Facebook is helping Chrome, Firefox to speed up the web
Why it matters to you
Inefficient web and mobile browsers can drain a device’s battery and clog storage. Facebook’s efforts to help improve its site’s interactions with Chrome and Firefox is helping change that.
Over the past two years, Facebook’s cooperation with browser vendors Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox has dramatically improved web page reload speeds, according to the company.
Working closely with the browsers to squash bugs in the browser caching technique — temporary storage for files downloaded to your computer or mobile device, including html files, CSS style sheets, images, and JavaScript scripts, and other media content — Facebook reduced its page reload times on Chrome by 28 percent.
More: Chrome browser will be able to handle FLAC lossless audio in next release
As Google’s senior software engineer Takashi Toyoshima notes in his blog post, page validation requests between browsers and web servers can cause serious performance issues on mobile devices, such as battery drain.
At the onset of its research, Facebook found that Chrome was sending page validation requests at three times the rate of other browsers. Although this process didn’t result in any additional data being transferred to the user’s device, it was deemed a futile technique that was bogging down page refresh times. Once Chrome simplified its reload behavior to only validate the main resource on a page, it resulted in 60 percent less validation requests.
“Every time a user logged in to Facebook the [Chrome] browser ignored its cache and revalidated all the previously downloaded resources,” said Facebook Code team members Ben Maurer and Nate Schloss in a blog post.
Referring to the broader impact of the change on websites, Toyoshima said: “We hope this faster reload will come in handy whenever you want to get the latest content on your favorite website or quickly recover from a flaky connection in the subway.”
Testing out the change on mobile with a 3G connection, the Chrome team found that the reload rate was 1.6 seconds faster across all websites.
Similarly, Firefox implemented a cache-control feature on the most recent version of its browser on the back of a Facebook proposal. The change saw a reload generate just 25 network requests from a Facebook page, which can typically contain around 150 different resources. According to Patrick McManus, principal engineer at Mozilla Firefox, the change cut page reloading times in half.
McManus adds that other developers are adopting the feature too, with the BBC revealing that page refresh times have improved by 50 percent. Facebook claims that the research conducted with Chrome and Firefox “highlights how web browsers can, and do, work with web developers to make the web better for everyone.”
Facebook is testing its Slideshow musical video tool on Android
Why it matters to you
Slideshow, which gives you another way to share your photos and videos to Facebook, could be closer than ever to landing on Android
Facebook could finally be bringing its Slideshow feature — which groups together recently uploaded media, such as images and video clips, into a musical video — to Android.
Launched on iOS in June of last year, Slideshow automatically assembles five or more photos and videos into a mini-movie. Users then select a theme for the clip, and add or remove content to further personalize it. Once you’re happy with your Slideshow, you can give it a title and share it on Facebook. The social network currently has a similar function within its Moments app, which lets you add a snippet from the company’s personal collection of music to your existing images and videos.
The feature has been spotted by some (but not all) Android users, indicating that it is being tested on the operating software, reports Android Police. As with iOS, Slideshow is being offered within the status bar just above the “tag friends” function, and alongside the other options, such as the ability to upload regular photos or videos, tag friends, and go live. Selecting it brings up a gallery of recent media, allowing you to make your selections.
Related: Tumblr’s zany new stickers and filters are everything you’d expect from the platform
In May, Facebook confirmed to Digital Trends that Slideshow was being tested in Australia with real tracks, thanks to a partnership with record label Warner Music: “Slideshows are a new way for people to share photos and videos in a creative and succinct way. To date, we’ve been using Facebook-owned music to accompany these slideshows, we will now be testing the use of a limited amount of music from Warner Music Group as soundtrack options.”
Outside of Australia, the feature still only includes the pre-existing instrumental tracks also available on the Moments app.
It is unclear at this stage which territories Facebook is testing Slideshow in. Seeing as it’s been kicking around on its iOS app for around seven months now, don’t be surprised if it makes its official Android debut soon.
Updated on 01-27-2016 by Saqib Shah: Added news of Slideshow test on Android
‘Fully loaded’ Kodi box seller pleads not guilty
Whether the makers of Kodi (by now you should know that’s the new name for what used to be XBMC) like it or (definitely) do not, people have built businesses around preloading their software on players like a Fire TV stick and advertising it as an avenue for watching pirated video streams. Over in the UK, the authorities raided Brian Thompson’s Cut Price Tomo TV’s and have charged him with two offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. Now, as TorrentFreak explains, the court will decide what role Thompson played in any potential copyright infringement by the people who purchased the devices.
Source: TorrentFreak, BBC
Oculus explains how room-scale VR taxes your USB ports
We’ve been dealing with USB for about two decades now, and to be honest, we’re not usually asking that much from it. Plug in an adapter, microphone or game controller, then keep it moving. All of that changes, however, when it comes to virtual reality. As Oculus explains, plugging in a bunch of room scale sensors sends enough data through the ports to potentially overwhelm the 400MB/s capacity of the controller chip on your motherboard.
