It’s time to stay well-informed about everything that happened in the last few days in another edition of Plantão TC, our weekly “newspaper” where we separate the best news of the week so that you can stay on top of everything in one place.
In this week’s edition we will highlight all the products and news announced by Apple during the WWDC23 conference, and there is also the presentation of the new Motorola Razr 40 and 40 Ultra here in Europe.
Other relevant issues include the collection of ICMS on imports, the announcement of the program for the new “popular car” and Xiaomi planning to venture into the flip smartphone market.
In an event held last Monday night (5), Motorola announced the new Razr 40 Ultra and Razr 40 in Europe. According to the manufacturer, the official prices of the devices should be announced next Thursday (15).
In addition, the Razr 40 Ultra will arrive first on the 15th, while the Razr 40 model follows without a specified date. In any case, it is necessary to remember that the new flip folding cell phones have an attractive design and good specifications.
Both deliver a 6.9-inch internal screen with FHD+ resolution and a 165 Hz rate, but only the Ultra model has a 3.6-inch OLED external panel with a 144 Hz rate.
The processor is the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 for the most expensive cell phone, and the Razr 40 comes out of the box with Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. They still have a main camera of 12 MP and 64 MP, respectively.
Finally, there is a battery of 3,800 mAh and 4,200 mAh (Razr 40), both of which have fast charging at 30W and there is native Android 13.
The vice-president and minister of industry, Geraldo Alckmin, and the minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, announced measures to lower the cost of brand new cars in Europe. The action became known informally as “new popular car”.
The federal government’s plan provides for discounts of R$ 2,000 to up to R$ 8,000 on the final price of cars, something that is at odds with the initial idea of a simple tax cut. The measure is valid for cars worth up to R$ 120,000 that meet three criteria: social, environmental and industrial density.
In addition to lowering the price of cars a little, the government’s plan also provides for subsidies to reduce the value of trucks and buses. The ceiling of the measure is 1.5 billion, and when this value is reached, the program will be terminated.
According to Haddad, in the first 15 days, the sale of discounted cars will be exclusive to individuals and this period can be extended to up to 60 days. After this period, rental companies and companies can buy cars at a discount.
Microsoft killed Cortana in Windows 10 and 11. In a statement released this week, the Redmond giant confirmed that it will discontinue its system voice assistant later this year.
According to Microsoft, support for Cortana will only end as a separate application, so it will continue to be available in applications from the Redmond company where it is already integrated.
Thus, while Windows 10 and 11 lose the assistant, apps like Outlook and Teams continue to have the already dying virtual assistant.
In any case, Microsoft guarantees that Windows 11 will soon receive a new personal assistant capable of handling more complex queries. However, despite rumors, we still don’t know if it will be based on GPT chat.
Europeian states have decided to unify ICMS collection on purchases made on foreign retail sites such as Shein, AliExpress, Shopee and others. According to the National Committee of Finance Secretaries (Comsefaz), the state tax rate will be 17%.
The discussion was initiated by the Ministry of Finance and had broad support from the states, and André Horta, director of Comsefaz, also confirmed that Minister Fernando Haddad will be notified of the unification of taxes.
For Horta, each state currently charges an ICMS rate for these operations and they vary between 17% and 25%. With the option for the lowest value, the measure can take effect immediately.
With the unification of the state tax, the consumer will have to pay the purchase price + the 60% federal tax, in addition to the 17% ICMS, which will be calculated based on the sum of the product price + federal tax.
According to the latest rumors, Xiaomi is finally getting ready to launch a foldable in flip format.
According to Digital Chat Station, this Xiaomi Flip smartphone should be the company’s bet to compete with options from Samsung, Motorola, OPPO and Huawei.
However, little information about the device is currently available. Still, the expectation is that it will have a Snapdragon processor, be thin and light and have IP certification.
In a major event held this Monday, Apple announced a series of news within its product ecosystem. Starting with iOS 17, the system will change the way to activate the Siri assistant.
Now, everything will look like what happens on Amazon Alexa. Just say the assistant’s name without the “Hey”. Other new features include new design for incoming calls, Live Stickers, offline maps, Apple Journal application, recorded messages for FaceTime and Live Voicemail so the user can see the transcript in real time when someone leaves a message in voicemail.
Finally, we also have Standby mode, which is a new interface that appears when the iPhone is being charged horizontally, and Apple has confirmed that iOS 17 will not be available for the iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X.
Moving on to Macs, Apple even announced the most powerful models with M2 Max and M2 Ultra chips, ending the life of Intel chip options in its catalogue. The price starts from R$ 9 thousand.
Another product announced by Apple is the 15-inch MacBook Air. The notebook hits the market with a display without ProMotion technology, but with a Full HD front camera.
The chipset is the Apple M2, and it can be used in conjunction with up to 24 GB of RAM. The battery promises a total autonomy of up to 18 hours. The price of the 15-inch MacBook Air is R$ 15,000 here in Europe.
Apple also announced its newest augmented reality glasses. Known as Vision Pro, the device has 12 optical cameras for motion tracking.
In addition, it brings M2 chip, new R1 chip, 16 GB RAM, Wi-Fi 6E support, iris scanner and an external power supply.
In practice, Apple’s mixed reality glasses allow you to enter a totally virtual universe or manipulate three-dimensional devices in mixed reality mode.
This is because this large number of integrated cameras allows for manual tracking by gestures, allowing the user to type in the air with a virtual keyboard.
The external cameras and external screen also serve to track people around you and indicate when you’re not looking at them directly or project an image of your eyes so you can carry on a natural conversation as if you weren’t wearing the glasses.
The device also offers a range of tools for the reproduction of films and series, which transform any place into a portable movie theater, including even the reproduction of 3D content.
Finally, Apple also took the opportunity to introduce the visionOS system. The Apple Vision Pro was announced for US$ 3,500, something around R$ 17,300 in direct conversion. The manufacturer promises that the device will go on sale in 2024.
