Technology
AirAsia Pilot Escapes Via Secondary Exit as Suspected COVID-19 Patients on Pune-Delhi Flight Lead to Scare New Delhi: Suspected presence of COVID-19-affected passengers in a Pune-Delhi AirAsia flight led to a scare in the plane and the pilot-in-command disembarked them from the cockpit s secondary exit using a secure trestle.
The passengers, however, were subsequently tested negative. The incident occurred on March 20.
There was a case reported of suspected COVID-19 passengers aboard I5-732, Pune to New Delhi on March 20, seated in row 1. The passengers were subsequently screened and tested negative, said a spokesperson with the airline.
The spokesperson further said that as a safety measure, the aircraft was parked at a remote bay and suspected passengers were disembarked from the front door and all other passengers, escorted by the crew, disembarked from the rear door of the aircraft.
Crew in the cockpit self-quarantined till the cabin environment near the primary exit was ascertained to be safe. The captain elected to disembark from the secondary exit using a secure trestle, given the close proximity of the seats from the cockpit, the spokesperson added.
The aircraft was fumigated and a thorough disinfection and deep cleaning was carried out.
The spokesperson further said: Our crew are well trained for incidents of this nature and we would like to put on record our appreciation for their dedication in continuing to serve passengers with the utmost care in the current conditions.
AirAsia Pilot Escapes Via Secondary Exit as Suspected COVID-19 Patients on Pune-Delhi Flight Lead to Scare New Delhi: Suspected presence of COVID-19-affected passengers in a Pune-Delhi AirAsia flight led to a scare in the plane and the pilot-in-command disembarked them from the cockpit s secondary exit using a secure trestle.
The passengers, however, were subsequently tested negative. The incident occurred on March 20.
There was a case reported of suspected COVID-19 passengers aboard I5-732, Pune to New Delhi on March 20, seated in row 1. The passengers were subsequently screened and tested negative, said a spokesperson with the airline.
The spokesperson further said that as a safety measure, the aircraft was parked at a remote bay and suspected passengers were disembarked from the front door and all other passengers, escorted by the crew, disembarked from the rear door of the aircraft.
Crew in the cockpit self-quarantined till the cabin environment near the primary exit was ascertained to be safe. The captain elected to disembark from the secondary exit using a secure trestle, given the close proximity of the seats from the cockpit, the spokesperson added.
The aircraft was fumigated and a thorough disinfection and deep cleaning was carried out.
The spokesperson further said: Our crew are well trained for incidents of this nature and we would like to put on record our appreciation for their dedication in continuing to serve passengers with the utmost care in the current conditions.
Google Celebrates Onset of Spring Season with Illustrious Doodle Spring Season | Google on Thursday welcomed the spring season with an illustrious doodle. Featuring an endearing parachute and clear blue sky, the doodle is a well representation of Spring, the season of new beginnings. Meteorologically, the spring season begins on Thursday (March 19).
Prior to the sultry summer, springtime beholds fresh buds bloom, animals awaken and the earth seems to come to life again. Farmers and gardeners plant their seeds and temperatures slowly rise. The timing of these changes varies depending upon location.
Spring is one of the four temperate seasons, following winter and preceding summer.
What most people call spring relies on the astronomical definition of the word, which is generally considered the period between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. The astronomical spring relies on equinoxes and solstices to define it. It is defined by the angle of Earth s tilt toward the sun.
Equinoxes are special days during the year when day and night are almost equal. There are two equinoxes, one in the spring and one in the fall. The spring, or vernal, equinox occurs around March 20 in the Northern Hemisphere and around September 22 in the Southern Hemisphere.
Spring is basically one of two times when the Earth s axis is not pointed toward or away from the sun. In the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tipped at its greatest angle toward the sun during the summer solstice, which occurs around June 21. In the Southern Hemisphere, around December 21, it is the South Pole s turn to be nearer.
While in the Northern Hemisphere, astronomical spring runs from March 21 to June 21, in the Southern Hemisphere it encompasses September 21 to December 21. However, the dates may shift slightly from year to year.
International Women’s Day 2020: Google Doodle Honors Women For Questioning, Reclaiming, and Redefining Ideas New Delhi: Tech giant- Google honored women across the globe with its interactive doodle on the occasion of International Women’s Day today. The interactive doodle celebrates women coming together throughout the world and generations with a multilayered 3D paper mandala animation. The doodle was Illustrated by New York and London-based guest artists Julie Wilkinson and Joyanne Horscroft and animated by Zurich-based guest animators Marion Willam & Daphne Abderhalden.
In the video, the mandala’s black-and-white central layer reflects women around the world during the late 1800s to the 1930s amidst labor movements while the second layer depicts women from the 1950s to the 1980s, a landmark era in the feminist history which aimed at gender equality and rapid changes to the status quo.
The final layer symbolizes women from the 1990s to the present day, in the context of progress made from over 100 years of women’s rights movements. It pays tribute to break barriers from former cultural and gender roles, as women continue to question, reclaim, and redefine ideas about the roles women take in society. Last but not the least, the doodle honors women across sectors, industries, nations, ages, and cultures, who persist tirelessly to take charge together and continue the legacy of women who have fought and made sacrifices in the generations past while paving the way for future generations to come.
This year’s theme for Women’s Day (March 8) is, “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. The Generation Equality campaign is bringing together people of every gender, age, ethnicity, race, religion and country, to drive actions that will create the gender-equal world we all deserve.
Govt Asks Telcos to Put Coronavirus Awareness Messages in Place of Ringing Tones New Delhi: Dial any number and chances are high that you might get to hear awareness messages on coronavirus, instead of ringing tones.
