Next-Gen PS VR Reportedly Planned For End Of 2022 Release

Sony Interactive Entertainment officially announced the next-generation PS VR headset. But the company did not provide a release date, beyond that it won’t be out this year. But a new report suggests that it will be out at the end of next year.

Bloomberg has a new report about a Japanese LCD maker pivoting its focus from phone screens to VR. But in it, the report also mentions the successor to the original PS VR. It claims that the company is looking to release it in “the holiday period of next year”. It also mentions that he headset will be using OLED panels provided by Samsung for its display.

Prior reports pegged said display as being of around 4K resolution together. It is also said to come with foveated rendering, which makes use of eye-tracking tech. This allows the headset to only fully render areas a user is looking at to lower graphical processing load. The headset itself is also said to support haptic feedback.

At any rate, it looks like the next PS VR still has a long way to go before it is ready for the public. But it does look like it will have all the bells and whistles of the current generation PlayStation console when it does.

Rumour Suggests Huawei And Leica Partnership To End After P50 Series’ Release

The newly established partnership between Sharp and Leica that was revealed earlier, along with the unveiling of the Aquos R6 smartphone may come as a surprise for many. This is the first time for the German camera maker to collaborate with another smartphone brand after exclusively partnering with Huawei since 2016. However, Leica’s contract with the Chinese tech giant may finally come to an end later this year, according to a recent rumour.

This information comes from Finnish leakster Teme (aka @RODENT50) via Twitter, who said that the partnership will end after the release of Huawei’s P50 flagships which are said to be officially unveiled in July. The most possible reason that comes to mind to why Leica may be considering ending this deal is the ongoing US sanctions imposed on the Chinese company. This has drastically impacted Huawei, causing it to cut down on smartphone production due to the shortage of supplies, especially semiconductors. This is quite apparent as aside from the upcoming P50 series, the company has not unveiled or released any other smartphone model in 2021.

Although this may seem like an impending end of a six-year partnership between the two companies, there’s a chance that Teme’s information is inaccurate. Interestingly, the leakster followed-up on this tweet a few days after, stating that the Leica-Huawei collaboration could still continue even after the release of the P50 series. He also noted that the camera maker’s new partnership with Sharp will not affect its relationship with the Chinese giant as multi-branded deals are quite common in the smartphone industry. For instance, optical systems manufacturer Zeiss to this date has partnered with three smartphone makers, namely Sony, Vivo and Nokia.

Regardless, we highly advise our readers to take this information with a pinch of salt. And this isn’t the first time that the Leica-Huawei partnership is rumoured to be expired either. Chinese tech insider Digital Chat Station also suggested the same insight on Weibo in late 2020, which was shot down by both companies in their own respective statements. This then resulted in the leakster to delete his post on the Chinese social media platform soon after.

ASUS Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip Now Official: Coming To Malaysia By End of May

You may have heard of its existence within the past few weeks but wonder no more: the ASUS Zenfone 8 Series is now official. Available in two different models, both of them are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 processor.

Let’s start with the Zenfone 8 first which is designed for those who wanted a compact flagship-class device as ASUS claimed that this model is made for one-handed usage. Equipped with a 5.9-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display that the company has sourced from Samsung and protected by Corning Gorilla Glass Victus, the screen also has a 120Hz refresh rate, 240Hz touch sampling rate, maximum brightness level of 1100nits, and DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 112%.

Available with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, the Zenfone 8 can be obtained with UFS 3.1-based storage of up to 256GB although ASUS has opted for a UFS 2.1-based storage for the 64GB model. One also need to note that this phone doesn’t come with microSD support, so plan your choice accordingly.

In terms of photography, the Zenfone 8 relies on its 64MP main camera which features the Sony IMX686 sensor alongside a 12MP ultra-wide camera which contains a Sony IMX363 sensor. As for its selfie camera, it is equipped with a 12MP Sony IMX663 sensor and autofocus capability just like the phone two rear cameras.

The 169g phone also has a 4000mAH battery that supports Quick Charge 4.0 and USB PD standards. Price-wise, the Zenfone 8 will be released in Europe for EUR 599 (~RM 3,000) although we expect it to be made available in Malaysia with a much lower price tag.

Meanwhile, there is also the Zenfone 8 Flip which as you might able to guess from its name, comes with a flip-up camera. The tri-camera module is motorized and users are able to utilize it as a selfie camera too.

The main camera within the module is equipped with a 64MP Sony IMX686 sensor and f/1.8 lens while there’s also an ultra-wide camera with a 12MP Sony IMX363 sensor as well as an 8MP telephoto camera that has 3x optical zoom and 12x total zoom. ASUS has also provided an extra protection layer on the module by putting a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 on top of the three cameras.

