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November 2022

SpaceX moved an inch closer to an orbital launch attempt of its Super Heavy first stage and its Starship upper stage rockets. The Elon-Musk-owned space organisation test-fired its super Heavy rockets for about 12 seconds, making it the longest duration for which the massive booster has been fired. The test consisted of igniting at least 11 of the 33 Raptor rocket engines, that constituted the booster.

SpaceX inches closer to an orbital launch attempt,  test-fires its Super Heavy rocket for its longest duration

The Elon-Musk-owned space organisation test fired its super Heavy rockets for about 12 seconds, making it the longest duration for which the massive booster has been fired. SpaceX hopes to make its orbital launch attempt in December, or early 2023. Image Credit: SpaceX

Earlier this month, SpaceX fired 14 Raptor engines on this booster for a few seconds, which set the record for the most number of rockets fired for this test. Although the attempt this week did not set any new records, it was monumental for its duration, as it proved that the booster rockets can handle load for a sufficient period of time. The latest firing is the longest period of time that so many Raptor engines have been fired at once.

The next step for Musk and his team is to fire a smaller set of rockets from the Super Heavy’s engines for about 20 seconds.

In all likelihood, SpaceX still has a couple of key tests to complete before the combined Super Heavy rocket and Starship upper stage are launched from the company’s Starbase facility in South Texas. It is anticipated that SpaceX will conduct at least a short-duration test firing of all 33 Raptor engines simultaneously to gain confidence in the totality of the complex plumbing to fuel and pressurize the rocket’s propulsion system. Then the Starship upper stage will be stacked on top of Super Heavy, and the combined vehicles must complete a wet dress rehearsal.

After completing all of its technical preparations, SpaceX must also obtain a launch license from the Federal Aviation Administration, which is in progress but has yet to be completed. While it remains theoretically possible that Starship will make its orbital launch attempt in December, there is an increasing likelihood that the test flight will slip into the early part of 2023.

What must have come as a pleasant surprise for SpaceX is that during the extremely risky test, none of the Raptor rockets malfunctioned, nor were there any major failures. Given SpaceX’s history with Falcon rockets and just risky any experiment with rockets are, this is a major succes for the SpaceX team.

In a late-night email to all employees of Twitter, Elon Musk shared his renewed vision of how he plans to run Twitter. 

Musk’s latest Twitter dictum Engineers to send weekly reports, managers to fire ‘weak performers’ every week

First things first, all Twitter employees who code and are involved in engineering and design in anyway, will sit on the same floor as Musk. 

Although the brief email did not say so explicitly, it refers to seating at Twitter’s offices in San Francisco, according to a person familiar with the company. Musk now works from the 10th floor and is asking that all remaining design and engineering employees at Twitter working on software or related projects to start working daily from the floor as well. The change is expected to happen immediately.

This is on top of the dictum that all engineers, no matter where they are based, have to document the changes they make to the code and send a progress report every week.

Elon has also asked all team managers to keep a close eye on the employees and identify the weakest members of the team, every week. These employees will then be put on a performance improvement plan for four weeks. In case the employees don’t show any improvement, they are to be terminated immediately.

This piece of news comes to us through Zoe Schiffer of Platformer, the online Tech website which has closely monitored and covered the hirings and terminations of employees since Musk Took over.

As per Schiffer, Musk expects people who are not a part of the engineering team to demonstrate what they have done throughout a week, again, on a week-by-week basis.

Twitter employees who have so far made it through a mass layoff, a mass resignation and spates of firings have come to expect “out of the blue” demanding emails from Musk, an employee told Platformer.

When Musk had announced his vision of Twitter 2.0, over 1200 employees, most of whom were team leaders and some of the oldest employees at Twitter, handed over their resignations and left the company. 

Musk, who has been Twitter’s CEO since taking over the company a month ago, oversees Twitter’s engineering and software organization closely. He has demanded that Twitter employees work from the office full-time, reversing a policy put in place by co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey allowing anyone to work remotely full-time. Many engineers who still work at Twitter had already moved their desk space to the 10th floor in recent days, another person familiar said.

This is a segment of flagship killers. While you get certain flagship features in smartphones under 30K, you can expect far more when you increase the budget by a few thousand Rupees. Powerful processors, very good cameras, excellent displays, all of them together… ask and you shall receive. So let’s take a look at what our lineup of smartphones under Rs 40,000 looks like this month.

Best phones to buy under Rs 40,000 in India

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion
I may have forgotten to add ‘stylish design’ to the intro, but Motorola hasn’t when it comes to the Edge 30 Fusion. It is easily the best-looking phone in this list courtesy of its curved display (around the edges) and just 7.5 mm thick aluminium frame. You get a 10-bit 6.55-inch P-OLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ compliance. There is Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection against scratches at the front and back. Despite its sleek exterior, it has ample muscle thanks to a flagship-grade Snapdragon 888+ chip which is accompanied by 8 GB RAM and 128 GB UFS 3.1 internal storage.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion (1)

The camera spread on the Motorola Edge 30 Fusion may not seem elaborate but is quite effective. It is helmed by a 50MP primary camera with optical image stabilisation (OIS). The 13MP ultra-wide camera with auto-focus is quite versatile and also doubles up as a quality macro camera. A 2MP depth sensor completes the pack at the back. The 32MP front camera is bound to impress the selfie crowd. Its 4400 mAh battery can go on for over a day of moderate use and a 68W fast charger is bundled along. This phone runs Android 12, and like most Motorola phones, you get a clean and near-stock user interface.

Motorola Edge 30 Fusion price in India: Rs 39,999 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage

iQOO 9 SE 5G
With enough going for it, the iQOO 9 SE 5G from the Vivo sub-brand retains its place in this list. It is powered by Qualcomm’s previous flagship Snapdragon 888 chip, which is still highly relevant and extremely powerful for any task you plan to perform on the phone. You can get the phone’s top variant with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage easily in this budget. It has a 6.62-inch HDR10+ compliant Full HD+ AMOLED display with a peak brightness of 1300 nits and 120 Hz refresh rate.

iQOO-9-SE

The rear camera department comprises a 48MP primary camera with OIS, along with a 13MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP depth sensor. The 16MP front camera does a good job with selfies and video calls. The iQOO 9 SE 5G has a 4500 mAh battery that lasts over a day of moderate use, and the bundled 66W fast charger promises to charge it fully in under 40 minutes. The phone runs Android 12 with FunTouch OS 12. Expect more OS updates in the future.

iQOO 9 SE 5G price in India: Rs 37,990 for 12GB RAM/256GB storage

Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G
Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G has received a price cut and is comfortably available in this budget now with a few bucks to spare. It is another loaded smartphone you can get your hands on under Rs 40,000. This too is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, and you can choose between its 8 GB RAM /128 GB storage variant or the one with 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. The 108MP camera at the back captures some impressive shots in different modes and lighting, and is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide snapper and a 5MP macro camera. A 16MP front camera handles selfies and video calls quite well. 

Xiaomi 11T Pro (1)

Its sharp display is one of its standout features. You get a 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate and a peak brightness of 1000 nits. The 10-bit display is compliant with HDR10+ as well as Dolby Vision. The screen is protected against scratches by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. A 5000 mAh battery keeps it running for a day and a half of moderate use, and even better, the company bundles a 120W super-fast charger that claims to charge it fully in just 17 minutes! Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G launched with Android 11 with MIUI 12.5, and an Android 12 update with MIUI 13 is available for this device.

Xiaomi 11T Pro 5G price in India: Rs 34,999 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage; Rs 38,999 for 12GB RAM/256GB storage

Realme GT Neo 3/ OnePlus 10R
We have two phones from different brands with the exact hardware and design. We are talking about the Realme GT Neo 3 and the OnePlus 10R. They are powered by Mediatek’s flagship Dimensity 8100 chip, which is comparable in performance to a Snapdragon 888. The 256 GB internal storage variants of both phones are available in this budget, but the 10R offers 12 GB RAM as opposed to 8 GB on the Neo 3. You get a 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display that supports 10-bit colour depth, flaunts HDR10+ compliance and 120 Hz refresh rate.

