Archives January 2023

It’s been rumored for several years that Apple is thinking about switching its iPad Pro tablets to OLED display technology, and the latest report from the supply chain says the first of these updated devices are due to arrive in 2024.

This is from ET News (opens in new tab) in South Korea (via MacRumors (opens in new tab)), which claims that development is now underway on an iPad with an OLED screen. The display departments at Samsung and LG are apparently in line to provide the panels.

Every pet parent understands the challenges of keeping a clean home for the well-being of every family member as well as the overall environment of the home healthy. Experiencing allergic reactions to pets can be difficult to manage. If you’re struggling to be around specific animals, you’re not alone – however, the a Global Dust Study 2022 states that pet owners are often unaware of the hidden impacts of their furry friends. By investigating their cleaning habits, it was revealed that 21% of Indians were unaware that pet allergens that trigger pet-related allergies could be found in household dust.
Dyson explains what causes pet allergies and provides tips for reducing exposure to pet dander and particles, which can help reduce symptoms and maintain a cleaner, healthier home.
What causes pet allergy symptoms?
Signs of allergies can often be a result of exposure to proteins found in pet saliva and dead skin cells, or urine. Pet dander can remain airborne for long periods of time as well as stick to clothing and soft furnishings.
Allergic reactions are caused by an inflammatory reaction in your nasal passages or lungs, as your immune system responds to inhaling the pet dander allergen.2
But what is petdander?

By producing the antibodies needed to shield you from foreign substances, your body may overcompensate in reaction to pet allergies, with symptoms including wheeziness, difficulty breathing and asthmatic reactions, sneezing and nasal congestion, eye irritation including itchiness and wateriness, swollen skin around the eyes, chest tightness, insomnia from shortness of breath or coughing, eczema on the surface of the skin or even red patches on the skin and itchiness.2
Which animals cause pet dander allergies?
Any animal with fur can cause a reaction to allergy sufferers, but cats and dogs are the most common. The fur often spreads when you groom your pet, or they groom themselves. Pet dander can remain a trigger even if the pet is no longer in the room.
How to ease symptoms?
If you suffer from symptoms or allergic reactions to pets, below are some options available to help relieve the suffering.

Clear dander efficiently–

What if you’re an animal lover?
Avoiding pets altogether is a difficult option for animal lovers. India’s pet care market is growing rapidly, with nearly one in every six Indians now having a pet, with dogs being the most common. Pets are a great solution to loneliness – but sadly there are no pets which are 100% hypoallergenic.
Choosing a pet that sheds less hair can help, but you can still be exposed to pet dander regularly. Speaking to your doctor will help you to make a decision of how best to manage your allergies with treatments such as antihistamines for milder reactions.
Trust your air
Pollen, dust and dry air all contribute to poor air quality – including pet dander.
An air purifier can be key to supporting your wellbeing. Their prime benefit is to help promote clean, quality air at a healthy level. Engineered to protect you against viruses, allergens and other particles in your home, air purifiers help prevent pollution from entering your airways. Capturing pollen and allergens, the air purifiers purify the whole room and removes 99.95% of ultrafine particles. The activated carbon filter helps capture odours, so combining this technology with the Hair screw tool will help to prevent smells. Choosing Auto mode will activate your purifier as soon as particles are detected, keeping the room purified at all times even when you’re busy.
Taking steps against exposure to pet allergens
Fortunately, there are several approaches to help improve your allergen exposure. With these tips and specifically designed machines, reducing exposure to pet dander and particles can help you to reduce symptoms.

Kent RO Systems Limited has launched BLDC ceiling fans under the brand name Kuhl Stylish fans. The company has now ventured into energy saving fans with the launch of these new fans. Here are some more details about the newly launched voice-assistant based fans.
Kuhl Stylish fans: Price
Kuhl Stylish fans start at Rs 3,000 and the fans along with 8 blades are priced at Rs 16,000.
Kuhl Stylish fans: Features
The company claims that these fans can collectively save up to 2 lakhs crore worth of electricity bills if all the 120-crore household fans are converted to BLDC technology as these fans can save at least 65% energy.
The existing fans come with a traditional induction-based motor that consumes very high electricity. According to Kent, the energy saved through BLDC fans could help India to set up Forty Power Plants of 500 Megawatt each.
Kuhl BLDC fans also combine other features such as – WiFi and IoT compatibility that can be controlled via smartphone, Alexa, or other voice assistant. The fan comes with a reverse function that efficiently circulates warm air around the room.
Furthermore, Kuhl fans are designed to provide more airflow while producing the least amount of noise when compared to older technology and noisy fans. With these unique features, Kuhl fans are likely to be the essential ingredients in the new age architectural & interiors projects in residential and commercial establishments saving huge electricity.
What are BLDC fans
Unlike normal induction motor-based fans, BLDC fans come with a brushless electric DC motor that uses permanent magnets. The use of BLDC motors eliminates the friction, motor noise, and sparks that usually occur in the case of normal fans due to the continuous contact of brushes with commutators. Since wear and tear are eliminated, BLDC motors have a longer service life compared to typical induction motors.
“Customer service is one of the core focus areas for us at Kent. We have invested heavily to making our customer service automated with shortest turn out time and with the launch of KühlFans we are committed to offer the similar after sales customer support experience to our customers.He also said all the Fans are having 5 Star Rating from BEE, BIS certified and meeting all the standards and parameters set up by the government,” said Dr Mahesh Gupta, CMD, Kent RO systems limited.

