Author: Ritwick Jaiswal

Facebook Delays Opening of US Offices Till January 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has not just brought inconvenience to the general public but also the big corporate houses around the world. The seriousness of the disease could be acknowledged by the fact that even tech giants are compromising their work ethics so that everyone remains safe and sound. 

Citing concerns over the rise in cases of the delta variant of COVID-19, Facebook has announced that it has pushed back plans for US workers to return to the office until next year. 

Facebook, in a Bloomberg report, confirmed,

“Data, not dates, is what drives our approach for returning to the office. Given the recent health data showing rising Covid cases based on the Delta variant, our teams in the US will not be required to go back to the office until January 2022. We expect this to be the case for some countries outside of the US, as well. We continue to monitor the situation and work with experts to ensure our return to office plans prioritize everyone’s safety.”

A few weeks ago, Facebook was planning to reopen their offices by October with vaccination and masking. Now, with local data on infections, offices outside the US may open later this year, depending on locally. 

With this revamp in the plan, Facebook has become the latest tech company to push back its return to the office until next year. Amazon announced a similar program for employees last week, and Lyft said they wouldn’t be returning to the office until Feb 2, 2022. 

There were reports that Google is considering a pay cut of their employees who choose to work from home depending upon where they stay. 

Zoom Introduces Focus Mode To Keep Students From Distractions

Since the pandemic began, schools and offices have started operating from home. Apps such as Zoom and Skype are making the most of this opportunity and coming up with new advancements, further proving that this ‘from home’ system will get mainstream. 

Zoom announced some updates this week on its popular video conferencing platform. The app is rolling out a new ‘Focus’ mode meant to keep students from getting distracted while in a virtual classroom while allowing teachers to keep an eye on everyone.

When the Focus mode is activated, the other participants will not see each other during the call. The host would still have access to all the participants’ webcams. This feature is introduced so that people do not get distracted by their peers during presentations. The teacher could turn on the Focus mode while presenting and turn it off during the class discussions.

Zoom revealed the new features via a blog. 

“Focus Mode allows educators to see their students’ videos, and students to see their teachers without seeing other class participants. With this feature, teachers can supervise their class, but students won’t be distracted by their peers’ video feeds or feel self-conscious about turning on their own camera. “

When the focus mode is enabled, the teacher’s video will be visible to the students and things presented on the screen and people that the host spotlights. Students can also see the names of other participants and the emoji reactions.

The feature can be enabled or locked on for accounts, groups, or individual users. After turning it on, the feature can be accessed by clicking on the More button while in a meeting. 

Reasons Why Online Learning Is The Future

It’s Flexible

Using an online educational platform allows for a better balance of work and studies, so there’s no need to give anything up. It makes a work-study balance easier.

Wide Array of Programs

In the vast space of the Internet, there are infinite skills and subjects to teach and learn. From music production to Quantum Physics, online education has everything for everyone.

Easily Accessible

Online education enables you to learn or teach from any corner of the world. There is no need to commute from one place to another, and you need a stable Internet connection to commence your classes.

Cost-Effective

Unlike traditional education, online learning seems to be more cost-effective and pocket friendly. It is a convenient option with virtually endless possibilities for international students all over the world.

 

‘Work From Home’ Google Employees To Witness Paycuts

Everything seems to have changed post-pandemic, primarily how corporations worked. Earlier, work-from-home used to be a privilege where companies would allow a particular employee to WFH if he were not fit enough to attend the office. After coronavirus hit the entire world, work-from-home became a sort of staple for all the small and big companies. 

Google employees based in the same office could now witness a change in pay if they opt to work from home permanently. The company has rolled out a new internal calculator to explain potential pay cuts to employees. 

The screenshots obtained by Reuters make it clear that the employees who previously commuted an hour to Google’s Manhattan offices would see their salaries slashed by 15 per cent if they chose to work from home permanently.

On the other hand, employees who lived within NYC’s five boroughs and chose to work from home permanently will not witness any cuts in their paycheque. 

The screenshots also showed 5 per cent and 10 per cent differences for commuters living in Seattle, Boston, or San Francisco. 

A Google spokesperson has confirmed the recent development suggesting that the company’s compensation packages “have always been determined by location.” He further added that the pay would differ from “city to city and state to state.” 

Other tech majors such as Facebook and Twitter have also introduced pay cuts for remote employees choosing to work from home. Companies like Reddit and Zillow have shifted to location-based salary structures. 