Realme-GT-Neo-3-150W-Launched-in-India-1

The camera department has a 50MP primary camera with OIS that captures some impressive shots in different modes. It is accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide snapper and a 2MP macro camera. The 16MP front camera is decent enough for selfies and video calls. Both phones have 5000 mAh batteries that keep them going for over a day and a half of moderate use, and the bundled 80W fast chargers juice them up fully in a little over half an hour. The Realme GT Neo 3 and the OnePlus 10R run Android 12 with Realme UI 3.0 and Oxygen OS 12 respectively. Well, that’s not too different either now, is it?

OnePlus 10R

Realme GT Neo 3 price in India: Rs 38,999 for 8GB RAM/256GB storage
OnePlus 10R price in India: Rs 38,999 for 12GB RAM/256GB storage

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G
Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G has been around for a while but remains a good option in this budget. You get a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED HDR10+ compliant display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It also has an IP68 rating for dust and fluid resistance. It is powered by Qualcomm’s older flagship chip, Snapdragon 865. You get 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage that can be expanded further with a microSD card; an extremely rare feature in premium phones these days. The phone now runs Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI 4.0. 

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G

The photography department has a combination of a 12MP primary camera with dual-pixel PDAF and OIS, a 12MP ultra-wide camera and an 8MP telephoto camera with OIS for up to 3X optical zoom. The camera quality is excellent across different modes and lighting. There’s also a 32MP front camera to cater to selfie enthusiasts. Its 4500 mAh battery lasts for well over a day of moderate use. It supports regular fast charging as well as fast wireless charging.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE price in India: Rs 32,990 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage

LogMeIn is well-known software that allows you to access your computer from remote locations using either mobile devices or another computer. The company’s Hamachi offering is slightly less well-known, because it is tailored toward business users, but if you have the need to network multiple computers together securely as a personal user, it might be worth a look. 

LogMeIn Hamachi allows you to create a VPN – virtual private network. While you might be familiar with VPNs as a way to tunnel into the internet from a remote location to guard your privacy, in this case, the VPN is used to create a network accessible by a particular group of users.

Upon launching the very bare-bones software, you simply navigate to Network/Create A New Network, enter a password, and click Create. Once the network is formed, clicking on Manage/Manage Networks will take you to a web-based portal where you can control the network. 

One of the key elements that can be set here is the type of network you’d like to create. A mesh network allows every computer to see the information on every other computer that’s part of the network. The hub-and-spoke option provides a central hub to which all users can connect. This is a slightly more restrictive network because each user does not have access to the other users. Finally, a gateway network can be established, which allows all users to log in through a single computer that acts as a portal to the entire physical network. 

In all cases, users receive the benefit of a LAN (local area network) that typically is connected via cables, wirelessly and offsite through the internet.

The web portal also allows you to add other users to the network either by sending invites allowing other users to download the software to their computers, or sending downloadable configuration files to mobile users. The mobile configurations are a bit complicated, so unless you have a knack for this sort of thing, you’ll do best with the computer-to-computer networks.

Hamachi works on up to five computers absolutely free, so getting this type of big office functionality at no cost is clearly a major benefit. Beyond that, the software also protects communications using industry standard AES 256-bit encryption, so every user on a network gets the automatic privacy protection that this conveys. 

Beyond the free version of the software, Hamachi also comes in a Standard package ($49/year) that allows up to 32 computers to access a network; a Premium package ($199/year) that grants access for up to 256 computers; and a Multi-Network plan ($299/year) that allows unlimited access.

You can download the free version of LogMeIn Hamachi here.

Elon Musk is picking up a fight, and while he may be cloaking it as an issue of free speech in America, it really isn’t. Yes, Apple and Google have flagged Twitter for issues with content moderation on the platform, but Musk’s main gripe with Google and Apple has got very little to do with that.

Elon Musk is picking a fight with Apple, and no, it has got nothing to do with free speech

Elon Musk is worried that Apple has suspended ad spending on Twitter. He is also trying to wiggle his way out of the 30 per cent commission that Apple charges on transactions through the App Store. Most of all though, Musk is pissed by Apple’s guidelines for content moderation for apps on the App Store.

Elon Musk started tweeting out about Apple after it was found that Apple has suspended its ad spends on the platform. This is a significant concern for Twitter and Elon Musk given that Apple was one of the biggest advertisers on the social media platform.

The thing is, Apple isn’t the only company that has suspended its ad spends on the platform. However, given that it was one of the largest spenders on the platform, that too by a mile, is surely hurting Twitter and Musk.

Then, there’s the fact that Apple and Google have issued warnings to Twitter over its content moderation practices. Developers who want to list their apps on Apple’s App store or Google’s PlayStore need to comply with some basic standards of content moderation on the platform and ensure that the platform deals with incendiary and bigoted speech in a proper manner. 

The terms of the agreement are pretty vague, but it is usually understood that apps need to ensure that they take action against individuals using their apps who disturb peace, something that Twitter doesn’t seem to be interested in, given that it has started reinstating profiles that got banned before. This is the main reason why Apple has warned Twitter that it may pull the app off of its App store.

Musk is also targeting Apple for the 30 per cent commission that they charge on transactions that are done through their App Store.

Apple charges a 30 per cent commission on all transactions that users do with apps through the Apple App Store, which make over $1 million a year. Apple has been doing this for a long time, and has faced lawsuits from other developers and game studios as well, so this can’t be the first time that Elon Musk has heard of something like this. Google does the same the thing apps that are listed on their PlayStore.

Basically, Elon Musk doesn’t want Twitter to pay the 30 per cent commission that all other major apps that make over $1 million do.

Although it remains unconfirmed why Apple is allegedly threatening to “withhold” Twitter from the App Store, tweets and Musk’s comments indicate that it might stem from the social media platform’s new moderation policy to safeguard “free speech”. 

Apple is yet to confirm these claims; however, this is not the first time the iPhone maker threatened to remove an app from its App Store. For instance, it removed Parler – a Twitter alternative – from its App Store following the US Capitol building riots early last year. The app was restored in May 2021 after Parler updated its content and moderation practices.

As much as Musk may try to portray that Apple is against free speech, the reality is that Twitter, with its recent activities around content moderation and charging a fee for Twitter’s Verified Programme and then not wanting to pay a commission is just trying to get his followers to turn on Apple and pressure them to make an exception for Twitter. Musk is also trying to cajole his users to put pressure on Apple to resume their ad spends on the platform. 

It remains to be seen if Musk truly believes that this will work, given how litigious Apple has been to protect their commission from their App Store. Moreover, Musk cannot possibly believe that he and his legion of followers can pressurise Apple to advertise on the platform.

Pros
– Outright Performance
– Pricing compared to competitors
– Larger Cache and Core Count
– Overclockability and overclocking headroom
– Solid multicore and single-core performance
– Hybrid Architecture
– Compatible with previous gen Chipset
– Just marginally more expensive than last gen i5 12600K for a ton of more performance

Cons
– Draws more power than most competitors for better performance
– Possibly the last generation of CPUs using the LGA 1700 Socket

Price: Rs 34,500

Rating: 4.5/5

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review: Overview
Intel’s i5 lineup of CPUs has been the best for mid-tier desktop rigs for ages now, especially because of its performance and the value it offers. Yes, AMD’s Ryzen series have disrupted Intel’s dominance of the mid and top-tier gaming and productivity rigs for a couple of years now, but the legacy and market share that Intel enjoys thanks to generations of powerful, efficient and competitively-priced CPUs has ensured that they still continue to have a dominant hold over the market. Just take a look at Steam’s hardware survey and you’ll get an idea of what we’re on about.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (8)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

With the 12th Generation family of processors, especially with the Intel i5 12600K, Intel reestablished itself as the best mid-tier gaming and productivity CPU taking the crown away from Ryzen. The follow-up to the i5 12600K, the i5 13600K further solidifies Intel’s position as the go-to CPU for mid-tier gaming for a number of reasons.

