CTC BLOG

tech2 News StaffJul 01, 2020 09:54:39 IST

It was recently confirmed that OnePlus’ much talked about affordable smartphone will be named OnePlus Nord instead of OnePlus Z or OnePlus 8 Lite.  The smartphone teaser has now popped up on the Amazon India website, hinting that the launch is near. The company has also confirmed that the smartphone will debut in July, hence we can expect that the OnePlus Nord might launch in the coming few days.

OnePlus Nord is believed to be the company’s new affordable smartphone. Image: OnePlus India

As per an Instagram story put up by the company on OnePluslitezthing handle, the pre-booking of OnePlus Nord might start from tomorrow. The company has put a countdown of 24 hours with the caption “Get Ready 24 hours to go” and “OnePlus pre-order drop”.

According to a report by Android Central, OnePlus Nord will be launched on 10 July in India. The report also suggests that the smartphone is likely to feature a dual-camera setup on the front that houses a 32 MP primary sensor and an 8 MP wide-angle sensor.

As per a previous report, the smartphone is expected to sport a 6.55-inch Super AMOLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate. It is expected to be powered by Snapdragon 765 SoC with 5G support. The smartphone is likely to offer 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of internal storage.

The report mentions that OnePlus Nord may have three cameras on the rear. A 64 MP primary camera, a 16 MP (supposedly ultra-wide) lens, and a 2 MP shooter, which can either be a depth sensor or dedicated macro unit. It is expected to house a 4,300 mAh battery with the company’s 30W Wrap charge.

To recall, OnePlus is also launching an affordable smart TV in India on 2 July. It will be priced under Rs 20,000.

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Disinfect just about anything, anywhere with the Mobisan Mobile Plug-In UV Sanitizer Light. It can kill 99.9% of germs in less than 10 seconds.

Germs and viruses live on every item that you can think of even on your cell phones, ATM cards, and other small items. If you want a device that kills all the germs and viruses from the surface of these items then you should look for a portable UV light sanitizer. The germs and viruses are on surfaces such as bills, phones, coins, iPads, ATM cards, doorknobs, keywords, and all other items that you can think of.

Mobisan Mobile Plug-In UV Sanitizer Light

So, if you want to disinfect these items, you need a portable device that you can carry around anywhere you go. What is better than the Mobisan Mobile Plug-In UV Sanitizer Light?

Also, it is available at a 49% discount when you buy it here. It is highly portable and it is also very easy to use. It will disinfect every item or surface in ten seconds. Now getting rid of the viruses is easier than you think.

What is best in this device is that it is a USB-C type device. It will connect with any device that has a USB-C type charging port and start disinfecting. It uses powerful UV light that kills 99.9 percent of bacteria, germs, and viruses. It kills these diseases killing microbes from any surface.

It is a three-inch-long device that is lightweight that makes it easy to carry around in your pocket. Now if you are in an elevator and think that the buttons might have germs on the surface, get this out and start disinfecting every button on the elevator panel and be safe.

Now you can buy it here only for $29.99 instead of $59.95 and get a 49% discount only if you buy it here. Buy it before the deal ends!

tech2 News StaffJun 30, 2020 18:30:15 IST

After the iOS 14 developer beta was recently rolled out, it was found that TikTok was accessing users’ clipboard data. However, the software’s anti-spam feature forced the app to roll out an update to prevent the app from doing that, according to a report by The Telegraph.

This report led us to a research by Talal Haj Bakry and Tommy Mysk, reported by ArsTechnica, according to which, 53 other iOS app have also been found to be snooping on users’ sensitive clipboard data passwords, addresses and anything else in the clipboard.

iPhone. Representative image.

Additionally, the ArsTechnica report also claims that despite TikTok claiming to have released an update to put an end to the practice, “it continues to access some of Apple users’ most sensitive data, which can include passwords, cryptocurrency wallet addresses, account-reset links, and personal messages.”

As per researchers Bakry and Mysk, these iOS apps “deliberately called an iOS programming interface that retrieves text from users’ clipboards.”

To reproduce:
1. Have something on your clipboard. Eg copy some text from Notes or a website
2. Open TikTok and start typing in any text field
3. You learn from iOS 14 beta each time an app “pastes” – but in this instance I didn’t request it, and none of that text appears in UI

— Jeremy Burge (@jeremyburge) June 24, 2020

Reportedly, this practice has also been noted in some prominent news apps as well, like Fox News, the New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as in gaming apps like Bejeweled, Fruit Ninja and PUBG Mobile. Some social media apps are also part of the list, including Viber, Weibo, and Truecaller. (The full list of apps are at the end of the article.)

Currently, it’s also unclear how these apps behave in Android.

