CTC BLOG

Mehul Reuben DasJan 12, 2023 17:06:57 IST

Elon Musk and his team at Twitter had once considered selling usernames to generate revenue for the platform, a report by the New York Times has revealed. Elon Musk is taking some drastic steps in order to generate a better cash flow and revenue stream for Twitter, however, some of the steps that the social media platform and Elon Musk have taken, are downright bizarre.

Elon Musk expects to free up a bunch of usernames when Twitter deletes about a billion inactive accounts on Twitter. Some of these usernames are quite unique, which Musk plans on auctioning to get more revenue for Twitter.

Two Twitter employees who have first-hand knowledge of the plan spoke to reporters from the New York Times and revealed that Twitter employees have held conversations about selling some user names for the service since at least December, the people said. Engineers have discussed running online auctions where people can bid for the user names, which are the words, numbers or string of characters that follow the @ sign by which accounts are identified on the platform.

Elon Musk had said in December that he wanted to start eliminating inactive accounts on Twitter and free up 1.5 billion user names. Naturally, some of these usernames would be of a high value, especially for businesses and public individuals, who, Musk assumed, would pay for a username of their choice. 

User names or handles that are unique can be very profitable, just like certain URLs on the website. Early adopters of social media platforms often open up multiple accounts and claim these URLs, hoping that some individuals and businesses are ready to spend thousands of dollars on them. 

People also often purchase such user names on black marketplaces, which have popped up because they contain a short word or number and may have been abandoned by their owners. In most of these cases, the username is stolen from an account that has been lying dormant for a long time, and which was recently hacked.

The purchasing and sale of handles are prohibited per Twitter policy. Hackers have historically been drawn to the trade. A 17-year-old Florida man was detained in 2020 after hacking into Musk’s and other celebrities’ Twitter accounts to gather user identities to sell.

Popular messaging service Telegram announced that starting in October, users would be able to auction off their handles.

Musk tweeted that he will “absolutely” look to delete accounts that have been dormant for a year, some of which had sought user names, four days after buying the firm in October. Twitter will provide the identities of accounts that were “obvious account cancellations with no tweets & no log in for years,” he claimed in December.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 10:50:01 IST

Samsung will launch their upcoming Galaxy S23 series at the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event on February 1. However, thanks to numerous leaks and rumours, we already have a pretty clear idea of what the design of the upcoming devices will be like and what are they going to entail. Now though, we have a confirmation of sorts on the design aspects of the S23 series, thanks to an accidental leak from Samsung, that reveal both the design and colour options available for the base model Galaxy S23 handset.

Samsung’s base variant Galaxy S23 will not have a camera island, and is expected to come with a brighter OLED display, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, and a triple camera setup.

According to WinFuture’s Roland Quandt, these are official marketing images from Samsung, and not fan-made renders based on previous models or design predictions. If you want a better look at the new handset, WinFuture has other images listed on its report.

WinFuture has a stellar record when it comes to leaks and more often than not has been correct about Samsung’s devices. If this leak turns out to be accurate, then the Galaxy S23 will not have the raised camera island that featured on its predecessor, the Galaxy S22, so that the phone’s three cameras protrude individually from the back of the housing. Instead, the camera housing will be flush with the main body, and only the external lens element will protrude out. 

According to leaked renderings, the S23 will come in four colours – black, white, green, and pinkish-lilac. The S23 chassis appears to have the traditional metal frame and glass cover combo we’ve seen on past versions.

The S23’s specifications are still unknown, but it’s rumoured to have a new, brighter OLED display. Additionally, the lineup is anticipated to be powered in North America by Qualcomm’s newest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and to have a higher resolution camera sensor with improved low-light performance.

Given that WinFuture is claiming that these images were leaked by Samsung accidentally, and were actually meant for the press as part of their marketing and PR campaigns, the chances of this leak being accurate is significantly high.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 12:20:58 IST

Wisconsin and North Carolina signed orders that banned TikTok on government-issued and maintained devices owing to cybersecurity concerns on Thursday. Wisconsin and North Carolina join Kansas, Ohio and several other states to ban the social media platform owned by ByteDance. 

Wisconsin and North Carolina took the tally of states which banned TikTok in the US over 20. Wisconsin has also banned other Chinese businesses and several Russian businesses as well.

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers also announced that the state would be banning vendors, products and services from other Chinese companies including Huawei Technologies, Hikvision, Tencent – the owner of WeChat, and ZTE Corp. Wisconsin is also banning some Russian businesses as well from government-issued devices. Russian-based Kaspersky Lab is one such business. 

“In the digital age, defending our state’s technology and cybersecurity infrastructure and protecting digital privacy has to be a top priority for us as a state,” Evers said.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed an order directing officials to develop a policy within 14 days that prohibits the use of TikTok, WeChat and “potentially other applications” that present cybersecurity risks on state devices.

So far, more than 20 states have banned the social media platform along with several other applications that are owned by Chinese technology conglomerate ByteDance from government-issued devices. 

TikTok, meanwhile put out a statement, saying it was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok.”

TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew recently met officials in the EU to assure them that they take user’s privacy and cybersecurity very seriously. 

TikTok is looking at getting banned in the United States at a federal level after FBI Director Christopher Wray said in November it poses national security risks. Wray flagged the threat that the Chinese government could harness the app to influence users or control their devices.

For three years, TikTok has been seeking to assure Washington that the personal data of U.S. citizens cannot be accessed and its content cannot be manipulated by China’s Communist Party or any other entity under Beijing’s influence.

Last month, President Joe Biden signed into law a government funding bill that included a ban on federal employees from using or downloading TikTok on government-owned devices.

The law gives the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 60 days “to develop standards and guidelines for executive agencies requiring the removal” of TikTok from federal devices. 

FP StaffJan 14, 2023 19:43:10 IST

Intel launched its 13th Gen desktop processor in September globally, whereas the lineup was launched in mid-October in India. This month, they are launching its fastest desktop processor to date, which breaks the 6GHz barrier at stock speeds for the first time. 

Intel is going all in the CPU wars with the latest Core i9-13900KS. The i9-13900KS is the fastest desktop CPU in the world and is able to hit the 6Ghz mark on turbo, without any additional overclocking

The new Core i9-13900KS is without a doubt the fastest desktop CPU on the market right now and is based on the 13th Gen Core i9 13900K that came close to the 6GHz barrier with its 5.8GHz turbo frequency last year. The new KS version has been priced at $699 or Rs 56,800 in the US and is likely to be priced similarly in India.

The CPU is aimed at professional creators, gamers and other enthusiast-level users. It uses Intel’s performance hybrid architecture to give users an unparalleled experience in productivity-related tasks, gaming, and content production.

The 13900KS is the first CPU to achieve 6GHz without overclocking, breaking over the 6GHz barrier and enhancing PC gaming performance. It does this by utilising Intel’s Thermal Velocity Boost technology.

Intel has bumped up the base power of the 13900KS to 150 watts, from the base power of 125 watts of the 13900K. At max turbo power, the KS version will hit slightly above 250 watts.

The base frequencies of the Performance cores have been bumped up to 3.2GHz, up from the 3GHz on the 13900K. Other than that the new CPU is similar to the 13900K. The new 13900KS CPU has the same eight Performance and 16 Efficiency cores for a total of 24 cores, which run on 32 threads. The new CPU has 36MB of Intel Smart Cache, and 20 PCIe lanes, of which 16 are PCIe 5 and four are PCIe 4.

