Daily Tech Talk

[Nitin Kumar]

No, Jiofiber Does Not Offer Any Rs 351 Plan, Rs 199 Vouchers Exists And Here's What It Offers

Jio has confirmed India Today Tech that it is essentially a base plan cost which is included in all the JioFiber plans since day 1 of the launch of the plans. In short, it does not exist.
JioFiber is not offering any Rs 351 prepaid voucher. There are media reports on the web claiming that the company is offering a Rs 351 recharge voucher but it isn't true. There is no Rs 351 plan available neither online nor at the recharge shops. Jio has confirmed India Today Tech that it is essentially a base plan cost which is included in all the JioFiber plans since day 1 of the launch of the plans. In short, it does not exist.

Coming to the Rs 199 recharge voucher, again it isn't a newly launched voucher. The voucher offers unlimited data to the users with the speed of 100Mbps. The voucher includes unlimited voice calling on local and STD number and complimentary TV video calling for 7 days. Also, new JioFiber users cannot purchase this voucher. It is available for the existing JioFiber users only.

To get the JioFiber connection, visit Jio's website and head over to the JioFiber section. Click on the Book Now option. The website will ask you to fill in your details such as name, email address, address, contact number and more. In the next step, you will be asked to enter your preferred plan. You can choose from the monthly plans or the Jio Forever annual plans. After choosing the plan, you have to click on generate OTP on your given phone number and then verify it.

For a new connection, Jio will charge you Rs 1,500 as a refundable security deposit and Rs 1,000 as installation charges. If you are getting the basic monthly plan, you will have to pay at least Rs 699 along with the 18 percent GST added to it. The JioFiber plans start at Rs 699 and go all the way up to Rs 8,499. The JioFiber connection also comes bundled with the 4K Set Top, Home gateway devices, and a landline connection but subscribers need to have a landline phone of their own.

[Nitin Kumar]

Xiaomi To Launch Mi Credit In India On December 3

Chinese smartphone giant is all set to revamp and launch Mi Credit in India. The company had first introduced this service last year.
Xiaomi is all set to launch Mi Credit in India. The Chinese smartphone giant will launch its personal loan service, Mi Credit, for Xiaomi device users in India on December 3, 2019. This, however, is not the first time that the company has launched Mi Credit in the country. Xiaomi soft-launched Mi Credit in India in May last year. At the time, the company had partnered with a Bengaluru-based startup, KrazyBee, to launch its valued-added internet-based service in the country. Now the company is formally launching Mi Credit in India.

It is worth noting that, Xiaomi doesn't lend the credit amount to a Mi user via Mi Credit. Rather it acts as an interface that allows users to initiate instant loans. In essence, it connects a user in need of a loan to a service that can provide a user with an amount ranging between Rs 1,000 and Rs 1,00,000. Mi users can then pay the loan back in easy monthly installments with an interest rate over a set period of time.

So how can Mi users use this service? The answer is simple. Xiaomi already has an app called the Mi Credit app on the Google Play Store that allows users to apply for instant loans. Any user who is over 18 years of age can apply for a loan up to Rs 1 lakh, which can be repaid with easy EMIs over a period ranging between 91 days and 3 years. The interest rate starts at 1.35 percent per month. "For example, if the loan amount is Rs20,000, interest charged is 16.2 percent per annum and the loan is to be repaid over 6 EMIs, then the overall interest payable would be ?937 and the EMI per month would be ?3423," Xiaomi explains in its app description in the Play Store.

To apply for a loan, Mi users need to install the Mi Credit app from the Google Play Store and register through their Mi account or phone number. Next, they will have to upload KYC documents, such as ID and address proof, and add personal details for online verification. Next, users need to add bank details to facilitate transactions following which an amount up to Rs 1,00,000 is disbursed to their bank accounts.

[Lalitsharma]

Airtel New Prepaid Plans Listed: Fup Limits, Data Benefits And All You Need To Know



The day is finally here. The telecom companies have finally revealed their revised prepaid plan prices and it is surely going to change the way we use the telecom services from now on. Airtel which is one of the leading telecom operators in the country has increased the prepaid plan prices by introducing revised plans that will be available to the subscribers from December 3, 2019.

