24/9/2020 Week Highlights
24/9/2020 week Highlights
1.) Microsoft bought the renowned Game Studio
Bethesda for $7.5b
2.) Asus for the first time Best Laptop Brand of the year
3.) Intel announces processors with IoT specific
variants
4.) Rocket league goes free to play in the Epic
Games store
5.) QNTW: Should you use e-Shopping in Nepal?
DETAILS:
Microsoft bought
the renowned Game Studio Bethesda for $7.5b
Microsoft the developer of Xbox has completed the
purchase of the Bethesda Game Studio. The payment believed to be $7.5 billion
was accepted by Bethesda’s parent ZeniMax Media. This will make a huge impact
on the battle of Xbox Series X vs PS5. As you can see on my last blog https://glitchystar717.blogspot.com/2020/09/Week1.html there were less exclusive games on Xbox
Series X and its self-made games were also not so hit franchises like God of
War, Horizon, Turismo, Spiderman but with this step, the situation “can” change
(because their availability on other platforms will be game-specific and yet to
be decided) drastically with Microsoft likely continuing the production of
hugely popular franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Dishonored, Fallout,
etc which were revolutionary during their releases and many having awarded the
title of Game of the Year. The older titles along with the new titles the
studio is engaged on will be free on Xbox Game Pass which is available for Xbox
and PC users. While PS Plus is even hesitating to provide their self-made games
for free on the PS Plus (PS’s Game Pass) and claiming that the newer games will
cost about $70 this step probably makes Xbox more desirable and valuable than
PS5.
The step will not only make an impact in this field but
Microsoft will also benefit from the studios by collaborating to make Windows
more optimized for games. In addition to the game titles and the studio,
Microsoft will now also own the id Tech games engine used by the studio which
was developed by Bethesda's sister firm id Software. This engine was recently
much praised for the graphics it provided on the recent hit title “Doom
Eternal”.
And, another good news for Xbox and MS fans is that this
step might see John Carmack, the pioneer behind some of the major technologies
behind Doom, the game that changed the status of PC games forever, return to
game development in Microsoft’s owned Bethesda. His return will be of huge
excitement to the fans.
Advice: If you are about to buy consoles, I would
personally prefer Xbox Series whether its S or X, provided that the power it
claims to provide is true because it has been valuing its users much more and
providing better value.
Asus for the first time Best Laptop Brand of the
year
Asus has been consistent for many years. No, one can deny
this claim. But is it the best Laptop manufacturer? Laptop Mag, which has been
ranking the best Laptop manufacturer for the past 10 years based on believable
and real facts, reviews of the customers, and the Laptop manufacturer’s service
and customer support, believes that indeed Asus is (the best Laptop
Manufacturer of the year). This title was held by HP last year who has seen 2
ranks down this year occupied by Asus and Dell. The change will certainly be
credited to the 2 amazing products ROG Mothership and Zephyrus G14 which were
the best on their ranges and areas. Zephyrus was successful to provide Gamers
with a budget option that did not lack (anything) from its long-standing
battery to brilliant build quality and the specs matched only by some, it was
ahead of every competition on 1000$ gaming laptop range. In the same way,
Mothership was a power ship that could run any games on FHD ultra with ray
tracing on descent FPS above 60 or do any kind of high-end video/photo editing
and artworks that a similar range desktop could do. It was a no-compromise
laptop for Gamers aiming to game with full potential. It was a future proof
laptop that could ensure top of the line gaming and creativity performance for
more than 5 years. You can see other ranks below:
Advice: If you are a layman in this sector, to ensure you
are not cheated for value while buying a device, you will be surprised by the merits
you will have by following the route of any popular reviewer or ranker.
Intel announces
processors with IoT specific variants
Intel announces IoT-specific variants will be launched
which will prioritize energy efficiency, smaller size, lower latency, and
better cycles meanwhile maintaining their good internal GPUs which are capable
of streaming 4 4k 60Hz Monitors. These processors will be named with E in their
ending. They will even support Thunderbolt 4 and PCIe Gen 4 as well. Intel has
taken it even a step further by making use of features like Deep Learning
Boost. They will add external module support and ensure extra fast
communication by making use of the 5g network. They are directly competing with
Broadcom (who is on the verge of being acquired by Nvidia), Qualcomm, and more.
These will especially target IoT devices requiring high computational power and
accuracy. They will have up to 12MB of cache memory in the i7 11th Gen
variant i7-1185G7E. The GPU will have the codename of Tiger Lake and will be of
11th generation.
Advice: If you are keen on the IoT and Robotics field then
you will be happy to see the progress of Intel on the field and look into
different features it will provide soon.
Rocket league goes free to play in the Epic
Games store
This wasn’t a big surprise to the newsreaders of the
gaming community since the Game going free to play was already announced a
month before and was quite popular among the gamers. The game will be free to
play claim/play forever (only the standard edition without the passes). People
will also receive a $10 coupon after they purchase the game which they can use
on the purchase of any other game form the store (if the price after the use of
the voucher is greater than $15). The voucher will be valid for one month which
is the 23rd of October. The game was first released in
July 2015 and was developed in Unreal Engine 3. It is a vehicular soccer video
game which supports both online multiplayer and bot assisted matches. The game
was initially developed by Corey Davis and published by Psyonix. The game will
now support cross-platform and cross engine support which will make sure the
Steam Players won’t lack any matchmaking quality.
Epic Games Store is also providing Roller Coaster Tycoon
3 Complete Edition for free to claim for forever starting from Today 8:45 pm to
1 October 8:45 pm.
Advice: Claim them, if you are a gamer or plan to be one.
They are both great games.
Q\N of the week: Should you use e-Shopping in Nepal?
