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Razer is shutting down the Razer Game Store, its own online retail space for PC games. The store will close in the early morning of February 28th. Any games purchased through the Razer Game Store will continue to work, though keys purchased via the store will need to be redeemed before the end of February. Additionally, Razer will honor any pre-orders made through the Game Store and will continue its Razer Gold and Razer Silver rewards programs.

Vox Media, the parent company of tech news outlet The Verge, has issued multiple copyright claims on videos criticizing its widely maligned PC building tutorial video. Using YouTube's copyright claim system, Vox lodged copyright strikes against several different channels that made criticism or parody videos of the tutorial. YouTube issued a copyright strike against some of the channels in question before reversing the decision, citing fair use under the DMCA.

Amazon has been the focus of considerable political opposition in the state of New York due to its plans to build one of its two new headquarters (HQ) in Long Island. New Yorkers have voiced their discontent with the proposals over the amount it would reportedly cost the state, among other issues. Amazon may now continue its HQ plans with other US locationa in mind.

A press release from Dell published in early January stated that the Dell XPS 15, Alienware m15, and Dell G7 15 laptops would be offered with OLED panel options starting in March. Unfortunately for those waiting to snap up a Dell laptop with this type of display, company executive Frank Azor has now stated that April is the current target.

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.

Dell has had to recall certain versions of its portable charging device, the Hybrid Adapter + Power Bank, because of the risk of electric shock. Apparently, the casing of the black adapter part of the accessory can break, which in turn exposes metal components that could pose a hazard. Dell has already received 11 reports of this occurring.

Apple was supposed to completely fix the eavesdropping vulnerability triggered via the Group feature in the FaceTime app last week, but it looks like the company found a few more bugs and fixed them as well. One bug is related to the Live Photos feature in FaceTime, while the other two are related to memory corruption flaws occurring in the IOKit and Foundation.

Everything was normal until our glass display suddenly cracked. If you're planning on getting a cheap Android from a Chinese OEM, then hopefully you won't be unlucky as we are. We're just glad that nothing caught on fire.

Zack Nelson of JerryRigEverything has done it again and disassembled another smartphone, this time the Vivo NEX Dual Display. The teardown is not without its issues though.

It has been reported that around 7.3 million units of Battlefield V have been sold since it was released in November last year. EA’s stock price fell after the company announced a cut in its revenue outlook, but the price rose later in the day and closed at a higher price than the previous day. For Q3 FY19, EA reported total net revenue of US$1.289 billion.

It has been reported that a former Apple employee has been charged with stealing information about self-driving cars from the Cupertino company. The worker, named as Jizhong Chen, has been accused of taking photos in sensitive areas and obtaining detailed information about the secret project with the intention of passing the details on to a rival Chinese firm.

TSMC confirmed that around 10,000 wafers were compromised, but the Taiwanese company has yet to make an official statement about the full extent of the damages and the exact circumstances of the incident. The unfortunate event could create AMD / Nvidia GPU shortages and artificial MSRP increases in the coming months.

Some alarming reports of a serious error in Group FaceTime associated with iOS 12.1 or later, have emerged. This bug allows an iPhone user to activate the call microphone of a second iPhone, whether its own user is aware of this or not. Apple has announced that they are working on a solution, and has also addressed it in the interim by shutting the video-call service down on their end.

The iPhone has had a bumpy couple of months. iOS 12.1.2, released last month, broke cellular connectivity for some users. The problem got so bad that Sprint issued a warning to its customers to wait on updating. There doesn't seem to be any relief in sight; not only does iOS 12.1.3 not bring a fix for the cellular issues, but the latest update has actually broken WiFi for several users in addition to cellular connectivity.

A 13-count indictment has been announced against Huawei and the company’s CFO, Meng Wanzhou, mostly in relation to fraud. Two of the Chinese manufacturer’s affiliates, Huawei Device USA and Skycom Tech, have also been included in the charges. A separate 10-count indictment against the same firm was also unsealed, charging Huawei with theft of trade secrets among other things.

Nintendo has been mum on the development of Metroid Prime 4 since its announcement at E3 2017, but it looks like development has not been going well. In a video announcement, Shinya Takahashi stated that Nintendo has decided to restart development of Metroid Prime 4 and hand over the reins to Retro Studios, the development house behind the first three Metroid Prime games.

Nvidia has announced that the financial guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2019 has been lowered. A forecast revenue figure of US$2.70 billion had previously been given, but this has now been reduced to US$2.20 billion. One of the reasons given for the disappointing update was the apparent sales figures for the RTX series based on Turing microarchitecture, which were weaker than expected.

