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Venus, often called Earth’s “evil twin” planet, formed closer to the Sun and has since evolved quite differently from our own planet. It has a “runaway” greenhouse effect (meaning heat is completely trapped), a thick carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere, no magnetic field and a surface hot enough to melt lead.

Several uncrewed scientific missions will study how and why that happened in the next decade. But now some scientists want to send a crewed mission there as well for a flyby. Is that a good idea?

With a slightly smaller diameter than Earth, Venus orbits closer to the Sun. This means that any water on the surface would have evaporated shortly after its formation, starting its greenhouse effect. Early and sustained volcanic eruptions created lava plains and increased the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — starting the runaway greenhouse effect, which increased the temperature from just a little higher than Earth’s to its current high value of 475 degrees Celsius.

While the Venus year is shorter than ours (225 days), its rotation is very slow (243 days) and “retrograde” — the other way round to Earth. The slow rotation is related to a lack of magnetic field, resulting in a continuing loss of atmosphere.

Venus’ atmosphere “super-rotates” faster than the planet itself. Images from many missions show V-shaped patterns of clouds, composed of sulphuric acid droplets.

Despite the harsh conditions, some scientists have speculated that Venus’ clouds might at some altitudes harbour habitable conditions. Recent measurements apparently showing phosphine — a potential sign of life as it is continuously produced by microbes on Earth — in Venus’ clouds have been strongly debated. Clearly, we need more measurements and exploration to work out where it comes from.

Future missions

What we know about Venus so far has been gathered from several past probes. In 1970-82, for example, the Soviet Venera 7-14 probes were able to land on Venus’ harsh surface, survive for up to two hours and send back images and data. But there are remaining questions about how Venus evolved so differently from Earth, which is also relevant for understanding which planets orbiting other stars may harbour life.

The next decade promises to be a bonanza for Venus scientists. In 2021, NASA selected two missions, Veritas and DaVinci+, due for launch in 2028-30. The European Space Agency selected EnVision for launch in the early 2030s. These are complementary, uncrewed missions which will give us a deeper understanding of Venus’ environment and evolution.

Veritas will map Venus’ surface to determine the geological history, rock composition and the importance of early water. DaVinci+ includes an orbiter and a small probe that will descend through the atmosphere and measure its composition, study the planet’s formation and evolution and determine whether it ever had an ocean. EnVision will study the planet’s surface, subsurface and atmospheric trace gases. It will use radar to map the surface with better resolution than ever before.

India also plans an uncrewed mission, Shukrayaan-1, and Russia has proposed Venera-D.

Do we need crewed flybys?

The idea of a crewed flyby of Venus was suggested in the late 1960s, and involved using an Apollo capsule to fly people around the planet. But this idea ended when Apollo finished. Now, the Artemis project to fly around the Moon, and other ideas of crewed missions, have led to the idea being floated again, most recently in journal papers and at a recent meeting of the International Astronautical Federation, an advocacy organisation, in September 2022.

The idea would be to fly a crewed spacecraft around Venus and return to Earth. This would allow scientists to test deep-space techniques such as how to operate a crewed mission with significant time delays when communicating with Earth. It could therefore prepare us for a more complex, crewed mission to Mars. However, the crew wouldn’t do any landing or actual atmosphere investigation at Venus — the conditions are way too harsh.

The researchers who back this idea argue that you could also use Venus’ gravity to alter the spacecraft’s course for Mars, which could save time and energy compared with going directly from Earth to Mars. That’s because the latter option would require the orbits of the two planets to be aligned, meaning you’d have to wait for the right moment both on the way there and back. However, as a crewed mission to Mars would be highly complex, going directly from Earth to Mars would keep designs simpler.

Sending humans to a planet that may harbour living organisms also won’t make it easier to find them. It is risky — we may end up contaminating the atmosphere before we discover any life. The best way to look for biochemical signs of life is with uncrewed probes. There would also be significant thermal challenges and higher radiation from solar flares due to closer proximity to the Sun.

And, unfortunately, with a flyby mission like this, only a few hours of data would be possible on the inbound and outbound trajectories. It would be a highly expensive venture, which would no doubt produce some amazing imagery and useful additional data. However, this would add little to the detailed and much longer bespoke studies currently planned. I, therefore, believe the likelihood of a crewed mission to Venus is very unlikely.

There have also been conceptual, more far-fetched studies — including sending crewed airships to hover in Venus’ atmosphere, rather than just flying by. This is a nice idea, which may achieve more science than a flyby, but it remains a distant and unrealistic concept for now.

For the moment, we only carry out crewed exploration in low-Earth orbit. The Artemis project, however, aims to fly people around the Moon and build a station, called Gateway, in lunar orbit. This is being designed to do science, enable crewed landings on the Moon and crucially to test deep space techniques such as refuelling and operating in a remote environment that could in the long run help get us to Mars without doing training at Venus.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Ameya DalviSep 30, 2022 17:31:53 IST

All the professionals on the move, who need to carry their laptop with them, pray for one thing – for the laptop to be lighter, much lighter. And while at it, wouldn’t it be great if one didn’t have to sacrifice the sturdiness, the processing power or even the battery backup? Now I am pushing it, or am I? LG seems to have created their Gram series of laptops precisely to fulfil those wishes. We got our hands on the latest 14-inch variant from the series and would like to share our experience with you.

Design and connectivity
The LG Gram 14 laptop weighs just 999 grams. Yes, you read that right – 1 gram shy of a kilogram. Maybe that’s why it’s called Gram. Jokes apart, it has a simple yet elegant design and feels great to hold. At the same time, it does not feel delicate despite being fairly slim at 16.8 mm in thickness. To my surprise it also has a US MIL-STD 810H military-grade standard certification, having passed seven durability assessment tests. You wanted sturdiness? You got sturdiness, and some more. 

The keyboard layout is standard for a 14-inch laptop and there’s a sizable touchpad too. The backlit keys have just the right keypress; no complaints there. In terms of connectivity, you have most of the bases covered. You get a 3.5 mm jack for connecting wired headphones or a headset, along with an HDMI port and a card reader. 

There are two USB 3.2 Type-A ports on one side and two Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports on the other side with multiple interface support including charging and display. Wireless connectivity options include dual-band Wi-Fi with support for up to 6E standard and Bluetooth 5.1. That should take care of your classic and modern connectivity needs.

