Vitaminwater is calling attention to itself with a stunt that will award "one lucky person $100,000 to ditch their smartphone in favor of a 1996-era cellular telephone for a full year." It isn't clear how the company will reliably prevent an entrant from cheating (while a lie-detector test will be given at the end of the contest, those aren't exactly reliable).

All pictures are carefully handpicked

The lawsuit, which was filed in the Northern District of California on Friday, seeks to prevent Apple from continuing this practice and wants everyone who bought an iPhone X, XS or XS Max to receive compensation. The main focus of the lawsuit is on the concealed notch, which is claimed that its plaintiff Courtney Davis was tricked by.

Images that disguise the missing pixels on the products' screens are prominent on the Defendant's website, as well as in the advertisements of retailers who sell the products,” the complaint reads. "These images were relied on by Plaintiff DAVIS, who believed that the iPhone XS and XS Max would not have a notch at the top of the phone."

The notch also plays into the bigger picture, or smaller as it may be. According to the lawsuit, the iPhone X screen is "only about 5.6865 inches" due to the rounded corners, which is slightly smaller than Apple's rated 5.8 inches. Because of the rounded corners and notch, the lawsuit claims that the real resolution of the device is 2195 x 1125, which is about 10% less than Apple says it is.

Apparently, those pixels are 'fake' pixels too. LCD screens typically use three subpixels (red, green and blue) in a striped configuration, and it uses them in various combinations to produce a single color for that pixel. The Samsung OLEDs that Apple happens to use utilize a "pentile" structure where five subpixels are arranged in a diamond shape.

Cool! :-)

Apple plans to issue a software patch to its iPhones to appease Qualcomm and Chinese authorities. Earlier this week, a Chinese court found Apple to be in violation of two Qualcomm patents pertaining to resizing pictures and managing apps with a touch screen. The court issued a ban against Apple, blocking it from importing a range of phones into China. Though Apple is appealing that decision, it claims it can mitigate the issue via software. "Based on the iPhone models we offer today in China, we believe we are in compliance," said Apple in a statement provided to Reuters. Even so, the company went on to say, "Early next week we will deliver a software update for iPhone users in China addressing the minor functionality of the two patents at issue in the case." Apple didn't provide details concerning how the update will resolve the issue. As part of its appeal to the Chinese court, Apple said any ban would impact Chinese suppliers, Chinese consumers, and tax revenue it pays to Chinese authorities. Though the ruling called for an immediate ban, Apple's devices still remain available for sale in China. The patent spat between Apple and Qualcomm is part of a global battle over patent licensing practices and royalty payments.

Facebook today revealed that an issue might have given third-party apps access to users' unshared photos. The bug involved the photo API (something developers use) and Facebook login for third-party apps. Typically, Facebook only allows developers to see apps that are posted publicly. This issue made unshared photos, such as those left dangling in unpublished posts, exposed. Facebook fixed the issue, but says some 1,500 apps built by 876 developers could have viewed the photos of up to 6.8 million users between September 13 and September 25, 2018. Facebook apologized for the breach and said it will be giving developers tools next week to help them determine which people might be impacted. Facebook said it will alert those whose photos may have been improperly exposed. Facebook recommends users log into the apps they've granted photo access to see what photos might be involved.

Unknown Worlds and Epic Games are currently offering Subnautica for free via the Epic digital store. This is a limited free offering that will last until December 27th, so we strongly suggest acquiring your free copy immediately (that is of course if you are interested in this game). Subnautica is an underwater, open-world adventure game that tasks players with exploring a vast alien ocean, while trying to survive mysterious creatures who lurk far beneath the surface. Explorers can craft equipment, interact with wildlife and pilot watercraft to explore coral reefs, volcanoes and caves, all while trying to survive.

Apple today announced plans to build a new campus in Austin and expand its presence in a wide range of other markets with new hires. The company will invest $1 billion in the Austin campus, which entails a 133-acre site capable of handling up to 15,000 employees. Apple claims that once the Austin site is fully staffed, it will make Apple the largest private employer in Texas. The Austin campus will include engineering, R&D, operations, finance, sales, and customer support jobs. Apple already has 6,200 employees at its existing Austin facility. Apple said it will establish new sites in Culver City, Seattle, and San Diego. Existing Apple sites in Boston, Boulder, New York, Pittsburgh, and Portland, Ore., will add an unspecified number of jobs over the next three years. Apple claims it added 6,000 jobs in the U.S. during 2018 and now employs 90,000 people in all 50 states. Apple said it is on track to create 20,000 jobs in the U.S. by 2023. The company plans to invest $10 billion in U.S. data centers over the next five years, and expand data centers in Arizona, Nevada, and N. Carolina. The newest data center is being prepared for Waukee, Ida. "Apple is proud to bring new investment, jobs and opportunity to cities across the United States," said Apple CEO Tim Cook. "Talent, creativity and tomorrow's breakthrough ideas aren't limited by region or zip code."

