FTC confirms it is investigating Facebook over privacy violations

Over the past few days, Facebook has been under a lot of pressure over Cambridge Analytica data misuse and today to dent it further, FTC (Federal Trade Commission) confirms that it is investigating Facebook over privacy violations. Tom Pahl, Acting Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement, confirmed that it has an open non-public investigation. The company is gaining a lot of bad press over the Cambridge Analytica that is said to have the possession of user data that was improperly obtained. The company's Mark Zuckerberg has recently opened up about the issue and said that the company vows to crackdown on any kind of platform's abuse. The company even opened up about the security measure and steps it will be taking to do so. The current FTC's investigation stems from the purchase of personal data by Cambridge Analytica. Facebook is required to take permission and notify users before sharing personal data beyond their specified privacy settings. The violation of the consent decree could lead to a penalty of $40,000 per violation. FTC in a statement said: The FTC is firmly and fully committed to using all of its tools to protect the privacy of consumers. Foremost among these tools is an enforcement action ...

Google announces the roll out of mobile-first indexing

Google after a year and a half of experimentation and testing, today announced the rollout of mobile-first indexing for sites that follow the best practices. Earlier, Google used the desktop version of a page's content for crawling, indexing, and ranking systems. Google's priority to desktop content caused issues for mobile searchers which is vastly different from the mobile version. The mobile-first indexing means that Google will now use the mobile version of the page for indexing and ranking, and better help the primary mobile users find what they're looking for. However, it will continue to have one single index that it also uses for serving search results. To be clear, it does not have a “mobile-first index” that’s separate from our main index. Historically, the desktop version was indexed, but increasingly, it will be using the mobile versions of content. Google said that it is notifying sites about the mobile-first indexing via Search Console. Site owners will see significantly increased crawl rate from the Smartphone Googlebot. Additionally, Google will also show the mobile version of pages in Search results and Google cached pages. Google will cover how sites use responsive web design, or dynamic serving are set for mobile-first indexing. Google said that for sites that have AMP and non-AMP pages, it would prefer to index the mobile version ...

Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S with 5.99-inch FHD+ display, Snapdragon 845, 8GB RAM, 12MP dual rear cameras announced

Xiaomi just announced Mi MIX 2S, the company's latest flagship smartphone in the Mi MIX series in Shanghai, as it had promised. It has a 5.99-inch Full HD+ display, is powered by Snapdragon 845 with up to 8GB RAM, support for Google ARCore and runs Android 8.1 (Oreo) with support for AI voice assistant. It has a 12-megapixel rear camera with Sony IMX363 sensor, 1.4µm pixel size, OIS, Dual Pixel auto focus and a secondary 12-megapixel rear camera for AI portraits and has AI scene recognition that can detect 25 categories and 206 kinds of scenes. The 5-megapixel front camera, which as been moved to the bottom part of the phone. It has support for AI portrait selfies with real-time background blur and the phone also has face unlock. The company said that it scored 101 in DxO Mark for photo and 88 for video and the overall DxO Mark score is 97. It has a ceramic body with an aluminium frame, has a fingerprint sensor on the back and packs a 3400mAh battery with support for Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging as well as wireless charging. It has support for 43 global bands and has network support in 226 regions. Xiaomi Mi MIX 2S specifications 5.99-inch (2160 ...

Facebook expands to prioritize more local news in news feed globally

At the start of this year, Facebook announced that it is prioritizing more local news in the news feed in the US to prioritize local news. Today the company is expanding it to people in all countries, in all languages. With the expansion, people around the world will see more news on Facebook from local sources covering more cities and languages they may care about. Facebook is also helping local publishers who cover multiple, nearby cities reach audiences in those cities. It also mentioned that it would consider a publisher as local to multiple cities if the people in those cities are more likely to read articles from the publisher than the people outside of those cities. It also includes other cities that user would like to stay connected to local publishers from those cities. Facebook will continue to prioritize high-quality news in News Feed which will also include news from sources that are broadly trusted. Source

Acer Chromebook Tab 10 first Chrome OS tablet with 9.7-inch QXGA display, Wacom EMR stylus announced

Acer has introduced the Chromebook Tab 10, it is a dedicated tab running Google's Chrome OS. It sports a 9.7-inch IPS LCD and has 4GB RAM. It also comes with Wacom EMR stylus for natural writing, drawing and it can be placed in the dock.  The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 sports a 9.7-inches QXGA (2048 x 1536 pixels) touch IPS display and is powered by the dual ARM Cortex-A72 and quad Cortex-A53 OP1 Processor coupled with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. The company also mentioned that it will bring support for ARCore for immersive learning experiences. The Tab 10 comes with a 5-megapixel rear and a 2-megapixel front camera for video chats. It weighs only 550 grams and measures 172.2 x 238.2 x 9.98 mm. The Wacom EMR stylus lets users interact with apps, sketch, take notes and capture ideas. It can be embedded in the chassis dock for secure storage. Plus, it doesn’t require a battery. The Tab 10 comes with a 34Wh battery which according to the company can last up to 9 hours. Connectivity features include 802.11ac (2x2 MIMO), Bluetooth 4.1, and a  USB 3.1 Type-C port. The Acer Chromebook Tab 10 will be available in the US in April and be priced starting at $329 (Rs. 21,321 approx.).It will be available in May in Europe, ...

