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Apple's annual developer conference, known as Worldwide Developer Conference or WWDC, is again held in June. Just like last year, and a few year before that, it will be held in San Jose, California.

Thousands upon thousands of developers and press attend the McEnery Convention Center on June 3 when Tim Cook will host the annual WWDC keynote.

The 30th Worldwide Developer Conference is primarily for the third-party developers and partners of Apple but obviously there will be some news that we, the customers, are anxious to hear about.

There will likely be news about both new versions of iOS (iOS 13) and macOS (macOS 10.15), as well as perhaps an improved tvOS and watchOS. Some are expecting even new hardware, like the hotly anticipated new Mac Pro.

You can reserve tickets to WWDC until March 20.

Android Pie's market share among Android versions is probably in the low single digits still, but that doesn't stop Google pushing on with new versions of world's most popular mobile operating system.

Google has now officially released their first beta version of upcoming Android Q. The test version is available for all Google's Pixel phones, and you can download it here if you want to be one of the first to try it out.

Unlike in previous years this time the first version is not named Developer Preview, instead it is a proper beta release, and seems like it is further in to the development than previous Android iterations were at this point in the year.

There's still almost two months before the big reveal at Google I/O, so we can expect fairly complete Android Q by the time we reach Shoreline Amphitheatre on May 7.

There's always a possibility that Google is readying an earlier launch for new Android version, but that is not likely. Like past years, we'll probably see Google releasing the first stable version to the public in the third quarter, and new Pixel phones right after.

Android Q has a lot of upgrades under the hood, but there are some that are more visible too. One of the more hyped features is foldable phone support, which after Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X is a no-brainer. Other improvements include connectivity features like P2P connectivity and WiFi Easy Connect as well as better privacy features.

Teenagers, be it whichever generation, always find new ways to communicate to each other, often trying to stay hidden from the grown-ups.

Every time we think we've figured out what kids use to chat and share their literally premature ideas, they've moved onto something new. Apparently now it is Google Docs.

You might be thinking I've confused the service for another, but nay, the document editing software creates to compete with Microsoft Word, is the hottest tool for communication among the youth.

According to a report by The Atlantic, Google Docs, which offers a communication platform of sorts for shared documents, is the newest covert communication channel at school.

Kids can edit documents, I mean pretend to edit documents, all the while they indulge in the juiciest rumors making rounds in the school.

You can either join the live chat, or if you want to stay more covert, you leave coded messages between the lines of your fake document or add comments to specific parts of the text.

Best of all, you don't have to use your smartphone so taking them away doesn't deter you whether you are at school or at home. Obviously things like WhatsApp Web don't require your phone either, so taking away homes probably never really worked if you still had computers.

Spotify, the Swedish music streaming powerhouse, is one of the toughest competitor to the near trillion dollar behemoth that is Apple.

While Apple has destroyed many larger companies on their way to dominance, Spotify has managed to not only stay as the number one streaming platform for music, but in many markets even increase the lead.

One of the ways Apple strenghtens their own standing is taking a 30 percent cut from iOS purchases. Obviously 30 percent price difference cuts heavily into competitors' bottom line, and even worse it goes straight into Apple's pockets, and Spotify has been recently very vocal about this.

Spotify has complained about it to the EU Commission, but Apple is not going to let claims slide without responding.

They've released a statement where they simply offer an explanation that Spotify seems to want to use the platforms with its straightforward tools for customer acquisition but do not want to pay the price.

They also address a few other claims, including blocking access to products and updates, all of which they say are false, obviously. In addition Apple seems to want to throw a little bit of dirt, and claims Spotify is in it for the money and doesn't treat artists and music industry right.

Tesla has today announced their newest vehicle. The hotly anticipated Model Y is a crossover vehicle that fits right in between Model 3 and Model X.

Built largely on the same base as Model 3, it is a compact crossover/SUV which both looks similar to Model 3 and has the same kind of technology.

Model Y starts at $39,000, just above the $35K price tag of the smaller sibling. Long Range version will put you back $42,700 (RWD) or $46,700 (FWD). The Perfomance version is the most expensive at $55,700.

Standard Range model has a range of 230 miles, Long Range 280 miles (FWD) or 300 miles (AWD) and the Performance package limits the range back to 230 miles.

0-60 speeds range from Standard's 5.9 seconds down to Performance's 3.5 seconds.

