During the past 20 years AfterDawn has been hosted on a number of different platforms. From a shared Windows server to a cluster of HP servers running Linux on 100+ cores with half a terabyte of RAM.
Most of the time we've been running of leased, physical servers, that we have sized based on the requirements at the time, and foreseeable future. Having predictable costs with a predefined hardware platform has is pros, but also its cons. Leased servers often come with lengthy, often multi-years contracts, that don't scale well as the needs change over time. Not to mention the difficulty of handling operating system upgrades or hardware issues when running on a handful of servers.
Those times are now behind us, as AfterDawn found its new home with the world's fastest cloud provider, UpCloud. We have migrated from our legacy leased servers with spinning disks and rented switch to private cloud servers backed with blazingly fast MaxIOPS storage, and software-defined network (SDN).
The entire infrastructure is orchestrated with Terraform, and all services are deployed and managed by Ansible.
Samsung announced their upcoming Unpacked press event a week or so ago, and there's still four weeks until the unveiling of their newest flagship phones.
However, thanks to leakers, we have a fairly convincing couple of pictures that reveal what the top-of-the-line Samsung will look in 2020.
Speaking of 2020, the phone isn't going to be called S11 as the Korean company is going to cut the consecutive naming scheme first time ever. The new phone is called Galaxy S20, according to the rumors and leaks.
Now to the pictures themselves. According to XDA-Developers, who've managed to get hold of a picture of the S20+ variant, there's going to be three models: Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra.
The middle model pictured, which seems to take place of the "regular" one, has a notchless and nearly bezel-free display with a hole-punch camera in the top middle of the phone.
Looks quite similar to the predecessor. In the back, however, the changes are abundant, specifically in the camera department. As suggested by previous rumors, the Galaxy S20+ will have a large camera hump with no less than four cameras.
This is the year of the new game console generation. Sony has already revealed the PlayStation 5 logo, and we all know Microsoft's Project Scarlett is going to officially go by the name of Xbox Series X.
Traditionally new console generations come with launch titles that show off the capabilities of the new devices the best they can. This might not be so much the case this time around, though.
Perhaps as the game consoles, at least with Sony and Microsoft, inch closer to a gaming PC, there are going to be less and less games that are only available for the specific console.
In fact, now Microsoft Studios' Matt Booty has suggested in an interview that Xbox Series X isn't going to have first-party exclusives.
All Microsoft's games will be released at the start for Xbox One as well, and considering their stake at PC gaming, most of the games will likely also be available on Windows 10. This of course doesn't ban anyone else to release an Xbox Series X exclusive, although Microsoft's strategy might discourage this.
Microsoft calls this strategy Xbox Play Anywhere, which means, as you might expect, that you should be able to play the games no matter what device you have at hand. Microsoft intends to make the compatibility of the games a high priority, and ensure that people can flow easily from the older console generation to the new one.
Apple has announced a new replacement program on their official support pages. This time around customers can get a replacement for a faulty battery case for the iPhone.
More specifically it's the Apple Smart Battery Case, and its variant for iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. According to the company, they've determined some of these products faulty.
Users may have experienced charging issues, in which case one can apply for a replacement. Apple details that the Battery Case might not charge at all or only charge intermittently while powered, or might not charge (or charge only intermittently) an iPhone.
However, there is no safety issue with the devices.
Affected units are said to be manufactured between January 2019 and October 2019.
It's been nearly a year since Lenovo first unveiled their first folding ThinkPad. Now at CES 2020, the company has finally released the product to the public.
The device is named ThinkPad X1 Fold and it comes with a 4:3 aspect ratio OLED display that measures at 13.3 inches and features a 2048 x 1536 resolution. As the product name suggests, this display folds in half making it a notebook design.
The display has stylus support in addition to regular touch screen. On the top edge or, if used in a notebook form factor, on the right you'll have a 5 MP webcam.
Firefox has updated their flagship browser with some safety, privacy, and UI improvements. One of the perhaps most requested changes, however, has to do with notification requests that have been bothering people.
Notifications, as you might know, are a good way to increase the frequency users use the app or website. It's essentially advertisement, although can be very useful when done in a non-intrusive manner.
Not every website can sent notifications, and that's where the notification requests come in. Websites request permission to send notifications via the browser, and this might be a burden for some users, especially if this is the first visit and there's other disclaimers to get rid of as it is.
