Microsoft decided it was time to step up their game and turn its payment feature a lot more useful. After launching Microsoft Pay as a response to services like Apple Pay or Android Pay, it decided to integrate it into Outlook and allow users to pay email invoices without leaving the app.

Microsoft Pay will soon be a part of Outlook

At first, Microsoft launched Microsoft Wallet in 2016, but converted it to Microsoft Pay in an attempt to bring some competition to other popular platforms. Now, it decided to make it even more accessible and assure their user-base stays the same. Therefore, it integrated this service into Microsoft Outlook.

The integration works as follows. You most probably receive invoices via email or maybe you need to make payments to certain senders. For this, you had to close Outlook and access the Microsoft Pay service. From now on, whenever you need to make a payment, you’ll be able to do it directly from the email app.

The Microsoft Pay option will be available right in the Outlook window. Whenever you select it, a panel will open at the right, thanks to the Adaptive Cards of the platform. There, you can introduce all the data that makes the payment possible.

Microsoft wanted to make everything more accessible for users

This option should start rolling out over the next few weeks. At first, it will undergo a test, so only a limited number of users will benefit from it. Then, it will gradually spread to everyone over the upcoming months. Braintree and Stripe are the service that will take care of payment processing, while FreshBooks, Invoice2Go, or Zuora will process the invoices.

Microsoft decided to integrate Microsoft Pay into Outlook as an attempt to make things easier to use. Resorting to different services provided by the same company was a bit unpractical. Therefore, the tech giant decided to bring Adaptive Cards across most platforms and make them more accessible for users.

Image source: Pixnio

One of the most popular encrypted messaging app will no longer be able to avoid censorship due to the action of two big platforms. The app in question, Signal, announced it would abandon the anti-censorship practice after the main cloud giants Amazon and Google abandoned support for the feature.

Domain fronting is an accurate method to avoid censorship

Signal was well-known for using domain fronting, a method users were quite fond of. Domain fronting could pinpoint those ways of imposing censorship. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, the messaging app said it would abandon this feature. As an explanation, it explained Google and Amazon no longer supported the option on cloud, so they had no other choice.

Once the platforms abandoned support for the feature, domain fronting became almost impossible to use. Domain fronting works by making it impossible for providers to block particular sites. If they wanted to do it, they would have to block the internet as a whole, which was not an option.

Cloud platforms disabled support for domain fronting

Usually, apps can detect traffic and identify the websites where it comes from. Signal did it through cloud providers, which filtered this traffic and made it undetectable. A similar feature is available on Telegram as well, which allowed the service to escape common censorship practices issued by different governments.

While domain fronting has many advantages, it can have some drawbacks. The practice is common among hackers, who can make their malware undetectable. This is why Google abandoned support for the method. When this happened, Signal switched to Amazon CloudFront. However, this cloud platform followed Google’s example.

As an explanation, Amazon said it wanted to grant requests only to those domains with legitimate owners. These changes took Signal by surprise. The company declared it would try to fix the issues and find a solution for the problem, but it might take some time until it found the right thing to do.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

If you weren’t so happy about the Snapchat redesign, we have some good news. Some rumors suggest the app might be going back to some of its initial features that will be effectively integrated in the new version. The company has already confirmed a test that moves friends’ Stories into the Discover tab. This resembles the old design, and makes a clear distinction between friends and ads brought by brands.

The Snapchat redesign moves friend Stories to the Discover tab

The rumors about the new Snapchat redesign seem to be founded, as a small section of users could see the tests run on the app. If you remember the old features, you know that all Stories were available in one single tab. Now, Snapchat moved Stories from friends to the Discover tab, but it now has a few other separate tabs. One of them is for friends, the other one for subscriptions, and the third one for ads and other suggested content.

However, the Snapchat redesign is actually a lot better. The old feed mixed everything together, so you often could stumble upon an ad when you wanted to see what your friends had been doing. Now, tapping the Friends tab will keep all the other content away.

This latest redesign seems a bit friendlier than the previous one

Snapchat wanted to highlight a clear distinction between people and brand content. If the redesign is final, you will be able to see more Stories from your friends. At the same time, subscription content will appear in a different feed, but it’s still there. It will be separate, but still readily accessible.

If you enjoy this Snapchat redesign, don’t get too excited yet. The company said it was running only a few tests at the moment. Depending on the feedback they receive on the new features, the company will decide if the new design is final or not.

Image source: Max Pixel

WhatsApp is constantly on a quest to offer its users the best experience. Therefore, it came with a new set of updates that make the app friendlier and a lot easier to use. These updates are High Priority Notification and Dismiss as Admin, and turn WhatsApp into a more useful means of communication.

