Tech@ItsBest

In the recently concluded ‘ Spring Loaded ’ event, Apple unveiled some of their highly anticipated products, including the AirTags with U1 chip, redesigned iMac , and iPad Pro of course. On the software side of things, Apple Podcasts ’s got an updated fresh looking app and will be a subscription based service.  Image Courtesy: CNET   But what caught everyone’s eye and currently is the talk of the hour is M1 . You’d right now probably be like, “Wait, M1 ain’t new”. Of course M1 isn’t new to any of us, but it surely is new to the iPad and iMac! Yes you read it right, both the newly launched iMac and iPad ’ve got the M1 chip.  What’s going on with M1? iMac: Image Courtesy: Business Insider Basically, M1’s an ARM based SoC (System on Chip). In simpler words, it’s an integration of components like the CPU, GPU, RAM, Storage, ISP (Image Signal Processor) and the neural engine. Previously, each of these components weren’t present as a whole, which’s why the M1’s so much m...

With the IPL kicking off, our experience with ads on the Star network as well as on-game, hasn’t been great. Quite a few companies, a few established and few startups have sponsored this year’s IPL. One of them is FinTech entrepreneur Kunal Shah ’s (who previously owned Freecharge) CRED , a recent ad of which, featuring cricketing legend Rahul Dravid went utterly virally on social media. Not just ads in between overs, CRED’s ads feature in-game too. Commentators request the viewers to pay their credit card bills via CRED during the powerplay (CRED Powerplay) and the 13th over (CRED Jackpot) to avail exciting offers. So what exactly is CRED and how does it make money?  Image Courtesy: cred.club What is it?  CRED is a free-to-use members-only app available on the PlayStore and AppStore that allows you to pay and manage your credit card bills through the beautifully designed app. The app’s UI is attractive and easy to use (in reference to images on their website). And its aesthe...

If you’re following me on Twitter (And if you’re not, please do, via the connect button above), you’d probably know that I’ve been using the iPad 8th Gen for quite some time now. It’s been more than 4 months since I got this and here’s my experience during the same period:  For starters, the iPad 8th Gen was launched in September last year, alongside the iPad Air 4 and the Apple Watch Series 6 and SE. If you still got no idea, you’d probably wa check out my article on Apple’s September event.  Image Courtesy: Shubhang Kulkarni ;) Performance: As always, starting off with performance. The iPad 8th Gen, though launched in 2020, has got a 2 year-old chip, the A12 Bionic . Does that mean the performance’s awful? Absolutely not . (You know what I just did there ;)) The A12 Bionic, though being a 2 year-old chipset, cake-walks day-to-day tasks. The gaming experience too, is real good! It handles COD in ‘Very High’ and ‘High’ graphic quality & ‘Very High’ and ‘Max’ Frame rate res...

LG has always been known for its innovation and experimenting in the smartphone industry. The credit for ultra wide angle cameras on recent smartphones’ has to go to them. It’s not like LG was very inactive and finally decided to quit. In fact, they launched quite a few ‘experimental’ smartphones in 2020. Some of them include the LG Wing , the Velvet , the G8X . All of these weren’t normal phones. They’ve got something peculiar in them. The LG Wing’s got a secondary swivelling display, while the Velvet and G8X’ve got dual detachable screens. With this said, you might’ve assumed the pricing to be on the higher side. But no, the G8X on a Flipkart sale costed just 19,990 INR. So, the pricing’s great, and there’s a new form factor, usually better than the normal, then why did it fail? Here’s why! Image Courtesy: Unsplash (edited) Pricing:   Your reaction after reading the sub-heading might probably be like: “Wait, what? You just said they’re priced well”. But here’s the catch! All thei...

