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AfterDawn: News

Tim Cook promises Mac mini still has a future

Written by Matti Robinson @ 20 Oct 2017 12:15

Tim Cook promises Mac mini still has a future Apple's computer lineup has been refreshed fairly steadily during the past years, and even though lineup has changed slightly most products are still intact. Even the iMac was updated this year with the new iMac Pro launching in December.

One product seems to have been forgotten though, the Mac mini. Many have probably thought that the 2014 launched computer was the last of its kind.

However, even though earlier this week it celebrated three years since and update, the Mac mini still has some life in it, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

In an email Tim Cook has revealed that the inexpensive desktop computer will have an important role in Apple in the future. That would suggests that Mac mini is coming back sometime soon. Unfortunately, albeit not surprisingly, Cook did not reveal any schedule or plans about the release.

MacRumors reader asked Cook in an email if there was anything in the pipeline to update the beloved Mac mini, and while Cook couldn't share any details he said "we do plan for Mac mini to be an important part of our product line going forward."

It could be that Mac mini is the product Apple uses to introduce ARM based chips to mac OS. The device has never been a speedster but instead meant for normal office work or perhaps a media device with a focus on easy of use. This would be a perfect opportunity to perhaps narrow the gap between iOS and mac OS devices.




AfterDawn: News

Google makes 'try without downloading' Instant Apps public

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Oct 2017 5:06

Google makes 'try without downloading' Instant Apps public There aren't many more important upgrades coming to Google's app store than what the company calls Android Instant Apps. Unveiled first time more than a year ago and already available for developers for months now, Instant Apps have now been made public.

Google has added a new category to Google Play called 'Apps to Try Now' which includes a total of eight Instant Apps – not eight thousand or eight hundred, eight. While only a very limited amount of apps can, at this point, be tried before downloaded for actual use, one can expect the availability of this feature to be expanded in the future.

You can find a host of other apps featured on the Android Instant Apps developer page. Android 8.0 Oreo brings along a built-in support for Instant Apps.

Currently you can try the following eight apps: Hollar, Onefootball Live Soccer Scores, dotloop, ShareTheMeal, BuzzFeed, NYTimes Crosswords, Red Bull TV, Skyscanner. At this moment all the apps are free to not only try but to download, but one can imagine that in the future Google will also bring paid apps to Instant Apps.

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AfterDawn: News

Marvel's newest Netflix superhero series gets a release date – and a new action-packed trailer

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Oct 2017 4:16

Marvel's newest Netflix superhero series gets a release date – and a new action-packed trailer Netflix has become one of the most important partners for Marvel very recently. In only a few years Netflix has released five Marvel shows with one more in line before the end of the year.

The streaming giant has been the publisher of more Marvel TV shows in 2015-2017 than Hulu, ABC, FX, and Fox combined. Six out of ten Marvel shows during that three year period have been brought to you by Netflix.

Now the latest of them has finally gotten a release date.

The Punisher got a second official trailer today and with it Netflix unveiled the release date, November 17. Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, will hit the streaming service with 13 episodes.

The new trailer, with music from Metallica, shows some of the dark history of Frank Castle and his family, and the subsequent action-packed fight against the crime that is running rampant in New York City. The Punisher, previously guest starred in Netflix show Daredevil, is played by Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead).

Without further ado...

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AfterDawn: News

Netflix to spend $8 billion in programming next year

Written by Matti Robinson @ 18 Oct 2017 2:23

Netflix to spend $8 billion in programming next year There's no bigger player in the streaming TV and movies scene than Netflix – no matter how much you want it YouTube. This year the streaming giant will spend approximately $6 billion in programming, only to increase the spending by quite a margin in 2018.

According to Bloomberg, Netflix is going to up the game another 33% in 2018 bringing the total program spending to a whopping $8 billion. This obviously means that there will be tons of new and popular returning TV shows, host of exciting documentaries as well as record number of original movies.

Netflix's content chief Ted Sarandos told in an investor call that Netflix will release 80 original movies next year, more than three biggest Hollywood studios (Disney, Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures) combined. Not every single one of them, or even most, are big budget blockbuster type of movies but there are those too.

In addition to increasing the content altogether, Netflix has focused their efforts in few specific niches. The upcoming year will bring along Netflix's first ever Danish show (The Rain, a post-apocalyptic adventure) as well as its first Swedish series (Quicksand, a suspenseful crime drama) among other foreign content. This year the company released their first Italian and German shows.

