BROTHER'SEDUCATIONHUB

As you say goodbye to 2016, it is also time to bid adieu to WhatsApp, unless either you get rid of your outdated phone or find a way to upgrade the operating system. WhatsApp, the globally popular messaging app has decided that it will stop working on lakhs of smartphones from January 1, 2017, unless updated. They have said that the app will discontinue its services on many older OS from the same time. With an aim to add new features and give better options for people to stay connected, WhatsApp believes that the decision taken is a ‘tough’ one but at the same time, it is ‘right’ as well. And it is not that WhatsApp has just announced the decision, as the company had told people about the plan earlier this year too. Meanwhile, it is highly unlikely that people will complain as recently WhatsApp has added many new features including video calling, video streaming, voice calling, gifs, and more. So you either need to get a new smartphone or possibly get your due system software updat...

It used to be back in the day that the size of app updates would be huge as basically it involves downloading the entire app again, albeit the latest version. However over the years companies like Apple and Google have figured out smarter ways to go about it by only downloading what is needed. Now it seems that Google has taken it a step further by shrinking it by as much as 65%. In a post on the Android Developers Blog, Google has introduced a new method of packaging app updates in the form of file-by-file patching. According to Google, “File-by-File therefore is based on detecting changes in the uncompressed data. To generate a patch, we first decompress both old and new files before computing the delta (we still use bsdiff here). Then to apply the patch, we decompress the old file, apply the delta to the uncompressed content and then recompress the new file.” However Google notes that this method can be slower as it will require extra processing. They have estimated that r...

Hemanth Joseph, an engineering student from Kerala, has found out a way to crack open Apple's highly secure activation lock, that allows the owner to prevent others from using their iPhone or iPad once it's lost or stolen. "I found out a way to bypass the lock screen when somebody tries to open any of devices, locked by the owner using 'Find iPhone' app," said Joseph, a final-year mechanical engineering student at Amal Jyothi College of Engineering, Kanjirappally. Hemanth had purchased a used iPad from eBay, an etailer, for his friend. Locked by the previous owner all efforts to unlock it failed. After being prompted by his friends to reveal how he did it, Joseph wrote in his blog that he used the security lapse in the input fields for name, username and password. Since, there was no character limit in those input fields, it got easier for him to bypass the security lock. Furthermore, he said that no one would set a Wi-Fi name with 10,000 letters or a ...

Instagram is shoring up its defenses against abuse with the launch of tools people can use to restrict who reacts to their photos and videos. The photo-sharing company announced on Tuesday that it now supports the ability to restrict who comments, removing people from private accounts, and a way to anonymously report those you might think are posting about injuring themselves. The release of these new features are said to be part of Instagram’s efforts to make the service a “positive place for self-expression” — basically not have it be a troll-infested environment similar to Reddit and Twitter. With the new commenting control tool, if you find that someone has posted something that’s mean-spirited message on a photo or video you’ve shared, you don’t have to just sit there and take it. On top of the ability to filter out comments by keyword, you can now disable them from entire posts. This ability was only available for “a small number of accounts,” but “in a few weeks” every...

Cybersecurity startup Secdo has raised $10 million in a Series A round led by RDC and Check Point cofounder and chairman Marius Nacht, with participation from the founders of Anobit, a startup acquired by Apple back in 2011. Founded out of Israel in 2014, Secdo promises to help security teams cut incident response times from hours to minutes. The Secdo platform automates the process of detecting and investigating suspicious activity, thereby “lowering the skills barrier,” as the company puts it, and making security teams more effective. It essentially provides insight and context for every endpoint to establish whether a detected “suspicious” activity indicates a real threat, such as ransomware. The company had previously raised a $3 million seed round from the same investors, and it says its fresh cash injection will be used to expand its U.S. sales operations, customer support, and research and development (R&D). “After major investments in solutions that try to preve...

In an effort to stop the proliferation of fake news, Facebook has initiated a “Survey” that asks users to what extent they think an article uses misleading language. According to a report in TechCrunch, Facebook has confirmed that this is an official effort to curb the spread of misinformation. “The company uses surveys somewhat like this to test the general quality of the news feed, and it has used other metrics to attempt to define rules for finding clickbait and fake stories. This appears to be the first direct coupling of those two practices: old parts doing a new job,” the report noted. Below an article on Facebook appears “to what extent do you think that this link’s title uses misleading language?” and its response choices range from “Not at all” to “Completely”. Critics have blamed Facebook for influencing the US-elections in favour of President-elect Donald Trump by circulating a “host of fake news stories about political topics.” This step is seen as Facebook’s ...

Google has launched a personal safety app to give your near and dear ones peace of mind. Concerned contacts can request location data from users. Users can respond to the request and signal that they are safe to their contacts by denying the location data request. If there is no response, then the location is shared automatically, which can allow the contact to take measures appropriate to the situation. Even if the phone is offline, the last known location is shared with the contact. The feature can be used, for example, if someone is late in a foreign city or out in the wilderness. A concerned friend or family member can request for the location. If there is no response, the police or other authorities dealing with search and rescue operations can be contacted, and informed of the last known location. On startup, users have to select trusted contacts from their list. The app indicates if the selected contacts have added you back on the application. The first time users select ...