EVIL BABY.

Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 users are getting a new software update that brings some new features to the wearables including status indicators. The Fitbit OS 5.3 update brings status indicators on the smartwatch that will let users know when the device's battery is critically low right on the watch face. Users will also know when Do Not Disturb (DND) or Sleep Mode settings are on. Similarly, a new indicator will show when the watch isn't connected to the smartphone. Additionally, the update also brings a new exercise mode, usual improvements, and bug fixes for Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatch models. Fitbit announced the rollout of its Fitbit OS 5.3 for Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 via its community forum. Fitbit Sense, Fitbit 3 OS 5.3 update changelog The latest status indicators will show at the top of the watch face for three seconds when the display is turned on and disappear after. Users can also swipe right to see the icons at the top of the quick settings menu. Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 users can turn these indicators on or off by navigating to Settings > Display and toggling Status Indicators.Fitbit has also added new exercise modes in the Exercise app for its Sense and Versa 3 smartwatch models. These can now track outdoor activities like kayaking, skiing, and more. Additionally, the update includes bug fixes and improvements. The update for Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 started rolling out from Wednesday, October 29 in a phased manner. In the initial stage, a select number of users will be receiving the update. Users are recommended to update the firmware version on their Fitbit wearables while it has a strong Wi-Fi connection and. Also, Fitbit OS 5.3 requires the latest version of the Fitbit app installed on your phone or tablet. You can update Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 wearables from the Fitbit app. Once you open the app, select your profile from the top left corner, then select your device image. If the update is available, a pink Update button will appear, tap on it.Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 were unveiled in August last year. Fitbit Sense features EDA sensor for stress management, an Always-on AMOLED display, heart-rate monitoring with ECG app, among other features. Fitbit Sense price in India is Rs. 21,999. Fitbit Versa 3 features in-built GPS, PurePulse 2.0, a built-in speaker, and support for virtual assistants such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Fitbit Versa 3 price in India is Rs. 12,750.

Microsoft has unveiled a number of upcoming changes that will make its web browser Edge the obvious choice for users of the Microsoft 365 productivity suite. In a lengthy blog post, the company announced it is working hard to implement intelligence changes that streamline workflows for Microsoft 365 customers. For example, although people are often logged into personal and professional Microsoft accounts simultaneously, Edge will soon automatically open files in whichever profile was active when the link was clicked. In a similar vein, any links shared with users via Teams and Outlook will soon appear in a dedicated tab in the Edge history page, which Microsoft says will “reduce the friction of trying to unearth the mail or message where the link was originally shared.” And finally, to ensure users are equipped with necessary context, Edge is getting a new flyout menu that identifies who originally shared the link and via which app, as well as providing a portion of the original message. These changes will reportedly come into effect at some point over the next six months. Microsoft Edge: The perfect browser for Microsoft 365 users? Although Google has made strong headway with its office software, Microsoft has always had the advantage when it comes to tight integration between apps and services, extending all the way out to the Windows operating system on which most business computers run. With these upcoming changes, Microsoft is looking to further strengthen the connections between its products and position its web browser as the portal that ties everything together.“Millions globally already rely on Microsoft 365 productivity apps and Microsoft Edge as part of their daily workflow. Over the next six months, we’re making the experience between Edge and Microsoft 365 more harmonious,” Microsoft declared. “With Microsoft Edge, your workers not only get a fast and secure modern browser, but they’ll also get experiences that connect with Microsoft 365 apps to help them work smarter, maintain context throughout the day, and get more out of their Microsoft 365 subscription.” In addition to strengthening the product suite as a whole, the changes are likely designed to drive new users towards Edge itself too. Although the browser has proven po[CENSORED]r since it launched in January 2020, its growth has stagnated somewhat. According to the latest data from Statcounter, the Edge use base has expanded by only 0.54% since the turn of the year (currently totalling 3.77% of the market). One factor contributing to this plateau is that, until now, the growth of Edge has been fuelled largely by the decline of Internet Explorer and Edge Legacy, both of which have been retired by Microsoft. But with few gains left to tap into here, Microsoft will need to find a way to snatch users from Chrome and the other major browsers. By providing new incentives for Microsoft 365 customers to make the switch, the company will hope it can do just that.

The big Facebook news today is that it's changing its company name to Meta, but another bit of interesting information from the Facebook Connect Livestream is that Oculus Quest VR headsets will stop requiring Facebook accounts soon. "As we’ve focused more on work, and frankly as we’ve heard your feedback more broadly, we’re working on making it so you can log in into Quest with an account other than your personal Facebook account," said CEO Mark Zuckerberg during his keynote. "We’re starting to test support for work accounts soon, and we’re working on making a broader shift here, within the next year." Right now, you need an active Facebook account in order to set up the Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, which became an issue during the massive Facebook outage, preventing anyone from accessing games purchased through the Oculus store. This didn't stop a teenager who found a way to unlink your Facebook account from a Quest 2, but it's a little tricky and you do lose out on some of the headset's functionality. Zuckerberg acknowledged that despite the company's new name and focus on the so-called metaverse, "not everyone wants their social media profile linked to all these other experiences."

