Microsoft has taken to Twitter to announce their next Xbox Series X event. The event, which will be a digital-only event, will take place on May 7 at 8:30 PM India time. Microsoft has tweeted, “You want to see games for the Xbox Series X? We want to show you games for the Xbox Series X. Check out First Look next-gen gameplay from our global developer's partners within #InsideXbox on Thursday, May 7 at 8am PT.” Since the tweet reads, “gameplay from our global developer's partners”, we think this will be the platform where Microsoft will show off what other developers are working on that will make an appearance on the next-generation consoles. As for first-party games, we think the reveal will be down the line for what Microsoft’s 16 first-party Xbox studios have to offer. It has been confirmed that gameplay for the recently revealed Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be shown off at Microsoft’s May event. Speaking of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the game saw the official unveiling of a gameplay trailer and you can check out details of the game here. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be released for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, and PS5 towards the end of 2020.
At E3 2019 and E3 2018, Microsoft made it a point to show off a lot of games during their press conference to cement the fact that they were committed to the Xbox and gaming. We think the upcoming May event will be filled with gameplay reveal after reveal from new and existing games. It is possible we get to see more details on the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 among other games.
Microsoft has been front and centre about giving gamer information about the upcoming console, the Xbox Series X. Microsoft took the stage at the Game Awards 2019 to announce the name and the look of the console along with a trailer that showed off Hellblade Senua’s Saga. In 2020, Microsoft gave us an in-depth look at the specifications and build of the console.
Sony, on the other hand, has only shown off the PS5 controller dubbed the DualSense and revealed the specifications of the PS5. It makes sense that Sony is quiet about the PS5 as they still have 2 big games set to launch in 2020 - The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima. You can read more about the new release date of the two games here.
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SoloCoin is an app that encourages people to stay at home during the pandemic, with reward tokens, which can be exchanged for discounts on services that are useful during the lockdown, such as Netflix and Swiggy. The app came in third at the CODE19 hackathon organised in India on April 10, with the winners announced 4 days ago. The CODE19 hackathon was an effort to quickly find technological solutions for the challenges faced by the Covid-19 outbreak and the following nationwide lockdown. On April 30, there was more good news for the app, as it went on to win first place in the “other” subcategory of the “Social & Political Cohesion” category of the pan European EUvsVirus hackathon.
The founder of the app is India based Arbob Mehmood, a 22 year old who has previously founded Bramble. The main product of Bramble is an API that allows developers to reward gamers in cryptocurrencies for playing their games. The experience Mehmood gained from working with Bramble was used to work on SoloCoin. Specifically, a similar gamification system was used to reward people for staying at home, instead of playing the game. SoloCoin is an app that gamifies social distancing and rewards people with SoloCoins, a token currency within the application, that can be exchanged for discounts of services such as Amazon, Netflix, Swiggy, Zomato and other services that are required for staying at home. Currently, the coupons offered on the app are sourced through third party affiliates, but the team is working on integrated these coupons natively.
Building a team and onboarding partners
Mehmood is an avid reader of our magazine, and we reached out to him to learn more about the application. One of the things that we noticed was that signing up for the app has a waitlist,and it has not been released just yet. If you are interested in the app, you can sign up for the waitlist here. One of our first questions was, why does the app have a waitlist in the place? Mehmood replied, “The app is still in development. It’s in private beta right now and is only accessible via an invite-only system that too within our community. We are planning on launching this app next month globally so we want some people to try it firsthand and give feedback so that we can release a relatively bug-free app.”
One of the effective ways in which the app, and the invite system is marketed and propagated, is through social media influencers. We asked Mehmood how the experience of working with influencers was. He responded, “I had worked with influencers in my previous startups, so, it was not new to me. We also have a community member with lots of influencer connections that helped us in connecting with them. The primary thing to know while talking with influencers is their charge because they negotiate way too much. Now, we were lucky here because we are an open-source startup tackling the COVID crisis so many of them agreed to do some of the marketing for free. Influencers can get you a great RoI if you choose them carefully according to your target market and have a way with negotiations.”
One of the reasons why the app is so successful, is that Mehmood put together a really good team to work on it. This team includes many people from around the world, who are really enthusiastic about the idea of the app. We asked him about the team and how it came together. Mehmood responded, “When I had the idea, I was building it on Python's Beeware toolkit which ports python code to a native mobile app. But it's features were limited. Then, I heard about COVID hackathons happening across the country. So, I started to scout for members across hackathons. Since the idea was innovative and impactful, many amazing people joined my team. then the team decided to make it on native Android and iOS directly for better usability and support. We have a group of open-source collaborators from around the world including startup founders & CXOs, people from IITs, BITS, Stanford, Microsoft, Uber, Github, Neuro-Researchers, and more among our community. The core team has 7 people in it with 20+ contributors across the different domains. The community count is 300+. The product is built 100% remotely.”
Apart from a great team, Mehmood has managed to onboard a large number of partners in a remarkably short span of time. We asked him how he achieved this, to which Mehmood said, “cold emails. Linkedin messages to senior employees and twitter DMs. basically, hustling our way through the partner contact. Our community members have worked very hard to get partners on board, however, we are still waiting for big guys like Amazon, Zomato and Swiggy to respond and officially come onboard (The coupons you’re seeing on our app page is basically affiliate coupons from other coupon websites.) but other big brands like Yatra’s CEO, 1MG, FitIndian, etc. have showed interest in us and are looking to integrate their services on our app. Again, a sense of contribution towards something bigger has helped us a lot in the exposure of our product. Brands genuinely want to join such noble cause and do their part in stopping the spread of COVID. So, I’d like to take this opportunity and invite potential partners who are reading this to join us, promote your services on our app, and help stop the spread of coronavirus.”
One of the things that really stood out to us was how awesome the UI was. We asked Mehmood about the process behind creating this aspect of the app. Part of the magic is continuous iterations based on user feedback. Mehmood responded, “we are an open-source, decentralized, community-based initiative. Brilliant People from all walks of life, around the world, have come together to make this app a success. Me and my teammate handle most of the design. I have great amount of experience in designing consumer and blockchain apps and my teammate Adesh Bhansali (a graduate from the Indian school of design and innovation) work on all the designs. I create a rough wireframe/mockup and he adds necessary colors and makes it more aesthetically pleasing to the users. Then we show the designs to the community and get feedback. Getting feedback is the most important part here since it helps us in getting different perspectives and ideas. Our primary goal with the design is to make our core features easily accessible and feel pleasing on the eyes so that people can interact with it more. And, after we’re done we finalize it and move it to frontend devs for final integration.”
One of the things that Mehmood pointed out to us, was that what really motivated people in using the app was not the money they got for discounts on products and services, but the knowledge that their efforts had in some way contributed to the global fight against the pandemic. We probed Mehmood on how he came to this realisation, and he said, “One thing I've noticed while building our product is the founder's vision and the potential impact of the said product is very important. When I first pitched the idea of SoloCoin, I was alone. But the idea was innovative and has never been done before. The vision I put to gamify social-distancing and help to stop the spread of COVID resonated with people and that helped us in getting amazing people with great skills from all over the world to voluntarily work on my idea without any financial incentive. I don’t think this would’ve have been possible if I had pitched a me-too idea or a less impactful idea in front of people. This is true for regular users and potential customers as well. There are many rewards app but the only reason we have received this much interest from the community and waitlist registration is that we were doing something that will help make the world a better place. We have learned that working towards something bigger is a much bigger reward than any discounts. With our app users had a sense of belonging and contribution towards a bigger cause. They are proud of it. And, it doesn’t hurt that by doing so, they can earn rewards and recognition in their social-circle.”
Future plans
We then asked Mehmood on what are his future plans for the app, now that SoloCoin has won a national level and an international hackathon. Mehmood replied, “Currently, our app is focused on the COVID-affected world and how it can help stop the spread of coronavirus. Our near-future plans are: Proximity-based social-distancing to track if the user in your proximity is infected or not, rewarding for good habits like washing hands, timely self-isolation, Yoga, etc. determining efficient/less crowded routes for commuting and avoiding people, giving users the possibility to chat with nearby quarantined people, map list of nearby available essential stores for groceries, medicines, etc and giving users the possibility to add a mask to their profile picture to tell people they are practicing social-distancing.”
