Now the scandal is expanding as new reports emerge claiming Google has been doing the same thing for years.
Facebook had been paying users $20 a month to install a data monitoring app which was distributed using the Enterprise Development Program. The program, which is a way to bypass App Store, is meant only for internal use, not for public distribution of apps.
Google has been using the same avenue to collect data, TechCrunch reports.
Google-owned Screenwise Meter app has been distributed using the Enterprise Development Program to users whose smartphone data they've been collecting.
Just like Facebook, Google has been paying the volunteers, in their case with gift cards. The app, and the corresponding gift card scheme, was introduced in 2012.
As we all know, Apple loves proprietary technologies so much that sometimes it makes completely mundane feature sound like they are a new innovation.
Some of their own tech is pretty impressive, but others should be scrapped for a more universally accepted technology. One of these is of course Lightning port.
Apple has fought against universal chargers for ages, and although Lightning port is far from the worst of them, it still isn't USB-C.
Fortunately, according to Bloomberg, this is about to change. Report has it that Apple is already using USB-C, the first reversible USB connector found in most higher-end Android phones these days, in their current iPhone prototypes.
This doesn't come as a huge surprise after Apple moved away from Lightning port in the iPad line when they introduced the newest iPad Pro with USB-C.
Even though USB-C should technically reduce the need of adapters as more and more peripherals support the port out of the box, you have to remember that old iPhone accessories are compatible only with Lightning.
Bloomberg also reports that the upcoming iPhone will have a triple camera setup, like some Android counterparts. One of the lenses is supposedly a wide angle lens that allows expanding the photo afterwards.
Due to anti-gambling policies in Belgium, Electronic Arts (EA) will stop Belgians from purchasing Fifa Points in the country.
Players will still be able to earn Fifa Points, but not able to buy them after the gambling regulator in the country threatened action. With the points, players can make digital purchases in-game. The Belgian gambling commission has been cracking down on 'loot boxes' in games, which are virtual crates in games that contain weapons and other items used in games.
According to the Belgian Gambling Commission, loot boxes are essentially the same as gambling because they are games of chance.
"After further discussions with the Belgian authorities, we have decided to stop offering Fifa Points for sale in Belgium," EA said in a statement.
"We're working to make these changes effective in our Fifa console and PC games by 31 January 2019. While we are taking this action, we do not agree with Belgian authorities' interpretation of the law, and we will continue to seek more clarity on the matter as we go forward."
Gamers reported a variety of issues with their Xbox One consoles on Wednesday, including a black screen issue that saw the console completely unusable.
Microsoft was acknowledging the reports throughout the day and confirmed that the issues were caused by a service change. Among the reported issues were problems signing in, problems with title updates and unresponsive guides. The worst issue, however, was a black screen on startup, rendering the consoles unusable altogether.
Microsoft has since identified the issue that was caused by a service change and has rolled back, which should fix the problems being experienced by users.
The issues surrounding Xbox One console startup, sign-in, title update errors, and our status page have now been resolved. Thank you for sticking with us while our teams addressed these issues and we appreciate the reports. As always, we're here and we're listening.
Apple says Facebook has been abusing its membership of the Enterprise Development Program to push data-collecting apps to consumers.
Earlier this week it emerged that Facebook had been paying $20 a month to users aged between 17 and 35 to monitor their activity online. This was achieved by sideloading a VPN app onto the devices of the participants. That Facebook Research app has now provoked Apple to take action against the social media network.
Facebook took advantage of Apple's Enterprise Developer Certificates to sideload the app - install it on the devices without pushing it through the official App Store. Apple has responded by revoking Facebook's certificates, which has reportedly caused considerable disruption for Facebook.
In a statement, Apple said:
"We designed our Enterprise Developer Program solely for the internal distribution of apps within an organization. Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple."
"Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data."
According to an AppleInsider report, Facebook is trying to work out an arrangement to get the enterprise development certificate restored.
Samsung has unveiled a new advanced display driver IC that it says will drive new 8K all-display televisions.
The new 8K display driver IC (DDI) provides for intra-panel data transfer speed at up to 4-gigabit-per-second (Gbps), enough to transfer true 8K images to 8K panels without additional components and allowing for more streamlined product designs for slim bezel-less TVs of 65-inch or larger.
Given that 8K resolution has four times the number of pixels than 4K UHD, the amount of image data to be transferred within a panel must increase accordingly, as well as the number of components to support that task.
"To deliver true 8K resolution, it is essential for today's DDIs to support a high-speed 4Gbps intra-panel interface," said Ben K. Hur, senior vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics.
"Samsung's 8K DDI (S6CT93P) with USI-T 2.0 will bring stunning 8K images to premium displays that can take visual experiences on large-screen TVs to the new level."
Lower sales of Apple's iPhone models in some regions of the world have hit the firm's financial performance, but it is bullish on future services revenue.
Apple revealed that its revenue from iPhone sales fell 15 percent in the most recent quarter, driving a 5 percent overall drop in the firm's revenue compared to a year earlier. Revenue in the quarter was $84.3 billion, which is around where Apple had cautioned investors it could end up.
"While it was disappointing to miss our revenue guidance, we manage Apple for the long term, and this quarter's results demonstrate that the underlying strength of our business runs deep and wide," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Sales of Apple's iPhones were particularly lower in the greater China region, where overall sales dropped by more than 25 percent during the quarter compared to the previous year. Europe also saw a 3 percent drop in overall sales for the Cupertino giant.
While acknowledging the drop in hardware sales, Apple is very optimistic about its revenue in services. During the same quarter, its services revenue rose 19 percent to a firm record of $10.9 billion.
