Your local boozer might be shut but the pub quiz lives on, with everyone from Helen Mirren to Stephen Fry asking the questions
In an unidentified magnolia room, Lenny Henry is yelling: “Let me hear you say: ‘YEAH.’” Next to his face, a live chat feed blurts out heart emojis and comments such as: “Hello, Sir Lenny!”. Or: “I’ve had the biggest crush on Lenny Henry since his Chef days.” Or: “Hi, my team name is Wuhan Clan.”
The Dudley comic is hosting the National Theatre’s online pub quiz, a pre-recorded broadcast, streamed via YouTube and Facebook. He is joined by Lesley Manville, Helen Mirren and Ian McKellen to pose 15 minutes’ worth of intensely difficult general knowledge questions to the public. And, bizarrely, to announce that: “I will pull interesting faces while you write the answer down,” before shooting his eyebrows to the sky and gaping his jaw as if he’s running an advertising campaign for his own tonsils. Still, this is lockdown living; everything’s a bit odd.
Continue reading...Now this is just our kind of funny misunderstanding. Mom overhears her daughter on the phone, pieces together what she heard, leaps to a big assumption, and bam, assumes daughter is pregnant. Naturally, the resulting picture was absurd and totally avoidable. Good stuff.
Andrew's mother was dying in hospital under lockdown, so he used technology to spend time with her.
Representational Image
In a shocking case, a teenage girl jumped off a moving train after her mobile phone slipped from her hand and fell on the platform at Khoparkhairane. The girl, a class 11 student has suffered severe head injuries and has been admitted to Mathadi Kamgar hospital in Koparkhairane.
Turbhe RPF’s inspector Lokesh Sagar said, "The incident occurred around 11.45am on platform number 1. The collegian, her friends and some of their teachers were on their way to Nerul for an event. As the group boarded the Nerul-bound train, Tejashri’s mobile slipped from her hand and fell on the platform. By then, the train had picked up speed but still, the girl jumped off to get the phone. Her friends alighted at Turbhe and returned to Koparkhairane to help her but she had already been taken to a hospital."
An RPF constable who was deployed at khoparkhairane station saw the incident and rushed the girl to Mathadi Kamgar hospital near bus depot in an auto, without waiting for an ambulance reported Times of India.
Lokesh Sagar added, "Doctors treating Tejashri said that she was administered eight stitches and is out danger. We handed over her mobile to her family members when they came to the hospital."
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
Thane Crime Branch Unit I on Wednesday arrested a man along with two others for allegedly procuring the Call Detail Records (CDR) of his wife's phone while the couple's divorce case is on. The victim has also alleged that a police officer has been helping her husband get the call records of her and her friend's phones.
According to the police, Ketan Bundela married Surjit Kaur in 2011, and filed for a divorce in the same year. He later began harassing Kaur, who sought help from her friend Vishal Patane. Bundela was also aided by his brother Kunal and brother-in-law Farooq Shaikh in harassing Kaur.
Bundela and Kaur worked together in a well-known company, where the two fell in love and decided to get married. "My nightmare began right from the second day of our marriage. They made me participate in some horrible rituals. My husband also asked me to maintain relations with his brother Kunal. I soon left that house and returned to Mumbai from Pune. He then sent me a divorce notice. He also influenced my lawyer which is why the case is still on," said Kaur.
Along with her friend Patane, Kaur recently caught hold of Shaikh's phone when they found the CDR and thus approached the Crime Branch. "We have arrested the accused and secured their custody. There is so far no involvement of any police officer," said a Crime Branch officer.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
More than a quarter of India's population or 337 million people would use a smartphone in 2018 -- a 16 per cent growth which is the highest rate of any country in the world -- market research company eMarketer said on Thursday.
Since its last forecast, eMarketer increased its estimate for the smartphone audience in India by more than 31 million people.
This uptick is thanks to the growth in smartphone usage in urban areas, where affordable smartphones are becoming widely available, the research firm said in a statement.
"India still faces technological challenges that are holding back mass smartphone adoption. "Mobile Internet speeds are among the slowest in the world, around two-thirds of the population still lives in rural areas and feature phones are by no means obsolete," said Chris Bendtsen, Senior Forecasting Analyst, eMarketer.
