Amazon to roll out Matter for Alexa smart home devices next month

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 4, 2022 | Technology

Amazon has announced to roll out ‘Matter’ for Alexa smart home devices next month, which will be limited to Android smartphones only.

The tech giant will bring support for ‘Matter’ — the new smart home standard — to 17 Echo devices next month, reports The Verge.

The first rollout will only be Matter over Wi-Fi and will be compatible with Android phones only.

It will cover just three device types– smart plugs, smart bulbs and smart switches.

The company claims to expand the rollout to iOS and new networking protocol Thread early next year, when it will also add more of the device types to Matter support, the report said.

Additionally, Amazon has also announced a partnership with Samsung SmartThings, in order to make it simple to set up Matter devices on one platform and transfer them to another without having to set it again.

Meanwhile, the e-commerce giant had announced that people could get official live cricket commentary and scores from virtual assistant Alexa.

Users can ask the device about the recent match information such as schedules, scores, team sheets and player statistics, the company said.

Additionally, it can be used to set reminders for the matches and to keep track of the favourite team’s fixtures.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Samsung to bring light performance mode to Galaxy S23 to save battery

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 4, 2022 | Technology

Tech giant Samsung will reportedly bring Light performance mode to its Galaxy S23 phones that will allow users to save battery life by enabling the mode.

This mode was introduced for Samsung’s foldable phones Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 earlier this year and served as an alternative to the Standard mode. It prioritises battery life by turning down the phone’s chipset performance.

According to GSMArena, the performance drop will be moderate, but the power consumption reduction will be substantial after enabling the Light mode. Also, this mode is separate from the usual Power saving mode.

Using Light mode will not affect games’ performance since the performance profile for games will continue to be controlled by separate Game Booster settings as before.

The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is showing promising results, so the improved performance from the new chipset is expected to balance out the slowdown caused by Light mode.

The 8 Gen 2 is promising to be more power efficient than the 8 Gen 1, so battery life should be better, according to a report.

Meanwhile, it is unclear if Light mode will be available on other Samsung phones.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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WhatsApp Communities: What is it, how it works, and how to get started

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 4, 2022 | Technology

Meta-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp on Thursday announced the rollout of ‘Communities’ features for users to manage multiple groups with ease by bringing them under one umbrella. The feature is rolled out in a phased manner and it will be available to everyone on iOS and Android platforms in coming months. Here is all you need to know about WhatsApp Communities:

WhatsApp Communities: What is it

The Communities feature allows users to connect multiple groups together under one umbrella to organise group conversations on WhatsApp. It is a parent group called community, with connected sub-groups for easy communication and management. The Communities feature on WhatsApp enables new possibilities, especially for group admins.

How to get started

For those who have received the feature update, the communities tab is available at the top of their chats on Android and at the bottom on iOS. By tapping on the communities tab, users will be able to start a new Community from scratch or add existing groups. Once in a community, users can switch between available groups to get the information and group admins can send important updates to everyone in the Community. At present, users can add up to 50 groups in a community, in addition to the broadcast group, which can hold up to 5000 members.

How does it work

Anyone can run a community of their own and invite groups to join. However, the group admins have to accept the invite in order to join the community. Community admins will have the ability to remove groups and an individual member from the Community. In addition, group admins will be able to delete inappropriate or abusive chats or media for all members of a group.

If a user leaves a group, he can still be part of the larger Community, and will get the announcements shared in the central announcements group. With the help of the broadcast group, the community admin can make an announcement across the entire Community.

In addition to Communities, WhatsApp rolled out other features for its users to make the most of the new addition. Admins can now conduct polls in sub-groups and add up to 32-person on calls via shareable call links. Besides, WhatsApp now allows file sharing of up to 2GB size.

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CCS Insight, Samsung predicts Apple to launch foldable tablet by 2024

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 4, 2022 | Technology

South Korean giant Samsung has predicted that its arch rival Apple is set to launch a foldable tablet by 2024.

Samsung’s Mobile Experience team recently met the suppliers and “is feeling optimistic about the foldable market,” reports AppleInsider.

According to them, Apple is likely to unveil its first foldable gadget by 2024 but it will not be an iPhone. “Even though there is a lot of demand for an iPhone Fold, the technology might not be ready yet,” the report said.

The bulky design of current folding phones does not align with Apple’s design philosophy.

Earlier, industry analyst firm CCS Insight had forecast that the technology giant would begin experimenting with foldable technology soon.

Apple is yet to enter the lucrative foldable market which is led by Samsung.

“Right now it does not make sense for Apple to make a foldable iPhone. We think they would shun that trend and probably dip a toe in the water with a foldable iPad,” said Ben Word, chief of research at the firm.

“A folding iPhone would be super high risk for Apple. Firstly, it would have to be incredibly expensive in order to not cannibalise the existing iPhones,” he added.

The company was exploring foldable technology for displays of around 20-inches in size.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Apple leads India premium smartphone segment with 40% share: Report

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 4, 2022 | Technology

Apple led the premium segment in India with 40 per cent share, followed by Samsung and OnePlus, with registering highest ever shipment share in the country in the September quarter.

Apple reached its highest ever share of 5 per cent in India’s smartphone market during the quarter driven by a strong channel push ahead of the festive season.

For the first time ever, an iPhone (iPhone 13) topped the overall India smartphone quarterly shipment rankings, according to Counterpoint Research.

“In terms of price bands, the premium segment (Rs 30,000 and above) reached its highest ever share of 12 per cent during this quarter,” said research analyst Shilpi Jain.

“The iPhone 13 became the top smartphone model in Q3 2022, a first for Apple in India,” she noted.

According to data from business intelligence platform Tofler, Apple India logged a net profit of Rs 1,263 crore, a growth of 3 per cent (year-on-year) in the fiscal year, as sales were up a massive 45 per cent.

In India, not just high-end new-generation Apple phones are flying off the shelves, older generation models like iPhone XR, 11, 12 and 13 are now popular among those who cannot afford the new handsets, thanks to attractive offers and schemes.

Samsung held the second spot in the premium segment, and even led the handset (feature phone + smartphone) market with an 18 per cent share.

It also remained the top-selling 5G smartphone brand in India.

OnePlus grew 35 per cent YoY in Q3 driven by the Nord CE 2 series and Nord 2T.

The brand remained at the third spot in the premium segment.

OnePlus led the Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 price band driven by its Nord portfolio.

The company also captured the second spot in India’s 5G smartphone shipments in Q3 2022, said the report.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Apple adds news integration to weather app in iOS 16.2 Beta release

by Hansraj Agrawal | Nov 4, 2022 | Technology

Tech giant Apple has added a News integration for regional weather stories to the Weather app in the beta release of iOS 16.2.

With this feature, users will get to see updates on the weather in their area, i.e. users will find a link to an article in the Apple News section that will show the updates on weather conditions in their areas.

According to 9to5Mac, there are no settings to turn off News integration in the current beta, and Apple does not currently allow users to choose which data tiles are displayed in its weather app.

If the user deletes the News app, the “Open in News” links are still there and functional. When a story is tapped, the web version of that story is found at the Apple News URL.

Weather isn’t the first app to receive cross-pollination from specific topics in Apple News. Apple’s Stocks app presents relevant business stories from Apple News based on which companies you follow, according to a report.

Meanwhile, last month Apple’s iOS 16.2 beta released an update that will allow users to send a report to the company when Emergency SOS has been unintentionally triggered.

As reported by 9to5Mac, Apple’s iOS 16.2 beta now asks users for feedback when cancelling Emergency SOS mode. A notification appears that opens the Feedback Assistant so Apple can receive data about what happened.

–IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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