We asked Mehmood what his plans for the app are once the pandemic is over. The answer was really interesting. The app that rewarded people for staying at home, will shift to reward people to coming together! Mehmood replied, “For the post-COVID world, We have identified many ideas on what we can do with our tech post-COVID. Our app can be used for concerts/stores, basically to gather people. The more they stay the more they earn. That way sponsors will get better revenue as well. Office spaces can use this (technology) to incentivize the employees to stay in longer to increased points (the longer they’re connected to the office wireless can be a marker). At the current stage, the app is used as a Social-distancing app with a home geo-fence. After COVID, we can increase the geo-fence to multiple locations like concerts, malls or local stores. Now if you think about it we're venturing into not a consumer app space, but rather the ad-tech space. Our app can now be at the forefront of hyperlocal based targeted ads, basically directly competing with Google's and Facebook's Pay Per Click.”
We then asked Mehmood to share with us, and other readers his personal journey with Digit as a reader of the magazine. Mehmood replied, “Digit has played a vital role in the development of my tech/startup mindset. I’m reading Digit since I was 13, mostly purchased from the nearest railway station. I used to read Chacha Chaudhary and Billoo a lot during those times. But one day while I was browsing for something different I encountered Digit. The shopkeeper recommended to me that it has computers and mobile phones in it. I loved computers and working on the computer since when I was 8 but never thought to do anything with it except for getting a job. Once I got the magazine I was hooked. I got into tech after reading amazing articles on digit. I realized how awesome career in tech can be. Not to mention the articles about tech entrepreneurs have motivated me to start my own tech startup and that led me to learn to program and founding my first startup at the age of 17.
I was fortunate enough that my parent have allotted the money for me to purchase two magazines each month - one digit and another Chip, every month. But let me tell you, digit was an expensive magazine for any 13 yr old at that time and buying directly from stores is not at all cheap. I used to eagerly wait for the 2nd date of every month for Digit to get to the store. However, I somehow convinced my parents to let me subscribe to the digit, and to this day I subscribe to it. (I, however, paused the subscription due to severe lack of time because of my startup and COVID, but expecting to resume soon) The things digit taught me about tech and the awesomeness in tech are priceless and I thank every digit member and their articles, which helped a simple boy from small town to put on a path to tech-entrepreneurship and help me reach where I am today. But, picture Abhi baaki hai mere dost. Much more amazing things to come as I’m still 22.”
We followed that up by asking Mehmood what his favorite sections were, to which he replied, “My favorite sections are: Robert’s Column (1st priority), Agent 001 (For recommendations and error fixing - I like to be called the Tech guy in my network.), the reviews (because not everyone in the tech has a better parameter to judge gadgets like you guys), Digit Diary and boo-man obviously (To get a different perspective of the world), the small article snippets on the top (much informative stuff there), DGT section (love moonshot products), and last but not the least, ANNIVERSARY EDITIONS.” Watch out for our next anniversary edition, which is right around the corner.
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Right on the heels of Intel’s announcement Gigabyte has announced its new lineup of Z490 chipset-based motherboards and there are a lot of them. Gigabyte has announced a total of 13 motherboards, and we are told that all of the boards will be available in India soon, however, there is no price tag on any of them yet.
Very similar to the main talk points of the recently announced Asus Z490 and MSI 400 series motherboards, the Gigabyte boards focus on higher quality VRMs, better cooling for on-board components and as a result, better power delivery. There’s also plenty of upgrades in terms of ports and connectivity, support for higher clock speed RAM and most interestingly, PCIe 4.0 slots. It is interesting that while neither the new 10th generation processors nor does the Z490 chipset support PCIe 4.0, Gigabyte has still etched the circuits in. This could be to future proof their boards, in case Intel’s next generation of processors do end up bringing PCIe 4.0 support. Let’s take a look at all the boards Gigabyte has announced.
Gigabyte Z490 AORUS Xtreme
The Gigabyte Z490 AORUS Xtreme is the top-of-the-line board from Gigabyte in today’s announcement and it features a number of very lucrative features. Besides 16-phase VRM and Tantalum Polymer capacitors, there are extensive heatsinks all around the motherboard to keep heat to a minimum. The board comes with right-angled connectors for clean cable management. In terms of I/O, there is onboard Thunderbolt 3, 10Gbps, 2.5Gbps Ethernet ports along with Wi-Fi 6.
Gigabyte Z490 AORUS Master
The AORUS Master comes with most of the features of the AORUS Xtreme but drops the Thunderbolt 3 and 10gigabit ethernet port from the feature set. The board also features 14 phase Digital VRM instead of the 16 on the AORUS Xtreme. You still get Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5. For those who need ultra-fast storage and lots of it, the AORUS Master offers three M.2 NVMe slots with Thermal Guard II, Gigabyte’s homegrown heat spreader for m.2 drives.
Gigabyte AORUS Pro AX and Gigabyte AORUS Ultra
Taking things a notch lower and into more mainstream-gamer territory are the AORUS Pro RX and AORUS Ultra. With 12 phase power delivery, overclocking a 10th generation processor should not be an issue on these boards. The AORUS Pro RX sports dual M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 x4 slots while the AORUS Ultra comes with triple m.2 NMVe slots. There’s also 2.5gigabit ethernet alongside Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 on both the boards.
Gigabyte AORUS Gaming X
Designed for the entry-level gamer building their first high-performance system, the AORUS Gaming X comes with Direct 11+1 phase power delivery, allowing the board to just enough qualify as one that can support overclocking. The VRMs are modestly cooled, so we wouldn’t expect really high overclocks from this board. The board comes with 2 m.2 NVMe slots, with one slot featuring its own heatsink while the other supporting SATA as well. This board does not come with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth but does retain the gigabit ethernet connectivity.
Gigabyte Z490 Vision D and Vision G
Out of the two boards comprising the Vision series, the Vision D is the higher end card, featuring 12 phase power delivery, three PCIe 3.0 x4 slots, 2.5-gigabit ethernet along with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth. Interestingly, this board sports two Thunderbolt 3.0 ports. The board features newly designed heatsinks for the chipset, the VRM and even the m.2 slots. The board can support up to a whopping 128GB of DDR4-4800 memory.
The Vision G in comparison is more watered down, with no Thunderbolt 3 ports, but the board does support a Thunderbolt AIC. All other specs of the board remain the same, except for the fact that of the 3 m.2 NMVe slots on the board, only two come with their own heatsinks.
Gigabyte Z490 Pricing and Availability
As of now, Gigabyte has only said that the newly announced boards will be coming to India soon, but there is no word on pricing yet.
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Xiaomi has officially launched its Redmi Note 9 series alongside the new Mi Note 10 Lite globally. An online event was held to make the announcement as public gatherings are prohibited around the world due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Out of the Redmi Note 9 and Redmi Note 9 Pro, the latter has been announced in India back in March. However, the phone is yet to be available for purchase in the country as e-commerce companies have been prohibited from delivering non-essential products including mobile phones.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, Note 9 Pro prices and availability
The Redmi Note 9 is priced starting at $199 (~ Rs 14,900) for the base variant with 3GB RAM and 64GB storage, moving up to $249 (~ Rs 18,700) for the 4GB RAM and 128GB storage option. It goes on sale sometime in mid-May.
On the other hand, the Note 9 Pro starts at $269 (~ Rs 20,200) for the variant with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage while the 128GB variant will retail for $299 (~Rs 22,499) globally.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 specifications and features
Redmi Note 9 features a 6.53-inch display with a Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution and a punch-hole cutout in the top left corner for the front-facing camera. The screen is protected by a layer of Gorilla Glass 5. It has a plastic build and is 8.9mm at its thickest point, weighing in a decent 199 grams. There’s a fingerprint sensor on the rear panel, just below the camera array.
It is powered by MediaTek Helio G85 chipset with an octa-core CPU and Mali-G52 graphics to boot. This is paired with 3GB/4GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage options to choose from. It runs on MIUI 11 out of the box that is based on Android 10.
The Note 9 comes with a quad-camera setup that consists of a primary 48MP camera with an f/1.79 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle-lens with a 118-degree field-of-view, a 2MP macro camera and another 2MP depth sensor. The rear cameras can do up to 1080p videos at 30fps. There’s a front-facing 13MP camera housed within the notch cutout with an f/2.2 aperture.
The regular Note 9 has a 5,020mAh battery that supports 22.5W fast charging with the adapter provided in-the-box.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro specifications and features
The Redmi Note 9 Pro launched globally is a bit different from its Indian counterpart as it comes with a 64MP camera that’s headlined by the Note 9 Pro Max here in India. The Note 9 Pro global variant features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution display with a punch-hole cutout for the selfie camera. The screen is topped with Gorilla Glass 5 for added protection.
