Ramanayake cherishes Tendulkar's wicket in Asia Cup final 22 years ago

Champaka Ramanayake

On his last day in office as Sri Lanka bowling coach, Champaka Ramanayake, said he still cherishes Sachin Tendulkar's wicket he took 22 years ago in Sharjah.

It was the 1995 Asia Cup final and Ramanayake had Tendulkar caught by Sanath Jayasuriya for 41 off 41 deliveries as India chased down Sri Lanka's modest total of 230 with more than eight overs to spare and clinched the title.

Interestingly, that was also his last wicket in one-dayers as he never played for Sri Lanka again after that match.

Ramanayake, a talent hunter and a coaching force behind bowlers like Lasith Malinga, Nuwan Pradeep and Nuwan Kulasekara has decided to move on from Cricket Sri Lanka after a 16-year association.

Ramanayake, former Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling coach, is joining Bangladesh from August as a high performance coach.

"Tendulkar's wicket was my last wicket. I got him with a slower ball. He mistimed his drive that went straight up in the air," Champaka, who played in 18 Tests and 68 ODIs, told mid-day.

"It was very big wicket because Tendulkar was at his peak and it was a tough task to bowl at him and an even tougher task to get him out."

Galle is Ramanayake's home and he has played his entire cricket here. But he was disturbed to see the out-and-out batting pitch for the opening Test of the series.
"The wicket in Galle was very flat. Generally, the Galle wicket assists spinners but this time, they [curators] must have made a flat pitch with a purpose," added Ramanayake.

"Still, Nuwan Pradeep bowled well on that flat pitch against a strong batting line-up," he added.

However, he credited the Indian bowling and said: "India have got some really good fast bowlers. With a little assistance they could have played Bhuvneshwar Kumar as well. Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav swung the ball quite well early in the innings. They got (Hardik) Pandya as the third seamer and I think on a flat wicket like the one in Galle, the Indian fast bowlers did exceedingly well," he said.

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HomePod Firmware Suggests iPhone 8 Split Status Bar, Tap to Wake and No Touch ID Under Display

Firmware for the as-of-yet unreleased HomePod has provided a wealth of information on the speaker itself and the upcoming iPhone 8, thanks to developers like Steven Troughton-Smith who have spent time digging into the code.

Troughton-Smith shared a few new prospective iPhone 8 features and predictions this evening, once again sourced from the HomePod firmware, giving us even more insight into the radically redesigned iPhone Apple plans to release in 2017.

An iPhone glyph discovered yesterday in the HomePod firmware, which is believed to be representative of the iPhone 8 design

First and foremost, Troughton-Smith has seen no indication that there are features related to under-display Touch ID functionality in the iPhone 8, and he does not believe that such a feature will be included in the device.

For what it’s worth… I’ve seen nothing to suggest an ultrasound under-the-display Touch ID here. Looks like not this year. Quash that one

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) August 1, 2017

Initial iPhone 8 rumors suggested Apple was working to put Touch ID under the display as the iPhone 8 features an edge-to-edge design with no Home button, but that may not have panned out due to rumored production difficulties. Current information suggests Apple may instead replace Touch ID with a new facial recognition system, and there are indeed several references to infrared face detection in the firmware.

The iPhone 8 is expected to have an edge-to-edge design with thin bezels at the top and the sides, but there will be a blocked out area for the front-facing camera and the new sensors that will enable facial recognition. According to Troughton-Smith and developer Jeffrey Grossman, there are references to new “split” options for the visual provider system for UIStatusBar, suggesting status bar information like connection strength, battery, Bluetooth, and the time may be displayed on either side of the sensor/camera area, for a streamlined status bar at the top of the device.

Troughton-Smith says the new status bar “seems a lot more complex and powerful in design,” and could even be interactive in some way.

Some interesting related strings (I’m guessing you’ve come across these) http://pic.twitter.com/Go5ZVFlzea

— Jeffrey Grossman (@Jeffrey903) August 1, 2017

Along with details on the split status bar and the lack of references to Touch ID, Troughton-Smith has also found information suggesting the iPhone 8 could potentially support a “tap to wake” feature. Tap to Wake is a feature built into some Windows-based Lumia smartphones, allowing the screen to be activated with a double tap, something Apple could use as an alternative to a Home button for waking up an iPhone.

In regard to the Home button, it appears to be called the “Home Indicator” in the firmware, and according to Troughton-Smith, Apple has “no qualms about hiding it in certain contexts.” Rumors have suggested that while there will be no physical Home button, there could be an on-screen function area that houses a virtual Home button and other controls. Based on what Troughton-Smith says, this virtual area may be able to be hidden for things like full-screen apps and videos.

The virtual home button seems to just be called the ‘home indicator’ — looks like the OS has no qualms about hiding it in certain contexts

— Steve T-S (@stroughtonsmith) August 1, 2017

As a last little tidbit, Troughton-Smith says ARKit and Photos are getting new functionality that goes with the front-facing camera with depth sensing features, such as “ARFaceAnchor.”

There are details about the iPhone 8 within the HomePod firmware because HomePod will run a version of iOS. The firmware that Apple released corresponds to iOS 11.0.2, a future update that will be introduced sometime after iOS 11 launches in the fall alongside new iPhones.

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No surprises in England squad for Fourth test vs South Africa

England's Moeen Ali (C) and teammates watch the final review ahead of victory on the fifth and final day of the third Test match between England and South Africa at The Oval cricket ground in London on July 31, 2017. Pic/AFP

England is keeping a virtually unchanged squad ahead of the fourth cricket Test against South Africa at Old Trafford.

The 13-man squad was announced yesterday after spinner Moeen Ali's late hat trick earned England a 239-run win at The Oval in the third Test.

England, which leads the four-match series 2-1, retains Steven Finn as cover for injured seamer Mark Wood. Finn came in as cover after Wood was ruled out on the eve of the third Test with a sore left heel.

The 29-year-old batsman Dawid Milan may get a second test appearance despite scores of 1 and 10 on debut at The Oval.

The fourth test starts Friday in Manchester.

England: Joe Root (captain), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook, Liam Dawson, Steven Finn, Keaton Jennings, Dawid Malan, Toby Roland-Jones, Ben Stokes, Tom Westley.

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Thiruvananthapuram, Barsapara set for Int'l debut this season

Two new venues, Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Barsapara in Assam are in contention to host international matches during the home season in which India are set to play a record 23 international matches at home between September and December. A decision will be taken by BCCI's Tours and Fixtures Committee in Kolkata tomorrow.

According to a BCCI office-bearer, who can't be officially quoted, India will play five ODIs and three T20 Internationals against Australia from September end to mid of October. The series will be followed by three ODIs and as many T20Is against New Zealand. The series against the Black Caps Kiwis will begin late in October and conclude in the first week of November.

The home season will end in December with three Tests, three ODIs and three T20 Internationals against Sri Lanka. After that Virat Kohli and his men fly down to South Africa. "There are a whopping 23 International matches at home.

Three Tests, 11 ODIs and nine T20 Internationals. Each and every venue in India will be covered. Barsapara in Assam and Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram have got Test status. Both are vying for Test matches. Most of the bigger centres want either a T20 International or ODIs," a BCCI official told PTI today. A Kerala Cricket Association official confirmed the development.

"Since Kochi's Nehru Stadium, which has traditionally hosted ODIs, will be used for he Fifa U-17 World Cup, we are hoping that Greenfields gets its first Test," he said.

Nagpur, which was under suspension may also be in contention to host a Test match.

The traditional centres such as Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru or Mohali will get ODIs or T20 Internationals, which draw capacity crowd. There are possibilities that a couple of centres may get more than a match.

"One can be rest assured that atleast 16-18 venues will be covered during this phase," he concluded.

