Software

The Amazfit update 3.16.4.3 is currently rolling out to Balance smartwatches. The new software includes several new features for cycling accessories, winter sports, races and the Readiness score. Plus, there are various optimizations for tools like breathing exercises and Body Composition.

Valve has rolled out a new update for the Steam Deck, which introduces several improvements and also includes new firmware. The improvements are for both the standard and OLED variants of the gaming handheld.

Dangbei has finally announced a pre-order date for its "thinnest laser projector to date". The Atom is also the brand's first Google TV device, and is also touted to be among the brightest of its emerging home theater category. It is also touted to pack many features of bigger projectors, ALPD, auto-focus and color quality included.

The Komoot Garmin app for various smartwatches and bike computers can now display the brand’s maps. Until the latest software, users had to use their phones to access Komoot apps or layer Komoot navigation onto Garmin’s maps. However, early users have flagged several issues with the new tool, which will have limited access in the future.

GOG's Winter Sale is giving away Lost Ruins for free for a limited time. Lost Ruins is a 2D survival action side scroller about a young girl that gets lost in a dungeon without her memories. She must find a way out and uncover the secrets of the dungeon and her mysterious companion.

New benchmark leaks have identified the Galaxy A55, Samsung's apparent testbed for the Exynos 1480 chipset. Helped along by 8 GB of RAM, the Exynos 1480 has 8 CPU cores and the Xclipse 530, a GPU that utilises AMD's RDNA 2 architecture.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra is thought to launch with a sensor of the same resolution as its predecessor - even if that will still be 200MP. Now, a new leak asserts that the experience and results of taking photos with the upcoming flagship Android smartphone will differ compared to the S23 Ultra after all, and will mirror a similar upgrade found in the latest iPhones.

The Tesla 2023 Holiday Update, 2023.44.30, is now rolling out to its various models. The new software includes navigation improvements, including symbols indicating the position of speed cameras and offering alternative routes. Plus, you can customize the locking sound with effects like a bleating goat or quacking duck.

Xiaomi has now released its official rollout plans for the recently launched HyperOS. Eight devices will lead the charge globally, with the Redmi Note 12 and Redmi Note 12S joining premium devices in the Xiaomi 13 and Xiaomi 13T series.

Honor has announced that it has a product to launch later in December 2023 - however, it is a tablet rather than a certain upcoming flagship smartphone. Regardless, the Pad 9 is now backed to launch with next-gen "soft light" display technology for enhanced user comfort and, according to a famous leaker, a spec not often seen in its price range.

Epic Games describes the result of its case in Northern California's District Court "a win for all app developers". The verdict is that Google does in fact exert a monopoly over distribution and billing mechanisms in the Play Store. Then again, the consequences for the Redmond giant have yet to be determined.

The latest (and most likely also the last) refresh of the year, which brings War Thunder to version 2.33, is called "Air Superiority" but also brings a few iconic tanks and ships. Its highlights include the Saab JAS 39A Gripen, Mirage 4000, and Su-27 jets, the M1A2 SEP2 and Leopard 2A7V, and many other pieces of military hardware.

Polar has brought another software update to the Vantage V3, the company's latest smartwatch. Rolling out as v1.2.5, the second update for the Vantage V3 should resolve several outstanding bugs that were present until now.

Released yesterday with full support for The Finals, Squad, The Day Before, as well as Fortnite Chapter 5, the GeForce Game Ready Driver 546.33 also comes with one-click optimal settings support for six titles, including the recently released Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Sadly, there are no new G-Sync Compatible displays this time.

Huawei has published a new update for the Watch GT 4 globally. Rolling out in Europe now, HarmonyOS 4.0.0.140 (C00M03) is rather light on changes. However, its main change should make it easier to identify apps within the app grid.

Various Garmin smartwatches are now eligible for another stable update, the second this month after v15.74. In its place arrives v15.76, which is also open to Fenix 7, Fenix 7 Pro, Epix 2, Enduro 2, MARQ Gen 2, Quatix 7 and Tactix 7 smartwatches enrolled on Garmin's Public Beta program.

