Social Items



While Google is prepping a new operating system outside the duo of Chrome OS and Android (both running on the Linux kernel), named Fuchsia, but it's not clear if the tech giant had any intention of replacing them anytime soon.

Google announced Fuchsia in August 2016, which is a digression from its tradition of running OSes on Linus and perhaps to serve as an operating system for embedded hardware, especially in the case of embedded devices like car dashboards or GPS units, as the Linux kernel can impact performance and may cause some problems.

Albeit, the rumor that Google has been preparing a new unified operating system to replace Chrome OS (for Chromebooks) and Android (for smartphones), is pretty back dated already.

Fuchsia is based on a kernel called Zircon (formerly known as “Magenta”), which was originally to serve as an OS for embedded systems due to its “real-time” processes. Though it could theoretically run on any kind of device, such as IoT devices, ATMs, Wearables, even smartphones, tablets and desktops, including all devices powered by ARM and Intel processors.

The new OS which is still in its early developmental stage has garnered support for Apple’s Swift programming language, adding to several other languages already supported.

Google had employed the same SDK (Flutter) used in building Chrome OS and Android apps for Fuchsia, which also offers the same graphics engine which is specifically optimized for Google’s own Material Design.

The company has been open on its resolve to bring Chrome OS and Android to work better together, as evident in its earlier announcement on Android apps support on Chrome OS devices. Also, the rather silent initiative, Andromeda, which Google launched with the intent of getting Chrome OS apps to run on Android, and Android to power some Chromebook-like devices.

The Andromeda project, however was canceled last summer, and the capability, called App Runtime for Chrome, has been in beta ever since.

Rumors around Google replacing Android operating system and Chrome OS hasn't been baseless, as the rumor-peddlers assume that the fabulous-Fuchsia OS would eliminate all the problems associated with Chrome OS or Android.

And according to their presumption, Google's timeline for the implementation of this Fuchsia future is pretty short, most possibly in 2018 or sooner thereafter.

The reality remains that Fuchsia launching will not intermittently end Chrome OS or Android, given that it will take many years to create a successful operating system that’s ready for the public. And who has ever terminated its own success story - Android being the world’s biggest operating system with over 2 billion users worldwide.

Is Google planning to kill Chrome OS and Android in 2018?



The annual technology extravaganza, Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018), will be touching base on January 9 in Las Vegas, and the biggest tech show in the world is where the big names in tech pitches their top products/services which announcements are expected several days ahead.

And the biggest trends for the past event were Connected homes which most likely is expected to dominate the show yet again - driven by the huge popularity of Alexa and Google Assistant; but this time the association of the assistants will be shifting to wearables.

While smart speakers like Amazon Echo, with the AI infused wearbales providing extra security, thus eliminating vulnerabilities in voice authentication, will see these smart speakers joined by hundreds of wearables that also give instant access to the virtual assistants.

The wearable market saw pretty huge interests in 2017, albeit it was tumultuous, as the trend towards the low end of devices, which sometimes appeared to be heading for smartwatches.

As CES is a great showcase for tech companies to dip their toes into the new waters, CES 2018 is likely to be another year of shuffling things around to see what sticks.

Some big players in the space include Fitbit which announced the Ionic smartwatch a few months ago, is also expected to be present at the show, and perhaps will be demonstrating the upside to their wearable. Other players gracing the past show with Android Wear devices are companies like Motorola and LG, albeit the duo have been pretty quiet lately.

Nonetheless, Mobile remains a buzzword for the event, and its big players like Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung will definitely make the show’s biggest announcements, which ranges from 5G Internet, and smart speakers to self-driving cars.

CES 2018: Why Wearables may be the favorite in tech biggest show



While Microsoft allowed consumers to update their PCs running Windows 7/8/10 to Windows 10 Creators Updates, the more reason to upgrade to the latest software is the recent Windows hello facial recognition security spoofing exploit using a photograph.

The facial recognition system, Windows Hello is a scanning security feature in Windows 10, which serves as a new authentication method to secure users from hackers trying to access their PCs.

But, recently the German pentest outfit Syss, published a breach in which they where able to fool Windows Hello on Windows 10 machines running older versions of the operating system, including multiple versions of Windows 10 on a number of different hardware.

The exploit involves a “modified printed photo of an authorised user” (a frontal photo, naturally), to allow an attacker to log into a locked Windows 10 system.

The security researchers ran the test on a Dell Latitude running Windows 10 Pro, build 1703; and a Microsoft Surface Pro running build 1607. While the vulnerability was present in both the default configurations, and with Windows Hello “enhanced anti-spoofing” feature enabled.

According to the researcher proof-of-concept video, they changed the Surface Pro's configuration to “enhanced anti-spoofing”, but claimed its “LilBit USB IR camera only supported the default configuration,” as it could not be used with the more secure face recognition settings.

Albeit, the attack requires a printed picture of the authenticated user using an infrared camera, which makes it a pretty hard task to accomplish.

Even the application of the latest Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, that fixes the exploit may not be enough to block the attack if anti-spoofing is enabled. It is recommended that users after installation of the fixed versions that shipped in October (builds 1703 or 1709), that facial recognition should be set up from scratch to make it resistant to the attack.

