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TL;DR: Nubia has just released its latest gaming-oriented flagship smartphone globally. It features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, 16GB of RAM, and a fast-charging 5000 mAh battery. It also has an uninterrupted edge-to-edge display thanks to its under-display selfie camera. After being a China-exclusive for the past two months, Nubia has just announced the global availability of its new flagship gaming smartphone. The Nubia Red Magic 7 Pro features Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset paired with 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 512GB of non-expandable UFS 3.1 storage. All this is kept cool by an integrated 20,000 RPM fan. You also get an impressive 6.8-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1080 x 2400, a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 960Hz touch sampling rate, so it should feel fluid and responsive. Of note here is the 16MP under-display camera, which allows the phone to have a nearly bezel-less screen without any notches or cutouts. The rest of the camera system is pretty unexciting, as you would expect from a gaming-focused phone. It features a triple rear camera array consisting of a 64-megapixel primary shooter, an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera, and a 2-megapixel macro sensor. The international version of the Red Magic 7 Pro can charge at 65W, while the Chinese model raises that to a staggering 135W to fill up its 5,000 mAh battery in 15 minutes. On the software side, the phone is running Nubia's Redmagic 5.0 skin out-of-the-box, which is based on Android 12. Other notable features include shoulder triggers with a 500Hz touch sampling rate, a custom Red Core 1 chip that handles haptics and audio, RGB lighting, and even a 3.5mm headphone jack. https://www.techspot.com/news/94176-nubia-red-magic-7-pro-packs-under-display.html

Forward-looking: Intel has finally started releasing its mobile Arc GPUs and is poised to release its first desktop Arc GPUs later this Summer. Somewhere near the top of the pile will be the Arc A770, a fully-equipped part with 512 EUs, a 2-2.5 GHz boost clock, and 16 GB of memory. Intel first announced the flagship Arc hardware as the ACM-G10 GPU and then paper-launched it as the A770M for mobile. Laptops with the A770M should appear on shelves in the coming months. Its unannounced desktop equivalent has now been found in the Geekbench OpenCL database. It's not a ground-breaking leak because the hardware itself has been leaked so many times, including once previously in the Geekbench database. It is, however, the first time that it's officially been called the Intel Arc A770 Graphics to give it its full name. It's also another dot on the clock speed map: 2.4 GHz. Late last year, we talked about rumors of 2.5 GHz, then, in February, we saw 2.4 GHz for the first time. Intel themselves teased 2.25 GHz last month but were perhaps referring to a different model. And, the critical bit: aligning with past leaks, the A770 achieved an OpenCL score of 85,585 points. Slightly more than the RX 6600 XT, about the same as the RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070, and a good bit less than the RTX 3060. In other words, thoroughly midrange. But that isn't the whole story. Geekbench breaks down the OpenCL score into its component categories, of which there are 11. Some architectures are better in some classes than others. For example, the 6600 XT is about 35% faster than the 3060 in the Gaussian blur test, despite being slower in eight categories and having an overall worse score. Although the 3060 bests the A770 in more than half the categories, the A770 takes a significant lead in the particle physics and Gaussian blur tests. It loses by the largest margins in the Sobel, histogram equalization, horizon detection, and Canny tests, all of which are based on computer vision. https://www.techspot.com/news/94232-intel-arc-a770-desktop-gpu-debuts-geekbench-database.html

The latest Hearthstone expansion seems to be giving players a sinking feeling but, you know, in a positive way. Blizzard is all set to take players on a Voyage to the Sunken City of Zin-Azshari, where they will be exploring scenic underwater art and witnessing the dangers of Colossal sea creatures first hand. With the introduction of the Naga tribe, Hearthstone now has a tenth minion tribe to keep track of, one that is spell-focused and looking to become a permanent fixture in your decks. Let’s take a quick look at what’s in store for the next expansion of Hearthstone launching on April 12. New Minion Type – Naga Nagas are the latest type of minion entering the fray with Voyage to the Sunken City. This vengeful group of minions thirst for power, taking into account the spells played while they are in your hand. One of the minions showcased with the announcement is for Mage, a class revolving around spells. Spellcoiler is an early minion that generates an additional spell card if you play one while having it in hand, making it a perfect turn 1 drop if you’re going second with the coin. New Keyword – Colossal Hearthstone is a game chocked full of gigantic monsters to slam down and intimidate your opponent with. I would consider it the most satisfying aspect of the game, to have a beefy minion slam headfirst into your enemies and obliterate them from the board. That’s why I am excited to try out the new Colossal keyword that is going to be introduced in Voyage to the Sunken City. Now this is where things get interesting. Ever since Hearthstone started dabbling in resurrecting minions and discovering cards from your deck, players started to wonder when they would get the chance to directly mani[CENSORED]te cards from the deck. Enter Dredge, the new keyword in the latest expansion set that lets players look at the bottom three cards of their deck and float one up to the top. There are new Azsharan cards in Voyage to the Sunken City that send powerful Sunken treasures to the bottom of the deck that you can Dredge up to help you in a timely manner. Voyage to the Sunken City is available now for pre-purchase on the Blizzard store. The Mega Bundle gives players 80 card packs, 5 golden packs along with two legendary cards from the latest expansion, the Queen Azshara Mage hero skin, Azshara card back, 5 Mercenaries packs, the new Boombardment Battlegrounds Finisher and of course, the Battlegrounds Perks. https://me.pcmag.com/en/gaming/13604/voyage-to-the-sunken-city-expansion-brings-naga-and-colossal-minions-to-hearthstone

There is concern that President Putin is trying hard to shift the balance of power in Europe They say there's safety in numbers. Europe, Nato and the US find themselves looking nervously over both shoulders these days. A) At China: the ever-present shadow over Shoulder Number One, with its economic might and expanding global influence. And increasingly: B) At Moscow, looming over Shoulder Number Two. Not "only" the threat to Ukraine's national sovereignty, but also concern about President Vladimir Putin trying hard to shift the balance of power in Europe. Geopolitics is very much on the mind of Western leaders. They fear the Kremlin is using tensions over Ukraine to divide and rule. It's a mark of just how seriously they view the situation, that oft-bickering allies are suddenly, and very publicly, in a determined "we're all in this together, singing-from-the-same-hymn-sheet" mode. The fortunes of prominent EU leaders are also being affected, in the frenzied shuttle diplomacy we're witnessing across Europe, to Moscow and Washington, as Western powers try to calm the situation and avoid a military invasion into Ukraine. I'll get to that in a moment. Firstly, there are plenty of well-known divisions between Western allies for President Putin to try to exploit, should he so wish. President Macron infamously dismissed Nato as "brain dead" not that long ago. He's been the loudest EU advocate of what he calls Europe's "strategic autonomy". Since President Donald Trump, EU-US relations have been tense over Nato defence funding and more. EU-UK relations have been strained since Brexit. And EU member states regularly quarrel amongst themselves over all sorts of things. Very much including foreign policy. But in recent off-the-record briefings I've had with high level EU diplomats - usually good for gleaning the real low-down - I've noticed a conscious change in tone. Co-operation with the US is "better than it has been in decades", I'm told. EU countries are working "extremely well with the UK within Nato" on how to deal with Moscow, and everyone is "100% on board" with a plan for tough economic sanctions on Moscow and Putin allies, should Russia take military action in Ukraine. There are plans for tough economic sanctions on Moscow should Russia take military action in Ukraine In fact, the European Commission is engaged in sustained internal diplomacy - as it was during the Brexit negotiations at the time - in an attempt to keep the 27 member states united over sanctions. It's whispered in EU corridors, that one of the reasons a precise, written "menu" of Russia sanctions for differing potential scenarios does not exist, is that Brussels hopes less detail means less fodder for member states to haggle over and complain about. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson commented in a UK newspaper article on Tuesday that, while the West was united in threatening sanctions, there were still "shades of opinion" between allies over what those penalties should be. "We want our friends to have sanctions ready to go," writes the prime minister. "We will continue to press for this." The European Commission too has insisted that sanctions will only work if allies take a common position. Yet on Monday, that seemed a struggle for the German chancellor and US president at their joint press conference in Washington. Yes, there was lots of talk of unity. Both men publicly supported the idea of tough sanctions against Moscow if needed. But Olaf Scholz conspicuously declined to confirm a pledge heard from Joe Biden, that Germany's direct gas pipeline from Moscow would not go ahead should Russia invade Ukraine. EU countries are often divided over Russia. Poland and other former communist countries in Eastern and Central Europe tend to want to be tough on Moscow, which they constantly view as a potential security threat. They see the UK as being of the same mind, and openly still mourn the UK's departure from the EU because of this. Italy, France and Germany have often been accused by fellow EU members as being too "soft" in their dealings with Moscow; too keen on schmoozing President Putin, hungry for Russian business and - especially in the case of Germany, which has all but phased out nuclear power - Russian gas. Right now, the Kremlin insists it has no plans to invade Ukraine. But the build-up of its and Russian-allied troops on the Ukrainian border, is viewed as the biggest military build-up in Europe since World War Two. Germany raised irritated eyebrows in and outside the EU recently for refusing to send weapons to Ukraine. It was mocked by many for promising Kyiv helmets, a field hospital and 350 soldiers to be sent to Lithuania instead. And it's hardly helped Germany's reputation that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, just became nominated as a board member of Gazprom, a majority Russian state-owned energy giant. But this week, even amongst the EU's biggest Russia-critics, I was hearing that while it would be "helpful" for Germany to have a stronger, clearer line on Russia, Berlin was "doing its best" . A publicly united front to present to President Putin is clearly uppermost in EU minds. We've only just started the week, and already we've seen a whirlwind of high-level bilaterals, planned trilaterals and quadrilaterals to discuss rising tensions with Moscow. On Monday alone, the French president was with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, the German chancellor met Joe Biden in Washington and the foreign ministers of Slovakia, Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic headed together to Kyiv. On Tuesday evening the so-called Weimar Triangle meets in Berlin. It's a loose grouping of France, Germany and Poland, designed to boost co-operation between the three countries in crisis zones. It was originally set up in 1991 to support Poland's emergence from communist rule. The three leaders meeting - Polish President Duda, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz - are clear examples of how international crises - in this case, Russia-Ukraine concerns - can affect the reputation of countries and prominent politicians. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60297736

In a nutshell: Verizon is simplifying the smartphone buying experience by removing payment plan options that some shoppers would no doubt take advantage of. Until recently, Verizon smartphone shoppers had the option to purchase a phone outright and pay the full balance up front, or spread the cost of the device over monthly installment payments lasting 12, 24 or 30 months. Now, the only option is to either pay for the device in full or spread payments out over 36 months. A quick check of Verizon’s website shows the new option applies to all devices, regardless of initial cost. The concept isn’t entirely new, as the automotive financing industry has been extending loan periods for years to “counter” rising new vehicle costs. It’s not uncommon to see 84-month loans and with select specialty vehicles, companies are now offering 120-month loans. While you are technically paying less per month with a zero percent interest loan on a longer term, there are risks. For one, it keeps you in debt longer on an asset that is depreciating. It could also make switching to a different carrier or buying another phone down the road harder with an anchor attached to your ankle, especially if your new carrier isn’t offering any trade-in promotions at the time. What's more, payment plans are often used to mask the fact that you're paying more for a phone now than you were just a couple of years ago. Lots of people don't even look at the actual price of what they are buying, but rather, how much it'll cost them per month and if they can afford the note, and that's a dangerous way to run your finances.

In brief: The chip shortage has been a constant source of bad news for tech companies and consumers. However, the good news is the industry is slowly adapting to the unrelenting demand and even exploring ways to create a more resilient supply chain. GlobalWafers recently announced it would expand its manufacturing capacity between 2022 and 2024 in a project with capital expenditures totaling NT$100 trillion (approximately $3.6 billion). The company thought it a prudent move after it failed a planned $4.98 billion takeover of German wafer supplier Siltronic. More details about the expansion plans are expected to be revealed in March, including factory locations. In a statement, GlobalWafers CEO Doris Hsu said the company would evaluate several possible sites in the US, the EU, and Asia. If all goes well, the first production lines will be operational in the second half of 2023. Elsewhere, Toshiba is also looking to expand its capacity for 300-millimeter wafers for power semiconductors. The Japanese company wants to build a new manufacturing facility in the Ishikawa Prefecture that could become operational in 2024. This expansion would help Toshiba deliver capacity 2.5 times greater than what the company offered in 2021. The importance of continued investments in manufacturing capacity cannot be overstated. Earlier today, Ford said it would need to cut or suspend production at several facilities over the ongoing chip shortage. Sony has also cut its PS5 shipments forecast, and some tech industry leaders believe the situation won’t improve until 2023.

Alongside the four planned sequels to the 2009 Avatar movie, we now have two video games to look forward to and one of them is a newly-announced MMO launching later this year called Avatar: Reckoning. Before PC gamers get too excited, it's important to point out Reckoning is exclusively coming to mobile platforms. It's being developed by Archosaur Games with input from James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment, Disney's 20th Century Studios, and Level Infinite, which is the publishing division of Tencent Games. The game is set on Pandora in new locations not seen previously in the movie. Players will be tasked with becoming part of a Na'vi clan to "defend their home, battle powerful RDA troops seeking to exploit the resources of the moon, and encounter spectacular alien creatures." And even though it's an MMO, solo play is possible alongside dynamic multiplayer matches. There's single player story missions, co-op, and player-vs-player (PvP) game modes promised. You'd be forgiven for not knowing who Archosaur Games is. However, the Chinese developer is very experienced at creating mobile MMOs with four mobile games from the studio available to play including Dragon Raja, World of Kings, Epic War: Thrones, and Naval Creed. They all use Unreal Engine 4, which is also being used for Reckoning. The other Avatar game planned for release this year is called Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft across PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna, and Google Stadia, the game takes the form of an open-world action-adventure. Hopefully both games are released in time for the second movie hitting theaters, which is expected to happen on Dec. 16. https://me.pcmag.com/en/mobile-games/13518/james-camerons-avatar-is-being-turned-into-a-mobile-mmo

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been linked to very rare cases of blood clots. The chance of this happening to an individual is still extremely low, but as a precaution, younger age groups in the UK are being offered alternative vaccines. What's happened? Some recently immunised people have suffered unusual clots, including a type in the brain called cerebral sinus vein thrombosis (CSVT). This is not proof that the vaccine is to blame. Covid infection itself can also make clots more likely and they can occur naturally too. Experts stress the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks for the vast majority of people, but is more finely balanced for younger adults. As a precaution, regulators are continuing to monitor the situation and advise symptoms, such as unusual bruising or persistent headache after vaccination, should prompt a medical check. How do we know a vaccine is safe? Safety trials begin in the lab, with tests and research on cells and animals, before moving on to human studies. The principle is to start small and only move to the next stage of testing if there are no outstanding safety concerns. When will I get a coronavirus vaccine? What role do trials have? If the safety data from the labs is good, scientists can check the vaccine or treatment is effective. That means tests on large numbers of volunteers - about 40,000 in the case of Pfizer-BioNTech, the first to be approved in the UK. Half are given the vaccine and the other half a placebo jab. The researchers and participants are not told which group is which, until after the results, to avoid bias. https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55056016

Rumor mill: We see many businesses using a Square terminal to accept payments made using iPhones, but it seems Apple also wants a piece of that pie. Rumor says Apple will turn iPhones into credit card payment terminals without needing extra hardware or third-party devices. Apple Pay already allows you to pay for goods at any store with a third-party terminal supporting the method. This technology helped make the process of paying much simpler and more secure, as you don't have to use cash or a credit/debit card. However, small businesses had to pay for new equipment to support the payment option. Now, Apple is reportedly working on a new technology that could reduce costs for small businesses, as they wouldn't need any extra hardware. Instead of using payment terminals like Block Inc.'s Square, the current market leader, employees would use iPhones. Whether the new technology would belong to the Apple Pay feature set or not it's still unknown. Another thing we wonder is if Apple will be using a payment network such as VISA or create its own. The ability to use credit card payment terminals doesn't come as a complete surprise. In 2020, Apple acquired the Canadian startup Mobeewave, a company known for developing a technology capable of accepting payments from credit cards by tapping them against the back of a phone. Since it was acquired, Mobeewave's team has worked for Apple's payment department, further developing its technology. The new feature should be implemented later this year on the first beta version of iOS 15.4. By this spring, businesses may use iPhones to receive money directly. https://www.techspot.com/news/93154-apple-may-soon-turn-iphones-credit-card-payment.html

What just happened? Intel’s public offensive against AMD has grown more intense recently. The latest diss from team blue is found in a report that states its CPUs faced 16 reported vulnerabilities last year while almost double that amount (31) were found in AMD’s processors. Intel did lead the way in GPU vulnerabilities, but it’s placing the blame for that stat on its rival. Intel’s 2021 product security report starts by revealing that the company delivered mitigations for 226 product security issues last year, of which 113 (50%) were found internally by Intel employees, and 97 (43%) were reported through its bug bounty program. One section of the report compares Intel and AMD Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (CVE) counts. Of the 16 CPU vulnerabilities Intel reported in 2021, 10 were discovered internally, and six came from bug bounties. It lists AMD as having discovered 31 CPU vulnerabilities, all of which are classed as coming from “external” research. When it came to GPUs, there were a massive 51 Intel vulnerabilities reported—15 internal and 36 from bug bounties. AMD had just 27. However, Intel does have its own caveat: the CVE INTEL-SA-00481 for Intel Core Processors with Radeon RX Vega M graphics contains 23 vulnerabilities affecting AMD components. Tom’s Hardware notes that these appear to be for the Kaby Lake-G processors that combined Intel’s 8th-gen CPU and AMD’s Radeon Vega GPU onto a single piece of silicon. They were famously used in Intel’s Kaby Lake G NUC, known as Hades Canyon, and the Dell XPS 15 2-in-1. Intel also notes that it did not find any AMD-published CVEs in 2021 attributed to the company’s internal research—all information in the report is based on AMD CVEs that came from external research. Earlier this week, Intel expanded its bug bounty program with a group of elite hackers under the Project Circuit Breaker banner. We’ve also seen CEO Pat Gelsinger throw shade at AMD recently, claiming the company is “in the rearview mirror” following the success of Alder Lake. https://www.techspot.com/news/93268-intel-had-half-number-bugs-cpus-amd-last.html