Samsung transfers some patents in US to Huawei under cross-licensing deal

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Samsung transfers some patents in US to Huawei under cross-licensing deal

Samsung has transferred some of its patents in the US to Huawei under a cross-licensing deal, the media reported.

According to SamMobile, Samsung transferred 98 patents it has in the US to Huawei. The South Korean firm transferred 81 patents to the Chinese firm in 2019.

The company has now transferred 179 patents in total. This is part of the cross-licensing agreement the companies signed a few years ago to settle their patent dispute, according to the report.

The patents transferred from Samsung to Huawei cover telecommunications, charging, smartphone cameras, and display technologies.

The Huawei-Samsung patent dispute began with telecommunications-related technologies, in which Huawei held more patents, said the report.

Last month, South Korean and Chinese companies secured metaverse hardware patents, with LG and Huawei rising in the ranks with the most Metaverse patents as the electronics industry looks beyond smartphones.

Since 2016, LG Electronics has filed the most metaverse patent applications, moving up from 11th place from 2010 to 2015, reports Nikkei Asia.

Samsung Electronics held its position in second. Huawei placed fourth in the ranking with numerous patents related to image and display processing.

Huawei has been attempting to increase revenue through patent licensing agreements.

It has entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement with OPPO and 19 other companies, including Samsung.

MeitY, Google to help 100 Indian startups scale their app biz

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MeitY, Google to help 100 Indian startups scale their app biz

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Startup Hub and Google on Wednesday announced to help 100 more Indian startups scale their app businesses with the second edition of Appscale Academy.

Currently, nearly 50 percent of startups in India come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

MeitY Startup Hub and Google will also launch a multi-city roadshow aiming to engage over 1,000 startups across emerging hubs like Surat, Indore, Coimbatore, Gangtok, and Jaipur.

The aAppscale Academy’ is a growth and development programme to train early to mid-stage startups to build high-quality apps for the world.

“It’s heartening to see the meaningful impact app developers are driving in India and across the world, and it’s critical that we consistently support these startups to turn their creative ideas into scalable businesses,” said Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, MeitY.

Appscale Academy’s Class of 2022 saw apps across sectors adapt learnings from the program to improve their user interface (UI), user experience (UX), security, user base, engagement rates, and ratings.

One in three apps from the cohort doubled their visitor and install base during the programme, according to Google.

“This year, we look forward to partnering with Google again to ramp up our efforts towards this community and extend the benefits of the programme to more creative app-preneurs from tier 2 and 3 cities through our multi-city roadshow,” said Jeet Vijay, CEO, MeitY Startup Hub.

The second edition of ‘Appscale Academy’ will mark a six-month program, through which startups will be trained on several aspects of building successful apps, including UX design, business model and monetization strategies, international expansion best practices, and data safety and security practices.

Startups will have access to virtual instructor-led webinars, self-learning material, and mentorship sessions with leading local and global industry leaders. Several of them will also get an opportunity to pitch to leading venture capitalists. The applications will be accepted till February 6.

“The lives of many in India are getting transformed by technology, and local app developers and startup founders are the driving force behind this tech-led transformation. India is on its way to becoming a global hub for technology,” said Aditya Swamy, Director, of Play Partnerships, Google Play.

YouTube’s new feature will warn users against their abusive comments

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YouTube’s new feature will warn users against their abusive comments

YouTube has introduced a new feature that will warn users if their comments are found to be abusive. The company says it will send a notification to people whose abusive comments have been removed for violating the platform’s rules.

Moreover, if a user continues to leave multiple abusive comments, they may receive a timeout and be temporarily unable to comment for up to 24 hours.

The testing has shown that these warnings/timeouts reduce the likelihood of users leaving violative comments again, as per the company’s forum post.

“Our goal is to both protect creators from users trying to negatively impact the community via comments, as well as offer more transparency to users who may have had comments removed to policy violations and hopefully help them understand our Community Guidelines,” the company said.

Currently, the abusive comment detection feature is only available for English comments, but the streaming platform aims to include more languages in the future.

The company says that it has been working on improving its automated detection systems and machine learning models to identify and remove spam.

