Latest Tech News

Samsung is proclaiming that the long-awaited Galaxy Fold is 'now available' – at least in its home country of Korea, where it'll finally be delivered on Friday, September 6. 

Don't worry, everyone else, there's more: Samsung's delayed foldable phone is then set to launch in the US, UK and other European countries 'in the coming weeks,' according to the company's official announcement.

The Samsung Galaxy Fold price will remain unchanged: high. It'll cost $1,980 / £1,800 (€2,000), twice the price of typical flagship phones, come into two colors: Cosmos Black and Space Silver.

Today was also the first time that Samsung talked about the Samsung Galaxy Fold 5G, noting that "With a 5G-ready option in select countries, consumers will be able to unfold the future on the fastest network speeds available."

Galaxy Fold release date specifics

When will the Galaxy Fold launch in the US? Samsung doesn't give an exact date, but a recent tweet from leaker Evan Blass points to Friday, September 27.

That's five months (almost to the date) after the Samsung Galaxy Fold was set to launch in the US and was subsequently delayed due to the fact that the foldable broke in the hands of some early reviewers. In that time, Samsung promised a bunch of fixes were made to the foldable phone.

We expect more news from Samsung today, as this announcement is happening just ahead of its IFA 2019 press conference. Previously, we heard that Samsung was readying the 20,000 and 30,000 units of the handset by the September 6 release date, according to Korea Herald.

Of course, between the initial Fold delay and now, phone competition has gotten even more fierce, with phones like the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 Plus on sale now.

Developing...

• Samsung's Galaxy Fold 2 could get a clamshell-style square design

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Ad Astra review: Apocalypse Now meets A Space Odyssey with Brad Pitt - CNET

Sad astronaut searches for dad astronaut in this aching cosmic space race.

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Pokemon Sword and Shield's latest Pokemon is literally a teapot and fans are confused - CNET

And that's the tea.

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The latest Nintendo Direct landed today packing new details on a few familiar titles but, as the Japanese gaming giant has been known to do of late, a few big surprises were snuck in there as well.

While it’s been heavily rumored for some time that Overwatch would be coming to the Switch, Nintendo has now officially confirmed that Blizzard’s smash-hit online shooter will be landing on the console October 15.

A trailer for the launch of Overwatch: Legendary Edition was premiered during the Nintendo Direct, showing off the game's ability to be played in the console's portable handheld mode, with some additional gyroscopic motion controls included.

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Arguably one of the biggest surprises, however, was the announcement – and immediate launch – of epic RPG Divinity: Original Sin 2. The game's Definitive Edition is now available to purchase for Nintendo Switch.

You can play this turn-based RPG either by yourself or online with up to four players in your party. Because it’s the Definitive Edition, all current and to-be-released DLC is included as well.

For those who have already played the game on PC or Mac via Steam and want to keep up their character’s progress, the Definitive Edition allows you to share cloud saves between the two platforms. This could even allow you to take the game on the go with the Switch’s handheld mode, and then carry on your progress at home on your computer.

• Nitendo Switch Online: should you sign up?

When Nintendo Online first launched, it came with the promise of a roster of playable classic NES games, the list of which has kept expanding over the 12 months that the service has been running, and now Nintendo has revealed a list of SNES games to join the fun.

From September 6, 20 titles will be available for Nintendo Online subscribers to play and, as is the case with the current NES games, further titles will be added to the collection in the future.

• Super Mario World
• Super Mario Kart
• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
• Super Metroid
• Stunt Race FX (Available for the first time since its original Super NES release)
• Kirby’s Dream Land 3
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
• Star Fox
• F-ZERO
• Pilotwings
• Kirby’s Dream Course
• BRAWL BROTHERS
• Breath of Fire
• Demon’s Crest
• Joe & Mac 2: Lost in the Tropics
• SUPER E.D.F. EARTH DEFENSE FORCE
• Super Ghouls’n Ghosts
• Super Puyo Puyo 2 (Available for the first time in Europe)
• Super Soccer (Available for the first time since its original Super NES release)
• Super Tennis (Available for the first time since its original Super NES release)

The other announcements are too numerous to list exhaustively, but some highlights include a Definitive Edition of the original Xenoblade Chronicles, as well as ports of Return of the Obra Dinn, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, and Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast.

For Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Banjo & Kazooie have now officially joined the roster of playable DLC fighters, with Terry Bogard of Fatal Fury fame being announced as the fourth member of the five-character Ultimate Fighter Pass, although there’s no word yet on an availability date.

Some further details regarding some much-anticipated titles arrived as well, including Pokémon Sword & Shield, the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

For a full rundown of the finer details of everything announced, check out the video below.

• Best Nintendo Switch games 2019: the most essential Switch games right now

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Latest Tech News

Until April 2018, Facebook users could search for each other using phone numbers or email addresses. However, in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data abuse scandal – which saw the personal information of 87 million Facebook users mined – the social media giant scrapped that feature, restricting accessibility to user information.

Yet a security researcher has recently told TechCrunch that a database containing 419 million phone numbers linked to Facebook accounts was sitting on a server that was not password protected, just waiting for anyone to find it. 

While the server does not belong to Facebook, the database reveals the unique Facebook ID linked to each of the phone numbers – in some cases the names, gender and locations are also listed.

Amongst the hundreds of millions of records exposed, 133 million belong to US users, 18 million are UK-based user records, and 50 million from Vietnam.

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Not as bad as it sounds, says Facebook

TechCrunch was able to verify several records by matching a known user’s phone number to a Facebook user ID or by matching phone numbers with the social media site’s password reset feature.

While Facebook has been made aware of the security lapse and has since launched an investigation, a spokesperson for the company has said the database contains “information obtained before [Facebook] made changes last year to remove people’s ability to find others using their phone numbers”, and was “closer to half” the number TechCrunch reported due to duplicate records.

The spokesperson also said that the database has been taken down, confirming that there is “no evidence that Facebook accounts were compromised”.

• How to delete your Facebook account

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2020 Porsche Taycan is ready to tackle Tesla video - Roadshow

After almost five years, Porsche's first battery-electric car is here, and it's a stunner.

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WASHINGTON: Twitter on Wednesday halted users´ ability to fire off tweets via text messages as it seeks to fix a vulnerability that led to CEO Jack Dorsey´s account being hijacked.Dorsey last week was the target of so-called "SIM swap" fraud, which enables a hacker to trick a mobile carrier into transferring a number -- potentially causing people to lose control not only of social media, but bank accounts and other sensitive information.This type of attack targets a weakness in the use of "two-factor authentication" via text message to validate access to an account, a break-in method that has grown popular in recent years."We´re temporarily turning off the ability to Tweet via SMS, or text message, to protect people´s accounts," the Twitter support team wrote on the platform."We´re taking this step because of vulnerabilities that need to be addressed by mobile carriers and our reliance on having a linked phone number for two-factor authentication."The San Francisco-based service added that as it works on a long-term solution to the problem, tweeting via text message eventually will be turned back on in markets where users rely on that technique.Even with considerable security precautions in place, Dorsey became the victim of the embarrassing compromise when attackers hijacked his phone number and took control of his Twitter account.Dorsey´s account was restored after a brief period during which the attackers posted a series of offensive tweets.Some analysts say hackers have found ways to easily get enough information to convince a telecom carrier to transfer a number to a fraudster´s account, especially after hacks of large databases that result in personal data sold on the so-called "dark web.""Mobile accounts´ text messages can be hijacked by sophisticated hardware techniques, but also by so-called ´social engineering´ -- convincing a mobile provider to migrate your account to another, unauthorized phone," said R. David Edelman, a former White House adviser who heads a cybersecurity research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology."It only takes a few minutes of confusion to make mischief like Dorsey experienced."

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NASA satellite spots a mysterious green light that quickly disappeared - CNET

A green space blob flashed into existence and then... it was gone.

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Samsung launches 5G-integrated Exynos 980 mobile processor - CNET

The Exynos 980 is Samsung's first 5G-ready chip.

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Sony’s camera team has been quite busy lately – not only did the company announce the new Alpha A7R IV in July, but the A6600 and the A6100 APS-C mirrorless cameras joined Sony’s ranks only a week ago.

However, a new Sony camera code – first discovered in early August and recently found on Japanese site Nokishita (which has listed every single currently known camera model) – has the photography world speculating whether the Japanese electronics giant will unveil another snapper in the near future.

