It is finally January 31, but it appears that there is still no Spotify service available for Indian customers. A quick visit to the company’s website reveals the message “Spotify is currently not available in your country” in big, bold letters. The last few days, Spotify’s January 31 launch date has been dominating the news cycle, but unfortunately, Indians continue to be left out of the service’s coverage. There were always signs that the January 31 deadline may not be met, but let’s examine what has happened in the last few days, which is bound to paint a clearer picture of the service’s launch status. The T-Series Deal Probably the first and the biggest clue to an impending launch of Spotify in India was the company signing a licensing deal with T-Series. The deal was to add T-series’ portfolio to Spotify’s streaming platform, at a global level. T-Series has the largest library of Bollywood songs and without access to T-Series’ library, Spotify would not have a relevant enough collection of songs to offer in India. The news of the deal signing broke on January 14. The Variety Piece The American magazine Variety published an article on their website stating that Spotify was preparing to launch the service in India on January 31. This was the first time a date was put to the recent round of rumours surrounding the Spotify launch in India. Their source claimed that the company was planning to host a party on January 31 in Mumbai, possibly to celebrate the launch. This story broke on January 15, U.S time. The New Terms and Condition An eagle-eyed internet citizen was quick to point out that the terms and conditions page had been updated, but more importantly, carried a message stating, “Effective as of January 31, 2019.” This added more credibility to the rumours of the service’s launch on 31 January. This news broke on January 21. The Hiring spree Over the last few months, Spotify has been aggressively expanding its Indian workforce. After having established an office in Mumbai, Spotify now allegedly has a team of 300 strong, including people for handling their communications. You don’t do this unless you’re planning to launch. The close proximity of the above three events probably added a lot of credibility to the January 31 launch date, but what was ignored were the various red flags that existed, which were likely to delay the launch. Here’s what was missed Pending Deals While Spotify had signed up with T-Series, it was yet to announce deals with Sony, Universal and Warner, three of the biggest music labels, to bring their music library to India. Additionally, for the service to be successful, it also needs to offer music in other regional languages such as Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and even Punjabi. Deals with their respective labels are yet to be announced. Terms of the Trial Period For India, Spotify is allegedly going to offer a trial period of longer than 30 days for its users in India. Spotify had done the same for users in Vietnam and South Africa when they launched the service in those respective countries last year, but according to the Variety piece, there is a hold-up here. For the duration of the trial period, Spotify has allegedly offered to pay a royalty amount that is far lower than what other Indian streaming services pay. If negotiations are still on-going, there is no way Spotify would be able to launch. Spotify has a lot of eager fans awaiting its launch in the country. The company has to ensure that they have every single aspect of the service covered for Indian relevance. This means not just the right music portfolio, but also the right pricing. Not to mention, the service needs to ensure they’re able to stream over India’s mobile network, which is considerably slower than other countries. Sure, it is disappointing that Spotify hasn’t launched today, but then again, the company never said they would. For now, let us just patiently wait for the company to make an official announcement.
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Highlights: The periodic table has turned 150. UNESCO celebrates the anniversary with a day-long programme. It’s 1869. An energetic 35-year-old Russian named Dmitri Mendeleev is writing the second volume of his book titled The Principles of Chemistry while teaching at the Technical Institute in St Petersburg. On a cold winter day in March, his mind is preoccupied with a certain table structure he is certain will reveal to him all the known elements in some logical way. Having written the names of all 65 known elements on small individual cards along with their fundamental properties, Mendeleev moves them around on a table to find the right logical order. Weary, he naps at his table, but when he awakes, something significant is born from his mind—the periodic table. Can you believe it? One and half centuries have passed since that historic day when Dmitri Mendeleev formulated the first periodic table. Today, the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (as it’s officially called by the UNESCO) is a representation of not 65 but 118 known elements. Notable scientists like Lord Rayleigh and Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier have contributed to it. The table has been published in innumerable textbooks and reference books. We’ve all had it in our science lessons through school and college. Why, Tom Lehrer even wrote a song about it. To celebrate the periodic table’s 150th anniversary, UNESCO launched The International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 2019, a day of conferences and debates to highlight the significance of the periodic table and relevant challenges for sustainable societies across various fields like medicine and energy. The day-long programme took place on January 29 at the UNESCO headquarters in Place de Fontenoy, Paris. The programme included a lecture by Ben Feringa, a Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. For those seeking a refresher on the subject, the periodic table is a tabular representation of known chemical elements, arranged by atomic number, electron configuration, and recurring properties. The seven rows of the table are called periods, and the eighteen columns are called groups. Elements in a period have the same number of atomic orbitals, and elements in a group have the same number of electrons in the outer orbital (aka valence electrons). Head over to Wikipedia if you want to continue learning about the periodic table, or to Famous Scientists to read more about Dmitri Mendeleev. Related Read: Kilogram overhauled, is now defined on a universal constant
