EA may no longer release ‘Madden’ or ‘FIFA’ every year

If you play EA’s sports games often, you know the drill: every summer there’s a fresh round of titles that carry new modes, gameplay tweaks and (of course) roster updates. They’re often minor and not always worth buying, but what choice do you have if you want to stay current? There might be a more practical option soon. In an interview with Bloomberg, EA chief Andrew Wilson floated the possibility that his company might drop annual sports game releases in favor of updates or subscriptions. The publisher could treat the games as a “365-day, live service,” he said. Instead of buying FIFA or Madden every year, you might pay a regular fee or download content to keep it relevant.

Wilson argued that the shift toward internet content made this possible. When sales are moving from plastic discs to online stores, why not treat games more like services? There would be challenges if EA embraced the internet fully by offering streaming games instead of downloads (what does the game look like when it’s not on a home machine?), but it’s notable that this is even a realistic option.

The executive didn’t suggest pricing, let alone offer a timetable. However, it’s easy to see why EA would have this not-so-yearly strategy on the table. As many companies have learned, subscriptions are a way to keep money rolling in on a regular basis, rather than hoping users might buy new software. And it’s theoretically more convenient for both developers and players alike. EA doesn’t have to ship as many physical copies, and you might not have to wait for an entirely new game just to try a mode that could have easily been included in a patch or a lower-priced add-on.

Source: Bloomberg

Xiaomi Redmi Y1 vs. Redmi 4 vs. Redmi Note 4: What’s the difference?

Xiaomi has three great options in the budget segment.

Between the Redmi Note 4 and the Redmi 4, Xiaomi has two of the best-selling phones in India this year. The Redmi Y1 is the latest addition to the budget lineup, with the manufacturer turning its attention to a younger audience with the device. One out of every four devices sold in India in 2017 was a selfie-centric phone, and Xiaomi is now catering to this market with the Redmi Y1, which has a 16MP front camera with LED flash.

The Redmi Y1 is available in India for ₹8,999, and the 3GB/32GB variant of the Redmi 4 also costs ₹8,999. The Redmi Note 4, meanwhile, retails for ₹10,999. You get your money’s worth from all three devices, but there are subtle differences in the specs:

The Redmi Y1 and the Redmi Note 4 feature 5.5-inch screens, but the main difference between the two is that the former has a 720p panel whereas the latter sports a 1080p screen. The highlight with the Redmi Y1 is the 16MP front camera, which is noticeably better than what you get on the Redmi 4 or the Redmi Note 4. If you’re one to take a lot of selfies, you’ll be well served by the Redmi Y1.

If two-day battery life is what you’re after, the Redmi 4 and the Redmi Note 4 should be right up your alley. Both phones offer 4100mAh battery, with the Redmi Y1 featuring a more modest 3080mAh unit. You still get a day’s worth of usage from the Y1, but it’s not quite at the same level as the Redmi 4 or the Redmi Note 4. The Redmi Note 4 in particular — thanks to its 14nm chipset — is a beast in this regard, delivering nine hours of screen-on-time on average between charges.

The Redmi 4 has a 5-inch form factor, so if you’re in the market for a device primarily for consuming multimedia, you’ll be better served by the Redmi Note 4. The Snapdragon 625 in the Redmi Note 4 is more powerful than the Snapdragon 435 used in the Redmi 4 and the Redmi Y1. Although both chipsets use Cortex A53 cores, they’re clocked higher in the Snapdragon 625 — up to 2.0GHz.

All three phones have rear-mounted fingerprint sensors, along with 13MP rear cameras. The Redmi Y1 is the first phone with the global version of MIUI 9 out of the box, but the stable build is available for the Redmi Note 4 right now. The Redmi 4 will receive the update at a later date.

With so little separating the three devices, it comes down to your personal preferences. If you want a phone with a compact form factor and excellent battery life, then the Redmi 4 is the device to get. The Redmi Y1 has a premium design aesthetic, and the front camera is much better than that of the Redmi 4.