Jake Rosenfield, a Sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said Google’s pay structure raises alarms,

“What’s clear is that Google doesn’t have to do this. Google has paid these workers at 100 percent of their prior wage by definition. So it’s not like they can’t afford to pay their workers who choose to work remotely the same they are used to receiving.”

Google, which has about 140,000 employees worldwide, took in $61.9 billion in revenue during the second quarter of this year alone.

The company did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Post and did not address the Stamford commuter issue in a statement to Reuters. 

 

 

Elon Musk’s SpaceX Buys Satellite Connectivity Startup Swarm Technologies

SpaceX is in the process of acquiring a satellite connectivity startup. According to a report by SpaceNews, SpaceX, owned by Elon Musk, has acquired Swarm Technologies, a startup known for powering IoT services.  

Both the companies involved did not shy away from declaring how the acquisition will help them in the long run. It will give Swarm – a much younger company, the resources it needs to take on other smallsat operators, along with “synergies” that come with the company dealing in the design and launch of satellites.  

A company of only 30 employees launched a commercial mini-satellite network in February and had enough funding to roll out an array of 150 satellites.  

The deal would transfer Swarm’s control of ground and space licenses to SpaceX, as well as additional rights pending before the commission, making the startup a “direct wholly-owned subsidiary” of the larger company.  

Reports suggest that the deal was reached between the two companies on July 16, although FCC did not disclose any financial details of the transaction.  

“Swarm’s services will benefit from the better capitalization and access to resources available to SpaceX, as well as the synergies associated with acquisition by a provider of satellite design, manufacture, and launch services,” the companies said in the filing. 

“For SpaceX’s part, the company will “similarly benefit from access to the intellectual property and expertise developed by the Swarm team, as well as from adding this resourceful and effective team to SpaceX,” it further added.

 Swarm gained some attention back in 2018 when it faced a $900,000 fine from the FCC for launching its mini-satellites without any approval from the agency. The company operates more than 100 satellites for two-way, slow-speed communications for energy, transportation, and agriculture markets. 

 There’s a lot of jostling in the satellite industry, whether Orbcomm’s pending acquisition by the GI Partners or Amazon’s recent acquisition of Facebook’s satellite team. 

 However, it is unclear what acquisition of  Swarm by SpaceX means for Starlink Satellite network, which is a part of SpaceX. In the short term, Swarm CEO Sara Spangelo told TechCrunch last month that the company is “still marching” toward its goal of operating a 150-satellite constellation.

 

Lenovo Tab P12 Pro To Come Out With Snapdragon 855 Chipset

A month ago, Lenovo came out with Yoga Tab 13, Yoga Tab 11, and Tab 11 Plus with global availability. In a new online leak, Lenovo P12 Pro was spotted on Google Play Console. According to the listings, this successor to Tab P11 Pro is not just another budget or mid-range tablet but is a powerhouse. 

While Tab P11 Pro featured the Snapdragon 730G mid-range processor, the company is now offering a significant performance upgrade with the Snapdragon 855 chipset in the latest Lenovo Tab P12 Pro. The device also comes equipped with 8GB of RAM, yet another major upgrade from the maximum of 6GB RAM that P11 Pro offered. 

However, the device does not match the level of Lenovo Yoga Tab 13, which is equipped with the latest Snapdragon 870, but its small size would appeal to OLED fans. The tablet is expected to run Android 11, and the display resolution is noted to be 2560×1600, which is equal to a pixel density of 240 PPI. 

The console neither mentions the screen size of the tablet nor includes the image. But as rumours suggest, Tab P12 Pro looks quite similar to P11 Pro. 

Full Specification Of Lenovo Tab P12 Pro

This is pretty much everything we know about the P12 Pro currently, but we are expected to hear more about it in the upcoming weeks. 

It is also interesting to note that even though Samsung is the top Android tablet seller by market share, Lenovo is now the fastest growing Android tablet manufacturer. Lenovo saw a 67% increase in shipments compared to Q2 2020.

 

Whatsapp Fires Back At Apple’s Child Safety Plan

Whatsapp’s head Will Cathcart said the company wouldn’t adopt Apple’s new Child Safety measures, meant to stop the spread of child abuse imagery. 

This comes a day after Apple confirmed plans for new software that will detect child abuse images on user’s iCloud photos. 

