Tag: updates

Instagram Introduces An Abuse Filter To Restrict Cyber Bullying
Hate speech is a common occurrence and an evil that goes side by side with the growth of the internet and social media. The digital world gave a powerful tool at the hands of men, which was impersonal mode of exchange. One of Instagram’s greatest feature is its impersonal method of communication and portrayal of lives. By basic psychology, it is much easier to speak ill online or to say certain things that have an impact without having a physical presence.

To curb a growing trend of online negativity, Instagram is now introducing a new system that checks profanity and abusive words on its app. It includes a filter to restrict foul languages and hates speech on the comment sections and posts. Instagram has rolled out two new features to reduce online bullying.
- The firstly is anyone trying to comment on a post in an abusive manner will receive a popup warning.
- The second is the new ‘Restrict’ function which has been added to limit other users’ interaction with another.
Profanity Filter

According to the early testing period reports, the AI powered warning feature has stopped some people from posting abusive comments. The new intervening feature will occur if a user types any abusive comments which will be responded by a popup message. It asks the user if they are sure they wish to post the negative content. People are still capable of fooling the aforementioned AI by simply using symbols or alternative spellings. Instagram has not given any statement as to how it is going to prevent this from occurring. The new features functionality has yet to be extended towards other languages.

Restrict Function

The social media platform is also testing a new feature dubbed as ‘Restrict’. It will allow a person to limit undesired users to interact with them. A restricted person can still comment on the posts from the person that restricted them; however, the comments will only be visible to themselves. The person that utilizes the Restrict function can review and allow the restricted user’s comments to be visible to others specifically. Instagram has stated that people avoid blocking, reporting or even unfollowing their bullies fearing the escalation of the problem. The new feature would have restricted users not being able to see when the victim is active or when they’ve read their messages.

Also Read: AMD Radeon RX 5700 & 5700 XT GPU Prices Revealed In India

Instagram has started to demote offensive posts that propagate hate speech starting in April 2019. The company is working hard to stop the ever-growing negativity that spreads on any social networking platform. Updates are expected to arrive that boost the AI’s capabilities to detect the hidden abusive language in comments. The new feature will add a much-needed function to help its users avoid troublesome people on its platform; a healthy step towards a positive online environment.
July 9, 2019
Whatsapp To Introduce Dark Mode, Advanced Search In Updates Soon

Whatsapp has been focused on releasing new updates to improve the user experience. The Facebook-owned application was reportedly testing out the ‘group invitation’ feature on the Testflight server last month. The ‘group invitation’ feature lets the user filter out the contacts who can add them to a group chat, enabling them to stay in control of their privacy. This feature was first spotted in Whatsapp Beta update 2.19.55.

Advanced Search

Reports state that Whatsapp is aiming towards further improving the chat search feature. The company calls the feature ‘Advanced Search’, and Whatsapp aims to implement it in the upcoming updates. Instead of just searching for text messages and chats, the new feature allows the user to search through multiple types of messages. It is basically an evolution of the basic Search feature, with added integration. Users can search between Photos, GIFs, Videos, Documents, Links and Audio files that they have exchanged with a contact in their device. For instance, if the user taps on a video, the app will show all the messages that contain that video. In addition to this, the feature also displays the user’s Search History which can be deleted as easily. Furthermore, the search results are shown with a neat preview, so each result doesn’t have to be opened in order to check its specifics.

Dark Mode And Other Features

The messaging app is also expected to introduce the much awaited ‘dark mode’. This mode has already been spotted in the beta version of the application, and will probably be available in the next official update. Whatsapp has been on a roll so far, releasing functional features like Touch ID and Face ID to unlock the app, replying privately to group chats and using 3D touch to check Whatsapp statuses on the iOS applications. The company is also expected to bring features like auto-playing consecutive voice messages and viewing videos directly from the notification tray.

Also Read: Google To Replace ‘Voice Match Unlock’ With Assistant Lock Screen Access

Although sources say that slots for the iOS Beta program are full, users can still check the availability for new Whatsapp beta slots by signing up for the same. The American company may officially roll out the updates soon for both iOS and Android, as the testing of the features is in full swing right now.

