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Gmail to Hold All Google Inbox Features After its Discontinuation

Google, News, Product, Product Management, Tech News / By
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It has been more than a decade when Gmail was launched as the Google’s primary e-mail platform. In 2014, Google introduced a new e-mail app Inbox, that was developed as an experimental platform for trying new features that could be added to Gmail.

On Wednesday, Google announced that it is going to say Goodbye to the Inbox app and will close it down for further use, in March 2019. The main reason for shutting it down is said to be that Google wants to focus on Gmail as its main e-mail platform. Many features like snoozing e-mails to later, Smart Reply, Nudges, high-priority notifications, were tested and implemented on Google’s Inbox. All of these features are already integrated into Gmail and are working successfully.

The Product Manager, Matthew Izatt said, “We want to take a more focused approach to help us bring the best e-mail experience to everyone. As a result, we’re planning to focus solely on Gmail and say goodbye to ‘Inbox’ at the end of March 2019.”

However, Google’s Inbox could not create much client base, the ones who have already used the Google’s Inbox, are entirely against the closing down of Google’s Inbox. Google has even created an information guide for the Inbox app users for their easy migration to Gmail. Many Inbox app users have tweeted against its shutting down, saying that moving from Google’s Inbox to Gmail would be like going back to the stone age.

Google has given a time period of almost six months for the Inbox users to get comfortable with Gmail. Izzat, through his blog, also said, “All your conversations are already waiting for you in Gmail,” that means the Inbox users do not have to manually shift their e-mails from Google’s Inbox to Gmail. With the new features added to Gmail in the April of this year, Google had already given a hint that there can be a change in its e-mail platforms.

Apple’s Fall Event 2018 : All About the New Launches

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Image Source: osxdaily.com

Apple’s annual event took place yesterday in San Francisco, California. The event was streaming live on the Apple TV and Apple’s event page, broadcast in London, Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo and Sydney.

Apple, in its 2018 event, has announced a range of new iPhones along with its FDA-approved watch, that is capable of reading the heartbeat.

Apple’s new iPhone series includes the iPhone XS having a 5.8-inch OLED display screen, iPhone XS Max with 6.5-inch OLED display screen and iPhone XR with 6.1-inch Liquid Retina display Screen.

The iPhone XS and XS Max has come with a better camera resolution and are embedded with the faster A12 processor implanted in a stainless steel body. The new iPhones will support the eSim feature that will eliminate the need of inserting an extra sim card with the help of an inbuilt sim card.

On the other hand, the iPhone XR is having an aluminium body with a single 12MP wide angle back camera, providing the same depth-of-field effect. The iPhone XR has come with an improved battery with approximately 90 minutes more battery life. The iPhone XR will be available in six different colours black, white, blue, red, yellow, coral.

The price of the iPhone XS, XS Max and XR will start from $899 (Approx. 64,800), $999 (Approx. 72000) and $749 (54000), respectively. All the three phones will be available in a storage range of 64GB, 256GB and 512GB, that will vary the price accordingly. And, finally, the new iPhones are going to have two sim card slot that can help in boosting its sale.

Another product that was introduced at the event is an edge-to-edge screen watch, with a thinner body and a 30% larger screen, an addition to the Apple Watch Series 4. The new Apple 4 series watch is a GPS-only cellular model watch that is redesigned with enhanced software and hardware. The watch is having a faster S4 processor and ECG/EKG monitor. The watch is capable of reading the heartbeat rhythm and can sense if the user has fallen. In such a situation the watch will make a call to the emergency asap.

The preorders for the iPhones as well as the watch will start from 14 September and will be available in the American markets from 21 September, this year.

Apple Announces an Online Portal to Cooperate with the Law Officials

News, Product, Product Management, Tech News / By
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Image Source: marketexclusive.com

Since our lives have been so attached to our smartphones and we have stored almost every personal data in our phones, the data security has become the main concern. Over the past few years, the cyber-crime has also made the law enforcement officials to request the user’s private data from the top tech companies. The tech companies also respond to those queries with a sense of responsibility.

On September 4, Apple wrote a letter to Sheldon Whitehouse, the Democrat from Rhode Island, regarding a web portal that will help the police to request the user data stored in the iCloud. Apple is going to launch the web portal by the end of the year. It will constitute a team of trainers that will train the police about which data to be obtained and how it can be obtained.

Apple said in the letter that last year it answered to 14000 law enforcement requests. Among which 231 requests were regarding the domestic emergency and were addressed within 20 minutes. Until now, the law enforcement officials requested the data through emails to an Apple law enforcement email account.

The online portal will be a more convenient and a centralized hub. It will help the police officials to make and track requests, easily. Apple has created a set of strict guidelines on how and which data can be obtained. Apple has already trained over 1000 law enforcement officials that were trained in its training institutes. Now for further training, Apple is going to develop an online training program. The trainers from Apple will help the officials in the training and the training portals will be available globally.

