According to the news by La Porteria, a Barcelona news website based in Spain, the football giants, FC Barcelona presidential elections are set to be postponed due to a recent boom in COVID-19 cases in the country as Spain is among the top countries to be hit a severely second wave of the Coronavirus, adding to that the new strains of the pandemic have been discovered in multiple countries. But these cases are not enough right now to stop football and La Liga.
But among all these rumours, FC Barcelona authority has confirmed that their presidential elections will be on January 24, despite the calls for it to be postponed amid rising cases of coronavirus.
Former Barca vice-president Jordi Cardoner, who was in favour of delaying the elections, suggested in an interview that not postponing the election would be to show “a lack of respect and an attack on the health of our members”.
But FC Barcelona’s authorities confirmed on Thursday that the date of January 24 and stated: “all procedures” have been accepted by the local authorities.
As part of a statement, Barca confirmed: “The board has also ratified January 24 as the date for the elections and that all procedures have been accepted by the Generalitat de Catalunya, in liaison with the Ministries for Health, the Interior, Sport and Procedure.
“All efforts have been made to ensure that the pre-candidates can collect support slips under the best possible conditions and with as much time as available.”
These are the first elections that are to be conducted at the club since Josep Bartomeu’s huge victory in 2016. However, a disastrous tenure of Bartomeu led to his resignation, consequentially calling for early elections at the club.
Victor Font and Joan Laporta are head-to-head competitors in what is arguably one of the biggest events in the club for over half a decade since 2015. Font even spoke to AS regarding that, saying, “We had to advance the elections through a letter, but nobody did anything. We are now in a worrying situation at the health level. What is clear is that elections cannot be held right now on January 24th.”
He seemed quite practical with his reply even after being one of the front-runners for the presidential post. Font further stated, “With the current restrictions, the right to vote cannot be guaranteed to all socios.”
Samsung has recently launched its Galaxy A32 5G smartphone in the European market and it seems like another A-series smartphone is heading towards India, is the Galaxy A52, coming in both 4G and 5G variants. The report says that the device is already under production at Samsung’s facility in Greater Noida, India. As per some reports, Samsung is also preparing for its Galaxy A42 and A72 smartphones. As of now, Samsung has not revealed the actual date of launching the Galaxy A52 5G smartphone, but it seems to be very soon. In recent times, we’ve already got some of the mid-range 5G smartphones, like Moto G 5G, Mi 10i, and Galaxy A52 5G is expected to be a new addition in it.
So, it looks like the Galaxy A52 5G could be the very-first Galaxy A-series smartphone that will bring the 5G support in India because earlier, Samsung had only brought the 4G variants of Galaxy A51 so as the Galaxy A71, A80 devices.
As of now, we don’t have any confirmed specifications of the Galaxy A52. However, some leaks are suggesting that this phone will feature a 6.5-inch Infinity-O display and a thickness of 8.4mm. The 5G variant of this phone is expected to be powered by the Snapdragon 750G chipset whereas the 4G variant could be powered by the Snapdragon 720G chipset. The Galaxy A52 is expected to run on Android 11 OS and probably feature a quad rear camera setup having a 64MP primary sensor. In terms of availability, the Galaxy A52 is expected to arrive in the market before H1 2021 ends at a price tag of under $500.
After a few rumors and officially revealed renders, Samsung has finally taken off the wraps from the Galaxy A32 5G smartphone in Europe as this MediaTek powered smartphone has launched in Germany and all set to go on sale in February.
The Samsung Galaxy A32 5G is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 720, a budget 5G chipset (no information about the Android version used in it). This phone features a 6.5-inch HD+ Infinity-V display having a waterdrop notch. This phone has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner.
The MediaTek SoC of this phone is paired with 4GB/6GB/8GB of RAM (Unfortunately, Samsung Germany didn’t mention the RAM variants) and 64GB/128GB of internal storage (expandable up to 1TB). Coming to its camera section, this phone offers a quad rear camera setup that includes a 48MP f/1.8 primary sensor along with an 8MP f/2.2 ultra-wide sensor, a 5MP f/2.4 macro, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor. For selfies, this phone flaunts a 13MP selfie snapper at the front.
