Technology

San Francisco, Sep 9 (IANS) Tech giant Google has announced that it is bringing several new features -- including Nearby Share -- to help users stay productive, communicate with loved ones and enjoy entertainment across devices.

The company said that Nearby Share lets users quickly and securely share files between nearby Android phones, tablets and Chromebooks, whether they are photos or videos or even entire folders.

"In the next few weeks, you will be able to use Nearby Share to effortlessly transfer files across your own devices," Scott Blanksteen, Senior Director, Product Management, Android, said in a statement.

"Just select Android devices logged into your Google account from the sharing menu to quickly share files between them. And once you have opted in, transfers between devices you own are automatically accepted -- even if your screen is off," Blanksteen added.

The company said that it recently introduced a new look and updated Google Workspace apps for bigger screens and now it is continuing to optimise users' favourite Google apps on tablets to make multi-tasking a breeze, starting with redesigned widgets for Google Drive and Keep.

"With an updated Google Drive widget, three home screen buttons now offer one-touch access to your Google Docs, Google Slides and Google Sheets files," the company said.

"And in Google Keep, a bigger widget and font size makes note-taking, to-do lists, and reminders easy to access," it added.

The company has added many new Emoji Kitchen mashups, available as stickers via Gboard.

To bring people closer, the company said it is also adding new shared experiences in Google Meet.

"With live sharing features, you can instantly co-watch YouTube videos and play classic games with up to 100 friends and family members at a time," the company said.

"So even if you are far apart, you can maintain traditions like a movie and game nights. This feature is rolling out to Android phones and tablets," it added.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 9 (IANS) Tech giant Microsoft has announced that it is rolling out new experiments to learn how to create a more personalised home screen experience for Xbox users.

The company said that it is focused on making it faster and easier for users to play the games they love and find their next favourite game.

"We know the Xbox homepage is where our gamers spend a lot of their time, and it is a space that is very personal. We also know we can always be listening and learning how we can do better here while keeping your experience fast and familiar," Ivy Krislov, Senior Product Manager Lead, Xbox, said in a blogpost.

The company said that starting this week, a random subset of Xbox Insiders in the Alpha Skip-Ahead ring will see layout, design, and ease of access changes as we experiment with different approaches.

"In addition, we are exploring options for new game channels and collections when you scroll down that include content that's curated for you based on things like the games you have played or how to make the most out of your Game Pass subscription," Krislov said.

The key update in this first round of preview updates is that the new "Jump back in" row gives users quick access to their most recently played games and apps.

Users can easily access essential system apps like Settings, Store, Search and My Games and Apps with their own dedicated tiles on Xbox Home.

"We want to ensure this experience is the best it can be, and we know getting it right will take some time which is why we will be rolling it out slowly and iterating throughout the process," Krislov said.

"With your input, we are looking forward to launching this new, better Home experience in 2023. Please share your feedback and be patient as we add, remove, and change features to optimize the experience," Krislov added.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 8 (IANS) After unveiling its next-gen products, tech giant Apple has discontinued older iPhones, including iPhone 11, 12 Mini, 13 Pro, and 13 Pro Max.

According to GizmoChina, the tech giant has replaced the outgoing Pro models with the launch of new Pro models in Apple's iPhone lineup, like it does every year.

The report mentioned that Apple has officially stopped selling the aforementioned older iPhone models, but they will still be available for purchase from retailers around the world while stocks last.

The iPhone 13 Pro series brought some major upgrades. It introduced features like a 120Hz LTPO display, an improved triple camera system, much better battery life, and more. Further, the firm discontinued the iPhone 11 from 2019. It was the first base iPhone with a dual-camera setup, 4GB RAM, 18W wired charging support, and more.

The tech giant has also discontinued the iPhone 12 Mini from 2020, which was the first Mini iPhone, and the most affordable iPhone with an OLED display at the launch.

Meanwhile, at its 'Far Out Event' this week on Wednesday, Apple has unveiled the iPhone 14 series, which were accompanied by AirPods Pro 2nd Gen, Apple Watch Series 8, and Apple Watch Ultra. Unsurprisingly, the American tech giant also announced the discontinuation of select older iPhones.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 8 (IANS) After launching its community-driven content moderation programme Birdwatch, microblogging site Twitter is now rolling out an updated Birdwatch onboarding process that better incentivises contributors to write and rate notes in a thoughtful way.

Birdwatch is a collaborative way to add helpful context to potentially misleading Tweets and keep people better informed.