PUBG Corporation parent company Krafton will soon be the proud new owner of Subnautica studio Unknown Worlds. Krafton said the acquisition will help it "expand its IP and diversify the company’s portfolio of groundbreaking games." Playerunknown's Battlegrounds is the jewel in Krafton's crown, but Unknown Worlds will actually be its sixth studio: It also owns mobile studios RisingWings and Dreamotion, Bluehole and PUBG Studios, and Glen Schofield's Striking Distance Studios, which is currently working on a Dead Space-style survival horror game call the Callisto Protocol that, for some reason, is set in the PUBG universe. "It was immediately apparent how closely Unknown Worlds and Krafton are aligned in the way we think about games and game development," Unknown Worlds founder and CEO Charlie Cleveland said in a statement. "Subnautica and PUBG both started humbly and evolved successfully through constant iteration and feedback. We want to bring new games to the world stage—and with Krafton, we’re a big step closer. We’re truly looking forward to our future together."Krafton said Unknown Worlds will continue to "function as an independent game development studio," with its current leadership and structure intact. That commitment met with pushback from indie developer Raphael van Lierop, founder and creative director of The Long Dark studio Hinterland Games, who didn't name Unknown Worlds specifically but said on Twitter that it's "just not possible or true" that indie studios can remain independent after they've been acquired. Van Lierop said post-acquisition indie studios have a "relatively" large amount of freedom compared to 10 or 15 years ago, when small developers were much more likely to be rolled into larger organizations and disappear. "But no big acquirer is buying a company and then giving them true independence," he tweeted. "They own you, they own your IP, you need their permission to allocate resources, and if you don't want to run your company any more, you will be replaced." In a reply to van Lierop, Axiom Verge creator Thomas Happ made a similar comment, noting that "independent" and "indie" are now good marketing buzzwords.It's true: Electronic Arts, one of the biggest videogame publishers in the world, has an indie-focused publishing division called EA Originals, as do Starbreeze (Starbreeze IndieLabs) and Take-Two (Private Division). As van Lierop said, it's not necessarily a bad thing—it's actually a boon for many—but it does blur the lines of what "indie" is in the public consciousness. Krafton said that alongside its ongoing support for Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero, Unknown Worlds is also working on a new "genre-defining game" that's expected to go into early access sometime in 2022. I've reached out to Krafton for more information on

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Fenda Audio PA924 40W portable multi-function karaoke party speaker has been launched in India. Offered in two colours, the portable speaker comes with multiple inputs for easy usage. Fenda Audio PA924 carries an inbuilt wireless microphone that can turn the device into a karaoke system. Apart from its karaoke feature, Fenda Audio PA924 can also replace the television's soundbar. Also, there is support for stereo FM radio as well. The speaker comes with Bluetooth and USB connectivity. Fenda Audio PA924 is said to offer more than eight hours of playback time on a single charge. Fenda Audio PA924 price in India, availability Fenda Audio PA924 portable multi-function party speaker is priced at Rs. 12,990, as per a press release for the company. It is offered in Black and Red colour options. Additionally, the device gets a 12-month industry warranty. The speaker is currently listed on Amazon at Rs. 11,548.Fenda Audio PA924 specifications Fenda Audio PA924 packs dual 5.35-inch woofers paired with dual 2-inch tweeters to provide deep bass for listeners. The woofers are equipped with multi-colour RGB LED lighting. The portable speaker features an inbuilt wireless mic for karaoke and has a frequency response of 40Hz-20,000Hz. The signal-to-noise ratio is 70dB. The multi-function karaoke party speaker is said to be made of fireproof plastic materials. Also, it features a metal grille to protect the speakers from accidental damages. For connectivity, the speaker has Bluetooth v2.1 and USB input options. It also supports stereo FM radio. The Fenda Audio PA924 portable speaker features an inbuilt rechargeable 12V 4.4Ah battery, which is claimed by the company to offer more than eight hours of playtime with a single charge. The speaker measures 262x280x533mm. It weighs more than 6kg, as per the Amazon listing.