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‘Prankster’ catfished White House personnel via email

Reince (me) giving @Scaramucci something to think about. He never replied haha http://pic.twitter.com/hutjACmogR

— EMAIL PRANKSTER (@SINON_REBORN) August 1, 2017

He also catfished (ex) White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci multiple times during his brief stint. In an email the day after Reince Priebus resigned as chief of staff, the individual pretended to be Priebus, and apparently got a response from Scaramucci saying “You know what you did. We all do. Even today. But rest assured we were prepared. A Man would apologize.” He also managed to fool Huntsman himself, but was unable to pull one over for long on Arthur Schwartz, a friend of Scaramucci’s, or Eric Trump Jr., who said: “I have sent this to law enforcement who will handle from here.”

The ease with which he was able to communicate with White House personnel remains troubling, however, since, as CNN notes, these kinds of fake emails are a key component to the type of spear phishing attack that hit John Podesta. Within the last day, Wikileaks has posted emails purported to be from the campaign of French president Emanuel Macron, while the White House and State Department email systems have previously been breached.

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Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan looks unrecognisable in new photo

Gurdas Maan

Veteran Punjabi singer Gurdas Maan looks unrecognisable during the shoot of a music video for his upcoming track, which releases on August 7. We had to do a double take seeing him in a turban with a full-grown grey beard.

Directed by son Gurickk Maan, this is the third track of his album, Punjab. The title song was released in February, followed by Makhna in May. Maan wants to spring a surprise on his fans in the video. He's not revealing the third song's title too for now.

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Virat Kohli: Slot for India's opening batsmen is tricky but good

KL Rahul

The last time Virat Kohli came to Colombo after a Galle Test match he was licking his wounds, having presided over a defeat after his team had dominated the game for the vast majority of the Test match. This time around, he has the luxury of being 1-0 up ahead of the second Test, at the Sinhalese Sports Club Grounds, starting on
Thursday.

But, the scoreline is not the only reversal of fortunes that Kohli has to contend with. On India's tour in 2015, the team had to press Cheteshwar Pujara into service as an opener by the final Test, with both Shikhar Dhawan and M Vijay unable to take the field.

Shikhar Dhawan

Rahul back in business?
Now, KL Rahul, who missed the first Test because of a viral fever, is fit to play once more, while the Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund duo have done more than enough to keep their places. Dhawan cracked a pacy 190 in the first innings of the Galle Test while Mukund scored a vital 81 in the second dig, in addition to being a livewire under the helmet, effecting at least two dismissals from nowhere.

It's worth remembering that Mukund was the original member of the squad, while Dhawan was added when Vijay was ruled out at the last moment. It's also important to note that Rahul had six fifties in seven innings in the home series against Australia before picking up a shoulder injury that required surgery and kept him out of the mix for half a year.

Abhinav Mukund

Kohli admitted that the decision would be anything but easy. "Yes, it's a very tricky situation. We've got a fourth guy (Vijay) who's a regular opener for India but is not fit. We've got all four openers firing now. Shikhar was supposed to go to Melbourne, now he's got a 190 in Galle. "Let's see how we decide on these things in the next three days. It's going to be tough, but it's a situation that you'd like to be in any day rather than having guys that are not scoring. I'm happy for both these guys who've done well. Rahul is obviously a champion player as well, so we'll have to eventually take a call on who plays in the next Test and I'm sure the third guy will understand whatever the call is taken by the team."

Virat Kohli

One has to miss out
It is calls such as these that tell you the true mettle of a captain. When all is going well, teams are picking themselves, bowlers doing their job and batsmen piling on the runs, it is easy to turn up for the toss and call heads or tails. But, on the morning of the second Test, or perhaps earlier, Kohli will have to make a decision purely on instinct, after taking inputs from his coaching team and senior players.

All of Rahul, Dhawan and Mukund have very good reasons to believe they should be facing the new ball in the second Test. However, one of these three will necessarily be carrying drinks and watching the action from the dressing room. Just who that will be, comes down to Kohli, and you would not want to be in his shoes at the moment, even if the problem he has is one of plenty.

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Allu Arjun's picture with daughter Arha goes viral

Telugu star Allu Arjun on Monday shared a picture with his daughter Arha, whom he described as the angel of his life, on Twitter and within minutes, the picture went viral with over thousand retweets.

Me And My Little Angel Allu Arha ! #studio pic a boo http://pic.twitter.com/GrQvNwXOzP

— Allu Arjun (@alluarjun) July 31, 2017

"Me and my little angel Allu Arha. Pic a boo," Arjun tweeted along with the picture.

Arjun is married to Sneha Reddy, and the couple also has a son named Ayaan.

While Ayaan is 3-year-old, Arha was born last November.

On the career front, Arjun is gearing up to start shooting for his next Telugu outing, "Naa Peru Surya".

In the film, he plays a military officer and he is currently undergoing a physical makeover to essay the role.

"He has started working closely with a trainer for month-long to achieve the desired body for the role. As a military officer, he is expected to look a certain way and be extremely fit," a source close to Arjun had told IANS.

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IND vs SL: Ravi Shastri adds a different hue to India team's training style

Indian cricket team coach Ravi Shastri, center facing camera, speaks to players before the beginning of the fourth day of the first test cricket match between India and Sri Lanka in Galle, Sri Lanka, Saturday, July 29, 2017. Pic/AP/PTI

After taking charge of the team in his second stint, India coach Ravi Shastri has tweaked team's preparation style and though it's early days, an immediate impact can be noticed.

A key implementation on Shastri's part is how the batsmen are now ever ready to bat in the middle. This has nothing to do with batting order, instead a new practice of warming up before going down to the middle.

It was evident in Galle itself when Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund India's pairing for the first Test reached the ground before the rest of the squad. The mandate for them was to get to the nets and start hitting balls just in case India bat first.

As it turned out, Kohli did win the toss and the amply warmed-up Dhawan smashed 190 off 168 balls in the first innings.

By the time the openers went in, Cheteshwar Pujara had completed this routine, while Virat Kohli was in the nets. It is a different approach to the previous regime, of course, and agreeably welcomed in the team as well.

The underlining aspect of this new thought process from coach Shastri is his belief that the team should exert its number one status on the field.

India were confirmed as the world's number one ranked Test side under Anil Kumble, romping to successive victories over the West Indies, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia.

Shastri has also brought forth a certain differentiation in the team's thinking in the short span of time that he has spent with them thus far. In one of his first conversations with the team, the coach had underlined the `importance of enjoying the game before thinking of anything else.

Apparently, he had asked the players to remember why they had started playing cricket and urged them to 'exhibit this passion on the field'.

Given the short timeframe of comparison, it might be harsh to highlight Kumble's coaching approach as a bit too methodical, if not mechanical. Shastri's first move has been to unshackle the players in his own inimitable way, whilst keeping a tight leash on how things take their course within the dressing room. And there is a keen example of this as well.

For some time now, the Indian team has a standing rule that injured/ill players will be given back their spots in the playing eleven when they make a successful return to the squad after proving their fitness.

Apparently, in February when India were preparing to play Bangladesh, Ajinkya Rahane, returning from injury, was not aware of his standing in the team's plans. It was only after Kohli highlighted in the pre-match press conference that Karun Nair despite his triple ton ¿ would have to make way for the vice-captain, did a clearer picture emerge.

There is much clarity now in keeping with how things shaped up couple years ago. Earlier past week, KL Rahul recovered sufficiently from his illness and joined the team in Galle. He even frolicked with his colleagues on Sunday as the Indian players spent their afternoon at a resort near their team hotel.

Although the team management hasn¿t officially confirmed his return to full fitness, it is expected that he will be part of the playing eleven at the SSC in Colombo when the second Test starts on August 3.

As such, it becomes a problem of plenty. India will once again have three fit and in-form openers to choose from, yet it is an easy guess the name expected to lose out.

