THē-GHōST

Realme V25 storage configuration and the design of Realme Buds Q2s true wireless stereo (TWS) earphones have been teased by the company. The smartphone and the TWS earphones will be launched in China on March 3. The smartphone is expected to feature a 6.58-inch full-HD TFT display, and it was spotted on the TENAA certification site with the model number RMX3475. As per a report, the Realme V25 is a rebadged Realme 9 Pro for the Chinese market.Realme posted on Weibo that the Realme V25 will come with a “standard” configuration (translated) of 12GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard storage. This is in line with the phone's TENAA listing which claims that the phone will come with up to 12GB of RAM, and has a model number RMX3475. It is expected to feature a 6.58-inch full-HD TFT display, and run on Android 11 with Realme UI 3.0 on top. The Realme V25 is also tipped to feature a triple rear camera setup, comprising a 64-megapixel primary sensor and two 2-megapixel secondary sensors. The phone is listed to be powered by a 2.2GHz octa-core processor and has a 5,000mAh battery. As per a report by GSMArena, the Realme V25 is expected to be a rebadged version of Realme 9 Pro for the Chinese market with a slightly different triple camera system along with more RAM and storage. Meanwhile, the design of the Realme Buds Q2s TWs earphones have been teased on Weibo. The Chinese company is calling it “transparent capsule design” (translated), and says that the earphones are “super good in appearance”. The earphones are seen in a Green colour option, and will come with Dolby Atmos support as well as offer 30 hours of battery life. There is no further information available on the key specifications of the earphones.

Welcome back to my weekday Wordle Solution Diary, where I take you step-by-step through my own Wordle puzzle efforts. Today, we're tackling Wordle #255. For those unfamiliar with Wordle, The New York Times’ (recently-purchased) daily word game asks you to guess a five-letter word in six tries. Simple right If you just want to skip to the Today's Wordle answer, (and yes, we have a page to do just that), you can depart right now. But what would be the fun in that You want to preserve your streak and, I believe, learn how to get better at Wordle, which means making smart choices and understanding the tactics that can take you from a "Winning in 5" to a "Solved in three" kind of Wordle player. The guide below includes how I make my guesses and images of my work. When I make a mistake, you'll see it. Maybe it'll help you avoid some of your own. Let's Wordle together. Spoiler Alert: If you do not want to know today’s Wordle answer, STOP READING IMMEDIATELY. Feeling strong Even though it took me four attempts, yesterday's solution (Wordle #254) in four strengthened my confidence. Seeing the "CH" combination reminds me that all those decades of writing might, in fact, count for something. I'm so cocky that now I'm ready to Wordle from the train. I'm still using my laptop, though. I'm convinced the big screen is helping me focus. Your biggest leap will always be that first word. I can choose any five-letter word but, generally, dismiss anything with double letters, as per our guide on how to win at Wordle. There are two goals: Get as many correct letters in the right spots as possible and miraculously guess the word on the first try. Thus far, I've never accomplished the latter. This morning, I make a slight change in tactics and look up a massive list of five-letter words to help jog my memory. I'm no dummy but I'm also not a dictionary. I can't start every Wordle with "FACES" (though I do love that as a starting point). I spot "BREAD" and immediately fall in love (who doesn't love bread?). This word has everything: Two key vowels, "E" and "A" and excellent consonants that can live anywhere in a five-letter word. Can you imagine if this is the moment I get Wordle in one Surprise, doing this on a train with a spotty mobile broadband connection is as risky as starting your Wordle with a word that repeats two letters. Sadly, I lost the original 'BREAD" entry image, but can present the middling results here. Getting two letters in the wrong spots on the first attempt isn't exactly a success story, but I like to focus not only on what I got but what's been permanently excluded. I hate to see "A" go. There are so many good "A" words like "CHAIR" and "FAITH." The "R" is useful and knowing that it's not the second letter makes me think it could start or end the word. Even so, with just two letters to work with, I think I will stick with my tried and true strategy of pulling in an entirely new set of letters. I need more material to work with.

We’re seeing a bunch of newly announced products roll around as 2022 begins picking up speed. CES had us drooling with potential and some of those promises are starting to make their way to fruition, and 2022 is looking big on lightweight laptops. We haven’t seen some of our most anticipated gaming laptops from CES yet, but recently Samsung announced it’s Galaxy Book2 Pro powered by Intel Arc graphics, and now Lenovo is getting onboard with its new line up including the Arm-powered ThinkPad. One of the biggest pulls for this new ThinkPad X13 is its boast of some pretty extreme battery life. Thanks to the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor these machines are really light on the power. That processor only has 9w TDP, which is pretty low given Lenovo is stating this has the equivalent performance of an unnamed Intel Core i5. Of course, we want to test this out in person before believing the hype, but that’s a laptop that could run all day without issues. It’s just nice to see. Though with 5G support I could see that eating the battery a bit faster than advertised when in use. It feels like a tablet replacement for those wanting something in a Windows 11 laptop. These will be available for purchase in May starting at $1,099 USD. Lenovo also announced a product it claims is aimed at younger gamers in the new IdeaPad Gaming 3 range. Usually IdeaPads are just budget friendly trimmed down ThinkPads, but instead now they’re aiming for the gaming market. It seems a bit odd but the specs boasted in the 15” and 16” inch models could make for some fun units. Both come with Intel and AMD options, though the Intel ones are slightly higher specced with price tags to match. Potential buyers can choose between either an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H or up to 12th Gen Intel Core i7. This is paired with up to an RTX 3060 for the intel models, or an RTX 3050 Ti for AMD. Add 32 GB of DDR4 and 1TB SSDs and the gaming story is starting to come together a bit. Anyone looking for a hardcore gaming laptop will want to steer clear, as these aren’t quite up to the snuff. But Lenovo has its Legion range to take care of that niche. Instead, the IdeaPad Gaming 3 actually does feel like a smart choice for a lower priced laptop that can also play some games. But it's certainly no Lenovo Legion 5 Pro which stole our hearts a bit with its great fundamentals. It could be a smart option for students who want to do a little bit of lower powered gaming in between study sessions, or who have some educational games they need to play on the same machine. Titles like Minecraft and Fortnite should run like a breeze. These machines will range from $929 USD to up to $1,489 for the beefiest Intel model, so it might be worth waiting for new Legion model, or other 2022 gaming laptop pricings before making that choice.

