Category: Technology

Facebook plans to change its name as part of company “rebrand “

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Social media giant Facebook Inc is planning to rebrand itself with a new name next week, the Verge reported on Tuesday, citing a source with direct knowledge of the matter. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg plans to talk about the name change at the company’s annual Connect conference on Oct. 28, but it could be unveiled sooner, the Verge reported.

In response, Facebook said it does not comment on “rumor or speculation.”

The news comes at a time when the company is facing increasing U.S. government scrutiny over its business practices. Lawmakers from both parties have excoriated the company, illustrating the rising anger in Congress with Facebook.

The rebranding would position Facebook’s social media app as one of many products under a parent company, which will also oversee groups like Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and more, the Verge report added. It’s not uncommon in the Silicon Valley for companies to change their names as they bid to expand their services.

The move to rebrand will also reflect Facebook’s focus on building the so-called metaverse, an online world where people can use different devices to move and communicate in a virtual environment, according to the report. Facebook has invested heavily in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and intends to connect its nearly three billion users through several devices and apps.

On Tuesday, it announced plans to create 10,000 jobs in the European Union over the next five years to help build this metaverse.

Zuckerberg has been talking up metaverse since July and the buzzy word, first coined in a dystopian novel three decades earlier, has been referenced by other tech firms such as Microsoft.

The Verge report said a possible name for the company could have something to do with Horizon. Recently, Facebook renamed its in-development VR gaming platform named ‘Horizon,’ to ‘Horizon Worlds’.

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Apple expected to unveil new Macs with more powerful chips

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Analysts expect Apple to unveil new Mac laptop computers with more powerful processor chips at an event that will be streamed soon.

Bloomberg has previously reported that Apple plans to release two new MacBook Pro models with 14-inch and 16-inch screens.

The Cupertino, California-based company introduced some new laptop models last year that for the first time used its “Apple Silicon” chips, which it said would be phased into the company’s desktop and laptop lineup over the course of two years.

The company has already placed a first generation in-house-designed M1 chip into some MacBooks as well as its Mac Mini and iMac desktop machines, but the new larger MacBook Pro models are expected to feature a second, more powerful generation of the company’s chip.

The new chip, along with a general rise in laptop sales as employees and students stocked up on tech hardware to work and learn from home, prompted a boom in Mac sales during the pandemic. Revenue rose 11% to $28.6 billion in Apple’s fiscal 2020, even as iPhone revenue declined 3%.

The expected MacBook Pro introduction comes weeks after Apple overhauled its iPhone, Apple Watch and iPad lineup.

Some analysts believe Apple on Monday will also update its AirPods wireless ear buds, though rumors of an update have circulated ahead of other Apple events this year without coming to pass. Add-on devices like AirPods tend to be large sellers during holiday shopping seasons and have become one of Apple’s fastest-growing categories, with its home and accessories segment growing 25% to $30.6 billion in Apple’s fiscal 2020.

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Factbox: What is the ‘metaverse’ and how does it work?

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Facebook has announced that it will hire 10,000 people in Europe to help it build a “metaverse”. The concept of the metaverse is quickly becoming a buzzword in technology and business. But what does it mean?

WHAT IS THE METAVERSE?

Metaverse is a broad term. It generally refers to shared virtual world environments which people can access via the internet.

The term can refer to digital spaces which are made more lifelike by the use of virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR).

Some people also use the word metaverse to describe gaming worlds, in which users have a character that can walk around and interact with other players.

There is also a specific type of metaverse which uses blockchain technology. In these, users can buy virtual land and other digital assets using cryptocurrencies.

Many science fiction books and films are set in fully-fledged metaverses – alternative digital worlds which are indistinguishable from the real physical world. But this is still the stuff of fiction. Currently, most virtual spaces look more like the inside of a video game than real life.

WHY IS IT TAKING OFF?

Fans of the metaverse see it as the next stage in the development of the internet.

At the moment, people interact with each other online by going to websites such as social media platforms or using messaging applications. The idea of the metaverse is that it will create new online spaces in which people’s interactions can be more multi-dimensional, where users are able to immerse themselves in digital content rather than simply viewing it.

