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With smartphone manufacturers adopting better smartphone camera hardware, such as high-resolution sensors, native camera-makers globally are now frequently partnering with OEMs to bring a ‘revolution’ in smartphone photography. One such partnership is Xiaomi’s tie-up with German giant Leica that made waves in certain parts of the world when the Chinese company launched the Xiaomi 12S Ultra in July last year. At an event held recently, the companies announced a long-term strategic cooperation for mobile imaging.
At the event, Xiaomi announced that they have concluded a framework regarding development and engineering of the camera for smartphones “co-engineered with Leica”. “The objective of this partnership is the joint development of innovative solutions in the smartphone camera module segment as well as the optimisation of optical performance,” the company said.
As a part of this tie-up, the two companies aim to “bring together the best of both worlds, integrating Lecia’s imaging capabilities into Xiaomi’s products to present an elevated user experience.”
Representatives from the companies also talked about the collaboration between Leica and Xiaomi saying that engineers from both companies visit each others’ campuses and work together as one R&D team. There was a Xiaomi 12S Ultra concept phone, co-engineered with Leica, on display.
Gadgets Now TOI sat with Marius Eschweiler, vice president Business Unit Mobile at Leica Camera AG and Anuj Sharma, chief marketing officer at Xiaomi India, to talk more about the need of such partnerships in smartphone photography.
Xiaomi’s future plans with Leica
Sharma confirmed to Gadgets Now TOI that as a part of its long-term partnership, it plans to launch more smartphones co-engineered with Leica’s imaging technology in the coming months. However, he did not share the details on the same. “There are a few more things to iron out and you should have something very, very spectacular for the Indian markets,” Sharma said.
Computation photography to take centre stage?
Replying to a question on the importance of computational photography in today’s world where traditional photography is slowly taking a backset, Eschweiler said that computational imaging will definitely take a larger space in the future.
“Just because not only for improving image quality into overcome, maybe the restrictions of a physical size of a smartphone camera module, but also it makes photography easier so it’s enable for consumers who are maybe not so familiar with that interplay between aperture and shutter speed and iso settings and so on so it helps them and that’s why I believe in classical cameras, the computational imaging part will definitely play a bigger role than as of today,” Eschweiler told Gadgets Now TOI.
He also junked the idea of smartphone cameras replacing components like lenses and hardware obsolete.
When it comes to smartphones, Sharma said Xiaomi wants to continue to push the limits of what is possible from a physics perspective. He says that smartphones must have the right hardware to make photography from phones better.
“You have to get better sensors to get more data input..and then your computational photography will kick in where it makes it even better. So it has to be going hand in hand. Anytime something goes beyond the other side, you will see a mismatch. So if you spend too much in terms of getting the right hardware, but without the right computational photography, you’ll not get the right results and without the right hardware, it’s going to hit a bottleneck,” he added.
Consumer demand a priority
When asked about the need of hardware and software in today’s smartphone models, Sharma said a combination of both is needed to form the image that’s going to be acceptable for the consumer. He said it’s the customers who decide what we offer.
“From the application perspective, it’s what the consumers are looking for. So, if an image is not going to be printed and it’s just a small snapshot that you want to put on social media, we can get that with minimal computational photography but then if you want something which is spectacular and you want to print it, then it will have to also kind of compensate for the physics aspect of it,” Sharam explained.
Eschweiler echoed Sharma’s comments saying it is difficult to give an exact percentage number of how much computational photography is needed to make an image acceptable. “I believe it strongly depends on the application, on the form factor and the space that you have available with you,” he noted.
Sharma added that the art of storytelling is now possible with phone cameras as they are becoming more advanced. For Eschweiler, the quality of video is also an important part of smartphone photography.

Wordle is a web-based puzzle game owned by The New York Times. It was created in 2021 by Josh Wardle and featured a daily puzzle where users have six attempts to guess the “word of the day.” The colour of the tiles changes to help users figure out the correct word, with grey indicating the letter is not part of the word, yellow indicating the letter is part of the word but in the wrong location, and green showing the letter is in the correct location and part of the “Word of the day.” Wordle 596 is the puzzle for February 5; this article provides hints, clues, and answers to the puzzle.
Wordle is an online puzzle game popular among people who want to use their time productively. If you are having trouble with the Wordle 596 puzzle for February 5, 2023, the following hints and clues may help you solve it.
Wordle hints and clues for today, February 5, 2023, are stated here for our readers:

Wordle 596 hints and clues for February 5, 2023, are:

Still, stuck? If you could not find the answers, fret not; we have got it all figured out for you:
DANCE is the solution to Wordle 596 for February 5, 2023.
If you keep winning for two or more days, you will be awarded a winning streak. This will continue till the time you fail to guess the correct word. If you lose, the streak will be broken.

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 (February 5):
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.