The new 13900KS is compatible with Z790 motherboards as well as Z690 motherboards, although to get the best out of Intel’s flagship desktop CPU, it is better paired with Z790 motherboards. Users will need to update their existing MoBos with the latest BIOS for the best gaming and content creation experience.

As for RAM, the 13900KS supports DDR5 RAMs with speeds of up to 5600 MT/s and DDR4 RAMs with speeds of up to 3200 MT/s.

The Intel Core i9-13900KS is available with major retailers for users planning to build their own PCs, and will soon start appearing on OEM machines.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 16:10:20 IST

It seems that TikTok just can’t catch a break. After getting banned from state-owned computers and mobile devices in over 20 states in the United States of America, where it faces a possible federal-level ban, the social media company was fined $5.4 million by France for inappropriate handling of cookies and online tracking. 

The $5.4 million fine and sanction on TikTok by France comes just a day after TikTok’s CEO met EU officials to assure them that all ByteDance ventures take data privacy and cybersecurity very seriously.

France’s CNIL or National Commission on Informatics and Liberty, the protection watchdog whose job it is to ensure that all companies operating in France abide by the nation’s data laws, said that its investigation only concerned the website tiktok.com and not the service’s much more heavily used smartphone applications.

The CNIL discovered that TikTok users who used the web version, found it more difficult to reject internet trackers than to accept them. Additionally, the authority determined that internet users were not adequately notified about TikTok’s usage of cookies.

The ByteDance-owned company has since said that they have now resolved the issue.

“These findings relate to past practices that we addressed last year, including making it easier to reject non-essential cookies and providing additional information about the purposes of certain cookies,” a spokesperson for TikTok told Reuters.

“The CNIL itself highlighted our cooperation during the course of the investigation and user privacy remains a top priority for TikTok,” the spokesperson added.

According to regulations set forth by the European Union, websites must expressly request internet users’ permission before using cookies, which are little data files saved when a user is browsing the web.

The fine comes just a day after TikTok’s CEO, Shou Zi Chew met a contingent of EU officials in Brussels and assured them that TikTok takes data privacy seriously and will work closely with officials to safeguard users.

FP StaffJan 14, 2023 19:23:08 IST

Intel has finally launched its 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processor (code-named Sapphire Rapids). At this week’s launch event, Intel described the new Xeon as one of its most significant product launches to date.

The new Intel Xeon CPU Max Series, also known as Sapphire Rapids HBM, was introduced at the event. It is an x86-based processor with high bandwidth memory that is intended to boost HPC applications without requiring modifications. Additionally, Intel unveiled its Data Center GPU Max Series, also known as Ponte Vecchio, which was created to offer better edge, cloud, network, and edge computing capabilities.

Intel’s 4th Gen Xeon Max Series CPU is the first and only x86-based processor with high bandwidth memory, accelerating many HPC workloads without the need for code changes.

Besides improving data centre and cloud infrastructure performance, the new CPUs are important to Intel and its partners for other reasons. The delays, initially from manufacturing issues and ultimately to a flaw discovered last year, helped AMD expand its data centre presence.

According to Intel, the 4th Gen Xeon processors provide clients with a variety of options for controlling power and performance, making the best use of CPU resources to aid in the achievement of their sustainability goals. These processors are Intel’s most environmentally friendly data centre CPUs.

As using built-in accelerators, consumers of the 4th Gen Intel Xeon may anticipate an increase in average performance per watt efficiency of 2.9x for specific workloads when compared to earlier generations.

The company said that the 4th Gen Xeon family greatly expands on Intel’s purpose-built, workload-first strategy and approach. It also offers a family of processors specifically optimised for high-performance, low-latency networks and edge workloads.

Additionally, the Xeon CPU Max Series is the first and only x86-based processor with high bandwidth memory, speeding up several HPC tasks without requiring code modifications. According to Intel, the Data Center GPU Max Series, which is Intel’s highest-density CPU, will be offered in a variety of form factors to suit various client requirements.

Additionally, the 64 GB of high-speed RAM that the Xeon CPU Max Series delivers on the package considerably boosts data throughput for HPC and AI applications.

Major cloud providers that have already deployed Intel’s new 4th Gen Xeon Scalable processor include AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, IBM and Oracle. AWS has already deployed the latest processors in its EC2 service, said Amazon VP David Brown.

The Xeon CPU Max Series outperforms top-tier 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors by up to 3.7 times 10 in a range of practical applications including energy and earth system modelling, said Intel.

Officials from Intel also praised the security upgrades made to the 4th Gen Xeon Scalable CPU. The 3rd Gen Xeon Scalable CPU from Intel has Software Guard Extensions (SGX), which this processor supports. By minimising the attack surface in private, public, and cloud-to-edge situations, Intel SGX offers secure computing.

Trust Domain Extensions (TDX), a virtual-machine isolation technology that Intel created to make it easier for apps to move into secure computing environments, is now a feature of the new 4th Gen Xeon processor.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 13:47:32 IST

Tim Cook will take a substantial pay reduction in 2023 after he urged that his remuneration be changed in response to feedback and criticism from Apple’s stakeholders. Apple today published its annual proxy statement for investors, revealing a number of details about executive compensation, shareholder proposals, and more. 

Even though Tim Cook is voluntarily taking a massive pay cut for 2023, there are several other benefits that he still gets to enjoy. For example, he will continue to have a private jet at his beck and call for all business and personal travel.

The report that was released alongside the statement revealed that Tim Cook will have a “target compensation of $49 million” in 2023, a decline of around 47 per cent compared to what he earned in 2022.

Cook’s 2023 target total compensation has been set $49 million, which is a reduction of more than 45 per cent from his 2022 target total compensation. Taking into consideration Apple’s comparative size, scope, and performance, the Compensation Committee also intends to position Cook’s annual target compensation between the 80th and 90th percentiles relative to our primary peer group for future years.

The Compensation Committee of Apple’s board of directors is in charge of matters like executive compensation. According to today’s filing, Cook himself recommended that his compensation structure be adjusted based on feedback received as part of the Compensation Committee’s “Say on Pay” survey and vote.

Prior to the start of each fiscal year, the Compensation Committee assesses and decides on compensation. The results of the 2022 Say on Pay advisory vote led to broader shareholder engagement on executive compensation in 2022 of approximately 53% of institutional shares held. Apple’s outstanding performance, shareholder comments, and Cook’s suggestion that his remuneration be adjusted in light of the feedback received were all taken into account by the Compensation Committee.

In 2021, Tim Cook received total compensation of around $98 million. Sixty-four percent of votes cast at the next year’s shareholders meeting were in favor of the 2021 compensation paid to executives.

Cook’s target compensation for 2022 was $84 million, but he actually earned roughly $99.4 million since a large portion of his income is performance-based and linked to Apple’s stock.

For 2023, Cook will receive a base salary of $3 million and an annual case incentive of $6 million. There are no changes made to these figures. However, as we said, a majority of Cook’s remuneration is tied to Apple’s stock. For 2023, his equity award value has been capped at $40 million. This is down from the $75 million he made in 2022.

Cook stated in a 2015 interview that he intends to use a “systematic approach” to donating in order to distribute all of his fortune. He did not provide specifics at the time, just stating that he had begun giving money “quietly.”

Besides this annual compensation, one major benefit that Cook enjoys is the availability of a private jet for all business and personal travel. For “security and efficiency considerations,” the Apple board of directors adopted a policy in 2017 requiring Cook to fly privately for all of his professional and personal trips.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 13, 2023 17:25:48 IST

In an effort to halt Beijing’s scientific and military advancements, the Biden administration unveiled a comprehensive set of export regulations in October, including measures that severely restrict Chinese access to US chipmaking technology.

