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Apple announced yesterday the new iPhone duo which comes in new colors and finishes. The black version is back and even in two different shades and finishes. The matte black, called Black, is finished just like the other color versions but the Jet Black version has a glossy finish.

Even though in press photos the Jet Black version look stunning – as you can see – you have to remember that glossy surfaces gather fingerprints far easier. There is, however, another, more problematic difference.

The new Jet Black is said to scratch easier than the other versions. And no, this is not only speculation from random reporters' first hands-ons, this comes straight from Apple's official iPhone 7 site.

The high-gloss finish of the jet black iPhone 7 is achieved through a precision nine-step anodization and polishing process. Its surface is equally as hard as other anodized Apple products; however, its high shine may show fine micro-abrasions with use. If you are concerned about this, we suggest you use one of the many cases available to protect your iPhone.

As you can read above, while Apple says that it is as hard as other anodized products, including iPhones, the shine may (and will) show scratches with use. This should not be a surprise to most of the people but it does potentially make you think another time about buying the Jet Black version. And instead of case, maybe you should just buy a different colored iPhone?

Sony has officially announced the new PlayStation 4 models. As expected, Sony introduced the new slimmer PlayStation 4 as well as a new Pro model which will provide improved functionality.

The slimmer version has the same features as the current PlayStation 4 but the new PlayStation 4 Pro also includes 4K support among other changes. Pro model is said to improve the performance two fold which will allow it to process higher 4K resolutions in gaming.

The PS4 Pro's processing power comes from a new custom built AMD graphics card that is based on the Polaris architecture. The CPU cores are still Jaguar but have been clocked higher. There's 1 terabyte of HDD storage on the PS4 Pro.

Not all games will be 4K supported and you don't need a 4K TV to use PS4 Pro. PS4 Pro will come available on November 10 starting at $399. PS4 Slim will retail for $299.

Sony also announced that all PlayStation 4 models, new and old, will also get the HDR feature which will bring games more alive with more vivid colors.

Apple introduces today of course the new iPhone 7 but also showed us the new generation of Apple Watches.

In addition to improving the old Apple Watch with a new processor – and renaming it as Series 1 &ndash (above); Apple introduces a new Apple Watch Series 2 (below). This new smartwatch includes a dual core S2 processor, twice brighter display, and finally also a GPS. It is also water resistant and is deisgned to work even with intense swimming.

The operating system is WatchOS 3 which was unveiled earlier this year.

Two major collaborators that took stage were Nike and Niantic. The first made a Nike+ version of the Apple watch especially for the runners and the latter promised the release of Pokemon Go for Apple Watch in the near future.

In addition Apple announced that it has a new ceramic Edition model of Apple Watch and has continued working with Hermès and will release special versions of Apple Watch with leather wristbands.

Apple has today unveiled new hardware and software in California. The limelights were of course on the new iPhone which had been largely leaked. Apple was not able to introduce any shocking new features because the most important aspects had already been documented weeks or months earlier.

Like you would expect, the iPhone 7 comes in two sizes and three different storage options. Apple doubled the storages as was rumored, now at 32, 128, and 256 GB. The larger Plus model also got a new dual camera, which has two different optical setups allowing a better zoom and bokeh effect.

The camera has a 12 megapixel sensor, f1.8 aperture, 6 lens setup, and optical image stabilization. It is said to be 60 percent faster than the previous iPhone 6s camera.

As with every generation, the new iPhone is faster than ever. According to Apple's graphs the CPU's processing power is 120 times the original iPhone and GPU bests the first iPhone 240 times over. The new A10 chip features a big.LITTLE type of architecture which has two powerful and two power efficient cores.

One of the less rumored additions was the taptic engine in the home button.

By the looks of the new iPhone not much has changed – until you see the new black color variants. In addition to new colors, iPhone's curves have stayed largely the same but there are slight differences, such as the curvier antenna lines.

Mozilla started testing its new Electrolysis architecture last month and the first results are in and appear very promising. Even though the sample size is rather small the Firefox 48 users that very in the trial have reported improvements in speed of several hundreds of percents.

Mozilla reports that improvement can be from 400 to even as high as 700 percents compared to previous versions. Thanks to Electrolysis architecture the browser rarely stops responding and thanks to divided attention to the interface and the actual content it performs faster.

