Saturday, June 30, 2018

Notepad++ v. 7.5.7 Includes Many Critical Bug Fixes for Developers & Hobbyists



Notepad++ is probably one of the most popular source code editors for Microsoft Windows, and there are some who say that it’s the closest you can get on Windows to the kind of text editors that developers use when working with Unix desktop environments. As a result, many programmers have come to use it as their primary coding app.

What some might not realize, though, is that Notepad++ has regular updates provided for it fairly regularly. In fact, users are now being encouraged to update to version 7.5.7 in order to take advantage of a large number of bug fixes that this new update comes with.
Updated versions of the software will no longer hang when shutdown with an absent backup file. They’re able to sort line numbers naturally parse long paths in the Open File dialog box. Perhaps most important, JavaScript function lists now work perfectly, which is important for those who plan to use Notepad++ for any sort of web development.

UDL export extension problems that plagued some users are now completely gone, as are those related to big icon tool display features. As a result, this version is more suitable for use with larger resolution monitors running Windows 10 in any of the heftier image-laden modes.
While Microsoft Windows is a commercial operating system, Notepad++ itself is licensed under version two of the GPL. This makes it free to download under the same rules that govern countless modern open-source products.

Prebuilt binaries are currently being offered for both the 32-bit x86 architecture as well as computers driving 64-bit x86_64 microprocessors. While Notepad++ isn’t quite as lightweight as the original Notepad app that comes with Windows, the fact that it isn’t as heavy as some larger IDE programs makes it attractive for development on older machines. The fact that there’s an x86 version available for download should help to ensure it’s popularity among these kinds of developers.

Users who are concerned about downloading any sort of executable from the web can compute checksums and test them against the included digests. The download page currently hosts SHA-1 and MD5 values for the software, which is important for those deploying software in a secured environment.

New Cryptic Tweet Insinuates Devolver Digital is Releasing Broforce as Nintendo Switch Software



Devolver Digital reported on their official Twitter feed that Broforce is apparently coming to the Nintendo Switch platform. At least, that’s what their cryptic Tweet would seem to insinuate. The company’s posting was in reply to a fan that had requested the game come to the Japanese-based video game giant’s latest piece of console hardware.

No release date has been given. In fact, the Tweet merely mentioned that the game was en route. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Devolver bring it over for a few reasons, however.

Broforce has already been deployed on a dizzying list of different platforms. The side-scrolling run-and-gun title has official ports for OS X and macOS in addition to PlayStation 4. It was originally released on Microsoft Windows. Two days after the PC and Macintosh versions were released Devolver Digital came out with a port for GNU/Linux computers.

That’s not at all bad for a title that was originally a game jam entry back in April 2012. On top of all this, though, Devolver Digital has made quite a name for themselves as a publisher of other titles on the Switch.

Enter the Gungeon came out on the switch back in December 2017. That game is also playable on Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and PlayStation 4, which makes it look like they’re probably bringing Broforce over. They’ve also ported The Messenger, Pikuniku and My Friend Pedro to the Switch.
Just like Broforce, each of these is a slightly off-beat unusual title that’s not exactly the same thing being offered by AAA game developers. In fact, that’s where the appeal lies.

Classic 16-bit graphics and frantic off-the-wall gameplay really helps Broforce to stand apart from the crowd. About the only game reviewers have ever compared it to is the unreleased and somewhat vulgar Dudebro II, which has sadly still not become the popular game some have said it’s destined to be.

Should Broforce end up on the Nintendo Switch, it might have to make a few changes to the control scheme in order to suit the style of controllers on that console. Other than that, however, it would certainly be a welcome addition to an increasingly growing library.

Security Researcher Solves Ticketmaster Website Credit Card Quandry

Ticketmaster recently had to correct a relatively seriously breach that potentially lead to the leak of several thousand customers’ credit card credentials. They’ve been working hard on correcting the problem, but one individual thinks that he’s solved what prompted the attacks in the first place.

Kevin Beaumont, one of the UK’s top digital security researchers, believes he knows what the attack vector was. Inbenta had provided a chat bot for webmasters that works by calling a JavaScript file from Inbenta’s own remote server.

A single line of HTML was employed to call this particular piece of JavaScript. Beaumont opined that Inbent provided Ticketmaster with a single JavaScript one-liner that they may then have used on their payment page without notified Inbenta’s technicians. Since the code was now on Ticketmaster’s payment processing site, it was functionally placed amidst all credit card transactions that go through the site.

JavaScript code could then, according to Beaumont’s theory, get executed in a client’s browser from the same page that their credit card information was on. Someone must have altered the code and given it the authority to do something malicious when they did so.

His research also seems to indicate that anti-malware tools were doing their job. Some security software was able to begin flagging the script several months before Ticketmaster’s agents announced the breach had occurred. The JavaScript file itself apparently got uploaded to some threat intelligence tools, which is more than likely how they were able to catch the breach in time.

Other experts have expressed concerns over JavaScript library dependencies and how this relates to this kind of breach. It’s become common for coders to use git repositories to solve third-party dependency problems in order to use certain JavaScript frameworks that make their jobs easier.

While this is an efficient method of code reuse, there’s a risk that some of these dependencies could have something malicious in them. Many of these repositories are occasionally victims of crackers who misuse them as well, which means they can translate into additional places for unaudited code to find a way into otherwise legitimate bases.

As a result, some are expressing a wish for more attention to stringent code auditing procedures in order to reduce the risk of these sorts of issues.

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Web Culture Experts Trade Views Regarding Google’s Plan to Deprecate HTTP

While Google can’t decide whether to actually deprecate HTTP as a protocol or not, they are starting to penalize sites that use HTTP instead of HTTPS when it comes to search ranking. Google isn’t forcing these sites to vanish, though it is ranking them further down the list. More importantly, they’ve flagged them as insecure in Chrome, which is currently the most used browser on most devices with perhaps the exception of GTK+ based GNU/Linux desktops.

World Wide Web historians, security experts and others are now starting to trade views on whether Google’s decisions are a good idea or not. Content writer and top software blogger Dave Winer wrote a post that’s now appeared in quotes on Slashdot as well as other top technology news sites in which he said he was opposed because it would make a great deal of the web’s history inaccessible to users.

He referred to Google as a guest, and suggested that guests should not make rules as the web functions based on social agreements not to cause problems for one another. Winer wrote that people post things on the web so that they can be preserved over time.

