Farewell to Omegle – A Look Back at the End of an Internet Era

Omegle, a popular online chat platform that allows you to chat with strangers, recently announced that it will shut down after 15 years of operation. The decision was made in response to the growing abuse of the platform to commit heinous crimes, which the founder described as “unspeakably horrible”.

Started in 2009 by then high school student Leif K-Brooks, Omegle was initially a small project, but quickly grew in popularity, attracting millions of users every day. Despite a slight decline in popularity in recent years, the site attracted around 50 million visitors last month, according to analytics firm HoudelijkeWeb. In a blog post, K-Brooks shared her initial uncertainty about the success of her platform, which started from humble beginnings in her parents’ home in Vermont. He attributed Omegle’s rapid growth to the basic human desire to meet new people, something the platform has effectively met.

However, increased use of the platform during the pandemic has led to increased scrutiny and criticism as the platform has become a hotspot for more suspicious activity. K-Brooks acknowledged its efforts to improve the platform’s security measures but expressed regret over recent malicious attacks that prompted its decision to shut down the platform. K-Brooks expressed its sorrow and disclosed the operational challenges and toll of its fight against abuse. He noted that the current situation was no longer financially and emotionally sustainable, which led to the difficult decision to cease operations.

K-Brooks expressed concern about the future direction of the Internet. The concern was that without a major change in approach, the Internet could become a medium similar to passive television consumption without the active participation and genuine human connections that once characterized the Internet.

Elon Musk’s xAI Reveals Grok – A New AI System with a Rebellious Streak

Elon Musk

Elon Musk’s company xAI is making its own version of ChatGPT. It seems like they’ve been working on an AI system called Grok, which can chat and answer questions like ChatGPT does. Grok can look up information online and has access to the latest info from xAI. It’s designed to have some humor in its responses and is careful not to answer inappropriate questions. Musk announced that a select group would get access to Grok, and later, all subscribers to xAI’s Premium Plus plan would have access too.

xAI hasn’t shared much about their research, but they recently published a blog post about Grok. They trained the model over several months using a lot of computer power and data from the internet. According to xAI, Grok is better than other similar models and has a bit of a rebellious side, answering some spicy questions that other AI systems avoid.

Musk’s goal with xAI is to build AI that can understand the universe better. The company is led by Musk and experts from different tech companies and universities. They plan to equip Grok with other abilities, like seeing and hearing, to help users even more. Musk had some disagreements with OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and left its board in 2018. He also stopped giving them access to xAI’s data.

Meta’s Platforms Facilitate 600 Million Daily Chats for Users and Businesses

Meta

Mark Zuckerberg said during the company’s Q3 2023 earnings call that Meta is doubling down on its messaging business to generate revenue. Zuckerberg said the company wants to introduce generative AI-based bots into the enterprise for use cases such as customer support. According to Meta’s CEO, users and businesses interact more than 600 million times a day on the platform. This is the first time Meta has shared these numbers in an earnings call. It does not specify how many marketing or informational messages you will receive, such as from companies sending ticket information or order updates.

But Zuckerberg pointed out that more than 60 percent of WhatsApp users in India, the chat app’s biggest market with more than 500 million users, send messages from their business app accounts. It is worth noting that many sole business owners use a WhatsApp Business account, which gives them access to features such as company pages, product catalogs and messaging. Social media giants have several ways to monetize business messages. WhatsApp identifies different types of messages and charges the company based on chat sessions. It also offers click-to-message and click-through ads for WhatsApp. Earlier this year, Zuckerberg said that this type of advertising has reached $10 billion in annual revenue and is growing.

In recent months, WhatsApp has announced business products such as WhatsApp Streams and personalized messages sent to customers to improve the in-app purchasing experience. In September last year, the company announced plans for a verification system for WhatsApp with features like support for 10 devices connected to a personal account, support for custom web pages and more, which makes it easier to handle customer queries. Meta also wants to use generative AI to answer customer questions about business account purchases and support. “Now I think this is going to be a huge opportunity for the new business AI that I was talking about earlier, which will allow any company to create AI that people can send to help with commerce and support,” Zuckerberg said. . During the conversation.

Zuckerberg’s argument is that companies in some markets, such as Thailand and Vietnam, have less labor and can afford to respond to customers manually. However, other markets can use Meta’s AI trading bots. The growth and availability of generative AI models has led several AI-based customer support startups to launch products and attract the attention of investors and potential buyers.

