WhatsApp officially launches 'Disappearing Messages' feature: How to enable

 

Whatsapp has launched the much-awaited disappearing messages feature for everyone. When the disappearing messages feature is enabled, new messages sent to a chat disappear after seven days.

"We're starting with seven days because we think it offers peace of mind that conversations aren't permanent while remaining practical so you don't forget what you were chatting about. The shopping list or store address you received a few days ago will be there while you need it, and then disappear after by our don't", WhatsApp said in a statement.

But it will still be possible to forward or take a screenshot of a disappearing message and save it before it disappears.

How WhatsApp new Disappearing Features works:

As mentioned, once Disappearing Messages feature is enabled, new messages sent in the individual or group chat will disappear after seven days.

-The most recent selection controls all messages in the chat. "This setting won’t affect messages you previously sent or received in the chat," WhatsApp said in its support page.

-Disappearing messages will also wipe out photos and videos after seven days, and while messages will disappear for both parties it’s still possible to take screenshots or just simply copy messages before they are automatically deleted. Or, you can also save the photos or other content with auto-download on. You can turn auto-download off in WhatsApp Settings > Data and Storage Usage.

-If a user doesn’t open WhatsApp in the seven day period, the message will disappear. However, the preview of the message might still be displayed in notifications until WhatsApp is opened.

-When you reply to a message, the initial message is quoted. If you reply to a disappearing message, the quoted text might remain in the chat after seven days.

-If a disappearing message is forwarded to a chat with disappearing messages off, the message won’t disappear in the forwarded chat.

-If a user creates a backup before a message disappears, the disappearing message will be included in the backup. Disappearing messages will be deleted when a user restores from a backup.

How to enable or disable WhatsApp Disappearing messages feature:

How to switch on Disappearing Messages feature:

Open the WhatsApp chat.

Tap the contact’s name.

Tap Disappearing messages.

If prompted, tap CONTINUE.

Select On.

How to switch off Disappearing Messages feature:

Once disabled, messages sent in the chat will no longer disappear.

Open the WhatsApp chat.

Tap the contact’s name.

Tap Disappearing messages.

If prompted, tap CONTINUE.

Select Off.

An important thing to note here is that once Disappearing Messages feature is on, there, however, is no option of customizing the time frame after which the messages will be deleted.

Nokia shares Android 10 update roadmap for all smartphones including Nokia 1, Nokia 8 Sirocco

HMD Global, which makes and sells Nokia-branded smartphones, has revealed the timeline for the Android 10 update for all its smartphones. On Thursday, the company in a press statement noted that all eligible Nokia smartphones, including Nokia 1, will receive the stable Android 10. Starting in Q4 2019, Nokia smartphone users will get their hands on the very latest Android 10 software upgrade. The announcement has come right after Google’s official Android 10 name unveiling on Thursday.
“With a proven track record in delivering software updates fast, Nokia smartphones were the first whole portfolio to benefit from a 2-letter upgrade from Android Nougat to Android Oreo and then Android Pie. We were the fastest manufacturer to upgrade from Android Oreo to Android Pie across the range,” Juho Sarvikas, Chief Product Officer, HMD Global, said in a statement.

“With today’s roll-out plan, we look set to do it even faster for Android Pie to Android 10 upgrades. We are the only manufacturer 100 percent committed to having the latest Android across the entire portfolio,” Sarvikas added.

The firm’s Android One approach with Google promise that Nokia smartphone owners will get benefit of two years of Android OS upgrades and three years of security updates. Currently, Nokia has 17 eligible smartphones in total, which will get Android 10, though dates will vary. HMD in a press note has shared that all the devices including Nokia 1, Nokia 8 Sirocco will get Android 10 by Q2, 2020.

Xiaomi Mi A-series models are the top-selling Android One phones globally and New Mi A3 launch in race of mobile industry.

Xiaomi took an important step towards cementing its place in the global market when it launched the Mi A1 in 2017. What made the new A-series stand out was the pure Android operating system that it had onboard. Since then, Xiaomi has gone on to launch the Mi A2 and A3, all under Google’s Android One project. It has now emerged that the Mi branded models are an important part of the Android One project. In two years after its launch, the A series has achieved outstanding results.



During the Mi A3 launch, the company shared some data on the progress of the A-series. Data by market research firm Canalys shows that the sales volume of the Mi A1 in 2017 was 2.4 times more than those of other Android One handsets. In the same light, the Mi A2 sales when it was launched in 2018 was still far ahead of other Android One phones like the Nokia 3.1, Nokia 6.2 and Motorola One series. On the whole, the company says it has sold over 10 million units of the Mi A series.