Our new mobile plans offer tremendous value to our customers and are backed by a superior network experience on Airtel’s nationwide 4G network. Airtel will continue to make large investments in emerging technologies and digital platforms to deliver world-class experiences to our customers," said Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer at Bharti Airtel.

Airtel says that the hike in the plans range from 50 paise/day to Rs 2.85/day and assures generous data and calling benefits with the new plans. Along with the data and calling benefits, the new Airtel plans also offer benefits as part of the Airtel Thanks platform, which enables access to premium content from Airtel Xstream, Wynk Music, device protection, anti-virus protection and more.

The new Airtel plans start at Rs 19 and go all the way up to Rs 2398. Airtel has kept the FUP limit on unlimited calling from Airtel to other networks. There is a FUP limit of 1000 off-net minutes for all 28 days unlimited plans, 3000 minutes for all 84 days unlimited plans and 1200 minutes for 365 days unlimited plans. All calls beyond these FUP limits will be charged at 6 paise per minute.

To put a clearer picture of what has changed and what not with Airtel prepaid plans, we have listed all the new Airtel plans below. Take a look:

-- Rs 19 plan: Airtel has not increased the tariff in this plan. The plan offers unlimited calling and 150MB data with a new benefit of 100 SMS to the users. This plan is valid for 2 days.

-- Rs 49 plan: The old Rs 35 plan has been changed to Rs 49 plan now with a price hike of 50 paise per day in this plan. The new plan offers talk time worth Rs 38.52 instead of Rs 26.66 and 100MB data. Validity lasts for 28 days.

-- Rs 79 plan: The company has changed the Rs 65 plan to Rs 79. The plan offers Rs 63.95 talk time along with 200MB data. Price has increased by 50 paise per day.

-- Rs 148 plan: Airtel has revised the price of the Rs 129 plan to now Rs 148. It offers unlimited calling, 300 SMS, 2GB data and access to Airtel Xstream, Wynk Music, and Hello Tunes for 28 days.

-- Rs 248 plan: Airtel has dropped the Rs 169 and Rs 199 to introduce a single Rs 248 plan. It offers unlimited calling, 100 SMS per day and 1.5GB data per day for 28 days. The users will also get access to Airtel Xstream, Wynk music, Hello Tunes and Anti-virus mobile protection for 28 days.

-- Rs 298 plan: The old Rs 249 plan has been revised to Rs 298 to offer the same benefit. The plan offers unlimited Calling, 100 SMS per day, 2 GB per day and Airtel Thanks benefits for 28 days.

-- Rs 598 plan: The old Rs 448 has been changed to Rs 598 to offer unlimited calling, 100 SMS per day, and 1.5 GB per data per day for 84 days. The number of validity days has been increased from 82 days to 84 days. The price increase per day here is of Rs 1.66.

-- Rs 698 plan: Airtel has revised the Rs 499 plan to now cost Rs 698. It offers unlimited calling, 100 SMS per day, 2 GB data per day and Airtel thanks benefits for 84 days instead of 82 days. The price increase per day compared to the old plan is Rs 2.22.

-- Rs 1498 plan: The old Rs 998 plan is no more. Instead, you have Rs 1498 plan that offers unlimited calling, 3600 SMS, and 24GB data for 365 days. The Airtel Thanks benefits are also included in the plan.

-- Rs 2398 plan: Airtel is giving unlimited calling, 100 SMS per day, and 1.5 GB per day under this plan. This is a revised version of the Rs 1699 plan that offered the same benefits but a lower price.

[Nitin Kumar]

Jio Tariffs To Go Up By 40 Percent From December 6

Jio has announced a price hike of up to 40 percent of its recharge plans with an assurance of up to 300 percent more benefits.
The telecom companies have announced a price hike of their recharge plans and Jio is not far from this race. The company has announced a price hike of up to 40 percent of its recharge plans with an assurance of up to 300
percent more benefits.

The company plans to launch new All-In-One plans with unlimited voice and data. These plans will have a fair usage policy for calls to other mobile networks. The new plans will be available from December 6, 2019.

"Although the new ALL-IN-ONE plans will be priced up to 40 percent higher, staying true to its promise of being CUSTOMER-FIRST, Jio customers will get up to 300 percent more benefits," said the company.

