Online&Social
Microsoft Outlook Down Worldwide
Sourced from Wikimedia Microsoft’s Outlook has suffered a global outage impacting web, desktop, and mobile email services. According to The Verge, the disruption began at 2AM ET and ‘users are currently unable to access their email, and Outlook.com is failing to load’. Microsoft has since confirmed the outage, saying that it is currently investigating the issue. “We’ve received reports of users experiencing issues accessing their Exchange Online accounts via Outlook on the Web,” reads an official tweet. “We’ve collected additional data from the affected infrastructures to determine impact to our Exchange online protocols.” /* custom css */ .tdi_3_551.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_551.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “Additionally, we’ve identified this issue to be affectin...
WhatsApp is Working on an Expiring Media Feature
Whatsapp is reportedly working on a feature that would allow users to delete an image or video from someone else’s phone once it’s been viewed. According to WABetaInfo, users will be able to use this feature by selecting the ‘View Once’ option when sending media. Once the recipient views the image or video, they will receive a notification to inform them that the media will no longer be available once they leave the chat. Image sourced from WABetaInfo The next time the recipient enters the chat, a message reading “View once photo expired” will replace the image or video. Image sourced from WABetaInfo There is no word just yet on when users can expect this feature to officially rollout. WhatsApp is Working on “Vacation Mode” Feature, Again WhatsApp is again working on its “Vacation Mode” fe...
Google to Enforce 30% In-App Payment Policy
Google has revealed that it will be taking on app developers, who circumvent the Play Store’s in-app payment system, by enforcing its 30% service fee. In a blog post, Google reveals that a number of developers have reported being confused over the company’s billing system policies. “We want to be sure our policies are clear and up to date so they can be applied consistently and fairly to all developers, and so we have clarified the language in our Payments Policy to be more explicit that all developers selling digital goods in their apps are required to use Google Play’s billing system,” reads the post. The tech company has always required developers who distribute their apps on Play to use Google Play’s billing system if they offer in-app purchases of digital goods, and pay a service...
Google Drive to Automatically Delete Trashed Files
Google has revealed that it will be making an adjustment to the longevity of ‘trashed files’. In an email to users, the tech giant confirms that files moved to the ‘trash’ will be deleted automatically after 30 days. “We are writing to let you know that starting October 13, 2020, Google Drive is making a change so that its trash behaves more consistently with the rest of Google applications (such as Gmail) with regards to automatic deletion,” says Google. “This means that any file that is put into Google Drive’s ‘My Drive’ trash will begin to be automatically deleted after 30 consecutive days in the trash.” “You can always restore files from trash before the 30-day time window.” /* custom css */ .tdi_3_b5c.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_b5c.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } ...
US Federal Court Delays TikTok Ban
Sourced from Cosmico TikTok has been awarded a life-line after a US federal court ruled to delay its impending ban. Earlier this year, US President Donald Trump said the popular Chinese video-sharing platform’s ability to handle user data as well as its relationship with parent company, ByteDance, raised national security concerns. The Verge reports that motivation for the ban stems from the fact that “lawmakers allege that TikTok could be pressured into handing over data or other intelligence to the Chinese Communist Party”. However, TikTok hit back saying that was “led by an American CEO, with hundreds of employees and key leaders across safety, security, product, and public policy here in the US. We have no higher priority than promoting a safe and secure app experience for our use...
Opera Launches New Android and Desktop Browser Update
Opera has revealed new versions of its Android and desktop browsers – Android version 60 and Opera for desktop version 71. The new version of Opera’s flagship browser for Android ships with a completely redesigned Sync feature that uses a straight-forward QR-code reader to establish a seamless connection between Opera for Android and the Opera desktop browser on Windows, macOS or Linux. The latest version of Opera’s desktop browser, on the other hand, introduces a useful Easy Files feature. When attaching files in the Opera browser, Easy Files presents the user with their most recently downloaded files in a visual form, helping them select the desired files quickly, without having to search through folders or remember the file names. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_645.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: le...
