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In the tech news that you can use this week, we got to see one of the highly anticipated launches – the Xiaomi Mi 6X, which is expected to launch in India as the Mi A2. Xiaomi launched the Mi 6X with MIUI 9 at an event in China, and it’s expected to launch in India as the Mi A2 running stock Android. The Mi A1 has gone out of stock in India, hinting the Mi A2 could launch here soon, though Xiaomi insists the Mi A1 will be back soon. This is the second handset so far to come preloaded with Xioami’s new digital assistant, Xiao Ai. There are three variants of the Xiaomi Mi 6X – one with 4GB RAM and 64GB storage, which is priced at CNY 1,599 (roughly Rs. 16,900). The next model has 6GB RAM and 64GB storage, and costs CNY 1,799 (approximately Rs. 19,000). Finally, there’s the top-end Mi 6X variant, with 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage, the price tag is CNY 1,999 (around Rs. 21,000). The India prices should be relatively close to these – for comparison, the Xiaomi Mi A1 was priced at Rs...

A heat shield used in a NASA spacecraft designed to send a six-wheeled rover vehicle to Mars in 2020 suffered an “unexpected” fracture during a structural test this month, causing the space agency to build a replacement, the space agency said. “The situation will not affect the mission’s launch readiness date of July 17, 2020,” the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement. The fracture occurred near the shield’s outer edge and spans the circumference of the component, NASA said. The $2 billion mission will place the rover on Mars where it will drill in rocks and soil to look for signs of past microbial life. The mission will also look into ways to support a manned-mission to the planet. The timing of the launch is key. In July and August of 2020 the positions of Earth and Mars are aligned in a way that will mean less power is required to reach the red planet compared to other times. The heat shield on the Mars 2020 spacecraft would reach temperatures of ...

Jio has revealed its user base increased to 186.6 million in Q1 2018, up from 160.1 million it had announced in the previous quarter, with 26.5 million new users added in the period. Announcing its results for the quarter, the Mukesh Ambani-promoted Jio also said its average revenue per user (ARPU) stood at Rs. 137.1 in the January-March period, lower than the Rs. 154 ARPU it reported for the preceding three months; chief rival Airtel also announced a drop in ARPU this quarter, from Rs. 123 to Rs. 116. Jio also claims that at 0.25 percent, its customer churn is the lowest in the telecom industry. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) said about the Q1 2018 results, “A full-blown social, mobile and digital revolution is underway across the world, and I am glad that India is not being left behind in any way with the advent of Jio. The strong financial results of Jio in a competitive market environment demonstrates the robustness of the Jio bus...

Before the rumoured Grand Theft Auto 6 (GTA 6), or Grand Theft Auto V on Nintendo Switch, we are getting GTA V Premium Online Edition for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. After being leaked via an Amazon listing back in February, Rockstar Games officially revealed the game last week with a release at retail on disc immediately, and a digital edition out later this month. We managed to spend some time with this version of GTA V to break down what you get with it, what you’ll need to download, and if has any value for existing GTA V fans or newcomers. Here’s what you need to know. GTA V Premium Online Edition – what does it have? GTA V Premium Online Edition comes with the base game which includes its fantastic single-player campaign that holds up exceedingly well even five years since its debut. It also includes GTA Online — GTA V’s multiplayer component. Apart from these two, the Premium Online Edition also comes with the GTA V Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack for GTA Online which has th...

While its phones may not always be available to buyers due to flash sales with insufficient stocks, Xiaomi has continued its leadership in India in the first quarter of 2018 – surpassing Samsung and its homegrown competitors, as per the latest data released by two research firms. The Beijing-based company reportedly owns a market share of over 31 percent, which is 6 percent more than its tally in the final quarter of 2017. According to the latest report by Counterpoint, Xiaomi maintained its lead in the first quarter of 2018 with a record 31.1 percent market share – significantly increased from the 13.1 percent share reported in the same quarter last year, and 25 percent in Q4 2017. Counterpoint Analyst Anshika Jain believes that Xiaomi’s growing performance is driven by raising product-pull in the offline market, building upon its existing strong presence in the online space where it captured a record 57 percent share. “Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 5 and 5 Pro were the most popular models fo...

Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Team Fortress 2 developer and Steam owner Valve has acquired independent game studio Campo Santo. Consisting of veteran talent from Telltale Games, Campo Santo’s debut effort, Firewatch, released to near perfect reviews when it hit in 2016. The studio is hard at work on its second game, In the Valley of Gods that slated for a 2019 release window as well as bringing Firewatch to the Nintendo Switch. It seems that both projects will continue as planned with the team taking to its blog to break the news. “The twelve of us at Campo Santo have agreed to join Valve, where we will maintain our jobs as video game developers and continue production on our current project, In the Valley of Gods,” a post from Campo Santo reads. Campo Santo believes its found a sort of synergy with Valve. Interesting if you consider its only publicly known game in development is card collection game Artifact and that the company hasn’t bothered with narrative-based titles since 2...

This week, in all the tech news that you can use, we start off with a look at the latest from Lenovo-owned Motorola. After a lot of leaks and teases that continued through this week, we finally got the launch of the Moto G6 family of phones. The company has released the Moto G6, Moto G6 Plus, and Moto G6 Play, which start at $199 and go up to EUR 299 – India price and release date of the phones has not been announced yet. The Moto G6 Plus has a 5.93-inch full-HD+ display with 18:9 aspect ratio. It runs on the 2.2GHz octa-core Snapdragon 630 processor, with 4GB of RAM. There is a dual-rear-camera setup with a 12-megapixel primary sensor and a secondary 5-megapixel sensor, while an 8-megapixel camera on the front. It comes with 64GB of storage, and 3200mAh battery, and is priced at EUR 299 (about Rs. 24,350). The slightly smaller Moto G6 has a 5.7-inch full-HD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. It’s powered by the 1.8GHz octa-core Snapdragon 450 SoC and 3GB RAM. It has ...

Google’s decision to launch a new messaging service called Chat without end-to-end encryption shows utter contempt for the privacy of Android users and has handed a precious gift to cybercriminals and government spies alike, Amnesty International has said. Earlier this week,Google spokesperson confirmed that the new service will not use end-to-end encryption and that Google is “pausing investment” in its existing mobile messaging app “Allo” which has an option for end-to-end encryption. “Not only does this shockingly retrograde step leave Google lagging behind its closest competitors — Apple’s iMessage and Facebook’s WhatsApp both have end-to-end encryption in place by default — it is also a step backwards from the company’s previous attempts at online messaging,” Joe Westby, a technology and human rights researcher at Amnesty International, said on Friday. Amnesty International considers end-to-end encryption a minimum requirement for technology companies to ensure that private i...

Grand Theft Auto V (GTA V) gets a re-release called Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Publisher Take-Two officially revealed this new variant via a prepared statement. The Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition is available now (April 20 onwards) on disc in game stores for PS4 and Xbox One internationally and will be available on digital platforms including PC (via Steam and Rockstar Social Club), PS Store, and the Microsoft Store next week. It includes the complete Grand Theft Auto V story experience, the ever evolving world of Grand Theft Auto Online, and all existing gameplay upgrades and content including The Doomsday Heist, Gunrunning, Smuggler’s Run, Bikers and much more.  In addition to this, Grand Theft Auto V: Premium Online Edition also has the Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack. Take-Two claims it’s “the fastest way for new GTA Online players to jumpstart their criminal empires with the most exciting and popular content plus $...

Along with the Moto G6 series, Lenovo-owned Motorola has unveiled the Moto E5 series of smartphones to cater to the entry-level segment. The new offerings – the Moto E5, Moto E5 Plus and Moto E5 Play – will be positioned below the respective Moto G6 models. Oddly, only two of the Moto E5 series phones sport the modern 18:9 aspect ratio, while the third is still stuck with the 16:9 display panel. All three models sport selfie flash, and have a fingerprint sensor embedded in the Motorola logo on the back. Moto E5, Moto E5 Plus, Moto E5 Play price The Moto E5 price (MSRP) will be EUR 149 (around Rs. 12,000), while Moto E5 Plus will cost EUR 169 (approximately Rs. 13,700). As for the release, Motorola has only said the two models will roll out in markets in Asia  Pacific (including India), Europe, and Latin America “over the coming months.” The Moto E5 Play will be restricted to the US, and its price has not been revealed yet, though it will likely be positioned below the Moto E5 sm...