There was so much hype created around the Redmi Note 10 series via a number of tweets, followed by a poll, asking netizens on what they preferred: A 120Hz LCD display or a 60Hz AMOLED . The results of the tweet were not at all surprising, everyone wanted an AMOLED display. To be continued.... After all the hype, the Note 10 Series (Redmi, of course) was launched on the 4th of March. Reminiscent of the Note 9 Series, the Note 10 series too had a lineup of 3 aggressively priced smartphones, namely the Redmi Note 10, the Note 10 Pro and the Note 10 Pro Max. Though there’s lot to talk about the Note 10 and the Pro Max, I felt that the Note 10 Pro deserved way more talks than the other two, simply because it’s so great VFM (Value for money).  Image Courtesy: Mi India With that said (typed, actually ;)), here’s what the Redmi Note 10 Pro’s got to offer:  Performance The Redmi Notes were always known for their best-in-segment performance. Not sure if that legacy’s continued, as the R...

After demonetisation, the demand for digital wallets skyrocketed.This, along with support from the Government of India, saw the rise of PayTM, PhonePe, Google Pay (Previously known as Tez), the latest being Google Pay . But guess what, though it was introduced way later, it’s the most used digital wallet in India .  Image Courtesy: Unsplash  With the introduction of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) , using Google Pay’s really a very simple, yet risky task. All one’s got to do is download the app on their smartphone, link their bank account (UPI, which most banks support) and they’re good to go! All of this, free of cost!  Also, to not lose customers, they provide gifts (scratch cards and what not). This may make you wonder: If they’re providing all this for free, how’d they make profits? Here’s the answer. Google Pay’s Revenue Model:  First up, Recharge : Google Pay allows you to recharge your mobile SIM card . This, though doesn’t cost you, costs the service provide...

There are many brands out there selling smartphones with the 5G naming/sticker. That’s of course because the smartphone would have a built-in 5G modem. But wait, just a modem doesn’t make it 5G capable. You’ve got to have bands supporting the frequency that’s provided in the country.  Image Courtesy: Unsplash So, to explain in simple terms, it’s like having a basket’s diameter a little more than the ball’s, in basketball. If the ball’s got to enter the basket, it’s(the basket) surely got to have a greater diameter. It’s the same here. Specific bands are required for specific frequencies. Here’s what you’ve got to be aware of: 5G, in India will most probably start rolling out with 3.3GHz frequency, ‘ initially ’. And the only band that supports this frequency is the n78 . If the smartphone you’re looking to buy has got the n78 band, you can go for it, at your own risk. And I say that because the frequency spectrum isn’t quite confirmed yet. What you’ve not got to do is buy a 5G capa...

Realme ‘was’ previously known for its highly frequent phone launches. But now that thought isn’t anything true. The last time realme smartphone was launched in September 2020 and it’s the X7 now. There was a lot of hype going around the X7. Is the rebranded realme V15 good enough to survive the competition? Read ahead to find out:  Image Courtesy: realme India The realme X7 was launched alongside its big brother, the X7 Pro, both of which are rebranded versions of the realme V15 and V15 Pro respectively, which launched in China back in August 2020. Though it was launched in August 2020, it’s go plenty to justify in 2021 as well.  Here’s what the X7’s got to offer in every category:  Processor: The realme X7 is powered by MediaTek’s all new Dimensity 800U . It’s built on a 7nm fabrication process, meaning the efficiency’s going to be pretty good. And, what makes it stand out is the 5G modem built in. And, it’s not just 1 or 2 mere bands, it’s got 4 5G bands, making it quit...

With apps consuming tons of storage on smartphones, and many smartphone brands not increasing the base storage of smartphones at budget, storage management isn’t quite as easy. There surely are cloud storage services, about which too, I’ve written in the past, but you can’t load apps on the cloud right, which is why this post exists. Read ahead to know few tricks on storage management.  Image Courtesy: Business Insider Browsers:   Browsers are one of the most underrated apps that are built-in all smartphones. A common man, uses the browser, just to open ‘forwarded links’ or Google Search something. But there’s a lot more a browser can do. * Chrome can play the dinosaur game when offline! * Jokes apart, Social Media apps, especially Facebook and Instagram eat up a lot of storage.  Browser’s the best alternative for that. You can use Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform for that matter on your browser, without worrying about Storage. This might se...