Technology - Google News

Apple Loop: New iPhone Delayed, Latest MacBook Pro Details, Apple’s Intrusive iPhone Adware - Forbes
Google addresses Huawei ban and warns customers not to sideload apps like Gmail and YouTube - The Verge
What Sony's history of backward compatibility tells us about PS5 - TechRadar India

Apple Loop: New iPhone Delayed, Latest MacBook Pro Details, Apple’s Intrusive iPhone Adware - Forbes

Posted: 21 Feb 2020 03:34 PM PST

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

Google addresses Huawei ban and warns customers not to sideload apps like Gmail and YouTube - The Verge

Posted: 21 Feb 2020 03:41 PM PST

Google on Friday evening published a support article meant to clarify the ongoing situation with Huawei. Last year, the United States government barred companies in the US from working with the Chinese hardware maker. "Google is prohibited from working with Huawei on new device models or providing Google's apps including Gmail, Maps, YouTube, the Play Store and others for preload or download on these devices," Tristan Ostrowski, legal director for Android and Google Play, wrote in the post, which was picked up by 9to5Google.

According to Google, there's still plenty of confusion around what's going on — and exactly which products are subject to the Google services ban.

We have continued to receive a number of questions about new Huawei devices (e.g., new models launching now, or earlier models launched after May 16, 2019 but now becoming available in new regions of the world) and whether Google's apps and services can be used on these devices. We wanted to provide clear guidance to those asking these important questions.

The article contains some of Google's most direct comments on the Huawei saga yet. The company steers clear of weighing in on whether Huawei poses any threat to US national security, which intelligence agencies and lawmakers have insisted is the case. "Our focus has been protecting the security of Google users on the millions of existing Huawei devices around the world," Ostrowski wrote. "We have continued to work with Huawei, in compliance with government regulations, to provide security updates and updates to Google's apps and services on existing devices, and we will continue to do so as long as it is permitted."

Huawei products released on or before May 16th, 2019 may continue to get those updates — for now. But anything that came later is considered "uncertified," as Google has been unable to put those devices through its "rigorous" security checks or preload them with Google Play Protect software, which can detect when hardware has been compromised.

But Google does have a warning for customers with newer Huawei products: don't try to sideload Gmail, YouTube, the Play Store, or other Google software onto those uncertified devices. Because the company can't guarantee that they're the real deal or free of malware.

Sideloaded Google apps will not work reliably because we do not allow these services to run on uncertified devices where security may be compromised. Sideloading Google's apps also carries a high risk of installing an app that has been altered or tampered with in ways that can compromise user security.

Google is trying to avoid the politics side of this, while also sternly dissuading people from going the backdoor route to maintain access to the company's popular services. Ostrowski ends the support article by outlining how to see whether the Android device you're using has been certified under Google Play Protect. "To check if your device is certified, open the Google Play Store app on your Android phone, tap 'Menu' and look for 'Settings.' You will see if your device is certified under 'Play Protect certification.''

Let's block ads! (Why?)

What Sony's history of backward compatibility tells us about PS5 - TechRadar India

Posted: 22 Feb 2020 03:00 AM PST

So, the PS5 is on its way, and it's going head-to-head with the equally next-gen Xbox Series X console. And while it's tempting to look at the hefty PS4 sales figures as a sign that Sony's dominance will continue, there is one area that the Xbox One clearly overtook, and that's backward compatibility.

What's that, you ask? Backward compatibility is the ability of a console to play games published on prior platforms. Given how many games are published these days, its a slightly more daunting task than it used to be, and it's telling that Sony largely wiped its hands of that kind of functionality years ago – even as Microsoft ensured its Xbox One consoles were still capable of playing hundreds of Xbox 360 titles.

There's a clear financial incentive to not supporting backward compatibility: if a gamer can't use an old disc on a new console, they're often likely to buy the game afresh, and often paying more than before for a remastered version that's been optimized for superior hardware.

For those of us without oodles of cash to spend, though, it can feel mean-spirited. And the issue of backward compatibility has clearly struck a chord with Sony in some way, as we know the PS5 will feature a whole load of backward compatibility for PS4 games.

That's exciting, of course: it means you won't be scrabbling around for PS5 games to play when you get the next-gen console into your home. Just stick in a disc or load a downloaded game from your PS4 library!

Sony's history of backward compatibility, however, doesn't necessarily inspire confidence that this trend is set to last – or that you're getting quite what you might be hoping for.

PS2: technical difficulties

The PS2 remains to this day the world's bestselling console, by any manufacturer. Having launched in 2000, it went on to have unprecedented success – and it probably didn't hurt that the original PS2 could play most of the PS1 games published on the prior console.

There were a smattering of PS1 games that didn't make the transition seamlessly, with bugs and glitches affecting titles such as Final Fantasy Anthology, Monkey Hero, and Mortal Kombat Trilogy (via PlayStation).

But the philosophy was clear: you shouldn't need to say goodbye to your favorite games for good, or not have a way to play them again if your old console went kaput.

The PS2 Slim, however, changed things. Ensuring old games work on newer consoles requires work, and that workload was getting bigger the longer developers were pushing out games for the console, and the more that the PlayStation platform's architecture changed with each new machine.

The Slim version of the console, released in 2004, had an ever bigger list of titles it struggled to play, including Worms and various NHL games from the PS1, and even some PS2 titles such as Tomorrow Never Dies and Tiger Woods PGA Tour (via PlayStation).

There were plenty of new games being released, of course, but these issues paved the way for Sony's acceptance that not every game would make its way onto a new console.

PS3: the beginning of the end

You may not remember this, but the PS3 had pretty excellent backward compatibility – for its original 20GB and 60GB models at least.

These models played most PS1 and PS2 discs, bridging three different generations of games, along with the option to download these titles on the PlayStation Store – a first for Sony's consoles on both counts.

However, this compatibility wasn't cheap, and did drive up the cost of the console – requiring dedicated hardware parts to read the PS2 discs, not to mention increased time spent on development of the console.

Part of the reason the successive PS3 Slim was smaller and cheaper was the removal of this functionality, which paved the way for the current generation console's stance on backward compatibility: don't do it at all.

PS4: streaming service, not fan service

That's right: the PS4 did not (and does not) support PS3 discs, or any before it.

This is partially due to Sony's interest in game streaming, with its paid PS Now service enabled subscribers to access a library of several hundred legacy titles without having to own a disc or keep space for them on a hard drive. That's all fine in theory, but the service hasn't been without its problems, and doesn't get around the issue of gamers having to pay to replay games they've already owned before.

PS5: an uncertain future

What does all this mean? We know the PS5 will have backward compatibility for the majority of PS4 games, meaning your discs and downloads won't be consigned to history… yet.

But Sony's previous pattern suggests this might get technically harder to keep up, as well as financially inadvisable – especially if it wants to really push its PS Now streaming service in the long term.

It's possible that a mid-cycle upgrade (say, a PS5 Slim) may drop some of this functionality, or backwards compatibility itself could be hidden behind a paywall, either packaged within PS Plus or as a standalone purchase.

This might be naysaying, as the PS5 will also be the most powerful console Sony has built, and that might mean it doesn't run into the same problems as previous generations of hardware.

But if we take a long term view of the PlayStation console, we can't be sure that backward compatibility will be both available and free forever on the PS5.

Let's block ads! (Why?)