Known as Petya or Petrwrap, companies across the globe are reporting that they have been struck by a major ransomware cyber-attack. British advertising agency WPP is among those to say its IT systems have been disrupted as a consequence.
Ukrainian firms, including the state power company and Kiev's main airport were among the first to report issues. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant has also had to monitor radiation levels manually after its Windows-based sensors were shut down.
Experts suggest the malware is taking advantage of the same weaknesses used by the WannaCryattack last month.
It remains unclear who is behind the attack, but Moscow-based security firm Group-IB told Reuters it appears to be a coordinated effort simultaneously targeting victims in Russia and Ukraine. The exact extent of the raid is yet to be determined, but some speculate it could be bigger than WannaCry.
It was updated earlier in 2017 by the criminals when certain aspects were defeated. The ransomware was called Petya and the updated version Petrwrap.
There are also news of an emergency landing of an airplane after the plane's computer were hit by this ransomware.
Others reporting problems include the Ukrainian central bank, the aircraft manufacturer Antonov, and two postal services. Russian oil producer Rosneft and Danish shipping company Maersk also say they face disruption, including its offices in the UK and Ireland. Spanish media reports that the offices of large multinationals such as food giant Mondelez and legal firm DLA Piper have suffered attacks. French construction materials company St Gobain has said that it had fallen victim. The attacks come two months after another global ransomware assault, known as Wannacry, which caused major problems for the UK's National Health Service.
It is actually very early to say something about the scale of the attack and the total number of people affected by it, but as time will pass, more cases will be witnessed by us.
What is Petya?
The new Petya ransomware has been built with speed in mind, as to expedite the encryption process. Traditional ransomware encrypts files one by one, whereas Petya encrypts the location containing all information about disk files, such as size, permissions, and data content, essentially preventing users from accessing all their data.
Though other ransomware or Petya ransomware both allows for the same file-restricting outcome, but it is lot faster when it comes to taking time to encrypt the data as it does not encrypt file one by one but it only encrypts the NTFS MFT (Master File Table). Due to this, approach towards making cryptography becomes very difficult, as chances of making mistakes in cryptographic functions becomes more.
It has been said that Petya ransomware is developed by the same developers who made Chimera & Rokku ransomware families as it shares some similarities with that two and it also features its own bootloader and Kernel. Petya usually arrives via email containing a Dropbox URL or an attachment, and the executable usually differs from one dropper to another. It mostly uses clean executables like, java update checker 2.8.73.2, jucheck.exe, picasa 3.9.141.259, google crash handles 1.3.29.5, SumatraPDF Installer 3.1.1, and installers in Inno Setup format - that were infected with Petya. Another interesting aspect of these executables is that the original icon get changed and replaced with a PDF or WinRaR icon.
So, how to save my computer from it?
Tip #1 : The malware requires administrator rights to the local computer. Standard users should not have this in permission. Consider restricting who has local admin rights to prevent execution of exploit code within organisations. Home users should also consider using a Standard User Account for day-to-day operations.
Tip #2 : Some Windows systems are configured to automatically reboot if it crashes. You can disable this feature in Windows. If you can prevent the MFT from being encrypted, you can still recover your data from your local disk. You can get more info about it here.
Tip #3 :Till now, the ransomware has been found to spread through e-mail attachments. Hence it is highly recommended to avoid clicking of unknown and suspicious email attachments.
WWDC is Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference where developers can attend sessions and meet with over 1,000 Apple engineers. The event includes a first-day keynote where Apple typically introduces upcoming software and occasionally new hardware. The 2017 conference was held from June 5–9 in San Jose, California.
The Event started on June 5, with the very interesting "Apocalypse"video which showed that what will happen if all the apps from your iPhone will disappear; a look into the "post-apocalyptic world". If you missed it, then you can watch the Keynote here :
Announcements:
Apple announced new updates for both its hardware and software products. From eye-catching iOS 11 to breath-taking iMac Pro, alongwith the iPads, macOSHigh Sierra, HomePod and watchOS 4.
