Microsoft Windows 10 Updates will be much smaller and will run much faster from February 2019.
Microsoft Windows 10 Updates will be much smaller and will run much faster starting in February 2019
Microsoft announced this week that it will be discontinuing a rather heavy component from its regular updates. Removing Delta Updates will make the Windows 10 update cycle much smoother and faster, and we can expect to see this change from February 2019 onwards.
Windows 10 updates will soon be smaller and quicker
The new system called Express Updates allows Windows to update single files as needed. This is opposed to the Delta Update system, which cumulatively builds patches on top of one another. Every time something changes everything needs to be downloaded and updated again. The result is that updates get larger and larger as the months go by.
Microsoft is killing Delta Updates in February
We can see an example of this after the recent update we got in April 2018. Various patches were coming in at around 100 – 200 MB, but after a while, they ended up at approximately 1.2 GB. With the new Express system, these small patches will only ever be the sum of their individual parts, rather than including all the parts that came before them. Patches will stay at around 100 – 200 MB a month rather than growing each month until Windows 10 gets the next full update.
The result for us as Windows 10 users is that our operating system will receive smaller updates more regularly. The smaller update sizes will mean it won’t take our PCS as long to restart after an update.
Don’t expect Windows 10 full updates to end any time soon, however. We can still expect to get two of them a year. You can find out the details of the upcoming Windows 10 fall update here. This new system will only affect the smaller updates Windows 10 receives in between full updates.
WhatsApp is leaking! Leaking your data, that is. Some users are reporting a problem with WhatsApp that is eating up their data. A few have complained that the messaging app has used up to 5GB of data in a matter of hours.
A WhatsApp bug is eating people’s data!
The issue is found in the chat backup function. WhatsApp allows you to automatically back up all WhatsApp items including conversations, photos, videos, and documents as regularly as every 24 hours. WhatsApp files are uploaded to Google Drive or iCloud so that you can then delete them from your mobile.
This latest WhatsApp bug interrupts the upload process and causes it to begin again. This means that a never-ending upload cycle is triggered, causing a constant consumption of user data. If this happens outside the house then that means mobile data is on the hook and WhatsApp will keep using it until there is nothing left.
Another version of the bug sees all data being backed up rather than just the data from the last 24 hours. This isn’t quite as bad as a continuous loop, but if you think about all the media you send and receive over WhatsApp, you know that this can still be bad enough.
The best way to safeguard against this WhatsApp leak is to make sure WhatsApp only ever backs up your files over Wi-Fi. To do this go to Settings then Chats and tap Chat backup. At the bottom, you’ll find the Back up over option where you can select Wi-Fi only. It is probably safest to do this until news of a fix comes out.
Google Assistant has just received a nice little update that will make it easier to use. Google wants Assistant to help you get through your day. To help Assistant do this the new update makes Assistant much more visual.
The Assistant collects data like hotel reservations and flights, package deliveries, scheduled appointments (meetings, doctor, etc), reminders of pending payments, etc. from the various Google products you’re using (Gmail, Calendar…). It then combines this with environmental information like traffic and weather to provide up to date personalized instructions.
The update puts all of this information together in one place and offers users a visual snapshot of their day. According to the Google blog:
“Travel times are front and center, so you know when to hit the road whether you’re getting ready for work, a lunch meeting, or heading home for the night. As you scroll down, you’ll see your agenda, reminders, restaurant or movie reservations, your favorite stocks, upcoming bills, packages in transit, and suggestions for new Actions you should try.”
If you’re an Android user and you have the latest version of Google Assistant you should find the new visual snapshot icon in the top right of the screen when you open Assistant. iOS users will find the new feature in the Google app on their iPhones.
Google I/O 2018: The biggest news stories about Android, Maps, Photos, Assistant, and more
If you’re Michael Jordan or Bryce Dallas Howard, it’s time to party! Emojis that look more like you are on the way! Bald characters and gingers join more than 70 new emojis coming to iOS devices later this year in a free software update.
Red hair, curly hair, and gray hair are some of the new emojis on the way. And bald heads are included, so Vin Diesel and The Rock no longer have to use the old bald grandpa with the mustache to represent themselves.
New animals are also on the way, including a parrot, a lobster, and a kangaroo.
What emojis would you like to see next? Let us know in the comments below!
Anonymity. The onset of social networks has simultaneously stripped us of our privacy while also creating a legion of anonymous internet trolls. Under the cloak of anonymity, they spill their bile all over the internet without fear of recrimination. Twitter is awash with so much hate that there are even browser extensions out there to block all the anonymous nonsense out. It seems that when we think we’re saying things anonymously, we make things a little spicier than we usually would.
Users on Instagram both proved this reality to be true and were caught out in the process this week. Instagram has rolled out some new interactive features for its Snapchat copying Stories feature. Users can now ask questions as a part of their Instagram Story. The thing is, the answers to these questions are not anonymous. Whoever asked the question can see who answers it. A lot of Instagram users didn’t know this, however, and answered as if nobody was looking. Ever since they’ve been taking to Twitter publicly to talk about their embarrassment. Check out some of the best (and worst) Tweets below:
I THOUGHT THE INSTAGRAM QUESTIONS WERE ANONYMOUS SO I TOLD A GIRL HER DOG WAS UGLY FJCKSKSJKDKDJCKSIAODKCJS
Just to let y’all know, in case you haven’t found out already, those instagram questions are not anonymous!!! ???? (no this is not mine but it was too funny not to share) pic.twitter.com/9NuXhsIc0w
When the sexually aggressive dudes realize the Instagram "Ask a Question" isn't anonymous and they've just been exposed on 7 girls instagram stories about sending feet pictures pic.twitter.com/yyqQZ3rxNR
It isn’t all bile, however, sometimes anonymity allows us to say those things that were too scared to say. Our heart wants to sing, but our fearful brain holds us back. In those moments, anonymity can give us an opportunity to say what we’ve always wanted to say.
Wait Instagram story questions aren’t anonymous?!?!?! Oh no I told my friend I love them with my entire being and would do anything for them
Arvinder Naberhaus was enjoying a biplane flight with one of her friends a few days ago. As the plane flew over her childhood home she tried to snap some photos on her mobile and it flew out of her hand.
Sometimes things happen that defy belief. Not long ago, we told you about an iPhone X that still worked after it been dropped from the highest bridge in California. The screen was cracked but the fact that it still worked at all after being dropped 1,000 feet is a truly amazing thing. Well, an iPhone in Iowa has gone one better than that phone in California. It was dropped out of a plane and not did it still work, the screen didn’t even crack!
Arvinder Naberhaus was enjoying a biplane flight with one of her friends a few days ago. As the plane flew over her childhood home, she tried to snap some photos and the phone flew out of her hand. The pilot told her it would be gone forever, but Naberhaus was determined to try and find it once the flight had ended.
Once back on the ground she used the Find My iPhone app to find the phone’s location and headed off to find it. As she approached a yard, she suddenly heard her ringtone and rushed to find her phone face down in the grass. She picked it up and found not a single sign of damage. Naberhaus’s friend Donna Johnson, who was flying with her at the time spoke to WHO-TV about the moment they found the phone:
“I literally went into shock. I asked is this for real, is that the same phone and I said this is a miracle phone, you can’t drop a phone 1,000 feet and have it still work!”
The phone was completely unharmed when they found it in the tall grass!
It wasn’t long after they found the phone unharmed that it started pinging notifications for a meeting that Naberhaus had scheduled. A meeting she made on time.
Conservative leaders have long attacked Grand Theft Auto for inciting violence and bad behavior in the people that play it. University professor Joseph Delappe is trying to flip that narrative. Delappe is using GTA V to highlight violent gun crime in America. Rather than the violence in society coming from the game, the violence in Delappe’s version of GTA V comes directly from society.
What Delappe has done is hack a version of GTA V and is broadcasting it over the internet via a live stream called Elegy. The hack has taken the normally passive NPCs (non-playable characters) and turned them into gun-toting killers. Rather than peacefully going about their day, the NPCs are shooting and killing each other. These aren’t random killings, however. Every murder in the stream represents a real gun homicide in the states.
Be advised the stream below is for mature viewers only
Every day, Elegy resets and reenacts every gun crime homicide that has happened in 2018. That is a lot of killing reenacted every day, and every day more people will die than the day before. Delappe describes it like this:
“Gun homicide totals since January 1st are revised daily on this website which are then fed directly into the project – starting at 0 each midnight, each day the new total body count since January 1st is reenacted in it’s totality and so on. As of July 4th, 2018 there were 7,293 gun homicides in the United States – by the end of 2018 this number will likely reach close to 15,000.”