Sid Meier needs no introduction on PC Gamer, but let's whizz through a brief highlight reel: co-founder of Microprose and early simulation pioneer, one of the first developers to become a 'name' on the box with Sid Meier's Pirates!, then later founder of Firaxis and the driving force behind the Civilization series. Meier has been working in the industry since 1980 and over four decades later has an incredible living legacy: the guy knows what he's talking about. And right now, Sid Meier reckons the industry has gone down the wrong path on monetisation. "The real challenge and the real opportunity is keeping our focus on gameplay," Meier told the BBC, in an interview discussing the Civilization series three decades on. "That is what is unique, special and appealing about games as a form of entertainment. When we forget that, and decide it's monetisation or other things that are not gameplay-focused, when we start to forget about making great games and start thinking about games as a vehicle or an opportunity for something else, that's when we stray a little bit further from the path." It's hard not to relate Meier's words about games being a vehicle to the current and rather tiresome attempts to integrate NFTs, or convince everyone they're going to live in the metaverse. Meier thinks that when it comes to stuff like this, some studios can't see past the dollar signs to the game they're making. "People can assume that a game is going to be fun and what it needs for success are more cinematics or monetisation or whatever—but if the core just is not there with good gameplay, then it won't work. "In a sense gameplay is cheap... The game design part is critical and crucial but doesn't require a cast of thousands in the way some of the other aspects do. So it's perhaps easy to overlook how important the investment in game design and gameplay is." Meier himself infamously has his own private engine, still based on his Civilization code, which he uses to prototype game concepts and show to Firaxis designers. Which is not to suggest he should be overly credited with Firaxis's games, which over the years have had hundreds of other peoples' talents involved, more that it suggests someone who's never lost focus on what matters about a game. Is the idea, in its most basic form, fun to play That's perhaps the element that risks getting lost when the focus is on microtransactions or digital ownership via the blockchain, and consumer apathy (and active dislike!) towards these technologies comes from the fact that no-one's made a compelling example of how these things can make games more fun in themselves. The games industry is bigger than it's ever been: but that doesn't mean it's immune to trends, or chasing after faddy pots of gold. "There are lots of other ways that people can spend their leisure time..." warns Meier. "I think the way the internet works, once a shift starts to happen, then everybody runs to that side of the ship." "I think we need to be sure that our games continue to be high quality and fun to play—there are so many forms of entertainment out there now. We're in a good position... but we need to be sure we realise how critical gameplay is—and how that is the engine that really keeps players happy, engaged and having fun." Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/sid-meier-says-monetisation-causes-some-games-to-stray-a-little-bit-further-from-the-path/

Happy Birthday Hassan ❤️

Happy Birthday

Realme 150W UltraDart Charging technology was unveiled at MWC 2022 on Monday (February 28) — alongside the Realme GT 2 series. The new charging technology will debut alongside the Realme GT Neo 3 later this year, the company said. Realme's ultra-fast charging technology is claimed to offer zero to 50 percent charge in five minutes. The proprietary offering is claimed to be primarily based on three distinct technologies, namely multi-boost charging pumps, temperature management algorithm, and a new lithium battery.Using its in-house updates, Realme claimed that its new 150W UltraDart Charge offers 50 percent charging in five minutes — alongside maintaining thermal temperature below 43-degree Celsius and retaining 80 percent of battery capacity even after completing over 1,000 charge cycles. The new UltraDart Charging Architecture is also touted to be the world's first architecture to support 100–200W charging powers for smart devices. It uses multi-boost charging pumps to enhance charging speeds, while the temperature management algorithm works with the hardware to maintain an ideal temperature while charging. The new charging tech also works with the lithium batteries that come with higher levels of charging current to allow faster charging. Realme showcased a demo during its MWC 2022 announcement to give us a glimpse of the new charging technology. However, exact details on when the Realme GT Neo 3 with the 150W charging support will be available are yet to be announced. The company teased its launch by saying that the phone would be “coming soon” to the market. In addition to Realme, the rumour mill has suggested that its sibling and BBK Electronics subsidiary OnePlus is planning to bring its 150W charging-supported phones this year. The move is essentially to take on Xiaomi that brought models including the Xiaomi 11i HyperCharge 5G with 120W fast charging earlier this year.

