Technology News

ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode Rolls Out to Some ChatGPT Plus Users ChatGPT with the advanced Voice Mode is now rolling out to some paid users, the company announced on Tuesday. OpenAI first announced the feature in its Spring event in May. Powered by the latest GPT-4o artificial intelligence (AI) model, advanced Voice Mode offers features such as real-time responses, natural voice, and the capability to sense the user’s emotions.

WhatsApp for Windows Security Flaw Allows Executing Python, PHP Files Without Warning: Report WhatsApp for Windows reportedly has a vulnerability that can be exploited by bad actors. The security flaw exploits executable files of Python and PHP for which the app does not send a warning, claimed the report. As a result, an unsuspecting user might accidentally save and run the file, allowing the attacker to deploy the payload.

Amazon Great Freedom Festival 2024 Sale Event Announced; Company Teases Upcoming Discounts, Offers and Deals Amazon Great Freedom Festival 2024 sale has been announced by the company. During the upcoming Great Freedom Festival 2024 sale, customers will be able to access deals on smartphones, electronics, home appliances, smart TV, Alexa and Fire TV devices. Meanwhile, Amazon Prime subscribers will get early access to the upcoming Great Freedom Festival 2024 sale, before th...

Samsung Vice Chairman Visits Noida Factory, Says India ‘One of the Biggest’ Global Markets With Huge Opportunity Samsung Electronics announced the visit of JH Han, Vice Chairman, CEO and Head of the Device eXperience (DX) Division, to its Noida factory on Tuesday, praising its India-based research and development (R&D) teams. As per the company, this is the official’s second trip to India in 2024, signalling the country’s growing importance for the South Korean technology c...

Google Chrome for Desktop Is Getting Circle to Search-Like Visual Lookup Functionality via Lens Google Chrome may be getting a new search feature that works similarly to ‘Circle to Search, according to a report. The feature, dubbed drag-to-search, is said to be integrated into Google Lens and can be accessed via a beta version of Google Chrome on desktops and Chromebooks.

Meta Releases 'Segment Anything Model 2' With AI-Powered Object Identification in Images and Videos Meta released a new artificial intelligence (AI) model on Monday that can perform complex computer vision tasks. Dubbed Segment Anything Model 2 (SAM 2), it follows after its predecessor that was launched last year and was incorporated in Instagram’s Backdrop and Cutouts tool. The successor to the model now comes with advanced capabilities and the company said it ca...

Airtel Starts Mid-Band Spectrum Re-Farming for Expansion of 5G Network Coverage in India Bharti Airtel is re-farming the mid-band spectrum of its existing bands, the company announced on Monday. It aims to accommodate the growing demand for traffic demand for its 5G network with this move. Consequently, four bands across its mid-band spectrum will be repurposed to support newer technologies catering to the 5G services offered by Airtel.

Google Rolls Out Call Casting and Internet Sharing on Android as the First Cross-Device Services Android has started rolling out cross-device services on devices. The feature allows a user to switch between devices while using certain apps or performing certain tasks. Cross-device service was first announced by Google in May. However, they were not rolled out at the time. Now, the tech giant is rolling out the service with two features — Call Casting and Intern...

OpenAI Launches SearchGPT, an AI-Powered Search Engine Prototype That Could Take on Google and Perplexity OpenAI launched a temporary prototype of an artificial intelligence (AI) search engine dubbed SearchGPT on Thursday. The announcement came just a day after Microsoft announced its Bing generative search. Currently, SearchGPT is available in limited release, with access to a small group of users and publishers. The company has also opened a waitlist for others to sign ...

Jio Things, MediaTek Unveil 4G Smart Android Digital Cluster, Smart Module for Two-Wheelers EVs in India Jio Things, in collaboration with MediaTek, announced the launch of the “Made in India” 4G Smart Android Digital Cluster and 4G Smart Module in India on Thursday. The devices are part of Jio Things’ Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for the two-wheeler and electric vehicle (EV) market in the country.

Microsoft Rolling Out AI-Powered Bing Generative Search, Could Rival Google’s AI Overviews Microsoft added a new artificial intelligence (AI) feature to its Bing search engine on Wednesday. Dubbed Bing generative search, the feature shows a snapshot with the information for the searched query. The feature is similar to Google’s AI Overviews which was publicly released in the US in May. Bing’s AI-powered search feature also shows the sources from where t...

