Genious-Attitude

Since 2010, the default avatar on Twitter has been an egg. The idea apparently was that a new user was like a gestating bird, soon to make its first tweet. It was designed to be playful and cute. But over time, Twitter's eggs came to symbolize something different: users who remain shadowy on purpose, to harass their fellow tweeters. Today, Twitter announced that it was doing away with the egg as its default avatar, opting instead for a nondescript person-shape figure. No more bright colors, either — the new avatar is all gray. In a blog post, the company gave three reasons for the change , which it seemed to list in order of least to most important. First, the company says, it has a new look as of last year, and it wants users' avatars to reflect the "diversity and expressiveness" of the platform. Second, it says, the egg was cute — too cute. The egg didn't inspire enough people to want to change their avatar. So Twitter is making the default avatar .....

Windows Update will begin pushing the Creators Update on April 11th Early adopters can, this time, use a tool to force the update as early as April 5th. ISOs are currently available, but marked as Insider Preview. The earlier you update, the more patching you should expect to do, historically. While  Jeremy has already given a brief mention  to the news that the Windows 10 Creators Update will begin rolling out on April 11th, Microsoft  has just announced that users can opt-in  as early as April 5th. If the Anniversary Update is any indication, then the average user should wait until Windows Update devices to passes them the new bits (or longer). In fact, the main reason (besides just liking new things) for forcing an early install should be “it was a convenient time”. Of course, as I say this, I’m remembering my experience with the November 2015 update, refreshing Windows Update for two days. I was participating in an Epic Games game jam at the time, and...

There is a new mobile display trend making waves, an immersive, super widescreen format that results in taller displays. This was recently championed by LG with the G6 flagship unveiled at MWC 2016, with its 18:9 aspect ratio. Samsung also got into the game with the  Galaxy S8  and  Galaxy S8+ , featuring an 18:5:9 aspect ratio. The problem is all apps are made with keeping the 16:9 aspect ratio in mind, and not the newly emerging trend of 18:5:9 or 18:9.  Google  is looking to combat this by encouraging developers to embrace this new aspect ratio, and get apps to adapt to the new ratio as well. On its Android developers’  blog , Google suggests app developers to consider increasing their app's maximum supported aspect ratio. Google has also listed a fairly simple method to do the same in the blog. “As more super widescreen Android devices, like the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the LG G6, become available, you'll have more opportunities to display more conte...

San Francisco:  Twitter on Thursday began rolling out changes to let people pack more into tweets, subtracting from the character count names of those being replied to in posts. The latest software modification at the one-to-many messaging service comes about a year after Twitter set out to relax a 140-character limit set due to mobile phone text messaging constraints in place when Twitter launched in 2006. Twitter first announced plans to relax the limit a year ago, as part of an effort to bring in more members and make the platform easier to use. “Remember how we told you we were working on ways to let you to express more with 140 characters?” Twitter product manager Sasank Reddy said in an online post. “Now, when you reply to someone or a group, those @usernames won’t count toward your tweet’s 140 characters.” Providing more room in tweets is seen as a way to encourage more use and sharing of pictures, videos and links. The move is part of a push by Twitter to increase...

The update is live, and it's indeed Android 7.0, not 7.1. HTC 10 Software Upgrade Instructions 3.30.2017 This software upgrade available for your HTC 10 provides the following key enhancements: ·          Android 7.0 (Nougat) ·          January 2017 Android security patches Details Before you proceed, please confirm that this software upgrade to  2.41.605.12  is a newer version than what is currently loaded on your device. If it is the same version, there is no need to reload the software. Navigate to the Home screen then tap  All apps >  Settings  >  About  >  Software Information  and locate the  Software number  . If your Software number is less than  2.41.605.12  , you should proceed with the upgrade. WARNING: During the upgrade process the device will reboot multiple times and show software upgrade scre...

Microsoft  is currently testing its new AI chatbot named 'Ruuh' that is specifically meant for users in India but is available in English language only. Ruuh has been defined as a 'desi' AI chatbot by the company that never stops talking and is meant for entertainment purposes only. Microsoft has further confirmed that it will make this chatbot available to wider audiences going ahead. Ruuh AI chatbot was launched by Microsoft on February 7 and filed for a trademark on March 15, as pointed out in a  report  by ZDNet. As per the chatbot's  Facebook  page description, "Ruuh is a chatbot provided to you for entertainment purposes. She is English speaking and only available to users in India. Do not rely on her statements as advice, counselling or endorsements." In terms of personal interests, the chatbot likes "Chatting, Bollywood, Music, Humour, Travel & Browsing Internet," as per its description by Microsoft. Users can interact with the ...

