On Wednesday, the NBA announced that James Harden is “unavailable” after violating the league’s health and safety guidelines amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
He has been fined $50,000 after a video began circulating on social media, showing Harden attending an indoor party without a mask. This lead to a league investigation.
The 31-year-old has been declared “unavailable” for the Rockets’ opening game against Oklahoma City Thunder that was scheduled for Wednesday evening. On Wednesday, the NBA said in its announcement that the game would be postponed because the Rockets did not have enough eligible players. Three players had Covid-19 test results that were “either positive or inconclusive,” and four others who are placed in quarantine via contract tracing. With Harden as well as those players out and another player on the bench for to an injury, the Rockets did not have enough players available on Wednesday to play against the Thunder.
Tonight’s scheduled Houston Rockets season opener at Toyota Center vs. the Thunder has been postponed in accordance with the NBA’s Health & Safety Protocols. Information regarding the rescheduled date of the game will be made available at a later time.
Presently, it is still unclear when Harden will be cleared to suit up. The Rockets are waiting to hear from the NBA on how long he will have to quarantine. According to USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt, Harden will lose $573,000 per game for any contests he ends up missing.
In the last couple of months, Harden has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons. During the pandemic, while the Rockets were beginning training camp in Houston, he was apparently attending parties in Las Vegas and Atlanta.
The NBA has put various health and safety guidelines in place because of the coronavirus pandemic, which prohibits players and team personnel from going to any bars, clubs or restaurants. If team members fail to comply with these protocols, there is a possibility of them being fined or even suspended.
Microsoft Windows 10 has added a new feature by which you can make groups of your essential apps, adding to the taskbar. For say, you have so many apps to get them pinned in the taskbar as shortcuts. But, at the same time, you do not want to sacrifice the free space on the entirety of your taskbar. For this problem, there is a solution right now, named ‘Taskbar Groups.’ Let’s check it out quickly in brief.
You have to maintain several steps on your system to make this process successful:
1. At first, you need to download the ZIP file of the Taskbar Groups application from GitHub and then extract that file using one of your file extractors to access the executable file. The Taskbar Groups application is lightweight and it consumes only 150KB of memory.
2. After opening the application for the first time, there will be only one option you’ll see is ‘Add taskbar group’. You need to click that to get started with it, to create shortcuts for your fav programs.
3. Next, you can add an icon for the group you’re about to create, and in your taskbar, this icon will appear. Moreover, you can set the width of that icon, a maximum width ranging from 1 to 20. Next, you can click on ‘Add new shortcut’ to choose the apps that you’re interested to add to the group.
4. After that, you need to assign a name to that particular group and click on Save. In this way, your group of apps will be created.
5. After saving the whole process, it will take you to the home page where you will find the group you just created. Now, your group is ready to use.
6. Now, you can go to the shortcuts folder and right-click the shortcut you just created. Next, choose ‘Pin to taskbar’. You can choose to pin the shortcut to the Start menu as well.
7. You will see a new entry in the taskbar after pinning the shortcut to it. So, your group of essential apps is all set in the taskbar, saving your time and stamina of searching multiple icons for the same category of apps in the taskbar.
Last month, a leak had come out regarding the upcoming OnePlus 9 lineup, saying that this series will have three smartphone models: OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9 Pro, and OnePlus 9E. Now, we’ve got another leak, suggesting that the third model will have another name: OnePlus 9 Lite. In short, the OnePlus 9E changes its name to the OnePlus 9 Lite.
Apart from the name, another report has popped out, saying that the OnePlus 9 Lite will be powered by a different Snapdragon 800 series chipset, most probably, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865. As per the higher models (OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro), those are reported to be powered by the latest Snapdragon 888 chipset. This means, the OnePlus 9 Lite will be slightly toned down if we compare it to its siblings.
As it is said to be powered by a slightly less powered SD 865 chipset, we can expect a comparatively lower price tag from OnePlus regarding its OnePlus 9 Lite. But as of now, OnePlus has not confirmed anything on its own that whether there will be some change in the name from OnePlus 9E to OnePlus 9 Lite or something, but we take this leak as a pinch of salt. The company will surely share something more about this matter in the upcoming days.
