Software

Microsoft plans to implement the new Fluent Design framework across the entire Windows 10 OS, and File Explorer appears to be the next part to get the new look. Apart from new transparent and reworked visuals, File Explorer will finally support tabbed windows and sets. This revamp is scheduled to be introduced with the 2020 major update.

Funcom, the name behind Conan Exiles, has teamed up with Rock Pocket Games to deliver a new horror title for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Its name is "Moons of Madness" and should arrive during this year's Halloween season and shares the same thematic universe with Funcom's Secret World Legends.

Huawei has just released its new P30 flagship series in Paris. Its specs line up pretty well with the various leaks that have already been spilled about the 2 phones in question. They are available from today (March 26, 2019) and start at €799 (about US$900).

Samsung is currently sending out the Android Pie update to users of the Galaxy Note FE. The Note FE wasn't included in the company's Pie update roadmap, so this is a pleasant surprise. The update doubles up as the March security patch and also brings Samsung's new One UI.

Nvidia has announced the availability of the GeForce Game Ready 419.67 WHQL drivers that bring optimizations to several games, including Battlefield V’s new battle royale mode, Firestorm. Gamers can download the latest drivers through the GeForce Experience application or directly from the company’s website.

Kaspersky Labs earlier today wrote about an attack they discovered in January that compromised Asus' Live Update Utility. The attack affected 57,000 Kaspersky customers and may have hit as many as 500,000 computers around the world. Dubbed "Operation ShadowHammer," the attack injected a Trojan into the Live Update Utility and used authentic Asus software certificates to install itself onto targeted systems.

Apple Card brings together hardware, software, and services to deliver a complete financial management and payment experience focused on providing "a healthier financial life" to its customers. This solution comes with a rewards program called Daily Cash, no fees, low interest, a physical titanium card for payments at locations without Apple Pay support, and more.

The Cupertino giant has unveiled the next generation of its TV arm. However, it is not a device; rather, it is a software- and content-based upgrade. The new Apple TV app allows users to cherry-pick channels or streaming providers at need. They could also add Apple TV Plus: the company's new panel of original shows available via subscription.

Apple News just got a spinoff that includes 300 magazine subscriptions and is simply called News+. Available for US$9.99 a month (the first month is free), this service is also rolling out in Canada in both French and English. Australia and the UK will follow later this year as well.

Transparency Market Research's latest report is based on the observation that the demand for a 'smart' or 'connected' living room is growing steadily these days. It may consist of entertainment or media hardware that works seamlessly together via wireless controls. Currently, the market that underpins this idea is worth about US$500 billion; however, this is estimated to nearly double over the next 5 years.

Mozilla's Firefox for iOS has finally received an update with a set of features tailored for the iPad tablet, such as tab management, split-screen support, single-click private browsing, a comprehensive set of keyboard shortcuts (for those using an external keyboard with their iPad), and more.

The Honor 8X was released last year on Android Oreo but is now receiving the stable Pie update. The update weighs in at a humongous 3.14 GB and is one that takes the device's software to Huawei's EMUI 9.0 skin.

Tencent, which publishes games such as PUBG, has set up a collaboration with Razer in order to improve said apps' function on the gaming hardware giant's Android phones. This involves optimizing Tencent titles for the Razer Phones, as well as for the mobile-gaming peripherals Razer sells.

HMD Global has come up with an official response on the issue of its devices sending sensitive user data to Chinese servers. While the company's reasoning appears sound, it's still a tad appalling that something of this sort is associated with the Nokia brand, especially considering the hardware and software issues the company's devices have been accused of having over the past year.

References to three new Xiaomi devices have been discovered, with two of them being bonafide Android One phones. We could be looking at the Mi A3, A3 Lite, and Mi 7X, perhaps? Interestingly, all three phones will have in-display fingerprint readers and massive 32 MP selfie cameras.

15 years after the release of the original Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Paradox is finally announcing a sequel to the "cult" RPG game. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 is set in modern-day Seattle, and the gameplay will include brutal first person melee fights, strong language, and hub-like levels with non-linear progression.

The Closed Beta of Mortal Kombat 11 will debut on March 28 with a roaster of five fighters, namely Baraka, Jade, Kabal, Scarlet, and Scorpion. At launch, the game is expected to come with a lineup of no less than 28 characters, including Cassie Cage, Kano, Sub-Zero, Raiden, and Kano. This new Mortal Kombat title will launch on April 23.

