YouTube now defaults to HTML5 video

Four years ago, we wrote about YouTube’s early support for the HTML5 <video> tag and how it performed compared to Flash. At the time, there were limitations that held it back from becoming our preferred platform for video delivery. Most critically, HTML5 lacked support for Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) that lets us show you more videos with less buffering.

Over the last four years, we’ve worked with browser vendors and the broader community to close those gaps, and now, YouTube uses HTML5 <video> by default in Chrome, IE 11, Safari 8 and in beta versions of Firefox.

The benefits of HTML5 extend beyond web browsers, and it's now also used in smart TVs and other streaming devices. Here are a few key technologies that have enabled this critical step forward:  

MediaSource Extensions

Adaptive Bitrate (ABR) streaming is critical for providing a quality video experience for viewers - allowing us to quickly and seamlessly adjust resolution and bitrate in the face of changing network conditions. ABR has reduced buffering by more than 50 percent globally and as much as 80 percent on heavily-congested networks. MediaSource Extensions also enable live streaming in game consoles like Xbox and PS4, on devices like Chromecast and in web browsers.

VP9 video codec

HTML5 lets you take advantage of the open VP9 codec, which gives you higher quality video resolution with an average bandwidth reduction of 35 percent. These smaller files allow more people to access 4K and HD at 60FPS -- and videos start 15-80 percent faster. We've already served hundreds of billions of VP9 videos, and you can look for more about VP9 in a future post.

Encrypted Media Extensions and Common Encryption

In the past, the choice of delivery platform (Flash, Silverlight, etc) and content protection technology (Access, PlayReady) were tightly linked, as content protection was deeply integrated into the delivery platform and even the file format. Encrypted Media Extensions separate the work of content protection from delivery, enabling content providers like YouTube to use a single HTML5 video player across a wide range of platforms. Combined with Common Encryption, we can support multiple content protection technologies on different platforms with a single set of assets, making YouTube play faster and smoother.

WebRTC

YouTube enables everyone to share their videos with the world, whether uploading pre-recorded videos or broadcasting live. WebRTC allows us to build on the same technology that enables plugin-free Google Hangouts to provide broadcasting tools from within the browser.

Fullscreen

Using the new fullscreen APIs in HTML5, YouTube is able to provide an immersive fullscreen viewing experience (perfect for those 4K videos), all with standard HTML UI.

Moving to <iframe> embeds

Given the progress we've made with HTML5 <video>, we’re now defaulting to the HTML5 player on the web. We're also deprecating the "old style" of Flash <object> embeds and our Flash API. We encourage all embedders to use the <iframe> API, which can intelligently use whichever technology the client supports.

These advancements have benefitted not just YouTube’s community, but the entire industry. Other content providers like Netflix and Vimeo, as well as companies like Microsoft and Apple have embraced HTML5 and been key contributors to its success. By providing an open standard platform, HTML5 has also enabled new classes of devices like Chromebooks and Chromecast. You can support HTML5 by using the <iframe> API everywhere you embed YouTube videos on the web.

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How to Control DSLR Completely from your Android Device

Today photographic instruments are evolving at a great speed. The need for remote shutters has been present since a long time. And the remote controllers for the camera are really expensive, and also they do not offer much productivity and ease of control. Plus you need to carry them every time, and everywhere you take your camera. now just imagine a scenario, where you could remotely control the Android device using your smartphone. Here is a short post, by which you could control your DSLR camera using your android smartphone, including changing each and every setting and also taking the final shot.

In this post we will be using a app on the Play Store, named as DSLR Controller (BETA). This app has been developed by Chainfire, who is the leading android developer, and working on the Root Access. The SuperSU app was also coded by Chainfire. So the app would be well coded, that is for sure. Now this app lets you control your DSLR camera by making a false interface on your android screen as shown in the image. It also feeds you live footage, so you could also monitor when you need to take the shot, even sitting at a distance from the camera. This app could finds it’s appication in many photographic scenarios like, Long Exposure Shots, taking selfies, taking photos on Bulb Mode, Low Light Photography, making videos, and much more. So if you are looking for a way to control your DSRL Camera using Android Device, this app is for you.

Control DSLR from your Android Device:

So follow the steps below to completely control your DSLR from your Android Device, not only click pictures, but also change every setting on the camera remotely using this method.