We expect the Mi A3 to equally be a successful Android One phone even though it packs a disappointing HD+ display.  Apart from delivering a native Android operating system, Googe’s Android One project also brings the latest software update and on time.

The Mi A1 and the Mi A2 were smart-looking devices but on the plainer side. They were not meant to make heads turn. The Mi A3 now is a very different kettle of fish. With its glass (Gorilla Glass 5) front and back, and especially the back reflecting light in different colors and patterns, it will definitely turn heads. What the heads do after turning to look at it, however, is a different matter altogether. We have shown the Mi A3 – we got the Not Just Blue variant (there’s also More Than White and Kind of Grey – someone give the person who came up the names a prize please) and while many were struck by just how dazzling the play of colors on its back was, many others felt it was just a little too blingy for comfort (they might prefer the white and grey variants). It is splash resistant incidentally – a feature that we are glad seems to be finally coming to most of Xiaomi’s phones.

Another point to note about the phone is how compact it is compared to many others. At 153.48 mm and its rounded edges, it can fit most palms easily, although, like most phones in this day and age, it will need two hands to use it quite often. Yes, it is a little on the heavy side at 174 grams, but we think the weight gives it some welcome heft. This perhaps can be attributed to its 6.08-inch display, which of course, brings us to perhaps the most debated aspect of the device…



The Mi A3’s display ticks off a couple of important boxes – it is an AMOLED one (Xiaomi’s first below Rs 15,000 in India.) and comes with an in-display fingerprint scanner and thanks to a drop notch, has relatively small bezels around it (the chin has a prominent one, though). It is a vivid display and in best AMOLED tradition, renders colors brightly. The problem is that it does so at a resolution that is definitely low by Xiaomi’s own standards- the Mi A3 is the first device in the Mi A series to not sport a full HD display. The Mi A3’s display is an HD+ one.

The big question, of course, is if this is a deal-breaker. In terms of performance, well, it isn’t. It is bright and handles colors beautifully, as we already pointed out, making games and videos an absolute joy to behold. The display being a little on the smaller side by current standards also means that the pixel density on it is greater than on something like the 6.5-inch display sporting Realme 5 (yes, a comparison is coming up). However, that cannot hide the fact that it is not as sharp as a full HD display, and sometimes one sees lesser content on a page than one would on a full HD display. It is also telling that Xiaomi itself has full HD display phones at lower prices than the Mi A3 – the Note 7S being the most noteworthy (pun totally unintended).

The display might be a bit of a disappointment to some, but the rest of the specs of the Mi A3 are unlikely to be. The phone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 665, which is below the 675 found on the (slightly more expensive) Note 7 Pro, but is capable of some reasonably heavy lifting, combined with 4 GB or 6 GB of RAM, depending on the variant you choose (you have options of 4 GB/ 64 GB and 6 GB/ 128 GB). You will spot the odd lag and stutter if you push it in PUBG and Asphalt, but in casual gaming and multitasking, it passes with flying colors.

Xiaomi also deserves credit for bringing back two features that were missing in the Mi A2 – the expandable memory card slot (you will have to forsake one of the two SIM slots for it, though) and the 3.5mm audio jack. Other connectivity options include 4G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS. Sound too has been improved, and while not being the best we have heard at this price point, it is decent enough for those who want to watch videos and play games minus headphones. The in-display fingerprint sensor is a little on the sluggish side, though.



The cameras, of course, have been the stars of the Mi A series. And that does not change with the Mi A3. There is a triple camera set up on the rear, comprising a 48 megapixel Sony IMX586 primary sensor with f/1.79 aperture, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide camera, and a 2-megapixel depth-sensing camera. And then there is a 32-megapixel front-facing camera, similar to the one on the selfie centered Redmi Y3. There is some serious camera hardware muscle here. And Xiaomi has fortunately accompanied it with its own camera software than the default, rather limited, Android app.

New Android Version Will Just Be Called ‘Android 10’

Android 10 (or Q as it was referred to previously) is the upcoming major release and is in beta testing. The final release is expected later this year

Google, which named its operating system versions after tasty treats like Lollipop and KitKat, has announced that it will just use the version number going forward, and the latest edition is to be called ‘Android 10‘. In a blog post, Google said its engineering team always used internal code names for each version, based on desserts in alphabetical order. “This naming tradition has become a fun part of the release each year externally, too. But, we’ve heard feedback over the years that the names weren’t always understood by everyone in the global community,” it said.