The accelerated interest in the metaverse can be seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people have started working and going to school remotely, there has been increased demand for ways to make online interaction more lifelike.

WHO IS GETTING INVOLVED?

The idea of the metaverse is attracting a lot of interest from investors and companies who are keen to be part of the next big thing.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in July that the company will try to transition from being a social media company to a metaverse company in the next five years or so.

The term is popular in Silicon Valley, with Microsoft also having mentioned converging the digital and physical worlds.

The popular children’s game Roblox, which had its New York Stock Exchange debut in March, describes itself as a metaverse company. Epic Games’ Fortnite is also considered to be part of the metaverse.

Musicians can do virtual concerts within these platforms. For example, in September millions of people watched the singer Ariana Grande virtually perform in Fortnite, Epic Games said.

The world’s biggest fashion companies have also experimented with making virtual clothing, which people’s avatars can wear in metaverse environments.

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Instagram to allow users co-author posts and share likes

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Facebook-owned social networking app Instagram is bringing an exciting feature named “Collabs” that allows two users to jointly share ownership of a single feed post or Reel.

Instagram Today, it’s following this up by testing a new way to add a nonprofit fundraiser to a post, and finally, on Thursday, it’s rolling out the ability to create photo and video posts on desktop, as well as launching new music-focused effects for Reels.

The post or Reel will appear jointly to each user’s followers and will share the same comment thread, as well as view and like counts. Collabs are enabled from the tagging screen, after which the second account will have to accept the invite.

The service is also rolling out the ability for users to post photos and videos from desktop browsers on Thursday, following a limited test earlier this year. This might sound like a very basic feature to only now be coming to desktop, but Instagram’s desktop functionality has historically lagged well behind what’s possible on its apps. It only added DMs to the browser last year, for example.

There are also a pair of new music-focused features coming to Reels on Thursday. Superbeat adds effects to a video to the beat of a song, while Dynamic and 3D lyrics offer a more interesting way to display song lyrics during a video.

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Pakistan ranks 2nd for number of videos removed by TikTok

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Pakistan ranks second when it comes to the number of videos removed by TikTok from its platform in the second quarter of 2021 for violation of community guidelines.

According to a statement by TikTok, the latest Community Guidelines Report states that more than 81 million videos were removed from the short-form video platform in this period.

“With 9,851,404 videos removed, Pakistan ranked second in the world for largest volume of videos taken down for community guidelines violations in Q2 2021,” the statement said.

Key stats from the report

According to TikTok, to protect the safety of the community and the integrity of the platform, 81,518,334 videos were removed globally from April to June, comprising less than 1% of all uploaded content.

Of these, 93% were removed within 24 hours of posting and 94.1% before being reported by a user. Even more promising, was the finding that 87.5% of removed content had zero views.

Looking more closely at the findings, 73.3% of content promoting harassment and bullying videos and 72.9% focused on hateful behaviour were removed prior to being reported, a significant increase from the 66.2% and 67% respectively, from the first quarter of this year.

How TikTok monitors, manages negative content

“The improvement stems from the pioneering combination of technology and content moderation by a dedicated investigations team used to identify videos that violate policies,” said TikTok.

“To better enforce these policies, moderators also receive regular training to identify content featuring reappropriation, slurs and bullying,” it added.

Empowering users

The platform also announced improved mute settings for comments and questions during live streams, whereby hosts can temporarily mute select viewers for anywhere between a few seconds to the entire duration of the live session.

Once muted, the user’s entire comment history will also be removed, in addition to the existing option to turn off comments or limit potentially harmful comments using a keyword filter.

Further to the removal of negative content, TikTok empowers users to customise their experience with a range of tools and resources, including effective ways to filter comments on their content, delete or report multiple comments at once, and block accounts in bulk, the statement said.

More recently, prompts have been introduced to urge users to consider the impact of their words before posting unkind or violative comments. This has already proven effective with nearly four in 10 people withdrawing or editing their comments, according to TikTok.

