Alphabet Inc.’s Google introduced an app on Wednesday designed to help Android smartphone users stay under the limits of pricey mobile data packages in developing countries.

Datally, the new service, lists data consumption by app and enables users to shut off data transmissions by app of their choosing, Google group product manager Josh Woodward told Reuters in an interview. It also provided a directory of nearby Wi-Fi networks that includes user commentary on their quality.

The offering is the latest from Google’s Next Billion Users division, an internal effort to make internet services more accessible to people in countries where technology infrastructure is not as fast or affordable as in the United States or Western Europe.

Previously, Google announced a peer-to-peer payment app aimed at Indian consumers and a low-bandwidth version of YouTube.

Some Datally functionality s available within the setting pages of Android smartphones, but Woodward said he expects the specialized app will make it easier to understand the options.

During testing of Datally, app developers inside and outside Google initially expressed concern about the effects of users limiting their services’ data access, Woodward said.

But they warned to the idea as they saw that users welcomed data consumption by “apps they really like,” Woodward said. “The visibility gives users more confidence to use those apps.”

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The security flaw allows anybody to access any MacBook or iMac running on macOS High sierra by simply feeding the username as ‘root’ and leaving the password field blank. Apple had promised to fix the issue at the earliest.

Users can simply open the Mac App store and tap on ‘updates’ tab. When prompted, download and the install it. The release note says “install this update as soon as possible,” rightfully suggesting it to be an important update. On the support page it says “A logic error existed in the validation of credentials. This was addressed with improved credential validation.”

The company even provided a statement to several media houses saying, “Security is a top priority for every Apple product, and regrettably we stumbled with this release of macOS. When our security engineers became aware if the issue Tuesday afternoon, we immediately began working on an update that closes the security hole. This morning, as of 8:00 a.m., the update is available for download, and starting later today it will be automatically installed on all systems running the latest version (10.13.1) of macOS High Sierra.

We greatly regret this error and we apologize to all Mac users, both for releasing with this vulnerability and for the concern it has caused. Our customers deserve better. We are auditing our development processes to help prevent this from happening again.”

If you still haven’t received the update patch, there is a temporary workaround for you.

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Powered by Chinese Smartphone users splurging billions on mobile games and online shopping, China tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are racing up the elite league of the world’s most valuable companies.

Powered by Chinese Smartphone users splurging billions on mobile games and online shopping, China tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are racing up the elite league of the world’s most valuable companies.

Hong Kong-listed Tencent, famous for its games and WeChat messaging service, became the first Asian firm to break into the $500 billion league last week – briefly overtaking Facebook as the world’s fifth biggest company in terms of market value.

Alibaba is just a few billion shy of joining its Chinese competitor at the top table of public listings – and is already there when taking into account its private affiliates.

While the top five – Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook – thrive across the world, the two Chinese firms have made their fortunes by cornering China’s own vast market of 750 million internet users.

Tencent and ALibaba do have a major advantage over American rivals because China severely restricts access to its internet, with Facebook and Google kept outside the “Great Firewall”.

But they have also deftly tapped into smartphone technology to woo China’s large, adaptable population.

“Chinese consumers’ acceptance of new technology is faster than nearly anywhere,” said Zhao Chen, a managing partner at the China office of tech accelerator Plug and Play.

Tencent boast nearly one billion monthly active users of WeChat, known as a “super app” for its combination of instant messaging, social media, mobile payment options, games and publishing.

Half of WeChat users spend more than 90 minutes a day on the app.

In smartphone games alone, the company’s revenues surged by 84 percent in the third quarter, driven by the success of the “Honour of Kings” title.

Alibaba, meanwhile, has dominated the e-commerce market, with Chinese consumers flocking to its shopping platforms to buy everything from laundry detergent to Boeing 747s.

The firm created an annual sales promotion held during China’s “Singles Day”, with consumers spending a record $25 billion on November 11 – 40 percent up from last year.

–  Electronic cash –

Both companies have benefited from China’s rapid smartphone adoption, with cheap phones flooding the market and bringing millions online for the first time.

“This is basically a story of the mobile internet,” said Shameen Prashantham, an associate professor at China Europe International Business School, of the tech giants’ growth.

“This country leapfrogged the (personal computer) stage straight onto the smartphone stage.”

Today, there are more than one billion smartphones running in China, according to iResearch. Both Tencent and Alibaba earn most of their revenue from mobile.

They have also developed mobile payment applications – WePay and Alipay – that tare driving hundreds of millions of Chinese to pay for everything from groceries and eating out to water bills.

People simply aim their smartphone cameras at a “QR code”, similar to a barcode, and click.

For merchants, the transaction fees cost just a fraction of swiping a credit card in most countries, and can be completed on the go.