Windows 11's February feature update is causing issues for some users, where the Start menu disappears as soon as you hover over to it, thanks to a conflict with widgets trying to appear at the same time. The update brought a preview option for Android apps on the Microsoft Store, alongside dark mode in Notepad, the return of Windows Media Player, and more. But there's a growing number of users who are reporting issues with the Start menu, where it looks to be conflicting with the widgets in the Taskbar. In our tests, we also found the same issue, while pressing the Windows key to keep the menu from disappearing, instead of using the mouse to click on the Start menu icon, seemed to fix the problem. It's certainly a frustrating bug, and it raises the question of why wasn't this fixed before the February update landed? The Taskbar and the Start menu have both seen polarizing changes since Windows 11 was announced in June 2021.This bug won't help matters for - to have the Start menu disappear, especially when you want to quickly launch an app or a document, is going to frustrate many people.But Microsoft is aware of the bug, according to Windows Latest, so we may not have to wait long for the next fix to arrive. But, in a time when a big change to a feature that's been in Windows for almost thirty years is rendered useless because of a bug, it isn't going to be a good advert for Windows 11.So the company has to act fast here and make sure that something like this doesn't appear in the release update for all users in the future. But if you're also experiencing the same or other issues, let Microsoft know in the Feedback Hub.

The launch of AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X3D draws closer. In preparation for the launch, Gigabyte has released a new BIOS for its 500 & 400 series AM4 motherboards. According to a tweet from @KOMACHI_ENSAKA, the new BIOS includes AMD’s AGESA ComboV2 PI 1.2.0.6B microcode and covers Gigabyte’s X570, B550, A520, X470 and B450 product families. Though it’s not explicitly stated, the BIOS changelog for a couple of the models we looked at includes support for an 'Upcoming New CPU'. Which is almost certainly the 5800X3D. Other motherboard manufacturers are certain to follow with their own BIOS releases. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is an exciting CPU as it’s the first to include an extra 64MB of vertically stacked cache. This will give it a total of 96MB of L3 cache. It will include 8 cores and 16 threads. Its base clock will be set at 3.4GHz with a boost clock of 4.5GHz. This is lower than the 4.7GHz of the regular Ryzen 7 5800X. The TDP remains the same at 105W. AMD lowered the clocks a little in order to fit within the 105W TDP envelope, but this means that if you have good cooling and a motherboard with a decent VRM, there’s every chance that the 5800X3D could have good overclocking headroom. AMD claims the 5800X3D can deliver up to 15% higher gaming performance than the base 5800X. Though that is probably going to be limited to games that are sensitive to a large and low latency cache. It may also end up as a low volume CPU. Will the lower clock speed hurt it significantly? Or will the extra cache be enough to offset it across all kinds of workloads? We’ll have to wait and see how it performs if or when we get it installed into our test bench sometime in the spring.

Make sure to check for the best discount, and don't listen to those inflated before discount numbers Storage space on a PC is one of those things that’s almost always in demand. Who doesn’t look at a nice speedy SSD and ponder how nicely it would work in their setup? Well, right now seems to be a pretty decent time to be doing just that, because Samsung M.2 SSD drives are popping up at mysteriously good prices, but some are definitely inflating the discount so buyer beware. First up I noticed that Amazon had both the 2 TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD and Samsung 970 EVO Plus going at discounted prices. The 980 is marked down from $450 to $300 which seemed like a bit of a high asking price before the discount, but perhaps not totally unfair. Samsung 980 Pro | M.2 PCIe Gen 4 | 2 TB| SSD | $269.99 These Samsung M.2 SSDs are on sale in a bunch of places at the moment but it seems like Newegg have the best deal we could find. Make sure to have a quick check around before buying to make sure that's still the case. Then while the sale price for the Samsung 970 Evo was a fair $200, the original listing for the 970 priced at $500, which is definitely a bit richer than the actual market price. Still, one of these for $200 USD didn’t seem too bad so I had a look around to compare and it seems like these Samsung M.2 SSDs are on sale in heaps of places. BestBuy has a 2 TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus for $210 and you can pick up a Samsung 980 Pro for only $280. NewEgg are currently seeming like the best deal, charging the lowest $190 for the 970 Evo, and keeping in line with BestBuy with a $280 980 Pro. We saw the 980 Pro on sale in this storage size for $330 late last year, and the 2TB 970 Evo was also on sale for $250 not that long ago, so these are by no means bad prices, just perhaps not as excellent as Amazon may be making them seem. This serves a good reminder that just because a sale price looks good, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a particular good deal. Especially from big storefronts like Amazon, though it is a bit ironic with the Samsung 970 Evo Plus taking out our most affordable PCIe 3.0 SSD award. If these prices are the new standard, that handle might become even better earned. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/grab-one-of-these-speedy-samsung-m2-ssd-deals/

Everyone deserves a chance

Authorised Apple service technicians may be able to make Face ID repairs on iPhone XS and newer phones without needing to replace the entire iPhone. As per a report by MacRumors, the tech giant may soon grant Apple Stores and Apple authorised service providers access to a new TrueDepth Camera service part that consists of Face ID and front camera modules. As a result, stores and authorised providers would perform same-unit repairs when a phone suffers from Face ID issues instead of replacing the device. As described by Apple in an internal memo, the move will reduce the carbon footprint of its products by decreasing the number of whole-unit repairs. If it happens, it also means owners of iPhone XS models and newer won't need to set up a new iPhone and possibly lose data just because of a Face ID problem. It's not clear yet when this new repair process will be implemented. The company has only told technicians they will receive training and documentation at a later date. The news comes a few months after Apple announced the new Self Service Repair program, another move that could also make repairs easier. Through the initiative, Apple will instruct customers how to fix their devices at home while selling them the parts and tools. Customers will also receive recycling credit when they return their used parts after fixing their devices. Apple said the Self Service Repair program would launch early this year in the US and then expand to other countries.

