10 Tech News Roundup #12

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Apple’s record services revenue suggests growth in Apple Pay, Apple Music – Everyone’s favorite almost-trillion-dollar company reported fourth quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. And while much of the attention was on stellar iPhone sales, Apple wants to make sure that people know its services business is doing great, too. Techcrunch

Twitter employee deactivates Trump’s account on their last day – President Trump’s infamous Twitter account, @realDonaldTrump went offline briefly on Thursday, setting forth a wave of confusion and emotions. Techcrunch

Dashlane universal password manager comes to Linux, Chromebook and Microsoft Edge – Dashlane, a popular password manager that now reaches 9 million users, is launching today on Linux, Chromebook, and in Microsoft Edge for the first time. The company before required users to install its desktop software to work with web browsers, but with today’s release of Dashlane 5, the software is available as an extension that works directly in the browser. The update also includes other improvements for mobile, like support for Face ID on iPhone X and automatic app logins on Android. Techcrunch

The iPhone X’s TrueDepth camera could be a privacy nightmare – The iPhone X is officially here, and with it comes a bevy of new bells and whistles that Apple promises justify the smartphone’s hefty price tag.

Microsoft’s new HoloLens business push includes 29 new countries – Microsoft first unveiled its HoloLens headset almost three years ago, and the company continues to sell them to developers and commercial customers. While HoloLens seemed like a product that would change a lot over time, Microsoft appears to have found specific customers that are willing to adopt the headsets early: firstline workers and information workers. These might not be consumers at home running around playing games with HoloLens, but the headsets are now being widely used in organizations for remote assistance, training, and prototyping. The Verge

Google is apparently shipping some Pixel 2 XLs without an operating system – Google’s new Pixel 2 XL has been beset by a host of problems since release, ranging from possible issues of screen burn in to a weird clicking noise to failing a quality control test to shipping with empty packaging for a non-existent pair of wired Pixel Buds. The Verge

Razer unveils its first smartphone, the gamer-focused Razer Phone – Razer at a press event in London on Wednesday unveiled its first-ever smartphone, the Razer Phone. Described by CEO Min-Liang Tan as the ultimate in mobile entertainment, the Razer Phone features a 5.7-inch, 120Hz Sharp IGZO display with Ultramotion adaptive refresh rate technology and a quad HD resolution of 2,560 x 1,440. Techspot

Nvidia Charts AI Inroads, Inference Challenge at DC Event – As developers flock to artificial intelligence frameworks in response to the explosion of intelligence machines, training deep learning models has emerged as a priority along with syncing them to a growing list of neural and other network designs. HPC Wire

Bitcoin hits all-time high after CME Group says to launch futures – Bitcoin jumped to an all-time high above US$6,300 on Tuesday, after the world’s largest futures market operator CME Group said it would launch a regulated trading venue for cryptocurrencies in the fourth quarter of 2017. Channel Newsasia

Grab, the Uber rival in Southeast Asia, is now officially also a digital payments company – Grab is best known for rivaling Uber in Southeast Asia, but today the company took a major step into becoming a fintech player, too. Techcrunch

10 Tech News Roundup #11

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Apple’s latest macOS update dropped a ton of new emoji – Hundreds of new emoji are finally starting to make their way into the world. Apple dropped the latest public beta of macOS High Sierra and the update comes with hundreds of new emoji, including animals, dinosaurs, and a bunch of smileys. Mashable

WhatsApp finally lets you recall messages you’ve sent by mistake – WhatsApp has finally got your back when you send a message to the wrong person or group. The Facebook-owned messaging app is rolling a feature that will finally let its 1 billion-plus users delete a message for all people within a conversation. Techcrunch

Apple debuts its first MacBook sleeve – Apple has been making gadgets for decades. And as one of the world’s favorite consumer electronics makers, the company has also made plenty of cases and sleeves to protect those gadgets, most notably for the iPhone and iPad. But Apple has never made its own laptop/MacBook sleeve, until today. Techcrunch

Google addresses Pixel 2 XL display issues with software update and 2-year warranty – The Pixel 2 XL has been hitting the headlines recently, but not for the reasons Google would have wanted. Some users were already complaining about the display’s muted colors, blue tint, and grainy textures, and last week brought reports of what appeared to be screen burn-in. After promising to investigate the issues, Google has now announced its findings. Techspot

