Sony Increases Prices for PS4 Slim and PS4 Pro Consoles, PS4 Slim Reportedly Gets New Bundle

Sony has increased the price for its PS4 Slim and Ps4 pro consoles, which will be in effect once the lockdown is lifted.

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Xbox Series X First Gameplay Footage to Be Live Streamed on May 7

Microsoft will be live streaming gameplay footage from the Xbox Series X for the first time on May 7. Demos will be showcased from “global developer partners.” Here’s how you can watch the live stream.

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Apple iPhone 12 series pricing leaks, shows no 5G premium

Rumours and speculations around the upcoming iPhone 12 are getting more and more rampant. We’ve had rumours around specifications, model types and now, there’s a notable leak around the pricing of the upcoming iPhone 12 models. The leak comes via tipster Jon Prosser who had also leaked the April 15 date for the iPhone SE launch. According to Prosser, there will be four 5G models of the iPhone 12 and they are going to be priced rather aggressively.

The first of these is said to be the Apple iPhone 12, a budget iPhone with an OLED panel. The smartphone will sport a dual-camera setup on the back, while also sporting the company’s newest SoC. While the name still remains unconfirmed, this device with its 5.4-inch display will be the most budget-friendly device, with a price tag starting at $649.

The next model up in the ladder would be the Apple iPhone 12 Plus/Max, a device whose name is not yet confirmed. This device will sport a 6.1-inch OLED panel with a smaller notch in comparison to the iPhone 11 Pro. The phone is expected to come with dual cameras on the back, sport the A14 Bionic SoC along with 5G capabilities. This particular, larger iPhone will start at a retail price of $749.

The two other models in the 5G lineup are the iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max, both of which are rumoured to sport a triple camera setup along with a LiDAR sensor like the one found on the recently launched iPad Pro. The iPhone 12 Pro is expected to sport a 6.1-inch OLED panel while the iPhone 12 Pro Max will retain the 6.7-inch OLED display. Both the phones are expected to have displays capable of 120Hz refresh rate as well. The iPhone 12 Pro is expected to have the price tag of $999 while the larger smartphone is said to be priced at $1099.

If the above pricing does end up holding true, this would be the first time Apple would sell an OLED-equipped iPhone for under $999. This would also be the first time Apple would create a second version of the non-Pro based iPhone. Currently, the iPhone 11 series consists of the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The iPhone 12 series, according to Prosser, seems to also add an iPhone 12 Max/Plus, a first.

Apple is expected to host its iPhone event in September like always, but the event may be moved by a few days or weeks due to the current COVID-19 situation. Additionally, given that we’re still many months away from the actual launch, a lot can change between now and then. A few weeks ago, Ming-Chi Kuo had noted that there would be a delay in the launch of the 5G variant of the iPhone 12 due to delays in the testing of the 5G modem.

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Xiaomi smartphones are tracking private web and phone usage of millions of users: Report

Xiaomi smartphones aren’t as innocent as they look. While the world (led by the US) waves a stern finger at Huawei, alleging the presence of backdoors for the Chinese government to spy on foreign users, a seasoned cybersecurity researcher has found smartphones manufactured by Xiaomi are “backdoors with phone functionality,”

As reported by Forbes, a security researcher discovered his Redmi Note 8 has been monitoring almost everything he did on the smartphone and sent the data to remote servers owned by Chinese giant, Alibaba. The researcher found disturbing amounts of usage being tracked and data being harvested using a shoddy encrpyption standard, that can be easily decoded to plain text and leave individual identities exposed.

Xiaomi is tracking your every move

Gabi Cirlig, a noted security researcher found his Redmi device was recording all the websites he visited using the default Xiaomi browser, including his search engine queries on Duck Duck Go and Google. All the items viewed in the news feed, as well as activities in the ‘incognito mode’. Furthermore, he found the device was monitoring the folders he opened, the screens he swiped to (even the status bar and Settings page) and all the data was being sent to servers in Singapore and Russia, owned by Alibaba and rented by Xiaomi.

Forbes also reached out to another cybersecurity specialist Andrew Tierney who confirmed the massive data leak happening out of Xiaomi smartphones. He found the same tracking code in Xiaomi browsers available on Google Play Store that have over 15 million downloads.

