Technology

Tech giant company Apple has shut down some of its retail stores in the country because coronavirus cases are increasing at a rapid rate. Even after so many days of lockdown, theUS is witnessing a massive spike in COVID-19 cases. As a result of it, Cupertino, California based Apple store notified its employees of work from home. Apple store authorities issued a video message to all of its employees in which they requested employees to work from home. The official memo issued to employees says they will be provided with medical kits, and every other necessary thing will be provided at their home.

There is a high chance that the end of the year might not reopen this store, said by the authorities in this official memo. Employees have been ordered to provide all the necessary services required by the customers who bought the phone online from their store. Employees were instructed to work from home and be in contact with every customer remotely. Apple executives said they are witnessing a surge in demand for mobile phones online since many things are happening on a smartphone during the pandemic situation. This period customers saw a significant wait time problem, and executives want to fix this issue. The demand and after-sales service provided by the company’s store is essential, and they want employees to get ready.

The pandemic situation has benefited the company because the overall stock of Apple rose with a significant margin. Out of Apple’s total 271 stores, 90 had to shut down their operations and implemented work from home policies because of a spike in coronavirus cases. Now it’s quite apparent that other stores might also apply this strategy considering the fact so many new numbers of coronavirus cases coming in the country.

The law enforcement department sometimes gives some new verdicts which bring a new set of rules, and that’s what happened recently. In Seattle’s district court, the judge Coughenour gave the results of the case in favour of Joseph Sam, who was arrested for robbery and assault in May 2019. While releasing the results of this case, judge Coughenour said that looking at someone’s smartphone is also going to require a search warrant. Since getting access to the smartphone is also a violation of someone’s privacy without their prior consent. In this case, the arresting officer before arresting Sam unlocked his smartphone and searched it.

The judge said it could be doable in some cases since the existing law gives them this right. However, without a proper search warrant, police officers can’t look at the smartphone of an arresting person. In this case, when the arresting officer went to the accused house for arrest, he unblocked his phone and checked it. According to the District Court, a police officer can check the phone in some circumstances without any warrant. However, if they are going to do that again, and again that too without proper order, then it’s not permitted. When the FBI officer, after some months went to Sam’s house for enquiry, he checked his smartphone without any warrant which, according to the judge, it’s wrong.

The police officer shouldn’t have clicked the phone of Sam’s phone without carrying a permit about it. However, it seems like this case has brought some new changes to the way police investigate someone’s smartphone. The privacy issues, whether on social media platforms or any platform, are getting already considered by the government agencies. This new decision to have a search warrant before an enquiry is also going to affect overall data privacy issues.

Elon Musk, the visionary tech entrepreneur, is quite busy in his personal, and professional life during this quarantine period. Musk who wants to reopen his Tesla factories in California had recently got a shock when the County said NO. Elon Musk is famous for working hard and succeeding at every project even after facing lots of odds. However, Musk’s request to reopen the California factories has been declined by Alameda County on Friday. The country said opening factories during the coronavirus outbreak situation is quite dangerous.

Since it will be putting the health of many workers in this factory at a hazardous level, the County believes the way they are managing this health crisis, and getting some good response will be gone if the factory gets reopened. Governor Gavin Newsom after getting a request from Musk for opening the Tesla factory allowed it. However, the counties have more power and decided to put some more restrictions during the ongoing pandemic situation.

Six bay area counties decided of closing down major manufacturing factories during the pandemic situation considering the human loss it would bring for thousands of people. They published an official order to extend this decision till the end of May which seemed to be quite necessary. Alameda County said Tesla did not meet one of their criteria to put on closed factories, and as of now, no one knows which rule Tesla failed to obey.

However, after observing the current situation, it’s far clear that Tesla will not be able to make cars until the end of May. Still, no one knows whether the lockdown period will end on May 31 or not because the County will take further decision after observing the situation of that time. Musk might have to wait for some time to get back to work on his ambitious project.

The current pandemic situation has affected all the industry, including tech also. However, technology is that sector which is being used by government officials to determine their next strategy. Recently a data company released the report based upon users location data, and they tried to figure out how many people are following social distancing as prescribed. The report shows more than 50% of people stayed at home on Easter Day, which was quite an excellent achievement considering it was a festival; still, people stayed at their home. SafeGraph is the company that gathered the data of people’s cell phones, and for this study, they analyzed more than 18 million cell phone uses data.

