Microsoft's New Flight Simulator Game Takes Off With French Studio in Cockpit

Many aircraft are still grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic, but would-be and real pilots took to the virtual skies on Tuesday with the first update in years of Microsoft's venerable Flight Simulator game.

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Asus Zenfone 7 pricing allegedly leaks ahead of launch on August 26

Asus Zenfone 7 could be priced starting at EUR 499 in Europe as per the latest tweet by Winfuture journalist, Roland Quandt. Asus confirmed the launch of the successor to the Zenfone 6 (Asus 6Z in India) the other day and the phone looks set to go up against the likes of the OnePlus 8 and Apple iPhone SE (2020).

According to the tweet by Quandt, the Asus Zenfone 7 could come packed with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865+ chip and 5,000mAh battery to boot. The base variant with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage will allegedly go up for 499 Euros while the maxed-out variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage could be priced at EUR 549. This roughly translates to a starting price of around Rs 44,000 by direct conversion. Considering that the Asus 6Z was launched in India starting at Rs 31,999, we expect the company to go aggressive with the pricing of the Zenfone 7/Asus 7Z in India.

ASUS Zenfone 7 w/ SD865+ 8/256GB and 5000mAh sounds like it could be a good deal at 549 Euro.

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) August 18, 2020

Asus is said to launch at least two smartphones in its Zenfone 7 series, one is expected to be a regular Zenfone 7 while the other is speculated to be a Zenfone 7 Pro version. While Qualcomm has previously confirmed that the Zenfone 7 will be powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset, there are rumours that the Zenfone 7 Pro could be powered by the overclocked Snapdragon 865+ chipset.

Moreover, an Asus phone bearing the model number ASUS_I002D was spotted on Geekbench and the listing suggests that it is powered by a Snapdragon 865+ processor running at upto 3.09GHz and could be the Zenfone 7 Pro. However, it remains unclear whether both the phones in the Zenfone 7 series will be powered by Snapdragon 865+ or only the Pro variant.

Asus Zenfone 7 leaked specifications

Asus Zenfone 7 has been leaked previously and is expected to feature a 6.7-inch high refresh rate display, upto 16GB RAM and upto 256GB storage options to choose from. The flip camera system as seen on the Zenfone 6 is set to return, but we are yet to know more about it.

The new phone is confirmed to pack the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus SoC, which is tipped to offer an improved gaming performance. The new Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset has an improved 10 per cent performance over the Snapdragon 865 which means that the prime core can now run at up to 3.1GHz clock speeds with 10% boost in graphics rendering.

There’s currently no word as to when the Zenfone 7 will launch in India. However, we can expect Asus to launch the phone in India soon as it did with the Asus ROG Phone 3 which was launched in India at the same time as the global launch.

Having said that, Asus can’t launch the Zenfone 7 in India with “Zenfone” in the name as a result of losing a trademark case to Telecare Network India. Therefore, it is expected that Asus will announce the Zenfone 7 series with Asus 7Z and Asus 7Z Pro whenever it launches in India.

 

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Internet Explorer will die a lonely death on August 17, 2021

In exactly a year, Microsoft will bid farewell to Internet Explorer 11 by ending support for the browser across its Microsoft 365 Apps and services. Internet Explorer 11 will be shut down on August 17, 2021 and will no longer be supported on Microsoft’s services like OneDrive, Outlook and more. Even before all that, support for Internet Explorer 11 in Microsoft Teams will stop from November 30th, this year. 

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been the ubiquitous browser for many Windows users since the early days of Windows PCs. And with the Chromium-based Microsoft Edge now the default browser on Windows 10 PCs, it’s now time for the old guard to retire. There is still an Internet Explorer Legacy Mode in the Edge browser, for those who won’t let go of the browser.

Internet Explorer 11 will be shut down on August 17, 2021

Having said that, there are still websites in India (primarily of banks and government institutions) that still work best on Internet Explorer, which will have to be used via the legacy mode from next year till Microsoft drops support for Internet Explorer 11 completely from Windows 10, eventually.

Even the legacy version of Microsoft Edge is being retired alongside the old Internet Explorer 11. The legacy version of Microsoft Edge will stop being supported from March 9th, 2021, and will no longer receive security updates. It’s likely a bid to shift the existing legacy Microsoft Edge users to the new Chromium-based Edge browser. The company has said all future Windows updates will include the new Edge browser.

The beginning of the end for Internet Explorer started back in 2015, and like the popular sentiment around the browsers, the end comes five years too late. The browser had its heyday before 2012, after which Google Chrome acquired a higher market share, just four years after launch. With eleven versions in tow, Internet Explorer is certainly a legacy early PC users will know to worship. For many, it was the first gateway to the World Wide Web, and it’s likely the same set of users have migrated over to newer browsers, and the need for Internet Explorer to exist was only for the occasional memes and jokes.

