The IPL 2020 was held in UAE due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. It was not safe to hold the tournament in India, so BCCI decided to move it overseas.
Now, as we head towards the IPL 2021, BCCI has made a big statement. They have said that all the players will be vaccinated to stage the IPL 2021 in India.
BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal, who is also on the IPL Governing Council, said on Saturday that they are confident that they will be able to organize the 14th edition of IPL in India, rather than in UAE like the previous edition.
Dhumal said: âWe are working on having the IPL in India and we are hopeful that we would be able to organise it. We are not even thinking of a back up also at this point in time, we are wanting to do it here.”
âIndia is probably safer than UAE at this point. Hopefully, the situation remains stable and keep improving and we will have it here.”
The COVID-19 cases in UAE are experiencing a sudden spike while there has been a sharp decline in India. The seven-day average positive cases in the UAE has gone up to 3743, from 770 when the IPL 2020 began on 19th September 2020. Whereas, India, which has a larger population, has now come down to below 15000, from 90000 cases a day in September. So, clearly, it’s safer to host IPL 2021 in India than the UAE.
He also added that players would be duly compensated for not getting the opportunity to play in the Ranji trophy this season. Indian domestic cricket returned to action with the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The final will be played in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
The players are kept in a bio-secure bubble while playing any tournament even in domestic cricket, which is tough. But there are no other alternatives until all the players get vaccinated.
Dhumal commented on this: âIt is tough but at least this way we are getting to play. We are working on getting our players vaccinated.”
âThe governmentâs directive is that frontline workers and the most vulnerable will be the first to get vaccinated, but we are in touch with the government to get our players vaccinated.â
The BCCI is also trying to get back the crowds in the stand. India will be playing the first series on home soil after the pandemic. The first two Tests of England’s Tour of India will be played in Chennai beginning from 5th February. Sadly, it has been confirmed that Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) will not allow any spectators.
Dhumal said: âWe are reviewing the situation on a regular basis. We want the roar to be back in the stadiums but we have to work in tandem with the state and central government.”
âWe are very keen to have the crowds back. Surely, it wonât be 100 percent capacity given the challenges, but we are looking at anywhere between 25-50 percent.â
So, there’s hope that the IPL 2021 will be played in India and with crowds, even if not with full stadium.
If you are considering buying a GPU now, you know there are many options out there, but if you ask me which one should you go for, AMD or NVIDIA? I would have told NVIDIA if it was a year ago, but things had rapidly changed in 2020; AMD announced their Radeon RX 6000 series of graphics cards, and yes are damn powerful!
Well, the world never thought AMD could match NVIDIA’s insane performance jump with the RTX 30 series in October; they stunned everyone and shown us what RDNA 2 is capable of. Although NVIDIA still has the edge in terms of software features like DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, NVIDIA Broadcast, and a wide ray tracing support on various games, AMD still has an advantage for creators.
This article will tell you which GPU is the best and why AMD Radeon RX 6800 series is a worthy competitor to NVIDIA in all respects. For this review, we have used AMD’s reference Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800XT GPUs while using NVIDIA’s latest RTX 3080 for reference as well.
Initial Thoughts
AMD has done many good things in the graphics industry and even reigning over NVIDIA years ago, but their GPU performance never was jawdropping in the past few years. However, we had a lot of hopes with RDNA architecture, which was met to a certain extent by some good GPUs like the Radeon RX 5700XT.
In 2020, AMD had a lot of things at stake, from Ryzen 4000 APUs to new Xbox & Playstation consoles, everything went very well. Also their new GPUs have taken the world by storm as well as NVIDIA, who could have never thought that AMD would match RTX 3080’s performance and even the RTX 3090 to some extent.
The Red team also made the pricing very competitive to NVIDIA, but the problem lies is with the stock issues. Even though all these new GPUs are great in terms of performance but the availability is the worst and has further deteriorated in 2021. It will take some time to recover, so until then I hope this article will help you make the right GPU decision.
AMD has always been the number one choice for creators and professionals; that’s why Apple still prefers it. So, with 16GB VRAM across all the new GPUs, we knew AMD would have a slight advantage over NVIDIA, and that’s the case in all of the productivity benchmarks:
You can clearly see in almost all the productivity benchmarks AMD has a lead over NVIDIA’s flagship RTX 3080, showing how these new RX 6000 series GPUs are good for content creation. However, in one area AMD still lacks by some margin is in ray tracing, as you see in the Port Royal test, which is a ray tracing test, NVIDIA is ahead of AMD.
