Technology

WhatsApp is not in the good position if we consider the security and privacy aspects. With the constant data theft and some security blunders, Facebook is under the flames of the authorities and also the users. Today, an Israeli Cybersecurity firm revealed WhatsApp flaws that could allow attackers to access the private chats and modify them without any authorization. The flaws would allow the attacker to modify the conversation in Public and private discussions of the users. This will increase the threat of spreading rumors and manipulating the users for illegal business.

Cyber Point Software Technologies Ltd is the cybersecurity firm that unveiled the flaws in WhatsApp. According to the claims by this company, WhatsApp has three possible flaws, that could help the attackers to alter the conversations. The first flaw executes the “Quote” function to change the appearance of the sender, the second flaw allows the attacker to modify the conversation text, and the third flaw allows an attacker to send a private message to someone in a group, but the message becomes public ones the receiver replies to the same. Fortunately, the third flaw is already fixed by the developer team at Facebook.

Facebook’s Spokesperson claimed in the statement that the company has already reviewed such flaws one year ago and fixed them beforehand. Also, the Spokesperson said that there are no such flaws present on the platform with such tight security provided by the company. Oded Vanunu, Check Point’s head of products vulnerability research, said that the flaws could impact billions of people if not fixed in time. Even though Facebook denies the existence of such flaws, the slightest possibility is still dangerous for the privacy of billions of WhatsApp users. Check Point security has already alerted Facebook a year ago, but only one of the flaws has been addressed till date, said Oded Vanunu.

Much awaited devices from Samsung are now officially released, as the company took the stage in a grand event to launch the devices. In the grand launch event, Samsung released the much-awaited Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10 Plus smartphones in the market. With high-end hardware, along with the stunning designs and huge shock to the enthusiasts, Samsung made these devices available to the media personnel. Samsung Galaxy Note 10 is the successor of the other Note series devices, but the Note 10 Pro is the one that represents super-sized, high-power, high-on-accessories device made for power users.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 10 device with just one variant, which is 8GB of RAM and 256GB one. Note 10 is priced at $949 in the United States. On the other hand, Galaxy Note 10 Plus is a different device with two variants for the power-hungry users. Note 10 Plus comes with 12GB RAM / 256GB storage option with the price tag of $1,099. While the storage is customizable up to 512 GB, the RAM will stay at 12GB with $100 more added to the price tag. Also, there is a 5G ready version of the device, which will come later this year, but the pre-orders will start on 23rd August. All of the devices and variants are available in the markets from 23rd August.

One big shock from Samsung to all of the fanboys is the exclusion of the headphone jack. With no headphone jack on the devices, many fanboys are disappointed. Although the company has provided the USB-C type headphones with the devices, the usability of 3.5mm audio jack is useful for most of the audio listening needs. Also, the company has not provided the USB-C dongles for other devices, which is being sold separately for $9.99.

Apple, Google, and Amazon are accused of listening to the private conversation of the users using the voice assistant products. Google with Google Assistant, Amazon with Alexa Voice Assistant, Apple with Siri, and now Microsoft is accused of using Cortana and Skype conversions for quality control purposes. According to the small voice recordings shared by the ex-contractor of Microsoft, the company is extracting the conversation snippets from the Cortana and Skype conversations of the users. Microsoft is conducting the quality control program for Cortana voice assistant with the data obtained from the users of the same. Just after the controversy of Apple listening to all of the intimate conversations of the users, Microsoft’s similar program is a shocking one.

According to the investigation done by Vice’s Motherboard portal, the company is collecting the voice recordings from the users. Also, they are receiving the transcriptions of Skype conversations and Skype translations. To improve the features of the Cortana and Skype, the contractors used to listen to the voice recordings and provide accurate transcriptions. Also, they had to share the opinion of the voice clip whenever needed. All of the voice recordings retrieved from the users are 5-10 seconds of length.

Microsoft representative has agreed to the program and provided further details about the system. First of all, the company fetches the voice recordings through a secure online portal and then filters the conversations which have the name, address, mobile numbers or any other private information that may reveal the identity of the user. After that, the contractors review the audio recordings to provide the feedback, which improves the response quality of the voice assistant. Even though the company uses Secure online portal for transferring the recordings, it is still unacceptable for a giant like Microsoft to follow the controversial path like Amazon, Google, and Apple.

Google is currently testing a new service, which is named as Play Pass service. It’s a $5 Android Games and Apps subscription service, which will allow the users to get access to premium apps and games. With the $5 per month subscription, users can play the select games and access premium apps with the service. It works just like Apple’s Arcade service, which will have multiple games available for a monthly subscription. When the Members of XDA forum spotted the code references of a service similar to Apple Arcade, the experts started expecting the rollout of the service.

Now, the company is currently testing the service of $5 Play Pass service with a bunch of beta testers. According to the screenshots shared by the testers, the service is priced at $4.99 per month and comes with a premium selection of games and apps with no in-app purchases. The screenshots suggest that the service is in the final stages of development and is ready to rollout. In the testing version, Google is claiming that they will provide everything from puzzle games to premium music apps with these subscriptions. The best premium apps and games chosen by the editors are included in the premium pass, which is going to change every month.

At first, the XDA members spotted the service and then posted it on the forum. Later, Google confirmed the existence of such a service and that it is in the testing phase. Just before the launch of Apple’s Arcade game subscription service, Google is going to launch the Play Pass. With a wide variety of the games and apps to play compared to Apple’s Arcade, people will make the switch to this service. Even though Apple is signing up thousands of game developers for its Arcade service, Google has a pretty right side to challenge Apple after launching the service.

Even though the Tablet computer industry is dying and transforming, Samsung is not willing to give up hope. The company announced new Galaxy Tab S6 tablet computers in the market with the price tag of $649. Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 is the high-end tablet from Samsung in the price range. The company has packed some excellent hardware in the Galaxy Tab S6, which is making tech enthusiasts go wild. To make the Galaxy Tab S6 in the mainstream portable computers segment, just like Microsoft SurfaceBook and iPad, the company will include some wonderful hardware.

Samsung has included 10.5-inch 2560×1600 OLED display, a 2.84GHz Snapdragon 855, and a 7040mAh battery in all of the models. The base model of Galaxy Tab S6 comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, while the top-end model comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. For taking good quality pictures, the front side has an 8 Megapixel camera, and the read side has two camera setup with 13-megapixel primary camera and 5-megapixel wide-angle camera. One of the exciting features of this tablet is the in-screen fingerprint reader. This is the first time Samsung introduced the in-screen fingerprint sensor in the tablet computers.

The biggest blunder Samsung did with this tablet is not including the Headphone jack. The 3.5mm Headphone jack is highly appreciated by the smartphone or tablet users, as not everyone uses the wireless headphones. But Samsung has not included the 3.5mm Audio jack in this device. Even Apple has added a headphone jack in the iPad devices. Samsung is willing to ditch the headphone jack as the rumors suggest that the company is going to ditch them in upcoming Galaxy Note 10. The Galaxy Note 10 is scheduled to launch next week in a grand launch event.

Ubisoft is quite popular amongst the PC and Console gamers for its excellent games. But the company is not much active in the smartphone games industry, while companies like Epic Games and Bluhole making ways onto the millions of smartphones. Ubisoft announced that they are acquiring Green Panda Games, which is a famous hyper-casual games developer. With this acquisition, the company has made two strongholds in the Hyper-casual games for Android and iOS industry. In 2016, Ubisoft acquired Ketchapp, the most prominent hyper-casual games developer and distributor.

Ubisoft announced that they had acquired the 70% stake in Green Panda games. The company has developed the games like Bee Factory and Golf Orbit, which has nearly 78 million combined downloads. This is the second time Ubisoft has acquired a hyper-casual game developer studio. Ubisoft and Green Panda Games have not declared any terms of the deal. Ubisoft has released only one condition from the agreement, which allows the company to buy the remaining 30% of the stake in Green Panda games shortly. With the mobile gaming industry is going to hit nearly $68.5 billion marks this year, Ubisoft is willing to earn the chunk from the same.

