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Tech Update

Google Maps update includes its creepiest and most useful feature yet

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Google Maps now lets users review their previous movements

Google Maps now lets users review their previous movements
Google this week rolled-out a new update to Google Maps on iOS.

And the new software might just include the navigation app’s creepiest – and most useful – feature to date.

Google announced the new feature in a blog post.

Dubbed Your Timeline, it allows Google Maps users to look at all the places they’ve visited in the last few days, weeks, and months.

This could prove to be a brilliant aide-memoire for those struggling to recall a particular journey, or remember that coffee shop they stumbled across a few months ago.

Your Timeline presents users with a complete history of their location over days, weeks, and monthsGOOGLE

Your Timeline presents users with a complete history of their location over days, weeks, and months

Google Maps users can access the new feature from the slide-out menu in the iOS app.

Your Timeline is located in the main menu, beneath Your Places.

Tapping the new option lets users trawl back through the places they’ve visited in recent days, weeks and months.

Google lets Maps users edit the information in Your Timeline, tweaking place names and addresses to ensure everything about your travels is accurate.

Maps users can also delete a day, a date range, or the entire location-data history.

Here's how to get the most from your web browser

In addition, Google has included a variety of activity types to allow users to customise your modes of transportation and activities—from surfing to snowshoeing to horseback riding.

In its blog post, Google writes “What was the name of that antique store I popped into the other day? Where was that coffee shop we discovered on our last vacation? Did I drop off the dry cleaning on Tuesday or Wednesday? “Answering questions like these used to take some guesswork (and a great memory).

“But with Your Timeline on Google Maps, Android and desktop users could quickly revisit the things they’ve done and places they’ve been.

Google Maps users can delete data, or customise the information with specific modes of transport GOOGLE

Google Maps users can delete data, or customise the information with specific modes of transport

“Starting today, Google Maps users on iOS can join in on the fun and see a daily snapshot of their life as well.”

Google Maps can now send users monthly emails summarising the cities, countries, and places you’ve visited.

To manage these settings, open the settings tab from Your Timeline, and toggle “Timeline emails” on or off.

[“Source-express”]

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Tech Update

WhatsApp update will FINALLY make its most painful feature easier to use

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

WhatsApp is bringing some big changes to its chat app

WhatsApp is planning to make it less painful to change your mobile number.

WhatsApp accounts are linked to your mobile phone number, and changing that number can be a real hassle.

Users often resort to creating dedicated WhatsApp groups with their friends to announce a change to a new number.

WhatsApp warns users on its website, “When you change your WhatsApp phone number, your contacts will not individually be informed of the change.

“Only participants that share group chats with you will see that you changed your number.

“For a seamless messaging experience, notify your contacts that your number will be changing before you begin this process.”

WhatsApp will notify your contacts when you change numbers WABETAINFO • TWITTER

WhatsApp will notify your contacts when you change numbers

Fortunately, WhatsApp looks set to alleviate some of this pain with a future update to the chat app.

The Facebook-owned messenger is believed to be testing a new Change Number in the latest beta for the app.

This clever feature lets users notify their contacts about the upcoming change in phone number.

Users can choose whether to notify all their WhatsApp contacts about the number change – or just those they have active conversations with.

The new feature was unearthed by Twitter account @WABetaInfo, which tracks new functionality that surfaces within the latest WhatsApp beta releases.

The new WhatsApp beta also includes the ability to revoke messages that you’ve already sent.

Since these features are only in beta, there is no guarantee they will make the final release version.

WhatsApp is also looking to bring person-to-person payments to its hugely-popular messenger.

The Facebook-owned app is purportedly looking to add digital payments very soon, following the surge in popularity of mobile wallet apps such as Paytm and MobiKwik in India, following the country’s demonetisation last year.

WhatsApp is currently the most popular instant messaging app in India, hence why it is focusing its efforts there for this new feature.

The messenger is believed to be in talks with the government to add support for UPI – a new payment system created by the National Payments Corporation of India, or NPCI.

