Software

Adobe announced at its MAX 2018 event that Project Rush is now ready for prime time and will launch as Premiere Rush CC as part of the Creative Cloud suite. Premiere Rush CC brings the best aspects of the desktop Premiere Pro experience into an easy-to-use mobile app that allows for pro-quality edits and easy sharing onto social media platforms.

At its MAX 2018 event today, Adobe announced that it is bringing the power of desktop Photoshop CC to the iPad. The new Photoshop CC for iPad is completely redesigned for a touch-first experience and enables all functionality found in the desktop version including support for editing PSD files and layers. The app will be available for download in 2019.

During the Made by Google event, the presenters of various new Pixel 3 and 3 XL features promised that at least some of them would also be ported to their predecessors through software updates. Now, however, the company has confirmed that new camera gimmicks such as Top Shot will not be among them.

The Exodus is HTC's first foray into blockchain for smartphones. The device is rumored to appeal to crypto enthusiasts and gamers, and may rival the similar Finney phone in many respects. New reports indicate that it will be released on October 22.

The latest installment in the Black Ops series is finally available for Xbox One at US$59.99 (Standard and Digital Standard Edition), US$99.99 (Digital Deluxe Edition), and US$129.99 (Digital Deluxe Enhanced Edition). Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 comes with 14 multiplayer maps, a battle royale mode, and three new Zombies adventures.

Sony, a few days ago, made good on its promise to send out the Android Pie update to its devices by October. The Xperia XZ2 and XZ2 Compact kicked off the Pie rollout, although users have claimed that a few major features are yet to be implemented.

The GPU market is often rife with counterfeit cards. These products are often sold as having more memory than they actually do, or as having newer NVIDIA chips that are in fact reflashed older ones - or both. TechPowerUp has upgraded its diagnostics app GPU-Z in order to detect these techniques and report affected cards as fakes.

Google has admitted that its social media app, Google+, has been hacked. This data theft has affected approximately half a million profiles. The users in question may have had many points of important user data extracted from their Google accounts.

Android is the most successful smartphone OS in the world. Despite this, Google did not mention the brand name during its recent hardware event. This sounds strange, but it might be part of a larger plan to eventually drop Android altogether.

Jim Vessella, a producer for Electronic Arts, has posted news on Reddit about Command & Conquer’s future. According to his post, the studio wants to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the game, which will be in 2020, by releasing some of the iconic PC classics in remastered form. EA also has a new C&C mobile game that is currently in pre-alpha stage.

New rumors emanating from Microsoft suggest that the Office software team want to take over Cortana's functions and place in the Windows OS. This would mean that Office could strongly inform its development in the future, converting the flagging virtual assistant into more of a productivity helpmeet - much like a certain animated paperclip.

An interview released onto OnePlus' official community website contains multiple tantalizing hints about the user interface on the upcoming 6T late-year flagship. This interview, given by the company's UX head and another software team representative, suggests novel camera and UI tweaks for the phone.

DuckDuckGo is quickly becoming a popular alternative to Google's increasingly invasive search engine. The privacy-focused search tool just announced hitting 30 million searches a day. While this is a far cry from the 3.5+ billion searches Google enjoys, it marks a 50% growth for DuckDuckGo, positioning the search engine for rapid growth without relying on tracking users.

The patch 0.62 brings a new 50v50 battle mode to Fortnite, namely Disco Domination, as well as a quad rocket launcher. In the new mode, players fight to capture dance floors and raise disco balls. The new patch also brings back the Port-a-Fortress, loot drop rate adjustments, and various fixes.

Only one week since its release, Forza Horizon 4 is already — according to Metacritic — the highest-rated Xbox exclusive title of this console generation while the franchise remains the best-seller in the racing category. During this first week, more than two million players have been driving in Forza Horizon 4's Britain.

The Pixel Slate is Google's latest tablet. It comes in one colour (Midnight Blue) and has an optional Pixelbook pen and keyboard with a dedicated Google Assistant button. The Pixel Slate runs Chrome OS and has its own Play Store apps.

