WHATSAPP: THESE TIPS FOR READING YOUR MESSAGES WITHOUT OPENING THE APPLICATION

 In recent years, WhatsApp has become one of the most used messaging services with 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, whether on iPhone or Android. Like many other applications, WhatsApp allows users to see when their callers have received and read their messages, and then when they are replying to them.

These options can be overwhelming for those who wish to maintain more privacy. A few tips then allow you to keep a little discretion. The most famous is not a surprise: it is a question of unchecking the option "confirmation of reading" (the 2 brackets in blue), which thus makes it possible to justify the reading of the message. However, the read receipts in the grouped messages as well as for the voice notes remain active all the same.

The other problem is that if the other party cannot know when we read their message, we cannot see when they discover ours either. Rather logical. This is why there are other ways to read your messages without having to uncheck the read option.

The following techniques allow you to read all of your received messages (not just the first few words) without opening the app.

• USE WIDGETS

This is an app sponsored feature. It allows you to host a window on the home screen. The latter will display the latest notifications from all your apps, including WhatsApp. You will then be able to read your last received messages, without having to open the application.

• FROM THE HOME SCREEN

If you have an iPhone, you can simply click on your notification from the Home screen or Notification Center and read your latest messages with your finger pressed on it.

• SINCE HISTORY

If you have an Android, check your notification history, which is located in your phone's settings. If you click on the notification you are interested in, the message will expand on its own, without having to go to WhatsApp. This last option will not work if you have muted the conversation in question.

Ads addressing gender, religion or ethnicity are also not allowed on Facebook

 Yesterday, Wednesday, Facebook announced its intention to stop advertisers from targeting and exploiting users of the Facebook and Instagram applications, by addressing and exploiting their sensitive interests such as sexual orientation, or political, racial or religious affiliation.

This major shift in the behavior of the social media giant coincides with the major crisis it is facing due to the leaks of Frances Hogan, a former employee of the company, who accused her of prioritizing her profits over the safety of her users.

The network generated $84 billion in revenue in 2020, mostly due to advertising revenue.

Advertisers accept platforms like these because they can target their campaigns precisely at users, as they can choose from thousands of people and categorize people based on the pages they viewed or the ads they stopped at.

Effective January 19, 2022, Facebook will remove thousands of ads, Pages, and personal and group accounts that engage in promotional activities targeting sexual orientation or chronic disease.

The company will also remove ads that use religious terms such as the Catholic Church or religious holidays, as well as political or ethnic affiliations.

This move aims to prevent abuse and systematic exploitation and encourage people to do negative or dangerous practices only because they are gay, cancer patients or of a particular religion, for example.

In January, the Transparency Project denounced advertisements for bulletproof vests targeting members of far-right groups on Facebook.

The site also criticized Facebook for allowing real estate classified ads that "exclude people of color, families with children, women, or people with disabilities."

The new ban will apply to all Meta-owned apps, including Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and the Facebook Audience Network.

Apple to launch "Business Package" for small and medium-sized businesses

 Apple announced, on Wednesday, the launch of a package of business tools for small companies (500 employees), with monthly subscriptions of about $ 3, in an offer that is expected to ignite competition with companies such as Google and Microsoft, which provide these services and dominate the market.

The service will be officially known, according to CNBC, as "Apple Business Essentials" and includes around-the-clock support and storage space on Apple's iCloud service, and can "help businesses with everything" and will provide training for employees to use and install the service.

Subscription plans offer a three-tier package, the price of which increases with the number of subscribers, and it can also be linked to Apple's video and music services.

Similar services from Microsoft and Google have enabled millions of employees and students to stay connected, work and study remotely during the past two years, due to the spread of the Corona virus.

It is believed that the demand for these services will increase, given the trend towards remote work, which has begun to increase in the United States and the world.

YouTube decides to remove the dislike counter button

 YouTube has announced that it will remove the "dislike" counter in a move to protect content from "hate attacks," according to a company press release.

YouTube believes that this decision will protect content creators from "harassment", especially when a group cooperates to increase the number of "dislikes" of a particular clip.

YouTube says it will remove the "Dislike" counter, but will keep the "Dislike" button so that these numbers will remain available to creators within the clip number analytics.

This change comes after an experiment conducted by YouTube this year, which aimed to determine whether such changes would reduce harassment of content creators and hate attacks.

