Death Stranding Release Date Set for November 8, Pre-Orders Go Live and Editions Detailed

Death Stranding has finally been confirmed to release on November 8, and pre-orders for the game have now gone live with a total of four editions in tow.

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PUBG Mobile: 16-year-old dies of heart attack after losing in game

In yet another PUBG Mobile-related case, a 16-year-old kid died of a heart attack after playing the game for six hours straight, in Neemuch town of Madhya Pradesh. According to a report by The Times of India, the incident happened when Furkan Quereshi, a Class XII student, and his family were visiting a relative for a wedding. The kid’s father said that before collapsing on the floor, the boy was shouting and he was very agitated while playing PUBG. He also said that the kid was addicted to the game.

According to the victim’s sister, Furkan suddenly started shouting “blast karo, blast karo (carry out the blast).” Soon, he removed his earphones and was heard saying, “Ayan, I will not play with you. You made me lose,” before he collapsed on the floor. He was rushed to the hospital but was declared brought dead.    

“He didn’t have a pulse when he was brought in. We tried to resuscitate him, but he could not be revived. The excitement of the video game might have caused a surge in adrenaline, causing tachycardia (increased heart rate) and cardiac arrest,” The Times of India quoted cardiologist Ashok Jain, who examined Furkan, as saying. The victim’s brother said that Furkan sometimes played for 18 hours a day.

This is not the first death related to PUBG Mobile. Earlier this year, a 16-year-old student in Hyderabad committed suicide after being scolded for playing PUBG Mobile for too long. Kallakuri Sambashiva, a student, killed himself after his mother scolded him for playing the game instead of studying. According to Kallakuri father, when the kid’s mother scolded him for playing the game,he got angry and committed suicide by hanging in his bedroom.

As a remedy to this addiction, PUBG Mobile developers rolled out a Healthy Gameplay System notification that barred them from playing the game for more than six hours. PUBG Mobile was temporarily banned by the city administration of Rajkot and later by the district authorities of Gujarat in Bhavnagar and Gir Somnath. Hyderabad-based Forum Against Corruption is also working to get a ban on PUBG Mobile in schools. 

from Latest Technology News http://bit.ly/2WAoy8b

PUBG Mobile: Teen Allegedly Dies After Playing PUBG for 6 Hours

A 16-year-old boy died of cardiac arrest allegedly while playing PUBG Mobile for six hours at a stretch in Madhya Pradesh.

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Xiaomi can achieve 50 smartphone market share in India: Redmi GM

Highlighting that Xiaomi India is the number one smartphone player since the third quarter of 2017 (as per IDC), Redmi General Manager, Lu Weibing has said that the company can achieve 50 percent market share of the Indian smartphone market. Although the executive didn’t explain how Xiaomi is going to achieve this target, he did mention that the company would increase investment in India. Seperately, during the recent launch of the RedmiBook 14, Weibeing also said that the company "will roll out more mobile devices and develop products to cater to demands at office and home."

Xiaomi has been doing well in India. A recent report said that in the first quarter of 2019, Xiaomi dominated the top 5 best-selling smartphone list. The top three phones were Xiaomi Redmi 6A, Xiaomi Note 6 Pro and Redmi Y2. The company remained the smartphone market leader in the quarter with 29 percent share. Its newly-launched Redmi Note 7 series (Note 7 and Note 7 Pro) crossed the one million mark within the first quarter of its launch. Further, Xiaomi’s offline contribution was highest in March.

The reason for the company’s growth has been attributed to its aggressive offline expansion by increasing its number of retail stores (Mi Preferred Partners), Mi Homes, and Mi Stores specifically to target smaller towns. Recently, the company announced that it has opened its 1000th Mi Store in in Rewari, Haryana. It also opened its seventh manufacturing plant in India, in partnership with Flex Ltd.

On a global level, Xiaomi is the fourth largest smartphone brand in terms of shipments (Counterpoint Research). The market research firm said that the are now looking to expand into Europe. According to Weibing, Xiaomi will launch the Redmi brand in Latin America and Africa this year. Earlier this week, Redmi launched the K20 and K20 Pro smartphones in China. Weibing was closely associated with the launch as he was responsible for teasing the phone on Weibo.