The Galaxy A32 5G is fueled up by a big 5,000mAH battery with 15W of fast charging. For an excellent multimedia experience, this phone is equipped with Dolby Atmos Surround sound. This phone is available in four different color variants: Awesome Black, Awesome Blue, Awesome Violet, and Awesome White.
As per its pricing and availability, the Galaxy A32 5G carries a price tag of €279 for its 64GB variant and €299 for its 128GB variant and it will go on sale on February 12.
Having made its debut a few days back, the new Asus ROG Flow X13 has kept the tech world talking about it. Like seriously Asus? They have crammed in a powerful AMD Ryzen 5000HS series processor along with a decent GTX 1650 graphics in an ultra-light 2-in-1 form factor.
It is a one-of-a-kind laptop with support for XG Mobile external GPU, and featuring a 16:10 13-inch FHD touchscreen display with 120 Hz refresh rate or even a 4K panel option as well. Paired with up to an 8 core, 16 threaded AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS mobile processor CPU and 16GB RAM, this is a very powerful portable gaming machine.
Thanks to @TUM_APISAK, we have spotted it on Geekbench and the scores are impressive as well, this is the Ryzen 9 5900HS processor with 16GB RAM.
The new Zen 3 based APU manages to put up a score of 1381 points in single-core, not that impressive as for now as its a thin and light laptop, ASUS might have tested in some power saver mode, and should improve later with BIOS updates as well.
Also, the ROG Flow X13 posts a multi-threaded score of 5897 points, which is again not bad, drawing just 35W TDP, similar to the last-gen AMD Ryzen 7 4800U so, expect a bump in performance with BIOS updates.
Xiaomi announced to launch Xiaomi RedmiBook Pro 15 and RedmiBook Pro 15S next month. The Chinese company takes the opportunity of CES 2021 to announce the launch of the notebooks.
Xiaomi also published a teaser photo of the new RedmiBook Pro. It will have Intel’s new Tiger Lake H35 CPUs. It is also come to know that the RedmiBook Pro will have a relatively slim bottom bezel, along with an aluminum build. The laptop will also have a USB Type-C port, presumably for charging, an LED indicator, a full-sized HDMI port, and a USB Type-A port.
Xiaomi is yet to reveal all other features of the notebook. But according to multiple Geekbench listings, AMD versions are on the way, with up to the Ryzen 7 5800H set to power the RedmiBook Pro 15S.
Xiaomi also plans to release Core i5-11300H and Core i7-11370H versions of the machine with the RedmiBook Pro 15 and RedmiBook Pro 15S. The RedmiBook will have 16 GB RAM. But we can expect to get one RedmiBook with 8GB RAM. Xiaomi has assigned the RedmiBook Pro 15 the model number TIMI TM2017 for reference in the Geekbench report.
The Taiwanese OEM is on a spree to launch new laptops with the latest hardware at this CES 2021 with a variety of gaming, productivity-centric, business, high-performing, and Chromebooks as well. Apart from launching the Chromebook CX9, Asus has launched another premium Chromebook in the form of a 2-in-1 laptop.
Named as the Asus Chromebook Flip CX5, this new laptop features the latest 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors with Intel Xe graphics. So, running on ChromeOS, the Chromebook Flip CX5 is itself a great 2-in-1 laptop for daily usage and even work as it has tons of useful apps as well features.
Specifications
ASUS Chromebook Flip CX5 is a groundbreaking new laptop that expands the capabilities of Chromebooks for cloud entertainment. It is the first 15.6-inch Chromebook Flip to be powered by an 11th Generation Intel Core processor with Intel Iris Xe graphics.
It features WiFi 6 connectivity, ASUS WiFi Stabilizer technology, and dual Harman Kardon-certified speakers. With support for Google Stadia and NVIDIA GeForce NOW on Chromebook Flip CX5, users have access to a seemingly endless world of gaming.
Chromebook Flip CX5 is styled to appeal to a young generation of users who enjoy a minimalist style on a laptop for personal or work use. It incorporates a metallic design on an elegant Immersive White exterior that has a ceramic-like feel.
