Techno Bhogi

We have all seen characters in movies and TV shows use iPhones and Apple Watches. However, have you ever seen a bad guy or a villain in a film use an iPhone? Well, I haven’t, and there is a big reason for that. According to the “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” director, Rian Johnson, Apple has strict rules about their product placement in movies and TV shows. In a recent interview, the director shared an interesting detail about the tech giant. Firstly, he was sceptical about sharing the thought, but then he went on to share it anyway because “it’s very interesting”, according to him. The director while breaking down a scene from his latest movie “Knives Out” said, “ Apple, they let you use iPhones in movies but, and this is very pivotal if you’re ever watching a mystery movie, bad guys cannot have iPhones on camera.”  Apple has always been a company that wants to maintain its goodwill and reputation in the industry. So, this detail does make a lot of sense, when you come to think ...

As we are moving towards the future, everything we use is becoming smart. However, there won’t be a future for the planet if we don’t prevent plastic from polluting our oceans and environment. So, to eradicate the plastic bottles polluting the oceans, a  Geneva-based start-up made the REBO Smart Bottle . This is no ordinary bottle as it comes with a ton of features and also paves a way for a plastic-free world. The REBO Smart Bottle is, first and foremost, a 600ml water bottle that can keep your liquid cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 hours. Apart from this standard function, the equipment that makes this bottle “smart” are the laser time-of-flight (ToF) sensor and the Bluetooth transmitter . Both of these are fitted inside the easy-to-use one-hand-push cap . The ToF sensor is used to measure the amount of water you drink from the bottle, while the Bluetooth transmitter helps the bottle to connect with the REBO app. The app captures the drinking data and records it into a blockc...

With the rising pollution in the environment, many countries are encouraging citizens to replace their gasoline-powered vehicle with an EV. However, an EV can cost a lot compared to traditional gas-powered cars. Well, French automakers, Citroën just launched the “Ami” which might be the smallest and the cheapest EV ever manufactured . The tiny EV is a two-seater car, actually, it is more like a fancy roofed scooter that is made for city transportation. The vehicle is so small that it does not require a driving license , given you are at least 14 years old in France and 16 in other European countries. The car/scooter has 5.5 kWh lithium-ion battery packed inside that can charge up via any standard 220v power outlet. It takes more or less three hours to fully charge up and has a range of 70 Km (~44 miles). It can reach up to a speed of 45 Kmph (~28 Mph). The EV’s tiny build makes it a perfect city-dweller as it can easily pass through narrow gaps and busy city streets. The roof of t...

iOS has always been a gesture-based OS and that is one of the most intuitive features of the iPhone platform. Navigating in any iOS device is a breeze with swipe and multi-finger gestures. However, there are still some gestures that remain unknown to common users. I came to know about one such gesture while surfing through Reddit. It is integrated within Safari and can open up links in a new tab with just a tap. Conventionally, to open up a link in a new tab, you have to 3D press (on 3D Touch-enabled devices) or haptic press the link to open the sub-menu. From there you can tap the “Open in New Tab” option to complete the process. However, there is another way to perform the task that bypasses all the above steps. With a single tap of two-fingers on the desired link, you can open it up in a new tab instantly . This simple gesture is present in the Safari app since at least iOS 10 and still is unknown to many iOS users. This two-finger tap gesture can be really useful for users who ...

Users in India can now ask any Alexa-enabled devices to set an appointment in Apollo Hospitals. Apollo in collaboration with MobiSprint Consulting has developed the “Ask Apollo” Alexa skill to help patients book an appointment in any of the Apollo hospitals or clinics. One of the largest hospital chains in India, Apollo has over 70 hospitals set up all over the country. Users can now add the “Ask Apollo” skill to their Amazon Echo devices and ask Alexa to arrange an appointment with any of the 5000 doctors available in the hospitals. They can also set a preferred branch or pharmacy of the hospital chain by customising the skill. The managing director of Apollo Hospitals, Sangita Reddy said,  “The mass adoption of artificial intelligence in the lives of people has fuelled the shift towards voice applications and the number of IoT devices have given voice assistants more utility in a connected user’s life,”. With this Alexa voice skill, Apollo became the first healthcare organis...

