Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War to launch on November 13

Activision has finally revealed Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War after teasing us with a trailer last week. This year’s Call of Duty is being co-developed by Treyarch and Raven. This is Treyarch’s 6th Call of Duty game and 5th in the Black Ops mini-franchise, which has been very successful. 

The game is set to hit the markets on November 13 across PC, Xbox One and PS4. Activision has also confirmed that the game will be released on the next-generation consoles during ‘Holiday 2020.’ They are also offering a cross-gen bundle which includes a copy of the game for both generations of consoles for an extra $10 at $69.99, meaning players who purchase this can play the game on both PS4 and PS5 or Xbox One and Xbox Series X.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Single Player Campaign 

After not developing a single-player campaign mode for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Raven has confirmed this game will feature a traditional campaign set during the 1980s in the middle of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. 

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has been confirmed to be a direct sequel to Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and we will see iconic characters like Alex Woods, Frank Mason and Jason Hudson play a major role in the story. We will also see real historical figures like the then US President, Ronald Reagan, making an appearance in the narrative. The teaser trailer we saw last week and the campaign mode trailer we saw last night, both point to the story revolving around ‘Perseus’, a soviet spy who infiltrated the US government. 

This will be the first Call of Duty in which players will get to create their own characters from scratch. Interestingly, players can choose to take a ‘psyche profile’, which determines how your characters would react in certain situations and give you attributes and perks which will directly affect gameplay. 

The campaign would also be interactive meaning players will decide which missions they want to take and how to complete them. These decisions will have direct implications on the story and lead to one of the multiple campaign endings. Players can also choose to do side missions which will be tied in with the main storyline.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Multiplayer 

Just like every CoD, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will have a 6v6 multiplayer game mode. Activision has confirmed that this game will not just feature cross-play like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, but cross-gen too. This means that if you own a PS4, you can play with your friends who own the PS5. 

Activision has also announced plans for an open beta for those who pre-order the game soon. Like CoD Modern Warfare, the beta will likely be available to PS4 players first, as part of their deal with PlayStation. Leaks suggest that the beta period will start on September 12, right after the Multiplayer reveal on September 9.

Call of Duty: Warzone

Activision has promised that Call of Duty: Warzone will live on with future games in the franchise. This comes after the game was heavily teased on the Verdansk map for weeks. For the reveal of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, a treasure hunt event was also organized in the Battle Royale game mode.

Because of this close link with Warzone, Activision has decided that it will incorporate shared progression across CoD Black Ops Cold War and CoD Modern Warfare, which means that players will be able to transition their account from one game to the other and carry-over their operator skins and gun blueprints to the next game. In fact, those who pre-order the game will receive digital rewards, including Black Ops operator Frank Woods for both Warzone and CoD: Modern Warfare.

It will be fascinating to know how Warzone handles aspects of the game that were a part of Modern Warfare which will not be present in this year’s game. Activision and Treyarch have confirmed we will get to know more about Warzone at a later date.

Zombies

Zombies mode has been a mainstay in the Black Ops series and is confirmed to continue in this year’s game too. We don’t much about this mode yet, but Treyarch and Raven plan to reveal more, closer to the release date.

In other news, Infinity Ward recently pushed a massive update to Call of Duty: Warzone which features new guns, game modes and more. Click here to check it out. To know more about Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, click here.

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Poco X3 A new smartphone rivalling the OnePlus Nord leaks online

A new smartphone, which might just be the Poco X3 is incoming. It’s not confirmed yet, but the smartphone has showed up on various certification portals, and there is evidence that unlike the Poco F2 Pro, this one might come to India. In that case, this would be the follow-up to the Poco X2 launched earlier this year with a 120Hz refresh rate display and a Snapdragon 730G SoC along with a 64MP quad camera stack.

Per a report by GSMArena, the smartphone showed up on the US FCC Website with the Modem number Poco M2007J20CG. The publication quotes a tweet by Abhishek Yadav showing what seems to be the rear panel schematics of the Poco X3. How do we know it’s the Poco X3?