Firefox is offering a new solution to these annoyances with the new feature that hides notification requests. Already you could've blocked all notification requests but the new addition allows you to hide them to the address bar to a small speech bubble in case you want to interact with it.
The bubble jiggles around to inform you that you've received a notification request, as seen below.
Firefox 72 also includes blocking of fingerprinting scripts, picture-in-picture video playback for Linux and Mac, and various security fixes.
Samsung has sent their invitations to the press and partners for the upcoming Unpacked event. Samsung's Unpacked events are the vehicle with which the company unveils its newest mobile products.
This time around we're expecting the new flagship for the Galaxy S lineup of devices. Galaxy S11, or whatever else it might be called, is going to be revealed on Feb 11 in San Francisco where the S10 series was first introduced as well.
There's been a lot of rumors surrounding Samsung's next flagship smartphone, but at this point not much is confirmed. Even the name is under scrutiny according to some leaks. Samsung might go for S20 instead of S11 to commemorate year 2020, which would be the first time ever it decides not to follow their incremental scale that got them to S10.
One of the more impressive new features is said to be the 108 megapixel camera, which might be accompanied by as many as 5 other cameras. Samsung's 108 megapixel sensor has already been outed and even fitted into other devices, but its unclear how the Korean company decides to use it in their flagship.
Besides camera, it is almost certain that the phone will have the latest and greatest Snapdragon 865, making it one of the first on the market with that chip. In some markets you'll have Samsung's new Exynos chip instead, which shouldn't be too far from the Snapdragon in terms of performance.
The popular internet TV provider Sling TV has announced some updates to its subscription plans.
Sling TV is known for its à la carte-like offering of TV channels in addition to couple base plans. Now they've increased the range of channels on their plans as well as added more cloud storage, which unfortunately means also that you'll be paying more.
Both Sling Orange and Sling Blue plans go up $5 to $35/mo, although the first month is still $20. Combining the two has gone up $5 as well to $45/mo.
Other price increases include: $5 increase in Sports Extra for Sling Orange and Sling Blue combination subscribers (now $15/mo) while its still $10/mo for single plan owners, 4 Extras now costs $12/mo, and Total TV Deal remains $20 for single plan subscribers but goes up to $25 for subscribers of both Sling Orange and Sling Blue.
Now that the finances are out of the way, let's see what you'll get for the extra investment. Sling Blue includes now Fox News, MSNBC, and HLN. Sling Blue News Extra adds Fox Business Network.
Sling Blue Hollywood Extra will include soon FXM and FXX, and Sling Blue Heartland Extra is coming to Nat Geo Wild in the future.
The increased cloud storage means that you will have 10 hours of DVR service, and an additional $5 a month will buy you 50 hours more with Cloud DVR Plus.
A fairly new and reasonably popular messaging app ToTok has been found to come with spyware. Reports from the likes of The New York Times say that the app has been now been removed from app stores.
Official in the US have found that the app is loaded with hidden software that keeps tabs on its users. It is possibly the work of the government of the United Arab Emirates and mostly designed to look after its citizens.
According to the officials the app is tracking conversations, physical location of the user and even recording audio used by the device.
The app had become a household name in countries, many in the Middle East, with limited access to the leading app like WhatsApp. However, the app had, and still has, users in other regions as well, including the North America.
Now app has been removed from both Apple's App Store as well as Google's Play Store. While neither major platforms no longer distribute the app, the users will still be able to use it and will have to remove it manually if so desired – we definitely would.
One of Apple's most ambitious announcements was the new game service Apple Arcade. Perhaps only eclipsed by Hollywood-star-studded Apple TV+, the new service is aiming to attract gamers with a subscription service.
Apple is pricing both of the new subscription services very aggressively, and perhaps hoping to compensate the lack of content with a low price. For casual gamers this might be exactly the deal they are looking for.
Now the Cupertino company has made the $4.99/mo service even more affordable. If you are willing to commit and shell out year's worth of iPhone gaming funds, you'll see a nice 17% discount.
12-month subscription to Apple Arcade costs now only $49.99 and will save you a total of $10 over the year compared to the combined monthly fees.
Apple Arcade offers over a 100 titles that you can play on all (read: most) of your Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV and Mac computers.
Google begun shipping the latest Chrome 79 update around a week ago for both mobile and desktop users. The new update included improvements over things like notification about data breaches you might be affected by.
However, not everything went according to plan. While the update was meant to help protect users from data loss, the update itself has been losing users data.
