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Pinduoduo

Why Google suspended China’s Pinduoduo app?

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After malware problems were discovered on versions of the Chinese e-commerce application outside Google’s app store, Google suspended the Play edition of PDD Holdings Inc.’s Pinduoduo app for security reasons, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said in a statement that “Off-Play versions of this app that have been found to contain malware have been enforced on via Google Play Protect,” adding that the Play version of the app has been suspended for security reasons.

Pinduoduo
Image Source: wsj.com

Pinduoduo, a well-known e-commerce app in China, frequently gives users discounts when they purchase several items. Users were advised by Google on Tuesday to remove any Pinduoduo apps that hadn’t been downloaded from the Google Play Store.

Also Read: Trump returns to YouTube and Facebook after a two-year ban

Websites that enable users to download mobile apps without visiting official stores frequently have downloads of Android and even iOS apps available. According to Google’s statement, the enforcement of Google Play Protect has been configured to prevent efforts to install the aforementioned malicious apps.

Users who downloaded malicious copies of the app to their devices are notified and asked to uninstall the app. Pinduoduo was still available for download from Apple’s iOS store on Tuesday, but it was unclear whether there were any comparable security issues with the app for Apple users.

With the help of Google Play Services, Google Play Protect scans Android-based gadgets for possibly harmful apps and works to stop the downloading of malicious apps.

A Pinduoduo spokesperson told Reuters in an email that “Google Play has informed us this morning that Pinduoduo App has been temporarily suspended as the current version is not compliant with Google’s Policy, but has not shared more details.”

According to Pinduoduo, there are a number of additional apps that Google Play has temporarily suspended. He added that there are numerous causes for this.

Pinduoduo, which is primarily used in China, has been suspended amid heightened tensions between the United States and China over Chinese-owned apps like TikTok, which some American lawmakers claim pose a danger to national security.

According to their claims, these applications could be utilized to surveil American users. TikTok is at an impasse as legislators appear nearer than ever to taking the historic step of completely blocking the app.

The U.S. app’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, may be compelled to sell it to another business under duress from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which examines transactions that might have an impact on national security.

The RESTRICT Act, a bipartisan legislation introduced in the Senate this month, empowers the US Commerce Secretary to impose sanctions against foreign technology firms and urges the intelligence community to make risk assessment information publicly available.

Also Read: Amazon to Cut 9,000 More Jobs, Deepening Biggest Pullback Ever

On Tuesday, shares of PDD Holdings decreased 1.8% in premarket trading. The development coincides with U.S. government efforts to strengthen its cyber security measures in response to a constant rise in hacking and other cybercrimes targeting the nation. China and Russia were cited as the two biggest threats to the USA in the government’s newly released cybersecurity strategy.

Trump

Trump returns to YouTube and Facebook after a two-year ban

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The Facebook and YouTube accounts of the previous president of the United States Donald Trump were recovered on Friday after they were disabled just after his followers’ attack on January 6, 2021, on Congress.

Ever since his supporters attacked the US Capitol since Congress was declaring Joe Biden’s triumph in the 2020 election for president, Trump’s YouTube was blocked for breaching its policy against incitement to violence.

Trump
Image Source: investing.com

Trump declared his entrance on the Facebook and Youtube platforms once again by posting “I’m Back” on Friday.

Also Read: New Zealand to ban TikTok on devices linked to parliament

A clip on his page also depicted Trump’s election as president in opposition to Hillary Clinton in 2016. The display then tends to fade toward a ‘Trump 2024’ screen.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Trump could be seen saying in the video.

Source: indiatoday.in

“Starting today, the Donald J. Trump channel is no longer restricted and can upload new content,” YouTube said in a statement.

“We carefully evaluated the continued risk of real-world violence, while balancing the chance for voters to hear equally from major national candidates in the run up to an election.”

Source: france24.com

Republican politicians slammed Trump’s removal from Facebook, whereas a community of congressional Democrats pressured parent company Meta to prolong the ban to maintain threatening and baseless electoral rejection material off from its platform.

In January, both Instagram and Facebook declared that Trump’s accounts would be reinstated with new guardrails.

Trump’s lawyer, Scott Gast, wrote to the corporation, which is centered in the Bay Area of California, asserting this had significantly altered and hindered political discussion.

Following the violent protest, the former president’s Twitter account was also banned and at that time it had 87 million followers, forcing him to interact via his site Truth Social, which seems to have very few than five million followers.

Elon Musk, the new acquirer of Twitter, restored Trump’s account last November, just days ever since Trump declared his second White House bid, although he has yet to tweet on the platform.

Meta’s decision was commended by the American Civil Liberties Union, one that has filed over 400 court actions in opposition to Trump.

Also Read: Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to step down

“Like it or not, President Trump is one of the country’s leading political figures and the public has a strong interest in hearing his speech,” executive director Anthony Romero said in a statement.

