Fuelled by conferencing apps, business apps topped 62 million downloads across iOS and Google Play during the week of March 14-21, 2020 worldwide -- its biggest week ever.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3azvCFJ
Coronavirus Pandemic: Meeting App Zoom Topped Download Charts in February and March
Fuelled by conferencing apps, business apps topped 62 million downloads across iOS and Google Play during the week of March 14-21, 2020 worldwide -- its biggest week ever.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3azvCFJ
There is a Massive Surge in Online Sales of Groceries And Computers Because of COVID-19
Fitness equipment and computers have seen 55 percent and 40 percent boosts in online sales respectively while online grocery shopping category has seen a 100 percent increase.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2UyYats
Xiaomi Had a Great 2019 With Mi TV And Lifestyle Products Complementing Strong Smartphone Sales
The Beijing-headquartered electronic conglomerate's adjusted net profit was 11.5 billion Chinese Yuan, up 34.8 per cent Year-over-Year for the calendar year that ended December 31.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2UvPHr4
Google Launches New COVID-19 Website For India: Helpline Data, Safety Tips And More
The website will contain information such as key helpline numbers, content about symptoms, protective measures, known treatments, and the latest global and Indian statistics.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2JuKadY
Make no Mistake, Zoom is a Cool Video Chat App But is NOT Encrypted The Way You Expect
If you need to discuss sensitive matters with collegues, remember, conservations on Zoom are not end-to-end encrypted.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2UTxToC
Facebook Feature Lets People Reach Out for Help in Pandemic
Facebook on Tuesday activated a feature allowing people impacted by the coronavirus pandemic to reach out for help from their community.
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Xerox Ends Hostile Bid to Buy HP Amid COVID-19 Uncertainty
Xerox on Tuesday dropped its unwelcomed bid to buy computer and printer maker HP for about $36 billion, blaming market turmoil caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Disney Plus to roll out on 3 April in India, subscription plans start at Rs 399 per year
Disney+ has finally rescheduled its launch date in India. Earlier it was scheduled to roll out on 29 March, which the company then held back and has now revised the date to 3 April. Disney+ will be rolling out in collaboration with Hotstar and together will be rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar.
Disney+ Hotstar will stream content in eight Indian languages including Tamil, Telugu and others.
You will be able to watch all the Marvel Cinematic movies on Disney+ Hotstar.
This is not a drill! The biggest Super Heroes, magical stories for everyone, exclusive Disney+ Originals and all that you've been waiting for are (finally) landing on Disney+ Hotstar. 3rd April. Really. #StayHomeStaySafe pic.twitter.com/zOKkuyrWEC
— HotstarPremium (@HotstarPremium) March 31, 2020
Here are the two subscription plans that will be available in India.
Subscription plans
Disney Plus Hotstar VIP- Rs 399/year
At a subscription cost of Rs 399 for a year, you will be able to watch the content of Marvel Cinematic Universe and the best of superheroes movies like The Avengers, Iron Man, Thor Ragnarok. In addition to that, movies including The Lion King, Frozen II, Aladdin and Toy Story 4 will be available. Bollywood movies like Panga, Tanhaji and cartoons Mickey Mouse, Doraemon and others will be available too. Hotstar Originals and live sports matches are also available on this list.
This plan was earlier priced at Rs 365.
Disney Plus Hotstar Premium- Rs 1,499/year
In this plan, you will be able to get all the benefits of the VIP plan but in addition to that, you will also be able to watch English language content and 29 acclaimed Disney+ originals that includes The Mandalorian, High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and more. You will also have access to the latest American shows from HBO, Fox and Showtime.
Earlier, Hotstar Premium was priced at Rs 999.
All existing subscribers will be automatically upgraded to their respective new subscription plan and will be charged the new rates upon renewal.
All the free users will be able to watch match highlights, key individual performances and match analysis of IPL, BCCI cricket series, Premier League, ISL, and PKL, with all the exciting action from the day available as match highlights, key individual performances and match analysis. They can also access some daily TV shows, movies and on-demand news in eight languages.
A virtual red carpet forDisney+ Hotstar will be held on 2 April at 6.00 pm where you can watch the premiere of The Lion King in Tamil, English, Hindi and Telugu. At 8.00 pm, you can watch one of the popular Disney Plus original The Mandalorian.
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Money Heist, Modern Family, Shots Please, and More: April 2020 TV Guide to Hotstar, Netflix, and Amazon
Money Heist season 4, Modern Family season 11 finale, Four More Shots Please! season 2, Fauda season 3, Panchayat TVF, Defending Jacob, Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels, Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever, Hasmukh — the biggest TV shows coming to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, and Apple TV+ in April 2020...
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Popular Weather App Dark Sky is Now Owned by Apple, And That is Bad News For Android Users
The Dark Sky app, apart from radar maps and hyperlocal weather forecasting, also has animated forecast maps, minute-by-minute predictions, Apple Watch app and a time machine feature that details weather changes at a location and predictions for the future.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2QY0k3t
Vivo S6 With 5G Support, 4,500mAh Battery Launched: Price, Specifications
Vivo S6 is official in China, and the phone comes with Exynos processor and a quad camera setup at the back. The phone has a waterdrop-style notch display, and it packs a large 4,500mAh battery onboard, but the fast charging support is limited to 18W.
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The cheapest active VR headset could be the perfect remote working tool
It’s been three years since Royole, a little known Chinese company, wowed crowds in Las Vegas with its groundbreaking all-in-one virtual reality (VR) headset, the Royole Moon.
The device has some great features that could make it the perfect tool for remote working, and it's currently on clearance sale for just over USD 390 at AliExpress (roughly GBP 315/AUD 640).
Two advanced AMOLED displays combine to produce a gigantic virtual 800-inch curved screen. The Moon displays content in Full HD 1080p resolution, at over 3,000 pixels per inch, with an ultra-high contrast ratio of 10,000:1 and a blisteringly fast image response rate of 60Hz.
- Check out our list of the best business VR headsets around
- We've curated the best video conferencing software of 2020
- Here's our choice of the best business headphones and earphones on the market
The Royale Moon features active noise cancellation, reducing external sound by 92% (or 22dB) and isolating wearers from their surroundings. This means users can wholly immerse themselves in a presentation, working document or video without distraction - although this could be a little daunting for claustrophobic individuals.
The headset supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and HDMI connection from smartphones, game consoles, PCs, laptops and more. It also comes with 2GB of memory and 32GB storage to save your favorite movies, videos, images, and audio directly to the device.
As for the caveats, the headset unfortunately runs on a proprietary fork of Android, as opposed to a stock version. Its battery pack is convenient enough but leans on a microUSB port to charge, and there’s also no microSD slot for additional memory.
- Here's our list of the best online collaboration software available
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Elon Musk Says Tesla Can Supply FDA-Approved Ventilators Free of Cost to Hospitals
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Tuesday the company has extra FDA-approved ventilators that can be shipped free of cost to hospitals within regions where the electric carmaker delivers.
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Infected with COVID-19, but feeling fine: How people are unwittingly spreading the coronavirus across the world
As many as 25 percent of people infected with the coronavirus may not show symptoms, the director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention warns — a startlingly high number that complicates efforts to predict the pandemic’s course and strategies to mitigate its spread.
In particular, the high level of symptom-free cases is leading the CDC to consider broadening its guidelines on who should wear masks.
“This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread across the country,” the director, Dr Robert Redfield, said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.
The agency has repeatedly said that ordinary citizens do not need to wear masks unless they are feeling sick. But with the new data on people who may be infected without ever feeling sick, or who are transmitting the virus for a couple of days before feeling ill, Redfield said that such guidance was “being critically re-reviewed.”
Researchers do not know precisely how many people are infected without feeling ill or if some of them are simply presymptomatic. But since the coronavirus surfaced in December, they have spotted unsettling anecdotes of apparently healthy people who were unwitting spreaders.
