Nvidia Said to Be in Advanced Talks to Buy SoftBank’s Chip Company ARM

Nvidia is in advanced talks to acquire ARM, the chip designer that SoftBank Group bought for $32 billion four years ago, according to people familiar with the matter.

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Black Shark 3S with 120Hz refresh rate display and Snapdragon 865 launched: specifications and pricing

Black Shark 3S has launched as a new flagship gaming smartphone and is a successor to the Black Shark 3 that was announced earlier this year. The Black Shark 3S is an incremental upgrade and comes with a high refresh rate display and faster storage standards but keeps the Snapdragon 865 instead of using the recently launched Snapdragon 865 Plus chip.

Gaming phone companies such as Asus and Lenovo have already launched their phones running on the latest Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset that is essentially an overclocked processor with an increased focus on some gaming features. Let’s take a brief look at the specifications and pricing of the Black Shark 3S.

Black Shark 3S specifications and pricing

Black Shark 3S has the same make as the Black Shark 3. It measures 10.4 millimetres in thickness and weighs 222 grams. The 3S features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution AMOLED screen with a 120Hz high refresh rate and certified for HDR10+ playback. There are noticeable bezels on top and the bottom side that are home to stereo speakers and front-facing camera. The only major highlighting difference between the Black Shark 3S and Black Shark 3 is the 120Hz refresh rate screen.

The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 650. This is paired with 12GB RAM and upto 512GB UFS 3.1 storage options to choose from. The Black Shark 3S runs on JoyUI 12 that is based on Android 10.

It comes with a triple camera setup on the back that consists of a primary 64MP camera, a 13MO ultra-wide-angle camera and a 5MP depth sensor. The rear cameras can record in 4K UHD at upto 60FPS. There’s a 20MP selfie camera on the front.

The BlackShark 3S uses an in-display fingerprint sensor and is equipped with 4720mAh battery with support for 65W fast charging out-of-the-box. The company claims the phone can go from 0-100% in 38 minutes tops. Moreover, the phone can also be charged via a magnetic charging adapter that connects to the back of the phone.

Black Shark 3S is priced starting at CNY 3999 (~Rs 42,800) for the base variant with 12GB RAM and 128GB storage, CNY 4299 (~Rs 46,000) for the 256GB storage variant and CNY 4799 (~Rs 51,400) for the 512GB storage variant.

 

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Honor MagicBook 15 powered by AMD Ryzen 5 3500U launched in India

Honor has launched the MagicBook 15 today, making it the first laptop from the brand to launch India. While Honor’s parent brand Huawei has been making laptops for some time, the company has refrained from bringing that portfolio to India. However, we get the Honor laptops, which are a very close alternative.

Honor MagicBook 15 Specification

The Honor MagicBook 15 being launched in ndia comes in a single variant. Users who are keen on getting the laptop will get a machine that’s powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor and Vega 8 graphics. The machine also packs 8GB of memory and a 256GB NVMe drive. The 15-inch display is a full HD IPS panel, so buyers can expect good viewing angles. The laptop also comes with a compact 65W charger that pushes 65W of power. In terms of security, users get a fingerprint scanner embedded into the power button. While the Honor MagicBook 15 does sport a webcam, it is embedded under one of the keys and hence, doesn’t come with IR hardware to support Windows Hello. The Honor MagicBook 15 also supports Magic Link 2.0, which allows transferring of files and content between Honor phones and the laptop.

Honor MagicBook 15 Price and Availability

The Honor MagicBook 15 will be available in a Mystic Silver colour variant in India. The laptop will be sold on Flipkart starting 6th August, and for Flipkart early access members, the sale will start from 5th August, 2020 8 PM onwards. Launched at Rs 42,990, the Honor MagicBook 15 will be available at Rs39,990 after Rs 3000 discount for the first sale. Customers will also get a No Cost EMI upto 12 months and a product exchange offer of upto INR 13,000. Honor MagicBook 15 comes pre-installed with Microsoft Windows 10 Home and all the users will get a free 1 month trial of the Microsoft 365 personal subscription.

