But have you ever wondered how exactly these “fast” charging methods actually work. Let’s get started to understand….

The primary purpose of a fast charger is to deliver deliver a higher power input to the mobile phone. To do this function, both the current and the voltage need to enhanced. Previously, USB chargers would deliver, 0.5 Ampere of current using 5 Volts making for only a 2.5 Watts supply. The total power is a simple multiplication of the current and voltage. When compared to current fast chargers that supply as high as 65 Watts (W), the massive increase in charging speeds is quite evident.

The charging process is usually a comprehensive 3 step process:

• Stage 1 involves Constant Current delivery by peaking both voltage and current,
• Stage 2 involves Saturation, where current is lowered when the voltage has peaked.
• Stage 3 involves Trickle charging, where the battery is slowly charged to just compensate the rate of discharge. This step is mandatory for increasing the battery life and continues even after the battery is 100% charged.

Current phone performance comparison

The OnePlus 8 supports a 30W charger, and gives a 50% charge to the 4510 mAh battery in 23 minutes.

Apple uses 18W charging for the iPhone 11 Pro series and is able to charge the 3969 mAh battery from 0-50% in 30 minutes.

The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra supports 45W charging, and gives a 70% charge to the 5000 mAh battery in just 30 minutes.

The current fastest charging phone is the Oppo Reno Ace, which has a 65 W charger that fully charges the 4000mAh battery in 31 minutes.

The technology used

The task of delivering high speed charging involves a combination of hardware and software optimizations:

• Software monitoring to adjust the amount of charge delivered at every stage of charging.
• Thermal management to avoid charging slowdowns due to heat, maintaining a steady and fast charging rate while ensuring no battery damage takes place.

Safety Measures

With the increase in usage of mobile phones, it is very important for all of us to have our mobiles charge at speeds as fast as possible. Though fast charging is supported by relevant software optimizations, certifications, charger and cable customization, its is important to take note that phones often get warm while charging at high speeds and it is essential for us to use only chargers/cables provided and originally intended for those specific handsets to make sure safety remains uncompromised along with high performance charging.

The future is approaching

Vivo last year announced 120 W Super FlashCharge technology to be soon supported by its devices, which would translate to charging a 4000 mAh battery in just 13 minutes.

We are definitely headed to some insane charging speeds in very near future.

Both Google and Apple take 30% cut from any apps which are available on their app stores and by bypassing the payment systems, companies won’t receive their shares.

Though Fornite has been removed from Google Play Store, there are other app stores from where it is possible to download the game on any Android smartphone. But, iPhone and iPad users are not so lucky since, there aren’t any alternatives to Apple App Store.

How did Epic Games violate the rules?

With Epic Games latest update to Fortnite, it offered its users 20% discount on the currency used inside the game known as V-bucks. But, to avail the offer users had to pay directly to Epic Games rather than using payment systems provided by Apple or Google.

By rules, games which are made available via Apple App Store or Google Play Store have to use their payment systems and thus, by asking users to pay directly Epic Games violated the rules.

Epic Games had anticipated that their game would be taken off by Apple and Google, and on Thursday, Apple took down the game from its app store and soon after it Google did the same.

Immediately after the game was down, the game company released a video with hashtag #FreeFortnite. It was also quick at filing suit against Google and Apple.

What is the suit about?

From the documents available at US court record system, it has come to known that Epic games has filed the suit at California court against both Apple and Google.

The suit is about mandatory cut of 30% which both Google and Apple take for each and every sale from their application stores. The suit also raises issues about how Apple and Google are taking advantage of their power and monopoly.

In past Google did not allow LG to put Epic Games software on its devices by binding LG in a contract. Even One Plus had to go through similar situation and was not allowed to indulge with the game company.

What are the demands of Epic?

Epic has stated that it does not seek any monetary compensation from the tech giants nor it is trying for a favorable deal for itself.

The company has said that it wants to make mobile app stores to be fairer for all developers. It also expects from Google and Apple to reduce its commission from 30%. 

