TechTonics

TechTonics #9 : Vikram Lander Crash Site,NASA DART, Intel MediaTek Partnership, Facebook Photo Tool, AWS Quantum Computing Service

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NASA Spacecraft Discovers The Crash Landing Site Of Chandrayaan – 2 Vikram Lander This first news in this version of tectonics has a very special significance for our Indian audience. An orbital spacecraft from NASA just discovered the crash site of India’s Chandrayaan-2 mission. The Indian lunar lander Vikram crashed on to the Moon’s surface … Read more

TechTonics # 8 : Pixel 4 Face Unlock Bugs, Motorola Razr, Ryzen 3950X, Tork Motors,

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Pixel 4 Buggy Face Unlock

One of the most interesting aspects of innovations as far is pixel 4 is concerned is its new face unlock system.

We also discussed this in a previous post on pixel 4 leaks as to how the face ID like mechanism is going to be a big introduction from google.

But it turns out the face unlock mechanism for pixel 4 is also kind of buggy.

The face unlock system is buggy in the sense that you can even unlock your pixel phone with your eyes closed.

This opens the phone for a lot of privacy and security concerns, like unlocking your phone when you are sleeping or unconscious.

BBC tech reporter Chris Fox pointed out the flaw in on his twitter account.

 It is worth pointing out here that face unlock security mechanism is the only security mechanism that this phone has.

Google has done away with the fingerprint sensor that was an inherent part of pixel 3 devices.

Google is saying that it has been working on a software patch that will take care of the issue in the coming months.

No fixed timeline as of yet because it seems the issue is a bit complex than what one might have expected.

The pixel 4 face unlock mechanism is very similar to Google Apple ID.

There infrared cameras and projectors are used to map the depth of your face to unlock the device .

It is much more secure with respect to other RGB camera unlock mechanism in the sense that it cannot be hacked with the help of a photo or a flat video of yours.

This is causing a lot of skepticism in people who were looking forward to buy a pixel 4 this holiday season.

All we can say right now is every new tech that comes out is bound to have some flaws and bugs, google found their’s pretty soon.

Facebook’s “Free Speech” Speech

Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook give a speech in the Georgetown University highlighting the the various dimensions of free speech historically and how it has been a cog in evolving humanity.

In his 40 minute speech he discussed how free speech plays a key role in expression.

And how suppression of free speech also led to various domains of people being suppressed.

He also highlighted how complicated things are getting as far as filtering content of the platform is considered.

He expressed what misinformation is, what hate speech is and how various amalgamations of all of these so-called negative factors are not as clear as people think it is.

And Facebook had to invest so much resources into perceiving what to propagate and what to kind of dilute from the platform.

In essence highlighting all of these factors he made it pretty clear that he will be on the side of free speech and will look into ways to moderate the content that is there on the platform and at the same time trying to make free speech available and active to all domains of people using Facebook.

See this is a very subjective and a very sensitive subject. And I am unable to convey the comprehensive understanding of things in this small segment of techtonics.

I want you to be subscribed because I will cover all of this in a separate video. So stay tuned for that.

Motorola Razr Foldable Phone Is Coming

Motorola and its Parent company Lenovo has just released an invite to a product unveiling that is going to happen on November 13 in Los Angeles.

The phrases that are associated with this release are “an original unlike any other”, “you are going to flip” and “highly anticipated unveiling of a reinvented icon”.

All of these phrases along with a gif that shows the old Razr phone body getting melted away and revealing a refreshing new Razr phone.

Check it out.

It has a hinge of course. And we have seen hinges being a part of folding devices in the Microsoft surface event.

The reason why by gadget enthusiasts are looking forward to this release is because Razr V3 was the first phone to achieve that viral pop culture icon status owing to its fashion appeal and marketing among other things.

So people are expecting a similar kind of reception given the fact that Motorola from the looks and rumors of it is trying to introduce some tasty innovation in the device.

There have been rumors, leaked and confirmed information about the a Razr reboot previously though.

Yet, it doesn’t seem to dilute people’s excitement for the device.

We have seen some really interesting approach to fold-able devices from Samsung Galaxy Fold to the upcoming surface neo.

Let’s see how November 13 turns out to be.

Ryzen 3950x Benchmark Leak in Firestrike and Geekbench

AMD continues to keep offering consciously or unconsciously.

Not just the release date of AMD upcoming HEDT Threadripper processors are leaked but, we now also have leaked performance listings.

Earlier it was rumored that the new Ryzen Threadripper HEDT chips will be announced on November 5.

And it seems we have a little more information then what we would have expected.

We have 3 different benchmark listings for the upcoming 16 core Ryzen 9 3950X.