HomePod
Apple is taking aim at Sonos and the Amazon Echo with HomePod, a new “breakthrough home speaker” that it will start selling in December in white and space gray for $349.
Small but supposedly powerful, the speaker will sense the shape of your room and customize audio for its surroundings (and can be paired with a second HomePod for greater effect).
A “Musicologist” feature will respond to “Hey, Siri,” play from your Apple Music account and answer questions about the music it’s playing. It will also handle other Siri queries, such as weather, news, messages, podcasts, stocks, controlling smart home devices via HomeKit, etc.
iOS 11
Apple has announced the new version of iOS, expected for release in September. iOS 11 comes with a raft of new features. For instance, iMessages are now stored as part of iCloud, so they sync across all your devices. All your messages are stored in the cloud, but are still end-to-end encrypted for security. There are also new changes to Apple Pay, including the addition of person-to-person payments.
It works as an in-app add-on for iMessage so you can easily send payments to friends and families. Siri has a new, more natural voice and can translate from English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, etc. The Camera app improves in iOS 11, using HIEF compression for photos. They will look as good as normal JPEGs but at half the file size. Photos also now has a range of new options.
You have the ability to edit live images across the different frames, for instance. And finally, Control Center now packs all the features on one page, with sliders for volume and brightness. Then 3D touch will access individual controls, to tweak different aspects with more depth. Apple is yet to reveal the exact release date of iOS 11, but it should appear alongside the new iPhones later this "fall".
What's new in iOS 11:
Redesigned App Drawer On Messages
Messages App Syncs Across Multiple Devices
Pay Your Friends Through Apple Pay
Siri To Offer Multiple Results And Translate Languages In Real-Time
Camera app has been updated to support high-efficiency video coding (HEVC). This means that it supports up to 2x better compression
Redesigned Control Center
Lock Screen Improvement
Maps App: Indoor Mall And Airport Maps / Lane Guidance
Do Not Disturb While Driving
Speaker Support In The Home App
AirPlay Update
And many more...
watchOS 4
Apple has revealed some of the new features coming to Apple Watch when watchOS 4 is released later this year. The company explained that there will be new watch faces, including a Siri Watch face to see relevant content, including diary notifications, and news stories. The Music app is also improved. It has been redesigned, can automatically sync music and show cover art on the screen, and more.
Apple also showed a demo of the new dock. It will show recently used apps, so you can scroll through more easily than before. New fitness features are coming too, with playlists in Music starting when a workout begins. It is thought that watchOS 4 will be released in "the fall" - so a few months away yet.
macOS High Sierra
Instead of announcing an all-new system with an all-new name, Apple announced MacOS High Sierra. It's a major update to Sierra, which Apple announced and rolled out last year. And Apple executive Craig Federighi wasted no time telling developers that High Sierra is "fully baked". The new macOS is about deep technology but also added some refinements, Federighi explained.
Safari is now the "world's fastest desktop browser" with High Sierra and is going after Chrome and its upcoming ad-blocking features. Safari now offers AutoPlay blocking and no longer has intelligence tracking prevention. But one of the biggest area of refinement in High Sierra is in Photos. There's now a persistent sidebar and a view that has all of your imports in chronological order.
Another big update announced is the new Apple File System. It's 64-bit, from top to bottom. Other new High Sierra features involve video and graphics; for instance, it now supports the H.256 standard for video. Apple also introduced Metal 2 and Metal VR. Remember, VR and AR apps need heavy GPU power, so we're not surprised to hear Apple announce is doubling down. Steam VR SDK, Unity and Unreal engines are coming to the Mac as well.
