Google Assistant now lets you find local services like plumber and electrician

Google has updated Assistant with the ability to find local/nearby services like electrician, plumber, and house cleaner. As you'd expect, after the hot word OK Google, all you have to say is something like "find me a plumber," and Assistant will then ask for all the required info before finally getting you what you want. The new feature is available to users on Android and iOS, as well as those using the company's voice activated speaker Home. In the US, it'll roll out over the coming week. "In many cities the Google Assistant will suggest providers that have been prescreened by...

Google investigating Home Mini crash/reboot issue with songs at high volume

Google has started investigating an issue with its Home Mini smart speaker that users say causes the device to crash or reboot. Specifically, the behavior is observed when certain songs are played at high volume. There's a dedicated Reddit thread discussing this issue, where-in the original poster says they get the crash/reboot when music is played on max volume. Another user chimes in, saying they can observe the behavior with songs including Royals by lorde and icon by jayden smith. Over at Google's official forums, another affected user says they've even got their Home Mini unit...

Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ users reporting wireless charging issues after recent update

A number of Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ users are reporting issues with wireless charging on their units. Most of those affected say a recent update has completely broken the feature. @SamsungHelpUK @SamsungUK Firmware update has screwed up my fast charging feature on S8+; tested charging block on S7 Edge and all is fine! Good ol' Samsung and there software updates again. Bunch of idiots who accept no responsibility!— 🇬🇧 ShaVerZ™ (@_ShaVerZ_) November 25, 2017 @SamsungSupport my s8 stopped fast charging after the latest update. It takes almost 6 hours to charge. ...

Microsoft Edge now available publicly on iOS and Android

Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android is finally out of private beta and available for everyone. Users on iOS and Android can go to their respective stores and should be able to download it freely. As far as browsers go, there certainly isn't any shortage on either platforms, not even considering the excellent options that come by default. Still, if you are an Edge user on Windows 10 and wanted an easy way for your browsing history, passwords, logins, and open tabs to sync on your smartphone, Edge on mobile does exactly that. It's a browser for dedicated Edge users on desktop to carry...

AliveCor Kardiaband EKG reader is the first FDA certified medical device accessory for the Apple Watch

Today the US FDA has approved the first medical device accessory for the Apple Watch range. It's a watch strap called Kardiaband, it's made by a company called AliveCor, and it serves as an EKG reader for your wrist. This is a pretty solid development, considering that EKG machines are usually only available in doctors' offices and hospitals, and are mainly used after life-threatening events. The Kardiaband, tied with AliveCor's new software feature called SmartRhythm, can give you insight into your heart rate and potentially detect abnormal heart beats and atrial fibrillation (also known...

US unlocked HTC U11 Life receives Android 8.0 Oreo update

The Android 8.0 Oreo update for the HTC U11 Life is rolling out starting today. As always, it may take a few days (or even weeks) for it to reach every single device out there. If you're confused because you thought this handset actually launched running Oreo, read on. While the international Android One version of the U11 Life did have Google's latest tasty treat pre-installed, that wasn't the case for the HTC Sense-infused units sold in the US. These have been offered either unlocked, or by T-Mobile. The unlocked US units are the ones that are now being graced with Oreo. Mo Versi,...

How the OnePlus 5T secondary camera works

OnePlus announced its new flagship — the OnePlus 5T — at an event in New York a couple of weeks ago. The new model comes a scant six months after the launch of the previous flagship, the OnePlus 5. Naturally, it's not a big upgrade, as the name clearly suggests, but the phone does feature some notable changes, one of them being the camera. Like the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T features a dual camera system on the back but with one key difference. While the primary wide-angle lens is common between the two devices, the 5T swaps the telephoto camera for a low-light optimized camera. To...