“It’s very, very dangerous,” Mysk said in an interview on Friday, referring to the apps’ indiscriminate reading of clipboard data. “These apps are reading clipboards, and there’s no reason to do this. An app that doesn’t have a text field to enter text has no reason to read clipboard text.”

The researchers also mention that the issue isn’t just limited data stored on the local device. Due to Apple’s universal clipboard feature, these apps could be accessing clipboard data across users’ iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

The video below explains how these apps exploit Apple’s universal clipboard feature:

[embedded content]

While the research was originally published back in March this year, the issue has surfaced now after Apple released the iOS 14 developer beta update.

A novel feature in the new iOS iteration shows users a warning every time an app reads clipboard contents. Due to the feature, users who were testing the beta release started to notice just how many apps engage in the practice and just how often they do it.

One of these early testers is Ryan Jones who posted a video on YouTube (embedded below) that shows a few apps that triggered the warning on iOS 14.

[embedded content]

Complete list of apps allegedly accessing iOS users’ clipboard data:

News

ABC News
Al Jazeera English
CBC News
CBS News
CNBC
Fox News
News Break
New York Times
NPR
ntv Nachrichten
Reuters
Russia Today
Stern Nachrichten
The Economist
The Huffington Post
The Wall Street Journal
Vice News

Games

8 Ball Pool
AMAZE!!!
Bejeweled
Block Puzzle
Classic Bejeweled
Classic Bejeweled HD
FlipTheGun
Fruit Ninja
Golfmasters
Letter Soup
Love Nikki
My Emma
Plants vs. Zombies Heroes
Pooking – Billiards City
PUBG Mobile
Tomb of the Mask
Tomb of the Mask: Color
Total Party Kill
Watermarbling

Social Networking

TikTok 
ToTalk 
Tok 
Truecaller 
Viber 
Weibo 
Zoosk 

Other

10% Happier: Meditation 
5-0 Radio Police Scanner 
Accuweather 
AliExpress Shopping App 
Bed Bath & Beyond
Dazn 
Hotels.com 
Hotel Tonight 
Overstock 
Pigment – Adult Coloring Book
Recolor Coloring Book to Color 
Sky Ticket
The Weather Network 

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The lower-than-expected attendance at President Trump’s rally in Tulsa on June 20 was attributed, at least in part, to an online army of K-pop fans who used the social network TikTok to organize and reserve tickets for the rally as a means of pranking the campaign.

Similarly, the historically unprecedented scale of the George Floyd protests can be attributed in part to social media. By some estimates 25 million Americans participated at protests.

Social media has proven itself as a tool for political activism, from online boycotts to offline gatherings. It also has implications for how political campaigns operate. Social media can aid campaigns with voter targeting efforts, but it can also make the electoral process vulnerable to misinformation and manipulation, including from foreign actors.

Hijacking hashtags

Social media has enabled protests and meaningful political action by capturing public attention, and by its decentralized nature, which makes it easier for activists to evade censorship and coordinate actions. K-pop fans’ action through TikTok spanned more than a week and stayed off the radar of mainstream media.

TikTok teens and K-pop fans took over anti-Black Lives Matter hashtags such as #WhiteLivesMatter and drowned out the anti-Black Lives Matter messages with GIFs and memes. When people on social media platforms look for these hashtags, they’re met with seemingly unending images and fan videos of popular K-pop groups such as Twice and EXO.

This, in turn, leads algorithms on social media platforms to classify such trending hashtags as K-pop trends rather than political trends, thwarting the anti-Black Lives Matter activists who tried to use the hashtags to promote their messages.

K-pop fans likewise responded to a call from the Dallas Police Department, who were trying to collect information about Black Lives Matter protesters from social media, and bombarded them with images and videos of their favorite K-pop stars.

Influencers and like-minded connections

My own research shows that there are two mechanisms that make social media influential in digital activism.

First, social media gives an opinion-making role to a few influencers – people who have extensive social media networks. The furor companies such as Uber and United Airlines aroused on social media for misbehaving was initiated by a handful of individuals.

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Second, on social media people engage with like-minded people, a phenomenon called homophily.

Together, these mechanisms provide a wide audience to both influencers and their followers who are enmeshed in densely connected online networks. As my research shows, once a meme, hashtag or video goes viral, passive sharing can turn into active broadcasting of the trending idea.

For example, when celebrity Jane tweets in support of a viral hashtag such as #BlackOutTuesday, if fan Alyssa retweets this, it is more likely to be retweeted by people like Alyssa. Jane’s influence is magnified by Alyssa’s ability to influence her social connections. The resulting activism spirals into a large-scale online movement that is hard to ignore.

Social media and political campaigning

Social media’s opinion-making power and preference for like-minded connections also lead to online filter bubbles, echo chambers that amplify information people are predisposed to agree with and filter out information that contradicts people’s points of view. Recent elections in the U.S. and the Brexit vote in the U.K. might have been influenced by filter bubbles.

