In a recent interview with The Verge, Eric Yuan, founder of the popular video conferencing platform Zoom, discussed his vision for the future of video conferencing and a novel concept – digital twins for meetings.

Eric Yuan envisions Zoom going up against Microsoft and Google soon

Yuan, who previously worked at Cisco before launching Zoom with the goal of simplifying video conferencing, now aspires for Zoom to evolve beyond just a video conferencing platform. He envisions Zoom competing with tech giants like Microsoft and Google in the realm of enterprise software, offering a comprehensive suite that includes document collaboration, email services, and chat functionality alongside video conferencing.

The interview highlighted Zoom’s significant investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) – a trend prevalent across various industries. Yuan believes AI holds immense potential for the workplace, particularly through the creation of “digital twins.” These AI-powered avatars could represent users in Zoom meetings, potentially even making decisions on their behalf while the user attends to more pressing matters.

However, Yuan emphasizes the importance of user control over these digital twins. He envisions a scenario where users can train them to exhibit different characteristics depending on the meeting context. For example, a user could have a digital twin tailored for sales presentations and another for technical discussions. While acknowledging the inherent uncertainties in AI development, Yuan remains confident in the eventual realization of this technology.

It’s worth noting that Zoom has already addressed user concerns around AI development in its terms of service.

(Via)

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This week marks a pivotal moment in the XR/VR headset market as Apple‘s highly anticipated special computing device, the Vision Pro is set to ship on February 2. Notably, Zoom is promising to revolutionize the landscape of video calling with an exclusive app for the Apple Vision Pro.

Zoom promises a more “real-world, immersive environment,” experience with Vision Pro

Zoom‘s new app is integrated with the innovative visionOS, and aims to redefine the virtual meeting experience. Among the standout features, Personas and Spatial Zoom take center stage. Personas introduce an authentic spatial representation of users during calls, allowing others to see facial and hand movements even without a dedicated camera pointed at them.

The Spatial Zoom feature empowers Apple Vision Pro users to customize their call experience by scaling it to the most suitable size. Whether enlarging the call to simulate an in-person meeting or minimizing it to fit the workspace setup, this functionality enhances the flexibility and personalization of virtual interactions.

Smita Hashim, Zoom’s Chief Product Officer, expressed the significance of this integration, stating, “The integration of Zoom on Apple Vision Pro and visionOS extends our platform promise of allowing participants the ultimate meeting experience from anywhere and delivers on our commitment of seamless collaboration and communication.”

Looking ahead, Zoom plans to introduce additional features for its Apple Vision Pro app in the spring. These include 3D object sharing, enabling users to share and experience 3D files within the headset. The integration with Zoom Team Chat and real-world pinning, allowing users to pin up to five participants anywhere in their physical space, further solidifies the app’s potential to transform and optimize professional workflows.

This announcement is noteworthy as it positions the Vision Pro as a device capable of enhancing the workday experience. With Zoom calls often considered a routine and somewhat tedious aspect of professional life, the promise of a more enjoyable, “immersive experience” could significantly impact how professionals perceive the $3,499 special computing device from Apple. The Zoom app for Apple Vision Pro is expected to be available for download from the App Store on February 2, coinciding with the headset’s official launch.

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Zoom is a video calling app that got super popular during the COVID-19 pandemic. People used it for work meetings, school classes, and catching up with friends when they couldn’t see each other in person. But recently, Zoom made some changes to its rules that got people worried about their privacy. Here’s what happened and how Zoom fixed it.

Privacy is an important parameter in this day and age, and Zoom is treading a very thin line

First, Zoom updated its terms of service in a way that looked like they could use customer data for artificial intelligence (AI) without asking first. People got upset because it seemed like a sneaky way to take their information. They also felt like they didn’t have a choice, especially if they had to use Zoom for work.

Zoom realized they made a mistake and quickly changed their rules again. They made it clear that they won’t use any customer’s audio, video, chat, or other content to help train Zoom’s or any other company’s AI models. They even updated a specific part of their rules, section 10, to remove any confusion.

Hashim, a person speaking for Zoom, confirmed these changes. He said that Zoom won’t use any customer content for AI, and they have also updated notices within the app to let people know about this change.

So what does all this mean? Zoom is showing that they listen to people’s concerns and are willing to make changes to keep trust. By being clear about how they use data, Zoom is working to make sure people feel safe using their app.

In a time when many of us rely on video calls to stay connected, knowing that a company like Zoom is quick to fix mistakes and protect privacy is a big deal. It’s a good reminder to always be aware of how our information is being used and to speak up if something doesn’t feel right.

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(Via)

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After the pandemic, the world had seemingly moved to the digital platform for various fields ranging from profession to education. This led to the rise of popular platforms like Zoom for virtual meetings and classes. Now, it seems that WhatsApp wants to offer a similar function of its own through Call Links.

