Author Archives: Ewdison Then

Despite Epic Games' attempts to overthrow it, Valve's Steam remains the king of PC games stores. As such, it has thousands of games under its roof to the point that looking through what's available can easily become overwhelming. Sure, there is a search function as well as tags but even those can be too generic or require knowledge beforehand. After baking in its Steam Labs since December, Valve is finally rolling out a major new addition to Steam's interface, organizing games into different categories that seems to encourage exploring the overloaded library of games.

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OnePlus launched its first smartwatch last month after years of rumors and growing expectations. Unfortunately, the OnePlus Watch seems to have fallen short of the hype it generated, with many reviewers panning the wearable device. Fortunately, many of those complaints revolve around errors or missing features that can be addressed by software updates. That's exactly what OnePlus is doing now with the OnePlus Watch's first-ever firmware update that will hopefully make the $160 smartwatch a bit more worthwhile.

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Perhaps more than PCs and Macs, Chromebooks have always had the image of being all about productivity. Perhaps it's the lack of games and other entertainment apps that brought about that image, though that is starting to change with game streaming and maybe even Steam. That said, there are still a lot of things that can be improved to make Chromebooks even better productivity machines and the latest Chrome OS 90 update puts those tools under your fingertips.

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Although it has certainly improved, Windows remains vulnerable to a large number of malware, at least more than its peers and rivals both on desktops and mobile. It is almost too easy to infect a Windows PC by simply downloading an app, despite having an official app store. Microsoft urges users to only install apps from its official channels but some hackers are now taking advantage of that by masquerading as legit Microsoft Store apps.

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It was really inevitable, no matter how much the company tried to spin the narrative. Given global conditions and a legal predicament in the US that predated this pandemic, it was only a matter of time before Huawei's mobile business took a big hit. That time has seemingly come this year, at least as far as the first quarter of 2021 is concerned. While the entire smartphone market grew, Huawei found itself pushed out of the top 5 by its own fellow Chinese rivals.

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Google may have ditched its Daydream VR platform but it's still holding on to augmented reality, at least without the headset. Google recently released WebXR, short for Extended Reality, experiments that showcased more practical uses for AR on your phone but most of its AR experiences really revolved around entertaining or sometimes educational experiences instead. Google's mobile Search, in particular, has been putting virtual objects in the real world via your phone's screen, and its latest trick is to call forth Japan's most iconic characters, wherever you are in the world.

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You know that Clubhouse is big when something bigger tries to follow in its footsteps and you can't get any bigger than Facebook when it comes to social networking. Although it wasn't exactly a 1:1 rival, Facebook isn't the only one trying to join the social audio bandwagon. There are also some unlikely new contenders and it seems that Reddit, better known for being an Internet forum, has taken the plunge with its own spin on an audio chat platform.

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Depending on how you look at it, Facebook may have surpassed Google in being the poster child for harvesting personal data on the Internet. Considering how much of people's online lives and information it has in its possession, the social media giant regularly gets pushed, mostly through laws and regulations, to take certain steps to secure and unlock users' information. Part of that is allowing users to move their data outside of Facebook and a new export tool will let them do just that to transfer their posts to other online services.

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With a surname like "Bowser", many would probably presume you'd grow up to be a fan of Nintendo's products and franchises. For hacker Gary Bowser, however, that love may have manifested in an ironic way. Accused of being the mastermind behind the Team Xecuter hacking group, Bowser and a colleague were arrested and charged last year with 11 felony counts over the sale of Nintendo hacking tools. Nintendo has now added trafficking and copyright violation charges in an attempt to finally put a stop to what it has labeled as an international pirate ring.

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Samsung seems to be at a stage where it's rapidly playing around with its camera systems, quickly changing the formula based on what works and what doesn't. One of the puzzle pieces that has changed since last year has been its use of a 3D Time-of-Flight sensor or ToF which was present until the Galaxy S20 last year. Since then, however, the tech has been missing and it seems that next year's Galaxy S22 will miss out on it again, hinting at the end of its use at least for the time being.

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Fully autonomous or self-driving cars are both a dream and a nightmare. The stuff of science fiction still has a long way before becoming reality, especially with practical and legal hurdles that carmakers like Tesla have to overcome. Technologies like its Autopilot and upcoming FSD, short for Full Self-Driving, are meant to reduce vehicular accidents that are mostly due to human error. Unfortunately, as the most recent fatal crash demonstrates, it might not be enough to save humans from themselves.

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Clubhouse is the new kid on the social media block that everyone seems to want to be, acquire, or even kill. From Facebook to Twitter to even Telegram, social networking services are quickly jumping on the audio-only broadcast train, putting their own unique twists and features. There is perhaps no other social media company so intent in surpassing Clubhouse than Facebook, and the giant is set to announce not a single Clubhouse competitor but a handful of features that put audio front and center.

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