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Amazon opens up its Luna cloud gaming service to Android devices

By
Jed John Ikoba
-

Amazon’s cloud gaming service, Luna, has now been extended to Android devices, the company announced on Tuesday. Similar to what obtains with the iOS version of Luna, users can directly access the cloud gaming services via the Chrome web browser, as there is no need to download any app.Amazon Luna

Luna came on stream a few months back, specifically in October and it was at that time, only available on PC, Mac, Fire TV, iPhone, and iPad (through web apps). There is a monthly fee, payment of which guarantees access to a channel of games for the interested user. 

Presently, only two channels are functional. The Luna Plus channel has a monthly fee of  $5.99, while the  Ubisoft Plus channel with an access fee of $14.99-per-month offers Ubisoft games and can connect to Ubisoft Plus on PC and on Google’s cloud gaming service, Stadia. Luna is presently only available in the US, and access can be gotten from here.

Luna’s Android version currently works on a few devices like Pixel, Samsung, and OnePlus, and it is expected that Luna will have support for more Android devices as it expands access in the coming months.

The following devices now have Luna functionality: Pixel 4XL, 4A, 4A 5G, 5; Samsung Galaxy S10, S10 Plus, Note 10, Note 10 Plus, S20, S20 Plus, S20 Ultra, Note 20, Note 20 Ultra, OnePlus 7, 7 Pro, 7 Pro 5G, 8, 8 Pro, and Nord 7T, 7T Pro, 7T Pro 5G smartphones.

Luna is compatible with Android 9 or higher and Chrome version 86 or newer. Gaming enthusiasts can now play games from a wide array and it is also possible to link up with Luna controller as well as the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One controller.

UP NEXT: Exclusive: Xiaomi Mi 11 scheduled for December 29 launch

 

(via)

 

Google Stadia is now available for iOS devices in beta

By
Habeeb Onawole
-

Apple has made it difficult for game streaming services to provide an iOS app for iPhone and iPad owners. The solution these streaming services have adopted is to provide access via the web browser on these devices. The latest to do so is Google Stadia as they have finally brought their services to Apple devices more than a year after launching on other platforms.

The announcement was made today on Twitter by the official Stadia account. The tweet includes a short video teaching users how to access the service and it is pretty straightforward. Below are the steps:

  • Launch your Safari iOS browser
  • Go to Stadia.com
  • Sign in with your Google account
  • Begin to play

You can add a web app shortcut to the homescreen to make it easier to access as shown in the video.

 

EDITOR’S PICK: Apple iPad launching in Spring 2021 to feature bigger display and better chipset

Stadia on iOS works with the official Stadia Controller and also works with the DualShock 4 and Xbox One Controllers. All of these controllers connect to the iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth. If you don’t have a controller, you can enable the touch gamepad feature when you launch a game.

Google’s iOS launch comes shortly after Microsoft announced that it will be bringing its Xbox cloud gaming service to PCs and iOS next year. However, Google is not the first to do it, other game streaming services such as NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW  announced the service can now be accessed via the Safari browser back in November. Amazon’s Luna is also available via a web app for iPhones and iPads.

UP NEXT: Google patents a fitness tracker design similar to Amazon Halo

 

Twitter acquires video chat and screen-sharing startup, Squad

By
Jed John Ikoba
-

Twitter has acquired video chat app Squad, and it seems plans are already afoot by the company to incorporate the app’s group video chat feature as a new feature on Twitter.

The Squad app allowed users to share their screens in both mobile and desktop settings in group video chat mode. Reports emanating from TechCrunch says that the app has been shut down by Twitter as the interfacing seems to have begun in earnest. Twitter

Ilya Brown from Twitter’s Product team let us into the unfolding development by sharing the news in a tweet a few days back. Brown expressed excitement to be afforded the opportunity to share the information that the Squad team will be joining Twitter to provide new and exciting ways for people to interact, express themselves, and join in the public conversation. Brown went further to state in the tweet that interactive audio and video chats are very important requirements in the future direction of the app and align with the type of conversations Twitter is hoping to introduce.  

With hints provided by Brown on having a similar feature on Twitter very soon, it was expected that the Squad app will be out of service almost immediately. The Squad app was subsequently shut down on December 12.  

Editor’s Pick: Apple will use ‘hybrid OLED’ displays on iPads from 2022: Report

A group video chat tool would certainly not be the first new feature to change the way that users interact with each other on Twitter. The social media giant launched the fleets feature in November 2020, which allowed users to express their thoughts in a temporary, story-like template that disappears after 24 hours.

Twitter account holders could see the number of persons that had viewed their fleets, and also respond to individual fleets via direct message.Squad

Twitter’s fleet feature follows the precedence laid by Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and a few others who already have a story feature in their platform.

Twitter has also announced that stickers and live broadcasting would be integral parts of fleets, going forward. 

We keep our fingers crossed as we wait to see whether Twitter will provide Squad-like video and screen-sharing in the app soon.