Way back in 2013, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the “HTC First” smartphone that introduced the Facebook Home app and was supposed to be the “Facebook phone”. Although the smartphone was a major failure for both HTC and Facebook, the latter still wanted to go ahead and make a smartphone entirely on their own. In a recent interview, Steven Levy, the author of the book “Facebook: The Inside Story”, shared some interesting tidbits about the social media giant. In the interview, he said that Facebook made a prototype smartphone that was only ideal for right-handed users . The prototype phone was codenamed “GFK”, after the Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface Killah. It was designed by the famous Swiss designer, Yves Behar and according to the author, it had “an unusual groove in the curved surface, where one could scroll using a thumb.” Now this unusual groove, that was used to scroll and even unlock the phone, was placed on the right side of the phone making the GFK essentially a right-handed sma...

iPhones have a reputation for shooting great quality videos. The Apple devices have been used for shooting many professional videos in the music and television industry. Last year, the iPhone 11 Pro was used to shoot the entire music video of Selena Gomez’s “Lose You To Love Me”. This year, the same device has been used to shoot Lady Gaga’s return song, “Stupid Love”. Gaga teased the new video prior to its release by tweeting a short clip on Twitter with the popular hashtag, #ShotOniPhone. The official video was released on Friday and currently, it has around 466,000 views on YouTube. “STUPID LOVE” 9 HOURS #LG6 #ShotOniPhone pic.twitter.com/ZMdoy3jGDG — Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) February 27, 2020 Unlike Gomez’s video, which was entirely in monochrome, Gaga’s video features a lot of popping colours as the video is set in what looks like a different planet. The costumes of the dancers and the pop star features bright colours as they are dressed as aliens. The background is fille...

Formed back in 2010, BTS a.k.a Bangtan Boys, the Korean band from Seoul has gone on to be the most popular boy band in the world. With over 40 million followers on social media and a net worth of $60 million, there is no doubt that they are on top of the world right now. Adding to their joy, their latest video on YouTube went to the books of record by being the fifth-largest debut in the video platform’s history. The video titled “Kinetic Manifesto Film: Come Prima”, premiered on the 21st of February. The video garnered over 46.5 million views in the first 24 hours . Directed by YongSeok Choi, in the video, the seven members of the band are seen to be dancing in an open space along with a dancing group going by the name of “The Lab”. The boy band delivered an impressive dance performance with their own song “On”, which is from the latest album – Map of the Soul: 7. The choreography is one of the most powerful characteristics of the performance and the boys did not disappoint the fa...

In a move that free-speech advocates have slammed for possibly restricting healthy debates and adding to the increasing number of echo chambers on the platform, Twitter is apparently testing a new feature that will enable users to lock down a conversation by choosing who is – and who isn’t – allowed to reply to their tweets. Believed to have been first spotted by renowned software reverse engineer, Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) , the feature is currently in its testing phase on the Twitter website, but it’s unclear as to when it will be eventually rolled out to the broader public. As can be seen from the screenshots posted by Wong, the feature is called ‘Conversation Types’ and, comes with three options that allows users to specify who can respond to their tweets. Twitter is working on implementing Conversation Controls in the web app pic.twitter.com/DHQfHbxJt1 — Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) February 29, 2020 Originally announced at the CES tech show in January by Twitter’s...

Huawei will be announcing its latest flagship P40 series on March 26 at an event in Paris. The Chinese smartphone giant has now given Digital Trends a sneak peek at its Huawei P40 prototype, revealing the rear design and camera setup. Digital Trends was not told which model in the series they were shown. However, judging by the past rumors and speculations , this is not likely to be the P40 Pro and inclines more towards the regular P40 variant. Credits: Andy Boxall / DigitalTrends You must have noticed the texts “Polarie” and “Blink” seen on the device. Those names refer to the internal codenames of the prototype model. If Huawei doesn’t have any plans to change its camera vendor, we would be seeing the usual “Huawei” and “Leica” branding on the retail unit. In terms of design, Digital Trends says that the handset is almost exactly the same size as the P40 Pro, with rounded corners. The report also notes that the waterfall display is not as curved as the Mate 30 Pro , which mea...

In a bizarre incident, a 17-year-old High School student got his Twitter account verified as a fake Republican candidate for 2020 US Presidential election. According to a CNN report on Friday, the student created a fake profiler as Andrew Walz who called himself a “proven business leader” and a “passionate advocate for students.” Walz, a Republican from Rhode Island, is running for Congress with the tagline, ‘Let’s make change in Washington together”. “Earlier this month, Walz’s account received a coveted blue checkmark from Twitter as part of the company’s broader push to verify the authenticity of many Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates currently running for office,” said the report. The student was quoted as saying that he was “bored” over the holidays and created the fake account to test Twitter’s election integrity efforts. It took the student about 20 minutes to create a website for his fake candidate and five minutes to make the Twitter account. Twitter suspended th...

