Every year, the world gathers for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is kind of like the Auto Expo for electronics and technology. Although we typically get a sneak peek at upcoming technology, several automakers frequently use CES to reveal their newest technology, concepts, and even new models. The top auto news stories from CES 2023 are listed here. This year’s CES is no exception when it comes to some crazy mind boggling concepts and other automotive news.
Sony Afeela
The Japanese technology behemoth Sony will produce EVs, although this is not really surprising given that Sony has already shown off two prototypes at prior CES conferences. The Afeela, however, is a brand-new sedan that was created in collaboration with Honda this time. Although the Afeela’s technical specifications are all secret, we do know that deliveries will start in 2026 and that the sedan will come equipped with cutting-edge technology, including AI assistance and autonomous capabilities.
Volkswagen ID.7
The ID.7, Volkswagen’s first electric sedan, has been presented with its camouflage still on. It will join the brand’s wide range of electric vehicles in 2023. The vehicle will compete against Hyundai’s Ioniq 6 and Tesla Model 3 with a potential range of about 700 kilometres. The ID.7 will have the longest range of any Volkswagen EV when it is introduced. In addition to these technologies, the sedan has augmented reality heads-up and a 15-inch touchscreen with all the necessary functionality.
BMW i Vision Dee
One of the most daring proposals from the German company has been introduced by BMW. According to BMW, the I Vision Dee (Digital Emotional Experience) is a car that can converse with its owners and even convey feelings. It also has body panels that can instantly change colours, enormous kidney grilles with built-in displays, and a windscreen that serves as a sizable display. The new concept car is packed with features, and it may represent the direction the company will take in terms of technology and design.
Volvo EX90
At CES 2023, Volvo unveiled the EX90 flagship electric SUV and said that deliveries will start in early 2024. It will be available with a 111kWh battery pack that has a 600 km maximum range and 517 PS maximum output (WLTP). It has a 14.5-inch touchscreen inside that supports 5G and has Google OS preinstalled. The EX90 receives a variety of safety features like eight cameras, a radar system, and LiDAR in typical Volvo flair and as the company’s flagship EV.
Nvidia GeForce Now Cloud Gaming For Cars
We’re not sure how to react to the news that cars will soon be able to use Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud gaming services. To offer a complete gaming experience to cars, the brand is collaborating with automakers including Hyundai, BYD, and Polestar. Technical details are being kept under wraps, but Nvidia claims that while waiting inside the car or while the car is charging, passengers may use a controller to play more than 1000 games, including AAA titles. In essence, this implies that you can play The Witcher 3 while your car is charging.
Dodge Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept
Dodge unveiled its Ram 1500 Revolution Battery-electric Vehicle (BEV) Concept at CES 2023, which offers a view into the future and highlights how the sector’s top truck brand can once more transform the pickup truck business. Innovative features that will be found in future Ram trucks, and in particular on Ram’s electrification journey, are on full display in the cutting-edge Ram 1500 Revolution BEV Concept.
In order to better serve its customers, Ram will distinguish itself by delivering a variety of fully electric alternatives, including the Ram 1500 BEV in 2024, which will redefine the market. In the upcoming years, the complete Ram line-up will provide electrified solutions with ground-breaking, cutting-edge technology.
Is blood glucose monitoring the newest craze among athletes? Customers can purchase intrusive sensors from Ultrahuman to be implanted into their arms, where they will use a smart app to continuously check their blood glucose levels. The ultimate result is real-time advice on how to improve one’s lifestyle, together with a vast ecosystem of knowledge relating to metabolic health. After testing the Ultrahuman M1 for two weeks, we’d like to talk about how our lives have changed.
Ultrahuman uses Abbott’s Freestyle Libre 2, which has been on the market since 2019, as its glucose sensor. Additionally, many diabetics use it to keep an eye on their blood glucose levels. There is nothing to worry about because the technology is tried and true, right? However, I find it unsettling to imagine a thin, flexible filament in my skin.
It goes without saying that I had mixed emotions before to the cyborg experiment, especially since I had already looked at too many images of the sensor. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s fortunate or not.
