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Niantic has targeted more than five million players identified by its anti-cheat system, some of whom have received permanent bans.

The developer has provided details on actions it has taken against players of Pokemon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite. In total, more than five million have been targeted since last year, and of them, around 20 percent have been banned permanently for persistent offenses.

"More than 90% of users who received their first warning, stopped cheating afterward. This is quite encouraging for us, as we continue to find the right balance between punishing casual cheaters versus the more egregious ones," the developer wrote on a blog.

"We are committed to ensuring fair gameplay across our game portfolio. Every day newer forms of cheating or spoofing tools are made available on the internet, and we are continuously working to combat these cheaters and focus on improving our detection and enforcement; as they have no place in our games."

Niantic has also reminded players only to download the official versions of its games from Google Play, the Apple App Store, and Samsung Galaxy Store. Furthermore, it stresses that jailbroken and rooted devices are unsupported.

Samsung used to be the pariah of Android world for many years, as it was reluctant to deliver Android updates to even its relatively recent phone models. Since last year, company has improved dramatically - and now pushes the envelope even further.

This week, Samsung announced that most of its Android phones and tables will receive Android security updates for four years after their initial release. This, coupled to the fact that Samsung made a huge change to its Android major update policy last fall, will make the Korean manufacturer much more competitive in Android world.

Furthermore, Samsung promises to deliver four years worth of security updates to even select models from 2019. Company previously had promised only two years of security updates, even for its most expensive phones.

To summarize Samsung's new Android update and security patch policy:

• Galaxy S series, Galaxy Fold series, Galaxy Tab S series, Galaxy A series and Galaxy Note series will get three major Android operating system updates during their lifetime. This means, for example, that Samsung Galaxy S20, which launched with Android 10, will get Android 11, Android 12 and Android 13 updates.
• Most of the Samsung's mid-priced and high-end phones will get four years of Android security patches. These include Galaxy S series, Galaxy Fold series, Galaxy Tab S series, Galaxy A series, Galaxy M series, Galaxy Xcover series, Galaxy Tab A series and Galaxy Note series. Only the low-end phones will be excluded.
• High-end phones will get security patches monthly, while mid-priced phones will get quarterly patches.

Samsung is obviously hoping that long support time and fast Android updates will benefit its marketing - and they probably will. As of now, Samsung is doing pretty well in our Android 11 update tracker.

Microsoft announced that it will release a new feature for its new console that will probably make gamers quite happy.

The new Xbox Series X|S console will run select Xbox One titles more smoothly that Xbox One was ever capable of. The new feature, dubbed as FPS Boost will do the magic here.

FPS Boost will improve game smoothness by increasing significantly the frames per second the console outputs to the TV. For most FPS Boost enabled titles the increase will be double, but for some titles, the framerate will increase by 4x, when compared to Xbox One.

Obviously, such feature is most sought-after for first-person shooters and other heavy, graphic quick action games. This is highlighted by the list of titles that will get the FPS Boost first: ar Cry 4, New Super Lucky's Tale, Sniper Elite 4, UFC 4, and Watch Dogs 2.

Microsoft plans to bring FPS Boost to more games over the spring. Each game that will get the feature will have an option within game's settings to turn on the FPS Boost feature. If it is in use, the info will also be shown on game screen when game is paused.

Many of the younger generation can't even figure when was the last time that Microsoft Windows wasn't the de facto home computer operating system. Since the launch of Windows 95 26 years ago, Windows has dominated the desktop OS game without any real challengers.

Many remember the early 2000s when there was hope that one day Linux might truly challenge Windows on desktops. Didn't happen. Only Apple's macOS has managed to carve some kind of market share - and even that is mostly in United States and handful of other countries.

However, things have changed - quite dramatically - over the last few years: Chromebooks have finally managed to create a viable alternative to Windows dominance. Sure, that is mostly in budget-friendly laptops, but it is still a feat that no one else has managed to do in decades.

Recent statistics from TrendForce claim that in year 2020, Windows market share in notebook computers dropped below 80 percent, first time since mid 1990s. TrendForce also expects the slide to continue in 2021, with Windows marketshare slipping to 70 - 75 percent.

In past few weeks, the most expensive Roomba models got a new firmware update - and it messed up the robots pretty badly.

All over the discussion forums and other venues, angry Roomba owners are complaining about the recent 3.12.8 software update that has rendered their expensive robot vacuums almost useless.