Opera Software today launched a new version of its Opera browser for Android devices that takes a step toward the internet's future. The latest build of Opera, based on blockchain, now includes an integrated crypto wallet and Web 3 support. By adding blockchain to the browser, Opera works with Ethereum, a blockchain-based coin for Web 3 transactions. Android device owners can get started by downloading Opera, then purchasing some Ethereum cryptocurrency and storing it in Opera's crypto wallet. This will allow people to make Web 3 purchases directly from Opera. This is important because Web 3 is based on the idea of decentralization. Distributed apps (Dapps) are what's used in Web 3 and the only way to manage transactions in Dapps is via cryptocurrency. The benefit is that people have far greater control over their privacy and identity. Opera knows that consumer understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrency needs a boost. "Until now, using cryptocurrencies online and accessing Web 3 required special apps or extensions, making it difficult for people to even try it out," said Charles Hamel, Product Manager of Opera Crypto. By adding a crypto wallet and Web 3 to its browser, Opera's goal is to "accelerate the transition of cryptocurrencies from speculation and investment to being used for actual payments and transactions in our users' daily lives." Opera is free to download from the Google Play Store.

Oh man, just like that South Park episode...

AMD today released their yearly driver update called Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition v18.2.2. (release notes). For the past three years, the company has been releasing year-end feature-packed updates to Radeon Software. The 2017 version saw the introduction of Radeon Software "Adrenalin", before which we had Crimson/ReLive and Omega. The company also sped up its driver release cycle to match AAA game releases, and over the years, increased its reliability score and customer satisfaction. With Radeon Software Adrenalin, AMD is targeting three key consumer segments: Gamers, Enthusiasts, and Creators.

Gamers and Enthusiasts aren't mutually exclusive groups. By Gamers, AMD implies users focused on gaming without much in the way of PC tuning. AMD pieced together a graph showing 15 percent performance gains year-on-year, compared Adrenalin 17.12.1 from a year ago. Just to clarify, this update brings no significant performance improvements, rather AMD chose to get those improvements out as quickly as possible, so that gamers can immediately benefit from them. Another graph shows the gains AMD made over the year in improving competitive eSports performance of its graphics cards, by lowering 99th percentile frame-time, click-to-response, and increasing frame-rates in key eSports titles "Fortnite," PUBG, and Dota 2. This is where AMD's huge list of features for this release begins.

Game Advisor is an extension of Radeon Overlay that lets you optimize hardware and game settings while playing. You get real-time frame-rate and 99th percentile frame-time read-outs, along with a list of recommendations on which specific game settings you could change to improve your eye-candy or performance. Settings Advisor is essentially an "easy-mode" for Radeon Settings when not gaming. It suggests the best display settings specific to your hardware environment. Even for power users, it's a nice list of shortcuts for the most used settings. Upgrade Advisor is a more subjective feature. It lists out your installed games, and checks if your GPU, CPU, and memory meet the game's minimum and recommended system requirements, and suggests hardware upgrade (which of course includes AMD products).

AMD classifies enthusiasts as users who are fully aware of not just in-game video settings, but also hardware tuning. The company made additions to key features used by enthusiasts, beginning with WattMan. WattMan now supports automatic overclocking and undervolting. Auto-overclocking tries to make overclocking simpler by automatically finding the highest stable values for either GPU clock or memory (you can't request auto-overclocking for both at the same time). We tested this and found that it gives a decent indicator of what to expect, without getting even close to what manual overclocking can do. This makes for a great starting point for additional manual overclocking. An issue with automatic GPU overclocking is that WattMan will only test the highest clock state and not the whole voltage-frequency curve (like NVIDIA's driver does). All RX Vega cards run at dynamic clock speeds and almost never at their highest clock state, which means that this auto-overclocking really doesn't have any effect on gaming, because the card switches to a lower DPM state after a few seconds, which is still set to default clock.

NVIDIA today released GeForce 417.35 WHQL software. These drivers provide optimization to the latest update of Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition, which introduces DLSS (deep learning super-sampling), NVIDIA's major image-quality enhancement feature released alongside "Turing." The 417.35 WHQL update also addresses a number of issues. "Rocket League" now no longer sometimes launch with a white screen and crash-to-desktop. The "Manage GPU Utilization" tab in the Workstation settings of NVCPL on machines running TITAN V no longer appears when it shouldn't. The drivers also fix SLI disabling after driver update on TITAN Xp SLI setups. Ansel support for "Battlefield V" is improved. Texture flickering in "Hitman 2: Silent Assassin" has been fixed. The drivers also include an updated GeForce Experience (version 3.16.0.140).

Game Ready

• Provides the optimal gaming experience for the release of Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) in Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition.