UP NEXT: Xiaomi Mi QLED TV 4K 55 launched in India: Android TV 10, Dolby Vision, and 30W speakers

 

Yeelight Debuts Smart LED Bulb M2 that supports Google Seamless Setup

By
Greeva Agnihotri
-

Decent lighting can change the whole mood and ambiance of the space, but a smart light can add fun and convenience. It allows one to control the brightness, power, and color simply through voice controls. Yeelight is one of the leading smart lighting brands in the world and has recently taken this concept to another level by introducing a new member- Smart LED Bulb M2 (Color). It is powered by Google Seamless setup and enabled by Seamless Setup in the Google Home app.Yeelight Smart LED Bulb M2

Yeelight Smart LED Bulb M2 is one of the first smart lights in the Asia Pacific to support Seamless Setup in the Google Home app. It allows the user to command google for turning the lights on/off, control brightness, or change the colors just by using their voice. The Seamless Setup enables one to easily set up Smart Home devices in the Google Home App without having the need to download another app to link or purchase a third-party hub.

For Seamless Setup, the user will need to have a Google Assistant-enabled device like a Google Nest Mini or Google Nest Hub. Yeelight Smart LED Bulb M2, being a Bluetooth bulb, enjoys off-premise access using Google Assistant-enabled devices. It offers higher reliability and lower latency, leveraging the power of local. Furthermore, the bulb reaches a luminance of up to 1000ml that is quite bright and efficient enough for regular use.

Yeelight’s collaboration with Google has proven to be a progressive improvement towards the smart home experience, in addition to becoming one of the first smart lighting brands in the Asia Pacific to adopt Google Local Home SDK.Smart LED Bulb M2

According to Eric Jiang, the founder and CEO of Yeelight, Smart LED Bulb M2 is designed to work with Hey Google to give users the comfort of controlling it through voice command, which will allow them to have a fun and convenient experience while using the smart light.

The introduction of Yeelight Smart LED Bulb M2 is a significant milestone for Yeelight as it puts the company on the global radar. Yeelight is widely integrated with mainstream AIoT platforms, including Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung SmartThings, establishing itself as one of the top smart lighting brands in terms of compatibility with smart home systems. Keep your spaces illuminated by building a smart home with Yeelight.

$98.99 Blackview A80 Plus Launches, Dubbed as Budgeted Battery King

By
Greeva Agnihotri
-

According to a recent render, Blackview is all set to launch a new smartphone in the A-series, one of the most successful families in the brand’s portfolio, for persistently delivering top-notch products with cutting edge technology. Blackview’s latest introduction- A80 Plus, has a powerful battery and a quad-rear camera setup. It will make its debut on December 15th with a discounted price of just $98.99. This phone has created quite a stir with its budged price range and an impressive spec sheet. Let’s take a look at what it has to offer.Blackview A80 Plus

Specifications

Blackview A80 Plus boasts a 6.49-inch waterdrop display with In-cell technology and a 90.3% screen-to-body ratio for an immersive viewing experience. It is powered by Mediatek Helio A25 12nm processor and has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal memory to allow convenient multi-tasking. Blackview’s flagship comes with an Android 10 operating system to let the user enjoy the latest features and functions.

Highlights

Apart from the decent software, A80 Plus is equipped with a 13MP quad rear camera that is on par with its modern flagship counterparts. With an impressive 4680mAh battery capacity, this phone can easily last throughout the day on just a single charge. It has two SIM card slots in addition to a separate microSD slot. This smartphone comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and weighs only 180g with 8.8mm thickness. To add to its versatility, the Blackview flagship also supports NFC payments.Blackview A80 Plus-3-

 

Design

Blackview has certainly made significant improvements in A80 Plus’s design by enhancing it with sleek bezels and a waterdrop notch. As for the body, this device features a 3D aesthetic design with rounded corners and a slim form to offer a comfortable grip and a classy appearance. To complete the look, Blackview has neatly arranged a vertical quad-rear camera set up near the fingerprint sensor. Furthermore, it comes in 3 color variants- Red, Gradient Blue, Green, and Black.

Blackview A80 Plus is marketed with the slogan “quad-camera, budget king,” and the company states that it is unbeatable for its budgeted price.
A80 Plus will go on sale at Aliexpress from December 15th with a discounted price of just $98.99, with $179.99 being the phone’s actual cost. So hurry and make the most of this opportunity.

Micron Technology to expand workforce, setup Center of Excellence in India

By
Balaji S
-

Micron Technology is ready to expand its workforce in India. The company’s Managing Director for India has told the Hindu Business Line that it will hire more employees in the next three years. Further, the company is also planning to establish a Center of Excellence and expand industry-academia collaboration in the country.

Micron LPDDR5

As per the report(via Digitimes), Anand Ramamoorthy, Managing Director of Micron Technology (India), says the company will increase headcount. Precisely, it will recruit about 3,600 more employees. This would bring the final tally to 5,000 employees by 2023. He says that the company has rapidly expanded by tripling the headcount in the last 12 months.

