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Huawei, the rising star from China, has been struggling to enter the U.S. smartphone market even though success in Europe has been stellar for years now.

The manufacturer nearly landed a landmark deal with AT&T early in the year when they announced then latest and greatest Mate 10 Pro in the United States.

AT&T backed away from the deal last minute, leaving Huawei to launch the device without an all important carrier partner.

Ever after that incident, people have been talking about the scare that Huawei devices might have software installed that allows the Chinese government to spy on smartphone users.

Whether that is indeed the case with Huawei's flagship phones is yet to be proven, to our knowledge, but the U.S. government is serious about avoiding their hardware for what seems to be a good reason.

Now America is taking a step towards its world police role, and suggesting Europe as well as countries in other regions to stop using Huawei's 5G equipment, WSJ reports.

Samsung Electronics has apologized to workers and their families for cases of serious illness and even death.

In resolving a long-standing dispute that lasted for more than a decade, Samsung has made a formal apology to all victims of work-related diseases. Samsung chief executive Kim Ki-nam expressed his deep regrets on behalf of the company to the victims.

"Beloved colleagues and families have suffered for a long time, but Samsung Electronics failed to take care of the matter earlier," Kim said, reports Yonhap.

"We lacked being considerate of such pains and promptly settled the issue. Samsung Electronics also did not fully and completely manage potential health risks at our chip and liquid-crystal display production lines. Today, we wish to express a sincere apology to the workers who suffered from diseases, as well as their families."

The dispute started after the death of Hwang Yu-mi from leukemia in 2007. She had worked in a Samsung chip production line and her father, Hwang Sang-ki, kicked off a campaign against Samsung seeking to win redress for staff who had been affected.

"Honestly, today's apology made by a Samsung Electronics CEO is not sufficient for the victims of the work-related diseases," Hwang Sang-ki said.

The Pay TV industry continues to suffer subscriber losses attributed to cord cutting, according to new figures from Disney for its 2018 fiscal year.

Cord cutting is observed as masses of Pay TV subscribers who are dropping premium television packages and turning instead to online competition such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube Premium and more. This can significantly reduce spending on entertainment in the home.

According to Disney's 2018 fiscal year report, ESPN shed over two million subscribers compared to the 2017 report. In 2017, ESPN's subscriber base stood at around 88 million and reduced to 86 million over the past year. The figures come from Nielsen Media Research estimates.

Disney also saw other subscriber losses for popular channels. Disney Channel witnessed its subscribers drop from 92 million in 2017, to 89 million in 2018. Disney Jnr and Disney XD both lost three million subscribers too, while Freeform fell by two million.

Disney had 201,000 employees worldwide as of September 30, 2018.

Source: Variety

Bitcoin fell to its lowest point this year on Tuesday when it crashed far below $5,000.

The cryptocurrency hit a high of $20,000 in December 2017 when retail investors piled in to try to take advantage of the rapidly expanding bubble. On Tuesday, it had lost over 75 percent of that value since December, sinking as far as $4,327 before recovering some of the losses later.

Current slumps are blamed on heavy selling at Asian exchanges, which is also affecting other lesser users cryptocurrencies. More broadly, financial markets have experienced drops in recent weeks as doubts over Apple Inc. hit Wall Street and poor retail results hit European exchanges.

Another possible reason for Bitcoin's woes is last week's hard fork of Bitcoin Cash, in which a software upgrade split the fourth largest cryptocurrency into two separate currencies.

Asian venues are popular with crypto speculators as very few in Western countries lend Bitcoin to traders. Many mainstream investors won't touch Bitcoin due to its volatile swings in price, weak regulatory oversight, and concerns over its market infrastructure.

Elon Musk's SpaceX launch provider has given its upcoming BFR rocket and spacecraft system a new name.

Musk took to Twitter to announce that the BFR's upper stage spacecraft would simply be named 'Starship'. Another Twitter user promptly challenged the name, pointing out that unless the spacecraft can actually visit other stars, it is not a 'starship'.

In typical fashion, Elon Musk replied that "Later versions will."

