TecQ is our weekly round-up of the technology stories.
1. AirPods’ Rival, Smart Microwave: Amazon Takes Alexa to New Places
It was raining Alexa devices at Amazon’s annual hardware event in the US, where the tech giant announced a slew of products that work with its smart voice assistant Alexa.
From launching its new truly wireless Earbuds, to rolling-in famous Hollywood movie star Samuel L Jackson to lend his voice to Alexa, Amazon is all set to offer a completely new portfolio of smart devices to its customers.
The biggest highlight of the event, however, were Amazon’s answer to Apple’s AirPods - the Echo Buds. These have been priced at $129 (Rs 9,000 approx) and offer up to five hours of battery life.
Read here to know everything that Amazon announced.
2. Indian Mobile Users Will Have to Wait till 2025 For 5G Data Speeds
If you are going gaga over the arrival of 5G in your vicinity in India anytime soon so that you can download a Netflix original in a jiffy or avoid constant buffering as you share videos on social media, be aware.
Despite tall claims made by the government, the 5G technology that is gaining momentum fast globally may take at least another 5-6 years to reach the masses in India for the simple reason that even 5G spectrum allocation is yet to take place for full-fledged trials.
According to IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, spectrum auctions will be held in this calendar year and the trials for 5G services with radio waves allotted by the ministry will commence in the next 100 days.
Read the story here.
3. OnePlus 7T Launches With 90Hz Screen & Triple Cameras at Rs 37,999
4. Instagram & WhatsApp Yet to Support Dark Mode on iOS 13 For iPhone
iPhone users got the iOS 13 update last week, and are likely to get the 13.1 version sometime this week, which is going to fix minor bug issues.
But you should probably know that Facebook-owned apps like Instagram and WhatsApp are yet to support the native dark mode feature on iOS 13.
And sadly, the beta version of WhatsApp also doesn’t support the much expected feature. This has been mentioned by WABetaInfo in its blog post this week, where it hasn’t spotted dark mode option for WhatsApp, and Instagram users on iPhone are also saying the same thing.
Read the story here.