So I worked up the confidence to insert the chip into my arm after putting the sensor in the applicator. Just how did I feel? Absolutely nothing! I was a little concerned about the needle being trapped somewhere during the first two days, especially at night. But in daily life, neither when exercising nor while sleeping, I was unaware of the 0.4-millimetre thin filament in my skin. I only ever got caught on the couch once, giving me a brief feeling of being bitten by an insect. Overall, my fears were unjustified, and Ultrahuman also provides strong plasters to protect the sensor.
By tapping my new sticker with the phone, the sensor and app were first paired. The app cautioned me that the readings could be erroneous for the first 24 hours, but it held me in suspense for another two hours while waiting for the sensor to be fully calibrated. I encountered zero connectivity issues with the sensor and smartphone throughout the review period.
Using a chocolate bar in between meals to circumvent the calorie counter app is more difficult with Ultrahuman. Any food with a significant amount of sugar, even a few grapes or two figs, will cause the Ultrahuman app to send a push notification: “Your blood sugar is currently increasing. What did you consume?”
Now, the software assigns a score to each food item depending on how it affects blood sugar levels. The software uses your personal top lists of the greatest and worst foods to create the best food lists for you. The intriguing aspect of this is how various foods cause varied reactions in various bodies. For one person, what is healthy may induce blood sugar spikes and crashes in another.
Score and Metabolic Vectors
The Ultrahuman app assigns a score between 1 and 100 to each day based on measured data, tracked activities, and diet. Of course, the crucial factor in this situation is the percentage of the day that you spend within the desirable blood glucose range of 70 to 110 mg/dL. However, it’s also crucial to prevent peaks and valleys in the level; a smooth uphill and downward gradient is optimal.
How can this be done? The software continuously explains everything while in use and offers fresh suggestions. For instance, if there is a surge, the app suggests taking a walk after eating or taking a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar first.
The programme also contains metabolic vectors in addition to the daily score. This depiction of your performance in the three categories of focus, longevity, and athleticism. The less your blood sugar fluctuates, the more focused you are. Your longevity increases with the number of peaks and the amount of time your blood sugar is at its ideal level. And it’s obvious that consistent exercise and healthy blood sugar levels are beneficial for your athletic score.
Additionally, you’ll receive an estimate of your daily HbA1c level, which can help determine if you have diabetes, prediabetes, or neither. The app provides daily tests as well as long-term averages and a summary of your metabolic fitness.
Conclusion
Two weeks spent living as a cyborg
The sensor stopped functioning as expected and stopped producing results exactly two weeks later. I feel like I’ve been robbed of a sense since this shelf life is restricted for hygiene reasons. My body served as a laboratory for two weeks, and the results motivated me more than wearing any other fitness tracker before to be disciplined about exercise and especially food.
I consider the Ultrahuman M1 to be one of the most exciting technological advancements of the last 15 years, and I’m really interested in how blood glucose monitors will become more widely used and advance our understanding of nutrition and fitness in the next years. The utility of fitness wearables will advance dramatically at the latest when blood glucose testing operates with adequate optical precision and hence becomes slightly more accessible to the general public.
Smartphone launches have been a never-ending epidemic for the past few years. Smartphones have become so good that most phones, irrespective of their price tag, are sufficient for most users. The number of smartphone users is still astounding in China at 865.04M. India is the second largest smartphone market in the world, with 606.57M active users. This makes smartphone manufacturers value our shores more than ever. Here is a list of all recommended smartphones under each price category.
Under INR 10K
Redmi A1
Performance
Quad Core, 2 GHzMediaTek Helio A22 2 GB RAM
Display
6.52 inches (16.56 cm)269 PPI, IPS LCD
Camera
8 MP Primary CameraDual LED Flash5 MP Front Camera
What time is it? It’s time for some tech news. Did you know that Google, the name is actually a product of a hasty spelling mistake? Larry and Sean aimed to register Googol, a mathematical term for the number 1 followed by a hundred zeros. Sean accidentally registers the word Google, and it is what it is. Let’s get to the news.
Elon finally bought Twitter
On Thursday night, Elon Musk finally bought Twitter, and reports say many top management authorities at Twitter are now searching for new jobs. These include the CEO, CFO, people who mislead the number of bots on the platform and the one authorizing Donal Trump’s account ban. The hip entrepreneur entered the Twitter office with a bathroom sink, symbolizing the term “let that sink in” and also twitted “ the bird is freed”.