SHARP AQUOS S3 with 6-inch FHD+ display, Dual rear cameras, Android Oreo announced

Last week Sharp said that it will introduce AQUOS S3 smartphone in Vietnam on March 28th, now the company has announced that phone in Taiwan early. It pack a 6-inch FHD+ display with a notch and has 91% screen-to-body ratio, and the company says that it is the most compact smartphone with a 6-inch screen. It is powered by Snapdragon 630 with 4GB RAM, runs Android 8.0 (Oreo) with Smile UX, has a 12-megapixel primary rear camera with f/1.75 aperture, 1.4um pixel size, dual-tone LED flash, similar to the S2, but has have a 13-megapixel secondary camera for portrait shots, instead of 8-megapixel in the predecessor. It also offers 2x loss-less zoom. There is a 16-megapixel front camera with support for face unlock that scans 1024 facial points to unlock the phone in 0.1 seconds. It also has a fingerprint sensor on the curved glass back and packs a 3200mAh battery with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEFHKM39yes SHARP AQUOS S3 specifications 6-inch (2160x1080 pixels) Full HD+ display with 2.5D Corning Gorilla Glass protection, 135% RGB ultra-wide color gamut,1500:1 contrast ratio, 550 nits brightness Octa Core Snapdragon 630 14nm Mobile Platform (Quad 2.2GHz Cortex A53 + Quad 1.8GHz Cortex A53 CPUs) with Adreno 508 GPU ...

Samsung Galaxy Note8 Android 8.0 Oreo update starts rolling out in India

Samsung started rolling out Android 8.0 (Oreo) update for Galaxy Note8 in France recently. Today it has finally started rolling out the update in India. This bring Samsung Experience 9.0 replacing older 8.5 version along with Oreo and brings features like a customizable keyboard, new emoji, stickers, Bixby briefing, new color lens display settings, dual apps, enhanced DeX support, and many more changes.  The update comes with firmware version N950FXXU3CRC1, is about 1.47GB in size and has March security patch included as well. Samsung today promised that all the Galaxy S8/+ and Note 8 devices will get the Oreo update within the next 2-3 weeks, so others should get the update soon. Samsung Experience 9.0 upgrade with Android Oreo Samsung Experience 9.0 brings you Android Oreo, with exciting new features from Samsung and Google based on feedback from users like you. We recommend that you back up your important data to keep it safe during the upgrade. Some apps, including Samsung Pay, Samsung Internet, Samsung Notes, and Email, should be updated individually before you can update your OS. Here’s what’s new. Biometrics To improve your security, features that use biometrics (face, fingerprints, and irises) are only available when you use a secure screen lock type (pattern, PIN, or password). When you ...

NS P7819 with Snapdragon 845, Android 8.1 surfaces in Geekbench, AnTuTu benchmarks, rumored to be OnePlus 6

A mysterious smartphone codenamed NS P7819 has surfaced on Geekbench and AnTuTu, which is rumored to be a prototype of the OnePlus 6. This reveals Snapdragon 845 SoC, 6GB RAM and Android 8.1 for the phone. AnTuTu listing also reveals 64GB storage and a Full HD+ display. In Geekbench is has posted 2546 points for single-core and 8672 points for multi-core and in AnTuTu it has posted 263398 points, on par with other Snapdragon 845-powered smartphones. Recently leaked AnTuTu benchmark scores revealed  276510 points for the phone beating the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2s, which could be the score of 8GB RAM version of the phone. OnePlus 6 is said to feature a 6.28-inch (2280 × 1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 aspect ratio OLED display, 16MP + 20MP dual rear cameras and a 20MP similar to the R15 Dream Mirror Edition that was introduced last week. There are also rumors of Ceramic Edition of the phone arriving along with the standard version. The OnePlus 6 might be launching in the Q2 2018, around the time of June much like previous OnePlus flagships. Source 1, 2 | Via

Xiaomi Black Shark gaming phone with Snapdragon 845 confirmed

A new smartphone code-named Blackshark surfaced on AnTuTu and Geekbench recently, which is believed to be Xiaomi’s first gaming smartphone under the new Black shark brand, in which Xiaomi started investing last year. Now the official Black Shark account on weibo and Qualcomm China have confirmed that it will be powered by Snapdragon 845. Earlier rumors revealed 8GB of RAM, Android 8.0 Oreo and 2160 x 1080 FHD+ 18:9 display for the phone. The phone is rumored come with a 120 Hz display to compete with the Razer Phone. It scored 270680 points on AnTuTu and Geekbench score of 2452 for the single-core and 8452 for multi-core on par with other Snapdragon 845-powered smartphones. Since it has officially been confirmed, we can expected more details about the device in the coming weeks, and unveiling probably sometime in April or early May, 2018. Source

Xiaomi Mi 6X / Mi A2 with 5.99-inch FHD+ display, dual rear cameras, metal body gets certified

Xiaomi had launched the Mi 5X back in June 2017 and today the successor of it; Mi 6X with 5.99-inches full HD+ full-screen display, dual-rear cameras has been certified in China, after it surfaced in live images couple of months back. While all the eyes are on the Mi 2S, Mi 7, Xiaomi is also silently prepping the Mi 6X as well.  The Xiaomi Mi 6X is Codenamed M1804D2SC and going by the looks, the design certainly has a resemblance to the Redmi Note 5 Pro. It comes with a fingerprint sensor, dual-rear cameras on the rear. Following the trend, the Mi 6X rocks a tall 18:9 display. It packs a 2910mAh battery and it measures  158.88×75.54×7.3mm. However, we still don't know other details like chipset, RAM, storage and camera specifics. Since the device is listed on the certification website, it is possible that the smartphone is ready to hit mass production, and might be launching very soon. We will let you know once we learn more about the Mi 6X. The phone might also be introduced outside China as Mi A2. Source | Via