Meizu 15 and 15 Plus coming next year to mark anniversary, CEO shows us the box

If you were expecting to see M, MX, or Pro branding on the first flagship smartphone duo that Meizu will be launching next year, then you're in for a surprise. The phones will be called Meizu 15 and Meizu 15 Plus, to mark the fact that the Chinese company celebrates its 15-year anniversary in 2018. This has been revealed today by none other than Meizu founder and CEO Jack Wong. Furthermore, he's shared this picture showing the box of the 15 Plus. As you can see, the packaging doesn't give anything away about the contents, and Wong didn't out any more details about the fifteenth...

Samsung W2018 flip-phone clears the FCC

Samsung's flipphone-to-be, W2018, is getting closer to a debut, as evidenced by its FCC application. The application shares details relating to the phone's communications abilities, such as NFC, LTE, Bluetooth 4.2 Low Energy and Wi-Fi. The FCC application also reveals ANT+ support and the model number - R38J906NX2E. The Samsung W2018 will have two 4.2-inch 1080p Super AMOLED screens, a 12MP camera on one side and a 5MP on the other. It will be powered by a Snapdragon 835 and a 2,300mAh battery. Rumor has it that it will be announced on December 1 in China and will later go on...

LG appoints new mobile division chief

The third quarter LG financial results showed profit from almost all divisions, with only Mobile Communications being in decline. In an attempt to "enhance competitiveness", the Korean company announced new appointments and promotions. There are new chiefs of the mobile, technology and marketing departments and an entirely new company for overseeing B2B product sales. The current president of LG Mobile Communications Company takes on a new role within LG. He will be replaced by Hwang Jeong-hwan who has years of experience in R&D, including the first LG smartphones in 2009. The...

OnePlus 3 and 3T also get Face Unlock with Android Oreo

Last week we reported that OnePlus started pushing the Oreo update to the OnePlus 3/3T duo and the OnePlus 5. Now all three phones are getting the Face Unlock feature that OnePlus introduced in their latest flagship. Enabling the feature is quite easy. Just head to the Security menu in Settings, then select Smart Lock. Trusted face option should be available, and it sets up with holding the phone at a face level in a room with normal light (not too bright or too dim). The phone can unlock even faster with "Improve the face" option. With the latest OTA updates, three discontinued...

Fast.com reaches quarter billion speed tests milestone, adds sharing options

Fast.com, a service by Netflix, was launched last year as a way to quickly and easily check the download speed of your internet connection. Since then, the company has generated a quarter billion speed test results from around the world. According to some Fast.com data, the top countries using the service are the U.S., Brazil, India, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Philippines, Italy, Great Britain and Egypt. Users are evenly split between the desktop and mobile web/apps. Users test speed around the day but particularly around evening time or during network connectivity issues. In Japan, people...

Rumored Snapdragon 845 specs point to next-gen Kryo cores, but old process

Qualcomm should announce the Snapdragon 845 chipset by the end of the year but some unconfirmed info is making the rounds. The new flagship chip will be built on a 10nm Low Power Early process (from TSMC rather than Samsung). So we can't expect performance gains due to the process. Gains will be had, however, as new chip will use 3rd gen Kryo cores - four of them, based on Cortex-A75. Those will be paired with four A53 cores for efficiency. The graphics will be upgraded to Adreno 630, though little is known about it beyond further AR and VR optimizations. The Snapdragon 845 will...

Amazon launches an AI camera and machine learning tools for businesses

Amazon might be the biggest online retailer, but the company wants to be even more influential, launching a set of AI products. The subsidiary Amazon Web Services introduced a $250 AI camera called DeepLens, a new platform named SageMaker for deploying machine learning and a new AI service for transcription and translation, all aimed at developers and businesses. The DeepLens camera comes with pre-installed AI tools, including object, image and character recognition. According to AWS press release, it can detect "cats, dogs, faces, everyday objects, motions and even hot...

