Author: News Polite

Rise of the Ronin, Stellar Blade, Death Stranding 2: Everything Announced at PlayStation’s State of Play

PlayStation hosted the year’s first State of Play games showcase early Thursday, bringing a host of new announcements, reveals and updates on upcoming releases. Sony presented a deep dive into two of its first-party titles, with extended gameplay trailers for Rise of the Ronin and Stellar Blade. The latter also finally received a release date — Shift Up’s action-adventure title is arriving April 26. Team Ninja’s Rise of the Ronin received a detailed gameplay trailer, showing off sword combat, special weapons, and traversal. We also got to know a bit more about the Edo period setting of the game, which takes right in the middle of the Japanese revolution.

The State of Play showcase also brought an in-depth look at Death Stranding 2 with a nearly 10-minute-long trailer that detailed new gameplay elements, the story beyond the first game and new and returning characters. Norman Reedus’ Sam Porter Bridges saved America in the first game, now he must save the world from extinction. Of course, as you’d expect from a Hideo Kojima game, the plot and story details remain cryptic at best. But hey, would you want it any other way? Kojima himself joined PlayStation Studios head Herman Hulst towards the end of the State of Play showcase and dropped a surprise. The iconic game director will be working on an action-espionage title (not Metal Gear Solid) for PlayStation, with development on the untitled game beginning after Death Stranding 2.

The showcase saw over a dozen announcements, including updates on the Silent Hill 2 remake, a new story trailer for Ken Levine’s Judas and an enhanced version of Until Dawn for PS5 and PC coming this year. State of Play also showed off a couple of PS VR2 titles, a new remastered Sonic game that brings the best 2D and 2D levels from the series and more. Sony also announced that the next State of Play, scheduled for February 6, will entirely focus on Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. With that, here’s everything that was announced at PlayStation’s State of Play:

Rise of the Ronin – Gameplay trailer

Team Ninja’s Rise of the Ronin, which releases on the PS5 on March 22, got a 4-minute-long gameplay overview trailer at State of Play, detailed combat mechanics, swordplay, special weapons and seamless traversal. The game, which looks like Ghost of Tsushima’s first cousin, will also feature crucial player choices at key moments in the story that will affect the events going forward.

Set during 19th century Japan, right in the middle of the Bakumatsu period, Rise of the Ronin drops you into a period-accurate Yokohama. The trailer showcased Assassin’s Creed-style seamless urban traversal, with the player utilising their grappling hook to quickly climb up buildings, launch off and glide through the air using the ‘Avicula’ glider, and drop directly on to their horse to ride off. The trailer also detailed Katana combat, which includes attacks, guards and parries, with a focus on breaking enemy stance to deal damage. The grappling hook also lets you pull enemies closer and finish them off with style. Aside from Japanese swords and spears, you can also use Western firearms like handguns, rifles and other special ranged weapons like a flamethrower. While comparisons with Ghost of Tsushima are inevitable, Rise of the Ronin seems to retain the Team Ninja identity, with a focus on fast-paced, punishing and technical combat. The game arrives exclusively on the PS5 on March 22.

Stellar Blade

Stellar Blade finally received a release date at the State of Play showcase, along with a gameplay overview trailer. The game is set to arrive on the PS5 on April 26. Developers Shift Up also confirmed that pre-orders for the game will go live on February 7. Customers who pre-order the game will also receive cosmetic bonuses and in-game currency boosts.

The trailer detailed Stellar Blade’s hack-and-slash action combat and a few other game mechanics. The game puts players in the shoes of Eve, an off-world warrior sent to Earth to take on the Naytibas, monstrous invaders that have taken over the planet. Eve’s character design is bound to cause controversy — it doesn’t really make any sense for an adept warrior sent to defeat dangerous threats on a post-apocalyptic planet to be running around in skin-tight, anime-style apparel. She teams up with two other survivors, Adam and Lily, and sets off on a quest to reclaim Earth.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Okay, there’s a lot to unpack here and it’s probably futile to even try. First off, DS2 has an official title — Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. The Death Stranding 2 trailer was exactly what one would expect a Death Stranding trailer to be — long, mysterious and completely insane. And of course, it showed off some gorgeous visuals and new environments, clearly showing the expanded ambitions of the sequel.

It’s hard to even describe everything that went down in the trailer. The baby is back. And so are familiar faces like Norman Reedus’ Sam and Léa Seydoux’s Fragile. There’s a new organisation, called the Drawbridge, in the mix now and we see Fragile give Sam a tour of a ship, now the new base of operations. She wants him to help bring the world back together, just like he helped reconnect the United Cities of America, or the UCA in the first game. There’s also a talking puppet now, who accompanies Sam on his hiking trips. The UCA intends to expand its borders and bring new regions under its fold, with Sam tasked with expanding the network.

The trailer shows off new vehicles, more BTs, stunning new environments, and a bunch of new gadgets to help you along the journey. Troy Baker’s Higgs, the main antagonist from the first game returns, too. This time, he’s wearing a metal-ninja armour, donning Joker-style face makeup and wielding an electrifying new guitar weapon. And the sequel will also tell us more about the bridge baby BB-28, or Lou, our companion throughout the whole first game. There’s no official release date for DS2 yet, but it’s due sometime next year.

Sonic X Shadow Generations

Sega revealed Sonic X Shadow Generations at the State of Play showcase, a remastered collection that brings together beloved 2D and 3D levels from Sonic Generations. The platformer will also include new content and an all-new standalone campaign for Shadow the Hedgehog. The game will arrive on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X and the Nintendo Switch in Autumn 2024.

Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill: The Short Message

The Silent Hill 2 remake got a trailer at the State of Play showcase, dropping more gameplay footage from the game. We got to see the game’s third-person combat for the first time, in addition to the atmosphere, setting, some of the game’s horrible monstrosities.

Additionally, as a PT-like surprise, Konami also dropped a free short-form horror game, Silent Hill: The Short Message, which can be downloaded right now. The experimental title plays out from a first-person perspective and features a new protagonist, with commentary focussing on social media and smartphone-oriented lives of young people.

Judas

First revealed at The Game Awards 2022, Judas is an upcoming first-person shooter from Ghost Story Games, led by Bioshock maker Ken Levine. The new State of Play trailer for the game focussed on its story and player choices. The game is set in Mayflower, a spacefaring city, whose inhabitants — as the title suggests — could betray one another at any given moment.

The trailer also showed off the game’s combat, which would seem very familiar to Bioshock fans. Judas is set to arrive on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X sometime next year.

Here’s everything else that was announced at State of Play

  • Zenless Zone Zero, action-RPG from Genshin Impact maker miHoYo, is coming to PS5 this year
  • Metro Awakening, story-driven first-person VR adventure from Vertigo Games, is coming to PS VR2 this year
  • Legendary Tales, VR action-RPG from Urban Wolf Games, arrives on PS VR2 on February 8
  • Until Dawn, the narrative-focussed survival horror PS4 title from Supermassive Games, is getting an enhanced edition for the PS5 and PC this year
  • Stunlock Studio’s action-RPG survival title V Rising is coming to PS5 this year
  • Dave the Diver, the contentious indie hit from 2023, is coming to PS5 and PS4 in April, along with a new Godzilla DLC
  • Foamstars Season 1 content details revealed, arriving February 6
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OnePlus Open Receiving Android 14-Based OxygenOS 14 Build in India

OnePlus Openwas launched in India in October last year as the company’s first foldable phone. The handset is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC and runs Oxygen OS 13 based on Android 13. Now, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is rolling out Oxygen OS 14 based on Android 14 to the OnePlus Open after extensive beta trials. The stable update brings new features including File Dock, Content Extraction, and Smart Cutout. OnePlus Open users who have participated in the beta programmes will receive the build initially.

The Android 14-based OxygenOS 14 update for the OnePlus Open in India was announced through a post on the OnePlus community forum. The update comes with the firmware version CPH2551_14.0.0.400(EX01).

The update will be first pushed to OnePlus Open users who have participated in the Closed Beta and Open Beta programmes and it will gradually roll out to the regular users. Users are advised to have at least 30 percent battery and 5GB of internal space available on their devices before installing the update.

OnePlus Open Android 14 official changelog

OnePlus Open’s Android 14-based OxygenOS 14 update brings Aqua Dynamics with morphing forms for viewing up-to-date information quickly. It adds a File Dock feature with drag and drop to transfer content between apps and devices. The Content Extraction tool assists in extracting text and images from the screen with one tap, while the Smart Cutout feature lets users separate multiple subjects in a photo from the background for copying or sharing.

The OxygenOS 14 update optimises system stability and animations along with privacy improvements. It brings improvements to Shelf by adding more widget recommendations. The update brings aquamorphic design, aquamorphic-themed ringtones, and revamps the system notification sounds.

As per the official OnePlus community post, the update is being released in a phased manner and will reach all eligible OnePlus Open units running on CPH2551_13.2.0.301 automatically over the air.

OnePlus Open was launched in October last year with a price tag of Rs. 1,39,999 for the single 16GB RAM + 512GB storage configuration. On the specifications front, the OnePlus Open has a 7.82-inch (2,268×2,440 pixels) 2K Flexi-fluid LTPO 3.0 AMOLED inner display and a 6.31-inch (1,116×2,484 pixels) 2K LTPO 3.0 Super Fluid AMOLED cover screen. It runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC with 16GB of LPDDR5x RAM.

The OnePlus Open has a Hasselblad-branded triple camera setup, comprising a 48-megapixel primary camera. It has a 20-megapixel primary selfie camera and a 32-megapixel secondary camera. It is backed by a 4,800mAh battery that supports 67W SuperVOOC charging.

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Thailand deports dissident Russian rockers to Israel | Russia-Ukraine war News

Human rights advocates warned against sending Bi-2 to Russia where they could be persecuted for opposing Ukraine war.

Thailand has deported members of a dissident Russian-Belarusian rock band critical of Moscow’s war in Ukraine to Israel after they were detained for performing without a permit.

Members of Bi-2 left “safely” for Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, they said on their Facebook page. Human rights advocates had warned the group would face severe persecution for speaking out against Russia’s war in Ukraine if they were sent back to Russia.

Thai authorities had detained the members of Bi-2 for working at the resort island of Phuket without a permit.

The fate of the band provoked an international outcry, leading Thai immigration officials to give the band the choice of being deported to another destination if they felt unsafe to return to Russia. Thailand’s National Security Council, chaired by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, took charge of the case on Wednesday.

Several members of the self-exiled group, which had been based in Israel in the 1990s, have dual nationalities, including Israeli and Australian.

Deputy Police Chief Surachate Hakparn confirmed the band had requested to be deported to Israel.

Under pressure

The band was detained last week after they played a gig on Phuket, a southern island popular with Russian holidaymakers.

Thai officials said they were held for performing without the correct work permits and transferred to an immigration detention centre in Bangkok.

VPI Event, the organisers of the band’s Thailand concerts – which also included a show in Pattaya – said all the necessary permits were obtained, but the band had been issued tourist visas in error.

VPI accused the Russian consulate of having waged a campaign to cancel the concerts since December and said they had faced “unprecedented pressure” as they sought the band’s release.

War criticism

Bi-2, which was founded in Minsk, Belarus, is popular in Russia.

Russia’s Ministry of Justice labelled lead singer Yegor Bortnick a “foreign agent” after he criticised President Vladimir Putin online last year.

Alexandr Uman of the alternative rock band Bi-2 performs in Portugal, July 6, 2023 [Horacio Villalobos/Corbis via Getty Images]

One of the band’s founders has openly denounced the Putin government, saying it makes him feel “only disgust” and accusing the long-serving leader of having “destroyed” Russia.

Several of their concerts were cancelled in 2022 after they refused to play at a venue with banners supporting the war in Ukraine, after which they left Russia.

Human rights

“Even though they [are] all safe, we still want Thai authorities to respect arrest procedures strictly,” human rights lawyer Pornpen Khongkachonkiet told the AFP news agency.

“It could [have] happened to me, you, and others without international attention as this case got.”

Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had recognised “the importance of upholding human rights principles” by not sending the band to “face persecution” in Russia.

Robertson said that while “Thailand is vulnerable to effective manipulation by larger states pursuing transnational repression”, international pressure – and global economic concerns – had played a significant role.

“Thailand realised that they didn’t need to make a lot of enemies by doing Russia’s bidding in this case.”



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WhatsApp Reportedly Working on a Chat Lock Feature for Web Users

WhatsApp introduced a new Chat Lock feature for its Android and iOS users in May 2023. However, the feature was not rolled out for its Web client. Finally, after a long wait, a new report suggests that the instant messaging platform is also working to bring the feature to WhatsApp Web. Earlier, it was reported that Web users would also get a redesigned sidebar. Now, a leaked image of the Chat Lock feature shows a dedicated icon being placed on the new sidebar.

According to a report by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is working on bringing the Chat Lock feature to allow users to lock individual chat on the web client and place it behind an additional layer of security. This is helpful in case you do not want others to know about a particular conversation or want to send sensitive information. The leaked image shows a padlock icon next to the Archived Chats and Starred Messages icon. This has led to the speculation that the locked messages will feature inside this tab, and a second layer of security can be added to access the tab.

WhatsApp Web Chat Lock feature
Photo Credit: WABetaInfo

 

Since there are no reports on how this feature will function, details about it are not available. However, the Android and iOS counterpart uses passcode, fingerprint, and Face ID authentication as input to unlock the chats. On the Web client, passwords or even passkeys, a passwordless authentication method that lets users log in with biometrics, can be used for this purpose.

Apart from this, WhatsApp Web is also expected to get a redesigned sidebar and a new colour scheme for the dark theme. An earlier report stated that the colour change was done to reduce eye strain in low-light environments, while the new sidebar was added to create design symmetry across all of the company’s platforms.

WhatsApp is also planning several new features for its mobile applications. For iOS, WhatsApp is reportedly working on adding support for passkeys, which was previously added to its Android counterpart. All iPhone models running on iOS 17 are expected to support third-party access to passkeys. This means iPhone XR or newer models with the iOS 17 update would be the only ones to activate passkeys on the WhatsApp app.

On Android, the Meta-owned app is working on a nearby file-sharing feature, as per a separate report. This is expected to work similarly to Android’s Quick Share (previously known as Nearby Share) feature. The WhatsApp feature appears to let users set themselves to be visible to other nearby users without revealing their phone number to non-contacts. It is also expected to be end-to-end encrypted to maintain privacy.

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Fabrizio Romano gives big update on Manchester United’s deadline day striker chase – Man United News And Transfer News

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Entering the last day of the window, Manchester United seem destined to bring in no reinforcements, despite a busy period of departures.

This is according to ultra-reliable Italian sports journalist, Fabrizio Romano who has claimed that “as of now, United are staying with the same squad – the plan is quite clear”.

Speaking on his daily briefing, Romano stated that United’s plan as of now is to loan out Facundo Pellistri, which the club has now confirmed as done, and keep everyone else, including Amad Diallo.

Of more interest to United fans however is the update that the club will not be attempting to bring in a striker despite the numerous links over the month.

A name often heard in the lead up to the window was that of Serhou Guirassy from Stuttgart but no team, including United, ever made a move for him.

Romano said, “I’m hearing about fresh reports on the future of Serhou Guirassy, but from what I understand the release clause of the Stuttgart striker has now expired.

“It’s no longer valid, so if the likes of Chelsea or Manchester United wanted to move for him now, it would be almost impossible – the player is staying at Stuttgart and the clause is no longer valid”.

However, the football transfer expert hardly closed the door for a summer move by stating, “the stories of the last 24 hours are not going in the right direction. I don’t expect any movement. Many clubs wanted him but Stuttgart have been good in talks with the player to convince him to stay and then leave next summer at the right moment”.

The sports journalist also reported that despite other attacking options being linked to the Old Trafford side, nothing will happen in the final moments of the window.

“Man United have been offered multiple names up front, but names like Eric Choupo-Moting and Hugo Ekitike (who is still on the market and can leave Paris Saint-Germain) have been linked even though at the moment nothing is happening in that direction”.

It has been widely reported that INEOS were unprepared to spend this winter due to Financial Fair Play issues and also due to the fact that their deal has not yet been ratified by the Premier League.

United fans will be disappointed that no attacking options has been drafted in to help Rasmus Hojlund, especially with the news of Anthony Martial’s 10 week layoff. However, dreams of a big summer window for INEOS will surely keep fans excited between now and the end of the season.

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Chicago becomes latest US city to seek ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza | Israel War on Gaza News

City councillors narrowly approve nonbinding resolution that also includes call for humanitarian aid and release of captives.

Chicago has become the latest city in the United States to call for a permanent ceasefire as Israel’s war on Gaza nears its four-month mark, placing more pressure on President Joe Biden before November’s election to help end the fighting.

After weeks of rowdy public meetings, councillors in the US’s third largest city on Wednesday narrowly approved the nonbinding resolution 24-23. The tie-breaking vote was cast by Mayor Brandon Johnson, who also had to temporarily clear the council chambers during the heated session.

The symbolic declaration includes a call for humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip and the release of all captives held in the enclave.

“Do I believe that the words that we speak today, how we vote today influences directly international policy? I don’t. I don’t have those illusions,” said Alderman Daniel La Spata, one of the resolution’s sponsors. “But we vote with hope. We vote with solidarity. We vote to help people feel heard in a world of silence.”

The ordinance remained largely unchanged over the past few months despite urging from the council’s sole Jewish member, Alderwoman Debra Silverstein, who sought more support for Israel and criticism of Hamas.

“We all want an end to the bloodshed and an end to the war. But it is vital to understand what caused the conflict, and we should pass a resolution that addresses the issue responsibly,” she said during the meeting. “We should not pass a resolution unless it makes clear that Hamas cannot and should not attack again.”

Israeli attacks have devastated the Gaza Strip since Hamas fighters launched surprise attacks inside Israel on October 7 that killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli officials. Israel retaliated with a relentless air and ground offensive that has killed nearly 27,000 people, about 70 percent of them children, women and the elderly, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The US under both Democratic and Republican presidents has been giving Israel $3.8bn in military aid annually, ranging from fighter jets to powerful bombs. But in recent months, Israel’s relentless military campaign on Gaza has exposed deep divisions in the US amid growing anger over the Biden administration’s foreign policy.

The passing of the resolution means that Chicago has now followed cities such as Atlanta, Detroit and San Francisco to be calling for a ceasefire.

An analysis of city data by Reuters news agency this week showed that at least 48 US cities have adopted symbolic resolutions calling for a halt to Israel’s Gaza bombardment, with six others passing resolutions advocating more broadly for peace. At least 20 have passed resolutions condemning Hamas’s October 7 attacks.

Most of the ceasefire resolutions have passed in Democratic states like California, though at least 14 have passed in swing states like Michigan that could be decisive in Biden’s re-election bid, most likely against Republican former President Donald Trump.

Many of the ceasefire calls are modelled after Missouri Congresswoman Cori Bush’s “Ceasefire Now” resolution, which also urges the release of captives and an increase of aid into Gaza.

At least nine of the ceasefire calls were in Michigan, where Arab Americans account for 5 percent of the vote and Biden’s 2020 margin of victory over Trump was less than 3 percent. An October poll showed Biden’s support among Arab Americans had plunged to 17 percent from 59 percent in 2020.

“Arab Americans will not vote for Joe Biden, no matter what. That’s it. They’re done with Biden,” Sam Baydoun, a Wayne County commissioner, told Al Jazeera this week.

“That’s the bottom line. Joe Biden is not going to be able to regain the trust of the Arab-American community,” he said, reflecting the frustration of many members of the Arab-American community over Biden’s unwavering support for Israel.

Douglas Wilson, a Democratic strategist in the swing state of North Carolina, said the war “is something that’s going to be on voters’ minds” in the upcoming election.

“It’s gonna be an issue here and in all the swing states because of the Muslim populations in these states, the Jewish populations in these states and the Black and brown population [in] these states,” Wilson told Reuters.

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Xiaomi 14 Ultra Global Variant Reportedly Spotted on Geekbench; Key Details Tipped

Xiaomi 14 Ultra is expected to be unveiled in February, possibly during the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2024. It is said to join the Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro, which were introduced in China in October 2023. Several details of the purported handset have surfaced online and suggested some key features. Recently, hands-on images of the smartphone had also been leaked. Now, the phone has reportedly been spotted on a benchmarking website.

A 91Mobiles report claims to have spotted the global variant of the Xiaomi 14 Ultra on Geekbench. The phone was spotted with the model number 24030PN60G, where the ‘G’ suggests that it is the global variant. The listing hints that the handset is powered by an octa-core chipset clocking a speed of 3.30 GHz. Meawhile, recent leaks suggested that the model is likely to launch with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

The Geekbench listing for the Xiaomi 14 Ultra is seen with a single-core score of 9,317 and a multi-core score of 26,523. As per the report notes the unusually high scores are attributed to the fact that it was tested using Geekbench 4 and not the latest Geekbench 6 version.

As per the report, the Samsung Galaxy S24+ with the Exynos 2400 chipset scored 9,043 and 25,655, respectively, on single-core and multi-core tests the older version of Geekbench. For comparison, on the latest Geekbench 6 version, the Exynos variant of the Galaxy S24+ scored 2,193 and 6,895 respectively, on single-core and multi-core tests, while the version running on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC scored 2,297 and 7,104 points.

The Xiaomi 14 Ultra is also seen to feature an Adreno 750 GPU and 14.84GB of RAM, as per the listing, which suggests that the tested variant is the 16GB option of the model. It also shows that the handset may ship with Android 14. The phone has previously been tipped to run Xiaomi’s new HyperOS, similar to the other Xiaomi 14 models.

Xiaomi 14 Ultra is expected to succeed the Xiaomi 13 Ultra and, therefore, carry several upgrades over the current flagship model. It is likely to sport a 6.7-inch 2K AMOLED 120Hz display, an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor and a quad rear camera unit. The camera system has been tipped to include a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-900 primary sensor with f/1.63 to f/4.0 variable aperture, a 120mm periscope telephoto shooter and a Vario-Summilux 1:1.63-2.5/12-120 aspherical (ASPH) lens. It is also likely to be backed by a 5,180mAh battery with support for 90W wired and 50W wireless charging.

Is the iQoo Neo 7 Pro the best smartphone you can buy under Rs. 40,000 in India? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and what it has to offer on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Vivo X Fold 3 Series Tipped to Get OmniVision OV50H Main Camera

Vivo X Fold 2 with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC debuted in China in April last year. The brand, following the success of its Vivo X Fold 2, is reportedly working on the Vivo X Fold 3 series. The upcoming lineup is expected to include the regular Vivo X Fold 3 and Vivo X Fold 3 Pro. The camera system of the new series is tipped to see significant improvements this time. It is said to get the OmniVision OV50H main camera, a notable upgrade over the previous model.

Tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from Chinese) has leaked (via GizmoChina) the camera details of the rumoured Vivo X Fold 3 and Vivo X Fold 3 Pro on Weibo. As per the tipster, the upcoming foldable smartphones will feature an OmniVision OV50H main camera and a periscope telephoto lens. Vivo’s iQoo sub-brand has used a similar camera on both iQoo 12 and iQoo 12 Pro.

Meanwhile, the tipster earlier claimed that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC will power the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro. It is also said to get an LTPO inner foldable screen on the device with a 2K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. It may include an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner on both screens and could offer 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging support.

As per past leaks, the Vivo X Fold 3 Pro will have a triple rear camera unit, led by a 50-megapixel main camera with OIS (optical image stabilisation). The camera unit is anticipated to comprise a 100mm periscope telephoto camera with 4x optical zoom and an ultra-wide snapper.

The Vivo X Fold 3 Pro is anticipated to launch alongside the Vivo Pad 3 in the first quarter of this year.

Vivo X Fold 2 was launched in China last year with a starting price tag of CNY 8,999 (roughly Rs. 1,07,500). The China-exclusive handset boasts an 8.03-inch E6 AMOLED LTPO inner display and a 6.53-inch AMOLED outer screen. It has a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC under the hood and features triple rear cameras led by a 50-megapixel Sony IMCX866 primary shooter. It is backed by a 4,800mAh battery unit with 120W fast charging, 50W wireless charging, and reverse charging support.

The Vivo X90 Pro has finally made its debut in India, but is the company’s flagship smartphone for 2023 equipped with enough upgrades over its predecessor? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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‘Dining table amputation’: How an Israeli bomb took Ahed Bseiso’s leg | Israel War on Gaza

Ahed Bseiso was disoriented, shocked, and numb to the immense pain that would soon take over after she was wounded by Israeli shelling on her family home in northern Gaza.

“All I could see was white fog … For a second, I thought I was dead,” Ahed told Al Jazeera, reliving the events of December 19.

That day, following her routine since October 7, when Israel launched its most brutal assault on Gaza to date, the 17-year-old university student and her older sister Mona climbed to the sixth floor of their building at 10:30am.

They went up there to call their father, who lives overseas. They tried to talk to him daily to tell him they were still alive amid a siege, intense bombardment, and a severe lack of essential supplies.

Repeated telecommunication blackouts and jamming in Gaza mean many have to climb onto a roof to catch a signal, find signal boosters, or use eSIM cards connected to any regional telecom carrier.

Ahed said she noticed an unusually large Israeli tank outside the building, but she did not give it much thought as their home had been encircled by army vehicles after a truce between Israel and Hamas came to an end in November.

Ahed wants to live a ‘normal life’ and hopes to be evacuated from Gaza for treatment [Courtesy of Ahed Bseiso]

She sat down and got ready to dial her father’s number.

‘I managed to say “I’m alive”‘

“I crossed my legs and all of a sudden, I was upside down,” she said.

Ahed had lost a limb – almost her entire right calf – and was bleeding profusely.

Her shock was so severe that she was silent, and so was her sister – she later realised “Mona was afraid to call out for me in case I didn’t respond”.

“Eventually, as I gathered what had just happened, I managed to say: ‘I’m alive’.”

Ahed’s male cousins rushed to carry her downstairs. She remembers looking down and shouting, asking her cousins if her leg was still there because she could not see it.

“All my cousin did was cover my eyes,” she recalled.

The only place they could set Ahed down was on the dining table, where her mother had been kneading bread dough earlier, a common sight in Gaza homes as Israel’s complete siege made food and basic commodities scarce.

Someone ran to get her uncle, Hani, an orthopedist and the only doctor among the 30 relatives staying in the family’s building.

Hani had sent his wife and four children out of the enclave at the beginning of the offensive, while he stayed.

And so, he found himself looking down at his niece’s severed leg and knowing he had to save her, without medical supplies, anaesthesia, or even clean gauze.

In Gaza today, medics have to carry out procedures with nothing, not even pain control, as a result of the severe shortages imposed by the siege.

Hani needed to act on a difficult, yet obvious choice: amputate what was left of the lower leg and quickly stitch up the artery so his niece would not bleed to death.

“I had nothing. I remembered my briefcase was in my room, so I asked my nephews to grab it … There was nothing in there except for some unsterilised gauze,” Hani said.

‘I stayed so Ahed can live’

Hani did not know how he would clean the wound or control the bleeding, a seemingly impossible task without sutures.

All the while, Gaza’s largest medical facility, al-Shifa Hospital, was “five minutes away by car” but was both unreachable and out of service due to the fighting, Hani said.

Hani Bseiso is an orthopaedic doctor who used to work at al-Shifa Hospital [Courtesy of Hani Bseiso]

Like most hospitals across the enclave, al-Shifa had been attacked and raided in November, forcing thousands of wounded and displaced Palestinians there to flee and putting the hospital out of service.

Hani looked around the room desperately, seeking anything to make the dreadful process a bit more manageable. At the kitchen sink, he saw a sponge and container filled with dish soap.

“I started to clean the wound but felt Ahed’s eyes piercing me. She begged me not to cut the rest of her leg off,” Hani said.

His heart was breaking and tears poured down his face, knowing what he had to do while Ahed was fully conscious.

“I wondered what person could bear the pain of an amputation without anaesthesia,” Hani said.

And so he operated on his niece with a kitchen knife and used a needle and thread from a sewing kit to stitch together the largest artery.

When asked how she was able to bear the pain, Ahed said a strange feeling of calm took over.

“I was just reciting verses from the holy Quran the entire time,” she said.

To redress her wounds, the family had to wash the gauze in hot water and lay it out to dry so her uncle could put it back on her leg.

In Gaza, a generation of child amputees is emerging as the vicious Israeli assault continues [Arafat Barbakh/Reuters]

Knowing Ahed was prone to infection, Hani said he took “every antibiotic pill and painkiller in the house,” and rationed it out to her, mostly on an empty stomach because there was no food.

It wasn’t until five days later that Hani was able to move her to a medical facility – one day after Israeli tanks withdrew from the area. There, Ahed underwent several surgeries, including one to mend her broken left leg.

But it is still not enough, Hani said.

“She needs so much more … cosmetic repair surgery for her amputated leg, an artificial limb,” Hani said.

“I could have left with my wife and kids, but God made me stay. I stayed so Ahed can live.”

Ahed is one of a generation of young amputees emerging from the enclave as a result of relentless Israeli attacks.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, more than 10 children have lost one or both of their legs a day in Gaza since October 7.

That is more than 1,000 children.

Amputations are ‘standard practice’

Medical professionals say many of those killed in Gaza since October 7 could have been saved if they had been able to reach a hospital.

Abed, an orthopaedic doctor with Doctors Without Borders – also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – said medics in Gaza have come to rely on sedating patients amid a lack of anaesthesia.

(Al Jazeera)

“We have a shortage of all kinds of drugs,” said Abed, who has been working at the Rafah Indonesian Field Hospital and asked that only his first name be used due to safety concerns.

“We depend on painkillers like paracetamol and we try local anaesthetic to reduce pain,” he said.

According to Abed, patients undergo “traumatic amputation” daily, adding that most patients are children.

When a hospital has an influx of injured people, it can take hours for someone to get to the operation theatre, which makes salvaging a limb impossible and amputation necessary “to save the life of the patient”, he said.

According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Israel has killed nearly 27,000 people and wounded some 65,000 others in its attacks on Gaza since October 7. Nearly a quarter of injuries are among children, the ministry said.

Ahed said she is forever changed. Before the offensive, she was enrolled to study pharmacy. But now she cannot stand “anything to do with medicine” because of what she has been through.

“I’m going to change my major,” she said. “I’m going to be an interior designer and prove to the world that I can still lead a normal life despite my physical disability.”

Layan al-Baz, 13, receives treatment at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after losing her legs in an Israeli attack, in the southern Gaza Strip on October 31, 2023 [Mahmud Hams/AFP]

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Google Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro Get Circle to Search Feature Introduced on Samsung Galaxy S24 Series

Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro were recently updated with new capabilities, including the new Circle to Search feature that was introduced at Samsung’s Galaxy Unpacked launch event. Alongside the Samsung Galaxy S24 series of smartphones, owners of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro can now use Google’s Circle to Search feature on their smartphones to perform Google Lens-like searches, without switching their current application. The AI-powered feature from Google is also expected to arrive on other flagship smartphones.

As per Google’s previously announced schedule, the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have been updated with support for the new Circle to Search feature. A Gadgets 360 staff member confirmed that the feature was enabled on their Pixel 8 smartphone, without installing a software update — suggesting that it was remotely enabled by Google.

While users can still invoke Google Lens by opening the Google app or via the Google Assistant, doing so requires you to switch away from the app you are using. Depending on what app you are running — such as Instagram — the video you were watching might not be visible and you might be taken to the home screen. On the other hand, the new Circle to Search feature lets you perform a search without leaving the app you are using.

In order to use the Circle to Search feature on the Pixel 8 or Pixel 8 Pro, you can long press the navigation bar at the bottom of the screen. The phone will freeze the image displayed on the screen so you can draw around or scribble a product or object to perform a visual lookup using Google. You can also highlight text and perform a Google search via a popup. 

The company previously announced that the Circle to Search feature would also be available on “select premium Android smartphones” besides the latest Pixel 8 series and the Galaxy S24 series on Thursday, so we can expect to see smartphones from other manufacturers offering support for the feature soon.

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