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AT&T’s Ready to Launch its Three Tier Streaming SVOD Service

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Video streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime has replaced old traditional television, and now AT&T is also set to launch its new streaming video service by the end of this year, that will feature original movies and television series from Warner Bros., Turner and HBO. The tech giant is ready to transform into an entertainment giant with its new upcoming subscription video-on-demand service and has made some good strategies to achieve that.

at&t
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The streaming service will provide a three-tier subscription, starting with an “entry-level” subscription at the lowest monthly charges, that will accentuate on movies, and the user will get to watch the films from WarnerMedia’s catalogue with this subscription. The second one will endorse the “premium” subscription package, and will include the WarnerMedia TV series and “blockbuster movies”. The third tier is on the expensive side and will provide the user with all the first and second tier subscription services, plus it will offer an access to “extensive library of WarnerMedia and licensed content.”

AT&T had been preparing for the big launch of its video streaming platform, and the news had been confirmed by many of AT&T’s statements in the past. As AT&T has acquired HBO, it will emphasise more on promoting and streaming the content from HBO. Also, soon after its acquisition of TimeWarner, AT&T also established a WarnerMedia entity, to focus on WarnerMedia content specifically.

The tech giant is focused on more consumer engagement, and its goal is to have its share of profits from the consumers who have been spending $150 a month on entertainment and cable services. John Stankey, head of AT&T’s WarnerMedia unit said, “At the end of the day, that engagement is good for all of AT&T’s business.”

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said, “We have some of the world’s best content and 370 million direct-to-consumer relationships across mobility, video, broadband and our digital properties. That exceptional combination enables us to deliver a broad spectrum of entertainment experiences, from premium video to skinnier over-the-top and mobile-centric bundles of live content, and a subscription video-on-demand product to launch late next year. And with Xander, our advertising business, we’re using insights from our customers.”

Alongside AT&T, Disney is also planning to start its standalone streaming service, by the fall next year. And like these two companies, there are many other companies including Walmart that are willing to step into the same business. Netflix and Amazon have already made their separate place in the same, and with the combination streaming service that AT&T is about to start, the consumer will be able to get more discount on such service, which can shift their attention from Netflix and Amazon Prime to AT&T’s streaming network.

Amazon Gets into Blockchain Business; Launches Two New Products

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Last year, Amazon was planning for its debut in the blockchain industry with Amazon Web Services (AWS), but due to some reasons, could not come to any conclusions. But, finally, despite the huge plunge that crypto had faced this year, Amazon has launched two of its new products based on the same technology, at the Amazon’s re:Invent conference, held on Wednesday in Las Vegas.

blockchain
Image Source: medium.com

One of the two blockchain platforms that Amazon introduced is the Amazon Managed Blockchain. The platform is specially built for the blockchain developers. It helps them develop blockchain networks without having to create their own blockchain platform. The platform supports the two popular existing blockchain platforms — Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. Right now, the platform is not available for Ethereum.

“Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service that allows you to set up and manage a scalable blockchain network with just a few clicks,” Amazon said in an announcement.

The other blockchain based product that Amazon announced at the event is the Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), that is a type of log of transactions, which is transparent, stable, and cryptographically verifiable. A central trusted authority will supervise the ledger. The users can replicate a copy of their blockchain activities with the help of this platform.

“Managed Blockchain can replicate an immutable copy of your blockchain network activity into Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), a fully managed ledger database. This allows you to easily analyze the network activity outside the network and gain insights into trends,” company website mentioned.

Amazon’s cloud chief Andy Jassy, took three hours to explain about Amazon’s two products as well as talked about its competitors and their products. “We don’t build things for optics,” he said, “AWS only spends resources on something when they understand the problem. This is something that a lot of companies need,” he added.

The availability terms for most of the services announced at the event are still under the wraps, and most of them are going to be more useful for the IT professionals, rather than the business managers. The blockchain services provided by Amazon are open for signups, and after the verification, the users will be able to create their blockchain networks and add more members to their accounts to simulate a multi-member network.

