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Showing posts from April, 2020

Zoom admits lying about user numbers

Video conferencing service had claimed 300 million daily active users a month Zoom has come under fire after reportedly over-stating the amount of people using its service. The popular video conferencing platform had claimed it had “more than 300 million daily users” in a blog post earlier this month, but quietly changed this figure shortly after. According to The Verge, Zoom later edited this post, deleting the original wording and changing it to “300 million daily Zoom meeting participants” instead. Zoom updates As The Verge notes, the difference between a daily active user (DAU) and “meeting participant” is a big one, and means Zoom could have greatly over-stated the popularity of its service.Zoom appeared to count daily meeting participants multiple times, meaning that if you took part in several Zoom meetings in one day, the company counted you more than once - whereas a DAU is only counted once each per day. Other software providers, including Zoom rivals such

Hundreds of millions of email addresses fed to advertisers by popular websites

Many of the defective systems are s till live Some of the most popular websites online today have leaked hundreds of millions of email addresses to advertisers and data analytics firms, according to a new research report. As a result of a defect in sign-up processes attached to websites such as Wish, MailChimp and the newly launched Quibi, user email addresses were funneled into the laps of the world’s largest advertisers, including Google, Facebook and Twitter. Authored by security researcher Zach Edwards, the report explains that clicking on links embedded within account confirmation emails caused addresses and other user data to be delivered to third parties, who could then use the information to inform personalised advertising efforts. The report does not make clear precisely how the email addresses were used by third party advertisers. Email address leaks This specific variety of breach occurs when an email address is appended to a URL following the activation o

WhatsApp's next big feature is on the way, and could make your life much easier

The more devices, the merrier WhatsApp will soon let you stay logged in on multiple devices, according to clues hidden in the app's latest beta release. We saw the first evidence of this feature earlier this year, when investigators at WABetaInfo discovered a line of code that explicitly referred to using the app on more than one device at once. This would be an extremely handy feature if you own both a phone and a tablet, or want to use WhatsApp Web occasionally, but several beta releases have gone by with no further news until now. The latest discovery is a new login screen that asks users whether they want to use Wi-Fi or mobile data when you 'log in on a new device'. At the moment, logging into the app on a second device means you're logged out of the first one automatically, so this is an interesting development. Big data transfers? As WABetaInfo notes, it's intriguing that the new login screen also says 'Without Wi-Fi, logging in may be s

WhatsApp's eight-person video calls are now available to everyone

Improved video calls on iPhone and Android It's not very long since we learned of WhatsApp's plans to up its game to enable it to better compete with the likes of Skype and Zoom. A beta version of the ever-popular chat tool was found to show that there were plans to double the number of people who could take part of group video chats from four to eight. The feature was soon added to the app's release version. It began rolling out for iPhone users on April 27, and is now available to those with Android phones too. As WhatsApp points out in a blog post, there has been an increase in demand for group video calls because of the number of people around the world self-isolating because of the coronavirus pandemic. So, for anyone who has been waiting to get involved in group video chats involving more than four people, the increase is great news. The increase in video chat participants does not bring WhatsApp in line with Skype and Zoom – which support up to 50

Foldable smartphone display market to 'explode' in 2020

Demand for foldables will see shipments increase fivefold Shipments of foldable displays will increase fivefold in 2020 and rise dramatically over the next five years as manufacturers scramble to get new form factors into the hands of consumers. According to analysts at Omida, shipments of foldable AMOLED screens will increase from 700,000 in 2019 to 3.9 million in 2020. However, this only represents 1.3% of the global market for flexible OLED displays, which leaves plenty of room for growth. Foldable smartphones Smartphone sales have plateaued in recent years due to longer refresh cycles, the increased cost of handsets and a perceived lack of innovation. Foldables might not address price concerns - at least not initially - but coupled with demand for 5G connectivity, might solve the other two barriers to growth. It is unclear what impact coronavirus will have on the market, however. So far, six foldable devices have been launched - the most notable of which was the

Irfan Khan, Indian actor of Slumdog Millionaire fame, dies at 53

Khan, who fought a long battle with cancer, carved out a stellar career in Bollywood, Hollywood and other Western films. Acclaimed Indian actor Irrfan Khan, whose international movie career included hits such as Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi and The Amazing Spider-Man, has died aged 53, his publicist said. Khan, who was diagnosed with a neuroendocrine tumour in 2018, died on Wednesday after he was admitted in a Mumbai hospital for colon infection. He was 53. "Irrfan was a strong soul, someone who fought till the very end and always inspired everyone who came close to him," his publicist said in a statement. He spent his final hours "surrounded by his love, his family for whom he most cared about," a statement released by his family said. The actor had spent several months last year in the United Kingdom undergoing cancer treatment. His mother Saeeda Begum died four days ago on April 25. He is survived by his wife, TV producer Sutapa Sikdar, an

OnePlus 8 Pro just got an update that partially fixes a big issue

OnePlus 8 Pro just got an update that partially fixes a big issue Did you hear about the green screen tint issue that some OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro users had reported? Maybe you even had it yourself. A new update from OnePlus seems to have helped fix it, as well as a variety of other less important issues with the newly announced phones. Some OnePlus 8 owners said their phone had a green screen tint in some scenarios. It's a similar issue to one that was fixed on the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra in March, which uses the same screen tech as the OnePlus 8 series. We've not seen the issue on our review devices, so it seems to be only impacting some users. It also means we haven't been able to test out the results of the new update, but it seems to have worked for some. Tech website Android Police has had the update running on a device and claimed the update brought a "partial fix" for the green tint problem. A OnePlus 8 Pro user with the Twitter ha

New iPhone 12 release date, leaks, price, news and what you need to know

New iPhone 12 release date, leaks, price, news and what you need to know We'll say it now: the iPhone 12 needs to be a huge change to Apple's smartphone. The iPhone 11 range brought very little in terms of an upgrade. With new camera tweaks and some more power inside, they were modest updates to the popular iPhone range. So what will the next iPhone - the first of a new decade - bring? Is Apple going to give us a truly new iPhone instead of an incremental upgrade?  Apple certainly doesn't need to hit the 'budget iPhone' mark any more, given the  iPhone SE (2020)  already fits that bill for the year. The good news is that in the build up to the iPhone 11 launch we heard lots of rumors and leaks of a much-altered iPhone. These include the possibility of a 5G iPhone model, new cameras, a new design, a supercharged screen... if all of those rumors were referring instead to the iPhone 12, it could prove to be the big upgrade we’re hoping (and waiting) fo