Overall, if you are a creator and gamer, buying a RX 6800 series GPU would definitely make sense as extra amount of VRAM can be used by a lot of productivity applications.
Gaming
In gaming, this is the first AMD has almost matched as well as beaten NVIDIA when it comes to raw gaming performance. However, NVIDIA enjoys its own creation i.e. DLSS, that gives them a slight advantage as well as a wide number of games with NVIDIA RTX support.
But considering AMD’s first huge effort to challenge NVIDIA, I am surprised how the Red team’s GPUs have performed toe-to-toe against team Green.
Here is a wide array of benchmarks of the RX 6800 paired with a Ryzen 5 5600X which gives you how AMD is making 4K gaming affordable:
NFS Heat
Cyberpunk 2077
Valorant
FIFA 21
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
Fortnite
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Anthem
Red Dead Redemption 2
Control
You can see in all of these modern gaming titles you get a healthy 4K gaming experience with some good numbers, even a 4K Ultra settings. Obviously, you will have games like Cyberpunk 2077, Microsoft Flight Simulator, and Red Dead Redemption that can challenge your GPU always!
However, if you play at 4K Medium settings, you can play a lot of games with this CPU + GPU combo. It is also the GPU that matters, so the Radeon RX 6800 gives a decent entry-level 4K gaming experience. Do note until now; you couldn’t get even this much amount of performance if you had spent on a costlier last-gen RTX 2080 Ti.
Now here’s testing the RX 6800XT with the Ryzen 7 5800X and putting it against the RTX 3080:
FIFA 21
NFS Heat
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
Control
Minecraft Dungeons
Valorant
Cyberpunk 2077
As you see in the benchmarks, the Radeon RX 6800XT gives the RTX 3080 in a lot of games especially in 1440p, the performance of the AMD GPU is similar or even better in most titles. You see in titles like Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, Cyberpunk 2077 and NFS Heat, in 1440p AMD gives better performance than NVIDIA.
Few years ago, this kind of performance from AMD was unimaginable, but this time AMD has nailed it with a flagship RX 6800XT and crushes or touch the RTX 3080 level performance coming in at lower price points. But, NVIDIA with its years of experience in gaming area has its own advantage and still ray tracing performance is better on NVIDIA GPUs.
However, one thing is to be noted that Radeon RX 6800 series has made 4K gaming affordable and even the entry-level RX 6800 gives a huge performance bump as well. Here are some more benchmarks comparing all the three GPUs paired with aRyzen 7 5800X:
Watch Dogs Legion
Assassinâs Creed Valhalla
Borderlands 3
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Far Cry New Dawn
CS:GO
In these last few games, you will see AMD is leading ahead of NVIDIA and this is surprising that even the RX 6800 is challenging the RTX 3080. If it’s an AMD optimized title, AMD enjoys a huge lead over NVIDIA but strangely even though the 4K performance is quite similar to both of RTX 3080 and RX 6800XT, in 1440p, AMD leads in almost all games.
Note: This performance of the AMD GPUs are on the reference models, not even the better performing OEM customized GPUs. However, the RTX 3080 is a custom ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo, so the reference NVIDIA GPU will have somewhat lower performance than this.
Also, a lot of people are curious about the thermals of these new AMD Radeon RX 6800 series GPUs. Well, spending almost two weeks with these GPUs, I can tell you that you genuinely need a minimum of 750W of GOLD power supply and that should suffice.
The only thing I did notice that the reference cards have a bit of noise while heavy gaming but can be eradicated if you are using a closed cabinet. Also, the Radeon RX 6800XT is a bit power hungry sometimes, as with heavy loads it can have power spikes, and my test bench did shut down two times due to this, so better of getting as much as 800W or 1000W PSU if you are planning to buy one.
Verdict
Overall, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 series GPUs are great for gaming and productivity, and this is the first time AMD’s flagship GPUs can give you the best results similar or better to that of NVIDIA. Getting one for yourself is indeed a tough job, but as these GPUs’ availability gets better, you should genuinely go for it.
