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Google Plans to Spend $13 Bn for its Expansion in 24 Out of 50 US States

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The Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, announced on Wednesday that Google is planning to expand in various new locations in the U.S. The CEO broke the news through a blog post where he described that Google plans to invest in multiple data centres and offices.

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The news can be a good one for the citizens of the US, as this expansion of Google’s data centres and offices will generate more job opportunities for them. Currently, the company has only revealed the names of the cities, including Nebraska, Nevada, and Oklahoma, and the expansion will take place in 24 different states and 13 communities. In this expansion, even the construction work will generate over 10,000 construction jobs.

In the blog-post, Pichai wrote, “With this new investment, Google will now have a home in 24 total states, including data centres in 13 communities. 2019 marks the second year in a row we’ll be growing faster outside of the Bay Area than in it.”

The announcement is considered as the result of the criticism, that Google faced, in the past few years. Google was criticised about the fact that it is not contributing to the US economy, as much as the company of the previous era used to.

In this regard, last year, the company invested over $9 billion on the facilities and this year Google has planned to invest over $13 billion on the new offices and the data centres.

“Our expansion across the U.S. has been crucial to finding great new talent, improving the services that people use every day, and investing in our business,” Pichai wrote in the post. He said this will be the second year in a row that Google will grow “faster outside of the Bay Area than in it.”

Google is not the only Silicon Valley tech giant, which is expanding to the other parts of the US, but companies like Apple and Amazon are also crossing the boundaries. Apple is also investing $1 billion in new offices in Austin to spread its growing workforce across the U.S., such that the expansion may lead to over 15,000 new jobs. On the other hand, Amazon, too, is planning to open its new offices in New York City and Virginia, as well as is looking for a good location for its second headquarter in the US.

Instagram is Testing its DM Feature for Web

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Last week, Facebook was talking about unifying its all messaging apps into one, such that the businesses can easily access the Instagram direct messages. And now, reportedly, Instagram is testing its direct message feature for the web version of the app.

First spotted by the reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, she twitted a screenshot of the feature on her official Twitter account.

Currently, only the Instagram mobile app is supporting the DM (Direct Message) feature. The desktop version of the website is a minimal, pared-down version of the same, which only shows the feed and a few other basic features in it. Instagram on desktop only offers its users to scroll down the feed, search for other Instagrammers and follow them and still needs a feature to upload pictures and stories. After all the app is a photograph based social media platform. Noticeably, even the Browser Notification support was added to the web version of the app last September.

There may be a few reasons behind, why Instagram has suddenly started the testing for the DM features for the web.

One being that Instagram started the testing for its standalone messaging app, i.e. DM, in 2017 and after the launch of the DM app, Instagram may have recorded an increase in the messaging app users. So, it may have encouraged Instagram to provide its users with the facility to use the Instagram DM easily, independent of the devices they are using.

Also, Instagram does not have an app for the iPad, and the iPad users have to rely on using the browser to use Instagram. So having the DM feature for the web will also enable the iPad users to access their DMs on the iPad.

But, as Instagram started the testing of the DM feature for the desktop only after Facebook made an announcement about unifying all three messaging apps, i.e. Facebook Messenger, What’s App and Instagram, this can be the prime reason behind the same.

LinkedIn is Rolling Out the Beta Version of its ‘Live’ Video Broadcasts in the U.S.

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LinkedIn has revealed that it is going to launch the beta version of its new live video streaming feature. Tech Crunch on Monday spotted the news, according to which the company will be providing its invite-only live feature to be broadcasted for select groups in the U.S.

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Image Source: inc.com

The live feature will broadcast conferences, advice from the experts, news, interviews as well as events from big companies and famous influencers. The feature will also help people have discussions online.

Although the feature is an invite-only and is still in its beta, LinkedIn is also offering a contact form, through which, the people who want to try out the live streaming, can apply for it. The company has not given any clues on if the feature will be available for everyone or not.

For now, the feature is in its pilot mode and will be rolling out this week for testing. The company has collaborated with several third-party developers that have sufficient experience in live broadcasting streaming services development. The company aims at having posted more polished live videos on the platform, that matches the theme of LinkedIn. The third party developers may include Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Wowza Media Systems, Socialive and Brandlive, etc. and according to LinkedIn, more names will be added to the list. Also, Microsoft’s Azure Media Services will also work as a part of this effort.

Noticeably, Microsoft had acquired LinkedIn in 2016, but it has never interfered or been a part of the company’s working.

In August 2017, LinkedIn had also introduced a native video feature for users, which started functioning as in-feed video ads, last year in the spring. According to LinkedIn, the users are more likely to watch videos rather reading long static sponsored content. The company also revealed that it is already earning 30 per cent more comments over the videos ads.

Companies like Facebook and Twitter are already providing the same feature to their users, and it has been the biggest form for them to grab more user engagement. So it would be interesting to see how the live video streaming feature will change things for LinkedIn.

Fitbit Announces New Trackers for its B2B Venture

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Fitbit is known for its wearable fitness trackers, and now it has come with new gadgets with improved new features, but there is a twist too. The wearables are Fitbit’s first B2B venture, which is specially designed for company employees.