Mistral Large 2 Open Source AI Model Released, Said to Be on Par With Meta Llama 3.1 405B Mistral released the new generation of its flagship open-source artificial intelligence (AI) model, Mistral Large 2, on Wednesday. The company claims the AI model offers significantly improved capabilities in code generation, mathematics, and reasoning. It also gets support for several new languages as well as advanced function calling capabilities. It is also said th...

Adobe Illustrator Updated With AI-Powered Design Tools, Photoshop Gains Support for Image Generation Adobe Illustrator received new artificial intelligence (AI) tools on Tuesday to make the design creation process easier for users. The new tools include a Generative Shape Fill tool that can generate pattern vectors within a shape. Other tools include Style Reference, Retype, Mockup, and more. These tools are powered by the company’s Firefly Vector Model.

Meta Llama 3.1 405B Released as Company's Largest Open Source AI Model to Date, Beats OpenAI's GPT-4o Meta publicly released its latest and largest artificial intelligence (AI) model on Tuesday. Dubbed Meta Llama 3.1 405B, the company says the open-source model outperforms major closed AI models such as GPT-4, GPT-4o, and Claude 3.5 Sonnet across several benchmarks. The previously released Llama 3 8B and 70B AI models have also been upgraded.

G20 Prioritises Discussions on Digital Tax Amid Looming Tariff Threats from US The Group of 20 finance leaders meeting this week for progress on a stalled plan to reallocate taxing rights on large multinational companies.The stakes in the negotiations are high. A failure to reach agreement on final terms could prompt several countries to reinstate their taxes on U.S. tech giants and risk punitive duties on billions of dollars in exports to the U...

Telegram for Android Vulnerability EvilVideo That Lets Hackers Deploy Malware as Video Files Detected: Report Telegram for Android reportedly had a zero-day vulnerability which was being targeted by attackers. This vulnerability, dubbed EvilVideo, allowed malicious actors and hackers to send malware disguised as video files. It was detected by a cybersecurity research firm last month after a post about the exploit was found on the dark web. The poster was selling the exploit ...

Union Budget 2024: Key Takeaways, Technology-Related Announcements Made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Union Budget 2024-25 making history as the first finance minister to present seven union budgets. The latest budget slashes the basic customs duty (BCD) on mobile phones and related components to 15 percent and makes other provisions related to the space and technology sector.

Spotify Premium Introduces Limited-Time Offer in India With 3 Months of Ad-Free Listening at Rs. 59 Spotify has announced a new offer for prospective subscribers of its premium subscription in India. Courtesy of a new limited-time deal introduced by Spotify, users can enjoy ad-free music streaming at a cut price via the Individual plan. However, the offer is only limited to first-time subscribers of the premium subscription.

Jio Revises Its Rs. 349 Prepaid Plan After Recent Price Hike; Improves Validity Reliance Jio announced the revision of its Rs. 349 prepaid recharge plan on Friday, just weeks after it hiked the prices of several daily, monthly, and annual prepaid and postpaid plans. The telecom company stated that the changes were made after receiving customer feedback. While the new revision does not increase the daily internet data provided or the number of fre...

OpenAI Adds a New ‘Instructional Hierarchy’ Protocol to Prevent Jailbreaking Incidents in GPT-4o Mini OpenAI released a new artificial intelligence (AI) model dubbed GPT-4o Mini last week, which has new safety and security measures to protect it from harmful usage. The large language model (LLM) is built with a technique called Instructional Hierarchy, which will stop malicious prompt engineers from jailbreaking the AI model.

Amazon Prime Day 2024 Sale: Top Deals on Laptops Under Rs. 50,000 During the Sale Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale is live with discounts on laptops and other consumer electronics products that are on available at cheaper prices as part of the subscriber-only sale event. You can pick from laptops for gaming, business, and casual use from brands such as Dell, Lenovo, Acer, HP, Asus, and MSI during the ongoing Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale.

Airline Systems Across Airports Working Normally After Global IT Outage, Minister Says Airline systems across airports, which were impacted due to a global IT outage on Friday, have started working normally, and all issues are likely to be resolved by noon on Saturday, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said. The ministry is constantly monitoring the operations at airports and airlines to ensure travel readjustments and refunds are taken care of, ...

