Software

"The Challenge on Wheels" special event that has begun today will last until March 7 and comes with the chance to obtain the Panhard EBR 75 FL 10 for free — or at least a good discount when purchasing it. This is the first premium wheeled vehicle in World of Tanks and can be obtained after completing ten challenging stages.

Samsung's in-house virtual assistant, Bixby, has been historically linked to many limitations over its life. One of them is the inability to work in certain languages, German and Italian included. However, support for these languages, as well as for Spanish, is now being rolled out to its 2.0 version.

The version labeled 50 of the Opera browser for Android comes with an improved ad blocker that features a site-specific setting, picture-in-picture support for videos on Android Oreo (and later), support for dark CSS themes, as well as support for the Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian languages.

The Helio P90 is an SoC that could bring augmented and mixed reality to some mid-range devices in the future. Today, MediaTek added AI to that list of possibilities. It has announced support for Google's ML Kit in conjunction with the P90. This could allow the processor to harness its APU to produce an enhanced AI experience.

Google announced today that it would be holding a special event at the Game Developer Conference (GDC) next month on March 19th. The announcement offers few details, but many are guessing that Google will announce something related to Project Stream, the search giant's in-browser game streaming service. Google has been working on Project Stream for months and might be developing the service to compete with the likes of Nvidia, Sony, Microsoft, and Amazon.

The latest corporate acquisition in the AI field for Apple is San Francisco-based PullString, a company that was founded in 2011 by former Pixar executives and has been working on "shaping the future of voice applications" ever since. The value of the deal is rumored to be around US$30 million.

MyDrivers has reported that Xiaomi intends to announce a crowdfunding project for a new product: a smart sports watch. This device will apparently support real-time GPS tracking, so that a user can generate and maintain maps of their fitness-related activities (e.g. runing routes and so on).

The February 2019-dated Android security patch comes with the software version G930FXXS4ESAE and seems to be only available for Samsung Galaxy S7 users in the United Kingdom and Austria for now. The Galaxy S7 lineup receives this month's patch after the Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9, and Galaxy Note 8.

Samsung rolled out the Android Pie-based One UI update to the Galaxy S9, S9 Plus, and Note 9 a while ago. The latest device to receive the update is the Galaxy Note 8, the company's last-gen flagship.

According to data from Sensor Tower, Facebook was the top app publisher in the world for Q4 2018, with over 800 million app installations. It was also the number one publisher on Google Play, amassing nearly 700 million installs. The App Store champion publisher was Google, which managed close to 200 million installs for the quarter.

The LG K40 is one 2019 device that may launch at MWC 2019. However, this exciting attribute is somewhat tempered by its direction at the budget end of the OEM's business-to-business devices. Then again, it may be supported for 3 years under Google's Android Enterprise initiative.

Microsoft's Visual Studio 2019 will launch on April 2 during an all-day event and comes with quite a few changes. The most noticeable one is the new start screen that has been redesigned to work with Git repositories, but there are a lot of minor under-the-hood changes as well — mainly performance optimizations.

The native dark mode in the latest MIUI 10 beta covers most areas of the operating system — Phone, Contacts, Gallery, Screen recorder, Updater, Messaging — as well as the notification shade, volume slider, and the Recents menu. Xiaomi confirmed a month ago that MIUI 11 is in the works, so the stable MIUI 10 with dark mode should come out soon.

CNBC has reported that JPMorgan Chase has developed a new cryptocurrency that will be called JPM Coin. The digital currency will apparently be used in the banking company’s “wholesale payments business.” The JPM Coin will adopt the stablecoin concept, in that its price will not change as one JPM Coin will be worth one US dollar.

A popular dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel, has revealed that it has suffered from a major data breach. Apparently, over 6.1 million accounts were affected by the hacks, which took place in late 2017 and again in May 2018. Coffee Meets Bagel users were informed of the cyber attack on the worst day possible for those looking for love: Valentine’s Day.

SamMobile has reportedly spotted security updates for the Samsung Galaxy S6, which should bring its patch level up to January 2019. This is not hugely unusual, except for the fact that this phone is now nearly 4 years old. It joins a very short list of devices this age to still receive official software support from its OEM.

