Epic Games has announced that like this year, there will be no in-person events in 2021, including a Fortnite World Cup, as the pandemic refuses to slow down.

However, the company will continue to organise online competitions throughout next year.

“We will continue to provide online competitions throughout 2021 with the hopes that physical events, in some form, can return at some point in the future,” the company said in a statement late on Friday.

Epic Games had cancelled the 2020 edition of the Fortnite Cup in April. The first Fortnite World Cup took place in 2019 in New York.

The Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) will continue throughout 2021. Chapter 2-Season 5 FNCS is planned to begin from February 4.

“This date allows plenty of time for players to adjust to the new season and give our team more time to make adjustments before FNCS play,” the Fortnite team said.

Meanwhile, the developer of popular battle royale game Fortnite, in partnership with OnePlus, has announced that its India-oriented Bhangra Boogie Cup for Android smartphones will kick off on December 6.

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As Apple gradually shits its Mac devices to its own Silicon M1 chip, the purpose of the first generation of Apple Silicon is aimed at creating a new experience, to achieve the balance of performance and power consumption, instead of high computing.

On November 10, Apple introduced three new Mac devices — MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini — powered by the Apple M1 system on a chip (SoC).

“While the inability of Intel chips to meet emerging requirements was the apparent trigger for Apple to have own chips, there were many other benefits and possibilities pushing the move,” according to Brady Wang, a senior research analysts with Counterpoint Research.

Just like iOS and Android, Apple’s macOS has a different ecosystem than Windows.

“The slow improvement in PC hardware, which is dominated by Intel, is among the key factors affecting macOS’ progress,” Wang wrote in a blog post.

The M1 specifications are similar to those of the A14 Bionic. However, the M1 on a Mac device can deliver more computing power and applications than the A14 Bionic on an iPhone.

Both are manufactured at TSMC’s 5nm and feature custom high-performance (Firestorm), energy-efficient (Icestorm), GPU and NPU.

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India has potential to export motherboards, technically called printed circuit board assembly(PCBA), worth up to Rs 8 lakh crore (Rs 8 trillion) between 2021-26, mobile devices industry body ICEA and EY said in a joint report.

However, in the absence of government incentives and subsidies the export potential will be around Rs 29,500 crore during the five year period, the report said.

India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) Chairman Pankaj Mohindroo said the government is required to realise the cumulative export potential of Rs 8 lakh crore by 2026.

“If support of 4-6 per cent on exports of PCBAs can be provided, by 2025-26, the cumulative PCBA export for India can be about USD 109 billion (over Rs 8 lakh crore). However, if no support is offered, the export is estimated to dwindle to USD 4 billion (around Rs 29,500 crore),” the report said.

PCBA forms the base of electronic products.

Mohindroo said the current size of PCBA industry in India is around Rs 2 lakh crore and it is expected to reach Rs 6.4 lakh crore during 2021-26.

The National Policy on Electronics 2019 (NPE) envisages electronic manufacturing turnover of USD 400 billion (Rs 26 lakh crore at the time policy was approved) by 2025, out of which USD 190 billion (Rs 13 lakh crore) is expected to come from the mobile phone segment.

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Using data collected at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and orbit analysis from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists have confirmed that Near-Earth Object (NEO) 2020 SO is, in fact, a 1960’s-Era Centaur rocket booster.

The object, discovered in September by astronomers searching for near-Earth asteroids from the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope on Maui, garnered interest in the planetary science community due to its size and unusual orbit and was studied by observatories around the world, according to an official release.

Further analysis of 2020 SO’s orbit revealed the object had come close to Earth a few times over the decades, with one approach in 1966 bringing it close enough to suggest it may have originated from Earth. Comparing this data with the history of previous NASA missions, Paul Chodas, CNEOS director, concluded 2020 SO could be the Centaur upper stage rocket booster from NASA’s ill-fated 1966 Surveyor 2 mission to the Moon.

Equipped with this knowledge, a team led by Vishnu Reddy, an associate professor and planetary scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, performed follow-up spectroscopy observations of 2020 SO using NASA’s IRTF on Maunakea, Hawai’i.

“Due to extreme faintness of this object following CNEOS prediction it was a challenging object to characterise” said Reddy. “We got colour observations with the Large Binocular Telescope, or LBT, that suggested 2020 SO was not an asteroid.”

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Using data collected at NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and orbit analysis from the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, scientists have confirmed that Near-Earth Object (NEO) 2020 SO is, in fact, a 1960’s-Era Centaur rocket booster.

The object, discovered in September by astronomers searching for near-Earth asteroids from the NASA-funded Pan-STARRS1 survey telescope on Maui, garnered interest in the planetary science community due to its size and unusual orbit and was studied by observatories around the world, according to an official release.

Further analysis of 2020 SO’s orbit revealed the object had come close to Earth a few times over the decades, with one approach in 1966 bringing it close enough to suggest it may have originated from Earth. Comparing this data with the history of previous NASA missions, Paul Chodas, CNEOS director, concluded 2020 SO could be the Centaur upper stage rocket booster from NASA’s ill-fated 1966 Surveyor 2 mission to the Moon.

Equipped with this knowledge, a team led by Vishnu Reddy, an associate professor and planetary scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, performed follow-up spectroscopy observations of 2020 SO using NASA’s IRTF on Maunakea, Hawai’i.

“Due to extreme faintness of this object following CNEOS prediction it was a challenging object to characterise” said Reddy. “We got colour observations with the Large Binocular Telescope, or LBT, that suggested 2020 SO was not an asteroid.”

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City-based start-up AlphaVector on Thursday announced partnership with European bicycle maker KTM to launch the latter’s premium bicycle range in the country.

With this partnership, AlphaVector launches and becomes the exclusive distributor of KTM bicycles in the Indian market, the company said in a statement.

Priced between Rs 30,000-10 lakh, the premium segment will expand AlphaVector’s portfolio beyond the recently launched e-bicycle (Meraki) and existing mountain, all-terrain, hybrid, fat-tire bikes in the mass-premium segment, it added.

“Cycling in India has seen a paradigm shift and is evolving at a tremendous pace. The premium segment is witnessing traction with people adopting cycling as a lifestyle especially in the metro cities,” said Sachin Chopra, co-founder and CEO of AlphaVector India Pvt Ltd.

“We are excited to bring KTM bicycles to India to cater to this growing demand and not just deliver unmatched quality and performance but also an exceptional buying and ownership experience,” Chopra added.

The tie-up with KTM Bike Industries is in line with the company’s vision to introduce millennials and Gen-Z to an active lifestyle, encouraging them to reclaim the outdoors, AlphaVector said.

“For 56 years, we bleed orange. KTM Bike Industries keep the highest standard of making bikes and never stop exploring. It’s our pleasure to partner with AlphaVector to introduce our prime bike to Indian market,” KTM Bike Industries Managing Directors Johanna Urkauf and Stefan Limbrunner said.

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Starz, one of the leading premium global streaming platforms, on Wednesday launched its independent direct to consumer over-the-top (OTT) app Lionsgate Play in India.

The service has been launched with a new price point in India, making the app available as part of two subscription models — Rs 699 for a year and Rs 99 per month, competing against other similar platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime as well as Disney Plus Hotstar.

The app will be available to download across a broad array of platforms and devices including Google Play store, Apple app store and Amazon firestick, the company said in a statement.

The streaming giant will also premiere movies such as the Jennifer Lopez-starrer ‘Hustlers’, Gerald Butler’s action thriller ‘Angel Has Fallen’, the fantasy thriller ‘Hellboy’, and the action comedy ‘The Gentlemen’, starring Matthew McConaughey, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant, to name a few.

“India has always been a key market for us. The large and diverse population, increased data usage in urban and rural markets, and adoption of OTT across all demographics created an exciting opportunity for us to launch Lionsgate Play,” said Jeffrey A Hirsch, President and CEO, Starz.

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Qualcomm on Tuesday unveiled the Snapdragon 888 5G mobile platform as its next-generation flagship system-on-chip (SoC). Successor to the Snapdragon 865 SoC, the new chip comes with a third-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 5G modem that is touted to enable compatibility for both mmWave and sub-6 networks across all major bands worldwide.

It also features the new a sixth-generation Qualcomm AI Engine that comes along with a completely redesigned Qualcomm Hexagon processor and is equipped with the second generation Qualcomm Sensing Hub to deliver new artificial intelligence (AI) experiences.

The Snapdragon 888 SoC is also designed to deliver an upgraded photography experience, with an all-new Qualcomm Spectra ISP which makes it capable of capturing photos and videos at up to 2.7 gigapixels per second, which roughly translates to 120 photos at 12-megapixel resolution.

Qualcomm claimed that compared to the previous generation, Snapdragon 888 would provide improved performance and power efficiency in AI processing — all at a rate of 26 tera operations per second (TOPS). There is also a second-generation Qualcomm Sensing Hub for lower-power, always-on AI processing.

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Chinese short-video making platform TikTok is reportedly planning to allow its users longer, three-minute videos in an apparent bid to take on YouTube.

First spotted by social media consultant Matt Navarra who tweeted a screenshot of the update, the feature is in early access stages.

TikTok currently allows creators to upload videos up to a minute in length.

Three-minute TikTok videos on TikTok feel like a miniature replica of YouTube, back when YouTube videos were shorter than 10 minutes, reports The Verge.

Its rival Instagram Reels has doubled the length of the videos you can upload, taking it from 15 seconds to 30 seconds.

YouTube Shorts is a short-form video service that lets user create and upload a video of 15 seconds or less on YouTube.

The Donald Trump administration granted China’s ByteDance further seven-day extension to sell its short video-sharing platform TikTok’s American business.

The US Department of Treasury said that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) allowed the one week’s extension, from November 27 to December 4, in order to review revised submission that the committee recently received.

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Google has announced to start offering people access to paywalled content in partnership with select news publishers, as part of $1 billion News Showcase initiative launched two months ago.

The tech giant said that its media partners in Germany and Brazil, the two countries currently live with News Showcase, have already seen strong reader engagement.

“Paywalls are a crucial part of some publishers’ revenue strategies. To support that goal, we will pay participating partners to provide limited access to paywalled content for News Showcase users,” said Alex Cox, Product Manager, News.

“In return, users will register with the news publisher, providing a way for the publisher to build a relationship with readers”, he said in a blog post late on Wednesday.

Since its launch, the number of publications from around the world which have signed on for News Showcase has nearly doubled.

There are now close to 400 news publications in countries such as Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Canada, France, UK and Australia, and conversations are underway in a number of other countries, Cox informed.

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