Samsung’s new budget-friendly Galaxy Tab S6 Lite Android tablet has been listed on Amazon India to launch soon.
Samsung is the only manufacturer that continues to make high-end Android tablets, with the Tab S6 being its current flagship. The Tab S6 Lite, as the name suggests, is a watered-down, more affordable version which retains the exquisite design and S-Pen compatibility. For context, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 was launched at Rs 59,900.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite specs
Since the tablet is already available in some other markets, we have a good idea about what to expect from it. On the front, we will get a 10.4-inch LCD panel with a resolution of 2000 x 1200 or slightly wider than the usual 16:9, which is a more preferred form factor for productivity-focused devices.
The biggest difference with the Tab S6 is it comes with the processor, as the Tab S6 Lite is powered by an Exynos 9611 chipset, which is far from the latest that Samsung has to offer. That is paired with 4GB of RAM and the Mali G72 GPU. There’s up to 128GB of storage space, which can be further expanded via micro SD. It also loses the secondary ultra-wide camera, and now sports a single 8MP primary camera and a 5MP selfie camera.
With the S-Pen stylus included, it scores a lot more points on the productivity front. You get accurate pointer control, easier editing, the ability to take handwritten notes and even create sketches. It charges wirelessly from the back of the Tab S6 Lite whenever holstered.
It was launched globally in April and started at $349 for the base variant, which converts to about Rs 26,000. Availability details are still scarce, but considering that it has already been listed on Amazon.in, the launch shouldn’t be far.
Oppo refreshed its A series a few months back with the launch of A31 (2020) in India. Now, latest leaks have pointed out that the company will launch the next A series of Smartphones, the Oppo A11k, A12 and A52 in India soon.
91Mobiles along with tipster Ishan Agarwal have reported that the devices will be launching as early as next week in the country. Thanks to information leaked from retail sources, some introductory offers and discounts for the Oppo A12 are also visible.
The poster shows the company will offer an extended warranty of up to 6 months. Bank offers include a 5% cashback from Bank of Baroda, ICICI and Federal Bank. Apart from this, other banks like ICICI, Bajaj Finserv, Home Credit, IDFC First Bank and HDB Financial services are mentioned which are likely to give no cost EMI options.
Oppo A12 Expected Specifications
The Oppo A12 debuted in Indonesia back in April. It has a 6.22-inch HD+ display with a water drop notch. Mediatek’s Helio P35 runs the device which when paired with 3/4GB of RAM and 32/64GB storage, should perform daily tasks well.
On the back, there is a Fingerprint sensor and Oppo branding. The rear camera setup boasts a dual 13MP and 2MP sensor along with an LED flashlight. Front has a 5MP selfie shooter.
Apart from this, the phone will have a 3.5mm headphone jack, a Micro-SD card expandable upto 256GB for storage expansion, 4G voLTE, Bluetooth 4.2, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and GPS for connectivity. It packs a 4,230mAh battery.
Oppo A11k Specifications
Further, Ishan says the Oppo A11k will be similar to the Oppo A12. Instead, the difference will only be with the device packing a 2GB RAM, 32GB storage instead of the 3GB found on the A12.
Additionally, the back of the phone will have a slightly different design and it will omit the diamond cut pattern found on the Oppo A12.
Oppo A52 Specifications
Regarding the Oppo A52, the device launched in China back in April. Looking at the specs, it has a 6.5-inch FHD+ punch-hole display. Powering the device is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 SoC.
Optics include a quad-camera setup with a 12MP Primary Sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide, a 2MP depth, and a 2MP macro lens. The 8MP shooter does the job of selfies in the front.
The device will pack in a 5,000mAh battery and support for 18W fast charging.
Pricing and Availability
Both the entry level Oppo A12 and the A11k are said to come with Color OS 6.1 based on Android 9 but the A52 is expected to come with Android 10 out of the box.
Oppo A12 is priced at IDR 2,499 in Indonesia which is around Rs.12,300. Looking at the specs we can expect the same pricing here. Further, the Oppo A11k is tipped to cost Rs.8,999.
As for the A52, the device will have a price tag of around RMB 1,599 (approx Rs.17,395) in China but we are yet to know the Indian prices.
But until that starts in Austria on 5 July, Formula 1 is running virtual races online using the official F1 2019 game.
This weekend will be the seventh virtual race, and you can expect mayhem around the streets of Baku as eight current F1 drivers jump into their simulators for “not the Azerbaijan grand prix”.
When is the next F1 Virtual Grand Prix on?
Sunday, 7 June
6pm UK (BST); 5pm UTC
The event will last around 90 minutes including 18 minutes of qualifying session followed by a half-length race, compared to the real-life version.
The F2 Virtual Racing and F1 Esports Pro Exhibition races will be shown before the main event at 4pm and 5pm respectively, in which pro esports racers will show how it’s supposed to be done.
How do I watch the virtual F1 races online?
YouTube
Twitch
Facebook
F1.com
The races are streamed live on the as well as on the official , Twitch and channels.
It is also being broadcast live on Sky Sports F1, Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Mix, plus on other partners around the world.
It’s hosted by the Gfinity Esports Arena in London, with drivers joining remotely.
Which F1 drivers are racing in the virtual series?
This weekend, a record eight of the current drivers will race including:
Charles Leclerc
Lando Norris
Alex Albon
George Russell
Antonio Giovinazzi
Nicholas Latifi
Pierre Gasly
Sergio Perez
Other F1 drivers have a lot of experience of sim racing, but not in F1 2019 (which is considered more of an arcade game than a ‘proper’ simulation like ). This is why the likes of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton have – so far – declined to take part and will likely just wait for the start of the real F1 season.
Drivers have identical cars (so no performance variations) and are allowed to enable ABS and traction control if they want to – a concession for those less familiar with the game.
For more details about the real championship, read our separate guide on how to watch F1 races.
Unlike other countries, flying drones in India has been sort of taboo, mostly due to unclear government policies as well as concerns around privacy. While flying non-military unmanned aerial vehicles or drones is legal in most other countries and the market size is estimated to be over $100 billion globally this year, India’s restrictive policies have meant that the lucrative segment has largely stayed dormant.
Things only changed with the recent pandemic outbreak when law enforcement agencies used drones for surveillance, announcements and monitoring situations remotely. Even reports of healthcare workers using drones for providing medical aid made most wonder why can’t there be clearer laws in the country that allow using this extremely helpful piece of technology in serving the masses.
This, however, may change soon as DGCA, India’s civil aviation regulator, has given the nod to a consortium of 13 different companies called as Clearsky Flight Consortium, to begin testing beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drones for deliveries. Some of the key companies in this group are hyperlocal delivery brands like Zomato, Swiggy, and Dunzo apart from Spicejet and Asteria Aerospace.
The best drone 2020: DJI, Parrot and more for beginners and pros
Does this mean that your next Zomato order may come flying in?
No. Not right now. To set the expectations straight, this is just the start of a testing phase and these companies are going to carry out tests to check if the drones are able to carry payloads or conduct aerial surveys of vast areas of land, starting the first week of July.
DDCA sees this experimental project as a step in understanding the basic requisites for flying drones outside of the visual line of sight before announcing the actual regulatory policies around this. The trial plan is for two months where DDCA has allowed the companies to test out various activities in a 20 km airspace that is isolated from air traffic and is not densely populated.
As per this report, companies like Asteria Aerospace will be using this opportunity for conducting long-distance aerial surveys of pipelines, railways and roadways while hyperlocal delivery companies may use this opportunity to test out feasibility for drone-based deliveries.
To recall, Zomato has already done a trial run of drone-based delivery in 2019 when its drones delivered a payload of around 5 kgs and covered a distance of 5 Kilometres in just 10 minutes.
While it can be considered a first step, drone-based deliveries are still a distant dream for a country like India where it has taken over a year, after the plans to allow experimental long-range drone flights, even to initiate the trials.
While streaming video has a lot of things going for it, watching TV offline isn’t one of them.
Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu don’t work without internet access, and live TV services such as Sling TV and YouTube TV come with cloud-based DVRs that only work online. Those requirements can be a problem for some potential cord-cutters, particularly those who don’t have fast, dependable internet service at home.
That’s what makes PlayOn’s new Android TV app so intriguing. With certain streaming devices, such as Nvidia’s Shield TV or the new TiVo Stream 4K, you can record shows from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and other streaming services, then download them for offline viewing. It’s a clever way to deal with internet speed limits and still have plenty to watch.
The only problem is PlayOn’s convoluted price structure, which can get expensive quickly.
How PlayOn downloads streaming video
PlayOn has been around for more than a decade, and I’ve covered it a few times in this column. Until now, I’ve mostly focused on its Windows software. For a one-time purchase of $70 (and often on sale for much less), that software lets you record shows from your streaming services onto a PC.
Not everyone has a dedicated Windows computer, though, so in late 2016, PlayOn launched a cloud-based version of its service. Instead of making you record shows on your own hardware, PlayOn Cloud records programs remotely, then lets you download them through its iOS or Android apps. You can then cast the videos to Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, or Fire TV over a local Wi-Fi connection.
Jared Newman / IDG
PlayOn’s mobile app lets you sign into streaming services and manage recordings.
That approach also had one problem: Most phones don’t have ample storage for dozens of movies or TV episodes, so you had to keep most recordings online until you needed them. With the new Android TV app, you can plug an external hard drive into your streaming player, load it up with downloads, then watch them offline directly through your TV. PlayOn can record videos from more than 20 streaming sources, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Disney+, HBO, Showtime, Tubi, and CBS All Access. (You still need to use PlayOn’s iOS or Android apps to sign into these services and set up recordings.)
I tested this on an 2017 Nvidia Shield TV with a 128GB thumb drive, and while the interface could use some polish, I was impressed with how the software worked. PlayOn presents a simple, two-part menu, indicating which recordings are stored online with PlayOn, and which ones are on the device itself.
Jared Newman / IDG
The PlayOn Android TV app can download recordings for offline viewing.
You can download recordings manually, set them to download automatically, or schedule them to download during off-peak hours. The app automatically uses external storage when available, so recordings don’t eat up space on the streaming device itself, and it even has an option to automatically skip over ads.
Jared Newman / IDG
PlayOn lets you skip ads and schedule downloads for off-peak hours.
Once you’ve downloaded some videos, you’ll also see a “Home” tab in PlayOn’s iOS and Android apps, listing everything that’s stored on your Android TV player. Hit the cast icon on the top-right corner of the app, and you can stream videos from Android TV to other devices such as Roku or Chromecast over Wi-Fi, with no internet connection required.
It’s also worth noting that PlayOn’s recordings are stored as MP4 files, which you can freely access through the Android TV file system. (They’re stored under android/media/com.playonrecorder.cloudapp on whatever storage drive you’re using.) I tried pointing my Shield TV’s Plex server to that directory, and was delighted to see all of PlayOn’s recordings show up in my media library. Combining PlayOn recordings with Plex’s over-the-air DVR could lead to some really interesting possibilities.
Jared Newman / IDG
Recordings are exposed as MP4 files, which you can use as you see fit.
There is one caveat to point out: All of PlayOn’s recordings max out at 720p. That’s not really a problem for broadcast and cable shows, but if you’re hoping to record Netflix or Disney+ shows in 4K HDR, you’ll be disappointed.
The price is a problem
So what’s the catch? As I mentioned earlier, all that cloud computing doesn’t come cheap, so you might end up paying a lot to record a large library of movies and shows.
PlayOn charges for its cloud services in two ways: One is based on the total number of recordings you create, and the other is based on how much data you keep on PlayOn’s servers at any time.
PlayOn’s $5-per-month plan, for instance, gives you 20 recording “credits” per month—with one credit equaling a single TV episode or an entire movie—and lets you store up to 100GB of video at a time. You can avoid hitting the storage limit by downloading videos and deleting them from the cloud, but the number of credits per month is absolute.
PlayOn also sells bundles of additional recording credits. A bundle of 100 credits, for instance, costs $25, while 200 credits costs $40. You can either use these credits in conjunction with a storage plan or on their own. In the latter case, you only get seven days to download each recording before PlayOn deletes them for good.
This is the kind of thing that makes more sense once you start using it, but PlayOn’s cloud plans are a lot to take in at first glance, and they’re much more expensive over time than PlayOn’s flat-rate PC software. That’s why I’ve largely ignored the cloud component until now.
Still, I can see some scenarios in which PlayOn Cloud might work out. Recording all 201 episodes of The Office from Netflix, for instance, would cost a little over $40 in PlayOn credits. That’s less than half the price of the complete series on DVD, and it’d be cheaper in the long run than paying for NBC’s Peacock service, where The Office is headed in 2021. PlayOn’s recordings are also yours to keep forever, even if you stop subscribing to the streaming service they came from PlayOn itself.
Jared Newman / IDG
In low-bandwidth scenarios, being able to download at off-peak times could be essential.
Besides, there some folks for whom downloads are the only practical option. If your internet speeds are too slow for streaming HD video, PlayOn is the only option short of outright piracy that lets you download first and watch offline later. Even streaming services that support offline viewing, such Netflix and Amazon Prime, relegate the feature to mobile devices, so you can’t watch on a larger screen.
You might have to break out a calculator and a spreadsheet to figure out if PlayOn cloud makes financial sense; but if it does, it’s a powerful way to record streaming videos for later.
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The UK is seeing some fantastic MacBook Pro sales at the moment, with Currys in particular offering a strong range of discounted luxury laptops. If you’ve been holding out for the 2019 models to go on sale, now’s your time to bag a bargain.
Last year’s offerings still bring powerful specs into the mix, and offer all the Touch Bar goodness you could ask for. While there’s no keyboard update on these models, you’re picking up a cheap MacBook at a fantastic price this week. If you’re keeping costs as low as possible, you’ll be happy to know that this 13-inch 128GB MacBook Pro is down from £1,299 to £1,059 at Currys, but you can also find a stunning £300 discount on the 256GB model as well.
Or, if you’re looking for more screen and bigger power, the latest 16-inch MacBook Pro deals are offering even more savings. You can save £230 on this 512GB model, or go all out with a £102 saving on this 1TB MacBook Pro.
MacBook Pro sales have traditionally pitched these prices a little higher, so the latest discounts offer up a fantastic opportunity to grab a premium laptop for less. If the deals below aren’t quite cutting it, though, you can always check out the best MacBook Pro deals and prices of the month.
Not in the UK? We’re rounding up all the latest MacBook Pro sales in the US and Australia further down the page.
The latest MacBook Pro sales
More MacBook Pro deals
We’re tracking all the best MacBook deals and sales right here on TechRadar, but if you’re looking for something a little lighter why not check out the latest MacBook Air prices. Or, if you’re not quite set on those Apple price tags, take a look at the best cheap laptop deals we’ve found this week.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Season 4 was supposed to begin on June 3, however, publisher Activision delayed the content update for the foreseeable future due to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests in America and across the world.
Other events have also been pushed back, including Sony’s PS5 games reveal, in a bid to shine a greater spotlight on the human rights movement which was created in 2013 to raise awareness of racial injustice, police brutality and the unlawful murder of African-Americans in the US.
When does Call of Duty Season 4 start?
Activision and developer Infinity Ward still haven’t made any further announcement as to when Season 4 will start. We only know that Modern Warfare Season 4 and Call of Duty: Mobile Season 7 have been moved to “later dates”, but it’s unclear how much later that will be. The content for the update is clearly finished, though, so there shouldn’t be any delay once it’s ready to go live. But for now, it seems like Activision is biding its time to release the game’s bumper update.
What will Call of Duty Season 4 include?
A few days before Season 4’s previous release date of June 3, Call of Duty’s official Twitter account shared a new teaser trailer which appeared to show additional story content for Modern Warfare’s single-player campaign.
Season 4 is also set to introduce new weapons and operators for players to enjoy (most notably series’ stalwart, Captain Price), along with a plethora of unlockable customization items for the game’s popular Warzone mode. We got a glimpse of a potential new multiplayer map, too, and there are various rumors that the Vector SMG will return, which was first seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.
How much is the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Season 4 battle pass?
If previous seasons are anything to go by, the battle pass for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Season 4 should cost $9.99 or 1,000 COD Points. The pass tends to offer 100 tiers for players to work through, and it’s filled with new operators, customizations and timed XP boosts to unlock. You can also earn COD Points from the battle pass itself, which means you can essentially re-earn the money you paid for the pass.
Want to get a head start? There’s usually a battle pass bundle for $19.99 or 2,400 COD Points which lets you skip 20 tiers and unlock some unique skins and items in the process. Honestly, though, it’s easy to make your way through the tiers without much trouble, particularly if you’re a half-decent player.
The wait for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Season 4 might be frustrating for some fans to endure, but it looks like it will be a sizable update that should keep players entertained for many hours to come.