News broke on Wednesday that Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 may not have a single-player campaign. According to several reports, the game’s publisher Activision found Black Ops 4’s take on a single-player campaign to be “too out there” and retooling it would mean it wouldn’t be ready in time for release. If true, it would mean this would be the first Call of Duty game without a single-player campaign, and might even be an always online affair requiring a persistent Internet connection. In its place however, could be a battle royale mode helmed by long-time Call of Duty support studio, Raven Software. If this information is correct, it would not be a surprise. With many a big budget triple A game company like Ubisoft, Microsoft, and EA extolling the virtues of games-as-a-service coupled with the success of multiplayer fare like Fortnite and PUBG, Activision and Treyarch jumping on the bandwagon is to be expected. That said, can Activision get away with charging $60 or Rs. 4,449 (which is h...

It seems that Watch Dogs 3 is in the works. Ubisoft’s AI assistant, Sam is the company’s take on Siri and Alexa. Sam was created to help players get through tougher sections of Ubisoft’s game. Right now it’s in beta and only available in Canada. Like most AI assistants and chat bots, you type out questions to Sam which it answers. Some Ubisoft fans decided to ask it about Watch Dogs 3. This was motivated by an April Fool’s joke from Ubisoft that saw its PC game client, Uplay, sport a theme inspired by DedSec, a faction in the Watch Dogs games. The fact that the official Watch Dogs account tweeted and then deleted the phrase “This is Everything” which ties into the Watch Dogs marketing phase “Everything is Connected” further piqued fan interest. Nonetheless, Sam’s reply to queries about Watch Dogs 3 reveal the game’s existence. When asked it said: “Watch Dogs 3 is not finished yet, but from the last early build I tried it’s very solid. The Dev team works wonders! Can’t wait for you ...

Announced during Microsoft’s E3 2013 event, Below is an action roguelike developed by Capybara Games, known for games like Critter Crunch and Super Time Force. It was indefinitely delayed after the studio decided to spend more time polishing the game. While the release window for Below is slated for 2018, for Steam and Xbox One, it appears that Below may be making it to the PS4 and Nintendo Switch after all. According to an interview with GodIsaGeek.com, Below’s director, Kris Pitriowski suggested it won’t be console exclusive to the Xbox One when asked about which platforms we could see Below on next and if there are plans for a physical edition of the game. “As far as the physical release, I’m not sure about that. I’d love to release a game that comes in a little box. We’ve been talking to some distributors about doing some special editions, but that’s just something we’ve been thinking about, none of that’s been finalised. Ideally it comes out in a way that isn’t just digital...

Just a couple of days after WhatsApp beta for Android was spotted replacing timestamps with ASCII codes, the development team has released a new beta version that fixes the odd issue. It was found that the bug was only affecting the WhatsApp beta version 2.18.109 that was released on April 12. The bug wasn’t limiting the chat experience but was annoyingly replacing timestamps carrying “Today” and “Yesterday” with ASCII codes. WhatsApp users need to either sign up for the beta programme on Play Store or sideload the APK file. As noted by the folks at WABetaInfo, the first characters of “Today” and “Yesterday” on the WhatsApp beta version 2.18.109 were replaced by “89ESTERDAY” and “84ODAY”. It is worth noting here that the ASCII code of the alphabet T is 84 and alphabet Y is 89. Therefore, the bug was primarily changing the first alphabets of the affected timestamps with their ASCII codes. It was also all-pervasive in nature – showing the strange timestamps across WhatsApp Status, me...

