Twitter’s new developer rules ban 3rd party apps

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Twitter’s new developer rules ban 3rd party apps

Micro-blogging platform Twitter has quietly updated its “Developer Agreement” to ban third-party clients, almost a week after it blocked the apps’ access to its platform.

The new rules mentioned that users can not use Twitter’s application programming interface (API) or content to “create or attempt to create a substitute or similar service or product to the Twitter Applications,” reports The Verge.

As of Thursday, the new rules went into effect.

The platform also defined “Twitter Applications” as the company’s “consumer-facing products, services, applications, websites, web pages, platforms, and other offerings, including without limitation, those offered via https://twitter.com and Twitter’s mobile applications.”

The rule update follows Twitter breaking several popular third-party Twitter applications, including Tweetbot and Twitterific, starting on January 12.

The developers of the third-party applications at the time claimed they had never received any information from the company regarding what was going on, the report said.

On Tuesday, the micro-blogging platform said, “Twitter is enforcing its long-standing API rules. That may result in some apps not working.”

Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Elon Musk last week said that Twitter’s “open source” algorithm will be revealed next month, as several people were unable to use third-party Twitter apps and faced issues with logging and accessing feeds.

“Transparency builds trust,” the Twitter CEO had posted.

Indian startups hail SC ruling on Google-CCI case

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Indian startups hail SC ruling on Google-CCI case

Home-grown startup founders on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court’s order where it refused to interfere with the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) decision, declining to stay the operation of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) order imposing a Rs 1,337.76 crore fine on Google.

Google had moved the apex court after the setback at the NCLAT, which did not stay the CCI order on abuse of dominant position in multiple markets in the Android mobile device ecosystem case.

Rohan Verma, CEO, and ED at homegrown MapmyIndia said that they are extremely grateful to the Supreme Court for their order against Google’s appeal.

“MapmyIndia was mentioned and spoken of multiple times in the Supreme court today by multiple parties, who said that MapmyIndia pioneered digital mapping in India since 1995, far before the birth of Google, and offer an alternative in terms of MapmyIndia’s ‘Mappls’ app versus the force pre-installed Google Maps,” Verma added.

It was discussed in the court how Google foreclosed rivals such as MapmyIndia due to their anti-competitive practices, harming Indian consumers’ ability to choose, and harming the Indian economy and rivals such as MapmyIndia.

The Supreme Court in the end declined Google’s arguments.

Google was yet to react to the apex court ruling.

On January 11, the Supreme Court agreed to examine an appeal by Google against a decision by the NCLAT.

Verma hoped that after the SC ruling, consumers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will now use ‘Mappls’ app, which “offers far better maps, navigation and safety features than Google Maps”.

Rakesh Deshmukh, Co-founder, and CEO, of Indus OS, had said that in its ruling, the CCI categorically demonstrated multiple anti-competitive actions carried out by Google in the last decade.

“In fact, it scuttled Indian entrepreneurs in the Android ecosystem with unfair and restrictive Google policies. The CCI ruling against Google is a step towards ushering in the next phase of a digital revolution in the country,” he said.

Swiggy likely to lay off up to 10% of employees after performance review

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Swiggy likely to lay off up to 10% of employees after performance review

Online food delivery platform Swiggy is likely to lay off up to 10 percent of its employees, or about 600 workers, after an extensive performance review that was concluded late last year, amid global uncertainties and recession fears.

Sources told Media that the upcoming layoffs at Swiggy are likely to impact verticals like the product, engineering, and operation at the company.

The upcoming layoffs are also expected to impact Swiggy’s quick commerce delivery service Instamart to reduce cash burn.

The company did not immediately respond to a Media query on upcoming layoffs.

Earlier reports that surfaced in December, have said that Swiggy may lay off more than 250 employees, or up to 5 percent of its workforce, starting January.

However, the number of layoff employees is set to go further up, according to sources, after the completion of the performance cycle in October. The company employs close to 6,000 workers.

In an earlier statement, Swiggy had said there were no layoffs and with every performance cycle, “we expect exits based on performance”.

The online food delivery platform’s losses doubled to Rs 3,629 crore in FY22 compared to Rs 1,617 crore in the last fiscal year.

Total expenses went up 131 percent to Rs 9,574.5 crore in FY22, according to its annual financial statement with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Swiggy’s revenue grew 2.2 times to Rs 5,705 crore during FY22 as opposed to Rs 2,547 crore in FY21.

In November last year, global brokerage firm Jefferies said that Swiggy was fast losing market share to its rival Zomato despite offering heavy discounts.

Earlier in 2022, the food delivery platform raised $700 million led by Invesco at a $10.7 billion valuation.

Amazon begins new round of job cuts, lays off over 18,000 people

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Amazon begins new round of job cuts, lays off over 18,000 people

Amazon has started notifying its employees affected by its new round of layoffs, as a part of its plan to reduce its headcount by around 18,000 people, the media reported.