It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G chipset with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 618 GPU. This is paired with 6GB RAM and upto 128GB storage options. Unlike the Redmi Note 9, the Pro variant has a side-mounted fingerprint reader for faster access.
The Note 9 Pro has a 64MP primary camera that’s supported by an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 5MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. The rear cameras can do 4K UHD videos at 30fps and slow-motion videos at upto 960fps. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera housed within the punch-hole notch.
It comes fitted with a 5,020mAh battery with support for 30W fast charging and a 33W adapter is provided in-the-box.
Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite specifications and price
Alongside the Redmi Note 9 series, the company also unveiled the Mi Note 10 Lite. It features a 6.47-inch Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution AMOLED screen with a waterdrop notch cutout for the front camera. The screen is also home to an in-display fingerprint sensor.
The phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G chipset with an octa-core processor. This is paired with 6GB/8GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage options to choose from.
The Note 10 Lite has a 64MP primary camera along with an 8MP ultra-wide camera, a 5MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera with f/2.4 aperture.
Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite is equipped with a 5,260mAh battery that supports 30W fast charging out-of-the-box.
The base variant of the Mi Note 10 Lite with 6GB RAM and 64GB storage is priced at 349 Euros (~ Rs 28,400) while the 128GB storage option is priced 399 Euros (~ Rs 32,500).
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Intel has finally announced the 10th generation processors for desktop and with that, has also ushered in a new socket. This means that anyone wanting to buy or upgrade to an Intel 10th generation processor will also need to purchase a new motherboard as the new chips are not backwards compatible in both hardware and software. Asus has thus announced its new lineup of Z490 motherboards for the new 10th generation Intel processors. In addition to Asus, Gigabyte too has announced new boards for the new Intel processors.
The key features of the new Z490-chipset based motherboards happens to be robust power delivery by means of improved VRMs. Asus has also highlighted that the new motherboards also feature significantly better cooling than before, not just for the VRMs, but also for the m.2 drives. There’s also enhanced connectivity in the form of USB 3.2 Gen 2, WiFi 6 and even 2.5Gb ethernet. The company has announced a number of new motherboards, of which, seven are on their way to India.
Asus ROG Maximum XII Extreme
At the very pinnacle of Asus’ Z490 offering is the Maximus XII Extreme. Designed keeping water cooling in mind, the Maximus XII features a CrossChill water block for its VRMs developed together with EK Water Blocks. Asus claims that the CrossChil EK III hybrid heatsink is capable of running up to 50-degree Celsius cooler than in comparison to air-cooled VRMs. The board also features 4 m.2 slots, two on the mid-board and the other two on the underside, all configurable in RAID. The board also features dual ethernet ports, one with 10Gbps speeds and the other supporting 2.5Gbps speed. Additionally, there’s also Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6 onboard.
Asus ROG STRIX Z490-E and Z490-F GAMING
The ROG STRIX Z490-E and Z490-F GAMING come with14+2 and 12+2 power stages respectively ready to be overclocked with ease. This pair of motherboards feature heatsinks to cool the VRMs and also the chipset itself. The Strix Z490-E Gaming has an optional fan that can be attached to the VRM heatsink for additional cooling during overclocking. Four DIMM slots drive RAM to speeds of 4600 MHz. Strix Z490-E Gaming has built-in WiFi 6 and Bluetooth connectivity, while Strix Z490-F Gaming has an M.2 E-key slot for an optional WiFi module. Two M.2 slots are available for NVMe SSDs, and those slots are found under heatsinks to ensure consistent performance.
TUF GAMING Z490-PLUS
The Asus TUF Gaming Z490-Plus features a six-layer PCB for better heat dissipation and signal integrity, as well as a 12+2 teamed power stage design with DrMOS components. There are two PCIe x16 slots available, with one featuring the metal-reinforced ASUS SafeSlot design. Two M.2 slots are on hand for NVMe SSDs, with one of them covered by heatsink to keep thermal throttling at bay.
The rear I/O panel features USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with both Type-A and Type-C connectors, and that’s complemented by a Gen 2 front-panel header. An onboard Thunderbolt 3 header is available for users looking to add a ThunderboltEX 3-TR card. The TUF Gaming Z490-Plus board also comes with a standard Intel Gigabit ethernet port.
Asus PRIME Z490-A and PRIME Z490-P
The Prime series of motherboards have traditionaly been aimed at content creators. This year, the Prime Z490-A and Z490-P are two boards in the series that Asus will bring to India. The Z-490A can accommodate up to 128GB of DDR4 memory, while both the boards support speeds of up to 4600MHz. Both the boards also come with dual NVMe slots, while the Z490-P also features 4 SATA III ports. In terms of connectivity, The Z-490A comes with a 2.5Gbps ethernet port while the Z-490P sports a standard gigabit ethernet port.
Price and Availability
Asus has announced the pricing of their motherboards but has not revealed the date at which the boards will be available in India. The pricing of the boards is below.
Asus Z490 Motherboard Lineup Asus TUF Gaming Z490-Plus 2650 Asus Prime Z490M-Plus 2250 Asus Prime Z490-P 24000 Asus Prime Z490-A 31300 Asus ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming 39500 Asus ROG Strix Z490-F Gaming 34500 Asus ROG Maximus XII Extreme 91485
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The new set has a black mask with golden goggles, white hoodie and matching pants. The design of this new set is quite appealing, and as mentioned, it is part of the Twilight Hunt crate inside the game.
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Apple is reportedly testing a new feature that will make it easier to unlock the iPhone when wearing a mask. The feature is found in the latest developer version of iOS 13.5, and there's no confirmation whether the upcoming iOS 13 update will have it.
The issue is that all the iPhones with Face ID fail to detect faces when the mask is on. So you eventually need to input the pin to unlock the iPhone, making it a rather lengthy process. The issue was highlighted back when rising pollution levels made many people wear a mask. But it seems like the COVID-19 impact pushed Apple to find a fix since an increasing number of users throughout the world continue facing this issue.
Wearing a mask leaves Face ID useless, so Apple's new fix essentially skips the face detection and "Swipe up to unlock" part as soon as it detects the user wearing a mask. Videos shared on Twitter by Robert Petersen, and Guilherme Rambo shows that Apple devices with Face ID prompt the user to enter the passcode without trying to identify the face in such a case.
As pointed out by @Sonikku_a2, if you’re wearing a mask, iOS 13.5 goes straight to the passcode screen if you try to unlock with Face ID (keypad not shown because iOS hides it in screen recordings) pic.twitter.com/bQCzu5u20p
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) April 29, 2020 Apple could fix FaceID for users with masks
We do not know what took Apple so long to realise the need for this addition, but it will be a welcome change when and if it arrives with the OTA update. A lot of users found alternative methods to speed-up the unlock process, but a native one will definitely feel more secure and reliable.
As we mentioned, the feature is still not confirmed to land with the next update, but what we know is that a new contact tracing API built by Apple in collaboration with Google will be a part of the list. The API will let national health authorities build apps for coronavirus contact tracing, which will eventually let users check if they've been in contact with someone infected with the coronavirus.
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Huami has launched its new wearable, the Amazfit X. The new wearable is currently available via the crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo. The highlight of the device is the large, curved OLED display that makes stand out from the crowd.
Huami Amazfit X Availability
As mentioned before, the Amazfit X is available in the via Indiegogo, which ships worldwide so people can get their hands on it if they want. ‘Super Early Bird’ users can pick up the device for Rs 11,193, while the IGG Special edition of the wearable will be available for Rs 13,447. Those interested can make the purchase here.
Huami Amazfit X Specifications
The Amazfit X comes with a large 2.07-inch AMOLED display with a 92-degree curvature. The company notes that the curve is possible via a segmented motherboard that has been divided into three sections. The display has a pixel density of 326pp and a peak screen brightness of 400 nits. The body is made using a Titanium allow and features no physical buttons. Instead, users can interact with the device via a force-sensing button on the right. The display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glas.
Huami Amazfit X Features
The Amazfit X comes with a BioTracker PPG optical sensor and supports 24/7 heart rate measurement with heart rate zones. It can also detect up to four stress levels, namely Relaxed, Normal, Medium, and High. it also comes with support for PAI, which is an algorithm that can track heart rate data, and converts that into a score that is easier to understand. Besides this, the wearable also comes with a SpO2 sensor that can measure oxygen levels and oxygen saturation in the body.
