Author: Henry R. Lares

Henry Lares is still early into his career as tech reporter but has already had his work published in many major publications including Tech Crunch and the Huffington Post.  In regards to academics, Henry earned an engineering degree from Apex Technical School. Henry has a passion for emerging technology and covers upcoming products and breakthroughs in science and tech.

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News Tech

Samsung Galaxy A8 and Samsung Galaxy A8 Plus Brings New Characteristics

Last year, in December, Samsung launched its Galaxy A8+ and hit a huge success.

The device has a 6-inch display with touchscreen of course and its resolution is 1080 x 2220 pixels. It comes with the newer Android Oreo 2018 update in July. It features an internal storage of 32 GB, .6 GHz octa-core processor and 4 GB RAM. By adding a microSD card the storage can get to 256 GB. The camera has a 16 MP main rear and it has the Android 9.0 software. The Galaxy A8 (2018) has the price of 499 ($588), while the Galaxy A8 Plus (2018) costs €599 ($706) in Europe.

The small version of Samsung Galaxy A8 2018 has a 5.6-inch full HD+, a 1080 Super AMOLED Infinity 2220 x 1080 display, 4GB of RAM and storage of 32 or 64 GB. They are both available in several colors and have a design that can be used one-handed. New features such as the night mode, life to wake, Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and dark theme were now added.

Samsung is working on the Android Pie update to get to all their devices, and the Galaxy A8+ (2018) might get it in 2019 and it will be the last upgrade for the operating system. When tested, the device Galaxy A8+ (2018), scored 1530 points on single core and on the multi-core test it managed to score 4306.

The same results were when testing the device on Android 8.0 Oreo which means that the Samsung Company is making big progress with the Pie for Galaxy A8+ (2018) update. The Galaxy A8 (2018) model is expected to get the Pie update with Galaxy A8+ (2018) in Q2 2019, but no one said anything about the date.

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News Tech

GTA 5 Comes As Cheapest As Possible on Amazon Prime

GTA 5 is one of the most popular games on the planet. It was one of gamers’ favorite ever since it was launched and it remains the same even if today players are tempted with other awesome releases. The gaming industry is evolving fast, so GTA 5 might not have all the modern features other games have, but its players can always enjoy a unique experience, regardless of the mode they chose.

Those who never played GTA 5 or played it on Xbox 360 or PS3 now have the chance to try something different. Amazon Prime gives everyone the opportunity to see how the game works on last generation consoles. This might be the only time when GTA 5 is available almost free, so fans should really consider this offer.

Someone should give passionate gamers an inspired Christmas gift

Nowadays, technology-related Christmas gifts are really appreciated. This means that a new game or anything from this field would make a passionate fan extremely happy. Twitch Prime comes with a great offer: it gives a $15 Amazon credit to customers for buying GTA 5.

This means that you can purchase anything that costs $15 via Amazon and you will get a new game – GTA 5 without additional charges. This is as good as it gets, so hurry up and grab the offer while you still can.

The only glitch emerging from this offer is that you’ll have to set up a Twitch Prime account and link it to your personal Amazon Prime account. This is the only way to make the offer work. As you might already know, Twitch Prime accounts are free if you use an Amazon Prime account, but the technical requirements ”say” that the buyer needs to have the account set up before making the purchase.

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News Tech

2019’s 12-Inch MacBook Available with New Speculations

Since the end of 2018 is so close, we keep hearing more information about next year’s important releases from the tech industry. As we can imagine, entire communities have their hopes up for some long-awaited devices. Most of us know that 2019 will come with awesome gadgets, next-generation technology and new items.

Apple fans are very anxious to see what next year will bring for their favourite MacBook – the 12-inch variant. Unfortunately for them, the Cupertino-based company didn’t make any announcement about the new device’s improvements.

However, recent leaks and rumours made their way through the community and help us find out more about Apples 12-inch MacBook. The mentioned MacBook was brought into discussion during an event organized by the developing company in New York on October 30th.

These are the speculations around the 12-inch MacBook

Some voices say that in 2019 we should expect to see updated versions of previous Apple devices (for example, MacBook Air, Mini Mac and iPad Pro). On the other hand, the company doesn’t mention anything about an update for the 12-inch MacBook.

Since the last upgrade for this piece of equipment was released a year ago, we can conclude that the next patch will arrive in the first part of 2019. February or March is considered to be the most suitable period.