“Patient Z,” for example, a 26-year-old man in Guangdong, China, was a close contact of a Wuhan traveller infected with the coronavirus in February. But he felt no signs of anything amiss, not on Day 7 after the contact nor on Day 10 or 11.
Already by Day 7, though, the virus had bloomed in his nose and throat, just as copiously as in those who did become ill. Patient Z might have felt fine, but he was infected just the same.
Researchers now say that people like Patient Z are not merely anecdotes. For example, as many as 18 percent of people infected with the virus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship never developed symptoms, according to one analysis. A team in Hong Kong suggests that 20 to 40 percent of transmissions in China occurred before symptoms appeared.
The high level of covert spread may help explain why the novel coronavirus is the first virus that is not an influenza virus to set off a pandemic.
Representational image. AP
The new virus spreads about as easily as flu, “and when’s the last time anyone thought anything about stopping influenza transmission, short of the vaccine?” said Dr Michael T Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota.
With any vaccine still in early development, the best way to mitigate the pandemic is social distancing, he and other experts said. Because people may be passing the virus on to others even when they feel fine, asking only unwell people to stay home is unlikely to be enough. This is why many experts, going against recommendations by the CDC and the World Health Organisation, are now urging everyone to wear masks — to prevent those who are unaware they have the virus from spreading it.
Like influenza, some experts now say, this virus appears to spread both through large droplets and droplets smaller than 5 micrometers — termed aerosols — containing the virus that infected people might release especially while coughing but also while merely exhaling. They emphasised that the level of virus in both types of particles is low, so simply jogging or walking by an infected person does not put people at risk.
“If you have a passing contact with an infectious person, you would have a very, very low chance of transmission occurring,” said Dr Benjamin Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong.
The risk goes up with sustained contact — during face-to-face conversation, for example, or by sharing the same air space for a prolonged time. In addition to its confusing stance on masks, “the WHO has been saying aerosol transmission doesn’t occur, which is also perplexing,” Cowling said, adding, “I think both are actually wrong.”
Experts agreed that infections were being passed along by people who do not report symptoms — what they call asymptomatic transmissions — but they also noted some confusion around the term.
“There’s no standard definition for it, and you could say to yourself, well, that’s kind of ridiculous: You either have symptoms or you don’t,” said Dr Jeffrey Shaman, an infectious diseases expert at Columbia University. But studies by his team have shown, he said, that some people never notice their symptoms, others are unable to distinguish the infection from their smoker’s cough or allergies or other conditions, and still others may feel every pain acutely.
There is also a largely semantic debate about the proportion of people who appear to be perfectly fine but then become ill — as in the report in The New England Journal of Medicine of an apparently asymptomatic spreader who later acknowledged having felt mild symptoms.
Ultimately, Shaman said, these definitions are unimportant.
“The bottom line is that there are people out there shedding the virus who don’t know that they’re infected,” he said.
Where the definitions may matter is in being able to understand the true scope of the pandemic.
Cowling’s team has analysed data from China at various stages in the pandemic. The WHO’s mission to China concluded that most people who were infected with the virus had significant symptoms. But in the early weeks of the epidemic, his analysis shows, China set a high bar for what constituted a confirmed case of infection — requiring respiratory symptoms, fever and a chest X-ray for pneumonia.
Their definition left out mild and asymptomatic cases and, as a result, the team vastly underestimated the scale and nature of the outbreak there.
“We’ve estimated in China that between 20 percent and 40 percent of transmission events occurred before symptoms appeared,” Cowling said.
A separate analysis of the hundreds of people cloistered aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship bears out this scale. Once the ship docked in Japan on 5 February, researchers tested all of the passengers and reviewed those who tested positive for the virus on multiple occasions over a two-week period. They found that 18% of the infected passengers remained symptom-free throughout.
“The substantial asymptomatic proportion for COVID-19 is quite alarming,” said Dr Gerardo Chowell, an epidemiologist at Georgia State University who worked on the analysis.
Chowell noted that the passengers on the ship tended to be older and therefore more likely to develop symptoms. He estimated that around 40 percent in the general population might be able to be infected without showing signs of it.
There have also been many hints, subtle and not, that the virus can be transmitted via aerosols. Sixty members of a choir in Seattle gathered on 10 March for a practice session for more than two-and-a-half hours. None of them felt ill, and they made no contact with one another. But by this weekend, dozens of the members had fallen ill, and two had died.
Their experience points toward airborne transmission via aerosols, which can travel farther than the large droplets the WHO and the CDC have emphasised. The virus is still most likely to be expelled with a cough or a sneeze, as far as eight metres (about 26 feet), according to one study. But studies on influenza and other respiratory viruses, including other coronaviruses, have shown that people can release aerosols containing the virus simply by breathing or talking — or, presumably, by singing.
“I think increasing evidence suggests the virus is spread not just through droplets but through aerosols,” Chowell said. “It would make a lot of sense to encourage at the very least face mask use in enclosed spaces including supermarkets.”
Several studies have shown now that people infected with the new coronavirus are most contagious about one to three days before they begin to show symptoms. This presymptomatic transmission was not true of the coronaviruses that caused severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
“This is where we got very lucky with SARS, was that it really didn’t transmit until after people were showing symptoms, and that made it much easier to detect it and shut it down with aggressive public health measures,” said Dr Carl Bergstrom, an expert in emerging infectious diseases at the University of Washington in Seattle.
With the new coronavirus, there is transmission by healthy-seeming people, and often severe symptoms and a high fatality rate. “That whole combination makes it very, very tough to fight using standard public health measures,” he said.
Rapid tests for infection might help detect people, especially health care workers, who are infected yet feel normal. Masks may help. But experts kept returning to social distancing as the single best tool for stopping the chain of transmission in the long term — not lockdowns, necessarily, but canceling mass events, working from home when possible and closing schools.
“We can’t assume that any of us are not potential vectors at any time,” Bergstrom said. “This is why even though I’m feeling great, and have felt great and haven’t been exposed to anybody with any symptoms of anything, that’s why it would be irresponsible of me to go out and about today.”
Apoorva Mandavilli c.2020 The New York Times Company
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Get fit in isolation with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 and save AU$150
Fitness is being promoted everywhere from social media to news articles, and for good reason – exercise promotes healthy habits and is extremely beneficial for your mental health. If you’re wanting to jump on the bandwagon (or have already), you can track all those calories you’ve burnt with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 and save a cool AU$150 all in one go!
The Galaxy Watch Active 2 is the latest addition to Samsung's Tizen watch range - it’s slimmer, lighter, and arguably more comfortable than its predecessor and includes a rotating digital bezel.
This quality smartwatch features a stunning 1.2-inch 360 x 360 display and is smaller compared to a lot of other smart-wearables out there, making it less clunky and more stylish.
In addition to this, Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 sports top-end fitness features with 39 workout modes, a heart rate and ECG sensor, and a health app with stress and sleep monitoring.
With the discount applied, this is an incredible deal on a top-of-the-line smartwatch that’s sure to keep you on track so you can smash your fitness goals. You can grab the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 in either Black or Rose gold directly from Microsoft until April 19.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered out now on PS4
Yesterday, we reported on a leak which stated that a Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 remaster was on the eve of release, and that has now been proven entirely accurate, with the game now officially available to download from the PlayStation Network.
While the game is only available on PS4 for the time being, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered will also arrive on PC and Xbox One on April 30.
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare now has a bloodthirsty Tamagotchi
- Call of Duty Modern Warfare drops slew of free maps, weapons, and modes
Predictably, the remaster boasts a number of visual enhancements, such as HDR support and resolutions of up to 4K on consoles, while the PC version will be fully optimized, offering uncapped framerates and ultra-wide monitor support.
"No Russian."
As the name would suggest, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered will only include the single-player portion of the beloved game. Thankfully, that means the inclusion of such classic missions as 'Cliffhanger', 'Takedown', and the highly controversial 'No Russian'.