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Sachin Tendulkar felicitates historian Babasaheb Purandare on 95th birthday

Sachin Tendulkar felicitates writer, historian, theatre personality and social activist Babasaheb Purandare on the eve of his 95th birthday in Vile Parle. PIC/SHADAB KHAN

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has lauded historian Balwant Moreshwar alias Babasaheb Purandare for his works on Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Purandare, known for his various works including books and a play "Janata Raja" on Shivaji, turned 95 on July 29.

Tendulkar felicitated Purandare, who is a recipient of the prestigious 'Maharashtra Bhushan' award, at a programme organised by Swargandhar and Jeevan Gani in suburban Vile Parle last night.

Addressing the gathering, Tendulkar said, "During childhood, when I was (staying) in Sahitya Sahawas, (my) father used to sit in the hall with his friends...while chatting and having tea, many names came on my ears. Since I was young, I did not take interest and was not a part of those conversations."

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Oval Test: Tricky Moeen Ali takes hat-trick as England beat South Africa

Moeen Ali celebrates with teammates after his hat-trick gives England a big win over South Africa at The Oval yesterday. Pic/Getty Images

Moeen Ali finished the 100th Oval Test with a hat-trick as England surged to a 239-run victory over South Africa for a 2-1 series lead.

Moeen, the third England bowler to take two wickets in two balls in consecutive sessions of this match, succeeded where Ben Stokes and Toby Roland-Jones had failed by counting Morne Morkel as his hat-trick victim.

The off-spinner therefore became the 13th England bowler to take a hat-trick, and the first from any country in this famous venue's 137-year history.

South Africa were all out for 252 early on the fifth afternoon, despite an admirable century from stoic opener Dean Elgar (136) in notional pursuit of a world-record 492, as Moeen finished with four for 45 after having Morkel lbw on DRS to complete England's victory.

The tourists must therefore head north to Old Trafford on Friday, knowing the best they can achieve is to salvage a drawn series after Joe Root's hosts bounced back impressively here from their chastening defeat at Trent Bridge.

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Hardik Pandya: I played my debut Test at Galle in ODI mode

Hardik Pandya

The sense of occasion gets the better of many when it comes to Test debut but an unfazed Hardik Pandya felt as if he was "playing an ODI" during his whirlwind half-century in his maiden outing.

It was Pandya's 50 off 49 balls that enabled India to reach 600 quickly, which gave skipper Virat Kohli an "extra 15 overs" to have a go at the Sri Lankan batsmen in the first Test. Asked about his preparation coming into his first Test, Pandya said: "Even when I was batting, it felt like batting in one-dayers. The scenario was perfect for me. As an international cricketer, you need to be smart as in terms of preparation. While switching formats, there is a switch in mindset but skill sets generally don't change." The fast bowling all-rounder from Vadodara was in conversation with senior teammate Cheteshwar Pujara during a fun interview for 'bcci.tv'
Kohli wants him to do what Ben Stokes does for England, but Pandya's favourite all-rounder is South African legend Jacques Kallis.

"My favourite has always been Jacques Kallis for his amazing record across all formats — scoring those big runs batting at No 3 and also picking all those wickets."

Kallis' total runs across all formats is 25534 (13289 in Tests, 11579 in ODIs and 666 in T20Is) and he has picked 577 wickets (292 in Tests, 273 in ODIs and 12 in T20Is) in all.

When Pujara asked him if he loves the tag of 'Rockstar', Pandya said: "I can't say whether I am rockstar or not but I like experimenting with the colour of my hair, like wearing different clothes. If you call me a rockstar for that, I don't mind."

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HBO Hacked — ‘Game of Thrones’ Scripts & Other Episodes Leaked Online

If you are a die heart fan of ‘Game of Thrones’ series, there’s good news for you, but obviously bad for HBO.

Hackers claim to have stolen 1.5 terabytes of data from HBO, including episodes of HBO shows yet to release online and information on the current season of Game of Thrones.

What’s more? The hackers have already leaked upcoming episodes of the shows “Ballers” and “Room 104” on the Internet.

Additionally, the hackers have also released a script that is reportedly for the upcoming fourth episode of “Game of Thrones” Season 7.

According to Entertainment Weekly, hackers claim to have obtained 1.5 terabytes of data from the entertainment giant and informed several reporters about the hack via anonymous email sent on Sunday.

Though HBO has confirmed the cyber attack on its network and released a statement, the company did not confirm what the hackers have stolen more information, and whether or not upcoming episodes of the widely watched Game Of Thrones have been stolen.

“HBO recently experienced a cyber incident, which resulted in the compromise of proprietary information,” the company confirmed the hack in a statement.

“We immediately began investigating the incident and are working with law enforcement and outside cybersecurity firms. Data protection is a top priority at HBO, and we take seriously our responsibility to protect the data we hold.”

After leaking episodes of “Ballers” and “Room 104” and a script that is believed to be the new episode of “Game of Thrones,” hackers have promised more leaks to be “coming soon.”

The anonymous email sent to the reporters read:

“Hi to all mankind. The greatest leak of cyber space era is happening. What’s its name? Oh, I forget to tell. It’s HBO and Game of Thrones……!!!!!!

You are lucky to be the first pioneers to witness and download the leak. Enjoy it & spread the words. Whoever spreads well, we will have an interview with him.”

If hackers have indeed stolen 1.5 terabytes of data from HBO, it could be the company’s second major cyber attack, after 2015, when the first four episodes of “Game of Thrones Season 5” appeared on the Internet shortly before the season’s premiere.

However, when compared to Sony hack 2014, wherein hackers stole 100 terabytes of data, the amount of data stolen from HBO is nowhere near it.

In an email sent to its employees about the latest breach obtained by EW, HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler said:

“The problem before us is unfortunately all too familiar in the world we now find ourselves a part of. As has been the case with any challenge we have ever faced, I have absolutely no doubt that we will navigate our way through this successfully.”

At this moment, it is still unclear who is behind the hack. We will update the story with the latest information.

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Daydream update starts arriving on Galaxy S8 and S8+ phones

Google’s brand of VR is, at last, beginning to arrive on Samsung devices.

Reports emerged last week that certain Verizon Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices were getting the Daydream update, but today Google confirmed the rollout.

Don’t panic if you don’t see the Daydream app on your device quite yet as the company said that the “update will take time to finish rolling out.”

The Daydream headset and controller are currently on sale for $59 (normally $79) while Samsung’s latest Gear VR retails for $129.

The availability of Daydream support was announced at Google I/O this May. The move brings dueling virtual reality platforms to the latest Galaxy phones, Google Daydream and the Oculus Home platform.

While this likely marks the biggest potential expansion for Google’s Daydream platform, it also signifies a clear loss for Oculus, which collaborated with Samsung on the Gear VR headset and maintains the content store that houses the device’s playable titles. Google’s potential for expansion is boundless as new higher-specced Android phones begin to add support, but Oculus is going to have to rethink some things. On its most recent earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that the company would have 11 different devices on the Daydream platform by the end of the year.

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Facebook buys Ozlo to boost its conversational AI efforts

Facebook has gone ahead and purchased Charles Jolley’s conversational AI startup Ozlo. Jolley, formerly Head of Platform for Android at Facebook, will not be returning to the company. The Ozlo team is expected to join Facebook to work on natural language processing challenges.

Ozlo launched with a consumer-facing app back in October 2016. Jolley told me at the time that the conversational AI space was rapidly consolidating (Samsung had just bought Viv) and he was happy to run a service independent of the major tech giants. With today’s acquisition, Ozlo is no longer independent and the conversational AI space grows just a bit more consolidated.

In March, Ozlo launched a suite of APIs. One of the company’s key differentiators was its knowledge graph — its database of facts about the world necessary for demonstrating any sense of intelligence. Ozlo sold its knowledge layer to developers as a service.

That knowledge layer, in addition to an intent API and converse API, will be wound down in the wake of the acquisition, according to Facebook. The same will be true for the original, readily available, consumer bot.

“1.2 billion people around the world use Messenger to connect with the people and businesses they care about,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. “We’re excited to welcome the Ozlo team as we build compelling experiences within Messenger that are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.”

