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While it's been rumored for months that the next entry in the Call of Duty franchise will be a Black Ops title – specifically, Black Ops Cold War, if the Doritos promotional campaign is accurate – Activision itself has now lent some 'official' weight to the theory.

Since 2012, the first-person shooter franchise has alternated between developers Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer Games in three-year cycles, but this year it's seemingly bucking the trend and skipping Sledgehammer.

Activision has confirmed in an earnings call that studios Treyarch and Raven will be working in partnership on the upcoming title, and considering that this development duo has been responsible for every Black Ops entry to date, this further cements the rumor that Black Ops Cold War will be releasing this year.

During the call, the publisher pointed at the current success of its Modern Warfare and Warzone titles, then went on to state that “Activision will continue to build on its direct, digital relationship with this expanded community as it delivers the next premium release for Call of Duty, coming from Treyarch and Raven Software".

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As for Raven, this development studio has been involved in many of the series’ previous titles (albeit usually on the multiplayer side of things), although it isn’t typically listed as being a co-developer.

This could signify a greater focus on multiplayer than previous titles, although it’s always been a significant selling point for the franchise, with the last Black Ops title forgoing a traditional story-based single-player campaign in favor of a number of ‘solo missions’. Alternatively, it could just be an appropriate acknowledgement for the studio’s ongoing efforts.

While this doesn’t fully confirm that the next Call of Duty title will be a Black Ops game, it certainly seems to glue together all the existing rumors neatly. Stay tuned to hear more about Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War when it gets officially revealed, which we imagine isn’t far off now.

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You might think we've got the mixtape's eye-catching cameo in Guardians of Galaxy to thank for the return of the cassette to public consciousness, but in truth, it never really left.

According to Google Trends data, the humble tape has never stopped capturing the imagination; search traffic has been stable for the last decade, even picking up slightly over the past few years.

The audio tape (the one we know best) is analogue in nature and housed in a compact sturdy plastic case, with a tiny plastic window with two reels. Available in capacities ranging from 30 minutes to 180 minutes, it was cheap and widely available.

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The arrival of compact discs, MP3 and streaming media made the tape a vintage collectable, but it survived and thrived elsewhere in a different guise: as a tape media.

As technology improved, tape turned out to be an essential part of cloud computing, transitioning seamlessly into the digital world, despite its magnetic nature.

According to the LTO consortium, the organization that promotes the world's leading tape storage technology, 46 exabytes of native capacity tape storage was shipped in 2019, suggested the technology is alive and kicking.

We approached Fujifilm to ask them what a 2020 version of the venerable cassette tape would look like.

Audio tape in 2020

The Japanese company was at the forefront of blank tapes for video and audio and, along with other Nippon firms (Imation, TDK, Maxell and Sony), formed the part of the LTO with an AV tape legacy. 

The most capacious tape technology on the market is LTO-8. It delivers a staggering 12TB of storage on a reel of tape that’s 960m long and 12.65mm wide (or 12.14 sqm). In other words, the storage density of LTO-8 is just under 1TB per square meter (0.988TB, to be precise).

C90 tape was the most common large capacity audio tape of its era, with longer versions (C120, C150 and C180) proving unreliable. At 135m and with a width of only 3.8mm, it offers a considerably smaller surface area - around half a square meter. 

Using the same storage density, one can calculate that a C90 tape would hold about 506GB of data, or about 100,000 music tracks compressed in MP3.

Given that an LTO tape, with a more robust set of features, costs about $20 (albeit the older generation), one might envision that a souped-up 21st century tape that plays digital audio only would cost a bit less.

However, forget about backwards compatibility; even a physically identical replica would not work in 1980s-style cassette players or boomboxes.

Further, despite the nostalgia appeal, there are a number of other stumbling blocks that combine to make the revival of brown ribbon unlikely.

Poor battery life, the absence of a shuffle mode (remember, tape is linear), limited resistance to tear, wear, shocks and extreme temperature, and the availability of cheap alternatives all stand in the way.

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Latest Tech News

The Oppo Reno 4 Pro will go on sale in India for the first time today. The device will be available both Amazon and Flipkart. The Oppo Reno 4 Pro was launched in India last week along with the Oppo Watch.

Check out Oppo Reno 4 Pro on Amazon

Check out Oppo Reno 4 Pro on Flipkart

The device will be available in Starry Night and Silky White colour and is priced at Rs 34,990. The Oppo Reno 4 Pro in India is slightly different from the Chinese variant that was unveiled a couple of months ago. It comes with a 4G Snapdragon 720G SoC instead of the 765G on the Chinese variant. 

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Offers

On Flipkart, you get an additional Rs 1,000 off on exchange and Rs 1,500 and Rs 2,000 off on Oppo Watch 41mm and 46mm respectively. Also, for those who purchase the device, the Google Home mini will be available for Rs 1,999. And, finally, you will also get Rs 3,000 worth Flipkart voucher.

On Amazon, you get Rs 3,000 cash back in the form of Amazon Pay balance, and 5% Instant discount with HSBC Cashback card. There is also no cost EMI options available on both the platforms. 

(Image credit: Amazon)

Oppo Reno 4 Pro specifications

It has a 6.5-inch 90Hz AMOLED screen with 20:9 aspect-ratio and a 92.01% screen-body ratio, 180Hz touch sampling rate, covers 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut, and has a peak brightness of 402ppi. Powering the device is Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G SoC unlike the 765G on the Chinese variant. This is paired with 8GB RAM and 128GB storage. The Adreno 618 handles the GPU duties and Oppo says it has Graphite-tube multi-cooling system with a graphite tube and copper foil for cooling.

As for the optics, there is a quad-camera setup on the back with a 48MP Sony IMX586 f/1.7 main, 8MP ultra-wide, two 2MP sensors. Selfie is a 32MP f/2.4 Sony IMX616. Oppo says the rear camera has features like OIS, 960fps slow-mo, AI colour portrait, monochrome video modes.

The Oppo Reno 4 Pro has a 4,000mAh battery with 65W Super VOOC 2.0 and Oppo says the device can be charged fully in 36mins. The device runs Color OS 7.2 based on Android 10 out-of-the-box.

The Oppo watch with Wear OS will go on sale via Flipkart and Amazon starting August 10. It is priced at Rs 14,990 and Rs 19,990 for 41mm and 46mm respectively. 

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Latest Gadgets News

Realme C11 is set to go on sale in India today. The budget-friendly device will be available for purchase via Flipkart and Realme.com, and its price in India is listed at Rs. 7,499.

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Latest Gadgets News

Samsung Galaxy Note 20 series launch is taking place today. The South Korean giant is expected to unveil the Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra alongside the Galaxy Tab S7 series as well as Galaxy Z Fold 2 5G, Galaxy Buds Live, and Galaxy Watch 3.

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