Technology

“Create a password” is a prompt familiar to anyone who’s tried to buy a book from Amazon or register for a Google account. Equally familiar is that red / yellow / green bar that rates the new password’s strength. But when those meters give the go-ahead to passwords like Password1+, their effectiveness is called into question.

New research from Concordia University exposes the weakness of password strength meters, and shows consumers should remain sceptical when the bar turns green in order to create strong passwords.

Google has announced its decision to adopt a standard that would allow both mouse and touch navigation for its Chrome browser.

The move is aimed at addressing poor scrolling performance and general touch support in Chrome on a Windows tablet. However, the change will apply to all versions of Google Chrome, reported The Verge.

The company has said that in order to improve Chrome, it will support Pointer Events, a standard that was first brought in by Microsoft in Internet Explorer.

Facebook has reportedly announced its decision to open its Messenger service to third-party developers, allowing them to add functions of their own.

The move will mark the four-year-old software’s final transformation from a “lightweight” messaging service, born out of Facebook, to a full-fledged “platform” of its own, reported the BBC.

Always have to carry your smartphone charger with you? You can save a lot of battery life by just tinkering with your device’s settings.

Mobile devices have a large number of different adjustable system settings – such as screen brightness and network connectivity – whose energy impact can be significant, finds a new study by the University of Helsinki researchers.

The research by Finnish computer scientists is based on a large dataset that consists of device usage data gathered from over 150,000 smartphones and tablets.

Online social networking Twitter has started testing autoplay videos in their feed in iPhone, iPad Apps.

Twitter has started this as part of a two-pronged test that the company is conducting to see whether people are more likely to watch a video when it starts playing automatically as it does on Facebook, as opposed to the current model requiring a click to play, as it does in YouTube.

Reddit comments from any public subreddit can now be embedded anywhere else online, allowing people to highlight specific comments and conversations.

According to the Verge, embedded comments can give Reddit a bigger presence in online conversations, allowing people to click through an embedded comment and head back to Reddit. This will help Reddit by having new visitors to the site.

Twitter has allowed this for a long time and Facebook started allowing this last year. (ANI)

Facebook has been reportedly planning to find an option to let its users read popular news sites without leaving it.

The social media site has been in talks with various publications including Buzzfeed, National Geographic, and The New York Times, to post their content directly, which would mean the stories won’t appear as links in the News Feed but their content could be shared or liked without leaving Facebook, The Verge reported.

Global smartphone maker Huawei on Tuesday said it has launched two 4G capable smartphones under its brand, Honor, available exclusively on an e-commerce portal and its site.

“We have clocked sales of over 20 million Honor phones in 2014, accounting for a global revenue of about $2.4 billion with a 24 times increase. Honor has been expanding aggressively in global markets, and has successfully launched in 57 global markets within 6 months in 2014, entering the bestselling charts in most of the European countries we launched,” the company’s brand president George Zhao said in a statement.

Instagram has launched a new standalone app that allows users to make collages on Instagram before posting the pictures online.

According to the Verge, Instagram noticed the trend among users wherein they mash several pictures together using third party apps before putting them up on Instagram.

Instagram said that one in five of the 300 million users on Instagram post collages which led the company to introduce the new application.

Instagram has launched a new standalone app that allows users to make collages on Instagram before posting the pictures online.

According to the Verge, Instagram noticed the trend among users wherein they mash several pictures together using third party apps before putting them up on Instagram.

Instagram said that one in five of the 300 million users on Instagram post collages which led the company to introduce the new application.

Condom maker Durex has released a smartphone application Durex Connect that turns off the mobile phones of couples at agreed times ensuring that neither partner could break a promise of a “dedicated, tech free connection”.

According to Stuff.co.in, a research by Britain’s Durham University and Durex earlier said that the best thing couples could do to boost their sex lives was to turn off their mobile phones.

The Durex Connect app is available on Android operating system with a version for iPhones in the wings.

A Myanmar has been enjoying dramatic economic development since its democratization in 2011; therefore the construction of roads and railways, as well as logistics and infrastructures, is urgently required.

In December 2013, a new flyover bridge was constructed at Shwegondaing Junction.

This flyover was designed for the purpose of facilitating heavy traffic congestion in central Yangon.

A new device launched yesterday will help people to keep track of things they would hate to lose.

TrackR Bravo, a Bluetooth-powered device, is priced at 29 dollars and is a bit taller and thicker than a quarter. Users can stick the device on their keys, wallet or on their dog’s collar and track them via map in a corresponding iOS and Android app, reported TechCrunch.

It also comes with adhesive stickers.

Is Twitter work culture discriminatory towards female employees? A former Twitter engineer claims it is!

Tina Huang, who according to her LinkedIn profile worked at Twitter between October 2009 and June 2014, recently filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her ex-employer in California state court.

Huang has alleged that promotion opportunities are denied to women because of arbitrary promotion policies within Twitter that unlawfully favour men.

Only 20% in India have access to the internet at least occasionally while a mere 14% own a smartphone, a new study conducted across 32 emerging and developing nations has found. The study by The Pew Research Center also found that 65% of internet users in India said they use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter while 55% have used the internet to look for or apply for a job.

Food business operators can now access all the latest updates and notifications regarding Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulations plus a self-inspection tool through Food Safety Mobile App.

The application which is being introduced for the first time in India will help food business operators to understand, learn and implement the requirements listed under the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.

Only 20 per cent in India have access to the internet at least occasionally while a mere 14 per cent own a smartphone, a new study conducted across 32 emerging and developing nations has found.

The study by The Pew Research Center also found that 65 per cent of internet users in India said they use social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter while 55 per cent have used the internet to look for or apply for a job.

Across the 32 nations surveyed, a median of 44 per cent use the internet at least occasionally, either through smartphones or other devices.

Samsung Electronics on Monday launched in India its 4G-enabled handsets Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge, which will be available from April 10.

The Samsung Galaxy S6 is priced at Rs.49,900 (32GB), Rs.55,900 (64GB) and Rs.61,900 (128GB), while Galaxy S6 edge is available at a price of Rs.58,900 (32GB), Rs.64,900 (64GB) and Rs.70,900 (128GB).