News written by Matti Robinson (November, 2018)

Hotel chain Starwood Hotels has released a statement today saying their database system was compromised. As a result, hackers have gained access to information of up to 500 million individuals.

Starwood Hotels, which is part of Marriott International, reports that the illicit entry to their systems was detected on September 10th, but after closer look it was revealed that the system might have been compromised for years.

The database vulnerability was abused first in 2014, and after years of access Marriott estimates that hackers have had access to information from up to 500 million individuals.

At least 327 million customer names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of births, genders, email addresses, Starwood rewards information, arrival and departure dates, reservation dates, communications preferences and even passport information were leaked.

Also encrypted credit card information was among the data leaked.

Marriot noted that it will be contacting all customers that were affected by email starting today.

Marriott bought Starwood Hotels in 2015 making it the world's largest hotel company. Starwood Hotels includes 11 hotel brands, including the likes of W Hotels, St. Regis, Sheraton, Westin, and Element.

Deutsche Messe, the organizer behind the computer expo CeBIT, has made the decision to no longer host CeBIT Hannover next year.

This means that IT trade show CeBIT's 33 year run has come to an end. According to a Deutsche Messe press release some parts of CeBIT will be integrated into Hannover Messe trade show and others organized by the same group.

The reason given for the cancellation of once thriving trade show was simply lack of attendance and space bookings.

For over thirty years CeBIT has been the home of computer and information technology innovation. The final CeBIT, for now at least, was in held June, 2018.

As soon as it was clear that Apple would be introducing a new cheaper iPhone, and this would be months before the actual announcement, people were quick to call it the next big thing.

Many, including some of us here at AfterDawn, were sure this was going to be a huge seller, perhaps even breaking records.

Just a month later rumors have suggested that this not actually be the case, but instead it was indeed the opposite. According to rumors Apple has had to reduce the production estimates, and that's not a good look.

The iPhone component manufacturers have also issued warnings for their quarterly results which has been taken to indicate bad iPhone sales.

Apple's stock has been in decline ever since the new iPhone XR launched late last month, and now it was time for Apple to try an rectify the situation.

Apple's Greg Joswiak has told in an interview with CNET that iPhone XR hasn't been the problem it has been portrait to be. According to Joswiak, the iPhone XR has "been our most popular iPhone each and every day since the day it became available."

Google has graduated their virtual mobile operator business from Project Fi to a more official sounding Google Fi.

The renegade mobile plan offers coverage on several regular carriers' networks while the customer get a straightforward payment plan.

Google Fi costs $20/mo for unlimited tests and calls, and another $10 for each gigabyte of data, or $1 per 100 MB for that matter, delivered in LTE speeds.

There's also a Bill Protection cap that ensures you'll never go above $80 as data is free after 6 gigabytes. Although Google will throttle (slow down) data after 15 GB.

Now all this was already there in Project Fi times, but now Google allows customers to bring their own phones to the platform. You will get the same great deal with predictable pricing and roaming-free 170 locations around the world.

However, some features are still only available to Designed for Fi phones, including of course Pixel phones. There might be still some restrictions even with unlocked phones, but you can check compatibility here.

The features only available to official Designed for Fi phones are:

YouTube has finally confirmed that it will be removing annotations from its platform altogether. The see-through floating boxes are going to be disappearing early next year.

The company has been pretty clear that annotations will be replaced entirely by better options. In fact already in March they announced that the usage of annotations had dropped significantly after the introduction of Cards and End Screens, and that they would be removed at some point.

Now the point has been settled. On January 15 all annotations will disappear. And yes, that means not only are you not able to add them to your videos but also all the ones currently in use will no longer be shown.

This will likely mean that millions of old videos where the presenter was previously pointing to floating box are to become a little bit sillier.

Then again the annotations have never really worked that well, especially in mobile, so all the better that we finally get rid of them.

Annotations are dead, long live Cards!

While Facebook seems to be the exact same platform it was year ago, tons of changes have been made to even the core functions.

One of the more drastic changes is the fact that Facebook is more proactive against hateful rhetoric, which seems to be today's social media trend. Unfortunately it often backfires as trigger happy moderators ban or even remove valid people or pages that have been targeted by mobs.

All in all, Facebook would probably want to backpedal control a bit, and a new feature might bring more control to users.

According to Jane Wong, Facebook testing a new feature which allows users to censor specific words, sentences or even emojis from their comments.