Finally, the wearable comes with built-in GPS + GLONASS dual-satellite positioning system. In terms of battery, the device packs a 200mAh curved lithium battery, which is tipped to last for seven days on a single charge.
Amazfit X is waterproof up to 5 ATM and supports nine sports modes. This includes outdoor running, walking, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, open water swimming, pool swimming, elliptical trainer, indoor fitness and treadmill. It can also display SMS, emails, and calendar notifications. It also allows users to control music.
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Paytm First Games has announced a new Ludo Tournament that promises a prize pool of Rs 1 lakh every day. Called Ludo Lakhpati, the tournament is claimed to be India’s first and biggest tournament. The event starts from May 1 and will go on till May 5. Those interested can register for free on the Paytm First gaming app and on the Paytm app from May 1 onwards. The company notes that the final routes of the championship will be live-streamed on YouTube and Paytm Inbox.
Sudhanshu Gupta, COO, Paytm First Games said, "Ludo is one of the most popular games in the country and its popularity has soared even more in the last 3-4 weeks. We launched Paytm First Games Ludo within a week of lockdown and the game has grown at a staggering pace. 4 lac users play the game every day with 1-2 lakh new users joining the game everyday. With Ludo Lakphati, we aim to raise the stakes in the game and make it even more exciting for the players. ”
How to register
In order to register, players will have to download the Paytm First Games app from the Google Play Store or the website paytmfirstgames.com. They then will have to create an account on the app using their phone number registered for their Paytm account.
If players have registered with the app, they can then select ‘Register’ on the ‘Ludo Lakhpati’ icon present on the homepage of the app to participate in the ludo tournament.
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Intel announced the launch of their 10th Gen Core Comet Lake-S series desktop processors today. Unlike the 9th Gen launch, we get to see the entire lineup being announced at one go with 32 processors in all ranging from the 10 core/20 threaded Core i9-10900K to the budget-friendly Celeron G-5900. Also making a comeback are the T-series processors with TDP capped at 35W for low power configurations. The 10th Gen Intel desktop processors are still based on the 14nm process node that debuted with Skylake.
What's new in Intel 10th Gen Core desktop processors
For starters, the core counts have increased and you can now get up to 10 cores / 20 threads and there are plenty of SKUs with this configuration. Clock speeds have also received a major bump thanks to Intel's TVB (Thermal Velocity Boost). The top SKU i.e. the Intel Core i9-10900K can hit 5.3 GHz under TVB making it the highest clocked stock processor in the market. These processors also feature a slightly thinner die. Intel has added solder thermal interface material to the high-end SKUs along with slightly thicker IHS. Apparently, this configuration helps improve thermal performance. The 10th Gen desktop processors are only compatible with Intel 400 series chipsets. Board partners will be announcing Intel Z490, W480, Q470 and H410 chipset based motherboards soon. These are all LGA1200 socketed motherboards.
Aside from the F-variants which don't have any integrated graphics, all processors launched today will have Intel UHD Graphics 630. The Celeron processors will have Intel UHD Graphics 610. Memory support has also been improved and all Intel processors will now handle DDR4-2933 out of the box whereas the Pentium Gold and Celeron processors will support DDR4-2666 out of the box. Lastly, all Comet Lake-S CPUs will support 40 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the platform.
Improved Overclocking support
Another key announcement was the addition of several new "knobs" for overclocking enthusiasts to play with. The Intel Extreme Tuning Utility will allow users to disable/enable per-core Hyper-Threading, overclock PEG/DMI and even play around with Voltage/Frequency curves.
Intel 10th-gen Core (Comet Lake S) desktop processors
Here’s the list of all the new 10th Gen Comet Lake S desktop processors that were announced today. There’s also an image at the bottom for folks who want it that way. The entire lineup is categorised into the mainstream desktop Core processors which include F and K series processors, T-series processors with lower TDP and entry-level Pentium Gold and Celeron processors. As usual with Intel’s nomenclature, K-series processors are all unlocked and F-series processors do not have integrated graphics. The T-series have their TDP locked to 35W making them not as powerful as their K and F counterparts which are rated for much higher TDP. There are 17 processors with higher TDPs and Hyper-Threading enabled. It’s been a really long time since Intel released such a lineup where all processors had Hyper-Threading enabled. Call it a role-reversal of sorts as AMD used to have multi-threading across the stack until recently.
Intel 10th-gen “T” Series 35W TDP desktop processors
In the initial lineup, Intel has announced 10 T-series processors with capped TDP. These processors also feature Hyper-Threading across the stack with the sole exception of the Celeron processor. You do get the choice of picking whatever core count you require but none of these processors are unlocked. Given their lower TDP, these chips consume less power and thus, can be cooled using less-exotic air coolers. T-series processors were also announced in the 9th Gen lineup but the major difference over there was that only one processor had Hyper-Threading enabled whereas it’s exactly the opposite case here.
Intel 10th-gen Pentium Gold and Celeron desktop processors
At the bottom of the stack are the Pentium Gold and Celeron processors. None of the Celeron processors have Hyper-Threading and the entire stack does not have any sort of boost clocks. These are entry-level chips for price-sensitive configurations. There are eight processors in total but we’ve only mentioned five here with the remaining three processors placed in the T-series list. Interestingly, there is no price difference between the T and non-T variants in the 10th Gen Pentium Gold and Celeron lineup.
Aarogya Setu, India’s official contact tracing app for Android and iOS smartphones, and soon to be available on feature phones as well, is being used during the Coronavirus crisis in the country. However, it seems like the app will be a mandatory step on new phones that are sold after the nation-wide lockdown lifts.
The Aarogya Setu app will reportedly come pre-installed on all new phones that are sold in the country after the lockdown lifts on May 3.
Aarogya Setu to be made mandatory: Here’s what we know
According to a report by News18 that cities “government sources”, registering on Aarogya Setu contact tracing app is going to be a mandatory process when setting up a new phone. The Indian government wants smartphone manufacturers to ensure that their customers sign up on the app and a solution for this could be incorporating the sign-up process of the app at the very beginning of the phone setup.
The report goes on to state that the government will be setting up nodal agencies that will direct smartphone makers on how to go about ensuring that the user registers on Aarogya Setu without “a skippable step”. It suggests that the app will be made a default app on new smartphones that go on sale after the lockdown ends.
Previously, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had announced that the app is also being developed to be used on feature phones as India is home to a large user base of feature phone users.
Aarogya Setu has been developed by the government to track community spread of the COVID-19 disease and it uses Bluetooth and GPS to ascertain real-time information that’s logged in and based on the graph, the app determines whether you have been near an infected person.
The government has earlier hinted as the app being a one-stop solution for managing the health crisis as it could be integrated with existing e-pass system to facilitate necessary travel. However, the app has also been in the spotlight owing to privacy concerns and the use of citizen’s private data by the government. Some of those issues have been addressed by the government as it silently updated the app’s privacy policy amidst social media backlash.
Aarogya Setu reached 50 million downloads in just 13 days from launch which the fastest ever for an Android or iOS app. Currently, the app has been downloaded by over 80 million people and it grows.
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OnePlus Z a.k.a Oneplus 8 Lite has been rumoured to launch sometime in July but a new image has surfaced which shows the much-anticipated phone from the front. The leaked image shows-off the phone’s centred punch-hole cutout with minimal bezels on all the sides.
The OnePlus Z image in question was posted by TrueTech and confirms the presence of an in-display fingerprint reader as well. Earlier this week, the phone was revealed to launch in July 2020 as it was postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Regardless, OnePlus went ahead and launched it’s OnePlus 8 series in an online event on April 14. The phones went up for pre-orders just days ago and now we have a leaked image that showcases the upcoming OnePlus phone.
No other details can be made out from the leaked pictures however, the phone has been subject to numerous leaks in the past with several key specifications out in the open.
OnePlus Z leaked specifications
OnePlus Z could feature a 6.4-inch Full HD+ display that uses an OLED panel. The phone has a punch-hole cutout in the centre that houses the front-facing 16MP camera. The display is also expected to support a 90Hz refresh rate with an in-screen fingerprint sensor.
The phone could be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 1000 chipset with 5G support and paired with up to 8GB RAM and 256GbB storage options.
OnePlus Z is rumoured to come with a triple camera setup on the back that consists of a primary 48MP camera, a 16MP camera and a 2MP depth sensor.