Highlights: PUBG on PC gets Update #25 on live servers. The new update brings Moonlight mode for Vikendi, along with loot rebalance. The Snowbike has not included with this update. Update #25 for the PC version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is now available for gamers. The new update brings a slew of new changes to the game, including a new SMG weapon called the Bizon that is said to be a low recoil, fully equipped weapon. There is also loot rebalance and a new weather setting for Vikendi, multiple quality of life improvements and more. However, the company has decided to not include the Snowbike with this update, which was previously teased, because of some gameplay issues that still need to be fixed. The Snowbike is said to be made available in a forthcoming update once the problems have been fixed. Additionally, a new 'secret location’ has also been added to Vikendi. With this update, one will notice that there are fewer SMGs and DMRs to be found in Vikendi as a loot rebalance has been applied. More Automatic Rifles will be spawned now and the Sniper Rifle spawn rate will remain the same. LV3 helmets and vests have also been reduced and the spawn ratio of attachments has also been improved. As for the new Bizon SMG weapon, it uses 9mm bullets and is exclusive to Erangel and Vikendi. It can hold 53 rounds by default and can be equipped with only muzzle and sight attachments and does not support grips or magazines. A new Canted Sights attachment has also been added to the game, which is a new scope that has a secondary scope slot. It can be equipped with M416, Mutant, QBZ, SCAR-L, Beryl M762, AKM, AUG, G36C Assault Rifles; Mini14, Mk14, QBU, SLR, and SKS Designated Marksman Rifles; M24, Kar98k, and AWM Sniper Rifles; Vector, Bizon and MP Small Machine Guns, and S12K Shotgun and M249 LMG. The Moonlight weather setting is also live on the Vikendi map. Even though the new weather is implemented at night, it will not be as dark since “the big glowing super moon and bright aurora borealis will help you to detect enemies.” As mentioned above, a new secret location has also been added to the snow map and it remains to be seen where exactly this location is. Some quality of life improvements to the game includes the option to pre-set the firing mode of any firearm being picked up. There’s also improved UI widget visibility and the purchase failure message will show up when a purchase fails due to a Steam issue. Related Reads: Vikendi scavenger-hunt announced for PUBG Xbox, new update released with multiple hotfixes Ban PUBG, 11-year old appeals to Maharashtra Govt as it promotes "gaming addiction, violence and cyber bullying" "PUBG Wala hai kya?" asks PM Modi addressing online gaming during Pariksha Pe Charcha event
Highlights: Both Samsung and Apple lost smartphone shipment market share. Chinese players HOVX (Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi) end the year with positive growth. HMD Global registered a 126 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. The global smartphone market saw a 4 percent decline in shipment in Calendar Year (CY) 2018 even as the fourth quarter of the year saw a 7 percent fall, Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor Service has said. The research firm claims that the decline in shipments in Q4 2018 marks the fifth consecutive quarter of this behaviour. Chinese players HOVX (Huawei, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi) continue to defy market decline ending the year with positive growth, the report notes. “This is the first time that the global smartphone market has witnessed decline for a whole year. The decline in smartphone shipments can be attributed to lengthening replacement cycles in developed markets like US, China and Western Europe. Smartphone OEMs tried to push sales by adding features such as AI, multiple camera assemblies, full-screen displays, in-screen fingerprint scanners etc. but consumers held on to their devices longer due to the absence of groundbreaking innovations and higher prices of devices being offered by the OEMs,” Tarun Pathak, Associate Director at Counterpoint Research, said in a statement. Pathak said that in 2019, the smartphone-makers are looking to launch devices with specifications like 5G, foldable displays, punch-hole cameras and full-screen in-display fingerprint scanners to lure consumers to upgrade. The global decline can be attributed to the decrease in smartphone shipments in China, which was responsible for almost 1/3rd of global smartphone shipments in 2018. The magnitude of decline is so huge that the collective smartphone shipment growth of emerging markets such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia and others was not enough to offset the decline in China. “With China showing little or no sign of recovery due to various politico-economic factors, Chinese brands are looking to expand overseas. To increase market share, Chinese