Realme Book Slim, the Reame GT and Realme GT Master Edition. All three products are aggressively priced and pack solid hardware.

Read More at XDA

The end of the Semiconductor shortage could be in sight thanks to China

China’s integrated circuit (IC) output hit 31.6 billion units in July, an increase of 41.3% year on year thanks to both skyrocketing demands for semiconductor chips and recent additional production capacity in the country.

As South China Morning Post reports, not only is this a new monthly record, but it also bodes well for the greater industry that has been suffering in recent months thanks to a lack of available chips, with China’s output of automobiles having fallen by 15.8% in July.

It seems that the ever-increasing demand across the market has seen manufacturers adding additional capacity to keep up, which is no small feat considering that companies like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Co. (SMIC) are unable to get the required equipment it needs for expansion from large American companies given that the U.S. government’s blacklist of many Chinese manufacturers.

Read More at Techradar

Apple Producing AirPods 3 in China Instead of Vietnam Due to Pandemic Disruption

Apple reportedly began trialing production of regular ‌‌AirPods‌‌ in Vietnam over a year ago, and it was reported in December that Apple’s ‌‌AirPods‌‌ suppliers were looking to line up financing to expand production.

Originally, those plans also included the upcoming ‌AirPods‌ 3, but those plans have changed. According to a new report from Nikkei Asia, Apple has had to begin mass producing the third-generation ‌AirPods‌ in China rather than Vietnam because of disruptions related to COVID-19 outbreaks.

Apple will start mass-producing its latest AirPods earphones in China instead of in Vietnam as previously planned, two people familiar with the situation said. The company still hopes to move around 20% of new AirPods production to Vietnam later, they said.

Apple’s plan to bring some MacBook and iPad production to Vietnam has also been put on hold due to stricter border control measures in China and Vietnam, which has resulted in a lack of engineering resources and an incomplete supply chain, according to the report.

Read More at Macrumors

YouTube is enhancing search results with chapter previews and visual tweaks

YouTube has announced upcoming changes to its search functionality that will help users find the right video content more efficiently. The idea is to make searching more visually appealing and give a better sense of what videos contain before you select them.

In the Android and iOS versions of the YouTube app, rather than just seeing a thumbnail for each result in a search, you’ll be able to see a snippet of the video just as you would while scrolling through content on the home page or while browsing on desktop. There will also be a section below videos showing all of their chapters, if they have them. This will allow you to make more informed decisions on the usefulness of the content, or jump straight to a specific chapter if that’s exactly what you need.

Read More at Android Police

WhatsApp’s bigger, bolder link previews are rolling out in beta

WhatsApp is working on implementing bigger link previews. The news comes to us courtesy of the folks at WABetaInfo who love to dig into the app and figure out what the devs have in store for us before the features are made public.

This may seem like a trivial change, but it should be a helpful one nonetheless. WhatsApp currently squishes previews into four or five lines with a tiny thumbnail (if any). Comparatively, Telegram displays way more text and larger images, giving you a better idea of what you’re about to get into before you open the link.

Read More at Android Police

Samsung confirms it’s removing ads from its stock apps later this year

Samsung has confirmed that it will stop showing ads in default apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme. It follows comments made by its mobile chief TM Roh in an internal town hall meeting reported by Yonhap. “Samsung has made a decision to cease the advertisement on proprietary apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme,” the company said in a statement given to The Verge. “The update will be ready by later this year.”

“Our priority is to deliver innovative mobile experiences for our consumers based on their needs and wants,” the company said. “We value feedback from our users and continue our commitment to provide them with the best possible experience from our Galaxy products and services.”

Read More at The Verge

Samsung Galaxy A52s goes official w/ Snapdragon 778G, 120Hz display, £409 price

Even though the dust has barely settled on the solid Galaxy A52, Samsung is now unveiling an upgrade in the guise of the Galaxy A52s — with some notable internal improvements.

The device is practically identical to its predecessor, which was only unveiled in March 2021. So to reel off some basics, there’s a 6.5-inch 120Hz FHD+ AMOLED display, boxy aesthetic, and plenty of polycarbonate. We’re confused as to why Samsung has even released a follow-up so soon after the original hit store shelves, but the Galaxy A52s does include the newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G chipset. That could prove enticing, as the Snapdragon 750G can get bogged down from time to time, in our experience.

Read More at 9to5Google