Thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

Thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

In bringing Fortnite to Android this summer, Epic gambled that the biggest video game phenomenon in the world could find success without relying on the centralized Google Play storefront (and its 30 percent cut of all revenues). That gamble seems to have paid off so far—Epic reports 15 million Fortnite downloads and 23 million players on Android just 21 days after the game’s beta release.
For context, the iOS version of the game saw roughly 11 million installations in its first month, according to analysis firm Sensor Tower, though the first two weeks of that period were a more limited “closed beta.” It took the iOS version of Fortnite about three months to reach 100 million downloads, according to analysis firm Apptopia.
Along with the numbers, Epic also highlighted some of its efforts to tackle potential malware threats — an added issue given that the game isn’t distributed through Google’s official channel.
“So far, Epic has instigated action on 47 unauthorized “Fortnite for Android’ websites,” the company writes, “many of which appear to be run by the same bad actors. We continue to police the situation with a goal of taking them offline, or restricting access by leveraging Epic’s connection to a network of anti-fraud partners.”
Another new update for Fortnite has arrived. Alongside it, Epic Games has shared the v5.40 patch notes, detailing all the changes, tweaks, and new additions it has made for the Battle Royale and Save the World modes on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, iOS, and Android.
As previously confirmed, the headliner for this update is the High Stakes event, which lets players compete in a heist scenario. As part of this limited-time mode, a new traversal tool has also been introduced called the Grappler. This weapon lets players launch themselves around the map, which is useful in both jumping into combat or escaping quickly. There are also new High Stakes challenges.
One of the world’s largest phone makers, Oppo, announced the R17 not long ago, with one of the most minimalistic, “water drop” style notches around, and the first phone with Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6. It just released the Pro version, too, with the same tiny notch and in-display finger scanner, but a triple-camera setup.
The new 3D technology, called ToF (Time of Flight), is used in navigation and mapping, which will be adopted in the gaming sector.
Chinese smartphone vendors, including Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, all invest heavily in innovation to offer consumers diversified products, as the domestic market is close to saturation point.
Oppo’s new models, R17 and R17 Pro, which were released in Shanghai on Thursday night, feature three cameras, including a ToF 3D stereo camera.
The phones include AI features such as 3D Portrait and AI beautification to automatically detect the environment and adapt the shooting settings. Meanwhile, they feature a 6.4-inch screen and super-fast charging, which can charge 40 percent of the phone’s battery capacity within just 10 minutes.
As for the internals of the phone, the Oppo R17 Pro comes fitted with Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 clocked at 2.2 GHz and Adreno 616 for graphics processing needs. On the memory front, the R17 Pro features 8GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. There is no support for microSD expansion.
Coming to the optics department, the Oppo R17 Pro comes with a 25MP front camera housed in a tiny notch at the front with an aperture of f/2.0. Moving to the rear, the triple camera setup makes a comeback in the R17 Pro after appearing for the first time in Huawei P20 Pro. The primary sensor in the setup is a 12MP CMOS unit with a variable aperture of f/1.5-f/2.4, similar to the one seen on Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Galaxy S9+. It comes with dual pixel PDAF and optical image stabilisation (OIS) too. The rest of the triple camera setup comprises a 20MP sensor with f/2.6 aperture and auto focus, and a TOF 3D stereo camera.
THE FORTNITE Boogie Down emote is being offered as a free download by Epic Games to those players willing to enable 2FA.
Epic Games are big on security and have on numerous occasions gone out of their way to warn their loyal player base about the dangers of just about everything from fake V-Bucks scams to fake android apps.
But now they’re going one step further. Epic Games have today announced they’re giving away a free cosmetic emote to help encourage users to enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).
Obviously, the benefit of adding Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a bit of a no-brainer in the first place. It’s adding extra security to help protect your account.
If you want a more detail explanation of what Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is, you’ll find it further down the page.
The Boogie Down emote is new to the game, by the way. It was created as part of a contest launched by Epic last spring, with the winner announced in April and now added to the game in this most unusual of ways.
AUTHENTICATOR APP: Use an Authenticator App as your Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) when you sign in you’ll be required to use the security code provided by your Authenticator App. To enable this service email address verification is required.
EMAIL AUTHENTICATION: You will need to verify your email address to enable Two-Factor Authentication (2FA).To enable this service email address verification is required.
After completing one of these steps, the Fortnite Boogie Down emote should be available to unlock and equip in your Battle Royale loadout screen.
HOW FORTNITE 2FA SHOULD WORK
When you go to sign in, you’ll be asked to enter the security code from your preferred 2FA method (email or app). After doing so, you’ll be signed into your account. You’ll be prompted for a 2FA security code in the following situations:
a) The first time you sign in after enabling the feature.
b) If you sign in using a new device.
c) If it’s been over 30 days since you last signed in.
d) If you recently cleared your browser cookie
People are all kinds of terrible about their internet security: They use obvious passwords. They don’t turn on two-factor authentication. Perhaps most recklessly, they don’t even click on all the images in the security grid that contain cars in them. What if all it took to get us better at this stuff was an unlockable reward? What if the key to better personal security was a video game unlock? Two-factor that Nintendo account and up that missile capacity in Metroid Prime 4 by five? Make a stronger Xbox Live password and get a tank in Forza Horizon 4? These are just suggestions. Epic might be onto something here.