"New Birdwatch contributors who have met the eligibility criteria will begin with an initial Rating Impact score of zero, which they can increase by consistently rating other contributors' notes and reliably identifying those that are Helpful and Not Helpful," the company said in a blogpost.

"Once a contributor's score has risen to five, they can start writing notes," it added.

The platform said that contributors can further increase their Writing and Rating Impact scores by both writing Helpful notes and continuing to rate notes written by others.

Repeatedly writing notes that reach a status of Not Helpful, however, will result in a decreasing score and could temporarily lock a contributor's note writing ability.

Birdwatch programme is made up of a group of people, or contributors, who help identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading and write notes that provide informative context.

Only notes that are rated Helpful by a diverse group of contributors, or that "bridge" across groups of people who have tended to disagree in their past ratings, are made visible on Twitter.

The programme began testing in 2021 and is regularly being updated and improved thanks to analysis from our research team and feedback from our academic advisory board and Birdwatch contributors.

--IANS
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Cupertino (California), Sep 8 (IANS) Apple on Wednesday launched the new iPhone 14 series with four models -- iPhone 14, 14 Plus, 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max -- that starts from Rs 79,900.

Customers in India can get the 6.1-inch iPhone 14 for Rs 79,900 and the 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Plus for Rs 89,900.

They will be able to pre-order iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus beginning September 9, with iPhone 14 availability beginning September 16 and iPhone 14 Plus beginning October 7.

Customers can get iPhone 14 Pro for Rs 129,900 and iPhone 14 Pro Max for Rs 139,900 (starting prices).

iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will be available in deep purple, silver, gold, and space black in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage capacities.

The Pro models feature the Always-On display, Crash Detection, Emergency SOS via satellite, and an innovative new way to receive notifications and activities with the Dynamic Island.

Powered by A16 Bionic, the fastest chip ever in a smartphone, iPhone 14 Pro introduces a new class of pro camera system, with the first-ever 48MP Main camera on iPhone featuring a quad-pixel sensor, and Photonic Engine, an enhanced image pipeline that dramatically improves low-light photos.

iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max will be available in four gorgeous new finishes: deep purple, silver, gold, and space black. Pre-orders begin September 9 with availability beginning September 16.

Available in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch sizes,1 both models include a new Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion that features the Always-On display for the first time ever on iPhone, enabled by a new 1Hz refresh rate and multiple power-efficient technologies.

The Dynamic Island enables new ways to interact with iPhone, featuring a design that blends the line between hardware and software, adapting in real time to show important alerts, notifications, and activities.

With the introduction of the Dynamic Island, the TrueDepth camera has been redesigned to take up less of the display area.

The A16 Bionic chip in iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max is generations ahead of the competition, and unlocks unparalleled experiences like the Dynamic Island, powers all-day battery life, and delivers impressive computational photography capabilities.

"With the new, larger 6.7-inch display on iPhone 14 Plus, users can enjoy more content onscreen when browsing the web and even more text," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.A

"Both phones have a powerful new Main camera with a huge leap in low-light performance, advanced connectivity capabilities with 5G and eSIM, and the incredible performance of A15 Bionic, which helps enable even better battery life. All of this, tightly integrated with iOS 16, makes iPhone more essential than ever," he added.

The phones have the A15 Bionic chip with a 5-core GPU, which offers incredible performance and efficiency for demanding workloads, and is designed with privacy and security built in.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be available in midnight, blue, starlight, purple, and (PRODUCT)RED1 finishes.

Both models have an updated internal design for better thermal performance, Super Retina XDR displays with OLED technology that supports 1200 nits of peak HDR brightness and Dolby Vision.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus also feature the durable Ceramic Shield front cover -- exclusive to iPhone and tougher than any other smartphone glass.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus have a new 12MP Main camera featuring a larger sensor and larger pixels, a new front TrueDepth camera, the Ultra Wide camera to capture more of a scene, and Photonic Engine for a giant leap in low-light performance.

With a new dual-core accelerometer capable of detecting G-force measurements of up to 256Gs and a new high dynamic range gyroscope, aCrash Detection' on iPhone can now detect a severe car crash and automatically dial emergency services when a user is unconscious or unable to reach their iPhone.A

The iPhone 14 lineup also introduces Emergency SOS via satellite, which combines custom components deeply integrated with software to allow antennas to connect directly to a satellite, enabling messaging with emergency services when outside of cellular or Wi-Fi coverage.A

Emergency SOS via satellite will be available to users in the US and Canada in November, and the service will be free for two years, said the company.

iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus feature iOS 16, offering a reimagined Lock Screen along with new communication, sharing, and intelligence features that together change the way users experience iPhone.A

iOS 16 will be available as a free software update on September 12.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 7 (IANS) Chip-maker Qualcomm has announced Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 mobile platforms to address the mid-tier and mass-volume smartphone segment.