Redmi Note 5 Pro became a lot easier to buy as Xiaomi has announced the smartphone will go up for pre-orders via Mi.com at 12pm IST on Friday, April 13. The smartphone was launched back in February, and has since been made available online in flash sales via Flipkart and Mi.com, making it rather hard to purchase. Redmi Note 5 Pro is also available offline via Mi Home stores and Xiaomi offline retail partners, though buyers have to pay a slight premium if choosing that route. Xiaomi made the Redmi Note 5 Pro (Review) pre-order availability announcement via its Mi.com site, as well as the MIUI Forum. For the Chinese company, pre-orders imply buyers will get to book the smartphone in advance, instead of waiting in line during the other weekly flash sales. Xiaomi promises guaranteed priority shipping (generally within five business days) for pre-orders. Pre-orders are limited to one or two smartphones per order, and, payments have to be made up-front – there is no cash on d...

The Xbox One backwards compatibility program shows no signs of abating. 19 original Xbox games are coming to the Xbox One this month. These include six Star Wars games like 2005’s Star Wars Battlefront 2 and 2003’s The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. Like previous games on the Xbox One backwards compatibility list, they will work via disc or a digital copy purchased from the Microsoft Store. Other additions include classics like Panzer Dragoon Orta, Conker: Live and Reloaded, and SSX 3. “Later this month, we’ll release two batches of Original Xbox games – the first on April 17 and the second on April 26. All of these Original Xbox games will take advantage of the power of Xbox One with up to 4X the pixel count on Xbox One and Xbox One S, and up to 16X the pixel count on Xbox One X,” wrote Bill Stillwell, Lead Program Manager, Xbox Platform on the official Xbox website. Original Xbox games launching on Xbox One on April 17 Blinx: The Time Sweeper Breakdown Conker: Live and Rel...

Instagram on Tuesday announced the launch of two new features on the social networking platform globally. The first update is a new camera format on Instagram Stories called Focus that lets users take portrait shots with Bokeh effect from their phone’s rear or front camera. “When you take a photo or video of someone in the Focus format, their face will stay focused while the background blurs, giving the photo that polished look – something you’ll want to share with friends,” says Instagram in a statement.  To use the feature, open the Stories tab on the Instagram app. You will see the new Focus button placed next to Superzoom in the Record tab. As the app detects a face in this mode, it will automatically blur out the background. You can tap to click a photo or tap and hold to record a video. Focus will be available on Apple iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, and select Android handsets (2015 and later). The feature will be ava...

Sony’s had a busy slate of exclusives in recent months. After Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, and GT Sport, God of War aka God of War 4 is the next big PS4 exclusive from Sony. And despite the name, it’s actually the eighth game in the franchise, and the first on the PS4. God of War for the PS4 was initially leaked in April 2016 as God of War 4 thanks to concept art for the game that showed off series protagonist Kratos sporting a beard in a Norse setting and using an axe. Months later at E3 2016, Sony finally confirmed the game’s existence, which should have been a given considering the previous game — God of War 3, was remastered a full year prior. Sony tends to re-release games on the PS4 before launching a new entry on the console, such as the Uncharted Collection ahead of Uncharted 4, and Gravity Rush Remastered before Gravity Rush 2. Here’s everything you need to know about God of War on PS4. God of War release date in India and elsewhere God of War release date is 20 April 2...

With IPL 2018 having kicked off, Jio’s new 251 plan that offers 102GB of 4G data over 51 days at a price of Rs. 251 is now available for recharge via Jio’s website, My Jio app, and other recharge channels. With this 251 “cricket pack”, the telco is targeting fans of IPL 2018, offering the ability to “stream almost every live match throughout the duration of 51 days” of the IPL, which began on Saturday and will end on May 27. Notably, Jio’s new pack has a daily data limit of 2GB, and like with other daily data plans, unused data will expire at midnight. As mentioned earlier, the Rs. 251 plan comes with 102GB of data on the Reliance Jio network, which means a per GB cost of less than Rs. 2.50, making it one of the more attractive options for heavy 4G data users. Note that while Jio is promoting the 251 pack for IPL 2018 viewers, it’s not in any way tied to cricket or video streaming, and can be used for any purpose. Jio Cricket Play Along live mobile game In a...