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AfterDawn: News

Google Fiber launched in Louisville

Written by Matti Robinson @ 18 Oct 2017 12:29

Google Fiber launched in Louisville Google Fiber has been officially launched in Louisville, KY. Louisville becomes the tenth city to get search giant's super fast internet service.

Google has been working on San Antonio, TX as well as Louisville for a while now. San Antonio is still under construction but today first customers will be able to apply for Google Fiber in Kentucky's most populous city.

Louisville mayor Greg Fischer welcomed Google Fiber earlier today to the city with Google representatives visiting the city. The availability is fairly limited at this point, and only available in three neighborhoods (Portland, Newburg and Strathmoor). Google hasn't revealed the exact number of potential customers reached with the launch.

Louisville is the first city to not get Google Fiber as an Internet and TV bundle. Instead, you'll have separate Google Fiber internet connection which you can pair up with the new YouTube TV streaming service that costs you an additional $35/mo.

The internet service itself, however, is priced just like in other Google Fiber cities. 100/100Mbit for $50 and 1000/1000Mbit for $70/mo.

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AfterDawn: News

Microsoft updates Macbook Pro competitor, here's the new Surface Book 2

Written by Matti Robinson @ 17 Oct 2017 6:10

Microsoft updates Macbook Pro competitor, here's the new Surface Book 2 Microsoft has announced today a new Surface Book 2, the second generation of the hybrid laptop. It is aimed solely at competing against the MacBook Pro, which Microsoft promises it will blow out of the water.

According to Microsoft's Panos Panay, the new Surface Book 2 offers double the performance compared to Apple's offering. What this exactly means is questionable but it definitely offers impressive specs.

The device comes now in two form factors, 13.5" and 15", which offer either Core i5 (for 13.5") or Core i7 (both) processors, GeForce GTX 1050 or 1060 graphics chips, massive 70 (13.5") or 80 Wh (15") batteries, improved hinge mechanism that allows multiple use cases, and detachable display for tablet use.

With big battery (and touchscreen) comes big burden: 13.5 inch Surface Book 2 weighs in at 3.38 lbs while the bigger one is fairly hefty at 4.2 lbs. Fortunately Microsoft promises up to 5 hours battery life in tablet mode and a whopping 17 hours with the keyboard base.

Storage options include 256 GB, 512 GB, and 1TB SSDs, the display is either a 10-point PixelSense touchscreen with 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) on the 13.5" or 3240 x 2160 (260 PPI) on the 15" model.

Surface Book comes with a more impressive array of connectivity compared to MacBook Pro. While it only has one USB-C, capable of charging and data transfer, many will appreciate two USB-A ports as well as the integrated memory card reader.

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AfterDawn: News

Huawei's Mate 10 flagships also got a Lite version

Written by Matti Robinson @ 17 Oct 2017 3:37

Huawei's Mate 10 flagships also got a Lite version Huawei unveiled yesterday the new Mate 10 lineup that included two flagship phones with newly found AI prowess. There was however a third new release as well, a much more affordable one.

The Chinese manufacturer's third option is Mate 10 Lite which is in many ways the lightest of the bunch. If is the slimmest at 7.5mm, the lightest at 164 grams or 5.78 oz, and definitely weighs the lightest on your wallet at 400 euros (approx. $470).

As you might imagine with half the price of the Mate 10 Pro you can't exactly get all the specs. That means no AI powered Kirin 970, instead more of a mid range Kirin 659.

However, Mate 10 Lite is still not horribly stripped-down – there's still a dual camera setup, actually two. In the back you'll have a 16MP + 2MP setup and in the front a dual 13 MP selfie camera. The battery is still an impressive 3340, and the display is the same resolution as Mate 10 Pro with Full HD+ or 1080 x 2040. The size is very comparable too, 5.9 inch vs the Pro's 6.0 inch.

It is definitely one of the cheaper large displays that shrink the bezels enough to squeeze out even the home button. Fingerprint sensor, however, is still there in the back.

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AfterDawn: News

Huawei revealed two new Mate 10 flagships with AI and dual cameras

Written by Matti Robinson @ 17 Oct 2017 1:07

Huawei revealed two new Mate 10 flagships with AI and dual cameras In yesterday's press event Huawei unveiled this years Mate-lineup. That included two new flagship phones Huawei promised even before the launch would blow iPhones out of the water when it comes to AI.