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 extends users' reach with expansive connectivity and sustained, efficient power and performance for high-intensity gaming.

Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 offers impressive performance and AI to make interactions seamless and intuitive. This chip also provides advanced photography features as well as improved connectivity, the company said in a statement.

Commercial devices powered by Snapdragon 6 are expected to be available in Q1 2023, while devices based on Snapdragon 4 are likely to be available in the ongoing third quarter.

"Both Snapdragon 6 and Snapdragon 4 provide upgrades in their respective series to enable advancements in capture, connectivity, entertainment, and AI. These new mobile platforms help our customers to deliver advanced solutions for consumers," said Deepu John, senior director, product management, Qualcomm Technologies.

The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 allows users to capture 108 MP photos and video with computational HDR via support for staggered HDR image sensors — a first in the Snapdragon 6-series.

Snapdragon 6 features the 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine enabling up to three times improved AI performance compared to its predecessor for intelligent assistance across the board, including AI-based activity tracking.

"With hard-hitting gaming features that deliver up to 35 per cent quicker graphics rendering and up to 40 per cent faster processing, Snapdragon 6 powers HDR gaming at an ultra-smooth 60+fps while delivering real-time responses and high-quality visuals for winning entertainment," said the company.

Snapdragon 4 Gen 1 boasts impressive performance and multi-day battery life.

The platform features up to 15 per cent improved CPU and up to 10 per cent enhanced GPU compared to the previous generation, allowing users to multitask smoothly and enjoy immersive entertainment.

"Based on our long-lasting collaboration with Qualcomm, we can't wait to introduce our upcoming new iQOO smartphone adopting the new Snapdragon mobile platform," said Nipun Marya, chief executive officer, iQOO India.

"As a company, we will continue to find the perfect balance between performance and affordability by utilising the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 Mobile platform in the future," said Francois La Flamme, head of strategy and chief of marketing office, Motorola.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 7 (IANS) Apple on Tuesday was set to showcase a new line-up of iPhones, Watch, AirPods Pro earbuds and updates at its annual hardware event.

The users can expect three key features in the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, the top-end phones from Apple.

These are a customisable always-on display, a 48MP rear camera with a large and better sensor.

The top-end iPhones may get an upgraded A16 processing chip and two new colours: blue and deep purple, reports The Verge.

The base iPhone 14 will likely use the same A15 processor and there will be no mini iPhone this year.

It's also rumoured to support a faster 30W charger and start from 256GB of storage, a significant jump from 128GB internal storage.

"The biggest update to the non-Pro model is expected to be the introduction of a larger 6.7-inch display in the iPhone 14 Max," the report noted.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, iPhone 14 lineup may also have a better selfie camera that uses autofocus feature.

iPhone 14 may also house satellite connectivity for emergency situations where there is no cellular connection.

Apple will also showcase Watch Series 8, a refreshed SE, and a new rugged "Pro" model for athletes, according to the report.

The Series 8 watch is likely to come with a new S8 chip and may also feature a temperature sensor.

The Apple Watch SE is likely to replace the affordable Watch Series 3, and house with the same S8 chip.

Apple Watch Pro could come with a larger "nearly 2-inch display" that's "more shatter-resistant" and sport a "strong metal" case.

Mark Gurman of Bloomberg expects the Watch Pro to cost anywhere from $900 to $999.

The AirPods Pro haven't received an update since their initial launch in 2019 and now, Apple will showcase AirPods Pro 2 at the ‘Far Out' event.

The new AirPods Pro may resemble the Beats Fit Pro with a focus on fitness tracking and support lossless audio.

The AirPods Pro 2 charging case may also get an upgrade with a small speaker that makes a sound when you try to locate it via the Find My app.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 7 (IANS) Google has issued a first security patch to fix bugs in Pixel phones running Android 13 to address issues like increased battery drain and disabled wireless charging.

The monthly software update for September 2022 will reach all supported Pixel devices running Android 13, starting from Tuesday.

"The rollout will continue over the next week in phases depending on carrier and device. Pixel 6a devices will receive the update later this month," the company said in an update.

Users will receive a notification once the over-the-air (OTA) update becomes available for their device.