The Redmi Note 4, meanwhile, strikes the ideal balance between great battery life and robust performance. It’s easy to see why the phone is still one of the best-selling in the country nearly a year after its introduction.

See at Flipkart

No, Xiaomi isn’t working on a Mi Mix 2s with an iPhone X-style notch

This is not the Mi Mix 2s.

Xiaomi said during the launch of the Mi Mix 2 that it explored various implementations for the positioning of the front camera, including a design that featured a cutout at the top, much like the “notch” on the iPhone X. The company ultimately decided to place the camera module on the bottom bezel for the Mix 2, and while alleged photos of a “Mi Mix 2s” with a cutout at the top are making the rounds, the phone in question is a standard Mi Mix 2 running an app that mimics the notch.

The alleged images conveniently hide the bottom bezel, which is where the camera module is located on the Mix 2. Furthermore, the themes store in MIUI has plenty of options that let users “convert” their phones to an iPhone X-style look. iOS-based themes have been popular among Xiaomi customers for several years now, and the launch of the iPhone X has led to themes that allow users to emulate the notch on their Xiaomi phones.

As for the Mi Mix 2, Xiaomi is working to bring the bezel-less device to other markets. The phone was launched in India last month, and Xiaomi has kicked off sales in Europe earlier this week.

Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 review: Astounding, audacious, accessible

Snapchat’s huge redesign will reportedly arrive next month

By its own account, Snapchat isn’t attracting anywhere near the amount of users it should be. To ensure its app isn’t fully eclipsed by Instagram, it’s planning a major redesign that will make the notoriously difficult service “easier to use.” Although CEO Evan Spiegel said the revamp would focus on Story playback and surfacing original shows, he stopped short of announcing a launch date. Regardless, we now have a tentative ETA, courtesy of Business Insider’s sources. The update will reportedly land on December 4th and (naturally) will bring with it some major changes.

Whereas, the app will still open to the camera, it will reportedly no longer separate your friends’ messages and stories in tabs to the left and the right. Instead, the redesign will bundle user communications in a feed on the left. A swipe to the right, will lead to crowdsourced stories (from music, sports, and global events), along with content from Snapchat’s media partners (like MTV and CNN). This section will reportedly also include celeb stories. That’s a lot to cram into one tab, but Snap will reportedly employ algorithms to curate the “endless feed of videos” to your tastes. Whether that will result in an outcry from its media partners remains to be seen — right now they’re all stacked equally on the far-right Discover section.

Snap didn’t confirm the details in the report, but the info seems to follow what the company hinted at in its earnings call on Tuesday. Still, the planned launch date and inner workings could change abruptly.

Via: Business Insider

Report claims ecommerce sites are hijacking visitor CPUs to mine digital coins

Several months ago, reports surfaced claiming that CBS-owned Showtime was allegedly accessing the processors of PCs visiting two of its websites to secretly mine virtual coins. The process is called “cryptojacking,” and relies on code embedded in a website that silently runs mining software within the visitor’s browser. It’s a growing problem, and a recent report indicates that it’s even spreading across legitimate ecommerce sites, generating virtual money in the background while you spend real-world cash.

The growing practice of mining virtual coins within a visitor’s browser stems from a new JavaScript kit called CoinHive. There’s nothing malicious about this software, as it’s specifically designed to mine virtual coins within a web browser using the visitor’s processor. It’s meant to be an alternative payment method for visitors: mine coins for the site in return for free downloads, ad-free video streaming, in-game items, and so on.

But in a report provided by independent security researcher Willem de Groot, he found at least 2,496 online stores running CoinHive in the background. Even more, 80 percent of these online shops were likely not running the mining software on purpose, as he discovered they were also infected with malware that steals payment information during transactions, also known as “payment skimming.”

