The OnePlus PR machine is now fully operational in the run-up to the launch of the OnePlus 6T. We should -- officially -- hear more about the handset next month, but in the meantime the company is ramping up the hype.

The latest gimmick finds OnePlus teaming up with Google to create a game called Crackables. Due to launch next week, the game gives players the chance to "crack the code to win the challenge".

After months of problems, Plex has announced that Plex Cloud is due to close down later this year.

Introduced a couple of years ago to provide a way for users to store their files online rather than locally or on NAS drives, Plex Cloud has been plagued with issues. The company stopped accepting new servers back in February while it investigated the problems, but now Plex has determined that a fix is simply not possible and is therefore taking the "difficult decision" to shut down Plex Cloud on November 30.

Every year Apple fans who are unable to attend the iPhone launch -- that is, just about everyone -- either follows live blogs or seeks out how to watch the live stream in their preferred browser on their platform of choice. This year there will be a new option.

For the first time ever, Apple will be live streaming its iPhone launch event on Twitter. There had been rumors that this would happen, but now the new way to tune in has been confirmed.

It recently came to light that a number of apps in the mac App Store were collecting data about users' browsing histories and uploading them to a remote server. Included in this list were several apps from security firm Trend Micro.

Apple responded by kicking the offending apps out of the App Store, and Trend Micro started an investigation into the privacy concerns raised about Dr Cleaner, Dr Cleaner Pro, Dr Antivirus, Dr Unarchiver, Dr Battery and Duplicate Finder. Confirming that these apps did in fact collect and upload browser data, the company at first defended the activity, but then went on to cease data collection.

It's just two weeks since a Windows 0-day was revealed on Twitter, and now the same thing has happened for the Tor browser. Zerodium -- self-described as "the premium exploit acquisition program" -- exposed a backdoor vulnerability in Tor that makes it possible to bypass security protections.

The vulnerability affects Tor 7, and the vendor says that the problem has been addressed in the recently-released Tor 8. A proof-of-concept for the security has also been published.

Microsoft has published documentation that reveals how is classifies the severity of vulnerabilities in Windows, as well as detailing how it decides whether problems should be addressed with a security patch or in the next version of Windows.

The first batch of documentation shows for the first time how Microsoft defines "the criteria around security boundaries, features and mitigations in Windows". In releasing details of its severity classifications -- something known as the bug bar -- the company says that it is offering a "new level of transparency with the research community and our customers".

Whether genuine leaks or a carefully orchestrated PR campaign, details of OnePlus phone releases nearly always slip out ahead of the big day. The OnePlus 6T is no different.

We've already heard rumors that the upcoming handset will ditch the cumbersome rear-mounted reader in favor of one that's built directly into the screen. Now OnePlus has confirmed that this is in fact the case.

Microsoft today announced the successor to Visual Studio Team Services, Azure DevOps, as well as Azure DevOps Server, replacing Team Foundation Server. As part of this, the company also launched a new CI/CD service called Azure Pipelines which gives developers the chance to build, test and deploy to any platform.

Azure Pipelines has been launched in the GitHub Marketplace, and it is completely free for open source repositories.

Historically, Apple has run a very tight ship when it comes to containing leaks, but things have changed slightly in more recent times. It has been thought for a little while now that the company is planning to release three new iPhone models later this week, and there have been leaks that seem to show off some of the handsets and hint at the names.

Now there are two new leaks. The first shows prototypes of 6.1-inch LCD iPhone, while the second seems to confirm the names iPhone Xc, iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Plus.

Earlier this week it was revealed that Huawei has been gaming benchmarks by switching its phones to a faster mode when benchmarking tools were detected. After this caused 3DMark-maker UL to delist numerous Huawei phones, the Chinese manufacturer has responded by saying it will open up Performance Mode so users can access it whenever they want.

The company says that it "respects consumers' right to choose what to do with their devices" and that with this in mind it will let everyone running EMUI 9.0 to force the use of this faster mode.

President Trump proposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese products -- and there is the threat of a further $267 billion-- has caused Apple to write to the US Trade Representative to point out that this would lead to increased productions costs for many of its products.

Responding to this, Trump said that the company could avoid Chinese import tariffs by switching production to the US. Referring to his suggestion as "exciting", the president said that Apple should start building new factories in America.

Having already removed its podcasts from iTunes, Apple has gone a step further and kicked Infowars out of the App Store.

The app -- which provided access to Infowars articles as well as livestreams of Alex Jones shows rants -- has been permanently removed from the App Store for violations of Apple's rule. The move by the iPhone-maker is just the latest in a string of setbacks for Jones who has already fallen foul of Spotify, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter's policies.

It seems like mere moments since an updated version of Tor for the desktop was released, and now there's great news for owners of Android smartphones. The Tor Project has released an Android version of the Tor browser, and it's available to download either directly from its website, or from Google Play.

Currently in alpha -- so expect there to be a few issues -- this is the only mobile Tor browser that's supported by the Tor Project, and the developers promise that it will block trackers, protect against surveillance and ensure privacy.

A highly popular anti-adware tool in the Mac App Store "surreptitiously steals your browsing history", alleges a security researcher. "All your data are belong to China!", as he puts it.

Patrick Wardle conducted research into Adware Doctor -- one of the most popular paid-for apps in the App Store -- after concerns were raised by another security researcher. His research "uncovered blatant violations of user privacy and complete disregard of Apple's App Store Guidelines", including the theft and sharing of browsing history with a Chinese server.

UL -- the company behind benchmarking software 3DMark -- has delisted a number of Huawei phones after the Chinese handset manufacturer was found to be cheating in benchmarks.

As has been the case with handsets from some other manufacturers, the Huawei P20, P20 Pro, Nova 3 and Honor Play were found to increase performance when benchmarking software is running. Interestingly, Huawei has not denied the accusations leveled at it.