While Vodafone and Airtel have already revealed their new plans, Jio has only informed us about the price hike but the prices are yet to be revealed officially.

Contrary to how Jio was truly free in the past, the company has changed several rules in the recent past. The company now charges you at 6 paise per minute for calls from Jio to other network calling it the interconnect usage charge (IUC).

Jio recently also introduced Rs 222, Rs 333, Rs 444 and Rs 555 new All-In-One plans in October. Jio calls these plans as "unlimited plans with all services in a single plan." These plans are ideal for users who are confused with Jio's array of plans and their pricing. The new Jio All-in-one plans come with an ample amount of calling and data benefits.

[Nitin Kumar]

Snapdragon 865 Will Be 20 Percent More Powerful Than Snapdragon 855

Qualcomm's upcoming flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset is tipped to offer a 20 percent improvement in performance over the outgoing Snapdragon 855 chipset.
The Snapdragon 855 Plus is currently the best chipset you can see in the Android universe but within a couple of weeks, that's going to change with the arrival of the Snapdragon 865. For long, there have been rumors suggesting that the Snapdragon 865 could offer a massive gain in performance over the current generation chipsets. And thanks to a leak from a tipster, we now know how much of a gain the new chipset is going to offer over the current generation chipset.

The Snapdragon 865, as suggested by a tipster, will offer a substantial improvement in terms of CPU and GPU performance over the current Snapdragon 855 chipset. The tipster says that the next-generation chipset will offer an improvement of 20 percent in CPU performance and a gain of 17-20 percent in GPU performance. That's substantial over the regular version of the Snapdragon 855 but not much compared to the Snapdragon 855 Plus.

Of course, Qualcomm is said to have worked on the cores. On paper, the architecture of the processor is similar to the one in the Snapdragon 855. However, some changes have been incorporated which have resulted in the boosted performance. The Snapdragon 865 will have one Cortex A77 core clocked at 2.84GHz and three Cortex A77 cores clocked at 2.48GHz. These cores will take care of the resource-intensive tasks such as gaming or running multiple apps at once.

The chipset will also have four Cortex A55 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. These will be the efficiency cores and these will look after the mundane tasks. For graphics, Qualcomm will employ the Adreno 650 GPU.

Hence, the Snapdragon 865 seems to have substantial gains over the Snapdragon 855 from last year. However, Qualcomm also launched the Snapdragon 855 Plus, which was an upgrade over the Snapdragon 855 and was introduced as a gaming-oriented chipset. The Snapdragon 855 Plus already offers an improvement of 15 percent in graphics performance and four percent in CPU performance. Hence, the new Snapdragon 865 is not more powerful over the Snapdragon 855 Plus.

That means for those who want more performance, phones running on the Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset would be good enough for the most of 2020 unless there's a Snapdragon 865 Plus coming in the latter half of 2020.

[Nitin Kumar]

Spotify

Spotify is offering a limited period offer on its annual Premium plan. You can avail a discount of 50 percent on the original price but there are some conditions.
Spotify has long avoided India but a couple of months ago, the service launched on our shores and the prices were on par with Apple Music and YouTube Music. That made Spotify among the most premium music streaming services in India. In addition, as usual, the competition responded with lower prices for annual plans and Spotify does not want to be left behind. The US-based streaming service is now running a special offer that could benefit potential annual subscribers.

According to a few media reports, Spotify is currently offering a massive discount on its annual plan for all subscribers. How much is the discount? Well, if you are interested in getting the annual plan now, you can save 50 percent on the original price. Hence, instead of paying Rs 1,189, you will need to pay only Rs 699 for one year. That makes it one of the most cost-effective premium music subscription plans in India.

However, there are some caveats to this offer. First, the 50 percent discount is only valid on the premium plans for a single user. You cannot get the same benefits for the annual family plan. Spotify has also not extended the offer on its monthly or weekly plans.

In addition, the offer is only valid on Spotify Premium until December 31, after which the original price will reflect. Moreover, if you buy the plan with this offer, the subscription will automatically renew next year at the full price. However, you have the option to cancel it before the next billing date.
Spotify recently introduced a Premium family plan that costs Rs 179 per month. With this plan, up to six people can share the same subscription and only one can end up paying for all.