Display
As the model number suggests, the LG Gram 14 has a 14-inch screen with an IPS panel and a WUXGA resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels (16:10 aspect ratio). It supports a peak brightness of 350 nits, 1200:1 contrast ratio and 99% DCI-P3 coverage. The colour reproduction is impressive and so is the contrast. The anti-glare coating does help in keeping reflection and glare at bay. However, the viewing angles aren’t the best I have come across on IPS screens. Having said that, it shouldn’t matter much for a laptop.

Incidentally, it has some very interesting screen-related privacy features. It can be set to automatically lock or turn off the screen when you move away from the laptop, or simply blur the screen when you look away. But the best of the lot is it pops a warning or blurs the screen when someone else stares at it from over your shoulder. Don’t you hate it when people do that without your consent? 

Hardware, storage and performance
The LG Gram 14 is powered by a 12th generation Intel Evo Core i7-1260P processor and accompanied by 16 GB of LPDDR5 dual-channel RAM clocked at 5200 MHz. Storage is handled by a 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD that is sufficiently fast. The entire setup is quite powerful for most of the tasks you would want to use this laptop for barring gaming. 

The Intel Iris Xe graphics chip is just not powerful enough for any meaningful gaming. Yes, it can handle some casual games or certain decade-old games reasonably well, but not the new ones. When it comes to productivity apps or media consumption, it sails through without a hiccup. Be it opening 50 tabs in a browser or editing images or streaming content, the LG Gram 14 could handle all of it with ease. 

It is quite handy for entertainment too with a pair of 1.5 Watts speakers placed underneath providing a clean stereo sound, and DTS:X Ultra compliance lends some more depth to the audio. Ironically, they sound better when you place this laptop on a table or a desk rather than on your lap. The Full HD video camera is pretty good and offers some cool tricks.

Software and battery backup
This laptop runs Microsoft Windows 11 Home and you get a 30 days trial version of Office 365. LG also bundles a handful of its in-house tools to accomplish various tasks. The LG Gram 14 is fitted with a 72 Wh Lithium Ion battery and a 65 Watts USB-C PD power adapter is bundled along, which incidentally feels on the heavier side. But if your workload is not too heavy, you may not even need to carry it around.

LG claims a very ambitious battery life figure of 23.5 hours on a full charge. Of course, that is under ‘test conditions’ which include brightness lower than half, no wireless connectivity and when not using the laptop speakers for sound. Realistically under normal load and without gaming, the laptop battery does last you for a full working day (8 to 10 hours) comfortably, which is quite impressive. But your mileage may vary depending on what you use this laptop for. The standby time is pretty good too with not too much battery drain after I left it in sleep mode for a full day.

Price and final thoughts
The LG Gram 14 (14Z90Q-G.AH75A2) laptop is priced at Rs 1,05,999 with a 3 years onsite warranty, and can often be spotted for Rs 6,000 less. Weighs a gram under a KG and sells for a Rupee under a lakh – something poetic about it, no? Yes, it is expensive but does offer a bunch of unique elements, and it’s hard to spot something similar for much lower. This laptop is a perfect blend of portability, sturdiness, power and battery backup if you are looking for all of that in one device. But if gaming is high on your wishlist, look elsewhere.

FP StaffSep 30, 2022 15:30:21 IST

Back in May this year, Google, at their annual I/O developer’s conference announced that they will be releasing a new tool to help users with the process of removing search results that showed their contact details and other Personal Identifiable Information or PII. Google has now launched the service and has made it live for its users.

Starting today, users can find a new Results About You menu in the Google app on Android, under the My Profile section. This takes users to a page that explains how they can request Google remove Search results that contain phone numbers, home addresses, emails, or other PII.

If a user finds something while browsing, they can click on the three-dot overflow menu that appears in the top-right corner of each result. The existing ‘About this result’ panel opens with a new “Remove result” option appearing at the bottom of the user’s screen.

After following that process, users have the option to monitor the progress of removal requests. In addition to an “All requests” feed, users will also have filters like “In progress” and “Approved.” This page also lets you make a new request with a walkthrough that involves a “Why would you like to remove this result?” step.

Users will be able to select from a variety of options. This includes flagging information that shows personal contact info, showing personal contact info with an intent to harm, showing illegal info, or, for showing outdated and incorrect info.

An upcoming update to the feature will let users “opt into alerts if new results with your contact information appear so you can quickly request their removal.” These notifications are reportedly coming early next year. When available, users will be able to receive notifications about new Google Search results that contain their contact information so they can quickly act to request its removal, if they choose.

Google says the “Results About You” tool will become accessible to all English language users in the US in the next few weeks. The tool will be available to users in other countries soon, by the end of the year.

This new tool arrives at a time when there’s been much discussion about the threats associated with doing, which is a way to threaten or harass someone by revealing their personal information to the public without their permission. 

This is often done to silence someone because of their beliefs or opinions and is considered a form of cyberbullying. But unlike traditional online trolling, where bad actors can simply be blocked and reported, doxing can invite real-world harm as people’s home addresses and contact information is exposed.

FP StaffSep 29, 2022 16:42:05 IST

As convenient as online shopping can be, especially during the festive sale season, getting cheated is a risk that people, unfortunately, have to assume. Recently, a man ordered a laptop from Flipkart but received several bars of soap in the package.

In another incident, a businessman in Bihar had ordered a drone from the e-commerce platform Meesho, but instead, received some potatoes.

It is natural for us to get a little desolate whenever something like this happens. We also fear that we have been cheated out of a lot of money, which, at the time at least seems impossible to recover. You may also feel like calling up the platform’s customer service helpline and giving them an earful. Realistically, that wouldn’t be helpful. But there are other things that you can do.

Believe it or not, it is actually possible to make your case properly and get your money back, or the actual product that you had paid for. The important thing to note, however, it to let cooler heads prevail, take a deep breath and approach this in a step-by-step manner. 

