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   British tech firm  Dyson  on Wednesday said it will launch its first wearable air purifier with  headphones . Dyson  has unveiled air-purifying  headphones   Dyson  Zone, which is a set of noise-cancelling, high fidelity over-ear  headphones  which simultaneously deliver immersive sound to the ears, and purified airflow to the nose and mouth. Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones will simultaneously tackle the urban issues of air quality and noise pollution, said a company statement. Dyson Chief Engineer Jake Dyson said, "The Dyson Zone purifies the air you breathe on the move. And unlike face masks, it delivers a plume of fresh air without touching your face, using high-performance filters and two miniaturised air pumps. After six years in development, we're excited to deliver pure air and pure audio, anywhere. This is also Dyson's foray into the world of audio, it added. It is also the smallest in any Dyson machine to date, two m...

   To her 1.4 million followers on social media, Vica Li says she is a life blogger and food lover who wants to teach her fans about  China  so they can travel the country with ease. Through my lens, I will take you around China, take you into Vica's life! she says in a January video posted on YouTube and Facebook. But that lens may be controlled by CGTN, the Chinese-state run TV network where she has regularly appeared in broadcasts and is listed as a digital reporter on the company's website. While Vica Li tells followers she created all of these channels on her own, her Facebook account shows at least nine people manage her page. That portfolio of accounts is just one tentacle of China's growing influence on US-owned social media platforms, an Associated Press examination has found. As  China  continues to assert its economic might, it is using the global social media ecosystem to expand its already formidable influence. The country has built a network o...

   WhatsApp  has announced a slew of features for voice messaging on its platform, including playback of a voice note before sending it, pause and resume recording, playing the messages outside of the chat and more. “When we first launched voice messaging in 2013, we knew that it could change the way people communicate. By keeping the design simple, we’ve made recording and sending a voice message as quick and easy as writing a text,” the company said. “Every day on WhatsApp, our users send 7 billion voice messages on average, all of which are protected by end-to-end encryption to keep them private and secure at all times,” it added. The Meta (formerly Facebook) -owned messaging platform will also enable waveform visualisation to show a visual representation of the sound on the voice message to help follow the recording, a remember playback tool so that if a user pauses when listening to a voice message, they can pick up later where they left off, and playback of voice me...

   India’s cricket board has set a combined base price of Rs 32,890 crore for the media rights of the  Indian Premier League  (IPL) under four packages, seeking to double the amount from the last five-year rights cycle ending in 2022. The Board of Control for Cricket in India, in the previous cycle, sold  IPL  media rights for Rs 16,348 crore. This year’s  IPL  season has 10 teams—two more than last year—and 74 matches. The board seeks to garner Rs 100 crore per match, the Economic Times reported. Media network Star India paid Rs 16,347.5 crore in 2017 to win  IPL  media rights for five years, competing in a consolidated bid. This time there will be four categories and interested parties have to bid separately for each. The first category, with a base price of Rs 49 crore per game, is for television rights in the Indian subcontinent, The New Indian Express website quoted an IPL governing council member as saying. The television rights ba...

   Korean electronic major  Samsung  on Tuesday unveiled slew of smartphones under the Galaxy A Series as part of revamping exercise, according to a company official. The company launched Galaxy A13, A23, A33 5G, A53 5G, A73 5G aimed at offering a complete package of the latest Galaxy range of smartphones at an affordable price making awesome technology "The Galaxy A series epitomises that belief by making flagship like features accessible at an affordable price point. The five new models we are launching are curated to inspire consumers with style, power and versatility," company Director and Head of Retail and Marketing operations - India, Mahesh Alanthat said. "Galaxy A73 5G stands out with best in segment 108MP OIS Camera, features like Object Eraser and AI Photo Remaster 120Hz super AMOLED+ display, water and dust resistance...," he said. The Galaxy A73 would be open for pre-book on the company website  Samsung .com and also in leading retail stores and sel...

   As part of the Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the government would encourage start-ups to facilitate drone-as-a-service. Drone-as-a-service enables enterprises to avail of various services from drone companies. This removes the need for them to invest their own money in drone hardware and software, pilots, and pilot training programmes. For example, a mining company wants to conduct a mapping and surveying operation. Using drones in this case would be very convenient and helpful. But, for this, the company will have to buy the associated hardware and hire or even train the pilots needed. And this would involve considerable costs. Here drone-as-a-service facility comes into play. The miner can go to a drone company, which already has the hardware, software and human resources at hand. This drone company will then use its resources to conduct the mapping and surveying operation, in the form of services rendered, for the miner. According to the...