Social media also makes it easier to narrowly target classes of voters. In 2016 Hilary Clinton’s presidential campaign significantly outspent Donald Trump’s campaign, and the effectiveness of the Trump campaign has been attributed to its ability to target specific groups of Clinton voters with negative ads.

With online advertising in general, and with the ability to micro-target voters via social media based on detailed demographic data, social media can both help and hinder political campaigns’ ability to target their voters.

Also, political campaigns need good data to create models of likely voters, which they use to get voters to turn out and persuade likely voters to vote for their candidates. It looks like TikTok users produced a deluge of bad data for the Trump campaign. This kind of activity forces campaigns to spend time and money cleaning up their data.

Social media and election integrity

The power of social media also poses a challenge for election integrity. An entity linked to the Russian government was reportedly responsible for spreading a massive disinformation campaign that likely influenced the 2016 elections. A Senate committee concluded that “these operatives used targeted advertisements, intentionally falsified news articles, self-generated content, and social media platform tools” to intentionally manipulate the perceptions of millions of Americans.

Likewise, the Tulsa phenomenon underscores that if it’s this easy for a group of teens to influence turnout in a campaign rally, how easy would it be for a foreign actor to interfere in the election process? The election process, including how campaigns and observers gather political information, is vulnerable to misinformation and coordinated trolling.

Social media amplifies both the reach and range of actions available to well-organized, engaged and networked political actors, whatever their intentions. With the pandemic significantly increasing society’s dependence on the internet, these concerns are likely to increase. The question is, when combined with algorithmic filters and disinformation, how will these forces shape the politics of protest and democratic action in the years ahead?

While we all stay home for an indefinite period of time, Apple is bringing some really useful features to its TV box. At its annual developers conference, Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2020, Apple showed off the next version of tvOS – tvOS 14.

tvOS 14 packs a lot of new features like multi user game support, shared AirPods experience, HomeKit support, and a lot more. However, one of the most interesting features that stands out is picture in picture (PiP).

Apple is also bringing picture in picture (PiP) mode to its other devices like the iPhone and the iPad. The feature will allow users to minify a video playback which can be dragged around on the screen while using other apps. The feature will work similarly on the Apple TV but we do not know if users will be able to drag it around like on the iPhone and the iPad.

In the current situation, users are staying home most of the time and picture in picture (PiP) will definitely come in handy when a user wants to keep track of a new channel while scrolling around through apps. 

Before the keynote of WWDC, rumours suggested that Apple will release a new updated Apple TV but that did not happen. Apple could still be planning to update its old, long overdue for an updated Apple TV, sometime at the end of this year. Apple last updated its box in September of 2017 which added support for 4K content.

At WWDC, Apple also showed off major updates to its other operating systems as well – macOS 11.0 Big Sur, iOS 14, iPadOS 14, and watchOS 7 alongside of course the tvOS 14 update. Apple will very likely release the public version of tvOS 14 in September 2020 – few days after it releases its flagship iPhones and possibly also an updated Apple TV.

If you’re a regular reader of FileHippo’s articles, you already know that we really think you need a VPN if you have any concerns at all about being tracked or having your personal data stolen. But for those of you who might have missed it, we’ll reiterate: you need a VPN! 

Put simply, a VPN is a set of servers located in different countries around the world. Once you install VPN software on your computer, you can connect to these external servers and do all your surfing from there. This hides your real IP address, and lets you browse securely and anonymously. And when it comes to VPN software, ZenMate offers the whole package at a reasonable price.

 Unlimited devices/platforms

Many VPN services out there limit the number of devices you can connect to their servers at any one time – or, in fact, the number of devices on which you can even download the software. ZenMate is different because with one subscription, you’re allowed to install the program on all the devices you want, across all the platforms you want including iOS, Android, Linux, Mac OS and Windows, along with extensions for the Chrome and Firefox browsers. It’s a pretty impressive feature and one that really helps ZenMate stand apart from its competitors.

The service’s other features are impressive as well. ZenMate operates out of Germany that has strict privacy protections. The company keeps no logs on its users, so your online activity is completely anonymous. Additionally, ZenMate has physical servers in 74 different countries, which places it at the top of the list of VPN providers. This robust reach ensures that you can bypass many geo-restrictions to access content in places you’d normally not be able to penetrate.

ZenMate also unblocks torrenting sites and allows you to access streaming services including Netflix, HBO GO, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and BBC iPlayer, as well as access to live sportscasting services. 

 Kill switch

As with many VPN services, ZenMate contains kill switch functionality. This means that if you are surfing the internet and your connection to their server drops for any reason, they will prevent your computer from reconnecting until you’ve given it permission to do so. This is an extra failsafe that guards against having your personal information accidentally leak.

