Facebook uses Artificial Intelligence to Describe Facebook for Blind Users

Today the Internet has become dominated by images, and it’s the major feature that got Facebook to a Billion daily users.

We can not imagine Facebook without photos, but for Millions of blind and visually impaired people, Facebook without photos has been the reality since its launch.

But not now! Facebook has launched a system, dubbed Automatic Alternative Text, which describes the contents of pictures by telling blind and visually-impaired users what appears in them.

Blind and visually-impaired people use sophisticated navigation software known as screen readers to make their computers usable. The software turns the contents of the screen into speech, but it can't "read" pictures.

However, Facebook's Automatic Alternative Text or AAT uses object recognition technology that can decode and describe photos uploaded to the social network site using artificial intelligence and then provide them in a form that can be readable by a screen reader.

Video Demonstration

ATT tool, led by Facebook's 5-year-old accessibility team, has already made its way to iOS devices and would soon be available for Android and the Web as well.

Facebook says its AAT tool The more images it scans, the more sophisticated the software will become. While still in its early stages, the AAT technology can reliably identify objects and activities in categories including:

• Appearance - baby, eyeglasses, smiling, beard, jewellery, shoes and selfie
• Environment - outdoor, sky, grass, tree, mountain, snow, ocean, beach, water, wave, sun
• Food - pizza, ice cream, dessert, sushi, coffee
• Transport - aeroplane, train, bus, boat, car, motorcycle, bicycle, road
• Sports - tennis, basketball, baseball, golf, swimming, stadium

The move by the social network giant is a bigger step forward for blind and visually-impaired users, although it only works in English at the current.

So in order to see the AAT technology in action for yourself, iOS users using iOS’s built-in screen reader can Go to Settings → General → Accessibility, and activate VoiceOver.

The company will soon bring the new functionality to other mobile platforms as well as languages. You can see the video demonstration to know how AAT tool works for someone using a screen reader.

WhatsApp Turns ON End-to-End Encryption for ALL

WhatsApp is updating its messaging app so that every text message and voice call will be encrypted for the company’s one billion users.

Yes, Whatsapp has finally implemented full end-to-end encryption, as promised a year ago.

This means, from now every message, image or voice call you made will be secured by end-to-end encryption so that only you and the person you're communicating with can read the content of the message, and nobody in between, not even WhatsApp.

In other words, this also means that WhatsApp would not be able to comply with any court order that demands access to the content of any conversation happens over its service.

Starting today, you will see a notification on your WhatsApp conversation screen as your messenger becomes end-to-end encrypted, as shown in the screenshot.

"Message you send to this chat and calls are now secured with end-to-end encryption. Tap for more info." 

"This is because your messages are secured with a lock, and only the recipient and you have the special key needed to unlock and read them," Whatsapp says.

Additionally, you will be able to see a small lock icon below the profile of the recipient that ensures your conversation is secured with encryption.

"All of this happens automatically: no need to turn on settings or set up special secret chats to secure your messages," the company adds.

How to verify if someone is trying to spy on your conversation?

Well,  the latest version of WhatsApp mobile application offers you an option to verify the keys of the other users with whom you are communicating, ensuring prevention from the man-in-the-middle attack.

Whatsapp key verification can be done by scanning a QR code, or by comparing a 60-digit number, under newly introduced "verify security code" option in the WhatsApp.

"WhatsApp users can opt in to a preference which notifies them every time the security code for a contact changes."

About a year ago, Facebook partnered with ‘Open Whisper System’, company behind the popular Signal and TextSecure encryption apps, to integrate the Signal's Open source strong encryption protocol into WhatsApp messaging app.

Important Note — However, there is one point to be noted that if several users are sending texts in a group chat and one of the users is running an older version of WhatsApp that doesn’t support encrypted messages, all the conversation going through that group chat will remain unencrypted.

10 Most Important Announcement of Microsoft Build 2016

Microsoft holds a Build Conference every year and recently these developer events have transformed from snoozers to exciting occasions. Last year, the company came up with Windows 10 – a major winner, Cortana – a reliable virtual assistant and HoloLens features – detailing what the product could possess as the leading AR product.

Let’s go through the 10 most important announcements at the 2016 edition of Microsoft’s Build Conference.

Bots Everywhere

Probably the most important announcement, as far as the future is concerned, was the revelation about bots. Conversations will be the next platform for computing and it’ll be handled by AI (Artificial Intelligence) bots. These bots will respond to what people say.

Satya Nadella said that Microsoft had made an error with Tay, the teen social bot. Tay made some racist comments and was shut down after one day. It was re-enabled yesterday for a few minutes before it was shut down again due to a major glitch. Nadella said they want to get the best of humanity, not the worst. But perhaps, the bot got too close to humans and represented the real face of how humans act.

Nadella says that human language will be the next UI layer, bots will be the new apps and virtual assistants will be the new meta apps. AI will be behind it all and will be integrated into other services like Skype. Cortana is an example of an AI bot from Microsoft which works within a browser and Skype.

