Sony has announced that it will not be hosting its annual PlayStation Experience (PSX) event this year, at least in the United States. During episode 308 of the PlayStation Blogcast, PlayStation Worldwide Studios Chairman, Shawn Layden has confirmed the development. “For 2018, I know this is going to be a disappointment to some people, but we decided to not hold PlayStation Experience this year,” he said. Layden notes that there isn’t a lot of progress that they are making on the games that they can show. The company recently launched Spider-Man to favourable reviews (including us) and the is looking to 2019 with games like Dreams and Days Gone. “But we wouldn't have enough to bring people all together in some location North America to have that event. We don't want to set expectations really high and then not deliver on that. It was a hard decision, but we have determined that this year we will not hold PlayStation Experience,” Layden notes. While this may disappoint certain PlayStation fans who were looking for more news on upcoming PS4 exclusives like Death Stranding, Last of Us, and the Ghost of Tsushima, all of which are expected to be released next year, this move may be beneficial to all as the move may avoid oversaturating its fans with too much information. This is especially true with games like Death Stranding, where in the creator, Hideo Kojima seems to be reveling in teasing aspects of what the game is going to be about without revealing anything. Layden also talked about Sony's recent announcement of cross-platform play for Fortnite. He said that “This is something we know about. We know this a want, this a desire. And we want to be able to deliver that in the best way possible.” When asked if other titles besides Fortnite would be available fo cross-play, he said, “Right now its beta testing with Fortnite for cross play. I think that certainly that once we can prove this is holding together sturdy and well i would anticipate seeing other games in this service over time.” So if everything goes well, we might see even more titles support cross-platform play.
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Honor has announced a new Ultraviolet colour model of its Honor Play smartphone, which will be available exclusively via Amazon.in from October 3, 2018. The new colour model comes in a 4GB RAM + 64GB internal storage version and is priced starting at Rs 19,999. Honor Play was officially launched on August 6 in India in Navy Blue and Midnight Black colours. It also comes in a 6GB RAM variant, with the same 64GB of internal storage. The phone’s highlight is the inclusion of GPU Turbo technology, which is said to deliver a considerable boost in performance while keeping the power consumption low. In terms of specification, the Honor Play features a 6.3-inch IPS LCD display with a 19.5:9 aspect ratio and a 1080 x 2340p resolution. It is powered by the company’s Kirin 970 chipset, however, Huawei has confirmed that its upcoming flagship phones will be powered by the Kirin 980 SoC. On the rear, Honor Play features a dual-rear camera setup with a 16MP+2MP combination. On the front, it comes with a single 16MP unit. The smartphone is backed by a 3750mAh battery that supports fast charging and the device comes with more gaming-centric features like AI 3D Surround Sound, AI 4D Smart Shock, and as mentioned earlier, GPU Turbo. Honor says that GPU Turbo tech improves graphic processing efficiency of its phones by up to 60 percent, while reducing SoC power consumption by 30 percent. The feature is said to reduce jitter rate by maintaining the optimal FPS of the mobile device and the company has promised rolling out the GPU Turbo feature to other Honor devices via an OTA update. Honor says that AI real-time image and audio recognition is enabled for 30 different scenarios and 10 different vibrations. The company calls this AI 4D Smart Shock and the feature is said to enable users to experience different levels of vibration based on the direction of approaching enemies and gunfire. The Honor Play is also said to offer virtual surround sound which is supported by wired headphones. It calls this AI 3D Surround Sound. Honor last launched its Honor 7S in India, which goes up against the Xiaomi Redmi 6A smartphone. The handset features 2GB RAM + 16GB storage and is priced at Rs 6,999. The Honor 7S is powered by the quad-core MediaTek MT6739 SoC, and features a 5.45-inch HD+ screen with an 18:9 display aspect ratio. The dual-SIM smartphone runs on Android 8.1 Oreo and is backed by a 3020mAh battery, which is said to deliver an entire day of usage. In terms of optics, the Honor 7S comes equipped with a single 13MP rear sensor with PDAF support and LED flash. There is no second depth-sensing camera on the rear but it can still capture Portrait shots. On the front is a 5MP sensor. You can read our review of the Honor 7S here.
