Created by the founders of Russia’s biggest social networking platform, Telegram is a new messaging app that offers speed, security and features such as secret chats with end-to-end encryption and self-destructing messages.

Brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov, who launched VK (originally called VKontakte) in 2006, began working on Telegram 18 months ago as a research project because they wanted to create something that was “really secure and fun at the same time.” The importance of Telegram was underscored when Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA and PRISM were first made public in June.

“It made a lot of people really scared and concerned about the current situation. We are certainly among many, many people who started to think about ways to fix the problem,” Pavel told me in a phone interview.

Durov has had his own run-ins with Russian legal authorities. An investigation into a traffic incident Durov denied involvement in was halted for the second time earlier this month, but not before the offices of VK and Durov’s home were both searched. VK was also put on a blacklist earlier this year by Russia’s State Telecom Regulator. Though the organization later claimed the blacklisting was an accident, some analysts said it was a government attempt to intimidate online activists. (During our phone interview, Durov noted that he was using a Russian SIM card and that there was a good chance our conversation was being recorded by the Russian legal authorities.

Telegram is based on a custom data protocol called MTProto built Nikolai Durov, a mathematician. The app’s secret chats, a separate feature from its ordinary chats, use end-to-end encryption. They cannot be forwarded and can be set to self-destruct after a certain amount of time. One key difference between Telegram’s secret and ordinary chats is that secret chats are not stored in the app’s cloud, which means you can only access messages from their device of origin.

Telegram wants to earn users’ trust by operating as a non-profit, open platform initiative.

“The first thing that we wanted to make clear is that nobody has to trust anybody. We don’t take people’s trust for Telegram for granted,” says Pavel Durov.

Durov says there are currently about 100,000 daily active users and he hopes users and developers will take advantage of Telegram’s open API and protocol.

That way, Durov explains, “we will be able to invite everyone to review the messaging algorithm that we use on Telegram and inspect the source code of the app. We can earn trust from them, that end-to-end encryption is something that can be done on the client side. This way, any interested person can check that the app does exactly what it claims to and doesn’t send information to other sources or does anything else that is insecure.”

Telegram’s founders say the app will remain non-profit because that enables them to avoid commercial and legal pressure. If they eventually need funds to scale up, Telegram will ask for donations from users or make additional services available as in-app purchases. These could include a virtual number that can be used instead of a real mobile number, ensuring more confidentiality.

Nikolai Durov oversaw the scaling up of VK’s platform as it grew to 50 million daily unique users over seven years. Pavel says the lessons the brothers learned during VK’s development means they will be able to make sure Telegram remains secure even if its user base rapidly expands.

In December Telegram was downloaded over 100,000 times in one day by users in the Middle East, compared to its usual average of 2,000 downloads per day. Based on Twitter chatter, the Telegram team figured out that English-speaking users in the region were downloading the app because they were interested in its group and media sharing capabilities. Unlike WhatsApp, which limits group chats to 50 members, Telegram currently allows up to 100 members.
Philosophy

Telegram’s team wants the messaging app to stand out by offering speed and security, as well as reliance on crowd-sourcing and community-driven efforts.

“VK is famous for its competitions among third-party developers who build alternative versions of VK on its open API,” says Durov. “I hope Telegram will be able to rely on the community even more than VK since it’s a non-profit project that hopefully will be able to attract people who share the idea behind it.”

Another lesson Telegram’s team learned from its experience with VK is to stay clear of Russia’s government. The app rents data centers and servers around the world, including in London, San Francisco, Singapore and Helsinki.

“As a foreign company and offshore entity we will not be obliged to comply with the rules of Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and countries like that,” says Durov.

If Telegram received requests from government or legal organizations, it would not be able to provide data for end-to-end encrypted chats anyway because the encryption keys are generated on each user’s device and not the server.

“Anyone could look into our documentation and the source code of the app and make sure that we are not trying to fool anyone. The NSA, for that matter, could do the same thing and see that we cannot provide them with any data for purely algorithmic, mathematical reasons,” he adds. “I think that is a way to refuse data requests without openly breaking local rules in America or any other country.”

Telegram is the first project by Digital Fortress, a new company founded by the Durov brothers. The next project will involve voice communication, though Durov is still not sure if it will be developed as a separate project or as a new feature for Telegram. Current priorities for Telegram’s small engineering team include enabling users to permanently delete accounts.

“We will come up with solutions to really ensure people that of the complete deletion of their data,” says Durov. “We have to consider several options and chose the best one to do that in a transparent way.”