“Indeed, some of Trump’s most offensive social media posts ended up being critical evidence in lawsuits filed against him and his administration.”

Source: france24.com
amazon

Amazon to Cut 9,000 More Jobs, Deepening Biggest Pullback Ever

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Amazon.com Inc. is going to lay off an added 9,000 workers, bringing the total number of layoffs to the firm’s all-time high.

CEO Andy Jassy declared the cutbacks privately on Monday, stating that they would take effect in the following weeks and therefore would impact Amazon Web Services, advertising, human resources, and the Twitch live broadcasting service communities.

Amazon
Image Source: news.yahoo.com

“Given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount,” he said in his memo, published later to Amazon’s corporate blog.

Source: news.yahoo.com

Also Read: Twitter Cuts More Engineering, and Product Jobs to Curb Costs

Twitch’s arriving CEO stated in a personal blog article that 400 people would be laid off at the subsidiary based in San Francisco. A spokesperson for Amazon did not provide information on how the remaining layoffs would be distributed.

The e-commerce behemoth has been firing mainly corporate workers ever since a hiring binge during the global epidemic left Amazon with an overabundance of employees.

The company recently completed a round of massive layoffs summing up approximately 18,000 employees. These layoffs began in November and were concentrated primarily on Amazon’s recruitment and human resources workgroups, as well as its vast retail team as well as devices teams.

In New York, Amazon shares dropped 1.3 percent to 97.71 USD. This year, the stock has risen approximately 16 percent.

According to Jassy, the recent layoffs occurred ever since teams finished one other step of the firm’s yearly planning process. He stated that most of Amazon’s enterprises have witnessed tremendous growth in the last few years.

“The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve customers’ lives and Amazon as a whole,” he said.

Source: news.yahoo.com

The layoffs arrive in the week following the announcement that Facebook acquirer Meta Platforms Corporation revealed a further 10,000 layoffs and the closure of around 5,000 extra open positions as part of its second large round of massive layoffs.

Also Read: Meta to end news access for Canadians

Throughout a latest executive discussion, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told staff that the business situation of job cuts as well as restructuring can last some more years.

Google’s parent corporation Alphabet Inc., Dell Technologies Inc., Microsoft Corp., and International Business Machines Corp. have all lowered their workforce. As per a Bloomberg survey, more than 67,000 positions had been lost in the business ever since the start of the calendar year as of early February.

Xbox mobile

We may soon get an Xbox mobile gaming store. Is it a good move?

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Microsoft is preparing to open the Xbox mobile game store early in the following year.

The software behemoth previously disclosed its ambitions for an Xbox mobile store, and now Xbox CEO Phil Spencer claims the store is being built in preparation for corporations like Google and Apple being compelled to make their mobile app stores public.

Xbox mobile
Image Source: windowscentral.com

In a Financial Times interview, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer stated, “We want to be in a position to offer Xbox and content from both us and our third-party partners across any screen where somebody would want to play.

Also Read: Microsoft to Improve Default App Settings in Windows 11?

Today, we can’t do that on mobile devices but we want to build towards a world that we think will be coming where those devices are opened up.”

Microsoft first made mention of a “next-generation store” in the early months of last year, just one month after the organization revealed its intended acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The Xbox mobile store will rest on Activision Blizzard content like Call of Duty: Mobile and Candy Crush Saga, two hugely popular mobile games released by Activision and King, respectively, in order to compete with Apple and Google’s dominance in the mobile gaming store market.

Microsoft is developing an Xbox mobile store, but in order for it to succeed on iOS and Android gadgets, regulators will need to take some action against Google and Apple. Alternative stores are not permitted on Apple’s iPhone and iPad products, and most nations do not support competing payment options either.

Microsoft and Spotify are among the companies hoping that the EU’s Digital Markets Act will compel Apple and Google to alter the way they distribute mobile apps, eventually allowing for the opening of their portals and stores to competition.

Additionally, Microsoft is developing a larger Xbox mobile platform. Developers will also be able to manage their own app stores inside of Microsoft’s Xbox mobile platform thanks to the forthcoming Xbox mobile store.

Microsoft still needs regulatory clearance for its proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard in order for any of this to materialize. Microsoft has lately engaged in combat with the CMA, calling attention to “clear errors” in the regulator’s financial calculations. The Federal Trade Commission and the European Commission are both conducting regulation investigations into Microsoft.

Also Read: Is the PS5 Pro really coming to market in 2024?

The FTC filed a lawsuit to stop the Microsoft deal last year, and it is still in the document discovery phase. An evidentiary hearing is set for August 2nd, despite reports that the EU is likely to approve Microsoft’s deal.

Microsoft’s “next-generation gaming ecosystem,” which might allude to the company’s plans to develop its Xbox mobile gaming store, was the subject of a recent document request from FTC lawyers.