Apple Updates iCloud to Fix the Compatibility Issues with Windows

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Apple along with Microsoft had been working on the latest version of iCloud for Windows, and have just released the newest version of iCloud for Windows version 7.8.1. The Apple device users, having a Windows machine, had been complaining about the compatibility issues for a long time, for that Apple and Microsoft came together and started working to solve the issues.

The problem was occurring for most of the Windows 10 users when they were trying to install iCloud on it, they were getting an error message over the screen, with the failed installation. Also, the users who already had the software installed on their Windows machine were also facing problems with the Photos syncing and more.

Having received so many complaints regarding the compatibility issues of iCloud with Windows, earlier this month, Microsoft blocked its users from downloading iCloud for Windows. It had also noticed that the users were having a problem in updating the Shared Albums after they upgraded to Windows 10 version 1809.

Microsoft had earlier confirmed that it was working with Apple together, to resolve the issue, but, there has been no mention about the update of the iCloud for Windows from Apple. Yet it has listed some of the requirements for using the iCloud for windows on its support page: “iCloud for Windows 7.8.1 requires Microsoft Windows 7 or later; Outlook 2007 or later or iCloud.com (for Mail, Contacts, Calendar); and Internet Explorer 10 or later, Firefox 30 or later, or Google Chrome 28 or later (for Bookmarks).” The update on the iCloud support page has ensured that the problems that the users were facing earlier, won’t be there anymore, and they can now use the software on Windows machines without any difficulties.

Nasa’s Mars InSight Probe Successfully Arrives at the Red Planet

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Nasa’s Mars InSight probe has successfully landed on the surface of Mars after a long journey of 300m-mile, that is covered in seven months. InSight – short for “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,” is an $830 million robot, that has been sent to Mars to know the planet better.

The robot landed at the quietest place on Mars, Elysium Planitia, a vast, smooth lava plain, also called as “the biggest parking”, shortly before 8 pm GMT on Monday. There were cheers and hugs among the scientists at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California, when the InSight robot sent the signals of its successful arrival on the planet.

insight
Image Source: spaceflightnow.com

“It was intense, and you could feel the emotion,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, on receiving a congratulatory phone call from Vice President Mike Pence. “What an amazing day for NASA,” he added. The robot also sent a picture of itself, soon after a few minutes of its arrival on the surface. Due to the dust, the picture came out to be a bit blurred, but NASA claims that the next pictures will be more clear.

NASA launched the mission on May 5, this year, from the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, unlike the other missions, that were launched from the Cape Canaveral. The robot landed on Mars successfully, after it blasted off its heat shield and fired retro-thrusters to slow its descent when it entered into the thin Martian atmosphere and released a parachute.

The robot will accomplish a two years mission and will be studying more about the core, crust and mantle of the planet. The robot is further focused on researching the climate and the formation of the planed more than 4.6bn years ago. The InSight mission is one of the 40% Mars missions that have been successful in the past. The lander is embedded with a seismometer, that will work as an ear listen to the vibrations on the ground. It is capable of recording a dozen to 100 Marsquakes of magnitude 3.5 or greater, during its two years mission on the planet.

It also consists of a heat probe, that will measure the Mars’ heat rate under the ground. The scientists will also calculate the size of the Mars’ core, with the help of the antenna attached to the robot, that will measure the Mars’ wobbles on its axis. There are a lot more enclosed in the mission that will be revealed in steps after the mission moves further.

Bruce Banerdt, the mission’s lead scientist from JPL, said, “When we look at the crust of Mars, that’s a snapshot into the past, of what the crust of the Earth might have looked like 4.5 billion years ago before it got all busy. It will take about two years to collect the data needed to answer the mission’s “deep questions.” depending on how many quakes Mars has in store.”

