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AfterDawn: News

GitHub releses Copilot - an AI that codes for you

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 30 Jun 2021 10:47

GitHub releses Copilot - an AI that codes for you GitHub has released an AI-powered coding assistant that can actually write code for you. Dubbed as GitHub Copilot, the new AI tool might transform the way programmers do their work.

Jointly developed by GitHub and OpenAI, the Copilot uses OpenAI Codex AI platform. The AI has been pre-fed with thousands of open source code projects, drawing from vast code repository that GitHub itself is. By using the source material. Copilot has learned how to write code, entire functions and even entire algorithms.

Basically, Copilot can understand even very short hints, like a function call and determine what that function should do - and then write the entire function on its own. So, it is not your dad's old auto-fill service that is available on all code editors, but a really a tool that could take out the most mundane parts of any programming.

Copilot also supports basically all the known programming languages, as programming itself tends ot follow the same rules, regardless of the actual language used. GitHub says that currently it works best for most used languages, such as TypeScript, Ruby, Python, Go and JavaScript. What is even more impressive is the fact that Copilot adapts to each programmer's own programming style and tried to generate code that resembles the programmer's coding style - making the code more readable for its "main pilot".

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AfterDawn: News

Brexit allows BT to reintroduce roaming fees - and it does so

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 24 Jun 2021 1:01

Brexit allows BT to reintroduce roaming fees - and it does so After the United Kingdom's separation from the Europen Union was finally finalized in January, 2021, the European Union legislations ceased to restrict British corporations. And now, at least one of them, is taking an advantage of the situation.

Back in 2017, European Union introduced a legislation that abolished roaming fees across the Europen Union. Basically this meant that any European citizen could travel to other EU country and use their existing mobile phone contract there, without any extra fees. Calling, texting and data usage cost the same as you'd pay when staying at your own home, even when you're travelling abroad.

Since the Brexit, UK hasn't been part of the European Union and thus, the European legislation doesn't force the hands of its local operators anymore. One of the major operators, British Telecom assured its customers for years that if the brexit would happen, it wouldn't re-introduce roaming fees for British travellers.

Now, company has decided to do exactly that. Starting in 2022, British Telecom's mobile network, EE, customers will have to pay a £2 daily fee in order to use their text, call or data packages when travelling in Europe.

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AfterDawn: News

Windows 11 unveiled: UI completely redesigned, free for Windows 10 users

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 24 Jun 2021 12:48

Windows 11 unveiled: UI completely redesigned, free for Windows 10 users Microsoft finally unveiled its latest operating system, Windows 11, today. The user interface has been completely redesgined, but other major changes occurred, too.

Most visibily, the taskbar of Windows 11 looks totally different from anything we've seen in Windows. It is actually taken mostly from abandoned Windows 10X operating system project that Microsoft had in its plans for light-weight computers. As 10X was eventually scrapped, the UX changes of it made their way to new Windows 11.

Windows 11 start menu


Windows 11 Start menu


One of the most significant changes is the fact that Windows 11 wont support 32-bit CPUs anymore: it is 64-bit only. The entire minimum requirement sheet is:
  • 64-bit CPU, with minimum of 1GHz
  • at least two CPU cores
  • 64GB of storage
  • 4GB of RAM
  • UEFI-compatible BIOS and motherboard
  • at least 9" display, with 1366x768 resolution or better
  • DirectX 12 compatible graphics

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AfterDawn: News

Finally some clarity: Honor phones will be supported by Huawei, new ones by Honor

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 24 Jun 2021 7:54

Finally some clarity: Honor phones will be supported by Huawei, new ones by Honor After Huawei was put on United States' black list back in 2019, the company's phone business has been in rather chaotic state. Finally, in late 2020, Huawei had to sell its sub-brand, Honor, in order to get some much-needed cash and to save at least part of the company's phone business.

Since Honor was spun off, the question about the Honor phones' support has been open: who will provide support for Honor phones sold before the spin-off? Now, there are finally some answers.

According to Finnish mobile news site, SuomiMobiili, older Honor phones will be supported by Huawei, permanently, and only the new Honor phones will be supported by Honor itself. SuomiMobiili approached Honor's Finnish subsdiary directly and got straight answers to its questions about the Honor phone support.

Speicifically, all Honor phones released on or after 1st of April, 2021 will be supported by Honor - everything released before that date, will be supported by Huawei.

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AfterDawn: News

Google crashing on your Android phone? You're not alone - here's how to fix it

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 22 Jun 2021 5:40

Google crashing on your Android phone? You're not alone - here's how to fix it Google has once again managed to mess up its flagship product's update on Android phones. Thousands of users across the globe have reported that Google's search app on Android is crashing constantly. So, no, its not you, its the Google.

The problem has been observed with Google's app versions 12.23.16.23.arm64 and 12.22.8.23. Problem seems to be affecting users with various manufacturers, ranging from Samsung, Google's own Pixel phones to Sony phones.

According to Google, the issue should be cleared after phone restart, but according to reports, this hasn't helped everybody.

