GameStop's Newest Job Posts Hint at Blockchain-Powered Plans Beyond NFT Marketplace

GameStop's latest job postings share an inside look at their plans in the metaverse, including blockchain, Web3, and hints towards a futuristic NFT marketplace.

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Battlegrounds Mobile India offers bonus UC, special events and more to celebrate Diwali

With Diwali just around the corner, Krafton Inc. has announced special offers for Battlegrounds Mobile India players in order to celebrate the occasion. These include extra UC for buyers who purchase UC. Further, there is also a special Diwali Event that tasks players with collecting lamps  

Battlegrounds Mobile India: Extra UC

All players who purchase UC will get additional UC for free. The base pack with 60UC will cost Rs 75. If they spend Rs 380 to get the usual 300UC, they will get an extra 25UC. Similarly, those spending Rs 750 to get 600UC will get a bonus of 60 UC, while spending Rs 1,900 for 1500UC will net an extra 300UC. The two most expensive packs with Rs 3,800 (3000UC) and Rs 7,500 (6000UC) will offer an extra 850UC and 2,100UC respectively. 

Battlegrounds Mobile India: Diwali Event

As mentioned earlier, Battlegrounds Mobile India’s Diwali Event tasks players with collecting diyas (lamps). These can be collected by playing squad matches. These diyas can then be changed for rewards at the in-game Exchange Center. These include the Rock Star - Mini14, Cool Cat outfit, and the Cool Cat Headband.

In related news, Krafton Inc. announced that it had banned 81,049 account at the start of October. These accounts were banned within a one-week period between October 1 and October 7. The developers further added that they conducted a thorough monitoring on cheaters among the leaderboard. This resulted in the permanent banning of 517 accounts from September 25 to October 13.

Battleground Mobile India’s competitor, Free Fire, is also hosting in-game Diwali celebrations. These include free rewards for players who top-up on Diamonds, which is the in-game premium currency. There are also specific Diwali-themed in-game items that players can purchase. Meanwhile, free-to-play players can win rewards by simply winning matches. 

Also read: PUBG: New State Releasing On November 11, Offers Weapon Customisation, New Player Recruitment System And More

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Intel unveils 12th Gen Core Alder Lake hybrid desktop processor lineup, price and availability

Intel has officially announced their 12th Gen Alder Lake hybrid desktop processors during their Intel InnovatiON virtual event. These new processors are built using the Intel 7 process (previously known as Intel 10nm Enhanced Super Fin process) and utilise a hybrid architecture that includes powerful P-Cores to handle demanding workloads and efficient E-Cores to handle less intensive workloads. Intel hopes to win back the desktop CPU performance crown with the help of Alder Lake CPUs that boast of having enough power to take the single threaded performance crown while also providing decent multithreaded performance on account of the E-Cores. In fact, Intel claims that just the E-Cores on the 12th Gen Core processors can provide similar multithreaded performance at 1/4th the power of their older 11th Gen Intel Core processors. The top of the line Intel Core i9-12900K will feature 8P and 8E cores which total up to 24 threads (only the E-Cores feature multi-threading) and will have 20 PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes. All Alder Lake desktop processors will require LGA1700 motherboards and as of launch, there will only be the top-of-the-line Z690 chipset based boards available for sale. The Intel Core i9-12900K will be priced at USD 589 which works out to be around INR 44,182 (direct conversion) or INR 52,135 (if you factor in taxes). The launch lineup does not include Core i3 entry-level processors so budget builds will still have to resort to either AMD Ryzen 3 CPUs or Intel 10th Gen Core i3 CPUs.

Intel 12th Gen Core Desktop Processors

The Intel 12th Gen desktop processor lineup will only have six processors at launch. This includes two each under the Core i9, Core i7 and Core i5 segments. This leaves out budget PC builders for the second time in a row since even the 11th Gen Rocket Lake launch did not include any Core i3 processors. Here’s the full lineup of Intel 12th Gen Alder Lake processors.

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JioPhone Next confirmed to launch by Diwali, Google CEO Sundar Pichai reveals in Q3 earnings call

Reliance JioPhone Next is confirmed to launch by Diwali in India, Google CEO Sundar Pichai has revealed in the Q3 earnings call. Reliance has also confirmed the launch date to be November 4 and has also revealed the key features of the JioPhone Next. 

The JioPhone Next is an affordable 4G smartphone that is expected to help existing 2G feature phone users migrate to 4G LTE connectivity. As per an estimate, there are over 350 million feature phone users in India and Reliance along with Google want to help them transition to faster internet connectivity.

In a Q3 earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said, “The JioPhone Next device features premium localized capabilities and is on track to launch in-market by Diwali.”

The JioPhone Next was announced during the 44th Reliance Annual General Meeting 2021 and recently, Reliance Jio revealed its key features. The JioPhone Next runs on Pragati OS which is based on Android and is developed in collaboration with Google and Jio. 

