Are you looking for an Instagrammable place to spend some quality time with good food while taking in the view of the city from a considerable height? In this bustling city of Dhaka, a rooftop restaurant can be a beautiful getaway that offers a glimmering view of the skyline and a serene escape from the crowded streets below. Located in Dhaka’s north, Mohammadpur has several Instagram-worthy rooftop restaurants with enchanting views and a cozy laid-back atmosphere. Let’s check them out.  6 Instagrammable Rooftop Restaurants at Mohammadpur in Dhaka Rainforest Café  Rainforest Café is another great option for rooftop dining with friends and family. The café is located on Tajmahal Road right on the main street. The management undertook renovations recently to revamp the look of the café. There’s a large indoor sitting area perfect for large groups. Adjacent to that is the kid’s play area.  The outdoors has been tastefully decorated with trees, shrubs, and a fish aquarium. Each table has been made into a hut-like structure giving it a forest-like look.  Read more: Top 10 Dhaka Restaurants with Outdoor Seating The café serves oriental, Chinese, and Italian cuisines. There’s a curated Chinese platter for students as well.  Rainforest Café remains open from 11 AM to 11 PM every day. Garden SHIP  Located on Taj Mahal Road, Garden SHIP is your typical family restaurant with a great ambiance. The restaurant is beautifully designed to give it a ship-like look on the inside. The large spacious indoor seating is perfect for group or family dine-outs.  Read more: Best Instagrammable Rooftop Restaurants at Gulshan in Dhaka The back of the restaurant has their cozy rooftop section. It offers a beautiful view overlooking the greenery of the Dhaka Residential Model College.  Garden SHIP has a wide variety of menus. From Thai, Chinese, Indian to seafood, the restaurant offers something for everyone. The operating hours are from 11 AM to 11 PM every day.    Spicy6  Spicy6 is located on Ring Road, Mohammadpur. The restaurant is famous among the locals for its Thai, Chinese, Oriental, and South Asian cuisines. Spicy6 offers great indoor and outdoor arrangements with faux grass and overhead shades.  Read more: Instagrammable Rooftop Restaurants in Uttara

A man has created an AI chatbot to honour the iconic “Friends” character Chandler Bing, played by actor Matthew Perry who passed away recently. Roshan Vadassery posted a video on Instagram and one of his followers asked him if he could create an AI version of Chandler Bing since their mother is a huge fan and watches at least one episode of “Friends” every day, reports NDTV. ‘In time we will say more’: Friends stars say after Matthew Perry’s death “She looks so quiet from the last few days," the user said. Vadassery then decided to develop the chatbot. In Chandler's signature style, he asked the bot if it could be more sarcastic. "Well, could I be more sarcastic? I guess I could but then I would have to charge you an extra fee for a sarcasm upgrade." "The father of memes, I still remember in the early days of fb pages it was all about sharing Chandler jokes or wholesome scenes from Monica and his relationship. We forgot that there was another person behind the character. A person who helped a lot of people with passion, and held a smile as long as he can," Vadassery wrote in the caption. Matthew Perry, Emmy-nominated 'Friends' star, dead at 54 The post has received 79,000 likes and 800,000 views since it was shared, the report said. "Dude I tried it I am crying while writing this … Friends has changed me in so much ways I really made it part of my life am still not over him passing away .. thank you its just wow.. hope this goes more viral," said a user. Which important ‘Friends’ character was almost recast? "Bro even though it is an AI...this made me cry way too hard thank you," added another person. Matthew Perry, best known for playing Chandler Bing in the classic sitcom “Friends”, died on October 28, leaving fans across the world baffled and devastated. His funeral took place on November 3, and his co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer attended.