Other voices, however, have argued in favor of Google’s decision by saying that old sites are becoming attack vectors and this makes them insecure even if no one accesses them. Crackers have continued to look for areas that are not secured and use them for purposes completely unrelated to what they were designed for.

Critics also argue that this is true regardless of whether or not they collect any sort of user data. JavaScript code objects can be installed on dead pages that fall victim to crackers in order to make them do something other than simply display information.

While the debate ranges it, it doesn’t seem likely that Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome, would ever become unable to access sites that use HTTP. It will simply continue to flag them insecure based on the judgment of certain Linux security experts.

At the same time, some projects like the Internet Archive continue to map the web in order to provide a useful backlog that’s accessible from behind the HTTPS protocol.

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Apple Offers Double Card Dual Standby Capability in 2018 iPhones for China

According to a report published in 21st Century Business Herald in China, out of the three upcoming iPhone models scheduled to be revealed in September 2018, two will feature dual-standby-dual SIM capabilities. The report claims that only the models that will be sold in China will be equipped with a specialized tray which will accept two SIM cards simultaneously. In other countries of the world, two of these iPhone handsets will have a single SIM slot card and would add the virtual Apple SIM for the purpose of supporting the dual SIM features.

The Apple SIM which is embedded in the Apple iPad Air 2 was released in 2014 and allowed the user to actively change the wireless provider, depending on which one was offering the best connectivity, features or pricing at that time. Currently, more than 180 countries worldwide support Apple SIM. However, China is still not one of them. This explains why two out of the three iPhone ’18 models to be released later this year are going to have a tray for dual SIM card.

The Chinese report also claimed that the adding up of dual SIM-dual standby feature to the iPhone will consequently increase the sales in African and Asian markets. This is particularly true if the statistics provided by China Internet Network Information Center are considered which show that approximately 3 to 4 million Chinese smartphone owners use multiple SIM cards. Many in China supposedly prefer Android over iPhone because of the former’s supporting capability of dual SIM. This new update on the 2018 iPhone models is expected to bring a massive blow to the Android phone manufacturers and suppliers in China.

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Pinguy OS Posts New 64-bit Install Image Complete with Latest Updates

Pinguy OS has released the latest version of their GNOME-based distro, and it’s free like all previous versions of this open-source operating system. Those who are interested in installing it can take advantage of the 64-bit ISO image currently offered on SourceForge.

It’s already started to attract some comparisons to its parent distributions. Pinguy OS is based around Ubuntu and Debian, though it also shares a background with Linux Mint. That distribution, of course, is in turn based around the other two projects.

Some people have compared Linux Mint to Ubuntu, saying that it builds on Canonical’s stable and full repositories. A couple of reviewers are now saying that Pinguy OS has built on the work put into Linux Mint to provide a genuine full-featured desktop system that’s suitable for anyone switching over to GNU/Linux for the first time.

Unlike other distros geared toward beginning users, Pinguy OS installs many under-the-hood packages by default that can lead to an improved user experience for those unfamiliar with a pure GNU/Linux environment. For instance, it comes complete with OpenGL version 3.1 Mesa 18.1.1, which is important for those trying to play certain types of games. Using a previous version of the graphics rendering engine could cause errors, which many beginning users may not be comfortable with trying to troubleshoot.

exFAT support is enabled by default, which might help those sharing USB memory sticks and microSDXC cards with other devices. Users who are used to using whatever file system these devices come with by default may be surprised when they plug their storage unit into a Linux box that can’t mount it.

While Pinguy OS won’t be able to correct VBR errors on exFAT drives, it can mount them with full read and write support. Tests indicate that the newest versions of the FUSE driver can even write to exFAT volumes faster than NTFS volumes.

These small tweaks should help to ease the transition for users who are moving to a Linux-based OS perhaps after they weren’t able to receive updates for their favorite commercial operating system any longer. This scenario is quickly becoming one of the major reasons people use friendly distros like Pinguy OS.

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Microsoft Waxes Nostalgic with their Release of the Classic IntelliMouse

Between their new USB-C jacks and mysterious updates to the Surface, some might think that Microsoft is only looking toward a somewhat uncertain future. However, the fact that they’ve agreed to relaunch the classic version of the IntelliMouse shows that there’s a few people at Redmond who wouldn’t mind resurrecting the golden era of home computing.

You might say that nostalgia is hot right now, especially after news broke of Nintendo putting the classic NES mini back on the market. This might help to explain why Microsoft is bringing back the old mouse, which might attract people who are reminded of a simpler time that consisted of enjoying single-player games on Windows 95 PCs.

Classic IntelliMouse units are based on a 15-year-old design from 2003, which was originally marketed as the IntelliMouse 3.0, though Redmond’s engineers claim that they’ve made several improvements. The tracking sensor and feel of the buttons is much better than the original.

Hardcore PC gamers of that time period often quipped that these were the only defects with an otherwise stellar design, especially considering how durable the mouse actually was. There are some who considered various versions of the IntelliMouse to be the pointing device equivalent of IBM’s sturdy Model M keyboards.

These new units will also ship with newly engineered internals that are more rigid than the original, which should help it to stand up to even more abuse. While you shouldn’t misuse a pointing device, online gamers often have to make a certain fixed number of actions per minute and this can do a great deal of damage to an otherwise sturdy design. Perhaps the new Classic IntelliMouse can take this without wearing out too quickly.

Open-source and Macintosh gamers have been a little concerned. The official specifications page reads that it’s only compatible with Windows 7 and up. While compatibility in this case may refer only to button customization, some people have been worried that they wouldn’t be able to get the new mouse to work with OS X, macOS and GNU/Linux.

On the other hand, there are reports that it uses the same human interface protocols that most other pointing devices use, which could help those who want to use this piece of hardware on Unix-based systems.

Certainly there will be plenty who still like to use the original version, which is perhaps more popular than ever as a result of social video.

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Google Plans to Introduce a Gaming Platform which could take on Playstation and Xbox

According to sources, Google is planning to introduce a gaming platform based on a three-tier approach which will include: 1) a kind of a streaming platform, 2) hardware of some sort 3) an attempt at bringing game developers under Google’s umbrella, which will be achieved either through major acquisitions or aggressive recruiting. The source of this news comes from five people who have supposedly been briefed regarding this plan of Google or have heard regarding it from secondary sources.