Earlier this week, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new feature on Facebook. He stated that the popular chat messaging app will be testing the encrypted video call feature, which will support up to 32 people. With Call Links, the feature will bring both audio and video call support on the platform. Similar to Zoom and Google Meet, one can simply create a call link by going to the ‘Calls’ tab on WhatsApp and selecting the option to ‘Create call link’.

After this, users will get a link that they can share with others. Anyone else simply clicking on this link will be directly added to the call. As of right now, calls on WhatsApp only support eight people at a time. So, its not quite popular for larger business meetings or education purposes. Although, this update might make it an attractive offering in the market. The messaging application is already one of the biggest chat platform in the world, so it easily has the potential to take a notable market share away from both Google and Zoom.

This could hold especially true in certain regions like India, where WhatsApp has a dominating spot when compared to other social media platforms. If the user experience and and functionality is comparable to Meets or Zoom, then we can expect a number of people to make the shift as having a single app for multiple purposes is better than cluttering your phone with multiple applications.

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Zoom has just rolled out a new update for its application on Apple Mac platform. The new update patches a major security vulnerability that would allow hackers to gain deep access to one’s Mac system.

According to a ArsTechnica report, the popular cloud based video conferencing service had to patch a major security flaw that enabled people with malicious to gain root level access to one’s Mac PCs. This would let the hackers take control of their systems. Apparently, this vulnerability stemmed from the Zoom application’s auto updater software, which had root level access to the system. This software only had a signature verification system that could be easily fooled by giving your package a familiar file name.

In other words, a hacker could potentially force your app to downgrade or otherwise enable exploits as well. The security flaw was first discovered by Patrick Wardle, the Objective-See Foundation (OSF) creator and researcher. Wardle had informed Zoom regarding this vulnerability back in December 2021. Now, the company has officially fixed this issue, although, the patch also brought another bug as well.

However, this was also soon fixed by Zoom, but Wardle found yet another bug in the application which was just recently patched as well. Notably, this isn’t the first time Zoom faced security related issues with its platform for the Mac systems. The company also had to quickly fix a webcam hijack exploit back in 2019, which lead to rise in criticism of the software, especially in 2020 when the app exploded in popularity.

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Zoom Video Communications, the company behind the popular Zoom platform, has agreed to pay $85 million and improve its security practices to settle a lawsuit that claimed that the company violated users’ privacy rights.

The lawsuit alleged that the platform shared users’ personal data with Facebook, Google, and LinkedIn. It also talked about letting hackers disrupt Zoom meetings in a practice called “Zoombombing”, reports Reuters.

In the settlement agreement, the company denied wrongdoing. A preliminary settlement still requires approval by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California.

As for the compensation, the subscribers of the platform in the proposed class action would be eligible for 15% refunds on their core subscriptions or $25, whichever is larger while others could receive up to $15.

Apart from monetary compensation, Zoom has also agreed to security measures including alerting users when meeting hosts or other participants use third-party apps in meetings and providing specialized training to employees on privacy and data handling.

Though Zoom collected about $1.3 billion in Zoom Meetings subscriptions from class members, the plaintiffs’ lawyers called the $85 million settlement reasonable given the litigation risks. They intend to seek up to $21.25 million for legal fees.

The usage of Zoom surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as companies and companies, schools, and colleges opted for online meetings instead of in-person conduct. It had 497,000 customers with more than 10 employees in April 2021, a substantial increase from 81,900 in January 2020. But the company says that the user growth could slow or decline as more people get vaccines and return to work or school in person.

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Zoom has announced that the company has agreed to acquire Five9 which provides cloud contact center software. This all-stock deal, which is valued at $14.7 billion, marks the first billion-dollar acquisition for Zoom.

It is also the second-biggest tech deal in the United States this year, just behind Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Nuance Communications for $16 billion. After the deal closes, Five9 will become an operating unit of Zoom.

Zoom said Five9 stockholders will receive 0.5533 shares of Zoom Video Communications for every Five9 share. That values Five9 at $200.28 a share, which is a 13 percent premium and represents about 14 percent of Zoom’s market cap of close to $107 billion.

Both the companies have said that the deal is expected to get closed in the first half of next year. With this acquisition, Zoom will be entering the market for contact centers. Five9 has over 2,000 customers of Five9, including firms like Citrix and Under Armour, and processes more than 7 billion minutes of calls annually.

In a statement, Zoom CEO Eric Yuan said: “We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more happiness and value to our customers.”

Zoom was one of the biggest beneficiaries in terms of business during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, the company increased its revenue by 326 percent but it is now facing a natural slowdown, and offices around the world and opening up.

