Although global TV sales are expected to decline slightly this year, shipments of premium TVs will grow which will be led by Samsung, a report said on Tuesday.

The sales of QLED TVs, anchored by the world’s largest TV maker Samsung, is likely to surpass 12 million units this year, up 26 per cent from a year ago.

Samsung last year sold 7.79 million QLED TVs, accounting for more than 81 per cent of global QLED TV sales.

Global TV shipments are projected to reach 223.09 million units in 2021, according to market researcher Omdia, which is down 1 per cent from last year’s 225.35 million units.

The latest figure is also down from Omdia’s previous estimate of 224.22 million units late last year.

The robust TV sales propelled by the pandemic-induced stay-at-home economy will continue through the first half of 2021.

However, it expected TV sales in the second half of the year to decline from a year earlier, reports Yonhap news agency.

Although the overall TV market may shrink slightly, industry observers said South Korea’s two largest TV makers — Samsung and LG — may not suffer big damage as premium TV sales are expected to increase.

The data showed that global OLED TV sales, led by LG, are expected to reach 5.6 million units in 2021, up 200,000 units from its previous estimate. It is also a 60 percent increase from last year’s shipments of 3.54 million units.

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In a recent update Telegram messenger introduced Voice Chats 2.0, with rich features for conducting live voice chat sessions in Channels for unlimited participants in a secured and seamless manner. This feature was earlier existing only for Telegram Groups that was launched back in December 2020.

This new update also brings recordable voice chats, rich lists of participants, raise hand mechanics, invite links for speakers and listeners, voice chat titles. In addition to this, public figures will now be able to join voice chats as their channels, and not necessarily with their personal accounts, maintaining their privacy.

Admins of channels and public groups can now host voice chats for millions of live listeners. To start a Voice Chat, open the profile of any group or channel where you’re an admin, tap ([?]) or ([?]), and select Start Voice Chat.

Admins can record the live voice chat sessions, and the audio file will be automatically saved in their ‘Saved Messages’ window right after the session. The recording can be provided to other members who have missed the live session. All the participants would be able to see whether a chat is being recorded or not with the help of a red light right next to the title of the voice chat.

In a live chat session where the participants are muted, listeners can give an alert to the admins if they want to speak by raising their hand. For admins to easily recognize a particular participant’s credentials, their bio is now visible to them where the subject expertise could be mentioned. Admins can easily decide and select a speaking slot accordingly.

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On several occasions, Xiaomi has set the precedent in India’s price-conscious smartphone market with its value-for-money offerings. And that legacy seems to continue in the recently-launched Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. Though a midrange smartphone by pricing (Rs 18,999 onwards), it has the qualities to beat some of the premium flagships of the present time. This top-end model in the Redmi Note 10 series is packed to the brim with premium features, and that makes it a hard-to-beat smartphone in the midrange segment.

For many reasons, the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max might be the next best thing from the stable of Xiaomi since the Poco F1 (review). Let’s see why:Redmi Note 10 Pro Max: Design and display

Xiaomi is not known to be a master at designing smartphones, but that seems to have changed with the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. Unlike most other Xiaomi smartphones, the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is neither thick (8.1mm) nor heavy in weight (192g) or bulky. Instead, the smartphone has fine ergonomics for comfortable use and a good in-hand feel. Accentuating the design is the new ‘Evol’-themed frosted glass on the back with a gradient texture on the ‘Vintage Bronze’ colour and a classic glossy profile on the ‘Dark Night’ colour variant. While Xiaomi has fixed most things in its new design language, there still remains a camera bump on the back that protrudes a bit from the frame, despite being placed in a cleverly implemented dual-slab module. That said, the Redmi Note 10 Pro Max is not the phone you can use without facing any discomfort while it rests flat on a surface like table top simply because it wobbles a lot.

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OnePlus to launch its first-gen smartwatch along with new flagship 9 series smartphones on March 23 and the company CEO Pete Lau has revealed that the watch has more than 110 work-out modes.

“One watch, more than 110 work-out modes. #OnePlusWatch,” Lau said in a tweet.

The tweet also includes a short animated video that shows some of the work-out modes such as walking, swimming, cycling, running, cricket, badminton, weightlifting, ballet, free training, and shooting.