It’s unclear exactly what the Ozlo team will work on at Facebook. The Ozlo knowledge graph could find a home as a backbone for Facebook M. A number of recent acquisitions by large tech companies have been aimed at increasing the scale of such information repositories. Apple recently purchased Lattice Data to help convert unstructured data into a knowledge graph that can be reasoned across to deliver relevant answers to user questions.

Facebook declined to disclose the size of its purchase of Ozlo. The startup was previously backed by AME Cloud Ventures and Greylock Partners.

Featured Image: Sean Gallup/Getty

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Health: 5 natural ways to reduce menstrual pain

Apply hot water bag is the beat way to get rid of period pain

The first two days of menstruation is probably the most difficult days of the month for a woman. Pain, cramping, weakness, vomiting tendency, mood swing and inability to work at times become intolerable. Girls who face these difficulties generally tend to push themselves to one corner of the room. While some girls do not suffer from period pain and easily glide through the cycle, some really find it hard to cope up with the pain and discomfort. Though several painkillers available in the market help get rid of period pain, but popping pills is not always the solution to this recurring problem. There are a host of natural therapies that help to get rid of the pain. We have listed five such natural remedies that can work wonders during menstruation.

1. Increase water intake: During periods, the body needs adequate water, so increasing water intake is the first mantra towards a pain-less period. Drinking water prevents the formation of blood clots and helps to flush off waste blood and other toxins from the body smoothly. In addition, it improves overall health during that time of the month. Usually, hot water is better during menstruation because it helps to relax cramped muscles and increase blood flow to the skin.

2. Apply hot water bag: This is the easiest way to get rid of period pain. Applying hot water bag quickly lowers the pain and brings in immediate relief. The heat released from the bag helps the contracting muscles of the uterus to relax, which is the real cause of period pain. Now a days, heating pads are also available, which can be used in the same manner like hot water bag to treat cramps. Wear loose clothes while applying the bag as it will give quick result and more relief.

Drink 2-3 cups of tea to get rid of pain and fatigue

3. Drink tea to reduce menstrual cramps: A cup of hot tea is one of the best ways to rid of period pain naturally. While the all time favourite ginger tea is the best medicine to ease the pain, other forms of tea like cardamom tea, cinnamon tea and chamomile teas also work wonders. So, start sipping tea to get relief from cramps. Also, drink tea to get relief from fatigue while menstruating.

4. Chew handful of carom seeds: This is a natural painkiller worth taking ro ease pain. Chew one tablespoon of carom seeds (Ajwain) and drink a cup of warm water along with it to soothe menstrual cramps. Another way to consume carom seeds is soaking a handful of it in a glass of water overnight and drinking it early in the morning. It not only eases pain, but also controls excessive bleeding and cures irregular period.

Tuna is rich in magnesium and therefore helps reduce stomach pain

5. Plan a magnesium rich diet: Having magnesium rich diet helps ease cramps. Magnesium regulates muscle function, a pre-requisite for reducing cramps. Food items like salmon, tuna, sesame seeds, cashews, almonds and chocolate are good to consume during menstruation.

All these therapies can be tried at home easily. The therapies try to reduce overall pain, genearte sleep and help get rid of discomfort. 

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Apple Discounts Beats EP, urBeats, and Beats Pill+ Products

Apple this week launched a new limited time discount on its Beats EP headphones, Beats Pill+ speaker, and urBeats earphones, which are all on sale for approximately $20 to $30 off.

The Beats EP On-Ear Headphones are available for $99, down from the original price of $129.95. All colors are available at the discounted price, including red, white, black, and blue. The Beats EP are Apples most affordable on-ear headphones, coming in at a lower cost than the Solo3 models.

The Beats Pill+ Portable Speaker is available for $199, down from $229.95. All colors are discounted, including white, black, and red.

Both the Beats Pill+ and the Beats EP On-Ear Headphones were discounted by a similar amount in late 2016 and early 2017, but Apple has not recently offered a sale on the urBeats. With the promotion, the earphones are priced at $79 instead of $99.95. All colors available from the Apple Store are included in the sale: silver, gold, space gray, rose gold, black, and ultra violet.

Apple’s prices are a decent deal, but similar and occasionally bigger discounts can often be found from retailers like Amazon and Best Buy during routine sales.

According to the promotion details, Apple’s sale will last from today until August 26, 2017 at 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

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Mithali Raj: It's irritating when phone dies on me

India women's team captain Mithali Raj is know to bludgeon blowers all over the park, but the top batswoman revealed how that she gets stumped by her cell phone battery.

Raj, who led India to the ICC Women's World Cup final in England recently, says her mobile phone battery gets drained whenever she tries to catch up on some video of her innings. "I watch videos of all my matches because I believe there is always room for improvement. So whenever I get time, I watch videos on my phone," the Padma Shri awardee said in a video message posted on Twitter.

"But few overs in, like seven or eight overs later, my phone just gives up on me. It's so irritating. What's the point of having all the technology in the world, if the battery doesn't allow you to use it."

We're not sure if this is a publicity stunt for a new mobile phone brand. If so, it's a good shot!

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NASA puts $14M in funding towards soft robots, flash lidar and other research projects

NASA has announced the latest beneficiaries of its Small Business Technology Transfer program, which solicits and funds small-scale research projects outside the agency but relevant to its interests. Nineteen projects in a variety of fields are being awarded a total of $14.3 million.

Those 19 were selected from an initial pool of 56 announced last year; those “Phase I” companies and institutions were awarded up to $125,000 to pursue their proposals, and would have reported on their progress to NASA later. The surviving 19 “Phase II” projects presumably showed enough promise that they’ll get up to $750,000 to keep going.

You can peruse them all here, but here are the five I found most interesting:

• Mango Materials is making a space-compatible bioreactor for producing methane-based biopolymers. Basically they’re working on a way to feed bacteria methane and make usable plastic come out the other end, within the limitations of microgravity and so on.
• Otherlab — you may remember the company’s cardboard drone — is working on sensors that are as flexible as the soft robotic platform they’ll be part of. Your fingers can tell when and how hard they’re gripping something, so shouldn’t it be the same for our robots?
• Fibertek claims it can reduce the size and increase the efficiency of lidar systems by combining a number of techniques: flash (as opposed to scanning) imaging, 3D printing and “an ultra-compact unstable or near stable ring resonator.” They definitely didn’t make up that last one.
• Applied Research LLC (sounds sketchy) wants to improve the performance of the image processing done onboard landers and rovers. New algorithms would make it faster and easier to get depth-enhanced (or VR) views from the stereo cameras on mastcams. There’s also a lot of talk about multispectral image cubes.
• Speaking of multispectral imagery, Nanohmics claims to have produced a device that accomplishes it without the bulky lenses and filters usually necessary. Its chip-scale sensor is compact, versatile and has no moving parts — perfect for lots of missions, but especially planetary imaging.

These projects and the other 14 will prove themselves (or not) over the next two years, after which they will encounter (predictably) the Post Phase II Initiatives and Opportunities. Think your company or research might be a good match? Check out the STTR/SBIR basics page and get applyin’.

Featured Image: NASA

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Spotify is planning another big podcast push

Podcasts will get their own dedicated tab in the platform’s “browse” section, too, at some point. The company’s investment remains experimental, but it will begin a new campaign to lure in more listeners to its limited podcast offerings. In exchange for promoting certain shows within the Spotify app and on bus ads, the hosts of “Reply All,” “Pod Save America” and “The Bill Simmons Podcast” will promote the streaming service during episodes.

The reasons are mostly financial: Podcast ad revenue is expected to increase 85 percent this year to $220 million. As Bloomberg points out, 15 percent of Americans listen to podcasts weekly, while a quarter listen to at least one a month. Podcasts, as longer-form media than songs, might keep users around for longer sessions (ergo, more ad money) than a three-minute song. Plus, the streaming titan could get non-music content for a lower price, given that royalties to record labels made up an astonishing 75 percent of Spotify’s costs last year.