Even though Google has quite a long history of hiring game developers for different projects that do not procure any results, this time the chatter regarding this new gaming platform is relatively louder and stronger. In March, Google representatives reportedly met with various big video game developing companies at the Game Developers Conference for gauging interest in its streaming platform. This platform is code-named as Yeti, the existence of which was initially reported by the website The Information in the previous year. Google also had taken meetings in Los Angeles a few weeks ago and according to sources, the company is not only looking at impressing the game developers to the Yeti service but is also planning to buy development studios completely. Google’s representatives were not available for comment on this.

This streaming platform from Google will offload the functioning of rendering graphics towards beefy computers somewhere else. This action will consequently allow the cheapest personal computers to be able to play high-end games. Any potential hardware barriers will also lose their place. There is lesser information available regarding Google’s hardware involved in this. However, the rumors do suggest that it will be linked up with the streaming service somehow.

The game developers who have been contacted for comment remain skeptical about this rumor, mainly due to Google’s history of initiating and later abandoning initiatives. A lack of appropriate internet infrastructure across most of rural America is also to be blamed. However, one thing remains certain. Google wishes to make a proper comeback in the gaming arena and is serious about it. It has been making massive hiring of video game marketers and developers from EA, Playstation and several other top companies. Only time will now tell whether this project materializes or vanishes into thin air like always.

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Tinder encrypts everyone’s photos in its database

In a letter to Sen. Ron Wyden, Match Group, Tinder’s parent company publicly announced that it will now begin encryption of photos exchanged between its application and Tinder’s servers. The said changes were implemented in the month of February as a result of the disclosure of an attack which have allowed hackers to view user’s profile pictures and swipe actions.

Sen. Ron Wyden had written a letter to Tinder in February in which he had requested that the company encrypt user’s photos. According to the response letter by Tinder, they had apparently already implemented this feature on 4th February but had now introduced a separate privacy feature which converts all swipe data to the same size. The swipe data’s size was employed by security researchers to demarcate actions from each other. This change however was not applied until 19th June.

Does this actually mean anything for the actual user? The answer to this query is that there is nothing much in this change for the user except that they can rest at ease knowing that potential hackers would not be able to view their encrypted profile pictures. In spite of whether or not the profile pictures are sensitive, but it ensures that the picture remains for the eyes of the Tinder user only.

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Google Indie Games accelerator is accepting applications from Pakistan

Google has started accepting applications for its Games Accelerator program for emerging talent in Asian markets including Pakistan.

The four-month-long Indie Games Accelerator program targets startups from Pakistan, India, Asia, Malaysia and Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam. The accelerator program is designed in collaboration with Google Play.

Selected startups will be given an opportunity to work with mentors from gaming industry and Google.The successful applicants will be invited to two all-expense paid boot-camps at Google’s Asia HQ situated in Singapore.

What should you be expecting?

The accelerator curriculum comprises of mentor-ship, networking sessions and training workshops. You will be handed over a Google Pixel phone for product testing. The core areas that the program focuses on are game development, business development, people and team culture development.

Why should you be applying?

If you are selected, you will be given the opportunity to be showcased on Google Play. You will be awarded US$20,000 in Google Cloud Platform. You will get a delegates pass to Google I/O next year. Furthermore, you will also be given invite to attend the Google Playtime which is the best event for top app and game developers.

Google states that developing nations account for 40% of over all game downloads from Google Play store. Smartphone use is also on the rise in countries like Pakistan, India and Singapore. So, this is definitely a great chance for Google to train the game developers across Asia. So, this intense program for Asian game developers will be helping them enhance their skills and have much more confidence in their skills.

If you have a thorough understanding of game development, a game in the process of development and a playable demo of your latest game, apply here.

So, if you are interested you need to apply before July 31st. The selected developers will be announced on the website on 8th of August 2018.

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This device tells you how stinky you are

Japanese researchers have found a solution to combat “Sumeru harasumento,” or in English, “smell harassment.” They have introduced a device called Tanita ES-100 that will literally tell you how much you stink.

Tanita is basically a scale used to measure your: weight, body fat percentage, body water percentage, muscle mass, physique rating, basal metabolic rate (BMR), daily caloric intake (DCI), metabolic age, bone mass, and visceral fat.

All you need to do is turn on the Tanita ES-100 and move the sensor to a part of your body you’re concerned is exuding too much musk. It measures particulate matter and just after 10 seconds, it will display how intense your odour is on a 0-10 scale (0, you don’t smell; 10, you don’t have friends because of bad odour). Level 5 and above means it’s time for “smell care,” and you need to take a shower.

Read Also: MIT’s AlterEgo is a wearable device that can read your mind

The scale goes both ways: if you’ve applied too much deodorant, perfume or body spray, the pocket-sized ES-100 will let you know if you should use the aftershave a little. The replaceable sensor is good for 2,000 uses, or about a year.

Most people in their 40s and 50s will be most interested in the ES-100, as that’s when men mostly start worrying about how much they stink. However, anyone who is not a middle-aged man doesn’t give a damn whose nostrils they’re offending.

Would you use this device or want to recommend to someone? Let us know in the comments section.

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Warning: Thousands of Android & iOS apps are leaking your personal data

According to a mobile app security firm appthority, over 3,000 mobile apps both from Android as well as iOS are leaking sensitive data including business information from 23,000 unsecured firebase databases.

Researchers at the firm scanned 2.7 million Android and iOS apps that use Firebase databases and revealed a shocking information. According to the report, the researchers found that around 27,227 Android apps and 1,275 iOS apps store their app’s data in Firebase’s back-end database systems, 3,046 of these apps saved data within 2,271 unsecured databases that anyone could access i.e 2,446 are on Android and the remaining 600 are iOS applications.

The leaked data includes 2.6 million user IDs and passwords in plain text, 25 million stored GPS location records, 50 thousand in-app financial transaction records, and more than 4.5 million social media platform user tokens. Other data being leaked includes over 4 million PHI (Protect Health Information) records which contain private chats and prescription records.