Poco New Device.#pocof2 #PocoF2 #POCOF2Pro #pocox3 #PocoX3 pic.twitter.com/ixokTcJZRq

— Abhishek Yadav (@yabhishekhd) August 24, 2020

The schematic clearly states “POCO” in as many letters, and has a familiar circular cutout in the middle for the camera module with the label “64MP AI Super Camera, Designed by Poco” etched on it. FYI, the Poco X2 comes with a Sony IMX 686 64MP camera (hint, hint!).

Then there’s a TUV Rheinland certification that has popped up, spotted by the_tech_guy  which lists out most of the specifications of the upcoming smartphones, sealing the belief that this is indeed a follow-up to the Poco X2.

Upcoming POCO smartphone comes with 5160mAh battery and 33W Fast charging. pic.twitter.com/8SnEL4RbvJ

— the_tech_guy (@_the_tech_guy) August 24, 2020

The certification reports two models: M2007J20CG and M2007J20CT, matching the ones spotted on the FCC website. The smartphone will sport a 5,160mAh battery and support 33W fast charging. Comparably, the Poco X2 features a 4500mAh battery with 27W fast charging. And quite expectedly, the smartphone will run on MIUI 12 out of the box. The same report also states that the smartphone supports the LTE Band 41 for 4G connectivity, which is reportedly what most Indian network operators use.

Other rumours about the alleged Poco X3 include that it will upgrade to 120Hz AMOLED display, and the Snapdragon 765 SoC. If true, the Poco X3 will tread on OnePlus Nord territory. Can it be called a successor in that case?

Ever since its comeback with the Poco X2, the now independent brand has announced a bunch of smartphones cutting across segments globally. In India, it has kept its focus on the highly competitive mid-range segment. Somewhat disrupting it, even with a 120Hz refresh rate display and a Snapdragon 730G SoC on the Poco X2. The follow-up was even more affordable, but interestingly both of these smartphones were a direct rebranding of their Redmi counterparts in China.

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Vivo Y20 and Y20i launched in India starting at Rs 11,490: Price, specifications and availability

Vivo Y20 and Vivo Y20i have launched in India as the new budget smartphones by the company, going up against the likes of the recently launched Oppo A53, Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 and Realme 6i. Being budget phones, the Y20 series comes with HD+ display, high-capacity 5,000mAh battery, triple cameras and more.

The budget category has seen multiple smartphone launches in the past few weeks and now prospective buyers have more options to choose from than ever. The Y20 and Y20i have a lot in common as far as the specification goes and the only thing that separates the two apart is the fact that the Y20 comes with 4GB RAM while the Y20i has 3GB of RAM to boot. Let’s take a look at the prices and specifications of the Vivo Y20 series.

Vivo Y20 and Y20i pricing and availability

Vivo Y20 is priced at Rs 12,990 and comes in a single 4GB+64GB variant while the Y20i is priced at Rs 11,490 for the 3GB+64GB variant. The Y20 comes in two colours -- Obsidian Black and Dawn White and the Y20i will be available in Dawn White and Nebula Blue colours to choose from.

The Y20 goes on sale from August 28 and the Y20i will go on its first sale September 3 onwards. Both the phones will be available pan-India across all major retail stores, Vivo partner stores, Vivo India website and other e-tailers.

Vivo Y20 and Y20i specifications

The Vivo Y20 and Y20i have a plastic body that measures 8.41 millimetres in thickness and weigh 192.3 grams. The phones feature a 6.51-inch HD+ (1600 x 720 pixels) resolution display with a waterdrop notch cutout for the selfie camera upfront. There is a side-mounted fingerprint sensor that doubles up as the power button.

The Y20 and Y20i are powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 processor with an octa-core CPU and is paired with 4GB of RAM on the Y20 and 3GB RAM on Y20i and 64GB storage. The storage can further be expanded by using a micro SD card. It runs on the Android 10-based FunTouch OS 10.5.