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Price in India Drops Under Rs. 80,000 During Amazon Prime Day 2024 Sale Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra price in India has temporarily dropped under Rs. 80,000 in India as part of the ongoing Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale. This smartphone is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy Mobile Processor and features 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. You can also avail of an additional Rs. 1,000 instant discount when purchasing the smartphone using ...

Amazon Prime Day 2024 Sale: Best Deals on Smart TVs Under Rs. 30,000 Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale will offer an extensive range of products at heavily discounted rates. The sale is set to commence on July 20 at 12am IST and will end on July 21 at 11:59pm IST. Personal electronic items like smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc. will be available at considerably lower prices than their usual market prices. Even home entertainment units...

Amazon Prime Day Sale 2024: Best Tablet Deals Under Rs. 50,000 Revealed Amazon Prime Day Sale 2024 is around the corner. The yearly sale exclusive for Amazon Prime members will start at midnight on July 20. The sale offers hundreds of deals across all major product categories and is scheduled to conclude on July 21. Here are the notable deals on tablets that you can get during the Amazon Prime Day Sale 2024.

OpenAI GPT-4o Mini Launched As the Company’s Most Cost-Effective Small AI Model OpenAI released its latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, GPT-4o Mini, on Thursday. It is a small AI model, and the company says it is its most cost-effective model to date. While the company did not specify the parameter size of the model, it highlighted that it is on par with other small language models (SLM). GPT-4o Mini is replacing GPT-3.5 Turbo on ChatGPT f...

Amazon Prime Day 2024 Sale Live Updates: Best Early Deals on Mobiles, Laptops and More Ahead of the Sale Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale, the e-commerce giant's annual sale for paying subscribers, brings notable discounts on a range of smartphones, tablets, laptops, TWS earphones, home appliances, speakers, smart TVs, and other consumer electronics products. Follow us for handpicked deals that are available during the Amazon Prime Day sale, and you can keep track of our cover...

Amazon Prime Day 2024 Sale to Bring Discounts on OnePlus 12, MacBook Air M1, iPhone 13 and More Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale begins on July 20, with discounts on the OnePlus 12, MacBook Air M1, iPhone 13, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 as well as several other device that are set to become cheaper during the two-day sale event. Amazon will also offer a 10 percent instant discount on ICICI Bank SBI credit card transactions as part of the Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale...

Vietnamese Hackers Using ‘Maorrisbot’ to Target Indians in WhatsApp e-Challan Scam: CloudSEK WhatsApp e-Challan scams are reportedly being carried out in India using a new type of technical malware dubbed Maorris bot. This is a new type of scam and the report claims there is a large organised effort behind it. So far, the malware is said to be affecting only Android devices, and no impact has been seen on the iPhone or other Apple devices.

Apple Granted Patent That Describes Public Wi-Fi Network Ranking System Apple has been granted new patent for a ranking system of public Wi-Fi networks, depending on the quality of the connection and its security. As per the filing, it could potentially enable the iPhone maker to implement a new way of identifying Wi-Fi networks in public places without needing to identify the user and their location.

OpenAI Whistleblowers Claim Firm Made Employees Sign ‘Illegally Restrictive’ NDAs: Report OpenAI has reportedly been accused of employing “illegally restrictive” non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) by a group of whistleblowers. The whistleblowers have written a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), urging the agency to take “swift and aggressive” steps to stop the practice within the company. Last month, a group of anonymous former a...

Amazon Prime Day 2024 Sale Deals: Discounts on Echo, Fire TV Stick and More Amazon Products Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale will start in India on July 20 and will last through July 21. A variety of items will be available at discounted rates, considerably lower than their usual prices. Some of these offers will also be available on smart home appliances like speakers, streaming devices and more.

iOS 18, iPadOS 18 Public Beta Released: How to Install, Features, More Apple has seeded the first iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, watchOS 11, and tvOS 18 public beta, providing non-developers a safer way to try the upcoming operating systems. The iOS 18 offers a wide range of new features for compatible iPhone users including home screen customisation options, a revamped Control Centre, RCS support, a redesigned Photos app, iPhone Mirr...