New Features:
A more modern file system, Apple File System (APFS)
High Sierra includes High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC, aka H.265)
macOS High Sierra introduces Metal 2, the next-generation version of Apple's Metal graphics API
Photos has a new persistent side view to make it easier to find what you're looking for
New editing tools for Curves and Selective Color
editing Live Photos
Siri has a more natural voice
iMacs with updated specifications
Apple's iMac lineup has received an almighty boost. They now have improved brightness of 500 nits and use 10-bit dithering.The processor have had a bit of a boost too. The iMacs will now be fitted with Intel's 7th-gen Kaby Lake processors. They be specced with more memory than ever before: up to 32GB on the 21.5-inch display models and up to 64GB of memory on the 27-inch models.
Apple's Fusion Drive storage system is now standard on all 27-inch iMacs and can be specced on the 21.5-inch models. The solid state storage drives (SSD) also now work up to 50-per cent faster and can be specced up to 2TB. Also, the entry-level 21.5-inch iMac now has Intel Iris Plus graphics, while the 21.5-inch iMac with 4K display uses discreet Radeon Pro 555 and 560 GPU processors.
The 27-inch iMac can now be specced up, too. You can get up to 8GB of VRAM, providing 5.5 teraflops of processing power, ideal for VR creation. Connections-wise, these iMacs will be gifted with two USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 3. They are now available. The 21.5-inch iMac will start at $1,099, while the 21.5-inch with 4K display is $1,299, and the 27-inch with 4K display starts at $1,799.
iMac Pro - The Most Powerful iMac ever.
Apple teased a new desktop computer that's coming this December, the iMac Pro. As the name suggests, the iMac Pro is a workstation class machine that's aimed at pro users with demanding workflows.
Pricing for the iMac Pro starts at $4,999, and the premium price tag should come as no surprise -- this is the most powerful machine Apple has ever built.
It features the same design as the standard iMac, but with an all-flash architecture and a new thermal design that supports an Intel Xeon processor with up to 18 cores and a top-of-the-line Radeon Pro Vega graphics.
The 27-inch iMac Pro is equipped with a high-quality 5K display that supports 1 billion colors and it comes in a unique space gray enclosure with matching (and exclusive) space gray accessories.
iMac Pro features four Thunderbolt 3 ports powerful enough to drive multiple 5K displays at once, and it supports up to 4TB of solid state storage and 128GB of ECC RAM.
iPad Pro
At its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on June 5, Apple introduced new 12.9 and 10.5-inch iPad Pro models, bringing feature parity to its pro tablet lineup for the first time. With the exception of screen size, the 10.5 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models offer the same exact features, making the size of the display the only deciding factor users need to consider when purchasing a new iPad Pro.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro's design is unchanged, but the 10.5-inch iPad Pro is a new model that replaces the previous 9.7-inch iPad Pro. The 10.5-inch iPad Pro is 20% bigger, with the larger display made possible through a small size increase and bezels that are 40% thinner. Apple says it chose the new screen size because it's perfect for a full-sized on-screen keyboard and full-sized Smart Keyboard.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro measures in at 6.9mm thick and it weighs 1.49 pounds, which is just a half-pound heavier than the 6.1mm 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Both models are available in Gold, Silver, and Space Gray, with the 10.5-inch iPad Pro also available in Rose Gold.
At a resolution of 2732 x 2048, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro's display offers 5.6 million pixels, more than any other iOS device, while the new 10.5-inch iPad features a 2224 x 1668 display. Both iPads adopt new ProMotion display technology, which features a 120Hz refresh rate for impressive improvements to motion and animations that must be experienced in person.
With the improved refresh rate, motion content on the screen is smoother, crisper, and more responsive, and the Apple Pencil is faster, with a 20ms latency that makes it feel just like writing on paper. ProMotion also dynamically adjusts refresh rate, which can save significant battery life.
The iPad Pro displays are also the brightest ever, offering 600 nits of brightness, and they include True Tone support for auto white balancing, P3 wide color gamut for more vivid, true to life colors, and ultra low reflectivity. With the display improvements, the iPad Pro can display HDR video for the first time in iOS 11.