UPI is completely open to third-party services, which will allow WhatsApp to incorporate the technology into its messenger.

A spokesperson for the company did not directly deny its plans in India, telling Mashable: “India is an important country for WhatsApp, and we’re understanding how we can contribute more to the vision of Digital India.

“We’re exploring how we might work with companies that share this vision and continuing to listen closely to feedback from our users.”

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton visited India a few weeks ago to meet with government officials to discuss ways the US-based company could contribute to “India’s vision for digital commerce”.

[Source:-express]

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Internet

Apple Combats iCloud Calendar Spam With ‘Report Junk’ Feature

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Apple Combats iCloud Calendar Spam With 'Report Junk' Feature

Apple’s iCloud Calendar Spam has been annoying many users off late, mostly due to many offers from brands in the holiday season. Apple looked to balm the outrage of disgruntled users last week, by announcing that the team is working on eradicating these junk invites. Now, the Cupertino giant has launched a new ‘Report Junk’ feature that will enable users to report any spam invites and block them from sending any more invites in the future.

This feature has been activated only for iCloud’s Web client, and should arrive for iPhone and iPad users soon. The Report Junk feature sits in the Calendar UI section, and only shows up for those invites that are from users not added in your contacts.

To use this feature to stop junk advertorial iCloud Calendar invites, head to iCloud.com and login with your Apple ID. Head to the Web Calendar UI, and find junk invites. Under every junk invite will be a new button called ‘Report Junk’. By pressing this button, a dialogue box appears to either confirm that the sender is under the category of junk or not. User can even press the ‘Not Junk’ button to reverse the steps taken and continue receiving invites. If you confirm that the sender is sending spam, then those junk invitations from the particular sender will be automatically deleted.

The invite will then disappear from all the synced calendars across platforms, and the sender will be reported to Apple. This is a great first initiative from Apple to combat the influx of spam.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine Adds Keyword Search as a Beta Feature

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Internet Archive's Wayback Machine Adds Keyword Search as a Beta Feature

It can be hard to find sites that have disappeared from the Internet. But the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is on the verge of rolling out a feature that will make tracking down dead websites much easier, according to Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle.

The Wayback Machine has been helping people see past Internet sites over the past 15 years, but searchers always needed to know the URL of a website to find the archived copies. Soon, however, you’ll be able to use keyword searches to find old websites – in fact, you can already test it out through a public beta.

The new search feature is not quite like Google, where all the text on each page on a website is indexed to help with searches. The Wayback Machine feature lets you search for an archived website’s main page, although it does not have the capacity to enable searches for specific webpages on that site. But once you’re there, you’re able to navigate around the old websites.

But the feature is still a big step in terms of usability. Kahle said that he, too, has struggled with the lack of keyword search availability in the Wayback Machine. “I use the Wayback Machine mostly by going to Google, finding a URL and then going to the Wayback to find previous versions of it,” said. “But what if the site is completely gone?”

The ever-changing online ecosystem is partly to blame for all of that hoop jumping: The Internet’s history is filled with the digital corpses of entire sites that are hard, if not impossible, to find through Google.

Take Geocities. It was once a hugely popular hosting service that was acquired by Yahoo but is now defunct everywhere except Japan. Today, the first Google search result for “geocities” is a Wikipedia page about the service, followed by stories about its demise, but not the actual geocities.com URL, which currently redirects to a page about Yahoo services for small businesses.

But if you search for “geocities” in the test version of the Wayback Machine, the first result is geocities.com. That result shows the tool captured over 200 million copies of some 37 million pages that were once hosted on the domain.

And that’s the real power of the Wayback Machine’s new search: It makes it easier for us to see how the Web used to look.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Education

Google’s Shop the Look Feature to Show Smarter Shopping Ads in Search Results

by Rajdeep
written by Rajdeep

Google's Shop the Look Feature to Show Smarter Shopping Ads in Search Results

Google last year added ‘Purchases on Google’ or ‘Buy buttons’, making it easier for mobile users to shop while using Google Search. This was part of the company’s attempt to lure customers to its site rather than shop via Facebook or Pinterest. Google’s aim was to simplify the process of searching and buying products.

