Author: Anna Galvez

Categories
Markets Tech

Google Will Charge Android Smartphone Manufacturers For Pre-Installing Google Play Store

The European Commission fined Google last July and forced it to pay a total of 4,34 billion Euros for its dominant position in the market for its Android mobile operating system, as they forced smartphones manufacturers to include apps such as Chrome or Google Search. Also, according to the European Commission, the giant Internet company even paid some large mobile phones manufacturers to add these apps as default to their handsets. Now, Google is reportedly charging mobile manufacturers for Google Play Store.

Google is going to start charging a fee to smartphone manufacturers for using Google Play Store

Additionally, the European Commission gave Google 90 days to stop forcing manufacturers to include Google Chrome and Google Search on their mobile phones as mandatory for implementing the Google Play Store. The company also prevented the creation of Android forks, which the company argued would not be as stable as the original versions.

Now, as the period granted by EU ended, Google announced changes to comply with the European Commission’s requirements. The most significant difference is that the giant Internet company will now charge a fee to Android smartphones manufacturers for adding the Google Play Store as a default app.

Google’s decision would come in force on October 29th, across the European Economic Area, which affects the 28 EU members, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway. Thus, the prices of smartphones might surge across the EU.

The European Commission paved the way to third-party pre-installed Internet browsers, search engines, and other apps

Thus, manufacturers such as Samsung or Huawei will have to pay for pre-installing the Google Play Store on devices sold across the European Union. In return, these smartphone manufacturers will not have to add Google Search or Google Chrome, although they will be able to do it for free if they want.

However, the European Commission paved the way to third-party pre-installed apps, allowing companies to deal with other Android developers for adding other Internet browsers and search engines than Google’s ones. For example, they could install browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Opera or Firefox, and they could even create their own Android forks with a more significant presence of apps developed by Microsoft, for example.

The smartphones manufacturers can now opt for other search engines, as well, such as Bing or DuckDuckGo. Until now, that was impossible because of the strong restrictions Google implemented for its Android OS.

Categories
Tech

Microsoft Launched KB4464455 For Windows 10 October 2018 Update To Fix Some Bugs

Although initially, Microsoft was happy after the staging of its most recent update, the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, little by little all that enthusiasm lowered due to the severe errors that users worldwide reported. That’s why the giant tech company had to correct those bugs with the new KB4464455. Accordingly, Microsoft launched a new Build, but only for the Windows Insider program’s members, to check out the fixing of the bugs the users detected in the last major update of the renowned operating system.

For example, the severe issue found in the Task Manager, which causes incorrect details to be displayed in the processes tab, was ruled out in the new KB4464455 update. In particular, this was a problem that Microsoft itself admitted after the launch of the Windows 10 October 2018 update for the members of the Windows Insider program. Somehow, this error reached the final release of the update.

On the other hand, the new KB4464455 update also solves a series of errors with various third-party antivirus solutions, as well as some compatibility bugs with multiple drivers, although no further details were provided in this regard. Reportedly, it also fixed a problem that, occasionally caused the IME to not work in Edge sessions, as well as a bug that made program unresponsive after waking up PCs from the sleep mode.

Microsoft released KB4464455 to fix bugs of the recent Windows 10 October 2018 Update

However, you must keep in mind that this new KB4464455 version does not bring any new features to the Microsoft’s operating system, as was to be expected, since its primary objective is to improve the performance of the software before Microsoft resumes Windows 10 October 2018 Update’s global implementation on devices around the world.

The problems with the most recent major update have not stopped. That until the giant tech company had to pause delivering the Update after the finding of a severe bug that caused the deletion of users’ personal files after installing the patch. That was unacceptable for Microsoft.

Although Microsoft has already solved this problem, for the moment, the Windows 10 October 2018 Update is still available for some of the Windows Insider program’s members, as others high-level testers are already probing the upcoming Windows 10 Redstone 6.

Categories
Tech

Forget About Vidmate: iTube Studio Is The Complete Video Downloader For Windows and Mac

When you think of a video downloader, Vidmate is probably the first solution you consider for Android. Thanks to Android emulators, such as BlueStacks, you can also run Vidmate on PC. However, Vidmate has no Windows- and Mac-based version. But iTube Studio is the complete video downloader for Windows and Mac. Furthermore, iTube Studio is also boasting some very cool, unique features that make it the best choice when you need to download a video from popular streaming services.

While many video downloading programs and apps work only with significant video content sites, such as YouTube, DailyMotion, Facebook, and so on, iTube Studio is compatible with more than 10,000 video portals, including the before-mentioned ones. Virtually, with iTube, you can download videos from wherever you want.

