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Google announces app updates to Allo, Duo, and Photos

March 23, 2017April 21, 2017

Google has announced a slew of updates to its Duo, Allo, and Photos apps, including new calling capabilities, file transfers, and easier photo sharing. Google Duo will also offer audio-only calls on Android and iOS. The new feature is now available in Brazil and will be arriving “around the world in the coming days,” according to Google. Google reported that they are now adding audio-only calling in Duo. So in those moments when video calling isn’t an option users can stay connected with family and friends through audio calling. Duo…

Microsoft finalizes its custom version of Windows 10 for China

March 23, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft’s supremo for China has told state-owned China Daily that Redmond’s ready roll out version of Windows 10 with extra security features demanded by China’s government. “We have already developed the first version of the Windows 10 government secure system. Alain Crozier, CEO of Microsoft Greater China noted that it has been tested by three large enterprise customers. China’s government previously banned Windows 8, citing security concerns, and launched an anti-monopoly probe against Microsoft. They as well cited claims that there may be hidden back doors in the operating system. The…

Microsoft, Adobe build on cloud partnership

March 22, 2017March 22, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft & Adobe have announced a new partnership that will see the two companies use and promote each other’s cloud services. The two tech firms are integrating some aspects of their sales and marketing software, building on the cloud-computing partnership. Under the new partnership, Adobe will be using Azure for its Marketing Cloud, Document Cloud, and Creative Cloud services. Microsoft in turn will make Adobe Marketing Cloud its preferred marketing service for customers of its new Dynamics 365 Enterprise edition. Microsoft is investing in its Dynamics suite in a way…

Xbox Live will soon allow custom profile pics

March 21, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Microsoft plans to allow Xbox One gamers to upload and set custom gamerpics in the near future, the company’s Major Nelson announced today via a new post on his official blog. No longer will users be limited to an avatar or game-related snapshot. That’s among the changes and new features outlined in a blog post from Major Nelson. Users will be able to choose a custom gamer pic directly from the console, a Windows 10 PC, or a smartphone, so they have plenty of avenues for picking the image you…

ISPs argue Web history isn’t “sensitive” they should be able to sell it

March 21, 2017April 21, 2017

Internet providers are continuing to argue that they should be free to share and sell users’ web history without permission because it isn’t “sensitive information.” “Web browsing and app usage history are not ‘sensitive information,’” CTIA said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday. CTIA is the main lobbyist group representing mobile broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile USA, and Sprint. The disagreement is around whether internet providers should be treated differently than web companies, like Facebook and Google. Internet providers argue that it’s unfair that the…

Nokia Owns The Alcatel Brand Till 2024

March 20, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Ever since Nokia acquired Alcatel-Lucent back in 2015, the situation about the “Alcatel” brand remained unclear, at least for the end users. Back in 2004, Alcatel and Chinese electronics manufacturer TCL Communication created a joint venture for the production of Alcatel-branded mobile phones. In less than a year after founding, TCL Communication purchased Alcatel’s stake and became the sole owner of the newly founded company, But what happened with the Alcatel brand? Who actually owns it? The Alcatel brand was licensed by Alcatel-Lucent to TCL for mobile phones and devices and this license expires at the…

Google kills off the Captcha Feature

March 20, 2017April 21, 2017

The online tests to check whether you’re a human or a robot have been a necessary evil, but Google is finally killing them off in their current form. For some time now, Captcha has served as the primary way of telling humans and robots apart on the internet. It made sure that the person looking to access a website was actually a human being – ensuring that robots couldn’t be used to send spam or flood a website with requests. However, the technologies have become more complex and robots have…

Gmail for Web Can Now Stream Video Attachments

March 17, 2017April 21, 2017

Google is rolling out a quality of life improvement to Gmail desktop users that makes previewing video attachments in Gmail much smoother and quicker. The email client has now introduced a nifty ability to stream video attachments instead of downloading them. This will let you understand what the video is about before deciding on a download, a rather useful feature to save up on the cramped storage space on PCs and laptops. Previously, in order to view a video attachment in Gmail, you would have to download it to your…

YouTube to discontinue video annotations

March 17, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

Annotations Editor was launched in 2008, before the world went mobile. Now YouTube is replacing its annotations engine with what it calls End Screen and Cards, which are existing, mobile-first tools that provide many of the same functions as annotations like linking to other videos and polling viewers. YouTube says it made this change primarily because annotations didn’t work on mobile and most viewers found them obnoxious and unhelpful. The change takes effect on May 2nd, and existing annotations will continue to show up when using the desktop browser version…