Technology

Seoul, Sep 25 (IANS) The third-quarter earnings outlooks for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, the world's top two leading chip manufacturers, remain largely grim due to a recent fall in global demand for memory chips, an industry data analysis showed on Sunday.

According to the analysis by Yonhap Infomax of earnings outlooks for the two companies by securities companies within the past month, Samsung and SK hynix were expected to record operating profits of 12.8 trillion won ($9.07 billion) and 2.59 trillion won on a consolidated basis during the June-September period, respectively.

The operating profit predictions of Samsung and SK hynix represent 18.6 per cent and 37.8 per cent drops from their respective third-quarter results from a year ago.

The expected declines in earnings were largely attributed to the effects of the growing global inflationary pressure weighing down global demand for memory chips.

Do Hyeon-woo, a chip industry analyst at NH Investment & Securities Co, estimated Samsung's DRAM shipment volume to decrease by 3 percent in the third quarter and expected its average selling price (ASP) of chips to plunge by 17 per cent.

Eo Gyu-jin, an analyst at DB Financial Investment Co., predicted the companies' earnings to rebound starting in the fourth quarter of 2023, following an expected revival of the global chip industry in the second quarter of next year.

Samsung expanded its market share of the global semiconductor industry in the second quarter, maintaining its top spot, a research report showed.

Samsung's chip revenue for the April-June period came in at a record quarterly high of $20.3 billion on the back of solid server demand, taking up 12.8 per cent of the global total of $158.1 billion, according to research firm Omdia.

--IANS
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By Animesh Singh
New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) To ensure that motorists using electric vehicles get access to real-time data on nearest active charging stations while on the move, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) is developing a mobile app as well as a web portal to provide this information.


According to sources privy to developments, the app and web portal will provide real time information to motorists on the move, about the nearest active charging stations available on their route.

BEE is the central nodal agency for developing these softwares and work on this is expected to be completed soon, sources informed further.

Power Ministry had issued guidelines for developing these softwares in January this year.

Sources said that the mobile app and web portal providing live data on charging infrastructure will help in improving mobility services.

The government is also working at installing smart meters on electric poles at dedicated locations and make small charging stations across highways, cities and even villages.

Electric vehicle owners would be given smart cards for charging batteries of their vehicles anywhere.

BEE would be developing these chargers, which would include chargers for charging light electric vehicles like two-wheelers and three-wheelers, sources said.

According to BEE, these chargers will have a built in provision to measure and register electric energy delivered and a provision for electric vehicles' charging upon user authentication through the mobile app.

Such chargers would be mounted on electric poles in public parking spaces, sources informed further.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 24 (IANS) Meta-owned Instagram has rolled out a new feature globally that will allow users to upload longer uninterrupted Stories.

Currently, if an Instagram user uploads a Story that's under 60 seconds, it is broken up into 15-second clips.

"Now, you'll be able to play and create Stories continuously for up to 60 seconds, instead of being automatically cut into 15 second clips," a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.

"We are always working on ways to improve the Stories experience," the spokesperson added.

The viewers will also no longer have to continually tap to get through a long video that they may not actually want to see.

In addition, the ability to post longer uninterrupted Stories somewhat blurs the lines between Stories and Reels, as you now have two options when it comes to posting a 60-second video.

In June, Instagram added support for longer Reels of up to 90 seconds, up from the previous 60 second-limit.

Meta-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram is also testing a new Stories layout that hides excessive posts.

Users can currently post 100 Stories at once. While this number should remain the same despite the change, users who have received the update must tap a "Show All" button to see the rest of the Stories.

Otherwise, Instagram jumps to the next person's Stories. This brings about a significant change in how Instagram Stories works.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 24 (IANS) Chinese short-form video app TikTok has announced to roll out its comment dislike button to all users globally.

TikTok began testing the feature back in April to help people identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate.

"After some testing, we're releasing it globally. The total number of dislikes a comment has will not be shown and people can take back their feedback by tapping again whenever they like," the company said in a statement.

