Daily Tech Talk

[Nitin Kumar]

Google Pixel 4 is banned in India

Google just pulled back the curtain on its 2019 flagship - The Google Pixel 4 and Google Pixel 4XL, only to drape it back and toss it out of India. Obviously it has all the latest innards you’d expect from a 2019 flagship and from Google nonetheless but the most not-worthy addition to Google’s latest banger is the Motion Sense feature that uses a 60Hz radar sensor embedded next to the front-facing camera. The feature is the birth child of Project Soli and through Google’s demonstrations, we can tell that it’s a pretty snazzy piece of tech that lets you gesture to control your smartphone. The party trick, however, is that since it’s operating at a 60Hz spectrum it's touted to be very accurate and so accurate that Google has booted the fingerprint scanner for radar-based facial recognition method. Sadly, the Indian Government doesn’t allow unlicensed use of 60Hz frequency for civilians and that’s why Google Pixel 4 will not launch in India till it gets the green signal from the government or unless the government delicenses the said frequency. Google managed to convince the American authorities earlier this year for using 60Hz on their shiny new flagship and the majority of the first world countries have de-licensed the 60Hz spectrum well in advance. Now with Google Pixel out of the race and Huawei scampering for Google services on the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, our only solace is in Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxies for snooty folks. Like the Pixel 3a, we could expect a stripped-down version of the Google Pixel 4 somewhere in Q1 next year, but only time will tell.

In a statement, a Google spokesperson said, “Google has a wide range of products that we make available in different regions around the world. We determine availability based on a variety of factors, including local trends, and product features. We decided not to make Pixel 4 available in India. We remain committed to our current Pixel phones and look forward to bringing future Pixel devices to India.”

Pixel 4 is not in India but Google could launch Pixel 4a


After launching budget Pixel 3a earlier this year, Google is expected to launch its next-generation budget smartphone in May next year.

Google launched its next-generation Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL smartphones amid a lot of fanfare last month. The phone came with several major upgrades over its predecessor, that is the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones. These updates include a brand new design, a dual rear camera setup and a tiny radar that fuels the phone's Motion Sense technology. The phone got raving reviews internationally but sadly it wasn't launched in India owing to issues with the frequency at which the Soli radar chip operates in India.

Now that Pixel 4 is out of the picture, all our hopes reside on the Pixel 4a and Pixel 4a XL smartphones, which in case you aren't sure are the next generation budget smartphones that Google is likely to launch next year.

To give you some reference, Google launched Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL smartphones earlier this year at its annual developer's conference -- the Google I/O 2019. The phone was a trickled down version of last year's Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL smartphones. Although it came with slightly slower Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 chipset, the phone with its camera features and bright OLED screen was virtually the same.

Google is likely to continue with this trend of launching budget smartphones year-over-year and targeting people who are unable or unwilling to splurge over 60 grand. And what makes us believe that Google will launch a Pixel 3a successor? Well, it's the increase in hardware sales. "With the launch of Pixel 3a in May, overall Pixel unit sales in Q2 grew more than 2x year over year," Google CEO Sundar Pichai had told the investors in an earnings call after announcing the revenue for the second quarter of 2019. This makes us believe that Pixel 3a successor - Google Pixel 4a - is coming.

Talking about the features, unlike Pixel 4, Pixel 4a is likely to be available in India and other countries where Pixel 4 wasn't launched owing to the Soli radar chip. What makes us believe that Google will ditch one of the most prominent features of Pixel 4 smartphones in the Pixel 4a smartphones is a simple fact: affordability. Pixel 3a series was all about giving users a 'Pixel experience' at a significantly reduced price compared with the premium budget Pixel 3 smartphone. And so it is possible that Pixel 4a will not come with Pixel 4's Motion Sense technology and by extension not allow users to wave their hands to perform various tasks.

[Lalitsharma]

Microsoft Four-Day Work Week

Microsoft Japan said sales had been boosted by nearly 40% during an experiment in which staff worked a four-day week on full pay. Offices were closed on every Friday of August 2019 and the full-time staff was given "special leave", which was paid. Meetings were restricted to a maximum of 30 minutes and online discussions were encouraged as an alternative to face-to-face. Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world. A 2017 survey suggested nearly a quarter of Japanese companies had employees working more than 80 hours of overtime a month, often unpaid. Microsoft's Work-Life Choice Challenge 2019 Summer experiment was popular with 92% of the staff surveyed after the event. During the month-long trial, electricity consumption had been reduced by 23% and paper printing by 59% compared with August 2018, Microsoft said. The technology giant said it was planning to implement a second Work-Life Choice Challenge this winter but would not be offering the same "special leave"

