[Update: March 9] Apex Legends is coming to the Nintendo Switch next month

Update 1 (03/03/2021 @ 06:38 ET): Apex Legends is coming to the Nintendo Switch on March 9. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on February 5, 2021, is preserved below.

Popular battle royale game Apex Legends is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch next month. Based on the Titanfall franchise, Electronics Arts currently offers Apex Legends on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. The company had announced plans of releasing the game on the Nintendo Switch late last year. However, after a bunch of delays, we finally have a release date as announced by the company via a blog post.

“Today, I’m proud to come to you with some good news. Apex Legends is coming to Nintendo Switch on March 9th, 2021,” said Chad Grenier, Game Director at Apex Legends. Compared to all platforms, the Nintendo Switch has a smaller display with a 720p resolution, and as per EA, porting the game has apparently been a ‘major achievement.’ The game developer has worked with Panic Button for the Switch port and says that players can expect a full-featured Apex Legends experience on the go. The best part is that EA has not only managed to port Apex Legends to the Switch, but it will also support cross-platform play. This means that players on all platforms can play with each other.

Just a few days back, Apex Legends saw the arrival of its new Season 8 with a brand new legend and character, Fuse. The new season also brings back King’s Canyon in a new avatar, a new weapon, and a bunch of new skins and other cosmetic additions. The Nintendo Switch port was expected to arrive on the same date as the new season, however, players will now have to wait for another month. To make up for the delay, Switch players will be offered 30 free levels for their Season 8 Battle Pass, and for the first two weeks after launch, playing on Switch will also earn you double XP.

Notably, EA has not confirmed if the game will be free to play as it is on the existing platforms. Recently there was a certain leak from Amazon Japan that suggested the Champion Edition of the game would cost around ¥5,641 ($54).  Additionally, an Apex Legends themed Switch Pro controller has also been spotted, which is expected to hype up the launch of the game on the portable console.

The best Nintendo Switch Controllers: Hori, 8bitdo, PowerA, and More!

Apex Legends is also expected to arrive on Android and iOS as EA is working with a partner in China to develop the mobile version of its popular battle royale game. While there is no concrete timeline for the launch, we last heard that we can expect the game to make its way to mobile phones, not before 2022.

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Update: Apex Legends is coming to the Nintendo Switch on March 9

Apex Legends is coming to the Nintendo Switch on March 9.

Apex Legends makes its long-awaited debut on Switch March 9!

Switch players, get ready for
30 free Battle Pass levels
Double XP for the first two weeks after launch
Limited-time Legendary Pathfinder skin – P.A.T.H. –

We can’t wait to welcome you to the Outlands. pic.twitter.com/zVUgbuDvIM

— Apex Legends (@PlayApex) March 2, 2021

Switch players will get double experience for the first two weeks, and will also get a chance to access a limited-time Legendary Pathfinder skin.

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[Update: Beta group expanded] Twitter seems to be finally testing Spaces on Android

Update 1 (03/03/2021 @ 06:28 AM ET): Twitter is expanding the beta group for the Spaces feature on Android. Scroll to the bottom for more information. The article as published on February 27, 2021, is preserved below.

Clubhouse has earned a decent amount of popularity in the last few weeks because it helped popularize a fresh new concept: live “drop-in” audio chats where anyone can drop in and talk. Clubhouse, in particular, started to become popular through the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where the internet and social media became even more prevalent in our lives than they already were in previous times. That growth accelerated exponentially since the start of 2021. It has now popularized the concept of “audio chatrooms”, and big technology companies are running to get a piece of the cake, with companies like Facebook reportedly rushing to make their own competitor. Twitter also made one of their own, which is called Twitter Spaces, and they might be testing it on Android now.

pic.twitter.com/bbGSqBr39S

— racka (@rackadev) February 26, 2021

The Twitter Spaces feature has, so far, stayed only on iOS together with a host of iOS-exclusive features such as voice tweets (which have yet to make their way to Android). Still, the feature has already reached the hands of a lot of users, even if it’s only in “test mode” according to Twitter (which is fancy speak for “beta”). How do we know it’s being tested on Android right now? For one, users have started to report it works, such as in the replies for this tweet. Users have specifically reported that the feature is working for them after installing a specific beta version of the Twitter app (which you can download right here to see if it works for you).

So what’s the catch? Firstly, since a rollout for Android has not been announced yet and since the feature is not yet working on the stable version of the app, it’s pretty safe to say that it is probably still pretty rough around the edges. And indeed: captions seem fairly wonky according to Android Police’s coverage, not to mention that you can’t start your own space, only join others’ spaces. The fact that it’s currently being worked on is pretty good on its own, and we can’t wait until the final rollout comes.

