Xiaomi Mi TV Stick Android-based streaming device could launch soon: Report

The Xiaomi Mi TV Stick, an Android-based streaming device that looks a lot like the Fire TV Stick has been making the rounds on the internet for some time now and it looks like the device is real. It was reportedly shown during a product briefing in Germany. The details of the device come from the German website WinFuture. The image of the device shows the streaming stick along with a remote control. The remote control with the Mi TV Stick looks exactly like the remote we have seen with the Mi Box 4K that recently launched in India. It has dedicated hotkeys for launching Netflix and Prime Videos and also a dedicated Google Assistant button. The device itself has a dual-tone black colour scheme in the image with half the device matte black while the other half is glossy. The specifications listed online show that the Mi TV Stick is similar to the Mi Box S which is available in the US.

There is no official information on the streaming stick and we don't know if and when it will come to India. There is no information on the pricing either. 

Coming to the Mi Box 4K, Xiaomi recently launched the device in India for Rs 3,499 and is available on Flipkart, Mi.com, Mi Home, and Mi Studios. Coming to the specifications, the Mi Box 4K has the ability to stream in 4K. It supports HDR 10 but does not support Dolby Vision. It supports Dolby Audio and DTS but not Dolby Atmos. It has a 64-bit 2.0Ghz CPU, Mali 450 GPU at 750MHz, 2GB DDR 3 RAM, and 8GB eMMC storage. It has a compact form factor and all the connectivity options are at the back. You have an HDMI 2.0b port to connect to your TV, a USB 2.0 port, and a 3.5mm audio port. The device also comes with a remote control which is a lot like the MI TV remote control. It has a power button, a dedicated button to bring up the Google Assistant, navigation, and hotkeys for Netflix and Prime Videos and also volume controls. The device runs on the Android TV platform. It also has access to the Google Play Store. You can check our FAQ about the Mi Box 4K here and our review of the device here. You can also see how it compares to the Fire TV Stick 4K here.

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Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge VR Experience Announced, Set Between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker

We’re getting a new Star Wars VR experience. ILMxLAB and Oculus are developing Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, which ties into the theme park attraction and is set between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

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Xbox Series X backward compatibility: Expect some serious upscaling chops

Microsoft’s next-generation console —the Xbox Series X — already looks like a powerhouse when you consider the specifications of the machine. Microsoft's deep dive back in March gave us a sneak peek at a few neat features like Quick Resume and better colours for backward compatible games in action. It looks like Microsoft wants to “up” your gaming experience by not only making games run faster but look better, all without any developer support - a concept that's been restricted to the PC space so far. The company has announced additional details about how backward compatibility will work on the new console. Let's break down what Microsoft has just revealed. 

“With more than 100,000 hours of playtesting already completed, thousands of games are already playable on Xbox Series X today, from the biggest blockbusters to cult classics and fan favorites,” says Jason Ronald, Director of Program Management for Xbox Series X. This means that if you have a large catalogue of Xbox One, Xbox 360, and even the original Xbox games lying around, you will more than likely be able to jump back into those experiences with the new console. 

Ronald goes on to say, “Backwards compatible games run natively on the Xbox Series X hardware, running with the full power of the CPU, GPU, and the SSD. No boost mode, no downclocking, the full power of the Xbox Series X for each and every backward compatible game.” The no boost mode, no downclocking does look like a jab at Sony, but the thing to note here is that you will be able to leverage the power of the Xbox Series X to play games that are more than 15 years old. Microsoft already highlighted this in the past, but they have reiterated that some games will be enhanced to HDR, even 4K in some cases, to give you a more immersive feel when playing age-old games. This is great as HDR is fast becoming a standard feature with new TVs and it will be a whole new experience to see a classic game in this new light.

One of the most interesting things that Jason Ronald says is, “We are also creating whole new classes of innovations including the ability to double the frame rate of a select set of titles from 30 fps to 60 fps or 60 fps to 120 fps”. Yes, 120fps on games sounds like a dream. We have seen games like the Batman Arkham franchise for the Xbox One and PS4 with its uncapped frame rate do a decent job on the One X and PS4 Pro and the ability to play a game like Halo 2, Gears of War or even Alan Wake at a higher frame rate will be a great experience. 

