Techy Planet

New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Google has launched a new bug bounty programme where it will award up to $31,337 (nearly Rs 25 lakh) to researchers who spot vulnerabilities in the company's Open Source projects. Depending on the severity of the vulnerability and the project's importance, rewards will range from $100 to $31,337. The larger amounts will also go to unusual or particularly interesting vulnerabilities, "so creativity is encouraged," said Google while launching its Open Source Software Vulnerability Rewards Programme (OSS VRP). As the maintainer of major projects such as Golang, Angular, and Fuchsia, Google is among the largest contributors and users of open source in the world. Last year, Google saw a 650 per cent year-over-year increase in attacks targeting the open source supply chain. With the addition of Google's own vulnerability reward programme (VRP), researchers can now be rewarded for finding bugs that could potentially impact the entire open so...

New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) Meta is winding up its standalone Facebook Gaming app on both Android and iOS from October 28. The app will also be not available on Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Meta did not elaborate on why it is shuttering the standalone gaming app. "Despite this news, our mission to connect players, fans and creators with the games they love hasn't changed, and you'll still be able to find your games, streamers and groups when you visit Gaming in the Facebook app," reads a banner on its website. "We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to all of you for everything that you've done to build a thriving community for gamers and fans since this app first launched," the notice added. The app was launched in April 2020 to let users watch their favourite streamers, play instant games and take part in gaming groups. "Facebook experienced some hurdles trying to launch the app, as Apple rejected the app numerous times, citing its rul...

Meta on Tuesday said that it is testing two new ways to help users control what they see on Instagram. While the platform is testing the ability to mark multiple posts in Explore as 'Not Interested,' it will also soon start testing the ability to tell Instagram you don't want to see suggested posts with certain words, phrases or emojis in the caption or hashtags. "We're testing the ability to mark multiple posts in Explore as Not Interested. We'll immediately hide those posts and refrain from showing you similar content in the future," said the company. Whether you're seeing something that's not relevant, or have moved on from something you used to like, you can use this feature to stop seeing content that's not interesting to you. The Instagram user interface showing where you can add or remove accounts from your Favorites list. When you add an account to your Favorites you'll see their posts higher and more often. "And you can see a ...

Google Chrome Extensions are very useful tools to enhance the browsing experience and hence, many of the popular options are downloaded and used by many. Now even though Google scans these extensions for security and privacy holes, still, some sketchy ones occasionally get away from Google’s sieve. We will learn why this happens. But more crucially, there are 5 such Google Chrome Extensions that you should delete right away (if you have them installed) as they are allegedly malware infected. Malicious Google Chrome Extensions that you should uninstall In a recent McAfee security report, 5 Google Chrome Extensions are named which are apparently infected by Malware. Here are their names: Netflix Party (netflixparty1.com) Netflix Party (Yes, two extensions that allow you to watch Netflix together with your friends are flagged) FlipShope — Price Tracker Extension Full Page Screenshot Capture — Screenshotting AutoBuy Flash Sales  Interestingly enough, these have over 1,400,000 combine...

Austin (Texas), Aug 30 (IANS) Chip-maker AMD has introduced new Ryzen 7000 series desktop processors powered by the new "Zen 4" architecture that will boost performance for gamers and content creators. The new Ryzen 7000 chips are expected to be available globally from September 27, starting at $299. Featuring up to 16 cores, 32 threads and built on an optimised TSMC 5nm process node, the Ryzen 7000 Series processors deliver dominant performance and leadership energy efficiency, the company said during its launch here. "The AMD Ryzen 7000 Series brings leadership gaming performance, extraordinary power for content creation, and advanced scalability with the new AMD Socket AM5," said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and GM, Client business unit, AMD. Compared to the previous generation, AMD Ryzen 7950X processor enables single-core performance improvement of up to 29 per cent, up to 45 per cent more compute for content creators in POV Ray, up to 15 per cen...

Nokia and Ericsson revealed on Monday that they will be exiting Russia. More western tech companies are reportedly withdrawing from their businesses in Russia. Dell and Logitech have also announced their intention to exit the country. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/8nkTvKF

Microsoft to implement the cloud computing changes from October 1. Microsoft’s revised deals will let customers use their licenses on any European cloud provider delivering services to their own data centres. Company President Brad Smith had first announced these changes in May. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/TjYXP1B

San Francisco, Aug 30 (IANS) The iPhone 14 lineup may arrive with 30W fast charging, a significant jump from 20W being used in the iPhone 13 lineup. According to reports, an unnamed charger brand is allegedly sending out 30W iPhone 14 adapters for early access and review. This company believes Apple will be advertising 30W charging as a feature of the iPhone 14 series, reports AppleInsider. The iPhone 13 Pro Max was able to support 27W charging temporarily in a test, suggesting that 30W support is possible. It is not yet clear if the 30W charging would be limited to iPhone 14 Pro models or be available to all four iPhone 14 models. Apple recently released two 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapters to be used for charging the MacBook Air and iPhone simultaneously. The iPhone 14 lineup is set to be announced during an event on September 7. The next-generation iPhone 14, to be produced in India around two months after its China production, will see four models � a 6.1-inch iPhone 14, a...

