Facebook introduces promising HTML5 for Videos shelving Flash

Facebook in a blog post today has announced it has recently switched to HTML5 from Flash based video player for all web video surfaces, including videos in news feed, on pages, and in the Facebook embedded Video Player, while continuing to work together with Flash to provide reliable and safe Flash for games and have shipped the latest change across all the browsers.

" From development velocity to accessibility features, HTML5 offers a lot of benefits. Moving to HTML5 best enables us to continue to innovate quickly and at scale, given Facebook’s large size and complex needs" says Daniel Baulig firms front-end Engineer.

 "Using web technologies allows us to tap into the excellent tooling that exists in browsers, among the open source community, and at Facebook in general. Not having to recompile code and being able to apply changes directly in the browser allow us to move fast." said Daniel Braulig

Google stopped supporting Flash across it's chrome browser earlier this year and Amazon banned using Flash across it's advertising platform. And Facebook was already planning such a move way back in 2010. 

 "Not only did launching the HTML5 video player make development easier, but it also improved the video experience for people on Facebook. Videos now start playing faster. People like, comment, and share more on videos after the switch, and users have been reporting fewer bugs." Braulig added.

Earlier in 2010 :

 According to Facebook the term 'HTML5' is more than just a single specification of HTML5, but represents the next evolution of web platform and thus related to dozens of other specifications.

 In other words HTML5 is related to dozens of other specifications that have already been implemented across  the recent versions of Chrome, FireFox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera.

 Since the introduction of HTML5 functionality over the past few months, engineers have now built new HTML5 Video player with support for high definition H.264 Video that has been rolled for iPhone and iPad users. 

Places is available for Android, iPhone and any other mobile device with similarly modern browsers via http://touch.facebook.com/

After selective loading of page content via Ajax, HTML5 allows decoupling of currently displayed URL with the actual state of application thus preserving readable URL's and prevent unseemly URL's polluting the location bars of the users.

Also :    

Recently Adobe renamed it's Flash  

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Facebook starts broadcasting Live video stream for Verified pages

 In August Facebook first introduced Live Video using Facebook Mentions on iOS . A large number of audience since then has tried Live video including media personalities, Sportspersons, small business owners and so on.

Earlier this month Facebook introduced Live video  to a select audiences in US with iPhones, today Facebook has announced that it is introducing Live streaming for Verified pages .using Facebook for iOS.

Many media houses, Sports Teams and other verified pages can use this feature. To start using this feature the users need to go Your Page on iOS for Facebook, click Publish button and then select Live option, after clicking you need to enter a small description and then go Live instantly.

During the broadcast a user will be able to see number of other verified pages tuning in to your feed, live stream of comments and after the broadcast has ended, the user can leave the video in the Time line or delete it.

People who like a particular verified page are notified through news feed and notifications when that verified page goes live again and it also has the subscribe button for users to get notified when ever the liked page goes live again.

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Instant Articles By Facebook To Be Available For All Android Users

 Facebook Instant Articles earlier announced by the company, that it would be testing IA as Beta version for Android and now today it has announced it is in fact quitting the beta version to let the feature to be used by all the Android users. That means it will have a huge audience as Android has a large base which runs into millions of users.

Instant articles could be recognized with a lightning bolt icon on top right corner. There is option to monetize the articles by the publishers by selecting to publishing their own advertisements or let FB publish their selected ads.

 Following Facebook, Google and Twitter too wanted to have their own version of Instant articles and hence partenered to have their own news tool. Apple too followed it and has it's own stand alone news app which is bundled with iOS9.

Articles clicked on search results open almost instantly. Here Google uses the cached version of the original web site contetn instead of hosting the content and hence different from Facebook and Apple. And the content is being kept open source

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Mozilla launches Firefox 64-bit for Windows

Mozilla has finally delivered a 64-bit version of Firefox. Firefox 43 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android went live.

The new browser is going to help protect your browser from malicious websites.

64 bit version speeds up the browser to access several more memory registers and help run Java Scripts faster.

Mozilla earlier launched 64 bit version for Mac and Linus but for Windows this is the first time.

It may work for Windows 7 and later releases of Windows Operating system.

https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2015/12/15/firefox-64-bit-for-windows-available/

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A new research initiative to develop Artificial Intelligence further

Artificial intelligence according to industry experts has already taken root in our daily life activities like texting, driving etc., even though it's significance is not that huge, but can be felt.

Futuristic machines are going to be lot more intelligent than the present ones is what the industry believes.

Industry heavy weights are now collaborating to launch a new non-profit research only initiative to  chart out the strategy for future AI systems. A strategy to determine and to make sure the AI  machines are supportive of humanity when functioning independently.

To quote from the blog

AI systems today have impressive but narrow capabilities. It seems that we'll keep whittling away at their constraints, and in the extreme case they will reach human performance on virtually every intellectual task. It's hard to fathom how much human-level AI could benefit society, and it's equally hard to imagine how much it could damage society if built or used incorrectly.