Both the phones come with a triple camera setup on the back that consists of a primary 13MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture, a 2MP macro camera and a 2MP depth sensor. On the front, there is an 8MP camera housed within the notch cutout with features like professional mode, Slo-mo, Live Photo and more.

The phones come equipped with a 5,000mAh battery that supports 18W fast charging on the Y20, while the Y20i charges at regular speeds.

If you are looking for a budget phone, here’s our list of recommendations for the best budget phones and the best smartphones priced under Rs 15,000 in India.

 

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Airtel customers could pay Rs 100 for every GB consumed: Report

Airtel customers could soon witness a tariff price hike as hinted by Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal. As per Mittal, Airtel users should get 1.6GB of data for Rs 160 instead of receiving 16GB data for the same price. Currently, Airtel offers 1GB data per day for 24 days at Rs 199. This translates to around 24 GB data at Rs 199 and if Mittal has his way, users will possibly receive just 2.4 GB data for the price.

According to a report in PTI, Sunil Mittal, Chairman at Airtel said, “You either consume 1.6 GB of capacity per month either at this price point or you may prepare to pay a lot more. We are not wanting USD 50-60 like the US or Europe but certainly USD 2 for 16 GB a month is not sustainable.”

The Airtel chief also said that the ARPU (average revenue per user) is slated to cross Rs 200/monthly in the next six months or so. Interestingly, Airtel considers watching TV, movies and entertainment to be part of “special services” for which it expects users to pay. “We need a Rs 300 ARPU in which you will still have a lower end at Rs 100 a month with decent amount of data. But if your consumption is largely around watching TV, movies, entertainment and depriving other vital special services networks, then you need to pay for that,” Mittal added.

Back in December 2019, Airtel, Jio and Vodafone raised the prices of their respective tariff plans by upto 40 per cent and as a result, Airtel was able to witness an increase in the ARPU to Rs 157 by the end of June 2020. Though it is not currently known whether Jio and Vodafone-Idea are also going to increase the prices of its tariff plans. Reliance Jio’s ARPU recorded an increase to Rs 130 by the end of March 2020.

In comparison to Airtel, Jio offers 1GB data every day for 24 days at Rs 149 and Vodafone-Idea offers the same benefits but at Rs 199, the same as Airtel.

 

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OnePlus Nord is certified as a YouTube Signature Device

The OnePlus Nord has been certified as a YouTube Signature Device by Google, meaning you'll get one of the best YouTube binging experience from the mid-range OnePlus Nord. The program certifies smartphones, which, according to Google, are capable of supporting all YouTube features for the best experience.

While every Android smartphone with Google services enabled comes with YouTube pre-installed, and can stream videos from the platform without much issue, the smartphones certified by YouTube Signature Device basically checks all the boxes — HDR Video, 4K videos decoding, 360-degree videos, High Frame Rate playback, DRM support and VP9 Codec support are among the things required for a smartphone to become an YouTube Signature Device.

The OnePlus Nord (review) is certainly not the first smartphone from OnePlus to be rated as YouTube Signature Device. Nearly all OnePlus flagships, including this year’s OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro, last year’s OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7T series and even the OnePlus 6T before that received the same accolade. And with the OnePlus Nord being a more affordable offering from the company, it’s heartening to see the company has retained the same support it extends to its flagships, when it comes to display certifications.

So, if you have purchased the OnePlus Nord, or plan on getting it, rest assured that your YouTube experience will have no issues whatsoever. The Nord also supports HDR streaming on Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, which is really rare to find in mid-range smartphones these days. The smartphone will go on sale again on August 31st on Amazon.in and OnePlus.com.

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Facebook News could launch in India in the next few months

After launching the service in US as a pilot program, Facebook now plans on expanding Facebook news to more countries starting with India, Brazil, France, Germany and UK in the coming months. The social media giant said it would pay publishers to “ensure their content is available in the new product”.

Facebook said it looked at the progress made by the product in the US, and planned to expand the service to more users in the next 6 to 12 months. Facebook assured that they would be paying publishers in each country it launches the service. Facebook currently pays more than 200 US media outlets for content including original reporting from thousands of local news organisations. Facebook said it plans to turn Facebook news a “valuable asset” in the long term by remaining committed to the partnerships it has developed with publishers.