In past many developers have complained about the commissions taken by the app stores is too high leaving pennies to the developers. If Apple and Google reduce their commission then it will be relief for app developers and more importantly to Epic.

The game company is directly processed transactions over $1.6 billion which does not include payments via App store and Play store.

Statements from Google and Apple

Google stated that users have alternative to download and install apps from other sources and as per the company Play Store is one such source.

It also stated that the developers working on Android ecosystem can distribute their applications via multiple platforms and stores. But, for using Play Store to provide applications, it has policies which are necessary to keep the store safe for users and it also says that their policies are fair.

Apple also released a statement: “Epic has had apps on the App Store for a decade, and have benefited from the App Store ecosystem – including its tools, testing, and distribution that Apple provides to all developers.” said Apple.

Apple added that Epic agreed to terms and conditions of their app store under no pressure and they were pleased to see Epic’s business grow on their store. It accused Epic of special arrangements which Apple would not provide under fair play and chance for all developers on App Store. 

Even Apple said that their guidelines are created in a way that will safe guard users.

Both Apple and Google are working out with Epic to resolve the violation and get Fortnite back on their stores.

Apple and Google have already been questioned and are under review because of their practices relating to fair competition where they were accused of using their power.

What do you think about the suit and what do you think will be the outcome? Do share your views in comments below.

After giving away 80.1% shares, Sharp renamed the PC division to Dynabook and later in June it exercised its rights to buy remaining 19.9% shares. 

On August 4, 2020 Toshiba released a statement and informed that the deal with Sharp has completed and Sharp is the sole owner of Dynabook.

During 1900s and 2000s, Toshiba was key player in portable computer market and its T1100, a $2,000 laptop was launched in 1985, which marked their entry into this space. T1100 was instant hit and it became standards for many laptops until the launch of Apple’s PowerBook.

It had three successful lines of products: Satellite, Portege and Qosmio, which thrived in the market for many years until late 2000s.

What went wrong with Toshiba?

As years passed, once pioneer in portable computers now was not able to keep up with the market and was already losing its touch. Along with this, rivals like Apple, Dell, Acer and Lenovo had already got the strong grip on the portable computer market beating it at its own game. 

With shrinking market and stiff competition from the rivals which now controls large portion of the market, the company was finding it difficult to survive and was also losing popularity. 

As per Reuters, Toshiba’s portable computer division had sold as much as 17.7 million units in 2011 and by the year 2017 the number had reduced down to meagre 1.4 million. 

Toshiba is still a strong brand in computing business with its footing in printing and storage business. It also has stakes in energy and retail business. 

Google is serious with this phone and it has been launched at competitive price of $349. Pixel 4A is nothing like its predecessor and this phone can be a game changer. This phone can stand toe to toe with other phones in its competition like iPhone SE2 and recently launched One Plus Nord.

Along with Pixel 4A, Google has also announced Pixel 4A 5G and Pixel 5. Google Pixel 4A comes in only one size and that is 5.8-inches screen size, there is no XL option this time. If you want a bigger phone then you will have to wait till August 20 for Pixel 5.

For the price point of $349 Pixel 4A has lot to offer: 128GB storage, exceptional camera for photography and decent battery life. This phone has got most of its basics correct and seems to provide value for the price. 

We will have to wait and see if Pixel 4A is really a hit or is it again a miss.

Pixel 4A Hardware

Pixel 4A has a basic and clean design with no fancy stuff going around. The phone is easy to hold and use in one hand. 

The body of Pixel 4A is made up of plastic with finger print sensor at the back. The phone itself has a solid feel but, the phone lacks wireless charging capabilities which is now expected in any smartphone. Headphones enthusiast will be happy to know that the phone still comes with 3.5mm headphone jack. It does not end with headphone jack; the phone also has a stereo speaker which you usually do not see it at this price point.

With Pixel 4A you do not get the feature to squeeze your phone to start Google Assistant, to access it you can say “Hey Google” or just swipe in from the bottom corner.

Google Pixel 4A comes with only one color- Black. Google calls it black as “Just Black” also, power button has unusual color of seafoam green.

