The original Star Wars saga was considered among the best of what both science fiction and Hollywood cinema had to offer. However, the same can't be said from the mess it has become in the past 20 years.
While some might like even most of what Lucasfilm has produced in the new millenium, most would agree that the consistency of the originals just isn't there.
This isn't limited to the fans of the epic saga but there are creators among the Lucasfilm family that do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to the legacy they are creating.
Rumors from inside the studio tell that Disney is considering removing the last three Star Wars movies from the official saga. While they wouldn't be entire scrapped from the history, they would create an alternative timeline and thus keep open possibilities for other products of the franchise.
It's said that among the characters butting heads are Disney+ hit show The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and producer Kathleen Kennedy, whose been part of the latest Star Wars trilogy.
While the popularity of Star Wars franchise is still very much in tact, and The Mandalorian was a success among critics too, the box office figures went massively down from 2015 The Force Awakens towards last year's The Rise of Skywalker.
Sony finally unveiled their upcoming gaming console, two of them in fact, just couple weeks ago. The next generation PlayStation took people by surprise due to it's very futuristic design language, which sparked both admiration and obviously memes.
Pictures of Microsoft's next-gen console has been out and about for a while now, but there's been rumors of another one. Now those rumors have gathered more wind in their sails, as leak suggests the lite version of this year's Xbox is going to be unveiled in August.
While initially the plans, per Eurogamer, were to unveil Xbox Series S in June, at this point it is clear that it's not going to happen. In fact, the company has now moved the event to August, The Verge reports.
Xbox Series S is likely going to be a similar sibling to Xbox Series X (pictured) as the Digital Edition of PS5 is to its bigger brother. It's going to run the same games with similar performance but is going to be missing an optical drive and perhaps some RAM and storage space.
Two decades after the PlayStation 2 console was released, a working exploit targeting the DVD player functionality is demonstrated.
In its life on the market, the PS2 has been hacked in many ways. The most obvious and complete method of hacking a PS2 is through the use of a modchip, most of which have to be soldered to the mainboard of the unit. Outside of modifying the board, there were disc swapping tricks that required a console to be opened to interfere with disc sensors. There were also some softmod methods that either involved using a modified memory card, or tricks that required the HDD expansion bay (not present on slim consoles).
The holy grail for booting unsigned / unauthorized code on a PS2 would be a method that required no modification at the hardware level, just insert the disc and watch it boot.
Twenty years after the console was introduced, software engineer CTurt has developed such a method. In a blog post, CTurt goes into detail on how he has managed to develop FreeDVDBoot - an entry-point software exploit for the console. The exploit targets the PS2's DVD-Video functionality (all PS2's can play DVDs).
Duolingo is the most popular language-learning apps in the world, but its selection of languages has always been somewhat limited, currently standing at 36 different languages for those studying in English.
Now, Duolingo has added a language to its selection that it calls the most requested language ever, Finnish. Spoken mostly in Finland (the home country of AfterDawn), the language is spoken only by appx. 5.5 million people in the world.
Language itself is notoriously difficult to master for people who speak English as their mother tongue. Depending on ranking, it ranks the most difficult language to master - or at least in top ten in all such ranking lists. Duolingo explains in-depth in their blog entry why Finnish is so difficult for English speakers (or anyone speaking Latin-based languages)
Ever since Elon Musk uttered the word autopilot, completely hands-off driving has been something all of us have been expecting in our next car. Unfortunately year after year, as it gets delayed, it seems more like a pipe dream.
Sure, it probably is still coming, but as long as Tesla seems like the only one developing one, we're going to have a bad time. Not only because of the limited resources but the incentives aren't there.
Fortunately for us, others think they can resolve the problem. Now Mercedes-Benz has signed a contract with Nvidia to produce them a car computer that would handle simpler things like OTA updates as well as autonomous driving.
The aim is to finish the project by 2024 with autonomous driving level 2 and 3 and parking at level 4, similar to what Teslas are capable at the moment.
