Windows 10: Microsoft warns users to stop using THIS hugely-popular app

MICROSOFT is cautioning Windows 10 users against using Google's hugely-successful Chrome web browser.

Microsoft is very keen for Windows 10 users to ditch Google Chrome

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Microsoft is very keen for Windows 10 users to ditch Google Chrome.

The US technology firm has started to use pop-up dialogue boxes within Windows 10 to warn users about the battery drain caused by Google's hugely-successful web browser.

Windows developer Rudy Huyn posted a screenshot of the Microsoft warning.

It states "Chrome is draining your battery faster. Switch to Microsoft Edge for up to 36 per cent more browsing time."

This is not the first time Microsoft has sung the praises of the battery life saving technology built into its Edge web browser.

Earlier this year, the Redmond technology firm published a video showing the power consumption of different web browsers on Windows 10 devices, pitting its own Edge against Google Chrome, Opera and Firefox.

In the lab-controlled test, which saw the Microsoft devices churn through an automated cycle of opening sites, scrolling online articles, watching videos and launching new tabs, Microsoft Edge easily managed to outlast all of its rivals, with Google Chrome lasting just four hours and 19 minutes, compared to seven hours and 22 minutes for Edge.

Developer Rudy Huyn noticed the Windows 10 warning about Google Chrome

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Microsoft Edge is the default browser that ships with Windows 10 – and is even actively promoted during the upgrade process.

Unless you are actively reading, checking and carefully choosing your options during the installation, the operating system will swap any rival browsers you'd set as the default on Windows 7 or 8.1 to Microsoft Edge.

But despite that, Microsoft Edge is not a popular option among Windows 10 users.

Google Chrome (and its hidden game) was first released seven years ago. Since then, its popularity has skyrocketed.

In fact, StatCounter estimates that a jaw-dropping 60% of desktop web traffic comes from the Google-owned browser.

Chrome now accounts for a staggering 70 per cent of all browser activity originating from Windows 10.

Microsoft has pitted some of the most popular web browsers against one another

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Software Engineer Jackson Newhouse, of Quantcast said: "The wide release of Windows 10 did initially bump Edge’s market share from 12 per cent to 16 per cent.

"However, this increase was temporary, with Chrome recovering from temporary losses and reaching over 70 per cent market share of Windows 10, higher than the 63 per cent it pulls in on Windows 7 and 8.

"More and more users are using Windows 10 every day, and most have shifted off of the old Internet Explorer.

"However, that movement hasn’t entirely been towards Edge, with a number of users choosing Chrome instead.

"Microsoft may be able to make further inroads into the browser market with Edge, but it’ll take more than a new operating system to unseat Chrome’s dominance."

Microsoft is making further improvements to battery life in Anniversary Update

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Microsoft Edge recently added support for browser extensions – a must-have feature that was missing for its first year on the market.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update, which is set to hit machines next month, will boast more battery-life enhancements for Edge, thanks to fewer CPU cycles, less memory consumption and a tighter hold on background activity.

The news comes as renown Microsoft author and pundit Paul Thurrott said the popularity and new capabilities built into iOS and Android could spell the end for Microsoft and Windows 10.

Mr Thurrott said Microsoft was currently facing "a potential EXTINCTION moment."

Those who upgrade now will get the latest updates for free, including the upcoming Anniversary Update.

This blockbuster update is scheduled for release this summer and will include a redesigned Start Menu (with twice as many adverts) and new handwriting recognition software.

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Google used this woman's name on all its Docs templates, and she's spent the last 2 years dealing with confused and angry messages

She wondered whether Google had actually Googled the name before it used hers -- and wished it had

Casey Baumer got her first message about Google Docs roughly two years ago.

A friend called and asked her, "'Uhh, did you know your name is the Google Docs name?' And I had no idea what she was talking about," the 20-something food stylist tells Business Insider.

It didn't take her long to figure it out.

If you've ever used one of Google's apps like Docs or Slides, you may have seen her name at the top of an example résumé or plastered on a project template.

Google uses "Casey Baumer" as the randomly generated dummy name on all of its document prompts.

A Google spokesperson says that the company decided to use that name instead of something like John Smith or Jane in the spirit of creativity, but the decision ultimately caused the real Casey Baumer to receive dozens of angry or confused messages.

After that initial phone call, Baumer started hearing more and more about her "alter ego" from friends and acquaintances

Sometimes it was kind of funny, so she tried to ignore it or would respond by explaining the situation. But things really got weird about a year ago when she discovered a heap of messages in her "Other" inbox on Facebook.

Strangers were accusing Casey of hacking into their Google accounts or secretly corresponding with their significant others.

While some of the messages made Baumer laugh, the instances where people seemed really mad made her uncomfortable, and it became a hassle to keep explaining to everyone what was going on.

"If you actually look at the documents, instead of just reading the name, it's clear that none of it's real," Baumer says. Google user a filler text, called "lorem ipsum," for the bulk of the documents, so it's just gibberish. "But people clearly don't really read it!"

