Technology giant Google has finally released the first preview of Android Q to its developers today. This is the first time that we are getting a first official look at the next Android version. We should mention that it is becoming an annual tradition for Google to give a look at its next major Android update in March, before releasing it in May.
But then, only developers would be getting this first look and a number of changes that will have an impact on the usage pattern are not present on this version yet. Google has said, though, that the update gets some interesting and anticipated changes like enhanced privacy controls and support for foldable phones.
All the Pixel smartphones – including Pixel and Pixel XL – will be getting the first beta of Android Q. The search giant has said that it has added support for Android Q beta on Pixel and Pixel XL because of popular demand. However, we will recommend you not to install it on your main device, as beta versions are usually not bug-free. But then, there will be those who will think that having a first look at the updates that Google is adding to Android Q is worth it, even though the technology giant is saving some for its Google I/O developer conference.
Among the major changes that Android Q will get to smartphones is an additional privacy setting that will give users control over location access. Using it, one can make sure that apps only get access to their location when they are in use, rather than pulling that information at all times. Google is also adding settings that will put limits on apps having access to photos, videos, audio as well as downloaded files on the handset.
Another big change that the next Android version will see is support for foldable phones. Android Q will be better at resuming and pausing apps that run in the background. It will also be able to resize apps better for split-screen modes. All these features would prove to be useful when Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X finally hit the shelves later this year.
Moving on, Android Q will also be getting a new Settings Panel API, using which developers would be able to give an instant, pop-up access to phone settings. This means that users will be able to access a number of settings easily without having to go to the smartphone’s Settings app again and again.
Another thing that has improved is the share sheet, which will let users pre-publish how various apps work with sharing. This means that the share UI will load instantly, and there will be no need of manually rebuilding all actions each time.
Google is also standardizing how depth map images will work with Android. The search giant is doing this with Dynamic Depth format that comprises of a JPEG image, depth metadata, and a depth map bundled together. So, going forward, it will be easier for third-party apps to offer specialized bokeh and blur options.
One thing that we still don’t know about Android Q is the dessert that it will be named after. We are still waiting for that to be announced. If you know any Q-named desserts that you want Android Q to be named after, let us know in the comments below!
Vivo’s upcoming smartphone, X27 will officially be launched on March 19 in China. But prior to the launch of Vivo X27, the company has posted photos and teasers of the smartphone confirming the handset’s camera, storage and battery. Also, a TENAA listing has surfaced online carrying a model number V1838A which is speculated to be a trimmed down variant of the Vivo X27.
The Chinese smartphone brand has posted teaser pictures on Weibo confirming the Vivo X27’s details and specifications. The images showed that the upcoming Vivo X27 will have 8GB RAM along with 256GB storage. It will also be powered by a 4,000mAh battery and is rumoured to have the 22.5W fast charging support through a USB Type-C port.
About the camera of the Vivo X27, the teased images reveal that the smartphone will pack a triple-rear camera setup with the primary camera holding a 48MP sensor along with a 13MP secondary sensor. The sensor is speculated to be Sony’s IMX586. The teased images also revealed camera features such as wide-angle mode and night view mode.
Although not official, Vivo X27 might come in multiple variants with Vivo X27 and Vivo X27 Pro and an unknown trimmed down variant of the device. As we mentioned earlier, the TENAA listing that mentioned the specifications of a lesser variant of the Vivo X27 sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ (1080 x 2340 pixels) resolution AMOLED display. The listing mentions that the smartphone will be powered by a 2.0GHz octa-core Snapdragon 710 SoC coupled with 8GB RAM. The handset carries the model number V1838A. The trimmed down variant of Vivo X27 would pack a triple-rear camera setup comprising of a 48MP sensor, a 13MP sensor and a 5MP sensor, while the front camera would house a 16MP sensor.
There is another variant of the Vivo X27 which will be powered by Snapdragon 675 SoC and it will reportedly carry a price tag of CNY 3,298 (approximately Rs 34,200).
According to the images leaked by Slashleaks, the Vivo X27 will pack a 6.7-inch display with an aspect ratio of 20.5:9. It might be powered by Snapdragon 710 SoC and will come with a 32MP selfie camera. Vivo X27 will reportedly be priced at CNY 3,598 (approximately Rs 37,300).
Talking about the Vivo X27 Pro, according to the leaks the smartphone packs a triple-rear camera setup and a dual pop-up selfie camera. It is speculated to be powered by Snapdragon 719 SoC coupled with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. It will reportedly carry a price tag of CNY 3,998 (approximately Rs 41,500). Although the Vivo X27 is set to launch on March 19, the Vivo X27 Pro is expected to launch on April 12.
Social media giant Facebook and its photo-sharing app Instagram just suffered one of the biggest global outages that the platforms have seen so far. Although now you can open the two platforms and some services on Facebook and Instagram have been restored, a few hours back, this was not the case. Scores of users across the globe reported that they faced issues when they tried to use Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and in some cases, even WhatsApp. In some cases, Oculus VR users also faced issues.
While for some people took it as a digital detox, some felt really helpless without all these forms of communication. The latter is particularly true for those who could not access WhatsApp. While the instant messenger worked fine in a number of countries in the world, it suffered an outage in India, Paraguay, Bangladesh, Argentina and more. According to DownDetector, the app suffered the most severe outage in Brazil.
Speaking of Messenger, we should add here that reports suggest that the mobile app worked fine, but the service did not work on the desktop version. Instagram’s outage was far worse. Some users could not load posts on the feed and the Instagram Stories did not load. Even the button to post new content and the Direct Messages option did not been working.
Facebook and Instagram took to Twitter to announce that they are aware of the issues in their services and are working to fix them.
The photo-sharing app wrote, “We’re aware of an issue impacting people’s access to Instagram right now. We know this is frustrating, and our team is hard at work to resolve this ASAP.”
We’re aware of an issue impacting people's access to Instagram right now. We know this is frustrating, and our team is hard at work to resolve this ASAP.
On the other hand, Facebook said, “We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps. We’re working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.”
We're focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm that the issue is not related to a DDoS attack.
According to DownDetector, the outages were spread across New England, Texas, Seattle, Washington, parts of Latin America, Peru, the UK, India, and the Philippines. However, media reports suggest that users in Canada, Las Vegas, and Turkey also faced the same problem.
That’s not all. There were users who took to social media to say that when they attempted to sign in to apps like Tinder and Spotify using Facebook, they couldn’t do that successfully. When they tried, an error popped up saying that the feature isn’t available right now. However, the ones who had already signed into Spotify were not logged out because of the outage.
Popular messaging app WhatsApp has reportedly been testing a new feature for its platform. The new feature would let the users search Google for images they sent or received on WhatsApp. According to the report, this new feature will be called ‘Search Image’. Additionally, WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.19.73 adds a new transgender flag emoji to its huge collection of emojis. The new emoji can be found in the flag emoji section.
According to a report by WABetaInfo, the messaging app is developing the Search Image option to let the user search an image he received or sent in the chat directly from Google. To search for the image, the user needs to select the image which he wants to search, then he can use Google to search more about the image. The image is then uploaded to the search engine which then searches for relevant and similar images and other details. The user will then be shown the results about the image.
The report also mentions that the new feature isn’t available yet but it would be coming to the Android platform in near future. There is also a possibility that WhatsApp would use the Google’s API (Application Programming Interface) to enable the image search function. The new feature would be a part of WhatsApp’s initiative towards banning and stopping the spread of fake news on its platform.
The Search Image feature of WhatsApp is different from the Advanced Search feature that the messaging app was testing on the iOS beta app. The Advanced Search lets the user search for multiple types of messages other than media. The types of messages include photos, GIFs, links, audio, video and documents.
Also, as mentioned above, the beta version 2.19.73 of WhatsApp is adding a transgender flag to its list of emojis. The flag comes after the LGBT flag which WhatsApp added to its platform earlier. The transgender flag could be found between the UN flag and the LGBT flag.
The beta version of WhatsApp could be downloaded from Google Play Store if the user is part of the beta testing programme.
If you have just started playing PUBG Mobile, you should know that just knowing about how to collect weapons and attack is not enough. There are some secret moves that you should know if you want to have an edge over others in the game. Here, we are going to tell you about ten settings of PUBG Mobile that you can alter in order to improve your chances of getting the Chicken Dinner. Check out the list of PUBG Mobile settings that you need to change here:
Peek and Fire
Let’s face it: It’s far harder for a player to attack you when you are only peeking from behind an object than when you actually come out to shoot. This is because they have to aim at your head rather than aiming anywhere on your body. So, if you haven’t already, turn the option on by going to Settings > Basic and selecting Enable Peek & Fire.
