Google tries out autoplaying videos on YouTube app

While I’m personally not a fan of autoplaying videos in my apps, some prefer to have this as a matter of convenience. That’s why we aren’t surprised Google is experimenting with this feature in its YouTube app. Videos will start to play when you scroll through the Home section but you don’t have to be worried about being startled by audio as these videos will play without sound but will have subtitles overlaid. And if you’re worried about this eating up your data, only one video will play automatically at a time and you have the option to turn this feature off or have it work only on Wi-Fi. It must be noted that this feature isn’t available to all users as YouTube is just testing the feature out. Whether they roll this out to all users is something we don’t know right now.

Source: Android Authority

OnePlus has been collecting user data without permission

OnePlus seems keen on getting on the bad side of its users. This time, a software engineer named Christopher Moore discovers that the company has been sending not just analytics data of its phones’ users but other personally identifiable pieces of data like IMEI numbers, MAC addresses, mobile network names and IMSI prefixes, serial numbers, and many more. Moore discovered this activity while participating in a hack challenge. His OnePlus 2 was sending time-stamped information about locks, unlocks, and unexpected reboots, too. The code responsible for collecting this data is part of OnePlus’ Device Manager and Device Manager Provider.

Addressing this issue, OnePlus claims you can turn this activity off on your own saying, “We securely transmit analytics in two different streams over HTTPS to an Amazon server. The first stream is usage analytics, which we collect in order for us to more precisely fine tune our software according to user behavior. This transmission of usage activity can be turned off by navigating to ‘Settings’ -> ‘Advanced’ -> ‘Join user experience program’. The second stream is device information, which we collect to provide better after-sales support.” We’re not sure why OnePlus didn’t make this an opt-in feature if all they’re really after is analytics data and supposedly better after-sales support (which we might want to point out is something people have been complaining about). It frankly leaves a bad taste in our mouths. 

Source: Android Authority + Android Police

Canadian ArthritisHack to be hosted in honour of World Arthritis Day

In recognition of World Arthritis Day, the Arthritis Society and Hacking Health Toronto, with the support of Eli Lilly Canada, will bring together some of Canada’s brightest minds to participate in ArthritisHack, a weekend-long hackathon, to collaborate, design and produce solutions to empower people living with arthritis in all aspects of care and life.

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Search Ads come to the Apple App Store in Canada

Apple announced today that Search Ads are now available to the App Store in Canada, Mexico and Switzerland, raising the total to seven countries.

Canadian developers today can create campaigns to promote their apps at the top of search results on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. Ads go live in these new markets on October 17 from 1:00 p.m. EST/ 10:00 a.m. PDT, and first time advertisers can try Search Ads for free with a $100 USD credit.

Search ads are an efficient and easy for developers of all sizes to help users discover their app on the App Store for iPhone and iPad. We launched search ads a year ago in the U.S. App Store, creating another point of discovery for developers of all sizes, while complementing a user’s search experience