Source 1, Source 2

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Latest smartphones with 6GB RAM starting at Rs 16,999

Fancy a phone with 6GB RAM? With the amount of RAM now increasing in phones at every price range, 6GB RAM phones have become a strong selling point,especially in mid-range smartphones. Most of the phones with 12GB and 8GB RAM come with a 6GB RAM variant while some 4GB mid-rangers also offer a 6GB RAM variant. 6GB RAM is that sweet-spot which neither feels overkill nor too less, and the available resources ensure the phone runs smooth in most scenarios. With 6GB RAM available, the amount of resource available for free will range around 30 to 40 percent in most cases which is a good thing, as that leaves enough resources to use when the phone is stressed.

These are the latest smartphones with 6GB RAM -

Samsung Galaxy A70 (Buy Here) Price: Rs 28,990

The Samsung Galaxy A70 is a high-end phone from the company’s A-series lineup. The Galaxy A70 comes only in 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant and is powered by the Snapdragon 675. It offers an expansive 6.7-inch Infinity-U display with a water-drop notch.

Oppo F11 Pro (Buy Here) Price: Rs 24,990

The Oppo F11 Pro is like the twin brother of the Vivo V15 Pro with very similar set of features like a 48MP camera, wide-angle lens and a pop-up front camera with bezel-less display. What’s different is the fact that the F11 Pro is powered by the MediaTek Helio P70 SoC along with 6GB RAM and up to 128GB storage.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro (Buy Here) Price: Rs 16,999

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro is highly popular particularly for the 48MP camera on the back of the phone. It also sports a powerful mid-range Snapdragon 675 processor that’s adept at gaming along with up to 6GB RAM and 128GB storage.

Realme 3 Pro (Buy Here) Price: Rs 16,999

The Realme 3 Pro acts as a good alternative to the Redmi Note 7 Pro with the Snapdragon 710 at the heart of things along with 6GB RAM and up to 128GB storage. The Realme 3 Pro sports the same 16MP camera that’s found on the OnePlus 6T and manages to take good photos provided the lighting is optimum.

Samsung Galaxy M30 (Buy Here) Price: Rs 17,990

The M-series smartphone from Samsung offers a large 5,000mAh battery and a triple-camera setup on the back. It also comes with a bright AMOLED display and offers 6GB RAM and 64GB storage.

Samsung Galaxy A50 (Buy Here) Price: Rs 22,990

This premium mid-range offering from Samsung comes with a wide 6.4-inch AMOLED display and is powered by the Exynos 9610 SoC along with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage. This one too rocks a triple-camera setup on the back and is marketed as a device for consuming content.

from Latest Technology News http://bit.ly/2wutAEH

Project Strobe: Google limits third party app access to Drive, Chrome extensions

Google has announced new policies for Chrome extensions and Drive that will restrict third party apps’ access to user data. Chrome extension developers will now be required to request the least amount of user data their app needs to function. Third party apps like Pixlr that connect with Google Drive to function in some situations, will now be be barred from accessing all files. The changes have been brought under Project Strobe that was launched last year to review how third party apps handle users’ Google account and Android device data.

Google says there are more than 180,000 extensions in the Chrome Web Store, and nearly half of all Chrome desktop users actively use extensions to customise Chrome and their experience on the web. “We’re requiring extensions to only request access to the appropriate data needed to implement their features. If there is more than one permission that could be used to implement a feature, developers must use the permission with access to the least amount of data,” Ben Smith, Google Fellow and Vice President of Engineering, said in a blog post. Google also said that under the new rules, extensions are required to post privacy policies. This will also include extensions that handle personal communications and user-provided content.

Additionally, the updated policy for third party apps that seek access to users’ Google Drive, will also give users more control over what data they can access in Drive. The apps will now be required to seek permission from the user each time they need access to a file. “With this updated policy, we’ll limit apps that use Google Drive APIs from broadly accessing content or data in Drive. This means we’ll restrict third-party access to specific files and be verifying public apps that require broader access, such as backup services,” Smith explained.

Google says that the announcement is being made in advance to give developers the time needed to ensure their extensions will be in compliance. These changes will go into effect early next year.

from Latest Technology News http://bit.ly/2Xi8jcO

MediaTeks 5G SoC solves one big problem, but has one major drawback

With Qualcomm and Huawei’s 5G modems now showing up in smartphones across 5G markets, MediaTek became the latest company to announce its entry into the space. At Computex 2019, MediaTek announced a 7nm 5G SoC becoming the first to claim rights to a microchip that has the CPU, GPU and the 5G modem integrated in the same silicon. It was a big move from the Taiwanese chipset designer, thwarting both Qualcomm and Huawei to the race to integrate the SoC with the 5G modem. But is that all there is to the story?

