TNBT002 – Galaxy Note 20 Shipments, PUBG Ban & Apple Upcoming Devices

Hi Everyone, this is Sanjeev from Techkle. Welcome to yet another episode of TNBT where we will cover the latest Tech news and updates.

Episode Summary

PUBG Mobile Game Ban In India

In this episode, we will not only cover the latest Samsung flagship smartphone Galaxy Note 20 but will also talk about Pixel 4a and other devices launched recently. Apple has also prepared for the release of new devices including the iPhone 12.

So, let’s start with this episode and dig into the latest news.

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Shipments

Samsung started shipping the latest flagship device – Galaxy Note 20 to the customers. To the customer’s surprise, they have decided to not include the USB-C headphones for the North America region.

So, if you are buying the phone in North America, you will not get the wired headphone in the box. Though, if you are planning to use wireless headphones with Galaxy Note 20, you will not be worried about this news.

Though Samsung is saying that this has been done for the environment protection. Most of the customers already have headphones and do not use the wired headphones included in the box. In case you want the USB-C wired headphones, you can call the customer service and they will ship one for you free of cost.


Google Play Music is Going Away

Google announced that Google Play Music is the latest service to see the end of life by October 2020. They are making YouTube Music as the premier music service from the group.

YouTube music is available on Google Assistant devices in an Ad-Supported manner. It also supports the music upload up to 100,000 songs even when you are not a paid subscriber.

Since Google Play Music also provided a service to upload your music, Google is now allowing you to transfer those songs to YouTube Music. Make use of this service and transfer the uploaded music to YouTube Music.

In another update, Google is planning to launch Pixel 4a 5G version and Pixel 5 later this month. The devices should be announced by last week of September.


India Banned PUBG and 188 Other Apps

In a recent announcement, India has banned PUBG and 188 other Chinese Apps citing the National Security & Cyber Security as a reasons. They have shown concern about the way these Apps are using the collected data.

This is the third time India has banned Chinese Apps this year. Earlier they have banned Popular app TikTok and WeChat along with many other apps.

Tencent, a company that owns PUBG has lost over $34 billion in the last few days in the valuations.


WhatsApp Fact Check Option

WhatsApp is adding an option to fact check forwarded messages. It will add a little search icon in front of the forwarded message and automatically take you to browser with pre-filled queries in case you want a fact check.

The whole process is encrypted and WhatsApp doesn’t read the message which is being Fact Checked. It just pass on the message to browser to search it on the internet and find the facts about it.

This can be a good way to allow people to make sure they are able to check the validity of the forwarded message or any other related news.


Amazon Launched Halo Fitness band

Amazon is the latest company to enter the wearable market with the new fitness band Halo. Halo is a strap with all the sensors added to it. It has all the sensors hid behind the strap which is available in 3 colors and sizes.

The straps are like Apple Watch Bands which is replaceable and can be purchased separately. You can interchange them to go with your dress.

The band has no screen attached to it and will be used along with Amazon Halo app on Android or iOS. The band and app comes with some unique applications like body composition, voice tone analysis, etc.

It uses phone camera to take multiple photos of person and does body analysis to find the body fat ratio etc. Along with that it uses voice tone analysis to find the mood of the person.

The device will retail for $99 but for a limited time its available at 30% discount on Amazon. The health services will be subscription based and will be available at $3.99 per month. First 6 month subscription is free with the device.


Apple & Epic Games Battle

Apple and Epic Games are generating a lot of news due to the legal battle on App Store Commission. Epic Games is not happy with the 30% cut they need to give to Apple and they decided to offer their own payment method for Fortnite in-app purchases.

This is a violation of the current App Store policy as Apple asks them to use the Apple Payments method. They decided to skip that and gave a 10% discount to customers in case they want to use Epic Games direct payment method. In result, Apple pulls the Fortnite from the App Store and canceled the Epic Games Developer account.

They are involved in a legal battle where Epic Games is claiming that App Store policies are not faring to developers and gives Apple undue advantage. They are also asking to bring the Fortnite back to App Store from court till the legal proceeding are going on.

There are some exceptions to Apple 30% commission for example, Amazon only pays 15% commission to Apple for the in-app purchases. This is being cited as not an equal playground for all the developers. Apple says Epic Games has sought the deal for themselves, but once it was not done they decided to go in different directions.

Since Fortnite is one of the successful games, avid mobile gamers are at loss. They are sitting on their video gaming chairs without their most liked games to play.


Apple Upcoming Devices

The last 4 months of the year is always busy for Apple. They always launch new iPhone and US updates in these 4 months. This year looks like the iPhone 12 launch will be delayed till mid of October.

Since iPhone 12 is getting delayed, Apple’s usual September event will also be pushed to October and might happen on October 12th. The shipment might start on October 19th.

Apple is planning to launch a new iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV along with iPhone 12. Now looks like rather then a single launch event, they are planning to the staggered release of these devices.

According to a leak, Apple Watch and the new iPad will be launched in September via a press release. They will update the Apple online store and will be shipped as early as mid of September. Apple will release the iPhone 12 and MacBook 12-inch with A14X silicon chip in the mid-October event.

They are not planning to delay the launch of latest OS updates. Looks like iOS 14 will be released later this month to the devices. It’s already had 7 developer BETA releases till now and most of the functionality is working good. There are few bugs which should be fixed in later BETA’s.

Is there something else you would like to listen about or like us to cover as part of this Tech News series, please write to tn.feedback@techkle.com. If you have any tips for the news around Technology, you can send it to us on tn.tips@techkle.com. You can always follow us on Twitter or Facebook for the latest updates.

Full Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning that if you click on one of the links and purchase an item, we may receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). We only hyperlink the products which we feel adds value to our audience. Financial compensation does not play a role for those products.

About Sanjeev

Sanjeev is an IT Consultant and technology enthusiast. He has more than 15 years of experience in building and maintaining enterprise applications. He is been with Android from T-Mobile G1 time but recently shifted to iOS. He loves to code and play with the latest gadgets.

Share via
Copy link