New Delhi, August 13 (IANS) A number of Indian startups in the field of social media that came into prominence following the ban on TikTok and Helo, along with other Chinese apps in June, confirmed on Thursday that they are attracting talent from these companies as they face uncertainty over their India operations in the long run. Chinese unicorn ByteDance, which owns TikTok and Helo, has nearly 2,000 employees in India. "We've got various interests from the employees of

San Francisco, August 12 (IANS): TikTok secretly collected device data for months via its Android app using a technique that Google prohibits developers from using without consent of users, The Wall Street Journal reported. Although the practice came to an end in November, the finding could add to the woes of the short video-sharing platform which is facing threat of a ban in the US over its data protection practices. TikTok's Android app tracked MAC (media access control) ad

New Delhi, August 12 (IANS): During the lockdown amid Covid-19, 58 per cent of consumers in the Asia Pacific region increased their online shopping frequency, according to an Adobe survey released on Wednesday. The research showed that three quarters of the consumers cited an intention to change their future shopping habits -- with Indian and Singaporean consumers reporting the strongest intention. With respect to categories, consumers reported an increase in purchase frequency f

OAKLAND, Calif., August 11 (Reuters): Alphabet Inc's Google's Android phones on Tuesday started detecting earthquakes around the world to provide data that could eventually give billions of users precious seconds of warning of a tremor nearby, with an alerting feature first rolling out in California. Japan, Mexico and California already use land-based sensors to generate warnings, aiming to cut injuries and property damage by giving people further away from the epicente

Beijing, August 11 (IANS): US President Donald Trumps executive order to ban the popular messaging app WeChat from the Apple App Store could lead to 25-30 per cent drop in iPhone shipments in the Chinese market, famed analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has predicted. The Apple analyst also estimated that the annual shipments of other Apple hardware devices, including AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch and Mac, will be revised down by 15–25 percent, reports MacRumors. "Because WeChat has bec

San Francisco, August 11 (IANS): Microsoft is testing Project xCloud game streaming service for some time and the company has now announced to launch a new version of the Xbox Game Pass beta app for Android. The game streaming feature, known previously as xCloud, will be officially available on September 15 and on September 11, the currently free-to-play xCloud beta will be discontinued and replaced by the version included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, reports The Verge. "As w

New Delhi, August 10 (IANS): The organisations that have deployed Artificial Intelligence (AI) with skilling initiatives in India are generating most value from this new-age technology, and senior executives predict that half of all employees will be equipped with AI skills in the next 6-10 years, a new Microsoft survey said on Monday. In India, all AI-leading companies said they are actively building skills of their workers, or have plans to do so, while over 93 per cent of senior

San Francisco, August 8 (IANS) As Google and Cloud major Oracle look forward to the US Supreme Court hearing on October 7 into a decade-long copyright legal battle, the search engine giant has filed a supplemental brief to augment its position, saying a decision in Oracle's favour would limit consumers' freedom to use technologies on a range of devices. The supplemental brief was filed this week in a long-standing case where Oracle has blamed Google for "copyright infri

Washington, August 7 (IANS) As scientists search for signs of life on planets outside our solar system, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have detected Earth's own brand of sunscreen, ozone, in our atmosphere by taking advantage of a total lunar eclipse. This method simulates how astronomers and astrobiology researchers will search for evidence of life beyond Earth by observing potential "biosignatures" on exoplanets. "One of NASA's major

New Delhi, August 6 (IANS) Microsoft on Thursday announced the general availability of its Power Platform Return to the Workplace solution in India to help organisations prepare for the return to work. Returning to the workplace will be a phased process and it will be vital for organisations to be equipped to give their leaders and employees timely and accurate information. Designed for fast deployment and customisation, the ‘Power Platform Return to the Workplace' solu

SINGAPORE, August 4 (Reuters): Singapore researchers have developed "electronic skin" capable of recreating a sense of touch, an innovation they hope will allow people with prosthetic limbs to detect objects, as well as feel texture, or even temperature and pain. The device, dubbed ACES, or Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin, is made up of 100 small sensors and is about 1 sq cm (0.16 square inch) in size. The researchers at the National University of Singapore say

San Francisco, August 4 (IANS) The revamped Microsoft Edge has surpassed Firefox to take the second position in the browser market globally, according to latest data from NetMarketShare. With over 71 per cent share, Google Chrome dominated the browser market in July, the data showed. The Chromium-based Edge browser grabbed 8.09 per cent market share, slightly ahead of 7.36 per cent share of Firefox in July. For years, Firefox had been the top Google Chrome alternative but now,

San Francisco, August 3 (IANS) Twitter has started working towards its paid subscription service that will provide users options like "Undo Send" button (like an edit button) and ability to tweet longer and high-quality videos, among other features. The micro-blogging platform hinted last month it is planning a paid subscription platform that can be reused by other teams in the future. Twitter is building a subscription platform with a team codenamed "Gryphon".

Washington, Aug 1 (IANS) The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft that carried two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station two months ago was set to depart the orbiting laboratory on Saturday. "SpaceX and @NASA are targeting 7:34 p.m. EDT on Saturday, August 1 for Crew Dragon and the two astronauts to depart the orbiting laboratory and return to Earth," SpaceX said in a tweet. After receiving a weather briefing from the US Air Force 45th Weather Squadron on Friday e

San Francisco, July 31 (IANS) Facing ad boycott from more than 400 advertisers, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg has said that the company is working to remove hate speech on the platform not for financial reasons or advertiser pressure, because it is the right thing to do. Her comments during an earnings call with investors on Thursday as the company discussed its second quarter results came after advertisers responded to an ad boycott call by civil rights organisat

Washington, July 30 (Reuters): NASA's next-generation Mars rover Perseverance blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Thursday atop an Atlas 5 rocket on a $2.4 billion mission to search for traces of potential past life on Earth's planetary neighbor. The next-generation robotic rover - a car-sized six-wheeled scientific vehicle - also is scheduled to deploy a mini helicopter on Mars and try out equipment for future human missions to the fourth planet from the s

New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) As part of its commitment to expand and innovate further in India, US-based video meet app Zoom is fast recruiting DevOps engineers, IT, security and business operations personnel in the country. Zoom, which has an office in Mumbai and data centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad, recently announced to open a technology centre in Bengaluru. "We are excited to hire key talent. Employees will work from home until it is safe to move into the new facility,"

Washington, July 30 (Reuters): NASA's next-generation Mars rover Perseverance is set for liftoff from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Thursday on a mission to search for traces of potential past life on Earth's planetary neighbor. The U.S. space agency's $2.4 billion mission is scheduled for launch at 7:50 a.m. ET (1150 GMT) and is expected to reach Mars next February. The car-sized six-wheeled robotic rover, which will launch atop an Atlas 5 rocket from the Boeing-Lo

WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters): Scientists have succeeded in reviving microbes retrieved from sediment deep under the seafloor in the heart of the South Pacific that had survived in a dormant state for 101.5 million years in research illustrating the resiliency of life on Earth. The microbes, spanning 10 major and numerous minor groups of bacteria, may be the planet's oldest-known organisms. The scientists said on Tuesday the microbes were present in clay samples drilled fro

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) Hackers have created a specialised economy around email account takeover via methods like brand impersonation, social engineering and spear-phishing, retaining the data for long period of time to make more money by reselling it to another set of cybercriminals on the Dark Web, a new report revealed on Monday. More than one-third of the hijacked accounts analysed by researchers at Barracuda, a leading provider of cloud-enabled security and data protection so