Autonomous driving experience is rated at levels from zero to 5, the latter being complete autopilot without the need of user controls, the former, well, zero autonomy.
Microsoft invested massive amounts of money trying to compete with Twitch as they acquired Beam in 2016 and re-introduced it as Mixer the next year.
After the initial introduction it took a couple years until 2019 before they started the real push with contracts with some of the largest streamers around. This included the likes of Ninja and Shroud, arguably two of the largest game streaming brands around on Twitch at that time.
This clearly wasn't enough to lure viewers to the service, perhaps due to the fact that many of the esports competitions that get up to hundreds of thousands of concurrent viewers were mostly streamed on Twitch. This eventually resulted in failed experiment.
The company has announced that it is discontinuing Mixer and will be merging it with Facebook's similar section, Facebook Gaming. Mixer will shut down on July 22, and after that the traffic will redirect to facebook.com/gaming.
Both Ninja and Shroud have announced that they are figuring out what to do next. While Microsoft obviously makes it easy to join Facebook Gaming, they aren't stuck with any specific service from now on. This might mean they return to Twitch, although neither have decided yet what to do.
Product launches weren't really happening but Apple did tease us with one for the Apple TV+. Alongside the updates to tvOS and Apple TV, the company revealed a trailer for the upcoming Apple TV+ exclusive Foundation.
The show has been in the works for years already, but slowly and surely it is coming to a close. Unfortunately we won't see it quite yet, and even a release date is still largely unclear. However, the trailer does reveal the show is coming to Apple TV+ next year.
Foundation is of course based on the epic sci-fi book series by Isaac Asimov under the same name. There's not much that we can determine from the two minute teaser in terms of the scope of the show but it does look grandiose like one would expect.
However, there were still more platforms to be updated, thanks to Apple's massive ecosystem. Apple Watch, i.e. watchOS, and Apple TV, i.e. tvOS, were updated too.
The former got new watch faces with the inclusion of the new tachymeter complication. Perhaps more importantly the watch faces are now more customizable, and you can even share them online and with friends.
One of the apps that got most improved is the Maps app that now brings better navigation, including cycling that was added also in iOS 14. Workout app also got significant update with the likes of Cooldown option.
Usually iOS updates are the most important news from WWDC, and iOS 14 has some big changes, this time around macOS probably takes that cake as the most influential one.
This is mainly due to the fact that Apple finally made official what had been rumored. The company revealed, in a "one last thing" fashion I might add, that its abandoning Intel and told about its plans about transitioning to its own ARM-based CPUs.
Big Sur will be the first transitionary macOS update, which means that first Apple-designed CPUs will land in Macs within this year.
Apple has been slowly inching away from chips designed by third-parties into proprietary processors. Apple's own chips can now be found in the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
Apple has announced a slew of software updates yesterday in its first virtual WWDC. One of the more interesting updates is the new version of iPadOS that pushes iOS towards computers.
The two operating systems are now developed separately, and this allows iPadOS to venture into more computer-like interface and functions.
The iPadOS 14 features now a side bar navigation that allows easier access to important features within apps. The menu allows the use of folders as well as well as drop down menus to group items like media albums.
While iPadOS is separate from iOS (read about the new iOS 14 here), there are of course lots of features that are added to both of them. This includes the new and improved Siri.
As you might imagine, Apple has been working on making Siri's answers better but it has also updated the UI. Siri now appears as a popup notification, which can both provide information as well as link to results.
Same kind of approach has been taken with phone calls too. They no longer take up the whole screen, instead a small window allows you to answer or decline the call.
Apple's WWDC took place today virtually in Apple Park. The company's first product announcement was perhaps unsurprisingly the new version of iOS.
The iOS version 14 brings along some interesting new features. App Library makes the iPhone home screen combines apps automatically into libraries of related apps based on
Improved widgets now have more sizes, more information and you can finally move them into the home screen in addition to the widget view.
