Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Sales Pass $1 Billion Within First 10 Days

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has crossed $1 billion (about Rs. 8,201 crore) in worldwide sales within the first 10 days since its October 28 launch. The record was previously held by 2012’s Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which managed the same sales figure within 15 days of launch. Activision’s latest marquee shooter has also recorded 200 million hours of playtime ...

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Call of Duty: Mobile Season 10 Brings Footballers, New Multiplayer Map

Call of Duty: Mobile is bringing popular footballers — Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr., and Paul Pogba — into the game as playable operators. The update arrives November 10 at 5:30am IST in India/ November 9 at 4pm PT in the US. CoD Mobile Season 10: World Class adds a brand-new battle pass, three new areas in the battle royale segment, and a new small-sized multiplayer ...

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Signal Stories can be customized now: Heres how that works

In order to maintain end-to-end encryption, the encrypted messaging app Signal has introduced a new feature that allows users to customise how to post their stories.

The new feature will allow stories to automatically expire 24 hours after sharing, but anyone can manually delete them anytime before.

One just has to go to Settings and then to "Stories" and turn off Stories to maintain utmost privacy.

"Today, stories have created a major shift in communication in the social media domain, and introducing such cool features is another dynamic to amplify content engagement in a hassle-free mode," an official report said.

"There has been conjecture on maintaining privacy, and with the new feature introduced at Signal, it enables the user to have intimate conversations with the people who matter," it added.

The platform has chosen to handle story viewing in a broader way.

All Signal contacts can view stories, including everyone in your phone's contact list who uses the app, anyone who has had a one-on-one conversation (even without adding a contact), and anyone who has accepted a message request.

Additionally, one can share stories with a smaller group of people or groups and create a custom format to keep track of who has viewed each story, said the report.

(Except for the headline and cover image, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.

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Google Pixel 7 Review: Winning Android smartphone formula

Pixel fans will rejoice knowing that the Pixel 7 offers everything that makes a Pixel phone desirable – fantastic camera performance and optimised and clean software. Add to that a bright OLED display, decent battery life, and a compact build, and you have what could be a winning Android smartphone formula. However, this phone doesn't hold a candle to the raw performance offered by the iPhones and Samsung flagships of this world.

After four long years, Pixel lovers can finally rejoice since Google has brought back the Pixel series of smartphones to India. While the brand did intermittently launch the Pixel A-series (Pixel 6a review) devices in India, the company has kept its premium-tier of smartphones out of India since the Pixel 3 series launched back in 2018. Fans of the Pixel experience have waited with bated breath for the potential return of these premium-tier Pixel phones in India – and now, they’ve got what they wished for. We recently reviewed the Pixel 7 Pro and concluded that “while it may not be a phone for gamers, it could very well be the perfect Android phone for every other premium segment user.” Priced at a more palatable ₹59,999, the Pixel 7 could be the more value-for-money proposition from Google for those vying to pick up one of the latest Pixel 7 series phones. The Pixel 7 builds on the Pixel 6 from last year, bringing some incremental upgrades with it. Let’s see how it fares in our review.

Google Pixel 7 Review: Build and design 

The Pixel 7 retains the distinctive design cues Google popularised on the Pixel 6 series. It is a glass sandwich with an aluminium frame. The two-tone colour profile is gone and instead, we’ve got a single colour separated by the visor-like camera module. This bump is now made of textured aluminium – replacing the glass on its predecessor – and honestly, it gives the phone a more premium look. 

The camera module strip is a really distinctive look that sets the phone apart from others. Google has used 100 per cent recycled aluminium in the construction of the Pixel 7, so props to the company for that. 

This camera module does eliminate wobbling when the device is placed flat on a surface, but one negative is excessive dust accumulation in the ridges of the camera module which you will need to wipe down from time to time. 

The smartphone also sports rounded edges which makes one-handed operation a breeze; also aided by its compact form factor. The phone is also decently lightweight, weighing in at 197g. It also comes with an IP68 rating, making it dust and water-resistant. There’s the SIM tray on the left, the USB-C charging port on the bottom, and the power and volume buttons on the right.