Mozilla's Firefox browser team has cracked the whip on malicious add-ons, blocking access to them despite their large user base of about 455,000 installations. Mozilla hasn’t shared what led them to the offering software, but its developers discovered that the malicious add-ons were misusing the proxy API in the po[CENSORED]r web browser, which helps govern how it connects to the internet. In a blog post, Mozilla’s Rachel Tublitz and Stuart Colville explain that the add-ons misused the proxy API to interfere with the browser's update functionality, in essence preventing users of the add-ons from downloading updates for the browser, and even prevented them from accessing updated blocklists, and updates to any remotely configured Firefox content. As soon as it discovered the ploy, Mozilla zapped the add-ons, and also paused approvals for any add-ons that relied on the proxy API, in order to prevent them from blocking updates for users, until a fix was available. Malicious intent BleepingComputer identified the offending add-ons as Bypass and Bypass XM, while revealing that they were likely using a reverse proxy to bypass paywalled sites. The fix came shipped with Firefox 91.1, which as per the developers will now fall back to establishing a direct connection to the internet for any important request (such as for an update) in case going through the proxy configuration fails. Furthermore, the developers note that they’ve also deployed a new system add-on named “Proxy Failover” that includes additional mitigations, to both current and older Firefox releases. In the post, the developers urge users to make sure they are using the latest Firefox release, while also suggesting a best practice for web developers who want to make use of the proxy API in their add-ons to expedite reviews. “We take user security very seriously at Mozilla. Our add-on submission process includes automated and manual reviews that we continue to evolve and improve in order to protect Firefox users,” conclude the duo.

In a bid to streamline its Ethernet controller lineup, simplify production, and improve supply, Intel initiated products discontinuance plans for dozens of its server-grade Ethernet controllers and adapters last week. The chips and cards are not going to disappear overnight, but a year from now Intel’s Ethernet family will be significantly narrower. "Intel is accelerating the End of Life (EOL) plans for some controller products in order to consolidate and maintain supply for high-volume products," a statement by Intel reads. "Some Ethernet adapter products are also affected by the controller EOL plans." Late last week Intel published more than 30 product discontinuance notifications for multiple Ethernet products, including po[CENSORED]r Intel GbE I211-AT and 10GbE X550-AT controllers that are widely used both in datacenters as well as in desktops and workstations, reports CRN. Depending on the exact SKU, Intel’s customers will have to make their final orders for the controllers and adapters by January 22 or April 22, 2022. Intel will ship the final units in late April or late October, 2022. Some of the EOLed Ethernet products will still be shipped throughout 2023. Intel has one of the industry’s largest lineups of Ethernet controllers aimed at a wide variety of applications. Supporting such a lineup is hard since all chips are made using different (or slightly different) process technologies at third-party foundries, feature different packaging, and may be shipped with different drivers. All these factors make logistics of these products pretty tricky, and things get even more complicated amid the ongoing global chip shortage. "Global demand increases, shortages of wafers from external manufacturing capacity, and industry wide substrate shortages have significantly impacted the supply of Intel Ethernet controllers," Intel explained. "This has limited Intel’s ability to meet the unprecedented demand of Ethernet controllers." To make the matters worse for Intel, the company's partners tend to install exactly the same Ethernet chips into their designs for years and if they cannot get what they need, they prefer waiting to qualifying different controllers or cards. In many cases, waiting for the right chips makes them slow down purchases of Intel's higher-end server processors, which hurts Intel's financial results. Consolidating product portfolios and getting rid of certain SKUs is a good way to improve supply of po[CENSORED]r and higher-priced models. Several years ago Intel discontinued numerous not-so-outdated CPUs in a bid to improve supply of higher-performance Core and Xeon processors made using then latest iterations of the company's 14nm fabrication process. NICs may not be as sexy as CPUs, but the same logic applies.