Starship is the name given to the spacecraft that will house payloads and passengers, while the giant rocket booster that will blast it into space will be called the 'Super Heavy'. The name likely comes from the payload capacity of the BFR, which can blast 100,000kg (220,000lb) to orbit, classing it as a super-heavy-lift launch vehicle in the company of the Saturn V, the Soviet N1 and the SLS Block 1 and SLS Block 2 Cargo.

SpaceX' Super Heavy and Starship system are still very much in development, but the firm recently announced it is abandoning plans to make the Falcon 9 rocket completely reusable and will focus all resources on the new system. The Falcon 9 rocket's first stage booster is routinely recovered and reused by SpaceX now, slashing the cost of launch significantly for customers.

I think it could be argued that there is nothing more fake than Instagram. It's not representative of the real life in any meaningful way, right?

Well, there is something that is even more fake: fake comments and likes on Instagram. Now the service is looking to purge all this fake content.

The fake content includes likes, follows and comments from users using a third-party service to acquire more engagement. That's right, Instagram is prohibiting the use of third-party apps to increase these specific metrics in the updated EULA.

The Verge reports that Instagram is using an AI system that automatically recognizes and removes fake content, and sends a notification to the account about the removal.

The email also prompts to change the password associated with the Instagram account to make sure the account isn't compromised.

Instagram has been removing fake accounts for a while now, but hasn't previously addressed the more minor infractions.

YouTube is now offering some feature-length films for free, supported by advertisements.

It added the films to the service quietly in October to its "Movies & Shows" section, and currently has around 100 movies. Most of them are legacy movies of course, but they do include the original Terminator and Rocky, for example.

Typically, YouTube uses its Movies & Shows section to sell or rent access to feature-length films. The free streaming option showed up in October for the first time.

"We saw this opportunity based on user demand, beyond just offering paid movies. Can we do ad-supported movies, free to the user?" Rohit Dhawan, director of product management at YouTube, told AdAge.

"It also presents a nice opportunity for advertisers."

In the future, Dhawan thinks that some individual films on the service will be sponsored by advertisers.

More info: AdAge

Microsoft is considering releasing its next Xbox One variant without a built-in Blu-ray Disc drive, according to a report.

Thurrott cites sources in reporting that Microsoft will release the new Xbox One variant without the disc drive at a considerably lower price. It estimates that an Xbox One without a Blu-ray drive can easily shave $100 off the price of the console.

Microsoft is also said to be considering a 'disc to digital' exchange program, allowing for Xbox One owners to drop their physical copies into a store to receive a digital download code in return.

The sources also said Microsoft is working on a revamped Xbox One S that does still retain a Blu-ray disc drive, as the company is conscious of the fact that a lot of gamers still prefer to have a physical copy of a game rather than downloading it.

A disc-drive-less Xbox One console would launch next year, according to the sources. It is also not part of Microsoft's next generation Scarlett consoles. The aim is to sell the console for around $200 or less.

Source: Thurrott

Google's newly released Pixel 3 smartphones are the craze at the point. They are definitely at the peak of Android phones, but unfortunately they don't come cheap.

I mean, they aren't iPhone expensive, but for many $800 on a phone is just unequivocally too much. Fortunately it seems like Google is bringing some of that magic to lower price points.

A new leak from a Russian website details an upcoming Pixel device called Pixel 3 Lite. As you might imagine from the suggested name, the device is a cheaper version of Pixel 3, a midtier smartphone.

According to the website the phone, known as codename Sargo, features the same amazing 12 megapixel camera from the original Pixel 3, by far one of the most important features of the Pixel lineup altogether.

The phone has larger bezels but sports a similarly sized 5,56 inch Full HD+ display (compared to regular Pixel 3), but instead of AMOLED uses an IPS panel. You also have a USB-C and front-facing stereo speakers.

One thing you won't find on the more expensive Pixels but you have here is the headphone jack, which could win some people over.

Clearly the biggest drawback, however, is the SoC which is a new midtier Snapdragon 670. That will affect performance quite a bit, although day-to-day stuff is probably going to still be butter smooth.

Apple and Qualcomm aren't exactly buddies when it comes to the tech space. They are both American, and both love their mobile devices but unfortunately they are competing against each other, especially now the Apple likes to make all their own chips.

