Weekly Tech News Headlines – Feb 3 2021

LG deep dive into automotive platforms

LG Electronics is struggling to maintain its position in the smartphone business and is considering an exit in 2021. The company has now announced its partnership with chipmaker Qualcomm to develop and focus on 5G automotive platforms. The market for self-driving vehicles, electric cars, and fully-connected cars is still growing and according to LG, 75% of all vehicles that will sell in 2027 will have some form of cellular connectivity inside. LG and Qualcomm have already been working together since 2004 to create different connected car solutions and LG’s in car infotainment and WebOS Auto Platforms. Qualcomm is one of the biggest manufacturers of semiconductors for telematics and wireless car connectivity and with the recent partnership developments, LG wants to go all out in the automotive industry that it has been working towards over the recent years. 

Nvidia GeForce Now available on Chrome and Apple M1 Mac

Similar to Google Stadia and Amazon Luna, GeForce Now is another game streaming service offered by Nvidia. Gaming streaming services provide a platform to users to play PC games even on a non-gaming PC. At launch, gamers could play via a GeForce Now dedicated app on PC, Mac, and Android. Later the support extended to Chromebooks and iOS. Now it’s expanding to Chrome and Apple Macs that run its new M1 chips. GeForce Now can sync with your Steam, Battle.net, Epic and UPlay gaming accounts. The new beta version is available for testing and all you should need is a PC with Chrome browser or a dedicated app on an M1 Mac Laptop. Also note that this service by Nvidia is currently not supported in India.

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Google closing its in-house game studio

Google has its own first-party game studio which is supposed to release exclusive game titles for its cloud gaming service Google Stadia. Now Google has announced that their in-house game studio Stadia Games and Entertainment is shutting down. That’s right, the company has yet to release a single game under the Stadia brand but it’s already over. This means that Stadia will focus only on third-party games. Google Stadia which was launched in Nov 2019 is another cloud game streaming service. These streaming services provide all the necessary computing and graphics power through cloud computing and gamers can enjoy playing their favourite games even on old or a non-gaming PC. But unfortunately, Google Stadia and other similar game streaming services are yet to reach in Indian market.

Unlock your iPhone while wearing face masks

One of the challenges of unlocking your smartphone using facial biometric is when you are wearing a face mask. Well Apple plans to overcome this challenge. iOS 14.5 includes a major enhancement for using Face ID on your iPhone while wearing a mask. With the first developer beta of iOS 14.5 and WatchOS 7.4, your iPhone will now automatically unlock when you’re wearing a face mask. Of course this is Apple, and you are required to have an Apple Watch as well. According to the reports, the iPhone can use your Apple Watch to unlock when Face ID detects a face with a mask. Your Apple Watch must be nearby, on your wrist, unlocked, and protected by a passcode. Still if you don’t want to use FaceID and are tired of punching passcodes to unlock your device, Apple is also reportedly working to bring in-display fingerprint sensors for its new iPhone models in 2021.

Corsair recalls faulty power supply units

If you have recently purchased Corsair’s HX1200 or HX1200i series of power supplies, then there is some bad news for you. Don’t worry the issue is nothing big. Corsairs says that some units under this series of power supplies may cause compatibility issues with certain motherboards and may prevent the system from booting. The impacted power supplies come with lot codes from 2030XXXX to 2041XXXX series numbers. Company has also provided a short and simple guide to understand the lot code for your unit. Corsair hasn’t recalled all of the units but if any customer is having any issue with their power supply from this lot, they can contact Corsair’s customer care team.