There's also a new widget type called Smart Stack. It automatically knows what to show depending on the time of the day.
Another neat feature added is picture-in-picture, which can play video and audio on top of your app or home screen.
Siri has been updated to show results quicker and on top of your current app as a notification. There's also updates to Siri's abilities, including sending audio messages, and new app called Translate will now translate between 11 languages.
Messages has been updated with pinned conversations, which helps you get to important messages even if they haven't been updated in a while. Memojis get now more styles, stickers and options, and inline messages and mentions have been added to groups.
Google has pretty silently launched a whole new product, dubbed as Keen. At first, it seems that Keen is sophisticated attack on Pinterest, a service/app that tries to make topple Pinterest's de facto status among various hobby groups.
But looking at deeper level, Keen might be something else too. It basically is a interest-based system, where users can create interest groups, then add content (images, links and more) to those groups. Google's own search algorithms and its in-house AI will then add further content, automatically, to the group.
Keen was born out of Google's Area 120, a project where Google engineers can test and invent new products - and was then promoted as a public product, over the past weekend.
As far as the Pinterest comparisons go, Keen could be used for something entirely different too: some wonder if it could become a sophisticated, personalized, interest-based "search bubble" for specific topics, that Google feeds with new content. Bit like partially crowd-sourced version of existing Google Discover service.
It has been rumored that Apple is moving away from Intel processors in order to unify their lineup of devices, and ultimately have their own processor lineup to deploy on each of their devices.
This would make Apple more self-sufficient and improve profit margins, it also means that ARM-based apps would be available to a larger set of devices.
According to renowned Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple is starting this transition as early as later this year, MacRumors reports. Information from Bloomberg said it would happen in 2021.
If Kuo's details are correct, the first ARM-based devices to replace Intel should come out in late 2020 or early 2021.
Apple's annual WWDC starts later today – the keynote is just hours away – and according to some rumors, Apple would be addressing the transition in CPUs during the conference. It might be that this happens during the keynote, although it is unlikely that they would actually reveal or at least release such a device.
Google has removed 38 popular applications from the Play Store due to alleged fraudulent activity after a combined 20 million+ downloads.
A White Ops report details how thirty-eight apps - most of which are selfie apps that add filters to users' pictures - engaged in fraudulent ad activity and made it difficult for most users to uninstall the app from their devices. The activity, which falls afoul of Google's policies, included:
Out-of-Context (OOC) Ads: Rendering OOC ads including native and interstitial, from major ad-networks.
Out-of-Context Navigation: Launching out-of-context navigation intents to URLs received from the command and control server (C2).
Removal of App Icon: Remove the app icon from the device's home and apps folder, to make it difficult for the user to uninstall the app.
Google has already removed apps from its Play Store, but what's worrying is that apps were downloaded a whopping 20 million times before removal.
In addition to showing ads on Android even when not in use and hijacking ad screens from other apps, the apps also hid in the operating system so that they could not be easily removed by less experienced users who can't navigate through Android settings easily.
AMD has unveiled some new processor hardware that might get you excited, especially if you've been waiting for new midrange gaming CPUs.
AMD's new 3000XT Series brings XT branding first time ever to Ryzen series with three new CPUs. The new 3rd gen Ryzen desktop chips are: AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT, AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT and AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT.
According to the company, these new chips provide better clock speeds and Boost performance thanks to improved Zen 2 architecture compared to their predecessors (3600X, 3800X, and 3900X). The performance has been upgraded from previous 3000 Series but TDP values stay the same.
The CPUs are meant for content creation and gaming in mind and excel in these aspects thanks to their multi-core and multi-thread capabilities. The top line Ryzen 9 3900XT provide 12 cores and 24 threads and gets up to 3.8 GHz with a Boost clock maxing at 4.7 GHz. TDP stands at 105 W.