How Windows 10 Hello Facial Recognition was bypassed by spoofing



The Q# language (pronounced “q sharp”) and simulator were first announced in September, with the then-unnamed language intended to bridge the functions, variables, and branches of traditional programming concepts, along a syntax-highlighted development environment complete with quantum debugger.

While quantum computing is a relatively new field that has hitherto built algorithms from wiring up logic gates; including vector and matrix mathematics, the qubit, Dirac notation, Pauli measurements, and quantum circuits.

Q# as a high-level programming language will execute its sub-programs on a quantum processor that is linked to a classic host computer which receives the results.

Microsoft has already made available a primer on essential quantum computing concepts, and the Q# development kit for free with detailed instructions on the installation and introductory programming tutorials.

The goal is to create a full software stack that will give interested developers a chance to learn about quantum computing programming.

Albeit, the company has been bullish lately on quantum computing, the Q# programming language isn't unlike most other programming languages, and very similar to its C# counterpart.

It's application has a few interesting primitive types, which in addition to the more typical ones such as int, double, bool, and string, also include a Pauli, Range, Result, and Qubit type. And there are many Q# quirks in the language, like functions being referred to as operations, and so on.

Even as quantum computing is perceived as capable of disrupting many industries and fields once it becomes available and ubiquitous, it will also help us solve pretty complex problems.

And particularly, cryptography as perhaps best-known—many of the algorithms that we trust to securely communicate over the Internet will be broken wide open by a quantum computer. But, It will eventually solve the encryption problem it initially undoes, since quantum encryption will be completely secure.

For those interested in working with Q# language, it will be worth the while checking out the Quantum Algorithm Zoo for ideas.

A look at Microsoft’s Q# Programming language for Quantum computing



The Yuletide is a time for so much fun, and what better way to while away the time than to chase the old childhood fantasy of Santa Claus. Now whether you believe it or not, you better watch out, or better still hold your doubt — as even Google is tracking Santa, maybe he's coming to town.

And you can follow Santa’s annual Christmas Eve voyage around the world from your PC, smartphone, or tablet via the Google Santa Tracker.

While Santa’s departure time depends on which version of the Santa-tracker you’re following, with the presents already wrapped, and the tree up, the stockings will soon be hung by the chimney.

Google’s Santa tracker offers a peek at Santa all month with its own version of an Advent Calendar, which leads up to the official commencement of tracking on Sunday.

Google’s tracking site also includes a mix of games, videos, and educational activities using Google services, with a few new items as well as many old classics, like the Elf Jetpack game and coding challenges.

It allows you to send fun, Mad Libs-style phone calls from Santa to friends in the U.S. and Canada, which calls are deliberately designed to be ridiculous — and to always bring a special smile to the recipients.

The Santa tracking begins around 10 a.m. UTC on Sunday, December 24, which is 5 a.m. Eastern or 2 a.m. Pacific and you can access it either by visiting the official Google Santa Tracker website or searching for "Santa Claus" on Google.

Google Santa Tracker to help track Santa Claus on Christmas Eve



HTML 5.2 defines the 5th major version, and second minor revision of the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), with the latest version of the core web specification getting improvements in security and accessibility functions.

The new upgrade released by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), offers new capabilities and bug fixes, and removes technologies that's no longer considered part of the modern web standard.

Other changes in HTML 5.2 includes:

  • API for merchants to use one or more payment methods with minimal integration. While the browser can act as an intermediary between parties in a transaction (the payee, the payer, and the payment method provider).
  • Accessibility to rich internet applications, which enable people with disabilities to have a better user experience with applications. And framework provided to improve accessibility and interoperability.
  • New security-relevant policy by which developers can lock down applications to reduce risks of content injection vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting.


The specification, referred to by W3C as a recommendation, offers an updated, stable guide to HTML and new features will continue to be introduced to help Web application authors, and new elements based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention will be given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.

W3C invites all interested parties to provide implementation and bug reports through the Working Group's Issue tracker. As these will generally be considered in the development of the next on the agenda, HTML5.3, which will be due in roughly a year.

HTML 5.2 brings Interoperability and Accessibility improvements



Instagram's latest tweaks now allow users to share live videos through direct messages, which includes your own live videos, or live videos you’re currently watching with a friend or group of friends. While other enhancements include support for web links and different photo orientations, and last month’s addition of the option for photo and video message replays.

The live video sharing option is largely a tweak on video chatting or private broadcast, though its more of a competitor to the rather growing “co-watching” and video chat services.

The key differential is perhaps that Instagram’s offering is not just about co-watching, but more about doing live video along with friends. And the concept isn't merely in a standalone messenger app, but instead forms the entirety of the user experience.

To co-watch a live videos with friends, the process is simple: once you’re live on Instagram, you can take advantage of the new option by tapping the Direct icon at the bottom of the screen. Then tap the Direct icon to share the video through messaging.

Albeit if you have a Private account, you can only share live videos with your followers. And your self-recorded live videos can only be viewed by friends when you’re currently live.

The new feature is currently rolling out to the Instagram app on iOS and Android, so you'll need to update to the latest app (ver. 26) to be able to use the live video sharing.