March 2, 2019
New Google Chrome 72 Update, Lots Of New Features

The latest update for the popular search browser, Chrome 72 recently rolled out. The new update packs a ton of new features, bug fixes, and some security updates. Some of the features are aimed towards making the OS more “material friendly”, focusing on Google’s preferred theme. Read on to find other improvements within the update.

PiP And App Shortcuts

The new Chrome 72 update brings extra storage access for Android apps, which includes options for microSD cards and USB drives. The update also introduces Picture in Picture (PiP) for Chrome supported websites. As per Google’s blog post, they optimized Chrome 72 for tablet mode and touchscreen devices. Apart from this, Google also added app shortcuts for searchable applications in the launcher. Now you can find the app shortcut you want by just holding the app icon for some seconds. You can also right click on it to reveal the same options.

Google Assistant And ChromeVox Gestures

It seems that Google has finished testing the latest features of the Pixel Slate because they have brought Google Assistant and Android 9 Pie to even more Chromebooks. The new update also has a page dedicated to touch-screen gestures. It also explains how to use these gestures in Chrome’s built-in screen reader, ChromeVox. Google has added a setting in the ChromeVox options page that would read anything that’s placed under the mouse cursor.

Also Read: AMD Has Launched The World’s First 7nm Based GPU, Radeon VII In India

Also, Chrome 72 will now show the files that you’ve saved via Backup and Sync under My Drive/Computers section. What do you think about the new update? Let us know in the comment section.

February 11, 2019
Apple & Samsung Penalised For Intentionally Slowing Down Phones

Consumer Groups in Italy filed cases against Apple & Samsung for purposely slowing down older generation smartphones. The cases were filed in the Italian Competition Authority for which the verdict is now out. Both the companies have been found guilty. Samsung faces a fine of 5 million Euros while Apple faces a total fine of 10 million Euros for two different cases. The investigation found out that Apple & Samsung pushed firmware updates for older devices which downgrades their performance.

Performance Gate

In 2016, Samsung urged the Note 4 consumers to upgrade to the latest Marshmallow update. The Note 4 was released back in 2014. The Marshmallow update was made available after the launch of the Note 7 in 2016. Consumers complained that the new update was not optimised for the Note 4. It caused serious malfunctions, including unwanted automatic restarts, as it put too much stress on the ageing Note 4. The excessive stress caused a lot of hardware failure which had high repair costs to fix as the devices were out of warranty by then. Additionally, the report emphasised that Samsung did not provide for a viable option to downgrade the device which would bring back the phone to their original state.

Similarly Apple also persuaded their customers to upgrade their old devices to iOS 10. Various models including iPhone 6/6 Plus & 6s Plus which were launched in 2014 & 2015 were provided with the iOS 10 update. The iOS 10 update lead to shortened battery backup due to greater energy demands of the software. To limit this issue Apple released yet another update in the form of iOS 10.2.1. This reduced the device’s speed to prolong battery performance.

Moreover, Apple was found guilty in violation of Article 20 of the Italian Consumer Code. Until December 2017, Apple did not provide consumers with sufficient information regarding batteries. Such as stating their average life cycle and deterioration pattern. Along with information about their rectification measures to maintain and replace batteries in order to retain full functionality of the device.

Also Read: Samsung Teases Galaxy A8s With A Camera Cut-Out And No Notch

Both companies also need to publish an amending declaration on their Italian websites about the issues and its counter measures.

October 25, 2018
Windows 10 Will Lose These features With the October 2018 Update

With over 700 million devices running on Windows 10, Microsoft is constantly working on updating the operating system. The upcoming October update of Windows 10 will see a lot of features being discontinued but most of them are actually being incorporated into other features. Many elements which are not being actively developed as of now, will not be updated and will probably be removed by the update after this one.

What you will lose:

The most important feature in this list is the snipping tool. The sniping tool is used by many people to capture screenshots and specific portions of the screen. The feature in itself is not being removed, its just being moved. It is being incorporated into Microsoft’s new Snip & Sketch app. The Snip & Sketch app will let you use the exact same features as the snipping tool. It will have an additional feature to delay the snip from being taken.

Also Read: Microsoft Will Let You Use Windows 7 Till 2023, But It Comes With A Cost

The Hologram App is one that has also been added to the list. This is because it is being replaced by the Mixed Reality Viewer. With this, you can still view 3D art in virtual reality. The same can also be edited in the Paint 3D application.

