Suhani Jain

Google Chrome rolls out memory and power-saving modes

Google Chrome browser has long been wracked by memory system-sucking problems, particularly when numerous tabs are open, however, the second most visited browser received an upgrade today to optimize device battery power and storage using both.

Google Chrome’s latest desktop release will include two additional new performance settings which are Memory Saver and Energy Saver. Google has confirmed that when they’re used, Chrome will take up to 30 percent less memory and eventually expand a device’s battery life when it’s running low.

“We’ll be rolling out both Memory Saver and Energy Saver modes over the next several weeks globally for Windows, macOS and ChromeOS,” Mark Chang, group product manager for Chrome, wrote in a company blog.
Source: computerworld.com

When the latest features are released, they would then run in the background until users turn them off physically or mark important websites to exclude them from Memory Saver.

The Memory Savor control is hidden beneath the burger menu in the top right corner of the Chrome browser window.

Chrome’s excessive use of system memory has previously limited the amount of memory available to other programs that run on a computer or a mobile device. The issues even caused Chrome to struggle to cache information for fast access, effectively negating the use of RAM in the first place.

“From the beginning, we designed Chrome for speed. But performance is more than just delivering a fast browsing experience,” Chang wrote.
Source: computerworld.com

Because Google Chrome sandboxes browser processes, a viewer who starts Chrome with the Google search box then ends up with two Chrome processes running, each requiring its memory.

“Add another tab and you get three,” Jerry Hildenbrand, a senior editor at AndroidCentral wrote in a post last year. “Add the 50 or so tabs you end up the opening by the end of the night and you have 51, each running semi-independently from the other and each taking up system resources. That’s only the beginning. Each extension starts another process. Chrome does some aggressive preloading of web pages so your internet browsing feels nice and snappy.”
Source: computerworld.com

Chrome consumes megabytes of memory as a result of the issue.

Furthermore, Chrome’s new Energy Saver mode is intended to conserve battery power by restricting background activity and visual effects on websites that contain animations and videos. According to Google, the Energy Saver mode starts when a device’s battery reaches 20 percent capacity.

Suhani Jain

I am a student pursuing my bachelor’s in information technology. I have a interest in writing so, I am working a freelance content writer because I enjoy writing. I also write poetries. I believe in the quote by anne frank “paper has more patience than person

Apple to Start Encrypting iCloud Backups

On Wednesday, Apple introduced its plans to enable users to encrypt additional types of iCloud info on its servers, such as full backups, photos, and notes.

The Advanced Data Protection feature will inhibit Apple from viewing the material of a portion of the most confidential or sensitive data stored on its web server and will prevent Apple from providing the information of an encoded backup to law enforcement.

According to Apple, encoded backups would be opt-in and available in the United States even before the end of this year.

Although Apple initially encrypted much of the data it contains on servers, the whole device backups containing text messages, contacts, as well as other necessary details were not end-to-end encoded, and Apple originally had access to the information of the backups.

The move will impress security advocates, who have originally defined unencrypted iCloud backups as a weak link in Apple’s privacy policy. It also implies that if Apple’s servers were ever hacked, user data would not be revealed.

It could offend law enforcement, which has relied on Apple’s policy of not encrypting backups to get contents in investigations even though Apple’s iMessage and devices are encrypted.

The FBI criticized Apple’s new feature in a statement on Wednesday, saying that it would “hinder” the bureau’s ability to “protect the American people from criminal acts,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Source: cnbc.com

Apple notably battled the FBI’s endeavor to persuade it to unlock an encrypted iPhone utilized by a terrorist in San Bernardino, California, through the courts. Apple stated at the time that an iCloud backup on its servers was an alternative for obtaining the same data.

Encryption is generally opposed by law enforcement officials around the world since it enables suspects to go dark and refuses to acknowledge law enforcement access to potential evidence that they might have earlier access to under lower levels of security.

