TecQ is our weekly round up of the top technology stories
1. Ban Revoked: TikTok Is Back on Google Play, Apple App Store
In what might come as some good news to TikTok users in India, the app is back on Google Play Store and Apple App Store after the Madras High Court on Wednesday, 24 April, lifted the ban on the social media platform in the country.
The Madras HC had called for a ban on TikTok on 3 April, owing to reports of pornographic content being accessible to minors on the platform. The app was then removed from Google Play Store and Apple App Store after a couple of days.
The Supreme Court had earlier passed an order to act upon the plea, saying that the ban would be lifted if the Madras HC did not pass an interim order by 24 April.
Read the story here.
2. Apple’s Weak iPhone Sales Report Brings India Back in Focus
So, it’s not just Samsung and Google struggling to churn up the revenue figures over the past couple of quarters. Apple is facing a similar dilemma, now that iPhone sales have also weakened across the globe, which means focus on India needs to happen sooner than later.
Apple's sales are still shrinking amid weakening iPhone demand, despite the company's increasing emphasis on services designed to bring in a steady flow of money from the 1.4 billion of its devices still in use.
Revenue for the January-March quarter fell 5 percent from the same time in 2017 to $58 billion, the company said in its earnings report Tuesday. That downturn followed a 5 percent drop in the previous quarter.
Read the story here.
3. Facebook Dating Will Now Tell Who Is Secretly ‘Crushing’ On You
Facebook introduced a dating feature for its platform at last year’s developers conference, however the feature hasn’t been launched in many countries.
In the five countries that it has been operating — with 14 more added to the list as of now — Facebook has introduced a ‘Secret Crush’ feature to its Facebook Dating platform which allows users to see which of the friends on their list might secretly admire them romantically.
The feature was introduced at this year’s F8 developers conference on Tuesday and has gone live on Facebook in the countries where Dating is available.
The Secret Crush feature lets users show interest in up to 9 friends on the list.
Read more on Crushes here.
4. Airtel Competes With YouTube in India, Debuts Wynk Tube for Videos
Content play for telcos is getting stronger by the day, which is why Airtel has launched a video-streaming app called Wynk Tube in India this week. The app and its content can be accessed for free by Airtel users, allowing them to download unlimited titles and stream them as well.
The telco has stated that Wynk Tube (no marks for creativity with the name, Airtel) is launching with a collection of 40 lakh songs and related videos. Put that into the context of YouTube, the largest streaming platform in the world, and the comparison isn’t even a drop in the ocean.
For non-Airtel users, they get free trial period of 30 days to use the app, after which they will have to pay to access the content on offer.
Read more about Wynk Tube over here.
5. Running Out of Phone Storage? Here’s How WhatsApp Can Help You
Images take the bulk of storage space on your phone. If you haven’t bought cloud storage on Google Drive or even Dropbox then chances are you end up deleting stuff after every few weeks. But this is avoidable, especially if you make the right changes to your phone’s settings.
You’ll be surprised to know that popular messaging platform WhatsApp, running on your phone, can easily tackle the storage problem for you, once and for all.
So, before those ‘Good Morning’ forwarded messages fill up the phone’s storage, here’s what you should do right away.
Read how you can clean up the space over here.
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