Since its integration with OPPO, things are shaping up quite differently for OnePlus – mostly in a good way. Changes in the Nord 2 5G (review) smartphone were subtle yet apparent, and same is the case with the recently launched OnePlus Buds Pro wireless earbuds. On paper, the OnePlus Buds Pro comes across as an all-round package deal in the wireless earbuds segment. But how does it fare in real life? Let’s find out:

Design

This is one area where OPPO’s influence is apparent. The OnePlus Buds Pro looks similar to the OPPO Enco X in more ways than one, but with a better texture and design language. It boasts in-ear design with a tiny stem protruding from the earbuds. Made of plastic, these earbuds have a matte black finish (review unit) with a dual tone colour texture. The matte finish makes the buds easy to handle and use. As for quality, the earbuds seem to have a durable and sturdy build. They might withstand everyday abuse, but they do easily become dirty and require regular cleaning to stay in a good condition. The Buds Pro is IP55-rated for water and dust resistance.

 The black matte finish extends to the earbuds’ charging-cum-storage case. It is a tiny rectangular unit with curved corners which makes it slide easily even in the most cramped spaces like a jeans pocket. On the front, there is a tiny LED battery indicator that doubles up as the pairing light indicator. The back side sports the case USB-C charging port. The top, surprisingly, is not boring and features the OnePlus branding. The OnePlus Buds Pro’s charging case is heavier than those of most peers, but it is one of the few that come with wireless charging support. The case is water resistant too (IPX4) but not dust resistant.

Features and performance

From adaptive active noise cancellation to wireless charging, Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity, and Dolby Atmos support, the OnePlus Buds Pro is brimful with premium features. However, most of its key differentiating features are limited to OnePlus smartphones, and that too not all of them. For example, the buds’ fast pair function is available on the OnePlus 6 series smartphones and above. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos is available only on the OnePlus 7 series smartphones and above. The earbuds support LHDC (Low Latency High-Definition Audio Codec), besides SBC and AAC. But then there are not many smartphones compatible with LHDC. Therefore, the Buds Pro mostly uses AAC as standard for audio transmission.

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The mega initial public offering of India’s biggest state-backed insurer could result in job losses and impact the company’s social infrastructure spending plans, according to one of its largest trade unions.

Life Insurance Corp. “was formed to provide insurance to rural and social and economically backward people,” Rajesh Kumar, general secretary of All India LIC Employees’ Federation, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. The company, which has been funding capital-intensive infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and power for more than six decades, may instead focus on “profit-maximizing investments” after the IPO, Kumar said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is looking to dilute as much as 10% stake in LIC as part of a broader divestment target to help plug a widening budget gap. The sale, which is set to be the country’s biggest, could value the company at as much as $261 billion, surpassing Reliance Industries Ltd., according to analysts at Jefferies India.

The trade union, which represents about 4,000 of LIC’s roughly 114,000 employees, has written to the prime minister and members of Parliament to protest about the listing and is planning campaigns to raise concerns about the share sale, Kumar said.

“We believe that selling national asset is a willfully disruptive policy,” he said. “Recruitment will be minimal, outsourcing will happen and job losses will take place.”

The government last month picked 10 banks for the sale that’s planned for between January and March 2022.

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South Korean tech giant Samsung is expected to unveil a new budget 5G smartphone Galaxy Wide5 and that might launch as Galaxy F42 5G in India.

According to GizmoChina, ahead of its official unveiling, the smartphone has arrived on Geekbench certification, revealing its key specs.

According to the Geekbench portal, the Samsung Galaxy Wide5 a.k.a the Galaxy F42 5G runs on the latest Android 11 out of the box. It scores 558 single-core points and 1513 multi-core points.

The listing reveals that the phone will come powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC paired with 6GB RAM.

The smartphone has an Infinity V display with an FHD+ resolution. The screen will have an exact resolution of 1080 x 2009 pixels. It is touted to feature a side-facing fingerprint scanner for added security.

The smartphone might come in a Blue colour variant.