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LG V20 Receives a Port of WakeBlock to Help Control Wakelocks

WakeBlock is an application that lets you control wakelocks so that your smartphone or tablet stays in a deep sleep mode. There is now an unofficial port of this system modification for the LG V20 thanks to XDA Senior Member Zacharee1. As with the original application, it is considered to be in an early alpha stage with more features coming soon. For this port though, you need to take additional steps outlined in the original post including replacing the /system/framework/services.jar file, adjusting some file permissions and more. Check it out by following the link below!

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Check out this port of WakeBlock in our LG V20 forum

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Spotify Hits 60 Million Paid Subscribers Ahead of Going Public

As it prepares to go public, Spotify has reached 60 million paid subscribers, reports TechCrunch. The 60 million mark comes nearly five months after the company announced its 50 million paid subscriber milestone in March.

When adding in customers who listen to the free ad-supported tier, Spotify has more than 140 million subscribers worldwide. Comparatively, Apple Music now boasts 27 million paying subscribers, a number Apple shared at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.

Since its 2015 debut, Apple Music has been growing steadily by luring customers with exclusive album releases, concerts, and original television programming, but it does not offer a free tier like Spotify. Apple Music subscriptions start at $9.99 per month after a three-month free trial.

Spotify paid subscriptions are also priced at $9.99 per month, and in 2016, Spotify’s revenue grew over 50 percent to $3.3 billion.

In the near future, Spotify plans to go public through a direct listing, forgoing the traditional initial public offering and making existing Spotify shares available to the public. With this method, likened to an elopement instead of a full-on wedding, Spotify avoids the fanfare of an IPO and does not have to hire an underwriter. Spotify is expected to initiate its direct listing in 2018.

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Ring adds three connected Spotlight Cams to its Floodlight Cam lineup

Connected home security device maker Ring has a growing product line – and it’s now three products bigger. Joining the Floodlight Cam the company debuted at CES this year, Ring is now also offering three Spotlight Cam variants, each of which offers a different power source option to work with a variety of potential installation scenarios and locations.

The Spotlight Cam – Wired works as you would expect from its name, by plugging physically into a power outlet via an included 20-foot cable. The Spotlight Cam – Battery includes spots for two 6,000 mAH removable, rechargeable Ring batteries (the same used on the new Ring Doorbell 2) for long-lasting power, with one automatically tapping in when the first is drained, so you can charge the first for continuous use, though only one ships in the box with the unit and you’ll have to get the second separate. The Spotlight Cam – Solar ships with a bundled Ring solar panel to power the unit’s 6,000 mAH battery.

All the cameras feature 1080p HD cameras, 160-degree motion detection and 140-degree fields of view, with two-way audio and live streaming capabilities to your smartphone via the Ring app, along with two powerful LED light strips to illuminate what they spot when motion is detected. Each goes on sale today, July 31, with the wired version at $199 shipping in 7 – 10 days. The battery ($199) and solar ($229) versions are up for pre-order, with shipping beginning later this “fall,” per the company.

Ring’s product roadmap ramp has been impressive, with recent releases including the Floodlight camera and the second generation of their initial Wi-Fi doorbell with a swappable battery design all released already this year. It’s rare to see a hardware startup achieve this kind of product variety this quickly, in fact, so it’ll be interesting to see if Ring can keep up the momentum.

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Hackers Take Over US Voting Machines In Just 90 Minutes

Image Credit: @tjhorner

Today, election hacking is not just about hacking voting machines, rather it now also includes hacking and leaking dirty secrets of the targeted political parties—and there won’t be a perfect example than the last year’s US presidential election.

But, in countries like America, even hacking electronic voting machines is possible—that too, in a matter of minutes.

Several hackers reportedly managed to hack into multiple United States voting machines in a relatively short period—in some cases within minutes, and in other within a few hours—at Def Con cybersecurity conference held in Las Vegas this week.

Citing the concern of people with the integrity and security of American elections, for the first time, Def Con hosted a “Voting Machine Village” event, where tech-savvy attendees tried to hack some systems and help catch vulnerabilities.

Voting Machine Village provided 30 different pieces of voting equipment used in American elections in a room, which included Sequoia AVC Edge, ES&S iVotronic, AccuVote TSX, WinVote, and Diebold Expresspoll 4000 voting machines.

And what’s horrible? The group of attendees reportedly took less than 90 minutes to compromise these voting machines.

Members of the Def Con hacking community managed to take complete control of an e-poll book, an election equipment which is currently in use in dozens of states where voters sign in and receive their ballots.

Other hackers in attendance claimed to have found significant security flaws in the AccuVote TSX, which is currently in use in 19 states, and the Sequoia AVC Edge, used in 13 states.

Another hacker broke into the hardware and firmware of the Diebold TSX voting machine.

Hackers were also able to hack into the WinVote voting machine, which is available on eBay, and have long been removed from use in elections due to its vulnerabilities.

Hackers discovered a remote access vulnerability in WinVote’s operating system, which exposed real election data that was still stored in the machine.

Another hacker hacked into the Express-Pollbook system and exposed the internal data structure via a known OpenSSL vulnerability (CVE-2011-4109), allowing anyone to carry out remote attacks.

“Without question, our voting systems are weak and susceptible. Thanks to the contributors of the hacker community today, we’ve uncovered even more about exactly how,” said Jake Braun, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Chicago, told Reg media.

“The scary thing is we also know that our foreign adversaries — including Russia, North Korea, Iran — possess the capabilities to hack them too, in the process undermining the principles of democracy and threatening our national security.”

Election hacking became a major debate following the 2016 US presidential election, where it was reported that Russian hackers managed to access U.S. voting machines in at least 39 states in the run-up to the election.

However, there is no evidence yet to justify these claims.

Even, Hacking of voting machines is also a major concern in India these days, but the government and election commission has declined to host such event to test the integrity of EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines) used during the country’s General and State Elections.

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Google Chrome Canary and Dev Builds Now Come with Built-In Ad Blocker

Google depends on advertising for its revenue. It is to serve this purpose that the company collects all relevant data across all of its users. Our browsing habits, our shopping-related searches, our weekly schedule — all of these are of interest to Google because they grant an insight into our lives, allowing Google to serve personalized ads that have a higher chance to resonate with viewers.

So earlier this year, when reports emerged that Google was looking to incorporate an ad blocker in Google Chrome  – its main browser that serves millions of Android users – many people were initially surprised. After all, ads are Google’s forte, so blocking them natively seems like a strange idea. However, the reports clarified that even though the ad blocker would be turned on by default, it will only block out those specific types of ads that are deemed too intrusive and that negatively affect a user’s browsing experience.

Google’s ad block plans were scheduled for public appearance in 2018, but it appears that the feature is already under testing. Some users on Google Chrome’s Canary and Dev branches are now seeing a new option within the app’s settings called “Ads”, which is where the user-facing toggle for the ad blocker will reside. The ad blocker is toggled on by default, but you do have the option to turn it off.

This setting focuses squarely on intrusive ads and not all ads (as other ad blockers usually do). The definition of intrusive ads, and the boundaries of said classification, are being decided by the Coalition for Better Ads, which Google participates in. The new standards define what offending ads are by how they hamper the user experience, and Google utilizes these standards to block out intrusive advertisements. Ads that are targeted through the ad blocker include pop-up ads, countdown timers, auto-playing audio and video ads and a few others; and unsurprisingly, Google’s own advertisements will remain largely unaffected.

Implementing a native ad blocker that targets negative ads will actually increase ad revenue for Google. Many ad block users look for ways to filter out terrible and intrusive ads, and using an ad blocker means that other acceptable and non-intrusive advertisements also get caught in the same net. By specifically targeting intrusive ads, Google hopes to decrease the reliance on nondiscriminatory ad blockers, and thus, increase revenue by preventing less intrusive ads to remain unblocked.