The update seems to somehow change the way how Roombas navigate and apparently, the update wasn't tested all that well. Problems caused by the update vary from Roomba not being able to find its charging dock to the extend where Roomba simply gets confused in opeen area and starts doing circles until its battery runs out.

Time lapse video of i7+ attempting to return to clean base after 3.12.8 update. After over 15 minutes of this, the roomba stopped due to low battery, failing to dock. from r/roomba

Problems are related to Roomba s9, Roomba s9+, Roomba i7, Roomba i7+, Roomba i6 and Roomba i8+ models - the very top-of-the-line of Roomba models (see our Roomba model comparison chart here). Also, the high-end floor mopping robot, Braava m6 is affected by this update.

Carl Pei founded the smartphone company OnePlus alongside Pete Lau in 2013, and it gained immediate traction with the affordable "flagship killers."

The company has since evolved from a start-up into a proper smartphone manufacturer that has offerings in nearly every price point. The change accelerated especially recently, and might have been either a result of Pei leaving the company or resulted from it.

Nevertheless, Carl Pei left OnePlus in October last year, and informed that he was looking forward to new adventures. Today, Pei announced a new company he has founded.

Nothing, is a London-based consumer technology company that has attracted very influential investors, including iPod inventor Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, YouTuber Casey Neistat, and iPod inventor Tony Fadell.

So far there's no clear cut picture of what Nothing will release but they've promised one of their smart devices in the first half of the year, and more is to come.

Pei aims to release devices in different categories and eventually create an ecosystem of devices.

When it comes to the name, there are a few things Pei and co. have to say about it. Firstly, they want to build devices from ground up, so much so that when they try to reach further, there's nothing.

Mozilla has announced today officially the release of the latest and greatest Firefox browser. There are a lot of updates to the browser but Firefox has made this one mostly about cracking down on supercookies and other user tracking.

According to Mozilla, the so-called supercookies, a more pernicious version of the rather mundane tracking method, are one of the greatest threats on the web for user privacy and security. The new version of Firefox combats this by disallowing cross-site tracking using partitioning.

The company has released an entire blog post about the new, and upcoming, measures to prevent the extensive tracking we experience on the web these days.

There are other changes too, though. Firefox 85 now finally removes Flash entirely and there's no longer an option to enable it. There also improved bookmark views with easy access to your bookmarks via a toolbar folder and bookmarks by default on newly opened tabs.

Another addition is the one click removal of all saved logins from the password manager that helps you clean your passwords faster.

More about the new Firefox 85 can be found in the official release notes. You can download the new Firefox 85 here.

Apple has published guidance on the official website to clarify some things surrounding the magnets and radios that are used in both the iPhone 12 series as well as MagSafe accessories associated with the phone.

According to Apple, the magnets and radios in iPhone 12, including all its different variants, as well as the MagSafe accessories (MagSafe Charger and MagSafe Duo Charger) can be dangerous near certain medical devices due to emitting electromagnetic fields that can interfere with other devices.

Most importantly Apple considers these devices to be a possible hazard near implanted pacemakers and defibrillators, and suggests you keep the iPhone or MagSafe accessory away from these devices.

The company says that you should keep the devices at least 6 inches (15 cm) apart or 12 inches (30 cm) apart if wirelessly charging.

Although the new iPhone 12 has more magnets than its predecessors, Apple believes that the impact of them is not greater than on previous iPhones.

This sounds like no matter the iPhone – or other phone if there are similar magnets – you might want to keep it away from your chest if you have a pacemaker.

World of the internet is a odd place for many reasons but perhaps the most eerie it becomes when a person passes away.

The social media accounts don't immediately, and definitely not automatically, disappear after the death, and I must not be the only one that often feels like there's still something alive when you can see past posts of the individual.

Microsoft is taking this another step further and has patented a technology for creating a chatbot from person's online presence, The Independent reported.

This post mortem chatbot would be constructed based on the digital footprint that the person left behind. If the AI behind the bot is intelligent enough and there's a large enough footprint to data mine, one could imagine pretty convincing chat partners.

In a simple text medium it would be easier to convince fellow chatters of the authenticity but a lot of people also have thousands of pictures and videos of themselves that could even be the basis for a realistic depiction.

Microsoft has made sure to cover all bases with the patent and it includes people both dead and alive, as well as fictional characters.

In a very weird row, Australia is proposing a legislation that would force online giants Google and Facebook to pay for local news publications. Basically, every time an article from Australian news site would appear in Google search results or in Facebook feed, that news site would get paid.