For the unware, Micron Technology is a US-based memory chip maker. Its portfolio of products includes computer memory, computer data storage, dynamic RAM(DRAM), flash memory(NAND flash), and USB flash drives. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the company has expertise in SSD, graphics memory, and LPDDR5 DRAM for 4G and 5G smartphones.

EDITOR’S PICK: Micron has yet to receive a license to sell to Huawei, may lead to fall in sales

As for India, the company, in 2018, allocated $3 billion for investment in Hyderabad. Moreover, it’s expanded a lot in the Asian region as well. In fact, it has back-end fabs in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and China. In case you don’t know, back end of line (BEOL) is where individual parts mingle with the wiring on the wafer.

However, the company reportedly is far away from setting up a production line in India. Although things are looking good for the country in the distant future, it isn’t going to make haste decisions regarding this right now. Still, the company is ready for academic tie-ups in the country.

Ramamoorthy says that Micron has authorized its University Research Alliance of Micron (URAM) to facilitate industry-academia collaboration for research and innovation in memory design. According to the Indian Minister of Electronics & IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Micron has also agreed set up a center of Excellence in memory and storage systems with Govt. of India.

UP NEXT: Microsoft Surface Pro 8 CPU, Memory variants listed online; could launch in early 2021

Qualcomm unveils the QCC305x SoC series for Truly wireless earbuds

By
Jed John Ikoba
-

Qualcomm has today unveiled the QCC305x wireless chip series. The chip is said to be designed mainly to help its customers differentiate across a range of tiers in the very fast-moving truly wireless earbud category. This is coming several months after the QCC514X and QCC304X chips were announced earlier in March.Qualcomm QCS400 series

The QCC305x SoCs is the latest addition to the mid-tier Qualcomm QCC30xx series of SoCs. The platform expands the wireless audio use cases delivering powerful support for many of the firm’s premium audio technologies.

Further, the QCC305x features support for the forthcoming Bluetooth Low Energy Audio standard which makes it possible for early-adopting OEMs to commence the development of an end-to-end implementation with smartphones and truly wireless earbuds supporting the exciting new audio sharing use case.

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James Chapman, vice president, and general manager, Voice, Music, and Wearables, Qualcomm Technologies hinted that: “We are entering a new era for the expanding truly wireless earbud category, which is diversifying at a terrific rate bringing new use-cases and feature enrichment to products in virtually all tiers.”

“Not only do our QCC305x SoCs bring many of our latest-and-greatest audio features to our mid-range truly wireless earbud portfolio, but they are also designed to be developer-ready for the upcoming Bluetooth LE Audio standard. We believe this combination gives our customers great flexibility to innovate at a range of price points and helps them meet the needs of today’s audio consumers, many of whom now rely on their truly wireless earbuds for all sorts of entertainment and productivity activities.”

The QCC305x SoCs are designed to support superior end-to-end operability from a Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered smartphone to Qualcomm-Technologies powered earbuds. The recently announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset to help deliver this true end-to-end experience with the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 connectivity system, brings mobile-side support for Bluetooth 5.2, LE Audio, aptX audio, and other features providing further interoperability benefits for sound quality, wireless audio robustness, and responsiveness.

UP NEXT: Xiaomi Mi QLED TV 4K 55 launched in India: Android TV 10, Dolby Vision, and 30W speakers

 

Xiaomi Mi 10T and Mi 10T Pro launched in Nigeria with non-aggressive pricing

By
Sudarshan Ravichandran
-

After teasing the Mi 10T series launch for the past few days, Xiaomi Nigeria has finally debuted the smartphones in the country. We thought the company would be only bringing the regular Mi 10T to the region. However, we turned out to be wrong as the firm has announced the Pro variant as well.

Mi 10T series featured

The Xiaomi Mi 10T series is the second generation of Mi T series of phones. Its predecessor Mi 9T series was nothing but a rebadged Redmi K20 series. But the current-gen consists of original devices but still two of them are sold as Redmi K30S Ultra (Mi 10T) and Redmi Note 9 Pro 5G (a tweaked Mi 10T Lite) in China.

Having said that, Xiaomi usually doesn’t launch its expensive products in Nigeria. But despite the global economic crisis due to the COVID-19 padmic, the company debuted most of its products in almost all the regions where it has a presence.

Hence, the Mi 10T series has made their way to Nigeria as well. Anyway, going by the comments on social media, people in the country seem not to be happy with the pricing.

Because Xiaomi has priced the Mi 10T (8GB + 128GB) at N231,000 ($608) and Mi 10T Pro (8GB + 256GB) at N265,000 ($697) respectively. To be fair, the Nigerian pricing is equivalent to that of European. 

But netizens are complaining that the same handsets cost less in countries like India and China. And it is definitely not wrong for them to criticize but at the end of day, local regulation and taxation plays a key role for any product’s price.