Both of the new flagships, Mate 10 (top picture) and Mate 10 Pro (bottom picture), include the AI enabled HiSilicon Kirin 970 chipset. Armed with a Neural Processing Unit, or NPU, the Mate 10 duo should be able of some impressive feats, right?

Well, yes and no. It might be able to do things most smartphones can't do but currently it is used very sparingly. The Chinese smartphone manufacturer said that the phones smart features include context-aware camera that changes its settings to match the place and subject. Also Mate 10 (yes, the Pro as well) knows how dim the screen depending on more than just the ambient light sensor, and improve battery life according to your usage.

However, according to Huawei it is up to 3rd party developers to fully unshackle the power of Kirin 970 and its NPU.

Fortunately Huawei's new flagships aren't all about AI unlike you might have imagined after such a strong AI focused marketing campaign before the launch. The Mate 10 features a 5.9 inch QHD resolution (1440x2560) display, 64GB microSD expandable storage, 4 GB of RAM.

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AfterDawn: News

Every WiFi network in the World is now non-secure - WPA2 encryption broken

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 17 Oct 2017 3:58

Every WiFi network in the World is now non-secure - WPA2 encryption broken Researchers from Belgian university KU Leuven have managed to find a way to break WPA2 encryption used as the "strongest" encryption available in WiFi networks. They published their findings yesterday and now the security organizations across the globe are trying to find ways to curb the problem.

Researchers managed to break the WPA2 encryption by using so-called KRACK (Key Reinstallation Attack) attack against the encrypted network. Breaking the network encryptyin isn't exactly a trivial one, as it requires installing a WiFi router with fake MAC address and to place that router within the WLAN network's reach.

Those most in danger now are the corporations that handle sensitive data within their networks and transfer messages within their own WiFi network without further encryption, relying on WPA2-encrypted network.

Thus, security organizations now recommend that eveyrbody who handles sensitive data and transmits that within a WiFi network should start using SSL/TLS (basically, all web connections that are used for, say, intranet, should use https), SSH and VPN connections.

Basically all WiFi networks should now be treated as non-secure and shouldn't be used to transmit sensitive data within or from them without further encryption.

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AfterDawn: News

AfterDawn's own news aggregator app, HIGH.FI for Android, updated to new version

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 17 Oct 2017 3:05

AfterDawn's own news aggregator app, HIGH.FI for Android, updated to new version Ever wanted to see all the tech news in one widget? Wanted to follow not tens, but thousands of news sites with one app? Our own app, HIGH.FI News reader for Android does exactly that. It follows thousands of news sites across the globe, categorizes the headlines to seven different languages and hundreds of categories - and you can simply get a full view of what is happening in the world, right now.

Now, we've just updated the app to a new version. v1.136 finally brings source filtering to homescreen widget, too. So, if you hate a specific news site and never want to see that site's headlines in your feed again, you can do exactly that by adjusting the settings - and now those settings take effect on our flexible homescreen widget, too.

We follow pretty much all the tech sites in U.S., UK, Italy, Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, etc and show you the headlines in correct categories. Headlines are updated constantly and we tens of thousands of headlines each and every day´.

Download HIGH.FI News Reader for Android

P.S. All the headlines can be viewed through HIGH.FI website, too.




AfterDawn: News

OnePlus decides collecting private data isn't nice after all

Written by Matti Robinson @ 15 Oct 2017 6:17

OnePlus decides collecting private data isn't nice after all The Chinese smartphone OnePlus was a few days ago caught pants in their ankles collecting data from their customers. A OnePlus 2 user found the phone sending strangely irrelevant data to OnePlus servers.

Later on it was found that all OnePlus models, including last year's OnePlus 3 and the latest flagship OnePlus 5 send data regularly to OnePlus operated AWS server. After OnePlus was confronted about it, and after the OnePlus Twitter support was unhelpful, the company claimed that it was all about after-sales support data and usage analytics transmitted securely.

Even though there's likely no malicious intent, collecting data like when the user is turning on their screen, with timestamps even, seems awfully unnecessary.

Now OnePlus has come out and given another statement. According to the company it will stop collecting private data. OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei says in the post that while none of the information has ever been given to third parties the company has decided to stop collecting such data as telephone numbers, MAC addresses, and WiFi SSIDs.