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800XT GPUs are fantastic choices, and RDNA 2 is very impressive, but AMD should work on their software front and bring something similar to DLSS to boost gaming performance. If you want a GPU and a bit confused about opting for AMD or not, then definitely you can go with team Red this time!
Monitor is the device through which computers display expressions to us most of the time. While gaming, its efficiency really matters. In case you are looking for a monitor for gaming purposes, but the budget is a bit tight, here are the top 5 monitors for gaming under Rs.13,000.
Acer Nitro QG221Q
Price – Rs.7,499
21.5″ VA Panel with Full HD 1920 X 1080 Resolution
1 MS Response Time – 75 Hz Refresh Rate
1 VGA 2 HDMI Ports with Inbox VGA & HDMI Cables
AMD Radeon Free Sync Technology
VESA Wall Mount – Black Boost Technology – Flicker Less Technology
Lionel Messi’s future at FC Barcelona is uncertain.
Last summer Lionel Messi revealed his wish to leave the club. He was highly linked with Manchester City. But he was âforcedâ to stay at the club at that time. After that, the Argentine told the press about the problems of FC Barcelona dressing rooms and board. FC Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu was the main target of Lionel Messi.
Josep Maria Bartomeu resigned from his position last month. But the situation has not changed yet for Lionel Messi. He is in the last 6 months of his contract with FC Barcelona and refused to sign a new deal with FC Barcelona.
FC Barcelona recently faced a massive financial crisis. Barcelonaâs horrendous mismanagement over the past few years and lack of financial planning are causing the trouble for the Spanish Giant. COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse.
In this turmoil, FC Barcelona is considering selling the 6 times Ballon D’or winner. But what will be the consequence if it really happens? There are both good and bad sides as well.
But the situation could be better if the club sold the Argentine in the summer.
Economic Stability:
Lionel Messi’s contract with FC Barcelona will be end in June. So, after that he is free to move and join any other team of his choice for free. But FC Barcelona can save the a huge amount of wage if he leaves the club in summer.
Lionel Messi is now the highest earner in the world. He gets over âŹ1 million per week. If the Argentine leaves in the summer then Barcelona can save a huge wage bill from that.
But if they sold him last summer then they can boost up their economy with the transfer money they get.
Effect on Revenue:
As per the Deloitte Football Money League’s recent report, FC Barcelona’s revenue has fallen by 15% in the 2019-20 season. It is the highest among the top 20 revenue-generating clubs in Europe.
Securing the future:
Lionel Messi is already 33 years old. But undoubtedly he is still one of the best servers of the team.
However, FC Barcelona needs to build a team for the future as well. In an economic crisis like this selling, the Argentine could be a good decision to make a squad for the future as well.
Lionel Messi is highly linked with Paris Saint-Germain. The Argentine can join his former teammate Neymar in the summer.
The Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the Knights of the Old Republic II, the sequel of the original one, is assumed to be released in late 2021 on the next-gen consoles. Thatâs what Jordan Maison writes on Twitter, a well-known Star Wars insider.
The insider also informed that he expects both the original and the sequel of KotOR will receive a re-release in the same style as the recent re-release of Star Wars: Episode 1 Racer and Jedi Knight games on consoles. So, there is a possibility that the re-release of Knights of the Old Republic and Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords will be solely upscaled of the original titles.
The Star Wars insider wrote on Twitter, âHeard some fun game stuff this week. Nothing huge, and no real details (hence a tweet and not a post)…You know how the Jedi Knight games and Episode 1 Racer got Switch/Modern Console re-releases? Hearing #KOTOR 1 and 2 will get the same at some point this year.â
At this point, we donât know any further details about the re-release. But donât confuse these ports with the rumored Knights of the Old Republic Remake.
He added, âNote, this would be SEPARATE from the upcoming remake thingy (which would incorporate elements to include it into canon). These would just be straight, upscaled, ports.â
The original KotOR and its sequel were released for PC and first Xbox in 2004 and 2003 respectively. The games were also launched for smart devices.
We have added a portion of the Knight of the Old Republic IIâs original press release below:
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords is the next chapter to the award-winning game of 2003. Set in the unique timeframe of the Old Republic, 4,000 years before Star Wars Episode I, The Sith Lords features an all-new more perilous storyline, new characters, classes, locations, and force powers.