SoundCloud describes itself to be an artist-first platform which is powered by a global community of artists and listeners. The SoundCloud app is available on Android, iOS and the web. The company has added a new feature to its Android client with the latest update. The SoundCloud app for Android is rolling out adding support for direct messages. However, this feature is not available for the iPhone app yet. SoundCloud’s web client has supported direct messages for some time now. Google also updated its official Twitter account to highlight that this feature is now being rolled out for the Android app. Here we have shared more details about direct messages on SoundCloud:

Direct messages on SoundCloud: How will it work
The latest version of SoundCloud’s Android app now allows users to send or receive direct messages to both friends and artists on the platform. The company has also explained how this feature will work on its official support page. Apart from sending messages, the platform will also allow users to share tracks and playlists through direct messages.

After installing the latest update, users can click on the envelope icon on the top right of their Home screen to get to their messages. By clicking on one of these messages, users will be able to expand the message to show the full conversation and any shared tracks.
For replying to a message, users will be able to write in the text box below the conversation. Here, they can send direct text messages, or add a track or playlist that they think the recipient would enjoy listening to.
In October 2022, Russia restricted access to the music-streaming app. According to a report by Reuters, Moscow cited that SoundCloud was banned as it was spreading “false information”. Meanwhile, the company laid off 20% of its workforce in August 2022.

AMD RX 6800 and 6900 graphics cards recently came under the spotlight after a bunch of them broke due to the GPU actually physically cracking, and we now have an apparent answer as to why this happened.

This comes from KrisFix on YouTube (who runs a German repair shop that fixes hardware), who noticed the many such AMD GPUs that were turning up on his doorstep that had died due to cracking.

Tecno is all set to expand its entry-level smartphone lineup in India. The smartphone maker is expected to soon launch the Tecno Spark Go 2023 smartphone. The company has not yet revealed the official launch date for the smartphone but it has listed the smartphone on its official website.
As per the company listing, the Tecno Spark Go will sport a new and refreshed design. The smartphone will feature a unibody design with a dual ring camera. The smartphone will be powered by a MediaTek processor and will come in Endless Black, Uyuni Blue, and Nebula Purple colour options.
Tecno Spark Go 2023 specifications
Tecno Spark Go 2023 will feature a 6.56-inch HD+ display with 720×1612 pixel resolution. The smartphone display will offer 120Hz of refresh rate.
The entry-level smartphone will be powered by a quad-core MediaTek Helio A22 chipset. The smartphone will come in two variants — 3GB+32GB and 4GB+64GB. The smartphone will also offer microSD card support of up to 256GB.
Tecno Spark Go will run Android 12 operating system topped with the company’s own layer of HiOS 12. The dual SIM smartphone will sport a 13MP rear camera with f/1.85 aperture and dual LED flash. There will also be a 5MP front shooter for selfies.
The smartphone will come with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and backed by a 5000 mAh battery.
Recently, Tecno launched its flagship smartphone — Tecno Phantom X2 Pro 5G in India. Priced at Rs 49,999, it is the first smartphone of the company to come with retractable lens. Tecno Phantom X2 Pro comes with Mediatek’s Dimensity 9000 chipset. Under the hood, the chipset comes paired with 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.1 internal storage. The Phantom X2 Pro runs Android 12-based HiOS 12. The smartphone boasts a 5160mAH battery with 45W fast charging.

Samsung is expected to expand its Galaxy A-series of smartphone models in the coming weeks. Several reports have suggested that the South Korean smartphone maker may launch the Galaxy A34 smartphone. The smartphone which is likely to succeed the Galaxy A33, has now surfaced on FCC website bearing the model number SM-A346M. Here’s what the listing has revealed.
As per the FCC listing, the smartphone is expected to feature dual-SIM capabilities, 5G, NFC, and Bluetooth connectivity. Other reports suggest that the smartphone will debut with 25W charging support backed by 5000mAh battery.
Galaxy A34 expected specifications
The Galaxy A34 is reported to come with a 6.5-inch display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio. The smartphone is also tipped to measure 161.3×77.7x 8.2mm.
As per Geekbench listing, a smartphone with model number SM-A346N has been spotted on Geekbench. A smartphone with SM-A346B model number was previously spotted on the Bluetooth SIG certification as well. It was reported that the model number belongs to the Galaxy A34 smartphone.