Pick up loot automatically
Would you rather just focus on the game or repeatedly tap on the screen to pick your loot? We bet you would rather do the former. If you turn on Auto Pick-Up by going to Settings > Pick Up and then selecting ‘Enable Auto Pick-Up’, you will be able to collect guns and ammo by just walking over them.
Decide how much ammo you wish to pick up
Although most people believe that the more ammo they have, the better it is for them, we should mention that there is a limit to how much inventory can be carried when you are playing PUBG Mobile. So basically, there is a limit on the number of rounds you can carry it. But on the upside, you can adjust this too. There are different limits for different guns and we recommend selecting as many rounds as you can. Go to Settings > Pick Up and then set the limits for each weapon.
Customise angle of view
In PUBG Mobile, the default field of view is 90 degrees. However, some people say that increasing this gives you a better view of the map. If you want to try this, you can head to Settings > Basic and make the change in 1st Person Camera View.
Optimize graphics settings according to your smartphone
PUBG Mobile recommends certain graphics settings for every smartphone in order to get the best performance. However, there is no reason for you to stick to it as there are times when you find your device performing better at settings different from the ones that have been recommended. So, head to Settings > Graphics, and try out various settings till you find the one that works the best on your smartphone. We also suggest that you change the frame rate to maximum.
Add the ability to send more messages
Head to Settings > Quick Chat and then select Add New Messages. This will enable you to communicate more quickly with your teammates and will also prove to useful if you want to avoid voice chat.
Choose your style of visuals
To do this, you have to head to Settings > Graphics. Then, just select the visuals that you want to use in the game. You can pick from classic, colourful, realistic, or soft. We should mention that this changes the colour tone of the game. Choosing the one that works the best with your smartphone will help you identify enemies more easily.
Customise various controls in the game
To change the controls in PUBG Mobile, head to Settings > Controls > Customise. You will find this option on the bottom left in the Controls menu. Once you do this, you will be able to place all the buttons in the game wherever you think you’ll be able to access them easily.
Turn off the mic and speakers
If you are a beginner, this is a tip you must follow. Turning your mic and speaker off once you enter the game will help you focus on sharpening your skills. After a while, you would be able to chat as you are playing.
Pick crosshair colour of your choice
In most shooting games, crosshair enables you to aim your weapon. And in PUBG Mobile, you can choose its colour so that it is easier for you to spot. For doing this, go to Settings > Basic and select the crosshair colour of your choice.
There are times when notifications from our favourite apps can annoy us a lot. Although a number of apps have the option of turning notifications off, some of them are still working on it.
And now, a report has surfaced online that claims that Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram will be rolling out an option to mute all notifications from the app for a chosen period of time. The photo-sharing app’s feature will work similarly to the one we have seen on instant messenger WhatsApp.
According to Social Media Today, Instagram’s new feature would be called ‘Pause All’ and it would enable users to switch off all notifications for up to eight hours. The report said, “The option was spotted by social media expert Matt Navarra who initially spotted the same in testing last month. Given the amount of time we now spend on social media, it’s good to have an option to shut it down completely every now and then.”
So far, the new feature has been rolled out on iOS and has also made its way on Instagram’s Android beta app.
The report further added, “Instagram is particularly well-known for driving obsessive behaviour among younger users. Being able to shut it off for periods will help people distance themselves from the online world.”
In addition to this, the photo-sharing app is also testing a donation sticker on its Stories feature. The feature would make it easy for charity organisations to raise funds. Users would also be able to use the feature for getting a donation for personal reasons. It is very similar to Facebook’s fundraising and donation feature that has been present on the social media platform since 2015.
Jane Manchun Wong, who first found Instagram’s fundraising feature, took to Twitter to speak about the new addition. She said, “Instagram is working on ‘Donation’ sticker. It lets users start fundraisers for their favourite non-profits.”
Speaking about its feature, Instagram said, “We are in early stages and working hard to bring this experience to our community. Instagram is all about bringing you closer to the people and things you love, and a big part of that is showing support for and bringing awareness to meaningful communities and causes. Later this year, people will be able to raise money and help support non-profits that are important to them through a donation sticker in Instagram Stories. We’re excited to bring this experience to our community and will share more updates in the coming months.”
Software giant Microsoft will now let Xbox One owners stream the PC games by the company on their console. Xbox One owners will also be able to use a controller to play these Microsoft games. In order to carry this out, Microsoft has also updated its Wireless Display app that will let users play Steam games directly on their gaming console.
Users will be able to use a regular Xbox controller in order to control the remote PC. So they can play games on their Xbox One, or if they wish, they can also use the console for presentations.
The Wireless Display app can be used to form a connection between a PC and the Xbox One gaming console. Microsoft’s app uses Miracast to make this happen, and if you want to cast to the Xbox, the winkey + P combination can be used. However, we should add that protected content from the likes of Netflix still cannot be streamed.
It is worth noticing that Microsoft’s Wireless Display app was being tested for months, however, the company was using different names during this time. But now, the app has officially been released for all Xbox One owners. Previously, the app was known as Connect on Windows, and it is worth mentioning that the app initially worked for the Surface Hub.
Even earlier, the app could be used to connect the Microsoft enabled mouse, keyboard stylus and touch to the PC. Now, the company has added controller support for the Xbox version. For years, the software giant has been working on streaming PC games on Xbox One. But we have to say that this seems to be the best method so far to play games from Steam on Xbox One.
However, even now the app does not have support for keyboard and mouse input. This means that you still would not be able to stream PC games to your console and if you want to, you would have to continue using traditional methods. But on the upside, this is expected to change soon as the company added Xbox One keyboard and mouse support for a number of games last year.
Samsung A9 (2018) was the first smartphone in the world to launch with a quad camera setup. It was unveiled by the company last year and it came with Android 8.0 Oreo out-of-the-box. But now, Samsung has announced that the Galaxy A9 will be receiving the Android 9.0 Pie update. Although the update is live and is being received by Samsung Galaxy A9, as of now, the rollout is limited to Poland only. Samsung hasn’t announced the official dates when the rollout will be global but since the update is already is already out, the other parts of the world too will soon receive the update.
The latest Android Pie update has the firmware version A920FXXU1BSC5, and it brings the Android security patch for February. Other features include fixes and patches over the previous Android version. There is also a possibility that it would bring the Samsung One UI with the update. Although the update is out, it hasn’t been mentioned by the company if it is a beta update or a stable final update for the Poland Galaxy A9 (2018) users. The update was spotted by SamMobile.
The Galaxy A9 (2018) has become the last smartphone in the Galaxy A-series to receive the Android Pie update. We should add that Samsung Galaxy A6 (2018) has already received the Android Pie update with One UI along with the Galaxy A7 (2018). Even Samsung Galaxy A8+ (2018) received the Android Pie update earlier in March 2019.
To recall, Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) was launched in November last year and it sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ (1080×2220 pixels) resolution Super AMOLED Infinity Display. The device is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 660 SoC coupled with 6GB or 8GB of RAM. Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) comes with 128GB of storage. It has a quad-camera setup which includes a 24MP primary sensor paired with a 10MP telephoto lens, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor and a 5MP depth sensor. The front of the device houses a 32MP selfie camera.
Earlier in February, the company had slashed the price of Samsung Galaxy A9 (2018) by Rs 3,000. After the price cut, the smartphone sold for Rs 33,990 instead of its original price of Rs 36,990.
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Alright, so this is the tenth edition of the Samsung Galaxy S series and the company has put all its efforts to take on the competition by giving out the best from its camp. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ is what the company has come out with and the top-of-the-line flagship is ready to conquer. Or is it? We used the smartphone for well over 10 days to understand what makes it tick and what makes it tock. This is our review of the largest S series smartphone in the current generation, the Samsung Galaxy S10+.
Design and Display
Samsung has left no stone unturned when it comes to the built of the Galaxy S10+. It is refreshing to look at, especially when you have seen a slew of smartphones with a notched display. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ comes with a large 6.4-inch edge to edge Dynamic AMOLED infinity-O display. So, what that means is that there is no notch on the smartphone where the front-facing camera and other sensors are placed. Instead, there is a punch hole setup on the top right side of the screen, which has the front facing dual cameras.