Global price increase
Apple is silently increasing its hardware and software solution prices. Subscription services have seen an inflation in their charges across Apple services, including Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple One. Some countries have also witnessed price increases on iPads and Macs. Nothing ear (1), the first product from Nothing, has also seen as much as a 50% price increase in some markets right before the launch of their Nothing ear stick, a relatively new and affordable variant with a different form factor. I hope they stick to the pricing in the future. Steam, a popular gaming service, has also increased its regional pricing in some parts of the world to almost 450% hike in game prices. As if PC gaming was not an expensive hobby with insane GPU prices! Global price increase needs to be combated with a global pay increase. Share this with your company heads. After blocking 4K content on Youtube to Premium users, Youtube has increased the prices of Youtube Premium subscriptions in some countries. What is happening to the world?
WTF? There’s a new Nvidia 3060
After the backlash on RTX 4080 and Nvidia pulling out in time, RTX 4090 has witnessed some insane claims. One of the only cards to enable high fidelity 4K and 8K gaming, the power connector cannot handle the amount of power required to juice tasty frame rates from the 4090, burning some connectors across the globe. Nvidia has addressed a couple of buyers who posted this on social media, but a 1.55 lakh rupee card with burnt connectors is not cool. In another news from Nvidia, some countries witnessed a soft launch of Nvidia’s popular 3060 variants with an 8GB VRAM 128-bit bus rate instead of the usual 12GB 192-bit bus rate. This move comes as competition to Intel’s newest ARC GPU releases earlier this month or maybe an offering to gamers on a budget. Whatever it is, thank you, Intel!
Shutterstock partners with OpenAI DallE 2
Did you know that Gettyimages recently banned the use of AI-generated images? Contrary to their move, Shutterstock has partnered with OpenAI DallE 2, and soon users will be able to generate images based on text commands. Shutterstock has also agreed to pay creators a certain sum of money for training the AI when creating newer images. Not too long ago, a similar AI won an award for the best image creation on a platform, and now it is time for Shutterstock to come up with crazy DallE2-created images. What is your take on AI-generated art? Is it still art if thousands of algorithms created it?
Gaming improves cognitive performance in kids
A recent study on the JAMA network performed by ABCD Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development on 2217 children has shown that kids who regularly play video games are better at problem-solving, memory management, impulse reactions and many other tasks, including academic achievements, as compared to kids who do not play video games. Allowing kids to play video games and other games profoundly impacts their brain development. Only if this study were done during childhood would we not be scolded as much over gaming. Kids watching this video, share this news with your parents.
Xbox Series S – Limiting frame rates for everyone
Some game developers are not happy developing games for the Xbox Series S. According to them; the limited capabilities are hindering them from providing more performance in games being developed for the Xbox Series S. Microsoft has made it mandatory for developers to make games compatible with both the Series X and S. Gotham Knights is a prime example of this shortcoming, as the developers clearly stated in a tweet that the game runs on 30FPS even on the more powerful Series X only to ensure compatibility with the Series S. What’s the point of upgrading to a having a massive 4K high refresh rate display when the games are being limited by one puny console?
Photonic chip – the fastest internet chip as of now
A single photonic chip has made a world record by transferring 1.84 petabytes of data per second over a 7.9Km fibre optic cable. That’s like moving all the files across the globe in less than 10 mins! I am still stuck with a few hundred megabytes per second here in India. Researchers from Japan, Denmark and Sweden, managed to split infrared signals into multiple light sources and then combine them together as one on the receiving end.
Amazon data centres in the UK and Ireland get new diesel generators.
Following an energy crisis in UK and Ireland, Amazon data centres in Dublin are installing 105 high-power diesel generators as backups. It is estimated that this data centre is responsible for over 14% power consumption of the entire Dublin.
Intel’s 13th generation i9 breaks an 8-year-old frequency world record
AMD FX 8370 set a world record back in 2014 by overclocking to an insane 8722.78Mhz. Intel’s latest i9-13900K managed to set a new world record by overclocking to a mind-bending 8812.85Mhz, nearly double the core clock speed offered in the retail packaging. Finally, after taking a beating from similar retail-priced AMD competition, Intel has managed to garner a win in some departments. Good job, Intel, on making something such powerful and power-hungry.
Samsung has started development on a smart ring.
