Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label technews

WhatsApp may soon let you view and send animated stickers

The feature will probably begin rolling out sometime in the coming weeks. What you need to know WhatsApp will soon gain support for animated sticker images. WhatsApp briefly rolled out support for animated stickers on Android with beta v2.20.194.7. The latest WhatsApp beta v2.20.194.9, however, removes the feature. A report published by WABetaInfo earlier this month had revealed that WhatsApp is planning to introduce the ability to search messages by date on both Android and iOS. While the search by date feature is expected to begin rolling out sometime later this year, it looks like WhatsApp users will soon be able to view animated stickers. WhatsApp added support for animated stickers with beta version 2.20.194.7 on Android and 2.20.70.26 on iOS (via WABetaInfo ). As per Android Police , however, the feature has now been removed with the latest beta v2.20.194.9. If you have WhatsApp beta 2.20.194.7 installed on your phone, you may be able to view animated stickers in

AI researchers condemn predictive crime software, citing racial bias and flawed methods

A collective of more than 1,000 researchers, academics and experts in artificial intelligence are speaking out against soon-to-be-published research claims to use neural networks to “predict criminality.” At the time of writing, more than 50 employees working on AI at companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft had signed on to an open letter opposing the research and imploring its publisher to reconsider. The controversial research is set to be highlighted in an upcoming book series by Springer, the publisher of Nature . Its authors make the alarming claim that their automated facial recognition software can predict if a person will become a criminal, citing the utility of such work in law enforcement applications for predictive policing. “By automating the identification of potential threats without bias, our aim is to produce tools for crime prevention, law enforcement, and military applications that are less impacted by implicit biases and emotional responses,” Harrisburg Univ

Brazil suspends WhatsApp’s payments service

Brazil, the second largest market for WhatsApp, has suspended the instant messaging app’s mobile payments service in the country a week after its rollout in what is the latest setback for Facebook. In a statement, Brazil’s central bank said it was taking the decision to “preserve an adequate competitive environment” in the mobile payments space and to ensure “functioning of a payment system that’s interchangeable, fast, secure, transparent, open and cheap.” Banks in the nation have asked Mastercard and Visa, who are among the payments partners for WhatsApp in Brazil, to suspend money transfer on WhatsApp app. Failure to comply with the order would subject the payments companies to fines and administrative sanctions. In its statement, Brazil’s central bank suggested it hadn’t had the opportunity to analyze WhatsApp’s payment service prior to its rollout. Tuesday’s announcement is the latest setback for Facebook, which began testing WhatsApp Pay in India two years ago and has ye

Hong Kong fintech Qupital partners with eBay to provide financing for sellers

Qupital , a trade financing platform, announced today that it will partner with eBay as one of its officially recommended Hong Kong financing service providers. In today’s announcement, Qupital said it will provide offshore financing services, including working capital, to eBay sellers in China through QiaoYiDai, its main product. The agreement with eBay means Qupital will be able to monitor the real-time data of eBay sellers who apply for their services, which the fintech startup says will enable it to assess credit applications within three days, on average, and settle drawdown requests in less than a day. Founded in 2016 and based in Hong Kong, Qupital raised a $15 million Series A last year led by strategic investor CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund, with participation from Alibaba Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund and MindWorks Ventures. Qupital is one of a growing roster of fintech companies in Asia— Aspire and First Circle are a couple other examples—that provide loans, cre

LG Velvet review: Beautifully flawed

LG's new sub-flagship shines with a striking design and Dual Screen, but fumbles some of the basics. The long-running LG G series retires this year, and in its place comes a new mid-level flagship built around design and aesthetic beauty. The LG Velvet mixes up the stale design language seen in some of the company's recent phones, and also boasts 5G connectivity thanks to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 765G platform. In fact, it'll be among the first 765-powered phones to arrive in the West. LG's Dual Screen is back too, with a new, slimmer, and more stylish version of the accessory shipping for the Velvet. The Dual Screen was pretty goofy a year ago when it first debuted alongside the V50. In the past year, however, LG has refined the hardware and software to the point where it's genuinely useful, improving gaming and multitasking similarly to a phone with a true foldable screen. But even though this might be LG's best-looking and most useful phone yet, it&

AngelList’s ‘Carta for India’ product helps startups manage cap table and employee grants for free