The move follows an order in this regard from the government which has shared the audio clip of the message with telecom operators.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) in an email to telecom operators on Friday asked to incorporate an audio clip in the ring back tone until further orders.
One of the telecom operators said the audio clip has not been made available on those numbers where subscribers are paying for caller tunes.
Corporates have swung into action to tackle the spread of coronavirus. While some of the companies like Paytm, Twitter etc have given their employees the option to work from home, Reliance Jio is learnt to have disabled biometrics system from attendance and asked employees to use an internal app to mark attendance.
Ride-hailing app Ola has started offering sanitisers and masks to its driver-partners.
Our walk-in centres across cities have been equipped with a steady supply of health advisory material, sanitisers, and masks which can be picked up and used by the driver-partners to ensure the highest levels of cleanliness for themselves and their vehicles. This will help create a safer and cleaner ride experience for our customers as well, Ola said in a statement.
The company has set up task-force consisting of members from various internal departments for continuous monitoring and support for all stakeholders.
We urge customers to join us in this initiative by adhering to health guidelines including personal hygiene and seeking immediate medical attention if they have any flu-like symptoms. This will go a long way in ensuring their well-being as well as that of fellow passengers and driver-partners, Ola said.
In the wake of 31 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India so far, the Union Health Ministry has made functional 52 laboratories for testing samples while 57 labs have been designated for helping in sample collection for COVID-19 to enhance capacity for diagnosis and detection of the disease.
As of March 6, a total of 4,058 samples from 3,404 individuals have been tested by the network. This includes testing of 1,308 samples from 654 individuals evacuated from Wuhan, China and quarantined at ITBP and Manesar Camp and tested twice on days 0 and 14.
Subsequently, another 236 individuals evacuated from Wuhan and Diamond Princess Ship, Japan on February 27 were tested on day 0. Repeat testing will be done on day 14.
Android Auto Users, Read This Before Updating Your Phone to Android 10 Android Auto is a great tool that extends the functionalities of your smartphone to the in-dash stereo on your car. You can enjoy your music, use Google Maps for navigation, make phone calls and so on. Google recently updated the app to give it a fresh look along with better functionality and improved Google Assistant capabilities. Along with the refresh, the company had also announced a rather unpleasant development.
The company had said that in the coming months Android Auto would eventually only mirror on supported touchscreen car stereo systems, and would no longer be accessible on smartphones. Which means that users who don’t have a supported touchscreen system in their cars, would no longer be able to use the Android Auto app on their phone screens. Google did say that it is planning to add a new driving mode to the Assistant, which would basically replace Android Auto on your phone. It also mentioned that it would launch a separate ‘Android Auto for Phone Screens’ app on the Play Store.
Now I’ve been using Android Auto almost everyday during my commute to work. But recently I moved to my old car, which doesn’t have a touchscreen stereo. So I assumed that I could just fire up the Android Auto app on my phone screen. Now while I could do that on my Pixel 3a XL, the app icon was nowhere to be seen on my OnePlus 7T. After a bit of research, I found that Android 10 is responsible for this mischief.
Both of these phones are running on Android 10, and have the Android Auto app installed. However, I recently updated my OnePlus 7T by manually flashing a ROM, which required a full system and storage wipe removing all my apps. After a bit of digging, I found an Android Auto Help section that says:
“If you re upgrading your phone from Android 9 to Android 10, make sure that your phone already has Android Auto installed before you upgrade. If so, the app icon will carry over to your newly upgraded device.”
Bummer. Hopefully, Google will roll out Android Auto for Phone Screens soon.
Flipkart Big Diwali Sale Starts October 12 And The Bank Account Will Get Hurt Again Flipkart has just gotten done with the Big Billion Days Sale a few days ago, and there is another shopping extravaganza around the corner. The Flipkart Big Diwali Sale starts October 12 for everyone, and at 8pm on October 11 exclusively for Flipkart Plus subscribers. Amazon has already confirmed that the Great Indian Festival Celebration Special sale starts on October 12 for Prime subscribers and on October 13 for everyone else.
“Brace yourself for unbelievable offers like up to 80% off on multiple products. Mobiles, TVs, Home Appliances, Clothing, Furniture, Personal care, Books and more will be up for grabs at jaw-dropping prices,” is how Flipkart is describing the potential offers and discounts. Flipkart says there will be as much as 75% discounts on TVs and appliances, up to 90% off on electronics and accessories and extensive discounts on other categories as well. If you are using an SBI credit card to make payments, there is an additional 10% discount that you can avail.
Also Read | Shoppers From Smaller Towns Help Amazon And Flipkart Sales Buck The Economic Slowdown
This is going to be a battle that consumers are going to enjoy. The Amazon Great Indian Festival Celebration Special Sale and the Flipkart Big Diwali Sale will be running at pretty much the same time, and it’ll be discounts galore. Safe to say, hold on to that salary for the next few days.
Save This Month’s Salary, Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale Starts October 13 We are barely done with one Amazon Great Indian Festival Sale, and another one is just around the corner. Amazon has plans to get you to splurge this month s salary, it seems! They have announced that the Amazon Great Indian Festival – Celebration Special sale starts October 13 and runs through till October 17. However, Amazon Prime members will get access to the sale a day earlier, on October 12. This time around, there will be additional discounts for ICICI Bank credit and debit card users, as well as no-cost EMI on debit cards. Incidendentally, Flipkart has also announced the Big Diwali Sale between October 12 and October 16, just days after their Big Billion Days Sale ended.
