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Will Half Life 3 be Announced at E3 2018?

The 24th Electronic Entertainment Exposition, named E3 2018, will bring another surge of future products from the video game industry.

The Half-Life series

The first-person shooter game Half-Life was first released in November 1998 and developed by Valve Corporation. The game has been praised for its features and the company enjoyed a great success. However, the latest release was in October 2007 – Half-Life 2: Episode Two. As it was the case with Half-Life 2, there have been several delays of Half-Life 3. Valve didn’t say an exact answer regarding the series, but things may take took a turn for the better.

E3 2018 speculations

Adding up to the fans’ excitement,  the company has revealed that making games is again on their agenda. A new single-player video game has been confirmed which will hopefully be launched in their next fiscal year. The fact that Valve pointed out that a number of existing franchises are in need of a sequel may be a sign that this game is among them.

Gabe Newell, the co-founder of Valve Corporation, stated in a reddit AMA that the company is currently working on three VR games in order to improve user experience as its competitor, Nintendo. Just as Rocket Sloth, a gaming youtuber, has said, there’s a chance that the company is postponing this declaration because they are trying to bring something new and innovative to the table. The company has a record of various great games and even if Half Life 3 won’t be the highlight of the event, they for sure will have something surprising to announce.

E3 2018 would be the perfect opportunity to announce it, but there’s still little information about the veracity of such an announcement. It would be a dream come true for fans to hear this great news at E3.

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News Tech

Samsung Galaxy J and A series Comes with Android 8.0 Oreo Update

Four new smartphones have just been launched under Galaxy J and Galaxy A series by Samsung Malaysia.

The Galaxy J series

The Samsung Galaxy J4 is available on Purple, Gold and Black and runs on Android 8.0 Oreo. It supports two separate Whatsapp accounts due to the dual-messenger option. Regarding imaging, it has a 13MP f/1.9 main camera, a front-facing 5MP f/2.2 shooter with front LED flashlight and Full HD option. It runs on a 1.4GHz Quad-Core processor and has 2 GB RAM, 16 GB storage up to 256 GB via microSD. The J4 comes with a 5.5″ Super AMOLED Infinity Display with 1280×720 (HD) resolution. The device is powered with a removable 3,000 mAh battery which charges via micro USB. It costs RM599/ $150.

The Samsung Galaxy J6 is available on Purple, Gold and Black and has a fingerprint sensor below the main camera. Regarding image, it has a 13 MP f/1.9 main camera and 8 MP f/1.9 front cameras. It runs on an 1.6GHz Exynos 7870 Octa-Core processor and has 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage expansible via microSD.  The J6 comes with a 5.6″ Super AMOLED screen with 1280×720 (HD) resolution. The device is powered with a non-removable 3,000 mAh battery which charges via micro USB. It costs RM799/$201.

The Galaxy A series

The Samsung Galaxy A6 is available on Purple, Gold and Black and supports 802.11a 5GHz Wi-Fi but lacks NFC. For imaging, it has a 16 MP f/1.7 main camera and a front-facing 16 MP f/1.9 shooter. It runs on an Exynos 7870 Octa processor and has 3 GB RAM, 32 GB storage up to 256 GB via microSD for Malaysia. The A6 comes with a 5.6″ Super AMOLED Infinity Display with 1280×720 (HD) resolution. The device is powered with a 3,000 mAh battery which charges via micro USB. It costs RM1,099/$276.

The Samsung Galaxy A6+ has the Always on Display characteristic, an ordinary feature for the Galaxy A series. For the image, it has a 24 MP f/1.9 front camera, which is the highest on a Samsung smartphone, and a 16 MP f/1.7 + 5 MP f/1.9 camera combination with live focus for bokeh effects. It runs on a 1.8GHz Snapdragon 450 processor with 4 GB RAM  and 32 GB storage expandable via microSD. The A6+ comes with a 6.0″ Super AMOLED Infinity Display with 2220×1080 (Full HD+) resolution. The device is powered with a 3,500 mAh battery which charges via micro USB. It costs RM1,399/$351.

Exclusively for the new Galaxy A and Galaxy J series, customers get 6% off the retail price and a free PETRONAS Gift Card worth RM20/$5 until May 31st.

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News Tech

Android Malware Found In Low Cost Phones

In December 2016, the Russian antivirus vendor, Dr. Web, revealed that various mobile carriers had been infected with malware. Dr. Web helped with finding malware in at least 26 low-cost Android smartphones and tablets and it followed a period of no such incidents. However, the incident is still happening and expanding today.

