Heena Sharma Blog

Microsoft on Wednesday lowered its revenue estimates for the current quarter, saying it will feel the impact of the coronavirus epidemic with lower sales of Windows software and Surface devices. The US tech giant became the latest global firm to warn of a financial hit from the global outbreak of the disease which has killed thousands worldwide. "Although we see strong Windows demand in line with our expectations, the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated," Microsoft said in a statement. As a result, Microsoft said that in the current fiscal quarter its revenues will fall short of earlier forecasts, with Windows and Surface "more negatively impacted than previously anticipated. Read More

Twitter will begin to label and in some cases remove doctored or manipulated photos, audio and videos that are designed to mislead people. The company said on Tuesday that the new rules prohibit sharing synthetic or manipulated material that's likely to cause harm. Material that is manipulated but isn't necessarily harmful may get a warning label. Under the new guidelines, the slowed-down video of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which she appeared to slur her words could get the label if someone tweets it out after the rules go into effect March 5. If it was proven that it also causes harm, Twitter could also remove it. But deciding what might cause harm could be difficult to define, and some material will likely fall into a gray area. "This will be a challenge and we will make errors along the way - we appreciate the patience," Twitter said in a blog post. Read More

WhatsApp users in several parts of the world, including in India, on Sunday took to Twitter to report several issues with the mobile messaging platform. Millions of users were unable to share videos, photos and GIFs, audio and stickers and several of those said they were even unable to view WhatsApp Status feature . According to Downdetetector.com, the problem started in the evening around 4 p.m. and alive outage map showed users in India, Europe, Brazil and in Southeast Asia were affected by the outage. "WhatsApp is restoring the service. The server issue should be fixed now," said WABetainfo.com, a fan website that tracks WhatsApp. "2 min silence for the peoples who talked about the updates on last post," tweeted one user. "Stickers can be sent now, the service should be restored completely soon," tweeted another. WhatsApp was yet to notify users about how the problem began. Read More

Apple's future iPhone would ditch all ports for wireless charging or audio, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted. According to the analyst, the purported iPhone will be launched in the second half of 2021 and offers a completely wireless experience, without any USB-C port either. The wireless version is likely to be the highest-end model, MacRumours reports. Kuo also predicted that Apple will also launch a possible 'iPhone SE 2 Plus' with a full-screen design, no Face ID, small notch, and Touch ID enabled the power button. Read More

Apple has revealed its " Best of 2019 " apps and games across platforms such as iOS, macOS and tvOS. "Developers around the world inspire us all with innovative apps that have the power to influence culture and change our lives, and this year that is as true as ever. The 2019 App Store Best Apps and Games winners reflect our global desire for connection, creativity and fun," said Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing said in a statement on Monday. The iPhone app of the year went to Lux Optics' Spectre Camera, an AI-powered photography app. Digital notebook app Flow by Moleskine was the top iPad app, while Serif Labs' Affinity Publisher publishing and design app took top honours for Mac. The Explorers, an app designed to "create a comprehensive 'visual inventory' of the natural world through photo and video," ranked as the year's best Apple TV app. Sky: Children of the Light was named iP...

Facebook started testing a tool on Monday that lets users move their images more easily to other online services, as it faces pressure from regulators to loosen its grip on data. The social network's new tool will allow people to transfer their photos and videos directly to competing platforms, starting with Google Photos. The company said it will first be available to people in Ireland and will be refined based on user feedback. The tool will then be rolled out worldwide in the first half of 2020. US and European regulators have been examining Facebook's control of personal data such as images as they look into whether the tech giant's dominance is stifling competition and limiting choice for consumers. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reacted by calling for new rules to address "data portability" and other issues. Facebook said that as it worked on a new set of data portability tools, it had discussions with policymakers, regulators, and academ...

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is working on a feature that will delete messages automatically after a stipulated time as set by users, according to WABetaInfo, a fan site that tests new WhatsApp features early. Renamed " Delete Messages " from earlier " Disappearing Messages ", the feature is being tested in beta mode. "In the WhatsApp beta for Android 2.19.282 update, we presented a new feature called ' Disappearing Messages ' that will automatically delete messages after a certain time. The feature is still under development, and WhatsApp is starting to work again on it in the 2.19.348 update, where they renamed 'Disappearing Messages' to 'Delete Messages'," WABetaInfo reported. Once available, the "Delete Message" feature will come with a toggle on/off button and users can choose a stipulated time -- 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month or 1 year -- for the messages to automatically disappear. Read More

Chinese handset maker Oppo's customised operating system (OS) ColorOS 7 , which is based on Android 10 and brings in localised features like DocVault -- the government-approved DigiLocker integration, was unveiled here on Tuesday. Oppo's new ColorOS 7 is faster and increases application response time by 30 per cent with multiple apps running in the background, according to the company. "We strive to make ColorOS broader yet more localised, creating a truly global system that users in different markets can experience and enjoy. This means we will continue to expand our localisation efforts to ensure that ColorOS is highly adapted to local user needs," Manoj Kumar, Senior Principal Engineer, Oppo ColorOS, said in a statement. The new customised OS has adopted a lightweight visual approach that simplifies it helping users focus more on the content. Read More

Google has rolled out a new Android feature that makes your smartphone useful even while it is charging. The new ' ambient mode ' lets you set an alarm, check for upcoming meetings, control smart lights, and even browse a photo slideshow in fewer taps and clicks, the company notes in an official tweet. The aim behind the ambient mode is to make your device use move from app-based to intent-based using Google Assistant. The feature is supported on Android 8 and above. Read More

Breaking the 10-year history of naming Android releases after desserts, Google on Thursday announced it had officially named the next version as just Android 10 . "First, we're changing the way we name our releases. Our engineering team has always used internal code names for each version, based of tasty treats, or desserts, in alphabetical order," said Sameer Samat, VP of Product Management, Android, in a statement. The naming tradition has become a fun part of the release each year externally too, like Android Lollipop or Marshmallows. "As a global operating system, it's important that these names are clear and relatable for everyone in the world. So, this next release of Android will simply use the version number and be called Android 10," Samat explained. "While there were many tempting 'Q' desserts out there, we think that at version 10 and 2.5 billion active devices, it was time to make this change," he added. Now, this...

Mumbai-based Chtrbox, which was allegedly responsible for leaking data of millions of Instagram users, has said database for a limited number of influencers was inadvertently exposed but that did not include any sensitive personal data. The company termed the reports of private data being leaked as "inaccurate" and acknowledged that "a particular database for limited influencers was inadvertently exposed for approximately 72 hours". "This database did not include any sensitive personal data and only contained information available from the public domain, or self reported by influencers," it said in a statement late Tuesday night. On Tuesday, Facebook-owned Instagram said it is investigating whether a third-party - Chtrbox - improperly stored its user data in violation of its policies after reports that information of millions of users being available online allegedly in an unsecured database emerged. These reports said the database found onli...

Facebook and Instagram users lost access to the social network's applications in parts of the world Wednesday as a result of an outage of undetermined origin The California giant which has more than two billion users acknowledged the outage after users noted on Twitter they could not access Facebook or had limited functionality. "We're aware that some people are currently having trouble accessing the Facebook family of apps. We're working to resolve the issue as soon as possible," a Facebook statement said on Twitter. A short time later, Facebook indicated the outage was not related to an attack aimed at overwhelming the network. "We're focused on working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, but can confirm that the issue is not related to a DDoS attack," Facebook said, referring to what is known as a distributed denial of service cyber strike. According to the website downdetector.com, outages were heaviest in North America an...