WhatsApp users can now write status updates with colourful background

WhatsApp users can now write status updates with colourful background

(Web Desk) – WhatsApp is all set to roll out colourful status updates as in Facebook for its millions of users all around the world. It has adopted the feature from the tech giant to give its users a better experience by putting up story or status.

The aforementioned update will also allow WhatsApp users to add link in their status along with changing the background colour, font colour and font style. Reports claim that the upcoming feature will be same as in Facebook. It will change the current status option which only allowed users to put videos or photos as status previously.

The feature of status with coloured backgrounds was launched by Facebook with a little inspiration from Snapchat in December of 2016. It increased user engagement and forced WhatsApp to adopt it. Users of the instant messaging app can now add this colourful background status in their story which will stay for 24 hours. It is also available in Facebook Messenger and Instagram.

Social media giants have time and again adopted features from each other to accommodate the users’ interest. Although WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, it has to update itself day in and day out to remain in the fierce competition.

Elon Musk’s Neuralink gets $27 million to build brain computers

Neuralink, the startup co-founded by Elon Musk, has taken steps to sell as much as $100 million in stock to fund the development of technology that connects human brains with computers

San Francisco: Neuralink Corp., the startup co-founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has taken steps to sell as much as $100 million in stock to fund the development of technology that connects human brains with computers.

The San Francisco-based company has already gotten $27 million in funding, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk said via Twitter on Friday that Neuralink isn’t seeking outside investors. A spokesman didn’t respond to questions about the source of the funds.

Musk, 46, is the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and has several other pet projects, including a venture to bore tunnels for roads or tube-based transportation systems known as the hyperloop, and another project for the responsible development of artificial intelligence.

In June, Musk said Neuralink is a priority after much more demanding commitments to his automotive and rocket companies. “Boring Co. is maybe 2% of my time; Neuralink is 3% to 5% of my time; OpenAI is going to be a couple of percent; and then 90-plus percent is divided between SpaceX and Tesla,” said Musk at the electric-car maker’s annual shareholder meeting.

Few details are known about Neuralink. The company’s sparse website says it’s “developing ultra-high bandwith brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.” It’s also recruiting engineers and scientists to join the effort.

“No neuroscience experience is required: talent and drive matter far more,” the company says on the site. “We expect most of our team to come from other areas and industries.” Bloomberg

Podcasts and YouTube channels for cybersecurity updates

StaySafeOnline1 is the official YouTube channel of the National Cyber Security Alliance, a US-based non-profit that works to promote awareness on cybersecurity for users at home, work and in schools.

TWiT Netcast Network

For 12 years, TWiT.tv has been providing news, help and perspective on the latest trends in digital technology. Founded by US-based tech journalist Leo Laporte, the TWiT YouTube channel has over 20 shows on topics ranging from tech news and operating systems to security and privacy. Their DIY videos and demos are quite handy too.

StaySafeOnline1

StaySafeOnline1 is the official YouTube channel of the National Cyber Security Alliance, a US-based non-profit that works to promote awareness on cybersecurity for users at home, work and in schools. The channel features interactive, light-hearted videos on everything from how to keep your login data safe to data privacy and tips on sharing your information in cyberspace.

Tripwire’s Security Slice

US-based software company Tripwire’s blog, The State of Security, features the popular podcast Security Slice. Apart from news, trends and insights on information security topics, Security Slice has regular shows on basic topics such as ransomware, trolling, hacking, and broader fields like aviation, healthcare security and passwords.

Threatpost

An independent podcast and news service produced by Kaspersky Lab, Threatpost provides regular security news and analysis on timely events in the tech fraternity. It features a weekly “news wrap”, a recap of the top events in the digital world—apps, mobile security, privacy, Internet of Things, etc. Threatpost also features interviews, talks with researchers and tech pundits.

Down the Security Rabbithole Podcast

Hosted by cybersecurity strategist Rafal Los and application security professional James Jardine, the podcast is a mix of interesting interviews and news analysis on security issues for both enterprises and individuals. Apart from regular guest interviews on digital security topics, the podcast looks at different perspectives on cybercrime, machine learning and the Internet of Things, among other topics.

Technology in your car: 8 safety features that depend on tech

With the advent of technology and computerisation, abbreviations like ABS, EBD and ESP are nowadays thrown into car brochures and news reports with abandon. But since not everyone is familiar with all of them and how they work, let’s demystify some of them today.

With the advent of technology and computerisation, abbreviations like ABS, EBD and ESP are nowadays thrown into car brochures and news reports with abandon. But since not everyone is familiar with all of them and how they work, let’s demystify some of them today.

ABS / Anti-Lock Braking System

A great boon especially in the wet, ABS prevents the wheels from locking up when you hit the brakes hard. Using pumps and sensors, ABS applies the brakes in several small doses in tricky conditions, thus giving you more control when you brake and also reducing your braking distance.

EBD / Electronic Brake-Force Distribution

When you apply brakes, the force has to be divided among all the tyres based on how much grip they can offer. The tyres that have the most weight on them offer the best grip because the load pushes them into the road more, and hence, when you press your brakes, EBD activates before ABS kicks in and automatically sends more braking power to those tyres.

BA / Brake-Assist

Simply put, BA is like a brake amplifier. When you press the brake in a manner that is sharper and quicker than usual, the system detects an emergency and the brake strength applied is greater than the pressure on the brake pedal, making up for errors in judgement/delayed reaction by the driver.

