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Every moment after the debacle on YouTube videos on Amazon's Echo Show has lead to this. Now Google has introduced a new smart speaker that plays YouTube videos.

It is called Google Home Hub, and we thought it might have been due already last year.

As expected it features a touch screen, not unlike Echo Show, and because it is a Google device it can play videos from YouTube among other things.

It has all the features of a normal Google Home but also answers your questions with content on the screen. That means that you can ask it to play a song and it'll do that but also shows the music video.

Or you can get cooking instructions now with step by step picture or video to walk you through. To make it more obvious that Google has Amazon beat here, they offer a six month membership on YouTube Premium for free with a purchase of Home Hub.

One of the more interesting software features of Home Hub also comes to the Home mobile app. New Home View combines all the smart home devices to one neat view so you don't have to open different apps for adusting the lights, checking the security camera, and tweaking the temperature on the thermostat.

As anticipated, Google introduced yesterday two new Pixel phones, but perhaps the most intriguing new product was the new Pixel Slate.

Pixel Slate, as leaked prior to launch, is the search company's new try at making a proper tablet. A mobile device that brings in many of the advantages of a full fledged computer.

Thus it is not running Android, instead it is essentially a keyboard-less Chromebook. A Chromelet, let's say.

So inside you have a new version of Chrome OS that now offers an even greater Assistant integration and productivity features, such as split screen multitasking.

Pixel Slate offers both simple, fluid, and fast mobile apps as well as support for Linux apps. Two entirely different takes on computing.

Specs-wise it's an odd one. It includes a 12.3 inch LCD display with 293 ppi, which Google calls best in class, 8 megapixel cameras in the front and back, and laptop-like performance.

Performance comes from an Intel processor, and they range from less than impressive Celerons all the way to a Core i7, up to 16 gigabytes of RAM, and up to 256 GB SSD storage.

Google's this years Pixel event is over now and we have two new Pixel smartphones to feast our eyes on. The upgrades on the surface look very iterative but there's still plenty new there.

The displays are now bigger, 5.5 inches in the regular Pixel and 6.3 inches in the notched Pixel 3 XL. Both are OLED displays that hopefully prove to be better that last year's models in color reproduction as well.

Other than display size, and resolution, there's not much different in the two devices. Pixel 3 XL does have a bigger battery though.

Both of them sport the speedy Snapdragon 845 and perhaps a little underwhelming 4 gigabytes of RAM, which should be enough though, especially considering Google's track record of making buttery smooth smartphone experiences.

Cameras were the standout feature of the Pixel 2, and that shouldn't be any different this year. Front camera has turned into a dual camera with a wide angle lens, and back camera provides even more camera magic with software tricks.

Among the new tricks are a new Super Zoom that uses your hand shake to actually improve zoom quality, Top Shot that chooses the best picture (smile instead of sneeze, eyes open instead of shut, etc) with AI, and an amazing Night Sight that makes a dark scene light up like a Christmas tree.

Intel has unveiled its recent generation of Core processors, as expected. The desktop versions of Intel's latest and greatest offer improved efficiency and, of course, performance.

The unlocked K series got three new CPUs, Core i9-9900K, i7-9700K and i5-9600K. The octacore Core i9-9900K is the top of the line overclocking beast with sixteen threads, clocking in at 3.6 GHz with Turbo at 5.0 GHz.

Core i7-9700K offers the same base clock speed at 3.6 GHz, with a tad slower 4.9 GHz Turbo, and has eight threads. The most affordable of the 9th gen unlocked CPUs is the i5-9500K with six thread computing and 3.7 GHz clock speed with 4.6 GHz Turbo mode.

Prices start at $488 for the top specced i9, at $374 for the i7-9700K, and at $262 for the cheapest of the 9th gen K series chip.

The new K series is compatible with previous 300 series chipsets but the company also revealed a new Z390 chipset which includes support for both 802.11ac Wi-Fi, or as we call it now Wi-Fi 5, and USB 3.1 gen 2 which offers speeds up to 10Gb/s.

When it comes to the new X series CPUs, Intel had a total of seven new offerings to show off. They range from eight cores and 16 threads all the way up to 18 cores and 36 threads. Obviously you'll have to shell out quite a bit more cash for these ones.

Google's effort to steal some of Facebook's audience was introduces now seven years ago. Since it's inception Google+ has evolved quite a bit but it never seemed to gain any traction.