In Short: It depends. If that’s a branded device will
usually less variance in price across places in Nepal and eShop is also
providing in the same value (MRP), Yes. If it’s a local device with no brand
and a high difference in quality and prices in Nepal, No.
The most famous eShops in Nepal I have seen are Daraz,
Hamrobazaar, SmartDoko, Foodmandu, and SastoDeal while I will not say that
there no other alternatives. These are ones I have personally viewed and some
personally used. I will not look into other websites for this blog but am
pretty confident you will see the same general trend on other websites. But,
there are many variations in these websites which I will write about here.
Based on working, Hamrobazaar is different from all
others. This has certain advantages and disadvantages.
Hamrobazaar:
Hamrobazaar is an independent website where the web hosts
do not have any relation with the sellers. They simply regulate the website,
keep it running, and prevent the selling of illegal materials. Anyone list ads
in hamrobazaar (I have done too), any sorts of ads (except some illegal ads
which they have mentioned on their terms), on any price they want whatever be
the condition. Other factors are also decided by the seller including the
warranty, delivery, whether to disclose the phone number or the address of the
seller. The seller has the freedom of asking customers to visit their place or
independent website. They earn money only by the AdSense and sponsored ads they
show on the website.
All of the other eShops:
All other eShops including Daraz, Foodmandu, Smartdoko,
etc have another approach to eShop. They act as a bridge between the sellers
and the buyers. The sellers need to go through verification before registering on
the website. They help sellers deliver the products, package the products, and
also maintain a good review system for sellers. I have mostly seen only brand
new or refurbished stuff only on these websites so I doubt if they allow used
products to be sold (even if they, the seller registration is way too
complicated for general people to sell stuff lying in their home). They come up
with different festival offers with different vouchers, reward points, or in-app
games and lottery.
Now, we have a basic understanding of these eShops lets
dive deep into the pros and cons.
Pros or Hamrobazaar or similar websites:
1.)
Sellers do not
need to get in the mess of the complex registration
2.)
Sellers have the
freedom of every factor like delivery, warranty, packaging, privacy, etc
3.)
Sellers and
Buyers can negotiate separately through call, on the seller's website, or
seller’s actual shop which they can provide to buyers.
4.)
It allows a
larger audience for sellers and buyers because of which there are more products
available (at the time of writing) on these websites.
5.)
The Websites are
easy to get used to and get work done.
6.)
The buyers can
demand photos of products before buying which is crucial.
Cons:
1.)
Since there is
no regulation and verification of sellers, some sellers trick and fool people
and run away.
2.)
There is no
refund policy or return warranty for every product which means if the device is
faulty the buyer has no choice (some do provide which depends upon the seller).
3.)
There are no
review systems to easily distinguish a good seller from a bad one.
4.)
There is no
special voucher system and discounts.
5.)
People buying
used products should take on themselves to investigate if the product is worth
the money (since many sellers try to hide the damages on the time of actual
purchase and give wrong “Used For” time which I have seen many times).
6.)
Home delivery is
not available in every purchase (it too depends on the seller) so some people
might find it unhelpful.
Pros:
1.)
Since there are
good regulations and verification of sellers, sellers cannot trick and fool
people and run away.
2.)
There is a refund
policy or return warranty for every product which means if the device is faulty
the buyer can receive his money back.
3.)
There are review
systems to easily distinguish a good seller from a bad one.
4.)
There are a special
voucher system and discounts.
5.)
Home delivery is
available in every purchase.
6.)
The Websites are
easy to get used to and get work done (for buyers or sellers with actual shop).
Cons:
1.)
Though there is a
refund or exchange policy, they are too complex and time-consuming seeing how
often these end up being used. Like, I have seen 1 in every 10 products being
faulty (except FoodMandu, which delivers only Food Stuff till date) because of
lack to check before delivery from the seller.
2.)
I have mostly
found these Websites overly expensive (Upto 2.5x) expensive in local goods
(only some electronics end up having the actual value or a little cheap than
offline stores or hamrobazaar) and even with vouchers they still end up taking
more than twice the actual value of the product.
3.)
Sellers and
Buyers cannot negotiate separately through call or in the seller's website or
actual shop (Foodmandu being an exception where the hotels can be visited and
bought from) because these websites forbid the sellers from providing these to
buyers.
4.)
There are fewer
products available.
5.)
The Websites are
very hard to operate for people who want to sell their personal used goods.
6.)
The buyers can
demand photos of products before buying but there is no verification if the
photo shows the actual product since, at the time to delivery in your home, the
product comes packaged and cannot be asked for a refund on the site.
7.)
The packaging is
an environment pollutant (again, except Foodmandu which I see use paper bags
and proper aluminum foil boxes) with a ton of useless and unprotective plastic,
papers, etc which neither helps products remain intact nor help in the
transportation.
8.)
Though they deliver,
I have seen some of these taking delivery charges separately even if the
products are ordered at the same time (even from the same seller) and delivered
together.
Conclusion:
I will recommend Hamrobazar(for most products) if you know the actual market
prices, about the products you are buying and know some trustable sellers in
them, I will recommend you to be cautious while buying used goods. I will not
recommend other sites at the time of writing this since they are greatly
overpriced by a huge margin on local products, somewhat overpriced in branded
products but the only exception being smartphones and some other electronics
which can be 200-1000 Rs cheaper than offline stores or Hamrobazaar. But, if
you are a very busy person with no shopping time, delivery can be in handy.
Thanks For Reading.
Image Credits:
https://www.laptopmag.com/features/laptop-brand-ratings
https://theferrarigroup.com/intel-announces-enhanced-internet-of-things-technology-enablement
https://www.dailyesports.gg/rocket-league-season-13-rewards-met-with-disappointment/
https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-online-shopping-web-shop-e-shopping-concept-132636249.html
Ba bhattae last telont
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