Earlier, a report has come out regarding the partnership of OnePlus and Leica for further improvements in the camera section of the future OnePlus smartphones, like the OnePlus 9 lineup. OnePlus is already very much famous for the cameras of its smartphones. So, we can definitely expect some extraordinary thing the OnePlus 9 series is going to achieve for this partnership with Leica. There will be no surprise if the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro camera performance beats Huawei Mate 40 Pro and Mi 10 Ultra in the DxOMark’s smartphone camera ranking.
After getting great success over Jio 4G network all over India for a couple of years, Reliance Jio has reported earlier that they are currently in the works of a Jio Android smartphone at a meager price tag of $50 Indian market. Recently, another report has come out saying that Jio is about to launch a feature phone next year. Last year, Reliance launched its first feature phone with 4G connectivity, popularly known as the Jio Phone, at a price tag of ₹699($9). It looks like, Jio is looking to relaunch its 4G enabled feature phone in the first quarter of 2021.
But, when it will be launched in 2021, this Jio Phone pricing could be slightly higher than last year’s. It is expected that it will be priced at something around ₹999($13.54), but it is quite confirmed that the price range will not exceed ₹1,000($13.55). Last year, Jio had great success with this feature phone, and in 2021, the company is looking to have even more subscribers.
The global pandemic of 2020 and for this, higher component costs and import restrictions maybe two of those reasons to set a comparatively higher price tag for the Jio Phone. As per reports, the upcoming Jio feature phones will be manufactured by Flex, and it will have a new subscription plan as well. This phone will be available across 800,000 retail stores in India.
After spending a lot of time in the networking world in this country, Jio still maintains over 400 million subscribers (as of Oct’20) in India, beating its born rivals like Bharti Airtel and Vi(Vodafone-Idea), and now the game is even bigger as corporates like Facebook, Google has invested in the firm. Apart from the 4G feature phone, we are looking forward to seeing some 5G related steps from Jio. We hope that Reliance-Jio will be the first in India to bring the next-gen 5G connectivity by the second half of 2021 and at an affordable price range.
The Winter Sale of Steam has started, Epic is giving away a huge number of games, GOG’s got their freebie, and the Humble store came with an offer of Humble Choice Premium subscription with $6/month for six months. If all these are not enough to satisfy your mind, Blizzard is here with an exciting offer – Overwatch is available to play for free until 4th January.
In the past, Overwatch was available for free to play several times, only for a weekend. But this time, it is available for two solid weeks. The trial version of the game gives access to the full game and contains all heroes and game modes, and the amount of progress you gain (which could be sufficient for how much time you have in your hand for the game) will carry forward to the full release.
During the trial period, Overwatch is also on Sale. The Overwatch Legendary Edition is loaded with bonus skins, and many cosmetics for World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Heroes of Storm, and Diablo 3 themed on Overwatch is dropping to $20. In contrast, the standard edition is now available for $15, a 25 percent discount on the regular $20 price.
After all, if you want more on your holidays to keep yourself busy in gaming, then Blizzard is coming with a big sale in the upcoming holiday, offering 65 percent discounts on Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, StarCraft, Diablo 3, Hearthstone card packs, and World of Warcraft.
In July 2020, OnePlus launched the first budget-friendly smartphone: OnePlus Nord. Now, in a recent interview, the CEO of OnePlus, Pete Lau has informed that they are planning to extend the Nord family with powerful cameras. That means OnePlus is going to launch a Nord series smartphone soon. Unsurprisingly, a recent leak claimed that the OnePlus may launch OnePlus Nord SE, a mid-range smartphone soon.
According to the source, the upcoming alleged OnePlus Nord SE is just a special edition of the predecessor Original Nord. A leaked report reveals that OnePlus will design it in partnership with the designer Joshua Vides, he is a renowned graphic designer and also popular for creating daily objects in Monochromatic hand-drawn illustration.
According to a reliable tipster, Max Jambor has shared an image of the OnePlus logo through his Twitter account (@maxjmb), with a caption: ‘Nord SE- Same but looks different’. This tweet reveals that the upcoming Node SE will have the same specifications as the OG Nord. It is expected that the upcoming Nord SE will have some aesthetic changes, which include: a revamped rear panel and custom wallpaper.
If this upcoming phone has the same specification as the OG Nord, then the Nord SE will also have a 6.44-inch FHD+ (1,080×2,400 pixels) Fluid AMOLED display with 90Hz refresh rate and powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 765SoC and a quad rear camera setup. Another leaked report reveals that the Nord SE will come with some improvements in specifications like 4,500 mAh battery life with the support of 65W Wrap changing.