Additionally all Oxygen OS phones will have a new setup wizard that will ask if the user wants to join the user experience program, the one collecting data to improve the OnePlus user experience, and "indicate that the program collects usage analytics."

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AfterDawn: News

Top countries in the world by mobile data usage per month

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 15 Oct 2017 1:27

Top countries in the world by mobile data usage per month OECD released a report recently that lists various digital trends across the globe. One of the interesting points was the usage of mobile data and number in various countries.

While some Asian countries have high profile in terms of their mobile internet usage, one Western country tops them all - by wide margin: Finland.

In Finland, average mobile data consumption is a whopping 11 gigabytes per month, while the next country in the list, Latvia, uses 9GB per month. For comparison, U.S. users consume 2.7GB data each month and UK users only 1.8GB.

The massive data consumption in Nordic country is simply due the country's extremely cheap and literally uncapped mobile data plans - an uncapped, unmetered 4G package, with no restrictions, costs about 20 euros (appx $24). As the data caps don't apply at all, usage of WiFi is deemed unnecessary by most people and all the Netflix viewing, Facebook browsing and app updating is done via mobile data - even at own home, where most people have fixed-line net connection with WiFi available.

OECD data on mobile data consumption per capita in the world
Mobile data consumption per capita

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AfterDawn: News

Tesla fired hundreds as a part of 'performance review'

Written by Matti Robinson @ 14 Oct 2017 4:19

Tesla fired hundreds as a part of 'performance review' Tesla has fired hundreds of workers this week, Reuters reports. According to the numbers received around 400 employees have had to go.

A former Tesla employee told Reuters yesterday that this includes workers across different positions. He worked on the assembly line but claimed the fired included associates, team leaders and supervisors, but couldn't confirm how high up the firings went.

The electric car company has said, full statement below, that it has over 33 000 employees and the it has been an annual performance review period which means that some people are going to be receiving hefty bonuses, other are being let go. The Reuters informant, however, claims he had never received a bad review.

Tesla is currently challenged by the Model 3 production. Model 3 is Tesla's first high volume affordable car meant for the masses. It'll be revealing the electric semi-truck on November 16.

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AfterDawn: News

Two smart iPhone X features revealed ahead of launch

Written by Matti Robinson @ 14 Oct 2017 1:03

Two smart iPhone X features revealed ahead of launch The iPhone X is one of the most anticipated smartphones is years. First major revamp in the iPhone design in three years, and first of its kind ever.

There's was a lot to talk about a month back for Apple at the Steve Jobs Theater as pretty much the entire smartphone had been redesigned ground up. It might have not been just a case of limited time but Apple probably wanted to keep some features under wraps for the launch, or to be unveiled during the waiting period.

Now, two features previously not revealed have surfaced. And they are pretty impressive.

First there's a feature that combines iOS notifications and the new TrueDepth camera. As you turn on the display you'll see the app notifications, just like you would on your iPhone 8 or iPhone 7.

However, Phone Arena has discovered that on iPhone X the Face ID camera detects whether it is you holding the phone and shows further information instead of showing just the name of the app.

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AfterDawn: News

Reddit thread showing iPhone X running Pokémon GO sparks discussion about screen estate

Written by Matti Robinson @ 12 Oct 2017 5:15

Reddit thread showing iPhone X running Pokémon GO sparks discussion about screen estate There's still almost a month until Apple's hyped iPhone X will hit the Apple Stores – and Town Squares, *sigh*. Since there's been an unprecedented amount of time between the unveiling and release of iPhone X, people have been paying close attention to all the pictures posted online.

One of them is a picture showing an iPhone X users playing Pokémon GO on the streets of perhaps Cupertino. Likely held by an Apple employee, this iPhone X revealed on Reddit shows how not all screen estate is in use, contrary to the way you'd probably want it to be.

Obviously its just a pre-production model, and only one app, but it does spark an interesting discussion about what type of concerns people have with the new aspect ratio.

Of course iPhone X's screen is the first time iOS device has a 2.17:1 aspect ratio – close to 2:1 aspect ratio in many Android phones – which means that apps need to be customized for it if they want to use all that extra space. As this picture shows at least Pokémon GO, one of the more popular mobile games, does not take advantage of this and there's a visible forehead and chin.

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