WhatsApp To Stop Working On Some Smartphones And Platforms

WhatsApp will stop working on a selection of smartphones and mobile platforms in the new year. 

From 1 January 2018, the messenger service won’t be available on any handsets running Windows Phone 8.0 (or older versions of the operating system), BlackBerry OS or BlackBerry 10. 

“When we started WhatsApp in 2009, people’s use of mobile devices looked very different from today. The Apple App Store was only a few months old. About 70 percent of smartphones sold at the time had operating systems offered by BlackBerry and Nokia,” it reads. 

“Mobile operating systems offered by Google, Apple and Microsoft – which account for 99.5 percent of sales today – were on less than 25 percent of mobile devices sold at the time.”

The platforms that are being cut are unpopular, and have been for some time. The company ended support for Nokia Symbian S60 devices in June. 

Although these platforms are still supported, WhatsApp is no longer actively developing for them, which means some features could stop functioning at any moment. (romanialibera.ro)

Romanian Tourists Spent EUR15M During Christmas Vacation   More than 78,000 Romanian tourists spent EUR15 million in various destinations in Romania during the Christmas mini-vacation, according to an analysis by the Employers’ Associations in Tourism FPTR.

Guest houses were the most sought-after accommodation establishments in rural areas where the occupancy rate exceeded 90%, accommodating approximately 30,000 tourists.

The most sough-after destinations in Europe were Bulgaria, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France. Tariffs ranged from EUR150 to EUR1,650/person, depending on comfort, the services provided and the sojourn.

(cotidianul.ro)   Romanians Could Get A New Day Off In 2018   Romanians could get a new day off, namely the Easter Friday. Lawmakers of the ruling party and the opposition agree with the idea, saying Romanians have too few days off compared with other Europeans.   According to the Labor code, Romanians have 14 days off per year.

42 senators and deputies agreed that people must not go to work on the Easter Friday because it is one of the most important Christian holidays and must be celebrated properly. Moreover, the Easter Friday is a day off in many European countries such as Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Spain and Portugal.(puterea.ro)

  President Klaus Iohannis Signs Split VAT Bill Into Law  

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday signed into law a bill making separate payment accounts for value-added tax mandatory for companies with bad records in VAT payments and insolvent businesses.

The Romanian Senate adopted the bill on October 31 and the Chamber of Deputies adopted it on December 13.

Romania’s government adopted a decree late August making separate payment accounts for the value-added tax mandatory as of January 1, 2018 for all companies. The move, which the government said it would introduce to curb tax evasion, was criticized by businesses and financial analysts as excessive and hasty. The bill was later amended in Parliament to include only insolvent companies and companies that registered delays in VAT payments. (cotidianul.ro)

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