Before we discuss that, here are a few practices that you should follow when taking delivery of any package that you may receive from an e-commerce platform:

Document everything
First and foremost, start recording a video of the package, as you’re receiving it. Platforms like Flipkart claim that they have processes such as Open Box Delivery, wherein the delivery person will open the box in front of you while delivering it. The reality is, this is a practice that exists only on paper. Rarely will you see a delivery person waiting for you to unbox it in front of them.

Wait before sharing your delivery OTP
Most e-commerce platforms now require the user to share a delivery OTP with the delivery person. The purpose of this OTP is usually to ascertain that the package is being delivered to the right person, and moreover, that the package received was in proper shape, and hadn’t been tampered with. Open the package in front of the delivery person, and ensure that the unboxing or opening of the package is being recorded. Only then provide the delivery OTP.

Now, no matter how hard you try, there will be times when you won’t get the chance to open up and inspect your package in front of the delivery person.

Here’s what you should do if you receive a package from an e-commerce platform like Flipkart, Meesho or even Amazon, which does not contain your prodcut, but some other stuff.

Make an unboxing video and take pictures
First and foremost, make an unboxing video while you’re opening the package. You should especially do this in case you suspect that your package was tampered with, or if you have purchased a high-value item, like a phone, or a laptop etc. In case you haven’t taken a video, do take a ton of pictures, especially of the box and the content that you received. Take photos of any damages that the box might have had.

Gather all the information and evidence that you might need
Gather every tiny bit of information and keep them handy. Starting from the date you placed your order, to the day and time you received your order. It would also be great if you have the name of the delivery person who delivered your package. Also ensure that you have the transaction ID readily available, in case you have already paid for your order.

Approach the customer service centre
Once you have all your videos, photos and other evidence ready, simply call the customer service centre. They might ask you to share a few videos and photos, and a few other information, so share whatever you are asked to, barring your banking details. Also this would be a good time to ask the customer service representative for your complaint number, or the ticket number. This way, you will be able to refer to to this call if things need to be taken forward. Now, if your customer service representative is able to resolve your issue on the spot, then well and good. If they ask you for a couple of day’s time, ask them to put it in writing and to send you an email regarding the same. 

Send the company an email
In case your customer service representative was not able to resolve the issue, or, if they said that they would email you about the issue you raised, but haven’t, send an email to the customer service department, with all your photos, videos and mention the complaint number, or the ticket number that you had received. You should be getting a response within one or two working days, tops.

Flag them on social media, especially on Twitter
In case you don’t get a response even after sending an email, get on social media. We have seen that Twitter works better compared to Instagram or Facebook. First, just tweet out to the company, stating your issue, and sharing the photo and the video and ensure you use the correct hashtags, especially if the e-commerce platform is running a campaign. There’s a good chance that you might get a response, but in case you don’t Tweet out to a few influencers that the e-commerce platform has worked with previously. You can also try reply tweeting on a few posts of the influencer. This increases your chance of getting a response from the e-commerce platform. This is also the chance for your story to get viral on social media, in which case, you will definitely get a response.

File a complaint with your local consumer forum
Now, even after doing all of this and trying everything, if you’re still not getting a satisfactory and reasonable response, don’t be afraid to approach your local consumer forum and register a complaint with the Consumer Courts. People assume that this will be an expensive affair, but more often than not it is not. Moreover, if you have a lot of money hanging in the balance you shouldn’t hesitate to approach your local consumer forum. People think that approaching the consumer forum is a long and tedious process, and most platforms actually rely on customers simply giving up and not approaching consumer forums when things go south.

If you found this article, you likely already know what a VPN is and what it’s used for, but just in case you need a brief refresher, here’s a rundown. VPNs are essentially a server that you connect to before you do most of your online activity so that any services, sites, or networks that you connect to see the IP of the VPN, not your own. It’s useful for things like avoiding firewalls, geographical barriers and keeping your personal IP address from falling into the hands of suspicious sites.

Now that that’s out of the way, we can get to the real meat and potatoes of all of this. Which VPN should you be looking into?

In this article, we’re taking a look at two big contenders among the very best VPN services on the market: IPVanish vs ExpressVPN. Both of them fulfill just about every standard requirement of your typical VPN service, but they both have their strong suits, and they both offer unique features that might just make them a more attractive choice for you than the other, depending on how you plan to use them.

IPVanish

IPVanish started in 2012 as nothing but a few dozen servers with some windows software. Now, it has grown into a powerhouse of the VPN market and is consistently rated one of the best VPNs out there. This is why it’s such a shame that IPVanish isn’t talked about nearly as much as certain other names.

IPVanish has grown exponentially as a service in recent years, and its features are now in line with all the other top dogs on the VPN market. It’s consistently rated in the top 10 available VPNs.

ExpressVPN

Starting all the way back in 2009, ExpressVPN is now one of the world’s most extensive VPN services out there. It typically fights with the other prominent heads of the game and has made efforts to offer more features, better service, and more reliability as a result.

Because of this, ExpressVPN is able to contend year after year for the spot of top VPN, and while it can be debated whether it’s the one true king (or queen) of the VPNs, it’s undeniable that its quality certainly earns it the recognition and high placement that it holds on most lists.

The Comparison

Both of these VPN services are clearly pretty impressive. If you’re on the market for a VPN, it’s very unlikely you’d be dissatisfied with either choice. However, we’re writing this article to help you pick the BEST choice for you, not a good choice. So buckle in because here comes the comparison. Let the battle between these two VPN titans commence.

Speed

One of the first factors worth looking into is data speed. No matter which service you use, your download and upload speed are going to take at least a minor hit when you connect to a VPN. In short, this is because when you’re connecting to a website, you don’t just make a direct connection. You access the VPN, which then has to connect to that site. This creates an extra barrier that will add some delay no matter how quick the service is.

The goal is simply to keep that delay as low as possible, and some VPNs do this better than others. While speeds will vary heavily depending on what area you’re trying to connect from and whether or not the VPN has servers around that region, we can still compare the average overall speeds.

Unfortunately for IPVanish, ExpressVPN has them pretty heavily beat in the speed department.

While this gap between the two has certainly diminished in recent years as IPVanish has expanded their server count, ExpressVPN still commonly gets speeds much faster than IPVanish in most regions, especially areas such as the UK.

While your circumstance will vary depending on your location and original internet speed, most users report their original download speed decreasing by about 40-50% with ExpressVPN, and about 50-60% with IPVanish.