To fix the problem for now, navigate to your phone's Settings and go to Settings > Apps > Google. There, tap the three dots in the upper corner and choose Remove updates. This should fix the problem until Google releases an official patch to the problem.




AfterDawn: News

iPhone users: Do not join WiFi network named like this - your WiFi wont work after this

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 20 Jun 2021 6:45

iPhone users: Do not join WiFi network named like this - your WiFi wont work after this Security expert Carl Schou has spotted an interesting bug in Apple's iPhone WiFi connectivity. Joining to a specifically named WiFi network will freeze the phone's entire WiFi connectivity - permanently.

After user joins such network, the WiFi connections freeze completely and not even rebooting the phone will fix the problem. Neither will disabling WiFi and turning it on again. Only solution is to reset all iPhone's network connections completely through iPhone's settings, which will wipe out all the stored WiFi passwords and settings.



The problem exists also in Apple iPad tablets and behaves similarly. Apple hasn't released a fix to the problem yet.




AfterDawn: News

Now it pretty sure: Windows 11 will replace Windows 10, Win10 support will end in 2025

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 14 Jun 2021 8:41

Now it pretty sure: Windows 11 will replace Windows 10, Win10 support will end in 2025 Rumors surrounding the upcoming Windows event on 24th of June have been pretty wild lately. There has been speculation whether Microsoft will actually roll back on its promise that the Windows 10 would be the last Windows ever. Now, it seems that Windows 10 will, in deed, get a successor.

Microsoft's own Windows product page now lists the end of life date for Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Home editions. Both operating systems are listed to reach their end of support life in 2025. This is pretty solid proof that Microsoft is about to release Windows 11 next week.

Windows 10 retirement date listed on Microsoft support page


When Microsoft released Windows 10 back in July, 2015, the company stated that it would be the "last Windows ever". Since then, company has kept its promise and has simply provided big feature updates to its operating system in form of semi-annual big update packs. But now, it seems that the Redmond giant has something so big in pipeline that it wont be just another update, but an entire new operating system version.

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AfterDawn: News

AfterDawn's 22nd birthday

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 10 Jun 2021 12:31

AfterDawn's 22nd birthday Yes. As unbelievable as it is, its been exactly 22 years since our site was officially launched back in June, 1999.

Back then, majority of the online users connected to the internet using 56k modems and 2G phones were just getting popular. Texting wasn't available in most of the U.S. networks. AltaVista was the biggest search engine...

Yes, technologies have changed over the years. Our site has evolved accordingly. We've seen the good times and bad times - and are unfortunately somewhat experiencing one of those bad times for our dear old site as of now. But as with everything that has happened during the past 22 years, we'll adapt.

I wont go into details of our past further, as I covered our site's history pretty extensively two years ago when our site turned 20. Instead, as always, I'd like to thank all of you. I'd like to thank my coworkers and my co-founders for all these years we've spent together building this site. And obviously, I'd like to thank all of our employees - past and present - for all the hard work they've put into AfterDawn. And last but not least, I'd like to thank all of you: our users, visitors and moderators who have continued to support our site from year after year.

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AfterDawn: News

Hackers stole 780GB of data from EA, including source code of FIFA 21

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 10 Jun 2021 12:11

Hackers stole 780GB of data from EA, including source code of FIFA 21 Apparently hackers have managed to breach into gaming giant EA's servers and have stolen 760 gigabytes of data. This stolen data includes the full source code for EA's soccer game FIFA 21 as well as source code for its Frostbite engine.

Frostbite engine is used for games such as Battlefield. According to VICE, EA has confirmed the incident and the data that was stolen from the company.

User data was not stolen, just company's internal development tools, source codes and other development assets. Hackers behind this have tried to sell the material in various net's shady underground forums and commerce sites. Thus, the stolen data hasn't leaked to the wider public - at least, not yet.




AfterDawn: News

Big chunk of Internet is down: Reddit, StackOverflow, Spotify, Amazon, eBay and more (EDIT: Fixed now, culprit found)

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 08 Jun 2021 6:16

Big chunk of Internet is down: Reddit, StackOverflow, Spotify, Amazon, eBay and more (EDIT: Fixed now, culprit found) About ten minutes ago, some part of the internet's structure crashed. The fingers are pointing to some of the various large CDN and cache providers - guesses at Twitter are that the culprit is Fastly.

Due this, various huge websites, such as Reddit and StackOverflow simply show 503 error for now.

According to DownDetector site, the problems started about 10 minutes ago before we published this story:

Reddit down?


The list of affected sites continues to grow: and Twitch are both down. And fingers are pointing at Fastly's server outages.

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AfterDawn: News

Top 10 most-watched Netflix movies ever

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 01 Jun 2021 5:27

Top 10 most-watched Netflix movies ever Netflix has published a list of its most popular own movies ever.

Topping the chart is the last year's action movie The Extraction with a whopping 99 million views to date. Overall, the list has tons of movies from very recent years, as number of Netflix's subscribers has steadily grown over the years, most notably, globally.

