Latest news

AfterDawn's official Android app has been updated. The new version, v1.50, now has the most-requested new feature: night mode (aka dark theme) for those of us who like to read news when it is way past the bedtime.

New version also fixes bunch of various little bugs and should stabilize the app quite a lot.

Through our app, you can access our news archives to all the way back to the 1999 when our site was founded. And of course, the app is completely free - and it doesn't require any suspicious permissions or anything like that.

So, go ahead and give it a try:

AfterDawn's official Android app

Currently our app's rating is pretty decent 4.6/5.0 stars, so you guys seem to genuinely like it. If you have any ideas on how to improve, let us know.

There's a nasty, malicious WhatsApp message spreading across the World that can freeze WhatsApp - or even your entire phone.

One of these messages is masked as a challenge and reads "If you touch the black point then your whatsapp will hang" - and if you do touch the black spot, your WhatsApp does exactly what the message "promises" it will.

The other message says "This is very interesting" and has a cry/laugh emoji. Tapping that message will have similar consequences.

Why such messages crash WhatsApp?

The message itself might seem short, but in reality, it consists thousands and thousands of encoded character in it that are just hidden, as they're mostly text directionality symbols, instructing which way to output the text. Thus, opening up such message will simply cause a memory leak in WhatsApp - and in some cases, with your phone.

So, never trust weird WhatsApp messages from people you don't know about.

Center for Internet Security has found a serious vulnerability in popular open-source (de-)compression tool, 7-Zip.

The vulnerability allows execution of malicious code, access to computer's files and user profiles. Further details of the vulnerability are listed on Center for Internet Security's website.

The good news is that there's already an update available for 7-Zip that will patch the vulnerability. Versions v18.05 and above are safe and patched.

You can download the latest, patched version of 7-Zip from our download servers:

7-Zip (64-bit Windows)
7-Zip (32-bit Windows)

...or through /-Zip's homepage.

Twitter has found a bug in its systems that logged users' passwords in plain text format to its log files. As web services should never store passwords in human-readable format, but instead, use "hashed with salt" approach to store them, the finding is significant.

Now Twitter asks all its users to change their passwords as soon as possible. According to Twitter, there are no signs whatsoever that the passwords have actually leaked, but as such a possibility cannot be totally ruled out, it is recommended to change the passwords.

Obviously the problem is even worse if user uses the same email address / password combination on other services. Nowadays users are strongly urged to use unique passwords for all different services, but as people are lazy, it is still very common to use same login details across many services.

In such a case, one should change passwords on all such web sites and services.

We encourage users to use password managers - they'll recommend good passwords for you and will also remember all your passwords and keep them in strongly encrypted password lockers. One good (and free) such tool is KeePass.

The new Samsung PRO Endurance microSDHC/microSDXC card is suitable for continuous recording application, supporting up to 43,800 hours of recordings.

The are suitable for surveillance cameras, security cameras, for body cameras and dash cameras (basically any task that requires long continuous recording), providing read speeds of up to 100MB/s and write speed up to 30MB/s.

Available in capacities of 32GB, 64GB and 128GB, the Samsung PRO Endurance are built to withstand harsh environments and features Samsung's 4-Proof protection, making them water, temperature, magnetic and x-ray-proof.

The PRO Endurance memory cards are now available for purchase with manufacturer's suggested retail prices starting at $89.99 for 128GB, $44.99 for 64GB and $24.99 for 32GB.

The 128GB card comes with a new industry-leading limited warranty of five years (three years for 64GB, two years for 32GB).

Rockstar Games is whetting our appetite again with the release of the third official trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2, coming later this year.

The game follows the exploits of the Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang as they flee the law following a botched robbery in the western town of Blackwater. Federal officers and skilled bounty hunters are in pursuit as the gang rob, steal and fight their way across the heartland of America.

During the turmoil, Arthur must decide between his own ideals and his loyalty to the gang as growing divisions among the members threaten their survival.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been dated for release on October 26, for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. PC Gamers unfortunately are still in the dark on plans (if any) to release it on their platform.

