GoanTimes April, 13th 2018 issue

04 Technology
Friday, April 13, 2018 | www.goantimes.titosgoa.com | 12 Pages
Google Home launched in India at Rs 9,999: Music, news,
smart home and all that you can do with this speaker
Smart speakers is a category that is
still at a nascent stage – more so in
India – yet there’s a lot of curiosity
around them. In the last couple of
days, there’s a lot of buzz that has
been generated around Google’s smart
speakers, Google Home that were
launched today. While Google Home
is priced at Rs 9,999, Google Home
Mini sports a price tag of Rs 4,499. The
AI-enabled smart speaker will take
directly on Amazon’s Echo range of
smart speakers.
Google Home weighs about 477
grams and comes with a power
adapter. The speaker measures 96.4
mm in diameter and stands tall at
142.8 mm. The speaker comes in
Apple launches
red iPhone 8 to
keep line fresh
mid-cycle
San Francisco: Apple Inc. announced
new versions of the iPhone 8 and
iPhone 8 Plus in red, keeping its
entry-level iPhones fresh after being
overshadowed for months by the
iPhone X.
The new colour scheme is part of
the “PRODUCT(RED)” initiative, a
program that gives a percentage of
sales to the Global Fund to fight HIV/
AIDS. Apple didn’t announce a red
version of the iPhone X, which remains
available in either grey or white.
It’s the second year in a row that
Apple has rolled out a red version of
its latest iPhone. Last March, Apple
launched a red iPhone 7 and iPhone
7 Plus and discontinued those models
about six months later when the
initial iPhone 8 line launched. The red
iPhone 8 models cost the same as the
gold, grey, and silver versions, at $699
for the smaller model and $799 for the
Plus. The new colour goes on pre-order
Tuesday and is available in stores from
13 April, Apple said.
The back of the phone is red, and the
front is black. Last year’s model had
a white front, which was derided by
some who sought the red and black
combination.
The company also introduced a red
version of its leather folio case for the
iPhone X.
The new model comes as Apple works
on a larger, 6.5-inch iPhone, an update
to the iPhone X, and a new low-cost
model for the fall, Bloomberg News has
reported. Bloomberg
white colour although the base fabric
can be changed in different colours.
The standard base is slate fabric. It
supports iOS (9.1 and higher) and
Android (5.0 and higher) operating
systems.
As mentioned, Google Home is a
voice-enabled speaker and relies
completely on Google Assistant. All
you need to say is “Hey Google” or “Ok
Google” before giving a command and
the Assistant springs into action.
Remember that you always need
to plug in the Google Home into a
power socket. There’s no option to
run it without a cable. Also, Wi-Fi
connectivity is a must to run Google
Home.
Facebook to offer ‘bounty’ to
people who report data abuse
Facebook said Tuesday it would begin
offering rewards to people who report
misuse of private information from the
social network, as part of an effort to
step up data protection in the wake of a
firestorm.
The new program “will reward people
with first-hand knowledge and proof
of cases where a Facebook platform
app collects and transfers people’s data
to another party to be sold, stolen or
used for scams or political influence,”
product security chief Collin Greene
said in a statement.
Greene said the new offer was
inspired by the “bug bounty” offered by
Facebook and other online services to
reward people who find security flaws.
The reward will be “based on the
impact of each report,” Greene said,
with a minimum of $500 for verified
cases of abuse affecting 10,000 people
or more.
OnePlus Bullet
Wireless Earphones
to be Launched
With OnePlus 6
As spotted by Nashville Chatter, a
listing on the Bluetooth certification
site reveals the listing of a product
called the OnePlus Bullets Wireless.
The report doesn't clarify whether
they'll be fully wireless or still include
a wire that wraps around the neck. The
report also states that this product will
be launch around the same time as the
OnePlus 6.
As far as information about the
OnePlus 6 is concerned, the smartphone
is expected to come with a Qualcomm
Snapdragon 845 SoC coupled with an
8GB RAM and a 256GB internal storage
and is expected to be unveiled by the
end of this month, along with the
OnePlus Bullet Wireless.
“While there is no maximum, high
impact bug reports have garnered as
much as $40,000 for people who bring
them to our attention,” he added.
The announcement comes with
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg set
to begin testimony at congressional
hearings Tuesday and Wednesday on
abuse of private data collected by the
social network.
Facebook is under fire in the United
States and around the world following
disclosures of private data hijacked by
the consultancy Cambridge Analytica,
which was working for US President
Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
YouTube channels
hacked, most
played video
Despacito deleted
YouTube has seemingly fallen prey to
hackers even as a number of high-profile
music videos have been defaced, some
deleted, including Luis Fonsi and Daddy
Yankee's Despacito. Despacito, in case
you've been living under a rock, is the
most-viewed YouTube video of all time.
Earlier in the day, the video's thumb
image was altered and replaced with a
masked gang holding guns, the Verge
reports. The description of the video was
changed as well, and as of writing this
report, Despacito -- at least the official
video -- is untraceable, the report adds.
At the heart of it all lie hackers calling
themselves Prosox and Kuroi'sh, and
they've apparently hacked the video
sharing platform "just for fun."
Despacito isn't the only video that
has apparently been affected. Lots
of other popular music videos have
also been defaced. But it appears as if
videos posted by Vevo accounts are the
worst affected. The list includes videos
from Chris Brown to DJ Snake, from
Shakira to Selena Gomez, from Katy
Perry to Taylor Swift, so on and so
forth. Some of these affected videos, are
in fact, still online.
With new anti-snoring device,
Canadian team joins China-based
world's largest hardware accelerator
VANCOUVER, March 23 (Xinhua) -- With
a new "sleep wearable" device designed
to reduce snoring, a group of students
from Canada's Simon Fraser University
(SFU) have joined the HAX accelerator
program, the world's first and largest
hardware accelerator based in China.
The team of five students, from an
SFU student venture named Zennea
Technologies, are joining 14 other startups
"in the latest cohort intake to relocate
to Shenzhen, China," where the HAX
accelerator program is based, according
to a news report on SFU's website.
The device, ZENS, sits underneath
the chin in a fabric holster. It aims to
reduce snoring while providing sleep
data for the user. The students said
they hope that the device will bring
more restful sleep to millions of people
around the world.
"It kind of looks like a pollution
mask but it doesn't cover the mouth or
the nose," said Rachel Chase, co-CEO
of Zennea Technologies. "It's able to
open up the airway while people sleep
and it's paired to a mobile app that's
controlling it."
The HAX accelerator is a two-stage
program that takes place in the
southern Chinese city of Shenzhen
and San Francisco on the U.S. West
Coast. It's known as the world's first
and largest hardware technology
accelerator program.
The program helps start-ups scale
their business by offering seed
capital, in-house manufacturing
and engineering expertise, access to
mentors, and investor pitch training.