 Strong encryption

ZenMate also features military-grade encryption, which again, is something we’re seeing in more and more VPN services. This means that not only is your IP address hidden, but your communications through its servers are also scrambled – offering even more protection than services that use older encryption protocols.

FP TrendingJun 30, 2020 18:37:59 IST

American video game developer Infinity Ward has released the Season 4 Reloaded update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone. The patch is out on PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Infinity Ward posted about it on Twitter asking gamers to read up on what is coming to Modern Warfare and Warzone.

Call of Duty

Tonight’s update will begin rolling out across all platforms at 11PM PDT! Be sure to read up on what’s coming to #ModernWarfare and #Warzone, see weapon adjustments, download size information, and more by checking out our patch notes! https://t.co/FTa4G6eEd1 pic.twitter.com/yE2uoW5ws2

— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) June 30, 2020

According to a report in Gamespot, the update weighs between 22 and 36 GB and console players must download the patch in addition to a second update of around 3.5 GB. It adds that Free-to-play warzone players will see a 22 to 30 GB update.

The report also mentions that a new limited-time Warzone mode addition is for 200 players and the update has a new Juggernaut Royale mode as well as a series of weapon balance changes.

As per the patch notes released by Infinity Ward, upon activation, players and their squad will be directed to a nearby station where on reaching within the time limit, they will get a discount on buy station purchases.

Special operations included in the updated patch notes include improved effectiveness of decoy grenade against most types of enemy soldiers and the fixing of issues where trucks would appear without enemies inside of them.

All the updates regarding the new patch notes can be read here.

The new update also includes the Cheshire Park multiplayer map and a new sniper rifle. It also has the downgrading of the gun Grau.

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Apple announced some major new software updates to its range of operating systems at its annual developers conference. The AirPods Pro also received a major new feature – spatial audio for a much more immersive experience.

At Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2020, Apple has added a feature to the AirPods Pro which will allow the AirPods Pro to create a new audio experience by making the audio emerge from different points and gives users an awareness of the location from where the audio is produced.

For example, in movies, sounds are produced from various locations in the scene, Apple’s update to AirPods Pro gives users a sense of the scene by creating an atmosphere of the scene which is commonly known as 3D audio. Apple however refers to it as spatial audio. While the feature has not yet been released to the public, it sure sounds like a major update to the already excellent AirPods Pro.

Apple has been investing heavily in improving its Augmented Reality (AR) experiences over the years. While the iPhone and the iPad have some augmented reality (AR) capabilities, the company is reportedly working on a new pair of glasses which will offer a much more immersive experience.

By adding 3D audio to its flagship AirPods Pro, Apple appears to be setting the stage for its upcoming AR glasses. Offering a much nicer and immersive audio experience will go hand in hand with an immersive visual experience.

It has been reported that the spatial audio (3D audio) features will be released to the AirPods Pro as part of a firmware update. We do not know when the update will be released to the public. However, it’s highly plausible that the update will be released alongside iOS 14’s public release and upcoming flagship iPhone lineup release in September.

FP TrendingJun 30, 2020 13:09:45 IST

Apple is planning to launch a 10.8-inch iPad in the second half of 2020 and an 8.5-inch iPad model in the first half of 2021, according to a report by Macrumors.

The report, which quoted reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, did not specify if the 10.8-inch iPad model will be a new version of the 10.2-inch iPad or the 10.5-inch iPad Air. He, however, confirmed that the 8.5-inch model will be a new iPad mini.

The new iPad Pro comes with a smart keyboard. Image: Apple

The analyst also expects Apple to include the latest 20W power adapter with both the upcoming iPad models.

Meanwhile, a previous report has quoted Kuo saying that Apple is planning to stop including a power adapter and EarPods in its 2020 iPhones. The company is also expected to remove the power adapter from the new iPhone SE by the end of this year.

Last week, Apple has launched iPadOS 14 at its annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2020. It has also introduced a new called Universal Search to iPadOS 14 that will enable users to search for contacts, documents, or even search within an app that supports this feature.

It also has Android-like compact call notifications. They will pop up on the top of the screen without interrupting your ongoing task.

Apple has also announced the iOS 14, WatchOS 7 software updates at WWDC.

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Apple held its major annual developers conference online this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The keynote of the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) was held on 22nd June, 2020. The company showed off its latest operating systems for the future – updates to iOS, macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and also revealed its plan to move away from Intel chips to using its own custom Apple silicon in the Macs.

The update to the iPhone’s operating system – iOS 14 packs a lot of new features. However, one of the new features (app) that did not get much attention was the Translate app. Apple is going head to head with Google’s Translate app that is a best in class translator.

