Category: Tech

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2019 iPhone Models Will Get Support For Dual Audio Connection Over Bluetooth

Apple is four months away from launching its latest iPhone models which will succeed the iPhone XS, the iPhone XS Max and the iPhone XR from 2018. Several details about the upcoming devices have already surged (1,2). A fresh report claims that the 2019 iPhone models will get a worthwhile feature for music aficionados. Reliable Japanese blog, Macotakara claims upcoming devices will support dual audio connections over Bluetooth.

Prominently, the feature will allow an iPhone to simultaneously connect with two Bluetooth devices. For example, while playing music on AirPods, the user can concurrently play the same audio stream on a Bluetooth speaker system in their house. Furthermore, two friends can listen to the same music from one smartphone on their individual totally wireless earphones (TWS).

Talking more about the 2019 iPhone models, the flagship level devices will allegedly be called iPhone XI and iPhone XI Max. While the name for iPhone XR successor is unknown as of now. The iPhone XI and XI Max are reported to have the same size screen as their predecessors which sport a 5.8 inch and a 6.5 inch Super Retina HD display respectively. The 2019 iPhone trio is reported to feature 12 MP selfie camera which is a significant bump in comparison to the 8 MP sensor found on current generation devices. Furthermore, the two flagship grade smartphones are reported to have triple rear facing cameras while the successor of iPhone XR will have dual rear cameras.

Like the Samsung Galaxy S10, the 2019 iPhone flagship models are also reported to support reverse wireless charging. In terms of chipset, the smartphones are will ship with updated Bionic chipsets which are assumedly called A13 bionic. The said chipset will be manufactured by TSMC via 5 nm fabrication process. Also, new for 2019, Apple will reportedly ship the iPhone’s with 18 W fast charger.

Also Read: Razer Adds Quadro RTX 5000 GPU To Blade Ultrabook Laptops

All in all, the 2019 iPhone seems to be a promising update. However, we will have to wait for the official announcement to verify all the leaks and claims.

May 27, 2019
Black Shark 2 Launched In India, Features Snapdragon 855 And Up To 12GB RAM
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has launched the highly-anticipated Black Shark 2 gaming smartphone in India. The device was earlier introduced in China in the month of March 2019. Noteworthy, it features Ludicrous Mode that incorporates Xiaomi’s Liquid Cooling 3.0 technology. The company claims that it uses liquid-cooled plates and tubes that enable a temperature drop of up to 14°C in the device while gaming.

Xiaomi Black Shark 2 Specifications And Features

The Xiaomi Black Shark 2 has a modern design with a distinctive yet appealing design on the rear and a large display on the front. The smartphone measures 163.61 x 75.01 x 8.77 mm and weighs in at 205 grams. It sports a 6.39 inch AMOLED display which is surrounded by narrow bezels on all sides, giving it an elegant look. The display panel has a resolution of 2340 x 1080 px and a pixel density of 403 ppi. The display panel can reach brightness levels of upto 430 nits and has an aspect ratio of 19.5:9.

Another feature of the smartphone is the pressure sensitive controls incorporated in the AMOLED display, that can be programmed for gaming. For biometric security, it also features an in display fingerprint sensor. Talking further about the design of the Xiaomi Black Shark 2, its right side accommodates the power button and a “shark” slider which when toggled turns on gaming mode for optimized performance while the left side houses the volume rockers. The bottom of the device accommodates the USB Type-C port. To keep the temperature of the device under check during game-intensive sessions, it also has a vapour cooling chamber and liquid cooling 3.0 technology, which has been discussed previously.

As mentioned before, the rear of the Xiaomi Black Shark 2 has a unique design with green coloured decals that run along the sides of the smartphone. The rear panel also harbours the RGB Black Shark logo and the dual camera setup. The dual camera setup consists of a 48 MP Samsung GM1 (f/1.75) sensor, 12 MP (f/2.2) telephoto sensor and an LED Flash which can also capture 2160p videos at 30 fps. It also has a 20 MP (f/2.0) front-facing selfie camera which is placed in the bezel above the display. The front camera can also capture 1080p videos at 30 fps.