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Google Pixel 4a confirmed to launch on August 3: Specifications and expected pricing

Google Pixel 4a is confirmed to launch on August 3 as the company has started teasing the phone on its website and official social media handles. “The Google Just What You’ve Been Waiting For Phone” is expected to be a reference to the much-awaited successor to the Pixel 3a. The Pixel 4a was reportedly set to debut during Google I/O 2020 which was moved to a virtual gathering due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

As a result, the launch was delayed due to COVID-19 which also seemingly caused some supply-chain disruptions. Nevertheless, Google Pixel 4a is likely to be launched on Monday, August 3 and is expected to launch in India as well. Given than the Pixel 4 didn’t make it to India, the Pixel 4a is slated to enter the mid-range segment going up against the likes of OnePlus Nord, Realme X3 SuperZoom and the likes. Google’s upcoming mid-range smartphone has previously been subject to numerous leaks and here’s everything we know about it.

Google Pixel 4a leaked specifications and expected pricing

Google Pixel 4a reportedly features a 5.81-inch Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution and uses an OLED panel. There’s is a punch-hole cutout in the top-left corner for the 8MP front-facing camera with an 84-degree field-of-view.

The phone is expected to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chipset with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 618 GPU. This is paired with 6GB RAM and 64GB/128GB storage options to choose from. The 4a does have the company’s proprietary Titan M security chip but likely misses out on the Pixel Neural Core.

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. The 4a is pre-loaded with the new Google Assistant and other features like Now Playing. It also comes with an assurance of getting Android updates for the next three years.

The Pixel 4a could be fitted with a 3,080mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging but skips out on wireless charging.

Google Pixel 4a is expected to be priced starting at $299 for the 64GB variant and $349 for the 128GB variant. This directly converts to around Rs 22,000 for the base variant and Rs 26,000 for the 128GB storage option for the Indian markets.

 

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What you need to know about Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Googles antitrust hearing

On July 29, CEOs of the 'big four' - Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon - testified before the House Judiciary's Antitrust committee at a historic hearing in the US. It was the first time when Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jeff Bezos testified at the house at the same time.

The tech giants were accused of distinct allegations. Amazon was questioned for its dominance over e-commerce, Facebook for controlling Instagram and WhatsApp, among other apps, Apple for its dominance over its App Store and Google for owning a humongous share of internet searches.

The hearing was conducted virtually over a video call, and it lasted close to six hours where the committee scrutinized all the CEOs one by one. The influential figures were served with brutal bashing and tough questions with documents that raised serious concerns about killing competition using unfair tactics and power. It was intense. So intense that world's wealthiest man forgot to unmute his mic before speaking.

The grilling session was not just long, intense and historical but also an eye-opener for the company's and its consumers alike. Although the US and India have different antitrust policies and consumer data protection laws, the session still gives us a glimpse of the issue that might arise in future.

The committee gathered over 1 million documents from Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon in its probe against them. Representative David N. Cicilline kicked off the hearing saying the panel had conducted a year-long investigation and found that these companies have “wielded their power in disruptive, harmful ways", which isn't fair for the competition and country's democracy. The purpose was to examine the dominance of these companies who own 70% of all online market sale in the US.

In their defence, each of the tech executives stressed on their contributions to the US economy. Facebook for free speech and expression, Google for ease of access to useful information, Amazon for making people's life easy with its services and Apple for providing an ecosystem of apps and its high products to support them.

Let's take a look at the most controversial questions asked each company representative during the hearing.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet

Google was explicitly accused of weaponizing its search engine to put rivals at a disadvantage and promote what makes them the most profit. Cicilline asked Pichai, "why does Google steal content from honest businesses?" He also accused that Google had “stolen content to build your own business,” referring its practice of culling and with search results displaying that information on top. Cicilline also accused Google of monitoring web traffic to “identify competitive threats.”

Pichai, in Google's defence, opposed the accusation of Google stealing content and putting rivals at a disadvantage. “Today, we support 1.4 million small businesses supporting over $385 billion in their core economic activity,” he said. “We see many businesses thrive, particularly even during the pandemic.”

