Archives January 2024

Tecno Spark 20 is now official. Tecno has launched its latest Spark series smartphone — Spark 20 in India. The budget smartphone sports an HD+ display and is powered by a MediaTek chipset. The smartphone runs Android 13 and is backed by a 5000 mAh battery.
Price and availability
The Tecno Spark 20 smartphone comes with a price tag of Rs 10,499 and it can be purchased in Gravity Black, Cyber White, Neon Gold, and Magic Skin 2.0 (Blue) colour options.The smartphone will be available online on Amazon.in starting February 2, 2024.
The company has also announced a free annual OTTPlay subscription worth Rs 4,897 with the phone. As part of the subscription the users will get 19 OTT apps.
Tecno Spark 20 specifications
Tecno Spark 20 comes with a 6.56-inch HD+ display with 720×1612 pixel resolution. The display offers a 90Hz refresh rate.
Tecno Spark 20 is powered by an octa-core MediaTek chipset paired with 8GB of RAM. The smartphone offers 128GB internal storage which can be expanded up to 1TB by adding a microSD card.
Tecno Spark 20 runs Android 13 operating system topped with company’s own layer of HiOS 13. The dual SIM smartphone sports a 50MP main camera and a secondary AI camera. There’s also a 32MP front camera for selfies.
The budget smartphone comes equipped with a side-mounted fingerprint sensor and it comes with IP53 rating which makes it resistant to dust and splash.
Tecno Spark 20 is backed by a 5000 mAh battery with 18W fast charging support.

iPhone 15 series and iPhone 16 series shipments could decline significantly as the company faces various structural challenges, according to TF Securities International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. The iPhone maker is contending with the rise of two new paradigms related to flagship smartphone design, while demand for its smartphones continues to decline in China, the analyst claims. Apple is expected to unveil its purported iPhone 16 lineup as the successors to its iPhone 15 series of smartphones in the second half of 2024.

Kuo states in a Medium post that his latest supply chain survey indicates the Cupertino firm has cut its shipments of key upstream semiconductor components to nearly 200 million units — a 15 percent drop compared to last year. The analyst claims that shipments of Apple’s iPhone 15 series will drop by 10 percent year on year (YoY) in H1 2024 while the iPhone 16 series will fall by up to 15 percent YoY in H2 2024.

According to Kuo, the reason behind Apple’s drop in shipments for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 is the various structural changes, including the growing popularity of foldable phones and the integration of generative AI (GenAI) features on high-end phones. The company is also said to be facing a decline in demand in China.

While China continues to crack down on the iPhone in China, Apple’s rival Huawei is making a comeback in the country. Meanwhile, Kuo says that foldable phones are becoming more popular among users who purchase flagship phones. Weekly shipments of the iPhone in China have dropped by 30 to 40 percent YoY in recent weeks, according to Kuo.

It is worth noting that the latest data from Canalys shows that Huawei returned to the top 4 brands in China in Q4 2023, but Apple shipments in the country rose 6 percent YoY as the company shipped 17.5 million units. Apple also had the highest market share in China in Q4 2023, according to data shared by Canalys. Meanwhile, an IDC report revealed that iPhone shipments in China dropped 2 percent in Q4 2023.

Apple has lowered its shipment forecast for the iPhone 15 in H1 2024, while Samsung has raised its shipment forecast by 5 percent to 10 percent due to the GenAI functions of the handset, according to the analyst. Samsung introduced new ‘Galaxy AI’ features on the Galaxy S24 series, while Apple is expected to bring some AI features with its iOS 18 update that is expected to arrive later this year.

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Meta has recently released Code Llama 70B, the latest update to the company’s open-source artificial intelligence (AI) coding model. Announcing the release, the California-based tech conglomerate called it “the largest and best-performing model in the Code Llama family.” As per the company’s report, Code Llama 70B scored 53 percent in accuracy on the HumanEval benchmark, highlighting capabilities nearing OpenAI’s GPT 4 that scored 67 percent. The latest AI assistant joins the company’s existing coding models Code Llama 7B, Code Llama 13B, and Code Llama 34B.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Code Llama 70B via a Facebook post and said, “We’re open sourcing a new and improved Code Llama, including a larger 70B parameter model. Writing and editing code has emerged as one of the most important uses of AI models today. [..] I’m proud of the progress here, and looking forward to including these advances in Llama 3 and future models as well.”

Code Llama 70B is available in three versions — the foundational model, the Code LLama – Python, and Code Llama – Instruct, as per Meta’s blog post. Python is for the specific programming language and Instruct has natural language processing (LNP) capabilities, which means you can use this even if you do not know how to code.

The Meta AI coding assistant is capable of generating both codes and natural language responses, the latter being important for explaining codes and answering queries related to them. The 70B model has been trained on 1 trillion tokens (roughly 750 million words) of coding and code-related data. Like all LLama AI models, Code Llama 70B is also free for research and commercial purposes. It is hosted on Hugging Face, a coding repository.