Comments would still be there, but only show to the commenter and his or her friends.

This would also allow pages, such as brands that are worried about their image, to moderate what kind of dirt will not show on their posts' comments.

At this point, however, the feature is just one of a million A/B tests Facebook runs on small numbers of people, so don't hold your breath yet.

The one Chinese manufacturer that has managed to penetrate into the heavily protected U.S. smartphone market is OnePlus.

It took a few years but the formerly very niche player has become a force to be reckoned with in both Europe and now in America.

Viral marketing, competitive prices, and, above all, excellent devices have made a nerdy startup close to being a household name. There are a few steps to achieve that though, and one of them might be powerful partners and colleborations with influential brands.

Previously OnePlus has partnered with Star Warsa among others, and but this time about OnePlus is announcing a new partnership that is perfect for its most recent flagship's slogan: Unlock the Speed.

OnePlus has released a video on Twitter portraying McLaren's treasured history in pursuing speed in racing, and announcing the partnership.

The company will hold a product launch, and announce likely the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition, in McLaren Technology Centre, Woking, UK on December 11.

To further explaing the partnership, OnePlus has released this note about the companies' stories:

Ever after iPhone X, and actually a little bit before that, we've had to look at these horrible foreheads on our phones.

The notch originally became a thing with the Essential Phone, but soon after everyone was trying to squeeze in more display real estate by introducing a curved area of some sort for the front-facing cameras and sensors.

Now, there are worse offenders like iPhones and Pixels, and there are solutions that you might actually kinda like, including the new OnePlus 6T and its teardrop notch.

It seems to be undeniable though that no notch is better than even a small one, and some have even moved the camera to a pop-up slider to avoid a notch of any kind.

However, less moving parts is also immensely better than more moving parts, so those solutions might not be the answer.

So if you had to have the camera in the front but want to maximize the screen size, there is really only one solution, and Huawei is ready to reveal it.

The leaked imagine, the one above, is supposedly portraying just that, a round camera cutout in the display for the front-facing camera.

According to SamMobile, Huawei is not alone either. Samsung is planning on releasing a new higher mid-tier device called Galaxy A8s that might have a camera cutout as well.

Huawei, the rising star from China, has been struggling to enter the U.S. smartphone market even though success in Europe has been stellar for years now.

The manufacturer nearly landed a landmark deal with AT&T early in the year when they announced then latest and greatest Mate 10 Pro in the United States.

AT&T backed away from the deal last minute, leaving Huawei to launch the device without an all important carrier partner.

Ever after that incident, people have been talking about the scare that Huawei devices might have software installed that allows the Chinese government to spy on smartphone users.

Whether that is indeed the case with Huawei's flagship phones is yet to be proven, to our knowledge, but the U.S. government is serious about avoiding their hardware for what seems to be a good reason.

Now America is taking a step towards its world police role, and suggesting Europe as well as countries in other regions to stop using Huawei's 5G equipment, WSJ reports.

I think it could be argued that there is nothing more fake than Instagram. It's not representative of the real life in any meaningful way, right?

Well, there is something that is even more fake: fake comments and likes on Instagram. Now the service is looking to purge all this fake content.

The fake content includes likes, follows and comments from users using a third-party service to acquire more engagement. That's right, Instagram is prohibiting the use of third-party apps to increase these specific metrics in the updated EULA.

The Verge reports that Instagram is using an AI system that automatically recognizes and removes fake content, and sends a notification to the account about the removal.

The email also prompts to change the password associated with the Instagram account to make sure the account isn't compromised.

Instagram has been removing fake accounts for a while now, but hasn't previously addressed the more minor infractions.

Google's newly released Pixel 3 smartphones are the craze at the point. They are definitely at the peak of Android phones, but unfortunately they don't come cheap.

I mean, they aren't iPhone expensive, but for many $800 on a phone is just unequivocally too much. Fortunately it seems like Google is bringing some of that magic to lower price points.

A new leak from a Russian website details an upcoming Pixel device called Pixel 3 Lite. As you might imagine from the suggested name, the device is a cheaper version of Pixel 3, a midtier smartphone.

According to the website the phone, known as codename Sargo, features the same amazing 12 megapixel camera from the original Pixel 3, by far one of the most important features of the Pixel lineup altogether.

