Huawei is reportedly working on a 135W charger and will make its debut in the next generation on top-of-the-line branded phones, possibly the P50 family.

A new certification on China’s 3C Agency reveals a 135W Huawei charger is in the works bearing the HW-200675CP0 model number, reports GSMArena.

The charger will support 5V/3A all the way up to 20V/6.75A, which equals a whopping 135W.

The 120W supporting Mi 10 Ultra is able to charge completely in 24 minutes, but the Vivo iQOO Pro 5 can do so in 15 minutes due to a smaller battery.

Huawei phone with support for 135W charging should charge from 0 to 100 per cent in between 15-30 minutes, depending on the battery size.

Currently, the 66W charger (HW-200200CP1) is the fastest inside the Huawei smartphone ecosystem. It supports QC2.0, FCP, SCP, and SSCP (10V/4A ), and other fast charging protocols.

It also supports fixed outputs such as 5V/3A, 9V/3A, 12V/3A, 15V/3A, 20V/3.25A, and also compatible with various devices such as notebooks.

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Chip maker Qualcomm on Tuesday announced that Cristiano Amon will succeed Steve Mollenkopf as CEO, effective from June 30.

Mollenkopf informed the Board of his decision to retire as CEO following 26 years with the company.

Amon, who has worked at Qualcomm since 1995, is currently President of the Company.

Mollenkopf will continue his employment with the Company as a strategic advisor for a period of time, the company said in a statement.

Mollenkopf said that with “our business model clearly validated and our leadership in 5G, this is the right time for Cristiano to assume leadership of the Company and preside over what I see as the single largest opportunity in the Company’s history.

“Cristiano spearheaded the development of our 5G strategy, including its acceleration, industry-leading technology roadmap and global rollout,” he added.

Amon, 50, has served as President, Qualcomm since January 2018.

In this role, he is responsible for Qualcomm’s semiconductor business (QCT), which includes Mobile, RF Front End, Automotive and IoT revenue streams, and the company’s global operations.

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Samsung Electronics said on Wednesday that it will support 21 homegrown startups’ participation in the world’s largest tech expo CES 2021 next week as the company vows to bolster its startup incubator programmes.

Samsung said four projects from its in-house idea incubation program C-Lab Inside and 17 companies from its startup acceleration program C-Lab Outside will showcase their products and services at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2021, which is set to take place online from Monday to Thursday next week.

The number of Samsung-supported startups at CES is the largest ever. The tech giant began to support the CES participation of local startups in 2016, reports Yonhap news agency.

Samsung said four teams from its in-house incubation programme will unveil products focusing on the wellness and healthy lifestyles of consumers and that the company can further develop their ideas after checking users’ responses and marketability.

They are EZCal, a TV picture quality adjustment solution using smartphones; Air Pocket, a portable device that can easily store oxygen; Scan&Dive, an Internet of Things device offering clothing care solutions using artificial intelligence (AI) features; and Food&Sommelier, a wine-recommending service.

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Millions of Indian users received an in-app notification from WhatsApp as part of an upcoming global roll-out for over 2 billion users, asking them to either accept the changes in its Terms of Service and privacy policy by February 8 or their accounts will be deleted.

The in-app notification did not elicit much details but clicking on the links clearly mentioned the key changes in how WhatsApp will collect and process users’ information going forward, and the partnership with Facebook, its parent company, as part of a larger unification drive between the family of apps.

“WhatsApp must receive or collect some information to operate, provide, improve, understand, customise, support, and market our Services, including when you install, access, or use our Services,” the updated policy read.

“Businesses you interact with using our Services may provide us with information about their interactions with you. We require each of these businesses to act in accordance with applicable law when providing any information to us,” it further read.

WhatsApp’s new Terms of Service and privacy policy will come into effect on February 8.

The mobile messaging platform said that it works with third-party service providers and “other Facebook Companies” to help it operate, provide, improve, understand, customise, support, and market its services.

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Google’s game streaming platform Stadia has received five new games to its collection as part of Stadia Pro.

The January 2021 games -Ary and the Secret of Seasons, Figment, F1 2020, and Hotline Miami – are now available for Stadia Pro subscribers, reports 9To5Google.

El Hijo is also available to claim, though it was not previously slated to be included. Meanwhile, Jotun and Lara Croft: Temple of Osiris left Pro unannounced.

Figment costs $19.99, though the musical journey is currently on discount for $11.99. F1 2020 is the most expensive game being offered in this batch at $59.99, currently $29.99.

Ary and the Secret of Seasons and Hotline Miami will be available for $39.99 and $9.99 respectively.

Currently, there are over 30 games available as part of the Stadia Pro subscription that costs $9.99 (roughly Rs 740) per month.

Google has announced that around 400 new games are on the way for its Stadia Cloud game streaming service.

In a recent interview with MobileSyrup, Jack Buser, Stadia Director of Games, said most of these games would be arriving in 2021 and beyond.