The Obsidian Velvet texture of the palm rest area is silky-smooth for added comfort during extended use. The 57 Wh battery in Chromebook Flip CX5 provides a battery life of up to 12 hours, and the laptop also delivers up to 16 GB of memory, storage of up to a 512 GB SSD, and a microSD card slot for expandability.
Following the keynote press conference, a Q&A session on any topic related to the company with AMD CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, was scheduled by AMD. Given that the American multinational semiconductor company launched several products just as the previous year ended, supply issues are tight for end-users. This was an opportunity for reporters to ask the CEO about production demand against supply, AMD’s future strategies, and business acquisitions.
According to a report by AnandTech, “This roundtable was a little different than most. Despite the whole discussion being on the record, AMD requested that we (or any of the press) did not post a full transcript of the call.”
The initial question to Lisa was about the emergence of ARM-based models that are encroaching on the traditional x86 market. If x86 is still focusing purely on high-performance compute, it might stand to be overtaken by Arm with its year-on-year expected performance gains from its roadmap ranging from 30% to 50%. The goal was to learn how AMD plans to approach the competition.
Lisa Su: “AMD’s focus is about high performance and significant generational improvements; x86 is a strong ecosystem and we continue to invest heavily. Custom designs [like ARM] are in the market and are purpose-built for use. If anything, it is a validation of how much the demand for computing is growing. We see a larger opportunity for customized solutions for specific workloads, and AMD has a strong semi-custom division to meet those opportunities.”
Image: AnandTech
Lisa’s answer cited the fact that as the industry is growing, it gives more opportunities for specialized products. Not to say that we disagree with the part where Arm is being called purpose-built but the development of the Arm server ecosystem is for broad workloads, not simply specific markets.
She was further asked about the M1 chip, which is a clear building block for the company to move forward into desktops, workstations, and potentially the enterprise market and the potential of this to affect the relationship between Apple and AMD.
Lisa Su: “The M1 is more about how much processing and innovation there is in the market. This is an opportunity to innovate more, both in hardware and software, and it goes beyond the ISA. From our standpoint, there is still innovation in the PC space – we have lots of choices and people can use the same processors in a lot of different environments. We expect to see more specialization as we go forward over the next couple of years, and it enables more differentiation. But Apple continues to work with us as their graphics partner, and we work with them.”
Given the notable lack of hardware on the shelves for end-users and enthusiasts, a large part of the Q&A discussion was centered around supply and demand. Also at a time when AMD has built out a number of products including consoles for two partners, in a very compressed time frame, it stands to reason that if users cannot buy the newest ‘leading performance hardware’, there are going to be complaints.
Lisa Su: “This is the result of a demand focused environment, rather than manufacturing issues. There is tightness in the supply chain due to demand, and that invariably puts pressure on our consumer, PC, and gaming product lines. As it relates to our semiconductor production, we’re putting in additional capacity to meet this unexpected demand. It will take time to catch up, but that’s what we’re seeing.”
Lisa refused to believe that this high demand environment and capacity ceiling would potentially cap AMD at 22% market share. She talked about the substrate shortages, simply due to the increased demand, and that the ecosystem is working to also build additional capacity (including AMD investments), but that will take time and continue through this year.
The question is always if AMD is still producing as many CPUs and GPUs as it can and when this level of supply will improve to meet this increase in demand.
Lisa Su: “We are shipping lots of parts, and volumes in all segments are increasing, and that will happen through 2021. There will be tightness in the first half of the year, but alongside consumers, we also ship to OEM partners. There is some real-time prioritization between end-user and OEM, but we understand that consumers want more and it’s very high on our priority list to meet this high demand.”
Lisa did give us information about how production level decisions happen in advance with AMD launching a host of products in Q4 2020, including Ryzen 5000, Radeon RX 6000 GPUs, two games consoles, and also started shipping its next-gen EPYC Milan processors.
Lisa Su: “One of the things that was important with Cezanne (Ryzen 5000 Mobile) is that we were shipping for production in early 2021. With the OEM cycle of those products, enabling them to get the first batches of hardware in Q4 was vital for launch through the first quarter and the first half of 2021. This is how AMD matches its product cadence, and the choice on hardware manufacture is one of timing. It’s nothing fundamental, it’s not design limited, it’s all about making the right bets (sometimes months in advance) and enabling market estimation of demand. We had to enable millions of console APUs as well, and there is higher demand than we thought here as well. Working with OEM partners like Sony and Microsoft means enabling different strategies as well.”