Facebook Messenger has ditched chat bots and removed Discover tab as part of a larger redesign process to remain simple and catch more eyeballs. The changes will appear next week, reports TechCrunch, in a move to focus on speed and simplicity. “The changes are part of a larger Messenger redesign that reorients the People tab around Stories as Facebook continues to try to dominate the ephemeral social media format it copied from Snapchat,” said the report. Under Stan Chudnovsky, the app has been streamlined as a functional messaging app. In the new design, Facebook is promoting a “People” section where you can see large squares dedicated to friends who have recently updated their Facebook Stories . One can also see contact list organised to promote most used contacts who are actively online. Instant Games and Transportation will also be removed from the chat composer’s utility tray and moved inside the app so you will need to search for those. Not just the main app, the company is...

With over a billion active users, Instagram has become a heaven for marketers and influencers alike. Instagram provides brands with an option to connect with legit influencers who have dedicated fans. It’s far better for niche marketing than a medium such as TV. In return, it provides influencers with a platform to stay connected to their fans and make money by promoting products. Instagram also comes packed with features that are helpful for everyone. However, that doesn’t mean the platform is flawless. There are some missing features, and for me, the biggest missing feature is the ability to schedule your posts. The timing of a post plays a big role in the performance of the said post. And if you don’t want to miss out on opportunities, you should learn to schedule posts. Well, in this article, we are going to show you how you can schedule Instagram posts using Combin Scheduler . Use Combin Scheduler to Schedule Instagram Posts and Stories Before we get to our tutorial, let’s first...

Microsoft was expected to launch the Windows 10X packing Surface Neo and the Surface Duo in time for the Holiday 2020 shopping season, but a new report from Windows Central now suggests that the company may be prepping to launch at least one of those devices much earlier. According to sources quoted by the blog, Microsoft may launch the Surface Duo much earlier than originally announced because both the hardware and software have been pretty much finalized. The Surface Duo, which is expected to ship with Android 10, was originally envisioned as a Windows device under the codename Andromeda before Microsoft ditched its in-house operating system in favor of Android. While Microsoft originally targeted a Q3, 2020 launch, the report now claims that the company might start shipping the device ‘in limited quantities’ this summer if everything goes according to plan. According to the report, the device will be powered by last year’s Snapdragon 855 along with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of sto...

Huawei is beta testing its possible Google Search alternative app – Huawei Search for users in UAE. Earlier today, the app was publicly available to Huawei users in UAE using which XDA Developers managed to install and test out the app. According to XDA, Huawei Search is operated by Ireland-based Huawei subsidiary Aspiegel Limited. The report notes that Huawei’s search engine is not powered by the usual search results providers such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex, Ask, or AOL. Credits: XDA Developers From the report, it is evident that the app has a Discover section, a Search section, and a Me section. It supports dark mode as well. The app has quick access to various features like Weather, Sports, Unit converter, and Calculator. Since this is an early build, more features could be added in upcoming versions. Huawei is conducting a contest to encourage users to test its Search app. According to the company, top three testers will win a Huawei Mate 30 Pro 5G and 20 te...

In spite of persistent efforts from Microsoft, its AI-based voice assistant, Cortana, has struggled to keep pace with its leading rivals, including Google Assistant , Amazon Alexa and Siri. Having failed to make Cortana the go-to voice assistant app in spite of the massive installed user-base for Windows, the Redmond giant is now carrying out sweeping changes to the software with a focus on productivity. Towards that end, Microsoft is deprecating several of Cortana’s consumer-oriented features, including the ability to play music and control smart home devices. The company is also ending support for Cortana in older versions of Windows. Most notably, Microsoft is also removing Cortana from the Microsoft Launcher on Android by the end of April. The announcement comes just weeks after the company removed the standalone Cortana app from the App Store in several countries as part of its plans to eventually kill off its digital voice assistant on both iOS and Android. Meanwhile, the n...

Oppo is all set to launch its flagship device, the Oppo Find X2 on March 6. The company has been teasing the handset over the past few weeks on its social media handles and now, live images of the device have surfaced online. The live images leak is courtesy of Twitter user Sven who goes by the handle @Mutz1337. The device appears to have a glossy finish at the rear. The leaked images reveal the waterfall display, punch-hole selfie camera, and the rear camera setup of the Oppo Find X2 in all its glory. The #OPPOFindX2 looks so good😍 Really excited for the launch pic.twitter.com/Y0Tx0EiOfT — Sven (@Mutz1337) February 28, 2020 From the looks of it, the camera bump appears to be significant and noticeable on the Find X2. Oppo has placed a periscope zoom lens that supports “hybrid zoom” as we see in the image. It is accompanied by two cameras and a dual-tone LED flash. Past teasers and rumors suggest that the Oppo Find X2 will come with a 10bit OLED display with 2560×1440 pixe...

