Unlikely partnerships are becoming the new normal. On Friday, Google and Apple joined hands to develop a common tool to combat COVID-19. In the gaming world, FIFA partners with EA to host an eTournament from April 15-19.
Microsoft Teams usage has jumped 200% in the past three weeks.
Android builts a braille keyboard for its users.
Lastly, cybercriminals impersonated the White House and President Trump last week.
Microsoft Teams sees users clocking 2.7 billion meeting minutes each day
As most of us are confined to work from home full-time during the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person meetings simply impossible.
In a 2018 survey by Microsoft, the company asked over 14,000 people from seven countries in different career trajectories which is their most preferred mode of communication.
In that survey, in-person meeting topped the list, followed by emails, mobile phone calls and chats.
Two years later, during the COVID-19 crisis, in-person meetings have significantly reduced as organisations are asking their employees to work from home.
That has amped up usage of remote collaboration tools.
Microsoft Teams has seen a new daily record of 2.7 billion meeting minutes in one day. That’s a 200% jump from 900 million on March 16, the company said in statement.
People using video in Team meetings grew two times more than before many of us began working from home full-time, it said.
To make online meeting experience better, Microsoft is using AI to reduce background noise to reduce distractions during Team calls. It plans to roll it out later this year.
The COVID-19 induced work from home option has also led to companies holding their town hall meetings virtually. Large conferences and events are moving online.
Microsoft Stream videos has seen an increase in the last one month as hundreds of hours of videos are upload every minute.
Phishing attackers impersonate President Trump
Cybercrimes are on the rise since the COVID-19 crisis started.
Earlier, phishing emails on the topic of COVID-19 were sent to employees by using their organisation’s domain.
These emails had links and quotes from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on coronavirus to make them look genuine.
One malicious email, according to INKY, a cloud-based email security solution provider, had an update to employees. The link looked legitimate until clicked.
The link takes the employee to a phishing website that appears to look like Microsoft’s, but it isn’t.
Cybercriminals, through the phishing website, ask for the employee’s login information. And with that credentials, hackers can get away with email, customer data and confidential information from the company.
In their latest attempt by, cybercriminals have impersonated the White House and President Trump to prey on people’s fear during the coronavirus outbreak to entice them into clicking on malicious links, according to Understanding Phishing report published by INKY.
They have sent two emails, both coming from accounts hosted in Russia.
Both the emails had a link with the note that the White House is planning to extend the quarantine.
And once the link is clicked, users are taken an almost close replica of the White House Coronavirus information site.
And once the user clicks on the button labelled ‘Download and Read Full Document’, a malware gets installed.
FIFA partners with EA to bring football enthusiasts together virtually
The COVID-19 crisis has led to cancellation of most events. Football is no exception.
“It would be more than irresponsible to force competitions to resume if things are not 100% safe,” FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement.
“If we have to wait a little longer, we must do so. It’s better to wait a little bit longer than to take any risks.”
But that hasn’t stopped the Battlefield video-game maker from thinking creatively on football.
On Thursday, Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) and FIFA announced the EA Sports FIFA 20 Stay and Play Cup.
The tournament is part of EA’s ‘Stay Home, Play Together’ initiative, to encourage football enthusiasts and video game players to meet virtually and be part of a global event from April 15-19.
The eTournament is a knockout event which will host 20 of the most famous and historic clubs in Europe.
The event will feature professional footballers nominated by each of those clubs.
“We want to bring the global football community together with the EA SPORTS FIFA 20 Stay and Play Cup, so millions of fans can experience the thrill of their favorite clubs and professional footballers playing,” Andrew Wilson, CEO of EA said in a statement.
The matches can be viewed live on the EA Sports FIFA channel in Twitch TV
Each match will be a one leg one-on-one match with 85-rated squads. The winner will advance to the next round. In the event of a draw after 90 minutes, game will be decided by extra time and penalties.
It’s encouraging to see the ways we can bring real-world experiences to life with our partners at EA,” Simon Thomas, Chief Commercial Officer at FIFA said.
Typing in braille on Android
Braille was invented about 150 years ago for blind people to read and write.
Braille displays on most phones and computers make typing accessible for people without vision.
But our smartphones lacked braille displays on screens.
Google’s TalkBack is the virtual version of braille and it is integrated directly into Android.
It requires no additional hardware, and allows users to respond to text and write brief emails.
“As part of our mission to make the world’s information universally accessible, we hope this keyboard can broadly expand braille literacy and exposure among blind and low vision people,” Brian Kemler, Product Manager at Android Accessibility said in a statement.
The technology uses the standard 6-key layout, and each key represents a braille dot. When the user taps it, it makes a letter or symbol.
The feature allows to delete words and letters, add text and submit texts.
To use braille, users need to turn on TalkBak in the Accessibility section in Settings.
This feature runs on Android’s 5.0 or later versions.
Apple and Google partner to develop contact tracing technology
Two Silicon Valley giants are coming together to build a contact tracing tool to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of coronavirus.
Apple and Google say that they plan to use Bluetooth technology, and that they will put privacy and security central to the design of the new tool.
As the coronavirus passes from person to person through close proximity, public health organisations see that contact tracing could be a valuable tool to help contain the spread of the virus.
“A number of leading public health authorities, universities, and NGOs around the world have been doing important work to develop opt-in contact tracing technology,” Google said in a statement.
“To further this cause, Apple and Google will be launching a comprehensive solution that includes application programming interfaces (APIs) and operating system-level technology to assist in enabling contact tracing.”
Next month, Apple and Google will release advanced programming interface (API) to provide interoperability between Android and iOS.
The duo will use apps from public health authorities to create these APIs. Once developed, the apps can be downloaded from App store or Play store.
Secondly, the pair are planning to build a Bluetooth-based contact tracing platform. And this will added on top of an existing application.
“This is a more robust solution than an API and would allow more individuals to participate, if they choose to opt in, as well as enable interaction with a broader ecosystem of apps and government health authorities,” it added.
In order to treat privacy with utmost important, Google and Apple are planning to consult with interested stakeholders.
“We will openly publish information about our work for others to analyze,” it said.