There are some apps that are abandoned through no fault of their own. The team responsible could have moved on to other projects, or a new, redesigned app may have appeared to take its place. If you go trawling through YouTube or even find an old PC in the family office, you can find yourself transported back to a time when the only way you could use the internet was by being sat down in front of a desk, waiting for a dial-up modem to connect. But we're also heading into an era with the App Store and Google Play Store, where users are longing for deleted apps to make a comeback, regardless of how they may look or operate in today's world. There’s a growing nostalgia for the apps we used to use every day. Whether it's to feel like we're back at school, or just because the app was so good that we’d like to use them again for our new Windows 11 and iPhone 13 devices in 2022. Windows Media Player coming back is a great example of this, and it's why there should be more comebacks for depreciated apps. With this in mind, here are three apps that should see a return and a remake for 2022 to take advantage of the devices we use every day. This is a note-taking app that set itself apart from the rest in the productivity category at the time. Created by Q Branch, involving Brent Simmons, Dave Wiskus, and John Gruber, the app was launched in 2013 and then discontinued in 2016. But thanks to the ability to redownload apps that have disappeared from the App Store, Vesper can still be used in 2022. Vesper’s design is classically inspired by Apple's Notes app from 2013, but in a modern vibe that still looks good in 2022. The app's purpose is simple - to take notes. But you can also tag these notes, similar to a feature that Apple brought to its own Notes app only in 2021. You can swipe to the left to archive any notes that you don't need, and you can re-arrange them to order the notes in a way that suits your needs. For some reason, we weren't able to redownload it for iPhone, but on an M1 Mac we could, and it still works great, even with a janky way to resize the window in only two ways. You can't sync notes to different devices as that was shut down when Vesper shut its doors, but it's a great app to use locally on your device if you're creating one or two projects. Since its discontinuation, the source code has been available on GitHub for someone else to make their own interpretation of the app. Using this app in 2022, we can't help but wonder if one last hurrah should occur for Vesper. One more version where the band gets back together, much like James Bond in the mid-nineties, to be relevant again but for a new civilized age. Even in a world where we have note apps that work similarly to WhatsApp, there's still room for a Vesper, especially in an app world where we use to-do lists and collaborative efforts to jot things down for those personal projects. To see a new, final Vesper with Widgets, a web version variant, iCloud sync, alongside the proverbial dark mode option, could be a great way for Q Branch to sign off and raise a glass to, and have it work for our modern iPhones again. MSN Messenger Between 1999 and 2009, Microsoft's messaging app was everywhere. You'd finish school and go straight to your parents' PC to log on to MSN Messenger, to either continue a conversation from earlier or to arrange something for later that evening. You would log in and be greeted with a list of the contacts you've added, with many showcasing using waves of emojis and symbols placed on either side to their name for effect. You could 'nudge' and 'wink' a friend who would be online, and you could exchange images if you wanted. Eventually, the ability to play games with one another, alongside webcam support would be available to use, taking a strain on the 120Kbps broadband that would have been the average common internet speeds in 2003. MSN Messenger was also arguably the first dating app before Tinder and Bumble. A small rainbow or heart next to a name would be a not-so-subtle hint on someone's name, yet it could initiate something more in the playground the next day. Messenger had something for everyone during those times, but ironically it didn't move to where apps were going.

If you missed out on all the President's Day deals on RTX 30-series desktops last week, fear not, because Newegg is running a flash sale on an ABS Gladiator Gaming PC with an RTX 3070 Ti for $2,299 for the next 12 hours. It's $200 off its listed price, which isn't much, but more importantly, it's in stock. Anyone on the hunt for a GPU now knows that they would have an easier time tracking a unicorn than an RTX 3080. The ABS Gladiator has some decent components behind its trio of colorful fans: 16GB DDR RAM, a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD, and an Intel Core I7-12700FK to go with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti 8GB (though the manufacturer isn't specified). The system is also ready to be upgraded to Windows 11, should you decide to take that journey. This PC should provide good framerates if you plan on playing games at max settings in 1080p and 1440p. You could dip your toes into 4K gaming, especially with the help of DLSS, Nivida's AI supersampling technology, for a boost. The speedy NVMe SSD will be a godsend in decreasing load times in games like Elden Ring and Far Cry 6, and the Core i7 CPU in this thing is no slouch, either. In terms of raw power, the RTX 3070 Ti sits right above an RTX 3070 and AMD RX 6800 in the GPU performance hierarchy. So, not bad as an upgrade GPU, especially if you're currently using an older generation Nvidia card. In terms of raw power, the RTX 3070 Ti sits right above an RTX 3070 and AMD RX 6800 in the GPU performance hierarchy. So, not bad as an upgrade GPU, especially if you're currently using an older generation Nvidia card. If you just need a graphics card, we did notice that Amazon seems to have some stock but expect those to go by fast and for some cards to be a touch overpriced.

