Software

A user on Reddit has narrated the tales of their trip into China, which saw the country’s border police accost them and install what was almost definitely surveillance software on their Android devices.

HMD has proclaimed its dedication towards providing steady updates for its devices. The company has promised that all of its devices will receive the update to Android P when it's released—yes, even devices like the sub-$100 Nokia 1 and Nokia 2.

According to multiple user reports, the patch for the Google Pixel 2 XL that was issued two days ago made this flagship device slower when waking up from the sleep mode via both the power button and the fingerprint reader. Fortunately, it seems that no other Pixel or Nexus device has been affected by this bug.

The latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, iOS 12, refines a few existing features while introducing few new ones. All said, iOS 12 is exciting for the Apple fanbase, but it seems like the iPhone is playing catch-up to Android.

Join us as we share our thoughts during Apple's WWDC 2018 developer conference.

The Killer xTend software turns Killer Wireless equipped computers into wireless extenders via hotspot or mesh networking. The host computer can extend the network via either wireless or LAN, and Killer's traffic prioritisation and optimisation is in effect for the host and any connected devices.

An unnamed hacker claims to have access to a set of internal tools that can be used to reveal — obviously private — Apple customer account information. According to this individual, at least 20 people have acquired usernames and passwords — obtained using a "private exploit," he said — to access Apple's systems.

Released in South Korea back in March 2010, the action MMORPG title shortly known as Dragon Nest arrived on Android a few months ago, but it was only available in South Asia since then. Now, Dragon Nest M (from "mobile") can be finally enjoyed by Android users all over the world as a free game (with optional digital purchases, of course).

The kernel exploit for the PlayStation 4's firmware 5.05 was released earlier in the week. While it isn't stable right now, it's the most recent jailbreak for the console and supports a number of recent releases.

A report from analytics firm App Annie has stated that the iOS App Store has made revenue of over US$130 billion from July 2010 to December 2017. The report offers a number of incredible statistics, including the fact that 170 billion downloads were made between the same dates mentioned above, and that there are now over two million live apps available on the App Store.

It’s possible the latest installment in the incredibly successful Assassin’s Creed franchise may have just been leaked. French website JeuxVideo-Live has posted an image of a promotional keychain that features the title “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” on the packaging. Both the title and the keychain style suggest that the next game in the series will be based in Ancient Greece.

Facebook will be banned in Papua New Guinea for a month, but the starting day has not been unveiled yet. The reason for this is to allow the government's analysts to track down those behind fake accounts, adult uploads, and those who introduce and promote fake news and misleading information.

Valve has removed the controversial game Active Shooter from the Steam software distribution platform. The first-person shooter had been scheduled for release on June 6 but Valve has now taken steps to also ban the game’s developer and publisher, too. Active Shooter offered an option for a player to attack civilians in a school setting.

Announced for Japan back in March, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth is finally available for Android and iOS smartphones in the US. This cult classic is more than 12 years old, but the mobile version has been refreshed with HD graphics, a wide voice cast, partial gamepad support, as well as save and autosave capabilities.

Although Andy Rubin's company is now up for sale and the chances to see a second Essential Phone reaching the market anytime soon have just evaporated, the company recently announced that its only device will get 2 years of updates and 3 years of security patches. Sadly, these timelines could change if Essential gets a new owner.

A game scheduled for unlocking on Steam on June 6 has started to amass considerable media attention due to its controversial theme. Active Shooter is currently listed on Valve’s software distribution platform and is described as an action simulation. The game has been heavily criticized because it allows the player to act as a shooter killing civilians in a school setting.

According to reports, Valve Corporation’s new Steam Link app has been denied entry to the world of Apple. A review team at the Cupertino-based company apparently rejected the application on grounds of “business conflicts with app guidelines.” This has led to some speculation that Apple could be working on its own game-streaming service.

A new trailer for the shooter game World War Z has been posted online, and it looks like a must play for any fan of the zombie genre. The game is inspired by the 2013 film, which was based on the famous 2006 novel by Max Brooks. The title has been developed by Saber Interactive and is scheduled for release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One later this year.

Huawei has announced its decision to end official support for bootloader unlocks. Devices released after May 24 will not be eligible for unlocks, while those already released will have that option closed to them in 60 days.

A new PlayStation 4 jailbreak exploit is in the works. The exploit is for the console's firmware 5.05 and is highly anticipated due to its compatibility with newer titles like God of War.

After a history of more than 16 years, the popular content discovery and advertisement engine StumbleUpon is drawing its last breath. On June 30, all user accounts and content will move to Mix.com, a similar service that offers better compatibility with today's mobile platforms and web browsers.

Epic Games has published a new State of Development post for Fortnite detailing upcoming changes for the battle royale giant. Apparently, a new Playground Limited Time Mode will be introduced that will allow players to explore the map without fear of being instantly obliterated by a hardcore Fortniter. The Playground LTM will offer gamers the chance to practice building techniques and respawn if downed by friendly fire.

The popular Grammarly web app saw a UI revamp a short while ago. While the new minimalistic design does look better, that may have come at the expense of a slight hit to the user experience.

Available for phones and tablets that run at least iOS 9 or KitKat, Google Family Link allows parents to control the content available on their children's phones and tablets that run Nougat or later. Launched in the US back in September 2017, this service is now available in no less than 38 countries worldwide.

It has been 20 years since the original Unreal first-person shooter appeared on PCs around the world. The classic game was released on May 22, 1998, and it spawned a whole franchise of best-selling titles. To celebrate Unreal’s birthday, both GOG and Steam are offering the game as a free download for a limited time.