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Google has allowed users to insert emojis while writing in Google Docs, as they will not need to pull up emoji icons from other places anymore into their documents. Google recently added emoji reactions to Docs, and now the users can add them to actual documents. The feature supports the most recent emoji. "Building upon the recently announced emoji reaction feature, you can now express yourself in a new way by searching for and inserting emojis directly in line with your text in Google Docs," said the company. The emoji tool is available to all Google Workspace customers, as well as legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers, along with users with personal Google accounts. There is no admin control for this feature. To search for and add emojis directly in line with text in Docs, Google has simple steps to follow. The simple way is to just type "@ (emoji name)," and typing "@emoji" will pull up a searchable emoji picker, lik...

Reliance announced on Monday that is working with Google to launch a new budget 5G smartphone in India. The company also revealed its $25 billion (roughly 2 lakh crore) plan for introducing the next-generation 5G services in India within two months. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/FOwWSIM

Vivo Y35 is the new lower midrange phone from the brand. It comes in a single memory configuration and costs ₹18,499. The offered ingredients include Qualcomm Snapdragon 680, a 5000mAh battery with a 44W adapter, a 90Hz LCD panel, and a 50MP triple rear camera setup. So, those are an interesting set of specs. Let’s see the complete details to see if it has (at least on paper) what it takes to shake up the sub-20K price segment smartphone market. Vivo Y35 Specs and Features Vivo Y35 in Agate Black and Dawn Gold colors. Vivo is sporting a 6.58-inch FHD+ 90Hz LCD screen with 550 nits peak brightness and 96% NTSC color coverage. There is a waterdrop notch on the front that holds a 16MP selfie shooter. The back cameras, meanwhile are a 50MP leader, a 2MP macro, and a 2MP depth sensor. Inside the phone, there is Snapdragon 680 processor, a 5000mAh battery, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, and both 8GB Extended RAM and expandable storage support with a dedicated microSD card slot. The connec...

Google TV is bringing improvements to its boot time, performance, and other features for managing storage on smart TVs with a new software update. The new changes are said to make the homescreen on Google TV load faster. The performance has improved across several verticals including Live tab loading, homescreen scrolling, or using a kid profile among others. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/UXC0dri

Google Pixel owners that have installed Android 13 are complaining that the wireless charging feature on the smartphones is broken post installation of the update. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/No1niex

After showing some stabilisation in the last few weeks, world's largest cryptocurrency Bitcoin has plunged once again below $20,000 after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's keynote address. Bitcoin initially showed little reaction to Powell's remarks, but then nosedived sharply and on Sunday, it was hovering around $19,975 per digital coin which is more that 60 per cent drop in its value since last year when it reached a record-high of $68,000 in November. Bitcoin prices had stabilised around the $23,000 to $24,000 level after plunging below $20,000 in June. The prices of ethereum and other leading digital currencies have also rallied in the past two months, leading to hopes that this nascent market may have reached its bottom. But the optimism could be premature, and fleeting. Companies with direct ties to the crypto landscape continue to struggle, according to media reports. Bitcoin, despite the hype about it being digital gold, has turned out not to be an asset that p...

Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 could be a forthcoming mid-range chip from the American chip giant. As you see it continues the new naming scheme like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and more. The report enclosing the leaked Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 specifications come from Evan Blass. So, without any further ado, let’s see what this Snapdragon 600 series successor could offer: Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 Specs and Features (Expected) pic.twitter.com/B2d6GWdjNA — Evan Blass (@evleaks) August 26, 2022 The specs sheet leaked by Evan Blass reveals the so-called Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 will have Kryo CPU fabbed on a 4nm architecture and run up to 2.2GHz clock speed. This could come clubbed with Adreno GPU, Hexagon DSP, and AI processors. The support for mmWave and Sub-6GHz 5G could come from X62 modem along with global multi-SIM compatibility and up to 2.9Gbps downlink speeds. When it comes to memory configuration, you could get up to 12GB LPDDR5 RAM and USB 3.1 storage.  The SD 6 Gen 1 cou...

Google has launched a new cross-device software development kit (SDK) that allows developers to build apps that work across Android and non-Android devices. The cross device software, compatible till the Android 8 version, is now available with a developer preview for Android phones and tablets, and will arrive later for Android surfaces and non-Android operating systems. Users can also share an app's current state with the same app on another device and start the app on a secondary device without having to keep the app running in background. The initial release contains a set of rich APIs focused around the core functionality of device discovery, secure connections, and multi-device sessions, said the company. With device discovery, you can locate nearby devices, authorise peer-to-peer communication, and start the target application on receiving devices. Secure connections enable encrypted, low-latency bi-directional data sharing between authorised devices. Multi-device sessions e...