Here's the trailer:

Sony's cloud-gaming PSN platform has its first batch of PlayStation 2 classic titles.

Most of us who owned a PlayStaion 2 during that generation of gaming consoles tend to remember it fondly. Of course, it had very limited network abilities later in its life cycle compared to the typically always-connected consoles we have now. Even it's major rival - Microsoft's original Xbox - arrived later with several advantages over it, and of course the graphics are what you'd expect from two generations ago. All that considered, the PS2 still was fun and had a lot of excellent games to choose from.

Those who had a PS2 and now have a PS4 and PS Now subscription will be happy to know that PS2 classics will be rolling out on the service to compliment the 650+ titles available.

Initially, PS Now will offer the following PS2 titles:

• Ape Escape 2
• Dark Cloud 2
• Hot Shots Tennis
• Limbo
• Metal Slug 3
• Mystery Chronicle: One Way Heroics
• Sine Mora EX
• Siren
• The Last Blade 2

Here is Ape Escape 2 running on PS Now.

It has been revealed that WhatsApp will soon have a coveted group video calls feature at the Facebook Developer Conference (F8 2018) in San Jose.

Having had video chat available for users of WhatsApp for a couple of years now, the absence of a group video calls feature has been noticed. It is particularly puzzling given that WhatsApp's Groups are very popular and a key strength of its service. For those who wanted to turn their Group communication to video, they would need to switch to another service.

At F8 2018, Mubarik Imam, head of growth and partnerships for WhatsApp, revealed that WhatsApp will have Group video calls within a few months time. WhatsApp will also get Stickers soon.

Not much was revealed about Group video calls except that from the images shown it appears to support at least four participants.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) has opened an investigation into Nintendo over alleged patent infringement following a complaint from Gamevice.

Gamevice manufactures the Wikipad and a selection of snap-on controllers for mobile gaming devices. It sued Nintendo last year for alleged patent infringement, but the lawsuit was later dropped. However, the U.S. International Trade Commission is investigating Nintendo's Swtich after a complaint from Gamevice.

The Wikipad manufacturer is requesting a cease and desist order against Nintendo to block the import of Swtich hardware into the United States.

According to the ITC website, the body has made no ruling on the validity of the complaint and will conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Nintendo is in violation of the Tariff Act of 1930.

"The complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 in the importation into the United States and sale of certain portable gaming console systems with attachable handheld controllers and components thereof that infringe patents asserted by the complainant," the ITC press release reads.

"The complainant requests that the USITC issue a limited exclusion order and cease and desist orders."

Microsoft has revealed that they are releasing the next update for Windows 10 soon. In fact, the update simply called April 2018 update is available starting on Monday, the last day of April.

Obviously the update comes with loads of smaller bugfixes and optimizations but there's also one big, entirely new feature. Microsoft calls the new feature Timeline, and according to the company it "helps you easily find what matters to you across your devices".

You might ask what does this exactly mean? Well, with Timeline, you can go back up to 30 days to find whatever you are looking for. The feature lists the files and other content you've been using in the past month by activity.

It also allows catching up to your work on the go whether you are using and iOS or Android device, as long as you use Microsoft Edge or Office 365.

Other major changes include a mute tab option in Edge browser as well as Focus Assist feature that allows you to silence social media and other notifications while you are trying to be productive.

There's also an improved Dictation feature that works with any text field within Windows 10 or any app.

You can read more about the update here.

One of the key individuals behind Tesla's future is without a doubt the VP of Autopilot Jim Keller. Keller has been leading the development of autonomous driving chips inside Tesla, which many would agree is one of the key advantages of Teslas.

Now the semiconductor giant Intel has managed to lure Keller into leaving Tesla.

See, Tesla has been buying their chips from Nvidia but while doing that they've been investing heavily in their own chip R&D. Jim Keller has been the person who has been leading the effort to create their own proprietary chip that would not only fit their need better but would be cheaper to produce.

