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Microsoft  and  Google  have joined hands to help web developers get their Progressive Web  Apps  (PWAs) into the Play Store. Progressive web  apps  use emerging web browser APIs and features, along with traditional progressive enhancement strategy, to bring a native app-like user experience to cross-platform web applications. Microsoft's PWABuilder and Google's Bubblewrap are now working together to help web developers. PWABuilder.com is Microsoft's open source developer tool that helps build high-quality PWAs and publish them in app stores. Bubblewrap is Google's command line utility and library to generate and sign  Google  Play Store packages from Progressive Web  Apps. PWABuilder is now using Bubblerwrap under the hood,  Microsoft  says, and is giving back some integration features to PWAs on Android. After months of collaboration, the two tech giants have announced two great new features...

Amazon added a new device to its Echo lineup today in India. Called Echo Flex, the plug-in device is a multi-functional smart speaker. The Amazon Echo Flex plugs directly into a standard electrical outlet and comes with built-in Alexa voice support that lets you control other smart home devices, the official release notes. The smart speaker also comes with a USB-A port that allows you to charge a phone or other devices. The Amazon Echo Flex is available for pre-order starting today and will ship next month. It is priced at INR 2,999. Read Complete Article

Alexa and Fire TV devices are constantly improving over time and now on Monday the company announced that a user can connect their Echo devices with their Fire TV. This allows a user to build a variety of immersive, wireless speaker configurations for living room set-up, including 1.0 and 2.0 configurations and, for owners of Echo Sub, 1.1 and 2.1 configurations as well, the company said in a statement. To use the new update a user need to tap on the devices icon in the Alexa app on the lower right-hand side and then tap the "+" icon on the upper right hand side. Tap "Set Up Audio System" from the popup and then tap "Home Theatre" on the next screen. Select Fire TV device and then "Next" to name your new Home Theatre system. Select the Echo devices like to use as speakers - one can set-up two speakers, plus an optional Echo Sub. Read Complete Article

US-based search engine giant Google has finally released the Android Auto for phone screens, what it promised back in May at I/O 2019. The app is now live in the Play Store, it is basically the same as the previous app but just adds an icon that is slightly different and it is only compatible with Android 10 on certain devices. "This app lets you use Android Auto on your phone screen with a phone running Android 10. If you have Android 10 and an Android Auto compatible car, you can project to your car display without downloading this app. Simply plug in your phone to get started," the company noted recently. "Android Auto is your smart driving companion that helps you stay focused, connected, and entertained with the Google Assistant. With a simplified interface, large buttons, and powerful voice actions, Android Auto is designed to make it easier to use apps that you love from your phone while you're on the road," the company added. Read Complete A...

Google has started combining G Suite users' Gmail photos with their Google account profile photos. "We are combining the Gmail photo with the Google account profile photo for G Suite users. Now, when you go to change this setting in Gmail, you'll be directed to the 'About me' section of your Google profile settings to set your profile picture," the company said in a statement on Monday. Currently, profile pictures set in Gmail are only displayed in Gmail. This means a profile picture in Gmail may be different than the Google account profile photo, which can make it difficult to know which picture will be displayed where. This new change simplifies things by allowing a user to set a single profile picture in one place and then displaying that single photo across all Google apps. "When you visit Settings > General > My Picture in Gmail on the web, you will be directed to change your picture in the 'About me' section of your Google ...

Instagrammers and Facebook users in India will now be able to add music to their 'Stories' on the two social networking platforms. "Facebook today (Tuesday) announced new ways for people in India to express themselves through music on Facebook and Instagram, with music stickers on Stories and other creative tools such as Lyrics on Instagram, Lip Sync Live, and the ability to add songs to their Facebook Profiles," Facebook said in a statement. Users can share photos, videos and posts on 'Stories' that are visible only for 24 hours. With the roll-out of music products in India, users can add latest tracks such as 'Bekhayali' (Kabir Singh) and Ve Maahi (Kesari) to older songs like Bas Ek Sanam Chaahiye (Aashiqui), to their Facebook and Instagram Stories. Music products on Facebook and Instagram are now available in over 55 countries. Read Complete Article

Breaking the 10-year history of naming Android releases after desserts, Google on Thursday announced it had officially named the next version as just Android 10. "First, we're changing the way we name our releases. Our engineering team has always used internal code names for each version, based of tasty treats, or desserts, in alphabetical order," said Sameer Samat, VP of Product Management, Android, in a statement. The naming tradition has become a fun part of the release each year externally too, like Android Lollipop or Marshmallows. New Android 10 "As a global operating system, it's important that these names are clear and relatable for everyone in the world. So, this next release of Android will simply use the version number and be called Android 10," Samat explained. "While there were many tempting 'Q' desserts out there, we think that at version 10 and 2.5 billion active devices, it was time to make this change," ...

