Techno Bhogi

While some scientists are working on alternatives to lithium-ion batteries, looking for the solution in graphene structures, others are working to improve the existing technology. I recently came across a study in the journal  Joule , which talks about a new Li-ion battery design that will enable electric vehicles to add charge equal to 200 miles in just 10 minutes. Developed by researchers over at The Pennsylvania State University, the new lithium-ion battery design uses elevated temperature to increase reaction rate and quickly charge up the battery. However, if you have read how lithium-ion batteries work, then you might be aware that higher temperatures will degrade the battery life. Well, we don’t have to worry about the battery life with this design as scientists plan on charging the battery at an elevated 60 degrees Celsius for a few minutes and then discharging it at a lower temperature. Researchers have managed to circumvent lithium plating issues with this design usi...

The internet has turned the world into a global marketplace. Now, not only you can sell your products in your local region, but anywhere in the world. It’s especially true for software products that can be delivered to customers with just a push of the button. While this is great, it also opens a lot of challenges. One of the biggest challenges that come with serving a global market is the inability to identify your customers. If you do not know your customer’s origin, you cannot effectively target them with proper prices and advertisements. For example, the purchasing power capabilities of customers vary widely depending on their country of origin and you might want to offer lower prices to potential customers from lower-income countries. That’s where a tool like ipstack can help you. ipstack offers a geolocation API and its global IP database services that can help you identify and locate your website visitors based on their IP address. Since IP addresses are unique to each machin...

Just yesterday, WhatsApp revealed that an Israeli cyber-surveillance giant attempted to snoop on Indian journalists and human rights activists. The messaging giant sued NSO Group, the firm for carrying out the cyber-attack but has now confirmed that an Isreali state-of-the-art spyware, called Pegasus, was used in the attack. WhatsApp has disclosed that Pegasus was used in the snooping attack, only a day after filing a lawsuit in the U.S Federal Court in San Francisco. The alleged attack took place during a 14-day period, ending in mid-May, and NSO Group any denies involvement. The Pegasus spyware requires you to click an exploit link, enabling the hacker to use known vulnerabilities in WhatsApp to penetrate security features on the phone. You won’t even notice but Pegasus will be installed on your device, opening up access to all confidential information and device functionality. “Indian journalists and human rights activists have been the target of surveillance and while I canno...

AirPods Pro not only warrants a whopping $249 price tag but also a mindboggling repair cost – $89 for each earphone (out-of-warranty). Add to that the $89 servicing cost for the wireless charging case and your wallet might already begin to feel light – if not empty. Jokes aside, when you are dealing with premium earbuds like Apple’s all-new offerings, it’s wise to go for an additional shield upfront. This way, even if your AirPods meet with an accidental fall, they will remain safeguarded and also scratch-free. To save your precious time and also help you find a suitable cover, we have rounded up some of the best AirPods Pro cases and skins available in the market right now. So, be sure to get one before taking the earbuds for a long music spree as unexpected things tend to happen when you expect them the least. Best AirPods Pro Cases and Skins You Should Buy Don’t want to go for full-on protection? No problem. Different people have different tastes. Keeping in mind the requirement...

Over the past couple of years, reports of malware affecting Android devices have skyrocketed. We’ve had the Agent Smith malware , ZooPark , QR code apps that were actually malware , Skygofree , and just so many others. Now, there’s yet another strain of malware affecting Android devices, and this one, reports suggest, is basically unremovable. The xHelper malware basically gets installed in situations where users are trying to sideload untrusted apps using fishy websites. The sideloaded app installs the malware on the device, after which it can do whatever the developers want it to do. So far, it seems that the malware is showing ads and spam notifications to earn revenue by spamming users, but security researchers warn that the malware has the ability to install secondary payloads on infected devices — these payloads can be anything. From DDoS modules, to password stealers. What’s even more worrying perhaps, is the fact that the malware is nearly unremovable. Affected users are re...

Xiaomi is launching the much-rumored Mi CC9 Pro smartphone in China on November 5 next week, expanding on the youth-focused Mi CC9 lineup that was unveiled earlier this year. However, it will become available in international markets within the next 10 days, rebranded as the Mi Note 10. Yes, the rumors about the launch of Mi Note 10 were indeed true and Xiaomi Poland has taken to its Facebook page to confirm that the device launches on November 14. We say that it’s going to be a rebranded Mi CC9 Pro because Xiaomi already tweeted that it’s going to be the world’s first 108MP penta-camera smartphone. And you must have heard that Mi CC9 Pro sports a 108MP primary camera (OIS-backed), a 12MP telephoto lens with 5x optical zoom, a 20MP ultra-wide-angle lens with a 117-degree field-of-view, 2MP macro lens, and a depth sensor. The Mi CC9 Pro is going to compete with the P30 Pro, offering 10x hybrid zoom and 50x digital zoom via its single telephoto lens – not a periscope setup, as ...

