Taylor Swift has been targeted by online bullies CREDIT: AP
Social media attacks on celebrities have been thwarted after Instagram handed Taylor Swift and other high-profile users the special ability to block thousands of internet trolls.
The photo-sharing website, beloved of the American popstar and fellow celebrities including Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian, has granted its most popular users a new tool allowing them to automatically prevent slurs and insults.
The move is a new defence against armies of online bullies, which have forced several high-profile users off Twitter and have been blamed for causing stress and depression.
Q. How do I add my own photos to the blank entries on the Android Contacts app? A. In Android 5.0 and later, open the Contacts on your Android device and tap the entry you want to use. Tap the pencil-shaped Edit icon. Once you are in editing mode, you can change any of the information in the contact file and add a picture.
In the picture area at the top of the contact screen, tap the camera icon in the bottom-right corner. In the Change Photo box, choose Take Photo (to summon the device’s camera and snap a picture right there) or Choose Photo (to pick a picture from the device’s photo library). Tap the checkmark-shaped Save icon when you are satisfied. On some Android devices, you may see a Change button near the photo instead of a camera icon to get you started with picking a new picture for the contact file.
If the contacts you edit on your Android device are synchronized with the contacts in your Google Account, the changes you make on your phone or tablet will also appear on the Contacts screen you use with your Gmail account on the web. Likewise, if you are syncing Google Account contacts with your Android device, you can edit the files and add photos from the Google Contacts screen in your web browser — the contacts will automatically update over your device’s network connection.
1. Click on the start menu and type in the search box “DISK PARTITION”
2. A window will appear with title “disk management”.
3. Locate which drive you wish to partition
4. Right click on the selected drive you wish to partition and select “SHRINK VOLUME”
5. A menu will pop up showing: “total size before shrink”, size of available shrink”, “enter the amount of space to shrink” and “total size after shrink”
6. Select the “amount of space to shrink” and enter the desired size but it cannot exceed the total size of the disk
7. After entering the desired size, clink on the “SHRINK” tab/button to begin the process
8. You will see among the partitioned drives “UNALLOCATED”. That is the newly created partition
9 Right click on it and select “NEW SIMPLE VOLUME”
10. A “welcome to the new simple volume wizard” will appear. Click on the “NEXT” button
11. A “specify volume size” wizard will follow. Just click on the “NEXT” button
12. A “assign drive letter or path” wizard will follow and still click on the “NEXT” button. Don’t change the letter already assigned.
13. In the “format partition” wizard click on the “NEXT” button again to format the newly partitioned drive. In the “volume label” you can choose to change the name or maintain it. Please don’t uncheck anything in this window.
14. A “completing the new simple volume wizard” will appear. Click finish to complete the procedure.
THIS IS TO GIVE YOU A DETAILED STEP BY STEP APPROACH WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM ELSEWHERE.
From the very beginning of Android, Apple has been complaining that its Android competitors are ripping off its iPhone designs.
Whether the culprit is the Samsung Galaxy S, the HTC One A9, or the ZTE Whatever, Apple is all too happy to remind the world that it's the leader and Android device makers are its followers.
Well, things have been changing lately, and today's debut of the Huawei P9 adds momentum to a growing tide of distinctive new phones coming out of China — ones that aren't defined by a religious adherence to photocopying the iPhone.
The Huawei P9 and the Xiaomi Mi 5 before it are the harbingers of a much more dangerous rival to Apple, a set of Chinese manufacturers capable of crafting their own, attractive, even premium designs.
Toyota announced on Monday that it’s creating a new company called Toyota Connected to serve as the carmaker’s data science hub as it seeks to connect cars to people’s daily lives. Microsoft Azure will be the cloud computing platform, providing a hybrid solution for everything Toyota Connected creates as it works to make driving more personal, more intuitive and safer.
“We’ve all been talking about big data for a long time, but we are at a unique point in history where the technology is catching up with what we hope to achieve by delivering new services and capabilities into the vehicle,” said Zack Hicks, president and chief executive officer of Toyota Connected.