Instagram's new feature allows live video sharing via direct message



Twitter going forward will disclose to users whether blocked tweets were withheld as a result of court order or in compliance to local laws, which through what it calls Country Withheld Content (CWC), will notify the affected accounts.

While notices will be sent directly to affected accounts; Twitter will display new interstitial containing information about the blockade, so that users can know as soon as they try to access the blocked tweets or accounts.

The interstitial will link to information about Twitter’s policies, with similar messages also shown on account that has been blocked in its entirety.

Twitter claims that between January and June 2017, it has received about 14,120 removal requests, including court orders and requests from government agencies or police, while 9,337 had no action taken against them; 1,760 haven some content withheld and 3,023 had content completely removed for violating its terms of service.

The removal requests came from 46 countries, with the majority, over 70%, haven originated from France, Germany, Russia and Turkey.

Twitter also disclosed that it received eight legal requests to remove content from the verified accounts of journalists or media outlets, but did not take any action against them.

The company, however has come under heavy scrutiny over how it handles controversial content, and most especially concerning several tweets from the U.S. President’s personal account, @realDonaldTrump which critics believe violate its terms.

Twitter to disclose compliance with Local laws or court orders for blocked Tweets



Starting February 15, Google will commence blocking certain ads in Chrome, in compliance to the standards established by the Coalition for Better Ads, to which Google subscribe. While the blockade isn't applicable to all ads on websites, its intended to curb the overtly intrusive ads format.

And if any ad displayed on the site doesn’t meet the stipulated standards, even when the rest are in compliance, still blockade on the sites ads will take effect.

Google, nonetheless gets a huge chunk of its revenue from direct ads; as such the move isn't what most marketers have expected from the tech giant, even though the company is already working with its publishers to make sure they’re in compliance with the new standards.

The implementation of ad-blocking on Chrome aims to enhance users experience, as the rate of intrusive ads that ruin their experience, is on the increase.

Google is hoping that by building its own ad-blocking into Chrome, will prevent users from having to resort to more restrictive third-party ad blockers that potentially cut into its own ads revenue.

The Coalition for Better Ads is made up of leading international trade associations and companies involved in online media, with the goal of improving consumers' experience with online advertising. It aims to leverage on consumer insights and cross-industry expertise to develop and implement new global standards for online advertising.

Finally, Native Ad-blocking is coming to Google Chrome



Twitter has released more details on how it will punish those engaging in hateful behavior, with updated policy aimed at reducing the amount of harassment and abusive content on the platform.

While the changes include the following: prohibitions against users promoting violence and hate speech via their bios; with the prospect of a ban on accounts featuring hate symbols and images, and permanent suspension of accounts threatening violence.

The updated policy came as scheduled on Twitter's safety calendar, which specifies when changes to halt abuse will take effect. Twitter, however maintains that its efforts remain a work in progress and that it will likely tweak how it applies its policies overtime.

It follows the social network's vow to curb chronic harassment and hate speech, even as it aims to achieve its stated mission of providing a totally free platform for expression.

And at least 20 notable accounts receive the hammer (either banned or suspended) as a result of the new rules, including Jayda Fransen official account, the American Nazi Party and white nationalist Jared Taylor and his American Renaissance group.

Twitter rules against organizations whose accounts promotes violence may be subject to some penalties or even outright suspension.

The company added that it will have a range of options for enforcement, with a focus on context and behavior, also that those rules don't apply to "military or government entities and they will consider exceptions for groups that are currently engaging in (or have engaged in) peaceful resolution.

Twitter goes full gear on Fight Against Harassment and Abuse



Facebook's Snooze feature which has been in testing for sometime now, has finally arrived; it lets users hide certain people, groups or brand pages for up to 30 days, instead of permanently unfriending, leaving a group or unfollowing a brand.

While some users could get fed up with updates from some people/pages on their list, and for some reasons may detest outright unfriending/unfollowing, Snooze makes it possible to temporarily mute friends, groups and brand pages on Facebook.

And it's quite handy in cases a user is having tensions with a friend or partner, or if they just want to avoid certain topics altogether.

But most especially, it's beneficial from marketers point of view, as having expansive networks on the site allows them to target ads to users, and without the expected crowded news feed from strangers who they don't want to see on their network.

The feature is coming on the heels of the recent criticism of the company and social media in general on their impact on people which might have negative effect (psychological and emotional) on the well-being of the people.

It also follows on the company's efforts to improve the news feed, which for a long time has been the bane of most misinformation and spread of discord on the platform.

Albeit, the temporarily muting of a connection is better for Facebook than someone permanently cutting off the service.

But given the prominent role social media now plays in many people's lives, Facebook has promised to do more to dig into these questions, share their findings and improve on its services.

Facebook Snooze to give users more control over the news feed



Google unveiled ARCore in August - which was a huge step forward for AR on Android, requiring no additional hardware, just like Apple's ARKit and to bring full AR capabilities to millions of Android devices.

While the erstwhile related Google's Tango augmented reality platform, to date, is known to be functional in only very few devices. As getting phone manufacturers to build the rather expensive functionality into their devices to support Tango was most probably the reason it suffered a low adoption. And Google only succeeded in getting the Tango platform running on a few devices over the course of three years.

