Google Chromecast Ultra with a dedicated remote control could be coming soon

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 could go on sale from May 22 but will it launch in India

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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Madhav Sheth tweets screenshot of first UPI transaction on PaySa

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 update brings Rust map, new game modes, and more

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 official renders allegedly leaked ahead of launch on April 30

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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Garena Free Fires new Forsaken Creed Elite Pass offers new skins and rewards

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 Data Pack offers 2GB free complementary data to ease your month-end recharge woes

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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