The latest entry to the list is the May 2021 release of Army of the Dead with 72 million views, climbing to the list's tied ninth place, sharing the last spot in the list with last year's George Clooney movie The Midnight Sky.

Here's the full top ten:

  1. Extraction (99M)
  2. Bird Box (89M)
  3. Spenser Confidential (85M)
  4. 6 Underground (83M)
  5. Murder Mystery (83M)
  6. The Old Guard (78M)
  7. Enola Holmes (76M)
  8. Project Power (75M)
  9. The Midnight Sky
    Army of the Dead (tied, both with 72M)


Here' the trailer of the latest entry, the zombie movie Army of the Dead:




AfterDawn: News

Android 12 beta downloads available now for OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO and more

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 20 May 2021 10:07

Android 12 beta downloads available now for OnePlus, Xiaomi, OPPO and more As Google launched the first public beta of Android 12 this week, the beta release was also released for various Android manufacturers' phones globally.

As one would expect, all Google Pixel models from Pixel 3 upwards got the Android 12 beta release (which also means that original Pixel and Pixel 2 series have noe both reached their end of life and wont get Android 12). Xiaomi released the beta for handful of its most recent high-end models, including Xiaomi Mi 11i - see full list of Xiaomi models with Android 12 beta.

Recently released Asus Zenfone 8 got Android 12 beta, too. Also selected Chinese manufacturers, such as TCL, OPPO and ZTE released the beta for some of their high-end models.

One of the bigger manufacturers among the beta team is OnePlus: their recent flagship pair OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro (read our OnePlus 9 Pro review) got the Android 12 beta, too. Unfortunately, some of the OnePlus users have already reported various problems with the beta. Most notably, some OnePlus 9 phones have been stuck into infinite reboot loop after the update. OnePlus quickly released instructions on how to downgrade back to Android 11.

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AfterDawn: News

This Instagram tool blocks offensive, abusive DM requests

Written by AfterDawn Staff @ 21 Apr 2021 11:03

This Instagram tool blocks offensive, abusive DM requests Instagram has provided users with a way to block out abusive messages that are sent as DM requests on its platform.

While people can avoid abusive or offensive messages in DMs on Instagram by limiting who can contact them, many users report getting abusive messages via the DM request inbox on Instagram.

A new tool can now be used that will automatically filter DM requests containing offensive words, phrases, and emojis, so you never have to see them. It will work in a similar way to the comment filters that are already available on Instagram.

Instagram worked with anti-discrimination and anti-bullying organizations to develop a predefined list of offensive terms that will be filtered from DM requests when the feature is turned on. There is also the option to create your own custom list of words, phrases, or emojis that you don't want to see in your DM requests.

All DM requests that contain these offensive words, phrases, or emojis - whether from your custom list or the predefined list - will be automatically filtered into a separate hidden requests folder. If you choose to open the folder, the message text will be covered so you're not confronted with offensive language, unless you tap to uncover it.

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AfterDawn: News

Resident Evil 4 VR coming to Oculus Quest 2 this year

Written by AfterDawn Staff @ 21 Apr 2021 10:59

Resident Evil 4 VR coming to Oculus Quest 2 this year Sixteen-year-old classic RE4 has been demonstrated ahead of its release for the Oculus Quest 2.

Originally released for the GameCube, Resident Evil 4 is a beloved classic of the horror series and has been ported several times already. This year it is getting the Oculus VR makeover, and we now have a glimpse of what that will look and feel like.

Weapons, ammo, and items are physical objects in the game you can reach out to manipulate or pick up. Drawing a weapon can be done with your hand rather than a menu, along with the act of reloading.

You can move Leon from your first-person perspective using the controllers or you can use a new teleportation feature that makes it easy to skip Leon's movement forward.

The game can be run at a higher framerate than the original 30FPS also, and all original characters and textures have been ported to Unreal Engine 4. More details will be available soon ahead of its launch later this year.

Take a look at the demo:




AfterDawn: News

WATCH: Enhanced video of Mars helipcopter flight

Written by AfterDawn Staff @ 21 Apr 2021 10:54

WATCH: Enhanced video of Mars helipcopter flight There is now an enhanced version of Monday's historic first powered flight from the Martian surface.

NASA's Ingenuity helicopter made history this week when it powered up and lifted off on the surface of Mars. The brief excursion into Mars' thin atmosphere is the first time a human-made device has taken powered flight from the surface of another planet, even if it was just a short hop into the air. It is important to state it is the first powered flight, as the Soviet Union achieved the first balloon flight in the atmosphere of Venus in 1985.

The first images of Ingenuity were grainy and choppy and were followed by a better video. However, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory channel on YouTube has uploaded an enhanced video with more detail.

It actually contains two separate recordings of the event, presented side by side. The view on the left uses motion filtering to show where dust was detected during liftoff and landing and the view on the right is enhanced with the motion filtering.

Here is the video:

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