Researchers recently learned that the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement used facial recognition on millions of driver’s licence photographs without the licence-holders’ knowledge, the latest revelation about governments employing the technology in ways that threaten civil liberties. But the surveillance potential of facial recognition — its ability to create a “perpetual lineup” — isn’t the only cause for concern. The technological frontiers being explored by questionable researchers and unscrupulous start-ups recall the discredited pseudosciences of physiognomy and phrenology, which purport to use facial structure and head shape to assess character and mental capacity. Artificial intelligence and modern computing are giving new life and a veneer of objectivity to these debunked theories, which were once used to legitimise slavery and perpetuate Nazi race “science”. Those who wish to spread essentialist theories of racial hierarchy are paying attention. In one blog, for ex...

Google-owned video sharing platform YouTube has announced that it will no longer recommend videos that "come close to" violating its community guidelines, such as conspiracy or medically inaccurate videos. The video sharing platform will no longer recommend videos "claiming the earth is flat, or making blatantly false claims about historic events like 9/11", NBC News reported on Monday. The original blog post from YouTube, published on January 25, said videos the site recommends, usually after a user has viewed one, would no longer lead to similar videos and instead would "pull in recommendations from a wider set of topics". YouTube said in the post that the action is meant to "reduce the spread of content that comes close to - but doesn't quite cross the line of - violating" its community policies. The change will not affect the videos' availability. And if users have subscribed to a channel that, for instance, produces ...

Budget 2019 : It does not matter if you are on Facebook or not - or have just deleted your social media presence. Your friends are constantly leaking your privacy to others, reveals a significant study. The researchers from the University of Vermont in the US and University of Adelaide in Australia found that if a person leaves a social media platform -- or never joined -- the online posts and words of their friends still provide about 95 per cent of the "potential predictive accuracy", of a person's future activities -- even without any of that person's data. "Privacy on social media is like second-hand smoke. It's controlled by the people around you," the researchers said in a paper published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. To reach this conclusion, the team of scientists gathered more than 30 million public posts on Twitter from 13,905 users. With this data, they showed that information within the Twitter messages from eigh...

Budget 2019 : Facebook-owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on a fingerprint authentication feature to protect its users' chats from being seen by others. According to WABetaInfo, a fan site that tests new WhatsApp features early , the feature is current under development in Beta for Android 2.19.3 version. "After working to implement Face ID and Touch ID features on iOS (that aren't available yet for development reasons), WhatsApp has finally started to work on the Authentication feature on Android, using your Fingerprint!" said the report on Tuesday. The fingerprint authentication feature will be available within the app under a new section. Once you enable the fingerprint feature, your WhatsApp will be completely protected from others to be seen. "The user will need to authenticate his identity in order to open WhatsApp (from the app icon, from the notification or from external pickers). It will protect the entire app, so it's not used ...

Business Standard : If you thought WiFi hotspots delivered faster internet in your region, a latest report by OpenSignal indicates that there are 33 countries in the world where the mobile data is faster than the new-age WiFi hotspots . These countries include multiple African, European, Latin American, and Middle Eastern nations. There is typically an advantage of 10Mbps or more in places such as Australia, Oman, and the Czech Republic, while multi-megabit advantages are seen in places like Austria, Iran, and South Africa, Engadget reported. In countries such as South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US, the WiFi has a clear advantage owing to home broadband. The findings suggest that WiFi may not usually the best when it comes to speedy internet. As the world is preparing to welcome 5G, the problems of the overcrowded networks may finally be resolved. BS

Business Standard : Chinese tech giant Alibaba has introduced a new smart screen for the visually impaired users to help them shop without much of an assistance. The smart screen is a result of the company's two years and $25 billion R&D initiative. As TechCrunch reports, the screen, called Smart Touch, is like a silicone layer which can be added to the top of a smartphone screen. Each film costs about 3.6 cents to produce. It has three mini buttons on each side which are sensory-enabled. By pressing these buttons, certain commands are triggered, such as 'go back' and 'confirm', making online shopping a smoother process. Smart Touch is also useful while answering calls, listening to texts, and so on. BS

Business Standard : Apple and Zimmer Biomet, a global leader in musculo-skeletal healthcare, have launched a major clinical study where an app on Apple Watch and iPhone will guide knee and hip replacement patients through pre- and post-operation care. The "mymobility" app that uses Apple Watch to facilitate a new level of connection between patients and their surgical care teams, which can immediately impact the journey patients experience when they undergo these procedures, Zimmer Biomet said in a statement on Monday. Zimmer Biomet is also commencing the "mymobility" clinical study, designed to study the app's impact on patient outcomes and overall costs for joint replacement patients. During this research, patients will use "mymobility" app with Apple Watch as they progress through their hip or knee replacement journey. Researchers will combine patient-reported feedback with continuous health and activity data from Apple Watch. T...

