Fitbit is removing the ability to sync files between a desktop computer and its smartwatches.
9to5Google reports that Fitbit has updated two support articles—one that details the Fitbit setup process and one that explains how to listen to music on the company’s devices—to say that it plans to shut down the Fitbit Connect app for Windows and macOS later this year .
Fitbit says in the first article that it’s “removing the option to sync your Fitbit device with the Fitbit Connect app on your computer,” and in the second, it says it’s “removing the option to transfer playlists to your Fitbit watch through your computer. ” Both changes are scheduled for Oct. 13.
The company’s proposed solution for people who rely on Fitbit Connect to set up their devices is to “download and use the Fitbit app on your phone to sync your device” instead. Those who mostly used it for music, meanwhile, are restricted to syncing music from Deezer and Pandora.
It’s a shame that Fitbit seems to be giving up on desktop support, partly because there’s no guarantee that its customers want to install a Google-owned fitness tracking app on their phones, and partly because music syncing is now limited to a pair of also- ran music services.
Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
More details about Pokemon Scarlet & Violet were revealed earlier this week, as the game introduced many more characters such as academy director Clavell, homeroom teacher Jacq, and your shy new rival Penny. We also looked at the most famous gym leaders in the game, with most fans focused their attention on Grusha, the Ice-type leader. Exactly like Professor Turo and Sada earlier this year, fans were so excited.
The GAMER VIDEO DAYS!
A lot of the supporters at NSFW floodfed Twitter and relevant sites that you might expect. However, Game Freak itself caused chaos and made fan artists question their sexuality when they revealed that, despite her more feminine appearance, Grusha is actually a guy with a pronouns. According to his official description of him, Grusha is a cool snowboarder who shares his true emotions in heated battles.
The Gamer’s Biologist Explains Why Pokemon Scarlet andamp; Violet’s Fidough Are Busted.
When Grusha’s gender was confirmed, the NSFW fan artists had to knees before already having drawn multiple saucy drawings of Grusha thinking he was a woman. One fan — especially — went in full denial mode and decided to completely reject this new information. Some fans said they would embrace their bisexual awakening, one of them saying that “if Grusha a guy calls me gay,” a person saying. You know all the rage about Grusha, because bisexuals can stay in a standing position.
To mention the new Gym Leaders, we also got a first look at Paldea, the revelation that legendaries will be rideable from the beginning, and a showcase of the game’s new battle gimmick. Game Freak showed a few new Pokemon for Scarlet and Violet, with an adorable doggo made of bread called Fidough and a Paldean form for Wooper, making him the first Poison/Ground type to be added to the series since Gen 1.
Pokemon Scarlet & Violet will be launched on November 18 later this year.
Intel has just shared a video update regarding the current state of gameplay on its Arc Alchemist GPUs. In a previous video, it was made clear that Intel’s cards may struggle with games that aren’t running on DirectX 12.
The video makes it clear that optimizing Intel Arc for DirectX 11 and older is still very much a work in progress that might never come to an end. On the other hand, AMD and Nvidia generally don’t share those problems. Will gamers even entertain trying out Intel Arc with these issues in mind?
Intel shared a quick Q&A video with Ryan Shrout and Tom Petersen, in which both the experts give an honest update on the state of things for the graphics card. While we still didn’t get any of the (perhaps even more pressing) juicy news, such as a release date, we’re slowly getting to learn more about the performance of Intel Arc.
The topic of DirectX 12 and Vulkan versus DirectX 11 first came up in a recent Linus Tech Tips video that both Shrout and Petersen also took part in. In the video, Linus noted that going from DX12 to DX11 resulted in a 45% performance drop in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There’s no way to sugar coat this — this can be a problem.
While it’s a good thing that Intel Arc is so well optimized for DirectX 12, which means it will run some AAA titles with relative ease, a graphics card can’t only be used for the latest games. Plenty of older (and not even that much older) titles still rely on DirectX 11 or even older versions, and gamers are right to expect that they’ll be able to play these titles on their modern-day rig, too.
The problem is that DirectX 11 and 9 as well as other older APIs are much different from DX12 and Vulkan. Where DirectX 12 and Vulkan both chiefly rely on the game engine to handle all of the heavy-lifting, older APIs mostly apply pressure to the GPU driver.
This is something both AMD and Nvidia have had years to get used to and work with. This is why, whether you buy one of the best graphics cards or opt for something budget-friendly, you can feel safe in the knowledge that you’ll get decent performance in older games. Your mileage may vary, but you shouldn’t experience the kind of drop in frames per second (fps) that Intel is seeing right now, with nearly twice the performance in DX12 as opposed to DX11.