Xiaomi Redmi 5 to come with MIUI 9 out of the box

Xiaomi Redmi 5 will arrive on December 7, but with so many leaks there might not be much left to announce. We already saw what the phone will look like and learned a bunch of its key specs. Latest information reveals that the Redmi 5 will have a dual hybrid SIM slot and run MIUI 9 out of the box. According to a leaked PDF that appears to be the warranty card, the Xiaomi Redmi 5 can have either two nano SIM cards or one, coupled with a micro SD. There is a disclaimer that only one of the cards can use a 4G network, meaning the Redmi 5 will most likely have either a Snapdragon...

HTC U11 Life launches for SoftBank as the HTC X2

Suspected to be a sequel to the HTC U Play, the HTC X2 is actually an Android One phone for Japanese carrier SoftBank - specifically it's a local version of the U11 Life. As such, it sports a 5.2" 1080p screen and its body is IP67 certified. There's a fingerprint reader/home button below the screen (this design predates HTC's jump to 18:9). The increasingly popular Snapdragon 630 chipset is paired with 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage (there's a microSD slot if you need more). The HTC X2 runs fresh Android 8.0 Oreo, of course, a benefit of Android One. There is a 16MP camera on the...

Huawei nova 2S shows its face, specs detailed

Huawei just announced the Honor V10 and we're already seeing glimpses of its upcoming projects. The latest leak comes brings us images and specs of the Huawei nova 2S. The phone looks similar to the Huawei Mate 10 Lite and might end up to be a new name for the previously rumored Huawei nova 3. Huawei nova 2S The Huawei nova 2S has a 6-inch 18:9 screen with FHD+ resolution, a 20MP+16MP dual camera on the back, a dual 20MP camera on the front and a 2016-flagship grade Kirin 960 chipset with 6GB of RAM. The software on board is Android 8.0 Oreo with EMUI 8.0. All that remains...

Xiaomi launches Redmi 5A in India, sales start December 7

Right on schedule, Xiaomi has announced the Redmi 5A in India. The phone starts selling on December 7 at a price of INR 5,999 for the 2GB/16GB model (first 5 million units will sell at a INR 1,000 discount - INR 4,999) and the 3GB/32GB variant will retail for 6,999. Both models come in either Grey or Gold. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A was marketed as the Desh ka SMartphone - meaning the country's smartphone - and is Made in India. The Xiaomi Redmi 5A launched in China in October. Source

Essential PH-1's camera gets Portrait Mode

During its most recent Q&A session on Reddit, Essential promised that the Camera app on its PH-1 smartphone will shortly get an update, enabling Portrait Mode as well as bringing along some other changes. Well, that update is now live. In addition to Portrait Mode, the update also includes reduced JPEG compression (aimed to improve image quality) and some stability fixes. It also adds exposure compensation for all regular camera modes. During the session, the company also announced that Android Oreo Beta V2 will rollout next week. For all details related to the AMA, head...

Google's new Datally app lets you keep track of apps' data usage, control it

Google has launched aimed at helping you track, control and save on mobile data dubbed Datally. It tracks real-time mobile data usage for individual apps, as well as overall usage through hourly, daily, weekly and monthly stats. It also lets you control background apps data usage by turning on the Data Saver bubble, and helps you save data by offering personalized recommendations and notifying if you're near public Wi-Fi. The company has been testing the app for the past few months in the Philippines, and has now made it available globally. Datally is compatible with devices...

Verizon pushes KRACK fix to Samsung Galaxy Note5 and S6 series phones

After updating the Samsung Galaxy Note8 units on its network, Verizon has also started pushing out a new update to some former Samsung flagships - the Galaxy Note5 and the S6 series (S6, S6 edge, and S6 edge+). The update in question includes a fix for the KRACK Wi-Fi WPA2 security vulnerability as well as Android fixes for November. It arrives as software version N920VVRS3CQK1, G920VVRS4DQK1, G925VVRS4DQK1, and G928VVRS3CQK1 for the Note5 and S6 series devices, respectively. Source 1 2

Google testing tech aimed at detecting people secretly looking at your phone's screen

Do you feel frustrated when someone around you tries to peek at your phone when you're using it (especially when looking at sensitive info)? Well, good news is that a solution to the problem is in the works. Google is currently working on a technology that uses the phone's front camera in combination with eye-detecting artificial intelligence to alert you when more than one person is looking at the screen. The following video gives a good idea about how the solution works: It's clear from the video that the face detection process is quite quick, with the company claiming that it...