Because of this, the answer isn’t to simply plug in a hub and get more high-speed USB 3.0 ports, in fact, Oculus says you should probably get good results by using two USB 3.0 connections, plus one older USB 2.0 port if you need to go beyond two sensors to get some more mobility in your VR experiences. The blog is currently helping gamers get through the setup process, so go ahead and check out all of the posts to make sure everything is positioned and working correctly.
Source: Oculus Blog
NASA uses pressure-sensitive paint to test its rockets
How can NASA make sure its rockets are ready to handle the intense buffeting produced during launch? Scientists have recently started using pressure-sensitive paint that reacts with oxygen to produce light. That way, scientists can actually visualize where the changing forces act on the rocket as it simulates acceleration during testing.
Source: NASA
Android Central 322: The electric condom
This week, Daniel, Flo and Jerry talk about the biggest upcoming launches of the year: the Samsung Galaxy S8, the LG G6. Can LG get a leg up in 2017 by releasing its phone a month before Samsung?
And we now know that Google I/O will be returning to Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheater, but did you know that was where the Grateful Dead got its start?
Oh, and Jerry tells a story about an electric condom that you just can’t miss. Trust us.
Image credit: hot-dog.org
Podcast MP3 URL: http://traffic.libsyn.com/androidcentral/androidcentral322.mp3
Windows 10 finally displays download progress for purchased apps
Turns out that Game Mode and streaming via Windows 10’s built-in Beam app were only the tip of the update iceberg. A post on the Windows 10 blog also details a handful of extra additions for folks in the Windows Insider program.
First up? In a move to further Windows’ accessibility, the Edge browser can now read e-books aloud. Edge also has some colorful new emoji t replace the monochrome ones that’d show up on websites. Beyond that there’s also support for subtitles during the setup process (again furthering the OS’ accessibility features), a name for night mode that makes sense — “night light” — and a download progress bar for apps and games grabbed from the Windows Store.
There’s a raft of quality-of-life improvements too like fixes for crashing apps, screen flickering and even stopping Edge from crashing while sharing PDFs. Listing them all here would take quite awhile, so be sure to hit the source link for the full rundown.
Source: Windows 10 blog
Researchers figure out trick to a fruit fly’s acrobatic flight
If you’ve ever tried to swat a fruit fly out of the air, you know how crafty the little buggers can be at avoiding your swings. Turns out that not only are they incredibly agile, they’re super efficient as well, using only 12 muscles (each controlled by a single neuron) to propel itself through the air. And, thanks to the efforts of a team at CalTech, we know why these flies are so nimble. It’s all in the muscles.
Mammalian wings are really just modified arms with skin stretched across. They all still contain shoulder, elbow, wrist and finger joints as well as the associated muscle and neural processing power that such structures require. This is a resource-intensive design, the polar opposite of an insect wing. Their wings are singular structures controlled by a complex “wing hinge” which itself is driven by sets of power and steering muscles.
“Insect power muscles are the most powerful muscles in any animal on the planet,” Thad Lindsay, a CalTech postdoc and first author of the study, said in a statement. “However, this means that they are ill-suited to actually control wing movement precisely. That’s where the tiny steering muscles come in.” There are two kinds of steering muscles: tonic muscles, which serve as the continuous fine motor control for each wing, and phasic muscles, which only kick in when the fly needs to make a hard turn or other powerful course correction.
To understand precisely how these muscles worked together, the CalTech team bred a race of fly that produced a glowing protein whenever calcium was present. The flies use calcium to initiate muscle contractions so the stronger the contraction, the brighter the glow. Then the team hooked up these flies to a — I kid you not — “fruit-fly flight simulator” which displays different visual cues that instigate the fly to change course. By studying how much, and in which combination, the flies’ muscles lit up, the team managed to suss out how their charges so deftly manage to avoid mid-air collisions. And now that they understand how simplistic flies do it, the team hopes their research will help explain how more complex motor functions developed in more evolved animals.
Source: CalTech
7 best encrypted messaging apps for all the Edward Snowdens out there
Love him or hate him, Edward Snowden made many of us more aware.
We now pay close attention to our online privacy and care about things like metadata, surveillance, digital snooping, and data theft. While governments and companies wage war about how much of our information should be accessible in different situations, app developers are giving us the tools to decide for ourselves what we want to share.
They’re creating encrypted services and launching end-to-end encryption options we can enable in apps. With these tools, we’re able to make sure that only us – and the people we’re communicating with – can read what is sent. Nobody in between, not the government nor even the companies and developers offering these tools, can access it.
Many different departments and police agencies prefer to have access to all our communications in order to stop criminals, and because of that, end-to-end encrypted services, which again means only the sender and the recipient are able to read messages, are hotly debated. But privacy campaigners warn that undermining encryption is a rights violation.
Sometimes encryption happens automatically, so there’s no need to turn on a setting. Other times, it’s trickier. You may even need to set up secret chats. In the post-Snowden era, you can never be too concerned about your privacy. With that in mind, here are some of the best encrypted messaging apps available now for Android and iOS devices.
