Samsung launched a new smartphone called Galaxy A21s on Friday in London. The mid-range smartphone comes with Samsung’s Infinity-O display, quad-camera set-up at the back, 5G support, and a big 5,000mAh battery. Dolby Atmos powers the audio system of this smartphone. The phone will be first available in the UK only. But we currently don’t know when will it be available in other parts of the world.
The company, through a press release, said that the phone offers “must-have features at an affordable price.” The statement said, “From 5G to best-in-class display, we are committed to bringing innovation to our Galaxy A Series portfolio”.
Samsung Galaxy A21s Specifications
The Samsung Galaxy A21s features a 20:9 aspect ratio, 6.5-inch HD+ (720X1600 pixels) Infinity-O Display. An octa-core processor, with two quad cores clocked at 2.0GHz each, powers the smartphone with high performance. The phone aaaahad 3GB RAM and 32GB of inbuilt storage. There is an option to expand the inbuilt storage up to 512GB using a microSD card.
The phone comes with quad cameras at the back which includes a 48-megapixel primary sensor with f/2.0 aperture. This is accompanied by an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera with f/2.2 aperture, a 2-megapixel macro lens with f/2.4 aperture, and a 2-megapixel f/2.4 depth sensor. The front camera consists of a 13-megapixel sensor with f/2.2 aperture.
Samsung Galaxy A21s also comes with a LED flash and a rear fingerprint scanner. The phone supports 15W fast charging while having a 5,000mAh battery.
Price, Sale, and Availability
Samsung Galaxy A21s will initially go on sale in the United Kingdom, starting June 19. The prices for the Black, White, and Blue variants start from £179.00 (roughly equivalent to ₹16,500). With the Galaxy A21s, you also get six months of free Spotify Premium subscription as an offer from the company.
The availability of the smartphone for other places in the world is unknown so far, including India.
When you know that you’ll be traveling for a long time without access to a good data connection or Wi-Fi and want to get entertained throughout the journey, understanding your need, Netflix has the option to download a lot of content for offline viewing. Such a benediction for those who couldn’t enjoy uniform streaming due to data fluctuations.
· First of all, it’s very important for you to have your Netflix app timely updated. If you don’t have the auto-update functionality then make sure that you update it regularly.
· The app offers you two quality options to download from: Standard and High. The standard quality takes less space and time to download. Whereas, the high quality has video quality ranging between 720p to 1080p resolution. So, it takes more space and time to download. The standard model looks fine on smartphone and the high mode is more suitable for tablets or laptops.
To choose the option, go to the menu option and then go down to the App Settings. There under the downloads, click on to the video quality option and select your preferred quality.
Source: Digital Trends
· Everything on Netflix is not available for download, but the company has provided a plethora of options to download for offline viewing. It is quite easy to find the downloadable titles on Netflix. As the app has curated a special section for its customers with the name ‘Available for Download.’ If you want to get some of your favorite shows downloaded, you need to check whether the shows are available for download or not. The download icon on that show’s page should have a horizontal line under it for it to be available for download.
Source: Digital Trends
· For downloading the shows and movies, select the download icon available on its page. The app even allows you to set the default location for downloads by going to the setting menu.
Source: Digital Trends
· Once the title is downloaded it will appear in the Downloads section. This option is available just above the Home section. All the details like running time, space, and quality are all specified next to it. You enjoy your downloaded shows offline all you need to do is to just click on the video thumbnail.
Source: Digital Trends
The app has even set restrictions on the number of times you can download a specific show. Like there are some shows that you can download only twice or thrice during your single billing cycle. Some of the downloads even tend to expire within some days if you don’t pay attention to them. All in all, it’s a great addition to those who suffer a lot while traveling due to data fluctuation and can’t enjoy their favorite shows.
Facebook, on Friday, said it is acquiring GIF sharing service, Giphy. Giphy is a search engine and database for short animated images, called GIFs. The social network briefed about the deal in a blog post on Friday. It said Giphy would become a part of its subsidiary, Instagram. It also said that more than 50% of Giphy’s traffic already comes from Facebook and it’s apps. However, the company didn’t reveal how much it paid for the deal. Axios reports that Facebook buys Giphy for $400 million.