Amazon India says that there will be discounts of as much as 40% on smartphones, including the OnePlus 7T, Samsung M30s and Vivo U10, and up to 60% on televisions and appliances. There will also be extensive discounts on other product categories, and Amazon’s own Fire TV streaming devices, Echo smart speakers as well as displays and Kindle e-readers will also be available on special discounts.
Also Read | Shoppers From Smaller Towns Help Amazon And Flipkart Sales Buck The Economic Slowdown
The previous edition of the Amazon Great Indian Festival started on October 27 and ended on October 4. Amazon India saw a good response during that sale. “We are humbled that first 36 hours of our Great Indian Festival has seen record participation from digital Bharat. With record Prime signups, more first-time shoppers from small towns than ever before and tens of thousands of small sellers across India already seeing success, we are excited by how India loves Amazon’s commitment to offering the largest selection, great convenience and exceptional value to its customers,” Amit Agarwal, Global Senior Vice President and Country Head, Amazon India, had said at the time. According to numbers shared by Amazon, they sold over Rs 750 crores worth of premium smartphones in the first 36 hours of the sale.
Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 Review: Rich, Warm Sounding Earphones for the Budget Audiophile If you are not actively invested into owning the best possible audio experience at any price point whatsoever, chances are that you haven’t heard of the Whizzer brand, yet. This relatively obscure brand is what our friends over at Headphone Zone refer to as ‘Chi-Fi’ — new imports of audio brands from China that claim to offer ‘hi-fi’ audio at near-bargain prices. However, do not let the ‘made in China’ tag make you averse of the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03. From the packaging and in-box contents to the audio signature and its position in the market, the Kylin A-HE03 has a lot of things to talk about.
In-box content
While we generally begin by discussing the audio quality, the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 demands otherwise. Contrary to most in-ear monitors within a budget, the Kylin A-HE03 ships with a rather intriguing packaging. You get the in-ear monitors as detached units, along with a rather fancy Kylin metal plate for branding purposes. Inside the box, you get a 2-pin, 5N optical fibre copper cable, with an unbalanced, 3.5mm TRS jack to suit all phones. Then, there are multiple ear tips — silicone and memory foam — for you to find the right fit. Lastly, you get a faux leather carrying case that looks quite upmarket.
The exhaustive contents of the Kylin A-HE03 s box
What differentiates the Whizzer ‘buds from everything else you get at this price point (Rs 9,999 at Headphone Zone) are the audiophile trappings. From the braided ‘audiophile’ cable, to the DIY setup, Whizzer has aimed the Kylin A-HE03 at hobbyists that do not mind exploring audio options beyond the usual brands, and thrown in premium elements such as the metal-built earpieces and the leatherette carry case to woo in the rest of the buyers.
What this does is grab your attention right at the onset. While the 2-pin connector means limited aftermarket cable choices, this wouldn’t sound unusual to audiophiles, since many brands such as Campfire Audio equip their earphones with similar interfaces. It is an important leverage to have, as while most users would be plugging it into their phones, Whizzer wants its target buyers, the amateur audio hobbyists, to know that they can swap the in-box cable with a balanced cable should they want to.
The cable is what makes a significant difference here. Contrary to the standard cables, Whizzer’s in-box cable offers a higher quality conducting material (signified by ‘N’ in the cable’s in-box description) than most mainstream cables. While 5N copper cables are not the pinnacle, it is still commendable to find a higher quality cable in a pair of earphones that are priced at an arguably reasonable point. The only qualm that users may have in this is the lack of a 2.5mm male adapter, which may have helped its case in absolute stereo separation.
Apart from this, the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 creates all sorts of right first impressions, and clearly sets your expectations high in terms of the auditory experience they aim to offer.
Audio signature
The Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 are hybrid earphones, pairing a Beryllium dynamic driver to produce the lows, with two Knowles balanced armature drivers to produce the mids and highs. The configuration pays dividends, and its effect is clear in the shallow V-shaped audio signature that it produces. However, despite the added warmth of the sound due to the slightly heightened bass, the mids and highs do not sound compromised, since balanced armature drivers typically produce very clear mids. They were, after all, designed to power hearing aids.
What you get here is great clarity of audio, and decent texture reproduction as well. The audio timbre is consistent and true to source, which is further contributed to by great audio composure. The lows are strong and bold, but have a good sense of balance so as to not overwhelm you with it. The added warmth of the bass have a pleasant effect on the tone colour of the mids, wherein most vocals sound sweet, and not largely attenuated. There is a slight lack of punch in high falsetto vocals, and while that does mar the otherwise soaring experience, it is only one of the few areas where the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 fails to impress entirely.
While sounding appealing to bass-heads, the use of balanced armature drivers in the highs mean great precision of sound. As a result, the highs sound beautifully refined, with great accuracy of sound but with a slight restraint, so as to not overpower tracks. It is a tad high for my preference, and the increased highs and lows do take away a little from the overall audio balance of the earphones, should you prefer a more neutral audio balance. However, you have the added advantage of excellent clarity with the Kylin A-HE03, which means that you can pair it with an external DAC, or use your in-device DAC (I tried my Samsung Galaxy S9+ with it) to get a more favourable audio balance.