This has also unlocked new business models, like for companies who offer sharing services, which now range from bikes to basketball.

– No ads, no business –

Although Alibaba and Tencent have grown in a protected corner of the internet, they have developed unique ways to rake in cash.

While Amazon takes a cut from the sale of goods like traditional retail, Alibaba takes a different approach.

The company earns most of its money from charging merchants to advertise on its Tmall and Taobao platforms.

“If you don’t buy ads, you won’t have any business,” said Liu Song, owner of the Sweet Lisa Flagship Store, which sells women’s dresses, rompers, and skirts on Alibaba’s Tmall store.

Liu frequently buys those keywords on Alibaba’s platform, paying anywhere from eight to 18 cents when shoppers click into his online store.

Unlike Facebook, Tencent earns most of its money from selling virtual items to its millions of users rather than selling their eyeballs to advertisers.

WeChat users pay for emoticons they sent to friends; players of its slash-and-burn hit game “Honour of Kings” purchase new outfits for their characters for 30 yuan ($5) up.

Recently, Tencent has begun has begun to sells some advertising and analysts believe this could be its next big growth driver.

The world beyond China also offers opportunity, though neither Tencent or Alibaba can yet challenge their American rivals on the global stage.

Should US tech giants fret?

“Not really,” investor Zhao said. “But they should be alert that Chinese companies are coming up with new business models that really work.”

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If you thought WhatsApp’s delete for everyone your saving grace for all those times you wished you had not send the embarrassing text to someone, WhatsApp’s newly rolled out delete for everyone does not actually delete your sent messages and the recipient can still view them if he/she a little tech-savvy. So it seems. This is because your deleted messages may vanish from your WhatsApp log, but they are still out there somewhere in the notification log of the receivers device and can be easily accessed. A Spanish android blog called Android jefe has actually gone ahead to actually explain the full process and how you can actually read the deleted message via a blog post.
The blog claimed that the deleted WhatsApp messages are actually present in notification log off the device and the recipient can read them even if the messages are deleted from the senders end. “What we found is that the messages are stored in the notification register of the Android system. So it’s just a matter of entering that record to see the messages that the other person deleted,” reads the blog.
Here’s how you can read the deleted WhatsApp message
Anyone can have access to the deleted WhatsApp message via third party app called the notification history, notes the blog. The application — Notification history is available on Google Play Store and can be downloaded from there. Now, to see the message what was sent to you on WhatsApp, but was later deleted by the sender — you need to open the third party application and head over to the Android notification log section to read the message. But then yes you can actually read the deleted messages — but there are some limitations. Let’s take a look at how this app actually works.
Notification history app works only on devices running on Android 7.0 Nougat. It is also noteworthy that you will only be able to retrieve the deleted text messages and no media files — be it images, videos or any other. So, going by the report, iOS WhatsApp users will not be able to read the WhatsApp message once deleted.
This is one way to get access to the deleted WhatsApp messages. There are other ways as well. Things may get easy if you are a user of third party launchers. So you have Nova launcher on your phone — long press on the home screen, tap on Widgets- Activities- settings- and then head over the notification log section. If your device runs on stock Android then you get access to the notification log from the setting widget.

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• Google unveiled several new hardware products on Wednesday.
• Google started with the new Home Mini and Google Home Max.
• Google unveils Pixelbook laptop that is first Chromebook to feature Google’s Assistant
• Google Pixel2 and Pixel 2 XL launched with Snapdragon SoC
• Google Pixel  Buds Wireless Earphones, rivals to Apple’s AirPods

Google has launched a bunch of new products on Wednesday 4^th October at an event in California where it’s unveils these products:

• Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL
• Google Home Mini
• Google Home Max
• Google Clips
• Pixel Buds
• Pixelbook
• Daydream Vies VR headset

Phones, laptops, cameras, speakers, headphones and more, all reimagined today at our #madebygoogle event. https://t.co/d8awhLWdWW

— Google (@Google) October 4, 2017

Google’s senior vice president of hardware Rick Osterloh kicked off the show with a quick note that the company is introducing its second generation of Google-made hardware Just like last year, the event where Google had launched Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Google Home, Chromecast Ultra, Daydream VR and Google Wifi.

The Pixel 2 is designed to showcase the best Google’s Android Oreo software and boats features such as squeezable body that can be used to summon Google Assistant, an always on screen that can detect any song being played within earshot, and Google Lens, a smart camera that allows users to search the real world using image recognition.

The Pixel 2 also has an edge-to-edge screen, no headphone jack and a red power button.

Both phones promise water resistant and all-day battery life.

The Pixel 2 will start at $649 and the Pixel 2 XL will start at $849 and pre-orders today.

The company also unveiled two new versions of Google Home, the Google Home Mini is smaller and it will cost $49, while Google Home Max is large speaker with superior sound quality and costs $399.

