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Facebook now allows cross-text between Instagram DM and Messenger.

By
Ramana Rishi
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0
Image Credit: hypebeast.com

Recently, Facebook made an announcement that the Direct Message feature of Instagram will be backed up by the Facebook Messenger engine and soon users will be able to use them as a single platform between both the apps. Now Facebook has officially announced that they will be merging the Instagram Messages with Facebook Messenger, which would allow the users to send messages cross-platform. Now the users will be able to send the messages from Instagram directly to Messenger and vice-versa. 

This would mean that people who have Instagram can send messages to people on Facebook, without even having to download the Messenger app on the phone. Also, the company has previously announced that Instagram Direct messages will get all the features that are currently available in the Facebook Messenger app, such as vanishing messages, selfie stickers, custom emoji, chat colors, and new ways to block unwanted messages. They have also launched a new feature called the “Watch Together” feature which would allow the users to watch the videos on IGTV and Reels with friends during a video call. 

The vanishing feature is something that you will see on both Facebook and Instagram and soon on WhatsApp as well, where the messages are deleted as soon as they are read. As mentioned before by the company that the update to the messaging platform is not a mandate and the user will get the option to update immediately or get the update later. The update is not yet available in all the countries but will soon be rolled out globally.

Microsoft Outlook users face outage and glitches on Thursday.

By
Alex Infant
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0
Image Credit: nypost.com

Another glitch or outage was reported by Microsoft Outlook users on Thursday, impacting webmail, desktop and mobile were down for nearly four hours worldwide. The outage primarily affected the Indian users and Microsoft later confirmed that the outage has been experienced worldwide. Microsoft also confirmed that the services with which the users would be facing issues with will be Exchange Online accounts, including Outlook desktop and mobile. 

The official tweet of Microsoft says that “We’ve received reports of users experiencing issues accessing their Exchange Online accounts via Outlook on the Web. Our initial investigation indicates that India-based users are primarily impacted by the audience.“” This is the second time this week that Microsoft has faced such an outage and has affected the users on a large scale. Earlier to this Microsoft Office 365 faced a severe outage for the US customers, affecting the business throughout the country. 

The recent downtime was due to a recent configuration update. In their official tweet, they mentioned that “We’ve determined that a recent configuration update to components that route user requests was the cause of impact. We’ve reverted the update and are monitoring the service for recovery.“” Microsoft has also updated that they have reverted the update that was causing the issue and monitoring the service for recovery. They also confirmed that the problem was a service interruption while performing authentication and there was no malicious activity involved. The service is now available to all the users on Outlook and the issue has been resolved by the company.

Google expands Google Play Pass Services to 24 new countries.

By
Alex Infant
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0
ImageCredit: androidpolice.com

Since Google introduced the Google Play pass last year, it has been expanding the services to other countries as well. Google’s subscription service for apps and games was first made available to the US market and has now rolled out to nine other countries this summer. Since the launch of Pixel 5 recently, the company is now expanding the Google Play Pass service to even more countries. Google has announced the Play Pass will be expanding to 24 new countries to give wider availability in Spain, New Zealand, and more. 

The list of countries that will be getting this feature is Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden. For people who do not know about Google Play Pass, it is actually a subscription-based service from Google which provides access to LIMBO, Stardew Valley, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and many other popular apps and titles. 

By using the service, you will not have to purchase these titles separately and will not have to worry about ads while using the apps. The list of supported apps in the Google Play Pass has been increasing ever since and can easily be checked out by a user before subscribing to it. Google has been expanding its services very aggressively in the market and is making sure that its services are available to a global audience with the same set of features throughout.

OnePlus to launch a new OnePlus Nord N10 5G smartphone in the US market

By
Sriram
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0
Image Credit: gizbot.com

Although we might we waiting for the new OnePlus 8T from OnePlus in the coming weeks, we already know that the company is working on many different consumer products which might be a part of the product lineup in the future. Although there is a lot of hype around the launch of OnePlus 8T, there is another device that the company can soon launch in the market. The device is OnePlus Nord N10 5G. Although this will not be a global variant, it will only be a US-specific launch and will be sold only in the US market. 

The company has already teased the same on the Twitter account handle with a coming soon message. OnePlus is going to hold a virtual event on October 14, which everyone is waiting to see the first look of the most anticipated OnePlus 8T. The teaser has been placed at the time, that it makes people think that it might also be the stage for the company to release the new OnePlus Nord N10 5G. The newer Nord model is expected to be more powerful and efficient than the original OnePlus Nord. 

It is expected to house a Qualcomm Snapdragon 690 processor that supports 5G connectivity. Also, it can have a 6.49-inch display and a 90Hz refresh rate for a smoother experience. The phone will continue to have the quad-camera setup on the rear with a 64MP primary sensor. The phone is expected to launch under $400 in the US market, which will be a very competitive price.

Microsoft offers a new Surface Lineup with Surface Laptop Go and revamped Surface Pro X.

By
Sriram
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0
Image Credit: news.microsoft.com

Microsoft Surface Lineup has been one of the most popular and premium segment for the company. The company is now going to add more devices to the lineup and will announce their new Microsoft Surface Laptop Go with a 12.5-inch display and Microsoft Surface Pro X with upgraded specs, which are due to launch on October 1, 2020. The details reveal that Microsoft will unveil the products for pre-order with the launch and sales at a later date. 

The Surface Laptop Go will be a more affordable version that the regular Surface Laptop 3 as it will come in smaller 12.5-inch display size. It has been focused majorly on students and companies which are looking for a more affordable option to go for. The configuration will most probably come with 4 GB RAM and 64GB of storage and will be priced at around EUR 649 and EUR 599 for students.

The laptop will have the Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor, coming with 4 or 8GB RAM variants and options for 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB storage. As per the connectivity features, the laptop will have Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, and a fingerprint reader on the power button. On the other hand, the Surface Pro X will be powered by Microsoft SQ2 processor which will be powered by more RAM and bigger storage as well. Since it is an upgraded version or model of Surface Pro X it will definitely have a huge boost in the hardware to increase the performance. 

Google providing bundled discounts on Nest devices.

By
Shanmugam
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0
Image Credit: androidpolice.com

With the recent launch of all-new Google Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5, the companies also prepping up to offer large discounts to users for their other hardware products. Google is offering Chromecast with Google TV, Nest Audio, Pixel 5, and 4a 5G today, also the Google Store is also offering a huge discount to users on purchasing multiple Google Nest products simultaneously. The discounted bundles are grouped together under the “solutions at home” categories. 

Google has been trying to promote its product in a way that they are better when they work together with other Google Nest products in sync. As an example, they stated that “Nest speakers, displays, and Chromecast work together to fill your home with sound.” Google is now trying to influence customers in buying multiple items to create a better ecosystem at their home which will totally be controlled using the Google voice commands and Assistant. The bundled offers have been divided into three categories which are Audio entertainment, Vidoe Entertainment, and Home Security. 

Buyers will have to customize as well before moving to the checkout for buying the products. You can select the quantity and even the color of the device that you want to buy in the combo. The combo package offer with a discount is currently available in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. If you are thinking about upgrading your home into a smart one and are from one of these countries, now is a good time to buy one of these discounted combos for your home.

Apple removes two RSS feeds from the China App store without them breaking App Store rules.

By
Shanmugam
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0
Image credit: theverge.com

Apple has been very sensitive in the past about the apps it has on the Chinese App Store and it seems that Apple has yet again removed two RSS feed readers from there. Apple has been scanning the Chinese apps on its platform for many months now to remove any service which does not sit well with the Chinese sensors. Due to this, Two RSS reader apps, Reeder and Fiery Feed, and their iOS apps that were removed in China over the content regarded as illegal in the country. 

Now such apps getting banned in the country is not a new thing and they have been getting banned over the past few years due to multiple reasons. Feed readers of RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, are particularly troubling to the authority because they fetch content from third-party websites. Now, this allows them to bypass the firewall of China and reach information from outside sources which is forbidden information. Although RSS readers in China are not that popular as there are not many in the country, most of the uses get the information from algorithmic news aggregators, which are domestic services that follow the policies of the Chinese government. 

Due to this, apps like Feedly are getting removed from the Chinese App Store. Apple has been criticized in the past for deferring to censorship demands from China, a major market for its smartphone and app sale, which definitely goes against the policies of “freedom of information and expression” which is published by Apple for its investors. It seems that even Apple would not go against the mandates of the Chinese government, although it leaves people with limited choices.

Startup companies accuse Google Play Store of not playing fair.

