Redmi allegedly teases smartphone with 64MP camera

Rumours about smartphones featuring a 64MP camera have been making the rounds since Samsung unveiled a 64MP camera sensor back in May 2019. Now, Redmi has posted a teaser on Weibo for its alleged 64MP camera smartphone. Previously, it was being speculated that Realme would be the first brand to introduce the world’s first 64MP camera smartphone, since the company posted a teaser on Weibo for the same in June 2019. However, it is now possible that Redmi could beat Realme and Samsung to release the world’s first 64MP camera smartphone.

It is being claimed that the teaser Redmi posted on Weibo is from it upcoming 64MP camera smartphone. The teaser posted zooms into the picture of a cat to show crisp details around its eye. The image did not say anything specifically, so unfortunately, that’s all we got from the official teaser. Even if smartphones were able to produce 64MP images years ago, this is the first time a sensor is able to yield photos with such detail.

Additionally, XDA spotted a reference for 64MP “ultra-pixel” mode in the MIUI Camera app. “ The strings cited by the developer also correspond to a default text, “64MP DUAL CAMERA,” for the watermark on images,” said XDA.

The 64MP camera sensor, launched by Samsung recently, is expected to show up in devices in the second half of the year. Given the timeline, Redmi is said to be working on a phone with the same sensor. However, a Samsung Galaxy A series smartphone is expected to be the first phone to come with the sensor. Also, Samsung claims that its 64MP sensor supports up to 100dB of real-time HDR, which is 66% higher than the convention 60dB HDR on other devices.

According to GSMArena, “there is likely to be a 64 MP toggle to use all the pixels, but this is recommended to do only in good lighting because it does not provide such extra detail as the binned version." We also expect improved autofocus and Full HD videos at 480 fps.

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Vodafone India debuts Rs 205, Rs 225 bonus prepaid recharge plans

Expanding its prepaid recharge options portfolio, Vodafone has introduced two Bonus Card, Bonus recharges in select telecom circles. According to TelecomTalk, these two new prepaid Vodafone plans are priced at Rs 205 and Rs 225, and will be available for people in Karnataka, Bihar & Jharkhand, Delhi NCR, and UP (West) circles. The availability of these plans in other circles is not known yet. Read on to know more about these plans. 

Vodafone Prepaid Rs 205 Plan

As mentioned, it is a bonus plan and it does not come with talk time benefits. With a recharge of Rs 205, users will get 2GB of 3G/4G data for the entire validity period of 35 days. When it comes to calling, subscribers will get free unlimited local, STD and roaming calls. As far as messages are concerned, customers will get 600 free SMS messages for the entire validity period. Subscribers will get free Live TV, movies and more on the Vodafone Play app.

Vodafone Prepaid Rs 225 Plan

Just like the Rs 205 plan, the Rs 225 plan is also a Bonus Card. It is available with a longer 48-day validity. This plan does not offer any talk time but comes with free local, STD and roaming calls, 4GB of 3G/4G data for the entire validity period, and 600 SMS messages in addition to free Live TV, movies and more on the Vodafone Play app.

Recently, Vodafone announced a revision to its Rs 139 prepaid plan that offered up to 5GB data benefit for 28 days. It now offers 3GB data for 28 days. Alongside the monthly data, it still offers unlimited national calling with roaming and 300 SMS messages.

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Cyberpunk 2077 will have difficulty settings aimed at casual players as well as hardcore players

In an interview with wccftech, the developers behind the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 shed light on some burning questions, including the game's difficulty, performance on consoles and more. Let's get the obvious out of the way. CD Projekt Red has confirmed that Lady Gaga is not in the game. In the interview, Alvin Liu from CD Projekt Red said, “She’s pretty cyberpunk, so she could fit in! But um, yeah, no Lady Gaga.” At E3 2019 it was revealed that the Matrix and John Wick star, Keanu Reeves would don the role of Johnny Silverhand and the details of the character in the game are still a mystery. The only thing confirmed is that Johnny Silverhand is dead in the game.

Speaking about the difficulty of the game, CD Projekt Red has highlighted that there would be a Hardcore setting, where the UI (or HUD) of the game will be turned off making it quite tricky for players. We have seen something similar in Metro Exodus for those that want a point of reference. 