Similar proposals have been suggested - and even executed - in the past. Spain, France and Germany have all demanded money from Google to local news sites, but in those cases, the demands have been focused on Google News, Google's own news aggregator. In Spain, government enforced such law in a way that all news headlines shown in local Google News were eligible for payments from Google.

The result?

Google simply shut down Spanish version of Google News. And Spanish news sites lost huge chunk of their traffic immediately.

In Australia, the law would be even tougher - all news headlines shown in traditional Google search results would be eligible for payments, too. The proposed legislation doesn't put any weight on the fact that both Google and Facebook actually direct readers to such news sites. According to Google, they send "billions of clicks" each year to Australian news sites.

According to Korean sources, electronics giant LG is planning to sell its phone manufacturing division to Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup.

LG's phone business has been making losses for some time now and company has announced plans to restructure its operations. If the proposed deal happens, LG would retain its phone R&D and outsource the actual manufacturing to Vingroup's facilities. LG currently has phone manufacturing facilities in Vietnam, China and Brazil.

The outsourced model for phone manufacturing wouldn't be a very big shock to anyone - after all, companies like Apple have oputsourced their phone manufacturing to third party operators years ago.

Vietnamese government is supporting the deal, hoping it would expand country's high-tech sector significantly. The deal hasn't been approved yet, but according to Korean sources, it seems likely to happen.

Trump administration has issued more restrictions to Huawei before leaving the White House. According to a Reuters report, Trump admin is now denying licenses that Huawei was required to work with American companies.

After May 2019 and the addition to the U.S. government's "entity list", Huawei's road has been a rocky one. While specific licenses made it possible for it to continue buying technology and products from U.S. based companies, it has had to get rid of Google services on its phones.

Now it seems that other products and technology from the United States might not be anymore available to the Chinese smartphone and wireless powerhouse.

Just before leaving office, Trump admin has started denying the licenses Huawei needs to buy products from the U.S. companies. This includes companies like Intel, whose chip shipments to Huawei will cease.

A total of eight licenses to four different companies have been denied and the source expects this to continue. Not only is this tough for Huawei, it's affecting the companies that are losing business and a massive customer at that.

Steam has revealed their 2020 figures in a post they call "2020 Year in Review." The company's fifth annual review includes some stats, including player numbers and most popular games.

The service broke new records with a whopping 120 million monthly active users and 62.6 million active users every day on average.

Steam recorded a peak to 24.8 million concurrent players, which happened during the bug-ridden Cyberpunk 2077 launch.

The situation the world has been for the past year has no doubt tremendously increased the usage of this online platform as well. A total game time recorded was 31.3 billion hours which is a massive 50.7% increase to the previous year with around 20 billion hours.

Perhaps the most serious competition to Google's search engine comes not from Microsoft and Bing but a different perspective altogether. DuckDuckGo promises to keep browsing private and search results untailored.

The 2008 launched website has gained traction in recent years due to privacy issues with the Silicon Valley giants. Now, SearchEngineJournal has spotted that DDG has managed to break a new one-day record.

A week ago on January 11, DuckDuckGo was used to search a total of 102 million times. This is the first time the search has passed 100 million searches in a single day.

Just last fall DDG was hovering at around 40 million searches a day. Average in January will be around 90 million likely, unless the site gets a huge bump in the latter half.

DDG is a small player still, considering even Yahoo and Bing still clearly outrank in marketshare, and for a comparison Google's searches per day are counted in trillions.

However, people are becoming more privacy oriented my the minute, so who knows if DDG will start trending soon in the same vein as Signal just did.

The Pentagon has designated nine companies to their black list for being associated with the Chinese military, Reuters reported. Among the added are the world's third largest smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, Chinese aircraft manufacturer Comac.

This is a separate black list from the one Huawei is in, and has the specific distinction to being controlled by the Chinese military. This also means that the companies on this list aren't necessarily barred from cooperating with U.S. companies, so Xiaomi should be able to continue using the Google ecosystem on their phones.

What they are barring is shareholding from U.S. individuals and companies. Holdings in these companies have to be divested by November 11. The list previously included companies like the Chinese chip maker SMIC.

There's a possibility that Xiaomi will be added to the entity list that makes it harder to work with U.S. companies and technologies, too. This happened to the Chinese oil company CNOOC which was on the military black list and was according to FT just recently added to the entity list.