That isn’t to say IPVanish is slow. It’s still one of the faster VPNs on the market. But when it’s directly compared with ExpressVPN, the Mbps speeds begin to show a pretty drastic difference.

ExpressVPN wins this one.

Base Location

While this part isn’t exactly a competition, it’s still an essential piece of knowledge to know. Every VPN service has a location that they are based from; their main hub. While this doesn’t tend to affect the service too much, it does play a part in where most of their servers would likely be to offer the fastest and most reliable connections and what country’s laws dictate the services that VPN can provide.

ExpressVPN’s home base enjoys the warm sun of the Caribbean, stationed in the British Virgin Islands.

IPVanish, on the other hand, is based in Orlando, Florida, in the United States.

This round doesn’t really have a winner.

Supported Platforms

VPN services typically offer software to make using their servers easy for customers. Most big names on the market make this software compatible with all major systems, but some cover more than others.

IPVanish’s software is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Linux, Android, Chrome OS, and Fire TV.

It’s a wide, versatile range that would suit a majority of users’ needs. However, the app itself has been reported to have problems occasionally. Crashing and timing out, unfortunately, isn’t all too uncommon when attempting to connect to a server. 

The software even occasionally tends to mess with your network settings. Reddit user B_Wease, for example, stated that when they turned the service off, they couldn’t connect to their own internet on that device.

The app does show a lot of information and helps check every detail about your connection, but some users might find it a bit cluttered, especially if you don’t know what a lot of that info is even for.

You can download IPVanish’s software here.

ExpressVPN’s software is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Linux, Android, Chrome OS, Fire TV, Firestick, Kindle Fire, and Chromebook. ExpressVPN covers an even greater range of devices, impressively enough. Not only that, but most report their service to be far more reliable, as complete crashes are infrequent when connecting to various servers. With their software, usually, the worst you’ll experience is a short delay.

You can find download ExpressVPN’s here.

This round goes to ExpressVPN.

Servers & Countries

The following criteria will be the number of countries each service spans and how many servers each has. We’ll be upfront about this one. ExpressVPN takes this round as well, hands down.

That is, of course, due in part to them having been in the game longer than IPVanish. Every service slowly expands its arsenal and reaches further across the globe to suit the needs of their customers as they grow. ExpressVPN has had more time to do that and has been more successful in doing so.

That isn’t to say IPVanish is struggling in this department. Covering 57 countries with a server count of over 1,900, it has one of the bigger server counts on the VPN market.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t compare to ExpressVPN’s 3,000+ servers over a total of 95 countries.

ExpressVPN takes this round as well for a hat-trick.

Simultaneous Connections

While things may be looking grim for IPVanish as our underdogs, things might just turn around for them here. All VPN services have a limit on how many connections you can make with their VPN at once. This keeps customers from overloading their servers with too many requests at once and slowing things down for themselves and others. However, the hard limit that services put on their VPNs vary.

ExpressVPN has its limit at five. Five simultaneous connections are relatively standard for most VPNs, and most customers wouldn’t struggle too much with that limit.

IPVanish, however, has its limit at ten. This is actually fairly generous, as most VPNs don’t allow nearly as many simultaneous connections, especially for a standard package. This limit would hardly be a problem for most people to ever wrestle with, as it’s pretty rare for a room to be filled with more than ten computers that all desperately need to access the VPN right this instant.

IPVanish is on the board with a win!

Privacy

This next comparison will be one of the more important ones for many people looking into a VPN service. It’s the main reason why VPNs have become so popular recently. As the digital world grows, people want to feel secure, and knowing your personal IP can be tracked at any time leaves people with an uneasy feeling. This is what has led to the success of the VPN.

So how do you compare privacy? Well, there are two main factors that we’re going to be looking at. The first is the encryption system that each service uses.

Both ExpressVPN and IPVanish use something known as AES 256-bit encryption for their services. AES, or Advanced Encryption Standard, is an encryption method that supports the largest possible bit size and encrypts data to the point where it’s essentially impossible for hackers or anyone who comes across that data to use brute force to access the information. It was initially created for use by the federal government, so yes, it’s pretty secure.

So if your connections are unreadable when you make them, what about after they’ve already been made? What about the logs and records of each connection you’ve made to a VPN?

That’s a significant factor that most people look into for VPN services. Since the whole point of a VPN is to let customers be secure on the internet, the last thing they want is to know that a log of every connection they make is kept somewhere. What would happen in the event of a data breach of their logs? If a record is held somewhere, a hacker could find out even more information from someone using a VPN than if someone wasn’t!

Luckily, neither service keeps logs or records of any kind of traffic. This is one of the features that make both VPNs so popular. It’s quite rare to find services that keep no logs on their user activity whatsoever. ExpressVPN and IPVanish, however, both state that they maintain no data or records of connections from their customers.

This round is a tie!

Customer Support

In a perfect world, it wouldn’t matter what the customer support is for each service, as the product itself would work flawlessly. But until VPNs start singing and butterflies come out of our routers when we connect to them, yes, we will occasionally need customer support.

Both services offer live chat service on their websites, available 24/7. They also both have email support if you prefer to get your help the old-school way.

We have ourselves another tie!

Pricing

Last but certainly not least, we have the price for a plan in our ExpressVPN vs. IPVanish battle. Both of these services offer multiple payment plan options, where you will receive a discount for buying longer-term plans. However, for this, we’ll be looking purely at the monthly plan for each.

Both of these services have prices that put them right at about the average for most VPNs. For a monthly plan, ExpressVPN will cost you $12.95, whereas IPVanish costs a cool $9.99, making it actually on the lower end of average VPN costs.

IPVanish takes this last round.

ExpressVPN vs. IPVanish, which is better?

While both of these services are excellent, there’s a reason why ExpressVPN is fighting to take the crown. Under most circumstances, ExpressVPN does offer a higher quality service. Its speeds are superior, it has higher server counts, and it’s frequently rated as one of the best VPNs out there.

However, there are a few places where IPVanish takes the lead, such as the generous ten simultaneous connections that it allows you to have at one time. The cheaper pricing all makes it a serious contender. If ExpressVPN’s prices feel a little steep to you, IPVanish offers a genuinely excellent service for a reduced plan cost.

