Technology

New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) Meta-owned Instagram has brought its new test for users to verify their age via an original ID or video selfie to India, amid growing worries that kids are using fake dates of birth to create profiles on social media platforms.

If someone attempts to edit their date of birth on Instagram from under the age of 18 to 18, or over, in India, the company will now require them to verify their age using one of two options: upload their ID or record a video selfie.

"We're testing this so we can make sure teens and adults are in the right experience for their age group. Testing began in June this year in the US, and now it's expanding to India and Brazil," the company said.

The company plans to expand the test to the UK and the EU before the end of the year.

"We're also removing Social Vouching as an option to verify age from the test to make some improvements," Instagram added.

The Social Vouching option allowed users to ask mutual followers to confirm how old they were. The three people they selected to vouch for them received a request to confirm their age and needed to respond within three days.

Now, those part of the test can choose to upload a video selfie to verify their age in India.

"If you choose this option, you'll see instructions on your screen to guide you. After you take a video selfie, we share the image with Yoti, and nothing else. Yoti's technology estimates your age based on your facial features and shares that estimate with us," according to Instagram.

Yoti is a company that offers privacy-preserving ways to verify age.

"Meta and Yoti then delete the image. The technology cannot recognize your identity - just your age," it added.

The company requires people to be at least 13 years old to sign up for Instagram.

Earlier this week, the UK's media watchdog Ofcom said that more than one-third of children between age 8 and 17 are using various social media platforms after signing up with fake dates of birth.

"Our latest research shows that most (77 per cent) social media users aged between eight and 17 have their own account or profile on at least one of the large social media platforms," Ofcom said in a statement.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 14 (IANS) Twitter is working on a new feature that will allow users to control who can mention them in their tweets, not letting anyone to tag or mention your Twitter handle with their posts unless you want them to.

The feature, when it arrives, will make a fundamental shift in how people mention and tag others with their posts on the platform.

App researcher Jane Manchun Wong first spotted the test version of the feature, saying "Twitter is working on letting you control who can mention you on Twitter".

Twitter privacy designer Dominic Camozzi confirmed that the feature is in the works but later deleted the tweet.

The feature will let you control who can mention you, like people you follow, everyone, or no one at all.

The feature will prevent Twitter users from bullying or harassment.

In August, the company launched Twitter Circle that allows people a flexibility to choose who can see and engage with their content on a Tweet-by-Tweet basis.A

This makes it easier to have more intimate conversations and build closer connections with select followers.

Before you post on Twitter, you'll now see an option to share your Tweet with either your circle or your full followers list. Circles can contain up to 150 people, and you can adjust who's in and who's out at any time.

"Don't worry, no one will be notified of any changes you make to your circle," said Twitter.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Oct 14 (IANS) Tech giant Apple's recently launched iPhone 14 Plus is garnering low traction as a new report said it has "unexpectedly low sales," media reports say.

The report from DigiTimes claims that sales of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus are considerably overshadowed by an "enthusiastic" response to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, reports MacRumors.

Sources speaking to DigiTimes said that despite differences in sales performance between the Pro and non-Pro iPhone models this year, total Phone 14 model shipments will likely be around the same as those for the iPhone 13 lineup in the second half of 2021.

If sales of the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus "remain flat" soon, Apple purportedly may cut parts orders to make the devices in the second half of October, the report said.

If Apple cuts orders more aggressively than expected, then the total iPhone 14 lineup shipments by the end of the year may even fall compared to the iPhone 13 series in the same time frame last year, it added.

Meanwhile, Apple recently announced the availability of the iPhone 14 Plus, featuring a 6.7-inch display, an upgraded dual-camera system, Crash Detection, Emergency SOS via satellite, A15 Bionic, and improved battery life, in India.

The customers in India can purchase iPhone 14 in colours like midnight, blue, starlight, purple, and (PRODUCT) RED in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage starting from Rs 89,900.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Oct 14 (IANS) In a bid to introduce an ad-supported tier for its users, popular streaming platform Netflix has announced that it will roll out the "Basic With Ads" steaming plan on November 3 in the US for $6.99.

The plan will also be rolled out in several other countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Spain, and the UK,

"In short, 'Basic with Ads' is everything people love about Netflix, at a lower price, with a few ads in-between. Starting in November, signing up will be easy -- visit Netflix.com, and register with your email, date of birth, and gender to get started," Greg Peters, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, said in a statement.