Lisa clarified that the current 8-core on mobile, 16-core on desktop and 64-core on enterprise were not fundamental functional limits for these markets, she said, “There will be more core counts in the future. It will come as we scale the rest of the system.”
Pivoting to more business operations, the $35 billion in an all-stock acquisition of Xilinx by AMD’ came into the conversation. The deal announced last year has had its share of pros and cons, questioning if the merger is timed correctly, deemed a right fit, and if it makes sense to remove the competition from the market.
Lisa Su: “We’re excited about closing the Xilinx deal; it’s the next big step in the story for AMD. There’s going to be a lot of technology going forward, and AMD has made good progress in recent years – we have deep customer partnerships, and we’re building trust to be behind the most important platforms. We want the largest enterprises to trust AMD as their supplier, and the Xilinx acquisition will help this. Xilinx is the right next step – we have the desire to have a much bigger footprint, and Xilinx will help AMD execute on its base business. Xilinx CEO Victor Peng will join us as part of that strategy, and we expect a seamless transition saying laser-focused on execution. This is what leaders have to do – we have to expand and scale. AMD can do both.”
In the end, Lisa was asked about AMD’s future and how AMD’s strategy will develop based on recent improvements made from the competition.
Lisa Su: “For our Ryzen 5000 Mobile parts, we’ve stated that we will have 150+ design wins in 2021, which is 50% more than what we saw with Ryzen 4000 Mobile. Those numbers include our commercial system deployments, and we’re working hard enabling our security solutions in our Ryzen PRO platform – we already have a number of designs from top OEMs coming later this year. There will be new initiatives around Ryzen Pro as well. On the enterprise side, we are broadening our focus on EPYC, which means to say that we will have business solutions targeted to different vertical markets. This enables a faster time-to-market for those customers to deploy our solutions. We also started shipping Milan to OEM partners in Q4 last year as a lead up to this. More of this will come as we formally launch Milan in Q1.”
If we combine last year’s Q4 with this year’s Q1 (and Q2), AMD is experiencing higher-than-expected demand for its product line, and it seems like it needs to order more from TSMC (as well as develop its substrate supply chain) to enable this. Even though AMD expects a tight supply through the first half of the year, it does not view this as a theoretical ceiling on its market share numbers.
Lisa is clear that the company is working hard on Zen 4, Zen 5, and RDNA3 for the longer roadmap. Also, future processors seem set to have higher core counts too.
iMediSync is attracting a great attention at CES 2021 with its novel headset, iSyncWave™. It was introduced as one of the Hot Products by the Consumer Electronics Show organizer.
iSyncWave™ is AI brain Mapping and personalized NIR-LED photobiomodulation therapy that will enhance neural activity; optimizing a person’s brain.
iMediSync claims they will tack the current mental pandemic and Corona Blue with its novel approach to biomarker development and personalized photobiomodulation therapy. This will accessible not only at your doctor’s clinic but at the comfort of your own home.
iMediSync is a leading company in an EEG brain mapping market that has currently tackled Alzheimer’s. Through their iSyncBrain® AI driven cloud platform, they developed a biomarker and are able to screen with more than 90% accuracy the likelihood of a person progressing into full-blown Alzheimer’s up to 10 years before a conventional diagnosis.
Oppo Reno 5 Pro will launch in India on 18th January at 12 PM. The phone is the successor of the Oppo Reno 4 Pro that was launched last year in India. Reno 5 Pro has already been launched in China and the pricing is at CNY3,400 ($520/€430) for the 8GB/128GB variant and CNY 3,800 for the 12GB/256GB variant. A tipster tipped that the box price of the phone for the 8GB + 128GB is ₹38,990 and he claims that the sale price will be around ₹35,990 in India.
The MRP mentioned on the box of #OPPOReno5Pro (8GB+128GB) is ₹38,990, so expect the sale price to be ₹35,990 or around the same. Seems a good deal for an offline centric phone, what do you think? pic.twitter.com/nOKLM1YTkN
The Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G runs the ColorOS 11 based on the Android 11 OS and is powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 1000+ chipset. Regarding the display, this phone features a 6.55-inch hole-punch OLED panel (1080p+ resolution, 500 nits brightness) with a refresh rate of 90Hz and a touch sampling rate of 180Hz. This phone features an in-display fingerprint scanner.
