Facebook, Google Chat Integration Dropped In Outlook.com!

With the aim of boosting its own services, Microsoft has decided to discontinue Google Chat and Facebook Chat in Outlook.com. This decision will be implemented in “the next couple of weeks.” Microsoft has already notified its Outlook.com customers about the change coming in. The company has sent out email messages on 24 February.

According to Microsoft, the company has taken the decision of dropping Google Chat integration as Google has decided to discontinue the chat protocol, that was used by the Google Talk platform. Google had earlier announced that it is replacing Google Talk with Hangouts and will not offer support for XMPP. XMPP, originally known as Jabber, is the open-sourced Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol, an IETF standard for instant messaging. However, Microsoft did not cite a reason for discontinuing Facebook chat integration.

The email message from Microsoft read, “We understand that this may disappoint some of our customers, but we hope that you'll try Skype for Outlook.com chat, and voice, video calling, so you can take advantage of the more robust ways to keep in touch with friends and family.”

Mary Jo Foley for All About Microsoft asked about the reason to discontinue Facebook Chat and Google Chat support to which a company spokesperson replied, "Most Outlook.com customers already prefer to use Skype when they are chatting and we see this as a great option for anyone impacted by Google's decision to shut down Google Talk and associated APIs, or the recent deprecation of Facebook Chat for Outlook.com." 

OnePlus One To Receive Android 5.0 Lollipop Update In March

The much-awaited announcement has finally arrived for the OnePlus One smartphone users. Carl Pei, the co-founder of the company, has shared that OnePlus One smartphone will get its share of Android 5.0 Lollipop update in March. Both the Android 5.0-based CyangenMod 12S update, that will arrive on global OnePlus One units and Oxygen OS update, which will arrive on Indian units, will be available in this time line. The company has got slightly late in this roll-out, which was earlier expected to arrive in February.

The company has, so far, not shared any reason for the delay in rolling out the update. It has cited the update process as the reason of delay, which appears to be a lame excuse. But, if you don't want to wait for the official update to arrive, you can get Android 5.0 on on your OnePlus One smartphone by flashing a CM 12S nightly, Oxygen OS alpha version or Paranoid Android ROM.

For the Indian customers, here's another news from the camps of Chinese smartphone maker. OnePlus has introduced the 16GB variant of its popular One smartphone in India. Available in Silk White colour, the 16GB variant of OnePlus One can be purchased from Amazon.in at Rs 18,999.

This version of OnePlus One can quite easily be distinguished from its gray-only kin of 64GB. However, the White model doesn't have the sandstone finish like the gray one. Instead, the 16GB variant comes with plastic matte finish. OnePlus One is an impressive offering, that packs a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB RAM, a 13.97-cm (5.5-inch) 1080P display, a 13MP rear shooter with F2.0 aperture and Sony image sensor, a 5MP front camera, 3100mAh battery, 4G-support and and NFC. The smartphone runs CyanogenMod 11S, a customised version of Android developed by the Cyanogen team.

Given the fact that OnePlus is facing legal issues for using a CM build, the company has announced that it is coming up with its own version of Android OS. The build that OnePlus is developing will be based on Android Lollipop, the latest version of Android. OnePlus aims to release this new build for the Indian users next month. At this price point, OnePlus One 16GB variant is likely to compete with Xiaomi Mi 4, whose 16GB variant costs Rs 19,999 in the Indian market. The 64GB unit of OnePlus One is available at Rs 21,999. 

Lenovo Website Hacked, Lizard Squad Claims Responsibility

On Wednesday, Lenovo Group Ltd announced that its website has been hacked, days after Superfish scandal happened. A few days ago Lenovo customers were asked to remove pre-installed software, Superfish, that was suspected to contain malware. This software was pre-installed on Lenovo laptops making the devices vulnerable to security threats.

The responsibility for the hacking has been claimed by Lizard Squad, on its Twitter page. Lizard Squad posted on its Twitter page, quoting the song from the movie "High School Musical", "We're breaking free! Soarin', flyin', there's not a star in heaven that we can't reach!” The hackers also posted a couple of screenshots of an email between Lenovo employees regarding the "Superfish" software.

Now Lizard Squad is a popular name as a notorious hacker group after their several high-profile attacks on Sony PlayStation Network and Microsoft's Xbox Live network last month. But members of the group are yet to be identified. In its statement to Reuters Lenovo said, "The domain name service server hosting Lenovo's website was hacked. We do not have any further information at this time to share. We'll update as soon as possible.”

San Francisco-based security firm CloudFlare said hackers have transferred the domain to CloudFlare in order to point it to a defacement site. In an email to Reuters, Marc Rogers, principal security researcher at CloudFlare, wrote, "As soon as we at CloudFlare noticed, we seized the account and worked with Lenovo to restore service while they worked to recover their domain.” Rogers also said CloudFlare was able to restore service before Lenovo recovered the domain, and the outage has been described as "quite small".

Since 2100 GMT on Wednesday, visitors to Lenovo website saw a slideshow of some young people looking into webcams and the song "Breaking Free" was playing in the background. The Verge reported the breach first. Till the time of publishing this article, Lenovo's website remained inaccessible and a message on the site said “504 – Gateway Timeout”. 

Apple’s Siri Will Now Recognise Indian English Accent!

Apple's Siri is all set to get a new upgrade and this time, it is in favour of the millions of Apple fans in India. Apple's voice assistant Siri will now have the ability to recognise the Indian English accent. Apple launched Siri a few years back and it was the first voice assistant ever launched, but it still has a lot of areas of improvements, particularly when it comes to non-English speaking Indians. Apple seems to have taken a cue from Google Now, which was launched after Siri, but is able to recognise the Indian English accent comparatively better. Apple will bring in the tweak with iOS 8.3 release.

A report from 9to5Mac claims that second beta of iOS 8.3, that was shared with the developers brings support for English for India. It means that Siri will now understand the voice commands spoken in Indian English accent. Users will now be able to dictate emails or write-ups to Siri without putting on any fake British or American accent. For getting on with the Indian accent compatible Siri, user has to go to Siri settings menu on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

The final version of iOS 8.3 is likely to arrive later this year. Apple will open it for public testing next month, via the public beta version. Apart from supporting the Indian English accent, iOS 8.3 will also bring support for Russian, Danish, Dutch, Portuguese, Swedish, Thai and Turkish accents.