Download Secure Telegram 1.3.17

Apple         Android

Every New Year typically brings about a very rare phenomenon. No, I’m not talking about being

The biggest problem with the resolutions is that most people lack discipline. And because of this, these resolutions simply fall through the cracks or are met with an unmatched sense of “meh… maybe later.” After doing some research and based on very sage advice from Mr. Jerry Seinfeld himself, XDA Forum Member scoderx0e decided that it was time to release a surefire way to motivate you into doing something and actually following through.

Habbits is the culmination of advice turned into programming. It is an app that will basically allow you to make yourself responsible for your own actions and accountable for not following through. The concept is the simple idea of crossing days off a calendar when you perform a certain action. The app allows you to set up a goal and track it on the built-in calendar with different colors for different outcomes. At the end of every month, you can see a summary of how well you followed your goal. Your only task in this is to try and complete an entire month with the same color. Once you get used to seeing full rows of the same color, your brain will automatically force you into those actions so that you don’t drop off.

Download

Microsoft is looking forward to a major overhaul in the company especially when it is turning its focus from software to hardware and internet-based services.

 Microsoft, according to latest reports, is about to have a new CEO. The company's board is believed to be quite optimistic about naming Indian-born Satya Nadella as its next CEO. The board will likely choose a new Chairman as well replacing Bill Gates.

Nadella, who is currently Microsoft's enterprise and cloud chief, is likely to replace Steve Ballmer who had already declared that he would quit in August 2014 after heading Microsoft for 10 years. Some reports even suggest that Ballmer would quit right away once the board has chosen a new CEO. Even though the sources of these reports have said that the board hasn't chosen the new CEO yet but Nadella emerged to be the strongest candidate for the post.

As far as deciding on a new chairman, Bill Gates will likely be replaced by Microsoft's lead independent director John Thompson. But sources suggest that even if Gates steps down, he will be more involved in the company in areas like product development.

If Nadella is chosen as the new CEO of the company, he will become the third CEO of Microsoft which has only had two CEO's in history so far namely Gates and Ballmer.

Satya Nadella has been working in Microsoft for over 20 years and has lead cloud services, server software, Internet search and business applications divisions of Microsoft. As president of Microsoft’s server business, Nadella boosted revenue to $20.3 billion in the fiscal year through June, up from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011.

Professor at MIT's Sloan School of Management, Michael Cusumano says that Nadella is a good choice due to his close ties and strong reputation within Microsoft's huge engineering corps. He adds, "Microsoft is a contentious enough place that you wouldn’t want to bring in someone who lacked credibility with the engineers."

Before joining Microsoft, Nadella studied Electrical Engineering in India and then moved to United States to study computer science. He has also worked with Sun Microsystems till 1992.

New rumors suggest that Microsoft might announce the name of its new CEO within next week.

 

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There comes a time in every major tech corporation's life when it has to let its previously-acquired but only tangentially-related asset go as part of a complex transaction with a multinational electronics firm. For Google, that time came today, when it announced that it would sell Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion.

I, too, feel your pain. The idea of a Google-run phone manufacturer was, to me, a kind of techno-nirvana. I am a shameless Google fanboy when it comes to some things, and hoped that one day a Google-backed Motorola device could provide me the best of both worlds - fast updates and more attention to the features Google doesn't quite get right in Nexus phones. The Moto X was almost there. And now, we've all had the proverbial rug pulled out from under us, and uncertainty lies ahead. It doesn't feel good. It feels a little like betrayal - especially when Motorola has been playing the "a Google Company" branding card absolutely shamelessly since the company had its big re-launch last year.

The question on many of our minds, no doubt, is "what now?" What happens to my ultra-fast software updates? Will I get them at all? Will Motorola keep good on its promise of a clean, untainted Android experience? Handset customization - what's going to happen there? Is Motorola even going to keep its Texas assembly facility open?

And the cold, hard truth is, we don't know. CEO Dennis Woodside provided very little insight on the announcement in his post at the official Motorola blog. He also didn't mention downsizing, headquarters location, the company's continuing strategy, or whether Motorola would even continue to exist as a separate firm in the Lenovo family (we know the brand will stick around, but that's it). He probably doesn't even know at this point. And uncertainty isn't good, especially when that uncertainty is centered around a company that has consistently lost money every quarter since being acquired by its current owner.

Last quarter, Google reported an operating loss of $248 million on Motorola. That's a far cry even from HTC, now widely considered in trouble, which reported an operating loss a fifth of that a few weeks ago.