In an interview in 2018, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that one major consideration in Apple’s decision-making regarding end-to-end encrypted iCloud backups is the fact that customer expects Apple to be able to assist them to recover their data. If users forget their passwords and have Advanced Data Protection enabled, Apple will be unable to reinstate the account since it lacks the required encryption key.

On Wednesday, Apple further introduced two additional security features. Users will have the option to use a physical key as second-factor authentication for Apple ID logins soon. Another update enables users who are vulnerable to major security risks to verify that their text messages are not being intercepted.

Last year, Apple introduced a system to inspect for inappropriate content including child sexual abuse content that used a complex system that would still enable

Apple encrypts user photos on its servers during an evident attempt to appease law enforcement. Privacy advocates argued that the system would mainly enable Apple to scan people’s hard drives. According to The Wall Street Journal, the system’s development has been halted.

Suhani Jain

Microsoft eyes “super app” to challenge Apple and Google’s dominance of mobile search

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Microsoft wants to boost its mobile efforts with a new “super app” for the iPhone that combines a variety of features into a single app. According to The Information, Microsoft hopes that such an app will assist it in breaking into the mobile search market, which itself is dominated by Apple and Google as of now.

This one “super app” would integrate purchasing, texting, internet research, newsfeeds, and other features into a single iPhone and Android app.

According to the report, this would resemble a mobile strategy that has worked for Tencent, referring to the hugely popular WeChat app. WeChat, on the other hand, combines messaging, buying stuff, news articles, and various games into a single app.

The report goes on to say that it’s not clear “whether Microsoft will ultimately launch such an app,” but it’s something that’s been internally considered. Microsoft’s push to better integrate into mobile products is being led by CEO Satya Nadella, who is particularly focused on “pushing the Bing search engine to work better with other Microsoft mobile products.”
Source: 9to5mac.com

Due to a major multibillion-dollar agreement between Apple and Google, Microsoft’s Bing is at an obvious disadvantage on Apple platforms. Apple has made Google’s search engine the default on its every platform as a result of this agreement.

The Information reports that Microsoft has previously bid on this deal but has always been beaten out by Google. “The negotiations have typically taken place directly between Nadella and top Apple executives behind closed doors,” the report says. This leaves “many top Microsoft executives in the dark about the process.”
Source: 9to5mac.com

The Google-Apple deal, on the other hand, is coming under increasing antitrust scrutiny. According to the report, an agreement between Microsoft and Apple may not garner as much regulatory attention because Bing’s contribution to the web search market is tiny in comparison to Google’s.

However, there is currently no evidence that Microsoft intends to aggressively pursue a deal with Apple to make Bing the default search engine on the iPhone. Instead, the company’s efforts are focused on enhancing Bing’s compatibility with current Microsoft services and considering the possibility of a super app.

Suhani Jain

Google to shut down Duplex AI for web

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

Google has announced the disappearance of its Duplex on the Web service which is a tool powered by AI that was released in 2019 to assist users with a wide variety of online tasks such as purchasing airline tickets or improving the efficiency of the check-in process for flights on airline websites.

“Any automation features enabled by Duplex on the Web will no longer be supported after this date,” said the update.
“As we continue to improve the Duplex experience, we’re responding to the feedback we’ve heard from users and developers about how to make it even better,” a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch.
“By the end of this year, we’ll turn down Duplex on the Web and fully focus on making AI advancements to the Duplex voice technology that helps people most every day,” the spokesperson added.
Source: business-standard.com

The service was first officially confirmed at Google I/O 2019 as just an extension to its call-automation Duplex technology. As well as, while its use case was primarily limited to purchasing movie tickets, the facility subsequently expanded to also include data breach protection and check additional help or aid on e-commerce online sites.

Google has not clarified the reason why it is closing down the service, but as per TechCrunch, the cost of training and fine-tuning resource-intensive AI models might be the reason. Besides that, if website owners prevent the crawler from indexing their content, the performance of Duplex on the Web may decrease badly.

The company plans to invest less in improving Google Assistant and Google Assistant-powered services for non-Google devices.

Google positions it as an assistant that can aid you with mundane activities which include bookings and reservations, where it can contact the location and handle the bookings for you.