Google Pixel 7 Review: Display

The Pixel 7 houses a compact 6.3-inch OLED display with 1080 x 2400 FHD+ resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate support. Unlike its more expensive sibling, this one isn’t equipped with an LTPO panel though. The display is capable of smartly adapting its refresh rate based on the content displayed on it. This helps in battery life conservation. However, the phone supports only 90 Hz refresh rate, which seems inadequate at this price point where most of the competition offers 120 or even 144 Hz refresh rate support.

Refresh rate aside, the display is pretty fantastic. It is impressively bright; reaching 1002 nits of peak brightness outdoors on auto brightness mode. The viewing angles are great and off-axis colour discolouration is almost negligible. Additionally, the display is vibrant and HDR10+ compliant, so you can enjoy content on OTT services in HD, which is great. You also get a set of stereo speakers that are loud and crisp enough to warrant watching content without a pair of headphones occasionally. 

Google Pixel 7 Review: Camera

Coming to the section Pixel fans would possibly be the most excited about – camera – the Pixel 7 comes with the same 50 MP primary lens + 12 MP ultrawide lens configuration as its predecessor. However, there are improvements in overall picture quality and image processing. The primary camera outputs quad-binned 12.5 MP images and as one would expect from a Pixel phone, the main camera’s output during the day is excellent with good enough dynamic range. Images have a solid amount of detail but retain a cool tone with darker shadow areas. 

Colours appear natural but vibrant enough to be put on social media unedited, however, you won’t get iPhone or Samsung saturation levels and the tone is much cooler. The darker shadow areas do lack a tiny bit of detail in comparison to other flagship camera phones, but it is insignificant enough detail loss to call it a nitpick. Photos taken at 2x zoom are surprisingly crisp even though the phone doesn’t have a dedicated telephoto camera; thanks to Google’s Super Res algorithm that ups the quality of digital zoom photos.

The ultrawide camera maintains similar colours and exposure as the primary lens and photos taken from these lenses look consistent, which we love. There’s minimal softness in the edges and the noise is well-controlled. However, this lens has no autofocus which means you may end up with some blurry shots. Furthermore, there’s no macro mode as well.

Portrait shots are labelled 1x and 2x in the camera app but the magnification is more on the lines of 1.5x and 3x. 1x portrait shots look great with natural bokeh effect, good edge detection, and quite a bit of detail. However, the 2x portrait shots look unnaturally oversharpened and the background blur is far less in comparison to 1x shots.

Low-light images look fantastic, for the most part, with minimal noise and oversharpening. Optimisations made to the Tensor G2 chipset have resulted in truly impressive nighttime photography. Using Night Sight, the Pixel 7 tries to retain the darkness of nighttime; something that many forego to keep the shot as brightly lit as possible. And in our opinion, this looks more natural and pleasing to the eye, but it is subjective. Photos from the ultrawide shooter taken in low light are a bit softer on the details but 2x shots are where the weakness is more apparent. Low-light selfies are decent – definitely not the best in the business – with occasional soft shots with some noise.

Speaking of selfies, the phone houses a 10.8 MP selfie shooter that is proficient enough during the day. While the colours are nice and vibrant, the details of selfie photos could use a boost. In ideal daylight conditions, you can get a detailed shot but if there’s a lot of backlighting, the shot is significantly softer.

The video recording capabilities of the Pixel 7 are capped at 4K at 60fps on all cameras; there’s no 8K recording but honestly, it’s a feature we’d rather have when it is better optimised. The videos have decent dynamic range, good colour, and solid detail. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the inspiration behind modes such as Active Stabilization and Cinematic Blur, but the implementation is not bad at all for Google’s first attempt at it. Additionally, photo editing features Magic Eraser and Photo Unblur work freakishly well and add to the overall appeal of the device. 