It was a big moment for PC gaming when Microsoft stopped releasing its games exclusively through the Microsoft Store and started putting them on Steam. It wasn't every Microsoft game at first, but now it's gone that direction—just three days ago Bethesda announced it was dropping its own launcher and releasing everything on Steam going forward. But Microsoft also has Game Pass, a subscription service that's grown to millions of subscribers across Windows and Xbox, and those games notably still run out of its own app, not Steam. When I spoke to Valve president Gabe Newell about the Steam Deck last week, I asked him if Valve is interested in its own subscription service, or whether we could see Game Pass games on Steam in the future. "I don't think it's something that we think we need to do ourselves, building a subscription service at this time," Newell said. "But for their customers it's clearly a po[CENSORED]r option, and we'd be more than happy to work with them to get that on Steam." It sounds like we won't be seeing a "Steam Pass" subscription anytime soon, then, but the possibility at least exists of Game Pass games being available to download from Steam. There is some precedent there: EA Play, EA's game subscription service, was added to Steam in 2020. But Game Pass would likely be trickier. The service currently delivers different versions of games than those developers release on Steam, which is why we often see issues pop up specific to Game Pass games. If getting Game Pass on Steam would help Microsoft sell more subscriptions, though, it seems plausible it could happen eventually. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has also tweeted positively about Valve's new Linux-based handheld, the Steam Deck. "We've talked to people there quite a bit about that topic," Newell said. "If your customers want it, then you should figure out how to make it happen. That's where we're at." The Steam Deck isn't quite Game Pass ready just yet. As of this writing on February 25, Valve and AMD are still working to finalize driver compatibility for installing Windows on the Steam Deck. When that's sorted out, those brave enough to dual boot will be able to play their Game Pass games on the go. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-has-no-plans-for-a-steam-pass-but-would-help-microsoft-put-game-pass-on-steam/

Happy birthday

Oppo Find X5, Find X5 Pro, and Find X5 Lite were launched at a virtual event on Thursday (February 24). The Oppo Find X5 and Find X5 Pro both come with a dedicated Oppo MariSilicon X chip to boost image processing. The cameras on the Oppo Find X5 and Find X5 Pro are also optimised at the software level in partnership with Swedish camera maker Hasselblad. The phones additionally bring IP68-certified water-resistant builds. In contrast, the Oppo Find X5 Lite 5G has debuted as a budget option in the series. It is essentially a rebadged Oppo Reno 7 5G that was launched in India last month.Oppo Find X5, Find X5 Pro, Find X5 Lite price Oppo Find X5 price has been set at EUR 999 (roughly Rs. 84,500) for the lone 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant. The Oppo Find X5 Pro price, on the other hand, is set at EUR 1,299 (roughly Rs. 1,09,900) for the single 12GB + 256GB model. Pricing and availability of the Oppo Find X5 Lite are yet to be revealed. The Find X5 and Find X5 Pro will be available from March 14. Both phones are currently available for pre-orders in Europe. The Oppo Find X5 comes in Black and White colours, while the Find X5 Pro has Ceramic White and Glaze Black shades. The Find X5 Lite, on the other hand, has Starlight Black and Startrails Blue colours. Details on whether the Oppo Find X5 series will launch in India are yet to be announced. In addition to the Find X5 series, Oppo introduced its new 50W AirVOOC Wireless Charger that will be available starting the middle of March. It will be on sale at EUR 79 (roughly Rs. 6,700). The Oppo Enco X2 truly wireless stereo (TWS) earbuds also debuted at the event. Last year, the Oppo Find X3 was launched at CNY 4,499 (roughly Rs. 53,700) for the base variant. The Find X3 Pro, on the other hand, debuted at EUR 1,149 (roughly Rs. 97,100) and the Find X3 Lite came at EUR 449 (roughly Rs. 37,900). Oppo Find X5 specifications The dual-SIM (Nano+eSIM) Oppo Find X5 runs on Android 12 with ColorOS 12.1 on top and features a 6.55-inch full-HD+ (1,080x2,400 pixels) AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 20:9 aspect ratio. The display also carries a Corning Gorilla Glass 7 protection. Under the hood, the phone has an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC, along with 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM. The Find X5 comes with a triple rear camera setup that houses a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 primary sensor with an f/1.8 lens and optical image stabilisation (OIS), along with another 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 sensor with an f/2.2 ultra-wide lens. The camera setup also includes a 13-megapixel telephoto shooter. Oppo has developed its 6nm MariSilicon X chip that combines a neural processing unit (NPU) with an image signal processor (ISP) and multi-tier memory architecture to boost imaging results on the Find X5. The proprietary chip is touted to enable 18 tera operations per second (TOPS) computing power along with 20-bit 120dB Ultra Dynamic Range. The latter is claimed to be four times greater than what was available on the Oppo Find X3 Pro. The chip is also capable of delivering real-time RAW image processing, 1,000,000:1 brightness contrast ratio, and 8dB signal-to-noise ratio improvement. For selfies and video chats, the Oppo Find X5 carries a 32-megapixel Sony IMX615 selfie camera sensor at the front. The Oppo Find X5 carries 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage that doesn't support expansion. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.2, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C port. Sensors on board include an accelerometer, ambient light, gyroscope, magnetometer, pedometer, and a proximity sensor. The phone also comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor. Oppo has packed the Find X5 with a 4,800mAh dual-cell battery that supports 80W SuperVOOC fast wired charging, 30W AirVOOC wireless charging, and 10W reverse wireless charging. Besides, the phone measures 160.3x72.6x8.7mm and weighs 196 grams. Oppo Find X5 Pro specifications The dual-SIM (Nano+eSIM) Oppo Find X5 Pro also comes with ColorOS 12.1 that is based on Android 12. The phone features a 6.70-inch 10-bit QHD+ (1,440x3,216 pixels) AMOLED display that is backed by low-temperature polycrystalline oxide (LTPO) technology and supports 120Hz adaptive refresh rate. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus and carries HDR10+ support. The Find X5 Pro is powered by an octa-core Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, coupled with 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM. There is a triple rear camera setup that houses a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 primary sensor with an f/1.7 lens. The camera setup also includes a 50-megapixel Sony IMX766 secondary sensor with an f/2.2 ultra-wide lens and a 13-megapixel Samsung S5K3M5 sensor with an f/2.4 telephoto lens. Additionally, the primary sensor includes five-axis OIS, and the camera setup is paired with a 13-channel spectral sensor. This is aimed at more accurately detecting a scene's colour spectrum. Similar to the Find X5, the Find X5 Pro has the MariSilicon X chip for enhanced imaging results. In terms of capturing selfies and enabling video chats, the Oppo Find X5 Pro offers a 32-megapixel Sony IMX709 selfie camera sensor at the front, with an f/2.4 lens. The Oppo Find X5 Pro comes with 256GB of UFS 3.1 storage that isn't expandable via a microSD card. Connectivity options include 5G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.2, GPS/ A-GPS, NFC, and a USB Type-C port. Onboard sensors include accelerometer, ambient light sensor, gyroscope, magnetometer, pedometer, and proximity sensor. There is also an in-display fingerprint sensor. Further, the Find X5 Pro includes support for Air Gestures that users can use to control apps including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, without touching the screen. Just like the Find X5, the Oppo Find X5 Pro has 80W SuperVOOC, 50W AirVOOC, and 10W reverse wireless charging support. The phone also packs a 5,000mAh dual-cell battery. Besides, it measures 163.7x73.9x8.5mm and weighs 218 grams. Oppo Find X5 Lite 5G specifications The dual-SIM (Nano) Oppo Find X5 Lite runs on Android 11 with ColorOS 12 on top. The phone features a 6.43-inch full-HD+ (1,080x2,400 pixels) AMOLED display with a 20:9 aspect ratio and a 90Hz refresh rate. The display is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5. The Find X5 Lite is powered by an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 900 SoC, paired with 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM. The phone comes with a triple rear camera setup that houses a 64-megapixel primary sensor with an f/1.7 lens, along with an 8-megapixel wide-angle shooter and a 2-megapixel macro shooter.