Editing and Adding Notes to PDFs in Microsoft Edge

Editing and Adding Notes to PDFs in Microsoft Edge

If you are using Google Chrome as your web browser then you may want to try out Microsoft Edge. It provides various benefits especially if you often deal with PDF files. Unlike Google Chrome, MS Edge lets you edit as well as add notes to PDFs. Here is a step-by-step guide of how you can do it.

How to Edit and Add Notes to PDFs in Microsoft Edge

First of all, lets discuss about how to open PDF files using Edge browser. Normally, MS Edge is not set as your default browser so you will have to open PDFs in it manually. If you don’t, they will open in Google Chrome or any other PDF reader that you have on your computer.

  • First of all, go to File Explorer and search for the PDF that you want to open.
  • Right-click on it.
  • Now hover over your mouse on ‘Open with’ in the menu.
  • Now, select ‘Microsoft Edge’.
  • That is all, now you can use MS Edge to edit as well as add notes to your PDF files.

Editing and Adding Notes to PDFs in Microsoft Edge

In the Edge browser, you can easily edit as well as add notes to any PDF file directly which is very useful feature. You don’t need extra apps. Here is a step-by-step guide of how you can do it.

  • First of all, click on the Text icon located at the top in order to add text to the PDF.
  • Now hover over the space where you are required to add text and click.
  • Now type in your desired text and press Enter.
  • In order to highlight or draw on PDF, click on the Draw icon.
  • Once you are done, click on the Save button located at the top right corner.

Annotating PDFs in Microsoft Edge:

If you are required to make comments on PDF, you can easily do it in MS Edge without any extra tools. Here is how you can do it.

  • First of all, open the PDF in MS Edge browser.
  • Now click on the Highlight icon located at the top left.
  • Now select the text that you need to comment on.
  • Now right-click and select Add comment.
  • Type in your comment and click check mark once it is done.
  • At the end, click on Save in the top right corner.

WhatsApp for Windows is beta testing a dedicated tab for call logs

The users of WhatsApp are enjoying the benefits of multi-device support for some time now and now it has been expanded to let the users use a secondary smartphone as well. You can use a linked device to place voice as well as video calls when using WhatsApp on PC the user interface lacked dedicated tab for call logs. But now it is changing as WhatsApp is testing new call log for its Windows app.
It may take some time for the new WhatsApp mobile features to start making their way to linked devices running on Windows or macOS. You can open specific groups or conversations always and can hit the call button but call logs are still only available on your smartphones. Now WhatsApp for Windows is testing fresh addition to the sidebar on the left side of the interface, designed to let you see all your voice and video calls in one place. As the feature is still in beta, your call history may not be sync perfectly with your primary smartphone.

WhatsApp is testing a video mode for its camera now a days

WhatsApp is considered as one of the best messaging apps for Android. After being acquired by Meta, WhatsApp has come a long way with loads of handy new features and additions. In the recent past, WhatsApp ahs gained immense popularity and some important usability enhancements including the call links, ability to message yourself and the option to send files of up to 2GB size. Most of the features were spotted the beta channel of the app before they were released to the public. WhatsApp is working on usability improvement that will make the recording as well as sharing videos with your friends easier.
WhatsApp is working on slightly tweaked camera interface for its Android app. At the moment if you open built-in camera interface of messaging app, you get shutter button along with buttons to switch to front camera and jump into gallery. A button to toggle flash is located in top-right corner. In order to take a video, you are required to long press shutter button. This could be cumbersome in various scenarios since you required to continue holding shutter button while talking a video. WhatsApp is looking to change this behavior by adding a video mode to its built-in camera app, which can be accessed with right swipe on the viewfinder.

Google Messages is experimenting with redesigned photo picker

Google Messages is the flagship app of Google and it is receiving constant stream of updates. It started experimenting with end-to-end encrypted group chats and Signal-style read receipts. Now the tests are being conducted to redesign the photo picker that makes it very easy to access the old pictures. The new photo picker loses horizontally scrolling interface of old for intuitive vertical scrolling one. The interface has expanded further to the top when you scroll, letting you to see more images at once.
Quick access to camera and your device folder has been retained. The camera preview is positioned at the top left corner and the Gallery has been renamed to Folders. Google is sticking with custom implementation for photo picker in its flagship messaging app. The company has introduced Android-wide photo picker that is backreported to Android 4.4 KitKat. Google has also added that method to Google Voice which is an online messaging as well as calling service.

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