A new report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism suggests that Facebook is becoming significantly less important as a source of news. The report titled “Digital News Report -2023” found that only 28% of people surveyed accessed news through Facebook in 2023, compared to 42% in 2016.  The figures were based on interviews with some 94,000 people across 46 countries, conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, part of Britain's University of Oxford. “Facebook remains one of the most-used social networks overall, but its influence on journalism is declining as it shifts its focus away from news,” Lead author Nic Newman said in a press release. Also read: CNN head Chris Licht is out at the global news network after a brief, tumultuous tenure Newman highlighted that Facebook now faces new challenges from established networks such as YouTube and vibrant youth-focused networks such as TikTok. “The Chinese-owned social network reaches 44% of 18–24s across markets and 20% for news. It is growing fastest in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America,” he said. Meanwhile, the report found that influencers and celebrities are increasingly taking over from journalists as the main source of news for young people across almost all social media platforms except for Twitter and Facebook. A new report by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism suggests that Facebook is becoming significantly less important as a source of news. Also read: Lack of transparency exposes Bangladeshi news sites to disinformation risks: new report The report titled “Digital News Report -2023” found that only 28% of people surveyed accessed news through Facebook in 2023, compared to 42% in 2016.  The figures were based on interviews with some 94,000 people across 46 countries, conducted for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, part of Britain's University of Oxford. “Facebook remains one of the most-used social networks overall, but its influence on journalism is declining as it shifts its focus away from news,” Lead author Nic Newman said in a press release. Newman highlighted that Facebook now faces new challenges from established networks such as YouTube and vibrant youth-focused networks such as TikTok. Also read: Trial begins in case against Fox News for false election claims “The Chinese-owned social network reaches 44% of 18–24s across markets and 20% for news. It is growing fastest in parts of Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America,” he said. Meanwhile, the report found that influencers and celebrities are increasingly taking over from journalists as the main source of news for young people across almost all social media platforms except for Twitter and Facebook. According to the report, 55 percent of TikTok and Snapchat users and 52 percent of Instagram users get their news from "personalities" — compared to 33 percent of Tiktok, 36 percent of Snapchat and 42 percent of Instagram users who get it from mainstream media and journalists on those platforms, which are most popular among the young.  “We find that, while mainstream journalists often lead conversations around news in Twitter and Facebook, they struggle to get attention in newer networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, where personalities, influencers, and ordinary people are often more prominent, even when it comes to conversations around news,” Newman said. Also read: Tucker Carlson leaves Fox News  Trust and interest in news Among other indicators, the news industry has seen a sharp decline in terms of trust and interest. According to the report, trust in the news has fallen across markets by further 2-percentage points in the last year, reversing in many countries the gains made at the height of the pandemic. “On average, 40% of our sample say they trust most news most of the time,” the lead author of the report said. Meanwhile, around 36% of the interviewees said they actively avoided the news sometimes or often, seven points above the figure in 2017 but two points lower than last year. Read more: Journalism award to recognize outstanding reporting on Bangladesh-China trade, investment ties In interviews, many said that news stories are too repetitive or too “emotionally draining”. According to the report, 55 percent of TikTok and Snapchat users and 52 percent of Instagram users get their news from "personalities" — compared to 33 percent of Tiktok, 36 percent of Snapchat and 42 percent of Instagram users who get it from mainstream media and journalists on those platforms, which are most popular among the young.  “We find that, while mainstream journalists often lead conversations around news in Twitter and Facebook, they struggle to get attention in newer networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, where personalities, influencers, and ordinary people are often more prominent, even when it comes to conversations around news,” Newman said. Trust and interest in news Among other indicators, the news industry has seen a sharp decline in terms of trust and interest. Read more: Women’s participation in journalism still very low: Dialogue According to the report, trust in the news has fallen across markets by further 2-percentage points in the last year, reversing in many countries the gains made at the height of the pandemic. “On average, 40% of our sample say they trust most news most of the time,” the lead author of the report said. Meanwhile, around 36% of the interviewees said they actively avoided the news sometimes or often, seven points above the figure in 2017 but two points lower than last year. In interviews, many said that news stories are too repetitive or too “emotionally draining”. Read more: Russian House lauds growing presence of online journalism in Bangladesh

Instagram's recommendation algorithms linked and encouraged a "vast network of paedophiles" seeking illicit underage sexual content and conduct, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). These algorithms also marketed the sale of unlawful "child-sex material" on the network, it said. The report is based on a joint investigation by the Wall Street Journal and researchers from Stanford University and the University of Massachusetts Amherst looking into child pornography on Meta's platform. Buyers might even "commission specific acts" or organize "meet ups" on some accounts. Also read: Instagram adds new tools to help content creators earn money "Pedophiles have long used the internet, but unlike the forums and file-transfer services that cater to people who have interest in illicit content, Instagram doesn't merely host these activities. Its algorithms promote them," the WSJ report said. "Instagram connects pedophiles and guides them to content sellers via recommendation systems that excel at linking those who share niche interests." According to the investigation, Instagram users may search for child-sex abuse hashtags. According to the researchers, these hashtags directed users to accounts that offered to sell paedophilic items and even included footage of minors harming themselves. Also read: Meta brings Facebook Reels to Bangladesh Anti-paedophile campaigners alerted the corporation to accounts purporting to belong to a girl selling underage sex content. The activists got automated answers that stated, "Because of the high volume of reports we receive, our team hasn't been able to review this post." In another situation, the message advised the user to conceal the account in order to avoid viewing its material, the report said. A Meta spokesperson confirmed receiving the reports but failing to act on them, attributing the failure to a technological glitch, it also said. Also read: Instagram adds new tools to help content creators earn money The company told the WSJ that it has repaired the flaw in its reporting system and is offering fresh training to its content moderators. "Child exploitation is a horrific crime. We're continuously investigating ways to actively defend against this behaviour," the spokesperson said. Meta claims to have shut down 27 paedophile networks in the last two years and is preparing more. It also stated that hundreds of hashtags that sexualize minors, some with millions of postings, had been banned, the report concluded. Read more: Wish you could tweak that text? WhatsApp is letting users edit messages