At the same time if you are a casual player and want to experience a story, then worry not. There is an Easy mode for you to work with. In the interview, CD Projekt Red says, “If you want to play more casually for the story and maybe you’re not experienced with shooters, which was a real big concern for us. We want to tell a story and maybe you’re a big fan of The Witcher and you’re not comfortable playing a shooter, we have settings available for that. We even have weapons for that. If you recall from last year’s demo, we had a weapon called the smart gun, which helps you aim. The bullets were much slower and usually a bit weaker. But if your aiming isn’t your forte, you can always pick up the smart gun”. This is a smart way to ensure all category of gamers enjoy the game. How the difficulty works is something we will be able to tell you when we get our hands on it. 

The developer has also confirmed that the game will support ray tracing on PCs that have compatible hardware. Speaking of the performance of the game on consoles, the developer says, “We have a very custom engine, the RED Engine. And actually, we’re targeting consoles as first-class platforms and it looks amazing there. So obviously, if you spent, you know, $2,000 building your PC rig, it’s going to look better on that. But the graphics are quite amazing for what you’re going to get from Cyberpunk 2077 on consoles and low-end PCs”.

Calling Cyberpunk 2077 one of the most anticipated games of 2020 would be an understatement. It releases on 16 April 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Apple could bring 120Hz displays on next years iPhones

Apple is reportedly contemplating doubling the refresh rate on the next year’s iPhone's display. Right now, all the newest iPhone models have a display that sports 60Hz as its refresh rate, and doubling it would mean that the next round of iPhones, with their 120Hz display, could offer some really stunning experiences. The report is based on a tweet by Ice universe, which says that the phone has a switchable display and that ir could be sourced from LG and Samsung.

High refresh rate in displays serve the added benefit of offering higher frame rates while gaming, provided the CPU/GPU combination supports it. In addition to that, you also get an extremely fluid UI experience that makes other phones seem “not as smooth.” There are a number of phones in the market right now that support high refresh rates in the display, such as the Razer Phone 2 with its 120Hz display, the ROG phone with its 90Hz display, and the most accessible OnePlus 7 Pro, also with a 90Hz display. Of the three phones, only the ROG Phone and the Razer Phone 2 have a game library that supports the phones’ high refresh panels. Apple too in fact has a mobile device with a 120Hz display: the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro models launched in 2017 (and later) all sport what Apple calls the ProMotion Display, which is a wide-gamut 120Hz panel. However, the iPad Pro model displays are all IPS LCD whereas the modern iPhone models all sport OLED panels.

High refresh display seems to be picking up popularity, especially amongst mobile gamers. For all the benefits of a high refresh rate display, it also comes with its own set of downsides, the biggest being a hit on battery life. We noted in our OnePlus 7 Pro review that the battery life of the phone was cut down to just about a day, which is far lower than what OnePlus phones traditionally deliver, which is a near-2-day battery life. Apple utilises a smart switch method on its iPad Pros to increase battery life, that is, the display switches down to 24Hz when vieweing a static image, 48Hz when streaming video content and then ramping up to higher refresh rates while gaming.

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Android Qs new Fast Pair feature makes managing your truly wireless headphones easier

Earlier this year, at I/O 2019, Google made a series of announcements to improve connection with Bluetooth devices on Android. The tech giant has now revealed the next wave of updates that should make managing your Bluetooth devices on Android even better. The update, which will add deeper support for truly wireless headphones, is said to be arriving “later this year.” The new update in the Bluetooth Fast Pair feature on Android includes connected device details, and Find my Device in Android Q.

At the time of its announcement, Fast Pair was aimed at making the Bluetooth setup process on Android seamless. Till now, it could automatically recognise headphones near your phone, and connect to them easily with one-tap pairing. Now, with Android Q, Fast Pair will add deeper support for truly wireless headphones, meaning that phones will eventually be able to show the individual battery life data for the case and each earbud independently as well as pop up that information when opening or closing the case.

“Fast Pair devices will soon be surfaced in the Find My Device app and website, allowing users to easily track down lost devices. Headset owners can view the location and time of last use, as well as unpair or ring the buds to locate when they are in range,” said Google in the official blog post.

Moreover, Google will also add an enhanced Bluetooth device details page to centralise management and key settings for Fast Pair devices. As for the existing headphones, the Google Pixel Buds, Bose QuietComfort 35 II, and more will get all the features of Fast Pair. 

