Weekly digest - 2018.52

Weekly digest - 2018.52

During this week I looked back on what happened this year and I decided to pick my top 3 news from each month. Here are my picks.

January

  1. Bitcoin bubble burst,
  2. Meltdown and Spectre discovered,
  3. EA became scared of YouTubers.

February

  1. SpaceX launched Falcon Heavy into space,
  2. Elon Musk started selling not a Flamethrowers,
  3. Apple started selling HomePods.

March

  1. Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal,
  2. Apple fixed buggy iPhone X ad before fixing the actual iOS 11 bug,
  3. Current frequency deviations in Central Europe.

April

  1. Mark Zuckerberg testified before members of Congress,
  2. SpaceX reached the promised land of launching every two weeks,
  3. GTA V has become the most profitable entertainment product of all time.

May

  1. Google Duplex has been announced,
  2. GDPR has become effective,
  3. Premiere of Solo: A Star Wars Story.

June

  1. Microsoft bought GitHub,
  2. Apple held WWDC,
  3. Apple Pay became available in Poland.

July

  1. Apple updated MacBook Pros,
  2. New MacBook Pros fixed keyboard but overheats,
  3. Clone Wars TV series has been renewed.

August

  1. Apple became first IT company to be worth 1 trillion dollars,
  2. Twitter limited access to the APIs,
  3. CD Project released first gameplay of the Cyberpunk 2077.

September

  1. Apple unveiled iPhone XS, XR and Apple Watch 4,
  2. Google was celebrating its 20th birthday,
  3. iOS 12 and macOS Mojave has been released.

October

  1. LucasFilm shared details about first Star Wars tv series - The Mandalorian,
  2. Apple shoved new iPad Pro,
  3. Google unveiled Pixel 3, a tablet and HomeHub.

November

  1. Disney announced new streaming service - Disney+,
  2. Stan Lee has passed away,
  3. Robert Kubica returned to F1.

December

  1. Microsoft announced that it's working on a new browser,
  2. YouTube Rewind 2018 became the most disliked video on YouTube,
  3. Google’s Home Alone ad.

That's all folks. This was an incredible year. I hope next year will be event better.
Happy New year guys and see you soon!


Image credits: Annie Spratt.

Weekly digest - 2018.41

Weekly digest - 2018.41

This week Google held a special event, where they presented new Pixel 3 phones and bunch of others devices. Let's start with the phones. Google as always presented two versions, the base one - Pixel, and one with bigger screen- Pixel XL. Here is the specification:

  • Full-HD+ OLED, Gorilla Glass 5,
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 octa-core processor,
  • Adreno 630 GPU,
  • 4GB RAM and 6GB for Pixel XL
  • 64GB/128GB storage,
  • 12Mp f/1.8 rear camera with dual autofocus,
  • 8Mp + 8Mp, f/1.8/2.2 dual-selfie camera,
  • Rear fingerprint sensor,
  • IPX8 waterproofing,
  • 2915mAh battery for Pixel, and 3430mAh with Quick Charge for Pixel XL
  • Wireless charging and USB-C 3.1,
  • Android 9.0 Pie.

The specification for both version is almost identical. The only difference comes to amount of RAM, 4GB vs 6GB, and battery size. Of course there is also screen size difference, Pixel has 5.5 inch screen and Pixel XL has 6.3 inch with a notch. Speaking of the notch, it has not been received well. Based on images and videos I've seen, I have to agree with those accusations. I'm not a big fan of the notch, but I got use to it on the iPhone. Keeping that in mind, the Pixel's 3 notch still feels gigantic. I would love to see the phone in real life and do the comparison.
Speaking of real life, both phones are the most expensive Google phones ever :/ The Pixel starts at $799 for 64GB version. The XL starts at $899 for the same storage. It looks like the trend of producing very expensive phones continues.

Google also announced new tablet with a detachable keyboard powered by ChromeOS. It's called Google Pixel Slate, and it's very similar to the Surface Pro. It has 12.3 inch screen with front facing camera and two speakers. On the back there is rear camera. On the side, we will find fingerprint reader.
Device is powered by family of Intel CPUs, from Celeron up to i7 in the most powerful configuration. The CPU version affects the amount of memory we can get, 4GB in Celeron configuration, up to 16GB with i7. In terms of storage, devices will have from 32GB up to 256GB.
The Pixel Slate will go on sale in November starting at $599, while the dedicated keyboard will cost additional $199.

Also during the event, Google presented the Home Hub. This is basically the Google speaker with a screen, like Amazon's Echo Show or Facebook Portal but without a camera. Lack of the camera on a device like this is a bit surprising, but at leas we don't have to worry about device spying on us. Home hub comes in 4 colors and will be released on 22nd of October for $149.

The last news from the event is that Google Plus is going to be shut down. The official reason are security breaches, but to be honest, no one was using this platform anyway, so I'm glad that i will be officially gone.

That all folks from the news, here is the list of interesting things.

Hire by Google: applicant tracking system & recruiting software

Kinda okay generated text

Secure your web application with these HTTP headers

How to launch a site on AWS for free in 15 minutes

Why building your own Deep Learning Computer is 10x cheaper than AWS

The truth about toxic workers in the workplace

Weekly digest - 2018.35

Weekly digest - 2018.35

This week CD Project Red publish 48-minutes long walkthrough of the Cyberpunk 2077.
I have to admit that after E3 trailer I was a little bit skeptical. The world seemed to be too bright, clean and sterile for cyberpunk world. I was expecting dark, brutal world. Now, after watching the walkthrough I know I was wrong. This game look phenomenal. CD Project took their on spin on cyberpunk genre and it works great. It looks like the trailer showed us only a glimpse of the "civilized" world, where the rest, that we could see in the walkthrough, is shady and dark. And what is more important, the world looks natural and alive.
The other concern I had was the RPG aspect of the game. Gameplay proves that we'll get not only multiple storyline options that probably affects entire game, but also a lot of options to customize your character. The way how we customize the character significantly affects the way we can solve the quest and our character's combat abilities.
Speaking of combat. I was really interested to see how company that for over 10 years was making a "sword simulator" switches to guns. And boy, it is incredible. Reds know what they doing.
They also know how to phase the storyline. I know we saw only the main quest, but one step led to another. And it didn't feel that I'm wasting time wandering around just to increase the gameplay hours.
Overall, the game looks phenomenal and if CD Project keeps this level of quality across entire game, we will not only get great game but maybe even one of the best games ever.
I know, you probably thinking that I'm to exited. Let's face it, all we have is early gameplay and a lot of things can change. But looking at CD Project's records of delivering high quality products, I'm quite confident this game will be awesome.

This it is. Finally, here is list of interesting things.

How privacy-friendly is your site?

The Amazing Life-size LEGO Technic Bugatti Chiron that DRIVES! and how it was made

The art of designing accessible websites

How We Wrote a Self-Hacking Game in C++

I've created Icons and Illustrations which you guys can use 100% free


Image credits: CD Project Red.