Apple is to fix a bug in FaceTime that means audio from a recipient's end can be listened to before they have even answered a video call.
The problem appears to be with the group calling feature that was released to the public in October 2018. It means that a user can place a video call to a recipient and can hear the audio feed from the recipient's phone even before they have answered the call.
This is obviously a major privacy concern and Apple is aware of it.
"We're aware of this issue and we have identified a fix that will be released in a software update later this week," an Apple spokesperson said, reported the Reuters news agency.
The issue affects iPhones, iPads and Mac products.
If you are concerned about the bug, you could choose to disable FaceTime on your devices until the patches are pushed out by Apple. On an iPhone or iPad, open up the Settings app. You can then scroll down to FaceTime and toggle it off.
On a Mac, open the FaceTime app, click FaceTime in the Menu bar and you will see an option to turn off FaceTime.
Apple is reportedly working on a game subscription service, according to a report from Cheddar.
The report cites sources familiar with the service, which is in the earliest stages of development. They report that Apple began discussion a subscription service with developers in the second half of 2018.
It would charge users a monthly fee for unlimited access to a bundled list of game titles. Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and others also have similar services or plans for them as the rush is on to become the "Netflix for video games."
In addition to planning a game subscription service, Apple also reportedly spoke to some developers about acting as a pubisher for their titles.
While Apple could still abandon the plans at any point, the firm is putting more focus on its revenue from services particularly as its hardware sales have slowed. Sales of iPhones have slumped in recent months though Apple has not revealed exact numbers.
Apple has updated its App Store rules and guidelines to target apps that use dirty tricks while selling in-app subscriptions to users.
From now on, apps will have to be totally up front with monthly subscription prices. They will have to present the actual cost of a renewed subscription per month in the largest text, rather than showing potential cost savings and special offers in larger texts.
Apps that offer free trials must also be totally up front with how long the free trial is valid for, and the exact cost that will kick in once the free trial period is over.
While not required, Apple is also encouraging developers to let customers manage their subscriptions in-app, rather than through the App Store settings.
Users have often complained about winding up in subscriptions that cost more than they expected, and free trials with a shorter duration than expected.
Mastercard recently enforced new rules for merchants that offer free trials too which also require them to be upfront about costs, free trial durations and to make it very easy to cancel subscriptions.
Samsung Electronics has announced that it will dramatically reduce the use of plastics in the packaging material for its products, and focus on more environmentally friendly materials.
From the first half of 2019, the packaging used currently for Samsung's products and accessories – ranging from mobile phones and tablets to home appliances – will be substituted with environmentally sustainable materials like recycled/bio-based plastics and paper.
For its mobile phone, tablet and wearables, it will replace plastic used for holder trays with pulp molds, and bags wrapping accessories with eco-friendly materials. It will also alter the phone charger design, swapping the glossy exterior with a matte finish and eliminating plastic protection films.
While it will be increasing the use of paper, it will only use fiber materials certified by global environmental organizations. By 2030, Samsung aims to use 500 thousand tons of recycled plastics and collect 7.5 million tons of discarded products.
"Samsung Electronics is stepping up in addressing society's environmental issues such as resource depletion and plastic wastes," said Gyeong-bin Jeon, head of Samsung's Global Customer Satisfaction Center.
The Secretary of State for Health of the United Kingdom has warned that legislation will be forthcoming to take action against social media firms over suicide-related material.
Matt Hancock was speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show when he made the comments. "If we think they need to do things they are refusing to do, then we can and we must legislate," he said. Hancock went on to stress that it's not where the UK government would like to end up.
The issue has come to national attention in the UK over the tragic details surrounding the death of a 14-year-old girl in 2017. The young lady was found dead in November 2017 after taking her own life. She reportedly had not shown any previous signs of mental health issues.
Her family later realized that she had been viewing disturbing content related to suicide on social media platforms, including Instagram and Pinterest. Instagram has since commented on the case, pointing out its policies on material that encourage or glorify self-harm or suicide.
Social media platforms do allow some content that contains suicide, self-harm, depression, anxiety and similar subject matter to reside on the platform after being advised by expert groups that the sharing of stories and making connections with others who are struggling can be helpful.
People are moving away from SMS to internet based messaging systems on their phones. Whether it is iMessage, Skype, or the world's most popular messaging platform WhatsApp, it certainly is cheaper than SMS.
Like with SMS, however, you might occasionally come across numbers and people that you would like to block. This is possible in WhatsApp just like it is in SMS.
In this guide, we'll walk you through how to block people on WhatsApp.
Blocking obviously can't send you messages but the target is also blocked from seeing your "status" or "last seen" information. Neither is he or she going to see changes that you make to your profile, and the same goes for you with regards to the blocked person's profile.
How to block WhatsApp contacts
There's two different ways to block contacts in WhatsApp on Android.
Method A
Open WhatsApp
From the Chats view select a chat with the person you want to block or use Search (magnifying glass) on the top right
Press Menu (three dots) on the top right
Select Block (might be behind More)
WhatsApp should now notify you that you cannot call or send messages to the contact no longer.
Nokia, the Finnish mobile phone brand, has gone through all kinds of transformations in the 2000s, but it is making a comeback in North America with the newest Android iteration.
Nowadays Nokia's smartphone brand is developed by HMD Global, a small company located in Nokia's former office building. They develop Android phones, and good ones at that.
Now HMD Global has partnered up with three different U.S. and Canadian carriers to bring upcoming Nokia phones to the American market.
Out of the three the most significant is Verizon, which will bring its first new Nokia Android phone available starting at the end of January. Nokia 2 V is a budget smartphone with 2 day battery life, but other details are still sparse.