Facebook parent Meta is slashing another 10,000 jobs and will not fill 5,000 open positions as the social media pioneer cuts costs. The company announced 11,000 job cuts in November, about 13% of its workforce at the time. Meta and other tech companies have been hiring aggressively for at least two years and in recent months have begun to let some of those workers go. Early last month, Meta posted falling profits and its third consecutive quarter of declining revenue. The company said Tuesday it will reduce the size of its recruiting team and make further cuts in its tech groups in late April, and then its business groups in late May. “This will be tough and there’s no way around that,” said CEO Mark Zuckerberg. “It will mean saying goodbye to talented and passionate colleagues who have been part of our success.” The Menlo Park, California, company has invested billions of dollars to realign its focus on the metaverse. In February it said a downturn in online advertising and competition from rivals such as TikTok weighed on results. “As I’ve talked about efficiency this year, I’ve said that part of our work will involve removing jobs -- and that will be in service of both building a leaner, more technical company and improving our business performance to enable our long term vision,” said Zuckerberg. The biggest tech companies in the U.S. are cutting costs elsewhere, too. This month, Amazon paused construction on its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history and its shifting plans around remote work. In early trading, Meta shares rose 6%.

Instagram is rolling out new features, including a tool for making and selling digital collectibles, to help content creators earn revenue directly from their Instagram audience. Users of the Meta-owned online photo-sharing and social networking service can soon support content creators by buying their non-fungible tokens (NFTs) directly within the platform. "Creators will soon be able to make their own digital collectibles on Instagram and sell them to fans, both on and off Instagram. They'll have an end-to-end toolkit – from creation (starting on the Polygon blockchain) and showcasing, to selling," Meta said. "We're testing these new features with a small group of creators in the US first, and hope to expand to more countries soon," it added. Read more: Is your Instagram crashing?Meta said it is also expanding the types of digital collectibles that the users can showcase on Instagram to include video and adding support for the Solana blockchain and Phantom wallet, in addition to the blockchains and wallets that it already supports.  Also, Instagram creators can now earn money from fans who love their Reels. To support their favourite creators, fans can send gifts on Reels by buying Stars on Instagram.  Read more: Restricted from Twitter, Instagram; Kanye to buy conservative social network Parler Meta has been adding features for content creators to help them reach an audience, grow their communities, and make money on its social media apps as it competes with TikTok and others at a time when influencers are driving revenue to these platforms through advertising.

Users of the online photo-sharing and social networking service Instagram are reporting issues with the app. Popular social media app users have shared that the app keeps crashing or closing abruptly. Meta-owned Instagram lets users take pictures, apply filters to them and share those pictures in several ways, including through social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It is available as an application for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Read: Restricted from Twitter, Instagram; Kanye to buy conservative social network Parler

After the longest reported downtime, WhatsApp messaging services are now operational again. For approximately 90 minutes, the instant messaging service was not available. Users reported receiving all messages now that WhatsApp is officially up and running. WhatsApp is currently functional on WhatsApp Web, Android, and iOS apps. Although some users claim that services on WhatsApp Web are still not functioning, phone app should be functional. Read WhatsApp down: Users report not being able to send, receive messages Many worldwide use WhatsApp, a popular messaging service owned by Meta, to send rapid texts. Earlier today, WhatsApp experienced a significant outage that lasted for about two hours. This prevented millions of WhatsApp users from sending or receiving messages globally. WhatsApp earlier claimed that it was working to resume operations. “We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we’re working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible,” a Meta spokesperson has said. Read Users report not able to send, receive messages Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are all owned by the US-based firm Meta.

