PAKISTAN NEWS:
Cheaper Tesla ready ‘in about three years’:
Tesla founder Elon Musk has announced technology that he says will make Tesla batteries cheaper and more powerful. At a live presentation that Mr Musk labelled ‘Battery Day’ he also teased the possibility of a $25,000 (£19,600), fully-autonomous Tesla “in about three years time”.”This has always been our dream to make an affordable electric car,” he said. But the news didn’t excite investors and $50 billion was wiped off its stock market value. The main announcement was Tesla’s new larger cylindrical cells. It was claimed the new batteries will provide five times more energy, six times more power and 16% greater driving range. But the technology announced is likely to take years to implement. Tesla’s approach includes integrating the battery so that it forms part of the structure of the vehicle, thereby reducing the effective weight of the battery.
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OPPO launches Enco W51 earbuds with active noise cancellation and wireless charging:
Smartphone and gadgets maker Oppo has launched its first active noise-canceling, truly wireless stereo (TWS) earphones OppoEnco W51.These smart earbuds are targeted specifically at the daily commuter market and are also equipped to perform well in any travel situation or environment. The earphones are available for PKR 17,999. The OppoEnco W51 earphones provide noise reduction for both calls and music. The wireless experience is achieved by coordinating 6 microphones with a deep noise reduction algorithm. These are intelligently optimized to detect and reduce everyday noises allowing users to get an undisturbed listening experience.
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Arabic and Turkish twitter accounts of Imran Khan launched:
Prime Minister Office (PMO) has launched two new Twitter accounts of Prime Minister Imran Khan in Arabic and Turkish languages in an attempt to disseminate the premier’s important messages to a wider audience.According to details, the Arabic account was made in May 2020 while the Turkish one was made in November 2018. Both these accounts have important speeches and interviews of PM Imran with Arabic and Turkish subtitles.PMO has announced the creation of these new accounts before PM Imran Khan’s speech scheduled this month at the 75th virtual session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
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Amazon takes on playstation & xbox with new gaming service & upgraded fire tv sticks:
Amazon has announced a Google Stadia-inspired streaming service under the moniker ‘Luna’ for Fire TV, desktop, and mobile platforms. The platform allows users to play games over the internet without having to download them.The service works by offering plenty of different channels users can subscribe to for monthly payment. Each channel comes with a set of games that, once subscribed, can be played. For example, the Luna+ channel, that is currently being offered for $6 a month, comes with a plethora of games.
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Google maps is rolling out a covid-19 layer for safe traveling:
Since February this year, the coronavirus pandemic has created a rift in our daily lives. Everything from schools, industries, work-life, and traveling has been majorly affected. Even though, since the past month, things have started going back to normal the pandemic is far from over. Thus, authorities are advising individuals to maintain social distancing to avoid exposure. Keeping this in mind, Google Maps is introducing a new layer for Maps on mobile devices that will give essential information about the rate of infections.
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Careem makes a permanent shift to ‘remote-first’:
Careem, the Super App for the greater Middle East and Pakistan, is now a Remote-First company. Careem employees in 36 offices have the freedom to work from a remote location. The company’s physical offices will remain open and are being re-designed into spaces that facilitate collaboration and team building while also providing flexible workspaces for individual employees. Careem anticipates that permanent remote working will increase productivity, reduce costs, and lead to an even stronger value proposition for talent. In the recent work-from-home arrangements, colleagues reported higher productivity and stronger relationships with peers in other countries leading to a strong business recovery in the last two quarters.
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VIVO 20 SE available with all the goodies of premium variants:
A few days back, the Chinese smartphone maker Vivo launched its premium mid-range series, the Vivo 20, with two new smartphones. Taking after larger smartphone makers, the company has now unveiled a toned-down and budget-friendly model for the series dubbed Vivo 20 SE. As compared to its siblings, the V20 SE comes with a different design. It features a rectangular camera bump on a glossy back with Vivo’s typical paint job that mimics the rays of light. It is built around a 6.44-inch AMOLED panel with 1080p resolution, a waterdrop notch, and an in-display fingerprint sensor.