Under the hood, the Black Shark 2 runs on the Snapdragon 855 SoC which consists of an octa-Core Kryo 485 CPU with the Adreno 640 GPU. The smartphone is powered by a 4,000 mAh battery which supports fast charging upto 27 W. The company claims that 30 minutes of gaming is possible with just 5 minutes of charging. The device runs on Android 9.0 (Pie) out of the box. Connectivity options on the Black Shark 2 include 802.11 ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, Dual 4G VoLTE and GPS.

Xiaomi Black Shark 2 Availability And Price

Also Read: NVIDIA Works With Bethesda For Ray Tracing Support on Wolfenstein And Quake II

The Black Shark 2 is available in two colour variants which includes Frozen Silver and Shadow Black. The prices for different variants of the smartphone are listed below:
- 6 GB + 128 GB – INR 39,999
- 12 GB + 256 GB – INR 49,999
Both the aforementioned variants are listed on popular e-commerce website Flipkart, and will be purchasable June 4 onwards.

Click Here To Buy The Xiaomi Black Shark 2 (6GB+128GB)

Click Here To Buy The Xiaomi Black Shark 2 (12GB+256GB)
May 27, 2019
ARM Announces New Design For Upcoming CPU And GPU

ARM has announced new designs for its premium CPU and GPU chipsets. The company that has its basic architecture utilized by most smartphones in the world. The new chipset design architecture will not be seen in smartphones anytime soon. It can be noted that the first actual chips may be seen by the year end, going by past references. Cortex-A77 CPU with Mali-G77 as reported by the company is said to be a more energy efficient and powerful in machine learning processes.

It is obvious with its newer iterations that the new Cortex-A77 will feature an overall bump in performance, but ARM has promised a notable 20% IPC performance improvements over its last generation. The new Cortex-A77 claims to have a significantly better machine learning performance made possible by the company’s hardware and software optimizations.

ARM in their announcement pointed out the fact that most smartphones do not use a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) for machine learning processes. However, the company also argues that 85% of smartphones today run machine learning through either only a CPU or a CPU+GPU combination and that even the CPU hands over to the accelerator when it is available, even if there is a GPU or a dedicated machine learning chip.

ARM promises with its new CPUs, promise more power efficiency along with better raw processing performance. Arm claims to have quadrupled performance since 2013. Another area ARM has chosen to focus on is mobile gaming and with it mobile VR and augmented reality experiences.

The new Mali-G77 GPU architecture is the first chipset to be based on the company’s proprietary Valhall GPU design that supposedly bumps the performance by 1.4 times, an improvement over the older G76. It is also claimed to be about 30% per cent more energy efficient and 60% faster at running neural net workloads and machine learning.

Also Read: AMD Reveals 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs And 7nm Radeon RX5000 GPU

ARM offers its very own Project Trillium for the machine learning processor, the machine learning computing platform that works in conjunction with the company’s CPUs. Since the announcement of the project in 2018, the company has doubled its energy efficiency and raised the performance up to 8 cores and 32 TOP/s.

This announcement will set up other companies that utilize the ARM to promptly make optimizations and work around the new designs.

May 27, 2019
Xiaomi Launches A Makeup Mirror That Also Works A Power Bank

Chinese technology company Xiaomi has added yet another power bank to its lineup, but it is not a conventional product. Reportedly, the device can charge your phone and can be used as a helpful makeup mirror at the same time. Noteworthy, the product is not directly manufactured by Xiaomi, rather, one of its ecological chains has manufactured the product. The Chinese company has previously released lifestyle products in the past, such as the Himo T1, the Mi Home Security Camera and the Mi Fitness Band.

The gadget released by the company has a portable factor. It measures 85x76x17mm and can easily be housed in a lady’s handbag. A 3000 mAh (5V/1A) battery is present inside the Xiaomi device, which can be used to charge the smartphone in case of emergencies. However, considering the low battery capacity of the same, the power bank can charge not more than one smartphone in one go.