AngelList, a platform that helps startup founders discover and connect to angel investors and job seekers, on Wednesday branched out to a new category in India to further serve the ecosystem. The startup platform said its new product, called EquityList , allows founders to easily manage their cap table, which as the name suggests, is a table that documents a firm’s percentages of ownership, value of equity in each round, and equity dilution. AngelList’s new offering pits it against the talk-of-the-town Carta’s core service — though by limiting EquityList to India, AngelList is tapping a booming market that the Palo Alto-based startup is yet to explore. By targeting India, AngelList is also ploughing through a field that is vast but doesn’t have as many challengers. Most startups in India currently rely on lawyers, papers, and Microsoft Excel to manage their cap tables. EquityList also enables startup founders to manage equity they are granting to employees. The tool, which allow

Shawn Layden would prefer a return to the "12 to 15 hour game"

Some provoking thoughts from a massive former figure in Sony's development army. What you need to know Shawn Layden is the former Chairman of Sony Worldwide Studios. During Gamelab Live today, Layden noted that the cost of game development is continuing to rise. Layden also explained he'd prefer to see more 12-15 hour games making a return. Shawn Layden, the former Chairman of Sony Worldwide Studios , left abrubtly in September 2019. Since then, he's been on an extended hiatus but he made time to talk with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi during Gamelab Live today. During the extended talk, Layden noted that the cost of game development will continue to rise even as the pre-remote development world is gone. "That world is gone. That world is now sealed in amber. Everything that was pre-virus is now a historical artifact," he explains, even as he remembers the days that games took $1 million to make — days long gone by, as AAA budgets now range from &

A look at tech salaries and how they could change as more employees go remote

Each year, the hiring platform Hired produces a look at tech salaries based on the data it says it gleans from hundreds of thousands of interview requests and job offers. This year, as in past years, it looked at salaries around the globe for software engineers, product managers, DevOps engineers, designers, and data scientists. Of course, this year is a very funky year, one that, owing to the pandemic, looks to see an accelerated shift toward more remote work. So this year, Hired split its findings its two parts — pre COVID-19 and post. It published data about who was being paid what in 2019, but also how those numbers might change going forward, particularly if more companies adopt localized compensation as Facebook has said it will do with its own employees. First, a look at the world before the coronavirus swept through and upended so much. From San Francisco to London, everyone working in tech was seeing steady gains leading into 2020, according to Hired. San Francisco sala

Say ‘so long’ to the original Segway

Segway’s story can’t be told without rehashing its entry onto the scene as one of the most hyped tech products of the early 21st century. Alternately codenamed “Ginger” and “IT,” the personal mobility device engendered serious conversations among futurists about the ways in which it would transform sidewalks and cities. Nearly 20 years after its initial release, however, the two-wheeled Segway PT is done . Parent company Ninebot is ceasing production of Dean Kamen’s best-known invention, as it lays off 21 employees at its New Hampshire plant who worked on the project. As is so often the case, things didn’t go as expected. Along the way, the Segway found some love among tour guides and cops. Certainly everyone’s favorite Kevin James film wouldn’t have been the same without it. Ultimately, the company sold about 140,000 models over the two-decade life of the product, making it, at best, a personal mobility niche. In April 2015, the company was acquired by Ninebot. The Chinese robotic

French contact-tracing app StopCovid has been activated 1.8 million times but only sent 14 notifications

France released StopCovid three weeks ago . The government is holding a press conference today to give an update on the app. In particular, this conference is a good opportunity to share some numbers. Over the past three weeks, 1.9 million people downloaded the app on the App Store or Play Store. Out of those 1.9 million people, 1,814,048 users opened the app and activated StopCovid. You can disable StopCovid and delete your personal data whenever you want. 23,953 people have deactivated the app over the past three weeks. And 460,000 people simply uninstalled the app. Given that the app doesn’t ask you to register with your name and address, the government has little information about who’s using the app and where. The government will run surveys to learn more. Over the last week alone, 190,000 people downloaded the app but “tens of thousands” of people uninstalled it. The government says that people may feel like the coronavirus outbreak is over in France — there are still new ca

Widgets in iPadOS 14 Limited to Today View in Landscape Mode

In iOS 14 for iPhone and iPod touch , widgets can be pinned in different sizes on any home screen page, providing useful information at a glance. The same can't be said for iPad . In iPadOS 14, the use of widgets is limited to the Today View sidebar that only appears on the first screen of apps when viewing in landscape mode. When viewed in portrait mode, Widgets disappear along with the Today View and the user's apps are automatically rearranged in a typical grid to fill the screen. In other respects, Widgets in ‌iPadOS‌ 14 share the same new functionality as widgets in ‌iOS 14‌. Users can create a Smart Stack of widgets, which uses machine learning to surface the right widget based on time, location, and activity. Widgets also can be customized for work, travel, sports, entertainment, and other areas of interest. Currently, the App Library feature is missing in ‌iPadOS‌ 14, although it could possibly appear in a later beta. Apart from this and the limitation of wid