New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) Google has opened its experimental artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot for the public and you can now register to chat with the AI-driven bot trained on the company's controversial language model. Google has already warned that early previews of its LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) model "may display inaccurate or inappropriate content". 'AI Test Kitchen' by Google is an app where people can learn about, experience, and give feedback on Google's emerging AI technology. "Our goal is to learn, improve and innovate responsibly on AI together. We'll be opening up to small groups of people gradually," said the company. According to Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, 'AI Test Kitchen' is "meant to give you a sense of what it might be like to have LaMDA in your hands". The ability of these language models to generate infinite possibilities shows potential, "but it also means they ...

New York, Aug 27 (IANS) There may soon be a new weapon in the battle against Covid in the form of a durable coating, thanks to Indian-American researchers, that can quickly kill bacteria and viruses on surfaces, and keep killing them for six months or longer. The coating, which is clear and can be brushed or sprayed on, gets its durability and germ-killing power by combining tried-and-true ingredients in a novel way. It uses antimicrobial molecules derived from tea tree oil and cinnamon oil, both used for centuries as safe and effective germ killers that work in under two minutes, according to the study led by Anish Tuteja, a professor of material science and engineering at University of Michigan, published in the journal Matter. "Disinfectant cleaners can kill germs in only a minute or two but they dissipate quickly and leave surfaces vulnerable to reinfection. We do have long-lasting antibacterial surfaces based on metals like copper and zinc, but they take hours to kill bact...

New Delhi, Aug 27 (IANS) Twitter shopping, which allows brands to list items for sale and tag products at the top of a merchant's profile, has content moderation risks and can lead to 'individual or societal harm', the media reported. According to an internal company memo, obtained by The Verge, several elements of Twitter's e-commerce tool are categorised as "high" under "risk assessment". "One high-risk concern is that merchant-generated fields like shop names and descriptions could be used by bad actors in harmful ways," read the memo. Unlike Instagram, Twitter users can't buy the product directly on the platform as clicking on items for sale takes them to the merchant's website. A key upcoming feature of Twitter's shopping is shareability, and the memo also listed this feature as high risk. It said the shareability feature "could lead to harmful content being amplified further, increasing the visibility of content ...

MacBook Pro and the iPad Pro, which are heading towards mass production this year, have been hinted to not be using a 3nm chip technology. The Apple gadgets are tipped to sport new 5nm chips, according to the Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/DWuK6Jg

Washington, Aug 27 (IANS) The US space agency is geared up to send its debut Space Launch System (SLS) mission called Artemis I into deep space on Monday that will perform a long orbit around the Moon before coming back to Earth. The uncrewed Artemis I mission has a two-hour launch window that opens at 8:33 a.m. EDT (6 p.m. India time) on August 29 from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39B in Florida in the US. Artemis I will lay the foundation for a sustained long-term presence on and around the Moon. "The SLS rocket and integrated Orion spacecraft will help us get a feel for what astronauts will experience on future flights. Artemis I is an important step in NASA's long-term goals for space exploration, paving the way for us to land the first woman and the first person of colour on the Moon," the space agency said in a statement. The primary goal of Artemis I is to thoroughly test the integrated systems before crewed missions by operating the spacecraft in a de...

San Francisco, Aug 27 (IANS) Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Saturday slammed some environmentalists for being "anti-human" when it comes to increasing nuclear power generation that could replace fossil fuels in the future. In a tweet, Musk said that the countries should be increasing nuclear power generation. "It is insane from a national security standpoint and bad for the environment to shut them down," said Musk. A Twitter follower replied, saying that nuclear is clean, efficient and could replace fossil fuels entirely if it was embraced but is not happening "because so-called environmentalists aren't pro clean energy, they are anti-human". Musk posted: "Some (environmentalists) are indeed sadly anti-human". A clean energy advocate, he has said time and again that it's a mistake to stigmatise nuclear energy, especially as renewables like solar and batteries are still ramping up. In July this year, he said that "I'm ac...

Google will be clearly labeling the names of the medical facilities in the United States that would provide abortions in its Search as well as in Google Maps. The top executives of the American tech giant informed the US lawmakers that the company is taking this step to avoid confusing the abortion centres with the anti-abortion centres. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/qyNC73w

Washington, Aug 26 (IANS) NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured the first-ever clear evidence for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system. The finding, to be published in the journal Nature, offers hope that in the future, Webb may be able to detect and measure carbon dioxide in the thinner atmospheres of smaller rocky planets. This observation of a gas giant planet named 'WASP-39 b' which is orbiting a Sun-like star 700 light-years away provides important insights into the composition and formation of the planet, the US space agency said in a statement late on Thursday. "As soon as the data appeared on my screen, the whopping carbon dioxide feature grabbed me. It was a special moment, crossing an important threshold in exoplanet sciences," said Zafar Rustamkulov, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University. WASP-39 b is a hot gas giant with a mass roughly one-quarter that of Jupiter (about the same as Saturn) and a di...