The only information we have so far on model WW942015 is that it is a new Alpha camera with 5GHz wireless frequency support. This model number doesn’t match any camera in Sony’s current stable, with sources telling Sony Alpha Rumors that the potential new shooter will be a full-frame model that is the “big one”.

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The rumors site also says the announcement will be made "very soon" while disclosing that Sony will livestream two press conferences in September. 

According to the information received by Sony Alpha Rumors, the second press conference on September 13 to be livestreamed from the IBC Show (International Broadcasting Convention) will be when Sony discloses what could be the Alpha A7S III. Considering that the Alpha A7S II was announced at the IBC Show in 2015, there’s a real possibility that this could be true.

That said, sources have also told Sony Alpha Rumors that an "A9 II announcement should be in about 1-2 weeks", with the camera said to boast a 33-36MP sensor and "mind-blowing specs".

A refresh for both the A7S II and the A9 are long overdue, but Sony fans have been keen on seeing the A7S III for a long time now. Either way, if there's any truth to these reports, we don't have long to wait to find out for certain what Sony's been cookin'.

• Best Sony cameras in 2019: find the right Sony snapper for you

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Autopilot was engaged in the crash of a Tesla Model S into a firetruck in LA, NTSB says - Roadshow

Guess what? The driver was using Autopilot incorrectly by not having his hands on the steering wheel.

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Game of Thrones fans surprisingly split in opinion poll of season 8 - CNET

The hate-fire burns less brightly.

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When the Samsung Galaxy Fold landed in the hands of reviewers earlier this year, those testers quickly spotted and reported on a range of reliability issues and kinks, and the result was that the official launch got a last-minute delay. That pause has now stretched to more than five months, with a final retail release date still yet to be confirmed.

Despite this, we’re already starting to hear whispers about a potential Fold successor, with a series of earlier patents potentially uncovering the design of a future Samsung foldable device, and a new a report today from Bloomberg that seems to confirm one of these designs.

• Hands on: Samsung Galaxy Fold review

Specifically, the report claims that the next foldable Galaxy device from Samsung (tentatively titled the Samsung Galaxy Fold 2) will fold in half vertically rather than horizontally, with a 6.7-inch display protected on the interior (clamshell-style), leaving a square device that’s half the size and considerably more pocketable.

The Bloomberg article lends more weight to the recently-discovered patent (shown above) that depicts a crease running horizontally across the device, and an external display on half of the exterior – when folded clamshell-style, the other half would be home to the primary camera array. 

While the handset in this patent wouldn’t strictly resemble a square when folded, the external display itself is much closer to a 1-to-1 aspect ratio than typical smartphone displays.

• Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 patents show off three possible designs

A particularly techy pocket square

Other details that Bloomberg has garnered from “people familiar with the product’s development” include an early-2020 announcement that will depend largely on the performance of the first Galaxy Fold.

The report also mentions that Samsung is aiming to make the Galaxy Fold 2 thinner and more affordable than its predecessor. It will also apparently feature a hole-punch selfie camera (akin to the existing Galaxy Note 10 range) and a dual-camera rear display (which is somewhat at odds with the aforementioned patent).

While there's no doubt that cutting-edge tech like this is generally considered to be a premium item, Bloomberg claims that the Fold 2 is being made in collaboration with American clothing designer Thom Browne and is aimed at those "more interested in fashion, status, and luxury than a device's tech specs".

Of the existing and upcoming foldable smartphone designs, this vertical clamshell approach comes close to only one currently-rumored design – the Motorola Razr V4, which is purported to be a foldable reboot of the iconic clamshell that kicked things off in 2004. 

None of the Galaxy Fold 2 details are concrete at this point of course – in fact, it’s possible we’re seeing details on multiple handsets – and we’re unlikely to get any official confirmation on the Fold’s successor until the original unit at least hits the market.

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Latest Gadgets News

Realme 5 Pro is all set to go on sale for the first time in India today. In addition to the Realme 5 Pro, the company will also begin selling the Realme Buds 2 wired headphones.

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Latest Games News

The initial reception for a re-launched version of a classic video game points to potential stock price growth of Activision Blizzard.

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