The blog cited examples like ‘L’ and ‘R’ not being distinguishable when spoken in some languages.

“So, when some people heard us say Android Lollipop out loud, it wasn’t intuitively clear that it referred to the version after KitKat. It’s even harder for new Android users, who are unfamiliar with the naming convention, to understand if their phone is running the latest version,” it explained.

The blog also pointed out that ‘pies’ are not a dessert in some places, and that ‘marshmallows’ are not a popular treat in many parts of the world.

“As a global operating system, it’s important that these names are clear and relatable for everyone in the world. So, this next release of Android will simply use the version number and be called Android 10,” it said.

The versions included Cupcake (Android 1.5) that was launched in April 2009, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Icecream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, Marshmallow, Nougat and Oreo. Android P or Pie was released publicly in August last year

Interestingly, a campaign was run in India before the release of Android L to name the version ‘Ladoo’ after the popular Indian sweet.

Android 10 (or Q as it was referred to previously) is the upcoming major release and is in beta testing. The final release is expected later this year.

Google said it expects the change to help make release names simpler and more intuitive for its global community.

“And, while there were many tempting ‘Q’ desserts out there, we think that at version 10 and 2.5 billion active devices, it was time to make this change,” it said.

Google has also updated the Android logo and colour to sport a “more modern, accessible look”.

“The design of the logo draws inspiration from the most recognisable non-human member of the community, the Android robot…Now, it has a special place in our logo. We also changed the logo from green to black. It’s a small change, but we found the green was hard to read, especially for people with visual impairments,” the blog said.

It further stated that Google would officially start using the updated logo in the coming weeks with the final release of Android 10.

Hackers have at least 193 ways to take 'control' of your Loved Android phone.

Google is all set to release the tenth version of Android which will be called Android 10 and Q, however, what is important to note that there ares still 193 security vulnerabilities in Android that Google is yet to fix and with the release of Android 10, Google is hopeful that will completely patch all these vulnerabilities in one release. “Android Q devices with a security patch level of 2019-09-01 or later are protected against these issues (Android Q, as released on AOSP, has a default security patch level of 2019-09-01),” said Google in its Android security bulletin.

The security vulnerabilities include remote code execution, denial of service along with issue with Android run time. All these issues can be advantageous for hackers as Google has rated them as “moderate” in the scale of severity.

Despite having so many of these vulnerabilities, Google has confirmed that they have not got any reports from any abuse of these vulnerabilities yet.

This means it is all the more important for users to get to the latest Android 10 version. “Exploitation for many issues on Android is made more difficult by enhancements in newer versions of the Android platform,” added Google.

While it would take considerable amount of time for all users to migrate to Android 10, Google has made some changes to its app store. Google has now made it mandatory that all new Android apps would need at least three days for approval. This means you simply cannot publish your Android app instantly on Google Play. Also, the developers will not be given any specific date or time frame as to when the “approval process” would get over. The reason for this minimum three days approval process is “to help better protect users”.

This app approval process is separate and is not related to the “closed alpha review” which Google does. After going through the “closed alpha review”, the app would be stuck for at least another three days for the final nod from Google. As Android apps are one of the main sources of malware infection, the new policy makes it difficult for mischievous Android apps to make there way into Google Play. 

Chandrayaan-2: Soft Landing of Vikram Planned for September 7

Chandrayaan 2 is an Indian lunar mission that will boldly go where no country has ever gone before — the Moon's south polar region. Through this effort, the aim is to improve our understanding of the Moon — discoveries that will benefit India and humanity as a whole. These insights and experiences aim at a paradigm shift in how lunar expeditions are approached for years to come — propelling further voyages into the farthest frontiers.

Chandrayaan-2 was launched on July 22. The crucial process of the soft landing of the Vikram lander onboard the Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft that is currently in the lunar orbit will be taken up in the early hours of September 7, ISRO Chairman K Sivan said on Thursday. Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bengaluru would be engaged in this process which is expected to be completed by 1:55am, he told reporters at the airport in Chennai.

"It is expected to make a soft landing (on the surface of the moon) at around 1:40am and completed by 1:55am. At the global level this is an important mission. It is being keenly watched by everyone," he said.

Elaborating about the complexity involved, he said the speed of the spacecraft needs to be brought down to 'zero.' In a major milestone for India's second Moon mission, the Chandrayaan-2spacecraft successfully entered the lunar orbit on Tuesday by performing Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) manoeuvre.