   Even though it has been over half a year since their initial launch, the  Google Pixel  6 duo still do not have the Face Unlock feature. As per rumours, Google wanted to implement facial recognition in its phones but missed the deadline and ultimately shipped its flagship phones without the feature. According to GSM Arena, there might still be some hope though as new evidence suggests that Google might still push Face Unlock for Pixel 6 phones as a future software update but there's no release timeframe for now. There's also the possibility that Google is working on bringing facial recognition to a future Pixel phone and is testing out the feature on a Pixel 6 device. Based on previous evidence, Face Unlock on Pixel 6 was using up too much power during the facial recognition stage which is one of the main reasons Google decided to skip the feature altogether. Read Complete Article

   Jeep  India, a part of the automotive group Stellantis, on Tuesday introduced its new  SUV  Meridian and the deliveries will begin in June 2022. The Meridian is the company's first three-row  SUV  designed and engineered specifically for India. It will come with a 2-litre turbo diesel engine with nine speed automatic and six speed manual transmission options, the company said. The model is among the three new products along with Grand Cherokee and Compass Trailhawk that are being launched in India this year. The company had launched the Compass Trailhawk in February at an introductory price of Rs 30.72 lakh (ex-showroom). Stellantis India CEO & Managing Director Roland Bouchara said all these will be produced from the company's Ranjangaon plant in Maharashtra and shows the company's commitment to the Indian market. In a virtual conference, he said in the last two years the company has invested USD 250 million on the development of five products,...

  Meta-owned photo-sharing platform  Instagram  has announced that it is testing a new feature that will make it easier for users to discover and support social causes directly through hashtags. The company said it is testing a new feature to help people discover social movements happening in the world and on Instagram, as well as ways to take action. "We are rolling this out first to a handful of hashtags that are focused on popular and long-standing movements on  Instagram  and in the world, like #BlackLivesMatter, #womensrights and #climatecrisis," the company said in a blogpost. "We are making it easier to raise awareness of these causes by sharing the hashtag page via DM or creating a fundraiser," it added. With this new feature, users will be able to support, fundraise and spread the word about the social causes centered directly through hashtags. "Hashtags have long been a place where people discover new causes to support on Instagram, and now when you s...

   Meta-owned encrypted messaging service  WhatsApp  is reportedly working on a new feature that will allow users to share bigger-sized files and media with others over their platform. According to a WABetaInfo report,  WhatsApp  will soon start testing the "Media File Size" feature in Argentina which will allow users to share media files up to 2GB in size. The feature will initially be limited to Beta testers in Argentina. As for the feature, it will soon be available on both Android and iOS devices of Beta testers in Argentina. For those who are unaware, currently it is only possible to share files up to 100MB due. WhatsApp  recently started rolling out the much-awaited multi-device support for all users. Till now, the feature has been available to users under WhatsApp's opt-in beta testing programme. Now, according to WABetainfo, the update will roll out to iOS users this month, followed by an Android release next month. With the new update, your pr...

   Samsung  on Tuesday announced the addition of five new models Galaxy A13, A23, A33 5G, A53 5G, A73  5G  to its Galaxy A series portfolio in India. The new Galaxy A53 5G, Galaxy A33 5G, Galaxy A23 and Galaxy A13 will be available in four awesome colours - peach, blue, black and white. Galaxy A53  5G  is priced at Rs 34,499 for 6GB+128GB and Rs 35,999 for 8GB+128GB variant. Galaxy A23 will be available at Rs 19,499 for 6GB+128GB and Rs 20,999 for 8GB+128GB variant. Meanwhile, Galaxy A13 is priced at Rs 14,999 for 4GB+64GB, Rs 15,999 for 4GB+128GB and Rs 17,499 for 6GB+64GB variant. "At Samsung, we believe in openness with the Galaxy experience powering endless possibilities. The Galaxy A series epitomises that belief by making flagship-like features accessible at an affordable price point. The five new models we are launching are curated to inspire consumers with style, power and versatility," Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, Mobile Business, ...

   India on Sunday successfully test-fired two Indian Army-version Medium Range Surface to Air Missiles (MRSAMs) from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in  Odisha . The flight tests were carried out as part of live-firing trials against high-speed aerial targets, sources in the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) said, adding that the missiles intercepted the targets and destroyed those completely, registering direct hits at both the ranges. The first missile hit a medium-altitude long-range target and the second a low-altitude short-range one. This MRSAM version is a Surface-to-Air Missile developed jointly by DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) for use by the Indian Army. The MRSAM Army weapon system comprises multi-function radar, mobile launcher system and other vehicles. The flight tests were carried out with the weapon system in deliverable configuration. The performance of the weapon system was validated through the flight data captured by ...

   Friday, March 26 will go down as a black day in the history of the e- two wheeler  industry. In a span of 24 hours, two electric scooter models went up in flames. While such incidents of e-two wheelers bursting into flames, have been on a rise with increasing sales, it’s the first one that has claimed two lives. Including the recent ones, over half a dozen cases of e-two wheelers catching fire has been reported in less than a year. Experts are of the view that given the novelty of the technology and an under developed testing system the government should introduce a mandatory recall policy for EVs. “It’s a new technology, therefore, the ecosystem for a rigorous testing and validation of the vehicles and its parts and aggregates have yet to fully mature and develop, " said Balraj Bhanot, former Director ARAI, automobile homologation expert and former chairman –central motor vehicle regulations (CMVR) committee. “There’s a need for a mandatory recall till the technology ...