The constant barrage of messages became frustrating and creepy.

Someone even started writing a fictional story about her.

She wondered whether Google had actually Googled the name before it used hers -- and wished it had.

She got so sick of the messages that she posted a couple of statuses on Facebook imploring friends to help her get in touch with someone at Google.

Her most recent status caught some steam (including leading Business Insider to reach out to both Baumer and Google).

A spokesperson said the company's in the process of updating its template names.

For Baumer, that comes as huge relief.

SourcE:&nbps;Business Insider UK

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Microsoft bans most common passwords in attempt to keep its users safe

The site calls the feature ‘dynamic banning’ and it is supposed to solve the biggest problem with passwords

The National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) has revealed that some hackers are offering “cybercrime as a service”, and have created a marketplace where gangs can bid for targets to be attacked

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Microsoft is going to ban its customers' most-used passwords.

The company is going to start “dynamically banning” the passwords that people use to try and break into accounts, in an attempt to keep its users safe.

A huge and worrying proportion of people tend to use passwords from a relatively limited list – things like 123456, or the word password. Doing so makes it far easier for people to break into people’s accounts, and so Microsoft is going to stop people from using them.

The company made the announcement after the revelation that 117 million LinkedIn accounts had been made available for sale on the internet. It said that information can prove useful to those looking to protect accounts as well as for cyber criminals, since it provides a way of getting to know the passwords that are most used.

“When it comes to big breach lists, cybercriminals and the Azure AD Identity Protection team have something in common – we both analyze the passwords that are being used most commonly,” wrote Microsoft’s Alex Weinert. “Bad guys use this data to inform their attacks – whether building a rainbow table or trying to brute force accounts by trying popular passwords against them.

“What we do with the data is prevent you from having a password anywhere near the current attack list, so those attacks won’t work.”

Microsoft sees 10 million attacks on people’s accounts every day. That means that it can build a list of the passwords that people are trying on those accounts, and it can be “dynamically updated” so that it always has the most recently used passwords.

“We then use that list to prevent you from selecting a commonly used password or one that is similar,” writes Mr Weinert.

That should make it far harder for hackers and cybercriminals to break into accounts by simply guessing the password a person has used.

The proportion of people using easy to guess passwords has been repeatedly highlighted in reports showing the most-commonly used logins. Because of that and other security problems, some companies such as Google want to get rid of passwords entirely and use other, more secure options like biometric data.

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Google wants to KILL OFF passwords by the end of the year

PASSWORDS are annoying – they can be difficult to remember and notoriously unreliable. Luckily Google wants to eliminate passwords before the end of the year.

Remembering your online passwords is a pain.

Worse still, there is always a risk hackers could break through using brute force – no matter how complex (or not) your passwords are.

Fortunately, Google is looking to get rid them.

The US search firm will begin testing better alternatives to a random combination of words, letters, numbers and symbols next month.

Google unveiled its Trust API to developers during its annual I/O conference, which replaces a single written password with a swathe of other security indicators.

Google wants developers to replace traditional passwords with its new complex Trust API

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Previously dubbed Project Abacus, the method bundles together a handful of weaker security methods to create a much stronger system.

Among the security methods are face and voice recognition, as well as the way you type and use a touchscreen.

With the Trust API ticking along in the background, your gadgets will be able to continually monitor what's happening and whether or not you are still the person using your own devices.

Used individually, any of these security indicators would be incredibly insecure – for example, face recognition is not as reliable as a fingerprint scanner.

But when these systems work together, it creates a much more secure method of locking and unlocking your devices.

Unlike traditional passwords – which grant access based on a binary yes/no answer – the new Google system will instead generate a score that reflects how confident it is that you're who you claim to be.

And if the institution you are trying to gain access to needs more evidence, it can request a password or biometric.

Google is offering its Trust API to third-party developers, so it will work across more than just a few Google products and devices.

The Mountain View company will roll-out the technology to banks first, before making it available to all developers by the end of the year.

Google unveiled a number of new innovations during its annual developer conference earlier this month, including a clever new chat app to rival WhatsApp.

The search giant also took the wraps off its talkative (and slightly creepy) new home assistant.

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Global Accessibility Awareness Day: Apple and other companies commit to help make computers easier to use for disabled people

Computers have made huge steps in recent years in helping people use them in other new ways

Children use iPads in

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Apple and other companies are marking Global Accessibility Awareness Day, which aims to make technology easier use for people with disabilities.

The companies are taking the day to highlight their work in accessibility as well as running sessions to help people understand the special features that are built into their technology.

Global Accessibility Awareness Day is being marked for the fifth time this year. It’s intended to let people focus on the way that the technology they develop and design is made more accessible for people with disabilities.

Events are being run across the world to focus on the same technology, as they have been for each of the last five years. Those events are taking place in person as well as online.

Apple – which has been praised for its efforts to increase accessibility in the past – runs special workshops for people who want to make use of its tools. Those include special events focusing on vision, hearing and motoring skills across its platforms, including Mac, iPad and iPhone.