While this is a good offer for those who swear by Spotify’s playlist and collections, other services are coming in at much cheaper prices. Amazon Prime Music subscription comes free with the annual Amazon Prime subscription worth Rs 999, which also bundles Amazon Prime Video subscription as well. JioSaavn charges Rs 299 for its annual subscription. YouTube Music costs Rs 99 per month and there’s no annual plan for this service.

[Nitin Kumar]

New Jio All-In-One Plans With High Prices Announced

Jio has updated its plans with high pricing, making a 40 percent hike in prices. Jio promises 300 percent more benefits than before with its plans.
After Airtel and Vodafone Idea announced their new plans with hiked prices, Reliance Jio finally comes up with its updated plans selling for higher prices. The new prices are in accordance with the hiked pricing that Jio announced a couple of days ago after the new decision delivered by the Supreme Court regarding the revised AGR. Jio said that its prices will be 40 percent higher than before and now, it says that hiked prices also bring 300 percent more benefits.

Do note that Jio has only announced the new prices for its All-In-One plans and the data benefits have been vastly revised. The new All-in-One plans no more offer 2GB data as standard. Instead, the data benefits are now variable. Moreover, you get All-In-One plans for an entire year as well. The new plans start from Rs 199 for a month and go up to Rs 2,199 for the annual plan. These plans include free offnet voice minutes as well.

New Jio All-In-One plans: What's new?
1-month plans:

Under this, there are four plans.

--The Rs 129 plan offers a total of 2GB data for the month and 1,000 free off-net minutes.

--The Rs 199 plan will offer 1.5GB data per day and 1,000 minutes for off-net calls.

--The 249 plan offers 2GB data per day and it too offers 1,000 minutes for off-net calls.

--The Rs 349 plan will give 3GB data per day along with 1,000 minutes of off-net calls.

2-month plans:

There are two plans under this category:

--The Rs 399 plan will offer 1.5GB data per day along with 2,000 minutes of free offnet calls.


--The 444 plan offers 2GB data per day along with 2,000 minutes of free offnet calls.

3-month plans:

There are three plans under this category:

--The Rs 329 plan offers 6GB data for three months and 3,000 minutes of free offnet calls.

--The Rs 555 plan offers 1.5GB data per day with 3,000 minutes of free offnet calls.

--The Rs 599 plan comes with 2GB data per day and 3,000 minutes of free offnet calls.

1-year plans:

You get two annual plans under this category:

--The Rs 1,299 plan offers a total of 24GB data for 365 days and 12,000 minutes of free offnet calls.

--The Rs 2,199 plan comes with 1.5GB per day for a year and offers 12,000 minutes of free offnet calls.

All the plans will be active from December 6 and they will be bundled with JioPrime benefits that offer free access to JioTV, JioCinema, JioSaavn, JioCloud and more.

Jio users will still be able to make free calls to other Jio numbers.

[Lalitsharma]

MediaTek’s MT6885

The MT6885Z will be MediaTek’s most powerful chipset to date and will be 5G capable thanks to the Helio M70 modem. It is positioned to be one of the more affordable 5G chipsets when it comes early next year, which will be a boon for affordable flagships. A non-5G variant of the chip is also expected for markets such as India. Theoretical download speeds of 4.7Gbps (sub-6) can be achieved, and both non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) 5G architectures will be supported. It will be built on a 7nm FinFET manufacturing process, bringing better efficiency to the mix. The MediaTek 5G SoC will also sport the new ARM Cortex-A77 cores, which will do all the heavy lifting for the more demanding tasks. That will be supported by the new Mali-G77 GPU for high-quality streaming and gaming. A new AI architecture, called the APU 3.0, will also be present.

The other major leap comes with imaging, as the MT6885 can support 4K video encoding and decoding (recording and playback) at 60fps, and can support image sensors with resolutions as high as 80MP. The chipset is already in mass production and will ship to OEMs in the first quarter of 2020. Xiaomi is said to be one of the first adopters of the MediaTek 5G SoC, just like it was for the Helio G90T chipset globally. The Redmi K30 series is rumored to be the first device to feature the MT6885 processor package and is expected to be unveiled in early 2020 as an affordable 5G flagship.