The second Lunar bound orbit manoeuvre for the spacecraft was successfully performed on Wednesday. There will be three more orbit manoeuvres to make the spacecraft enter into its final orbit passing over the lunar poles at a distance of about 100km from the Moon's surface. ISRO has said subsequently the lander will separate from the Orbiter (on September 2) and enter into a 100km x 30km orbit around the Moon. Then it will perform a series of complex braking manoeuvres to soft land in the South polar region of the Moon.

Asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be part of the event when 'Vikram' makes the soft landing, he said an invitation has been sent seeking the Prime Minister's participation. Asked if there was any gender bias at ISRO, he said there was no such discrimination and talented women were always given better roles.
The rover is set to make the soft landing on the Moon on September 7 and if successful the mission would make India the fourth country after Russia, the US, and China to achieve the feat.

Apps on Google Play Store found spying on Android users, exposing passwords and private photos to hackers: Research

A number of spying apps on the Google Play Store have security weaknesses which leave their users’ private data and passwords unprotected, a team of researchers said, adding that, by taking the advantage of the loopholes, hackers can spy on the millions of users without even letting them know. The researchers pinpointed the “Couple Vow” app on the platform which allegedly exposed the login details of its 1.7 million users.

“Anyone who had access to an account wouldn’t just have all the location, text and call data of whoever was being tracked, but all content sent through the app’s messaging feature. A separate vulnerability in the app’s database meant hackers (thankfully benevolent ones in this case) could grab all 1.7 million users’ data in tranches of information. In some cases that included nude images,” Forbes quoted the researchers from the Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT).

The researchers said that they requested the data from the app server using “a GET request.” The team found that there was no need of entering a username or password, all the user logins were unencrypted and anyone with an internet connection could read them. “You do not even have to attack the server. A single GET request gets you all the data as there was no authentication at all,” SIT Security Researcher Siegfried Rasthofer was quoted as saying.

They also claimed that there was another vulnerability in the app which allowed them to pull nine images at a time. When they tried to see if their own images were accessible, they found other photos were also being available for download, including nude images. (The researchers claim that they did not download anyone else’s images; they were only previews stored in the browser and the cache was also deleted.) The team also probed 18 other tracker apps in the last one year and found that they all had weaknesses that could be exploited to access the details of all the users’ accounts.

Acer Mixed Reality Headset Review: An immersive VR experience with some drawbacks

When it comes to VR gaming on a PC, the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift were the only options for a long time. Thanks to the Windows Mixed Reality Platform, we have seen the launch of mixed reality headsets from a number of manufacturers. We had a chance to spend time with the HP mixed reality headset and you can check out our impressions of that here. Today we have with us the Acer Mixed Reality Headset. The device is priced under Rs 40,000 approx making it quite affordable if you have a gaming PC. If you are looking to invest in a gaming PC/laptop as well, then the mixed reality headset can become an expensive proposition. We spent some time with the Acer Mixed Reality Headset and here is what we thought of it.

Build and design

Kicking things off with the build of the headset itself, it is made of plastic. The front has a mix of blue and black and the placement of the front cameras look like a pair of eyes on an old robot. It isn’t the slickest looking headset around, but it is functional. Putting on the headset is as easy as placing it on your head and rotating the headband wheel.  If you have worn a PSVR headset in the past, then putting this on is the same.

The Acer MR headset fits snug. You can lift the front portion of the headset to get a glimpse of the real world and this mechanism is the same as lifting the visor of your helmet. Even for someone like me that wears big glasses, the headset fit comfortably enough for use. There was some light bleeding into the headset from the bottom but if the room you use it in isn’t very well lit, this can be avoided.

The inside of the headset has two 2.89-inch LCD displays with a 95-degree field of view. The headset has a resolution of 2880x1440. There is foam all over the place to give you a comfortable fit when you wear it. When I wore the headset, the foam around the nose felt a little tight for me. This could be because I have a big nose. After prolonged use, you do feel like taking it off, so you can take a deep breath with your nose.

Speaking of prolonged use, I had the opportunity to test this headset in the summers in Delhi and the air conditioning wasn’t always on. It can get quite warm in the headset if you don’t have an airconditioned room so that’s another thing to keep in mind. When gaming on a keyboard and mouse or a controller, it is easier to deal with sweaty palms than it is to deal with a sweaty face.

Overall, the build of the headset is functional, but it isn’t perfect. It is still tethered which means you will have wires hanging between the headset and your PC. Also, when compared to other headsets in the market, the Acer MR feels like a budget device.

