Wednesday, 25 Dec, 2024

Tech

WhatsApp now let beta users keep messages from disappearing

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is reportedly rolling out a new feature, which will allow users to keep messages from disappearing on iOS and Android beta. This feature is rolled out to some beta testers after installing the latest beta version of the application from the Play

Nokia launches DIY repairable budget Android phone

Nokia has announced one of the first budget Android smartphones designed to be repaired at home allowing users to swap out the battery in under five minutes in partnership with iFixit. Launched before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Saturday, the Nokia G22 has a removable back

European Commission bans TikTok on staff devices

Staff working at the European Commission have been ordered to remove the TikTok app from their phones and corporate devices. The commission said it was implementing the measure to "protect data and increase cybersecurity". TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has

Facebook's subscription plan fails to impress

Meta's subscription plan for Facebook and Instagram has left a lot of people scratching their heads.  After a similar move last year by Twitter, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced at the weekend an option to pay up to $14.99 (around €14) a month for a blue

NASA's Chandra Discovers Giant Black Holes on Collision Course

A new study using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory has tracked two pairs of supermassive black holes in dwarf galaxies on collision courses, as discussed in our latest press release. This is the first evidence for such an impending encounter, providing scientists with important

Users can soon earn money from Twitter, says Musk

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the micro-blogging platform is "spinning up subscriptions" so that users can "charge" their followers for specific content. When one user posted a long tweet with the new Blue feature that allows subscribers to create tweets of up to

Instagram and Facebook to get paid-for verification

Instagram and Facebook users will now be able to pay for a blue tick verification, parent company Meta has announced. Meta Verified will cost $11.99 (£9.96) a month on web, or $14.99 for iPhone users. It will be available in Australia and New Zealand this week. Mark

Twitter to charge users to secure accounts via text message

Twitter said on Friday it will allow only paid subscribers to use text messages as a two-factor authentication (2FA) method to secure their accounts. After March 20, “only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to use text messages as their two-factor authentication method,”

Neal Mohan to be new YouTube CEO after Susan Wojcicki

Neal Mohan will become the new CEO. He came over to Google during the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007 and later became senior vice president of Display and Video Ads. He became YouTube’s chief product officer in 2015. Indian-American Neal Mohan will take over as the new CEO of

Apple’s iOS 16.4 beta brings new emoji, web app notifications, and more

Apple has just released the iOS 16.4 beta for developers and anyone else who wants a really early look at the new software. This is the first beta for iOS 16.4, following numerous releases for iOS 16.3. The first highlighted items for iOS 16.4 are the new Unicode 15 emoji. These are

APICTA suspends BASIS for not attending Pakistan programme

Asia Pacific ICT Alliance (APICTA) Executive Committee (EXCO) has suspended BASIS IT Association for 2 years. The action was taken against BASIS for not complying with a directive to physically attend an award programme in Pakistan last year. The ban will not apply to participants

Google to expand misinformation ‘prebunking’ in Europe

After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation. The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to

ChatGPT takes on the tough US medical licensing exam

The artificial intelligence system scored passing or near passing results on the US medical licensing exam, according to a study published on Thursday. "Reaching the passing score for this notoriously difficult expert exam, and doing so without any human reinforcement, marks a

Hackers say they halted online broadcast of Iran president’s speech

Digital activists supporting anti-government protests in Iran said they hacked an online broadcast by state television of a speech by President Ebrahim Raisi on Saturday marking the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The Edalat-e Ali group posted a video of the purported interruption of

Google cautions against ‘hallucinating’ chatbots — report

The boss of Google’s search engine warned against the pitfalls of artificial intelligence in chatbots in a newspaper interview published on Saturday, as Google parent company Alphabet battles to compete with blockbuster app ChatGPT. “This kind of artificial intelligence

Meta completes virtual reality deal after US court win

Facebook-owner Meta finalised its buyout of virtual reality firm Within Unlimited, the VR company’s chief executive said, after a court rejected an attempt by US regulators to block the deal over competition concerns. A spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission told AFP

SpaceX’s interplanetary rocket fires up engines in unprecedented test

SpaceX just attempted to ignite all 33 engines in a test fire of its gargantuan Super Heavy rocket booster. The trial marks the company’s first “static fire” test for what is expected to be the most powerful launch vehicle ever built. The Super Heavy booster started

Google loses over $100bn after AI chatbot Bard gives wrong answer

Shares of Google's parent company lost more than $100 billion in market value on Wednesday after its Bard chatbot ad showed inaccurate information and analysts said its AI search event lacked details on how it will answer Microsoft's ChatGPT challenge. Reuters was first to

Twitter down in Turkey as earthquake response criticism mounts

Turkish police have detained more than a dozen people since Monday’s earthquake over social media posts that criticized how President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has been dealing with the disaster. Twitter became inaccessible on major Turkish mobile providers on

Google unveils its ChatGPT rival

Google on Monday unveiled a new chatbot tool dubbed “Bard” in an apparent bid to compete with the viral success of ChatGPT. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and parent company Alphabet, said in a blog post that Bard will be opened up to “trusted testers” starting