A new report from the NBD Group shows that smartwatch sales in the US increased by 51% from November 2017 to November 2018. Wear OS only accounted for a maximum of 12% of all of these wearables sold. The rest of the sales were those from the top 3 in this market: Apple, Fitbit and Samsung.

How can spam messages be detected in end-to-end encryption? WhatsApp uses other tools and can already track 75% automatically using AI. Through this process, two million WhatsApp accounts are blocked per month.

Samsung had been rumored to be preparing a February security patch for the Galaxy S8, sparking speculation that it would also come with the official update to Android 9.0 (Pie) for the 2017 flagship. This patch is now reportedly arriving on the devices in question, but it is still based on Oreo. Therefore, fans of this phone still have another month to wait for their major OS upgrade.

The Surface Pen is Microsoft's answer to the Apple Pencil. It has been described as an effective stylus, albeit one that could produce more accurate digital writing. A new patent may help improve on this with changes to both the Pen and the screen used.

Those who missed the private beta stage of Ubisoft's upcoming title The Division 2 can join the open beta, which is scheduled to begin on March 1. Sadly, the open beta will only run for three days and the trial will end on March 4. The game will launch on March 15 on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

Despite its critical and commercial failure, the PlayStation Classic may be an attractive retro gaming device, especially given Walmart's latest price cut. The PlayStation Classic can be found at Walmart for a mere $40, 60% less than its original retail price. Additionally, those willing to hack or modify their PlayStation Classic may find the mini-console to be a suitable emulation box.

The Xiaomi M365 electric scooters is popular with ride-sharing companies such as Bird in the US. They can hire out such vehicles online thanks to the ability to remotely lock rental units as and when they need to. The research group Zimperium has claimed to be able to hi-jack this mechanism due to vulnerabilities found in Xiaomi's Bluetooth authentication procedure for the M365.

Reddit has just secured a large-scale investment in the form of round D funding to the tune of US$300 million. Tencent - a company whose home nation has blocked the social media platform - has contributed 50% of this figure. The move has sparked speculation that Reddit's new part-ownership may lead to adversity such as increased censorship on the popular website.

Razer has notified us that it has investigated a number of issues impacting a limited number of retail Blade Stealth units. If you're experiencing any of the following, then this new BIOS and EC update should do the trick.

The OEM OnePlus had previously announced that it would release a 5G phone this year. Today (February 11, 2019), the company has apparently released a confirmation that this device would feature at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) this year. It will showcase the device at Qualcomm's booth during the event.

According to some recent leaks, Apple may resurrect the iPad Mini name this year. A new post on MacOtakara has suggested that this tablet may be even more budget-friendly than usual. It claims that the 5th generation of the device could use the A10 Fusion - the chipset found in the iPhone 7.

A few good months after its introduction, the Augmented Reality navigation feature is finally rolling out for Google Maps users in the wild. However, this is only a test run that includes a limited number of users and there is no official date for the general rollout of this next-gen feature.

Working with all major internet providers in the country, Russian authorities are planning an interesting - and quite disturbing - experiment that involves disconnecting all local users from the internet. The purpose of this experiment is to get feedback and maybe provide modifications to a law proposed back in December 2018.

Market intelligence analyst Sensor Tower has estimated that Fortnite has amassed over US$500 million in revenue in less than a year on iOS alone. The battle royale smash hit from Epic Games has been making about US$1.53 million a day since it was released on the App Store. Android gamers have contributed another US$100 million on top of that.

A Redditor claims to have access to a Canadian database in which the upcoming LG G8 ThinQ is shown alongside the number 1199. Assuming this figure is its price in the country, this means the phone could cost about US$900 at launch. Considering LG's typical release strategies for its mobile devices, this is more or less plausible.

The latest stable version of Chrome OS (72) brings a considerable re-design for the Assistant interface on this platform. It also updates the version of Android used within it to 9.0 (Pie), which adds the ability to search for apps and use new Assistant settings. Chrome OS redirects Cast set-up to the Google Home app, and adds picture-in-picture video to webpages.

Thanks to the votes of The Steam Community members, PUBG is now holding the Game of the Year Award for 2018. However, CD PROJEKT RED, the Polish company behind the successful Witcher franchise, was crowned as The Best Developer. PUBG competed for this prize against Monster Hunter World, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Hitman 2, and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.