Apple has added 70 new emojis to the developer and public beta previews of iOS 12.1 to make them available as part of the upcoming software updates for iOS, macOS and watchOS. The new emojis include characters for moon cake, red gift envelope, nazar amulet, softball, luggage, compass, a hiking boot to accompany the existing climbing emoji, llama, mosquito, swan, raccoon and cupcake among others. "New emoji characters are created based on the approved characters in Unicode 11.0 and Apple is working with the Unicode Consortium to add more disability-themed emoji to the keyboard for Unicode 12.0, slated for release in 2019," the company wrote in a blog-post late on Tuesday. Thousands of emoji are currently available on iOS, watchOS and macOS, including emotive smiley faces, gender-neutral characters, various clothing options, food types, animals, mythical creatures and more. The new characters would also include emojis with red hair, grey hair, curly hair, a new e...

Fans can't contain their excitement after Megastar Chiranjeevi treated his fans with the teaser of his movie ' Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy ' ahead of his birthday. The hashtag #SyeRaaNarasimhaReddyTeaser is trending on Twitter post release of the much-awaited teaser. Fans of the actor are immensely praising the teaser on the micro-blogging website. An excited user tweeted, "Whattt aa teaser man thanks for d share @SatyaPrakassh #SyeRaaNarasimhaReddyTeaser" Another user complimented the actor saying he can speak with eyes, "Years passed yet his intensity in eyes remained the very same shining and glorifying the man who can speak a lot with eyes MEGASTAR CHIRANJEEVI" "Impressive teaser with rich production values. Looking forward to this great story of #SyeRaaNarasimhaReddy enacted by Megastar on the big screen. #SyeRaaTeaser", tweeted a fan appreciating the teaser. Calling it the most awaited teaser, another user said, "Per...

Although Facebook 's app traffic has grown, it is not enough to make up for that loss, CNBC reported on Wednesday citing the study by market research firm SimilarWeb. Owing to a severe decline in monthly page visits, from 8.5 billion to 4.7 billion in the last two years, Facebook is set to cede its long-held second position among the top websites in the US to YouTube, according to a new study. Facebook earlier reported that in the second quarter of this year, its number of daily active users remained flat in North America and went down in Europe. Owned by Google parent Alphabet, YouTube , on the other hand, has seen increased traffic and rise in viewership, said the study that found Google's position as the biggest website in the US remaining unshaken. The researchers project that Amazon is set to overtake Yahoo as the fourth most-visited website in the US in the next couple of months.

South Korean tech giant Samsung on Thursday launched new wireless earbuds called " Gear IconX " with 4GB built-in storage, activity tracking capabilities and support for voice assistant Bixby for Rs 13,990 in India. "Gear IconX" will enable users to make calls, send and receive message and listen to on board music playlists with touch controls, the company said in a statement. "A lot of consumer insights have been incorporated in terms of design aesthetics, comfort and usability of these earbuds," said Aditya Babbar, General Manager, Mobile Business, Samsung India. Music can be uploaded on the earbuds wirelessly or from the phones and PCs using a USB cable. "Gear IconX" additionally comes with fast-charging and battery life of up to five hours of music streaming or seven hours of standalone music playback and its case works as a power bank for the earbuds for urgent charging. The earbuds can be synced with the "pace sette...

Raising fresh concerns about Facebook 's privacy protection policies, a New York Times report has exposed how the social network allowed about 60 device makers, including Apple and Samsung, to access personal information of users and their friends. Even before Facebook apps were widely available on smartphones, Facebook had data-sharing partnerships with the device makers, the report said citing company officials, adding that most of the deals remain in effect. While the device partnerships allowed Facebook to expand its reach, it let the phone makers offer customers popular features of the social network, such as messaging, "like" buttons and address books. The deals raise concerns about the company's privacy protections and compliance with a 2011 consent decree with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), The Times said. Facebook, which is already under scrutiny for misuse of millions of its users' data after the Cambridge Analytica data leak sc...

Reliance Jio has introduced exclusive offers on two Samsung devices -- "Galaxy J2 (2018)" and "Galaxy J7 Duo" -- bundling them with cashbacks and other benefits for Jio users. As part of the scheme, for "Galaxy J2 (2018)," Jio subscribers can avail instant cashback vouchers up to Rs 2,750 along with a 100GB 4G data benefit, read the information available on Jio website. Similarly, "Galaxy J7 Duo" is available for purchase with double data benefits that would come with four and more recharges. For users subscribed to Jio prepaid plans of Rs 198 and above, the offers on both the devices will be valid till September 30. Customers can get access to more information about the offers on Reliance Jio's official website.