Archives February 2023

If you’re already a Wordle addict then Quordle could be your next must-play game. This spin-off takes the familiar Wordle format and makes it harder by giving you four puzzles to solve simultaneously. 

As you might imagine, it’s hard! So if you already find yourself searching for Wordle clues, you’ll probably need some for Quordle too.

The iPhone SE 4 lives…maybe. In a recent Twitter thread, reputable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that the tech giant has restarted development on the iPhone SE 4 – two months after it was reportedly canceled.

The reason the project was axed in the first place, according to Kuo’s post on Medium (opens in new tab), was because Apple wanted its mid-range device to house its first in-house 5G baseband chip so the company wouldn’t have to rely on Qualcomm. However, the hardware just wasn’t “up to par with Qualcomm’s [tech]” so the whole thing got scrapped back in early January. But now it appears Apple has a solution (opens in new tab). Instead of making everything from scratch, the iPhone SE 4 will now reportedly be a modified version of the 6.1-inch iPhone 14.

Tecno has made its Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 debut by unveiling a range of new products across different categories including a fladable smartphone, laptops, AIoT products and more. This includes Phantom V Fold, Spark Pro 10 selfie phone, upgraded MegaBook S2 2023 laptop, router, etc.
Tecno smartphones showcased at MWC 2023
Tecno has showcased two new smartphones at the event. The Phantom V is the company’s first foldable smartphone. The Phantom Fold V will be the world’s first foldable smartphone with left-right foldable design and it will be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ chipset. The dual-SIM smartphone comes equipped with a 5-lens camera system including a 50MP primary sensor along with two lenses at back and two at the front.
In addition to its first foldable smartphone, the company has also showcased the Spark 10 Pro. The handset comes with a 32MP front camera with dual-LED flags for selfies. Apart from that, the handset also comes with a 50MP primary sensor at the back.
Spark 10 Pro is powered by MediaTek Helio G88 chipset and it is set to officially launch next month.
MegaBook S1 with upgraded processor
Tecno has also unveiled its latest MegaBook S1 laptop with 13th-generation Intel Core processors. The laptop weighs 1.35Kg and has a maximum thickness of 13.5mm. The laptop also comes equipped with PC SwiftTransfer through hand gesture which supports Tecno OneLeap connection, data sharing, file management, multi-screen support and more.
AIoT devices
In addition to these, Tecno has also showcased True 1 and Ultimate 1 TWS earbuds, a security Wi-Fi camera and Wi-Fi router at the event.

LG Household & Health Care (LG H&H) Ltd has reportedly been accused of stealing idea by its home country startup, Prinker Korea. According to a report in Yonhap news agency, the South Korean startup Prinker Korea has claimed that LG Household & Health Care stole the idea of its customised tattoo printing device, called Prinker M, and created a copycat product. Prinker’s portable tattoo printers, which can print various designs on human skin by using a mobile app, are available in about 80 countries, including the United States, France and Germany.
What Prinker Korea said
Prinker has claimed that LG H&H applied for a design patent under the name of “tattoo printer” in September 2020 after the two signed a nondisclosure agreement for a potential business partnership in June 2019. The startup further claims that LG H&H’s portable temporary tattoo printer, called IMPRINTU, is very similar in terms of concept, design and size to Prinker M. “LG Household & Health Care’s portable temporary tattoo printer, set to be revealed at the Mobile World Congress this week, is another example of a large conglomerate copying the concept, technology and the idea created by a smaller startup,” Prinker said in a statement reportedly posted on its website.
What LG H&H said
LG H&H though admitted that it purchased Prinker’s products but added that it was part of a “routine market assessment” activity before entering into a new market. The company refuted Prinker’s accusations. In a statement, it said that it has neither received any materials related to Prinker’s technology nor had any type of communication — telephone conversations, emails and meetings — with the startup after signing the nondisclosure agreement in June 2019.
LG H&H also dismissed claims that the tattoo printer concept is “exclusive” to Prinker, given Hewlett-Packard Company had already patented the idea back in 1999.
“LG H&H has been careful to avoid patents already existing in the market since the early development stages of IMPRINTU. We are a runner-up in the market and have been working with companies such as LG Electronics, HP and others since 2019,” the company said.
Loreal investment in Prinker
Earlier this year, French cosmetics giant Loreal invested in Prinker. The company, however, did not give any details on the value of the investment. Barbara Lavernos, Deputy CEO in charge of Research, Innovation and Technology at L’Oréal, explains, “At L’Oréal, our researchers are partnering with high end technology start-ups to create the future of beauty. Together, by combining our expertises, we develop unmet personalised consumer experiences. Through this strategic investment, we can fulfill our deep commitment to bringing breakthrough beauty technologies that truly empower boundless personalisation and self-expression into the hands of every person.”

Sitting in on a Q&A session fronted by several members of Oppo’s senior product and strategy teams on day one of Mobile World Congress this year, we were treated to illuminating insight on the company’s current approach to the foldable market and why it feels the time isn’t right for such technology to trickle down to the mid-range space.

Although we’ve had the ability to fork over cash for foldables for about three years, the materials, engineering and hardware that go into such devices still render them notably more expensive than similarly-specced alternatives that don’t have to bend at the waist.

