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Google has graduated their virtual mobile operator business from Project Fi to a more official sounding Google Fi.

The renegade mobile plan offers coverage on several regular carriers' networks while the customer get a straightforward payment plan.

Google Fi costs $20/mo for unlimited tests and calls, and another $10 for each gigabyte of data, or $1 per 100 MB for that matter, delivered in LTE speeds.

There's also a Bill Protection cap that ensures you'll never go above $80 as data is free after 6 gigabytes. Although Google will throttle (slow down) data after 15 GB.

Now all this was already there in Project Fi times, but now Google allows customers to bring their own phones to the platform. You will get the same great deal with predictable pricing and roaming-free 170 locations around the world.

However, some features are still only available to Designed for Fi phones, including of course Pixel phones. There might be still some restrictions even with unlocked phones, but you can check compatibility here.

The features only available to official Designed for Fi phones are:

YouTube has finally confirmed that it will be removing annotations from its platform altogether. The see-through floating boxes are going to be disappearing early next year.

The company has been pretty clear that annotations will be replaced entirely by better options. In fact already in March they announced that the usage of annotations had dropped significantly after the introduction of Cards and End Screens, and that they would be removed at some point.

Now the point has been settled. On January 15 all annotations will disappear. And yes, that means not only are you not able to add them to your videos but also all the ones currently in use will no longer be shown.

This will likely mean that millions of old videos where the presenter was previously pointing to floating box are to become a little bit sillier.

Then again the annotations have never really worked that well, especially in mobile, so all the better that we finally get rid of them.

Annotations are dead, long live Cards!

While Facebook seems to be the exact same platform it was year ago, tons of changes have been made to even the core functions.

One of the more drastic changes is the fact that Facebook is more proactive against hateful rhetoric, which seems to be today's social media trend. Unfortunately it often backfires as trigger happy moderators ban or even remove valid people or pages that have been targeted by mobs.

All in all, Facebook would probably want to backpedal control a bit, and a new feature might bring more control to users.

According to Jane Wong, Facebook testing a new feature which allows users to censor specific words, sentences or even emojis from their comments.

Comments would still be there, but only show to the commenter and his or her friends.

This would also allow pages, such as brands that are worried about their image, to moderate what kind of dirt will not show on their posts' comments.

At this point, however, the feature is just one of a million A/B tests Facebook runs on small numbers of people, so don't hold your breath yet.

The one Chinese manufacturer that has managed to penetrate into the heavily protected U.S. smartphone market is OnePlus.

It took a few years but the formerly very niche player has become a force to be reckoned with in both Europe and now in America.

Viral marketing, competitive prices, and, above all, excellent devices have made a nerdy startup close to being a household name. There are a few steps to achieve that though, and one of them might be powerful partners and colleborations with influential brands.

Previously OnePlus has partnered with Star Warsa among others, and but this time about OnePlus is announcing a new partnership that is perfect for its most recent flagship's slogan: Unlock the Speed.

OnePlus has released a video on Twitter portraying McLaren's treasured history in pursuing speed in racing, and announcing the partnership.

The company will hold a product launch, and announce likely the OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition, in McLaren Technology Centre, Woking, UK on December 11.

To further explaing the partnership, OnePlus has released this note about the companies' stories:

Ever after iPhone X, and actually a little bit before that, we've had to look at these horrible foreheads on our phones.

The notch originally became a thing with the Essential Phone, but soon after everyone was trying to squeeze in more display real estate by introducing a curved area of some sort for the front-facing cameras and sensors.

Now, there are worse offenders like iPhones and Pixels, and there are solutions that you might actually kinda like, including the new OnePlus 6T and its teardrop notch.

It seems to be undeniable though that no notch is better than even a small one, and some have even moved the camera to a pop-up slider to avoid a notch of any kind.

However, less moving parts is also immensely better than more moving parts, so those solutions might not be the answer.

So if you had to have the camera in the front but want to maximize the screen size, there is really only one solution, and Huawei is ready to reveal it.

The leaked imagine, the one above, is supposedly portraying just that, a round camera cutout in the display for the front-facing camera.

According to SamMobile, Huawei is not alone either. Samsung is planning on releasing a new higher mid-tier device called Galaxy A8s that might have a camera cutout as well.

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.