The middle variant, Ryzen 7 3800XT, features 8 cores and 16 threads at 3.9 GHz and 4.7GHz Boost with same 105 Watt TDP and the cheapest of them all, Ryzen 5 3600XT, is a 6 core processor with 12 threads and clock speeds of 3.8 GHz and 4.5 GHz. Power consumption is slightly lower at 95 W.
European Commission has begun investigating Apple's services for violations in EU law. Two different branches of the investigation take Apple Store and Apple Pay under magnifying glass.
The investigators belief that Apple might has managed its app store and payment platform in a way that violates EU's antitrust rules sparked the investigation.
This comes after music streaming giant Spotify, shopping network Rakuten, and others claimed that App Store and Apple Pay are squashing the competition with fees and compatibility issues.
Apple's management fee for competing music platforms is a very steep 30 percent. This almost third of a cut makes it very hard for the likes of Spotify to compete against Apple Music on the App Store. Memberships bought elsewhere can bypass this fee, which is why Apple also thinks they are not in the wrong.
One of the Europe's largest food delivery companies, Foodora, has confirmed that its user account data has been compromised. Company, owned by its parent, Delivery Hero, is based in Germany, but operates in 14 countries, mostly across Europe.
In data breach, more than 700'000 user accounts have been leaked. Leaked data included user names, addresses, phone numbers and full names of Foodora customers. Additionally, at least some passwords were leaked, too. Foodora maintains that none of the payment information or credit card details have been breached.
According to reports, many of the Foodora users involved with the security breach, have started getting suspicious emails, typically localized to the customer's language or country of residence. It is strongly recommended to check whether your data has been compromised - you can use services like this to see if your account was one of the compromised ones.
Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has introduced a new payment feature to its app. The company has announced WhatsApp payments that will be introduced first in Brazil.
According to the press release, WhatsApp's new feature will allow people to send money securely and use it for making purchases with local businesses while on the chat.
This is especially important for the small and micro businesses in Brazil's communities that rely on easy and cheap payment methods.
WhatsApp has profiled itself as the messaging platform for small businesses. The app lets customers ask questions in the chat, browse catalogs, and now finally pay their purchases in-app.
The feature, however, is not only for businesses and business transactions. The company says that it can be used to sending money to loved ones, and makes it as easy as sending a message.
The backbone of WhatsApp's payment feature is Facebook Pay, and this will allow users to use the same payment information in all Facebook-owned apps in the future.
When it comes to security, the app requires a fingerprint or a six digit PIN to approve payments.
Sony showed off the upcoming PlayStation 5 (PS5) console in an online launch event on Thursday.
It provided the first glimpse of the PS5 console itself after it had previously shown off the DualSense controller (which features haptic feedback). The reveal was online rather than a live event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Resembling the controller, the PS5 console contains a black core and features two curved white sides sitting atop a black base (upright). It also features a blue glow. Some have likened its appearance to a large Wi-Fi router - you be the judge!
There will be two PS5 consoles available at launch, with the key difference being a basic console will feature a Blu-ray drive while an all-digital version will not.
During the roughly hour-long event, Sony showed off a variety of games that will catch the eye, among them the likes of Grand Turismo 7, Hitman 3, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Spider-Man: Miles Morales.
Damn. It is once again time for me to look back and realize how old I am. And how long it has been when we originally launched this little project of ours, called AfterDawn. Exactly 21 years ago we launched our site - to the whopping userbase of appx. five people (our friends who we bombarded with links to our site via IRC).
To somehow put this time in some kind of a context: when our site was launched, the dominant search engine was called AltaVista and majority of our first year users were still using dial-up modems to connect to the Internet.
Technologies have changed - we started AfterDawn as a source of information for people interested in MP3 technology and software. Somehow we then pivoted to cover DVDs, video technologies and P2P. And then, online services. And then mobile phones. And, and.. Only thing that has been constant in this business, is the fact that everything changes. The way how people read news has changed dramatically, as have the technologies people use and we cover. We have simply adapted to the new realities. And will continue to do so, in order to stay relevant.
