Entertainment
HP Sprocket: A millennials’ polaroid for instant digital sharing (Tech Review)
By Krishna SinhaChaudhury
New Delhi, Oct 2 (IANS) If you have used polaroid cameras for instant gratification in the past, you must have struggled with the picture quality as you could not see how the picture will finally come out.
Now, with HP Sprocket photo printer, you have total control over how your photo will finally appear — with your smartphone — and you can instantly share 2×3″ snapshots with your friends.
Customise your images by adding fun borders, emojis, stickers, filters and fonts before printing them via HP Sprocket that is now in India for Rs 8,999.
Let us see how this fun device works.
The sleek, lightweight and portable power bank-sized device can easily be slipped into your pocket or handbag.
HP Sprocket can be charged via USB and once up, you just get going.
The hand-held printer would allow you to click instant pictures and share among friends anytime, anywhere.
First download the “Sprocket” app from Google Play Store or Apple App Store on your smartphone.
Then pair it with the printer, place specially-designed ‘HP ZINK’ papers in the device, switch on Bluetooth and print images from your phone — be it Facebook, Instagram or your phone gallery — in a jiffy.
The best part? There is no ink involved.
HP Sprocket photo printer connects seamlessly to mobile devices via Bluetooth and prints photographs using ZINK technology.
The ZINK photo paper delivers colourful, smudge-proof, water-resistant and tear-resistant photos without ink or toner cartridges.
All the colour required for printing is embedded in the HP ZINK photo paper itself.
Additionally, the peel-and-stick backing property of ZINK paper can turn favourite photos into fun stickers that can personalise everyday items, such as bags, phones and notebook PCs.
The device supports a range of file types including .jpeg, .gif and .png and the app enables users to work on almost any image format.
Compared to other polarised devices, HP ZINK paper is not costly and comes for Rs 539 for a pack of 20 and Rs 1249 for a pack of 50. Pack of 10 papers comes with the box at the time of purchase.
What doesn’t work.
Well, nothing specially but as the device gets popular among the millennials, we feel a bigger print size like a postcard will only be ideal.
Conclusion: While there are other app-backed pocket printers available in the market, HP Sprocket is different and will make instant digital sharing a totally new experience for you.
(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
ksc/na/vm
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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