The Green Panda games are one of the most popular hyper-casual game developers for Android and iOS. The most popular game of the company is Bee Factory, which has more than 15 million downloads. The second most popular game is the Golf Orbit, which is one of the top-grossing games for the company. According to the report from Senor Tower, the in-app purchases from Golf Orbit are nearly $712,000. The numbers do not contain the figures of In-app advertising, which is undoubtedly more significant than the In-App purchases.

When you are typing a text message to someone, you would want to mean every word of it. Smartphones making companies gave the feature of using emojis to convey your feelings more clearly. Now a recent report shows that iOs and Android users are going to receive a bunch of new emojis. Since today’s the world emoji day, both Apple and Google have decided to use this special day for launching a new bunch of emojis. Accordingly, both of these platforms are going to receive more than 60 new emojis. Under this new update, both Apple and Google have decided to add a new “couple emoji” with different options also.

The couple emoji has been combined with diverse gender and race option, which can be used by people to show their love, friendship, etc to the receiver. Google has taken more into the different type of emojis because the company has decided to add unique emojis like “person getting a haircut” or “police officer. Both platforms have taken care of offering various emojis. You will have to press and hold to get the male or female version of particular emoji in this new update. Apple is focusing on unique emojis because they have decided to add “service dog” and “people with different wheelchairs” emojis.

Even though the usability of these new emojis is quite questionable but the company here is trying to bring something new to customers. In Apple’s latest update user would get to see a bunch of different clothing including saris swim shorts, etc. It also signifies that companies are trying to target region based customers, which might be using these emojis a lot. Today’s the world emoji day, and people would love to share some great emojis with their friends and family members.

When it comes to surfing on the internet, you will find tons of sites which are going to give everything else except the information which you want. There are many spammy sites on Google’s index, which are trying to get the data of users, but Google has brought an excellent way to deal with thee sites. Accordingly, you can now use an extension which will help you to report those types of spammy websites. The tech giant is trying to make its platform cleaner for users so that they can surf on google without any worry. The company has launched an extension named “Suspicious Site explorer” which helps you to determine the status of the website you are visiting.

It will tell you whether the site is functional, well or suspicious after examining it thoroughly. It adds flag next to other extensions if you are visiting any faulty webpage. If you are the type of guy who is more interested in their privacy, then this extension is made for you. Google has taken care of everything like if you click on the report button, then it will send the website’s information to Google, and the algorithm is going to check all those webpages. Regular users might not use it because Google said that they had launched this extension for “power users” who take things like privacy on google seriously. Google is trying to improve Chrome, and that’s why they are rolling out more such type of features.

A report shows that there will be a new feature which is going to be added on Chrome, which will prevent you from loading any deceptive sites. For example, if you are trying to access gogole.com instead of normal Google.com, then it will stop you right there. Even if these features haven’t been rolled out officially, one thing is sure that Google is taking now privacy issues more seriously.

Google is already facing outrage from the community for trying to tighten the ropes around the Adblocker extensions. With the change in API and other things, Google indicated that the Ad Blocker extensions have no place on the Google Chrome Browser. But now, the company has said that they are not against the Ad Blocker extensions and are not blocking the same from Google Chrome. Devlin Cronin wrote a post on Google Security Blog explaining the stance of the company on this controversy.

According to the post published on the Security Blog, Google is working with the developers to improve the ad-blocking extensions and not blocking it. Google is encouraging the developers to create new ad blocker extensions for the platform. To protect the privacy of the users, the company is supporting the ad-blocker extensions. Back in the last year, Google announced that they are working to improve the Chrome browser extensions system. With the introduction of Manifest v3, the developers were unhappy to notice that the Manifest v3 would severely affect the Adblocker extensions. Everyone thought that Google is hurting the adblocker extensions with the Manifest V3.

The Manifest V3 is the component that is developed to improve the performance, privacy, and security of the extensions. But the part restricts the extensions from accessing specific information from the web pages, which the adblockers need to function correctly. In the blog post, Google confirmed that there are a lot of misconceptions about the component in the system. The company the segment is expected to improve the performance and not to cripple the ad blocker extensions. According to the company, Manifest V3 component is still in the development, and more of the additions to the part will be made in the future, which will ensure smooth functioning of the ad blockers.