Certain TikTok Accounts are Promoting Scam Apps, Research Shows
Sourced from Cosmico Avast claims to have found a total of seven “adware scam apps that were available on both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store”. These apps have since been downloaded over 2.4 million times, generating roughly $500,000 for the creators. The security firm also discovered three accounts that are ‘aggressively’ pushing the apps on TikTok, one of which has more than 300K followers, while on Instagram a profile with more than 5,000 followers has been promoting one of the apps. “The apps we discovered are scams and violate both Google’s and Apple’s app policies by either making misleading claims around app functionalities or serving ads outside of the app and hiding the original app icon soon after the app is installed,” says Jakub Vávra, Avast threat analyst. “It i...
Facebook Opens New HQ in Nigeria
Facebook has officially opened its new HQ in Nigeria – marking the platforms second office on the African continent. Aimed at supporting the entire Sub-Saharan Africa region, the office is expected to become operational in H2 2021 and will be the first on the continent to house a team of expert engineers building for the future of Africa and beyond. Facebook’s office is expected to be home to various teams servicing the continent from across the business, including Sales, Partnerships, Policy, Communications as well as Engineers. “The opening of our new office in Lagos, Nigeria presents new and exciting opportunities in digital innovations to be developed from the continent and taken to the rest of the world,” says Ime Archibong, Facebook’s Head of New Product Experimentation. /* custom cs...
ByteDance Forms TikTok Global as part of Oracle Deal
Sourced from Gadgets 360. ByteDance is creating a new company called TikTok Global that will be responsible for providing all TikTok services to users in the United States and most of the users in the rest of the world. TikTok Global is expected to be majority-owned by American investors, including Oracle and Walmart (20%), and with four Americans out of the five-member Board of Directors. It also aims to create more than 25,000 new jobs in the United States and pay more than $5 billion in new tax dollars to the US Treasury. As part of this deal, Oracle will become the company’s cloud provider and all of its data will be hosted at the Generation 2 Cloud data centres. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_135.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_135.td-a-rec-img img{ margin: 0 auto 0 0; } “Oracle will...
Nvidia Unveils New Broadcast App
Image sourced from Nvidia Nvidia has officially introduced its new Broadcast app which allows users to “turn any room into a home studio”. The company believes that audio quality, camera and room setup are key to viewers’ video enjoyment. Yet, not everyone has the luxury of a dedicated home studio or can afford expensive cameras, microphones and greenscreens to improve their production quality. “With the launch of GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, we’re helping live streamers up their game even further with the new NVIDIA Broadcast app, which is available for download now.” This app “upgrades any room into a home broadcast studio by transforming standard webcams and microphones into smart devices through the power of AI”. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_cef.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; }.tdi_3_cef.td...
Instagram Founder could become New TikTok CEO
Sourced from Cosmico TikTok is reportedly talking to founder and former CEO of Instagram, Kevin Systrom. This comes after Kevin Mayer resigned from his position as TikTok CEO amidst contention between the video-sharing platform and the Trump administration. If Systrom were to take up this position, he would be in direct competition with his former boss, Mark Zuckerburg, at Facebook. Instagram’s Kevin Systrom becoming TikTok’s CEO and crushing Reels would be the ultimate revenge for Zuckerberg stripping his autonomy. So spicy! pic.twitter.com/CrxzgfeltM — Josh Constine -SignalFire (@JoshConstine) September 17, 2020 The Financial Times reports that TikTok’s GM, Vanessa Pappas, has taken over the CEO role in the interim. /* custom css */ .tdi_3_551.td-a-rec-img{ text-align: left; ...
ByteDance Rejects Microsoft’s TikTok Bid
Sourced from Gadgets 360. Microsoft has confirmed that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has rejected its bid to acquire the video-sharing platform – the acquisition would allow Microsoft to own and operate the TikTok service in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The tech giant revealed that it would have made ‘significant changes’ to the way that ByteDance and TikTok deal with security, privacy and online safety – something that it believes would have been good for American users. In a statement, Microsoft says, “ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for TikTok’s users while protecting national security interests. To do this, we would have made significant chan...