The phone has larger bezels but sports a similarly sized 5,56 inch Full HD+ display (compared to regular Pixel 3), but instead of AMOLED uses an IPS panel. You also have a USB-C and front-facing stereo speakers.

One thing you won't find on the more expensive Pixels but you have here is the headphone jack, which could win some people over.

Clearly the biggest drawback, however, is the SoC which is a new midtier Snapdragon 670. That will affect performance quite a bit, although day-to-day stuff is probably going to still be butter smooth.

Apple and Qualcomm aren't exactly buddies when it comes to the tech space. They are both American, and both love their mobile devices but unfortunately they are competing against each other, especially now the Apple likes to make all their own chips.

The world's largest company by market cap and the leading mobile chip manufacturer have been at each others throats for a while. I guess they are the new Apple and Samsung.

Now it seems that Apple is striking back at Qualcomm by trying to lure in some of their talent. Bloomberg reports that Apple has 10 new openings for semiconductor designers in San Diego.

Before this Apple hasn't recruited in the San Diego area, and conveniently that is where Qualcomm's R&D on chip design is located.

Apple is looking for 5G and LTE experts which points to in-house built modem for future iPhones and iPads that has been previously rumored. Other jobs include positions in Bluetooth and AI development.

This isn't the first time Apple has established a new teams near competitors, or otherwise convenient spots, to lure in talent.

Sony has started the celebrations for PlayStation 4's fifth birthday, and although at this point they haven't revealed any major discount, I'm sure there will be those too.

The company has now posted a infographic revealed some of the numbers they've achieved with their latest gaming console. First and foremost Sony is boasting over 86 million PlayStation 4 units sold.

This means that it has left PS3 (83M) and Xbox 360 (84M) in the dust and is looking to overtake Wii and original PlayStation at just over 100 million. Leading the pack is Playstation 2 with a whopping 155 million units sold.

In addition over 779 million pieces of PS4 software have been sold, nearly 10 per console. After the initial PS4 software at 1.01 the company has issued 11 major updates to what is now version 6.00.

Some of the most popular and best-selling games include Call of Duty (both Black Ops III and WWII), FIFA 17 and 18, Grand Theft Auto V, and of course Fortnite.

On a more controversial note, Sony has also revealed that it is not attending E3 next year. It will be the first time in 24 years that the electronics giant is absent from one of the largest, albeit in decline, gaming conventions.

Microsoft revealed in Semptember that Xbox One will be getting support for mouse and keyboard controls. Now the company has released the update that indeed adds the support.

However, this doesn't mean that you can just take a game and play it with your more precise controls. Unfortunately this requires that the game developer has enabled the support.

Thankfully there already are a few games you can take use of your PC gaming peripherals. Currently support is only found in Fortnite and Warframe.

Microsoft has at this point promised support for a total of 15 games, and the full list is below.

Nearly all wired and wireless mice and keyboards should work with the Xbox One, even though Microsoft is developing an custom Xbox One keyboard with Razer.

Google has revealed some new Assistant tricks in their official blog. The voice assistant brings some dearly needed talents in time for the holiday season.

As you might already know Assistant enabled devices, smart speakers and displays, already support broadcasts sent from smartphones. Now Google is adding a reply feature to smart speakers so you can easily tell your mom you heard dinner was ready.

Perhaps the most important update in time for holiday season is the new My Cookbook that allows saving important recipes. Google has also added a new Recommended Recipes card to the home screen that uses AI to figure out what kind of dishes you might be interested next.

In early October Microsoft released their newest October 2018 Update for Windows 10. Unfortunately the update had some major issues, including destroying some people's files, and had to be pulled indefinitely.

Now Microsoft has finally re-released the update a month later, and this time around it should be safe to install.

October 2018 Update, or I guess it should be November 2018 Update now, has been available for beta testers for a while now, but finally it's coming to worldwide audiences.

Microsoft is still taking a careful stance and is releasing it to the public in smaller batches.

All you can do is just to check your Windows Update section in the coming days and weeks to receive the update as there is not clear indication which systems will receive the update first.

Microsoft has also ensured that quality control is of the utmost importance in future updates.

October 2018 Update is a major update that brings changes to Cortana, Settings, Edge, Shell, and many more. It has things like Clipboard history and sync, dark theme for File Explorer, tabs in File Explorer and other apps, better screenshot utility, and more.