Also Read: Intel Announces Octa Core i9-9900KS CPU With All Cores Clocked At 5.0 GHz

In terms of features, the Xiaomi makeup mirror is surrounded by 12-high brightness LED lights that can be used to simulate a naturally lit environment. Moreover, users can adjust the brightness of the LEDs as per their convenience. The makeup mirror also has a 2x magnifying glass design, so that the image is distortion free. The mirror-cum-powerbank can be turned on by simply pressing the power button for a duration of 1 second. However, when the battery falls to 10 percent, the LEDs will turn off automatically. Xiaomi’s makeup mirror-cum-power bank is priced at a 129 CNY, which roughly translates to INR 1299.

May 27, 2019
Xiaomi Redmi Go 16 GB ROM Variant Launched In India

In the month of March, Xiaomi launched a budget oriented smartphone in India called the Redmi Go. The device is mainly targeted towards users who are switching from feature phones and are getting in the Android ecosystem for the first time. The smartphone was originally launched with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of ROM. Taking demand for higher storage into consideration the company has launched another variant with 1 GB of RAM and 16 GB of ROM. The newly launched device costs Rs 300 more than the originally launched variant and is priced at Rs 4,799. Except for the bumped up price, all features and specifications of the newly launched variant of Redmi Go are as is.

Redmi Go Specifications & Design

The Redmi Go has a polycarbonate body with chunky bezels on the top and bottom. The handset measures 40.4 x 70.1 x 8.35mm and weighs in at 137g. It sports a 5 inch LCD display on the front with a resolution of 1280 x 720 px. The display panel has a pixel density of 296 ppi and maximum brightness of 380 nits.

Under the hood, the Redmi Go features the Snapdragon 425 SoC which is manufactured using the 28nm fabrication process. The chipset is comprised of a Quad-core CPU and the Adreno 308 GPU. For photography, the smartphone has an 8MP primary camera at the rear with an aperture of f/2.0. For selfies, it has a 5MP camera with an f/2.2 aperture on the front.

Also Read: AMD Reveals 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs And 7nm Radeon RX5000 GPU

The Redmi Go is powered by a 3000mAh battery that supports 5W charging. The handset runs on Android 8.1 Oreo Go edition out of the box. It also has a dedicated microSD support for memory expansion up to 256GB. One Notable feature of the Redmi Go is support for more than 20 regional languages and Google voice Assistant in Hindi.

May 27, 2019
AMD Reveals 3rd Gen Ryzen CPUs And 7nm Radeon RX5000 GPU

Rumours had been trickling by on the new lineup of 3rd generation Ryzen and Radeon NAVI GPUs of AMD. Computex 2019 launched with its very first keynote by AMD’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su. AMD has various announcements to make on their lineups and their new data centre offerings, AMD Epyc.

AMD NAVI

A major announcement in AMD’s keynote was it’s much awaited new 7nm GPUs which will be a part of their Radeon NAVI, i.e AMD Radeon RX 5000 lineup of graphics cards. The nomenclature is influenced by the company’s 50th anniversary.

The new microarchitecture, called RDNA, is set to replace the GCN architecture that has powered AMD’s Radeon GPU. The notable improvements thus far have been the new compute design engine, multi-level cache hierarchy and a streamlined graphics pipeline. Essentially providing higher clock speeds for the graphics card at a lower power. The new GPUs are also the first to adopt the PCIe Gen 4.

A quick benchmark on the Strange Brigade has AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 take a marginal 10% lead on NVidia’s RTX 2070 graphics card. AMD is expected to start shipping by July 2019, although the details are reported to be revealed on June 10.

AMD RYZEN 3RD GEN

The new and highly anticipated CPU lineups from AMD were finally unveiled. Being built on a 7nm process node, the AMD Ryzen 7 3700X is an 8 core/16 threads processor which is also compatible with the AM4 socket but will need the latest X570 platform to bring out its full potential. This does not mean using older motherboards such as the X370 or X470 is pointless. A significant lead in terms of performance was showcased by AMD’s new CPU over Intel’s Core i7-9700K in comparison. The 3700X scoring 4806 points in Cinebench while 9700K only managed 3276 points. This, however, was not the top SKU in the mainstream lineup. The 3800X followed after 3700X and had a base clock of 3.9 GHz and a boost clock of 4.5GHz. The 3800X has 105W TDP in comparison to 3700X with 65W TDP. 3800X had a mean lead of 11% that went upto 34% when in comparison to its older generation Ryzen 7 2700Z when performance was testes in gaming.

AMD has also announced the Ryzen 9 top of the line SKUs, with the most powerful being Ryzen 9 3900X, a 12-core/ 24 threads processor with a 105W TDP draw. Its base clock sits at 3.8Ghz while the boost clock reaches 4.6GHz that utilizes two chiplets to achieve the high core count. Blender benchmark was used to pit the Ryzen 9 3900X against Intel’s Core i9-9920X processor that has a 165W TDP, in which the new Ryzen processor outclassed in both single and multi-core performance.

AMD EPYC

Dr Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, announced the new data centre offerings, AMD EPYC. EPYC has grown over the last 3 years to have more than 60 solutions on more than 50 cloud installations. This was followed by AMD’s crown jewel, the Frontier Supercomputer at Oak Ridge, National Laboratory that is capable of more than 1.5 exaFLOPS and is reportedly said to receive the world’s fastest supercomputer once it goes live.

Similarly to Sony’s announcements of collaborating with Microsoft for their cloud computing solutions, AMD unveiled that it has also incorporated AMD EPYC with Microsoft’s Azure.

Also Read: Intel Announces Octa Core i9-9900KS CPU With All Cores Clocked At 5.0 GHz

Codenamed ‘Rome’ the 2nd Gen EPYC processors by AMD give upto 64 cores per socket and are claimed to be able to push out four times more floating point workload per socket when compared to its previous generation. A demonstration showcased the 2nd Gen AMD EPYC 2-socket solution going up against an Intel Cascade Lake 8280 28 core/ socket 2-socket solution. The EPYC solution crunched out 19.60 ns/Day compared to the Intel solution. The launch is set to be in Q3 2019.

May 27, 2019
Live Images Of The Redmi K20 Pro Surface Before Launch
Xiaomi is set to launch its latest flagship grade smartphone duo which includes the Redmi K20 and the Redmi K20 Pro. Details about the features and specifications of the two devices have been leaked numerous times (1,2). Just before the official launch, the live images of beefed up K20 Pro have also surfaced on Chinese social media website, Weibo that has hardly left anything to the imagination.

Redmi K20 Pro

The freshly leaked image reaffirms the previously revealed features of the Redmi K20 Pro. The front of the smartphone accommodates a 6.39 inch AMOLED display with negligible bezels on all sides. Notably, the high screen to body ratio display on the device lacks any obstructing notch as it features a pop up selfie camera like the OnePlus 7 Pro. Furthermore, it features an indisplay fingerprint scanner which is slowly becoming the industry standard.

The leaked image also reveals that the Redmi K20 Pro is kitted with the Snapdragon 855 SoC which consists of an Octa Core CPU along with the Adreno 640 GPU. Talking about the battery, it is powered by a 4,000 mAh lithium battery which supports 27 W fast charging. In terms of optics, the Redmi K20 Pro features triple rear cameras out of which one is the 48 MP Sony IMX586 sensor.

Redmi K20 Price

Xiaomi Redmi K20 Leaked Teaser

A teaser revealing the price of the Redmi K20 was also previously shared online. The teaser exhibits the upcoming flagship will be available in three storage variants for which the prices are as follows:
- 6 GB + 64 GB: CNY 2599 (Rs 26,200)
- 6 GB + 128 GB: CNY 2799 (Rs 28,200)
- 8 GB + 128 GB: CNY 2999 (Rs 30,200)
Also Read: Intel Announces Octa Core i9-9900KS CPU With All Cores Clocked At 5.0 GHz

To conclude all the leaks related to the Redmi K20 Pro seem legit. However, in order to confirm them, we will have to wait for the official launch event which is set for the 28th of May 2019.
May 27, 2019
Intel Announces Octa Core i9-9900KS CPU With All Cores Clocked At 5.0 GHz

Intel is looking to strengthen its position in the CPU market. The company unveiled its 5GHz laptop processors in the month of April 2019, which have already been incorporated by brands like ASUS, Dell, HP and Razer. In 2018, the American chip manufacturer showcased a CPU which had all its cores clocked at 5.0 GHz. The aforementioned processor, which is the Core i9-9900KS, is all set for release in the upcoming weeks and will be the first of its kind.