[harpreetkaur]

4 Best Photo Editing Apps For iPhone

VSCO

Snapseed

Afterlight 2

Adobe Photoshop express

[Nitin Kumar]

Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro

Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro intermittently seeks users’ location data when all apps are set to never request this information but the Location Services feature is turned on.
people markets its devices in a way that sends a strong privacy-centric message to its customers. But now a new report suggests that Apple devices - at least the iPhone 11 Pro - might not be all that private and secure after all.

According to a report by security researcher Brian Krebs, Apple's newly launched iPhone 11 Pro intermittently seeks users' location data even when individual apps are set to 'Never' ask for this information. While this might suit the company's privacy policy, Krebs finds it particularly odd.

Apple's privacy policy for iPhone's Location Services screen says -- "If Location Services is on, your iPhone will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers (where supported by a device) in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations."

Simply put, even if all your apps are set never to location data, but the Location Services feature on your iPhone is turned on, some apps will seek your location data from time to time and share them with the nearby cell towers. The only way for you to prevent this from happening completely is by disabling the Location Services completely. In case you aren't sure how to disable Location Services on your iPhone, just follow these steps:

-- Open the Settings apps and scroll down to the Privacy Settings.
-- In the Privacy Settings tab on the Location Services option.
-- Now toggle the Location Services button to off.

When you do this, the icon that indicates that the Location Services feature is turned on -- a small diagonal upward arrow near the battery icon - disappears.

When the security researcher contacted the Cupertino, California based company for reporting what seemed like a bug, Apple responded that the iPhone was performing. "We do not see any actual security implications...It is expected behavior that the Location Services icon appears in the status bar when Location Services is enabled. The icon appears for system services that do not have a switch in Settings," an Apple engineer said in a response to the report.

Bottom line is that if you don't want anyone to know your whereabouts ever, you will have to disable the Location Services feature completely.

[Nitin Kumar]

Snapdragon XR2 processor for AR, VR

US-based chip giant Qualcomm has launched Snapdragon XR2 chipset aimed to bring improved augmented, virtual and mixed ... The company claims that the XR2 platform is the 'world's first' 5G-supported extended reality (XR) ... (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR),” adds the company's blog post.

Qualcomm claims that XR2 platform delivers two times more CPU and GPU performance, and four times video bandwidth, six times higher resolution and 11 times AI improvement as compared to the current XR platform. The device supports up to seven concurrent cameras and a dedicated computer vision processor. “Additionally, this is the first XR platform to enable low latency camera pass-through to unlock true MR, which allow users to see, interact and create a hybrid of the virtual and real-world while wearing a VR device,” said the company in a statement. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon XR2 processor supports 1.5x the pixel rate and 3x the texel rate for efficient, high graphics rendering. Its display panel has up to 3K by 3K resolution per eye at 90 frames per second (fps). It is also said to be the first to support 8K 360-degree videos at 60 fps for photorealistic visuals in streaming and local playback. It can also track head, lips, and eyes together with 26-point skeletal hand tracking. In terms of audio, Qualcomm’s XR2 chipset offers audio layers in 3D spatial sound with clear voice interactions for better augmented, virtual and mixed reality immersion. “The platform has a custom-built always-on, low power Qualcomm Hexagon DSP to support hardware-accelerated features like voice activation and context detection,” adds Qualcomm.

[Nitin Kumar]

Oneplus Celebrates 6 Years Of Global Success

Conceived in 2013, OnePlus has changed the smartphone market irrevocably. It has shown that a new company can take on the mighty Samsung and Apple, can win the market, and can do so with premium phones that defy their price and value combination. Now it is celebrating its six years of global business.
Back in 2013, OnePlus was an unheard name. But it had an ambition: making a phone that could bring the best of technology to users at a relatively affordable price. Since then, starting with the OnePlus One, OnePlus has come up with some exciting phones and over a span of six years, it has evolved into a household name. From premium smartphones to a music fest, OnePlus has done a lot and it doesn't seem to slow down any time soon. Now it is celebrating the six years it was spent doing business and is offering some fresh discounts on its existing phone.