OnePlus is expected to launch its next flagship smartphone sooner rather than later, but it’s unlikely to happen next week. The company has been teasing the unveiling of a new product in India on March 3, but it has now been basically confirmed that it won’t be the OnePlus 8-series that many would have been hoping for. OnePlus earlier this month announced that it is working on “a special project” that’s “not a phone (or a) commercial product” , so the upcoming event could be a showcase for a new concept product. It’s not immediately clear what the press conference next week will be about, but from the teasers posted by the Twitter accounts of both OnePlus UK and OnePlus India over the past couple of days, it looks like the company is teasing something mechanical. The short video below, posted last night, shows off what seems to be parts of an automotive engine, so it will be interesting to see what the company actually comes up with on Tuesday. It will also be interesting to see if...

Organizers of the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2020 have officially postponed the event citing the outbreak of coronavirus. The event will be held sometime this summer . GDC 2020 was originally scheduled from the 16th to the 20th of March in San Francisco, California. “After close consultation with our partners in the game development industry and community around the world, we’ve made the difficult decision to postpone the Game Developers Conference this March.”, reads the official blog post. The exact schedule for the event has not been finalized just yet. “We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.” The decision to postpone GDC 2020 doesn’t really come as a surprise as major tech companies including Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, and Unity  were withdrawing their presence from the event one by one over the past couple of weeks. GDC organizers will be issuing a full refund for all the r...

Realme has started rolling out the Android 10 update to a couple of its recent releases – the Realme 5 Pro and the Realme X . According to official forum posts by the company, the incoming update also brings Realme UI to the two devices that were launched last year with ColorOS 6 based on Android 9 Pie. The updates come with version number RMX1901EX_11_C.01 for the Realme X and RMX1971_EX_11_C.01 for the Realme 5 Pro, and both weigh in around 3.5GB. As is almost always the case with FOTA updates, the incoming software is being rolled out in a phased manner and, will be randomly pushed out to a limited number of users to start off with before a broader rollout within the next few days. If everything goes according to plan, the full rollout will be completed in the next few days, said the company. In terms of new features, the incoming updates come with almost identical changelogs for both devices, including a Focus Mode. It also comes with an optimized user interface and improved o...

During US President Donald Trump’s recent visit to India, Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani, is believed to have told him that Reliance Jio doesn’t use any Chinese-made component in its 4G network and doesn’t plan to use any in its planned 5G network , either. The conversation reportedly happened during the US President’s interaction with CEOs from select Indian companies in New Delhi on Wednesday. According to a transcript of the conversation released by the White House on Thursday, the revelation came after Trump asked Ambani about his plans to upgrade Jio’s network from 4G to 5G. When Trump asked, “You’re doing 4G. Are you going to do 5G too?” , Ambani reportedly replied: “We’re going to do 5G. We’re the only network in the world that doesn’t have a single Chinese component” . It’s not immediately clear if Ambani elaborated any further on the issue, but the company reportedly uses Samsung equipment for its 4G network and plans to retain its relationship with the South K...

Last July, Netflix introduced its mobile-only plan at ₹199 in India. The plan offered users standard definition (480p) access to viewers and recently, Netflix has silently bumped up the resolution to 720p on its ₹199 Mobile Plan and ₹499 Basic Plan . The changes in plans were spotted by Gadgets 360 and Netflix told them that the revised plans are part of the company’s new test and were available since early February in the country. “We are always looking for ways in which to make the Netflix experience more immersive and enjoyable for our members. At the moment, this is a test, and might not be rolled out widely.”, a Netflix spokesperson told Gadgets 360. As we see in the image below, Netflix India’s plans sheet has been updated to reflect these changes in plans, which hints that the company could be considering to offer high resolution for long-term in its entry-level plans. Credits: Netflix India Considering the fact that other OTT platforms does not cap the video quality b...

Online bus ticketing platform redBus on Thursday announced its foray into the car and bike pooling space with the launch of ‘rPool’ to provide intra-city mobility service in the national capital. “This new service allows office-goers in the national capital to avail and offer rides in their personal cars and bikes. while commuting between homes and their workplace. rPool can be accessed directly from within the redBus mobile app,” redBus said in a statement. The company said that in order to build a trusted community of ride givers and ride takers, rPool is restricted to working professionals undertaking a daily commute. “Users are verified through their mobile number and their organization’s corporate email address or a government-approved ID,” it said. Further, rPool would cover its rides through complementary insurance provided by its insurance partner in case of an accident. Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus said that “we are pleased to announce the launch of rPool Service in Del...

