Introducing DualSense the New Wireless Game Controller for PlayStation5

Microsoft Edge Is Now More Popular Than Firefox | Digital Trends

The web has changed a lot over the years, and so has the way we use it. The thing that hasn’t changed? The web browser, the tool every one of us depends on. Here’s why it’s well past time for new ideas.

Digital TrendsArif Bacchus

Play Stadia Pro for free, starting today

Video games are a great way to socialize while at home, so we’re giving gamers in 14 countries free access to Stadia Pro for two months.

GooglePhil Harrison

Disney Plus surpasses 50 million subscribers

The international rollout of Disney Plus in a number of countries has helped it roll past the 50 million subscriber mark, the company has announced. To compare, Netflix has 167 million subscribers worldwide.

The VergeJulia Alexander

Leaker Claims New 13-inch MacBook Pro Coming as Soon as Next Month

Apple will announce a new 13-inch MacBook Pro in May with the codename J223, according to a rumor shared by YouTuber and leaker Jon Prosser. ...

MacRumorsTim Hardwick

No one’s getting new emoji in 2021 because of the pandemic

The Unicode Consortium says it’s delaying the release of emoji in 2021 and will be pushing back the schedule until 2022. This means the deadline to submit new emoji goes until September 1st.

The VergeAshley Carman

Google extends free access to advanced teleconferencing features to September 30th

Google has announced that it will extend free access to some advanced Google Meet features to all G Suite and G Suite for Education customers until September 30th. Previously, Google said it would offer free access until July 1st.

The VergeJay Peters

Apple and Google partner on COVID-19 contact tracing technology

Apple and Google announce a joint effort to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of the virus, with user privacy central to the design.

Apple Newsroom

Cyberpunk 2077’s DLC will be revealed before release, CD Projekt suggests | VGC

Company says it’s planning “no less” DLC than it released for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Video Games ChronicleAndy Robinson

Xbox Series X First impressions

Austin Evans had a chance to look at the Xbox Series X. His video gave us not only a fist look at the console, but the official specifications as well:

• Custom 8 core AMD Zen 2 CPU, clocked at 3.8GHz single thread, and up to 3.6GHz for sustained multithread load,
• Custom AMD RDNA GPU, 12TFLOPS, 52 CUs at 1.825GHz,
• 16GB (GDDR6) of RAM,
• 1TB NVME SSD,
• Expandable storage: 1TB expansion card,
• External Storage: USB HDD Support,
• 4K UHD Blue-Ray Drive,
• Dimensions: 301 x 151 x 151mm.

Video also clarified the naming convention:

• Xbox - is the name of the next generation of Microsoft consoles,
• Xbox Series X - is the name of the console.

Beside Evans' video, Microsoft also published their own clips:

• Xbox Series X - Loading Times Tech Demo
• Xbox Series X - Quick Resume Tech Demo

Playstation 5 Specification

Sony (via Digital Foundry) revealed the full specification of the next console:

• Custom: 8-core AMD Zen 2 CUP clocked at 3.5GHz,
• Custom AMD RDNA GPU, 10.28 TFLOPs, 36 CUs at 2.23GHz ,
• 16GB (GDDR6) of RAM,
• 825GB SSD,
• Expandable Storage: NVMe SSD Slot,
• External Storage: USB HDD Support,
• 4K UHD Blue-Ray Drive.

Apple revealed new products

Due to coronavirus, Apple Spring event never happened and Apple just update their website/store with new hardware.

New MacBook Air

• Display: 13.3-inch LED backlit (2560 x 1600px) with True Tone,
• CPU:  from 10th generation 1.1GHz dual-core Intel Core i3 up to 1.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7,
• GPU: Intel Iris Plus Graphics, supports up to 1 external 6K display at 6016x3384px @60Hz,
• RAM: 8GB base, 16GB maximum
• Storage: 256GB base, 2TB maximum,
• Battery:  up to 11 hours,
• Camera: 720p FaceTime HD,
• Keyboard: Magic keyboard with scissor mechanism 😁,
• Ports: Two Thunderbolt 3,
• Price: starting at $999.

New Mac mini

• CPU:  from 3.6GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i3 processor up to 3.2GHz 6-core Intel Core i7,
• GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 630, supports up to 1 external 5K display at 5120x2880px @60Hz,
• RAM: 8GB base, 64GB maximum
• Storage: 256GB base, 2TB maximum,
• Ports: Four Thunderbolt 3, Two USB 3 ports, HDMI 2.0 port Gigabit Ethernet port (configurable to 10Gb Ethernet) 3.5 mm headphone jack,
• Price: starting at $799.