Apart from being a videos downloader, iTube Studio offers other complementary features that are not present in Vidmate, for example. Accordingly, we have video editing tools to customize the downloaded video as we want, without installing third-party apps.

Forget about Vidmate because iTube Studio is the best video downloader for Windows and Mac

Once you download iTube Studio on your Windows or Mac computer, all you need to do is run it and focus on the “Download” section. That is the first tab in the program’s GUI and is the one that allows you to quickly start downloading videos from any video streaming site in up to a 4K resolution. All you have to do is to find the URL or address of the video you want to save on your computer, copy the link into iTube Studio interface.

With iTube Studio, you’ll also be able to download more videos at the same time, thanks to the program’s “Download in Batches” option.

And the best part of iTube Studio is that it also comes as an extension for Google Chrome, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge that installs the iTube Studio videos downloader into your Internet browser, so that, whenever you are on a web page that runs a video, the software will automatically offer you the possibility to download that video.

Probably, Vidmate remains the best video downloader for Android, but it lacks a Windows- and Mac-based version. iTube Studio, on the other hand, is dedicated to computers, both Windows and Mac, and offers additional features, including some video editing tools.

Categories
Crypto News

Ethereum (ETH) Constantinople Hard Fork Might Be Postponed For 2019

The next Ethereum (ETH) hard fork, the renowned Constantinople, could be postponed to 2019, due to operational problems in the test network. As reported by the Infura project through Twitter, there was a problem in the consensus mechanism of the Ropsten network, which made it obsolete, so the community of developers of Ethereum (EHT) is investigating what happened and make a call to use other systems for testing until further notice.

On October 13th, at the block height of 4,230,000, the protocol was activated in the Ropsten test network. However, then, there began to appear some faults. Next Friday, on October 19th, it was deliberated to postpone the implementation of Constantinople Ethereum (ETH) hard fork.

In the sector of crypto mining, the ASIC equipment is increasingly sophisticated and could put at risk the decentralization of blockchain networks, as some analysts indicate. Thus, the change of consensus mechanism in Ethereum (ETH) network seeks to test other models to validate the confirmation of transactions and make the process physically lighter, leaving the security of the network in the cryptographic and virtual environment.

Ethereum (ETH) Constantinople hard fork postponed for 2019

Platforms such as SIA have already announced updates to address the monopoly of crypto mining equipment of Innosilicon and Bitmain, although in this case there is no need to change the Proof of Work for another mechanism for blockchain validation, only to annul the competition they consider unfair.

Bitmain, primarily, has shown to have more power to control a part of the crypto mining equipment market and, therefore, they can give certain Ethereum (ETH) mining pools the ability to mine more and dominate the blockchain.

In turn, the Ethereum (ETH) network is designed as a platform that provides smart contracts, which, at least in theory, should be increasingly accessible by the user. The cost of ERC-20 tokens’ transactions, for example, is considered very high, an impediment to their wider adoption, and accessibility for users of customized cryptocurrencies.

Categories
Tech

Xiaomi Black Shark 2 Gaming Smartphone Release Date Set On October 23rd

Xiaomi is one of the Chinese smartphone brands that already has its own gaming smartphone on the market. But now the Chinese phone is already preparing to launch a new generation of its Xiaomi Black Shark gaming smartphone. It has been rumored for a couple of weeks that this phone could arrive by the end of the year, to directly compete with the new Razer Phone 2. And now we have the Chinese manufacturer announced that the new Xiaomi Black Shark 2 gaming smartphone would launch on October 23rd.

Accordingly, it would be the busiest week for the Chinese brand, as the manufacturer has also announced the launch of its Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 on October 25th. On October 23rd, the new Xiaomi Black Shark 2 will get official, and the new generation of this Chinese gaming smartphone will soon hit the shelves.

The gaming smartphone segment is continously growing and all the producers involved in this market struggle to earn the edge over their competition.

Xiaomi Black Shark 2 gaming smartphone release date set on October 23rd

The Chinese manufacturer will hold a Black Shark 2 launch event in China, during which it will present this new gaming smartphone model. At the moment, we do not have much data on the new phone’s specifications. There have been some rumors, however, but there is nothing concrete.

As far as we know, the Xiaomi Black Shark 2 is going to be launched worldwide, and not only across China as the previous model. The first Black Shark has not had the best international acceptance, but it seems that the Chinese brand is now looking to change that with this new device.

In just about one week we will know everything about this new Xiaomi Black Shark 2 gaming smartphone. To discover more about the new Chinese gaming smartphone developed by Xiaomi, keep an eye on our site, as we’ll post updates as soon as we get them.

Exit mobile version