Other than that, the Zenfone 8 Flip carries a larger 6.67-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display that has also been sourced from Samsung. Covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 6, the screen has lower refresh and touch sampling rates than Zenfone 8 at 90Hz and 200Hz, respectively alongside a slightly lower peak brightness level of 1000 nits.

The Zenfone 8 Flip somehow only has just one memory and storage option with 8GB and 256GB, respectively. However, the phone also comes with a triple card slot that allows it to support a microSD card with a capacity of up to 2TB – something that is not available with the standard Zenfone 8.

Completing its general specifications is a 5000mAh battery that also supports Quick Charge 4.0 and USB PD standards just like Zenfone 8. When it comes to pricing, the Zenfone 8 will be released in Europe for EUR 799 (~RM 4,002).

For now, ASUS has yet to reveal much regarding the Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip’s release plan for Malaysia. However, the company did say that it is currently looking to bring them to our market by the end of May.

Pfizer COVID-19 Antiviral Pill Could Be Ready By The End of This Year

Pfizer’s new oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19 could be made available by the end of this year according to its Chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla. The American pharma company has already begun the Phase 1 trial for the antiviral treatment in the United States since early this year.

Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box, Albert pointed out that the oral medication which is currently being designated as antiviral candidate PF-07321332 could be used at home. This is unlike the traditional vaccine injection which needs to be administered at a hospital or a specially designated location.

Pfizer has previously noted that the new oral antiviral medication is essentially a protease inhibitor which is a type of drug that has also been used to treat HIV and hepatitis C virus. Designed to stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus from replicating itself, research has shown that the new medication not only has the potential to be used as COVID-19 treatment but also for future coronaviruses.

When asked whether the Malaysian government will procure the new COVID-19 antiviral pill from Pfizer, Minister Khairy Jamaluddin who is the coordinator of the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme said during the COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force’s media session yesterday that the government is constantly evaluating all new vaccine candidates. But for now, Malaysia already has enough vaccine to cover 110% of its population according to the minister.

UK clubbing life is back 3000 people DJ concert, Light at end of tunnel

Congratulations on the fast vaccination efforts
It has paid off and getting back to normal

About 3,000 people with negative Covid test results attended the Liverpool event on Friday, part of the government's pilot on mass events.

The clubbers did not have to wear face coverings or social distance for the first time since lockdown.

"I went in and I was like, oh my goodness, there are people and they're together and they're dancing and they're smiling and this is actually happening," said Jayda.

Liverpool University student Elliott Cause, 20, said: "I feel like this is a big moment for the UK. I feel like university students have been struggling without this. I feel like this will do a lot."

Some clubbers said they had "spent a week" choosing outfits for the event at the Bramley-Moore Dock warehouse.

One clubber told BBC Radio 5 live: "We're just excited - we're all on the verge of tears ready to go in.

"It was like coronavirus never happened. It's given me hope for the future."

Liverpool director of public health Matt Ashton said the club event, which will also run on Saturday, was "crucial" for the local economy.

"In Liverpool, it's over 40% of our economic output. So it's really important we start to get the economy opening again."

He said clubbers who test positive in the next five days would be expected to self-isolate and would be spoken to by contact tracers.

Scientists will use data on crowd movements and air quality to see whether people mixing indoors at mass events will increase coronavirus transmission.

The night was part of the Events Research Programme, which will also see crowds return to the FA Cup final and Sunday's music festival in Liverpool's Sefton Park.

Nearly Two-Thirds Of Google Searches End With No Clicks At All

Almost two-thirds (or 64.82%) of Google searches in 2020 ended without people clicking through to another website, market research firm SparkToro found using data from SimilarWeb. In other words, people mostly just looked at the search results page and then decided to move on.

While that may be surprising, it really shouldn’t be. It can be argued that Google isn’t a search engine anymore, but an all-knowing guru. Type in any question and chances are, you’ll receive an answer on the search results page itself with no further clicking required.

This obviously applies to currency and time conversions, weather queries, and mathematical calculations. But it also helps that Google is integrated with Wikipedia – search for “nyan cat” and you’ll see a preview of its Wikipedia entry.

This is generally a good thing and Google deserves much credit for anticipating what users need and want. But it also implies that the tech giant has created this closed ecosystem and hogs all the traffic for itself.

So Google pushed back pretty hard against SparkToro’s findings, saying that they were based on “flawed methodology”. The company said that people searching multiple times as they reformulated their queries would falsely inflate the search-to-click ratio.

Someone looking for sneakers, it said, might go through a few zero-click searches before ultimately clicking through to a retailer’s website. Furthermore, people directly connecting with businesses, or navigating directly to apps would skip the traditional click-through altogether.

“We send billions of visits to websites every day, and the traffic we’ve sent to the open web has increased every year since Google Search was first created,” the company declared.

Are you wondering why Google even bothered to respond? Consider that the tech giant has recently been in the sights of US and European regulators over antitrust issues.