What are your thoughts on Google Chrome’s native ad blocker? Will such an implementation replace the use of other ad blockers for you? Let us know in the comments below!

Source: Caschys Blog

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Google opens its Nearby Connections tech to Android developers to enable smarter offline apps

Google announced today the public availability of a developer tool that will allow Android apps to better communicate with nearby devices, even while offline. The company touts a number of potential use cases for this technology – like hotel rooms that sense your entry then set the temperature accordingly and turn on your favorite music, or phones that can merge their address books while in proximity, among other things.

However, the initial implementations of the technology aren’t perhaps quite as magical. Instead, forthcoming apps will use the Nearby Connections API, as the technology is called, for things like offline media sharing or the distribution of urgent weather warnings in low-bandwidth areas, for example.

Google has been developing its Nearby Connections API for some time. The API was first announced in 2015 as a way for mobile devices to be used as second screen controllers for games that are running on your TV.

At this year’s Google I/O developer conference in May, the company announced the API was being refreshed.

(Nearby Connections API discussed above at 24:15 mark)

The technology itself leverages Wi-Fi, Bluetooth LE and Classic Bluetooth under the hood to establish connections with nearby devices, Google explains. Apps using the API can switch between these various radios when it makes sense, or even take advantage of new radios when they become available – without requiring developers write new code to do so.

Apps can take advantage of this technology in a couple of ways.

In one scenario, a centralized device – like the host of an offline game or a teacher’s device in a classroom quiz app – could be connected to other nearby devices. Another implementation could create “mesh networks” for things like offline chat or ad-hoc project groups for real-time collaboration.

Google also today announced some of the apps that will be using the new API.

This includes The Weather Channel, which is using the technology to create on-demand mesh networks in data-deficient areas to spread urgent weather warnings; Hotstar is working on offline media sharing for those times connectivity isn’t available, like on airplanes or subways; and GameInsight will use the API to find nearby players and to run entire games offline.

In addition, Android TV will get a new remote control app that will use Nearby Connections to make the initial setup process easier on end users, as well to enable new second screen experiences.

The API was previously available to early partners, but is now open to all Android developers, and works across all Android devices running Google Play services 11.0 and up.

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Alphabet’s X lab is working on renewable energy storage

Storing the energy produced from renewable sources is a significant challenge, and one that a number of players, including Tesla, are looking to address. Add Alphabet’s X (formerly Google X) to the list of those making an attempt: Its new Malta project is focused on building storage facilities that can support full-scale power grids.

The Malta project, described by Bloomberg, uses cold antifreeze and hot salt to store power, in a system designed to keep power in reserve for longer than lithium-ion batteries, which are what Tesla uses to keep its power using the commercial-scale Powerpack stations that populate installations like its Kauai-based facility.

Malta is another “moonshot” from the ambitious X lab, which also spawned initiatives like the self-driving car project at Google that became Alphabet, as well as Google Glass. It’s also been looking at a few different energy-focused projects, but Malta seems one of the more promising.

Here’s how it works: Two tanks get filled up with salt, and another two are filled with antifreeze (or a similar hydrocarbon liquid), and then the system takes in electricity generated by renewable sources like wind or solar. This is converted into both hot and cold air, which heats up the salt and cools down the antifreeze. Then, the process is reversed, with hot and cold air pushed towards each other and resulting in gusts of wind that move a turbine, generating usable electricity again for the grid.

This kind of thing is needed because renewable generation has typically had trouble dealing with peak and off hours of power consumption. A fuel-based power generation facility can spin up when the grid needs the power on-demand; solar and wind generate when nature makes it possible to do so, and the schedules don’t necessary line up with human use.

Rather than just discarding excess energy, and falling short during off-peak times, storage solutions like Malta and Tesla’s Powerpack allow generation at peak generation times, and distribution at peak consumption times. As governments and utilities globally look to invest more in renewable power generation, storage will be an increasingly valuable commodity.

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Vic Gundotra (Ex-Google VP): If You Care About Great Photography, You Own an iPhone

The name Vic Gundotra if pretty well known within the Android community as he used to lead Google’s mobile division when he worked for them. He’s likely more known for his contributions to services like Google+ though, but his work also touched other areas within the company. He is credited for a lot of the work done to early versions of Google Maps and worked to grow Google I/O, but then decided to resign after 7 years of being with the company.

Mr. Gundotra recently made some comments in a Facebook post on how he feels about the state of photography when it comes to Android and iOS. The post started off innocently with him simply sharing two photos of his children that he took on an iPhone 7+ using Portrait Mode. He was so impressed with the quality of the photos that he specifically praised Apple on the work they’ve done with their computational photography feature (aka Portrait Mode).

Someone replied to this post and agreed that the era of lugging around a huge DSLR camera was indeed over, and said their Galaxy S8 does an even better job. This is where things take a turn as Mr. Gundotra replied less than 10 minutes later to say he would never use an Android phone for photos. Surprising a lot of people, they asked why this was and this gave him time to explain what he meant by the whole comment.

Android is an open source (mostly) operating system that has to be neutral to all parties. This sounds good until you get into the details. Ever wonder why a Samsung phone has a confused and bewildering array of photo-options? Should I use the Samsung Camera? Or the Android Camera? Samsung gallery or Google Photos?

It’s because when Samsung innovates with the underlying hardware (like a better camera) they have to convince Google to allow that innovation to be surfaced to other applications via the appropriate API. That can take YEARS.

Also the greatest innovation isn’t even happening at the hardware level – it’s happening at the computational photography level. (Google was crushing this 5 years ago – they had had “auto awesome” that used AI techniques to automatically remove wrinkles, whiten teeth, add vignetting, etc… but recently Google has fallen back).

Apple doesn’t have all these constraints. They innovate in the underlying hardware, and just simply update the software with their latest innovations (like portrait mode) and ship it.

Bottom line: If you truly care about great photography, you own an iPhone. If you don’t mind being a few years behind, buy an Android.

He claims Android being open source and needing to be neutral to all OEMs is why it is slower to innovate than Apple is with the iPhone. He then claims a Samsung phone has a “confused and bewildering array of photo-options” but doesn’t really go into detail about what he means here other than mentioning a Samsung Camera, Android Camera, Samsung Gallery and Google Photos application. So maybe having too many options available to him is what makes things confusing, though in terms of camera apps Samsung only offers its stock Camera pre-installed.

He does then go on to say that when Samsung innovates with hardware (like putting in a new camera module feature), they are forced to “convince Google” to implement the appropriate API into Android and that can take years. Although, Samsung does create their own APIs for the hardware they use in their devices, so it’s unclear exactly how using an Android device makes you “a few years behind” as Vic Gundotra puts it.

What do you think of Mr. Gundotra’s statements? Do you agree with his assessment? Sound off below!

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Via: The Next Web Source: Facebook

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Chrome ad-blocker shows up in experimental Android browser

Blogger Carsten Knobloch noticed the new feature earlier today, and TechCrunch also got it working. We tried it on a Google Pixel running the beta version of Android O, but the option didn’t show up on our end. A Google spokesperson noted the experimental nature of Canary and said that the ad-blocker was “part of our general approach of running experiments to test possible features that could provide users with the best experience on Chrome.”

As such, there’s zero guarantee that this ad-blocker shows up in more stable Chrome builds. But given the noise around Google’s intention to start blocking more “intrusive” ads, this little test is worth taking note of. Still, it’ll probably be a while before it rolls out in a wide fashion — the WSJ said last month that it likely wouldn’t arrive until 2018 to give sites and advertisers time to make sure their ads weren’t deemed intrusive.

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Apple Shares New ‘Carpool Karaoke’ Trailer Ahead of August 8 Launch

Apple today uploaded a new trailer for its upcoming original television show “Carpool Karaoke: The Series.” The new trailer, set to the song “On the Road Again,” teases several of the celebrities who will appear on the show.