The US has been trying to sanction China for some time now and has asked its allies to put up sanctions that would stop tech companies from working with the Chinese chip industry. These sanctions won’t show any immediate effect.

The White House will discuss a recent crackdown on exports of chip-making tools to China with Japanese and Dutch officials during upcoming visits, but they will not result in “immediate” pledges from the two countries to impose similar curbs, a person familiar with US officials’ thinking said on Thursday.

However, given that leading manufacturers of chipmaking equipment include Japanese and Dutch companies Tokyo Electron and ASML, it has not yet persuaded important allies to implement equivalent equipment constraints, which are seen to be necessary for manufacturing the restrictions effective.

Upcoming meetings between US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the White House on Friday and next Tuesday, respectively, will provide forums to discuss the issue, said a person briefed on US officials’ thinking.

But, “these visits will not result in immediate announcements and (are) part of our ongoing consultations on these issues,” the person cautioned.
A key commerce department official said in October that such agreements were coming “in the near term”.

Ameya DalviJan 13, 2023 18:14:20 IST

Our list of phones under Rs 15,000 this month has quite a few changes from the previous one. And positive changes, I may add. We have half a dozen options for you to cater to different needs and tastes. There are phones with good cameras, some with AMOLED displays, quite a few are 5G compliant, and all of them have 6 GB RAM. Choose one that suits you best.

Best phones to buy under Rs 15,000 in India

Motorola G62 5G
Let’s start with the first of the two new Motorola phones, the G62 5G. As one can guess from the model number, the phone is 5G ready courtesy of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 SoC, which is a great choice in this budget. It is accompanied by 6 GB RAM and 128 GB internal (expandable) storage. It has a 6.5-inch Full HD+ IPS display with a 120 Hz refresh rate. 

The photography department at the back has a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide shooter and a 2MP macro camera. You get a 16MP front camera for selfies and video calls. It has a 5000 mAh battery that should comfortably last for a day and a half of normal use. The Motorola G62 5G runs Android 12, and like most Motorola phones you get a clean and near-stock user interface. 

Motorola G62 5G price in India: Rs 14,999 for 6GB RAM/128GB storage

Motorola G72
The Motorola G72 is not 5G compliant but offers a few notable extras as compared to the G62. The RAM, storage, OS and UI are the same but it is powered by a Mediatek Helio G99 chip that is powerful enough for day-to-day tasks and more. It has a 6.6-inch Full HD+ P-OLED screen, again with a 120 Hz refresh rate, and a 576 Hz touch sampling rate – the combination is quite rare in this budget. The phone also has an IP52-rated water-repellent design.

You get the same 8MP ultrawide shooter and a 2MP macro camera at the back and a 16MP selfie camera up front, but the main 50MP camera on the G62 is replaced by a 108MP camera here. When was the last time we saw one in this budget, if at all? This phone too has a 5000 mAh battery that keeps it powered for over a day and a half of moderate use, but you also get a 33W fast charger here. Thus you may miss out on 5G on the Motorola G72, but you do get a lot in lieu of that for the same price.

Motorola G72 price in India: Rs 14,999 for 6GB RAM/128GB storage

Poco M4 Pro 5G
The Poco M4 Pro 5G  is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 810 chip, which is again a good choice for this segment. It is accompanied by 6 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal (expandable) storage. This phone has a 6.6-inch Full HD+ LCD display with a 90 Hz refresh rate and 240 Hz touch sampling rate. A layer of Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protects the screen against scratches.

The Poco M4 Pro 5G has two cameras at the back, helmed by a 64 MP primary camera and supported by an 8 MP ultra-wide camera. The 16MP front camera does a good job with selfies and video calls. The phone launched with Android 11 and an Android 12 update is now available with MIUI 13. This phone too has a 5000 mAh battery that can go beyond a day and a half of moderate use, and the bundled 33W fast charger promises to charge it fully in under an hour. 

Poco M4 Pro 5G price in India: Rs 13,999 for 6GB RAM/128GB storage

Infinix Note 12 5G 
The Infinix Note 12 5G is another 5G ready phone in this list with an impressive feature set. It sports a large 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with a 90 Hz refresh rate. Just like the Poco M4 Pro 5G, this phone too is powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 810 SoC. You get 6 GB RAM but half the internal storage (64 GB) as compared to other phones in this list. However, it can be expanded further using a microSD card. 

This phone is quite slim too with a thickness less than 8 mm. The photography department consists of a 50MP primary camera and a 2MP depth sensor along with an AI lens. The 16MP front camera will interest the selfie crowd. The Infinix Note 12 5G has a 5000 mAh battery that can keep it running for a day and a half of normal use. It supports 33W fast charging. This Infinix phone runs Android 12 with XOS 10.6 UI. 

Infinix Note 12 5G price in India: Rs 12,999 for 6 GB RAM/ 64 GB storage

Oppo K10 
The Oppo K10 gets the basics right for this segment, and retains its place in this list. It has an IP5X rated dust-proof design and sports a 6.59-inch Full HD+ display with a 90 Hz refresh rate. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 chip, which is decent enough in this budget. And you do get 6 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage that can be expanded further using a microSD card. This phone launched with Android 11 with ColorOS 11, and an Android 12 update has started rolling out. 

The photography department here is mainly about the 50MP primary camera that does most of the heavy lifting. The 2MP depth sensor and a 2MP macro camera mostly make up the numbers. The 16MP front camera is pretty good though for selfies and video calls. The Oppo K10 too has a 5000 mAh battery that keeps it running for over a day and a half of moderate use. Even better, the company bundles a 33W SuperVOOC charger to juice it up briskly. 

Oppo K10 price in India: Rs 13,990 for 6GB RAM/128GB storage

Samsung Galaxy F23 5G 
The Samsung Galaxy F23 5G is a well-rounded phone that is currently available in this budget. It is a very good option for the brand conscious buyers without compromising much on features or performance. In fact, this smartphone is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 750G SoC, arguably the most powerful in this list, and its 6 GB RAM and 128 GB internal (expandable) storage variant is now available under 15K. It has a 6.6-inch Full HD+ LCD display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

The photography department at the back has a combination of a 50MP primary camera, an 8MP ultra-wide snapper and a 2MP macro camera. It has a modest 8MP selfie camera that gets the job done. The battery backup is similar to other phones in this list with a 5000 mAh battery keeping it running for a day and a half of moderate use. It supports 25W fast charging. The Samsung Galaxy F23 5G runs Android 12 with the company’s One UI 4.1 on top.
Samsung Galaxy F23 5G price in India: Rs 14,999 for 6GB RAM/128GB storage

Mehul Reuben DasJan 10, 2023 19:10:58 IST

The states of New Jersey and Ohio announced that they will be banning TikTok on government-owned and managed devices. The two states join a long and growing list of US states who have banned the use of the popular video app or even have the app on devices issued by the state governments.

New Jersey and Ohio become the latest states in the US to ban TikTok in state-issued devices, given to government employees. It looks like the app from ByteDance may soon be banned completely in the US. Image Credit: AFP

Democratic governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy announced that in addition to removing the ByteDance-owned short-video app from state-owned devices, he was also removing software providers, goods, and services from more than a dozen companies, including Huawei, Hikvision, Tencent, ZTE Corporation, and Kaspersky Lab.