In 2019, Google introduced Duplex for the web which was an offshoot of the assistant which would assist you in filling out web application forms to make the user experience more seamless.

Suhani Jain

WhatsApp rolls out picture-in-picture mode on iOS beta

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

For iOS beta users, Meta-owned WhatsApp is launching a brand-new picture-in-picture mode for video chatting. Users would be able to open and access other apps while on a WhatsApp video chat with the new feature. Especially, the latest feature option is only available to a limited number of iOS beta testers.

As per WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has made the new Picture-in-Picture feature available to certain beta iOS beta testers who already have installed the new WhatsApp beta for iOS 22.24.0.79 upgrade. More users will be able to use the feature in the following days.

What exactly is WhatsApp picture-in-picture mode?

As shown in the screenshot of the new feature launched by WABetaInfo, the latest picture-in-picture mode will enable the users to carry out multiple tasks on the phone while on a WhatsApp video chat. Noticeably, if a user leaves the WhatsApp app during a video call, the picture-in-picture view will appear on the main window immediately.

This allows iPhone users to access other apps without needing to close the video call window or pause their camera. Users will be able to switch off or momentarily deactivate the video call view as needed.

Besides that, as of now, the picture-in-picture mode is available on iOS 16.1 and later, so it is possible that it will be one of the features supported by the upgrade that carries official support for iOS 16. WhatsApp is also operating to add support for iOS 15 devices.

Importantly, Android users can already use the picture-in-picture mode for video chatting. In addition, WhatsApp allows both Android and iOS users to enable picture-in-picture mode when viewing shared video files on the app.

To enable picture-in-picture mode, navigate to your device’s Settings> Apps and Notifications> WhatsApp> Advanced Picture-in-picture.

Meanwhile, WhatsApp is testing another update that re-designs and expands the alternatives mostly under the disappearing messages quick access button. Besides that, the Meta-owned instant messenger platform has updated and released eight emojis and it will add 21 further new emojis to improve users’ messaging experiences. The emoticon update is now available in the most recent beta Build on the Play Store.

Suhani Jain

SpaceX gets U.S. approval to deploy up to 7,500 satellites

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Suhani Jain

The US Federal Communications Commission i.e., FCC approved SpaceX proposal to deploy approximately 7,500 satellites on Thursday but put several other judgments on hold.

Starlink, a rapidly expanding network of over 3,500 low-Earth orbit satellites, has thousands of users across the United States thus far, with customers paying a minimum of 599 USD ‘for a user terminal as well as 110 USD per month for service. In 2018, the FCC approved SpaceX’s plans to launch up to 4,425 first-generation satellites.

SpaceX has applied for permission to function a network of 29,988 satellites known as the “second-generation” or Gen2 Starlink constellation, which will transmit internet to areas that have limited or no internet access.

The FCC denied SpaceX’s entire application, which included the deployment of approximately 30,000 satellites in low Earth orbit, and imposed conditions on the firm’s plan to deploy the satellites. It postponed the decision to initiate launching the full number of applications.

“Our action will allow SpaceX to begin deployment of Gen2 Starlink, which will bring next-generation satellite broadband to Americans nationwide,” the FCC said in its approval order, adding it “will enable worldwide satellite broadband service, helping to close the digital divide on a global scale.”
The FCC said its decision “will protect other satellite and terrestrial operators from harmful interference and maintain a safe space environment” and protect “spectrum and orbital resources for future use.”
Source: reuters.com

A U.S. appeals court backed the FCC’s 2021 decision to allow SpaceX’s plan to deploy some Starlink satellites in a lower Earth orbit just as scheduled as the portion of its push to offer space-based broadband internet service.

In September, SpaceX filed a lawsuit against the FCC for denying it 885.5 million USD in rural broadband subsidies. Starlink’s technique has real promise according to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, but it is unable to meet the program’s requirements, citing data showing a gradual decline in the rate of speed over the past year and casting the service’s price as too high for consumers.

Suhani Jain

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