In the latest feature update to Windows 11, you can insert emoji icons into a Notepad file, alongside other new features. Notepad has not seen improvements since 2006, with a visual update to match Windows Vista. However, Microsoft has now added a dark mode, a new look to align it to other apps in Windows 11, and a redesigned menu to select different fonts. These updates were released in a February feature update, which also brought the ability to try out Android apps in the Microsoft Store In a detailed blog post by Murray Sargent, Principle Software Engineer at Microsoft, he speaks of the efforts in moving Notepad to a new engine in Windows 11, which brings, most importantly, emoji support. Sure enough, pressing the Windows key and full stop key together in Notepad displays the emoji menu, where you can insert reactions, animals, signs, and more into a document. Notepad has been a po[CENSORED]r app for jotting down quick lists or thoughts for years, which you would then move to an office suite of your choice, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. But Microsoft is making a concerted effort to make Notepad a modern app for Windows 11. The updates are helping to make it a tool for writing more than simple lists and notes, and emojis can be a big appeal to users who haven't used Notepad in years. The new RichEdit engine that Sargant speaks of in the blog posts allows for features like emojis to appear, but he also talks about what could be possible for the future, such as programming features and web files. For some use-cases, such as a short report or a chapter to the book you've always wanted to write, the formatting options, thanks to the new engine, could mean that Notepad remains a mainstay on your taskbar for years to come. But the next question is what Microsoft has in store for Notepad in future versions of Windows 11, or even Windows 12?

Windows 10 was meant to be our lot. Then Windows 11 stormed in, arms flailing. And just when we thought Microsoft was through churning out new operating systems, rumours have surfaced that a Windows 12 may well be in development. Computerbase reports that "developments on the new operating system are already set to begin," according to a now-redacted tweet from security expert SwiftOnSecurity. The original post has been taken down now, with the tweet having "not been well received by Microsoft," says Computerbase. But the fact this came from a user who's touting an official 'Most Valuable Professional' (MVP) award, coupled with the fact Microsoft took notice all, adds yet more plausibility to Deskmodder's claims that work on Windows 12 would be starting from March this year. SwiftOnSecurity had apparently joked in their original post about Windows 12 requiring two TPM modules. Imagine the uproar that would cause (if it were actually possible), especially after the state the internet was in after Windows 11 announced the TPM requirements for Windows 11, then swiftly revealed how to bypass them just to calm everyone down. Should these claims of an incoming Windows 12 OS be true, Microsoft is likely to be moving away from the infrastructure used in Windows 10, as WindowsUnited suggests. We're of the opinion that Windows 11 should have just been released as a Windows 10 update, anyway, but Windows 12 we'd welcome as a standalone OS. That is, provided the company does do a full overhaul and not just update some of the Windows 11 UI. As usual, take claims like this with a pinch of salt.