Whatsapp’s head says that he is “concerned” by the plans. In a Twitter thread, Will Cathcart called it an “Apple built and operated surveillance system that can be easily used to scan private content for anything they or the government decides it wants to control. He said Apple had taken the wrong path to improve its response to child sexual abuse material. 

A spokesperson for Apple has disputed these claims made by Cathcart and said that users could choose to disable iCloud Photos. Apple further noted that the system is only trained on a “known images” database provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children(NCMEC). It isn’t possible to make it work in a specific region since it is backed by iOS. 

Cathcart said that countries where iPhones are sold, would have different definitions of what is acceptable.

“Will the system be used in China?What content will they consider illegal there and how will we ever know? How will they manage requests from governments all around the world to add other types of content to the list for scanning?” asked Cathcart.

It is not surprising that Facebook has issues with Apple’s plans. Apple has previously, on different platforms, bashed Facebook over its record on Privacy, even though the social network has embraced end-to-end encryption. 

It is not just Whatsapp that has criticized Apple’s new Child Safety measure. Other people who have raised concerns include Edward Snowden, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, professors, and more. 

How Will The New Apple Tool Work?

The new tool is meant to enable parents to play a more active role in helping their children to navigate online communication. Through the software, Messages will use machine learning to analyze image attachments and determine if the content being shared is sexually explicit. 

This technology will not require Apple to access your child’s private communications since nothing is passed back to Apple’s server in the cloud. 

If a sensitive photo is discovered in the texts, it will be blocked, and a label will appear below the photo stating, “this may be sensitive.”

Read more about Apple’s New Child Safety Software here.

 

Virgin Galactic Reopens Ticket Sales For Trip To Space

The space tourism firm, Virgin Galactic, owned by Richard Branson, is reopening ticket sales for its SpaceShipTwo spaceplane. The company announced the deal on Thursday in its second-quarter earnings release. 

Virgin Galactic received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for a full commercial license in June this year- further paving the way for the enthusiasts to purchase a ride to space. 

Tickets are available in single-seats and multi and full-flight packages, and they will be served on a first-come, first-served basis. The starting price of the ticket is $450,000, which has been expectedly increased from the original $200,000 cost, the company had years ago. 

Michael Colglazier, Chief Executive at Galactic, said the move to reopen the sale of tickets stems from a surge in customer interest after successful space flights in May and July.

He added,

“We successfully completed two space flights from New Mexico – the latest carrying a full crew of mission specialists in the cabin and garnering an extraordinary global media and consumer response.”

“As we endeavour to bring the wonder of space to a broad global population, we are delighted to open the door to an entirely new industry and consumer experience.”

In July, owner Branson successfully travelled to the edge of space aboard SpaceShipTwo, a vehicle carrying four passengers for a few minutes of weightlessness. That mission, called Unity 22, was a vital test of the plane before Virgin sent individuals to space in 2022. 

Ticket sales for individual customers had been closed since a 2014 accident that occurred test flight. Branson instilled confidence in the paying customers by successfully going to space himself on July 11th. 

Colglazier further said that missions like the Italian Air Force would cost around $600,000 for seat-sized research payloads or professional astronaut training. Customers willing to pay will have to wait in an already long line since the company already has a backlog of some 600 ticket holders waiting to fly. Roughly 1000 customers who have placed $1000 deposits would be next in line, the company said. 

“Sales will initially open to the company’s significant list of early hand-raisers, prioritizing the spacefarer community, who, as promised, will be given the first opportunity to reserve their place in space. A follow-on priority list will be opened to customers interested in reserving future spaceflights.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

TikTok Tests TikTok Story Feature On Its Platform

Almost every major social media app now has one thing in common; Stories. It is TikTok’s turn to experiment with the story feature on its platform. Matt Navarra confirmed the new feature on Twitter.

 

‘TikTok Stories’ appears to work similarly to that on other platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat, where users will be able to see content posted by accounts they follow for 24 hours before it gets deleted.

 

This comes just after messaging app Whatsapp rolled out a feature for users to post photos or videos that vanish once they are opened. Whatsapp has named it a ‘View Once’ feature.

 

The new TikTok feature lives in a newly-added slide-over sidebar, where you will get to see the disappearing stories. Users will be able to react and comment on your story, too, and you will also be able to tap on the user’s profile picture to load a story.