San Francisco, Aug 26 (IANS) A US judge has rejected Elon Musk's absurd demand to ask Twitter to hand over all data for approximately 200 million user accounts for the last three years. Judge Kathaleen McCormick said no to Musk's legal team's "absurdly broad" request, saying that Twitter must hand over the 9,000 accounts it reviewed for its audit in the fourth quarter of 2021, reports The Verge. "Plaintiff (Twitter) has difficulty quantifying the burden of responding to that request because no one in their right mind has ever tried to undertake such an effort. It suffices to say, Plaintiff has demonstrated that such a request is overly burdensome," the judge ruled late on Thursday. Twitter will now need to hand over "a small additional set of data from its review database", said the judge. In addition, the judge also agreed to Twitter's request for documents from Musk's side, like the data analysis Musk performed before he announced...

‍‍‍‍‍ from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/lodjuIk

San Francisco, Aug 26 (IANS) Meta-owned photo and video sharing platform Instagram has announced that it will limit sensitive content for new teen users by default on the platform. Instagram said that the Sensitive Content Control has only two options for teens -- "Standard" and "Less". "New teens on Instagram under 16 years old will be defaulted into the 'Less' state. For teens already on Instagram, we will send a prompt encouraging them to select the 'Less' experience," the platform said in a blogpost. "This will make it more difficult for young people to come across potentially sensitive content or accounts in Search, Explore, Hashtag Pages, Reels, Feed Recommendations and Suggested Accounts," it added. In addition, Instagram said it is testing a new way to encourage teens to update their safety and privacy settings. It will show prompts asking teens to review their settings including -- controlling who can reshare their c...

San Francisco, Aug 26 (IANS) Mobile phones will connect to SpaceX's new Starlink satellites next year, providing around 2 to 4 Megabits per second connection (total) across a given coverage area, T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert and Tesla CEO Elon Musk have announced. To provide this service, the companies will create a new network, broadcast from Starlink's satellites using T-Mobile's mid-band spectrum nationwide. This satellite-to-cellular service will provide nearly complete coverage almost anywhere a customer can see the sky, US telecom carrier T-Mobile said in a statement late on Thursday. This will help people text, send MMS messages, and even use "select messaging apps" whenever they have a clear view of the sky. The service is scheduled to launch in beta by the end of next year in "select areas". "More than just a groundbreaking alliance, this represents two industry-shaking innovators challenging the old ways of doing things to create somethi...

Google’s foldable phone has reportedly been spotted at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) suggesting that it will have a Samsung Galaxy Fold-like design. Previous reports suggested that the phone could look a lot like the Oppo Find N. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/Le3jW2x

San Francisco, Aug 25 (IANS) Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp is likely planning to bring iMessage-like profile photos within group chats. According to WABetaInfo, the platform is planning to introduce something that has been requested for a long time -- profile photos of group participants. When this feature will be released to beta testers, profile photos of other group participants will show up next to all incoming messages within the group chat in a future update of the app. As happens with the reaction preview, there is no way to disable this feature since it will always be enabled by default for all group participants and there is no switch for it, the report said. This feature is under development, so it is unclear when WhatsApp will release the changes to people. Recently, the platform has started releasing a feature that lets group admins delete any message in the group to some lucky beta testers. The report mentioned that it is a significant feature for group admi...

Reliance Industries will have its 44th AGM (Annual General Meeting) on August 29. The video conference of the event will be broadcasted starting at 2 PM that day. Now, at this event, we will get to learn about dividends and other financial declarations as well as forecasts for FY22. However, since the company’s bigger push into telecom and other technologies, we are expecting announcements around the same. The most anticipated announcements are  Jio 5G plans and a 5G smartphone from the Jio Phone series. Jio 5G tariff plans Jio was the top bidder in the Indian 5G spectrum auction. It has acquired about 24,740 MHz spectrum costing ₹88,078 crores. It also bought the pricey 700MHz in all 22 circles. In case you are wondering why, know that this band is said to offer a 5-10 km coverage. The brand has also got its hands on the 800MHz band, 1899MHz band, and 3300MHz band.  So, now we wonder how it prices the 5G tariff plans. We may get at least some breadcrumbs at this eve...