Some of those same workshops also highlight third-party technology. The company is running events for technology like the Skoog 2, for instance – a tactile cube that lets people play music on an iPad or iPhone – and focusing on other accessories like braille displays that allow people to navigate their iOS devices using touch, if they are visually impaired.

The company has a special accessibility section that features apps that make use of accessibility features – grouped around vision, hearing, speech, learning and literary, physical motor skills and Siri – as well as highlighting the tools and options that are built into its own products.

Like Apple, Google maintains a special part of its website where it makes sure that products are as accessible as they can be. That includes features like captions on YouTube – which allows people to easily add subtitles to their videos, and then edit them after the fact.

Subtitles of that kind are now rolling out across tech products – even in Twitter’s pictures. The site announced recently that it would be adding “image descriptions” across its apps, which allows people to write in special captions that can then be used by people with visual impairments to hear or read a description of what has been tweeted.

SourcE: Independent UK

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Creepy or cool? Google's new speaker wants to take over your home

GOOGLE unveils its new Home gadget which plays music and keeps track of your life.

NEW: Google Home is the internet firm's latest product

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Google is already a huge part of daily lives but now it wants to help you even further.

The tech giant has just unveiled its Google Home speaker which not only plays music but can become a fully functional personal assistant.

As long as you don't mind Google Home knowing everything about you, the diddy device can tell you everything about your daily life.

Ask it what time you need to leave the house or how bad the traffic is and Home will tell you.

Google is boasting that the Home will even be able to change dinner reservations, text friends, check flight delays and even set the heating via Google's Nest.

Google Home can also stream entertainment around your home including music and movies.

There's no word on when Google Home will become available or any prices but the firm has confirmed it should launch later this year.

Google is currently unveiling a raft of new products at it's yearly I/O developers conference.

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Smartphones taking over from wallets as Google launches app to rival Apple

Android Pay is set to rival Apple's "tap and pay" service

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SMARTPHONES replacing wallets took another step towards reality yesterday as Google launched its mobile payments system in the UK.

Android Pay is Google’s answer to it arch rival Apple’s “tap and pay” service which came to the UK last July.

It signals a major boost to the mobile payments industry, as Android smartphones - such as those by Samsung, Sony and Huawei - account for more than half of mobile phones sold in the UK.

With the two biggest tech firms having a mobile wallet, experts say it is only a matter of time before phones take over the role of people’s wallets - having already become users’ cameras, diaries, sat nav device and music players.

The technology works in a similar way to Apple Pay - allowing users to load their Visa and MasterCard credit or debit card details on to a smartphone equipped with a so-called Near-Field Communication chip.

Android Pay from Google is a rival to Apple's "tap and pay" service

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Apple Pay was launched in the UK last July

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Customers will be able to use their phones to make contactless payments in a similar way to using a contactless card.

Users can make transactions up to £30 without unlocking their phone.

They just tap it on the card reader.

For transactions higher than £30, you need to approve it using your normal security method - such as unlock code or fingerprint.

It works anywhere with a contactless card terminal, so Brits with Android phones can use it at stores like Boots, Starbucks and Waitrose and pay for the Tube, bus and train with Transport for London.

It can also be used in apps including JD Sports, Deliveroo and YPlan.

To start using Android Pay you’ll need to download the Android Pay app on Google Play and have an eligible MasterCard or Visa credit or debit card from one of the supported banks, such as Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society.

New banks will be added.

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Google Translate for iOS and Android just got smarter

OK Google, sprechen sie Englisch?

Google Translate for iOS and Android just got smarter

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DATA HOOVERER GOOGLE has squeezed in a trio of features to its Translate service to make it slicker to use.

The first new feature is Tap to Translate for Google Translate on Android, which adds the ability to translate text directly within an app by tapping a widget.

This bypasses the tedious need to copy and paste the text into the Translate app, which can annoy butter-fingered people. Effectively, this makes it easier to get instant translations of text from chats, comments, song lyrics and other written content.

The new feature works with all 103 currently supported Google Translate languages. To be honest we couldn’t even name that many languages.

Google has also added an Offline Mode for the iOS version of Translate which, as the name suggests, allows the app to be used when a WiFi or mobile broadband connection is not available. Great for English people trying to get directions when visiting Wales where mobile reception is a far-flung concept.

Much like Offline Mode for the Android app, it works by providing an option to download a small data packet on the language being translated which is stored locally on an iPhone or iPad and allows Translate to be used without an internet connection. Simple but effective.

The final new addition is Chinese language translation for the Word Lens feature. This works by translating text detected on an object captured by the camera on a smartphone, and can now detect and translate ideographic characters in the Chinese written language.

This means that travellers to China who are not familiar with the language can use Word Lens to get translations of menus, signs, labels and other printed text. It could probably come in handy in London’s Soho as well.