Google Pixel 7 Review: Performance

The Google Pixel 7 houses the company’s second rendition of its custom chipset built in-house – the Tensor G2. You get a sole 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant in India, which is upsetting. We would have liked the option to buy the 256 GB variant here as well, but it is only available in the global market. The chipset is built on a 5nm fabrication process and claims to offer up to 60 per cent improved performance over the first-gen Tensor chip.

However, the SoC still struggles to match up to the heights achieved by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Apple A16 Bionic SoC. We compared it against the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the iPhone 14 in several benchmarking tests and it clearly lagged behind in numbers. However, note that the Pixel 7 is much cheaper than these flagships and in our opinion, the price-to-performance ratio is still quite impressive.

However, while the frame rates were stable enough when gaming, the phone did heat up significantly and towards the end of the half-hour mark – there were a couple of instances of some minor lag. We also found that the phone has some throttling issues when pushed with intensive tasks. In the CPU Throttling Test, the phone’s chip throttled 64 per cent of its maximum performance, so this phone isn’t our top recommendation for power users or avid mobile gamers.

However, the Tensor G2 chip shines in other areas – specifically Pixel experiences such as live translation, Photo Unblur, and Cinematic Mode. The software is also incredibly clean and while the screen only supports 90 Hz refresh rate, it still feels wonderfully smooth. Google also claims it is more power efficient than its predecessor which is always appreciated. And while this isn’t the fastest phone in the segment, it still offers smooth performance in most tasks and a fantastic software experience.

Google Pixel 7 Review: Battery life

In the battery department, Google made the decision to reduce the battery capacity of the Pixel 7 slightly compared to its predecessor, which may raise a few eyebrows. However, considering Google is claiming that the Tensor G2 is a more power-efficient processor – there isn’t a tangible detriment in battery life. The phone is equipped with a 4,355 mAh battery and supports 20 W wired charging. 

The Pixel 7 is a device that can easily get most users through a day’s worth of usage without breaking a sweat. If you’re a heavy gamer, you may have to charge the device sometime late evening or at night. However, we noticed that the phone loses a lot of battery when on standby, which could be due to the always-on display and the lack of an LTPO panel which can allow the refresh rate to be brought down further.

Still, the battery life should be good enough for most users. In our 4K video loop test, the phone survived about 13 hours which is a decent enough result. The 20 W charging speed though is just too slow to be competitive in 2022. A full charge from 0 to 100 per cent takes 1 hour and 40 minutes, which is honestly a sluggish speed now. The phone also supports 20 W wireless charging on any Qi-compatible wireless charger.

Google Pixel 7 Review: Verdict

Pixel fans will rejoice knowing that the Pixel 7 offers everything that makes a Pixel phone desirable – fantastic camera performance and optimised and clean software. Add to that a bright OLED display, decent battery life, and a compact build, and you have what could be a winning Android smartphone formula. However, this phone doesn't hold a candle to the raw performance offered by the iPhones and Samsung flagships of this world. Nevertheless, priced at 59,999, we deduce that this would be the more popular Pixel "flagship" smartphone, and rightfully so, because we believe it is better bang for your buck than its Pro counterpart. Other options in this price segment include the OnePlus 10T, Xiaomi 12 Pro, and the iPhone 12 (if you don't mind going for a capable two-year-old phone).

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Chandra Grahan 2022: Here is how and when you can watch the Lunar Eclipse in India

A fortnight after India witnessed a partial solar eclipse, the eastern parts of India and some other regions across the globe will see a total lunar eclipse on November 8. Lunar Eclipse, known as the Chandra Grahan in India. It will be the second and the last lunar eclipse of the year and the last total lunar eclipse for about the next three years. The celestial event will also be visible in India's neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan, some parts of Russia, North and South America, Australia, the Pacific Ocean, and the North Atlantic Ocean, said astrophysicist Debi Prasad Duari, PTI.