It comes with a 4,000mAh battery that supports 30W fast charging courtesy of Warp Charge 30. It is expected to be priced starting at CNY 2,999 which roughly translates of Rs 32,000 by direct conversion.
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Google has announced that its premium video conferencing platform, Google Meet, will be free for all users. The platform will be available from early May onwards and anyone with an email address will be able to use features like real-time captions, and layouts that have been available to business and education users.
Google Meet Availability
The company notes that Google Meet will start becoming available to users from next week onwards and availability will expand to everyone over the following weeks, Users can sign up to be notified when it becomes available to them.
Before this, Google Meet was exclusively a part of G Suite, which is its productivity solution for businesses, organisations and schools. However, once it becomes available to everyone, users will be able to partake by heading over to meet.google.com or the mobile apps for iOS and Android. The company also notes that Meetings were limited to 60 minutes for the free product, but it will not enforce this time limit until after September 30,
The move to make Google Meet free for all users comes at a very opportune time as most people around the world are turning to video conferencing apps to stay connected amid the lockdown. Javier Soltero, Vice President & GM, G Suite notes in the company’s official blog, “Technology that connects us while we're apart helps keep us safe and productive. Over the past few months, we’ve seen the power of video meetings bring us together—whether we’re working with teammates, talking to healthcare professionals, sharing with loved ones, or learning from home.”
Google renamed Hangouts Meet to Meet earlier this month. In fact, the company plans to get rid of the Hangouts name in general as Google plans to discontinue the Hangouts app from June onwards. The company also recently updated the app to support a new layout that is more akin to its competitor, Zoom.
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LG’s entry-level offering, the Premier Pro Plus, has been spotted on the Google Play Console listing bearing the model number LG L455DL. The Korean smartphone manufacturer hasn’t teased the Premier Pro Plus as it seems to be exclusive to Tracfone telecom.
The images of the phone were shared by Evan Blass on Twitter while a separate post on MyLGPhones revealed the user manual of the LG Premier Pro Plus. Both the leaks confirm the existence of the yet unannounced smartphone as the company is currently focused on the LG Velvet that’s due out on May 7.
LG Premier Pro Plus leaked specifications
Being an entry-level phone, the Premier Pro Plus could feature an HD+ (1560 x 720 pixels) resolution display. It is said to be powered by a MediaTek Helio P22 chipset with an octa-core CPU and runs on Android 9 Pie-based LG UX.
The phone is expected to feature a dual-camera setup that consists of an ultra-wide-angle lens along with an LED flash on the back and a front-facing camera that’s housed within the waterdrop notch upfront.
LG Premier Pro Plus also has a fingerprint reader on the back along with a dedicated Google Assistant button and Type-C port for charging.
There’s currently no word of the launch of the LG Premier Pro Plus and whether it will make it to other regions in the coming months.
As for LG’s next smartphone, the Velvet launches on May 7 but most of the specifications have been confirmed by the company themselves. The LG Velvet features a 6.8-inch with a Full HD+ (2560 x 1080 pixels) resolution that uses an OLED panel. The screen tapers around the edges and the waterdrop notch cutout on the front gives it a 20.5:9 aspect ratio.
The phone is confirmed to be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon765G chipset with an octa-core CPU. This is paired with upto 8GB RAM and upto 128GB storage options to choose from. The raindrop camera setup on the back consists of a primary 48MP camera with an f/1.8 aperture, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera and a 5MP macro camera. On the front, there’s a 16MP selfie camera housed within the notch cutout.
The Velvet has an in-display fingerprint sensor and comes with a 4,300mAh battery with support for 30W fast wired charging and 10W fast wireless charging. It is expected to be priced starting at 680 Euros which roughly translates to Rs 55,000 by direct conversion.
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Well, fans of the watered-down mediocrity that was the Arrowverse now have more bad news coming their way. After shows like Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow drifted into superhero parody and stopped being fun, it now looks like these shows are disappearing from streaming platforms as well. The shows were part of a tie-up between Hooq and Disney+Hotstar and were available on both platforms. But as Hooq is now shutting down operations, it seems that these DC shows have also been taken off Disney+Hotstar. And, it does not seem like these shows are being picked up by any other streaming service although Arrow and Black Lightning are still available on Netflix, but who knows for how long?
DC Arrowverse comes to an end on Hooq
One main reason for this is that Disney owns Marvel, DC comics biggest competitor in both comic books and film. It could have been a conflict of interest having your competitor’s shows on your platform while your characters shows are on some other streaming platform (Daredevil Luke Cage on Netflix). After Disney+Hotstar launched last month, we’ve gotten a lot of new shows like The Mandalorian and more from Disney.
Hooq claimed that technical issues affected the scheduling of newer episodes on the platform but after that clearly wasn’t the case. In fact, Hooq’s parent company, Singapore-based Singtel has filed to liquidate Hooqs services due to “significant structural changes”. And after amassing 80 million subscribers, Hooq is now going offline.
Basically what this means is that shows like Legends of Tomorrow, The Flash and Batwoman are only available on TV in India whileArrow and Black Lightning are only available on Netflix. This also means that films like The Matrix trilogy, LEGO Batman and shows like Misfits, Krypton which were all streaming on Hooq have all been taken offline as well. It also appears that these shows and films have been taken off Disney+Hotstar as well.
If you’d like to know more about Disney+Hotstar, you can click here. Or, if you’re into superhero shows on Netflix, you can check this out as well.
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It looks like the popularity of TikTok isn’t going to slow down any time soon. According to a report by research and analytics firm, Sensor Tower, the app has been downloaded over 2 billion times globally on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. This news comes a few months after the firm last reported that the app has been downloaded over 1.5 billion times. The report also notes that in Q1 2020, TikTok generated the most downloads for any app ever in a quarter with 315 million installs across Android and iOS. In fact, Google Play accounts for a majority of TikTok app downloads with 1.5 billion installs, or 75.5% of the total number. The Apple app Store generated 495.2 million downloads or 24.5%.
Of course, a lot of this has to do with the fact that most of the world is currently under lockdown due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. As such, many people are turning to their smartphones for entertainment as well as connecting with others.
“While TikTok was on the ascent before 2020, the app has hit new levels of popularity so far this year. Its record-breaking Q1 came during a global pandemic, leading in part to an increase in downloads, engagement, and revenue. The continuous rise of TikTok gives it an ever-bigger foundation to not only enjoy success for the short-term, but build for the long-term to keep competitors—both existing and emerging—at bay,” the report said.
Popularity of TikTok by Country
Sensor Tower also noted that India has the most number of downloads by any country with 611 million lifetime downloads. This makes up 30.3% of all TikTok users. By comparison, China is placed seconds with 196.6 million, which makes up 9.7%. It should be noted that the version of TikTok in China is known as Douyin and does not account for installations from third-party Android Store in the country. The United States takes the third spot with 165 million installs, which is about 8.2%.
TikTok User spend
The report also notes that lifetime user spending in TikTok has grown to $456.7 million. It further adds that this amount is 2.5 times the $175 million it generated when it reached the 1.5 billion downloads mark. However, when it comes to spending money, India was not on the top three list with China taking the top spot by generating $331 million or 72.3%. The US and Great Britain took the second and third spot with users spending $86.5 million and $9 million respectively.
The popularity of TikTok is such that even Apple has decided to create an official account on the platform. However, this popularity does come with issues, The platform is host to a number of fake information, especially about the Coronavirus. TikTok has also taken into account minors using its platform has started offering improved parental controls.
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Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 series, alongside the Mi Note 10 Lite is scheduled for a global launch in just a few hours from now. One part of the Redmi Note 9 series, the Note 9 Pro and Pro Max have already been announced in India but due to the Coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent nation-wide lockdown, the phones are yet to go on sale. The Indian government also currently prohibits e-commerce companies from shipping non-essential goods like mobile phones and laptops to consumers.
The Mi Note 10 Lite is a pared-down version of the Mi Note 10 that was launched back in November 2019 with a 108MP penta-camera setup. However, the latest rumours indicate that the Note 10 Lite could come with a 64MP primary camera. The Redmi Note 9 has also been leaked just hours before the official launch.
How to watch Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 series launch event
Xiaomi is hosting an online launch event for the Redmi Note 9 series and the Mi 10 Lite due to the COVID-19 crisis that has forced people to stay at home. The launch event is scheduled at 8 PM UTC (5:30 PM IST) and the event will be live-streamed on the company’s social media handles.
