Tech Tok: Battle for the wrist
With smartwatches minimizing phone distractions without compromising connection, especially in meetings or when at home, the smartwatch industry has found ways onto more wrists.
Hyderabad: Ever thought about a major war going on for a few millimetres of space on your wrist?
Well, earlier this month, when Apple released its Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra and the second generation of the Watch SE, the big tech war for that little space on your wrist just got bigger. Apple again distanced itself from competition with the watchOS 9 released on Monday, adding more features to its existing, older models too.
So what’s happening? From answering calls on your wrist, checking notifications without having to take your phone out of the pocket, keeping a tab on your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, keeping you fit with multiple exercise and workout modes to monitoring your sleep and what the heck, calling your emergency contacts if you have a hard fall, wearable technology is soaring into outer space.
Apple, an industry veteran in watches, but is not without competition. Apart from Samsung’s smartwatches, players like Garmin, FitBit, Amazon, Amazfit, Facebook’s rumoured smartwatch that could feature detachable cameras and a heart rate monitor, affordable options like the Noise Colorfit smartwatch range, boAt, Mi, Fire-Boltt, Huawei, Fasttrack, Crossbeats, OnePlus and even Titan – the number of smartwatches and bands are on a constant rise.
With smartwatches minimizing phone distractions without compromising connection, and with more people trying to keep the phone inside the pocket, especially in meetings or when at home, the smartwatch industry has found ways onto more wrists.
Apple’s iWatches had in fact sold more than the conventional ones sold by the Swiss watch industry in 2019. The market has only grown since, especially with Covid-19 adding to the health consciousness of people. Apple even went to the extent of adding a handwashing timer! All this battle, for a little space on your wrist.
NEW LAUNCHES/FEATURES
OnePlus 10R Prime Blue Edition launched in India
OnePlus on Tuesday announced the launch of the OnePlus 10R Prime Blue Edition in India that will be exclusively available on Amazon.in.
The company said the launch of the Prime Blue Edition also doubles up as a celebration of the brand’s long-standing partnership with Amazon.
As an added treat, Amazon users who purchase the all-new OnePlus 10R Prime Blue can also avail of a three-month Amazon Prime subscription for free.
Powered by the flagship MediaTek chipset Dimensity 8100-MAX AI along with OnePlus’ signature OxygenOS software, the OnePlus 10R Prime Blue Edition has a 6.7-inch Fluid AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate.
The smartphone is equipped with 80W Supervooc charging and a 5,000 mAh battery that can be charged from 1-100 per cent in 32 minutes. It comes with a rear triple camera system with a 50MP Sony IMX766 primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide camera with a 119-degree field of view, a 2MP macro camera, and electronic image stabilization (OIS).
Users can remove security patches in iOS 16
Reaching iPhones on Monday, iOS 16 has a feature that will allow iPhone users to deploy security patches without a full iOS update, and they can also choose to roll back the security updates.
The Rapid Security Response system in iOS 16 can install security patches without fully updating your iPhone, or even without having to restart it, in some cases.
By default, Rapid Security Responses are installed automatically, but Apple has implemented a way to remove them, reports MacRumors.
According to a support document, the user can remove a Rapid Security Response update by going to Settings, General and About, then tapping tapping Remove Security Update.
According to Apple, the users can reinstall the Rapid Security Response at a later date, or wait for it to be installed permanently as part of a standard software update.
– Dennis Marcus Mathew with agency inputs