We hope that one day people in Nigeria could purchase Xiaomi products at a reasonable price.

UP NEXT: Xiaomi and Redmi to launch two flagship models with Snapdragon 888 SoC each

 

Get $10 off on Redmi Watch at Giztop, Limited Time Offer

By
Greeva Agnihotri
-

Redmi recently expanded its horizon and entered into the wearables category by launching Redmi Watch. It boasts multiple sports modes and sensors to help the user keep track of their health and sports activities. Currently, this watch is being sold with a massive $10 off and can be purchased for just $49 on Giztop. Redmi Watch

Redmi Watch features a 1.4-inch square display having a pixel density of 323PPI. With over 20 custom and 120+ dial options, this smartwatch allows one to choose and personalize the display according to their preference. It is enhanced with 7 sports modes for tracking both indoor and outdoor activities like running, outdoor and indoor cycling, walking, and swimming. The functions like heart rate sensor, sleep tracking, and sedentary monitoring help users keep a tab on their health. This unit stores the 24-hour heart rate data and also supports breathing training functions for added versatility.

Redmi Watch has 5ATM water-resistance (up to 50m). Its 230mAh battery can last for up to 7 days in a single charge; long endurance mode extends its battery life for up to 12 days. This smartwatch supports Bluetooth 5.0 technology, NFC connectivity and is compatible with more than 270 city bus cards, access cards, Xiaomi door locks, etc. Furthermore, this smartwatch is equipped with a built-in Xiao AI voice assistant that extends control of one’s smart home from the convenience of their wrists.Redmi Watch-1-

Packed with a host of features, Redmi Watch offers added versatility and user convenience at a reasonable price. As a bonus, this watch is currently being sold at a discounted price of just $49 at Giztop. The deal is available only for a limited time, so make the most of it.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU hits GeekBench with improved performance over its predecessor

By
Jed John Ikoba
-

A benchmark of AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800H has allegedly been leaked on Geekbench – and it has some rave reviews. The benchmark was seen on the Twitter feed by a well-known tipster ASPIK (@TUM_APISAK) and can be compared against its predecessor, the Ryzen 7 4800H, and also the existing Comet Lake-H CPUs from American tech firm Intel.

Of course, this alleged leak has to be handled with caution, but if the benchmark score is a fair representation of its performance, then the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H is well primed for serious competition to Intel’s Tiger Lake-H family of flagship processors expected to be released within Q1 of 2021.

Editor’s Pick: Apple will use ‘hybrid OLED’ displays on iPads from 2022: Report

The Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, from Silicon valley company, AMD was featured in the soon to be released Acer Nitro AN515-45 notebook whose configuration includes a 16G DDR4 memory. As per performance, the 5800H consists of eight cores and 16 threads and was running at a base clock of 3.20 GHz and a boost speed of 4.45 GHz, while the overall mean performance across all cores was a stable 4.40 GHz.

The 5800H processor allegedly has a score of 1,475 in the Geekbench 5 single-core test, and 7,630 for multi-core performance. This means that it has chalked up an impressive 35% performance than the Ryzen 7 4800H in single-core, and this ought to concern Intel, virtually set for the impending release of its Tiger Lake CPUs. In addition, the ability to boost at 4.45 GHz would imply that the Ryzen 7 5800H could out-perform the Intel Core i9-10900K by about 5% in single-core performance.

In reality, the difference in performance looks minimal and insignificant, but in putting it in perspective, note that the Ryzen 7 5800H is a mobile chip within a notebook, whilst the Intel Core i9-10900K is a full desktop processor with a much higher power limit (35W vs 250W).

There has been much activity in the highly competitive segment of processors and chips in 2020. The Ryzen 5000 Mobility CPUs will likely be announced at CES 2021, as an indication that the intense competition will continue at least beyond 2021. So AMD and Intel are just two players in a widening field of competitors pursuing the production of faster and energy-efficient CPUs.

UP NEXT: Xiaomi Mi QLED TV 4K 55 launched in India: Android TV 10, Dolby Vision, and 30W speakers

 

Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max is just a point short of topping DXOMARK display rankings

By
Balaji S
-

DXOMARK has released the display test results for the Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max. And the device performs well in all departments. In fact, it is just one point short of topping the charts.

iPhone 12 Pro Max DXOMARK

According to the test report, Apple‘s iPhone 12 Pro Max gets an overall score of 88. As per the official rankings, it now sits second to Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. To compare, its sibling iPhone 12 Pro, which recently scored 87 points, sits in third place. Anyway, with these points, it also shares the second place with OnePlus.