Facebook plans to integrate Giphy’s library more deeply into Instagram and other Facebook services. Vishal Shah, Facebook’s vice president of the product (Instagram) wrote, “By bringing Instagram and Giphy together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct.” Facebook also said that it did not plan to change the core functionality of Giphy. It promised and assured the developers that they would continue to have the same access to the underlying code.
The Giphy team also wrote through their Medium blog, “We will continue to make Giphy openly available to the wider ecosystem.” The team assured their API/SDK partners and developers that “GIPHY’s GIFs, Stickers, Emojis, etc. aren’t going anywhere.”
People’s Reaction
On social media, some people called out to delete Giphy citing their privacy concerns. People don’t seem to be wanting Facebook to collect personal information about them.
Facebook collects the data from people’s activity on the internet through various means to serve them personalized ads on its platforms.
Vishal Shah also wrote that the integration of Giphy with Facebook’s products would help people better express themselves. He wrote, “Both our services are big supporters of the creator and artist community, and that will continue.” He added saying, “Together, we can make it easier for anyone to create and share their work with the world.”
This acquisition of Giphy by Facebook may be a question of privacy for many, but it will make it much easier for Facebook (including Instagram) users to share GIFs and interact much effectively.
Apple is well known for innovation and keeps popping out new technologies. Its interest in augmented reality technology keeps it busy in creating new products. The iPhone manufacturing company is rumoured to be working on some kind of augmented reality headset. It is expected to launch a pair of smart glasses based on the technology. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the Apple’s AR Goggles could arrive in 2022 at the earliest, reported MacRumors. TF International Securities’ analyst, Kuo also predicts that Apple’s first headset could at the earliest be launched in 2022. This means, there are still two years to go. Excited Apple fans have to wait for 2 years before they get a glimpse of a pair of smart glasses. This new innovative device from Apple will mark the company’s next major hardware expansion beyond the iPhone.
According to the reports from The Information and Bloomberg, Apple’s headset is expected to offer a combination of both AR and VR experiences. The glasses will run a new operating system, rOS (abbr. reality OS). Apple is also said to be exploring touch panels, head gestures, and voice control as a means of controlling the glasses.
Existing VR Headsets in the Market
There are already many VR headsets available in the market today, like Facebook‘s Oculus lineup, PlayStation VR, and HTC Vive. Microsoft too sells a headset, called HoloLens, which combines elements of both AR and VR.
You also need to know that Apple’s AR headset’s release date has been allegedly changed many times before. In 2018, it was told that the device could launch this year. Some rumours guessed the date to be the next year. However, a DigiTimes report from March this year claimed that it will most likely be in 2022. We don’t know exactly when the device will actually be launched, the dates may change again as they did before. But, one thing is clear that Apple’s AR goggles won’t come before 2022.
Gamers aren’t able to keep calm as Epic Games Store has debuted its biggest free game for a limited time in quite some time, GTA 5. Grand Theft Auto V Premium Edition is available to be claimed for free till May 21. Epic has already faced excessive traffic due to which their servers went down multiple times as they tweeted from their official account.
We are currently experiencing high traffic on the Epic Games Store.
We are aware that users may be encountering slow loading times, 500 errors, or launcher crashing at this time and we are actively working to scale. We'll provide an update as soon as we can.
Since its release in 2013, Grand Theft Auto V has been one of the most successful titles in Rockstar’s history receiving high commercial success. PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and Windows PCs, you name it, GTA V is everywhere. GTA VI might be a long way away but Epic announced the following offer on it’s Official Twitter channel on 14th may 8:30 PM IST. While Epic has already featured AAA games before (Just Cause, Assassin’s Creed, etc.) and good games (FTL, Hyper Light Drifter) before as part of their free games program, GTA 5 is on another level entirely as it remains one of the best-selling games ever, to this day. According to a report, GTA V has sold at least 120 million copies since its release making it one of the most successful and loved video games of all time.
Are There Any Catches? (NO!)
Rockstar is now offering the GTA V Premium Edition, which means that along with the access to the game itself, you also have access to GTA Online and a host of additional content not available in the Standard Edition. This deal is otherwise for about $24.99 but you can save all of that for other deals that may be coming soon as well. Worth mentioning is the fact that the game is not a demo, free trial, or with time-limited access. Checking out from the Epic Games Store once means you can keep the game with you for life.
