Samsung Galaxy M40 officially revealed ahead of June 11 launch, will be available via Amazon

Samsung has revealed that it will soon launch its Galaxy M40 smartphone in India on June 11, at 6 PM. Amazon is hosting a dedicated microsite for the device, more or less confirming that it will go on sale via the online retailer. Ahead of the official launch, the company decided to unveil the smartphone, which comes soon after its press renders were leaked online. Samsung’s ‘Notify Me’ page for the Galaxy M40 shows off the phone’s design in its entirety. The handset can be seen featuring an Infinity-O display, where the punch hole houses the front camera on the top left of the screen. 

The rear panel is also shown off and while it’s not clear whether the rear panel is plastic or glass, there surely are three cameras present. The triple-rear camera module is on the upper left corner, and is vertically aligned. There’s a flash beneath the camera setup and a fingerprint sensor can also be seen beside it. Going by the image, the phone sports a design similar to the Galaxy M40, except for the punch hole display that offers a screen with reduced bezels. The rear panel is also similar to the one we have seen on the Galaxy M30. 

Amazon’s listing of the Samsung Galaxy M40 also reveals some more details about the handset. It will be powered by a Snapdragon 6 series platform, which is expected to be the Snapdragon 675. The handset is reported to feature a 32MP sensor, in one of the three rear cameras, and could offer up to 128GB of internal storage. It could be backed by a large 5000mAh battery and is expected to run on Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box. As mentioned, they will go on sale via Amazon in the country. 

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WhatsApp update allows consecutive audio message playback on Android

WhatsApp has rolled out an update for the app's Android version that allows consecutive playback of audio messages received in a chat. The Android update version 2.19.150 brings this support and now both the OS platforms have this capability. The support on iOS was rolled out in October 2018 with version 2.18.10022. The first mention of this feature was in March when WABetainfo reported that the instant messaging app would release the update later in the year.

This may not be a big update for many of us but it will certainly save the hassle of tapping the ‘Play’ button over and over again to listen to a string of voice messages. You just have to tap on the first message received and others will automatically play by themselves. It should be noted that if a users sends an audio message, a text message and again an audio message, then the two audio files will not be played one after the other.

Further, WhatsApp has also added two new sounds to the app. The first sound, a short chime, will play after a user has listened to an audio message. With each audio message read, the same sound will mark the completion of the audio file. The second sound, a long chime, will play after a user finishes listening to all the audio messages.

Recently, the company announced that it would start putting advertisements in WhatsApp Status to monetise the instant messaging platform. The Status feature allows users to post short videos and images that disappear after 24 hours. The feature was first introduced in Snapchat but later Facebook incorporated it in all its apps including Instagram, Facebook and Messenger. Instagram already shows ads while you watch people’s Stories.

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Microsoft hints at always connected modern OS that delivers invisible background updates and more

Microsoft is rumoured to be working on an OS but has not yet confirmed whether it is Windows 11, a lite version of Windows or something completely new. However, the company has started dropping some hints about its next OS. At the ongoing Computex 2019 event, it hinted at an OS that is touted to enable better computing on devices coming out in the future. First spotted by The Verge, Microsoft has delved some information on the OS in a blog post. Microsoft envisions its "modern OS" with ‘seamless updates’ that are invisibly carried out in the background without causing any interruptions. If these features sound somewhat familiar, it’s because Chrome OS already follows the same philosophy with background updates and no interruptions. 

“An OS that provides a set of enablers that deliver the foundational experiences customers expect from their devices, and includes a set of delighters that deliver innovative human centric experiences,” states Microsoft’s blog post. Additionally, this modern OS by the company is said to be secure by default as “the state is separated from the operating system; compute is separated from applications.” This sounds like there could be loads of cloud processing involved, which could also be beneficial for less powerful devices. The OS is also expected to be always connected with Wi-Fi, LTE and 5G options that “will just work”. 

This ‘modern OS’ is touted to deliver sustained performance from the moment a user picks up their device. One might have noticed that while Microsoft is revealing a good chunk of info about this “modern OS”, it has not mentioned Windows anywhere. However, from all the hints it dropped in its blog post, we can only speculate that the company is describing its upcoming operating system. It is also more or less confirmed that the company’s upcoming, and presumably future, operating systems will offer seamless updates, 5G connectivity, cloud-powered apps, security improvements, support new form factors, and AI.

 

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Microsoft introduces Google Lens-like Character Recognition in Excel for iOS to convert smartphone photos into spreadsheets

Microsoft seems to be taking hints from Google’s image recognition techniques. The software giant has introduced a new feature on Microsoft Excel for iOS, to help users covert their images into spreadsheets. Data presented on a piece of paper within columns and rows can simply be snapped using a smartphone camera. This data can then be converted into an editable Excel spreadsheet using the app’s Data from Picture feature. Microsoft uses a combination of optical character recognition (OCR) and machine learning to identify the characters on the paper and input them into a digital spreadsheet. In the past, we’ve seen OCR implementation on Google Lens which allows users to scan any image using their smartphone camera and extract text from it into an editable digital format.