Of course, multiplayer enthusiasts haven't been left entirely in the cold – those who purchase the game will also receive the Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle for immediate use with the current Call of Duty: Modern Warfare game and the free (and standalone) Call of Duty: Warzone battle royale mode.
The bundle includes a new UDT Ghost Operator skin, two weapon blueprints, a weapon charm, new finishing move, voice quip, animated calling card, emblem and two Battle Pass tier skips.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered has been priced at $19.99 (£19.99 / AU$35,95). You can check out the action-packed PS4 trailer below.
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Apple buys Dark Sky weather app and shuts down the Android version
Dark Sky for iOS is one of the most popular weather apps available, and Apple has clearly taken notice, because now the tech giant has officially acquired the “hyperlocal” weather app.
Compared with other contenders in the same category, Dark Sky is noted for having more granular detail on the weather at a user’s actual location, offering “down-to-the-minute forecasts” via a pleasing user interface.
News of the acquisition was announced via a blog post from the app developers which also outlined the key changes that the purchase will bring. Most notably among them will be the discontinuation of the Android and Wear OS version of the Dark Sky apps.
“The app will no longer be available for download. Service to existing users and subscribers will continue until July 1, 2020, at which point the app will be shut down. Subscribers who are still active at that time will receive a refund.”
- For those looking for an alternative, try out these Android weather apps
That same July 1, 2020 cutoff applies to weather forecasts, maps and embeds from the Dark Sky website, which will be shut down on that date.
Along with the death of the Android app, Dark Sky’s API (application programming interface) will no longer be available for others to use, meaning that other popular apps like Carrot Weather that rely on the API will have to find an alternative solution, although they’ll be given until the end of 2021 to do so.
For those currently using the iOS app, “there will be no changes at this time”, according to Dark Sky, so you can continue to purchase the app via the iOS app store.
With that said, it’s very possible we could see Apple’s own weather app get a makeover at some point down the line given how well-received Dark Sky’s user interface and hyperlocal capabilities are, so here's hoping.
- Not keen on paying? Check out these free iPhone weather app alternatives
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You do not have any symptoms of coronvairus, should you wear a mask in public?
If you’re not sick with the new coronavirus, should you wear a mask in public? Global health authorities say no. Amid a shortage of masks, the U.S. is sticking with that advice but Tuesday, President Donald Trump suggested people who are worried wear a scarf.
That shortage is so severe that the Joint Commission, which accredits U.S. hospitals, said Tuesday that if facilities can’t provide proper masks, health workers are allowed to bring their own from home.
Front-line health workers have the greatest need for masks. And when people are sick, wearing a mask helps lessen the chances of infecting others. In places where relatives care for the sick at home, the World Health Organization also has recommended they wear a mask.
But “there is no specific evidence to suggest that the wearing of masks by the mass population has any particular benefit,” Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO’s epidemics chief, told reporters Monday.
“In fact, there’s some evidence to suggest the opposite,” he added, noting risks from an improperly fitted mask or touching the face while taking it off or putting it on.
For months as the COVID-19 crisis grew and masks disappeared from store shelves, U.S. health officials have agreed. The virus is believed to spread mostly through droplets from coughs or sneezes, and thus the main advice has been to keep your distance — staying two meters away — in addition to frequent hand-washing and not touching your face. Health workers who may be doing procedures that generate tinier particles are supposed to get high priority for tight-fitting filtering masks.
“Seriously people - STOP BUYING MASKS!” Surgeon General Jerome Adams wrote in a 29 February tweet. “They are not effective in preventing the general public from catching #Coronavirus but if healthcare providers can’t get them to care for sick patients, it puts them and our communities at risk.”
But mask-wearing has long been common in some countries during respiratory outbreaks, especially in parts of Asia. As questions grow about whether people sometimes can spread the virus before realizing they’re sick -- which social distancing is supposed to address — increasingly people ask what it would hurt to wear some form of mask in public.
Trump said Tuesday that his scientific advisers made clear the general public shouldn’t be competing with hospitals and health workers for scarce masks of any type.
His solution: “Use a scarf if you want,” Trump said at the daily White House briefing. “It doesn’t have to be a mask. It’s not a bad idea at least for a period of time.”
Earlier in the day, Dr Anthony Fauci, infectious disease chief at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, had told CNN that once there are enough masks, there might be “some very serious consideration” about broadening the mask recommendations.
For now, the advice posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website: “If you are NOT sick: You do not need to wear a face mask unless you are caring for someone who is sick (and they are not able to wear a face mask).”
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Global warming could make cyclones more dangerous, harder to predict, finds study
A team of scientists from the US just reported in Nature Communications that there has been a detectable increase in the rate of cyclone intensification. This is referred to as Rapid intensification or RI. RI not only leads to a devastating loss of life and property, but it also renders cyclones hard to predict. The study is global but confidence levels are high only for the Atlantic hurricanes due to data availability. One cannot help but wonder whether RI is occurring in the Indian Ocean as well.
The official definition of RI is that an increase of maximum sustained winds of a cyclone by at least 55 km/h occurs within 24 hours.
The study focuses on the period covering 1982–2008 and uses data to identify cases where RI occurred. Data on the rate of intensification is obviously critical for drawing robust conclusions. The team then uses a model which can produce RI reliably, to analyse the role of global warming on RI. Models can simulate the counterfactual climate, i.e., conditions that would exist in the absence of global warming. The simulations of RI in the counterfactual world can then be compared to the actual conditions that exist now, to determine if global warming has had any contribution to RI.
Renowned hurricane expert Kerry Emmanuel of MIT, USA argued a few years ago that global warming will lead to enhanced RIs. He also notes that this would mean a reduced skill in forecasting hurricanes. There is no clear evidence that the total number of tropical cyclones (TCs) has increased under global warming. However, the number of TCs reaching ‘major’ categories (3–5) has increased. Regions with the fastest warming of sea surface temperatures (SSTs) appear to be favouring RI in the past 3–4 decades.
The Indian Ocean is warming rapidly and monotonically.
Model experiments are performed with and without anthropogenic forcings like CO2, aerosols and ozone. Natural forcings provided by solar variability and volcanoes are also included. Several years from the 19th, 20th and the 21st century are chosen and simulations with and without anthropogenic forcings are performed. The simulations without anthropogenic forcings represent the counterfactual climate background in which hurricanes would form. Year 1860 is chosen as counterfactual to ensure that modulation of natural variability by global warming is also accounted for.
Model simulations with the anthropogenic and natural forcings included should resemble the observed or data-based estimates of the number of hurricanes that experienced RI. If they do, one would have confidence that the counterfactual world is also accurately represented by the model. The differences in actual and counterfactual worlds represent the influence of anthropogenic forcings on RI.
The model used in the study is capable of faithfully reproducing observed RI during the study period. This model-data analysis shows that internal or natural variability alone cannot explain the increase in the fraction of TCs experiencing RI. This means anthropogenic forcings have played a role in increasing intensification rates during 1982–2009. This period is too short to totally eliminate decadal changes in RI that could naturally occur. But, the extensive comparison of multiple decades offers sufficient confidence to claim anthropogenic influence on RI.
The simulations are limited in number due to the high computational cost of models which capture TCs. Data limitations are also an issue, especially prior to the satellite coverage period for regions outside the Atlantic. For example, satellite coverage over the Indian Ocean has been sufficient only since 1998. Thus, no confident conclusions can be drawn about RI over the Indian Ocean. Nonetheless, the highly vulnerable Indian Ocean rim countries must step up similar attribution studies for detecting trends in RI.
Are Tropical Cyclones Changing over the North Indian Ocean?
It is well known that the North Indian Ocean has a pre- and post-monsoon cyclone season. The monsoon season has strong vertical shear — change in wind strength or direction with height — that inhabits TC formation. Dry desert winds also prevent the Arabian Sea TCs from growing very strong.
