The Tech Weekender: Top news from the world of technology this week

A roundup of the big news makers this week

PlayGo from World of Play is an Indian audio brand known for its range of affordable and mid-tier earphones and headphones. The company in December launched the PlayGo N37, a pair of budget neckband style bluetooth earphones. On one hand, it is hard not to appreciate the solid audio performance, fast charging, excellent build quality, and voice assistant support but there are some audio issues and the sound could use some fine-tuning. The earphones also lack any app support, so you can’t use an equaliser or customise the controls. Check out the full review here.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 28 launched blockchain-based digital degrees at the 54th convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur. The students were issued digital degrees through an in-house blockchain-driven technology developed at one of the country's best engineering schools under the National Blockchain Project. These digital degrees can be verified globally and can't be tampered with.

The technology-enabled India growth story is rising on the shoulders of the IT industry and the Indian appetite for technology adoption. As a result, $35-36 billion entered the system in 2021 and resulted in an acceleration of trends already put in motion over the last decade and further speeded up by the coronavirus pandemic. The year 2022 will supercharge this trajectory.

Indian smartphone industry may have hit speed bumps on component supply crunch but the sector is poised to see 190-200 million shipments in 2022 with more 5G devices vying for consumer attention. CyberMedia Research (CMR) Analyst-Industry Intelligence Group Anand Priya Singh estimates smartphone shipments to hover around a similar level of 187-190 million in 2022, with a further uptick in 5G device shipments, growing 129 percent year-on-year from 28 million in 2021 to around 64 million in 2022.

India's top video streaming platforms expanded beyond the big cities in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a surge in viewership and watch-time. This expansion also led to these platforms tapping original programming in various Indian languages to fulfil the growing demand for digital content and attract more users.

Samsung has revealed that the opening month sales of their new flagship foldable smartphones— Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3—was more than they managed to earn selling foldable devices in the entirety of 2020. Both devices were a hit with customers and critics right out of the gate. The phones improved and iterated upon their predecessors, giving customers a fresh new design and updated hardware. These phones aren't exactly cheap, with prices in excess of Rs 1,00,000 for the Fold 3 but that did little to stop buyers. A combination of a fresh design and some power features like support for the S-Pen proved to be a winning combination.