Up until a few generations ago, Intel’s i5 CPUs weren’t unlocked meaning they couldn’t be overclocked. With Alder lake and the current Raptor lake, Intel allows users to overclock their CPUs to whatever extent they like as long as they have the PSU and the motherboard that supports it. The ability to overclock though isn’t the biggest thing that has shaken up the mid-tier performance CPUs. It is Intel’s hybrid architecture.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (5)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

Intel started their current hybrid architecture with the Alder lake lineup. With Raptor lake, Intel has turned the dial all the way to 11. Although the 13th Gen CPUs are still based on the same Intel 7 process as the 12th Gen, and it has the same hybrid design of performance cores (P-cores) and efficiency cores (E-cores), the Core i5 13600K has just more cores over the previous generation i5 12600K. All 13th Generation CPUs have twice as many E-cores as the previous generation. What we get with this increase in E-cores, is better performance at lower power draw as well as on a full load.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review: Specifications
The Intel i5 13600K is based on the Raptor lake architecture, which is a slight variation of the Alder lake architecture. Like the previous generation of Intel CPUs, it has the Intel 1700 socket, which, and uses Intel 7 manufacturing process. These are expected to be the last CPUs built on Intel 7 before the move to Intel 4, and the last to support this current socket.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (1)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

The i5 13600K comes with a total of 14 cores, which consists of 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores, and has a total of 20 threads. The P-Cores have a base clock of 3.5GHz and a boost clock of 5.1GHz. The eight E-cores max out at 3.9GHz. Multi-threaded performance gets another boost thanks to Intel’s hyperthreading technology on the higher-boosting P-cores. The increase in the number of E-cores has a dramatic effect on the performance of the i5 13600K, as we shall see later.

All of this makes the entire 13th Gen lineup of CPUs the first consumer-grade desktop CPUs to breach the 5GHz barrier. This also makes the 13th Generation of CPUs the fastest in the world, out of the box. 

The Core i5 13600K has 24MB of L3 Cache, which is about 4MB more than the 12th Gen Core i5 12600K. The L2 Cache has been bumped up all the way to 20MB, which is more than double the 9.5MB of L2 cache found on the Core i5 12600K. The Core i5 13600K also comes with Intel UHD Graphics 770, which is clocked 50Mhz faster than 12th Gen CPUs. If you want to save a couple of bucks on your system built, and have definitely allotted a budget for a discrete GPU, you can also go for the Core i5 13600KF version, which omits the integrated graphics and the related codecs.

The Core i5 13600K supports both DDR4 and DDR5 SoC, just like the Core i5 12600K. However, with the Raptor lake CPU, users get a faster DDR5 memory controller that supports DDR5 up to 5,600MHz. The Core i5 13600K supports up to 128GB RAM in a dual-channel configuration. As for PCIe expansion, you get a maximum of 20 lanes, which consist of both PCIe 5, as well as PCIe 4.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review: Compatibility
This is where Intel win major points. Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs come with a new chipset, the Z790, they are also backward compatible with the Z690 as well as the H670 and B660 chipsets, all of which have the LGA 1700 socket.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (2)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

All these motherboards do let you use DDR5 memory, but with varying limitations on XMP profiles, so you might want to look into that. Also, potential buyers should check if the motherboard they are planning to buy has had its BIOS and firmware updated for the 13th Gen CPUs. The Z790 motherboards, though slightly expensive, are well worth the money spent.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review: Our test bench
For our tests, we ran the Core i5 13600K with the Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX motherboard, which Gigabyte let us borrow very graciously. We also borrowed their AORUS Waterforce X360 liquid cooler. For RAM, we went with Corsair Vengeance 32GB kit (2x16GB) DDR5 running at 5200MHz. 

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (7)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

For the GPU, we were using our own MSI GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Ventus 3X 8G OC, and the Corsair CX750 Watt modular PSU for power.

The reason why we went with the Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX motherboard is pretty simple. Although the Core i5 13600K, like all other 13th Gen Intel CPUs support the Z690 chipset, we wanted to play with the latest and greatest that Intel has to offer in terms of Chipset, and Gigabyte’s Aorus motherboards are second to none when it comes to durability, port options and features.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (3)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

And although we did not overclock our CPU for any of the tests, Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Elite AX is more than adequate to handle extreme overclocking. Also, with the Z790 AORUS Elite AX we get some nifty features like 2.5GbE LAN & Wi-Fi 6E, Q-Flash Plus or the ability to update BIOS without the CPU, RAM & GPU, and the fact that it has multiple temperature sensors, and hybrid fan headers with FAN STOP. And to make our lives much easier, it also comes with three PCIe4.0 x4 M.2 Connectors. Also, the PCIex16 Slot & M.2 Connectors come with quick release & screwless design.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (6)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

As for the cooling solution, the Core i5 13600K can do with a beefy air cooler, but the AORUS Waterforce X360 AIO liquid cooler is just next level. We were able to achieve some pretty cool results in our thermals while testing. Plus, it has a cool display on top of the waterblock which gives you the temperature readings which looks really cool. And of course, the final and most important reason why anyone would go for a large AIO – the cool looks thanks to the RGB fans. 

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review: Performance
The Core i5 13600K decimates the last generation Core i5 12600K in all benchmarks, which is not a surprise. What is surprising though is that it performs just as well as the last generation Core i7 12700K, if not better in most scenarios. While Intel may have positioned the Core i5 13600K as the successor to the Core i5 12600K, in reality, it is the follow-up to the Core i7 from the previous generation. 

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review Cinebench R23

Cinebench R23 Benchmarks. Higher numbers are better. Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

This increase in performance is mainly due to 2 major reasons. First, is the increase in the number of E-Cores across the lineup, but more importantly, in the Core i5 13600K. Second, Intel has increased the size of the L2 caches on its Raptor Lake processors, along with a slight improvement in the read and write speeds.  

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review CPU Z

CPU-Z Benchmarks. Higher numbers are better. Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review CrossBench

CrossMark Benchmark. Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review Pugetbench

Pugetbench Benchmarks. Higher numbers are better. Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

This when combined with the fact that the L3 cache is surprisingly fast, and actually manages to outperform the L2 cache in raw bandwidth, ensures that what we have is a CPU that can just go on and on. For gaming as well as heavy, multi-core workloads, the performance is absolutely stunning across the board.  For some detailed numbers and benchmark results, refer to the embedded graphs.

Intel also has some cool features on the 13th-generation CPUs that make life easier for users, especially when it comes to background tasks. Thread Director, for example, works in conjunction with the Windows Scheduler. What basically happens, is that the CPU will classify the threads and help the system optimize which ones to use for tasks. This helps in handling background tasks in a much more efficient manner.

In most of the CPU tests, the Core i5 13600K handily outperforms the Core i7 12700K, and as we said, completely decimates the Core i5 13600K.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review: Power consumption & Thermals
The Core i5 13600K’s thermal performance is also excellent relative to its overall speed. Though the Core i5 13600K does run considerably hotter than its predecessor, it also runs significantly cooler than the Core i7 12700K, which it marginally outperforms. This leaves the door open to some amount of overclocking, as the Core i5 13600K’s thermal limit is 100 degrees. And, thanks to its efficient design, and more E-cores, the power consumption is well within range of what it should be. 