The Elden Ring release time is nearly here, but just in case you've missed it so far, I'm here to tell you when FromSoftware's epic new adventure unlocks where you are. Bandai Namco has put together a breakdown of loads of territories around the globe so you can find out when your perilous sojourn through the Lands Between can begin. So, without further ado, here are the Elden Ring unlock times where you are. Above you can find a comprehensive list of unlock times for PC and console, courtesy of Bandai Namco. In written form, that is: PC: Feb 24 - 3:00 PM PT Consoles: Feb 24 - 9:00 PM PT Central Time PC: Feb 24 - 5:00 PM CT Consoles: Feb 24 - 11:00 PM CT Eastern Time PC: Feb 24 - 6:00 PM ET Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Colombia Time PC: Feb 24 - 6:00 PM COT Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Brasilia Time PC: Feb 24 - 8:00 PM BRT Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time UK Time PC: Feb 24 - 11:00 PM GMT Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Central European Time PC: Feb 25 - 12:00 AM CET Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Eastern European Time PC: Feb 25 - 01:00 AM EET Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time South Africa Standard Time PC: Feb 25 - 01:00 AM SAST Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Moscow Standard Time PC: Feb 25 - 02:00 AM MSK Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Arabia Standard Time PC: Feb 25 - 02:00 AM AST Consoles: Feb 25 - 02:00 AM AST Gulf Standard Time PC: Feb 25 - 03:00 AM GST Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time UTC+7 PC: Feb 25 - 06:00 AM UTC+7 Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time UTC+8 PC: Feb 25 - 07:00 AM UTC+8 Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Advertisement Korea Standard Time PC: Feb 25 - 08:00 AM KST Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Japan Standard Time PC: Feb 25 - 08:00 AM JST Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time Australian Eastern Daylight Time PC: Feb 25 - 10:00 AM AEDT Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time New Zealand Daylight Time PC: Feb 25 - 12:00 PM NZDT Consoles: Feb 25 - Midnight Local Time If you somehow live in a time zone that somehow wasn't covered in that extensive list above, you can find a handy time zone converter at savvytime.com. Elden Ring pre-loading is available now, so you can dive into the game straight away when the unlock time arrives. We've got the full Elden Ring system requirements, so you see exactly what sort of PC you'll need to play the game, and you'll also want to ensure your video drivers are up to date too. And of course you can check out our full Elden Ring review to get a better idea of what you can expect from the game itself.

Realme GT 2 series global launch has been confirmed. The flagship series from Realme will launch on the inaugural day of Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2022 next week. The flagship smartphone series from Realme comprises two models — the vanilla Realme GT 2 and Realme GT 2 Pro. Both the devices were launched in China in early January. The vanilla Realme GT 2 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC while Realme GT 2 Pro features a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC. It remains to be seen if the global version of the smartphones will be different from their Chinese models. Through a press release and a tweet, Realme confirmed that the Realme GT 2 series will get a global launch on February 28 at 9am GMT (2:30pm IST). The flagship smartphone series will launch on the inaugural day of MWC 2022 and the event can be livestreamed on Realme UK's Twitter and YouTube channels. There is no mention of a dedicated India launch yet, but Realme CEO Madhav Sheth hinted earlier this month that Realme GT 2 and Realme GT 2 Pro will launch in India sometime soon. Realme GT 2 specifications Launched in China earlier this year, it remains to be seen if the global version of the Realme GT 2 series will have the same specifications as the Chinese version. Realme GT 2 sports a 6.62-inch full-HD+ E4 AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. Under the hood, it features a Snapdragon 888 SoC, coupled with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of onboard storage. For optics, Realme GT 2 packs a triple rear camera setup with a 50-megapixel primary sensor, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. The phone's front features a 16-megapixel selfie camera. For connectivity, the Realme flagship smartphone packs Wi-Fi 6, 5G, Bluetooth v5.2, and NFC connectivity. It has a 5,000mAh battery with 65W fast charging support. Realme GT 2 Pro specifications Realme GT 2 Pro sports a 6.7-inch 2K (1,440x3,216 pixels) LTPO AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 400 nits of peak brightness, and Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection. It is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, mated to up to 12GB of RAM and 512GB of onboard storage. The smartphone features a triple rear camera setup with a 50-megapixel primary sensor, a 5-megapixel ultra-wide-angle sensor, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. For connectivity, Realme GT 2 Pro gets Wi-Fi 6, 5G, and NFC support. It packs a 5,000mAh battery with 65W fast charging support.

In an effort to further secure open source software, GitHub has announced that the GitHub Advisory Database is now open to community contributions. While the company has its own teams of security researchers that carefully review all changes and help keep security advisories up to date, community members often have additional insights and intelligence on CVEs but lack a place to share this knowledge. This is why GitHub is publishing the full contents of its Advisory Database to a new public repository to make it easier for the community to leverage this data. At the same time, the company has built a new user interface for security researchers, academics and enthusiasts to make contributions. All of the data in the GitHub Advisory Database is licensed under a Creative Commons license and has been since the database was first created to ensure that it remains free and usable by the community. Contributing to a security advisory In order to provide a community contribution to a security advisory, GitHub users first need to navigate to the advisory they wish to contribute to and submit their research through the “suggest improvements for this vulnerability” workflow. Here they can suggest changes or provide more context on packages, affected versions, impacted ecosystems and more. The form will then walk users through opening a pull request that details their suggested changes. Once this done, security researchers from the GitHub Security Lab as well as the maintainer of the project who filed the CVE will be able to review the request. Contributors will also get public credit on their GitHub profile once their contribution has been merged. In an attempt to further interoperability, advisories in the GitHub Advisory Database repository use the Open Source Vulnerabilities (OSV) format. Software engineer for Google's Open Source Security Team, Oliver Chang provided further details on the OSV format in a blog post, saying: “In order for vulnerability management in open source to scale, security advisories need to be broadly accessible and easily contributed to by all. OSV provides that capability.”We'll likely more on this change to the GitHub Advisory Database once security researchers, academics and enthusiasts begin making their own contributions to the company's database.