 

TikTok, which ByteDance owns, told the BBC,

 

“We’re always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience. Currently we’re experimenting with ways to give creators additional formats to bring their creative ideas to life for the TikTok community.”

 

TikTok describes this feature as a new way to interact with your fans. Users can create stories and add the usual captions, music, and text. Considering TikTok’s video-first nature, it seems you can add videos to the stories and not still images.

 

However, the company did not provide any further details on how extensively it is testing TikTok stories, or when we can witness its wider release. For now, this feature has been rolled out for selected users.

 

Stories have been constants in all major social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Linkedin, Pinterest, Netflix, and Youtube. It is not surprising that Tiktok decided to experiment with the feature. The Story Feature was initially rolled out on Snapchat back in 2013.

 

However, Twitter is the latest example of why Stories aren’t always successful since the platform was forced to shut down its feature called Fleets just eight months after its launch.

Whatsapp Launches View Once Feature : Send Disappearing Photos And Videos

Messaging app Whatsapp has recently rolled out a ‘View Once’ feature that deletes photos or videos from the app once the recipient has opened them.

You can make the photo or video to deliver on ‘view once’ by tapping the ‘1’ button to the left of the send button. It will get deleted once the recipient has opened it. However, the recipient will see if it’s a regular photo/video or a disappearing one. 

The message will be shown as opened once the content has been viewed.

In June, Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that this feature would be coming on Whatsapp, although the details were very scarce about the same. 

In a blog post, Whatsapp has warned about using this feature only with people you trust not to take a screenshot. The app won’t notify you if someone takes a screenshot. 

“Only send photos or videos with view once media enabled to trusted individuals. For example, it’s possible for someone to: Take a screenshot or screen recording of the media before it disappears. You won’t be notified if someone takes a screenshot or screen recording.”

Moreover, the media content sent using the ‘view once’ feature will no longer be visible in the chat where it was sent once the recipient exits the media viewer. The content will also not be saved on the recipient’s gallery, and they won’t forward it through the app. Also, the content will expire from the chat if it’s not opened within 14 days. 

Key Features of View Once

  • Recipients will not be able to save the content in their gallery.
  • Once you have viewed the content, you won’t be able to view it again.
  • One cannot forward the photos/videos with this feature.
  • The sender will be able to see if the recipient has opened the content. 
  • If you don’t open it within 14 days, the content will expire.
  • The sender must select the ‘view once’ feature each time they want to send it with this feature.
  • If the message is unopened, it can be restored at the time of backup.

About privacy, Whatsapp said,

“As with all the personal messages you send on Whatsapp, View Once media is protected by end-to-end encryption, so Whatsapp cannot see them. They will also be marked with a new ‘one-time’ icon.”

Playdate Sells 20,000 Units In Less Than Twenty Minutes

The buzz around the little retro-inspired handheld Playdate gaming device seemed strong, and it translated into actual sales. Panic, the publisher behind the popular untitled Goose game, committed to selling 20,000 units on a first-come, first-serve basis. 

According to Panic’s shipping estimator, Playdate’s first wave of pre-orders sold out in less than 20 minutes. The anticipated launch had few technical troubles in its way, especially for International checkers. Playdate tweeted about the server instability and 502 errors after international shipping came crashing down. 

What is Playdate?

The Playdate is a gaming device built by Panic in collaboration with Teenage Engineering. It is an odd little yellow device that looks adorable by any standards. The device boasts a unique black and white display that, according to Panic, “looks more amazing than you are probably imagining.”  

It has got a unique crank on its side for controlling games. Playdate is planning more than the original 24 games, although no official announcements have been made. You’ll get to unlock two games each week for 12 weeks straight. For example, if you get your device in 2022, someone who received their unit in 2021 may already be nearing the end of their 12 week season. 

How To Pre-Order a Playdate?

You can order Playdate directly from the website for $179.

Remember, the price is just for the console and does not include a Stereo Doc accessory or pen, which can be bought separately. The availability and price of the following accessories haven’t been announced yet. 

When is Playdate Launching?

There has been no official announcement made as far as the launch date is concerned. The company is supposed to be shipping its first 20,000 units at some point in 2021. Panic will likely be giving more information soon about the same.

Here are the countries where Playdate will be shipping at the launch:

US

UK

Australia

Belgium

Canada

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany Ireland

Italy

Japan

Netherlands

Poland

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

 

 

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