Smart wearables come in all shapes and sizes. Samsung is currently developing a smart ring with all the necessary features of a fitness tracker snuggly packaged in a neat ring. Be careful to accept a proposal as a smart ring, as it could spike your heart rates and trigger an emergency service SOS. Would you wear a ring when the occasion calls for dressing neat, well time shall reveal.
Stadia’s service ended, but the gaming did not.
After Google announced that they were pulling the plug on Stadia streaming services, people playing games on the platform are backed by game developers. As a piece of good news, game developers are offering free copies with free save backups for everyone playing their games on Stadia as a platform. These free copies are provided to all the Stadia gamers based on their choice of gaming platform, and also cloud saves are offered as transferable entities to continue gaming on the platform of your choice. Do we even trust Google with anything with the rate at which they keep shutting down services?
These were all the happenings of the week. Let us know what you think about the tech happenings across the globe. Stay tuned as we bring more tech news next week.
Audio is an essential part of our experience, apologies to those unable to listen to the beauties of art by humans and nature. Our home entertainment setup is complete with a set of good-quality audio solutions. As much as most of us desire the best of the best, with amplifiers, mixers, and optical audio cable mess to enjoy the creator’s audio source to the best of our human ability, most of us love the cleaner, simpler solutions. Would that be a compromise?
Thanks to development in technology over the years, the compromises are definitely reduced with better-quality audio solutions. Audio quality becomes a subject of desire the moment you listen to audio solutions like speakers, headphones or earphones better than anything you have ever experienced. Simple audio solutions keep the cable mess at bay and are great additions to many homes, available in multiple shades, shapes and sizes.
Desire a minimalist home theatre solution?
The craze for 5.1 and 7.1 audio speaker solutions seems immortal. Thanks to most of our OTT services and amazing television technology supporting the best of Dolby Atmos, DTS-X and more audio solutions, it makes sense to invest in a full-blown theatrics audio experience when consuming media on your comfortable sofa. Something like a sound bar with three audio channels, two wireless surround sound satellites and wireless sub-thumping lows add to the overall experience; audio solutions can be minimalistic. Add to the fact that most of these are nowadays available in white, and a soundbar and sub-based solutions amplify the audio experience a home needs.
What’s the best minimalistic audio solution?
Sometimes, you listen to and enjoy music, don’t you? We all do. While many speakers around the room offer a great movie and series-watching experience, music is best enjoyed on quality bookshelf speakers. It may sound weird that how can a pair of speakers be better than multiple speakers spread across the room? Powered bookshelf speakers have had a technological leap by the time you read this line. Not only are they relatively minor in size, defying their size versus audio quality and volume, but they also are great minimalistic audio solutions for every room in your house. They are not limited to the main entertainment area around your largest television. Stereo speakers with good audio quality are sometimes the most optimal, minimalistic audio nirvana required to uplift your home entertainment.
Invest in quality audio solutions. And remember, there is always the best in your budget, but sometimes, just like your television, audio solutions are once in many years investment. An investment in quality home audio entertainment with multiple audio source connectivity, wireless connectivity and, most importantly, excellent audio quality is a must-experience.
Nothing in tech is interesting anymore; these are the words of Carl Pei, the visionary behind many successful companies, products and now his own company, Nothing. Before we understand the company, we need to know about the journey of Carl Pei and how everything in his life leads to Nothing. Carl Pei is a master entrepreneur. He was one of the core members when OnePlus came into being. OnePlus as we all know, is a technology brand with many portfolios and SKUs catering to customer technology. The man and his missions Carl Pei and marketing strategies
Awareness of a problem
Carl Pei was the man behind the first “flagship killer” campaign. His modus operandi has been a three-stage approach. First is awareness of a problem – Technology is not fun anymore. His presentations with the OnePlus One, his involvement with the OnePlus Nord series and now his own company, Nothing, presented a similar problem. According to him, technology in consumer products is stagnant and lacks innovation to make things interesting.
The Nord series was the approach to meeting the expectations of the youth. The awareness created for the Nord series was the lack of colours, good affordable products and making tech interesting for the youth. Has that problem been solved? Maybe the teal colour was the solution? Despite not completely eliminating the problem, the Nord series was an absolute success.
Nothing ear (1) followed the same approach of creating awareness of a problem. ANC at an affordable price but also an innovative solution in the form of design. Something similar is being approached with the Phone (1). Carl Pei had a seventeen-minute video teasing the problem of smartphones becoming mundane and boring. He also approached the problem that nothing new is happening in the smartphone space. Earlier phone launches were exciting, but not anymore.
Opportunity – Solution to the problem
In a world filled with consumer products that all look alike, the OnePlus One was considered revolutionary. His strategy involved creating a comprehensive new phone that would challenge the best of its time. The product had to be affordable enough to wide-spread that flagship experience among people who were sceptical about buying a flagship product or just did not find value in most flagships. The phone delivered when it arrived, and almost every person looking for a phone to buy was considering the OnePlus One despite the lack of stores, service networks and enough units to call it a success.
Nord series did something similar but catered to a younger audience. The teal colour for the Nord series was an iconic hit. It was not the complete solution as it was offered in an iconic colour that stood as the brand image colour for a long time. Carl Pei insisted on affordable 5G solutions, keeping costs less and offering more at a given price increased the Nord value. A subsidiary of the brand OnePlus, Carl Pei’s Nord, was able to provide a solution to loyal OnePlus customers while keeping the core OnePlus One strategy. OnePlus was acquired by the giant parent company of many other brands like Realme, Oppo, Vivo, etc., BBK electronics. Thus, Carl Pei focused on Nord as his visionary project of the time.
Carl Pei moved on from OnePlus for reasons unknown, but his vision and mission were alive with Nothing, a new company under his leadership. The first product launched was the Nothing ear (1), promising to promote ANC and features much above its competitor’s market price. A solution for people who want to enjoy music whilst gaining a reality check on his dream to create a new fan base for his upcoming products from Nothing.
A prime example of the same was when he announced Nothing Phone (1), a phone supposedly making smartphone space enjoyable again. He presented the problem that most smartphones are not exciting; they have become mundane yearly. His solution is their first phone from Nothing. A phone teased about being interesting in design with a transparent back loaded with innovative notification LEDs, 40% less bloatware than the competition and a near-stock Android experience with dot-matrix-inspired Nothing UI.
Hype marketing
Carl Pei is a man of value offerings. He does not believe in flagship offerings at a flagship price. His years of experience and approach have always been to hype the launch of something that could be innovative through various popular means of marketing. Hype marketing seems to create a buzz around the social media audience, and potential buyers are raising expectations. Carl Pei is a master of creating hype with selective marketing tools strategically used to reach maximum reach.
OnePlus One
In 2014, Carl Pei announced the launch of the OnePlus One with a strategy similar to his 2022 product, Nothing Phone (1). It involved showcasing products of 2014 with brand names up front on the bezels of the phone, hardware and software that was lacklustre from most brands available in the market. Like the Nothing series on YouTube, the OnePlus One launched with several videos that involved research about the problems of that era, the making process of the OnePlus One and how exactly the product solved the issues presented with a viral tagline – Flagship killer. The phone was a massive internet sensation when it launched.
Influencer marketing was successful enough post the hype. Most YouTube channels with millions of subscribers were the first to unbox this flagship killing product. Numerous videos compared it to the flagships of that era, showcasing the prowess of a visionary and his hype marketing that resulted in positive success for the brand overall. With interchangeable backs, one in sandstone, one in wood finish and another in white matte, this phone was considered different in design and hardware. The most disruptive feature was the amount of value it promised at a given price. It was launched with Cyanogen Mod, a custom operating system that was a first at its time. It provided the enthusiast with custom firmware to tinker, something most enthusiasts do to date. No one had done this before.
OnePlus Nord series
Later in 2019, Carl Pei was also heading the Nord series and its marketing. This time, the problem served was something for youth and you in general. Carl was seen in multiple videos across the Nord series’ making process. The team researched and provided a teal-coloured solution for all the OnePlus loyalists lost due to OnePlus penetrative marketing strategies. Penetrative marketing is when something launches at a disruptive price, sells in quantity, and, upon successful market reach, increases the cost slowly but steadily to gain market share.
Nothing is similar
Carl Pei is all hype about Nothing with a track record of successful marketing campaigns. He has successfully marketed his reach and selective information to create a non-stop social media hype about his upcoming product, the Nothing Phone (1). This strategy does seem to work in this time and era of online marketing. People all around the world have easy access to online media. Like his earlier strategies, Carl Pei has strategized the online marketing hype for his newest offering, launching on 12th July 2022, Nothing Phone (1).
