Technology

New Delhi, Sep 20 (IANS) Twitter has rolled out a feature to help blind and visually-impaired people read images embedded with the tweets via its new image description reminder.

The new image description reminder will encourage more people on Twitter to add helpful descriptions to the images they tweet, the company said in a statement.

Alternative text, or alt text, is a written description of what's in an image that can be picked up by screen reader software used by the visually impaired.

Whenever you add a photo to a Tweet, you have the option to describe it using alt text, also known as a digital image description.

"Our new image description reminder is a feature that prompts you to make a good habit of adding alt text to every image you upload and share on Twitter," said the company.

Once enabled, the feature sends you a prompt on web and mobile reminding you to add alt text whenever you're about to Tweet an image.

"We're rolling out our new image description reminder globally, and most people on Twitter have access to it already (those who don't will have it very soon)," Twitter announced.

The descriptions are useful not only to people using screen readers, but to those in low-bandwidth areas, those with web phones, and anyone who wants to learn more about an image.

"Image descriptions help describe the image to people who aren't able to view it, so it's important to keep the text focused: capture what's important, be succinct, and be objective," informed Twitter.

Photos with descriptions will appear with an ALT badge in the lower left corner, making it clear that additional descriptive text is available for the image.

Twitter recently added an ALT badge, a Closed Captions toggle button, and captions for audio conversations on Spaces and Voice Tweets.

--IANS
na/ksk/

San Francisco, Sep 20 (IANS) After several iPhone 14 Pro users complained that it is producing blurry and shaking footage, tech giant Apple has confirmed that a fix is set to arrive next week for this issue.

The tech giant is aware of a bug that is causing the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max cameras to shake and vibrate, according to an Apple spokesperson that spoke to MacRumors.

Recently, several users discovered that the camera module was shaking when in use in apps, including Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.

The issue was causing video recorded using the camera within the apps to be unpublishable, due to the constant erratic movement.

Posts on social media, including Reddit claim there to be a lot of jitters, believed to be a shaking of the optical image stabilisation (OIS) system.

In the case of the iPhone 14 Pro, the 48MP Main camera has Apple's second-generation Sensor-Shift OIS, which physically moves the sensor, while the other uses an older and more conventional OIS system.

Some users claimed that they could see and hear the shaking and mechanical movement when they used the third-party app's camera features.

--IANS
vc/svn/

Ramallah, Sep 20 (IANS) Some 150 Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem have closed down to protest against attempts of the Israeli government to censor textbooks and impose the Israeli curriculum.

About 100,000 students on mOnday refrained from going to their schools in compliance with the strike, a warning step after the Israeli government began taking punitive measures against schools to force them to "drop the Palestinian narrative from the curricula they teach and to include the Israeli narrative only", official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Ziad al-Shamali, head of the Union of Parents in East Jerusalem, said that if Israel's efforts succeed, it "will have control over the education of 90 percent of our students in Jerusalem", reports Xinhua news agency citing WAFA

Some 115,000 students from kindergarten to grade 12 attend more than 280 Palestinian schools in Jerusalem, according to al-Shamali.

On Sunday night, videos went viral on social media platforms, in which residents of East Jerusalem hung up posters reading "general strike, yes to the Palestinian curriculum, no to the distorted curriculum".

In late July, Israel revoked the permanent licenses of six Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem, citing that their textbooks contain content deemed as "incitement" against Israel and its military.

For decades, disputes over the textbooks used by Palestinian schools in East Jerusalem have existed between the two sides.

The Palestinians slam Israel for interfering in their choice of textbooks and hindering them from receiving financial assistance for education from international organisations and Western countries.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Middle East war, and has controlled them ever since.

--IANS
ksk/

San Francisco, Sep 20 (IANS) Google-owned streaming platform YouTube is rolling out a new video page that tweaks several elements and, most notably, unifies the design across Android, iOS, and the web.

According to 9To5Google, the highlight of this redesign is the use of pill-shaped buttons for key elements. For example, instead of being two distinct buttons, thumbs up/down and the like count are housed in one container.

Share, Create (Shorts), Download, and other things users frequently interact with get the same treatment, the report said.

Meanwhile, that carousel (on mobile) is now underneath channel details, with that information coming after the video title, view count, publish date, and hashtags.

This new design might also coincide with "Ambient Mode" that allows the bottom of a video to bleed into the description section and system status bar for a more immersive experience.

However, this can be optionally enabled/disabled from the overflow menu.

Another key change with this revamps places the top comment in a more prominent container that stands out on the screen. This technique might ultimately prove successful in getting people to engage more.

