TCL Electronics has launched its new TCL 4K QLED TV model C735 in the UAE. As a superior QLED 4K entertainment centre, C735 is designed to deliver a comprehensive range of entertainment experiences with Google TV and exceptional video gaming performance.

Gaming fans are expecting more games that support 120 FPS this year, so C735 has taken a step further by applying 144Hz VRR, providing faster responsiveness, sharper imagery, and smoother gameplay, giving users an important edge, especially in multiplayer games. C735 is available in 55’’, 65’’, and 75’’ screen sizes. In addition, TCL elevates a truly cinematic experience with the launch of its 98-inch 4K QLED from its XL Collection.

To provide users with a convenient game experience, C735 also has an exclusive Game Master function. With this, C735 optimizes the display in video game use. It allows all-in-one optimization, like turning on functions such as VRR/ALLM with just a single key. Through the TCL Game Bar, the TV offers users real-time display statistics, aiming aid, and toolbox functions, as well as the quick setting dashboard helping users achieve the ultimate gaming experience.

With Dolby Vision IQ, C735 enhances the demonstration of Dolby exclusive content by displaying a greater number of colours, increasing contrast, and boosting brightness levels. Adding to the cinema experience, the C735 supports Dolby Atmos, which places sounds within multi-dimensional space and puts the user in the middle of their favourite sport, TV, movie, or video game.

C735 also has a theatre-level, ONKYO sound system, and Dolby Atmos which bring an exceptional immersive audio experience, letting the sound flow around in three dimensions. The TV also supports both Motion Estimation and Motion Compensation (MEMC) as well as HDMI 2.1 to deliver the best possible smooth imagery and audio for both TV and multimedia. Enhanced with TCL’s proprietary software algorithm, these technologies ensure images are always smooth, even for sports and fast-moving action scenes.

With Google TV, users will get hundreds and thousands of content options aggregated across streaming services. C735 is available in 55”, 65”, and 75” screen sizes and to purchase at Eros, Sharaf DG, Carrefour, Lulu, Emax, Amazon, and other retail stores across UAE.

Facebook is now called Meta, the company said on Thursday, in a rebrand that focuses on building the “metaverse,” a shared virtual environment that it bets will be the successor to the mobile internet. The name change comes as the world’s largest social media company battles criticisms from lawmakers and regulators over its market power, algorithmic decisions, and the policing of abuses on its services.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg, speaking at the company’s live-streamed virtual and augmented reality conference, said the new name reflected its work investing in the metaverse, rather than its namesake social media service, which will continue to be called Facebook. The metaverse is a term coined in the dystopian novel “Snow Crash” three decades ago and now attracting buzz in Silicon Valley. It refers broadly to the idea of a shared virtual realm that can be accessed by people using different devices.

“Right now, our brand is so tightly linked to one product that it can’t possibly represent everything that we’re doing today, let alone in the future,” said Zuckerberg. The company, which has invested heavily in augmented and virtual reality, said the change would bring together its different apps and technologies under one new brand. It said it would not change its corporate structure.

The tech giant, which reports about 2.9 billion monthly users, has faced increasing scrutiny in recent years from global lawmakers and regulators. In the latest controversy, whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen leaked documents which she said showed the company chose profit over user safety. Haugen has in recent weeks testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee and lawmakers in the UK’s Parliament.

Zuckerberg earlier this week said the documents were being used to paint a “false picture.” The company said in a blog post that it intends to start trading under the new stock ticker it has reserved, MVRS, on Dec. 1. On Thursday, it unveiled a new sign at its headquarters in Menlo Park, California, replacing its thumbs-up “Like” logo with a blue infinity shape.

Facebook said this week that its hardware division Facebook Reality Labs, which is responsible for AR and VR efforts, would become a separate reporting unit and that its investment in it would reduce this year’s total operating profit by about $10 billion. This year, the company created a product team in this unit focused on the metaverse and it recently announced plans to hire 10,000 employees in Europe over the next five years to work on the effort.

Zuckerberg recently said in an interview with a leading tech publication, that he has not considered stepping down as CEO, and has not thought “very seriously yet” about spinning off this unit. The division will now be called Reality Labs, its head Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said on Thursday. The company will also stop using the Oculus branding for its VR headsets, instead calling them “Meta” products.

The name change, the plan for which was first reported by the Verge, is a significant rebrand for Facebook, but not its first. In 2019 it launched a new logo to create a distinction between the company and its social app. The company’s reputation has taken multiple hits in recent years, including over its handling of user data and its policing of abuses such as health misinformation, violent rhetoric and hate speech. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has also filed an antitrust lawsuit alleging anticompetitive practices.

“While it’ll help alleviate confusion by distinguishing Facebook’s parent company from its founding app, a name change doesn’t suddenly erase the systemic issues plaguing the company,” said Mike Proulx, research director at market research firm Forrester.

The plans to phase out the Facebook name even from products like video calling device Portal show the company is eager to prevent the unprecedented scrutiny from hurting the rest of its apps, said Prashant Malaviya, a marketing professor at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.

“Without a doubt, (the Facebook name) is definitely damaged and toxic,” he said. Zuckerberg said the new name, coming from the Greek word for “beyond,” symbolized there was always more to build. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Thursday tweeted out a different definition “referring to itself or to the conventions of its genre; self-referential.”

Zuckerberg said the new name also reflects that over time, users will not need to use Facebook to use the company’s other services.

The Assembly, the region’s first Smart Lab-Maker Space and Community Learning Initiative based in Dubai, has announced the dates for its first Show & Tech, an exhibition featuring innovative DIY projects contributed by tech enthusiasts of all ages from around the country. (more…)