The new Intel Core i9-9900KS features a total of 8 cores, all of which will run at a clock speed of 5.0 GHz during single-core workloads as well as multi-core workloads. As per reports, the company showcased a demo of a 28-core Intel Xeon CPU in the year 2018, but the clock speed of the same was way lower than the 9900KS. Noteworthy, the core i9-9900KS is selectively binned so that each core utilizes the maximum clock speed i.e. 5.0 GHz.

Reports further state that the current motherboards supporting Intel’s core i9-9900K processors will be able to accommodate the newly launched i9-9900KS as well. However, a minor firmware update will be pushed out to the motherboards by their respective manufacturers so as to enable support for the core i9-9900KS. Furthermore, it was also stated that the new CPU will feature a similar integrated GPU chip to the i9-9900K processor.

Also Read: Microsoft And Sony Join Hands For Cloud Gaming Service

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of the CPU is unknown as of now, alongside the unrevealed details regarding the pricing and the launch date. However, as per sources, Intel may have stepped up the TDP of the i9-9900KS a notch, since the base frequency of the processor exhibits a 10 percent increase over the i9-9900K CPU. More details regarding the same are expected to be unveiled in the upcoming Computex Event, which kicks off on May 28 in Taiwan.

May 27, 2019
Facebook To Launch Its Cryptocurrency Named Globalcoin Soon

Social media giant Facebook is planning to introduce its cryptocurrency soon, according to the latest reports. The company is planning to set up a digital payment system in about twelve countries at the beginning of the year 2020. The currency, referred to internally as Globalcoin, may be announced with a changed name by the end of this year when Facebook outlines its plans in more details. To reaffirm the reports, it is claimed the company has already completed the talks with the Bank of England about the risks and opportunities of a cryptocurrency. Facebook is seemingly also in talks with a few money transfer firms; to devise an affordable method for people without a bank account to send money

How Globalcoin Will Work?

According to reports, Facebook is looking forward to creating a digital-based currency; able to provide an affordable and secure way of transacting online. Like mentioned previously, the company aims to do the above without the need for the users to have a bank account. The project has been in the works for a while now and was codenamed Libra in the beginning. While it is referred to as Globalcoin internally, do not be surprised if the name is changed when it is announced officially. For the alleged project, Facebook will have to collaborate with various banks; which will allow it to exchange international currencies into Globalcoin.

Also read: Huawei No Longer Allowed To Work On The Wi-Fi, USB and SD Cards Standards In The Future

The major advantage Facebook will have with its currency Globalcoin over its rivals like Bitcoin and Ethereum; is the sheer number of users of its various products. Over 2 billion people have been recorded to use Facebook actively and millions of other audience are hooked to applications like Instagram and WhatsApp. By utilising these platforms and integrating its currency with them, Facebook can have a plethora of users of its currency in a short amount of time.

May 25, 2019
Google Trained Its AI To Learn Depth Perception From YouTube’s Mannequin Challenge

Google’s latest blog post had focused on how depth perception works in videos where both the subject and the camera are in motion. A huge amount of data and footage was required for the study that aimed at training an AI. The foundation for the AI’s training was to detect scenes where the camera was in motion but the subject remained stationary.

Remarkable resourcefulness was shown as Google used its own source that was perfect for the job. YouTube (Google’s video sharing platform) had a vast amount of footage that fit the study’s required parameters. The Mannequin Challenge had a person and more often a group of people which stays perfectly still, anywhere from sitting to the bizarre handstands, while one person pans the camera around the still subjects (Mannequin’s) position.

To train the AI to detect human figures in various different scenes, Google used approximately 2000 videos from YouTube on the Mannequin Challenge. Interestingly, when depth perception comes into play multiple cameras are generally utilized from different angles to sense depth. Google, on the other hand, taught its AI to create depth maps from footage that only had one view, i.e perception from a single camera unit.

With the Pixel line up of Google smartphones, the company has already achieved similar results with its still images on portrait mode effect that produce the bokeh effect. The benefit of the study extends towards the augmented reality that the company is known to dabble with, Playmojis from Google’s Playground is one such example.