Users in several countries, including in Bangladesh, are reporting problems with WhatsApp’s text sending and receiving capabilities – suggesting that the app may be experiencing a bug. The number of people reporting the outage of WhatsApp has sharply increased, according to Downdetector, a website that measures online outages throughout the world. According to the BBC, users in the UK cannot access the messaging service. Italian and Turkish social media users both complained about not being able to send messages on WhatsApp. Read Users report not able to send, receive messages According to Downdetector, more than 11,000 users in India have reported a WhatsApp outage, compared to 68,000 in the UK and 19,000 in Singapore, as of 7:50GMT (Bangladesh time 1:50pm). WhatsApp has claimed that it is working to resume operations. “We’re aware that some people are currently having trouble sending messages and we’re working to restore WhatsApp for everyone as quickly as possible,” a Meta spokesperson has said. Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are all owned by the US-based firm Meta.  Read Top WhatsApp Alternatives for Free Calling and Group Chatting

Instagram is testing new ways to verify the age of people using its service, including a face-scanning artificial intelligence tool, having mutual friends verify their age or uploading an ID. But the tools won’t be used, at least not yet, to block children from the popular photo and video-sharing app. The current test only involves verifying that a user is 18 or older. The use of face-scanning AI, especially on teenagers, raised some alarm bells Thursday, given the checkered history of Instagram parent Meta when it comes to protecting users’ privacy. Meta stressed that the technology used to verify people’s age cannot recognize one’s identity — only age. Once the age verification is complete, Meta said it and Yoti, the AI contractor it partnered with to conduct the scans, will delete the video. Meta, which owns Facebook as well as Instagram, said that beginning on Thursday, if someone tries to edit their date of birth on Instagram from under the age of 18 to 18 or over, they will be required to verify their age using one of these methods. Meta continues to face questions about the negative effects of its products, especially Instagram, on some teens. Kids technically have to be at least 13 to use Instagram, similar to other social media platforms. But some circumvent this either by lying about their age or by having a parent do so. Teens aged 13 to 17, meanwhile, have additional restrictions on their accounts — for instance, adults they are not connected to can’t send them messages — until they turn 18. The use of uploaded IDs is not new, but the other two options are. “We are giving people a variety of options to verify their age and seeing what works best,” said Erica Finkle, Meta’s director of data governance and public policy. To use the face-scanning option, a user has to upload a video selfie. That video is then sent to Yoti, a London-based startup that uses people’s facial features to estimate their age. Finkle said Meta isn’t yet trying to pinpoint under-13s using the technology because it doesn’t keep data on that age group — which would be needed to properly train the AI system. But if Yoti does predict a user is too young for Instagram, they’ll be asked to prove their age or have their account removed, she said.   “It doesn’t ever recognize, uniquely, anyone,” said Julie Dawson, Yoti’s chief policy and regulatory officer. “And the image is instantly deleted once we’ve done it.” Yoti is one of several biometric companies capitalizing on a push in the United Kingdom and Europe for stronger age verification technology to stop kids from accessing pornography, dating apps and other internet content meant for adults -- not to mention bottles of alcohol and other off-limits items at physical stores. Yoti has been working with several big U.K. supermarkets on face-scanning cameras at self-check-out counters. It has also started verifying the age of users of the youth-oriented French video chatroom app Yubo. While Instagram is likely to follow through with its promise to delete an applicant’s facial imagery and not try to use it to recognize individual faces, the normalization of face-scanning presents other societal concerns, said Daragh Murray, a senior lecturer at the University of Essex’s law school. “It’s problematic because there are a lot of known biases with trying to identify by things like age or gender,” Murray said. “You’re essentially looking at a stereotype and people just differ so much.” A 2019 study by a U.S. agency found that facial recognition technology often performs unevenly based on a person’s race, gender or age. The National Institute of Standards and Technology found higher error rates for the youngest and oldest people. There’s not yet such a benchmark for age-estimating facial analysis, but Yoti’s own published analysis of its results reveals a similar trend, with slightly higher error rates for women and people with darker skin tones. Meta’s face-scanning move is a departure from what some of its tech competitors are doing. Microsoft on Tuesday said it would stop providing its customers with facial analysis tools that “purport to infer” emotional states and identity attributes such as age or gender, citing concerns about “stereotyping, discrimination, or unfair denial of services.”   Meta itself announced last year that it was shutting down Facebook’s face-recognition system and deleting the faceprints of more than 1 billion people after years of scrutiny from courts and regulators. But it signaled at the time that it wouldn’t give up entirely on analyzing faces, moving away from the broad-based tagging of social media photos that helped popularize commercial use of facial recognition toward “narrower forms of personal authentication.”