I was prepared for this to be bad news. One of the things I appreciate about Deep Rock Galactic is that it gets new, fun updates every few months without desperately clinging to players the way so many of today's live service games do. It's a great game to hop into co-op for a week or two, then set aside for a few months until the urge to go mining and bug exterminating strikes again. When Deep Rock's developers told me they were switching to a seasonal model and introducing a battle pass, I assumed it was following the Fortnite model: pay for the privilege to grind every day to unlock a whole bunch of cosmetic fluff. I'm happy to be wrong. Deep Rock Galactic's Performance Pass is free, just like all of the game's updates so far. It's just a new way to unlock more stuff, on top of the game's existing leveling system. You'll earn points for completing missions and specific challenges, and those points can be spent on a big unlock tree peppered with dwarven cosmetics and emotes, crafting materials and credits, and even some new weapon frameworks. The seasonal update cadence won't be too different from how Deep Rock's been updated so far: the developers said they're aiming for three or four updates a year, though this first season will last a bit longer, into next spring. And there will be some way to unlock items you missed even after a season ends, so you won't have to worry about missing out even if, like me, you only go spelunking on occasion."Rival Incursion" is the name of Season 1, and it refers to the new competition you'll encounter down in the mines. It isn't just bug swarms you'll be fighting off, but a rival corporation's army of mining robots. There's a new mission type, Industrial Sabotage, which is a big, multi-stage boss fight with a machine called the Data Vault. The automated army has been collecting prospecting data from across Hoxxes and storing it in this one spot. It's time for a heist—that's something brash, trigger-happy dwarves should be great at, right? Luckily Industrial Sabotage is more about blowing ship up than being sneaky: the mission requires your dwarf posse to find two power stations within the caves and hack them to lower the vault's force field, then shoot it (a lot) to bring it down while it fights back with pincer claws and big guns of its own. Bugs will naturally show up from time-to-time to hassle you, too. The rival tech company introduces a whole slew of different robots to fight, including mini swarming shredder drones, a variety of turrets, and a patrol bot you can hack to sway its allegiance to your side. While you'll only go after the big Data Vault in that one specific mission, the rest of the robots can show up in other mission types, too, spawning mini events to deal with as you find them. If you spot a prospector drone and chase it down, you can grab a data cell that's worth points towards your performance pass. You can also find data deposits to hack for the same bonus. In either case, just be ready for the robots to call in a horde of reinforcements when you start jacking their data.Season 1 is packing one last exciting addition: a new weapon contract for each dwarf class. They all look like a good time: Gunner: Hurricane, a micro-missile launcher that fires "volleys of remote-controlled rockets" Engineer: LOK-1 Smart Rifle, which can lock onto enemies and nail them wherever you're aiming Scout: Plasma Carbine, "a high capacity, rapid-fire plasma thrower" that doesn't need to reload (but can overheat) Driller: Corrosive Sludge Pump, which fires piles of acidic goo not unlike Unreal Tournament's Bio Rifle Each weapon contract comes with the usual upgrade tree, overclocks, and variety of frameworks for further customization. Deep Rock Galactic Season 1 launches on Steam next week, on November 4, and two weeks later on Xbox Game Pass.

Added @Mindsphere. as a new leader to project / welcome to team Added @Yeezuz as a member / welcome back

Huawei Watch GT 3 smartwatch and Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick truly wireless earbuds were launched on Thursday alongside the Huawei Nova 9 smartphone in Europe. The Huawei Watch GT 3 is very similar to the Huawei Watch 3 series of smartwatch launched in China earlier, but it comes without the eSIM support. Huawei Watch GT 3 comes in two dial sizes of 42mm and 46mm. The Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick TWS earbuds reimagines the charging case to make it a fashion accessory. It is designed in the shape of a lipstick, hence the name, and will be available in limited quantities. Huawei Watch GT 3, Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick price and sale The new Huawei Watch GT 3 42mm is priced starting at GBP 209 (roughly Rs. 21,600). It comes in an Active Black colour option with a Black Fluoroelastomer Strap. The Classic White colour variant with a White Leather Strap is priced at GBP 229 (roughly Rs 23,730). Lastly, the Elite Light Gold colour with a Light Gold Milanese Strap is set to GBP 279 (roughly Rs. 28,800). For the 46mm dial, the Huawei Watch GT 3 Active Black colour option with a Black Fluoroelastomer Strap is priced at GBP 229 (roughly Rs 23,700). The Classic Brown option with a Brown Leather Strap is priced at GBP 249.99 (roughly Rs.25,700). Lastly, the Titanium Steel model with a Stainless Steel Strap costs GBP 299.99 (roughly Rs.30,900). The Huawei Watch GT 3 is up for pre-order with sale listed to begin on November 10.While exact availability is not known, it's being reported the Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick earbuds will be priced at EUR 249 and will be produced in limited quantities. Huawei Watch GT 3 specifications On the specifications front, the Huawei Watch GT 3 comes in 42mm and 46mm dials that feature AMOLED displays with ultra-curved 3D glass. The wearable features 32MB of RAM and 4GB of onboard storage. The paired smartphone would require Android 6 or higher or iOS 9 or later to work seamlessly. Huawei Watch GT 3 46mm variant is said to run for up to 14 days, whereas the 42mm dial variant is said to last for up to 7 days. The wearable supports wireless charging. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. The sensors on the Watch GT 3 include accelerometer, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, optical heart rate reader, barometric pressure sensor, and temperature sensor. On the side of the Huawei Watch GT 3, there is a fully rotatable crown that can be used with wet hands and gloves. The crown will also help in easy scrolling through on-display items and volume settings. There are more than 100 workout modes, Bluetooth calling, hydration reminders, and SOS alerts on the Huawei Watch GT 3. The smartwatches will also be able to monitor the user's heart rate, SpO2, sleep cycle, and stress levels. Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick specifications The new Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick comes with a charging case that is designed to look like lipstick. The earbuds are red in colour and have an in-ear design with a slight stem at the bottom for sensors. It comes with open-fit active noise cancellation and is said to offer 22 hours of music playback with ANC off. Music playback from earbuds is said to last for up to 4 hours.With the ANC on, the Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick are said to last for 14 hours with the charging case and 2.5 hours on fully charged earbuds. The earbuds have a 30mAh battery and the charging case integrates a 410mAh battery. The company says that it takes about two hours to charge. Huawei FreeBuds Lipstick comes with touch controls, supports Bluetooth v5.2, and integrates 14.3mm drivers for better sound quality. The earbuds are IPX4 certified

