AfterDawn: Tech news

Latest news

AfterDawn: News

Apple's new Apple Watch Series 6 is here

Written by Matti Robinson @ 16 Sep 2020 11:05

Apple's new Apple Watch Series 6 is here Apple's yesterday's virtual press event brought about a couple new product in both iPads as well as Apple Watches. As expected the Cupertino company announced the new Apple Watch Series 6.

This new version focuses a lot on health and fitness related features.

There's now a new red light sensor for measuring blood oxygen. This allows the user to monitor effective breathing and stress related to blood oxygen. This means that it can be used for both exercise and health purposes like to monitor asthma.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Apple announced the 8th gen iPad

Written by Matti Robinson @ 16 Sep 2020 10:29

Apple announced the 8th gen iPad Apple unveiled yesterday a bunch of products in the iPad and Watch categories. Arguably the most influential is the new version of the original iPad.

The regular old iPad is the most popular of the Apple tablets, and now there's the 8th generation out. Apple has upgraded the interior with a new A12 Bionic chip which produces market-leading performance.

According to the company, the new iPad is twice as fast as the most popular Windows laptop, three times more powerful than the most popular Android device and up to six times faster than most popular Chromebook.

Other specs include a 10.2" Retina display, a HD resolution FaceTime camera, 8 MP shooter in the back, 10 hour battery life, USB-C charging and support for Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Tinder brings Swipe Night to Europe, Asia and rest of the world

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 16 Sep 2020 3:46

Tinder brings Swipe Night to Europe, Asia and rest of the world The world is about to end? What would you do? That is the core question that Tinder's interactive adventure Swipe Night asks.

Launched back in 2019 in the United States, now the event has arrived to the rest of the world, too. It is basically am adventure show that you get choose how it goes forward, where every now and then the events are stopped and user is asked to swipe either left or right in order to decide how the plot continues.

Global launch of the Swipe Night was initially planned for March, 2020 but the global pandemic kinda changed the plans. But now Tinder seems to be confident that it is right time to bring the end of the world adventure to the rest of the world, too.

Speed is very important when playing the Swipe Night - user has only 7 seconds time to decide how to swipe when the story stops. After all the steps have been completed, the story ends, but also the results of how user swiped in each step will be added to the user's own Tinder profile.

Tinder Swipe Night

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Epic fail: Customs declares 2,000 OnePlus headphones as counterfeit AirPods

Written by Matti Robinson @ 15 Sep 2020 10:22

Epic fail: Customs declares 2,000 OnePlus headphones as counterfeit AirPods Customs and Border Patrol has a lot of important duties, one of which is recognizing and seizing counterfeit products that try to circumvent the intellectual property rights.

It might not be as flashy as stopping a thousand pound shipment of heroine, but CBP does get their hands on a lot of illicit tech products. In this case that is exactly what they thought they had.

Instead they seized a shipment of very legit OnePlus Buds, wireless earbuds by the popular Chinese Android enthusiast brand. Not only did they mistake OnePlus headphones as counterfeit Apple AirPods, they posted this epic failure for all to see on social media.

From the tweet you can clearly see the original retail box with a OnePlus logo as well as the product name, UPC, et al.

It is strange to think that the CBP would even entertain the idea that these are a copy of AirPods. Sure, they are white and kind of similar, but if you have AirPods at hand, you can quickly see the difference.

More importantly, they aren't trying to copy Apple logo, name, or even product name.

This embarrassing mistake got even more hilarious when OnePlus USA tweeted a reply, "Hey, give those back!" with a smiley.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

In a massive $40 billion acquisition Nvidia buys ARM

Written by Matti Robinson @ 14 Sep 2020 12:17

In a massive $40 billion acquisition Nvidia buys ARM Nvidia is known as the top dog in graphics cards but not many realize what kind of a behemoth it in fact is. The company's market cap is about $320 which puts them ahead of giants like Walt Disney or Coca-Cola.

Now, the GPU and SoC maker has flexed its muscles and acquired the world's leading mobile chip designer ARM Holdings. ARM was bought from the Korean technology giant Softbank for around $40 billion.

Softbank acquired the company every smartphone maker, and user, depends on for $32 billion a few years back. Softbank will hold on to a just under 10 percent stake in the company.

The UK-based ARM Holdings is known for its ARM processors, an architecture used by nearly all smartphones whether it'd be Android of Apple-designed silicon. Even the upcoming non-Intel Macs are going to run ARM architecture.

This is a massive deal in the smartphone and mobile world where Nvidia has had trouble expanding to. This means that Nvidia enters, as the deal closes, the realm in a big way.

Nvidia has also suggested that it will offer ARM customers licensing deals with Nvidia hardware. It will be interesting to see what the two companies can come up together.