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Twitter adds new feature to remove followers without blocking them

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Social media site Twitter has released a “soft block” feature. This allows users to remove a follower without actually blocking them.

As per details, Twitter is making it easier to remove followers.

The removed follower won’t be able to retweet you or see when you tweet. They also won’t be notified that you remove them.

However, this option does give the removed follower a chance to follow you again.

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Why is the internet slow in Pakistan?

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)


A countrywide slow internet speed was reported in Pakistan on Monday as a fault occurred in the 25,000-kilometres-long Asia-Europe double AE1 cable.

Sources affiliated with telecommunication said that a major 40-terabyte cable was ruptured near Fujairah, the United Arab Emirates, which resulted in a slow internet speed across Pakistan.

They said that it may take several days to repair the affected cable.

Sources added that authorities concerned are working to transfer the internet data traffic to other lower-capacity cables, which will provide relief to internet users until the AAE1 submarine cable becomes operational.

 

 

Policy change announced for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

Google on Thursday said it will no longer post ads next to misinformation about climate change on its search engine or on global video-sharing platform YouTube.

The new policy for Google advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators will prohibit the platforms from helping people make money from content that “contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change.”

That includes online content referring to climate change as a hoax or a scam, or denying the world’s temperature is rising and that human activity is contributing to the problem, Google said in a post.

“Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content,” Google said.

“And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.”

The internet giant added that the policy change aligns with efforts by the company to promote sustainable practices and confront climate change.

“Google’s important decision to demonetize climate misinformation could turn the tide on the climate denial economy,” said NGO Avaaz campaign director Fadi Quran.

“For years, climate misinformers have confused public opinion and obstructed urgent political action on climate change, and YouTube has been one of their weapons of choice.”

Quran urged other online platforms to follow Google’s lead and stop funneling money to those peddling debunked denials of climate change.

 

WhatsApp introduces end-to-end encrypted backups for iOS users

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned messaging app has rolled out a new feature that makes the app’s backup end-to-end encrypted for iOS users.

The new update would enable “end-to-end encrypted backup” which makes WhatsApp automatically backup users’ encrypted chat history on iCloud.

https://twitter.com/WABetaInfo/status/1446082210709352454/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1446082210709352454%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Farynews.tv%2Fwhatsapp-end-to-end-encrypted-backups-ios-users%2F

By enabling this feature on their iOS, users can secure their backup from unauthorised access.

To discover whether you’re one of the selected beta testers, follow these steps:

  • Open WhatsApp Settings.
  • Tap on “Chats,” then “Chat Backup.”
  • On “Chat Backup,” toggle on “End-to-end Encrypted Backup.”

When WhatsApp backup is end-to-end encrypted, nobody — including WhatsApp, Facebook and Apple — can see its content, because it’s encrypted using a password or a 64-digit encryption key.

 

Mark Zuckerberg apologises for WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram outage

Posted on by Ali Qasim

Lahore (NUT-DESK)

As the social media websites and platforms started coming back to life, social media giant Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg apologised for the worldwide outage of the popular media of communication.

Zuckerberg took to Facebook to offer an apology and announced that the Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp and Facebook itself “are coming back online”.

“Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger are coming back online now. Sorry for the disruption today —  I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook.

Facebook blamed a “faulty configuration change” for the nearly six-hour outage on Monday that prevented the company’s 3.5 billion users from accessing its social media and messaging services WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger.

The company, in a late Monday blog post, did not specify who executed the configuration change and whether it was planned.

Several Facebook employees who declined to be named had told Reuters earlier that they believed that the outage was caused by an internal mistake in how internet traffic is routed to its systems.

“We want to make clear at this time we believe the root cause of this outage was a faulty configuration change,” Facebook said in the blog. The Facebook outage is the largest ever tracked by web monitoring group Downdetector.

The outage was the second blow to the social media giant in as many days after a whistleblower on Sunday accused the company of repeatedly prioritising profit over clamping down on hate speech and misinformation.

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