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While many companies have attempted to convert an ordinary face mask into a smart mask that can offer health benefits, engineers at Northwestern University have developed a new smart sensor platform for face masks that they are calling a “Fitbit for the face”. Dubbed “FaceBit,” this monitoring device for health is a lightweight, quarter-sized sensor, which uses a tiny magnet to attach to any N95, cloth, or surgical face mask....

In a blog post published on Friday, Facebook addressed a “hard question”: “Is spending time on social media bad for us?” The company referring to both internal and academic research said “in general, when people spend a lot of time passively consuming information — reading but not interacting with people — they report feeling worse afterward.” Simultaneously, engaging and interacting with people more on Facebook “is linked to improvements in well-being,” the company said....

For those unaware, Facebook had halted its own solar-powered internet drone project, Aquila last June after years of development. Back then, the company had said that it would no longer build the drones. However, it added that it was still committed to the original goal of bringing more people online and for that it would instead depend on other companies to build aircraft. According to the documents obtained by Netzpolitik under the Australian Freedom of Information Act, show that both the companies plan to test the solar-powered drones in Australian territory....

The problem was universal and many users took to Twitter to express their shock at the sudden draining of their smartphone battery. — u!?? ??? (@kataykin) January 10, 2017 — Robb Lewis (@rmlewisuk) January 10, 2017 David Marcus, the VP of messaging products at the social network, confirmed on Twitter that this problem had arisen due to a bug, and that it should now be solved. “Issue was isolated and fixed server side,” he wrote on Tuesday....

“Technology is a major part of our lives, and companies such as Facebook have immense responsibilities. Every day, we make decisions about what speech is harmful, what constitutes political advertising, and how to prevent sophisticated cyber attacks. These are important for keeping our community safe. But if we were starting from scratch, we wouldn’t ask companies to make these judgments alone,” Zuckerberg wrote. “By updating the rules for the Internet, we can preserve what’s best about it — the freedom for people to express themselves and for entrepreneurs to build new things — while also protecting society from broader harms....

Facebook has been long looking to convince the FB users to within its confines by providing all sorts of value added services like chats, messengers etc. However it lacked a full fledged browser that could take on the might of the market leader, Google Chrome and make its users stay on FB even while surfing the web. The new in-App browser is a step in making that into a reality....

David Wehner, Facebook CFO was reported as saying by Mashable that “We think that enabling that B2C (business-to-consumer) messaging has good business potential for us.” “As we learn those things, I think there’s going to be opportunities to bring some of those things to WhatsApp, but that’s more longer term,” Wehner said at a tech conference in Boston recently. However, all that functionality is only available for “select companies in the US, and only on Messenger....

The complaint (PDF) states that “Facebook has created, collected and stored over a billion ‘face templates’ (or ‘face prints’)”, which, ostensibly, are as uniquely identifiable as fingerprints. These have been gathered “from over a billion individuals, millions of whom reside in the State of Illinois”. In 2008, the state legislature had passed the the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), which is alleged to have been violated by Zuckerberg. The complaint notes that a private entity such as Facebook under BIPA is forbidden by law to acquire or have an individual’s biometrics except if it reaches suitable permission, which is constituted by:...

For those unaware, Aadhaar is a unique identification document bearing a unique 12 digit Aadhaar number, that is issued to an individual by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Now, Facebook, the social networking giant, too has followed suit and is apparently encouraging its new users in India to use their real names on its site as shown in their Aadhaar card while creating a new account. “What’s your name?...

In conversation with TechCrunch, a Facebook spokesperson said, “We are excited to start rolling out support for 3D Touch in our iOS app so people can quickly and easily peek into a preview of anything they are interested in on Facebook, and pop into that content to see more.” 3D Touch will allow users to hardpress on FB timeline posts to preview content and take further action on the options instead of tapping and swiping The 3D Touch feature in Apple smartphones was codenamed ‘peek and pop’ and was introduced on Apple’s new smartphones last year....

