Plague Inc: The Cure Game Expansion Lets You Save the World from Global Pandemic, Free Till COVID-19 Is Under Control

Plague Inc. has added an expansion called The Cure which is free to play till COVID-19 comes under control. This game mode involves saving the world from a global pandemic, and not infecting it as the game was originally imagined.

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Borrowing from Snapchat, Facebook adds Vanish Mode for messages in Messenger and Instagram

Facebook is adding a new feature to Messenger and Instagram. Called “Vanish Mode” the feature is similar to what we’ve seen on Snapchat. As the name suggests, a message will be deleted once a user has read it and exited the chat window. According to the messenger news blog post, “Sometimes a message is just spontaneous – something you want to say in the moment without worrying about it sticking around. That’s why we’re excited to introduce vanish mode on Messenger, which lets you send messages that disappear automatically. How it works is simple—messages disappear after they’re seen and you leave the chat”.

On Messenger and Instagram, the feature can be enabled by simply swiping up on the smartphone in an existing chat thread. This will bring the user to vanish mode.

According to the blogpost this feature is “Safety by design”. Only people a user is connected to can use vanish mode in a chat. The feature is also opt-in. So, a user can choose whether to enter vanish mode with someone or not. In addition to entering vanish mode with another user, if one of the users takes a screenshot of the chat while using vanish mode, the other will be notified. Users can also block someone and report a conversation if they feel unsafe.

Since vanishing mode is a new feature, users will see a screen explaining the new feature when they use it for the first time. It can be activated by simply swiping up in an active chat window. 

Messenger and Instagram Vanish Mode rollout and release date

Facebook says it is slowly rolling out vanish mode on Messenger and Instagram. Vanish mode is now available on Messenger in the US and a handful of other countries. It will come to more countries soon. Vanish mode on Instagram will be coming to the US and other countries soon. As of writing this article, the feature isn't available to us in India.

Messenger and Instagram are not the only services getting a Vanish mode. Facebook-owned WhatsApp has also seen an inflow of new features one of which is Disappearing Messages. With this new feature, WhatsApp users can choose to erase all messages exchanged in a chat. Once enabled on a chat, all messages exchanged between two users will disappear after seven days. Other new features that have made their way to WhatsApp include the ability to make payments via UPI, better storage management, the addition of a shopping button, and more. You can learn about the new features available on WhatsApp in detail here.

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PUBG Mobile India pre-registration is not official yet: Report

Ever since PUBG Corporation announced that PUBG Mobile was coming back to India in a new avatar, players have been waiting with bated breath for the game to show up on the Play Store or App Store. Some reports have indicated that pre-registrations for PUBG Mobile India have gone live on the TapTap app store. This comes after reports which highlight that the government is steadfast in its decision of keeping the ban until the privacy and security issues are not addressed.

According to several reports online as well as posts on social media platforms like Twitter, pre-registration listing for the new avatar of PUBG Mobile has gone live on TapTap which is a “game recommendation” platform. The listing has amassed over 90,000 pre-registrations at the time of publishing this report with a 9.9 rating. Having said that, while the listing does mention the developer to be PUBG Corporation, the company has not officially revealed any pre-registration links for the upcoming game yet.

We have reached out to PUBG Corp to determine the authenticity of the TapTap listing and will update the report with an official statement as we receive it.

PUBG has not revealed details about the launch yet

The official statement from PUBG Corp. still says that “More information on the launch of PUBG MOBILE INDIA will be released at a later date.” This means that the company has not initiated any pre-registration links for the game on Play Store or the App Store, let alone TapTap. 

This is similar to how a listing for the much-awaited FAU-G game went live on TapTap. While the listing shows the developer to be nCore Games, there is no official word from the company about the pre-registration listing.

FAU-G Pre-registration Is Now Live On TapTap App. Link For Pre-registration  https://t.co/EnPtW2OieV pic.twitter.com/DTegjQpLRo

— Abhishek Yadav (@yabhishekhd) November 8, 2020

In all likelihood, PUBG Mobile India listing on TapTap is rather premature and doesn’t shed light on when the game will be available officially.