Coming to benchmarks, the company has posted its scores in accuracy and compared them against all rival coding-focussed AI models. On the HumanEval benchmark, 70B scored 53 percent and on the Mostly Basic Python Programming (MBPP) benchmark, it received 62.4 percent. In both benchmarks, it has outscored OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 which received 48.1 percent and 52.2 percent, respectively. GPT 4 posted only its HumanEval accuracy scores online and netted 67 percent, edging the Llama Code 70B parameter by a fairly healthy margin.

In August 2023, Meta released Code Llama, which was based on the Llama 2 foundational model and trained specifically on its coding-based datasets. It accepts both codes and natural language for prompts and can generate responses in both, as well. Code Llama can generate, edit, analyse, and debug codes. Its Instruct version can also help users understand the codes in natural language.

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US-based payments major Visa has been lauded by the crypto sector one too many times for keeping a friendly approach despite regulatory lags. Visa has now joined hands with Web3 payments infrastructure provider Transak. The aim is to allow Visa crypto card holders to convert crypto assets into fiat currencies in real time. The move appears to be Visa’s attempt to further democratise the use of crypto for daily payments – but by converting their values into fiat currencies.

Transak has now been onboarded onto the Visa Direct programme. A real-time one-push payments platform, Visa Direct allows third party providers connect with Visa’s network and wire payments directly on Visa cards.

“By enabling real-time card withdrawals through Visa Direct, Transak is delivering a faster, simpler and more connected experience for its users, making it easier to convert crypto balances into fiat, which can be spent at the more than 130 million merchant locations where Visa is accepted,” Coindesk quoted Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, North America head of Visa Direct as commenting on the development.

Visa users will also be able to transfer cryptocurrencies from wallets like MetaMask directly into the Visa Debit Card. A total of 40 cryptocurrencies are currently eligible for conversion to fiat via this Visa Direct initiative across 145 nations. These include Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and Dogecoin among others.

“This is a major step towards mainstream acceptance and utilization of cryptocurrencies. MetaMask users can now effortlessly off-ramp directly from their wallet to the Visa card, which enhances the usability and practicality of their digital assets. Transak’s integration with Visa opens new horizons for MetaMask users globally, providing more flexibility in smooth cryptocurrency to fiat conversions,” Harshit Gangwar, Transak’s marketing head and investor relations lead was quoted by the media as saying.

Visa has been consistent in-terms of introducing Web3-friendly services in the last few years. Earlier this month, the payments giant announced a new Web3 loyalty service to assist brands experiment with Web3 elements like NFTs, metaverse, and cryptocurrencies.

In December 2022, Visa designed a functionality to enable users to make their telephone and electricity payments via self-custodial crypto wallets. The same year, Visa launched a creator programme to help digital-age artists understand and use NFTs.

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Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now out on the App Store on iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. The surreal package delivery game from Kojima Productions can be played on the A17 Pro-powered iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad models and macOS devices running on the M1 chip or later. Death Stranding, which first launched as a PlayStation exclusive in 2019 and later ported to PC, was first announced for Apple platforms at the company’s WWDC event in June last year.

Death Standing on iPhone, iPad and Mac runs natively on Apple Silicon, utilising MetalFX Upscaling for optimized visual fidelity, 505 Games, which was tasked with bringing the AAA title to Apple devices, said in its blog Tuesday.

The game is also currently available with a 50 percent discount, an offer that is live till February 20, at Rs. 1,999. Death Stranding Director’s Cut is also available as a universal purchase, thus allowing users to only buy it once to access it on other compatible Apple devices.

Death Stranding on iOS comes with high frame rate mode, a photo mode, and cross-over content from Valve’s Half-Life series and CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077. Apple users would also need to sign in to iCloud and activate iCloudDrive to play the game. The title also requires iOS 17, iPadOS 17 and macOS 13.3 or later to work and will take up about 77GB of storage space.

Since the launch of the iPhone 15, Apple has pushed to bring more AAA games to its phones. Last month, Resident Evil 4, the acclaimed 2023 remake of the survival horror classic from 2005, released on iPhone 15 Pro and compatible iPad and Mac models. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which launched on PC and consoles in October last year, is slated to arrive on iPhone sometime in 2024.

The Director’s Cut version of Death Stranding, which includes enhanced graphics and performance and new gameplay elements and missions, launched natively on the PS5 in late 2021. The game puts players in the shoes of Sam Porter Bridges (played by Norman Reedus), a delivery man tasked with reconnecting scattered remnants of society living in bunkers across a post-apocalyptic United States.