In 2015 Janelle Monáe released the powerful song HELL YOU TALMBOUT as a protest against police violence perpetrated against people of color all over America. The song invites everybody to say the name of all the victims up to the time it had been written and invokes a visceral emotional reaction from all but the coldest of listeners. Delappe’s project doesn’t have the names of the victims, but the numbers are stark. The fact they keep increasing day after day hammers home another point that sits perfectly next to Monáe’s humanization of the disturbing statistics we hear about every day on the news.
The project started on July 4 and plans to run until July 4, 2019. Expect a bloodbath.
In 2012, FreedomPop made headlines for being the world’s first free mobile service. Although the free plan was great for light use, the usage caps left power users out in the cold.
Now, UNREAL Mobile, an offshoot of FreedomPop, is going after the premium market by offering the world’s first unlimited mobile plan for just $10.
FREE TRIAL UNLIMITED TALK, TEXT AND DATA + 2GB LTE
Power users can now spend less but enjoy the same flexibility of more expensive plans from Verizon and Sprint. In addition to unlimited calls, texts, and data, you also get encryption, privacy, and ad-blocking features, too.
UNREAL Mobile is currently offering a freetrial on their Unlimited Talk, Text, & Data + 2GB LTE (worth $15/month). This also comes with a 67% discount on the Alcatel Dawn LTE for $49.99 (worth $149.99) for a limited time only.
With a 30-day money back guarantee, you can try UNREAL Mobile risk-free before deciding if it’s the right plan for you.
FREE TRIAL UNLIMITED TALK, TEXT AND DATA + 2GB LTE
Free trial of Unlimited Talk, Text, & Data + 2GB LTE (worth $15/month)
Plus…
Enjoy 67% off the Alcatel Dawn LTE at just $49.99 (worth $149.99)
Get peace of mind with a 30-day money back guarantee
Save your high-speed data with monthly data rollovers
Earn a high-speed data bonus of 10% after 3 months
Protect your data with encryption and privacy
Smart usage with data compression so your high-speed data goes further
Use your phone number anywhere, across any device
… and lots more
If you enjoy the freedom of an unlimited plan, UNREAL Mobile could save you $100s a year. It’s the cheapest unlimited plan on the market, and with a 30-day free trial and money back guarantee, it’s the perfect time to try it out for yourself.
Honestly? There are no announcements that a Fortnite 2 is even in development or that it will ever be created at all…
That being said, we like to imagine what a Fortnite 2 could look like! Years down the road, what if Epic Games made the decision to create a sequel or a prequel to Fortnite? What type of game would it be? What would it focus on?
Game series tend to follow a few paths: continuation of the story and game mechanics crossover. We’ll go through each of these and see what a Fortnite 2 might have to offer.
Believe it or not, Fortnite contains a hidden story. This has became more and more obvious over Season 4, which began with meteors crashing into the map, after which the “hop rocks” left at the craters were transported to Snobby Shores and the Villain’s Lair, and recently has continued with the lair firing a rocket towards Tilted Towers and accidentally opening an ever-growing portal over the map.
What does this story mean? Our best theory is the events are a tie-in between Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode and Save the World modes. Basically, the Battle Royale events are leading up to the zombie apocalypse.
In regards to a sequel, this could mean a Fortnite 2 in the vein of Mad Max, which takes places in a desert environment and possibly features a few wandering zombies amongst the Battle Royale landscape. Better yet, there may be a new story mode following a group of humans surviving the apocalypse: something with the run-n-gun excitement of Left 4 Dead with the Fortnite’s signature building shenanigans.
Mechanics Crossover
Sometimes, a sequel carries on the tradition in name and mechanics only.
In this case, we’d naturally expect to see the same Battle Royale style that we’ve come to know and love, along with the build-n-shoot combat from the original. However, this Fortnite 2 could also bring out an entirely new location, a few additional ways to fight, and, most likely, a new apocalypse to overcome.
We love the idea of new locations for Fortnite. Currently, the game features a somewhat hilly and homogenous environment, perfect for the game’s current iteration. However, in a Fortnite 2 there would be great possibility for expansion. Imagine running and building through a desert or a crowded jungle. Or fighting for Victory Royale in a gigantic cave underground or on top of a large, snowy mountain…
Also, there are a number of ways that Fortnite 2 could expand upon the combat. The current game includes a number of interesting items like the hop rocks, but the closest they’ve come to a vehicle was the short-lived jetpacks. The second installation of this game might see the introduction of vehicles and other clever items… space suits, perhaps? Portal guns? Thanks to the tongue-in-cheek way Fortnite currently introduces its updates, anything could be on the table.