The Geekbench listing reveals that this version of the device is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 chipset paired with 6GB of RAM. The chipset features two performance cores running at 2.6GHz and six efficiency cores running at 2GHz. The Dimensity 1080 SoC was fabricated using TSMC‘s 6nm manufacturing process.
It is possible that the smartphone may be available in multiple RAM options. The smartphone may run the Android 13 operating system. The Geekbench listing also claims that the phone passed the single-core and multi-core tests with scores of 778 and 2332 points, respectively.
Recently, the Samsung Galaxy A34 and Galaxy A54 5G received Bluetooth SIG certification with model numbers SM-A346B and SM-A546B, respectively. The listing suggested that the devices will come equipped with Bluetooth v5.3 for connectivity.

Coin Master is a single-player mobile game that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. This game has become increasingly popular in recent years, with over 100 million downloads. Coin Master was created by the Israel-based studio Moon Active and was released in 2015. The goal of the game is to construct your own village.
The Coin Master also has a time slot machine that can help you get additional coins and other sundries to help you enhance your community. Players must spin the slot machine and collect free gifts in order to fully build their hamlet. Unfortunately, the game only allows five spins per hour, and if you run out, you’ll have to wait an hour.
Fortunately, players can gather coins in this game in a variety of ways. Players can raid and attack the towns of other players in order to steal cash. You can even get free extra spins in this game. Coin Master offers free spins that can be used to gather coins and other prizes. To obtain Coin Master Free Spins and Coins today, simply follow the procedures outlined here.

How to get Coin Master Free Spins and Coins for today (January 21):
Step 1: To get the rewards, first log in to your Facebook account in the game.
Step 2: Go to this link for a free spin: Link 1, Link 2 and Link 3.
Step 3: After being routed, you will be prompted to log in to your Facebook account in order to link the spins to your account.

An odd new phishing scam is using blank images to scam users – and you may not even realize it, experts have claimed.

The format, which researchers at email security company Avanan (opens in new tab) describe as ‘blank image’, consists of threat actors embedding empty .svg files encoded with Base64 inside HTML attachments, which allows them to avoid URL redirect detection.

Apple has recently expanded its smart speaker lineup with the second-generation HomePod. The new HomePod comes with a similar-looking design to its predecessor, a new processor, smart home capabilities and much more. With the release of iOS 16.3 and macOS 13.2 (expected to release to the public soon), Apple introduced the Advanced Data Protection feature for iCloud. This feature uses end-to-end encryption to provide Apple’s highest level of cloud data security. According to a report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, a bug may cause some issues with HomePod smart speakers when Advanced Data Protection for iCloud is enabled. The company has now published a new support document explaining what to do if users face this HomePod issue.
Advanced Data Protection for iCloud: Minimum requirements
To use this iCloud feature, all the devices logged into a particular Apple ID need to be updated with the latest software version. It is also applicable to HomePod speakers that have to run at least HomePod software 16.2.
How is the HomePod issue affecting users
Gurman claims that a bug in the Home app is preventing HomePods running older versions of the software from being updated when iCloud’s latest end-to-end encryption feature is turned on. This means users who buy a HomePod that ships with an OS older than 16.2 won’t be able to set it up. Even setting up the new HomePod will need to be updated with the latest version of the software.
How to resolve this issue
Apple’s support document explains what HomePod users can do if they face this issue. HomePod mini users can connect it to a Mac with a USB-C cable and update it through Finder (or iTunes on a PC). Select the HomePod option in the Finder sidebar and click on the Restore HomePod option. This will update the speaker to the latest software, after which users can set it up seamlessly.
Meanwhile, the first-generation HomePod (2018) and the latest HomePod (2023) aren’t equipped with a USB-C port. This is why Apple has included a fix for this issue with iOS 16.3 which is expected to be soon rolled out widely for all users.
The new version of iOS will allow the owners of these smart speakers to temporarily turn off the Advanced Data Protection to update the HomePod software. However, the company suggests users who temporarily turn off Advanced Data Protection turn it back on immediately after their HomePod software is updated. Apple has outlined the steps to turn off Advanced Data Protection in iCloud settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac::
Go to the Settings or System Settings option
– Tap your name, then tap iCloud.
– Scroll to Advanced Data Protection and turn off Advanced Data Protection.
– If you receive an error message when you previously tried to set up your HomePod, you may need to reset your HomePod.
– Then set up your HomePod.
– Update your HomePod to the latest software using the Home app.
– Turn on Advanced Data Protection in iCloud settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac the same you disabled it