Google is working very hard to introduce the dark mode on its apps and Android OS. The buggiest implementation has been on Google Photos with the new dark mode. The problem is when the dark theme has been shown with a half-black and a half-white interface to Android Q. Also, the dark theme doesn’t have a turn-off setting for the app.
However, the UI issue has been fixed, and now the dark mode is rolling out to Android 9 Pie and Android 8 Oreo for Google Photos. The users that are using Android Pie and Oreo are having now their own system, and the dark theme enabled. If you are curious about the dark theme and if your Android Pie is equipped to receive it, you can do these steps: Go to Settings-Display- Advanced-Device theme – and turn on the dark mode.
Dark Mode Is Rolling Out to Android 9 Pie and Android 8 Oreo for Google Photos
On the other hand, you can always switch the themes automatically if you pick one dim wallpaper. The automatically turn will be used if you are an Oreo Android user, because the update doesn’t support manually selecting. So you can try your Google Photos and see the settings if they are switching off and on. Of course, this server-side change can last a little until the app is doing the job for you. So maybe using the latest version of the app could be helpful for you.
Also, if you didn’t know, the apps are connected, so maybe using the dark mode on another Google app, such as Messages, this action can trigger Google Photos as well. On the other hand, Google Photos doesn’t come with a toggle for its own dark mode in a system setting. Finally, take note that if you are an Android 9 Pie or Android 8 Oreo user, you can now take advantage of the dark mode for Google Photos.
After so many new challenges and quests in Clash of Clans, we’re all getting ready to welcome the Clash Of Clans June Update which will bring a new magic item called “The Research Potion” and a few more changes to the league shot, the magic hammers, as well as some balance changes that will be announced this week.
Let’s see what to expect from the Clash of Clans June Update!
A New Magic Item Introduced
The Clash of Clans team announced in a blog post the new item called The Research Potion. It’s a magic item that is said to be “the culmination of Wizardly and Goblin alchemical experimentation.”
The story behind this potion is rather… impressive, as the ‘researchers’ have concocted it by pure mistake:
“They got a telescope, a microscope, an oscilloscope, and a stethoscope and did approximately 45 minutes of hard molecular and arcane science. After a rather loud and ominous explosion, the Research Potion was the accidental result of these…efforts.”
The Research Potion will be released with the June Update and players can use it to “speed up your Lab Research times by 10x for an hour.”
Other Changes: League Shop, Magic Hammers
With the June Update, players will see some changes in the League Shop, including these three items that will be available for different costs:
Training Potions for 10 League Medals
Research Potions cost 20 League Medals
Builder Potions cost 30 League Medals.
Because the Magic Hammers are too powerful, the Clash of Clans team has decided to put a “7-day cooldown on all Magic Hammers.” If you buy a Magic Hammer in the League Shop, you can only buy one again after 7 days when the cooldown ends. If you buy a Hammer of Heroes you cannot buy another one for 7 days, but you can buy another type of Hammer.
Microsoft shared its vision of a modern OS during a press conference which showcased a new set of Windows 10 versions for PCs. The Redmond-based tech giant believes that the computers of the future, which will use advanced silicon chips, will also need a modern OS system that should be able to offer the intense experience of contemporary operating systems and a selection of features that would help it to stand out. Below you can find the features which should be possessed by a modern OS, according to the company.
Microsoft Has An Interesting Vision About The Future Windows 10 Versions
Seamless Windows 10 updates
The first feature seems to be inspired by the negative feedback offered by Windows 10 users. Many complain about the update mechanic used by the OS, and Microsoft seems to believe that updates made in the background seem to be the perfect solution. They would deliver the best experience possible without annoying the end user by imposing a mandatory downtime until the update is installed.
Higher security levels
The new Windows 10 OS versions would be secure by default since the state will be separated from the OS, and the computation part will not be linked to the applications. Such a feature appears to require cloud power, and some users may not enjoy the idea of limiting their privacy for the sake of security.
Always online
In the future users will remain connected at all times with the help of powerful 5G and Wi-Fi networks. The devices owned by the user will be linked together to increase usability and comfort.
Superior performance
The experience of using a device should be seamless from the moment you pick it up, and maximum performance should be continuously offered.
The power of the cloud
The power of the cloud could be used to improve the user experience and make the device more useful. A built-in AI will anticipate the needs of the users and aim to deliver what he or she needs. These features appear to be quite significant, and Microsoft is already working on a future incarnation of Windows. It remains to be seen of some them will make an appearance in future Windows 10 versions.
Recently, Amazon programmers announced their plan to present a different approach to emotion-classifying AI. The paper will be presented during the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. It seems that their strategy basically is to provide the AI systems with a data set of thousands of utterances from 10 different speakers. The goal is to create a more accurate neural network, making AI Systems pick up emotions in users’ voices more easily.
