In Pandemic Times, All the Gaming World's a (Concert) Stage

Virtual concerts in Fortnite or on other gaming platforms, as well as streaming outlets like YouTube live or Twitch, are a different, much more elaborate animal than the concerts many stars have launched recently on Instagram or Facebook live apps.

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Aarogya Setu app now available for JioPhones

With the Aarogya Setu app reportedly being made mandatory for rail and air travel and also in private offices, India’s technology ministry has rolled out a version of the Bluetooth-based contact-tracing app for JioPhones, potentially acquiring five million active users on the app.

The development was first reported by Reuters last week, and the app is already rolling out to JioPhone users. India is presently undergoing the world’s largest lockdown to halt the spread of coronavirus. To help with contact-tracing, the government had launched an official app called Aarogya-Setu, which apart from tracking users via Bluetooth, also lets them take a self-assessment test and book a test to see if they are infected by the highly infectious virus.

The Aarogya Setu app relies on Bluetooth and GPS to alert users of infected people they may have come in contact. The app has been downloaded over 100 million times and was initially available on Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.

With cheap JioPhones in the fold, the number of downloads of the app should see a big hike. Furthermore, it will allow a lot of low-income households to take the self-assessment test and know how safe their area is.

Aarogya Setu app hacked by Bengaluru-based software engineer

While the contact tracing app garnered over 100 million downloads, issues regarding user privacy are causing outrage on social media. Most recently, Buzzfeed reported that the app was taken apart in a matter of four hours by a Bengaluru-based software engineer, and managed to bypass the essential steps in the app to allow the government to know your location and status. By the end of it, he was able to stop all invasive permissions to Bluetooth and GPS, so that the app couldn’t collect any data but still flashed a green badge showing the user was at low risk of infection.

Previously, popular France-based ethical hacker Robert Baptiste, who goes by the name Elliot Alderson on Twitter posted about some security lapses in the Aarogya Setu app which could potentially allow a malicious user to triangulate someone’s location from the app.

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Realme Watch officially teased by Madhav Sheth, set to launch soon

Realme will be unveiling the Realme Watch and a few other tech-lifestyle products in the coming days. Realme India CEO, Madhav Sheth tweeted a teaser video of the upcoming Realme smartwatch which states, “Realme Watch, See You Soon,” leaving no doubts over what the company is launching.

Watch me! Are you ready to join our journey in becoming India’s Most Popular Tech-Lifestyle Brand? Our next AIoT products are on the way? RT to show your excitement. pic.twitter.com/3Ny6EEDMi4

— Madhav @home (@MadhavSheth1) May 14, 2020

The Realme Watch was rumoured for a long time with multiple leaks revealing almost everything about the tech accessory. The watch will take on the likes of the Apple Watch, Fitbit Versa and other watches running on Google’s WearOS platform.

According to a previous leak by XDA-Developers, the Realme Watch will run on a proprietary OS, skipping WearOS which might restrict the availability of apps available on the Google Play Store.

Realme Watch Expected specs and features

Madhav Sheth was seen wearing the Realme Watch in an #AskMadhav episode, which confirmed the watch will sport a similar rectangular body like the Apple Watch.

According to the big XDA leak, the watch will sport a 1.4-inch TFT LCD display and a 160mAh battery with claimed 7-day battery life. The watch will also be IP68 water and dust resistant and support Bluetooth 5.0 along with a heart-rate and blood oxygen level monitor.

The watch will have a physical button to navigate the interface and can be used to lock and unlock the device. The watch is also expected to come with five pre-loaded watch faces with the option to install more via the companion app. The watch is also expected to support Hindi. 

In case you're interested in other Realme products, check out our exclusive interview with Realme India CEO, Madhav Sheth. 

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Epic Games Showcases Unreal Engine 5 Running on PlayStation 5, Launches Epic Online Services For Developers

Epic Games demos its next-gen Unreal Engine 5 game engine running on a PlayStation 5, showcasing photo-realistic textures and lighting. It also launched Epic Online Services for free to developers to incorporate in their games for a wider player reach across platforms.

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Dell XPS 15 and Dell XPS 17 launched: Everything you need to know

Over the last few months, there were multiple rumours of Dell refreshing the XPS 15 and also resurrecting the XPS 17. The last two refreshes of the XPS 15 have been very minute, with little to no cosmetic changes. However, this year’s refresh is one that’s considerably different from the XPS 15 we’ve all come to know over the last few years. When we wrote our first impressions of the Dell XPS 13 from CES 2020, we noted that Dell believed that a design change must not be for appearance only. Hopefully, the new look of the XPS 15 lives up to that.

Dell XPS 15 Specifications

One look at the new XPS 15 and you can tell it apart from the previous year's models. For starters, the black trim around the sides is now replaced with a uniform silver trim that matches the rest of the laptop. The back of the base is also now slanted, instead of being straight. These two details, combined with the fact that we now have a 16:10 aspect ratio display and the lack of any USB-A ports make this new XPS aa new design altogether. In terms of specifications, the new XPS 15 will be powered by Intel’s 10th generation processors, starting from the Core i5 and going all the way to Core i9. When we reviewed last year’s model (Review) we noted that the Core i9-9980HK still throttled, although after a much longer period of time in comparison to the Core i9-8950HK counterpart (Review). IT would be interesting to see if the behaviour persists this year, given that the chassis is thicker by 1mm at its thickest (18mm now vs. 17mm last year). Users will be able to choose from a host of RAM options going all the way up to 64GB DDR4-2933MHz memory, with the base model starting off with just 8GB RAM. Storage wise, PCIe NVMe drives are standard and range from 256GB options all the way up to 2TB. The XPS 15 will be available in two display options, 1920x1200 and a UHD+ (3840x2400) touch-enabled panel. Both the display options are Dolby Vision certified while the 4K panel carried a VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification as well. The new XPS 15 can also be paired with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti with 4GB of dedicated video memory. Lastly, the new XPS 15 ditches the USB-A ports and replaces them with two Thunderbolt 3.0 ports on the left and a Type-C port right next to a full-sized SD card reader on the right.