According to Murphy’s office, “there have been national security concerns regarding user data that ByteDance would be required to transfer to the Chinese government.”

Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine stated in his order that “users of these programmes and platforms, as well as the devices storing the applications and platforms, pose hazards to national and local security and cybersecurity.”

TikTok said it was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok.”

On Friday, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he planned to join other states in banning the use of the popular video app that has more than 100 million US users.

Republican governors have led the charge to ban TikTok from state devices and some Democratic governors have been slower to do so.

After US FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in November that TikTok presents hazards to national security, calls to prohibit it on government computers gained momentum. The possibility that the Chinese government may use the software to sway users or manage their devices was raised by Wray.

According to two persons familiar with the situation, TikTok has suspended the employment of consultants who would aid it in implementing a prospective security pact with the United States as more American officials reject such a deal, according to Reuters on Friday.

For the past three years, TikTok has worked to reassure Washington that the Chinese Communist Party or any other organisation influenced by Beijing cannot access the personal information of American people or alter its content.

New Delhi/Islamabad: Days after India surpassed Japan to become the third largest auto market, neighbouring Pakistan recorded a steep decline in auto sales with manufacturers forced to shut down production owing to reduced demand and ‘cash flow constraints’.

The Shehbaz Sharif-led country, currently going through a severe economic crisis, so much so, that people have been forced to fight it out for flour on the streets, saw a decline in sales ranging from 28.4-56.5 per cent in the auto sector during the first half of 2022-23, according to local media reports.

The total car sales across Pakistan stood at 68,900 units in the July-December period compared to 114,774 units sold during the same time frame last year.

Pauper Pakistan

According to a media report, buyers showed reluctance due to high inflation coupled with sky-rocketing interest rates making leasing more expensive.

Moreover, curbs on auto financing and non-opening of letters of credit has resulted in shortage of parts leading to production halts by various assemblers and late delivery in models, the report added.

Big manufacturers almost call it quits

Earlier this months, Suzuki Pakistan announced the extension of closure of its plant till January 13, blaming inventory shortages. “Due to the continued shortage of inventory level, the management of the company has decided to extend the shutdown of the automobile plant from January 9, 2023, to January 13, 2023,” PSMC said.

Looking at the current economic condition and crisis situation, the plant is unlikely to open anytime soon.

On the other hand, Pakistan’s biggest agricultural machinery manufacturer, Millat Tractors Limited has announced that its production will remain closed until further notice, citing reduced demand and cash flow problems.
“Due to continuing reduced demand for tractors and cash flow constraints, the company will remain closed from Friday January 6, 2023 till further notice,” it stated in a regulatory filing.

Over the past few months, several auto part vendors across Pakistan were forced to shut down operations due to massive decline in demand and import curbs imposed by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), which were lifted last week.

India’s success story

Despite global recession, India managed to surpass Japan for the first time to become the third largest auto market with New Delhi selling at least 4.25 million new vehicles, against the 4.2 million sold by Japan in 2022.

According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), new vehicles delivered in India between January and November 2022 totalled 4.13 million. The number rose to roughly 4.25 million units when the sales figure for December, which Maruti Suzuki, the largest automaker in India, reported on 1 January this year, news agency ANI reported.

Japan, on the other hand, sold 4.20 million vehicles last year, down 5.6 per cent from 2021.

(With inputs from agencies)

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Mehul Reuben DasJan 12, 2023 18:46:13 IST

Soon after he took over Twitter, Elon Musk issued an order asking Twitter’s finance departments all over the world to stop paying vendors whose services the social media platform had been using. Musk also stopped paying the rent of the various office spaces that Twitter occupies all over the world. While landlords in various cities are now planning to sue Twitter, with some of them even filing the pre-requisite paperwork to do so, things have taken an ugly turn in Singapore.

Twitter’s Singapore staff were forced to evacuate the office premises in chaos, over non-payment of rent. Elon Musk has stopped paying the rent of all office spaces that Twitter occupies, and is facing lawsuits from angry landlords all over the world.

Earlier this week Twitter’s global team sent an email to Twitter employees to pack their things up, and by the end of business hours, or 5:00 PM, vacate the CapitaGreen office of Twitter, which also acts as the firm’s Asia-Pacific headquarters. However, before they could walk out of the office on their own accord, their landlord forced them to walk out of the office for non-payment of rent, said a member of Twitter’s Singapore team.

Singapore-based staffers have now been reassigned as remote workers in Twitter’s internal system until further notice, the person added. Singapore serves as Twitter’s Asia-Pacific headquarters, a region that was hit hard by deep and abrupt job cuts when new owner Elon Musk took over the San Francisco-based firm.

Twitter was previously sued for not paying rent for office space in San Francisco. As per a Bloomberg report, the land owner revealed that the social media giant was notified on December 16, 2022, that it would be in default on its lease for the 30th floor of the Hartford Building in five days unless the rent was paid.

A spokesperson for CapitaLand, the owner of its Singapore offices, told South China morning that Twitter remains a tenant at CapitaGreen without elaborating on why the employees were forced to walk out. 

Apart from not paying the rent of its headquarters and offices, Twitter has also not paid the rent or utilities for various properties that host its servers, because of which they have had to shut those spaces down. It is speculated that the reduced number of active servers was one of the reasons why Twitter suffered from a number of global outages earlier this month.

Moreover, Twitter has also stopped paying some of its key software vendors, and has refused to renew the licenses of some services that have been vital for the platform to function properly.

With the deadline for Musk to pay the $1 billion in interest that he owns for the loans he took to acquire Twitter approaching near, it only seems that Musk’s actions are only going to get drastic.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 12, 2023 19:45:54 IST

Mental health is a rather tricky subject to deal with, even with the best of intentions. Trust, in both the counsellor and in the process, is very important. So how do Artificial Intelligence and machine learning fit into all this? An American mental health platform recently conducted an experiment to find out how AI, specifically ChatGPT can be used in counselling. Unfortunately for them, the experiment gave birth to more problems than it solved.

Koko, a mental health platform used ChatGPT in counselling sessions with over 4,000 users, raising ethical concerns about using AI bots to treat mental health.

Koko is a nonprofit mental health platform that connects teens and adults who need mental health help to volunteers through messaging apps like Telegram and Discord. On Friday, Koko co-founder Rob Morris announced on Twitter that his company ran an experiment to provide AI-written mental health counselling for 4,000 people without informing them first, to see if they could discern any difference.

Critics have called the experiment deeply unethical because Koko did not obtain informed consent from people seeking counselling.

Koko works through a Discord server users sign in to the Koko Cares server and send direct messages to a Koko bot that asks several multiple-choice questions like “What’s the darkest thought you have about this?”. It then shares a person’s concerns—written as a few sentences of text—anonymously with someone else on the server who can reply anonymously with a short message of their own.

During the AI experiment, which applied to about 30,000 messages, volunteers providing assistance to others had the option to use a response automatically generated by OpenAI’s GPT-3 large language model, the model upon which ChatGPT is based, instead of writing one themselves.

After the experiment, Morris put up a thread on Twitter, which explained the experiment they had conducted. This is where things turned ugly for Koko. Morris says that people rated the AI-crafted responses highly until they learned they were written by AI, suggesting a key lack of informed consent during at least one phase of the experiment.

Morris received many replies criticizing the experiment as unethical, citing concerns about the lack of informed consent and asking if an Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved the experiment.

The idea of using AI as a therapist is far from new, but the difference between Koko’s experiment and typical AI therapy approaches is that patients typically know they are not talking with a real human.

