Author Archives: JC Torres

At E3 last June, Bethesda dropped multiple bombshells, many of which still have to actually land in players’ hands. One of the most anticipated but also most doubted of the pack is Fallout 76, an online survival version of the widely popular franchise. The skepticism and concern mostly come from the Herculean task of bringing elements that made Fallout a hit to an online setting without also bringing the most hated elements of online games. And at QuakeCon, Bethesda revealed exactly how it plans to do that.

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Just because Intel has yet again delayed its 10 nm silicon to 2020, if all goes well, that doesn’t mean fans of the processors won’t have anything to look forward to this year. And, no, they don’t have to wait for the still to be revealed Cascade Lake processors. As early as October, Intel is expected to announce its 9th gen Core lineup, still on the 14 nm Coffee Lake architecture, that will be bringing, for the first time, 8 cores to the mainstream market.

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Huawei has gained no small amount of confidence after it has racked up some serious street cred in recent smartphone shipment numbers. It has managed to surpass Apple, perhaps temporarily only, and wants to unseat even Samsung. It just might have its chance with its upcoming Huawei Mate 20 launch. But not everyone will be able to afford those high-end phones, of course. Which is why this Mate 20 Lite will be swooping in to give them that premium feeling at a third of the price.

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Every new Android version kicks off two guessing games. The first is at the start of the development cycle when users try to guess which sweet dessert the release will be named after. The second is when the final version is finally formally launched. That’s when users start guessing when and if their precious smartphone is actually eligible for the update. To help make their customers guess less, some manufacturers have chimed in, publicly committing to bringing Android 9 Pie to at least some of their latest devices “soon”.

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Samsung has finally unveiled the Galaxy Note 9, making official everything that we’ve (accurately) heard for unofficial sources. Now that everything, including the price tag, is known, the big question is whether it will be able to salvage 2018 for the manufacturer. Actually, the bigger question is whether you should buy one or not. Of course, there’s no straight and easy answer and depends on what kind of user you are, your needs, and your budget. If you’re a bit unsure at this very early stage, here are some points you may want to consider in making your decision.

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Epic Games’ decision to make Fortnite temporarily exclusive to the Galaxy Note 9 isn’t exactly news nor unpopular. Its decision to shun Google Play Store, however, is ruffling not a few feathers and worrying some about potential security problems. Epic, however, doesn’t concerned at all. In fact, it may have preferred this setup exactly because it would allow them to permaban any player using an unofficial or modded APK, no questions asked.

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Samsung recently presented the Galaxy Tab S4 as the ultimate productivity portable device but initial reviews have been rather scathing. Thanks to its timing, Samsung’s premium tablet is being compared to the likes of the cheaper iPad, the cheaper Surface Go, and, closer to home, Chromebooks. The latter, especially, is getting more and more talented and the latest experimental feature nearly turns it into that ultimate productivity OS. That is if you live and breathe Linux.

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With the likes of Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO, and even Vivo hitting the news, it’s too easy to forget there’s another key Chinese player in the smartphone market. Meizu, which started out an MP3 player manufacturer, has been filling that market, at least in China, with notable phones like the MX series, the M Note, and what was the last high-end Ubuntu Touch phone, the Meizu PRO 5. Following its 15th anniversary flagship last April, Meizu has launched the Meizu 16th to bring some of the latest trends in mobile down to a more affordable price tag.

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Fortnite may have just launched on Android at long last, at least for Samsung Galaxy owners, but its biggest rival is set to one-up it yet again. PUBG, more formally known as PlayerUnknown’s BattleGround, actually came on mobile, both on Android and iOS, first and now it’s giving Android users with less capable phones a reprieve. That’s right, PUBG Lite is now available, at least in some regions, that will let fans enjoy their favorite battle royale game on the go, albeit in a much smaller scale.

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If you simply look at the Galaxy Note 9, you might not see much of a difference from its predecessor or from the Galaxy S9+ for that matter. Aside from the rear, the changes are all invisible to the user, in more ways than one. In addition to new features and new specs, the Galaxy Note 9’s innards have changed as well. But like the smartphone itself, the changes revealed by the first ever teardown of the device are both subtle yet significant.

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It’s not a good year for Intel. Never mind AMD’s comeback, Intel’s 2018 kicked off with its biggest embarrassments to date: Meltdown and Spectre. And then it had to admit that the long-overdue 10nm processors will have to wait until 2019. At its Data-centric Innovation Summit, however, the silicon maker is now saying that those won’t actually be coming until 2020, with a “half step” coming in 2019 instead.

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These days it’s almost too easy for anyone to get the latest updates from social media and news sites at their fingertips. But, sometimes, those fingers might be busy with something else just when you’re dying to find out the hottest news on your favorite tech craving. Furthering the age of voice, Google is pushing out a new update that ties together its newly revamped Google News with the ever so helpful Google Assistant so that all you need to say is “Hey Google” and you’ll never have to fear missing out on the important stuff in life.

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