Google has developed a video game called Game Builder that enables you to craft simple Minecraft-style games for yourself and others to play through. The game lets you drag and drop characters and scenery into an empty sandbox to develop your world. The developer can then use preset commands to string together how things interact. Besides, it’s free to play and available on both Windows and macOS. Through these steps, anyone with or without coding knowledge can create platforms, scoreboards, cars, and more. Although, those with the technical expertise can opt to use JavaScript and twist the existing application programming interface (API). An API is a series of tools and definitions used to connect software.

The game also has the potential to become a mutual effort. Developers can invite friends to assist design the game with them or even play it together. Additionally, one can have friends play the game while the creator is developing it. Even more, players can further their creative options in the game by using 3D models from Google Poly. It is a website that allows creators to share and access one another’s 3D creations. Game Builder has a co-op mode so that multiple people can design a game together at a time. One can also share your creations and browse through the games made by others while the whole idea of the game is to allow people to start designing without having any expertise in coding.

The game also allows people to get more advanced as their interest grows. The interaction system works with “if this then that” logic and players can make their interactions with JavaScript if they have a precise knowledge of the language. Google didn’t reveal any plans around when Game Builder might arrive in the market. It seems like Google is taking games pretty seriously these days. Reportedly, nowadays it is getting ready to launch its Stadia game streaming service in the current year. Maybe the tech giant will roll out Game Builder on Stadia.

Windows is infamous for having bugs and vulnerabilities, but the Microsoft team is fast enough to patch the bugs and vulnerabilities faster than any other OS. Recently, Microsoft said that the older versions of Windows do have a critical vulnerability, that helped Wanna Cry ransomware to activate on the computer. As this is a critical vulnerability that may affect millions of computers, Microsoft is asking the users to update to the latest versions as soon as possible to prevent any malware or ransomware attacks. The vulnerability is named as CVE-2019-0708 and is present in the Remote Desktop Service protocol in Windows.

The vulnerability is marked as critical by Microsoft team as it is said to be “Wormable.” Which means if one computer gets infected due to this vulnerability, the same can spread to other computers connected to the network. By exploiting the vulnerability, the hackers and attackers can quickly get access to tons of computers connected to the same network. That is why it is advised to update the Windows to the latest version, as it will install the required patch on your computer. According to Microsoft, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008 are the vulnerable operating systems. Also, Microsoft’s long gone Windows XP is one of the vulnerable operating systems.

Simon Pope, Director of Incident Response at Microsoft Security Response Center said in a blog post that the vulnerability is so critical, that an infected computer connected to the corporate network may spread the virus and infect the entire network. Those companies who have not completely updated the internal systems are at high risks, as Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008 are commonly used in corporate companies. Microsoft has already released the vulnerability patch for all of the infected operating system users.

Google is not good at social messaging applications like Google Allo but is good with video calling app Google Duo. With the increasing popularity day by day, Google Duo now comes with the support for group video calls with up to Eight people. The new feature was introduced yesterday by Google, and the users can update the app from the Google Play Store to access the new group calling feature. Google Duo is a video calling and chatting application that is gaining popularity from a wide range of people who want a reliable calling app, as WhatsApp Video calling feature is not good enough yet.

From the last few weeks, Google was expected to release the group calling feature. And finally, they’ve done the same for iOS and Android operating systems. All of the users of the Google Duo app on iOS and Android should update to the latest version from the respective App store to receive the update. The group calling feature is supported on the most recent version and not the older versions. Unfortunately, the Web Client for Chromebook devices hasn’t received the update so the users would have to use the smartphone for group video calling.

To start video calling to up to Eight people, the users need to tap on “Create group,” add Eight people and start the video call. The group call will begin immediately when you tap on the “Call” button. The space is currently limited for eight people, and the screen is divided as more and more people join the group call. As eight people fill up the entire screen and calling that many people is not advised on smartphones, the users can opt for Google Hangouts for better video calling experience. Nonetheless, this is an exciting addition to the Google Duo app, which will help the users to call more than one people quickly.

Server Chip producers Super Micro is planning to move out the CHip production factory out of China amidst the allegations of spying for the Chinese government. The company is moving out to ensure the United States based customers that the company is not involved in any government spying program. Although the independent tests of the Super Microchips are negative as there is no evidence found of spying for the Chinese government, the company is still firm on the decision of moving out of the country.