Here is a visual of everything to keep in mind between the two.

	IPVanish	ExpressVPN
General Rating	4.8 / 5	4.9 / 5
Based In	United States	British Virgin Islands
Unlimited Bandwidth	Yes	Yes
Unlimited Server Switching	Yes	Yes
Country Count	57	95
Server Count	1,900+	3,000+
Encryption	AES 256-bit	AES 256-bit
Logging	No	No
Simultaneous Connections	10	5
Customer Support	24/7 Live Chat + Email	24/7 Live Chat + Email

Just remember, if you choose either of these, rest assured that you will be getting a quality service no matter what. Both are trusted, both are reliable, and both are high-end VPNs.

In the end, it comes down to customer preference.

FP TrendingSep 29, 2022 18:51:35 IST

Passengers on Indian Railways can now view the real-time train schedule information and their PNR status via WhatsApp. Railofy, a Mumbai-based startup, has developed the new feature. IRCTC customers can easily trace their travel on WhatsApp thanks to this feature. They can track train status and other travel-related information using this tool without having to download any extra applications.

Passengers of Indian railways can get the PNR status, live train status, details on previous and upcoming stations, and other train journey information using the WhatsApp chatbot.

Simply entering the 10-digit PNR number into the WhatsApp chatbot will provide all the information. For real-time train status, IRCTC customers can also call the 139-number railway helpdesk.

Here are the steps to check PNR status and live Train updates via Railofy on WhatsApp:

• Save Railofy’s WhatsApp chatbot’s number in your contacts: +91-9881193322.
• Search for Railofy in WhatsApp to launch the chat window.
• In the chat box, enter your 10-digit PNR number.
• You will receive all the information, including notifications and real-time updates regarding the train journey, from the Railofy chatbot.

IRCTC passengers can also place food orders while riding the train. Passengers can purchase meals online and have them delivered right to their seats using the IRCTC app Zoop.

Steps to order food by using the IRCTC Zoop app:

• Save the WhatsApp chatbot’s phone number (+91 7042062070) first. You can also visit [https://wa.me/917042062070] as an alternative.
• Open the WhatsApp chatbot for Zoop.
• Key in your 10-digit PNR number.
• Next, pick the station that will soon be available for meal delivery.
• You can choose from a list of options provided by the restaurants using the Zoop chatbot.
• You can track your meal from the chatbot itself after placing your online food order and paying for it.
• Upon arrival at the chosen stop by the train, Zoop will deliver your food.

Ameya DalviSep 29, 2022 17:11:49 IST

The festive sale season is here, and there are some real good deals across various categories and budgets. Today, we focus on the best smartphone deals you can net within a generous budget of Rs 75,000. Oh, and we did manage to get some real good ones for you. Without wasting any more time, let’s get to the point before they sell out.

Best phones to buy under Rs 75,000 in India

Apple iPhone 13
You may have read about the mad rush for getting the iPhone 13 around 50K on day 1 of the sale. That was the 128 GB storage variant. But since you have a much higher budget, why not go for double capacity? The 256 GB variant of the Apple iPhone 13 is currently selling for less than the official selling price of its 128 GB option on Flipkart. The phone feels great in hand due to its reasonably compact size, and is rugged with an IP68 rated ingress protection. It launched with iOS 15, and can be easily upgraded to iOS 16 with more OS updates to follow over the years. 

The Apple iPhone 13 has a  6.1-inch Super Retina XDR OLED display with a resolution of 2532 x 1170 pixels, and is compliant with HDR10 and Dolby Vision. At its core is Apple’s previous flagship A15 Bionic chip that powers even the iPhone 14. It has two 12MP cameras at the back with the primary lens offering OIS (optical image stabilisation), while the secondary is capable of capturing ultra-wide shots. The performance in photography and videography is excellent, as one expects from iPhones. 

Apple iPhone 13 price in India: Rs 66,990 for 256 GB storage

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 5G
The price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 has been fluctuating every few hours, but it is selling for well under 75K at the time of writing this. I am sure this phone has had your curiosity and attention over the past several weeks given its unique form factor. While the foldable Dynamic AMOLED 2X display is the key selling point of this phone, few realise how powerful a phone this is. Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 chip, it is technically even more powerful than all the Samsung Galaxy S22 phones, including the Ultra.

Coming back to the display, the 6.7-inch elongated screen is HDR10+ compliant and has a resolution of 2640 x 1080 pixels with a 120 Hz refresh rate. And there’s a tiny 1.9-inch Super AMOLED display at the back too (well, at the front when the phone is folded) which is quite a handy addition. You can get the 256 GB storage variant in this budget in the ongoing sales. The photography department is similar to the iPhone 13 with two 12MP cameras doing duty. The primary has OIS and the secondary captures ultra-wide shots with 123 degrees FOV. The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 runs Android 12 with One UI 4.1.

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 price in India: Rs 72,990 for 8 GB RAM/ 256 GB storage

Samsung Galaxy S22 5G
Amazon India is offering some great deals on the Samsung Galaxy S22 5G, and you can grab the 8 GB RAM and 256 GB storage variant for less than 60K in the ongoing sale even before applying credit card discounts and cashback. This phone too has IP68 rated dust and fluid resistance. The phone sports an aluminium frame and has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus+ at the front and back. It has a 6.1-inch Full HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a peak brightness of 1300 nits, HDR10+ compliance and 120 Hz refresh rate. 

The S22 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and runs Android 12 with Samsung’s One UI 4.1. Photography department consists of three cameras at the back starting with a 50MP primary camera with dual pixel PDAF and OIS, a 12MP ultra-wide camera with Super Steady video support and a 10MP telephoto camera with OIS for 3X optical zoom. The camera performance is flagship grade as expected, and can record videos in 8K resolution. A 3700 mAh battery keeps the phone powered for a day of moderate use and supports 25W fast charging as well as 15W fast wireless charging.

Samsung Galaxy S22 5G price in India: Rs 59,990 for 8 GB RAM/ 256 GB storage

iQOO 9 Pro 5G
We have another fully loaded device selling for a lower-than-usual price tag. Just like the S22, the iQOO 9 Pro 5G is powered by Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, and you get 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage to go with it. It has a sharp 6.78-inch HDR10+ compliant AMOLED display with 3200 x 1440 pixels resolution, 120 Hz refresh rate and can display over a billion colour shades. The phone runs Android 12 with FunTouch OS 12. The rear camera department here is quite versatile too.