Precisely, the company’s 2019 flagship OnePlus 8 Pro also scores 88 whereas Samsung’s Note 20 Ultra tops with 89 points. Talking about Apple’s 2020 flagship, it has a slightly larger 6.7-inch OLED display compared to 6.5-inches on the iPhone 11 Pro Max. Anyway, let’s look at the display specs below:

  • 6.7 inches OLED display (87.4% screen-body ratio)
  • Dimensions: 160.8 x 78.1 x 7.4 mm (6.33 x 3.07 x 0.29 inches)
  • Resolution: 1284 x 2778 pixels, (458 PPI)
  • Aspect ratio: 19.5:9
  • Refresh rate: 60 Hz
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That said, DXOMARK says that iPhone 12 Pro Max performs exceptionally well in rendering contents almost in every lighting condition. Some of its strong points include the peak brightness, HDR10 contrast in video playback. Additionally, it also handles the aliasing effect well with smooth transitions in gaming.

However, just like the predecessors, this also seems to be affected by too much of the color cast. The report says that the display puts out a strong yellow tint in almost all tested conditions. That’s not all as the device seems to be a bit dull in low-light scenarios and adding a strong blue light filter impacts reading at night.

To sum up, Some of its Pros are well maintained HDR10, gamma levels and aliasing effect, smooth transitions across lightings. It has cons like yellow cast(almost all scenarios), low low-light brightness along with occasional flicker, too much darker while playing SDR contents.

UP NEXT: Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra 5G Snapdragon version scores lower than Exynos variant in DxOMark test

Nokia C1 Plus launched in China for ¥499 ($76)

By
Sudarshan Ravichandran
-

After unveiling the Nokia C1 Plus for international markets, HMD Global has now launched this entry-level smartphone in China priced at ¥499 ($76). It will go on sale starting Christmas Day (December 25) in the country.

Nokia C1 Plus Featured

The Nokia C1 Plus is a device targeted at first-time smartphone buyers. It features a 5.45-inch IPS LCD panel on the front with a resolution of 1440 x 720 pixels (HD+), 18:9 screen-to-ratio, and a 5MP selfie camera with an LED flash above it.

The back of the phone houses another 5MP shooter, again accompanied by an LED flash. Further, the volume rocker and the power key are located on the right side. Whereas, the 3.5mm headphone jack is at the top, and the MicroUSB port, the microphone hole, as well as the speaker grille are at the bottom.

EDITOR’S PICK: Nokia PureBook X14 launched in India with metal body, Intel Core i5, Dolby Vision, and more

 

The device is powered by an unknown quad-core processor clocked at 1.4Ghz. This silicon is paired with 2GB RAM and 16GB internal storage. Because of its low-end hardware, the handset runs Android 10 Go Edition.

Other features of this phone include dual-SIM, 4G LTE, single-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, GNSS (GPS, A-GPS), FM Radio, microSD card slot (up to 128GB), proximity sensor, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, and 2,500mAh removable battery with support for 5W charging.

Last but not least, the Nokia C1 Plus comes in two colors – Red & Blue, measures 149.1 × 71.2 × 8.75mm in dimensions, and weighs 146g.

UP NEXT: Nokia 5.4 launched with Snapdragon 662, 48MP quad cameras and punch-hole display

 

Microsoft Surface Pro 8 CPU, Memory variants listed online; could launch in early 2021

By
Balaji S
-

Microsoft recently announced the Surface Laptop Go, a toned-down variation for the masses. Now, the company is expected to place such powerful and upgraded processors inside the Windows-tablet ‘Surface Pro’ lineup. Now, European retailers have already listed the Surface Pro 8 along with storage versions suggesting an imminent launch.

Microsoft

According to an exclusive report by winfuture.de, the upcoming Microsoft Surface Pro 8 tablet will have a Wi-Fi-only and Wi-Fi + LTE version. You can take a look at the processor variants and their RAM, storage configurations respectively below:

Wi-Fi + LTE, i5 version

  • LTE i5 8GB/128GB
  • LTE i5 8GB/256GB
  • LTE i5 16GB/256GB

Wi-Fi only, i5 version

  • i5 8GB/128GB
  • i5 8GB/256GB
  • i5 16GB/256GB

Wi-Fi only, i7 version

  • i7 16GB/ 256GB
  • i7 16GB/ 512GB
  • i7 16GB/1TB
  • i7 32GB/1TB

Note: Here i5, i7 denote Intel® Core™ multi-core processors; According to the report, it is likely to be the latest 11th gen processors. Storage mentioned – SSD.

That said, the report says the Surface 8 Pro, apart from the above different variants, will include Surface Pen and the Surface Type Cover. Besides, as you can see above, the i7 models reportedly don’t have the LTE version. As for colors, the new tablet will likely have a Black, and Platinum Gray options.

EDITOR’S PICK: Microsoft to launch Xbox Series X in China in 2021 after getting certified

However, the LTE version doesn’t reportedly come in the Black color. And as the above names suggest, LTE will maximum support network up to 4G. This means 5G enthusiasts will have to wait a bit considering it isn’t officially rolled out in many countries. Still, as per the report, the tablet in Europe will have a wireless module, and antennas integrated directly from the factory.