These social media sites and mobile applications are not safe at all. Just yesterday I have reported to you that Facebook, Google and Microsoft are allegedly accused of using dark patterns to trigger people to share their personal data. A Norwegian Consumer Council report issued on 27th June revealed that how some big tech companies are using default settings, dark patterns and features of an interface to “nudge” their users and manipulate them to share their private data on these platforms. The report also accused Microsoft’s Windows 10 to do the same thing but to a lesser extent.

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Google invests $22 million in a feature phone operating system

The parent company behind the famous Android OS, Google, is investing millions of dollars in an operating system for feature phones.

In a quite interesting move, Google has considered investing in KaiOS, an operating system dedicated to the feature phones. The company behind the world’s largest mobile operating system will be investing as much as $22 million in a Series-A investment to KaiOS, a simplistic ARM-based operating system that is nowadays being used to power various feature phones including but limited to those from Nokia, Micromax and TCL.

As part of the investment, KaiOS would also be able to use different Google services like Google Search, Google Maps and more importantly the Google Assistant.

Also Read: This is Pakistan’s First 4G Enabled Feature Phone

“This funding will help us fast-track development and global deployment of KaiOS-enabled smart feature phones, allowing us to connect the vast population that still cannot access the internet, especially in emerging markets,” Sebastien Codeville, the CEO of KaiOS Technologies, told in a statement.

The strategic move would help Google make its place in the feature phone segment and at a later stage, might even help it in strategically defining the demographics of both these domains. KaiOS is a web-based operating system that has continued to improve its market position despite the ever-increasing dominance of Google.

The reports say that where as much as 1.6 billion Android smartphones were sold last year, a considerable number that is 400-500 million of feature phones also made it to the markets. In India, KaiOS is the second-most popular operating system.

News — KaiOS via TC, Image —BuzzFeed

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Senate Committee suggests installing optic fibre from Karachi to Gawadar

Internet Tax

Senate Standing Committee wants concerned authorities to connect Gawadar with Karachi and hence the rest of the city through a cutting-edge optical fibre.

On 28th June, Senate Standing Committee on Maritime Affairs, a committee that deals with ports and shipping, suggested laying optic fibre cable from Karachi to Gawadar, recommending that the project is started at its earliest so that the Gwadar Port Authority may start functioning properly.

A meeting surrounding the matter was held at the Parliament House on 28th June under the Chairmanship of Senator Nuzhat Sadiq. Several other renowned personalities were also present at the event including Senators Fida Muhammad, Muhammad Akram, Saleem Zia, Samina Saeed, Rana Mahmood ul Hassan, Sitaray Ayaz, Kauda Babar, Secretary Maritime Affairs and heads of all its attached departments and institutions working under the ministry.

The Ministry of Maritime Affairs has six attached departments each with autonomous statuses of their own including Karachi Port Trust (KPT), Port Qasim Authority (PQA), Gwadar Port Authority (GPA), Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC), Directorate General of Ports and Shipping (DG P&S), Korangi Fisheries Harbor Authority Karachi, Pakistan Marine Academy (PMA) and Marine Fisheries Department (MFD) Karachi.

During the meeting, the Committee gave detailed and comprehensive briefings on the performance of the Port Qasim Authority, Gwadar Port Authority, Karachi Port Trust, Pakistan National Shipping Corporation, Pakistan Marine Academy, Directorate General of Ports and Shipping, Korangi Fisheries Harbour Authority among others.

The Committee planned to visit and hold a series of meetings at the Headquarters of all departments and authorities under the ministry to be better able to assess their issues and problems and contribute to their resolution.

The matter of ferrying the Pakistani pilgrims all the way to the Iranian seaports also came under discussion. The committee recommended doing work on policy approvals regarding a dedicated ferry service (a merchant vessel used to carry passengers) between Pakistan and Iran that could assist pilgrims going to visit sacred places in Iran and Iraq.

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Scientists successfully printed 3D human heart tissue

Scientists at Chicago based biotech startup BIOLIFE4D this week announced a major breakthrough that is the ability to 3D print human cardiac tissue.

The scientific milestone was accomplished shortly after the opening of the company’s new research facility in Houston. The printing of a human cardiac patch involves multiple cells that make up the human heart. Bioprinted 3D cardiac patches can be used in patients with acute (serious) heart failure to restore lost myocardial contractility. The company now plans to turn its focus to other constructs like valves, blood vessels and a mini-heart as it involves 3D bioprinting a full human heart.

BIOLIFE4D’s Chief Science Officer Birla said:

“We are extremely excited to have achieved this milestone and to successfully demonstrate our ability to 3D print human cardiac tissue. When we began this process, we knew this would be a key step in validating our technology and scientific approach, so we are pleased to be able to have accomplished this so quickly.”

CEO of BIOLIFE4D, Moris said that earlier other companies have made similar patches, but none have included each of the cell types which make up the heart, along with the vascularization needed to allow the body to nourish the cells and remove their waste products. He further said, “You can think of it like this is the first time all of the proper ingredients were used to properly make the recipe.”

BIOLIFE4D’s innovative 3D bioprinting process provides the ability to reprogram a patient’s own (white) blood cells to Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS cells). Induced pluripotent stem cells (also known as iPS cells or iPSCs) are a type of pluripotent stem cell that can be generated directly from adult cells. Those iPS cells then differentiate into different types of cardiac cells needed to 3D bioprint not only a cardiac patch but ultimately, a human heart viable for transplant. This means BIOLIFE4D can successfully 3D bioprint using cardiac cells derived from their own iPS cells to create a living, viable constructs.

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Friday, June 29, 2018

Google Throws its Lot in with the Linux-based KaiOS Project to Focus on Emerging Markets

While Google has a tendency to support a number of sometimes unusual projects, not many people consider it a major startup investor. The search engine giant is throwing it’s weight behind KaiOS, however, and reports have come out that suggest the company has invested some $22 million into the lightweight operating system.

Like Google’s own Android product, KaiOS is based on open-source Linux kernel code. It’s far lighter, however, which makes it attractive for use in emerging markets and on lower-end mobile devices. Developers that operate in parts of the world where semiconductors are prohibitively expensive might consider this good news as it drastically reduces hardware requirements for mobile software.

Google has claimed that their goal in recent months has been to put their services first. They’ve wanted to promote search and map features in emerging markets, and an investment in KaiOS seems like a good one for this reason.

It also seems to suggest that they’re not tethering themselves to the Android platform. KaiOS grew out of Mozilla’s Firefox OS project, which was another fork of the Linux codebase.