Now, the company has set the deadline of March 1, 2018 to end support for its Tango augmented reality platform, shifting full focus to ARCore, in order to expand ARCore products reach to more Android devices.

According to the official Twitter account for Tango which announced the shutdown earlier today:



The ARKCore SDK works with Java/OpenGL, Unity and Unreal; while focusing on three core areas: motion tracking, environmental understanding, and light estimation.

Google ease out the process by focusing on plane detection rather than building a 3D mesh of the space, allowing ARCore functionality to run on popular phones like the Galaxy S8 and Pixel without crazy built-in multi-camera IR setups.

Tango shutdown became necessary since there’s no logic in having a fractured development process for a tool that’s remarkably so difficult to align with a single AR platform.

Google to end support for Tango augmented reality platform



Snap has launched an AR developer tool for desktops, called the Lens Studio to help developers in creating World Lenses: the interactive, imaginary 3D objects in Snapchat photos and videos. The Snapchat Lens Studio opens up the platform so that outside developers can contribute to its offerings and bolster augmented reality experiences beyond the in-house capabilities.

The tool is seen as a bolstering of Snapchat’s AR capabilities, and helping it to compete with Facebook’s own Camera Effects AR platform which have also been opened to all developers this week.

While brands will have to promote their own Lenses, thereby serving a new monetization medium for the platform, and the promotion of the QR Snapcodes to users who would scan to unlock an AR effect for 24 hours.

And, Snapchat won’t show the business Lenses in its camera unless the businesses buy Sponsored Lens ads from the company. They can also pay a partnered creative agency to build them a special effect, though for now the platform only allow World Lenses and not selfie masks.

Albeit, developers can build static or animated objects, 2D cutouts, windows into other worlds, floating picture frames and even 3D objects that react when you tap, look at or approach them.

Snapchat, however, enforce rules stating that Lenses can’t depict violence, weapons, nudity, sex acts, profanity, hatred, stereotypes, illegal activity, hashtags, usernames, threats, bullying or encourage Snapping while driving.

The company plans to offer Lens Studio Challenges, where it will provide an unspecified reward for developers who create Lenses that match a proposed theme or use case.

These AR capabilities will definitely give Snapchat the much-needed boost to users' sharing at a time when growth has been slowed in the wake of Instagram’s fierce competition.

Snapchat Lens Studio AR platform to help developers create World Lenses

A lot of people believe that in order to invest into real estate you need to have a large initial capital but this is not exactly true! Letting apartments daily as a business is a strategy of investing into real estate that you can start up without any initial capital. First, you will need to figure out how to work with the market of daily rent of apartments. And finding different, attractive and cheaper offers from real owners at https://jiji.ng/houses-apartments-for-rent is certainly a no-brainer.

While the best deals have long been made on Jiji: it offers the widest range of products and services, the opportunity to find an offer anywhere in the country - and choose the best price among the many real sales vendors in a couple of seconds with the help of a search engine with smart filters. And all transactions are protected by strict anti-scam site policy!

How to earn on a daily rent of apartments?



First, rent an apartment or a townhouse for a long time, say for $ 500 a month, with a sublease agreement. Then let it out daily, for example, for $ 50, thus getting a profit from the difference in cost. If you rent that apartment 25 days a month, you can receive a cash flow of $ 600 per month.

What determines the effectiveness of the daily lease?

It all depends on how often the selected object is rented. The average occupancy should be at least 80% - so your investments could be paid off.



How to test the location of the apartment?



Simply place an ad about an apartment for rent, specifying the particular area. Then monitor and count how many calls a day you receive about this ad. Sometimes you can specify not the address, but the nearest large object, - for this pattern it is better to select customers with a car. When a person realizes that he or she can rent an apartment $ 20 cheaper than the average market price, it will not be a problem to drive 2-3 kilometers.

The trial should be considered successful if more than 30 customers a day were willing to rent your apartment.

In fact, it often happens that only 15 people call today and 10 people will call tomorrow. These downtime are unacceptable for a high-quality business – if you want the optimal result you should receive more applications than you have objects.

If the occupancy rate of the objects falls to 70%, this company will have to leave the market. The market also becomes inefficient if your price is slightly higher than that of the competitors. And, on the contrary, we can attract more customers, if our price is lower. This way the flow of people will increase, and the apartment will not stay without tenants.

This is just one of the strategies of increasing your income. This method implies making money with the help of other people's objects. As the time goes by, you can buy your own objects and pay off the mortgage from the rent you receive. So you can combine business with investment strategies!

Letting Apartments as a Strategy of Investing into Real Estate



Microsoft's effort to tackle Google's advances, continues as the company is exploring more avenues to bring Bing at per with Google, even with Yahoo Search partnership, which invariably brought improvement in users engagement, Google, nonetheless still retains overall lead in search traffic.

Now, Microsoft at an AI-focused event in San Francisco, announced a number of new updates coming to Bing that it hopes will make it smarter by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI).

Albeit, Bing search engine already got some injecting of AI-capabilities, like what powers its natural language search technology, the latest updates are focused on bringing more conversational, nuanced answers to users in the “cards” UI being used by competitors like Google.

