Whatsapp Just Switched on End-to-End Encryption

Jan Koum, founder of Whatsapp who grew up in Soviet Ukraine in the 80s, learned to distrust the governments. detesting its surveillance. When he emigrated to the U.S; decades later, he developed his ultra-popular messaging system and vowed that Whatsapp would never make eavesdropping easy for anybody.

Presently this app is following on that anti snooping promise at an unprecedented scale. Whatsapp currently the most popular instant messaging platform has started encrypting all data by default, which privacy advocates state would be aiding dissidents as well as human rights activists seeking communication protection from governments as well as hackers.

A privacy person not wanting the possibility of others reading the chat conversations, here is some good news from this quarter. A recent announcement has been made that it is implementing end-to-end encryption, which is an upgrade to privacy protection making it impossible for any to read users’ messages which includes the company itself.

The app will integrate the open source software messages with a cryptographic key which the user only can access. It is an uncrackable encryption for hundreds of millions of phones and tablets which have installed Whatsapp, the worlds’ largest ever implementation of this standard of encryption in messaging services.

End-To-End Encryption

End to end encryption mean that only the sender and receiver can read the text. The encryption feature is available in the latest build of the Android app which currently supports only one-on-one text messaging.Open Whisper System’s creator as well as a well-known software developer in the cryptography community, Moxie Marlinspike states that he thinks this is the largest deployment of end-to-end encryption ever’.

For a week, Textsecure had already been quietly encrypting Whatsapp messages between Android devices and the new encryption indicates that Whatsapp messages would now travel to the recipient’s device before being decrypted instead of being encrypted between the Whatsapp’s server and the users’ device.

Though the change is invisible, Marlinspike states that Whatsapp will add a feature soon to enable users to verify other identities depending on their cryptographic key which is a defence against the middle man’s attack that may intercept conversations. He states further that `ordinary users would not know the difference and it is totally frictionless’.

Not Applicable to Group Messages/Video/Photo Messages

Whatsapps’ messaging encryption, in its initial stage  is limited to Android and does not apply to group messages, video or photo messages. Marlinspike also adds that Whatsapp plans to expand its Textsecure to other features and platforms which includes Apple’s iOS, though he did not specify the details of the time frame and staffers of Whatsapp refrained from commenting on the latest encryption features.

He further stated that the Textsecure implementation has been progressing for six months, shortly after Whatsapp had been acquired by Facebook in February last. Massive user base for end-to-end encrypted messaging is from Whatsapp’s Android users alone and Whatsapp’s page in Google Play store portrays over 500 million downloads.

Textsecure had earlier been installed on only about 100 million devices running the Cyanogen mod variant of Android and about 500,000 other devices. This rollout of strong encryption to hundreds of millions of users could be unfavourable among governments across the world where surveillance could make it a difficult task.

Less Know Facts about the New Sensation- Self-Driving Cars

There were huge number of predictions made for the 21st century, which included the cure for cancer, people spending their weekends on the Moon and even personal jetpacks. Keeping some these both on the funnier as well as serious side, none of these predictions have come true apart from one exception and that is the “driverless cars”.

Market and Search giant Google currently holds the topmost position of owning the most famous – driverless cars. The company has been experimenting on this concept since 2009 and the experimental models have clocked nearly 750,000 miles on the roads of California and that too without a driver as well as without any accidents.

Researchers working at the Carnegie Mellon University’s Navlab were the first ones to build an autonomous vehicle that too in the year 1984. The year 2010 saw arrival of a semi automatic van, which was built by the researchers working at the University of Parma. This semi automatic van was able to drive a round trip from Italy to Shanghai. This trip was accounted to be more than 8000 miles.

There are some of the innovative technologies meant for these kinds of vehicles but now they have also been adopted by the mainstream vehicles. An example of this technology is the adaptive cruise control, which is meant to apply brakes whenever it detects a slow traffic ahead. If we see on the positive side of this technology, in a normal driving condition, a vehicle, which offers radar, camera, and even advanced software, can be easily considered the best driver compared to human beings.