So, what happened to the sensors and the ear speaker? Well, they have been neatly tucked behind the screen and the earpiece speaker has been pushed towards the top part of the phone. This enables the smartphone to give a richer, nicer screen experience to its users. With almost 90% screen to body ratio, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ has nearly no bezels, on any of the sides. The curved screen is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 6. The same glass can also be found on the back of the smartphone.
Talking about which, the rear of the smartphone has a ceramic back panel underneath the glass. Available in a couple of colours, we tested the prism white version that has a blue-ish pearl tint to it. To put it simply, it looks outstanding. At the back, Samsung has installed three cameras with an LED flash with the Samsung branding under it. Also, at the back one can find the manufactured in India writings at the bottom. The rear does manage to get its fair share of fingerprints since it is a glass back. However, with the colour scheme, one can’t really make them out. For the ones who have a hawk eye, then you might want to pick a nifty case for the mobile.
The sideband of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is a made up of metal with chrome finish. The buttons also have the same chrome finish, which adds the show. The volume rocker and the dedicated, yet not so dedicated Bixby button (since it can be customised to almost any other app, besides another voice assistant) is placed on the left side. While the power button sees an unusually high placement on the right.
The bottom plays house to a 3.5mm audio port, USB Type-C charging jack, primary microphone and a loudspeaker. The top has the hybrid SIM and microSD card slot along with a secondary microphone. The smartphone is also dust and water proof.
Now to talk about the display, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ brings the absolute best. The infinity-O display is eye candy. We just could not get enough of it. The screen is legible in any kind of light conditions and is one of the best we have seen so far in 2019. The text is crisp, the imagery is sharp and the colours are vivid. YouTube videos play like a charm and gaming is a much better experience here when compared to the Google Pixel 3/3 XL.
The screen supports a resolution of 1,440 x 3040 with an aspect ratio of 19:9. So, we tested a couple of 4K videos on it too, and to our amazement, they ran very well. There is a night mode present in the UI that enlists most things with a black background colour. This makes everything look cooler, but not all is turned dark with it. The app drawer and some of the other apps are still in their natural colours. We were hoping they also turn dark and add to the ambience.
Performance and Camera
Switching gears, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ we held for review is the base version that has all the neat parts except more RAM and storage. Let’s quickly run you over the specs. This one is the Indian version of the Samsung Galaxy S10+, which has Exynos 9820 octa-core CPU with two cores running at 2.73 GHz, the next two running at 2.31 GHz and the last 4 running at 1.95 GHz. For the Lehman, to balance out things between when you are gaming and not gaming, you get multiple cores with different clock speeds.
The RAM in the device is 8GB since this is the base model with 128GB storage. In case you want more storage, you can install a microSD card of up to 512GB. However, that means you would lose one Nano SIM slot, since it is a hybrid slot. The GPU is powered by a Mali-G76 MP12 chip and it works wonderfully well. The whole combo made games run extremely smooth, even the more demanding ones like Asphalt 9 Legends or PUBG.
We threw everything at this device and it would never come under pressure. Yes, it did get a bit warm when we extended our PUBG sessions on it, but nothing that will burn your fingers. 8 gigs of RAM is good enough to load and run the most demanding of apps and is also good for multi-tasking.
A lot of security options are available in the smartphone starting from the trusted numeric password to the pattern lock. A new form of fingerprint unlock system has been added to the Samsung Galaxy S10+. This is called ultrasonic fingerprint detection, an advanced version of indisplay fingerprint detection. Which hardly faulters, but does take a few extra milliseconds to open the device’s screen. Face detection unlocking system is also there that does work really well and is super quick to open the smartphone during the day or in well-lit conditions. However, in the dark, it takes a wee bit of extra time to respond, since the screen will brighten to detect your face and then unlock.
The operating system on the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is Android 9 Pie with Samsung’s One UI. The user interface is now much cleaner and nicer looking. It is very close to stock Android. You do end up getting a few unwanted apps on the mobile, but nothing you cannot disable or remove. Nonetheless, in a premium phone, one would not want to see them at all. If one wants them, the PlayStore is where one should get it from. The UI is slick, responds well and almost never falters. Thanks to the good CPU and RAM combo inside, the whole operation during our time with the mobile was excellent.
Moving to the camera power. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ comes with a triple rear camera setup. The first one has 16-megapixels (ultrawide) with an aperture size of 2.2, next is the wide 12MP sensor with an aperture size of 1.5-2.4 and another 12MP telephoto sensor with a 2.4 aperture size. These are horizontally stacked on the rear glass panel and come with a very bright LED flash. When tested they gave us one of the best results we have seen so far from any Galaxy smartphone from Samsung. The day shots come out to be very close to life and have exceptional sharpness.
The night shots with flash were quite nice too, but lacked some detail when the flash was not used. A bit of camera noise also crept in around the corners without flash. The videos with the rear cameras can be shot in 4K and those come out to be vivid with great details around the object. However, we do not recommend it for dark to low-light videography as it suffers a little. Live mode, a lot of effects and other good styles are available in the native camera app and some of them even help you take the best shots by telling you where to point the camera exactly.
Let’s talk about the front cameras now. There are two selfie cameras in the Samsung Galaxy S10+. These comprise of a 10MP primary sensor with an aperture size of 1.9 and a secondary 8MP sensor with an aperture size of 2.2. What these essentially do is cover a lot of space around you. So, you get a wider shot in the selfie mode. The beauty effect here works superbly well and does manage to do what it is intended for. The front shots are crisp and are mostly on point during the day (indoors and outdoors). At night too we were able to squeeze out some good selfies, barring when we were in super dark areas.
As per our AnTuTu test, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ scored 3,29,575 points and on Geekbench 4’s compute test the mobile device got 7,087 marks. On the Geekbench 4 CPU single-core test it garnered 4,525 points and CPU multi-core test it got 10,057 marks. All of them indicate best in class performance and even without a Snapdragon chipset inside, the Exynos with 8 GB RAM can give its competition a run for its money.
The sound quality of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is what we loved the most after its superb display and performance. The device comes with stereo speakers, with a downfiring single speaker located at the bottom and the earpiece speaker being used up as a second speaker in the stereo setup. Together they are very loud. These are backed by Dolby Atmos and do make the gaming, movie and YouTube experience more immersive. Our recommendation is to keep the volume at around 80 per cent, for the best optimal long-term use.
But that is not where the sound department ends, Samsung Galaxy S10+ come with a pair of AKG headphones that are even better than the supplied stereo speakers. They are thumpy and take gaming and music to a new level altogether. These are truly worthy of being in the pack of a flagship device.
The battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is where we got a mixed bag of results. During our test phase, we were able to get a full day of battery life with its 4,100 mAh battery under nominal use. But it fell down considerably when an hour or two of gaming or using the GPS navigation was added to the blend. Yes, the device does come with a fast charger, but unlike others it does not fast charge as quickly as one would expect from a premium device. Wireless charging is supported too, but that too isn’t as quick when compared to the Apple iPhone XS/XS max or Google Pixel 3.
Samsung has added reverse charging mode to the Galaxy S10+, which is quite cool if you have a pair of wireless ear buds or need to charge your buddies smartphone when out of juice. But be careful, this method will only work when your Samsung Galaxy S10+ has more than 30% battery soup left.
Verdict and Final Thoughts
Samsung Galaxy S10+ does get you excited from the word go, and the excitement continues as you move on. There are some good embellishments of UI engineering you would find on it, like the apps edge enrolment or the way the front cameras border lights up when you press the power button to face unlock/lift it up. These are things only Samsung would probably do.
There is attention to detail and one can see the effort the company has put in to give a far superior experience to its users. We would have been happier if they would have included a better fast charger in the box, as these days one rarely has time to wait. Overall, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is a superb device at Rs 73,900 and is a rocking start to 2019 series of flagships!
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Software giant Microsoft will soon be getting its popular Minecraft title to Xbox Game Pass. The company has announced that users will be able to access Minecraft via Xbox Game Pass next month onwards. On April 4, Microsoft will be releasing Minecraft as part of the monthly Xbox Game Pass subscription. Minecraft will be added to more than 100 games that Xbox players have access to via the subscription.
While a number of people who own an Xbox may already have a copy of Minecraft, the addition of the game in the Xbox Game Pass subscription will help the software company convince a number of more console owners to subscribe.
Xbox game Pass subscription is being promoted a lot by Microsoft in the last few months. The company has also started offering the first month of the subscription for $1 instead of $9.99. By paying for the subscription monthly, players can download and install more than 100 games including Crackdown 3, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 4, all of which are the latest first party games by the company.