OpenAI Employees Say Company Is Neglecting Safety and Security Protocols: Report OpenAI is reportedly speeding through and neglecting the safety and security protocols in developing new artificial intelligence (AI) models. A new report highlighted that the negligence occurred before the AI firm’s latest GPT-4 Omni (or GPT-4o) model was launched. Some anonymous OpenAI employees had recently signed an open letter expressing concerns about the lack...

OpenAI Said to Be Working on New Reasoning Technology Under Code Name ‘Strawberry’ OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT chatbot, is said to be working on a project code-named “Strawberry”. The Microsoft-backed startup is racing to show that the types of models it offers are capable of delivering advanced reasoning capabilities, including the ability to perform "deep research"..

Amazon Prime Day 2024 Sale Deals Revealed: Discounts on Sony WH-1000XM4, Boat Smart Ring, Amazon Echo Pop and More Amazon Prime Day 2024 sale will take place on July 20 and July 21, and the company's upcoming annual sale event for Amazon Prime subscribers will bring several discounts on consumer electronics and appliances. The e-commerce company has now started revealing discounts on a range of products, including the Sony WH-1000XM4 wireless headphones, Boat Smart Ring, and Amazo...

OpenAI Reportedly Shares the Five Levels to Reach Superintelligent AI With Its Employees OpenAI has reportedly created a classification that shows different levels towards superintelligent artificial intelligence (AI) and shared it with the employees. As per the report, the classification has five levels where the first level is a conversational chatbot and the fifth is the artificial general intelligence (AGI), an AI system considered to be powerful enou...

NPCI International Collaborates With Qatar National Bank to Launch QR Code-Based UPI Payments NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), the international arm of the payments organisation, has signed an agreement with Qatar National Bank (QNB) to launch QR code-based Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments across the country. With this move, Indian tourists and travellers can scan QR codes to make UPI payments across multiple retail touchpoints as well as h...

DMRC Launches Digital QR Code-Based Ticketing Service Via Amazon Pay Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) expanded its Digital QR Ticketing service to Amazon Pay on Thursday. With this move, Delhi Metro commuters can purchase their travelling tickets online through the platform. The QR code-based ticketing facility was already available via several other apps, but now travellers have an additional way to book their one-way tickets.

Apple Issues Fresh Warning to Users in 98 Countries Over 'Mercenary Spyware' Apple threat notifications have been issued to users in 98 countries, informing them about the possibility that they were targeted in a mercenary spyware attack. The iPhone maker has issued two such updates this year — the previous one was sent to users in 92 countries in April. Apple's threat notifications ask potentially affected users to enable Lockdown Mode on t...

Neuralink Brain Chip Implant Wires Now Stable in First Patient, Musk Hopes for More Human Trials This Year Neuralink's first brain chip implant in a human has stabalised, company executives have confirmed this week. The device works by using tiny wires, which are thinner than a human hair, to capture signals from the brain and translate those into actions such as moving a mouse cursor on a computer screen.

WhatsApp Rolls Out Context Card for New Group Members to Improve Safety WhatsApp group safety context cards are rolling out to users as part of a new feature that is designed to improve safety on the messaging service. Users will now see contextual information after they are added to a group by a stranger. WhatsApp also allows users to control who can automatically add them to a group without their permission.

Odyssey Building 'Hollywood-Grade' AI Text-to-Video Model to Compete With Sora, Gen-3 Alpha Odyssey, the artificial intelligence (AI) startup which was founded last year, shared details about its first AI product on Monday. The startup revealed that it is building an AI video model that can create Hollywood-grade visual effects. The Co-Founder of the company highlighted that the AI model will let users edit and control the output at a granular level.

Figma Takes Down AI Tool After It Creates App Mock-Ups That Eerily Resemble iOS Weather App Figma launched a new interface and several new artificial intelligence (AI) tools on June 26, in its third significant redesign since its inception. However, soon after the launch, one of the AI tools dubbed Make Design, which can conjure app mock-ups from textual prompts, received flak online. Several netizens claimed that the AI-generated app mock-ups appeared eeril...

Moshi AI Chatbot With Real-Time Voice Features Launched by Kyutai Labs as GPT-4o Rival Kyutai Labs launched Moshi, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that responds verbally in real-time, on Wednesday. The French AI firm stated that the large language model (LLM) was developed entirely in-house. It can also modulate the voice to express emotions and respond in various speaking styles. The AI model has been launched to the public and can be accessed ...

