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  • WhatsApp rolls out new chat filters to help you locate unread and group conversations

    WhatsApp rolls out new chat filters to help you locate unread and group conversations

    WhatsApp is always evolving to improve the way we connect with others, and its latest update is focused on enhancing organization and search within your chats. Following the recent update that gave us the ability to pin messages, Mark Zuckerberg has announced another exciting feature – dedicated chat filters

    These filters are designed to make it faster and easier to locate specific conversations within your chat history, especially when you have many of them going on. Currently, the below two filters are available:

    • Unread: Perfect for catching up on messages you might have missed. It displays all your individual chats that contain unread messages, helping you prioritize your responses and clear those notification badges.
    • Groups: Perfect for finding that important group conversation. With a single tap, you can see all your group chats in one place, allowing you to quickly access discussions with family, friends, colleagues, or any other group you’re a part of. This includes subgroups within Communities, ensuring you have a central location for all your group conversations.

    Previously, searching for unread chats involved using the search bar and filtering by message status. This process, while functional, required additional steps. The new dedicated “Unread” filter eliminates these extra steps, placing readily accessible filter options at the forefront of the chat list. This is a significant improvement for users who frequently juggle numerous individual chats and want a quicker way to identify conversations that require their attention.

    The “Groups” filter addresses another long-standing pain point for WhatsApp users. For those who participate in a significant number of group chats, navigating through the chat list to find specific groups could be time-consuming and cumbersome. The ability to filter group chats has been a particularly popular request from users, according to WaBetaInfo who first reported on this announcement.

    If you are ready to try out this feature, make sure you have the most up-to-date version of WhatsApp installed on your Android or iOS device, which you can grab directly from the App Store or Google Play Store. These filters mark a positive step in response to longstanding user feedback, so seeing them finally implemented is a welcomed treat.

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  • Google’s Waymo Self Driving Car Unit Starts Robo-Taxis In San Francisco

    Google’s Waymo Self Driving Car Unit Starts Robo-Taxis In San Francisco

    Waymo is the pioneer of self-driving cars, but it has been beaten to the punch by Chinese rivals AutoX and Baidu to deploying robo-taxis. Well, this wasn’t going to stand for long as it has started tests of its robo-taxis in San Francisco.

    Waymo had deployed its ride-sharing service in Phoenix, Arizona earlier in 2020 called Waymo One. For the first time, it had also started testing the service without safety drivers in the area, but now a more full-fledged expansion is happening.

    Experts have predicted that the pandemic is accelerating the adoption of autonomous vehicles for transportation and delivery. Overall, global trust for autonomous vehicles has also grown by leaps and bounds in the last three years as the technology has progressed.

    Waymo has Chrysler Pacifica and Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs which have driven over 20 billion autonomous miles through computer simulations and 20 million autonomous miles on public roads in 25 cities.

    Now Waymo employees in San Francisco will use the Waymo One app to hail rides. They will be prompted for pick-up and drop-off points before being given an ETA. This is similar to a typical ride-hailing app.

    Till 2019, Waymo had a fleet of 153 cars and 268 safety drivers in San Francisco alone, though its latest fleet size is unknown, though presumably, it has increased. These vehicles were deployed in San Francisco to deliver packages for non-profits after the pandemic induced halt in testing.

    “We’re beginning with a limited number of cars and riders and will scale over time. These rides are being offered with a single-vehicle operator,” a Waymo spokesperson said.

    “The initial program starts this week and will last for several, but we plan to grow it over time. We don’t have any specific timelines to share about when (or where) we’ll be offering a public service. It’s worth bearing in mind this is for early product testing and continuous improvement, and there are many further steps we’d need to go through … before we could deploy a service to the public,” Waymo added in a statement.

    Waymo has a permit from the public utility commission in California that’s part of the procedures to run an autonomous vehicle passenger service pilot. This is separate from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) under which 66 companies have permits.

    Waymo One currently delivers rides with a network of 600 autonomous cars from Phoenix 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It also has a partnership with LYFT to deploy 10 cars on the Waymo One platform.

    Currently, it is on track to having more than 60,000 Pacifica minivans from Chrysler and 20,000 i-pace electric SUVs from Jaguar. It also has a deal with Daimler for developing self-driving semis.

  • AirAsia to resume flights from Surabaya to two major Malaysian cities

    AirAsia to resume flights from Surabaya to two major Malaysian cities

    Low-cost carrier AirAsia Indonesia will soon resume flights from Surabaya, East Java, to the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru after they were temporarily stopped on April 1 amid the rapid spread of COVID-19 in the two countries, an AirAsia official has said.

    AirAsia Indonesia decided to reopen the flights from Surabaya to the Malaysian cities on May 18, following a decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases in the neighboring country, the airline’s president director Veranita Yosephine said on Monday.

    “Kuala Lumpur has shown a positive trend regarding the spread of COVID-19, and therefore we decided to reopen our flights to Malaysia. However, we’ll continue to review our decision and maintain our health standards,” she said during a virtual press conference.

    AirAsia Indonesia has suspended all scheduled flights since April 1 due to a lack of passengers as the government appealed to the public to stay at home and avoid travel. The government officially prohibited flights on April 24 to and from the country’s major cities as part of the emergency measures implemented to halt the spread of COVID-19.

    To generate income, Indonesian airlines including AirAsia Indonesia have shifted to cargo and chartered flight services that are still permitted by the Transportation Ministry.

    “Currently, we are only utilizing 10 of our 28 airplanes. We’re partnering with AirAsia Group’s cargo business company Teleport to run the cargo operation,” she said.

    Although the airline has been able to shift its operation from passenger to cargo services, AirAsia, as with other airlines, is still struggling to maintain its cash flow.

    Indonesian airlines are struggling to survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic, having booked combined revenue losses of Rp 207 billion (US$13.4 million) as of April 15, according to Finance Ministry data.

    In order to keep the company afloat, Veranita said the company had taken a number of cost-cutting measures such as employee salary cuts and airplane lease renegotiations and was also seeking new sources of capital.

    “We’re currently still looking at which sources of capital we could explore. To do so, we also need permission from the shareholders,” she said.

    Veranita said AirAsia would fully comply with the Transportation Ministry’s regulation and the government-regulated health protocols for international flights, such as mandatory use of masks and a health document requirement.

    “We will implement the health protocols set by the government and will require health documents for passengers,” she said.

    She added that the airline would continue monitoring developments in the COVID-19 pandemic in both countries, and could shut down the flight routes if there was a spike in new cases.

    The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Indonesia has risen steadily with the latest Health Ministry data recording 395 new confirmed cases on Monday, an increase of 349 new cases from the previous day.

    In neighboring Malaysia, the trend in new COVID-19 cases has shown signs of plateauing, with the country’s Health Ministry reporting 55 new confirmed cases and no deaths on Monday, down from 122 new cases and two deaths on Sunday.

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