With the new venture, Toyota and Microsoft envision a world where cars are giant smartphones you ride in, with a virtual assistant that knows the best routes, whom to notify if traffic will make you late for a meeting, what your blood pressure is doing during stop-and-go, and which restaurants at the next exit might be most to your liking.
WhatsApp yesterday announced it has finally rolled out end-to-end encryption to all users globally, making the IM safer to third party access.
The move means a user’s WhatsApp message will not be read by any other person but only be read by the intended recipient. With end-to-end encryption, eavesdroppers, hackers, cyber-criminals and ISPs and government agencies cannot access or read people’s communication.
Jan Koum, in Facebook Post said, “WhatsApp has always prioritized making your data and communication as secure as possible. And today, we’re proud to announce that we’ve completed a technological development that makes WhatsApp a leader in protecting your private communication: full end-to-end encryption. From now on when you and your contacts use the latest version of the app, every call you make, and every message, photo, video, file, and voice message you send, is end-to-end encrypted by default, including group chats.”
Koum added: “when you send a message, the only person who can read it is the person or group chat that you send that message to. No one can see inside that message. Not cybercriminals. Not hackers. Not oppressive regimes. Not even us. End-to-end encryption helps make communication via WhatsApp private – sort of like a face-to-face conversation.”
WhatsApp’s end-to-end encription comes weeks after Apple rejected FBI’s plea to Apple to access one of its customer’s iPhone. Apple rejected the request but FBI said it went further on its own to acess the phone. WhatsApp supported Apple’s move.
WhatsApp has been working on end-to-end encryption for nearly two years and the roll out brings a new era in user data safety which is likely to be taken up by more tech giants against repressive regimes. Encryption will promote safety and security as the world goes digital.
“While we recognize the important work of law enforcement in keeping people safe, efforts to weaken encryption risk exposing people’s information to abuse from cybercriminals, hackers, and rogue states,” Koum said. “While WhatsApp is among the few communication platforms to build full end-to-end encryption that is on by default for everything you do, we expect that it will ultimately represent the future of personal communication.”
Rocket Internet is steadily exiting its ventures in Africa, Asia and Middle East by selling out equity to new investors in venture groups it help start in partnerhip with Millicom and MTN.
Today, the firm sold an $85m (75 million-euro) just a few weeks after it signed up AXA and Goldman Sachs. The latest raise from Orange will help validate Rocket Internet as well as give the cash it needs to stay afloat.
This investment underscores Orange’s commitment to Africa, a high-growth territory where nearly one in ten inhabitants is an Orange customer, and confirms the Group’s determination to provide the best digital services to its customers.
Stéphane Richard, Chairman and CEO of Orange, stated: “We are particularly pleased to announce our entry into the capital of Africa Internet Group. With this strategic investment, Orange now has the capacity to play a leading role in the fast-growing e-commerce market in Africa. This acquisition is combined with the signature of several important partnership agreements that will create value for all parties.”
The firm said that the investment will enable it to significantly develop our ability to market products and services developed by Orange Middle East & Africa over the Internet.
Google revealed on Thursday that it sidelined more than 780 million ads deemed rude, dishonest or dangerous in 2015 in a leap from the 524 million targeted a year earlier.
“Some ads are just plain bad — like ads that carry malware, cover up content you’re trying to see, or promote fake goods,” Google senior vice president of ads and commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy said in a blog post.
“Bad ads can ruin your entire online experience, a problem we take very seriously.”
Google has a team of more than 1,000 people around the world devoted to fighting “bad ads,” and has armed them with sophisticated technology, according to Ramaswamy.
Google disables ads for violating the California-based Internet giant’s policies.
More than 10,000 websites and 18,000 accounts were suspended for hawking counterfeit goods such as designer watch knock-offs, and Google blocked more than 12.5 million healthcare-related ads that included offering drugs that were approved for use or made claims that weren’t properly supported.
Weight-loss scams were among top complaints by Google users last year, and the company responded by suspending more than 30,000 websites for making misleading claims, Ramaswamy said.