Inside, the new iPad Pro models are equipped with hardware that puts them on par with desktop-class machines, able to run software previously limited to non-mobile devices. An A10X Fusion chip, the fastest chip Apple has created, offers 30 percent faster CPU performance and 40 percent faster GPU performance compared to the A9X in the previous-generation iPad Pro models. Both models include 4GB RAM.
Despite the new display and the much faster processor, the new 10.5 and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models continue to offer up to 10 hours of battery life, which Apple calls all-day battery.
Storage space in the iPad Pro starts at 64GB, with 256 and 512GB options also available. Pricing for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro starts at $649, while pricing for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro starts at $799. Cellular models are available for an additional $130.
AMD held its Financial Analyst Day with the company's heavyweights discussing its recent product rollouts such as the Ryzen range of CPUs and also revealed some exciting details about future product launches. Among them was the confirmation that AMD is indeed planning a new range of high-end desktop (HEDT) CPUs with even more cores than the current Ryzen 7 that is equipped with 8 cores and 16 threads.
AMD's Ryzen Threadripper could very well be the most powerful consumer CPU ever introduced. With 16 cores and 32 threads, it gives the high-performance Intel products currently dominating the same space something to worry about. AMD's Jim Anderson introduced the new CPU as "Ryzen Threadripper" instead of the "Ryzen 9" moniker that had been rumored.
The only Threadripper AMD formally announced was the 16-core part. Yes, we know you've seen reports of 14, 12, and 10-core versions. AMD also announced a new data center CPU too. Called EPYC, AMD CEO Lisa Su took to the stage to reveal the 32-core, 64-thread CPU, which supports 128 PCI-E lanes, 16 channel DDR4 memory using 32 DIMMs and support for dual-socket as well with an Infinity Fabric-coherent interconnect for two EPYC CPUs. The new Threadripper CPUs won't be compatible with the current AM4 CPU socket, which sports 1331 pins, but instead will demand a whole new socket with a massive 4094 pins.
The Google I/O 2017 event went successfully, according to some, and we saw the release of the new things and also new features in existing Google Apps. Few of the major features released at the event was related to Google Photos. Here are those features in detail :
Suggested Sharing :
This new feature helps you identify the best photos to share and even recommends the people you might want to share them with. Based on your past use, Google Photos builds the recommendations like you would have done.
With one tap after the fact you can share the new short album with whomever you want, and they can automatically add theirs to the album. Available across Android and iOS, and users without a Photos account can still view.
Shared Libraries
If you share your photos with new people, like a spouse, for example, the new Shared Library allows you to create and share images automatically. Select a time frame to begin and share specifics or your entire photo album. The recipient of the share through the Shared Libraries will see all future photos to the shared albums automatically as if they took them.
Further, AI is at play, you can set it up so that only photos with specific elements are shared. The example on stage is of sharing only photos that have the presenter’s children in them. Just select your parameters, your recipients and snap your images, Google Photos will handle the rest.
Photo Books
Take just a few minutes to build a new album of your favorite photos, or a group of photos from an event. Or add a large group of images and the auto album builder and Google Photos AI and it will help curate into a printable album. That’s right, a hard cover album printed and shipped to your door.
More info on Photo Books coming soon, stay tuned. But, prices are:
$9.99 for a 7-inch book with 20 page
$19.99 for a 9-inch book with 20 page
Google Play : Ever Increasing list of Features
Google Play continues to grow rapidly around the world, thanks to their ecosystem of developers building high quality and engaging app experiences. There are now 2 billion monthly active Android devices. People in 190 countries downloaded 82 billion apps from the Play Store in the last year and the number of developers with more than 1 million monthly installs grew by 35 percent year on year. They've made huge investments to make purchasing quick and easy by offering direct carrier billing with 140 operators that reach 900M devices every month. These, and other efforts, have made the number of buyers on Google Play grow by almost 30 percent in the last year. Since they launched the Google Play Console in 2012, they've continued to add features to help you do much more than just publish apps. People in a variety of roles at app and game companies, large and small, carry out tasks like running beta tests, analyzing crashes, responding to customer reviews, evaluating A/B experiments on store listings, pulling financial reports, and more.