At this point the architecture is being tested in only 1 percent of Firefox users but the testing will expand over coming updates and versions. Mozilla plans to divide the content process to multiple processes and run them in sandbox, which is allowed by many of its competitors.

This means that one tab or process crashing would also not bring down the entire browser. You can read more about multi-process Firefox here.

Netflix has confirmed its newest addition, White Rabbit Project, which will be premiering on December 9. The show is a Mythbusters spin-off and stars the three members of the infamous build team.

White Rabbit Project is produced by the same Beyond Productions that was behind the cult show Mythbusters. After 14 seasons Mythbusters' last episode was aired earlier this year.

We will not see the two biggest personalities of Mythbusters, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, in the new show but there build team's Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Ihamara are all back.Deadline reports that the show tackles a wide variety of interesting topics in science, history, and pop culture with episodes focusing on prison escapes, war weaponry, and technology, among others.

There's no word yet how many episodes the first season will have but all will be available worldwide.

Procrastinators of the world unite! Solitaire and Tic Tac Toe are now just a Google search away on mobile and desktop.

Don't have any game apps installed and need to kill a few minutes? Head over to Google.com and simply search solitaire and you will see an option to tap (or click) to play a game of solitaire, with both Easy and Hard difficult settings.

If you want to take on Google in a game of Tic Tac Toe, then just search Tic Tac Toe and you will be marking your X's or O's immediately.

Remember, Google will also flip a coin for you if you search flip a coin, and it will also play animal sounds if you ask it to. For example, search what sound does a cow make?

Why? Well, why not I guess.

Dropbox has said it will ask some of its users to change their password the next time they login, but assures that there is nothing to worry about.

Users who signed up for Dropbox prior to mid-2012 will be prompted to update their Dropbox password the next time they login, according to the service, which stressed that this is only a preventative measure.

The move follows the discovery of an old set of Dropbox user credentials (email addresses plus hashed and salted passwords) that the firm believes was obtained in 2012 as part of an incident that was disclosed four years ago.

However, despite the discovery, Dropbox found no evidence that any accounts have been improperly accessed. Nevertheless, as a precaution, any user who has not changed passwords since 2012 will be prompted to do so as part of the next login.

"We're doing this purely as a preventive measure, and there is no indication that your account has been improperly accessed. We're sorry for the inconvenience," writes Patrick Heim on the Dropbox blog.


More information: blogs.dropbox.com

Apple has released iOS 9.3.5 to fix three critical security flaws that were linked to the attempted hacking of a human rights activist's iPhone.

On August 10, Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent human rights activity in the United Arab Emirates, began receiving suspicious text messages claiming to offer information about the torture of people in the UAE.

Mansoor was suspicious of the text messages and passed them to researchers at Citizen Lab, who confirmed it was an attempt to hack Mansoor's phone and track him, according to the New York Times.

Collaborating with Lookout, a mobile security firm located in San Francisco, they discovered that the spyware relied on three zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple's iOS software. These vulnerabilties were reported to Apple, and are all patched by iOS 9.3.5 which is available as an OTA update for all devices running iOS 9 right now.

The three vulnerabilities are very serious. The potential impact of any of the three vulnerabilities being exploited is as follows:

• CVE-2016-4655: An application may be able to disclose kernel memory
• CVE-2016-4656: An application may be able to execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges
• CVE-2016-4657: Visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to arbitrary code execution

Netflix responded this week to the reported launch of a new set top box and streaming service in North Korea, called 'Manbang'.

According to reports, the new STB and service in the country only really offers TV channels from state controlled media, and it's not clear whether it actually offers anything on demand at all.

The name of the new service, Manbang, has understandably raised eyebrows, but apparently it translates to "everywhere" in Korea. Earlier this week, Netflix told Business Insider that they are "bummed we didn't think of that name first."

Furthermore, Netflix went on to edit its Twitter bio to one that may be approved by the DPRK regime.

See: twitter.com/netflix

Sony has finally enabled 2 step verification for logging in to the PlayStation Network.

Once activated, the service will add an extra layer of authentication when you attempt to login with your username and password. A verification code will be sent to you via SMS which will need to be entered to complete the login process.