Furthermore HMD Global is bringing Nokia 3.1 Plus, an affordable lower tier device with a large six inch display, to Cricket Wireless. This one will be priced at $159.99 and will be available January 25 on Cricket Wireless stores and online.
The company will also announce another product for Canadian carrier Rogers Communications in the upcoming weeks.
There's no word whether the already released higher tier devices, such as Nokia 7.1, will find their way to North America, but we are expecting at least some of the upcoming high-end releases in the U.S. and Canada.
Artificial Intelligence is touted as the future liberator of people or the ultimate oppressor of humanity. Likely the reality will be, at least for the longest time, somewhere in the middle, but each year we hear about new impressive achievements of AI.
We've seen amazing efforts especially from Google's DeepMind, a AI company the search giant bought in 2014. DeepMind's AI has won not only against the chess masters, and Go professionals, now it has taken over esports.
DeepMind has challenged professional gamers to StarCraft II matches, and managed to bet the players. Not only did it beat professional players, it managed to beat them nearly every time.
Only one out of eleven matches ended in the human players victory.
The success in StarCraft is determined by both the decisions you make but also how quickly you can execute the actions, often measured in action per minute (APM).
One would think the computer would performs the actions much faster, but it was in fact the better decisions that made AlphaStar win. The APM figures for professional gamers where around 559, while AlphaStar's were only 277.
We've known for years that Google is developing a new operating system behind the scenes. Now Google has hired new talent from no other than Apple to lead the effort.
The operating system, developed under the name Project Fuchsia, might be replacing Google's mobile operating system Android in the future. According to earlier reports, over 100 engineers are already working on Fuchsia and it might come to smartphones as early as in the next five years.
Obviously 100 engineers isn't massive in the scale that is Google, so if Fuchsia is ever going to be able to replace Android, it needs new recruitment both from inside the company and out.
One of the most recent hirings is Bill Stevenson, who has worked for Apple nearly 15 years and ended his career in Cupertino as the Mac and Windows Program Management Senior Manager.
He revealed in social media that he'll be joining Google to help bring Fuchsia to the market.
Fuchsia is expected to be first implemented in IoT devices where Android isn't a staple like in mobile devices. Officially Google hasn't revealed any release information.
Netflix has become the Kleenex of streaming services, its rise to world domination has been swift and its recognized as the leading video streaming service all around the world.
Well, except in Finland.
You might know Finland as the country that doesn't exist, or the birth place of AfterDawn, but it happens to also be the one country that doesn't, yet, bow entirely to Netflix.
AudienceProject has gathered some interesting statistics about streaming services around the world. According to their data Netflix has managed to get themselves the top spot in each country surveyed, except for that one Nordic blind spot.
The top spot in Finland is taken by Yle Areena, a streaming service provided by the taxpayer and the national broadcasting company Yle. Public broadcasters' services do well all around but only in Finland is it able to beat Netflix.
56% of surveyed Finns watch Netflix weekly, compared to 57% in Germany, 67% in Denmark, 70% in Sweden, 70% in UK, 76% in Norway, and 79% in the United States. Yle Areena scored 65%.
Netflix popularity is trending upwards in all countries.
Apple has been working on self-driving cars for who knows how long now. They admitted that they're working on self-driving car tech over two years ago, but now there seems to be a setback.
According to CNBC, and confirmed by Apple, the tech giant has dismissed a significant portion of its employees from Project Titan. More than 200 employees no longer work for the secretive self-driving initiative inside Apple.
According to Apple these employees have been reassigned to other duties in other machine learning efforts that need the manpower. Even though 200 employees is indeed a substantial amount of workforce, it doesn't mean that Project Titan is dead.
Apple says they still "believe there is a huge opportunity with autonomous systems" and that Apple can be part of it.
Recent reports have uncovered that Apple is slowing down hiring, likely due to lower than expected iPhone sales.
Project Titan is lead by Apple veteran Bob Mansfield as well as former Tesla boss Doug Field who was recruited last fall. No changes to leading positions inside Project Titan have been reported.
Google is planning major changes to its web browser, Google Chrome, later this year. Some of the more important changes have to do with how ad blocking software works within the browser.
The company, known nowadays as the leading online ad distributor, is going prohibit specific type of extensions to ensure user privacy. This, however, also affects some ad blockers, like uBlock Origin, Motherboard reports.
While the update is going to allow some, like AdBlock Plus, to still function, other filtering methods will be broken by the Chrome update.
More specifically methods like the dynamic blocking of uBlock Origin with webRequest API is no longer allowed. The proper way to do this in future Chrome versions is via declarativeNetRequest API.
Google claims that Chromium project's Manifest v3 update is part of their effort to help users with the privacy and control of their browser. It seems convenient, though, that it happens to break some of the ad blockers.
Google obviously makes bulk of its revenue via ads, which is at odds with ad blockers. Google has introduces its own ad blocking feature to Chrome in order for users to have a way to get rid of the most egregious adverts.
AfterDawn will celebrate its 20th birthday this year. As you might imagine, 20 years in Internet business means that we have changed our site's concept, services and focus quite a few times over these years. Now, it is time to shut down one of those old services.
Originally, when we launched AfterDawn back in June 1999, one of our goals was to provide information about MP3 technology, including guides on how to use it and also to support indie artists without record label contracts. To achieve this, we set up a news section, guide section and also a section for indie artists to distribute their music through our site, for free.
