Google vs Microsoft, Twitter India Chief Resigns, and More: Your 360 Daily

The resignation of Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly and Nexus 6P’s battery woes on Android 7.0 Nougat were the big newsmakers today, while Xiaomi’s plans for smartphones in US and Apple’s work on touchscreen laptops kept the wheel running. Here are the top tech stories of the day.

Twitter India head Rishi Jaitly resigns
Rishi Jaitly, Twitter’s Vice President of Media for Asia Pacific & Middle East North Africa, has decided to leave the troubled company. For now, he will be moving to Chicago owning to a “personal/ civic calling,” while stressing that he will spend a lot of time in India/ Asia. Jaitly also said that his mission continues to be harnessing technology and media’s scale “to connect users/ citizens to their voice/ agency/ leadership in places they care about.”

Google discloses Windows 10 bug, Microsoft unhappy
Google has disclosed to the public a Windows 10 vulnerability that allows hackers to escape security sandboxes by using a system call with win32k.sys. The vulnerability has been published only by Google just 10 days after it reported the same to Microsoft and Adobe. While Adobe has issued a patch to fix it in Flash, Microsoft is yet to release to a solution. However, Microsoft is upset with the Internet search giant, and the Redmond-based company says it believes in “coordinated vulnerability disclosure, and today’s disclosure by Google puts customers at potential risk.”

Nexus 6P users report battery failures after Android 7.0 Nougat update
Some Nexus 6P users have claimed that the smartphone rapidly loses battery charge since they updated to Android 7.0 Nougat. The battery drain bug affecting the Nexus 6P, however, exhibits inconsistent behaviour: the issue was resolved for some users after a reboot, while others said that the device continues to shut down after the battery hits the 25-percent mark. Neither Google nor Huawei (which manufactures Nexus 6P) have yet acknowledged the issue.

Samsung Electronics CEO says company must learn from crisis
Samsung Electronics Chief Executive Kwon Oh-hyun said the South Korean giant must improve, as it reels from the costly withdrawal of Galaxy Note 7. Without referring directly to the failure of the fire-prone smartphone, Kwon said in a statement that employees should look back and ask whether they had been complacent in their work.

Google Chrome now 15 percent faster
Google Chrome 54, the latest version of the popular web browser, is now 15 percent faster than its predecessor, courtesy the integration of Microsoft’s Profile Guided Optimisation (PGO). The company claims that the implementation of PGO has made new tab page load times 14.8 percent faster, and page load times 5.9 percent faster. Furthermore, Google – which also instituted a new system to detect fraud and spam app installs from the Play Store on Tuesday – claims that PGO has resulted in 16.8 percent faster startup time.

Touch Bar just the start for touchscreen on Apple computers, says Jony Ive
Apple’s design chief Jony Ive in an interview has said that the Touch Bar marks the beginning of multitouch panels on the company’s computers, hinting that more such products will be launched in the future. However, he did not provide more information about what changes customers can look forward to.

Ive also revealed that not bringing touchscreens to Apple’s desktops and laptops was an intentional move as the team wanted to do something different from the rest of the players in the market. He added that the company did not see much application of using the touchscreen on the desktops.

Xiaomi preparing for US smartphone foray?
While it has made a name for itself in emerging markets, Xiaomi has stayed away from the lucrative US smartphone market. However, the company has started taking baby steps towards it, with Global Vice President Hugo Barra revealing that a Mi 5 variant made for the US market was used in field trials earlier this year, and Mi Note 2 may be used for the same purpose as well. He also hinted that the company, which unveiled a new air purifier in China on Tuesday, may foray into the US smartphone market soon.

Ukrainian man changes name to iPhone 7
A Ukrainian man has legally changed his named to iPhone 7 to score a free unit of the latest Apple smartphone as part of a promotional offer by a retailer. 20-year-old Olexander Turin, now known as iPhone Sim (Sim translates to seven in Ukrainian), got his name changed for $2, bagging himself an $850 iPhone 7 in the process. Sim says that he will stick to the new name for now, but may change it back to his original name when he has children.