HBO's hit show Game of Thrones has been breaking records ever since it debuted in April of 2011. Next year we're going to witness the climax of the show as it concludes in season 9.

HBO has confirmed that the last season of Game of Thrones will premiere in April 2019. The launch was made official in a tweet yesterday by HBO featuring a 30 second trailer combining some of the key moments from previous seven seasons.

The tagline reads "Every battle. Every betrayal. Every risk. Every fight. Every sacrifice. Every death. All #ForTheThrone."

Unfortunately there's no teaser footage of the upcoming season or even an exact date yet. Then again there's still 5 months during which we'll probably learn more about the ultimate GoT season.

Netflix is seeking more business in Asia where the company's growth in the future largely lies.

The streaming giant has recently announced new Asian Originals from Taiwan to Thailand, and now it has confirmed to Bloomberg that it is trialing a new cheaper plan there as well.

Trying to compete with local competitors it has introduced a new cheaper plan that is meant for mobile streaming. This mobile-only plan gets you Netflix content for a mere $4 a month, but only on the go and with limited quality.

The plan is available at least in Malaysia where it costs 17 Malaysian Ringgit or $4.05. According to TechCrunch, a Netflix spokesperson confirmed that few countries were involved but didn't reveal the other countries.

There's no pressure to lower the prices of existing tier, however. After all the service has only gotten more expensive as Netflix invests more in original programming.

In the past five years or so the Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus has managed to pull itself out of the niche market to be a proper competitor in the big leagues.

This year, however, it made a huge deal with T-Mobile which brought it first time ever to American carriers. Before the OnePlus 6T, released October 29th, OnePlus have had to rely only on its own online channels.

Now that they have their foot in the door for the first time, you would expect an improvement in the sales figure, right?

Well, it turns out that is exactly what you get. According to XDA, OnePlus.com and T-Mobile combined sales for OnePlus 6T was 86% higher on the first day than sales was for OnePlus 6 earlier this year.

Now, this is only the first day, we'll have to see how the rest of the quarter goes. However, it could be argued that T-Mobile carrying the phone will be even more important in the coming months that enthusiasts aren't the ones buying the device.

Netflix has announced that it will release a documentary called Our Planet, featuring Sir David Attenborough himself, in early 2019.

The nature documentary follows in the footsteps of BBC documentaries Planet Earth and Blue Planet, both of which were narrated by the great Attenborough.

Netflix ordered Our Planet from the makers of the shows mentioned as early as 2015, but at that point it wasn't announced that Attenborough would be narrating.

The premiere of Our Planet is set for April 5 and it includes eight full length episodes all of which will bring amazing 4K imagery of the amazing ecosystems of our planet.

The 92-year-old Attenborough will be included in Netflix for all of the English speaking world but Netflix is also looking to recruit local talent to bring localized narration in some regions.

Both Planet Earth and Blue Planet are available on Netflix, so you can warm up for the Attenborough marathon in April.

Netflix has recently revealed new content from Asia. As the company is diversifying the content and bringing in Asian productions especially anime lovers should rejoice.

The streaming giant announced 17 new Originals from Asia that will increase next year's Asian coverage to a 100 new and returning Originals. This includes new Pacific Rim and Altered Carbon anime.

Previous Asian Originals have included the Indian thriller Sacred Games, japanese anime DEVILMAN crybaby, and Korean comedy BUSTED! that has also been confirmed for a second season.

Netflix also increases the content with local languages, which includes The Stranded from Thailand and Taiwanese Triad Princess. A new trailer from the Korean series Kingdom was released.

In addition to news from Asia, the company released a new trailer for the upcoming spin-off Narcos: Mexico, and revealed the launch date, December 7, for the anticipated triple A feature film Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle, featuring talent such as Andy Serkis, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Benedict Cumberbatch.

Disney unveiled in 2017 that it won't continue working with Netflix after 2019. This wasn't a case of Netflix doing anything wrong necessarily, except racking profits.

See, Disney has been working on their own streaming service for years now, and finally they are ready to announce its launch.

Disney has revealed during the quarterly report that the upcoming streaming service will be launched in late 2019. As expected this coincides with the expiration of Netflix cooperation.

The service will be called Disney+ – not very original, I know – and in addition to Disney branded material it will include content from Pixar, National Geographic, as well as Marvel. Exclusive Star Wars content is also expected to land on the service.