XPS 15 9570 owners rejoice. We can confirm that Dell has finally fixed the NVIDIA GPU issue that has been plaguing some 9570 laptops for months with BIOS 1.7. Unfortunately, the update has introduced some fan peculiarities though.
Update: Dell has commented on the fan behaviour in BIOS 1.7.

Motorola released the Moto G4 Plus back in 2016 and promised it would receive two major updates. A while later, the company went back on its word and claimed the mid-range phone would not get the update, prompting a media outcry which forced it to once again promise to deliver Oreo. It's been 16 months since then, though, and the G4 Plus is still on Nougat.

Xiaomi sent out the January update to the Android One Mi A2 earlier this week, and there have now been multiple reports of bricked devices after installing the OTA. Unpolished updates may be becoming a theme of Xiaomi's Android One phones.

DeepMind Technologies will be celebrating after its AlphaStar AI managed to defeat two human opponents in the popular RTS game StarCraft II. Five versions of AlphaStar were created to compete against each other, with the AI winner taking on highly ranked professional players. DeepMind, which is a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., has already managed to create a program that beat some of the world’s best players at Go.

Several users have complained of a 'stage light' anomaly in their MacBook Pro displays. iFixit wrote in a blog post that it has identified the cause of the issue and attributes it to the manner in which the display cables connect to the display controller beneath the Touch Bar. This design causes the cables to tear overtime giving the uneven backlighting effect when the display is opened beyond a certain angle. More worrisome, however, is the fact that getting it repaired can prove to be a costly affair.

The Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) has imposed a fine of €50 million (~US$56.8 million) on Google for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The huge penalty has been justified by the regulatory body based on the severity of the violations, Google’s popularity with French users, and the fact that the infringements were ongoing.

A few recent bad decisions by the Indian government might force Samsung to stop the local manufacturing of Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9 flagships. Even worse, the company might drop its plans to increase the exports of mobile phones made in India, which were supposed to hit 40 percent of the production for 2019.

The Windows Mobile platform is all but dead at this point. Microsoft will finally let it rest forever this year. The company will withdrawing support for the latest version of its OS, as well as the second-latest, by December 2019. It is recommended that their remaining users switch to another ecosystem that will have continual support, like iOS or Android.

Although Yahoo's most severe data breach apparently involved more accounts than Collection #1, this new major security incident involves almost 2.7 billion records, including almost 773 million unique email addresses alongside passwords associated with those addresses on various breached services.

A few weeks ago, a leak rumored that the S10 phones could feature new fast-charging technology. New information, however, indicates that the reality of the matter could be different, and S10 owner may have to put up with Samsung's good old 15W fast charge.

Although most DPC latency-related complaints we heard so far from Dell XPS users involved the XPS 15 9570, it looks like the XPS 15 9575 convertible is also plagued by such problems. Frank Azor has recently confirmed that Dell is working on a fix for this problem and that he will keep everyone updated on the progress.

Although the game itself is free, Fortnite also features virtual coins that can be used to purchase various in-game items. Scammers use stolen credit cards to buy V-bucks and then sell them for good rates to legitimate players. Just as expected, these transactions are being done via the Dark Web.

Huawei might be on its way to becoming the world's second-largest smartphone maker, but the latest move made by the Chinese brand might be a costly one in the long run. The EMUI 9.0 update will come without access to third-party launchers, although this limitation will only be applied in China in the beginning.

Although Apple has recently asked its suppliers to cut the iPhone production by 10 percent in the second quarter, it looks like the brand's handsets are not doing well in China. In an unprecedented move, Apple authorized mid-cycle price cuts that go as high as 22 percent for the iPhone 8 and 20 percent for the iPhone 8 Plus handsets on JD.com.

27 months after the LG V20 was released, LG appears to have finally ended all software support for it. The device ran on Android Nougat out of the box and only received the Oreo update almost a year after launch. This marks a sad end for a device widely regarded as the last truly great Android flagship.

The Sony Xperia XZ4 is set to be released at MWC next month. The company's Vice President of Marketing, however, has alluded to the fact that the company may not launch an XZ4 Compact. Also, new information claims the XZ4 will not feature a 3.5mm headphone jack after all.

In a dissapointing but perhaps unsurprising move, Dell has postponed the release of its BIOS update for the XPS 15 9570. The news comes after the company previously said that it would release BIOS 1.7 by the end of 2018, which Dell claims will fix the NVIDIA dGPU issue that has plagued some XPS 15 9570 laptops.
Update: Dell has now released the BIOS 1.7 update. We will give you a full breakdown of our findings in the coming days.

