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Sony caves: Fortnite cross-platform support coming

Written by Matti Robinson @ 27 Sep 2018 11:28

Sony caves: Fortnite cross-platform support coming Sony was ferociously attacked over Fortnite cross-platform for months, but the company did not budge. They've been adamant that crossplay between PS4, Xbox One and Switch is not something they want to do.

Now, something has changed since Sony has officially confirmed that cross-platform support is in fact on the way.

Perhaps Sony didn't realize how important it was to unite platforms with titles as massive as Fortnite. Perhaps they were flooded with bad press and unhappy Xbox and Switch users' critique (read: rage).

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AfterDawn: News

Google promises: Forced Chrome login opt-out

Written by Matti Robinson @ 26 Sep 2018 1:51

Google promises: Forced Chrome login opt-out The new Google Chrome released early in September brought a few important changes, one of which was the updated user interface and look.

There also was a not-so-noticeable lesser feature change that Google has been getting lots of flack for.

See Google changed the Google account login so that when you log in to your Gmail or other Google products you'll automatically also log in to the browser. Previously browser log in was separated from whenever you used other Google services in the browser.

As you might imagine, people do not like when they are logged in to services without their knowledge or consent. And Google has done a 180 degree turn and agreed.

While Google originally argued, and still believes, that users do not always recognize that Chrome as a browser is different from their Gmail account, they've recognized the critique that this is not the best practice from security standpoint among others.

Google is still keeping the feature on by default but in the future version, upcoming Chrome 70, it'll allow users to disable automatic Chrome logins when logging in Google services with the browser.




AfterDawn: News

Qualcomm: Apple stole our chip secrets

Written by Matti Robinson @ 26 Sep 2018 11:25

Qualcomm: Apple stole our chip secrets One of the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, Qualcomm, has aired out fairly serious accusations towards Apple. The first trillion dollars company has stolen some of chip manufacturer's secrets, Qualcomm says.

Qualcomm took it to the courts and is trying to prove that Apple, a chip designer themselves, helped Intel, a major competitor to Qualcomm, with their modems with code acquired from Qualcomm.

Obviously sharing details such as this is against the software licensing agreement between Qualcomm and Apple, Qualcomm claims.

Previously Apple has used both Qualcomm's and Intel's modems in their iPhones, lately preferring the former, but this year all three new phones from Cupertino has Intel's modem chips in them.

Apple's side of this debacle is that they've been trying to get rid of Qualcomm's modems exactly because of unfair licensing practices.

Qualcomm's contention is that Apple should pay a percentage share of the end product to them, instead of what Apple thinks, and perhaps the most others think, is fair, which is obviously the price of the product they bought.

While Qualcomm claims that Apple has constantly been sharing confidential information with Intel for them to catch up to Qualcomm, there is no concrete examples shown, at least to the public of yet.

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AfterDawn: News

Microsoft reveals: Mouse and keyboard coming to Xbox One

Written by Matti Robinson @ 26 Sep 2018 11:09

Microsoft reveals: Mouse and keyboard coming to Xbox One Current generation gaming consoles have one slight difference in I/O support. Sony's PlayStation 4 supports both USB and Bluetooth keyboard and mice while Microsoft's creation has support for none of those, until now.

Microsoft has confirmed that support for mouse and keyboard input is in the works. In fact the company is developing peripherals with Razer so you can expect perhaps some flashy gamer gear type Xbox keyboards and mice in the near future.

Currently the feature is still in testing and you'll get access to it only in the Xbox Insider program, but expansion to all consoles should come soon. However, games will not allow mouse and keyboard controls by default, that is dependent on developers to enable.

And to bring the support on par with the toughest competition, Microsoft has revealed that both wired and wireless, that is USB and Bluetooth, keyboards are supported.

Microsoft and Razer will have more news on November 10.

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AfterDawn: News

Mozilla releases a virtual reality browser, Firefox Reality

Written by Matti Robinson @ 20 Sep 2018 12:03

Mozilla releases a virtual reality browser, Firefox Reality Firefox might not be on the top of the world anymore, or hasn't been for years now, but they are trying all kinds of tricks to turn the ship. The latest is a virtual reality browser by the name of Firefox Reality.

Obviously, as the the name suggests, the browser is a Firefox version designed for the virtual reality, and to be used with VR headsets. Mozilla is planning on further developing Firefox Reality to be compatible with AR glasses as well, perhaps thus the name that doesn't exclude any type of extended reality.

Currently Firefox Reality is only available for specific VR platforms, including HTC Vive, Oculus and Daydream headsets. You can download it from the app stores of aforementioned platforms.

Future installments are planned to support at least Microsoft HoloLens as well as the new competitor to that, Magic Leap One.

Most of the web is obviously two-dimensional, so that will be displayed as a sheet of paper if you will, but Mozilla says the browser supports also immersive web content.

Firefox Reality supports both virtual keyboard input, which is never optimal, as well as voice commands. The version number is currently only at 1.0 so expect improvement in terms of bookmarks, 360 degree videos and others coming in the future.

