#NewsBytesWeeklyRecap: Google Nest Mini, Facebook's outage and more in tech
The last week of November was a quiet one from the perspective of security issues, as we didn't witness any new bugs or vulnerabilities. There were, however, some tempting hardware launches, including that of Google's latest smart speaker, the Nest Mini, in India. Let's take a quick look back at everything that happened in technology space this past week.
Google debuted new Nest Mini smart speaker
Google kickstarted the week by bringing Nest Mini smart speaker in India, merely a month after its international debut. The new device, priced at Rs. 4,499, looks similar to the older one but features improved audio quality, a hook for easy wall hanging, and a new machine learning chip that boasts 1 TeraOPS of processing power and handles all the commands locally and swiftly.
Facebook apps went down on Thanksgiving Day
The next big news of the week came from Facebook when three of its key apps, Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram, went down on Thanksgiving Day. Several features of the services kept creating problems for users around the world until the social network issued a fix. To recall, a similar kind of outage had also occurred in July 2019.
New capabilities for Messenger, WhatsApp
Among other things, Facebook was also reported to be working on new capabilities for Messenger and WhatsApp. The Messenger app, for instance, could soon get a 'favorites' feature, which might be similar to Instagram's close friends. Meanwhile, WhatsApp is reported to be working on automatic message deletion (which would even work in dark mode), call waiting for iOS, and multi-device support.
Alexa getting emotional touch, Google Pay working on gold gifting
Separately, Amazon introduced scary new capabilities into Alexa that would let the digital assistant speak with a touch of excitement and disappointment. Beyond that, some reports indicated that Google Pay is working on an option to allow gifting of digital gold purchased on the platform, the hacker of Jack Dorsey's Twitter account - who is apparently a child - has been arrested.
WhatsApp's security audit also planned by Indian government
In another news, a Reuters report also revealed that the Indian government is planning to have an audit of WhatsApp's security system and practices in the wake of the Pegasus spyware-based attack on some 120 Indian lawyers, journalists, and activists.
Finally, there were some interesting hardware launches
Along with Google, other tech companies also had some interesting hardware launches. Huawei, for one, launched flagship tablet MatePad Pro, a new smart TV with a 75-inch 4k QLED panel and a pop-up camera, and Honor V30 and V30 smartphones. Xiaomi launched Mi TV 4X in India, while Vivo launched Z5i smartphone with triple rear cameras.