The company has launched those wearables named Fitbit Inspire and Inspire HR, that are capable of tracking sleep, activities, heart rate, calories burnt, etc. The wearables are available as the wristband as well as with a clip.

However, The price of the wearable is yet to be revealed; reportedly, those new Fitbit wearables are the cheapest of all the Fitbit gadgets. Even though the price may be affordable, but those will only be available through the Fitbit Health Solutions partners like health plan providers, employers, and other wellness.

The device will be provided as a subsidy, that an employer can provide its employees to track their health and activities.

The Fitbit inspire is the basic version of the tracker and only provide the features like tracking the activity and deliver phone alerts. Whereas the Inspire Hr can do much more than the Fitbit Inspire, as it is designed to monitor the heart rate, deeper analytics on sleep and GPS, too.

Although many insurers are already subsidizing their employees the Apple Smartwatches, as we see there is a huge price difference, so it can be a good sign for the cheaper Fitbit Inspire and Inspire HR.

Apple Warns the App Developers to Stop Recording User Screens Without Permission

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TechCrunch had reported that many companies having their iOS apps are using the analytics services to record the users’ activities over their iPhone without their knowledge. Upon this Apple has asked the app developers, to disclose the analytic code to the user, or remove the code from their iOS apps, else Apple will remove the apps from Apple Store, itself.

Using the code, these apps capture the users’ data, like their taps, swipes, and even records their full screen, without giving a hint of that to the user. Recording such activities is called Session Replaying. According to App Store’s Review Guidelines, Apple completely prohibits Session Replay feature, without the proper consent of the user.

An Apple spokesperson wrote in an email, “Protecting user privacy is paramount in the Apple ecosystem. Our App Store Review Guidelines require that apps request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity.”

He further added, “We have notified the developers that are in violation of these strict privacy terms and guidelines, and will take immediate action if necessary.”

To capture the users’ activities through the apps, the developers embed code from a third-party company, in this case, those apps used the Glassbox for Session Replaying. Tech Crunch gave a few names that were using Session Replay feature in their apps, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Hotels.com, Air Canada, Hollister, Expedia, and Singapore Airlines.

Those companies are violating Apple’s guidelines as there is no mention of users’ screen recording in their Privacy Policy. Although there has been no confirmation from those companies on capturing the users’ data, Apple has already warned one of those companies to remove the analytics code from their apps. Apple wrote in an email to the developer, “Your app uses analytics software to collect and send user or device data to a third party without the user’s consent. Apps must request explicit user consent and provide a clear visual indication when recording, logging, or otherwise making a record of user activity.”

Apple has also asked the companies, that wants to keep the user experience analytic code embedded in their apps, to include a little red icon on the upper left corner of the iPhone screen, to let people be aware of the apps recording their screen activities.

Upon the whole screen capturing issue, Glassbox has also taken its dig on the matter and has said, “TechCrunch’s piece was interesting but also misleading. Glassbox and its customers are not interested in ‘spying’ on consumers.” The company further said. “Our goals are to improve online customer experiences and to protect consumers from a compliance perspective. Since its inception, Glassbox has helped organizations improve millions of customer experiences by providing tools that record and analyze user activity on websites and apps. This information helps companies better understand how consumers are using their services, and where and why they are struggling. We are strong supporters of user privacy and security. Glassbox provides its customers with the tools to mask every element of personal data. We firmly believe that our customers should have clear policies in place so that consumers are aware that their data is being recorded — just as contact centres inform users that their calls are being recorded.”

The matter clearly is not about Glassbox but is about how the customers’ personal data is being compromised. Apple is serious about the privacy of the data that those apps are capturing, so those app developers must do something in this regard in order to keep their apps running on the iPhone.

Gmail Will Now Block 100 Million More Spam Messages Every Day Using TensorFlow

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Going to the spam folder and deleting the Spam emails in the Gmail inbox is a regular thing for everyone, and it sometimes is quite annoying when you have to check whether any important mail isn’t there in the spam folder and you can’t simply delete all the emails directly.

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Image Source: gadgetryblog.com

Well, Google already has made various AI programs that according to Google are blocking 99.9 per cent spam. But even then we see many Spam emails in our inboxes.

Last week, Google rolled out the Material Theme for Gmail on Android, featuring company’s latest styling and a few other features. Google has just announced that the new Material Theme is also helping Google’s machine learning models TensorFlow, to block 100 million more spam messages, which will be targeting the remainder 0.1 per cent of the spam.

Gmail, at present, is serving over 1 billion-plus user and blocking 100 million spam messages every day may not help much, but it does not seem bad either. As even the company has built robust programs to block those spam messages, few of them slips through the Gmail’s protection.

From many years, the company has been using the rule-based algorithm to control the spam. The rule-based algorithms are set to follow some specifications in order to block the spam messages, leaving loopholes for the spam. Whereas the new machine learning framework will help it identify the spam based on new patterns. The ML framework uses the algorithms that identifies patterns in large datasets and offer personalized spam protections to account for users.

TensorFlow is an open-source machine learning framework, which was developed by Google in 2015. According to Google, integrating TensorFlow into Gmail will also allow it to better personalize spam filters, and besides spam, the framework may also help in preventing phishing, and malware from reaching inboxes.