[Lalitsharma]

OneCoin

OneCoin claims to be a blockchain-based digital currency system and is promoted by OneCoin Limited, a company that operates across the globe with offices in Europe, Hong Kong, and the UAE. OneCoin was launched by a Bulgarian national named Ruja Ignatova. OneCoin claims to work like any other standard cryptocurrency whose crypto coins can be generated through the mining process and can be used to make payments across the globe. It comes with its own e-wallet, and a total of 120 billion coins are available on the OneCoin network. However, OneCoin is also alleged to be a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme or a Ponzi scheme. A user is required to pay for these programs. Additionally, participants are encouraged with referral rewards to bring in more participants, a mechanism that fits an MLM scheme. There are several reports alleging OneCoin to be a Ponzi scheme and the local authorities taking action against it in several countries, which include those in OneCoin's home country Bulgaria, and in UK and India.

[Lalitsharma]

IIT Roorkee Teams Up With ISRO, DRDO For Space, Defence Tech

IIT Roorkee is working with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to design and develop cutting edge technology for space and defense projects, officials said. Researchers at the premier institute are working on "thin membrane-based technology" to develop parachutes for fighter aircraft and could be crucial in boosting indigenous production in the country, the officials said. The information was shared during a seminar on "Inflatable Structures and Materials for Space Applications" held on Thursday at the IIT Roorkee's Greater Noida campus. "If you look at foreign countries, they have excelled in defense technology and with permission of their government they are exporting their products, leading to the growth of their own economy," Director of DRDO's Armament Research & Development Establishment (ARDE) Arun Kumar Saxena. All fighter aircraft in the country have DRDO-made parachutes in them which help them reduce their landing run when brakes are applied and reduces pressure on tires during landing.

Retired Group Director of ISRO Ahmedabad A-C Mathur said inflatable technology can be a solution for complications faced when sending large structure projects in space, where the conditions are very different. "A lot of private companies are working on this technology but if we succeed in it, we can supply the products to foreign countries also but for all this, we need advanced industries and technology," he added. A lot of work is underway at IIT Roorkee, its Deputy Director M Parida said. "Several researchers are working on thin membrane-based technology and it's a continuing process. We have developed some technology and working on it further," Parida said but did not divulge any details.

[Lalitsharma]

Snapdragon 865

It sports a 6.01-inch AMOLED screen and offers 12GB of RAM and 1TB of internal memory. The phone has a 64MP camera that is capable of taking 100MP images, thanks to advanced interpolation. 8848 reportedly believes that AI is no match for real people when it comes to providing services, and thus the phone will feature an assistant service that will not be machine-based. Instead, consumers will be interacting with real people, which honestly sounds like an exhausting process. According to the Geekbench listing, the Qualcomm SoC secured a multi-core score of 12,915. This score easily beats every other phone so far including the Apple iPhone XS Max. It is even more surprising to note that the test bench managed the score with 6GB of RAM clocked at a base frequency of 1.8 GHz. The final and optimized version of the Snapdragon 865 chipset could run at a higher frequency, resulting in even better performance. If Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 does meet expectations, it could outperform Apple Inc.’s A13 SoC, which is considered one of the most powerful and efficient smartphone chipsets, as of now.

[Nitin Kumar]

Vodafone Cuts India Business Value

Not everything is alright with Vodafone's India business. Its CEO says that if the company doesn't get regulatory relief from the government, the situation will be critical.
round a week ago, some rumors started doing rounds in the Indian telecom industry. The rumors were that Vodafone was looking to exit the Indian market. This caused some worry to Vodafone users, worries that were allayed when Vodafone UK, the parent company, called the rumors baseless and malicious. While, it seems there is no imminent plan by Vodafone to leave India, not everything is right with its business. The company believes that an adverse regulatory environment is making it difficult for Vodafone to do business in India. Situation is so bad that Vodafone CEO Nick Read now believes that the "carrying value" of its business in India is zero.

A fresh report from Bloomberg states that the India venture of Vodafone is in a perilous state. The report hints that the company may shut down its India operations unless the Indian government gives some relaxation to the company on demands for mobile spectrum fees.

"If you don't get the remedies being suggested, the situation is critical," Vodafone CEO Nick Read was quoted by the report. He was apparently speaking at a press meet in London on Tuesday. "If you're not a going concern, you're moving into a liquidation scenario -- can't get any clearer than that."

So what is going on and what it means to Vodafone users? Here is what you need to know.