The Phone Companion App will also be discontinued. This does not mean that you will lose the functionality associated with this. The features of this app will be incorporated into the Phone page under settings. To see a list of everything that has been changed, you can visit this website.

Microsoft will also be dropping the OneSync service. This syncs data across the Calendar, Mail and People apps. However, Microsoft has introduced a sync engine to the Outlook application which will carry out the same task. The new update is called Windows 10 version 1809 and will arrive in October. The rollout will be spread over a period of several months however and it will take some time for all the features to arrive to your system.

September 18, 2018
BlackBerry Confirms Security Updates for BB 10, New Android Device for 2016

BlackBerry has seen a lot of ups and downs in the past couple of months. From being one of the most popular mobile brands at one time with its innovative BlackBerry Messenger to becoming a company struggling to keep itself on its feet -it has seen it all.

We recently heard rumours about how BlackBerry might be letting go of its operating system BB 10. However, these rumours have been proven false by a post on the official BlackBerry blog. John Chen, the company’s CEO revealed that the operating system is “far from” dead and that BlackBerry devices like Passport, Classic and other phones by the company running on BB 10 would receive updates for the operating system soon.

There will be security and privacy updates for BB 10 this year, along with an enhanced 10.3.4 version of the OS slated to arrive later this year with more security and privacy related features.

Additionally, BlackBerry which is all set to bring out more of its own Android devices in the future also confirmed that 2016 will see the launch of only one such device. Would you be willing to put your trust in BlackBerry’s Android devices?

Source

January 9, 2016
Apple Users Disgruntled as iOS 9 Updates Crash

The glitches count for Apple continues to increase as users all over the world have trouble updating their devices to iOS 9. A large number of customers took to social media to express their annoyance at the failure of the tech giant to live up to all the hype created around the recent Apple event and all their latest developments. Users of the older versions of iPads and iPhones faced the most problems. Apple’s head-quarter in San Francisco remained unavailable for comment.

Tim Cook addresses the audience at the Apple event in San Francisco on September 9th.

Despite rolling out new updates for iOS 8, some of the already existing bugs have still not been fixed. At the same time, many users found an error message being displayed on their screens, “Software Update Failed”, as they struggled with iOS 9 updates. Apple also delayed the launch of its new watch OS 2, the updated operating system for the Apple Watch due to the discovery of a bug in its development.

September 19, 2015
Apple’s Next iDevice Might Feature a Front Camera Flash

The selfie has gained social, political and global recognition in the past two years, given its high popularity and almost contagious qualities, Apple may be coming up with a plan to up the selfie quotient in the next iPhone or tablet.

Hamza Sood, a developer, said that the phone or tablet will have, not just a front facing camera flash, but also the ability to record 1080p videos along with recording slow-motion videos in 720p. Referring to the codes, Sood also derived that one might be able to take panorama shots using the front facing camera.

iOS 9 is hinting at future device front cameras having: 1080p resolution, 240fps slow mo, panoramamic capture, flash pic.twitter.com/NkMjdsUZEX

— Hamza Sood (@hamzasood) June 10, 2015

So far, all the features that we mentioned, are only present in the rear cameras of smartphones. But with the new set of devices, Apple hopes to makes the selfie game, even stronger. Although these reports seem frivolous, Sood was previously right in recognising that Apple was coming out with fingerprint recognition two months before it actually came to the markets. He also identified slow motion shooting, before it finally made an appearance in the iPhone 5S.

Even though the iPhone 6s is expected to arrive later this year, we’ve already heard several rumours about the upcoming device. As reported earlier by an analyst from KGI Securities, the forthcoming iPhone 6s will sport a bumped up camera of 12MP. Powered by a next-gen A9 processor, 2GB RAM will equip the device with newfangled features like Force Touch. Some of the changes the ‘iPhone 6s’ is said to include is a new design using an improved casing material and a newly resurrected inner design. One more microphone is said to be added near the new handset’s speakers in an attempt to improve sound quality. It is also likely that Apple will release two variants of the iPhone 6s.

While we don’t know if the phone camera, that is slated to be bigger and better, will actually succeed, we hope to be clearer in September, when the announcement might be made.

June 11, 2015