The company looked at the pattern of how many people are staying at home by tracking their location, and they found out that after Easter day, the percentage of people staying home decreased frequently. On 27th April, it was approximately 40% of the analyzed cell phone users who stayed at home. Federal government, including state government planning of reopening economics based on the number of people, have been locked down for the last month. However, this report shows a different side of the picture.

SafeGraph said that they witnessed many regions following social distancing as prescribed mainly in counties areas; still, some areas didn’t manage to do so. A few people are criticizing this data because they are violating their privacy issues. However, the company said they collected data of only those who gave permission. Many people have given consent to the health official apps like this one to provide the correct information about their location. Some experts are saying that the people who did not follow social distancing were because of the non-work travel they did, which might be an essential thing for them.

Apple is a company that is well known for quality products. Its iPhones are the most-talked and most-wanted smartphones in the world, credit new features it introduces every time a new model is launched. It is undoubtedly the first choice for tech-savvy people because of its technical skills. Perhaps this is why the iPhone 11 captured the majority of the world’s market share in 2019 in less than four months of its launch. The handset was ranked the second best selling phone globally last year. The smartphone accounted for 2.1 percent share of the world’s market. The device was released by Apple on September 20, 2019.

Of the top 10 best-selling phones, Apple has its six products in the lineup. The iPhone maker is followed by South Korean giant Samsung. The company’s three models have made it to the top 10 list. All the three devices are from its A series. Apple’s iPhone XR was the top-selling model globally in 2019. It captured a 3 percent market share. Besides, it was also the only model to witness double-digit market share in any region. It reported a double-digit market share in the NAM region which covers the US and Canada. The company shipped nearly 46.3 million iPhone XR smartphones, almost doubling from 23.1 million units in 2018.

The top 10 smartphone models captured nearly 15 percent of global sales. From Samsung, the mid-range A series invited good business for the company. The decision to revamp A series helped the company to capture the market. Chinese smartphone maker Oppo with its A5 smartphone replaced Xiaomi in the top 10 best-selling list. Xiaomi was among the top 10 list in 2018. Unfortunately, Huawei had no models in the top 10 list. The Chinese giant couldn’t make it to the list despite being the second-largest player in the global smartphone sales. Meanwhile, 5G handsets contributed only 1 percent of sales in 2019. Notably, there were no 5G models among the top 10.

The Dark Mode is one of the most awaited features of popular messaging app WhatsApp. The company has not released any official statement regarding the availability of the feature. But it has been testing the beta versions of the dark theme on Android and iOS platforms for months. The Facebook-owned app is now believed to be working on the dark mode feature for its desktop version. The company said its development team is working to implement the dark theme correctly and ensure the bug-free experience for the users. It said the team still needs to tweak a bit the user interface. But the company has got some great results in the initial phase.

Reports suggest the background color for emojis is not transparent for the desktop version. It still appears in white color. The dark mode feature is in the early stages of development. It is unlikely that it will be made available anytime soon. The dark mode feature was initially discussed way back in 2018. It is likely that the stable Android and iOS versions will be released later this year. WhatsApp Web users will have to wait a bit longer for the theme. The theme for WhatsApp Web will probably be rolled out after the feature becomes available on Android and iOS platforms.

The Facebook-owned app recently released an update for the dark mode theme for its Android beta version. The theme was made available to beta users on iOS last month. It recently released an update for iPhone users. The dark mode does not change the whole outlook of the app. As the name suggests, it turns the background to a dark color. More and more apps are slowly rolling out dark mode as it comes with numerous benefits. It increases smartphones’ battery life and makes the interface eye-friendly. Facebook-owned Instagram has a full-fledged black mode. The social media giant has already started adding the dark theme to Facebook Lite on Android.

It seems that Facebook has decided to target Pinterest users now. The company has recently released an experimental app called ‘Hobbi’ where users can document their personal projects and hobbies. From the initial view, this app looks like a clone of Pinterest. This app has taken many cues from Pinterest but it goes a long way. ‘Hobbi’, the photo-sharing app allows users to organize their creative process into a themed collection. Users can make a themed collection for their hobbies like art and craft, recipes, and many others. A lack of social networking component is something, which differentiates this app from other Facebook apps and Pinterest. It enables the users to make a video highlight reel to share via other social platforms. ‘Hobbi’ has been developed by Facebook’s experimental project group.

