Italy drafts Nomophobia law to overcome the excessive use of smartphones

Five Star Movement (M5S), a web strategist-led political party of Italy has drafted a law to end the smartphone addiction, such as excessive use of social networks, messaging, gaming and other apps among the young people in the country, reports The Local.

The report published on Sunday suggests that government has drafted a bill - so-called "no-mobile-phone phobia" (also known as "nomophobia") which is aimed at to spread the awareness program among the parents so that they can easily detect the excessive use of mobile phones in children.

Italian lawmakers are considering implementing strict rules for young people, designed to prevent the overuse of smartphones at bedtime. The new law that's being formulated in the country will also create plans to drive awareness and educational programs in schools, colleges, and universities. This program will help students understand the proper use of social media and the Internet.

According to the several research reports quoted by The Local, half of Italians aged 15-20 consult their mobile phones at least 75 times a day.

"Around 61 percent of Italians use their tablet or mobile phone in bed, according to another report published in June, with the figure rising to 81 percent among 18-34-year-olds", the report reads.

Why do we need to end smartphone addiction?

A Greek philosopher once said, 'A sound mind in a sound body' – Smartphones have not only revolutionized our lives, but they also have the potential to explore our abilities more efficiently when connected to the Internet. But at the same time, overuse of a smartphone could be very dangerous for our health. It can affect our eyesight, brains, and could cause anxiety and other physical as well as psychological disorders.

Due to the excessive use of the internet, sleep deprivation (lack of sleep) has became a common problem among addicted-smartphone users. To overcome this situation, smartphone addiction (nomophobia) must be ended.

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OnePlus community launched wallpaper contest for 7-series phones

OnePlus has launched wallpaper contest for those who are good and unique at designing creative plus original wallpapers. The competition is based on designing optimized wallpapers for OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro phones and is scheduled to take place on July 18 to August 8. After August 8, no submission will be accepted.

Anyone who wants to take part in this contest should design wallpapers in JPG or PNG file format. The file should contain 1440 x 3120 pixels of dimensions for the Pro version of the 7-series phone. For OnePlus 7 handset, the size of the wallpaper should be 1080 x 2340 pixels, and the same file format as required for the pro model.

The first winner will receive a prize of One Bullets Wireless 2 and One OnePlus Explorer Backpack, while the second, third, fourth and fifth winners will receive One Bullets Wireless 2 or OnePlus Explorer Backpack prize for their creativity and originality.

The contestants need to design the wallpaper that best matches the 7-series smartphones. However, before entering the competition, rules must not be ignored. The said competition prohibits offensive, threatening, defamatory and disparaging contents/element. Any copyright design claimed unlawfully will result in the rejection of wallpapers you submit to the OnePlus community.

You can read the complete set of rules by following the source links listed at the end of this article.

Customers not only like to choose high-performance mobile phones but also pay attention to handset design. In order to meet customer requirements, tech giants are constantly striving to decorate their phones with killer designs and unmatched themes. Last month, Samsung launched an international design competition for the Galaxy series smartphones.

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Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 (ZB601KL) price dropped in India, new starts at INR7,999

Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1, also known as Asus ZenFone Max Pro (ZB601KL), was launched last year in India. The device remained one of the best options among customers. Now, to ease the pressure on Indian fans, the Taiwanese company reduced the price for this phone to Rs. 7,999 for the base model.

The new price was revealed by e-commerce giant Flipkart, but the Asus official store has not yet updated it. The new price reflects on the Flipkart website because Asus does not sell this smartphone at its e-store at the moment.

The standard model with 3GB/32GB storage option is priced at INR 7,999 while the 4GB/64GB is available for purchase at INR 8,999. The top-end device with 6GB/64GB storage version is being offered to the Indian customers at INR 11,999.

Asus ZenFone Max Pro M1 features FHD+ display with 5.99-inches dimensions that comes with 2160 x 1080 screen resolution. The mobile platform used for this handset is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 636 with 64-bit Kryo Octa-core processor. The phone has Adren 509 GPU that too belongs to Qualcomm.

The mobile phone in question is equipped with a larger battery consisting of 5000mAh capacity with fast charging abilities that could be used for up to 35-days when using on 4G standby. However, if you think to use it over Wi-Fi then its 5000mAh battery can not live longer than 28 hours. It comes with 13MP + 5MP cameras at the back and an 8MP selfie shooter. The 6GB/64GB uses 16MP instead of 13-megapixel.

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Don't compare Hongmeng OS with Android, Huawei says

After several weeks of whispers, Huawei has officially confirmed that its in-house mobile operating system Hongmeng OS is intended to be used for industrial purposes only, not to replace Android, which has a broad range of features than Hongmeng OS.

Huawei's board member and senior vice president Catherine Chen revealed at a media roundtable in Brussels that Hongmeng OS is still under development and will only be used for business purposes instead of replacing Android on its futures smartphones as reported earlier.

The recently trademarked OS Hongmeng will be used by IT professionals and companies for modeling their businesses, and we have never thought of being it used as an alternative to Android, she stated.

The senior vice president further said that Hongmeng OS has extremely low latency and contains fewer lines of codes compared to smartphone operating system like Google and Open Handset Alliance-developed OS Android, which contains the huge size of source code.

The in-house OS has been in development a long time before the Huawei was banned by the US government over national security concerns, she added.

In the past months, it was said China's telecommunications equipment giant Huawei is developing its own OS for Android replacement, but later, the reports suggested that Huawei trademarked its in-house mobile operating system with European Union Intellectual Property Office. As part of the US ban, Hongmeng OS was being covered as an Android alternative to Huawei's mobile phones because there were no official statements released by the company.

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Samsung Galaxy A80 with 48MP rotating camera launched in India, price starts at Rs. 47,990

South Korean smartphone maker Samsung announced the seventh smartphone of Galaxy A-series Galaxy A80 in the Indian market. Earlier, the company launched a series of smartphones from the Galaxy A-line, but not all phones are the same in key features and camera mechanisms.

Galaxy A80 is totally different from the other A-series devices as it has a rotating camera system with an image sensor of 48-megapixel working for triple rear camera setup. The other camera used on this phone is an Ultra-Wide snapper consisting 8MP sensor.

About two days ago, Galaxy A40 received Samsung Pay app with the latest firmware update, but A80 is equipped with military-grade Knox security payment-enabled app (Samsung Pay) that allows its users to make transactions over a secure connection, Samsung claims.

The handset features 6.7-inch FHD+ infinity super AMOLED display with a screen resolution of 1080 x 2400 pixels. Weights 220grams, it has 165.2 height, 76.5 mm width and 9.3 mm thickness. The phone is available in three color options, such as Ghost White, Phantom Black, and Angel Gold.

The Galaxy A80 comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G mobile platform clocked at 2.2 GHz speed and it runs on Android pie operating system. Priced at Rs. 47,990, the smartphone has 8GB RAM/128GB internal storage option, which can not expand via a microSD card, as the phone does not have a dedicated card slot for memory expension.

Users interested in purchasing the Galaxy A80 can place a pre-booked order from July 22nd to July 31st with one-time screen replacement offer offered by the Samsung for pre-booking orders. In case the customer chooses to pay via Citibank credit cards will get 5% cashback.

The Galaxy A80 will be available for open sale in the country starting August 1. It will be launched via online channels, retail and e-retail stores, and Samsung online shop.

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Tiktok and Helo are being used for anti-national activities in India, says SJM

Short video sharing social platform TikTok and a San Francisco-based app Helo has been asked to answer 24 questions received along with a notice issued by the Government of India over anti-national activities allegedly carried out in the country by the said apps, reports Gadgets 360.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) has received a complaint filed by Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), in which it states that TikTok and Helo are being used for anti-national activities in the country.

In response to the notice issued by the MeitY, the platforms in the question, however, have jointly said in a statement that they will invest $1 billion to develop technology infrastructure in the next three years in order to prevent such activities, the report reads.

Following the complaints submitted by SJM, the executive agency of the central government MeitY has sought an appropriate response from TikTok and Helo by 22 July. If the government does not receive an appropriate response to the notice within a given time, both apps will be banned in the country, according to the report.

TikTok, the Chinese internet company ByteDance-owned app, was previously banned by the Madras High Court for circulating pornographic videos on its platform, but the app was restored soon after being removed from the app stores.

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Xiaomi Redmi K20, K20 Pro launched in India; read phone highlights, price & specs

Chinese smart device manufacturer Xiaomi has launched two new smartphones belonging to the K20-series in the Indian market, with premium flagship concepts like Asus 6z, Galaxy A70, Oppo F11 Pro, Poco F1, and of-course other handsets launched in the country under Rs. 20,000 - 30,000.

The smartphone in question has already been released in China around May 18 i.e., 8 weeks and 4 days ago. According to maths, 1,440 hours have passed since the Redmi K20 and K20 Pro were launched in China with various storage variants and color options.

Both hands are around the corners to get listed for sale via e-commerce giant Flipkart website as well as Redmi's Indian e-store. Redmi K20 pro with 6GB RAM + 128GB internal storage is priced at Rs. 27,999, while the 8GB/256GB model will be sold to Indian customers at Rs. 30,999. Redmi K20, on the other hand, will be available for purchase at Rs. 21,999 for 6GB/64GB storage version, and the high-end phone of K20 with 6GB/128GB storage has been brought to the Indian market for Rs. 23,999.

But wait! Smartphones are currently not available for sale in the country and will be officially live for open-sale starting July 22. In other words, you have to wait for the next 4.5 days to get this deal done with possibly available cashback discounts offered by the banks when choosing their specified payment method under certain T&C.

Both devices are equipped with the Android operating system, but the pro model uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, while the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chipset powers the Redmi k20. It features 16.23cm (6.39) AMOLED FHD+ Horizon display with a screen resolution of 2340x1080.

K20 sports 48 MP + 13 MP + 8 MP triple primary cameras with a 20MP pop-up selfie shooter. The high-end model, k20 pro has 48 MP + 13 MP + 8 MP triple camera setup and its front camera comes with the same image sensor as the K20, i.e., 20-megapixel with F2.2 physical aperture.

The batteries used in both phones is a lithium-ion polymer-powered battery with a power capacity of 4000mAh. Since the battery uses fast charging technology, it can be charged in as little as 30 minutes, up to 55 - 60%.

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