Listening to someone’s voice can give you many clues on what the person is actually trying to say. The tone’s fluctuations can be used to accentuate ideas and even change the meaning of the pronounced words. Emotions are entirely contained in the sound of someone’s voice. Studying emotion can be used in many ways. For example, it can be used to detect early signs of dementia or heart attack, and it can offer the chance to enhance the responsiveness of AI systems. Voice assistants like Google Assistant, Siri, and Alexa could soon have the ability to pick up users’ tone of voice, understanding their emotions better.
Amazon Works On Better Voice Emotion Detection In AI Systems
This idea is not new, as Amazon has been working for a long time to give Alexa the ability to determine people’s mood or emotional state. Researchers classified emotions based on three measures: valence, activation, and dominance. The training consists of 3 steps. The first one uses unlabelled data to and the encoder and decoder individually. Next, the encoder is tuned by attempting to distinguish real representations from artificial ones.
Lastly, the encoder is tuned to make sure the latent emotion is represented in such a way that helps the encoder predict emotional labels. After several experiments, researchers say that their AI System gained a 3% rise in the accuracy of assessing valence. Even more, when the system was faced with a sequence of representations of 20 milliseconds each, the accuracy improved by 4%.
Vidmate has been installed by over 5 million users until now, lured by the promises of offline streaming. With the app, Android users could download any video from YouTube, Vimeo, and other platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. While it was a great service, offering users with a low or unreliable internet connection, users that had an expensive data plan a way to stream videos on mobile phones. The popular video downloading app was developed by a subsidiary of UC Web (which is owned by the Chinese tech giant Alibaba) and got very popular in Asian countries, like India.
Upstream’s Secure-D Reported VidMate as Being a Dangerous App
However, the service came with a high cost that users had no idea they were paying. According to security searchers at a mobile tech firm from London, called Upstream, VidMate had a suspicious activity. At the Upstream Secure-D security lab, researchers unveiled the suspicious activity at VidMate in their report:
“A hidden component within the app delivers invisible ads, generates fake clicks and purchases, installs other suspicious apps without consent and collects personal users’ information. Consequently, it depletes users’ data allowance and brings unwanted charges.”
The app is not available in Google Play Store but can be downloaded as an APK from various sources.
The CEO of Upstream, Guy Krief, said that whoever downloaded and opened VidMate, has surrendered “control of their phone and personal information to a third party,” adding that while users cannot see the ads displayed, the “phone and its connection become part of a botnet and are used to commit ad fraud, at the expense of its owner … and his privacy.”
The app also requests suspicious permissions, such as:
allows the app to create windows on top of others
allows the app to install and download other unknown apps without asking or notifying the user
allows the app to read and write system settings
allows the app to access the user’s device log files, which contain sensitive information.
Delete VidMate to Protect Your Privacy, Data, and Money
The Upstream report urges users to delete VidMate to remedy the issues of battery drainage, charges of premium content without the users’ knowledge, data usage and privacy breach, adding that installing apps from outside Google Play Store is dangerous:
“VidMate is a reminder of the serious dangers of installing software from sources other than the official Google Play Store. The financial and privacy risks of letting misleading and abusive apps onto your device are simply not worth it.”
Here’s a short video from Upstream on VidMate’s suspicious activity:
A VidMate spokesperson was interviewed by BuzzFeed and stated that the app has no such knowledge of the suspicious activity, but they will investigate it. The spokesperson used the name Jiatao Chen and didn’t provide basic information of the funders and executives of the app, refusing to confirm his name or title. However, he stated:
“No only do we not program such practices into our core app, we have a zero-tolerance policy because it is in VidMate’s interest to protect our users against such detrimental practices.”
Chen also added that they are investigating the issue and VidMate has terminated the relationship with a partner (Nonolive) that was included in the Upstream report.
VidMate Spokesperson about Mango’s SDK: “Vidmate will terminate relationship with and blacklist this company”
The suspicious activity began with Vidmate installing a software development kit from Mango, which loaded the hidden ads and signed up users to premium services. The activity would take place when users didn’t use their phones. One spokesperson from VidMate stated that if the “SDK really is performing ad fraud, Vidmate will terminate relationship with and blacklist this company.”
UCWeb and VidMate responded to BuzzFeed News, with a UCWeb spokesperson saying that the app and trademark were sold to a start-up called Guangzhou Nemo Fish Technology Co., in 2018 and that they are not involved in Vidmate’s operations, but have maintained a business collaboration.
VidMate’s Suspicious Activity Started Long Before It Was Sold to the Start-up
The issues with VidMate were first revealed by Upstream when the company began providing security services to mobile carriers in some developing countries, and Krief found that VidMate “was number one in terms of block attempts over the past six months” compared to other apps monitored by Upstream. Guy Krief stated that Upstream saw and blocked suspicious transactions from VidMate before UCWeb sold VidMate:
“We saw some first small volumes of suspicious transaction requests in October 2017 and it progressively ramped up until April 2018 when it then started being at a different scale.”
As a response, the UCWeb spokesperson stated in an email that they could not respond to these accusations until they see the data and all the details, adding that Upstream didn’t contact them to give them the information.
Keep your personal information safe and use trustworthy apps that you can find on Google Play Store. Alternatively, use the Lite versions of social media apps to save data.