These vehicles are also made to perform some of the task, which we might not like to do while driving. One of the tasks, which daunt every driver, is the lack of parking space and parking the car itself. These driverless cars have been equipped with software, which allows them to park the car themselves.

This feature has gained so much of attention that companies like Ford, BMW, Lexus, and Audi are also offering vehicles with similar feature. Another feature adopted by 2014 Mercedes S-Class sedan is that it can negotiate stop-and-go traffic and that too without any inputs from the driver. According to director of electrical and active safety R&D, John Capp, General Motors is planning to introduce a new range of Cadillac’s, which will be equipped with Super Cruise control. This feature will allow the drivers to merge in the freeway and then the car with drive on its own and steer itself. A similar feature will be adopted by Tesla’s Model D sedan and Volvo.

At present, we only have semi autonomous cars, which will still need a human to sit at the wheel and take control of the cruise at most of the time. As Google and Parma researchers are working on their prototypes, we can soon expect fully autonomous cars in the next decade or so. The day is not far, wherein we will see cars without drivers, steering wheels, and even brakes.

DARPA Working On Building an Aircraft Carrier Inspired From Avengers

Drones, which are always considered as a vital part of the United States Military Arsenal and the strength of the US Military is gaining importance every day. Although the range and speed of the drones is limited when compared to other manned aircrafts, this shortcoming has been overtaken its advantages which includes low-risk, low cost, versatile as well as the best alternate to manned aircrafts.

This is the reason why they are becoming progressively more powerful. The shortcomings of the drones is being keenly checked and expected to be fixed by DARPA, who are looking towards airborne aircraft carriers as an alternate. Now, this is just an idea for DARPA, but if this goes in the desired way, then we can soon expect these carriers to develop and be ready for deployment. People are expecting these carriers to be similar to the helicarriers that was used by the S.H.I.E.L.D. in the movie “The Avengers”.

Sounds Unbelievable but it is possible

At an instance, the idea might sound crazy but this is not the first time, where an aircraft has been launched and has been successfully recovered as well. Before the World War 2, The US Naval airships Akron and Macon (officially known as ZRS-5 and ZRS-4 respectively) were floating airfields and aircraft hangars. Since at that time the range of ocean required to be observed was too much and bi-planes used for scouting were having limited range, 1000-foot-long airships were designed. These airships were designed in such a way that they could carry nearly five F9C-2 Curtiss Sparrow hawk scout planes.

The planes could not only be launched but also recovered by using a hook system in a trapeze-shape. One thing to remember is that there was no accident reported on these airships with respect to the aircrafts. During their years of operation, both launch and recovery process was completed successfully. Unfortunately, Navy had to discontinue to usage of this program due to the planes being destroyed in crash caused by bad weather.

Now, what we are left with is “Hangar 1″ at Moffet Field, which has been built to accommodate the Macon. Even though people might have seen it at Silicon Valley and associated it with Airship are deprived about the complete story. According to the reports, the Hanger was leased out to Google recently and they had to pay a whopping $1 billion for a period of 10-years.

What will change for the drones?

According to DARPA, if they are able to develop the capability of launch and recovery of the drones, this will enable the US military to combine the manned aircrafts with the speed, precision and range of the drones. At present, the emphasis is being put on the surveillance, intelligence, and reconnaissance, DARPA recognizes that these weaponized drones will also be helpful in other missions. DARPA has invited respondents to put forth their ideas pertaining to the modification of the aircrafts and provide an a complete analysis of the benefits that can be expected out of the modified craft and also the system will work on these crafts.

Wearable Devices Now Able To Turn the Heartbeats into Loads of Cash

With gadgets taking over many activities in our lives, companies are coming up with newer methods of measuring each moment of our lives. Initially the biometric sensors who were able to measure the temperature of the skin, respiration rate, and heartbeat, the makers of different smart wearable devices have taken a new step and looking forward to turn this biometric information into innovative moneymaking service.

The company will release Apple watch this spring, and we have customers around the world waiting in anticipation as to what this device can and will be able to do. However, apart from the functions, that device can carry out; we are forgetting to focus on one of most vital issue. The issue is the amount of data that Apple and their other competitors will be able to whip out from the device.

