Xiaomi has made their new Nitride GaN 55W charger available for the public via JD.com in China for just 79 yuan or Rs. 892.04 or $12.23. It is the same 55W charger that was optionally available with recently launched Xiaomi Mi 11 with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 888 SoC.
Users buying the Mi11 could opt for the “Set Version” (with 55W GaN charger & cable) for free and now even if you do not own a Mi 11 you can get the Xiaomi Nitride GaN 55W charger. The specifications of the charger are as follows:
Input: 100 to 240V, 50/60Hz, 1.5A;
Output: 5V s 3A / 9V s 3A / 11V s 5A Max / 20V s 2.5A Max.
The package comes with a 6A USB-A to USB-C cable to charge devices such as laptops and mobile phones.
So, why wait? go get the new Xiaomi Nitride GaN 55W charger which promises ultra-fast charging and don’t worry about the stocks as ITHome reports it will be available at a large-scale three-way shop.
FC Barcelona must pay the superstar and captain of the club, Lionel Messi a loyalty bonus of €39m at the end of the season, even if he decides to leave the club, according to a report by El Mundo. The Argentine superstar’s contract has recently been revealed with a detailed breakdown of the player’s salary and bonuses.
A new report shows how Messi must be paid a total amount of €38,964,977.50 by the club at the season end, regardless of whether the Argentine superstar wants to continue with the club or not.
The speculations started after the news last summer that Messi would stay at the Camp Nou for the ongoing season. He clarified that he was not very happy or satisfied to do so, after making threats to leave the club on a free transfer in the close-season.
The news regarding Messi’s contract follows on from a report last month in the El Mundo indicating the club’s alarming financial situation as they are now in a debt of over €1billion with €730m of that due in the short-term.
Simultaneously, the club’s first-team squad’s wage bill has been reduced by a reported €80m, and there is still a worrying financial outlook for the club.
The interim president of the club Carlos Tusquets gave a detailed interview to Catalan radio station RAC1, with quotes carried in full by Marca. While giving the interview, he claimed that the club was struggling to pay the players’ pre-agreed January salary.
Apple brought Face ID to the world and it was quickly welcomed by the users. Soon, all the smartphone companies incorporated that innovation. The US tech giant, Apple, is one of the biggest companies in the world. According to the reports, Apple might come with an in-display fingerprint sensor. This is an incredible journey from the smartphone company that has seen it all from Touch ID to fingerprint recognition to Face ID and now possibly to the in-display fingerprint sensor.
Being said that, Apple is not the first company to try out this feature. A number of premium smartphones available in the market do utilize this technology. But, the iPhone did not support the in-display fingerprint sensor. Soon, we can expect this to change.
With the speed, Apple is moving, we can very well expect upcoming iPhones to come with the in-display fingerprint sensor. Another suggestion which this report makes is that the new iPhones will not come only with the in-display fingerprint sensor. You can expect the smartphone to have both Touch ID and Face ID. A former employee quoted that an optical version could be more reliable than the existing ultrasonic technique.
Currently, Apple features the Touch ID only on iPhone SE and MacBooks. You can also spot a fingerprint sensor in current MacBook devices. Though, this sensor is shifted from the screen to the sleep button on the side in iPhone SE.
Serving additional biometric options will help the company to make the product more attractive. iPhone 13 is expected to come with Wi-Fi 6E technology but can we expect it to come with this in-display fingerprint sensor? Let’s hope for it!
While AMD is adding more consumers into its belt every month, Intel is losing more CPU share each month. This trend has been noticed for a couple of months now, but in December something unusual happened because in that Steam survey AMD lost few shares while Intel gaining back few.
However, with the latest January 2021 Steam Survey, it seems Steam has fixed this and here we see Intel losing as much as 3% share while AMD gaining as much as 2.99%. This is kind of an unusual gain in CPU shares but this is the price paid for its last mistake in December.
While AMD is gaining in every aspect, Intel is losing more CPU shares in the 2.7 Ghz to 2.99 Ghz and 3.0 Ghz to 3.29 Ghz CPU speed segment for Windows. On the other hand, the situation with macOS doesn’t seem that good as it has lost a chunk of share across the whole section.
Coming to Linux, AMD is dominating Intel with steady growth each month as more and more Linux powered laptops, desktops are now adopting for AMD, even ChromeBooks (based on Linux kernel) is also opting for team Red these days.
Overall, while the situation is getting worse every month for Intel, by March the trend should be 70% for Intel, and AMD rising to a 30%. AMD with its arsenal of processors will give a hard time for Intel, who have become desperate to retain its pole position, the competition in 2021 will be a thing to look out for.
For a couple of months, we’ve been hearing a lot of things regarding the Poco M3 launch in India. A few days ago the company has teased the smartphone design and key features in a video and we already know the specifications of the smartphone as it has already been launched in Indonesia and China prior to India. Finally, Poco has launched the device in India. So, without wasting any time, let’s just get into the specifications of the device.