This royalty-free MP3 service was at the very core of AfterDawn during our first years. But very soon it became clear that the most sought-after content was about MP3 technology and guides related to it. With the arrival of the Millennium, MP3 had become a mainstream topic. To tap into this trend, we launched our own MP3 search engine that allowed users to search through various MP3 services, FTP sites and more. Very quickly, we decided to move the MP3 search engine to its own domain, and thus, MP3Lizard.comhad born.
Chinese smartphone manufacturer Meizu has unveiled a new flagship smartphone that is unlike anything we've seen before.
Minimalist design is obviously the thing these days, and companies everywhere are removing external fingerprint sensors, ports and buttons from their phones, but Meizu Zero has it turned up to eleven.
Meizu's new phone features a 5.99 inch OLED screen and a dual camera setup in the back, but the most striking feature is that there are no buttons and no headphone jack or speaker grills. In fact, there isn't a single hole in the phone except for a tiny pinpoint-sized hole for the microphone and another one for hard reset.
This means that the phone obviously supports wireless charging, with 18 watt energy transfer, and the sound is created by the display with what the company calls mSound 2.0 technology, unless you want to use wireless headphones. There's even no SIM tray.
Obviously having barely any holes in the design makes it very easy to make the phone waterproof, so to no surprise Meizu Zero is IP68 certified.
It's a radical move, or as Apple calls it, "brave", to not include any I/O or charging ports, rely on eSIM, and not have traditional speakers, all at the same time.
According to new report, Apple is going to no longer use LCD displays in any of its new iPhones.
Apple is said to move all its smartphones to OLED panels, which are considered to be better in many respects.
Due to Apple's decision, Japan Display, the supplier of the panels for iPhone XR and others, will have to seek a bailout from foreign investors.
According to WSJ, Japan Display is in talks with TPK Holding Co. from Taiwan and Silk Road Fund controlled by Chinese government worth as much as 30% stake in the company.
Over half of Japan Display's orders have been recently from Apple. Bad outlook for the iPhone, especially iPhone XR, just has turned into an even worse situation, as Apple seems to rely solely on OLED panels in all its future iPhones.
There's still a tiny silver lining in that Apple will still have iPads and Mac products, likely for years, that will use cheaper IPS LCD panels.
Google started the year pretty generously, at least if you ask Wikimedia. The search giant has given millions in a handout to the online encyclopedia.
The non-profit Wikimedia, most known for the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, has received another $3.1 million contribution from Google, the company has announced at the World Economic Forum.
This isn't the first time Google is helping Wikimedia keep the boat afloat. Now the contributions total $7.5 million in the past decade, Wired reports.
Furthermore, Google is allowing Wikimedia to use some of its AI and machine learning tools for free, which might be invaluable.
One third of the $3.1 million will go into sustaining current operations while the rest, around $2 million, are meant for long-term viability.
Early in the game, Google tried to compete against Wikipedia with their own service, dubbed Knol, in which entries were made by hired professionals instead of the volunteers from the greater public.
Google uses Wikipedia in many of its products, so the donation isn't, of course, solely selfless.
Netflix has become a member of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the first Internet-based service to join the trade group.
By joining the MPAA, Netflix is now part of the same trade group as the old Hollywood guard including Disney, Paramount, Sony, Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros. It is another major step for Netflix as it establishes itself as a serious producer of content rather than a service streaming only others' content.
"On behalf of the MPAA and its member companies, I am delighted to welcome Netflix as a partner," said MPAA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin.
"All of our members are committed to pushing the film and television industry forward, in both how we tell stories and how we reach audiences. Adding Netflix will allow us to even more effectively advocate for the global community of creative storytellers, and I look forward to seeing what we can all achieve together."
Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer, said that joining the MPAA further exemplifies its commitment to ensuring the vibrancy of creative industries and the many talented people who work in them all over the world.
"We look forward to supporting the association team and their important efforts."
Spotify's latest app allows users to mute and block artists they don't want to hear while using the music streaming service.
With its latest mobile app update, you can quite easily make sure that you won't run into music by artists you cannot stand anymore. You just have to go to that artist's Spotify page and tap on the three dots in the top right corner, then choose "Don't play this artist."
If all goes well, the app will confirm with a message stating, "Ok, we won't play music from this artist."
The block will apply to all of that artist's own music, but will not include tracks they are guest featured on as of now. Once the block is enabled, you won't hear from that artist from a library, a playlist, chart list or a radio station on the service.
Spotify had previously removed controversial artists from curated playlists but backtracked on the decision after backlash from record companies and artists. It would appear Spotify would rather leave blocking up to users to do themselves if they wish!
The European Union's controversial copyright reforms came to a stall this week after member states failed to agree to the changes.
A meeting had been scheduled for Monday between European Commission officials, member state representatives, and MEPs but was canceled after member states rebuffed the latest directive. That happened on Friday when eleven countries opposed the latest draft as had been written up by Romania.
At the core of the objections are the notorious Article 11 and Article 13. In summary, Article 11 could see search engines and social media platforms forced to pay publishers for snippets of content and links - a so-called "link tax." Article 13 mandates the use of content upload filters similar to YouTube's Content ID in order to prevent copyright infringement.
The changes have been strongly opposed by web giants like Google and Facebook, who argue that they are likely to harm creators. Digital rights' activists and web entrepreneurs argued that the filtering required by Article 13 is beyond the resources of smaller web firms and start-ups. There are also concerns that content that should not be filtered out for copyright purposes, such as memes, could be affected by content upload filters.
Microsoft is working on some voice assistant changes, as is evident from recently revealing that search bar and Cortana are going to be separated in Windows 10.