A Huawei Daydream controller strolls through the FCC

Huawei appears to be the first manufacturer to partner up with Google in creating a non-Google Daydream VR headset. This comes as a surprise as we've not heard of Huawei making such a device. We do, however, recall Huawei talking about Daydream compatibility at its Keynote at CES early this year, even before Google opened the platform to all developers. So Huawei has shown special interest in the platform in the past. Since the Daydream controller uses a Bluetooth radio, an FCC filing is a must. The filing has a plethora of photos to look at, including photos of the controller's...

Waze update brings 'OK Waze' voice commands, new motorcycle mode

Community-based traffic and navigation app Waze has started receiving a new update that brings some new features, including motorcycle mode, carpool lanes support, and 'OK Waze' voice commands for hands-free operation. Lets begin with the voice command support. The hot-word OK Waze activates this feature, allowing you to request useful information or even report things like accidents and traffic conditions without using your hands, effectively making your drive safer. For example, you can say the hot-word, followed by instructions like "take me home" or "find a gas station" or...

YouTube unveils stories-like feature for creators called "Reels"

YouTube has unveiled a new feature for creators called "Reels". This is YouTube's official spin on the popular stories format first popularized by Snapchat before it took off on Instagram. The feature is an expansion to YouTube's efforts to join creators with their fans on a more intimate level with YouTube Community, a place where creators can post updates and snippets between video releases. Unlike Instagram and Snapchat stories, YouTube's Reels will not necessarily expire after 24 hours. They can be kept forever, and they can be organized into different events or projects. For...

Recap of today's Essential AMA - Portrait mode, Oreo beta, and more

Essential promised to hold AMA (Ask me anything) sessions on Reddit to keep the transparency and intimacy between customers and fans, alike. Today's AMA session came and went and we're going to take a look at some of the points that were touched on earlier today. Probably the most significant piece of information from the AMA is that the camera will be receiving and update that will enable portrait mode on the Essential PH-1 and Android Oreo Beta V2 is coming next week. Here are the points that were discussed during Essential's AMA on November 29 2017. The AMA was held by Rebecca...

Apple has already fixed the macOS High Sierra root bug

Yesterday a very nasty bug was discovered in Apple's macOS High Sierra, the latest version of its software for computers. In short, this bug allowed anyone with access to your computer to log in as the 'root' user. That's bad, because the 'root' user has access to everything and read and write permissions on all the files on your Mac, including system files. Thankfully, Apple has already issued a fix for this problem, which is part of a new security update for Macs that is now available to download and install. This patch will be automatically pushed to and installed onto devices running...

Xiaomi Redmi 5 TENAA certification leaves nothing to the imagination

Yesterday some leaked press renders of the upcoming Xiaomi Redmi 5 were making the rounds, and a few hours ago the Chinese company decided to officially tease it, while also revealing that it will be made official on December 7. Ahead of that, the Redmi 5 has today received TENAA's certification, a prerequisite for every device that's to be sold in China. As usual, this means we have a couple of new images of the phone to look at. What's more, a pretty comprehensive list of specs has been revealed by the certification authority too. The Redmi 5 will have a 5.7" 18:9 touchscreen with...

Sony's upcoming bezelless flagship has its specs leaked

Sony is rumored to finally cut the bezels of its premier smartphones next year, adhering to the biggest trend of 2017 in the mobile world. Better late than never, then. The company's first flagship 'bezelless' offering is allegedly going to have the model number H8541, and its specs have been leaked today. Through a spec sheet that's claimed to be authentic we get to know the upcoming device a little bit better. It will apparently have a 5.7" 4K HDR touchscreen with Gorilla Glass 5 on top, and a 3,420 mAh battery. Interestingly, the H8541 is said to be powered by Qualcomm's...