The High Priority Notification lets you pin whatever is important

If you are a regular user of WhatsApp, you will definitely enjoy these new updates that have been prepared for you. Let’s start with the High Priority Notification that definitely makes things a lot easier. Last year, the instant messaging platform released a similar update that allowed you to prioritize chats.

Now, the High Priority Notification is based on the same principle. There are certain notifications that are more important for you, so you’d like to see them first. With this feature, you can select whatever you find relevant, and pin it. Afterwards, these notifications will appear first on that list that shows you everything that’s new.

WhatsApp allows you to use this feature right in the notification center. However, this can be tricky in certain situations. If you use more apps that let you prioritize their notifications, you will no longer see the WhatsApp ones first. Activating the feature from these settings will display the prioritized ones in the order you receive them. Therefore, it’s better to activate it directly from the app.

Dismiss as Admin is the other exclusive WhatsApp feature

The other feature is called Dismiss as Admin, and is specially created for groups. If you wanted to replace one admin or steal this title from them, you had to remove the person from the group. Now, you no longer need to create group drama. One admin can downgrade another admin from this position by using this feature. This can happen without kicking them from the group.

At the moment, the updates are available only on iOS, and only if you have the new WhatsApp version 2.18.41. The features are available on web as well but, for Android, you’ll need to wait a little longer.

Image source: PxHere

The heated fight between Apple Music and Spotify is only at the beginning, as Spotify gave another serious blow to Apple’s streaming service. It turns out the Swedish company will soon be stealing one of the most valuable people that helped Apple Music rise. This person is no other than the Head of Artist Curation for hip hop, Carl Chery.

Carl Chery is a serious loss for Apple Music

We already know Spotify is a few steps ahead of Apple Music in terms of subscribers and popularity. Although Apple’s streaming service keeps growing, it will get harder for it to defeat the Swedish company. Apple Music is currently the second in the streaming top, but Spotify is the real ruler.

Recent news surfaced of a serious loss for Apple Music that will likely affect its performance. Carl Chery, the Head of Artist Curation for genres like hip hop and R&B, has decided to leave the tech giant in favor of Spotify. Chery played an important role for Apple, but also for the music industry in general. Therefore, this is a serious blow for Apple Music.

Chery will most likely bring exclusive music and playlists on Spotify

Carl Chery is the one that managed to strike a collaboration between Apple Music and Chance the Rapper, the Grammy-winning artist. He was also responsible with creating perfect musical mixes and putting them in clever playlists. Also, he found relatively unknown artists that produced quality music and brought them on the platform.

In terms of contributions to the music industry, he was the one that helped artists like Post Malone, Cardi B, or Khalid ascend in their career. There’s no doubt that Carl Chery is a valuable man that all companies would have wanted on their side. Now, we might expect the same high-quality playlists on Spotify. Also, we’ll now probably stumble upon exclusive artists we didn’t normally see on the platform.

Image source: Pixabay

With the first title of the series being released in 1993, Doom is inarguably one of the most modded games in history, right next to Skyrim. And if Doom’s hyperrealistic mode Hideous Destructor wasn’t enough for you, Mexican games developer Calavera Studio just announced MiniDoom 2, the sequel of the 2D Sidescroller released back in 2016.

What the Hell is MiniDoom 2?

Though many things can be said about Doom, ‘mini’ isn’t the right word to describe it. Since the concept was first marketed, the game had three sequels, an expansion pack, and who knows how many fan-made mods.

And now, Calavera Studio, a Mexico-based games developer, has just announced that MiniDoom, the 2D sidescrolling parody released back in 2016, will have a sequel with more levels, bigger guns, and tons of foes to slay.

Similar to its predecessor, MiniDoom 2 will also feature the same 2D interface, but with improved graphics, sprites, and Doom-inspired sound effects.

According to the studios, the new MiniDoom will have four game modes, five difficulty levels, 14 weapons, some of them not even feature in the original series, 17 levels, and two bosses.

And if that isn’t enough to pique your interest, Calavera’s version of Doom also has a nightmare mode which makes the gameplay similar to Cuphead. Of course, no Doom-based game can ever be complete without including some of the enemies that gave us so many nightmares such as the Revenant, Mancubus, the flying heads, or the Hell Knights.

Conclusion

What’s even cooler is that the game is free of charge and can be downloaded directly from websites such as GameJolt. However, do keep in mind that this game was developed by volunteers, so be sure to leave a donation on Calavera Studio’s official page.

Happy hunting, guys!

Image courtesy of Calavera Studio

2017 has been a great year for Nintendo, and was marked by many achievements for the company. Its biggest event of the year was the release of the Nintendo Switch in March. The console was so successful that it broke two records. It was the fastest selling gaming console ever produced by the company, and the fastest selling home console in the US.