• Install this app from the Google Play Store
• Now after you have installed this app on your phone, connect your Android Device with the DSLR camera using a USB cable.
• Launch the app, and you will see an interface, where you could manipulate almost every setting of the camera.And remotely click picture, also the app streams the live feed from the camera, so you could see the setting changes and then when you have your required frame, just click using the android device remotely.

Also for further help, you could see this video by the App developer for further info.

So this was a method by which you could control the DSLR camera using an Android Device. If you face any problems in the midst of the procedure, comment below, and we will try to get back to you soon. Also you could hit the App’s customer support. At the moment the app does not support all the DSLR cameras, so if it does not work with yours, may be the developer would provide the support in the coming time.

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How to Unlock & Bypass a Pattern Lock on an Android Device Without Loosing Data

So you are here because you probably have had set a Pattern lock on your android device, and somehow you forgot the the pattern. So just rather than getting a whole factory reset of your device, we have a very easy and nice tutorial to get your Phone unlocked while not even loosing a single contact out of your Phone.

Pattern lock on an android device provides users a great security which further prevents your smartphone with any accidental taps like theft or misuse. If a user wants to use this security feature on their android device then they have to customize it under the settings option in menu.

It happens that sometimes users forget the pattern of lock of their devices and in panic they start guessing the pattern and finally comes with a problem of locked out. Users and dear users don’t panic so much as to every problem there is a definite solution as well. If you face a locked out then you can bypass the pattern lock.

There is very commonly used method to bypass android pattern lock which you have forgotten but that will for sure make you loose all your data and all your contacts and everything. in other words it will make the phone a device the same as your bought with everything wiped off including all applications. This can be done by going into the recovery mode of any android device. and then select factory reset option. This is not recommended as for 2 reasons, first, It will clear all your data, second, we have a better option left with us !

You don’t know how to bypass the pattern lock. No worries at all. We will help you out and you just need to follow some ADB commands and then you can finally bypass the pattern lock on an android device. Just go through the following guide tutorial very carefully step-by-step so as to bypass the pattern lock.

SOME BASIC STEPS BEFORE YOU BEGIN Unlock & ByPass a Pattern Lock on an Android Device Without Loosing Data

• The very first and important need is the ADB drivers that must be installed in your PC.
• Then it is really important that the USB debugging must be enabled before your device being locked.
• You should be very carefull while installing the drivers of your device. This technique will not work without installing the specific drivers.

Users might feel really annoyed and irritated when they tried the pattern lock several times in panic and unfortunately their android smartphone displayed locked out. Further users cannot access their android smartphone and at last need to bypass the pattern lock.

HOW TO BYPASS THE PATTERN LOCK ON AN ANDROID DEVICE

Just Follow the easy tutorial to Unlock an android’s pattern lock without factory reset after when you have forgotten it. And yes its that easy as it sounds.

• Users need to connect their android device via USB cable to PC.
• You must now open the folder where you installed ADB driver.
• Now you just have to click right on the screen’s blank area along with hold the shift key and select “OPEN COMMAND WINDOW”.

• A window command will prompt and then you just need to type the following:

• Once it has been done then you have to reboot your android device.
• Now it is all done and set.

After following this guide tutorial now you can access your android device as the pattern lock has been completely disabled.

There is another method to reset the lock pattern on and android device using GMAIL. When you face problem of locked out just click on forgot pattern and follow the basic instructions that follow.

If this guide tutorial really helped you out then please share your experiences with us. And if still any problem persists you can ask for our help and we are there to help you out.

That was it now you can easily unlock any of your friends Phone without even letting him know and making use of it for your propose. But ill not recommend this as the so called friend of yours may punch punch back in your face.

So anything not working with the post or anything you are confused with, just let us know in the comment section below or contact us from the top menu.

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Microsoft To Open Source .NET and Take It Cross-Platform

Visual Studio and .NET have been two bedrocks of the Microsoft developer ecosystem for over a decade.  With over 1.8 billion installations of .NET and over 7 million downloads of Visual Studio 2013 in just the last year, Visual Studio and .NET are enabling millions of developers to build some of today’s most important software and services powering businesses, apps and sites.

Today, we are taking the next big step for the Microsoft developer platform, opening up access to .NET and Visual Studio to an even broader set of developers by beginning the process of open-sourcing the full .NET server core stack and introducing a new free and fully-featured edition of Visual Studio.  At the same time, we are releasing previews of the next generation of Visual Studio, .NET and Visual Studio Online.