Motorola Moto X4 review

Once Motorola's flagship phone, the X went through an episode of multiple personality disorder in 2015 (remember the Style, Play and Force?) only to be replaced at the top by the Moto Z last year. Feeling at home in the midrange, the X-series is now in its fourth generation. Meet the Moto X4.

Razer Phone video teardown shows a big heat pipe

A couple of days ago the Razer Phone was put through a grueling scratch, burn, and bend test - and now it's time to take things to the next level. We're talking about a video teardown of the gaming device company's first smartphone. The insides of the Razer Phone are all on display in this production, so if you like your handsets in one piece perhaps do some mental preparation before watching. It all starts with a razor blade doing nasty things to the Razer Phone's bottom speaker grille, and then the top one is removed too. The screen pops out of the body easier than in the OnePlus 5T, but...

Unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note8 first update arrives

Owners of the global unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note8 are getting their first update. It comes with the November security patch brings improved performance to some apps, bugfixes and more secure Wi-Fi. Samsung started pushing the new 840 MB update to devices in China last week and now started arriving to devices all over the world. One Taiwanese owner of the Galaxy Note8 shared a screenshot, revealing the Calendar, Gallery, Voice Recorder and Reminder apps will now have improved performance. Samsung DeX owners got an error from time to time, and even though its cause wasn't...

HDMI 2.1 detailed: up to 10K resolution, 120fps and Dynamic HDR

The HDMI forum has published the specs for version 2.1 and give gamers and multimedia perfectionists everything they could ever want for years to come. Many, many years. 4K, 8K and even 10K video streams can be pushed up to 120fps (with the new Display Stream Compression). Without compression, the maximum is 8K/60 and 4K/120. It will be a long while before broadcast TV (even movie studios) adopt 8K, but these will be awesome for VR gaming... though they'll require beastly GPUs. Another cool feature for gamers is Variable Refresh Rate - think AMD FreeSync or Nvidia G-Sync. Quick...

ZTE Axon 7 is no longer in production

It's the end of the road for the ZTE Axon 7, certainly the US version. A company representative told an inquiring customer that the product has reached its end of life and will no longer be manufactured. There are no units left at zteusa.com, stock in Europe seems to be almost depleted as well. For a while, the Axon 7 was one of the cheapest ways to get Snapdragon 820 power. And it was definitely the cheapest if you wanted Google Daydream VR support - its QHD AMOLED display gave it a leg up on the OnePlus 3. Not to mention the stereo speakers. The Axon line skipped the Snapdragon...

Galaxy S8 gets a fresh batch of Oreo Beta bugfixes

Samsung has been cranking out Oreo Betas for the Galaxy S8. After a quick fix released on the 27th, today brings another release. It fixes two major bugs: being unable to answer/decline an incoming call and the camera opening to a blank screen. Another big annoyance was removed - Oreo's "apps running in the background" notification. Is it just us or is that notification overly eager to rat out apps (including music players)? Anyway, there are further bugfixes included in this update. It is rolling out over the air in the US. If you haven't received a notification, you can check from...

Samsung begins mass production of 10nm LPP chips for early 2018 phones

Samsung Foundry Business has begun mass production of chips built on the second generation 10nm FinFET process. This is a refinement on the current 10nm chips offering up to 10% higher performance or 15% lower power use. The new chips will be ready for early 2018 phones and become more and more available by the end of the year. Qualcomm picked TSMC over Samsung for the Snapdragon 845 so the first 10nm LPP chips out of the factory will likely be Exynos models as well as chipsets like the Snapdragon 670 (10nm LPP). Samsung's S3 foundry in Hwaseong, Korea Samsung wants to continue...

