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OnePlus Nord CE 5G

OnePlus Nord CE 5G launched – List of specifications and features.

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On 10th June 2021, OnePlus launched the new model in the Nord series, OnePlus Nord CE 5G. The company made the announcement through an online live stream and revealed the new features of this latest smartphone. The new OnePlus Nord smartphone varies from the original Nord model that was released last year on a few grounds. Both the outlook and the internal system have been significantly modified to make it look both sleek and for better performance. The slim appearance of the new Nord CE 5G makes it the slimmest OnePlus model after the OnePlus 6T which was released almost three years ago. This new OnePlus Nord model comes in three different colors and each one has options for a matte and glossy back finish.

Specifications of OnePlus Nord CE 5G

The new OnePlus Nord CE 5G is powered by Android 11 and OxygenOS 11 with dual-sim (Nano). OnePlus has chosen the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G SoC for running the system of the new model and it also comes with Adreno 619 GPU and RAM of 6GB. The display of Nord CE 5G features a 6.43-inch full HD AMOLED display. The aspect ratio of the display is 20:9 with a refresh rate of 90Hz.

OnePlus Nord CE 5G
Image Source: gsmarena.com

The OnePlus Nord CE 5G will be offering internal storage of 256GB with connectivity options including 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.1, GPS/ A-GPS/ NaVIC, NFC, USB Type-C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack (Gadgets 360). The different types of sensors in the mobile include an ambient light sensor, proximity sensor, magnetometer, gyroscope, and accelerometer. Apart from these features, it has an in-display fingerprint sensor, speakers with noise cancellation support, 4500 mAh battery life. The battery has been improved as compared to the last Nord model by OnePlus.

Price and Availability

In India, the price of the new OnePlus Nord CE 5G starts from Rs. 22,999. This price is for the variant of 6GB+128GB. The price of the model for 8GB+128GB variants starts from Rs. 24, 999. One of the models of the new Nord CE 5G starts from Rs. 27,999 and is a showstopper with a 12GB+256GB storage variant. The three different colors available for all these models are Blue Void (matte), Charcoal Ink (Glossy), and Silver Ray. OnePlus Nord CE 5G will be made available from 16th June and you can also preorder from today itself. They will be available in the online stores of OnePlus and Amazon. 

Camera System of Nord CE 5G

OnePlus has always been one of the top choices of users when it comes to camera quality. Be it for photography, video calling, or taking selfies, the photographs produced by a OnePlus are highly distinguishable. The new OnePlus Nord CE 5G comes with a triple rear camera system. The camera setup consists of a 64-megapixel primary sensor with a lens of aperture f/1.79. The primary sensor has electronic image stabilization (EIS) which helps greatly while shooting videos with users being in motion. The secondary camera has a sensor of 8 megapixels with an ultra-wide lens of f/2.25 and the third one is a 2-megapixel monochrome sensor with an f/2.4 lens.

OnePlus can easily substitute heavy gear for a photographer especially while hiking or traveling in busy areas. The images and the videos are of very high quality and quench the need for a good camera. With the pandemic shifting of our work culture to a remote version, users can easily attend video calls with the front camera of Nord CE 5G which features a 16 megapixel Sony IMX471 sensor that also has EIS.

Seems like the rear camera system of the OnePlus Nord CE 5G is the center of attraction as it has multi autofocus options (PDAF+CAF). The shooting options available in the phone for the rear camera are Nightscape, Ultrashort HDR, Panorama, Pro Mode, Portrait, and Smart Scene Recognition. Videos can be recorded in 4K resolution with 30fps. Time-lapse can also be made while doing videography.

Steve Jobs of China: Lei Jun Founder of Xiaomi

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Recognized as the ‘Steve Jobs’ of China, Lei Jun  the Founder of Xiaomi has amassed a net worth of $8.4 billion. Xiaomi Inc. is the world’s fastest growing mobile phone company, who climbed to fourth position in a short span of time.

