Social Items



eBay, the online multinational e-commerce platform facilitating consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales has scheduled to introduce "Image Search" feature to let users shop by uploading a photo onto the app’s search bar.

The new features will be coming to its mobile apps for Android and iOS, with the image matching capabilities to help customers search for items, especially handy for products that are not familiar to them but having photos on their device.

Also, "Find It On eBay" feature will allow shoppers on any social media platform such as Pinterest or simply browsing through their favorite blog or website - can simply “Share” the URL with eBay and the eBay mobile app will surface listings of the product.

The Image Search feature is powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to bring new ways for shoppers to search for their favorite items with images that inspire.

With these innovative ways to shop, eBay will allow people to quickly find the items they love, making the entire internet shoppable on their mobile device.

Albeit, eBay already employ AI across the shopping experience making the Marketplace’s vast product catalog easily searchable, the new enhancement means even richer results and filtering - from new, nearly new and used items.

The Find It On eBay and Image Search features will be available this Fall. And Image Search will be supported on both Android and iOS, while Find It On eBay will be launching with Android.

eBay employs AI to let shoppers find items using photos



Twitter is pitching a new idea to businesses: For a monthly fee, the company will handle both creating ads and managing campaigns on their behalf, using automated agents to pick and choose which of their tweets to promote.

Though, the program is still in testing mode which requires that interested accounts must apply for eligibility.

The company is targeting small and medium businesses that may not otherwise have the resources to run a dedicated social media team, to handle the processes of setting up their advertising campaigns.

According to the company, "you just need to continue using Twitter as you normally do — Tweeting updates, links, and media that you want a larger audience to see. Then, the promotion of your Tweets will be automated.”

Twitter, through the program will exercise full control over the company's Twitter account, albeit, it remains unclear how many promoted tweets $99 can fetch for a business, and what kind of targeting is implemented, if any.

However, the company has assured that detailed insights will always be made available via analytics.twitter.com as well as stats on your Tweet activity and follower growth.

How Twitter intends to automate Ads and Campaigns for businesses



Microsoft PowerApps is a low-code service for building business oriented applications, while Flow automates the service that helps businesses work smarter by connecting their apps and services, serving as the go-to business workflow engine.

The company announced several new integration options, including the ability to embed Power BI tiles directly within PowerApps, and trigger workflows within a Microsoft Teams conversation with Microsoft Flow.

Microsoft Flow is now embedded directly within a range of business applications, and offers advanced capabilities in a streamlined experience for both end-users and administrators.

While Flow administrators now have more granular control and management capabilities which will allow them to enable end users with rich automation capabilities.

Also, administrators can download the flow usage in their tenant to be able to understand exactly where and how flows are being used, and how they are tracking against their billing quotas.

And beyond embedding in Microsoft products, more than twenty partners have worked with Microsoft directly to make their services available inside of Microsoft Flow. Partners can even build both types of triggers that Microsoft Flow supports: polling and webhooks.

Additionally, system administrators can build solutions in their own environment, and export it to a package, then distribute directly into their customer’s tenants.

Microsoft PowerApps advances on workflows with deeper Flow integration



Adobe has been grappling with its failed Flash plugin, the once-ubiquitous tool that allowed anyone to play video on numerous platforms, but the company is already working on a new project, Nimbus that allow users store photos in the cloud, edit them and synchronize them between devices.

The peek into Project Nimbus happened by chance as it was accidentally made available to some Creative Cloud subscribers for a short period.

And based on the sneak peek, Nimbus feels more like the Apple's Photos app and iCloud’s photo library on iOS and macOS, but offers 1TB of storage to store all your photos, with support for supports RAW files and non-destructive edits.

According to the leak, any changes you make can equally be reverted from any device.

The app isn’t complicated to use, there are fewer streamlined tools, but it should be more accommodating for new users as its easily accessible on computer, tablet and smartphone.

The Nimbus cloud infrastructure means your photos can be accessed from anywhere and any supported device, while you can still tag, flag and rate photos, albeit Adobe has prioritized the search field.

Project Nimbus is still a work in progress, so the app could be coming in a beta before a final version at some point in the near future.

Project Nimbus: Adobe's cloud-based photo-editing app on steroids



While the tablet line seems to be fast fading away; Apple has sworn to reinventing the once dominant table platform with new changes coming to the iPad with iOS 11. Even though the iPad itself is currently facing some huddles, it remains preferred as a media consumption device: for watching movies, listening to music, reading, and browsing, and for ­the creatives on the go: useful in drawing, doodling, writing, as well as photo and basic movie editing.

Apple just dropped beta 4 of iOS 11 ahead of the final iOS 11 release in September, with the upcoming operating system as a huge leap forward for the iPad.

The improvements to the iPad starts with the extended dock; with the new dock comes new gestures and accessibility options, like continuing to slide up from the bottom uncovers a redesigned control center.

And the new app switcher and "Files app" so that you can launch apps and manage your documents more easily. As the former four apps at the bottom of the screen is gone, it now accommodate up to 13 apps, with three more frequently used ones.

The dock is now easier to access: it slides up from the bottom and anybody can quickly switch between the apps used regularly. While viewing one app, it’s possible to flick up from the bottom and select another from the dock.