Over-hiring, uncertain global macro-economic conditions, strong tailwinds from the Covid-19 pandemic and more forced several tech companies to cut jobs at the end of 2022. The mass layoffs at these companies have also continued in 2023. Moreover, the first month of this year is said to be the worst one for tech workers. According to a report by IANS, nearly 1 lakh techies lost their jobs in January globally. These tech layoffs were mostly dominated by major companies including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Salesforce and others. The report also mentions that on average, more than 288 tech companies have cut over 3,300 jobs daily across the globe.
Tech layoffs in January 202: More details
Apart from Apple, most other tech giants have reduced their workforce in January 2023. For example, in Janaury, Amazon has slashed 18,000 jobs, followed by Google with 12,000 layoffs and Microsoft with 10,000 job cuts. Meanwhile, other companies like Salesforce announced 7,000 layoffs, IBM made 3,900 job cuts and SAP reduced its workforce by 3,000 employees.
Facebook-parent Meta’s Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced 11,000 layoffs in 2023. After announcing the job cuts, Zuckerberg wants 2023 to be the “year of efficiency”.
Online marketplace OLX Group have also made mass layoffs this season, The company reduced its workforce by 15%. As part of recession concerns and amid the global meltdown the company laid off 1,500 employees, globally including in India.

Furthermore, edtech firm Byju’s has also slashed another 15% of its employees. In a fresh round of layoffs the edtech firm has reportedly asked 1,000 more workers to leave the company, the report. The job cuts were done mainly from its engineering teams.
As per the data by layoffs tracking site Layoffs.fyi, over 1,000 companies announced 154,336 job cuts in 2022. The total number of tech layoffs done between 2022 and 2023 amasses more than 2.5 lakh employees.

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) will be provided a grant of Rs 242 Crore over a period of five years to undertake research on Lab Grown Diamonds (LGD). This research will be focused on driving indigenization of the LGD manufacturing process. Presenting the Budget 2023, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Lab grown Diamonds (LGD) is a technology and innovation-driven emerging sector with high employment potential. These environment-friendly diamonds have optically and chemically the same properties as natural diamonds. To encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency, a research and development grant will be provided to one of the IITs for five years.”
The research grants will go towards various departments and research groups of the Institute that are involved in this field. IIT Madras has a history of undertaking cutting-edge and translational research with significant applications in industry and society.
The global diamond market demands bigger and high pure lab-grown diamond crystals for commercial and electronic applications. There is a need for research and development to conduct systematic studies to optimize the process parameters to grow high pure large-volume and scalable diamond crystals, which will help India to become the world leader in lab-grown diamonds.
The Core faculty from Physics, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering departments of IIT Madras also have a good number of core researchers with expertise in various requirements listed above The upcoming centre will also recruit a good number of additional man-power to run the research on LGD that would be established at the IIT Madras Research Park and IIT Madras laboratories.
India has no know-how in high pressure high temperature (HPHT) technology to grow and treat diamond crystals. The cost involved in importing HPHT machines is very high. Therefore, there is a need for developing indigenously built HPHT equipment and establishing the process know-how of HPHT diamond growth. On the other hand, CVD reactor manufacturers in India import critical components like microwave generators, vacuum pumps, and sensors. Even good-quality diamond seeds are imported.
There is a need for indigenously developing these critical components, technologies and seed substrates (mother-seed) to make India self-sustainable in the lab-grown diamond sector. This is the requirement that the IIT Madras Research Group headed out to tackle.

The first dish I ever cooked in my air fryer was potato wedges, and I’ve been in search of the ultimate air fryer potato wedges recipe ever since – one that promises flavor, a crunchy outer coating and a soft, fluffy center. 

This is the reason Instagram and TikTok foodie Sheyna Patel’s potato wedges air fryer recipe (opens in new tab) piqued my interest when it popped up on my FYP. And with more than 10.8 million views, and 1.1m likes (and counting), it appears I’m not alone.  

It turns out that there are monetary benefits to having a Twitter Blue subscription. The social media giant will now pay subscribers a share of the ad revenue generated from their reply thread, revealed CEO Elon Musk.
Musk tweeted, “Starting today, Twitter will share ad revenue with creators for ads that appear in their reply threads.” He added, “To be eligible, the account must be a subscriber to Twitter Blue Verified.”

Twitter Blue is only available in select countries, India roll-out could be near
Unfortunately for Indian Twitter users, this is a Twitter Blue-exclusive bonus – a subscription not yet launched in the country. Currently, the subscription is only available in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Saudi Arabia, France, Portugal, Italy, and Spain, as per Twitter’s official site.
Although there’s no official word on when Twitter Blue will roll out in India, a Twitter Blue button that was briefly displayed on the platform for Indian users hints that the subscription may be on its way in the near future. Clicking on this button displayed an array of membership benefits enjoyed by the users. Sooner than later, the social media giant may introduce Twitter Blue and its Indian price point.