TikTok says its main priority with this tool is to create a better experience for the users.

"This allows us to better identify irrelevant or inappropriate comments, which helps us foster a comment section for genuine and authentic interactions," it added.

The dislike button will appear in addition to the option to report a comment for community guideline violations.

The company said the dislike button isn't seen as a way to report comments, and that users should instead use the standard process for reporting comments for harassment.

Social media consultant Matt Navarra first spotted the TikTok dislike button earlier this year.

Twitter has also been testing a private downvote button for replies to tweets.

Google-owned YouTube already offers a thumbs down button for comments while Reddit offers a down vote button for comments.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 23 (IANS) Facebook's parent company Meta and Google are reducing staff to cut costs amid the economic downturn, apparently putting some of them on traditional 30 to 60 days "lists" to find a new role within the company or leave.

Meta plans to cut costs by at least 10 per cent in the coming months and has put out more and more workers whose jobs are being eliminated on its traditional "30-day list," reports Wall Street Journal.

On the other hand, Google's parent Alphabet has reportedly deployed a similar approach, typically giving workers 60 days in which to apply for a new role if their jobs are set to be cut.

"Facebook parent is looking to reduce costs by at least 10 per cent, people familiar with the plans said, while Google has required some employees to apply for new jobs," the report mentioned.

Meta has a "long practice" where employees whose roles are eliminated are subject to termination if they can't find a new job internally within a month.

The Mark Zuckerberg-run company had 83,553 employees at the end of the second quarter this year.

"Google typically gives employees 60 days to apply for other roles in the company if their jobs have been cut," the report mentioned.

Last month, Google fired more than 50 workers at its incubator Area 120 and gave them extra 30 days to find another job at the company.

A Google spokesman was quoted as saying that nearly 95 per cent of employees found new roles within the notice period.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai aims to make the company 20 per cent more efficient hinting at job cuts, as the tech giant recently cancelled the projects at its in-house research and development (R&D) division called Area 120.

Addressing the gathering at the Code Conference in the US this month, Pichai said that the more the company tries to understand the macroeconomic conditions, it feels very uncertain about it.

"The macroeconomic performance is correlated to ad spend, consumer spend and so on," he told the audience.

Google has suspended hiring new employees and reportedly told some existing employees to "shape up or ship out" if expectations are not met.

In a company message viewed by Insider, Google Cloud sales leadership has threatened employees with an "overall examination of sales productivity and productivity in general" and that if next quarter results "don't look up, there will be blood on the streets".

As Big Tech companies lay off employees and freeze new hirings, Zuckerberg said in July that the company's plan is to steadily reduce headcount growth over the next year.

Admitting that the social network has entered an economic downturn that will have a broad impact on the digital advertising business, Zuckerberg said that many "teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company".

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 23 (IANS) Tech giant Apple has asked its supplier Foxconn to retool some iPhone 14 production lines in order to accommodate the iPhone 14 Pro models, media reports say.

According to AppleInsider, Zhengzhou has dismantled at least five workshops at Apple's request, according to a report citing "incomplete statistics".

Changes in production lines match a report in which analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said Foxconn was switching production lines for the iPhone 14 over to the iPhone 14 Pro models.

Kuo said this is a shipment increase of roughly 10 per cent for these devices in calendar quarter four of 2022.

Data from multiple sources point to solid demand for the iPhone 14 Pro models, with the Pro Max being the most popular, the report said.

In the US, iPhone 14 Pro Max has the longest lead time of any model released in the last six years at similar times after debut, at 36.5 days, according to investment bank Morgan Stanley.

Data from investment bank JP Morgan shows strong demand for the iPhone 14 Pro, saying it has a 35-day average delivery time and the iPhone 14 Pro Max is 41 days.

The reason is likely the newer features in the iPhone 14 Pro models. They get the new A16 Bionic chip, a 48MP camera, an always-on display, and more.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 23 (IANS) Facebook users have sued its parent company Meta in the US for allegedly tracking them via an in-app browser on iOS devices despite tough Apple privacy policies in place.

The lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleged that Meta follows users' online activity by "funneling them into the web browser built into Facebook and injecting JavaScript into the sites they visit".

According to a TechCrunch report, that code makes it possible for the company to monitor "every single interaction with external websites".

Apple introduced a major iOS privacy update via iOS 14.5 last year to stop third-party apps like Facebook from tracking user behaviour and their browsing history via App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature.

However, according to the lawsuit, Meta snooped on users "through a workaround".

The proposed class-action lawsuit "could allow anyone affected to sign on, which in Facebook's case might mean hundreds of millions of US users," the report said late on Thursday.

According to it, Meta is not only violating Apple's policies, but also breaking privacy laws at the state and federal level.

A Meta spokesperson said in a statement that the allegations were "without merit" and it will fight them in the court.

"We have carefully designed our in-app browser to respect users' privacy choices, including how data may be used for ads," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that Apple iOS privacy changes will cost the company a whopping $10 billion in 2022.

Meta has also accused Apple of favouring Google over app-based platforms like Facebook with its privacy policies.

"We believe those restrictions from Apple are designed in a way to carve out browsers from the tracking Apple requires for apps. So what that means is that search ads could have access to far more third party data, for measurement and optimisation purposes, than app-based ad platforms like ours," according to Meta.

--IANS
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San Francisco, Sep 23 (IANS) Tech giant Apple has released a new update -- iOS 16.0.2 -- that addresses a variety of bugs for users, including the iPhone 14 Pro camera shaking bug.

The new update comes two weeks after the launch of iOS 16, and it follows iOS 16.0.1, an update made available to iPhone 14 owners on launch day, reports MacRumors.

The update is available for all iPhones that are capable of running iOS 16, the report said.

According to Apple's release notes, iOS 16.0.2 addresses several bugs impacting the iPhone 14 models and other iPhones running iOS 16.

It addresses an issue that could cause the camera to vibrate and shake in third-party camera apps, it fixes a bug that led to repeated copy and paste popups, and it resolves a problem causing the display to appear black during setup.

It also fixes an issue that caused some iPhone X, XR, and iPhone 11 models with replaced displays to become unresponsive after updating to iOS 16.

All of these bugs were found shortly after the new iPhones launched, the report said.

The camera vibration issue is one of the more serious bugs as it causes the rear camera to shake uncontrollably when filming a video on apps like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 22 (IANS) Global technology brand OnePlus on Thursday unveiled an exciting range of offers across its product portfolio for the festive season this Diwali, including the OnePlus 10R Prime Blue 5G Edition that will be available with lucrative offers.

With 5G rollout in the coming months, OnePlus said it is encouraging consumers to upgrade to the 5G experience with its devices across competitive price points.

OnePlus 10R 5G Prime Blue is introduced at Rs 32,999 on Amazon.in. Customers can also avail an instant bank discount up to Rs 3,000 on the device via SBI Credit Cards, said the company.

In addition, customers will get an additional instant cashback of Rs 500 via Amazon Pay on all prepaid payments with the purchase of the OnePlus 10R Prime Edition (for Amazon Prime members).

Amazon users who purchase the OnePlus 10R Prime Blue 5G Edition can also avail of a three-month Amazon Prime subscription for free.

"OnePlus and iOS users can also exchange their older smartphones to avail an additional exchange offer of Rs 3,000 on Prime Blue edition on Amazon.in," the company informed.

Users can purchase the OnePlus 10R Prime Blue Edition with up to 9 months No Cost EMI on Axis Bank Card transactions.

The OnePlus 10 Pro receives a special festive price of Rs 61,999 and Rs 66,999 for the 8/128 GB variant and 12/256 GB variant, respectively.

For the gamer community, the OnePlus 10R 5G also receives a festive season price of Rs 32,999.

Additionally, customers can also avail an instant bank discount of Rs 6,000 on OnePlus 10 Pro, Rs 5,000 on the OnePlus 10T 5G and Rs 3,000 on OnePlus 10R 5G.