In the Control Center, apps are no longer dragged to close; instead, just press down on one of the apps (the RHS bottom of an app worked best), wait for the little "x" to appear on each, and then touch to close.

It feels like a completely new device as you can drag and drop files, app icons and more across the revamped operating system.

The beta 4 is only available for registered developer, albeit Apple also have a public beta program, but releasing new betas in the public beta channel follows after some few days.

Apple iOS 11 beta 4 Out, new stuff coming to iPad



The Story Remix feature in Windows 10 is essentially a video editing tool that will let users merge photos and videos together with impressive 3D effects, which came as a surprise additions to Microsoft's Build, and now the company is allowing Windows 10 testers to experiment with it ahead of its debut in the Fall Creators Update.

Story Remix makes it easy to use a video that captures your day, experience or mood, to tell your own story.

It works in the cloud by collating images and video from your connected device, which perhaps, may mean availability of the app on iOS, Android, and Windows so it can grab content from multiple devices.

And a user can resume its creation on a Windows 10 PC, even when started from a mobile device and vice versa.

Story Remix appears to be a true Movie Maker successor, the erstwhile app that let Windows enthusiasts create cute family videos back in the days of Windows XP and Windows 7.

While Story Remix appear to be a separate app, as Microsoft described it as "an evolution of the Photos app" suggests that the feature will ship as part of the default Photos app in Windows 10.

Also, Microsoft is combining its work with Remix 3D and Paint 3D into Story Remix, allowing Windows users to import 3D models into movies. Microsoft is perhaps gunning for the attention of younger audience who want to quickly create videos with a soundtrack and some pretty good effects, with the new app features.

What you need to know about Story Remix in Windows 10



G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps for Work) is Google's cloud infrastructure comprising productivity and collaboration tools, which include: Gmail, Calendar, and Google+ for communication; Drive for storage; Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites for collaboration; especially meant for enterprise users.

While Google had earlier taken on the issue of job search, by making job listings a firsthand on SERP, with the aim to improve the experience for both employers as well as those who are looking for job online.

Now, the company has unveiled Hire, an application designed to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) recruit more effectively, which integrates seamlessly with G Suite apps like Gmail and Google Calendar, allowing businesses to maximize their recruiting efforts.

It makes it relatively easy for the HR to identify talent, build strong candidate relationships and efficiently manage the interview process end-to-end.

Thus, the recruiting team can now focus on their top priorities instead of wasting time copy-pasting across tools, as all job emails sync automatically in both Gmail and Hire. With interview schedule in Hire visible in an interviewer's schedule from Calendar.

Google has made available a demo, in case you’re not sure if the service is right for your organization.

For now, the service is restricted to United States based G Suite customers which have under 1,000 employees. To learn more, visit https://hire.google.com.

How Google eases Hiring for small and medium enterprises with G Suite



Fancy Bear is a specialized cyber espionage group, believed to be sponsored by the Russian government, and serves the political interests of the Russian government. While the most notorious exploit credited to them is the leaking of Hillary Clinton's emails to help gain traction for Donald Trump during the United States 2016 Elections.

The hacking group is known by other aliases such as: APT28, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group, Sednit and STRONTIUM, albeit the name "Fancy Bear" didn't originate from the group, but was derived from a coding system that security researcher, Dmitri Alperovitch used to identify them.

Microsoft’s legal team had carried out several lawsuit against Fancy Bear for reserving domain names that violated Microsoft trademarks.

Fancy Bear, ironically has mostly targeted Windows with its malware, and has heavily related to Microsoft products when choosing domain names — thus giving Microsoft a ground in the lawsuit.

While a faceless group can’t be exactly dragged to court, the lawsuit served to grant Microsoft rights to help it hijack some of Fancy Bear’s servers. Which Microsoft was able to take over at least 70 different Fancy Bear domains, many of which serve as the “command-and-control” points.

Instead of getting physical custody of the servers, which Fancy Bear rents from data centers around the world, Microsoft has been taking over the Internet domain names that route to them.

And Microsoft on gaining control, redirect the domains from Russia’s servers to the company’s, thereby cutting off the hackers from their victims, and giving Microsoft an absolute view of their automated servers’ network.

These servers act as spymasters in Russia’s cyber espionage, waiting patiently for contact from their malware agents in the field, then issuing encrypted instructions and accepting stolen documents.

Microsoft's secret wars against Russian hacking group, Fancy Bear



Google Expeditions is an education initiative, a virtual reality teaching tool that lets students lead or join immersive virtual trips all over the world — get up close with historical landmarks, dive underwater with sharks, or even visit the outer space.

The company recently announced the Expeditions VR tours to the public through a new App available for both iOS and Android.

While Expeditions aims at the classrooms, the new app will feature a single-handed mode that allow people to explore the over 500 available tours on their own. Albeit, you’ll need to connect your device over Wi-Fi and have a guide to direct the explorers through the tour.

Google has added some nifty features to improve the experience, including annotations, which will enable a guide to draw inside the 360 sphere and bring attention to certain features of the environment in VR.

All that's required to give the Expeditions tour a peek is a Cardboard or Daydream VR headset and an Android or iOS device.