To summarize some of the key news we are announcing today:

• Over the coming months, we will be open sourcing the full server-side .NET Core stack, from ASP.NET 5 down to the Core Runtime and Framework, and the open source .NET will be expanded to run on Linux and Mac OS X in addition to Windows.
• Visual Studio Community 2013 is a new, free and fully featured edition of Visual Studio, available today, with access to the full Visual Studio extensibility ecosystem and support for targeting any platform, from devices and desktop to web and cloud services.
• A preview of the next generation of our tools is available today with Visual Studio 2015 Preview and .NET 2015 Preview.  Together, these bring industry-leading cross-platform mobile development tools, deep support for cloud development, and great productivity improvements across the breadth of the developer experience. 
• Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 is available now for every Visual Studio 2013 user, including dozens of improvements across the product plus several great new features.
• Visual Studio Online is expanding its DevOps portfolio with the new Visual Studio Online Release Management service and Visual Studio Cloud Deployment Projects.

For in-depth coverage of these announcements and more, tune in to the Connect(); event coverage on Channel 9 either live or on-demand.

With these releases, we are broadly opening up access to our industry leading platform and tools to every developer building any application in today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world.  No matter if you are a startup, a student, a hobbyist, an open source developer or a commercial developer, and no matter the platform you are targeting or the app you are creating, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Online, .NET and Azure will help you be successful.

.NET Open Source and Cross-Platform

Today, we are beginning the work to make the entire .NET Core server stack open source.  Several key components, like ASP.NET and the C# compiler have been open sourced previously, and today, we are releasing several additional components or the Core .NET framework.  Over the next several months, we will be open sourcing the remainder of the .NET Core Runtime and .NET Core Framework.  These projects will be released under the MIT open source license and we are also issuing an explicit patent promise to clarify users patent rights to .NET. 

Developers can begin engaging with the breadth of .NET open source projects today at http://github.com/Microsoft/dotnet. 

As part of the open source .NET project, we will also be expanding .NET to target Linux and Mac OS X in addition to Windows.  This will provide great new opportunities and flexibility for .NET developers, and enable .NET to be used in many new application scenarios.  We are excited to be working closely with the Mono community on this effort, to jointly deliver an open-source, enterprise-ready .NET implementation for the server to Windows, Linux and OS X.  Miguel de Icaza of the Mono project shares our excitement: “This is a new and exciting time for .NET developers. We are going to blend the best technologies from .NET into Mono, and the cross platform capabilities of Mono into .NET, giving C# developers the best of both worlds."

Visual Studio Community 2013

Great apps require great tools, and today we are opening up access to Visual Studio to an even broader set of developers. 

Visual Studio Community 2013 is a new free, fully-featured edition of Visual Studio that lets developers target any platform, from desktop and mobile to web and cloud.  Visual Studio Community 2013 also supports full Visual Studio extensibility, offering access to the ecosystem of over 5000 extensions.

In addition to broad platform support in a unified Visual Studio experience, Visual Studio Community 2013 also includes dozens of great Visual Studio tools, including Peek, Blend, Code Analysis, Graphical Debugging and full C# refactoring.

Support for Visual Studio extensibility means developers gain access to tools for a wide variety of technologies and platforms supported by the rich Visual Studio extensibility ecosystem, including the Visual Studio Gallery.   For example, Visual Studio Community users have access to the excellent Visual Studio Tools for Unity and the open source Node.js Tools for Visual Studio and Web Essentials for Visual Studio.

Opening up access to Visual Studio extensibility to a wider audience also creates great new opportunities for extension authors to build new tools and experiences on top of the Visual Studio platform.  For both open source and commercial extension authors, Visual Studio offers a great developer tools platform.

And most importantly, Visual Studio Community 2013 is free for any non-enterprise application development.

Developers can now use the breadth Microsoft’s tools and services for free with Visual Studio Community 2013 tools for developing applications from mobile and desktop to web and cloud, Azure Free Trial providing hosting for 10 websites + 10 mobile services, and Visual Studio Online offering developer services free for up to 5 users.  You can get started with all three offers today.

Visual Studio 2015 Preview and .NET 2015 Preview

The next generation of Visual Studio and .NET brings substantial improvements in core developer productivity, as well as new support for cross-platform mobile development and cloud-based development.  You can download Visual Studio 2015 and .NET 2015 previews now.

Productivity

The C# and VB code editing experiences get even better in Visual Studio 2015 with built-in integration of the new “Roslyn” .NET compiler platform.  New language features in C# 6 reduce boilerplate and clutter in everyday code, and the new light bulbs in the editor bring proactive refactoring and code fix opportunities to your attention as you are writing or browsing code. 

Visual Studio 2015 continues to improve on core debugging and profiling experiences, with support for breakpoint configuration and PerfTips, both available directly in context in the editor as well as support for debugging lambda expressions.

We’ve also added the Smart Unit Tests feature to Visual Studio 2015.  Based on the Pex technology developed by Microsoft Research, Smart Unit Tests analyses code and automatically generates unit tests to describe its behavior.

Desktop development continues to be important for many Visual Studio and .NET developers.  As part of .NET 2015 we will deliver .NET 4.6, the next update to the desktop .NET framework.  This release will include a few key improvements to the WPF platform, including support for transparent windows and multi-image cursor files.  In addition, Visual Studio 2015 Preview adds new tools for WPF development, including a Visual Diagnostics tool, a Timeline tool, and a re-designed Blend designer experience.  We’ve published a new roadmap for WPF with additional details.

Cloud

Visual Studio 2015 is the most deeply cloud-aware IDE we’ve ever built, from Azure and Visual Studio Online integration, to cloud application development.

.NET 2015 includes ASP.NET 5, a new, lean and composable framework for building web and cloud applications.  ASP.NET 5 is cross-platform and open source, and apps can run side-by-side with different versions of the framework on the same server. 

ASP.NET 5 also brings a new developer experience built upon on-demand compilation, enabling a faster edit-debug cycle, and support for any code editor.  Visual Studio 2015 includes all the familiar ASP.NET MVC tooling experiences for ASP.NET 5. 

Visual Studio 2015 also includes the Add Connected Service dialog, making it easy to discover and consume REST APIs in your applications, including services from both Microsoft and 3rdparties, with support for Azure Mobile Services, Azure Storage, Office 365 and Salesforce today.  In addition, you can also add AD authentication to your web apps using the Azure Active Directory Authentication wizard.

Developers integrating with the rich data and services in Office 365 can build upon the new Office 365 APIs which are generally available now and can get started using the API sandbox or today’s release of new Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio. 

Also available today is the Azure SDK 2.5, with further improvements to cloud diagnostics and remote debugging support for Azure VM and Cloud Services.

Cross-Platform Mobile Development

As developers continue to increase their focus on targeting the mobile device platform spanning iOS, Android and Windows, the need for cross-platform mobile development solutions has never been greater.

On top of great tools for building Universal Windows Applications, Visual Studio 2015 offers the most complete cross-platform mobile application development environment, with great solutions for C#, C++ and HTML/JavaScript development targeting iOS, Android, Windows and more. 

C# and Xamarin

The Xamarin Platform enables developers to build native applications within Visual Studio for every device using the productivity of .NET while leveraging all the power of the device. We continue to partner with Xamarin to enable a great experience for C# and F# developers doing cross-platform mobile development.

Today we are expanding this collaboration in three key ways:

• We are jointly providing a discount to eligible MSDN subscribers for Xamarin Business or Enterprise.
• We are increasing the integration between Visual Studio and Xamarin, with a streamlined experience for installing Xamarin from Visual Studio.
• Xamarin will add Visual Studio support to its free offering Xamarin Starter Edition later this year. This complements the release of Visual Studio Community, opening up .NET cross-platform mobile development to any developer.

C++

C++ continues to be a leading choice for high-performance applications and the richest possible experiences across the industry.  For mobile developers, C++ is a key part of game development and high performance shared code libraries across multiple platforms, an increasingly important component of today’s richest mobile applications.

With Visual Studio 2015, we are delivering a complete tool chain for cross-platform mobile development with C++.  This includes integrated support for the Clang complier and LLVM optimizer for targeting Android now and iOS soon.  You can edit and debug a single set of C++ source code, and build it for iOS, Android and Windows.

Visual Studio 2015 also brings dozens of additional productivity features for C++ developers, including new refactorings, improved “Find in Files” and improved incremental builds.  At the same time, the Visual C++ compiler includes more complete C++ 11 and C++ 14 support.

HTML/JavaScript and Apache Cordova

On mobile devices HTML5 and JavaScript are expanding from rich mobile-optimized web experiences to increasingly being used as part of packaged mobile applications.  Visual Studio 2015 includes built-in support building applications for the open source Apache Cordova platform targeting iOS, Android and Windows. 

The Visual Studio support for Cordova provides tools for authoring, debugging, analyzing, packaging, and deploying Cordova applications, all within the familiar Visual Studio IDE. 