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review Power

Power consumption during Cinebench Benchmarks and Idle. Lower numbers are better. Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

Even under the heaviest of loads, our CPU did not exceed 85 degrees in a closed case, in room where the ambient temperature was north of 30 degrees. This basically means that as long as you have a cooler that can get the job done, like the AORUS Waterforce X360 AIO liquid cooler that we used, you can drive the Core i5 13600K pretty hard, without having to worry.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review Temps

System temperature during Cinebench Benchmarks and Idle. Lower numbers are better. Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review: Verdict
The Core i5 13600K is hands down, the best CPU on the market right now if you’re looking to build a solid, mid-tier desktop PC for yourself, not just from Intel, but from AMD as well. Considering the benchmarks of the equivalent Ryzen 7 Series, the Core i5 13600K not only performs better, albeit slightly in most use cases, it is also relatively cheaper to get into. If you’re going for AMD this generation, you will have to go for DDR5 RAM, and that to superfast RAM because Ryzen CPUs perform their best when you use faster memory.

Intel 13th Gen i5 13600K Review (4)

Image Credit: Tech2 | Mehul Reuben Das

 

With the Intel Core i5 13600K, you can easily start off lower and then build your system gradually, if budget is a constraint for you. Intel, after a very long time, is playing the value proposition game really well.

Performance, as we said, is sweet and exceptional. Just by looking at the specification, it may not seem to be that major a jump over the previous generation Core i5 12600K, but it really is. As we stated, it is much closer to the Core i7 13600K than it is to the Core i5 12600K. The performance gains over one generation are truly monumental. The only downside that we can think of, is that maybe, this is the last LGA 1700 CPU, so future upgradability may be an issue, in certain scenarios. This, though won’t be an issue for most users, who upgrade their PCs after 4-5 generations. 

Twitter, like most social media platforms, heavily relies on advertisers to generate revenue, However, unlike other social media platforms, Twitter has lost a significant number of advertisers ever since Elon Musk took over. With Apple suspending most of its ad-spending on the platform, Elon Musk surely must be worried.

Apple stopping its ad spends on Twitter is a big concern for Elon Musk

Ever since Musk took over, Twitter has lost nearly 50 of its top 100 advertisers on the platform. Apple alone spends about $100 million a year on Twitter ads, but that is not the only reason why Musk has singled out Apple.

Ever since Musk took over, Twitter has lost nearly 50 of its top 100 advertisers on the platform. Up until a week ago, about a third of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers had not advertised on the platform for over two weeks.

While the looming recession and economic churn that certain tech companies like Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft are facing, maybe a reason why brands are reducing their ad-spends and marketing budgets across social media platforms, the fact that Twitter has become so volatile is particularly concerning for brands and people who manage their brand’s ad-spending on Twitter.

The reason why Musk is singling out Apple is manifold. First, Apple on average spends about $100 million every year, easily on Twitter alone. In the first quarter of this year, Apple spent $48 million in ads on the platform, as per a report by The Washington Post. Seeing one of the biggest advertisers pulling out of Twitter is surely going to cause other advertisers to pull out as well. Or, they might be in a position to leverage Apple’s decision to quit to get a better deal.

The other reason why Musk is calling out Apple is the commission that Apple charges for each transaction that goes through the App Store. Apple and Google both charge a fee for enabling transactions through their respective app stores. Apple in particular, has a practice of charging 30 per cent on each transaction if the app generates revenue of $1 million. When you consider Musk’s plan to monetise various aspects of Twitter, that 30 per cent commission surely ads up. Although this isn’t something new, Musk calling it a “secret” Apple tax, shows how the disdain that he has for the practice. 

Finally, there is the fact that Apple has threatened to pull Twitter off of its App Store. Apple has a set of regulations that app developers have to follow so that they can be listed on Apple’s App Store. Musk’s recent actions regarding content moderation on Twitter, and the reinstatement of accounts that were previously banned for hate speech violate a number of terms and conditions that Apple has for apps on its App Store

While advertisers and brands have been cautious of Musk’s idea of how Twitter should function, they were warming up to the idea. However, seeing Apple, possibly the biggest tech company in the world pulling out of Twitter and then banning the app from the App Store is surely going to jolt up brands who were contemplating resuming their ad-spends on the platform.

From health monitoring to the option of listening to audiobooks, an Apple Watch comes with plenty of features. Apart from the beneficial features, it also offers a lot of customisation options related to its look. Users can choose a variety of watch faces to decorate their Apple Watch as per their mood. When the Apple Watch first debuted in 2014, there were just 10 standard faces. However, since then, the variety has considerably increased and the number has reached as many as 31 groups. Among all the faces Apple offers, there is a stellar one named the Astronomy watch face. Along with the date and time, the face enables the view of our solar system.

Astronomy watch face on Apple Watch enables exciting view of Solar System; check features here

Though the Astronomy watch face was first launched with the first-generation Apple Watch, it has seen some major updates with the release of watchOS 9 and the Apple Watch Series 8 simultaneously. Though all of the latest watchOS 9 watch faces are interactive in some fashion, the Astronomy watch face includes a particularly unique feature that offers the visualisation of the solar system. As space has always been a curious topic, Apple Watch owners have found the look quite exciting.

The Astronomy watch face’s default image of Earth includes a live cloud map that shows where you are right now. Also, you have the opportunity of watching the Moon or the Solar System when you modify the watch face from the customisation page. To explore this hidden feature, you are required to activate Solar System views.

After saving the Solar System view as your watch face, you will be able to track the other planets too. You just need to turn the digital crown in any direction which will allow you to observe the alignment of all eight planets in their orbits with the sun at their centre. If you want to see how the planets’ orbits were aligned in the past or in the future, you can scroll forward or backwards several years.

It seems that Amazon is planning to make some major moves as it plans to dive deeper into the movie business. Although Amazon makes a few original shows and movies for Prime Video, it has so far, stayed away from theatrical releases. That is set to change as reports have surfaced that Amazon is preparing to invest $1 billion annually for movies that will go straight for a theatrical release.

Amazon apparently plans to invest $1 billion in movies every year for theatrical releases

Amazon is preparing to produce 12-15 movies in a year. For 2023, the number of movies that Amazon will produce won’t be that high, but that is mainly because they want to test the waters and figure out how to go about things. Image Credit: Amazon

A report from Bloomberg states that Amazon is preparing to produce 12-15 movies in a year. For 2023, the number of movies that Amazon will produce won’t be that high, but that is mainly because they want to test the waters and figure out how to go about things.

Amazon has deepened its investments in original content over the years through its Prime Video streaming unit, as well as its movie and television studios. The company spent $13 billion on content for its video and music streaming services last year, up from $11 billion in 2020, as it looks to remain competitive in the crowded media landscape. 

Earlier this year, the e-retailer bolstered its media ambitions when it acquired legendary movie maker MGM Studios for $8.45 billion.

In the past, Jeff Bezos had very categorically said that he wanted Amazon to get into the media and content creation and distribution business, as that would be a great way to get more people to subscribe onto Amazon Prime, and use more of Amazon’s other web services that go beyond e-commerce.

While a $1 billion annual investment for film development is on the lower end of what major Hollywood studios spend each year, its a positive sign for the movie theater business, which has struggled in the wake of the pandemic.

Audiences have returned to cinemas, but because the production pipeline was stalled in 2020 and 2021, fewer movies have been released in cinemas in 2022. Blockbuster films continue to drive significant, sometimes record-breaking, domestic box office numbers, but without a steady slate of new and meaningful content, the overall industry remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels.

It will be interesting to see how the budget is allocated, and if Indian filmmakers and production houses are able to get any of the money earmarked for theatrical releases. 

This is a budget range where one can get certain flagship-grade features and fairly powerful processors at a reasonable price. In addition, one can expect high quality AMOLED displays with high refresh rate, impressive camera performance with features like optical image stabilisation (OIS) and more. All handsets in this list are 5G ready too. Time to meet the half dozen that we believe are the best phones under Rs 30,000 this month.

