News written by James Delahunty (September, 2019)

Is it worth ditching your OnePlus 7 or OnePlus 7 Pro for a new OnePlus 7T, unveiled today? Let's take a quick peak at the notable differences.

OnePlus unveiled the OnePlus 7T in India today, an upgrade over the OnePlus 7 released in May. A more powerful OnePlus 7T Pro is very likely to be unveiled on October 10 in an event in London, which would be an update to the OnePlus 7 Pro. While details on pricing are still unavailable, we can still look at the key differences over the previously released handsets.

A quick glimpse tells you that some of the changes in the OnePlus 7T are more like the OnePlus 7 Pro, so in essence we expect it is an upgrade that makes it more approximate to the previous Pro model, but with a price closer to the previous basic model. It is ever so slightly heavier, coming in at 190g compared to 182g for its predecessor. The design is pretty much the same as the OnePlus 7 and the 6 and 6T before it, so there isn't much to be said there. OnePlus 7T also comes with an Oxygen OS based on Android 10, but the OnePlus 7 can update to the newer OS.

Under the hood, it trades in the Snapdragon 855 for an 855+ SoC. Unlike before, there is no 6GB of RAM option, the OnePlus 7T comes with 8GB RAM, no more no less. For the display, OnePlus 7T is slightly larger than the OnePlus 7 display at 6.55-inch, compared to 6.41-inch. Size isn't everything though and unlike the OnePlus 7, the 7T screen supports a 90Hz refresh rate and HDR10+. This was also the case with the OnePlus 7 Pro, though the higher resolution of the Pro and curved screen are not present in the 7T.

OnePlus has unveiled the latest series in its popular smartphone lineup with the OnePlus 7T.

Chinese smartphone firm OnePlus has refreshed its smartphone line up with launch of the OnePlus 7T in India today, an upgrade on the OnePlus 7 series unveiled back in May of this year. A more expensive OnePlus 7T Pro is likely to be unveiled in October.

Sporting a design very similar to the OnePlus 7 series (and 6), the specs were also mostly anticipated in previously reported leaks. OnePlus 7T features a 6.55-inch AMOLED display (2400x1080 at 20:9, 402ppi, 90Hz refresh rate) with an in-display fingerprint sensor. It is driven by a Qualcomm 855+ SoC (up to 2.96GHz) and Adreno 640 GPU. Under the hood is 8GB of RAM and either 128GB or 256GB internal storage (UFS 3.0 2-lane). For juice, it packs a 3800mAh non-removable battery supporting Warp Charge through its speedy 30T Fast Charging (5V/6A/30W) charger.

At the rear, OnePlus 7T features a Sony IMX586 48 megapixel main lens, complemented with an additional 12 megapixel telephoto lens and 16 megapixel ultra wide angle lens. The tri-lens system allows for optical zooming (2x), and can record video up to 4K resolution at 30/60fps. Super Slow Motion footage can be captured at 1080p (240fps) or 720p (480fps, 960fps).

Microsoft has revealed that its Windows 10 operating system is now on more than 900 million devices worldwide.

Redmond is closing in on its target of a billion devices running Windows 10 very quickly. The operating system launched for consumers in 2015 and has since been installed on more than 900 million PCs, Xbox One consoles, Surface devices, and Microsoft's HoloLens.

The new figure of 900 million devices is up from a milestone reached just six months ago of 800 million. Yusuf Mehdi, corporate VP of the Search and Devices Group at Microsoft, said that in the past twelves months they have added more Windows devices than ever before.

The momentum has a lot to do with the forthcoming end of support for Windows 7. The aging operating system is among Microsoft's most successful software products. Just like Windows XP before it - which was released in 2001 and came to the end of support five years ago - Microsoft is trying to lure users to the newer operating system with warnings delivered by Windows Update.

While many users will undoubtedly hold out for some time, the end of Windows 7 seems to be having an effect on the momentum of Windows 10 at the moment. At this rate, Windows 10 should reach a billion devices sometime in early 2020.

Pandora has brought its Dekstop app to Windows systems, following its release earlier this year for Macs.

Whether the tier you are using is Free, Pandora Plus or Pandora Premium, you can download the Pandora desktop app for Windows from the Microsoft Store starting from today. Previously, you have to use a web browser to access the service on Windows so this will be an improvement for many.

Using the Pandora Desktop App has many benefits over the browser:

• Keyboard controls that let you play, pause, replay, skip, shuffle, or thumb up/down songs right from your computer keyboard.
• On-screen song notifications that graphically display the artists, albums, and song titles for the music that's currently playing.
• App-based controls for our new Pandora Modes feature, which lets you customize the music you hear on your Pandora stations using selectable "modes" including Crowd Faves, Deep Cuts, Newly Released, Artist Only, and more.

Google has agreed to pay almost a billion euros to settle a tax fraud case in France, which was initiated with a raid on its French offices four years ago.

Tax authorities in France had been seeking evidence that Google had underpaid its tax liabilities in the country by not fully declaring its activities in the country. Google, as part of Alphabet Inc., reports almost all of its sales in Europe in Ireland where its headquarters are located in Dublin. It is noted to pay very little tax in European countries and has provoked the ire of tax collectors all across the continent.