The Google Pixel 3 and 3 XL have been released. Their appearance will surprise nobody, as both phones look exactly as described in all their leaks. The Pixel 3 XL has a notch, but may also have a lot of interesting new Google features behind it.

2018 is definitely the year of the at-least-three-camera phone. Some upcoming devices may have even more. However, Google seems content with the single rear shooter it has incorporated into the new Pixel 3 series.

Not long after halting the rollout of a Windows 10 feature update for the first time ever, Microsoft has finally announced that the cause of the user content removal bug — which affected only a few users who installed the update — has been isolated and a fix is rolling out to Windows Insider Program members.

Although the rumors about it surfaced back in April, it took a while for Niantic to finally confirm the arrival of the fourth-generation Pokemon from the Sinnoh region. However, the details are still not out yet, but Pokemon GO players should get ready to capture Turtwig, Piplup, Chimchar — or at least one or two of them.

Apple has just released iOS 12.0.1, just in time to stop what appeared to be an upcoming "charge gate" scandal caused by an issue that made iPhone XS handsets fail to charge when using a Lightning cable. This brand-new iOS update also irons out a WiFi-related problem, a Bluetooth bug, and more.

A well-known iOS developer, Luca Tudesco, is reported as stating that jailbreaking in the iPhone XS Max's A12 chip is possible. It may be a follow-up in which the related group Pangu claimed that they had done the same in iOS 12. However, there is no evidence that this option is more generally available yet.

Today, Armored Warfare celebrates the third anniversary since it became available for all those interested across Europe and North America. To bring back some of those who lost interest and to make everyone happy, the developer decided to offer the IT-1 tier 5 premium tank destroyer for free. To get this vehicle, a battle won in any game mode is enough.

The Amazon Alexa app has received a much-needed redesign and now features a clearer user interface and a new Devices tab. Users will be able to go directly to a list of devices in their home that utilize the popular virtual assistant without having to switch between tabs. The app update is already available for iOS and Android.

A notice has been published on Microsoft’s support site for Windows 10 stating that the rollout for the scheduled update for October 2018 (version 1809) has been paused. It seems a number of users have reported grave issues with the update, including considerable loss of data and even detrimental effects on a device’s battery life.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider has only been on the shelves for a few weeks and Square Enix has already announced a new DLC adventure for Lara Croft. The Forge is scheduled for release on November 13 and will be available for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. A standalone purchase of the DLC will cost US$4.99.

Older Android devices that still run Jelly Bean (JB) - or the versions of the OS from 4.1 to 4.3 - will no longer be able to run Google Chrome. The minimum API level for this app is being reset to 4.4 (or KitKat). This may not seem like a big deal; however, millions of devices out there still run JB.

An internal service document recently leaked from within Apple states that no-one but company staff and Authorized Apple Service Providers (AASPs) can repair or replace most MacBook 2018 and iMac Pro components without the devices becoming inoperable. However, iFixit has claimed to have done so with a MacBook Pro - and nothing happened.

PCs that run on processors that are of the Skylake or later series are reportedly displaying obstructive messages in the course of their update to the October version of Windows 10. This is due to an older Intel Display Audio driver that may cause instability if still present when the machine has finished upgrading itself.

A developer has created an app that can test the 60fps rendering capabilities of the S4 SIP, the processing platform found in the 4th-gen Apple Watch. He has reported that the watch equals the iPhone 6S in this test. The watch also used less than 70% of its processing power while running this app.

Nokia devices have had impenetrable bootloaders for a while now, especially after the unofficial blackhat method was patched last month. HMD has finally remedied that, though, by launching its bootloader unlock program.

The Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K has just been announced. It may be able to deliver HDR10+, as well as Dolby Vision, in order to stream content. Amazon has also included object-based Dolby Atmos surround sound, for material that supports it. At just US$49, it may be a significant problem for the upcoming Chromecast update.

The third generation of the Huawei Watch, which may be named the Watch GT rather than the Watch 3, is the subject of new image leaks at WinFuture. The watch may have a larger display than its predecessor, and may have more than one version. It has also reportedly been approved by the FCC.