In a first, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has forced a suspect to unlock his iPhone X using Face ID. The US resident is now charged with receiving and possessing child pornography. The incident holds a lot of gravity due to the ongoing tussle between the law enforcement and technology giants, and builds on the previously reported case of FBI’s battle with Apple over the San Bernardino episode in 2016. According to Forbes, the investigation is the first of its kind by any police agency anywhere in the world, “not just in America.” The incident happened on August 10, when a FBI officer searched the house of 28-year-old Grant Michalski, on suspicion of him involved in child pornography. The officer reportedly had a search warrant when he asked the now alleged criminal to put his face in front of the phone. The FBI agent then picked up all the material, including the suspect's online chats, photos and documents, that he thought would play a crucial role in the investigation. Though the whole incident happened under the law, there are concerns about the use of such tactics by the authority. Feds have a history with these kinds of incidents. In one case, the Feds walked into a building and aksed everyone present there to open their iPhones with Touch ID. In one case, the Feds used the fingerprint sensor of a dead body to get past the protection of Apple's Touch ID technology. Forbes says that so far there is “no challenge to the use of Face ID in this case or others.” According to a US-based legal practitioner, the Fifth Amendment could help individuals protect themselves from incriminating in cases. The Fifth Amendment (Amendment V) to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights and, among other things, it protects individuals from being compelled to be witnesses against themselves in criminal cases. As for the suspect, the FBI has now found conversations over chat app Kik Messenger in which users discussed abuse of minors, according to the affidavit by the officer who searched the alleged criminal’s iPhone X. It has also been discovered that Michalski had used Kik “previously to talk with an undercover officer posing as a father interested in sex with children.” According to the investigator, the FBI has also found from the handset, that Michalski had posted an ad titled “taboo” and several emails have been shared from the phone in which the alleged criminal has discussed things like incest and sexual relations with minors.
LG has launched four new speakers under the XBOOM brand. The first is a Google Assistant-enabled smart speaker named WK7 that falls under the sub-brand XBOOM AI ThinQ. The three other speakers, PK3, PK5, and PK7, are portable Bluetooth speakers that fall under the sub-brand XBOOM Go. All four speakers use technology by Meridian Audio, the British audio components manufacturer. I had the chance to get a quick hands-on experience with LG’s new speakers last week. The experience was pleasant and promising to say the least. LG WK7 The star of the show, the WK7, is a cylindrical speaker with a grille mesh all around and controls on the top. The controls enable the user to play/pause music playback, increase and decrease volume, switch between functions, and awaken the Google Assistant. The voice assistant from Google wakes up to keywords like ‘Hey, Google’ and ‘OK, Google’. LG WK7 speaker with inuilt Google Assistant The WK7 also doubles up as a Chromecast Audio device, which means users can connect to the speaker as if it were any other Chromecast using the Cast option on supporting mobile apps. The speaker features modes like ‘Clear Vocal’ and ‘Enhanced Bass’ for an added boost in vocals and bass. According to LG, the speaker is certified for Hi-resolution Audio and can play lossless stereo audio at up to 24-bit/96kHz quality. It is also capable of 24-bit upsampling. F stands for Function During the live demo, LG representatives showcased the speakers on a demo stand designed specifically for these new models. They said it would go on all the shop floors of LG stores selling the speakers for easy demonstration. They demonstrated the ease with which one could instruct the speaker to play songs and change volume. They also showed how one could always press the ‘F’ (standing for Function) button on top of the speaker to connect to it like any other Bluetooth speaker. The speaker looked compact enough to be placed in bookshelves and atop bedside stands. At the bottom, it had a 12V round pin connector for charging. LG PK3, PK5, and PK7 All three XBOOM Go speakers are portable and are capable of playing music wirelessly via Bluetooth and aux-in. The PK3 is the smallest of the three. It has 16W speakers with two passive bass radiators on