Moving to the controllers, they are quite ergonomically designed and comfortable to hold. From the triggers, to the analogue sticks and even the button that’s on the side of the controller, all are easy to reach. Each controller has a large ring on which you have the glowing LED lights that communicate with the headset. The controller is made of plastic and can feel cheap, especially if you flex the housing of the ring. The controller also runs on AA batteries and I wish it had built-in batteries with USB charging making those midnight gaming sessions possible without having to step out to find batteries. During our testing, the battery didn’t run out. However, online forums reveal that a good pair of batteries can last for up to 10 hours. Off the shelf rechargeable batteries can give you about 2 to 5 hours depending on quality and use. Considering this, we recommend having a few batteries in spare.

Overall, the controllers are ergonomic, functional and get the job done well with the only drawback being that they don’t have a built-in battery.

Setup and Software

Setting up the Acer Mixed Reality Headset is as simple as plug and play with the only glitch being the Windows mixed reality setup app. You can connect the headset to the HDMI and USB port of your gaming desktop/laptop fire up the Windows mixed reality app and you are good to go. When setting up, you will have the option to walk about and set a perimeter or use the headset sitting down. I highly recommend using the walk about setup as this is where the functioning of the headset shines. For testing the headset, we used the Acer Nitro 5 - Thanos Edition. Under the hood, the laptop is powered by the 7th Gen Intel Core i5-7300HQ CPU, 8GB of DDR4 RAM coupled with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050. The headset worked on the laptop however, we recommend that to get a lag free experience, you should run the headset with a GTX 1060 at least. The Windows MR app also checks the compatibility of your PC hardware with MR so that’s a nice way of checking whether your system will be able to perform before investing in a headset. 

Towards the end of the setup you will get a notification which says that the setup is almost done, and some files are being downloaded for the MR headset. This is where I saw a bunch of windows machines hang and stay stuck to this screen for a very long time. It could a bug in the machine or the app, but it was one we faced constantly, and it was a pain getting past this point. I couldn’t figure out a reason why this was happening. Ultimately, it took several restarts and retries to install the MR software on the laptop to get it running.

Considering the fact that you can walk around a small space and have full wrist motion with the controllers is impressive when you look at how minimalistic the setup is. It is quite simply plug and play when compared to the room scaling setup of the HTC Vive. Another advantage of the plug and play nature is that you can easily carry the headset and controller with you in a bag.

Games and Performance

When you press the Windows button on the controller, you will be transported into a home in the virtual world that will give you access to the Windows MR store, Steam VR (if you have it installed) and more along with the ability to move around this virtual living space with a simple point and click of your controller. Its quite interesting. You can watch your movies in the MR headset, but I found the experience quite gimmicky.

Where the headset shines is with the games. We played a bunch of games on Steam VR and they are a lot of fun. Beat Saber is a game where each controller is a Light Saber and your objective is to destroy all the obstacles that come your way. The level is designed around music hence the name Beat Saber. The game also recognises your body’s motion. Sometimes you are required to duck and step aside from an oncoming projectile that you can’t destroy. The game is quite the workout and reminded me a lot of games I played on my Nintendo Wii.

One of my favourite games on the headset was Space Pirate Trainer. You wield two guns in your hands and you can customise the ammo you use (rapid fire, grenades, etc.) using the analogue sticks and the triggers are used to fire. You can also duck out of the way to avoid incoming fire. This is by far the most fun I’ve had playing a VR game. The action is faced-paced, the controls are swift, and accurate and the visuals are immersive. Using a rapid fire gun in one hand and a grenade launcher in the other made me feel like a space pirate version of John Wick!

Once again, playing the game feels like a workout and the maximum play session I had was for about 30 mins, after which I had to stop either to catch my breath, give my eyes a break or simply, sit down (I think I’m getting old).

Performance of the games in terms of graphical fidelity, framerate and more depends on the performance of your PC, so it wouldn’t be right to talk about it here. Coming to the visuals of the display inside the headset it is good but not the best. You have a high enough resolution to enjoy games however, the movie watching experience wasn’t very comfortable for me. I felt a kind of screen-door effect when watching movies. The effect wasn’t as prominent when playing games. For gaming the display’s resolution is high enough not to feel pixilated and the hardware of your PC will have a lot to do with the stability in framerate. In our case, since we ran it on a laptop, when the laptop was plugged in, the games saw very little frame drops. However, running the laptop on the battery, the games saw significant more stutters.