Google's French offices were raided in 2016 in a tax fraud investigation. Today, it is confirmed by Google that the company has reached a settlement with the French authorities to bring the dispute to an end.

The settlement - which will set a precedent in the country and may result in more actions taken against other multinational firms - will see Google pay a fine of 500 million euros and an additional 465 million payment in taxes. This falls short of the 1.6 billion the French finance ministry was hoping to win, but the precedent may be more valuable.

Google commented that this settlement addresses the past disputes in France once and for all.

You can try out Ubisoft's Uplay+ subscription gaming service for free this month by getting a free trial.

Ubisoft's Uplay+ subscription gaming service was first announced and detailed at E3 2019, and has launched in beta today. The service costs $15 per month and will provide users will access to a library of over 100 titles, including new games. Subscribers also will be able to avail of additional benefits such as being invited to closed betas.

Uplay+ is expected to be out of beta and in full expansion early next year.

However, between today and September 30, you can get a free trial and check out the service yourself before you commit to any recurring fee. That said, Uplay+ is cancel anytime so that helps if you do decide to sign up permanently.

Are you getting spammed by Google Calendar? Google is aware of the widespread issue and is working on a fix.

Spammers and malicious actors are exploiting the default settings for Google Calendar to direct spam and potentially dangerous stuff. If you suddenly started receiving Event reminders from Google that inform you about an iPhone you won (see accompanied image for example), or some other suspicious message, it is likely you have been hit by this annoyance too. The event reminders typically also show malicious links that could be dangerous to open.

In a post to the Google Support Forums, employee Lesley Pace addressed the issue yesterday.

"We're aware of the spam occurring in Calendar and are working diligently to resolve this issue. We'll post updates to this thread as they become available," Pace writes. A link is also added if you require information on how to remove and to report spam.

The issue arises from the default settings of Google Calendar when it comes to automatically adding invitations and providing notifications by alert. By default, Events from GMail are also added to the Calendar which you can turn off in the Google Calendar settings.

Facebook may repeat a change from its Instagram service that will reduce the visibility of a post's overall popularity.

Back in April this year, Facebook began a test on its Instagram service in which it made the overall Like count on posts invisible to all but the poster. This test is only live in select countries at the moment. The social network has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is considering the same change for posts on Facebook too.

The change was first hinted at when reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong spotted code for hidden Like counts in the Facebook app for Android devices. It hasn't been rolled out yet, and Facebook hasn't provided any details on the outcome of the Instagram test yet either.

Removing Like counts seems to be aimed at reducing users' insecurities around comparative like counts. Witnessing others posts gather large amounts of Likes and attention while one's own posts struggle to get any can apparently have a psychological impact. It also can nudge users into self-censorship or following the crowd. These are not positive outcomes for anyone.

If Facebook does decide to begin hiding Like tallies, it will roll it out slowly the same way it has on Instagram. This will give the firm the opportunity to easily roll back the change if that becomes necessary. During the test, users would only see a few names of friends who liked a post, whereas only the poster would be able to see the actual Like count.

Earlier this week, YouTube had removed popular accounts from its service citing infringement of its rules on hate speech and conduct. It then reversed its decision for some.

Among the accounts were that of an anonymous British user called 'The Iconoclast', and another from a reportedly right-wing figure called Martin Sellner. The latter has been banned from entering the United Kingdom, according to a BBC report, which also says Austrian police are looking into reports that Sellner was in contact with the Christchurch mosque attacker. Sellner absolutely denies any links to the atrocity.

Both of the accounts were reinstated on Thursday with YouTube saying it had made the wrong call. On Friday, the decision was clarified by Farshad Shadloo, who is responsible for global products policy communications at YouTube. According to Shadloo, the channels had not broken any of its rules.

The comments followed a letter from YouTube chief Susan Wojcicki to videomakers, in which she stressed that YouTube must remain an open platform. "A commitment to openness is not easy. It sometimes means leaving up content that is outside the mainstream, controversial or even offensive," she wrote.

It is not uncommon for Twitter and other social media accounts to be hijacked and used for malicious reasons, but it is particularly embarrassing when it happens to the chief executive, and not for the first time.

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey was a victim of account theft this weekend. On Friday, the CEO's account - which has four million followers - was hijacked. Those in control of Mr Dorsey's account then went on to publish racist tweets and to retweet other content. Later on Friday, the social media firm noticed the breach and secured Dorsey's account.

According to Twitter, the breach happened because of a security insight by the mobile provider linked to Dorsey's account. This technique is called a SIM swapping attack, in which a mobile provider is duped into transferring a victim's phone number to a SIM card controlled by a malicious party.

Dorsey was targeted in a separate hack in 2016, along with Google chief Sundar Pichai and Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg.

"This allowed an unauthorized person to compose and send tweets via text message from the phone number. That issue is now resolved," Twitter said>/a>. It was an isolated case and there was no indication of a wider system breach.