Capturing the best of social media engagement, endorsing along with the best channels with millions reach and strategically hyping one segment after the other of an innovative product. For example, with the OnePlus One to Nothing Phone (1), Carl has always provided production-ready units to YouTube celebrities like MKBHD, etc. They never reveal their genuine opinions as a part of an embargo designed to release after the product launch event. A hype train ridden with hours of teaser content for an actual product that isn’t ready is a new world strategy by Carl Pei. Similar to the OnePlus One, the Nothing Phone (1) will only be available through invites shared by owners of the device. This is a traditional marketing technique of word-to-mouth or barter since most people will be exchanging those invites for some temporary gratification.
Nothing Phone (1)
The Nothing Phone (1) hardware was leaked online despite the hype train. It may be the device’s growing popularity or the intuitive and innovative back of the phone. Thousands of people highly await the Nothing Phone (1). The strategy is tried and tested. The founder shared awareness of a problem that phones are boring while someone or their Phone (1) intends to change that scenario. As mentioned, Carl Pei, the founder of Nothing, is a man who loves to provide value to his end consumers.
Thanks to this era of technology booming amid a chip shortage and a global pandemic, providing something similar to the OnePlus One was impossible with the Nothing Phone (1). Carl and his team thus scouted the best solution and researched the market for a sweet spot among smartphone buyers. We already have a smartphone (or two), and the upgrade cycle is a constant spinning wheel. Rumour mill churns the Nothing Phone (1) to come powered with one of Qualcomm Snapdragon’s gems – Snapdragon 778+ SOC.
If you are unaware of the Snapdragon 778+ SOC, this is the same one used by Motorola in the Edge 30. The 778+ is not only powerful when it comes to gaming at high resolutions and high frames per second but also is one of the most efficient current generation SOCs. This 5G capable chip supports multiple 5G bands and most newer WiFi standards and performs excellent at camera post-processing. Couple that with the rumour of 8GB fast RAM and UFS 3.1 configured multiple internal storage options; this phone seems similar to most phones.
The phone might also get OIS on its primary 50MP camera and the ultra-wide sensor. There are innovative features like notification LEDs on the back that light up as alert combinations based on user preferences. There’s also a 4500mAh battery with wireless and reverse wireless charging with NFC capabilities. If the hardware sounds fine, the software promises to offer what they call human warmth. Innovate Nothing OS, and UI pledges to bring freshness to the evolving Android 12 software. This shall improvise with OTA updates in the future.
An ecosystem of Nothing
Nothing UI promises to integrate hardware and software level recognition for its ecosystem of devices alongside support for third-party accessories. The phone is the hub for all we know as of now, and with a disruptive price like the OnePlus One back in its time, the Nothing Phone (1) is nothing but hype waiting to come true. We wish nothing but the best to a visionary and Nothing. Invites only!
In an increasingly digitized world, protecting one’s privacy may, essentially, be an impossible task. It is no longer a mystery that we are being watched with every move we make on the internet. As small and accessible as our worlds are now, it comes at the cost of losing autonomy over who has access to our private information and what they do with it. So, how do you reap the benefits of a technologically advanced planet while ensuring that you are safeguarding sensitive information, sufficient downtime, and your sanity? WhatsApp is a popular internet-based text and voice messaging service with over two billion users worldwide. It is possible to use their privacy features to minimise visibility and disruptions.
Open WhatsApp, go to Settings, tap Account, and then Privacy to customize who has access to your ‘Last Seen’, ‘Status’ and who is allowed to add you to WhatsApp groups. You can block or report contacts by clicking on the contact name and scrolling all the way down and tapping BlockContact or ReportContact. Instagram is a popular social networking and photo-sharing app that allows you to connect with celebrities, brands, family and friends. There are multiple ways that you can be discreet on Instagram.
You can change the settings to make your account private thereby controlling who has access to your photos and videos. You can do this by going to Settings, Privacy and then tapping next to Private Account.You can block users by tapping on their username, scrolling all the way down and tapping on Block. If what you really need is a break from social media then you can temporarily disable your Instagram account by logging onto www.instagram.com, clicking on your profile and tapping on Edit Profile. You can scroll down and connect Temporarily Deactivate Account.