Last year made history for a very late monsoon onset and a withdrawal that dragged on into October. The cyclone season was also a monster with six severe, six very severe, and three extremely severe cyclone storms, with one becoming a super cyclone. Also unusual was the severe cyclonic storm that formed in June and displayed some RI. This cyclone Vayu wandered into the Arabian Sea after forming near the Maldives. It is unclear if the delayed onset of the monsoon created favourable conditions for this unusual occurrence.
Increased TC intensities over the Arabian Sea because of black carbon and other aerosols are reported. Anthropogenic warming has increased the number of post-monsoon TCs growing to extremely severe cyclonic storms over the Arabian Sea. Global warming is also found to increase the intensity of TCs over the Bay of Bengal.
However, there is a lack of long-term observational data for TC intensification rates. Thus, no robust statement can be made about RI over the North Indian Ocean. The precautionary principle would demand that strategies for collecting necessary data to track RI be established urgently.
Cyclones are seen to be moving more slowly with global warming and tend to stall near coasts. This typically leads to devastating amounts of rains in short periods. The impact of rapid and monotonic warming of the Indian Ocean could exacerbate the impact of TCs in addition to pumping moisture into widespread monsoon extremes.
The good news is that IMD’s forecasting skills are increasing each year, and the errors in position are decreasing. If the RI of TCs increases, however, these skills might not be very useful.
All of this only underscores the need for sustained observations needed to advance the process, and in the predictive understanding of TCs and RI in our region. Despite the rapt attention on the global crisis precipitated by COVID–19, we cannot take our eyes off the pre-monsoon cyclone season creeping up on us.
Returning to COVID–19, we must remember that warm temperatures and heavy rain provide a perfect petri dish for breeding the numerous, endemic, waterborne diseases in India. We can only hope that COVID–19 does not add to this already volatile mix.
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Party over? Houseparty users claim app has been hacked, creators deny any breach
The Houseparty app you are hooked to may seem like the best thing right now, but think again!
Ever since the lockdown around the world, video calling app, Houseparty's popularity has exploded. It lets you video call up to eight people simultaneously and turns the call into a party with games like Pictionary, Trivia quiz and others that you can play while on call.
However, just days after the app became the most-talked-about app on the internet, some users have claimed that the app has been compromised.
Many users online claim that they've had their Spotify, Netflix, Snapchat, and PayPal accounts hacked after downloading the app.
BEWARE! I know I’m not the only one with this problem! A few of my friends have been hacked by @houseparty if you look at the twitter feed! They log into your Spotify from Russia. Get your bank details and can hack it. It’s very simple once you click agree to terms and conditions pic.twitter.com/kBKU7dMUyd
— ellieb (@ellielaurenb) March 30, 2020
Someone’s tried to hack my insta 3x since I been using Houseparty anyone else had any strange things like this happen to them?
— GHANA'S FINEST (@Ghanasfinestx) March 30, 2020
However, while many users have been receiving notifications about login into their Spotify account or Apple account, and people are putting two and two together and blaming it on their most recent download, which is Houseparty, till now there isn't any evidence that the logins have been caused due to a breach in/by the video calling app.
I appreciate that a lot of people seem to have been getting notifications like this but i just haven't seen anything directly linking it to houseparty is all im saying. The apps wank anyway i was just intrigued
— (@PelikannUK) March 30, 2020
Some users are also claiming that their bank accounts or PayPal account has been hacked, and that seems odd, since the app does not require any bank information from users.
Houseparty tried to get me to put my bank details in claiming a delivery had been stopped and i needed to pay extra packaging, please be careful on the app it’s clearly trying to hack people, i used my email & i think they hacked that to know that i had a delivery placed pic.twitter.com/1PVwpaOKFT
— sarah (@sarahkiely7) March 31, 2020
Meanwhile, Epic Games, the maker of Houseparty, have told The Sun that they have "found no evidence to suggest a link between Houseparty and the compromises of other unrelated accounts."
"As a general rule, we suggest all users choose strong passwords when creating online accounts on any platform...Use a unique password for each account, and use a password generator or password manager to keep track of passwords, rather than using passwords that are short and simple," the spokesperson added.
To know more about how you can use the Houseparty app privately, read here.
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Castlevania Season 4: Netflix Renews Video Game Anime Series
Netflix renewed its video game series adaptation Castlevania for a fourth season, just over three weeks after the release of the third season earlier in March.
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Microsoft Says Skype Users Surge 70 Percent in a Month to 40 Million Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
The number of people using Microsoft's Skype video calling system has surged by 70 percent in a month to 40 million people presently, as more individuals stay home due to the coronavirus outbreak, the company said on Monday.
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Microsoft 365 is Indicative of a New Direction Where Microsoft is All About Consumers
We expect the India pricing for Microsoft 365 to be similar to the Office 365 plans at this time—Office 365 Home for up to 6 people costs Rs 5,299 per year while Office 365 Personal for single user is priced at Rs 4,199 per year.from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2Uth8l6
Microsoft Office 365 Gets Replaced With Microsoft 365, Coming on April 21
Microsoft 365 will replace Office 365 on April 21, the Redmond company announced through an online briefing on Monday. Microsoft also announced Teams for consumers and a Family Sharing app.
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Netflix April 2020 Releases: Money Heist, Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction, The Departed, and More
Money Heist season 4, Chris Hemsworth in Extraction movie, Ana de Armas on Netflix, The Departed, Pacific Rim: Uprising, Vir Das’ Hasmukh, Yours Sincerely, Kanan Gill, Mindy Kaling’s Never Have I Ever, Ricky Gervais’ After Life season 2 — the biggest movies and TV shows coming to Netflix India in April 2020.
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OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro, OnePlus 8 Lite with 5G connectivity to make global debut on 14 April
OnePlus has officially announced that it will globally unveil its OnePlus 8 series on 14 April. In the tweet, it is also mentioned that the said event will begin at 4.30 pm IST. It is expected that this upcoming series will include OnePlus 8, 8 Pro and an affordable variant OnePlus 8 Lite.
According to another tweet by the company, the smartphones of OnePlus 8 series will come with 5G connectivity and a 120 Hz refresh rate display.
OnePlus 7T Pro launched at a price of Rs 53,999. Image: tech2/Abhijit Dey.
Ready to #LeadwithSpeed?
— OnePlus (@oneplus) March 31, 2020
OnePlus 8, 8 Pro expected specifications
According to previous reports, OnePlus 8 is expected to come in a new purplish-red gradient that is likely to be called Interstellar Glow. Both sources also suggest that it might also come in Glacier Green and Onyx Black colour variants.
OnePlus 8 is likely to come with a punch-hole display that sits in the top left corner of the display. At the back, the renders suggest that we might see a vertical camera module that houses a triple rear camera setup.
You can also see an LED Flash placed just below the camera setup. Since there is no physical fingerprint sensor that is visible in the renders, it is safe to say that OnePlus is likely to come with an in-display fingerprint sensor, just like its predecessors.
As per earlier reports, OnePlus 8 Pro might come with a punch-hole camera (placed in the top left corner) and a triple camera setup at the back. The report suggested that OnePlus 8 Pro might be powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset and is likely to offer 12 GB RAM and 256 GB of internal storage.
In terms of camera, the previous report revealed that the smartphone is expected to feature a 64 MP + 20 MP + 12 MP triple rear camera setup. OnePlus 8 Pro is likely to feature a 6.65 inch AMOLED display that has a 120-Hz refresh rate. The smartphone is likely to come in a black variant.
Tipster Ishan Agarwal has also revealed that OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will come with IP68 dust and water resistance rating.
Exclusive: They're coming! Here is the full specification list of the #OnePlus8 & 8 Pro. Seems like #OnePlus8Pro is gonna be a beast with 6.78" 120hz QHD+ Display and 48+48+8+5MP Camera Setup. Will have 30W Wireless Charging & IP68 Rating too. I'm so excited! #OnePlus8Series pic.twitter.com/j1AAo19q4J
— Ishan Agarwal (@ishanagarwal24) March 25, 2020
If these rumours are to be believed, it will be the first time that OnePlus smartphone will come with an official IP rating.