OnePlus has reached an important stage in the development of Oxygen OS 9, which is based on Android Pie (9.0), for its former 3/3T flagships. It now has a closed beta of this build, which can be downloaded following a successful application to the program in question. Therefore, the general, stable release of this ROM is closer than ever.

Switch owners rejoice. Cuphead, the popular side-scrolling run and gun game, is coming to the console next month. You can pre-order the game now on the Nintendo eShop before its worldwide release on April 18. StudioMDHR is also bringing new and free content to all platforms, which will be available on the Switch version on day one.

The first anniversary of PUBG for mobile devices comes with the Season 6 Royale Pass, parties on Spawn Island with fireworks and loot crates with special rewards, randomly spawned birthday cakes, dynamic weather on Erangel and Miramar, a new vehicle (a three-wheeled bus that replaces the Jeep, Dacia, and Mini Bus), and more.

Could a phone establish data connections and load webpages independent of either WiFi or a SIM card? Volk Fi apparently thinks so. This company is currently advertising its first smartphone, the Volk One, which can apparently form part of its own 'mesh network' with every other unit of the same around it.

Reports have just emerged that the European Commission has disciplined Google for anti-trust-related business practices. Coincidentally, the company has issued a new blog post outlining its new measures to ensure that there is "choice and competition" among digital services for users in this region.

Microsoft has become much more open under current CEO Satya Nadella with apps made for macOS, iOS, Android and Linux. The latest step in this initiative is the porting of a version of Microsoft Defender antivirus software for macOS, but in this instance, it is targeted at business users initially.

Yesterday, Sea of Thieves celebrated its first anniversary. During the year that passes, the game received four major updates, and now everyone should get ready for the Anniversary Update, which is set to arrive at the end of April. This massive update — the biggest so far — promises to take Sea of Thieves to a whole new level.

God of War has won another “Game of the Year” title to add to its growing collection. This time, it was the Game Developers Choice Award for Game of the Year that was given to the acclaimed action-adventure game. God of War, which was developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony, was released in April 2018.

The early access software is Intel's next step towards becoming a discrete graphics company. The chipmaker plans to take user feedback seriously by launching the Odyssey program for enthusiasts to share, engage, and collaborate with Intel along the way.

Although handsets like the Oppo F11/F11 Pro and the RealMe 3 have been shipping with it onboard for a while, Android Pie-based Color OS 6 has finally received a proper official launch as well. This piece of code should be rolling out as an update for older Oppo handsets soon, but the roadmap is not available yet.

Apple's latest press release has unveiled the AirPods 2. These new earbuds integrate handsfree Siri activation, faster switching between different devices and wireless charging. However, their design is largely unchanged compared to their preceding generation.

Released at the end of November for the Nintendo Switch hybrid console, RollerCoaster Tycoon Adventures is now finally reaching PC gamers all over the world. However, this release comes with a twist that Steam fans will not enjoy: Atari's new game is exclusively available via the Epic Games store.

Vivo has announced its newest devices in a Chinese event today (March 19, 2019). They are the X27 and X27 Pro. The X27 has 2 variants with either the Snapdragon (SD) 675 or 710, although they both have the same screen and single pop-up selfie camera. The Pro version has a larger display, and a more novel wider pop-up module with a dedicated flash.

Already available in China, the Xiaomi Mi Pay mobile payments service has been tested in India in the second half of 2018. In the meantime, the Chinese company obtained the approval of the Reserve Bank of India, and Mi Pay is now ready to take on PayU, WhatsApp Pay, and the other similar services.

After a rather long wait, the French and Italian vehicles are finally joining Armored Warfare as the offerings of a new dealer, named Francine De Laroche. The Arabian Nights campaign is now moving on with new events, but the 0.28 update also comes with Battalion Ranked Battles, new achievements, as well as many tweaks and fixes.

Call of Duty Mobile is now official and should hit Android and iOS handsets later this year. Although there will not be a battle royale mode at launch, Activision has confirmed that this free-to-play title should offer this treat at some point in the future. Obviously, this "unique Call of Duty battle royale experience" will be accompanied by more content.

