Gadgets
AMC Theatres Start Accepting Dogecoin for Gift-Cards Worth $200
Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Theatres announced the news on Twitter on Wednesday, October 6. Since then, the value of Dogecoin has risen by 5.59 percent. The Elon Musk-backed crypto is currently trading at $0.26 (roughly Rs. 17).
Huge news Dogecoin fans! As we work to accept online crypto payments, now you can buy @AMCTheatres digital gift cards (up to $200 per day) with Dogecoin and other cryptocurrency using a BitPay Wallet. Accepted on our web site, mobile app, and in theatres. https://t.co/hPubbeq4YG pic.twitter.com/dra7e23tc8
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) October 5, 2021
The post has left Dogecoin supporters excited, after they kept tweeting to Aron asking him to start accepting Dogecoin payments. AMC allows customers to purchase movie tickets via several cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin, and also avail of concessions.
DOGECOIN IS HERE TO STAY!!! Would love to talk to you directly Adam about a couple big plans for Dogecoin. Send me a DM.
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) October 6, 2021
Much Wow!!!#AMC #APESNOTLEAVING https://t.co/pJH2NChBGK
— Trey’s Magic Lamp (@SlothLife10) October 6, 2021
Earlier in September, Aron had posted a poll on Twitter, asking his 186,000 followers to help him make a decision regarding Dogecoin payments.
I sincerely want to hear your opinion, via this Twitter Poll. By year-end 2021, AMC will take Bitcoin, Etherum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash for online payments. I hear from many on my Twitter feed we should accept Dogecoin too. Do you think AMC should explore accepting Dogecoin?
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) September 21, 2021
At the time, not only did majority voters (68 percent) voted in favour of Dogecoin, but the post also caught the attention of Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Replying to a Twitter comment, Musk said Dogecoin handling fees should be reduced in order to make everyday purchases “viable” to the average consumer.
Super important for Doge fees to drop to make things like buying movie tix viable
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 22, 2021
Crypto-payments have begun to pick pace in some countries. In Switzerland, for instance, cryptocurrency payments are now being accepted by over 85,000 merchants.
In April 21, WeWork, the popular Office-sharing startup said it would begin accepting payments in select cryptocurrencies.
Indian trade body Nasscom has recently predicted that the crypto tech industry is enroute a vast global expansion within the next five years. Its latest report estimates that the global crypto tech market will reach the value of $2.3 billion (roughly Rs. 17,087 crore) by 2026.
Gadgets
Microsoft Partners With Inworld to Bring AI Game Development Tools to Xbox
“At Xbox, we believe that with better tools, creators can make even more extraordinary games,” Haiyan Zhang, GM, Xbox Gaming AI, said in a blog post. “This partnership will bring together: Inworld’s expertise in working with generative AI models for character development, Microsoft’s cutting-edge cloud-based AI solutions including Azure OpenAI Service, Microsoft Research’s technical insights into the future of play, and Team Xbox’s strengths in revolutionizing accessible and responsible creator tools for all developers.”
The aforementioned AI design copilot is a toolset that will help game designers turn prompts into scripts and dialogue trees. In contrast, the character runtime will enable dynamically generated plot beats and quests. We’ve already seen heavy AI integration in games by way of procedural generation — a more recent example being the 1000+ planets in Starfield. Not to mention, enemy AI has been around for way longer.
Inworld made headlines in August when it launched a modded story mode for Grand Theft Auto V, Sentient Streets, in which players had to investigate the rise of a bizarre AI-worshipping cult — a segment loaded with characters that spoke in AI-generated dialogue, on the fly. The mod was later taken down by publisher Take-Two, leaving a permanent strike on the creator Bloc’s YouTube channel. As per The Verge, Inworld’s AI technology can also be used for narration in top-down RPGs to warn players about any events awaiting off-screen and respond to questions like we’ve seen in the past year with AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Bing Chat. Microsoft has also been heavily banking on artificial intelligence, having made a $10 billion (about Rs. 83,254 crore) investment in OpenAI. The company has also integrated AI tools into its popular suite of services and also added an AI copilot to Windows.
Despite being a Microsoft-affiliated AI toolset, it would be interesting to see whether titles using them will be allowed to thrive on other platforms. In July, Valve claimed that it would be cracking down on games that included AI-generated assets if the developer didn’t own the copyright to the piece of art. For the uninitiated, when you insert a prompt to create something in AI, the software simply repurposes existing assets found online and mushes them together — basically stealing from other artists and writers without appropriate commercial licenses. Infringing them would lead to the game not being distributed on Steam, forcing the developers to seek proper licenses for the asset by reaching out to the AI companies involved. It’s unclear how Microsoft’s partnership will play out — as long as AI content is being used as a catalyst to innovate and create something new, it should be fine.
Gadgets
BSNL Offers Free 4G SIM Upgrade: Here’s How to Get It
In a post on X shared by BSNL’s Andhra Pradesh (@bsnl_ap_circle) unit, the company confirmed that BSNL users can upgrade their older 2G or 3G SIMs to a 4G SIM for free. Not only will the upgrade be free, but a promotional image shared with the post suggests that users who opt for the upgrade will also receive 4GB of free data that will be valid for three months. It is speculated that BSNL is aiming to boost its upcoming 4G services with this offer. The announcement was first spotted by Telecom Talk.
To access the free data offer and the free upgrade, BSNL users are requested to get in touch with executives at BSNL’s Customer Service Centre, franchisee or retailer stores, or contact one of their Direct Selling Agents (DSA). The promo image also adds in a finer print that the offer is available with certain terms and conditions, but hasn’t detailed any, so far.
Reliance’s Jio recently launched the 4G-supported Bharat B1 feature phone in India. The handset is priced at Rs. 1,299 in India. Alongside 4G connectivity, the phone comes with JioCinema and JioSaavn applications pre-installed.
The Jio Bharat B1 is equipped with the JioPay application, which is said to allow users to make UPI payments. Aiming to increase accessibility, the phone supports 23 languages overall, including multiple regional languages.
Gadgets
Realme GT 5 Pro Teased to Feature 3,000 Nits Display; More Details Revealed
Realme, via Weibo, announced the arrival of the Realme GT 5 Pro in China. The display of the handset is confirmed to offer 3000 nits peak brightness. It has also been teased to offer heat dissipation with a surface area of around 10,000mm2. It is confirmed to ship with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The post doesn’t specify the exact launch date of the smartphone, however, given the release of the teasers, the launch could be just around the corner.
The Realme GT 5 Pro has been in the news a lot lately. It is expected to feature a 6.78-inch (1,264×2,780 pixels) AMOLED display and is tipped to come in 8GB, 12GB, and 16GB RAM options along with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB inbuilt storage options.
For optics, the Realme GT 5 Pro is said to have a triple rear camera unit comprising two 50-megapixel sensors and an 8-megapixel shooter at the rear. The camera setup might include a Sony LYTIA LYT808 sensor, an OmniVision OV08D10 secondary sensor, and a Sony IMX890 telephoto sensor. For selfies, there could be a 32-megapixel sensor at the front. It is said to carry a 5,400mAh battery with support for 100W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.
The Realme GT 5 Pro is expected to come with upgrades over Realme GT 5. The latter was launched in China in August with a price tag of CNY 2,999 for the base model with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
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