The design of the Apple Translate app is simple – select the language that is to be translated and the output (translated) language. Users can type in text on one side and the language will be automatically translated to the desired output language. The working of the app is very similar to Google’s translate app – that is expected – what can a translate app do differently?

The Apple translate apps will support 11 languages at launch – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. The app is capable of holding onto users’ previous translations. Users will be able to look back and check all the past translations (we do not yet know how long or how many).

To maintain privacy of data, Apple will use the company’s Neural Engine which is capable of handling all the data locally on the device such as an iPhone. The app reportedly does use the internet to translate but it can also be used offline. However, it has been reported that the quality of offline translations are not on par with the translations done when connected to the internet.

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At WWDC 2020, Apple unveiled the next big chapter for the Mac with macOS Big Sur and of course, the transition to Apple silicon from Intel chips. With macOS Big Sur, Apple introduced some worthy additions to its web browser Safari.

Web developers can now easily port their existing extensions from other web browsers like Google Chrome to Safari. It’s a welcome addition as it’s evident that Google Chrome’s popularity is not going to go away anytime soon. Most developers put their efforts in building for Chrome while ignoring other browsers because a tiny percentage of the population uses them.

By introducing the option of bringing pre-existing extensions to Safari, Apple is making it easier for developers to support its browser as well. A lot of web extensions are not available on Safari and this move could bring Apple’s web browser in the loop.

macOS and iOS already support extensions but they work a little differently. Apple allows something called “share extensions” which basically requires an app. “These are great if you’re a native app developer already familiar with Swift or Objective-C,” says Safari engineer Ellie Epskamp-Hunt.

Whereas Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and other browsers in the market rely on web technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript to allow developers to create extensions. The implementation is much simpler compared to Apple’s Safari which can seem a little complicated. However, starting with macOS Big Sur and Xcode 12, developers will be able to easily port their extensions to Safari from other browsers.

Xcode 12 will feature an extension converter that will help developers port their extensions to Safari with ease. Of course, there will be some difference between browsers, so the extension converter will show how the extension will run on Safari.

Developers will be able to package it, sign it, and submit it for publishing on the Mac App Store.

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Amazon has taken off $100 from the original price of the 13-inch Macbook Air Gold with 256GB Storage and 8GB RAM. Now is your chance to save big on buying this model of the Macbook Air.

The original price of this model is $999 and on Amazon, you only get it for $899. So, hurry up before the deal ends and save big buying it from Amazon.

Apple MacBook Air

The new Macbook Air has a 13.3-inch Retina display. True Tone technology makes the display even better. Now you can get the best display and watch your favorite content with great view angles and brightness. This Macbook Air also boasts the Tenth-generation Intel Core i3 processor that makes it lightning-fast when it comes to performance.

The 256 GB storage is a fast SSD storage that allows you to work even faster. The backlit keyboard ensures that you never have to worry about working during the late-night hours in the dark. It also has the force touch trackpad which is also 25% larger, which allows easy usage.

It is time that you save $100 instantly on this model of the Macbook Air on Amazon. Buy it only for $899 instead of $999.

tech2 News StaffJun 29, 2020 08:30:32 IST

OnePlus 8 series was debuted back in April this year.

Today, both OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will be available for purchase in India at 12 pm on Amazon and OnePlus’ website.

Also, to bring you up to speed, OnePlus is also going to launch an affordable smart TV on 2 July, which has been teased to be priced under Rs 20,000.

OnePlus 8

OnePlus 8, OnePlus 8 Pro pricing, sale offers

OnePlus 8 will come in three storage variants — 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 41,999, 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 44,999 and 12 GB RAM + 256 GB internal storage variant will cost you Rs 49,999. The smartphone comes in new Glacial Green and Interstellar Glow colour variants in addition to the regular Onyx Black.

OnePlus 8 Pro comes at a starting price of Rs 54,999 for 8 GB RAM + 128 GB internal storage and the other 12 GB RAM + 256 GB internal storage variant is priced at Rs 59,999 in India. In terms of colour options, you will get Glacial Green, Ultramarine Blue, and Onyx Black colour variants.

The sale will begin today at 12 pm on Amazon and OnePlus website.

As for the sale offers, Amazon is offering an instant 10 percent discount via Citi  Bank credit and debit cards, on the purchase of OnePlus 8 or OnePlus 8 Pro. In addition to this, if you have pre-booked any of the smartphones, you will also get a cashback of Rs 1,000 in Amazon Pay. Jio subscribers will get data benefits worth Rs 6,000.

Amazon teaser also confirms that the customers will also be eligible to get membership of Audible that is worth Rs 1,200 along with 6 free bonus audiobooks.