In the case of Koko, the platform provided a hybrid approach where a human intermediary could preview the message before sending it, instead of a direct chat format. Still, without informed consent, critics argue that Koko violated prevailing ethical norms designed to protect vulnerable people from harmful or abusive research practices.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 12, 2023 11:30:48 IST

In a new development that seems to be coming from some dystopian future, Iran has announced that it plans to use facial recognition technology to identify and prosecute women who defy the country’s strict and draconian hijab laws.

There is a suspicion that Iran might already be using facial recognition technology to prosecute women, and that Jina Mahsa Amini, may have been arrested because of Iran’s use of facial recognition. Image Credit: Pexels

Critics of facial recognition technology have rightfully pointed out how the tech may be misused in regimes with authoritarian undertones in order to keep their citizens in check. Iran is just the latest in a long list of authoritarian countries to do so.

Iranian lawmakers suggested last year that face recognition should be used to police hijab law, the head of an Iranian government agency that enforces morality law said in a September interview that the technology would be used “to identify inappropriate and unusual movements,” including “failure to observe hijab laws.” Individuals could be identified by checking faces against a national identity database to levy fines and make arrests, he said.

Since September 2022, the nation has had violent protests in opposition to the hijab legislation, which mandates that women cover their faces in public. The so-called morality police in Iran zealously enforce this rule, and women who disobey it risk punishment. It all started with a 22-year-old Kurdish woman named Jina Mahsa Amini, who died in the custody of the Iranian morality police. She was detained by Iran’s morality police for not wearing a hijab tightly enough.

Face comparisons in a national identity database might be used to identify women, and on the basis of such identification, fines and arrests could be imposed. According to Wired, the fact that so many women are being detained inside of their homes suggests that facial recognition may already be in use by Iranian officials.

Mahsa Alimardani, who studies Iran’s freedom of speech at the University of Oxford, recently learned of tales of Iranian women obtaining mail-order tickets for breaking the hijab rule even though they had never interacted with a law enforcement official. 

According to Alimardani, the Iranian government has spent years developing a computerised monitoring system. The nation’s national identification database, created in 2015, contains biometric information, including as facial scans, and is used to create national ID cards and identify persons that the government deems rebels.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 11, 2023 17:45:21 IST

A part of the Soyuz capsule docked at the International Space Station was damaged when a micrometeorite crashed into the ISS. Because of the crash, the module seems to be leaking coolant and other liquids at an alarming rate. Clearly, the Soyuz capsule of the ISS is no longer habitable for Russia’s cosmonauts.

The Soyuz MS-22 was supposed to bring back the cosmonauts from the ISS in March. However, it was hit by a micrometeorite causing a critical puncture. Russia will therefore send the Soyuz MS-23 on a rescue mission, and try to bring the Soyuz MS-22 back to Earth. Image Credit: NASA

As a result, the Russian space agency it would launch another Soyuz rocket on February 20 to bring home two cosmonauts and a U.S. astronaut from the International Space Station.

“The expedition of Sergey Prokopyev, Dmitry Petelin, and Francisco Rubio to the ISS is being extended. They will return to Earth on Soyuz MS-23,” Roskosmos said, indicating that a new spacecraft will be launched to the flying laboratory. The MS-23 launch had earlier been planned for mid-March. Soyuz MS-22 will descend to Earth without a crew, it said.

The leaking Soyuz capsule was supposed to bring back cosmonauts from the ISS in March this year, and should ideally have remained docked to the ISS. However, Russia is now planning to bring the Soyuz capsule back to the Earth, without any humans on board. 

The incident has disrupted Russia’s ISS activities, forcing a suspension of spacewalks by its cosmonauts as officials focus on the leaky capsule, which serves as a lifeboat for the crew.

The leak is also a problem for NASA. The U.S. agency said last month it was exploring whether SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft could offer an alternative ride home for some ISS crew members, in case Russia was unable to launch another Soyuz.

Russia meanwhile, has refused any assistance from SpaceX. 

The leak from the Soyuz MS-22 was spotted in December when the Russians were about to venture outside the station on a planned spacewalk and ground specialists saw a stream of fluid and particles emanating from the Soyuz on a live video feed from space.

Roscosmos and NASA both have said the incident hasn’t posed any danger to the station’s crew.

Along with Prokopyev, Petelin, and Rubio, four other crew members are currently on the space outpost: NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Josh Cassada; the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Koichi Wakata; and Anna Kikina of Roscosmos.

FP StaffJan 11, 2023 18:28:42 IST

Hundreds of Tesla owners gathered at the automaker’s showrooms and distribution centres in various Chinese cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Chengdu and Xi’an after the EV maker announced heavy discounts across their range on the weekend.

Tesla slashed the prices of their EVs in China for the second time in three months. Customers who bought Tesla’s EVs at a higher price just weeks ago demanded that the EV maker refund or rebate their money to reflect the new discounted price.

Buyers of the Tesla Model Y and the Model 3 stormed a number of Tesla facilities in Shanghai, protesting the EV maker’s decision to slash prices, without informing them. This is the second time that Tesla had to slash prices in China, in the last three months.

Many said they had believed that prices Tesla charged for its cars late last year would not be cut as abruptly or as deeply as the automaker just announced to spur sales and support production at its Shanghai plant. The scheduled expiration of a government subsidy at the end of 2022 also drove many to finalise their purchases.

After the recently announced discounts, Tesla EV’s prices in China are down by about 24 per cent, compared to what they were in September 2022. 

Protesters who bought Teslas stormed a Tesla store in China after price cuts demanding a refund of the price difference.

Do you think they have the right to be refunded the price difference? Or just those who have not received their cars yet? #Tesla $tsla pic.twitter.com/FzQk3xw263

— Anas Alhajji (@anasalhajji) January 8, 2023

Analysts believe that Tesla reduced the prices of all its EVs in China, to boost its faltering sales, and to force other EV makers to offer similar discounts, and sell their vehicles at a lower profit margin. China happens to be the world’s largest market for battery-powered cars.  

“It may be a normal business practice but this is not how a responsible enterprise should behave,” said one Tesla owner protesting at the company’s delivery centre in Shanghai’s Minhang suburb on Saturday who gave his surname as Zhang.

As per a report by Reuters, a crowd of about 200 people gathered outside a Tesla store in the southwestern city of Chengdu, chanting, “Return the money, refund our cars.” Tesla does not plan to compensate buyers who took delivery before the most recent price cut, a spokesman for Tesla China told Reuters on Saturday.

China accounted for about a third of Tesla’s global sales in 2021 and its Shanghai factory, which employs about 20,000 workers, is its single most productive and profitable plant.

Analysts have been positive about the potential for Tesla’s price cuts to drive sales growth at a time when it is a year from announcing its next new vehicle, the Cybertruck.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 11, 2023 14:49:54 IST

When Elon Musk took over Twitter and fired nearly half of its original staff, his team assured that employees who have been terminated and those who chose to leave the organisation would be given a pretty handsome severance package, which would include health insurance for a couple of months, as well as other benefits.

Elon Musk had assured the fired staff of Twitter that they would be given a handsome severance package along with some benefits. However, the actual severance pay that former Twitter employees received was significantly less than what they are owed.

So much so, that many former employees had actually decided they would start their own ventures using the severance packages. However, all of these were based on verbal assurances. Most of the people who were terminated by Musk and his team were supposed to be given their severance pay letter by the first week of January 2023, which would formally put down what exactly would they be given as part of their severance packages.

