Services of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are coming back online after several hours of disruption that impacted millions of people worldwide.

While the users of the three social media platforms remained clueless as they repeatedly received error messages for most part of the day, the stocks of Silicon Valley firm Facebook dropped by nearly five per cent as a result

“To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us,” Facebook, which owns photo sharing app Instagram and messaging platform WhatsApp, said on Twitter.

Mike Schroepfer, chief technology officer of Facebook, said on Twitter: “Sincere apologies to everyone impacted by outages of Facebook powered services right now. We are experiencing networking issues and teams are working as fast as possible to debug and restore as fast as possible.”

“Facebook services are coming back online now… (It) may take some time to get to 100 per cent. To every small and large business, family, and individual who depends on us, I’m sorry,” Schroepfer said in another tweet.

Earlier in the day, Facebook had said: “We’re aware that some people are having trouble accessing our apps and products. We’re working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible, and we apologise for any inconvenience.”

WhatsApp and Instagram too had taken to Twitter to inform their users about the outage.

“We’re aware that some people are experiencing issues with WhatsApp at the moment. We’re working to get things back to normal and will send an update here as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!” said the messaging app which more than two billion active users in the tweet.

“Instagram and friends are having a little bit of a hard time right now, and you may be having issues using them. Bear with us, we’re on it!” the photo sharing app had tweeted.

The outage of the three popular social media platforms comes a day before one of its whistleblowers was all set to testify before a Congressional committee.

“It was highly unusual to have so many apps go dark from the world’s largest social media company at the same time. More than 3.5 billion people use Facebook and its apps to communicate with one another and conduct business,” The New York Times wrote.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the outage also caused widespread disruptions to Facebook’s internal communication tools, including some voice calls and work apps used for calendar appointments and other functions, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company told employees on Monday morning that the cause of the outage was unknown and some staff were using Zoom to remain connected.

Mobile phones are one of the most commonly used gadgets in today’s world. It is a form of technology
that is mostly used in communication and other related aspects. The mobile technology is rapidly
evolving; over the years, its uses are becoming diverse and is gradually replacing some similar sources
in the market that are also used for communication. It indeed makes our lives easier.

Technology or any gadgets is both useful and harmful. It depends on us as humans how we make use of
them. It has improved from a simple device used for phone call and messaging into a multi-tasking device used for GPS navigation, internet browsing, gaming, instant messaging tool etc. Professionals argue with the trend that the future of computer technology is rest on wireless networking and mobile computing. Mobile technology through tablet and portable computers are becoming more and more popular. Mobile technology was a mystery two decades ago when it was first introduced, it used to be basically for SMS, calls and games but now, it has become something of necessity to both the rural and the urban areas.

The mobile is also equipped with internet connectivity, making it easy for the user to gain information
and also to download files from the internet. Video call conferencing is another achievement that has
come to reality through mobile technology. With the use of mobile technology, it is now easy to catch
up with every form of entertainment from the comfort of your home. It has also made it possible for one
to easily locate places on the globe using the Global positioning system (GPS).

While mobile technology are very beneficial, they also come to a lot of disadvantages. Excessive use of
phones can influence our nervous system. They may cause headaches, lack of attention, shortness of temper, can also cause sleeping disorders, mostly among the teenagers group. It can also lead to a lot of accidents. Making use of phones for a longer period of time can cause serious health issues. Anxiety, irritation, frustration and impatience has been associated too. Even cause eyesight related problems.

And in short, we see how it is both a bane and boon. It depends on us and we can use it to our advantages and not let it go out of control. Limiting our time of these gadgets and working on some physical activities can also be helpful sometimes. (Elitra Silveira)

Apple will reportedly launch its next-generation iPhone 13 series on September 14, with pre-orders beginning September 17. The upcoming iPhone lineup is expected to include four smartphones – the iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max – similar to the current iPhone 12 series. According to tipster Jon Prosser (via his website FrontPageTech), the Apple iPhone 13 lineup will go on sale starting from September 24. It is unclear whether the rumoured sale date will also apply to the Indian market. Notably, all four smartphones have been part of the rumour mill for a very long with multiple leaks providing the full picture. Here’s everything we know about the lineup so far.

Starting with the design, the regular iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini will reportedly feature the same dual cameras at the back, and the Pro models are said to include triple cameras. The dummy units of the new phones showed a larger sensor and the placement of the dual cameras on the regular models diagonally. The camera module on the dummy models include a laser sensor and LED flash. On the other hand, the iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max may include a LiDAR sensor, similar to the existing iPhone 12 pro models. The notch on the front is also said to shrink on all iPhone 13 phones, and the Pro models will reportedly support a 120Hz refresh rate, which already features on iPad Pro (2020 and 2021) models as “ProMotion display.” A recent report claimed that iPhone 13 series would include a new face unlock tech that would work even while wearing masks or foggy glasses.

Earlier, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman stated that next-gen iPhones would come with a faster A15 Bionic chipset and Always-On Display (AOD) mode that is currently available on the Apple Watch. To achieve AOD and 120Hz refresh rate without affecting the battery, Apple may use power-efficient LTPO displays that adjust settings according to the content. Apple could also retain the USB Type-C port at the bottom instead of the Lightning port for faster-charging speeds.

Other rumoured features include faster 5G connectivity support, Wi-Fi 6E, two new colour options (Pearl, Sunset Gold), wireless charging, portrait mode for video, and an improved wide-angle lens with auto-focus. Gurman also reports that Apple has tasked suppliers with building up to 90 million new iPhones for this fall, which is a 20 percent increase over the 75 million units Apple planned for the iPhone 12 series in 2020. The iPhone 13 series launch is said to take place in the third week of September