From the looks of it it seems, this new iteration will out perform its predecessor 2950X by 21% 24% and 26% across this tests.

Ryzen 3950X was paired with RTX 2080Ti and 16 GB of 3200 Mhz memory for its firestrike run where in it achieved a score of 29,663.

This is significantly larger than its predecessor Ryzen 2950X, which with the same config presented a score of 24,544.

It is worth mentioning here that this is going to present some serious competition for Intel’s venerable i9-9980XE.

Historically, Intel’s high core count processors have outperformed AMD processors in gaming benchmarks like firestrike.

But it seems AMD has taken some serious lead in its own performance given the fact that it is now behind intel by a small margin of 3%.

Electric two wheeler startup torque Motors to receive investment from Ratan Tata

Mr. Ratan Tata who is the former chairman of Tata sons has decided to invest in Tork Motors.

For those of you who don’t know this Tork Motors is a electric two wheeler startup based out of Pune.

In the coming month Tork Motors is set to unveil its flagship electric bike called thought T6X.

This complete indigenous made vehicle with the exception of battery pack, is supposed to have a top speed of 100 KM/h in the range of hundred kilometers per charge.

An interesting aspect about this vehicle is that the Lithium-ion batteries which are the source of inherent power in these bikes can be charged up to 80% in just one hour.

At the time of release, proprietary charging solutions will also be setup all across Pune.

It’s going to be a big step as far as Electrical vehicles are considered in India.

All vehicle dimensions ranging from chassis, motor to PCB’s are designed in India with the exception of battery pack which is imported.

Tork Motors is expecting to have about 5000 T6X’s on the street by the end of this year.

That was all as far as this edition of TechTonics is concerned, subscribe everywhere and share this post on all your social media platforms.

Take great care of yourselves.

I will see you in the next one.

Namaskaram _/\_ 🙂

TechTonics # 7 : Pixel 4, Tiny Structural Robots, AMD 7 nm, Google Stadia

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Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL Will Not Be Launched In India Google just released its newest generation of products including the much awaited Pixel 4. Pixel 4 release doesn’t have any kinds of surprise element obviously. Because everything associated with Pixel 4 is something that we already knew but in any case Google … Read more

Microsoft Surface Neo Impressions : A New Chapter In The Fold !!

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Microsoft surface neo

Microsoft Surface event has happened and it seems Microsoft Surface Neo is one of the most discussed topic of the event. And for all good measures and reasons. It’s not just your typical portable mobile device but it’s more like a symbol that Microsoft has used to make a very valid point.  Microsoft Surface Neo : … Read more

TechTonics # 6 : Facebook Strikes, Huawei Mate 30 Launch, RPI 4 Emulator, PS-5 And More

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Facebook Strikes

It seems in the aftermath of Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has decided to take some massive action.
Facebook is in the process of suspending and banning thousands of apps that Facebook thinks are irresponsibly violating privacy of a huge number of people.
For the two people who don’t know this, Facebook as a social media company has been under intense public criticism regarding not adequately handling the personal data of more than 2 billion users.

It was understood that Facebook profile data of millions of people was harvested without proper administration and was used to run advertising political campaigns.
In a blog post that was released by Facebook, it was pointed out that the step taken was a measure to review how how the data regarding its users is used by different apps.
If the data is not used in a way that ensures user privacy it will result in either suspension or complete ban.
The thousands of apps that were suspended were associated with at least 400 developers.
While some of these apps were suspended some of these were completely banned.
The applications that were banned were found guilty of sharing data obtained from Facebook platform without protecting user identities.
Out of the many Apps that were banned one of them was called myPersonality.
It shared information with researchers and companies with very limited protection to personal information and user identities.
This is now seen as one of the big steps taken by Facebook in response to the Cambridge Cambridge Analytica situation.

Huawei’s New Steps Towards Self Sustenance

In its Global launch event in Munich, Huawei released Mate 30 and Mate 30 Pro 4G.
As is the case every year, the mate lineup represents Huawei’s flagship devices.
These new flagship devices always contain the latest and greatest technology from Huawei that is available at that moment.
This year also the mate series is paying special attention to the photo capture department and is introducing innovative camera features and hardware in that direction.
These devices will be incorporating the brand new Kirin 990 as well as Kirin 990 5G SOCs.
The Mate 30 Pro in particular is introducing a true new edge to edge display that curves to the sides up to 90 degree.

Apart from the software and hardware capabilities, one of the key highlights of the mate series is the absence of Google Play and Google services from the device.

