Category Archives: Technology.

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WhatsApp to start showing profile photo of the contact alongside the name in notifications when a message arrives

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WhatsApp is working to show the photos in message notifications so that the user can see next to the message the profile image that that contact has, something that until now is not possible to view on iOS or Android.

Initially, this feature will be available only to testers of iOS Beta, as long as they are users of iOS 15 and have updated the WhatsApp version 2.22.1.1.WhatsApp has launched in its platform the first modification of this year 2022 and it is a visual feature.

WhatsApp, the instant messaging application has been testing in its beta version for iOS mobiles, that the profile photo of a user appears in the notification bar when you receive a message. WhatsApp is gradually pushing the feature to more and more users.

The feature was spotted by website WABetainfo, and according to them, the feature is currently available for some WhatsApp beta testers on iOS.Image courtesy: WABetaInfo

Some issues are to be expected with functionality, given that the feature is currently in public beta and does not represent the finished product. WhatsApp on Android has been able to display profile pictures with system notifications for years now, and now it seems the feature is making its way to iOS too finally.

WABetaInfo also notes that the new feature might not be immediately available to all beta testers, as the roll-out seems to be of the gradual type. Adding the photo to the notification pop-up is only logical; many other similar apps have this feature and it will give users a visual cue to who’s messaging them, without the need to read the contact’s name.

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As the new feature makes use of APIs included as part of iOS 15, profile pictures in notifications are only available to beta testers who are running iOS 15.

Another feature coming is a new section called “Businesses Nearby.” This feature will allow you to search for nearby businesses such as restaurants, grocery stores, clothing shops, and more.

WhatsApp introduced a lot of new features and made several improvements last year, including introducing a view once feature for photos similar to Snapchat.

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Nasa deploys Webb telescope’s sun shield

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CAPE CANAVERAL: The US space agency (Nasa) aced the most complicated, critical job on its newly launched space telescope on Tuesday: unrolling and stretching a sunshade the size of a tennis court.

Ground controllers cheered and bumped fists once the fifth and final layer of the sunshield was tightly secured around the James Webb telescope. It took just 36 hours to tighten the ultra-thin layers using motor-driven cables, half the expected time.

The seven-ton telescope is so big that the sun-shield and the primary gold-plated mirror had to be folded for launch. The sun shield is so unwieldy that it spans 70 feet by 46 feet to keep all the infrared, heat-sensing science instruments in constant subzero shadow.

The mirrors are next up for release this weekend.

The $10 billion telescopes are more than halfway toward its destination 1.6 million kilometers away, following its Christmas Day sendoff. It is the biggest and most powerful observatory ever launched — 100 times more powerful than the Hubble telescope — enabling it to peer back to almost the beginning of time.

Considered Hubble’s successor, Webb will attempt to hunt downlight from the universe’s first stars and galaxies. “This is a really big moment,” project manager Bill Ochs told the control team in Baltimore. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but getting the sun shield out and deployed is really, really big.”

Engineers spent years redoing and tweaking the shade. At one point, dozens of fasteners fell off during a vibration test.
ISLAMABAD, LATEST, Technology.

Bitcoin falls by a fifth, cryptos see $1bn worth liquidated

Bitcoin shed a fifth of its value on Saturday as a combination of profit-taking and macro-economic concerns triggered nearly a billion dollars worth of selling across cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin was 12 percent down at 0920 GMT at $47,495. It fell as low as $41,967.5 during the session, taking total losses for the day to 22pc.

The broad selloff in cryptocurrencies also saw Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, plunge more than 10pc.

Based on cryptocurrency data platform Coingecko, the market capitalization of the 11,392 coins it tracks dropped nearly 15pc to $2.34 trillion. That value had briefly crossed $3tn last month when Bitcoin hit a record $69,000.

The plunge follows a volatile week for financial markets. Global equities and benchmark US bond yields tumbled on Friday after data showed US job growth slowed in November and the Omicron variant of the coronavirus kept investors on edge.

Justin d’Anethan, Hong Kong-based head of exchange sales at cryptocurrency exchange EQONEX, said he had been watching the increase in leverage ratios across the cryptocurrency markets as well as how large holders had been moving their coins from wallets to exchanges. The latter is usually a sign of intent to sell.

“Whales in the crypto space seem to have transferred coins to a trading venue, taken advantage of a bullish bias and leverage from retail traders, to then push prices down,” he said.

The selloff also comes ahead of testimony by executives from eight major cryptocurrency firms, including Coinbase Global CFO Alesia Haas and FTX Trading CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, before the US House Financial Services Committee on December 8.

The hearing marks the first time major players in the crypto markets will testify before US lawmakers, as policymakers grapple with the implications of cryptocurrencies and how to best regulate them.

Last week, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a second spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposal from WisdomTree.

Data from another platform Coinglass showed nearly $1bn worth of cryptocurrencies had been liquidated over the past 24 hours, with the bulk being on digital exchange Bitfinex.

“If anything, this is the opportunity to buy the dip for many investors who might have previously felt like they missed the boat. We can see tether bought at a premium, suggesting people are getting cash ready, within the crypto space, to do just that,” D’Anethan said, referring to the biggest stable coin in the cryptocurrency world.

A plunge in Bitcoin funding rates — the cost of holding Bitcoin via perpetual futures which peaked at 0.06pc in October — also showed traders had turned bearish.

The funding rate on cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX fell to a negative 0.18pc from levels of 0.01pc for most of November.