Even though Model Y is fairly small, it can still transport up to seven people with optional row of seats like many modern SUVs.

Tesla will start selling Model Y in late 2020 with everything except the cheapest version. The Standard Range version will become available in fall 2021.

Read more about Model Y here.

All major Facebook's properties - Instagram, and WhatsApp - are experiencing a global hiccup. All services are either unavailable or having problems as of now.

The problems started around 17:00 UTC and have continued at least until now, according to thousands of Twitter messages and monitoring sites such as DownDetector.

Some of the services seem to be working partially. WhatsApp users are reporting that normal text-based messages can be sent normally, but messages including multimedia cannot be sent. Instagram showed just an error message on its frontpage. Also, WhatsApp calls seem to be working only for some users.

It is not known what has caused the outage, but Twitter hashtags such as #whatsappdown are trending globally.

Can txt but not send multimedia or status updates. Anybody with same prblm? #whatsappdown

-- Sohail Kazi🇮🇳 (@SohailKazi02) 13. maaliskuuta 2019

Originally an autonomous vehicle project inside Google, Waymo became their own subsidiary within Alphabet, the parent company of Google, in late 2016.

While self-driving cars seem to be the future, not everything has been sunshine and rainbows. Apparently the parent company Alphabet is tired of putting in money by themselves, and Waymo is now looking for outside investors, The Information reports.

According to the report, Alphabet has been in talks with European car manufacturers in terms of investing in Waymo, and even becoming a majority owner.

One of the manufacturers is Volkswagen, which could employ Waymo's autonomous technology in their future vehicles. One would assume that Waymo's tech is maturing now since they are looking for manufacturers to bring it to the customers.

Obviously selling a majority stake to a single car manufacturer is only one way to get the tech to cars, so perhaps there is also a licensing deal in the works.

However, Alphabet is losing money quickly, and something needs to be done. Waymo is spending a billion dollars a year, and the parent company dearly needs a return for the investment.

Adobe has developed some of the most influential computer tools ever created, including the likes of Photoshop. There are a few bad apples too among their inventions, though.

Digital online media was largely built on previous generation tools, such as Flash and Shockwave. Both software allowed the creation of multimedia and interactive media in completely new ways, and both developed by Adobe, of course.

They both were great for a while, but also are, and have been for a fairly long time, very clearly obsolete for today's world.

Fortunately neither of them is really used anymore, but officially they are both still supported by Adobe.

Now Adobe has announced that they'll seize the distribution of the Shockwave, and that means the end of official support for the platform.

The death certificate of Shockwave will be signed on April 9, after which Adobe will no longer support Shockwave's Windows version. Mac version was killed already in 2017 but some support is offered for corporate clients until 2022.

Flash won't be around too long either. Adobe plans to stop supporting Adobe Flash Player in 2020.

Can we get a "Hip hip hooray" for HTML5?

Only a week or so ago Tesla was moving towards closing brick and mortar stores and focusing on online sales. Now the company has backtracked and intends to keep some of the stores open.

This also means that the savings coming from closing stores, that were going to be directed at providing more competitive prices, are not going to happen. In fact, Elon Musk has revealed that the prices of most Tesla models are going up soon.

Just under two weeks ago Tesla was going to decrease the prices of their cars an average of six percent. The new plan instead moves the price up three percent, except for the $35k Model 3 which won't see a price hike.

At this point there is no reason given to the sudden change of mind. Musk, however, commented on Twitter that stores are still closing but at a slower pace, which is why they can only afford half of the price drop.

This indicates that prices would have gone up significantly more (perhaps around 10%) if the store closing plan didn't proceed at all.

Clearly Musk still believes in streamlining the sales to largely online with just few showrooms, but perhaps it was a little too much a little too soon for the board.

In Finland, a petition to ban 5G networks completely is pushing forward. The reason for such petition? Electromagnetic radiation. Or actually the fears of electromagnetic radiation.

For as long as various radio equipment have existed, there have been people who claim to get ill due electromagnetic radiation. Despite all the scientific studies debunking such claims, the claims persist - and tend to strengthen every time a new radio frequency is being taken into use. In this case, Finland already operates handful of 5G networks in 3.5GHz radio frequency and operators plan to roll out networks nationwide within next year or two.

People behind the petition are concerned about the new frequency and also about the fact that 5G networks require much more network towers than the previous 3G and 4G networks, as the coverage area of one cell tower is smaller in 5G networks.