It is expected to be powered by a Qualcomm chip and has a 13MP primary camera with features like portrait mode, night mode, filters and more. While the exact details on specifications, pricing and availability remain under wraps, previous leaks indicate that the phone could be powered by the Snapdragon 215 chip and could be priced at Rs 3,499.

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Facebook Will Spend About 10 Billion This Year To Create its Metaverse

Earlier this month, whilst in the midst of a controversy, Facebook boldly announced its intention to create a metaverse - a concept that enables shared experiences using virtual, augmented and physical reality. Now, the trillion dollar social media platform has announced that it plans to invest $10 Billion in Facebook Reality Labs, which will create hardware and software designed to make the metaverse a reality.

What is Facebook’s Metaverse?

Additionally, the company said that it will be reporting revenue generated by Facebook Reality Labs separately from Facebook, the social media platform. This indicates to investors that the two are separate entities and should be judged as such.

“We plan to break out Facebook Reality Labs, or FRL, as a separate reporting segment. As we have discussed, we are dedicating significant resources toward our augmented and virtual reality products and services, which are an important part of our work to develop the next generation of online social experiences,” stated the company in its third-quarter earnings release.

Facebook Falls Short of Revenue Expectations

While some may consider Facebook’s decision to reveal its plans about the Metaverse right in the middle of a controversy odd, this may very well be a strategic move on the company’s part. The social media giant may be trying to distract investors from the fact that its earnings were $ 1 Billion short of what it had projected for the year. While Facebook is blaming the economy, the pandemic and Apple’s recent privacy changes for the same, the truth is that the company is under a lot of heat ever since the whistleblower revealed that it knows exactly how Instagram harms teens' mental health. 

“We expect our investment in Facebook Reality Labs to reduce our overall operating profit in 2021 by approximately $10 billion. We are committed to bringing this long-term vision to life and we expect to increase our investments for the next several years,” the company added in its third-quarter earnings release.

The Metaverse, if successful, will revolutionise communications, advertising, and gaming across the board. 

Also Read: What do Civil Unrest in Myanmar, Ethiopia, India and the US have in Common? Facebook

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Snapchat Now Has 100 Million Monthly Active Users in India

Snap Co-Founder and CEO Evan Spiegel announced that Snapchat now has 100 million monthly active users in India during the virtual Snap for India 2021 event on Wednesday. The platform also claimed that it has seen a surge in new advertisers by 70% in 2020 and is introducing new monetisation streams for users who plan to create content on Snapchat.

Snapchat reveals its partners in India

During the event, Snapchat also revealed its partners in India, highlighting how the company plans to expand its reach further. They announced that they are working with e-commerce giant Flipkart in order to create an AR-based experience centered on shopping online. To do so, Snap plans to deploy its camera kit, which is basically an end-to-end solution for third-party users. The same will be integrated with Flipkart’s Camera Storefront, so that users can experience products and shop for them.

On a similar note, Snap is also partnering with Zomato to offer AR-based solutions that will allow people to place orders straight from their personal maps on the Snapchat app. Snapchat is also partnering with Sugar cosmetics and MyGlamm to help consumers try out products before purchasing them.

“We have made significant investments to localise the Snapchat experience for the Indian community. We have added culturally relevant content, developed highly active and creative local creator communities, and invested in local products, marketing initiatives, and language support,” Spiegel said in a prepared statement.

Snapchat is partnering with Jio Phone Next

Snapchat is also partnering with the new Jio Phone Next by making its lens available on the native camera app of the smartphone.

“If you look at a JioPhone Next through our partnership with Google, when you open up a JioPhone Next and you open the camera, Snapchat is not even there but when you open up a JioPhone Next camera the Snapchat lenses are gonna be inside the camera, like native camera integration of our Snapchat lenses,” Nana Murugesan, Managing Director of International Markets at Snap, told Gadgets 360.

Also Read: Jio Phone Next features and launch date: Everything you need to know

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WhatsApps iOS to Android history transfer tool made available on Pixel Phones

Last month, WhatsApp’s cross platform chat history transfer feature debuted on Samsung Galaxy devices, enabling users to preserve their information when migrating from one OS to another. Now, the feature is being made available across the larger Android ecosystem, with the rollout to Google Pixel devices initiated.

Who can use WhatsApp’s history transfer tool?

While the chat history transfer tool can be used on Samsung Galaxy devices running Android 10 and higher, it will only work on smartphones with Android 12 when used on devices from other manufacturers. As a result, it is currently only available on Google Pixel 3 and above, as these devices have already received the Android 12 update.

How to transfer your WhatsApp chat history from iOS to Android?

In order to transfer your WhatsApp chat history from iOS devices to your new Android device, you will need a Lightning to USB Type-C cable. You’ll also need to scan a QR code that will show up on your iOS device to be able to initiate the transfer of data.

With Android 12 rolling out to new devices soon, more people will be able to migrate from iOS to Android without worrying about losing their Whatsapp data. 

Also Read: Over 3 Million WhatsApp Accounts were banned in India from June-July

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