The latest AI infusion expected to roll out include: Intelligent Search, Intelligent Image Search and Conversational Search.

Microsoft aims to stay competitive with Google in integrating machine learning into search mechanism, and the Intelligent and Conversational Search technology, could enable searchers sort out things like discovering more about a piece of jewelry a celebrity is wearing.

It works by simply tapping the “search within image” button and given that your search term isn't a controversial query.

The company also announced a partnership with Reddit to make some intent-driven queries more effectively covered. And the integration of Reddit content directly into Bing search results, will perhaps funnel information from Reddit crowd-sourced AMAs (Ask Me Anything posts).

Bing Search will especially benefit from the highly-localized information from Reddit posts, and its searchers with related queries can be given more nuanced results.

Microsoft Bing to leverage AI to make search results smarter

Twitter users clamoring for extension of the number of tweets allowed on the platform got a cheering news earlier, as if that's not enough, the company has launched a new feature that will allow people to more easily post tweetstorms.

While tweetstorm is simply a series of connected tweets, which is quite a popular workaround for getting past Twitter’s character count limitation.

Albeit, this method of Tweeting, while effective and popular, can be tricky for some users to create and it’s often tough to read or discover all the Tweets in a thread.



Twitter's new thread feature makes it simpler to thread Tweets together, and to find threads, so it’s easier for users to share and discover information on the platform. And the use case includes; to connect facts surrounding a breaking news, personal rant or political discus and other issues, or to just make a rather long post easier to read.

The threads feature makes it all easy, as there’s now a plus (“+”) button in the composer screen where users can type out their series of tweets.

Also, you can add GIFs, images, videos, and more, to any individual tweet in the thread, as is normal on Twitter composer. And you can go back and edit the tweets at any time while composing your tweetstorm.

There’s currently a limit of 25 entries in a thread, but Twitter assures that it is subject to change depending on wide adoption of the new feature by the user base. It is currently rolling out on all platforms, including iOS, Android and the web.

Twitter adds ‘Threads’ feature to make Tweetstorming easier

Facebook's AR Studio is a platform that enable creators to connect their art works with its data to bring augmented reality into everyday life via the Facebook camera. And through the Camera Effects platform (CEP) and AR Studio tool, Facebook intends to empower all developers to start building on AR experiences.

The CEP first closed beta at F8 had recorded a strong response from the 2,000+ creators using AR Studio – building fun, animated frames, masks, and interactive AR experiences.

Facebook’s copy of Snapchat’s World Lenses, World Effects will be enabled within AR Studio, even as the company promises on giving creators more powerful tools.



And as part of AR Studio's expanded availability, creators will soon be able to develop 3D digital objects for people to place onto surfaces and interact with in the environment.

The company aims to put the power of augmented reality in the hands of all creators through the expanded AR Studio toolset, enabling creators to build and share AR experiences with the Facebook community.

The roll out of AR Studio begins today for creators worldwide. Additional information can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/fbcameraeffects/home/

Facebook Opens up its AR Studio creative tool to everyone



While Instagram already supports the usual hashtags search functions, the social media platform has taken the hashtags function a step further by allowing users to "Follow Hashtags" to see top posts and Stories about any topic on the News Feed.

The "Follow Hashtags" feature is to help users see beyond their own social graphs and dive deeper into niche communities they care about, making Stories discovery on Instagram more easier.

And instead of having to dig through contents all the time via the search or the Explore tab, Instagram users would be able to follow the hashtags they find interesting on search or clicking on one of the tags.

Albeit, it will require some filtering to prevent repulsive content or spam from being distributed by hashtag following.

The company has assured on the implementation of smart filters, and has refuted the claims that hashtag following could give the app more power at ad targeting data, thereby showing more interstitial ads between Stories.

But it remains unknown how Instagram get to chose what's shown to hashtag’s followers, and whether its algorithm is based on factors like recency of the content.

Instagram, however has made improvements to how it sources and ranks hashtag content to ensure that hashtag pages is safe, and employs automated and manual systems for flagging inappropriate contents and blocking its authors.

Instagram's "Follow Hashtags" brings top Posts and Stories to News Feed



Google Research on Monday introduced Appsperiments (acronym for Apps Experiment) to explore the potentials of mobile photography, with slew of new apps (actually 3, namely: Storyboard, Selfissimo!, and Scrubbies) available on both the iOS App Store and Google Play.

While the first installment of the series of photography appsperiments will focus on usable and useful mobile photography experiences built on what it calls "experimental" technology.

The experimental technologies includes: style-focused algorithms, object recognition, person segmentation, efficient image encoding and decoding technologies, among others.

Appsperiments is inspired in part by Motion Stills, an app developed by researchers at Google that converts short videos into cinemagraphs and time lapses using experimental stabilization and rendering technologies.

Motion Stills was originally developed to make iOS’s Live Videos less shaky, and later a variation of that app was extended to Android to offer a new recording experience for shooting sharable video clips.

The project is intended to avail the company a way to test out more experimental features and see how users respond to the enhancements.

So, Google is inviting users to try them out and report what they think, using the in-app feedback links. The feedback and ideas from the new and creative ways people use appsperiments will help guide some of the technology Google builds around it.

