Weekly Digest - 2020.06

Weekly Digest - 2020.06

Faking trafic jam on Google Maps

Google Maps monitors traffic data using various sources, including phones with location services turned on.  Sam Wecker tricked Google Maps and created virtual traffic jam by walking through empty streets of Berlin with 99 second-hand phones loaded on a small wagon.

Google is aware of this flaw and, in response to 9to5Google, stated that they liked the idea, and hope that it will somehow improve the service.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip leaked

A video showing upcoming Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip has been shared on Twitter. Phone itself looks more like a traditional flip phone that folds up into a compact device. There is not much information about this phone, but here is what we know so far based on the leaks:

  • It will have 6.1- inch foldable main screen,
  • Smaller screen on the back for clock & notifications,
  • Front facing camera built into the main screen,
  • Double camera system on the back.

The Galaxy Z Flip is expected to be revealed at Samsung's Unpacked event on February 11.

GeForce Now finally released

Nvidia's game streaming service -  GeForce Now - left the beta and is finally available for everyone. At the moment, players can choose one of two tiers:

Free

  • Play session is limited to 1 hour,
  • Raytracing is disabled.

Founders

  • Costs $4.99 a month,
  • Unlimited play time,
  • Priority access to servers,
  • Raytracing is available.

GeForce Now allows to play already purchased games from Steam, Uplay, and Epic Store. The list of compatible games is impressive.

At the moment, the client is available for Windows, macOS i Android, but Nvidia also plans to release the PWA version.

Microsoft forgot to renew a certificate, again

Microsoft Teams went down for nearly three hours after Microsoft forgot to renew a critical security certificate. Teams users couldn't sign into the service because the app was failing to establish an HTTPS connection to Microsoft’s servers.

This is not Microsoft's first incident with expired certificate. In 2013,  Microsoft Azure was not available for couple of hours.

AMD Powered macs?

New beta of macOS 10.15.4 Catalina continues to reference the AMD processors. Those references could mean one of couple of things:

  • Apple is just playing with AMD's hardware and there is nothing more to the story,
  • AMD's CPU and GPU will power rumored gaming computer,
  • Apple is going to replace Intel's chips with AMD ones in future iMacs and MacBooks.

Image credits: Google Maps

Weekly digest - 2018.34

Weekly digest - 2018.34

This week Nvidia unveiled the new GeForce RTX 2000 series of graphics cards at Gamescom. New series is a long-awaited successor of GTX 1000 series. Based on new Turing architecture, the RTX 2080 is a big step forward into achieving real-time ray-tracing effects in games. Beside new effects, Nvidia also promises a 6 times more performance comparing to previous generation of GPUs.
Cards were available for preorder with shipment scheduled for 20th of September. The reference pricing for the cards is following:

  • RTX 2070 is $499
  • RTX 2080 is $699
  • RTX 2080 Ti is $999
  • RTX 2070 Founders Edition is $599
  • RTX 2080 Founders Edition is $799
  • RTX 2080 Founders Edition Ti is $1,199

Despite the high prices, all cards are already sold out. And thanks to crypto-miners, I would not expect to see them available before premiere or with lower prices.

This is it for this week. Before you leave, please check this list of interesting things out.

The 10 Secrets to Indie Game Success (and Why They Do Not Exist)

This is Windows 95, running in an Electron app

Splash - A fast, lightweight and flexible Swift syntax highlighter for blogs, tools and fun!

The Firebase Database For SQL Developers Series

How you can style your terminal like Medium, freeCodeCamp, or any way you want

Lolcat, Colorls, Catpix, and other Ruby Gems to add color to your terminal


Image credits: Nvidia.

Weekly digest - 2018.03

Weekly digest - 2018.03

First two weeks of this year were quite busy. We had CPUs meltdowns, then we had
busy CES. Finally, this week was a normal one, at least for most of us. So, if you are not running for your life, check this list of interesting things I stumbled upon this week.

Making of Apple's emojis
10 years ago Angela Guzman was an intern at Apple. Today, she give us insight into how the Apple's emojis were created. It is really interesting to read how things we use every day became the reality.

CALayer tutorials
If you ever wonder how all those fancy iOS animations are made, this is the site for you. Shannon Potter wrote multiple in-depth tutorials explaining how to do them.

Nintendo Labo
Nintendo goes back to making toys. This time, it is going to make cardboard accessories to Nintendo Switch. It looks weird at the beginning, but actually it is clever combination of portable console and piece of cardboard.

Nintendo Switch Emulator
Speaking of Nintendo Switch. CEMU Emulator now supports Nintendo Switch. It supports one game, to be precise. Nevertheless, here you can see The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in stunning 4k 60fps!

GeForece Now - cloud gaming by Nvidia
Nvidia presented their own gaming service. It allow to play AAA games on your ordinary PC and Mac. At the moment, the service offers almost 150 games, including Star Wars Battlefront II, The Witcher 3 and PUBG. Pricing is still unknown, but you can try to get access to the free beta.

BeatSaber
Beat Saber is a VR rhythm game. I'm not a big fan of music games, but this one is impressive. Something tells me, this might be a hit 😉.

Star Wars Rebels Mid-Season 4 Trailer
After 4 seasons, Star Wars Rebels is coming to an end. Here is the official trailer of remaining episodes.


Image credits: Disney.