In simpler language, the bass sounds rather strong, but clean and tight. It is a tad higher than the ideal neutral balance, but many tend to like that in their audio palette. The mids are clean, and sound warm and sweet. The highs are clean, too, but are slightly heightened, as well. What this means is that without any enhancements, Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky sounds soaring and bright, but a bit piercing. The same can be said of The Who’s My Generation, where a more neutral audio signature could have been preferable. However, the warm, power-driven sound helps singers such as Nightwish’s Tarja Turunen, with Nemo sounding like an absolute ripper. Baritone voices such as Poets of the Fall’s Marko Saaresto sound great, especially in tracks such as Late Goodbye, with the natural quiver in the vocals replicated with near perfection. Sigrid’s Everybody Knows can induce a strong sense of emotion in you while listening, which for any earphone is game, set and match.
Soundstaging is not expansive, but then again, IEMs are not known for great soundstaging. This particular aspect is average at best, and while the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 do offer some room, the pricier RHA T20 does a better job at audio spacing. That said, audio separation is, yet again, excellent. Thanks to the balanced armature drivers, you can make out almost every instrument that is playing, which makes for a very pleasant experience. While it does have certain shortcomings, the Kylin A-HE03 offer stellar clarity and audio resolution, which is what makes these great fun, and among the best IEMs to buy at their price.
Build, design, peripherals
The oblong earpieces that house the drivers are a tad large and heavy, but Whizzer uses a looping behind-ear cable to aid your case for a better fit. However, despite the exhaustive ear tip choices, I struggled to get the right fit. The heft of the earbuds mean that they do not stick well to your ears, and the gap between your ear canal and the earpieces mean much of the goodness can be lost. Adding to that is the slight annoyance of the cables, that get intertwined very easily. The behind-ear loop could have been better as well, and feel a tad flimsy. Overall, we would suggest you spend some time in finding out the right fit for you, before you hit the road with the Whizzers.
The box and earpieces feel premium, but the latter is rather heavy
While I personally like the light copper braided cable design, many might not find it particularly appealing in terms of design and colour. Nevertheless, the combination of dark teal earpieces, with a shiny gold ‘W’ logo embossed in Batman-esque fashion, coupled with a mid-cable splitter of the same colour palette, does imbibe a sense of style. The gold inlays might not work for all, but for us, they do.
The carrying case has been sturdy enough in about 45 days of extensive travelling and rough shoving around in backpack corners, without any blemish on the leatherette exterior — a big positive for those who travel a lot. Interestingly, the Kylin also drew a few co-passenger queries in flights, which mean that even if the design is polarising, it is intriguing, at the very least.
The overall earphones feel durable, and while I do understand the heft from the three-driver layout, I do wish they were a tad lighter. As with every audiophile cable, you do not get pesky in-line remotes and microphones, although audiophiles and hobbyists wouldn’t expect any, either.
Verdict
At Rs 9,999, the relatively obscure Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 is a winner. It works just as intended with high resolution players such as the HiBy R3, as well as mainstream smartphones. It fits a whole lot of genres, and being on the warmer end of audio signature, would presumably fit a lot of audio palettes. The audiophile pretensions work well, too, and if you are passionate about good, earnest sound, the Whizzer Kylin A-HE03 offer an excellent stepping stone into the audiophile world.
Major Android Bug Can Give Attackers Remote Access to Samsung, Google, Xiaomi Phones A recently discovered, zero day vulnerability has been spotted affecting certain older kernel versions of Android, in turn affecting a wide range of popular Android smartphones such as the Google Pixel 2, Mi A1, Redmi Note 5, Samsung Galaxy S9 and more. According to a report by Google s security researcher Maddie Stone (who discovered it), the vulnerability exploits a local, in-device privilege scope to cause an attack, which then escalates the privilege of the attacker s app or service to gain root access of the concerned phone. Subsequently, the flaw is designed to take over full control of the affected devices.
The report further states that while only a local-level exploit is possible if the malware is injected through physical sources, injecting it through the internet can also give attackers full remote access to these affected devices. The vulnerability affects certain versions of the Android kernel, which have not been updated to the very latest one. It is important to note that even the most recent software patches on phones with older kernels would be rendered ineffective against this vulnerability, as Stone demonstrated by showing the flaw in action on a Google Pixel 2 smartphone running Android 10 with September 2019 security patch.
As disclosed by Stone in the Google Project Zero blog, the list of affected devices right now include Google s Pixel 1, 1XL, 2 and 2XL, Huawei P20, Xiaomi s Redmi 5A, Redmi Note 5 and Mi A1, Moto Z3, Oppo A3, all LG smartphones running on Android Oreo, and Samsung s flagships from the past three years -- Galaxy S7, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S9. Given that a lot of the devices mentioned here were sold in healthy numbers, this makes the vulnerability even riskier, since it extends to the possibility of widespread surveillance being enforced, through Android.
In fact, the original Google post states that it is already in use by Israel s surveillance agency, the NSO Group, who might be offering its services to the government itself, or to officially backed agencies. Google has disclosed its course of action against the vulnerability, stating, This issue is rated as High severity on Android and by itself requires installation of a malicious application for potential exploitation. Any other vectors, such as via web browser, require chaining with an additional exploit. We have notified Android partners, and the patch is available on the Android Common Kernel. Pixel 3 and 3a devices are not vulnerable while Pixel 1 and 2 devices will be receiving updates for this issue as part of the October update.
As a result, be sure to look out for the latest update on your phone(s), which should be rolling out over the next couple of weeks. The update will deliver the critical security patch, covering yet another critical zero-day bug that could still have devastating effect on those not aware of it.