“Carpool Karaoke: The Series,” which Apple purchased in mid-2016, is based on the popular Carpool Karaoke segment from “The Late Late Show with James Corden,” with James Corden, Ben Winston, and Eric Kankowski producing.

Apple’s new television show will feature 16 half-hour episodes featuring celebrity pairs riding in a car as they sing songs together. Each episode will feature a different host, with new content coming out on Thursdays.

Featured celebrities will include Will Smith and James Corden; Miley, Noah, Billy Ray and the entire Cyrus family; Shakira and Trevor Noah; Game of Thrones stars Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams; Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith; John Legend, Alicia Keys and Taraji P. Henson; LeBron James and James Corden; and more.

Apple plans to debut “Carpool Karaoke: The Series” on Tuesday, August 8 in more than 100 countries. It will be limited to Apple Music subscribers.

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Guide Shows You How to Build a Custom ROM with Microsoft Azure

Building a custom ROM can take a long time if you don’t have high-end hardware and it can take even longer if your bandwidth is limited and/or very low speed. Thankfully though, there are a number of cloud computing platforms available and Microsoft Azure is one of the most popular options. So XDA Senior Member Albe96 has put together a detailed step by step guide on how to use a Microsoft Azure server to build your own custom ROM in the cloud. It’ll also give you a general idea of the service in case you have other uses for it too!

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Check out this guide in our Chef Central forum

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Sachin Tendulkar echoes Prime Minister's praise for women's team

Sachin Tendulkar

New Delhi: Iconic cricketer Sachin Tendulkar today echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's praise for the Indian women's cricket team, in which he had asked Mithali Raj and co. not to get bogged down by expectations.

The Prime Minister, in his 'Mann Ki Baat' show yesterday, had said that the Indian women's team, which finished runners-up in the ICC Women's World Cup in England, should banish any thought of not having been successful.

"My thoughts resonate with those of our PM @narendramodi shared on #MannKiBaat regd my fellow Indian women cricketers' exemplary performance," Tendulkar posted on his Twitter handle after the programme.

Modi advised the players not to feel burdened by their World Cup final loss to England as they have the backing of the entire nation.

"I felt happy talking to them, but I had a feeling that they felt burdened by the fact that they could not win the World Cup. This stress, this tension was evident on their faces also," Modi recalled during his 'Mann Ki Baat' address.

"I said, 'Look, this is the age of the media. So expectations get hyped up to such an extent that if corresponding success is not achieved, these turn into despair and even resentment." Modi observed that the country chose to praise the cricketers instead of criticising.

"But it happened for the first time that when our daughters did not succeed in winning the World Cup, the hundred and twenty-five million people took this defeat on their own shoulders, never letting the burden weigh down these daughters of ours.

"Not only this, they lauded them and showered them with high praise for their brilliant performance. I view this as a healthy and pleasant change and I told these daughters that only they were blessed with such good fortune, and hence they should banish any thought of not having been successful. You may not have won the final match but you have won the hearts of 1.25 billion Indians," he had said.

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Samsung’s Industry-First Cat.18 6CA LTE Modem Hits 1.2Gb/s Downlink Speed

When Samsung announced the Exynos 9 Series SoC (with the 8895) earlier this year, the company was proud to talk about its new LTE modem. Like with the announcement we’re seeing today with the Cat.18 modem, their Cat.16 LTE modem used in the Exynos 8895 came with support for 5CA (carrier aggregation). This enabled the chip to theoretically hit a maximum download speeds of 1.0Gbps — if the stars aligned and you were connected to the proper LTE towers.

Today, the company has taken this a step further and announced their new Cat.18 LTE modem and it includes improved carrier aggregation as well. Instead of 5CA like we saw earlier this year, this new chip will support 6CA and come with a 20% increase in download speeds. So again, if everything falls into place properly then this new LTE modem from Samsung should be capable of 1.2Gbps which could let you download an entire HD movie in 10 seconds.

For those unaware, Carrier Aggregation in these LTE modems combines a number of component carriers with different bandwidths. This is what results in the increased upload and download speeds as well as an overall improved network performance. So 5CA allowed for 5 different carrier bandwidths while the new 6CA support increases this to 6. This technology also includes support for 4×4 MIMO (Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output) and higher-order 256 QAM (Quadrature amplitude modulation) in an attempt to maximize the data transfer rate too.

This won’t mean much for those in the United States as wireless carriers here are only aggregating three LTE channels at most (although Sprint did promise four carrier aggregation next year). We’re told that this new Cat.18 LTE modem will go into mass production “by the end of this year.” We aren’t given a date, but it’s safe to assume it will not make its way into a new smartphone until next year.

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Source: Samsung Newsroom

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Three New MIUI 9 Themes Available for Download on the Redmi Note 4

Xiaomi just announced and subsequently launched MIUI 9 this month. It’s been made available as an alpha/beta China ROM for a couple of devices already, and comes with new features as well as some new themes. For those who have the Redmi Note 4 and don’t want to wait for the official update, XDA Member PawanRockz has provided us with the new themes from MIUI 9. This single download includes Color Fantasy, Limitless, and Cool Black. If you are on MIUI 8 and want to check them out, follow the forum link below to preview and download the themes!

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Check out these themes in our Redmi Note 4 forum

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Sachin Tendulkar felicitates historian Babasaheb Purandare

Babasaheb Purandare and Sachin Tendulkar during the felicitation function of great historian on the eve of his 95th birthday. Pic/ Shadab Khan

Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has lauded historian Balwant Moreshwar alias Babasaheb Purandare for his works on Maratha warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Purandare, known for his various works including books and a play "Janata Raja" on Shivaji, turned 95 on July 29.

Tendulkar felicitated Purandare, who is a recipient of the prestigious 'Maharashtra Bhushan' award, at a programme organised by Swargandhar and Jeevan Gani in suburban Vile Parle last night.

Addressing the gathering, Tendulkar said, "During childhood, when I was (staying) in Sahitya Sahawas, (my) father used to sit in the hall with his friends...while chatting and having tea, many names came on my ears. Since I was young, I did not take interest and was not a part of those conversations."

"At that time, in many names and discussions, I first heard the name of Babasaheb, but I did not exactly know what Babasaheb did and why my father used to discuss him, why he spoke highly of him," the right-handed batsman said.

"But when I grew up, I realised that to bring such awareness about the history of Chhatrapati Shivaji, of course we learn in school, some things we know, some we don't. The things which we don't (know), to bring them to the forefront, it does not happen so easily," he said.

"It has come to my knowledge that Babasaheb visited 300 forts, and spent time with those who guarded the forts. To bring the information (to the people) about what their ancestors did after staying with Maharaj (Shivaji), this needs dedication and commitment," he said praising the historian.

The cricketer's father, late Ramesh Tendulkar, was a noted Marathi novelist.

"What can I say about Babasaheb, I am young. But while doing this, he (Purandare) never thought he could spend his time elsewhere. He brought the thoughts of Maharaj (Shivaji) to us and he is still trying to do that," said Tendulkar.

"I remember, in school history started with Shivaji Maharaj and after that my cricket started with Shivaji Park (the ground in Dadar). I have come here to greet him (Purandare) on his birthday and seek his blessings," he said.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray, Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar were, among others, present on the occasion.

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Sick of SoundCloud? Anchor offers podcast transfer with free hosting

SoundCloud is on shaky financial footing, saying it only has enough money to last a few more months unless someone buys or invests in it. That’s sure to cause anxiety in content creators with their life’s work stored on SoundCloud. Now some new startups are nipping at SoundCloud’s heels by focusing on podcasting in ways the music streaming service never did.

Anchor is a fast-rising podcast app that layers community features on top of audio streaming. It lets creators record right from their phone and take talk show-style call-ins, while listeners can join in-app chat rooms to bond with fellow fans, and give digital ‘applause’ at their favorite moments.