Google surprised the audience with a new camera called Google clips. It automatically takes photos as you go throughout you day. Google says it will get smarter over time. It has a shutter button but is also hands-free and can be attached to almost anything. Photos and video clips can be saved individually to Google photos.

Google also unveiled new Google Pixel Buds, its first set of wireless Bluetooth headphones. This offers some interesting functionality to the go. There was a stunning demonstration of the Pixel Buds being used for conducting a conversation in two different languages.

Google also unveiled a new-high-end Chromebook called the Google Pixelbook. It’s 10mm thick –Google says the thinnest it has made- and weighs one kilogram. It’s a convertible laptop that can be used as a laptop and tablet and in tent mode for watching video. It has a 12.3-inch touchscreen display, quad HD LCD display with 235 pixels per inch, and a backlit keyboard, it is configured with Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, and has up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB of solid-state storage. It offers up to 10 hours of use from a single charge and Google says plugging it in for 15 minutes gives you two hours of battery life.

Google announced an updated version of its Daydream virtual reality viewer. It will offer new free premium content for Daydream in Google Play Movies.

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The Wall Street Journal

Google is rolling out a package of new policies and services to help news publishers increase subscriptions, a move likely to warm it’s Icy relationship with some of the biggest critics of its power over the Internet.
Google said it will end this week its decade -old “first click free” policy that required news websites to give readers free access to articles from Google search results. The policy upset publishers that required subscriptions, believing it undercut their efforts to get readers to pay for news.
Google, unit of Alphabet Incorporation GOOGL, + 0.34 % GOOG, + 0.2 0%, said it also plans tools to help increase subscriptions, including enabling users to login with their google passwords to simplify the subscription process and sharing user data with news organisations to better target potential subscribers.
With billions of people using its search, youTube and other web properties, google has an outsize influence on a wealth of industries and modern society. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the company is investigating weather Russian Linked entities used its ads or services to sway opinion ahead of last year’s U.S. Presidential election, moves by Facebook Inc. FB, + 0.14 % and twitter Inc. TWTR, minus 0.4 1%.

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Minister of communication (independent charge) and minister of state for Railways Manoj Sinha said that India is actively involved in setting 5G standards, which in tern will help the local industry.5G Technology will be leveraged for development of next generation broadband infrastructure, through which the government aims to have hundred percent coverage of 10 gbps broadband across Urban and India and 1gbps across rural India.
India wants to grab the 5G Wave early on and has already given consultation on auction of 5G spectrum, which would be the first for the country where 4G adoption is still at nascent stage.
The Telecom regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently floated a consultation paper, asking stakeholders on the timing and quantum of spectrum in the 3300 – 3400 Mhz and 3400 – 3600 Mhz bands to be used for 5G. While some in the government back and early sale of such Airwaves, the industry wants call not before 2019, noting that the ecosystem around the technology is far from being developed. They had that India will get 5G only around 2021- 2022.
Indian telcos are also point to the financial stress being faced due to continuously in intensifying competition.
But some telcos are already taking initial steps towards 5G. Airtel on tuesday launched a massive mimo, a pre- 5G Technology, bing Internet browsing speed 3 times higher than the current levels. Airtel and state Run BSNL have also signed initial pacts with gear makers such as Nokia around development of 5G and its applications which are relevant to India. Currently, at the global level, use cases such as medical Internet of things(IoT), industrial 4.0, connected cars, smart City IoT, and Ultra broadband have been identified.
” as per the OECD committee on digital economic policy, it has been stated that 5G technology rollout will help in increasing GDP, creating employment, and digitising the economy,” sinha said, adding that laying the groundwork for future technologies will help the country in the long run.
The high level forum will work towards accelerate development of 5G for specific use cases in India, and these will include development of road map related to emerging technologies, testing, and trials.
The international telecommunication Union(IUT), fridge will finalize the standards, has already proposed key performance requirements for the 5th generation mobile technology. Even though the data speed of 5G cannot be ascertained yet since the​the technology is yet to be deployed, ITU in February proposed the downlink peak rate for 5G at 20  gigabits (20000 megabits) per second.
The fastest speed commercially available are on the LTE advanced, offering peak rates up to 1 gigabit per second in fixed speeds and hundred megabytes per second to mobile users.
The primary goal of the Forum are to achieve only deployment of 5G in India and a globally competitive product development and manufacturing ecosystem targeting half the Indian market and 10% of global market over the next 5 to 7 years, the Minister said.
For India, 5G provides an opportunity for industry to reach out to global markets, and Consumers to gain with the economies of scale. Worldwide countries have launched similar forums and thus India had join the race in 5G Technologies.” we are open to collaboration with them,” he said.

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