Its price start from $749.99 and after that it’s also depends on the market from where you are buying this machine.it has a GTX 1050 GPU instead of a 1050Ti. There are a couple of options you might want to consider though. For one thing, you can get it with a Core i7, which is six cores, whereas the i5 is quad-core. Also, the 1080p display can be configured with a 144Hz model.
The color is all black with new Legion branding on the top. There’s a white light in the Legion logo, and the keyboard is backlit with white light. Both of those are RGB on the Y730.
One functional design change is that most of the ports have been moved. Now, on the back of the machine, you’ll find a USB Type-C port, Mini DisplayPort 1.4, USB 3.1 Type-A, Ethernet, power, and Kensington Lock. This is great for cable management, but if you still need to plug something in while you’re using it, there’s an additional USB 3.1 Type-A port on the right, and on the left, a USB 3.1 Type-A port and the 3.5mm combo audio jack.
One of the nicest things about the design though is that it’s fairly thin and light for a PC that’s built for gaming. It weighs in at 5.1 pounds, and it’s 24.2mm thick, making it fairly easy to put in a bag and take it on the go. The narrow bezels around the display help it to fit a 15.6-inch screen into a smaller footprint.
Lenovo is also continuing to optimize the ventilation of the device, moving the fans further apart to push air away from the GPU and the CPU.
One thing that you might not like about the design is that the webcam is placed beneath the display. This is a matter of preference, as you might prefer a webcam with a proper placement, or you might prefer the immersion of a display with narrow bezels. I’ve spoken to numerous OEMs about this choice, and they universally tell me that people just don’t use their webcams.
The 15.6-inch screen on the Lenovo Legion Y530 comes in two flavors: 60Hz and 144Hz. Lenovo sent me the former, and I kind of love it. It’s one of very few anti-glare screens that I’ve used where the colors actually look vibrant, and it feels immersive with the narrow bezels on all sides.
An Australian teenager may have found it amusing enough when he managed to break into Apple’s mainframe to name a folder full of stolen Apple files “hacky hack hack,” but law enforcement has
not found it funny.
As The Guardian reports, the 16-year-old from Melbourne, who’s name can’t be shared publicly due to his age, pleaded guilty in children’s court this week to hacking Apple’s servers. He did this several times over the course of a year and managed to download around 90GB of “secure files” as well as gaining access to customer accounts. He also shared details of how he performed the hacks with a group on WhatsApp.
The boy, who is reportedly a popular figure in the hacking community, used VPNs and other tools to hide his identity. He also got hold of the authorized keys, which are considered extremely secure. The boy “worked flawlessly” in hacking Apple servers, until the U.S. company realized what was happening. Apple’s systems were able to trace the serial numbers of the MacBooks that were used to hack Apple servers.
Apple detected the security breach and informed the FBI who shared the information with the Australian federal police. The boy’s home was subsequently searched and two computers seized which matched the devices detected inside Apple’s systems. The data that had been downloaded was apparently stored in a folder named “hacky hack hack.”
“At Apple, we vigilantly protect our networks and have dedicated teams of information security professionals that work to detect and respond to threats.”
“In this case, our teams discovered the unauthorised access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement.”
” We regard the data security of our users as one of our greatest responsibilities and want to assure our customers that at no point during this incident was their personal data compromised.”
THE SAMSUNG GALAXY NOTE 9 will be unveiled in just a few days time, with a launch set for 9 August.
That’s good news for fans of big-screened mobes, as the Note 9 is expected to pack a sizable 6.38in display, bigger than the Note 8’s 6.32in offering. It could also be the first Samsung flagship to tout an in-screen fingerprint scanner, according to some reports, while others have claimed that the technology won’t be ready for the handset’s rumoured July unveiling.
Price
According to a report from WinFuture, pricing for the Galaxy Note 9 will start from €1,050 (£935), which will bag you the 128GB variant. The highest-spec 512GB model will reportedly fetch as much as €1,250 (£1,115).
However, a leaked pre-order poster from Indonesia claims the 128GB and 512GB models will fetch around £714 and £926 SIM-free, respectively.