-- On October 30, reports started pouring in that the company is ready to "pack up and leave any day now." The reason cited by the reports was mainly the mounting losses of the company and dwindling market capitalization which adversely affected the balance sheet of Vodafone Idea.

-- While the business environment is challenging, with Jio seem to be enjoying an upper hand due to various factors, and Airtel competing hard, what seems to have hit Vodafone the hardest is the money it has been asked to pay after Supreme Court upheld the central government order on Adjusted Gross Revenue of Airtel and Vodafone. The telecom companies have been asked to pay around Rs 92,641 crore to the government. Of this, around Rs 80,000 crore has to be paid by Vodafone and Airtel. Jio also has to pay, but significantly less than what Airtel and Vodafone have been asked to pay.

-- This payment is the real worry for Vodafone because it effectively wipes out whatever value the company has put on its joint Vodafone-Idea joint venture. To tackle this, Vodafone is now demanding a two-year extension on spectrum payments and lower license fees and taxes from the Indian government. It also wants its spectrum payments demanded by the court to be spread over 10 years with a request to wave off the interest and penalties.

[Nitin Kumar]

Realme 5 Receives Dark Mode, Wide-Angle Video Recording With New Update

Realme is rolling out a new update to the Realme 5 that brings Dark Mode, wide-angle video recording and the October 2019 security patch.

Realme is rolling out a brand new software update to the Realme 5 quad-camera smartphone this week. The latest update brings system-wide Dark Mode, which is a feature that Realme plans to bring to all its Realme phones by the end of the month. Realme has already introduced Dark Mode on the Realme 1, Realme U1, Realme 5 Pro, Realme X, Realme XT and Realme 3 Pro over the past few weeks.

Realme 5 users will get the update version RMX1911EX_11_A.18 this week. The OTA is being rolled in a staged fashion which means only a limited number of users will be receiving the update initially while a broader rollout will take place over the coming days. The update also brings the October 2019 security patch.

According to the changelog, the latest Realme 5 update also adds a wide-angle video recording option. Realme has made some more improvements to the quad cameras that include improving the brightness of the rear camera, optimizing low-light photo quality of the main camera and optimizing the noise issue on the subject's face.

As you may know, system-wide Dark Mode changes the background of the UI to shades of black and grey to reduce strain on the eyes. Additionally, the update also brings Realme Laboratory and adds an option for notification dots for updates. The update removes the reminder after the hotspot has been disabled and the option to swipe down on the home screen to bring up global search or notification center.

The latest Realme 5 update also fixes an issue that prevented the battery from charging fully. Realme 5 was launched in India as the most affordable quad-camera phone in the market. The company now plans to launch the Realme 5s, which seems to be a successor to the Realme 5 with a 48MP quad-camera set up as the biggest upgrade.

[Nitin Kumar]

Huawei P30 And P30 Pro Get Stable Android 10 Update Globally

Huawei P30 and P30 Pro users in Europe have started receiving EMUI 10 that brings Android 10 features like Dark Mode and enhanced privacy controls.

Huawei rolled out EMUI 10 to P30 and P30 Pro users in China a few days ago. It was speculated that the stable update would roll out globally in the coming days and it has started. Huawei P30 and P30 Pro users in Europe have started receiving the EMUI 10 update, which upgrades the flagship phones to Android 10. The update is expected to roll out to more markets in the coming days, but there is no word yet on when it will be released for users in India.

The latest update version EMUI 10.0.0.168 is currently rolling out in stages in Europe and is said to be 4.47GB in size. If you are a Huawei P30 user, you can manually check for the update by going to The EMUI 10 update brings Android 10 features like system-wide Dark Mode and enhanced privacy controls, among other things.

There are a host of Huawei-specific features as well. EMUI 10 brings a new UI design with magazine-style layout, revamped icons, one-touch screen sharing, a desktop mode and improvements to performance.

Huawei is expected to roll out EMUI 10 to the Mate 20, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 20 X, and Mate 20 RS Porsche Design by the end of this month. The rollout will likely start in China before making it to other markets.

Huawei P30 and P30 Pro users can expect the new EMUI 10 update based on Android 10 soon enough. It would come as a sigh of relief for users who have been concerned about Huawei pushing out Android updates following the US ban. Huawei has clarified that older Huawei models especially the flagship phone will receive Android updates and security patches. However, newer models like the Mate 30 series will be available without access to Google apps and Play Store support.

[Nitin Kumar]

Apple Bans Vaping Apps From App Store

Apple on Friday said it is banning vaping-related apps from its App Store due to concerns that e-cigarette use can damage lungs or even kill people.