Google Expeditions brings immersive, virtual journeys to students



Amazon as the largest Internet-based retailer in the world deems it right to allow shoppers to share stories, ideas and images of products they love, which others can react to with comments and “smiles” – Amazon’s version of the Facebook "Like" button.

Similar to what's obtainable with Instagram shopping photos, Amazon Spark, is a new feature aimed at improving product discovery, with the aim of bringing all the social activity around products on Amazon under the platform, where product inspiration can directly impact sales with just a click of a button.

Spark is available as a feature on the Amazon mobile app on iOS, where users can post and share photos of themselves using Amazon products. It's accessible under Programs & Features on the Amazon’s app navigation menu.

It comes as an extension of Amazon’s reviews system where users can post pictures of the products after they’ve received them.

Amazon Spark feature is available only for U.S Prime membership holders, and appears hidden from the list of programs and features for non members as they are not allowed to post to it.

It allow users to select up to five or more interests, such as "Recipes" and "Bingewatching," and with the provided feed that includes product reviews and photos, any of the product can be purchased on Amazon through the shopping bag icon at the bottom right corner of the image.

If you want to contribute to Spark, you'll be designated as an "Enthusiast" and will get a badge once you post a product review.

Got Stories, Ideas or Images of Amazon products to share?



Facebook News Feed have been the most phenomenal cash bait, and the social media giant has leveraged it as core moneymaker and source of revenue growth, thanks to Facebook being kept unblocked and accessible for millions. But with ads everywhere, there's definitely a problem from the users experience, as the company says News Feed’s ad load has hit its maximum.

Facebook has proposed that it won't put more ads into users’ feeds to avoid harming their experience.

Now, the company is currently testing new ad placements in its Marketplace, the section for buying and selling items. While the Marketplace ads are being tested on a limited group of Facebook users; for now, advertisers are not allowed to buy ads specifically for the Marketplace section.

The Marketplace ads will look and feel the same as the News Feed ads, and users can't buy directly on the platform, but would be redirected to a landing page specified by the advertiser.

Facebook Marketplace, the year-old selling platform, is the latest move from Facebook to boost revenue and diversify its ad services.

Other area Facebook hopes to ramp up revenue from ads is its push into original video content production. Even as it’s now paying video publishers to make TV shows for Facebook, a chance for more video ad inventory.

For the best possible returns, perfecting mid-roll video ads could help Facebook cash in on advertisers' massive TV ads budget.

Is Facebook running out of space for ads in the News Feed?



While Amazon already have Alexa calling feature which allow users to call and text each other for free through Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or the Alexa app; unconfirmed report has it that the company is working on a new messaging service called Anytime.

Anytime app will be available for smartphones, tablets, PCs and smart watches with focus to let people chat with text and video, and enable users to be able to order for food in a group chat, and/or split bills.

The tip off came from AFTV News, with screenshots detailing the Anytime name and possible features, provided by a user who claimed to have received a survey from Amazon.

According to the survey notes, the Anytime app will allow users to connect to each other without need to know their phone numbers, which is perhaps a differentiation from other messaging apps like WhatsApp or Viber.

Also, the service claims to keep chats private and allow users to “encrypt important messages like bank account details".

It's still unclear, however how it might be tied to Amazon shopping, or how Amazon will finalize with the branding — given that Twitch, its video streaming site doesn't feature Amazon's name or logo on site.

Amazon prepping a messaging app to compliment calls/videos with Alexa



Indoor maps can be useful in various applications, like: Indoor Navigation/Routing, 2D/3D Maps Visualization, Public Participation, Emergency response, and Amenities Display (e.g. Fire Extinguisher and First Aid Box).

While Indoor mapping involves a great deal of money and infrastructure, comprising: beacons, lasers, emitters, scanners, and as such never comes cheap to setting up.

Microsoft's Path Guide is an Android app that focuses on navigating the indoor maps, with the aim to visualize the entire volume in which a user is traveling, availing other users' trusts to create “traces” to and from static locations.

It's a project under Microsoft Research that intends to simplify, while utilizing existing sensors and the fact that people already know most of the places you want to go, to develop an indoor navigation.

And users can easily find the correct path to their destinations by simply following traces created by a “leader,” or someone who has already been to that location.

With a smartphone in your hand, it's that easy to find your way to a destination, even in an unfamiliar city.

However, it isn't that easy to search indoors, in which the GPS satellite signals are not accurately traceable for navigation applications. Path Guide uses the sensors already in the phone, from accelerometers (individual steps) to magnetometers (to sense the general area), without the need for GPS, or wireless beacons.

Other popular indoor navigation approach is built upon Wi-Fi-based positioning. With Wi-Fi signals more commonly available in indoor environments, and radio frequency (RF) signal characteristics and triangulation processes, which can determine the approximate position of mobile devices.

But as data representation and manipulation in large-sized indoor spaces are outstanding and costly, it places a huge question mark over the universal application of indoor navigation technologies.

So, Path Guide follows a peer-to-peer leader/follower model, which approach has the main benefits: First, the system is completely plug-and-play.