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Airtel Prepaid Users Get Extended Validity And Additional Talktime; 80 Million Users Benefit
Airtel says they will also credit Rs 10 to the accounts of each of these 80 million users so that they can make calls and send messages. They say these measures will particularly benefit migrant workers and daily wage earners who may have been impacted due to the nationwide lockdown to combat COVID-19from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2JuUm60
Coronavirus Outbreak: Reliance JioFiber offers free 10 Mbps broadband plan for users
With the entire country is in lockdown to flatten the coronavirus curve, most people are working from home. To allow seamless work in these times, Reliance JioFiber has now come up with a new broadband plan that provides 10 Mbps broadband free for households.
As per Reliance Jio, the initiative falls under their #JioTogether campaign. “We are committed to keep you connected through these trying times,” the telecom company posted on Facebook along with details about the plan.
Keeping in mind the lockdown due to COVID-19, Jio wants to ensure everyone stays connected.
“For this period Jio is providing basic JioFiber broadband connectivity (10 Mbps) for your home, wherever geographically feasible, without any service charges,” read the Facebook post.
The benefit of the new plan is only until the lockdown is in effect in India. Once the lockdown is over, subscribers of the free plan will be moved to other existing plans.
For subscribing to the free JioFiber 10Mbps plan, people will have to go to the official website or Myjio app and sign up.
Reliance Jio had earlier introduced a work from home plan at Rs 251. The plan with a validity of 51 days offered 2 GB data per day.
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This is the cheapest Ryzen PC workstation on the market
At less than USD300, including delivery from Aliexpress (which delivers globally), this desktop PC from Chinese manufacturer Ipason is probably the most affordable Ryzen-based workstation on the market - and it can double as a gaming PC too.
Based on the Ryzen 3 2200G APU, it can trounce Intel Core i3-800T CPUs usually found in devices at this price. Its CPU benchmark (6840 points) is achieved using four cores clocked at up to 3.7GHz and more than 6MB cache.
Its Radeon Vega 8 Graphics offers eight graphics cores clocked at up to 1.1GHz and delivers one of the best graphics performances from an integrated video subsystem. Ipason claims that it should offer the same experience as an Nvidia Geforce GT1030 discrete GPU.
- Here's our list of the best business workstations available
- Check out our list of the best business laptops on the market
- Here's our choice of the best business tablets of 2020
As expected, it comes with a mATX motherboard, which means connectivity options are limited. It features an HDMI port, six USB connectors, an Ethernet LAN plug and three audio inputs. There is, however, room for expansion thanks to the generously-sized casing (available in black or white).
Add in 8GB of memory (sadly, single RAM module) and a 120GB SSD and you've got a fairly decent base unit.
Note, the bundle lacks a keyboard and a mouse, which could prove more challenging to procure due to the current global pandemic.
- We've compiled a list of the best business desktops available
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Secretlab's excellent Omega gaming chair is massively discounted
Governments around the world are asking everyone to stay indoors to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, and Australia is no different. With lockdown laws in place, and many of us now either working from home, or having more time on our hands indoors, we find ourselves in need of a good home office setup or a more comfortable gaming arena.
Secretlab, the maker behind our favourite gaming chair, is helping with a stay-at-home sale.
You can score up to AU$150 off selected gaming chairs from the 2018 Series, which includes one of our top recommendations, the Secretlab Omega. It’s a chair that’s got numerous customisation options and sturdy construction with premium materials.
There are plenty of adjustable tweaks you can make to get this chair feeling just right, from the angle of the backrest to the position of the armrests, and almost every conceivable adjustment in between.
You can tailor the look of your chair with a number of upholstery options to choose from at checkout, including pleather (polyurethane leather), fabric and genuine leather, though the price will vary depending on which you opt for.
To truly save a packet, Secretlab’s 2018 collection is seeing the biggest price drop. The genuine leather options have the deepest discount and are now down to AU$849, while the pleather choices are available for as low as AU$434.
While it’s not as big a discount as mentioned above, Secretlab’s 2020 version of the Titan is AU$30 off, bringing the pleather option down to AU$569 – nothing to be sniffed at for a choice gaming chair. Alternatively, you can go for another one of our top picks from the 2020 range – the Secretlab Omega in pleather for AU$519.
You’ll need to hurry if you want to spend the coming weeks in comfort, as this sale ends on April 2. Check out savings on the full 2020 range or the 2018 range from Secretlab.
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New York attorney-general looks into Zoom's privacy practices; app's popularity growing during coronavirus outbreak
Zoom, the videoconferencing app whose traffic has surged during the coronavirus pandemic, is under scrutiny by the office of New York’s attorney-general, Letitia James, for its data privacy and security practices.
On Monday, the office sent Zoom a letter asking what, if any, new security measures the company has put in place to handle increased traffic on its network and to detect hackers, according to a copy reviewed by The New York Times.
While the letter referred to Zoom as “an essential and valuable communications platform,” it outlined several concerns, noting that the company had been slow to address security flaws such as vulnerabilities “that could enable malicious third parties to, among other things, gain surreptitious access to consumer webcams.”
Over the last few weeks, internet trolls have exploited a Zoom screen-sharing feature to hijack meetings and do things like interrupt educational sessions or post white supremacist messages to a webinar on anti-Semitism — a phenomenon called “Zoombombing.”
The New York attorney-general’s office is “concerned that Zoom’s existing security practices might not be sufficient to adapt to the recent and sudden surge in both the volume and sensitivity of data being passed through its network,” the letter said. “While Zoom has remediated specific reported security vulnerabilities, we would like to understand whether Zoom has undertaken a broader review of its security practices.”
With millions of Americans required to shelter at home because of the coronavirus, Zoom video meetings have quickly become a mainstay of communication for companies, public schools and families. Zoom’s cloud-meetings app is currently the most popular free app for iPhones in the United States, according to Sensor Tower, a mobile app market research firm.
Even as the stock market has plummeted, shares of Zoom have more than doubled since the beginning of the year.
As Zoom’s popularity has grown, the app has scrambled to address a series of data privacy and security problems, a reactive approach that has led to complaints from some consumer, privacy and children’s groups.
The company updated its privacy policy Sunday after users reported concerns, and Monday, Eric S Yuan, chief executive and founder of Zoom, posted a link on Twitter to a company blog item about the policy.
In a statement for this article, the company said it took “its users’ privacy, security and trust extremely seriously,” and had been “working around the clock to ensure that hospitals, universities, schools and other businesses across the world can stay connected and operational.”
“We appreciate the New York attorney-general’s engagement on these issues and are happy to provide her with the requested information,” the statement added.
Last week, after an article on news site Motherboard reported that software inside the Zoom iPhone app was sending user data to Facebook, the company said it was removing the tracking software.
As many school districts adopted Zoom to allow teachers to host live lessons with students, some children’s privacy experts and parents said they were particularly concerned about how children’s personal details might be used. Some districts have prohibited educators from using Zoom as a distance-learning platform.
“There is so much we simply don’t know about Zoom’s privacy practices,” said Josh Golin, executive director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a nonprofit group in Boston.
In the letter, James’ office cited reports that Zoom had shared data with Facebook and asked for further information on “the categories of data that Zoom collects, as well as the purposes and entities to whom Zoom provides consumer data.”
The office expressed concern that the app may be circumventing state requirements protecting student data. To help educators, the company recently expanded meeting limits on free accounts. The attorney general’s office called such efforts “laudable” but also said the company appeared to be trying to offload consent requirements to schools.
The office requested a description of Zoom’s policy for obtaining and verifying consent in primary and secondary schools as well as a description of third parties who received data related to children.
Zoom has said its service for schools complies with federal laws on educational privacy and student privacy.
The letter also asked for details about any changes the company put in place after a security researcher, Jonathan Leitschuh, exposed a flaw allowing hackers to take over Zoom webcams. The letter noted that the company did not address the problem until after the Electronic Privacy Information Centre, a public interest research centre, filed a complaint about Zoom with the Federal Trade Commission last year.
