Weekly Digest - 2020.49

Weekly Digest - 2020.49

Salesforce buys Slack

Saleforce, a cloud computing giant will acquire the Chat service - Slack - for $27.7 billion. Slack is one of the most popular communicator in the computer industry.

It is still unknown what are Salesforce's plans for the application, but it is quite possible they will be related with enterprise customers.

Apple announced the most downloaded apps and games from the App Store in the 2020.

The top 3 free apps:

  1. Zoom
  2. TikTok
  3. Disney+

Top 3 paid apps:

  1. TouchRetouch
  2. Procreate Pocket
  3. FaceTune

Top 3 free games:

  1. Among Us
  2. Call of Duty Mobile
  3. Roblox

Top 3 paid games:

  1. Minecraft
  2. Plague Inc.
  3. Heads Up! Best Charades game

Apple's Best App of 2020

Apple also announced the best apps of 2020:

  • iPhone App of the Year: Wakeout!
  • ‌iPhone‌ Game of the Year: Genshin Impact
  • iPad App of the Year: Zoom,
  • iPad‌ Game of the Year: Legends of Runeterra
  • Mac Game of the Year: Disco Elysium
  • Mac App of the Year: Fantastical
  • ‌Apple TV‌ App of the Year:  Disney+
  • ‌Apple TV‌ Game of the Year: Dandara Trials of Fear
  • Apple Watch App of the Year: Endel
  • Apple Arcade Game of the Year: Sneaky Sasquatch

Also, winners will get a physical trophy.

Image credits: Slack

Weekly Digest - 2020.40

Weekly Digest - 2020.40

Pixel 5

Google has announced the next-gen flagship smartphone. And here is the spec:

  • 6-inch (2340 x 1080) OLED display,
  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G CPU,
  • 8GB of RAM,
  • 128GB of  storage,
  • Hole-punch 8 Mpix selfie camera,
  • Dual rear camera: 12.2 Mpix (main) and 16 Mpix (wide),
  • 5G capabilities,
  • 4080 mAh battery.

Phone will be available from October 10th for $699.

Image credits: Google

Weekly Digest - 2020.38

Weekly Digest - 2020.38

Apple Event

Apple held an online event and introduced couple of new things:

Apple Watch Series 6

  • It is evolution of Series 5,
  • New S6 chip and U1 chip,
  • New sensor containing Blood Oxygen Sensor With ECG,
  • Available from $399 on this Friday.

Apple Watch SE

  • Comes in 40mm & 44mm of size,
  • Retina display (without always on feature),
  • S5 chip,
  • Second-generation optical heart sensor (without ECG),
  • Available from $279 on this Friday.

Apple Fitnes+

This is another service from Apple. This one, as name suggests, focuses on fitnes and exercising. It integrates with Apple Watch, and offers guided workouts. Apple Fitness+ will be available for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV for $10/ month, or $80/ year.

Apple One

Apple combined all it services into bundles and called it Apple One:

  • Individual ($14.95/ month) - Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB iCloud storage,
  • Family ($19.95 / month, shared with six family members) - ‌Apple Music‌, ‌Apple TV‌+, ‌Apple Arcade‌, and 200GB ‌iCloud‌ storage,
  • Premier ($29.95 / month, shared with six family members) - ‌Apple Music‌, ‌Apple TV‌+, ‌Apple Arcade‌, 2TB ‌iCloud‌ storage, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+.

iPad 8th Gen

Entry level iPad finally got upgrade:

  • 10.2-inch Retina display,
  • Apple's A12 Bionic chip,
  • Supports the first-generation Apple Pencil,
  • Support Smart Keyboard
  • Starts from $329.

iPad Air

Also iPad Air got an update, and on paper it came much closer to a Pro version:

  • 10.9-Inch Retina display,
  • Apple's A14 Bionic chip,
  • Touch ID built into the power button,
  • 12-megapixel rear camera,
  • Supports the second-generation Apple Pencil,
  • Support Magic Keyboard,
  • USB-C connector,
  • Starts from $599.

PlayStation 5 launch date and pricing

During an online event, Sony finally revealed that the next-gen console will arrive on November 12 in North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea.  For the rest of the world it will be available from November 19th.

The PlayStation 5 will cost $499.99 for the standard version and $399.99 for the PS5 Digital Edition.

Image credits: Apple

Weekly Digest - 2020.35

Weekly Digest - 2020.35

Floating Apple Store in Singapore

Apple is planing to open another Store in Singapore. Normally, such thing wouldn't be even worth mentioning, as Apple has hundreds stores around the world. But this is the first Apple Store that floats on the water. Apple Marina Bay Sands is a giant glowing orb and will be docked on the bayfront of Singapore.

Epic won first battle against Apple

Judge decided that Apple can’t retaliate against Epic Games by terminating the Epic's  developer accounts or restricting use of Unreal Engine by developers on Apple platforms. Also, judge decided that Apple doesn't have to bring Fortnite back, as Epic deliberately violated AppStore rules.

So the first battle has been won by Epic, but this is not the only good news for them. Epic gained an ally in Microsoft. Company from Redmond asked Apple to allow Epic continue development on Unreal Engine. Unreal Engine is one the most popular game engines in the world, and cutting off the support for Apple platforms might have severe consequences for game industry.

Despite all of this, Later this week, Apple did removed Epic's account from AppStore with all its games.  What is more important Apple  listened to the judge, and left Unreal Engine's account intact.

Windows 95 is 25 years old

Microsoft Windows 95 just turned 25. It's incredible how fast it went and how much we progressed. 25 years ago you needed good PC to run it, today you can run it in a browser.

Gamescon 2020

After cancelling E3 it looked liked gamers will not get any major gaming event this year, but Gamescom organizers found a way.  They created virtual conference. Unfortunately nothing special was announced, but we got couple of cool looking trailers.

Image credits: Javan Ng