Super Micro is also planning to expand the in-house production and not to depend on the suppliers, whose factories are mostly located in China. The company spokesperson announced that the company is reducing the dependency on China-based outsourcing partners. Super Micro faced the allegations last year when a major US telecom company claimed that they had found the hardware that was modified for Spying in the Super Micro’s servers. According to the security analyst and researcher Yossi Applebaum, Super Micro is the victim of aggressive spying strategy of the Chinese government by modifying the hardware produced in the country’s territory.

Apple and Amazon are major companies that use the hardware manufactured by Super Micro. Both the companies waited for the independent audit of the equipment from Super Micro, and when it came out clean, they stood behind the company. Although the hardware audit proved nothing, Super Micro decided to leave the Chip production in China and move out to other location. Increasing security concerns for the companies operating in China is one of the primary reasons why they are moving out the production base. Super Micro is the third-largest server equipment manufacturer in the world after HP and Dell, and they are taking every possible step to protect the customers and its brand image.

HMD Global’s new smartphone with Nokia brand is available for pre-ordering for $189. Nokia started accepting the pre-orders for Nokia 4.2 smartphone which bears the price tag of $189. Being the mid-range Android One smartphone, the people with low-budget will find it useful and suitable for the needs. Nokia announced the 4.2 in Mobile World Congress 2019 and is now available for ordering. The company said that they would start the actual delivery of the smartphone to US-based customers from 14th of May.

Nokia 4.2 smartphone is one of the two Android One based devices announced at the Mobile World Congress 2019. This smartphone has a 5.71-inch display, 3GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, and a Snapdragon 439 chipset. Also, the body construction is full-glass, comes with sensitive Fingerprint Sensor, Face recognition and many other features. The Face Recognition feature is called “TrueRecognition,” which is supposed to be faster enough to unlock the phone within a few milliseconds. As Android One powers the device, it comes with Android 9 Pie version and a dedicated Google Assistant wakeup button, to summon Google Voice Assistant at your service. The button works just like Pixel’s Active Edge feature and also doubles up as the notification blink light.

Nokia listed this smartphone on online marketplace sites like Amazon and Nokia official site for pre-orders. The price tag of $189 for a fully-unlocked smartphone with mid-range specifications is pretty good. As the smartphone comes fully-unlocked, it supports all of the GSM network carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and many others. Amazon, Best Buy and Nokia’s official websites are accepting the pre-orders, and the shipping will start from 14th May for all of the customers in the United States of America. Even though Nokia Pureview 9 was a failure as it didn’t catch much attention from the media and customers, the Nokia 4.2 won’t be a failure as it’s a mid-range device suitable for low-end users.

Spotify announced that they had achieved the milestone of 100 million paid subscribers. This is one of the most significant milestones for the company, as Spotify is the only service with 100 million paid subscribers, with Apple Music standing in the second place. Including the free subscribers, Spotify now serves more than 217 million users. The growth of 32 percent year-on-year was noted in the number of paid subscribers, which is impressive. Also, the numbers include the paid users from India, where the company launched just before a few months.

The nearest competitor of Spotify, which is Apple Music has half of what Spotify has. Currently, Apple Music has nearly 50 million paid users worldwide on all of the platforms. Although, Apple Music is a fan favorite in the United States, where the service is surpassing Spotify by nearly 2 million paid users. Apple Music has 28 million paid users in the United States, and Spotify has 26 million paid users. Majority of the paid subscribers are from the non-English countries like the European and Asian countries. Recently, Spotify started the podcasts, which allowed the company to tap the new audience and reach the 100 million mark faster than the competitors.

With the acquisition of Gimlet Media for podcasting division, the company’s aim of targetting the untapped audience unveiled. With the current growth rate, Spotify is expected to have 107 to 110 million paid subscribers by the end of this quarter and 227 million in total users. Even though the subscriber’s count is increasing, Spotify is encountering the financial losses. Last fiscal quarter, Spotify reported the losses of $158.3 million. The aggressive promotion of the services with freebies like Google Home Speaker for Family Account subscribers and the acquisition of the companies is forcing the company to encounter the losses.