Danny Hakim and Natasha Singer c.2020 The New York Times Company
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Coronavirus Outbreak: Older people are at risk of dying but they are not the only ones that are vulnerable
Older people remain most at risk of dying as the new coronavirus continues its rampage around the globe, but they’re far from the only ones vulnerable. One of many mysteries: Men seem to be faring worse than women.
And as cases skyrocket in the U.S. and Europe, it’s becoming more clear that how healthy you were before the pandemic began plays a key role in how you fare regardless of how old you are.
The majority of people who get COVID-19 have mild or moderate symptoms. But “majority” doesn’t mean “all,” and that raises an important question: Who should worry most that they’ll be among the seriously ill? While it will be months before scientists have enough data to say for sure who is most at risk and why preliminary numbers from early cases around the world are starting to offer hints.
Not just the old get sick
Senior citizens undoubtedly are the hardest hit by COVID-19. In China, 80 percent of deaths were among people in their 60s or older, and that general trend is playing out elsewhere.
The greying of the population means some countries face particular risk. Italy has the world’s second-oldest population after Japan. While death rates fluctuate wildly early in an outbreak, Italy has reported more than 80 percent of deaths so far were among those 70 or older.
But, “the idea that this is purely a disease that causes death in older people we need to be very, very careful with,” Dr Mike Ryan, the World Health Organization’s emergencies chief, warned.
As much as 10 percent to 15 percent of people under 50 have moderate to severe infection, he said Friday.
Even if they survive, the middle-aged can spend weeks in the hospital. In France, more than half of the first 300 people admitted to intensive care units were under 60.
“Young people are not invincible,” WHO’s Maria Van Kerkhove added, saying more information is needed about the disease in all age groups.
Italy reported that a quarter of its cases so far were among people ages 19 to 50. In Spain, a third are under age 44. In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s first snapshot of cases found 29 percent were aged 20 to 44.
Then there’s the puzzle of children, who have made up a small fraction of the world’s case counts to date. But while most appear only mildly ill, in the journal Pediatrics researchers traced 2,100 infected children in China and noted one death, a 14-year-old, and that nearly six percent were seriously ill.
Another question is what role kids have in spreading the virus: “There is an urgent need for further investigation of the role children have in the chain of transmission,” researchers at Canada’s Dalhousie University wrote in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Riskiest Health Conditions
Put aside age: Underlying health plays a big role. In China, 40 percent of people who required critical care had other chronic health problems. And there, deaths were highest among people who had heart disease, diabetes or chronic lung diseases before they got COVID-19.
Preexisting health problems also can increase risk of infection, such as people who have weak immune systems including from cancer treatment.
Other countries now are seeing how pre-pandemic health plays a role, and more such threats are likely to be discovered. Italy reported that of the first nine people younger than 40 who died of COVID-19, seven were confirmed to have “grave pathologies” such as heart disease.
The more health problems, the worse they fare. Italy also reports about half of people who died with COVID-19 had three or more underlying conditions, while just two percent of deaths were in people with no preexisting ailments.
Heart disease is a very broad term, but so far it looks like those most at risk have significant cardiovascular diseases such as congestive heart failure or severely stiffened and clogged arteries, said Dr. Trish Perl, infectious disease chief at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Any sort of infection tends to make diabetes harder to control, but it’s not clear why diabetics appear to be at particular risk with COVID-19.
Risks in the less healthy may have something to do with how they hold up if their immune systems overreact to the virus. Patients who die often seemed to have been improving after a week or so only to suddenly deteriorate — experiencing organ-damaging inflammation.
As for preexisting lung problems, “this is really happening in people who have less lung capacity,” Perl said, because of diseases such as COPD — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — or cystic fibrosis.
Asthma also is on the worry list. No one really knows about the risk from very mild asthma, although even routine respiratory infections often leave patients using their inhalers more often and they’ll need monitoring with COVID-19, she said. What about a prior bout of pneumonia? Unless it was severe enough to put you on a ventilator, that alone shouldn’t have caused any significant lingering damage, she said.
Gender Mystery
Perhaps the gender imbalance shouldn’t be a surprise: During previous outbreaks of SARS and MERS — cousins to COVID-19 — scientists noticed men seemed more susceptible than women.
This time around, slightly more than half the COVID-19 deaths in China were among men. Other parts of Asia saw similar numbers. Then Europe, too, spotted what Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, labelled a concerning trend.
In Italy, where men so far make up 58 percent of infections, male deaths are outpacing female deaths and the increased risk starts at age 50, according to a report from Italy’s COVID-19 surveillance group.
The U.S. CDC hasn’t yet released details. But one report about the first nearly 200 British patients admitted to critical care found about two-thirds were male.
One suspect: Globally, men are more likely to have smoked more heavily and for longer periods than women. The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control is urging research into smoking’s connection to COVID-19.
Hormones may play a role, too. In 2017, University of Iowa researchers infected mice with SARS and, just like had happened in people, males were more likely to die. Estrogen seemed protective — when their ovaries were removed, deaths among female mice jumped, the team reported in the Journal of Immunology.
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Xbox Series X release date, specs, design and launch titles for the next Xbox
Xbox Series X is the next-generation Xbox. Previously known by its codename 'Xbox Project Scarlett', the Xbox Series X was officially revealed at The Game Awards 2019 with a trailer that showed off the next Xbox in all its glory.
So far we know when the next Xbox will release, its official name and a couple of the console's launch titles, as well as information on backwards compatibility and how cross-gen game ownership will work under the new 'Smart Delivery' initiative. We also know it will have a slightly redesigned controller that should be more accessible, and offer 1TB SSD upgrades from Seagate.
From what we've seen so far, it looks like the Xbox Series X will sport a blockier style that's similar to that of a small gaming PC. More importantly, we now know what's inside the console thanks to Microsoft giving us the Series X's full specs and can say for sure that the new Xbox is going to be an absolute powerhouse.
But Xbox Series X will not be the only next-generation hardware on offer from Microsoft. The company has confirmed that the next-generation family of consoles will be called 'Xbox' and that 'Series X' is just one of the consoles within that family that's likely to include a cheaper disc-drive free version as well.
So what exactly has Microsoft got to offer? How will it compare to the PS5? Let's break down everything we know about the Xbox Series X.
- What is it? Xbox Series X will be the next-gen Xbox console
- Xbox Series X release date: "Holiday 2020" - so between October and December
- What can I play on it? Halo Infinite and Hellblade 2, while all previous generations of Xbox console games will be covered by backwards compatibility.
- What will the Xbox Series X cost? No prices yet, and we're not expecting it to be cheap. But Microsoft has said it won't be making the same pricing mistakes as last generation so perhaps we'll be pleasantly surprised.
- Will Xbox Series X have VR? Microsoft has confirmed Xbox Series X won't have VR at launch, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer saying the company is waiting until Xbox VR is a "no-brainer".
- Will coronavirus delay the Xbox Series X release? There have been rumors this could happen. We don't think that'll be the case and Microsoft is still citing the same release window.
Microsoft has given the release window of "Holiday 2020" - which means we'll likely see the Xbox Series X release between October and December this year.
However, it's possible that the release date will be November 26, 2020 (AKA Thanksgiving in the US). An image stating the Xbox Series X is "coming Thanksgiving 2020" (shown above) appeared on a number of product pages around the world briefly before being reverted back to to the previously announced Holiday 2020 release window.
A Microsoft spokesperson responded to TechRadar to clarify, saying "An Xbox product page in some regions inaccurately listed the launch date for Xbox Series X as Thanksgiving 2020. We are committed to launching Holiday 2020.”
Microsoft won't be pinned down on an Xbox Series X price point quite yet – unsurprisingly, given what a sore spot the price of the Xbox One was for fans. At launch, the original Xbox One cost a whopping $499 / £429 / AU$599, which was quickly reduced when Microsoft realized people weren't forking out.