Lei Jun is not just an entrepreneur but much more than that. He is the mastermind behind the quick and astounding growth of Xiaomi Inc. Since the incubation of this company ten years back, today the company’s net worth is a whopping $45 billion. The company’s motive is to provide quality smartphones with high-end features in affordable price range. And they have stood to their point delivering the smartphones loved by the whole world.

Success only comes after a huge struggle and Lei Jun has faced all those hard times to become the most influential personality today. He was born on 16th December, 1969 in Hubei, China. Jun’s childhood was spent in an under developed industrial area of Wuhan, Central China. He graduated from Mianyang Middle School in 1987 and further went to Wuhan University to take a degree in Computer Science. And in 1991, he came out as a Bachelor’s student of Computer Science.

The most common ‘next step’ after gaining a degree is to find a suitable job. Lei Jun was also in the race to find one. His graduation days were spent in reading about the tech revolutionary Steve Jobs and dreaming to become like him one day. After wandering for a job Lei landed a job offer from Kingsoft, a software giant in China. Just within seven years Lei Jun was announced as the CEO and President of the company. During his time as a CEO Jun started an online bookstore. Joyo.com, in 2000 which went on to become so famous that it became number one fan base for the book lovers till 2004. The rising popularity of Joyo grabbed Amazon’s attention and they acquired it for a mind-blowing price of $75 million.

Lei Jun has made a unique image by not just being a CEO of Kingsoft. He is an active investor who has invested in numerous startups like Vancl.com, YY, UCWeb, etc. Jun has successfully funded more than 70 startups. In the year 2007, Lei Jun faced health complications leading him to resign from the CEO post and settle on Vice Chairman instead. This was when he seriously started thinking upon founding his own dream company, Xiaomi Inc. The company was started and garnered success Jun never even thought of.

Jun was featured in the Top 10 IT figures in 1999, 2000, and 2002. In 2012 the China Central Television chose him as one of the top 10 business leaders in China. Fortune has named Jun as the most powerful business personality in the whole Asia. Jun lives with his wife and two children in China.

Qualcomm: How 7 MIT Graduate Came Together to Create a Company With 23.55 billion USD Revenue

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A simple idea can set a revolution in an era. The mid 1980s witnessed the planting such a seed of an idea which would eventually take over the technological world. Seven brilliant and visionary minds set up to meet and discuss about setting up Quality Communications. The seven minds Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen and Franklin Antonio invented wireless communication system now used in almost every electronic device.

The story began in 1985 when these MIT graduates gathered at Irwin Jacobs’ house to discuss the idea of developing a wireless and quality communication system. The company successfully signed its first contract to work on the unique digital wireless technology – CDMA. The technology is used by the US military to have secure communications. The company, in 1988, launched products like OmniTRACS satellite locating and messaging service which tracks the vehicles along their route.

The initial days of developing CDMA were challenging for the founders. With only six months on working on the technology they had to demonstrate their product before potential investors. Irwin Jacobs, however, confidently walked on the stage and demonstrated the product which would set history in the wireless industry. The first CDMA technology was then known as IS-95. Since then, Qualcomm has successfully established CDMA2000, WCDMA and LTE technologies which are widely used in mobile phones.

Qualcomm, in 1999, took a big step and sold their base station to Ericson which was then followed by selling phone manufacturing to Kyocera. The decision came with a mutual consent to completely focus on developing and selling ASICs which implemented the others. This helped the company to become the largest semiconductor company in the world. A common person can find their chipsets even in their home in devices like TV and smartphone.

The Big Leap
No other company has acquired as many companies as Qualcomm has from 1997 to 2014. Qualcomm has acquired nearly fifty technological companies that are directly or indirectly related to their sole products. In 2012, the company invented yet another path-breaking chips called Snapdragon chips. This chips are mostly used in smartphones by giants like Xiaomi and Samsung. Apple uses modems developed by Qualcomm and not the Snapdragon chips.

Game of Strategies
The founders have played a strategic game by developing something which every device must have and the companies developing those devices have to license it before using. For example, the 3G and 4G interface standards are the product of Qualcomm’s CDMA. The company aims to develop CDMA at much more advanced level. The upcoming upgrades would add to the efficiency of the already available chipsets by multiple times.