Approximately five years after the events of the original Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, the Jedi, nearly brought to an end by the Sith, are on the brink of extinction. The galaxy is in turmoil and the Republic no longer has the strength to protect its worlds. Sith Assassins are hunting the one they believe to be the last of the Jedi, the one who holds the key to the fate of the galaxy – You.
In addition to an all-new storyline, The Sith Lords will feature a host of memorable returning characters along with sinister new villains. Using over 30 new Force powers, players can turn weak-minded enemies against one another in combat with Force Confusion or see-through doors and view character alignment with Force Sight.
Players can also explore and battle their way through seven diverse worlds, including the mining colony of Peragus and Telos, a wasteland being rebuilt after its destruction during the war in the original game.
In the mobile gaming industry, the ASUS ROG Phone 3 is like a boss at present. The brand launched all its gaming-centric smartphone at regular intervals over the past few years. It’s quite obvious, in 2021 too, the fans are waiting for the successor of the existing ROG Phone 3. Probably to boost their interest, four side views of the next smartphone pops up on the internet along with the TENAA certification. As per the information, the new phone will be named ROG Phone 5.
The TENAA certification reveals that the ROG Phone 5 will have dimensions of 172.834×77.252×10.29. The entire structure holds a 6.78-inch screen, a 5960mAh battery, and a SIM slot. In the software part, there will be Android 11. As I mentioned earlier, the four side images of the phone are also come out. Those disclose that the ROG Phone 5 will come with a triple camera setup followed by a flash. Lastly, the handset will be 5G capable.
In case you don’t know, The new ROG Phone with the model number ASUS_1005DA was earlier spotted on GekBench with the recently launched Snapdragon 888 processor and 8GB of RAM. You can read that from here.
There is more information left to come out, apart from pricing, such as the display resolution, charging wattage, camera specs, memory variants, and the most important specs – gaming features.
The naming sequence is still confusing as the upcoming smartphone name should be ASUS ROG Phone 4 if we follow the trend, however, as per the leaks, it’s 5. We have to wait to get more clarification.
Xiaomi had officially introduced world’s first air charging technology on 29th January with its first product Mi Air Charge Technology that can charge your device wirelessly without any cable or stand up to a certain meter radius.
This is the best charging technology one can opt for. The charging tech will allow users to charge their device without attaching any object to their phones while they are in the charging range. The only condition is there must not be any kind of obstacles in between your device and the charge emitting stationary object.
Motorola has also showcased their first truly wireless charging technology named Motorola One Hyper. A true wireless charging dock that can charge smartphones within a displayed range of 80-100cm. The video in which the Motorola One Hyper is showcased is here.
In this video we can see the Motorola One Hyper is placed at a distance and on the line of charging are placed two smartphones respectively at 80cm and 100cm. After placing two smartphones in the line of charging both of them started charging. Though it is not mentioned at how much rate based on the distance the charging will happen on each of the devices. Another noticeable factor about the One Hyper is that if any obstacle is placed on the line of charge between the station and the smartphones, the later will stop charging.
According to Motorola, the air-to-sir charging distance can be far better than the current Qi technology-based contact charging. It can be used to charge multiple devices at the same time. The company claims it is safe in case of truly wireless charging.
Newly elected U.S. President Joe Bidenâs administration officials have called an ad-hoc meeting next week with the Taiwanese government and industry officials. Theyâre expected to pressure the world’s most valuable semiconductor company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), and its peers to increase their supply of vital chips to American automakers who are facing a shortage.
The virtual conference set to be the most high-profile meeting between newly appointed Biden administration officials and their counterparts from Taipei is scheduled for Thursday U.S. time. According to a report by Bloomberg, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matt Murray and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce Richard Steffens are expected to have discussions with Taiwan Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-Hua. TSMC and MediaTek Inc.âs executives are expected to attend a discussion centered on resolving a global shortage of auto chips, it said.
The intention of the meeting to build closer ties between the two sides. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told a regular news briefing Friday he wasnât aware of the meeting but reiterated that Beijing âopposes official interactions between the U.S. and Chinaâs Taiwan region.â
Global carmakers such as Ford Motor Company and General Motors Company face a potential $61 billion loss of revenue for the year because they canât secure enough of the chips that go into a plethora of vehicle parts. TSMC and other Taiwanese chipmakers are among the worldâs most sophisticated and produce a significant portion of the globally produced semiconductors for everything from cars to laptops.