For initiative to be Legally binding and to force the national parliament to officially consider the merits of the petition, it requires 50,000 people to sign the petition. So far, the petition has appx. 2,000 signatures. Finland has population of appx. 5.5 million.

The petition is based on Finnish law of citizen initiative that has managed to change handful of laws already. The official "ban the 5G networks" initiative can be found here (in Finnish).

Tesla has introduced V3 Supercharging, which will dramatically speed up car charging at its supercharger stations.

With the V3 Supercharging infrastructure, a Model 3 Long Range operating at peak efficiency can recover up to 75 miles of charge in 5 minutes and charge at rates of up to 1,000 miles per hour. The goal is to reduce the amount of time that commuters spend at the charging stations by an average of 50 percent.

A new 1MW power cabinet supports peak rates of up to 250kW per car, so no more splitting power with a vehicle in the stall charging next to yours. Another innovative feature is the On-Route Battery Warmup. When a Tesla driver is navigating to a Supercharger station, the car will automatically warm the battery to an optimal temperature for charging, which can reduce average charging times by 25 percent.

Tesla has more than 12,000 Superchargers across North America, Europe, and Asia, covering more than 99 percent of the U.S. population. By the end of the year, Tesla aims to be able to say the same for Europe, while it already covers 90 percent of the population in China.

More information on v3 Supercharging can be read at Tesla.com.

More than four years after launching for Android devices, the PS4 Remote Play app has launched for iOS devices so you can use it with iPads and iPhones.

Sony first made the Remote Play app available for its own Xperia Z3 handset in October 2014. It allowed players to stream PS4 games to their device and control them with a DualShock 4 when they are away from the TV, or from home entirely.

In the meantime, there have been some third-party apps available to achieve the same thing for iOS, but they typically come with a fee whereas the PS4 Remote Play app is free.

It works more or less the same for iOS but DualShock 4 controllers are not supported, meaning users will have to rely on third party controllers or rely on on-screen controls overlaid onto the stream. Setting it up is as easy as downloading the app and pairing the devices.

You can download PS4 Remote App for iOS from the App Store.

via: Engadget

Uber is not liable for a death related to an accident with one of its self-driving vehicles and will not face criminal charges.

The accident occurred in March 2018, when a Volvo XC90 that Uber had been using to test its self-driving technology struck a pedestrian walking with a bicycle. A police report of the incident had found it was 'entirely avoidable,' but prosecutors have said Uber is not criminally liable.

"After a very thorough review of all evidence presented, this office has determined that there is no basis for criminal liability for the Uber corporation," wrote Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Sullivan Polk.

However, the backup driver of the vehicle may still face criminal charges related to the incident. The driver had reportedly taken her eyes off the road moments before the accident, and records from Hulu suggested she was streaming video from the service at the time of the incident.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is still investigating the incident.

Source: BBC News

Numerous reports predict the release of a discless Xbox One console in May this year.

It had been previously been rumored that Microsoft was planning a new Xbox One console that did not feature a Blu-ray disc drive. This all-digital console could reduce the cost of the console by up to $100, and would be suitable for those who never use physical discs.

Original reports revealed that the discless project is an Xbox One S variant codenamed Xbox Maverick.

Rumors this week have not only reinforced the previous reports, but also come with a planned release target. According to a report by Windows Central, Microsoft will release the "Xbox One S All-Digital Edition" worldwide in early May this year. Pre-orders would begin in April.

Windows Central sources also said that Microsoft is planning to announce a Fortnite Edition console with a custom Fortnite design, but did not specify whether it would be an Xbox One S, Xbox One X or if there will be a discless version of the console.

Source: Windows Central

Electric car company Tesla has decided to renew their sales strategy slightly. To help with the bottom line, the company is closing some of its brick and mortar stores and focusing on online sales.

The web store is going to be the primary point of sale internationally, and part of the change in strategy is simply closing Tesla dealerships for good.

According to the company, the renewal of strategy is going to not only save the company plenty of money but will also be transferring to lowered vehicle costs for the consumer. An average of six percent price decrease is expected to the current lineup of Tesla models.

This of course includes the newest and most affordable car they build, Model 3, which will be available for $35,000.

Tesla isn't going to get rid of every brick and mortar location, some of them are to be converted into showrooms.

There's no word on how much of the sales staff will be laid off, or the exact number of closing locations.