Intel recently began the second phase of its ongoing official Xe HPG Scavenger Hunt, and it appears the company may have inadvertently tipped its hat on pricing for its forthcoming Xe Arc Alchemist discrete gaming graphics cards in the fine print. Depending on how they perform, these could compete with the best graphics cards, but we'll have to wait and see. The giveaway details four sets of winners, with the grand prize and first place winners receiving a free Intel Arc graphics card along with Arc-branded merchandise and anywhere between three to six months of Xbox Game Pass for the PC. Most importantly, Intel describes the grand and first place prize winners as having an "approximate retail value" of $900 and $700, respectively, which gives us a good idea as to how expensive Intel's Arc GPUs will be when they come to retail in the first quarter of 2022. The grand prize goes to 100 winners, with an "Arc Premium" graphics card and a value of around $900, including six months of Xbox Game Pass. The 200 first-place prizes include an "Arc Performance" graphics card and three months of Xbox Game Pass. Game Pass costs about $30 for three months, double that for six months, plus there's other merchandise included with the prizes. That gives us a theoretical Arc GPU price of around $650 for the "performance" model and $825 for the "premium" model, though there's certainly a bit of flexibility and we could see prices that are $50–$100 lower or higher given we're still a few months away from Arc's release. We're currently aware of three SKUs split into high-end, mid-range, and entry-level products. The high-end trim will come with 4096 GPU cores (or ALUs) and feature up to 16GB of GDDR6 memory. Performance remains largely unknown, but according to TFLOPS calculations we've seen, it could be close to a GeForce RTX 3080. Drivers and other aspects of the design will also be important, however, so performance might be quite a bit lower. We shall see.Tom's Hardware is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more Home News Intel Arc Giveaway Reveals ‘Approximate’ Graphics Card Pricing By Aaron Klotz 2 days ago Potential RTX 3080 performance for around $650–$850 Comments (24) Intel Xe Graphics Arc Mockup (Image credit: Intel) Intel recently began the second phase of its ongoing official Xe HPG Scavenger Hunt, and it appears the company may have inadvertently tipped its hat on pricing for its forthcoming Xe Arc Alchemist discrete gaming graphics cards in the fine print. Depending on how they perform, these could compete with the best graphics cards, but we'll have to wait and see. The giveaway details four sets of winners, with the grand prize and first place winners receiving a free Intel Arc graphics card along with Arc-branded merchandise and anywhere between three to six months of Xbox Game Pass for the PC. Most importantly, Intel describes the grand and first place prize winners as having an "approximate retail value" of $900 and $700, respectively, which gives us a good idea as to how expensive Intel's Arc GPUs will be when they come to retail in the first quarter of 2022. Intel Arc Prize Winners and pricing (Image credit: Intel) The grand prize goes to 100 winners, with an "Arc Premium" graphics card and a value of around $900, including six months of Xbox Game Pass. The 200 first-place prizes include an "Arc Performance" graphics card and three months of Xbox Game Pass. Game Pass costs about $30 for three months, double that for six months, plus there's other merchandise included with the prizes. That gives us a theoretical Arc GPU price of around $650 for the "performance" model and $825 for the "premium" model, though there's certainly a bit of flexibility and we could see prices that are $50–$100 lower or higher given we're still a few months away from Arc's release. We're currently aware of three SKUs split into high-end, mid-range, and entry-level products. The high-end trim will come with 4096 GPU cores (or ALUs) and feature up to 16GB of GDDR6 memory. Performance remains largely unknown, but according to TFLOPS calculations we've seen, it could be close to a GeForce RTX 3080. Drivers and other aspects of the design will also be important, however, so performance might be quite a bit lower. We shall see. Intel's Arc GPUs will be the company's first serious attempt at diving into the discrete GPU after more than two decades since the i740, and more than a decade since Larrabee. These GPUs should deliver good compute performance, based on what we've heard so far, and they'll include all the modern features you'd expect. They're fully DirectX 12 Ultimate compliant, which means they support ray tracing, mesh shaders, sampler feedback, and variable rate shading. The Arc architecture will also have some form of tensor cores for machine learning applications, and these will be used for Intel's own version of DLSS called XeSS. While Intel probably didn't mean to reveal pricing already, even in "approximate" form, the actual launch could end up rather different from these early numbers. After all, the RTX 3080 theoretically starts at $700 and the RTX 3060 starts at $330, neither of which you'll ever really find for those prices in the current market. But a lot will depend on how the cards actually perform — in our GPU benchmarks as well (sadly) cryptocurrency mining, the latter of which continues to have a major influence on retail GPU prices. Intel is working with third-party AIB (add-in board) partners like Asus, Gigabyte, MSI, and others for the launch. As such, we don't know what the cards will actually look like, though the above early rendering from CES 2020 likely bears little resemblance to the final product. We'll find out more in early 2022.