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Update: Spaces for Android beta expanded to more users

Twitter is expanding the Spaces for Android beta group to include more users.

Android folks, our beta is growing! starting today you will be able to join and talk in any Space. SOON you’ll be able to create your own but we’re still working out some things. keep your out for live Spaces above your home tl

— Spaces (@TwitterSpaces) March 2, 2021

We were able to join an active Space on the latest Android beta. Though as mentioned, initiating a Space is not possible at the moment from the Android app.

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Chrome 89 brings revamped profiles, Reading list, and more

Chrome 89 is now out in the stable channel, and as always it brings with it a number of improvements to make our web browsing even better. One of the main highlights of Chrome 89 is revamped profiles experience.

Chrome already lets you switch between multiple Google accounts, but this new experience makes it even easier to create and maintain personalized user profiles on a single device. Each user can customize their profile with a custom background and change the theme and color scheme. Users can sign in with their Google account to sync their bookmarks, passwords, and browsing data. Each new profile opens in a new window so that you can easily tell them apart.

When the user restarts Chrome, Google will display a prompt to switch between available profiles, create a new one or browse as a guest. The new profile experience is available on Windows, Linux, and Mac users running Chrome 89.

Reading list (via 9to5Google) is another new feature in Chrome 89. Now, when you tap the icon located in the left corner, you’ll see a new “Add to reading list” option alongside the “Add bookmark” option. The feature is pretty self-explanatory, if you find something on the web that you want to save for later reading, you can now add it to Chrome’s Reading list.

Elsewhere, support for WebHID, an API that enables web applications to interact with human interface devices (HID) such as VR controls, gamepads, joysticks, etc, has been fully implemented in the latest update.

On the mobile side, WebNFC will now let websites read and write to NFC tags on supported Android devices. Meanwhile, support for AVIF image format has also been added, which claims to offer higher image quality and more efficient image compression than JPEG.

Chrome 89 is rolling out to desktop and mobile users. Keep an eye out for the new update in the coming days.

Google Chrome: Fast & Secure (Free, Google Play) →

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Samsung introduces new microLED TVs alongside Neo QLED TVs for gamers

Samsung has announced its new range of consumer products at its recent Unbox and Discover event. The company is bringing a new range of smart TVs, including the new Neo QLED series made for gamers, new microLED TVs, updates for The Frame series, as well as a new Q-Series soundbar.

“The role of the TV in our lives has grown—and in 2021, Samsung continues to redefine the role of TV around the needs and passions of consumers,” said James Fishler, Senior Vice President, Home Entertainment Division, Samsung Electronics America.

MicroLED TV 2021

Starting off with the new microLED TVs, Samsung is aiming to offer microLED equipped televisions to consumers this year. With microLED, users can expect enhanced brightness, deep blacks, and high-quality imaging which is said to last longer. This is done by using inorganic LEDs that help prevent burn-in and ensure the screen stays vibrant over its lifetime.

The company had introduced the display tech back in 2018, on The Wall series which was a configurable system of modules that could go as large as 292-inches. This series required professional installation and was available for home and office uses if you had the capital for it.

This year, Samsung will start offering microLED for a traditional TV experience. By the end of March 2021, Samsung is looking at offering 110-inch and 99-inch models globally while an 88-inch version will be available by fall; and a 76-inch model is also said to be a part of the roadmap. The new microLED based TVs will offer the ability to split the display to showcase four different screens using 4Vue (Quad View) feature.

Neo QLED TV 2021

Samsung is also launching new QLED TVs under its Neo QLED range which were showcased at CES 2021. Powered by the new Neo Quantum processor, the company is using new Quantum mini LEDs that are said to be 1/40th the size of conventional LEDs. Samsung says that these ensure ultra-fine light control, deep blacks, bright lights, and improved upscaling technology.

Samsung is also focusing on gaming with the new Neo QLED series, as it is now the official TV partner of Xbox Series X in the United States and Canada. Xbox and Samsung have renewed a new multi-year agreement and will continue working together for future gaming products. Expect the range to offer 120-frames per second and a 5.8ms response time. The Neo QLED lineup is also the first TV that will feature AMD’s Freesync Premium Pro tech for both PC and consoles for an improved HDR experience. The range will also include Samsung’s new Game Bar for additional gaming tools as well as Super Ultrawide Gameview where you can choose between various ultra-wide aspect ratios.

Lastly, the series will offer some features for fitness enthusiasts. The Neo QLED will now come with Smart Trainer as a part of the Samsung Health platform. Using an optional camera the Smart Trainer will make use of AI to analyze your posture and offer real-time feedback so you can improve your form as you follow instructional videos.

