Coronavirus effect: Google Maps now shows you Takeout and Delivery options near your location

As the country is turned inside out because of the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s clear that life has been affected by the spread of the disease. With the 21-day lockdown entering its final week, most people are still stuck at home without any real access to food or essential services. As we previously reported, companies like Reliance and Uber have extended a helping hand to people who are in need. There are even websites that will tell you which grocery store is open nearby. Well, you can now count Google in that list. The tech giant has now included a feature on Google Maps wherein a user can enter his or her location and restaurants that offer takeout or delivery will appear nearby. 

As soon as you open up Google Maps, you’ll see an individual Takeout and Delivery button on the top. Clicking either one of these will reveal all the restaurants that either offer Takeout or Delivery nearby. The service also allows you to view the restaurant's menu, what time they’re serving food and even customer reviews for each restaurant. This service is mighty helpful for people who are home alone and do not have the necessary skill to cook their own food. In this day and age, it’s not feasible to be cooking every day either. 

As of right now, there is no integration with food delivery services like Swiggy or Zomato or even Uber Eats, but this will make it easier for you to narrow down what exactly you want to eat. 

 

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2JDLVW6

Black Widow gets new release date, Artemis Fowl to come straight to Disney+

The Coronavirus outbreak around the world has thrown practically every industry and the movie industry is no different. With theatres across the world being shuttered, some studios who had films on the brink of releasing, had to push them to an online release. Disney has a number of movies that were to be released this year and there was a lot of uncertainty around that too. Finally, the studio has announced that Artemis Fowl, one of the films to be released this year, will be going straight to Disney+ and not get a theatrical release.

Disney has announced that of all the films slated for release, Artemis Fowl will go straight to Disney+, with the date to be revealed soon. We already saw Disney bring Frozen 2 and Pixar’s Onward to the streaming service ahead of the original plan, given that people are turning to streaming to find respite from being home-bound.

Disney has also announced the reworked calendar for all Marvel films. Black Widow, which was to be the first Marvel film of 2020, set to open the summer, will now be released on November 6 2020. The Eternals, which was supposed to release on November 6, 2020, will now move to February 21, 2021. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings thus moves from its original February date to May 7, 2021. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness shifts from May 2021 to Nov. 5, 2021, and finally, Thor: Love and Thunder is now going to release in 2022. With respect to other Disney films such as Mulan, the movie’s release has now been rescheduled to July 24, 2020.

All these dates are once again subject to the prevalence of the Coronavirus, and whether theatres have opened by that time. Disney and other movie houses have a lot of money invested in their respective films, so it makes sense that they would want to recoup their investment through theatrical release. The Marvel franchise has been a massive cash cow for Disney, so it makes sense why the studio would rather delay the release of Marvel movies instead of putting it out on a digital platform. Even if the movie was behind a paywall, pirates would make sure the movies are available for free within days, causing huge financial loss to the studio.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2Rbqe43

Facebook allegedly tried to buy Pegasus exploit to spy on iOS users

The very mention of Facebook in today’s times brings up unsettling thoughts. It’s a company that’s built on taking user information and using it through various means to make a profit. Sometimes, the means with which Facebook carries out these activities are questionable, and sometimes, just downright breach of trust. One such attempt was allegedly made by Facebook back in 2017 when they tried to buy the Pegasus spyware from NSO in order to better collect data from the phones of iOS users.

NSO representatives have alleged in a recent court filing that two Facebook representatives approached the security agency with the intent to purchase the Pegasus exploit. For those who are not aware, Pegasus is a tool developed by NSO that can be remotely installed on target iOS devices. Once installed, the iPhone is jailbroken, followed by malware being installed on the device. Then, the malware will collect all the data it can and send the information off to a predetermined person. You may remember Jeff Bezos’ phone being hacked recently through a video received on WhatsApp. That was the Pegasus exploit in action. However, the two Facebook executives wanted to use the exploit in a slightly different manner. According to the filing, they wanted to use the exploit to better gather data from iOS devices since their own solution wasn’t doing a good enough job.

The solution that the filing talks about is the Onavo Protect app that Facebook had launched earlier that year (2017) in the guide of a VPN. It was later discovered that Onavo was not the benevolent VPN app, but instead was being used by Facebook top snoop on what other apps iOS users were using. The court filing reads that “The Facebook representatives also stated that Facebook wanted to use purported capabilities of Pegasus to monitor users on Apple devices and was willing to pay for the ability to monitor Onavo Protect users." NSO claims they did not go ahead with the deal because they only sell the Pegasus exploit to governments and law enforcement agencies tasked with national security, neither of which fit Facebook.

NSO and Facebook are currently entrenched in a legal battle, with the lawsuit being brought by Facebook against NSO. The social media giant has taken NSO to court over the exploitation of a VoIP vulnerability in WhatsApp, that allowed Pegasus to install spyware on iOS and Android devices.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/3aDKbYW

Coronavirus lockdown: Heres a website to see the nearest open grocery or medical stores

India is under a 21-day lockdown to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus. The lockdown enforces all stores and markets to remain closed with only the essentials to be made available. Naturally, people have had difficulty procuring daily essentials like groceries, vegetables and more. To help ease the pain, Quikr has launched an website called Still Open that shows users the nearest shop that’s open.

Here's the link to the website.

Not only that, Still Open also shows the nearest medical store and testing center for COVID-19 and other stores that are classified as essentials.

