Technology

    Aiming to lose weight? Publicise your goals on social media! The study from the University of California, Irvine examines the role of virtual communities and public commitment in setting and reaching weight loss goals. Our research finds that individuals are more likely to realize success with personal goals when they make a public commitment to attaining them, said Tonya Williams Bradford, study co-author. By sharing success and setbacks in virtual support communities on social media, we found people are achieving better results. This works especially well with goals like weight loss, where before and after images can be shared online with other community members. Along with Bradford, the study was co-authored by Sonya Grier from American University and Geraldine...

    South Korean tech giant Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy A series on Tuesday as Galaxy A8 (2018) and Galaxy A8+ (2018) that will be available in early January, with pricing and availability to vary by markets worldwide. Samsung’s Infinity Display finally trickles down to a mid-range handset after being exclusive to its flagship smartphones this year. These handsets also feature Samsung’s first dual front camera with Live Focus, tech website Sam Mobile reported. Samsung Galaxy A8 and Galaxy A8+ also feature many flagship-like features. Both the handsets have ditched the physical home button and the fingerprint sensor has been re-positioned at the rear below the camera module, the report added. Other features include support for Samsung Pay—a mobile payment and digit...

    A record-tying eighth planet has been found in a faraway solar system, matching our own in number. Even more amazing, machines and not humans made the discovery. NASA joined with Google on Thursday to announce the finding, reports the Associated Press. This eighth planet orbits the star known as Kepler-90. Like Earth, this new planet, Kepler-90i, is the third rock from its sun. But it’s much closer to its sun — orbiting in just 14 days — and therefore a scorching 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 Celsius) at the surface. In fact, all eight planets are scrunched up around this star, orbiting closer than Earth does to our sun. This is the only eight-planet solar system found like ours — so far — tying for the most planets observed around a single star. Our solar system h...

    Social media companies like Facebook and YouTube must take responsibility for the material they host and be punished if they do not remove racist, extremist or child sex abuse content, a parliamentary committee will recommend. There will be a push for a change in the law to make sure that social media companies are deemed publishers, rather than platforms, and so would be liable for any illegal content that is available on them. Theresa May's independent ethics watchdog committee will call for legislation to ensure websites that did not comply face punishment, the Times reported. The report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life looked into how politicians were routinely harassed during the last general election campaign. Its conclusions examine the role of ...

    Facebook’s poke has existed for more than a decade, though not a lot of us know the real purpose of this feature. Cut to 2017, Facebook is working on a new set of greetings to interact with their friends on the social networking platform. Apart from Poke, users will be able to send a wink, high-five, hug and an already existing wave to each other. According to a report in The Nation, the new features are under trial in select markets such as Britain, Thailand, Australia, Canada, Columbia and France. The new set of greetings will mark the tenth anniversary of the poke, reports the Hindustan Times. Under the Hello button on your friend’s profile, the new options can be seen by just holding the button. On a desktop, a simple hover over the Hello button will show the al...

    How to Keep Your iPhone From Bricking in Cold Weather You’ve just built the perfect snowman: top hat, carrot nose, corncob pipe, the works. You whip your iPhone out to snap a photo for your Instagram feed, but the screen won't come on. It was fully charged when you left the house, so what happened? Did the cold weather kill your phone? While this scenario is bleak the dead-as-a-brick phone, not your empty Instagram feed there's no reason to panic, says Matt McCormick, owner of Jet City Device Repair in Chicago and Seattle. In the winter, especially on iPhones, it’s easy to see your phone simply die if you’re standing out in freezing weather, he says. I personally had this happen a few years ago when I was hiking with some friends in Wisconsin. The cold weather made the pho...

    There are over a billion WhatsApp users worldwide right now. The bad news? Even your mum knows what the two blue ticks mean. From disabling the last seen feature to bookmarking important messages, these are the 25 tricks you need to know to be a WhatsApp ninja. 1. Banish the blue ticks of tyranny Life can be stressful enough without feeling under pressure to reply to WhatsApps as soon as those two blue ticks give you away. Fortunately there’s a workaround. In the Settings menu, go to Account, then Privacy and turn off Read Receipts. The only snag is you’ll no longer get them for other people either. 2. Find out your BFFs In the year 2017, friendships aren’t measured on loyalty or time, it’s all about how much data you’ve shared. Head to Data and Storage Usage in the Settin...

    Facebook is testing a new method to stop revenge porn that requires you to send your own nudes to yourself via the social network’s Messenger app. This strategy would help Facebook to create a digital fingerprint for the picture and mark it as non-consensual explicit media. So if a relationship goes sour, you could take proactive steps to prevent any intimate images in possession of your former love interest from being shared widely on Facebook or instagram. Facebook is partnering with a Australian government agency to prevent such image-based abuses, the Australia Broadcasting Corp reported. If you’re worried your intimate photos will end up on Instagram or Facebook, you can get in contact with Australia’s e-Safety Commissioner. They might then tell you to send the images...