Mi Note 10 with 108MP camera setup to launch soon, hints Xiaomi India VP

The drought of new smartphones from Xiaomi is coming to an end soon. The last Xiaomi smartphones to launch in India was the Redmi Note 8 series. And the company has been teasing a 108MP smartphone for quite some time now. Now, Xiaomi India executives have started to tease a smartphone launch soon.

Right now, the only smartphone with a 108MP camera in Xiaomi’s lineup is the Mi Note 10. And the phone has been rumoured for a long time to launch in India back in December. Now, Xiaomi VP Manu Kumar Jain announced it has been a year of launching the Redmi Note 7 in India, which was one of the most affordable 48MP camera smartphones in the India. Then he asked what should Xiaomi launch first in 2020. It would certainly be good for Xiaomi if it starts the year with another benchmark-setting 108MP camera smartphone. It could very well be the first, and certainly won’t be the last to launch one in 2020.

Similar to Jain, Xiaomi’s head of marketing, Anuj Sharma also tweeted it has been three months since the last Xiaomi phone launch, and hyped about an industry-stirring launch in 2020.

If it is indeed the Mi Note 10, it would be a big deal for Xiaomi. The Mi Note 10 competes with the OnePlus 7T and the Realme X2 Pro in terms of pricing and specifications, and upon launch, it could be Xiaomi’s most expensive offering in India. The Mi Series also has been dormant in India for a long time with only the Android-One powered Mi A series getting an annual refresh.

Having tested the waters with the Redmi K20 series, Xiaomi could look at positioning themselves in the high-end segment once again. Notably, in the first few years of starting operations, Xiaomi did launch the flagship phones under the Mi banner. But since the Mi 5, we have not seen a high-end Mi smartphone in India. All that could change in 2020.

In 2019, both OnePlus and Apple had a good year. The former doubled its shipments in Q3 2019 following the launch of the OnePlus 7T, while the latter made its entry into the Top10 smartphones in India following price cuts on the iPhone XR and high demand for the iPhone 11 series. Clearly, the market is being receptive of high-end smartphones that sit below the premium flagships. We also saw quite a few value flagships this year. A year-old Realme brought the Realme X2 Pro and Xiaomi themselves launched the K20 Pro.

With the Galaxy S20 series coming in, the Mi Note 10 could very well come as an alternative for people to look into, since Samsung is also rumoured to use 108MP cameras in its flagships.

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Chrome 80 will automatically block notification permission requests from websites if you dont like them

A notification permission request pops up when you visit a web portal like Digit for the first time so you stay informed about topics that interest you in the future. But even we agree that they can turn annoying when they’re presented repeatedly, especially to the wrong audience. That’s why Google is incorporating a quieter UI for such requests in the upcoming 80th version of its popular browser, Chrome, on both PC and mobile. When enabled, it will block websites from asking you for permission to send regular notifications. What’s more, Google may automatically enable it for you in some cases.

Google has outlined its plan to create a quieter, distraction-free browsing experience on Chrome in its most recent Chrome blog post. In it, the search engine giant specifies that the new quieter UI in Chrome 80 can be enabled manually in Settings on both PC and mobile. But it also states that the quieter UI may be enabled automatically for you if two conditions are met: you often deny websites the permission to send you notifications and the website requesting it has very low opt-in rates.

When your Chrome browser updates to version 80 in early February (this should happen automatically), you will see the new Notifications section appear under Site Settings in Settings. The option marked ‘Sites can ask to send notifications’ will be enabled by default. The sub-option marked ‘Use quieter messaging’ just below is what will be enabled automatically if you repeatedly turn down notification permission requests across websites. You can, however, change these settings at any time.

In addition to explaining how the new quieter UI works, Google says in its blog post that it intends to “enable additional enforcement against abusive websites using web notifications for ads, malware or deceptive purposes” later in the year. Google only recently resumed the rollout of the stable version of Chrome 79 after recovering from a rollout “catastrophe” that reportedly destroyed about 15 per cent of its stored user data. The company later said it was able to recover all the lost data. You can read more about that here.

