Microsoft founder Bill Gates has stepped down from the company’s board of directors. The 64-year-old left his CEO position at Microsoft in 2000 but served as the chairman of its board of directors until 2014. Now, Gates has stepped down from the board entirely and will only serve as a Technology Advisor to Microsoft’s current CEO Satya Nadella. Gates’ decision will allow him to focus and devote more time to his philanthropic causes through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Last month, the foundation announced it would commit $100 million for the global response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Amid coronavirus concerns, Microsoft recently announced that Build 2020, one of its biggest news events of the year, will be held as a “digital event.” Despite being primarily focused on developers, Build sees thousands of developers converge to discuss the latest developments and changes to Windows, Office, and other Microsoft products and services.
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All of Apple’s 42 retail stores in China recently reopened their doors to customers after being under lockdown in several cities since mid-February. But as Apple stores in China opened their doors, the company is making the exact opposite move outside the country. The Cupertino-based technology giant is temporarily closing all its stores outside of Greater China until March 27. Apple’s online store will remain operational during the downtime, while users can visit support.apple.com to find authorized repair shops that are still operational. Apple made a significant announcement to hold its annual WWDC (WorldWide Developer Conference) online. WWDC 2020 will take place as scheduled in June but will feature a new format being held online for the first time in history.
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Xiaomi unveiled its new Redmi Note 9 series to audiences in India through a digital event. The company skipped the launch of a vanilla Note 9, announcing the Redmi Note 9 Pro and, for the first time, the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max. The Redmi Note 9 Pro starts at Rs 12,999, while the entry-level Pro Max will be available from Rs 14,999. Both phones pack a Snapdragon 720G chipset, a massive 5020 mAh battery capacity, a quad-camera setup, and a refreshed design. However, the Redmi Note 9 Pro Max gets a few upgrades in terms of camera specifications and charging speed. Xiaomi also announced that it had sold 110 million Redmi Note phones worldwide.
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In response to the coronavirus pandemic, South Korean tech giant Samsung has announced a Galaxy Sanitizing Services for 19 countries. Any device that requires repair will be sanitized with UV light by the team at the service center. The service will be offered free and utilizes UV-C light to keep the device clean without using any chemicals. Samsung has carefully tested the service to ensure devices won’t be damaged. Samsung claims that it will only take 30 seconds to kill 99.9-percent of germs on the device, and the company is also offering the service free for non-Samsung smartphones. The service is only available in 19 countries but will be made available in other countries soon, including India. You can check the Samsung website for more details.
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The coronavirus pandemic is having a major effect on businesses across the world, with nations enforcing travel bans, manufacturing plants being shut down, and the tech giants calling for strict work from home policies. However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent a memo to SpaceX employees underplaying the dangers of the coronavirus. Musk’s email reportedly told employees that they were far likely to die from a car crash than COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. The email follows a tweet Musk uploaded last week stating that “the coronavirus panic is dumb". However, Musk’s views are contradictory to the World Health Organization, who declared the coronavirus as a pandemic earlier this week.
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Nubia announced an impressive new Red Magic gaming smartphone this week. The Red Magic 5G is the company’s first smartphone to arrive with the Snapdragon 865 SoC and the first smartphone to sport an FHD+ AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh rate. The smartphone may be one of the fastest devices available with its sophisticated, active air-cooling system that the company claims can reduce the CPU temperature by up to 18°C. Moreover, the Red Magic 5G is equipped with up to 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage and up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM. Other features on the Red Magic 5G include 55W fast charging, a 64-megapixel triple camera setup, a 240Hz touch sampling rate, and shoulder triggers with a 300Hz touch sampling rate. The Red Magic 5G is priced in China starting from CNY 3,799 (Approx. Rs 40,350).