The above-given information is based on the leaked reports, the company hasn’t revealed anything regarding this topic. The Nord SE is expected to unveil in March 2021, along with the OnePlus 9 Series.
The year 2021 will be a very interesting and important year in the laptop gaming market as we will see both AMD and Intel battling with their latest gaming-centric mobile processors. In 2020, AMD was very much the preferred option over Intel when it came to gaming processors for laptops but things could take a turn in 2021.
Intel’s Tiger Lake CPUs are very promising, while AMD’s Zen 3 architecture is absolutely stunning as well. So, the contest seems to be heating up; however, till now, as per the leaks we have got, Intel’s 8-core Tiger Lake-H series processor seems to be nowhere.
Both Intel’s Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs are quad-core with no signs of a 6-core or an 8-core CPU until now. Here are the leaked gaming CPUs known so far, and their scores are compared side-by-side:
Core i5-11300H vs Ryzen 5 5600H
We spotted both of these CPUs yesterday, thanks to @TUM_APISAK, however, the multi-core score of the Core i5-11300H has taken a huge bump going from 4024 points to as much as 4912 points with just 4 cores.
Core i5-11300H
Ryzen 5 5600H
Also, the multi-core score of the Ryzen 5 5600H, also spotted yesterday, has increased from 5713 points to 5994 points, not to forget, with 12 threads on board.
As you see the scores, side-by-side, Intel has kept a good lead in single core performance, while AMD still leading the multi-core, thanks to 6 cores. I think AMD can squeeze more out of the CPU with proper cooling although the scores look fair to me as the Ryzen 5 5600X also manages a similar kind of scores but comes with higher clock speeds and TDP.
At 4.24GHz boost clock speeds, this could be the maximum multi-core scores obtained by AMD whereas Intel is leading with impressive 4.38 GHz boost frequencies. This is indeed helping Intel to gain this much performance even with 8 threads, both Intel and AMD’s IPC seems to be on par with each other and it will be interesting to see which CPU performs better in real-world game titles.
Core i7-11370H vs Ryzen 7 5800H
Most gamers prefer another interesting fight between two higher-end gaming CPUs as both Core i7 or Ryzen 7. Although making this 4-core vs. 8-core comparison doesn’t fair, but as for now, there’s no sign of a 6-core or 8-core CPU from Intel, so, as named the Core i7-11370H, this will be used for comparison.
Core i7-11370H
Ryzen 7 5800H
Well, Intel’s single-core performance is massive, scoring a massive 1606 points, thanks to 4.79 GHz boost frequency. Whereas the 8 core, 16 threaded Ryzen 7 5800H also scores a healthy 1475 points in single-core benchmarks and scoring a massive 7630 points in multi-core.
The good increase in single-core performance shall help both of the CPUs to provide good gaming performance whereas Intel managing 5686 points with just 8 threads is amazing. However, at the end of the day, what will matter though is the price, if both of these CPUs come in at almost same price everyone will go for Ryzen 7 5800H.
Where is Core i9? vs R9 5900HX
As for now, there’s no sign of a Core i9 Tiger Lake-H processor, but AMD will be launching actually three Ryzen 9 CPUs – Ryzen 9 5900H, Ryzen 9 5900HS, and Ryzen 9 5900HX. Pretty sick portfolio, isn’t it? Well, the Ryzen 9 5900HX will be the first overclockable laptop CPU in the market, introduced by AMD.
Obviously, this flagship CPU needs to be cooled and maintained well to get the best results, with a scope of getting better scores every day, thanks to overclocking ability. As for now, Asus seems to be confirmed to use the CPU on its ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 gaming laptop.
The 8-core CPU has an impressive 4.74 GHz boost frequencies that helps the Ryzen 9 5900HX score a massive 1547 points in single-core and 9069 points in multi-core. I won’t be surprised to see the performance scores increasing over time.
It will not take long to see these CPUs live in action as CES 2021 is now weeks away and the year 2021 will be a year for laptop gamers with both AMD and Intel battling to be the mobile gaming champion.
Manchester United beat Everton last night by 2-0 in the Carabao Cup quarter-final at Goodison Park and progressed to the Carabao Cup semi-final. Edinson Cavani and Anthony Martial scored one each at the final minutes of the game to seal the victory for the Reds.
Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made some changes in the starting XI to give the chance to his players from the reserve bench. Manchester United dominated in the most part of the match.
After the match, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said, “It was a good start. For the first 20-25 minutes, we were excellent. We should have been maybe one, two, or three up but Robin Olsen made some good saves and kept them in the game.”
“Second half we dominated.”
“It went there and back, attacking and defending, but you are always confident if the game opens up with the pace we put on.”
“We know that when we defend well we have players to win games. The spirit in the camp is good; winning gives you energy.”
Manchester United will face their ‘noisy neighbours’ Manchester City in the Carabao Cup semi-final. Manchester United was knocked out of this competition by Manchester City last season in the semi-final. United surely wants to take revenge this season.
Ole said, “We are in the semis and one step away from the final. It is the worst game to lose, a semi-final. If you get to the final you get that feeling in the build-up.”
“We are going to try to get to the semi-finals in a good state, but there are many league games before then.”
In the other semi-final of the Carabao Cup, Tottenham Hotspur will face Brentford.
It is safe to say that Thomas Tuchel’s Christmas is effectively ruined after Paris Saint-Germain announced that they had fired their manager earlier today. The main reason behind the sacking of the manager was the lack of influence of the team. Additionally, the way Tuchel communicated also played a part, amongst sporting decisions.
The German was relieved of his duties as manager of PSG only hours after securing a 4-0 victory over Racing Strasbourg. During his tenure at Paris, he managed to guide the club into their first-ever Champions League final, falling short of the trophy to Bayern Munich in a closely contested 1-0 victory in favour of the Germans.
Thomas Tuchel has been sacked by PSG board, confirmed. Game over and new manager is coming. Official announcement expected soon. 🇫🇷🔴 @cfbayern#PSG#Tuchel
Thomas Tuchel was rather critical about his position at the club when he spoke to Sport1:
‘To be completely honest, during the first six months, I said to myself: ‘Am I still a manager or am I a politician in sport, a Minister for Sports?’ In a club like this, it is not always just about football.’
While the Parisians endured a shaky start to the 20/21 Ligue 1 campaign, they were only now beginning to climb back to the top. They currently find themselves in third place behind Lyon and Lille, both with 36 points from 17 games while the reigning champions have 35.
Mauricio Pochettino [with his lawyers] and PSG board are in contact by 24 hours to reach the agreement.
‘Poch’ is expected to become the new PSG manager on next hours when every detail will be sorted.
Former Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino is reportedly on the verge of being announced as the new head coach of the club. Pochettino has been out of a job since being replaced by Jose Mourinho at Tottenham, and was recently quoted saying:
‘I have always said that one day it would be a pleasure to manage a big club like Paris, a dream.’
Tottenham Hotspur’s Kyle Walker-Peters, manager Mauricio Pochettino and Ben Davies celebrate after the UEFA Champions League quarter final second leg match at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester.
‘I try to watch all of their games, especially in the Champions League and sometimes I speak with [Paris Saint-Germain assistant coach] Jean-Louis Gasset.’
The board is set to meet with Pochettino before arriving at a conclusion, and it seems ever so likely that the former Spurs boss will land the job.
We already know that last week the IT management company SolarWinds was hacked, possibly by the Russian government, and the US Treasury, Commerce, State, Energy, and Homeland Security departments have been affected. Later investigations revealed that other government agencies and many companies are still identifying the data which was stolen.
The investigation revealed that most of the tech companies were also infected by hackers. Tech giants like Cisco, Intel, Nvidia, Belkin, and VMware have all had computers on their networks infected with the malware.
SolarWinds had stated that “fewer than 18,000 companies were impacted” and that it even attempted to hide the list of clients who used the infected software. All these tech companies are just repeating the same thing from day one. “we’re investigating, but we don’t think this has impacted us.” It can take a long time for the impacts of a hack to be fully realized. Once hackers are inside a system, it can also be difficult to tell if they’re fully gone.
The hacking groups target the tech companies to target future product plans or employee and customer information that could be sold or held for ransom. But it’s also possible these companies were only collateral damage as these hacking groups went after government agencies, ones that happened to share the same SolarWinds-provided IT management systems.
For now, the tech companies don’t seem like any of these companies are particularly worried. In truth, the companies may not have the least bit of care, but it is the user’s data that is vulnerable.