Apple has quietly introduced a new feature which could make using a 16GB or 32GB iPhone much more bearable Apple released its  iOS 10.3 update  this week boasting a host of new features, including the ability to find your AirPod heaphones with Find My iPhone and Siri support for cricket scores. But buried in the release is a feature that could make a big difference for people 16GB or 32GB iPhone models who are always running out of storage space. iOS 10.3 introduces a new file system called APFS, which is more efficient at optimising how storage is used by the operating system and apps. This means that, even though you have exactly the same software running on your iPhone, it takes up less of the allocated storage space. After upgrading a 256GB  iPhone 7  Plus from iOS 10.2.1 to 10.3, the tech site reported a jump in available space from 75.45 GB to 83.26 GB - an increase of 7.81 GB. People using a 16GB or 32GB iPhone shouldn't expect quite such a bi...

Google launched an updated Translate app Wednesday aimed partly at Chinese users and accessible in the country, in what could be a sign of the company's continuing efforts to explore a partial re-entry into the market here. Google  pulled its search engine from China in 2010 after refusing to submit to Chinese government censorship, and the company's products, including  Gmail , Google Scholar,  Google Play  and  YouTube , are blocked by China's system of Internet controls known as the Great Firewall of China. China has long maintained that foreign internet companies would only be welcome in the country if they "respect China's laws" - in other words, if they submit to censorship and are prepared to surrender users' data to the authorities. In a  blog post , the company pointed out that its web-based translation system has been available in China for the past eight years at translate.google.cn - although it didn't mention that translate.google....

The Windows 10 operating system (OS) is in line to get another major update—it is called the Creators Update, and is the next big update after the Anniversary Update which rolled out last August. Microsoft says that the Creators Update will start rolling out in a phased manner, starting 11 April, to the 400 million monthly active devices globally. The Creators Update offers a bunch of new features and enhancements to Windows 10. Microsoft is improving the Edge web browser again, this time with focus on improving useability. The first addition is the ability to set aside a bunch of tabs that you may have opened—this can be very useful if you want to save a set of tabs for reopening later—such as research links for some project, or gadget deals across different online stores, for something you’ve been considering buying for a while now. The new Edge browser will also make it easier to share links with friends—there is a new share button that means you’ll not have to copy an...

Ransomware has become a major threat on desktop and notebook systems, but has been somewhat less of a danger on mobile devices. Even so Google wants Android users to know what the company is doing and what they can do themselves to protect against the ransomware attacks before it becomes a widespread problem. In a blog, Google’s senior program manager for Android security, Jason Woloz outlined some of the measures Google has implemented in its Android 7.0 Nougat release to protect against ransomware. One of them is what Woloz described as a "safety blinders" feature that ensures an Android app cannot see what other applications might be active on a user device at the same time.  “That means scammy ones can’t see what other apps are doing—and can’t inform their attacks based on activity,” Woloz said. Google has also tweaked the lock screen feature on Android 7.0 in to prevent ransomware tools from misusing a user’s permission settings to change their lock screen PI...

Come March end and Facebook and its Messenger app will stop running on a number of devices. Facebook has announced that it will no longer support devices that are running older versions of the apps, which includes v55 of Facebook app and v10 of Messenger on Android OS. Further, it will also stop support for Facebook on Windows Phone. The social media giant said that its team spends countless hours making the platform best. "One of the ways we continue to improve is by consistently introducing rich features, like voice and video calling, games, and bots for Messenger. Using older versions of apps means that experiences won't work well or sometimes not at all," Facebook said in a blog post. Facebook for iPad v26, Messenger v8 for iOS, Facebook for iOS released in 2011, Facebook for Windows Phone, Messenger for Windows Phone 8 and 8.1, and Facebook for Windows 8 and the 8.1 desktop will not be supported also.  

25 Most Loved Programming Languages In last year’s survey, Rust programming language ruled this list. Interestingly, Rust continues to do so even in 2017. Rust is followed by Smalltalk and TypeScript. This ranking is a clear signal that compared to other languages, the developers are most willing to work (or continue working) with Swift. Last year, Apple’s open source programming language Swift took the #2 spot. Well, this year, Swift has slipped to #4. It doesn’t mean Swift’s popularity is declining. The language ranked well on  this year’s popularity charts  and its demand is growing. Here’s the list of top 25 most loved programming languages: Rust Smalltalk TypeScript Swift Go Python Elixir C# Scala Clojure JavaScript F# Haskell SQL C++ Julia Java R Ruby C PHP Erlang Dart Common Lisp Groovy 25 Most Hated/Dreaded Programming Languages Just like the last year’s results, this year, Visual Basic was again listed as the most dreade...

1 The  Android O Developer Preview  launched last week, giving app creators their first glimpse at the next version of the mobile OS. This week, Google finally released its first official video that goes over some of the features in this preview release. The video, which is hosted by Google’s Nasir Khan, quickly goes over a number of Android O’s bullet points. He talk about the  new background limits on apps  that are designed to help improve battery life in Android O devices. He also talks about the new  notifications channels  and how they will work to group an app’s notifications by category. Khan also briefly talks about  the new Autofill features  in the OS that will help users fill out password and other online forms faster compared to other versions of Android. He discusses the new Picture-in-Picture mode along with multi-display support. Google has already stated it does not pl...