It however, remains unclear as to how many employees are being affected in this particular round, but the company already laid off 2,300 employees in Washington of which the majority worked in Seattle, where one of the company’s headquarters is located, reports The Verge.

Amazon started its first round of layoffs last November.

At the time, there were reports that around 10,000 people would be affected, including members of its hardware and services, human resources, and retail teams.

Earlier this month, Amazon confirmed the layoffs and their massive scale, saying that including the ones from last year, Wednesday’s round, and potential additional cuts in 2023, they would affect 18,000 employees overall.

A memo from CEO Andy Jassy posted on the company’s website announced that impacted employees would be notified starting on Wednesday.

Jassy said in a statement that they were not done with the annual planning process as earlier mentioned, and “I expected there would be more role reductions in early 2023”.

As Amazon announced to lay off 18,000 employees globally, including nearly 1,000 in India, reports have surfaced that some of the impacted employees broke down and were left “crying in the office” when they heard they have been asked to go.

On Grapevine, a community app for Indian professionals, an Amazon India employee posted sad scenes at offices, including people crying after the announcement of layoffs.

Amazon earlier admitted it was consolidating “some teams and programs” in its hardware and services division, and Jassy had told workers that there would be “more role reductions as leaders continue to make adjustments” in 2023.

Apple working on iPad-like smart home display

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Apple working on iPad-like smart home display

Apple is reportedly working on a new iPad-like display that will be used for smart home management purposes.

According to Bloomberg, the new device will be a sort of low-end iPad that can be used for controlling HomeKit devices, streaming video, FaceTime calls, and much more, reports MacRumors.

It is expected to be more integrated into the home than an iPad because it is designed to be mounted to walls or other objects using magnetic fasteners.

Moreover, it is likely to compete with devices like the Meta Portal or the Echo Show from Amazon.

The iPhone maker is expected to launch its iPad-like smart home display next year, the report said.

On Wednesday, it was reported that the tech giant was planning to hold the release of its augmented reality (AR) glasses which were supposed to release after the debut of its mixed reality (MR) headset.

The company is likely to follow up with a lower-cost version of the MR headset in 2024 or early 2025, which could have a starting price closer to $1,500.

Exempt levy of customs duty on telecom equipment to boost 5G roll out: COAI

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Exempt levy of customs duty on telecom equipment to boost 5G roll out: COAI

The top telecom industry body on Wednesday urged the government to exempt the levy of basic customs duty (BCD) charges in the upcoming Union Budget, which will further help in the deployment and smooth roll-out of 5G in India.

Higher customs duty on telecom equipment is disrupting the cost-effectiveness of the telecom companies as around 85 percent of the telecom equipment in the country is imported.

“BCD of 20 percent is levied on import of most of the telecom equipment like optical transport equipment/networks, IP radios, MIMO/LTE products, soft switches, VoIPs, PTN, MPLS -TP, etc. which is disrupting the cost-effectiveness of the telcos,” said the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the apex body that represents the telecom sector.

The industry body suggested exempting the levy of BCD charges as it will be beneficial for importing essential equipment to boost the 5G rollout.

“Telcos are constantly upgrading infrastructure to keep up with the new-age technologies. However, the required facility to manufacture the equipment has not yet been set up in India. Therefore, telcos are dependent on imports,” COAI Director General, Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar (retd) said.

Considering the financial health of the industry and the huge investments,”relaxation in import duties will go a long way in helping us realize our dream of an aAtmanirbhar Bharat”, he added.

The apex telecom made several recommendations for the Union Budget 2023-24 to the Ministry of Finance.

The COAI requested that the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund contribution of 5 percent of adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) may be suspended till the existing USO corpus is exhausted and license fee is brought down from 3 percent to 1 percent at the earliest to cover only administrative costs by the DoT/government.

For facilitating ease of doing business, a centralized registration process is recommended for the industries having spread in all 36 States/UTs.

“As an alternative, a centralised jurisdiction may be formed to govern the day-to-day affairs of the taxpayers,” said the body.

The COAI also requested the government to facilitate centralized assessment, and audit procedures for large taxpayer units with turnover of over Rs 500 crore and presence in over 12 states/UTs.

This would limit this facility to less than 1 percent of all corporates and ensure ease of doing business with no corresponding loss of revenue to the government, it said.

Kochhar said that given the huge burden of taxes and regulatory levies on telecom operators, and the critical nature of the service to drive ‘Digital India’, “a special benefit may be provided to telecom operators by way of exemption of GST on regulatory payments of LF, SUC, and spectrum assigned under auction”.

How social media platforms reward users for spreading misinformation

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How social media platforms reward users for spreading misinformation

The habit of rewarding users for habitually sharing information through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter has led to the spread of misinformation and fake news, researchers have discovered.

The study by the University of Southern California (USC) of more than 2,400 Facebook users suggests that platforms, more than individual users, have a larger role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation online.