In an attempt to make mobile shopping even simpler, Google is now testing a new format called ‘Shop the Look’ that lets you search for specific outfits and home décor options, showing pictures and purchase links within ‘Shopping ads’ on the search engine. This means users will not have to switch to a different website to purchase the outfit or home decor.

To get the format going, Google is partnering with sites like LiketoKnow.it, Curalate and yahoo-owned Polyvore which are platforms that allow fashion bloggers to make money from their posts. Essentially, Google will source the content from these sites and pull the photos and affiliate links when a search related to that particular outfit or home décor option is initiated. Users can select one of the looks, which will then show similar products related to the choice.

Where users would previously use social apps like Instagram or Pinterest to follow their favourite fashion blogger and home decorator, they can now find their favourite blogger and purchase related options directly through Google’s engine without the need to use an app. This is what Google hopes to achieve with the ‘Shop the Look’ app.

This new feature could not only be beneficial for Google but also for fashion bloggers who until now have to use platforms like Polyvore to earn. By hopping on to Google’s engine, these bloggers can be discovered by a wider audience. Bloggers and retailers who want to show their products within the Shop the Look experience will need to create a shopping campaign, and optimise their bids for mobile. The ‘Shop the Look’ feature is currently being tested in the US.

[Source:- gadgets.ndtv]

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Internet

WhatsApp Starts Testing ‘Suspicious Link Detection’ Feature to Limit Spam Circulation: Report

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

WhatsApp Starts Testing 'Suspicious Link Detection' Feature to Limit Spam Circulation: Report

In another move to put a stop to the circulation of spam on its platform, WhatsApp is working on a Suspicious Link Detection feature. The new feature, which is presently said to be under testing, helps users detect suspicious links available within their WhatsApp messages. It is a part of the WhatsApp beta for Android version 2.18.204 and later, though not available for the masses at the initial stage. The latest development hits amidst different measures by the Facebook-owned company to limit the circulation of spam and fake news through the instant messaging app that has over 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide. A previous WhatsApp beta version brought a ‘Forwarded’ label that was aimed to make a dent in the growth of fake news distribution through the app and help people easily identify forwarded messages.

Leveraging the Suspicious Link Detection feature, WhatsApp analyses the links available in a message to detect a suspicious link, reports WABetaInfo. The messaging app is said to automatically identify whether the link in a received message is redirecting to a fake or alternative website that could potentially harm users. Upon detection of a suspicious link, the message is marked with a Red-coloured label to let users easily understand its behaviour.

The screenshots posted by the WABetaInfo folks highlight that WhatsApp also warns users when they try to open the link with a message that reads, “This link contains unusual characters. It may be trying to appear as another site.” It has also been claimed that WhatsApp analyses the link locally. This suggests that the links will not be sent to WhatsApp servers and the user data won’t be compromised for sake of detecting suspicious links.

whatsapp suspicious link detection wabetainfo WhatsApp

We weren’t able to spot the reported Suspicious Link Detection feature on any of our Android devices using the latest WhatsApp beta version 2.18.207. However, since the WABetaInfo team claims that WhatsApp is currently testing the feature, we can expect its arrival at least for WhatsApp beta users sometime in the coming future. It is also reported that with some other improvements, the feature will also get an ability to let users manually report a suspicious link.

Earlier this month, WhatsApp came in the headlines for the massive spread of misinformation that allegedly led to the lynching of a large number of innocents in India. The IT ministry even asked WhatsApp to take preventative actions to restrict the proliferation of fake messages on its platform. The messaging service on its part revealed that it had started taking help from local experts to flight spam and fake news and announced ‘research awards’ for researchers interested in limiting the circulation of misinformative messages in the country. This was a step in addition to the primary moves such as the ‘Forwarded’ label and ‘Send Messages’ group controls to retain WhatsApp’s domination in the market of instant messaging apps. Particularly in India, WhatsApp serves over 200 million monthly active users.