Statistics
The statistics page for your app now gives you quicker, more flexible access to important data about your business. Compare two different metrics and break them down by a dimension. Select any date range you want, view a breakdown of your data, and even access hourly stats.
Android vitals
Understand your app's Android vitals so you can fix bad behaviors, improve your app experience, and increase your star rating. View aggregated, anonymized device data from people who have opted in their devices to understand three crucial aspects of your app's performance: stability (crash rates and App Not Responding [ANR] rates), battery usage (stuck wake locks and excessive wakeups), and render time (slow rendering and frozen UI frames). Learn more about Android vitals.
The ANRs & crashes page has also been updated with larger crash coverage and now benefits from a higher volume of data.
360-degree video is coming to the TV experience on YouTube
YouTube’s TV watching usership is up 90 percent from last year, which means more people are watching the content from the couch. While VR is still clearly the preferred way to experience 360 content, it’s at least available on the big screen now. This includes live 360 videos that are broadcast from events. Author : Prashant Pandey
Here are the coming Assistant updates that have been spotted at I/O 2017, from free Google Home phone calls and a standalone Google Assistant iPhone app to an App Directory and payments for Google Assistant voice apps.
Google Assistant now on 100 million devices
That number is likely to rise when Google Assistant becomes available on Android phones in Portuguese, Japanese, German, and French.
In addition to being available on Pixel smartphones and Google Home, Google Assistant came to iPhones today and to Android phones earlier this year.
Google Assistant launches App Directory
The Google Assistant App Directory will showcase apps that interact with the Google Assistant. Users can access the app directory with a single tap from the Google Assistant. It not only has categories and user ratings, it also allows users to try your app right from the directory.Users can also create their own shortcuts to apps.
Since the Action on Google platform opened to developers last December, roughly 250 Google Assistant actions have been created by third-party developers.
Google Assistant app for iPhone
A standalone Google Assistant app will be rolled out for the iPhone, Google announced today. Until now, Google Assistant has been available through the Allo chat app.
In February, Google Assistant was made available for Android devices with Marshmallow or Nougat installed. Altogether, Google Assistant can now be found in 100 million devices.
Google Home phone calls
Google Home devices will be getting the ability to make free phone calls within the United States.
In the past week, Microsoft and Amazon had declared intentions to bring calls to their smart speaker devices for Alexa and Cortana.
“You can call any landline or mobile phone in the U.S. or Canada completely free, and it’s all done in a hands-free way,” said Google Home VP Rishi Chandra.
Add events to calendar and type messages to Google Assistant
Google Home can now add events to your calendar and type messages directly to Google Assistant instead of relying only on talk.
Both of these features were requested by users almost immediately after Google Assistant on Google Home became available last fall.
Visual responses from Google Assistant on TV with Chromecast
The ability for Google Assistant searches to generate visual responses, Abrams said, will allow developers to “build apps for entirely new Assistant use cases, things that previously weren’t well suited to having voice-only interface, such as shopping for clothes or ordering food from a lengthy menu.”
This new feature is expected out later this year. The Actions on Google platform for the creation of voice apps will be available outside the U.S. later this year as it expands to France, Canada, Australia, Germany, and Japan.
Google Lens for computer vision in the world
Virtually all emphasis for Google Assistant in its first year was on voice as an interface, but with the new Lens service launch today, Google will bring computer vision to its assistant.
Open the camera with Google Assistant and point at a business, flower, or object, and Lens will attempt to identify what it’s looking at.
