Techy Tech

WhatsApp Said to Hire Amazon Pay’s Manesh Mahatme to Lead India Payments Business Manesh Mahatme, who has worked at Amazon Pay for nearly seven years, is reportedly due to join WhatsApp payments business soon.   WhatsApp has hired a top Amazon executive to head its payments business in India, two sources told Reuters, as the messenger service gears up to expand in the booming sector. Manesh Mahatme, who has worked at Amazon Pay for nearly seven years, is due to join WhatsApp's payment service soon, one of the sources said on Friday. WhatsApp and Amazon Pay were not immediately available for comment. Mahatme declined to comment. With more than 500 million users, WhatsApp counts India as its biggest market, where it is the newest entrant in India's digital payments sector, which PwC and Indian industry body ASSOCHAM say is set to be worth $135 billion (roughly Rs. 9,78,530 crore) by 2023. WhatsApp last year received a much-delayed approval for the launch of its payments system in...

Chromebooks are getting a new feature to improve handling Android app Google brought support for Android apps to Chromebooks all the way back in 2016, but the experience still leaves a lot to be desired. Thankfully, Google is making changes to improve how Chrome OS handles Android apps, making the feel a little more polished. According to ChromeUnboxed, Google is working on a feature that will lock resize restrictions for Android apps on Chromebook devices. The flag is currently live in the Canary Channel, and describes a feature that enables a compatibility mode for Android apps that are not optimized for large screens, imposing a restriction on resizing these apps. Once the feature is enabled, Android apps that don’t support large screen formats lose the ability to be resized on Chromebooks, while the maximum and minimize buttons are removed. You also can’t move these apps to the edges of the screen. ChromeUnboxed highlights an example where YouTube Music and Instagram are opened sid...

Facebook Signs Content Supply Deal With News Corp in Australia, Signalling Truce After Blackout The agreement makes News Corp the first major media outlet to strike a Facebook deal under controversial new laws. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reached a content-supply deal with Facebook in Australia, the companies said on Tuesday, a step toward settling a dispute that saw the social media giant briefly shut down thousands of pages in the country. The agreement, terms of which were not disclosed, makes News Corp the first major media outlet to strike a Facebook deal under controversial new laws that let an Australian government-appointed arbitrator set fees if companies fail to do so. Facebook's shutting out all media content in the country for a week last month angered world leaders, as the blackout included emergency services and government health pages. It ended the shutdown when Australia agreed to soften some parts of the new regulations. News Corp, which owns about two-thirds of...

Signal Stops Working in China Without VPN, Users Report Signal's website was also inaccessible in the country Encrypted messaging app Signal appeared to no longer be working in China without the use of a virtual private network (VPN) on Tuesday morning, users in the country said. China's cyber authorities have become increasingly strict in recent years, widening the scope of apps, media outlets and social media sites banned in the country. Signal's website was also inaccessible in China on Tuesday morning. The app was still available on Apple's China app store as of Tuesday morning, and the app and website appeared to be working normally in Hong Kong. Signal's press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Cyberspace Administration of China could not immediately be reached for comment. The app was already unavailable on third-party Android stores in China, where Google services are largely blocked. On several occasions the app had previously st...

Chrome OS may soon make it a lot easier to access your Google Photos Managing your Google Photos on your Chromebook may soon get a lot easier as Google is working on integrating Google Photos into Chrome OS’s file manager. Right now, Chrome OS users have to manually download their photos off Google Photos and then organize them into their file manager, which is as tedious as it can get. Many users have complained about this in the past, and it looks like Google finally seems to have realized this counterintuitive approach that Chrome OS users have to take to access their photos. Our friends over at Android Police have discovered some new commits on Chromium Gerrit that hint that Google is working on deeply integrating the Google Photos into the navigation pane of the file manager, allowing users to quickly access their uploaded photos right from within the file manager. The following commit suggests that users will be able to view their Google Photos when picking files in the file pick...

Google’s new two-factor authentication prompt now has dark mode on Android Stop getting blinded by two-factor prompts Google is rolling out a new update for its two-factor authentication prompt on Android, which adds support for dark mode (along with a new Material Design-style look), via 9to5Google. Is this objectively a minor cosmetic update in the great scheme of things? Yes. Is it nice to not be blasted with retina-searing white light when your two-factor authentication prompt comes up while you’re trying to log into something in pitch-black darkness? Also yes. In addition to the less blinding hue, the new update also features a couple of other minor cosmetic changes, including Google’s custom Google Sans font for the UI, and colorful red and green icons on the log-in buttons. The new update appears to be rolling out slowly for Android owners —  9to5Google  reports that its available on personal Google accounts, but not for those with Google Workspace accounts. Credit of t...