Twitter Blue features available in other countries
Apart from the blue tick and recently announced ad revenue share, Twitter Blue users get several other exclusive features, such as edit tweet option, undo tweet option, bookmark folders, longer video uploads, ‘Spaces’ tab, ‘Top Articles’, and ‘Reader’ mode. The subscription also provides customisation features, including custom app icons, themes, NFT profile pictures, and customisable navigation bar. Other user experience-oriented features include ‘50% fewer ads’, and prioritised ranking in reply threads.
Moreover, new Twitter users have to wait for a 90-day period before purchasing the subscription. The platform further mentions on its website that it may “impose waiting periods for new accounts in the future at our discretion, and without notice.” A user’s checkmark can also be taken away without refund in case of terms violation or account suspension.
Also watch

We know that the OnePlus Pad is on the way, and will be getting its full unveiling in just a few days time. Now a newly leaked image gives us a better look at the Android tablet than we’ve had up until this point from official sources.

The picture comes from the regularly reliable Evan Blass (opens in new tab) (via GSMArena (opens in new tab)), and shows almost the entire back of the tablet, together with a lot of the front. The OnePlus logo and a large-ish camera bump are visible, together with the Halo Green coloring.

Game developer Naughty Dog has announced that The Last of Us Part I’s PC release has been postponed by “just a few weeks.” The game which was initially set to come out in early March, will now arrive at the end of that month. In a Twitter post, developer Naughty Dog revealed, “We initially announced The Last of Us Part I PC release would be March 3, but we’ve decided to push its launch date out by just a few weeks; it will now be released on March 28.”
The Last of Us Part I is the next-gen remake of the original game that was released in 2013. It is currently available on PS5 exclusively with a PC port in the works. A live-action series adaptation of the game is also available right now and, hence, the franchise is trending online.

Talking about the re-emergence of interest in the franchise due to the HBO series, Naughty Dog said, “Hearing your love for the HBO adaptation, seeing your beautiful Photo Mode shots, and learning about how the world and characters our studio created nearly a decade ago continue to reach new and old fans alike floors us every day.”
Naughty Dog wants The Last of Us Part I PC to release “in the best shape possible”
Keeping in mind that the game has never been released on PC before, Naughty Dog expressed its intention to ensure that, besides the existing fanbase, those who try out the game for the first time also get the best possible experience.

The company noted, “… We realise many of you have been excited to jump in – some for the first time – when Part I hits PC … And so we want to make sure The Last of Us Part I PC debut is in the best shape possible.” Emphasising the importance of the extra time, the developer added, “These additional few weeks will allow us to ensure this version of The Last of Us lives up to your, and our, standards.”

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur has announced that it will launch “haptic smartwatch for the blind and visually impaired” and partnered with Ambrane India Private Limited for mass manufacturing and sales of the wearable.
The institution said the haptic watch developed at IIT Kanpur addresses the drawbacks of all the conventional technologies and offers a seamless experience to the wearer.
“Watches that are currently available for the blind and the visually impaired can be broadly classified into tactile, talking, vibration, and braille-based. These watches have their limitations – if there is a risk of needle breakage in tactile watches, talking watches do not offer a private mode of communication. Similarly, vibration watches are complicated and braille watches are expensive,” the institution said in a statement.

Smartwatch comes in two variants
The smartwatch comes in two variants and has 12 touch-sensitive hour markers arranged over the dial face, and the users will be required to scan the markers with their fingers.
“We believe that this watch will make a great social impact by enabling the visually impaired and blind to make seamless use of this technology for everyday usage. The watch will soon be commercialised by Ambrane India and will be available in the market at an affordable price. This development is a testament to IIT Kanpur’s commitment to promote inclusivity through novel technology development,” said Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT Kanpur.
Haptic smartwatch: Features
IIt Kanpur team said that 12 touch sensitive hour markers arranged over the dial face will help blind and visually impaired customers to take a note of time by scanning the markers with his/her fingers.

For example, if a person wants to check the time of 3:40, the 3rd and 8th marker in the watch will be termed as the active markers. “The vibration pulse will be generated on touching the active markers. A long pulse on 3 will indicate hours and a short pulse on 8 will indicate minutes for checking the time of 3:40,” the team explained.
This watch is said to be a fusion of tactile and vibration watches. The vibration that the watch generates has been reduced to 2 pulses from more than 20 pulses, and the fragile nature of a tactile watch is eliminated. Other features of the smartwatch include heart rate, step count, hydration reminder and setting smart timer by using simple gestures.
“The existing smartwatches for the blind and visually impaired use audio-based output and lacks privacy. The IIT Kanpur-developed smartwatch, which offers a tactile-haptic interface for display of time and health parameters, addresses these drawbacks. The use of innovative haptic icons makes it easy to navigate the menu and a simple gesture like the double-tap can open a particular health monitoring app. These numbers are communicated in a similar way as the time,” it added.