Advertisers can still be optimistic about the future.
"Smartphones are getting cheaper, mobile data prices have fallen and urbanisation continues. Over the next four years, as speeds and rural reach improve, eMarketer expects the smartphone audience to reach close to half a billion users," Bendtsen noted.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
YouTube has begun rolling out support for high dynamic range (HDR) video content for iPhone X, the media reported.
For iOS users, YouTube videos in HDR can be viewed on the iPhone X, but the feature does not yet appear to be working on the latest iPad Pro models, MacRumors reported late on Thursday.
HDR videos provide a broader range of colours and also supports quality video playback on a variety of screen sizes. YouTube has platforms like "The HDR Channel" that provides HDR videos for iOS.
Apple debuted HDR support last year with the "Super Retina" display in the iPhone X, which became the first HDR OLED display incorporated into one of Apple's smartphones, the report added.
On the iTunes Movies Store on Apple TV 4K, select films also support 4K, HDR10, and "Dolby Vision" when paired with compatible 4K television sets, the report added.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Aiming to disrupt India's mid-segment smartphone market, Samsung is set to launch four new smartphones -- two each in Galaxy "A" and Galaxy "J" series -- this month.
The upcoming Galaxy A6 and Galaxy A6+ smartphones could be priced between Rs 20,000 and Rs 25,000 while the devices in Galaxy "J" series could cost customers Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000, industry sources told IANS on Friday.
Two of the four smartphones in the upcoming line-up would come with dual camera set-up, the sources added.
All of them will be made at the company's Noida facility. The smartphones will feature Samsung's super AMOLED "Infinity Display" -- bezel-less screen that creates an immersive viewing experience.
Notably, Samsung's flagship smartphones such as Galaxy Note 8 and Galaxy S9 series feature the "Infinity Display". Now, with the upcoming devices, the display feature would be introduced at lower price points in the Indian market.
The South Korean giant first introduced the "Infinity Display" in Galaxy S8 series in 2017.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Targeted at millennials, Chinese smartphone maker OPPO on Tuesday debuted its sub-brand "Realme 1" smartphone in India for Rs 8,990 (3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage model).
The 6GB RAM and 128GB internal storage variant is priced at Rs 13,990.
The smartphone comes with the world's first 12-nm Artificial Intelligence-based MediaTek Helio P60 chipset with "AI shot" technology.
"Realme 1 is focused at young online consumers and is primed to be a market disruptor with a stylish design," Madhav Seth, Chief Executive Officer, Realme India, said in a statement.
The device will be available on Amazon India, starting May 25, in diamond black and solar red colour variants.
A third variant with 4GB RAM and 64GB onboard storage, in moonlight silver and diamond black colours for Rs 10,990 will go on sale in June.
Realme users will have access to over 500 OPPO service centres across the country with guaranteed 90 per cent repair cases resolved within an hour.
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Illustration/Amit Bandre
New Delhi: On an average, a college student in India checks his mobile phone over 150 times a day, according to a study conducted by Aligarh Muslim University and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).
The research, titled "Smartphone Dependency, Hedonism and Purchase Behaviour: Implications for Digital India Initiatives", has been conducted in 20 central universities, where 200 students each were interviewed.
"Anxiety and fear of missing out on information make university students check their mobile devices as many as 150 times a day on an average, an activity which can have adverse effects on the students' health as well as academics. "Only 26 per cent of the respondents said they use smartphones primarily to make calls. The remaining respondents use smartphones for other purposes such as accessing social networking sites, Google searches and for entertainment such as watching movies," said Mohammed Naved Khan, the Project Director.
At least 14 per cent of the students use smartphones for three hours or less in a day while around 63 per cent of them use it for four to seven hours daily.
"It came as a shock to us that around 23 per cent (of students) use the devices for more than eight hours a day," Khan added.
According to the study, eighty per cent of the students own a mobile phone and most of them prefer smartphones owing to convenience in the installation of applications, host of features, and ease of use and also work as affordable substitutes for a computer. The study conducted by researchers at AMU has been funded by the ICSSR with an aim to understand various facets of smartphone dependency and addiction among college-going students.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Representational Image
Surgeons are developing a new smartphone-based tool that can detect urethral or urine blockage, potentially making it easier for patients to test themselves for the condition from the comfort of their own homes.