Google regularly tinkers with Translate, including fiddling around with on-the-fly translation. But it has to proceed with caution as occasionally Google gets itself into hot water with translation faux pas, such as converting ‘Russian Federation’ into ‘Mordor’.

Source: The Inquirer UK

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iPhone Or Android? Here’s One Big Difference To Consider

The vast majority of smartphones around the world are Android devices, but few of them are what you’d call modern.

Way back in October 2015, Google officially released Android Marshmallow, the latest version of its smartphone and tablet operating system. It’s packed with cool, useful features like Now on Tap, an interactive service that helps you do more with whatever is on your screen. But most Android folks can’t use it: Only 7.5 percent of devices have actually been able to upgrade to it, according to new statistics.

Those same statistics reveal that a significant portion — 32.5 percent — of Android devices are still on KitKat, a version of the operating system that came out in fall 2013. More than 24 percent of Android devices are on even older versions.

Things are different in Apple’s walled garden. The company reported last month that 84 percent of iPhones and iPads have updated to iOS 9, which came out in September 2015. Only 11 percent are on the previous version, iOS 8, and a meager 5 percent of devices run an earlier version.

The takeaway is clear: Apple can get people to upgrade their phones, but Google can’t. Why that is — and what the difference ultimately means — can help you understand a lot about the two companies and inform your smartphone purchases moving forward.

Google’s Android phones are created by a variety of companies. You can get a sleek new Samsung device with a high-end camera, or you can try the budget-friendly (and less sexy) Moto G. There are options from LG, Sony, HTC and a slew of other companies, meaning you can find a phone that matches your price range and your personality.

The iPhone is created by Apple. Period. Full stop.

When Google releases a new version of its software, it has to distribute it to manufacturers that are ultimately responsible for pushing it to your device. When it comes to a significant overhaul like Marshmallow, a phone maker like Samsung might decide to reserve it for its premium models — the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, for example — while neglecting older models like the Galaxy S4.

If you bought a phone in 2013, when KitKat was cutting edge, it’s possible that your manufacturer never gave you the opportunity to update your software. That doesn’t mean your hardware is inadequate, though: A lot of people are happy with technically “old” devices.

In recent years, Google has offered its own Nexus line of phones that can receive speedier updates directly from the tech giant. But these devices may have to be purchased outside of your wireless carrier’s stores and don’t necessarily compete with devices offered by other manufacturers in terms of screen quality, camera and so on. They’re far from a standard option, in other words.

Because Apple is the only manufacturer of the iPhone, it can roll out updates across devices simultaneously. The drawback is that those iOS upgrades can slow your phone and make you more inclined to purchase a new device. Of course, the upside is that any security problems can be patched immediately — not so with Android.

So, next time you’re shopping for a phone, remember that an Android device purchased today is less likely to receive a software upgrade than an iPhone is, but you’ll also be able to choose from a variety of manufacturers and price points.

Source: Techspot & Huffingtonpost

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Millions of Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo email account details stolen in huge cyber attack, says security expert

Tens of millions of usernames and passwords for Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo email accounts have been hacked and details traded online, according to a security expert.

Almost 100 million accounts have been compromised

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Data from around 97 million accounts have been stolen as part of a huge cyber attack that is thought to affect around 272.3 million users worldwide, said Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security.

In one of the biggest data breaches in years, the information is being traded in Russia’s criminal underworld for next to nothing, it has been claimed.

It is thought that credentials from around 40 million Yahoo Mail accounts, 33 million Hotmail accounts and 24 million Gmail accounts have been accessed.

But the majority of the usernames stolen are from Russia’s most popular email service Mail.ru

Holden, who was speaking to Reuters, has previously uncovered huge data breaches affecting millions of users at at Adobe Systems, JPMorgan and Target.

The details are being actively in the cyber underworld, says the security expert

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His latest discovery is said to come after researchers found a young Russian hacker bragging in an online forum that he had collected and was ready to give away a far larger number of stolen credentials.

Mysteriously, the hacker asked just 50 roubles – just over 50p – for the entire trove, but gave up the dataset after Hold researchers agreed to post favourable comments about him in hacker forums, Holden said.

He said his company’s policy is to refuse to pay for stolen data.

‘This information is potent. It is floating around in the underground and this person has shown he’s willing to give the data away to people who are nice to him,’ said Holden.

‘These credentials can be abused multiple times.’

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A Microsoft spokesman said stolen online credentials was an unfortunate reality. ‘Microsoft has security measures in place to detect account compromise and requires additional information to verify the account owner and help them regain sole access.’

Yahoo and Google did not respond to requests for comment.

A Mail.ru spokeswoman said it was checking whether the email combinations match those still actively in use.

Source: Metro UK

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Google given access to healthcare data of up to 1.6 million patients

Artificial intelligence firm DeepMind provided with patient information as part of agreement with Royal Free NHS trust

Lord Darzi, centre, performing surgery. He has given his support to a smartphone app run with DeepMind to alert staff to patients at risk of kidney failure.

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A company owned by Google has been given access to the healthcare data of up to 1.6 million patients from three hospitals run by a major London NHS trust.