Groot also notes that out of the 2,496 infected ecommerce sites, 85 percent were linked to a mere two CoinHive accounts, and the remaining 15 percent were connected to multiple unique accounts linked to the ecommerce companies. Groot believes that the bulk of the infected sites are running outdated ecommerce software with well-known software vulnerabilities, enabling hackers to inject these sites with CoinHive and payment skimming malware.

At the time of this post, one “infected” website was Subaru’s online shop in Australia. Sure enough, when we visited the site, the tab in Google’s Chrome browser began using 45 percent of our CPU, waking up the chip’s cooling fan. Once we exited the page, the tab’s CPU usage dropped back down to near zero, and the fan went quiet. We didn’t find any reference to CoinHive in the site’s source code, but rather a hidden “iframe” that loads up a page labeled “Apache2 Debian Default Page.” The CoinHive JavaScript resides towards the end of the page’s code so it’s not blatantly visible on Subaru’s website.

There’s also something definitely going on at Musicas.cc. When we visited the site, the Chrome browser tab shot up to nearly 90 percent of CPU usage. We also found the CoinHive JavaScript listed at the end of the page’s source code, verifying that it is indeed mining virtual coins in the background without any warning on the site’s main page.

“Some sites bluntly include the official coinhive.js file, others are more stealthy,” he reports. “Others disguise as Sucuri Firewall.”

To prevent sites from hijacking your processor for digital coin mining, you can use stand-alone software with a built-in ad-blocker, or install a similar plugin within the browser. Another method is to edit the “hosts” file located in the “windowssystem32driversetc” directory with Notepad to add “coin-hive.com” and “coinhive.com” on the blocked list.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Protect your PC from the cyber-flu with the best free antivirus options
• Here are the best free drawing software programs you can install right now
• The value of cryptocurrencies is on the rise, but so are the risks from hackers
• Visited Showtime online recently? It allegedly mined virtual coins on your PC
• LG V30 vs. Galaxy Note 8: Can LG’s contender beat Samsung’s phablet king?

Report claims ecommerce sites are hijacking visitor CPUs to mine digital coins

Several months ago, reports surfaced claiming that CBS-owned Showtime was allegedly accessing the processors of PCs visiting two of its websites to secretly mine virtual coins. The process is called “cryptojacking,” and relies on code embedded in a website that silently runs mining software within the visitor’s browser. It’s a growing problem, and a recent report indicates that it’s even spreading across legitimate ecommerce sites, generating virtual money in the background while you spend real-world cash.

The growing practice of mining virtual coins within a visitor’s browser stems from a new JavaScript kit called CoinHive. There’s nothing malicious about this software, as it’s specifically designed to mine virtual coins within a web browser using the visitor’s processor. It’s meant to be an alternative payment method for visitors: mine coins for the site in return for free downloads, ad-free video streaming, in-game items, and so on.

But in a report provided by independent security researcher Willem de Groot, he found at least 2,496 online stores running CoinHive in the background. Even more, 80 percent of these online shops were likely not running the mining software on purpose, as he discovered they were also infected with malware that steals payment information during transactions, also known as “payment skimming.”

Groot also notes that out of the 2,496 infected ecommerce sites, 85 percent were linked to a mere two CoinHive accounts, and the remaining 15 percent were connected to multiple unique accounts linked to the ecommerce companies. Groot believes that the bulk of the infected sites are running outdated ecommerce software with well-known software vulnerabilities, enabling hackers to inject these sites with CoinHive and payment skimming malware.

At the time of this post, one “infected” website was Subaru’s online shop in Australia. Sure enough, when we visited the site, the tab in Google’s Chrome browser began using 45 percent of our CPU, waking up the chip’s cooling fan. Once we exited the page, the tab’s CPU usage dropped back down to near zero, and the fan went quiet. We didn’t find any reference to CoinHive in the site’s source code, but rather a hidden “iframe” that loads up a page labeled “Apache2 Debian Default Page.” The CoinHive JavaScript resides towards the end of the page’s code so it’s not blatantly visible on Subaru’s website.