OnePlus 8 specifications

OnePlus 8 features a 6.5 inch full-HD+Fluid AMOLED display that has a resolution of  1080 x 2400 pixels and a 90 Hz refresh rate. The smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset and offers up to 12 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage. It comes with an in-display fingerprint sensor just like its predecessors.

In the camera department, you get a triple rear camera setup that includes 48 MP IMX586 sensor, a 16 MP ultra-wide camera and a 2 MP macro lens. On the front, you will get a 16 MP Sony IMX471 sensor.

OnePlus 8 houses a 4,300 mAh battery that supports Warp Charge 30T which charges the phone from zero to 50 percent in 22 minutes. This smartphone does not come with wireless charging support.

OnePlus 8 Pro specifications

The smartphone sports a 6.78-inch QHD+ Fluid AMOLED display that has a resolution of  1440 x 3168 pixels and a 120 Hz refresh rate. The screen has a 240 Hz touch sampling rate to minimise input lag. It comes with a punch-hole camera and it is OnePlus’ first smartphone to get an official I68 rating. It is powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset and offers up to 12 GB RAM and 256 GB internal storage just like OnePlus 8.

In terms of camera, OnePlus 8 Pro comes with 48 MP Sony IMX689 primary sensor, an 8 MP telephoto lens, a 48 MP ultra wide-angle lens, and a 5 MP “colour filter” camera sensor. One the front, there is a punch-hole display that houses a 16 MP Sony IMX471 sensor.

OnePlus 8 Pro is equipped with a 4,510 mAh battery that comes with Warp Charge 30T support and Warp Charge 30 Wireless support that can fill up the battery from zero to 50 in half an hour. The smartphone also supports reverse wireless charging.

Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost

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In this article, we at iLounge will guide you on how to Dark Mode Facebook in a few simple steps.

Follow these steps:

1. Go to Facebook’s website.
2. Login to your account if you haven’t.
3. On the top right corner, click on the small arrow pointing downwards.
4. Click on “Dark Mode”.
5. Everything should now be in Dark Mode.

At the moment, enabling the Dark Mode feature is only available for desktop users. According to reports, Facebook is still working on Dark Mode for its iOS app. If you would like to use enable Dark Mode in an alternative way, we have written an article about that here.

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Most antivirals in use today target parts of an invading virus itself. Unfortunately, SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – has proven hard to kill. But viruses rely on cellular mechanisms in human cells to help them spread, so it should be possible to change an aspect of a person’s body to prevent that and slow down the virus enough to allow the immune system to fight the invader off.

I am a quantitative biologist, and my lab built a map of how the coronavirus uses human cells. We used that map to find already existing drugs that could be repurposed to fight COVID-19 and have been working with an international group of researchers called the QBI Coronavirus Research Group to see if the drugs we identified showed any promise. Many have.

For years, researchers have suspected that kinases – biological control switches that viruses use to take over cells – could be targeted to fight infections. Over the last few months, we built a second, more detailed map looking specifically for the kinases that the coronavirus is hijacking.

Using this map, we identified a few already existing cancer drugs which alter the function of the kinases that SARS-CoV-2 hijacks, and began testing them in coronavirus-infected cells. The results of these early tests are promising enough that we are working with some groups and have already begun human clinical trials.

Kinases in disease and as drug targets

Kinases are proteins found in every cell of our body. There are 518 human kinases, and they act as major control hubs for virtually all processes in the body. They are able to add a small marker – a process called phosphorylation – to other proteins and thus change how, if and when a phosphorylated protein can do its work.

For example, if a cell is preparing to grow – say to heal a cut on your finger – specific kinases will turn on and start telling proteins involved in cell growth what to do. Many cancers are caused by overactive kinases leading to uncontrolled cell growth, and drugs that slow kinases down can be highly effective at treating cancer.

Kinases are central players in cellular function as well as in most diseases, so researchers and pharmaceutical companies have studied them in great detail.

Kinases are also fairly easy to target with drugs because of how they add phosphorylation markers to proteins. Researchers have developed a huge number of drugs, particularly cancer drugs, that work by essentially throwing a wrench into the mechanics of specific kinases in order to stop cell growth.

So what does this have to do with the coronavirus? Well, viruses and cancer actually have more in common than you might think. Cancer is essentially a malfunctioning of cellular machinery that causes runaway cell growth.

Viruses also change the function of cellular machinery – albeit on purpose – but instead of causing cell growth, the machinery is repurposed to produce more viruses. Not surprisingly, viruses take control over many kinases to do this.

Coronavirus at the controls

This idea – that SARS-CoV-2 is using kinases to hijack cellular machinery – is why we wanted to build a map of every kinase that is taken over by the coronavirus. Any virus–kinase interaction could be a potential target for drugs.