Although details of this experiment were not disclosed, the experiment examined the effects of the "Dislike" button on users and content creators.

YouTube indicated that the "Dislike" counter can affect "content creators" and motivate campaigns to target specific clips, which may be misleading at times.

The "dislike" counter affects more those with YouTube channels that are still small with "dislike" attacks than those with YouTube channels with a large number of subscribers.

And social platforms and networks had sought to reduce negative feelings and indicators that could affect content makers and the user alike, which was what Instagram had done at an earlier stage.

Google loses appeal against the European Union

A fine of 2.4 billion euros .. Google loses an appeal against the European Union

 Google lost an appeal on Wednesday against a 2.4 billion euro ($2.8 billion) fine imposed by the European Union for abusing its dominance of search engines, marking a major win for the bloc in its antitrust dispute with the tech giant.

The ruling by the General Court of Luxembourg confirmed the historic decision made by the European Commission in 2017.

But Google can appeal the ruling again if it decides to take the case to the EU's highest court, the European Court of Justice.

"Today's ruling sends a clear message that Google's behavior was unlawful and provides the necessary legal clarity to the market," the European Commission said in a statement.

The case centers on Google's shopping service, and is one of three cases against the search engine giant that is currently moving through the EU's lengthy appeals system.

At the time, it was the largest fine ever imposed by the European Union. But it was later overtaken by a €4.3 billion fine against Google over its Android smartphone operating system.

In its appeal, Google and its parent company Alphabet argued that the EU was "erroneous in the substance of the law and the economic facts and data" in the search engine case.

But the court said it had "mostly rejected the lawsuit brought by the two companies and upheld the fine imposed by the Commission."

By favoring Google Shopping over its competitors in search result rankings and positioning, she said, "Google has moved away from the competition on merit."

She dismissed Google's argument that major online retailers have their own sites, saying that "these platforms are not in the same market" where users go for comparison shopping.

A Google spokesperson said the company would study the ruling, adding: "This ruling relates to a very specific set of facts and while we will review them closely, we made changes in 2017 to comply with the European Commission's decision."

"Our approach for more than three years has generated billions of clicks for over 700 comparison shopping services," he continued.

As Google suffered a setback in the European Union, the company blocked a separate legal action in Britain on Wednesday, where the Supreme Court blocked a $4 billion class action lawsuit accusing it of illegally tracking millions of iPhone users.

Big win for Brussels

The Luxembourg court ruling is a victory for Marguerite Vestager, the EU's antitrust chief, who rose to prominence in Brussels by abandoning her predecessor's more conciliatory approach to the US internet giant.

Vestager lost in the same court in a different major case against Apple and Ireland in which its team ordered iPhone to pay 13 billion euros plus interest to Irish taxpayers. The European Union has appealed this ruling.

The fine was imposed on Google after seven years of investigation that began after complaints from other price comparison services that saw a sharp drop in traffic compared to Google Shopping.

Experts believe that if the ruling is not overturned in a subsequent appeal, Google's similar actions with regard to vacation rentals and job advertisements could be the next target of the European Union Commission.

Besides paying the fine, Google was asked to address the issue identified by the EU lawsuit, even with an appeal.

The company has modified the search display to give more prominence to competing shopping complexes, as well as travel and tourism consultancy sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp.

"Artificial Intelligence" .. the destination of the Gulf countries

 Over the past years, the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council have worked to promote and exploit artificial intelligence techniques in various fields, thus entering one of the greatest doors of the technological boom in the world.

These technologies, which are included in the fields of health, industry, education, services, trade, financial transactions, and others, contribute to saving a lot of effort, time and money, in addition to enhancing production and producing it with better quality.

It counts on any country that enters in this field to contribute to the strengthening of its economy and its inclusion in the lists of economic superpowers during the coming decades.

A recent study conducted by researchers from the universities of "Oxford" British and "Yale" of America, revealed that there is a 50% chance that artificial intelligence will outperform human intelligence in all areas within 45 years.

It is also expected to be able to take over all human jobs within 120 years.

The study emphasized that artificial intelligence is rapidly improving its capabilities, and is increasingly proving itself in areas historically dominated by humans. The study also predicts that self-driving technology will replace millions of taxi drivers, around the world.

According to the study, many experts predict that within a century artificial intelligence will be able to do anything that a human can do.

