Wednesday
Aug142019

Twitter looks to improve DMs, will bring search into the feature

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It's definitely long overdue, and we can't wait until Twitter implements the change. The social network is going to be "re-energizing" its efforts around DMs. And one of the highlights will be adding a search feature to direct messages. It's high time for Twitter to focus on its more private space. With competitors like Facebook planning to turn its attention to chat and other "simple, intimate" spaces, this is the time Twitter can respond.

Twitter also plans to include support for Live Photos from iOS devices as GIFs and to give you the freedom to reorder photos in the app after you've uploaded them. So, if you're doing live event tweets, it'll help you rearrange the tweets in an order that makes sense. We don't have details yet on when these plans are coming, but they're something to look forward to.

Source: Engadget

Tuesday
Aug132019

Teardown shows that the Huawei 5G modem is less efficient than Qualcomm's version

A new IHS Markit teardown pitted early 5G smartphones against each other. And one of the revelations of the report is the weaknesses of Huawei's 5G chip. It's been found to be larger, less efficient, and more expensive than its counterpart from Qualcomm and even Samsung. The Kirin 980 chip already has a 4G/3G/2G modem, but the addition of the Balong 5000 5G modem renders the former redundant. Huawei says the Balong 5000 5G is the first commercial multimode 5G/4G/3G/2G chip. This additional chip takes up more space, which made the Mate 20X larger than it should be. Aside from being less efficient, having two modem chips in one phone is also more expensive. And at this moment, it still doesn't support millimeter 5G. It seems Huawei still has a lot of work to do to make a better 5G modem for its smartphones.

Source: GSMArena

Tuesday
Aug132019

Netflix gets rights to a new sci-fi film, ‘Pyros’

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Netflix got the rights to a new sci-fi film based on a short story by Thomas Pierce and its set to have Reese Witherspoon star in the film. The movie will be called Pyros, and it's based on the short story "Tardy Man," which was published last summer in The New Yorker. The story is about a man whose job is to run into big fires and other natural disasters to recover items for rich clients. They're augmented people who are made to wear indestructible fire suits fused to their spines. The man works for a corporation that forbids him from coming to the rescue of any person he encounters along the way. The story jumps off when he breaks this rule to save a little boy.

Pierce is a scriptwriter for the film. This is his second major movie deal based on one of his The New Yorker short stories. The first one, Chairman Spaceman, was bought and is being developed by Fox Searchlight. And according to Deadline, the film will be produced by Simon Kinberg, who has worked on Deadpool and The X-Men film franchise. Witherspoon will co-produce the film through her Hello Sunshine Company. The deal is announced a day after Apple revealed a teaser trailer for Morning Show, which is a series that Witherspoon stars in with Jennifer Aniston for Apple TV+.

Tuesday
Aug132019

Telegram brings new features to iOS app

Over the weekend, Telegram introduced some new useful features to its iOS app, including enhanced dark themes, Silent Messages, and Slow Mode. With improved Night Mode, you get new accent colours to choose from, allowing you to customize the theme to your liking. Meanwhile, Silent Messages lets you send a message to someone without a sound. It doesn't matter what their notification settings on their device are. They will still get a notification, but it won't come the sound. This would prove to be useful if you're messaging them in the middle of the night or when they're at an important meeting or date.

Slow Mode for group chats will let an administrator limit people to sending one message per the interval they choose. For example, they can set it so that people could only send one message every 30 seconds. The app also allows for custom titles for group admins. You can also toggle looped playback for animated stickers in the Settings. And if you want, you can send a single :heart: :thumbsup: :meh: :wow: or :party:  to add an animated emoji to the chat.

Source: 9to5Mac