Amazon has got a fantastic cheap keyboard deal going for a Razer BlackWidow TE Chroma v2 TKL Tenkeyless (that's a mouthful, I know) gaming keyboard, now on for the super low price of $60. This is the lowest we've ever seen the tenkeyless mechanical keyboard: It normally lists for $140 but typically goes on sale for around $100 during big retail events like Black Friday or even Prime Day. This BlackWidow keyboard uses your pick of Razer Orange (Tactile/Silent), Green (Tactile/Clicky), or Yellow (Linear/Silent) switches. If you have nearby office mates who hate the sounds of your clickity-clacks when you're typing up emails, consider picking the Yellows, but if you want the loud and satisfying sounds of progress, aka loud and clicky, Greens are the way to go. Amazon is also selling this keyboard bundled with the Goliathus Extended Chroma gaming mousepad for only $100 if you were looking for a large mousepad with RGB lighting. The fancy mousepad works with Razer Chroma to customize the RGB so that the mousepad lights sync with any other Razer goodies you might have. All versions of the Razer BlackWidow TE Chroma v2 TKL come with a magnetic wrist rest because, at the end of the day, health is wealth. If you're still shopping around for cheap keyboards, check out some of our favorite gaming keyboards for under $100 that are updated every month and how it compares.

We've learned a lot about Elden Ring over the past few weeks, through class reviews, previews, inopportune leaks, and memes galore. And today, we got the final piece of the big pre-release puzzle: The Elden Ring launch trailer. It's a heck of a thing: Bombastic, overwrought, loud, and filled with strange creatures, bizarre fantasy landscapes, and the faux gravitas that arises inevitably from booming voices and choral chants. FromSoftware recently asked players not to spoil anything, which led us to wonder, is it even possible to spoil a Souls game? My feeling, after watching this trailer (more than twice, for the record) is a hard "no." There is one particularly interesting point of note amidst all the sound and fury, though. At the 1:05 mark of the trailer, our intrepid hero uncorks what is clearly a firearm of some sort. After some discussion with my colleagues we decided against calling it a gun, for fear of suggesting that scores were being settled with some kind of medieval AK: Instead, we've opted for "shield cannon," mainly because UK news editor Rich Stanton pointed out that Bloodborne has an arm cannon, so it's apparently a reasonable thematic fit and not as out-of-place in a swords-and-sorcery action game as it might seem. What I like most about this trailer, though, is the way it demonstrates the absolute truth behind this brilliant tweet:It's worth noting that Winkler expressed genuine love for the Dark Souls games in a followup tweet, and I suspect we'll see the same sort of eyes-wide-open appreciation for Elden Ring. As overblown as it is, it also looks extremely promising: After playing through a six-hour preview build, our features producer Imogen Mellor said Elden Ring is the most excited she's been for a game since she was a teenager. Elden Ring goes live on February 25—here's the full schedule of global unlock times. Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/elden-ring-launch-trailer-spoiler-hes-got-a-gun/

Xiaomi 12 Ultra has purportedly appeared on the IMEI database. The new Xiaomi phone could debut as the company's most premium offering and the successor to the Mi 11 Ultra that was launched last year. In addition to its purported appearance on the IMEI database, the Xiaomi 12 Ultra has been tipped to come with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ SoC. This is speculated to be an upgrade to the existing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC and may debut sometime in the second half of the year. As reported by Xiaomiui.net, the Xiaomi 12 Ultra has appeared on the IMEI database with the model number 2206122SC. The phone is also speculated to have the codename Xiaomi L2S. The Xiaomi 12 Pro, which was launched in December, came with the model number M2001J1C and was codenamed L2. Xiaomiui.net has also shared a screenshot of the IMEI database listing that doesn't clearly show the Xiaomi 12 Ultra title. However, the reason for considering the listed model as the next Xiaomi flagship is the fact that the company in the past brought its ‘Ultra' flagships with the ‘SC' suffix in the model number. For instance, the Mi 10 Ultra in 2020 carried the model number Xiaomi J1S (M2007J1SC). Separately, a tipster has suggested that the Xiaomi 12 Ultra is in the works with the Qualcomm SM8475 SoC. The chipset is believed to be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ — an upgrade to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that has the model number SM8450. The Xiaomi 12 Ultra launch is rumoured to take place sometime in the third quarter of this year. Previous reports suggested that the phone could come with 120W fast charging and include a 4,860mAh battery, 5x periscope-shaped lens, and a no secondary display. The rear design of the Xiaomi 12 Ultra also appeared online. Xiaomi India speaks exclusively to Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, on their plans for 2022 and pushing for 120W fast charging with the 11i HyperCharge. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.