[“source=gadgets.ndtv”]

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Tech Update

Microsoft Removes ‘Sets’ App Tabs Feature From Latest Windows 10 Insider Preview

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Microsoft Removes 'Sets' App Tabs Feature From Latest Windows 10 Insider Preview

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Sets feature is not present in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview
  • Microsoft has claimed that taking Sets offline will help make it “great”
  • The feature is reportedly not coming to the next Windows 10 update

Months after its emergence for Windows Insiders, Microsoft has now decided to temporarily remove its Sets feature, which allowed users to improve their work flow by grouping relevant apps into a single window with app tabs. The feature, which was originally conceived to bring a tabs integration within apps such as Microsoft Office and Edge, has been removed from the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview. The removal is claimed to help make the feature “great” in the future. Also, it is reported that the Redmond giant is not in plans to bring Sets to the next major Windows 10 update later this year. The initial feedback through early testers will help the company bring some improvements to the visual design of the feature and make it better to enhance workflow before making it public. However, there isn’t any specific timeline on its comeback at least for Windows Insiders.

“Starting with this build, we’re taking Sets offline to continue making it great,” said Microsoft’s Head of Windows Insider Program Dona Sarkar and Senior Program Manager Brandon LeBlanc in a joint blog post while announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17704. “Based on your feedback, some of the things we’re focusing on include improvements to the visual design and continuing to better integrate Office and Microsoft Edge into Sets to enhance workflow. If you have been testing Sets, you will no longer see it as of today’s build, however, Sets will return in a future WIP flight.”

As Sarkar and LeBlanc stated, the comeback of Sets is confirmed. But notwithstanding, The Verge reports citing sources familiar with the development that the tabs integration will not be a part of the next major Windows 10 update. This suggests that Microsoft is tweaking the experience that debuted with Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17063 back in December last year. In March, Microsoft also expanded Sets for Windows Insiders who have opted into the Skip Ahead ring and brought the tabs integration to Mail, Calendar, OneNote, and MSN News. There were also new dedicated keyboard shortcuts to switch to the new tab, go back to the previous tab, open a new tab, or to close the current tab.

The prime purpose of Sets is to group similar apps and tasks under one roof and offer tabs for each screen, similar to how tabs work in a Web browser. Initially, Microsoft announced that the feature will work with apps including Microsoft Edge, OneNote, and Microsoft Word and frequent Web destinations such as YouTube, Facebook, and Spotify. It also debuted on Office 365 to help users even sync their app tabs across devices and scroll down the tab page to see the recently opened Office documents.

That being said, while Sets is a great example of how multitasking can be uplifted on computing devices, Microsoft hasn’t planned its public appearance yet.

[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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Gadgets News

Honor Smartphones Will Reportedly Feature Only 18:9 FullView Displays; Honor 8 Pro, Honor 9 to Get EMUI 8.0 Update

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Honor Smartphones Will Reportedly Feature Only 18:9 FullView Displays; Honor 8 Pro, Honor 9 to Get EMUI 8.0 Update

HIGHLIGHTS

  • New Honor phones said to have only FullView displays, with 18:9 ratio
  • Tipster Roland Quandt says Honor Germany has made this claim
  • Honor will reportedly start rolling out the EMUI 8 update in February

All new Honor smartphones will now reportedly come with FullView Display (18:9 display). Huawei has recently launched several smartphones in the budget, mid-range, and premium segments, and most of them feature the FullView Display. But now, as it appears, the company may completely ditch the screens with 16:9 aspect ratio and adopt the 18:9 displays.

According to a well-known tipster Roland Quandt, Honor is migrating its complete smartphone lineupto the new aspect ratio displays. In a tweet on Wednesday, Quandt cited Honor Germany as saying, “there will be no new Honor phones that do not have a FullView display (18:9 ratio) from this point on.” Honor already has several smartphones in its lineup that feature the FullView display, including recently launched handsets like Honor 9 Lite, Honor 7X, Honor View 10, and Honor 9i, among others.

