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Facebook Portal TV

Portal TV: New Video Chat Devices from Facebook for Your Living Room

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Despite the backlashes for the user’s privacy invasion, Facebook has been always the leader in the field of social media. And, now the company wants to move ahead with its home devices. Last year, the company launched its own video chat device, Portal Plus, which seemed to be vain when people can use their smartphones for video chats. But Facebook had got its plans for the new hardware range. That is why, now the company has unveiled three more home devices in the similar range.

As a part of its connected devices to TV strategy, Facebook has just launched a new video chat and streaming device called Portal TV. The device is specially built for the users to make video calls over Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp, and for that, the company has incorporated a wide-angle video camera and a microphone to the device. The camera is capable of zooming and following the people around the room for the video calls.

Users can log in to their Facebook accounts on the Portal TV by plugging in the Portal device to the HDMI port of the TV, and they are ready to make video calls. The users need to say “Hey Portal” to the device and instruct it to call the particular person (from their friend list). The same procedure goes for Whatsapp. A picture-in-picture feature included in the Portal device lets the users watch Facebook Watch altogether with video calls to their friends, both in one screen.

Facebook Portal TV
Image Source: pocket-lint.com

The company is careful with its users’ privacy this time at least, as Facebook has included the options to turn off the camera and the microphone, simply by tapping on it or by sliding the cover to the camera, whenever they want. Also, like for the Whatsapp chat smartphone app, the chats, video and text, are encrypted, these are encrypted end to end for the Portal TV, too. But again, there is something unusual that the company has included in the device, and that is, human auditors to listen to what the users are talking over the calls to improve the service. Yes, the device will be continuously recording human chattering, and the Facebook contractors will be reviewing the talks. But again, the users can opt-out of this feature anytime.

Other than that, the device also offers streaming various channels, including Amazon Prime, Facebook Watch, Showtime, etc. The users can also play augmented reality games on the TV while making video calls.

The company revealed that it will bring the devices in the market starting from November 5th, and the Portal TV will cost $149.

Along with the Portal TV, the company also announced two more devices, the Portal Mini video chat smart speaker and a redesigned version of its Portal speakers. The Portal Mini costs $129, and the speakers cost $179. These two devices will be available in the market from October 15. However, buying all three devices together will get you an off of $50.

Amazon Music HD

Amazon Launches Amazon Music HD a High-Fidelity Streaming Service

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Home deliveries, grocery, cloud computing, and what not? Amazon is doing everything. In fact, it was the first company to sell music without digital rights management from the four major music labels. But what is next? Well, we have got the news. After Amazon Music, Amazon is now launching its new HD music streaming service, named Amazon Music HD. It is an affordable music streaming service which can make Amazon leave its rivals like Apple Music and Spotify way behind in the competition with its HD music offering.

Currently, Amazon’s music streaming service only offers MP3 quality songs. But with the new service, the company is focussed on providing the users with the high-quality CD-like audio and is the first to offer high-fidelity digital audio through the subscription. For that, the company has added 24-bit CD-quality music to its Amazon Music platform, offering “Ultra HD” music. The subscription for the Amazon Music HD starts at $12.99 a month for the Prime users, and for the other users, the plan starts at $14.99 a month.

There is an offer for the current Amazon Music subscribers, under which they can get a trial of 90 days for the new HD music with just paying an extra $5 a month.

Amazon Music HD
Image Source: Amazon.in

According to Amazon, with the subscription, the users will get access to 50 million songs that it calls “High Definition” having a sample rate of 44.1kHz. There will also be around 1 to 10 million ultra HD songs included in the subscription plan, with sample rates between 44.1kHz and 192kHz and ten times the bitrate of standard tracks. Also unlike the Tidal music’s MQA file format, the file format for Amazon’s HD songs will be lossless FLAC.

“We’re thrilled to make it possible for our customers to stream their favourite music the way artists intended their fans to hear it. From rock to hip-hop to classical and pop, we believe listening to music at this level of sound will make customers fall in love again with their favourite music and artists. As we usher in a new listening experience for our customers, we’re combining the convenience of streaming with all of the emotion, power, clarity and nuance of the original recordings.” Steve Boom, vice president of Amazon Music, said in a statement.

But even having subscribed to Amazon Music HD, only the users with latest technology device get to enjoy the HD and Ultra HD music through it. These devices include the second-generation or later Amazon Echo speakers, Fire TVs and Fire TV devices, Apple devices released after 2014 and running iOS 11 or newer, the Android devices released after 2014 having Android Lollipop or newer.

Google Pixel 4

Google to Reveal the New Pixel 4 on the ‘Made by Google’ Event on October 15

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This might be the season of new smartphone launches, as we just got introduced to the Apple iPhone 11 last week, and have got to know about the OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro through a few leaks. And now, Google is also going to reveal its new Pixel 4 smartphones on the 15th of next month. The company is hosting a hardware event on 15th October in New York, where it will be providing more details on the upcoming Pixel 4, along with its other premium products.