Google also blocked nearly 7,000 “phishing” websites crafted to looked like online pages of legitimate businesses such as banks but intended to trick people into entering passwords or other personal information.
“We got even tougher on ads that mislead or trick people into interacting with them — like ads designed to look like system warnings from your computer,” Ramaswamy said.
“In 2015 alone we rejected more than 17 million.”
Google vowed to ramp the war on bad online ads this year. It also said it will increase defenses against malicious software and computer networks known as “bots” programmed to automatically click online ads to drive up revenue from pay-per-click marketing messages. Via Starrfm
Audi has introduced today in Japan the A8 5.5 which comes with a built-in rice cooker.
Specially developed for Japan, the Audi A8 5.5 gets its name from 5(five) Go and 0.5(half) Han, coming from the term "gohan", which means rice in Japanese. It comes equipped with a rear console-mounted rice cooker designed specifically for the full-size luxury sedan that can cook the "perfect rice ever" thanks to its intense heat convection inside the Japanese rice cooking pot called Hagama.
The owner can use an on-board touchscreen menu panel to select from various cooking options while an Audi-branded rice paddle will come bundled but only for a limited amount of time. Pricing hasn't been disclosed but Audi says the A8 5.5 will be commercialized only in Japan.
Want to earn an extra 2GB of storage space on Google Drive for 2 minutes of your time? Read on to find out how.
Same as last year, Google is now offering an additional 2GB of Drive storage for users who complete the Account Security Checkup, in honor of Safer Internet Day. This year, you only have until February 11, 2016, to complete the checkup.
Right now users can do the same checkup (it's been spruced up a bit) and receive 2GB of space in addition to any previous offers you've obtained on Google Drive. So if you're interested, act fast.
To get started, head to the Security Checkup tool that Google provides for your account. You'll need to verify your backup information, including phone number, recovery email address and backup security question. These fields must be filled out for this portion of the security checkup to be considered complete
Recent activity on your Google account.Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET
Now you'll be able to check your connected devices that have recently signed-in to your account. If you have any mobile devices attached to your Google account, you will see them in this list. If something looks wrong, you'll be prompted to change the password on your account to make sure the device in question can no longer connect.
Google account permissions.Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET
This next section might be a long one if you've used Google to log in to many devices or websites. Each device and site will be listed with a Remove button to the right, allowing you to cancel access right now. You can always come back to this at a later time if you change devices or no longer want to use a specific website/service. This is the end of the security checkup if you are not using two-step authentication.
App-specific passwords.Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET
If you are using two-step authentication on your account, you may notice that some devices do not support the authentication code. For these, you would have used an application-specific password. This section allows you to revoke any of the devices you no longer want on your account.
Two-step verification settings.Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET
The final section of the security checkup includes your 2-step verification settings, which should include a backup phone number and backup codes. The phone number will help you work out access to your account with Google if you lose other methods of logging in, and the backup codes serve as one-use passwords if you lose the authenticator.
After finishing, you'll see a "Nicely done" page load, with the message that 2 GB of Drive space will be awarded to your account to celebrate Safer Internet Day. So hurry, and grab your free gigs now!
Facebook-owned smartphone messaging service WhatsApp has hit the billion-user mark, according to the leading social network’s chief and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.
“One billion people now use WhatsApp,” Zuckerberg said in a post on his Facebook page.
“There are only a few services that connect more than a billion people.”
Google’s free email service, Gmail, is the latest of the Internet giant’s offerings to crest the billion-user mark, chief Sundar Pichai said Monday during an earnings call.
The ranks of people using WhatsApp have more than doubled since California-based Facebook bought the service for $19 billion in late 2014, according to Zuckerberg.
“That’s nearly one-in-seven people on Earth who use WhatsApp each month to stay in touch with their loved ones, their friends and their family,” the WhatsApp team said in a blog post.
After buying WhatsApp, Facebook made the service completely free. The next step, according to Zuckerberg, is to make it easier to use the service to communicate with businesses.
Weaving WhatsApp into exchanges between businesses and customers has the potential to create revenue opportunity for Facebook.