Apple vets what is allowed on the shelves of its virtual shop that serves as the sole outlet for apps available to its popular mobile devices, including some 900 million iPhones in use around the world.

"Recently, experts ranging from the CDC to the American Heart Association have attributed a variety of lung injuries and fatalities to e-cigarette and vaping products, going so far as to call the spread of these devices a public health crisis an a youth epidemic," Apple said in response to an AFP query prompted by an Axios report.

"We agree, and we've updated our App Store Review Guidelines to reflect that apps encouraging or facilitating the use of these products are not permitted."
Apple has pulled 181 vaping-related apps from the App Store worldwide. Tobacco along with vaping cartridges were never allowed at the virtual shop, so the apps involved social networks, news, games, hardware or stores, according to the California-based company.

"We are grateful that Apple is joining with us and others on this historic day to stand against big Vape and their lies by removing all vaping apps in the App Store,” American Heart Association chief executive Nancy Brown said in a released statement.

"Our hope is that others will follow our lead and follow with their own powerful message that nicotine and nicotine addiction caused by e-cigarette use are leaving thousands sick and dying across the globe."

People who already have the now-banned apps on their Apple gadgets will be able to continue using them.

[Lalitsharma]

Chandrayaan-3

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which failed to land a probe on Moon in its first attempt in September 2019 (Chandrayaan-2), has begun work on Chandrayaan-3 with a deadline of November 2020, sources said. Isro has formed multiple committees — an overall panel and three sub-committees — and held at least four high-level meetings since October. The new mission will include only a lander and rover, as the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is functioning well. On Tuesday, the overview committee met with the agenda of reviewing the configuration of Chandrayaan-3. It also looked into the recommendations of various sub-committees on propulsion, sensors, overall engineering, navigation and guidance. Work is in full flow, said a scientist. So far Isro has looked at 10 specific aspects of the mission, including landing site selection, absolute navigation and local navigation. Sources quoted an office order issued on October 5 as having instructed: “It is essential to carry out detailed analysis on the changes for improving the lander system considering the recommendations of both the expert committee (formed to look into Chandrayaan-2) and the recommendations which could not be implemented due to advanced stage of Chandrayaan-2 flight preparation.”

[Nitin Kumar]

WhatsApp

As the name suggests the Registration Notifications feature alerts WhatsApp users if someone else tries to log in to their account. WhatsApp has started rolling out this privacy feature to iPhone users.

Earlier this week we reported that the WhatsApp is working on a multiple-device support feature. Looks like the Facebook-owned messaging platform has already taken the first step for it. WhatsApp starts rolling out a new feature called Registration Notifications to the iPhone users. What is the Registration Notifications feature?

As the name suggests the Registration Notifications feature alerts WhatsApp users if someone else tries to log in to their account. WhatsApp has started rolling out this privacy feature to iPhone users. We at India Today Tech tried this feature and it worked for us. We switched from Google Pixel to iPhone and received the Registration Notifications message that notes "WhatsApp registration code was requested for your phone number". This means whether you switch from Android phone to iPhone or iPhone to iPhone this feature will work. But for now, it will not work with Android.

"To protect your account, WhatsApp will send you a push notification when someone tries to register a WhatsApp account with your phone number. To keep your account safe, don't share your verification code with others," WhatsApp notes in an official blog post.

[Lalitsharma]

ARM Architecture

ARM, previously Advanced RISC Machine, originally Acorn RISC Machine, is a family of reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architectures for computer processors, configured for various environments. Arm Holdings develops the architecture and licenses it to other companies, who design their own products that implement one of those architectures?—?including systems-on-chips (SoC) and systems-on-modules (SoM) that incorporate memory, interfaces, radios, etc. It also designs cores that implement this instruction set and licenses these designs to a number of companies that incorporate those core designs into their own products.

Processors that have a RISC architecture typically require fewer transistors than those with a complex instruction set computing (CISC) architecture (such as the x86 processors found in most personal computers), which improves cost, power consumption, and heat dissipation. These characteristics are desirable for light, portable, battery-powered devices?—?including smartphones, laptops and tablet computers, and other embedded systems. For supercomputers, which consume large amounts of electricity, an ARM could also be a power-efficient solution.

Arm Holdings periodically releases updates to the architecture. Architecture versions ARMv3 to ARMv7 support 32-bit address space (pre-ARMv3 chips, made before Arm Holdings was formed, as used in the Acorn Archimedes, had 26-bit address space) and 32-bit arithmetic; most architectures have 32-bit fixed-length instructions. The Thumb version supports a variable-length instruction set that provides both 32- and 16-bit instructions for improved code density. Some older cores can also provide hardware execution of Java bytecodes, and newer ones have one instruction for JavaScript. Released in 2011, the ARMv8-A architecture added support for 64-bit address space and 64-bit arithmetic with its new 32-bit fixed-length instruction set.