Though the company has already talked much about its new flagship smartphone and even posted a few pictures of the same through various means like tweets, there is a lot under the wraps yet. The company has already sent invites for the event to the media persons, that reads “a few new things Made by Google”. Google uses the ‘Made by Google’ tagline to represent its in-house products. So even if the invite does not say much about the Pixel 4, it is quite obvious to expect more details on the Pixel 4.

According to earlier revealed details, the new smartphone is going to have an updated face recognition technology that may also make use of Google’s new Soli radar-based gesture-recognition technology. There will also be a three-camera setup in a square on its back, that mostly looks like the camera cluster on the back of an iPhone 11 Pro. Also, there might be more colours available in Pixel 4, other than black, white and coral, as decoded through the revealed pictures of the same.

Google Pixel 4
Source: Google Inc.

In the previous smartphone releases, the company kept a single HD rear camera for all its Pixels. But this time with the main camera, Pixel 4 is having two more cameras. Other than the main camera, most likely, the second camera will be a telephoto lens with high zooming capabilities. The main camera will reportedly have an improved “Night Sight” feature, such that the night pictures will be even brighter. Also, the users can take fast-action pictures with the main camera. And, like the other high-end smartphones with triple cameras, the third camera might be a wide-angle camera.

Along with the Pixel 4 smartphones, the company will also be revealing the Nest and Home smart devices, updated Chrome laptops as well as tablets. Google will also be live-streaming the event on YouTube, starting at 10 am PT.

Though the Pixel cameras have been one of the most top-rated smartphones, in January this year, the company faced a huge fall in the sales. But anyhow, it managed to raise the sales with its Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL. So the release of Pixel 4 is quite critical for the company, and it surely had done some great work with it.

One Plus 7T 1

New Leaks Gives Out a Lot About the New OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro

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The last couple of weeks have been the week of new smartphones and other releases, especially the Apple iPhone 11. Likewise, there are a few more companies that are looking forward to launching their high-end smartphones and other services as well, OnePlus being one at the top of the list. But amid the race of high-end smartphones, the company might be more into providing its users affordable yet feature-rich smartphones.

Though OnePlus is much excited about its upcoming OnePlus TV, before that, the OnePlus fans are up to finding out what the company will be incorporating in the new OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro. There have already been some leaks about its features, and again, we have got new updates confirming the previous leaked features as well as defining new ones.

According to the new leaks, the OnePlus 7T will be a 6.5-inch smartphone, having an Optic AMOLED display and a resolution of 2400×1080 as well as will be full HD+. The smartphone will be powered by the Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset. It will render support for 8GB RAM and will offer two variants of the storage capacities, i.e., 128GB and 256GB storage.

One Plus 7T 1
Image Source: gadgethacks.com

The leaks also talk about the camera of the smartphone, that shows that the front camera will remain the 16-megapixel camera, but there will be an upgrade in the rear ones. As the leaks suggest, the main camera will be an 8-megapixel with F1.6 lens, along with a 12-megapixel telephoto camera having a 2x optical zoom as well as another 16-megapixel wide-angle camera. There has also been an upgrade to the battery of the smartphone, as it will be a 3800mAh battery, with a capability of 20 per cent faster charging.

Last year, the company introduced its OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro, among which the Pro version of the smartphone was the main highlight of the launch, as it had got better features than the OnePlus 6 series. But for everyone’s surprise, OnePlus 7 did not come with much of the upgrades, maybe this is the reason why the US did not get the OnePlus 7 in markets.

Well reportedly, the same will happen to the 7T Pro this year, as it is a similar version of the 7 Pro and does not have much of upgrades. Instead, the OnePlus 7T is the one that maybe everyone’s interest at this time, with major changes and upgrades. And, like the previous year, this very smartphone will go on sale in the US markets and 7T Pro may not.

Though 7T Pro is similar to 7 Pro from last year, there are still some upgrades in its camera, battery and the processor. Reportedly, the same, like OnePlus 7T, is also equipped with the Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset. Also, it will be having an 8GB RAM and will render support for 256GB secondary memory. It will have a similar set of cameras as of the OnePlus 7T, and the battery will be a 4085mAh with Warp Charge 30T.

According to the rumours, both the smartphones are powered by the OnePlus’s home-production OS, i.e. Android 10 based OxygenOS.

Though there has been no confirmation from the company on any of these rumours, these look quite legitimate, if we closely look at the company’s past launches. For now, we just need to wait for the official paper to come out from the company side to completely believe in the leaks.

amazon event

Amazon Gears up for its Annual Hardware Event to be Held on 25th Spet

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We have not even got over with the Apple Event held on 10th September yet, and now, Amazon has also announced one, that will take place on 25th September at its Seattle HQ. The company, in the announcement, said on Thursday that the upcoming ‘hardware and services’ event will cover some new launches and upgrades in its existing products as its previous Amazon event did last year.