Facebook has built its product Experimentation team last year itself. The team is called the NPE team. It aims to develop experimental apps outside of the firm’s core brands. This team has developed many tentative apps like a meme making app ‘Whale’, social networking app ‘Bump’ and music DJ mix app called ‘Aux’. However, none of them has attracted much attention from the users. The new app ‘Hobbi’ was initially launched in Columbia, Belgium, Spain, and Ukraine. The app is said to be compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod. It runs smoothly on iOS 11.0 and other advanced versions.

Reports suggest that hours after the launch of ‘Hobbi’, the shares of Pinterest have fallen more than 4 percent. Although this app has a limited release but the features of the app pose a direct competition with Pinterest. Experts say that ‘Hobbi’ lacks the discoverability, search, and recommendations that Pinterest has. The officials of Pinterest have made it clear that ‘Hobbi’ is a different product; it does not have any similarity with their app. Facebook officials have said that the NPE team might make some changes in the app and if it does not work, they will shut it down.

The launch of the much-awaited small budget iPhone 9 is less than a month away. Reports now suggest that the US tech giant Apple has finally started the trial production of the device. The iPhone 9 is expected to come in as the successor to the iPhone SE. The iPhone SE was launched in March 2016. It was Apple’s first budget phone. The new device will be an affordable alternative to premium iPhone 11 variants. The trial production phase will be used to iron out any issues in the handset and make sure assembly lines are running smoothly.

If everything goes as per the plan, Apple will start full mass production of the iPhone 9 in mid-February. The Cupertino-headquartered giant said it will need around six weeks to build up a huge stock of iPhone 9 ahead of its official launch in March. Notably, some Apple loyalists still prefer using a device as the size of the iPhone 5S and iPhone SE. The two smartphones were immensely popular devices by Apple. Perhaps this is why Apple decided to bring a small-screen device. The highly anticipated iPhone 9 from Apple comes at a time when rival companies like Samsung, Huawei, and OnePlus are working on big and gorgeous display smartphones.

The new smartphone by Apple will come with a single rear camera. It will supposedly feature a 4.7-inch display. The dimensions will be 138.5 x 67.4 x 7.8mm. This is identical to the dimensions of the iPhone 8 which was launched in September 2017. To offer improved network connectivity, the company may add the new LCP antenna. It is expected to come with the A13 Bionic SoC. The 64-bit ARM-based system was designed by Apple. It debuted on the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro. The device will carry a 3GB RAM. The new iPhone is also expected to use a 10-layer Substrate-like PCB for its motherboard. The same technology was used by Apple in the iPhone 11 line up.

Instant messaging app WhatsApp is again hit by a serious vulnerability. This time, the bug affects group chats. It caused the app to crash for all members of the targeted group as soon as users open a malicious message. Also, it deleted the entire group chat history forever. Since there was no alternative available, users were forced to uninstall and reinstall the app to remain online. The vulnerability allowed attackers to send malicious messages to a group via WhatsApp Web. Attackers managed to edit certain message parameters using the debugging tool. After editing the text, they dropped malicious messages in the group. This ultimately reached to every member of the group and crashed the app.

Besides group crashing, users also experienced deletion of the entire group chat history. The bad characters even deleted valuable information from the device. Attackers were probably also able to gain access to the device using this weapon. When WhatsApp learned about the issue, it promised an effective measure. The Facebook owned company released a fix to resolve the problem in the new version number 2.19.58. It advised users worldwide to update the app to avoid the potential attack. The company in a statement said it greatly values the privacy of its users and it is committed to maintaining strong security.

WhatsApp has taken several steps in the last few months to strengthen security and check further breach. It recently launched a new tool to prevent people from being added to unwanted groups. WhatsApp is one of the popular chatting chat apps in the world. It has nearly 1.5 billion active users and more than a billion groups worldwide. This makes it the most popular instant messaging app and the huge user base perhaps makes it a favorite destination for hacking. According to an estimate, close to 65 billion messages are sent on WhatsApp daily globally. The Mark Zuckerberg owned Facebook had acquired WhatsApp in February 2014 for USD 16 billion.