Latest news
| LAUNCH | Announced | comming soon! |
|---|---|---|
| BODY | ||
|---|---|---|
| Build | Front/back glass (Gorilla Glass 5), aluminum frame | |
| SIM | Single SIM (Nano-SIM) or Hybrid Dual SIM (Nano-SIM, dual stand-by) | |
| – Samsung Pay (Visa, MasterCard certified) – IP68 dust/water proof (up to 1.5m for 30 mins) – Stylus |
| DISPLAY | Type | Super AMOLED capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors |
|---|---|---|
| Size | 6.4 inches, 104.0 cm2 | |
| Resolution | 1440 x 2960 pixels, 18.5:9 ratio (~514 ppi density) | |
| Multitouch | Yes | |
| Protection | Corning Gorilla Glass 5 | |
| – HDR10 compliant – Always-on display |
| PLATFORM | OS | Android 8.1 (Oreo) |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset | Exynos 9810 Octa – EMEA Qualcomm SDM845 Snapdragon 845 – USA & China |
|
| CPU | Octa-core (4×2.7 GHz Mongoose M3 & 4×1.8 GHz Cortex-A55) – EMEA Octa-core (4×2.7 GHz Kryo 385 Gold & 4×1.7 GHz Kryo 385 Silver) – USA & China |
|
| GPU | Mali-G72 MP18 – EMEA Adreno 630 – USA & China |
| MEMORY | Card slot | microSD, up to 512 GB (uses SIM 2 slot) – dual SIM model only |
|---|---|---|
| Internal | 64/128/256 GB, 6 GB RAM |
| MAIN CAMERA | Dual | 12 MP, f/1.5-2.4, 26mm, 1/2.55″, 1.4µm, dual pixel PDAF, OIS 12 MP, f/2.4, 52mm, 1/3.6″, 1µm, AF, OIS, 2x optical zoom |
|---|---|---|
| Features | LED flash, auto-HDR, panorama | |
| Video | 2160p@60fps, 1080p@240fps, 720p@960fps, HDR, dual-video rec |
| SELFIE CAMERA | Single | 8 MP, f/1.7, 25mm, 1/3.6″, 1.22µm, AF |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Dual video call, Auto-HDR | |
| Video | 1440p@30fps |
| SOUND | Alert types | Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones |
|---|---|---|
| Loudspeaker | Yes, with stereo speakers | |
| 3.5mm jack | Yes | |
| – 32-bit/384kHz audio – Active noise cancellation with dedicated mic |
| COMMS | WLAN | Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, hotspot |
|---|---|---|
| Bluetooth | 5.0, A2DP, LE, aptX | |
| GPS | Yes, with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, GALILEO | |
| NFC | Yes | |
| Radio | No | |
| USB | 3.1, Type-C 1.0 reversible connector |
| FEATURES | Sensors | Iris scanner, fingerprint (rear-mounted), accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, heart rate, SpO2 |
|---|---|---|
| Messaging | SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM | |
| Browser | HTML5 | |
| – Samsung DeX (desktop experience support) – Fast battery charging (Quick Charge 2.0) – Qi/PMA wireless charging (market dependent) – ANT+ support – Bixby natural language commands and dictation – MP4/DivX/XviD/H.265 player – MP3/WAV/eAAC+/FLAC player – Photo/video editor – Document editor |
| BATTERY | Non-removable Li-Ion 4000 mAh battery |
|---|
| MISC | Colors | Black, Silver, Lilac Purple, Brown, Coral Blue |
|---|---|---|
| Price | About 990 EUR |
Google said that one in ten Gmail users overall are replying to emails with machine-generated responses, signalling broader applications for machine learning within its productivity tools.
Google Docs, the company’s online word processing service, enables any Google account owner to create documents for free. The platform is fairly robust, offering many of the basic features needed for document creation and collaboration. Google has slowly added new features that improve Docs’ usefulness for various users, and the addition of Grammar Suggestions is one of those latest changes.
There’s more. True to its promises, Google is making Smart Reply available to Hangouts chats in G Suite over the next few weeks. You no longer have to dutifully type out an “I don’t think so” when someone asks if the quarterly report is ready. Also, Gmail’s Smart Compose is no longer confined to home users. The G Suite crowd can use autocomplete to zip past the formalities and focus on the email content that really matters. All told, Google is bent on eliminating as much of the drudgery of writing as possible — even if the results can occasionally feel a bit impersonal.
Grammar-checking features aren’t new; many word processing applications, including Microsoft Word, have offered similar tools for years. Newer tools like Grammarly and Google Docs’ Grammar Suggestions differ in an important way, though, utilizing machine learning and AI to power the tools, which improve the more they’re used.
While Xiaomi is known to release some pretty high specs devices in China, only a handful of them makes their way to India. The recently announced Xiaomi Mi Mix 2Sand the Mi 8 Series are examples of smartphones that are yet to be seen in India. However, if reports are to be believed then it would seem that there might be a device with the Snapdragon 845 SoC heading towards India.
Xiaomi is said to working on a new flagship smartphone which may come to the Indian market. As per a report by XDA Developers, a device carrying the code-name “Beryllium” will come equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor and is pitted to be Xiaomi’s fourth flagship model. Some of the firmware files on “Beryllium” were spotted by the folks at XDA Developers, they were reportedly built back in March. Xiaomi’s next alleged flagship will mostly feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chipset paired with an Adreno 630 GPU for graphics. The smartphone is believed to have LCD display with a notch on top with an aspect ratio of 18:9.
Further, the report cites the file mentioning two methods that link “Beryllium” to India that hints at the launch of the supposed Xiaomi flagship in the country. As per the report, within the latest MIUI Camera application, two methods called “isIndiaBeautyFilter” and “getDualCameraWaterMarkFilePathVendor” were found to be linked. The device is also said to have a build property called “ro.boot.hwc” that returns true only if it’s “India,” as per the report.