The smartwatch is expected to feature a Snapdragon Wear system-on-chip, potentially the recently-launched Snapdragon Wear 4100.

It will also be able to answer phone calls, display notifications, control media playback, and work as a remote for OnePlus TVs.

OnePlus Watch may also include an OLED display to save battery and a host of fitness and health features like a heart rate sensor, blood oxygen monitor and software-based features such as sleep pattern analysis, goals-oriented exercise tracking and more.

The OnePlus CEO said that the company’s priority for devices is to offer “fashionable designs, provide seamless connectivity and deliver a best-in-class user experience.”

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OPPO has traditionally been known for its camera-centric smartphones. While most of its smartphones are centered on all-round capabilities, it is the company’s F-series that has consistently been developed around camera-centric innovations above anything else. Fresh in the series is the OPPO F19 Pro Plus, a midrange smartphone loaded with OPPO’s exclusive camera features for distinct imaging experience. Powered by MediaTek Dimensity 800U system-on-chip, the smartphone boasts a thin-and-lightweight design, punch-hole AMOLED screen, in-display fingerprint sensor, quad-camera array on the rear, and fast-charge support.

Priced at Rs 25,990, the OPPO F19 Pro Plus seems to have a balanced specifications-price ratio. But is it as good as it seems on paper? Let’s find out:

Design

OPPO continues to add finesse to its minimal design language by improving ergonomics. Though the OPPO F19 Pro Plus carries over the plastic construction of the previous iteration, the upgrades here are mostly around the form factor and build quality. The OPPO F19 Pro Plus is compact, sturdy and has a lightweight design that makes it easy to hold and operate. For novelty, it boasts a frosted glass with matte texture on the back cover.

Though it is not the only smartphone to experiment with a frosted glass theme, the minimal design and neat rear profile make it look different, in a good way, from other smartphones. The matte texture protects the phone from fingerprint smudges and adds some level of protection from scratches too. The phone’s rear-camera module protrudes, but not so much as to bring a distraction to the rear profile. Thankfully, the phone comes with a silicone cover that reduces the camera bulge when applied on the phone. Besides, it also protects the back cover from scratches. On the downside, the cover adds some weight and size to this otherwise thin-and-lightweight smartphone.

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TISSNET result 2021: Tata Institute of Social Science will declare TISSNET (National Eligibility Test) 2021 result today on its official website tiss.edu. The entrance exam to MA course was earlier held on February 20.

TISSNET 2021 result: Steps to check result

Step 1: Visit the official website, admissions.tiss.edu

Step 2: On the homepage, click on ‘result link’ in latest announcements

Step 3: You will be redirected to a new page

Step 4: Log-in using credentials

Step 5: Result will be available. Download and take a print out for further reference.

The selection process consists of passing the TISS national entrance test (TISS-NET) exam followed by the programme aptitude test (TISS-PAT) along with online personal interview (OPI).

About TISSNET

The entrance exam is being conducted for admission in MA, MSc, MHA and MPH courses.

TISS campuses

The qualified candidates will be eligible for admission to TISS campuses including Tuljapur (Maharashtra), Guwahati (Assam), Hyderabad (Telangana), and centre in Chennai (Tamil Nadu).

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Facebook has announced new measures to prevent its interest-based forums called Groups from spreading harmful content, like hate speech and misinformation.

The measures come after the social networking platform faced criticism for its groups being linked to protests that led up to the Capitol riot in the US earlier this year.

“We know we have a greater responsibility when we are amplifying or recommending content,” Tom Alison, Vice President of Engineering at Facebook, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.

These new changes will roll out globally over the coming months, Facebook said.

The social networking giant said that when a group starts to violate its rules, it will now start showing them lower in recommendations, which means it is less likely that people will discover them.

This is similar to its approach in News Feed, where the platform shows lower quality posts further down, so fewer people see them.

“We believe that groups and members that violate our rules should have reduced privileges and reach, with restrictions getting more severe as they accrue more violations, until we remove them completely,” Alison said.

“And when necessary in cases of severe harm, we will outright remove groups and people without these steps in between.”