These past 21 years have been an incredible journey for me and my colleagues. To get some kind of an idea what this journey has involved, you might want to read my last year's coverage where I tried to summarize all the changes we've gone through over these past 21 years.
Sony was meant to have a PlayStation 5 themed virtual conference of sorts last week but due to tragic death of George Floyd in police custody and the following protests, the company decided to reschedule.
Fortunately the postponing didn't move the event too far back, since they've already decided to share with us the new date.
Although around the world protests have still gathered tens of thousands to voice their opinions about race relations and police brutality, while some are turning to violence by attacking police officers, destroying property and looting stores, Sony has decided the atmosphere has calmed down enough.
Sony's event will be held this Thursday, two days from now on the 11th, and will include showcasing PS5 games played on the actual console. They've also announced that they hope viewers of the event are using headphones to get everything out of the audio experience they are going to demonstrate.
Sony has already introduced the new, improved, and much more futuristic PS5 controller, which in addition to new looks and features dropped the name DualShock for DualSense.
Apple is planning on extending their Apple Card payment plan benefits. Previously iPhone buyers would get interest-free payment plans by using their Apple Card. Now other products are joining iPhone.
Last year the company introduced Apple Card to iPhone users. The credit card developed in cooperation with Goldman Sachs offers benefits like a three percent cash back and previously mentioned interest-free iPhone payment plan.
Bloomberg reports that Apple is going to extend the payment plans soon to include iPads, Macs and other Apple products.
The plan consists of either 6, 12 or 24 months of interest-free payments depending on the device. The program is going to include the likes of AirPods, HomePod, or Apple TV with 6-month plan and iPad, Mac, Apple Pencil or iPad keyboard with 12-month plan.
The iPhone remains as the one with 24-month payment plan that is de facto practice in the smartphone business.
Amazon will stream a few Premier League matches for free when the English top division of football returns later this month.
The Premier League has been on hold for several months as a protective measure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Premier League matches are attended by tens of thousands every weekend and broadcast around the world to millions of football fans. Of course, games are also streamed by broadcasters and services around the world.
In the UK, Amazon first started to stream Premier League matches on its Prime service last year. Sky Sports and BT Sport typically dominate the rights to broadcast the Premier League in its home country, but services like Amazon are looking to break into the business in gradual steps over the coming seasons.
Amazon has announced that when the Premier League returns from June 17, it will be streaming an additional four matches. Those additional four matches will be available to view for free, and the viewer will not require an Amazon Prime membership to watch.
Amazon is not alone in showing games for free either, with 33 being free to view across a variety of services from the 92 remaining matches of the season. BBC Sport will also be showing some matches for free, making it the first time the national broadcaster in the UK will air games from the Premier League live.
The death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has sparked protests around the nation's largest cities against police brutality and racial justice.
Peaceful protests have often turned violent as the sun goes down, and the riots have resulted in both private and public property damage as well as loss of life on the side of the police and protesters.
Perhaps the most often seen image of the riots are police cars on fire and stores being looted. Needless to say that many entrepreneurs and companies have suffered tremendously from looting.
Some companies are, however, better equipped against stealing of their products. One the more targeted brands is Apple but they are also the ones that are prepared for people stealing their very expensive iPhones.
A lawsuit is targeting Google over the collection of data while users are browsing in 'private' mode.
Google's Chrome browser has provided Incognito Mode for users for several years now. When browsing in Incognito Mode, a user's visited websites and other information is not saved to the web browser itself, or to the device that the software is installed on.
Surfing in 'Incognito Mode' does not prevent third-party websites from tracking users' activities however, including running Google Analytics code.
The lawsuit alleges that Google engages in the "covert and unauthorized data collection from virtually every American with a computer or phone." However, Google has denied the charge and says that it is very clear about the implications of browsing in Incognito Mode.
"As we clearly state each time you open a new incognito tab, websites might be able to collect information about your browsing activity," said Google spokesman Jose Castaneda, reports the BBC.