• QATAR

Returning to the interest of the Gulf countries in the world of technology; Qatar was one of the most prominent countries that noticed the importance of artificial intelligence and worked to launch powerful projects in it.

In March 2021, the Qatari Cabinet approved a draft resolution to establish a committee to develop mechanisms for the follow-up and implementation of Qatar's strategy for artificial intelligence.

The committee has several competencies; Including: developing mechanisms for the follow-up and implementation of the Qatar Artificial Intelligence Strategy, in coordination with the ministries and concerned authorities in the country, towards achieving the strategy’s objectives.

The strategy works on harnessing artificial intelligence to secure Qatar's economic and strategic future, in accordance with the "Qatar 2030" vision, and preparing society to effectively adopt artificial intelligence technology in line with local needs and traditions.

medium;">Qatar's national strategy in the field of artificial intelligence was built on 6 pillars; These are: education, data access, employment, business, research, and ethics.

Qatar advanced in the global ranking index of the Artificial Intelligence Index by occupying the 29th place, with a growth rate of 37% compared to the last classification.

• Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, efforts do not stop at developing artificial intelligence as well. Last August, Riyadh announced its goal to establish 400 companies in the field of artificial intelligence and contribute to attracting investments in this field over the next 10 years, estimated at 80 billion riyals (about 21 billion dollars).

At the end of last year, the Kingdom revealed its intention to spend nearly $20 billion over the next 10 years on developing artificial intelligence and technological technologies.

The head of the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence, Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi, said in his statements on the sidelines of the "Group of Twenty" summit, at the time, that there is a share for foreign investment, and another for Saudi investment.

He pointed out that the Saudi National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence was launched in October 2020, and it includes an integrated path to encourage investment in artificial intelligence.

He pointed out that by 2024, 70% of organizations in the Kingdom will use artificial intelligence-based infrastructure and smart cloud services to activate artificial intelligence.

More than 50% of organizations use hosted AI services; To boost its application portfolios by 2023, according to Al-Ghamdi.

• UAE

The UAE is adopting a strategy for artificial intelligence "2031", which was launched in 2017 as the first major project within the UAE Centennial 2071, in which it relies on digital science to reach a future that keeps pace with the current changes through a technological path that seeks to be the first and best in the world.

The UAE ranked first in the Arab world as one of the best countries in the world in the "Digital Competitiveness" index for 2020, recently issued by the Global Competitiveness Center of the International Institute for Management Development in the Swiss city of Lausanne.

The UAE ranked 14th globally, in the general ranking, ahead of countries such as Australia, China, Germany, France, Japan and Belgium.

According to the report of the Global Competitiveness Center of the International Institute for Management Development in Switzerland, that the great leap made by Abu Dhabi in the competitiveness of smart cities is due to its success in adopting smart technologies to improve the lives of its residents.

Last August, the UAE launched the National Artificial Intelligence Program in partnership with universities and government agencies.

The program aims to enhance students’ and youth’s awareness of the latest developments in the field of artificial intelligence, and its impact on the future of humanity, and introduce them to the most important universities and academic institutions that provide them with different specializations in this vital field, and government agencies and private sector institutions that provide scholarships and study facilities in this vital sector.

• Kuwait

In January 2021, the Kuwaiti newspaper "Al-Anbaa" reported that the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development seeks to develop an integrated system for preparing and following-up the state's five-year plan and feasibility studies for plan projects within the development plan projects.

The newspaper pointed out that Kuwait aims to use artificial intelligence to assess project performance and make correct decisions immediately to feed them into the project management phase and the preparation phase of the national development plan, as well as providing training and transferring knowledge to system users regarding the use and maintenance of the system.

• Bahrain

The Kingdom of Bahrain launched, for the first time in its history, in 2019, an artificial intelligence academy at Bahrain Technical College, in a move aimed at providing a platform to enhance innovation and creativity capabilities in the field of artificial intelligence.

The new academy provides an integrated curriculum that contains several technical tracks; These include the disciplines of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Analytics, and the Fundamentals of Deep Machine Learning.

In March 2021, Bahrain organized the first Bahraini international conference on artificial intelligence in the judiciary, entitled "Courts 4.0".

The president of the conference, Dr. Jassem Hajji, in a press statement at the time: "This conference is the first international conference on artificial intelligence in the judiciary to be held in the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council," stressing that "the use of artificial intelligence in the judiciary will improve the efficiency of courtrooms."