When the whole of the lunar disc enters the Earth's dark zone called the umbra, the Moon appears reddish (Blood Moon), it is known as a total lunar eclipse. After about 14 minutes, the Moon moves out of Earth's umbra and back into the penumbra. In addition, the lunar eclipse will last a few hours, due to the red light, which has a longer wavelength than blue light, giving the lunar eclipse its characteristic reddish color. On Earth, we see the same effect during sunrises and sunsets, when the sky has a reddish glow, then during the day.

The Total Lunar Eclipse 2022 Timeline

A partial lunar eclipse begins - at 2.39 pm The total lunar eclipse begins - at 3.46 pm Maximum total lunar eclipse - at 4:29 pm The total lunar eclipse ends - at 5:11 pm Moonset - 6.19 am

Although the total Lunar eclipse would be seen only from the eastern parts of India, the Partial lunar eclipse would be visible from most of India. However, the lunar eclipse will still not be witnessed in its totality everywhere. Viewers don't require special equipment or glasses to observe a lunar eclipse, although using binoculars or a telescope can enhance the view and the red color.

The eclipse can be observed from all parts of India from the time of the moonrise, but during the beginning phase, the partial and total eclipse will not be witnessed because both the celestial event will begin when the Moon is below the horizon everywhere in India".

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.

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Apple plans to shorten Siris trigger phrase to just Siri soon, might release other upgrades as well

Apple wants to change how people use its voice assistant, Siri. Until now, Siri has been designed to respond to the phrase "Hey Siri" and then execute the accompanying command. For instance, if you want  to lower the playback volume, you would say, "Hey Siri, turn down the volume." However, as per a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple does not want you to say "Hey Siri" anymore. Instead, the company plans to change it to  just "Siri." 

Will saying “Siri” instead of “Hey Siri” make any difference?

As per the report, Apple has been working on shortening the Siri activation phrase for months and is expected to float the change next year or in 2024. For the feature to work, Apple will have to muscle through a "significant amount of AI training and underlying engineering work," as the voice assistant will have to understand the wake word in multiple dialects and accents. Nevertheless, a single-word trigger phrase should be more convenient for users. 

As far as the current trigger phrase "Hey Siri" is concerned, it contains two words, which increases the chance of the system picking it up. Using a single wake word will put Siri ahead of Google's voice assistant that responds to the trigger phrase "Hey Google" or "Okay Google." However, Google Assistant does not require users to keep saying the wake phrase when giving commands back-to-back. 

Amazon's Alexa already responds to a single wake word. Users can say "Alexa" instead of saying "Hey Alexa" to get stuff done. Speaking of voice assistants, Microsoft shifted from a two-word wake phrase to a single-word wake phrase before it shut down Cortana last year. 

Apple could release multiple upgrades for Siri

The one-word trigger phrase is one of many upgrades that could come to Siri. Gurman suggests that Apple could further integrate its voice assistant into third-party services and apps, improving Siri's ability to understand users' requests. Recently, Apple introduced a new Siri activation sound and a new voice recorded by a member of the LGBTQ+ community. 

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.

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Apple iPhone 14 Pro waiting times could increase: Heres why

Tech giant Apple's iPhone 14 Pro models demand has exceeded its capacity to produce the handsets, the media reported.

In a note to investors, Analyst David Vogt from investment bank UBS examined wait times for Apple's Pro range of smartphones using information that tracks iPhone availability across 30 countries, reports AppleInsider.

According to the report, the waiting time for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max have risen by five to 25 days each in the US.

UBS collected the data prior to the current lockdowns in China that might have affected the production.

Meanwhile, Apple supply chain faced its next set of problems in China as panicked workers at the Foxconn factory, which produce the new iPhone 14 series, in Zhengzhou city were seen leaving last week amid fresh Covid-19 scare.

The factory in the capital of Henan province employs around 3,00,000 workers.

The development could slow the production of Apple's flagship devices in the coming months.

Famed Apple analyst Ming-chi Kuo posted on Twitter that more than 10 per cent of the global iPhone production capacity is currently affected as Foxconn's Zhengzhou factory suddenly entered a closed-loop production without warning.

(Except for the headline and cover image, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.

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