The latest marketing push for Call of Duty: Vanguard wants you to believe its graphics are so realistic that conflict photographers can't tell the difference between the videogame and reality. "Call of Duty: Vanguard captures the epic intimacy of World War II in an incredibly immersive manner," said chief marketing officer Fernando Machado, presumably keeping a straight face. A pair of photojournalists were given "special camera-like portals [to enter] into the game engine itself," where they captured images just as they would if they were photographing a real conflict. Naturally, they also raved about how realistic the experience was: "As photographers, this is what conflict looks like," war journalist Sebastiano Tomada Piccolomini said afterward. The resulting video of the two photographers at work (above) is as dramatic and over-egged as any Call of Duty trailer. Prints of the four photos are being sold to raise funds to help US military veterans find "high quality employment" through the Call of Duty Endowment program. Which is a good cause, and a convenient thing for Activision to keep in its pocket as a response to any accusations of crassness.

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Noise Sense Bluetooth neckband-style earphones were launched in India on Friday. The in-ear Bluetooth earphones are offered in two different colour options and come with 10mm drivers. Noise Sense feature voice assistance control and provide a vibration alert when the user gets a call on the paired smartphone. The wireless earphones are IPX5-rated for water resistance. Noise Sense Bluetooth earphones feature the company's proprietary fast charging technology that is claimed to provide up to eight hours of battery life with just eight minutes of charging. Noise Sense price in India, availability Noise Sense earphones are priced at Rs. 1,099, which is a discounted price from its original cost of Rs. 2,499. The company didn't disclose how long the discounted price will be available for. The pair is offered in Black and Blue colours. The neckband-style earphones are available for purchase via Amazon and Noise website. Noise Sense specifications, features Noise Sense neckband-style earphones are powered by 10mm drivers and feature an inbuilt mic for calls. The earphones come with touch controls for answering or rejecting calls, adjusting the volume, controlling music tracks, and more. The New Noise audio device have magnetic earbuds with fin tips that stick together when hanging around the neck. The earphones have voice assistance control as well. As per the listing on Amazon, the Noise Sense earphones support dual pairing with two devices at the same time. The earphones feature Bluetooth v5 for connectivity. The neckband-style earphones are IPX5 rated for sweat- and water-resistance. The earphones come with a USB Type-C port for charging as well. In terms of battery life, Noise claims that an eight-minute charge can give the earphones up to eight hours of battery life, thanks to the proprietary Instacharge fast charging technology. The earphones can offer a total playtime of 25 hours on full charge. Noise Sense earphones weigh 30 grams.

Making the distinction between work and personal apps should be more straightforward thanks to a new update coming to Google Workspace. The online collaboration suite will soon be able to set borders between your work and home apps, making sure you aren't disturbed by alerts when at the office, or when trying to relax at home. The update should give remote workers across the world a welcome productivity boost, allowing them to focus on what is most important to them at any given time. Work or home profile Recent research from Google and IDC found that much of the currently mobile workforce will continue to work from home even as the mandatory COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and closures are lifted - but many are increasingly juggling work and personal life on a single device.Until now, work profiles were only available on managed devices, but Google is now looking to make them available to unmanaged users with a business identity. The tool is able to split up work and personal apps, creating distinct profiles for the two sections which can be switched between when you need to focus, or to relax. When activated, work-related apps are not able to send your alerts, notifications, or access your location - and vice versa for personal apps. Your personal data is also locked down, meaning your company IT department can't track what apps you're accessing on the device. “This will eventually allow anyone using Android for business purposes to separate work and personal apps in one interface and pause all work-related apps in one click,” the company said.The tool will begin rolling out to Google Workspace users starting "next year", the company said, with plans to expand to more identity providers soon after. The news comes shortly after a similar feature update for Google Workspace allowed users to block out sections in their Google Calendar as "focus time". Doing so will also allow users to automatically decline meetings, meaning no last-minute rush to finish off work or cross off your to do list. You can also check out our pick of the best hybrid working tech - everything you need for the return to the office.