The LTE version will have a maximum of 16GB RAM, while the Wi-Fi version has up to 32GB memory. Also, the previous leak indicates that the RAM would be clocked at 4267MHz. Although i7 users have limited scope with Wi-Fi only version, report says the it will be a high-end model with Core i7-1165G7 quad-core CPU, Max. 32GB RAM, and 1TB USD at  €3000 ($3,650).

Further, the Surface Pro 8 will reportedly include a 12.3-inch FHD+ display with a 3:2 aspect ratio and a 2736 x 1824 resolution. The new tablet will launch alongside the new Surface Laptops(likely 4th Gen Surface Laptop) in early 2021. While the pricing is still a mystery, don’t be surprised if Microsoft manages to also launch an AMD version with very little change from the outside.

UP NEXT: Microsoft Surface Hub 2S 50 launched in China for CNY 72,888 (~$11,000)

Facebook announces a new Instagram Lite app with less features and a ~2MB size

By
Habeeb Onawole
-

Popular social media apps have lite versions which have been designed for markets where internet service is not reliable and or very expensive. These lite apps such as Facebook Lite, Messenger Lite, and Twitter Lite are also the best option for phones with low resources as they take up less space and require less processing power. Today, Facebook has announced a new Instagram Lite app, adding to the list of toned-down apps for Android phones.

Instragram Lite

Yes, this is a new one as there used to be one before which was shut down by Facebook earlier this year. The new Instagram Lite app was announced by Facebook at an event in India today dubbed “Facebook Fuel for India”. The app which is just under 2MB in file size ditches some features you will find on the main app such as Reels, Shopping, and IGTV for a faster and even cleaner experience. If you are one of those who don’t like the aforementioned features, then the Instagram Lite app is for you.

EDITOR’S PICK: TikTok App expands to Samsung Smart TVs in Europe; Available for the UK from Today

For now, the Instagram Lite app is limited to India and it is available in multiple local languages including Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu.

It is not surprising that India is getting the app first. The South-Asian country is the country with the highest amount of Facebook users – over 310 million users according to a November 2020 report by Statista. Facebook says it plans to expand availability to more countries when it is done with the testing in India. However, one should be able to sideload the APK.

The original Instagram Lite app was discontinued in May due to some unstated issues. The new app which was listed on the Play Store earlier this month already has about 5 million installs.

UP NEXT: Major lawsuits in the US seek to break up Facebook over anti-competitive practices

 

Xiaomi Backpack 10L available for the discounted price of $5.99

By
Simranpal Singh
-

Xiaomi is bringing exclusive deals on Gearbest from the past few weeks. Several daily-use products and smartphone accessories – Mijia ToothBrush, Xiaomi Mi Air2 SE and Mijia Electric Screwdriver were on sale from the past few weeks. Similarly, Xiaomi Backpack 10L is now on sale for the best price of $5.99 from Gearbest. The interested users have an option to choose from four different colour options of Hot Pink, Blue Ivy, Orange and Black.

Update: The black colour backpack is now out of stock, but the other three colours are still available.

backpack 10l

Must See: Xiaomi eBook Reader Pro officially launched in China for 1,099 yuan ($168)

A single user can order a maximum of 2 units as of now. However, it can be shipped anywhere in the world, but make sure to check the availability in your region.

Xiaomi Backpack 10L offers a minimalist and lightweight design while offering good shape. It carries mesh and cotton back panel fit for better back support. The backpack also packs wide shoulder straps for comfortable and effortless lifting. The bag measures 5.91 x 1.97 x 3.94 inches and weighs 410 grams.

It’s a hot deal right now and may get out of stock any moment. So, we suggest you hurry if are looking to buy Xiaomi Backpack 10L.

Grab Now

Related: Xiaomi Mi QLED TV 4K 55 launched in India: Android TV 10, Dolby Vision, and 30W speakers

OPPO A15s launched in India with more RAM/storage, 8MP selfie camera, and new colors

By
Sudarshan Ravichandran
-

After a number of leaks, Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has finally launched the OPPO A15s in India. It is said to be a slightly upgraded version of OPPO A15 that debuted in the country in mid-October. Let us take a look at the specs, features, and price of this handset.

OPPO A15s Featured

OPPO A15s Specifications and Features

The newly unveiled OPPO A15s is similar to the already available OPPO A15. The only major differences are that the former features an 8MP selfie camera and comes in a single 4GB + 64GB storage configuration On the other hand, the latter sports a 5MP selfie shooter and is only sold in lower 2GB/3GB + 32GB variants in India. 

Another small but notable dissimilarity is that the latest handset comes in two new colors namely Fancy White and Rainbow Silver, in addition to standard Dynamic Black.

Apart from the above-mentioned differences, the OPPO A15s is OPPO A15 inside out. Hence, it is powered by the same MediaTek Helio P35 chipset paired with eMMC 5.1 storage and LPDDR4x RAM. As for software, it runs ColorOS 7.2 based on Android 10.