DeepMind, the tech giant’s London-based company most famous for its innovative use of artificial intelligence, is being provided with the patient information as part of an agreement with the Royal Free NHS trust, which runs the Barnet, Chase Farm and Royal Free hospitals.

It includes information about people who are HIV-positive as well as details of drug overdoses, abortions and patient data from the past five years, according to a report by the New Scientist.

DeepMind announced in February that it was developing a software in partnership with NHS hospitals to alert staff to patients at risk of deterioration and death through kidney failure.

The technology, which is run through a smartphone app, has the support of Lord Darzi, a surgeon and former health minister who is director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.

However, the agreement on patient record sharing has caused concern among those who have already been concerned about Google’s moves in the healthcare sector.

A spokesperson for the Royal Free said patients would not be aware that data was being made available but it was encrypted and such an arrangement was standard practice.

It said: “Our arrangement with DeepMind is the standard NHS information-sharing agreement set out by NHS England’s corporate information governance department and is the same as the other 1,500 agreements with third-party organisations that process NHS patient data.

“As with all information sharing agreements with non-NHS organisations, patients can opt out of any data-sharing system by contacting the trust’s data protection officer.”

Sam Smith, of the health data privacy group MedConfidential, told the New Scientist: “This is not just about kidney function. They’re getting the full data.

“What DeepMind is trying to do is build a generic algorithm that can do this for anything – anything you can do a test for. The big question is why they want it. This is a very rich data set. If you are someone who went to the A&E department, why is your data in this?”

Dominic King, a senior scientist at Google DeepMind, told the BBC that access to timely and relevant clinical data was essential for doctors and nurses.

“This work focuses on acute kidney injuries that contribute to 40,000 deaths a year in the UK, many of which are preventable,” he said.

“The kidney specialists who have led this work are confident that the alerts our system generates will transform outcomes for their patients. For us to generate these alerts it is necessary for us to look at a range of tests taken at different time intervals.”

Source: The Guardian UK

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Google patents eyeball technology that gives you super powers

Google could be putting computers in eyeballs

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Google might be developing a computer that can be injected into your eyeballs and gives you super powers.

It’s only an idea at the moment (the internet giant has just taken out a patent) but we’re still definitely excited.

A user will be able to process extra information through an antenna that would connect them to other devices.

If that’s not super enough for you, a user will also be able to store files and listen to a radio through the special computer, according to the recently filed patent.

And of course it would correct your vision.

The eyeball computer may never get released but the technology may still be used in a similar device.

Google seems to have a thing for eyes after previously developing the Google Glass spectacles that never quite became the hit the company was expecting.

Source: Metro UK

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Behind the playlist: How Google is using humans and computers to hit music streaming success

Google, like a host of other companies , is trying to get you hooked on its content platform.

That means it wants you to listen to music through its Play Music service, read the news on its Play Newsstand service and rent movies on its Play Movies & TV service.

There are a myriad of different ways to entice users, from offering exclusive content to undercutting the price of rivals.

But one of the ways Google is trying to fight off the likes of Spotify, Apple Music and Jay-Z's Tidal in the music business is through curated playlists.

This isn't the out-and-out radio station that Apple was so keen to show off , but rather selected playlists that cover every conceivable activity.

From standard fares like "sitting in a coffee shop" and "driving" right the way to "wallowing in self-pity", Google's playlists cover a wide variety of subjects.

And it's not all handled by a gigantic computer. There's an actual team of people (Google wouldn't tell us how many) that track, measure, debate and curate the playlists that appear on the service.

The team behind Google Play Music's UK playlists are based at the London offices

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"Human curation is extremely important," explained Rory Woodbridge who works on the team behind Google Play Music.

"We take contextual awareness more seriously than anyone else. And we want it to be as easy as possible - the technology has to get out of the way."

He explains that whenever a new member joins the team they take what's informally called the "Susan Boyle test". It means composing a playlist that would appeal to non-mainstream listener and force the would-be music editor to think outside their traditional comfort zone.

"Personality in our service is incredibly important. We want to embrace 'guilty pleasures' - but we still immerse ourselves in data," said Rory.

Google lets you access your music account on up to ten different devices

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Along with the musical nous of the team members and the music industry freelancers they regularly consult with, Google's team are (as you'd expect) teched up.

Listening duration, skip rate, device usage - all are monitored and tracked to help the team compile playlists for upcoming events - as well as simply times of the day or week.

It's not always perfect - Rory admits that the playlists surrounding this year's Mercury Music Prize didn't hit home. But other tentpole events (Christmas and Glastonbury to name a few) were big hits.

The team are aiming to get to a point where all the user has to do is open the app. Their playlists last for "at least three-and-a-half hours" and learn what you like the longer you listen to them.

"We see a world of potential - playlists depending on the weather, the place you are," said Rory after musing that the music service Google offers has come a long way since it acquired the music recommendation service Songza in 2014.

