According to a post by WABetaInfo, the company has started working on the feature in the background. The post notes that this is baked into functionality that will let you use a single account — in WhatsApp’s case, your phone number — on multiple devices. [Read: In space, bacteria is even more deadly and resilient to antibiotics] The current development suggests that you’ll be able to use one number on four devices for WhatsApp....
After announcing the feature, the company says this move has already had a positive impact on its service, in just two weeks. In a statement, WhatsApp said it saw a 70% reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages: WhatsApp considers any message forwarded more than five times as a “highly forwarded” message. [Read: WhatsApp increases group call limit from 4 to 8 people] In 2018, WhatsApp first introduced a limit on the number of people you can send that message to in one go....
The Facebook-owned company’s initial plan was to roll out this policy by February 8. However, because of the backlash, it had to postpone this update to May 15. WhatsApp is not changing its schedule or privacy policy. But it’s introducing a banner in the app to make you understand it better. You can tap on the banner to read the explainer, learn more, and accept it. You can just choose to read at the moment, but you’ll eventually have to accept it by May 15 to keep using the service....
And it’s not for lack of trying. In 2018, banks globally invested $9.7 billion in digital transformation initiatives. Yet, today only 36% believe they’re at least halfway there. This isn’t entirely surprising as a whopping 78% of enterprises fail on their digital transformation initiatives. So just what is still holding banks back? We spoke with the team from Rangle.io, a tech company that helps banks up their game with mobile and web solutions, to find out what barriers banks are facing and how they can be overcome....
Well, there’s another elusive particle that has also been predicted by quantum physics, and it’s been missing for an even longer time. In fact, we still haven’t spotted one, and not through lack of trying. It’s called the magnetic monopole, and it has a few unique properties that make it rather special. Parallels Those with an interest in physics are probably already familiar with an electric monopole, although you may know it by its more common name: electric charge....
Their creed? Buy the deepest dips! The hardest hit companies — especially those in the travel industry — have seen the highest increase in interest (or unique holdings among Robinhood users), according to Robintrack data. This is spanning from airlines, to cruise liners and entertainment parks (i.e. Disney), and now even bankrupt car rental company Hertz. Now, none of these companies have fully recovered yet, as opposed to companies in other sectors like technology and healthcare....
My next question is generally around the go to market strategy and how their VR/AR app will be promoted. Invariably, creators are caught in the hype and excitement of building great content, and a tad unrealistic about this aspect of their business. Most of the answers I get are in the lines of ‘we will publish it on the Steam/App Store for $19.99/$1.99.’ While this sounds like a simple and lucrative proposition, the reality is that less than 1 percent of developers actually pull that off....
One technique that has gained prominence in helping business people and officials deal with events that have a low probability but high impact is called scenario analysis or scenario planning. There are a number of different methods that can be used to model scenarios, but in essence these all involve developing stories about a number of possible ways that the future could unfold. Probably the best known and most widely used approach, which was developed within Shell during the 1970s, involves groups of stakeholders discussing what happens when two unrelated but highly uncertain drivers of change interact in extreme ways....
When we’re talking about entrepreneurship nowadays, it’s all about the grind. Being a step further, working an hour longer, not settling for less, learning from mistakes but ultimately taking winning as the only result. Philosophy of grind lives in countless motivational videos on YouTube, numerous books written by the business visionaries (and the people faking to be ones), almost infinite number of famous people’s quotes. The grind is real but the perpetual grind has severe consequences....
“I’m a forward-thinking person who appreciates comfort and good products™, and I shall enjoy the fruits of this technological modernity we live in,” is what I imagine wireless charging connoisseurs think to themselves as they wake up and lift their phone off their Qi-enabled night stand, probably made by IKEA. I’m willing to concede this person does not exist in the real world, but I still think this gimmicky vibe is the true spirit of wireless charging....
By the end of 2020, AWS held 32 percent of the cloud market, while a busy year for Azure pushed them to a closest-ever 20 percent, backed by 50 percent revenue growth for the year. Now, Microsoft is continuing their push, even angling to get the Azure cloud aboard the International Space Station. If you’re an IT pro or considering a career in the cloud and you haven’t looked at Azure yet, the training in The Complete 2021 Microsoft Azure Certification Prep Bundle ($39, over 90 percent off, from TNW Deals) can help fill this increasingly glaring hole in your cloud education....
Anyway, onto my deeply, deeply uninspiring journey. Here at TNW we were asked to work from home in the middle of March. Now, one of the great things about working here is our flexible remote working policy. When the lockdown happened, I didn’t think my work life would change that much. I mean, I write at home constantly, how different could it be? Then my body betrayed me. [Read: Please, won’t someone let me buy a kettlebell?...
Xbox head Phil Spencer said this in an interview with Protocol: Is it me, or are the console manufacturers acting like a couple that just had a breakup? They have this weird detente going on. Sony wants to know on the sly what price Microsoft is putting on its new console. Microsoft is insisting it’s over Sony and all about its new rivalry with the cool kids. [Read: The Nintendo Switch has probably outsold the Xbox One] Regardless, Spencer’s not wrong, but I don’t think he needed to throw shade at Sony or Nintendo to make his point....
The company has introduced a new 1.56-inch AMOLED display compared to last year’s Mi Band 5 design that featured a 1.1-inch AMOLED screen. Plus, Xiaomi is refreshing the interface and new default watch faces will show you more information in a more dignified manner on that 326 ppi (pixels per inch) screen. There are two versions of the band: the NFC version for China and the non-NFC version for the rest of the world....
That’s no longer a constraint. Facebook is now able to create 3D images without your phone’s portrait mode. Instead, the company uses AI to calculate depth – a similar method to what Google uses to create portrait mode photos in the first place – meaning no second lens or special portrait mode is needed. This also means it could also work with different subjects like paintings. In other words, expect 3D photos to become a lot more popular as the feature rolls out to more users....
Virtual reality may finally be inching into the mainstream. Sales of VR headsets reportedly skyrocketed during the pandemic and the systems feature prominently in the growing hype around the metaverse. Most of this tech is designed for entertainment, but it’s also gaining traction in the workplace. One of the developers of these applications is Friends With Holograms. The New York-based digital agency focuses on creating VR and AR training that generates empathy to address social issues....
Compared with Rewinds of years past, this one — titled “For the Record” — is almost depressingly sedate. It’s basically a listicle in which YouTube rattles off the most-viewed or most-liked videos of the year and other statistics. There isn’t even any narration. Compare it to the original Rewind from 2011, which at least had Rebecca Black throwing in some color commentary. Rewind 2019 is just a few brief, epileptic clips from each of the videos spliced together with some music....
At the end of May, Vox host Carlos Maza tweeted a thread exposing several instances where right-wing YouTube commentator Steven Crowder clearly made homophobic and racist comments about him on his YouTube video series, Strikethrough. — Carlos Maza (@gaywonk) May 31, 2019 In response to this, Youtube conducted an investigation, and a week later, the video-sharing platform said Crowder did not violate any of its policies. Therefore his channel, which has almost 4 million subscribers, will remain on YouTube — despite his repeated homophobic slurs broadcasted on the platform....
Good news then: YouTube may soon let you set a default quality setting on the mobile app. Or well, at least once the worst of coronavirus is over. XDA recently spotted code in the latest version of YouTube’s Android app that suggests the company is preparing to implement a default quality setting that would allow you to choose between “high,” “low,” and “auto” bitrates. The app does not specify what resolutions the videos would use, but presumably, the “high” setting refers to HD or higher....
The crowd-sourced study found that 71% of the videos that volunteers deemed regrettable were actively recommended by YouTube’s own algorithm. Non-English speakers were far more likely to find videos that they considered disturbing: the rate of YouTube regrets was 60% higher in countries that don’t have English as a primary language. Up front: The report is based on data collected through Mozilla’s RegretsReporter, a browser extension that allows users to provide information on harmful videos and the recommendations that led them there....