"The plan also represents an exciting opportunity for advertisers -- the chance to reach a diverse audience, including younger viewers who increasingly don't watch linear TV, in a premium environment with a seamless, high-resolution ads experience," Peters added.

At launch, ads will be 15 or 30 seconds in length, which will play before and during shows and films.

"To help advertisers reach the right audience and ensure our ads are more relevant for consumers, we will offer broad targeting capabilities by country and genre," the company said.

"Advertisers will also be able to prevent their ads from appearing on content that might be inconsistent with their brand," it added.

The plan will sit alongside the Basic, Standard, and Premium plans and will be limited to 720p content. Users can sign up via Netflix.com and register with their email, date of birth, and gender.

Meanwhile, a recent report said that the platform, with nearly 221 million subscribers worldwide, collaborated with the UK TV rating agency BARB to reveal how many people are watching its streaming shows and movies.

From the second week of November, BARB will publicly report the monthly reach and share of viewing for broadcaster groups, and subscription video-on-demand (SVOD)/advertising-based video-on-demand (AVOD) services which account for more than 0.5 per cent of total identified viewing.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in the presence of Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, has unveiled a new VR headset Meta Quest Pro that is packed with features like full-colour mixed reality and is priced at $1,500.

Meta dropped the codename called ‘Project Cambria' for its next VR device, calling it Meta Quest Pro that will begin shipping on October 25.

"Meta Quest Pro is the first in a new line of advanced headsets built to expand the possibilities of virtual and mixed reality. Its pancake lenses fold light over several times, reducing the size of the headset while showing sharper visuals," said Zuckerberg at ‘Meta Connect' event late on Tuesday.

A new, curved battery on the back helps make Meta Quest Pro a more balanced and ergonomic headset overall.

Zuckerberg joined leaders from Reality Labs at Meta and a few special guests to showcase the company's progress in making the metaverse a reality, highlighting the success of earlier VR headset Meta Quest 2.

"It's also the first headset we've built that integrates inward-facing sensors to capture natural facial expressions and eye tracking," said the company.

Nadella announced that Microsoft productivity tools will arrive on Meta Quest Pro and Meta Quest 2 next year, including apps for Windows 365 and Teams and the ability to join a Teams meeting from inside Meta Horizon Workrooms.

Meta also announced it is developing its social metaverse platform Horizon Worlds on the web.

"We also announced new social innovations we're working on with the YouTube VR team. If you're hanging out with friends in Meta Horizon Home, you'll soon be able to watch YouTube videos together," it added.

Outside of VR, Meta is bringing avatars to video chat, starting in Messenger and WhatsApp.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Oct 12 (IANS) Tech giant Google has announced that it is introducing the world's first Chromebooks built for cloud gaming made by manufacturers, including Acer, ASUS and Lenovo.

These new Chromebooks bring together gaming hardware features, access to the latest games with cutting-edge graphics through the cloud, and software designed to make gaming fast and easy.

"Chromebooks have always been known for being fast, secure, and easy-to-use devices. Since their launch more than a decade ago, we have improved their capabilities and expanded the variety of devices for people to choose from," the company said in a blogpost.

"Today, we are taking that effort a step further by introducing the world's first laptops built for cloud gaming along with our partners Acer, ASUS and Lenovo," it added.

The company announced three new Chromebooks -- Acer Chromebook 516 GE, ASUS Chromebook Vibe CX55 Flip and Ideapad Gaming Chromebook from Lenovo.

These laptops come loaded with features that are great for gaming, including 120Hz+ high-resolution screens for crystal clear visuals, RGB gaming keyboards (on select models) with anti-ghosting capabilities for added speed and excitement, and WiFi 6 or 6E.

Google said that all cloud gaming Chromebooks had been independently tested and verified by the leading game performance measurement platform, GameBench.

"We have teamed up with NVIDIA to bring support for GeForce NOW's highest performance RTX 3080 tier to cloud gaming Chromebooks so that you can stream titles like Fortnite, Cyberpunk 2077, Crysis 3 Remastered and more at up to 1600p resolution and 120 frames per second," the company said.