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Last week, Apple announced its new App Store rules after the European Union ordered it to change the way it carries on business in the region. While it allowed third-party apps for iPhones in the region, it is laying a 50 euro cents fee for app developers which is being criticised by various tech giants like Spotify, and Epic Games and now even Microsoft has criticised them. The new move by Apple potentially impacts the third-party app stores including developers and apps within them. Most recently, Microsoft reacted to Apple’s App Store rules by saying, “a step in the wrong direction.”

How Microsoft reacted to Apple’s new App Store rules

To comply with European Union technology requirements, Apple has announced new rules for their App store in which they will allow third-party app stores for iPhones with a Core Technology Fee on the app developers. According to the Verge report, app developers have to pay a 50 euro cents fee for each annual app install after 1 million downloads. Additionally, Apple will charge a 17 percent commission for third-party payment processors. After the announcement, various apps criticised the move. Sarah Bond, Xbox president shared a statement on X saying, “Apple’s new policy is a step in the wrong direction. We hope they listen to feedback on their proposed plan and work towards a more inclusive future for all.”

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Microsoft is currently working to launch their Xbox mobile store which will have famous gaming titles such as Call of Duty: Mobile, Candy Crush Saga, and others. This mobile store will be completely separated from Apple and Google stores, making it run independently.

Now, with the new Apple app store rules, it may create a hurdle to run the mobile store in the region. Earlier, Epic Games CEO had reacted by saying that the new rules are “hot garbage.” Epic has had a long-running dispute with Apple over its App Store rules and the case had been dragging in courts till recently.

Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, in an X post that, “Apple’s DMA announcement (that took a while), which is, at best vague and misleading.”

The new App Store rules have hundreds of millions of dollars riding on them for all popular apps running on the third-party app store and it is still being debated whether Apple will pull back and announce a fresh set of rules.

Also read other top stories today:

Brain Chip Implanted! A lucky individual has become the first human to receive a brain implant from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, marking a step toward being able to steer computers with our minds. Is that the right way to go? Find out out here. 

Bad news for Apple! Influential technology analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned that the company is expecting lower demand for iPhone 15 and the upcoming iPhone 16 in 2024. Know all about it here. 

Samsung Woos China with Ernie Bot! Samsung will feature Baidu Inc.’s Ernie Bot as a key attraction of its new Galaxy S24 smartphone series in China. Dive in here. 

WhatsApp has kicked off 2024 with a bold step, one which most Android users won’t be fond of. Starting this month, WhatsApp backups will count towards your Google Drive storage, meaning you will have to have enough space on your Google Drive. WhatsApp has been offering free Google Drive storage for WhatsApp backups on Android smartphones all this while, but the freebie looks to have run its course. And this doesn’t spell good news, especially for those with chunky WhatsApp backups. Know all about this major change.

WhatsApp backups on Google Drive

Back in November, Meta Platforms announced that it would soon stop allowing free Google storage for WhatsApp backups. In a blog post, the platform said, “As an important heads up, WhatsApp backups on Android will soon start counting toward your Google Account cloud storage limit, similar to how WhatsApp backups are handled on other mobile platforms.”

Meta said that the change would start reflecting in December, with a wider rollout in early 2024, and now we’re actually witnessing it. So, it seems that the time has finally come to kiss your free Google Drive storage goodbye!

What does it mean for users?

With this change, WhatsApp backups will now take up a part of the 15GB storage space that Google offers with its free account. If you wish to get more storage space, you’ll have to subscribe to Google One, the company’s subscription service which offers up to 2TB of storage. It is important to note that this change only affects Android users as WhatsApp did not have any free storage space on iOS devices.

 If you’re on the stable version of WhatsApp, head over to the Google account storage and look under the ‘Other’ section. Here, you will find the storage space occupied by the WhatsApp backup. Interestingly, WhatsApp says will start notifying users of this change at least 30 days before via a banner. It can be reportedly seen by going into WhatsApp, then Chats, and then Chat Backups.

Also read other top stories today:

Brain Chip Implanted! A lucky individual has become the first human to receive a brain implant from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, marking a step toward being able to steer computers with our minds. Is that the right way to go? Find out out here.

Bad news for Apple! Influential technology analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned that the company is expecting lower demand for iPhone 15 and the upcoming iPhone 16 in 2024. Know all about it here.

Samsung Woos China with Ernie Bot! Samsung will feature Baidu Inc.’s Ernie Bot as a key attraction of its new Galaxy S24 smartphone series in China. Dive in here.

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Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is expected to launch alongside the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 later this year. The new foldables will succeed the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, respectively, which were unveiled in July 2023. Although the company has yet to confirm anything about the anticipated foldable smartphones, leaks regarding the handsets have surfaced online. Previous reports claimed the Galaxy Z Flip 6 may get upgrades to the camera and display. Now, another report claims that the clamshell foldable may also get a larger battery over its preceding model.