And any two users in a building can use the indoor navigation. Secondly, the combination of data from multiple users, means that every single collected path benefits, providing more navigation opportunities to more people with improved user experience.

For instance, "if you are going to a large office building for the first time to attend a meeting, a colleague who knows where the meeting room is can act as a “guide leader” and, using Path Guide, record a trace from the entrance of the building to the meeting room".

Albeit, it's still a prototype and as such has some rough edges, Microsoft hopes you’ll download the app and any feedback on improvements to the app UI, its usability, or in dealing with problematic situations are greatly welcome by the research team.

Indoor Mapping: What Microsoft’s Path Guide brought to the table



Apple's iOS 11 is perhaps the answer to the lingering privacy concerns about persistent tracking, as it offers a better way to know the apps that are tracking users, and afford users the ability to allow only apps that are suited to their privacy requirements.

While Apple’s guidelines for background location services do allow for specific needs, such as with navigation or fitness apps, in-app information flow revealed that location (and other private data) may be sent without appropriate disclosure.

For instance, Uber (and potentially other location apps) gathering information from users when the app isn't quite in use.

Apple made available a visual cue in the status bar, but users have difficulties spotting it, as many do not know what the tiny arrow that appears and disappears actually stand for, after all.

With iOS 11 friendly user-interface, Apple has made it a lot clearer, and also applying "the carrot and stick" formula to improve the privacy of users.

Apple has made a change in iOS 11, that will affect all apps old and new. And Every app that asks for "Always" permission, also has to provide an option for "While Using". And Apple suggested a better practice: for a developer to ask for While Using permission first; if granted, then allows them to ask for "Always" authorization.

Asking for permission is allowed just once for "Always", which if a user turns down, can only be enabled via Settings, if they change their mind later. By the stages in the request, Apple believes developers would get a higher success rate for in-app only tracking while also reducing the scope of what apps get from users.

How iOS 11 Tracking Options improve Privacy for users



Microsoft has released the Insider Preview Build 16241, as Windows 10's next big release date draws near, giving a sneak peek at what the Fall Creators Update will bring. And with Build 16241, much emphasizes is placed on nuts-and-bolts improvements over new capabilities.

For instance, the Task Manager now includes deeper insights into what’s going on with your GPU, and Windows 10 offers a great deal more granularity into how Windows updates will be delivered.

Also, there are more descriptive labels to the tab processes used by Microsoft Edge, allowing users to see whether a particular Web page is slowing the system down, or a more generic problem.

While the revamped OS is slatted for September debut, the Windows 10 team has shown it's seriousness as Microsoft opens its final “bug bash” challenge.

As the final lap in the race to the Fall Creators Update, Build 16241 shows off some significant new features, including Ubuntu support, update delivery options, and improved Task Manager visibility.

Linux crowd should at least be happy to know that the Bash shell now supports Ubuntu, and available for downloaded from the Windows Store.

The most significant improvements remains ability to view the active GPU’s name and see which of its functions (including 3D, video decoding and video processing) are currently active.

Microsoft also planned for the launch of mixed-reality headsets with several updates to its VR capabilities. Albeit, it’s still unclear whether headsets like Acer’s mixed-reality devices, will be ready in time for the Fall Creators Update.

What to expect in Windows 10 Fall Creators Update?



Google's Kubernetes-based Software Containers (GKE) is a software architecture that's extremely important for companies with modern software development principles, given the growing emphasis on security. While forward-thinking software engineers nowadays have a soft spot for Kubernetes, though it involves a bit complicated processes.

As more and more companies adopt GKE, a lot of emphasis is placed on security, which Google maintains that its Container Engine offers a more secure experience as it's based on Chromium.

The company is harping on both the new security features in Kubernetes itself (like API for enforcing rules on how pods interact), the security features in its data centers, and the fact that it runs in the cloud which presents a minimal system in terms of an attack surface given that it’s managed and proactively patched by Google itself.

Google on Wednesday announced new updates to its Container Engine, bringing the service up to date with the latest updates from the Kubernetes project. With the Kubernetes project now running version 1.7, establishing itself as the de facto standard for software containers in both private and public clouds.

Additionally, there's now support for GPU-based machines that run Nvidia’s K80 GPUs, which feature is now available in alpha, and targeted at users with machine learning workloads.

Google Container Engine now offers a more secure container-orchestration experience, with the several new features that ensure different nodes in a Kubernetes cluster operate independently and encrypt traffic flowing between the nodes.

How Google's Kubernetes-based Software Containers in the Cloud assure a secure experience



Google has updated its “Backup and Sync” tool, which allows you to store photos, videos and documents from your PC in the same format on Google's cloud, essentially, combining the older apps’ functionality into one experience. The new app is a replacement for the older Google Photos desktop app, as well as the Google Drive client applications for both Windows and Mac.

It offers a simple user interface, which requires that you sign in to your Google account before access is granted, then you can select the folders you want to automatically back up to Google Drive.

The new tool is available for both Windows and Mac and replaces the older Google Photo backup app and Google's client app, which as a replacement maintains the current settings you’ve already specified on your PC.

Additionally, the backup tool can also be used to back up photos from USB-connected devices, like cameras, as well as SD cards.