Screen of this phone is OLED which you do not see it in smartphones of this price point. OLED screen has its share of problems though, red shifts in dark, reduced viewing angles and screen is not bright enough to view in direct sunlight. Also, phone is paired with Gorilla Glass 3, which is extremely old for a smartphone. 

But, I would like to remind you that this phone is just $349 and at this price point the screen should be acceptable. 

Pixel 4A Software

Google’s software is as like its hardware, clutter free and simple without any bloated features. Android OS shipped with Pixel 4A is easy to understand and minimalistic. Google also guarantees that the phone will have software updates for 3 years.

This phone comes with some of Pixel-exclusive features which other Android phones may not have for quite some time. Some of the best exclusive features are car crash detection and ability for speech-to-text in phone calls.

With speech-to-text feature in phone calls, caller on the other end hears message saying that their speech will be transcribed. The speech will be transcribed in real life just like closed captioning, you will see text in real time with good accuracy. All this will happen locally on your phone, only thing is that the transcriptions are not saved.

Pixel 4A Camera

What distinguishes Pixel from other Android phones is its camera. Presumably what makes Google Pixel’s camera so good is its software. 

Google Pixel 4A’s camera is as good as Pixel 4, that means the quality of Pixel 4A is really high when it comes to photography. The phone has a mediocre camera hardware, it is equipped with single 12.2-megapixel camera and Sony IMX363 optical stability sensor. At front, the phone has a single 8-megapixel punch-hole camera.

Pixel’s camera works really well at night and in dark as well. At price point of $349 it is extremely good and when compared with iPhone SE2, the camera of Pixel crushes the iPhone when it comes to taking photographs in dark as iPhone does not have a night mode. 

With Pixel 4A you can zoom up to 7x and it is above average when holding the image details. Also, the portrait mode in Pixel is good and it is expected to improve in further software updates. The phone also comes with astrophotography mode, which is expected to shoot impressive photographs of night sky.

Camera in Pixel 4A is not all perfect and there have been few sacrifices made to provide phone at such price. The phone lacks extra image processor so you will notice that images take longer time to process before you can view. 

Camera also lacks wide angle or telephoto lens but it is not a deal breaker. Usually phones which come with those lenses are not good so not having them is not a loss.

Another area where Pixel’s camera lack is video recording. The phone cannot shoot in all frame rates which even a common modern phone can do. Average phones like iPhone SE2 or any other average Samsung phone does better job when it comes to dynamic ranging and overall quality.

Pixel 4A Specifications

• Display: 5.81-inch 1080 x 2340 OLED, 443 ppi with hole punch camera
• Dimensions & weight: 5.7 x 2.7 0.3 inches; 144 grams
• Battery: 3,140mAh
• RAM and storage: 6GB; 128GB
• Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G
• Rear camera: 12.2-megapixel, 1.4 μm pixel width, dual pixel phase detection autofocus, OIS and EIS, f/1.7 equivalent aperture, 77-degree field of view
• Video: 1080p at 30, 60, or 120fps; 720p at 30, 60, or 240fps; 4K a 30fps
• Front camera: 8-megapixel, 1.12 μm pixel width, ƒ/2.0 equivalent aperture, 84-degree field of view
• Other: Stereo speakers, 3.5mm headphone jack, USB-C, no wireless charging
• Supports 4G
• Includes 18W USB power adapter and cable in box, no headphones in box

Will the phone’s performance remain same in future?

Android phones for a long time have a bad reputation for not lasting long and it is mostly due to processor. Though Google is saying that it will provide regular software updates for three years but, we will have to practically see how phone will perform after 3 years of usage. 

Currently, the phone is fast enough for daily usage but apps take some time to open. Also, there’s something funny about scrolling in Chrome and Twitter, but it is not at all slow.

Now to answer how it will fair in long run, it is difficult to answer but looking at how Pixel 3A’s long term performance, it is expected to have similar life to that of Pixel 3A.

Final words

Pixel 4A is small, clutter free and easy to use smartphone which will get your work done. It is yet to know how it will fair against its competition but, the hopes are high from this budget phone.