The 12-inch MacBook will arrive with modern specs:

  • It will have the 8th generation Kaby Lake chipsets which are famous for speeding up every task and enhancing the video streaming quality;
  • In what graphics is concerned, the new MacBook might be released with Gen11 integrated graphics. This is Intel’s new creation, so it boosts to support 4K video streaming and content under 8K format;
  • The MacBook will offer 16GB RAM. The storage capacity can be enlarged thanks to USB ports (in this case, we are talking about Type-C or Thunderbolt 3),
  • Connectivity is super-fast – up to 40Gbps;
  • MacBook will come with slimmer bezels and a larger display (possibly OLED for a higher accuracy of colours). This measure is suitable with an updated keyboard.
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News Tech

Cydia Store Coming To An End – Purchases Closed Down: What’s Next?

While jailbreak might have been revived, things are definitely different compared to how they used to be. Just a couple of years ago, Cydia (a version of App Store which contained jailbreak tweaks) was essential. For many users it was just as important as the App Store, as it allowed them to customize their phone and adapt it to their needs.

However, things have changed drastically later on. Jailbreaking became a difficult process and developers found it almost impossible to crack recent iOS versions. Even when they managed to do that, Cydia Store wasn’t able to make a comeback as well.

Shutting down the service

Cydia’s founder Jay “Saurik” Freeman explained that he thought about shutting down the service. That’s because Cydia stopped being needed, and this also led to almost no profit. Freeman wrote a Reddit post in which he offered more details:

The reality is that I wanted to just shut down the Cydia Store entirely before the end of the year, and was considering moving the timetable up after receiving the report (to this weekend). This service loses me money and is not something I have any passion to maintain: it was a critical component of a healthy ecosystem, and for a while it helped fund a small staff of people to maintain the ecosystem, but it came at great cost to my sanity and led lots of people to irrationally hate me due to what amounted to a purposeful misunderstanding of how profit vs. revenue works.

However, it appears that Cydia won’t be shut down for now, as this wouldn’t help Freeman, who would still have to pay for hosting archived repositories. Therefore, he decided to close down purchases. This change might mark the end for Cydia.

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Finance News Personal Finance

Affordable Investment Opportunities are Encouraging More People to Invest in Buy to Let

The UK property market has been undergoing large shifts, due to many factors like changes in legislature, stamp duty and new technology. Property investment is no longer for just the extremely wealthy and affordable property investment opportunities are attracting a new kind of investor.

Affordable Investments

Property is considered a safe bet by many UK investors, who typically enjoy having brick and mortar assets. Recently there has been an increase in affordable properties that are perfect for buy to let property investment. For new investors, affordable investment opportunities provided by firms like RW Invest are perfect for an entry into the world of property investment. From student properties in bustling city locations to off-plan investments in brand new developments, there are an increasing number of affordable options. For less than £60,000, investors can purchase sought after buy to let properties in a range of UK cities. Many of these cities in the North are benefitting from large investments in infrastructure like the Northern Powerhouse Project. These Northern properties have incredibly affordable house prices, less than half of the UK average, allowing people to invest with less initial capital.

Easier Access to Property Investments

The online property market has provided access to UK properties for potential investors from a wide range of backgrounds. Investors from abroad are snapping up opportunities to invest in the growing UK property sector, with affordable opportunities a great way to start in the market. The internet has provided access to show apartments for off-plan projects, online 360 tours of apartments and round the clock access to property information.

An Increasing Range of Properties

Another factor has been an increase in the variety of properties available. Smaller properties like studios and apartments allow investors to get hold of valuable city centre property at a lower price. Properties such as new build apartments, renovated studios and one-bedroom flats are easier to access by these new potential investors.  Larger investors have been using a multi property strategy, investing in different types of properties, including apartments and studio accommodation. The diverse range of properties available for buy to let investment caters to a range of different tenants too. From young professionals to recent graduates, the demand for city centre rental property is huge.

Increasing Value

With lower initial costs, investors have seen huge returns on investment. Apartments have been one area that has experienced a huge rise in value in the past five years with increases of £1251 per month adding up to a huge £75,074.  Property continues to be a sound investment, and an increasing number of people are looking to enter the market with an affordable property that provides monthly rental income, as well as the potential to grow in value.

Though it has had its ups and downs, the UK property market continues to attract new investors. There is an increasing demand for rental properties and potential returns of 7-8% a year. Compared to other investments, the UK property market has remained on a steady course, with growth focussed around UK city centres.

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