To do this, we first infected green monkey cells – which are fairly good surrogates for human cells when it comes to virus infection – with SARS-CoV-2. We then ground up these infected cells and used a device called a mass spectrometer to see which proteins were phosphorylated in these infected cells. We then did the same thing with healthy cells.

It is impossible to actually see which kinases are activated at any time, but since each kinase can attach phosphorylation markers to only a few specific proteins, researchers can look at the phosphorylated proteins to determine what kinases are active at any time.

We made two lists: one list of phosphorylated proteins in healthy cells and one list of phosphorylated proteins in infected cells. We then compared the two, and by looking at the differences between the infected and uninfected lists, we were able to determine which kinases the coronavirus uses to reproduce.

Because researchers still don’t fully understand what all 518 human kinases do, we were able to look for effects in only 97 of the ones we know most about. But that turned out to be more than enough. Of those 97 kinases, we found 49 that the virus affects.

Some of the more interesting ones include Casein Kinase 2, which is involved in controlling how a cell is shaped. We also identified several kinases that work together in what is called the p38/MAPK signaling pathway. This pathway responds to and controls our body’s inflammation reaction. It is possible these kinases could be involved in the cytokine storm – a dangerous immune system overreaction – that some patients with severe COVID-19 experience.

While identifying the kinases involved in SARS-CoV-2 replication, we were also able to learn a lot about how the virus changes our bodies. For example, CK2 becomes much more active during the course of coronavirus infection and causes the growth of little tubes that extend from the surface of the cell. Under a microscope, it looks as if the cell has a full head of hair. We think SARS-CoV-2 might be using these long cell outgrowths – called filopodia – as viral highways to get new viruses closer to neighboring cells, thereby making infection easier.

Kinases inhibitors in the lab and clinical trials

Learning more about the virus’s function is interesting for a biologist like me and could be useful down the road, but the ultimate goal of our project was to find drugs to treat COVID-19.

Once we knew which kinases SARS-CoV-2 uses to replicate and the proteins they change, we looked through a database of around 250 kinase-inhibiting drugs to see if any of them targeted the kinases used by the virus. To increase our chances, we also looked for drugs that hit some of the proteins the kinases act on. And sure enough, we found some.

There are 87 existing drugs that change the kinase-controlled pathways used by the coronavirus. Most of these drugs are already approved for human use or are currently in clinical trials to treat cancer, and could be quickly repurposed to treat COVID-19 patients.

With these leads, our collaborators in New York and Paris tested the effect of 68 of those drugs on cells infected with SARS-CoV-2. Several of these were effective in killing the virus in cells. A few that we are especially excited about – silmitasertib, gilteritinib, ralimetinib, apilimod and dinaciclib – are either approved for treatment, in clinical testing or under preclinical development for various diseases.

Silmitasertib stops Casein Kinase 2, the kinase that causes cells to grow the virus spreading filopodia tubes. As soon as the company that makes silmitasertib heard this news, they announced that they wanted to test the drug against COVID-19 in the clinic.

Drugs hitting kinase pathways have been on the radar of researchers as potential powerful antivirals for years, but none have come to fruition. By looking to this new area of drug applications and using our new mapping approach, our team has added dozens of drugs to the growing list of potential tools to help fight this pandemic.

It is still too early to say whether any of these will work to treat COVID-19 in patients, but the more chances we have, the better.

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Apple is moving away from using Intel chips in its Macs – not outright thought but in a staged manner. The company suggests that the whole transition will take around two years – giving developers time to bring their apps to the new platform.

The first operating system to support ARM Macs will of course be macOS Big Sur which was unveiled at WWDC. Apple also redesigned Xcode with its twelfth release and also introduced new technologies for developers to port their apps to the new Mac platform.

In its press release, Apple noted that the transition to custom ARM chips (Apple silicon) will unify its products. The company notes that a common architecture for all Apple products will help developers improve their development efficiency.

The ARM architecture will also help developers bring their iOS and iPadOS apps to the Mac without any reworks. With macOS Big Sur, Apple is also improving Catalyst – the framework that enables iPad apps to be pushed to Mac – by offering a more native Mac experience.

Apple emphasized heavily on macOS Big Sur which brings tons of new tools for developers. Xcode 12 has inbuilt native compilers, debugging tools, and editors – a set of tools that, according to Apple, will allow developers to have their new apps ready in “a matter of days”.

However, some developers may not be able to move their apps to the new platform or the development of some apps may have been completely halted, in that case, Apple will use Rosetta 2 – its emulation software to run apps created for the Intel platform on Apple silicon Macs.

Apple has begun shipping its Developer Transition Kit (DTK) which is basically a Mac Mini with iPad Pro’s A12Z processor. The DTK packs 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD, and of course comes with macOS Big Sur and Xcode 12 pre-installed.