Once back up is complete, your files can be accessed in Google Drive from any device — including your computer, smartphone or tablet. While the photos and videos will be available in Google Photos.

Note that Google Drive will only hold up to 15GB of your files for free. If you require extra space, it is available for a fee.

Backup and Sync on Windows & Mac just got Easier



Apple unveiled watchOS 4, the latest version of the operating system for its Smartwatch at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2017)in June, with each new watchOS features been heavily skewed in the direction of health and fitness.

Though, Apple focused on a more personalized Apple Watch experience by improving what people love most about the Apple Watch, bringing in new Activity, and Music features, the overall theme remained health/fitness.

There are three new watch faces in watchOS 4, a new Siri watch face that offers dynamic and personalized information that changes based on the time of day, a photo-based Kaleidoscope face and a new Toy Story face starring Jessie, Woody, and Buzz Lightyear.

It allows the wearer to quickly begin any workout tracking with just a tap, so they can jump right into their workouts.

Also, there's a new custom motion and heart rate monitoring system, so the watchOS 4 can better track calorie burn. While swimmers will love the new Pool Swim tracking features that keep tabs on their sets, rests, pace, and distance for each type of stroke.

Apple watchOS 4 is compatible with numerous types of gym equipment from companies like LifeFitness, Matrix, StairMaster, and more.

The Heart Rate complication has been updated to show heart rate measurement when used in a complication section with enough room, against the previous complication that just offered a quick way to open the Heart Rate app.

With the Control Center's new Flashlight icon, in addition to providing a bit of light when it's dark out, the Flashlight can also serve as a safety light when you're working out at night.

The Workout app new interface makes it easier to start a workout. All of the available workout types are now listed in a vertical row, and starting one up is as simple as scrolling down, choosing the appropriate option, and tapping it.

It automatically turns on Do Not Disturb when a workout begins so the wearer aren’t interrupted.

Albeit, there's no longer the start button or an option to set calories, however you can tap on the dots on each menu item and choose to set a workout goal based on calories burned, distance traveled, or time.

How Apple watchOS 4 is tied to health & fitness



The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), an international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California has sought to determine through its annual "Who Has Your Back" report, on how good technology companies are at keeping users' data from government surveillance.

While privacy is now a major issue for millions of people as technology becomes more advance, with the evolution of the smartphone and mobile technologies, capable of minute by minute tracking, even to the point of tracking a person's location.

The EFF's report released on July 10, evaluated 26 tech companies to find out how well they protect their users, and what they've put in place to escape from government's prying eyes.

Using some major criteria, the EFF ranked the companies on best practices for privacy: Whether they inform users when the government request their data, if any promise not to sell users' data, if they stood up to gag orders and if they supported reforming the National Security Agency's Section 702 surveillance program.

Microsoft, Google and Facebook lost a mark for abiding by gag orders, while Apple lost one over its stance on the NSA's Section 702 surveillance program.

In all, only nine companies received 5 gold stars for all five criteria: Adobe, Credo, Dropbox, Lyft, Pinterest, Sonic, Uber, Wickr and WordPress. Amazon, the online retail giant, scored the lowest with only two stars, one for following best practices and another for its stance on the surveillance program.

Meanwhile, all the major mobile carriers on the list ranked low, with one star for T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T for following industry standards for privacy. See the full report here.

How Safe are your Personal Data with Online Technology companies?



Microsoft may have given up on smartphone wars with Android, but the software giant hasn't given up on its own game, building mobile software to win Android enthusiasts. And perhaps the best Android apps so far are those from Microsoft, suffice it to say that Microsoft has outdone Google with what it couldn’t with its own mobile platform.

For Windows users, there's ample reason to explore Microsoft's suite of apps and services, as it can help streamline work for you both on the desktop and mobile device.

Microsoft's AI digital assistant, Cortana is the most critical piece of the link between the desktop and mobile, which comes as a replacement for Google Assistant.

Cortana is conversational, much the same way you’d interact with Apple's Siri with ”Hey Siri” functionality. But Cortana's helpfulness mirrors much of what Google's Assistant currently offer; it can monitor your favorite sports teams, make shopping lists, schedule alerts, and glean tidbits about the weather.

Microsoft has done a great deal to make its digital assistant readily available on all platforms, so granting Cortana access to the lock screen on Android is a no-brainer.

If your computing life revolves around Windows and Android, it’s worth the effort to embrace Cortana. As it can sync your phone’s notifications and SMS messages to the desktop, so when you receive an SMS, you can simply respond right from your Windows 10 PC.

And the most promising developments is the Cortana Skills, which will allow it to connect with third-party services, much like Amazon's Alexa.

Albeit, the Cortana Skills are yet to arrive on Android, but when it does, may perhaps be the ultimate bait that will help Microsoft to regain mobile enthusiasts.

How Microsoft intends to recapture Android enthusiasts with Cortana



The social media stance as no-holds-barred for trolling, cyber-bullying, and even threats of rape and death is no longer the norm, following the introduction of new features aimed at combating the menace of miscreants.

While activists and educators are devising new approaches, for instance, to identify users and verify their contents, or make people stop and think before they make posts, it's actually technology itself that holds the long term solution.