This representing a big shift in the industry that is bound to have its consequences over the next decade.
The launch is also special because it is highlighting the very way Huawei is gradually shifting its dependency from Google to becoming much more self-sustainable.
Just so you are aware Huawei also introduce its own mobile device operating system called harmony OS about which we talked about in a previous edition of techtonics.
So when you look at all of these things in conjunction with each other you will see how the entire smartphone industry is taking a shift.

Game Emulators Are Now Available On Raspberry Pi 4

People like me who are really interested in practical electronics are going to be very happy listening to this news.
Ever since Raspberry Pi 4 was released people have been asking, when will they be able to run emulators on Raspberry Pi 4.
Although there have been workarounds and betas that let you run emulation on a Pi 4 but there has not been an official emulator support.
That is all going to change with the introduction of Lakka 2.3, which not only supports Raspberry Pi 4 but also welcomes improvements over its previous versions.
Lakka 2.3 promises many new updates such as notification animations, widgets and other overlays throughout its interface.
Lakka can be made available on Raspberry Pi 4 using two methods.
Either you can select Lakka while installing the latest version of NOOBS.
Or you can also install Lakka onto your card by downloading the official image from the Lakka website.

Play Station 5 Pro May Be Launched Alongside The Standard PlayStation model.

Talking about gaming, last year Sony’s CEO and President Kenichiro Yoshida confirmed the development of next generation PlayStation 5.
Looking at the pattern that Sony has been following what we were expecting is that the standard Play Station 5 machine will get released first and it will shortly be followed by a slimmed down model and also a pro version.

But right now, a new rumor is popping up that suggests Sony will be presenting PlayStation 5 Pro along with its base model of PlayStation 5.

This news is coming from a youtube video released by Zenji Nishikawa who confirms the case.
The news should be taken with a pinch of salt but previous rumors from zenji regarding PS4 Pro and switch lite have been authentic.
Good news for gamers all around !!.
Now let’s wait and see what updates is ps5 going to bring on the table.

Most Massive Neutron Star Detected

Astronomers just detected the most massive neutron star to ever exist.

The neutron star is approximately 4600 light years from earth.

This massive object is wavering on the edge of existence and is approaching the theoretical maximum mass that is possible for a neutron star.

For those of you who are unaware of it neutron stars are compressed remains of massive stars gone supernova.

And are the densest normally observable objects in the known universe.

To give you an idea as to how dense these things are a single sugar cube worth of neutron star material will weigh 100 million tonnes on earth or about the same as what the entire population of earth would weigh.

 

The space just keeps getting better and better isn’t it.

With that massive news we are at the end of this episode of techtonics.

I hope you enjoyed everything you saw.

I now request your permission to take leave. Stay tuned for further editions of techtonics and I am going to see you very very soon.

Namaskaram :).

Pixel 4 Leaks : All Pixel 4 Leaks Compiled In One Single Place

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pixel 4 leaks

The Heat is on for Pixel 4 guys !!. The people are shouting in unison, Give us the pixel 4 already !!. I mean yeah, I get the excitement. With iPhone 11 being released you want to see what android is bringing to the table. Maybe you are comparing everything to see, which device is … Read more

TechTonics # 4 : Smart Batteries, Snapdragon 865, Sonos Bluetooth Speaker, Stock Malware, AMD Navi, Xiaomi MI A3

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Fast Charging Smart Batteries Outlast Lithium Ion

Source : Digital Trends

EPL statistics say that Americans dispose off 86,000 tons of alkaline batteries every year.

Which equals to circling the earth more than 6 times when the batteries are placed end to end.

And the argument as to how harmful a single use alkaline batteries is for the environment has continued the push for alternate battery solutions.

In light of this understanding, these Pale Blue Lithium polymer smart batteries which are a part of the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign can be recharged more than thousand times with a unique USB charging method.

pale blue batteries smart batteries techtonicsThese new batteries have advantages over both single use alkaline batteries batteries and Nickel Metal Hydride rechargeable batteries.

The re-usability of a single pale blue battery is more than and one thousand equivalent alkaline batteries and the power output by these batteries is much is much more consistent than the alkaline cells.

When compared with Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) batteries the Pale Blues can be recharged twice as many times as them. 

Charging them is as easy as pinning in the micro USB port into the battery and the other end of the USB can be inserted into computer or a suitable wall outlet.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Benchmarks Leaked

Source : techradar

It seems that the benchmarks for the upcoming flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 might just have been released in a geekbench listing.

Snapdragon 865 spotted on Geekbench running on a smartphone with Android Q and 6GB RAM.

Qualcomm’s next processor is to be unveiled later this year and is about to power up high-end smart phones starting early 2020.

The interesting details that are a part of the Geekbench listing are as follows.

The listing mentions a device working on Android 10 with 8GB of RAM.

The chipset is named Qualcomm Kona and has 8 cores with base frequency of 1.80 GHz.