When held up to a theatre marquee during the keynote, for example, Lens on Google Assistant was able to recognize the words on the marquee and then tell you how to buy a ticket or add the event to your calendar. If you take a screenshot of a phone number, just tap it inside Google Assistant to make a call.
Lens will be available initially for Google Assistant and Google Photos and will be integrated into other Google products in the future.
Google Assistant actions for Android and iPhone
Until today, Google Assistant actions could only be interacted with on Google Home. As was mentioned earlier, the Google Assistant third-party ecosystem of voice apps is still relatively new, with roughly 250 actions. That’s a far cry from the more than 13,000 in the Alexa Skills Store.
All devices that use the Google Assistant software development kit (SDK) will be able to speak with Google Assistant actions in the future, Abrams said.
Native payments for Google Assistant actions
For payments you can choose to use Google facilitated payments, which are easy to integrate, allow you to leverage hundreds of millions of cards that users have already stored with Google, and are available to developers for free, or you can choose to use a payment method that users have already provided you.
Payments on Google Assistant will have a dedicated area to allow users to track orders, modify an order, or place a new order.
Peer-to-peer payments are also on the way for Google Assistant, so you can send a friend or family money, not just businesses. Author : Prashant Pandey
With the Google I/O 2017 come and gone, the only thing that remains are the testing of the products that were launched. Out of the various features that were revealed at the event, the most waited for feature was the next Android update i.e. the Android O. Here, we discuss the features of the O in detail :
Android O: All the best features in Google’s latest OS update
Now in its second developer preview, Android O brings a number of performance improvements and new features. While many of these may just be small tweaks, collectively, they’ll make Android a lot more pleasant to use on the whole.
Picture-in-picture video
Android is getting proper support for picture-in-picture video – essentially a floating video window that will help make sure you never get any work done.
Though some manufacturers like Samsung have already added this feature, the feature is normally limited to just a few apps. Official Google support means much wider compatibility to come – and hopefully less performance overhead as well.
A bunch of notification improvements
Android O is changing notifications in a number of important ways, so we’ve grouped the most notable ones together:
You can Snooze notifications and have them appear at a later time so you can focus on the task at hand without forgetting whatever you’re getting notified about.
Notification channels allow developers to essentially have different notification categories within their apps. For example, in a news app, users could choose to only receive notifications on specific topics. Users can also modify properties such as alert tones, priority and whether notifications show up on your lock screen for each notification channel.
Developers can set background colors to help differentiate their notifications from the crowd.
Notification badges/dots are exactly what they sound like, a little badge telling you there are unread notifications in a particular app. Unlike iOS, however, Android O doesn’t tell you how many unread notifications you have – only that you have them. Instead, you can long-press on an app icon to view your unread notifications.
Thankfully, you can also turn off the feature altogether if, like me, you find notification badges to be more distraction than they’re worth.
Messaging notifications can now show more text before you need to enter an app.
Smart Text Selection
We’ve all seen the basic text highlighting features, the copy/paste dialogue in Android, but now there’s more. With Android O, highlighting text includes further features, using Google AI to intelligently act on the words. For instance, if you highlight a phone number, you can just tap to dial. If you highlight an address, a single tap will start navigation. Best of all, highlighting is more intelligent itself, selecting phrases or full addresses, for example, instead of just single words.
Auto-Fill
For your most used apps on your device, Android O will help quickly log into services. The Auto-Fill feature needs to be coded in by the app devs, but once installed, Android O will remember your usernames, and in some cases your password, to quickly and easily jump into apps on your device.
Vitals
Android O will soon include features under the banner Vitals, including security tools, OS optimizations and tools for developers to better suite your device usage. At Google I/O 2017, the Android team announced Google Play Protect, think of it as a virus scanner for Android apps. So far, the team reports having scanned over 50 billion app installs every day. You’ll see an entry in your Google Play app update window, showing your most recent scan and if there were any issues found.