It has removed over 1.1 billion spam comments in the first six months of 2022, the company claimed.

Since reducing spam and abuse in comments and live chat is an ongoing task, the company said that these updates will be ongoing as they continue to adapt to new trends.

Netflix launches 2 new mobile games

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Netflix launches 2 new mobile games

Streaming giant Netflix has launched two new mobile games, ‘Kentucky Route Zero’ and ‘Twelve Minutes’, and also teased some upcoming games.

Adventure game ‘Kentucky Route Zero’ is developed by Cardboard Computer and is about a secret highway running through the caves beneath Kentucky, reports TechCrunch.

In ‘Twelve Minutes’, developed by 24 Bit Games and published by Annapurna Interactive, players try to escape a time-loop nightmare and feature the voices of Hollywood actors James McAvoy, Daisy Ridley, and Willem Dafoe.

As for the upcoming games, according to Netflix, the ‘Vikings: Valhalla’ will let players take the roles of fierce Viking clan leaders as they build settlements and increase their power across the continent. The game will debut on Netflix in the first quarter of 2023.

The ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge’ game will also launch next year and according to the company, “players will be able to kick shell with Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo or other familiar friends in this totally tubular ’80s-inspired beat them up”.

The streaming giant said that the players will find old-school gameplay improved with new fighting mechanics and will discover adventures with a new story mode, the report said.

Apple releases iOS 16.2 with better always-on display

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Apple releases iOS 16.2 with better always-on display

Apple has started to roll out iOS 16.2, the second major update to the iOS 16 operating system (OS), which includes several new and improved features for the users such as an improved always-on display.

Owners of the iPhone 14 Pro will take advantage of improved always-on display settings that allow users to disable the mode’s wallpaper and notifications if they are too distracting, reports The Verge.

Other new features include end-to-end iCloud encryption, Apple Music Sing karaoke mode, and much more.

End-to-end iCloud encryption in iOS 16.2 is called ‘Advanced Data Protection and is used to safeguard data like notes, iCloud backups, and photos.

The protection now extends to 23 “data categories,” up from 14 previously and includes device backups, messages backups, iCloud Drive, notes, photos, reminders, Safari bookmarks, Siri shortcuts, voice memos, and wallet passes.

For karaoke fans, Apple Music gets its own karaoke mode with iOS 16.2. It includes real-time lyrics and the ability to adjust the volume of vocals so singers can better hear their own voices.

Talking about the iPad side, iPadOS 16.2 adds external display support for Stage Manager, which organizes apps and windows so that users’ desktop is clutter-free and they can stay focused.

Additionally, iOS 16.2 and iPadOS 16.2 both include a revamped HomeKit architecture that Apple had originally planned to introduce with iOS 16, the report said.

WhatsApp lets users see profile icons within groups chats on iOS

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WhatsApp lets users see profile icons within groups chats on iOS

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature that gives users the ability to see profile icons within group chats on iOS.

Users need to open a group to see if this feature is enabled for their account, if it is enabled, they will see profile icons next to chat bubbles, reports WABetaInfo.

The new feature helps group members to recognize other participants that have the same name.

The default empty profile photo appears if a profile photo is unavailable or hidden due to privacy settings and it is highlighted using the same color as the contact name.

The ability to view profile icons within group chats has been released to users that installed the latest versions of WhatsApp from the App Store and it is rolling out to even more people over the coming days, the report said.

Earlier this month, the messaging platform started to roll out a new feature to some beta testers on iOS, which gives users the ability to search messages by date.

The feature allows users to easily jump to a certain date within a conversation.

Google redesigns Knowledge Panels to get large desktop grid

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Google redesigns Knowledge Panels to get large desktop grid

Google has redesigned the Knowledge Panel to get a large desktop grip as it will make it “easier to explore a topic by highlighting the most relevant and useful information” when searching.

Knowledge Panels are information boxes that appear on Google when users search for entities (people, places, organizations, things) that are in the Knowledge Graph.

They are intended to provide a quick snapshot of information on a topic based on Google’s understanding of available web content.

According to 9to5Google, these highlights will take the form of cards arranged in a grid layout.