There's much more happening behind the scenes, though. Not long ago, Cortana boss Javier Soltero left Microsoft, and perhaps that was beginning of the end for Microsoft's Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant competitor.
Now Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella no longer wants to consider Cortana directly opposite to Alexa and Assistant. According to Nadella, it is more important that Cortana is a service that works on all platforms and supports all kinds of devices, and more importantly even support the other assistants.
Nadella's thought of not competing but complimenting other assistants might be beautiful, but why would Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa user ever want to, or have to, use Cortana on their own platforms?
It does sound a little like Microsoft just threw in the towel because they couldn't or don't want to compete in hardware like the smart speakers.
Perhaps Microsoft does have some tricks up its sleeve on how to differentiate Cortana from the rest. Microsoft does have strong partnership with Amazon, so maybe it can warm Google up to some kind of collaboration.
The world's leading music streaming service has managed to keep itself on a narrow path not expanding the scope of the operation beyond simple streaming service, and perhaps that is what's responsible for the company's continuing success in entertainment.
However, profits aren't exactly piling in, and there are signs that Spotify needs some innovation to reinvent itself.
One thing Spotify hasn't expanded to is hardware, but that is about to change, according to reports by the Financial Times.
FT reports that Spotify is preparing a hardware launch, the first for the company, later this year. The device is said to be a music player for your car.
Screenshots or screen captures are an essential tools of any proper operating system. Every now and then you'll have to copy something on your screen for later use, and screenshots are the easiest and most versatile way to save important information or pictures.
Windows 10 of course offers screenshots out of the box, but there's more to it nowadays than just the Print Screen (PrtScn, PrtSc, PrintScr, etc) button. Here are a handful different ways you can take advantage of Windows 10's screenshot functions.
1) Perhaps the most known screenshot function in Windows is pressing simply the Print Screen button (sometimes with the addition of Function (fn) button) on your keyboard. This saves the entire, current, desktop view to the clipboard. You can then paste the picture to programs like Paint, and edit it as you see fit.
2) By pressing both Windows button and Print Screen simultaneously you can save the view as is to your computer's hard drive without having to edit or name it. Pictures are automatically saved to your Screenshots folder under Pictures.
3) You can take a screenshot of a single window by selecting the windows and pressing Alt and Print Screen buttons simultaneously. The picture of the windows is saved on your clipboard where you can paste it to your preferred graphics editor.
Microsoft has finally said out loud what everyone else knew already: Windows 10 Mobile operating system is dead.
Company tells in its support pages that the support for last remaining Windows-based mobile phone operating system, Windows 10 Mobile, will cease on 10th of December, 2019. After that point, there wont be any security updates or patches to the operating system.
Microsoft also tells that those still using the Windows phones should switch to either Android or iPhone before the said date.
Company itself has already moved on, having ceased the active development of the Windows Mobile back in October, 2017. Since then, Microsoft has released tons of apps for both, Android and iOS, with great success. Both, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, both have been downloaded more than 500 million times on Google Play.
According to Microsoft, existing customers can continue to use their phones even after the December deadline, but with caution, as the security problems wont be patched anymore. It is unclear whether the app store for Windows Mobile stays online after the deadline.
Netflix has revealed new financials and other statistics during their fourth quarter earnings report, and by the looks of it Reed Hastings can continue smiling.
User base grew massively over the last year, especially outside the United States. Netflix added 33 million new subscribers last year, and an estimate-beating 8.8 million in the last quarter alone.
The company's smash hit feature film Bird Box was watched over 80 million times.
Even with the impressive growth numbers, Netflix slightly missed the revenue target, and that seemed to put the tiniest of dents to stock price.
One of the more interesting statements in the earnings report is where Netflix mentioned that the toughest competition comes from not other streaming TV services but video games.
"We compete with (and lose to) Fortnite more than HBO," Netflix says. The streaming giant isn't worried about closest competitors in the TV and movie space, instead it has to share much more of people's time with interactive entertainment.
Netflix has already tried one type of answer to this challenge. Recently it released a new type of interactive movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which is a hybrid of video games and movies.
Late last year European Parliament voted for a new copyright directive which would have massive implications to both EU citizens as well as technology companies when it comes to sharing information online.
One company that has been very vocal about the shortcomings of the new laws, especially Article 11 and Article 13 within the directive, is Google. The search giant would have to start paying license fees to share pictures, summaries, or even headlines of linked news stories.
To further make the point, Google has provided Search Engine Land screenshots to illustrate how ridiculous the proposed laws are.
The picture is perhaps the most extreme example since companies could, for example, agree to provide some information in order to improve their ranking in search. What that world would look like, no one knows as of yet.
EU directive is currently in the final stages of drafting after which it needs to be ratified by the member states. Alongside Google and other tech giants digital rights groups such as the EFF have expressed their concerns over Article 11 and Article 13.
The latest being perhaps the toughest challenge, as Apple is used to increasing revenues and profits, and that won't be the case for previous quarter. The quarter will be the first in 16 years Apple has had to reduce expectations for.
Now Bloomberg is reporting, that Apple has to cut back hiring because of the problems.
According to Bloomberg's Apple analyst Mark Gurman, Apple CEO Tim Cook has informed employees about slowing down recruitment. This is likely due to unexpectedly low iPhone demand in China.
However, this doesn't mean that all hiring stalls or that any lay-offs are planned. Some divisions won't be hiring new people as much, but there will still be recruitment.
AI divisions are said to continue aggressive hiring as growth in that sector is expected.
Microsoft has revealed some upcoming features of Windows 10 on their official Windows blog. The update log is for Windows Insider test build but will soon be available to the greater public as well.