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OPPO is launching a smart tv in October:
At the OPPO INNO Day conference held in December 2019, the Chinese smartphone maker Oppo announced its plans of building a smart product ecosystem of its own. Since then, the company has been working on launching multiple smart products but is mainly focusing on Smart TVs for now. In January this year, rumors about an Oppo Smart TV surfaced on the internet, with more leaks surfacing over the next few months. The company has teased its Smart TV a couple of times now and the Oppo TV and remote control received 3C and Bluetooth SIG certifications earlier this month. Now, at the OPPO Developer Conference today, Oppo has announced that it is ready to launch its Smart TV in October this year. According to reports, the Oppo Smart TV is being manufactured by TPV Display Technology (Xiamen) Co. Ltd.
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Zoom gets virtual backgrounds on android:
Video conferencing platform Zoom has been constantly adding to its list of features and improvements ever since it started booming amid the pandemic. Since a large number of people is working from home these days, the ability to add virtual backgrounds has become a preferred choice of features and the video calling app is now adding support for just that. Previously, this feature was limited to calls taken from the system, but now Zoom is adding support to the Android app as well, meaning that people on phones should be able to use the feature soon. However, you can only add still images and videos are not allowed, for now at least.
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OPPO Watch Ecg offered with up to 21 days of battery life:
Oppo is aiming to compete against its biggest rivals in another line of products by finally entering the smartwatch market. Just like the competition, the new Oppo Watch comes in stainless steel and aluminum options and has a plethora of features to choose from. Design-wise, it is yet another replica of the Apple Watch with a square-shaped 1.91-inch AMOLED display with tiny bezels around the corners. The dial has a 316L stainless steel chassis and a ceramic/sapphire back for durability.The right side of the dial has navigation and function keys and the straps are made out of rubber. It offers 5 ATM water-resistance.
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
Amazon unveils flying ring security drone and luna games service:
Amazon’s smart home security division Ring has unveiled a flying camera that launches if sensors detect a potential home break-in. It is designed to activate only when residents are out, works indoors, and is limited to one floor of a building.The firm also unveiled an online games-streaming service and a voice-activated screen that swivels about. But one campaign group described the drone camera as Amazon’s “most chilling home surveillance product” yet. “It’s difficult to imagine why Amazon thinks anyone wants flying internet cameras linked up to a data-gathering company in the privacy of their own home,” said Silkie Carlo from Big Brother Watch.” It’s important to acknowledge the influence that Amazon’s product development is having on communities and the growing surveillance market.”
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Google removes Uluru virtual walk from street view:
Google has removed images on Street View that allowed people to virtually walk to the summit of Uluru, in Australia’s Northern Territory. Parks Australia had requested user-generated images from the sacred site be immediately removed. And Google said it had removed them as soon as it had been alerted. Uluru was closed to visitors a year ago at the request of the indigenous Anangu people, to whom the Australian government returned ownership in 1985. Once better-known internationally as Ayers Rock, it is linked to many traditional stories of the Anangu.
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Teaching offshore robots to speak our language:
A team of researchers led from Edinburgh have unveiled a new system that allows humans and robots to speak the same language. The system is called MIRIAM – Multimodal Intelligent inteRactIon for Autonomous systems. It allows users to ask robots questions and understand their actions in real time. The researchers have been working from the Offshore Robotics for the Certification of Assets (ORCA) Hub, a consortium led by Heriot-Watt and Edinburgh universities.
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Apple app store faces coalition of unhappy developers:
Several major developers have formed a coalition to fight Apple over its app store policies. The Coalition for App Fairness counts Spotify, Epic Games and Tinder owner Match Group among its founding members. It claims Apple “taxes consumers and crushes innovation”, criticising what it calls anti-competitive policies. Apple, which is embroiled in legal action with some of the members, has long denied these accusations. Google, which runs the Play app store on Android, is not mentioned in the group’s launch statement but is named elsewhere on its website, and accused of similar policies.