While only the Redmi Note 8 was caught red-handed harvesting user data, firmware for the new Mi 10, Redmi K20, and the MI Mix 3 also had the same browser code, proving the expensive flagships aren’t quite innocent either.

The harvested data is encrypted but can be easily cracked

Forbes reported that even the way Xiaomi is sharing the data is suspicious. Upon reaching out to Xiaomi, the publication learnt the data was being encrypted when transferring to protect user privacy. However, the researcher was quickly able to decode a chunk of information because the encryption standard followed can be cracked easily. It reportedly took him only a few seconds to see what was behind the encryption. The report claims Xiaomi uses Base64 encryption standard, something that has been known to be intercepted by malicious players and decoded into plain text without much of a hassle. This leaves millions of Xiaomi users at risk of their data being stolen and used for frauds and scams.

“My main concern for privacy is that the data sent to their servers can be very easily correlated with a specific user,” the researcher told Forbes.

Xiaomi confirms harvesting user data

Xiaomi denied the allegation in a statement to Forbes. claiming the research is flawed and added privacy and security are top concerns for the company. A spokesperson did confirm, however, that the devices are collecting browser data but the information was anonymized so that it can’t be tied to an individual. The spokesperson also said users have consented to such tracking.

Xiaomi also cited ‘behavioural analytics’ as a reason for harvesting user data. The company is using the services of a behavioural analytics startup called “Sensors Analytics”, based out of China. The domains where the data is being sent to have references to the company, with an API present in the phone to facilitate the harvesting.

That Xiaomi and Sensor Analytics are working together is confirmed by the Xiaomi spokesperson. The startup even has Xiaomi listed under its client list. However, the spokesperson maintained that the data is only stored on servers owned by Xiaomi and not shared with Sensor Analytics or any other third-party companies.

We have reached out to Xiaomi independently to enquire about the allegations, and as of publishing the article, the company is yet to get back with an official statement.

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Reliance to launch Jio Meet video calling app: Everything you need to know

Reliance Jio has revealed that it’s soon going to announce Jio Meet, it’s nation-wide video calling platform that is set to take on the likes of Zoom and Google Meet amidst the Coronavirus outbreak. The newly minted Jio Platforms that recently saw investment by Facebook to the tune of $5.7 billion is also partnering with WhatsApp that will see Reliance Retail leverage the Facebook-owned instant messaging service for JioMart.

In its Q4 fiscal results, Reliance mentioned that it is launching a video calling platform for India and in a statement to the media, Pankaj Pawar, Senior VP at Reliance Jio Infocomm said, “Jio Meet is a platform which has many unique options- it actually has an ability to work on any device, any operating system, and it has an ability to do a complete collaboration. And effectively, this collaboration does not limit to a typical video conferencing app.” As people are forced to change ways of working due to the COVID-19 crisis, video calling has emerged as a necessary tool for businesses to function.

However, Jio Meet isn’t your regular run-of-the-mill video calling solution as the company also plans to integrate its eHealth platform with it, thereby allowing users to consult with doctors online and much more. Notably, Jio already has an app on Google Play Store listed as JioHH Doctor that allows doctors to offer their services online. According to the listing, the app was released only recently on March 29.

Jio Meet will likely offer similar features when it is officially launched. A report by News18 (owned by Reliance Industries Ltd) states that the Jio Meet app will work across different platforms and will be available on Android, iOS, macOS, Microsoft Windows and also “as a third party plugin for Microsoft's Outlook email service” for enterprise customers.

Moreover, the service will also be available on browsers as it seems to have a dedicated website that will allow users to join a meeting, irrespective of the platform they’re using.

Jio Meet was previously listed on the Google Play Store with over hundreds and thousands of installs but has been taken down, likely in the heads up to the official launch. Nevertheless, here’s your first look at Jio Meet video calling app by Reliance and how to use it when it is available on your phone. 

Jio Meet video calling app features

Reliance Jio has hinted that it’s readying a video conferencing solution called Jio Meet that will be launched in the coming weeks. However, the beta version of the app hit the Play Store a while back, raking in hundreds of installs after being taken down.

The website for Jio Meet is listed on Google Search and you can visit it by going to https://jiomeet.com/, however, it isn’t live yet and you’ll be greeted by the message saying “Thank you for your interest in JioMeet.”