While the company has launched some new products to reckon with coming changes to its business, but it is unlikely to satisfy Wall Street. Also, with increasing competition from tech giants like Microsoft Teams, Zoom needs additional revenue sources and thus, the company acquired Five9.

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Apps have become a fundamental part of our daily life. We have apps for almost everything on our smartphones. Due to lockdowns, people around the world are spending more time on their handsets than ever before. This has led to the rise of app downloads. According to a new report, despite stresses from various governments, TikTok was still the most downloaded app on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in July 2020.

Sensor Tower is a well-known app analytical research firm. It releases a public report on top app downloads every month. The report for July 2020 is out and it mimics the previous month’s report with some minor changes.

The top 5 overall app downloads still include the same apps from last month and they are TikTok, Facebook, Zoom, Instagram, and WhatsApp respectively. Also, TikTok led the chart on both App Store and Play Store with more than 65.2 million downloads (combined).

Due to the ban of TikTok by the Indian government, its alternatives are on the rise since then but only two of them reached the top 10 chart. The first one is Likee at the ninth position and it has been part of the top 10 before.

The second one is Snatch Video with about 28.8 million downloads securing the eighth position. This app managed to enter the elite list for the very first time. For comparison, it was only downloaded 7.8 million times in June, which is 3.5 times lower than its July count.

Having said that, it is not sure how long TikTok will continue to lead the chart as it is expected to be banned by the US government if no American company buys it.

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COVID-19, something which has forced us all to stay at home and, well, work from home, has changed the dynamics of a lot of aspects of our daily lives. Telcos have come up with several work-from-home recharge plans to ensure that official work does not get hampered during the lockdown period. Amongst all the chaos, Zoom app has become a household name, as the videoconferencing app has been utilized thoroughly lately.

As it turns out, Zoom app has broken all the previous records for the number of downloads from the App Store, including the astonishing figures TikTok managed to pull off. As per a recent report, Zoom has amassed almost 90 million downloads in Q2, 2020 in the US itself.

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The report came up courtesy of an analysis by Sensor Tower. As per Sensor Tower, Zoom has not been the only app that has benefitted (or potentially received harm) from the ongoing circumstances. A number of businesses like health and fitness, and education apps have received an increased percentage of installs, while niches like travel, sports, and navigation have seen a low in terms of installs in Q2, 2020.

As per Sensor Tower, “The spread of COVID-19 made a dramatic impact on the app landscape. Business, Health & Fitness, and Education apps continued to thrive in Q2 2020, while Travel, Navigation, and Sports apps worked to recover from extended periods of low installs. Worldwide app downloads reached an all-time high of 37.8 billion in 2Q20, an increase of 31.7 percent year-over-year. App Store installs grew 22.6 percent to 9.1 billion, while Google Play saw 34.9 percent growth, reaching 28.7 billion. Worldwide app downloads reached an all-time high of 37.8 billion in 2Q20, an increase of 31.7 percent year-over-year. App Store installs grew 22.6 percent to 9.1 billion, while Google Play saw 34.9 percent growth, reaching 28.7 billion.”

While we can appreciate the fact that the Zoom app has been downloaded more than 67 million times, it has become necessary for us to pray that the damage created by the COVID-19 crisis ends soon and life gets back on track.

Have you been using the Zoom app lately? Do let us know in the comments section below.

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“The OnePlus 7 Pro has 3x zoom with no digital zoom or loss of detail. The telephoto camera serves two main purposes: 3x zoom and portrait mode photography. It will switch the field of view depending on the camera mode. With 3x zoom, the telephoto camera delivers the advertised lossless 8 megapixels images. Portrait mode utilizes all 13 megapixels from the sensor in the telephoto camera. ”

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So what’s going on here? According to Digital Camera World, OnePlus appears to be using a “composite of image data” from the 48MP sensor and the optical zoom lens to create its digital shots. We have no way to test this at the moment, but it seems fairly accurate. This sets it apart from technologies like Hybrid Zoom, which use superresolution and upscaling techniques that are very different from OnePlus’ crop.

The results are clearly pretty good, even Dx0mark agrees, but it’s debatable whether OnePlus should be advertising the phone with 3x optical zoom or a 3x telephoto camera. Huawei generally avoids this for its phones, promoting the native zoom factor (3x or 5x) and using “hybrid zoom” branding otherwise.

It is worth pointing out that this isn’t the first time OnePlus has messed up its camera claims. The OnePlus 5 was initially perceived to be doing 2X optical zoom but it was later clarified that the device was doing 1.6X optical zoom and the remaining 0.4X was done through smart capture multi-frame technology.

OnePlus is adamant that there’s no dishonesty on its part and that the 3x zoom provides full lossless quality. The quality part is true — there’s no digital zoom or quality degradation going on. Do you think OnePlus is still able to claim 3X Optical Zoom because it has no loss of detail? Let us know in the comments below.

(Source)

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