According to the survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, about 1/3rd of the wearable device users end up abandoning their device after a year of use. The wearable devices that can carry out more than just whipping out data will no longer hold any value to the customers, if they do not wear this device anymore.

The main question that crops up is all about invasion of privacy. The hitch lies in the fact that the HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), which aims at protecting the medical records and patient data still does not apply to the data generated from these wearable devices. Apple Watch strategy extends further than their Apple Watch, as it will cover all these roadblocks as they are relying on the HealthKit. HealthKit has the ability to deliver the entire snapshot of the user’s health to their doctors, ER teams, hospitals and even their personal trainers.

For your service: 

At the end of the day, the aim is to provide the data to people who can make sense out of it. The related services, which will generate from these existing data like fitness coaching, weight-loss training, and medical consultations, will further help in shaping up the wearable device market. According to IDC (Market researcher), they are expecting the wearable market to sell nearly 130 million units by 2018 and the value of the wearable market will be at $ 6 Billion.

As per Alex, the head of health care development for French wearable maker “Withings”, Service holds the most important place. Many wellness providers have contacted them to get associated with them. Apart from Withings, many market giants are looking forward to get into this association and provide health service to the customers.

What about the wearable devices without these plans: 

Apart from the companies who are ready to get associated with HealthKit, Jawbone and Fitbit are refusing to do the same. So how can they expect to compete in this scenario? They can either start their own data center or focus on their software and devices. On the other hand, Jawbone got associated with Apple HealthKit and looking forward to embrace innovations and contribute to the service community. At the end, business relies on service.

Yahoo Buys Video Ad Service BrightRoll for $640 Million

Yahoo’s senior vice president of ad technology, Scott Burke and Sacerdoti has confirmed the news about the deal between Yahoo and Bright Roll. According to Scott, this deal certainly raises curiosity and raises concerns about the bet that the company has taken over video.

According to Scott Burke, although there are speculations and possible resistance, this deal can be easily considered as one of the biggest acquisition that has been done by the company. The first biggest acquisition was the Tumblr deal wherein the company has paid a whopping $ 1 Billion. Scott also stated that this deal with be combining the data with Bright-Roll’s programmatic video ad marketplace and Yahoo’s premium ad inventory.

According to Sacerdoti, this deal doesn’t change the fact that Bright roll will still continue their work with the non-yahoo publishers according to the advertisers expectation. Scott wanted to ensure that the power of Bright-Roll’s technology gets illustrated and for this he highlighted the amount of ads that are currently being served at this platform.

So what will happen? 

Yahoo is expected to be joined by 400 plus Bright Roll team and this will be followed by the association of the management of the company as well. At present Scott Burke from Yahoo has denied to comment and give any information about the position that will be given to Sacerdoti; he stated that he will be joining them as the CEO of Bright-Roll.

About BrightRoll: 

Bright-Roll was founded by Tod Sacerdoti in the year 2006, who is also the present CEO of the company. The Company has been successfully able to raise $ 40 Million through funds from investors like Scale Venture Partners, Adams Street Partners, Comerica Bank, Trident Capital, True Ventures, Michael Tanne, KPG Ventures, Fabrice Grinda, Jeff Clavier and Auren Hoffman.

According to Marissa Mayer, who is the CEO of Yahoo, video is currently one of the main areas of growth for the company apart from advertising and mobile and social media. They are expecting their video ad platform to become the largest platform in the United States of America post this acquisition. According to Mayer, they are expecting Yahoo to receive beneficial effects on their performance as Bright-Roll received nearly 2 million ad request every day and the company hopes to generate nearly $ 100 Million in net revenue/year.

Yahoo confirmed on Tuesday that they have paid a whopping $ 640 Million for San Francisco startup. This will help the customers to sell and buy video ads on mobile devices, websites and TVs. The company is hoping to reinvent banner ads in the entire process. At present the digital video advertising has taken shape of a very serious business. By the end of the year 2014, the web video ads market is expected to touch $ 6 Billion. This is nearly expected to increase by 56 % in 2018 and will touch $ 18 Billion mark.

The company wants to use this new strategy to the maximum potential and to extract the best from the market.