Singapore-based options trading platform Sparrow raises $3.5 million Series A

Sparrow Exchange , a Bitcoin and Ethereum options trading platform based in Singapore, announced today it has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by HDR Group, the owner of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, with participation from Signum Capital, Du Capital and FinLab EOS VC. The funding will be used to develop Sparrow’s platform and launch new products and services. Earlier this month, for example, it introduced an iOS-optimized mobile interface , and has other releases coming soon. Since launching a year ago, Sparrow has seen over $150 million in options trading volume. In a press statement, FinLab EOS VC Fund managing director Stefan Schuetze said, “We are excited to invest in Sparrow, which is developing the next generation of financial products by leveraging EOSIO for their on-chain settlement layer.” Despite the pandemic, the company says its seen an increase in volume over the past few months, as Bitcoin trading reached record highs in several countrie

On illegal hate speech, EU lawmakers eye binding transparency for platforms

It’s more than four years since major tech platforms signed up to a voluntary pan-EU Code of Conduct on illegal hate speech removals. Yesterday the European Commission’s latest assessment of the non-legally binding agreement lauds “overall positive” results — with 90% of flagged content assessed within 24 hours and 71% of the content deemed to be illegal hate speech removed. The latter is up from just 28% in 2016. However the report cards finds platforms are still lacking in transparency. Nor are they providing users with adequate feedback on the issue of hate speech removals, in the Commission’s view . Platforms responded and gave feedback to 67.1% of the notifications received, per the report card — up from 65.4% in the previous monitoring exercise. Only Facebook informs users systematically — with the Commission noting: “All the other platforms have to make improvements.” In another criticism, its assessment of platforms’ performance in dealing with hate speech reports found i

Apple Drops Force Touch Gesture in watchOS 7

Apple has elected to drop support for Force Touch in watchOS 7, indicating that the Apple Watch Series 6 will not include the firm-press gesture from the outset. Force Touch used in the Weather app on watchOS 6 Force Touch can be used in ‌watchOS 6‌ to reveal hidden menus on ‌Apple Watch‌, such as options to clear notifications and customize the current Watch Face. These options will no longer be accessed using the Force Touch gesture when watchOS 7 is released. Apple's new Human Interface Guidelines for developers making apps for watchOS 7 confirms the change: Firm press and long press. In versions of watchOS before watchOS 7, people could press firmly on the display to do things like change the watch face or reveal a hidden menu called a Force Touch menu. In watchOS 7 and later, system apps make previously hidden menu items accessible in a related screen or a settings screen. If you formerly supported a long-press gesture to open a hidden menu, consider relocating the me

Google might face class action lawsuit due to Pixel 3’s hardware defects

The law firm is currently asking Pixel 3 owners to share the problems they experienced and investigating whether or not the defects are hardware related. What you need to know Google may be slapped with a class-action lawsuit by a law firm for the Pixel 3's battery drain and camera issues. The law firm is currently investing whether the defects reported by Pixel 3 owners are hardware related. Some Pixel 3 owners had been complaining about battery issues on Google's support pages since April last year. In February this year, Google started paying out cash settlements for the original Pixel's class action lawsuit . Just two days after sending out settlement checks to Pixel and Pixel XL owners with defective microphones, the company began paying settlement checks to Nexus 6P owners with bootloop issues. It now looks like Google may soon have to deal with another class-action lawsuit due to the battery drain and camera issues plaguing some of its Pixel 3 series phones

Swile raises $78.7 million for its corporate lunch card and benefits app

French startup Swile , the startup formerly known as Lunchr, raised a $78.7 million (€70 million) Series C round a few months ago. The startup wants to manage all your corporate benefits and improve team building in general. Index Ventures is leading the round, Bpifrance and Idinvest are also participating. Index Ventures already led the company’s Series B round. The company first launched a payment card for your lunch. In France, companies have to contribute to lunch when it’s in the middle of a workday. Some companies offer a cafeteria with cheap meals, others hand out meal vouchers. Until recently, those meal vouchers were made out of paper. The vast majority of restaurants accept those vouchers as a payment method. Legacy meal voucher companies started offering prepaid cards that are specifically designed to work in restaurants and stores that participate in the network. Swile took advantage of that shift to offer a card that works better than what legacy players offer. For