Google Research “Appsperiments” on Mobile Photo Applications



While SQL (Structured Query Language) is designed for managing data held in a relational database management system, the most fundamental choices to make when developing an application is the use of an SQL or NoSQL database to store the data.

Originally based on relational algebra and tuple relational calculus, SQL are designed for reliable transactions and ad hoc queries, the staple line of business applications.

NoSQL, also called "Not only SQL" to emphasize that they may support SQL-like query languages, are increasingly used in big data and real-time web applications. It's a response to the limitations of the SQL systems, and it can store and manage data in ways that allow for high operational speed and great flexibility on the part of the developers.

The NoSQL databases have existed since the late 1960s, but did go by the moniker (NoSQL) until a surge of popularity in the early twenty-first century, triggered by the needs of Web 2.0 companies.

The term NoSQL was first used by Carlo Strozzi in 1998 to name a lightweight open-source relational database that did not expose the standard Structured Query Language (SQL) interface, though still relational, and quite distinct from the circa-2009 general concept of NoSQL databases.

The data structures used are viewed as "more flexible" than relational database tables, with suitability of the database depending on the problem it must solve.

Fundamentally, the difference between SQL and NoSQL is that each has a different philosophy for storage and retrieval of data. And Many NoSQL stores compromise consistency in favor of availability, partition tolerance, and speed.

Albeit, some applications still call for the kinds of constraints, consistency, and safeguards that SQL databases provide, which supposedly “advantages” of NoSQL may turn to disadvantages for such use case.

Other disadvantage of NoSQL is the relative lack of expertise, and the rather nascent market for the database system.

But SQL and NoSQL systems will still have their place for many more years to come, even as there are signs that future generations of databases may thread the paradigms and offer both NoSQL and SQL functionality.

Jargon Buster: What's the meaning of NoSQL database?



Facebook has outlined its investigation processes as a result of harassment or bullying allegations internally, including derogatory or offensive jokes, pranks or comments, slurs or epithets, unsolicited sexual advances or invitations and sharing images that are derogatory.

While Facebook’s policies also prohibit intimidating, offensive and sexual conduct even when that conduct might not meet the legal standard of harassment. Its zero-tolerance policy towards harassment, means that when able to determine that harassment has occurred, those responsible will be penalized.

Albeit, no major harassment allegations have come out of Facebook itself, the company's move is intended to share with the community at large the policies in place.

The policy also makes clear that excuses like, “I was joking” or “I didn’t mean it that way” are not legitimate defenses to any allegation; neither excuses of being under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol.

If Facebook determines that an employee’s conduct has violated this Policy, steps will be taken to ensure the conduct is effectively addressed, and the employee found to have engaged in harassing conduct may be subject to discipline, up to and including termination.

Additional policies, also center around six principles, which entail developing standards for respectful behavior at work, mandatory harassment training for managers and interns; treating all claims with urgency and respect.

Facebook goes public with its Internal Policies on harassment and bullying



Microsoft has launched Simlygon Cloud, an optimization tool to help game developers to integrate their workflows to make content more friendly to resource-intensive AR and VR platforms. While Simplygon, a 3D optimization service was acquired by Microsoft back in January.

The tool aims to reduce polygon complexity for 3D objects when resources are in high demand, thus making it easier to render 3D services.

It is launching on the Azure Marketplace, and in a similar vein; the company launched a Mixed Reality platform with a bunch of VR headset makers.

Simplygon allows game developers to focus on building high-detail 3D objects; and the Cloud will help to minimize them for the appropriate platform, so that developers won’t have to rebuild objects as per increase in compute capabilities.

Microsoft is perhaps bringing this capability to the cloud, so that assets can be delivered across different platforms with unique cloud-based 3D pipelines for object libraries.

The fruits of the launch of Simplygon Cloud, however will be more evident on its AR platform HoloLens, as its set to better compete with Google's Daydream.

Simplygon Cloud to integrate games to AR and VR platforms

Accidental deletion or crash can get your data corrupted or lost completely, and iPhone users know that it's pretty easy to loss information from the device when stuck in recovery mode. But Wondershare's Dr. Fone, proved capable of recovering lost data from any iOS device, including from iPad.
While Dr. Fone's desktop software (Windows and Mac) works with all iOS devices, and quite capable of recovering data directly from even old iPhones like 3GS and iPhone 4, or old iPad like the iPad 1, and the fourth-generation iPod touch.

It can also regain lost data from an iTunes backup of all other iOS devices, including newer iPads, the iPhone 5, and the iPhone 4S. If your iPhone or iPad is stuck in recovery mode, then you need to take some simple measures to recover your data.

For dr.fone - Recover (iOS), which presents the highest recovery success in the business and many other benefits, follow these steps:

How to recover data on iPhone

  • First launch dr.fone on your computer and then connect the iPhone by USB cable.
  • In the window displayed choose ‘Recover’ and then click on ‘Recover from iOS Device’.




The software recognizes your iPhone fairly quickly, then it will look for all available data from the device.

It then displays all data in the next window. However, if you see that the items you are looking for have been discovered, you can stop the scan by simply clicking on ‘pause’.