The features it showcases on the blog post are for Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18317, and are expected to hit the final Windows 10 update later this spring.
The largest change is separating Cortana from the search box. Microsoft is taking Cortana entirely out of the Windows 10 search box found next to the Start menu.
Windows 10 search will from now on be solely used for text search and a separate Cortana function next to the search bar can be used for voice search.
Other updates include improvements to Start menu stability (works now as a separate executable), drag and drop function to fonts tool and of course loads of smaller improvements and bug fixes.
The most recent version of Google's mobile operating systems, Android Pie, is still very much in the minority on Android devices, but we've already gotten past it and are getting leaks about the next version.
For those of us that have a Pixel or a phone from a manufacturer that truly respects Android updates, there are some exciting news.
New information about the upcoming Android Q reveals a few highly anticipated features. XDA-Developers reveals that the developer version of Android Q includes system-wide dark mode.
The feature has previously been rumored but this seems to all but confirm it's going to be on Android Q. Of course, Google could still axe the feature as Android Q is months away.
Dark mode turns the entire OS into a darker themed, and in OLED devices more battery friendly, Android phone. While you already can change the theme to a dark version, the new version will improve the support across the OS.
Some updates revealed by the developer version have to do with security. According to XDA, Google is making also system-wide changes to privacy.
One of these changes is to allow "only while the app is in use" permissions.
Smartphone sales might have peaked already but app usage is likely going up for a few years still.
Research firm App Annie has released the most recent figures about app sales and downloads, and there are some interesting trends as well as predictable results.
China has become the dominating force in app markets as it became in smartphone sales. Nearly half of all app downloads are done by the Chinese, even though Google Play isn't available.
Chinese were responsible for 40% of money spent on apps. Worldwide people used just over $100 billion on a total of 194 billion app downloads.
Among video streaming YouTube took the first spot globally by time spent, but only seventh by revenue. Netflix, as expected, made the most money of any app.
While Netflix definitely made its fair share of money, worldwide people spent 74% of their app money in games. A lion's share was shared by global Battle Royale hits PUBG Mobile and Fortnite.
The trend is still clearly up, even if smartphone sales is slowing down, and app sales is up 75% since 2016 worldwide.
Mastercard has changed rules for merchants that offer free trials to consumers in order to prevent consumers from being charged for services they don't want.
A lot of merchants offer free trials for subscription services so that potential customers can test them out before paying for them. However, at the end of such trials, merchants can often begin charging subscription fees automatically, which can be a surprise to some consumers.
To fight this common occurrence, Mastercard has changed rules for merchants that offer time-limited free trials to consumers. Merchants will be required to gain cardholder approval at the conclusion of the trial before they start billing.
Either by e-mail or SMS, merchants must send the cardholder the transaction amount, payment date, merchant name along with explicit instructions on how to cancel a trial. Each subsequent payment must also result in a receipt being issued by email or text message with clear instructions on how to cancel the service if the consumer so desires.
In addition, all charges that appear on the cardholder's statement must now include the merchant website URL or the phone number of the store where the cardholder made the purchase.
Troy Hunt has set up up a searchable database that contains a whopping 773 million breached login details. The data has been put together by combining various high profile data breaches from the past years, including the data breaches to LinkedIn and Adobe
The database that he calls "Collection #1" includes email addresses and passwords totalling 2,692,818,238 rows. Yes, you got that one right, more than two and a half billion details. When all the duplicates removed, it still leaves more than one billion login details (email address and password combination) to the database. And there are more than 700 million unique email addresses there, so some email addresses were breached in more than one data leak, with different password.
Mr. Hunt, who works as a regional director for Microsoft got the data from popular anonymous file sharing service MEGA and its origins, according to him, point to a popular hacker forum where the set of files is distributed openly among the hackers. Dataset in question is 87 gigabytes in size and has more than 12'000 files in it. He details the project in his own blog.
After the so called Batterygate, Apple started offering cheaper battery replacements for iPhone. Now report says over 10 million iPhone batteries have been replaced.
Batterygate was a controversy over Apple throttling the performance of iPhones after the battery started wearing out. Complaints in the social media pushed Apple to renew their software policy as well as offer a cheaper replacement option.
Battery replacement prices for iPhones up until iPhone 6 were dropped from $79 to $29. Combined with better knowledge of the deterioration of battery capacity and performance, even Apple was surprised how many people replaced their iPhone batteries.
According to Tim Cook, this even had an effect on the bottom line last quarter, although it probably wasn't the most significant contributor. Some people might have just replaced the battery instead buying a brand new iPhone.
Now, according to Daring Fireball, Apple has revealed in a meeting that they replaced 11 million iPhones under the $29 program. Usually Apple replaces batteries for around 1-2 million devices in a quarter.
Apple is considering a couple different manufacturers for 5G chips, among which Samsung is an option.
The information was revealed from the court documents from patent dispute between Apple and chipmaker Qualcomm, reports Reuters.
Testimony by Apple VP of Procurement Tony Blevins discloses that Apple has been in talks with Samsung and Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer MediaTek about 5G modems for an upcoming iPhone.
Currently Apple is receiving modems from Intel for their most recent iPhones after patent disputes have turned trade relationships with former partner Qualcomm sour.
Apple has stated that it doesn't want to rely on a single component provider, and as Qualcomm is not an option for upcoming iPhones they've been looking into both Samsung and MediaTek as options for Intel's chips.
Rumors late last year claimed that Apple has pushed 5G adoption back, and thus wouldn't be bringing the new wireless technology to iPhones this year.
Netflix is a fairly affordable way to watch TV, but it was even cheaper a few years back.