The software giant has been launching its own games on Xbox Game Pass at the same time as they hit the stores, so subscribers don’t have to wait extra to get them. Also, this means that the next version of Gears of War, and additional Forza titles will also make their way to Xbox Game Pass.
Along with Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft is also working on its xCloud game-streaming service, which will enable it to offer its entire subscription on a number of devices. It has been said that users will be able to access xCloud across PCs, Macs, and smartphones. It will be available on both Android and iOS. The software company will reportedly run xCloud trials in the latter half of this year.
Speaking about Microsoft’s xCloud game-streaming service, the company’s cloud gaming chief Kareem Choudhry said, “Scaling and building out Project xCloud is a multi-year journey for us.” He further added, “We’ll begin public trials in 2019 so we can learn and scale with different volumes and locations.”
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 is all set to begin on March 18 and it will go on till March 23 in San Francisco, California. At the 2019 GDC, technology giant Google will also make its presence. According to earlier leaks and rumours, Google has been developing its own game streaming service – Project Stream along with a gaming console named ‘Yeti’. And there is a chance that Google will take the stage to unveil its game streaming service and the gaming console.
Google has also posted a teaser for the keynote for the upcoming GDC where it will announce its ‘vision of the future of gaming.’ The company has also announced a live stream along with a minute long video teaser. The video is available on the Google Store teaser page where the users can sign up for updates. Being teased on Google Store page could mean that the company could be planning to launch hardware other than the game streaming service. The GDC 2019 will begin on March 19 at 10am PDT (10:30 pm IST). The live stream of the GDC 2019 can be seen on Google’s official YouTube channel.
According to reports, Google has been testing its gaming streaming service, console and controller for a while now. There isn’t much information about what the console from Google would be and what it would look like but the gaming streaming service named ‘Project Stream’ has been in its beta testing phase since last year. In October 2018, the company piloted its streaming service which later ended on January 15, 2019. Other than the streaming service, ‘Project Yeti’ might be the codename of Google’s controller or controller and console both.
Earlier, it was conceptualised that Project Yeti could be similar to Chromecast dongle but later it was reported that the device would come in the form of a gaming console and a controller. A recent patent revealed that Google’s controller might come with a dedicated Google Assistant button. There is not much information about their official names but it is certain that Google will be releasing its products at the GDC 2019.
A recent report also states that the search giant might also launch multiple new games at the GDC 2019. So, it could mean that the search giant is expanding its arms and will be entering the gaming industry with the launch of new games, controllers, consoles and a video game streaming service.
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After the successful launch of Samsung Galaxy A10, Galaxy A30 and Galaxy A50, the South Korean technology giant could be looking forward to bringing more A-series smartphones to its line-up. The next Galaxy A-series smartphone – Samsung Galaxy A90 – has been listed on the company’s official US website before its launch. Alongside the smartphone, Asphalt 9, exclusive content along with other free items for the customers has been promised by Samsung. But the website does not mention the launch date, specifications and the price of the Samsung Galaxy A90.
In the past, Samsung Galaxy A90 has been leaked multiple times online but now that the smartphone has been mentioned on the official Samsung US website, it could be launched in the coming weeks. On the website, Samsung Galaxy A90 has been listed alongside the Galaxy S10 series which will receive the exclusive Asphalt 9 contents as a gift. The gifts from Asphalt 9 includes a free Lotus Evora Sport 410 along with 50,000 Asphalt 9 credits, 250 tokens and 10 premium card packs. The listing was spotted by GalaxyClub.
In order to get the free content, the users would have to download Asphalt 9 from the Galaxy Store. But it is worth mentioning that Asphalt 9 is a graphic intensive game, and the mention of Galaxy A90 in the Asphalt 9’s list of smartphones to receive the gifts could mean that the smartphone could be packing some serious hardware.
Till now, there hasn’t been an official announcement about the specifications of Samsung Galaxy A90. But Samsung has promised that the eligible users could win free exclusive items and rewards throughout the year. They would also get a chance to participate in special events.
Although not much is known about the upcoming device but some rumours state that Samsung Galaxy A90 might come with a sliding and rotating camera. It might also feature a pop-up selfie camera and will sport a New Infinity Display without a notch or hole-punch screen like Samsung Galaxy S10. It might also hold the in-display fingerprint scanner and come with a 6.41-inch display. Reports suggests that the device could be powered by the Snapdragon 710 SoC and it might run One UI based on Android Pie.
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Let’s face it: Without the internet, smartphones wouldn’t really be all that smart. Wi-Fi and mobile data have become indispensable for anyone who uses a smartphone. And while Wi-Fi usually keeps us covered while we are at home or in office, we have to bank on mobile data the rest of the time. However, the cost that one has to pay for mobile data varies between countries. A new analysis by UK-based price comparison website cable.co.uk clearly shows where we have to pay the least and the most for mobile data.
According to the website, it took into consideration 6,313 data plans in 230 countries and India emerged as the country where mobile data is the cheapest. However, there are some countries where data is extremely expensive and the disparity between the prices is tremendous.
According to Dan Howdle, a telecom analyst at cable.co.uk, the reason for the cheap prices of data in some countries is that they have an excellent mobile and fixed broadband infrastructure. This enables providers to offer large amounts of data at affordable prices.
Take a look at how much you have to pay for mobile data across the world. We have picked 15 countries which show you the disparity:
India
Average cost of 1GB data: $0.26 (approximately Rs 18.06)
Russia
Average cost of 1GB data: $0.91 (approximately Rs 63.20)
Italy
Average cost of 1GB data: $1.73 (approximately Rs 120.15)
Nigeria
Average cost of 1GB data: $2.22 (approximately Rs 154.18)
Australia
Average cost of 1GB data: $2.47 (approximately Rs 171.55)
France
Average cost of 1GB data: $2.99 (approximately Rs 207.66)
Brazil
Average cost of 1GB data: $3.50 (approximately Rs 243.08)
Spain
Average cost of 1GB data: $3.79 (approximately Rs 263.22)
The United Kingdom
Average cost of 1GB data: $6.66 (approximately Rs 462.55)
Germany
Average cost of 1GB data: $6.99 (approximately Rs 485.47)
China
Average cost of 1GB data: $9.89 (approximately Rs 686.88)
Canada
Average cost of 1GB data: $12.02 (approximately Rs 834.81)
The United States
Average cost of 1GB data: $12.37 (approximately Rs 859.12)
South Korea
Average cost of 1GB data: $15.12 (approximately Rs 1,050.11)
Switzerland
Average cost of 1GB data: $20.22 (approximately Rs 1,404.31)
Google Services including Gmail and Google Drive reportedly suffered a global outage today. A number of users faced problems while they were trying to access Gmail, Google Drive and other Google Services. But now, the technology giant has taken care of the issue that caused the outage and all the services have been restored.
Google has confirmed the issues that were faced by Gmail and Google Drive on G Suite Status Dashboard. The outage is said to have begun at 8:23am IST. The California-based technology company later brought out an update on G Suite Status Dashboard which restored the Gmail and Google Drive services completely at 11:43am IST. As per Google dashboard, the outage lasted for three hours and twenty minutes.
In a statement, Google wrote “We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience and continued support. Please rest assured that system reliability is a top priority at Google, and we are making continuous improvements to make our systems better.”
It should be noted that this is the second time in three months that such an outage in Google services has been seen. Earlier, Google services suffered an outage in late-January where users reported similar problems while accessing their Google accounts and using Google services.
According to The Guardian, many users in Australia, the US, Europe and Asia had earlier reported outages with Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Drive. Earlier, Google Maps and YouTube too were believed to be affected in the outage, but they are working fine as of now.
The company on its service website wrote, “The affected users are able to access Gmail, but are seeing error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behaviour.”
The G Suite Admin console and Gmail are currently experiencing a service-wide outage. Please stay tuned for updates or follow here: https://t.co/2SGW3X1cQn
The current outage of Google services had only affected Gmail and Google Drive among few other Google services. But the last outage in January had taken down a number of Google services including Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Google Groups, Hangouts, Hangouts Chat, and Google+. At that time, the users were unable to access their Google account for almost an hour. When trying to access their accounts the websites read “404 error”. The users of most parts of Europe, India, UK, eastern US including New York, Brazil faced the outage. Later the company fixed the issue and apologised to the users.
It’s been more than a week since Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s official website was hacked. The website was taken down last week and has remained under ‘maintenance’ mode till now. Following the incident, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has confirmed that the website has been hacked.
At the “Digital India Summit” currently being held in New Delhi, the minister said, “There are rogue elements in the society. The site was hacked only for a few minutes. We got back control very soon.”