The site relies on crowd-sourced data with updates in regular intervals. Users visiting stores can update the site with the products available, timings and hygiene. There are options to upload reviews, photos and more.

The service is reportedly available in 23 cities across India in English, according to The Indian Express. The company also plans to expand to ten more cities and introduce 13 vernacular languages soon.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/3aTN3ko

OnePlus 8 display breaks 13 records on DisplayMate, CEO Pete Lau hints at price

Despite a globally declared lockdown to tackle the spread of coronavirus, OnePlus is pushing ahead with the launch of the OnePlus 8 series on April 14. It will be streamed live to screens directly and to build hype for the upcoming devices, OnePlus is teasing the hardware bit by bit. CEO Pete Lau wrote a post detailing the internals of the OnePlus 8 phones that includes the latest RAM and storage modules and the Snapdragon 865. Now, a new release sent out by the company claims the OnePlus 8’s display has been awarded an A+ grade by DisplayMate.

DisplayMate too tweeted out the award given to the OnePlus 8 days ahead of its launch. At least one of the phones in the series apparently broke 13 display performance records during DisplayMate’s testing. While that doesn’t really tell you what the display will be like, it’s possible that the viewing experience will be pretty amazing. But then again, DisplayMate has a penchant for awarding A+ to most flagships from Apple and Samsung.

In other news, CEO Pete Lau told Business Insider that the OnePlus 8 series smartphone won’t cost more than $1,000 (Rs 76,000 roughly). That does indicate that OnePlus will maintain relative affordability compared to the premium offerings from Samsung this year. Being 5G smartphones with premium hardware, that could be saying something.

Having said that, the OnePlus 8 may cost much more than the OnePlus 7T series. The Snapdragon 865 is indeed more expensive to procure and the added 5G capabilities will hike up the cost of production. That while you won’t be able to do anything with the 5G bit here in India yet.

The recent transmission of information is quite in line with OnePlus’ antics before launch. The company tends to release bite-sized information about its upcoming devices in anticipation to the launch. And it’s no different this time. We’ll catch you tomorrow with another official leak from the smartphone brand.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/2R6GXFC

Fitbit Charge 4 with built-in GPS launched in India, prices start at Rs 14,999

Fitbit has announced the latest version of its popular Charge series of fitness trackers. Called Charge 4, the new tracker offers a bunch of new features such as built-in GPS as well as access to Spotify. The new wearable is priced at Rs 14,999 for the standard version of the wearable, while the Special Edition version of the tracker is priced at Rs 16,999. The fitness tracker will be available worldwide from April 2020 onwards.    

The Fitbit Charge 4 is said to offer a battery life of up to seven days. It is also swimproof, so it can also be used by swimmers. A notable new feature of the wearable is Active Zone Minutes. This is said to be a new personalised standard that is based on the users resting heart rate and age. This then tracks any workout that the user engages in and measures the time they spend in each heart rate zone towards a weekly goal of 150 minutes. 

Besides Active Zone Minutes, Fitbit has also added new content to Fitbit Premium. This includes programs, brands like barre3, Down Dog, Physique 56, mindfulness tools, challenges and more. On top of this, Fitbit is also offering a free 90-day trial for new Premium users. 

As far as tracking goes, the Fitbit Charge 4 features a SpO2 sensor which allows users to see an estimate of the Oxygen Level Variability in your bloodstream. This may be able to indicate variations in your breathing during sleep. The wearable also comes with automatic exercise tracking, Cardio Fitness Level and Score, floors climbed and more.

For its price point, the Fitbit Charge 4 goes straight up against the Fitbit Versa Lite. However, while the Versa Lite comes with a colour display, it does not comes with a built-in GPS. As such, the Charge 4 should offer more accurate tracking of runs or walks.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/39JKWOS

Cloudflare launches 1111 for families, offers protection from malware and adult content

Cloudflare recently launched a family-friendly version of its 1.1.1.1 DNS service, and while the company has usually had a very good standing amongst the netizens, it drew flack for, what the company called a gross oversight. Apparently, the family-friendly version of 1.1.1.1 (which is actually 1.1.1.3) was found blocking access to LGBTQ and sex education websites, a move that has been seen around Twitter circles as censorship.

The family-friendly DNS service intentionally blocks access to websites known to distribute malware and to websites service adult content. So far so good. However, Sarah Jamie Lewis, Executive Director of Open Privacy Research Society found that the service was also blocking legitimate LGBTQ and sex education website. She slammed Cloudflare, the parent company behind 1.1.1.1 in a host of tweets. Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince promptly responded, saying, "Dumb mistake on our part and we are fixing it immediately."

CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince explained in a statement to The Register that “It was a horrible mistake and we are working to remedy it as quickly as possible. We use a variety of external categorization services to categorize the internet. Our intention was to do something similar to 'Google Safe Search' and there were some categories that were included in Adult Themes by one provider that we missed when we did our review." If you would like to enable Cloudflare's family friendly DNS for your home, you can find all the relevant instructions here.

While Cloudflare sorts out the issue of blocking legitimate websites, it has also announced that the MacOS and Windows versions of 1.1.1.1 will be entering Beta very soon. In a blog post, the company said that the beta will roll out to Warp+ subscribers first, with no concrete timeline for a final rollout.

from Latest Technology News https://ift.tt/3dMikYF