We already know that Apple was secretly working on its own pair of headphones, reportedly called AirPods Studio. There have been some alleged renders and leaked product images over the past couple of months. With the rollout of the first iOS 14.3 beta also comes an icon that gives us a brief look at what Apple’s upcoming headphones might look like.
Probably Sport variant of Apples headphones
Personally not impressed, looks too much like 2 Palm Pre's attached to 2 tuning forks :/ hard to unsee
AirPods Studio will arrive in two variants – a $599 premium variant with metal & leather build. The second variant will be a $349 fitness-focused sports variant made of lighter materials and customizable. The device will have active noise cancellation, wear detection, and more.
New Pairing video in the Find My app in iOS 14.3 beta 1 with the codename Hawkeye hints at Apple Tags support and new Apple over ear headphones. pic.twitter.com/oVdCLQcaWc
Apple’s headphones were supposed to arrive before the end of 2020 but were delayed due to quality issues. Apart from AirPods Studio, the iOS 14.3 beta update also includes AirTags in the Find My app. a magnifying glass hovering over the headphones, a backpack, and a suitcase as if trying to find them, appearing on the beta update screen is proof of the update.
There is no information for when Apple plans to launch both the AirTags and AirPods Studio headphones. But with the current launch of apple devices, the days do not seem that far ahead.
Tencent Holdings recently reported its financial earnings for the third quarter of 2020. The company is one of many who benefited from pandemic-induced lockdowns in China and globally. The demand for digital services increased drastically during the lock-down periods. Now it has posted record all-time high quarterly revenues during the only a three-month period.
At the end of the first quarter, gaming revenues stood at RMB 37.3 billion, for a 31% year-on-year growth. But at the end of the second quarter, they stood at RMB 38.2 billion, to mark 40% annual growth.
Tencent’s RMB 41.4 billion revenue from the sector mark grew for a staggering 45% year-over-year growth. The revenue formed one-third (33%) of the company’s total RMB 125.4 billion revenues for the quarter. It is reported to be highest in Tencent’s history.
According to the company’s earnings presentation, deferred revenue from a stay-at-home activity from the second quarter carried over to the previous quarter. It made Tencent are its terms of ‘total smartphone games’ revenue by 61% year-over-year.
Tencent’s Honor of Kings exceeded 100 million daily active highlightings of the changing entertainment trends worldwide in 2020. Pokemon Go saw its player spending cross $1 billion for the first ten months of this year.
It also came under American scrutiny in September when the company was asked to provide details about its information storage practices. The company plans to launch two new games and a live-action drama series based on the Honor of Kings. Not to mention, Tencent’s Naruto Mobile developed four years back, also reported all-time high revenue and daily active users in this quarter.
On the latest news. However, its PUBG game has a base ban in many countries. It is planning to make a comeback by purchasing a license from the said countries, as to whether it can make a comeback remains to be seen.
Apple has just released its new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini. They are the first to feature in-house Apple processors, but Apple confirmed in June at WWDC 2020 that it would transition all its Mac product stack to Apple Silicon chipsets by 2022.
According to sources, Apple has up to five other products that are in development. A 24-inch iMac will be the next Mac product to receive the Apple Silicon. The new iMac will arrive in late Q4 2020 with ‘an all-new design.’ A 12-inch MacBook based on Apple Silicon will follow the release of a new 24-inch iMac, and it is believed that Apple will unveil the device in Q1 or Q2 2021. A 14-inch MacBook Pro will then be next up, possibly in late Q2 2021 or Q3 2021.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro may be the first device with a mini-LED display. It will be joined by a new 16-inch model, which will also receive a design overhaul from the current model. Sources claim that a new Mac Pro based on Apple Silicon is in the works. The device is thought to be arriving in late 2021 or 2022 and is supposedly half the current Mac Pro size.
There are also rumors that Apple will release a new 16-inch MacBook Pro within the next ‘2-3 weeks’. The device will allegedly arrive alongside the long-awaited AirTags. Both will be announced via a press release, as Apple has done with many other products this year.
Apple has many devices lined-up to be released. However, if sources are correct, then apple has many devices that will have its home-made silicon.
We already know that PayPal was looking to buy many of the firms that offer Cryptocurrency services to its customers. The news is confirmed that the company will all users in the US buy, sell, and hold cryptocurrencies right from their PayPal account.
According to sources, the news was confirmed by the company in a press release. PayPal announced that new functionality was on its way for its user base.