In the last year’s event, the company came up with the new Amazon Echo products, Alexa-controlled microwave, a wall clock with Alexa built-in and many more things. For now, the company is mute on what ‘new’ the company be hiding in its robe, and what would be the major highlight of the Amazon event. But through the previous launches, there is an estimation that the Amazon Echo and Amazon Fire TV might be the among the things Amazon will be talking about.

Previously in the CES 2019, the company completely bragged about Alexa, and how its partners are up to integrate it with anything at one’s home, from TVs to home security systems, from a dog bowl to a lawnmower, from headphones to speakers, etc.

amazon event
Image Source: geekwire.com

And after the company announced a new Fire TV Cube as well as new Fire TV series during the IFA 2019, earlier this month, the Amazon partners are focusing on its Fire TV software and embedding it into new televisions and smart speakers, as well. So quite possibly the company may be discussing the same along with its new launches.

Along with that, it is expected that there will surely some new upgrades to the amazon’s Echo speakers, like a refresh to the standard echo speakers. Though it had launched the Echo Plus last year, with Alexa being almost everywhere, there might be some good changes to the smart speakers to make it more useful with Alexa, similar to Apple’s Homepod. There may also be some better changes to the services like Amazon Prime the company has been offering to its users.

Until the next announcement, we can only make the estimations, but since the Amazon event is not too far, we do not have to wait long either.

Apple event

Apple Event 2019: All Products that Apple Talked About

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With Apple’s iPhone 11 being the biggest highlight, Apple finally hosted its annual Apple Event 2019, which started at 10 a.m. PT and 10:30 p.m. IST and took place at the Steve Jobs Theater on Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California. Along with the iPhone, there were many other products that the company talked about during the event.

The products, other than the iPhone, mainly includes the new version of the Apple Watch, and the launch of Arcade, a subscription-based game for mobile, desktop and living room. Finally, the company has also launched its much anticipated Apple TV+, that will be up for a rivalry with Netflix through its original TV shows.

Apple, like every other year, took to the stage of its Apple Event to launch its new flagship smartphone iPhone 11. Like the previously launched Apple iPhone X, the company has brought three smartphones to the iPhone 11 lineup, which includes iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone Pro Max.

Apple event
Image Source: Apple YouTube

Each of these iPhones are in other three variants based on their storage capacities. The Apple iPhone 11 has got storages 64GB ($699), 128GB ($749), and 256GB ($849). The three variants of iPhone 11 Pro includes 64GB ($999), 256GB ($1,149) and 512GB ($1,349). And, the iPhone 11 Pro Max renders stoargae capacities of 64GB ($1099), 256GB ($1,249) and 512GB ($1,449).

This time, the company has brought the dual sim option to the iPhones through a Nano-SIM card slot and an eSIM. The iPhone 11 is said to be the successor of the iPhone XR launched last year and has been upgraded to a dual-camera setup, including a standard wide-angle lens and an ultra-wide-angle lens. And, on the other hand, the other two newly launched smartphones are packed with triple 12MP sensors rear cameras that include an ultra-wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens.

The iPhone 11 has got a 6.1 inches LCD display, and for the iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, the company has used 5.8-inch and 6.5-inch OLED screen, respectively. The processor used in all the iPhone 11 models is an A13 Bionic chipset, which according to the company is way faster than the processors used in its previously launched iPhones. iPhone 11 comes in six new colours, including purple, green, yellow, white, red and black. The colour choices for the iPhone 11 Pro and the iPhone Pro Max are midnight green, space grey, silver and gold.

Talking about the Arcade, that the company launched with a partnership with gaming giants Konami, Capcom and Annapurna Interactive, is said to be the first subscription service for mobile and desktop. There will be more than 10,000 games that the users will have access through the subscription. The service will be available for $4.99 per month.

The company also launched the Apple TV+ for a $4.99 monthly subscription fees that will be streaming in over 100 countries. In fact, the company has announced a one-year free subscription with the purchase of any of its iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.

The company also introduced its new 7th generation iPad, empowered with the newly launched iPad OS, having a 10.2-inch display. According to Apple, the iPad has three times better pixels on its display, and for the first time, any of its iPad is having a 100% recycled aluminium body. The price of the new Apple iPad is set to be $329, and it will cost $299 for the educational institutions.

Last but not least, another highlight of Apple Event was the new Apple Watch Series 5, completely dedicated to human health. The watch will be looking after the health of the human heart, and the other women related health issues. The watch also includes a compass and decibel reader to monitor noise level. There are two types of models, one of which only includes the GPS ($399), and the other includes both GPS and the cellular service ($499). The users will also have an option for international emergency calling over the watch. The watch is available in five colours, i.e., silver, gold, aluminium, black and white.