There’s also something definitely going on at Musicas.cc. When we visited the site, the Chrome browser tab shot up to nearly 90 percent of CPU usage. We also found the CoinHive JavaScript listed at the end of the page’s source code, verifying that it is indeed mining virtual coins in the background without any warning on the site’s main page.

“Some sites bluntly include the official coinhive.js file, others are more stealthy,” he reports. “Others disguise as Sucuri Firewall.”

To prevent sites from hijacking your processor for digital coin mining, you can use stand-alone software with a built-in ad-blocker, or install a similar plugin within the browser. Another method is to edit the “hosts” file located in the “windowssystem32driversetc” directory with Notepad to add “coin-hive.com” and “coinhive.com” on the blocked list.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Protect your PC from the cyber-flu with the best free antivirus options
• Here are the best free drawing software programs you can install right now
• The value of cryptocurrencies is on the rise, but so are the risks from hackers
• Visited Showtime online recently? It allegedly mined virtual coins on your PC
• LG V30 vs. Galaxy Note 8: Can LG’s contender beat Samsung’s phablet king?

Microsoft brings muted tabs, quick sharing in new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build

We’ve all had it happen to us: You’ve got about 20 tabs open in your internet browser, and one of them begins to play the sound of an obnoxious video.

The new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build brings a number of helpful fixes, including the ability to mute individual tabs in Microsoft Edge, as well as something called “Near Share.” As detailed in the official Windows Blog, Build 17035 also makes a long list of tweaks to things like settings, keyboards, and the Start menu.

With the rising profile of video content on the web, it’s more important than ever to have the ability to mute particular tabs in your browser. To perform the function, just right click on the problem tab (hint: it’s probably the one with a volume symbol next to the title). From there, just skip down to Mute tab and give it a click. It’s a feature that’s been in Safari and Chrome for a while, so it’s good to see Microsoft bring it to Edge.

The other (somewhat) significant update to Windows 10 is the aforementioned “Near Share.” This one is a bit more complicated — and will only work if both your computer and the computer your sharing with have Bluetooth support (of course, both computers will also need to have the newest build installed). Near Share is essentially a new “quick action” that lets you quickly share something on your screen with another person without having to exit out of the application.

To use it, you’ve got to first have the quick actions setting turned on — it can be found in Notifications & Actions in the Settings menu. From there, you’ll find the Share icon in a number of first-party Microsoft apps, including Edge, Photos, and File Explorer.

Other small tweaks worth mentioning include an update to typing in Japanese, the addition of text suggestion on hardware keyboards, and Sound setting getting moved from Control Panel to the new Settings menu.

Windows 10 gets two big updates each year: the Creators Update in the spring and Fall Creators Update in the fall. The Fall Creators Update from the this past fall included a shift in design called the “Fluent Design System,” as well as updates to how your smartphone relates to your Windows PC. But in between the big releases, we get sneak peeks into what Microsoft is doing in the form of Inside Preview Builds, such as the one described above. Although anyone can become an “Insider,” this is beta software that comes with its own risks at installation.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Skip ahead of the Fall Creators Update with Windows Insider preview build 17004
• Microsoft issues second Windows Insider ‘Skip Ahead’ build
• Windows Insider Preview build 16299 drops as devs make Ignite appearance
• Latest Windows 10 Insider build lets you poke your tongue out in My People
• Microsoft releases the first Windows Insider Skip Ahead preview build

Mophie announces new battery cases for the Galaxy Note 8

Mophie’s new juice pack and charge force case for the Note 8 cost $99.95 and $49.95, respectively.

Samsung knocked most things out of the park with this year’s Note 8, but one aspect of the phone that left some users feeling a bit cheated out is with its battery. The 3,300 mAh unit isn’t technically small and offers enough juice for most folks, but compared to the Galaxy S8+ and last year’s Note 7, it does leave a bit to be desired.

Thankfully, mophie is coming to the rescue as it just announced its juice packÒ and charge force case for the Galaxy Note 8.