Google is now rolling out Android 14 QPR2 Beta 2 to Pixel devices. While Google has only acknowledged a few bug fixes and known issues in the new beta build, Mishaal Rahman has noticed various changes, some of which are hidden by default.

Google has announced a major change in terms of data protection. In future, confidential, highly sensitive data will be stored securely on the device itself and will also be deleted within shorter periods of time.

Capture One appears to be pushing more customers to take out an expensive subscription: after the company made the purchase version of Capture One Pro more expensive and less attractive, the free express version is being summarily discontinued, thus locking out existing users.

Huawei's extra-large flagship tablet has gone global today (December 12, 2023). The MatePad Pro 13.2 brings its "masterpiece" X-True OLED display to new markets, as well as its "ultra-thin" form-factor and stylus support. Its pre-order availability data has also been announced today.

Mobvoi claims that it is finally ready to deliver Wear OS 3 for the TicWatch E3 and TicWatch Pro 3. First announced for the pair in July 2021, the OS update will still leave the TicWatch E3 and TicWatch Pro 3 behind the times, with Google and Samsung having updated their smartwatches to Wear OS 4.

Definitely a mature title with its depicting of drug dealing/using and implied violence, as well as the aftermath of various violent acts, Drug Dealer Simulator 2 will be up to play for free between December 18 and January 2. The release date is set for the first quarter of 2024.

Motorola may be pushing Samsung to improve its clamshell foldable offering. Unfortunately, software support for the Razr+ and Razr 40 Ultra pales in comparison to the Galaxy Z Flip5, with some Razr units remaining stuck on their launch software thanks to unexplained issues.

The first 11 smartphones expected to receive the Xiaomi HyperOS Global software update have been leaked. Unsurprisingly, the list features some big hitters, such as the Xiaomi 13, POCO F5, and Redmi 12. HyperOS is Xiaomi’s replacement for MIUI and will come with better animations, focused notifications, and refreshed home screen icons.

Entering passwords using the autofill function in password managers has a security vulnerability on Android devices. Malicious apps can use the WebView module to spy on login details as they are entered.

Linux is getting a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), as has been known from Microsoft Windows for many years. However, this function is currently still marked as 'experimental'.

Released in 2009, Grammarly became a popular assistant for students, professional writers, and people who need assistance with various projects from time to time. While the standalone Editor apps for Windows and Mac will be discontinued in the first days of 2024, their successors (Grammarly for Windows and Mac) are already available.

Apple has released new updates for its various operating systems, including macOS and watchOS. Available as macOS Sonoma 14.2 and watchOS 10.2 respectively, the updates introduce several new features each, including the return of swiping to change a watch face on an Apple Watch.

Apple has published its next big updates for iPhones and iPads. Rolling out as iOS 17.2 and iPadOS 17.2, the updates add various new features, including a new Journal app, Spatial video support and Qi2 charging functionality for older iPhones.

POCO asserts that it will bring 8GB RAM smartphones within budget for a whole new group of Indian consumers soon. The C65 also boasts a 50MP rear camera hump, finished in a Pastel Design that leaves the viewer in no doubt as to its branding. POCO has set up an exclusive retail partnership to introduce its next "Big Deal" to its new market.

Redmi India has announced that the smartphone also sometimes known as the POCO C65 will launch as the 13C very shortly. It is to be made available in two "Starshine Design" colorways, and will start at less than the equivalent of $100 in its new market (albeit with caveats). In the meantime, it has sneaked onto Geekbench in a leak that might hint at the specs that come with that price-point.

The developers of PCSX2, an open-source and free PlayStation 2 emulator, have announced that it is currently compatible with over 99% of PS2 games. Specifically, 1.23% of the games now have a “Perfect” rating, while 97.92% are classified as “Playable.”

The recently released text-to-image generator by Facebook's and Instagram's parent company was trained using 1.1 billion public images from the two websites. Unfortunately, this fun online resource that is powered by artificial intelligence is only available in the US for the time being.