Intel is certainly aware of the problem, as can be seen in the refreshingly open Q&A. Petersen said, “We expect DX12 and Vulkan titles to be very good performance relative to the competition. […] On some DX11 titles, we’re gonna do great, but on other DX11 titles, we’re not gonna do great. It’s gonna be progress and improvement over time.”
Petersen then went on to note that Intel Arc hardware is a lot different than Nvidia and AMD, so Intel is now forced to go back and fine-tune all the things that developers have come to expect from a GPU driver. He also said that improving DX11 performance is going to be a “labor of love forever.”
It’s hard not to appreciate Intel’s transparency here. The truth is that if you’ll mostly be playing the games that Arc works well with, you might be fine — but it’s hard to expect gamers to only stick to a select few titles and never stray from those. Because of that, unless Intel Arc can keep working on optimization, it will have a hard time, as will the people who choose to buy it.
Oppo quietly unveiled the Oppo A77, their most recent phone, in India. The phone is available for Rs. 15,499 upon launch. You won’t find the finest chipset on the low-cost phone because it is an offline-focused device. Additionally, this Oppo phone won’t be in direct competition with products like Realme or Redmi. Even though it is a brand-new model on the market, it has the effect of making the phone appear dated.
But what does not look like it is since 2020 is the design of the phone. It comes with the latest design language of Oppo devices, with the squared-off sides and the camera array similar to other recent Oppo devices. Talking about the display, this phone comes with a 6.56-inch HD+ LCD display, that too with a 60Hz refresh rate. No other phone launched this year at this price comes with an HD+ display on this budget. Coming to the cameras, the phone comes with a dual camera setup consisting of a 50MP primary camera and a 2MP depth sensor. And there is an 8MP selfie camera at the front.
The phone is available to buy from the Oppo store now(opens in new tab). It will soon be available on Flipkart and Amazon, but the availability on e-commerce platforms has not been officially announced. The phone will soon be available in all offline stores too. Oppo A77 is powered by Mediatek Helio G35 SoC. This might seem like a joke, but it’s not. The phone is indeed powered by a 2-year-old budget SoC. It is not at all comparable with other phones in the segment. Even phones under Rs. 10,000 have better chipsets such as Mediatek Helio G85, Mediatek Helio G88 and even Snapdragon 680.
The phone is backed up by a 5,000mAh battery with support for 33W fast charging. The 33W charging is one of the only features in this phone that keeps up with other phones on this budget. Another feature that is better than other phones is the presence of a stereo speaker setup. This looks like a typical Oppo phone used to launch back in the day. But Oppo currently has much better phones in the segment with similar pricing. Such as Oppo K10 and Oppo F19. Oppo even has similar features in a phone priced less than this phone, Oppo A16 and Oppo A57.
Abhijith specializes in phones, computing and everything Tech at Techradar. He is based out of Kerala. He has been writing about Tech since 2013, on his own blog. He also used to host a YouTube channel about phones.
But the reason why this phone seems like a phone from 2020 is that it is a phone meant to be sold in retail stores, and not online. Oppo’s A series has always been a series of phones aimed at the offline market. And the phones in this series usually come with mediocre specs for the price. We cannot expect much from the A series phones anyway. This phone reminds us that not much has changed with Oppo with their A series of smartphones, and its offline-centric pricing.
NewsSummary:
The Oppo A77 seems to be a phone that Oppo did not launch in 2020
Check all news and articles from the latest Security news updates.
San Francisco: Following the May disclosure that the privacy-focused online browser DuckDuckGo permits Microsoft to track scripts on external sites, the platform now claims to begin banning those as well.
The platform said it was announcing more privacy and transparency around DuckDuckGo’s web tracking protections after community backlash.
“Over the next week, we will expand the third-party tracking scripts we block from loading on websites to include scripts from Microsoft in our browsing apps (iOS and Android) and our browser extensions (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge and Opera) , with beta apps to follow in the coming month,” the platform said in a blogpost.
DuckDuckGo said this expands its 3rd-Party Tracker Loading Protection, which blocks identified tracking scripts from Facebook, Google, and other companies from loading on third-party websites, to now include third-party Microsoft tracking scripts.
This web tracking protection is not offered by most other popular browsers by default and sits on top of many other DuckDuckGo protections.
To further deliver on its commitment to transparency, the privacy-focused online browser said it has posted a new help page that offers a comprehensive explanation of all the web tracking protections we provide across platforms.
“Users now have one place to look if they want to understand the different kinds of web privacy protections we offer on the platforms they use,” the platform said.
I visited Adelaide this week, and while wine is top of everyone’s agenda when visiting the land of many grapes, one of the highlights for me was this phone car.