Qualcomm today has estimated revenue of 23.55 billion USD. Qualcomm’s contribution to the world of wireless technology is beyond appreciation. We might just think for a moment what if there was no wireless technology? There would be no WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. The world would be a messy place with all those wires around. Qualcomm lives on the motto ‘Enabling the wireless industry’ and it has stood to its slogan since its inception and will continue to do so in future too.

Apple Acquires the best Automation app for iOS: Workflow

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Workflow is a name familiar to most if not all the iPhone users. It is a very useful iOS app which allows you to combine functionality of various apps as well as different steps required to achieve an action. In simpler words, it makes a button which does all the things for you in the background, you just have to press it once and your job is done. With Workflow, one can create GIFs out of camera photos, convert websites into PDF and what not by a single touch. Workflow, a kind of automation tool got so popular that Apple decided to acquire.

The acquisition of Workflow by Apple was in rumors for a while and finally on Tuesday, all the rumors were set to rest when TechCrunch confirmed the acquisition news for the first time. No financial details were revealed though. Complete team of founders- Weinstein, Conrad Kramer, Ayaka Nonaka and Nick Frey will be now part of Apple team and we might see inclusion of some of Workflow’s automation and productivity tools in upcoming versions of iOS starting with iOS 11.

“We are thrilled to be joining Apple. We’ve worked closely with Apple from the very beginning, from kickstarting our company as students attending WWDC to developing and launching Workflow and seeing its amazing success on the App Store. We can’t wait to take our work to the next level at Apple and contribute to products that touch people across the world. ” TechCrunch quoted Ari Weinstein, Co-Founder, Workflow.

Strangely, Apple did not remove the app from the App store, but made it available free of cost for everyone’s use. This sounds much merrier than it actually is. Although the app is free now, but several awesome automation features, which competed with Apple’s product, are removed from the latest update. Release notes inside the app show that only Apple Maps is supported in maps actions. Now, the Translate Text workflow is powered by Microsoft Translate, and workflows that involve Uber, Telegram, Pocket, Google Chrome or Google Street View are no longer supported.

“The Workflow app was selected for an Apple Design Award in 2015 because of its outstanding use of iOS accessibility features, in particular an outstanding implementation for VoiceOver with clearly labeled items, thoughtful hints, and drag/drop announcements, making the app usable and quickly accessible to those who are blind or low-vision.” Apple added while speaking about Workflow.

What engineers at Apple were unable to do it better than a 3-membered team of smart technicians, so they decided to acquire the company and hired the whole team.

 

CEO who once struggled to speak English now commands $3 Billion Company

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Being not able to speak or being fluent in English, a global business language that binds billions of people will certainly lower your confidence and may become a source of  humiliation at the work place and business meetings. You might consider this shortcoming as your biggest weakness to professional growth.

However, some dare to defy the set standards of society & business world. Those who have the dream to do something bigger in life, keep their head down, face the challenges with courage and keep working towards the bigger dream.

One such person is Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of PayTM, a $3 billion e-commerce and payments company from India.

Winners do things differently
Vijay Shekhar Sharma was born in the city of Aligarh (UP), India to a humble family. With no bigger life goal than to complete his engineering degree and land up in a job and serve his family, he left Aligarh after completing his schooling to pursue an engineering degree at Delhi College of Engineering.

Vijay entered the Delhi College of Engineering with great enthusiasm and zeal at the age of 15. Vijay who had studied all his life in Hindi medium wasn’t able to understand a word in classroom where lectures were delivered only in English. Even his classmates preferred English to converse. Vijay shifted to back benches to avoid attention and even started to bunk lectures.  This was testing time for him but then Vijay decided to take this thing head on and win the battle. He started to read English magazines & dictionaries borrowed from others.

He read lot of English business magazines during his college time. This arouse his curiosity about internet and software.