Nvidia has announced that a number of Pascal-based graphics cards will soon be enabled to utilize DirectX ray tracing (DXR). GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB cards and higher will receive a Game Ready Driver update, which is currently expected in April, to allow their users to enjoy limited ray tracing technology in certain games.

The Xiaomi Black Shark 2 has been launched today (March 18, 2019) in China. As expected, it is powered by the Snapdragon 855 processor, has a 6GB RAM base model and has a 6.39-inch FHD+ AMOLED display. This panel has some interesting HDR features, touted to enhance gaming and media experiences.

Unveiled earlier this year at CES 2019 and still expected to hit the market, the EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti KINGPIN Hybrid graphics card has recently topped the 3DMark Portal Royal benchmark thanks to a massive overclock — 2.7 GHz core and 17 GHz memory — that resulted in a bandwidth of over 750 Gbps.

There have always been rumors that Huawei was working on its own OS. Those have now been confirmed by the company, with Huawei CEO Richard Yu affirming that the Chinese monolith has a working mobile OS all geared up and ready to go, just in case.

Facebook and its subsidiaries suffered a temporary outage of services yesterday leading to inconvenience for users and advertisers alike. The company clarified that the outage was a result of a server configuration change and is not a cyber attack. The downtime resulted in more than 3 million new signups for Telegram with CEO Durov advocating the service's focus on privacy and unlimited space for everyone.

AMD has announced that the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.3.2 installation package is ready for download. The package includes various fixes and support for games, and it is currently available for Windows 10 64-bit and Windows 7 64-bit (with SP1 or higher).

Over the past week or so, WhatsApp has taken to enforcing its strict anti-third-party policies. The company considers third-party versions of the messenger a security risk and is now banning users of such apps. GB WhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus are examples.

Going by information released on Xiaomi's official forum, the company plans on sending out the Pie update to a host of devices over the next couple of months. The Redmi Note 5, for one, is expected to get the update before this month runs out.

It's finally here - Q has been released for download and use - albeit only on Pixel-line phones. On the other hand, this Beta 1 form of the OS is mainly meant for development and testing, not daily use. However, it does come with most of the promised and projected new features associated with the next version of Android.

A mobile insurance and device company, Asurion, has announced its findings on a study about missing devices and cases in which their owners managed to get them back. The company reported that having a lockscreen showing a contact number resulted in 3 times the chances of recovering such a device. In addition, the use of a cross-platform browser is a good idea in case of phone loss.

Adobe Shockwave was once the essential plug-in for interactive website elements and functions. However, it has been long overtaken by more up-to-date options. Its maker has announced the cessation of support for this relative dinosaur, with the exception of some business-focused licenses, on April 9, 2019.

A recent post on SlashLeaks shows real-life images of a device with Honor branding. The poster alleges that it is of the brand's 10 line - however, it can't be the pre-existing 10 Lite, as it appears to have triple rear cameras. Therefore, its contributor has dubbed it the Honor 10i.

The latest build of Windows 10 available via the Insider program expands the functions of the Your Phone app on the OS. This service, which formerly gave Android users a more convenient way to move their files on their PCs, now supports screen mirroring. Unfortunately, it only works with some Samsung Galaxy-line devices so far.

Xiaomi has already released official Android Pie-based builds for a number of its 2018 devices. Recent rumors that may emanate from the Chinese MIUI community indicate that the Mi 6X will soon join their ranks. This phone, which is a twin of the Android One phone, the Mi A2, is a solid mid-ranger with the Snapdragon 660 processor.

Although Windows 7 still controls a noticeable share in the desktop market, many gamers were forced to upgrade just to fully enjoy various DirectX 12 titles. However, the latest update for World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth — patch 8.1.5 — is the first title to bring full DirectX 12 support to Microsoft's outdated operating system.

Samsung is now sending out the stable Pie update to its Verizon and Unlocked models in the US. Unlocked Samsung models are usually the last to receive updates, so this means that all Note 9 users in the US have now received the Pie-based One UI update.

Google has quietly launched a breakthrough on real-time voice recognition technology via its AI blog. Using AI technology and tapping into the neural processing capabilities of its Pixel phones, Gboard users can now offline real-time speech recognition.