The world's largest company by market cap and the leading mobile chip manufacturer have been at each others throats for a while. I guess they are the new Apple and Samsung.

Now it seems that Apple is striking back at Qualcomm by trying to lure in some of their talent. Bloomberg reports that Apple has 10 new openings for semiconductor designers in San Diego.

Before this Apple hasn't recruited in the San Diego area, and conveniently that is where Qualcomm's R&D on chip design is located.

Apple is looking for 5G and LTE experts which points to in-house built modem for future iPhones and iPads that has been previously rumored. Other jobs include positions in Bluetooth and AI development.

This isn't the first time Apple has established a new teams near competitors, or otherwise convenient spots, to lure in talent.

Sony has started the celebrations for PlayStation 4's fifth birthday, and although at this point they haven't revealed any major discount, I'm sure there will be those too.

The company has now posted a infographic revealed some of the numbers they've achieved with their latest gaming console. First and foremost Sony is boasting over 86 million PlayStation 4 units sold.

This means that it has left PS3 (83M) and Xbox 360 (84M) in the dust and is looking to overtake Wii and original PlayStation at just over 100 million. Leading the pack is Playstation 2 with a whopping 155 million units sold.

In addition over 779 million pieces of PS4 software have been sold, nearly 10 per console. After the initial PS4 software at 1.01 the company has issued 11 major updates to what is now version 6.00.

Some of the most popular and best-selling games include Call of Duty (both Black Ops III and WWII), FIFA 17 and 18, Grand Theft Auto V, and of course Fortnite.

On a more controversial note, Sony has also revealed that it is not attending E3 next year. It will be the first time in 24 years that the electronics giant is absent from one of the largest, albeit in decline, gaming conventions.

The operators of two websites that distributed ROM copies of old retro games have agreed to pay Nintendo over $12 million in damages.

The defendants in the case are a married couple who ran LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co. They admitted to copyright and trademark infringement for the unauthorized distribution of the ROMs after Nintendo filed a complaint in federal court in Arizona.

Immediately after the complaint, the websites were taken offline. Several other major distributors of ROMs took down their websites afterward too, potentially fearing that legal action may be on the horizon.

Settlement discussions ensued between the site operators and Nintendo and produced a resolution to the case. They admitted their involvement in running the site and to direct and indirect copyright and trademark infringement offenses, and agreed to a large settlement.

"Plaintiff is hereby awarded judgment against all Defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount of $12,230,000," the settlement reads, reports TorrentFreak.

A judge has to approve the proposed settlement to close the case. It is unlikely the operators will end up paying such a large sum. In other copyright and trademark infringement cases, the public settlement figure has been far larger than the actual monetary exchange that comes after. The intention of such a large public figure is to deter similar practices.

A California man has pleaded guilty to making a hoax call to police that resulted in the death of an innocent man in Kansas, among other crimes.

The 25-year-old man had made a hoax call to police in Wichita, Kansas, disguising his phone number to appear to be local. He informed the police that he had shot his father and was keeping other family members hostage. Police responded quickly to the given address and fatally shot a man who had allegedly failed to comply with orders to keep his hands in the air in plain sight.

Earlier this year, the police officer who fired the fatal shot was cleared of wrongdoing.

Prosecutors alleged that the defendant had set out to spoof armed police into turning up at the address over an online gaming dispute. This sinister practice is known as "swatting". A third-party had given him the address, but the intended target had moved out of the premises. When police arrived, the victim stepped outside to see what was going on and was fatally shot by police soon after.

The defendant in the case also pleaded guilty to other crimes including making hoax bomb threats to the FBI, schools, universities and more.

Source: BBC News

Microsoft revealed in Semptember that Xbox One will be getting support for mouse and keyboard controls. Now the company has released the update that indeed adds the support.

However, this doesn't mean that you can just take a game and play it with your more precise controls. Unfortunately this requires that the game developer has enabled the support.

Thankfully there already are a few games you can take use of your PC gaming peripherals. Currently support is only found in Fortnite and Warframe.

Microsoft has at this point promised support for a total of 15 games, and the full list is below.

Nearly all wired and wireless mice and keyboards should work with the Xbox One, even though Microsoft is developing an custom Xbox One keyboard with Razer.