If you're buying a company losing money, generally you don't keep them on that money-losing path. Motorola has already cut over 6000 employees since it was acquired by Google, ceased many of its international operations, revamped its brand, unveiled an industry-leading phone customization platform, and pushed hard to give customers a great software and support experience. Tomorrow, we'll hopefully see if those bets have paid off, when Google announces its Q42013 earnings. If Motorola's back in the black, perhaps things aren't so dire after all, and Lenovo will just continue on with this winning formula. If they're deeper in the red than ever before (or even close to it), then it's time to start getting wary of the future if you're Motorola, because I doubt Lenovo's willing to stomach a billion-dollar-a-year hole in its checkbook. A hole it just paid about $3 billion for to start with.

However, as easy as it is to be pessimistic about this whole situation, I also can't think Lenovo would buy Motorola unless it saw a real future in the brand. Lenovo's smartphones are widely-regarded as, well, crappy. There have been rumors swirling about an HTC acquisition by Lenovo for a while now, but maybe Google's offer on Motorola was just too good to pass up. Lenovo's made a major money-maker of IBM's previously-ailing ThinkPad brand, and is often considered to be on the leading edge of form-factor innovation in the tablet / laptop space. While popular in China (#2 overall in 2012), though, Lenovo's smartphone arm has failed to get much attention abroad. Lenovo has to know smartphones are an important form factor for growth of the company, and so I'd be willing to bet they're going to take some risks to try and make Motorola an international success. Lenovo isn't the sort of company that buys a brand to destroy it - they've shown that much with the ThinkPad.

But I don't think that's why people are upset. The prospect of Lenovo "ruining" Motorola is secondary, and it's still pretty far off. I also think that is very, very far from a foregone conclusion. I'd even go so far as to bet against the naysayers. No, the real angst here is at Google, for selling off a brand that Android loyalists had come to love and respect since it was acquired back in 2011.

Motorola had become a company that embodied the Google "spirit" - open, innovative, risk-taking. You know, the sort of corporation you'd want to have a beer with. If corporations were people. And had mouths. And drank beer. Anyway... Motorola was cool, man. And then, Google went and sold out the new OEM of choice for a growing number of Android enthusiasts. Treachery most foul! The consensus seems to be that without Google, Motorola cannot still embody those values which many of us came to respect them for above other manufacturers.

And as I said, we can't know what's going to happen there. But why did Google toss off Motorola at all? The answer, I think, is competition. Google bought Motorola while the company was in an obvious tailspin. CEO Sanjay Jha - the man behind disastrous products like the DROID BIONIC and the original ATRIX - had led the company into a seemingly inescapable pit of bloat. Motorola's reliance on TI chipsets had put it at a disadvantage in terms of raw performance, and it kowtowed to carriers' whims and exclusivity demands unflinchingly. To be blunt, Motorola was going nowhere fast.

Larry Page and Andy Rubin allegedly led the charge in the acquisition, though Rubin supposedly wanted no part of the actual handset business. Page decided to go for the whole package, and in 5 short days, a deal was hashed out, and Motorola officially was on its way to being a Google property.

Google whipped it into shape, even as rumors that the acquisition was largely about patents swirled. Thousands of jobs were cut, Motorola pulled out of most non-US markets, and doubtless many product launches were shelved. And now, Motorola is at a point where it at least has the prospect, the hope of growth. This is not the same company Google picked up on a whim over 2 years ago - it is revitalized.

And now that it's at least pointed in a direction that gives the company some hope, Google decided it was time to say goodbye. It probably never sat quite right with Google's other Android OEM partners, either, knowing that the company supplying them their open source OS and various services was now directly competing with them. It didn't quite fit with the spirit of Android, of open competition. That's not to say I wouldn't have minded seeing the cooperation continue.

At least the crazier parts of Motorola will be sticking around with Google for the time being, it seems.

There will be challenges for Motorola if this deal goes through. Big ones. Motorola has enjoyed the tech and mainstream media limelight for the last year almost solely because of its association with Google. There is a narrative at work in the larger tech media, and that narrative essentially goes: "Google / Samsung / Apple = important." Motorola had the luck to fall directly under the Google umbrella during its big re-launch. Now, Motorola will fall under the "everything else" pile. It will have to claw its way back to the headlines, because there really is nothing "hip" about being a Lenovo company. It's a sad but very real truth - Motorola will not get nearly the attention it did as a Google property, and the one reason for that will be that it is no longer a Google property. With the big G gone, the fact is Motorola's just not going to get as much love from the media.

So, here's to hoping they don't screw it up. At this point, that's all we can really do anyways.