With this statement, the IT Minister admitted that the BJP website was hacked and it comes as a first-time admission from the government. But Prasad did not mention when the site will be back online as it has been more than a week since the site has been labeled as ‘under maintenance’.
When trying to access the website, a message reads: “We’ll be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. We will be back online shortly!”
The BJP IT cell head Amit Malviya last week said the site was not hacked but he did admit that the website had experienced some sort of ‘transgression’. Further, he stated that the website was down because of a ‘technical glitch’ rather than being hacked. But a week ago, the official website of BJP showed abusive content, which clearly means that the website was hacked.
A week ago, on the official BJP website a meme was posted with PM Narendra Modi’s image with the caption “Brothers and sisters, I’ve fooled all of you. Brothers and sisters, we’ve fooled all of you. More to come! Many, many congratulations!”
There was also a video with the song ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ posted below the meme. The identity of the hackers hasn’t been confirmed yet and no hacker group has claimed responsibility for the act.
The news has gained huge traction in the past few days as Twitter users are posting things and memes about the BJP’s website hack.
As of now, no official comment has been made about when the website will be back online.
Facial recognition is a technology that a number of companies are working on. While most technology companies have already developed the program for themselves, some are still trying to improve it to deliver more accurate results. Amid this, it has been found out that American multinational IT firm IBM took nearly a million images from Flickr and used them to train their facial recognition programs. The company even shared the images with researchers who were not a part of IBM.
According to a report in NBC News, the people in the images did not give the consent of their images being used to develop facial recognition system. It further said that while photographers did have the permission to click pictures of these people, however, the subjects in the images did not know that their photos were annotated with facial recognition notes and will eventually be used for training algorithms.
Speaking to NBC, a photographer said, “None of the people I photographed had any idea their images were being used in this way.”
However, we must add here that these images were not compiled by IBM. They were just a part of a collection of 99.2 million photos called YFCC100M, which was put together by Flickr‘s former owner Yahoo to conduct research. The images were shared under a Creative Commons license, which basically means that they can be used freely. However, certain limitations still apply. But, using them for training facial recognition systems to profile on the basis of ethnicity may not be something that Creative Commons’ licenses anticipated.
However, IBM told The Verge that it would never “participate in work involving racial profiling.” But then, we should add here that when IBM announced about the collection in January this year, the company said that it had to work with such a large database to train their systems for “fairness” and accuracy.
IBM further told the technology website, “We take the privacy of individuals very seriously and have taken great care to comply with privacy principles. Individuals can opt-out of this dataset.” It also added that the dataset could only be accessed by verified researchers and only had images that were available publically.
Xiaomi’s sub-brand Poco made its debut last year with the Poco F1 smartphone which packed Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 SoC. When launched, the smartphone wa priced at Rs 21,999 and went up to Rs 28,999 for the top-end variant. But now, the Poco F1 is being offered at a discounted price during the Poco Days sale where the company has reduced the prices of all the variants of the Poco F1. The sale started on March 12 and will go on till March 16. The devices can be purchased from Flipkart, Mi Home store, Mi.com and other select retail stores.
Poco F1 price and sale offers
During the five-day sale, the 6GB RAM/ 64GB storage variant of the Poco F1, which was earlier priced at Rs 19,999, is selling for Rs 16,499. The 128GB storage variant, that comes with the same RAM, can be picked up for Rs 19,499 and the model with 8GB RAM/ 256GB storage can be bought for Rs 23,499 during the sale. Earlier, the two models with more storage held a price tag of Rs 22,999 and Rs 27,999 respectively. The highest variant of the Poco F1 called the Armoured Edition comes with a Kevlar back and it is available for Rs 24,499 during the sale which was earlier priced at Rs 28,999.
Furthermore, if you pay for our purchase via ICICI Bank credit or debit cards, you will get a discount of Rs 1,500. Also, on exchanging a smartphone, users can get up to Rs 3,000 off on all the variants of the Poco F1.
Poco F1 specifications
Poco F1 sports a 6.18-inch Full HD+ (2160 x 1080 pixel) IPS display that has a notch on the top. It is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with Adreno 630 GPU. The device is available in three variants – with 6GB/8GB RAM coupled with 64GB, 128GB and 256GB storage. Additionally, Poco F1 can support of a microSD card of up to 256GB. The smartphone has a dual-rear camera setup that comprises of a 12MP primary sensor paired with a 5MP secondary depth sensor while the front camera holds a 20MP sensor with f/2.0 aperture.
The Poco F1 has a battery of 4,000mAh and it runs on Android 8.1 Oreo skinned with MIUI 9.6. The smartphone also comes with a LiquidCool Technology which keeps it from heating up while gaming or doing intensive task on the device.
People who wants to get their hands on a flagship-level smartphone without burning a hole in their pockets can consider buying the Poco F1 during the sale. A smartphone with Snapdragon 845 SoC was never as affordable as this.
In a rather strange incident, a man got arrested over the weekend for showing up at Google’ Mountain View, California headquarters to threaten violence because he believed that YouTube had deleted his account on the platform. We should mention that the man only had one video on his YouTube channel which talked about getting rich quickly.
According to a report in BuzzFeed, the 33-year-old Kyle Long came all the way to Google’s headquarters only to find out that later that the account was actually deleted by his wife. However, she didn’t know how Long would react to her doing this, so she told him that it was probably Google’s doing. What she didn’t know that Long would actually drive 3,300 miles from Maine to Google’s headquarters in California.
The man’s father, Kevin Long, said that the video was ‘rambling’ and ‘bizzare’. He also revealed that Long has a history of mental illness and has had multiple run-ins with the police. All of this, according to Long’s father, traces back to an incident in his teens when a drunk driving accident took the life of a close friend.
Speaking to BuzzFeed, Kevin said, “He came up with this crazy idea to make everyone millionaires. She (his wife) told him Google or Facebook must have taken it down because you can’t put stupid shit on there.” He also added that Long thought that his video was the answer to world’s problems.
We should add here that most companies like Facebook and Google have algorithms coupled with a set of policies that change time to time. If the content posted on their platform does not abide by these, it is removed automatically because of these. In most cases, company employees are not involved in this process at all. However, there are times when people feel that they have been wronged personally by the company. Long’s case is also a similar one. However, it is worth noticing that this is the second high-profile case that has happened in less than a year in which a person has actually shown up at the company to threaten violence.
To recall, in April 2018, Nasim Aghdam, who is a 39-year old resident of San Diego, showed up at YouTube‘s San Bruno headquarters and opened fire. She said that YouTube had unfairly demonetized and censored her videos that spoke about being pro-vegan and animal rights. Aghdam ended up injuring three people before she killed herself too.
Although Long didn’t carry any firearms with him, he did have three baseball bats in his car. According to police in Mountain View, Long had “made general threats of violence towards unknown people if the meeting regarding his YouTube channel didn’t go as he wanted it to.”
Speaking more about his son’s behaviour, Kevin Long said, “All he wanted was to get it back online. Something is wrong with him.”
We can only say that although it is great to be active on platforms like YouTube, one must also read through the guidelines and algorithms to know what all is allowed and what is not. A technology company wouldn’t have anything against a particular person, but is their algorithm doesn’t approve of the content you have uploaded, it will be taken down.
PUBG Mobile may be facing a lot of criticism and heat in India, but that hasn’t stopped the makers from rolling out an update of the popular game. The PUBG Mobile 0.11.5 update has been rolled out to beta users. With the new update, the game brings certain upgrades and changes over its previous version. The download size of the newest update 0.11.5 is 1.17GB for the Android platform, so we suggest you to download it only when you are connected to Wi-Fi. In this update, dynamic weather has been added to the Erangel and Miramar map along with many tweaks has been made to the game and the Zombie mode. Other new features include the addition of the G36C rifle and the Tukshai (a three-wheeled vehicle) for the Sanhok map. Other than that, the new update isn’t much of an upgrade over the PUBG Mobile 0.11.0 beta which had brought the Zombie Mode called ‘Survive Till Dawn’. The new update has also made some fixes and tweaks over its previous version.
The Patch notes of the PUBG Mobile 0.11.5 reads:
Erangel and Miramar maps now have Dynamic weather.
The update adds a new weapon: G36C rifle (Vikendi only), which can fire 5.56mm rounds and can be equipped with stocks. The weapon has replaced SCAR-L in Vikendi map.
A new Sanhok-exclusive vehicle – Tukshai, a three-wheeled bus – has been added. The vehicle replaces the Jeep, Dacia and Mini Bus.