Here is the specific official list of additional Fast Pair compatible headphones:

Anker Spirit Pro GVA Anker SoundCore Flare+ (Speaker) JBL Live 220BT JBL Live 400BT JBL Live 500BT JBL Live 650BT Jaybird Tarah 1More Dual Driver BT ANC LG HBS-SL5 LG HBS-PL6S LG HBS-SL6S LG HBS-PL5 Cleer Ally Plus

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PUBG Mobile 014 beta brings helicopters in the lobby, riot shield, dog companion and more

PUBG Mobile 0.14.0 update is likely to introduce a host of new elements and features. Based on footage revealed by Mr Ghost Gaming on YouTube, PUBG Mobile is all set to get new weapons like a riot shield, a new zombie mode and helicopters in the lobby. There are also new customisation options for your avatar and by the looks of it, a dog companion.

The footage reveals the UI of the game will be changed in the upcoming update. Gun schematics will be more detailed and there will be dog companions in the loading lobby. The new UI changes the way maps and modes are displayed. It looks more seamless and not as cluttered as before.

The new Zombie mode is at present unclear as to what it is and how it works. The text was in Chinese in the footage leaked in the video, but it joins the Zombie Darkest Night and Zombie Survive Till Dawn 2 along with the new Team Death Match mode.

Speaking of Team Death Match, more weapons are being added to the mode. We spotted AWM and Level 3 armour strewn around the arena, which should make this more fun.

There are also helicopters in the lobby and we don’t know why. They are ready to lift off but you can’t do anything on them, neither are they present in any of the maps. It could be that PUBG is teasing a new collaboration but we will have to wait for more details.

Furthermore, there will be more options to customise the voice of the in-game chat and there are new backpack skins to choose from. The weapons armoury is also updated with more detailed schematics of all the guns. There’s also a riot shield, which you can probably use and it should be able to block bullets from the front.

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Redmi K20 price cut: Disgruntled fans sign petition, expect range to start at Rs 20,000

The Redmi K20 and the Redmi K20 Pro were launched in India last week. While the flagship Redmi K20 Pro was announced with a starting price of Rs 27,999, the Redmi K20 is priced at Rs 21,999. People showed their displeasure at the Redmi K20 pricing to such an extent that the company had to come out with an explanation about the asking price of the phone. It seems that people are not satisfied with the company’s take on the phone’s pricing and have started a petition demanding that the price of the phone to be brought down to Rs 20,000 (for the 6GB RAM and 64GB storage variant).

Yes, you read that right. One Vivek Chauhan started a petition tagging Xiaomi, Redmi and the company India MD Manu Kumar Jain asking them to reduce the base price of the phone to Rs 20,000. He has invited people to sign the petition, which was started on Change.org. At the time of writing this story, 3,346 people have already signed the petition with the number likely to increase in the coming days. Further, people are also seeking a price cut on the 6GB RAM and 128GB storage variant.

The petition mentions that high cost, in addition to the random popping up of ads, is “not acceptable.” Xiaomi has been open about monetising its OS by serving ads to users. At the launch of the K20 Series, the company had said that it wouldn't have ad-supported monetisation. “For a premium series, like the K-series, we are kind of looking at a different model here where these will not have ad-supported monetisation,” Anuj Sharma, Head Of Marketing, Xiaomi India, had said. Later, Jain got involved and said that the company would continue to monetise the OS in different ways, that is, via Mi Music, Mi video, Mi Pay, among others.

Last week, Jain had explained the pricing of the Redmi K20. For the record, the Redmi K20 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 processor - the first device in India to have this chipset. Jain said that since the Snapdragon 730 is newer than other Snapdragon 700-Series mobile platforms, whose prices have depreciated, the K20 is priced higher than those phones. 

“Snapdragon 730 is the third-fastest chipset from Qualcomm, it's the latest one. When you buy a chip early on, something like this, it's a lot more costly. If you go to buy 730 two years down the line, it would of course be much cheaper. Right now people are basically comparing it with other 700 series phones, where the price has depreciated over the last 15-18 months. The Redmi K20 would be a lot more expensive, just the raw material is a lot more expensive,” Jain had said. You can read the full review of the Redmi K20 here.

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