Bot Framework for Devs

As far as the developers are concerned, this was the best announcement. Microsoft will be making it easier than ever for Bots to communicate with any of the chat apps whether it be WhatsApp or Slack. The company also revealed some new tools for bots and gave an example of how to create a bot for Domino’s Pizza using these tools. These bots will support natural language and will be able to communicate with multiple apps.

All of this run using Cortana Intelligence Suite, which runs using Microsoft Bot framework. It is a cognitive services platform like computer vision and natural language which the developers can make use of. The platform includes 22 APIs, available from today.

Cortana is Now Smarter

Windows 10 Anniversary Edition will be getting a huge update in terms of Cortana’s abilities. It will understand events based on time and predict calendar appointments based on emails and texts. For example, it can identify what you were working on last night or where you were last week.

Cortana is also coming to the Xbox to help gamers find new titles and to share tips & tricks on gameplay. It will work better with third party apps, depending on the developer’s level of integration.

Skype and Bots

Microsoft is pushing Skype to be something superior compared to the rest of the communication apps. Skype will now be able to talk with Cortana, which will communicate with another bot and communicate the user commands properly.

A demo was shown on how a bot from Cups and Cakes asked for an address to complete a delivery. Cortana was a broker in the conversations and displayed a map with info on the estimated arrival time. It can also reply to people just like Google Smart Inbox replies.

All of this can work inside of a Skype call as users can add video bots to the chats.

The Next Windows 10 Update

Microsoft is calling it an “Anniversary Update” for Windows. It will include a few new features and improve Windows 10. The OS and its browser will be getting biometric authentication in a new and improved manner.

Microsoft talked about a Universal Windows Platform. It will be open and will work across all Microsoft devices, be it a smartphone, PC or HoloLens. There’s a new Linux command as well, which convert legacy apps to the app platform.

Xbox and Windows Gaming is Now Integrated

Microsoft started off with the announcement that Forza, the popular racing game, will be created as a universal app for Windows. So the same game will work on Windows and Xbox. The same goes for Quantun Break and Killer Instinct.

That desktop app converter mentioned before will also work with win32-based games. The company showed off how Age of Empires II HD can be downloaded from Steam and converted to a universal app. It works on the latest games like the Witcher 3 as well. These games get the same Live Tiles and Notifications after the conversion.

Xbox One now doubles as dev kit too. Games and apps can now be developed using any retail Xbox One. Desktop apps run fine on the Xbox and the software displays how an app would look like on a big TV screen. A preview of the dev mode for Xbox is available from today. Finally, Microsoft is creating a new unified app store which will work across PC and Xbox.

HoloLens is Now Shipping

Yes, the HoloLens is now shipping but only to developers. It is not meant for consumers and will cost a lot, but what it means is that the hardware is nearly finalised and it’s close to being on sale.

The first HoloLens app is Galaxy Explorer, an interactive set of holograms of planets and galaxies which can be manipulated via gestures. The app and its source code are available to developers now. NASA also showed off OnSight and Destination Mars for HoloLens which will let the user walk the red planet from a scientist’s point of view.

A couple universities displayed their medical apps for HoloLens. There was an anatomy program which showed a real life body and all its organs. A professor from across the country, connected as an avatar and taught a lesson to the students in great detail.

Windows Ink Improvement

Stylus will be getting improved support from now on thanks to “Ink Workspace” which consists of a few pen-powered apps. Write a sticky note with a stylus and Cortana will automatically remind you when it is time to do that task. If you draw two points of interest on a map, it will automatically tell you the distance and the directions. Dragging on text will automatically highlight it and so on.

Microsoft also showcased a bunch of virtual stencils and rulers which will help in drawing on a screen.

Universal Apps for Windows 10

A ton of games and popular apps are coming to Microsoft devices as Universal Windows Platform Apps. Microsoft showed how developers can add some new graphical styles to their apps like motion blurs and highlight effects. Developers can add some code into their apps making them Ink compatible.

The software giant showed off a new tool for developers which will let them convert all of their existing 16 million apps to the new universal platform.

Linux Command Line for Windows

Bash – “Bourne Again Shell” – will now be available in Windows. What it means is that Windows will support Linux and native Ubuntu commands and binaries will run on Windows. To top it off, Microsoft and Canonical worked on it together.

It’s a big deal for developers who had to use Linux or third party tools to code using Linux commands. Now all of that is built into Windows.

5 things Google has done for Privacy & Security

Over the past few years, Google has increasingly improved the online security and protections of its Gmail users.

Besides two-factor authentication and HTTPS, Google has added new tools and features to Gmail that ensures users security and privacy, preventing cyber criminals and intelligence agencies to hack email accounts.

1. Enhanced State-Sponsored Attack Warnings

Apple vs. FBI case urged every company to beef up the security parameters to prevent their services from not just hackers but also the law enforcement.

Google for a while now has the capability to identify government-backed hackers, and notify potentially affected Gmail users so they can take action as soon as possible.

Google recently announced on its blog post that it will alert Gmail users about the possibility of any state-sponsored attack by showing them a full-page warning with instructions about how to stay safe — very hard to miss or neglect.

Meanwhile, the company revealed that over 1 Million Gmail accounts may have been targeted by government-backed hackers so far.