The Samsung Galaxy F42 5G was recently spotted on Google’s Play Console listing.

The identical model numbers suggested that the Wide5 and F42 5G could be the same phone arriving with different names in different markets, the report said.

The Wide5 could be heading to South Korea, and the F42 5G is likely to release in India, it added.

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The Pulse Report, released last week by PhonePe, a leading Indian fintech platform with over 300 million registered users, is a study on the evolution of digital payments in India over the past five years. The following insights about how digital payment adoption across India has evolved since 2016, are taken from the report.

GROWING ACCEPTANCE

• Average transaction value since launch of insurance, investments and gold purchases on the platform has shot up 100-400%
• The average mutual fund investment size in Patiala is Rs 30,000, twice that of Mumbai

INDIA’S PAYMENT HABITS

• More than 300 mn Indian smartphone users now use digital payments
• PhonePe has seen digital transactions from across 19,098 pin codes
• 133 million monthly active users
• 80% of transactions come from tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 cities and beyond
• PhonePe users paid across 75 petrol pumps in 13 states in a year

FUN FACTS

• The amount of money that travels digitally in India is more than the GDP of 21 countries
• 13,456 digital payments at Victory Bazaar in Kakinada from during lockdown, or 200 transactions a day!
• 14,142 payments at a dairy shop in Delhi NCR during lockdown, or 211 transactions a day!

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For the last couple of years, foldable smartphones have been the most talked-about tech topic in India for the smartphone industry as well as for users. Now, Samsung which initiated the new-age foldable war with Galaxy Fold is back with Galaxy Z Flip 3 that folds into the size of a wallet.

The smartphone has been launched with top-end features in two variants including 8GB RAM + 128GB of storage and 8GB RAM+256GB of internal storage.

The Galaxy Z Flip 3 5G 8GB RAM +128GB storage model comes at a price of Rs 84,999 while the 8GB RAM + 256GB storage model has been launched at a price of Rs 88,999. The smartphone comes in two colour options Phantom Black and Cream.

We used the 8GB RAM + 128GB storage Phantom Black model for around a week and here is what we think about this new device.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3 features a 6.7-inch main screen on the inside, which is vertically foldable.

The main Dynamic AMOLED display provides a resolution of 2,640 x 1,080 pixels, a high screen refresh rate of 120Hz, and Gorilla Glass Victus protection.

The smartphone is also equipped with a small 1.9-inch display on the outside, which has a resolution of 260 x 512 pixels on the outer side next to the cameras which shows the time and other important notifications. The smartphone has a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and the IPX8 certification for protection against water and dust.

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The global wearable market, as a whole, grew 5.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) with 40.9 million units shipping in the second quarter of 2021, largely due to sales of smartwatches at the expense of basic bands, says a new report.

According to research firm Canalys, the boost was driven by Apple, which continues to dominate the market with its Watch models, reports Engadget.

The report noted that smartwatch sales took over from basic bands (sports bands, etc.) back in Q4, 2020 and now account for 62 per cent of all wearable band shipments.

Apple now accounts for 31.1 per cent of the smartwatch market and 19.3 per cent of the wearable band market overall, second only to Xiaomi in number of shipments.

Samsung also notably grew by 114 per cent in terms of smartwatch shipments YoY, and could see further success with its latest Galaxy Watch 4 now powered by Wear OS 3, jointly developed with Google, the report said.

Fitbit also saw a 20.6 per cent boost in smartwatches over sales this time last year, powered by its Versa 2 and Sense models, it added.

In the basic band arena, Xiaomi now leads the way in sales with a 19.6 per cent share — just ahead of Apple — led by its Mi Smart Band 5 and 6 models. However, those products are significantly cheaper with retail prices of around $35 and $55, respectively.

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Apple said Friday it’s delaying its plan to scan U.S. iPhones for images of child sexual abuse, saying it needs more time to refine the system before releasing it.

The company had revealed last month that it was working on a tool to detect known images of child sexual abuse, which would work by scanning files before they’re uploaded to iCloud.

Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers, and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features, Apple said in an update posted at the top of a company webpage detailing the device-scanning plans.

Apple had said in its initial announcement that the latest changes will roll out this year as part of updates to its operating software for iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches.

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Samsung is reportedly planning to start including Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) on the mid-range Galaxy A series from next year.

According to the Korean publication The Elec, the South Korean tech giant is now preparing to expand the availability of OIS on its smartphones to the entire Galaxy A series models from next year. This would add add more value to its cheap Android phones.

OIS is a technology that stabilizes the camera in case of shaky hands while capturing by physically moving the lens or sensor. This helps in removing unwanted movement that may affect the output.

Until last year, OIS was largely limited to Samsung’s flagship phones.

Samsung added OIS to a few Galaxy A series smartphones this year. Namely, the Galaxy A52, Galaxy A72, and the Galaxy A22 4G. Other models in the series such as the Galaxy A32 4G/5G, Galaxy A22 5G, and Galaxy A42 utilize autofocus (AF) with lower performance than OIS.

Samsung earlier this week launched the Galaxy A52s 5G smartphone in India under its A-series.

The smartphone comes with an Infinity-O display, 64MP quad camera with OIS, water and dust-resistant IP67 rating.

The Galaxy A52s 5G sports a 6.5-inch Full HD+ Super AMOLED Infinity-O display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels and a 120Hz refresh rate.

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Apple’s child protection features, which the company had announced last month, has now been delayed by the tech giant owing to criticism that the changes could diminish user privacy.

According to The Verge, the outcry was regarding one of the features that would scan users’ photos for child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The changes had earlier been scheduled to roll out later this year.

In a statement to The Verge, Apple said, “Last month we announced plans for features intended to help protect children from predators who use communication tools to recruit and exploit them, and limit the spread of Child Sexual Abuse Material.”

The statement further added, “Based on feedback from customers, advocacy groups, researchers and others, we have decided to take additional time over the coming months to collect input and make improvements before releasing these critically important child safety features.”

Apple’s original press release about the changes, which were intended to reduce the proliferation of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), had a similar statement at the top of the page.

That release detailed three major changes in the works. One change to Search and Siri would point to resources to prevent CSAM if a user searched for information related to it.

The other two changes came under more significant scrutiny. The first would alert parents when their kids were receiving or sending sexually explicit photos and would blur those images for kids.

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Amazon.com Inc plans to take a more proactive approach to determine what types of content violate its cloud service policies, such as rules against promoting violence, and enforce its removal, according to two sources, a move likely to renew debate about how much power tech companies should have to restrict free speech.

Over the coming months, Amazon will hire a small group of people in its Amazon Web Services (AWS) division to develop expertise and work with outside researchers to monitor for future threats, one of the sources familiar with the matter said.

It could turn Amazon, the leading cloud service provider worldwide with 40% market share according to research firm Gartner, into one of the world’s most powerful arbiters of content allowed on the internet, experts say.

Amazon made headlines in the Washington Post last week for shutting down a website hosted on AWS that featured propaganda from Islamic State that celebrated the suicide bombing that killed an estimated 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops in Kabul last Thursday. They did so after the news organization contacted Amazon, according to the Post.

The proactive approach to content comes after Amazon kicked social media app Parler off its cloud service shortly after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot for permitting content promoting violence.

“AWS Trust & Safety works to protect AWS customers, partners, and internet users from bad actors attempting to use our services for abusive or illegal purposes,” an AWS spokesperson said in a statement. “When AWS Trust & Safety is made aware of abusive or illegal behavior, they act quickly to investigate and engage with customers to take appropriate actions. As AWS continues to expand, this team (like most teams in AWS) will continue to grow.”

Activists and human rights groups are increasingly holding not just websites and apps accountable for harmful content, but also the underlying tech infrastructure that enables those sites to operate, while political conservatives decry the curtailing of free speech.

AWS already prohibits its services from being used in a variety of ways, such as illegal or fraudulent activity, to incite or threaten violence or promote child sexual exploitation and abuse, according to its acceptable use policy.

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