The in-game micropurchases are, however, not included with the offer and will need to be paid for separately. The idea could be to give smaller games more exposure and recommendations while bigger games can have the opportunity to sell microtransactions for a much longer time in the future. The real moneymaker though is GTA Online, the also-free online component of the game loaded with microtransactions. It has become a hugely popular online world over the years and may end up hooking up people to it, getting them to spend money there down the road.
Are you not interested in sharing your watch list with others? You feel like your choices might make people judge you! Like you don’t want anyone to know that your favorite show is YOU and that you sympathize with Joe Goldberg. So, to stop all those prying eyes of your friends from barging into your Netflix profile, here a very cool feature introduced by the company called a parental lock. Now with this feature, Netflix allows you to set up PIN locks on your Netflix profile to restrict anyone to access it.
Source: How to Geek
Let’s Discuss How it Works
The best way of setting up a PIN lock on your Netflix profile is by visiting its official website.
Here are the necessary steps that you need to follow to set-up a PIN lock on your Netflix profile:
Go to the official Netflix website and select the ‘Account’ option on the dropdown menu.
On your ‘Account’ page, you’ll find a ‘Profile and Parental Controls’ option when you’ll scroll down and click on the arrow next to the profile you want to have a PIN lock on.
Now under the profile, you’ll find a ‘Profile Lock’ option. Click on the ‘Change’ option next to it.
Afterwards, you’ll be asked for your Netflix account credentials. Enter the credentials, after which you’ll find the option of setting a profile lock.
Now you need to enter a 4-digit security PIN, after which select the option of ‘Require a PIN to access XYZ’s profile’.You can even select the option that requires a PIN code for creating a new profile. Hit the save button, and now you have shielded your profile.
So, now if you visit your profile, you’ll see a lock icon under it. All you need to do is to click on your profile picture and enter your security PIN to let the app allow you access to your favorite shows and movies.
By any chance, if you forget your PIN lock, click on the Forgot PIN? Option at the bottom of the PIN entering box. You’ll get your PIN retrieved on the registered ID. Even for editing your profile, you’ll need this PIN lock.
This is a brilliant feature as it enables you to watch any content of your choice without getting apprehensive about what people might think. It even allows parents to have control of the quality of content that their kids are viewing lately by restricting their control to profile by the parents’ permission. Thanks to Netflix for taking care of this problem, and letting their customers have the best out of this app.
During this lockdown, you must be spending most of your time bringing on your favorite movies and shows. But still, you must be feeling a little lonely because you’ve lost that social connection with your friends. As you use to discuss over every episode you watched and your expectations and prediction about the next. Although you can even text your friends on social networking sites while watching the show but it lacks the feel and disrupts your viewing experience. Now you can easily chat or video calls your friends with various applications available to do a virtual watch party. Thanks to technology. By the use of these applications, you can watch movies online, you can conduct exciting movie parties with your friend where you can chat, gossip, and have the best time while watching some of your favorite shows.
For getting access to these apps you need to avail of its subscription. And even to share this viewing experience with your friends, they even have to own the subscription for the same. As these platforms don’t provide non-subscribers with the free viewing experience.
Let’s discuss about some of these apps to find out how to watch movies online .
Watch TV Shows and Movies Together with Friends Online
1. METASTREAM
Meta stream facilitates streaming with your friends with the option of live chat. This is available for platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. In the case of Netflix, it will open in another window. For good viewing experience with friends, it is advised to watch it with Firefox for smooth functioning.
Type a display name and then click on “Get Started.”
There is a next screen with the option “Start Session” click on that.
Click on the “Invite” button to get a link. Click on “Copy” to send the link to any friends with whom you would want to start a movie party.
Once your friends start clicking on the link, they’ll become a part of the participant’s list. A box will appear to the left side of your screen with every member’s name. You just need to click on the green dots to allow them to be a part of this party.
Click on the three dots appearing on the top right and then click on “Chat”. A rectangular chat box will appear on the screen where you can start chatting.
To watch videos, you have the option of pasting URL in the bar and then click on “Add to Session.” You’ll get the video you want.
2. NETFLIX PARTY
Netflix Party option is only available with Netflix, where you can synchronize your streams with your other friends. It comes with the feature of live chat which is present at on side of the screen. This enables chatting with your friends at the time when your show is streaming.
Open your Netflix app and start playing any of your favorite shows.
Now the Netflix Party extension icon next to the address bar should turn from grey to red, Click on it.