CMF Student Referral Program Launched in India; Winners to Get CMF Phone 1, Buds Pro 2 or Watch Pro 2 CMF Student Referral Program has been launched in India. Students across the country can register on a particular website and have the chance to win an upcoming CMF product. Notably, the CMF Phone 1, alongside the CMF Buds Pro 2 and the CMF Watch Pro 2, will be launched on July 8. Find out more about the registration and benefits of the program.

Meta Shares Study on Meta 3D Gen, a Generative AI System to Create 3D Assets From Text Prompts Meta has shared a new research paper about a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model that can generate 3D assets. Dubbed Meta 3D Gen, the AI model generates high-quality 3D models from text prompts in less than a minute. The company highlighted that the AI model could create end-to-end high-resolution textures and material maps using a combination of texture gen...

NPCI Brings QR Code-Based UPI Payments to UAE in Partnership With Network International QR-based Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments will now be accepted in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) announced via a press release on Wednesday. To facilitate this move, the organisation is partnering with Network International and UPI payments can be made via its over 2,00,000 point-of-sale (POS) terminals.

Microsoft Copilot Reportedly Tests Ability to Perform Tasks on Windows 11-Linked Android Phones Microsoft Copilot has reportedly received a new update that gives it the capability of managing certain tasks on a linked Android smartphone. There are some criteria to adhere to before the feature can work as per the report, but after setting it up correctly, users can ask the AI to send a text message or summarise messages in the inbox. The feature is said to be onl...

WhatsApp Readying 'Imagine Me' Feature to Generate Personalised Images Using Meta AI: Report WhatsApp is reportedly preparing a new “Imagine Me” feature that will let users create AI-generated photos of themselves. This update has been spotted in WhatsApp for Android beta version 2.24.14.13, which is available via the Google Play Beta programme.

Koo to Shut Down Four-Year-Old Service After Acquisition Discussions Fail Koo is shutting down, co-founders Aprameya Radhakrishna and Mayank Bidawatka announced on Wednesday. Four years ago after it was launched as a competitor to Twitter (now known as X), Koo will cease operations after acquisition talks with "multiple larger internet companies, conglomerates and media houses" failed, according to the app's founders.

Ajax Engineering Launches Enterprise-Grade AI Chatbot Concrete GPT for Industry-Focused Knowledge Sharing Ajax Engineering, a concreting solution provider, launched its artificial intelligence (AI) platform Concrete GPT on Tuesday. The AI chatbot is aimed at professionals in the concrete industry and serves as a knowledge-sharing space to share innovation, market insights, and regulatory updates. The company claims that more than a million specialists in India will benefi...

Anthropic to Fund Initiative to Develop New Third-Party AI Benchmarks to Assess AI Models Anthropic announced a new initiative to develop new benchmarks to test the capabilities of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) models on Tuesday. The AI firm will be funding the project and has invited applications from interested entities. The company said that the existing benchmarks are not enough to fully test the capabilities and the impact of the newer large l...

OpenSSH Vulnerability regreSSHion Identified, More Than 14 Million Servers at Risk: Report OpenSSH servers in large numbers are reportedly affected by a newly discovered vulnerability. This vulnerability is said to be a regression of a previously patched vulnerability which has again resurfaced. As per the report, more than 14 million servers were found to be at risk, particularly those with versions earlier than 4.4p1 can be affected by this vulnerability ...

Amazon Prime Day Sale 2024 India Dates Announced: Bank Offers, Deals Revealed Amazon's biggest sale event of the year — Amazon Prime Day 2024 — will take place in the third week of July. It will begin 12:00am on Saturday, July 20 and end at 11:00pm July 21 Sunday. The two-day online sale will be exclusive to Amazon Prime members and it will bring discounts on categories ranging from consumer tech to home goods to fashion, apparel and beyond...

Meta Charged by EU for Breaching Tech Rules With Its Pay or Consent Advertising Model Meta Platforms was charged by EU antitrust regulators on Monday for failing to comply with landmark tech rules as they took aim at the US company's newly introduced pay or consent advertising model, already the target of privacy regulators and activists' ire.