Keller has not revealed exactly what was the reason for departure from Tesla, but apparently Intel offers something better. Whether it is personal chemistry, heftier bonuses, problems with the program, or a better work environment, Tesla will likely miss Keller dearly.

Now the company has to find another chip guru to replace Kellers undeniable expertise in semiconductors. Prior to Tesla Keller worked at AMD where he lead the development of Zen architecture and PA Semi where he was developing Apple's system-on-chips.

One thing is for sure: Keller hasn't started hating autonomous driving all of a sudden since the new job at Intel is in the exact same field.

Google has introduced its email service, Gmail, one of the services largest updates ever. Gmail's UI and feature set has been fairly stagnant over the years and was definitely due a revamp.

The more modern look includes rounded elements, clearer and larger fonts, and updated icons. What you are really happy to see, though, are the new features.

Gmail now offers a snooze feature for specific email threads, integrated rights management (IRM) for business oriented users, and email specific two-factor authentication (2FA) among other things.

Snooze works exactly as you would expect. You'll be pausing the notifications for a specific thread until you have time to focus on your emails again.

There's also a new feature called nudging that allows Gmail to recognize emails that need attention, and might save the user a lot of trouble.

One of the more requested features, however, is automatically destroyed messages. A feature which was popularized by Snapchat, of course, has made it to Gmail but is a little bit different as you might imagine.

Unlike on Snapchat, Gmail allows the user to determine how low the message will be viewable and can block forwarding the email. The feature is called confidential mode, and it works with both Gmail users as well as other email providers users via https.

WhatsApp will soon start banning users who are under 16 year old. The change is related to European Union's GDPR legislation and how WhatsApp has decided to implement it.

The change will affect only those who live in European Union. Previously the age limit in Europe has been 13. The upcoming GDPR privacy legislation doesn't require companies to raise the age limit, but it has special clauses aimed at protecting minors. Thus, Facebook - who owns WhatsApp - has decided that it is easiest to simply raise the age limit across Europe.

Ibn coming weeks users of WhatsApp within European Union will be faced with a questionnaire asking for their age and also to agree with new, GDPR-compliant terms of service.

GDPR is one of the biggest privacy legislation changes in the World, giving EU citizens rights to their data and restricts how companies can use the data they have collected.

GDPR gives EU member states the right to choose the age of data handling consent (when the person is deemed capable of giving consent for companies to have his/her data collected) to be between 13 and 16 years, but apparently Facebook/WhatsApp has decided that it is easier to simply raise the age limit to 16 all across European Union rather than to deal each country's age limit separately.

Google's Chrome has been the market leader in web browsers, especially the desktop versions, for a long time, and for a very good reason. Frequent updates and Google's track record of bringing new features while not forgetting to keep it speedy and secure has been the winning formula.

Now the search giant is readying a new update that will bring an updated look to the browser. The early version, called the Canary, has revealed that Google is moving towards a UI look with rounded edges.

This look, that resembles earlier Firefox builds from few years back, also features a darker tone for tab bar. There's also a new + button on Windows and Linux on the left side of the tab bar.

Unfortunately at this point we don't know when exactly this new UI look is going to hit the stable version. If you'd like to move to it already you can install the Chrome Canary v68 and change the options from chrome://flags/#top-chrome-md to "refresh."

Apple has today issued a worldwide battery replacement program, or a recall, for one of its MacBook Pro models. The computer in question is the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar.

According to the company some of the laptops have a component that has been deemed prone to failure. The component is only said to be found in some more specific versions but cannot be entirely isolated so the recall is issued to all 13-inch MacBook Pro models without Touch Bar that have been produces between October 2016 and October 2017.

While Apple denies that there is any risk of safety involved, one should definitely return the device to be repaired. The repair is largely as simple as switching the battery, but other issues with the laptop might have to be fixed before the replacement.

You can check whether your MacBook Pro is indeed part of the replacement program by visit Apple's official site. In order to check the status you'll need the serial number which can be found from the Apple menu item "About This Mac."