Best phones to buy under Rs 30,000 in India

Poco F4 5G
We start with two phones powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC starting with the Poco F4 5G. You get 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage here, along with an impressive 6.67-inch AMOLED Full HD+ screen with 120 Hz refresh rate, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision compliance. The display has 1300 nits peak brightness and is protected against scratches by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The phone runs Android 12 with MIUI 13, and is one of the rare phones to offer a 2-year warranty.

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The Poco F4 5G has an attractive design with a glass back, and measures just 7.7 mm in thickness. Photography is taken care of by a 64MP primary camera with OIS, an 8MP ultra-wide shooter and a 2MP macro camera. The 20MP front camera is quite good for selfies and video calls. Its 4500 mAh battery lasts over a day of moderate use, and the bundled 67W fast charger promises to juice it up fully in less than 40 minutes. 

Poco F4 5G price in India: Rs 29,999 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage

iQOO Neo 6 5G
The iQOO Neo 6 5G is the other handset powered by a Snapdragon 870 chip, and again, you can buy its 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage variant in this budget. It has a 6.62-inch HDR10+ compliant Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate for flicker-free performance in compatible apps. Just like the Poco F4, this too has a peak brightness of 1300 nits. It runs Android 12 with FunTouch UI 12, and the company has promised two more major Android updates in the future for this device.

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The rear camera department on the iQOO Neo 6 5G is quite similar to the Poco F4. It is helmed by a 64MP primary camera with OIS, and accompanied by an 8MP ultra-wide camera and a 2MP macro camera. Its 4700 mAh battery lasts well over a day of moderate use, and the company bundles an 80W fast charger that promises to take it from 0 to 50% in just 12 minutes, and to 100% in a little over half an hour. 

iQOO Neo 6 5G price in India: Rs 29,999 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage

Motorola Edge 30
The Motorola Edge 30 is another excellent all-rounder in this budget. This phone is powered by a Snapdragon 778G chip and comes with 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. While it may not have the most powerful processor in this budget, it more than makes up with some unique features. Its 6.5-inch Full HD+ OLED display flaunts a 144 Hz refresh rate along with HDR10+ compliance and capability to display over a billion colour shades. The screen has Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection against scratches.

Motorola-Edge-30-2

The photography department on the Motorola Edge 30 is impressive courtesy of two 50MP cameras, with the primary offering OIS and the secondary camera letting you capture some high quality ultra-wide shots. There’s also a 2MP depth sensor (for the record). The 32MP front camera will have the selfie enthusiasts interested. Its 4020 mAh battery lasts for a day of moderate use and supports 33W fast charging. This phone runs Android 12, and like most Motorola phones, you get a clean and near-stock user interface, which many prefer. 

Motorola Edge 30 price in India: Rs 26,999 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G
The Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G is powered by a Snapdragon 778G chip too, and you get 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal (expandable) storage to go with it. It is the only handset in this list to offer IP67 ingress protection making it dust and water resistant. It has a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED display with 120 Hz refresh rate, 800 nits of peak brightness and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. Its 4500 mAh battery lasts over a day of moderate use and supports 25W fast charging.

Samsung-A52s-1

Camera department offers a good variety with a combination of 64MP primary camera with OIS, 12MP ultrawide snapper, 5MP macro camera and a 5MP depth sensor to capture some quality photos in various modes. The 32MP selfie camera embedded in a tiny punch hole at the top of the screen is bound to appeal to the selfie crowd. The Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G launched with Android 11 and One UI 3.x and is upgradeable to Android 12 with One UI 4.1.

Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G price in India: Rs 29,990 for 6GB RAM/128GB storage

OnePlus Nord 2T
The OnePlus Nord 2T is arguably the best value for money phone from the company in 2022 across all budgets. The phone is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 1300 chip that’s not a bad option at all for this segment. You get the 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage variant in this budget. This 5G-ready phone has a sharp 6.43-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 90 Hz refresh rate and HDR10+ compliance. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, and the protection extends to the phone’s glass back too. 

OnePlus-Nord-2T

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

The rear camera department consists of a 50MP primary camera with OIS that does a good job in different conditions. Giving it company are an 8MP ultra-wide shooter and a 2MP monochrome camera. The 32MP front camera is good enough to keep the selfie enthusiasts hooked. The OnePlus Nord 2T has a 4500 mAh battery that lasts close to a day and a half of moderate use, and the bundled 80W Super VOOC charger charges it fully in just 33 minutes. It runs OxygenOS 12.1 based on Android 12, and one can expect two more major Android updates for this device.

OnePlus Nord 2T price in India: Rs 28,999 for 8GB RAM/128GB storage

Redmi K50i 5G
If you seek a powerful processor and ample storage instead of an AMOLED screen and OIS, the Redmi K50i 5G is the phone for you. It is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 8100 SoC that is found in more expensive phones like the OnePlus 10R and is more powerful than the Snapdragon 870 too. You get its 8 GB RAM and 256 GB UFS 3.1 internal storage variant comfortably in this budget. The photography department has a combination of a 64MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide snapper and a 2MP macro camera. A 16MP front camera handles selfies and video calls quite well. 

Redmi-K50i-1

The Redmi K50i 5G has a 6.6-inch Full HD+ Liquid FFS display that’s HDR10 and Dolby Vision compliant. It is protected against scratches by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. It supports 144 Hz refresh rate for a smooth experience in compatible apps, and should also have the gamers interested. A 5080 mAh battery keeps the phone running for close to a day and a half of moderate use, and the bundled 67W turbo charger claims to charge it to 50% in just 15 minutes. This Xiaomi phone runs Android 12 with MIUI 13. 

Redmi K50i 5G price in India: Rs 26,999 for 8GB RAM/256GB storage

NASA’s Artemis 1 mission is probably the most significant space mission of this decade. Thanks to this mission, humans will be returning to the moon for an extended period of time, and will be participating in months of exploration and in-depth investigation to see if life as we know it can be sustained in any way beyond Earth.

Humans will be living & working on the Moon by the end of this decade thanks to Artemis 1, says NASA

NASA’s SLS rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft launches on the Artemis I flight test from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Image Credit: NASA

In an interview with the BBC, NASA’s Orion lunar spacecraft project leader Howard Hu stated, “We’re going to send people down to the surface, and they’re going to be living on that surface and doing research.”

“The mission allows us to have a stable platform and transportation system that enables us to get operating experience in that deep space environment”, he added.

NASA’s Artemis 1 Orion has set a new record for the spacecraft designed to carry humans to deep space by travelling 419,378 kilometres from Earth. The record was previously set during the Apollo 13 mission at 248,655 miles from our home planet. Artemis I will not land on the moon, but the spacecraft will orbit nearby before returning to Earth in 26 days.

For the next six days, Orion will remain in lunar orbit. It will then put the spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth, followed by a Sunday, December 11, splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, a press release by NASA said.

The US space agency intends to launch the first manned Lunar landing since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972 in late 2024 or early 2025. That will also feature the very first woman and the first person of colour to step foot on the moon.

According to NASA, this is the spacecraft that will take the astronauts who will land us back on the Moon once more. “We are developing a sustainable programme, and we are heading to the Moon,” said Hu.

NASA is expected to use innovative measures to learn more about the Moon’s South Pole. The agency will also try to understand the lunar surface with the help of the Gateway Space Station in orbit, the press note added.    

The spacecraft has a sensor named Commander Moonikin Campos attached to it. It will help provide information on what crew members may experience in flight. The Campos is named after Arturo Campos, the key player in bringing Apollo 13 safely back to Earth. 

Following its introduction in 2016, the United Payments Interface (UPI) has seen tremendous growth in India. The reason UPI is so popular as a payment system is that it makes online payments and money transfers incredibly simple by combining various bank accounts into a single mobile application.

Representational Image. News18

The newest feature addition from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which administers UPI, enables the option to withdraw money from any bank ATM using only UPI applications including Google Pay, Phone Pay and Paytm. Customers won’t have to worry about carrying their cards or remembering their ATM PINs thanks to this new function called Interoperable Cardless Cash Withdrawal (ICCW).