The newest release of the Visual Studio Tools for Cordova includes support for Windows 8.1/Universal apps, iOS debugging from within Visual Studio, and seamless integration with TypeScript, providing a highly productive application authoring experience.

Visual Studio Emulator for Android

As developers target multiple mobile device form factors, great emulators are key to productive development cycles.  As part of Visual Studio 2015, developers now also get access to the Visual Studio Emulator for Android, a high-performance x86-based emulator for the Android platform that supports a variety of productivity features for emulating device inputs like accelerometer, location, and network conditions. 

Visual Studio 2013 Update 4

In parallel with development of Visual Studio 2015, we’ve also been delivering regular updates to Visual Studio 2013.  Today, Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 is available for all Visual Studio 2013 users, including dozens of improvements as well as several new features, including full integration of the Unity Tools for Visual Studio, enabling developers to use the Visual Studio IDE for Unity application development.

DevOps in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Online

The integration of Dev and Ops continues to enable new agility in the end-to-end application development process.  Visual Studio Online, TFS, Azure and Visual Studio are bringing a collection of integrated tools to help organizations embrace DevOps practices.

Cloud Deployment Projects enable environment configuration to be captured as code and managed along with cloud projects and solutions in Visual Studio.  Cloud Deployment Projects is part of the Azure SDK 2.5 tools for Visual Studio which is available today.

Release Management for Visual Studio is now available as a Visual Studio Online service preview. Release Management helps organizations to easily orchestrate deployments of source and configuration artifacts across their dev/test/production pipelines.  This enables teams to release more frequently, with higher confidence.

Summary

Today, we had the opportunity to share our vision for the Microsoft developer platform.  As part of that vision, we aspire to enable every developer and any application to have access to Visual Studio, .NET, Azure and Visual Studio Online. 

No matter whether you are a startup, a student, a hobbyist, an open source developer or a commercial developer, and no matter the platform you are targeting or the app you are creating, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Online, .NET and Azure will enable you to build for the breadth of today’s mobile, desktop, web and cloud platforms.

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Here’s why Google Hangouts isn’t as popular as WhatsApp, WeChat or others

Google owns the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, but hasn’t been able to churn out an instant messaging app that everyone could rely on. If you remember, it tried buying WhatsApp for $10 billion. The deal didn’t materialise and it lost to Facebook who bought the most popular messaging app for a whopping $19 billion.

This has left Google with Hangouts, one of the most popular (rather the only) feature to emerge out Google+. Hangout is now a mix of messaging and calls, and everything in between. However, Hangouts hasn’t taken off that well. It hasn’t managed to woo the innumerous users who use Google services, each day.

Going by the most recent figures, as of January 2015, Whatsapp has 700 million active users. WeChat is inching closer with over 500 million users. Even the newbie Hike instantly managed to get 35 million users by last August and aims at 100 million by the end of 2015. Google hasn’t disclosed how many people specifically use Hangouts each month. Its G+ registered numbers aren’t the best way to gauge the number of users who possibly use Hangouts.

Google tried to bring everything – phone calls, sms, messaging and video conferencing – in one place. But that hasn’t worked. GTalk was suddenly replaced with Hangouts and most people started finding it very confusing.

Hangouts doesnt show who is online in your phone contacts list, and that is yet another drawback.  Users usually prefer to see people from their contacts list rather than their Gmail accounts.

However, that’s the differentiating factor when it comes to other messaging apps, here. There is no association with SIM, something most users are looking for in the age of smartphones.

Well, it doesn’t end here. As a product, rather Google product, it isn’t refined. For instance, even on the Play store, Google Hangouts has a rating of 3.9 equivalent to the not-so popular and comparatively new Facebook Messenger. Most messaging apps have a rating of above 4 – Whatsapp has 4.4, Line app shows 4.2 and Wechat has got 4.3 rating.

The Hangouts interface isn’t mobile friendly. It looks clunky and also appears laggy while chatting.

Late last year, the company announced a new messenger app specifically for SMS and MMS. The app UI was based on the new Material Design. Google hasn’t made any changes to Hangouts. We wonder why users need two Google Messenger apps now.

Interestingly, Google Hangout recently got a new update that pits it against arch rival Skype, especially considering Microsoft now owns Skype. However, with Windows 10, Microsoft has tightened its Skype-integration, something to watch out for Google.