Now Google has finally acknowledged what the internet knew long ago. It is time to give up and just shut down the service from consumers.

The search giant perhaps wanted to be like Facebook too much, services like Twitter and Instagram have succeeded, in the manner that they have, because they offer different kind of experiences compared to Facebook, and Google+ arguably didn't.

But speculations aside, it is finally time to say goodbye to Google+ for good. Well, once Google actually removes it, which is somewhere in the next 10 months.

Google has made sure that you can, however, backup your one post safely, so you'll have time until October 2019 to copy your content to your preferred backup destination.

Google unveiled its WebP image format already back in 2010 but it hasn't taken the world by storm in the manner that the company probably expected, or at least hoped.

Obviously all Google's own products have since been updated to supports its superior web image format but many of the competitors are yet to fully adopt WebP.

Now few of the more influential competitors, including Microsoft and Mozilla, are ready to bring WebP to their platforms. Last week Microsoft revealed that Edge would be supporting WebP content in the future, and now Mozilla has done the same with Firefox, CNET reports.

According to Mozilla, all Gecko-based products will be gain WebP support in early 2019. Gecko is the engine that is running under the hood of Firefox browsers, excluding the iOS version.

After Microsoft and Mozilla have updated their respective browsers, Safari and Apple's platforms remain the only major forces to still reject WebP.

Alongside WebP, video format AVIF, which is based on Google developed VP9, is making inroads in the web community, and is backed by most companies, including Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, and even Apple.

Tomorrow is the big day of the year for Google. The company is debuting its new smartphones and maybe even revealing some other new Pixel devices.

In fact, a new leak suggests that Google is turning back time and unveiling a brand new tablet, first one since 2015 Pixel C.

The new one is allegedly called Pixel Slate and indeed will be revealed tomorrow in New York City as Google updates its Pixel smartphones.

However, except for these pictures, there's not a lot we know about Pixel Slate. It'll likely run Chrome OS and seems to sport a 3:2 aspect ratio, which seems to be a hallmark of Pixel tablets and computers alike.

There's also a stylus and a keyboard cover, as expected. But that's about it.

We'll know more about it tomorrow so stay tuned.

While Spotify has been growing at an impressive rate for years, it has not managed to turn its core business into a money-making machine.

The Swedish-born service has been looking into bringing other forms of entertainment, or at least other audio related entertainment. Cue in podcast fever that is running rampant.

Spotify introduced a new Spotlight section early this year which brought both news and podcasts to the platform.

Apparently the podcasters haven't found Spotify in numbers that would satisfy the company, and now they are trying to lure in more with new tools.

Spotify for Podcasters is meant to make it easy for podcasters to publish and monitor their podcast statistics, and thus potentially bring in more advertisement money.

You won't have to upload the audio files either, just provide Spotify a link to the RSS feed.

Spotify for Podcasters is currently in beta and you can read more about it (and get started) at podcasters.spotify.com.

Nintendo's newest console, a combination of a handheld and a traditional gaming console, has been a success, even to a surprising degree one could argue.

However, it never was very powerful and technology keep on trotting at a pace that makes Switch supremely obsolete in no time flat.

Switch is only 18 months old but it's showing age. The graphics are just not there, if they ever were, and especially with the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles ever closer, Nintendo needs something to keep people buying their devices.

And arguably smartphones could be an even bigger threat as they keep evolving and catching the Switch.

So no big surprise, Wall Street Journal is reporting about Nintendo's plans to release a new Switch in 2019. According to the sources the new Switch is slated for late 2019 release but there is not much on what this new version will update.

One update could be an improved screen which is definitely not on par with today's technology. Switch has a 6.2 inch 720p LCD screen.

Some have argued that Nintendo should give up the living room battle altogether and make the updated switch a handheld only console. This would make the device smaller and/or free up space for improvements in performance.

For most people Wi-Fi is just Wi-Fi, and the cryptic numbers and letters alongside don't reveal a thing.

Why would Wi-Fi Alliance keep the odd number combination, "802.11", for the ride, and why would they differentiate Wi-Fi versions by attaching random letters to it?

Well, it turns out they don't anymore. Wi-Fi Alliance has revealed that instead of 802.11n and 802.11ac they'll be using new names, Wi-Fi 4 and Wi-Fi 5 respectively.