New iPad Pro

• Display: 11-inch (2388 x 1668) or 12.9-inch (2732 x 2048) 120 Hz Liquid Retina Display with TrueTone
• CHIP: A12Z Bionic,
• RAM: 6GB,
• Storage: 128GB base, 1TB maximum,
• Battery:  up to 10 hours,
• Camera: 12MP Wide camera, 10MP Ultra Wide camera, 7MP depth camera,
• Audio: 5 studio-quality microphones for calls, video recording, and audio recording,
• Sensors: LiDAR Scanner (depth sensor),
• Price: starting at $799 for 11'' model, and $999 for 12.9'' model.

Magic Keyboard for iPad

Apple also announced a new keyboard for iPad with Trackpad:

• Full‑size, backlit keyboard with a scissor mechanism,
• Trackpad supports Multi‑Touch gestures and the cursor in iPadOS 13.4+,
• USB-C port for charging iPad Pro,
• Compatible iPad Pro 12.9‑inch (3rd and 4th generation) & iPad Pro 11‑inch (1st and 2nd generation).

Dope Links

• Alignment guides in SwiftUI
• Anchor preferences in SwiftUI
• If you need to group values in a sequence you can use Dictionary with init(grouping:by:)
• How to Build a live markdown Editor with VueJS
• CSS / Vanilla JS Challenge | Re-create the Netflix Video Player
• Bootstrap 5 release date and what's new about it
• A set of over 300 free MIT-licensed high-quality SVG icons for you to use in your web projects
• I teamed up with a fellow redditor to try and make the best moon shot we could. Here is the result!
• How Much Toilet Paper?! - The Coronavirus Toilet Paper Calculator

Image credits: Microsoft

Samsung Unpack

This week Samsung held its Unpacked event and presented new phones:

Samsung Galaxy S20 & S20+

The successors to S10 model have following specification:

• 6.2-inch 120Hz QHD+ OLED display in S20,
• 6.7-inch 120Hz QHD+ OLED display in S20+,
• Snapdragon 865 CPU,
• 12GB of RAM,
• 128GB of storage + microSD in S20,
• 128 or 512 GB of storage + microSD in S20+,
• 10MP Selfie camera,
• Triple (12+64+12MP) rear camera system,
• 5G compatible,
• 4000mAh battery in S20 & 4500mAh in S20+.

Samsung Galaxy S20 starts at $999,  and S20+ starts at $1199. Both will be available on March 6th.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra

Samsung also revealed the premium model in S20 lineup.

• 6.9-inch 120Hz QHD+ OLED display,
• Snapdragon 865 CPU,
• 12GB or 16GB of RAM,
• 128GB or 512GB of storage + microSD in S20+,
• 40MP Selfie camera
• Triple (108+48+12MP) rear camera system with additional depth camera,
• 5G compatible,
• 5000mAh battery.

Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra starts at $1399, and will be available on March 6th.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip

Samsung presented another foldable phone -  Galaxy Z Flip,  but it's not a successor to Galaxy Fold. Here is the spec:

• 6.7-inch FHD+ AMOLED main display,
• 1.1-inch Super AMOLED cover Display,
• Snapdragon 855+ CPU,
• 8GB of RAM,
• 256GB of storage,
• 10MP Selfie camera,
• Dual 12MP rear camera system,
• 3300mAh battery.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip costs $1,380 and launched on February 14th.

Xiaomi Mi 10

Despite of the Coronavirus outbreak in China, Xaomi managed to launch, at online-only event, the new flagship phones - Xiaomi Mi 10 & Mi 10Pro. Here is the spec of presented devices:

• 6.67-inch 90Hz AMOLED display,
• Snapdragon 865 CPU,
• 8 or 12GB of RAM,
• 128GB or 256GB of storage in Mi 10,
• 256GB or 512 of storage in Mi 10 Pro,
• 20MP Selfie camera
• Quad (108+12+8+20MP) rear camera system in Mi 10,
• Quad (108+12+2+2MP) rear camera system in Mi 10 Pro,
• 5G compatible,
• 4780mAh battery in Mi 10 & 4500mAh in Mi 10 Pro.

Xiaomi Mi 10 starts at ~$575 and will be available in China from February 14. Xiaomi Mi 10Pro  starts at ~$715 and will be available in China from February 18.