For many consecutive quarters, Intel's revenue has beat estimates. The company's gross margins were high due to strong demand for premium products and conservative spending, whereas the outlook was consistently optimistic as far as revenues and margins were concerned. But this was not quite the case with Intel's third quarter results. Good Results, Moderate Outlook Fuelled by strong demand for its datacenter and higher-end client products, Intel's revenue increased to $19.2 billion in Q3 FY2021, some $870 million (or 3%) increase over the same period in FY2020. Meanwhile, Intel's adjusted revenue that excludes its divested NAND storage business totalled $18.1 billion, which fell short of analysts' revenue forecasts of $18.24 billion as well as Intel's own guidance of around $18.2 billion. Intel's gross margin in Q3 2021 was 56% (57.8% if NAND business is excluded), up from 53.1% in the same quarter a year ago, but down from historical highs of over 60%. The chipmaker's net income totalled $6.8 billion, down from $7 billion in Q3 2020. Yet, investors were disappointed with Intel not only because of lower net income, but due to several other reasons. Intel's results were affected by global components shortage that slowed sales of both client and datacenter parts. Furthermore, the company lost some 20% of cloud datacenter revenue, a direct hit to margins. "Despite the highly constrained industry-wide supply environment, Q3 revenue was $18.1 billion, slightly below our guidance due to shipping and supply constraints that impacted our businesses," said George Davies, CFO of Intel. Given the challenging environment, Intel said it expected revenue of $19.2 billion ($18.3 billion excluding storage business) and a 51.4% gross margin in the fourth quarter. The company maintained its rather bullish revenue forecast for the year at $77.7 billion ($73.5 billion excluding storage unit), but said that its gross margin will decrease to 55% (from 56% in 2020). In fact, Intel advised its investors to expect a 51% ~ 53% gross margin for the next two to three years as profitability will be constrained by massive increases of CapEx, R&D, and MG&A spending. For example, this year Intel's CapEx is expected to total $18 billion – $19 billion. But next year the company will increase CapEx to $25 billion – $28 billion, which will be on par with TSMC's and Samsung Foundry's spending on semiconductor production facilities. Client Computing Group: Volumes Down, ASPs Up Intel's Client Computing Group (CCG) remains the company's biggest revenue source. In the third quarter 2021, the business unit earned $9 billion revenue, up $200 million from the same period a year ago. Operating income of the BU was $3.3 billion, down from $3.6 billion in Q3 2022."Demand remains strong in our PC business with particular strength in commercial, desktop, and higher end consumer notebooks offset by inventory digestion in lower end consumer and education," said Davies. During the quarter Intel sold 16% more chips for desktop PCs (including CPUs and chipsets, but excluding various adjacencies) than in the same quarter a year ago and their average selling prices (ASPs) were 4% higher. Yet, unit sales of the company's notebook chips dropped 14% year-over-year and 26% quarter-over-quarter, while their ASPs increased 10%. To some degree, Intel's mobile CPU shipments were affected by Apple's move to its own SoCs, but industry-wide problems perhaps had an even more significant impact. "CCG revenue was $9.7 billion [including adjacencies], down 2% year over year on a challenging environment and continued industry-wide component shortages that are restricting lower-end system sales," the CFO said. "Note that when excluding the impact of ramping down our Apple CPU and modem businesses, CCG revenue is up approximately 10% year over year." Intel executed quite well and quickly ramped up its Tiger Lake processor for notebooks in 2020. So far, the company has supplied over 70 million of Tiger Lake CPUs and in Q3 2021 Intel had plenty of competitive chips to sell. Yet PC makers like Dell, HP, and Lenovo did not buy all the CPUs they could have bought due to insufficient supply of other components required to build a PC. On the bright side, Intel sold more high-end processors and enjoyed higher ASPs as computer makers focus on premium models. Yet on the other hand, this means that there are a surplus of lower-end parts in stock.Intel's Datacenter Group has been the jewel in Intel's crown for quite a while. Due to growing demand from hyperscale cloud service providers, strong ecosystem, weak competition from AMD, and little to no competition from other developers. In the last couple of years AMD's Epyc platform and ecosystem became significantly stronger, which is why Intel's share in sales of datacenter processors is dropping. Yet, DCG continues to post strong results. In Q3 DCG's sales were $5.7 billion (excluding Optane, AI accelerator, Ethernet, and silicon photonics products), up from $5.2 billion in the same timeframe a year ago. Operating income of the business unit was $2.1 billion, up $200 million year-over-year. "These results were slightly below expectations due to industry-wide components supply constraints that primarily impacted our enterprise customers and areas of softness in PRC, including cloud as customers adapt to new regulations," said Davies. Unit shipments of Intel's Xeon Scalable processors surged 8% YoY and ASPs grew 3% YoY. The company shipped over a million of Ice Lake-SP products since April, which probably had a positive effect on margins. "Our 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable processor 'Ice Lake' has shipped over a million units since launching in April," said Pat Gelsinger, chief executive of Intel. We expect to ship over one million units again in Q4 alone. All of our OEMs are currently shipping systems, and we expect all our major cloud customers to have announced [Ice Lake-based] instances by the end of the year." During the quarter Intel's sales to enterprise and governments customers increased by 70% YoY, whereas shipments to hyperscalers dropped by 20%. Intel attributes this drop to new regulations in China, but considering the fact that its rival AMD is gaining share particularly in the cloud datacenter space, it is obvious that AMD is eating Intel's lunch. Another significant challenge for Intel is that even some server vendors were affected by the shortages, which limited their ability to ship systems and lowered their CPU procurements. Nonetheless, Intel remains very optimistic about its long-term datacenter prospects. "I remain confident about the long-term of the data center," said Gelsinger. "Despite regulatory changes in China and short-term ecosystem supply constraints impacting some customers, customers continue to choose Intel for the datacenter needs," CapEx Spending to Increase: $25 - $28 Billion in 2022 Intel's focus is on high-margin CPU products. Great yields of CPUs on 14nm nodes, and conservative spending on new manufacturing capacities drove Intel's gross margins above 60%. But this is going to change as Intel deploys its IDM 2.0 business model that includes in-house manufacturing, outsourcing, and contract production of chips for third-parties. To be competitive against TSMC and Samsung Foundry, Intel will need to invest heavily in new fabs. Next year the company will spend up to $28 billion on new production facilities and it looks like the chip giant will not hesitate to invest even more if it needs to. This will hit margins, but in a bid to be competitive both with chip designers like AMD and Nvidia as well as with foundries like TSMC, Intel needs these investments. "We are repositioning the company for long-term growth and we are analyzing the investment plans required to achieve our goals and provide attractive long-term results for our shareholders," said the head of Intel. "It is abundantly clear to us that we must invest in our future right now to accelerate past the rest of the industry and regain unquestioned leadership in what we do. Our investment plan is aligned with our IDM 2.0 strategy to rapidly build our manufacturing capacity and response to the expanding market, grow our share, and accelerate innovation, enabling Intel to leap ahead with new businesses and capabilities." Good news is that Intel's Foundry Services unit is developing fast and in Q3 it even shipped some products for revenue as it provided advanced packaging services to AWS. "Since March, we have shipped our first IFS packaging units for revenue and engaged with well over a hundred potential customers, including several large customers who are working with us on our leading-edge Intel 18A [node]," said Gelsinger. Summary While Intel missed its revenue guidance for Q3 2021, the company still posted higher YoY revenue and profits. Unfortunately for the company, its financial results were affected by industry-wide shortage of components that constrained CPU sales to PC and server makers, which adds uncertainty to Intel's short-term business prospects. Meanwhile, as Intel's partners focus on higher-end products, Intel's ASPs remain high. As Intel is deploying its capital-intensive IDM 2.0 business model, the company's CapEx spending will surge and so will R&D expenses, which will affect the company's margins. Intel assures investors that its gross margin will not drop below 50%, though only time will tell whether IDM 2.0 model will be financially successful for Intel. Meanwhile, Intel's CEO is very confident that the company will be able to leapfrog the whole industry and set new records in profitability. "Leadership products beget leadership pricing, which begets leadership margins," said the head of Intel.

