New gadgets in Big Tech: Apple’s iPhone 13 series & removable key, ditching the password with Microsoft, & fantasy gaming with FB

Here is what Big Tech has been up to bring us new-fangled tech.

Apple’s Removable Key Could Make the Mouse Redundant

Days of carrying a mouse along with a laptop might be gone.

Reports are saying Apple is working on a ‘deployable key mouse’, which will basically be a MacBook keyboard sporting a removable key that can be used as a precision mouse. The new concept involves a typical MacBook scissor-system keyboard with removable key that’s hidden at first sight.

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This key is to include a position sensor that will act as a pointing device. Apple is defining the system as a “comfortable, portable, and precise pointer input for a computer input system.”

Certain tasks may not be suited to this new invention, as Apple acknowledges with precise tasks like graphic design, computer-assisted design and modelling, and editing large and complex documents.

Microsoft Translator App has New Speech Regions & Updated Language Picker

Microsoft announced an addition of regional accents to its Translator app on iOS and Android. Called Speech Regions, the feature lets users select the accent of text-to-speech audio output that they want to hear while using the app.

Thus, along with selecting translation into English, users can also select American, British, Australian, or other accents.

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The tech giant has also updated the app’s language picker for ease of selecting the translation features available for each language.

Much Awaited Apple iPhone 13 & iPhone 13 Mini Are Here

The long awaited iPhone 13 line is here with a host of new features from Apple. The array includes four new phones, the iPhone 13, the 13 Mini, the 13 Pro, and the 13 Pro Max.

The new phones that will operate on iOS 15, sport a bigger battery, more storage, a new A15 Bionic processor, a smaller notch, and delightful new camera features.

Apple called it “the most advanced dual-camera system ever on iPhone — with a new Wide camera with bigger pixels and sensor-shift optical image stabilization (OIS) offering improvements in low-light photos and videos, a new way to personalize the camera with Photographic Styles, and Cinematic mode, which brings a new dimension to video storytelling.”

The base model of the iPhone 13 and 13 Mini come in five colours, pink, blue, midnight (black), starlight (white), and Product Red.

The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are being added with great camera upgrades and a display with 120Hz high refresh-rate display.

iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini also boast super-fast performance and power efficiency with A15 Bionic, longer battery life, a brighter Super Retina XDR display that brings content to life, incredible durability with the Ceramic Shield front cover, double the entry-level storage at 128GB, an industry-leading IP68 rating for water resistance, and an advanced 5G experience.

Facebook Enters Fantasy Games

Facebook has entered fantasy gaming with the new Facebook Fantasy Games that the company rolled out in the US and Canada on the Facebook app for iOS and Android.

The games, which are free, profess to be simple prediction games with a social angle that help fans enjoy sports, TV shows, and pop culture content together.

“These games bring the social fun of traditional fantasy sports to simpler formats that are easy to play for people new to prediction games, while still engaging enough for more seasoned players,” Facebook said in a release announcement.

While daily sports prediction game Pick & Play Sports is the first game Facebook is launching, in partnership with Whistle Sports, aspiring players can look forward to much more in the coming months.

The social media giant will be introducing games with TV shows like CBS’s Survivor and ABC’s The Bachelorette, sports leagues like Major League Baseball and LaLiga Santander and premier digital publishers like BuzzFeed.

Other impending sports-centric games include MLB Home Run Picks, where players choose the team they predict to hit the most home runs, and LaLiga Winning Streak, where fans can foretell the winning team of the day.

Go Password-less with Microsoft

Moving towards a password-less world, Microsoft has announced to offer the option of removing passwords from user accounts, provided certain features or applications aren’t used on daily basis.

“For the past couple of years, we’ve been saying that the future is passwordless, and today I am excited to announce the next step in that vision,” Extreme Tech quoted Vasu Jakkal, Corporate VP of Security, Compliance, and Identity for Microsoft.

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“Beginning today, you can now completely remove the password from your Microsoft account. Use the Microsoft Authenticator app, Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code sent to your phone or email to sign in to your favorite apps and services, such as Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Family Safety, and more.”