‘WhatsApp Headquarters’: Messaging app trolled on Twitter

 

• WhatsApp, in a shocking announcement earlier this month, said it will share user date with Facebook.
• Signal and Telegram apps have recorded a surge in demand since then.
• WhatsApp is being trolled on social media daily.

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WhatsApp has been under fire since it announced to update its privacy policy under which the messaging app will share data with its parent company Facebook.

The change in policy has sent shockwaves among the users who have questioned the logic behind data sharing and are encouraging others to install Signal and Telegram apps which have seen a sudden increase in demand.

WhatsApp, which uses Signal's encryption technology, laid out fresh terms earlier this month, asking users to agree to let owner Facebook Inc and its subsidiaries collect user data, including their phone number and location.

The internet users are having a field day on social media in Pakistan and Twitter is flooded with ‘WhatsApp Headquarter’ memes slamming the messaging app.

Here are some of the funniest reactions on Twitter:

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WhatsApp’s first update for 2021 is here

 

• A new update has been submitted by WhatsApp to the Google Play Beta Program
  
• WhatsApp is asking users to accept new terms of services
  
• WhatsApp considering offering a public beta for WhatsApp Web to let the user try using the app without keeping the phone connected

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The instant messaging app WhatsApp has introduced a Beta update for Android — making it the first one for the new year.

According to WABetainfo, the updated version 2.21.1.1 has been uploaded onto the Google Play Beta Program.

The portal said that WhatsApp has started asking some of its users to begin accepting the new terms of services.

“Accepting these new terms won’t change your WhatsApp experience: your chats, messages, calls and status updates are still end-to-end encrypted,” the portal said.

Multi-device use

Moreover, an important update that, according to WABetainfo, is not available to all users at the moment, is the multi-device feature.

This is new feature will allow users to use WhatsApp on multiple devices without requiring an active internet connection on the main device.

“WhatsApp is considering the idea to offer a public beta for WhatsApp Web in order to let the user try the new experience to use WhatsApp without keeping your phone connected,” it said.

However, the official release date for the feature has not been released yet.

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Sony pulls Cyberpunk 2077 from PlayStation

TOKYO/GDANSK: Sony is pulling CD Projekt’s video game Cyberpunk 2077 from its PlayStation Store and offering full refunds after gamers complained it was rife with bugs, sending shares in the Polish firm down as much as 20%.

The unusual move is the latest blow for Poland’s top video game maker, whose shares have tumbled from a record high last week amid fury from disappointed fans and game reviewers who say they had limited access to Cyberpunk before its Dec. 10 launch.

The game, which took eight years to develop and features Hollywood star Keanu Reeves, takes place across a detailed futuristic city where players take the first-person perspective of a mercenary outlaw known as V.

The backlash against the repeatedly delayed game has led to hand-wringing over the hype around new titles, the complicity of reviewers in promoting games and the working environment for rank-and-file developers ahead of release dates.

CD Projekt, whose shares were down 17% at 1025 GMT, said the suspension was temporary and it was working hard to bring Cyberpunk 2077 back to PlayStation Store as soon as possible.

Sony Interactive Entertainment said in a statement here on its website that it had taken the decision to offer full refunds to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.

“We are highly disappointed by the information, which shows that the game was just not ready to debut in December and the decision to launch it was a big mistake,” said Kacper Kopron, an analyst at Trigon DM brokerage.

The move risks squandering goodwill from fans that CD Projekt has built up over many years and the company promised to fix the bugs with updates.

CD Projekt Chief Executive Adam Kicinski said on the day Cyberpunk was launched that the company would have preferred fewer bugs in the game but it did not consider delaying its debut for a fourth time.

“The suspension of Cyberpunk 2077’s digital distribution via PlayStation Store is temporary,” Kicinski said in an emailed statement to Reuters on Friday.

“Players who purchased from this store will still be able to play Cyberpunk, as well as receive support and any game updates that we will share,” he said. “At the same time, players can still purchase the boxed version of the game for PlayStation.”

Kicinski said CD Projekt was not in talks with Microsoft about a possible withdrawal of the console version of the video game from the U.S company’s Xbox platform.

Microsoft declined to comment.

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What gift is Zoom bringing its free subscribers this holiday season?

This holiday season, Zoom has a special gift for free subscribers.