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OnePlus to announce new screen tech on January 13, possibly 120Hz screen

Only last week did OnePlus show off its sensational Concept One prototype smartphone with ‘disappearing cameras’ at CES 2020 and already it’s ready for a second round of tech demo. This time though, the technology improvement will lie in the phone’s screen. According to a press invite shared on Chinese social media platform Weibo, OnePlus is hosting an event on January 13 to talk about its new screen technology. It could well be a refresh rate upgrade from 90Hz to 120Hz on its next model, or something else entirely. We’ll just have to wait till Monday to find out.

Just by looking at the invite shared on Weibo it’s easy to tell that OnePlus is going to talk about a new smartphone screen technology on Monday. The event is expected to take place at the B.PARK restaurant in Shenzhen, China, which isn’t far from OnePlus’ headquarters. There’s a good chance the popular Chinese phone maker will talk about upping the refresh rate on its phones’ screen from the current 90Hz to 120Hz. That said, the company could follow Oppo’s tracks and showcase an in-display selfie camera tech.

CES is not generally known for smartphone tech demos but this year OnePlus went ahead and demoed its Concept One prototype anyway. The OnePlus Concept One is a concept smartphone with a special rear camera setup. The top-most layer of the camera stack employs an electrochromic glass technology, which allows the layer to hide or show the cameras underneath, thus creating a ‘disappearing cameras’ effect. A similar technology is used in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner commercial jet airliner so the windows can be ‘dimmed’ electronically.

OnePlus, however, says it drew inspiration from McLaren’s 720S sports car, which uses the same electrochromic glass technology to create an electronically dimming sunroof. The leather stitching around the camera stack on the back of the Concept One, too, is inspired from the seats of McLaren’s luxury sports car. Though the Concept One was co-created with McLaren, this isn’t the first time the two companies have come together to market McLaren-inspired smartphones. OnePlus sells a special McLaren Edition of some of its smartphones, including the outgoing OnePlus 7T Pro. You can read our review of it here.

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CES 2020: Twitter will soon let you limit who can reply to your tweet

At CES 2020, Suzanne Xie, Twitter director of product management took the stage to talk about some new changes that are coming to the platform this year. She focused specifically on conversations. In a bid to give its users more control over who can reply to a tweet, the social media platform is all set to add a new setting for “conversation participants” right on the compose screen.

During CES 2020, the world's largest consumer-electronics trade show, which kicked off this week in Las Vegas, Twitter unveiled a new replies tool and gave an early look at it. The feature has four options: “Global, Group, Panel, and Statement.” The first one, Global lets anybody reply to your tweet. Meanwhile, Group is for people you follow and mention. On the other hand, Panel is people you specifically mention in the tweet while a Statement simply allows you to post a tweet and receive no replies. 

Twitter is “in the process of doing research on the feature,” Xie said. She added, “Getting ratio’d, getting dunked on, the dynamics that happen that we think aren’t as healthy are definitely part of ... our thinking about this.” The executive said they are going to be watching really closely as they experiment as limiting replies could mean misinformation couldn’t be as easily rebutted. 

Users can also employ the upcoming feature to increase their following since those hosting Twitter chats can limit chat replies to only those who follow them. It will also enable you to separate part of a Twitter chat to an interview-style approach, only allowing the tagged interviewee to reply to the first few tweets. 

Another feature coming to Twitter in 2020 is a specific conversation view, including threading. It will allow users to put all of a conversation “on one screen.” Moreover, the social media platform will enable users to customize the display of lists.

Head of Product Kayvon Beykpour noted, "I’m very interested in exploring how we might give customers more control. Where ephemerality is just one of those dimensions, I think there are other dimensions that, while we can get excited and talk about ephemerality because there are lots of other standards of how other apps do this, I think other dimensions, like control around who can see or control around who can participate, is really critical."

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Oppo Reno2 receives January 2020 Android security patch, system improvements

Oppo Reno2 users have a reason to be excited this weekend as their handset will soon receive a new software update. The update, which should happen automatically in the background, brings the latest security patch along with a couple of improvements to the ColorOS 6.1 software on board. If you own an Oppo Reno2, you can check for the update manually by visiting the Software Updates section under Settings. If you still don’t see an update notification pop up, it’s because the update hasn’t reached your region yet. You should get the update in the next few days.