With Jio Meet, users can initiate a video conferencing with their friends, family or even work calls. The service supports group calling of up to 5 members however that could be increased by the time the app goes official. In one of the screenshots on Play Store, the number of users is more than 200 which hints at the possibility of the increase in limit, at least for enterprise customers.

The company has said that it is ensuring that the service is easy to use and doesn’t come with a lot of frills. It is also being said that the final version of the app will have health features along with integration with education services like virtual classrooms and more.

The app also offers host control options and records logs of audio and video calls. Users can share the meeting link and give attendees the pin password to join the call. Jio Meet is also capable of adjusting video call quality according to the network zone and ensures zero lag.

Jio Meet video calling app: How to use

While the Jio Meet app hasn’t been officially announced yet, the beta versions of the apps were listed on Play Store and Apple App Store but have been taken down. Nevertheless, here’s how to use Jio Meet once it goes live.

Download Jio Meet from Google Play Store or Apple App Store

Open the app and you will be greeted with a login page that asks email for access. We believe this is for the enterprise users once the app goes official.

Tap Sign-in with OTP on the bottom right corner, just below the login button.

Enter your mobile number to get a verification code and enter the OTP to log in.

Once logged in, you can make audio and video calls and can even initiate a group video call by adding you Jio Meet contacts to a group.

As we mentioned, this is as far as the beta functionality goes as the final build could come integrated with health and education services. We’ll keep an eye out for you for when the service goes live.

 

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Xbox Series X next-gen gameplay reveal event set for May 7

Microsoft has taken to Twitter to announce their next Xbox Series X event. The event, which will be a digital-only event, will take place on May 7 at 8:30 PM India time. Microsoft has tweeted, “You want to see games for the Xbox Series X? We want to show you games for the Xbox Series X. Check out First Look next-gen gameplay from our global developer's partners within #InsideXbox on Thursday, May 7 at 8am PT.” Since the tweet reads, “gameplay from our global developer's partners”, we think this will be the platform where Microsoft will show off what other developers are working on that will make an appearance on the next-generation consoles. As for first-party games, we think the reveal will be down the line for what Microsoft’s 16 first-party Xbox studios have to offer. It has been confirmed that gameplay for the recently revealed Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be shown off at Microsoft’s May event. Speaking of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the game saw the official unveiling of a gameplay trailer and you can check out details of the game here. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will be released for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, and PS5 towards the end of 2020. 

At E3 2019 and E3 2018, Microsoft made it a point to show off a lot of games during their press conference to cement the fact that they were committed to the Xbox and gaming. We think the upcoming May event will be filled with gameplay reveal after reveal from new and existing games. It is possible we get to see more details on the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 among other games. 

Microsoft has been front and centre about giving gamer information about the upcoming console, the Xbox Series X. Microsoft took the stage at the Game Awards 2019 to announce the name and the look of the console along with a trailer that showed off Hellblade Senua’s Saga. In 2020, Microsoft gave us an in-depth look at the specifications and build of the console. 

Sony, on the other hand, has only shown off the PS5 controller dubbed the DualSense and revealed the specifications of the PS5. It makes sense that Sony is quiet about the PS5 as they still have 2 big games set to launch in 2020 - The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima. You can read more about the new release date of the two games here. 

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SoloCoin goes on to win at EUvsVirus hackathon after winning CODE19 in India

SoloCoin is an app that encourages people to stay at home during the pandemic, with reward tokens, which can be exchanged for discounts on services that are useful during the lockdown, such as Netflix and Swiggy. The app came in third at the CODE19 hackathon organised in India on April 10, with the winners announced 4 days ago. The CODE19 hackathon was an effort to quickly find technological solutions for the challenges faced by the Covid-19 outbreak and the following nationwide lockdown. On April 30, there was more good news for the app, as it went on to win first place in the “other” subcategory of the “Social & Political Cohesion” category of the pan European EUvsVirus hackathon. 

The founder of the app is India based Arbob Mehmood, a 22 year old who has previously founded Bramble. The main product of Bramble is an API that allows developers to reward gamers in cryptocurrencies for playing their games. The experience Mehmood gained from working with Bramble was used to work on SoloCoin. Specifically, a similar gamification system was used to reward people for staying at home, instead of playing the game. SoloCoin is an app that gamifies social distancing and rewards people with SoloCoins, a token currency within the application, that can be exchanged for discounts of services such as Amazon, Netflix, Swiggy, Zomato and other services that are required for staying at home. Currently, the coupons offered on the app are sourced through third party affiliates, but the team is working on integrated these coupons natively.  