Windows 11

Microsoft to Improve Default App Settings in Windows 11?

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One of the lasting effects of the browser battles of the 1990s has been an excessive focus on how Microsoft manages default app settings in Windows 11, particularly browser settings.

Microsoft’s handling of app defaults in Windows 11 has frequently drawn criticism. In comparison to Windows 10, the latest operating system makes it harder for users to switch from Microsoft’s pre-installed apps to third-party ones.

Windows 11
Image Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

That could soon change, though, as Microsoft intends to make it simpler for users who want to alter the default Windows 11 apps.

Also Read: With GPT-4, are we one step closer to losing our jobs?

Microsoft announced the new feature for Windows 11 users in a blog post, stating that it is “reaffirming our long-standing approach to put people in control of their Windows PC experience.” This feature will allow users to quickly control changes to their app defaults.

Microsoft stated in a blog post,”We want to ensure that people are in control of what gets pinned to their Desktop, their Start menu and their Taskbar as well as to be able to control their default applications such as their default browser through consistent, clear and trustworthy Windows provided system dialogs and settings.”

The tech juggernaut was reacting to the cumbersome app-switching procedure. For instance, if a user wishes to switch from Edge to Chrome as the default browser, they must manually set Chrome as the default for each corresponding file and link type in addition to setting Chrome as the default browser overall.

Later OS updates made switching between browsers a little bit simpler, allowing you to select a default browser with just one button by going to that browser in the Default Apps section of the Settings app. However, compared to Windows 10, the option was still hidden, and it only worked for browsers, limiting image editors and other apps to use the more complicated one-file-type-at-a-time controls.

Microsoft will now give developers of apps “the ability to make their app the default or pin their app to the taskbar” through a “commonly supported way”. Additionally, it stated that its own apps would adhere to the same standard for defaults and pinning in order to prevent favoritism for the applications in its ecosystem.

Also Read: How to set up Discord on PS5 and PS4?

Developers will be given a new Settings deep link URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) so they can direct their customers to the proper default settings. Microsoft will launch an API for app pinning that will let external apps be instantly pinned as the taskbar’s main or secondary tiles. According to Microsoft, these new features will initially be available on the Windows Insider Channel over the following few months.

It is not necessary to use these new features, and app developers who are already handling things distinctly won’t need to alter their apps right away. However, the business claims that later this year, after application developers have had time to implement these new best practices, it will start taking more steps to prevent “unrequested modifications to a user’s choices.”

GPT-4

With GPT-4, are we one step closer to losing our jobs?

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As ChatGPT garners interest on a global scale, the robust model that underpins it, GPT-3.5, is expanding at a remarkable rate. Three months into 2023, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has already surpassed 100 million users, launched an API, and is now publishing GPT-4. GPT-4, known as “OpenAI’s most advanced system,” is accessible on ChatGPT Plus and via a waitlist for its API.

GPT-4
Image Source: wired.me

Greg Brockman, President, and Co-Founder of OpenAI showed the tasks this new model is capable of handling during the Livestream session of GPT-4’s launch. The update improves GPT-4’s capabilities on all levels. In a number of academic and professional exams, GPT-4 currently performs better than humans.

Also Read: Twitch CEO Emmett Shear to step down

GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 both achieved 90th percentile scores on the Uniform Bar Exam, a standardized test taken by attorneys in the US. GPT-4 achieved the 89th percentile in math and 93rd percentile in reading and writing on the SAT, a nationally normed exam for college admissions in the US.

Therefore, the most commonly asked question with a strong model like GPT-4 is if more jobs are going to be replaced. The solution is obvious. The most impacted professions, according to a recent study by Princeton University researchers, are liberal arts teachers, telemarketers, and sociologists.

Because of GPT’s exceptional text-writing skills, media professionals, particularly writers, are becoming increasingly afraid that it will replace them. But keep in mind that GPT is an NLP model and that it predicts the next word based on prior contexts, despite how impressive it may appear.

This means that it can only create output by gathering data and putting together feedback, and cannot produce original ideas (although one could argue that there isn’t any genuine originality).

The ability of GPT-4 to interpret images will continue to dazzle humans if completing tests isn’t impressive enough for AI. GPT-4 will describe every aspect of a meme image to explain why it is funny when asked to do so, much as a nerdy but fascinating friend would.

It can even analyze all the data in a chart and use that to make calculations or analyses. It can analyze it pixel-by-pixel and provide you with the information you need if you ask it to sum up a paper by giving it a screenshot with charts and text.

Also Read: Why Did Silicon Valley Bank Collapse?

Some paid consultants and foreign language instructors might also lose their companies. Morgan Stanley is placing GPT-4 in its content collection and generating responses. While Iceland’s government is collaborating with OpenAI to maintain its language, As tech companies remain to lay off workers and increase their investment in AI, even coders are losing their employment.