In an attempt to combat card-related frauds such as card cloning, skimming, and device tampering, the Reserve Bank of India has mandated banks to offer this ICCW option at ATMs. Only a few banks currently provide the option to withdraw cash without a card. But, according to the new rules, customers will now be able to withdraw from any bank’s ATM, not just their own.

Steps to follow while withdrawing cash from ATMs using UPI:

  • Go to any bank’s ATM and pick the “Withdraw Cash” option from the menu.
  • Choose ‘UPI’ from the list now.
  • A QR code will be seen on the screen.
  • On your phone, launch the UPI-based application (e.g. Google Pay, PhonePe).
  • Launch your UPI-based mobile app’s QR code scanner feature.
  • Scan the QR code that appears on the ATM’s screen.
  • Enter the amount you need to withdraw.
  • Type in your UPI PIN.
  • Select “Hit Proceed” from the options.
  • The ATM will provide you with the required cash.

Notably, there won’t be any extra charges for UPI-enabled cardless cash withdrawals from ATMs. The fees for using an ATM of a different bank to make a cash withdrawal using this cashless withdrawal mode will not change from the current card withdrawal limits.

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In many sectors of modern life, technology has made things easier (we’re looking at you robot lawn mower). But when it comes to travel, it can be a little more complicated these days to get where you’re going without having to open multiple emails, scan multiple bar codes, and use your phone’s navigation feature to figure out how to get where you need to be. The TripIt app attempts to make all of this easier for you by aggregating your travel information in one place. And the free version of the app certainly does that. But to make TripIt really sing, you will likely want to upgrade. 

When you sign up for a free TripIt account, you’ll be asked whether or not you want to populate the app automatically as your travel confirmations hit your inbox, which you can do if you have a GMail, Yahoo or Outlook mail account. Say yes, and the app will scan your email box every 24 hours and add any flight, hotel or car reservations it detects. If you don’t want the auto-fill feature to work, all you need to do is forward any confirmations you receive to [email protected] and they will automatically be added to your itinerary. If that still feels too nosey, you can also enter trip details manually. 

You can access your itineraries from the main screen, and when you click into an upcoming trip, all your data will be displayed in a list organized by the time of the events involved in your travel. TripIt makes it easy to share your plans with a click or a tap and offers some fun additional features like integration with your maps app and a summary of how much your trip will cost.

While those are all handy features, upgrading to TripIt Pro juices things up a bit.

One of the biggest challenges to modern travel is the fact that schedules are often changed due to delays. In the basic TripIt app, you won’t be automatically alerted to these changes, so you’ll still have to monitor things through the individual providers’ apps or websites, which kind of defeats the purpose of having TripIt in the first place. 

Upgrading to Pro, which costs $49 per year integrates automatic schedule changes. 

The Pro level will also let you know if the price of your flight has changed after you book or even if a better seat becomes available, and it will send automatic schedule changes to your “Inner Circle,” a group of people you choose to share your plans with. It also sends check-in reminders, shows the wait times at security gates, tells you where to get your bags, helps you navigate the airport itself, and even gives you a bit of country-specific travel information.

If you only travel occasionally, the free version of TripIt can certainly make things easier for you. Having an at-a-glance itinerary is certainly nice, and being easily able to share your plans is handy. If, however, you take more than a few trips a year, the Pro version seems worth the extra $50 per year – if for nothing else than having the peace-of-mind of knowing that you’ll get instant alerts to any changes in gates, flight times, or other glitches in your schedule. Both apps are available in desktop and mobile versions for Macs and PCs.

 Download TripIt Here

When Elon Musk took control of Twitter, the social media platform had over 7,400 employees on its payroll. However, in the weeks to follow, Musk would go on to gut the workforce, firing nearly half of all Twitter employees, and thousands of contractual content moderators, and forcing thousands of other on-roll employees to resign. All in all, as of 8:30 AM Monday (Indian Standard Time), Twitter has just a little over 2,700 employees on the payroll.

Elon Musk starts recruiting ‘engineers’ for ‘Twitter 2.0,’ wants anyone who can code to join his team

The number of engineers who have exited Twitter is so huge, that Musk has one simple criterion for his hiring team to follow – hire anyone who actually knows how to write software, irrespective of their qualifications. Image Credit: Pexels

Elon Musk, in a recent all-hands meeting with the remaining Twitter employees, announced that he is done with the terminations and is now actively looking to hire people. Musk and his team of recruiters have already started recruiting engineers and salespeople for the ad-sales team. Some sales employees who opted to stay after Musk’s Twitter 2.0 ultimatum were reportedly laid off shortly after.

The number of engineers who have exited Twitter is so huge, that Musk has one simple criterion for his hiring team to follow – hire anyone who actually knows how to write software, irrespective of their qualifications and work experience.

Musk has also asked the existing employees at Twitter for referrals, and that under his ownership and management, Twitter will be “much more engineering-driven.” Design and product management will still be very important and report to me, but those writing great code will constitute the majority of the team and “have the greatest sway.”

The Twitter careers page wasn’t listing any open jobs as of writing this article. There were more than 100 job openings before Musk took over.

Musk may have to hire engineers quickly to keep Twitter systems running properly. A Washington Post report quoted a former employee as saying layoffs and other departures “have left multiple critical systems down to two, one or even zero engineers.” Gutted departments include “Twitter’s traffic and front-end teams that route engineering requests to the correct backend services,” a Verge report said.

Elon Musk, when he took over Twitter, had envisioned that Twitter’s DM or Direct Messaging system would be one of the best in the world. In fact Musk had planned to revamp the way DMs function on Twitter and place it behind a paywall so that users can subscribe to a set of features.

In a recent all-hands meeting with the employees of Twitter, Musk reiterated the importance of encrypting DMs on Twitter, and how a former employee, Moxie Marlinspike wanted to work on the feature, but wasn’t really allowed to. He also said that “it should be the case that I can’t look at anyone’s DMs if somebody has put a gun to my head.”

Musk also praised Moxie Marlinspike and said that Twitter would not only start with encryption but eventually, become a better DMing platform than Signal. Musk also announced that Twitter will be partnering up with Moxie Marlinspike and a few people from Signal to work on their encrypted DMs.

Moxie Marlinspike, for those who are unaware, is one of the most prominent cryptographers and computer security researchers in the United States. After his exit from Twitter, he went on to co-found Signal, an end-to-end messaging platform that makes it impossible for snooping eyes to read or view messages or photos that are exchanged between a sender and a receiver.

Over the years, Twitter has kickstarted and then paused building encrypted DMs several times. But now Musk is set on rolling out encryption as a top priority for the vision he is calling Twitter 2.0. 

The first time around, it was Moxie Marlinspike himself who wanted to set up encryption for DMs on the platform. However, in 2013, he had to leave Twitter when the platform didn’t let him build the feature set. 

In 2018, Twitter again set out to set up encryption for DMs and had even bought a license to use Signal’s tech, but by 2019, Twitter reportedly had scrapped the idea again. 

American whistleblower Edward Snowden has reiterated his faith in the Signal app multiple times and says that he uses it every day. Snowden has been in favour of the Signal app since its inception and tweeted that he used Signal back in 2015

Rest assured, if fixing DMs is going to cost Musk substantially, which, from the looks of it, seems plausible, he will be putting it behind a paywall. Whether it clubbed with the existing Twitter Blue package, or whether it will be paired with a new subscription service, remains to be seen.

Leaks aren’t unheard of on Twitter. In 2018, Twitter revealed that unencrypted DMs between brands and their customers were accessible to certain “outside users” for a period of more than one year. 