The report said that there is now a large Knowledge Panel grid that starts with images and highlights things like age, spouse, and social media account.

Moreover, athletes might also get cards for height, net worth, and recent recap videos.

Google has yet to fully implement this new card redesign across all Knowledge Panel categories, or even across all results within a single category, according to the report.

Besides information, Google will also highlight “content from creators on the open web”.

Last week, Google started to roll out passkey support in Chrome with the Stable M108 version, for better safety.

The tech giant also started to roll out new memory and energy-saving modes to its web browser ‘Chrome’ on desktop.

Meta shuts down Connectivity division

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Meta shuts down Connectivity division

Meta has reportedly shut down its Connectivity division almost 10 years after launching the initiative.

The company will now split the division across its infrastructure and central products teams report to The Verge.

Launched in 2013, Meta Connectivity (formerly Facebook Connectivity) aimed to increase online usage so users could access the company’s social networks.

Through the initiative, the company developed and later abandoned a project that involved high-flying, autonomous drones to beam the internet to remote areas of the world.

It also focused on creating a low-Earth orbit satellite-based internet system similar to Starlink, but Amazon hired the team working on it last year.

It remains unclear when exactly Meta shut down its Connectivity arm, but the disappearance coincides with last month’s layoffs and reorganization that eliminated about 11,000 jobs at the company.

Meta expects further losses in 2023 as the company is investing extensively in CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s costly effort to build the metaverse.

In addition to big initiatives including satellites, drones, and an internet-connected helicopter, Meta Connectivity also provided free internet in developing countries, which allowed users to access only Facebook and a few other websites.

Twitter Blue is back as Musk announces to remove all legacy verified badges

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Twitter Blue is back as Musk announces to remove all legacy verified badges

Twitter Blue subscription with verification was relaunched on Tuesday and people needed a verified phone number to sign up, as Elon Musk announced he will remove all legacy blue badges in the coming months.

The Blue subscription service with verification costs $8 for Android users and $11 for iPhone owners per month.

“Starting today, when you subscribe your account will get access to subscriber-only features including Edit Tweet, 1080p video uploads, reader mode, and a blue checkmark (once your account has been reviewed),” said the company.

“Soon, subscribers with the blue checkmark will get priority ranking in search, mentions, and replies to help lower the visibility of scams, spam, and bots,” the micro-blogging platform added.

To subscribe to Blue badge, your Twitter account must be at least 90 days old and have a confirmed phone number. Musk said that basic Blue will have half the number of ads.

“We will offer a higher tier with no ads next year,” he added. The new Twitter owner also announced that in a few months, “we will remove all legacy blue checks”.

“The way in which they were given out was corrupt and nonsensical,” he added.

Subscribers will be able to change their handle, display name, or profile photo, “but if they do, they’ll temporarily lose the blue checkmark until their account is reviewed again”, said Twitter.

Musk last month launched the Blue subscription plan with verification but later postponed it after it met with huge controversy as several fake accounts came up on the platform, impersonating brands and celebrities.

Musk also said that the prior “Twitter management and board lied to make their user numbers seem artificially higher, so turned a blind eye to fake/spam accounts”.

WhatsApp working on ‘view once text’ feature

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WhatsApp working on ‘view once text’ feature

Meta-owned WhatsApp is reportedly working on bringing the ability to send “view once text” messages to a future update of the app.

Previously, the feature was launched with support for photos and videos.

The feature is currently available in WhatsApp’s Android beta version, which lets users send messages that can only be viewed once before disappearing, reports WABetaInfo.

A padlock-style button with the traditional send message logo may one day be available in the app to access the feature, according to the report.

With this feature, users will not need to delete the information shared unwillingly, as it will be automatically deleted from the recipient’s phone.

As view, once images and videos can not be forwarded and copied, similarly it will not be possible to do the same with the view once text messages.

WhatsApp currently prevents recipients from screenshotting a piece of view once media if they are using the most recent version of its app, but it is unclear whether this protection will be extended to text messages, said the report.

Earlier this month, the messaging platform also rolled out a new disappearing messages shortcut on Android beta. The new shortcut is placed within the ‘Manage Storage’ section and is marked as a tool to save space.

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