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Skype has added call recording to most of its latest versions enabling you to record audio and video calls.

Call recording is completely cloud-based and is now available on the latest version of Skype and on most platforms, except Windows 10. Call recording is coming to Windows 10 with the latest version of Skype releasing in the coming weeks.

As soon as you begin recording a call in Skype, all participants will be notified that the call is being recorded with a bar that appears on the app. The app also suggests that verbally notify users that they are being recorded to avoid legal hassles later.

Recorded calls are stored in the cloud for thirty days but you can download them for posterity if you wish.

On Desktop apps, the option to start recording is available when you click the + icon on the bottom right of the screen. Likewise, on mobile, tap the + icon and you get an option to Start Recording.

After the call, the recording is finalized and then posted to your chat where it is available for 30 days. You and everyone on the call can save the recording locally or share the recording to your contacts any time during the 30 days.

To save a call on Desktop, go to More Options and then select Save to Downloads. You can also select Save As if you want to choose the destination folder. It will save as an MP4 file. On mobile, just tap and hold the recorded call in the chat. When the menu is displayed, tap Save. The recording will automatically download and save to your device's camera roll as an MP4 file.

Instagram is working on a standalone shopping application according to a report by The Verge.

The Verge cites sources in reporting that the new app would let users browser collections of goods from merchants that they follow on the social network and purchase them directly within the app. According to the sources, it could be called "IG Shopping".

Instagram already started testing a shopping feature in November 2016 where merchants could tag posts with individual products and enable users to shop directly from photos.

According to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, more than 25 million businesses have Instagram accounts already with 2 million of them being advertisers.

The report did not suggest when such an application may launch as the development is still very much underway, and there is the possibility that it could be canceled outright before it is released.

Such a move would launch Instagram into the e-commerce market in direct competition with Shopify and others.

Source: The Verge

Once again, policymakers in the European Union will be voting on very controversial Copyright Directive that could drastically change the web.

During the summer, critics of the copyright reforms and advocates for free speech and expression scored a victory when Members of the European Parliament rejected plans to fast-track the new copyright directive. However, a new pivotal vote approaches on September 12 and rights' groups, tech firms, and others are sounding the alarm.

Article 13 in particular raised concerns because of its focus on content platforms that allow user-generated content to be hosted and accessed. It refers to such platforms as "information society service providers", or ISSPs.

In essence, it would turn those platforms into a kind of copyright police. Some critics go further than that in their analysis of its effects. For example, the Open Rights Group's Mike Morel says it would make those firms copyright enforcers and have them effectively policing speech.

This would happen because those platforms could become liable for user content, meaning they would have to introduce general monitoring for all user content and use automated filters. It would, undoubtedly, result in the over-blocking of user content.

Google's Chrome browser turned ten years old this past weekend, and Google is celebrating by revamping the browsers appearance and beefing it up.

New appearances for Chrome will be present across Desktop, Android and iOS. On all three, immediately evident is more rounded shapes, new icons and a new color palette. The shape of tabs has been changed so that website icons are more prominent for easier identification and switching.

On iOS, the toolbar has been relocated to the bottom of the screen. Prompts, menus and more have also been changed a bit on all platforms.

On the productivity and security side, Google Chrome now has stronger password manager functionality. Chrome can now more accurately pre-load your passwords, addresses, credit card information and so forth. This sensitive info is synced to your Google account. Chrome also will now generate a super-strong password for you when you sign up to a new website and keep the strong password in your account. This is to enhanced your security by discouraging the use of the same password for multiple services.

Another big change is to the Chrome search / url bar, which is called Omnibox. From now on, the Omnibox will display answwers to queries right in the suggestions. Searching for a website in the Omnibox that is already open in a tab will produce a "jump to tab" feature, which is wonderful news for tab hoarders.

Esports cannot be part of the Olympic Games because they are too violent, according to the President of the International Olympic Committee.

"If you have egames where it's about killing somebody, this cannot be brought into line with our Olympic values," Thomas Bach, said. He made the comments at the Asian Games, where Esports is being included as a demonstration event for the first time.

Esports has an estimated audience of 320 million and growing globally. It is projected to hit $1 billion in global revenue by 2020.

"It has to fit the spirit and the value of the Olympics. The content should not be violent," Bach said, reports the BBC News website. "Blood in video games is the problem. The line to violence can be blurry but when it comes to blood it's easy to define."