PayPal is already offering crypto services directly from its app. There’s a banner about the ability to buy cryptocurrency right at the top of the main screen on the app screen. Users can tap that and can choose to buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
PayPal’s support of cryptocurrency is a significant vote of confidence in digital currencies, and it could very well encourage everyday users to adopt them. But the digital payment system isn’t the first financial tech company to support cryptocurrencies; Square’s Cash app added support for Bitcoin in 2018.
The company also plans to let you pay PayPal merchants with cryptocurrency. However, it also plans to expand cryptocurrency features to Venmo and “select international markets” in the first half of next year and early 2021.
Will this venture by one of the world’s biggest digital transaction services provide help elevate the importance of cryptocurrency remains to be seen. However, PayPal’s investment in the crypto market is big news. It means that we cannot simply ignore the existence of cryptocurrency anymore.
Barcelona manager Ronald Koeman took up the job in what is arguably still the most tumultuous time in the club’s recent history.
Leo Messi was on the verge of leaving the club, the financial mismanagement is still unresolved, and Josep Maria Bartomeu resigned from his post of President.
In the midst of all this, the Dutch manager has stuck to the primary focus of getting results on the pitch. While he hasn’t been as successful as the board hoped he would be, the overall picture does not look too bleak.
One of the few notable changes that Koeman has made during his time at Barcelona is ditching the long-favoured 4-3-3 formation for the Blaugrana for a 4-2-3-1 double pivot.
Additionally, Koeman has also been at work in the locker room and has quite literally restructured the player’s locker positions.
The original report was written by Javier Miguel of AS, and here is what the insider had to say regarding the issue:
“One of the best-kept secrets of the dressing room is the order of the players’ lockers
“Nothing is random and a strict configuration is followed. Ronald Koeman has actively participated in choosing this order, after consulting with the captains and delegate Carles Naval with the ambition of achieving a professional atmosphere and promoting good vibes within the group.”
Captain Leo Messi sits in the middle of the U shaped arch, having a clear view of everything going around in the room. Marc Andre Ter-Stegen and Trincao sit on the either side of La Pulga.
New arrival Sergino Dest sits beside Frenkie de Jong, which is understandable considering their Ajax background.
Griezmann sits right next to Ter Stegen while Umtiti and Dembele, being fellow Frenchmen, are also placed next to each other.
Barcelona are currently in 8th, and will be looking to climb back into the top four at the very least.
Dean Henderson joined the Manchester United academy in 2013. He was sent to several clubs on loan. But he caught the eye last season during his loan spell at Sheffield United.
The English goalkeeper has signed a new long-term deal with the club last summer. He made his debut against Luton Town in the Carabao Cup. He also made his UEFA Champions League debut against İstanbul Başakşehir F.K.
Dean Henderson in an interview at England’s official youtube channel explains what was Zlatan Ibrahimović’s impact on the Manchester United team.
Zlatan joined Manchester United in 2016 under Jose Mourinho. The Swedish striker has 29 goals to his name with Manchester United. Dean Henderson said, “Zlatan [Ibrahimović], this guy hits the ball so hard, I’ve never seen someone hit it so hard in my life. To go up against him in training every day was fantastic.”
“As a young boy growing up as a Manchester United fan that was something I was inspired to do, for me it was great and I always remember that well.”
Dean Henderson also explained how he wants to connect with Manchester United fans. “I think it’s important to get that connection with your fans. I wear my heart on my sleeve for every football club I’ve played for and I do what I can to the best of my ability to help that team.”- he said.
“They’ve been great for me and hopefully I’ve been good for them and that’s something that really excites me about what connection I can build with the Man United fans.”- Dean added.
Dean Henderson is now on international duty with England. They will face Belgium tomorrow in UEFA Nations League.
The Indian cricket fans are still in their IPL hangover as not finding any cricket on their TV sets at 7:30 PM has been challenging to deal with.
However, to their rescue, is an equally intense international series down under! The Indian team will finally be seen in blue colours post-IPL as they fly to Australia in November. Team India hasn’t been in action for a long time as a series against South Africa was cancelled due to circumstances arising out of the pandemic.
However, there’s a rumor floating around on social media that those blue colors might be reminiscent of a trip down memory lane. Team India is rumored to be donning the retro jersey from the 1992 World Cup. The news has had cricket fans on a nostalgia drive.
MPL signs as the Indian cricket team’s kit sponsor for the next three years!