Zombies will now enter a weakened state from time to time during the match, giving players an advantage.
Some areas on the map where zombies could not enter have now been fixed.
Damage outside of safe zone at night has been inflated, so players much watch out!
Some resource drops have been tweaked in the game.
Some zombie skills have been revamped.
Changes have been made to vehicle fuel levels.
Quick chat message “I got supplies” can now be pre-selected.
Outfit preview will send a warning when a piece that is being previewed is hidden by an outfit that is currently equipped.
When the user previews outfits from a new crate, the preview from the previous crate will be removed.
Added feedback to buttons of the main menu.
The newest update of the PUBG Mobile 0.11.5 can be downloaded from the official website of Tencent Games. The Bonus Challenge of PUBG Mobile has also been updated, and now there are three tiers to the Challenge – Novice, Adept and Expert. When playing the Bonus Challenge, in the Novice mode, each kill made by the player earns him 15 points. Similarly, in the Adept mode, each kill gives him 30 points and in Expert mode the points earned is 45 points for each kill. And one point earned in these modes equal to one battle coin with maximum earnings being 1500. The PUBG Mobile Bonus Challenge is available for Android, iOS and PC Emulator of the game. In the Bonus Challenge, there will be 60 players in total in a single match. And at the best, players of the Bonus Challenge will be highlighted on a top 30 list.
But there is a much-awaited feature missing from the PUBG Mobile 0.11.5 update – the conversion of Battle Coins (BC) to Unknown Cash (UC). This feature would allow the players to buy rare and new weapon skins. Earlier, for getting the UC the players would have to pay and buy the UC with money. The UC allows the players to buy skins the royale pass which unlock several costumes, emotes and other items.
Redmi Note 7 Pro, the recently launched beefed-up variant of Redmi Note 7, comes with more storage, sports a camera with higher resolution, has a more powerful processor and packs overall better specifications. Both the smartphones were launched on the same day in India. The Redmi Note 7 has already gone on sale via various e-commerce websites and Mi’s official website, the first sale of Redmi Note 7 Pro will start today at 12pm IST. The smartphone will be available for purchase through Flipkart, Mi.com and Mi Home stores. Furthermore, the Redmi Note 7’s second sale will also begin later today.
Redmi Note 7 Pro price and launch offers
Redmi Note 7 Pro will be available for a price of Rs 13,999 for the 4GB RAM/ 64GB storage variant. Its higher variant that comes with 6GB RAM/ 128GB storage can be picked up at Rs 16,999. As a part of launch offers, customers buying the Redmi Note 7 Pro will get up to 1,120GB of 4G data along with unlimited voice calling and Airtel Thanks benefits. Xiaomi has also partnered with Reliance Jio to give double data benefits to the Jio Prime users.
Redmi Note 7 Pro specifications
Redmi Note 7 Pro sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display that has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9 and comes with a waterdrop-style notch. It is powered by an 11nm octa-core Snapdragon 675 SoC coupled with either 4GB or 6GB of RAM. The smartphone is available in 64GB and 128GB storage options with support for a microSD card of up to 256GB. The device runs Android 9.0 Pie skinned with MIUI 10 and is powered by a 4,000mAh battery with Quick Charge 4.0 support.
The Redmi Note 7 Pro has a dual-rear camera setup of a 48MP primary sensor with f/1.79 aperture paired with a 5MP secondary depth sensor. At the front, there is a 13MP sensor for selfies. The rear camera of the device also supports AI features like the AI scene detection, AI portrait 2.0, Night mode etc. There is also 4K video recording supported by the Note 7 Pro.
For connectivity, the Redmi Note 7 Pro comes with 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth v5.0, GPS/ A-GPS, USB Type-C port, and 3.5mm headphone jack. There is a fingerprint scanner at the back of the device. The Note 7 Pro comes in Neptune Blue, Nebula Red, and Space Black colour options.
The music and video streaming space in India has seen a number of new players recently and among them, it was Spotify which managed to grab the most attention. Right after the Sweden-based music streaming app got launched in India, Google has rolled out its YouTube Music, YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium in the country.
Before we get into more details, we should add here that while YouTube Music supports advertisements, YouTube Music Premium and YouTube Premium are ad-free. The two services were launched in seventeen countries including the United States last year in June. Google has made them available in India after eight months of their global launch.
It is worth noticing that YouTube Music and YouTube Premium are not the only two music/video services by Google. The search giant has already launched Google Play Music and Google Play Movies services in India. Other than this, a number of apps and services in India will be giving YouTube Music a tough competition. While YouTube Premium would only be enhancing the regular YouTube experience, YouTube Music will be seen competing with Spotify, Gaana, Wynk, JioSaavn and more.
According to YouTube, YouTube Music will be available on the web and also as a standalone app. The service will offer albums, playlists, originals, artist radio and its own collection of remixes, live performances and music videos. There are two versions of the service – a paid one that is ad-free, and a free one that comes with advertisements. Furthermore, the paid service will let you play music and videos in the background while you do other things on your smartphone. We should mention that this is not available in the regular YouTube app as the music video stops as soon as the user launches another app.
The paid service will also let you download music offline.
The price of YouTube Music Premium begins at Rs 99 a month. However, there is an introductory offer with which you can get three months free for YouTube Music Premium. But then, it will only be available to those who have never tried or used any of YouTube or Google’s music streaming services earlier.
The company has also added that the paid subscriber of Google Play Music will also have access to YouTube Music Premium without having to pay anything extra. The app is available on Android as well as iOS.
Speaking of YouTube Premium, it is available to Indian subscribers for Rs 129 a month. If you get this, you will automatically have access to YouTube Music Premium. YouTube Premium will give users access to originals, an ad-free experience, and offline downloads.
Google has rolled out its Chrome 73 to all its users today and the new version comes with a number of new improvements. The most-talked-about one among these is Dark Mode for macOS. Dark Mode has gained a lot of popularity in the last few months because users have a prefernce for it considering that it puts less stare on their eyes. Furthermore, Google has also admitted that it helps in prolonging the battery of the device.
The technology giant first announced Dark Mode for Chrome last month, however, the official release has started today with Chrome 73. Once you have the Chrome 73 working on your system, you would be able to enable Dark Mode. And once you do this, you would see that Chrome 73’s Dark Mode looks a lot like the browser’s Incognito mode that is meant for keeping browsing private.
If you access Incognito mode with the new Dark theme enabled, you would see that it looks nearly the same as the one without the Dark Mode on. There is just a new icon on the menu bar of the Incognito mode that gets added.
We should mention here that this isn’t the first time that Dark Mode or themed options are being offered by Chrome. Google has time and again offered themes for its Chrome browser on its Chrome Web Store. However, the latest update has made the Dark Mode official on a system level. It’s good for the users because they wouldn’t have to switch it manually anymore.
In case you are someone who isn’t too fond of the Dark Mode, you don’t necessarily have to live with it. You can simply use the Chrome themes to switch your colour scheme back toward a lighter style. Other than this, you can also choose to flip the entire OS back to light mode.
As we mentioned earlier, Dark Mode has gained a lot of popularity in the last few months. A number of apps have also rolled out the mode for users including Twitter, YouTube, Android Messages and Pocket. Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp will also be soon getting the said mode. Android Q, which is expected to be unveiled at Google I/O 2019, will reportedly bring a system-wide Dark Mode.
OnePlus’s upcoming flagship device, OnePlus 7 is rumoured to come with a pop-up selfie camera. Some images that were released earlier on Twitter showed the alleged OnePlus 7 with a full screen display and no notch which indicated that it would hold a pop-up selfie camera. Till now, there was no solid proof to support this claim, besides a few renders of the device that surfaced online. And now, some case renders have been leaked online which showcases a cut out for triple-rear camera setup at the back and a dedicated space on top of the case for the alleged pop-up selfie camera.
The case renders also had two cut-outs on the left and right sides. While the left cut out may be for the volume rocker keys, the right one could hold the OnePlus’s alert slider and power button. The images were leaked by GizmoChina showed two rendered cases – one was a leathered case while the other was made of poly carbonate. But both the cases had the same cut-outs for buttons which mean both the cases are similar with only difference in their built material.
But since no official comment has been made by the company, the renders may or may not be true and it is also likely that OnePlus 7 could come with a different built and design. So, the news should be taken with a pinch of salt.