What do you think about Pixel 4A? Will it score big for Google or will it struggle like its predecessors? Share your views in comments.

US president Donald Trump on Friday said that he would sign an Executive order which will ban TikTok from US. 

The reason for banning popular music video app is because of the national security concerns over the safety of personal data handled by TikTok. This ban will be a major setback for ByteDance, owner of TikTok. ByteDance is one of the very few companies from China that became global success which has been mainly due to its entertainment application TikTok.

The Negotiations

After the announcement made by President Trump, there were desperate negotiations with White House, in these negotiations potential buyers of TikTok were also involved and one of the potential buyers is Microsoft. 

But, in Friday’s negotiations the Chinese company was not able to strike any deal which would have safeguarded TikTok’s functioning in US market. It is expected that talks will continue in the coming days.

Microsoft can acquire TikTok with little obstacles as the entertainment app was hardly any competition for the company as compared to companies like Facebook. Facebook is a direct competitor to TikTok and US lawmaker these days are strict about maintaining fair competition in the market and it frowns upon underhanded practices like taking over other businesses.

The expectations of ByteDance are high and it has placed rich acquisition value of $50 billion. With such rich valuation ByteDance also demands to hold minority share in the entertainment app. These demands have complicated the deals between prospective buyers and the company.

To the reports which talked about acquisition of TikTok, Trump said: “Not the deal that you have been hearing about, that they are going to buy and sell… and Microsoft and another one. We are not an M&A (mergers and acquisitions) country”

US Treasury Department, which is looking at the ByteDance’s ownership over TikTok, refrained from commenting on these matters.

What is government up-to?

Till now it is not clear about the authority of President to ban the popular Chinese app in US. It is also yet to know how ban will be enforced and what legal implications would arise.

Relations between US and China have not been good for quite some time with trade war from both ends, political problems in Hong Kong, cyber-attacks from china and spreading novel coronavirus. Now TikTok has come-up under radar amidst economic war between two countries. 

Recently US Senate over the concerns of information security passed a bill that would bar US federal employees from using TikTok on government issued devices. This bill will be raised for the vote from complete Senate and the House of Representatives has already voted for measures similar to it.

Kevin Mayer, CEO at TikTok said that the company has been adhering to US laws and has been allowing inspection of their policies and data handling. The app company has also allowed the examination of codes which run the app.

Amidst pressure from US government, TikTok has introduced features on its application which allows users to add special effects to their short videos and it has already become a hit amongst teenagers.

TikTok’s owner ByteDance has received offer from few of its investors, including General Atlantic and Sequoia where majority of the shares will be transferred to investors. The proposal is valued at $50 billion but, few members in ByteDance believe that the app is worth more than that.

ByteDance has shielded TikTok at multiple instances from potential acquisitions by companies and investment firms.

Background of TikTok and unapproved acquisition

TikTok came into existence after ByteDance acquired video entertainment app Musical.ly at the value of $1 billion in 2017. After acquiring Musical.ly, it was relaunched as TikTok. But, during acquisition ByteDance did not take approval from CFIUS. CFIUS is an agency which is responsible for reviewing deals and sniffing out any potential security risks. 

Since, ByteDance did not take approval from CFIUS, last year it launched an investigation at the company and entertainment app TikTok.

For past some time, US has become stricter at scrutinizing app developers over the way these developers handle the personal data. If there is involvement of US military or any intelligence personnel then it is taken more seriously. 

A bit about ByteDance

ByteDance is worth over $140 billion and it has multiple investors including Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp.

ByteDance’s revenue mostly comes from advertisements which are run over their multiple apps like Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok), Jinri Toutiao (News aggregator app), Xigua (Video-streaming app) and Pipixia (app for jokes and funny videos)

Company’s other foreign applications are Lark-a work collaboration tool and Resso-a music streaming app.

What do you think, will Trump ban the Chinese app TikTok? Share your thoughts in comments.

These 4 tech companies have been accused of holding too much of power which is disruptive and harmful. As per Representative David N. Cicilline, these tech companies have enough power to put country’s democracy and their competition at great risk. 

At the antitrust hearing, Representatives from both Democrats and Republicans grilled the head of the companies for hours. Representatives raised questions about privacy, exterminating competitive startups and ventures by acquiring them or embezzling their technology/idea. Head of the companies were also questioned about their dominance and control over the market and misusing their position as entry-points.

Antitrust Hearing: What was asked and what was answered?

Zuckerberg’s internal e-mails topic was again dug out of grave which gave him tough time during his virtual presence. Representative Jaya Pramila pointed out at Zuckerberg’s internal e-mails where he has written to Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systron that Facebook will mimic the image sharing platform. This was during the negotiations with Instagram.

Other e-mails were also discovered where Zuckerberg had wished to acquire Google.

Amazon was too accused of similar activities of acquiring competitions. Amazon was also questioned about its method of handling and using third party seller data on their platforms to eradicate small businesses. 

Representative Hank Johnson raised the issue of counterfeit products available on the e-commerce platform of Amazon. Representative asked company head Jeff Bezos why the company should not be held responsible.

To this, Bezos replied that this issue should also be addressed by Congress and the company founder also added that Amazon is taking measures to avoid and remove counterfeit products from their platform. Bezos said that the law enforcement resources should be raised to curb counterfeits and stricter penalties are passed.

During questioning from Jamie Raskin, Bezos admitted that Amazon uses its platforms to promote its products over other competitions who do not have same features. 

Jeff Bezos added that it is common practice in business and he would not be surprised to see Alexa promote their own products.

Amazon head also assured that there are policies in place that prevents users of seller data to kill sellers but, he could not endorse the fact that the policies has never been violated. An audio tape was played during the Antitrust meeting in which a bookseller on Amazon accused company practices for killing her business.

Google was targeted for its overall dominance over the internet. CEO Sundar Pichai, was questioned over its company’s dominance on news sector and representatives pointed out at the data where the company has not been fair to news publishers. 

Company was also questioned about its user data usage and stealing data from competing websites and companies. 

Google CEO during questioning also admitted that, along with automated way of blacklisting websites from Google Search, there is also a manual component to blacklist any website.

Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook was the only one who had to face less difficult questions as compared to other three. Tim Cook was questioned about the 30% commission which company charge to the developers on App Store for payments. Cook responded to this by mentioning that 30% commission is far too less than what developers would pay before the App Store was released.

Cook was also asked about his intentions to raise the commission to which he pointed out that since the day App Store was introduced, the company has not raised the prices. He also added that competition from other players would keep Apple away from increasing the commissions in future too.

Question about China and Pledge

The four CEO’s were inquired about the Chinese government stealing tech from US companies. Both Pichai and Cook replied to this by informing that their company’s data has never been stolen, to their knowledge.

Zuckerberg said that, China stealing tech from US is well documented and Bezos added that, he has heard reports of theft by China, but he has not personally seen it. 

Sundar Pichai added that in year 2009 that Google had suffered due to cyber-attack from China.

At the hearing, all four companies pledged not to work with any company which use slave labor.

Conclusion from the antitrust hearing

Several members from the panel asked the companies why they should not be broken up or not extensively regulated. 

After 4 hours of intense discussion at antitrust hearing, Congress came to conclusion that these 4 companies have clear monopoly in their respective spaces. It was said that some of the companies need to be broken-up and all need to be properly regulated. 

Write your thoughts about antitrust hearing in the comments.

Though this feature sounds interesting, users must be warned that sharing of the code messaged to initiate a new sign-in, with unknown individuals may lead to unwanted access and control to the users WhatsApp account.

Recently, there has been a spread in hacking of WhatsApp accounts, especially in India. Users reported to have received a message from an unknown account/contact, asking to share a six digit code.

If a known phone contact messages you to share such a message, most of us would do this without thinking but the problem arises here because the message has not been initiated by your contact.

The message has instead been initiated from a hacker who has gained unlawful access to your friends account. You many not even know that your friends account has already been compromised.