Call of Duty: Warzone's Halloween event, The Haunting of Verdansk, returned this week for a second annual round of spooky royale. Activision has traded last year's zombie theme for ghosts, complete with the scratchy voice of Ghostface in your ears narrating the event. It's pretty fun so far! Though one unwelcome addition to Haunting, as far as I'm concerned, are the random jump scares that can trigger at any moment. The scare moments are loud, obnoxious, and probably exactly what developer Raven Software was going for when it designed them. Before queuing for a match, you even have to click through a "Scare Warning" prompt. But the worst jump scare by far, and one that I'm glad to have not gotten myself yet, is this fake computer blue screen effect that completely blocks your vision for several seconds:Yeah, no thanks. I've gotten a few scares so far that are a little freaky, like eyeballs opening on my screen or my monitor shattering to reveal a creepy ghost woman, but at least I can still see what's ahead of me while they're happening. As you can watch above, Redditor Yoszerz experienced the worst-case scenario when a blue screen triggered as they were trying to win a firefight.Whether or not you see the jump scares depends on how well you manage your "fear meter" seen in the lower left of the screen. Certain behaviors, like camping in one spot or getting shot at, increase your fear and your likelihood to trigger scare effects. Play aggressively by scoring kills or standing in contentious "sacred ground" locations and your fear stays low. When the mode first started, players and influencers alike complained that the fear effects were happening too often and were too disruptive.Warning: This gif is loud, so consider turning down your headphones before flipping the sound on. In response, Raven has already issued two hotfixes that lower fear generation and make it easier to stay alive. I didn't start playing the mode until after these patches deployed, so I've had little problem keeping my fear low. The meter only started to jump if I sat around doing nothing for a while, which is way more boring than staying alive is worth in Warzone. I've seen some folks say that last year's zombie event was better, but so far I've enjoyed playing as a ghost after I die a lot more. The super jump is a lot floatier this time around and I dig the blink-like instant teleport ability. A good reminder that Warzone's limited-time modes can be pretty darn fun when it stops being so self-serious for like two seconds.

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