Active support of 5G is going to be one of the most important highlights of Snapdragon 865.

Let’s see what other aspects of Snapdragon 865 are we going to see prior to it’s release.

I’ll make it a point to share all the essential info till the point the processor gets released to keep you updated.

Sonos Is Planning To Make A Bluetooth Speaker

Source : theverge

Audio Gear enthusiasts will be quite interested in this news.

Sonos has just filed a patent in FCC for a wireless bluetooth speaker.

The product model as reports suggest is going to be S17. 

Sonos directly suggests that this high performance wireless speaker will be part of Sonos sound system.

The device as per a report is will be used for streaming with Wi-Fi but will also feature Bluetooth audio streaming.

What is also confirmed is that this wireless bluetooth speaker will feature USB Type C and Ethernet port for seamless music and audio transmission.

The latter port is something that is found in almost all of company’s existing speakers.

Let’s see how Sonos holds its own in light of other wireless speakers in its range.

Your new Android Phone May Be Pre-loaded With Malware

Source : Forbes

Reports from Google security research team says that Your brand new Android phone may not be as innocent as you think.

Your fresh new Android phone maybe a recipient of dangerous Malware infused in various bloatware that the device comes coupled with, the team states.

Although there have been headlines before that some applications from Google Play Store itself actually couple some Malwares along with them but this is something which is very very new and quite dangerous it seems.

This is because some of these malware as the team suggests can download other malware from the internet and keep them running in the back end.

And the unsuspecting consumer maybe the recipient of things such as phising, ad fraud, or even device take over from remote source.

Although the team didn’t enlist the brand of phones involved but disclosed that more than 200 device manufacturers tested positive for the intrusion.

AMD RADEON NAVI Custom Cards Are Coming

Source : techspot

There were a few recent headlines that stated that AMD was slowly closing off its supply of reference design cards Radeon RX 5700-series GPUs in the market.

But latest updates from AMD suggest that reference design cards will continue to be available in the market.

AMD has confirmed that there are multiple custom designs that will be hitting the market soon with the support of its AIB partners.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the reference cards will be taken off the market.

And as is the standard practice, AMD reference card will continue to be in the market as long as inventory lasts.

And along with that you will be seeing a variety of custom designs available for purchase in different operational capacity.

So yes although the market will soon be flooded with custom design cards.

The reference cards from AMD will continue to remain in the market till stocks last.

XIAOMI Mi A3 Soon To Be Launched In India

Source : Techradar

Recent reports suggest Xiaomi is looking to launch MI A3 in August 23.

The Android one device is supposed to run on Snapdragon 665 with 4GB of RAM.

It will have a gradient glass back and will support a 6 inch super AMOLED display with HD+ resolution.

And good news for people who want more real estate, the device’s Gorilla 5 screen will feature a dot notch front camera.

The triple camera setup on MI A3 will consist of a 48 megapixel f 1.8 primary camera and 8 MP ultrawide camera and 2 MP depth sensor.

One incredible thing about MI A3 is that it will be able to record 4K video at 30fps and will feature a front camera with 32 megapixel Shooter.

The MI-A3 will most definitely feature of 3.5 mm headphone jack, phew, and a reasonable battery of of 4050 mAh.

Scientists discover the world’s thinnest gold

Source : ScienceDaily

You guys might be thinking what does that actually mean, thinnest gold ?.

Well, it is exactly what it sounds like.

Scientists have just simulated of form of gold which is just two atoms thick.

This without any doubt is the thinnest unsupported gold that is ever created.

Scientists measured the thickness of this Gold to be about 0.47 nanometres which is one million times thinner than the human finger nail.

As of now it is called 2D because it comprises of just two layers of atoms sitting on one top of another.

All atoms in these newly discovered material are surface atoms and there are no bulk atoms hidden beneath the surface.

The beauty about this material is that this material can actually find wide scale applications in medical devices and electronic industries.

Gold is one of the best conductors of electricity.

Apart from electrical and medical devices, these surface atoms of gold can also find application as catalysts in speeding up chemical processes of industrial nature.

I love it when science explores pushes its boundary of what is known, that’s what science is all about.

TechTonics # 3 : Harmony OS, AMD EPYC “Rome”, Samsung Play Galaxy Link, PCIE-4.0 SSD, OnePlus 7t Pro

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techtonics # 3

Huawei’s Harmony OS unveiled Source : Techcrunch The networking giant who after producing a number of conflicting reports on its new operating system finally unveiled its Harmony Operating System on Friday. The HarmonyOS is based on micro-kernel distribution system and is aimed to power on smartphones, laptops and other smart home devices. With Harmony OS, … Read more

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