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AfterDawn: News

Sony's surprise release: Here's the PlayStation Classic

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Sep 2018 11:23

Sony's surprise release: Here's the PlayStation Classic Nintedo unveiled a surprising product in 2016, a retro gaming console called NES Classic. The tiny NES-looking machine is a gaming console with 30ish retro Nintendo games, and it was a huge hit.

Even Nintendo didn't expect it, and it sold out immediately, and a few times again. It came back in 2018, and Nintendo released a sibling, the SNES Classic.

The success of these cheap little retro consoles sparked the interest of Commodore who released the C64 Mini. And now it's Sony's time to enter the game.

Sony has now unveiled that they'll be releasing a PlayStation Classic, a tiny retro version of the original PlayStation. According to Sony, this tiny console is 45 percent smaller than the original and it includes 20 classic games from PS one.

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AfterDawn: News

Google's Family Link lets parents control their teens' phones

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Sep 2018 10:57

Google's Family Link lets parents control their teens' phones Google released last year a family-oriented app, called Family Link, which allows parents to control their kids' phones.

Previously Family Link has allowed parents to take control of their sub-13 year olds' phones only, now they've expanded the support to teenagers as well.

In a post-GDPR EU, where for example minors under the age of 16 can't have a Google account, the feature was obviously necessary, but elsewhere as well it gives long-awaited controls to parents of their offsprings' digital life.

Family Link was originally designed for minors under the age of 13 but with the new update teenagers are now included in the app as well. However, it does require both parties to accept the terms, but one could argue that should be easy to accomplish.

Since there is a bi-party consent, the teenager can break the connection at any point, but that will result in a 24-hour shutdown of the phone.

With Family Link the parents can monitor location and usage times on per-app basis, allow or ban downloads of specific apps, and even lock the device.

Google is also updating Assistant with Family Link features so you'll be able to ask Google Home or your Android phone's Assistant to lock your kid's phone or what have you.

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AfterDawn: News

Twitter finally succumbs, brings back chronological feed

Written by Matti Robinson @ 19 Sep 2018 10:36

Twitter finally succumbs, brings back chronological feed Even the people that love Twitter the most have a few gripes with the service. One of the most common ones is of course not allowing users to edit tweets, but another, perhaps an even more common problem, is being fixed.

Twitter support has confirmed, reports TechCrunch, that the company is bringing back a chronologically, or more precisely reverse chronologically, ordered tweet feed. It must be one of the most requested features of the Twittersphere.

In 2016, Twitter started arranging tweets with their own algorithm that promised best Tweets first. This meant that some tweets, retweets and likes made it to the top and others seemed to disappear. Worst of all, the user doesn't really know the method to this madness.

Now, Twitter is bringing back the original idea which is to have a simple feed showing newest tweets first. You won't be seeing interesting things people liked promoted or anything like that. Which should be what people have opted in for when they unticked the setting for "Show the best Tweets first."

This wasn't entirely the case, though, but now the company is finally giving up the grand experiment, and letting users choose for themselves.

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AfterDawn: News

Google admits to accidentally changing Android phone settings without users' knowledge

Written by Matti Robinson @ 18 Sep 2018 11:09

Google admits to accidentally changing Android phone settings without users' knowledge Google has officially apologized for an error that changed Android users setting without their approval. Users have noticed that their phone went on battery saving mode without any action.

A Pixel team representative has confirmed on a Reddit thread that it is indeed the case that Google had remotely changed some users' battery saving mode to on position. Obviously this is something that shouldn't happen, and many thought couldn't even happen.

According to the statement made on Reddit, Google had been testing battery saving features and it was mistakenly applied to users that are not part of the internal program. They've since rolled the changed back and users can now choose whether they want to have battery saving on or not.

Here's the statement:

Hi all, some of you may have noticed that battery saver turned on automatically today. This was an internal experiment to test battery saving features that was mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended. We have now rolled battery saver settings back to default. Please configure to your liking. Sorry for the confusion.

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AfterDawn: News

SpaceX reveals identity of private Moon passenger, dates and details the mission

Written by James Delahunty @ 17 Sep 2018 10:05

SpaceX reveals identity of private Moon passenger, dates and details the mission SpaceX has announced the world's first passenger to fly around the Moon on the upcoming BFR (Big Falcon Rocket), as well as detailing the mission and dating it.

At a conference on Monday evening, SpaceX detailed its first private passenger mission to the Moon. Yusaku Maezawa, a private Japanese citizen and entrepreneur, will be the first person to fly beyond the Moon since the early 1970s. If all goes well, he will be blasted toward the moon on board a giant BFR rocket and space vehicle.

Maezawa has an estimated net worth of $3.6 billion since 2017.

"I choose to go to the Moon," Maezawa announced to the press present to applause. He spoke at the SpaceX conference about how he will invite artists from around the world to join him on the BFR mission, as he would rather not go alone. He calls the project #dearMoon. The mission is set for 2023 and between 6-8 additional artists will be flown to the moon as long as they commit to creating something inspired by the mission when they get back.

The crew will spend a week in space in the half million mile round-trip.