According to the findings, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, just 15 percent of the most habitual news sharers in the research were responsible for spreading about 30 percent to 40 percent of the fake news.

Frequent, habitual users forwarded six times more fake news than occasional or new users.

“Due to the reward-based learning systems on social media, users form habits of sharing information that gets recognition from others,” the researchers wrote.

Once habits form, information sharing is automatically activated by cues on the platform without users considering critical response outcomes, such as spreading misinformation, they wrote.

Posting, sharing, and engaging with others on social media can, therefore, become a habit.

“Our findings show that misinformation isn’t spread through a deficit of users. It’s really a function of the structure of the social media sites themselves,” said Wendy Wood, USC emerita Provost Professor of psychology and business.

The habits of social media users are a bigger driver of misinformation spread than individual attributes.

Prior research that some people don’t process information critically, and others form opinions based on political biases, which also affects their ability to recognize false stories online.

“However, we show that the reward structure of social media platforms plays a bigger role when it comes to misinformation spread,” said Gizem Ceylan, who led the study.

The study noted that users could be incentivized to build sharing habits that make them more sensitive to sharing truthful content.

“Effectively reducing misinformation would require restructuring the online environments that promote and support its sharing,” it added.

Singapore researchers create VR glove with realistic touch

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Singapore researchers create VR glove with realistic touch

National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers have created a virtual reality (VR) glove– HaptGlove– that will level up users’ experience in the metaverse with a more realistic sense of touch.

The VR glove is an “untethered and lightweight haptic glove that provides users with both skin-like and movement sensations when interacting with a virtual object,” the NUS team said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Even though the concept of haptic gloves is not new, the existing technologies are not able to give users a realistic sense of touch.

“VR should not be just about a visual and auditory experience, it should present the ability to interact with VR objects. However, current methods of pressing on a virtual panel or interacting with another avatar lack the sensation of touch that we experience in the real world,” said Professor Lim Chwee Teck, director of the Institute for Health Innovation & Technology (iHealthtech) and leader of the research team.

“This prompted me to work with my team to develop a haptic glove to enable ‘physical’ touch in the virtual world,” Teck added.

The new VR glove is likely to be a portable and flexible haptic glove that will allow users to have immersive touch and feel of VR objects with unparalleled realism in the VR experience.

“The HaptGlove’s unique design allows users to interact with the virtual world more naturally and realistically, which would give users unobtrusive recreational or competitive sensation in VR,” Teck said.

HaptGlove has five pairs of haptic feedback modules, one for each finger, which are controlled wirelessly to sense the VR object in terms of shape, size, and stiffness.

“Besides gaming, the HaptGlove has useful applications in the fields of medicine and education, such as assisting surgeons to better prepare for an operation by simulating a hyper-realistic environment, or giving students a hands-on learning experience by simulating palpation on different body parts,” the NUS team said.

The researchers have filed a patent for their design and aim to commercialize the glove within two years.

WhatsApp rolling out voice status updates on Android beta

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WhatsApp rolling out voice status updates on Android beta

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is reportedly rolling out a new ‘voice status updates’ feature on Android beta, which will allow users to share voice notes via status updates.

Beta testers can now share voice notes as status updates by accessing the new feature within the text status section, reports WABetaInfo.

The platform also provides users more control over their voice recordings by offering the ability to discard a recording before sharing it.

The maximum recording time for a voice note is 30 seconds and users must update their version of WhatsApp to listen to voice notes shared via status.

Voice notes which will be shared as status updates will be end-to-end encrypted, to make sure that only the people users choose within their privacy settings can listen to them.

Similar to images and videos, voice notes shared via status will disappear after 24 hours.

Moreover, users can even delete voice notes for everyone after posting them as status updates.

The new feature will roll out to more users over the coming weeks, the report said.

Twitter shifts View Count tab to the right, users still angry

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Twitter shifts View Count tab to the right, users still angry

Twitter has announced to shift off the View Count tab to the right side of your timelines after several annoyed users complained about it.

“Many of you didn’t like seeing view counts on the left. We heard you,” said Twitter in a post.

“View counts will now show on the right side of your Tweet, located between the Like and Share icons. Live on the web, iOS and Android coming soon,” the company added.

The users still criticized Twitter for showing the View Count tab.

“We don’t want to see the view counts. That’s it. It doesn’t matter if it is on the left, on the right, up or down. I simply don’t want it,” posted one user.

Another posted: “It’s fine for us to see our own views like it was before, but now showing other people’s your views is just weird”.

Meanwhile, Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday announced that “Twitter Verified tweets are more likely to be recommended to others, as they are less likely to be bots or troll farms”.

He also said that companies in general are missing the incredible opportunity that Twitter provides to reach customers.

“Just Tweet interesting things! That’s all it takes,” he said. The billionaire has also announced that new navigation features will arrive on Twitter in the New Year, as he aims to rejig the whole experience to make the platform faster.

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