Labeled by PC Gamer in 1998 as "probably the most imitated game of all time," id Software's Doom celebrates today its 30th anniversary. Released for MS-DOS, it has sold an estimated 3.5 million copies by 1999. This game marked the birth of a franchise consisting of multiple video games, two movies, tabletop games, novel series, and more.

Earlier this week, Ubisoft unveiled a rich set of command line parameter options available for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. The hidden quality level Unobtainium barely works with today's high-end GPUs and was designed to deliver a video quality level in line with the capabilities expected from future video cards.

After Nothing Chats became a flop for security reasons, Beeper Mini made its debut with the promise to bring secure iMessage to Android. And even though it worked reasonably well, Apple has seemingly cut off its access to Apple servers. With this, the app that launched just four days ago went down.

Still labeled as an experimental product for the time being, Google NotebookLM is now opening up to all US-based customers. Although it uses AI capabilities thanks to the recently unveiled Gemini Pro, NotebookLM will only use the information it gets from the user, without any additional knowledge.

The recently released Linux Mint 21.3 beta comes with version 6.0 of Cinnamon desktop. In addition to revised desktop features, the release introduces an experimental session with the Wayland display server protocol for the first time.

To date, Samsung has provided a rather unimaginative option for protecting the battery in its Galaxy phones. The competition, for example from Apple, is much more modern, but the lead is likely to shrink again with the launch of the Galaxy S24 series in January 2024, as a leaker has now shown in the first screenshots. Older Galaxy phones should also benefit from the One UI 6.1 update in 2024.

AMD is now offering Adrenalin Edition 23.12.1 globally, an update that introduces various bug fixes and support for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, as well as a UI overhaul. The release also sees the introduction of HYPR-RX Eco, a software package that AMD claims can reduce power consumption by over two-thirds in some cases.

As part of its latest round of updates, Google has now published Android 14 QPR1 for various Pixel devices. Available to the Pixel 5a onwards, the new update introduces dozens of improvements and just as many security fixes via the December 2023 security patch update.

According to a new report, Microsoft plans to make more big changes to Windows soon. Allegedly, Windows 11 will finally gain decent ARM support, but only a few months before Microsoft delivers an entirely new version of Windows.

Google has confirmed it is bringing several outstanding Pixel Watch 2 features to its predecessor. Soon, the original Pixel Watch will be capable of mirroring Bedtime Mode and DND modes from a paired smartphone, among other improvements.

Google has now released a new Pixel Feature Drop for the Pixel 5a 5G onwards. The last of 2023, the latest Feature Drop adds various features to the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, with a few Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet-specific changes included, too.

Garmin has confirmed all 'notable features' that this month's new feature updates bring to various smartwatches. Not only can recent Fenix and Forerunner smartwatches now automatically detect when you are napping, but they can also monitor skin temperature changes, among other improvements.

The Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2 are receiving build 60.0. The new software brings several improvements to the VR headsets, including a new Layout app, Bluetooth bug fixes, and higher clock speeds for the Quest Pro. However, the company also plans to discontinue one feature.

With Copilot's first anniversary, Microsoft unveils exciting plans for the future of the AI assistant. Soon, Copilot will answer with the help of GPT-4 Turbo and an updated Dall-E 3 model, Edge users will get a rewrite menu, and the new Code Interpreter will run data analysis and visualization tasks, perform calculations, write code, and more.

A few days ago, the KDE Linux desktop team made the first public beta version of KDE Plasma 6 available for download. Among other things, the popular cube effect in the desktop overview is celebrating its comeback with Plasma 6.

Unveiled over a year ago as the first carbon fiber smartwatch, the Bugatti Carbone Limited Edition is a prized collectors' item, with just 2,500 units ever to be made, of which 2,000 have been sold already. The latest firmware update comes with a new watch face alongside BioAge, which compares the user's biological and chronological ages.

DJI has now ended support for iOS development. With no alternative offered, DJi recommends iOS developers switch to Android, with Windows developers out of luck too.