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By David Uzondu · Posted
Samsung is shutting down yet another app used by millions by David Uzondu Samsung has announced that it is shutting down Samsung Max, its VPN service used by more than 50 million people, effective today. Samsung Max VPN, if you don't know, was an Android app born on February 23, 2018, out of the ashes of Opera Max, a very popular data-saving VPN that Opera had discontinued the previous year. Samsung bought the discontinued service, rebranded it, and added a native Samsung UI to fit the Galaxy ecosystem. The app could do things like compress images, help you manage background data on a per-app basis, reduce video data consumption, shrink music files, optimize webpages, block advertisement trackers in incognito mode, and encrypt your internet traffic on public Wi-Fi networks. Image via SammyGuru If you open the app now, you'd be greeted by a shutdown banner warning that all VPN, data saving, and privacy services stopped functioning on June 15, 2026. The creators failed to provide a reason for the shutdown, instead publishing a farewell note that read: "Thank you for being with us over the years. Your support and activity truly meant a lot to us and helped shape this app into what it became." This same message appears on the Google Play Store listing for the app as well. Max VPN is the latest service from Samsung to join the list of discontinued applications from the company. Just two months ago, the Korean tech giant announced that it is completely shutting down Samsung Messages, forcing millions of users to migrate to Google Messages by next month. The only devices that the shutdown won't affect are older smartphones running Android 11 or lower. Some of the features of Google Messages that Samsung hopes will entice users include AI-powered scam detection to block suspicious links, integrated Gemini AI tools to generate quick replies, custom chat bubbles, and universal RCS compatibility for sharing high-quality media with iOS users. The platform also offers seamless syncing across tablets and smartwatches. In addition to that, users gain access to message scheduling, smart classification, and automated category sorting. Via: SammyGuru -
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By The Werewolf · Posted
1. Define "better". 2. It's still more expensive than equivalent PCs so... And there is not one Windows platform. This is the mistake ALL Apple oriented people make. Apple is one OEM. You could reasonably compare them to one PC OEM, say Dell or HP. But you can't compare them to ALL PC OEMs. Case in point, Apple has NO touch screen MacBooks. No tablet Macs. There are no rugged Macs. The variety of PC OEM design is insane. With Apple, you have... Apple. The problem is that you're starting with Apple as the definition of "good" then filtering out anything that isn't close to an existing Apple product, then trying to homogenise all of those left into a fictional product line and then ignore any innovations to create a minimal feature subset so you can say "See! Apple better!" PS: I was an Apple dev for 17 years and helped develop MacInTalk and disability solutions for Apple, and worked on Microsoft Office for MacOS - and I have several Macs and MacBooks - so tread very carefully. -
By LoneWolfSL · Posted
Major Xbox layoffs may claim South of Midnight developer Compulsion entirely by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe Microsoft has been making major changes in its gaming wing Xbox for a few months now, including the appointment of a new CEO, a large number of leadership changes, and strategy shifts. However, the company is seemingly also looking at initiating a major layoffs wave at Xbox and perhaps even a studio closure. The new report lands from Kotaku, Xbox first-party developer Compulsion Games is being shuttered soon by Microsoft. For those unfamiliar with the studio, it's the team behind Contrast (2013), We Happy Few (2018), and South of Midnight (2025). Its latest game was quite well received, even winning a Peabody Award for its writing. It even received a 9/10 in Neowin's own review, highlighting its engaging storyline, gorgeous world, and curious characters. The studio joined Xbox Game Studios in 2018, just as Microsoft announced it is acquiring Playground Games, Undead Labs, and Ninja Theory. Despite recent listings for new staff roles, according to the new report, Compulsion Games is being closed entirely, with over 90 staff being let go. Kotaku also added that the studio's leadership is in negotiations with Microsoft about this decision, but no official details have been revealed yet. The report lands just as two senior managers of Xbox leave their posts at Microsoft Gaming. Head of Xbox Game Studios Craig Duncan and chief of staff Louise O'Connor originally began their journey in Rare and have been a part of Xbox for over two decades. Dunkan has been responsible for games like Kinect Sports and Sea of Thieves, while O'Connor was primarily working on Rare's Everwild project before its cancelation. If this report about the studio shutdown is accurate, this may just be the start of a major new layoffs wave at Xbox Game Studios. There are also rumors of Arkane Studios being heavily affected. As always, take all these reports with a grain of salt until something official materializes from Microsoft or the studios. -
By The Werewolf · Posted
The flaw with this analysis is that this laptop has a cellphone CPU in it. In the Intel world, that would be an N150 and those are everywhere, even in low end laptops. You can get an N150 based NUC with 16GB RAM and 256GB-512GB SSD... NOT soldered in... for < $500 Canadian (around US$360). The problem is two fold: tech bloggers/writers on most tech site (like this one, ironically) overvalue Apple and apparently aren't in the same earnings class as most regular people. As a result, we get breathless articles about how everyone needs a folding phone when most people just cannot afford one... or really need one. And we get Apple used as the baseline metric regardless of whether that comparison makes any sense. If Dell or HP released a retail laptop with a cellphone motherboard, you'd be all over them for doing that - but Apple does it and it's genius. I see articles suggesting what Samsung - a company that basically started the foldable phone market and has built them for eight years - needs to do to compete with Apple's unreleased, unspecced and unseen folding phone. Sorry, no - if the Neo (really creative name there BTW - still, better than the Go, the other "creative" product name everyone's using) encourages PC makers to make cellphone laptops using lower end ARM processors, we all lose. It's a step backwards and a capitulation to the fact that semiconductor makers and computer OEMs (and tech bloggers) have totally lost the plot.
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