The hackers ask to share a six digit code SMS, by quoting that this code was mistaken sent to your number by them.

On sharing this code, the hacker gains complete access to the users WhatsApp account, blocking the user out and then further initiates a chain of messages to all the users contacts to share the six digit code SMS in a similar way.

To stay safe from this rather social way of hacking, Please do not share any code received as an SMS, even with someone you know personally. This can save you from banking or numerous widespread user account related hacks/fraud. Users can enable the two step authentication feature offered by WhatsApp. This will give them an added layer of security.

What the feature is actually intended to do:

Currently WhatsApp requires its users to sign out of their mobile phone to be able to access their account on another mobile phone. This new feature will eliminate the lengthy process of signing-out and signing-in again and simplify WhatsApp accessibility across multiple devices especially mobile phones.

One WhatsApp account can be logged-in on upto 4 devices simultaneously with this features rollout. The login will involve the users mobile number and an OTP, received for authentication during the users new sign-in.

Users can add, delete, manage devices that are logged in, including devices like web browsers and mobiles seamlessly. This extends the functionality of the currently available WhatsApp Web feature which allows only a single mobile along with a PC, Mac or web browser to access a particular WhatsApp account.

WhatsApp testing expert WABetaInfo reported that this new feature will be added in the menu under the name of “Linked devices”. This will also mean that it would replace the current whatsapp web option while integrating it.

Users will now be able to access their WhatsApp account and messages across their mobile phone, laptop, desktop and tablet simultaneously and will be able to freely switch between these devices.

A bunch of other new features may also soon be available, this includes the “Search by date” and improved storage managing features that allows messages and images in chats to be searched by specifying the dates.

However WhatsApp is lagging quite behind its competitor Telegram in terms of new feature rollouts.

Telegram has recently announced new features like:

Increased file sharing size restriction to 2GB which is 20 times larger than WhatsApp’s 100MB size restriction.

Support for videos to be now set as profile. Group stats giving detailed information about group activity and growth.

Skin softening support in the in-app camera for image beautification.

Increased user sign-in device limit to up-to 3 devices. File Sharing, Group Stats, improved People Nearby have also been added.

The feature to live broadcast rooms on groups, page or profile will be available in select countries, shortly after which it will be made available in other countries too where Messenger Rooms is already available.

In Facebook Messenger Rooms, host will still have all of the controls during livestream. Host and any assigned moderators assigned by the host can also remove any attendee during a live broadcast if necessary. 

There is no change in the actual functionality of the way how video call is made and with this new feature, the call can be viewed by other people on page, group or profile and it will be just like a live event.

To live broadcast any video chat, all members in the video chat are required to opt-in when going live. During live broadcast there is option for each and every participant to leave the session. 

Steps to host live broadcast video chat or meeting via Facebook Messenger Rooms:

Go to “People” tab on your Facebook Messenger app / if on Facebook app you will see a prompt on your home page and select “Create a Room Option”

While creating a Messenger Room, Facebook will provide you with an option to allow people join room using link – through this anybody with the link can join the link. Other option allows you to send invites to send invites to specific people and only those people with invite can join. 

After selecting your audience permissions, you can share the link via “Share Link” button and share link to the participants on WhatsApp, Messenger, E-Mail, etc.

Now you can start the meeting and wait for participants to join-in. Once everybody is in, you can lock the room so that nobody else is able to join the room.

After all the necessary people join in the meeting, click on the “Live” button which will be situated on the bottom-right corner of the video box.

Select the location where you wish to broadcast the video meeting, you have options to select between NewsFeed, a page on Facebook or in any available group.

After deciding the location, a request is sent to participants to confirm the live broadcast of the video chat. Participant will have option to confirm or leave the room. If any participant is not responding to the request, then the host or room owner can remove the participant.

After confirmation from all of the participants, click on “Start” to begin your live video meeting room.

At the end of meeting, you can select “call end” button to end the meeting.

Watch Mark Zuckerberg reveal Facebook Messenger Rooms: