Tech Bites

Happy New Year! 2023 is here — and that means there's a lot to look forward to in the new year. For instance, what are the biggest upcoming games in 2023? Whether you're on mobile, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, or Xbox Series S/X, there are a lot of new games headed your way in 2023. We will take to the Indian Ocean in Skull and Bones, head to a galaxy far, far away with Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and get the best of both worlds in Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile. Elsewhere, 2023 heralds the return of new and old franchises. We're getting a second Marvel's Spider-Man game, a third Payday heist, a fourth Diablo title, a sixth Street Fighter, the eighth Tekken and Forza Motorsport, the sixteenth Final Fantasy adventure, and the twentieth The Legend of Zelda. (Of course, this is all if you're counting mainline entries only.) The new year also brings extra downloadable content for games such as Destiny 2 and Cyberpunk 2077. Lastly, some of t

iPhone 14 series was launched earlier this year with its Pro models featuring the Apple A16 Bionic chip. Now, a recent report has suggested that the Cupertino company will equip the iPhone 15 series Pro model with its new chipset — the Apple A17. It is believed that Apple is emphasising on delivering an improved battery life with this chip, while its performance aspect takes a back seat. Apple is likely to use Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) 3nm process to manufacture the Apple A17 chip. A recent MySmartPrice report claims that the Apple A17 chip featured on the iPhone 15 series may lean towards providing an improved battery life. This speculation stems from the rumours that suggest TSMC's 3nm process would result in chips that offer increased power and improved energy efficiency. TSMC chairman Mark Liu was reportedly quoted as saying that the 3nm process chips would offer better performance than the 5nm process chips, while also requiring about 35 perc

When you think of the ‘best smartphones' of the year, it's easy to just picture expensive, flagship phones. However, like every year, we've had some real standout mid-range offerings as well in 2022 that might not go toe-to-toe with proper flagships, but offer enough performance and features at much more affordable prices. Folding phones continued to get better in 2022 thanks to Samsung pioneering this segment in India, while charging speeds reached new heights. However, the big focus for all the phones on our list is cameras. We've seen smartphones with incredible zoom perfjoamcne, high-resolution sensors, and next-level video stabilisation for content creators. Depending on your budget and requirements, there's something for everyone in our list. All these smartphones have been reviewed by us and we've chosen only the best of the best, based on the ratings they received and what we felt were unique enough offerings that still stand out, even today. Here's

Elon Musk announced today that Twitter users will soon be able to side swipe for switching between tweets, trends, topics, lists, and more. The new Twitter CEO has been making sweeping changes to the social media platform since his $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3.6 lakh crore) takeover. He has also suggested that several major UI changes for the platform will arrive in January. Twitter had recently rolled out the View Count for tweets feature globally, intending to showcase how alive the platform is as most users are believed to just read a tweet without interacting. Musk shared a post on Saturday revealing that a new side swipe feature will arrive on the platform in January. This feature is said to allow users to easily access recommended and followed tweets, trends, topics, and lists. Furthermore, Musk says that with the gradual improvement of Twitter AI, "recommended tweets, lists & topics will become awesome." Currently, Twitter allows users to read tweets in chronolog

Redmi K60 series was launched in China on Tuesday. This flagship lineup includes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series-powered Redmi K60 and Redmi K60 Pro, and the Redmi K60E featuring a MediaTek Dimensity 8200 SoC. They are equipped with a 17-layer heat liquid cooling VC dissipation system that is said to offer up to 15 percent improved thermal conductivity than the previous generation. Xiaomi has also released a cooling case for the Redmi K60 series which is supposedly capable of further reducing the maximum temperature by up to 4 degrees Celsius. According to a post by a digital blogger on Weibo, the Redmi K60 Series Ice Cooling Case can reduce the handset's maximum temperature by up to 4 degrees Celsius. This case is available to purchase for CNY 79 (roughly Rs. 1,000). Xiaomi says that this cooling case is equipped with a phase-changing material that purportedly switches between solid and liquid states depending on the smartphone's temperature to dissipate heat efficiently.

Binance's $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,275 crore) acquisition of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital could be delayed or blocked by a US national security review, according to a Friday bankruptcy court filing. The crypto exchange's US-based affiliate Binance.US intends to buy Voyager's crypto lending platform with a bid that includes $20 million (roughly Rs. 165 crore) in cash and crypto assets that will be used to repay Voyager's customers. But the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), an interagency body that vets foreign investments into US companies for national security risks, said Friday that its review "could affect the ability of the parties to complete the transactions, the timing of completion, or relevant terms." Attorneys for Voyager and Binance.US did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday. CFIUS has increasingly been used by Washington as a tool to stymie Chinese investment in the United States. Bin

Google Voice will now make it more easy for a user to ignore spam calls with the launch of a new update. Google has now added a warning to its Voice feature which will alert the user by flagging “Suspected spam caller” label on calls that may seem suspicious. The user can also remove a number from the spam list by simply marking a call to be not spam. The enhanced secure calling feature adds to Google Voice's recent addition of Wi-Fi and network cellular switching. According to a recent announcement by the tech giant, Google Voice will now protect its users from unwanted calls and potentially harmful scams by displaying a red “suspected spam caller” label on all calls that will appear suspicious. The selection of numbers as spam will be done using advanced artificial intelligence. The spam label for a number will be displayed on the caller screen as well as in the call history. The user will have a choice to let a call remain spam or remove it by confirming the identity of the

Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 with Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor was unveiled by the South Korean tech giant on December 28. The new Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 comes with major performance improvements with the new Gen 3 processor, an upgrade from previously launched laptop with 12th Gen Intel processor. The company first unveiled the Intel-powered Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 back in February. The new model was recently announced in South Korea and will be released on January 16. In an official release , Samsung has announced the company's premium laptop, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor. The mobile PC comes with enhanced speed and efficiency, along with a stylus and a 360-degree swivel display. Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 with Snapdragon chipset price, availability The new laptop from Samsung was unveiled in South Korea on December 28 and will be launched in the country on January 16. As of now, the upcoming Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 will debut in graphite co

Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13 Pro powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC were launched in China earlier this month. The Chinese tech giant is now expected to bring the Xiaomi 13 lineup to the global markets next year. The Xiaomi 13 Ultra is also believed to be a part of the global lineup. A reliable tipster has now claimed that its periscope camera's performance will "shock everyone." There is not much else known about this handset at this point, however, rumours suggest that it could come with high-speed LPDDR5x RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. According to a post by tipster Kartikey Singh (Twitter: @That_Kartikey), the Xiaomi 13 Ultra will come with a vastly improved periscope camera. He had previously claimed that Samsung had gone complacent when it comes to the camera zoom capabilities of the Galaxy S series. Singh believes that in 2023 Samsung could be outdone by one of its competitors. However, the tipster did not delve into any specific details about the Xi

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, he introduced a number of cost-cutting measures which included not paying the rent for the various office spaces it occupies . As a result, Twitter is facing the possibility of getting evicted from one of its most iconic offices, the one at Seattle. As per a report by The New York Times and Platformer, Twitter will not be relocating their Seattle staff to some other property in the city, and has chosen to shut down the office in the city altogether. Staff members from Seattle have apparently been given the option to work from home. Since 2014, the social media company’s Seattle office has been at Century Square tower downtown in a space that can accommodate 200 workers. Musk had already cut janitorial and security services at Twitter’s Seattle office earlier this week as the staff prepares to get evicted.  Twitter had laid off 208 Seattle-based employees earlier this year when he terminated about 3700 people of the previous 7200 staff members who

Samsung is reportedly planning to reveal the next generation of Galaxy Book laptops along with the Galaxy S23 series. The Samsung Galaxy S23 is rumoured to arrive soon, with the South Korean tech giant expected to unveil their flagship series of smartphones in February. The upcoming Samsung Galaxy Book laptops are expected to feature better hardware and specifications, however, no details are available as yet. Notably, the Galaxy Book 2 lineup of laptops launched in India early this year. According to a report by SamMobile, the next generation of Samsung Galaxy Book laptops will launch alongside the Galaxy S23 series of smartphones at the rumoured Galaxy Unpacked event in February. Samsung is reportedly planning to reveal a host of devices at the said event, including the Galaxy S22 FE. The upcoming Galaxy Book could be powered by 13th Gen Intel Core processors. Samsung has not officially confirmed the launch slate for the Galaxy Unpacked event, neither has it revealed any detail

Bitcoin on Friday, December 30, opened trading with a small profit of 0.08 percent. At the time of writing, BTC prices on national and international exchanges, stand at $16,585 (roughly Rs. 13.7 lakhs). From its last all-time high of $68,000 recorded last November, the year of 2022 pushed Bitcoin down the price ladder very drastically. Now, on the second last day of the year 2022, BTC has marked a significantly low value. The crypto price charts reflected reds next to greens as crypto prices fluctuated big time for most coins. Ether saw a minor gain of 0.79 percent as it stepped into the trade arena. ETH, as per Gadgets 360's crypto price tracker , is currently priced $1,196 (roughly Rs. 99,020). Like BTC , ETH also stooped dramatically low in terms of its value this year. Its last recorded all-time-high in November 2021, stood at around $4,890 (roughly Rs. 4.04 lakh). Binance Coin , Polkadot , Litecoin , Uniswap , and Solana joined BTC and ETH in reeling-in minor gains. Cosm

To address potential financial stability risks and protect investors, it is important to arrive at a common approach to crypto assets, the Financial Stability Report released by RBI said on Thursday. In this context, various options are being considered internationally, it said . One option is to apply the same-risk-same-regulatory-outcome principle and subject them to the same regulation applicable to traditional financial intermediaries and exchanges, the report said. Another option is to prohibit crypto assets , since their real life use cases are next to negligible and the challenge is that different countries have different legal systems and individual rights vis-à-vis state powers, it noted. A third option is to let it implode and make it systemically irrelevant as the underlying instability and riskiness will ultimately prevent the sector from growing, it said. The third option, however, is fraught with risks as the sector may become more interconnected with mainstream fina

TikTok received a major blow in the United States, as the US House of Representatives has ordered staff to delete TikTok from any House-issued mobile phones. Moreover, the governor of Kansas has also issued a similar ban. Other states are also planning to come up with similar legislation, which may see the app being banned on all government-issued devices.  What this would mean, is that all staff, including the personal staff of the Representative, and Representatives themselves will not be allowed to have TikTok on their office-issued devices. In Kansas’ case, no government employee on any level will be allowed to have the social media app on their office-issued apps.  TikTok is already banned on government-owned devices by the local administrations in 19 states citing security concerns. Several state governments are actually considering banning the app for all government employees even on their personal devices.  The directive in the House of Representatives was reportedly issue