Twitter is Preparing to Roll Out New Features Presence & Threading

News, Product, Product Management, Tech News / By
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Facebook, Instagram and many other social media platforms have included the status feature to their inbox that shows if the user is currently active or not. Facebook also allows the user to choose between showing its status to its followers or not.

On 1 September 2018, Jack Dorsey the CEO of Twitter also talked about some new features like Presence, to be added to Twitter, through one of his tweets. He wrote, “Playing with some new Twitter features: presence (who else is on Twitter right now?) and threading (easier to read convos)”.

As he has talked about Presence and Threading, it clearly shows that those two features are somewhat similar to the Facebook’s Messenger’s features. With Presence, you will be able to see all the online users and you can easily engage with them. Also, Threading will help you follow or stick to a particular thread of conversation, in an easier way as compared to the current embed and click-through method.

Most of the Twitter users have given positive feedback to the threading feature as they mentioned that with the present thread it is difficult to go through all the tweets using the @reply and is a bit annoying. But, most of the users disliked the Presence feature as showing the other users the online status can be disturbing. Upon which the Twitter’s head of product Sara Haider replied, “would definitely want you to have full control over sharing your presence.”

It means that the user will be able to update its status according to one’s will. According to Dorsey’s tweet, Twitter is only performing the test right now and he has not mentioned the particular date when the new features will roll out on Twitter.

Microsoft Ends its Surface Pro Financing Program

News, Product, Product Management, Tech News / By
Surface Pro
Image Source: azureedge.net

Approximately, a year ago, Microsoft launched a financial program with a payment plan called Klarna Financing, for selling its expensive and pretty Surface Pro Laptops. The program targetted mainly the students and the educators, who wanted to buy an expensive laptop but could not afford it.

The scheme included a 24 months payment program. The buyer could get the laptop on a no interest lease, for that he/she had to pay a particular amount every month till next 24 months. After a successful completion of 24 months, the buyer would own the laptop. Also, the program had offered the buyer to upgrade the laptop with a newer version after 18 months or more, only if the buyer had kept the laptop in good condition. But in case of a failed payment, the buyer had to pay 20% extra.

Now this year, Microsoft has quietly shut down the program and will no longer accept any enrollments for the program. It stated in the FAQ of the company that Microsoft decided to end the program after “much thought and consideration.” It has not given much information about why it is shutting the program down.

The customers who are already registered with the program will continue getting the benefits and will be able to upgrade their laptops to the newer version. Also, for more information, the customers will have to contact the company directly about the Klarna program as Microsoft is also going to shut down the Surface Plus Portal on September 30th of this year.

Lenovo Premium Yoga Laptops & X1 Extreme ThinkPad Unveiled at IFA 2018

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Lenovo Extreme
Image Source: pcmag.com

Many of the tech giants have gathered at the IFA in Berlin and are ready with their new products to be showcased in the event. On Thursday, another tech giant Lenovo unveiled its new X1 Extreme ThinkPad with two other premium Yoga Laptops, C930 and S730.

The latest Lenovo X1 Extreme is embedded with the NVIDIA’s GeForce 1050Ti graphics and will be the first ThinkPad laptop to own it. It has a 15.6 inches 4K high-resolution touch screen with the Dolby Vision support. The laptop is built upon the Intel Core i9 variants with the 8th generation chipsets. The lightweight laptop supports up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM, and up to 2TB of PCIe SSD storage. Also, the laptops claim to have 15 hours of battery life after 100% of charging and the laptop gets charged up to 80% within an hour, thanks to the Rapid Charge technology. For secure login, it has also got the touch and face recognition features. The appearance of the laptop is similar to the older ThinkPad laptops and the chassis is built using carbon fibre, that is capable of absorbing shocks.

Lenovo also announced two more laptops in its Yoga laptops series, the Yoga C930 and S730. The C930 laptop uses the 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor. It holds up to 4 GB of RAM, and 258 GB of SSD storage. The laptop has a foldable 13.3 inches 4K IPS-technology touch screen. It also has a privacy shutter on the webcam and is integrated with a rotating soundbar.

Even being a part of the Yoga series laptop, the S730 is not 360-degree foldable and also does not support a touch feature. The laptop is like a notebook having a slim body with 13.3 inches screen that makes it the look-alike of the Mac AirBook. The laptops support the 8th Generation Intel Core i5 and Core i7 variants, with Intel HD 620 graphics. The laptop holds up to 16GB DDR4 RAM and up to 1 TB PCIe SSD storage.

The laptops will be available in the market during the last 3 months of the year. The price of the X1 Extreme laptop ranges from $1859 ( around Rs. 1,31,900). The Yoga C930 is going to cost $1,399 (around 99,280) and S730 will be available in approximately $999.99 (around Rs. 70,900).