Microsoft has at the very least promised that it's learned from this pricing mistake, with Phil Spencer stating that this time "we will not be out of position on power or price.” That doesn't mean that the console will be cheap, mind you, it just means the price point will be better aligned with the console's power and the price points of the competition.
After all, Jason Ronald, director of the Xbox platform, gave only a vague reassurance when speaking to Windows Central, saying that Microsoft knew "what reasonable price points are for a console and kind of what customers expect about that".
When it comes to the PS5 and Xbox Series X, players see 'affordable price' as the most important factor, according to a Twitter poll by Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon. Boon asked Twitter users what the most important thing was for them when it comes to next-gen consoles. The poll received a total of 50,295 responses, with a 37.5% majority of users saying 'affordable price' was the most important factor. 'Plays last-gen games' (AKA backwards compatibility) came second with 30%, 'better graphics' received 19.2% of votes, while 'exclusive games' was the least important with just 13.2% of votes.
It's worth noting that a Twitter poll isn't exactly reflective of the overall player base, especially as it's unlikely younger players will be on the platform. So, while this poll can be useful as a steer, the reality is likely to be a lot more complex. Regardless, we expect price to be a key factor in whether players pick up a PS5 or Xbox Series X - even if it's not the most important.
Price will at least in part be determined by the cost of the components going into the console: Xbox Scarlett is going to be a lot more powerful than either the Xbox One S or Xbox One X, and that will likely mean we're looking at an even higher price tag on any bundles and Xbox Series X pre-orders.
- What are teraflops? Let us explain
- Cloud game streaming could decide the future of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5
Xbox Series X components. (Image credit: Microsoft)
- CPU: 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz (3.6GHz with SMT) 7nm
- GPU: 12 TFLOPs, 52 CUs at 1.825GHz, Custom RDNA 2
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6
- Storage: 1TB custom NVMe SSD
- Optical drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray
- 120 fps support
- Potential 8K resolutions
- Ray-tracing technology
- Variable Rate Shading for more stable frame rates
- Compatible with Xbox One accessories
We now know what Xbox Series X looks like and what it's packing under the hood, and it's going to be an absolute beast of a console.The next Xbox's gaming PC design is pretty apt, considering the next-gen console's internal hardware is comparable to one - so make sure you check out our Xbox Series X spec analysis.
Microsoft has finally revealed the Xbox Series X specifications in full, leaving no one in doubt about how powerful its next-generation games console will be.
The folks over at Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry got a close look at the hardware, and alongside Microsoft have announced the hardware that will be powering the Xbox Series X.
According to Digital Foundry, the specs confirm that the Xbox Series X will indeed be twice as powerful as the Xbox Once X… in practise.
Digital Foundry saw an unoptimized version of Gears 5 running on the Xbox Series X running at the equivalent of ‘Ultra’ graphics settings on PC, and it comes with enhanced shadows and ray tracing. Where the cut scenes ran at 30FPS on the Xbox One X, Digital Foundry reported that on the Xbox Series X, it runs at a ‘flawless’ 60FPS. Also, this is an early port – on release we should see even better results.
As expected, the Xbox Series X processor is built into a custom Project Scarlett SoC (System on Chip), which uses an enhanced version of TSMC’s 7nm process. That seven nanometers is important. The smaller the process, the more efficient the chip can be. That means it can provide more performance for less power.
Making sure the chip inside a games console can perform well without using lots of power (and getting hot) is incredibly important.
The processor is a customised AMD Zen 2 CPU with eight cores and 16 threads, with a peak speed of 3.8GHz, and a base speed of 3.6GHz.
As Digital Foundry reveals, these frequencies aren’t completely locked, which suggests the Xbox Series X could adjust the power of the CPU based on workload and thermals. So, if you’re playing a game that needs a lot of processing power, the Xbox Series X can give its CPU a boost, and then slow it down when you don’t need it.
Meanwhile, the GPU of the Xbox Series X is revealed at a custom design with 12 teraflops of compute performance, with 3328 shaders allocated to 52 compute units, and runs at a locked 1,825 MHz. Interestingly, there’s no boost clocks for the GPU. It will always run at that speed.
It also uses AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture, and offers ray tracing for photo-realistic lighting.
What does this mean in the real world? It seems the Xbox Series X will have the graphical power acquirement to a gaming PC with an Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics card. So, a very capable device indeed, but maybe not able to compete with the most powerful gaming PCs.
The Xbox Series X also gets 16GB of GDDR6 memory – an upgrade from the Xbox One X’s 12GB GDDR5.
That won’t all be used in games, however. Games will get a total of 13.5GB – 10GB of GPU optimal memory and 3.5GB of standard memory, while the remaining 2.5GB is reserved for the operating system.
The faster GDDR6 memory should also offer a big leap in performance. Match that with a super-fast NVMe SSD, and the Xbox Series X should feel very spritely when used.
There’s still a lot of questions over what kind of performance we can expect from the Xbox Series X, but this is by far the best look at the hardware we’ve seen.
Microsoft is aiming to get Xbox Series X games to run at 60 FPS in 4K, calling the challenge a "design goal". The console will support up to 120 FPS too.
Despite 4K being the aim, Microsoft has said the Xbox Series X has 8K capability. Phil Spencer even changed his Twitter profile photo to (what appeared to be) a picture of the next-gen Xbox Series X's processor. It said 'Project Scarlett' on it, and was marked with '8K' (pictured above), suggesting Microsoft plans on doing more than simply talking the talk when it comes to 8K.
The Xbox Series X will also feature Variable Rate Shading, which prioritizes effects on different in-game characters and objects for a "more stable frame rate and higher resolution", according to Microsoft.
Not only will games look better, they could be bigger. In an interview with PCGamesN, Samsung revealed that it's talking with Microsoft and pushing the gaming behemoth to adopt ultrawide support for the Xbox Series X.
The Xbox Series X will make good use of having an SSD – a 'Quick Resume' feature for the console will let you "almost instantly" continue with multiple games, without the need to sit through load screens.
Microsoft also aims to improve latency through features such as Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR). According to Microsoft, "ALLM allows Xbox One and Xbox Series X to automatically set the connected display to its lowest latency mode". While "VRR synchronizes the display’s refresh rate to the game’s frame rate, maintaining smooth visuals without tearing". These features aim to minimize lag and make gaming more responsive.
If you're less bothered about the specs and more concerned about whether you can still play physical games on the next Xbox, then you'll be pleased to know that Xbox Series X has a physical disc drive.
Microsoft has also confirmed that all your current Xbox One accessories will work with Xbox Series X, including existing controllers and headsets. But we'd doubt that also includes the ill-fated Kinect motion tracker.
That means that the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 will be forward compatible with Series X, but Microsoft is also launching a next-generation wireless controller to accompany the new console.
But don't expect the Xbox Series X to launch with VR support as, according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, Microsoft is waiting until VR on Xbox becomes a "no brainer". However, right now, the company doesn't see the feature as "so important" on its next-gen hardware.
- Can your TV show off Xbox Series X's jump in power? Read our guide to getting ready to upgrade your TV for Xbox Series X
Xbox Series X has a completely different design to its predecessors. For a start, the next-gen console has an upright tower design - similar to that of a gaming PC. However, Microsoft has confirmed Series X can sit horizontally or vertically.
From what we seen in the Series X reveal trailer, the console is black with slightly indented cooling vent on the top (with what seems to be a green light inside). The Xbox logo sits small on the top left hand corner of the console and there's still a disc drive - which is placed vertically on the left hand side also.
Windows Central estimates the console is 31cm x 16cm x 16cm, making it a tall cuboid. The Xbox One measures 30cm x 24cm x 6cm, making the Series X considerably larger (volume wise) than its predecessor.
Unfortunately we haven't officially seen the back of the console yet so really we're taking the Series X on 'face value'. But, thanks to leaked photos that surfaced online, we may have some idea of the next-gen console's ports.
