Gears of War 4 Launch Date Revealed. Possible PC Port on Release Day.

Microsoft has announced that the latest entry in its cover-based third-person shooter series, Gears of War 4 has a release date. It launches worldwide on October 11 this year.

"Gears of War 4 marks the beginning of an epic new saga for one of gaming's most celebrated franchises, as a new band of heroes rises to confront a fearsome new threat. Harkening back to the dark and intense roots of the original classic, fans can expect a familiar, yet distinct evolution of gameplay, including brutal and intimate action, a heart-pounding campaign, genre-defining multiplayer and stunning visuals powered by Unreal Engine 4," wrote Adam Fletcher, Director of Community for the game's developer The Coalition on the official Xbox website.

What's interesting is that the post has no mention of platforms, further leading credence to therumours of a possible Windows 10 PC launch much like Quantum Break. Although non-Xbox One owning gamers would hope its a better PC port than Quantum Break or Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, both of which have been poorly received by the PC gaming community. We won't be surprised to see a Gears of War 4 Windows 10 PC announcement at E3 2016.

(Also see: Xbox One Exclusives Gears of War 4, Scalebound Coming to Windows 10 PC: Report)

However Fletcher does mention the dates on which you can play the Gears of War 4 beta.

"Beginning on April 18, fans who've played Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Xbox One or Windows 10 will be able to join the beta on Xbox One, which will expand to all Xbox Live Gold members on April 25," the post continues.

Apple iPhone SE teardown reveals manufacturing cost at only Rs 10,500

While Apple prepares for the launch of the iPhone SE in India on April 8, which is likely to sport a price tag of Rs 39,000, research firm IHS have revealed that the manufacturing cost of the device is actually only $160 which translates to around Rs 10,574.

A report by IHS points out that analyst Andrew Rassweiler, who supervised the teardown for the 16GB variant suggested that the version is priced specifically to encourage consumers to opt for the 64GB version when making their buying decision.

“The iPhone SE represents an amalgamation of three iPhone generations, iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, rolled into something altogether new,” said Andrew Rassweiler, senior director of cost benchmarking services at IHS. “Despite its physical resemblance to the iPhone 5s, the resulting product is far superior. In fact, the only significant trade offs a consumer would make with the iPhone SE against the iPhone 6s is smaller size and lower screen resolution.”

Many parts of the iPhone SE have been recycled from previous devices too. In addition, the display which cost $41 back in 2013, is now for less than half the price at $20. With the iPhone 5S, the display was made by Sharp or JDI, but this time around, LG is Apple’s vendor.

Xiaomi’s toy tablet turns itself into a Transformers robot

Chinese manufacturer Xiaomi in collaboration with Hasbro’s Transformers has crowd-funded a project to create a robotic model called Soundwave.

It basically looks like the Mi Pad 2 that turns itself into a Transformer- like bot. This special edition Mi Pad 2 is a toy made by the company to commemorate its birthday as it turns six years old on April 6, primarily made for Xiaomi fans in China.

“R&D worked really hard to ensure that the colour, details and feel are exactly the same as Mi Pad 2. They were challenged at turning such a slim 7mm tablet into a 3D robot, but they managed to do so with a 30-step folding assembly, said Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra on his Facebook page.

The Mi Pad 2 Transformers edition will only be available in China and starts shipping on May 13 only if the crowd funding goal is achieved. Users be reminded that it’s not a standard working tablet.

The original Mi Pad 2 comes with a 7.9-inch display with a 2048 x 1536 resolution, a 2.24GHz quad-core Intel Atom processor bundled with 2 GB of RAM. The device packs a 6190 mAh battery which the company claims offers 649 hours of standby time and comes with support for fast-charging technology.

In terms of cameras, the tablet sports an 8-megapixel rear camera along with a 5-megapixel front facing camera. Connectivity options on the Mi Pad 2 include a When it Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and the latest USB Type C connectivity. However, there is no support for 4G LTE or GPS.

Airtel Expands 4G Mobile Services to 40 Towns in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana

Airtel on Tuesday said its high speed 4G services are now available in 40 towns in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Airtel 4G is available to customers across a range of smart devices, including mobile phones, dongles, 4G hotspots and Wi-Fi dongles, the company said in a statement.

Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, Chief Executive Officer of Bharti Airtel for Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, said, "We launched Airtel's first 4G Network in Hyderabad last May and in just 10 months, our 4G presence has spread to 40 major towns in both the States."

Late last month, Airtel announced the commercial launch of its 4G services in Goa. Customers in the above mentioned regions can avail of SIM swap and home delivery.

Commenting on the launch of Airtel 4G in the state, Ashok Ganapathy Hub CEO, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat, Bharti Airtel (India) said, "We at Bharti Airtel are extremely pleased to introduce the superfast 4G services to our customers in Goa. As an increasing number of Indians have shown a preference for consuming data and content over their mobile devices, we want our existing customers to be the first ones to enjoy the 4G experience at 3G prices.

He further added, "While launching Platinum 3G we significantly augmented our network and now have made further investments in building a robust 4G infrastructure here. For us, delivering a compelling experience to our customers is our utmost priority. Additionally, we recently launched"Project Leap", our national network transformation drive to deliver a compelling network experience for our valuable customers".

Microsoft Lumia 950, Lumia 950 XL Windows 10 Mobile OS Update Adds New Features

Washington: Microsoft's mobile phone division is certainly not doing well but the company is trying hard to revive the division over time. With the Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL, the tech giant has played their best card.

Microsoft with the Lumia 950 and 950 XL has come out with strong devices, and this is their attempt to create a 'flagship'-like device for their users. The company has now updated the Windows 10 Mobile OS for their Lumia 950 and 950 XL devices.

The new Windows 10 Mobile OS update for Lumia 950 and 950 XL brings in many new features such as forced HDR update, which permits the users to capture HDR images any time they want without restrictions. The users of the devices can now capture HDR images even in bright-light conditions.

The latest update also features another big update where the battery life has received a significant boost. This update would improve the battery life of the devices, and the Redmond-based firm had been getting a lot of user complains about the poor battery life.

The Redmond-based company has also fixed the Skype bug which had been making problems for Lumia 950 and 950 XL users as the chat and contact images kept disappearing randomly.

Vivo launches V series smartphones, Vivo V3 and V3 Max; price starts at Rs 17,980

The company has targetted both performance and looks in these metallic body smartphones along with providing a powerful configuration. The V3Max smartphone is armed with dual fast charging engines adopted by Qualcomm QC 2.0 international standard, making for a very compatible device. The fingerprint unlocking allows the user to unlock the phone as fast as 0.2 seconds from and 0.5 seconds in sleep mode.

V3 Max smartphone features a 13.97cm (5.5) full HD display with the resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. It comes with 2.5D Corning Gorilla glass and a metal body which gives it elegant and strong appearance and presence.

The newly incorporated screen-split feature allows users to do multitasking without having to switch back and forth. Users can chat and watch videos simultaneously at the same time on one screen.

Xiaomi Mi 5 Available in First India Flash Sale Today

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is hosting a Mi festival on its India website today, where it will offer the Mi 5 on the first flash sale, along with the Redmi Note 3, and its 20000 mAh Mi Power Bank.

The Mi 5 will go for sale on the Mi.com website at 11 am. The premium smartphone costs Rs 24,999 and comes with a 5.15-inch full HD display, latest Snapdragon 820 processor, 3000 mAh battery, Android 6 and a 16 megapixel rear camera with four-axis OIS.

Xiaomi has only brought a single variant of the smartphone in India, what was unveiled as the 'standard edition' in China, featuring 32GB of inbuilt storage and 3GB of LPDDR4 RAM.

The dual-SIM Mi 5 includes a 5.15-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) with curved 3D Ceramic glass, and a pixel density of 428ppi and has Adreno 530 GPU.

The rear camera sports 4-axis OIS (optical image stabilisation) and sapphire glass protection lens. The device supports 4K video recording and includes a 4-UltraPixel front camera, with 2-micron pixels. Both cameras feature an f/2.0 aperture.

Mi 5 measures 144.5x69.2x7.25mm and weighs 129 grams. The handset supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 and the company says that the Quick Charge 3.0 is 20 percent faster than its predecessor, the Quick Charge 2.0.