Opera has introduced a new beta version of its Android mobile browser with a built-in VPN. Even better, it is a free feature inclusion that doesn’t log user data that travels through Opera’s servers.

Respawn Entertainment’s Vince Zampella has posted some news on the Electronic Arts website to share information about how the new battle royale game Apex Legends is doing. Apparently, over 10 million people have now tried the game within its first 72 hours of release. Apex Legends is set in the Titanfall universe.

Many Skype users may be reluctant to take a call due to how messy or inappropriate their surroundings may be. Now, however, the app's latest update adds a toggle that blurs everything but the caller out of a camera's shot. This new 'background blur' option is generated by AI, and should function on most PCs.

Recently, Facebook had gone public with its intentions to merge user data from its own Messenger app with that of WhatsApp and Instagram. Yesterday, the German federal corporate trust-monitoring office ruled against Facebook's license to do so in the country. It cited the fact that Facebook can only pool data as it wishes if the user of each respective app consents to this activity.

Jensen Huang, NVIDIA's chief executive officer (CEO), will deliver the keynote speech at this year's GPU Technology Conference (GTC). This event will take place in several locations in San José, California, from March 17 to 21, 2019. Huang will present on his company's recent breakthroughs in AI, robotics and self-driving tech during his speech.

The Android Go handsets Samsung Galaxy J2 Core and Galaxy J4 have recently been certified by the Wi-Fi Alliance with Android Pie firmware onboard. However, the arrival of the update might take a while. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy Note 8 were certified back in November with Android 9.0 onboard, but the update is not ready for them yet.

A recent report in TechCrunch has revealed that a number of companies use a service that allows 'session replay', which can effectively translate into recordings of what users do on their iOS apps. This data can include on-screen taps and text field inputs. Apple has responded by insisting that all developers disclose their use of these services.

The next Oculus VR headset to be released is rumored to be called the Rift S. The latest leaks on this device suggests that it will come with its own onboard tracking cameras, rather than rely on USB-connected sensors. It may also fix the original Rift's problems with the appearance of 'god rays' on the lenses, and adjust for room lighting with 50-to-60Hz modes.

The OPPO K1 is now available on the Indian market. This phone may compete with others such as the Redmi Note 7, as it has many specs in common with this device, but also has an in-display fingerprint reader. The K1 is exclusive to Flipkart, which sells it for about US$237.

Windows 7 is far from dead; with around a third of the market share, the operating system is primarily used by businesses. Official support will end next year, but can be extended for another three years – at a price.

Sony will host a panel of events at this year's South by South West (SXSW) festival. It will apparently consist of talks and presentations that integrate into the regular creators' conference in Austin, Texas. Sony's contribution will be found at the city's WOW Stadium from March 9 to 12, 2019.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9's S Pen gained interesting new Bluetooth capabilities over previous versions of the same stylus last year. Now, the OEM has obtained a patent to pack a whole camera into a version of the same component. This camera has a tiny lens, but also has optical zoom and a battery to power it.

The latest update to the VLC media player (4.0) will bring more features, especially for iOS. However, it will also no longer support older versions of the same platform, along with some others (e.g. Windows XP). It also now offers the ability to play a full list of music without pauses of any kind.

Unleashed upon Windows and macOS gamers earlier today, World of Tanks 1.4 brings a few wheeled vehicles to the French tech tree, a reworked map (Ghost Town), new tweaks to the Personal Missions, a few buffs to the Object 279 Early and Chimera special tanks, concurrent rendering support, and other changes.

Mozilla's Firefox 66 will come with audible autoplay blocking enabled by default, and the Android version will get a new implementation of this feature. The update is scheduled for general release on March 19. However, Firefox 66 will continue to allow muted autoplay.

A 47 percent boost in performance with no loss in image quality seems almost too good to be true. Nvidia DLSS puts deep learning and AI to good use for gamers who may not yet be sold on the capabilities of ray-tracing.

Phones from the most recent Pixel generation (and the Essential PH-1) have been reported as having received notifications to download the latest security patch for Android. Essential has noted that this update also contains other necessary additions such as bug-fixes. This patch may roll out to other devices later on, depending on their OEMs and carriers.