The cancelation of MWC 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak pushed forward a slew of amazing launches. While some phone makers stuck to their original schedule , streaming the launch event online, others decided to reschedule the event . Vivo is one of the latter and has today unveiled its latest concept smartphone, the Vivo APEX 2020 with some of the most exciting innovations we have seen to date. The Chinese giant was going to show off the concept phone at the conference, allowing users to get a taste of under-screen selfie camera, the first-ever gimbal-stabilized main camera, and well, super-fast 60W wireless charging technology. Let’s take a look at the features that Vivo has packed in the APEX 2020 concept phone: Vivo APEX 2020: Specs and Features Design + Display Vivo APEX 2020 builds on last year’s concept, which I got a chance to get my hands on , and does not include any ports or openings. There’s no speaker holes, charging port or even button cut-outs. APEX 2020 bo...

A live image of what’s said to be the Nubia Red Magic 5G gaming smartphone, seems to show-off some of the key design aspects on the back of the device. It reveals a vertical triple-camera module at the top and a prominent ‘Red Magic’ logo lit up with what seems to be LED lights. Interestingly, it also shows off a POGO connector on the edge, which could be for connecting accessories, or might even be a magnetic charging connector similar to the Black Shark 3. The phone also has a ‘5G’ branding to emphasize its support for the latest technology in cellular connectivity, as well as air vents on the side for thermal management. The image was posted by GameBench , which offers performance-monitoring tools and services for OEMs and developers. Originally scheduled to be unveiled at the MWC 2020 , the Nubia Red Magic 5G is now expected to be announced next month after the annual mobile expo in Barcelona had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus outbreak. Several key aspects about th...

After Redmi and Realme , Chinese phone maker Vivo has also launched its first-ever 5G-enabled mid-range smartphone in China. Vivo Z6 is a successor to the Vivo Z5 from last year and brings major upgrades, including a punch-hole display, quad rear-cameras and the recently launched Snapdragon 765G chipset for 5G connectivity support. Vivo Z6: Specs and Features Right off the bat, the design of Vivo Z6 looks really similar to the iQOO 3 gaming phone that was launched earlier this week. You have got a punch-hole display on the front and rectangular camera bump on the rear. The in-display fingerprint has been replaced by a physical sensor on the rear. Vivo Z6 features a 6.57-inch Full HD+ LCD display with a 20:9 aspect ratio, 1080 x 2080-pixel resolution, and 90.74% screen-to-body ratio. The company is big on packing the smallest possible punch-hole cutout on its devices and the Z6 is no exception. It has arrived with a 3.85mm punch-hole that houses a 16MP (f/2.48) selfie camera . ...

PUBG Mobile has finally announced the rollout date of the much-awaited PUBG Mobile v0.17.0 update. The update will be reaching your device next week on the 3rd of March . PUBG Mobile took to Twitter to announce the release date of this new update. In the release date teaser, the company also confirmed that the update will bring death replay feature. Take a look at the tweet below. COMING IN 0.17.0! Death Replays will be available for you to peruse the last few seconds before your untimely downfall! ☠️ pic.twitter.com/818Rr144Fv — PUBG MOBILE (@PUBGMOBILE) February 28, 2020 Death Replay, or “kill cam” as gamers say, shows you how you were killed by the enemy. The feature has existed on the PC version of PUBG for a while now, and the company is finally bringing it to PUBG Mobile. Popular first-person shooter game Call of Duty: Mobile already has a kill cam to let you know how you were mercilessly killed by your opponents. The addition of Death Replay is indeed an essential fe...

Google has reportedly removed all Cheetah Mobile apps from the Play Store as part of its latest purge that saw the tech giant banning around 600 ‘disruptive’ apps from its Android app store. Believed to have been first spotted by Buzzfeed News, Cheetah Mobile was one of the most well-known developers hit by Google’s latest crackdown as part its ongoing efforts to clean up the Android eco-system and prevent publishers from bombarding users with obnoxious ads. While there’s no official statement from Cheetah Mobile on this subject, the Chinese developer has often found itself in the midst of serious controversies for breaching Play Store policies with not only disruptive ads in its apps, but also for collecting private data without the explicit consent of users. While Google has often banned Cheetah apps from the Play Store, most of those bans have been short-lived, so it remains to be seen if the latest moratorium is here to stay. Cheetah Mobile, in case you’re unaware, is a well-...