Optimizations in the OS have the team reporting that Pixel devices are booting up in nearly half the time as before. This speed bump goes for apps as well. Extensive changes to the runtime, including things like concurrent, compacting garbage collection and code locality, but in Google’s words, your apps just run faster. More on this later.
Wise Limits will apply to background services, preventing apps from running in the background for too long. The goal is to dramatically reduce battery consumption, keeping you up and running through your day.
Android Go
Android Go is Google’s new Android fork that promises smoother performance and lower data usage on affordable devices, particularly in developing nations. It’s basically a lighter version of Android O with several optimizations to the kernel and Google’s native Android apps. It also emphasizes power-optimized apps in the Play Store.
Android Go will be the default OS for any device with 1 GB of RAM or less, though it’s possible we’ll see it appear on devices with more memory in the future.
All Android apps that run on any ‘regular’ Android O device will also run on Android Go devices, barring of course any apps that may not be compatible with your hardware or not available in your region, something that’s the case even today with Android N (or earlier).
The Play Store on Go devices will contain the whole app catalog - no restrictions, unless the developer has a restriction, but the developer can do that today anyway, but no restrictions from Google on the apps.
In other words, the Google Play Store on Android Go devices will include all Android apps, not just apps optimized for Android Go devices. The latter will, however, be highlighted by Google prominently within the Play Store on Go devices, which might make it worth the developers’ time to optimize their apps if they want to target this audience.
Take a look at the most talked-about things, which can be seen in this year's Google Event.
Google’s annual I/O developer conference starts on Wednesday, and the 2017 edition of the show should be full of news and announcements, just like every year before now. Typically, we see lots in the way of new versions of Google apps, new software features and even major operating system updates. But this year’s show could also have some surprises in store in terms of hardware and powerful developer tools.
Android O - The next Android Update.
As we had last year with Nougat, we've already got an early look at the next version of Android, O, in the form of a developer preview. And as we saw last year, the developer preview only has some of what to expect. At Google I/O, we're sure to find out more details of what's coming in Android O.
Will we find out the full name? Last year Google held a contest to announce the name. This year it may do the same. Although, the name which has been around since the launch of the developer preview is Oreo.
Some expected features of the new Android Update, as inferenced from the developer preview, are :
Snoozing notifications: You'll be able to half-swipe notifications and hit a "snooze" button, so they'll appear later, when you actually want to deal with them.
More granular notification control: Apps will be better able to "group" their notifications so you will be able to block just the ones you don't want without having to hunt through app settings. Improved battery life: It seems like Google promises this every year. And this year, it's doing it by more strongly limiting what apps are allowed to do in the background. That's a little more like the way iOS handles its multitasking.
Better Bluetooth: Sony has chipped in some code to improve Android's Bluetooth audio performance.
Cleaner settings: Whether you're Google or Samsung or LG or whatever, Settings is your favorite app to mess with and change every year. Because trying to make sense of Settings is awful. In O, the main page will be simpler and cleaner, hopefully helping you find what you actually want faster.
Change buttons: Deep in the System UI Tuner, there are options to mess with the core trio of Android buttons at the bottom of every phone, as well as options to change the quick launch apps on the lock screen.
Improved support for physical keyboards: Official support for Android apps is coming to Chrome OS eventually, and when it does you'll want to be able to use Android apps with your Chromebook's keyboard more easily
Picture-in-Picture video: Finally, Google is expected to give this useful feature.
Theming options: Maybe! We know that Android O will allow for differently shaped icons, a core part of most theming. There are some other signs theming could happen.
Google Assistant and Home
Google is likely to show us a lot around Google Assistant, and we’ll likely get a look at some of the first partner hardware to sport Home-like Assistant features built-in.
Expect Assistant to reach further and get smarter, with more built-in features, more third-party integrations, and more platforms. Google doesn’t want to cede this ground to Amazon and Alexa, and it’s probably going to be a central theme of the I/O keynote, especially because I/O is all about rallying developers to build experiences for Google’s priority platforms. Right now, Assistant seems to be everywhere on an Android phone, yet sometimes it feels too stretched and too un-focused to harness its potential. Plus, developers will perhaps need a bit more assurance as to what Google visualizes for the Assistant, to get them more excited about the idea.
Allo has seen relentless upgrading since it was announced last year, but a messaging app from Google is rightly judged by how many users it has — and Allo doesn't have very many. For I/O this year, I would not anticipate that Google will announce SMS integration or anything close to how iMessage works. The company is just too nervous about pissing off its carrier partners who are trying to get everybody on next-generation RCS messaging.
Android Auto : More features
Just ahead of the Google I/O developers conference, Google has shown off a full-fledged Android version that will run in-car infotainment systems. The first companies to sign up are German carmaker Audi (they will upgrade the MMI infotainment system with Android) and Volvo (the next generation of the Sensus Connect system will also be able to run the full version of Android), and we will be able to see it in its full glory as both car makers will give a demo on what they have done with Android in their cars—the demo is expected on the Audi Q8 and Volvo V90. The Android for the car also integrates Google Assistant, which is the artificial intelligence-powered, voice-based virtual assistant. Google is also expected to unveil updates for the Android Auto platform for existing users and new systems that will deploy this add-on—Android Auto is expected to get significant usability tweaks, and wider compatibility.
Android Wear
Google already updated Android Wear to version 2.0, building in a host of new features and debuting the platform iteration with a slate of new hardware, including showcase devices from LG. It might make sense to preview additional Wear features or updates again, even though it hasn’t been that long since the 2.0 update went live.
VR
Virtual reality has been an area of ongoing evolution for Google, culminating most recently in Daydream, the built-in VR platform for Android. Daydream debuted with the Pixel last year alongside Android N, and has expanded out to a few other devices, including the Moto Z.
Android O could bring additional VR features to Daydream, and it’s possible that Google will also reveal new partners for Daydream on both the hardware and software side. There could also be more around Tango, the depth sensing camera tech that has been built into a few devices but that could ultimately do a lot more specific to VR, including adding inside-out environment tracking.
So, that all was just a wild guess. To find out what turns into reality, tune into the Event tonight.
"Intel is feeling the pressure of AMD's successful Ryzen CPU launch and is bringing its own product refreshes forward."
- Digitimes(Taiwanese supply chain tracker)
On Monday, Intel’s top desktop processors include those using the Broadwell-E architecture, such as the Core i7-6950X Extreme Edition. That will be changing with the release of Skylake-X and other products and at least a rumor till now. The report lines up with previous leaks about changes to Intel's roadmaps. Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X will supposedly launch together under a common platform named Basin Falls, replacing the current Broadwell-E platform which is architecturally two generations behind the mainstream Kaby Lake lineup.
Bench Life uncovered some leaked information that appears to show off a range of possible released dates for Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X, the latter of which would represent seventh-generation high-performance desktop CPUs. According to the leak, Skylake-X will arrive at the end of June or beginning of July, a bit earlier than the August release that was previously expected. Kaby Lake-X would arrive during roughly the same timeframe.
The publication previously reported that Intel planned to launch a new X299 chipset at Gamescom in late August. Given the revised timeframe, one would think that we’ll see the new chipset and CPUs debut at Computex which kicks off on May 30 and runs through June 3 in Taipei.
Skylake-X and Kaby Lake-X are expected to share the same LGA 2066 socket. Skylake-X processors are said to pack anywhere between six to 12 cores, support quad-channel DDR4 memory and have loads of PCIe 3.0 lanes and have 140W TDP ratings, while Kaby Lake-X might be restricted to four cores at 112W. Kaby Lake-X parts, meanwhile, are reportedly limited to just four cores, dual-channel memory and far fewer PCIe lanes.