OnePlus 7 will be powered by the Snapdragon 855 SoC and will come with high-end flagship level specifications, much like all other OnePlus smartphones launched earlier. According to earlier leaked images, the OnePlus 7 might come with a 6.5-inch display with an in-display fingerprint scanner like the OnePlus 6T. It would reportedly hold a triple-rear camera at the back while the front camera might be a pop-up selfie camera.
Image Credit : GizmoChina
OnePlus 7 CEO on Weibo confirmed the news that OnePlus’s new true wireless earbuds will be launched alongside the flagship OnePlus 7. This means that OnePlus 7 won’t come with a 3.5mm headphone jack as the company says that it wants to elaborate its wireless audio capabilities. Furthermore, he also said that the OnePlus 7 won’t come with wireless charging support.
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Plantronics-owned brand Polycom has launched Trio 8500, that is touted to be the perfect communication tool for mid-sized conference rooms. The company has said that Polycom Trio 8500 takes an ordinary conference call experience to the next level. The device can be used for voice as well as video calls and comes with the same interface as Skype.
The company has spoken about the presence of Polycom HD Voice technology that makes the voice of all the speakers crystal clear. Furthermore, the device also lets users share data with others by just pressing a button. Polycom has also said that it has tried to keep navigation on Trio 8500 as simple as it can be.
Polycom Trio 8500 comes with an advanced sound quality that includes HD Voice and Polycom Acoustic Clarity technologies. We should add here that the device is also said to have industry-leading full duplex, echo cancellation, and noise reduction with advanced voice processing. Polycom also says that since Trio 8500 has a pick up of 14ft/4.3m, it works well for a mid-sized conference room.
The device also has Polycom’s patented Noise-Block technology that offers an uninterrupted experience by automatically detecting non-speech noise and muting the microphones. Furthermore, the technology automatically unmutes them when they detect speech, so conferences can move seemlessly.
Polycom Trio 8500 can be used as a conference phone or even for video-conferencing for Polycom Trio Visual+ with a qualified USB camera. It has been designed to make business-class video conferencing and content sharing cost-effective.
You can also connect wired or wireless devices to Polycom Trio 8500 via USB or Bluetooth while using cloud conferencing or VaaS solutions. The company has worked with software giant Microsoft in order to design the device in a way that it maximizes the power of Skype for Business and Office 365.
According to the company, only Polycom Trio conference phones can claim Skype for Business certified distinction and extend the simplicity of Skype for Business from the desktop to the conference room. The device also ensures that all this is done consistently.
Mozilla’s encrypted file-sharing service, Firefox Send is no longer being tested and has finally come out of its beta phase. The Firefox Send service allows users to send download links that can automatically expire after a certain period of time.
Alternatively, they can also expire after a set number of people download the file that has been sent. Users can also protect the files with a password which the recipient has to enter before he downloads them.
According to Mozilla, because Firefox Send gives this additional control to users, it makes it a much better choice than its rivals for sharing any files that carry sensitive or confidential information. However, we should add that only because you set a limit on the number of times a file can be downloaded, it doesn’t stop people from making copies of the files after they have downloaded them.
So, if you are indeed something that has very sensitive information, you should still be vigilant about it and take other necessary steps to make it safe. Regardless of which browser you use, Firefox Send is now available to all.
Using the service, you can send files that are up to 1GB in size by default. But we should add that if you sign up for a free Firefox account, you will be able to send files that are up to 2.5GB in size.
It is also worth noticing that Mozilla is not only making its service available on the web. The company is also rolling out an Android app of Firefox Send that enables you to share files via mobile.
However, we must add that as of now, the Firefox Send Android app is in beta and will only be available to all once the testing is completed and the Mozilla is sure that it is bug-free.
Currently, there is no word on whether Mozilla will be launching the Firefox Send app for iOS or not. We would have to wait to know when that will happen if it will happen at all. The new service by Mozilla competes with the likes of Dropbox and WeTransfer.
That’s not all. There were users who took to social media to say that when they attempted to sign in to apps like Tinder and Spotify using Facebook, they couldn’t do that successfully. When they tried, an error popped up saying that the feature isn’t available right now. However, the ones who had already signed into Spotify were not logged out because of the outage.
That’s not all. There were users who took to social media to say that when they attempted to sign in to apps like Tinder and Spotify using Facebook, they couldn’t do that successfully. When they tried, an error popped up saying that the feature isn’t available right now. However, the ones who had already signed into Spotify were not logged out because of the outage.
Let’s face it: It’s far harder for a player to attack you when you are only peeking from behind an object than when you actually come out to shoot. This is because they have to aim at your head rather than aiming anywhere on your body. So, if you haven’t already, turn the option on by going to Settings > Basic and selecting Enable Peek & Fire.
Would you rather just focus on the game or repeatedly tap on the screen to pick your loot? We bet you would rather do the former. If you turn on Auto Pick-Up by going to Settings > Pick Up and then selecting ‘Enable Auto Pick-Up’, you will be able to collect guns and ammo by just walking over them.
Although most people believe that the more ammo they have, the better it is for them, we should mention that there is a limit to how much inventory can be carried when you are playing PUBG Mobile. So basically, there is a limit on the number of rounds you can carry it. But on the upside, you can adjust this too. There are different limits for different guns and we recommend selecting as many rounds as you can. Go to Settings > Pick Up and then set the limits for each weapon.
In PUBG Mobile, the default field of view is 90 degrees. However, some people say that increasing this gives you a better view of the map. If you want to try this, you can head to Settings > Basic and make the change in 1st Person Camera View.
PUBG Mobile recommends certain graphics settings for every smartphone in order to get the best performance. However, there is no reason for you to stick to it as there are times when you find your device performing better at settings different from the ones that have been recommended. So, head to Settings > Graphics, and try out various settings till you find the one that works the best on your smartphone. We also suggest that you change the frame rate to maximum.
Head to Settings > Quick Chat and then select Add New Messages. This will enable you to communicate more quickly with your teammates and will also prove to useful if you want to avoid voice chat.
To change the controls in PUBG Mobile, head to Settings > Controls > Customise. You will find this option on the bottom left in the Controls menu. Once you do this, you will be able to place all the buttons in the game wherever you think you’ll be able to access them easily.
If you are a beginner, this is a tip you must follow. Turning your mic and speaker off once you enter the game will help you focus on sharpening your skills. After a while, you would be able to chat as you are playing.
In most shooting games, crosshair enables you to aim your weapon. And in PUBG Mobile, you can choose its colour so that it is easier for you to spot. For doing this, go to Settings > Basic and select the crosshair colour of your choice.
Let’s face it: It’s far harder for a player to attack you when you are only peeking from behind an object than when you actually come out to shoot. This is because they have to aim at your head rather than aiming anywhere on your body. So, if you haven’t already, turn the option on by going to Settings > Basic and selecting Enable Peek & Fire.
Would you rather just focus on the game or repeatedly tap on the screen to pick your loot? We bet you would rather do the former. If you turn on Auto Pick-Up by going to Settings > Pick Up and then selecting ‘Enable Auto Pick-Up’, you will be able to collect guns and ammo by just walking over them.
Although most people believe that the more ammo they have, the better it is for them, we should mention that there is a limit to how much inventory can be carried when you are playing PUBG Mobile. So basically, there is a limit on the number of rounds you can carry it. But on the upside, you can adjust this too. There are different limits for different guns and we recommend selecting as many rounds as you can. Go to Settings > Pick Up and then set the limits for each weapon.
In PUBG Mobile, the default field of view is 90 degrees. However, some people say that increasing this gives you a better view of the map. If you want to try this, you can head to Settings > Basic and make the change in 1st Person Camera View.
PUBG Mobile recommends certain graphics settings for every smartphone in order to get the best performance. However, there is no reason for you to stick to it as there are times when you find your device performing better at settings different from the ones that have been recommended. So, head to Settings > Graphics, and try out various settings till you find the one that works the best on your smartphone. We also suggest that you change the frame rate to maximum.
Head to Settings > Quick Chat and then select Add New Messages. This will enable you to communicate more quickly with your teammates and will also prove to useful if you want to avoid voice chat.
To do this, you have to head to Settings > Graphics. Then, just select the visuals that you want to use in the game. You can pick from classic, colourful, realistic, or soft. We should mention that this changes the colour tone of the game. Choosing the one that works the best with your smartphone will help you identify enemies more easily.
To change the controls in PUBG Mobile, head to Settings > Controls > Customise. You will find this option on the bottom left in the Controls menu. Once you do this, you will be able to place all the buttons in the game wherever you think you’ll be able to access them easily.
