Page 80 - Technology Internet
RIP Google+, you will not be missed
Google+, the search engine's attempt at making a dent into the world of social networks, is saying goodbye today. Google had promised that in April, it will pull down the curtains on its service.First announced in 2011, Google+ failed to make an impact as a social networking platform in front of Facebook.Despite that, it had millions of users but the engagement was not as much, Fast Company reports.Last year, two data breaches prompted Google to take stern action and kill its own service. Google+ for consumers goes away today while the service for G Suite customers will remain intact.In case you did not take a backup of your data, today is the chance to download them, including photos and videos. Visit Google's help centre to find out how to download your data.
New e-badges raise concerns about employees' privacy
A new electronic badge, developed by a US-based start-up, is enabling bosses to spy on workers, raising concerns about their rights and privacy, the media reported.
Amazon launches Echo Show in India for Rs 22,999
E-commerce major Amazon Tuesday said it has expanded its portfolio of Echo smart devices in India with the introduction of 'Echo Show' priced at Rs 22,999. Echo Show is equipped with an immersive 10-inch HD display, a 5 MP front-facing camera, a built-in smart home hub and a speaker system with dolby processing. It will be available on Amazon India's e-commerce platform and select retailers. "Customers across the country have purchased Echo devices and started their voice-first journey with Alexa. Today, we're making this voice-first experience better by introducing Echo Show which provides an enhanced audio-visual experience," Parag Gupta, head of Amazon Devices India said. Amazon's line up of Echo products includes Input, Dot, Echo, Spot and Echo Plus. * * * * Snapchat launches support for 4 more Indian languages * Snapchat has introduced four new Indian languages as the multimedia messaging app looks to expand its userbase in the Indian market. These four languages include Hindi, .
Tata Power, Indraprastha Gas ink pact for rooftop solar projects
Tata Power Tuesday said it has signed a pact with Indraprastha Gas Limited (IGL) for setting up rooftop solar projects in the country. While Tata Power is India's largest integrated power utility, IGL is country's largest CNG distribution company. "The pact signed between Tata Power and IGL is for green energy solutions including rooftop solar projects, various integrated services including setting up of commercial scale EV charging/battery swapping stations," Tata Power said in a statement. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed Tuesday in presence of IGL Managing Director E S Ranganathan, Tata Power CEO and Managing Director Praveer Sinha, GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi, and other senior officials of both the companies, it said. "We are happy to announce our partnership with IGL. It is a significant move towards offering integrated services to consumers of both the entities," Sinha said in the statement.
Creation of effective technologies doesn't necessarily require their understanding
A team of researchers has found that the creation of effective technologies does not necessarily require an understanding of them.The study published in the Journal Nature Human Behaviour says it is often believed that humans succeeded in producing complex tools and adapting to different environments make them more ingenious and inventive than other species.Yet the effectiveness of traditional technologies such as bows or kayak depends on numerous parameters that remain difficult to understand and model, even for modern physicists.Some anthropologists have consequently suggested that these technologies result not from our reasoning abilities, but from our propensity to copy other members of our group: small improvements are successively selected, leading to the emergence of technologies that are effective despite not being understood by individuals.Researchers sought to test this theory in the laboratory. In order to do so, they recruited students to optimise a wheel travelling down ..
Facebook wants your views on content oversight board
Facebook is inviting inputs from people around the world to build an independent body that will be able to reverse the social networking giant's decisions about allowing or removing certain posts on the platform.
EVs, hybrids on MG Motor agenda for India
British automaker MG Motor plans to bring hybrid and electric vehicles in India as it gears up to introduce four new vehicles in the country in the next two years, a senior company official said Tuesday. The company, which will kick off its journey in India with the launch of Hector in June, Tuesday showcased its iSMART Next Gen technology developed in partnership with global technology players including Microsoft, Adobe and SAP with an aim to make its SUV "the first internet car" in India. "In the next two years we will be launching four models in India. The first will be the SUV Hector followed by an electric vehicle later in the year," MG Motor India President and Managing Director Rajeev Chaba said here. Apart from the internal combustion engine (ICE) version, the company will also bring a 48-volt hybrid version in Hector, he added. A 48-volt hybrid is essentially an ICE vehicle with a mild hybrid technology that uses a 48-volt electric motor with a 48-volt lithium ion battery ...
Soon, strong, transparent films for shatterproof smartphone screens
Smartphone screens may soon be shatterproof, say scientists who have created transparent polythene films stronger than aluminium, which could be used use in displays and windscreens. Researchers from University of Warwick and Queen Mary University of London in the UK showed devised a technique to create a lightweight transparent material with a significant strength and resilience exceeding that of metals. Current methods of creating high strength plastic films such as hot-drawing of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) can lead to materials that can compete or even out-perform traditional engineering materials like metals. "The microstructure of polymers before drawing very much resembles that of a bowl of cooked spaghetti or noodles, while after stretching or drawing the molecules become aligned in a way similar to that of uncooked spaghetti, meaning that they can carry more load," said Yunyin Lin, a PhD student at University of Warwick. However, drawn polythene materials normally have ..
Nokia's banana feature phone gets WhatsApp
After arriving on Reliance JioPhones in September 2018, messaging app WhatsApp is now available on Nokia's '8110' with India becoming the first market to receive the update in Nokia's feature device, HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, announced on Tuesday.