The stars are aligning towards this rumor as BCCI has signed a deal with MPL to sponsor Team India’s kit for the next three years.
The BCCI and MPL have signed a three-year deal for team India’s kit sponsorship. The deal is from November 2020 to December 2023 and will see the board earn Rs 65 lakh per game over the three-year period.
Speaking to an Apex Council member of the board confirmed and explained the details of the new kit deal with MPL.
“Yes, we have signed a deal with MPL that is effective from November 2020 till December 2023. The kit sponsorship amount is Rs 65 lakh per match while merchandising is Rs 3 crore per year for the three-year period. With that royalty will be 10 percent of net sales per season,” the Apex Council member said.
India’s tour of Australia will begin on November 27 with the first ODI at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The majority of the players already flew to Australia directly from Dubai.
If you look into the current smartphone market under Rs.30,000 in India, Vivo and Oppo are on the top who are working to bring sleeker handsets with great looks. Vivo’s V20 is one of those, and it launched in the middle of October. During the Big Billion Days sale, it equally competes with the other heavyweight smartphones like Samsung Galaxy M51 and OnePlus Nord with just only its looks and sleek design.
So, we become curious to figure out what exactly the company is proving apart from the viewing. I ordered the Midnight Jazz color variant with 8GB RAM and 128GB internal storage. I know you may ask why I didn’t go for the Sunset Melody. Actually, the bluish color looks more formal to me. Without wasting more time, let’s just into the main topic.
On-paper Specifications :-
6.44-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with HDR10 support and 90.37% screen to body ratio
Snapdragon 720G SoC
Adreno 618 GPU
8GB RAM
128GB/256GB internal storage, expandable for up to 1TB
In-display fingerprint sensor
Preinstalled Android 11 with Funtouch OS 11
64MP + 8MP + 2MP triple rear camera setup
44MP front camera with Eye Autofocus
Dual 4G connectivity
Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi
3.5mm Audio jack
4,000mAh battery
33W Vivo flashcharge 2.0
In the Box :-
Handset
USB Cable
Power adapter
Protective case
Sim ejector tool
Earphones
Protective film (applied)
Paperworks
Design :-
It’s the primary thing that attracts people. The Vivo V20 weighs just around 170 grams and 7.38mm sleek. Frankly speaking, after using this handset, almost all the smartphones I hold seems very thick. On the rear end, there is a multi-color gradient design protected with Gorilla Glass 5. A matt coating is also on top of the glass, but that fails to catch fingerprints. The camera module is placed beautifully and has a minimal bump, but that will not bother you. In the bottom left, the branding is made vertically.
The front view is totally opposite of the back, the main reason is the big teardrop notch holding the 44MP camera cutout. The bezels are thin on three sides, the bottom chin is thick comparatively yet tolerable.
The power button and volume keys are placed in a perfect and reachable position. Let you know; Vivo provides a separate getup to segregate it from the volume keys. In the bottom, there is a 3.5mm headphone jack, primary microphone, Type-C port, and mono speaker. The SIM tray (2 Nano SIM, 1 microSD card) and secondary microphone are placed in the top left and top.
Display :-
In the Vivo V20, you will get a 6.44-inch Full HD+ (2400×1080) AMOLED display. It also has HDR10 support, Widevine L1 certification, and a 90.37% screen to body ratio. Hope you already get the viewing outcome of this device. You can enjoy all your favorite content with its maximum resolution and great color, contrast, and brightness. In the sunlight you hardly get any trouble to catch your screen.
Coming to the cons in this section. In today’s competitive market, smartphones event around Rs.15,000 is coming with a 90Hz refresh rate. But in this case, we are getting the regular 60Hz refresh rate only that too at Rs.24,990. On top of that, Vivo skips Gorilla glass protection on the front.
Audio :-
In the audio section, the company again disappoints us with the mono speaker. However, the output is thunderous and clear. I’m not fully sure about the 3.5mm audio jack’s output as I only test with the Vivo earphone coming in the box. The audio quality was very cheap. But if you use any wireless earphones or headphones, the experience will be a great one. During the calls, you need not struggle to listen to the opposite person.
