Thursday, 14 March 2019

Daily News Roundup: Google Killed 2.3m Bad Ads, Microsoft Announced Game Stack for XBL, and More

In today’s headlines, we learned that Google is making the web a better place by removing horrible ads (2.3 million last year, in fact), the Edge Insider Addons site for Microsoft’s new Edge-Chrome thing showed up, and more.

Note: This post is constantly updated throughout the day as we find more interesting news.

Microsoft and Windows News

Things have been fairly quiet in Microsoft news this morning, but then Game Stack happened. Oh, and we’re getting a better idea of how Microsoft’s Chrome makeover in Edge is going to work.

  • The Edge Insider Addons site was discovered. It looks like it may have since been removed, however. [Techdows]
  • Windows 10 Preview Build 18351.8 hit the slow ring. Woo? [Windows Central]
  • Game Stack was announced, which is a huge push for cross-platform Xbox Live tools. Whoa. [XDA Developers]

Google and Android News

While Android Q was released yesterday (and we have a massive roundup of all those features coming soon!), today has been slightly less exciting for Google and Android news. Still, some interesting things happened.

  • Google is putting an end to crappy ads. It removed 2.3 million just last year! [Thurrott]
  • Spotlight Stories, the in-house animated film studio at Google, is closing down. RIP. [The Verge]
  • Samsung is said to be working on a “perfect full-screen display.” No camera cutouts, no notch. Just a big ol’ screen. [The Verge]
  • For Pi Day, a Google employee calculated the number to a record 31 trillion digits. So many digits. [Engadget]
  • WhatsApp is beta testing reverse image search directly in messages. [XDA Developers]
  • Some details about Motorola’s upcoming foldable Razr phone leaked, including the fact that it’s curiously using a Snapdragon 710 processor. [XDA Developers]
  • Continued Conversations on Google Assistant speakers now works in the UK. [9to5Google]

Other News

An MIT robot that can grab things, Samsung’s new 12GB DRAM chips, and more.

  • MIT made a “flytrap gripper” robot that can hold 100 times its weight and also grab delicate objects. I want one. [Engadget]
  • Samsung is now mass producing its 12GB DRAM chips. We live in exciting times…I think. [XDA Developers]
  • 71 percent of Americans said they don’t trust autonomous cars. That’s a lower percentage than I expected if we’re being honest. [Gizmodo]
  • Facebook was down for a lot of people all day yesterday. Telegram got three million new users as a result. Wild. [The Verge]
  • HTC’s upcoming VR service is launching on April 2nd for $99 a year. [Engadget]
  • Ikea delayed its smart blinds till later this year. Boo! [The Verge]
  • Razer announced some new, affordable gaming accessories. Alright! [Engadget]

Look, I’m not saying that’s everything that happened to—but it’s the really cool stuff.

If you dig this new format, I want to know about it! Leave a comment down below or drop me a line sharing your thoughts. I’m always into knowing how we can make things better.



Source: How-To Geek