The iPad Mini has been through five cycles of generational refreshes, yet its design has not been as radically improved as it has in the recently launched sixth-generation upgrade. Called the iPad Mini 6 or iPad Mini 2021 by technology enthusiasts, the new iPad Mini looks modern and in line with Apple’s most other big-screen tablets.

The design refresh boasts trimmed display bezel areas, which allowed Apple to accommodate a tad bigger screen than the last-generation model, without compromising on the compact ergonomics the iPad Mini is known for. Other design changes include flat sides and back, both of which aid handling and improve overall usability. Speaking of handling, the iPad Mini has a fingerprint scanner (Touch ID) embedded in its power button mounted on the top side. It takes some time to get comfortable with it, especially if you are a user of the iPhone X or higher models. Once accustomed, the Touch ID feels natural to use for unlocking the device, logging in to apps, etc.

Coming to the display, the iPad Mini sports an LCD panel of modest contrast and brightness. It is no match to OLED panels seen in premium Apple and Samsung tablets, but is not bad, either. However, I wish it had better sunlight legibility because this display is hard to read in bright outdoors. Aspect ratio is another thing I wish the iPad Mini had done better on. Though optimised for most apps and user interface elements, the iPad Mini’s boxy aspect ratio leaves a thick patch of empty spaces on the top and bottom sides of the window while rendering content with a wide aspect ratio, such as movies and television shows available on most over-the-top platforms.

The iPad Mini has a modest display, but it sure does have a solid audio set-up powered by four speakers – two each on the top and bottom sides. The speakers are loud and have fuller output, supported by stereo effect in both vertical and horizontal orientations.

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Affle’s MAAS, a unified mobile advertising platform, and Sensor Tower (a US-based mobile app store marketing intelligence company) have jointly studied the key factors that accelerated e-commerce adoption in India and Southeast Asia in the recent past, and how Covid-19 has shaped shopping behaviour. Their findings are summarised in the report, The Dawn of the New-Age Shopper in the New Normal.

Daily active users for shopping apps

In India, daily active user (DAU) growth in top shopping apps accelerated in the past three quarters, after Club Factory’s removal from app stores dampened growth in mid-2020. The top 10 apps averaged more than 7 million DAUs apiece in Q2 2021, up 18 per cent year-on-year.

Covid boost

Accelerated by the pandemic, the Indian e-commerce industry is set to grow by 84% to $111 billion by 2024. Similarly, Southeast Asia is on its way to record an annual growth rate of 22%, reaching $146 billion by 2025.

Avg downloads for top 5 shopping apps

Shopping app installs in India showed strong y-o-y growth in July and August 2020, and remained above 2019 levels into 2021. Shopping app installs surged again in July 2021, surpassing 80 million that month, up more than 15 million month-on-month. Meesho alone contributed more than 12 million downloads, up 3.7 million month-on-month.

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Tech giant Samsung has updated its Samsung Global Goals (SGG) app that will empower Galaxy smartphone users in India to donate for causes related to inequality, climate and environmental degradation, and education.

All projects are linked to causes that help further the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With the updated SGG app, Galaxy users in India will now be able to donate to projects using the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). These projects include educating young women, feeding school children, protecting children’s rights, supporting the fight against poverty and helping ease the loss of grieving families impacted by Covid-19, the company said in a statement.

The projects listed on the app support UN SDGs such as No Poverty (Goal 1), Zero Hunger (Goal 2), Good Health and Well-being (Goal 3), Quality Education (Goal 4), Clean Water and Sanitation (Goal 6), Sustainable Cities and Communities (Goal 11) and Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12).

Galaxy users will soon be able to also contribute towards United Nations Development Programme projects in India such as supporting women artisans working on Warli folk paintings, helping Safai Saathis who are frontline sanitation workers, conserving Snow Leopards in the Himalayas, one of the world’s rarest cats, and supporting the lives and livelihoods of people impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The updated Samsung Global Goals app will now provide Galaxy smartphone users in India, including Gen Z and millennial users, an easy way to learn about the SDGs and support causes in India that are most important to them. The app furthers our vision of #PoweringDigitalIndia that aims to empower the next generation of young India,” said Partha Ghosh, Vice President & Head, Corporate Citizenship, Samsung India, in the statement.

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Short video platform TikTok emerged as the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for September 2021 with more than 59 million installs.

According to Sensor Tower, the countries with the largest number installs were from Douyin in China at 16 per cent, followed by the US at 12 per cent.

Facebook was the second most installed non-gaming app worldwide last month with more than 51 million installs. The countries with the largest number of Facebook installs were from India at 29 per cent, followed by Indonesia at 7 per cent.

Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger rounded out the top five most installed non-gaming apps worldwide for the month.

Meanwhile, PUBG Mobile from Tencent was the top grossing mobile game worldwide for August 2021 with approximately $270 million in player spending, which represented 4.7 per cent growth from August 2020.

About 61.4 per cent of PUBG Mobile’s revenue was from China, where it has been localized as Game For Peace, followed by 9 per cent from the US and 6.5 per cent from Turkey.

Honor of Kings from Tencent was the second highest earning mobile game worldwide for August 2021 with $256.2 million in gross revenue, which represented approximately 3 per cent year-over-year growth from August 2020.

Last year, the Indian government said it was banning 59 apps developed by Chinese firms, including ByteDance’s TikTok and PUBG Mobile over concerns that these apps were engaging in activities that threatened national security.

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Popular social media app Snapchat went down globally on Wednesday evening and several users were unable to post story updates or send messages.

Snap, which is the parent company of Snapchat, tweeted: “We’re aware that some Snapchatters are having issues using the app right now – hang tight, we’re looking into it!”