Amazon is currently in the middle of one of the biggest mass layoffs in its history. The e-commerce giant plans to terminate about 10,000 people by 2023, and also plans to refocus finances and efforts away from the hardware division. The Alexa team at Amazon, responsible for not only the voice assistant, but the devices as well, is one of the hardest hit divisions, with more than half of all employees in the vertical, either being reassigned or terminated.

Amazon’s Alexa team set to lose $10 billion this year, was the main driving force behind mass layoff

Amazon has not been able to monetise the “smart assistance” that Alexa provides. Because they sell the Echo devices at cost, they haven’t been able to make money on them as well. Image Credit: Pexels

Amazon will be losing about $10 billion just this year because of Alexa. Alexa, which was a pet project of Jeff Bezos, was one of the best voice assistant when it was launched almost a decade ago. However, Amazon, like Google, hasn’t been able to monetise their voice assistant services in any meaningful way.

Moreover, the smart assistant takes up a lot of space and compute power in Amazon’s server. With each passing year, it was becoming difficult for Amazon to justify the space that that programme takes up on its servers and the amount of computing power it occupies. 

This happened, despite the fact that Amazon was able to place Alexa in a number of devices and hardware that were not the Echo speakers. Also, Alexa’s Echo line is among the “best-selling items on Amazon.” However, most of the devices are sold at cost.” The plan with Alexa was for Amazon to want to make money when people use the devices, not when they buy bought them. This has colossally backfired on the e-commerce giant.

According to a report by Business Insider, the Alexa division, along with Prime Video lost about $3 billion in just the first quarter of 2022, with a vast majority of the losses coming from the Alexa division. The hardware team, as we said is said to lose about $10 billion this year. 

The Alexa division has been trying to turn around monetisation of the assistance services for years now. An all-hands crisis meeting took place in 2019 to try to turn the monetization problem around, but that was futile. 

As a result, Amazon stopped hiring people for the Alexa division by late 2019. Bezos too started to lose interest in his pet project around 2020. Bezos’ successor as Amazon’s CEO, Andy Jassy is also not interested in protecting Alexa.

Jassy has claimed that the company still has “conviction in pursuing” Alexa, but that’s after making huge cuts to the Alexa team. However, the Alexa division believes that there is no clear directive for devices in the future, and that since the hardware isn’t profitable, there’s no clear incentive to stay on that direction.

Before Elon Musk had reinstated Donald Trump’s Twitter account, he had put up a poll for his followers, asking should the former US President’s ban from the platform be reversed. Now, Musk has put up a similar poll asking if nearly all accounts and profiles that have been banned on the platform in the past, should be given general amnesty and allowed back on the platform.

Twitter amnesty_ Elon Musk proposes letting nearly everyone back on the platform whom Twitter had banned

Musk is asking his followers if the accounts that have been banned on Twitter, should be given general amnesty and allowed back on the platform. This means that figures like Kangana Ranaut and Kamaal R Khan may finally get their Twitter accounts back. Image Credit: AFP

This means that figures like Kangana Ranaut and Kamaal R Khan may finally get their Twitter accounts back.

On Wednesday, he asked: “Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?” He gave his followers 24 hours to vote, and so far, people have overwhelmingly voted “yes.”

Donald Trump isn’t the only one who got their bans overturned. Rapper Ye, and Professor Jordan Peterson, two highly controversial figures have also had their bans or suspensions lifted.

Shortly after taking ownership of Twitter, Musk said that Twitter would set up a council to make decisions on who should be allowed back onto the platform. That idea has since been binned, and it seems that Musk is now willing to make sweeping changes based largely on his own opinion.

In the poll that Musk out up or any of the subsequent tweets, he doesn’t share the details on when this change will happen, if his followers vote yes. And although several brands and users may be concerned about having certain “bad actors” back on the platform, it theoretically shouldn’t matter, at least as per Musk’s vision for the platform, 

Musk has said before that he wants negative and hate tweets to basically be invisible unless a user specifically tries to seek them out. To achieve this, Twitter will still need a bunch of content moderators and robust moderation system, that will enable them to report those accounts. However, Twitter’s content moderation has been hit hard by the firing of both, moderators who were on Twitter’s payroll, and those who were contracted agents.

There’s a silver lining in all of this though. Even though people may fear that Twitter will be filled with very controversial figures who would spew nothing but venom on the platform, Musk has an idea of where he would draw the line. For example, he would never let anyone like Alex Jones, a controversial conspiracy theorist who has accused the victims of mass shootings in the US to be paid actors, to be reinstated for mongering clearly false rumours.

A couple of days ago, Elon Musk asked his followers via a Twitter poll if the social media platform should give amnesty to people who were banned from the platform and reinstate their banned accounts.

Elon Musk confirms that Twitter will be reinstating most banned accounts in the coming weeks

Of the 3 Million of Elon Musk’s followers who voted in the poll, about 72 per cent voted ‘yes’ to reinstate most banned accounts on Twitter. Image Credit: AFP

Because most of his followers voted ‘Yes’ overwhelmingly, the Twitter and Tesla CEO has now announced that Twitter will be reinstating most of the banned accounts starting next week. Most of the accounts that have been banned, and which did not break local laws will be restored over the next few weeks.

About 72.4 per cent of all respondents who took part in the pool voted “yes” toward unbanning accounts, from a pool of slightly more than 3 million votes. Although it is difficult to know who voted and in which direction, the poll was conducted among Musk’s followers, so it wouldn’t be wise to say that the vote reflects the true conscience of the users on the platform.

Elon Musk reinstating these banned accounts is the second major moderation decision he’s made since taking over after unbanning former President Donald Trump; both decisions were made after Musk ran an informal poll from his personal Twitter account.

The decision to reverse years of moderation work at Twitter effectively trashes Musk’s original promise: to create a diverse council that would help adjudicate serious moderation decisions. Musk backed away from that idea by later blaming “political/social activist groups” for breaking an alleged “deal.” There has been no vetting or verification of Musk’s claims on this. Moreover, advertisers and brands have all been clear about why they have suspended their ad spends on the platform.

It’s still not clear which accounts will be allowed back. Musk said accounts that have “broken the law or engaged in egregious spam” would not be granted “amnesty,” but without a functional moderation policy or content moderation team for that matter, it will be difficult for Twitter to determine who all are eligible to have their accounts reinstated as per Musk’s new dictum.

Even Musk has expressed some bare-minimum standards beyond breaking the law. Musk has stated that he would not want people like notable conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to be back on the platform for “engaging in egregious spam” and propagating a false and harmful lie.

 For those who are unaware, Alex Jones has often claimed that several mass shootings in the US were staged and performed by actors. The controversial right-wing political commentator has also claimed that people and families who claim to be victims of mass shootings are paid actors employed by left-leaning political activists.

Pros:
– Good sound quality
– Compact design, comfortable in-ear fit
– Impressive ANC and ambient mode
– Wear detection, multipoint support
– Support for LDAC codecs even when paired with two devices
– Useful companion app
– Good battery backup with ANC on

Cons:
– Touch controls configuration could have been smarter
– Average call quality
– Expensive

Price: Rs 16,990

Rating: 3.8/5

Sony launched two prominent TWS earphones this year in India. First was the flagship WF-1000XM4 which still remains the best TWS earphones under Rs 20,000 here and the benchmark for active noise cancellation (ANC) in the segment. Then came the highly unusual Linkbuds that served a completely different purpose. While the former was about cutting the outside noise, the latter was about staying connected all the time.

Sony WF-LS900N (Linkbuds S) Review Lead image

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

The latest from the company, Sony WF-LS900N, also known as Linkbuds S globally, not just looks to bridge the gap between the two but strives to offer the best of both worlds. In many ways, one can also call it 1000XM4 Mini (unofficially) given the similarity in appearance and feature list. Can it be the midrange player that Sony needs to take on the likes of Oppo Enco X2 and some others? Let’s find out.