Microsoft Excel's OCR feature was first announced in September 2018 and was made available on Android in March 2019. The image recognition tool in the Microsoft Excel Android and iOS apps is available through a button called Insert Data from Picture. “New image recognition functionality automatically converts the picture to a fully editable table in Excel, eliminating the need for you to manually enter data,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post explaining the feature. You can head here to see an instructional video on how to copy data from an image to an Excel spreadsheet.

Beyond Excel, Microsoft is also giving users the ability to copy data written on White boards using ink grab. Users can now take a picture of their notes scribbled on a physical whiteboard and convert them to digital ink in the Microsoft Whiteboard app. The company has also built handwriting recognition into OneNote, so users can convert handwritten notes to digital text quickly.

“We envision that you’ll be able to take a picture of handwritten notes on paper and import the text directly. Other areas we’re exploring include scanning a picture, PDF annotation, and signing,” Microsoft noted in its blog post.

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Death Stranding Release Date Set for November 8, Pre-Orders Go Live and Editions Detailed

Death Stranding has finally been confirmed to release on November 8, and pre-orders for the game have now gone live with a total of four editions in tow.

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Huawei returns on SD Association, Wi-Fi Alliance member lists

Huawei has made a return to the company lists of SD Association and Wi Fi Alliance after a brief removal. The company’s name was removed from their respective lists following the ban imposed by the Trump Administration earlier this month. The SD Association is a global ecosystem of companies setting memory card standards that simplify the use of consumer electronics, including mobile phones. Meanwhile, the Wi-Fi Alliance is an organisation that certifies Wi-Fi products for conformity to certain standards of interoperability.

This may not be an indication that everything is going to be fine for Huawei. It is possible that both these authorities have added the Chinese tech company to their list for the 90-day permit to push out updates for existing phones. Just a day after blacklisting it, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce offered Huawei a temporary 90-day license to conduct business and provide updates for the smartphones that are already in the market.

Things are not looking fine for the company because a number major equipment and services suppliers have already cut trade ties from the company. Huawei, however, says it was well prepared for the rainy days. The company is reportedly developing its own OS, which may be called the Ark OS. The company was also reported to be in talks with Aptoide as Google Play Store alternative for future smartphones.

Recently, Huawei filed a motion for summary judgment against the US government to accelerate the process of removing the trade ban. The company argues the constitutionality of Section 889 of the 2019 US National Defense Authorization Act (2019 NDAA), and wants it thrown out. The Section 889 of the Act prohibits government agencies from procuring telecommunications equipment from Huawei and ZTE. It alleges that the US government has provided no evidence to show that Huawei is a security threat.

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iOS apps reportedly sharing massive amounts of data with tracking companies when you sleep

Ever since Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica data fiasco was exposed, users have become more aware and intersted in knowing how their data is collected and/or shared. Multiple companies are also touting to be more privacy centric now and Apple is one such conglomerate that has always expressed how it values user privacy and takes steps to ensure its users are protected. However, a new report by The Washington Post's Geoffrey Fowler sheds light on how iPhone apps are using trackers that users don’t know about to send a high volume of user data to tracking companies. Fowler took help of the privacy firm Disconnect to test his iPhone, apps on which reportedly sent 1.5GB worth of personal information to tracking companies over a period of one month. 

In the research, Fowler found that apps from some top companies were sending user data to tracking companies. These apps included Nike, Yelp, Spotify, Microsoft OneDrive, Mint, IBM’s The Weather Channel, DoorDash, the crime-alert service app Citizen, and even The Washington Post's own iOS app. As per the report, over 5,400 trackers were encountered, mostly in apps, in one week of testing. Most of these trackers are said to work inconspicuously without the user knowing that they are running in the background and sending data. This data is then used to tailor and target ads at a user. 

As for data being sent at night, the service is apparently activated when the phone is charging. The trackers are activated when there’s less possibility of them interfering with other functions of the device. This is said to happen if one has enabled “background app refresh” function, which is enabled by default on an Apple device. DoorDash is a food-delivery service in California, US, and its app was found sending data to nine third-party trackers. On the other hand, an app for location-based crime reports called Citizen was found sharing Fowler’s phone number, email and exact GPS coordinates with a tracker called Amplitude. The app was later updated to remove the Amplitude tracker, after its developers were contacted. 

“For the data and services that apps create on their own, our App Store Guidelines require developers to have clearly posted privacy policies and to ask users for permission to collect data before doing so. When we learn that apps have not followed our Guidelines in these areas, we either make apps change their practice or keep those apps from being on the store,” Apple told The Washington Post in a statement. As the report points out, not all data collection is bad, especially when the data collected is anonymised and transiently stored. However, some of these trackers were collecting and sending data without disclosing what type of data is collected, for what duration it is collected and with whom it is shared. 

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