At one point, it would have been unthinkable to see Google buying into something like this. Some might no longer see it as a competitor, however, both because it’s designed to run on lower specification devices than Android is and because it helps to promote Google’s web services.

KaiOS has promised to work on integrating Google’s search engine and maps app into devices running their operating system. They’ll also work to include its voice assistant technology as well as native support for YouTube.

Developers announced earlier this year that Google apps would get deployed on some Nokia phones powered by KaiOS. The operating system currently receives hardware support from several manufacturers. These include Micromax and Alcatel as well as Nokia.

At the same time, the company still seems to be working on Fuchsia. Google announced that operating system, which isn’t based on the Linux kernel, back in 2016. They’ve claimed that they’re still throwing their weight behind that project, and they’ve recently joined the board of the Linux Foundation itself.

As a result, Google may find itself involved with several different OS products at the same time in the coming months.

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Known Folder Move Feature will let Users Send Files to OneDrive with a Single Button

Engineers over in Redmond are rolling out a new one-button option that might make it easier for users to send files directly to their One Drive account. Known Folder Move, as Microsoft has been calling the feature, moves the contents of a directory into a container on an attached OneDrive for Business storage account. While the option is currently only offered as a preview, the fact that it works with older operating systems is rather impressive.

Users of PCs running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 should be able to take advantage of the feature by the end of July at the earliest, which is the same time that Windows 10 users will receive the full release. Microsoft has been trying to encourage users of these systems to migrate to Windows 10 for some time, and systems on extended support channels generally don’t receive new features.

If the final version of Known Folder Move does indeed support 7 and 8.1, then it might be a move to aid enterprise-level users who can’t take mission-critical systems offline for upgrades just yet.

Office 365 installations that are assigned to receive targeted release or test release updates should be able to start using the feature early next week at the latest, though there might be some bugs that Microsoft’s development teams haven’t been able to work out yet.

Windows and Office Insider Program members might also be able to get access to the feature early in the week.

Administrators can enable Known Folder Move buttons through the Group Policy sheet, and they can even compel regular user accounts to move files through the button by policy. When this is enabled, end-users will receive a dialog box urging them to protect their folders by backing them up.

Users who agree to start protection, as Microsoft has worded the box, will start to sync directories straight to OneDrive. This should prove useful in corporate environments with multiple user configurations where not everyone gets an opportunity to back things up.

It should also give those with accounts on these systems the freedom to access their files regardless of which machine they’re currently working from. Files would eventually sync across connected accounts to prevent data from getting out of date.

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Prices of Graphics Cards Anticipated to Go Down in July

According to sources, prices of graphics cards are expected to go down on an average 20% scale in the month of July. This drop in the prices of graphics cards is being attributed to the cryptocurrency mining chill which has greatly weakened the demand for graphics cards. The suppliers are now planning to majorly cut down the prices in order to clear their inventories. This stagnant demand has also impacted the purchases of ASIC mining systems, sources from the upstream supply chain reveal.

The dramatic slowdown in mining ASIC orders is also expected to negatively impact the revenues at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in 2018 including its IC design service partners like Global Unichip.

This dwindling profitability has caused small and medium mining firms to gradually remove themselves from the market. Large mining firms on the other hand are also bearing the brunt and cutting down on their procurements of new machines.

Presently, the international worldwide market of graphics cards possesses an inventory of approximately seven million units. In fact, Nvidia has some million GPUs that are waiting to be launched. Cryptocurrency minors are anticipated to start selling their used graphics cards to the retail chains which will also cause other vendors to introduce major price cuts in competition.

Owing to the current situation of the graphics cards market, next-generation GPUs by Nvidia made using TSMC’s 12nm and 7nm processes may be postponed to late 2018 until after inventories are returned to safe levels.

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ADATA SR2000CP Promises to be One of the Larger PCIe-based SSD Boards on the Market

While it may be overkill for even the most hardcore PC gamers, the new ADATA SR20000CP SSD is a beast-sized storage device that should be right at home in the enterprise-level market. ADATA announced that they were expanding their line of storage solutions for the big iron world, and this is one of the biggest ways the company seems to be doing so.

SR2000CP modules are offered in a half-height and half-length form factor, but they should be compatible with standard PCIe jacks. By using 3D TLC enterprise-class NAND chips, system administrators should be able to get the best performance possible out of these cards.

Since they don’t have moving parts like electromechanical disk drives do, ADATA’s boards feature read speeds that approach nearly six metric gigabytes a second. They can write at just under four metric gigabytes per second. This means the hardware should probably feel right at home streaming media to client users from powerful GNU/Linux or *BSD-based web server units.

Database operators may also opt for this kind of power to speed up the large number of transactions that machines doing number crunching have to take care of.

Solid-state technology also serves to make these boards quite energy efficient. They draw around eight watts when idling and 21 watts during read/write cycles. This is helped by the fact that they don’t have to use a motor, which is the same reason they have very little in the way of seek time when accessing an individual file.

Each of these boards should support a DRAM buffer and LDPC ECC error handling. This makes them suitable for data centers that require hardware to adhere to specific standards.

Like most storage solutions, ADATA’s new SSDs are offered in a variety of sizes. Unlike most, however, system administrators can find modules that have up to 11TB of disk space. This kind of capacity may prompt the use of special file systems designed to stand up to the kind of abuse that server operators put storage through.

Two, four and eight terabyte options are also offered for those who want a large internal SSD but don’t necessarily need that level of storage.

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Researchers Find Security Problems Related to Digital 4G LTE Mobile Networks

A new report from mobile and Linux security experts suggests that 4G LTE cellular communications might have several fairly serious security faults built right in. Two vulnerabilities outlined in the report are passive, which means that attackers who exploit them would be able to watch LTE traffic packets before determining certain details about the target they’re monitoring.

These potential exploits are concerning for the same reason that many recent semiconductor-based vulnerabilities have been so pressing to researchers. Crackers could figure out private information about mobile device users as soon as they’ve collected the appropriate packets, just like those who abuse microchip design have been able to do the same thing with desktops and servers as of late.

Both of these attackers permit crackers to collect metadata about the traffic sent from a smartphone or cellular-connected tablet. Those who use portable PCs with cellular devices attached to them might also be transmitting packets filled with metadata that could be intercepted by someone who had wanted to carry out an attack in this fashion.