Recent media reports have indicated that Facebook is working behind the scenes to integrate WhatsApp more snugly into the world’s leading social network by providing the ability to share information between the services.
Amazon's new delivery drone is a cross between a plane and a helicopter, and can avoid obstacles to drop off packages.
Amazon has unveiled a new hybrid delivery drone that can travel up to 15 miles at high speed.
In a new video released by the online retail giant, one of its drones is seen landing on a designated spot in someone's back garden.
A flap underneath the drone opens up, and a package is deposited on the lawn.
Amazon says the drone can fly around obstacles thanks to built-in safety features - an attempt to appease regulators who are generally resistant to the idea of drone delivery.
Remember all the recent reports saying that while the iPhone 7 won’t have an OLED display, it’s likely that Apple will come out with an OLED iPhone by 2018?
Now, there’s one more hint that Apple’s iPhone is about to go OLED when it comes to screen technology
LG confirmed that it will invest no less than $8.4 billion in a new OLED plant that seems to suggest the Korean giant is preparing for a big boost in demand for OLED displays.
Microsoft’s Windows 10 November update brings with it a handy “find my device” feature, but it’s not just for tablets or phones. Any Windows 10 device can take advantage of the new feature, including desktops and laptops.
Find My Device in Windows 10 doesn’t do a whole lot right now. There isn’t a way to have your tablet make a sound, lock itself, erase data, or anything like that. Instead, you can only find out where its last known general location was.
Nevertheless, if you want to try this feature out here’s how to turn it on.
Find My Device is buried under Settings > Update & Security.
To active this feature go to Start > Update & Security > Find My Device.
On this screen you’ll see a big Change button under the heading “Find My Device is off.”
Turn this slider to On and you’re done.
Once you click Change you’ll see a pop-up panel that says “Save my device’s location periodically.” Turn the slider to On and you’re done.
Find My Device is now on.
You should now see that the Find My Device screen has changed to “Find My Device is on” as seen above.
To make sure everything is working, login to account.microsoft.com/devices with your Microsoft account and you should see the name of your PC listed under “Your devices.”
If you don’t know the name of your device, right-click on the Start button and selectSystem. In the Control Panel window that opens you’ll see it under “Computer name.”
This story, "How to turn on Windows 10's Find My Device feature" was originally published by PCWorld.
YES, of course, you could say; it would be crazy to think otherwise! But on the other hand, British mathematician George Boole taught us that NO, things can be seen as relatively simple; any values can be pared down to yes or no, true or false, or 0 or 1 (which, here at Google, is our personal favorite).
In 1849, Boole was appointed as the first Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, where he pioneered developments in logic and mathematics. His beautiful binary “Boolean” system was detailed in An Investigation of the Laws of Thought in 1854, which inevitably enabled revolutionary thinking in not just logic and math, but also engineering and computer science.
As one of the most important scientists to have ever worked in Ireland, Boole effectively laid the foundations of the entire Information Age while working from UCC. So it’s fair to say that without George Boole, there’d be no Google! So, as a tribute to Boole’s contributions, artist Leon Hong created today’s doodle, which cycles through all the ANDs, ORs, NOTs, and even XORs of the Boolean states for two discrete variables.
A very happy 11001000th birthday to genius George Boole!
At its IFA 2015 press event, Samsung emphasized the customization options of the Gear S2 and the plethora of designers and partners it has to pull it off. The collaborations include companies like Case-Mate, Casetify, Chow Tai Fook, Incipio, iTFit and SLG Design (also known as TheSom) and now Samsung is showing off what they have done for the Gear S2.
Starting with Case-Mate, which will offer leather bands for the Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic. Then, there are the more colorful Casetify straps in five distinctive designs (Dark Marble, Woodland Camouflage, Coral Tribal, Diamond, White Marble). They're made of sweat-resistant thermoplastic polyurethane (try saying that three times fast).
Case-Mate bands • Casetify straps
Chow Tai Fook bands will be sold in China and Hong Kong and are quite luxurious with diamond accents and 18k gold. iTFit will offers several straps made from NATO materials, which feature woven cloth and are hypoallergenic. Finally, SLG Design and Incipio will also offer straps, some of which look quite cool for our taste.