    TRAI  has released a discussion paper on rating of buildings or areas for  digital connectivity  as the  telecom  regulator took note of "huge gaps" in meeting quality demands of users inside and across complexes. The consultation paper proposes value addition to the buildings or areas by introducing  digital connectivity  infrastructure evaluations and award ratings in terms of points or stars, based on the quality of experience assessed in a scientific way involving a combination of field measurements, users' experience of  digital connectivity  provided in their buildings or premises, the regulator said. TRAI  has released a consultation paper on "rating of buildings or areas for digital connectivity", the regulator said in a statement. The paper also provides details on the provisions in various laws and guidelines for the development of  telecom  infrastructure in an area or building, and suggests measures to...

   Google  has started asking users on Windows, macOS, and Linux to update Chrome builds to version 99.0.4844.84, after finding a new vulnerability. The company has highlighted that the exploit is being utilised in the wild and  Google  is aware of it. "We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third-party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven't yet fixed," the firm said in a statement. The update is available for Chrome via version 99.0.4844.84 on Windows, Mac, and Linux. One can head over to the three-dot button on the top-right of Chrome and navigate to Help > About  Google  Chrome to trigger the update. "We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel," the company noted. Meanwhile, Microsoft issued its own notice saying the issue was fixed in Edge version 99.0.1150.55 released the same day. In i...

   Delhi Capitals  were forced to change their captain at the start of the last season and that change then meant that they went on with  Rishabh Pant  in place of Shreyas Iyer even when he returned back from injury fully fit and fine for the second leg of IPL 2021 in UAE. This meant that Iyer changed his routes and moved eastwards to Kolkata Knight Riders. Now,  Rishabh Pant  who is going through a purple patch has the responsibility of turning the fortunes of the team from the Capital. Having made three playoffs back to back since 2019, it is now time that Delhi has its own IPL champions and who better than a man from Delhi itself-  Rishabh Pant  to bring it home. But before that happens the team need to play 14 league games, starting from the first one against Mumbai Indians on March 27 at the Brabourne-CCI in Mumbai. IPL 2022 DC Squad Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Prithvi Shaw, Anrich Nortje, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Shardul Thakur, Must...

   Tech giant  Apple  intends to use the world's first low-carbon aluminium in iPhone SE, the company announced on Thursday. With the help of $4.7 billion investments in green bonds,  Apple  could jump-start the development of new low-carbon manufacturing and recycling technologies, the company said in a statement. Since 2016,  Apple  has issued three Green Bonds aimed to accelerate progress toward the company's goal to become carbon neutral across its supply chain by 2030. As part of this work, Apple announced it is purchasing direct carbon-free aluminium from Canada-based ELYSIS - the company behind the world's first direct carbon-free aluminium smelting process. The aluminium is the first to be manufactured at industrial scale outside of a laboratory without creating any direct carbon emissions during the smelting process. The breakthrough technology produces oxygen instead of greenhouse gases, and the achievement marks a major milestone in the...

   Meta Platforms Inc will make it easier for brands to run three-dimensional ads on its  Facebook  and  Instagram  social media platforms through a new partnership with an ecommerce technology firm. The integration with VNTANA will allow brands to upload the  3D  models of their products to  Facebook  and  Instagram  and easily convert them into ads, VNTANA said on Thursday in a press release. The move is a stepping stone into advertising in the metaverse, said VNTANA Chief Executive Ashley Crowder, referring to the futuristic idea of a collection of virtual worlds that can be accessed through devices such as headsets. Meta has staked its future on contributing to the building of the metaverse, which it has said could take up to a decade to be realized. Meta previously partnered with augmented reality (AR) companies Modiface and PerfectCorp to help beauty and cosmetic brands more easily run  3D  and AR advertising. "...

   Edtech giant Byju’s has been announced as an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Through this partnership, Bengaluru-based Byju’s will leverage its rights to the  FIFA World Cup 2022  marks, emblem, and assets, and run unique promotions to connect with passionate football fans around the world. It will also create engaging and creative content with educational messages as part of a multifaceted activation plan. “FIFA is dedicated to harnessing the power of football towards the goal of enacting positive societal change. We’re delighted to be partnered with a company like Byju’s, which is also engaging communities and empowering young people wherever they may be in the world,” said Kay Madati, FIFA’s Chief Commercial Officer. “We look forward to supporting the promotion of Byju’s educational learning opportunities, as well as having them join the global drumbeat of excitement for the  FIFA World Cup 2022  through its association with this gr...