You see, dear reader, I am an excitable, hyperfixating mess when it comes to two things: cool, goofy tech and cars. So, imagine my excitement when I came across the “World’s Largest Mobile Phone”, built by none other than Telecom Australia, on a Volkswagen chassis?
This delightful automobile carries a history to it that I’d love to dig deeper into, but for now, I’ll entertain you with what I know.
This phone on wheels dates back to the 1980s (Despite saying 1992 on the side). It was built by Telecom Australia, which then became Telstra in 1995.
During the 1980s, it was used in a variety of Australian parades. The National Archives of Australia has this snap of the car from 1980 at Warana in Queensland.
You rang? A woman perches on a Telecom parade float, Warana, Queensland, 1980.
Now, here’s where the history of the phone car becomes a bit of a mystery to me. As you’ll see in the images I snapped, the car as it appears in National Archives of Australia photos is slightly different. On the older version, you’ll see lights on the bottom, and on the newer version, you’ll see a hash key and an asterisk key.
You’ll also see different stickers placed across the car, though I suspect that much of this was a refresh in time for the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona (of which Telecom Australia was an Australian Olympic Team Sponsor, as written on the phone car).
But allow me to entertain you with some recounted history from the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia, where the phone car is currently on display (by the way, car lovers, you need to go see the collection, it’s incredible).
“This car is a working phone,” the Australian Motor Museum has written beside the Telecom Australia Phone Car.
“It was built by Telecom on a Volkswagen Chassis. They used it for walls and other promotions during the late 1980s. At events, the car was linked to a phone line and the public were invited to press the buttons and call anyone in Australia.”
Well, hot dang, Telecom Australia. Innovation on wheels.
Would I like to drive the phone car? Absolutely. It may not be an electric car, nor would it go particularly fast, but I’m a sucker for things like this. Perhaps the legacy of the car phone lives on in Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, which brings mobile phone connectivity to the modern vehicle.
Apple prides itself on the security measures built into its software and hardware—and it continues to add new protections and safeguards over time. Lockdown Mode is a new feature heading to iPhones, iPads, and Macs later this year, and it promises to protect your devices from “highly targeted cyberattacks.”
As you might surmise from the name, Lockdown Mode is a bit like closing the shutters, double-bolting the doors, and turning off all the lights in your home. It severely restricts the kinds of activity allowed on your devices, the logic being that if something unwanted has gained access, the damage will be limited.
For example, attachments other than images get turned off in Messages, and link previews are disabled. Incoming FaceTime calls from unknown numbers are blocked, as are wired connections with other hardware and accessories. Shared albums are removed from the Photos app, and new shared album invitations are blocked.
On a more technical level, a number of web technologies are turned off, including just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compilation (where code is run and compiled at the same time.) In addition, configuration profiles (for work or school for example) can’t be installed.
Lockdown Mode will be arriving on iPhones with iOS 16.
Courtesy of Apple
Lockdown Mode is disabled by default but can be enabled on an iPhone by going to Settingsthen Privacy and Securitythen LockdownMode. Turning it on or off requires a system reboot and the device’s PIN. While Apple is describing the feature as something for users at risk from “state-sponsored mercenary spyware”—which sounds like high-profile targets—anyone will be able to switch it on for additional protection.
“Lockdown Mode is an extreme, optional protection that should only be used if you believe you may be personally targeted by a highly sophisticated cyberattack,” is the way that Apple puts it in its support documentation. “Most people are never targeted by attacks of this nature.”
As Apple explains, the overall idea is to reduce the attack surface that malware and spyware have access to. Tools including the Pegasus spyware package developed by the NSO Group have the potential to read texts, track calls, collect passwords, monitor a user’s location, and more—and some require no interaction from the user.
With Pegasus, for example, a WhatsApp call to the target device is all it takes for the spyware to start its work, even if the call isn’t answered. It’s worth noting that this particular piece of spyware is blocked from running on devices with iOS 15 or higher installed, but there are plenty of other threats still out there, and plenty more that will be developed in the future.
papers please, one of the most acclaimed indie games out there, is now available on mobile phones. For those unfamiliar with the game, papers please is a relatively unique indie game that puts the players in the shoes of an immigration officer who is trying to make sure the right people get through the border of a fictional Soviet-esque country. As the game progresses, you must identify falsified papers, potential threats, and more, all while balancing a personal budget to try and keep your family alive. It’s an incredibly interesting game and one that was hailed by critics at the time of its release and has continued to be a fan favorite over the years.
papers please was made by developer Lucas Pope who is an ex-Naughty Dog developer. after shipping Uncharted 2Pope decided he was interested in making smaller, more experimental games which led him to develop papers please. After a PC release, a PlayStation Vita release, and an iPad release, the game is now available on Android and iPhone. Those who own the game on iPad can get the game for free and enjoy it at their leisure. The game is available for $4.99 on the iOS and Google Play Store. You can read a description of the game below.
