Global Technology News Updates

OPPO Reno3 Pro goes on Sale Today

OPPO has launched the OPPO Reno3 Pro phone featuring the the world's first 44MP Dual Punch Hole camera. With the camera's Dual Lens Bokeh and Ultra Night Mode, the phone lets you click brilliant photos and videos all day, just as brand icon Ranbir Kapoor knows how to shine in the spotlight during the day or night.
read more at Flipkart.com

OnePlus launches doorstep repair services for customers across 6 cities

OnePlus has launched doorstep repair service for customers in the country. It has introduced direct to home repair services, including both hardware & software service resolutions, in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai & Pune. "The new doorstep service initiative brings to life our commitment to ensure a premium, burdenless experience for our community across all areas," OnePlus said.
read more at OnePlus Community

Facebook employee in US tests positive for coronavirus

Facebook has said that a Seattle worker has been diagnosed with coronavirus, the first known infection within the company. The employee, a contractor, was last in Facebook's Stadium East office in Seattle, US on February 21. Facebook alerted its employees on Wednesday night and said the Seattle office will be closed to all employees until March 9.
read more at Hindustan Times

Bill, Melinda Gates fund study of medicinal molecules to find coronavirus cure

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has paid for 15,000 medicinal molecules to be shipped to a Belgium laboratory to be tested as a potential coronavirus cure. The molecules from California's Scripps Research Institute will be shipped to the Rega Institute for Medical Research in Leuven. The results are expected within a fortnight of the shipment arriving in Belgium.
read more at The Guardian

Coronavirus can survive on phone screens for up to a week, warn scientists

Coronavirus can survive on phone screens for up to a week, scientists have warned. They said alcohol wipes should be used twice a day to disinfect phones. Professor Keevil from the University of Southampton said, "You could be washing hands, but if you start touching your smartphone screen and then touch your face, that is a potential route of infection."
read more at Daily Mail

What is 'mac-binding', the condition specified for using the internet in J&K?

Social media use was allowed in J&K after seven months with 'mac-binding' condition. Every device has Media Access Control (MAC) address, a unique hardware identification number, and gets assigned IP address on accessing internet. Mac-binding means binding together MAC and IP addresses so all requests from that IP address are served only by the device with that particular MAC address.

Ex-Waymo engineer ordered to pay Google $179M for leaking secrets to Uber

Google has won $179 million in a case against Anthony Levandowski, a former engineer who worked with Google's self-driving car unit Waymo, and later joined Uber. Levandowski is charged with stealing Google's self-driving car secrets and leaking it to Uber. He is accused of downloading around 14,000 files from his company-issued computer containing Waymo's trade secrets.
read more at Hindustan Times

Zoho asks all 7,000 employees in 9 countries to work from home

Chennai-headquartered cloud services firm Zoho has asked all its 7,000 employees worldwide to work from home as a coronavirus precaution. Zoho has offices in 9 countries including Japan and Singapore and Australia. "Our employees are encouraged to come to the office only when absolutely essential. We'll continue this policy until the virus threat passes," Founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu said.
read more at Twitter

Owner of Gurugram scam call centre that cheated 40,000 in 12 countries arrested

Amit Chauhan, the 30-year-old owner of a Gurugram scam call centre that cheated 40,000 people in the UK, US and other countries, was arrested with an associate on Tuesday. He's a dropout from a Kurukshetra engineering college. His team displayed fake virus alerts on people's computers and demanded money to 'fix' their systems by pretending to be Microsoft's technical experts.
read more at Hindustan Times

India may airlift components from China to help tech industry: Report

India is planning to airlift components from China to help the electronics sector amid coronavirus outbreak which has impacted Chinese supplies, a report said. The government asked the industry to make a list of components made in China that can be airlifted. India's imports of Chinese goods fell to lowest levels in nearly four years in February, government data showed.
read more at Reuters

#RIPTwitter trends on Twitter after company tests 'Fleets', users post memes

After Twitter announced that it is testing 'Fleets', similar to vanishing posts on Snapchat that disappear after 24 hours, users started posting memes using #RIPTwitter. A user tweeted, "So Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram are pretty much the same thing now." "We don't need Twitter stories, we need an edit tweet button," another user wrote.
read more at RT

TikTok seeks dismissal of PIL asking its ban in India over harmful content

TikTok has sought dismissal of a plea seeking to ban the platform in India. Senior counsel Milind Sathe, appearing for TikTok, argued that any person having any grievance regarding online content can approach the nodal officer under the Information Technology Act and seek its removal. The petition had claimed that TikTok had resulted in several criminal offences and deaths.
read more at Hindustan Times

Waymo unveils self-driving system that can identify signs 500m away

Google's self-driving car unit Waymo unveiled its fifth-generation self-driving system that can identify pedestrians and stop signs greater than "500 meters" away. Waymo claims that the new tech can help vehicles "peek" around blind spots and more. The system includes a rooftop "360 Lidar," which provides a bird's-eye view of the vehicle and objects around it.
read more at Engadget

NPCI to double UPI transaction limit to ₹2 lakh for some payments

The National Payments Corporation of India will double transaction limit for UPI payments at stores run by "verified merchants" to ₹2 lakh starting next fiscal year. In a circular to banks in UPI network, NPCI notified the increased limit would be applicable for other high-ticket transactions like bill collections. However, the limit would not apply for peer to peer transfers.
read more at Entrackrs

Twitter tests 'Fleets', tweets similar to Stories that vanish after a day

Twitter is testing tweets called 'Fleets' that disappear after 24 hours, a feature similar to Stories on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. Fleets can be viewed by tapping on users' profile pictures but won't receive likes, replies or retweets. Twitter's product lead said while there are many similarities between Fleets and Stories, there are also "a few intentional differences".
read more at TechCrunch

Scientists create bendable concrete that could better withstand earthquakes

Scientists at the Swinburne University of Technology developed a bendable, cement-free concrete that could withstand natural disasters like earthquakes better. The concrete is largely produced from waste materials such as fly ash, a byproduct of coal power. It uses "about 36% less energy" while emitting "up to 76% less carbon dioxide" than conventional bendable concrete, a researcher said.
read more at Engadget

Facebook reveals AI tool it used to ban 6.6 bn fake accounts

Facebook revealed the tool that helped it eliminate 6.6 billion fake accounts. The artificial intelligence-powered method called Deep Entity Classification reduced estimated volume of spam accounts by 27%, Facebook said. The tool looks at thousands of features including the number of friend requests an account has sent and the groups or pages it has joined or followed.
read more at Engadget

All NASA employees asked to work from home: Report

All NASA employees and a number of Air Force personnel have been asked to work from home on Friday, a report said. It will allow employees to test remote work technologies in case employees would need to work from home for an extended period due to coronavirus. A former NASA employee called it a chance to "stress test the system".
read more at The Guardian