Finally, what new apocalypse would Fallout 2 feature? With the rockets and meteors currently heralding the changes between seasons, we’re in the mood for an alien invasion. However, there are other alternatives: a world war? Nuclear fallout? A huge volcanic explosion? A second Ice Age? Time shenanigans? Whatever the case, you can be sure to expect epic battles against a new, interesting backdrop.
But really, a volcanic jungle island would be epic. Cue “Battle of Heroes”, by John Williams, right? (Seriously. Cue it. We’ll wait.)
A Vision
Since Fortnite 2 probably won’t happen, here’s our daydream, combining the best parts of what we’ve already considered:
Fortnite 2 takes place on an island chain being surrounded by encroaching deep-sea lava. This creates the game’s circle, although there are rivulets and streams of lava that must be avoided in other places as well.
By the way, this island is Jurassic World. There are dinosaurs.
Cars are now included, but there are no boats. The only way to get from island to island is by building rafts, which consist of at least one floor panel and a “wall” panel that becomes a sail whenever built on a boat. Falling into the boiling lava water slowly takes away health , so be prepared for epic boat battles, where constructing a strong warship may be the secret to success… especially if the final circle happens to land over a segment of ocean!
Whatever the case, we love Fortnite and are excited to see what new heights the game reaches in the future, whether or not that includes a sequel.
The highly anticipated Season 5 has finally arrived in Fortnite: Battle Royale. Epic Games had their work cut out for them, as the story-soaked Season 4 was a fan favorite for its live rocket launch, superhero storyline, and Infinity War crossover. The portals opening in the sky following the rocket launch led many players to speculate that Season 5 would involve time travel and dimensional warping. They were right. Below, we’ll break down the map changes, new Battle Pass content, and gameplay additions.
Sorry Moisty Mire fans (both of you), the whole bottom right section of the map has dried up and desertified. In its place is a bustling desert area featuring several of new named and unnamed locations. The entire area has a southwestern United States, Route 66 theme to it. The main attraction is Paradise Palms, a resort town that features a tall hotel complete with pool. There are plenty of nearby pitstops too, including a giant go-kart track for the new All Terrain Kart (more on that later), a truck stop, and a bunch of dinosaur statues modeled after the real-life Cabazon Dinosaurs tourist attraction in California.
What better way to wind down from the horrors of war than to hit the links?
Additionally, the farmers at Anarchy Acres apparently decided to take up golf instead, transforming the area into Lazy Links. This high society attraction features a golf course complete with luxurious buildings, tennis courts, and a fleet of All-Terrain Karts.
Fortnite is for the Nords!
Time travel shenanigans have led to an entire Viking settlement popping up on a mountain south of Snobby Shores. This location is mysteriously unnamed, with fans so far dubbing it Viking Village, Norse Nook, or simply Whiterun. It remains to be seen if other anachronistic locations will spring up in the future.
The New Crew
A Viking, a lifeguard, and a time traveler walk into a bar…
Season 5’s new batch of skins certainly fits the time travel theme. Featuring a colorful and diverse new cast of characters, players have gone right to work completing challenges and leveling up their Battle Pass to add them to their collection of skins. Much like Carbide and Omega from Season 4, two of the new skins are customizable with unlockable upgrades. The two new skins that are customizable are Drift (the blonde guy in the center of the picture above) and Ragnarok (the terrifying white-eyed Viking to the left of Drift). Their completed costumes can be viewed below:
Can’t wait to see these badass new skins dabbing
A Whole New Gameplan
The void is calling
Tying into the dimensional theme of Season 5, Epic has added small fractal-like portals called rifts to various locations on the map. When players enter these rifts they are warped to the giant crack in the sky, allowing them to dive and glide to avoid the storm and outrun opponents.
While Tomato Man and Durr Burger will be sorely missed, their legacies live on as golf cart accessories
The brand new All-Terrain Kart allows up to four players to powerslide their way to victory. Players can drift to gain speed boosts a la Mario Kart, and the roof of the kart serves as a jump pad. The karts can be found and taken on test drives at the new go-kart track and at Lazy Links. It was hilarious seeing the stunts that players could pull off with the shopping cart, so we can’t wait to see the Jackass stunts that people come up with for the ATK.
Shoot threes, not other players
An unexpected but welcome addition to the Season 5 Battle Pass, toys allow players to shoot baskets, hit golf balls, and volley a beach ball. If you can avoid being gunned down, try hitting a few baskets at Tilted Towers or shooting a hole in one at Lazy Links!
