China’s ByteDance has decided to place the headquarters of its popular video platform app TikTok in the US in order to escape President Donald Trump’s ban, official media here reported on Wednesday.

As per the plan presented to the US officials by ByteDance, TikTok will remain the majority shareholder of the new US headquartered company, and tech firm Oracle will be a minority shareholder, state-run CGTN TV reported.

Other potential US investors such as the world’s largest retailer Walmart, which had launched a joint bid with Microsoft, would own a minority stake, the report said.

People familiar with the negotiation process emphasised that specific details of the plan may change.

Independent third parties will serve as directors of the new company, and ByteDance will continue to control TikTok and its core algorithms.

Read Complete Article

Ranked sixth, India was one of the top 10 countries with the largest share of users attacked by mobile malware in the second quarter of this year, said a new report by cybersecurity company Kaspersky on Wednesday.

The top three countries hit by mobile malware attacks remained unchanged from the previous quarter — Iran followed by Algeria and Bangladesh.

The report revealed a drastic increase in the number of mobile malware threats detected in the second quarter of the year when compared to Q1.

In Q2, Kaspersky detected 1,245,894 malicious installers, an increase of 93,232 over the previous quarter.

“As the mobile and Internet consumption goes up, especially in countries like India and other South Asian regions, it can be predicted that cybercriminals too would shift their focus towards increasing threat actors for smartphones to increase their financial gains,” Dipesh Kaura, General Manager for South Asia, Kaspersky, said in a statement.

Read Complete Article

American technology giant Apple on Tuesday launched the Watch Series 6 with built-in sensor to monitor blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels. The smartwatch cum health and fitness companion comes in GPS and GPS + Cellular variants priced at Rs 40,900 and Rs 49,900. It will be available soon at Apple authorised resellers across India. Alongside the Watch Series 6, Apple also unveiled its Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop Watch Bands, which will be available from late October. These bands are compatible with the Apple Watch Series 4 and later.

The Watch Series 6 brings notable hardware improvements, including a S6 System in Package (SiP), a brighter display with next-generation always-on altimeter, and new watch faces. Moreover, it boasts all the features that Apple introduced with the WatchOS 7. These features include family setup, sleep tracking, automatic handwashing detection, new workout types, and the ability to curate and share watch faces. Besides, the Watch Series 6 has a dedicated app to monitor and measure blood oxygen saturation. Oxygen saturation, or SpO2, represents the percentage of oxygen being carried by red blood cells from the lungs to the rest of the body, and indicates how well this oxygenated blood is being delivered throughout the body.

Read Complete Article

Apple on Tuesday refreshed its tablet line-up by bringing its long-awaited upgrade of the iPad and iPad Air. The 8th generation iPad gets performance improvement as part of this upgrade, besides other seasonal improvements. The iPad Air, on the other hand, gets several new upgrades, including the industry-first 5nm process-based A14 Bionic chip that powers it.

The eighth-generation iPad is powered by the A12 Bionic chip, which is touted be up to twice as fast as the top-selling Windows laptop, up to three times faster than the top-selling Android tablet and up to six times faster than the top-selling Chromebook. The iPad supports Apple Pencil (1st generation). It has gigabit-class LTE connectivity and is touted to pack an all-day battery back-up.

The iPad (8th generation) will soon be available at Apple Authorised Resellers in India at a starting price of Rs 29,900 for the Wi-Fi model and Rs 41,900 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. It comes in silver, space grey, and gold finishes in 32GB and 128GB onboard storage configurations.

Read Complete Article

Apple on Tuesday launched the Watch SE for price-conscious buyers, alongside its premium Watch Series 6. The Watch SE has the Apple Watch’s essential features in a familiar design at an affordable price. The Apple Watch SE comes in GPS and GPS + Cellular variants priced at Rs 29,900 and Rs 33,900, respectively. Both variants will be available soon in India through Apple Authorised Resellers. Like the Watch Series 6, the Watch SE is compatible with Solo Loop and Braided Solo Loop Watch Bands, which will be available in late October.