The celebrations, yet again in OnePlus fashion, are meant to engage the company's fans and customers. To mark its six years, the company is offering deals in the form of price cuts, exchange offers and interest-free EMIs on its phones. Specifically, the 2019 OnePlus 7 series is getting some interesting offers that may make owning a OnePlus device easier on your pockets.

OnePlus is floating a limited period offer on its smartphones from December 6 to December 17, 2019, on both Amazon.in and OnePlus Experience Stores. During this period, you can avail some big discounts on the OnePlus 7 Pro, OnePlus 7T and OnePlus 7T Pro. You can easily avail up to Rs 6,000 off on these phones, which is an incredible deal before the festive period sets in.

Whether it's the OnePlus 7 Pro - the summer flagship for OnePlus -- or the currently hot OnePlus 7T, you can avail a minimum discount of Rs 2,000 and a maximum discount of Rs 6,000. The OnePlus 7 Pro is still one of the best phones OnePlus sells, pampering users with a 90Hz Quad HD+ Curved AMOLED display, a versatile pair of cameras and the classic OnePlus-fast performance. The OnePlus 7T is a more affordable version of that, offering 90 percent of all its bells and whistles.
That's not all. For customers of the HDFC Bank cards, the OnePlus 7 Pro is cheaper by an additional Rs 2,000 whereas the OnePlus 7T is cheaper by Rs 1,500. The OnePlus 7T Pro also offers a cashback of Rs 3,000 for the HDFC card members. You can also avail no-cost EMI options up to six months on both Amazon and OnePlus portals as well.

Additionally, if you already have a OnePlus device, you can avail a cashback of Rs 2,000 on the OnePlus 7 series phones on Amazon and OnePlus Stores.

These offers make the new OnePlus phones incredible deals for a premium Android smartphone. Whichever OnePlus device you choose, you are assured of an amazing performance, great cameras, stunning designs, and overall superb experience.

OnePlus has been posting impressive growth figures year-on-year, with Counterpoint Research showing 95 percent growth in Q3 2019. It's also the fastest-growing smartphone brand in India as well. It's only getting more serious about the Indian market, as is evident from its recently opened R&D center in Hyderabad, and an aim to operate more than 5000 offline stores and service centers by the end of 2020.

[Lalitsharma]

Symbian

Symbian originated from EPOC32, an operating system created by Psion in the 1990s. In June 1998, Psion Software became Symbian Ltd., a major joint venture between Psion and phone manufacturers Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia. Afterward, different software platforms were created for Symbian, backed by different groups of mobile phone manufacturers. They include S60 (Nokia, Samsung and LG), UIQ (Sony Ericsson and Motorola) and MOAP(S) (Japanese only such as Fujitsu, Sharp, etc.). With no major competition in the smartphone OS then (Palm OS and Windows Mobile were comparatively small players), Symbian reached as high as 67% of the global smartphone market share in 2006.

In June 2008, Nokia announced the acquisition of Symbian Ltd., and a new independent non-profit organization called the Symbian Foundation was established. Symbian OS and its associated user interface S60, UIQ and MOAP(S) were contributed by their owners Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Sony Ericsson, and Symbian Ltd., to the foundation with the objective of creating the Symbian platform as a royalty-free, open-source software, under the OSI- and FSF-approved Eclipse Public License (EPL). The platform was designated as the successor to Symbian OS, following the official launch of the Symbian Foundation in April 2009. The Symbian platform was officially made available as an open-source code in February 2010.[27]

Nokia became the major contributor to Symbian's code, since it then possessed the development resources for both the Symbian OS core and the user interface. Since then Nokia maintained its own code repository for the platform development, regularly releasing its development to the public repository.[28] Symbian was intended to be developed by a community-led by the Symbian Foundation, which was first announced in June 2008 and officially launched in April 2009. Its objective was to publish the source code for the entire Symbian platform under the OSI- and FSF-approved Eclipse Public License (EPL). The code was published under EPL on 4 February 2010; Symbian Foundation reported this event to be the largest codebase moved to Open Source in history.