Despite the fact that Unreal Engine 5 is showing us what the future of gaming will like on the next-gen console, Microsoft is pouring a lot of hard work and effort into ensuring that you not only have a large library of games to look forward to on your new console, but you also have a huge library of games to get started on the console from the get-go. 

Finally, gone will be the days when one has two console generations sitting under the TV for the first year, just to be able to jump back in and play some old games. With the new initiative, gamers will finally be able to trade in or sell their old console for a new one without losing their library of games. 

Microsoft has been very open about the Xbox Series X and apart from one gameplay reveal event that got a bit of negative backlash, the rest of the Xbox Series X reveal has been extremely positive. Here’s looking forward to the next Xbox gameplay reveal where we could possibly see titles from Microsoft’s first-party studios.

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Xiaomi Mi laptops officially teased, launching in India soon

Xiaomi has officially teased that its soon going to launch its range of Mi laptops in India. The company’s Twitter handle posted a teaser tagging Dell, Acer, HP, Lenovo and Asus, confirming the much-awaited launch, that earlier leaks have indicated is set to happen sometime in June. 

While the company hasn’t revealed specifically which laptops are coming to India, previous rumours have indicated that it could be the RedmiBook 14. Having said that, as the tweet comes from the Mi Twitter handle instead of Redmi, we believe the company could launch Mi Book Air, Mi Book Pro or Mi Gaming laptop in India.

Some leaks and rumours in the past have also indicated that Xiaomi could introduce the RedmiBook in India as the trademark for RedmiBook was seen listed on the Indian Intellectual Property website hinting at an imminent launch. However, it remains to be seen whether the company will set foot in the laptop market of India with the RedmiBook range of laptops.

Xiaomi Mi laptops specifications

Xiaomi offers laptops under two brands in China-- Mi and Redmi with the latter targeted towards affordable offerings. In fact, the company recently announced three new laptops in the RedmiBook range of thin and light laptops in 13-inch, 14-inch and 16-inch screen sizes. These laptops are powered by AMD Ryzen 4000 series of processors paired with upto 16GB RAM and 1TB storage options to choose from. Though we still don’t know any details about the laptop(s) that are going to launch in India. 

Xiaomi laptops have been drawing much attention in India from the past few years after the company made its mark in the Indian smartphone market by offering affordable and dependable phones. Manu Kumar Jain, MD at Xiaomi India has previously highlighted the company’s ambition to launch laptops in India. By his own admission, Xiaomi laptops are something the Mi fans have been demanding since a long time and in a video released earlier this year, Manu assured that the company will have something for its fans “very soon”.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the launch schedules of many products for the year 2020 have been impacted and as such it could still be a while till we see Xiaomi release its first laptop in India. The latest leaks have indicated June as the possible month for the launch and we’ll know more as we near the official reveal.

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LGs 48-inch OLED finally starts shipping, coming to Asian markets in June

Earlier this year, LG had unveiled a new lineup of OLED televisions at Consumer Electronics Show called the CX series. The main highlight of the CX series was a never-before-seen 48-inch model, which caused a lot of excitement amongst consumers around the world. The CX series from LG would start at 48-inches and offer screens as large as 77-inches. While the CX series TVs had started shipping a few months ago, there was no sign of the 48-inch model, until now.

LG’s 48-inch CX OLED TV has started shipping in the United Kingdom and is expected to be available in other European and Asian markets later in June. The television carries a price tag of £1,499, which roughly translates to Rs 1,40,000. LG lists the price of the 55-inch variant of the C9 for Rs 2,29,990 on its website, but the television can be found for a much lower price of Rs 1,49,999 on Amazon India. Currently, the LG India website lists the 55-inch, 65-inch and the 77-inch versions of the CX series OLED TVs. The televisions are marked as “coming soon” and do not have a price listed. The 48-inch version of the TV is not yet listed either.