You get a 50MP primary camera with Gimbal OIS, accompanied by another 50MP ultra-wide camera with auto-focus and 150-degrees FOV. And there’s a 16MP telephoto camera with OIS that provides 2.5X optical zoom. The 16MP front camera does a good job with selfies and video calls. The iQOO 9 Pro 5G’s 4700 mAh battery can last over a day of moderate use, and the bundled 120W fast charger claims to charge it fully in just 20 minutes. It supports 50W fast wireless charging too.

iQOO 9 Pro 5G price in India: Rs 62,990 for 12 GB RAM/ 256 GB storage

Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G
The top variant of the Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G is currently selling on Amazon India for Rs 58,999, and if that wasn’t enough, you can get further 8K off if you pay using any credit card. Yes, that would make it a candidate for a phone list with a lower budget, but then it’s better to choose this than something similar that’s selling for a much higher price, isn’t it? And the phone is good enough to be in this list courtesy of some truly flagship features. 

It has a 6.73-inch LTPO 2.0 10-bit AMOLED display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a QHD resolution of 3200 x 1440 pixels. The HDR10+ and Dolby Vision compliant screen can display a billion colour shades and get up to 1500 nits bright. It is protected by a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass Victus. The rear camera department has a trinity of 50MP cameras –  the primary with OIS, an ultrawide shooter with 115 degrees FOV and a telephoto camera that offers 2X optical zoom. The 32MP front camera is quite impressive too. 

Like many phones in this list, the Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G too is powered by Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip, and you can get 12 GB RAM and 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage with it. In addition, it boasts of a quad-speaker system tuned by Harman Kardon and superfast charging. Its 4600 mAh battery lasts over a day of moderate use, and the bundled 120W charger promises to take it from 0 to 100% in just 18 minutes. The phone also supports 50W fast wireless charging. The phone runs Android 12 with MIUI 13.

Xiaomi 12 Pro 5G price in India: Rs 58,999 for 12 GB RAM/ 256 GB storage

Mehul Reuben DasSep 29, 2022 10:41:09 IST

A team of engineers and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts have developed a radical new camera system that works without batteries, transmits data wirelessly, and functions underwater, using underwater sound waves.

Scientists all over the world believe that over 95 per cent of the seas on Earth have never been observed. As a result, we know more about space and other planets, than we do about our oceans on Earth. Sending a camera down to the depths of our ocean wasn’t really an option, mainly because doing something like that would need a hardwired connection between the Earth’s surface to a research vessel or mission vessel so that its batteries may be regularly recharged. 

So, the engineers had to come up with a power delivery and storage system that could sustain itself, without relying on traditional sources such as solar or hydroelectricity. What they ended up with, is an underwater camera that is nearly 100,000 times more energy efficient than any existing underwater camera.

The camera uses specialized piezoelectric materials to transform mechanical energy from sound waves passing through water into electrical energy. Basically, they use the mechanical energy from sounds or waves created by swimming fish, ships or submarines passing nearby or even somewhere in the distance. The camera transmits data to a receiver outside the water, again using sound waves, which reconstructs the image. Sound waves travel much better in water than they do in air.

The camera is capable of taking colour images even in a dim underwater environment while wirelessly sending them via the water. 

The camera can run continuously for many weeks without a power supply, which would enable scientists to observe and research unexplored regions under our oceans and look for new species, marine pollution, and the consequences of climate change.

The team of researchers were led by Associate Professor Fadel Antib of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of MIT’s Media Lab. The team is working to further enhance and increase the new camera’s memory. They are also working on a feature that would enable the new camera to capture video underwater.

The research and development of the camera was partially funded by the US Office of Naval Research, so in all likelihood, this is going to see military and naval applications. As a result, there is very little scope for the device or something similar to make its way to the open market anytime soon.

FP TrendingSep 28, 2022 15:33:10 IST

Calls on WhatsApp are a convenient method to communicate with your loved ones, but you can not join a call unless someone adds you. The Meta-owned company has begun to roll out a brand-new calling feature called Call Links. Users can use this function to join any WhatsApp call by just clicking the link (URL).

Users can execute this by creating a link and sending it to their friends, family, and other call participants. The video calling features of WhatsApp Call Links are comparable to those offered by Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

The best thing about using Call Links for call invitations is that participants who are not in your contact list can join the call without the admin having to save their phone number. But unlike apps that are more likely to enable video call conferencing, WhatsApp would need to be downloaded in order for you to use Call Links to make the call. The Call Link can be generated from the Calls tab.

Planning a call with long-distance friends? Need to chat live last minute?

Now you can create and send a call link to anyone on WhatsApp, even if they’re not in your contacts 🔗

Add the link to an invite or send in a chat, now planning and joining calls is easier than ever.

— WhatsApp (@WhatsApp) September 26, 2022

The Call Links option is presently being rolled out for some users and may take a few days or a week to finish, according to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta. Additionally, he disclosed that WhatsApp’s development team is testing safely encrypted video calling for up to 32 individuals and that more information on this will be released soon.

Steps to create Call Links on WhatsApp:

• Update your WhatsApp app by browsing the Apple Store or Google Play Store.
• Go to the “Calls” tab in your WhatsApp application after opening it.
• The “Create Call Link” option will only be available if you have access to this feature.
• By selecting “Create Call Link,” WhatsApp will generate a call link for you to share with other users.
• You should copy the link and put it into the chat window of the desired contacts.

The new Call Links function is not particularly significant, although it may be useful if you want to avoid manually adding callers. You can simply send the link, and others who get it can join the call.

FP StaffSep 28, 2022 14:40:55 IST

According to analysts at Counterpoint, Reliance Jio is all set to launch their upcoming 5G smartphone, called the JioPhone Next 5G. The device is likely to be launched in the first week of October after 5G is officially launched at the Indian Mobile Congress. 

Alternatively, Reliance might launch the JioNext 5G smartphone once coverage expands sufficiently, and enough areas in the country start having Jio’s 5G network.