Specifications of POCO M3:
Poco M3 runs on MIUI 12 based on Android 10 OS and is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 662G chipset. Regarding the display, this phone sports a 6.53-inches FHD+ LCD display with (2340×1080)p of screen resolution. This phone display also features a standard refresh rate of 60Hz, 395 PPI, 19.5:9 aspect ratio, and 1500:1 contrast ratio. Regarding the protection purpose, the display of Poco M3 comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection.
The SoC of this phone is paired with LPPDR4x RAM up to 6GB and UFS 2.1 (64GB) /2.2 (128GB) storage. But the users can expand the internal storage up to 512GB through a MicroSD card. Coming to the camera section, this phone offers a triple rear camera setup that includes a a 48MP primary camera with an f/1.79 lens, a 2MP f/2.4 dedicated macro, and a 2MP f/2.4 depth sensor. For selfies, this phone features an 8MP selfie snapper at the front. This phone has a side-mounted fingerprint scanner, stereo speakers, and an IR blaster as well.
The Poco M3 is fueled by a massive 6,000mAh, supported by 18W fast charging technology (22.5W charger in the box). Regarding the connectivity, the phone has a Dual-SIM slot, which will be supported by a 4G network, a 3.5mm earphone jack, dual speaker, WiFi 5GHz, and Bluetooth 5.0. This phone is available in three different color finishes: Power Black, Cool Blue, and Flashy POCO Yellow.
Price and Availability:
Coming to the pricing and availability, this phone will be available on Flipkart at a price tag of ₹10,999 for the 6GB/64GB option and ₹11,999 for the 6GB/128GB option. You can get ₹1000 off on its first sale only on an ICICI bank card. The first sale begins on 9th February on Flipkart: http://fkrt.it/Iw!iB7NNNN
Warner Bros. Interactive has applied for one patent on the nemesis system used in Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, its sequel. Specifically, the patent is for “Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games”. Mark Brown has compared it to the patented floating arrow that told players where to go in the Crazy Taxi.
After establishing the mechanics in Shadow of Mordor, a similar one was used in other games. The nemesis patent is currently listed as “Pending”, but it was rejected in 2019 and re-examined in 2020. It progressed to the “notice of allowance” stage, which means if the fees and paperwork were filed in time, a final patent would be issued.
It is said that owning a patent on a videogame system is not the exact same as preventing anything similar from ever being made. Microsoft has a patent on games offering bonus points “if the player performs feats of style that are not necessary tasks of the game” for 19 years. This patent was filed to specifically protect the kudos points of Project Gotham Racing.
One software patent that was actually used to target the videogames broadly was the Uniloc Corporation’s patent on the concept of product activation. After being used in an infringement suit against Microsoft, it was dubbed an act of “patent trolling”.
The conclusion is, yes, Warner Bros. Interactive filed a patent on the nemesis system, but that is not a necessary reason that we haven’t seen many games use it. Since the Eternal Darknesses publish, Nintendo had a patent on the sanity system, yet we have seen similar ones in the Amnesia games, Tokyo Dark, Don’t Starve, World of Horror, Knock-Knock, and others.
The cloud gaming service of NVIDIA has been there for quite some time now, but restricted to Android phones and Chromebooks, whereas on Windows & Macs, one had to go for the standalone versions via their app stores.
NVIDIA also did make web versions on iPads (using Safari browser) to make GeForce Now accessible but now, however, anyone who has a Chrome browser can play games using NVIDIA GeForce Now. This has happened through the 2.0.27 update, all you have to do is to visit https://play.geforcenow.com using a Chrome browser.
This is very important though because Chrome is supported both on Windows and Mac, so this should be helpful for all gamers to play latest games without have to worry about the platform they are using.
With GeForce NOW there’s an easy way for you to create bookmarks and shortcuts to help you launch your favourite games faster. All you have to do is to click on a game to open the game details options, and then select +SHORTCUT to open a dialog to create a game shortcut on your desktop.
Also, good news for Apple M1 Mac users, as with the latest v2.0.27 macOS app, you can too access GeForce NOW and play games anywhere and anytime you want to.
Amazon’s internet streaming device, Fire TV, saw its users in India double consumption of entertainment content during their stay at home in the pandemic-inflicted year of 2020 with movies, cricket, music, and online gaming gaining traction, Amazon said in a report on Sunday.
The highly awaited Mirzapur season 2, which released on 23 October 2020, saw more than half of its viewers finish watching the show within 48 hours of its release. IPL 2020, which was set to be cancelled for the year, took place in the UAE and racked up a 50 percent increase in viewership for Disney Hotstar. According to the report, Amazon Prime Music streaming grew more than 35 percent on Fire TV devices.
“With people spending more time at home, total hours spent by active customers on Fire TV devices more than doubled in 2020. Moreover, customers spent more than three hours per day on their Fire TV devices through 2020,” the report said, according to Hindustan Times.
Sales in metro cities continue to grow for the Fire TV, with Delhi-NCR at the top of the list followed by Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.
The American tech giant did not disclose sales numbers in India but said that monthly active users of Fire TV crossed the 50-million mark worldwide.
“In 2020, customers loved the Fire TV experience for everything from entertainment, originals, fitness, gaming, sports, and much more.”