Ezetap CEO Abhijit Bose Appointed as the WhatsApp India Head

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WhatsApp is planning to expand its business outside the U.S. and has appointed Abhijit Bose, co-founder and CEO of payment device maker Ezetap, as the head of WhatsApp India, in order to build a bigger team outside California. Facebook-owned WhatsApp confirmed the news on Wednesday and said that Bose will join WhatsApp in early 2019, and will be based in Gurugram. The main operation of Bose will be to constitute a team that will work towards curbing the spread of fake messages.

abhijitbose
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The Indian government had been putting pressure on the company to take some actions against the spreading of fake news in India, through the WhatsApp messaging app. Less than a month ago, the vice-president of WhatsApp, Chris Daniels, and the IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had a meeting, where Danial had discussed regarding the team he had constituted in India, that will start functioning soon against the spread of the fake news. Around two months ago, WhatsApp had also appointed Komal Lahiri as its first Grievance Officer for India.

Matt Idema, the chief operating officer of WhatsApp said, “WhatsApp (the company) is deeply committed to India and is excited to keep building products that help people connect and support India’s fast-growing digital economy. As a successful entrepreneur himself, Abhijit knows what it takes to build meaningful partnerships that can serve businesses across India.” Bose with his team will also help the companies of small to large scale with easy communication with their customers. The company is also focussed on creating and introducing new products for the Indian public.

“WhatsApp is special and can be a major partner for financial inclusion and economic growth in India. It’s not only how so many families stay in touch, but increasingly it’s how businesses are engaging with their customers. WhatsApp can positively impact the lives of hundreds of millions of Indians, allowing them to actively engage and benefit from the new digital economy,” said Bose.

Bose has been responsibly operating a huge business from past seven years, and he knows the technicalities of how to handle a big team. Appointing him as India’s head, WhatsApp has taken the first step to sustain its presence in India, as it was slammed by two notices from the Indian government for not taking any actions against the fake news spreading on WhatsApp. The second notice even stated that if WhatsApp will not put adequate checks in place, the govt will consider the messaging app as the supporter of rumour distribution and legal consequences will follow against the company.

Microsoft Initiates the Password-less Authentication Using FIDO2 Security Keys

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How many times it has happened that you forgot your account password while logging into it, and you have to recreate a new one. Well, the problem is going to vanish for the Microsoft accounts soon, as it is going to introduce the standards-based FIDO2 security key devices to let its users sign into their account without a username and password. Using the FIDO2 WebAuthn and the CTAP2 standards, Microsoft will enable the hardware security keys or Windows Hello support, to authenticate the users, through its Edge browser.

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Image Source: itsagadget.com

The users who are using Windows 10 can start using the new authentication technique, either by using Windows Hello, a biometrics-based authentication platform built into Windows 10, with a FIDO2-compatible device from Yubico or Feitian, an authenticator or with a fingerprint reader.

Vice president of program management at Microsoft Identity Division, Alex Simons, said, “Microsoft is the first company to support password-less authentication using the FIDO2 WebAuthn and CTAP2 specifications, and Microsoft Edge supports the widest array of authenticators compared to other major browsers.”

To use a hardware authentication key, one needs to plug it into the USB port of the system. For logging into a Microsoft account over a phone, one need to use the Bluetooth or NFC wireless communications. The users can also login into the Microsoft apps, on a smartphone, using the Microsoft Authenticator app. The Microsoft platforms that support the FIDO2 security key includes Outlook.com, Office 365, Skype, OneDrive, Cortana, Microsoft Edge, Xbox Live on the PC, Mixer, the Microsoft Store, Bing and the MSN portal site.

Microsoft had already introduced its Authenticator app, for the iOS and Android users and as of now, Microsoft is the only company to provide such security devices to its users. Soon, we can see other companies adopting the same technology as the regular username and passwords have already been vulnerable to the security breaches. It may be a drastic change in the authentication procedure, but adopting the new one can be more beneficial for the security of the important data stored on the web.