The beauty of the controllers is that they will detect even the slightest movement of the wrist making the gameplay all the more immersive. The headset and controller work with something called inside out tracking. This means that you don’t to have sensor all around you to detect your movement. The camera in the headset detects the movement of the controller. The LEDs on the controller are used to communicate with the camera on the headset. The biggest question that arises is what happens if you put your hands behind your head, to say, pull an arrow out of a quiver. To this Microsoft has said that the MR headset can estimate the movement to simulate it smoothly. In our experience, we didn’t need to reach behind our head in any of the games, but yes, the tracking does waver slightly when the controller is out of view.

Steam now supports the MR platform, so you will see an icon next to the game if it supports an MR headset.

There is one thing to note - as of writing this story, there are no Mixed Reality apps that I could find. And by mixed, I mean the ones that mix the real world with the virtual world to give you the kind of experience seen on the HoloLens.

Bottom Line

Is the Acer Mixed Reality Headset worth Rs 40,000? Well, if you already have a gaming PC that supports it and are looking to invest in a VR headset, then yes, it is worth it. The library of games available for VR is decent enough to enjoy the headset and the games aren’t very expensive on the Steam VR store. The inside-out tracking works well on the controllers, and there is almost no lag when playing fast paced games. The build quality of the headset can feel cheap. It isn’t the most comfortable one out there, especially for prolonged use. It is however a decent investment to get a feel of VR gaming and entertainment at home. It isn’t Ready Player One, but we’re on the right path to get there.

Pros

Immersive VR experience

Plug and play setup

Large library of compatible games and entertainment

Cons

Windows MR app is buggy

Plastic build feels cheap

Controllers run on AA batteries.

NVIDIA announces Turing architecture and Quadro RTX GPUs with Ray-Tracing, GDDR6

At NVIDIA’s SIGGRAPH 2018 keynote given by CEO Jensen Huang, NVIDIA officially announced the upcoming Turing GPU architecture which will be powering NVIDIA’s Quadro line-up of graphics cards. The GeForce launch is rumoured to take place a week later at GAMESCOM 2018. Today’s announcement highlights the new features that the professional NVIDIA Turing line-up i.e. the Quadro will incorporate. Hybrid Rendering, Ray Tracing and Neural Networking using Tensor Cores aided by RT Cores was the highlight of Jensen Huang’s keynote presentation at SIGGRAPH 2018.

NVIDIA QUADRO RTX Line-up

Today’s announcement is centered around three Quadro SKUs, all featuring the new RTX branding which highlights how hard NVIDIA is going to push on the Ray Tracing aspect of these new Turing GPUs. We saw three new SKUs announced under the Quadro sub-brand today including the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 and the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000. These cards bring hardware accelerated ray-tracing, AI, advanced shading and simulation to the table.

At the top of the stack is the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 which has a whopping 48 GB of GDDR6 memory and packs in 4,608 CUDA cores along with 576 Tensor Cores. The NVIDIA QUADRO RTX 6000 seems a minor downgrade with just the memory being brought down to 24 GB, prima facie. However, the Quadro RTX 5000 seems to be a different GPU altogether with different core counts from the RTX 8000 and RTX 6000, and an even smaller memory buffer of 16 GB.

RT Cores, CUDA Cores, Tensor Cores: NVIDIA Turing

The new Turing GPU architecture from NVIDIA now includes three distinct type of cores - RT (Ray Tracing) Cores, CUDA Cores and Tensor Cores. The RT Cores enable real-time ray tracing as they demonstrated last year with the Star Wars technology demo prior to the release of the movie. The RT Cores are capable of handling objects and environments with physically accurate shadows, reflections and global illumination.

Then you have the Tensor Cores which have been around since Volta came out which helps with deep learning, both AI training and inferencing. The 4,608 CUDA cores in the Turing GPU that powers the Quadro RTX 8000 and 6000 are capable of churning 16 trillion floating point operations in parallel with 16 trillion integer operations per second.

The Quadro RTX 8000, 6000 and 5000 are also the first NVIDIA GPUs to implement the new Samsung ultra-fast 16Gb GDDR6 NAND chips. With the use of the NVLink finger, two Quadro RTX graphics cards can be combined to double the memory capacity and deliver up to 1000 GB/s of data bandwidth.
NVIDIA also announced software improvements with new and existing technologies such as Variable Rate Shading, Multi-View Rendering and VRWorks Audio.