AfterDawn: News

Oracle, of all companies, acquires TikTok U.S. operations

Written by Matti Robinson @ 14 Sep 2020 11:57

Oracle, of all companies, acquires TikTok U.S. operations The controversial social media TikTok has been acquired by a company that not many even considered in the race. Oracle, the company behind MySQL, Java and other computer technologies, has bought TikTok's American operations, Bloomberg reports.

Microsoft was in talks with TikTok for a while, and the Chinese-owned social media even tried to sweet talk U.S. government into not having to sell its operations.

However, Trump administration didn't back down from forcing change in ownership for the U.S. operations to keep up the app available. The administration cited security concerns with Chinese government possibly intervening in TikTok's businesses and data.

And now we're at Oracle owning the teen-focused app with short videos of dancing and cute animals, what else.

Oracle is one of the largest technology companies on the planet but they are largely developing enterprise solutions, AI, cloud computing, and data technologies, not so much consumer products or apps.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Microsoft confirms: Xbox Series X and Series X come out November 10

Written by Matti Robinson @ 12 Sep 2020 1:13

Microsoft confirms: Xbox Series X and Series X come out November 10 Microsoft has confirmed what was leaked already earlier: both the Xbox Series X and Series S are heading to stores near you in November.

The $499 – as the Best Buy leak suggested – Xbox Series X and the discless and the smallest Xbox ever, $299 Xbox Series S, are slated for global release on November 10. If you insist that you get your hands on one of these as soon as possible, you can pre-order them starting 22, 10 days from now.

This also give Microsoft an indication of what type of volume is expected at the launch, and perhaps make them more prepared for the game-starved public.

Microsoft also has a monthly subscription offer in Xbox All Access, which allows you to get Xbox Series X as well as Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $34.99. A quick 1+1 tells us that this 24-month commitment will cost you a total of $840 in two years.

With the cheaper Xbox Series S, the same subscription goes for $24.99/mo or $600 over the two year period.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Motorola's iconic new Razr gets a 5G treatment

Written by Matti Robinson @ 11 Sep 2020 11:50

Motorola's iconic new Razr gets a 5G treatment Motorola has announced the second version of the second coming of Razr. The new Motorola Razr 5G is based on the original, legendary, Razr and is the second version of this new era of folding displays.

As you might gather from the name alone, the single most important new feature of the device is 5G connectivity. This is made possible by the new Snapdragon 765G chip which powers the likes of OnePlus 8.

Motorola hasn't quite managed to fit all the highest end parts in the second version either, which is evident by the mid-tier, albeit higher mid-tier, chip. Same continues mostly throughout the rest of the specs, although there are improvements across the board over the predecessor.

The Razr 5G has 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage space, the battery is slightly bigger at 2800 milliamp hours, and the cameras have improved: a f/1.7 and 48 MP shooter (Quad Pixel taking 12 MP shots) in the back and a f/2.2 and 20 MP (QP @ 5MP) selfie camera in the shell.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Android 11: Here's what's new in latest Android refresh

Written by James Delahunty @ 09 Sep 2020 12:19

Android 11: Here's what's new in latest Android refresh The eleventh major revamp of the Android mobile operating system was officially released this week, and here are new features at a glance.

Android 11 was released on September 8 without a release name of a popular dessert, since that practice was halted with Android 10. The new Android 11 logo accompanies this news item and references the film 'This is Spinal Tap' by depicting a dial turned up to 11.

Most of the changes for this iteration happened under the hood, affecting performance, 5G connectivity, security and so forth. Yet there are still revamps that will be very noticeable to users who upgrade when their device is eligible, or get Android 11 on a brand new device.

Here we will take a look at the primary feature changes:

Conversations Notifications
Notifications from all messaging apps such as the internal Messages app, WhatsApp, Messenger and so on, will be packed together in Android 11. This way your notifications for received messages will not be mixing in with "likes" or other kinds of notifications that pack the notification area.

Conversations can be marked as priority to make them more visible on screen, and also to bypass Do Not Disturb mode if it is activated.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Microsoft reveals Xbox Series S: Here's the smallest Xbox so far

Written by Matti Robinson @ 09 Sep 2020 11:26

Microsoft reveals Xbox Series S: Here's the smallest Xbox so far Microsoft has finally officially announced the Xbox Series S. Most of the limelight is directed at the upcoming Xbox Series X but for a long time we've known that the Redmond giant has a secondary, more affordable gaming console in the development.

Now the Series S has been revealed, and the company has confirmed that it joins Xbox Series X at launch.

As expected, the Series S is a slightly less powerful, cheaper, and also, according to Microsoft, the smallest Xbox in history. It will retail for $299.

While it is much more inexpensive than one would imagine from a next-generation console, Microsoft promises next-gen performance.

Microsoft also announced the price of Xbox Series X. The bigger brother will retail for $499, which is just about what we've gathered from rumors and leaks.