The Samsung Neo QLED will be available this year in 8K resolution in 65-inch, 75-inch, and 85-inch sizes (QN800A and QN900A), while the 4K models (QN90A and QN85A) will be offered in a wider selection of sizes starting at 50-inches.

The Frame 2021

Samsung The Frame TV 2021

The company is also bringing an update to its ‘The Frame’ series this year. Firstly, it is increasing the size for photo storage from 500MB to 6GB, so that users can now store up to 1,200 UHD photos from the Art Store. The new range is also going to be slimmer at just 24.9mm in thickness, and now offers a new ‘Slim Fit Wall Mount.’ Samsung will also offer a new accessory later in the year called My Shelf which will be offered in black, beige, brown, and white. These will be compatible with 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch The Frame models.

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Chainfire’s Holey Light app gets its biggest update yet with new Samsung and Google device support

XDA Senior Recognized Developer Chainfire‘s Holey Light app is getting its biggest update yet. The app now offers support for a bunch of new Samsung and Google devices, Android 11 compatibility, and much more. Read on to learn more about everything new in the latest Holey Light update.

For the unaware, Holey Light is a handy app that lets you turn the hole-punch cutout on your device into a notification LED. The app was initially only available for Samsung’s Galaxy S10 lineup, but its latest update (v. 1.00) brings support for the Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy S20 series, the Galaxy Z Fold 2, the Google Pixel 5, and the Pixel 4a.

Additionally, the update includes a host of new features, including new options to show app icons and the AOD clock in the Unholey Light mode, the ability to adjust the thickness of the camera notification animation, support for conversation and bubble notifications, and improved Dark Mode support. On top of that, the update brings stability and reliability improvements, optimizations for CPU and battery usage, and additional language support. Check out the section below for the complete Holey Light v1.00 changelog:

Holey Light v1.00 changelog

• Compatibility
  • Leverage Samsung firmware-specific camera area size, position, and animation: adds basic support for all Samsung devices
  • Added support for Google Pixel devices; currently 4A and 5 tested, 4A 5G needs a tester!
  • Specific adjustments for Samsung Galaxy Fold 2
•  Donations
  • Added In-App Purchase donations – completely optional without nags. These do not unlock any additional features, change functionality in any way, or entitle the user to anything. Note that these only work if the app installed through Google Play.
•  Android 11
  • Updated cutout positioning
  • Updated scaling math
  • Updated targetSdk
  • Added newly required permissions
  • Fixed accessibility service token error
  • Fixed Unholey Light not working at all
  • Split several code paths into Android 9, 10 and 11 specific versions
•  Unholey Light
  • Add option to display icons inside circle (enabled by default)
  • Add option to display clock (disabled by default)
  • Smoother transitions
  • Rework of TSP area detection
  • Improved stability/reliability
  • Improve update speed on new notification
  • Fixed several (rare) internal crashes
  • Reduce display jumping around
•  Hide AOD
  • Improved bottom area detection for partial hide
  • Added overlay linger option to reduce AOD flashing when going from screen off to lockscreen
•  Notifications
  • Colors: Added fast scrolling capability
  • Colors: Added (long-press) option to respect or ignore (default) notification color state
  • Colors: Added save/load functionality
  • Timeouts: Added option to track timeouts separately for screen on and off states
  • Timeouts: Seekbars: Show value in title bar to improve UX
  • Persist seen state across resolution and density changes
  • Added black fill option to hide small misalignments in camera animations
  • Added tuning option to increase camera animation thickness
  • Rework dp adjustments math
  • Disable animation during phone calls to prevent some weird behavior
  • Detect and handle “silent” conversations
  • Detect and handle bubbles correctly
  • Detect and handle groups
  • Changed default color for notifications to the app icon’s dominant color, with brightness and saturation maxed out
•  AOD Helper
  • Complete overhaul
  • Now directly advertised and integrated into main settings rather than a hidden package deep in the XDA thread
  • Samsung: Still quirky and not fully compatible with all options – use with care!
  • Pixel: Added AOD brightness improvement; automatic AOD control not implemented (see AOD Helper source for notes)
  • Pixel: Automatically fix permissions with root, if available
•  Translations
  • Many translations are now horribly outdated Please help!
  • Added German
  • Added Greek
  • Updated Chinese
  • Added option to switch language
•  Debugging
  • Added master-switch long-press to enable super-secret debug mode
  • Added overlay debugging mode
  • Added (app-only) logcat dump
  • Built state tester (devs only)
•  Notices and popups
  • Reworked various parts of the setup wizard
  • Added notice about location detection needing to be enabled for companion device permission
  • Samsung: Added option to preload black image into AOD rather than going the theme route
  • Samsung: Added informational notices about fingerprint icon on AOD
  • Samsung: Added informational notices about battery status on AOD
  • Pixel: Added informational notice about AOD brightness
•  Miscellaneous
  • Reduced CPU and battery usage
  • Improve AOD handling in tap-to-show mode
  • Reworked resolution and density change detection and handling
  • Several small tweaks in settings display to improve uniformity
  • Improve performance of tuning adjustments
  • Fix broken dark mode support
  • Enabled ProGuard for release builds
  • Updated AndroidX dependencies
  • Updated graphics and screenshots for Google Play