 Elon Musk and Silicon Valley masterminds join forces to keep forces from killing us all - PC World

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Mozilla launches Focus for iOS - Overview

Mozilla has launched a new ad-blocker app Focus for iOS, which uniquely works with Safari and in future if Apple opens up it's iOS further, will combine with Firefox to give a unique user experience.

Apple which steadfastly has opposed tracking while advocating open web makes this bold move and the app can be downloaded here.

 https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1055677337 Focus from Mozilla

Focus works with taking advantage of iOS9's content blocking API.

Gives in-depth control to systematically block ads or analytics or Tracking from Social Media networks like Facebook on any given page of the web.

 Mozilla launches Focus, a new ad-blocker for iOS - The Verge

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Samsung Galaxy S7, Google releases critical security patches for Android

Samsung Galaxy S7 is expected to have a faster processor (Qualcomm snapdragon 820) and restore the SD storage slot it had earlier removed in the Samsung Galaxy S6. 

It is also expected to be priced 10% lesser than what S6 costs in the market today to give S7 the competitive edge of high performance at a low price strategy. That could increase the dwindling Samsung market share.

The reports say it is not just a classic improvement but a dramatic one, where Qualcomm has promised a highly improved performance. Phone will support VR, Streaming media and big data.

Samsung S6 started off at $600 to $685 off-contract depending on the US carrier.

 Galaxy S7 expected to have faster processor, return of storage slot. - ComputerWorld

Google patches security flaws in its Android Nexus phone's through a security press release. These flaws could be exploited remotely through MMS, Web Pages and rogue apps.

Firmware updates are being rolled out for vulnerabilities which are numbered five of critical, 12 ranked as high and two as moderate.
 
Google patches critical vulnerabilities in Android - Computer World

source.android.com/security/overview/update-resources

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New Dorkbot threat: Microsoft together with law enforcement successfully disrupt Dorkbot network

Microsoft has been roped in by FBI together with several law enforcement agencies as it had launched a program to thwart the threat from a botnet known as Dorkbot and effectively disrupted it.

 The Dorkbot reportedly uses a ring of more than 100,000 computers.And usually attacks another 100,000 computers on an average every month there by affecting millions of computers in over 190 countries.

It basically installs itself on to the computer of a user without any intimation and executes commands remotely like stealing information from the attacked computer like logins and passwords. In fact it was widely reported that sites like g-mail, Netflix and PayPal were hacked by  hackers to steal information.

Once you have this Dorkbot installed on to your computer it will probably have installed other malware too like Scareware, Adware, RansomWare and so on.

The enforcement team advises users to run anti- malware software regularly to detect the threat and do not click unto emails from unknown receivers and download your software from known developers. And keep your system updated with latest updates of anti-malware software.

For Further reading :

What is Malware? How to protect your Mobile/PC from it?

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Overview and insight into the latest Technology news and Developments

 Here are 2015's best Android Apps picked up by Google.

Google's Picks for 2015's best Android Apps - Fox News


Rob Enderle gives deep insight in to the future of mobile and PC market on how they are going to shape ahead in the future. Both Google and Apple are looking ahead in the future for a versatile device that meets the industry demands and that which is mobile and pocket sized and is scaleable to a larger screen, that's where Android falls short, which was ideally conceived as a mobile operating system for small devices.
Also iOS conflict issues with MacOS and other detailed analysis of iOS and Android weaknesses.

 Why iOS and Android will soon become obsolete? -Rob Enderle for cio


Privacy expert Lorrie Cranor is going to replace Ashkan Soltani in January. Ms Lorrie Cranor holds a Doctorate in Engineering and Policy, Master's Degree in Computer Science and Technology and Human Affairs and a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering and Policy. With her election analysts say she may keep her focus on Consumer Privacy and Data security.

Ms Cranor's latest areas of interest include Usable Privacy Policy Project, usable and secure passwords, privacy decision making, user controllable-security and privacy and usable cyber Trust indicators.

FTC's next Chief Technologist is on a quest for better passwords - PCWorld

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Yahoo's new IM client, Ford's SYNC and Facebook's live video steam launch: Overview and news

Yahoo launches it's new IM for Mobile and Internet Telephony amid speculations of a possible sale of it's entire internet business, industry analysts say.

As yahoo tries to relaunch itself in to mainstream of chat clients, it says it will support the old messenger for a only few more months more.

 Yahoo launches new Messenger app in face of possible big changes - ComputerWorld

Salient features of Yahoo's new IM client for PC and Mobile - Yahoo

Ford has announced that it has launched it's new software upgrade of SYNC infotainment system.  Now it has Wireless access to Apple's Siri, through voice recognition which can be activated through a long press of the button on the steering wheel. Earlier the users of iPhone had to connect to the infotainment system using a USB cable.

Ford marries it SYNC system to Apple's Siri using Bluetooth - ComputerWorld

Facebook today announced live streaming of it's video service across entire network for anyone with an iOS device and an apple app, after running a few months trial by enabling celebrities and journalists first to use the service.

To use the service you have to tap on the update status button and then choose the live video icon.

Features of this service include,  lets you choose intended audience, who you want to broadcast the stream to, receives live messages during the stream, displays number of users logging in to the stream, and then you can save it for later or delete it option.

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