Building a team and onboarding partners

Mehmood is an avid reader of our magazine, and we reached out to him to learn more about the application. One of the things that we noticed was that signing up for the app has a waitlist,and it has not been released just yet. If you are interested in the app, you can sign up for the waitlist here. One of our first questions was, why does the app have a waitlist in the place? Mehmood replied, “The app is still in development. It’s in private beta right now and is only accessible via an invite-only system that too within our community. We are planning on launching this app next month globally so we want some people to try it firsthand and give feedback so that we can release a relatively bug-free app.”

One of the effective ways in which the app, and the invite system is marketed and propagated, is through social media influencers. We asked Mehmood how the experience of working with influencers was. He responded, “I had worked with influencers in my previous startups, so, it was not new to me. We also have a community member with lots of influencer connections that helped us in connecting with them. The primary thing to know while talking with influencers is their charge because they negotiate way too much. Now, we were lucky here because we are an open-source startup tackling the COVID crisis so many of them agreed to do some of the marketing for free. Influencers can get you a great RoI if you choose them carefully according to your target market and have a way with negotiations.”

One of the reasons why the app is so successful, is that Mehmood put together a really good team to work on it. This team includes many people from around the world, who are really enthusiastic about the idea of the app. We asked him about the team and how it came together. Mehmood responded, “When I had the idea, I was building it on Python's Beeware toolkit which ports python code to a native mobile app. But it's features were limited. Then, I heard about COVID hackathons happening across the country. So, I started to scout for members across hackathons. Since the idea was innovative and impactful, many amazing people joined my team. then the team decided to make it on native Android and iOS directly for better usability and support. We have a group of open-source collaborators from around the world including startup founders & CXOs, people from IITs, BITS, Stanford, Microsoft, Uber, Github, Neuro-Researchers, and more among our community. The core team has 7 people in it with 20+ contributors across the different domains. The community count is 300+. The product is built 100% remotely.”

Apart from a great team, Mehmood has managed to onboard a large number of partners in a remarkably short span of time. We asked him how he achieved this, to which Mehmood said, “cold emails. Linkedin messages to senior employees and twitter DMs. basically, hustling our way through the partner contact. Our community members have worked very hard to get partners on board, however, we are still waiting for big guys like Amazon, Zomato and Swiggy to respond and officially come onboard (The coupons you’re seeing on our app page is basically affiliate coupons from other coupon websites.) but other big brands like Yatra’s CEO, 1MG, FitIndian, etc. have showed interest in us and are looking to integrate their services on our app. Again, a sense of contribution towards something bigger has helped us a lot in the exposure of our product. Brands genuinely want to join such noble cause and do their part in stopping the spread of COVID. So, I’d like to take this opportunity and invite potential partners who are reading this to join us, promote your services on our app, and help stop the spread of coronavirus.”

One of the things that really stood out to us was how awesome the UI was. We asked Mehmood about the process behind creating this aspect of the app. Part of the magic is continuous iterations based on user feedback. Mehmood responded, “we are an open-source, decentralized, community-based initiative. Brilliant People from all walks of life, around the world, have come together to make this app a success. Me and my teammate handle most of the design. I have great amount of experience in designing consumer and blockchain apps and my teammate Adesh Bhansali (a graduate from the Indian school of design and innovation) work on all the designs. I create a rough wireframe/mockup and he adds necessary colors and makes it more aesthetically pleasing to the users. Then we show the designs to the community and get feedback. Getting feedback is the most important part here since it helps us in getting different perspectives and ideas. Our primary goal with the design is to make our core features easily accessible and feel pleasing on the eyes so that people can interact with it more. And, after we’re done we finalize it and move it to frontend devs for final integration.”