Microsoft may be working on a foldable PC similar to its canceled Courier project – Microsoft might be revisiting Courier, the dual-screen tablet concept from 2009 that never made it into production. The product was a seven-inch, dual-screen portable PC that folded up like a book. The interface was to involve a combination of finger-swiping gestures and a stylus for writing notes or entering URLs into the browser. Techspot

Microsoft has officially halted production of the Kinect – The writing was on the wall for Microsoft’s flagship motion control device and now, it’s finally official: the company has ceased all production of the Kinect. Techspot

Blockchain expected to become top digital business trend and disrupter in 2018 – Blockchain technology is set to become the top digital business trend and disrupter in 2018, IT solutions and services firm Dimension Data has said in its latest report. Business Insider

Amazon Web Services Beats Cloud Rivals with First Volta Instances – Driven by a surging demand for HPC and AI compute power, the delay between the introduction of high-end GPUs and adoption by cloud vendors is shrinking. With the Nvidia V100 launch ink still drying and other big cloud vendors still working on Pascal generation rollouts, Amazon Web Services has become the first cloud giant to offer the Tesla Volta GPUs, beating out competitors Google and Microsoft. HPCWire

Apple calls Face ID quality change report ‘completely false’ – Apple is calling into contention an earlier report from Bloomberg that claimed the company had lowered the accuracy of the face recognition in order to increase iPhone X production yields, calling the report “completely false” in a statement to The Verge. The Verge

New BadRabbit ransomware spreads through Eastern Europe – A new ransomware attack named BadRabbit is spreading through Russia, Ukraine, and other Eastern European countries. Targeting corporate networks, computer systems for the Kiev Metro, Ukraine’s Odessa International Airport, several Russian media outlets, and others have been affected, with systems encrypted and computers displaying a ransom message. The Verge

10 Tech News Roundup #10

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Southeast Asia’s Sea, formerly Garena, to raise upwards of $884M in US IPO – Sea, the Singapore-based digital entertainment firm formerly known as Garena, is set to raise upwards of $884 million when it lists on the New York Stock Exchange Friday under ‘SE’. Techcrunch

Atlassian is on one heck of a run – When Atlassian went public at the end of 2015, it was a bit of an anomaly: a tech IPO whose numbers looked quite good with some profitability.

Microsoft quietly added an anti-cheat game feature to Windows 10 – Microsoft started rolling out the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update to PCs earlier this week, complete with features like Windows Mixed Reality and people integration for the taskbar. While most of the new additions are obvious, Microsoft quietly added an anti-cheat feature for games. The Verge

Tim Cook promises a new Mac mini will come some day – You thought that just because Apple hasn’t updated it in over three years, the Mac mini is dead? We don’t blame you, but according to Apple CEO Tim Cook, there’s still hope for Apple’s tiny desktop computer. Mashable

Google could update Chrome to address pesky in-browser cryptocurrency miners – In-browser cryptocurrency mining is becoming a serious issue. While some sites like The Pirate Bay are open about the behavior, others (knowingly or otherwise) attempt to use your CPU cycles without your permission. Techspot

Watchdog warns of dangerous security vulnerabilities in children’s smartwatches – Safety concerns over children’s connected toys are nothing new. Wi-Fi enabled dolls such as My Friend Cayla and Barbie were found to be vulnerable to hackers, while smart Fisher-Price toys and HereO watches also featured dangerous security holes, all of which have since been patched. Now, a watchdog has warned that more smartwatches aimed at kids could be easily compromised. Techspot

Apple is slipping after reports of iPhone 8 production cuts – Shares of Apple are down 1.65% to $157.12 in early trading on Thursday on reports that the company has cut orders linked to its new iPhone 8. Business Insider

Malaysian authorities probing report that personal data of millions of consumers up for sale – PUTRAJAYA: Police and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said on Friday (Oct 20) they are investigating claims that the private data of millions of Malaysians are being advertised for sale online. Channel NewsAsia

Where Security Meets High Performance Computing – As its power increases and its cost declines, High Performance Computing (HPC) is making an impact on the security field. The ability to use parallel processing to run at speeds of a teraflop or higher is now contributing to improved security in airports, online and elsewhere. At the same time, HPC itself creates a number of new security risks for organizations that employ it. This article looks at HPC’s impact on security. It also explores HPC’s own vulnerabilities and discusses how new solutions from Dell EMC and Intel help address them. HPCWire