[Vikesh]

Android

Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, with the main contributor and commercial marketer being Google.

Initially developed by Android Inc., which Google bought in 2005, Android was unveiled in 2007, with the first commercial Android device launched in September 2008. The current stable version is Android 10, released on September 3, 2019. The core Android source code is known as Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is primarily licensed under the Apache License. This has allowed variants of Android to be developed on a range of other electronics, such as game consoles, digital cameras, PCs and others, each with a specialized user interface. Some well known derivatives include Android TV for televisions and Wear OS for wearables, both developed by Google.

Android's source code has been used as the basis of different ecosystems, most notably that of Google which is associated with a suite of proprietary software called Google Mobile Services (GMS), that frequently comes pre-installed on said devices. This includes core apps such as Gmail, the digital distribution platform Google Play and associated Google Play Services development platform, and usually apps such as the Google Chrome web browser. These apps are licensed by manufacturers of Android devices certified under standards imposed by Google. Other competing Android ecosystems include Amazon.com's Fire OS, or LineageOS. Software distribution is generally offered through proprietary application stores like Google Play Store or Samsung Galaxy Store, or open source platforms like Aptoide or F-Droid, which utilize software packages in the APK format.

Android has been the best-selling OS worldwide on smartphones since 2011 and on tablets since 2013. As of May 2017, it has over two billion monthly active users, the largest installed base of any operating system, and as of December 2018, the Google Play Store features over 2.6 million apps.

[Nitin Kumar]

Airtel Postpaid And Prepaid Plan Prices To Go Up From December

Hours after Vodafone Idea said it would increase prices, Airtel made a similar statement. The company said that the prices of its phone services will go up in December.
Airtel on Monday evening announced that it would increase the prices of its services from December. Airtel’s announcement comes hours after Vodafone said something similar, although Vodafone Idea gave a specific date of December 1 after which the prices of its services will go up.

In other words, consumers who use Airtel or Vodafone Idea services, whether they are on postpaid plans or are using prepaid plans, should be willing to pay slightly more for the services from these two companies. The Vodafone Idea and Airtel price hike comes weeks after Jio had also increased the effective tariff for its users, asking them to pay extra for cellular calls.
"Airtel will increase price offerings in the month beginning December," an Airtel spokesperson said. "While continuing to provide affordable tariffs to customers, it would balance the needs of the company to remain viable and thereby continue to invest in the much needed digital infrastructure and maintain the quality standards required by our customers."

The company highlighted that "the telecom sector is highly capital intensive with fast-changing technology cycles that require continuing investments."

The price hike announcement from Airtel and Vodafone comes a few days after the two companies declared massive loss for the last quarter. The loss for both is almost entirely due to the AGR payment that the two companies have been told to make to the government. The order to pay collectively the two companies have to pay nearly Rs 80,000 crore came from the Supreme Court a few weeks ago.
Order asking Vodafone and Airtel to pay AGR dues has put the viability of the continuing operations of the two companies in danger. Vodafone CEO after the order even said that the entire value of Vodafone’s stake in Vodafone Idea business has been now reduced to zero. He said that the business in India was no longer viable, media reports noted. Though, later the company clarified that statement of its CEO was misrepresented and that the company was not looking to leave India.

Both Airtel and Vodafone have appealed to the government to change the terms and conditions regarding payment of AGR dues but so far the government hasn’t made any public announcement.
Currently, from the statements of Vodafone and Airtel, it is not clear how much prices will go up for the prepaid and postpaid plans from the two companies. It is also not clear if Airtel will also increase the prices of its broadband services or if the price rise is limited to Airtel postpaid and prepaid plans.

[Lalitsharma]

Core i9 - Intel

Core i9-9900K is a 64-bit octa-core high-end performance x86 desktop microprocessor introduced by Intel in late 2018. This processor, which is based on the Coffee Lake microarchitecture, is manufactured on Intel's 3rd generation enhanced 14nm++ process. The i9-9900K operates at a 3.6 GHz with a TDP of 95 W and a Turbo Boost frequency of up to 5 GHz. This chip supports up to 128 GiB of dual-channel DDR4-2666 memory and incorporates Intel's UHD Graphics 630 IGP operating at 350 MHz with a burst frequency of 1.2 GHz.