To stem the abuse where possible, one social media is leading the charge: Instagram, the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app, started off with introduction of new anti-hate features: like the ability to disable comments and to remove followers from private accounts — with filter that lets users hide comments by keyword.

The company also launched an AI-powered system that will automatically detect offensive and harassing comments and ensure that people never get to see them. The new system is based on DeepText, a text classification engine meant to help machines interpret words as used in context to fight spam.

The system was trained by human input on how to identify spam, and the results, though not exactly made public on how much its implementation reduced spam versus previous methods, the team felt the results were encouraging.

Albeit, most efforts to curb online harassment and abuse are in their early stages, therefore may not have proved much successes, but certainly, it's not altogether ineffective.

Nonetheless, the onus falls on Facebook and Twitter, commanding the most active user-base means they'd have to play a much larger role for any tangible change to happen.

How Instagram tackles the spread of hate and harassment



For those not in the know, Net Neutrality is simply a proposal that ISP and government regulators should treat all data on the Internet as the same to prevent broadband companies from favoring their own content over competitors', passed by the U.S. Federal Communication Commission (FCC).

While such discrimination can be based on user contents, platform or application type, and includes all of the different messages, files and data sent over the Internet, like emails, digital audio files, and digital video files.

The regulation has been controversial because the FCC in 2015 changed the classification of broadband to treat the service like a public utility.

Facebook and Google, however have thrown their weight behind preserving the Federal Communications Commission's controversial net neutrality rules, as the tech giants have said they will join a so-called "day of action" on July 12, which aims to preserve rules that forbid Internet providers from favoring some websites over others.

Other companies and activist groups signed on to the protest, which are trying to drum up support for the regulations include Amazon, Netflix, Twitter, Spotify and the ACLU.

Until now, Google and Facebook had stayed off the public debate, albeit the duo are staunch supporters of net neutrality.

The protest slatted for next week is the latest attempt by Silicon Valley and its allies in government to thwart the Federal Communications Commission, as they sought to undo the regulations that prevent ISPs like AT&T, Comcast* and Verizon from interference in serving web contents from their competitors.

However, it remains unclear whether next week's campaign, organized by a group called Fight for the Future, will be enough to sway the FCC's proposal to revoke net neutrality.

Net Neutrality: What's the controversy in keeping the Internet free?



In partnership with Urbs Media, an automation software startup specializing in open datasets, Google is funding a software project dubbed RADAR, which stands for Reporters And Data And Robots, with the aim to automate local reporting with large public databases from local agencies.

While the Press Association, a large British news agency, received the funding to help automate the writing of 30,000 local stories per month.

The Press Association and Urbs Media will work on local stories from the datasets using Natural Language Generation, which converts information gleaned from the data into words, and also help develop capabilities to auto-generate graphics and video to add to text-based stories, as well as related pictures.

The project, RADAR intends to cover issues of local significance, investigating into government agencies' datasets to discover stories that matter.

The grant also includes funds allocated to hire some journalists to identify datasets, as well as curate and edit the news articles generated from RADAR. As the news appropriateness requires deep understanding of social, political and local contexts, which humans are better suited to determine.

RADAR is scheduled to launch in early 2018, and the Press Associations' distribution platforms will be enhanced to make sure that all local outlets can find and use the large volume of localized news stories.

Google set sights on bot-generated Local news stories



Google's effort to simplify content creation in virtual reality (VR) has received a boost, with Blocks, a new modeling tool for VR that anyone can use. Blocks is capable of amazing creations in VR, allowing users to build, export and share amazing creations and use cases from 3D modelers, artists, developers or even people with no modeling experience.

With just a simple set of shapes, a color palette, and an intuitive set of tools, anyone can quickly create almost anything imaginable, from a piece of watermelon to a whole forest scene.

Blocks feels more like playing with children’s blocks than working with traditional 3D modeling software, but only available for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and once your creation is ready, you can export it as an OBJ to use in AR/VR apps or share it to the web or generate an animated gif.

It kills off the restraints of lack of visual fidelity, availing developers the means to build simple polygonal objects quickly and export them into their AR of VR apps.

Albeit, the focus seems to be more on developers and amateurs rather than full-blown artists, as it takes out the complexity and specific skillset needed to create compelling VR and AR experiences.

Explore sample creations from early enthusiasts at https://vr.google.com/objects for inspiration or as a starting point for your own remix.

Google launches 3D modeling tool for Virtual Reality, Blocks



Following the sophisticated attack that focused on stealing access to Google account by the abuse of the OAuth protocol, which warranted the company to review it's identity services; Google has gone ahead to release new G Suite security feature, OAuth apps whitelist to improve data access controls and phishing prevention.

The Whitelisting for connected apps is to serve as a means for enterprise customers to better secure which third-party apps can get access to users' account information, thus preventing malicious apps from tricking users into accidentally granting access to their corporate data.

And also the corporate won't need to worry about the malicious application taking control of any employee’s Google account, and spreading the attack to more people within the organization.

It's now saddled on admins to create a list of approved apps with OAuth apps whitelisting, so that users can grant access to their G Suite data to any of the apps on the whitelist.