Passwords can be compromised in a variety of ways. Users who have the same password in use for multiple services put themselves at increased risk because it only takes one of those services to be compromised for their other accounts to be vulnerable.

Phishing attacks and other malicious tactics are also frequently targeted at services like PSN. With 2 factor authentication you can add an extra layer of security so that even if your password has been stolen, the login process cannot be completed without an additional code sent to your phone.

To activate 2 step verification on PSN, check this link.

WhatsApp has updated its privacy policy for the first time in years and will share your phone number and other data with Facebook to offer more services.

WhatsApp had previously announced that it was seeking to find ways to make it possible for businesses to communicate with users. For example, it envisions a bank being able to contact a WhatsApp user through the service to inform them of a possibly fraudulent transaction or an airline notifying a user of a delayed flight.

In order to test out such additions to the service, WhatsApp has had to make the first change to its privacy policy since it was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.

The most notable change however is WhatsApp intention to connect your phone number to your Facebook account, which some users won't be thrilled about.

"By coordinating more with Facebook, we'll be able to do things like track basic metrics about how often people use our services and better fight spam on WhatsApp," a company blog post reads.

For now, however, it possible to opt out either on the new Terms and Conditions screen or within 30 days after accepting the new Terms and Conditions.

Once the Terms and Privacy Policy screen come up, you will note there is another option below the green "Agree" button that reads: "Read more about the key updates to our Terms and Privacy Policy." If you tap on this message, another screen will come up with the option to opt out of sharing your WhatsApp account information with Facebook.

A truck driver has struck two pedestrians in a fatal accident because he was distracted playing Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go has surely been the phenomenon of 2016, but its popularity has had an unpleasant set of side effects. Masses of players have been a nuisance in public places at times, while some have suffered injuries from falls and accidents whilst not paying attention to the surroundings.

Players in Bosnia were given a stark warning about wandering into dangerous minefields left over after the conflict in the 1990s, while the murder of an 18 year old in Guatemala was also linked to the game by authorities.

In another tragic case, a truck driver in Japan hit two pedestrians because he was distracted playing Pokemon Go. A woman has died following the crash while another is recovering from injuries.

The driver was arrested for negligent driving and admitted he was distracted by the game when he struck the pedestrians.

A spokesman for developer Niantic Inc told the Reuters news agency that the company had added a pop-up to the Pokemon Go screen when it detected an increase in speed seeking confirmation on whether the play was driving at the time.

A Nintendo spokesman offered condolences to the family of the deceased.

You will soon be able to play some older PS3 classics on your Windows PC using a DualShock 4 controller.

PlayStation Now is coming to Windows starting with parts of Europe very soon, with North America following shortly after. This will blockbusters from the Uncharted, God of War, and Ratchet & Clank franchises to Windows along with hundreds of other games currently on offer from the service.

In order to use PlayStation Now on your Windows PC, you should match or better these recommended specifications:

• Windows 7 (SP1), 8.1 or 10
• 3.5 GHz Intel Core i3 or 3.8 GHz AMD A10 or faster
• 300 MB or more; 2 GB or more of RAM
• Sound card; USB port

A minimum 5Mbps Internet connection is also required to use PlayStation Now properly with a wired connection being recommended.

In addition to the arrival of PlayStation Now on PC, Microsoft has also unveiled a new DualShock 4 USB Wireless Adaptor, which launches in early September for a suggested retail price of $24.99 ($29.99 CAD). You can use the adapter with PlayStation Now or for PS4 Remote Play on PC and Mac.

The U.S. Department of Justice has named three alleged operators of KickassTorrents in a grand jury indictment this week.

One of the men was already named after he was arrested last month by Polish authorities, while two new names have appeared. All three men are from Ukraine.

According to the DoJ, KickassTorrents was a commercial website that facilitated and promoted the reproduction and distribution of copyrighted content over the Internet without authorization of the copyright owners.

In addition to KickassTorrents, the three individuals were also linked to a number of other sites by the DoJ, including Leechmonster.com, Solarmovie, iWatchfilm.com, Hippomovies.com and Torcache.

The three men used to sites to generate millions of dollars in revenue, according to the indictment, which also details payments made for advertising to back accounts operated by the men.

Source: TorrentFreak