brands have been aggressive in both hardware/software design and marketing. They are bringing many firsts into smartphone designs and are taking multiple brand strategies to enter new segments without making a compromise of their brand image,” added Shobhit Srivastava, Research Analyst at Counterpoint Research. Brand-wise segregation of smartphone shipments: Samsung and Apple saw a tough quarter and tough 2018 as demand for their flagship phones have waned due to competition from affordable premium offerings from Chinese brands such as Huawei and OnePlus. Apple has already attempted to reduce prices in China in oorder to reduce losses, but the firm claims that a small price cut will not move the needle. It says that Apple’s buy-back programmes and installment plans “will be more effective.” Huawei took the third spot, followed by Xiaomi, which surpassed Oppo globally to take back the fourth position. BBK Group, which owns Oppo, Realme, Vivo and OnePlus brands, is collectively the world’s third largest manufacturer, even bigger than Huawei in terms of volume. HMD Global, the company that sells the Nokia-branded phones, registered a whopping 126 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth in the CY2018. In the fourth quarter, the company registered a 6 percent YoY growth. Related Read: Jio Phones top feature phone, overall handset Indian market in 2018: Counterpoint Research Overall iPhone sales down 20% YoY in November: Counterpoint Research
Highlights: Apple is reportedly working on a laser-based 3D camera system for 2020 iPhones. The new camera setup is said to enable better AR implementation and imaging functionality. The company is said to debut the tech with a new 10-inch iPad. We already know that Apple is working on its new generation of iPhones as we brought you the first look at how the upcoming iPhone XI might look like, with a triple-rear camera on the back. Now, a new report by Bloomberg claims that the company is planning to launch the 2020 iPhones with a “more-powerful 3-D camera to get a leg up in the Augmented Reality (AR) market". Citing people close to the development, the report states that future iPhones could come equipped with a longer-range 3D camera that is made for scanning the environment and reconstructing it in 3D. It is said to work up to about 15 feet from the device, as opposed to the front-facing 3D camera in current generation iPhones that can scan a user’s face from about 30 cms for enabling Face ID. While the current generation face scanning technology used by Apple employs dot-projection for creating a 3D model, future iPhones will reportedly use a laser scanner that is better suited to work over longer distances. This sensor could theoretically enable enhanced AR functionalities with better depth perception for placement of objects in the AR space. It could also be used for imaging application and enable better depth in images captured in portrait mode. Apple is apparently talking to Sony about testing sensors for its phones. The new laser-based 3D sensor is said to be one of the many new features, as Apple is also said to introduce a third “more advanced camera, enhanced photo-capture tools and a more powerful chip” in its 2020 iPhone lineup. Even though the new 3D camera system might be introduced in the upcoming iPhones, the report suggests that it could first debut on an upgraded iPad Pro, which could be launched in early spring 2020. Additionally, the company plans to unveil an updated version of the more affordable iPad with a faster chip, maybe the A12 Bionic, and a 10-inch display. While the new iPad Pro comes with USB-C ports, this upcoming iPad is said to retain the Lightning connector. Additionally, there could also be a new, cheaper iPad Mini in the works. Coming to this year's speculated iPhone lineup by Apple, previous reports suggested that the company is planning an upgrade for the iPhone XS (codename D42), XS Max (D43), and the iPhone XR. Bloomberg reports that the top-end iPhone model coming this year will feature a triple-rear camera setup and the other models could be updated with the new camera setup as well. This new camera setup should’ve made its way to the current iPhone line-up but the company reportedly delayed it. In addition to the new camera tech, Apple could also incorporate a USB-C connector instead of the Lightning port. An upgraded processor can also be expected, along with updated Face ID sensor for unlocking the device and payments approval. Delving more details on the camera setup, the report states that inclusion of a third camera on the 2019 iPhones will enable them to capture a wider area, maybe with a wide-angle lens, and enable better zoom capabilities. This new setup is said to capture more pixels for the Apple software that might be used in various scenarios. An example being reparation of a video or photo to include a subject that’s accidentally cut off from the initial shot. The Live Photos feature is also said to get an update with the length of the video being doubled from three to six seconds. Finally, there is some new information on Apple’s upcoming iOS 13. The new operating system revision could introduce a dark mode for devices, along with some improvements for CarPlay. iPad centric updates include a new home screen, improvements to file management, and the option to tab through multiple versions of a single app, which is said to be similar to switching between tabs in a browser. Later this year, Apple is said to combine two new services via iOS updates, a magazine subscription service and its alleged video streaming service. Related Reads: Apple bans Facebook Research App that allegedly spied on teenagers Apple sued over FaceTime eavesdropping bug Sharp hopes to be OLED supplier for future Apple iPhones: Report 