At its quarterly earnings report for Q2 FY2020 on Wednesday, EA announced that its hit battle royale game, Apex Legends, has 70 million players worldwide. As part of its plans to position the game as one of the key growth drivers for the company next year, developer Respawn also announced a new ‘Duos’ game mode that will allow two-people to play as a team instead of having to find a third cog every time. As can be seen from the tweet below, the two-player mode will go live from Tuesday, November 5th, and will be a departure from the strict three-person format that has been the norm from Day-1. While the game did get occasional, limited-time solo events , this is the first time that two-member teams are being introduced since the game’s launch back in February, largely to satisfy persistent demands from players. Starting next week, for a limited time, it takes ✌. Dive in to Duos 11/5. pic.twitter.com/uJkk7txcNE — Apex Legends (@PlayApex) October 30, 2019 It will be interesti...

Microsoft has already pushed the near-final release version of the Windows 10 November 2019 Update and is now focusing its efforts on the next major 20H1 update. We’ve been keeping track of the new features being tested with Insiders for some time now and well, the latest build, number 19013, brings improvements to the Linux subsystem, emoji tray, and Your Phone features. The highlights of Insider Build 19013 is the return of Power Toys. They’re special utilities that were made popular in the Windows 95 and Windows XP era, but had been nixed to make way for new features over the past few years. Well, they’ve now made a return to Windows 10 20H1 Insider builds this month, starting with 2 features, PowerRename and FancyZones. While PowerRename makes it possible for users to rename files in bulk, the FancyZones feature lets you drag apps into defined target positions on your PC. You can take a close look at the FancyZones feature right here . Apart from this, the Windows subsystem f...

As part of its plans to fully deprecate Flash on the internet, Google says its search crawlers will no longer index Flash content or Shockwave Flash (SWF) files in the coming months. The company also announced plans to stop serving flash ads of all descriptions. According to an announcement on the official support pages for Google Ads, the policy will also be applicable to the Flash ads that were thus far automatically converted to HTML5. “If you used Flash in your Google Ads campaigns, you’ll need to upgrade to HTML5 … If you already have Flash ads uploaded to Google Ads, we highly recommend that you create new responsive ads instead. Alternatively, you can upload HTML5 ads that you create in Google Web Designer or on your own directly into Google Ads” , said the company to its advertising partners, notifying them of the impending change. Originally created by a software development firm called FutureWave back in the early nineties, Flash was developed and maintained by a multimed...

Apple unveiled its video streaming service, Apple TV+, back in March, alongside its game-streaming platform, Apple Arcade . The company had already announced plans to bundle a 1-year subscription of the former with any iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV and iPod Touch purchase, but the company is now also offering to bundle the service with Apple Music’s student subscription plan, which costs $4.99 a month. The news is believed to have been first reported by Academy Award-nominated actress, Hailee Steinfeld, on her Instagram page . Subscribed separately, Apple TV+ will cost $4.99 per month, while Apple Music comes with a price-tag of $9.99 a month per device for regular subscribers or $14.99 for the Family Plan. The student plan bundle is only a limited period offer, but Apple is yet to announce a concrete end date. In case you don’t know it already, Apple TV+ will officially launch in the US  tomorrow, November 1st . Contrary to expectations, the Cupertino giant has priced the servic...

With everything from the flagship iPhone, iPad, and MacBook assuming a “Pro” tag, it was only a matter of time before Apple’s most popular wireless earphones joined the bandwagon as well. Days after iOS 13.2 beta gave credence to the rumors of the higher-end AirPods, Apple launched AirPods Pro via a press release . Much to no one’s surprise, the wireless earphones sport an all-new design along with some notable features that make it stand out. But those extra goodies warrant a premium price tag – $249 . If you are planning to buy the earphones but aren’t sure which one of the two – AirPods 2 and AirPods Pro – can offer the best bang for your bucks, you have arrived at the right place. Putting AirPods Pro vs AirPods 2, we have taken a close look at what they offer and more significantly; what separates them from each other. AirPods Pro vs AirPods 2 : What’s the Difference Between the Two? The first thing that struck my mind when I first heard the release of Apple’s new wireless earph...