New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) Google on Thursday launched several initiatives, including new investment and collaboration with the IT Ministry, to safeguard people in India from online harm. The company launched a cybersecurity up-skilling programme for nearly 100,000 developers, IT, and start-up professionals across the country, at its 'Safer With Google' event. Google.org also granted $2 million (Rs 16 crore) to non-profit organisations, including Collective Good Foundation, Point Of View and HelpAge India, to empower high-risk groups such as women, micro-entrepreneurs, seniors and the LGBTQ community. The tech giant said it is also starting a multilingual user awareness campaign supported by the MeitY and Digital India Corporation to encourage millions of internet users to adopt better practices for safer digital transactions. "As India progresses towards becoming a truly digitally-enabled economy, it is critical that the opportunity of connectivity not come at the price...

Folks, meet Raffi, a robot with emotions, or so its developer Prateek vaunts. The latter is a 13-year-old student from Tamil Nadu who has apparently created this emotional robo. Prateek says, “'Raffi', my robot, can answer queries. If you scold him, he won't answer your queries until you're sorry. It can even understand you if you're sad.” Tamil Nadu | A 13-year-old student, Prateek, has claimed to have designed a robot with emotions, in Chennai 'Raffi', my robot, can answer queries. If you scold him, he won't answer your queries until you're sorry. It can even understand you if you're sad: Prateek (24.08) pic.twitter.com/9YbqGMBXUw — ANI (@ANI) August 24, 2022 However, we haven’t come across any explanations for how Raffi works or how Prateek designed this robot with emotions. So, if Raffi is indeed an emotional being, let’s understand how this tech could work and what are its uses and concerns with that usage. Emotion AI: What is it and how...

New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) Google on Thursday expanded its Play Games for PC feature under an open beta to users in South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia. Earlier this year, the company announced that Google Play Games would be coming to PCs as a beta experience for a limited number of players. "Beginning today, we're continuing our rollout by making Google Play Games beta available for download to all players in Australia," said Arjun Dayal, Director of Product, Google Play Games. In the last few months, the company doubled its Google Play Games catalogue to more than 50 titles, which can be played on Windows PCs via a standalone application built by Google. The catalogue includes many of the most popular mobile games in the world including Summoners War, Cookie Run: Kingdom, Last Fortress: Underground, and Slam Dunk. "We've also made significant strides in reducing the minimum spec requirements to run Google Play Games. Players who have a Wi...

New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) If you have an obsessive urge to constantly check news, you are more likely to suffer from stress, anxiety as well as poor physical health, researchers have warned. Being exposed to a 24-hour news cycle of continually evolving events can have serious impacts on mental and physical wellbeing, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Communication. During the last two years, humanity has lived through a series of worrying global events, from the pandemic to Russia invading Ukraine, large-scale protests, mass shootings and devastating wildfires. For several people, reading bad news can make us feel temporarily powerless and distressed. "Witnessing these events unfold in the news can bring about a constant state of high alert in some people, kicking their surveillance motives into overdrive and making the world seem like a dark and dangerous place," said Bryan McLaughlin, associate professor of advertising at Texas Tech University ...

New Delhi, Aug 25 (IANS) Chinese smartphone maker OPPO will continue to remain committed to the European markets despite suspending sales in Germany, its top global executive has said. OPPO and its subsidiary OnePlus stopped sales of smartphones and smartwatches in Germany after they lost a patent lawsuit against Finnish telecom player Nokia earlier this month. Nokia had accused the companies of using its patented technology for processing 4G and 5G signals without paying for a license. Nokia won an injunction to halt sales in a German court. "Our long-term commitment to the European and German markets stays the same. There isn't an impact on our choice of office location, and the German office, where our European hub is located, will operate as usual," said Billy Zhang, OPPO's vice president of overseas sales and services. According to TechCrunch, Realme is "closely monitoring the situation" of Oppo's patent challenges in Germany. OPPO said it is k...

Fitbit has introduced its fall lineup including Sense 2, Versa 4, and Inspire 3. The former two are smartwatches while the Inspire 3 is the brand’s new fitness band. The key highlights of the devices include new software albeit no Wear OS 3, physical buttons on both watches, and Sense 2’s new exercise activities, upgraded stress tracker, and animal-based sleep profiles. Here are the full details: Fitbit Sense 2 Specs and Features Fitbit Sense 2 is equipped with a continuous electrodermal activity (cEDA) sensor used for all-day stress tracking. This is followed by high-stress alerts and recommendations such as mood logging, breathing guidance, and mindfulness sessions.  It sports new activity modes (up to 40 in total), and Fitbit Premium sleep profiles that present your sleep animal as the watch face. The device will be featuring passive heart rhythm monitoring for atrial fibrillation (heart health).  Although WearOS 3 isn’t here, you get to see the effects of Google parent...

Apple on Wednesday announced its flagship product launch event for this year that will take place on September 7. Called 'Far Out,' the event will showcase new iPhone 14 lineup, Watches and other products. This will be an in-person event at Apple's Cupertino campus in the US, the company's first big event to take place since the two years of the pandemic. The tech giant will also stream the launch event online. The next-generation iPhone 14, to be produced in India around two months after its China production, will see four models, viz. a 6.1-inch iPhone 14, a new 6.7-inch iPhone 14, a 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and and a 6.7 iPhone 14 Pro Max, according to reports. Apple's upcoming iPhone 14 base model is rumoured to cost $799, which is the same price as the iPhone 13. The tech giant has likely discontinued the 5.4-inch iPhone mini this year. While the Pro models will be powered by the A16 Bionic chipset, the non-Pro models will retain the A15 chip. The iPhone 14 Pro a...

New Delhi, Aug 24 (IANS) NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured new stunning images of Jupiter that will give scientists even more clues to the planet's inner life. With giant storms, powerful winds, auroras, and extreme temperature and pressure conditions, Jupiter has a lot going on. In the standalone view of Jupiter, created from a composite of several images from Webb, auroras extend to high altitudes above both the northern and southern poles of Jupiter. The auroras shine in a filter that is mapped to redder colours, which also highlights light reflected from lower clouds and upper hazes, NASA said in a statement. A different filter, mapped to yellows and greens, shows hazes swirling around the northern and southern poles. A third filter, mapped to blues, showcases light that is reflected from a deeper main cloud. "We hadn't really expected it to be this good, to be honest. It's really remarkable that we can see details on Jupiter together with its...

London, Aug 24 (IANS) Smartphone brand Nothing stated that the Android 13 update for its recently launched phone (1) will only be rolled out in the first half of 2023. According to Android Authority, users who anticipated receiving Android 13 quickly for the Nothing Phone (1) may be disappointed to hear that they may have to wait until the middle of next year. "We are always working hard to improve the Phone 1 user experience. To ensure this, operating system updates will be made available for regular download," Nothing founder Carl Pei was quoted as saying by the website. "In regards to Android 13, this will be launching for Phone 1 users in the first half of 2023. Before releasing, we want to fine tune the software upgrade with Nothing's hardware. We will be sure to keep you updated with further information," Pei added. Android 13 has been rolled out this week with several new features, including improved privacy controls, language settings and more. Goog...

Telegram Founder and CEO Pavel Durov is planning to add Web 3.0 to the highly-encrypted messaging platform in the coming weeks. Durov was impressed by an independent TON auction for their domain/wallet names. While Wallet.ton was sold for $260,000, casino.ton fetched $244,000. "If TON has been able to achieve these results, imagine how successful Telegram with its 700 million users could be if we put reserved @ usernames, group and channel links for auction," said Durov in a message on Monday. "In addition to millions of catchy t.me addresses like @storm or @royal, all four-letter usernames could be made available for sale (@bank, @club, @game, @gift etc)," he added. The Telegram founder said that this would create a new platform where username holders could transfer them to interested parties in protected deals - with ownership secured on the blockchain via NFT-like smart-contracts. "Other elements of the Telegram ecosystem, including channels, stickers or emo...

US-based audio equipment major Skullcandy on Tuesday launched its all-new true wireless earbuds, Mod, for Indian consumers. Launched at Rs 5,999, the earbuds comes with "Clear Voice Smart Mic" technology that utilises artificial intelligence to reduce background noise and isolate the speaker's voice, ensuring calls and Zoom meetings are crystal clear. "In today's work-from-anywhere world, multi-tasking is more commonplace than ever and Mod was engineered to keep up with it all. Our latest solution makes seamlessly toggling between work and play a breeze, while also ensuring users can personalize their audio experience to best suit their listening styles," the company said in a statement. The new earbuds offers "Multipoint Pairing" that enables seamless toggling between multiple devices at once, regardless of platform or manufacturer. Mod's flexibility is further underscored by Skullcandy App compatibility, which enables button function and equa...

Google-owned YouTube is set to launch its short-form video app Shorts on its smart TV platform called YouTube TV. The company has told its partners about the support for YouTube shorts to YouTube's app for Android TV and Google TV, reports Protocol has learned. YouTube Shorts has reached 30 billion daily views, and is growing exponentially. According to the report, YouTube TV is also planning to let viewers watch up to four live streams simultaneously via a new feature called "Mosaic Mode." YouTube isn't the first service to bring short-form vertical videos to the TV screen. TikTok has been experimenting with smart TV interfaces for some time. "YouTube TV will gain something called Mosaic Mode, which will allow subscribers to watch up to four live feeds at the same time by dividing the TV screen into quadrants," said the report. At least one of the new features could arrive in an update "in the coming months." (Except for the headline, the rest of...