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AfterDawn: News

Opinion: Apple unveiled a thousand dollar smartphone with obsolete display tech

Written by Matti Robinson @ 17 Sep 2018 11:30

Opinion: Apple unveiled a thousand dollar smartphone with obsolete display tech Apple's last week's iPhone event held in Cupertino included some highlights worthy of ovations, perhaps even standing ones.

The first ever over-the-counter ECG in form of a new and much improved Apple Watch was definitely one of them, and one could argue Smart HDR on new iPhones seemed like more than a simple evolutionary step in smartphone cameras.

Apart from Smart HDR, however, the new iPhone flagships very largely iterative upgrades over the previous year's iPhone X. And that was to be expected, after all it was the S year this time around.

Thankfully, Apple had "one more iPhone" to unveil.

Tim Cook and his buddies released the iPhone XR, that was expected as well. A middle of the road iPhone with a colorful aluminum design and powerful specs, including the new A12 Bionic chip found in the more expensive new iPhone models.

However, in all the attractive looks and promising tech there's a gaping hole in specs. The new iPhone XR comes with a large, completely 2018-ready 6.1 inch screen, but it is a LCD panel and a lousy one at that.

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AfterDawn: News

Stranger Things: Netflix sued for copyright infringement over photograph use

Written by James Delahunty @ 16 Sep 2018 10:11

Stranger Things: Netflix sued for copyright infringement over photograph use Netflix has been hit with a lawsuit by a photographer over the alleged unauthorized use of a supercell photograph in Stranger Things and How It Ends.

Sean R. Heavey is a photographer from Montana. In 2010, he tracked a storm for hours as it crossed into Montana, taking four vertical panoramic photos together into one photo. The resulting storm cell image has been used in publications all over the world.

While watching an episode of Netflix' hit show Stranger Things, Heavey noticed something oddly similar about a cloud formation that is shown. Later, in an episode of Beyond Stranger Things, a concept art photo appears to be built from his photo of the storm cell from 2010.

Heavey took to Facebook to show the following comparison and ask if others thought the cloud formation used in Stranger Things is his photograph.

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AfterDawn: News

Apple explains removal of movies from iTunes library

Written by James Delahunty @ 16 Sep 2018 9:52

Apple explains removal of movies from iTunes library Apple has responded to a tweet by a customer last week lambasting the company after three movies seemingly disappeared from his iTunes library.

In a tweet, Anders Gonçalves da Silva shared a support e-mail he received from Apple after he complained that three films he had previously purchased had disappeared from his iTunes library.

The response seemed to imply that because the films were no longer available in the iTunes store that the customer could no longer download them. Instead, he seemed to have been offered some free rentals.

Here is the original tweet:

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AfterDawn: News

Report: Fortnite causing divorces in UK

Written by James Delahunty @ 16 Sep 2018 9:37

Report: Fortnite causing divorces in UK Epic Games' smash hit Fortnite is being increasingly cited as a reason for divorce, according to figures from the UK.

Fortnite has become something of a cultural phenomenon for the games business. Fortnite Battle Royale attracted more than 125 million players in a year, and the title is generating hundreds of millions of dollars per month. Players have spoken of how addictive the game can be, and it has even generated compilation videos of "Fortnite Rage" where players lose their minds and smash up their equipment. To be fair, it's not the first title to generate such compilations.

It's not hard to imagine then that Fortnite could be a cause for the breakdown of a relationship. Excessive gaming has long been a factor in the breakdown of relationships between couples. In the UK, there are some figures to show that Fortnite can test the whole "til death do us part" thing.

Divorce-Online has reported that it received 200 divorce petitions that cite addiction to Fortnite, and to other games, as a reason that a divorce is being sought.

"These numbers equate to roughly 5% of the 4,665 petitions we have handled since the beginning of the year and as one of the largest filers of divorce petitions in the UK, is a pretty good indicator," Divorce-Online said on its website.

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AfterDawn: News

Prison sentence sought for Deadpool pirate

Written by James Delahunty @ 16 Sep 2018 9:19

Prison sentence sought for Deadpool pirate A man who has admitted to downloading a bootleg copy of Deadpool and then sharing it online could face a prison term.

The Fresno, California resident downloaded a bootleg copy of Deadpool shortly after it debuted in theaters over two years ago and then shared it on Facebook. As a result, the copy of the film was viewed more than 6,386,456 times by Facebook users.

Following his arrested, the individual signed a plea agreement with the government in which he admitted to pirating the popular film and sharing it on the social media platform. He pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor which carried a maximum prison term of a year.

However, the government is recommending a six-month stint.

"[T]he government recommends the high-end sentence of six months' imprisonment, to be followed by a one-year term of supervised release, and a mandatory special assessment of $100," the sentencing position reads.

To justify the request, the government argues that the individual broke the law in a brazen and public manner. It noted, for example, that many users in the comments on Facebook pointed out to him that he was committing a crime, but he scoffed at the warnings.

"Defendant even created a Facebook group for the purpose of illegally sharing movies with others, posting 'EVERYBODY JOIN' in relation to the Facebook group he created called 'BOOTLEG MOVIES'," the government notes.

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