A GalaxyClub report claims that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 may pack a 4,000mAh battery, a significant upgrade over the 3,700mAh battery that is available on the Galaxy Z Flip 5. According to the report, one of the tested batteries for the purported handset has a rated capacity of 1,097mAh, while the other has a rated capacity of 2,790mAh, resulting in a total rated capacity of 3,887mAh. It could be promoted as having a typical battery capacity of 4,000mAh. Notably, the Samsung Galaxy S24, which the company launched recently, is listed with a typical battery capacity of 4,000mAh, whereas it has a rated capacity of 3,880mAh.

Previously, the same publication reported that the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6 is likely to carry a 50-megapixel primary rear sensor. This would be a big upgrade over the dual 12-megapixel rear sensors of the Galaxy Z Flip 5, which is also equipped with a 10-megapixel front camera sensor. No details about the front camera of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 have surfaced yet.

The next-generation clamshell foldable model from Samsung has also been tipped to get a bigger display. It may feature a 3.9-inch cover screen, 0.5-inch larger than the 3.4-inch Super AMOLED folder-shaped outer panel on the Galaxy Z Flip 5.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 price in India starts at Rs. 99,999 for the 8GB + 256GB option, while the 8GB + 512GB option is priced at Rs. 1,09,999. It is offered in Cream, Graphite, Mint, Lavender, and Yellow colour options.

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With Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman all set to announce the interim Budget 2024 tomorrow, the PM Narendra Modi led government has rolled out a massive mobile phone components import duty cut today. The cut that has been announced is from 15% to 10% and it is aimed at boosting India’s exports. Notably, the country is Asia’s third-largest economy.

The import duty on parts such as battery covers, main lens, back cover, other mechanical items of plastic and metal, among others, has been reduced to 10%, the finance ministry said in a notification issued late Tuesday, Reuters reports.

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The move was widely expected as some reports had, earlier this month, highlighted the fact that the government was actively considering import duty cuts on components key to producing high-end mobile phones.

Also read other top stories today:

Brain Chip Implanted! A lucky individual has become the first human to receive a brain implant from Elon Musk’s Neuralink, marking a step toward being able to steer computers with our minds. Is that the right way to go? Find out out here. 

Bad news for Apple! Influential technology analyst Ming-Chi Kuo warned that the company is expecting lower demand for iPhone 15 and the upcoming iPhone 16 in 2024. Know all about it here. 

Samsung Woos China with Ernie Bot! Samsung will feature Baidu Inc.’s Ernie Bot as a key attraction of its new Galaxy S24 smartphone series in China. Dive in here. 

Garena Free Fire MAX has swiftly emerged as a dominant force in the competitive realm of battle royale gaming in India, solidifying its position, particularly following the prohibition of its predecessor, Garena Free Fire. With its captivating visuals and immersive gameplay, this gaming sensation has garnered widespread acclaim among enthusiasts nationwide.
The incorporation of redemption codes in Garena Free Fire MAX introduces an additional layer of excitement to the gaming experience.It’s important to note that these codes come with a limited validity period, typically ranging from 12 to 18 hours. This time-bound aspect adds a sense of urgency and anticipation, heightening the excitement for players.
Adhering to developer guidelines, the 12-character alphanumeric Garena FF redemption codes offer a coveted daily opportunity for up to 500 registered gamers. This daily claiming system ensures fairness, providing equal chances for enthusiasts to enhance their in-game experience.
Garena Free Fire MAX distinguishes itself not only with its time-sensitive rewards but also with its captivating visuals, innovative features, and immersive gameplay. The passionate gaming community continues to expand, drawn to the meticulously crafted and exhilarating universe that Garena Free Fire MAX presents.
As the premier battle royale game in India, Garena Free Fire MAX remains at the forefront of shaping the gaming landscape. Players are encouraged to immerse themselves in a world of intense battles, strategic gameplay, and exclusive rewards, promising an unparalleled gaming experience within the captivating realm of Garena Free Fire MAX.

What are Free Fire Max redeem codes?

Elevate your gaming journey with personalised redemption codes designed for Garena Free Fire Max, granting access to a wide array of exclusive in-game items and rewards. Whether you’re a seasoned player or new to the virtual battleground, these codes offer a unique opportunity to enhance your gameplay, strategize effectively, and enjoy a more immersive gaming experience. Consisting of 12-digit alphanumeric combinations, incorporating both capital letters and numbers, these codes play a crucial role in enriching the overall gaming experience for enthusiasts. Upon successful redemption, players unlock a diverse range of thrilling rewards that not only enhance the gaming atmosphere but also provide strategic advantages on the virtual battlefield. From sought-after weapons to unique skins, these in-game items significantly contribute to a heightened sense of immersion and personalised gameplay experience.

Garena Free Fire Max redeem codes today, January 31

Diamonds

Skins

How to redeem Free Fire Codes

Important tips