OnePlus 7T Gets Oxygen OS 10.0.3 Update, Brings Improved Camera and Bug Fixes The OnePlus 7T was launched in India on September 26. A week after its launch, OnePlus has rolled out a new update for the device. Oxygen OS 10.0.3 based on Android 10, brings camera enhancements and some bug fixes to the phone. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer confirmed the news with a post on its community forums. There is no denying that OnePlus 7T comes with a better camera as compared to its predecessor. The OnePlus 7T has a triple rear camera setup including a 48-megapixel main camera, a 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera that adds more versatility to the picture. The device also has a 16-megapixel front camera.
Apart from this, the OnePlus 7T is powered with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC with 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. The device is coupled with a 3,800mAh battery with fast charging technology and enhanced sensors for additional security. The OTA will reach a small percentage of users today. The update will have a broader rollout in the coming few days. As the update makes its way to the devices, users can read the changelog here:
Oxygen OS 10.0.3 OTA for OnePlus 7T Changelog
System
General bug fixes and improvements
Camera
Improved photo quality
Enhanced stability of Camera
User experience improvements
Call of Duty Mobile Review: A Brilliant Game that Can Outrun PUBG Mobile by a Mile Anyone that has ever played a video game has at least heard of Call of Duty, and anyone to have ever played a mobile game has at least heard of Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, ubiquitously known as PUBG Mobile. So, what happens when you combine all of these factors together? Activision, in partnership with Tencent and Timi Studios, had a similar divine intervention when they unveiled Call of Duty: Mobile in front of enthusiastic but cautiously skeptical crowds. A few months, and a fervent week of playing later, we can state with ease that Call of Duty: Mobile is one of the best shooter games made for phones. In fact, it might even be one of the best all-time games ever made for phones.
While that’s pretty much all you need to know about it before downloading, here’s why we think it’s great. Call of Duty: Mobile opens just like any new-age mobile game would, with regular rewards for logging in, added rewards for being among the early players of the game, premium pass monetisation for those who wish to play with more intent, and so on. It combines this with classic Call of Duty character classification, weapons and gear mods, and most importantly, some of the most iconic CoD maps. This, it further combines, with gameplay mechanics that focus on the realism of elements such as closeness to bullets and gun recoil, along with new age technologies such as augmented reality crosshair scope, and the added control of drone strikes at your disposal. What I basically mean is, there is a lot for you to explore, win and own in what is a seemingly straightforward shooter.
This is your makeup parl... er, suit-up zone, in the game. (Image: Activision/News18.com)
Multiplayer FTW
With multiplayer, 5v5 team deathmatches are at the smack dab centre of the gameplay. What makes this ridiculously fun is that everything here is fast paced — an average team match lasts for about seven minutes, so you’re not dawdling at any moment. The objective is simple — be the first to register 50 kills of your opponent team, and you win. As rewards, you get progressive weapon upgrades, ancillary abilities such as frag grenades and smoke bombs, cosmetic upgrades (the abnormality camo looks roguish cool!), and most importantly, levelling up to unlock special weapons such as the Purifier — the flame-seething slow killer from Black Ops III.
The speed of the gameplay means you respawn almost immediately after you die, jumping right back into the game. Interestingly, dying in multiplayer can also work as a strategic element, if you’re too far away from picking up ammo from your kills, and you don’t have any left. Given the ease of ammo availability, Call of Duty: Mobile pays special importance to picking a weapon that has high accuracy, which is what makes the M4 a great starter gun. In fact, it can even be sufficient until about level 8. Plug in a high accuracy scope and a mobility upgrade to maintain pace with scope view enabled, to get a great chance at winning more multiplayer matches.
Intense deathmatches are frequent, extremely engaging and great fun. (Image: Activision/News18.com)
Thanks to the pace, some matches are of such intensity that nail-biting, 50-49 finishes became a regular incident, after you reach about level 9. You will get MVP finishes more frequently before that, as the game pairs you with a mix of easier opponents and amateur bots to push you into the game. Once this phase is over, we found ourselves ending second on most of the kills rosters. To accompany the gunfight, you have Scorestreaks — the UAV route. It is crazy satisfying to engage long-range killer or short-range hunter drones when your team is lagging behind on the kills count. Then, there are the arenas, which anyone that has played Call of Duty would expect to be great. If you play enough, you’ll soon discover back routes, strategic pit points and great sniping zones, which can come in handy and let you melee charge on opponents more often.
All of these factors combined make this game feel a cut above most others. The graphics are top notch, although you will need a top-end smartphone to make use of it. With easy enough controls, a direct but mature gameplay, and thankfully good server hold-up handling the initial load of players across the world, Call of Duty: Mobile feels like a game that we would play well beyond the initial days. If for nothing, we’d certainly keep coming back to our clans in multiplayer, with more new guns to muster.
PSA: Try the rad, Zombie Gene-finish PDW-57 fully automatic sub-machine gun for a great balance of damage, accuracy and oomph. Thank me later.
Despite lower accuracy, the PDW-57 is great fun to play with. (Image: Activision/News18.com)
Strike two for battle royale
While there’s no erasing PUBG Mobile, from battle royale folklore, Call of Duty: Mobile might just be ready to strike the second coming of an all new battle royale fad — one where AAA titles adapt to the mobile battle royale genre. Before we proceed here, I would admit that I’ve not been a major fan of battle royale games, and the addictive nature of it wore off after a few initial bouts of playing PUBG with my friends.
Some of the iconic CoD maps have made it to the mobile game as well. (Image: Activision/News18.com)
However, with a whole lotta CoD talk added to the otherwise survivalist chatter, I realised that even battle royale can be fun here. Sure, the principles remain the same, and just like before, coordination among the randomly grouped teammates was hilarious (everyone went their own way), but you now have the added flair of dealing with zombies, guns with eccentric paint, and cleverly designed maps that can offer you a lot of strategic standpoints such as high holding grounds. That said, it doesn’t let you dwell at a point even if you steer clear of human opponents, for the zombie hordes might just crawl up on you.