The Apple Watch SE is the first product from the Cupertino, California-based technology giant that will ship without an AC power adaptor. According to the company, the decision is made to put a curb on electronic waste generation and to help Apple Watch manufacturing partners transition to renewable energy.

In terms of features, the Watch SE boasts a Retina display with curved edges. It features the same accelerometer, gyroscope, and always-on altimeter as the Apple Watch Series 6. It also has the company’s latest motion sensors and microphone and boasts health and safety capabilities, including fall detection, Emergency SOS, international emergency calling, and the Noise app.

Read Complete Article

American technology giant Apple Inc on Tuesday announced the Apple One, an all-in-one subscription plan that gets you access to services like Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and iCloud. The Apple One Plans will be available in over 100 countries and regions starting this fall.

In India, the individual plan costs Rs 195 for monthly access to Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and 50GB of iCloud storage. The family plan, which costs Rs 365 per month, can be shared by up to six members. It has similar benefits as individual plans but 200GB of iCloud storage instead of 50GB.

ALSO READ: Apple Event highlights: Watch Series 6 with SpO2 monitor, iPad Air and more

There is a premier plan also which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+, Apple Fitness+, and 2TB of iCloud storage, and can be shared by up to six members.

However, this plan will be available only in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the US, where Apple News+ is available. Apple Fitness+ will join later this year.

Read Complete Article

(Reuters) – Oracle Corp confirmed on Monday that it was part of a proposal made by TikTok-parent ByteDance to the U.S. government to become a technology partner for the Chinese firm.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier in the day that the Trump administration received a proposal from Oracle over the weekend to make Chinese-owned short video app TikTok a U.S.-headquartered company and will review the plan this week.

Read Complete Article

Apple Inc. will kick off a broad slate of new products at a virtual event on Tuesday, with upgrades to two of its most important hardware lines beyond the iPhone.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant will debut an Apple Watch, likely to be called the Series 6, with features such as a faster processor and a blood oxygen meter, according to people familiar with the product. The new Watch will come in the same 40mm and 44mm sizes as the current models. The company is also planning a new low-end model to help fend off cheaper offerings from rivals such as Fitbit Inc.

The Apple Watch has become one of the company’s best-selling devices, making it the biggest contributor to Apple’s wearables and accessories division. That segment generated revenue of $24.5 billion in fiscal 2019, almost double two years earlier.

The Apple Watch was last updated in September 2019 when the company added an always-on screen and new cases. This year will be the first time since 2016 that two new models are released at once.

Read Complete Article

YouTube has announced its own short-form video service named YouTube Shorts. Currently in beta, the early version of the service is available in India for users with Android smartphones. The current version includes just the camera interface, and the editing tools will roll out in graded manner over the course of the next few weeks. Here are five things to know about YouTube short-form video service:What is YouTube Shorts

Shorts is a short-form video service that lets user create and upload a video of 15 seconds or less on YouTube. Currently available in early beta in India, the service is part of YouTube app for Android. It features a multi-segment camera to string multiple video clips together, the option to record with music from a library of songs, speed controls, and a timer and countdown to keep you notified.Is YouTube Shorts available for PCs, notebooks and tablets

YouTube Shorts is currently available in early beta for Android devices. It will soon be available for iOS devices. Therefore, the short-form video service is available as part of YouTube app for Android devices, including smartphones and tablets. It is currently not available for PCs, notebook and Apple iPhone and iPad users. Important to note, the service is mobile-first and it may not be available for PCs and notebooks user.Read Complete Article

A newly-discovered patent filing suggests that Facebook-owned photo sharing platform Instagram may be considering charging a fee to add links to photo captions.

The patent application shows a pop-up appearing when the user adds a URL to a caption, asking if the user wants to pay $2 to make the link live, reports The Verge.

“If the online system detects the text content of the caption includes a string of link text identifying an address, the online system prompts the posting user to pay a fee in exchange for generating a link,” the patent application read.

However, if Instagram were to implement this feature, it would raise the question of whether people would want to pay $2 per link.

Meanwhile, Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a blog post last week that they have been reviewing the way the photo-sharing platform verifies accounts for the past two months and as a result of which, they have made changes to the verification process.

Read Complete Article