Actually, the streaming giant has been steadily increasing the prices in the U.S. and abroad. Now another price hike has been implemented, which means a dollar or two more for every subscription, the number of which total 58 million in the United States.
Previously Netflix's Basic plan was sold for $7.99 a month, but after the most recent price hike it goes to $8.99. The second tier, Standard, is now $12.99 compared to $10.99 earlier, and the elite tier, Premium, also goes up two bucks to $15.99 from $13.99.
A 13 to 18 percent rise across the board is fairly significant, and in fact its the largest of four price hikes in streaming service's history.
Netflix's increasing Originals production, including shows and movies of all stripes, has put pressure on prices. One can assume that the spiral will continue, and further price hikes are in the future for other regions.
Ever since iPhone, and perhaps even before, Apple has been fairly disputatious in the court rooms when it comes to patents.
For years we witnessed the fight between Samsung and Apple, and now Cupertino's own tech giant is challenging an American chipmaker Qualcomm to patent disputes.
The disputes have unearthed some new information about their trade relationship, and how toxic it was already last year, reported by CNET.
Apple boss Jeff Williams has testified that Apple tried to buy modems for iPhone XS and XR from both Intel and Qualcomm, but the latter refused to sell them the component.
When one of the options was off the table, Apple had to rely on Intel. Furthermore Apple's VP of Procurement, Tony Blevins, assured that Apple doesn't want to be in a situation where it has to rely on a single component provider.
Williams' testimony revealed that Apple pays Qualcomm $7.50 per device for royalties, which they consider unreasonable.
Up until iPhone 7 Qualcomm was the only provider of modems for Apple's iPhone. With iPhone 7 Apple had both Qualcomm and Intel chips and now Apple is using solely Intel modems.
We know you've been hooked on Game of Thrones since the beginning nearly eight years ago. And now you are waiting for the ultimate climax both exhilarated and woeful.
The last hurrah will begin on April 14, but HBO has decided that it's the time for the first proper footage of the upcoming season to be shared.
The first trailer for Game of Thrones season eight was shared on YouTube on Sunday, and without further ado, here's the minute and a half teaser called Crypts of Winterfell.
If you happen to own a 16 GB, or even a 32 GB, version of any iPhone or iPad, you are probably familiar with the Storage Almost Full notification. This might happen even as you are taking an all important photo, and it's something even Google has made fun of in its unlimited cloud storage ads.
So here are some ways you can make some room for new content on your iPhones and iPads.
Messages, media, and messaging apps
Apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, the two most popular ones around the globe, are used to share pictures and videos. This might over time fill your device's storage as they are saved for further use. However, you often don't need these files and there's a way to get rid of them.
You should head to Photos app and delete all unused pictures that are stored by apps. While you are at it, you might want to go through camera roll too, you might have tons of failed photos and dozens of same shot, both of which you probably never will use.
Even after deleting the bad ones storing photos in the cloud is a good way to free up space from your device.
The aforementioned Google Photos cloud service works also on iOS and offers unlimited storage for photos.
Google has been backed by an adviser to the European Union's top court on where the Search provider would have to remove search results under the 'right to be forgotten.'
The 'right to be forgotten' is the right of Europeans to petition Search engines to remove search results under certain circumstances. For example, if inaccurate information was published about a citizen that was damaging, then that citizen can petition search providers to remove it from its results.
Google has been skeptical of the entire concept from the start and ended up in a dispute with French regulators in 2016. The data regulator CNIL fined Google €100,000 because it did not remove information across national boundaries. Google appealed the fine, initiating an examination.
The Search giant warned that if it were forced to remove results globally, it could help less democratic regimes to enforce censorship.
Advocate General Maciej Szpunar, acting as an adviser to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) backed Google and advised that Google should not have to remove information from search results globally because of the right to be forgotten. Szpunar finds that the right to be forgotten should not affect search results outside of the European Union.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been blamed for not bringing in new hardware innovation that would reinvent Apple, like Steve Jobs did.
Obviously it's hard to follow Steve Jobs as a CEO, and the products he brought us, like the iPhone and the iPod. However, Tim Cook has defended himself and his record with hardware innovation on CNBC.
In an interview with Jim Cramer, Tim Cook pulled revenue data to support his point. According to figures Apple no longer shares, products like Apple Watch and AirPods are huge successes.
In terms of revenue wearables have already surpassed the golden days of iPod. According to Cook, Apple Watch and AirPods generate now 50 percent more revenue than iPod at its peak.
So far wearables has produced revenue which is 4 to 6 times the revenue of iPod after the same amount of time after launch.
He claims to make no future predictions but you can hear a definite tone which points to declining iPod sales and increasing importance of wearables.
One could argue that as iPod gave a boost to the company, like Cook acknowledges it in the interview, so must wearables do for the company now.
Apple had to issue a rare warning about its forthcoming quarterly results due to weak sales of iPhones. It seems like tech giants are in same difficult waters as Samsung reports similar concerns.
According to Apple, the problems were originating from China where economic growth had softened which in turn affected iPhone's sales figures. The culprit might loosely be the same, ie. China, although Samsung's problem wasn't smartphone sales.
However, the Korean conglomerate expects a dramatic decline from previous year in both revenue and operating profit, Bloomberg reports.
Samsung expects late 2018 quarter to produce a revenue of 59 trillion won, down 11% from previous year. Even worse, operating income declined nearly 30 percent year-over-year to 10.8 trillion.
One major reason for Samsung's slowdown is reduced demand for memory chips. This is likely to some extent due to the troublesome trade relations between China and the United States.