Shared on forum site Neogaf, the photos seem to show a prototype of the next Xbox console, which will likely have been shared with devs working on titles for the Xbox Series X.
The image below shows off the rear vents of the console, as well as ports for USB, HDMI, S/PDIF, power and Ethernet. There's also a mystery port of some sort (but we'll come back to that). While, the second leaked image shows a single USB port on the front of the console. Will this be the console's final design? It's unlikely and, like any leaked information, we're treating these images with suitable skepticism.
While these images have been circling for a while now, we still weren't entirely sure what that mystery port was - until now. Thurrott claims that sources "familiar with the company's plans" have identified the port as being for storage expansion.
Microsoft hasn't confirmed it this is the case, but we wouldn't be surprised if it was seeing as external storage was supported with the Xbox One - but whether we see it included in the final Series X product is still uncertain.
Microsoft is releasing an Xbox Series X controller to accompany its next generation console. The new Xbox Wireless Controller will apparently be more accessible to everyone, as Microsoft has made an effort to refine the size and shape.
This shouldn't be too surprising to anyone that's been following the tech giant, as it's been making waves for accessibility in gaming for a while now with products like the Xbox Adaptive Controller. Along with enhanced accessibility, we'll also be getting a dedicated share button (finally) that will let you share screenshots and videos with your friends.
Microsoft has also revealed that it is optimizing latency in the "player-to-console pipeline" starting with our Xbox Wireless Controller, through a new feature called Dynamic Latency input. According to the company, this feature "synchronizes input immediately with what is displayed", making controls "more precise and responsive".
However, apart from these details, we don't know exactly what other new features the new Xbox Wireless Controller will boast quite yet.
- Xbox Series X controller: everything we know so far about the next Xbox gamepad
During the Xbox Series X's official reveal, Phil Spencer said Series X games will be "more lifelike, immersive and surprising" and that the Xbox Series X will "lead us into the future of gaming". He also stated that 15 Xbox Game Studios are building a huge next-generation library that includes Hellblade II: Senua's Saga and Halo Infinite.
Not a Halo fan? Don't worry, Xbox Series X will be capable of four generations of backwards compatibility - with the feature available from launch. That means the Series X will be able to play existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games. These games will apparently get more consistent frame rates, quicker load times and "improved resolution and visual fidelity", without requiring additional work from developers. Xbox One accessories will also be backwards compatible.
Not only is Microsoft doubling down on backwards compatibility, but the company is also introducing a new system called Smart Delivery to the Series X that, in some respects, could be seen as forwards compatibility.
With the Xbox Series X, Smart Delivery will seemingly ensure that you have the right version of a game, no matter which Xbox console you’ve bought it on. So, for instance, if you were to buy a cross-generation game on the Xbox One, you’ll have a souped-up version waiting for you as soon as you fire up the more-powerful Xbox Series X. Microsoft’s first-party titles will offer this by default, but it’s a feature that will be optional for third-party developers and publishers.
In addition, Microsoft will avoid siloing by taking a cross-generation approach to its first-party games. Talking to Stevivor, Phil Spencer said Microsoft wants to create a console that utilizes Xbox Play Anywhere so you can move seamlessly between devices: "Our goal for our first-party games is that your entitlements will be cross-generation and your Achievements will move effectively with your save game because that’s where they stand.”
As far as third-parties are concerned, we already have confirmation that a remake of THQ Nordic's cult classic Gothic, Gollum, WRC 9, Dying Light 2, Cyberpunk 2077 and Outriders will land on Xbox Series X. In addition, Ubisoft has confirmed that Watch Dogs: Legion, Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Gods and Monsters are all coming to Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 - with a new Assassin's Creed and Far Cry also rumored to be coming to the platforms. We also know Rainbow Six Siege will be available on Xbox Series X and PS5 from launch.
In addition, not only has EA has said that Battlefield 6 will be coming to Xbox Series X, but the company has sung the praises of the incoming next-generation machines during an investor call.
"The power of the new consoles is gonna be substantially greater than existing consoles," said EA CFO Blake Jorgensen. "We can do a lot more [with PS5 and Xbox Series X]. Things we’re doing will blow people’s minds."
There's plenty to look forward to and now that next generation announcements are coming in, we'll be holding our breath waiting for updates from other publishers.
It seems, at least for now, that game developers are more interested in creating games for the PS5 than Series X.
That's according to GDC's State of the Game Industry 2020 survey, which surveyed 4,000 game developers on a variety of industry topics ahead of GDC 2020 in March. And, of course, the next-gen consoles were top of the agenda.
When asked which platform they planned to launch their next project on, 23% of those surveyed said the PlayStation 5, while 17% said the Xbox Series X and 19% said the Nintendo Switch.
When it comes to the platform devs are most intrigued by, the PS5 once again leads the pack when it comes to consoles, with 38%, but the Switch only just behind on 37%. Again, the Xbox Series X is seriously lagging behind, piquing the interest of just 25% of devs.
The survey also revealed that 10% of developers are currently working on a game for the next-gen consoles.
While there's more interest in the PS5 now, Microsoft could potentially shift the scale as it reveals more details on Series X. Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass is also gathering more and more steam, bringing players (and devs) back to the Xbox platform.
We're also hoping that, by the time Series X launches, Microsoft's game-streaming service Project xCloud may be out of public testing and we should hopefully be able to enjoy Series X games on-the-go.
For those who aren't quite sold on upgrading to Series X quite yet, but still want to check out the best upcoming games, Microsoft has stated that there won't be Xbox Series X exclusive games for at least a year and, for the foreseeable future, new games are planned to work across the Xbox family of devices. That means you'll still be able to play them on Xbox One.
In an interview with MCV, head of Xbox Game Studios, Matt Booty, has said that as “content comes out over the next year, two years, all of our games, sort of like PC, will play up and down that family of devices.” The plan is that “if someone invests in Xbox between now and [Series X] that they feel that they made a good investment and that we’re committed to them with content.”
- Xbox Series X games: all the games confirmed and expected on the next Xbox
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The Xbox Series X will not be the only console in Microsoft's next generation lineup.
While we were all pretty excited when Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox (formerly known as Xbox Project Scarlett) at the Game Awards 2019, it appears that the upcoming console's name isn't quite what we thought - and it will belong to a family.
While we assumed that the next generation console is called 'Xbox Series X', Microsoft has clarified that, in fact, the family of consoles will be called 'Xbox' and that 'Series X' is just one of the consoles within the family. We know, it's a bit confusing.
Speaking to Business Insider after the reveal, a Microsoft representative tried to clear up any potential confusion.
"The name we're carrying forward to the next generation is simply Xbox," the representative told Business Insider. "And at The Game Awards you saw that name come to life through the Xbox Series X."
"Similar to what fans have seen with previous generations, the name 'Xbox Series X' allows room for additional consoles in the future," the representative continued.
This clarification from Microsoft serves to further fuel rumors that another next generation Xbox console is on the way.
Rumors have circulated for some time about a lower-cost next-gen Xbox console that would sit just below the high-end Xbox Series X.
The most solid information on this (so far) had come from a report by Kotaku’s Jason Schreier, who claims there is indeed a lower-specced console in the works from Microsoft that will still play all the next-gen games.
Project Lockhart will be disc-less console - a trait that it will carry forward from the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition - but Kotaku's sources believe it will be substantially more powerful than Microsoft’s current disc-less box, and will come with both a solid-state hard drive and a faster CPU than any current game console.
The report goes on to say that Microsoft told developers to shoot for a 1440p resolution and 60 frames-per-second frame rate with Project Lockhart and 4K/60 with Project Scarlett, and those same developers have likened the performance of the lower-end console to the PS4 Pro.
It seems Project Lockhart will primarily see use as a digital gateway for both Microsoft’s game-streaming service, Project xCloud, and its Xbox Game Pass service. From what we know, it will sit below Series X and be a less powerful - but more affordable - option.
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