IIM Kozhikode launches new doctoral programme in Management
: Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode has launched a new doctoral programme, PhD in Management (Practice Track), for working executives with at least eight years of experience, claimed to be the first of its kind in India. In this programme, the executives can work towards a doctoral degree while remaining in their jobs. Prof Debashis Chatterjee, Director of IIM Kozhikode, said "This is the first time in India that we are defining a PhD in the form of a Practice Track. It is an idea whose time has come. While you are in the job you can bring real life problems to your doctoral research for investigation and discover the solutions with the kind of clarity that only a deeply embedded knowledge system can bring," an IIM-K press release quoted him as having said. Prof Rudra Sensarma, Dean (Research), called the programme as unique on account of its flexibility in scheduling that is designed to accommodate the busy work life of an executive. "The entire programme can be
Xebia Supports Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 by Developing a Unique Predictive Analytics Tool
/ -- Xebia has built a predictive fitness model and logistics operations management tool made available on an opt-in basis for the athletes participating in Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019. The event, held on a global scale, is unique - it champions social inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities and empowers them through sports. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/542266/Xebia_Logo.jpg ) The collaboration was an outcome of Xebia's long-term association with the Abu Dhabi government. Xebia worked with the Local Organizing Committee for Special Olympics World Games Abu Dhabi 2019 to develop a predictive analytics tool with special functionalities and features, providing a seamless way to retrieve data while assisting attendees, athletes and the entire event through data analysis. The tool encompasses the following capabilities: Athletes Monitoring & Safety: The opt-in platform made available to all delegates at the Games included live location of ...
Magnets could be used to clean up oil spills
An interdisciplinary research carried forward by a group of researchers have revealed that it could be possible to remove oil spills from the surface of the ocean by using magnets in future.The researchers have published the study in the Journal of Advanced Functional Materials.A group of researchers led by Prof. Dr Marcus Halik developed functionalised iron oxide particles that can attract any types of hydrocarbons.The magnetic particles and their shells that are removed from the water in an environmentally friendly manner and can even be reused after being cleaned.In the study, the researchers describe how functionalised iron oxide particles can be modified with a self-assembled monolayer so that they only absorb hydrocarbons. This group of chemical substances includes light compounds such as alkanes and aromates but also crude oil, petrol and diesel.Such hydrocarbon molecules surround fine particles as if they are being sucked in and reach a volume that can grow to 14 times the ...
Facebook rolls out new feature to customise News Feed content
Facebook has rolled out a new feature called "Why am I seeing this post?" which will give users control over what they see in their News Feed from the Facebook app. The feature which came out on Sunday is an elaborate version of the existing Facebook feature for removing ads.The platform is also improving its work on a feature called "Why am I seeing this ad?, which is a way to explain to the users as to why they are seeing an advertisement and if it is helpful for them.The new option can be easily accessed using the drop-down menu on the top right of posts which will give users information on why they are seeing a certain post giving more transparency on the working of news feed algorithm. The change came after several shortcomings of the platform were highlighted lately by users that adversely affected the reputation of the company.Users will also get options for shortcuts to tools that will control whether they see similar posts again in future. These include See First and Unfollow
Google's Anandan joins Sequoia Capital India as MD
Rajan Anandan, Google's Vice President for South East Asia and India, has quit the company and joined Sequoia Capital India as a Managing Director.
Rajan Anandan quits Google, to join Sequoia Capital
Google's India and South East Asia President Rajan Anandan has put in his papers after an eight-year stint at the American tech giant. Anandan, also an investor in multiple startups, is slated to join venture fund Sequoia Capital. He will work with Google till the end of this month. Vikas Agnihotri will take on the interim responsibility. He is currently serving as Google's Country Director for Sales. "We are grateful to Rajan for his huge contribution to Google over the past eight years. His entrepreneurial zeal and leadership has helped grow the overall internet ecosystem in India and Southeast Asia," Google President Asia Pacific Scott Beaumont said in an emailed statement. Anandan had joined Google from Microsoft India in 2010. Previously, he was also been associated with Dell India and McKinsey & Company. In a tweet, Anandan said: "8 amazing years. 850million internet users across India and SEA. Many billions of revenue and fastest growing region in the world. Incredible team
WhatsApp reaches 'Nokia 8110' first in India
'Nokia 8110' now supports messaging app WhatsApp and the update has reached the Indian market first, HMD Global, the home of Nokia phones, announced on Tuesday.
Dunya Labs Releases India's First Infrastructure Tool for Global Blockchain EOS
/ -- Dunya Labs, a blockchain studio in Bangalore, launched its first product today. The product, Eclipse, is an intelligent automated resource management tool for developers and teams building on the EOS blockchain and launched with seven flagship customers from China, Korea, and the US. Dunya Labs is the first company in India to release an infrastructure product for the EOS blockchain. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/799087/Dunya_Labs_Logo.jpg ) (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/845153/Eclipse.jpg ) Eclipse is an infrastructure platform built for a public blockchain called EOS that can be used by decentralized applications (dApp). However, the impact of Eclipse is two-fold: by abstracting away complexity for both users and dApp developers. The design of EOS blockchain allows many benefits, compared to other public blockchains. EOS is extremely fast and scalable, and is written in C++, a language familiar to many software developers. Some aspects of EOS design ...
Amazon's 'Echo Show' smart display now in India
Expanding its hardware portfolio in the country, Amazon on Tuesday launched -- Amazon Echo Show -- its new offering in the smart display category with a 10-inch HD display, built-in smart home hub and a speaker system for Rs 22,999 in India.
Apple starts iPhone 7 production in India
Giving an impetus to its India manufacturing plans, Apple has started the assembling of iPhone 7 at its supplier Wistron's facility in Bengaluru.
Malware from Google Play Store grew by 100% in 2018
Covering malware trends in 2018, in its annual Android security report, Google has revealed that malware installed from Google Play grew by a 100 per cent last year.