Mobile Legends: Bang Bang blasts off

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino mobile gamers get a chance to showcase their skills in gunning for victory on the battle arena in the new national competition called “Momentum eSports TV Battle League” set to blast off April 21-May 19.

The league will feature 64 teams of six amateur and professional players each who will slay for honors in the hugely popular game “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang.”

MLBB is among the games to be contested in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, giving non-pros more reason and motivation to strive for excellence and aspire for future stints in big-time international competitions.

“Our main goal is to provide an avenue to all local players, especially those from small communities who are denied of this opportunity and have limited means to hone and showcase their skills,” Joanna Paola DV Ang, executive producer of Momentum, said during Thursday’s presscon.

Momentum eSports TV Battle League, which will see players with rankings of 100 to 300 stars competing for a total pot of P60,000 and 12,000 diamonds from MLBB’s developer, Moonton, will be aired live daily from 4-8 p.m. by the Manila Times Digital TV on www.manilatimestv.com, Facebook and other social media platforms.

Ang was joined in the presscon for the new league by Jennifer Jones, assistant station manager, Marc Christian Jarlego, operations manager for Momentum eSports, and Thea Rosalyn Faustino, executive administrative assistant for Momentum.

They said Filipinos had already shown their world-class form in eSports, with TNC Predator winning the DOTA2 tournament at the World Electronic Sports Games last year in Chongqing, China.

source: philstar.com

GOTTA CATCH ‘EM SERVERS | Pokemon Go Australia log-in complaints grow

Growing numbers of Pokemon Go players in Australia, one of three countries where Nintendo Co’s smash-hit mobile game is available, are complaining they’re having trouble logging in, raising concerns the Japanese firm may not be able to roll the game out globally as quickly as planned.

Shares in Nintendo fell nearly 6 percent in Tokyo early on Wednesday after a three-day surge on the successful U.S. launch of the augmented reality game last week added 1.2 trillion yen ($11 billion) to the company’s market value. Based on the 1990s Japanese franchise, the augmented reality game topped Apple Inc’s free app charts.

By 0220 GMT on Wednesday, a total of about 1,300 Pokemon Go users had reported problems accessing the game in Australia over the last two days, according to website aussieoutages.com, which tracks digital service disruptions.

The game has only been released in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, and Nintendo has said launches for other countries including Japan – one of the world’s biggest gaming markets – are due soon.

Both Nintendo and Niantic, which developed the game in tandem with Pokemon Co, declined to comment. Nintendo owns a third of Pokemon Co and has an undisclosed stake in Niantic.

Some gamers in Australia have speculated servers were overloaded because players in the United Kingdom, where the game is not yet available domestically, were trying to log on.

“When Pokemon Go servers experience issues, so do I,” a user with the handle @_emilymcc wrote in a post on the aussieoutages.com website.

The reported disruption adds to a flurry of headaches Nintendo is facing with Pokemon Go.

Security researchers raised concerns about the vulnerability of users’ data after finding that Pokemon Go players signing into the game via a Google account on an Apple operating system device unwittingly gave “full access permission” to Google accounts.

Meanwhile cases of armed robberies and injuries involving Pokemon Go players have also been reported.

source: interaksyon.com

Candy Crush players warned vs ‘dubious’ Android apps

MANILA, Philippines — It was only a matter of time, but security experts have already issued warning against “dubious” applications trying to latch on to the success of Candy Crush, an Android game with Facebook integration that has already surpassed the likes of Farmville in terms of popularity in the social network.

In a security alert, Trend Micro Technical Communications Specialist Gelo Abendan warned that “dubious developers” have already started creating suspicious app that ride on the Candy Crush fame, which could become launchpads for malware attacks in the future.

Candy Crush Saga, a free mobile game developed by King.com, has amassed widespread popularity among users worldwide. It is a puzzle strategy game that requires players to connect matching “candies” to score points, and comes with a social component that makes the game a lot more addictive.

According to Abendan, Trend Micro was able to detect “adware” apps that contain code for the Leadbolt and Airpush ad networks, which were among the most prevalent form of adwares found in 2012.

“While not inherently malicious, adware can be abused by cybercriminals for their own gains. Adware not only uses aggressive advertising tactics such as persistent notifications, but also collects information about the user. This could be construed as a violation of the user’s privacy,” Abendan explained.

Some of the dubious apps detected by the security software company includes an app that offers tips and tricks for getting through the game, as well as another that recommends playing another game through persistent notifications. Trend Micro said the same kinds of apps have been detected for popular mobile applications such as Instagram, Bad Piggies, and Temple Run.

So as their device will not be hit with by one of the more than 1 million malicious Android apps predicted to hit devices this year, Trend Micro suggests taking extra security precautions when installing apps on their devices, such as reading thoroughly through the app’s description page.

“Comments can be a goldmine of information, since you’ll know what other users are saying about their experience with the app. Once you install any apps, make sure that you check out the permissions that they are asking for,” Abendan added.

Touted as the most insecure mobile platform today thanks to its “openness,” Android has become a breeding ground for malware in the past several years, especially with the ease of distributing apps through the Google Play Store.

In 2012, 293,091 apps on the Android platform were found to be malicious and of these, 68,740 were found on the official Google Play store. Around 22% of these malicious apps were found to leak information about the user.

Such developments are crucial in a market like the Philippines, where one out of every four mobile phones are powered by the Android platform, and where games such as Candy Crush Saga enjoy a huge following.

source: interaksyon.com