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Tech Wrap July 2: Nothing Phone 3, Sony Bravia Projectors, Vivo X Fold 5
BS Tech New Delhi
Nothing Phone 3 pre-booking starts in India
Nothing has launched its Phone 3 smartphone, calling it the company's first true flagship smartphone. Priced at Rs 79,999 onwards, the Nothing Phone 3 is now available for pre-booking in India. General availability of the smartphone begins July 15.
Expanding its Bravia line product portfolio in India, Sony has launched two new projectors: Bravia Projector 7 and Bravia Projector 9. Both these models are powered by the Bravia XR Processor, which the company said optimises projection similar to Bravia TV video processing. Key features include 4K visuals with 120 fps support, graphic upscaling to near 4K quality, compatibility with IMAX Enhanced content and more.
British consumer technology brand Nothing has launched its first over-ear headphones, the Nothing Headphone 1, in India. Priced at Rs 21,999, the Headphone 1 will be available starting July 15, with introductory offers on launch day.
China's Vivo has announced that its next-generation book-style foldable smartphone, the Vivo X Fold 5, will be launching in India soon. Though the company has not released the launch schedule, it has revealed key specifications of the smartphone including AI-powered features and battery capacity.
Apple might be planning to launch a more affordable MacBook model, powered by an iPhone chip. According to supply chain analyst Ming Chi Kuo, the said MacBook is going to be powered by the Apple Silicon A18 Pro chip, which debuted on the iPhone 16 series.
Dell has launched two Alienware-branded gaming desktops in India – the Alienware Area-51 and Alienware Aurora. Powered by the Intel Core Ultra 9 K series, the desktops are designed for gaming with enhanced thermals and advanced customisation options. The company said that Alienware Area-51 marks the return of the brand's flagship desktop, whereas the Alienware Aurora (2025) is crafted for a wider range of gamers, from first-timers to pro-level streamers, in a more compact form.
Google is likely to launch its next flagship smartphones, the Pixel 10 series, in August, with leaks suggesting major upgrades across performance, display, and camera. While the company has yet to confirm the launch or model names, alleged specifications of the Pixel 10 Pro and Pixel 10 pro XL reported by Android Headlines offer an early look at what to expect.
Meta's Threads app has introduced two major updates, direct messaging and a new visual Highlighter feature, marking a significant step from an Instagram-linked service to a more independent social platform. The new direct messaging feature will allow users to engage in private, one-on-one conversations, while the Highlighter feature is designed to enhance content discovery by showcasing trending topics and notable perspectives.
OPPO is set to launch the Reno 14 series smartphones and Pad SE tablet in India on July 3. Both these devices were initially launched in China, and are now on their way to the Indian market. Therefore, the Indian-bound models of these devices are expected to retain the specifications of their China counterparts.
American video game publisher Activision is set to release Call of Duty: Mobile Season 6 — Gundams Arrive update on July 3. This update has been made in collaboration with the Gundam franchise. It introduces new operator skins, weapons, animations, and limited-time Gundam team deathmatch mode. The new update will go live at 05:30 am IST on July 3. Activision has announced what's new in this update in a blog post. Below are the details.
X (formerly Twitter) has launched an experiment to allow artificial intelligence chatbots to generate Community Notes, its user-driven fact-checking feature. The move is aimed at improving the platform's ability to tackle misinformation swiftly while maintaining human oversight for transparency and reliability.
Samsung appears to be working on a new privacy and security feature called 'Alert Center', which could debut in its upcoming One UI 8 software update. As reported by Android Authority, this centralised hub is designed to help users manage sensitive app permissions and device safety alerts more effectively, all in one place.
Chinese smartphone maker POCO expanded its F-series in India with the launch of POCO F7. The performance-focused smartphone boasts specifications aimed at catering to gamers. The smartphone is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip, paired with 12GB of RAM, and packs a 7,550mAh battery. Moreover, it has a 'IceLoop Cooling System' to deliver sustained performance even during the most intense usage, the company claimed. Available at Rs 31,999 onwards, the POCO F7 5G seems to be a lucrative deal. Is it? Let us find out.
OpenAI has begun offering highly customised artificial intelligence (AI) services starting at $10 million, according to a report by The Information. With early clients reportedly including the US Department of Defense and Southeast Asian app Grab, this move positions the tech firm in direct competition with consulting giants like Palantir and Accenture.
In a move to make train travel more seamless and user-friendly, Indian Railways has introduced a new 'SuperApp' called RailOne. This all-in-one platform consolidates all railway services into a single app, aiming to simplify travel for India's 7 billion annual railway passengers.
There comes a time in the life of every student when notes, friends, and Google, all fail you in your quest for that perfect answer to an academic question. What then is one supposed to do? The answer, not surprisingly, is artificial intelligence (AI). With its ability to scour the vast reaches of the internet, it is able to collect, reason, and present the answer, usually fairly accurately.
On June 28, Bihar created history by becoming the first state in India to implement mobile phone-based e-voting during local body elections. This landmark achievement was driven by two mobile voting applications, one each developed by the Bihar State Election Commission (SEC) and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Hyderabad, and a facial recognition system provided by Chennai-based tech startup FaceTagr.