The RTX 3080 membership also boosts your gameplay with features like ray tracing, which simulates how light behaves in the real world to make visuals hyper-realistic.

--IANS
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Seoul/New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) Samsung on Monday announced a partnership with leading international original development manufacturers (ODMs) to enable non-Samsung smart TV models to use its Tizen operating systerm (OS) for the first time.

New TVs from Bauhn, Linsar, Sunny, Vispera and other brands1 will be available in Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Turkey and the UK this year, allowing more consumers to enjoy a premium smart TV experience enabled by Tizen, an open source OS for Samsung Smart TV, the company said in a statement.

New Smart TVs powered by Tizen from the first licensing partners like Atmaca, HKC and Tempo will be available this year.

"2022 has been a memorable year for Tizen OS as we celebrate its 10th anniversary and the very first Tizen-powered smart TVs available from other brands," said Yongjae Kim, Executive Vice President of Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics.

"Starting with these new Tizen-powered smart TVs, we will continue to expand the licensing programme and introduce Tizen OS and its ecosystem to more products and brands around the world," Kim added.

Tizen OS provides industry-leading smart features, content discoverability tools, apps and modern user interface for the ultimate smart TV experience.

Since Samsung teamed up with the Linux Foundation to unveil the first version in 2012, Tizen OS has made an exponential growth over the past decade.

To date, around 200 million people from 197 countries are using Samsung Smart TVs powered by Tizen.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Oct 10 (IANS) After announcing several new features, the Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is now releasing the ability to add up to 1,024 participants to groups, for some beta testers.

According to WABetaInfo, this feature is available on WhatsApp beta for Android and iOS, but it is limited to a certain undefined number of beta testers.

The report mentioned that if any user wants to check if the feature is available on their WhatsApp account, they can try to create a group or add new participants to an existing one.

WhatsApp is also developing new tools to give admins more control over these larger groups in the future, such as a list of pending participants and an approval system, as per the report.

In May, along with new features, the company rolled out the ability to add up to 512 people to a group from 256 people.

Meanwhile, recently, the platform rolled out another feature for business accounts -- WhatsApp Premium -- beta testers in certain countries.

Through WhatsApp Premium, businesses can take advantage of some advanced features, such as a better way to be reached by customers and some improvements when linking new devices.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 10 (IANS) South Korean tech giant Samsung may launch its next-generation flagship smartphone -- Galaxy S23 -- with big battery support and a 6.1 inch screen.

The vanilla-coloured Galaxy S23 might offer a 3,900mAh battery (Galaxy S22 had 3,700mAh battery), which is an upgrade over its predecessor Galaxy S22, reports GSMArena.

The screen might feature 6.1-inch with Full HD+ resolution, the report said.

The device will reportedly feature 25W charging and is expected to come in a new design and chipsets.

Earlier, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the Galaxy S23 series will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 exclusively.

"We were 75 per cent on Galaxy S22 before the agreement. You should be thinking about we are going to be much better than that on Galaxy S23 and beyond," said Amon.

A report recently said Samsung Galaxy S23 series will not come with an under-display camera (UDC) technology, which also means that users may have to wait until the Galaxy S24 for the UDC technology.

The Galaxy S23 series is expected to come with an upgraded 12MP selfie camera.

Both the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23+ are likely to use the same 10 MP resolution for the telephoto camera as the S22 and S22+.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) US-based chip maker Qualcomm is reportedly working on a new processor titled 'Snapdragon 7 Gen 2'.

The upcoming CPU with model number 'SM7475' is likely to have a tri-cluster design with one prime, three gold, and four silver cores, reports Gizmochina.

The gold is expected to peak at a frequency close to that of the prime core, which will operate at 2.4GHz, whereas the silver core will operate at 1.8GHz.

As per the report, the new chipset is expected to come with new core designs that mean Cortex A715 for Prime and Gold cores and A510 for Silver cores.

The chipset might come with a small performance bump but with improvement in efficiency, the report said.

The SM7475 might provide 5-10 per cent higher performance than its predecessor, while also being marginally more efficient, the report said.

Next month, the company is likely to launch the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 might be based on TSMC's 4nm manufacturing process.

As per reports, the chip consists of one X3 super core, two A720 large cores, two A710 large cores and three A510 high-efficiency cores.

--IANS
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