One of these files namely “Install.exe” was found to be Malicious in Nature and was detected as a Backdoor Named as “Backdoor.Win32.Miancha” The investigation is still going on, and now it looks like the attack was not aimed to steal the data but most probably it was only the carelessness of an employ who unknowingly installed the Backdoor in one of the Computer at the Plant.

Flaw In Visa’s Contactless Card Lets Anyone Charge It Upto $999,999Convenience turns flawThe ProcessVisa’s response Convenience turns flaw As a way of speeding up transactions, Visa allows its users to bypass the step of entering their PINs when making a transactions of amounts $20 or less.Researchers from Newcastle University have discovered serious flaw in this process . They discovered that this amount could be increased simply by converting the currency into a foreign one (GBP to USD or EURO)....

According to Jason Colon from Tampa, Florida, he was listening to music while working out at the LA Fitness on 4th Street in St. Petersburg, Fla. on Thursday when he noticed white smoke coming out from his Apple Airpods. He then left the AirPods on a piece of gym equipment to seek help. Although, Colon didn’t actually see his AirPod burst into flame, he claims that by the time he got back, his right side AirPod had popped open leaving it charred with parts of white plastic turning grey....

Google has just published a new research paper that shows that it is possible to use your phone’s personal assistant without a data connection. The research team at Google is working on creating a new, personalized system for voice commands, as well as dictation. To train the new system, the team mainly used 2,000 hours of recorded and anonymized Google voice search traffic, totalling more than 100 million requests. The team also added background noise from YouTube to imitate real-life speaking conditions....

The new SO-DIMM kits are part of G.Skill’s Ripjaws series. There are two high capacity options available, 16GB (2x8GB) and 32GB (2x16GB). Both are built with Samsung DDR4 8Gb ICs, same as the previously aforementioned Trident Z additions, and require 1.35V to run. The company has mentioned the following regarding the feat of announcing the world’s fastest gaming RAM kits for gaming notebooks. According to the information that G.Skill has provided, the latencies when running this RAM at DDR4-3200 are 16-18-18-43....

This update brings a noteworthy number of refinements coupled with major bug fixes and new tool enhancements. GIMP 2.10.18: New Tools & Major Improvements After skipping the release of 2.10.16 due to a critical bug, GIMP 2.10.18 brings many useful features to the program. GIMP 2.10.18: New Tools & Major ImprovementsDownload GIMP 2.10.18 Right off the bat is a major change to the left-hand panel used for switching between tools namely toolbox....

Gmail Drafts used to update RAT and send victims data to the hackersModus OperandiRandom Access Tool (RAT)Rescue method Modus Operandi Shape Security said that this was how this new kind of malware work. The cyber criminal / hacker first set up an anonymous Gmail account. He then proceeded to infect the victims computer with the malware. Once the malware was injected into the victims computer, all he had to do is open the original anonymous Gmail account as as invisible instance of Internet Explorer....

It all started in 2012, when a Stanford researcher discovered that Google had used a tactic to track Safari users’ web browsing habits. In other words, it used to fool consumers’ browsers into accepting ad-tracking software by sneaking around Apple’s privacy settings. Apple, which owns Safari, had built into it privacy controls that prevented certain cookies, small files that store information that can detect users or track their activities. However, Google got around the setting by camouflaging their cookies in a way that was capable for a loophole in the Safari settings....

With the latest update in place, Google Docs will be able to point out inappropriate words and sentences that might seem dumb. It will help users write clear and concise copies free of any grammatical errors. Google Docs is releasing Tone & Style feature to write concise copies Grammarly and a few other third-party platforms and extensions have long been providing services to rectify grammatical errors and whatnot over the past couple of years....

Google said in its official Youtube blog that publishers can shares incredible videos with their fans every second of the day, but what if they could share even more in that video? Like, sharing the entire moment that they are filming? The big thing is that you wont need a virtual reality headset to watch 360-Degree Videos On YouTube, on web (chrome) you can scroll around the video with your mouse pointer like you did in Google maps to Zoom in or out....