As per a report by Fortune, the compensation that is being given to Twitter’s former employees is significantly less than what they were entitled to. The same report also revealed that the severance pay mail was in a format that it landed in the spam folder and that led to many employees missing the mail.

Musk has been sued by a number of different groups of former Twitter employees, for a variety of reasons, all related to the manner in which Twitter either fired employees or forced employees out of the company.

In a bid to cut costs, Musk has not only asked Twitter’s finance teams to not pay vendors with whom they have been working but also to not pay the rent of the office spaces they occupy.

Moreover, Musk actually tried to wiggle his way out from paying any severance at all, because of which he had already been involved in a different lawsuit.

Musk has also stopped offering free lunches, a policy that was set up by co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey. Musk has also directed his team to auction off kitchen appliances, unused furniture and several other knick-knacks from Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco.

Twitter has recently fired more employees, especially from the trust and safety team, which primarily looks after global content moderation and closely monitors hate speech and harassment on the platform. Furthermore, the report also reveals that the company has fired employees from teams handling policy on misinformation, global appeals and state media on the platform.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 10, 2023 19:10:58 IST

The states of New Jersey and Ohio announced that they will be banning TikTok on government-owned and managed devices. The two states join a long and growing list of US states who have banned the use of the popular video app or even have the app on devices issued by the state governments.

New Jersey and Ohio become the latest states in the US to ban TikTok in state-issued devices, given to government employees. It looks like the app from ByteDance may soon be banned completely in the US. Image Credit: AFP

Democratic governor of New Jersey Phil Murphy announced that in addition to removing the ByteDance-owned short-video app from state-owned devices, he was also removing software providers, goods, and services from more than a dozen companies, including Huawei, Hikvision, Tencent, ZTE Corporation, and Kaspersky Lab.

According to Murphy’s office, “there have been national security concerns regarding user data that ByteDance would be required to transfer to the Chinese government.”

Republican Governor of Ohio Mike DeWine stated in his order that “users of these programmes and platforms, as well as the devices storing the applications and platforms, pose hazards to national and local security and cybersecurity.”

TikTok said it was “disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies that will do nothing to advance cybersecurity in their states and are based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok.”

On Friday, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he planned to join other states in banning the use of the popular video app that has more than 100 million US users.

Republican governors have led the charge to ban TikTok from state devices and some Democratic governors have been slower to do so.

After US FBI Director Christopher Wray stated in November that TikTok presents hazards to national security, calls to prohibit it on government computers gained momentum. The possibility that the Chinese government may use the software to sway users or manage their devices was raised by Wray.

According to two persons familiar with the situation, TikTok has suspended the employment of consultants who would aid it in implementing a prospective security pact with the United States as more American officials reject such a deal, according to Reuters on Friday.

For the past three years, TikTok has worked to reassure Washington that the Chinese Communist Party or any other organisation influenced by Beijing cannot access the personal information of American people or alter its content.

Ameya DalviJan 10, 2023 19:40:08 IST

Pros:
– Pleasant sound output, custom equaliser
– Excellent build quality, comfortable in-ear fit
– Seamless Google Assistant integration
– Impressive battery backup
– Wear detection, multipoint support
– Useful companion app (finally)

Cons:
– Average ANC for the segment
– Lacks support for high-end codecs
– Pricing needs to be more competitive

Price: Rs 18,999

Rating: 3.7/5

Google launched its flagship true wireless (TWS) earbuds in India a few months ago. But it seemed far from a finished product then, especially on the software side; how ironic! The tech giant did promise a few updates in the coming months, and after a couple of them, the Google Pixel Buds Pro does feel like a good package. Having said that, given its stiff price tag, it is bound to run into some serious competition in India from the likes of Sony and Samsung. Can it outdo them or even match their performance? Let’s find out.

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

Google Pixel Buds Pro: Design and comfort (8/10)
The earbuds have an unusual design that’s hard to put in words; best to check the image below. They aren’t the most compact buds I have come across, but they do not stick out of the ears much. More importantly, they feel comfortable in the ears, offer a snug fit and do not pop out during jogs and workouts. The preinstalled medium-sized silicone ear tips worked best for me providing a good seal and passive noise isolation. 

More tips of different sizes are bundled along in case medium isn’t the right fit for you. As always, we would suggest spending a few minutes choosing the right ones as it helps in achieving better noise reduction – passive as well as active. The companion app also assists you in opting for the right tips. The build quality of the Google Pixel Buds Pro is excellent for the buds and case both. The buds have a black matte finish and sizable touch zones at the back.

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

The case feels premium courtesy of its smooth white matte finish. You only get the Charcoal black variant of the product here, which means, you will have to make do with the black and white combo; no complaints about that. The compact case is fairly pocketable. It has a camouflaged charge indicator LED at the front, a Bluetooth pairing button back and a USB-C charging port at the bottom. 

The earbuds weigh 6.2 grams each, while the charging case tilts the scale at 50 grams. Not the lightest but they don’t feel heavy either, thanks to the even weight distribution. The earbuds are IPX4 rated for sweat resistance and can be worn during workouts or jogs. Avoid using them in a drizzle though. The case has an IPX2 rating which makes it partially water-resistant from certain angles. Best to keep it away from splashes and sprays. 

Google Pixel Buds Pro: Features and specifications (7.5/10)
Each earbud is fitted with an 11 mm driver and three microphones. They also have wear detection sensors to pause the audio when you remove a bud from the ear, and resume when you put it back in. Being a Google product, there is tight integration with Google Assistant. You can issue hands-free voice commands to do certain tasks or control compatible smart devices in the house. They are quite responsive just like Google Nest smart speakers.

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

The codec support here is not so great. The Pixel Buds Pro are compliant with just SBC and AAC codecs over Bluetooth 5.0. That’s quite meagre for a flagship product. It is more than fair to expect support for high-end codecs like aptX HD, LDAC or LHDC, given its premium pricing. You do get multipoint support though to pair and use these earphones with two devices simultaneously.

The back of the earbuds is touch-enabled and accepts single tap, double tap and triple tap gestures to perform multiple tasks. Even better, you can also use a slide gesture to increase or decrease the volume; something I would like to see in most midrange and high-end earbuds going ahead. The Pixel Buds app (on Android only for now) lets you assign a couple of functions to certain gestures, but one cannot completely alter the default controls. 

The biggest addition to the app is sound tweaks, which was missing at launch. The app offers you a bunch of sound presets as well as a 5-band equaliser to create your custom preset. Instead of a frequency value for each band, Google has opted for names like Upper treble, Treble, Mid, Bass and Low bass that each of the bands actually alter. This is a simple but excellent approach as most people do not know what the number actually signifies. 

Google Pixel Buds Pro: Performance (7/10)
The wireless range is perfectly fine with a stable connection at 10 metres with a clear line of sight between the buds and the source device. There weren’t any latency issues either with no lag between the picture and sound when streaming videos. ANC and Transparency modes are available here, but their performance is average for the segment. The ANC successfully filters low frequency sounds like the hum of an AC or the buzz outdoors, but it is nowhere as good as what you get on the Sony WF-1000XM4. 

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

As for Transparency mode, the ambient sounds feel natural but not loud enough, especially the voices when outdoors. Often I had to remove a bud from the ear to hear the person clearly. Moving on to sound quality, the Pixel Buds Pro offers a reasonably balanced and enjoyable sound output across various genres of music. But the detail in audio is a couple of notches below other stalwarts in this price range like the Sony WF-1000XM4 and Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro.