The SoC of this phone is paired with 8GB/12GB LPDDR4x RAM and 128GB/256GB of UFS 2.1 internal storage (no expansion). Coming to the camera section, the Oppo Reno5 Pro 5G offers a quad rear camera setup that includes a 64MP primary sensor (with an f/1.7 aperture electronic image stabilization (EIS)) along with an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, two 2MP modules. You can record 4K videos in 30fps by the rear camera module. For selfies, this phone has a 32MP selfie snapper at the front.
Regarding the battery, this phone is fueled up by a 4,300mAH battery with the support of a monstrous 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 charging (reverse charging is supported as well). You can use USB Power Delivery and 18W QuickCharge chargers as well.
For charging, there is a USB-C port and you can convert it to a headphone jack (No 3.5mm headphone jack). As per the connectivity, it supports 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and NFC as well. Regarding the rear panel, Oppo has worked well on its Reno Glow finish, and most importantly, a fluorescent coating has been applied to the camera bump and other elements that they can glow in the dark.
The Taiwanese OEM has been making some exceptional gaming laptops under its ROG branding as well as its more affordable TUF series as well. Apart from launching the beloved Asus TUF Gaming A15 with AMD Ryzen 5000H processors, Asus has taken a unique advantage with Intel.
As we know Intel is limited to 4 cores and 8 threads on its 11th Gen laptops but this does enable them to clock at high boost clock speeds of over 5GHz on laptops, thanks to the 10nm SuperFin transistors.
All this aside, what Asus has done is used these efficient Tiger Lake-H gaming processors on laptops to make them both thin & light and provide great gaming performance without compromising on battery life. So, the laptop has been named the new Asus TUF Gaming Dash F15.
Specifications
The all-new TUF Dash F15 gaming laptop is engineered to expand every gamer’s repertoire. Its super-slim design is lightweight and easy to carry, so it is ideal for on-the-go or around-the-house use. Up to an 11th Generation Intel Core i7 processor and a GeForce RTX 3070 laptop GPU blitz through games with power to spare for serious work. Also, the Dash F15 is topped off with a range of premium features that enhance its everyday user experience for gaming, entertainment and more.
A gaming panel with up to a 240 Hz refresh rate on the Dash F15 offers gamers the same edge as esports athletes, with a 3 ms response time that reduces motion blur to make fast-paced target tracking more precise. When gamers want to do more, a versatile Thunderbolt 4 port connects to everything from docks to external GPUs. An expansive battery offers up to 16.6 hours of video playback, so gamers can unplug and unwind anywhere and later reload with convenient USB-C charging.
Advanced cooling enables the Dash F15 to fit top-tier processors in a super-slim form factor. A substantial heat spreader and five copper heat pipes distribute thermal energy while dual fans channel air through four outlets that expel heat faster and with less noise than typical ultraslim designs.
The N-Blade fans are specially sculpted to move more air, and these are made from a special liquid crystal polymer that makes enough space to fit 83 blades per fan and still ensure that each blade is strong enough to hold up at high RPMs.
The self-cleaning cooling module maintains long-term stability and performance by preventing build-up on critical components. Updated anti-dust tunnels are shorter to create more space for airflow around the fan while still redirecting particles away from crucial hardware.
Voice chat is crystal clear due to new Two-Way AI Noise-Cancelation technology. This advanced technology removes a broad range of unwanted background noise from both input and output audio, meaning that both the user’s voice and incoming communications are fuzz-free.
This fresh addition to the TUF Gaming portfolio takes military-grade durability to ultrathin new dimensions. Resilience against everything from everyday knocks and bumps to extreme temperatures lets users work and play wherever they want, worry-free. Whether charging to the frontlines of a favorite first-person shooter or adventuring in the great urban jungle, the Dash is a reliable ally for gamers to have by their side.
The ASUS TUF Gaming Dash F15 will be made available by Asus from as soon as Q1 2021 in North America and prices along with availability in other countries will be revealed soon.