With over 2.7 billion active users, Facebook commands perhaps the largest reach for any social network, and has increasingly come under the radar of authorities and regulators for spreading misinformation and fake news among readers, as well as for stifling competition. Following such criticism, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had promised to ensure Facebook offers trustworthy information from high-quality news outlets. Facebook News seems to be culmination of that promise.

How does Facebook News work?

For the end users, Facebook News shows up as a dedicated tab in the Facebook app. Here, users have control to hide articles, publishers and sections they’re not interested in, and discover new topics and stories based on the news they read, share and follow. Facebook News also presents the top headlines and stories of the day along with personalised content to the user. Currently, Facebook has over 200 news outlets in the US, including a lot of local news organisations which enable local news delivered to the concerned users living nearby.

After launch, Facebook news can be accessed by selecting the News section from the menu, or by searching Facebook News in the Search Bar in the Facebook app. The service is only available on Android and iOS devices in the US presently. There’s no word on a web version for it though.

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Asus Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro launched: Pricing and specifications

Asus Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro have launched officially in Taiwan. Successors to last year’s Asus Zenfone 6 (Asus 6Z in India), the Zenfone 7 series takes the flip camera system forward, this time with three cameras on the back. The Zenfone 7 series is as flagship as it gets with the regular Zenfone 7 rocking a Snapdragon 865 chip while the 7 Pro comes with a Snapdragon 865 Plus processor.

Asus has also worked on its flip camera mechanism and the new Zenfone 7 series is equipped with a more powerful stepping motor than the Zenfone 6 with upto twice the torque and a new angle sensor that controls the flip angle accurately. Let’s take a brief look at the specifications and pricing of the Zenfone 7 series.

Asus Zenfone 7 series pricing

Asus Zenfone 7 is priced at NT$ 21,990 for the 6GB+128GB variant while the Zenfone 7 Pro will be up for grabs at NT$ 27,990 for the 8GB+256GB variant.

These prices roughly translate to a starting price of around Rs 55,000 for the Zenfone 7 and Rs 70,000 for the Zenfone 7 Pro. Though, there’s currently no word on the launch of Asus Zenfone 7 in India. Global availability is also slated to be announced later this week.

Asus Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro specifications

Asus Zenfone 7 and 7 Pro largely share the same set of specifications and features. The only differentiating factor is that the Zenfone 7 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and the Zenfone 7 Pro comes with Snapdragon 865 Plus. 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.

Both phones have the same aluminium built and a design that measures 9.6 millimetres in thickness and 230 grams in weight. The rear panel is coated with a layer of Gorilla Glass 3. The Zenfone 7 series features a 6.67-inch Full HD+ (2400 x 1080 pixels) resolution display that uses an AMOLED panel with a 90Hz high-refresh-rate and is topped with a layer of Gorilla Glass 6.

The Zenfone 7 is paired with 6GB RAM and 128GB storage while there is another variant that comes with 8GB RAM. As for the Zenfone 7 Pro, it comes in a single variant with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. The phones support microSD card expansion by upto 2TB. The Zenfone 7 series runs on Android 10 based ZenUI 7 out-of-the-box.

The Zenfone 7 and Zenfone 7 Pro comes with a triple camera setup housed within the flip camera mechanism. It has a 64MP primary camera with an f/1.8 aperture, an 8MP telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and a 12MP ultra-wide-angle camera with 113-degree field-of-view. The cameras can record in 8K UHD at 30FPS and 4K UHD in upto 120FPS. The Zenfone 7 comes with support for 3-axis electronic image stabilization while the Zenfone 7 Pro comes with 4-axis optical image stabilization.

The phones come with the basic set of sensors and connectivity features like Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 and a side-mounted fingerprint reader. The Zenfone 7 series is fitted with a 5,000mAh battery with support for 30W fast charging. Asus claims that its fast charging standard can fill the battery from 0-100% in 93 minutes.

 

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