Starting first with the juice pack, this is the more expensive of the two cases with a price tag of $99.95. The juice pack comes equipped with a built-in 2,950 mAh battery, and mophie says that this should provide over 36 hours of additional talk time. Mophie added wireless charging to the case so you can continue to wirelessly charge your Note 8 just like you would if it didn’t have a case on, and it features secure magnetic positioning for use with mophie’s charge force stations.

Mophie juice pack (left), charge force case (right)

As for the charge force case, this features a much more affordable price of $49.95 with the exception of not having a built-in battery. This makes the case much slimmer than the juice pack, and it still offers passthrough wireless charging and compatibility with all of mophie’s charge force accessories – including the powerstation mini, desk mount, and others.

Both cases are available to order from mophie’s website starting today, but at the time of publishing the article, the juice pack is already out of stock.

See at mophie

Samsung Galaxy Note 8

• Galaxy Note 8 review
• Complete Galaxy Note 8 specs
• Galaxy Note 8 vs. Galaxy Note 5
• Which Note 8 color is best?
• Join our Galaxy Note 8 forums

Verizon
AT&T
T-Mobile
Sprint
Best Buy

Skype adds Snapchat-like AI photo effects to its mobile app

The Skype crew hasn’t been shy about wanting to emulate Snapchat and hang with the cool kids… and that’s truer than ever today. Skype has added a slew of decidedly Snapchatesque photo effects to its mobile messaging apps, including face stickers, filters, captions and handy info like the weather. You won’t necessarily have to dig them up yourself, though. The effects take advantage of Microsoft’s machine learning chops to detect your age and emotion, suggest text and even determine your celebrity doppelganger. The effects can vary by the day (including holidays), so you’re encouraged to check them often to see what’s new.

The effects should show up in the next few days if you don’t have them already. They’re not strictly new — Microsoft first introduced the AI-powered suggestions through its Sprinkles app. They should get considerably more use now that they’re in a major social app, mind you. The real question is whether or not this will improve Skype’s stature. This probably won’t lure you away from Snapchat (or Instagram, or Facebook). However, it might keep you using Skype if you thought it was falling behind the times.

Source: Skype Blog

Apple offered to help FBI unlock Texas shooter’s phone

FBI special agent Christopher Combs complained how the agency couldn’t get into the Texas shooter’s phone during a press conference. Turns out all they had to do was ask Apple for help. In a statement the tech titan has released to the media, it said it “immediately reached out to the FBI after learning from their press conference on Tuesday that investigators were trying to access a mobile phone.” Cupertino offered its assistance and even promised to “expedite [its] response to any legal process.” It added that it “work[s] with law enforcement every day” and “offer[s] training to thousands of agents so they understand [its] devices and how they can quickly request information from Apple.”

The company told Business Insider that the FBI has yet to ask for help accessing the phone. That pretty much confirms Reuters’ report that officials missed the 48-hour window that would have allowed them to unlock the device simply by using the shooter’s fingerprint. If the gunman had fingerprint access enabled, Apple could’ve told authorities that they had 48 hours to use his prints to unlock the phone before the feature ceased to function.

Now that it’s past 48 hours, the agency has to find a legal means to get to the phone’s contents. Officials will now have to serve Apple with a court order to be able to get their hands on his iCloud data. It’s unclear if the FBI is already securing a court order, but it might have decided not to work with Apple after having a tough time convincing the company to unlock the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone. Apple refused to open the device for the agency even after the FBI took the company to court. In the end, the feds paid big money for a third-party company’s tool that was able to unlock the device.

So …
FBI didn’t reach out for assistance. Apple contacted agency. if iPhone with TouchID, contact established AFTER 48 hour window for touchID closed. finger could have been used to unlock (if touch ID enabled). https://t.co/BgVhfT8TdZ

— John Paczkowski (@JohnPaczkowski) November 8, 2017

Via: CNET, Business Insider, MacRumors

Source: John Paczkowski‏ (Twitter)