If you want to get stuck into all Google's playlists, you need to pay the £9.99 a month subscription price. And also - be aware that streaming when not on wi-fi will take a massive chunk out of your data plan.

Even if you don't want to pay the monthly subscription, Google Play Music will still allow you to upload 50,000 of your own songs to its service and listen to them wherever you roam.

Source: Mirror UK

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Android N to get pressure-sensitive displays, mimicking Apple’s 3D touch for iPhone

The feature allows people to perform actions more quickly – without ever going into an app

Google is bringing the biggest new feature of iPhones to Android.

The company looks set to support pressure-sensitive displays in the next version of its operating system, Android N. That will let it catch up with Apple, which put the technology into its iPhone 6s late last year under the name 3D Touch.

The rumour comes from Google’s support for “Launcher shortcuts” in the latest beta version of the upcoming operating system. Google describes that feature as allowing developers to “define shortcuts which users can expose in the launcher to help them perform actions quicker”.

That is an almost exact description of how 3D Touch works on the iPhone. It allows people to quickly get to certain parts of the app: selecting the “Record Video” option on the camera app means that people can record video with one press, for instance.

Google still hasn’t said how the option to launch the shortcuts will be triggered. But since it looks exactly the same as it does on the iPhone, and so will likely be triggered the same way – with a hard press on the app shortcut, rather than a soft one.

Since device makers decide what they want to do with Android, there’s no guarantee that the feature will eventually make its way to many handsets. But Huawei has already brought the feature to Android with its own code and so more handsets are likely to have it in the future.

Source:Independent UK

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Europe ‘Readies’ Formal Android Antitrust Charges

Android

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Google showdown with the European Commission deepens as regulators finalise Android antitrust charges

Google could be facing European antitrust charges over its Android mobile operating system very soon, following a report in the Financial Times, which claims formal proceedings could be filed as soon as next Wednesday.

The search giant is already locked in an antitrust battle with the European Union over its comparison shopping service, after the European Commission launched an investigation back in November 2010.

But then matters escalated this time last year, when the EU laid the ground for formal antitrust charges against Google, after it opened a separate investigation into the domination of Android in the smartphone arena, after complaints from two firms, thought to be Nokia and Microsoft.

The FT, quoting four lawyers involved in the case, said that the EC had sent out requests for information from complainants with 24-hour deadlines. This tight deadline strongly suggests the regulators are close to finalising charges against Google.

Antitrust Probe

The EC is reportedly investigating whether Google hinders the development of alternatives to its own smartphone mapping, search and app store services by requiring handset makers to exclusively pre-install its own apps and services.

The FT said that one person close to the commission said it was likely that Margrethe Vestager, EU competition commissioner, could publicly deliver a statement of objections – or formal charge sheet – as early as Wednesday next week, although the process could still take slightly longer.

The EC and Google both reportedly declined to comment on the matter.

If the EC does find any wrongdoing against Google, it has the power to impose a financial penalty of up to 10 percent of the previous financial year’s revenue. To give an idea of how expensive this could be, Google’s revenue from its core businesses rose 13.5 percent to $74.5bn (£52.5bn) in 2015.

Android Domination

Google of course is now a division of its parent firm, Alphabet. It has strongly denied any wrongdoing in either the Android or shopping cases. The EU isn’t the only place where Google’s smartphone OS market dominance has been under scrutiny. Android is facing similar investigations in Russia as well as the United States.

Android is the dominant mobile operating system around the world, by some margin. Analyst house IDC recently predicted that Android shipments will grow from 1.17 billion in 2015 to 1.62 billion in 2020, pushing the company’s share of the smartphone industry from 81 percent to 85 percent.

In comparison, Apple iPhone shipments is expected to be flat this year after a record of 231.5 million in 2015. Windows Phone shipments meanwhile have fallen 18 percent over the course of 2015 at 11.1 million units.

Source: Techweekeurope

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Google Play services icons get a major makeover

Google has updated the icon designs for all of its ‘Play’ branded apps. The new icons show off the play symbol (often used in media controls) and mixes them with the currently available line up of icons from its Play services. The news comes from the official Google Android blog and the changes will begin to show up on Android devices in the coming weeks.

The current list of changes come to the Google Play icon, the Google Play Store icon and these are followed by some heavily modified versions of the current Play services like Play Movies and TV, Play Music, Play Games, Play Books and the Play Newstand.

Looking at the new changes from the image above, we can tell that users will have a hard time finding the ‘Play Music’ icon as it gets a complete revamp and moves past the old headset icon.

“You’ll start to see the new Google Play icons across devices and online in the coming weeks. We hope you’ll continue enjoying the Play family of products—now with a new look” says Jonathan Chung, Visual Design Lead, Google Play.

Certainly, the new Play button-oriented design adds a bit of uniformity and consistency when it comes to Google’s Play services so they can now be instantly recognizable no matter where you come across them.

