NewsBytes Briefing: PUBG Mobile bans millions for cheating, and more
What's the story
When your game is predicated upon competitive multiplayer gameplay, it's a terrible prospect to have cheaters run amok. PUBG Mobile's Ban Pan initiative has been banning in excess of a million players every week.
That's right, millions every week. Yet the weekly ban count doesn't seem to relent anytime soon. It sure wasn't a hyperbole when gamers complained that PUBG was full of cheaters.
When it rains
Signal incorporates payments feature; One less reason to use WhatsApp
WhatsApp is going through a rough patch. If the user exodus due to privacy concerns wasn't enough, it was revealed that even the guy who owns the messaging platform doesn't trust it himself.
Meanwhile, Signal has now launched a peer-to-peer payments service replete with cryptocurrency support. That's a lucrative privacy-oriented payments alternative to WhatsApp Pay, and one less reason to keep using it.
Tech oracle
Apple finally uses big data to help, not exploit users
Big data is both scary and amazing at the same time. Facebook can tell when you will fall in love and break up with alarming accuracy. Companies can even predict pregnancies and resignations.
Apple, however, will use the tech to predict the single most important thing—when your iPhone's battery is going to run out and warn you in advance.
Thanks, Tim Apple.
Desperate measures
Google 'accidentally leaks' new Pixel Buds, aka desperate PR stunt
The Google Pixel Buds were unmitigated technical and commercial failures. The serious hardware troubles plaguing them has ensured that no one really cares about the upcoming Pixel Buds A.
That explains how or rather why Google "accidentally leaked" the second-generation wireless earphones. You know your tech product is in dire straits when even the leaks have to be handled by the in-house PR.
Picky thieves
More news you can file under things that never happened
If you thought Google's self-leak was unconvincing, just wait until you hear this one. Apparently, someone had his Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus snatched away, only for the thief to return it because it wasn't the brand-new OnePlus 9 Pro.
Incidents such as these make you long for a time when the fourth estate's healthy skepticism wasn't superseded by its rabid hunger for clicks.