The novel technique could take high-speed photography which could capture subtle differences between a normal steady stream of liquid and a stream of liquid with an obstruction.
Urethral strictures are a slowing or blocking of the natural flow of urine due to an injury or infection. It is normally diagnosed by uroflowmetry, a test administered at a physician's office.
"The problem is that patient follow-up after we treat this condition is very poor," said Matthew Gretzer, Associate Professor at the University of Arizona in the US.
"But we need patients to come back to our clinic for a uroflow test to determine if the obstruction is still present," he added.
In order to test Gretzer's hypothesis on high-speed photography, the team created a model of a urethral structure using tubing hooked to a saline bag that could drain through.
Saline fluid was passed through the tubing with and without blockages, created using 3D printed strictures,placed within the tubing. High-speed photography captured both the regular and blocked stream of liquid exiting the tube.
Gretzer contended that photos can be a medium to diagnose blockages and he hopes that patients could send him these images to analyse and make the diagnosis. He plans to create a mobile app which can be downloaded by the patients.
"All patients would need to do is take high-speed images of their urine flow using a strobe light," Gretzer said.
"Strobe light apps are readily available right now for people to use on their phones".
According to the researchers, as fluid exits an opening, a natural breakpoint occurs where the liquid stream forms droplets, but with obstructions in place, it changes.
The results showed that by analysing photos, they could measure the length to this point of droplet formation. This length then directly related to the presence of an obstruction in the tube.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
The 'No Mobile Phones' diktat issued by the Election Commission for voters at polling centres had a rather ambiguous implementation. While some carried it along inside the polling booth, others were asked to keep it out. With directions about phones not being allowed in the 100 meters vicinity of polling stations, the Election Commission had not made any provisions for safekeeping of phones.
Also Read: Election 2019: Mumbai scrapes through in voting report card
The rule ended up confusing voters across the city. Many were unaware of the 'no phone' policy and were left waiting outside the polling centres. The EC had issued such orders after some voters were found clicking pictures while voting during the last elections.
While most polling stations had police officials preventing voters from carrying their phones inside, there was no security checking of the bags that some voters carried, "thus making it difficult to ascertain if they were carrying a phone or not," said officials. Some centres also saw the police asking voters to hand over their phones to people standing behind them in the queue.
Dhanraji Yadav, who was at the Manohar Joshi Mahavidyalaya in Dharavi along with her family, said that police officials at the gate asked them if they were carrying any phones. "I waited with all the phones while my family voted. But while I was waiting there, the same police officials allowed other people to carry them by switching them off," Yadav said. An official said that the directives had come from the Election Commission of India. "We couldn't be responsible for everyone's phones and asked them to not bring them."
Also Read: Elections 2019: Regular voters find their name missing at polling booths
100m
Distance around polling booth where phones were not allowed
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
The Maharashtra Jail Administration has allowed prisoners to talk to their families over landlines. as family visits to jails have been disallowed due to the lockdown.
There are a around 36,000 prisoners across jails in Maharashtra, out of which 8,500 prisoners have been convicted. The total capacity of these jails is 24,000 so most jails in the state are overpopulated. In an attempt to create social distancing within the prisons, 4,611 accused who were serving jail sentences for non-serious crimes, were released on bail. However, the state administration continues to keep those involved in serious crimes behind bars.
According to a jail official, allowing inmates to communicate over phone was allowed so that they could be in touch with their families. The officer said, "We have details of all the accused and on the basis of those, we call their houses and allow them to speak to their families." Otherwise the accused could meet their families once a month.
The phone call facility between the accused and their family members are being allowed in every jail in the state. Around 25 accused are able to talk to their families every day. Every accused gets to make a phone call once a month.
IG Prisons, Deepak Pandey told mid-day, "The jailer first confirms that the person on the other side of the phone is a member of the family of the accused, only then the call is allowed. A duration of 5 minutes is given for each conversation between the inmate and their family."
Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.
Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news
Dear Diana,
Of late, my husband has been hooked to his cell phone. His conversations are long and he always steps away to talk. I have even tried to eavesdrop, but he talks so softly that I cannot fathom anything. It is clear that he is looking at something more than just conversations with the caller. I feel he is attracted to another woman from the way he is all smiles after the conversation ends. My husband behaves as if nothing is amiss. A few days ago, we went to a party. Suddenly, he disappeared for an hour. He sent me a message saying that he had to attend an urgent call. On the way back home, I questioned him. He told me not to read too much into the calls. I don't know what to do. If I keep asking my husband, it will surely create problems between us. How do I know who the caller is?
— Roshni
Dear Roshni,
You need to know with whom he is indulging in such long conversations. Do not waste any further time in telling your hubby what is on your mind. More importantly, he needs to tell you the truth. He is hiding things from you which is strange. This is making you speculate. It could be a work related call and things could be hectic on his office front, but he needs to tell you. Or it could be someone else. You feel there is another woman in his life. Your hubby may have fallen for someone, but he should realise that he is married. Sooner or later, things could take an ugly turn if he gets more and more involved with these calls. He is ruining things by being secretive. It is time he spills the beans and told you what is going on. If you need help, speak to someone else from the family or a close pal.
Hina Khan is the classic example of been there, done that. In a career spanning over a decade, the actor has dabbled in fictional shows, reality TV and web series. Now, she has appeared in her first short film, Smartphone, available on the Ullu App. The short film has her essaying the role of a homemaker. The actor believes the film's message of women empowerment drew her in. "Suman [her character] showcases true women power. The film highlights how one should not underestimate anybody," she says.
If the story struck a chord with her, working with Akshay Oberoi and Kunaal Roy Kapoor was an enriching experience as they fed off each other's creative energies. "There's always something interesting to pick up from the way your co-actor works on himself during a shoot. We all learnt something from one another whether it was during our rehearsals or over conversations about our respective characters."
Hina Khan
Few actors can boast an easy transition from legacy television to streaming, but Khan believes every medium has been instrumental in helping her grow as a performer. "Every medium has been kind to me. After television where I was a part of some amazing shows [including Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai and Kasautii Zindagii Kay], digital entertainment and films gave me a grand welcome with Damaged 2 and Hacked respectively. At the moment, OTT platforms are producing impressive content. The diversity [they offer] is enriching for an actor."
Catch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps.
Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news
Representational picture
New Delhi: If you've ever felt disgusted when your partner paid more attention to his/her phone on a date then you are not the only one. Most adults in India paid more attention to their smartphone than their partner when they were together, a new study has revealed.
Sixty per cent of adults surveyed said their partner paid more attention to their own smart device when they were together on a date.
The study, titled "Three's Company: Lovers, Friends and Devices" and released on Wednesday by Intel Security, aims to understand the online behaviour of people and how it affects their relationship with friends and significant others.
Money, gifts and a dinner in a glamorous restaurant mean nothing in a relationship when the partners pay no attention to each other. The study found that 57 per cent of those studied had to compete with their partner's smartphone for attention on a first date.
An intrusion into a relationship leads to a quarrel which is corroborated by the fact that 75 per cent of the adults reported getting into an argument with a friend, significant other, or family member over being on a device while together.
The study involved 1,400 Indian adults who use an internet-connected device on a daily basis.
Amid this lack of attention in relationships, it was revealed that 46 per cent of couples share passwords to social media accounts, 38 per cent share passwords to personal email accounts and, interestingly, nearly 35 per cent of adults share their work-specific devices and accounts with their significant other.
Intel Security suggested using long passwords including numbers, and lowercase and uppercase letters, as well as symbols.
This Valentine's Day, if you are planning to make your partner smile, make sure to pay more attention to his/her words than the text on your smartphone.
Representational picture
A recent study conducted by a popular dating website on over 5,000 smartphone users above the age of 18 has some interesting findings regarding their dating behaviour. According to the results, Android users are apparently judged 21 times more negatively by iPhone users for using a smartphone running an Android OS.
On the other hand, Android users are likely to judge an iPhone user 15 times more negatively.