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Samsung Electronics on Monday confirmed that new models of its flagship smartphone lineup will be unveiled next week as the South Korean tech giant tries to fend off challenges from Apple and Chinese brands.

Samsung’s Galaxy S21 smartphone series will be introduced at the Galaxy Unpacked online event at 10 am (Eastern Standard Time) on January 14 under the theme of “Welcome to the Everyday Epic.”

“Over the past year, mobile technology has taken center stage in everyday life as people are working remotely and spending more time at home,” Samsung said in its invitation to the event.

“The accelerated transition to a mobile-first world brings with it the need for devices that can transform everyday life into an extraordinary experience.”

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone vendor, has been holding the event every February to unveil its new smartphones for the first half of the year, but the company decided to introduce them early this time to better cope with challenging market situations.

Samsung has yet to confirm any specifications on its Galaxy S21 family, but industry sources said it will come with three models — the S21 with a 6.2-inch display, S21 Plus with a 6.7-inch screen and S21 Ultra with a 6.8-inch panel.

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Slack Technologies Inc said its workplace messaging service was hit by an outage on Monday, disrupting remote work as people returned from the holidays.

The company said it was investigating the connection issues affecting users and would continue to share updates every 30 minutes until the incident has been downgraded.

More than 15,000 users had initially reported issues, as per outage tracking website Downdectector. Currently over 4,000 users are still facing issues.

Downdetector only tracks outages by collating status reports from a series of sources, including user-submitted errors on its platform. The outage might be affecting a larger number of users.

As companies around the world shift to working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, demand for services provided by Slack and Microsoft Corp’s Teams has gained traction as offices conduct meetings remotely.

The messaging app has added more than 20,000 paid customers in the last two quarters, bringing its total number of paid customers to over 142,000.

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South Korean electronics maker LG on Monday launched its Tonefree true wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds in India. The earbuds come in two models, named the HBS-FN6 and HBS-FN7, priced at Rs 24,990 and Rs 29,990, respectively. Both the models will be available for pre-booking at the LG brand store from January 5. As part of launch offer, LG is offering up to 70 per cent discount to the pre-booking orders of the HBS-FN7. The pre-booking offer is valid only on January 5. The earbuds will be available for sale on retail stores and online e-commerce platforms from next week onwards.

Both the models will be available in a stylish black and Modern white colours.

The LG Tonefree earbuds come with a ultraviolet-nano charging cradle with ultraviolet light, which sanitizes the earbuds and eliminates 99.9 per cent bacteria while the earbuds charge – according to the company. The case comes with LED lighting on the top, indicating case and earbuds charging status and UVnano status. The earbuds boast active noise cancellation (ANC), Meridian-tuned premium sound, sleek and ergonomic design, amongst others features.

The earbuds are compatible with wide range of Bluetooth-enabled devices, including iOS and Android smartphones. The earbuds are supported by a complementary app, available on Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

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Consumers around the globe spent an estimated $407.6 million across Apple’s App Store and Google Play on Christmas, a year-over-year growth of nearly 35 per cent per cent from approximately $303 million in 2019, according to a new report by data analytics firm Sensor Tower.

Between the two platforms, Apple’s App Store captured the bulk of the spending at $278.6 million, while Google Play saw $129 million in revenue, said the report.

This is in line with the massive growth in worldwide spending on mobile apps and games in 2020 which passed $100 billion in a single year for the first time ever in November.

The majority of the holiday spending was on mobile games, which climbed 27 per cent from $232.4 million on Christmas 2019 to $295.6 million this year, said the report.

Tencent’s Honor of Kings was the category leader with approximately $10.7 million in consumer spending, up 205.7 per cent year-over-year from $3.5 million on the same day in 2019.

Consumers spent $112 million on non-game apps this Christmas, up 59 per cent from $70.5 million in the previous year, Stephanie Chan, Mobile Insights Strategist at Sensor Tower, wrote in a blog post.

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South Korea’s two electronics giants Samsung Electronics and LG on Monday vowed to foster their future growth engines in 2021 as they unveiled New Year’s goals amid the pandemic.

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone and TV vendor, said it aims to actively cope with social and economic changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic so that 2021 can be the year that provides a platform for its future growth.

“The transition to the era of data and intelligence is accelerating with the rise of new technologies and businesses,” Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kim Ki-nam, who leads the company’s chip business, said in the company’s New Year kickoff meeting held online.

“Let’s foster our new growth sectors systemically and look out 10 years into the future.”

Samsung, also the world’s top memory chip producer, has been trying to boost its competitiveness in the foundry business in recent years and develop its next-generation quantum-dot display solutions. The company has been also seeking to expand its presence in future mobility businesses.

Kim added that Samsung will also improve its corporate social responsibility, saying it needs to better develop sustainable management of the firm.

Samsung last year launched an independent compliance committee to promote a law-abiding culture at the company, reports Yonhap news agency.

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