"OnePlus and iOS users can exchange their older smartphones to avail an additional exchange offer of Rs 10,000 on OnePlus 10 Pro 5G, Rs 3,000 on OnePlus 10R 5G and Rs 5,000 on the OnePlus 10T 5G," the company said.

OnePlus has also brought a plethora of attractive offers on TVs.

Customers can now purchase the OnePlus TV Y1 at the starting price of Rs 10,499 (OnePlus TV 32Y1) post discounts and the OnePlus TV Y1S Pro series starting at Rs 23,499 after the discounts. OnePlus also announced offers on U and Q series TVs as well.

Customers buying OnePlus TV 55Q1 and OnePlus TV 55Q1 Pro can avail a discount of Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000, respectively.

With special discounts on the OnePlus ecosystem, customers can also enjoy offers across the OnePlus audio and wearables as well, said the company.

The 18W Freezing Point Phone Cooler will be available this festive season at Rs 3,299.

Customers can avail a festive season discount of Rs 2,500 on the OnePlus Buds Pro, and an additional instant bank discount of Rs 1,000 via SBI Credit Card on Amazon.in and Axis Bank Cards and EMI transactions on OnePlus.in, OnePlus Store App, OnePlus Experience Store, and partners stores.

Users can avail a discount of Rs 400 and Rs 500 on purchase of OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z2 and OnePlus Buds Z2, respectively.

Axis Bank cardholders can avail up to Rs 4,000 discount on the OnePlus Nord 2T 5G and SBI Credit cardholders can avail upto INR 4,000 discount on the OnePlus Nord 2T 5G on Amazon.in.

Nord Buds buyers can avail an instant discount of Rs 500 on OnePlus.in, OnePlus Store App, Amazon.in, Flipkart and offline partner stores.

Nord Buds CE can be purchased with an instant discount of Rs 400 while Nord Wired earphones come with Rs 200 discounts, said the company.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 22 (IANS) With an aim to woo users, homegrown mobile accessories brand Gizmore on Thursday launched a new smartwatch -- GIZFIT Glow -- that comes with many new features along with a stylish design.

Priced at Rs 2,499, the next-generation smartwatch, with an Always on AMOLED display, will be available during Flipkart's Big Billion Days (BBD) Sale.

"This festive season, we want to bring to our customers a smartwatch that is sure to delight both their hearts and wallets," Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, CEO and Co-founder, Gizmore, said in a statement.

"The GIZFIT Glow smartwatch with an Always-on AMOLED display is a game changer in the segment. We thrive on engineering products that add value to our customers' lives and help them better understand their overall health and wellness," Kalirona added.

The large 1.37-inch circular display adds to the visual appeal and is well matched with a premium leather strap. It has a well-lit AMOLED screen that has 420X420 resolution, which offers sunlight visibility along with clear and sharp pictures. Productive and easy-to-use Gizfit Glow is also packed with an intelligent split screen offering quick access to frequently accessed functions. Navigating through GIZFIT Glow is breezy and fun, thanks to the rotating crown controls.

The company claimed that it comes with exceptional battery life along with multi-sport functions. Additionally, it has an IP68 certification, which makes it water-, sweat- and dust-proof. GIZFIT Glow often offers unlimited watch faces and customisations for those who seek newness.

With a button press, you can directly access the sports mode and double tap to change the UI. GIZFIT Glow can be controlled by voice as it supports Google Voice Assistant and Apple Siri.

The watch features SpO2 monitor, heart rate monitor, blood pressure monitor, stress monitor, sleep tracker and female health tracker and meditative breathing feature, to name a few. It is also equipped with several sports modes that allow you to capture all the fitness data comprehensively.

GIZFIT Glow has a Bluetooth calling feature that allows you to dial and receive calls directly from the watch. It also has a built-in microphone and speaker that offers crystal clear clarity. Once paired, you can also control your music now from the watch.

--IANS
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