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Lenovo launches Intel-powered Legion series of laptops

Lenovo India has today announced the launch of their refreshed Legion series of gaming laptops, with a new nomenclature, and updated design and many other changes. Some subtle and some obvious. The laptops launched today carry the Legion 5i, Legion 5Pi and Legion 7i nomenclature, a departure from the older Legion Y-series. We also had the opportunity to converse with Shailendra Katyal, Executive Director and Head of Consumer PCSD, Lenovo India about Lenovo’s overall business and the Legion laptops.

Lenovo Legion 5i, 5Pi, 7i specifications

Lenovo has clearly drawn the lines between the kind of user that would go for each of the three laptops. The Lenovo Legion 5i is the entry-level machine, designed for first-time gamers or those who want a powerful machine for casual gaming and work. The Lenovo Legion 5i will come with up to an Intel Core i7-10750H and GPU option going up to Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650Ti. The display options available go all the way up to an FHD panel with 120Hz refresh rate. The Legion 5Pi takes things up a notch, stepping the GPU choice up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060. Lenovo also improved the display options here, offering a 144Hz refresh rate on an IPS panel with 100 percent sRGB coverage. The Legion 7i is the company’s top-tier gaming machine, with the best components available. The Intel Core i9 and the Nvidia GeFore RTX 2080 Super Max-Q become available in this model series, with the display also getting GSync besides the 144Hz refresh rate.

Lenovo Legion gets a new name

Up until last year, Lenovo used the Y540 and Y740 moniker for their gaming laptops. That naming has changed this year, with the series names being simplified to Legion 5 and Legion 7. The ‘i’ stands for intel, meaning that all the models launched today are powered by Intel. When asked about the renaming, Mr. Katyal said that the goal of the goal of the company over the last few years has been to simplify the product portfolio. The Legion series is the premium offering from Lenovo and will carry the numbers 5 and 7, however, for entry level gamers, there’s the IdeaPad Gaming 3i. This simplifies Lenovo’s offering for gamers, a segment that is fast growing within the country.

Differentiating the Lenovo Legion

One question that often comes up is if every OEM is offering the same hardware configuration, what would be the reason to choose laptop over the other. While there can be small nuanced differences, thermal performance of the machine will play a big role in whether you’re satisfied with your purchase or not. Lenovo implements a fairly robust thermal solution for the Legion 5i and the Legion 5Pi, with large fans and generously sized intake and exhaust vents. The Lenovo Legion 7i ditches the traditional copper pipes in favour of a massive vapour chamber to cool the top-of-the-line Intel Core i9 and Nvidia’s RTX 2080.

Lenovo Legion powered by Ryzen

There had been rumours that today's launch would also include the Ryzen-based models of the Legion laptop, however, that was not the case. When asked when we can expect the Ryzen based Legion machines to be launching in India, Katyal said “soon,” without committing to a timeline. However, we expect Lenovo to bring the laptops down soon in order to make the most of the days leading up to Diwali. Currently, 10 percent of the PC market in India is owned by the gaming segment and contributes to 22 percent of the overall revenue.

When asked if the lockdown had any significant adverse effect on Lenovo’s launch plans, Katyal clarified that there wasn’t much of a negative impact. The company had originally planned to launch the Legion series in early July, yielding a delay of just 4-6 weeks which can be attributed to getting the BIS certification. In terms of market trends, Katyal notes that the PC segment has seen notable growth, even in the premium segment which includes gaming.

Lenovo and Make in India

Lenovo, though a Chinese company, has ensured that it was always positioned as a global brand. Katyal notes that the company’s supply chain has been developed in manner that was free of geo-political issues, with the primary focus being on the most optimal route for obtaining parts. When asked if the company would ramp up efforts towards “making in India,” Katyal says that India’s share in the global PC sales is just about 4 percent, a number far too small to warrant such significant investments. The company does, however, have a plant in Pondicherry where they assemble desktops.

Lenovo Legion 5i, 5Pi and 7i Price and Availability

Legion 7i, Legion 5Pi and Legion 5i are available in Slate Grey, Iron Grey and Phantom black color variants respectively. Legion 7i pricing starts at INR 1,99,990; Legion 5Pi starts at INR 1,34,990, and Legion 5i starts at INR 79,990. Legion 7i and Legion 5i are available on Lenovo India’s website and will be available through Lenovo’s retail partners later this week. Legion 5Pi will go on sale across all platforms later in August.

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MediaTek Dimensity 800U with dual 5G SIM support announced

MediaTek Dimensity 800U SoC has launched with dual 5G SIM support and is designed for mid-range smartphones. The Taiwanese giant wants to boost the 5G rollout with this chipset by bringing dual 5G SIM support to mid-range 5G smartphones and the 800U chipset is capable of delivering great multi-core performance.

“MediaTek’s Dimensity 800U brings cutting-edge, next-gen technology to the Dimensity SoC series, bringing MediaTek’s advanced 5G, imaging and multimedia technologies to high-performance 5G smartphones that deliver incredible 5G experiences,” said Dr Yenchi Lee, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek’s Wireless Communications Business Unit.