We’ve embedded the link to watch the live stream of the Redmi Note 9 series below.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 leaked specifications
The Redmi Note 9 was allegedly shown-off in official renders that leaked the other day. It is a toned-down version of the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Pro Max that were launched in India in March. However, there’s no word if the Redmi Note 9 will launch in India later this year to complete its existing series in the country.
It is expected to feature a 6.5-inch display with Full HD+ resolution and a punch-hole notch for the selfie camera on the front. The phone is made from plastic and will come in three gradient finishes. It is powered by the unreleased MediaTek Helio G85 chip with 4GB RAM and 128GB storage options to choose from.
The phone has a quad-camera setup that consists of a primary 48MP sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s a 13MP selfie camera that is housed within the punch hole cutout.
The Redmi Note 9 comes fitted with a 5,000mAh battery with support for 22.5W fast charging via Type-C. As per earlier leaks, the Redmi Note 9 could be priced starting at CNY 1,400 in China which is roughly Rs 15,000 by direct conversion.
As for the Mi Note 10 Lite, it could feature a 6.4-inch display with Full HD+ resolution and it could be powered by a Snapdragon 730G chipset that also powers the Mi Note 10. The camera setup is where things could change as the Lite variant is confirmed to have four cameras instead of a penta-camera setup on both the Mi Note 10 and Note 10 Pro.
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Nintendo is expected to extend its decade-high earnings streak when it reports fourth-quarter results next week, powered by the hit Switch console which is expanding its reach among locked-down consumers.
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If you are rocking a Nokia 9 PureView smartphone then there is good news for you. The smartphone has started receiving the Android 10 update. If you haven't received the update on your device, you can go into the settings and manually check for the update. When the Nokia 9 PureView launched, customers were promised two years of OS updates. As of today, Nokia 9 PureView, Nokia 8 Sirocco, Nokia 8.1, Nokia 7.2, Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 7.1, Nokia 6.2, Nokia 6.1 Plus, Nokia 6.1, Nokia 4.2, Nokia 3.2, Nokia 2.3 and Nokia 2.2 are all upgraded to Android 10.
Nokia 9 PureView Android 10 update features
The update on the Nokia 9 PureView brings with it a bunch of new features as well. Users get access to gesture navigation and smart reply which are a part of Android 10. Users also get access to better privacy controls all in one place along with the ability to control location access to apps – be that always, just while in use, or never. Focus mode is also available in Beta. This lets users block out distracting apps when they need to concentrate on what’s important. Users also get access to Family Link which is now a part of the Digital Wellbeing settings.
Nokia 9 PureView Specs
The Nokia 9 PureView is the company’s flagship handset powered by the Snapdragon 845 processor. The Nokia 9 PureView features a metal frame with a glass-sandwiched body and sports Nokia 8 Sirocco-like diamond-cut finish.
The phone’s p-OLED display measures 5.99-inches diagonally and it sports a 2K resolution with an 18:9 aspect ratio and is HDR10 certified. Rated IP67 for water and dust resistance, the phone’s display is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. There’s also an under-display fingerprint sensor and AI-based face unlock feature. The device comes in only one variant of 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It is backed by a 3320mAh battery that supports Quick Charge 3, USB Power Delivery as well as 10W wireless charging.
Coming to the USP of Nokia 9 PureView, the camera setup. The handset comes equipped with five cameras on the back, each of which has a 12MP resolution and is made by Sony. Three of the five camera modules feature monochrome sensors while the other two are RGB sensors. There’s also a Time of Flight or ToF depth sensor for additional depth information. Finally, there’s a dual-tone LED flash that complements the setup.
While there is no ultra-wide or telephoto lens on the Nokia 9 PureView, it employs all the five sensors at once to capture an image. The sensors have a fixed focal length of 28mm and are touted to deliver 12.4-stops of dynamic range, which should make for better capturing of details. The phone can record videos in 4K HDR at 30 FPS.
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It looks like the Fire TV Stick will finally have some stiff competition. If information circulating the internet is to be believed, then a new Chromecast Ultra has appeared on the Taiwanese certification agency NCC. This Chromecast Ultra comes with a remote control. The new information about the device was first spotted by MySmartPrice. In the certification, Google details a device that has two components - the Chromecast Ultra and a remote control. Information circulating the internet suggested that the device has a codename “sabrina”.
The new device is said to have the same features as the current Chromecast Ultra but will bring with it a remote control. It will support 4K and HDR, but it isn’t clear if it will support other formats like Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, both of which are supported on the 4K Fire TV Stick available in India. It looks like the remote control which will come with the new Chromecast Ultra will be a cross between the Daydream remote control and the Apple TV remote control. It is also expected that the remote control will have a microphone for easy access to the Google Assistant along with a dedicated button to bring up the Assistant.
Aesthetically, it seems the device will be the same as the 3rd-generation Chromecast aka the Chromecast 3 (read our review here). It is expected to have a soft rounded finish with the “G” logo on it. It is still unclear whether the device will come in black and white colour options only or will it come in the colourful options we saw with the Chromecast 2 (read our review here).
For consumers in India, it looks like Google could be late to the streaming party with this upcoming device. There are a lot of Android TV based streaming boxes available, some from service providers like Airtel and ACT combining their respective services with the Android TV box to give consumers a package deal. We also have a device like the Fire TV Stick, which is available in 2 options - FHD and 4K HDR to cater to those that want to upgrade to a smart TV experience. Just so you know, the 4K Chromecast Ultra was never officially launched in India.
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Google Pixel 4a is a much-anticipated smartphone that has often been leaked with pictures of retail boxes being spotted on the internet recently. As per the latest piece of information, the Pixel 4a is slated to go on sale from May 22 in Germany. The phone was earlier set to be unveiled during Google I/O 2020, the company’s annual developers conference but the event was called off due to the Coronavirus outbreak across the world.
The successor to last year’s Pixel 3a, the 4a is expected to be a slightly trimmed down version of the Pixel 4 and is aimed at markets like India where the Pixel 4 didn’t launch. According to a German report, the 4a will likely go on sale from May 22 and will be offered by Vodafone under contract. The phone is reportedly priced starting at 399 Euros which roughly translates to around Rs 32,000 by direct conversion.
Google Pixel 4a comes after Apple announced an affordable iPhone SE 2020 and OnePlus launched its latest OnePlus 8 series of smartphones earlier this month. The report hints that as the sale commences from May 22, we can expect Google to announce the 4a officially just days prior.
Google Pixel 4a leaked specifications
The Google Pixel 4a is rumoured to feature a 5.8-inch Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution OLED screen. The display has a punch-hole cutout for the front-facing 8MP camera with an 84-degree field-of-view.
It could be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chipset with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 618 GPU. This is paired with 6GB RAM and upto 128GB storage options to choose from.
Pixel 4a has a single 12.2MP camera with support for both OIS and EIS, while the front-facing camera is reportedly the same as the Pixel 3a. The phone’s rear camera is capable of recording in 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 30/60/120fps and 720p at up to 240fps while the selfie camera can shoot Full HD videos at 30fps. The phone comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and could come in two colours-- Just Black and Barely Blue.
It is fitted with a 3,080mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging but skips out on wireless charging.
The 4a does have the company’s proprietary Titan M security chip but still misses out on the Pixel Neural Core. Also missing is the array of Soli radar chip and other sensors that debuted on the Pixel 4 last year. This, hopefully, indicates that Google could bring the Pixel 4a to India as the presence of Soli chip earlier on the Pixel 4 didn’t allow it to get certified for commercial use according to Indian laws.
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The Coronavirus outbreak has got people very aware of what they touch, including currency. We are once again seeing many people turn to digital payments, even if it's not at the same level as the time of demonetisation. UPI has definitely become a popular method of transferring money and making payments, and Realme is capitalizing on the trend. Madhav Sheth, CEO Realme has tweeted out revealing the first successful transaction using PaySa, Realme’s homegrown financial services platform. The app is currently available for download on Android.
The tweet is comprised of a screenshot showing a transaction from Madhav Sheth to Varun Sridhar for an amount of Rs 101, marking the first transaction using the app. Realme had launched PaySa alongside the Realme X2 (Review) in December 2019 as a financial platform to offer personal loans between Rs 8000 and Rs 1 lakh. The app offered loans within minutes to users of the platform. Today, they have also completed their first UPI transaction, signalling that the app is going to receive the new functionality soon. PaySa will utilize the Universal Payments Interface or UPI to facilitate transactions between users, but that’s not all. In order to make the app competitive in an already overcrowded space, PaySa also offers provides instant credit reports, instant loans and even access to Mutual Funds. Users of PaySa can also avail mobile phone insurance through the app.