EDITOR’S PICK: Oppo acquires shares of a Semiconductor based company in China

 

On the front, the device sports a 6.52-inch IPS LCD panel with a resolution of 1600×720 pixels (HD+), 269ppi, 71% NTSC color gamut, 1500:1 contrast ratio, and 88.7% screen-to-body ratio. This screen can reach a peak brightness level of 480 nits and has a 60Hz refresh rate as well as a 60Hz touch sampling rate.

There is a dew-drop notch at the top of the display housing the selfie camera. Whereas, the rear panel of the handset features a 13MP (wide, f.2.2) + 2MP (macro, f/2.4) + 2MP (depth, f/2.4) triple camera setup and a capacitive fingerprint sensor.

Other features include dual-SIM, 4G, VoLTE, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GNSS (GPS, A-GPS, BeiDou, GLONASS), MicroUSB 2.0 port, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSD card slot, and 4,230mAh battery.

OPPO A15s Pricing and Availability

The OPPO A15s is priced at ₹11,490 ($156) and will go on sale starting December 21. It can be purchased from Amazon India and leading offline retailers in the country.

As part of launch offers, customers can avail a 5% cashback via ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, and Federal Bank credits cards as well as ZestMoney if they opt for no-cost EMI (up to six months).

Also, customers buying through financial services like Bajaj Finserv, IDFC First Bank, HDB Financial, Home Credit, HDFC Consumer loan, and ICICI Bank don’t need to pay down-payment.

UP NEXT: OPPO Enco X tipped to launch in India in January 2021

 

Samsung Galaxy M02s Google Play devices listing suggests it could be a rebrand of Galaxy A02s

By
Balaji S
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Samsung is already working on the next budget M series of devices. Dubbed the M12, a device has already appeared on several certifications. Today, a report by Gadgets360 says another Galaxy-M series device is in the works. And it could be a rebrand of a Galaxy-A smartphone.

Samsung Galaxy A02s

 

According to the report, a Samsung device with model number SM-M025F appears on Google Play Supported devices list. Accordingly, it’s marketing name is shown as Galaxy M02s. Besides, the device also has a codename ‘a02q’. This not only matches with the Galaxy A02s in the listing but also suggests that the device could be a rebrand of the latter.

That said, a few weeks back, a Samsung device with model number SM-M025F/DS was spotted on the company’s official support page. While the device is speculated to be the Galaxy M02 and a rebrand of the Galaxy A02, it could just be a variant of the Galaxy M02s.

Anyway, the Galaxy A02s which launched back in November, is yet to go on sale in Europe. Priced at €150, the device has quite the specifications to perfectly fit as a successor to the Galaxy M01s smartphone. It has better specs like a bigger display, powerful processor, triple cameras etc.

EDITOR’S PICK: Samsung Galaxy A52 5G spotted running Android 11; will it be One UI 3.0 or 3.1?

Galaxy M02s Specifications( Expected from A02s)

Either way, if Galaxy M02s turns out as the rebrand of Galaxy A02s from Europe, it will feature a bigger 6.5-inch HD+ display instead of the 6.2-inch on the M01s. Additionally, it will also have a better Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC under the hood.

If you look at the rear of the Galaxy A02s, it has a vertically striped triple-camera array. This is a sensor plus from the dual camera of the Galaxy M01s. Anyway, the M02s will likely have a 13MP main, and two 2MP sensors.

Other expected specifications are a 5,000mAh battery with 10W charging, 3GB RAM, 32GB storage, MicroSD expansion up to 1TB, and more. Let’s wait for the official details to ascertain the above claims.

UP NEXT: Samsung will not discontinue the Galaxy Note series in 2021: Report

Apple will use ‘hybrid OLED’ displays on iPads from 2022: Report

By
Balaji S
-

Back in November, a report said Apple plans to introduce mini-LED and OLEDs to iPads by 2021. However, an update from several tipsters revealed that the iPad will have OLED displays only by 2022. Now, a report from Korea has more details regarding the display tech that’s coming to the iPads.

iPad Pro (2018) featured

 

According to the report, Apple has made the decision of introducing OLEDs to iPads from 2022. In fact, it has already made requests to suppliers like Samsung Display and LG Display. What is interesting here is the new OLED tech that Apple is reportedly going to use.

Precisely, Apple will use “hybrid OLED” displays on the 2022 iPads. These are said to be thinner than typical OLED displays. Samsung will reportedly start supplying these panels in 2022 while LG Display will join a year later. A source for the report says Samsung has already started taking necessary steps for it.

Also, if another source is true, Apple will use Samsung’s panel on one iPad model in 2022. Following this, both Samsung and LG will begin the full-scale supply from 2023. Speaking of which, the hybrid OLED panels will reportedly be a combination of flexible and rigid OLED. Basically, the terms refer to the rigid(glass) or flexible substrates that are being used.