Pete Lau, the CEO of the smartphone maker OnePlus, has been talking about the company's upcoming release in a new interview with CNET. Lau admitted that this phone, the 6T, is going to retail for more than its predecessor. According to him, Screen Unlock is a driving factor in this decision.

Introduced last week, Vivaldi 2.0 is a major update that delivers essential features like Sync, Resizable Tab Tiling, and Floating Web Panels to this niche browser, as well as a fresh look with window background images and Start Page backgrounds. Vivaldi is now available for macOS, Windows, and Linux.

Although Huawei was never very fast to update its handsets, it seems that the Mate 10 Pro is already receiving Android 9.0 Pie in Europe. Two months since its release, the latest Android version still struggles to hit the 0.1 percent market share. In other markets, this handset should get the update — which comes with EMUI 9.0 on top — in the coming weeks.

At the end of September, Google updated Wear OS with a few Google Fit features and a new notifications system that brings browsing, dismissing, and shortcuts. A trip assistant is now available with Google Assistant as well, and it also includes suggestions for restaurants. Thanks to this update, Wear OS devices get "proactive and personalized help."

Reports coming from several different sources claim that some brand-new iPhones are not charging unless their screens are on. This issue apparently affects both the iPhone XS and XS Max. However, the reports also suggest that this problem is software based, yet not constant across all devices.

It's been almost two months since the release of Android Pie and one would expect the latest version of the Android OS to have made its way into a decent number of devices. Apparently not.

Google will reportedly pay US $9 billion over 2018 to remain the default search engine for the Safari browser. This price may go up to as much as $12 billion next year. However, due to the growing popularity of Apple's devices, the privilege may be worth the cost to Google.

NVIDIA's share price could reach as much as US$400 thanks to new estimations by Evercore ICI. This company is pinning a lot of earning potential on the graphics giant due to its position in the emerging AI market. However, other analysts are not quite that optimistic.

A start-up called Habana claims that its new chip, the Goya, can out-perform NVIDIA V100 and Intel Xeon platforms in terms of image processing. Goya works on ONNX and MXNet AI frameworks at present, although Habana is working on TensorFlow too. On the other hand, there may be some caveats to the new company's claims.

In addition to the official September security patch from Google and the usual bug fixes and minor tweaks, the latest firmware update for the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 also comes with noticeable camera improvements, including day/night HDR control accuracy enhancements, better low light brightness, and more.

The new free content update for Sea of Thieves, dubbed "Forsaken Shores," comes with a new volcanic region. Suggestively called "The Devil’s Roar," the new area allows players to encounter volcano eruptions, terrifying earthquakes, unpredictable geysers that can fling them into the air, as well as dangerous super-heated water that surrounds the islands.

Thanks to the integration of Microsoft Translator, SwiftKey can now be used to perform real-time translation for more than 60 languages. Even more, those who install the Microsoft Translator app can also enjoy offline translation capabilities for SwiftKey — for example, when writing emails without being connected to the web.

The next update to Windows 10 may be rolled out in the next month. In fact, some leaks claim that this will commence on the same day on which the new Surface products are to be launched. However, for that to pan out, it leaves Microsoft with a lot of work to do in a very short space of time.

The latest version of the Opera browser is now available as "the best browser for multitaskers" and its list of changes includes volume control for the video pop-out player, a page zoom indicator in the address and search bar, an easier way to report bugs, and more. Opera 56 is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The OnePlus 6T is on a short list of upcoming smartphones mentioned in the ARCore 1.5 APK. This app supports up-to-date Google-provisioned features such as Lens. This feature is also to be included in the Nokia 9, as well as two as-yet unnamed Huawei phones.

Although there is still cloud support available across the apps of the new Microsoft Office 2019 suite, independence from the cloud — coming in the shape of an "on premises" version — is an excellent offering for the customers who do not need/do not trust/are not ready for the cloud. Obviously, there are some new features in the package as well.

The 15th major release of Apple's desktop operating system and the successor of macOS High Sierra 10.13, macOS Mojave 10.14 is now available. In addition to the new dark mode, this release brings a few iOS apps to the desktop, including Apple News, Home, Voice Memos, and is also the last macOS version to support 32-bit apps.