Mr Bach won a team gold medal for West Germany at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Quebec.

Amazon has become the second firm to reach a $1 trillion market valuation after Apple reached the milestone a month ago.

The online retail giant's shares briefly reached a high of $2050.2677 as its total market value soared over $1 trillion. At the current rate, Amazon is set to overtake Apple which reached the trillion dollar valuation milestone on August 3 this year.

In the past 15 months, Amazon's stock price has doubled as investors have been impressed by the company's diverse business success. Amazon has pushed into almost every area of retail as well as digital streaming, financial services and cloud computing. Amazon's cloud services accounted for 20 percent of total revenue (55 percent of operating income) in Q2, 2018.

It took Amazon 21 years as a public company to reach a $1 trillion valuation, having gone public in 1997 at $1.50 on a split-adjusted basis. Jeff Bezos originally founded Amazon as an online book retailer in 1994 and ran it out of his garage.

Apple was a public company for 38 years before reaching last month's historic valuation. Amazon's revenue is expected to grow by 32 percent this year, ahead of a 14.9 percent prediction for Apple.

WhatsApp, the more-than-billion-users messaging app, updated its iOS version today. But this is the first update that wont be available to iPhone 4 users.

WhatsApp stated that the new update is the first that will require iOS 9 or newer, meaning that iPhone 4 is now officially one of the unsupported devices from now on.

WhatsApp has also stated that the messaging platform's support for iOS 8 and iOS 7 will cease completely by February 1st, 2020. This means that while users of iPhone 4 and earlier models can still install previous versions of WhatsApp, even those will cease working in 2020.

The latest WhatsApp for iOS version is now v2.18.90. New version adds warnings about suspicious links, bigger preview for GIF animations and ability to search from status updates.

Skype is working to simplify the user experience again by removing new social media-like features that didn't catch on with users.

Over time, Skype expanded from being a voice call service to adding support for video chats, group chats and more. It also incorporated features similar to social media giants like Snapchat and Instagram. For example, "Highlights" resembled Snapchat's Stories.

However, these features didn't really resonate with many Skype users. Those who would be interested in such features were probably already using them on other platforms and saw Skype as a messaging, voice and video chat service exclusively.

Skype has cut the features in its latest update, though users have until September 30 to download their Highlights if they want to. On Mobile, the new update focused on the fundamentals of why most people use Skype--to make a call (often with video) and/or send a message.

"Our new navigation model removes redundant and underused features that create clutter--making it much easier to find the people you want to talk to and contact them in an instant. On mobile we are moving to three buttons at the bottom of the app--Chats, Calls, and Contacts. Removing Highlights and Capture provides a cleaner and more efficient user interface (UI) that is easy to navigate while still providing all the functionality Skype customers want."

Microsoft has confirmed that the next major update for the Windows 10 operating system will arrive in October this year.

This is a month later than had been predicted, which isn't so bad. The update will be Windows 10 OS version 1809, with the official name being "Windows 10 October 2018 update", unsurprisingly.

Among the known feature changes or additions in the forthcoming Windows 10 update are a cloud-powered clipboard which will synchronize content copied to the clipboard across multiple devices.

It also introduces a dark-theme for File Explorer and improvements to the Windows Game Bar and Microsoft Edge web browser.

There will of course be fixes for common issues, such as the green screen error reported on logout or shutdown reported with some versions of the OS.

Development of the update is scheduled to finish in September.

It may be the biggest selling games console in history, but Sony Japan has finally said goodbye to the PlayStation 2.

The PlayStation 2 (PS2) console was released in Japan in March 2000. Production of the classic console ceased fully in 2012, but in Japan Sony was still servicing the aging console for its customer base at the PlayStation Clinic center in Iwate Prefecture.

Recently, Sony reached out to PS2 owners in Japan to fill out online forms by August 31 to have their console fixed one last time. Customer support for the PS2 officially ended the same date.

PS2 consoles that do not arrived by September 7 will not be serviced.

Given the PS2 is now 18 years old, it is admirable that Sony centers in Japan kept up repair and servicing operations until now.

Source: Kotaku

The music industry has its sights set on the high number of websites and mobile apps that enable users to download the music from YouTube videos.