$450 production cost of PlayStation 5

According to Bloomberg manufacturing costs of the PlayStation 5 are around $450 per unit. The biggest reason for higher cost is limited supply and high prices of DRAM and NAND flash memories.

Dope links

• Swift Playgrounds for macOS
• Swift Package framework creation in Xcode
• How to Send Push Notifications to the iOS Simulator
• Full Stack Open 2019 - Deep Dive Into Modern Web Development
• GraphQL is Not "Better" Than REST
• What to Choose Between Gridsome and NuxtJS
• The guide to write universal, SSR-ready Vue components
• A Vue powered design tool that... exports Vue components
• Create a Reading Scroll Progress Bar for Your Blog in JavaScript and CSS
• How I recreated a Polaroid camera with CSS gradients only
• Spider-Man Developers Want More People to Know How Games Are Written
• Third Row Tesla Podcast – Elon Musk's Story - Director's Cut

Image credits: Samsung

More PlayStation 5 details

Wired published an article that shares more information about next-gen console. Here is the short summary:

• It has been officially confirmed that next console will be named PlayStation 5,
• It will be available for holidays 2020,
• CPU will be based on AMD’s Ryzen line and a GPU based on Navi family,
• It has been confirmed that ray-tracing support will be hardware based
• There will be no HDD only SSD,
• There will be 4K Blu-ray player,
• PS5 will use 100-GB optical disks,
• New data structure mechanism will allow gamers to install only single-player or multiplayer campaign instead of installing the whole game,
• There will be new system that will allow to check what players can do in games and quickly join in,
• New controller will be called DualShock 5,
• New controller will have "adaptive triggers" that offer varying levels of resistance, which can be adjusted to game we play,
• The force-feedback system is now based on haptic engines instead of rumble motors,
• Next-gen controller uses a USB Type-C connector for charging.

Apple's Sleep app confirmed in a leak

The App Store screenshots for the Alarms app for Apple Watch include text that mentions the rumored Sleep app. This is another confirmation that Apple is working on it. The Sleep app supposed to come with iOS 13, but was removed before iOS 13 beta was released.

If we take in consideration that battery life in Apple Watch Series 5 is worse than in previous model, it looks like that for the Sleep tracking we will have to wait till next year. If Apple won't be able to improve battery life software-wise, then we won't see it until new version of Apple Watch is released.

Interesting links

• Indie game makers open up about the money they actually make
• The Making of “The Aviator”: Animating a Basic 3D Scene with Three.js
• How to organize your Three.js code in a cleaner way
• Vue 3 – A roundup of infos about the new version of Vue.js
• Interview with a Pornhub Web Developer
• This Is What Happens When You Re-Upload a YouTube Video 1000 Times!
• What to do when you get Sherlocked by Apple

Image credits: LetsGoDigital

Avengers Engame

This week, Marvel released the final chapter of the Avengers. This is a culmination of the story that was 11 years in a making and took 22 movies to tell. During that time those movies evolved from small experiment into pop-culture phenomenon. That being said, the directors, Russo brothers, had almost impossible task to finish all the stories,  meet fans' expectations and lay the foundation for the Phase 4.  I have to admit, I was worried whether they would be able to do it, but they did it. After watching it, I can say with certainty that this is the perfect culmination of the Marvel's Phase 1-3 movies. After leaving the cinema I was fulfilled. Russo brothers not only close the storyline, but they also incorporated so many references to previous movies and comics, that is was overwhelming.  Every nerd will have something to talk about for weeks.

This is not the perfect movie, but  it  gives us closure, and that was what I wanted from this movie.

Samsung Galaxy Fold

Last week I was writing about broken review units. This week we got first reviews and even a teardown. As I said last week, this phone is still a prototype with many small issues. They are not anything major, but it looks like they might be irritating in long run. I hope Samsung is taking notes and the next model will be true folded phone.

Another AirPods in 2019?

There are rumors that Apple will release a brand new AirPods later this year. New model is supposed to have a noise-canceling feature as well as new form-factor. Those rumors are really interesting especially after Apple's AirPods update in last March. Although, in March we go merely a hardware refresh, when all previous rumors hinted new colors, materials and features including noise-cancellation, so maybe we will get a brand new AirPods after all.

Interesting links

• Guide to the Star Wars' Alphabet Aurebesh
• The transition into Fisk Tower in Spider-Man's intro mission
• Introduction to WebAuthn API
• Crafting a Command Line Experience that Developers Love
• The downsides of JSON for config files
• What is a File Descriptor?
• Great developers are raised, not hired