Even though smartphone sales isn't the reason for such a dramatic decline for the company's bottom line, Samsung is losing ground to Chinese competitors, who are managing to produce competitive products at lower price points.
Most Windows users know at least a few common keyboard shortcuts that save some time and effort when opening up apps or performing tasks.
However, there are dozens of such shortcuts that can aid Windows 10 users and improve the efficiency, especially when you have to work on said platform.
We've gathered some of the more important shortcuts here that have helped us be more productive but you might not be aware of. Without further ado.
Windows + A: Open/close Notification Center
Windows + I: Open Windows Settings
Windows + D: Reveal/unreveal desktop
Windows + X: Open context menu (right mouse button) of Start Menu
Windows + R: Open Run dialog
Windows + L: Lock device
Windows + P: Choose screen projection (for external displays)
Windows + Pause: Open System information
Windows + number: Open application from the task bar (number from the left)
Windows + arrow: Snap windows to left or right edge, or minimize/maximize it
Windows + Tab: Open Task View (includes all windows and desktops)
A Japanese billionaire has broken the retweet record on Twitter after pledging to give away money.
Yusaku Maezawa - who has an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion - tweeted on January 5th a pledge to share 100 million yen ($925,000) between 100 randomly selected people. In order to be in with a chance of getting a share of the cash, Twitter users have to follow his account and retweet.
The tweet was made in celebration of his website, Zozotown, reaching 10 billion yen in sales over the holiday period.
At the time of writing, the tweet has been retweeted more than 5.5 million times. The previous record was held by a teenager who asked for retweets to win a year of free chicken nuggets from Wendy's. The number of retweets reached over 3.5 million. Prior to that, Ellen Degeneres had held the record with a selfie she took with Hollywood actors while hosting the Oscars.
Maezawa has made his fortune in the fashion world and is known for his taste in art. He could become one of the first commercial astronauts in a few years time as he has booked a ride atop SpaceX' Super Heavy rocket & Starship. The plan is to fly Maezawa and several others that he will hand pick around the Moon.
Sprint will roll out 5G service with Samsung smartphones in the United States starting in the summer.
The carrier is teaming up with the South Korean CE firm in plans to offer 5G smartphones and services starting in the summer in nine cities. At the time of rollout, the pair hopes to offer the service in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Phoenix and Washington D.C.
Rival wireless carrier Verizon announced very similar 5G rollout plans for mid-2019 just last month.
Depending on circumstances, 4G speeds can be up to 100 times father than current 4G technology in wide usage. Samsung will undoubtedly benefit from getting into 5G ahead of Apple Inc., which reportedly is planning to release its first 5G iPhones in 2020.
Samsung is showing off its modular Micro LED technology at CES in Las Vegas, with a 75-inch display and a giant 219-inch 'Wall' display.
The displays are made up of individual modules of self-emissive Micro LEDs, featuring millions of inorganic red, green and blue microscopic LED chips that emit their own light. Samsung first showed off the technology at last year's CES with a giant 146-inch Micro LED display.
This year the South Korean firm is back with an enormous 219-inch display. However, it has also brought along a home-friendly 75-inch 4K display.
The promise of the technology is down to its modular nature. Users can actually expand their display to any size they desire. The displays can be customized to fit any room or space, even at irregular 9×3, 1×7 or 5×1 screen sizes that suit their spatial, aesthetic and functional needs. MicroLED displays are bezel-free, meaning there are no borders between additional modules.
"For decades, Samsung has lead the way in next-generation display innovation," said Jonghee Han, President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.
"Our Micro LED technology is at the forefront of the next screen revolution with intelligent, customizable displays that excel in every performance category. Samsung Micro LED has no boundaries, only endless possibilities."
Tesla has launched its Model 3 configurator page to those living in left-hand driving European countries. The configurator page allows potential buyer to tweak the Model 3 options and see how the changes effect the price in his/her country. Page has been open in selected European countries since December, but now it seems that almost all European countries where Tesla operates, are included.
As the value-added tax (VAT), various subsidizes and possible car taxes vary from country to country, the pricing varies quite wildly across Europe. In Finland, for example, the cheapest Model 3 configuration will cost €63,070 (appx. $71,800) while the same car costs only $49,000 in some parts of the United States. In France, the prices start from €53,000 and in Germany, from €57,900.
European Model 3 will have a different charging port in Europe, opting to use European CCS Combo charging port instead of its own proprietary port. Tesla will be retrofitting its existing Supercharger stations in Europe to accept both connectors.
Model 3 configurator is now open to left-hand drive countries in Europe. Design your Model 3
Apple has been ordered to remove from iPhone models from retail stores in Germany in an ongoing patent dispute with Qualcomm.
The chipmaker has accused Apple of patent infringement related to power-saving technology present in certain iPhone models. In December, a court in Munich sided with Qualcomm in finding that Apple had infringed the patents in question.
In Germany, the winner of a patent dispute must post a bond to protect against damages incurred by the losing side if it were to later have the decision overturned in court. Only once this bond is posted will the judgment become enforcement. Qualcomm complied with the law by paying a €1.3 billion bond.
"Qualcomm insists on charging exorbitant fees based on work they didn't do and they are being investigated by governments all around the world for their behaviour," an Apple spokesman said back in December.
Earlier this week we reported how Apple was forced to revoke Facebook's Enterprise Development Program certificates after it was revealed that they had been violating the program's rules.
As we all know, Apple loves proprietary technologies so much that sometimes it makes completely mundane feature sound like they are a new innovation.
Due to anti-gambling policies in Belgium, Electronic Arts (EA) will stop Belgians from purchasing Fifa Points in the country.