The Dimensity 800U chipset is fabricated on a 7nm architecture process and comes with two Arm Cortex-A76 CPUs running at 2.4GHz and six power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores clocked at upto 2.0GHz. This is paired with Mali-G57 MC3 graphics processor and support for upto 12GB LPDDR4x RAM and UFS 2.2 storage standard. MediaTek claims that the 880U is upto 11% faster than Dimensity 700 series.

MediaTek Dimensity 800U with dual 5G SIM support announced

The 800U SoC supports 120Hz Full HD+ displays that enable fast refresh rate for a smooth gaming and multimedia experience and also comes with HDR10+ playback support to enhance the visual quality. The chip is compatible with quad-camera setup on the back with upto 64MP camera sensors and comes integrated with APU and ISP that offers AI-backed features. The chip can be paired with 64MP camera or dual 20MP and 16MP cameras with features like multi-frame noise reduction, 3D noise reduction and more.

MediaTek Dimensity 800U processor supports H.264, H.265/HEVC video encoding and playback codecs and can record in 4K UHD at 30FPS. 

The 800U chip also supports Voice on Wakeup (VoW) with dual-microphone noise reduction technology that lowers the power consumption of voice assistants and enables it to listen clearly.

MediaTek hasn’t announced as to when phones with Dimensity 880U will hit the markets, but we will keep an eye out for you on this one.

 

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Dell XPS 17 launched in India

Dell India launched the new XPS 13 and XPS 15 earlier last month, however, the XPS 17 was ominously missing from the announcement. We were informed that the XPS 17 was definitely headed to India, but in due time. Today, the company has announced their true MacBook Pro 16-inch rival in the country with immediate availability.

If you’re wondering what hardware configuration the XPS 17 will be available in, well, there’s not a lot known. Dell’s press release for the XPS 17 only states that the XPS 17 is powered by Intel’s 10th generation Core i7 processors, have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti on board and will be available with a choice of UHD and FHD display resolutions. Besides that, Dell’s website or press release doesn’t offer much information on the configurations that will be available in India. The starting price for the laptop has been set at Rs 209500, inclusive of all applicable taxes. Unfortunately, Dell also has an XPS 17 without a discrete GPU that’s available in international markets and there is no way for us to be sure whether the starting price is for the model without the GPU. We have reached out to Dell to share the specific list of SKUs that they plan on launching in India.

Dell XPS 17 launched in India

The Dell XPS 17 is a 17-inch creator-centric laptop from Dell, that the company claims is smaller than 48 percent of the 15-inch laptops out there. The XPS 17 also uses a novel thermal solution, turning to GORE thermal insulation for managing component heat. This is not the first XPS to use this material, with the XPS 13 first getting it back in 2018. The new XPS 17 offers a Creator’s Edition machine as well, featuring a 4K display that has 100 percent Adobe RGB coverage and 94 percent DCI-P3 coverage.

The Dell XPS 17 will be available through Dell’s official retail partners and also Amazon India’s website starting August 18.

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WhatsApp will let you search for stickers in a future update: Report

Stickers have been available on WhatsApp for some time now and it looks like WhatsApp is going to make it easier for you to find the right sticker to add more emotions to your conversations. The ability to search for stickers in WhatsApp is a part of the Beta version 2.20.198.5. 

In addition to letting users search for stickers, there are also tabs that club different stickers under one head. So under the happy, love, sad, angry, etc tab, you will see different stickers housed experiment the relevant emotion. This will also make it easier for those that what to use stickers from different packs find and use them. 

WhatsApp is working on a stickers search feature on Android, that will be available in future. It’s under development. pic.twitter.com/ZtOK5RXrMB

— WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) November 8, 2018

However, even in the beta, the ability to search for the sticker isn’t available all the time. According to wabetainfo, “Note that this feature is partially unavailable, because it’s under development. We say “partially” because sometimes a trick might be able to temporarily enable the feature: if you open WhatsApp the first time and the last used tab is “Stickers”, the search sticker button should now appear, but it disappears if you switch tab.” Stickers aren’t a new feature to the world of instant messaging and stickers are quite prominent on the messaging service Hike. 

WhatsApp has been introducing a bunch of features to improve the user experience. Some of these features are live, while others are in beta. When India went into lockdown, WhatsApp expanded its video calling limit from 4 to 8 to make it easier to talk to more family and friends over a single call. WhatsApp is also working on allowing users to use one WhatsApp account over multiple devices with the ability to sync chat across devices. It is also speculated to be working on a “Mute Always” feature, letting users mute a chat or a group permanently. 

WhatsApp has also added the ability to check the authenticity of a forwarded message, but sadly, the feature isn’t available in India yet. If you would like to know how to share your location on WhatsApp you can do so here. You can also learn how to set up auto-reply on WhatsApp here.

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