But paying to podcast is so passé. Expensive hosting services like SoundCloud can charge $15 per month for unlimited uploads and downloads. So Anchor is looking to capitalize on SoundCloud’s moment of weakness.

Anchor today launches its podcast transition tool that lets anyone port their audio from another service like SoundCloud to Anchor’s free podcast hosting service. All you need to do is stick the RSS feed for your podcasts into Anchor, and it will download and store them all from SoundCloud, LibSyn or any other source. From there you can distribute your podcasts to iTunes, Google Play, and other outlets.

The transition tool is Anchor’s latest bid to grow into a podcasting powerhouse. Launched in 2015, Anchor has raised over $4.4 million from some big investors like Accel, BetaWorks, CrunchFund, HomeBrew, and SV Angel. The 10-person startup wants to take the mystery out of podcasting, as CEO Michael Mignano tells me “Our goal is to make it so you never even have to know anything about an RSS feed.”

For now, Anchor is completely free for everyone, but promises to cut podcasters in when it starts to earn money. “We strongly believe creators should be able to monetize their craft” says Mignano. Anchor may eventually generate revenue by appending ads to episodes, or offering subscriptions to premium podcasts.

Breaker is another top new podcast listening app, while PodBean and Buzzsprout are a few other affordable hosting options. Parking your podcasts on a fledgling startup may still be risky, but perhaps less worrisome than hosting on a damaged late-stage startup in danger of vaporizing if it can’t find money to make payroll.

This month TechCrunch spoke to several SoundCloud employees who pointed to broken business models and poor morale after the startup aggressively hired people up until the last minute when it layed off 40% of its staff. It needs someone to swoop in and invest around $100 million or acquire it to stay afloat.

“We’ve been hearing everything in the news and we obviously wish them the very best” Mignano said diplomatically as he kicks SoundCloud while it’s down. “What I can say is that there is a huge opportunity to make audio more interactive, more social, and more accessible, and we’re super excited to take that on.”

As SoundCloud crawls towards the cliff’s edge, out come the vultures.

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Apktool Receives an Update to 2.2.4, Includes Security Fixes and More

Apktool is s very popular piece of software among some of the more dedicated Android enthusiasts. The software has made headlines time and time again with the most recent being in June when Connor Tumbleson was able to receive sponsorship for the project thanks to Sourcetoad. Today, he has announced a new update which brings its version up to 2.2.4 and comes with some important security patches along with a few slowdown fixes when decoding applications.

In case you’re unaware, Apktool is a piece of software that has been written in Java which mainly allows you to disassemble/reverse engineer 3rd party Android applications. Granted, it also does a lot of other things as well, but most people know it for its reverse engineering capabilities. Mr. Tumbleson has just pushed out a big update over the weekend that is likely to make a lot of people happy with the specific fixes that it comes with.

As mentioned, version 2.2.4 comes with some important security fixes. These issues were disclosed by Chris Shepherd (IBM Security) & Eran Vaknin, Gal Elbaz, Alon Boxiner (Checkpoint), and did so responsibly so that Apktool could be patched before things got out of hand. If you’d like to read into these vulnerabilities in more detail, then you can read more about them here. To summarize, this update patched a XXE Attack (which is more formally known as a XML eXternal Entity Attack) and a XXE OOB Attack (known as the XML eXternal Out-Of-Band Attack) and an Apktool Path Traversal exploit.

There were also some reports of Apktool slowing down when it was used to decode an Android application. There were a number of instances in which this happened and a few of them have been fixed in this update. For those who use Apktool in any public facing environment, then it is highly advised that you update the software immediately. If you’re using it in your own personal environment though then the security patches are less important and you can update it as your own leisure.

Apktool v2.4.4 Changelog

• [#1520] – Android O Final Dev Preview Support
• [#591] – SnakeYAML 1.1.8 (Android Support)
• [#1489] – Fix issue with APKs taking longer than usual to parse resources. (Thanks MarcMil)
• [#1543] – Fix issue with internal binaries not accessible in a Spring boot environment. (Thanks bingqiao)
• [#1520] – Fix issues with rebuilding applications originally built with aapt2.
• [#1532] – Patch aapt to support the $ character in resource filenames.
• [#1561] – Fix issue where apktool was holding locks onto files during execution. (Thanks MarcMil)
• [#1534] – Fix issue with APKs that last resource in pool is INVALID_TYPE_CONFIG.
• [#1564] – Fix issue with APKs that are including malformed characters to break parser.
• Only exit with 0 error code during version commands.
• Enforce license header on all source files.
• [Security] Prevent malicous directory traversal with unknown files.
• [Security] Prevent XXE vulnerability when given a malicious AndroidManifest.xml
• Upgrade to gradle 4.0.

Source: Connor Tumbleson

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WakeBlock Lets You Prevent Wakelocks on the Nexus 6P

Battery life issues that Android owners complain about are almost always caused by an application waking up the phone when it is idle and/or not in use. Google has been working to fix this (with Doze), and will continue doing work in this area with Android O. For now though, XDA Member GioBozza has released a system modification called WakeBlock for the Nexus 6P that lets you control which wakelocks are allowed. We’re told the application is in an alpha state though (so have a recent backup made) and is missing a lot of the options which are currently planned.

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Check out WakeBlock in our Nexus 6P forum

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Tweaks to Increase Performance of a Nexus 6P After Bootloop Fix

We recently featured a couple of guides on how to fix both the Nexus 6P and the Nexus 5X from bootlooping. This was thanks to a boot image XDA Senior Member XCnathan32 put together that disabled some cores to make it work. While it stopped the bootloop issue, it decreased performance, but if you decrease the screen resolution (to 1080p) and disable animations then those slowdowns aren’t as apparent as they were before. Follow the link below in order to learn how you can maximize performance on your fixed device!

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Check out this performance update in our Nexus 6P forum

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Hacker Leaks Data From Mandiant (FireEye) Senior Security Analyst

Reportedly, at least one senior cyber security analyst working with Mandiant, a Virginia-based cybersecurity firm owned by the FireEye, appears to have had its system compromised by hackers, exposing his sensitive information on the Internet.

On Sunday, an anonymous group of hackers posted some sensitive details allegedly belonged to Adi Peretz, a ‎Senior Threat Intelligence Analyst at Mandiant, claiming they have had complete access to the company’s internal networks since 2016.

The recent hack into Mandiant has been dubbed Operation #LeakTheAnalyst.

Further Leaks from Mandiant Might Appear

The hackers have leaked nearly 32 megabytes of data—both personal and professional—belonging to Peretz on Pastebin as proof, which suggests they have more Mandiant data that could be leaked in upcoming days.

“It was fun to be inside a giant company named “Mandiant” we enjoyed watching how they try to protect their clients and how their dumb analysts are trying to reverse engineer malware and stuff,” the Pastebin post reads. 

“This leak was just a glimpse of how deep we breached into Mandiant, we might publish more critical data in the future.”

Hackers dumped a treasure trove of sensitive information, which includes:

• Peretz’s Microsoft account login details
• Peretz’s Contacts
• Screenshots of the Windows Find My Device Geolocator, linked to Peretz’s Surface Pro laptop.
• Client correspondence
• Presentations
• Contents of his email inbox
• Several internal Mandiant and FireEye documents
• Threat intelligence profiles for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF)

Besides leaks, the anonymous hackers also reportedly broke into Peretz’s LinkedIn page and defaced it. His profile has since been deleted from the professional media network.

Although the motives behind the hack are not known at this moment, Mandiant has yet to comment on the incident.

In response to the leak, Mandiant’s parent company, FireEye issued a statement, blaming the employee’s social media accounts for the leak. The statement reads:

We are aware of reports that a Mandiant employee’s social media accounts were compromised. We immediately began investigating this situation, and took steps to limit further exposure. Our investigation continues, but thus far, we have found no evidence FireEye or Mandiant systems were compromised.

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