The latter obviously is about 3x times costlier than rigid OLED and can withstand more impact. Anyway, the new panel from both the companies will have a rigid glass substrate(TFT- Thin Film Transistor). On top of this, it is said to be applied with TFE (Thin Film Encapsulation) technology.

EDITOR’S PICK: Apple will reportedly contribute half of total flexible OLED smartphones in 2021

Simply put, the TFE is used in flexible OLEDs to reduce the overall thickness whilst not compromising on the rigidity. Samsung calls it the UT(Ultra Thin) panel while LG says it as ATO (Advanced Thin OLED).

Either way, it looks like 2022 iPads will be the first to use OLED displays after a lot of rumors. Also, you can take a look at the display transition of its portfolio of products  below:

That said, rumors aside, Apple’s transition from LCD to LED tech has been a smooth and cleverly positioned strategy starting from 2015. Besides, the report also mentions the possibility of Apple using mini-LED on iPads in 2021. These are basically a film of backlit LEDs over a Liquid Crystal Layer(LCD).

UP NEXT: Apple is working on AirPods Pro ‘Lite’, arrives without noise cancellation

Motorola-branded 4K Android TV dongle may soon launch in India

By
Sudarshan Ravichandran
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With the advent of streaming wars, more companies have started releasing streaming devices. That’s not all, smart TVs have now become cheaper than ever before. In India, the country’s popular eCommerce platform Flipkart sells these sorts of products under three different brands namely MarQ, Nokia, and Motorola.

Motorola Logo Featured

Now, according to Android TV Guide, Flipkart may soon release the first Motorola-branded 4K Android TV dongle. This device will bear the model number DVM4KA01 and will be powered by an Amlogic S905Y2 chipset with a 1.8GHz quad-core (ARM Cortex-A53) CPU and ARM Mali-G31 MP2 GPU.

This streaming dongle will run Android TV Pie and will support both Netflix and Prime Video. Manufactured by an ODM called Shenzhen SDMC Technology Co., Ltd., this device is also known as HAKO Mini (Taiwan), Polaroid SmartBox S, and Philips NeoViu D1. 

Since the latter models are already official, we can visualize how the Motorola dongle will look like. The only major difference should be the presence of Motorola branding.

That said, when Flipkart will launch this product in India, it will be primarily competing against Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K since there aren’t any 4K streaming dongle, although there are boxes like Mi Box 4K.

The only Android TV competitor we could think of is the unreleased Mi TV Stick 4K, which is said to be powered by the same chip.

UP NEXT: Snapdragon 800 series Moto G phone coming next year; desktop mode and more coming to Motorola phones

 

Real-life images of the Huawei Nova 8 surfaces online a week before launch

By
Balaji S
-

Ever since the Huawei Nova 8 launch date was announced, we have been coming across a lot of leaks. In the run-up to the December 23 event, it looks like everything about the device will probably be revealed. A recent leak shares the real-life images of the Nova 8 non-Pro in Green color.

As reported by ITHome, tipster Digital Chat Station has revealed the real-life image of the Huawei Nova 8 smartphone. Accordingly, the Nova 8 will have a 6.57-inch FHD+ OLED display. The display will have a refresh rate of 90Hz and probably a 2560×1080 pixel resolution. Interestingly, a live image shared by him shows a single punch-hole screen.

This leak corroborates the early report on specifications which said Nova 8 will have a 90Hz OLED screen with 1 billion colors. Anyway, a new report by ITHome shares additional images of the Nova 8. It shows the rear of Nova 8 having a Green color with an oval-shaped camera module.

Earlier today, a leaked render showed a similar module that goes well with this leak. The module has an LED flashlight and four sensors out of which the first one is pretty large. As you can see below, it has a white ring around it, and “AI QUAD CAMERA”, “ULTRA HD SENSOR” slogans surround it. Also, there is a ‘nova’ branding and Huawei logo at the bottom.

Nova 8, 8 Pro Camera Specifications(Expected)

Besides, the tipster says that the punch-hole on Nova 8 is about 4mm and the same as that of Huawei Mate40. However, the difference here is the punch-hole is moved to the center instead of the top-left position on the latter. Plus, it also confirms that Nova 8 series will have two devices.

This is because the previously leaked poster showed a device with a dual punch-hole screen which is likely Nova 8 Pro with dual cameras. Speaking of which, the Nova 8 series’ camera specifications will almost be similar unlike the predecessor, Nova 7 and 7 Pro. At the back, both the devices will have a 64MP main, 8MP ultra-wide, two 2MP sensors(likely macro, depth).

On the other hand, the Nova8 will have a single 32MP selfie shooter whereas the Nova 8 Pro will have dual 32MP and 16MP sensors. Other alleged specifications include a Kirin 985 SoC, 66W SuperCharge technology, and a rumored starting price of 3,000 yuan($458) for Nova 8, and 4,000 yuan($611) for 8 Pro. Let’s wait for the official launch to know more.

UP NEXT: Huawei releases HarmonyOS 2.0 Developer Beta version for smartphones
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