Realme 5 Pro has a major power consumption problem - background apps drain battery a lot [RAWDUMP]

As can be seen in the screenshots below, sometimes apps that you aren't even using end up wasting hundreds or even thousands of mAh of the phone's battery. Power usage statistics show that it's the background usage that's the culprit. Happens randomly - Flipkart never did this earlier. In contrast, the same apps don't exhibit the same energy-draining behavior on my Xiaomi Poco F1, implying that the apps themselves might not be responsible. In any case, the problem is severe enough that Realme is off from my future phone purchases.

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The problem now - Sep'20 - is serious enough that Realme as a brand for future smartphone purchases / recommendations will have to be blacklisted until this issue is resolved fully. Look at the mess with Douyin.

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And now the tolerance lines are being crossed. A supposedly dumb app such as Photos is draining huge amounts of battery.

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The problem is totally out of hand. Installed a game yesterday, and see how it's gobbling my battery in just one day with zero usage today. Horrible for Realme.

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More nonsense. A simple third-party camera app is eating energy like anything.

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Deodorants or other consumer products containing alcohol can be used as disinfectants or sanitizers in emergency [COMPACTIDEA]

Of course, what percentage/proportion of the product is alcohol matters. Deodorants marketed as "gas-free" are particularly strong [more potent than sanitizers sold at medicine shops].

OTHER TAGS= VIRUS, CORONAVIRUS, COVID-19, BACTERIA, PATHOGENS.

A bouquet of thoughts related to India's ban on 59 Chinese apps, Huawei, Indian relations with Russia and the US, etc. [RAWDUMP]

• HELPING MUKESH AMBANI / RELIANCE: Modi government has used the border clash with China as a clever pretext to quickly execute those steps which appear to the public as necessary/valid anti-China measures, but are in reality designed to help Mukesh Ambani's current or upcoming business needs.
• Retail efforts help.
• Ban on Club Factory + Shein. [link 1]
• LOSS TO INDIA OF HEDGE / DIVERSITY / OVERDEPENDENCE: Before Chinese digital apps/services provided a healthy hedge against overdependence on Western commerce and social media services, India had been overly dependent on Western - particularly American - services. Chinese giants such as TikTok, WeChat, Xiaomi [apps], Alibaba, etc., provided not just healthy market competition to US apps, but also reduced India's dependence on a single country/bloc. That hedge evaporated with Modi's ban-after-ban on hundreds of Chinese apps.
• Indian apps market is now almost monopolized by giant American corporations.

Following photos show not just the crushing and worrying dominance of American apps, how also how non-US/non-Western apps - in this case TikTok, Snack Video, Telegram, and to an extent Zoom - provide not just healthy market competition to the dominant giants, but also diversify a country's digital cyberspace, reduce overdependence.

SCRATCHPAD

• WHEN INDIA BANNED APPS, IT CROSSED AN UNWRITTEN RED LINE THAT HAD HITHERTO EXISTED IN THE WORLD. NO ONE WOULD BAN APPS. BUT WHEN INDIA DID THIS, IT SORT OF REMOVED THE RED LINE AND OTHERS TOO STARTED DOING THE SAME [SNOWBALL EFFECT].
  
• STARVING CHINESE FUNDING FOR COMPETITORS / WOULD-BE COMPETITORS OF RELIANCE SO THAT RELIANCE OFFERINGS GREATLY INCREASE THEIR CHANCES OF SUCCESS
• https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Startups/Google-Reliance-partnership-heats-up-Indian-e-commerce-race
• Taiwan to block streaming services of Tencent and Baidu's iQiyi
• https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Technology/Taiwan-to-block-streaming-services-of-Tencent-and-Baidu-s-iQiyi
• India banning Huawei will hurt Airtel, Vodafone Idea, help Jio
• https://qz.com/india/1895866/india-banning-huawei-will-hurt-airtel-vodafone-idea-help-jio/
• Reliance tech arm expands monopoly muscle in India
• https://asiatimes.com/2020/08/reliance-tech-arm-expands-monopoly-muscle-in-india/
• India Slaps New Curbs on Visas, Schools to Stem China Influence
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-21/india-slaps-new-curbs-on-visas-schools-to-stem-china-influence
• Paytm, other Indian startups vow to fight 'big daddy' Google's clout: sources
• https://in.reuters.com/article/india-google-startups/paytm-other-indian-startups-vow-to-fight-big-daddy-googles-clout-sources-idINKBN26O0GJ
  
• U.S., India Expected to Sign Military Pact as China Prompts Closer Ties
• https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-india-expected-to-sign-military-pact-as-china-prompts-closer-ties-11603623601
• Cracks beginning to appear in the Russia-India relationship
• https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/cracks-beginning-appear-russia-india-relationship
• TikTok gives up on India, months after government ban
• https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/China-tech/TikTok-gives-up-on-India-months-after-government-ban
• Q

Desperately hoping to see world's fastest supercomputer coming out from China based on Huawei's flagship Kirin or Kunpeng processors [COMPACTIDEA]

America is creating way too many hurdles for Huawei. Way too many. A tight slap on the face of America is warranted. What better way than to support Huawei by using its flagship Kunpeng and/or Kirin microprocessors to build China's next supercomputer, and build it such that it's all of these - the most powerful in the world, easy to program, highly energy efficient, having no American hardware, and heavily advertise it as having been put to use for nuclear weapons simulations + medical research + weather modelling [to tease/threaten/unsettle the Americans]. That would be a lesson that America won't forget.

Dedicated monochrome cameras and air purifiers - unnecessarily exorbitantly priced products that can be implemented for much lower price

Particularly true for dedicated black-and-white [grayscale] cameras. Despite the basic premise being so simple - the use of a monochrome sensor rather than a color sensor - the models available on the market are all horribly expensive, whereas the regular, colored cameras start at throwaway prices. It isn't like monochrome sensors are costly - several Huawei / Honor smartphones over the years have incorporated a monochrome sensor as part of the multi-camera setup. The real reason seems to be companies' desire to milk people as much as they can. Same with dedicated air-purifiers. Regular ACs installed in homes already have almost all the components that comprise an air-purifier - motors, casing / housing, control board, wiring, fans, etc. The only thing that needs adding is fortification of the dust filter inbuilt into the air conditioners. The basic point here is that at least for some products, prices are unnecessarily high, when the core feature / functionality of those products can be implemented for a much cheaper price.

What will happen to Huawei, MediaTek, Samsung, etc., if Qualcomm acquires Arm Holdings [COMPACTIDEA]

The ARM-based chip businesses of these Qualcomm rivals could get in jeopardy overnight if Qualcomm one day acquires Arm Holdings. This is not a small risk. License fees could go up dramatically. Latest designs could be given late. And so on. This is a threat that the likes of Huawei must not forget - not now after all that's being done to Huawei these days. Makes it all the more vital that Huawei and others start nurturing RISC-V chips immediately, as a solid future hedge against any kind of sanctions, blacklisting, takeover or other political restrictions. Owning the complete stack, and especially those vital parts which are ultimately under the control/ownership of hostile nations such as US and UK is critical for survival and growth.