Former Twitter security head Peiter "Mudge" Zatko has alleged that the Indian government forced the micro-blogging platform to hire a "government agent" and allow him access to users' sensitive data, a claim that has been trashed by Twitter. Zatko's whistleblower disclosure in a 84-page page, submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), was obtained by CNN and The Washington Post on Tuesday. In a section titled 'Penetration by Foreign Intelligence & Threats to Democracy', Zatko claimed that "the Indian government forced Twitter to hire specific individual(s) who were government agents, who (because of Twitter's basic architectural flaws) would have access to vast amounts of Twitter sensitive data". "By knowingly permitting an Indian government agent direct unsupervised access to the company's systems and user data, Twitter executives violated the company's commitments to its users," he claimed. Zat...

Twitter's former head of security, Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, has claimed that the Parag Agrawal-led platform lied about the actual number of bots on its platform and misled federal regulators about users' safety, media reports said on Tuesday. According to his disclosure obtained by CNN and The Washington Post, Zatko said that Twitter has "major security problems that pose a threat to its own users' personal information, to company shareholders, to national security, and to democracy". Zatko, who reported directly to the CEO, was fired by Twitter in January this year over "poor performance". Last month, he filed a complaint with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), accusing Twitter of deceiving shareholders and violating an agreement it made with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to uphold certain security standards. In his disclosure as a whistleblower, Zatko alleged that Twitter's leadership "has misled its own board and gov...

Android 13 update brings new features, performance improvements and visual updates to Pixel devices but seems to be breaking the wireless charging feature on some devices. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/GTF62SI

New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) Google has admitted that its TV software is slow for users and after hearing their feedback, the company is rolling out some major updates to improve performance and manage storage on both Chromecast with Google TV and other smart TVs. The company said that via CPU optimisations and improvements to cache management, "we've reduced the time it takes for the Google TV home screen to load at startup so you can start browsing shows and movies faster." These updates will be available on all devices over time, said Google which launched TV almost two years ago. The company said it has also improved navigation so scrolling within a tab and switching between tabs is more responsive. "The Live tab also loads quicker, so you'll see less of the loading animation when switching between tabs. Google TV now uses less RAM," said the tech giant. Google also made image caching optimisations that will reduce the time it takes to switch to kids pr...

San Francisco, Aug 23 (IANS) A former Chinese-origin Apple employee, accused of stealing trade secrets about the tech giant's automotive car division, has pleaded guilty in a court in the US. Xiaolang Zhang was accused of downloading internal Apple files about the car that Apple plans to unveil in 2024. According to a CNBC report late on Monday, Zhang faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled in November. Zhang was accused of downloading internal Apple files that included "engineering schematics of a circuit board for an autonomous vehicle". He was also accused of taking reference manuals and PDFs describing Apple's prototypes and prototype requirements, the report mentioned. During an internal investigation, Apple found that he had transferred around 24GB of sensitive data to his wife's laptop via AirDrop. He had also taken circuit boards and a server from the company's autonomous vehicle lab. Zhang was arrested at...

Google TV is bringing improvements to its boot time, performance, and other features for managing storage on smart TVs with a new software update. The new changes are said to make the homescreen on Google TV load faster. The performance has improved across several verticals including Live tab loading, homescreen scrolling, or using a kid profile among others. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/18RrGyU

As the government probes multiple fires in electric two-wheelers, only 1 per cent household consumers plan to buy an e-scooter in the next six months amid safety and performance concerns, a new report showed on Monday. Around 32 per cent of respondents are not convinced about the safety and performance of electric scooters in August while in March this year, the number stood at 17 per cent - as more than two dozen electric two-wheelers caught fire in March and April, according to data provided by community social media platform LocalCircles. After more than two dozen electric two-wheelers caught fire in March and April, around 7,000 units were "voluntarily" recalled by electric scooter makers such as Ola, Pure EV, and Okinawa. The government set up a committee of experts from Centre for Fire, Explosive and Environment Safety (CFEES) and the Indian Institute of Science to carry out detailed investigation and frame 'quality-centric' guidelines for EV manufacturers, whic...

After announcing the ability to retrieve deleted messages on its latest beta for iOS update, Meta-owned WhatsApp is now releasing a feature that lets group admins delete any message in the group. The feature has only been rolled out to some lucky beta testers, so it will take some time before reaching all other accounts, reports WABetaInfo. "If you are a group admin and you cannot delete messages sent from other participants, please wait for a future update because more activations will be following over the coming weeks," the report said. The report mentioned that it is a significant feature for group admins because they can finally moderate their WhatsApp groups better. In addition, when a message is deleted for everyone in the group, all other group participants can see that a certain group admin has deleted the message. Recently, the platform started rolling out the ability to watch Status directly from WhatsApp's chat list for iOS users. The beta version 22.18.0.70 i...