A pop-up window appears on your screen that can “Create Netflix Party.” You can either take total control over the streaming or can leave it open for everyone to join. And afterward, click on “Start the Party”.
This time there is another pop-up window on your screen with a link in it. Click on the option “Copy URL” and share it with your family and friends. If you lost the link, you could find it again by clicking on the Netflix Party extension icon.
Netflix party provides you with an icon where you can go and change your nickname.
You can join the ongoing Netflix Party just by clicking on the link provided by the initiator and then click on the Netflix Party icon. With this, you’ll be a part of the existing Netflix Party.
3. SCENER
Scener comes up with the option of video chatting and text chatting while watching Netflix. Currently, this option is available for Netflix only but they are planning to extend its reach. In Scener you are provided with a virtual remote control which you can pass around to your friends. It has the same functionality that a normal remote has, you can pause, rewind, and play. The one who has the remote has the remote button on his/her screen can only pass it to any other friend he wishes to.
Source: TechCrunch
How to launch it:
Download Scener’s Chrome extension. The extension will ask permission to read and change your data on Netflix and Scener too.
Open the app and enter your name and email address to create your Scener account.
Then open your Netflix account and create a private theatre.
Scener will ask for your permission to enable camera access. Click on “Yes”.
You can either share the link or code to your friends to join the party. The link can be sent to friends who don’t have the Scener app already downloaded on their devices. And code to the ones who already have the app pre-downloaded. Once they open the link, they’ll get an app downloading option. They just need to download the app to join in. With this, they’ll get added to the theatre.
To send code to somebody, you need to click on the button at the top of the sidebar, the one that looks like a person with a plus sign on top.
Select a show or a movie and click on the play button to start watching.
4. TWOSEVEN
Like Scener, TwoSeven also has the video chatting option, but it supports more platforms other than just Netflix. this app supports Amazon Prime Video, HBO Now, YouTube, and Vimeo. On paying a subscription fee, you can even get access to apps like Hulu and Disney Plus. The subscription price usually is between the range of $5 to $20 a month, but due to the situation of COVID-19, they have reduced it to $3 per month.
Source: Trusted Reviews
How to launch it:
Download the TwoSeven extension. The extension will ask to grant it permission to show notification and read and change data on the website.
Now create an account by clicking on the extension icon and do the entries like name and email address as asked.
Click on the icon with the name TwoSeven on the address bar and then click on “Go to twoseven.xyz”
Click on “get started”. Select “Account” to have access to your profile settings.
Click on “Start Watching”. Afterward, a pop-up window will appear on the screen to create a private room. You can either allow everyone the access to control the mic and webcam or let only the admins have access to it.
Click on the sign with two people and a plus sign. Then click on “Copy Link” and now you can share the link with your friends. Once you do so the watch session will start adding members.
To enable video and audio, click on the camera and microphone icon on the right side of the screen.
The chats will appear on the bottom of the screen.
Click on the button for the chosen video source at the top of the screen. While watching videos on YouTube, you’ll have to paste the URLs.
Nvidia GTC 2020 yet another Keynote to be shifted to an Online-only event amidst the pandemic
Nvidia planned to hold a proper GPU Technology Conference 2020 keynote had to be canceled due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Thus, the company decided to unveil its products via a pre-recorded keynote presentation yesterday. The company’s drive towards development and releasing new products has unabatedly continued as NVIDIA’s next-generation GPU architecture – Ampere, and the first products that will be using it were announced.
Image Courtesy: Nvidia
The company was expected to unveil enterprise-related products along with its latest GPU architecture, and Nvidia didn’t disappoint. Ampere is the name of Nvidia’s 7nm architecture for its GPUs and compute units. While we don’t have a lot of details about the new architecture itself, there sure were a bunch of enterprise products that were announced, which use the Ampere architecture.
A100 GPU, HGX A100, and DGX A100
Nvidia’s A100 GPU its first GPU using the new Ampere architecture. The GPU packs in it 54 billion transistors and Nvidia calls it “the world’s largest 7-nanometer processor”. The A100 GPU also comes with Nvidia’s third-generation of Tensor Cores, which Nvidia claims offers 20 times faster AI performance. It also, for the first time, supports double-precision performance. The company is claiming a 2.5 times performance boost over the Tesla V100.
