I begin this week’s Wired Wisdom with a quick call to attention. You may have, over the past couple of editions, noted a tweaked format with new sections. My intention with Analysis, Editor’s Margin, Car Corner, Second Thoughts and occasionally Tech Spotlight, is to give you a more focused reasoning and scrutiny of the week’s developments in the world of personal technology. And some things on my mind. Our conversations don’t change, but hopefully feel refreshingly focused. I’d love to hear what you feel about this new format. Do send along bouquets and brickbats.
Opening thoughts. This is certainly a good thing. X is embarking on a test that’ll introduce some changes to user profiles. Namely, more transparency and a genuine attempt at infusing some authenticity into conversations. Nikita Bier, Head of Product at X says profiles will soon consist of information such as date joined, the country the account is based in, number of username changes, and a connected via metric that lists which application store the app is downloaded from. It is perhaps too early to say if these will be permanent elements to the profile information, or a user will have the option of toggling one or some of these off too. Expect changes along the way as they discover better implementation methods (and as with human nature, close bypass methods), but the pursuit of authenticity is only good news for the platform. A much needed cleanup, to bring back the human element to the conversations.
Last week on Wired Wisdom: A billion internet users, travel tech and Revolut’s payments proposition
ANALYSIS: THE SWADESHI APP STACK
As I wrote, another ‘Swadeshi’ moment beckons Indian tech platforms, which are back in conversation. Why do I say ‘another’? Some of you may remember the time back in the year 2022. The political scenario of the time made that understandable. The momentum saw many apps arise as alternatives to popular ones that we use, such as WhatsApp and Twitter (it became X later). But the nervousness of being thrust into the limelight was apparent with many homegrown apps (despite strong funding, as I’ve noted). Koo is a shining example of that. Fast forward to now, and in case you’re wondering where this momentum is coming from, it’s the government of India that has actively begun adoption of the Chennai-based Zoho Corp’s services.
Common in both instances, attempts to find traction with consumers. But in Zoho’s case this time, there is a very perceptible enterprise angle as well — something the government’s adoption of Zoho Mail, Writer and Arattai indicate. That may hold the company in better stead in the long term, as they get more enterprises to switch from Google and Microsoft’s services in the coming months. The consumer intent still remains very much a fixture. Be it Zoho’s Arattai positioning itself as an alternative to WhatsApp, or the very competent MapmyIndia Mappls replacing Google Maps as the default navigation app in your phone, or PhonePe’s Indus App Store that is a very viable alternative for the Google Play Store on millions of Android phones (and good news for developers too, who need to part with lesser share of their revenue). It’ll be interesting to see if this momentum sustains. Have you switched to Arattai, Mappls or Indus App Store yet?
EDITOR’S MARGIN: APPLE M5, POWER AND INTELLIGENCE
The Apple M5. Quite something. This is of course a silicon generational upgrade, but also something of a statement from Apple — they’re doubling down on on-device intelligence. Redrawing a blueprint, when AI companies are mostly busy with circular funding and energy consumption obsession? The headline numbers are impressive — a new 10-core GPU, each with a built-in Neural Accelerator, promising up to four times the AI performance of the M4. The CPU is faster too, about 15 percent by Apple’s count, and the unified memory bandwidth jumps nearly 30 percent to 153 GB/s. But what’s more interesting than the figures is the focus: Apple is clearly designing the M5 for AI first. The GPU isn’t just about graphics anymore — it’s an AI workhorse. Those accelerators inside each core are built to handle diffusion models, rendering tasks, and on-device inference without breaking stride.
The Neural Engine, 16 cores strong, feels like a quiet declaration that Apple’s future AI will run where it belongs — on the device, not the cloud. A challenge that remains is, will the software ecosystem keep pace? Apple’s silicon has often outgrown what macOS and iPadOS are able to fully utilise. With M5, that alignment feels closer than ever — the chip, software, and hopefully the next wave of Apple Intelligence features all on the same wavelength.
What does the M5 chip power? Here’s your answer…
TECH SPOTLIGHT: MILAGROW COINSUCKER
There are two very good reasons why we’re having this conversation about a rather simple, but otherwise very useful product, this week. First, I’d spent a few years in the industry as a technology journalist when Milagow made its big pivot as a consumer-focused robotics brand that in hindsight seems to have been before time. Secondly, CoinSucker is quite a name, which perhaps underlines the company’s intent to mark a comeback with maximum aura farming to go with that. Think of the Milagrow CoinSucker as the entry point to their massive line-up that spans a spectrum of relevance — floor cleaning robot vacuum cleaners, window robots, lawn robots, even pool robots, for those home use cases.
The CoinSucker is for the car, and that is a big reason I’ll admit, is why I’m testing this. While utility in my vehicle is very limited (passengers only allowed inside if they accept very strict no eating, no drinking, no littering and no window opening guidelines), it still gives me a chance to verify its efficiency. It is powerful enough to get between the seat and the car floor, in the corners between the mats and the body panel, as well as in seat design crevices, to suck in the smallest of crumbs (or pet hair — that’s a big use case). If your car tends to have dirty AC vents (don’t blame you, humans usually don’t pay much attention), this can help to a large extent with that too. Fabric floor mats, for instance, will really get cleaned by the Milagrow CoinSucker’s 8200 Pascal, or PA suction power, driven by a 120-watt brushless motor.
Mind you, this isn’t a cordless vacuum (priced at ₹1,999 in the truest sense — there is no battery mode, but Milagrow does give it a 50-meter cord which from the 12v aux power port (also called cigarette lighter port by many) should be able to cover the cabin completely. The transparent dust capture compartment gives you sight of when this needs to be cleaned, and there’s a HEPA filter sitting between that dust and the air that’s exiting from the CoinSucker. I’d suggest this gets cleaned regularly, otherwise the suction efficiency will see a dip. Worth noting that Milagrow has done a good job with the copper and black design. But you will notice the 680-grams or so weight on the forearms, after a while of enthusiastic cleaning. And you wouldn’t exactly want a coin to get sucked into this.
SECOND THOUGHTS: REALME’S RICOH MOMENT
After Xiaomi and Leica, Vivo and Zeiss and OnePlus as well as Oppo relying on Hasselblad, there is another camera maker and smartphone maker partnership set to arrive at a store near you. Chinese phone maker Realme (which calls itself “the most popular smartphone brand among Indian youth”; make of it what you will) is partnering with Japanese photography brand Ricoh, for what they classify as a long-term partnership. Core to this will be Ricoh’s GR optical standards. Realme’s GT 8 Pro (why do their phones sound like car names?) will be the first phone to emerge bearing fruits of this partnership. In case you’re wondering what this partnership will entail for the camera app, here is some of it — Fast startup and a Snap Mode, two classic Ricoh GR focal lengths (28mm and 40mm) and classic Ricoh GR Tones (Standard, Positive Film, Negative Film, Monotone, and High-Contrast B&W). None of this is unique, if you’ve experienced the brilliance Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo as well as OnePlus have delivered with their cameras being tuned by professionals who set a high benchmark. But a step forward for Realme nonetheless, they’ll have something substantial to actually talk about when a new phone launches.