Entrepreneurship is bed of thorns
Inspired from Yahoo and Sabeer Bhatia, Vijay launched a company named Xs while in college. He along with his batch mates built a website that had web directories, web-guided services and a search engine. Vijay also got seed money from a Angel Investor, a New Mexico-based venture capital fund. Vijay sold the company in 1999 to Living Media India (India Today Group) for half a million dollars. Vijay bought his first color TV with the money and also paid of his father’s loan.

From One97 to PayTM
Vijay co-founded One97 with Rajiv Shukla, a mobile VAS company in 2000. But in 2001 company got hit by post 9/11 market crises. His partner left and Vijay was left with no money. He was forced to travel in buses and even on foot to save money for dinner & tea. He had to take a job amid family pressure to get settled in life. After few months Vijay left the job to get back to entrepreneurship.

Vijay continued with One97 and lunched services like mobile astronomy, music messaging, ringtones etc. and got series A and series B funding.

In 2010, Vijay launched PayTM, an online mobile recharge platform. Vijay in 2011 coined the idea of mobile payments to company board but board wasn’t convinced. But, a confident Vijay offered to put in $2 million of his own equity to launch PayTM. RBI’s  approval of semi closed wallet in 2012-13 paved the way for the launch PayTM payment wallet and marketplace. In 2014-15 PayTM secured a funding to the tune $100 million in series A from Alibaba, Alipay and SAIF.

PayTM is now doing an average transactions worth Rupees 30 million on daily basis and is backed by industry legends like Ratan Tata. It has a network of 16,000 online and 10,000 offline registered merchants and is projected to increase to 100,000 merchants. Currently, PayTM is valued at $ 3 billion after the latest funding round of $680 million from Ant Financial of Alibaba. Recently PayTM has launched in-store payments from wallet as well.

With the personal experience of hard achieved success, Vijay refrains to call the staff at his office as employees, he prefers to call them as colleagues or teammates understanding their contribution also towards growth of the company. He also distributed 4% of his equity worth $120 million to his team.

The meteoric success came to Vijay with all his own hard work and sheer determination. Rise of a man with humble background against all odds and hurdles like language, early debacle of business and a reluctant board at One97,  he stands as an inspiration and attestation behind the saying “A man makes his own destiny”.

 “To the winners, who won because they didn’t give up.”- Vijay Shekhar Sharma

InMobi, a company that ran out of money to $2bn acquisition speculations

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Every startup goes through ups and downs. It’s the critical business decisions, tough calls, hard work, persistence that makes startups survive and successful in long run.  InMobi was started  in 2006 as SMS based search platform, mKhoj, that later pivoted to become a mobile advertising platform. Founded by  Naveen Tiwari, Abhay Singhal, Mohit Saxena, and Amit Gupta, InMobi which today clocks  138 Billion monthly ad impressions and has 17 offices worldwide once barely had enough money to survive and was on the verge of possible shutdown.

Since than InMobi has come a long way. Today, company competes with Google’s AdMob, Apples’ iAd and there are speculations that Microsoft is going to acquire InMobi for $2 billion.

How team that built InMobi hopped in together
Four friends came together to build next-gen mobile ad platform. They built the first version mKhoj working out from a rented apartment in Mumbai.  In 2007 when company ran out of money, management ran the company for two months on 14 credit cards without paying bills before they hit a funding of $7 million.

Big leap & the funding
In initial days Mohit and Abhay were themselves doing cold calls to get the business. In 2007 Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures invested $7M in InMobi. In 2008 company took a call to go global but decided not to go in a crowded market like US but  in markets like southeast Asia & Africa.

Company growth and culture
From the initials days itself company believed in long term strategy to invest in technology and people. InMobi has built a great culture. Most people in the company has stock options since the founders believe that when company tastes the success, employees too should get rewarded enough for the risk, passion and commitment to stand together in every thick and thin of the company. Unlike conventional HR standards, the company has no standard performance monitoring system, no raking and ratings and believes in employee growth and empowerment.

InMobi’s is a story of passion, a story of commitment, a story of  an Indian company that dared to go global.

Video credit: InMobi YouTube, Nasscom