Indeed, a look at a new Incognito Tab does spell out the limits of Incognito Mode browsing.
Now you can browse privately, and other people who use this device won't see your activity. However, downloads and bookmarks will be saved.
Google has targeted an application that would check a device for installed software from China and aid in its removal.
Developed by One Touch AppLabs, which is based in India, the app specifically targeted "Chinese software" on mobile devices. It was available on the Play Store for ten days in which time it clocked up more than a million downloads. Its popularity was strongest in India, which is currently in an ongoing period of tension over Himalayan borders with China.
According to the developers, Google has removed the app from the Play Store, but did not elaborate on the exact reason why. It thanked its users for all their support while the app was online.
The app did cast quite a wide net in software it flagged as Chinese. For example, it highlighted the Zoom video conferencing software, which is actually developed in the United States. The fact that its founder was born in China seemed enough to lump it in with other Chinese apps.
Another popular app targeted was TikTok, which is owned by Bytedance, based in Beijing.
'Remove China Apps' gained popularity amid calls for boycotts against China following the movement of Chinese military personnel into a territory India claims as its own in the Kashmir region.
Sony's upcoming fifth-generation PlayStation gaming console is on the way but current situation in the United States has made the Japanese company second guess the release schedule.
In fact, Sony has decided to postpone a PS5 event date scheduled for June 5th due to the political situation in America. According to their statement they don't want to celebrate in these times and have decided to give room for "more important voices to be heard."
The statement itself doesn't say how much they are intending to postpone the event, we'll probably hear back from them after the situation has calmed down.
The event is still likely hold demos of upcoming PS5 games on the actual console. The launch, which is scheduled later this year, is likely not affected at all by the delayed event.
The suspected killing of George Floyd in police custody sparked protests around the country that have in many cities turned into violent rioting.
Samsung's has an upgrade program for smartphones, incidentally just like the one Apple has, for a while now. However, the company seems to have wanted a more comprehensive hold on their customers, and they've now introduces a new Access program.
Uncovered by the good folks at xda-developers, Samsung seems to have quietly added a new type of subscription service to their portfolio.
Samsung Access is a subscription service that allows you to every now and then switch to a new smartphone without having to pay for it separately. The service works similarly to Samsung Upgrade Program but has some new additions that might tempt you in.
It comes with Microsoft 365 subscription and 1 TB of cloud storage. This means that you can access Microsoft's wide variety of apps in Office Suite, including the likes of Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and Teams. Another benefit is Samsung Premium Care, which allows the user to replace a broken phone for a $99 deductible up to three times a year.
Currently Samsung Access seems to be available only for the S20 family and starts at $37 a month for regular S20 and climbs up to $48 for the Ultra.
While HP isn't the one name you come up with when discussing VR, the company has been challenging more committed VR companies for some time now.
Their initial claim for VR fame was HP WMR that was released in 2017 but they stepped it up last year by introducing Reverb headset with visuals and features.
Now the company has come out with their newest VR headset. The second-gen Reverb, the Reverb G2. The company claims it offers the best resolution in a VR headset of this type, although it doesn't improve upon the predecessor.
Reverb G2 provides 2K resolution for both eyes like the originals Reverb, but they've improved upon the lenses which should provide much clearer picture.
It's been developed in cooperation with both Valve and Microsoft to seemlessly integrate with VR systems, including SteamVR and Windows Mixed Reality. This should make it a better fit for both platforms.
The size of the displays are 2.89 inches with a resolution of 2160 x 2160 and a refresh rate of 90 hz. The headset, also like it's predecessor, supports six degrees of freedom but is now tracked with four cameras mounted on the headset instead of two.
The original Star Wars saga was considered among the best of what both science fiction and Hollywood cinema had to offer. However, the same can't be said from the mess it has become in the past 20 years.
Sony finally 
Two decades after the PlayStation 2 console was released, a working exploit targeting the DVD player functionality is demonstrated.