At this point, there’s much to be known about the revival of PUBG Mobile in India and how PUBG Corp. plans to release the new version of the game. That said, we would urge our readers and fans of the game to be patient and avoid jumping the gun as there’s no official word from the company on the actual launch date yet.

Pehle trailer aaega, fir movie..... chalo happy choti diwali btw 

— ocean (@lameboredghini) November 13, 2020

Moreover, as per a tweet from esports announcer Ocean Sharma, PUBG Corp could be looking to drop a trailer for PUBG Mobile India before the game is formally released. 

To recap, PUBG Corp has announced that it is preparing a special version of the popular battle royale game for the Indian players and it is called PUBG Mobile India. The company has also revealed its plans for setting up a subsidiary in India and invest 100 million USD to promote and boost esports in the country. You can know more about it from the official announcement here.

 

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Apple MacBook Air powered by M1 SoC outperforms 16-inch MacBook Pro

After months of waiting, Apple Silicon powered Macs have finally been announced and there’s a trio of them for consumers to choose from. Three machines, all with identical base configurations, available at different price points might seem confusing at first, but once you consider the kind of performance you’re getting out of them, you might not care. Early benchmark numbers from the MacBook Air powered by Apple’s M1 silicon seem to outperform the top-of-the-line 16-inch MacBook Pro.

During the ‘One More Thing’ event where Apple unveiled the new chip and corresponding hardware, the company threw some very obscure comparison points, leaving a lot of people to believe that this was nothing more than clever marketing. However, GeekBench 5 numbers of the M1 chip running off of a MacBook Air have popped up, adding serious credibility to many of Apple’s claims. The GeekBench 5 single and multi-core scores for the M1 powered MacBook Air are 1687 and 7433 respectively. In comparison, Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro powered by the Intel Core i9-9989HK (8-core chip) and 64GB on-board DDR4 memory scores 1097 and 7014 respectively. Intel has traditionally always been proud of being a leader in single-threaded performance, but it would appear that Apple’s M1 silicon beats it with a large margin. When you take into account that the MacBook Air in question only sports 8GB of memory on-board, then you’ve got something significant to consider.

Apple’s A-series processors have always led in terms of performance when it came to the mobile side of things, despite significantly lower RAM on board. While Android phones have jumped up to 12GB RAM on their phones, Apple’ iPhone 12 Pro series still limits itself to just 6GB of RAM, with the iPhone 12 still sporting only 4GB memory and still outperforming most Android devices. The Apple iPad has also significantly made headway as a powerful tool for content creators, with the iPad Pro being a favoured device for editing photos and 4K video on the go. We recently reviewed the 8th generation iPad Air with the new A14 processor, which we noted was also capable of editing 8K video in LumaFusion. The iPad Air was also able to edit 45MP RAW files shot from a Canon EOS R5 in Adobe Lightroom with significant ease. We’ve got a video showcasing all of this coming up really soon, so do stay tuned to our YouTube Channel for it.

What might perplex many is how Apple is charging different amounts for money for identical configurations on three different machines, with the MacBook Pro 13” being the most expensive of the lot. The MacBook Air is now completely fanless, meaning that performance under sustained loads might be lower than that delivered by the MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini, given that these two systems come with fans onboard, potentially allowing them to run at their peak clock speeds for longer. You can read all about the pricing, specs and availability of the new Macs in India here.

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Thunderbolt NVMe SSD users face issue with Windows 10 20H2 update

If you are facing an error when trying to update Windows 10 on your PC, then you are not alone. Microsoft started rolling out an update to Windows 10 — Windows 10 version 20H2. However, it looks like an SSD compatibility issue is preventing users from installing the new update. Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on a fix which is expected to be released by the end of November. 

On its support page, Microsoft says, “If you are trying to update to or install Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows 10, version 20H2, you might encounter an update compatibility hold and receive the message, “Your PC has hardware that isn't ready for this version of Windows 10. Windows Update will automatically offer you this version of Windows 10 once the issue has been resolved.””

So what’s the issue? Well, it looks like there is an incompatibility issue which has been found with Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows 10, version 20H2. This happens when using a Thunderbolt NVMe Solid State Disk (SSD). 

When a Thunderbolt NVMe SSD is there in a machine, during the update the users will receive a stop error with a blue screen and "DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION (e6) An illegal DMA operation was attempted by a driver being verified." 

