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Cross-App Group Chats in FB Messenger and Instagram DM Ever since Facebook introduced the cross-app messaging experience, the company says over 70% of eligible people on Instagram have updated to the new Messenger experience. With today’s update, you can seamlessly start group chats between your Instagram and Messenger contacts. These cross-app chats will also have all the customization features like chat themes and custom reactions. Another improvement to group chats is the addition of group typing indicators....

The upcoming device from Facebook, according to the report, will have messaging features as well as fitness and health-focused modes. The device will be unveiled as part of the social media giant’s hardware line which includes Oculus headsets and Portal devices. Now, although the report says that the watch would be Android-based, there are no mentions of whether it will run on Google’s WearOS or not. Facebook, however, is reportedly developing an in-house operating system for its hardware devices....

Shared by a Twitter user named M. Brandon Lee, the 8-second hands-on video showcases the Pixel 6 Pro’s design and gives us a 360-degree view of the device. You can check out the tweet along with the video right below. I think this may be the first hands on video leak of a Google Pixel 6 Pro. FYI: The logo would indicate that this is likely an early production test unit, so that means there may be some differences between what you see here and the actual production device....

Apple Through-Display Wireless Charging Patent A patent filed at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) by Apple describes a new wireless charging system for iPhones that could allow users to wirelessly charge their accessories like the Apple Watch or AirPods through the device’s display. Titled “Through-Display Wireless Charging”, the patent was filed back in March 2021 and was published late last year. It suggests turning the iPhone screen into a wireless charging surface for accessories....

According to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal (paywalled), Apple has partnered with two organizations to develop mental health monitoring features for its upcoming iPhones. The company is reportedly working with the University of California, Los Angeles, on a project, codenamed Seabreeze, to develop depression and anxiety tracking features. On the other hand, Apple has also partnered with a pharma company called Biogen to work on a project called Pi to focus on cognitive decline tracking features....

The patent “Deployable Feet for Display Articulation and Thermals Performance” was recently spotted by Patently Apple. It was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and hints at a new deployable feature for future MacBooks. It will allow the device to rise up a bit from a flat surface to improve thermal performance. Now, one of the major issues with portable notebooks such as a MacBook Pro, for example, is heating....

Major companies, including Lenovo, Meta, Twitter, Google, T-Mobile, and Intel, have backed out of the in-person event and announced to participate in CES 2022 virtually. Amongst others, Lenovo took to Twitter to announce that it would suspend all on-site activities at CES 2022 due to the COVID situation. However, in a follow-up tweet, the company confirmed that it would launch its latest products as scheduled on January 4th and 5th....

Google Assistant Driving Mode Expands Outside the US According to Google’s support post spotted first by 9to5Google, the Google Assistant driving mode is now available to Android users in English in Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, India, and Singapore. Google points out that you’ll need an Android phone with at least 4GB of RAM running Android Pie or higher to use the feature. Image: Google For the uninitiated, Assistant-powered driving mode brings convenient features such as the ability to use your voice to send and receive calls and texts....

YouTube is rolling out what it calls an ‘early beta’ of the new service in India, with plans to eventually make it available globally. Shorts will be initially available within the regular YouTube app on Android, but the company says it will also be available on iOS soon. The service offers a ‘multi-camera segment’ that enables creators to shoot different videos and stitch them together using a set of built-in editing tools....

Convert Child-Like Paintings Into 3D Masterpieces Dubbed as the Chimera Painter, it is a nifty tool that can convert a rough digital-painting of a creature into a realistic 3D model with amazing textures and details. All the creators have to do is paint a creature and label its body parts for the tool to recognize them. Now, to develop the tool, the creators trained the machine learning (ML) model on pictures of existing animals and their body parts....

Spotted by 9to5Google in an APK teardown, Google’s latest redesign appears to be limited to the Settings page itself, and seems to be trying to simplify the absolutely bonkers number of settings and toggles the app throws in your face when you head into settings. With the new design, the settings page within the Play Store looks more manageable. Settings are now collapsed under categories such as “General”, “User Controls”, and “About” along with a handy chevron marker on the side to let users know that they can expand the list....

The developers have not shared an exact launch date in the blog post. We do not know the exact month or day Halo Infinite will become available to play. The fall 2021 launch window means it can arrive anytime between September and December next year. This means the game will be delayed for almost a year. Halo Infinite was initially set to make its debut alongside the powerful next-gen Xbox Series X and Series S consoles back in November....

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HarmonyOS 2.0 Beta: Just an Android Fork? The report highlights how difficult it was to pass the two-day background check for getting access to the emulator. The process involved giving Huawei personal details including name, address, email, phone number, and pictures of ID (driver’s license or passport), and a photo of a credit card. After all this hassle, you still won’t be able to run the emulator in your development machine....

As reported by PTI, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has written to WhatsApp CEO Will Cathcart. It stated that the privacy of Indian netizens should be respected. And well, these unilateral policy changes are “not fair and acceptable,” said the government. Further, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told PTI (via Deccan Herald) that the center is looking into the privacy issue with WhatsApp. “Be it WhatsApp, be it Facebook, or be it any digital platform....

The Bengaluru-based company made the announcement in a recent event, where Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Vaani Kapoor were present alongside the company executives. Following the launch, Salman Khan took to Twitter to share the news about Chingari’s in-app GARI Token reward program and NFT Marketplace. You can check out the tweet right below. I am officially launching Chingari’s in app GARI Tokens reward programme & its NFT Marketplace. You can buy my Video NFTs, exclusively on the GARI NFT Marketplace....

Top Websites That Faced Most Outages Last Year So, according to the study report, there are various websites and platforms that faced major outages over the past 12 months. The list includes top websites like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Steam, Facebook, Snapchat, Google, Slack, and many others. Now, the platform that has experienced the most outages since last year is Discord. The Discord website, as per the study, faced 129 outages last year, with 87% of users complaining about connection issues....

It is worth noting that DisplayMate has been awarding iPhone displays with ‘highest’ or ‘best’ ratings in almost all categories over the past several years, with the iPhone 11 Pro matching or setting 9 display performance records last year, while the iPhone XS Max did the same in 8 categories in the previous year. That said, 11 new display milestones is still nothing to be scoffed at, so let’s take a look at all the categories where the device scored record points....

Jio True 5G Beta Trial Introduced Jio’s True 5G services will be a part of the Jio Welcome Offer, which will invite users in the four eligible cities to try out 5G and give feedback. Eligible users will be able to get up to 1Gbps speeds. Once a part of the beta trial, users will get unlimited 5G data. Invited users will automatically get to experience Jio’s True 5G and won’t require a standalone 5G SIM for the same....

Android 13 Beta 4 Now Rolling Out The latest Android 13 beta 4 doesn’t introduce people to new features, unlike previous beta updates. But, it takes ahead the platform stability achieved by Android 13 Beta 3 and includes a release candidate build. This is for developers to complete all their compatibility tests and publish the compatibility updates before the stable release. Beta 4 also finalizes all the app-facing surfaces such as SDK and NDK APIs, app-facing system behaviors, and restrictions on non-SDK interfaces....