If you are a beginner, this is a tip you must follow. Turning your mic and speaker off once you enter the game will help you focus on sharpening your skills. After a while, you would be able to chat as you are playing.
In most shooting games, crosshair enables you to aim your weapon. And in PUBG Mobile, you can choose its colour so that it is easier for you to spot. For doing this, go to Settings > Basic and select the crosshair colour of your choice.
Talking about which, the rear of the smartphone has a ceramic back panel underneath the glass. Available in a couple of colours, we tested the prism white version that has a blue-ish pearl tint to it. To put it simply, it looks outstanding. At the back, Samsung has installed three cameras with an LED flash with the Samsung branding under it. Also, at the back one can find the manufactured in India writings at the bottom. The rear does manage to get its fair share of fingerprints since it is a glass back. However, with the colour scheme, one can’t really make them out. For the ones who have a hawk eye, then you might want to pick a nifty case for the mobile.
The sideband of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is a made up of metal with chrome finish. The buttons also have the same chrome finish, which adds the show. The volume rocker and the dedicated, yet not so dedicated Bixby button (since it can be customised to almost any other app, besides another voice assistant) is placed on the left side. While the power button sees an unusually high placement on the right.
Talking about which, the rear of the smartphone has a ceramic back panel underneath the glass. Available in a couple of colours, we tested the prism white version that has a blue-ish pearl tint to it. To put it simply, it looks outstanding. At the back, Samsung has installed three cameras with an LED flash with the Samsung branding under it. Also, at the back one can find the manufactured in India writings at the bottom. The rear does manage to get its fair share of fingerprints since it is a glass back. However, with the colour scheme, one can’t really make them out. For the ones who have a hawk eye, then you might want to pick a nifty case for the mobile.
The sideband of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is a made up of metal with chrome finish. The buttons also have the same chrome finish, which adds the show. The volume rocker and the dedicated, yet not so dedicated Bixby button (since it can be customised to almost any other app, besides another voice assistant) is placed on the left side. While the power button sees an unusually high placement on the right.
The bottom plays house to a 3.5mm audio port, USB Type-C charging jack, primary microphone and a loudspeaker. The top has the hybrid SIM and microSD card slot along with a secondary microphone. The smartphone is also dust and water proof.
Now to talk about the display, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ brings the absolute best. The infinity-O display is eye candy. We just could not get enough of it. The screen is legible in any kind of light conditions and is one of the best we have seen so far in 2019. The text is crisp, the imagery is sharp and the colours are vivid. YouTube videos play like a charm and gaming is a much better experience here when compared to the Google Pixel 3/3 XL.
The screen supports a resolution of 1,440 x 3040 with an aspect ratio of 19:9. So, we tested a couple of 4K videos on it too, and to our amazement, they ran very well. There is a night mode present in the UI that enlists most things with a black background colour. This makes everything look cooler, but not all is turned dark with it. The app drawer and some of the other apps are still in their natural colours. We were hoping they also turn dark and add to the ambience.
Moving to the camera power. The Samsung Galaxy S10+ comes with a triple rear camera setup. The first one has 16-megapixels (ultrawide) with an aperture size of 2.2, next is the wide 12MP sensor with an aperture size of 1.5-2.4 and another 12MP telephoto sensor with a 2.4 aperture size. These are horizontally stacked on the rear glass panel and come with a very bright LED flash. When tested they gave us one of the best results we have seen so far from any Galaxy smartphone from Samsung. The day shots come out to be very close to life and have exceptional sharpness.
The night shots with flash were quite nice too, but lacked some detail when the flash was not used. A bit of camera noise also crept in around the corners without flash. The videos with the rear cameras can be shot in 4K and those come out to be vivid with great details around the object. However, we do not recommend it for dark to low-light videography as it suffers a little. Live mode, a lot of effects and other good styles are available in the native camera app and some of them even help you take the best shots by telling you where to point the camera exactly.
Let’s talk about the front cameras now. There are two selfie cameras in the Samsung Galaxy S10+. These comprise of a 10MP primary sensor with an aperture size of 1.9 and a secondary 8MP sensor with an aperture size of 2.2. What these essentially do is cover a lot of space around you. So, you get a wider shot in the selfie mode. The beauty effect here works superbly well and does manage to do what it is intended for. The front shots are crisp and are mostly on point during the day (indoors and outdoors). At night too we were able to squeeze out some good selfies, barring when we were in super dark areas.
As per our AnTuTu test, the Samsung Galaxy S10+ scored 3,29,575 points and on Geekbench 4’s compute test the mobile device got 7,087 marks. On the Geekbench 4 CPU single-core test it garnered 4,525 points and CPU multi-core test it got 10,057 marks. All of them indicate best in class performance and even without a Snapdragon chipset inside, the Exynos with 8 GB RAM can give its competition a run for its money.
The sound quality of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is what we loved the most after its superb display and performance. The device comes with stereo speakers, with a downfiring single speaker located at the bottom and the earpiece speaker being used up as a second speaker in the stereo setup. Together they are very loud. These are backed by Dolby Atmos and do make the gaming, movie and YouTube experience more immersive. Our recommendation is to keep the volume at around 80 per cent, for the best optimal long-term use.
But that is not where the sound department ends, Samsung Galaxy S10+ come with a pair of AKG headphones that are even better than the supplied stereo speakers. They are thumpy and take gaming and music to a new level altogether. These are truly worthy of being in the pack of a flagship device.
The battery life of the Samsung Galaxy S10+ is where we got a mixed bag of results. During our test phase, we were able to get a full day of battery life with its 4,100 mAh battery under nominal use. But it fell down considerably when an hour or two of gaming or using the GPS navigation was added to the blend. Yes, the device does come with a fast charger, but unlike others it does not fast charge as quickly as one would expect from a premium device. Wireless charging is supported too, but that too isn’t as quick when compared to the Apple iPhone XS/XS max or Google Pixel 3.
Samsung has added reverse charging mode to the Galaxy S10+, which is quite cool if you have a pair of wireless ear buds or need to charge your buddies smartphone when out of juice. But be careful, this method will only work when your Samsung Galaxy S10+ has more than 30% battery soup left.
Although not much is known about the upcoming device but some rumours state that Samsung Galaxy A90 might come with a sliding and rotating camera. It might also feature a pop-up selfie camera and will sport a New Infinity Display without a notch or hole-punch screen like Samsung Galaxy S10. It might also hold the in-display fingerprint scanner and come with a 6.41-inch display. Reports suggests that the device could be powered by the Snapdragon 710 SoC and it might run One UI based on Android Pie.
For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
Although not much is known about the upcoming device but some rumours state that Samsung Galaxy A90 might come with a sliding and rotating camera. It might also feature a pop-up selfie camera and will sport a New Infinity Display without a notch or hole-punch screen like Samsung Galaxy S10. It might also hold the in-display fingerprint scanner and come with a 6.41-inch display. Reports suggests that the device could be powered by the Snapdragon 710 SoC and it might run One UI based on Android Pie.
For the latest gadget and tech news, and gadget reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For newest tech & gadget videos subscribe to our YouTube Channel.
Average cost of 1GB data: $0.26 (approximately Rs 18.06)
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Average cost of 1GB data: $6.66 (approximately Rs 462.55)
Average cost of 1GB data: $6.99 (approximately Rs 485.47)
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Average cost of 1GB data: $12.02 (approximately Rs 834.81)
Average cost of 1GB data: $12.37 (approximately Rs 859.12)
Average cost of 1GB data: $0.26 (approximately Rs 18.06)
Average cost of 1GB data: $0.91 (approximately Rs 63.20)
Average cost of 1GB data: $1.73 (approximately Rs 120.15)
Average cost of 1GB data: $2.22 (approximately Rs 154.18)
Average cost of 1GB data: $2.47 (approximately Rs 171.55)
Average cost of 1GB data: $2.99 (approximately Rs 207.66)
Average cost of 1GB data: $3.50 (approximately Rs 243.08)
Average cost of 1GB data: $3.79 (approximately Rs 263.22)
Average cost of 1GB data: $6.66 (approximately Rs 462.55)
Average cost of 1GB data: $6.99 (approximately Rs 485.47)
Average cost of 1GB data: $9.89 (approximately Rs 686.88)
Average cost of 1GB data: $12.02 (approximately Rs 834.81)
Average cost of 1GB data: $12.37 (approximately Rs 859.12)
Average cost of 1GB data: $15.12 (approximately Rs 1,050.11)
Average cost of 1GB data: $20.22 (approximately Rs 1,404.31)