Google Hangout is one of the best tools for group video conferencing and also has some cool features like GIF support and others. However, it appears as if no one has even noticed these features. One of its USPs was how it can be used on multiple devices. However, with WhatsApp for web, it’s no more a novelty feature for Google, rather another reason for the giant to worry.

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Microsoft’s Office 2016 desktop suite coming later this year

MS Office 2016

Microsoft made some big announcements earlier this week at the Windows 10 event, but there wasn’t much talk about its productivity suite.

At the Windows 10 preview, it spoke about the lightweight versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote on tablets and phones running Windows 10. They will also be available to download from the Windows Store for other Windows 10 devices. “But they’re really just lightweight versions of the familiar core Office applications and they won’t have all of the functionality of the traditional desktop versions, points out The Register.

In a blog post, the company later announced that it is also working on full Office suite. Following the usual nomenclature, it will be called Office 2016.

The blog post, written by Julia White, General Manager for the Office Product Management team, says, “We are hard at work on the next release of the Office desktop suite that will be called Office 2016. (Unexpected, I know!) We will have more to share on Office 2016 in the coming months, but this suite will remain the comprehensive Office experience you’re long familiar with, best suited for a PC with keyboard and mouse. We have compelling new experiences coming as part of this Office suite–stay tuned to the Office Blog for more details. We expect to make Office 2016 generally available in the second half of 2015.”

So, she hasn’t really disclosed how it will be different from the previous iteration. However, she does hint that it will be “best suited for a PC with keyboard and mouse.”

There is no word on the pricing for Office 2016. On asking, the company didn’t disclose the price if a user downloads them from the Windows Store, or if the Office 365 subscription would be required for full document editing experience, according to the report by The Register.

“A Microsoft spokesperson did say, however, that commercial and consumer Office 365 subscribers would be able to upgrade to the new Mac version at no additional cost, and that a perpetual-license version of Office for Mac would be available in the same timeframe,” adds the report.

Though there is no word on the exact launch, the new suite is expected to be available in the second half of 2015.

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Apple agrees to China’s security checks on iPhones

Apple Inc.

BEIJING: Apple has agreed to China's demand of carrying out security checks on its products, including iPhone, the country's cyber security regulator has announced. The decision makes Apple the first foreign company to accept its proposal on security checks, Cyberspace Administration of China, said.

The move is significant because other US companies including Google and Facebook have earlier refused to undergo security checks. "These firms have had to leave the Chinese market because of their refusals to comply," State media said.

The checks may include software, including the operating system and Safari web browser embedded in the products, informed sources said. Apple stands the chance of attracting disapproval about some aspects of its products or software, sources said.

Apple's decision comes amid sharp growth in iPhone sales in China, which has overtaken the US to become the largest iPhone market. iPhone holds the third position in the country's smartphone market after Xiaomi and Lenovo.

The cybersecurity regulator recently announced government's plans to enforce a new set of rules aimed at maintaining state security and protecting the public interest.

"We're always pushing the rule, hoping it will be published and become effective as soon as possible," Peng Bo, deputy director of the Cyberspace Administration of China, said.

The regulator said last year that it would launch a security review targeting IT products, services and suppliers preparing to enter the country's market. It said that companies that failed the vetting would not be allowed to sell their products in China.

The government wants to prevent Chinese computer systems from being controlled illegally, disturbed or shut down by problematical IT products and the services of some suppliers, as well as protecting users' privacy, it said.

It is not clear what kind of checks and controls are being sought by the cyber security regulator, and if it would involve significant compromises by Apple.

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Microsoft is working on a smartphone-controlled smart scarf

Adding to the most recent announcements about Windows 10 and the ambitious Hololens, some Microsoft researchers are now known to be working on yet another wearable. Interestingly, the researchers are developing a smart scarf.

According to Geek, the Project Swarm (Sensing Whether Affect Requires Mediation) was shown during a presentation at a conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction at Stanford University last week. “Researchers proposed new ideas for how people could physically interact with technology, and for the graduate student and intern researchers at Microsoft, that meant creating a device that reacts to biometric data like emotions,” adds the report.

The scarf prototype is built of hexagonal modules of felt  and copper taffeta. The scarf can be paired with the smartphone using Bluetooth. They’ve also developed the Swarm app that can be used to command the scarf to vibrate or heat up. The team is also working to add some cooling modules to the scarf.

“While the scarf form factor was chosen to make the technology more discreet, according to Michele Williams, co-author of the paper explaining the project, users can also slip it into a more stylish sleeve. But as appealing as this may sound, right now the smart scarf is mostly for academic purposes,” further adds the report.