During the past 10 days testing process, I tried my Infinity Glide 510, boAt Airdopes 171, Rockerz 335, and Noise Air Buds and discovered a new issue. If your earbud allows you to adjust the volume, then the handset cant sync with the earbuds’ instruction properly. For example, if pairing the volume adjustment of both the smartphone and earbuds will at 100%, and after pairing you decrease the volume from your buds, the sound will decrease, but the media volume level in the V20 will be the same at 100%. It’s probably a software optimization issue, and expecting Vivo will fix it with the upcoming updates.
While using the Airdopes 171, I didn’t find any problem as it doesn’t allow you to increase the media volume through its multi-function buttons.
Performance :-
The new Vivo V20 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC coupled with 8GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of internal storage. Multiple other smartphones are available out there with a better chip at the same or lower price. Despite that, it manages to handle all kinds of day-to-day talks smoothly, even gaming at higher settings. I tried Call of Duty Mobile that runs very well. An Ultra Gaming Mode is there that will help you while gaming to manage calls and other stuff.
Both the under-display fingerprint and facial unlock works fast. It manages to read my fingerprint every time. The facial unlock is pro-active; it works even when I covered half of my face or keep my one eye close. So, it’s another issue in the list Vivo needs to fix urgently.
Software :-
Vivo is providing its Funtouch OS 11 that is based on Android 11. It’s one of a small number of smartphones that comes with pre-installed Android 11. Obviously, you will get all the latest Android version’s general features, like an always-on display, built-in screen recorder, and more. In this small duration, I got multiple updates, and I notice some improvements every time. But still, there are issues.
I already mentioned two problems in the Audio and Performance section. Rather than those two, there are a few more. Some times, the notification panel refuses to come down. I have to turn off the screen and on again to fix the problem temporarily. I faced this problem multiple times. The other one is the split-screen problem. The home screen splits into two sections, both vertically and horizontally, respectively, when I press the back button to return to the home screen. You can see the problem in the images I attached.
Apart from these, the overall UI will provide you an ad-free experience; though you will get some pre-installed Vivo applications, no one pushes any annoying notification. It’s a big plus point of the Vivo V20, no doubt.
Camera :-
Needless to say, Oppo and Vivo, these two companies give the camera section great attention. The Vivo V20 is not an exception. Vivo introduces its Eye Auto-focus technology in this smartphone for the 44 MP selfie camera. You will get a triple camera setup with a 64MP main sensor, 8MP wide-angle cum macro lens, and a 2MP mono sensor on the rear side.
The 64MP main shooter can capture and produce some great images, keeping both HDR on and off. You can get that in the camera samples. Only the colors are getting dull a bit every time; it’s the only issue I notice. While using the Super Wide Angle mode, the image output is good and very wide. Most of the details are captured that are in the center of the image. On the edges, I noticed some problems.
Normal
Normal without HDR
High Quality
10x Zoom
10x Zoom
Super Macro
Super Macro
Normal Selfie
Portrait Selfie
Portrait Selfie
The rear camera can record at 4K 30fps highest. The rest of the other combinations are 1080P 30fps and 50fps, and lastly, 720P 30fps and 60fps. You will get a stable video; as a result, each time, even while running, thanks to the EIS support. All the recording samples are given.
The 44MP selfie camera with the Eye Autofocus is also a great player. I get some great shots both in normal and portrait mode if I ignore the skin whitening issue. In the portrait mode, the background separation is maintained seamlessly. Due to the eye autofocus, it focuses on your eyes in no time. The front camera, too, is capable of recording at the highest 4K resolution. For all the three resolutions, 4K, 1080P, and 720P, the frame rate is fixed, i.e., 30fps.
4K 30fps – Walking
4K 30fps – Running
Super Anti-shake
1080P 50fps
720P 60fps
All the cameras are equally able to capture shots in night and low light conditions, especially selfies. The portrait selfie mode too works very well, and the high resolution of the front camera helps capture more detailed selfies than ever.
You will get some other interesting features in the camera application such as live photo, slow-mo, super anti-shake mode, cine camera, video recording option from both the front and rear camera at a time, and so on.
You can also enhance the camera abilities with the power of Google’s image processing algorithm. The mod version of GCam is available for V20, after all.
Battery :-
Vivo packed a 4,000mAh battery and gave a 33W Flashcharge 2.0 adapter in the box. I know it may seem, this capacity is very less. I agreed, but it’s sufficient to use this phone for a day. I got around 23 hours of backup with around 9 hours of screen time. Point to note, the always-on display was enabled, and the phone was connected with Wi-Fi all the time. So, I hope, with casual usage and light gaming, you will also get mostly the same backup.