According to Microsoft, “Affected Windows 10 devices will have at least one Thunderbolt port and any currently available version of the driver file stornvme.sys.”

Microsoft goes on to say, “To safeguard your update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on Windows 10 devices with affected drivers from being offered Windows 10, version 2004 or Windows 10, version 20H2”.

It is recommended that you don't try to manually update your Windows machine if you are facing this error when updating. Microsoft is working on a fix for the problem which is expected to be released by the end of November. 

The Windows 10 20H2 update brings with it some interesting changes and upgrades to the Edge browser, Start Menu, Notifications and more. You can check out everything that the update brings with it here.

Speaking of updates, the new macOS, Big Sur is available for download. If you are a Mac user, you can check if your Mac is compatible with the new OS and how to download it here.

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Netflix introduces a TikTok-like video feed called Fast Laughs

Well, it looks like the TikTok revolution has not died down as yet, in fact, the TikTok format seems to be growing more popular by the day. So popular that even Netflix has decided to adopt the vertical video feed format from TikTok. Dubbed Fast Laughs, the format offers short, bite-sized clips from its vast but ultimately underwhelming comedy specials. The Fast Laughs feed will include content from original shows as well as licenced programs. Netflix does have something similar in the form of Netflix is a Joke which posts longer clips of various shows on the platform. 

Although Netflix has adopted a similar format, the aim of Fast Laughs is to help users find out about new shows etc. In this modern age of fast media, this seems like a pretty decent idea to get more people onto the platform. But after news of the Indian government looking at regulating OTT platforms, how much of that uncensored content will actually be left? No one really knows, but if regulation on Indian television is any metric to go by, the content on OTT platforms will resemble the cut-up corpse of films and shows we see on Indian television. 

Netflix’s gone all TikTok-like with ‘Fast Laughs’ feature?! pic.twitter.com/T760u8Rea5

— Matt Navarra (@MattNavarra) November 12, 2020

First spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra on Twitter, Netflix has now confirmed that the feature will be rolling out to selected markets like the US and UK. You won’t be able to like or comment on the Fast Laughs feed but you will be able to add the show to your Watch Later list. The clips will be about 15 to 45 seconds in length, so we’re probably going to be getting short but punchy jokes. Users can also react using a laughing emoji and also view similar content. 

In other Netflix news, the streaming giant has also raised prices in the US, and we looked at what that could mean for Indian audiences. You can read more about that story here. 

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Microsoft announced record Xbox Series X and Series S sales worldwide

The next-generation console war has officially begun, in the US at least. The Xbox Series X and Series S went on sale on November 10 internationally and the PS5 has gone on sale in the US only on November 12. Globally, the PS5 will go on sale on November 19. Countries like India have official pricing for Sony’s console but no release date yet. Even though the Xbox Series X is sold out in India, the Series S it is still available online as of writing this article. 

Xbox head, Phil Spencer tweeted, “Thank you for supporting the largest launch in Xbox history. In 24 hrs more new consoles sold, in more countries, than ever before. We’re working with retail to resupply as quickly as possible. You continue to show us the connective power of play is more important than ever.”

Thank you for supporting the largest launch in Xbox history. In 24 hrs more new consoles sold, in more countries, than ever before. We’re working with retail to resupply as quickly as possible. You continue to show us the connective power of play is more important than ever.

— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 12, 2020

As we can see from the tweet above, more Xbox consoles sold in more countries than ever before seems to be a given since we haven’t really seen a worldwide launch for a gaming console on a single day. However, one thing to note is that number of consoles sold worldwide has not been shared. 

While Microsoft’s next-gen gaming machine is available globally, what it lacks are any AAA exclusives to make the console more enticing. However, with backwards compatibility and Game Pass, the barrier for entry to play AAA games is much cheaper and makes the console an enticing option especially in a country like India where the console is more expensive than its international price.  

Microsoft stopped sharing the number of consoles sold during the Xbox One era because of the lead Sony had with the PS4. Sony has sold around 113 million consoles during the PS4 lifecycle and it will be interesting to see how many Xbox Series consoles and PS5 consoles have sold worldwide during the launch period.

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