Indeed these could be the shape of things to come in Google’s Android N update, the Preview of which was out a bit too early this year. We could expect similar iconography on Nexus devices for Google’s default apps like Messenger, the Contacts and Dialer apps, etc. Moreover, this could move on to other services like Gmail as well as this will help them give all of them a uniform look.

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Google issues biggest Android security update yet

With fixes for 39 vulnerabilities in Android, the April Nexus Security Bulletin is the largest security update from Google since the company began the monthly update process eight months ago.

Google fixed 15 vulnerabilities rated as critical, 16 rated as high, and eight as moderate in the latest monthly bulletin, across 26 different components, including DHCPCD, Mediaserver, Bluetooth, Exchange ActiveSync, Wi-Fi, Telephony, media codec, video kernel driver, and Debuggerd. The update also covers the March 18 out-of-band emergency patch fixing a local privilege escalation flaw in the Android kernel.

“There have been no reports of active customer exploitation or abuse of the other newly reported issues,” Google said in the latest advisory.

The privilege escalation flaw was originally patched in 2014 in the Linux kernel, and researchers reported the same bug (CVE-2015-1805) affected Android devices earlier this year. Zimperium researchers reported that an app capable of exploiting the vulnerability to root Nexus 5 devices was available in the wild in March, prompting Google to release the emergency patch. At the time, Google said attackers could abuse the flaw to gain root privileges on Android devices on kernel versions 3.4, 3.10, and 3.14. Nexus 5 and 6 devices are vulnerable too, Google said.

The Verify Apps feature in Android also blocks installation of apps from outside of Google Play that attempt to exploit the vulnerability, making it harder for attackers to abuse.

Devices with Security Patch Levels of April 2, 2016, or later have both the emergency patch and the latest monthly update. Supported Nexus devices will receive the updates over the air directly from Google, but other Android devices will have to wait for carriers and handset makers to release the updates.

Mediaserver still the biggest headache

As expected, Google again patched critical Mediaserver and libstagefright -- seven critical vulnerabilities and five high-severity bugs in the process itself, as well as one critical flaw in the library. Issues in Mediaserver and libstagefright first came to light last summer with Stagefright, and since then, security researchers in and out of Google have focused on the two components to find and squash other bugs. These security issues are “tangential” to the original Stagefright vulnerability, as they exist in the same component but are distinct concerns, Christopher Budd, a global threat communications manager at Trend Micro said earlier this year.

Mediaserver is a particularly attractive target because it can be attacked via multiple methods, including remote content such as MMS files and browser playback of media files. The service can access audio and video streams, as well as privileges that third-party apps cannot normally touch. If the attack is successful, the attacker could cause memory corruption and remotely execute code with the privileges available to the Mediaserver process.

“The most severe of these issues is a critical security vulnerability that could enable remote code execution on an affected device through multiple methods such as email, Web browsing, and MMS when processing media files,” Google said in its advisory.

Google also patched a critical remote code execution vulnerability in the media codec.

Bugs in core operating system

Along with Mediaserver and related components, Google fixed a critical remote code execution vulnerability in the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) service and a critical elevation of privilege vulnerability in the kernel. The DHCP flaw would let an attacker cause memory corruption and remotely execute code as the DHCP client. Like Mediaserver, the DHCP service has access to privileges not typically available to third-party apps. As for the kernel bug, a local malicious app could execute arbitrary code and permanently compromise the device. The only way to restore the device would be to reflash the operating system.

The final critical vulnerabilities were in two Qualcomm components: the Qualcomm Performance Module and Qualcomm RF driver. Both escalation-of-privilege vulnerabilities would let malicious apps exploit the Qualcomm components to execute arbitrary code within the kernel, leading to a permanent device compromise.

An elevation-of-privilege vulnerability in a Texas Instrument haptic kernel driver could let a malicious app execute arbitrary code within the context of the kernel. Normally, this kind of a bug would be rated as critical, but Google noted that attackers would first have to compromise a service that can call the driver.

The majority of the issues rated as high severity were elevation-of-privilege flaws, and most of them could be abused to gain special permissions, such as Signature or SignatureOrSystem, which are not typically available to third-party apps. These flaws in IMemory Native Interface, Telecom component, Download Manager, the Recovery Procedure, and System Server could be abused as part of a multistep process.

Fragmented Android

While the ideal situation would be able to update all Android devices with the latest security fixes as soon as they are released, the patchwork of dependencies between Google, the wireless carriers, the device manufacturers, and maintainers of Android-based distributions means a significant number of devices don’t receive the updates on a regular basis. But maybe that can be considered a security advantage, not a security weakness.

At the recent Black Hat Asia conference in Singapore, Dino Dai Zovi, security lead at mobile payments company Square, said the fragmented ecosystem is safer for Android users with unpatched devices because attackers have to customize their attacks for each device model and operating system version. Security programs like Verify Apps and the background scans performed by Google Play, as well as new features in Android Lollipop and Marshmallow, make it harder for users to mistakenly load malicious apps.

“The number of actually infected devices is exceeding low,” Dai Zovi said.