Also Read: Huawei’s Recess Could Provide Opportunities For Its Competitors In India

If the feature arrives on videos, it’ll open up new and previously impossible effects in video capture such as live bokeh effect similar to the one found in most smartphones. This may also one day lead to 3D images and 2D scenes being shot on smartphone cameras. Google’s progress on the software spectrum proves that just hardware improvements are not always what lead to great strides in photography and videography.

May 25, 2019
Samsung A10s and M40 Coming To India Soon

Samsung has been long anticipated to launch the Galaxy M40 in India which will be the apex device in the M lineup of smartphones. However, it is not the only device the company plans to launch in the country. In addition to the M40, Samsung is also reported to soon launch the Galaxy A10s which was previously leaked as the Galaxy A10e.

Samsung Galaxy M40

The Galaxy M40 is reported to have a 6.3 inch Super AMOLED display with Full HD resolution. Going by the rumours, the smartphone will pack the Snapdragon 675 SoC which consists of an Octa Core CPU and Adreno 612 GPU. Noteworthy, the same chipset is also present on several other devices including the Samsung Galaxy A50, the Redmi Note 7 Pro and the Vivo V15 Pro.

Another highlighting feature of the Samsung Galaxy M40 is its massive 5,000 mAh battery which is likely to support fast charging technology. The official price of the device is yet to be revealed, however, going by the specifications, it will be priced around the Rs 25,000 mark in India.

Galaxy A10s

As aforementioned, the Samsung Galaxy A10s was previously leaked as the Galaxy A10e which revealed details about its chipset. The handset will be kitted with the Helio P22 chipset while rest of the specifications are believed to be carried forward from the original Galaxy A10. Accordingly, the upcoming device will have a 6.2 inch LCD display with HD+ resolution of 1520 x 720 px.

For photography, the smartphone has a 13 MP camera on the rear and a 5 MP camera on the front. The device is powered by a 3,400 mAh battery which supports 10 W charging. The upcoming Samsung Galaxy A10s is reported to be in three colour variants which include Green, Blue and Black.

Also Read: Standard Variant Of The Redmi K20 To Feature The Snapdragon 730 SoC

To conclude, precise details about the Galaxy A10s and the Galaxy M40 will be unveiled as Samsung talks about them overtly.

May 25, 2019
Standard Variant Of The Redmi K20 To Feature The Snapdragon 730 SoC

Xiaomi’s sub brand Redmi will soon launch a premium smartphone duo that will pack flagship grade features. The upcoming devices will be called the K20 and the K20 Pro. As the name suggests the latter is the more feature rich handset out of the two. Both devices are reported to have heterogeneous specifications with few differences including the chipset. Features and price of the Redmi K20 Pro were previously leaked while details about the affordable K20 were in short supply. A fresh leak from the Chinese social media website, Weibo has revealed the key specifications of the upcoming handset.

Redmi K20 Specifications & Design

According to the image shared by the source, the Xiaomi Redmi K20 features a 6.39 inch AMOLED display with 2340 x 1080 px resolution. For securely unlocking the handset, it will have an ondisplay fingerprint sensor. Under the hood, the handset packs the Snapdragon 730 SoC which was unveiled last month by Qualcomm. The chipset consists of an Octa Core Kryo 470 CPU and the Adreno 618 GPU.

Like the Redmi K20 Pro, the standard K20 will also be powered by a large 4,000 mAh battery which is likely to support 27 w fast charging. Talking about the optics, it features a triple rear camera setup which consists of a 48 MP Sony IMX586 sensor, an 8 MP sensor and a 13 MP sensor. Notably, the device will also have NFC that will provide for wireless payments. Also to enhance the gaming experience on the device, it will have Game Turbo 2.0 technology which was originally introduced on the Poco F1.

In terms of looks, the standard Redmi K20 is believed to have a similar design as its elder sibling whose renders were previously spotted online. Going by the said renders, the device will have a glossy back panel made out of glass that reflects light in different angles. Although not yet confirmed it is reported to feature a pop up selfie camera like the OnePlus 7 Pro.