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Pixxel, India’s first private earth imaging company, said it has closed its $7.3 million seed round with new capital from Omnivore and Techstars joining alongside previous investors Lightspeed Ventures, Blume Ventures, growX and Ryan Johnson, ex-President at Planet Labs.

Also, for the first time on Thursday, Pixxel lifted the veil of secrecy and publicly discussed its mission to build the world’s highest resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation. The company’s first hyperspectral satellite will launch within the next few months.

“We are very excited to finally speak about what we are building at Pixxel. Our new funding enables us to build a health monitor for the planet through the world’s most advanced hyperspectral small-satellites. This enables us to capture some of the richest imagery that’s ever been beamed down to earth,” said Awais Ahmed, CEO, Pixxel. “Our hyperspectral satellites will allow society to tackle many of humanity’s most pressing issues and we believe they will become the holy grail of remote sensing – providing the best combination of spatial, temporal and spectral resolutions to date and empowering humans to see the earth like never before,” he said.

Compared to the common multispectral satellites prevalent today, Pixxel’s hyperspectral earth-imaging satellites will beam down 50x more information by capturing light reflected from the earth in far more detail and in much narrower bands than just red, green and blue. This allows Pixxel to capture exact chemical signatures and offer much more accurate solutions to seemingly unsolvable issues in agriculture, energy and environment conservation. Once deployed, Pixxel’s constellation will provide 24-hour global coverage in higher quality resolution and lower cost than any existing satellite competitors.

The additional funding will be utilised to boost Pixxel’s efforts in making the agricultural industry more efficient in the country and worldwide. The satellite imagery with agricultural datasets can help in improving the existing crop and water management analytics as well as identifying a spectrum of issues that crop up during the growing season. The funding will also enable Pixxel to continue to rapidly scale its operations to meet the growing demand for high-quality remote sensing data through hyperspectral imaging.

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India has become the top country in the world in the use of mobile applications and the government is encouraging and promoting Indian innovators to create apps, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, he said the Digital India programme coupled with encouragement being given by the government to promote Indian innovators to create apps has of late become a big movement.

“You will be happy to know that India has become the top country in the use of mobile applications. But we have to expand further and I’m quite sure in the coming years, Indian mobile app platforms on hosting of mobile apps will surely give a tough competition to the international platforms,” he said.

The minister said that the government has started allowing Mobile Seva App Store to also host apps free of cost.

“In our mobile government app, all have come on board and its total download is 8.65 crore. Therefore, it is an improvement in the right direction.

“We are encouraging Make in India apps for Indians. We started a very good Atmanirbhar Bharat mobile app innovation challenge in which 6,940 app developers came and we selected 25 in nine categories and also rewarded them,” he said.

Replying to a question on whether the government is developing its own app hosting platform, Prasad said there is already a mobile sewa app and there are state government messaging centres and a lot of dedicated messages were sent during the COVID-19 period.

“But we want more innovations to come from outside the government. And that’s what our whole policies are about,” he said.

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US-based action camera manufacturer GoPro on Wednesday launched a new mobile app named “Quik” that will replace the GoPro app in App Store and Google Play Store.

The app lets users import photos and videos from any phone or camera, including GoPros and DSLRs. It features a suite of editing tools to edit photos and videos by users.

“Quik makes it simple and fun to finally make sense of the vast number of photos and videos we all have on our phones,” Nicholas Woodman, Founder and CEO, GoPro, said in a statement.

“You don’t even have to open the Quik app to organize your images, simply share your favorite shots directly to Quik from your camera roll, text threads or wherever your best shots may be. We named it Quik because that’s what it is!” Woodman added.

Through the app, users can back up photos and videos on cloud at its original quality.

Users can also create impressive music-synced videos by simply selecting the photos and videos they want to include along with a song from the included library or your own.

Quik is free to download and use on a trial basis.

Users can unlock the app’s full capabilities by subscribing for just Rs 499/year or Rs 99/month. This will include unlimited cloud backup of your imported photos and videos at their original quality when the backup feature is released later this year.

For GoPro camera users, Quik features all of the capabilities of the previous GoPro app, plus so much more.

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