The Xiaomi Desh ka Smartphone is actually the Redmi 5a

Yesterday Xiaomi said it's launchin a new phone in India on November 30 codenamed Desh ka. Today we learn that it's not an entirely new device - the smartphone is actually the Xiaomi Redmi 5a that's just having its local launch. The information was uncovered from the source code of the teaser page, which contains the 'Redmi 5A' name. Xiaomi still sells the Redmi 4a in India, while the Redmi 5a has been selling in China since October. Source

Rubin steps down from Essential after Google investigation revealed

Allegations of sexual misconduct reached Andy Rubin, Android creator, and currently Essential CEO. According to The Information, Rubin left Google after an internal investigation from the HR department. The allegations are that he maintained an "inappropriate relationship" with a woman, working directly under him. Andy Rubin has taken a leave of absence at Essential for "personal reasons" after The Information released the details about it to the public. Mike Sitrick, the spokesperson for Andy Rubin, said: "Any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual. Mr. Rubin...

Panasonic unveils Eluga C with a 3-side bezel-less design and dual camera

The Panasonic Eluga C flaunts a 3-side bezel-less design similar to Sharp's Aquos phones and Xiaomi's Mi Mix. It is not a flagship though, instead it aims for the lower segments with a price (in Taiwan) of TWD 6,000 ($200 / €170). Panasonic Eluga C The phone has a 5.5" screen with a screen to body ratio of 84.6%. The resolution isn't great - 720p - but the brightness is pretty good - 450 nits. Below the screen is a fingerprint reader (0.3s unlock time) and an 8MP selfie camera. Around the back there's a dual 13MP + 5MP camera. Both it and the front camera use f/2.2 lenses....

Xiaomi to launch Redmi 5 and Redmi 5 Plus on December 7

We already saw the leaked press renders, but now we have official information about the Xiaomi Redmi 5. The manufacturer posted an image on Weibo, revealing the launch date of the Redmi 5 and the Redmi 5 Plus - December 7. The phone will be introduced by members of the pop band SNH48. Twelve of them are pictured holding the Redmi 5. The front panel is mostly occupied by a FullView screen, while on the back we see one camera and a fingerprint scanner. The headline of the poster says "A phone for a thousand", implying the Redmi 5 will cost as low as CNY1,000 or about $150/€130. For...

Samsung launches Galaxy S8+ SMARTgirl Limited Edition phone

Samsung released a new color option for the Galaxy S8 yesterday and now the Galaxy S8+ gets to be in the spotlight. The Spanish division of Samsung launched a SMARTgirl Limited Edition version, which essentially bundles the regular phone in Rose Pink with a Swarovski-engraved case. The phone, dubbed Samsung Galaxy S8+ SMARTgirl Limited Edition, was introduced by famous Spanish actress and model Paula Echevarria. On the inside it is no different than any other Galaxy S8+ - Exynos 8895 chipset, 12 MP DualPixel camera, iris scanner and Infinity Display. The SMARTgirl bundle can be...

Android 8.1 fixes Google's previous absurd emoji designs

You may remember few weeks back someone noticed that Google's burger emoji in Android 8.0 was all sorts of wrong, with its cheese below the patty and being an affront to all burgers and humanity in general. Then someone discovered the beer glass emoji was only half full (or half empty?) but still had a massive head of foam on top. Tired of being ruthlessly ridiculed for it on the Internet, Google finally decided to fix its blunder in the Android 8.1 Preview 2. The cheese is now finally in its rightful place. Glasses of beer no longer have floating foam and (I actually...

Honor V10 posts an impressive AnTuTu score

The Honor V10 was announced yesterday in China. The phone matches the Kirin 970 chipset and 6 gigs of RAM of the Mate 10 duo, so it's no wonder that it can deliver all the performance you need. Today the phone appeared on the Chinese benchmark AnTuTu, where it posted an impressive score of 165,587. The Honor V10 is a mix of Huawei's phablets Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro, but costs significantly less than either. It almost perfectly matches their AnTuTu scores of 175,426 and 178,510 in our tests. It is ahead of the Honor 8 Pro (128,755) and Honor 9 (143,583), mostly because of the newer...