Chow Tai Fook • iTFit • SLG Design
This all goes to show the lengths to which Samsung has gone to offer unmatched personalization for its Gear S2 and Gear S2 classic smartwatches. It'll be interesting to see how much these niceties will cost, but we doubt any of them will beat an Apple Watch Edition with an Hermes leather band.
If bigger truly is better, Samsung has just taken the wraps off the best tablet we may have ever seen. Its name is the Galaxy View and this goliath has a whopping 18.4-inch display. You read that correctly -- 18.4 inches from corner to corner of its widescreen display. Release date and pricing are currently unknown, but expect Samsung to charge a premium for this leviathan.
Ridiculous though that might sound, Samsung reckons the View serves a noble purpose: couch potato nirvana. It's geared solely towards watching video. That's something you can already do on smaller tablets, of course, but the View's huge size will make movies and TV shows a lot more immersive.
The View is far less portable than most any other tablet, of course. It's heavy, you won't fit it into a backpack, and you'll look really daft using one on the bus. It doesn't need to be tethered to a power socket though, so unlike your TV you can watch it in your bedroom, carry it into your kitchen, and even pay a visit to the bathroom, all without missing a moment of "Spongebob".
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
It's running Android at its core -- version 5.1 Lollipop, to be specific -- but Samsung will load the slate with a custom overlay that puts streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and so on right at your fingertips. (Your media selection will vary by market: The UK, for instance, gets BBC iPlayer as well.)
You can switch back to the regular Android interface if you prefer, and you'll have full access to the Google Play Store, so the full realm of Android apps and games will be available to you. With Google Docs downloaded, and with a wireless keyboard attached, the View could also make a fair replacement for a desktop all-in-one PC.
Being an easily portable media machine for the home means the View is targeted much more towards families than the Android power user. As such, Samsung hasn't equipped the View with particularly high-end specs. It has a full HD display (1,920x1,080 pixels), rather than the higher resolution ultra HD screens seen on its smaller Tab S2 line, and its octa-core processor runs at just 1.6GHz. I'm not expecting that chip to fly -- gamers will probably want to look elsewhere -- but for the movie-munching tasks it's built for, I imagine it'll cope well.
The battery is expected to provide up to 8 hours of video playback, which is enough even to sit through "The Hobbit". It has a built-in stand too, which lets it lay almost flat, making typing and sketching easier, or to stand almost upright -- better for propping up and watching flicks.
Andrew Hoyle/CNET
Samsung hasn't paired the View with a stylus, as with its Note range, but I can really see this being a benefit on future models. As well as graphic designers appreciating the larger screen, I can picture families sitting around the View, creating all kinds of fun sketches together.
Outlook
Just as Samsung's Galaxy Note phones blur the line between phone and tablet, its Galaxy View blurs the line between tablet and TV. I'm not entirely certain that's a line that needed to be blurred, but I can't deny that a large, immersive movie display that I can still move easily around the house is appealing.
The View's make-or-break will certainly be its price and if Samsung hopes to get this massive slate into families' homes the world over, it'll need a very affordable price tag. There's so far no word on exactly how much this monster will cost, or indeed when it'll be on sale, but we'll update this analysis with all the news as we get it.
Google received an "A'' from investors for its third-quarter report that ushered the Internet search leader into a new era under Alphabet, its recently formed parent company.
The numbers released Thursday indicated that Google is making significant strides in the increasingly important mobile-device market, with its earnings surging 45 percent to nearly $4 billion, or $5.73 per share.
Ruth Porat, Alphabet's chief financial officer, cited improvements in mobile search and more mobile traffic on Google's YouTube video site as keys to the quarter.
Alphabet, which replaced Google as a publicly traded stock earlier this month, won extra credit by announcing plans to spend nearly $5.1 billion buying its own shares over an unspecified period. Buying back stock is something Google never did in its 11-year history as a publicly traded company.