A week prior to MWC 2023, Oppo unleashed its first foldable clamshell on the world, the Oppo Find N2 Flip. Despite being a great value for a folding smartphone (at £849 in the UK), it still prices-out plenty of users that would otherwise welcome the convenience of a compact foldable in their pocket.

When asked whether there was space for fold or flip style phones with a mid-range price point, Oppo’s Vice President for Overseas Sales and Service, Billy Zhang, had a lot to say in response.

Microsoft-backed artificial research startup launched the AI-based chatbot, ChatGPT in November 2022. Since its introduction, the chatbot has become a household name for several tech companies. The latest company to join the chatbot bandwagon is the Snap-owned instant messaging platform Snapchat. My AI is Snapchat’s chatbot that is powered by the latest version of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
The chatbot will be pinned on the app’s chat tab and will be visible above the conversations with friends. Initially, Snapchat’s chatbot will be available only to Snapchat Plus subscribers who have paid $3.99 a month for the plan. The company is eventually planning to make the bot available to all 750 million monthly Snapchat users. According to a report by The Verge, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel has predicted that AI chatbots will “increasingly become a part of everyday life for more people.”
Snapchat My AI chatbot: How will it work
As per the report, the My AI chatbot will be a ‘fast mobile-friendly version of ChatGPT’ which will be available inside the Snapchat app. However, the version that will be available in service will only be able to offer restricted answers. The report mentions that Snap’s staff have trained My AI to adhere to the company’s trust and safety guidelines. So, this chatbot will not churn out responses that may include violence, swearing, sexually explicit content, or opinions about dicey topics.

How is My AI different from ChatGPT
Unlike the original version of ChatGPT, My AI won’t be able to write academic essays about different topics. Snap is planning to keep tuning its chatbot as more users access it and report inappropriate answers. However, the Snapchat chatbot doesn’t show any tips or guardrails for interactions which are shown by the original version of ChatGPT, the report adds.
The original ChatGPT is more like a productivity tool while Snapchat’s chatbot ‘treats generative AI more like a persona’, the report mentions. The profile page of My AI also looks like the profiles of other Snapchat users as it is meant to be another Snapchat friend for the users.

Google’s Workspace apps, including Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive, are getting a makeover. In the coming weeks, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drive are being refreshed with the Material Design 3 design of the company.
The Google Workspace apps will look much more familiar to the new design of Gmail, with darker hues to the toolbar and rounded edges for buttons.
The ‘chips’ are coming to these apps — the search chip will let users easily filter files on Google Drive, the ‘place’ smart chip on Google Sheets will allow users to insert location data, and there will be a ‘finance’ chip for users to insert stocks, mutual funds and currencies.
There are some features coming to Google Docs as well. There will reportedly be a stopwatch chip, which will let users start, stop and reset the timer. Moreover, there will be an emoji voting chip and a new calendar invitation template.
Google Workspace apps are also getting support for third-party chips. The third-party chips will come to apps in the coming weeks from partners including Atlassian, Asana, Figma, Miro, Tableau and Zendesk.
Google is also enhancing the smart canvas feature. With smart canvas, an AI-powered summary in a Doc, a smart formula suggestion in a Sheet, or a simple @-mention can save teams hours of work by keeping them focused and collaborating in the documents where they’re already working. Today, we’re excited to share more about the innovations in smart canvas—and a refreshed user interface—that collapse the boundaries between apps and streamline the flow of work,” writes Google in the blog post.
These changes seem to be first coming for the Google Workspace customers, then they will be rolled out for everyone else. The Google Workspace redesign is expected to arrive in the coming weeks.

Easebuzz Payment Gateway will offer a seamless and secure payment experience to IRCTC users while booking train tickets on the mobile app. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is the online ticketing arm of Indian Railways and the largest online train and travel ticket booking platform in India. IRCTC has partnered with the Easebuzz Payments Platform to offer its customers secure payment experience while booking train tickets online.
IRCTC handles a large volume of transactions for travel ticket bookings. The integration of the Easebuzz Payment Gateway on IRCTC is aimed to help handle large volume of transaction processing with a user-friendly payment experience for users booking tickets.
Rohit Katyal, Group Head Sales, Easebuzz, said that “We are proud to partner with IRCTC in their mission to provide high-quality travel experience with a consistently high level of customer satisfaction. Our payment solutions platform is powered by a robust technology stack and is designed to handle payments for high transaction volume businesses like ticket bookings. We are confident that our full-stack payment suite will help IRCTC in simplifying all its financial operations related to payment collections, refunds for canceled tickets, and reconciliations.”
Easebuzz Payment Gateway aims to ensure that IRCTC users’ sensitive information and payment details are protected while they make their ticket bookings digitally. Customers of IRCTC can easily book tickets using various payment options, including Netbanking, Debit Cards, Credit Cards, UPI, and Wallets available on the Easebuzz checkout page of IRCTC.

Telus has confirmed it recently discovered a database being sold on the dark web that apparently contained employee contact information as well as other sensitive data. 

The comms giant is currently investigating the matter to see how big the potential breach is, but preliminary reports suggest that no corporate or retail customer data was taken. 

A major copy and paste shake-up is on the way for some Windows users that may have them breathing a major sigh of relief.

The company has announced that it will be bringing the “paste as plain text” option to Windows 11 and Windows 10 apps with PowerToys, giving users of the open source platform a much smoother experience when copying information over.