BizBahrain Magazine Sep-Oct 2017

Gemalto enables Biometric
Passports
Gemalto, the world leader in digital
security, announces that its advanced
epassport technologies are now being
used in over 30 different countries.
Gemalto’s leading position has
been built on the supply of complete
travel documents and key components
such as polycarbonate data pages,
visible and hidden document security
features, electronic passport covers and
ICAO-compliant embedded software. In
addition, the company’s secure embedded
software has consistently outperformed
the competition in international tests
on speed over the last decade. Gemalto
is also making an active contribution to
the definition of international ePassport
standards.
Introduced in 2005, the ePassport -
which now represents 57% of passports
in circulation - delivers enhanced fraud
WhatsApp Colourful
Status Update
After testing it in beta for a while,
WhatsApp has finally introduced
coloured text statuses to its Android
and iPhone apps. This feature was first
introduced by Facebook late last year
on its Android app first, allowing its
users to write their status update with
a colourful background, font, and emoji
combination. WhatsApp has confirmed
that the coloured text feature is rolling
protection by incorporating a secure
microprocessor that stores the holder’s
personal data and digital photo. Electronic
passports include a standardized
electronic portrait of the holder for facial
recognition, which opens the door to a
comprehensive range of automated, selfservice
airport services for passengers.
This extends from check-in through
to immigration control and boarding,
resulting in an enhanced experience on
arrival and departure.
The future ePassport
A new generation of ePassport will
digitally store travel information such as
out to all users on Android and iPhone
in an emailed statement to Gadgets 360.
However, not all users are seeing this
feature go live even after updating to the
latest update. WABetaInfo reports that
on iOS and Android, it has been remotely
activated, and full-fledged rollout is
awaited.
How does WhatsApp coloured text status
work?
While some users may see the feature,
others will see it pop up soon. For iPhone
users, the pen icon now shows up next
to the camera icon in the new Status
bar. Clicking on the pen icon brings up
the option to type a status, choose a font,
emoji, and the background colour as well.
When you’re done writing the status and
making the necessary changes, you can
then hit the green arrow key to send
the text status, just like how you send
eVisas and entry/exit stamps to support
even more efficient immigration control.
The key trends in travel documentation
identified by Gemalto include:
• Swift migration to tamper-proof
polycarbonate data pages, which
dramatically reduce the risk of
fraud.
• Rapid growth in secure digital
identity credentials. Sensitive
ePassport data is stored on the
holder’s smartphone to create a
secure companion to the physical
passport, making life easier for
travelers.
• Smart borders/smart airports to
emerge at a faster pace. Combined
with the hundreds of millions of
ePassports now in circulation and
a strong push behind biometrics
(particularly facial recognition),
they offer travelers quick and
secure cross-border movement.
media content now. The status will then
be published on WhatsApp for all your
contacts to see. For Android users, the
floating pen icon shows up at the bottom
of the Status tab, above the camera icon.
The tipster also confirms that
WhatsApp for Windows Phone does not
support this feature, and on the Web, you
can only view these text statuses for now,
and not create them.
Furthermore, the tipster claims that
the iPhone app will now support more
stickers, and bring an improved chat
search feature as well. The stickers are
disabled for now, but will be switched
on in future releases. Lastly, WhatsApp
v2.17.50 for iPhone also brings the ability
to bold, italicise, and strikethrough text
from the typing bar itself. Just tap and
hold the word you want to format, and
select the option from the floating options
that appear.
Facebook 360 Degree photo
Making 360-degree photos more of a
common experience, Facebook has
rolled out an update letting users capture
360-degree photos using its in-app
camera.
The update has been rolled out in both
iOS and Android and includes the abilities
to zoom and tag friends.
According to a TechCrunch report on
Wednesday, these 360-degree images or
those from any other sources can be used
as “Cover Photos”.
All that users need to do to take a
360-degree photos is open the Facebook
app and click the “360 Photo” option from
the top of the News Feed.
After pressing the option, they need
to follow the path from start to finish until
they have taken a complete panorama.
Users also have an option to select their
preferred “starting view” within the photo.
“Capturing 360-degree using the
Facebook camera is designed to be as easy
as possible, too, with Facebook employing
computer vision to automatically stitch
the photo after you rotate your phone to
capture it panorama-style,” the report
added.
78 September-October 2017