Last year Reliance Jio, in partnership with Google unveiled the JioPhone Next, a super affordable 4G smartphone, which could be had for as little as Rs 2,000 with a monthly plan starting at Rs 300 and a Rs 501 processing fee. Or, they could outright buy the phone for Rs 6,500.

Specification-wise, the JioPhone Next 5G will have an upgraded Snapdragon 480 chipset with 4GB of RAM and 32GB storage. For the display, the device will have a 6.5-inch HD+ LCD panel, and a 5,000mAh battery.

It is also likely to get a dual camera setup at the rear, with a 13MP primary camera, and a 2MP macro camera. On the front, the phone is said to include an 8MP selfie shooter. The Jio 5G phone is said to be running on Pragati OS, a custom operating system that Jio has developed in partnership with Google. The JioPhone Next, the 4G version, also runs on Pragati OS.

Counterpoint claims that the device is likely to be priced between Rs 8,000 to Rs 12,000. The new device, like the previous JioPhone Next, is likely being manufactured in Reliance Jio’s Neolync facilities in southern India by using a mix of components from Chinese, Korean and American suppliers.

FP StaffSep 27, 2022 11:34:41 IST

An automobile startup backed by Xiaomi called China Car Custom announced that they will be joining other major manufacturers to make an EV in China. To that effect, the company unveiled the prototype of its first electric sports car.

Xiaomi launched its first electric vehicle, an electric scooter in 2016, and has been trying to get into the electric car business for years. Earlier this year, Xiaomi announced that they will be investing about $10 billion over the next ten years in electric car manufacturing and that by August they should be in a position to unveil the prototype of their first electric car.

However, economic crises and continuous COVID lockdowns and logistical issues seem to have delayed Xiaomi’s own electric car launch. One thing that Xioami has done that will greatly benefit them in the Chinese EV race is their investments in a number of design and engineering and battery startups that aim to service automobile manufacturers. CCC or the China Car Custom is one such startup.

The first electric car that CCC is coming up with will be called the SC01, and it will be a two-seater, 2-door sports car, powered by two electric motors with a combined output of 320kW or 429hp roughly. It will have a 0-100kmph figure of 3.9 seconds, which for a car that will weigh under 1300 kilograms is impressive.

Xiaomi and CCC hope to set a starting price of  just $42,000 or roughly 300,000 Yuan. Although the company plans to start manufacturing next year, with deliveries to commence before the end of 2023, orders are already being taken.

Design-wise, the SC01 looks inspired by another concept car called the Lancia Stratos 2010. Lancia, at one time in history, was one of the most coveted sports car makers, nearly as popular as Ferrari, especially in rally cross. The Stratos 2010 was supposed to mark the comeback of Lancia in the world of sports cars.

CCC benefited from Xiaomi’s investment to the tune of tens of millions of Yuan. Interestingly enough, CCC was responsible for building the drivetrain of the WM Weltmaister that was claimed to be able to sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in just 1.8 seconds.

Siddharth ChandrashekharSep 27, 2022 12:44:49 IST

The Central government recently announced its plan to implement stricter rules regarding the scrutiny of interactions between companies. While this is coming on the back of many high-value deals escaping scrutiny because of loopholes, government regulations on a larger scale have always kept businesses and enterprises on their toes.

Bringing the balance
The word reforms and the advent of the liberalisation of industrial and trade policies are synonymous in my mind for India. During the 1980s, these reforms were accompanied by an increasingly receptive attitude toward regulatory reforms. The Industrial Policy Resolution of 1956 and the Statement of Industrial Policy of 1991 provide the basic framework for the overall industrial policy of India to this date. 

However, most sectors in the business world have been aggrieved by government regulation. Corporations and their spokespersons often denounce statutory mandates as irrational impediments to economic growth and job creation.

Today, there are three prominent challenges that I can foresee plaguing the economic landscape from a regulatory standpoint. There is uncertainty about the future regulations and laws, especially in the social media industry, tedious processes for tax for budding start-ups and an insufficient amount of financial incentives for the same. 

The big two
India has one of the world’s largest start-up ecosystems, with the number of start-ups in the country above 70,000, according to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

However, one of the key challenges that start-ups face in India is the country’s volatile regulatory environment. Even though India has a long history of intercompany transactions which have been in line with the latest trends, gone are the days of “survival of the fittest”. Mergers and acquisitions are currently one of the most useful methods to overcome barriers to entry and improve the development of companies.

Sceptics cannot deny that corporate regulation provides a stimulus in making our economic position secure and sustainable. But on the other hand, the entry of foreign companies through M&A seems to have raised competitive pressure in the domestic market forcing Indian companies to boost their competitiveness.

In this light, continuous and abrupt regulatory changes can create a negative impact on the growth of Indian start-ups. Constant changes in the regulatory atmosphere can be a red-flag to investors, who may end up feeling unsure in their investment decisions due to a fear of unexpected surprises.

Similarly, the social media space has also seen amendments in regulations. The government recently withdrew the controversial Personal Data Protection Bill from the Parliament after the proposed data localisation provision drew severe criticism from various proponents of tech and privacy.

While a comprehensive legal framework to regulate the online space, including bringing separate laws on data privacy, the overall online ecosystem, cybersecurity, telecom regulations, and harnessing non-personal data to boost innovation in the country is being created, we need a bill to fill the lacunae. Privacy experts and tech giants are concerned that the legislation could restrict how they manage sensitive information but give the government broad powers to access it, including exemptions to its probe agencies amongst other things.

Industry stakeholders in the social media space have also expressed concerns over the infeasibility of originator traceability mandated in the IT Rules 2021. In the latest draft, the IT Ministry reiterated that the resident grievance officers of a social media intermediary should redress grievances and thereafter dispose of them within a statutorily stipulated timeline. 

These ramifications, which impose personal liability on chief compliance officers, may impact due diligence requirements and erect entry barriers and ease of doing business. Over 85 per cent of social media and internet intermediaries currently feel that the harsh compliance rules in the new IT Rules 2021 can negatively impact the ease of doing business in India.

Deep foundations, deeper impact
It is prudent for businesses to safeguard themselves in a tide of changes. Unpredictable regulatory measures can affect inner workings and unnecessarily hamper time and resources for a company with true potential.

A few practices like investing in a small but efficient team incentivised based on their output, not hiring immediately after funding but rather restructuring and assessing your needs and ensuring that various compliances are in place from day one can help. They can provide a firm grounding for start-ups to secure themselves even in a changing landscape.

The government can be a friend to businesses and the public alike – but what we are lacking is balance. And without balance, it is very easy to fall into the trap of long-term decline brought on by over-regulation.

The need of the hour is future-proof rules and regulations in line with accepted international standards for enforcement of Data Protection & Data Privacy laws, especially when it comes to personal data, and higher transparency to encourage Foreign Investors including FIIs to gain their trust.

Clear, comprehensive, and well-laid framework and regulations for the emerging sectors of the economy will not only help businesses by creating a helpful operating environment but also give investors confidence in the long run.

The author is an advocate & counsel at the Bombay High Court, working in litigation as well as non-litigation, skilled in negotiation, arbitration, and corporate documentation. Views expressed are personal.

FP StaffSep 27, 2022 14:36:16 IST

The government of Ukraine has issued an advisory stating that Putin’s Moscow plans to carry out a series of massive cyberattacks that would cripple some critical infrastructure, both in Ukraine and its allies. 

“By the cyberattacks, the enemy will try to increase the effect of missile strikes on electricity supply facilities, primarily in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine,” an advisory warned. “The occupying command is convinced that this will slow down the offensive operations of the Ukrainian Defence Forces,” the advisory stated.

The advisory cited two cyberattacks the Russian government carried out allegedly. The first one took place in 2015 and the secondly, almost exactly one year later. These attacks overloaded and tripped the Ukranian power grid, leaving Ukrainians without power during one of the coldest months of the year. The advisory claims that these attacks were seen as a proof-of-concept and test ground of sorts for disrupting Ukraine’s power supply.

Both of these hacks were carried out by Kremlin-backed hackers. The attackers used a repurposed version of malware called BlackEnergy3 to break into the corporate networks of Ukrainian power companies and then further encroach into the supervisory control and data acquisition systems the companies used to generate and transmit electricity.

In 2016, the attacks were more sophisticated, as it used a completely new piece of Malware, developed from scratch. The malware, which was given the names Industroyer and Crash Override, was specifically designed for hacking electric grid systems. 

Ukraine’s advisory comes two weeks after their forces recaptured vast territories in Kharkiv and other cities that had been under Russian control for months. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week called for the mobilization of 3,00,000 Russian citizens to bolster the country’s military invasion of Ukraine.

Most European countries depend on Russia for oil and other forms of energy. With winter approaching and Russia seemingly on the back foot, Ukrainian officials believe that Russian hackers backed by the state will be increasing the number of attacks on power grids and internet-based communication services, by increasing the number of DDoS or distributed denial-of-service attacks.

Besides an attack on electrical grids, Ukraine’s advisory also warned of other forms of disruptions the country expected Russia to ramp up.

“The Kremlin also intends to increase the intensity of DDoS attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine’s closest allies, primarily Poland and the Baltic states,” the advisory stated.

FP StaffSep 27, 2022 10:13:00 IST

Apple was supposed to host a launch event sometime in October where they would launch a number of upcoming iPads and Macs, as well as the iPadOS 16. Now though, it seems Apple’s rumoured October event might not happen at all, according to Mark Gruman an expert on all things Apple.

In October, Apple, in all likelihood is going to launch two Mac minis, one with the M2 chip and the other with the M2 Pro chip, and a couple of MacBook Pros, one with an M2 Pro chip and the other with an M2 Max chip, and two iPad Pros, one as 11-inch and the other as 12.9-inch, both of which would be powered by the M2 chip.

Furthermore, Apple is also slated to update the Apple TV set-top box with an A14 chip and a RAM boost. None of these new products is a major departure for Apple. They’ll get some improved specifications and a chip that was already announced at a formal event in June at WWDC 2022.

Gruman says that Apple doesn’t really have enough new hardware here to warrant a highly polished launch event, and in all likelihood will just release some of these products silently, using press releases, rather than hosting a major iPhone-style keynote event.

In addition, the lack of the Apple Headset teaser or announcement could also make it less likely for the company to prepare for an October event.

A few years ago, Apple announced a new product almost every day of the week. Instead of making an event, the company decided it would be better to unveil products as press releases. With that in mind, Gurman thinks Apple could do the same, instead of making a keynote.

FP StaffSep 26, 2022 17:01:59 IST

Samsung is pretty close to figuring out a unique facial recognition system that uses not one, but two under-display cameras on your phone. It is described in a patent application Samsung filed with the KIPRIS (Korea Intellectual Property Rights Information Service) back in March 2021. The document in question was made public last week and picked up by a Dutch publication.

Titled “Method, Apparatus, and Storage Medium for Authenticating User”, the Samsung patent described how Samsung thought of putting multiple under-display cameras beneath the phone’s screen. The diagram showed two UDCs – one each at the top and bottom – scanning the user’s face for authentication. 

The patent explains how scanning from multiple angles would offer higher levels of phone security, since requiring multiple angles for facial authentication would be more reliable.

At its core, the idea is fairly straightforward – get multiple images of the user from two angles to better construct a 3D model of the face and use that for authentication purposes. Samsung specifically mentions using under-display cameras, though, which is interesting in its own right. Up until now, the Korean giant has more or less just experimented with the technology on its Galaxy Fold line without a broader release.

One speculation then would be that Samsung is exploring this new dual UDC tech for its foldables. And while that might very well be true, we believe that the tech has broader implications and that the desire to use UDC cameras stems from the need to have the two cameras spaced out as far as possible to get two different angles of the user. 

That could necessitate placing a camera near the bottom of the phone around where the under-display fingerprints reside now. Perhaps even combining the two into one optical module.

The patent doesn’t really go into so much detail. However, it does show a mockup of a phone with two UDC cameras – one at the top and one at the bottom. Another thing mentioned in the patent is measuring pupil size. The idea is that a human’s pupil size should vary depending on lighting conditions. This could be used as an extra security measure against using things like photos or masks to trick facial authentication.

The concept is certainly interesting, but it should be noted that at this stage, it is just a concept, not an actual product or any indication of one.