- WhatsApp rolls out end-to-end encryption
- Facebook Messenger adds end-to-end encryption… sort of
Best encrypted messaging apps
In alphabetical order:
Facebook Messenger
Download: Android (free) | iOS (free)
Facebook Messenger barely made this list, because technically, it isn’t end-to-end encrypted. We only included it because it’s the world’s most popular messaging app, and it does actually offer an optional end-to-end encryption feature, called Secret Conversation, which you can enable for individual chat conversations from an Android or iOS device (it’s not yet available for desktops).
Messages sent using end-to-end encryption won’t support GIFs, calls, or videos, but Facebook users will be able to set timers on messages, enabling the threads to self-destruct after a set amount of time, sort of like Snapchat Snaps. Messenger’s encryption is also based on Open Whisper System’s Signal Protocol, which is whistleblower Snowden’s preferred means of encryption.
Facebook said both you and the other person in the secret conversation have a device key that you can use to verify that the messages are end-to-end encrypted. The feature only works from one phone, tablet, or computer. Keep in mind that the person you’re messaging could still choose to share the conversation with others via a screenshot. To learn more, check out Facebook’s Help Center.
Signal
Signal
Download: Android (free) | iOS (free)
Open Whisper Systems’ Signal is probably the best-known messaging app for mobile users concerned about their privacy. It is a free app that provides messaging and voice-call services – and everything is completely end-to-end encrypted. You can send text messages to individuals and groups, place calls, share media and other attachments to your phone contacts, and more.
The best part is you don’t have to use PIN codes or generate special logins. Messages can also self-destruct after a set amount of time. And if you want to use Signal from your computer, there’s a new Chrome browser plugin for desktops.
Silent
Silent
Download: Android ($9.95/mo) | iOS ($9.95/mo)
Silent Circle is another trusted solution that provides not only secure-communications software but also hardware like the Blackphone. The company’s mobile-messaging platform, Silent Phone, offers encrypted, self-destructing messages and file transfers as well as encrypted video and voice calls. You hold the encryption key, not Silent Circle, so while your data does pass through Silent Circle’s network, it can’t read anything. Unfortunately, you must be a paid subscriber to use the app.
Telegram Messenger
Telegram Messenger
Download: Android (free) | iOS (free)
Telegram Messenger is one of the more user-friendly solutions – and it’s marketed as the “fastest”. Just link your Telegram account to your phone number, and you can use the app to send encrypted chat messages over the cloud. You can even set message to self-destruct. Everything on Telegram, including chats, groups, media, etc, is encrypted. It also includes fun photo- and video-editing tools, as well as a sticker/GIF platform so you can get creative with your chats.
Download: Android (free) | iOS (free)
WhatsApp slowly rolled out its end-to-end encryption offering. It first partnered with Open Whisper Systems in 2014 to add the same encryption methods used in Signal, and then in 2016, it announced that all WhatsApp communications – voice messages, photos, video messages, chats, group chats, etc – are protected by end-to-end encryption. It even provides a security-verification code that you can share with a contact to ensure that your conversation is encrypted.
Wickr Me
Wickr Me
Download: Android (free) | iOS (free)
Wickr Me is a lesser-known end-to-end encrypted-messaging app, but it works much like the others. You can send private, self-destructing messages, photos, video, and voice messages to other Wickr contacts. It also deletes metadata like geotags and message times. Plus, there’s a “Secure Shredder” feature that enables you to securely erase attached files, messages, and other data should someone try to recover anything.
Viber
Viber
Download: Android (free) | iOS (free)
Viber recently joined the end-to-end encryption crowd. It’s unique in that it sports a colour-coded system that show how protected your conversations are with a person. Grey means encrypted communications, green means encrypted communications with a trusted contact, and red means there is an problem with the authentication key. Viber can also hide chatrooms on a shared device. And everything, from text to voice messaging, is tied to your number. But if you want to call non-Viber users, you’ll have to pay up.
Bonus app
iMessage: Apple’s default messaging app is also encrypted, but encryption experts have noted iMessage uses an Apple-developed encryption that doesn’t follow all of the best practices. You can’t verify contacts’ identities, for instance, and the code isn’t open to independent review. Also, an exploit was recently found that would allow a sophisticated attacker to decrypt photos and videos sent over the service. Still, Apple couldn’t read the messages even if they were ordered to by a court order, so that’s nice.
NASA will use Apollo 1 hatch to honor fallen crew
Apollo 13 might be the space mission that everyone knows offhand thanks to director Ron Howard’s movie, but it wasn’t the first to experience critical failures. On January 27th, 1967 the three-man Apollo 1 crew was trapped inside its spacecraft, still on the launchpad, as smoke roiled inside the capsule and suffocated them. Now on the fatal mission’s 50th anniversary, NASA is taking the three-part hatch that trapped Roger B. Chaffee, Virgil “Gus” Grissom and Edward White out of storage and putting it on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Reuters reports.
In an interview following the ceremony, Kennedy Space Center director Bob Cabana said that what has helped prevent further loss of life during space travel has been a work culture where people aren’t afraid to voice their questions. He said the exhibit should serve as a reminder of that.
“I always have concerns,” he said. “We have to continue to speak up and make sure that everyone is heard.”
NASA also commemorated the fallen astronauts from the Challenger and Columbia missions this week.
Source: Reuters
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