Control your smart home with a compatible Acer laptop. The free update will begin rolling out today for Spin 3 and Spin 5 owners with more on store shelves beginning in June. Instead of offering the software as an option, however, owners will have one more pre-installed software application that they will have to manually uninstall if they have no interest in Alexa or if they prefer Microsoft Cortana.

LG is apparently now selling its older devices like the G6 and V30 with a ThinQ branding. Quite amusingly, the ThinQ-branded devices are exactly the same as they were at launch—there is nothing to differentiate them from the regular model.

Scheduled to arrive in October, Ubuntu 18.10 "Cosmic Cuttlefish" will still use GNOME but will come with a new default theme called Communitheme, improved power saving options, a faster first-time startup for apps installed as snaps, DLNA media sharing, and more. Until then, version 18.04.1 is expected to drop in July with a few minor changes, as well as the usual tweaks and bug fixes.

Semantic Machines Inc. is a Californian company based in Berkeley that will join Microsoft for an undisclosed amount. However, it has been revealed that the Redmond giant will establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley "to push forward the boundaries of what is possible in language interfaces."

According to a report by OnPhones, Xiaomi may have been using fake camera samples for its Redmi Y2 promotional content. This wouldn't be the first an OEM does something of the sort.

ZTE may have found a way out of its current troubles, as word claims that Samsung is willing to sell its Exynos SoCs to the company, in a bid to expand its ARM processor business.

The list of mobile devices with Netflix HDR support now consists of 11 smartphones and one tablet — namely the Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 — and the last ones to be added are the Huawei P20, P20 Pro, Mate 10 Pro, as well as the Sony Xperia XZ2. The only plan with UHD content streaming support is Netflix Premium, priced at US$13.99 per month.

Epic Games has confirmed that Fortnite will finally be making its way to Android. The battle royale champion is currently available on the PC, Mac, PS4, Xbox One, and iOS platforms, with Android being a glaring omission so far. However, the game’s developer has now stated that a summer release is being targeted for Fortnite on Google’s OS.

Less than a month after becoming the first Namco Bandai title to reach 3 million pre-registrations worldwide, Dragon Ball Legends is now officially available for Android users in the US. Europe and other markets will follow soon, followed by the iOS version of this new title based on the Dragon Ball manga and anime series.

A tweet by tipster Roland Quandt has touted the existence of a successor to the Nokia 3. The Nokia 3.1 is said to be on the way and will be one of HMD's budget offerings for the year.

LG unveiled the G7 ThinQ a short while ago. That device will not be carried by AT&T, though, with the carrier said to be signed up for an LG flagship that will be exclusive to it, in the form of the V35 ThinQ.

YouTube Music will launch next Tuesday as a free ad-supported service, while YouTube Music Premium will come for US$9.99. At the same time, YouTube Red becomes YouTube Premium. The first wave of countries to get YouTube Music consists of Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, South Korea, and the US.

Back in February, the Android Oreo update for the Galaxy S8 lineup was halted. Now, the new firmware for the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge shares the same fate as more users located in Europe are complaining of bootloops that occur once the update is complete. Not long ago, T-Mobile paused the rollout of the same update after being delayed.

Thanks to the new features coming to the Facebook app, its users will be able to save photos and videos directly to the Facebook cloud, share voice messages with friends, as well as to archive the Facebook Stories as needed. The new features will roll out in India first and are expected to reach the rest of the world soon.

Already available in smartphones, TVs, air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigerators, the Samsung Bixby virtual assistant will also be added to the company's robot cleaners and ovens by the end of this year. Samsung remains committed to the promise of bringing AI to all its home appliances by 2020.

Windows 10 users who depend on the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) for development work will soon have an easy access to the Linux terminal thanks to a popular User Voice request. Upcoming Windows 10 'Redstone 5' builds will have the ability to directly open a Linux terminal from File Explorer similar to how one can invoke the Command Prompt.

An image showing a list of upcoming Xiaomi devices have surfaced. While there are items on the list that make some sense—Redmi Note 6, Redmi Note 6A, Redmi 6 Plus—a few others cast doubt on the veracity of the entire thing.

An official gameplay trailer for Rage 2 has been released by Bethesda Softworks, and it is bound to delight fans of the first game. The first-person shooter has been developed in conjunction with id Software and Avalanche Studios, and it is expected to be launched in 2019 for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One platforms.

Huawei sent out the full, stable Oreo update to users of the Honor 7X a few weeks ago. The next device on the list is the Huawei Mate SE, an upgraded Honor 7X designed for the North American market.

Google Play analytics for the month of May have been released. Going by the data, the percentage of users on Oreo has grown to 5.7%, nine months after the version of the OS was released. Quite surprisingly, the Nougat user base also saw slight growth.

A body of text running around the Internet a few days ago put the fear of all things holy into Android users, as it froze—and sometimes crashed—applications with maximum impunity.

Trove, an MMORPG from Trion Worlds, will soon be offering a type of battle royale mode for players. A “Bomber Royale” mode has been announced for the popular game, and it will be made available in summer as part of a large expansion that has been scheduled for the title. Trove was released for Windows in 2015 and is free to play.

The recently unleashed Firefox 60 is the first Extended Support Release version since Firefox 52, so it brings more than a year's worth of new features for personal, mobile, and business users. The most important changes are the sponsored stories present in the New Tab page and the improved customization capabilities for IT administrators.

Thanks to the recent introduction of six new voice choices, Google Assistant now features a total of eight such options — four female and four male voices. Even more, Sundar Pichai has confirmed at Google I/O that John Legend's voice will also reach the company's virtual assistant by the end of the year.

A press release from Valve has revealed that the company intends to release two new apps, one of which will allow gamers access to their Steam media libraries on smartphones. The Steam Link app is expected to be released in the week starting May 21. The second app, Steam Video, will offer movie and television content.