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In the late 1970s, music was a communal affair. Families gathered around bulky stereos, teenagers cranked up car radios, and break-dancers spun to boom boxes in city streets. Music was loud, shared, and rooted in place. Then came the Walkman. A 14-ounce device barely larger than a cassette tape, it let people carry their soundtracks anywhere. Suddenly, music became private — a portable bubble of sound that transformed daily life. As cyberpunk author William Gibson wrote in a 2019 article for The New Yorker, 'The Sony Walkman has done more to change human perception than any virtual reality gadget.' The Walkman's story began with Masaru Ibuka, Sony's co-founder and a devoted classical music fan. Tired of long, music-less trans-Pacific flights, he approached Sony's tape recorder division in February 1979, asking, 'Can you make a playback-only version of the Pressman?' The Pressman, originally designed as a compact recorder for journalists, was reimagined. Engineers removed the recording functions, microphones, and speakers, crafting a sleek, lightweight device – first made of aluminum, then plastic. They paired it with 45-gram headphones built for mobility, a leap from the era's heavy, stationary models. The Walkman's design was simple but revolutionary. Its high-quality audio playback minimised hiss and emphasised clear tones, delivering hi-fi sound through stereo headphones. Its low power consumption allowed 3.5 hours of use, or up to 8 with a heavy-duty battery, making it practical for daily use. Ironically, the Walkman wasn't built on groundbreaking technology. As Eric Alder observed in a 1999 article in the Edmonton Journal, 'Portable transistor radios with little earpieces had been around for decades. And home stereophiles wishing to listen to their favourite tapes or albums in solitude always had their headphones.' Even Sony's engineers were initially unimpressed. Cassette players and headphones weren't new, and the Walkman couldn't record. 'Everyone knows what headphones sound like today,' Sony designer Yasuo Kuroki wrote in a 1990 memoir, 'but at the time, you couldn't even imagine it.' What made the Walkman brilliant was its ability to seamlessly combine existing technologies into something entirely new, and something individualised and portable. As author Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow wrote in Personal Stereo in 2017, 'It gave people the power to enhance their experiences while tuning out their surroundings.' The possibility of having a personal soundscape that one could walk around with did not exist in the 1970s. With no clear market, Sony had to create one. Their marketing was a stroke of genius. In Tokyo, young demonstrators roamed streets, parks, and subways, sharing Walkman earbuds with curious onlookers. Ads showed people running, skateboarding, or studying, each immersed in their private soundtrack. The $200 device at the time wasn't sold as tech but as a lifestyle. It sold out its initial 30,000-unit run in Japan, and in New York, Bloomingdale's had a two-month waiting list. 'It was the first mass mobile device,' Tuhus-Dubrow notes, and 'it changed how people inhabited public space in a pretty profound way.' It let users play what they wanted, wherever they were, without commercials. For many, it felt like freedom. 'It was so liberating, it was like a whole new world,' 67-year-old Matt Richards, a software engineer in Los Angeles, told 'Kids today are used to the iPhone, smartwatch, iPad, but this thing came out before any of us even had a computer!' Richards remembers pleading with his parents for one. 'At first it was expensive,' he says, 'but eventually everyone had one.' With the Walkman, everyone could listen to what they wanted, he says. His favourite? 'Led Zeppelin, without a doubt.' The Walkman quickly became more than just a player — it became a symbol of style and status. Dentists used it to calm patients. American visual artist and film director Andy Warhol tuned out the din of Manhattan, commenting, 'It's nice to hear Pavarotti instead of car horns.' Paul Simon, half of the legendary duo Simon and Garfunkel, wore his Walkman at the 1981 Grammys. Strapped to jeans or clipped to a belt, the Walkman signalled wealth and tech-savviness, much like the iPhone today. It quickly became a fixture of everyday life. 'We just got back from Paris and everybody's wearing them,' Warhol enthusiastically told the Washington Post in 1981. Mike Ma, a California-based sound engineer who grew up in an Asian-American family, recalled his teenage years filled with saggy jeans and a Walkman. 'My friends and I, we'd all be showing up with our jeans down to our butts, and with the Walkman on them, they'd slip down to our ankles,' he told For many, it was also an extension of privacy. 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Researcher Shing-ling Chen's 1998 study for Qualitative Magazine dubbed the Walkman 'electronic narcissism,' suggesting that its users grew self-absorbed. Even Sony's Akio Morita, concerned about antisocial behaviour, added a second headphone jack for shared listening. Yet, a social culture flourished with people sharing earbuds and making mixtapes. 'I gave my first girlfriend a mixed cassette for Valentine's Day,' Patel says. However, the Walkman had other flaws. British music journalist Norman Lebrecht argued it dulled musical taste, favouring 'crump-crump rhythm' over melody, possibly hurting classical concert attendance. Safety issues emerged, too. States like California and New Jersey banned headphone use while driving, cycling, or crossing streets after a 1981 New York Times article reported over 70 pedestrian accidents linked to Walkmans. Yet, the Walkman reshaped the tech landscape. As Tuhus-Dubrow writes, 'The Walkman – arguably the first mass personal device – introduced possibilities that we now take for granted, but that were largely unprecedented at the time.' Steve Jobs was notably inspired by the Walkman, dissecting the one gifted to him to inspect its parts. 'Steve's point of reference was Sony at the time,' Apple engineer John Sculley recalled in Steve Jobs' Life by Design (2014). 'He didn't want to be IBM. He didn't want to be Microsoft. He wanted to be Sony.' Apple's iPod, launched in 2001 with iTunes and .mp3 support, eventually overtook Sony, which resisted .mp3s to protect its entertainment interests. In a 2006 BBC interview, Sony's CEO, Sir Howard Stringer, said, 'Steve Jobs was smarter than we are at software.' By 2009, Apple sold 210 million iPods in eight years, surpassing half of Sony's 30-year Walkman sales. None of that takes away from its cultural impact. As Andreas Pavel, who patented a similar device before Sony, said in 1998 about the Walkman, 'Life became a film. It emotionalised your life. It actually put magic into your life.' From Ibuka's desire to hear classical music in flight, the Walkman redefined how we live with sound. It paved the way for AirPods, Spotify, and the personal tech ecosystem. Once, hearing Led Zeppelin through lightweight headphones clipped to your belt felt like the future. For a time, it was.
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