With its own characteristics, Call of Duty: Mobile makes battle royale feel more than a survival-based cover-and-shoot game mode. There are a few things that seem more like overlooks from the dev team than shortcomings — items on the map (vans, for instance) that are inexplicably non-interactive, and paths on open fields that are inaccessible. It may very well have been one of the expected opening-week glitches, but apart from these, if PUBG has been your calling, Call of Duty: Mobile’s battle royale mode will be something that you will absolutely love.
Battle royale holds its own flavour, but with an all new character now. (Image: Activision/News18.com)
Verdict
There are no two ways about it — Call of Duty: Mobile is, hands down, the game to play right now. Even if you don’t have an in-game clan, the multiplayer mode has plenty of players for you to match up with. The game has so far matched me mostly with fellow players from India as both teammates and opponents, although we haven’t managed to independently verify whether this is intentional geolocking from Activision and Tencent. The makers do try to sell you the premium pass and the special crates, but the pop-ups appear only at the start, and aren’t all that intrusive. While you would get a leg up with these items, it’s not too tedious to level up without them, which makes Call of Duty: Mobile win extra points from us.
Apart from the fact that Tencent help build both, Call of Duty: Mobile might just be the sudden, unexpected headshot that PUBG would not have seen coming. It takes the best of many worlds from within the Call of Duty universe, and puts it where the money is nowadays — viral, massive open world gaming, tied together by the nostalgia of classic maps. Unless it gets rattled by some major issue at any point, Call of Duty: Mobile is a win, for players and makers alike.
There s true, industrial grit and satisfaction in getting the final kill. (Image: Activision/News18.com)
Gaming on a McDonalds Cash Register: Guy Runs Doom on Abandoned Machine Doom is an icon in the gaming world, no questions asked. In fact, it was so popular that anyone growing up in the 90s would have at least played it for a few minutes, or seen someone play it. Part of what certified Doom into gaming folklore was the enthusiasm for it in the maker community, and Doom was ported into almost every conceivable machine. Now, 26 years since its debut on MS-DOS, Doom has been ported into the world s unlikeliest gaming PC -- an abandoned McDonalds cash register.
The person in question was Ryan Edgar, a 19-year-old who happened to visit a nearby McDonalds store, and upon finding out that they were doing away with their vintage cash register computers, procured one for himself. As disclosed by Kotaku Australia, Edgar then brought the computer home, hooked it up with his own PC, downloaded ZDOOM (or, Doom ported to run on Windows XP) on it, and subsequently ran it on the McDonalds machine through a USB connection.
Ladies and GentlemenI give you DOOM............ Running on a McDonald’s cash register. pic.twitter.com/kQhrkZ1ScV
— Ry (@Raio_Ken) September 29, 2019Edgar further used a USB splitter to hook up a keyboard and a mouse, and voila! He shared the results of his brainwave on Twitter, which certainly brought in the plaudits, as well as the long-standing ticker about Doom working on literally any machine that you can get your hands on. There is, however, some sort of technical similarity in the code base of McDonalds old cash registers and Doom, since both were built to run on MS-DOS, and were subsequently ported to run on Windows XP.
Kotaku s report states that Edgar is now looking forward to running Sega s 2001 classic, Sonic Adventure 2, on his newfound gaming machine. While it ll certainly remain a one-off, it just goes on to show how popular Doom was, the industry it built, and how gaming adventures still go well beyond snazzy graphics and chicken dinners.
Google Pixel 4 Leaks: Faster Assistant, Motion Sense, Dual Exposure and More The Google Pixel 4 is less than two weeks from launch, but a new wave of Pixel leaks have surfaced online, including official marketing videos showcasing the improved Google Assistant interface and the Motion Sense gestures. The leaks also give users a view of the Soli-powered Face Unlock in action, alongside official camera samples of the Pixel 4 with a special emphasis on its improved Night Sight and Astrophotography chops. Notably, complete specifications and box contents of Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL have also been leaked. A video highlights a new interface for the virtual assistant with a new launch animation and less screen-hungry assistant screen on the Pixel 4. According to the video, there is a faster assistant on Google Pixel 4 that can chain multiple contextual commands. These include sending a text message or sharing an image from Google Photos by just asking the assistant to do so via voice commands.
A separate leak showcases a demo of the Google Pixel 4 Motion Sense gestures in action. These will come to life through the Solid radar system and will let users accomplish tasks like silence an incoming call, snooze alarm, and change a track by just waving their hand above the Pixel 4 s screen. It also features the Face Unlock feature in another purportedly official demo video.
A demo app called Pokemon Wave Hello has also been leaked that allows users to interact with up to 5 Pokemon via the Motion Sense gestures. Furthermore, camera samples clicked by the Google Pixel 4 also surfaced online that have allegedly been clicked by Google s upcoming flagship in multiple lighting conditions by the front and rear cameras. Samples of the rumoured Astrophotography mode have also surfaced, which will debut on the Pixel 4 duo for taking pictures of the night sky.
Google Pixel 4 s camera is also supposed to sport Dual Exposure Camera Control , which, according to leaks, suggest that the user will reportedly be able to control the highlights and shadow level in their photos via two separate sliders in the camera app. Finally, apparent official images of the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL s specification sheet have also surfaced online, alongside details about the box contents. However, while the new leaks certainly do highlight the upcoming Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL, a New York Daily News report recently revealed that Google employed some questionable tactics to make the Face Unlock feature more secure.