Nevertheless, these aren’t the most serious problems that the new report outlines, even if they are issues that may need to be patched in the near future.

Another potential exploit allows an attacker to actively manipulate data sent to a user’s 4G LTE-connected device. While it’s more than likely not feasible outside of a laboratory at the moment, some researchers have been able to redirect test devices to malicious sites by abusing the way that LTE relays can call HTTP servers.

Even if these attacks could become possible outside of ideal laboratory conditions, they would require physical proximity to a victim in order to carry it out. This limits the possibility that they’ll ever be performed on a large scale.

However, the sheer fact that researchers were able to do so helps to illustrate the fact that more mitigations will be necessary in order to ensure secure digital ecosystems in the near future.

Though users may not currently be at risk, it’s possible that some flaws impact the upcoming 5G standard as well, which means that coders will probably be working on ways to prevent these from ever turnings into problems in the wild before 5G phones become common.

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Series of ‘Grand Challenges’ Launched by GENCI for Testing Capacity of 9-Petaflop Atos Supercomputer

Recently, Atos and GENCI (Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensif) collaboratively announced the soon-to-be launch of the latest Joliot-Curie supercomputer which was installed at the TGCC (Très Grand Centre de Calcul du CEA) located in Bruyères-Le-Châtel (Essonne, France). This system of BullSequana X1000 built by Atos is expected to enter the top 500 ranking of the globe’s largest supercomputers in June 2018.

In order to ensure that everything in the system is operating perfectly, several Grand challenges that comprise of large scale simulations from industrial and academic research are being run. Through these Grand Challenges, chosen scientists are provided with a unique opportunity of gaining access to the supercomputer’s resources which enables them to make major advances. When these challenges end, the supercomputer will be made available to European and French researchers. These researchers will be able to hands-on experience the latest Curie system which is 4.5 times more powerful compared to the previous Curie.

Phillipe Lavocat, the CEO of GENCI commented on this latest introduction, “GENCI is pleased to make the most innovative supercomputer in France, a 9-petaflop BullSequana X1000, available for French and European research, helping to strengthen the global scientific competitiveness of our researchers, academics, and industrialists, and reinforce economic competitiveness based on digital developments. This supercomputer also embodies the acceleration of France’s investment in major research infrastructures for the development of a knowledge society,” 

Specifications of the Joliot Curie

Joliot Curie seems to have brilliant specifications with initial configuration offering the computing prowess of 9 petaflops (9 million billion operation/s). This is equivalent to the power of 75000 desktop PCS. An extension of this version planned in 2019 which exceed the current power to add 20 more petaflops.

The computing nodes of this supercomputer are partially equipped with Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel Xeon Phi manycore processors. The peak computing power of this supercomputer is 8.9 petaflops and its distributed memory capacity stands at 400 TB. The supercomputer has a ‘Direct Liquid Cooling’ technology which allows for it to be cooled through hot water which reduces consumption of energy by 40% compared to cooling by air.

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New Leaked News Of Surface Phone

This year we have come across various leaks regarding Microsoft’s so-called Surface Phone, a pocketable dual-screened hinged phone/tablet hybrid running a new version of Windows 10 known as Andromeda.

Lets us now have a look at some details of the device which has leaked through the internal document which confirms the details.

As per the email, the surface device will be able to be new and disruptive part of the Surface family, which will blur the lines between what is considered mobile and PC.

The notes document says, “It’s a new pocketable Surface device form factor that brings together innovative new hardware and software experiences to create a truly personal and versatile computing experience. It will blur the lines between mobile and stationary computing,” it also says, which suggests the presence of Continuum-like features.

According to the email, the device is identical to the concept render by David Breyer, itself based on Microsoft patents. However, unlike other devices available on the market that already has the hinge that is nearly complete bridge when the device is open.

As per the leaks, the device will go on to support a stylus and goes on to include notepad-like apps. However, the document does not clarify if the device will support ARM or Intel processor.

According to ‘The Verge’ which claims that the device is still heading to a 2018 release, with alike devices from other OEMs to “follow afterwards.” They will, however, be cautious that the device may still be cancelled at any stage.

With only 5 months left in the year, if this device will still be releasing, it might be expected that the number of leaks will soon turn into a surge.

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Redmond says Windows 10 Sets Feature Should Return in Future Build

Redmond’s engineers have put out a new preview build of the April 2018 Update’s successor, but it seems to lack the Sets multitasking widget. Microsoft has codenamed the new build Redstone 5, and it introduces a new base container image. It also features a number of data privacy and security enhancements that enterprise-level users have been clamoring for ever since Windows 10 first got released.

Most press, therefore, is paying attention to these and not to the sudden change in workflow that Windows 10 users will potentially experience as a result of this UI alteration. Sets allows users to put regular applications into tabs, which can then be sorted back and forth through like they can in many popular file managers and web browsers.

Tabbed workflows have become especially common on non-Windows operating systems. Text editors for GNU/Linux and macOS installations often feature this UI gadget, which made Sets a potentially good option for those deploying Windows 10 in an environment where people were used to other OS designs.

Windows Insider Program representatives announced that Redmond is merely working on integrating Office and Edge into sets, which could improve workflows not only for these users but also for laptop users who are used to keyboard shortcuts. Sets is also potentially huge feature for these users, since it can save screen room and allow for fast application switching.

A blog post from a senior program manager at Microsoft said that users that have been testing Sets will no longer be able to see it as of the new build, but the post promised that it would return in a future version. It will probably happen after these integrations are finalized.

Once Sets is included in Windows 10 by default, more natives of Microsoft’s ecosystem will probably come to love it as well. It can be easy to switch back and forth between applications when they’re in a single window, which gives users the ability to look back and forth between documents when editing them.

Other updates to the operating system include better methods to deal with vulnerability exploits and ransomware, which is admittedly more than likely far more important than UI changes to an overwhelming majority of users.

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Nintendo’s Linux-based NES Classic is Set to Storm the Video Gaming World Once Again

Nintendo has finally elected to re-release their unbelievably popular NES Classic system, but gamers are going to have to act fast if they want one. Only select retailers are going to be carrying them, though it does look like Nintendo decided to work with Best Buy and ThinkGeek to sell the classic at its original price.

This mini game console serves as a replica of the original, and it comes with 30 different pre-installed games. The original Legend of Zelda as well as Super Mario Bros. are both built right in.