Down Detector, which is an app outage tracking website, reported the problems with Snapchat.

While 41 per cent has trouble with the app, 27 per cent of those affected were facing trouble with sharing photos and videos.

The snapchat users also took to Twitter to report their issues.

“Everyone running to Twitter to see if it is not only their Snapchat bugging,” posted one users.

“Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook seeing Snapchat going down,” another tweeted.

The Snapchat issue was yet to be fixed.

Earlier this month, a massive outage left the entire family of Facebook apps down for several hours and produced a cascading effect on millions of users.

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Fed up with traffic jams? Imagine a world where your taxi takes to the skies and lands on top of your office building, recharges and sets off afresh.

That’s the vision of Stephen Fitzpatrick, founder and CEO of Britain’s Vertical Aerospace, which is set to raise $394 million in a merger with a blank-cheque New York-listed company, and who says his aircraft will be flying by the mid-2020s.

And he’s not alone. Some of the world’s most high-profile engineers and airlines believe Vertical is onto something with its plan for zero-emission mini-aircraft to almost silently take four passengers through the skies for up to 120 miles (193 kms).

American Airlines, aircraft lessor Avolon, engineers Honeywell and Rolls-Royce, as well as Microsoft’s M12 unit are investing in the merger, which is expected to complete by the end of the year.

Fitzpatrick, who also set up OVO Energy, Britain’s no.3 energy retailer, said Vertical flights between London’s Heathrow airport and its Canary Wharf financial district will take 15 minutes and cost 50 pounds ($68) per passenger.

That potential is attracting airlines’ attention. More than 1,000 VA-X4 aircraft have been pre-ordered by customers.

Interest in the zero-emission aircraft comes at a time when aviation companies are under mounting pressure from investors to help decarbonise the sector and boost their environmental, social and governance scores.

“We are going to sign deals. We’re finding the appetite and the demand from airlines to be really strong,” Fitzpatrick told Reuters.

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Samsung has announced that it will hold a second Galaxy Unpacked event on October 20. The event will be livestreamed on the company’s YouTube channel beginning at 7 a.m. PT.

The new invitation for the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked Event Part 2 says that it will “open up new experiences for self-expression through technology.”

Leaks suggest that the smartphone maker may launch the often-rumoured Galaxy S21 FE at the event or possibly new mid-range devices.

The Galaxy S21 FE will be reportedly powered by the Snapdragon 888 processor from Qualcomm Inc. But due to supply issues, the South Korean tech giant may also use in-house Exynos chips.

The world’s largest smartphone maker was first expected to unveil the Galaxy S21 FE with its new foldable smartphones at the Galaxy Unpacked online event in August. But market watchers now predict that the Galaxy S21 FE is likely to be introduced separately this month.

The Galaxy S21 FE is the budget edition of the Galaxy S21 flagship smartphone released in January. Its price is estimated to be around the 700,000 won (US$610) range.

Samsung has yet to confirm any information about the Galaxy S21 FE’s specifications, but foreign tech reviewers predicted that it will come with a 6.4-inch display supporting 120Hz refresh rate.

Samsung’s previous Unpacked event announced the arrival of Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, Galaxy Z Flip 3, the latest Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, and the newest pair of Galaxy Buds 2.

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MUMBAI (Reuters) – Invesco on Wednesday denied allegations from India’s Zee that the U.S. investment firm pitched a merger with another group that would have hurt shareholder interests before opposing the TV group’s potential deal with Japan’s Sony Group.

Zee on Tuesday said opposition from Invesco, which owns roughly 18% of Zee Entertainment via two funds, to the proposed Zee-Sony merger was hypocritical as it tried to combine the media firm with “certain entities owned by a large Indian group” with terms similar to the Sony deal.

Revealing the group’s identity for the first as Reliance Industries, Invesco said the merger talks were between the Mukesh Ambani-run company and Zee CEO Punit Goenka’s family. Invesco’s role was to “help facilitate that potential transaction and nothing more,” it said.

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Google’s free email service Gmail is reportedly down in some parts of India on Tuesday as users were unable to send or receive emails.

According to Down Detector, 68 per cent users reported that they are facing issues in website, 18 per cent reported server connection and 14 per cent mentioned about login issue.

Users in India and in some other countries went to social media platforms complaining they were unable to access Gmail.

“I am not able to send or receive mails, is Gmail down,” one use said.

“I guess, again Gmail is not working, or I’m the only user who is facing issue,” mentioned another user.

Currently, Google has not responded to users.

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Apple Inc is likely to slash production of its iPhone 13 by as many as 10 million units due to the global chip shortage, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The company was expected to produce 90 million units of the new iPhone models by the end of this year, according to Bloomberg. The report https://bit.ly/3iUWcQ3 said Apple told its manufacturers that the number of units would be lower because chip suppliers including Broadcom Inc and Texas Instruments are struggling to deliver components.

Shares of Apple fell 1.2% in after-hours trading, while Texas Instruments and Broadcom were both down about 1%.

Apple declined to comment.

Broadcom and Texas Instruments did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In July, Apple forecast slowing revenue growth and said the chip shortage, which had started hitting its ability to sell Macs and iPads, would also crimp iPhone production. Texas Instruments also gave a soft revenue outlook that month, hinting on chip supply concerns for the rest of the year.

The chip crunch has put immense pressure on industries from automobiles to electronics, leading many automakers to temporarily suspend production.

With its massive purchasing power and long-term supply agreements with chip vendors, Apple has weathered the supply crunch better than many other companies, leading some analysts to forecast that iPhone 13 models released in September would have a strong sales year as consumers looked to upgrade devices for 5G networks.

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