Honor has started rolling out the EMUI 8.0 update, based on Android 8.0 Oreo, for Honor 8 Pro and Honor 9 smartphones. Regarding the Android Oreo-based EMUI 8.0 update, Quandt said Honor 7X users will have to wait till the second quarter of this year. Also, the EMUI 8 update may come to Honor 8 soon, but apparently it won’t be based on Android 8.0 Oreo. Honor Germany has reportedly said that it “will have ‘a surprise’ in this regard [Oreo for Honor 8] in the near future”. An earlier report had also mentioned that the company will provide the Android Oreo experience on Honor 8 by porting its EMUI 8.0 skin.

Meanwhile, Huawei has been teasing a lot of new features for its Honor smartphones. Last month, the company put out a video teasing its next-gen technology for fast charging. The new technology is claimed to charge smartphone batteries 10 times faster than conventional batteries. As per the setup shown in the video, Huawei said smartphones will get charged in just a few minutes.
[“Source-gadgets.ndtv”]

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News Update

OnePlus won’t support Android Oreo’s quick OS updates feature

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

OnePlus confirmed in its forums yesterday that none of its current devices, including the 3/3T and the 5/5T, will support Project Treble, even after they’re updated to Android Oreo. Project Treble is an Android Oreo feature that attempts to address slow Android update schedules by allowing manufacturers to push out Google’s most recent OS without having to wait on their chip partner, like Qualcomm, to support it.

At the time of Project Treble’s announcement, it seemed that any device updated to Oreo would be eligible to support the program and that manufacturers would likely be interested in it. Now, however, it’s clear that even devices running the most recent OS won’t have to support the project, meaning that even if your phone’s manufacturer gives you Oreo, you aren’t guaranteed a faster update to the next OS. Only devices that ship with Android Oreo installed out of the box will be required to feature Project Treble, and, disappointingly, OnePlus’ most recent phone, the 5T, ships with Android Nougat. (The same goes for the Razer Phone, which was announced earlier this month.)

Still, Google’s first-generation Pixel phone supports Project Treble, and the Essential Phoneis attempting to support the feature, even though those phones first shipped with Android Nougat. So it’s clear that adding support is possible — even if, several months after Oreo’s release, it’s still rare.

It isn’t necessarily surprising that OnePlus wouldn’t support Treble, given that it clearly has no problem shipping new phones with outdated operating systems, but it would have been nice to see the company commit to supporting Google’s goal of faster updates and making the whole Android ecosystem more consistent and modern.

source:-.theverge.

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Tech Update

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update to Have New Feature to Prevent WannaCry-like Attacks

by Loknath Das
written by Loknath Das

Image result for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update to Have New Feature to Prevent WannaCry-like Attacks

Microsoft India in a select press briefing in New Delhi showcased a new feature to prevent ransomware attacks like the recent WannaCry infection. The feature will be available in the upcoming major update for Windows 10 (Fall Creators Update) in September. Microsoft will introduce something called “Controlled folder access” inside its Windows Defender Security Centre in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

“Controlled folder access monitors the changes that apps make to files in certain protected folders,” according to Microsoft. Also, the new update will provide folder containerisation. This means you can create protected folders to guard important files from unknown threats. So, in the event of any ransomware attack, the files saved under ‘protected folders’ will be accessible while unprotected files could be locked by the ransomware. System folders will be protected by default. Having said that the recent WannaCry ransomware had majorly affected PCs running older Windows operating systems, like Windows XP, Microsoft has tightened its grip to prevent ransomware attacks on its latest Windows 10 OS.

Windows 10 fall creators update

“If an app attempts to make a change to these files, and the app is blacklisted by the feature, you’ll get a notification about the attempt. Also, you can add additional folders to the list of protected folders, but you cannot alter the default list, which includes folders such as Documents, Pictures, Movies, and Desktop,” as per a statement by Microsoft.

Source:-news18

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