As of today, there are over a hundred apps that work with UPI, some of the most notable being PayTM, Google Pay, PhonePe and many many more. Needless to say, it’s a very crowded space, but since Realme isn’t launching a new UPI app, they don’t have to struggle with conversions. Given that PaySa has been out in the open since December, it just means that users will get to enjoy the UPI functionality without having to do anything extra. As of now, there’s no official word on when the UPI functionality will roll out to the PaySa app.
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Call of Duty: Mobile has received a new update that has introduced a bunch of new features. Called Once Upon a time in Rust, the new update adds the Rust map that has been teased for quite a while. It also adds a bunch of new game modes, changes to gameplay as well as other fixes and improvements. It will also include the new Season 6 which will start from May 1.
New map
As mentioned earlier, the new update introduced the Rust map. This map has been teased for quite a while and as first featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. The new map’s layout is quite tight and focuses a lot on close-quarters battles (CQB). As such, SMGs and shotguns might be a good option. However, it also offers decent mid-to-long range opportunities. Players also have the option to climb the tower to get a birds-eye view of the map and attack enemies. You can learn more about the map here.
1v1 Duel mode
Call of Duty: Mobile will be getting a new mode called 1v1 Duel. As the name would imply, this mode will see players engaged in 1v1 battles. These matches are relatively short have run for three rounds. With this mode, players get a new map called Saloon, which has a wild west theme. This small map will also be available for 2v2 Showdown games. Besides Saloon, 1v1 Duel matches will also happen on Killhouse. The mode will be available from mid-May.
Capture the Flag mode
Call of Duty: Mobile will now offer capture the flag style gameplay. However, in keeping with the theme, players will not capture flags, but rather a chest of gold. However, the gameplay mechanics will be pretty similar to other variants of capture the flag. Namely, players will have to collect the opposing flag and bring it to their base and prevent the enemy from doing the same.
Kill Confirmed mode
Kill Confirmed will be a twist of the TDM formula that on the surface seems pretty much the same. As in, two teams will be fighting it out. However, points will only be scored by picking up dog tags dropped from dead enemies. But players can also pick up friendly dog tags, thereby stopping the opposing team from scoring a point. Due to the nature of the game, camping may not be a very fruitful tactic and players will have to get into the middle of things.
Changes to Battle Pass
Activision has announced that with this update, they will be removing tasks and players will now be able to level up the Battle Pass by playing the game. Players will now receive Battle Pass XP when they play matches. This XP will be accounted for in the after-action report. The company hopes that this will make things more transparent and will help avoid instances where players narrowly missed out on completing objectives.
New Event system and Month Calander
Of course, the game will still offer certain events and tasks that players can follow. These will be divided onto Featured, Seasonal, Daily and more. In order to accommodate this, players will see a new UI that will divide all the available events into their respective category.
The Monthly Calendar gives players the chance to earn rewards for simply logging in. Players will get 24 rewards for 24 days of logging in. This includes weapons skins and even a new player character.
Besides all this, players will also get a new Annihilator Operator Skill, a new Cryo Bomb tactical grenade, and the Poltergeist Battle Royale Class. You can learn more about those here.
The update also brings with it a bunch of changes and improvements. You can check more about those in the complete release notes here.
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Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 has been leaked yet again, this time with alleged official renders along with key specifications. The company has scheduled an online event for April 30 where it’s launching the Redmi Note 9 series and Mi Note 10 Lite globally. Interestingly, the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Pro Max were announced in India in March but due to the Coronavirus lockdown in effect, the first sale has been postponed.
The new Redmi Note 9 leaks come via Sudhanshu Ambhore’s Twitter account that reveals the alleged official pictures of the upcoming Redmi Note 9 in three colours. The key specifications of the Note 9 have been leaked previously and today’s information does seem to corroborate with some earlier speculations.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 leaked specifications
The Redmi Note 9 is expected to feature a 6.53-inch display with a Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution. There’s a punch-hole cutout on the front in the leaked pictures and it is topped by a layer of Gorilla Glass 5. The phone has a plastic build and it measures 8.9mm at its thickest point and weighs 198 grams.
It is powered by the yet unreleased MediaTek Helio G85 chipset that’s an incremental update over the G80. This could be paired with upto 4GB of RAM and upto 128GB storage options to choose from, however, we could also see more variants at the time of launch.
The phone comes with a quad-camera setup on the back that consists of a primary 48MP sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide-angle camera, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there’s a 13MP selfie camera housed within the punch-hole cutout.
Redmi Note 9 could come fitted with a 5,000mAh battery with support for 22.5W fast charging via USB Type-C.
As per earlier leaks, the Redmi Note 9 could be priced starting at CNY 1,400 in China which is roughly Rs 15,000 by direct conversion. Having said that, we have no word whether the company plans to bring the Redmi Note 9 to India. Currently, the Indian government has also prohibited e-commerce companies to deliver non-essential goods like mobile phones which is why many smartphone companies have refrained from launching new products in the country.
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Popular mobile battle royale game, Garena Free Fire has announced its latest Elite Pass (EP). Called the Forsaken Creed, the EP will contain samurai, mutants, guns as well as other rewards. It will also feature Shadow and Unseen Custodian skin sets.
What’s New in Garena Free Fire
The Forsaken EP will feature two protagonists, namely Mitsuo and Ichika. Their backstory notes that they are members of a secret Imperial Elite Guard that is on the brink of extinction due to a growing population of mutants in the region. Both these characters have also been tasked with eliminating a particular mutant that has been escaping their clutches.
New costumes and skins
Free Fire already offers a range of costumes and with the Forsaken Creed EP, the developers took inspiration from the 1800s to create the Shadow and Unseen Custodian skins that feature subtle dragon patterns. Other skins include the Forsaken Blade, a skateboard that is shaped like a sword and the Dragon’s Creed, which is a loot box skin. There is also the Forsaken Creed Spikebag which, as the name would suggest, is a backpack skin that is surrounded with spikes.
Other added skins would include a grenade skin, weapon skin, exclusive icons and banner, pan skin and more.
Garena Free Fire is a free to play game that is available on iOS and Android. The game is quite popular and according to the Google Play Store, has over 500,000,000 installs. By comparison, PUBG Mobile has over 100,000,000 installs.
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Reliance Jio is offering 2GB free complimentary data to its customers to ease their month-end recharge woes. The telecom giant had released a similar tariff voucher for Jio subscribers last month and now it’s crediting users account with free data with a validity of four days.
The news comes as many users on Twitter have posted that their respective Jio accounts have been credited with a new Jio Data Pack tariff plan that offers complimentary 2GB data per day for four days. As the month’s ending, Jio is ensuring that customers who can’t recharge their accounts in due time are given a breather and to this effect, the Jio Data Pack is being offered for free.
It’s not clear as to what a Jio subscriber has to do in order to avail the free data pack as the company seems to be crediting users whose tariff plan validity is going to end in the next three-four days.
How to check if you’ve received Jio data pack?
Open the My Jio app and click the hamburger menu icon with three lines. Select My Plans from the list of options and you’ll be taken to a screen that details your current plan. If you’ve received Jio’s free data pack, there will be a card with the details of the tariff plan.
The Jio Data Pack doesn’t extend the validity of your existing tariff plan and instead works as an add-on pack in case your data validity ends soon.
Reliance Jio is also offering revised tariff plans owing to everyone working from home due to the country-wide lockdown that’s in effect to curb the spread of Coronavirus in India. Previously, TRAI had also asked telecom operators including Jio and Airtel to extend the validity of their respective prepaid plans. Jio has also released new Work From Home tariff plans that offer more data for a month’s validity. Vodafone-Idea and Airtel have also released similar plans to aid its subscribers.
Recently, Facebook invested $5.7 billion in Reliance Jio Platforms and both the companies are now working together to strengthen the retail market by leveraging WhatsApp.
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Google is rolling out an update for Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Forms app on the web with a major redesign in the way you share the documents with people. The redesign will give you more control over what’s being shared and to whom. There’s also a new way to see who currently has access to the document, making it easier to audit and change permissions.
“These changes will make it easier to share files only with specific people without expanding access beyond what’s needed,” Google wrote in the Gsuite blog.