One of the things that Mehmood pointed out to us, was that what really motivated people in using the app was not the money they got for discounts on products and services, but the knowledge that their efforts had in some way contributed to the global fight against the pandemic. We probed Mehmood on how he came to this realisation, and he said, “One thing I've noticed while building our product is the founder's vision and the potential impact of the said product is very important. When I first pitched the idea of SoloCoin, I was alone. But the idea was innovative and has never been done before. The vision I put to gamify social-distancing and help to stop the spread of COVID resonated with people and that helped us in getting amazing people with great skills from all over the world to voluntarily work on my idea without any financial incentive. I don’t think this would’ve have been possible if I had pitched a me-too idea or a less impactful idea in front of people. This is true for regular users and potential customers as well. There are many rewards app but the only reason we have received this much interest from the community and waitlist registration is that we were doing something that will help make the world a better place. We have learned that working towards something bigger is a much bigger reward than any discounts. With our app users had a sense of belonging and contribution towards a bigger cause. They are proud of it. And, it doesn’t hurt that by doing so, they can earn rewards and recognition in their social-circle.”

Future plans

We then asked Mehmood on what are his future plans for the app, now that SoloCoin has won a national level and an international hackathon. Mehmood replied, “Currently, our app is focused on the COVID-affected world and how it can help stop the spread of coronavirus. Our near-future plans are: Proximity-based social-distancing to track if the user in your proximity is infected or not, rewarding for good habits like washing hands, timely self-isolation, Yoga, etc. determining efficient/less crowded routes for commuting and avoiding people, giving users the possibility to chat with nearby quarantined people, map list of nearby available essential stores for groceries, medicines, etc and giving users the possibility to add a mask to their profile picture to tell people they are practicing social-distancing.”

We asked Mehmood what his plans for the app are once the pandemic is over. The answer was really interesting. The app that rewarded people for staying at home, will shift to reward people to coming together! Mehmood replied, “For the post-COVID world, We have identified many ideas on what we can do with our tech post-COVID. Our app can be used for concerts/stores, basically to gather people. The more they stay the more they earn. That way sponsors will get better revenue as well. Office spaces can use this (technology) to incentivize the employees to stay in longer to increased points (the longer they’re connected to the office wireless can be a marker). At the current stage, the app is used as a Social-distancing app with a home geo-fence. After COVID, we can increase the geo-fence to multiple locations like concerts, malls or local stores. Now if you think about it we're venturing into not a consumer app space, but rather the ad-tech space. Our app can now be at the forefront of hyperlocal based targeted ads, basically directly competing with Google's and Facebook's Pay Per Click.”

We then asked Mehmood to share with us, and other readers his personal journey with Digit as a reader of the magazine. Mehmood replied, “Digit has played a vital role in the development of my tech/startup mindset. I’m reading Digit since I was 13, mostly purchased from the nearest railway station. I used to read Chacha Chaudhary and Billoo a lot during those times. But one day while I was browsing for something different I encountered Digit. The shopkeeper recommended to me that it has computers and mobile phones in it. I loved computers and working on the computer since when I was 8 but never thought to do anything with it except for getting a job. Once I got the magazine I was hooked. I got into tech after reading amazing articles on digit. I realized how awesome career in tech can be. Not to mention the articles about tech entrepreneurs have motivated me to start my own tech startup and that led me to learn to program and founding my first startup at the age of 17.

I was fortunate enough that my parent have allotted the money for me to purchase two magazines each month - one digit and another Chip, every month. But let me tell you, digit was an expensive magazine for any 13 yr old at that time and buying directly from stores is not at all cheap. I used to eagerly wait for the 2nd date of every month for Digit to get to the store. However, I somehow convinced my parents to let me subscribe to the digit, and to this day I subscribe to it. (I, however, paused the subscription due to severe lack of time because of my startup and COVID, but expecting to resume soon) The things digit taught me about tech and the awesomeness in tech are priceless and I thank every digit member and their articles, which helped a simple boy from small town to put on a path to tech-entrepreneurship and help me reach where I am today. But, picture Abhi baaki hai mere dost. Much more amazing things to come as I’m still 22.”

We followed that up by asking Mehmood what his favorite sections were, to which he replied, “My favorite sections are: Robert’s Column (1st priority), Agent 001 (For recommendations and error fixing - I like to be called the Tech guy in my network.), the reviews (because not everyone in the tech has a better parameter to judge gadgets like you guys), Digit Diary and boo-man obviously (To get a different perspective of the world), the small article snippets on the top (much informative stuff there), DGT section (love moonshot products), and last but not the least, ANNIVERSARY EDITIONS.” Watch out for our next anniversary edition, which is right around the corner. 

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