According to the changelog published by Oppo, the new software update bears the version number ‘CPH1907EX_11_A.28’ and weighs 3.24GB. Since that’s a fairly large download size, we recommend switching to a reliable Wi-Fi network instead of blowing out your daily mobile data limit. The update contains the January 2020 Android security patch along with system enhancements to improve stability and overall performance. In addition, the update brings the user the ability to add location watermarks to their photos. You should find the option to enable this within the default camera app.

Launched in late August 2019, the Reno2 is the top-of-the-line model in the Reno2 series from Oppo, which also consists of the more affordable Reno2 Z and Reno2 F. Sold in a single variant with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, the Oppo Reno2 costs Rs 36,990. This price taag puts its squarely in competition with the OnePlus 7T series. The Oppo Reno2 comes with a quad camera setup on its back panel. The primary sensor is a Sony IMX586 48MP unit with an f/1.7 aperture. Accompanying it are a 13MP telephoto unit with f/2.4 aperture, an 8MP wide-angle unit, and a 2MP monochrome sensor. The 16MP front camera is tucked away in a pop-up camera mechanism that retracts automatically when a fall is detected.

Unlike other flagship-grade smartphones in the market, which employ the top-of-the-line Qualcomm Snapdragon 855/855 Plus chip, the Oppo Reno2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chip with an Adreno 618 GPU. The battery on board is a 4000mAh non-removable unit with support for VOOC Flash Charge 3.0. The phone’s AMOLED screen measures 6.5 inches diagonally and has a maximum resolution of 2340 x 1080 pixels. The Oppo Reno2 Z undercuts the Reno2 by almost Rs 10,000. If you’d like, you can read our review of it here.

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PUBG Mobile v0.16.5 Update Brings Domination Mode and Town Map, Starts Season 11 Royale Pass

PUBG Mobile has started receiving the v0.16.5 update, which brings the domination mode alongside a new Town map, and also starts the Season 11 Royale Pass.

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Mercedes-Benz to unveil EQC all-electric SUV in India on January 14

With the world turning to electric mobility solutions, Mercedes-Benz wants to show that it too is committed to the game—and how! The well-known German automaker is planning to announce its recently created electric vehicle sub-brand EQ in India on January 14. But that's not all. The company will also unveil the Mercedes-Benz EQC all-electric SUV on the same day, for the first time in India. As it's still not ready for production, the Mercedes-Benz EQC will most likely go on sale only later in the year.

Based on the platform of the Mercedes-Benz X253 GLC-Class, the Mercedes-Benz EQC is an all-electric compact luxury SUV. The EQC 400 4MATIC model comes with an asynchronous electric motor fitted on either axle. Drawing power from an 80kWh battery pack with 384 lithium-ion cells, the EQC delivers a WLTP-tested range of 417 kilometres on a single charge. Merc says the EQC can go from 0 to 100 kilometres per hour in 5.1 seconds and max out at 180 kilometres per hour.

On the inside, the Mercedes-Benz EQC features two 10.25-inch touchscreen panels that are placed side by side to act as the instrument cluster and central dashboard display. The audio setup is handled by an exclusive Burmester Surround-Sound system. Like its brethren, the EQC is powered by the Mercedes-Benz User Experience (MBUX), which, in addition to touch inputs, recognises voice inputs made by the user. The integrated digital assistant can be asked to dial a phone number or set the air-con temperature by preceding the command with the phrase, ‘Hey Mercedes’.

We saw the Mercedes-Benz EQC first at the 2018 Paris Motor Show but this is the first time we'll be seeing it in India. According to Autocar India, Mercedes-Benz will launch the EQC in the country later in the year. With any luck, this Merc could exist for a while the first and only luxury EV in the country before BMW India decides to launch the Mini Electric in 2021. The EV space in India was recently populated by the Tata Nexon EV and MG ZS EV. It is said to be joined by the more affordable Maruti Suzuki Wagon R EV sometime soon.

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