Although Google has warned Gmail users of state-sponsored attackers since 2012, the company neither disclosed the exact number nor explained how it knows of such hacking attacks.

However, Google said that it knows who the targets are – the list often includes "activists, journalists, and policy-makers taking bold stands around the world."

2. SMTP Strict Transport Security (SMTP STS)

A new security feature dubbed "SMTP STS" has been on the bench of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to obtain a green signal.

This new email standard is developed in a joint effort by the engineers of top email services including Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Comcast, LinkedIn, and 1&1 Mail & Media Development.

SMTP STS has been designed to enhance the email security by preventing Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) and encryption downgrade attacks that have compromised past efforts like STARTTLS at making SMTP a more secure protocol.

SMTP Strict Transport Security (SMTP STS) runs on top of the STARTTLS feature to strengthen SMTP standard.

SMTP STS will check if recipient supports SMTP STS and has valid and up-to-date encryption certificate. If everything goes well, it allows your message to go through. Otherwise, it will stop the email from sending and will notify you of the reason.

3. End-to-End Encryption (via Chrome Extension Only)

Google announced the End-To-End encryption for its users almost two years ago, but still, the novel feature is yet to release.

The idea is to develop a browser extension that ensures its users Privacy by implementing the complex, yet secure PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption in an attempt to fully encrypt messages that even Google can not read, nor anyone else other than the users exchanging the emails.

With this goal in mind, the browser extension will let users create their private and public encryption keys within their browsers. The public key will be uploaded to Google's servers, while the private key will be stored locally in the browser.

How the End-to-End Chrome Extension Works:

When a user sends an email to the other user with a PGP key, his or her browser will automatically download the other user's public key from the server and encrypt the content of the email.

However, the work is still in progress, and the company has not revealed that when it is planning to release the browser extension.

Although Google made the source code for its End-to-End Chrome extension open source via GitHub almost a year ago, so that researchers can review it, the stable version is yet to release.

For now, you can try an alternative method to send encrypted emails. We have written a step-by-step tutorial article on how to send end-to-end encrypted emails to others.

If difficult, you can try a Swiss-based, ProtonMail, a free, open source and end-to-end encrypted email service that offers the simplest and best way to maintain secure communications to keep user's personal data safe.

4. Gmail's Red Padlock Alert

Previously there was no method to ensure whether the received email had been traversed via an encrypted channel or not, which could be subjected to scrambling or Man-in-the-Middle (MiTM) attacks.

But last month, Google introduced a security measure in Gmail service in the form of a small Red Padlock next to a sender's email address in an effort to highlight users if the message has been sent through an unencrypted channel.

If a Gmail user receives an email from other services that don't support TLS encryption, the feature gives warning by showing an open red lock next to the sender’s email address (as shown).

These unencrypted emails then went to spam, increasing Gmail security of its users.

5. Google Safe Browsing For A Quick Malware Check

One of Google's recent changes is the expansion of its 'Safe Browsing' notifications.

The malicious links spread via emails are an easy hit method to infect a large number of users after forcing them to visit malicious web pages controlled by hackers.

However, the Safe Browsing feature protects Gmail users by identifying potentially dangerous links in emails.

The automated agents in the mail scan the content of emails for spam and malware detection. And before opening the link, Gmail inspects the complete mail and prevents the user to open the malicious links in the main upon a quick scan.

The features that are being added by Google helps the privacy of Gmail users and stricken the email confidential policies.

Bored with chess?? Facebook Messenger allows you to play Basketbal- here is how to

Hope all of you have enjoyed the Game of Chess in the Facebook Messenger.

But if you're quite bored playing Chess or not really good at the game, then you probably felt a bit excited about Facebook's recent inclusion of a little Basketball mini-game into Messenger.

Now you can play Basketball through Facebook Messenger, just by typing in the Basketball emoji and sending to one of your friends. This would enable a secret Basketball mini-game between you and your friend.

Here's How to Play Basketball:

Just locate the basketball emoji from your emoji list, send to one of your friends and click it to start the game.

Once sent, you would be taken to the Basketball court in a pure white background, where there is no sidebars of any friend suggestions or any promotional ads; only appears a basketball and a hoop, nothing else!

All you have to do:

Just Swipe up and Toss the basketball into the hoop.

A single swipe on your phone in the direction of the hoop to bask in the ball. Facebook also encourages your gameplay with various emojis after each basket.

On successful basket, Game appreciates your gameplay by displaying various emojis like Thumbs Up, Hands Up, Claps and Smiles. On a miss, Game warns you by showing emojis like "Surprised", "Feared," and similar.

Messenger will also display your scores in between, based on your successful baskets. Your goal is to challenge your friend to see who can get the most consecutive baskets.

Video Demonstration

You can watch the Video Demonstration of Facebook Hidden Basketball game below:

To play this game, the Facebook users should have the latest version of Messenger installed on their mobile phone.

The addition of such mini-games into Facebook's messaging platform would be a loneliness breaker.

As this game had been unveiled after a couple of weeks of Chess, let's hope Facebook would integrate more games like caroms or snooker in its upcoming rollouts.