The report further says that the team also wants to add a music player to it. However, it is still a prototype and one shouldn’t expect it to hit stores any time soon.

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WhatsApp Web — New WhatsApp Feature Allows You to Chat From Your Browser

The most popular smartphone messaging service WhatsApp is now able to communicate with friends from their PC. No Rumours at all !! Enjoy WhatsApp from your desktop from now on.

Last month, it was leaked that Whatsapp was working on a web client and finally from today they are introducing it to the public. The feature is called "WhatsApp Web," which gives its users the ability to read and send messages directly from their web browsers.

How to use WhatsApp on PC/Desktop

1. Interested WhatsApp users simply need to open Chrome and navigate to http://web.whatsapp.com
2. A QR code will appear on the web page, which must be scanned using WhatsApp mobile application to activate the service.
3. By scanning the QR code that appears, users will automatically have paired their mobile WhatsApp with the WhatsApp web client, as shown. 

WhatsApp Web requires that you install and run the latest Whatsapp version of the Android app on your phone. The feature currently works on Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry, but unfortunately, there's no web solution at this time for iOS users because of limitations of the platform.

"Today, for the first time, millions of you will have the ability to use WhatsApp on your web browser," WhatsApp wrote in a blog post. "Our web client is simply an extension of your phone: The web browser mirrors conversations and messages from your mobile device — this means all of your messages still live on your phone."

The web version supports desktop notifications so users are notified of new WhatsApp messages even when not checking the web page.

Not only this, the Facebook-owned company is also working on a voice calling feature that WhatsApp will soon launch.

Currently, WhatsApp has 700 million users sending 30 billion messages per day, and is bigger than most of its competitors, including Facebook Messenger, Line and WeChat. This new feature will definitely increase its market.

From 20th Jan, 2015, Whatsapp started banning users for 24-hours those using WhatsApp Plus or any other 3rd-Party client App on their smartphones.

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WINDOWS 10: The best hidden features, advantages and potential functionalities

Microsoft’s new OS would be Windows 10 after the giant’s decision to skip intermediate version 9 after Windows 8. The next version that is touted as much smarter and productivity driven has some definite dynamism over 7 and 8!

Some of the front-line features and boasting upgrades of Windows 10 are:

An enterprise centric OS: 

Windows 10 that is the single OS for all the devices (mobiles, tablets, laptops and desktops) has been hailed as having potential of delivering much to the businesses in the form of certain sought after features that range from data security to productivity.

The new OS has fluent compatibility with the enterprise’s management systems including the connected ICT infrastructures of the company. With seamless integration with the allied components and software, the new OS produces a robust platform for the enterprise’s team to operate.

Another major enterprise oriented benefit of the Windows 10 is the safety of enterprise data from being doled out of the ICT infrastructure of the company. This has always been a huge concern of the companies of all kinds and none wants to loose or share their confidential information with rivals. This has been ensured through the effective buffers between the corporate and personal (user) data of the company. Thus the crucial and confidential files remain under cover unless specifically made available.

Customization is yet another business centric feature that allows the companies to use the new smart OS as per their requirements and orientations by employing their selected business apps of choice. This also ensures overall efficiency for the enterprise in the form of high throughput at the nodes and interfaces of the company.

Objective on screen productivity and Multi-Tasking:

The user can launch multiple desktops that open up as mini windows at the bottom and tell about the apps in use in real time. Moreover, the newly introduced ‘Snap Assist’ user interface allows the user to toggle and share app from different desktops on the screen. This enhances the user competence to utilize apps of business relevance in close consonance.

Continuum Feature:

This is a unique feature introduced in Windows 10 that serves to add switching functionality for the user to opt for the input modes of touch or type. Through this feature this new OS has an advantage over the previous Windows 8 thus eliminating confusing touch/type dual orientation. Now user of device can opt for the mode of input and the duality is done away with user’s choice at the touch n type devices.

The active feedback through the Insider Program of Microsoft:

Microsoft has come up with its unique ‘Insider Program’ for receiving active feedback from its users and enthusiasts from around the world. The users are invited as ‘Insiders’ to share their views and concerns about the functionality and features of the new OS and ultimately will be provided a platform with Company’s engineers and interface team to help built an ultimate Windows 10. This is certainly unique and a deviation from the previous versions.