either side of its body. It’s the only one among the three to be IPX7 rated, making it swimming pool-friendly. It supports audio playback codecs aptX, SBC, and AAC. It has no lights inside or outside its body. On the back, it sports, inside a rubberised cap, a USB Type-C port for charging. During my brief time with the PK3, I observed that it was easy to turn it on and connect. According to LG, the PK3’s battery will last for 12 hours on a single charge. LG PK3 has no multi-colour lights inside The PK5 is the second biggest portable Bluetooth speaker of the three. It’s rated at 20W and its tweeters are accompanied by two passive radiators for simulated bass output. The PK5 too uses a USB Type-C port for charging. Unlike the PK3, the PK5 is not water-resistant but LG claims it’s splash-proof. It supports audio playback codecs aptX, SBC, AAC, and aptX-HD. The PK5 has multi-colour lighting inside its grille that can be controlled using LG’s Music Flow Player mobile app. According to LG, the PK5’s battery will last for 15 hours on a single charge. LG PK5 gets multi-colour lights and grab handles The PK7 is the largest portable Bluetooth speaker of the three. It employs dual tweeters and dual passive radiators on the sides. The speaker is rated at 40W. Since the PK7 is more powerful than the PK3 and the PK5, it uses a 12V round pin at the back for charging instead of a 5V USB Type-C port. Like the PK5, the PK7 too is only splash-proof and not water-resistant. It supports the same audio playback codecs as PK5: aptX, SBC, AAC, and aptX-HD. It also features multi-colour lighting inside its grille that can be customised using LG’s Music Flow Player app on smartphones. According to LG, the PK7 has a battery life of 20 hours. Personally, I found the the PK7 quite heavy to lift. LG PK7 is a bigger PK5 with a 12V power input Audio on all four speakers sounded full and unhindered during the demo, but only a full review will reveal the full capabilities of LG’s newest offerings. The XBOOM AI ThinQ WK7 is priced at Rs 27,990. The XBOOM Go speakers PK3, PK5, and PK7 are priced at Rs 10,990, Rs 14,990, and Rs 22,990 respectively. All four LG speakers go on sale this month in India in online and LG stores.
Science is paving the way for bringing lions back from the list of endangered species of animals. Two lion cubs, Victor and Isabel, have been born by the means of artificial insemination and scientists at the University of Pretoria, who are researching the reproductive system of female African lions, say that they are the first such pair of lion cubs in the world. Andre Ganswindt, the Director of University of Pretoria's mammal research institute, says that the two cubs, a male and a female, were born on August 25 and are healthy and normal. He further informs that they had collected sperm from a perfectly healthy lion and his team has pulled off the scientific feat after 18 months of intensive trails, reports AFP. The female lion that gave birth to the two cubs was artificially inseminated after her hormone levels were found to be viable. "And luckily it was successful," said Ganswindt, adding that "there were several attempts, but surprisingly it didn't take too much effort." As per the researcher, the breakthrough could be reiterated for saving other endangered species of big cats as well. Additionally, instead of transporting lions for breeding, the new method will enable scientists and breeders to simply move the sperm to receptive females. The research was carried out at the Ukutula Conservation Center, which is 80 kilometres northwest of Pretoria in South Africa's North West province. The findings are part of a research being done by Isabel Callealta, a Spanish veterinarian and PhD student at the University of Pretoria. Callealta trained the lions personally in such a manner that they lie next to a fence, where scientists can draw blood samples to determine hormonal levels and assess the perfect time for insemination. Imke Lueders, one of the scientists involved in the study, said "having the first lion cubs ever born from artificial insemination in their natural range country, and not in a zoo overseas, is an important milestone for South Africa." "Assisted reproduction techniques are another tool in our conservation box, of course not a sole solution, but another technology that we can use to protect endangered species," Lueders adds. As per the report, Lions are extinct in 26 African countries and their numbers in the wild have dwindled down to 43 percent over the last two decades, with roughly only 20,000 left. The new breeding technique provides some hope to bring these numbers back up again, and not only for lions but also for other big cat species. Cover and intext Image courtesy: AFP 