Then click on ‘Recover to Device’ if you want the data restored to your iPhone, or ‘Recover to Computer’, if you want to view them on your PC.

The view on PC option is especially handy if you don't have access to your iOS device.

And if you're using a newer Apple device, you can use the software to recover data from iTunes backup files, which it will automatically load from iTunes backup files, then you can select which one you'd like to scan.

Dr. Fone costs only $100 ( with free feature-limited demo), but if you accidentally delete an important file, you'd certainly know that it's actually priceless.

Steps to Recover Data on iPhone stuck on Recovery Mode



Google's lightweight Android version targeting low-end smartphone has officially arrived, with the moniker, Android Go (Oreo Edition) designed primarily for phones of 1GB of RAM and below. First announced at Google I/O in May, Android Go is an optimized version of Android Oreo for phones with either 512MB or 1GB of RAM.

The Go version isn’t altogether any different from the primary version of Android, it is rather distinguishable, as Google’s devoting a special team to ensure it gets update on more or less the same schedule as the standard version.

Android Go Edition aims to give users the best possible Android experience, notwithstanding any hardware limitations.

It's targeted at developing markets of Africa and Asia, even as Google marked the formal launch in India, where is perhaps the biggest stronghold in the emerging markets.

Albeit, Google had attempted a related approach before, with Android One, which both are intended to raise the quality of low-end devices, but from different perspectives. While Android One is a system whereby Google partners directly with the manufacturer to decide what goes on the phone and keep it up to date.

Android Go is a full release of Android available from the Android Open Source Project for OEMs, and what makes the Go edition special comes from Google’s own bundled apps.

The Google's apps include: Google Go, Google Assistant Go, YouTube Go, Google Maps Go, Gmail Go, Gboard, Chrome and Files Go, a new file management app.

Also, there's a Go version of the Play store, comprising lightweight apps, all especially optimized for Android Go smartphones.

Google had assured that going forward, the “Go edition” of future Android releases won’t be quite so delayed compared to the release of the full version.

Android Go officially launches for low-end Smartphones



The Internet of Things (IoT) is now a recognized trend that is growing in popularity day after day, even as tech vendors awakes to the IoT possibilities.

While IoT is transforming and taking a number of industries to the next level, including: healthcare, finances and much more, the hype that there are new IoT opportunities popping up every couple of weeks will keep all eyes on the technology.

And the growing adoption of intelligent agents like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant in more and more devices will open the eyes of tech vendors to not just the possibilities, but new ways of interacting with their customers.

Wearable will remain a niche, with more than 12 million smartwatches expected to be sold in the U.S. alone by the end of 2018 as predicted by Forrester.

IoT everywhere, will also bring Cloud Computing acceleration in the enterprise processes, with new private and hybrid Cloud options and even more public Cloud and SaaS innovations to power enterprise transformation in 2018 and beyond.

The growth of the number of “smart” devices will allow expansion in the processes that utilize IoT and thus make them more accurate.

And as IoT is all about connecting devices together and exchanging the data, 2018 will bring even more interconnected devices. The concept of smart cities where a lot of processes will be dictated by IoT is also an interesting trend to watch out for in 2018.

Since mobile users growth in the world has been enormous, it’s quite obvious that smartphones will play a bigger role in IoT adoption.

Then, with more smart devices, the amount of data processing involved will equally accelerate. So, the New Year will witness Big Data becoming the norm and thus will make enterprises to think of resources that would enable them to process and analyze it correctly. And machine learning will come in handy, as the technology ensures precise results and analytics in comparison to manual calculations input.

If you have any awesome predictions in mind, don’t hesitate to share with us through our various social media platforms.

2018 Predictions: The Internet Of Things (IoT) & Cloud Computing Everywhere



Apple iOS flaw involving apps with frequent reminders is reportedly causing iPhone and iPad to crash, with the dated flaw taking a big hit on December 2. If you've been hit, here's what you can do to get your devices running smoothly and safely again.

Affected users are required to turn off notifications for all the apps and update their device to latest software, iOS 11.2. Then, they can turn on notifications for apps back.

The company released iOS 11.2 on Saturday, which apart from fixing the iOS flaw, also came with a slew of new features, like the Apple Pay Cash and faster wireless charging to supported iPhones.

While Apple Pay Cash opens up the ability to send cash to friends and family over iMessage, the service is currently available for U.S. users only.

Other fixes available with iOS 11.2 include:

  • Fixes for flaw that could cause Mail to appear to be checking for new messages even when retrieval is complete
  • Fixes issue with swiping to Today View or Camera from the Lock Screen
  • Fixes issue that causes app icons to be disarranged on the Home Screen
  • Fixes Calculator flaw in where typing numbers rapidly could lead to incorrect results
  • Fixes issue that could prevent users from deleting recent photos when iCloud storage is exceeded
  • Fixes issue with Find My iPhone which sometimes wouldn't display a map
  • Fixes issue in Messages where the keyboard could overlap the most recent message


Apple in a support post recommends that if you're affected by any of this bugs, simply update your device to iOS 11.2. for the fixes to be applied.

