Line introduces Letter Sealing message encryption feature
As the battle between privacy and security heats up, one instant messaging service has definitively announced which side of the divide it falls on.
Line, which is estimated to have more than 200 million monthly active users, has launched a new end-to-end encryption feature called "Letter Sealing" for use across both smartphone and desktop platforms.
Microsoft's Skype outage apology just isn't good enough for the mobile first, cloud first world
Earlier in the week there was a serious Skype outage. Users around the world found they were unable to connect, unable to communicate, throwing many people into confusion. Yesterday, Microsoft issued an apology -- but it’s simply not good enough.
The new Microsoft, under the direction of Satya Nadella, has been banging the "mobile first, cloud first world" drum, and this means being connected. The company might well be "extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused to our users", but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
Google adds new unfriendly features to Gmail
One person's spam is another's feast, depending on who is giver or receiver. That's one way to read new capabilities coming to Gmail on Android and the web. The first, available starting today on PCs and arriving on Android devices over the next week, lets users block designated email addresses. Google describes "block", but the feature is more of an easy-and-quick filter that dumps unfriendly senders into the spam folder.
For either platform, you click the dropdown options menu to the right of the email address, and block appears as an option. Unsubscribe already is available from personal computers but is new to Android. For example, in the desktop browser, marking listserver messages as spam solicits the user to unsubscribe. The feature also will roll out over the next week to Android.
Skype calls will work in Microsoft Edge without a plugin
Skype has announced that Microsoft’s new web browser, Edge, will soon support Skype voice and video calls without the need for a plugin.
This will work for new versions of both Skype for Web and Skype for Outlook.com, and should be implemented "later this year". Considering that this year has just over three months to go, it’s safe to assume it will come pretty fast.
Don't like Skype? Here are 5 great alternatives
Communication is absolutely vital to businesses and consumers, particularly in the always-on world that we inhabit. Increasingly, it is digital communication tools that enable us to stay connected and Skype is one of the most popular across the globe.
With an estimated 300 million users, Skype has enabled family members to remain in touch, long-distance relationships to endure and businesses to strengthen global ties, but it shouldn’t necessarily be the go-to video messaging app for you. There are a number of alternatives to Skype that offer great features in their own right and we’ve listed five of the best below.
Twitter accused of eavesdropping on Direct Messages
Social network Twitter is facing a potential lawsuit after allegedly spying on users’ Direct Messages, a popular feature where people can talk privately without anyone else seeing.
A court case has been filed in San Francisco by Wilford Raney, in which it accuses Twitter of using algorithms to "surreptitiously" eavesdrop on users.
How to stop Slack from using Action Center notifications in Windows 10
Slack has done an incredible job of taking over the hearts of countless offices and teams around the globe as a means of keeping in touch. It's what we use here at BetaNews, and it has become the go-to service for many other organizations. But while the app is great, it's not without the occasional issue, and a recent update spoiled an otherwise great user experience for some people.
To fit in with Windows 10, Slack's notification system was updated so that message alerts appear in Windows' Action Center rather than as little popups from the taskbar. 'Great!' you might think, but the Action Center is an incredibly inflexible, awkward, and irritatingly inaccessible place to have notifications. Thankfully there is a hidden setting you can use to shun Windows 10-style notifications and get things back to how they used to be!
Messaging slowly replacing phone calls for smartphone users
Smartphones are a great way to communicate with people, but according to some new research, our communication is switching from voice to other means.
Talking over the phone is actually dropping in popularity. The number of people making a phone call once a week went from 96 percent to 75 percent over the past three years, according to research carried out by Ipsos Mori for Deloitte, The Guardian reports.
WhatsApp Web app vCard vulnerability leaves 200 million users at risk
A security researcher at Check Point has discovered a vulnerability in the WhatsApp Web app. The app -- which allows for WhatsApp messages sent to a phone to be viewed on a desktop computer, as well as syncing data -- can be exploited if a malicious user sends a specially-crafted vCard contact to someone.
A problem with WhatsApp's filtering of the contact card means that it could be used to "trick victims into executing arbitrary code on their machines in a new and sophisticated way". What's particularly worrying about this vulnerability is the fact that all an attacker needs is the phone number associated with a WhatsApp account. With an estimated 200 million WhatsApp Web users, there are a lot of potential victims.
Skype 6.0 for Android, iOS unveils intuitive new features and design
Microsoft has rolled out a major refresh of its Skype mobile apps with the release of Skype for iPhone 6.0, Skype for iPad 6.0 and Skype for Android 6.0.
All three apps come with a redesign aimed at making them easier to use as well as improved search tools. iPad users also gain all iPhone features, while Android users also benefit from some platform-specific improvements.
Using social collaboration to deliver better IT visibility
For enterprises to stay on top of their IT and in particular to deal with incidents they need to be able to navigate through high volumes of information and work out what’s important.
In order that operations teams can minimize time lost from searching mixed information sources and spend more time on resolving incidents, ops performance specialist PagerDuty is announcing integration with VMware's Socialcast enterprise social collaboration tool.
Tips to improve your team collaboration and take back the work day
According to a recent survey* of 200 North American business professionals, workers waste nearly two working months per year trying to collaborate, making it harder to complete high quality projects on time and on budget. What are the issues that lead to these inefficiencies? What can employees, teams, and organizations do about it? Here are some answers and tips for teams to work together more effectively.
One issue is the increasingly distributed nature of teams. Indeed, 70 percent of the people surveyed said they participate in projects that require external collaboration with contractors, consultants, agencies, and other outside parties. Also, on average, a third of people collaborate with team members who are geographically dispersed, and nearly 40 percent work across different departments in their company. Trying to communicate across geographies, time zones, and organizational boundaries is a challenge for any team.
Outlook for Apple Watch is the future of Microsoft
Satya Nadella is a man with a formidable challenge. Microsoft CEO's predecessor, Steve Ballmer, squandered the company's mobile fortunes. From smartphone platform leader a decade ago, the software-and-services giant is a category also-ran in 2015. Microsoft has no independent mobile platform future. The war is over. There remains this: Making alliances with old enemies to preserve existing territory, while using the foothold to reach into new frontiers.
Made available August 5th, Outlook for Apple Watch is a very smart move and metaphor for what went wrong on Microsoft mobile platforms and what has to go right to preserve and extend the legacy applications stack. While Windows 10 makes its way to Lumia devices, the future is Android and iOS and how the company supports them with contextually meaningful cloud-connected apps and services.
Siri might be able to transcribe your voicemails in iOS 10
The future is here. Apple is now preparing to launch a voicemail service that will use Siri to transcribe your messages. And since we all know what a pain it is to listen to those voicemails again, you will then receive a message from iCloud of the transcribed voicemail, although this is due in 2016.
Here’s the theory that Apple is using: people like to leave voicemails because it is much easier to leave an oral message as opposed to typing it all out in a text message. But, on the other hand, people don’t like to receive voicemails because it is much easier to read a message, than go through all the voicemails someone has left.
Slack shows off beta Windows Phone app
There is nothing more frustrating about Windows Phone than finding out that one of the services that I have to use on a daily basis does not have an app in Store, nor is there a third-party offering available. The poor developer support is one of the main reasons why I switched to iPhone 6 Plus late last year, after using Windows Phones exclusively for nearly two years straight.
However, in the case of some services, at least there is hope. Slack, the communication tool that we use at BetaNews, does not currently have a Windows Phone client, but the company behind the service is actively working on one, showing off an early build on Twitter.
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