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The war for cheap computers is about to begin It feels like a long time since we've had a great big knock-down, drag-out operating system battle. Windows vs. Mac shook out in the ’90s. iOS vs. Android is mostly settled. But another one is starting this summer if you know where to look. It's not in classic PCs, where the relative qualities between Mac and Windows have remained stable for some time now. It's not in phones, where the iPhone is dominant at the high end and Android owns massive marketshare. This time it's happening in one specific place: cheap computers. And the fight for it is going to be as brutal and fascinating as the ones we've seen before. The players aren't surprising at all: Google, Apple, and Microsoft. But this is a different kind of platform war, one where all three have a legitimate chance of coming out ahead. Over the past year, we've been watching the players line up. The operating systems and ecosystems that will be compet...

The Snapchatification of everything has resulted in backlash for WhatsApp, prompting it to revive its text Status option while keeping its image-based replacement. The move shows how social apps must quickly react to feedback if they make a false step in modernizing to adapt to visual communication. In mid-February, WhatsApp removed the feature that let you set an away message, and then  gave the Status name to a Snapchat Stories clone . But last week, text Statuses reappeared in the  Android Beta  version of WhatsApp in the About section of profiles. Now, WhatsApp tells TechCrunch that About Status will roll out to all Android users over the next week and is coming soon to iPhone. Users can open the About section of their profile to  set  a text Status, and view other people’s by opening their contact when starting a new chat thread or looking at group chat info. How to change your WhatsApp text Status, via WikiHow WhatsApp provided this statement: ...

WhatsApp is rolling out  two-step verification  to all of its billion-plus users, after debuting the feature in the beta version of the  app last year . Otherwise known as two-factor authentication, this optional feature adds an extra layer of security to users’ accounts. To enable it, users need the latest version of WhatsApp and should then navigate to Settings > Account > Two-step verification > and Enable. Once this feature is turned on, users will have to enter a six-digit passcode every time they register their phone number with WhatsApp again. So, for example, if you get a new phone but keep the same SIM card and number. WhatsApp’s implementation isn’t like two-factor authentication with Google or Facebook, which generates a code with an app or sends one via text. You’ll have to remember your WhatsApp passcode, or you can set up a backup email, which will allow you to disable two-factor on your account if you ever forget your six-digit passcode. You ...

New research suggests this conveyer belt of warmth could be more fragile than we thought. Both Europe and North America are warmed in the winter by currents circulating in the Atlantic — but climate change threatens this source of warmth. If the Earth warms too much, it’s possible that this current could collapse entirely, new research says. That would mean frigid winters for countries along the North Atlantic, expansion of the sea ice in the Greenland, Iceland, and Norwegian seas, and a shift in rainfall across the world. “IT IS A MAJOR PLAYER IN THE CLIMATE SYSTEM.” The current is called the  Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)  and it’s like a conveyer belt that brings warm water from the tropics to the the cooler reaches of the North Atlantic. There, the water loses its heat to the atmosphere. Because water gets denser as it gets colder, it sinks. This lower band of cool water circulates back to the tropics where it warms and repeats the pro...

WhatApp Messager 2.10.1 or later allows its iPhone users to back up the chat history to iCloud, the media (expect for your videos) will be backed up as well. If you reinstall WhatsApp next time or delete important information in WhatsApp, you can restore your chat history from your iCloud backup. Back up the chat messages to iCloud regularly is a good habit for data security. Back up WhatsApp Messages to iCloud in iOS Before you back up WhatsApp chat message to iCloud, you need to allow WhatApp to store documents and data in iCloud. For iOS 7 users, turn on WhatsApp from Settings -> iCloud -> Documents & Data , for iOS 8 users, turn on iCloud Drive from Settings -> iCloud -> iCloud Drive . Next, backup your chats in WhatsApp from Settings -> Chat Settings -> Chat Backup , you can also use auto-backup to do that.                                     ...

Facebook is apparently asking users to rate the quality of news stories on its service, after facing criticism for allowing fake or misleading news. At least three people on Twitter have posted surveys that ask whether a headline “uses misleading language” or “withholds key details of the story.” The earliest one we’ve seen was posted on December 2nd, and asked about a story from UK comedy site  Chortle . Two others reference stories   by rolling stone   and  The Philadelphia Inquirer. It’s not clear what Facebook plans to do with the survey results, and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook has recently gotten in trouble for failing to stop the spread of news that is either outright false or extremely misleading, especially that related to the recent election. The question about withholding details, however, seems to deal with more general concerns about low-quality “clickbait.” Facebook has rolled out ...

Two-thirds of the world's internet users live under regimes of government censorship, according to a report released today. The report from   Freedom House , a pro-democracy think tank, finds that internet freedom across the globe declined for a sixth consecutive year in 2016, as governments cracked down on social media services and messaging apps. The findings are based on an analysis of web freedom in 65 countries, covering 88 percent of the world's online population. Freedom House ranked China as the worst abuser of internet freedom for the second consecutive year, followed by Syria and Iran. (The report does not include North Korea.) Online freedom in the US increased slightly over the year due to the USA Freedom Act, which limits the bulk collection of metadata carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies. "AN ESPECIALLY HARMFUL IMPACT ON HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS, JOURNALISTS, AND MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES" This year ...