The National Program for Artificial Intelligence in the UAE and the Nasser Center for Rehabilitation and Vocational Training in Bahrain signed, last June, a cooperation agreement to enhance partnership in developing artificial intelligence skills and the digital economy.

• Oman

On October 6, 2021, Oman Data Park launched a cloud artificial intelligence service, which will contribute to improving the productivity of economic sectors and push the national economy into technical transformation, under the patronage of the Omani Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology Ali bin Amer Al Shethani.

Within the new service, Oman Data Park will work on the growth of options related to artificial intelligence in the Sultanate; To provide new opportunities using world-leading artificial intelligence systems.

The launch of the cloud artificial intelligence service, which is the first of its kind in the Sultanate; In line with the Sultanate’s efforts to keep pace with technical developments compatible with the requirements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Through this, the Sultanate seeks to benefit from the uses of artificial intelligence in various economic and medical fields, banking, financial and industrial services, transportation and logistical support, and other various fields and sectors.

Is Metaverse making our world darker?

 Cyberbullying, controlling politics, and influencing the nature of human thinking – risks that may become even greater under the new “Facebook” project. Scholars and critics of the project are calling for a “controller” for the giant company.

Meta, which was under the brand name Facebook, has started investing in a new technology project that promises to create a virtuous world, but is this world dystopian, unlike the company's promise, with billions of dollars for nothing?

That's what Liverpool Hope University Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Spatial Computing, Dr David Reed, believes, believes that the ambitious project could deepen current social media and internet problems, such as data privacy concerns and cyberbullying.

Reed said, in a statement posted on the university’s website, that the “Meta” project comes with a lot of great expectations and benefits, but also frightening risks, and for this a high control system must be established to monitor the project, adding that people fear the impact of “Twitter on politics now, but your influence.” Their opinion will differ greatly when you can move someone into a war zone, for example, and show them what's really going on."

Among the other issues that Read has addressed, cyberbullying stands out, which he believes will become more influential on the mental health of individuals, as bullies are likely to become more extremist, and believes that this technological development will blur the lines between virtual reality and reality, as the dominant On this reality he would have access to an unprecedented amount of data, and thus an enormous amount of "leverage".

Reed explains that many VR prototypes have face, eye, body and hand tracking technologies, and most have advanced cameras, some even incorporating electroencephalogram (EEG) technology in order to capture brain wave patterns, meaning that whatever you say or manipulate Or you look at it or even think about it can be monitored in the virtual world, and thus it will generate a huge database of individuals. That is why he believes that it is dangerous for only one company to control this information.

Scholar Reed is not the only one criticizing the project. Another prominent critic of Metaverse is Roger McNamee, an early investor in Facebook who has since become a stinging critic of the company. Speaking at the Web Summit in Lisbon, he said he believed Facebook had rushed the new project in an attempt to cover up the company's recent scandals, IFL Science reported.

McNamee stressed in an interview with the BBC, that "Facebook" should be prevented from creating "Dystopia Metaverse", adding: "Facebook should lose the right to make their own decisions. There should be a regulator that gives prior approval. For everything they do, the amount of damage they have caused is immeasurable.”

Upcoming Apple Watches and Phones Will Call Emergency When You Have an Accident

 Leaks reported by media outlets revealed that Apple will add a feature to its future devices that will make it able to call the 911 emergency phone when the user has a collision.

According to The Wall Street Journal, today, Monday, the company is expected to announce this feature next year.

Smart devices will have the ability to detect collisions using the accelerometer chip that will be embedded in the devices, which can sense any changes, sharp increases in gravity or sudden strong movement of the user's body.

The newspaper added that Apple has been testing the feature over the past year, and has collected data from many users.

She explained that the tech giant in California used emergency call data, which was previously made by owners of an Apple phone or watch with 911, in order to improve its fault detection algorithm.

It is noteworthy that the Apple Watch 4 was the first to add a fall detection feature, and now it is being developed to detect collisions.

Fall detection has saved many lives, most recently in March when a teacher fell into a puddle while skiing.

Apple’s contributions to the health sector have been numerous in previous years, as as part of the “iOS 15” operating system, Apple introduced a feature that measures a person’s stability in walking through the “Health” application.

The Apple Watch 6 was the first smartwatch to include a reader to measure the level of oxygen in the blood.

Apple is also working to detect whether a person is depressed by detecting signs of how a person uses their smartphone.

