The Asus ZenBook Flip S (UX371) is among the first laptops in India to be powered by Intel’s 11th Gen Core processor. Based on the Intel Evo platform, the laptop is touted to be deliver optimal performance, top-notch connectivity solutions, enhanced on-battery time, and fast data transfer rate. Besides, the ZenBook Flip S (UX371) boasts a vivid 4K OLED screen, a premium metallic design, full-size backlit keyboard, and Harmon Kardon-certified audio system. Priced at Rs 1,49,990, the ZenBook Flip S (UX371) seems to be a solid laptop for work, play and entertainment. How does it justify its price tag when put to the rigours of daily use? Let’s find out:Design

The ZenBook Flip S (UX371) is a premium laptop with a convertible design and thin-and-light form factor. It is only 13.9mm thick and weighs around 1.2kg. Its lightweight build makes it convenient to use in diverse environments – office, home, cab, metro, etc. Moreover, its thin profile makes it easy to handle and store; it does not take much space inside a backpack and fits perfectly in a laptop sleeve cover, too.

The ZenBook Flip S (UX371) is a design marvel, at least on the outside. It has a solid build with red copper diamond-cut highlights running across the borders. The highlights accentuate the otherwise regular ‘Jade Black’ finish of the laptop. Open the display lid and it is a different story altogether. The display has thick bezels around it – especially the one at the bottom – which look superfluous.

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Wireless headphones continue to upbeat in the audio hearables segment despite the true wireless earbuds blitzkrieg throughout the year. Japanese electronics maker Sony is among the established brands that reigned supreme in the wireless headphones segment with its WH-1000XM4 headphones. Of the many launches this year, Business Standard lists top three wireless headphones that stood out in 2020:

Sony WH-1000XM4

Successor to the WH-1000XM3, the Sony’s WH-1000XM4 has it all to woo the audiophile. From mature sound signature to industry leading active noise cancellation (ANC) capability, the headphones is second to none. Besides ANC and multiple sound modes, the headphones boast tons of other value-added features too. For example, there is transparency mode to hear ambient noise without disabling ANC. Similarly, there is a ‘Speak to Chat’ feature which pauses the music if it detects you are speaking to someone. The headphones ability to connect to two devices simultaneously rounds up the package and make it a suitable fit for audiophiles.

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From a niche product category, tablets graduated to the mainstream this year due to rise in demand owing to the coronavirus pandemic, which defined a new normal where digital took precedence as home turned into workplace and classrooms shifted online. Despite the surge in demand for the big-screen slates, there was barely any new entrant in the segment and the tablet market continued to be dominated by Apple and Samsung in 2020. Business Standard lists top 5 tablets that stood out:

Apple iPad Air 2020

If there is one tablet that grabbed attention in 2020, it was Apple’s iPad Air 2020. A toned-down version of the iPad Pro, which it touted to be good enough to replace even powerful laptops, the iPad Air 2020 is powered by the Apple’s A14 Bionic chipset. Besides, there is a complete overhaul in terms of design compared to its previous generation. It is 6.1mm thick and 458g in weight. The iPad Air sports a 10.9-inch screen size only, with 64GB base storage and a 256GB top-end variant.

Price: Starts at Rs 54,900

This year, as Apple topped its line up with the latest iPad Air and iPad 8th gen, Samsung upped the ante with its Galaxy Tab S7+. This premium tablet from Samsung has it all to take on the mighty iPad Pro (or even iPad Air 4) with metallic build, an AMOLED display of 120Hz refresh rate, a 10,090mAh battery, SPen digital stylus, all-round connectivity, ample internal storage, Qualcomm’s flagship processor, and so much more that makes other slates pale in comparison.

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Xiaomi Corp. founder Lei Jun can finally rejoice after the Chinese smartphone maker’s market value swelled past the $100 billion mark, a figure his company fell far short of when it listed two years ago.

The firm’s stock rallied as much as 9.1% Wednesday to a fresh record in Hong Kong, making it the 13th stock in the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index to have a market capitalization above $100 billion. It ended the day 7.6% higher with a market value of HK$802 billion ($103 billion).

Xiaomi, which generates the majority of sales from its smartphone business, originally eyed a $100 billion valuation for its initial public offering, people close to the deal said in May 2018. But it was only at half that level upon its debut, and shares traded below the HK$17 offering price for most of its first two years as a public company.

The stock saw its fortunes reverse in August, after it was announced that Xiaomi would be added to the Hang Seng Index. Shares have more than doubled since. Strong sales during China’s “Double 12” shopping festival have helped fuel this month’s 20% stock jump, and a proposal to boost the weighting of companies like Xiaomi in the Hang Seng Index to 8% from 5% could lead to further gains.

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Homegrown social media platform ShareChat on Tuesday said over 750 million user generated pieces of content were uploaded this year.

The user generated content also saw 24 billion WhatsApp shares during the year.

Hindi users led content creation with 26 per cent contribution, while Tamil users led WhatsApp shares with 24 per cent share.

ShareChat in its report said COVID-19 induced lockdown and physical distancing impacted the community’s behaviour on the platform with users engaging more on ShareChat during and post the lockdown.