While charging, it takes around 20 minutes to reach 50% from 10%. And in total, it needs around 75 minutes.
Pros & Cons :-
Pros
Cons
Beautiful design
Un-optimized UI
Great in-hand feel
Mono speakers
Lightweight and sleek
Poor audio output from the 3.5mm jack
Decent performance
No display protection
Good camera performance with Eye autofocus
4K video recordability
Android 11 pre-installed
Ad free experience
Verdict :-
If the Funtouch UI optimization can be ignored, all the offerings are good, especially the in-hand feel, camera performance, and an ad-free experience. But unfortunately, software issues are very annoying. In the price range of Rs.25,000 to Rs.30,000, there are multiple options in the market.
I personally feel Vivo is still working to fix all the issues, as I noticed some improvements after a few continuous updates, including the last one I got on this Saturday. On top of that, Vivo is coming with its new Origin OS on this 19th November. I’m expecting all the problems will be recovered very soon, within a few months.
The 128GB variant costs Rs.24,990 and the model with 256GB internal storage is priced Rs.27,990. Vivo V20 is available on all the popular e-commerce platforms at the same price tag. A link is given below for your convenience.
The world’s biggest electronics giant who is into storage and DRAM solutions for quite some time now has been making SSDs for the industry predominantly. So, to bring something new and exciting to the industry, Samsung has partnered with Xilinx.
The Samsung SmartSSD computational storage drive (CSD) is the industry’s first adaptable computational storage platform. It accelerates data-intensive applications by 10X or more by pushing compute to where the data lives.
However, at the heart of the SmartSSD is the Xilinx Adaptive Platform, a powerful toolkit that enables customers to create customized, scalable applications to solve a broad range of data center problems. The SmartSSD CSD combines the uncompromising performance of hardware acceleration with total programmability, using common high-level languages like C, C++, and OpenCL.
A 4TB U.2 drive combines all the guts of one of their high-end PCIe Gen3 enterprise SSDs as well as the second-largest FPGA from Xilinx’s Kintex Ultrascale+ (16nm) family and 4GB of DDR4 SDRAM @2400 Mbps. It promises a sequential read speed of 3,500 MB/sec and a write speed of 3,200 MB/sec.
In terms of performance, in real-time analytics, the SmartSSD is 2.8x faster SQL query execution on Parquet data from 1 SmartSSD CSD and performance scales with additional drives. Also, there’s an 87% reduction in CPU utilization from 3 SmartSSD CSDs, while maintaining the same video transcoding frame rate.
The blazing-fast performance is due to the 72GBps read rate of LZ4 compressed data and line rate decompression from 24 SmartSSD CSDs in a single 2U server.
With Xilinx Storage Services, the SmartSSD CSD includes powerful offload capability integrated with popular storage software such as dm-crypt and Virtual Data Optimizer. SmartSSD CSD-based servers remove PCI-Express bottlenecks, producing near-linear performance scaling even on an over-subscribed host CPU.
According to Canalys, the overall PC market has enjoyed immense growth in the third quarter of this year.
After having a decline in the first quarter, the market has seen a growth in the second and third quarters consecutively. The market research and analyst firm, Canalys said in the report that the sales of PC and tablets hit 124.5 million units, up 23% year-on-year during the third quarter.
The recent data says that the maximum of the market growth was led by Chromebooks and detachable (notebooks and tablets). If we see the shipment of Chromebook, there is a 122% increase to a total of 9.4 million, and 88% of sales grew for the detachable products. Also, the shipment of tablets grew by 43% year-on-year to reach around 44 million units. Whereas the broader desktop category has faced a loss of 32% overall.
by – Canalys
Lenovo topped the market by shipping 23.48 million tablets, desktops, and notebooks while Apple became second in the list with 22.07 million Macs and iPads. The rest three in the top five are HP with 18.68 million, Dell with 12.04 million, and Samsung with 9.98 million units.
by – Canalys
Chromebook made a record of shipping 9.4 million units, which has grown 122% over the last year of this same period. Whereas, Apple led the market with tablet sales of 47% annual growth. After 2015, in quarter four, Samsung hit 79.8% annual growth for the first time.
by – Canalys
by – Canalys
This year HP has nearly doubled its Chromebook sales to reach 3.2 million units. As per the records HP sold most of the Chromebooks among the other brands. Meanwhile, Lenovo made a record for its impressive annual growth in Chromebook sales from quarter three of last year.