Dell XPS 17 Specifications

Perhaps the bigger news of the day from Camp Dell is the announcement of the larger Dell XPS 17. This is a laptop with a 17.3-inch display and packs an optional RTX 20 series GPU, a first for the Dell XPS series. The XPS 17 will be powered by Intel’s Comet Lake-H processors, with the choice starting at Core i5 and going all the way up to Core i9. The XPS 17 is slated to be the most powerful laptop in the XPS lineup, and keeping in line with that, it gets twice as much storage and RAM. You can configure the new XPS 17 with up to 2TB of NVMe storage and 64GB of DDR4-2933MHz RAM, however, the base configuration still starts at 256GB storage and 8GB RAM. The display resolution options remain the same as the XPS 15, a choice between FHD+ (1920x1200) and UHD+ (3840x2400). Both the panels are Dolby Vision certified and carry a brightness rating of 500-nits. A more notable feature of the XPS 17 that sets it apart from the smaller XPS 15 is the choice of Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. Those looking to buy the XP S17 can choose to equip their machines with an RTX 2060 or a GTX 1650Ti. The XPS 17 does not include any USB-A ports but instead packs 4 Thunderbolt 3.0 ports along with a full-size SD card slot. The new XPS 17 will measure 19.1mm at its thickest and will start at a weight of 2.5 kilograms.

A few features that are common across the XPS 15 and the XPS 17 are the top-placed webcams and of course, the 4-sided InfinityEdge display. Dell had figured out narrow bezels on three sides, but the bottom bezel had always been thick due to the placement for the timing controller in that area. First implemented with the XPS 13 announced at CES 2020, Dell has slimmed down the bottom bezel too by moving the timing controller behind the display assembly.

Dell XPS 15, XPS 17 Price and Availability

The new Dell XPS 15 has already gone on sale in the U.S. for a starting price of $1,299. The laptop is expected to make its way to Asia sometime this week, but any India specific launch timelines are still under wraps. The Dell XPS 17, on the other hand, will be available later this summer, starting at a price tag of $1499.99

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Epic Games mystery free game could be GTA V

It looks like the mystery free game that will go live on the evening of May 14 IST on the Epic Games Store could be GTA V. the information comes from gamepressure who have learned from an anonymous source, that, “we will be able to download Grand Theft Auto V for free on the EGS from tomorrow (May 14) through May 21”. The site goes on to claim that the game available on the Epic Games Store will not be the single-player campaign or the multiplayer, but the Premium Edition with added content. So you are getting the complete GTA V experience with this. 

GTA V was released back in 2013 and was a cross-gen game available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 along with the PS4 and Xbox One in addition to the PC. As of May 2019, 110 million copies of GTA V were sold making it one of the best selling games of all time. Within 24 hours of its release, Grand Theft Auto V generated more than $815 million in worldwide revenue, which is about 11.21 million copies sold. Six weeks after its release, Rockstar had shipped nearly 29 million copies of the game to retailers, exceeding the lifetime figures of Grand Theft Auto IV. So the fact that it is free is nice, but how many of you are yet to play this game?

Speaking of Epic Games, the company showcased its new Unreal Engine 5 running on the PlayStation 5 and boy-o-boy does it look impressive. The engine shows off the ability to showcase high-resolution textures and lighting which looks truly next-gen. We had a chance to speak with Mr Quentin Staes-Polet, GM India, and SEA-Epic Games about the new engine and its features and you can read more about it here. Since the engine is designed to take advantage of the features available on next-gen consoles, you can check out the details of the PS5 here and Xbox Series X here. 

 

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iPhone SE 2020 to go on sale from May 20 on Flipkart with a Rs 3,500 discount

While the iPhone SE 2020 is expected to be available across all retail channels, the new budget iPhone is yet to go on sale anywhere because of the ongoing lockdown nationwide. However, Flipkart has listed the iPhone SE 2020 with a date of sale, as well as an attractive discount.

The iPhone SE 2020 will go on sale from May 20 on Flipkart with an HDFC Bank discount of Rs 3,600. The base variant with 64GB is priced at Rs 42,500 but you can pick it up for as low as Rs 38,900. Similarly, the 128GB and 256GB variants are priced Rs 47,800 and Rs 58,300 respectively. The discount is available for HDFC Bank card users.

Apple has stated the iPhone SE (2020) will be made available to more than 3500 retailers across India. The Rs 3,500 discount is also applicable on IndiaiStore, which is a website of authorized Apple distributors in India.

You can pick up the new iPhone SE (2020) in White, Black and Product (RED) colour options. 

iPhone SE (2020) specs and features

The iPhone SE (2020) makes use of a lot of elements from the iPhone 8, including the 4.7-inch Retina HD IPS LCD display with Apple TrueTone for accurate white balance. Apple claims the panel offers a peak brightness of 625nits and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10. The phone also comes with TouchID biometric authentication.

The phone is powered by Apple’s latest A13 Bionic SoC and rocks a single 12MP camera with f/1.8 aperture and OIS at the back. The rear camera is capable of shooting 4K videos at 60 FPS, smart HDR, and portrait mode (only for human faces). On the front is a 7MP selfie camera with f/2.2 aperture and most of the same features as the rear camera.

The iPhone SE (2020) is also IP67-rated water and dust resistant and supports 18W fast wired charging and as well as wireless charging. Apple claims the battery can be charged to 50 percent in just half an hour, although you have to buy the 18W fast charger separately.

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