Friends and families kept apart by COVID-19 this Christmas and New Year will not find their virtual gatherings over Zoom cut short by the usual 40-minute limit for free subscribers.

Zoom Video Communications Inc, whose technology has become a feature of household get togethers in 2020’s socially distanced world, said it was removing the time limit for its free accounts on all meetings globally for the holiday season.

This covers the Christian celebrations of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the end of Hannukah for Jews and Kwanzaa marked by African-Americans, as well as New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. All of them fall in late December or early January.

The coronavirus pandemic has roared to new highs around the world during a second wave, forcing many people to stay home and plan gatherings with friends and family over the Internet instead.

“Whether coming together on the final day of Hanukkah, celebrating Christmas, ringing in the New Year, or marking the last days of Kwanzaa, those connecting with friends and family won’t get cut short,” a Zoom spokesman said.

Alphabet’s Google Meet has already said free users would not have to limit conversations to 60 minutes till March.

Microsoft Teams and Cisco’s Webex, who have usage grow during the pandemic, have so far not announced any relaxation in meeting length caps.

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Here are some Zoom shortcuts to make your online meetings easier

 

Pakistan is experiencing the second coronavirus wave and Zoom has become a major source for professionals to connect with their colleagues to continue office work uninterrupted.

However, several of us face problems and are still trying to understand which functions of the app can be employed to make our meetings go smooth.

Here are a few basic shortcuts for the app:

- Inviting people

In a meeting, type Alt+I to open the invite window, and then from the Email tab, copy the URL, and send it to anyone who you wish to invite.

Or click on Contacts to directly invite a person if they are on your contact list.

- Recording a meeting

Now, this is a very useful feature that Zoom has provided its users with.

Press Alt+R to start recording any meeting.

Moreover, type Alt+P to pause or resume recording.

- Sharing the screen

This option is one of the best features of Zoom.

To start a screen share, press Alt+Shift+S and to pause or resume a screen share, press Alt+T.

- Mute your audio

Type Alt+A to mute or unmute your audio.

- Turn off your video

To turn your video off or on, press Alt+V.

- Mute everyone in the meeting

During a meeting, unwarranted interruptions are a given. However, the speaker can mute everyone with a simple push of buttons.

Press Alt+M to mute everyone on the call at once.

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Here's how you can earn one million dollars in a single day through Snapchat

 

A person can earn one million dollars in a single day through the popular social media app Snapchat.

Snapchat has recently added a new section to the app named "Spotlight". The section is just like the Chinese lip-syncing app, Tiktok, through which users can make short videos.

To attract users to the new mode, Snapchat says it will pay up to one million dollars every day for any video that goes viral, through the end of 2020.

It doesn’t matter whether that person has a massive number of subscribers; the amount people receive is primarily based on unique views compared to other videos that day.

According to the company, users that post the videos must be aged 16 or above and are barred from featuring any content related to drugs or any illegal substance.

Users can continue to earn from their video if it’s popular for multiple days at a time.

Anyone can submit a video, and they just have to tap “Spotlight” when posting to ensure it populates the section.

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In new WhatsApp feature, users can now choose wallpapers for each chat

 The latest WhatsApp  iOS update has improved wallpapers and its sticker search, The Verge reported Tuesday.

“Make your chats personal and distinguishable by using a custom wallpaper for your most important chats and favorite people, and you never need worry about sending the wrong message in the wrong chat ever again,” The Verge reported, citing an email from Facebook.

The users can now select separate wallpapers for light and dark mode settings. “Watch your chat wallpaper automatically transition as your phone device setting switches from light to dark mode,” Facebook said.

According to The Verge, the instant messaging app is introducing more colours for the default doodle wallpaper. Meanwhile, all wallpapers can be dimmed or brightened as the users desire.

“As we start to roll this out, we encourage sticker app creators to tag their stickers with emojis and text moving forward,” Facebook said, adding: “so their stickers are searchable for WhatsApp users.”

Moreover, WhatsApp has now made available the World’s Health Organization’s “Together at Home” sticker pack as animated stickers. “Together at Home has been one of the most popular sticker packs across WhatsApp,” Facebook said, adding: “and will now be even more expressive and useful in its animated form.”

Facebook said that the updates would be available to users this week, however, some iOS WhatsApp users have seen them appear in the app already, according to The Verge.

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