And third-party app access is enforced based on the policy set by admins, and employees are automatically protected against unauthorized apps.

In this way, Google has significantly reduced the likelihood that users will accidentally grant hackers access to corporate data. See the detailed tutorial to learn how to whitelist specific OAuth applications by following this link.

Whitelisting apps: Manage OAuth based access to connected apps on G Suite



The Internet has become a haven to nefarious groups, who discretely use the online platforms, like the Islamic State (ISIL) using popular Internet services such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to spread propaganda, attract and train new recruits, celebrate attacks and publicize executions.

In the wake of the recent London terror bombings, the leading Internet companies have been urged to be more proactive in the fight against terrorism.

With Facebook commanding about 2 billion users worldwide, having such massive content will inevitably include violent images and extremist rhetoric. Facebook has made its black box a bit less opaque outlining the tools it will use to free itself from radical ideas, goals, or elements.

As the amount of time it would take for a human to sift through all these stuff is not feasible, AI is perhaps the main tool that Facebook will be using to ferret out extremism.

Albeit, it already deployed such tools against copyright infringement and child pornography, Facebook has until now been silent on its use of AI to fight extremism.

Facebook, however isn't alone here — it's working with other social media platforms and Internet companies to tackle the problem, using shared technology that stamps-out extremist images and videos.

Google been the heartbeat of the Internet, knows exactly where it pinches - the company has outlined strategy for combating extremist contents. It will expand its use of machine learning to identify extremist and terrorist videos. This has been a challenge for Google, though as videos of terrorism posted by a news source can be informative, while similar clips posted by a terror group can be used to glorify the attacks.

It plans to put in more research so it can train AI to quickly be able to identify and remove extremist contents.

Google, however maintains that the machines need help from humans to determine what does and does not fall within the guidelines. So, it will also increase the number of people in YouTube’s “Trusted Flagger” program.

The Rise of AI against Terrorism, Troll and Extremist Contents Online



Snap has rolled out new creative tools to Snapchat on both iOS and Android; which new features comprise: Paperclip links, Backdrops, and Voice Filters meant to aid the Creatives. The company may have perhaps broken its long-held notion of “no links” rule, even as closest competitor Instagram remains adamant to let every users on the platform to share links.

While the link sharing feature is a welcome addition, the company may have to contend with the reality that user experience could be disrupted, owing to the fact that people will now swipe off its platform via links into the Web browser.

Albeit, since it's users that have been demanding such enabling, could mean more satisfied users, thus leading to increase in membership.

Below is a list and description of the new creative tools on the platform.

Paperclip links: Allow users to attach a web link to a Snap and friends can swipe up to open it in Snapchat’s internal browser, which was previously only possible with its paid campaigns, "Discover content" links.

Backdrops: With this tool, you cut out any object from your Snap and add a colorful or artsy pattern behind it to make it stand out; while giving users the capability to insert a layer of imagery between objects and the real background will aid the creatives to replicate augment reality to the real world.

Voice Filters: This nifty feature will enable all users to remix the sound of voices in their Snaps, which formerly was part of visual augmented reality lenses, but now open for users to select from a range of character voices to give their Snaps some extra humor or style.

The company, however maintains that all users sharing links on the platform must abide by its terms of service, community guidelines and privacy policy.

And to ensure attackers do not leverage it to scam members, Snap will use automated agent and other safety tools, including information from Google’s Safe Browsing service, to warn users about potential phishing scams, malware or other dangerous links.

How Snapchat's Paperclip links, Backdrops, and Voice Filters aid Creatives



While Microsoft's newest software update iteration, Windows 10 Creators Update has been hailed as the most complete and revolutionary update by the software giant; one of the most anticipated of the features will be coming with the Fall Creators Update.

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will be bringing with it the highly anticipated "OneDrive Files On-Demand" feature.

As need for collaboration in business continues to grow, with more files exchange at work across multiple devices, it’s increasingly important to be able to access these documents, both from work and home—all in one place.

With OneDrive Files On-Demand, you can access all your files in the cloud without having to download them or use storage space on your device. It also allows you to open online files from within desktop or Windows store apps using the Windows file picker.

All files, including online-only version can be accessed in File Explorer and work just like every other file on your device.

For instance, if someone syncs a SharePoint Online team site, instead of the file re-downloading on all synced devices, the OneDrive Files On-Demand feature will eliminating the need to continuously sync shared files on every device as the team collaborate, thus saving on network bandwidth.

And since it works with both personal and work OneDrive, as well as your SharePoint Online team sites, you’re covered in your home and professional life.

However, online-only file is downloaded to your device and becomes locally available when you open it, and you can only open online-only files when your device is connected to the internet.

The company have made available a complete guide on everything you need to know about OneDrive Files On-Demand, click here to access it.

What OneDrive Files on Demand means for businesses



Microsoft hinted on plans to employ artificial intelligence (AI) in building the next generation of antivirus software; included in the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators’ update, as an enhancement to the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection - moving it up from isolated defenses to a smart, interconnected, and coordinated defense grid that is more intelligent, simple to manage, and evolving.

This simply means that Microsoft's Security system will expand beyond detection, investigation, and response, but will also allow companies to use the full power of the Windows security stack for preventative protection.