Disney of course bought 21st Century Fox in December 2017, which gave them full access to Marvel characters among other things.

It remains to be seen how this affects Netflix. Especially when it comes to children's programming Disney should be a strong contender.

Google's latest and greatest smartphone, the Pixel 3, is definitely one of the most anticipated smartphones of the year. Unlike last year, if you remember the screen issues et al, it seems Google has avoided most of the pitfalls and controversies.

Now, however, a customer has received a device that was broken straight out of the package, and posted about it on Reddit. Well, we shouldn't say broken, it was more like smashed, tortured, and nearly disintegrated.

Not only were the back and front glass panels broken, the phone was bent and there were even cracks through the USB jack. The package told the same story, both the retail package as well as the brown parcel wrap were squished.

Of course we can't blame Google for all this, after all it was Fedex who delivered this mess. But the story doesn't end there.

After contacting the Google customer service, it was simply treated as a regular RMA. This of course means that there is no quick fix, and the customer who had to wait for a month for the initial delivery has to now wait quite a bit more.

After followups the customer hasn't heard back from Google.

Innovation used to be Samsung's ticket to success with ever better Android phones. As often happens with large companies, Samsung kind of forgot to innovate.

Recently the Korean conglomerate has tried to revive its roots in hardware innovation by introducing new features first in cheaper devices. This happened with the Galaxy A series phone earlier this year that features four cameras.

However, yesterday's Samsung event unveiled an innovation that the company has been working on for years and years.

The new Infinity Flex display makes it possible to create foldable smartphones/tablets. They even showed off one at the dimly lit stage.

Clearly Samsung doesn't want you to see the device yet, but the concept is there. It looks like the phone is extremely thick, which seems given if you fold any tablet in half.

Not that it matters really, since the device is very likely a prototype for a concept that hasn't even sure to hit the market.

Not to say Samsung isn't determined to bring it to the people. In fact, it seems that Samsung really needs something like this to turn the ship around.

Recently a phenomenon called Initiative Q has been making rounds in the social media. The website – all that it is for now – promises a new revolutionary payment system, but what is it really?

Initiative Q is spreading via invites on social media. Currently the company is trying to raise awareness and increase subscriber base by offering free money.

Well, actually it's free Q money. The currency they are hoping to establish is called Q, and you'll get some amount of it for both joining and inviting others.

The sooner you join, the more you get. According to the website the earliest adopters might get Q worth of $100,000, although that would require a Q economy worth trillions.

Sounds like a pyramid scheme, doesn't it? Fortunately you don't have to invest in this venture, so as far as losing money goes you should be safe.

As a digital currency, is it the next Bitcoin? Again, no. There's really not much in common, although there isn't much detail about how it all works at this point.

What is certain, though, is that Q is not a decentralized and it's not based in a blockchain technology. According to the founder of Initiative Q this is because Q aims to be mainstream.

With ARKit Apple has cemented itself as one of the players in the alternative reality race. Apple's implementation, as is suggested by the API name, is Augmented Reality (AR) which relies heavily on camera tech.

The processing prowess is already largely there for Apple to improve AR applications but there's still some limitations to iPhone cameras that need to be overcome.

According to a reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is developing a new version of Face ID to bolster iPhone's AR capabilities, MacRumors reports.

Upgraded Face ID would bring better depth sensing with what is called a Time of Flight (ToF) technology. Kuo is suggesting the technology will be introduced in iPhones and iPads in 2019 or 2020.

Music business is tough, they say, but streaming music business might be tougher. If there's one streaming service that has been through it all, it's Spotify.

Even after fierce resistance from industry, they managed to cement themselves as the number one spot to enjoy your music. The king of music streaming turned the tide of piracy, one could argue.

It hasn't managed to turn itself profitable, however.

Spotify has revealed that it has passed 87 million Premium subscribers, an increase of four million since July. Last quarter still turned out on red.

All is not lost, though, by any means. Quite the opposite in fact. The loss was only around $7 million, a significant step towards profitability for the company. Previous quarter Spotify still lost over $83 million (73 million euro), according to THR.

Spotify has another 100 million – or 104 to be exact – free tier users who are yet to be converted into Premium subscribers.

The pace to convert new subscribers has slowed down, as is expected when services mature, but it still has a significant lead on Apple Music which is probably closing in on 60 million after reaching 50 million users in May.