NVIDIA Turing performance

At the SIGGRAPH announcement, NVIDIA did mention some performance numbers which put the new Quadro RTX cards into perspective. Compared to the PASCAL based Quadro cards, the new Turing based Quadro RTX cards are capable of a lot more owing to the new RT and Tensor Cores. If we look at the CUDA Cores which handled shaders and compute then Turing is capable of 16 TFLOPS + 16 TIPS as opposed to Pascal’s 13 TFLOPS on FP32. The Tensor Cores enable 125 TFLOPS FP16, 250 TOPS INT8 and 500 TOPS INT4. And lastly, the new RT cores are capable of tracing 10 Giga Rays/Second. This is based on the GPU that’s powering the Quadro RTX 8000 which was compared against the Pascal based P6000. Volta based GV100 is between the two and there doesn’t appear to be that big an improvement if you consider just the half-precision calculations. Throw in the massive bandwidth enabled by GDDR6 and the two start to differ significantly.

Quadro RTX 8000, 6000 and 5000 availability in Q4 2018

The initial set of three Quadro RTX graphics cards based on the newly confirmed NVIDIA Turing architecture will be commercially available in Q4 2018. The top of the line Quadro RTX 8000 comes at a price of $10,000. That’s quite a bit for the new RT cores.

Google follows you wherever you go, even if you say no: Report

Google has become clingy to a point where it won’t stop tracking your movements even when you explicitly ask it not to. According to an investigation by the Associated Press (AP), many Google services on iPhones and Android devices store the user’s location data even when the privacy setting to allow this has been turned off.

According to a recently published report by the Associated Press, AP’s findings were verified by computer science researchers at Princeton University. On the face of it, it seems Google is candid about asking permission to use the user’s location information when launching Google Maps for the first time. If the user agrees to let the app record location over time, Maps will show that history to the user in the ‘Timeline’ section. The app even lets the user ‘pause’ this setting so they can have it back on after a certain period of time. Ideally, this should stop Google from tracking one's location once paused. In fact, Google’s support page on the matter says, “You can turn off Location History at any time. With Location History off, the places you go are no longer stored.”

Here’s the problem: Google doesn’t stop tracking location even when Location History is paused. Google apps automatically save time-stamped location data without asking. According to AP’s investigation, Google stores this even when it’s seemingly unnecessary, like while searching for topics like “chocolate chip cookies” and “kids science kits”. The same happens when weather information is retrieved or when Maps is simply opened. This privacy issue reportedly affects about two billion Android device-users and hundreds of millions of iPhone users who use Google for maps or searches. 

“If you’re going to allow users to turn off something called ‘Location History,’ then all the places where you maintain location history should be turned off. That seems like a pretty straightforward position to have,” commented Jonathan Mayer, a Princeton computer scientist and former chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission’s enforcement bureau.

Google still claims it’s in the right and is offering complete control over what is being recorded. “There are a number of different ways that Google may use location to improve people’s experience, including: Location History, Web and App Activity, and through device-level Location Services,” a Google spokesperson had said to AP. “Location History is a Google product that is entirely opt in, and users have the controls to edit, delete, or turn it off at any time. As the story notes, we make sure Location History users know that when they disable the product, we continue to use location to improve the Google experience when they do things like perform a Google search or use Google for driving directions,” Google told Digit.in through an email reply.  

Google’s explanation convinced few law-making authorities in the US. Critics, on the other hand, believe Google’s need to track location so relentlessly comes from its drive to boost advertising revenue. According to AP, it is possible to erase all stored data concerning the user’s location but is painstaking as it must be carefully selected, reviewed, and then erased.

In light of the privacy-starved digital environment we live in today, tech companies are increasingly feeling the pressure of making privacy tools and settings more visible to users. Facebook's privacy overhaul, and the entire exercise to aquaint users with better ways of managing their data on the platform, can be seen as an example in the right direction, even if the security review by the social network followed a huge user data leak.

You can head over to this Google Accounts page to review all the data Google has acquired about you over time. Called My Activity, it allows you to view (and delete) all recorded location markers and other data from the past.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 first impressions: Fixing that, which isn't broke

A few days ago, Samsung unveiled the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 at their Unpacked event in New York. This is the next big flagship from the Korean electronics giant and is set to make its way to Indian shores very soon. We managed to spend some time with the big slab of glass that is the Galaxy Note 9, using it and the upgraded S-Pen, both of which come in shiny new colours. If you’re excited about this upcoming gorgeous new flagship from Samsung, then you must read on.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Specifications and Features