The company also issued a fix for the "root" flaw on Mac, which vulnerability allowed anyone to log in to your MacBook running on MacOS High Sierra without requiring a password, by simply typing in the username "root" and leaving the password field blank.

Apple fixes iOS Flaw involving Apps with frequent reminders



While WebAssembly (wasm) support direct compilation from C and C++, other source languages such as Rust are not easily compiled without the need for additional tools. Now, the latest nightly build of Rust, requires no extra tools to compile to the WebAssembly portable code format.

Albeit, it's not officially supported, this feature was added through a pull request to enable WebAssembly as a back end by default.

The latest nightly build uses the LLVM tool chain directly to support WebAssembly, with simpler setup and a bit more control over the output.

Though nightly builds are unsupported test offshoots of the formal Rust language code, but their capabilities often get merged into the official build later. And the Rust nightly build’s WebAssembly compilation capability is an improvement over the existing WebAssembly support, which uses the Emscripten tool.

Emscripten is an LLVM to JavaScript compiler which takes LLVM bytecode (e.g. generated from C/C++ using Clang, or from another language) and compiles them into JavaScript.

The Rust’s WebAssembly compilation, however has just limited support and documentation. But LLVM provides the tool chain for Rust as well as for the Swift and Clang languages.

And the good news remains that the Mozilla-sponsored programming language geared to developing fast system-level software, Rust can now compile to the WebAssembly portable code format without the need for additional tools.

Easy Compilation from Rust to WebAssembly portable code format



While Twitter Rules explicitly forbids abusive and hateful behavior on the platform, the company's decision to uphold series of anti-Muslim videos retweeted by President Trump has attracted massive criticism.

Twitter pointed to the reason behind its inaction in a tweet, but maintains it is still looking critically at all of their current policies, and appreciate all the feedback.

The graphic videos purportedly depict some Muslims pushing someone off a roof and destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary. Albeit, President Trump's decision to retweet them is really what caused the uproar.

Thus, Twitter's stance on its earlier decision to keep up the series of graphic anti-Muslim videos this week has met lots of angst from users — and Twitter may be attempting to reframe its reasons.

Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted on Friday: "We mistakenly pointed to the wrong reason we didn't take action on the videos from earlier this week." In contrast to the company's initial stance, that the president's tweets on Wednesday didn't violate its policies and were kept up "to ensure people have an opportunity to see every side of an issue" and "because we believe there is a legitimate public interest."

It's quite interesting to note that Twitter had recently updated its Help Center section, including instances of what it considers to be graphic violence and hateful imagery.

But the company maintains that it won't ban Trump from its service, because of the newsworthiness of his tweets, even if they might violate its policies.

Aftermath of President Trump's graphic anti-Muslim videos retweet

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has released a declarative JavaScript library, AWS Amplify, to aid developers in building cloud-enabled applications through its cloud services instead of a contract service.

The AWS Amplify library includes support for authentication APIs, Analytics, Storage, and LRU (least recently used) cache interface across web and Native apps using so-called implementation-specific persistence.

Also, i18n and logging for internationalization and localization is equally supported on the AWS Amplify library.

While the Authentication support features a module providing authentication APIs and capabilities, with credentials offered for the AWS Signature Version 4 signing process and tokens from the Amazon Cognito sign-in service for web and mobile apps.



The Amazon Pinpoint (Pinpoint enables targeted marketing) tracking application is used for tracking users in the AWS Amplify library.

Amazon has also made available the AWS Mobile CLI, providing command-line capabilities for front-end JavaScript developers to integrate back-end resources into their mobile apps.

Albeit, the default Amplify implementation works with Amazon Web Services cloud resources, the library can also be used with other cloud services as a plug-and-play resource.

For developers using it with the React Native library, the aws-amplify-react-native package should be downloaded on NPM. While the AWS Mobile CLI can also be accessed on NPM as awsmobile-cli.

Amazon's Amplify library for building Cloud-enabled Applications



Microsoft's latest novelty might change the way we use computer, with the debut of Windows 10 Sets. Also coming is an update for its 3-year-old Windows Insiders program for those who want to experience firsthand the pre-release software.

The new Sets feature will bring groups apps, browser tabs and documents together as tabs, which is typically outside normal use case of various apps running in windows.

Its invariably a work space setup in which one tab could serve as a Word document, another PDF file and a third may be a PowerPoint presentation you're working on, altogether.

The upcoming Timeline sync feature, which brings your activities from other devices so you can pick up from there regardless of your current device, will also work with Sets.

Terry Myerson, executive vice president of Microsoft's Windows and Devices Group, called it an easier way to organize your stuff and get back to what you were doing.

Microsoft is letting users test it and report back on what they like and don't like, and, it isn't quite contrary to the hopes of getting lots of users for the test. Akin to the release of new features for its public testing Windows Insider service, which avails the company invaluable insight from the community.

Albeit, Microsoft had always offered pre-release versions of its software for years, but it typically happens after new features have been decided, and not when they're still being considered.

For a big tech vendor to be this open with product development, isn't quite common. And if it should turn out that people hate the feature, will it be enough to result the applying of a kill switch?

Microsoft's Windows 10 Sets make all users beta testers

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)