In response to mulling search results for company profits, Pichai said, "We’ve always focused on providing users with the most relevant information." He claimed that the majority of queries in Google don’t show ads at all. "We show ads only for a small subset of queries, where the intent from users is highly commercial", he added.

Cicilline followed up by asking the value of Google's ads business, to which Pichai responded that it's around a hundred billion USD.

Pichai, in the end, tried to explain how Google also has competition by giving an example where he claimed 55% users come looking to shop online search for products on Amazon. 

The last question to Google was if it ever used its surveillance over web traffic to identify competitive threats. To which, Pichai replied, "just like other businesses, we try to understand trends from data, which we can see, and we use it to improve our products for our users."

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook

The wave questions to Mark Zuckerberg started with Facebook's political censorship and went on to the Instagram controversy where the social media giant is accused of killing the competition by acquiring it. 

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the top lawmaker on the House Judiciary Committee, mentioned of a 2012 message in which Zuckerberg has apparently stated that he sought to acquire Instagram, which was a rising threat to Facebook, considering it could "meaningfully hurt us". In addition to this, he also highlighted other Facebook communications that referred company's acquisition strategy as "land grab".

“Mergers and acquisitions that buy off potential competitive threats violate the antitrust laws,” Nadler accused. “In your own words, you purchased Instagram to neutralize a competitive threat.”

"I think with hindsight, it probably looks like obvious that Instagram would have reached the scale that it has today. But at the time it was far from obvious,” Zuckerberg said in his response. He gave Path's example, which was also a popular camera app when Facebook acquired Instagram and said, "it was not a guarantee that Instagram was going to succeed". He tries to explain if Facebook didn't acquire Instagram, it could either be a hit or could have been vanished by now. He claims it's successful because of their investment into infrastructure, security and promotion of the platform after its acquisition. 

The acquisition has done wildly well, largely because not just of the founder's talent, but because we invested heavily in building up the infrastructure and promoting it and working on security and working on a lot of things around this."

To conclude his part, Nadler closed the charge saying, "This is exactly the type of anti-competitive acquisition that the antitrust laws were designed to prevent. This should never have happened in the first place. It should never have been permitted to happen, and it cannot happen again."

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

Apple's hearing was relatively calmer compared to the other three. The company was cornered majorly for its level of control over the App Store and inequality among developers. Some lawmakers accused the company of taking up 30% commission on in-app sales and subscriptions, that has also troubled big companies like Spotify. These companies have to pay a significant part of their revenue to Apple to "fund the entire app ecosystem". 

Cook said that Apple has not raised its commission since the launch of the App Store in 2008. “We do not retaliate or bully people,” he said. “It is strongly against our company culture.”

In similar regard, Apple was accused of concerns that "the governing the App Store review process are not available to the app developers". Also, for changes its policies as per its benefit and not treating all developers equally. 

To which, Cook replied, "we treat every developer the same. We have open and transparent rules. It’s a rigorous process because we care so deeply about privacy and security and quality."

Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon

It was the first time for Jeff Bezos in front of the house, and it was intense scrutiny with tons of questions thrown at him. The key allegations were around, misleading the committee about its practices in controlling data from third-party sellers not treating its "partners" (small sellers) in the right manner and having a monopoly over them.  

Jeff Bezos denied the allegations of using third party seller data for their benefit. In response, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal revealed public reports that indicated to the contrary, prompting Bezos to offer an admission of potential fault. Bezos said, “what I can tell you is we have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private label business, but I can’t guarantee you that policy has never been violated.”

For the majority of the hearing, Bezos either said he couldn't answer the question or couldn't recall or identify the incident he was being asked about.

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EA Posts Strong Results on Increased Player Engagement, Video Game Sales During Pandemic

Electronic Arts on Thursday raised its full-year forecast for adjusted revenue after beating quarterly estimates, encouraged by strong player engagement and increased videogame sales to stuck-at-home gamers.

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Video Games Seen Becoming a New Frontier in Digital Rights

Critical digital rights battles over privacy, free speech and anonymity are increasingly being fought in video games, a growing market that is becoming a "new political arena," experts and insiders said on Thursday.

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