Also Read: NASA Plans On Sending “Gateway” Space Station To Orbit The Moon

More details about the device will be revealed at the official launch event which is set for the 28th of May.

May 25, 2019
Samsung’s Deepfake AI Is Capable Of Creating A Convincing Video Out Of A Single Frame

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is expected to be the next big thing in technology in the near future. The idea of human-made objects able to exist as sentient beings capable of making decisions is both optimistic and terrifying at the same time. In a development bordering between the aforementioned emotions; Researchers at the Samsung AI Centre in Moscow, Russia have developed a Deepfake algorithm that can create a video out of a single image. These “Living portraits” as they are called have been tested on some famous historical images and the results are well, surprisingly great.

Samsung Deepfake AI

As mentioned previously, Samsung has developed and had (kind of) successfully tested the algorithm. In a video shared on YouTube, the AI can be seen in action. The researchers refer to this process as few/one-shot learning. In this process, a model can be trained by using only an image to chart out a convincing animated portrait shot. While this works with a single image, using more images, up to 32 improves the results even more. This process of superimposing existing images and videos onto source images or videos using a machine learning technique is generally known as Deepfakes. This has been an avid problem on the internet today which is credited to the rise of fake news.

Also read: LEGO’s New Team-Battle RPG Announced By Gameloft For iOS And Android

These realistically talking head models are generated using a convolutional neural network. By training the algorithm on a large dataset of talking head videos with a variety of appearances. The Samsung researchers have been reported to have used more than 7,000 publically available images from YouTube videos. This technique generated Deepfakes of historical personalities such as famous scientist Albert Einstein, Painter Salvador Dali and the mysterious woman from the Mona Lisa portrait of Leonardo Da Vinci. And while there are a few anomalies that give away the obviously fake nature of the video, it is an example of how far the technology can go. In the meanwhile, we will just leave this GIF of expressive Mona Lisa for you to ponder.

May 24, 2019
Redmi 7A
Redmi 7A is the latest budget smartphone from the Chinese company. Succeeding the Redmi 6A, the device boasts of a 5.45 inch LCD display with a resolution of 1440 x 720 px and an aspect ratio of 18:9. The Redmi 7A runs on the 12nm Snapdragon 439 SoC, comprised of an Octa-core CPU and the Adreno 505 GPU. The smartphone has a single 13MP rear camera with LED flash. For selfies, a 5MP front-facing camera is also present on the handset. It is powered by a 4000 mAh battery. The smartphone will be available in the following variants:
- 2GB RAM and 16GB ROM
- 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM
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May 24, 2019
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 Leaks In Patent

Microsoft originally launched the Surface lineup of personal computers in the year 2012 which have been highly appreciated by the consumers. A freshly granted patent to Microsoft hints that the company is working on a new design for its latest Surface Pro which is expected to debut later this year.

The design of the touchscreen PC from Microsoft has largely remained the same since the Surface Pro 4 from the year 2015. The latest patent suggests that the upcoming device will have a significantly different design in comparison to the current generation. The alleged Microsoft Surface Pro 7 from the patent has considerably thin bezels around the display. Also, the detachable type cover on the future device will have four magnets which will prevent it from flapping around when in a closed position.

The patent also suggests that Microsoft may be altering the port selection on the Surface Pro 7. Except for the traditional USB A and MiniDisplay port, the upcoming device will introduce a USB C port which is slowly becoming a global standard. Closely inspecting the patent reveals that with the new device, the company has decided to move the 3.5 mm audio jack to the bottom.

Intriguingly, the patents of the Surface Pro state that the company will do away with the conventional Surface Connect Port on this device. Instead, the touchscreen PC will be charged via the aforementioned USB Type C port. However, a past patent hints that Microsoft will retain some sort of magnetic port which will be compatible with USB Type C. The connector in the said patent was originally designed to transfer data at USB 2.0 speeds. Though it is likely that Microsoft has managed to implement USB 3 speeds on the connector.

Also Read: Top 5 Netflix Shows To Stream This Weekend

More details about the upcoming Surface Pro are expected to be revealed in the coming future which will shed more light on the device and its features.

May 24, 2019