Amazon's subsidiary has just released a free video streaming service that offers a rich collection of ad-supported TV shows like Fringe and Heroes, as well as various Hollywood movies like The Last Samurai, True Romance, Run Lola Run, and so on. IMDb Freedrive content can be enjoyed on mobiles, laptops/desktop PCs, as well as on big screens via Amazon Fire TV devices.

Early reviews of Royole’s foldable FlexPai device have come in, and it seems the main attraction of the smartphone is what everyone expected it to be: Its flexibility. The company has done well in beating major players like Samsung and Huawei to the crown of producing the first fully foldable phone, but it has done this by creating a seemingly flawed handset.

What is the most that you would pay for a laptop? Well, Dell UK must think that some people have cash to burn as it has listed a version of the Precision 7720 for over £7 million on its website. That is ex. VAT and delivery too, although you would be apparently saving over £3 million. A true bargain then.

The next major Windows 10 release will reserve 7 GB of your device's storage space to avoid failing big updates due to a Windows Update bug. Due to this bug, the system is not checking for enough space before launching after an update. While 7 GB might not be much for most Windows PCs, cheap devices with 32 GB of internal storage will get in trouble.

An official Huawei Twitter account (@Huawei) has been caught sending its celebratory New Year's message from an iPhone. It was quickly picked up by the vlogger MKBHD on his own Twitter feed. A Reuters report claims that the employees responsible for this mishap had been fined and sanctioned by the company, as it "damaged the Huawei brand".

Apple’s stock price plummeted on the NASDAQ today. The previous close for the Cupertino company stood at US$157.92. However, at the time of writing, the stock price had fallen to US$142.19, leaving the iPhone maker with a market capitalization value of around US$674.7 billion. Apple’s stock price hasn’t been this low since the first half of 2017.

Back in May 2015, a serious flaw in Chrome for Android that exposed various bits of sensitive information was discovered. This security issue was ignored by Google for more than three years, but now the tech giant is finally taking care of it. Unfortunately, a final fix for this vulnerability is not available yet.

If user tests are to be believed, the initial rollout of AT&T's 5G home internet network may be disappointing to most. Download and upload speeds aren't much better than those on 4G LTE. These tests raise concerns about the viability of 5G in its current state. Numerous problems associated with wavelength penetration and power draw may not be worth the cost if the performance increase for 5G is this marginal.

2018 has come and gone and with it the promise of an Apple-made wireless charging pad. Announced back at the 2017 iPhone X event, Apple's AirPower wireless charging mat is still MIA. At that event, Apple promised a 2018 release. However, the company has silently removed all references of AirPower from its website and hasn't said a word about the product since its 2017 announcement.

A recent study by Privacy International found that at least 20 Android apps with install bases in excess of 10 million users automatically send user data to Facebook within one second of opening. This data is sent without user knowledge or user consent and ranges from innocuous to personal. This practice obviously raises some questions of legality, although it is difficult to say who is to blame for the violation of user privacy.

Citing predictions that the 2018 iPhone line may soon enter a destocking phase, Citi Research cut production estimates for the iPhone XR, iPhone Xs, and iPhone Xs Max by a collective 10% (50 million to 45 million). Most of this cut was driven by lowered expectations of the iPhone Xs Max; Citi Research estimates Apple will produce only half as many iPhone Xs Max units as previously predicted.

An article published by iDrop News reports than an Ohio man has suffered injury from his iPhone XS Max catching fire whilst in the back pocket of his pants. Apparently, the device was completely destroyed in the incident, and the blaze also damaged his pants and burned the skin of his buttocks. It seems the individual is now considering legal action against Apple.

Competition in the smartphone industry has led to sketchy advertising practices, especially in China where such shenanigans are almost encouraged. Fake camera samples, technically correct claims, and a circus of intentional crookery.

The LG G7 ThinQ will reportedly have access to an official, stable update to Pie (Android 9.0) in the first quarter of 2019. This is according to a Korean-language document that appears to be a company roadmap for the software updates to come for the OEM's most recent flagships in 2019.

Essential Products has revealed that there are no plans to add “new inventory” to its stock of Essential Phones, which basically means the device is being discontinued. The smartphone was released in August 2017 and was widely commended for its design and performance. It’s believed around 150,000 of the PH-1 devices were sold.

Michael Gartenberg describes himself as "Former Sr. Marketing Director @Apple, ex Jupiter Research, Gartner & other stuff" on his Twitter bio. He also now implies that he is unhappy with the iPad Pro 2018's build quality on this platform, as he documented his return of this product in a Tweet.