Good news for Samsung Galaxy S10 users who uses on Sprint, Verizon, or T-Mobile, user can able to download Android 10 to on device now. Google 9 to 5 surfaced reported on Reddit today that Android 10 was developing to Galaxy S10 in the US, so the company asked to four big wireless transporters if transporters could tell the company more about plans for rolling out. They are the ones who can give the final call to allow the updates of software to use on the phones. Some of the states of the Samsung Galaxy phones can use on Android 10 rollout among every carrier. AT&T needed no information for sharing. Sprint confirmed with Verge that Android 10 is developing for Galaxy S10 on 17^th December, and Android 10 will also be preparing for the S10 5G, note 10, Note 10 Plus. T-Mobile did not respond yet, but gives a support doc on the website of the company and also said Android 10 released to devices Galaxy S10 on 15^th December. Verizon confirmed to the company Verge, saying that Android 10 is presented for Galaxy S10 devices starting on 17^th December, though the user can check for the update in settings to get it manually.

And in alternative Reddit thread, users on Verizon, Sprint, and Xfinity, T-Mobile, Mobiles are saying that they have the updates. For most releases of Android, users who didn’t have Google phones have to wait for carriers to take a new Android software on their devices. 2018’s Pie Android didn’t come to Samsung devices until January 2019. In inclusion to the numerous updates for Android 10, users of Samsung will also get a one UI refreshed version, labeled One UI 2. Dieter Bohn, who is the founder of the One UI initially to be much good, and One UI 2 can change small improvements to create things more efficient and consistent.

After installing the update, users can go to the settings of the gestures section to see how updates working for Android 10 now and where users can pinch them a bit if users like it. And as along with any update, there is always the potential for UI weirdness or bugs, so if users see something strange, then the user can check for the question and can bugs thread for Galaxy S10 subedit.

Developers claim that file sharing has never been so more straightforward, behind the viral mobile app Zapya. One can share files from one device to another device for free, and Zapya permits one to transfer massive data seamlessly across multiple platforms. Dewmobile, the Shanghai-based developers of the app, claims 450 million downloads from its 2012 launch. Somewhat weirdly, though, it now arrives that the authorities in Xinjiang have been targeting Zapya users amid the minority Uighur population. If the app is found on a device, it is a cause enough for an investigation, and it depends on what files have been shared, the research could lead to the internet. The Zapya manifestations can be found amid a leaked cache of documents that put off the surveillance ecosystem spread in Xinjiang.

The China Cables, published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, detail the growth of a no holds caulked surveillance laboratory, where patterns of life can be advised, and the population can be regulated. Missteps run the risk of the internet, and the internet can only be fled by modified behavior and thinking. It is not just Zapya, of course, and its developers had not reported to a request for comment at the time of publishing. Accusations that the authorities actively exhort communications on Tencent’s WeChat have long been made, and the Western apps like Whatsapp are an immediate red flag. ICIJ stated that Uighurs inside and outside China now live with the information that the authorities continuously control their communications.

The Chinese authorities continue the fiction that what is taking place in Xinjiang is simply an intense counter-terrorism program that has local public support, and it has made a region safe. According to the official response, there were no so-called detention camps in Xinjiang. This weaponization is expansive than Xinjiang and Hong Kong. It is a switch that has been battered. In a world where we all carry pocket-sized devices to store all our data, for tracking movements and interactions, China has shown that it only takes a state intending to form the dystopian reality that is now unfolding in Xinjiang.

As Slack is getting popular and more prominent with the increasing number of users, the company had to increase the security protection on the servers. Slack engineers knew it, and they have added improved security measures to prevent data breaches and other issues that are related to the security of the enterprises. Last Year, the company announced the new encryption key management feature for the platform, and now they’ve announced the new security strategy with improvements in the safety of the platform and the data of the users.

Currently, individuals and big enterprises use Slack as the inter-departmental communication tool. Before using this tool, the big companies need to ensure minimum and maximum levels of security for this tool, otherwise, the attackers could easily breach the network and steal valuable data. In the post published today on the official blog, Slack announced the new security measures, that will benefit all of the users, especially the enterprises. According to the blog post, the company will introduce the FaceID, TouchID, or passkey protected login for mobile devices. Also, the users can report the stolen devices and remotely wipe the slack conversations from the device through API.

Even though asked by the community for a long time, the company has not introduced the End-to-End encryption for the conversations. A Spokesperson of Slack said that adding End-to-End encryption would limit the functionality. The users needing the E2E on Slack can use the Encryption Key Management feature to get cryptographic controls on the conversations. Not just these features, but soon, the users can prevent unauthorized downloads to the unapproved IP addresses, preventing data leaks from the network of the system. All these new additions and features will make system administrator teams at the enterprises safe about using the platform for team communication and management.