Broadly speaking, these earbuds deliver a V-shaped sound with boosted lows and high. No, not as distinctly V-shaped as what you get in earbuds priced under Rs 5,000. The level of resolved detail is also significantly better than those, but we expect better given that these buds are priced close to 20K. Despite the boost, the bass is tight and punchy and does not excessively overshadow the mids. There is a bit of masking of the lower mids, but the vocals are quite sharp here. 

The highs have a good amount of sparkle and are tempered just right to not sound sibilant. The soundstage is reasonably broad with a good sense of space, and the imaging is good too. It’s just the finer details in sound where it comes short, and that may be due to the limited wireless bandwidth available here because of unavailability of a superior codec. Despite that, these earphones produce a likeable output. And as I mentioned earlier, you also get a 5-band equaliser to tweak the sound further to suit your taste.

Google Pixel Buds Pro: Call quality (7/10)
The call quality of the Pixel Buds Pro is above average but nothing special. The person on call was clearly audible, and the person did not face much trouble trying to hear what I had to say. But the transmitted voice sounds a bit soft, and could have used a bit more sharpness or amplification for a better calling experience. It may be a result of an aggressive ENC algorithm. The ENC does work well in noisy areas, and the microphones manage to keep the ambient noise at bay without negatively impacting the conversation.

Google Pixel Buds Pro: Battery life (8/10)
The battery backup of the Pixel Buds Pro is quite good. Google states figures of 7 hours for the buds and additional 13 hours with the charging case with ANC on. And the estimates are fairly accurate. During the test process, the buds lasted a little under 7 hours at 70% loudness with ANC switched on all the time. With the additional juice from the case that could recharge the buds almost twice over, the overall battery backup figure was close to 19 hours with ANC on; again, not far from Google’s estimate. 

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

Without ANC, the company claims that buds can go on for 11 hours on a full charge and for about 30 hours with the case. Though I did not put that claim to test, going by its battery performance with ANC on, you should easily get 10 hours for the buds and 28 hours overall without ANC, which is impressive. The case can be charged using a standard USB-C charger, and it supports wireless charging too with Qi-certified chargers. Fast charging is available as well, with 5 minutes of charge providing you with an hour of play time with ANC on. That’s not chart-topping but more than handy.

Google Pixel Buds Pro: Price and verdict
The Google Pixel Buds Pro can be purchased for Rs 18,999 in India with a one year warranty. Given the competition in the segment in India, we feel Google should have priced it a bit more competitively. In terms of pure sound quality and ANC, the offerings from Sony and Samsung are clearly ahead. The Pixel Buds Pro does offer tight integration with Google Assistant, and with other smart products from the company. Other things in favour of these buds are excellent build quality, good battery backup and a 5-band equaliser to customise the sound.

Image Credit: Tech2 | Ameya Dalvi

As for alternatives, our top two picks of 2022 under Rs 20,000 are hard to beat. The Sony WF-1000XM4 offers clean and detailed sound output along with the best ANC under 20K. The Samsung Galaxy Buds 2 Pro is not far behind in terms of sound quality and ANC, and if you use a Samsung phone or plan to, you can unlock some of its more premium features too. As of now, it would be hard to recommend the Pixel Buds Pro over those two. However, if its price drops under 15K, it would be an interesting option.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 10, 2023 16:08:15 IST

Public schools in Seattle have sued Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, alleging that social media is one of the main causes of “a youth mental health crisis” and for “exploiting the neurophysiology” of kids’ brains. The complaint accuses major social media platforms of breaking the state’s public nuisance statute and demands monetary penalties and other relief from them. The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Public Schools in Seattle are suing Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube for causing a mental health crisis among the young and steering them to content that is harmful and exploitive. Image Credit: AFP

“Defendants have successfully exploited the vulnerable brains of youth, hooking tens of millions of students across the country into positive feedback loops of excessive use and abuse of Defendants’ social media platforms,” the lawsuit said. “Worse, the content Defendants curate and direct to youth is too often harmful and exploitive,” the lawsuit added.

“Most youth primarily use five platforms: YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, on which they spend many hours a day,” Seattle Public Schools said Friday in a statement on the lawsuit. “Research tells us that excessive and problematic use of social media is harmful to the mental, behavioral, and emotional health of youth and is associated with increased rates of depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, eating disorders, and suicide.”

Defendants include Facebook and Instagram’s owner, Meta; Snapchat owner Snap; TikTok owner ByteDance; and Alphabet, the owner of Google and YouTube.

The lawsuit also alleges that the companies’ “misconduct has been a substantial factor in causing a youth mental health crisis, which has been marked by higher and higher proportions of youth struggling with anxiety, depression, thoughts of self-harm, and suicidal ideation.”

“Defendants have maximized the time users—particularly youth—spend on their platforms by purposely designing, refining, and operating them to exploit the neurophysiology of the brain’s reward systems to keep users coming back, coming back frequently, and staying on the respective platforms for as long as possible,” the complaint said.

The rates at which kids suffer from mental health problems have “climbed steadily since 2010 and by 2018 made suicide the second leading cause of death for youths,” the Seattle school complaint said. Children spending more time on social networks during the pandemic “has only intensified this crisis,” the complaint also said.

The complaint said research shows “a clear relationship between youth social media use and disordered eating behaviour,” and that “the more time young girls spend on social media platforms, such as Instagram and Snapchat, the more likely they are to develop disordered eating behaviours.”

The lawsuit also blames social networks for online bullying. “The more time an individual, especially males, spend on social media, the more likely they are to commit acts of cyberbullying,” it said.

According to the complaint, about 59 per cent of US teenagers “have experienced some form of cyberbullying,” which includes name-calling, untrue rumours, receiving explicit images without their permission, being stalked online, receiving physical threats, and having explicit images of them shared without their permission. The case cites data from the Pew Research Center.

The behaviour of social media corporations, according to Seattle schools, “constitutes a public nuisance under Washington law,” the court was requested to rule. The lawsuit also asks for an injunction barring the defendants from “continuing to engage in conduct causing or contributing to the public nuisance” and forcing them to “abate the public nuisance.” The school district also asks for “equitable compensation to support preventative education and treatment for excessive and problematic use of social media” in addition to monetary damages.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 09, 2023 17:58:28 IST

Samsung will soon be launching their upcoming Galaxy S23 series. Although a few leaks have already started pouring in which reveal what sort of hardware we can expect to see in the upcoming flagship from Samsung, the actual launch date has been a topic of speculation for some time now. However, it seems that Samsung may have accidentally leaked the official global launch date of the Galaxy S23 series. Samsung Colombia posted the Unpacked page a bit early confirming the Galaxy S23 launch date.

The Galaxy S23 was supposed to debut in late February, however, the official Samsung Colombia website indicates that the event will take place on February 1.

Although the teaser doesn’t reveal much, it does feature the new camera design and images of leaves and lilacs in the corner that allude to the names of the previously released hues.

For the last several weeks, renderings of the Galaxy S23 series have been emerging online, and all three models have a lens in the S22 Ultra design.

Last week, official-looking renders of the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Ultra leaked leaving very little to the imagination. The leaked renders also revealed what colours we can expect to see the device in – Cotton Flower, Misty Lilac, Botanic Green, and Phantom Black.

Specifications-wise, there is a lot that we still don’t know, but there have been rumours that Samsung is using the latest version of the 200MP camera ISOCELL HP3 sensor in the Galaxy S23 Ultra.