3D Vision Profiles
Added or updated the following 3D Vision profiles:

• Insurgency Sandstorm - Not Recommended
• Atlas - Fair

Fixed Issues and Other Changes

• Updated GFE to 3.16.0.140.
• [SLI][TITAN Xp]: SLI is disabled by default after installing the driver. [200471881]
• [TITAN V][NVIDIA Control Panel]: The Workstation->Manage GPU Utilization page appears when it shouldn't. [200470813]
• [Rocket League]: The game launches to a white screen with audio in the background and then crashes. [2451530]
• [Battlefield V: Day0 97][Ansel]: After being moved all the way to the left, the Ansel field-of view (FoV) slider stops following the click-and-drag mouse movement. [2438857]
• [Hitman 2 Silent assassin]: There is flickering texture corruption in the game. [200472315]
• [Notebook][3D games]: Frame rate of 3D games may drop to under 30 fps on notebooks. [2456653]

Windows 10 Issues

• [GeForce GTX 1080Ti]: Random DPC watchdog violation error when using multiple GPUs on motherboards with PLX chips. [2079538]
• [Firefox]: Cursor shows brief corruption when hovering on certain links in Firefox. [2107201]
• [G-Sync]: Random flickering occurs when connecting G-sync monitor + non-G-Sync HDMI monitor with G-Sync enabled. [2399845]

Google Trends has released data on the most popular and trending searches of 2018. The data is broken up into categories such as Music, Movies, TV, and Sports. It can also be viewed globally or by country

Microsoft has apparently taken its IntelliMouse through an upgrade process. One of the more recognizable products harking back to Microsoft's past, the revamped IntelliMouse keeps its form, but sees the inclusion of an improved PixArt PAW 3389 Pro-MS sensor. The PixArt PAW 3389 features 50 levels of DPI sensitivity, running from a base 200 up to 16,000. The 136 g IntelliMouse is being rated for accelerations up to 50G, and a maximum polling rate of 1,000 Hz; it's of the wired variety, and features a small RGB detail on the palm rest, near the back of the mouse. For now, it's only available in the Chinese Microsoft store (where it's available for 400 Yuan, roughly €50, but it should eventually find its way to other markets.

Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev headed outside the International Space Station on Tuesday to cut away thermal and orbital debris shielding from a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and inspect the ship's hull, where the station crew repaired a minor air leak in August... The inspection planned on Tuesday's spacewalk will include photo documentation of the site, and the collection of samples from any epoxy sealant that may be seeped through the hole to the outside of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft, before the capsule undocks Dec. 19 with Prokopyev, outgoing station commander Alexander Gerst, and NASA astronaut Serena Aunon-Chancellor.

The Samsung Galaxy A8s debuted in China this morning, even though almost everything about the phone had already been revealed, largely by Samsung's own doing. The phone features a Snapdragon 710 processor, 6GB or 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage expandable via microSD, and is expected to land at about $450. Choosing an IPS display over one of Samsung's own brilliant OLEDs would be disappointing - if not for that intriguing camera cut-out. Pinhole. Black hole. Polka dot. Pimple. Mole. The wide variety of names for the Infinity-O display - which stretches beyond what would be appropriate to write here - expresses the wide variety of opinions on it. In all likelihood, that's why Samsung decided to debut the feature on a mid-range device; to test the waters. Rather unfortunately, however, the focus on the hole has detracted from what's otherwise a pretty solid device.The phone was officially unveiled today although we had reported on the Galaxy A8's final specs during the weekend based on info Samsung sent into China's version of the FCC, TENAA. The Galaxy A8s features three rear cameras: 24mp, 10mp (telephoto) and 5mp, the latter of which is used for depth sensing. The selfie camera quality is unaffected by its situation and will be a solid performer at 24mp (with f/2.0 aperture). A pretty standard 3,400mAh battery is included with fast charging support over USB-C. It was rumored the Galaxy A8s would be the first Samsung phone to drop the headphone jack and this has been confirmed today. The screen is mostly pretty decent, a 6.4" affair with a reasonable 2340 x 1080 resolution (taller than usual 19.5:9 aspect ratio). Samsung's decision to use an IPS screen may protect upcoming Galaxy S10 sales and make sense business-wise, but it doesn't come without compromise. The bezels on the sides and top are still relatively slim with a small chin on the bottom. Also, reports say that the camera hole requires 1-2mm of dead space around it, bringing it to a pretty large 6.7mm.

This Australian Twitch Streamer that goes by the name of 'MrDeadMoth' was found abusing his wife yesterday all over a game of Fortnite, the wife tries countless times to defend herself but ends up just getting punched and slapped more whilst his two kids (2 years old and 20 months) watch and cry. His Twitch account has been permanently banned and has been charged for common assault towards his wife and was arrested at 11:30pm on the 9th of December. He has been served with an apprehended violence order and is expected to appear in court on the 13th of December.

Microsoft released a holiday ad earlier this week promoting its new, lower-cost Surface Go lineup, and while it's a cute video, some are saying the company has embarrassed itself by directly namedropping the competition: the ad features a little girl who explicitly tells her Grandma she doesn't want an iPad because it isn't "a real computer."