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 comes packing more or less the same hardware as the Samsung Galaxy S9+. For India, you get the Exynos 9810 processor powering the new phone. There are two storage/RAM variants of the phone, one with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of onboard storage and the other with 8GB of RAM and a whopping 512GB of onboard storage. Both the phones can accommodate an additional 512GB microSD card in case the onboard storage wasn’t enough. What’s also changed from the other Galaxy flagships is the new massive 4000mAh battery. After the explosive failure of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung had become extremely cautious of large capacity batteries. After establishing their new battery safety process, we see Samsung provide a large capacity battery, which is a great thing for Note users given the smartphone’s mammoth 6.4-inch display that sports Quad HD+ resolution and HDR.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Build and Design

To be honest, from the little time we’ve spent with the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, it would appear that nothing has really changed in terms of the Note 9’s physical appearance in comparison to the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. It still possesses that tall, stalky build with sharper corners in comparison to the Samsung Galaxy S9+. The phone continues to utilise glass as its primary material of construction with Gorilla Glass 5 present on the front and back. A metal frame keeps the two sides together, in what feels like a very premium package. The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has been created in four colours, but India will only be getting the Midnight Black, Metallica Copper and the Ocean Blue colours. While all the phones come with a matching S-Pen, the Ocean Blue colour comes with a bright yellow stylus. The colour mismatch may not be for everyone honestly.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Camera

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 comes with a dual camera setup identical to the one on the Samsung Galaxy S9+. You get two 12-megapixel sensors, one with a wide angle lens and the other offering 2x optical zoom. The wide angle lens also sports the dual aperture which we noted in our Samsung Galaxy S9+ review as being of little use, but there is something new here for a change. Samsung has finally put in some “intelligence” into their camera software, though they refrain from calling it AI, like everyone else. You get a host of new software features like intelligent scene recognition which identifies up to 20 parameters in a scene and adjusts the settings accordingly. The camera software will also be able to tell if the photo you’re taking has an imperfection like someone accidentally closing their eyes when the photo was clicked. The front facing camera features an 8-megapixel sensor with autofocus and a lens with an aperture of f/1.7. We haven’t been able to test-drive any of these features yet but will give you a thorough breakdown of their performance in our in-depth review.

Samsung Galaxy Note 9 First Impressions

The Samsung Galaxy Note 9 feels more like a refinement of everything Samsung has done with the Galaxy Note 8 and the Galaxy S9/S9+. While it may not seem like too much of a step up for Samsung Galaxy S9+ users, maybe not even for those who are using the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 does warrant a closer look. We will be putting the phone through its paces to ascertain whether it’s a phone worth upgrading to or not. 

Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4, Mi 3, and Mi 4 get unofficial port to Android 9 Pie

The Xiaomi Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4, Mi 3, and Mi 4 smartphones have unofficially received a port of Android 9 Pie. While the ROM for the Redmi Note 4 seems to have almost no bugs and is pretty stable, some bugs have been reported for the other three devices. Google recently announced the final build of its highly anticipated Android operating system and it is currently available for some select devices. However, abhishek987 and vasishath are two XDA Senior Members, who have successfully ported the latest Android 9 Pie OS for the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 and the Mi 3/Mi 4 respectively. The Android Pie port for Redmi 4 was developed by the XDA Member hemantac.

Where to get the new ports

The support thread of the Redmi Note 4 Android 9 Pie ROM suggests there are negligible bugs if it’s flashed as per the provided instructions. You can check out the thread for the Redmi Note 4 here and for the Redmi 4 here. As the Mi 3 and the Mi 4 share a common device code, the same ROM works for both of them and can be found here. 

Features and known major bugs

As all the above-mentioned ROMs are an early port, one generally expects some functionalities to be missing. However, all the major features of Android 9 Pie are said to be working for the Redmi Note 4 after flashing the ROM, but the developer says that there could be some yet to be discovered bugs and there is a known issue with hardware encryption. For the Mi 3 and the Mi 4, the only noted major bug as of now is users being unable to increase or decrease volume when listening to audio via headphones.

Those who are interested can go through the ROM flashing instructions on the respective threads and experience the latest Android 9 Pie on their Xiaomi devices. However, do keep in mind that as all ROMs are ported using the AOSP source code and thus the handsets will get stock Android interface without MIUI. 

Additional information 

As per Xiaomi, the Redmi Note 4 was a huge success as the company sold over 1 million units in 45 days. Even though the smartphone was launched in India in February last year, it is still a decent option, owing to the hardware it runs on. It was launched running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow and last major update it received was of Android 7.0 Nougat. Now, it has unofficially received the Android 9.0 Pie port. Chances are slim that the device will be updated to Android Oreo as there is no confirmation from Xiaomi. Same can be said for the Xiaomi Mi 3 and the Mi 4, which were released in 2013 and 2014 respectively.