We're still waiting from Sony, who've yet to announce PlayStation 5 pricing. It wouldn't be surprising if Sony would hit the same price points with their duo of next-gen consoles, the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. That is what the previously mentioned leak also suggested.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

OnePlus 8T specs revealed ahead of launch

Written by Matti Robinson @ 04 Sep 2020 10:33

OnePlus 8T specs revealed ahead of launch Chinese manufacturer OnePlus is making a strong push towards the higher echelon on smartphone manufacturers with the latest models upping the specs, quality and price.

While OnePlus 8 series is still fairly new, we know that soon enough we'll get to experience another OnePlus phone thanks to the company's two model a year strategy.

The latter half of the year produces usually a slight upgrade over the first model of the year marked by the addition of T in the name. This years model is expected to be OnePlus 8T.

There's no word yet whether the company will announce both the mid priced OnePlus 8T as well as a truly flagship tier OnePlus 8T Pro. However, new leak reveals a lot about the former.

According to Android Central, we should expect an announcement late September or early October.

Specs-wise there's some nice upgrades to the current generation model. While the OnePlus 8T display is going to be the same size, refresh rate is going to be upped to 120 Hz, which is on par with OnePlus 8 Pro. There's no word on resolution but we'd guess it's going to remain Full HD+.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

Nintendo releases a slew of old and new Mario games for Switch

Written by Matti Robinson @ 03 Sep 2020 11:46

Nintendo releases a slew of old and new Mario games for Switch Nintendo has today announced quite the selection of Mario games for the Switch. Of course the Mario announcements didn't come out of the blue, it's all because of the 35 year anniversary of the original Super Mario Bros. released in 1985.

Mario Kart franchise will get a new take on the classic kart racing game. The new Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit combines remote controlled cars with mixed reality.

As the player you are controlling a remote controlled car with a camera around a virtual race track built in your home. The game will be available on October 16.

If you don't really understand how all of that works, here's the trailer.

Read more...


AfterDawn: News

High-risk 0-day vulnerability found in WordPress File Manager

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 02 Sep 2020 10:07

High-risk 0-day vulnerability found in WordPress File Manager Finnish WordPress developer company Seravo Oy has found a serious vulnerability in WordPress plug-in that is used by more than 700'000 websites globally.

Plugin, called WP File Manager, has a 0-day vulnerability that allows attackers to upload files to websites without authorization and execute code remotely on all WordPress instances that have the said plugin installed.

Basically utilizing the vulnerability, attackers can steal data, destroy sites or add their own code to websites, which could mine cryptocurrencies or distribute harmful code to website users' computers.

Both, the basic version of WP File Manager and also the paid-for version, WP File Manager Pro are affected. In total, these plugins have more than 700k active installations globally.

Developers were alerted of the issue and they released a updated version v6.9 that fixes the security problem. It is adviced to update WP File Manager to 6.9 or above - or uninstall it immediately.

More info: Seravo Oy press release

WordPress is by far the most popular publishing platform in the world, with millions of websites using it as their content management system and more.




AfterDawn: News

India bans PUBG, removed from app stores

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 02 Sep 2020 9:47

India bans PUBG, removed from app stores As the relations between two huge countries, India and China, have been sour for most part of this year, the situation also has effects on digital world.

India has recently made it very clear that its attitude nowadays, especially with digital and consumer electronic products is that "everything that is made in China is bad". This has extended to digital products, such as games and apps. India just recently banned pile of Chinese apps from app stores available in India, including popular social media app TikTok.

Now, countryu has banned further 118 Chinese apps. One of those apps happens to be PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, an fps game that is currently the most popular app in India - and a huge success globally. Developer of the game is Chinese Tencent.



Countries have recently locked horns again and again over border issues, power in Asia and more. The anti-China sentiment is rising in India.




AfterDawn: News

Finland launches its official COVID-19 tracking app

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 31 Aug 2020 9:44

Finland launches its official COVID-19 tracking app Following many other countries' suit, Finland, launched today its official COVID-19 tracking application for iOS and Android platforms. App is called Koronavilkku (literally, coronavirus blink).

App, much like its many siblings in other countries, uses Apple's and Google's joint API that was created to track and trace novel coronavirus infections and alert about them.

Privacy?



App requires no registration or login details whatsoever and its privacy details were audited (link in Finnish) by Finland's National Cyber Security Centre, which found no privacy problems with the app.

App is anonymous and it wont pass any identifiable details of the user to the authorities, as its purpose is simply to alert the user if there user has been in close contact with a person who has COVID-19 infection.

How does it technically work?



To put it simply: through Bluetooth.

App doesn't use GPS or any other location data, but relies on close proximity of other Bluetooth devices.

Basically the app generates a random string for each device and distributes that data through Bluetooth data to other devices that have the same app installed - and vice versa. This random value is recreated every few hours to ensure privacy.

Read more...



  Newer entries Older entries  

News archive