Security flaws need to be patched, and there must be a better way to let Android devices receive regular updates. But so long as the cost of developing exploits for each Android permutation remains high, new vulnerabilities will not result in the sky falling for the unpatched masses.

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Internet Explorer still the most used browser, but will soon lose to Google’s Chrome

Google Chrome is fast gaining on Microsoft's Internet Explorer for the top browser slot Google's Chrome is fast racing to become the most popular browser

Google’s Chrome is fast racing to become the most popular browser and could overtake Microsoft’s old Internet Explorer browser by this year end. For years, Internet Explorer has been the most popular browser in the world. However things changed when Microsoft decided to dump IE in favour of a all new browser called Edge which is bundled with Windows 10.

The net result of Microsoft’s Edge push is that Internet Explorer’s market share is spiralling downwards and Google Chrome is the only browser to benefit from the slide.

As can be seen from the new report by NetMarketShare, Internet Explorer fell from 44.79% to 43.40% while Chrome went from 36.56% to 39.09%, which is quite a substantial jump. Surprisingly, only Chrome seemed to be gaining in market share as Firefox, Safari, and Opera, all lost substantial user base, the biggest loser was Firefox which went from 11.68% to just 10.54% market share.

Microsoft’s Edge browser has seen an increase in users but not enough to explain Internet Explorer’s 1.39% decrease, which must mean users decided to ditch Internet Explorer, for Chrome. During the same period, Edge rose to 3.55% up from February when it was at 3.02% market share, an increase of 0.53%.

The rate at which Chrome is piling up users, it will not be long before it becomes the numero uno browser in the world.

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Android battery problems? Google's hidden power setting will extend your battery life by 30%

Google's Nexus 6P comes with Android Marshmallow preinstalled

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Smartphones aren't just for communicating - they're also for taking pictures, watching videos and playing games. So it's not surprising that most of us are always plagued with low battery warnings .

Thankfully, Google has recognised this and added an extra battery-saving feature into the newest version of its Android operating system .

Buried in the settings menu is the option to flip on "Ultra Power Saving Mode" that will drastically improve your phone's life. According to Google, it could extend your battery life by up to 30%.

In fact, the amount of extra time you'll get until your phone croaks is displayed next to the option to turn on the setting.

To find it, go to the settings menu on your phone (providing it's been upgraded to or is running Android 6.0 Marshmallow) and scroll down to the battery sub-menu.

There you'll find an estimated time left until your battery dies and the extra options to prolong it.

The battery submenu on a Galaxy S7 edge displaying the amount of power left and the Ultra power saving mode setting

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The battery submenu on a Galaxy S7 edge displaying the amount of power left and the Ultra power saving mode setting

Once activated, your phone will automatically goes into a deep sleep state when it’s idle, and all the apps you don't use will be put into a reduced activity state.

The mode will also apply a greyscale theme to your homepage and turn off extra connectivity like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even mobile data when the screen is turned off.

The push for better battery life comes as many phone maufacturers are making their handsets thinner and lighter - limiting the size of the battery they can put in it.

Which begs the question...

Source: Mirror UK

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Android Pay is coming to the UK - but what is it and how does it work?

Android Pay is launching in the UK. But what does it do, how does it work, and which banks support it?

Android Pay, Google's payment system for Android phones, is finally coming to the UK.

There's no official launch date yet, but Google announced today that it will be arriving "in the next few months".

The service has been available in the United States since September 2015, where Google claims it's getting 1.5 million new registrations each month.

So what is Android Pay, and what can you do with it?

What is Android Pay?

It's a part of Android that lets you store your credit and debit cards on your phone.

If you're one of the people who used Google Wallet – and not many did – that will sound familiar, which is because Android Pay is essentially a rebranded and updated of the old system.

It will work with pretty much any NFC-equipped Android device running Android 4.4 or later.

How does Android Pay work?

Android Pay is an Android app that may be pre-installed on your phone. If it's not, you can download it from Google Play.

When you open it, you can add your cards; if you already have a card associated with your Google account, you can opt to add it in automatically.

Then, when you're in a store, all you need to do is unlock your phone and hold it near to a contactless payment terminal and – just like Apple Pay – you're notified and it's done.

You can also use Android Pay with selected third-party apps.

Which UK banks support Android Pay?

Most of the major UK banks support Android Pay, including Bank of Scotland, First Direct, Halifax, HSBC, Lloyds Bank, M&S Bank, MBNA and Nationwide Building Society.

Notable by their absence at present are the Royal Bank of Scotland group banks: RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank.

However, Google says that "new banks [are] being added all the time", so you can expect them to support Android Pay at some point in the future.

Which shops support Android Pay?

Any shop with a contactless payment terminal should accept Android Pay too.

Can I use Android Pay on the London Underground?

Yes. Transport for London (TfL) supports Android Pay in the same way it supports Apple Pay, so you'll be able to tap and pay as you go across London's network of Tube, buses and trains.

Source:Mirror UK

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