TCS / Traction Control System

TCS is an important feature in more powerful cars as their grunt delivery can prove to be too much for the tyres to handle. If an individual wheel moves faster than other, TCS detects this and automatically applies a dab of the brakes to that particular wheel to stop it from spinning out of control.

ESP / Electronic Stability Program

ESP monitors your inputs and compares it to the vehicle’s actual behaviour to keep your car stable. If there’s a difference in the steering wheel’s angle and the direction the car is moving in, ESP will control the power and braking strength sent to each wheel using various sensors.

HHC / Hill-Hold Control

HHC uses sensors to determine if your car has stopped at an incline/decline and holds the brakes for a few seconds even if you let go of it. This gives you enough time to get back on the accelerator and move ahead, without the risk of rolling away.

TPMS / Tyre Pressure Monitoring System

TPMS is the most self-explanatory of this lot. It checks your tyre pressure to ensure that your car offers the best grip, handling, comfort and stability, warning you if the pressure dips below the required level.

SRS / Supplemental Restraint System

SRS, which basically means airbags in layman’s terms, is a bit different from the other features here in that, while the others try to prevent an accident from happening, it tries to protect you when and if you do get into an accident.

How Unisys’ India Technology Centre is fostering technology innovation

Bangalore: Unisys Corporation, an American global information technology company founded in 1986, established its local arm Unisys India in Bangalore in 2004.

Gradually, over these years Unisys India’s role and significance has increased immensely. It is one of the six strategic global delivery centres that the company has globally.

And to strengthen technology development capabilities, Unisys also set up the India Technology Centre in 2016, which has now become a strategic and integral part of company’s technology innovation, projects support and business development.

“The India Technology Centre is a strategic and integral part of Unisys’ technology business and the centre is responsible for not only the development or the support projects, but also driving a culture of innovation to enable next-generation ideas for our clients. At a broad level, the ratio between new development and support work that happens here is about 70:30,” says K Nageswara Rao, Vice President - India Technology Center, Unisys.

“The centre plays a pivotal role in championing cutting-edge research that ensures Unisys’ place as a domain leader in the industry and bringing in a paradigm shift in the way we think about security as well as current disruptive trends like DevOps, Analytics and Visualization, etc.,” adds Rao.

Interestingly, the India Technology Centre and Unisys India’s overall operations and functions are no different from its Blue Bell headquarters in Pennsylvania, US, as Rao says in the words of Unisys CEO Peter Altabef, “Everything we do, we will also do in India.”

“This is true for our technology products also. Here at the India Technology Centre, we work on a wide range of products that includes core systems level (such as interface products to the OS layer), database, networking/communication, security, systems management, and application development environment,” informs Rao.

“For many of these products, the complete end-to-end engineering responsibility is carried out by this centre. Leadership provided to our global organization from this centre includes areas like System Testing, Information Development (technical documentation), UI/UX, and Infrastructure services,” he explains.

The India Technology Centre is the largest centre out of the six global technology centres of Unisys Corporation. Overall, Unisys India has around 5000 people and it is actively involved in the development and design of company’s all core products.

The centre operates out of Unisys India’s two large facilities located at Purva Premier on the Residency Road and RGA Tech Park on the Sarjapur Road, Bangalore.

In fact, over 20 percent of all patents across the company level are filed from the India Technology Centre.

“In the last few years, the centre has increasingly contributed to the development of the market, products as well as core software development and has been recognized as an equal and significant partner among all the centres, in a truly global engineering environment,” emphasizes Rao.

Given the centre largely focuses on technology innovation; it leverages and works on new as well as in-house technologies. “We leverage all the modern technologies such as Java, .Net, Linux, along with our time-proven and secure ClearPath Forward MCP and OS 2200 technologies,” informs Rao.

“ClearPath Forward security is unmatched / unsurpassed and MCP and OS 2200 remain, as Peter Altabef puts it, “the only operating systems (OS) in the market, in which data has never been forcibly extracted”. And in tune with our sharpened focus on security, at this center, we build secure products for digital transformation using the cloud, web, and mobile technologies,” he adds.

In a bid to drive and foster innovation internally, the centre hosts various events for employees such as Hackfest – a hackathon where employees are asked to bring out creative technological ideas and solutions to solve some present and future problems.

For instance, a recent Hackfest led to over 100 unique innovation ideas on a campaign around designing safe cities of the future. Make it Your Day, a non-competitive event where the staffs put aside their daily rresponsibility for a day to learn something new also saw similar response.

Besides these internal events and activities, the company also engages externally with varsities and local event organised by local bodies like Nasscom and others on the innovation front to tap talent.

“We also partner with the academia to nurture innovation among engineering students in India. One of our key initiatives, Unisys’ Cloud 20/20, has been running for the better part of a decade and is one of India’s largest annual technical project contests,” points our Rao.

“In its 9th year now, the contest aims to spark innovative thinking around the latest disruptive technologies, and to help engineering students develop real world solutions for some of our most pressing business and societal challenges,” further he elaborates.

The initiative over the years has attracted more participation from top varsities and a steep incremental curve in the complexity and quality of submissions.

“This year’s edition is expanding the culture of innovation to a larger audience and aims to bring together technical and business experts, CXO and other working professionals through parallel events such as a tech series and hackathon,” concludes Rao.