When LG announced the 48-inch OLED TV, it garnered a lot of attention, with plenty of excitement to go with that. The reason for this is because OLED TV manufacturers have started their range of televisions from 55-inches, a size that’s fairly large, and incapable of being fit in many homes. Homes across many countries such as the U.K., Japan and even parts of India tend to be on the smaller side, so a smaller OLED TV makes sense. However, many manufacturers say that an OLED with 4K resolution doesn’t make sense below a certain size since the visual acuity offered wouldn’t be much different from an FHD TV set in the same size.

Despite LG’s announcement of a smaller OLED form-factor, we are yet to see other manufacturers such as Sony make similar declarations. With the LG CX 48-inch OLED finally shipping to consumers, it would be interesting to see how the new form-factor pans out and whether it genuinely opens up a new market for the new television technology.

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Far Cry 5 is free-to-play this weekend, discounts on all games in the series

For gamers who have not gotten their hands on Far Cry 5 yet, we’ve got some good news for you as you will now be able to play the game for free this weekend. Of course, you will have to go through Ubisoft’s UPlay to do that. Another piece of good news for Far Cry fans is that the entire series is now discounted. Even though preloading is available now, you will be able to play the from Friday, May 29 to Sunday, May 31. 

If you’ve missed out on playing Far Cry 5, this is a great time to jump into one of the better open-world games out there. It’s got a pretty good story with an insane cult holding an entire town hostage somewhere in Montana. The environments are beautiful and incredibly detailed, giving you the feeling of being in the American heartland. The game is rather huge and two days is not enough to finish it, but you’ll definitely get a first-hand experience and maybe buy the discounted game after you’re done. And, if you feel like Far Cry 5 isn’t doing it for you, there’s always the rest of the games in the series that are on discount. 

If you’re still stuck at home and have run out of cool games to play, we’ve got you covered with this list of the best games across all platforms, right here. Ubisoft is also planning on holding a digital event to showcase more of their games in July. You can read more about that here. 

Check out gameplay from Far Cry 5 in the video below. 

 

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Apple retailers now offering custom-configurations for MacBooks and more

One of the biggest disparities between Apple’s markets elsewhere and India was that in India, the company only launched specific configurations for their laptops. In most other markets, users enjoyed the ability to configure their Macs to their liking. Well, all that’s started to change.

According to TechCrunch, Apple retailers in India have started accepting orders for custom-configured Apple machines, with a lead-time of 4-5 weeks. What this means is that you no longer have to settle for the limited configurations that are normally listed on the Apple India website. For example, the brand new Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch can be configured using an 8th or 10th generation Intel processor, along with up too 32GB RAM and 2/4TB of storage. However, in India, users would have had to choose between pre-configured systems. Now, they can simply go to an Apple retailer and order a custom-configured MacBook Pro 13-inch. This facility is available for all Apple computers.

It is interesting to see build-to-order systems being made available via retailers now. When we reviewed the 16-inch MacBook Pro, we had noted that Apple retailers in India could get custom configured builds of the laptop for customers, but that facility was available only for bulk/enterprise orders and required payment to be made in forex. The process now is not only much simpler but also open to everyone who wishes to use it.

The build-to-order facility comes via retailers just ahead of Apple launching its own webstore in India, with a physical sore expected to launch later next year. Apple’s ambitions were confirmed by company CEO Tim Cook himself during an investor call earlier this year, saying that the company had been trying to work out the permissions with the Indian Government. Despite the national lockdown brought on by the spread of COVID-19, it would appear that Apple is in track to realise its ambitions of a more substantial presence in India.

Currently, Apple sells its products in India via a massive network of distributors, which works fine when it comes to iPhone and iPad devices, but the more expensive laptops and computers offered by the company go into complicated territory. For a distributor to stock inventory of every possible permutation and combination of a laptop is just not feasible, which is why Apple only brought specific configurations to India.

Since these built-to-order systems are going to be imported, it would be interesting to see how this would impact the final price of the machines. We expect that import duties and shipping costs would have a noticeable impact on the final price tag.

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