“Papers, Please” is now available on phones. $4.99https://t.co/g79g7euUlYhttps://t.co/amTdPTcE6Ahttps://t.co/B4GYX6TG1F
“The communist state of Arstotzka has just ended a 6-year war with neighboring Kolechia and reclaimed its rightful half of the border town, Grestin. Your job as immigration inspector is to control the flow of people entering the Arstotzkan side of Grestin from Kolechia. Among the throngs of immigrants and visitors looking for work are hidden smugglers, spies, and terrorists.Using only the documents provided by travelers and the Ministry of Admission’s primitive inspect, search, and fingerprint systems you must decide who can enter Arstotzka and who will be turned away or arrested.”
If you haven’t played papers please, it’s definitely worth the $4.99, especially given how accessible the game is now. It examines morality and empathy in a really unique way and has a simple yet fun gameplay loop. If you’re looking for something new to play, this is worth the buy.
papers please is out now on PC, mobile, and PlayStation Vita. Have you played the game? If so, what did you think of it? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
Samsung Unpacked will livestream on Aug. 10, likely detailing the company’s next line of foldable phones.
why it matters
Samsung will be reaching its fourth generation of foldable phones, which started with the Galaxy Z Fold in 2019.
what’s next
As the foldable phone space grows, both the rumored Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4 could reveal features that we’ll see in foldable phones from other companies in the next year, such as rumored devices from Motorola and Google.
Samsung’s August 2022 Unpacked is only a few days away. The event, which is scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 10, will likely feature upcoming models of the Galaxy Z Fold and the Z Flip. the rumored Galaxy ZFold 4 and Z-Flip 4 would be successors to the $1,800Z-Fold 3 and the $1,000 ZFlip 3and Samsung’s own promotional art for the event showingcasing a Z Flip phone seems to tease new foldable phones that are on the way.
In addition to folding phones, Samsung might also provide a look at the future of its Galaxy Watch line, as Samsung continues its collaboration with Google on the newest version of the Wear OS operating system. This version of Wear OS — which will eventually incorporate features from Google’s Fitbit — is currently on last year’s Galaxy Watch 4. Now that it’s been a year since that watch debuted, Samsung might have a new Galaxy Watch 5 ready for 2022 alongside new details about Wear OS. Some announcements revealed by Samsung could even end up in Google’s own Pixel Watch later this year.
Samsung Unpacked will take place as a livestream starting at 6 am PT (9 am ET) on Aug. 10, with the company planning to broadcast on Samsung’s YouTube channel, Samsung.com and Samsung’s Newsroom. As the event gets closer, we’ll embed the livestream into this post.
CNET will also hold live coverage including a pre- and post-show, spotlighting the latest reveals in Samsung’s Galaxy lineup. That live event will stream on CNET’s YouTube channel, and will be accompanied by reporting from CNET staff.
Samsung’s next Unpacked event comes as phones including the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip hit the market, including the OnePlus 10Tthe asus zenfone 9 and the Red Magic 7S Pro. It’s also arriving about a month before Apple is expected to reveal its 2022 iPhone lineup, expected to coincide with the iPhone 14 and the public release of iOS 16.
Google appears to be working on a new Meet feature for live-sharing apps.
The videoconferencing platform may soon let you share a YouTube video, a Spotify soundtrack or fun games with call participants.
The upcoming feature will only supposedly support the Android version.
Google Meet is shaping up to be more than just a video-conferencing platform for work and school. The service will apparently pick up a new feature that will allow you to share your Spotify stream or watch YouTube videos together with participants in a call.
According to an app teardown performed by 9to5Google (opens in new tab), Google is working on integrating various apps with Meet to take your call to a service that you want to live-share. In addition to YouTube and Spotify, compatible services include games like Kahoot!, Heads Up!, and UNO!, as well as task manager GQueues.
The potential change was spotted in the latest version of Meet (2022.07.24), which is rolling out via the Play Store. When or if it goes live for everyone, Google Meet will presumably display an icon for each app. When you want to share your session on any of these apps, Meet will apparently “take your call to a third-party app” instead of opening those apps within the call.
9to5 also spotted a string of code that suggests the upcoming capability will only be available on Android phones. It remains unclear, though, how Meet will share content from Spotify with other call participants who don’t subscribe to the service. The feature is said to include an option to remotely pause or resume content that’s being shared.
As for games like UNO! , the service will presumably create a new lobby where anyone can hop in on the fun with one tap. It might even be possible to play a shared game with call participants.
The upcoming feature has surfaced in the midst of Google Duo’s transition to Meet. The combined app incorporates features from both of Google’s best video conference software.