Sony WF-LS900N TWS Earphones: Design and comfort (8/10)
These earbuds look like a compact version of the WF-1000XM4 with a similar shape and design. These buds are a good 40 per cent smaller than the Sony TWS flagship and weigh just 4.8 grams each. They feel a lot more comfortable in the ear due to the smaller footprint and the fit is snug too. They don’t stick out the ears as much as the 1000XM4 and stay in place during jogs. The bundled silicone ear tips provide a good seal, and as a result, the passive noise isolation is quite good. 

Sony WF-LS900N (Linkbuds S) Review Buds

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

A few more pairs of tips are bundled in case the default ones aren’t the best fit for you. Do spend a couple of minutes choosing the right ones. The build quality of the product is solid with a smooth matte finish and sizable touch zones at the back of the buds. The same finish extends to the compact and pocketable charging case that weighs 35 grams. The case has a USB-C charging port and a Bluetooth pairing/reset button at the back and a charge status LED at the front. 

You get three colour variants of the LS900N – black, white and beige. Sony states that the buds are made of recycled plastic materials from automobile parts. Just like in case of some of their recently launched products, the packaging material is void of any plastic to keep things environmentally friendly. We appreciate this initiative.

Sony WF-LS900N (Linkbuds S) Review Charging case

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

Sony WF-LS900N TWS Earphones: Features and specifications (8.5/10)
Despite the smaller footprint, the earbuds host a 5 mm driver each, along with Sony’s V1 processor that is present in the 1000XM4 too, as well as the ANC circuitry. Keeping the weight of each bud under 5 grams despite all that and without compromising on the battery backup is commendable. The Sony Linkbuds S supports SBC, AAC and LDAC codecs over Bluetooth 5.2. You get to choose between sound quality or a stable connection, and a codec is assigned accordingly. As long as the buds and the source device are in the same room, it’s best to choose the former and use LDAC codecs.

The earbuds are touch-enabled and let you perform a handful of tasks using single-tap, double tap and triple-tap gestures. The functions can be configured using Sony’s Headphones app. However, things are not as granular as I would have liked. Like in most Sony earbuds, the functions are available in sets and you cannot assign a specific function for a specific gesture. For instance, if you choose ANC modes for the left bud, just the single tap is used to cycle through them, while a double tap and triple tap are left unused, and you cannot assign anything to them.

The companion app also offers you multiple audios presets and an equaliser to create your own. These earbuds have an IPX4 rating for sweat resistance and can be worn during workouts without worry. You get wear detection sensors to pause the audio when you remove the buds from your ear and resume when you put them back on. You also get multipoint support here to pair these earphones with two devices simultaneously. Even better, unlike older Sony devices, you can use LDAC codecs even when using multipoint.

Sony WF-LS900N TWS Earphones: Performance (7.5/10)
The wireless range is good even with LDAC codecs with the audio staying smooth even at 10 metres with a clear line of sight between the buds and the source device. But that drops to less than half with a concrete wall in between. There were no latency issues either when streaming videos. You get three listening modes here – Noise Cancellation On, Ambient Sounds On and Normal mode (both off). You can choose any two or all three from the Headphones app. 

The ANC may not be on the same level as the 1000XM4, but it is pretty effective and cuts down on a lot of low and certain midrange frequency sounds like that of a fan or hum of an AC. Even outdoors, it greatly reduces traffic noises and human chatter. As I mentioned earlier, the smaller earbuds coupled with the right-sized silicone tips provide very good passive noise isolation that makes the ANC more effective. The ambient mode here is one of the finest around with things sounding natural. This product does belong to the Linkbuds series after all that believes is staying connected with your surroundings.

Sony WF-LS900N (Linkbuds S) Review Earbuds

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

You can toggle through the modes by tapping the left earbud once. You can touch and hold the back of the left earbud to momentarily let ambient sounds through, just like in the case of Sony’s 1000XM series headphones. You can also choose Adaptive Sound Control to automatically switch ANC and ambient modes on and off depending on your location and surroundings. Features like speak-to-chat, DSEE Extreme audio upscaling, 360 Reality Audio and support for multiple voice assistants are also available on these Hi-Res Audio certified earphones.

The Sony WF-LS900N is sufficiently loud at 60 to 70% volume level. While these buds look like the WF-1000XM4, they don’t exactly sound like them. These earphones are noticeably bass-heavy. The bass is reasonably tight and punchy but it does impact the lower midrange frequencies. The vocal clarity is pretty good but the instrument separation could have been better. The highs are sharp with a good amount of sparkle. They do not sound sibilant but roll off a bit sooner than they should. 

The overall detail in sound is good but not as good as the XM4 or even the Oppo Enco X2 for that matter. The sound stage is reasonably broad for TWS buds, and I got the impression that it feels just a tad broader when you turn on ambient mode. Most popular genres of music sound good on these earphones. The overall sound quality of the LS900N is enjoyable, but given its price tag, it is fair to expect a bit more resolved detail in the audio. 

Sony WF-LS900N TWS Earphones: Call quality (7/10)
The call quality of the WF-LS900N is average at best. The person on the line was clearly audible, and I was heard with reasonable clarity by the other person too, but the transmitted voice lacked sharpness. When outdoors, the microphones do pick up some ambient noise but not excessively. So the noise suppression algorithm works reasonably well but probably ends up impacting the vocal clarity too. It is nowhere close to bad, but I expect better on premium products.

Sony WF-LS900N (Linkbuds S) Review Linkbuds vs Linkbuds S

Sony Linkbuds S (left), Sony Linkbuds (right). Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

Sony WF-LS900N TWS Earphones: Battery life (7.5/10)
Sony claims a battery backup of 6 hours for the buds and additional 14 hours with the charging case, with ANC on all the time. During my testing, I got a little over 5 hours out of the buds with ANC switched on most of the time at 60 to 70% loudness. The case can recharge these buds twice more with some juice left in the tank, thus taking the total battery backup close to 17 hours with ANC on, which is not bad at all. 

Generally, I would term 17 hours as average, but given that I was using LDAC codec all the time with ANC turned on, these are pretty decent numbers. With ANC switched off, these earphones should easily go past the 20 hours mark, perhaps even reach 24 hours. The battery status of each earbud as well as the charging case is visible on the phone. The app prompts you when the charge on the case drops below 30%. 

It takes over two hours to charge the buds and case fully from zero using a standard USB-C charger. These buds support fast charging too, and just 5 minutes of charging can give you about an hour of playtime; a handy feature to have when in a hurry. Wireless charging that was present in the WF-1000XM4 has been given a skip here.

Sony WF-LS900N (Linkbuds S) Review USB port and pairing button

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

Sony WF-LS900N TWS Earphones: Price and verdict
The Sony WF-LS900N TWS earphones are priced at Rs 16,990 with a one-year warranty and can be purchased for Rs 13,990 effectively inclusive of cashback using certain credit and debit cards till the end of this month. Sony could have certainly been more competitive here, and in our opinion, the price after cashback should have ideally been its official price. Now, the company has been known to stick to the introductory price for a lot longer than the stipulated date, and I hope they do the same with the LS900N too. I will explain why. 

At Rs 16,990, it is uncomfortably close to the WH-1000XM4, which is clearly a superior product in most departments. If someone is willing to spend that kind of money, they might as well spend 3K more and go for the flagship product that not just sounds much better but also offers better ANC. And that’s just the in-house competition. There are a few TWS earbuds available in this price bracket, but the LS900N needs to bother mainly about one – the Oppo Enco X2.

The Enco X2 sells for Rs 10,990, and actually sounds better than the LS900N, with more resolved detail and better balance. The Sony trumps it comfortably when it comes to ANC but there’s a lot going for the Oppo in addition to superior sound quality like better call quality and design to make it a better all-round option for your money, given the 6K price difference. If Sony can reduce the price gap by at least 3K, the contest would be a lot more even and provide the WF-LS900N with enough headroom and legroom to be a strong player in the sub-15K segment. 

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