Google Assistant can also help create to-do lists or set reminders to stay on top of your workload.

The Covid-19 outbreak has forced the majority of the world's population to stay indoors and work remotely. With global tech giants like Facebook and Twitter extending WFH at least till 2021, working from home has now become a new normal. Capitalising on the WFH trend, Google Assistant has introduced a new workday routine that helps you stretch, walk and drink water as you work from home.

The idea behind the new workday routine is to ensure productivity during WFH with enough self-care in between. Available in English, the new workday routine automatically reminds you of all the small and big things to do throughout your work day - from staying on top of your calendar to taking a break away from the desk.

After you enable the routine in the Assistant settings on your Android or iOS device, you can start with a pre-set routine.

For instance, at 12 pm, the Google Assistant will remind you to take a walk and at 2 pm remind you stay hydrated and have a glass of water.

"At 4:45 p.m., you'll be reminded to start wrapping things up. Assistant will also regularly share the time with you throughout the day, so that you don't lose track of upcoming meetings," said Alice Liang, Product Manager at Google.

Google Assistant can also help create to-do lists or set reminders to stay on top of your workload.

That's not all! Google Assistant will also help you go to sleep on time and wake up early. Over the next few days, Google will roll out the 'Gentle Sleep and Wake' feature to all smart lights at home.

In the evening, just say "Hey Google, sleep my lights at 10:00 p.m." as a reminder to get to bed on time, and let the soothing experience lull you to sleep. Similarly, saying "Hey Google, wake my lights at 8:00 a.m".

Safety Nets, Cookie Control & Secure DNS: Follow These Simple Google Chrome Hacks To Keep D...

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Chrome Pet Peeves

Google Chrome, in all probability, might be the most commonly-used browser, but it has been at the centre of criticism due to controversial changes, security problems and data concerns.

From Chrome 79 accidentally deleting data for Android users in December 2019, Chrome 80’s ‘high level vulnerabilities’ that put data at risk to the controversial deep linking upgrade in February 2020 that allegedly compromised on privacy, Chrome has often left its users worried about their safety and security.

However, Chrome has now put all the privacy and security concerns to rest with its new upgrade. A blog post on Google’s website titled, ‘More intuitive privacy and security controls in Chrome’, breaks down the security updates in detail. Here are some of them:

Control Cookies In Incognito

Most of us use the incognito mode in Google Chrome for private browsing. The USP of Google’s incognito mode is that it does not save history, information entered by the user in forms or browser cookies. The good folks at Google have now decided to take security and privacy in incognito mode a notch higher.

You can now control whether you wish to allow third-party cookies in incognito mode. Chrome will now block third-party cookies by default in incognito mode. If you wish to allow third-party cookies for specific sites, you can click the ‘eye’ sign on the address bar.

The feature, as per Google’s blog, will be gradually rolled out. For the uninitiated, third-party cookies allow websites to track a user across the web. With Chrome’s new update, you can keep your information secure by blocking these cookies.

Keep Phishing At Bay

Security attacks such as phishing and malware have become quite common on the internet. To combat the menace, Google Chrome now has a security update that users can opt for. Called ‘Enhanced Safe Browsing’, this security upgrade will allow Chrome to proactively detect phishing attacks, malware and other web based threats.

Chrome will do this by proactively checking if pages and downloads are dangerous by sending information about them to Google Safe Browsing.

Going forward, Google will also add more protections to this upgrade such as tailored warnings for phishing sites, file downloads, cross product alerts and more.

Secure DNS Lookup

Another security upgrade that Chrome has come up to protect your privacy is ‘Secure DNS’.

When we enter a website in the address bar of the browser, it first needs to determine which server is hosting the website. This step is called DNS (Domain Name System) lookup.

Google Chrome’s Secure DNS feature will encrypt this step using ‘DNS-over-HTTPS’. This will not allow the attackers to find out which website you want to visit and they won’t be able to send you phishing webpages.

Safety Net

Apart from introducing strong security measures to keep attackers at bay, Google has also developed a safety net for its users. With the help of a safety check in Chrome, you can make sure that your data is safe.

For starters, Chrome has come up with a new tool that will tell you if the passwords that you have asked Chrome to remember have been compromised and if so, how to fix it.

Secondly, Chrome will raise a red flag if ‘Safe Browsing’, Google’s technology to warn you when you are about to access a dangerous website, has been turned off.

The safety check tool will also help you determine if you are using the latest version of Google Chrome. It will also let you know if malicious extensions have been installed and how to remove them.

WFH made easy! Now get reminders to drink water, stretch and walk daily, courtesy Google Assistant

The idea behind the new workday routine is to ensure productivity during WFH with enough self-care in between.

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