The high functionality Start Menu:

A well toned up and up scaled Start Menu is boasted by Windows 10 and this menu serves to deliver improved functionality to the user as compared to the previous versions. A good deal of user customization has been brought in where the user can resize the tiles of the Menu.

Besides, the search/navigation has been made easy including the web searches that can be directly worked from the Start Menu.

Improved command prompt:

This is a new addition in Windows 10 and is aimed at providing direct functionality to the techie users. Now there is no need to get to the context menu; instead get it done through Ctrl+V.This is a new addition in Windows 10 and is aimed at providing direct functionality to the techie users. Now there is no need to get to the context menu; instead get it done through Ctrl+V.

Home Tab of the Explorer:

The explorer has a Home Tab that has specialized alignments of folders, favorites and recent files (a files’ specialized version of the Windows Vista feature – Recent Places). Now get on to your destination directly and swiftly.

Recycle Bin on your taskbar:

You can customize Recycle Bin on to your taskbar and have the functionally customized as per your needs.

Additionally, this being a technical preview for the enterprises, the full OS is also likely to have features like Cortana and ‘Notification Tray’ which could potentially define the superiority of the new OS Microsoft.

The technical preview has got a good and welcoming response from the critics and users and is likely to be launched by the end of 2015.

Here’s What Windows 10 Looks and Feels Like

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It’s time for Microsoft to open source Internet Explorer

Being the only closed source mainstream browser isn't a good position.

In the world of mainstream Web browsers, Microsoft stands alone. Apple's Safari browser is a closed source shell wrapped around an open source rendering engine, WebKit. Google's Chrome browser is a closed source fork of an open source shell wrapped around an open source rendering engine, Blink. Opera, too, puts its own shell around the Blink engine. Mozilla's Firefox is entirely open source.

But Internet Explorer is closed from end to end. While the same kind of logical separation as is found in Safari and Chrome exists—the Internet Explorer shell is separate from the Trident rendering engine—both components are entirely proprietary.

This puts Internet Explorer at a disadvantage. While the Web community has a multitude of different priorities and agendas, and the different participants frequently do not see eye-to-eye, it nonetheless has a consistent attitude of openness. Web standards are developed in public, and except for Internet Explorer, Web browsers (or at least, the most important parts of browsers, their rendering engines) are likewise developed in public.

This enables open discussion of and experimentation with new features. The public bug trackers that go hand in hand with the open development lets interested third parties monitor the development of features they care about and even provide detailed feedback before the code has been finalized.

And while it's a minority interest, the availability of source enables the community to find bugs and even contribute fixes.

It's time for Microsoft to fit in with the rest of the browser industry and open up Trident.

One might argue that this argument could be made of any software, and that Microsoft should by this logic open source everything. But I think that the browser is special. The community that exists around Web standards does not exist in the same way around, say, desktop software development, or file system drivers, or user interfaces. Development in the open is integral to the Web in an almost unique way.

One could also argue that there is some precedent with Microsoft's decision to open source large parts of .NET. In open sourcing .NET, Microsoft has been able to solicit feedback from the community—including bug fixes—and improved the ability of .NET developers to detect and diagnose problems both in their own code and in the .NET code.

The community targeting the Web has development expertise, and developing Trident in the open would allow them to bring this expertise to bear on the browser's engine, just as it is doing so for .NET.

Opening Trident's development might have further advantages down the line. It's hard to imagine a world where Internet Explorer for OS X is ever a major concern again, but equally, it's not impossible that one day some industrious developers might make Trident work on that platform.

In so doing, they'd make it easier for designers and developers using OS X to test their projects in Trident, without having to use Windows virtual machines or other such heavyweight approaches. It's not going to revolutionize anything, but it could make Trident a little more relevant to a community that otherwise cares little for it.

Although Microsoft has endeavored to be more open about how it's developing its browser, and which features it is prioritizing, that development nonetheless takes place in private. Developing in the open, with a public bug tracker, source code repositories, and public discussion of the browser's future direction is the next logical step.

Speculation is currently rife that with Windows 10, Microsoft will in some ways put Internet Explorer out to pasture. The browser is believed to have a new name, a new shell, new extension capabilities, and a new, streamlined version of Trident, one that has much of its support for legacy Web pages removed.

This represents an ideal time for the company to make this kind of move. With a cleaned up engine representing a new baseline for future development and a range of new developer-oriented extension capabilities, the time is right for Microsoft to stop being the odd one out and open up Trident. Put it on GitHub, track its bugs and development branches in public, make it a peer to WebKit, Blink, and Gecko.

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