Facebook is inching closer to launch much-anticipated WhatsApp Pay in India and will soon have a positive news to share, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said. Data compliance issues and regulations have kept WhatsApp Pay launch in abeyance for quite some time, despite a successful test run of the payments service with one million users in the country. “We have our test going in India. The test really shows that a lot of people are going to want to use this product. We”re very optimistic that we”re going to be able to launch to everyone in India soon, but of course will share more news when we have that” , Zuckerberg told analysts on an earnings call on Wednesday. The peer-to-peer, UPI-based WhatsApp Pay service will reach over 400 million users – especially the small and medium businesses (SMBs) – to boost digital inclusion in the country. The government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have expressed concerns over some of WhatsApp’s features in complying with the regulat...

Apple is all set to launch its first 5G iPhones next year, and a new report out of Japan now claims that they will ship with Qualcomm’s X55 5G modem under-the-hood. According to multiple sources quoted by the Nikkei Asian Review , at least three of the devices the company will launch next year, will ship with 5G connectivity. “It will be the first time Apple introduces 5G iPhones … There will be three of them and the company has set an aggressive sales target” , said one of them. As per the report, the next-gen iPhone lineup will be powered by the A14 chip that will use the 5nm technology, making it significantly more power efficient than its predecessor, the A13 Bionic, found on the current-gen iPhone 11 lineup. At least two of the three new phones will also have what the report called ‘flexible’ OLED displays, although it’s not immediately clear what it meant by that term. In addition, Apple is also developing a new ‘3D-sensing rear-camera’ that is said to be able to “sense t...

Though OneUI 2 is set to bring along a number of changes to Samsung’s Galaxy phones, the company has today released a new suite of device optimization apps. Dubbed Galaxy Labs, it’s offering users access to 4 apps, including a file restoration app, battery tracker and optimizer, and an app booster. All of these four apps live under Galaxy Labs, similar to the “Device Care” feature on the company’s OneUI-powered devices. Let’s talk about each service under this app, starting with File Guardian. It’s going to serve as one of the most used and important apps in the Galaxy Labs suite as it will help recover permanently deleted files from your internal, as well as external storage. Next up, we have Battery Tracker and Battery Guardian apps. The name of these 2 apps are enough to tell you what they do. While the former gives you an in-depth look at the device’s battery usage (more detailed in comparison to the in-built battery tracker), the latter only checks if existing battery optimiza...

Nearly 1.3 million debit and credit card data of Indian banking customers are reportedly available for open sale on the Dark Web. According to ZDNet , the info is available on Joker’s Stash – one of the oldest card shops on the dark web and a known hub for hackers to sell card dumps. As per the report, the aggregate data can fetch up to a whopping $130 million (around Rs. 900 crore) for cybercriminals. Believed to have been first discovered by researchers from cyber-security firm, Group-IB, the listing is being advertised on Joker’s Stash under the name “INDIA-MIX-NEW-01”. The debit and credit cards belong to multiple Indian banks and are being sold for $100 (around Rs. 7,000) each, in what security researchers have dubbed one of the biggest card dumps in recent years. Screenshot Courtesy: Group-IB (via ZDNet) “Early data analysis suggests the card details may have been obtained via skimming devices, installed either on ATMs or point of sale (PoS) systems” , said the report. The...

Apple registered a new record in India in its fiscal Q4 quarter and the company generated an all-time revenue record for the Mac desktops in the country, it has announced. The July-September period saw Apple log record revenue in the country and is set to break the numbers in its fiscal 2020 Q1 (October-December period) as iPhone 11 series has witnessed stupendous response from the Indian buyers. “Despite the tough compare, we generated an all-time revenue record for Mac in the US and in India and a fourth quarter revenue record in Japan” , Luca Maestri, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, told analysts over the earnings call late Wednesday. “More than half of the customers purchasing Macs during the quarter were new to Mac, and the active installed base of Macs again reached a new all-time high” , he added. “At a country level, we established new Q4 records in many major developed and emerging markets, including India” , he added. India is back on Apple’s growth traj...

When “ WiFi disconnects when iPhone is locked ” issue surfaced recently in iOS 13, we didn’t find the problem surprising as Wi-Fi issues have been (kind of) chronic problems on iPhones and iPads for several years. And guess what, days after we dealt with one long-existing problem, another one has cropped up. As you might have already guessed, many users have run into Bluetooth issues in iOS 13, which has been labeled as one of the most unstable iOS updates ever – despite the rapid adoption. So, we have jotted down some of the reliable solutions to fix the Bluetooth issues in iOS 13 on iPhone and iPad. So, whether you are unable to connect your iPhone to a Bluetooth accessory or not seeing the Bluetooth device, these tricks can help you get the better of the problems. Tips to Fix Bluetooth Not Working Issues on iPhone and iPad As soon as I updated my iPhone to iOS 13.2, I was unable to connect to Bluetooth devices. At times, the smartphone wouldn’t discover the ready-to-be used Bluet...