The study found that one major reason for this is the possibility of an iPhone user belonging to a higher income strata than an Android user. 40 per cent more than the median Android users earn lesser money than an iPhone user per year, which would a deciding factor, when it comes to going on a date.
Additionally, the study found that 15 per cent of adults, who are currently dating would think twice before dating someone with a cracked smartphone screen. This is regardless of whether the person is a iPhone or Android user. Other aspects like bad grammar, bad fashion sense, crooked or discoloured teeth also played a role in their decision making.
He posed as Superintendent of Police (SP), called up a subordinate police official and asked him to get his mobile phone repaired or face the consequences. But, his bluff was later called and the man landed in lockup. Azamgarh SP Triveni Singh said the 23-year-old youth, Shubham Upadhyay, is the son of a farmer. He was preparing for competitive exams when his phone developed a snag on Saturday.
He tried to reach out to local mechanics, but they were unavailable to fix it due to the lockdown. Upadhyay used a free caller identification app to call up the in-charge of the Kotwali police station, K. K. Gupta, and threatened to shunt him out, if he failed to swiftly get the work done. Gupta grew suspicious and eventually caught the youth.
In his statement to the police, Shubham Upadhyay said, "On Sunday noon, I tried to breach the district borders to reach Lucknow to repair my phone, but since there was heavy police presence and barricading, I returned home. Later, I installed a free caller identification app in my handset and mentioned the name as SP Azamgarh and even uploaded a photo of the cop to appear genuine." He first called SHO, Kotwali to get the phone repaired and was told the handset would be picked up from the SP office in an hour. Then, he called a businessman to bring his SUV and hand over his mobile to the SHO.
But when Upadhyay called the police again to suggest a separate meeting point, he raised suspicion. When the SHO tried to confirm the venue, Upadhyay got hesitant and said he would send a peon. "I suddenly realised something was fishy and rang up the public relation officer of SP Azamgarh, who denied any such order from the SP. When the caller's number was scanned, it displayed the name of SP Azamgarh," said SHO Gupta.
A trap was laid and when the SHO reached the venue, he found one Praveen Shukla sitting in the vehicle. Police got the address of the accused from Shukla and reached Upadhyay's home in Bilariya locality and arrested him.
Upadhyay has been booked under IT Act and for threatening a public servant.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates.
Mid-Day is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@middayinfomedialtd) and stay updated with the latest news
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever
Representational Image
While Google Duplex, which lets AI mimic a human voice to make appointments and book tables through phone calls, has mesmerised people with its capabilities and attracted flak on ethical grounds at the same time, Microsoft has showcased a similar technology it has been testing in China.
At an AI event in London on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed that the company's Xiaoice social chatbot has 500 million "friends" and more than 16 channels for Chinese users to interact with it through WeChat and other popular messaging services.
"Microsoft has turned Xiaoice, which is Chinese for 'little Bing', into a friendly bot that has convinced some of its users that the bot is a friend or a human being. Xiaoice has her own TV show, it writes poetry and it does many interesting things," The Verge quoted Nadella as saying.
Xiaoice interacts in text conversations but now the company has started allowing the chat bot to call people on their phones.
The bot does not work exactly like Google Duplex, which uses the Assistant to make calls on a user's behalf but it holds a phone conversation with the user.
"One of the things we started doing earlier this year is having full duplex conversations. So now Xiaoice can be conversing with you in WeChat and stop and call you. Then you can just talk to it using voice," Nadella was quoted as saying.
Humans will be humans and the latest victim of humankind was Microsoft.
Two years ago, Microsoft launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered bot on Twitter, named Tay, for a playful chat with people, only to silence it within 24 hours as users started sharing racist and offensive comments with the bot.
Launched as an experiment in "conversational understanding" and to engage people through "casual and playful conversation", Tay was soon bombarded with racial comments and the innocent bot repeated those comments back with her commentary to users.
Some of the tweets had Tay referring to Hitler, denying the Holocaust, and supporting Donald Trump's immigration plans, among others.
Later, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the company is taking Tay off Twitter as people were posting abusive comments to her.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
Representational Image
Scientists have developed the first ultrasound-firewall that can prevent hackers from eavesdropping on hidden data transmission between smartphones and other mobile devices. The permanent networking of mobile devices can endanger the privacy of users and lead to new forms of monitoring.
New technologies such as Google Nearby and Silverpush use ultrasonic sounds to exchange information between devices via loudspeakers and microphones. More and more of our devices communicate via this inaudible communication channel. Ultrasonic communication allows devices to be paired and information to be exchanged.
It also makes it possible to track users and their behaviour over a number of devices, much like cookies on the Web. Almost every device with a microphone and a loudspeaker can send and receive ultrasonic sounds. Users are usually unaware of this inaudible and hidden data transmission.
Researchers from the St Polten University of Applied Sciences in Austria has developed a mobile application that detects acoustic cookies, brings them to the attention of users and if desired, blocks the tracking.
The app is, in a sense, the first available ultrasound-firewall for smartphones and tablets "The most challenging part of developing the app was to devise a method that can detect different existing ultrasound-transmission techniques reliably and in real time," said Matthias Zeppelzauer, who led the project.
Such ultrasonic signals can be used for so-called "cross-device tracking". This makes it possible to track the user's behaviour across multiple devices, and relevant user profiles can be merged with one other. In this way, more accurate user profiles can be created for targeted advertising and filtering of internet content.
Unlike their electronic counterparts when visiting web pages, up to now it has not been possible to block acoustic cookies.
"In order to accept voice commands, the mobile phone microphone is often permanently active. Every mobile application that has access to the microphone, as well as the operating system itself, can at any time without notice: activate the microphone of a mobile device, listen to it, detect acoustic cookies and synchronise it over the Internet," said Zeppelzauer.
Users are often not informed of this information transmission during ongoing operation. Only a permanent deactivation of the microphone would help, whereby the device as a telephone would become unusable. Researchers developed a procedure to expose the cookies and inform device users. For masking and blocking the ultrasonic data transfer, interference signals are transmitted via the loudspeaker of the mobile device.
Thus, acoustic cookies can be neutralised before operating systems or mobile applications can access them. Users can selectively block cookies without affecting the functionality of the smartphone. The masking of the cookies occurs by means of ultrasound, which is inaudible to humans.
"There is currently no technology on the market that can detect and block acoustic cookies. The application developed in this project represents the first approach that gives people control over this type of tracking," said Zeppelzauer.
Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also, download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates
The OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z earphones come with a magnetic stripe on the earbuds that pause music when attached.
COVID-19 will lead to fundamental, and possibly, permanent behavioural changes in the way people shop, consume media and how they regard the brands they do business with, said Prabhu Ram of CMR
Xiaomi has finally launched the Mi 10 in India, and with starting price of Rs 49,999, it goes up against the likes of the OnePlus 8 and the OnePlus 8 Pro, which were recently launched in India. Here it is compared with the OnePlus 8 Pro.
International Water Management Institute (IWMI) launched a mobile app, called AgRISE, in support of a new national agricultural insurance scheme.
The heavy use of smartphones is affecting our state of mind and now, the devices are ruining the sex lives of people too, a new study has found. The
An average Indian is spending one-third of his or her waking hours on phone - nearly 1,800 hours a year. Three out offour respondent said if smartphone
As the novel coronavirus becomes pandemic, people are focused on stopping the spread of germs through largescale quarantines and everyday best practices like hand washing.
In people with Parkinson's disease, cognitive-behavioral therapy by telephone was found to be effective for treating depression, revealed study published
For the phone app to be effective and sustainable, it must only be regarded as being a part of a more integrated approach to development and codesigned with the end users.
Mobile phones host cocktail of live germs, aiding spread of diseases and urging billions of users worldwide to decontaminate their devices daily, warned new study.
Current regulations for the smartphone apps to spot skin cancers does not provide adequate protection to the public, said researchers. The findings of the study are published in The BMJ.
Extending its P series, Panasonic India on Tuesday launched a new smartphone P71 that will come in two variants.
Domestic start-up Hyve Mobility in collaboration with MediaTek on Wednesday launched a new smartphone 'Pryme' at Rs.17,999.
October turned out to be the best month for the Indian smartphone market because of the festivals. With the launch of some amazing and most anticipated smartphones