TecQ is our weekly round-up of technology stories.
1. Facebook Has Removed 1.5 Billion Fake Users in Last Six Months!
Facebook is in all sorts of trouble. First came the staggering New York Times expose, which talks about the social networking giant hiring a firm to dig dirt on its opponents. And now it has dug its own grave by opting to go transparent with its process, possibly at the worst time.
Mark Zuckerberg has claimed every now and then about his platform taking care of bots and fake users, but you’ll be astonished to hear the number of such users that were loitering around on Facebook for a long time.
This year itself, Facebook claims to have removed over 1.5 billion fake accounts from its network and deleted 2.1 billion pieces of spam between April and September. These figures were shared in its Community Standards Report.
Read the full story here.
2. ‘Night Sight’ Comes to Pixel Phones for Better Low-Light Photos
Google has finally released one of the most anticipated camera-centric features for Pixel phones – Night Sight.
The search giant has confirmed that the camera feature will be available for all Pixel phones: Pixel, Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 series. This, Google claims will offer better images in low-lighting.
Night Sight is designed to use machine learning to adapt to night-lighting conditions and balance the colour of the photos so that objects show their natural colour at night. The feature also measures the natural handshake while clicking a picture, Google said in its blog post.
The feature would be rolled out over the next few days with an update to the Google Camera app on Pixel smartphones.
Read the story here to know more.
3. Who is Binny Bansal? Some Insights Into the Co-founder of Flipkart
Binny Bansal, the other co-founder of Flipkart, had put in his papers at the company on Tuesday due to ongoing investigations over allegations of misconduct. Sachin Bansal had already quit from his role earlier this year, but his was a mutual decision that did not entail any controversy.
Flipkart co-founder, Binny Bansal talked of this being a "very emotional moment", at a select media briefing on Thursday, 10 May.
The Bansals, although not related despite a common surname, started Flipkart after leaving their secure roles at Amazon in the United States. However, there’s very little that we know about Binny Bansal, the person, who we’ve hardly come across at media or Flipkart events.
Read the story here to know what Bansal was handling at the e-commerce giant and his background.
4. Apple iPhone XR Review: An iPhone for the ‘R’est of Us?
Let’s face facts – most folks, including those hanging on to their four-year-old iPhones, don’t want to spend upwards of Rs 1 lakh on a new phone, even if it is the shiniest new iPhone in town. Few do, really.
Apple gets that too, ergo the “affordable” iPhone XR, which we had advised to wait for when we reviewed the XS Max earlier. So, now that the XR is here and in stores, was it worth the wait?
Read the review here to find out the answer.
5. Reliance Jio GigaFiber Offers Faster Internet Speed Than Airtel
Reliance is yet to launch its Jio GigaFiber broadband service in full glory but it’s already topping the charts of various internet speed charts.
While Open Signal is yet to credit them with the laurel, the Netflix ISP Speed Index report for October 2018 puts them at the top spot in the country, with the more popular Airtel lying in fourth position.
Interestingly, the leading broadband player in India, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited or BSNL is nowhere in the top 10 with its internet speed., ranked at number 13 as per the Netflix ISP Speed Index for October 2018.
The report is quick to state that the speeds indicated is not a measure of the maximum throughout or the maximum capacity of the particular internet service provider (ISP).
Read the full story here.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)