Many players have wanted Nintendo to make more units available for sale, because they became scarce fairly quickly. The Japanese-based hardware developer ceased production at the height of the console’s popularity, which made it extremely difficult to find one for some time.

Despite the fact that the console does look like an original 1980s-era NES, it has little in common with one internally. An Allwinner R16 microchip that’s served by four different ARM Cortex-A7 provides most of the NES Classic’s power, though an ARM Mali 400 MP2 GPU takes care of images on the screen.

The console itself runs a tiny Linux distro that resembles those used by other embedded devices, which makes it something like a PC running an emulator. Nintendo European Research & Development, jokingly called NERD, actually developed a special NES emulation module that includes limited support for the mappers used in some NES cartridges. This makes it possible to play some titles that are occasionally difficult to emulate. The emulator also supports a form of save stating that works very close to the mechanism used by PC-based emulators.

Mapper support has given gamers the ability to play Super Mario Bros. 3 somewhat flawlessly on the console. In fact, some media outlets actually feel that Nintendo’s original hope was that machines like the NES Classic might help stem the tide of in-home emulation that’s become popular as PC hardware continues to grow in strength.

Apparently, Nintendo’s previous decision to remove the console from the market led to some sellers scalping the few available units while some unofficial developers began to produce bootleg versions. Gamers who always wanted an official real unit might finally get their chance with the current re-release.

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Apple is Phasing in a New Version of the iOS Maps App

While many users had a poor first experience with Apple Maps, it looks like Cupertino is giving the entire app another go. Longterm iOS users may remember when Apple’s CEO offered an apology due to problems associated with the software. A number of vacant areas on the app have now been filled as a result of major data partnerships and as a result it looks like Maps might finally be ready for primetime.

Apple’s newly revised product may attract some users who are dissatisfied with Google’s more popular Android-ported solutions. The iOS version of Google Maps offers something that resembles a traffic map, but it omits details that aren’t deemed important by the developers.

For instance, you might only see on and off ramps if it was necessary to get to your destination. Cupertino’s app is more like a traditional paper traffic map. This might make it popular with those who have plenty of experience with regular maps and prefer to keep that kind of experience. Those who do could find that the app combined with their skills would indeed be much faster than allowing a different program to chart a course for them.

Some of the early phases of redevelopment are already completed. Apple is continuing to use first-party data they’ve collected from iPhones as well as its own fleet of sensor-equipped automobiles. The company said that they ensured full anonymity with all data they took from customer devices.

Totally revamped versions of Maps won’t be out for a while, but product launches are going on in the Bay Area of California to coincide with the next release of iOS 12 Beta. They should be able to cover all of the northern part of the state by the beginning of autumn.

Each version of iOS will eventually have some sort of updated maps app, and these should be more responsive to changes due to road construction and resulting detours. They’ll also be more visually rich, which should once again please those who are looking for an experience that’s much closer to what they got when they pulled out a traditional atlas.

Engineers hope to eventually purge themselves of any reliance on third-party data to run the app.

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Vivo launches a new phone with 6 GB RAM

Vivo has launched another variant of the V9 with 6 GB RAM. The original V9 has 4 GB RAM. Another change observable in the newer variant is the change in chipsets. The original V9 was powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 626 while the V9 6GB is powered by the Snapdragon 660.

The V9 6 GB has been launched in Indonesia for now, wherein its retail price is set at IDR 4,299,000, which is the equivalent of roughly Rs.37000. Pre-orders are expected to go live on July 5th. Color options vary between Black and Red. The V9 6GB has a 6.3-inch FullView Display with an aspect ratio of 19:9 and a resolution of 1080×2280.

The V9 6GB comes with a notch as well along with a screen-to-body ratio of 90% thanks to the narrow bezels on the phone. The phone has an octa-core setup with each core clocking in at 2.2 GHz along with the Adreno 512 GPU. There is a 13+2 MP dual-lens camera setup on the back which is bound to be helpful in capturing good-quality images.

The V9 6GB comes with AI Face Unlock support as well along with the conventional fingerprint scanner placed on the back. It measures 154.81 x 75.03 x 7.89mm and weighs in at 150 grams. On the software front, the phone comes with Android Oreo 8.1 out of the box paired with Funtouch 4.0, which is Vivo’s custom skin of Android. It also features an updated Game Mode that allows you to set which contacts to receive calls from during gameplay.

While no news on global launch has been received till yet, the V9 6GB is expected to launch in India in the coming months considering the scale of India’s smartphone market.

Vivo has been innovating in a number of fields in the last few years. They were among the first companies to launch an in-display fingerprint sensor and a truly bezel-less phone. Additionally, their upcoming Face ID technology is said to carry 300,000 3D data points, which is 10 times better as Apple’s Face ID. Is all this enough for the Chinese giant to capture the attention of consumers or will it stay associated with the stereotype of Chinese phones having an inferior quality?

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Facebook, Google & Microsoft use dark patterns to manipulate their users

Facebook, Google and Microsoft are allegedly accused of using dark patterns to trigger people to share their personal data.

According to a Norwegian Consumer Council report issued on 27th June revealing that how some big tech companies are using default settings, dark patterns and features of an interface to “nudge” their users and manipulate them to share their private data on these platforms. The report also accused Microsoft’s Windows 10 to do the same thing but to a lesser extent.

“Dark patterns” are designs and user interfaces that are specifically crafted to manipulate and trick users into buying, signing up, or forcing to take an action they did not intend to. The NCC report, titled “Deceived By Design,” explains just how these dark patterns are being implemented by internet companies to extract users personal information.

The report also said Facebook, Google and Windows 10 use “misleading wording” and are offering “take-it-or-leave-it choices, and choice architectures where choosing the privacy-friendly option requires more effort for the users.”

On the other hand, Facebook users who wanted to turn off a facial recognition feature are triggered with a warning saying “if you keep face recognition turned off, we won’t be able to use this technology if a stranger uses your photo to impersonate you.” The report said that this wording manipulates and nudges the users to make a decision making them feel like the second option is “ethically questionable or risky.”

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95% of Pakistanis use Cash on Delivery option for e-commerce transactions

According to a Report by Asian Development Bank, 95 % of Pakistani’s use Cash on Delivery option rather than other options for e-commerce transactions.