Difficulty in finding the culprit

Avast, a cyber-security firm, is having a difficult time tracking the moment when the malware is inserted in devices because there are too many affected ones. The criminal operation infects a device the second it has the opportunity to access its firmware. But Avast did manage to take down the group’s command-and-control server, but they simply infected another hosting provider until the domain registrar discredited their domain name.

The only common element found in infected devices in over 90 countries is that they all have a Mediatek chipset. However, if Mediatek was the culprit, how come just a handful of devices for a specific model harbour the malware and not all of them? It wouldn’t make sense.

More signs of malware infection

Avast released a report on May 25th mentioning that the group has continued their operation. As in Dr. Web’s reports, the malware hasn’t been updated and operates in the same way. Avast published a list of over 140 Android tablets and smartphones which have Casiloon, the group’s malware. However, there are times when the malware won’t download – when the public IP is from a Chinese IP range, the language is set to Chinese and when the apps installed internally are more than three. Avast hasn’t been able to confirm that avoiding Chinese users because of law enforcement attention is the reason for the group’s strange activity.

The group seems to be interested in generating revenues only through ads. In almost all cases, ads are displayed on the Android interface itself or on top of other apps. The malware runs from the “/system” folder to connect to a remote server, downloads an XML file and then grabs any app the group choses and installs it without any user influence.

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News Tech

Opera Mini 35.0.2254.12775 Update Download Available – Fixes “Speed Dial” Bug

People who enjoy browsing the web in their spare time, but hate using up all their mobile data and storage space while doing that should consider giving Opera Mini a try. This mobile browser is small in size and it doesn’t occupy too much storage space. However, the best thing about it is that it’s been cleverly optimized to not use all mobile data available.

Opera Mini 35.0.2254.12775 Update

While being able to save precious storage space and mobile data is one of the best things about Opera Mini, the thing that makes Opera Mini stand out the most is the rate at which it receives updates. The developers who are in charge of Opera Mini have made it a tradition to release regular updates that improve the mobile browser’s performance and overall user experience.

Fixed Speed Dial Issue

Just like any other mobile app, Opera Mini has its fair share of issues. On the bright side of things, these issues are quickly fixed through bug fixes. Take for example this new update which repairs a bug that caused the “Speed Dial” feature to malfunction.

Improved Performance

The new update is not only focused on fixing bugs, but it also comes with a couple of “under the hood” software tweaks that help take Opera Mini’s performance to the next level. Therefore, Opera Mini fans should make sure to get their hands on this new update ASAP.

Premium Features

On another note, let’s check out some of Opera Mini’s top features and see what makes it such a premium mobile browser. The first thing we need to mention is that Opera Mini ships with a pre-installed adblocker which gets rid of all annoying and intrusive ads.

Another cool feature that Opera Mini offers is the ability to download videos. Not everyone is willing to spend their mobile data on loading videos and Opera Mini allows users to download them while they are connected to a stable Wi-Fi connection.

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Economy News Tech

ShowBox Update – Save Money Using It

Money can easily be saved using the popular Android app, Showbox. This lets you watch the latest movies and shows from TV. The best news is that all is for free. No subscription. No monthly rate. Be free to spend the money on whatever you want, while being informed about this entertainments. All you have to do is downloading the app on your tablet or phone that runs Android and then, just have fun!

What about the safety of the user?

Until now, Showbox was found to be safer than other contents taken from the Internet. And that’s because the information is taken just from one source. The legal terms are also observed. The user is free to watch movies for himself and a little group, but not for the entire school or place of work. The download is not possible. The content can only be seen. That is how you avoid stealing.

The app cannot be downloaded, as usual from the Google Play Store. But, this “little thing” leads to some questions, like: Is it safe? Why should I turn on “Unknown Sources”? So, it’s somehow dangerous, even if it’s free.

Some more details

Google did not test the application to find out the risk of viruses, because it doesn’t make part of the Store. In other words, there is no insurance for this app. Not all of the applications go through these tests and are viruses-free, but the chances increase when they are not verified at all.

Although, the law did not obey the use of ShowBox and that’s the best point, the risk of using it is very high, because of the unverified source of downloading. Simply installing the app can be dangerous for the phone. To decrease the risk, the phone can be checked often from malware and the app can be taken from a trusty source.

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