Netflix: the content war – Netflix will spend US$7 billion to US$8 billion on content in 2018 as the streaming wars escalate, it said this week. That cash goes toward a mix of licensed and original programming. “Our future largely lies in exclusive original content,” said Netflix in its latest earnings report. Stranger Things is among the recent hits for Netflix’s studio. Tech in Asia

10 Tech News Roundup #8

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Facebook quietly launches Mac and PC Workplace Chat apps with screen share – TechCrunch has discovered that Facebook has stealthily launched official desktop PC and Mac chat apps with screen sharing — two features users have been begging for. Techcrunch

Apple is looking into reports of iPhone 8 batteries swelling – Reports from a few iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus buyers have suggested there could be an issue with the battery inside some of the devices swelling, causing the case of Apple’s new iPhone to split open and expose the smartphone’s internals. Techcrunch

Apple gave Uber the keys to your iPhone screen, and it was all super shady – Stop us if you’ve heard this one: Uber is a shady company. Mashable

The Pixel’s missing headphone jack proves Apple was right – When it launched the iPhone 7 a year ago, Apple confidently declared the headphone jack obsolete technology that we could learn to live without. The Verge

HP is ditching the last serious Windows phone – HP has canceled plans to build out a line of Windows phones due to Microsoft’s general disinterest in continuing to battle Google and Apple on mobile. The Verge

Analyst and execs say Microsoft might kill off the Surface line by 2019 – With its new Pixelbook 2-in-1, it appears as if Google is trying to take on Microsoft and its laptop-tablet hybrid, the Surface Pro. But several big names within the industry think the Windows maker will drop its Surface lineup by 2019, if not sooner. Techspot

Microsoft has an Edge on iOS and Android handsets – Do you use Microsoft Edge? While I haven’t spent a huge amount of time with Microsoft’s newest browser, I have to admit it’s fast and slick. Techreport

The rise of female e-gamers in Singapore – SINGAPORE: A marketing executive by day, female gamer Calyn Koh heads straight for her home computer after work. Channel Newsasia

Outside criticism forced YouTube to change its search results after Las Vegas shooting conspiracy theories spread – YouTube is revamping the way its search algorithm picks videos to display on the site, after a spate of clips promoting false conspiracy theories about Sunday’s Las Vegas shooting were prominently featured on its site. Business Insider

Google Compute Engine goes a little crazy with up to 96 CPU cores and 624 GB of memory – If you’ve got a resource-hungry app, Google Compute Engine’s latest offering has you covered. Techcrunch

10 Tech News Roundup #6

Here are 10 tech news that I found interesting.

Google Cloud adds support for more powerful Nvidia GPUs – Google Cloud Platform announced support for some powerful Nvidia GPUs on Google Compute Engine today. Techcrunch

Why video games cost so much to make – Video game publishers are notoriously secretive about the budgets behind their games, but when a number does slip out, it can be shocking. Techspot

Apple Watch Series 3 reviews are in, see what the experts think – Apple’s smartwatch took a big step forward last week with the introduction of LTE connectivity on the new Apple Watch Series 3. Techspot

Apple will bring back iPhone’s 3D Touch multitasking gesture in future iOS 11 update – Apple executive Craig Federighi has apparently confirmed that a popular 3D Touch gesture for the iPhone that was removed in iOS 11.0 will be returning in an upcoming software update. The Verge

Netflix adds HDR support for iPhone X and iPad Pro – Netflix already streams HDR video on the new Apple TV 4K, so it only makes sense for the company to add support for Apple’s HDR-ready iOS devices as well. The Verge

Intel shows off 10-nm Cannon Lake wafer and talks process tech – Intel does fine work as a silicon designer, but its manufacturing technology is probably what truly sets the company apart from its competitors. TechReport

Google acquires part of HTC’s smartphone business for $1.1 billion – Google and HTC have officialized a deal under which a portion of HTC employees, many of whom were already working with Google developing Pixel phones, will join Google. Techspot

13 hidden features in iOS 11 – You don’t need to buy an iPhone 8 (or an iPhone X for that matter) to get that shiny, new-iPhone feeling.Mashable

Apple’s iOS 11 gives the iPad the boost it desperately needed – Every new version of iOS in the last decade has always put the iPhone first. Mashable

The Ionic is a smartwatch only diehard Fitbit fans would love – If the Ionic smartwatch is the best Fitbit can do, the company might be doomed, and the Apple Watch has nothing to worry about. Mashable