“With Alexa, the voice quickly became the simplest way to find and watch your favorite content,” Amazon Devices India Head Parag Gupta said.
The most-watched movies from Prime Video, a streaming video service by Amazon, on Fire TV devices were Shakuntala Devi, Gulabo Sitabo, Coolie No. 1 (Bollywood), V (Telugu), Soorarai Pottru, and Ponmagal Vandhal (Tamil), the report said.
Among the fastest-growing states and Union territories for music streaming on Fire TV devices was the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, which got optical fibre connectivity in August. The other states in the list included Chhattisgarh, Manipur, and Sikkim.
Image: Android TV Box
“Customers loved playing their favorite games on Fire TV devices, as gaming app hours more than doubled during the lockdown. The love for gaming continued even after the lockdown with gaming hours remaining 65 percent higher than pre-lockdown,” the report said.
In 2020, Amazon recorded more than 70 percent increase in customers using the Alexa voice remote to search content, versus 2019, “with Alexa, voice quickly became the simplest way to find and watch your favourite content; with Fire TV’s universal search customers do not have to switch through multiple apps.”
“Jaipur topped the charts with most voice searches on Fire TV devices among non-metro cities. Ramayana and Mahabharata together saw close to 3,50,000 content searches during the lockdown,” the report said.
Besides entertainment content, there was also an increase in consumers’ time spent on fitness and cooking apps in 2020 by three times, the report said.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has announced recently that in the fourth quarter of this year Falcon 9’s launch of Inspiration4 – the world’s first all-commercial astronaut mission to orbit – from historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The company’s technology entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, will be the man to command, donating the three seats alongside him. So, the general public can be anyone and they will be announced in the weeks ahead. You can potentially join this historic journey to space by visiting Inspiration4.com.
This mission enables access for everyday people who dream of going to space
“The Inspiration4 crew will receive commercial astronaut training by SpaceX on the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, orbital mechanics, operating in microgravity, zero gravity, and other forms of stress testing. They will go through emergency preparedness training, spacesuit and spacecraft ingress and egress exercises, as well as partial and full mission simulations.”
“This multi-day journey, orbiting Earth every 90 minutes along a customized flight path, will be carefully monitored at every step by SpaceX mission control. Upon conclusion of the mission, Dragon will reenter Earth’s atmosphere for soft water landing off the coast of Florida.”
“This is an important milestone toward enabling access to space for everyone,” Musk said on a conference call with Isaacman, according to news agency Bloomberg.
This first all-commercial astronaut mission could be a very important milestone as Space missions will get more commercial in the future. Musk’s SpaceX is doing a great job with this mission as not only it seeks to raise support for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital but also make human spaceflight more common.
The fledgeling cloud gaming service, Google Stadia, has dealt a huge as Google announced on Monday that it’s shutting down the division of Stadia that was dedicated to making exclusive games.
“Given our focus on building on the proven technology of Stadia as well as deepening our business partnerships, we’ve decided that we will not be investing further in bringing exclusive content from our internal development team SG&E, beyond any near-term planned games,” Stadia vice president and general manager Phil Harrison said in a statement, according to Bloomberg.
The disbanding of the Stadia Games and Entertainment team has apparently done due to the whole endeavour being costlier than anticipated.
“Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” Harrison said, according to PC Mag.
Now, rather than rival the video game industry’s big players such as Sony’s PlayStation or Microsoft’s Xbox, Stadia will partner with them. Harrison said the division would expand “our efforts to help game developers and publishers take advantage of our platform technology and deliver games directly to their players.” Stadia will continue to provide titles from other developers, but Google’s original plan of supplementing them with its own slate of games will not work out.
Stadia, which launched in November 2019, is a cloud gaming service developed by Alphabet Inc.’s Google to take on the video game console giants with a platform of its own. Stadia allows users to play games on Android phones and Chromecast apps for TV, Unlike traditional consoles, by funnelling data directly from Google’s server clusters. According to the American tech giant, the goal was to reach well beyond the audience of traditional gamers and especially penetrate markets such as China and India, where many people cannot easily afford or access a costly PS or Xbox.
For any game platform, first-party titles are critical to stand out and attract new users. (Imagine Microsoft’s Xbox without Halo, for example.) So the announcement by Google is raising concern that the company is eventually going to abandon Stadia.
However, Harrison says the cloud gaming service isn’t going anywhere. “You can continue playing all your games on Stadia and Stadia Pro, and we’ll continue to bring new titles from third parties to the platform,” he says. “We’re committed to the future of cloud gaming, and will continue to do our part to drive this industry forward.”
According to a report by gaming news site Kotaku, about 150 people will lose their jobs as part of the reorganization plans, which include shutting offices in Montreal and Los Angeles. However, Google will try to place them elsewhere. “We’re committed to working with this talented team to find new roles and support them,” Harrison said in the statement.
As part of the restructuring, the head of SG&E, video game producer Jade Raymond, formerly of Electronic Arts Inc., is leaving Google, Harrison informed in the statement.