As you might imagine, the new standard that is in development currently, officially 802.11ax, will be named Wi-Fi 6. If you are in the biz, you know that the 802.11-names will probably persist far in to the future, but at least they won't confuse customers any longer.

Every new generation brings along important upgrades in speeds and reliability, which is better represented by the new naming scheme, and Wi-Fi 6 is no different. However, Wi-Fi Alliance doesn't quote any specs in the statement.

The latest trailer for Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2 teases a first-person mode, endless activities, and madness.

It outlining all sorts of nefarious activities Arthur and the Van der Linde Gang can get involved in, including robbing trains, encountering rival gangs and outlaws, evading cunning lawmen and lots more in a world that is deep, teeming with life and very menacing.

The trailer shows us more of the improved Dead Eye system that was so well received in the first Red Dead Redemption title eight years ago. Additionally, we get a nice tease of viewing the world in first-person mode for those who are fond of first-person shooters.

Red Dead Redemption 2 will land on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 console systems on October 26.

Amazon workers are to get a pay increase after criticism from multiple angles about workers' pay and conditions.

Amazon became the second company in history (after Apple) to reach a valuation topping $1 trillion this year. While the news was likely celebrated at Amazon, it was also met with concerns over the low pay rate for some Amazon employees and the conditions at some of its warehouses.

In a rare glimpse of agreement on America's left and right, both the Trump White House and Bernie Sanders welcomed the move by Amazon. Senator Sanders and President Trump had both publicly attacked Amazon for workers wages and for how much tax the firm pays.

From November, Amazon's lowest-paid workers in the United States will receive at least $15 per hour. In the UK, the minimum wage at Amazon will rise from £8 per hour to £9.50 per hour or £10.50 per hour in London. Around a quarter of a million workers will benefit from the increase in the United States.

Amazon has had widespread strikes by workers across Europe over conditions at factories too.

Source: BBC News

InfoWars founder claims that PayPal is abusing its market position to discriminate against conservative and right-wing viewpoints.

InfoWars founder Alex Jones has filed a lawsuit against PayPal after the firm halted processing of payments to the media outlet in September. PayPal cited its services policies in making its decision, accusing InfoWars of promoting violence and hate.

InfoWars users and fans had paid for InfoWars branded goods using the PayPal service up until this point. According to Jones, PayPal's actions are a dangerous precedent and an example of viewpoint discrimination.

"It is at this point well known that large tech companies, located primarily in Silicon Valley, are discriminating against politically conservative entities and individuals, including banning them from social media platforms such as Twitter, based solely on their political and ideological viewpoints," the complaint states.

InfoWars and Jones' personal social media accounts were targeted in recent months in a coordinated takedown that affected podcasts, personal pages and apps.

Source: BBC News

Facebook has some reassuring news for the up to 50 million users affected by a data breach disclosed last week by the social media giant.

Last week, Facebook disclosed that a data breach affected up to 50 million users of its social network. The news set off alarms all over and concerns about how the stolen data may have been used, or is being used. One possibility is that hackers had used the "Facebook Login" feature to access third-party websites for which users signed in with their Facebook credentials.

Thankfully, there is not yet any evidence that this is the case.

"We analyzed third-party access during the time of the attack we have identified. That investigation has found no evidence that the attackers accessed any apps using Facebook Login," Facebook security VP, Guy Rosen, told the Reuters News Agency.

Facebook set out the possible negative consequences of the data breach in full when it disclosed it last week. This is thought to be due to the European Union's GDPR regulation, which would have imposed heavy penalties on Facebook if it was found to have failed to give a full picture to affected users. However, a side effect of this well-meaning and reasoned regulation is that Facebook painted the worst possible scenario after the disclosure.

As we reported last week, Tesla's own Elon Musk became the receiving end of a government lawsuit. Musk was going to be taken to court by The Security and Exchange Commission for fraudulent behavior.

Originally S.E.C. tried to settle the issue with Tesla and Musk, but no such agreement was found. Thus the government commission went forward with the lawsuit.

S.E.C. claimed Elon Musk's August tweet was recklessly false and mislead the shareholders into thinking there was agreements about privatizing the company with a specific share price.

Now Tesla has decided to settle the lawsuit but the price was a steep one. Tesla is going to have to pay $20 million in damages and Musk needs to resign as the chair for three years.

Musk will step down as the chairman of Tesla within 45 days and can only return to his duties in October 2021. He will still remain the CEO of Tesla.