AT&T offering $100 reward card with each ZTE Axon M order

ZTE's foldable, dual touchscreen smartphone - Axon M - launched earlier this month as an AT&T-exclusive. If you are planning to purchase this $725 device, you'll be glad to know that the carrier is now offering a $100 reward card with each purchase. It's a limited time deal that requires you to purchase the handset on an eligible postpaid monthly service with voice & data (minimum $50/month). The reward card will arrive 8-10 weeks after service activation, and is valid for 6 months. If you are interested head to the Source link below. Source

BLU investigating recent update that permanently locks devices

Miami-based smartphone manufacturer BLU has acknowledged a serious issue introduced by a recent update, saying they are currently investigating and trying to fix it. The acknowledgment came just hours ago on Facebook. Owners of BLU Life One X2 smartphones are reporting that a recent OTA update has rendered their units useless - it asks for a password to unlock/login, but users say the password they enter is being rejected. Some even say the update asks for an alphanumeric password, while the way they unlock their device is through a pattern or fingerprint. As of now, the only...

India shipments for Huawei's Honor smartphones doubled this year

Chinese manufacturer Huawei has revealed that India shipments for its Honor-branded smartphones have nearly doubled in 2017. President George Zhao revealed a 98.8% increase for 2017 compared to 2016. Aside from further ramping up its smartphone manufacturing in the Asian country, Huawei is also planning to launch handsets with AI technology that can sense who is using the unit, and based on that translate messages to suit individual preferences. "We are looking to time our India launches in tandem with global launch and going by that, we should be seeing the new AI phones in India...

Nvidia Shield tablet and Samsung Galaxy A7 (2016) getting new updates

The over three year old Nvidia Shield tablet has started receiving a new update. Arriving as upgrade 5.3, the update brings along a handful of changes, including the latest security patch as well as fix for WiFi and some other connectivity-related issues. So apart from the November security fixes, the update patches a couple of WiFi-related issues: KRACK and Broadpwn. Moving on, it also fixes connectivity issues with Zagg Bluetooth keyboards. And finally, there are some system stability and security optimizations as well. OS remains Nougat, and that won't be changing as it has...

New Verizon Galaxy Note8 update brings Krack security patch, camera changes

Verizon has started pushing out a new update to Samsung Galaxy Note8 units on its network. Arriving as software version NMF26X.N950USQU2BQJA, it's mainly a security update but also includes some camera-related changes. Specifically, the following changes have been introduced in the Camera app: the Live focus ready button now has a bright yellow background, light and distance guidance is now easier to read, and the back button now takes you to normal Camera mode. As for security-related changes, the update includes Android security fixes for the month of October as well as fix for...

macOS High Sierra bug gives you root access without a password

From time to time every operating system out there is revealed to have a bewildering bug or two. Today macOS has fallen victim to this custom, and as far as bugs go, this is a big one. It also unfortunately creates a huge security issue, so if you have a Mac running macOS High Sierra you should read on, for there's an easy fix you can apply yourself. First, the problem. The bug lets you or anyone with access to your computer get root (admin) access without a password. No, really. All you need to do is enter "root" in the username field when you log in, leave the password field blank, and...

Instagram now lets you remix the photos your friends send you

Instagram has added yet another new feature today. We're talking about the ability to 'remix' the photos your friends send you through Instagram Direct. Now when you view a photo message from a friend in Direct, if you tap the camera icon at the bottom you capture a reply. This reply includes a sticker of the image you're replying to. The sticker can be moved or resized, and then your own stickers, text, and drawings can be inserted on top. Once you sent your reply created in this way, the recipient can then remix your remix and send you that... and so on. In addition, you now...