These privacy considerations are the bare minimum in times when the fear of losing oneself to the peculiar ways of the internet is looming large. As users become more vigilant, there will be a need for more intricate privacy settings such as time-specific visibility on social media and instant messaging applications.
Vivibook series from ASUS has always been a budget-oriented device and something you can look forward to if you are considering buying a mid-range laptop. The price for the VivoBook series starts somewhere at Rs 47,000 and goes all the way up to 80,000.
The laptop I am currently testing is the Vivobook 15 K513EA, a CORE i5, 11th Gen device. The overall build of this machine is pretty decent. The top has a nice grey fibre finish with a clean ASUS branding on the right-hand side. On one side, you have two USB 3.0 ports and a battery charging indicator, and on the other, you have a proprietary DC port, an HDMI port, another USB 3.0 port, a USB C port just beneath that, a headphone jack, and finally a Micro SD card reader. At the bottom, you’ll see four rubber stands to let your laptop breathe easily. On either side, a speaker gives you a loud, clear sound.
VivoBook 15 comes with Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD storage, and 1TB of HDD storage. It has a big 15.6 inch OLED display at an FHD resolution. It has enough RAM to hold multiple chrome tabs at once without giving that irritating lag. It makes for a fantastic laptop for regular office bees and students whose workloads wouldn’t stress the machine.
I like the OLED display of this laptop, which makes the overall experience better and brighter. Even a bad OLED display looks good to an untrained eye, but this one is just plain gorgeous! The maximum brightness at around 404 nits gives a practical outdoor experience.
The charging for VivoBook 15 goes from 0 to 100 in about 45 minutes and lasts for almost a full day when used rigorously. I have tried playing a few games on this machine and it ran quite smoothly until the machine started to overheat. Overall, it is compatible with low-res gaming but definitely wouldn’t make up for a proper gaming laptop, which is fine for a mid-range laptop.
I have the Intel Core i5 + 16 GB RAM + 256 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD model that goes for Rs 68,990, and my final verdict is that I found the machine easy to use for everyday use.
Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail and man responsible for making email the medium it is today, is now back with a new social video messaging app called Showreel. The platform’s objective is to create video resumes for job applications, match job seekers with companies, network building, and turn cold calls into business deals.
But how and why is this app any different, and why it could possibly become an inspiration for future similar platforms? People prefer video content over images on social media, which could be the next big thing in the job-seeking industry. Well, if you think about it, sending a video message to employers looks much more personalized and convenient.
The Introduction to ShowReel
As soon as you open the Showreel app, Sabeer Bhatia gives a minute-long video introduction on why you should be creating video content for your business or job profile to stand out from the crowd. To quote him, “If you are starting out in life and want to get noticed among the hundreds of resumes to hiring managers, you need personalized video content. If you are not seeking for a job currently, you can use this platform to practice interviews. The conversation between you and me, as well as the video you created will remain private, until ‘you’ decide to put it out.”
After the introductory video is over, you are presented with a well-designed screen that looks like social media. We have a Home button, Explore, Capture, Notifications, and Account at the bottom. At the top, you get to choose a topic to start a conversation, consisting of Professional, Personal, Startup, and Leadership. You can select any of the following, which contains a list of questions that Sabeer will be asking you. You get a ‘Swipe to Start’ feature at the bottom for starting the video conversation with Sabeer.
Compelling Tone
Since Sabeer cannot be present at all times, there is a video of him asking different questions at each step, which you have to record and send back. What I like about this app is that it has a compelling tone. It feels like you are having a conversation directly with the founder, and you are being listened to. Also, to see what a perfect showreel looks like, you can tap on the grid button where there are different reels that people have created using the application.
Sabeer Bhatia says that this format helps companies cut down on recruitment time by helping filter candidates faster. Also, he has plans to kick in AI for recruitment through better engineering.
Beyond recruitment, startup’s and matrimony, Bhatia already sees the platform being used to take surveys, especially where people find the written text difficult to understand. He also has plans to cover the health sector, where he will get doctors to formulate the right questions to plug gaps in the health system.
In this video, we have compared three TWS earbuds – Jabra Elite 3, Jabra Elite 85T, and Galaxy Buds 2. Watch the whole video to find out which one is better.