It’s not a long time since Facebook’s mishap with password storage unearthed. In a recent series of events, Facebook admitted that the issues with the encryption system caused the passwords of millions of Facebook users to be stored on the servers in plain text. Almost all of the employees of Facebook had access to the stored passwords of 540 million users. Now, Facebook has admitted that the 540 million passwords included the passwords of Instagram users too. As Facebook owns Instagram, the company employees had access to the passwords of Instagram users in plain text for over a month.

This is another major security fiasco for Facebook as they are facing a lot of problems with security. Recently, Facebook imported and uploaded email contacts from new users. The issue was with the encryption system, which failed and stored the data unintentionally in unencrypted mode. After security agency “Krebs on Security” unearthed the secret, Facebook admitted the blunder and decided to delete the plain text files and inform users to change the password. On March 21, Facebook shared a blog post with the details about plain text password storage fiasco. The admission has been updated in the same blog post.

In the blog post update, Facebook said that the engineers inspected the servers and found additional logs of Instagram passwords saved in the readable format. The company said they’ve checked if the stored passwords are used by an internal member or misused by any means and found that they were safe. Still, the millions of users will get the notification to change the passwords for safety reasons. Finding the logs of stored passwords after a month is considered as the significant loss for Facebook, as the critical safety issues should not go unnoticed from the system and the eyes of security engineers.

After testing the pilot phase for nearly four months, T-Mobile officially launched the Money Banking app for smartphones in the United States of America. With the Money Banking application, the users will be able to access all of the banking features from a single app. To the subscribers of T-Mobile, the Mobile-first Checking account will come with additional perks. The best thing about this is that the T-Mobile subscribers will get four percent Annual Percentage Yield (APY) on the savings up to $3,000 and above that, one percent flat APY.

To avail all of the features, the users should have valid T-Mobile ID and must deposit at least $200 each month to keep the account active. If the customers follow the minimum balance most of the times, then they can avail the overdraft option, which provides emergency $50 overdraft. The app allows the users to transfer money, make mobile check deposits, pay bills, send checks and also to make payment with third-party payment wallet apps like Apple Pay, and Google Pay. Not just these, but the customers get access to the T-Mobile Mastercard Debit card which can be used to make purchases and withdrawals at more than 55,000 ATM points.

The service is now made available on the official website for computer users, and the separate application is launched on Google Play Store and Apple App Store for Android and iOS devices respectively. Any resident of any of the 50 states in the country can start using this service. The customers will have to use the valid social security number and must have attained 18 years of age. The only catch here is the user must have an active T-Mobile connection to start using the service. As of now, it is available in the United States of America, but soon it will be made available in Puerto Rico.

Apple and Qualcomm were once the partners in business, but now they are not. With the disagreements on almost every topic, they do not have the best relationship as of now, as the battle between these two companies is now in the San Diego court. The global struggle of two tech giants is taking a wrong turn as the ball is in San Diego’s courts. A special hearing on the battle of Apple and Qualcomm is scheduled one week later, so the tensions between these two companies are at highest levels.

Both of the companies are fighting the war in three continents with prestigious legal teams. Next week, the federal court of San Diego will address the lawsuit filed by Apple and counterclaims by Qualcomm. As this is the high-profile lawsuit, the chief executives of the respective companies will share their stand in the courts. Whatever the result of this lawsuit is, the result is going to affect the smartphone market and ultimately the customers. According to the lawsuit filed by Apple and four other manufacturers from Asia, the companies have paid $9 billion in excess for royalties to Qualcomm. If we consider the antitrust claims, the amount will reach $27 billion in total.

Apple claimed that Qualcomm had charged excess of $3.1 billion for the patents that they have no rights. Also, the company is asking the refund of excess $3.1 billion that they have paid. Qualcomm has already lost the preliminary rulings, in which it is ruled that they should pay $1 billion to Apple. In return, Qualcomm is asking for $7.5 billion from Four other Asian companies in the unpaid royalties, and Apple, the amount would be double, $15 billion. Currently, Qualcomm is not in good form as they are under scrutiny from Chinese and South Korean government authorities for suspicious business practices.