Tech Tok: A new thing from Nothing

Nothing happened this week in the world of technology. Yes, you read that right. Nothing. Quite a strange name for a firm, but then that is what OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei named his company, and after much hype and hoopla, Nothing Technology Ltd finally launched its Nothing Phone 1 last week. Coming in black and […]

Nothing happened this week in the world of technology. Yes, you read that right. Nothing.

Quite a strange name for a firm, but then that is what OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei named his company, and after much hype and hoopla, Nothing Technology Ltd finally launched its Nothing Phone 1 last week.

---

Coming in black and white colour options, the phone has been on sale since July 21, starting at Rs 32,999. The options include 8 GB RAM/128 GB storage, 8 GB RAM/256 GB storage and 12 GB RAM/256 GB storage. The phone works on Snapdragon 778G Plus SoC, and has optical image stabilisation for a 64MP rear dual-camera setup and also boasts of wireless and reverse charging too.

Apart from Nothing, quite many things happened in the mobile phone world this week, with several new phones hitting the market.

These included Nokia’s C21 Plus budget smartphone, priced at Rs 10,299, coming in two variants and a 6.5-inch IPS LCD screen, 5,050 mAh battery with 3 days of claimed backup, 10W charging, two years of security updates and a 13MP dual AI camera.

The Google Pixel 6a was also launched in India and will go on sale on July 28 through Flipkart. The Pixel 6a will cost you Rs 43,999, with those who book in advance to get it at Rs 39,991 through bank offers. The Pixel 6a is powered by the Google Tensor chip and comes with a dual rear camera setup, a 12-megapixel main camera and a 12-megapixel ultra-wide camera. Along with the 6a, Google also launched Pixel Buds Pro for Rs 19,990, which will be available in India from July 28.

Another phone launched earlier this week in India was the Xiaomi Redmi K50i 5G. Said to be the first Redmi device with support for 12 5G bands, the K50i is priced at Rs 25,999 for the base 6GB RAM 128GB storage variant, while the 8GB RAM 256GB storage model is priced at Rs.28,999.

Other mobile phone news also saw Samsung officially confirming the date of its next Galaxy Unpacked event, which will be on August 10. Samsung has already let us a glimpse of the upcoming Galaxy Z Flip 4, which could be accompanied at the event by the Galaxy Z Fold 4, Galaxy Watch 5 series and a pair of Galaxy Buds making their debuts.

New Features:

New monetisation tool for FB creators

Tech giant Meta has introduced a new monetisation tool — Music Revenue Sharing — that allows creators to use licensed music from popular artists in their Facebook videos and earn a share of in-stream ad revenue. The company said creators must be eligible for in-stream ads in their content to access the tool. They will receive a 20 per cent revenue share on eligible videos, with a separate share going to music rights holders and Meta.

Meta claimed that this feature was the first of its kind within the music industry, with Music Revenue Sharing powered by Rights Manager, a video, audio and image-matching tool the company developed to help content owners protect their rights and manage their content at scale. The tool is now rolling out to video creators globally.

Play Store gets new logo on 10th anniv

As Google’s Play Store officially completed 10 years, it is now getting a new logo.

The tech giant has slightly tweaked the overall shape of its Google Play Store logo, but the most notable changes are the less vibrant colours that more closely match the green, yellow, blue, and red hues that Google uses for many of its other services. It is a subtle adjustment that also complements the new Chrome logo updated earlier this year, reports The Verge.

The new logo and iconography also mark 10 years of Google Play after it was rebranded from the Android Market in 2012. To mark the 10 years of Google Play, Google is also offering a boost to Google Play Points. If users activate the points booster, they will earn 10x points on purchases, including most in-app items.

–Dennis Marcus Mathew with agency inputs