In case you have one of the aforementioned devices, you can now download the latest version of Holey Light by following the Play Store link below. The app is completely free to use, ad-free, and open source. Do check out the XDA Forum thread if you face any issues setting it up on your phone. For more detailed information about the update, check out Holey Light’s GitHub page.

Holey Light (LED emulator for Samsung/Pixel) (Free⁺, Google Play) →

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MediaTek’s new MT9638 chip may power your 2021 smart TV

MediaTek may not be a market leader in the smartphone SoC space, but the Taiwanese company holds no. 1 position when it comes to making chips that power our smart TVs. The company has a wide portfolio of TV chips covering entry-level to flagship smart TVs, with the top-tier S900 (MT9950) with 8K support being the most premium offering from the company.

Today, the company is expanding its chip lineup for premium 4K smart TVs with the launch of MediaTek MT9638. The new chip comes with an integrated AI processing unit (APU) and has some impressive feature sets including support for variable refresh rate (VRR), motion estimation and motion compensation (MEMC), HDMI 2.1 standard, HDR10+ and more.

“As smart home appliances become more intelligent and diversified, smart TVs are becoming the new hub for the smart home as consumers take advantage of AI-enabled multimedia features to control all their devices right from their TV. The new MT9638 continues our legacy as the No. 1 chip provider of smart TVs, bringing consumers incredible AI, multimedia, gaming, and entertainment experiences in theater-quality 4K.”

Alex Chen, General Manager, TV Business Unit, MediaTek, Inc

The MT9638 uses a multi-core setup of ARM Coretex-A55 CPU cores along with ARM Mali-G52 GPU and MediaTek APU. The company didn’t detail the exact number of CPU cores but our guess is it’s a quad-core cluster. On the display side, support for HDR10+ panels is on-board along with up to 4K resolution at 60Hz and support for HEVC, VP9, and AV1 decoding.

The chipset supports Wi-Fi 6, HDMI 2.1, USB 3.0 standards as well as Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual X surround sound support.

TV manufacturers can take advantage of AI smarts to automatically adjust parameters such as color, saturation, brightness, sharpness, and more to enhance the image quality. Meanwhile, AI super-resolution and MEMC enable OEMs to upscale low-res content to the TV’s native resolution through multi-frame blending.

The chip also boasts enhanced support for voice recognition and virtual assistants and supports up to 4 far-field microphones with ultra-low-power consumption on standby and a one-second resume for hot words.

The MediaTek MT9638 is expected to arrive in 4K smart TVs launching Q2 2021.

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WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will let you share self-destructing images

After rolling out Disappearing Messages last year, WhatsApp is now working on a similar feature for images. The upcoming feature will let users share self-destructing images on the platform, which will disappear for both parties after a pre-defined time period.

Reliable WhatsApp features tracker WABetaInfo recently spotted the upcoming feature and shared the following screenshots:

As you can see, the feature will add a new toggle next to the text box in the image preview window. Tapping on this toggle will bring up a toast that states: “This media will disappear, once you leave this chat.” Users will then be able to share the image and it will automatically disappear as soon as they leave the chat. Those who receive a self-destructing image will also be alerted of its evanescence. Upon opening such an image, they will see a notification with the same message.

WABetaInfo further reveals that WhatsApp won’t allow users to export self-destructing images. However, the Facebook-owned messenger has not included any measures to prevent recipients from taking a screenshot of such an image. It also won’t alert the sender if the recipient takes a screenshot of the self-destructing image. This sort of half-baked implementation will render the feature completely useless.

While WhatsApp could add these security measures to deter recipients from taking a screenshot of the image before it expires, it’s quite unlikely. “Why?”, you might ask. Because the messenger still hasn’t added any such measures to prevent recipients from taking screenshots of disappearing messages. To me, it seems like WhatsApp is only adding these features to give users a false sense of privacy and stop them from migrating over to other messengers that not only offer such features but also have security measures in place to prevent recipients from saving the contents of disappearing messages and taking screenshots of self-destructing images.

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