Search results for "COVID-19 "

Mastercard to abandon magnetic strip on cards by 2033

Mastercard announced on Thursday its plans to halt the issuance of cards with a magnetic strip by 2033.  The global financial firm will have strip-less debt and credit cards in Europe starting from 2024, and across the globe by 2033, Mastercard declared in a statement.   The company claimed that it will be the first payments network to phase out the technology, which dates to the 1960s.   “Magnetic strip is reaching its expiration date with […]

Washington’s probe leads to new Twitter feature

On Tuesday, Twitter announced plans to seek users’ judiciousness to further implement control over misinformation by launching a test of its latest feature that will allow users to report misleading posts. Following Washington’s pressure to go the extra mile to force the platform to contain possible misinformation, users will be reporting dishonest information through the […]

Vodafone Idea cites COVID behind 4.7% drop in revenue

Indian telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) announced on Saturday a 4.7 percent dip in revenues QoQ, attributing its weak performance to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the operator edges ever closer to bankruptcy.   The loss in revenue – which amounts to $1.2 billion – is considered as another blow to the company, which is resorting to outside factors as the main reason behind its […]

Some praise, some doubts as Facebook rolls out a prayer tool

Facebook already asks for your thoughts. Now it wants your prayers. The social media giant has rolled out a new prayer request feature, a tool embraced by some religious leaders as a cutting-edge way to engage the faithful online. Others are eyeing it warily as they weigh its usefulness against the privacy and security concerns […]

Indian politician back on Twitter following controversial post

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s largest opposition party is back on Twitter.   After being blocked from the social networking site for sharing a photo of himself with the parents of a girl who was allegedly raped and murdered in New Delhi, Twitter decided to reinstate Gandhi and his political community within their digital sphere.  Gandhi’s tweet — which has been shared around by […]

Facebook removes anti-vax Russian disinformation campaigns

Facebook announced on Tuesday that it has removed 65 and 243 Facebook and Instagram accounts respectively that were involved in anti-vax disinformation campaigns operating from Russia.  The Big Tech company highlighted in its report that accounts originated in Russia targeted audiences primarily in India, Latin America, and to a lesser extent, the U.S.   Facebook’s investigation found links between this campaign and Fazze, a subsidiary of a U.K-registered marketing firm AdNow, whose operations were […]

Zoom’s latest feature will keep you focused during virtual classrooms

Teachers are accustomed to this scenario all too well; you ask your class a question only to hear crickets.   Awkward silence follows, as pressure on students to answer begins to build up. They start looking at the ceiling, flipping through their notebooks, in an attempt to dodge answering the question.  The question seems simple to you, […]

King of the hill: TikTok is officially the most downloaded app in 2020

Step aside Facebook, as TikTok just got crowned the most downloaded social media app in the world as of 2020, according to survey conducted by digital analytics company App Annie.  Launched in 2016, The Chinese video-sharing platform has since overtaken Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger, all of which make up Facebook’s ecosystem. This isn’t a milestone to overlook, as Facebook-owned apps have held the top spot since the survey began in […]

Cloud & 5G to allow for 765 million teleconsultations globally by 2025

Many tech enthusiasts consider that the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world at just the right time, describing it as the spark that ignited a tidal wave of disruptive technological innovations.   Rollout of services and products were accelerated at a skyrocketing pace trickling down to a myriad of other solutions that would have taken years to hit the […]