The security update includes bug fixes for issue occasionally causing increased battery drain from certain launcher background activities and the issue preventing wireless charging mode to activate in certain conditions.

The update also offers additional improvements for fingerprint recognition and response in certain conditions and fixes the issue occasionally preventing certain Bluetooth devices or accessories from connecting.

The monthly security update also has a fix for issue occasionally causing notifications to appear truncated on the lock screen.

The fixes are available for Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 5, Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro and Pixel 6a (later this month).

Earlier, some Pixel 6a users had noticed that any fingerprint is able to unlock their new phones in a rather worrying security lapse.

Google Pixel users were also left in a lurch after downloading Android 13 as several of them were not able to use wireless charging after installing the latest operating system (OS).

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 5 (IANS) Cyber-security researchers on Monday discovered a potential data breach in Chinese short-form video app TikTok, allegedly involving up to 2 billion user database records.

Several cyber-security analysts tweeted about the discovery of what was "a breach of an insecure server that allowed access to TikTok's storage, which they believe contained personal user data".

"This is your forewarning. #TikTok has reportedly suffered a #data #breach, and if true there may be fallout from it in the coming days. We recommend you change your TikTok #password and enable Two-Factor Authentication, if you have not done so already," tweeted BeeHive CyberSecurity.

"We've reviewed a sample of the extracted data. To our email subscribers and private clients, we've already sent out warning communications," it added.

Troy Hunt, creator of data breach information site haveibeenpwned, posted a thread on Twitter to verify if the sample data is genuine or not. For him, the evidence is "so far pretty inconclusive".

BlueHornet|AgaisntTheWest posted all the details on breached forums.

"Who would have thought that @TikTok would decide to store all their internal backend source code on one Alibaba Cloud instance using a trashy password?" they tweeted, posting about how easily they could download the data.

A TikTok spokesperson was quoted as saying in news reports that their security team "investigated this statement and determined that the code in question is completely unrelated to TikTok's backend source code".

Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team just discovered a vulnerability in the TikTok app for Android that can let hackers take over private, short-form videos of millions of users once they clicked on a malicious link.

Microsoft discovered a high-severity vulnerability in the TikTok Android application, which could have allowed attackers to compromise users' accounts with a single click.

The vulnerability, which would have required several issues to be chained together to exploit, has now been fixed by the Chinese company.

"Attackers could have leveraged the vulnerability to hijack an account without users' awareness if a targeted user simply clicked a specially crafted link," the tech giant said in a statement last week.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 4 (IANS) Fintech major Paytm on Sunday said that the search operations by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) at six different locations in Bengaluru were carried out on merchants which were independent entities, and none of them were Paytm's group entities.

In a statement, One 97 Communications Ltd, which is the parent company of Paytm, clarified that none of the funds which have been instructed to be frozen belong to Paytm or any of its group companies.

The ED said on Saturday that it carried out search operations at six different locations in Bengaluru in connection with its probe into the Chinese loan apps fraud case.

The financial probe agency said it raided the premises associated with Paytm, Razorpay and Cashfree, all payment gateways which allegedly facilitated transactions on loan apps unauthorisedly run by Chinese-owned firms.

The company said that as a part of ongoing investigations on a specific set of merchants, "the ED has sought information regarding such merchants to whom we provide payment processing solutions".

"It is hereby clarified that these merchants are independent entities, and none of them are our group entities. We are, and will continue to, fully cooperate with the authorities, and all the directive actions are being duly complied with," said the company.

Paytm further said that that the "ED has instructed us to freeze certain amounts from the Merchant IDs (MIDs) of a specific set of merchant entities".

According to the ED, during the search operation, it was noticed that the said entities were generating proceeds of crime through various merchant IDs/accounts held with payment gateways/banks.

"They were also not operating from the addresses given on the MCA website/registered address. An amount of Rs 17 crore has been seized in merchant IDs and bank accounts of these Chinese-owned entities," said the agency.

A Cashfree spokesperson said that the company extended diligent co-operation to the ED operations, providing them the required and necessary information on the same day of enquiry.

"Our operations and on-boarding processes adhere to the PMLA and KYC directions, and we will continue to do so," said the spokesperson.

A Razorpay spokesperson said that some of its merchants were being investigated by the law enforcement about a year and a half back.

"As part of the ongoing investigation, the authorities requested additional information to help with the investigation. We have fully cooperated and shared KYC and other details. The authorities were satisfied by our due diligence process," said the company.

--IANS
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