Although the data in this case hasn't been acquired by any third parties, and there might be still a way out of this mess, Google has decided to pull the update.
The problem seems to affect Chrome's Android users and their data collected by other apps using Chrome's WebView feature.
Many apps use Chrome's simple WebView component to show content on the web for the app users. In Chrome 79 the WebView feature changed significantly.
The update was meant to transcode the old data to the new format. However, this process was buggy and the transfer hasn't been functioning as intended.
The data isn't lost entirely, though, and it is possible, maybe even likely, that Google engineers figure out the correct way to convert the lost data to the new format in a way that the user can still access it.
For now the update has been paused until the fix is in place.
The rise of Netflix, and emergence of competition from all sides, is a clear indication that no physical method of content delivery or even a traditional cable company can change what is the future.
However, it was the illegal content sharing that really got this all started. Much like Napster preceded Spotify, ThePirateBay and others preceded Netflix.
While it's probably true that P2P sharing has gone down since the popularization of Netflix, there are still massive networks that share copyrighted material.
Some of the largest were just busted by the Feds. This included streaming site iStreamItAll, which had more than 118 000 episodes of TV shows and over 11 000 movies, USA Today reports. According to the prosecutors this is more than what Netflix or its competitors like Hulu offer.
Another streaming site closed by the FBI was Jetflix, operated by the same duo: Luis Villarino and Darryl Polo.
Polo was using a script to download content from P2P networks and stream it to his customers from his servers in Canada. He admitted to have earned $1 million from the sites subscription fees, and has been involved in other piracy efforts, and pleaded guilty to both copyright money infringement and laundering charges.
Users of the notorious Pirate Bay torrent site have noticed a new feature that streams video in-browser.
This isn't the first time the Pirate Bay has tested torrent streaming in-browser after a test in 2016. It also previously had a BayFiles service. Now, there is a "B" icon that appears beside some search results on the Pirate Bay.
Clicking the 'B' icon brings you to "BayStream" in some cases, but not all. BayStream provides a YouTube-like in-browser video interface and allows you to view the video right in the browser. TorrentFreak tested the new less-than-legal service and found that popular content streams quite well in-browser.
The streaming content does appear to be the media file in the torrent and more popular content (perhaps those with plenty of seeds?) appears to work better. However, a look at the homepage for BayStream presents more as a file-locker website.
It allows for uploads of files up to 20GB in size. The service appears to be free for now, with no premium account offerings. TorrentFreak also notes the familiar Kopimi logo at the end of the page.
Fans of the Matrix have been told when they can expect to go see the new sequel in theaters.
In what will be an interesting day for Keanu Reeves - set to reprise his iconic role as Neo in The Matrix 4 - the new file will be available in theaters on the same day as John Wick 4. Keanu Reeves fans who would like an opening night viewing of his newest work will have a decision to make.
They have plenty of time to decide, however, as both films will hit theaters on May 21st, 2021. Carrie-Anne Moss is also reprising the role of Trinity in the fourth installment, though join Reeves as the only confirmed returning cast from the original trilogy.
They will be joined by newcomers Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Henwick, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
Lana Wachowski is set to direct the fourth film, written by Wachowski, Aleksandar Hemon, and David Mitchell. Production starts in the New Year.
Some BBC iPlayer viewers are currently unable to view BBC iPlayer content on their Samsung Smart TVs and may have to wait until next year.
The problem is being blamed on a software glitch, though at the core of the problem is the expiration of security certifications needed to access iPlayer content. The South Korean consumer electronics giant has pushed out updates but they haven't worked for everybody, and some users have to update manually.
The trouble started on Monday when viewers of the service complained about messages instructing them to update the iPlayer software.
"Samsung tell us they are working hard to address the problem with their firmware and any viewers who are experiencing difficulty watching iPlayer on Samsung TVs should contact the manufacturer to get it fixed,"said a BBC spokesman.
For Samsung TVs that can't seem to update automatically, the company has provided instructions for updating via Settings which you can read here.
However, for owners of 11 listed models sold between 2013, and 2015, this process will not work and a further update will become available in early 2020.
During the past 20 years AfterDawn has been hosted on a number of different platforms. From a shared Windows server to a cluster of HP servers running Linux on 100+ cores with half a terabyte of RAM.
Samsung announced their upcoming Unpacked press event 
This is the year of the new game console generation. Sony has already revealed the PlayStation 5 logo, and we all know Microsoft's Project Scarlett is going to officially go by the name of Xbox Series X.