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PTCL with Huawei deploys first XGS-PON and QuickODN:
Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL), in collaboration with Huawei, deploys first 10-Gigabit-capable Symmetric Passive Optical Access Network (XGS-PON) in Pakistan, becoming the first operator in South Asia and the Middle East to introduce Quick Optical Distribution Network (QuickODN) in their network. PTCL, in collaboration with Huawei, has successfully conducted the pilot project of XGS-PON Technology in Korang Town, Islamabad. XGS-PON can provide symmetric bandwidth of 10Gbps downlink and 10Gbps uplink speeds to a single customer, which is more than five times the speeds provided by 5G technology.
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‘Survival is the goal’ as it stockpiles chips:
Huawei says it had to rush to stockpile chips ahead of the latest tightening of trade restrictions from Washington, which has hit its supply hard.”Non-stop aggression from the US government has put us under significant pressure,” Guo Ping, who chairs the company, said. “Right now, survival is the goal.” The company urged the US to reconsider the rules, which make it difficult for Huawei to buy essential parts for products such as phones.
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Facebook shuts down 150 fake Chinese accounts:
Facebook has shut down a network of more than 150 fake profiles linked to China for “co-ordinated” interference in political discussions. While mainly concerned with backing China’s interests, some also posted about the US presidential election.It is only the second time that Facebook has identified such fake accounts as originating in China. The network had about 130,000 followers — although very few of these were in the US. The accounts starting appearing in 2016, and most of the information was related to China’s influence in the Philippines and South-East Asia. They were traced back to individuals based in Fujan province, who were beginning to pay for advertisements in Chinese yuan, Facebook said.
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NHS Covid-19 app: one million downloads of contact tracer for England and Wales:
More than one million people have downloaded the government’s contact-tracing app for England and Wales within its first day of release.NHS COVID-19 instructs users to self-isolate for 14 days if it detects they were nearby someone who has the virus.It also has a check-in scanner to alert owners if a venue they have visited is found to be an outbreak hotspot.Anyone aged 16 and over is being asked to install it.
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Facebook ‘supreme court’ to begin work before US presidential vote:
Facebook’s Oversight Board is “opening its doors to business” in mid-October. Users will be able to file appeals against posts the firm has removed from its platforms, and the board can overrule decisions made by Facebook’s moderators and executives, including chief executive Mark Zuckerberg. The timing means that some rulings could relate to the US Presidential election, which is on 3 November.But one member of the board told the BBC it expected to act slowly at first. “In principle, we will be able to look at issues arising connected to the election and also after the election,” HelleThorning-Schmidt, the former Prime Minister of Denmark, explained. “But if Facebook takes something down or leaves something up the day after the election, there won’t be a ruling the day after.”
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Sequel to hit game among US cancelled:
The developers of Among Us say they’re cancelling plans for a sequel so they can focus on improving the original. The murder-mystery game (set in space, obviously) involves ten players trying to find out who among them is an imposter. In August, it was announced a second installment was on the way. But Innersloth now say they’ve been so overwhelmed by a spike in popularity for the original, they’re going to focus on reworking that instead.The original game was released back in 2018, but it’s only just found a fanbase – thanks, largely, to pick-up from streamers on Twitch and YouTube.
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Advertisers strike social media deal over hate speech:
Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have agreed a deal with major advertisers on how they define harmful content. The agreement — with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) — will see the social networks use common definitions for things such as hate speech, aggression and bullying. Brands will also have better tools to control where their ads appear. It follows an advertising boycott of Facebook earlier this year, involving more than 1,000 companies. The boycott included some of the world’s biggest brands — such as Unilever and Coca-Cola. It was driven in part by the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, a coalition of non-profit organisations urging brands to pull advertising to encourage radical reform of Facebook’s hate speech policies. But this latest agreement is between the advertisers themselves and the social networks, and does not involve the non-profit groups. It is also specifically about advertising – content policies do not need to change, and decisions about what to take down remain separate.But the US Anti-Defamation League, responding on behalf of Stop Hate for Profit, gave a cautious welcome to the “early step”.