And in 2019, CEO Tim Cook said Apple's greatest achievement would be "health."

Did you know that you can open the car and start it on iPhone!

On Wednesday, Apple released its first beta version of its new beta 13.4 operating system, which, along with some expected performance and bug fixes, contains a new feature that could take the company to a new level.

Tech-oriented 9to5Mac website explained that the beta 13.4 beta includes references to a new auto key interface called CarKey.

It appears that this feature will allow users to lock and unlock their cars, or even operate them, using iPhone or Apple Watch phones.

According to the operating system files, the feature will work with any vehicle that supports NFC technology, that is, "short-range communication".

Simply, users have to bring their phone or watch closer to a reader near the car, to activate the CarKey feature, in which case the user will not need to use a Face ID or Touch ID or even a password, as long as the "Express Mode" feature is enabled, and this is similar What happens when you pay the iPhone through the Wallet app.

Users of this feature can share it with any other people they trust, such as family members.

According to 9 to5Mac, Apple is already working with several car manufacturers to introduce CarKey into their systems.

A driverless car from General Motors

The startup Cruise, the self-driving car maker whose majority shares General Motors, has revealed the first driverless car.

The electric-powered Cruze Origin system was developed by Honda, which also owns a stake in the company.

The car, which had no steering wheel or brakes, was supposed to be launched last year, but for special conditions it has been delayed until now.




Cruise said the car was designed for co-ownership, meaning "it is not a product that you buy, but rather an experience that you share with others."

The company's CEO, Dan Aman, seeks to keep drivers out of the idea of ​​individual ownership and turn them toward a sharing model, to help reduce emissions and accidents and reduce congestion.

Dan said in a speech at the launching ceremony in the city of San Francisco, that the Cruze Origin was not just a car model, "It is a self-driving, one hundred percent electric, it is a participatory car."

The company president did not say when the car would start production or how many cars he planned to manufacture. In addition, it did not grant permission to start using the roads, and it will require several extensive tests on the car before it is granted.

This is not the first time that Cruz has invaded the world of driverless cars. For years, the company has been testing modified Chevrolet Bolt electric cars, but with a driver.

General Motors was aiming to launch a commercial self-driving vehicle service in San Francisco last year, but postponed the plan, saying cars needed more testing.

The Cruze Origin faces unexpected technical challenges due to difficulties in determining whether the objects around it are moving.

Honda Motor Company bought 5.7 percent of Cruz shares for $ 2.75 billion in 2018. As part of this deal, General Motors announced plans to develop a self-driving car in October 2018. Japan's Soft Banks Vision Fund also invested in The company.

Other automakers have entered the manufacturing race to launch self-driving cars using the latest artificial intelligence technology, despite obstacles to regulation and safety measures they face. A number of deaths due to autonomous cars have led to greater government intervention and a call for further development and modernization of cars.

Artificial intelligence has limits

Researchers from India are trying to take advantage of artificial intelligence techniques to make digital copies of "dead characters" based on an electronic application that works on the digital legacy of the deceased. Will this ease the pain of loss and loss?

Researchers at the Shree Devi Institute of Technology in India are studying the possibility of using artificial intelligence techniques to "connect with the dead" by creating virtual digital characters from the dead so that their loved ones can communicate with them after they die. According to Viz-Org, a research and technology expert, researchers Shreya Davidiga and Bhakti Shetty have relied on the electronic application of Replica AA for copying through artificial intelligence techniques to create digital characters from people who have died.




"We got the basic idea from Eugene Keoda, the creator of the Replica XL application, where this application aims to create characters via artificial intelligence techniques that can help people express themselves through useful conversations," he said. "One day a person leaves life, leaving behind a huge number of text messages, diagrams and other expressions of social communication, and his friends and family may forget this digital legacy he left, but then feel the suffering because of his lack. Ways to alleviate the pain of loss and loss ".

The artificial intelligence system, which the Indian researchers aim to create, takes the form of a stereoscopic figure that looks and speaks like a dead person. The system can download digital data to the deceased via cloud computing. "Today's technology allows us to communicate with artificial intelligence programs that mimic the deceased's personality," says Davidja. "When the link is opened, the user will be able to communicate with the alternative digital version of the deceased, Through all previous electronic communications carried out by the person before his death. " "This service creates a virtual person that can be engaged with social networking services like WattsApp and others."