Tag: smartphones

  • Hong Kong-based smartphone company becomes first to start manufacturing in Pakistan

    A Hong Kong-based smartphone manufacturer, Infinix, has become the first smartphone company to start manufacturing in Pakistan. Prior to this, only a certain amount of mobile phones were being assembled within the country, including Xiaomi Mi phones.

    “Fully aligning with the country’s initiative of ‘Make in Pakistan’, the company keeps growing its investment to contribute and help transform Pakistan into a regional tech hub. This is just one step further towards our mission and commitment to putting Pakistan on the road to progress and prosperity,” Infinix Pakistan said in a statement on Friday.

    Located in Pakistan, the Chinese smartphone brand’s manufacturing facility helps prevent the unnecessary worry of coronavirus and the inaccessibility of the newest Infinix products. With the launch of the facility, the company also fulfils its aim of playing its role in empowering the local labour, particularly women, as 60pc of the workforce working in the Infinix Pakistan factory comprised of women.

    The manufacturing vicinity was also visited by Chinese Consul General Li Bijian, who applauded Infinix’s contribution in promoting local employment in the country.

    Talking about their company mission, Infinix Pakistan CEO Joe Hu said, “Infinix’s vision as a company is to enrich our customers’ experiences, whether it is through our products, or what goes in their manufacturing. To be able to play a small part in the empowerment of the labour force in Pakistan, particularly women, is an important step further towards our mission.”

    Infinix’s products in Pakistan are priced from approximately Rs11,000 to Rs40,000.

    The development comes as the government finalises the Mobile Device Manufacturing Policy with the theme ‘Make in Pakistan’ under which regulatory duty (RD) on the local assembly of smartphones (Android) will be reduced from the existing five per cent to zero.

    Within the next two to three years’ time, 40 per cent localisation in manufacturing will be attained, meaning that the charger manufacturing, casing of the phones and its packing would be done locally and with the passage of time 100 per cent manufacturing of android mobile phones will be done.

    Local device manufacturing activity is projected to create 200,000 direct and indirect jobs in the country alongside the development of an efficient manufacturing ecosystem and linking Pakistan to the global supply chain.

  • Anonymously report harassment, bias at work with this new app

    A tool called AllVoice is here to make it easier for employees to anonymously send feedback to the company’s leadership, and report harassment or bias.

    According to the details, the app has been launched by Eponymous, and the company has raised $3 million in seed funding for the facilitation of their startup.

    AllVoices is a platform that lets people send complaints to the human resources (HR) department. All complaints are displayed on the dashboard of the application that helps HR to launch investigations.

    Founder Claire Schmidt was inspired to create AllVoices after former Uber engineer Susan Fowler investigated sexual harassment and discrimination in the ride-hailing company.

    Once the report is sent to the department concerned, it sends text notifications for the complainant to track the response from the company.

    Employees in HR won’t see any information such as names, and AllVoices won’t know which employer is involved. All communication is encrypted, the company says.

    After 60 days have passed following a complaint, AllVoices asks the employee if he or she knows whether the company has taken any action and, if so, how satisfactory it is. AllVoices then gives that data to the company.

    AllVoices is hoping to create a free version of the app for employees who work at companies that do not use the app. They’d be able to report issues by sharing an email for someone in their human resources department.

  • Do you know about the new pinch emoji?

    Do you know about the new pinch emoji?

    Sending emojis to convey a complete message without using a single word has emerged as a new trend in recent, millennial times. 

    Emoji 13.0 is the set of 117 new emojis that have been approved for release in 2020. Among them is the ‘pinch emoji’ gesture, designed to represent the Italian hand gesture ma che vuoi (or ‘finger purse’).

    The “What do you want?” pinched fingers emoji proposal was submitted by Y Adriano Farano, Jennifer 8. Lee and Theo Schear of Emojination to Unicode. The proposal explains the significance of this emoji. It is part of the Italian gestural expression which is now widespread in Mediterranean countries and according to research published by the New York Times, Italians use this gesture roughly 250 times a day.

    https://twitter.com/Giulio_Consult/status/1223014981668499457?s=20

    Not just Italians but many other cultures use the same pinched finger gesture to make a point, for example, one blogger mentions that this is an expression used for “just about everything”, and in Israel, it means “Wait a minute,” or “Hurry up” or “Relax.”

    The gesture is used by pinching your fingers against the thumb and moving your hand back and forth against your chest which translates to “What do you want?”

    Even Former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy, in 2015 was seen flaunting this gesture to give an impactful speech in the Italian Parliament. Hence it is not just an emoji but represents the Italian culture and celebrates their tradition.

    The proposal was accepted and we will soon be seeing this emoji in 2020.

  • WhatsApp will not operate on outdated smartphones, Here is why

    WhatsApp will not operate on outdated smartphones, Here is why

    Millions of Android and iPhone devices with an outdated operating system (Andriod or IOS) will no longer be able to run WhatsApp, the app owned by Facebook, BBC reported on Saturday. WhatsApp as saying the move is important to protect the security of its users. 

    Smartphones with Andriod version 2.3.7 and older, and iPhone IOS 8 and older, would be affected by the update, said the report. Most users would be able to update their operating systems in order to continue using the services of WhatsApp.

    “WhatsApp clearly had no option but to ensure its services remain secure; however it faces the difficult side-effect that the app is no longer compatible with older smartphones,” said CSS (tech research company) insight analyst Ben Wood.

    A spokesperson for the messaging platform said: “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp.”

    This is the latest in a series of moves after the app withdrew support for numerous devices in 2016, and then from all Windows phones on the last day of last year.

  • How 5G will affect you

    How 5G will affect you

    Qualcomm, an American multinational telecommunication company makes the 5G chips and modems that every 5G phone in the US will rely on. However, Qualcomm isn’t the only major 5G player, of course — Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson are all leaders too. Nevertheless, Qualcomm’s investments in 5G research and development mean that it has a strong hand in getting more business. 

    Here how 5G wil affect our lives.

    Every high-end phone could be 5G in 2020

    In a confident statement by Qualcomm, “all premium phones will support 5G in 2020 such as Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G, LG V50, Oneplus 7 pro 5G. But there’s a little nuance here too. 4G only options are still valuable during the 5G transition because they come with a lower price tag. 

    5G laptops will appear in 2020

    Lenovo has already announced that it will introduce 5G connected PCs in early 2020. We may not see those laptops hit the market for a while, but you’d better believe that some laptop-makers will jump at the chance to be the first to bring 5G to computing — just as you see happening right now with phones, but Qualcomm bets that the hunger for 5G laptops will grow over time. 

    5G will replace wifi routers at home and office 

    5G hubs that work like Wi-Fi for your home are already here. One example of fixed 5G is the HTC 5G Hub, a device that plugs into your router to deliver home broadband. 

    Moreover, they’re designed to deliver the same dramatically high-speed internet, say between 500 (Mbps) to over one (GB) per second. 

    Self-driving cars that talk to each other 

    Qualcomm showed a self-driving car fitted with 5G sensors runs the same route as a car without 5G. The 5G powered sensors take in data from other connected vehicles, understanding when a car door is opening at the curb, if there’s an obstruction in the road and when pedestrians are finished crossing the streets. At the end of the demo, the 5G-connected car is better informed of obstructions and arrives at the destination much faster. 

    But the reality could be decades away. Before 5G autonomous cars become common, self-driving vehicles will be be the norm.