Such sites and apps can take a YouTube URL and provide a download link directly for an MP3 file. These tools can be used to make unauthorized copies of music from music videos on the world's largest video portal. Some sites include support for others including SoundCloud, DailyMotion and Vimeo.

Last week, MP3Fiber was one such service that shut down due to legal threats, but many options are still available. Services an apps tend to carry advertising, which some in the industry say allows them to earn money by enabling copyright infringement.

"Although coordinated action by the record industry is delivering results, with major platforms like YouTube-mp3 closed down, we must continue to act against illegal sites that build huge fortunes by ripping off artists and labels," Geoff Taylor, head of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), told The Independent.

"We hope that responsible advertisers, search engines and hosting providers will also reflect on the ethics of supporting sites that enrich themselves by defrauding creators."

Redbox has been blocked from selling digital download codes for some of Disney's movie releases.

Last week, a federal judge sided with Disney in a dispute with Redbox. The firm has clashed with Disney in court in the past over sales of Disney's download codes for digital copies of films. Initially, Disney argued that Redbox was engaged in copyright infringement by encouraging customers to make unauthorized copies of its films.

Redbox acquired the download codes in coupons after it mass purchased Disney DVD combo packs. It would sell the digital download code separately. Disney protested that the DVD boxes come with a clear message that the codes are not for re-sale or for transfer.

In February, Judge Dean Pregerson found that the wording on the packs was not explicit enough to prohibit Redbox from re-selling the codes after it purchased the DVDs.

With the release of Black Panther, Disney has updated the wording to assert that Disney owns the digital copy and licenses it to the buyer of the DVD only. On Thursday, Judge Pregerson granted an injunction against the resale of the codes.

Apple has quietly added a new page to their support site which issues a replacement program for iPhone 8 devices. The callback is issued specifically for a small percentage of normal-sized iPhone 8 models suffering from a defect in the logic board.

According to Apple, a very small percentage of iPhone 8 devices, not including any iPhone 8 Plus devices, contain logic boards with a manufacturing defect. The company will fix, by replacing, the faulty devices for free.

Devices with faulty logic board may experience sudden reboots and freezes or might not turn on. Apple's assessment about the percentage is easy to believe since we haven't had a massive outcry on social media about such problems.

If you've bought your device between September 2017 and March 2018 in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, or the U.S., you should head to the support page where you'll be able to enter the serial number to check whether yours might be affected by the defect.

Google's upcoming Pixel event has yet to be announced officially, so there is still time for some rumors and speculation. We of course already know that Google will unveil the new Google Pixel 3 phones, but what else might we be getting?

Rumors from few months back have suggested that Google would be releasing the Pixel Watch, a smartwatch to accompany Pixel smartphones. This wouldn't be a surprise at all, especially since Apple is planning to announce new version of theirs in less than two weeks.

Apparently this isn't the case after all. Google has put down the rumors for good in an interview with Tom's Guide. Google's Miles Barr has said that Google is not going to unveil their own smartwatch this year, and instead is just focusing on developing Wear OS.

Wear OS is of course Google's mobile operating system for wearables, so mainly smartwatches, activity trackers, and such.

According to Barr Google is not ready to join the race because there doesn't seem to be a way to make a single product for everyone. Reading between Barr's lines also seems to reveal that Google might want a more advanced Google Assistant before jumping into smartwatches.

Apple's upcoming iPhone launch event has been confirmed for September 12, and in fact we've already seen the first pictures of the upcoming iPhones.

However, there are more than iPhones to be released. Apple is preparing the launch of a new Apple Watch and perhaps even new iPads. The latter we haven't seen yet, but a leaked picture revealed what the upcoming new generation of Apple Watches has in store.

The picture doesn't reveal everything about the new device but it does give us a few details about the smartwatch. First of all is the most obvious difference: the display. Apple has enlarged the display to more or less meet the edges unlike the previous generations.

This means probably not only larger display but better resolution which is why the watch face looks so much more busy. There will be other watch faces, as we know, but thankfully this one gives us a glimpse of a new feature that we haven't seen before.

Apple seems to have implemented a UVI gauge into the watch face. UVI stands of course for UV index, or ultraviolet index, and measures how much ultraviolet radiation reaches the surface of the earth at any given time or place. UVI is an important tool to determine when it is necessary to apple sunscreen to avoid sunburn.