By
Sajin Vargheese
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0
Image Credit: forum.macrumors.com

We all know about the ongoing issue that platforms like Google Play Store and App Store have been facing currently. Many companies have blamed these platforms of Monopoly and their policies which are biased towards some companies. The issues were really persistent with Apple’s App Store, but now it seems more and more companies are also reporting the same issue for Google Play Store as well. This time, it’s the Indian Startup companies that have gone against the policies of Google Play Store for forcing apps with in-app purchases to use its “expensive and unaffordable” billing system. 

Google currently levies a 30% commission in comparison to 1.5-2% levied by external gateways that were used by the developers. While the policies are not new and existed earlier as well, it has been enforced in India with full effect. This has led to a lot of disruption in the app industry and especially for dating, education, video and music-on-demand, and other apps that rely on in-app purchases but not those for physical deliveries such as eCommerce. The startups think that this is a very unfair policy for companies who have just started and it shows Play Store’s monopoly due to the dominance of Google’s Android system. 

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Many new startup companies have claimed that it could certainly lead to the closure of many new smaller companies. As per Google, the app developers can use websites to transact with consumers or opt for other app stores in the market, as a resolution for this issue. As per Google, the policy will only affect 3% of the total apps, however, the effect seems to be much bigger in real terms. The move has been really on the move ever since Paytm was removed from the Playstore. As per many Indian companies, Google is abusing its dominance in the search advertising to enter and protect the payment gateway market.

Instagram Direct Messages now work as Facebook Messenger.

By
Sajin Vargheese
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0
Image Credit: hypebeast.com

Facebook has always emphasized on a single platform for all the apps to make things easier for the user. Ever SInce Facebook has taken over Instagram, they have been trying to make many features common between the two platforms. In the same way, the company has now decided to change the Direct message feature of Instagram to Facebook Messenger. In a post today, Instagram has explained the changes that the users are going to notice from now on. The Instagram direct messages will now be powered by Facebook Messenger and the messaging experience, message threads and calls will be accessible through both applications. 

The update to Instagram will also make sure that all the great features of Facebook Messenger will now be added to the Instagram direct message as well, such as reactions, chat colors, and even watching videos in sync with another person. Facebook will also be adding some new features to Instagram direct messaging such as Selfie stickers, that can be used as a reaction in Messenger, Watch together feature will now work with IGTV and there will also be a new “vanish” mode which deletes messages after they have been read. 

YouTube video

The last one seems to be a similar feature that Facebook will be adding to WhatsApp as well. Now all these changes to Instagram will be visible in the app and the user does not have to mandatory download the Facebook Messenger app for this. Also, the users can decide on when to apply this feature on their app. If they do not wish to apply the changes now, they can simply select the “Not Now” option. The feature will be immediately rolled out in selected countries and later to the global market.

Xiaomi launches the new Mi Watch Revolve in India.

By
Ramana Rishi
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1
Image Credit: indianexpress.com

In a recent event, Xiaomi launched a range of new products for the consumer market out of which one of the major highlights was Xiaomi’s Mi Watch Revolve. The watch was launched at the annual Smarter Living event along with many other new products like Mi Band 5, Mi Smart Speaker, and much more. However, Mi Watch Revolve is the first smartwatch by the company that has been launched in the Indian market. The Mi Watch Revolve is the rebranded Mi Watch Color watch from the company which is already available in the other global markets outside China. 

The company stated that the wearable market across the world has seen a remarkable growth of more than 30% over the year and in India, the number is up by 40%. Due to the high demand for wearables in India, the company decides to launch its own smartwatch in the market. The watch seems to be very well designed and has decided to go with a circular design. The watch has a 1.39 inch AMOLED screen with two crowns on the side for navigating. The screen has Gorilla Glass3 protection and the brightness can go up to 450 nits for a brighter display outdoors. 

YouTube video

The watch has a 46mm frame and is the only size it comes in. The body is made of stainless steel to give it strong and durable looks and has a 22mm strap which can be changed. The watch also provides 110 watch faces out of the box and promises more in the future. The watch has 10 sports mode and is 5ATM water-resistant. It is the first watch in India with the Firstbeat motion algorithm which helps to track physical and mental data. Running on Google wear OS, the watch can be connected using Bluetooth 5.0. 

Other features on the watch include a PPG heart rate sensor, a 3-axis acceleration sensor, a geo sensor, a baroreceptor, an ambient light sensor, and a gyroscope. The expected battery life of the watch in a single charge is 14 days and takes about 150 minutes for a full charge. Looking at the specs, the watch does seem to be a very competitive offering for the Indian market.

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