Apple Releases macOS Catalina 10.15 Golden Master Ahead of Public Launch Apple released the macOS Catalina 10.15 Golden Master, on October 3, just ahead of its expected public release of October 4. The release of macOS update comes just three days after the unveiling of the tenth macOS Catalina beta and over three months after the new mac operating system update was first released at WWDC. The macOS Catalina 10.15 Golden Master beta is now available for users and is undoubtedly a good sign that Apple is on track to release the latest macOS update to the public on Friday. macOS Catalina comes with a number of changes and new features.
The latest software offers standalone apps for Apple Music, Apple TV as well as Podcasts as Apple retires iTunes. Apple released a feature called Sidecar that allows an iPad to be used as a second Mac display in some different ways. Find My is a revamped app that combines Find My Phone and Find My Friends and now will be available on the Mac. An Accessibility-focused feature called Voice Control brings a powerful experience with rich navigation to users with verbal controls through on-device processing. Apart from these, Screen Time is also making a foray to macOS from iOS to help users be more aware of the time they spend on their notebook or desktop.
Meanwhile, Apple s UIKit framework will also be coming to the Mac now officially named Project Catalyst, formerly called Marzipan. This will help developers seamlessly port iPad app to macOS.
macOS Catalina will be compatible with 12-inch MacBook, MacBook Air (2012 and later), MacBook Pro (2012 and later), Mac mini (2012 and later), iMac (2012 and later), iMac Pro, Mac Pro (2013 and later).
Keywords:
Ghost Recon Breakpoint Releases on All Platforms, Faces Flak for Microtransactions Tom Clancy s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Ubisoft s flagship AAA title for the year, is now available for purchase and download for all users on Microsoft Xbox, Windows PCs, Sony s PlayStation (PS4 and onward) as well as Ubisoft s Uplay+ streaming subscription service. While we wait to play the full version of the game, we ve already gotten a glimpse of one of the many levels of the game. Now, the game has gotten off to a mixed start, where the positive responses to gameplay, storyline and technical details have been marred by complaints of dull build-ups, and a peculiar addition of too many microtransactions in the game.
In the game, the Ghosts now face off against a bunch of their own ex-allies, the Wolves, led by antagonist-in-command, Cole D. Walker. While our experience of the game s closed beta did not involve a face-off against him (read all about it here), it did include a glimpse of the kind of technology-driven warfare Ghost Recon: Breakpoint promises to be. In many ways, the game enterprises to bring its strategy-driven gameplay much closer to the way you use your own advanced warfare technologies in close combat, chase fights, stealth rounds and more.
However, straight upon launch, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint was found to include a rather startling number of in-game microtransactions, which offered to sell almost everything for a player to level upon quickly and proceed almost directly to the Breakpoint end-game. As has been noted on Reddit, Breakpoint s Early Access copies started by selling gun bundles, gun blueprint bundles, attachments and peripherals for fighting, shirts, armours, backpacks, tattoos, emotes, melee weapons, paint, gear camouflages, weapon upgrades, and most controversially, even skill points and battle point boosters. The list, from what it seems, was nearly endless.
Ubisoft has since announced that it was an error that led to these in-game purchases being included in the Early Access copies. Gamers raised concerns regarding Ubisoft s strategy, since adding vital elements such as skill points and battle points, which are important to progress through levels, mean increasing chances of players being able to buy their way through a game. In such circumstances, many speculate that in place of the usual gameplay durations, developers often tend to increase the gameplay hours required to get certain skill points, hence indirectly pushing gamers towards spending on these points.
Ubisoft, however, has denied such claims, and stated that it only aims to release these later in the game, as a way for later adopters to quickly reach the levels achieved by the first players of Breakpoint, only if they want to. Ubisoft s statement on the matter, shared with PCGamesN, says, We are aware that during the Early Access of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint on October 1, some Time-Savers items (skill point bundles, XP boosters, [and] parts bundles for advanced weapon upgrades) were available for purchase for a few hours in our store, but this was not our intention and was an error on our behalf. These items were designed as an optional way for players arriving later to the game (post-launch) to catch up with those who have been playing for longer and enjoy our co-op and challenging end-game experiences. These Time-Savers have since been removed from our store for now.
Take it as you will, but given how important this year s Ghost Recon is for Ubisoft, it is hardly surprising that the company is tempted to offer a wide choice of microtransactions, in a bid to maximise the revenue drawn from the 2019 AAA title, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint.
YouTube Music Adds Discovery, Personalisation Features to Gain an Edge Over Spotify, Apple Music Almost three years after launching YouTube Music and 18 months after revamping the service to compete with Spotify and Apple Music, Google is now replacing its default Play Music app with the YouTube Music app on new Android phones. The move is to improve the streaming platform s functionality and convenience. While most of the apps do the same basic things, playing unlimited ad-free tunes on a long list of supported devices for a monthly fee, it appears that advance music discovery features and personalised playlists are helping Spotify and Apple Music stand out from the crowd.
Now, YouTube Music looks ready to cover lost ground with Discover Mix, New Release Mix, and Your Mix additions. The tools are a part of the platform s brand new version, outlined by Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, at a conference in San Francisco. However, the New Release Mix feature has been available for many users for quite some time now, while Discover Mix started rolling out a couple of weeks ago in a public beta testing. According to Mohan, all three playlists will be widely available in the coming weeks, aiming to put a whole lot of great music for users.