[Nitin Kumar]

Mac Pro

Apple's all-new Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will be available for pre-orders starting December 10 in the US, according to an email that the iPhone maker has sent out to customers. The email was spotted by popular YouTuber Marques Brownlee on Twitter, The Verge reported. The company first announced the new Mac Pro as well as the Pro Display XDR in June at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

According to the media reports, the company had originally announced that the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR would be available sometime "this fall". The email revealed on Saturday is the first confirmation of an actual date.

Notably, Apple's announcement email just said that the Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will be "available to order" on December 10 - given the fact that many users will likely be ordering custom configurations, shipping may take longer, the Vergereported.

The new Mac Pro starts at $5,999 (roughly Rs. 4,27,000) while the Pro Display XDR starts at $4,999 (roughly Rs. 3,56,000).

The entry-level Mac Pro is set to cost $5,999, with 32GB of memory, an octa-core Intel Xeon CPU, Radeon Pro 580X graphics, and a 256GB SSD.

In terms of specifications, the all-new Mac Pro boasts up to 28-core Intel Xeon processors, up to 1.5TB of ECC RAM, up to 4TB of SSD storage along with up to AMD Radeon Pro Vega II Duo graphics with 64GB of HBM2 memory.

[Lalitsharma]

Graphene-Based Flexible And Wearable Electronics

Graphene with an exceptional combination of electronic, optical and outstanding mechanical features has been proved to lead a completely different kind of 2-D electronics. The most exciting feature of graphene is its ultra-thin thickness, which can be conformally contacted to any kind of rough surface without losing much of its transparency and conductivity. Graphene has been explored demonstrating various prototype flexible electronic applications, however, its potentiality has been proven wherever transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) are needed in a flexible, stretchable format. Graphene-based TCEs in flexible electronic applications showed greatly superior performance over their conventionally available competitor indium tin oxide (ITO). Moreover, enormous applications have been emerging, especially in wearable devices that can be potentially used in our daily life as well as in biomedical areas. However, the production of high-quality, defect-free large-area graphene is still a challenge and the main hurdle in the commercialization of flexible and wearable products. The objective of the present review paper is to summarize the progress made so far in graphene-based flexible and wearable applications. The current developments including challenges and future perspectives are also highlighted.



In the last decade, remarkable progress has been made in the field of graphene-based flexible and wearable electronics demonstrating a variety of applications such as high-speed FETs, touch panels/displays, LEDs, photo-detectors, photovoltaic cells, biomedical sensors, and energy-harvesting devices. The outstanding mechanical and unique electronic/optical properties of graphene make it the most explored material in this field. With continuous research and development, many new strategies are emerging towards the practical implementation of graphene-based flexible devices. It is believed that the smart applications of graphene systems with more functionality are expected to emerge in the near future, particularly inflexible and implantable bioelectronic devices to treat/monitor various diseases using electrical stimuli and also other bio-medical applications. Graphene as a basic building block of an implantable biomedical device fulfills most of the strict requirements such as low dimensionality, flexibility, stability in physiological conditions, and particularly being able to provide reliable electrical performance for years. Here, we reviewed the recent progress in graphene-based flexible and wearable devices and discussed where graphene-based research is progressing. This review is intended to give an overview of different interest areas and discuss a few applications in this new and exciting field. However, it should be also noted that there are a number of other potential electronics applications of graphene. For those looking for a more in-depth explanation about the electronic performance of a specific class of graphene electronics or a particular electronic application, the reader can follow the work of other frontiers and renowned research groups. The considerable progress has already been made and the extensive research outcomes signify the strong potential of graphene in flexible/wearable devices along-with pointing out several challenging issues. The major issues that need to be addressed for commercialization of graphene-based wearable/implantable electronic devices include a systematic production approach for high-quality large-area graphene with uniform and reliable electrical and mechanical properties and the development of a superficial transfer technique providing graphene without defect generation. Innovative breakthroughs with ongoing fundamental research of graphene synthesis and transfer have provided a path towards its mass and low-cost production for industrial applications. Many start-up companies, as well as existing industrial enterprises, have thus started to produce graphene on a scale of thousands of square meters per year. Though the graphene industry is still in its early stages, very significant progress in large-scale production and certain industrial applications has already been realized.