While, the AI’s main advantage is the ability to instantly pick up the presence of a new malware on a computer, which is then quickly quarantined in the cloud, leveraging the cloud-based security intelligence to understand the context, and providing tools that companies need to quickly investigate and remediate attacks.

And this won't only give companies a full picture of what’s happening on their endpoints, but also put them in the driver seat to quickly react to threats as it occurs.

For instance, it can help to prevent another global malware crisis (like the WannaCry ransomware attack), as the new defense system will be faster in tackling detected malware attacks.

Microsoft also plans to extend Windows Defender ATP to also cover the Windows Server platform, starting with Windows Server 2012 R2 and 2016 releases, while working on supporting more platforms beyond Windows.

The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update will be released for preview later this year around the September-October time-frame, according to the company.

How Microsoft's Cloud-based Security Intelligence opens new vista in threat detection



SQL Server is a relational database management system with the main function of storing and retrieving data as requested by other software applications, which serves as a backup and the backbone of any business. And for the SQL Server to run smoothly and able to analyze progresses, it is of the utmost importance to manage it efficiently, and maintaining latest database backups, which makes it easy to restore after data loss.

SQLBak is an awesome utility program that can effectively enable system administrators to manage and monitor all Server processes with the online SQL Server backup system.

Installing SQLBak is relatively simple and takes minimum time, by simply downloading the setup file provided from manufacturer, you can install it on any latest SQL Server running computer.

How to backup Database with SQLBak

To backup large SQL Server database with the help of SqlBak, you will need to follow some basic recommendations to speed up the backup process.

First, you’ll need to register a new account (kindly take note of a generated serial key generated during the signup process) to get your personalized and very own dashboard to manage, schedule or maintain SQL server backup copy.

Then, you’ll need to activate the program with the generated serial key to match the source and destination of SQL backup copy.



And note, if you need to backup large database, you must make sure that you have enough free space on your local drive. Even if backups are to be stored in the cloud, you still need to have enough free space on your local drive to keep the temporary files.

The temporary files folder can be accessed on SQLBak backup job settings “Backup options” menu, there you can specify a folder on your local drive on “Temp files folder” box. If your local drive is divided into several partitions, it is recommended that you use the biggest available.

Backing up several Database

If you need to backup many databases in one backup job, you can use “Backup one DB, send, repeat (as opposed to backup all, then send all)” option, which is located at the “Backup options” menu. If you checked that option, then SqlBak will backup each database one after the other.

This option, however is disabled by default, and for SQLBak to backup and compress all databases, first select the “Compression” menu from the drop down list at “Archive format” section.

Also, you can speed up the compression procedure with the “More 7-zip compression” options. As SQLBak offers compression technology to lower the size of backup copy and get maximum storage capacity on the cloud hosting website or local storage drive.

Our Verdict: SQLBak is perhaps the most advanced utility to carryout backups in real time and guarantees bulletproof security by storing data on the Cloud with lowest possibility of data lose or accidental deletion.

SQLBak Review: SQL Server Database Backup and Monitoring Tool



The Fourth of July is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence 241 years ago on July 4, 1776, and often, the Independence Day is associated with fireworks, barbecues, carnivals, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, and political speeches and ceremonies, in addition to various other public and private functions celebrating the historical event.

Whether you're celebrating with fireworks at a park, a local parade or watching TV with your family, Google Assistant can help you make the most out of your fourth of July.

From fireworks to BBQs, here’s how Google Assistant can help you get the most out of the holiday!

  • You can ask Google Assistant via Google Home “Why do we celebrate the fourth of July?” For a start, then when you’re ready to fire up the grill, ask the Assistant  to “Add charcoal to my shopping list” or “Find me a burger recipe.”
  • Planning your firework fun? Ask Google Assistant on phones “What’s the weather on Tuesday?” And if the sound of fireworks is a bit too loud for you, you can ask your Assistant on Google Home to “Play white noise.”


Perhaps, you're looking for something else to do on the Fourth of July? Not sure where to go for fireworks?

Google Assistant can come in quite handy as well. Simply ask it to recommend nearby bars or restaurants and you get a series of Google Now cards with details, then you can tap any of them for more details on a specific place. Have fun! And Happy fourth of July!!

How Google Assistant can help you make the most out of July 4th



Facebook has been awash with fake news, now the social media giant is tweaking its algorithm to try and identify false news and spam in users’ feeds with the trigger that any individual user posting 50+ times per day are likely sharing spam or false news.

According to the company, for any individual user who post a lot — that is 50+ times per day — are most probably posts considered to be spam or false news.

Facebook, therefore is to identify the links shared by these super-posters, and cut off its distribution on the social network; meaning such links shared by users won’t get the kind of reach they usually get.

And given the strong correlation between spammy content and false stories, Facebook won't be showing any consideration for the content from these links.

While this new update is one of many recent changes to try and cut down on false news content, even as Facebook tweaks its algorithm all the time, they can actually impact publishers significantly.

But, the company has assured that this change shouldn’t really impact publishers, as it's only looking along individual users who post 50-plus times per day, not Pages.

How Facebook identify spam and false news articles in the News Feed

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