Android 12’s dessert name might be Snow Cone, but we thought of 17 better ones S’mores, Samoas, snickerdoodles... there are much better options We’re eagerly awaiting to hear official news about Android 12, Google’s next major update to its mobile operating system, and we might have gotten an early look at some big UI changes just last week, thanks to XDA Developers. But now, thanks again to XDA Developers, we might know something even more important: Android 12’s dessert name. For years, Android releases were also identified with dessert names, and each year’s dessert started with the next sequential letter in the alphabet. Google deserted the dessert names in favor of numerals with Android 10, but the company reportedly still uses dessert names internally. Android 11’s dessert name was apparently Red Velvet Cake, for example. Android 12’s name? XDA Developers says that it’s Snow Cone. Snow Cone is... fine. But if I’m being honest with you, I can’t think of the last time I’ve eaten a ...

Microsoft Word working on an even darker dark mode: Details here Microsoft Word is the perfect app for those editors who still love making marks on copy—definitely a whole lot clearer than having the software mark revisions. Microsoft has started testing an update to Word that will colour entire documents in a dark canvas Currently, Word has a dark mode that modifies the ribbon and toolbars, but the canvas stays bright white Microsoft Word is testing another feature for dark mode lovers. To say the least, it's a darker dark mode for the Word docs. According to a report on The Verge, the software maker has started testing an update to Word that will colour entire documents in a dark canvas. Currently, Word has a dark mode that modifies the ribbon and toolbars, but the canvas still stays bright white. A future update to Word will include the ability to switch the canvas into dark mode, too, the report added. A program manager on Microsoft's Word team Ali Forelli told the publicat...

Twitter blocks 97% of accounts, posts flagged by IT Ministry FILE PHOTO: People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken September 27, 2013. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration/File Photo  (REUTERS) On February 4, Twitter was asked to take down 1,178 accounts with links to Pakistan and Khalistan supporters that were spreading misinformation and provocative content related to farmers' protest NEW DELHI : Twitter has blocked over 97 per cent of the accounts and posts flagged by the IT Ministry for provocative content and misinformation around farmers' protest, sources said. This followed a meeting between Twitter representatives and the Information Technology Secretary on Wednesday evening where the US-based microblogging platform was issued a stern warning to comply with local laws or be prepared for action. The Ministry had questioned Twitter's delay in taking action on its order to block pro...

IRCTC launches payment gateway iPAY for easy railway ticket payment transactions According to IRCTC, the AutoPay app facility will make it convenient for users to book tickets through UPI and other payment methods and make the refund procedure easier. HIGHLIGHTS The IRCTC has launched a new payment gateway called the IRCTC iPAY through which users can make payments to book railway tickets. According to IRCTC, the AutoPay app facility will make it convenient for users to book tickets and make the refund procedure easier. The IRCTC iPAY will also allow users to get an instant refund if they book their train tickets through the IRCTC website or the mobile app. Days after the Indian Railway Tourism and Catering Corporation (IRCTC) made its revamped website official along with the Rail Connect app, it has now launched a new payment gateway, called the IRCTC-iPay that can be used by train travellers to make payments. Users making payment through the IRCTC-iPay will have to give details and p...

Jio vs Airtel vs Vodafone: The best budget postpaid plans with free Netflix, Prime Video Jio is currently the only telecom operator offering Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+Hostar subscriptions and unlimited calls/data benefits for less than Rs 400, which is enticing.  Jio, Airtel and Vodafone are offering some good postpaid plans with OTT benefits. We have listed postpaid plans that offer free access to popular video streaming apps like Netflix, Prime Video or Disney+Hostar at reasonable prices. Jio is currently the only telecom operator offering Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+Hostar subscriptions for less than Rs 400. The below-mentioned postpaid plans also include unlimited data and call benefits from Vodafone, Jio and Airtel. Read on to know more about these plans. Jio postpaid plan and how to activate Netflix, Prime Video Reliance Jio is offering a Rs 399 postpaid plan, which comes with a total of 75GB of FUP data. Once the data is exhausted, you need to pay Rs 10 per GB. The plan ...

WhatsApp Testing Log Out Feature to Enable Better Multi-Device Support: Report WhatsApp has been testing multi-device support for some time now and the log out feature brings it one step closer to stable release. WhatsApp is reportedly testing a feature that will allow users to log out of an account on a linked device. The feature was spotted in WhatsApp beta update 2.21.30.16 and it also suggests that the company is getting closer to release multi-device support feature. The log out feature is said to work on both WhatsApp and WhatsApp Business and with this, users will no longer have to delete their account or uninstall WhatsApp to be able to log out of an account. A report by WhatsApp features tracker WABetaInfo states that beta update 2.21.30.16 for the messaging service brings a log out feature that lets users unlink a device from their WhatsApp account. Till now, WhatsApp only gives an option is to uninstall the app from said device, or alternatively, delete your account in order...