Google docs sharing settings made easier
The new design brings a new task-focused interface with new sharing dialogue options that highlight essential user tasks like sharing a file, changing permissions or giving access. The new interface also separates users who are shared in a group versus those that got a link. You can also clearly see who currently has access to the document.
The changes will take place by default for Gsuite users and will roll out gradually starting April 28, 2020. Users should start seeing the new design in the next 15 days.
The changes can be seen as part of Google's efforts to make work from home easier as more and more employees are collaborating and working on the cloud relying on Google's suite of office apps. Previously, Google also sped up the launch of Google Meet, that now offers more privacy protection and multi-tiled video conferencing support.
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Amazon has launched a new service called ‘Amazon Pay Later’ that aims to offer instant credit to eligible customers shopping on Amazon.in. The service lets people sign up digitally and allows customers to get instant credit that can be used to purchase any product. The credit can also be used to pay off bills. They can then repay the amount in the subsequent month at no additional cost, or in EMIs for up to 12 months with added interest.
The service aims to help customers extend their budgets for the purchase of goods like home appliances, electronic gadgets, groceries and even bill payment. The e-tailer has partnered with Capital Float and the Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) to make the service possible. In its official blog, the company notes that customers will have the option to setup auto-repayment for recurring bills. Based on the usage as well as repayment behaviour, customers will also be able to increase their credit limit.
Mahendra Nerurkar, CEO Amazon Pay India stated, “we are always looking for ways to improve our customers’ payments experience on Amazon.in and make purchases more affordable. Amazon Pay Later is a unique service that will help customers expand their access to credit and experience the most convenient option of making payments. In current times Amazon Pay later empowers our customers to better manage their monthly spends.”
You can learn more about Amazon Pay Later in the company’s help section here.
In order to sign up for the service, customers will need to share their PAN card number and their Aadhar card number. It should also be noted that eligible customers do not need a credit card to sign up. In fact, the service is very similar to the Amazon Pay EMI service that was launched in September 2018.
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Xiaomi will announce the Mi Note 10 Lite globally on April 30 alongside the Redmi Note 9 series. The company has revealed that a slightly toned-down version of the Mi Note 10 will be introduced at the online event that starts from 20:00 GMT (5:30 PM IST) on April 30.
The Mi Note 10 was announced back in November 2019 with a 108MP penta-camera setup and the Lite version is expected to be an affordable version of the same, save for the 108MP camera. It’s very likely that given the affordable nature of the Mi Note 10 Lite, it could feature a 48MP or 64MP primary camera.
Going by the poster that has been revealed by Xiaomi, the phone features a u-shaped notch cutout on the front with quad cameras arranged in an array on the back accompanied by a dual-LED flash.
During its event, Xiaomi will also launch the Redmi Note 9 series globally. Xiaomi already announced the Redmi Note 9 Pro and Note 9 Pro Max recently in India but due to the Coronavirus outbreak, the Redmi Note 9 series is yet to go on sale in India. Xiaomi will be live-streaming the event on YouTube and we've embedded the link below.
According to rumours, the Mi Note 10 Lite could feature a 6.4-inch display with Full HD+ resolution and it could be powered by a Snapdragon 730G chipset that also powers the Mi Note 10. The camera setup is where things could change as the Lite variant is confirmed to have four cameras instead of a penta-camera setup on both the Mi Note 10 and Note 10 Pro.
As for the Redmi Note 9 series, the Note 9 Pro and Note 9 Pro Max were announced in India in March. The phones feature a 6.6-inch Full HD+ display and are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G chip with octa-core CPU and Adreno 618 GPU. This is backed by upto 8GB RAM and 128GB storage options to choose from.
On the back, there are four cameras but the Note 9 Pro Max uses a 64MP primary camera while the Note 9 Pro comes with a primary 48MP camera. The phones have an 8MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 5MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. There’s a 16MP selfie camera on the front of Note 9 Pro and a 32MP camera on the Pro Max.
Both phones come with a 5,000mAh battery that supports fast charging. The Note 9 Pro supports 18W fast charging while the Pro Max comes with support for 33W fast charging.
The Redmi Note 9 Pro starts at Rs 13,999 in India while the Pro Max starts at Rs 16,499 for the base variant.
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Realme has been pivoting beyond smartphones and becoming a tech-lifestyle brand this year. Realme launched truly-wireless earphones, a smart wristband and there’s even a TV on the cards. Realme CEO Madhav Sheth was also spotted wearing what looked like an Apple-Watch clone, and could very well be Realme’s next wearable device — The Realme Watch. Its existence is no secret, with a recent video even offering a glimpse of the smartwatch. But nothing more was officially revealed.
Now, a big leak originating from the XDA Developers forums gives more than just a glimpse of the Realme Watch. XDA member @deletescape obtained renders of the Realme Watch, which reveals the upcoming smartwatch looks familiar but has its own quirks.
Realme Watch expected specs and features
The renders show the watch has a square panel with rounded corners and thick bezels. The Realme branding is at the bottom bezel and there is a single push button on the right. You can also spot the charging pins on the watch on what appears to be hard polycarbonate backplate.
The leak also gives us some specs of the watch. The Realme Watch will come with a 1.4-inch TFT LCD touchscreen display with 320x320 resolution and a 160mAh battery with 7-days of claimed battery life with 24-hour heart-rate monitoring. The watch will also be IP68 certified and will have Bluetooth 5.0 support. No onboard GPS though, but you do get a heart-rate and a blood oxygen level sensor.
Interestingly, the Realme Watch will skip Android Wear OS for its own proprietary OS with the closest equivalent being the Amazfit Blip, according to XDA Developers. The physical button, like in most smartwatches, will be used to lock and unlock the device and also help in navigating around the UI. The leak claims you can only store data for 7 days without connecting to a phone.
There will be a total of five preloaded watch faces, but there may be more options offered later via the companion app. There’s no word as of now whether third-party watch faces will be supported. The watch will come with the standard suite of functions including activity tracking, step count, heart rate and blood oxygen level monitoring. You will get notifications, weather reports, stopwatch and alarm functions and a Find My Phone feature.
The leak reveals the Realme Watch will be able to detect 15 different kinds of workouts including running, walking, swimming, outdoor riding, aerobic capacity and more. Other interesting features include music playback controls, and the ability to use it as a Bluetooth camera shutter button.
A big USP of the Realme Watch, as revealed by the leak, could be the support for Hindi in the UI which can make a key difference in tier 2 and tier 3 markets in India.
Realme Watch expected release date and availability in India
While the leak mostly reveals everything about the upcoming watch, we still don’t know when Realme plans to launch the smartwatch in India. The name Realme Watch is also not confirmed. Furthermore, because of the ongoing lockdown and uncertainties ahead, it remains to be seen when Realme announces the smartwatch.
In a video interview with Digit.in, Madhav Sheth, Realme India CEO, said the company’s plans are still very much the same despite having lost half a quarter in the year already. He said there has been no change in the roadmap for this year which indicates things like the Realme TV and the Realme Watch are still very much on the cards for launch this year. Perhaps, Realme will target the festive season to launch these products.
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The Government of India had earlier released the Aarogya Setu app for contact tracing of people who may have been infected with COVID-19, however, the app is currently available only for smartphones. The IT Minister Sri Ravishankar Prasad has now announced that a version of the app is also being developed for feature phones.
The Aargoya Setup app was released on Android and iOS in order to alert a user if he/she has come in contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The only problem with this approach was that it relied on the user owning a smartphone for the app to work. However, given the massive rural population in India, and the fact that we still have a major chunk of the population using feature phones, the lack of an app for them was a major hole in the strategy of combating the Coronavirus.
According to Business Standard, the Minister had tweeted that, "Every state highly appreciated the #AarogyaSetu app and shared their thoughts on it. I have assured them that a similar solution for feature phones is being developed and will be launched very soon," which confirms that a feature phone version of the app is in development. The publication further reports that the app will work on JioPhone, which itself runs on KaiOS.
Contact tracing is one essential method of curtailing the spread of Coronavirus. People may not even know they’ve been exposed to someone who has been tested positive for the COVID-19 infection. Apple and Google too came together for their own API for contact tracing, one that has stirred up plenty of controversy and concern. However, Germany recently announced that they will be using the tech giants’ API instead of developing their own app.
When the Aarogya Setup app had initially launched, there was some scepticism around the kind of information the app would collect from users’ devices. The government at the time had stated that the app would share the data only with the government, and would not make any user’s name or phone number available to third parties. The app, since its launch, has not sen any major privacy related controversy either.
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