Nintendo Switch, the best selling console in the US

The title of Nintendo’s best selling console was not unexpected, but the popularity of Nintendo Switch came as a bit of a surprise. Between its release date on March 3^rd and December 31^st, the company managed to sell 4.8 million units of the console only in the United States.

This is huge, as it’s the biggest number ever reached by a console during its first 10 months of existence on the market. People would assume the most successful console ever released by Nintendo was Wii, which came out in November 2006. However, Switch managed to surpass it.

Switch received a lot of outside support

However, Nintendo revealed the sales are given mostly by the combination between Switch and trending games. People went crazy about buying the Switch and Super Mario Odyssey or Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild. As it seems, Super Mario beat Legend of Zelda in the US.

Also, the Switch knew how to entertain its players. The developers made sure no delays occurred, and the console received plenty of third-party support, as its release has been impatiently expected. Apart from the typical Nintendo games, other companies created Switch versions for their games. Ubisoft joined in with Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, while Bethesda brought the classics Skyrim and DOOM.

When comparing this achievement with other consoles, Switch is the clear winner. For instance, Sony had sold 20 million copies of the PS4 all over the world in two years since the release. This happened even if it had a great start on the market. Nintendo’s console has already reached 10 million sold units after only 10 months.
Image Source: Flickr

If you wanted to test your trivia knowledge in a fun and engaging quiz game that is HQ Trivia, you had to own an iPhone. The game used to be available only on iOS, but the demand from other users was still high. Therefore, the company decided to make it available on Android as well. However, the full game won’t be available as soon as you expected.

HQ Trivia has gotten delayed on Android

HQ Trivia is a live game presented by a host, Scott Rogowsky, where you get the chance to win money if you answer correctly. The game has become extremely popular, mostly because of the appealing format and its potential to become addictive. No one was amazed to see that Android users demanded the app for themselves as well.

Therefore, the owners decided to offer them the chance to play, too. At the beginning of this month, they announced HQ Trivia would get an Android version. However, they are now coming with bad news. Instead of a full release, the app will be out as a beta version. At first, the quiz game was supposed to be out on Christmas day. Fortunately, the delay won’t be that big, and it should get on the app stores at the beginning of next year.

The trivia game is expected to acquire even more users in the months to come

If you really want to play HQ Trivia on Android, you can activate a special alert on Google Play which will let you know when the game is out. They posted a notice on their Twitter account and, if they keep their word, the game should get here as soon as everyone returns to their regular lives after New Year’s Eve.

HQ Trivia has become an overnight sensation during these last few months of this year, as it attracted players with an appealing offer and the guarantee to have fun. If you answer correctly all the 12 questions available in a round, you get the chance to win real money. Even with iOS available as its only platform, it managed to gather hundreds of thousands of participants at a time.

Android update: we’re in limited beta as of Christmas Day & are working quickly on patches, so we can continue to roll it out to more testers throughout the week. Our goal is to make it available to ALL by Jan. 1.

Pre-register for updates: https://t.co/h47yTsixNJ

— HQ Trivia (@hqtrivia) December 26, 2017

Image Source: Flickr

The New Year is just around the corner, so it might be time for you to make some upgrades. WhatsApp wants to encourage people to keep up with the technological upgrades, so it decided to end the support for a series of older smartphones and operating systems. Therefore, if you own a BlackBerry, Nokia, or any smartphone running Windows or an old OS, you won’t be able to receive updates for the app. This will happen right on New Year’s Eve, to start the year fresh.

WhatsApp wants to encourage people to use more advanced technologies

Starting December 31^st, WhatsApp will stop delivering any kind of updates on older phones. If you use an older version of Android or iOS, you shouldn’t be worried, as this change won’t affect you. However, users of Windows Phone 8.0, any kind of BlackBerry, Nokia S40, or Nokia Symbian S60 will be cut off from receiving updates on the app.

If you still want to use the app, it might be time for you to direct your attention towards newer devices. It was quite difficult for the company to make such a decision but, in the end, it decided this was the best solution. The newer the OS is, the easier it is for the engineers to improve the security features and to offer the best means of communication.

WhatsApp is now owned by Facebook

If you own an Android phone, there’s no need to worry at the moment. However, WhatsApp is going to end the support for those running the 2.3.7 version or anything older on February 1^st, 2020. There’s plenty of time for you to upgrade to something newer by then.

WhatsApp was launched in 2009 and has gathered over one billion users. Since 2014, it is owned by Facebook. At first, Facebook claimed it couldn’t assure an automated connection between accounts on the two platforms. However, now, users receive an alert whenever their WhatsApp data is used on Facebook for advertisement purposes.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons