PUBG Mobile Korea to restrict access to global users from July onwards

With the PUBG Mobile ban in place in India, many users turned to the Korean version of the game. However, it looks like players will soon find no solace there either. The announcement was made on the official PUBG Mobile Korea Instagram account. The developers of the game will soon start restricting access to those players who log in from outside of Korea and Japan. 

Changes to PUBG Mobile Korea

The developers note that they will be changing the build of the game. From May 1 onwards, those logging in from outside of Korea or Japan won’t be able to settle the payment in the game. They might also come across network troubles during their play. Then from June 30 onwards, these users will not be able to log in.

However, the post also specifically notes that for users in India, all of the changes will be put in place from June 30 onwards. 

Reasons for the restrictions of PUBG Mobile Korea

According to the post, the game is restricted to ensure quality of service. “Considering the local cultures and issues of every countries and regions, and for providing the highest quality of service.” It also notes that these changes are only to ensure better service and are not related to inequality or discrimination. The developers have also advised users to use their local version or global version. 

Unfortunately, that bit of advice is slightly useless for players in India as the global version of the game is still banned in the country. Not only that, but the planned local version of the game, PUBG Mobile India, is reportedly stuck under bureaucratic red tape. However, there were reports that the government has finally given the go-ahead for the game’s launch in the country and that PUBG Mobile fans might hear some “good news” in the coming months. But for now, all Indian players of PUBG Mobile can do is cross their fingers and hope for the best.

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Google limits developers from seeing which Android apps are installed on your device

Google has announced a slew of changes to the Developer Program Policy for the developers distributing apps through the Play Store. The company is limiting most developers from seeing which Android apps are installed on your device. This appears to be a part of Google's ongoing work to restrict the use of high-risk/sensitive permissions.

Google is limiting what apps can use the QUERY_ALL_PACKAGES permission that “gives visibility into the inventory of installed apps on a given device.” This policy applies to all apps that target API 30+ on devices running Android 11 and newer.

"Play regards the device inventory of installed apps queried from a user’s device as personal and sensitive information, and use of the permission is only permitted when your app’s core user-facing functionality or purpose, requires broad visibility into installed apps on the user’s device," Google's support page says.

So now, only a limited number of apps can continue to use the permission to see other installed apps. They include device search, antivirus, file managers, and browsers. The developers have also been asked to "sufficiently justify why a less intrusive method of app visibility will not sufficiently enable your app’s policy compliant user facing core functionality.”

Google is also granting temporary exceptions to dedicated banking and digital wallet apps so that they can see the installed apps primarily for security reasons. Additionally, Google has also given some invalid use cases which include instances such as when the data is required for the purpose of sale or use of the permission is not directly related to the core purpose of the app.

We think this is a great move by Google to make it harder for apps to spy on what apps are installed on your device. This will hopefully keep a lot of malicious apps and target advertisements at bay since they no longer have that permission.

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Oppo F19 India launch set for April 6, key specifications, features revealed by company

Oppo is launching the F19 in India on April 6. The phone comes to India after the launch of the Oppo F19 Pro and Oppo F19 Pro+ in the country earlier last month. This third model in the series will focus heavily on design and is also being claimed to be the slimmest phone with a 5,000mAh battery. Additionally, the phone will also focus on cameras as it will feature a triple-rear camera set-up and a punch-hole display design.

The company has announced that the Oppo F19 will be launched at a virtual event, which will be hosted live on the company's social media channels. The event will go live at 12PM on April 6. For now, there's no information on the pricing of the device. However, Amazon has listed the Oppo F19 suggesting the device will be available exclusively through the platform once it's launched. 

Oppo F19: Expected specifications

In terms of the specs, the company hasn't revealed everything. The company has only announced that the Oppo F19 will come to India with a Full-HD+ AMOLED display and a 6000mAh battery. There's also information that the phone will support 33W Flash Charge fast charging technology, which will charge the phone in 72 minutes. Apart from this, the company has claimed that the phone will deliver 5.55 hours of voice calls and about two hours of YouTube use with just five minutes of charge.

The other details about the device have been shared through a listing on Amazon. The listing confirms the handset has a punch-hole design on the front for the selfie camera and an in-screen fingerprint sensor for security. Further, the teaser page also confirms the Oppo F19 will come with a volume rocker and SIM tray on the left with the power button placed on the right. It is also shown to be sporting triple cameras at the back of which the primary would be a 48-megapixel sensor. The phone is also shown in Purple colour option.

Apart from this, reports suggest the phone will be powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 SoC, paired with Adreno 610 GPU and 6GB of LPDDR4X RAM, while the connectivity options on the device will include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-F, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

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Among Us Finally Getting Airship Map — Its Biggest One Yet

Among Us developer InnerSloth announced that the Airship map has been launched as the game’s fourth and its biggest one to date. It brings more tasks, abilities, and hats. Check out all the details.

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MSI has showcased the Summit E13 Flip Evo and Summit E16 Flip laptops with 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processors

MSI is one of the many OEMs to launch top-of-the-line ultrabooks on the markets. Their existing lineup of ultrabook is pretty solid and they have now announced the launch of two new notebooks. The new notebooks are a part of MSI's Summit series -  MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo and the Summit E16 Flip.

MSI is putting more emphasis on the design of these new laptops. They bring a lot of interesting features to the table like an 11th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16:10 display panels, and more. 

MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo Specifications

The MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo features a 13.4-inch full HD+ display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. It also supports touchscreen input and can be used with the MSI Pen. In terms of the specs, you will be able to choose between a bunch of configurations. You can configure this laptop with up to an 11th generation Intel Core i7-1185G7 CPU and Intel Iris X graphics.

The Summit E13 Flip Evo also features up to 32GB LPDDR4x 4267MHz RAM, and up to 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD storage. The laptop also comes with four USB Type C Thunderbolt 4 slots with support for USB Type C 3.2 Gen 2, and PD charging. Additionally, you will also get a USB A 3.2 port, and a microSD card reader.

The laptop is packed with a 70Whr battery and measures just 14.9mm in thickness and weighs 1.35kg. Connectivity options on the laptop include Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.

MSI Summit E16 Flip Specifications

The Summit E16 Flip, according to MSI, is the thinnest 16-inch 2-in-1 laptop with powerful performance. The laptop chassis looks super sleek and it features what MSI calls “streamlined diamond cut edges”. It sports a 16-inch FHD+ panel but MSI hasn't revealed the exact CPU and GPU configurations yet. That being said, we can expect it to be powered by Intel's 11th generation processors and Nvidia's latest discrete GPUs.

In addition to the laptops, MSI has also showcased the MSI Pen and a USB-C docking station. Both of these accessories will be available to purchase separately alongside the laptops when it goes on sale. As of now, MSI hasn't mentioned the pricing and availability details of these laptops.

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Will we see a PS5 India restock in April

Sony’s latest gaming console, the PlayStation 5, launched in India back on February 2, 2021, and since then, we haven’t heard of any official information of when it will be back in stock. The console sold out in a matter of seconds in India and is in short supply due to the ongoing global chip shortage. Despite this, the console has seen restocks in key international markets. Gamers in India have been vocal about the inability to get the console officially since the launch batch sold out. The burning question remains…

Will the PS5 India restock happen in April?

There is no official word from Sony about the availability of the PS5 (review) in India. Remember, when the PS5 went up for preorder in India, only the disc edition was available. Even though we have a price for the digital edition, there is no word on when that will be available in India. 

According to IGN India, we could see the console restock in April. According to the publication, “local Sony Centers are preparing for a first week of April PS5 restock”.

We reached out to a few retainers who told us that the PS5 restock is expected to happen in April, but they stressed that this information is hearsay and not official. Some retailers have imported PS5 units (disc edition) and are selling them for about Rs 65,000. To put things into perspective, when the PS5 launched internationally back in November 2020, imported units sold in India for a whopping Rs 90,000.

In February 2021, Microsoft said that the Xbox Series X (review) would be in short supply till June 2021, and this is due to the ongoing chip shortage. The chip shortage has also affected the availability of the new NVIDIA GPU’s as well.

For those that managed to get their hands on a PS5, the upcoming Oddworld: Soulstorm will be free for the PS5 as a part of the monthly games available with PlayStation Plus. At the end of April, we will also see the release of Returnal, a PS5 exclusive game. If you are looking to pick up a new game, you can check our list of games releasing in April here.

 

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Apple brand loyalty higher than ever while 26 percent of Samsung users intend to switch brands: Survey

Apple's brand loyalty seems to be soaring, as a survey by SellCell claims its users are now happier than ever with the brand and its products. As per the findings of the survey, 91.9 percent of iPhone owners plan to upgrade to an iPhone -- instead of switching to another brand and more crucially to the Android ecosystem. This figure is higher than ever before as previously it was 90.5 percent in 2019.

The survey also examined the loyalty of four other major smartphone makers including Samsung and Google. It also asked the respondents their choice for the most and least popular flagship smartphones. The results of this survey are based on the answers received from 5,000 US-based smartphone users.

Samsung suffers as Apple's stocks on the rise

As per the survey, the current crop of Apple users is almost 18 percent more loyal to their brand than Samsung users. While this is a concerning number for Samsung, it is also important to note that this brand loyalty for iPhones is majorly driven by the user's love for the Apple ecosystem than the iPhone in their hands. 

In fact, the ecosystem is such a big advantage for the iPhones that almost as many Samsung owners said they were happy with the brand as Apple owners (64 percent vs 65 percent). However, the main point of differentiation between the two is the fact that only 5 percent of Samsung users said they were too invested in the Samsung ecosystem. 

Still, these are worrying numbers for Samsung as the survey results show the latest loyalty figures for the company --74% of Samsung smartphone owners who plan to upgrade to a new Samsung model -- is a sharp decline from 2019's 85.7%.

The survey also revealed that 31.5 percent of Android users are concerned about their privacy on the platform and would like to switch to Apple's platform. Interestingly, 25 percent said that switching to ‌iPhone‌ would be a better value for money.

Other phone makers such as Google and Motorola are also looking at a steep decline in its user base going forward. This is because Google's brand loyalty has dropped 18.8 percent from 84 percent in 2019 to 65.2 percent in 2021. Similarly, as many as 71 and 62.6 percent of Motorola and LG users respectively are also planning on making the move to other brands -- if not Apple and its iPhones. 

iPhone 12 rules supreme

Another interesting finding from the survey is that as many as 46.6 percent of respondents think the iPhone 12 range offers the best smartphone experience. This number is also higher than the 30.4 percent of users who think the Samsung Galaxy S21 range is the best in the business. 

In terms of the favourite flagship, the iPhone 12 was voted to be the best by the respondents with a total of 17 percent votes polled in its favour. In comparison, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G received the worst rating as only 3.1 percent of users voted in its favour.

 

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