Twitter Rolling Out Swipe to Dismiss Images Feature to Apps: Reports

Twitter on Thursday reportedly started rolling out a small change for image viewing in its mobile apps. Users are reporting they are be able swipe up or down to exit full screen mode when viewing images, which was earlier was done through a single tap.According to various users (via TheNextWeb) who have received the update, Twitter's new feature has taken away the single tap functionality and now only allows users to swipe up or down to return to their Twitter feed.

Notably, Tweetbot - a third-party Twitter app - has had a similar swipe-to-dismiss feature from a long time. Twitter hasn't made any official announcement about the feature as yet, and it remains a possibility that the feature might just be in testing.

The feature has not yet rolled out in India it appears, as we were not able to spot it on either the Android or iOS apps. Last month, Twitter began globally rolling out the 'while you were away' recap feature that was in testing since November.

A Twitter blog post had noted that the feature is called 'Recap', and will be visible to users with a 'While you were away...' heading. The company said that with a few improvements to the home timeline such as Recap, it can deliver a better experience without compromising the realtime nature of Twitter. Announcing the Recap feature, Paul Rosania, Product Manager at Twitter, hadv noted, "A lot can happen while you're on the go. To fill in some of those gaps, we will surface a few of the best Tweets you probably wouldn't have seen otherwise, determined by engagement and other factors.

If you check in on Twitter now and then for a quick snapshot of what's happening, you'll see this recap more often; if you spend a lot of time on Twitter already, you'll see it less."

Apple's Inability to Monitor Standards Lets Pegatron Pay Low Wages, NGO Says

A labour rights group said Apple Inc is unable to effectively monitor standards along some of its supply chain, allowing companies such as Taiwanese assembler Pegatron Corp to keep base wages below local living expenses.

Low costs helped Pegatron win business from Apple, who moved some orders from Foxconn after an increase in labour costs aimed at addressing a spate of worker suicides in 2010, China Labor Watch (CLW) said in a report released on Thursday. CLW, which based its findings on 96 pay stubs submitted by an unknown number of employees, said low pay compels workers to put in more hours. Its report came on the same day Apple published its 2015 Supplier Responsibility Progress Report, which showed a decline in compliance related to working hours.

"Apple constantly claims that it is monitoring suppliers' compliance with Apple labor standards," New York-based CLW said. "Apple consistently suppresses labor costs by shifting production to the cheapest manufacturer."

CLW did not provide evidence that Apple chose Pegatron expressly because of lower wages. CLW program coordinator Kevin Slaten also told Reuters the report was not meant to draw comparisons across Apple's entire supply chain.Pegatron assembles Apple devices at two factories in China, as well as other consumer electronics such as phones and personal computers at plants around the world for an array of global clients.

Microsoft Details Improvements to Office Online Coming in 2015

Microsoft on Wednesday announced the list of upcoming improvements for its Office Online suite of apps. The company said that it is rolling out updates which will improve "the Reading View, file management and editing experiences."

Starting with the new reading experience, the Microsoft Office team on its blog said the 'Reading View' mode has been enhanced with an updated toolbar so that the Edit, Print, Share and Comments commands are now one click away, and that advanced tools, such as Translate or Download a file, are easier to find. Users will also be to print faster, with Microsoft enabling the direct printing of pdf files without having to download them first.

The Office team has also expanded the 'Save As' option, which saves a copy of the file to OneDrive, will now allow users to select a new location and rename the file as well.

Additionally users will also be able download a copy of a file onto a computer, or convert and download it as a pdf. With 'Add to OneDrive' option on the toolbar, users will also be able to save files which only have "view only" permissions. Once saved, the files can be edited or shared.

The Help tool icon now features the 'Tell Me' box, located on the top part of the ribbon. Here users can directly type search queries, and then either select the relevant Office tool, go to a help article, or get additional information from Bing.

The Office team has also revamped the Office Online start page, suggesting that "the new start experience is optimised to get you into the right editing experience as fast as possible. Now you can directly navigate to your most recently used files or see more files on your OneDrive. You can also quickly create a document with the new blank page template or any other template on your screen."

Coursera Partners Google, Snapdeal to Develop Online Courses

Online education firm Coursera has partnered corporates across the globe, including Snapdeal and Google, to offer job-oriented courses.Coursera offers courses from top global universities like Duke, Caltech, Stanford and Princeton and had signed its first partnership in India with Indian School of Business last year.

Experts at Google, Instagram and Snapdeal are among the first industry partners to support the Capstone Projects for Coursera specialisations. They help learners develop an expertise or master new skills with university teaching and market perspective of top industry partners.Coursera offers specialisations from 19 university partners in fields including data science, digital marketing, music production and global affairs.

Snapdeal and Shazam have partnered with The Wharton School, while Instagram will work with University of California, San Diego and 500 Startups with University of Maryland.Google has partnered with University of Maryland and Vanderbilt University, Johns Hopkins University and iHeartMedia with Berklee College of Music have already conducted pilots.

"In a job market that is increasingly filled with job descriptions that didn't exist a decade ago or less, workers and employers alike are recognising the value of online certificates," Coursera CEO Rick Levin told PTI.

"Approximately half of Coursera's learners come to us seeking knowledge to boost their careers, and that ratio is even higher in places like India where online learning certificates have gained early acceptance," he said.

Companies help design projects with real world problems and in many cases, provide direct feedback to top performers in the Capstone, Levin said.

At the end, learners are left with a project they can add to their portfolio that demonstrates industry proficiency to potential employers and the world, he said.