The average user time spent daily on the platform increased from 24 minutes pre-lockdown to 31 minutes post lockdown, it added.

The report also brought to the fore Top Moments of the year. COVID-19 and conversations around the life-altering global pandemic led the list, followed by conversations around Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise, ban on Chinese apps, IPL, and the rebuilding of the Ram Mandir.

IPL was trending in a few Indic languages with ShareChat’s users supporting their local teams. Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Marathi users cheered for their teams and put IPL amongst the top five moments of the year in their respective languages.

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Google diagnosed a widespread outage that knocked out major services earlier this week, such as Gmail and YouTube, as a mistake with its system for identifying people online.

Alphabet Inc.’s Google has several tools that enable it to verify and track logged-in users. In October, the company began moving those tools to a new file storage system, and in the process misreported portions of the data, according to a Friday post. That caused several of its services to go down for 47 minutes Monday morning, a rare technical misstep.

Google’s explanation comes amid heightened cybersecurity vigilance. A hack on software provider SolarWinds Corp. has exposed companies including Microsoft Corp. and multiple U.S. government agencies. A Google spokeswoman said on Friday that the internet giant has found no evidence the SolarWinds hack affected Alphabet or Google’s systems.

About 15% of requests sent to Google’s cloud storage service were disrupted during the Monday outage, the company said. The cloud division offers an identification service similar to one from Okta Inc.

On Tuesday, Google’s Gmail service had another disruption. The company attributed this to an issue with data migration.

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Adapting to the new hybrid normal of working remotely as well as from office, cautiously optimistic companies are looking to hire more people and provide better appraisals in 2021, as they step out of pandemic-ravaged 2020.

The pandemic emerged the biggest inflection point for the Indian job landscape. For corporates, work-from-home and remote workers became the new normal, while for professionals, online learning and digital skills took centre stage.

In 2020, most companies “deprioritised” their hiring plans amid the uncertain economic outlook, while industries such as travel, hospitality, retail, aviation, real estate, construction, and automobile were severely hit. Nevertheless, there is cautious optimism among corporates, which is getting reflected in their recruitment plans for the new year.

“Yes, the market is showing positive signs of recovery with almost all industries showing growth in hiring but with caution. Overall, the intent to hire recovered smartly from 11 per cent during the lockdown period to 18 per cent for HY (half year), and this number is growing,” said Deval Singh, business head, mobilization (hiring), at TeamLease Services.

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David Warner and Sean Abbott have been ruled out of the second Test against India and will rejoin the Australian squad ahead of the third Test, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Wednesday.

CA, in a statement, said Warner and Abbott spent time in Sydney outside the team’s bio-secure hub to recover from injury.

“While neither player has been in a specific ‘hotspot’ as outlined by NSW Health, Cricket Australia’s bio-security protocols do not allow them to rejoin the squad in time for the Boxing Day Test,” the statement read.

“Warner has not fully recovered from a groin injury suffered in the ODI series against India and would not have been available for the second Test match, while Abbott has recovered from a calf strain sustained during Australia A’s tour match against India and would have been available for selection for the Boxing Day Test,” it added.

The pair travelled from Sydney to Melbourne to continue their rehabilitation given the changing public health situation in Sydney at the time. CA also confirmed that no additional players will be added to the squad for the Boxing Day Test.

India stumbled to an eight-wicket loss in the first Test of the series. Both sides will now take on each other in the Boxing Day Test, beginning December 26. India will be without Virat Kohli for the remaining three Tests as he heads back home after being granted paternity leave by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

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Reliance Capital (RCL), part of the debt-ridden Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Group, has received 10 more bids, including from SBI Life, for its subsidiaries, sources said.

Earlier this month, the Committee of Debenture Holders had extended the last date for submission of expression of interest (EoI) to December 17, 2020. Following this, 10 new bids have come in for Reliance Capital’s assets, taking the total number of bids to 70, the sources said.

State Bank of India’s subsidiary SBI Life has also shown interest in picking up Reliance Capital’s stake in Reliance Nippon Life Insurance, they added.

Reliance Nippon Life Insurance Company, a joint venture with Japan’s largest life insurer-Nippon Life which holds 49 per cent shareholding, has a paid-up capital of Rs 1,196 crore as of September 30, 2020.

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Samsung is reportedly planning to launch new Galaxy Buds Pro earbuds next month and a new report has claimed that it will have a feature that is quite similar to the Spatial Audio function available in the AirPods Max and AirPods Pro.

The details were spotted in the Galaxy Wearable app ahead of its official launch, reports 9To5Google.

“It indicated that Spatial Audio, which adjusts audio based on the direction of a user’s head, will work when the Galaxy Buds Pro are connected to a Samsung phone running Android 11”.

Spatial Audio is designed to provide a theater-like surround sound listening experience on iPhone and iPad using dynamic head-tracking capabilities.

Galaxy Buds Pro will also have a “voice detect” feature that automatically enables transparency mode and lowers the volume of your audio when the earbuds sense that you’re speaking.

The new earbuds have also been certified by China’s 3C with a 472 mAh battery in the case, as well as the Korean NRRA certification, the report said on Tuesday.

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