According to the report, Information and communications technology (ICT) is critical to enable e-commerce to grow. The report states that access to internet, speed and affordability, delivery capabilities and logistics are part of the crucial ecosystem that enables e-commerce system to thrive.

The report, “Embracing the E-commerce Revolution in Asia and the Pacific” ranks Pakistan at 120th spot when comparing the e-commerce readiness in the region.

The use of e-commerce among the firms in the previous year as mentioned in the report states that Pakistan had 400 e-commerce vendors which make up 0.44% of estimated 900,000 physical stores.

The report further highlights that the access to entrepreneurial financing serves as a major barrier for e-commerce start-ups in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and other developing countries. Owing to the lack of a well-developed start-up ecosystem, Pakistan suffers from lack of venture capital investment. The report further stated that Paypal is not present in Pakistan which leads to limited e-commerce transaction options yet again.

Another reason, according to the report, for the lack of e-commerce transaction options is the lack of expertise needed to avail e-commerce options.

The report states that in 2016, there were 71 people out of every 100 people in Pakistan who had smartphones.

Pakistan lies in the bottom five countries when it comes to broadband speed.

The number of online shopping platforms has increased considerably across Pakistan over the past years owing to emerging start-ups that offer e-commerce transaction opportunities but the above-mentioned factors serve as a hindrance to the use of other available options for e-commerce transactions.

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Huawei is launching a gaming phone this year; Foldable phone coming next year

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Huawei’s Consumer Business President Jim Xu has confirmed that they will be releasing a smartphone focusing on gaming this year. Speaking in an interview, he confirmed that the phone is currently in the development stage and will be launched in the last quarter of 2018.

The phone is expected to come with Huawei’s GPU turbo out of the box. Huawei released the GPU turbo earlier this month. The feature enables a phone’s cores’ performance to increase by 60% while power consumption is reduced by 30%. The technology will be available on a host of other devices too, starting from mid-rangers to flagships.

The phone’s exact specifications are yet to be confirmed. Market analysts say that the phone must feature cutting-edge specs in order for it to compete with other gaming phones like the Razer Phone. Analysts have further predicted the Chinese brand to launch an improved chipset to power the phone as well, with rumours claiming the successor to be more advanced than the current flagship chip, Kirin 970 (which is used in the P20 Pro).

If this wasn’t enough for the Chinese giant, Xu has also confirmed plans of the company to introduce a foldable phone in 2019. Their foldable model is expected to compete with Samsung’s Galaxy X, which has been spinning in the rumour mill for quite some time now. Considering Samsung might introduce the Galaxy X at the Consumers Electronics Show 2019, which is due to be held in February 2019, Huawei’s model can be said to be launched in the same time frame as well.

All these new technologies might be enticing for consumers. Upgraded specs, foldable screens, and whatnot. Question is, will the change be welcomed or will it be disregarded?

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Upcoming Microsoft Phone might be foldable & supporting multiple positions

Satya Nadella

The upcoming Microsoft Phone might have a foldable design with the support of up to 5 positions. Microsoft phones have been dead for quite some while and their death was acknowledged by Microsoft in early 2018. A few weeks later, however, Microsoft restarted selling Lumia phones on their online retail site. That wasn’t enough to warrant a claim of the return of the Windows platform as experts say that Windows relisted the phones only to clear out remaining inventories.

Microsoft Foldable Phone

PhoneArena has reported that the upcoming Surface Phone will have “hinges that allow the devices to rotate up to 360 degrees”. Five positions have been claimed by them, including a position where both ends of the screen are facing each other, i.e. total inversion. Support for applications has not been confirmed yet as the different positions of the phone makes usage a different case than the usage of conventional phones.

The device has been codenamed “Andromeda”. Support for calls has not been confirmed yet. The phone is rumored to be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 1000. Industry experts have said that Microsoft is expected to release the phone within this year as pressure builds up among the industry’s main players to claim the throne of being the first company to come up with a foldable phone. It goes without mentioning that Samsung has been working on a foldable phone since quite some time and rumors claim that they might introduce the foldable model, Galaxy X, at the Consumer Electronics Show 2019 in Las Vegas.

Industry experts have quoted the price to be one of the biggest success determinants for the upcoming Windows Phone. Furthermore, they have stressed upon the need of the Andromeda platform supporting multiple apps in order for it to be liked by consumers. Question is, can the Snapdragon 1000 chipset or the foldable design help the Windows Phone in overpowering its competitors or are we going to see the Windows platform going dead again?

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Huawei wants to be the leader of 5G technology

Chinese technology giant Huawei announced that it will launch 5G-ready Kirin chips in March 2019 and 5G smartphone in June 2019.

Huawei’s rotating and acting CEO Eric Xu at the Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2018 said that Huawei wants to be the leader in the market with its 5G smartphones. The tech giant said that it is working on fifth Generation chip and smartphones that will be introduced in the market next year.

Huawei attributed the 5G technology to the launch of the 3rd Generation Partnership Project’s (3GPP) Release 16 specification, which, the company said will accelerate the development of 5G networks and services. However, Huawei did not mention which smartphone would be first 5G-ready. As Huawei plans to launch the 5G technology in June 2019 so one thing is clear that P-series smartphone would not qualify. Instead, a Mate-series smartphone might be a more suitable candidate to get the technology and would be available before the end of 2019.

Read Also: Huawei P20 Pro officially launched with triple rear cameras in Pakistan

Earlier this year, 18 smartphone companies committed to releasing a 5G phone in 2019. LG, HTC, and Xiaomi were on that list, but Huawei was nowhere. However, Huawei has now announced it officially that it is going to lead the market with 5G technology next year. Even, Apple and Samsung, the world’s biggest phone makers, have yet to announce their plans on 5G technology.

Just yesterday TechJuice reported a recently released report by the research institute Growth for Knowledge (GfK), which says that Huawei is close to achieving the top smartphone brand spot in Pakistan. This signifies that the Chinese brand has won the hearts of Pakistan with its smartphones.

The previous year, Anusha Rehman, Minister of Information Technology and Telecom (MoITT), said that Pakistan would be the first country in South Asia to test 5G cellular services for faster wireless connectivity. With Huawei aspiring to be the leader of 5G technology, we can now expect that the service will pave its way in Pakistan with the :)5G smartphones to be introduced by Huawei.

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