Alongside the A100 GPU, Nvidia also announced hardware that uses these A100 GPUs in multiple combinations. The DGX A100 announced packs in eight A100 GPUs that off a whopping 5 petaflops of AI performance. Together, the eight A100 GPUs in the DGX A100 offers 320GB GPU memory and 12.4 TBps bandwidth.
The customizable HGX A100 baseboard was also announced by Nvidia which can be used by OEMs to create their own A100 based server systems. Nvidia partnered with Dell, HP Enterprise, Gigabyte, and SuperMicro among others to offer HGX A100 based systems to enterprise customers.
Lastly, the company also announced the EGX A100 edge compute unit. This can “carry out real-time processing and protection of the massive amounts of streaming data from edge sensors“. The new Mellanox SmartNIC was also announced by the company which is present inside the EGX A100. As we expected, these are all enterprise-grade announcements. Another aspect to note is that Ampere based graphic cards are also in the works. We don’t have dates yet, but we do expect Nvidia to talk more about consumer GPU’s in upcoming months. Its about time for the rumored RTX 3000 series graphics cards to be revealed.
Dell, on May 13 launched a new XPS 17 laptop along with a redesigned XPS 15 laptop. The computer manufacturing company has made major changes this time. The display panels are now taller and bigger with a 16:10 display. Besides, there is support for next-gen ports like USB-C on the new XPS laptops family. The new XPS 17 and XPS 15 come with a new design and features. Here’s everything you need to know about both the laptops.
About XPS 15
This is the most significant update in the new XPS 15 design in nearly five years. XPS 15 features 16:10, 15.6-inch display, and Intel’s latest 10th Gen processors. The new 15.6-inch display trims the bezels from all sides making it an edge-to-edge display.
It is available in 4K or Full HD resolutions along with a tiny webcam at the top. The laptop includes two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, a regular USB-C 3.1 port, and a full-size SD card reader. Dell also claims the battery life of up to 25 hours.
The new XPS 15 is available at a starting price of $1,299.99.
About XPS 17
Dell launched a new XPS 17 laptop along with the redesigned XPS 15 laptop. As the name implies, it is a larger 17-inch laptop from the XPS family. According to Dell, this is the “most powerful XPS laptop ever.” The company boasts it to be the smallest 17-inch laptop on the planet. “The XPS 17 is the smallest 17-inch laptop on the planet,” says Donnie Oliphant, Dell’s marketing director of XPS products. It’s even smaller than most 15-inch existing laptops in the market.
In XPS 17 also, Dell has opted for a 16:10 aspect ratio on a 17-inch display. Like XPS 15, there are beyond 4K and full HD display panel options and a top-mounted HD webcam.
The XPS 17 is not yet available for shipping but is expected this summer. It is priced starting at $1,499.99.
Facebook along with African and global telecom companies including China Mobile International, MTN GlobalConnect, Orange, and Vodafone, is planning to build one of the world’s largest subsea cable networks. It is aimed at boosting internet availability across three continents. This place is where billions of people are still offline, without having any access to the world of the internet.
Photo credit: ANDER GILLENEA/AFP via Getty Images
The companies will lay cables across Africa through a project called 2Africa. The cable length will stretch to 37,000km connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This project will bring connectivity to the people of 16 countries in Africa who still don’t have the internet. The 37,000km cable will interconnect Europe through Egypt, and the Middle East through Saudi Arabia with Africa via 21 landings in 16 countries.
What Telcos Said
The companies in a joint statement said they are expecting the system to be live by 2023 or early 2024. Also, this will be delivering more data than the total combined capacity of all subsea cables currently serving Africa. The companies said, the design capacity on key parts of the system will be up to 180 terabytes per second. However, neither Facebook nor the telecom operators reveal how much money they’re going to invest in the project.
What Facebook Said
Najam Ahmad, who is the Vice President of Network Infrastructure at Facebook, said they (Facebook) are very excited to be collaborating with their 2Africa partners on this project. He called it“the most comprehensive subsea cable that will serve the continent.” On the same note, the CEO of MTN Group’s wholesale operation at MTN GlobalConnect, Frédéric Schepens said,“MTN GlobalConnect is delighted to participate in this bold 2Africa subsea cable project.” He also said, they are proud to be playing a key role in providing the benefits of a modern connected life, which he called a core MTN belief.
All the telcos along with Facebook are quite excited to invest in this project. It will bring connectivity to a billion people living across these 3 continents. This subsea cable will also help Facebook and others lower down their bandwidth costs.