Instead of manually searching for new music, premium YouTube Music subscribers will be able to visit an enriched Mixed for You section of the app where these three tools are featured. Discover Mix will combine tracks from artists you already like with similar tunes from singers and bands you may have never even heard of. On the other hand, New Release Mix will focus on new songs and albums that you might enjoy based on your listening habits and history. Your Mix, on its part, is a combination of the other two playlists, with both new and old stuff from well-known and lesser-known artists.
Intel Joins Researchers to Use AI, ML in Curing Paralysis from Spinal Injuries Brown University, one of the world s premier educational and research institutes, has joined hands with Intel to undertake a research project that uses artificial intelligence to help solve paralysis in patients, induced by spinal cord injuries. The project, backed by a $6.3 million funding by United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), aims to develop what is being called an Intelligent Spinal Interface -- a technology that may help restore limb movement, sensation and bladder control for people who have suffered severe spinal cord injuries.
The spinal cord is the literal backbone of the human nervous system, helping circulate electric pulses when nerves are stimulated through a particular action. For instance, if an individual is required to walk, the brain sends the requisite instruction to specific limbs through the nervous system. In a spinal cord injury that leads to severe end results such as partial or complete paralysis, the nervous system is impaired due to gaps in the neural circuitry of the human body. This, in turn, leads to what is observed as paralysis, which may manifest itself as the inability to move specific muscles of the body. This occurs due to the nervous impulses failing to reach the muscles related to the movement of those muscles.
In such cases, electrical impulses are often used to treat paralysed areas. However, these impulses are maintained as a steady flow of current, maintained by the stimulus input received through an accelerometer. With the Intelligent Spinal Interface, researchers at Brown University aim to use AI to closely replicate the natural flow of electric impulses through the human nervous system, making the flow of information bi-directional and measuring the nature and magnitude of the impulses to recreate muscle stimulation to as close as the natural instances. This, as the statement by Brown University states, can potentially open up a vast and critical area of therapy, and lead to medical achievements such as restoration of limb and bladder control.
Surgeons working on the project will implant electrodes on either end of a neural gap caused due to a spinal injury. These electrodes will use machine learning to understand the impulses sent by the human brain, and relay the impulses to the electrode on the other end of the injured section in almost real-time. This, the researchers state, should help patients regain control over a body part or segment that was impaired through the injury. As the researchers state, Machine learning algorithms take care of the translation interface between the brain signals and how we want the post-injury site to react to the brain’s intent.
Intel, on this note, is bringing its hardware, software and research prowess to the table, including its open source AI repository to help the researchers and surgeons take the technology further. David Borton, assistant professor at Brown School of Engineering and researcher at the Carney Institute for Brain Science, says, The hope is that by using information from either side of a lesion in a bidirectional way, we could make a significant impact on the treatment of spinal cord injuries. This exploratory study aims to build the toolset — the mix of hardware, software and functional understanding of the spinal cord — to make such a system possible.
The Intelligent Spinal Interface is not just a pivotal piece of research, but one that can potentially save or alter millions of lives affected by involuntary, accidental injuries. The project is one of the best examples of how artificial intelligence and machine learning can transcend their literal definitions, and apply themselves in critical fields to have a deeper impact on humankind. The project is presently underway, and will be progressed over a period of two years.
OnePlus 7T Gets Oxygen OS 10.0.3 Update, Brings Improved Camera and Bug Fixes The OnePlus 7T was launched in India on September 26. A week after its launch, OnePlus has rolled out a new update for the device. Oxygen OS 10.0.3 based on Android 10, brings camera enhancements and some bug fixes to the phone. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer confirmed the news with a post on its community forums. There is no denying that OnePlus 7T comes with a better camera as compared to its predecessor. The OnePlus 7T has a triple rear camera setup including a 48-megapixel main camera, a 16-megapixel ultra-wide camera and a 12-megapixel telephoto camera that adds more versatility to the picture. The device also has a 16-megapixel front camera.
Apart from this, the OnePlus 7T is powered with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC with 8GB RAM and up to 256GB storage. The device is coupled with a 3,800mAh battery with fast charging technology and enhanced sensors for additional security. The OTA will reach a small percentage of users today. The update will have a broader rollout in the coming few days. As the update makes its way to the devices, users can read the changelog here:
Oxygen OS 10.0.3 OTA for OnePlus 7T Changelog
System
General bug fixes and improvements
Camera
Improved photo quality
Enhanced stability of Camera
User experience improvements
OnePlus 8 Renders Leaked: Curved Display With Punch-Hole, No Pop-Up Selfie Camera With just days after OnePlus launched the OnePlus 7T in India, a series of high-resolution renders of the OnePlus 8 have already been leaked. According to a report, the leaks come from @OnLeaks in collaboration with CashKaro. The biggest talking point of the leak is the familiarity between the OnePlus 8 renders and the design of the current crop of OnePlus Pro models.
According to the leaks, the OnePlus 8 will be the first mainline OnePlus device to come with a truly curved 6.5-inch display. However, the device will not include the pop-up selfie camera. Instead, it will sport a hidden selfie camera within an upper-left-punch-hole display notch.
The rear end sees the camera setup mimic the same vertical alignment setup that we have seen on the OnePlus 7 Pro earlier this year. From the OnePlus 8 renders, one could very well see the OnePlus line merge from 2020 after the Pro was introduced earlier this year. The OnePlus device will most probably sport a Snapdragon chipset, at least 8GB of RAM and superfast UFS 3.0 storage as standard. However, the latest development point towards the fact that the company might completely do away with flat displays.