With an aim to expand its air-purifier segment, home appliance brand Electrolux on Monday launched a new range of air purifiers in India that features in-built WiFi connectivity and some uniqie features. The new range of purifiers comes in three series variants -- Korbu, Aspen and Himalaya -- starting at Rs 20,990, Rs 47,990 and Rs 65,990, respectively. "Electrolux has entered the India market with an aim to shape living for the better, with products that are designed to respond to the environment and deliver an elevated level of cleanliness and comfort. We have launched 5 models of purifiers under 3 ranges which assure clean and safe air quality," Sudhir Patil, Commercial Director, Electrolux India, said in a statement. The Korbu series comes in two variants -- A3 and A4. It utilises a four-stage filtration system that is said to capture micro-dust, odours, harmful airborne substances and reduces up to 99.99 per cent of bacteria. The Aspen series offers two variants -- Well ...

Representatives of Big Tech like Amazon, Google, Netflix and Microsoft, among others, have been summoned by the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Finance on Tuesday to depose on the subject of anti-competitive practices by tech entities. According to official sources, the panel, which is headed by BJP MP and former Union minister Jayant Sinha, will hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the matter, which has garnered a lot of attention in recent times. The committee has also summoned representatives of e-commerce entities like Flipkart and even cab and hotel aggregators like Ola and Oyo, respectively, to discuss the matter. The meeting comes at a time when the big players in the digital and technological space have been accused of indulging in anti-competitive methods and unfair business practices. The summoning of representatives of Big Techs by the Parliamentary panel is in line with its earlier discussions on the matter, with competitive behaviour in the digital market space being t...

The overall PC market in India registered a 17.8 percent year-over-year (YoY) growth by shipping 3.7 million PCs in the second quarter of 2022 (2Q22), as per IDC. HP led the market followed by Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and Asus, respectively. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/Ky8SvOH

The Ministry of Finance made it clear that the Indian government has no plans to charge for UPI services. On August 21, the Finance Ministry responded to reports alleging that UPI payments would be charged extra. It clarified that the government would not charge extra for UPI payments because it is a digital public service that helps the economy run better and makes transactions easier for the public. The ministry also explained that incentives were given to payment service providers last year, and this year, more incentives have been announced to help the country switch to digital. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) asked for suggestions on charging for digital transactions on August 17. When asked about the Return on Investment (RoI) for service providers, the Finance Ministry said that they (service providers) will have to come up with other ways to make money. However, "there will be no charge for UPI transactions," said the Finance Ministry. The Ministry said that in 20...

The LG Ultra PC series of 16-inch and 14-inch laptops have been launched in Europe. They are powered by AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors paired with integrated AMD Radeon Vega graphics. from Gadgets 360 https://ift.tt/CVWioBN

North Korea-based notorious Lazarus hacking group is back in action, targeting Apple Mac users with fake job emails that contain malicious files. Researchers at cyber-security firm ESET posted a screenshot on Twitter that showed fake job listings from leading crypto exchange Coinbase by Lazarus, famous for spreading the WannaCry ransomware globally in 2017. The fake job listing was for an engineering manager, product security, at Coinbase. "A signed Mac executable disguised as a job description for Coinbase was uploaded to VirusTotal from Brazil. This is an instance of Operation by Lazarus for Mac," the ESET researchers posted in a tweet. The fake job emails have an attachment containing malicious files that can compromise both Intel and Apple chip-powered Mac computers. "Malware is compiled for both Intel and Apple Silicon. It drops three files: a decoy PDF document, a bundle and a downloader," warned researchers. The Mac malware campaign is new and not part of pre...

Tech giant Google's artificial intelligence (AI) has reportedly flagged parents' accounts for potential abuse over nude photos of their sick kids. The father said that after using his Android smartphone to take photos of an infection on his toddler's groin, the tech giant flagged the images as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), citing the NYT, The Verge reported. The company closed his accounts and filed a report with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and spurred a police investigation. It highlights the complications of trying to tell the difference between potential abuse and an innocent photo once it becomes part of a user's digital library, whether on their personal device or in cloud storage. The incident occurred in February 2021, when some doctor's offices were still closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the report, Mark (whose last name was not revealed) noticed swelling in his child's genital region and, at the reques...

The Indian smartphone users are spending 30 minutes a day on consuming memes and 80 per cent have increased meme consumption in the last year, a new report showed on Monday. While most users enjoy memes as a good way to release stress, 50 per cent expect their meme consumption to increase, according to the report by strategy consulting firm Redseer. "The shareability of memes makes them popular among groups with the same interest or even globally because most people find them relatable. Thus, it comes as no surprise that in just the last year, close to 80 per cent have increased meme consumption," said Mrigank Gutgutia, Partner at Redseer. Memes are now at the peak of the entertainment sector. To keep up with this rising demand, meme creation platforms are crowding the market, indicating that monumental growth is on the cards for this industry. "Ninety per cent of consumers are open to creating memes themselves, indicating large latent demand for meme creation apps,...