Category: Tech

India’s Silicon Valley will soon be the first in India to offer robotic assistance to passengers. Named Kempa, the humanoid robot was created by local start-up Sirena Technologies. The project is in its final phase, and is likely to be installed at Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport as soon as Minister of State of Innovation and Technology Priyank Kharge gives his approval. Kempa will assist the passengers if they need help with check-in or navigating the airport, tips on what to see and do in Karnataka or even just an entertaining conversation to kill time until your flight. The robot—currently being tested—will be ... Read more

Etihad Airways has begun a month-long trial to test the SkyLights Aero Virtual Reality (VR) entertainment technology in order to gather customer feedback before introducing the offering at the Midfield Terminal in Abu Dhabi International Airport. The trial takes place at its First Class Lounge and Spa and Business Class Premium Lounge. “By conducting trials such as this, we already understand that modern travellers expect more information and seek increasingly connected and immersive experiences which engage and entertain them on every level. Gone are the days when a premium lounge experience just meant comfortable design, luxurious amenities and fine dining,” ... Read more

Amazon.com Inc may submit an offer to buy Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart, which is currently in talks with Walmart Inc for a stake sale. The deal with Walmart is more likely to go through, according reports to Mint. Walmart is in talks to buy a stake of over 55 per cent in Flipkart, which a direct challenge to Amazon in Asia’s third-largest economy. It is planning to buy Flipkart through through a mix of primary and secondary share purchases in a deal that could value Flipkart at $21 billion. Amazon is the largest Internet retailer in the world as measured by ... Read more

The Iranian government is planning to permanently block the messaging app Telegram over national security concerns and replace it with its own messaging app. According to Iranian press agency MNA, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of Iran’s Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, announced the ban during a radio interview. Boroujerdi said the decision to block Telegram was “made at the highest levels of government”. Boroujerdi also informed that the government would release its own messaging app later this month, citing “national security” as the reason the messaging service will no longer be accessible. He also said he hopes Iranian-made messaging apps like ... Read more

WhatsApp, which has 1.5 billion monthly active users who are exchanging nearly 60 billion messages on a single day, has launched a new feature in a Beta update that will soon enable iOS, Android and Windows Phone users migrate their data to a new number without much hassle. The new ‘Change Number’ feature update is currently available in the 2.18.97 Android beta update on Google Play Store. It will come in iOS and Windows devices later. “You will be able to choose specific contacts to notify, and the chat history will be moved in the new chat on the recipients’ ... Read more

GoPro, Inc. has added a new HERO camera to the family. On sale now, HERO is a $199, go-anywhere, capture-anything camera that makes it easy to share experiences that would be difficult to capture with a phone. HERO features a 2-inch touch display, is waterproof to 30 feet and is extremely durable, making it the perfect GoPro for kids, adventurous social sharers and travellers. “HERO is a great first GoPro for people looking to share experiences beyond what a phone can capture. HERO makes it easy to share ‘wow’ moments at a price that’s perfect for first-time users,” said Meghan ... Read more

Emirates is providing an immersive cinematic experience in its lounges in Dubai International Airport by providing Skylights theatre headsets to customers. The headsets are being trialled in the Business Class lounge in Concourse B for the month of April and in the First Class lounge in concourse B in May. Offering a fixed-screen with a wide-angle field of view for 3D and 2D content, each Skylight theatre headset weighs only 120g and offers a Full HD viewing experience. Its in-built sound and video allow customers to fully immerse themselves in what they are watching. A mix of content will be ... Read more

Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has warned Facebook that if found that the social media giant is involved in any data breach of Indians, the government will take strict action against them including the summoning of Mark Zuckerberg to India. “If Facebook is found to be involved in data breach of Indians, we will take very strict action against them including the summoning of Mark Zuckerberg to India,” said the minister. “Today, 20 crore Indians are on Facebook. If the data of the Indians is shared through facebook, we have the stringent IT Act. We can even summon Facebook officials ... Read more

American multinational technology company IBM (International Business Machines Corporation), has unveiled world’s smallest computer at IBM Think 2018 (annual conference), that measures (1mm*1mm) less than the size of a salt grain. The ideal model comes with nearly 1 lakh transistors, memory, and a photovoltaic power supply which is barely visible to human eyes. Besides all the prototype cost around just 10 cents to manufacture, according to IBM. The Chip is powerful enough and the main goal behind the invention is to make tags and digital watermark (cryptographic anchors) on supply chains and logistics, that can put an end to supplying counterfeit ... Read more

Emotiv has displayed their new technology of mind-controlled drones at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai. The new lightweight plastic headset can read the electrical impulses from the brain though the scalp, record them on a computer and configure the thought patterns into instructions for a small drone. It is now possible to activate a drone and send it flying through the air just by using brainwaves alone. “What is more important than the hardware is the fact that we have this community of people that are sending us the data, and that we’ve got the data scientists and ... Read more

Mobycy, India’s first dock-less bicycle sharing technology, launched 200 cycles in Pune. Tagged as ‘Pollution ka Solution’ it is the cheapest form of transportation, besides auto and cabs, and is healthy as well as eco-friendly. The bicycles are available exclusively via Mobycy App on a rent basis. Bicycles are located in various locations across Pune – EON, WTC IT Park, Symbiosis Campuses in Viman Nagar, and in Airport area. “I always wanted to launch cycles in Pune, owing to the number of students and young working professionals the city. We have deployed our smart bikes at various strategic locations, providing everyday ... Read more

Ahead of the Gudi Padva, the traditional new year of Marathi Hindus, Apple authorised sellers have come upon with an incredible cashback offer worth Rs 10,000. The offer is a joint partnership between Apple India and ICICI Bank. On iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus, the offer comes with Rs 8,000 cashback, exclusively from ICICI Bank Credit Card EMI transactions, followed by iPhone 7 and iPhone Plus with a cashback of Rs 4,000. Meanwhile, the new offer is limited to purchases that are paid via EMI schemes from ICICI Bank Credit Cards. And hence, it is also noted that for a ... Read more

All-time favourite messaging service of Indians, WhatsApp has rolled out some new features for the users. WhatsApp currently has a daily active user base of about 1.3 billion users globally that makes them unique among other similar messaging services. A new Group description feature has been added by WhatsApp, with their latest update for Android as well as iOS users. Previously, this feature was exclusively available for the WhatsApp beta test visions. The add description option comes inside the Group info selection, from where anyone can edit the info within 512 letters. The text is further visible to all group members. ... Read more

Hewlett-Packard (HP), the pioneers in computer hardware and software have launched ‘Omen X portfolio’, a series of high-end gaming products in India. The main components of the kit include an Omen X Compact Desktop, Omen X laptops and a Virtual Reality Backpack. The configuration of Omen X compact desktop features an overclocked high-end NVIDIA GeForce GTX1080 graphics card for a seamless 4k gaming experience, powered by a Core i7 processor from Intel. On the other hand, the Omen X laptops come with a best in class features, exclusively made for gaming on the move. The Intel i7 paired with a ... Read more

India has over 100 million internet users on a daily basis, within their various gadgets, making India as the world’s third largest internet users globally. The data have been published by Ookla, a Seattle-based internet speed analyst in terms of fastest broadband among Indian states. Chennai tops the list with a fixed broadband speed, which marks a download speed of 32.67 Mbps and 26.15 upload speed, with Bengaluru in the second place with 31.09 downloads and 27.20 upload speed. Meanwhile, northeast marks the slowest internet speed of 3.62 Mbps download speed making it 82 per cent slower than rest of ... Read more