With their traditional strength in metal-bending like Ford and Volkswagen AG, Carmakers are more prone to supply hiccups than carmakers with more software and chip expertise as vehicles become smarter and technologically more complex.
âWe continue to engage with government officials as this remains a critical issue,â said Matt Blunt, president of the American Automotive Policy Council (AAPC), the lobbyist for the Detroit-based automakers, GM and Ford, as well as the U.S. operations of Stellantis NV (formerly Fiat Chrysler). âWe are grateful for the Biden administrationâs ongoing assistance and hope it can continue as more key positions are filled.â
The meeting will take place as Bidenâs administration indicates strong support for Taiwan, an island China claims as its own. The U.S. State Department urged China to engage in a dialogue with Taiwan this week and stop military pressure on the island, in an early nod of support for Taipei.
Disputes over Taiwan have been one of the biggest flashpoints between the U.S. and China since the Cold War. These disputes have returned to the fore as Washington steps up support for Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen.
A few weeks back, Activision and Treyarch just started a new round of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Season one content, which contains the new exciting map and mission in the Zombies mode. After the âDie Maschineâ, the actions of the brand new âFirebase Zâ mission will be played on the jungles of Vietnam, where you have to fight against some horrible zombies. You can check out the Firebase Z trailer, given below.
Call of Duty wrote about the new âFirebase Zâ mission on their official website:
âWith the site of Projekt Endstation destroyed after investigating the Dark Aether anomaly in Poland, the Requiem response team led by Grigori Weaver now turns its attention to the latest outbreak site, codenamed Firebase Z. Requiem’s next mission brings them deep into the jungles of Vietnam. Under the direction of Grigori Weaver, the team must uncover the secrets of Outpost 25 and face the threat that “lives” within to save Samantha Maxis.â
The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Season One is filled with several new contents by Treyarch. These contents will roll out for the next few weeks. Chris Wray, from Wccftech, wrote in his reviewâŚ
âCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is as close to classic CoD as you’re likely to find in recent years, for better or for worse. The campaign does branch out a little, offering you side-missions that are unlocked through evidence gathering, which is fun, although it has way too many throwaway ‘features’. Multiplayer, and the zombie mode, are both very enjoyable to play, however, there’s no doubt that the multiplayer is seriously lacking in maps. All in all, this is still a strong FPS and one what will keep fans coming back for more.â
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is now available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC. The Firebase Z Zombies update is coming to the game on February 4.
Sometimes a small thing turns into a headache for all of us. I’m sure, you also go through such an experience like me atleast once. As an example, one of my friends sends me some images of a vital document that I need to digitize as early as possible and also have to modify a bit. Somehow, the modification is only possible on PC. Now, what to do? I know there are several third-party apps to sync between your Android smartphone and PC. However, the process will eat your time happily. You have to figure out which application is easy to use, to install that, and there could be more while you are in rush.
Now, if I say, you can easily copy texts from an image in your smartphone and directly paste that in your PC instantly without installing any third-party application. You are read it right, you just have to use Google’s a few services in order. Not to worry, I’m guiding you.
What you need?
A Google account, which, I believe, you definitely have
Google Lens, coming pre-installed nowadays in most of the smartphones
Internet connection in both your PC and smartphone
A browser on your PC
The images from where you want to pick up the texts and digitize that
That’s all đ
Setting up…
Enable internet connection in both your devices
Open your favorite browser on your PC and login with your Google account. Make sure, this Google account should be the same as the one you logged in on your smartphone
Open Google Docs on your desktop browser or simply, click here
Click on the “Blank” option (+)
Now, you are almost ready.
The Final Steps > >
Open the Google Lens app on your smartphone
Choose “Text” at the bottom
Click on the “Gallery” icon just left to the snap button (đ)
Select the image of the first page of your document
You will notice the app detects readable texts. You can long-press on the texts you want to copy and drag the pointers to select a particular section
Hit on the “Copy text” option that resides below the image
Once you have done that, you will be able to paste the same text on Docs
After you digitize the whole document, save that on your PC with your suitable file format and modify that as much as you like. The process rests here.
