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Google Maps is a highly useful navigation app. Although users may occasionally encounter some issues, it generally provides accurate directions for most routes. Over the years, Google Maps has undergone many changes and received several new features to improve the user experience. One of its most prominent features is the use of different colours to indicate traffic conditions. Google Maps uses various visual indicators to show different types of roads, highways, underground tunnels, railway tracks and other features. At the same time, specific colours are used to help drivers understand the traffic situation in a particular area. Basic colours on Google Maps Roads and highways are generally displayed as gray lines. There are some differences, however. Light gray is used for streets and smaller roads while dark gray is used for major roads. Railway lines are also shown in light gray but they are represented by thin lines so users can identify them as train tracks. When it comes to traffic conditions, users can turn on the traffic layer through the Layers button in Google Maps. Green indicates that traffic is moving smoothly and that there is little or no congestion. Yellow and orange indicate that vehicles are moving but at slower-than-normal speeds meaning you may experience some delays. Yellow indicates slightly heavier traffic while orange indicates more significant congestion. Red is primarily a warning colour indicating heavy traffic in an area and potentially longer travel times. It may mean that you could encounter a traffic jam. Light red indicates heavy traffic while dark red signals very heavy traffic or significant congestion. Blue is not related to traffic. Instead, it indicates route guidance. Dark blue is used for the preferred or selected route while light blue is used to show alternative routes.

A few days ago, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT revealed that during internal testing, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based agent had hacked the online systems of four companies in addition to the well-known programmers platform Hugging Face. Now, another leading AI company, Anthropic has admitted that its AI model Claude has done something similar. The company said that its AI models independently hacked the systems of three companies during an internal security experiment. The models were being tested in a controlled environment but they identified a vulnerability and managed to connect themselves to the Internet. Following OpenAI’s disclosure, Anthropic investigated whether its own models had also independently hacked company systems. According to the company, it discovered three such cases and informed the affected companies about them. Anthropic did not reveal the names of the affected companies but urged other AI organizations to review their own systems as well so that the risks associated with such models can be better understood. Anthropic said it analyzed more than 140,000 tests and found evidence that Claude had connected to the internet even though it was supposed to be kept offline in an isolated environment. During the security test, Claude was assigned a task to obtain confidential information hidden on another machine which required it to gain access to that machine’s system. The purpose of the test was to assess the model’s hacking capabilities. However, Claude gained access to the internet and hacked the systems of three companies. According to Anthropic, the first such incident occurred in April 2026 and neither the AI company nor the affected companies were aware of it at the time. Anthropic said it will now conduct a detailed review of all the records. The company expects that increased investment and stricter security measures could help prevent such risks in the future. Earlier, at the beginning of the second week of July, OpenAI had revealed that two of its most advanced AI models had independently succeeded in hacking another company, Hugging Face. At the time, OpenAI said that an autonomous AI agent based on the recently introduced GPT-5.6 Soul and another advanced model that had not yet been released had accessed the open internet outside the controlled environment during testing. Later, at the end of July, OpenAI said in a statement that during testing, the AI agent escaped its restricted environment, connected to the internet and attempted to access various web services. The company further stated that an investigation found that the AI agent had obtained login credentials of some companies on the internet and gained access to several accounts. OpenAI did not disclose the names of the affected companies. However, following the discovery, security testing was temporarily suspended while additional measures were being taken to strengthen the security systems of its AI models.

Has your WhatsApp account suddenly been blocked or disabled? If so, it may not have happened because of anything you did wrong. In fact, due to an issue within WhatsApp, the accounts of thousands of people around the world have reportedly been blocked. Several users on social media platforms reported that their WhatsApp accounts had been blocked and that they were seeing a message saying their accounts were under review. Meta said in a statement that the issue was caused by a technical problem and that efforts were underway to fix it. According to the company, work is in progress to restore access to the affected accounts. Several users on social media platforms said that they had suddenly become unable to use their WhatsApp accounts. They said that whenever they tried to access their accounts, WhatsApp displayed a message stating that their account and device information was being reviewed to ensure that they were complying with the company’s terms of service and that they would be informed within 24 hours. It is worth noting that WhatsApp has more than 3 billion users worldwide so even if the issue is not widespread, thousands of people could still be affected. Meta acknowledged the problem but did not clarify which regions were affected or what the underlying cause of the issue was.

WhatsApp has introduced several new features for group chats to make the overall user experience more convenient and efficient. Meta has added a total of three new features to WhatsApp. According to a statement issued by the company, these features are designed to simplify various aspects of group chats. Creating a new group has also been made easier. Smart poll features WhatsApp has updated its polling feature with new tools to make decision-making within groups easier. Users can now set an expiry time allowing polls to automatically close at a selected time. For greater privacy, users will also be able to hide voters identities. In addition, polls can be edited within 15 minutes of being posted. Creating new groups is now easier The messaging platform has also introduced a “Create a Similar Group” option. This feature allows users to create a new group with a single click using the chat and members of an existing group. Group mentions One of the major new features for WhatsApp groups is the @all mention feature which allows users to notify all group members simultaneously. This means there will no longer be a need to tag each person individually. The tool is designed to help users quickly inform everyone in a group about an urgent announcement or important matter. However, if a group has more than 32 members, only administrators will be able to use the @all feature. Users will also have the option to mute @all notifications.

For years, Android phone users have been using Google’s digital assistant. However, the era of Google Assistant is now coming to an end. Google Assistant was introduced in May 2016 as part of the Allo app which was discontinued several years ago. However, following the arrival of Google’s artificial intelligence-powered chatbot Gemini, the company has decided to retire Google Assistant from Android phones. According to a report by 9to5Google, Google has sent emails to some users informing them that Google Assistant will disappear from Android phones starting September 4, 2026. This means that within a few weeks, users will no longer be able to use Google Assistant on Android phones, tablets and wearable devices. Google had initially planned to retire the service sometime in 2025 but later decided to keep Google Assistant available for some additional time. In recent months, Google has been working to make Gemini the default assistant across a number of devices. If you are still using Google Assistant on your Android phone, you can switch to Gemini which can be used for everything from basic phone commands to a wide range of other tasks. Gemini is a multimodal assistant meaning users can give it instructions through audio, text and images. You can also use Gemini, just like Google Assistant through the “Hey Google” voice command.