The 50MP primary camera on the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S23 Plus is said to sport an upgraded lens. All three variants will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2SoC, and may possibly be the end of Exynos-based Galaxy S devices in Europe and certain Asian countries.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 09, 2023 19:02:32 IST

Elon Musk has asked a judge to order the relocation of a forthcoming shareholder lawsuit trial from San Francisco due to his fears that the jury may be biassed against him. Musk asks the judge to move the trial to West Texas in a filing submitted on Friday because of the locals’ hostility in the Bay Area that surrounds Elon Musk and his enterprises and prevents a fair trial.

Fearing that locals of San Francisco have a negative impression of him and how he handled Twitter, Elon Musk believes that jurors selected from the city will have a negative perception of him and won’t give him a fair trial. Image Credit: AFP

The shareholder class action lawsuit is taking place because of a now-famous 2018 tweet from Musk, in which he claimed to he had the “funding secured” to take Tesla private. The lawsuit accuses him of manipulating the company’s shares. 

In the weeks that followed the tweet, Tesla’s stock saw extreme highs and lows, which led to a $40 million fine from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The next trial, according to CNBC, will decide if Musk’s 2018 tweet had an impact on Tesla’s stock price as well as whether Tesla and Musk should be held liable for the alleged damages.

Elon Musk and his team of lawyers fear that the manner in which he fired Twitter employees and the manner in which his dealins at Twitter, one of the most popular places to work in San Francisco has been reported, has made people irate. 

“The recent local media coverage has created an environment that encourages the District’s jury pool to hold negative biases against Mr. Musk’s use of Twitter,” the filing reads. “Potential jurors that hold negative opinions about Mr. Musk’s use and relationship with Twitter generally as a result of this coverage will be unable to separate this baseline bias from the facts in this case and thus be unable to impartially evaluate Musk’s conduct.”

The filing also adds that Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter, which included mass layoffs at the company’s San Francisco headquarters and other locations “already created substantial bias” in those who have (or know someone who has) been impacted by the job cuts.

The lawsuit additionally asserts that local officials frequently “promote” rallies against Musk and his San Francisco headquarters, further solidifying this “prejudice,” and leading to an unfair trial. Musk and his attorneys want that the trial be postponed in order to give the “bad feelings” around Musk time to fade if the judge rules against moving the case to Texas, where Tesla is situated.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 09, 2023 19:47:57 IST

A team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has claimed that in a study they have conducted, they found that the human body could be a useful tool to harvest waste energy and use it to power devices in the future, including those used for 6G, the next generation of wireless communication. The human body can act as range extenders, with each individual body, acting as antennae.

Engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered that the human body can safely collect enough electromagnetic energy or RF energy that it can power minor IoT devices, and even act as antenna for 6G devices in the future

The benefits of 5G wireless connectivity, which has been implemented in several nations worldwide, are just now starting to be felt by the general public. However, the following generation, known as 6G, promises data rates up to 1000 times quicker, as well as a tenth the latency of 5G.  

With its successor, an even greater number of devices and sensors are anticipated to become online, ushering in a new phase in the Internet of Things (IoT) era that is anticipated to start with 5G. The development of Visible Light Communication (VLC), a kind of wireless fibre-optic network, is thought to be responsible for the greater communication rates expected in 6G.

What is Visible Light Communication?
In its most rudimentary form, Visible light communication (VLC) is a wireless method that uses light emitted by LEDs to deliver networked, mobile, high-speed communication similar to Wi-Fi, leading to the term Li-Fi. It can be used as a standalone solution or in a supplementary role to radio-frequency (RF) or cellular network communication. The basis of the technology involves switching LEDs ON and OFF within nanoseconds at a very high frequency.

As the visible light spectrum is 10,000 times larger than the radio frequency spectrum, VLC is regarded as a solution to RF bandwidth limitations. The industry has generated very high data transmission rates, making it competitive.

Though the signal cannot penetrate obstructions such as walls, a direct line of sight is not required as long as light is reflected from other surfaces. The LED lighting must be ON for the signal to transmit but can be dimmed to very low levels. VLC has an advantage over Wi-Fi in that transmission does not cause electromagnetic interference.

How does Visible Light Communication work?
When it comes to transferring information, VLC functions much like radio transmissions, with the exception that it does so by using light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs). According to Jie Xiong, a professor of information and computer sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in a VLC array, one LED has the capacity to turn on and off a million times per second.

We already have the infrastructure in place to implement this technology since LED lighting is used in all of our buildings, businesses, streets, and cars. In addition, any device with a camera, such as a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, may act as a receiver and enable the technology.

These LEDs also emit side-channel radio frequency (RF) or radio waves which is an energy leak, and this could be harvested to make VLC devices work.

Harnessing RF Leakage
Xiong and his colleagues set out to create an antenna that might capture this energy being released. They used copper wires that were wound into coils for their antenna design, which were afterwards put to the test for their energy-gathering capacity. The researchers discovered that the antenna’s capacity to gather energy increased when it was connected with another item, regardless of the coil’s thickness or the number of times the copper wire was twisted.

Apart from keeping the antenna in contact with different materials like wood and steel, the researchers also kept it in contact with objects like walls, tablets, phones, and even laptops to see how much energy could be harvested. The team found that energy collection increased with electronic gadgets but was highest when the coil was in touch with the human body.

Apart from keeping the antenna in contact with different materials like wood and steel, the researchers also kept it in contact with objects like walls, tablets, phones, and even laptops to see how much energy could be harvested. The team found that energy collection increased with electronic gadgets but was highest when the coil was in touch with the human body.

Mehul Reuben DasJan 09, 2023 12:53:00 IST

Apple had earlier announced that their Indian division will soon open up official, brick-and-mortar stores in the country, latest by 2023. The Cupertino-based tech giant has now started hiring people to staff these stores, although they haven’t made any official announcement regarding their stores.

Apple wants better control of the manner in which iPhones and other Apple products are sold in India. Hence, they want to establish their own retail sales channels. Apple will soon open up their first store in Mumbai, followed by New Delhi. Image Credit: AFP

The company’s recent job listings show new openings for 12 retail roles at “various locations” throughout the country, including store leaders, senior managers, Genius Bar workers, and more.

The listings on Apple’s website and LinkedIn profile, show that there are vacancies, both full-time and part-time positions for the Apple Store. However, there are no indications as to the number of positions that were made available. 

In 2022, The Economics Times broke the news that Apple was planning to open a 22,000-square-foot store in Mumbai at the beginning of 2023. Apple was also working on a 10,000 to 12,000-square-foot store in New Dehli, along with several other stores in the country.

Apple first made its online store available to customers in India in 2020, with CEO Tim Cook dropping hints that Apple would establish a physical presence, at a shareholder meeting around the same time. “I don’t want somebody else to run the brand for us,” Cook said, referring to the third-party retailers that currently sell iPhones to customers at brick-and-mortar stores in India.

Although Cook and Apple planned to open their first store in India back in 2021, these plans had to be pushed back mainly due to the pandemic. 

Apple has been trying to establish their own retail lines in India for years now. For years, the tech giant has had to deal with authorised resellers and third-party sellers who would often hoard their most demanded products and sell them at a premium.

Furthermore, Apple is looking to expand its footprint in India, as it is bringing the production of key devices from China to India. Apple first started making iPhones in India in 2017 and shifted production of the iPhone 14 from China to India in the weeks following its release.

Apple has been trying to move away from China, not just because of political reasons, but to save costs and more importantly, keep production and supply chains running. Moreover, India has emerged as a massive, virtually untapped smartphone market for Apple.