Breathing in through the nose delivers nitric oxide directly into the lungs, which fight COVID-19 by blocking the replication of the virus in the lungs.

Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. It’s not just something you do in yoga class – breathing this way actually provides a powerful medical benefit that can help the body fight viral infections.

The reason is that your nasal cavities produce the molecule nitric oxide, which chemists abbreviate NO, that increases blood flow through the lungs and boosts oxygen levels in the blood. Breathing in through the nose delivers NO directly into the lungs, where it helps fight coronavirus infection by blocking the replication of the coronavirus in the lungs. But many people who exercise or engage in yoga also receive the benefits of inhaling through the nose instead of the mouth. The higher oxygen saturation of the blood can make one feel more refreshed and provides greater endurance.

I am one of three pharmacologists who won the Nobel Prize in 1998 for discovering how nitric oxide is produced in the body and how it works.

Breathing in through the nose is an integral part of meditation and delivers virus-fighting gases to the lungs. Image credit: triloks / Getty Images

The role of nitric oxide in the body

Nitric oxide is a widespread signalling molecule that triggers many different physiological effects. It is also used clinically as a gas to selectively dilate the pulmonary arteries in newborns with pulmonary hypertension. Unlike most signalling molecules, NO is a gas in its natural state.

NO is produced continuously by the 1 trillion cells that form the inner lining, or endothelium, of the 100,000 miles of arteries and veins in our bodies, especially the lungs. Endothelium-derived NO acts to relax the smooth muscle of the arteries to prevent high blood pressure and to promote blood flow to all organs. Another vital role of NO is to prevent blood clots in normal arteries.

In addition to relaxing vascular smooth muscle, NO also relaxes the smooth muscle in the airways – trachea and bronchioles – making it easier to breathe. Another type of NO-mediated smooth muscle relaxation occurs in the erectile tissue (corpus cavernosum), which results in penile erection. In fact, NO is the principal mediator of penile erection and sexual arousal. This discovery led to the development and marketing of sildenafil, trade name Viagra, which works by enhancing the action of NO.

Other types of cells in the body, including circulating white blood cells and tissue macrophages, produce nitric oxide for antimicrobial purposes. The NO in these cells reacts with other molecules, also produced by the same cells, to form antimicrobial agents to destroy invading microorganisms including bacteria, parasites and viruses. As you can see, NO is quite an amazing molecule.

Nitric oxide gas as an inhaled therapy

Since NO is a gas, it can be administered with the aid of specialized devices as a therapy to patients by inhalation. Inhaled NO is used to treat infants born with persistent pulmonary hypertension, a condition in which constricted pulmonary arteries limit blood flow and oxygen harvesting.

Inhaled NO dilates the constricted pulmonary arteries and increases blood flow in the lungs. As a result, the red blood cell hemoglobin can extract more lifesaving oxygen and move it into the general circulation. Inhaled NO has literally turned blue babies pink and allowed them to be cured and to go home with mom and dad. Before the advent of inhaled NO, most of these babies died.

Inhaled NO is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. Researchers are hoping that three principal actions of NO may help fight covid: dilating the pulmonary arteries and increasing blood flow through the lungs, dilating the airways and increasing oxygen delivery to the lungs and blood, and directly killing and inhibiting the growth and spread of the coronavirus in the lungs.

How nitric oxide kills viruses

In an in vitro study done in 2004 during the last SARS outbreak, experimental compounds that release NO increased the survival rate of nucleus-containing mammalian cells infected with SARS-CoV. This suggested that NO had a direct antiviral effect. In this study, NO significantly inhibited the replication cycle of SARS-CoV by blocking production of viral proteins and its genetic material, RNA.

In a small clinical study in 2004, inhaled NO was effective against SARS-CoV in severely ill patients with pneumonia.

The SARS CoV, which caused the 2003/2004 outbreak, shares most of its genome with SARS CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19. This suggests that inhaled NO therapy may be effective for treating patients with COVID-19. Indeed, several clinical trials of inhaled NO in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, who require ventilators, are currently ongoing in several institutions. The hope is that inhaled NO will prove to be an effective therapy and lessen the need for ventilators and beds in the ICU.

The sinuses in the nasal cavity, but not the mouth, continuously produce NO. The NO produced in the nasal cavity is chemically identical to the NO that is used clinically by inhalation. So by inhaling through the nose, you are delivering NO directly into your lungs, where it increases both airflow and blood flow and keeps microorganisms and virus particles in check.

While anxiously awaiting the results of the clinical trials with inhaled NO, and the development of an effective vaccine against COVID-19, we should be on guard and practice breathing properly to maximize the inhalation of nitric oxide into our lungs. Remember to inhale through your nose; exhale through your mouth.

Louis J. Ignarro, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Molecular & Medical Pharmacology, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.