For one, the 5G chipset doesn’t even have an official name. It has the MediaTek Helio M70 5G modem integrated into an SoC that has the CPU, GPU and an APU. But there’s no confirmation whether the chipset is even ready, or MediaTek simply wanted to make noise about it before anyone else. The Helio M70 was announced at MWC 2019 and is offered as an affordable offering to OEMs. The company’s entry to the 5G space is important because Qualcomm and Huawei will spend the early years of 5G prevalence catering to the premium market, while MediaTek has focused primarily on the mid-range and entry-level space.

Next-gen CPU and GPU

The MediaTek 5G SoC is notable not just for the fact that it has the 5G modem integrated. For the first time, MediaTek can claim the bragging rights of announcing the latest microarchitecture that ARM announced just two days before MediaTek’s unveiling. The 5G SoC incorporates the newly announced ARM Cortex A77 cores as performance cores, along with the new Mali G77 GPU. The Cortex A77 improves upon the current DynamIQ architecture to offer 20-25 percent boost in CPU performance while the Mali-G77 features a whole new “Valhall” architecture that promises a big boost in efficiency, performance and in handling AI tasks. We will do another deep dive into the latest ARM cores and GPUs once these chipsets become a reality.

The MediaTek 5G SoC will also sport a new AI processing unit or APU as the company calls it. It can now apparently do more complicated AI tasks like de-blurring images (one of the examples the official website states). However, we don’t think the APU can still be configured to run custom AI tasks like what Qualcomm offers in its AI Engine. Instead, MediaTek preloads commonly required AI applications in the APU by default so that OEMs looking to cut down R&D costs don’t have to invest more to enable AI features on their devices. It’s primarily the reason why most budget MediaTek phones can offer basic features like portrait mode, AI filters and the likes.

This is also going to be the first 7nm SoC from MediaTek. The Helio P90 flagship SoC that MediaTek announced earlier this year was on a 12nm process. This should deliver higher power efficiency and the advantages of 7nm lithography can finally be exploited by the mid-range OEMs making affordable smartphones more powerful.

Integrated 5G SoC

The 5G modem integrated in the yet-to-launch chipset is the MediaTek Helio M70 that the company had announced back in MWC 2019 in Barcelona. The Helio M70 modem is capable of delivering 4.7Gbps download speed and 2.5Gbps upload speed and also supports multi-mode of 2G, 3G and 4G. However, there’s a big caveat. The Helio M70 only supports the sub-6GHz spectrum and not the mmWave spectrums. That’s a big fundamental difference between the Snapdragon 5G modems and the Balong 5000 5G modem, and the MediaTek 5G modem. But it does support both standalone and non-standalone 5G standards. That could be how the Helio M70 was integrated directly into the SoC. The mmWave modules of the modem is said to generate a lot more heat and isn’t quite energy efficient yet. I mean the spectrum is made of high-frequency microwaves. MediaTek got around the biggest challenge of integrating a modem by simply passing on the feature that’s causing the setback.

Having said that, it likely won’t hurt the chipset’s prospects in the market all that much. mmWave spectrum is presently only deployed in the United States and no other 5G markets. MediaTek will primarily target emerging markets where low-cost smartphones sell more than premium flagships. And in those markets, mmWave-enabled 5G connectivity is still far away. By not supporting a spectrum that won’t find any use in majority of markets anytime, it could be a smart move from MediaTek to keep the costs down, and achieve a feat its rivals are still trying to accomplish. However, the company could find itself at a disadvantageous position when mmWave connectivity do become more prevalent.

It’s also important to integrate the modem to the SoC. A discrete modem will take up extra space inside the phone where with pop-up camera modules, large batteries and the myriads of features, space is already on the down low. Most of the 5G phones announced this year are quite large in size, with enough surface area inside to fit the modem outside the chipset. By integrating the modem, maybe there can be space left for the endangered 3.5mm headphone jack?

MediaTek is well poised to bring 5G connectivity to emerging markets to mid-range phones. The question remains, by when? Both Qualcomm and Huawei are out with their 5G modems. The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and a host of other 5G devices announced at MWC 2019 are powered by the Snapdragon X50 modem which is discretely paired with the Snapdragon 855 whereas the Huawei Mate X and Huawei Mate 20 X, are the two only devices that runs on the Balong 5000 5G modem. We expect the MediaTek 5G SoC to start showing up in devices from 2020. But by then, it might remain the only SoC offering an integrated 5G modem.

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