Things are slightly different on the desktop, with the video description getting the visual call out, something that Creators should benefit from, as per the report.

This revamp has been slowly appearing for more users in recent weeks but is not yet widely rolled out.

--IANS
vc/ksk/

San Francisco, Sep 20 (IANS) Tech giant Apple may rename the "Pro Max" lineup with "Ultra" that will arrive with 8K video and better battery life in 2023.

According to GSMArena, the iPhone 15 Ultra will have some exclusive hardware. 8K video recording is one possibility, though it is also possible that the iPhone 15 Pro will support it as well.

Analysts Ming-Chi Kuo also suggests that the Ultra will exclusively have a periscope lens (6x or 5x). Also, the Ultra will have improved battery life and last 3-4 hours longer.

With all these exclusive upgrades, the iPhone 15 Ultra is expected to go up in price compared to the 14 Pro Max, possibly starting at $1,200 (up from $1,100).

Meanwhile, all iPhone 15 models are expected to drop Lightning in favour of USB-C, the report said.

All four models are expected to adopt the Dynamic Island design.

However, the two pairs will still use different tiers of chipsets, with the Pro and Ultra models moving to a new Apple A17, while the vanilla iPhone 15 and the 15 Plus will most likely get the current A16.

--IANS
vc/ksk/

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) YouTube is going to make its short-form video app Shorts part of its partner programme that will help millions of creators get a share of the ad money generated in Shorts.

YouTube is also making it easier for creators, who don't qualify for the partner programme, make money via tips, subscriptions and merchandise sales, reports The Verge.

The aim is to offer better monetisation options than its Chinese rival TikTok and bring more creators back on Shorts.

To date, YouTube has monetised Shorts via creator funds, shopping and tips.

YouTube last year announced a $100 million fund to begin paying creators who use Shorts.

YouTube Shorts is now being watched by over 1.5 billion signed-in users every month with more than 30 billion daily views.

In the era of TikTok, Google-owned YouTube Shorts is catching up fast and the company has seen encouraging results in its early monetisating efforts on the short-video making platform.

Philipp Schindler, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Alphabet (Google's parent company), said in July that consumers are increasing and consuming short-form videos obviously and they are seeing this across multiple platforms, including YouTube.

"We're continuing to see good user engagement on YouTube. Early results in Shorts' monetisation are also encouraging, and we're excited about the opportunities here," Schindler said during a call with analysts.

"We're excited about the opportunity," he added.

--IANS
na/

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) In order to meet the criteria for performance-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, 'Make in India' smartphone shipments grew 16 per cent year-on-year to reach 44 million units in the first quarter of this financial year, according to a new report.

The Indian government's push with multiple PLI schemes has been showing a positive impact and "we saw increased local manufacturing share in product segments like smartwatch, TWS, neckband and tablet", said Counterpoint Research.

OPPO led the 'Make in India' smartphone shipments with a 24 per cent share, followed by Samsung and Vivo.

Lava led the feature phone shipments with 21 per cent share.

"OPPO recently announced the Vihaan initiative under which it plans to invest $60 million in the next five years to empower the local supply chain. Samsung also increased its manufacturing with the premium segment smartphones, especially the Galaxy S series," said senior research analyst Prachir Singh.

In the smartphone segment, in-house manufacturing contributed to almost 66 per cent of the total 'Make in India' shipments in the June quarter, while the rest of the 34 per cent shipments came from third-party EMS (electronics manufacturing services) players.

Among the third-party EMS players, Bharat FIH, Dixon and DBG were the leading players during the quarter.

Padget Electronics (396 per cent YoY), Wistron (137 per cent YoY) and Lava (110 per cent YoY) were the fastest growing smartphone manufacturers during the quarter in terms of shipments.

"Also, we may see disbursement of PLI incentives during Q3 2022, which will further boost the local manufacturing sentiments," said the report.

Optiemus leads the Made in India shipments for smartwatches with more than 75 per cent share.

In the wearable segment, TWS led in terms of domestic manufacturing with a 16 per cent contribution, followed by neckbands and smartwatches.

In TWS, Optiemus, Bharat FIH and Padget are the top three manufacturers.

In the neckband category, VVDN and Mivi have a 90 per cent share in the 'Make in India' shipments.

In the tablet category, Wingtech, Samsung and Dixon are the top players while in the TV category, Dixon, Radiant, Samsung and LG have a 50 per cent share.

"The government aims to make India an electronics manufacturing hub in the next four to five years. To help drive more initiatives under the themes of 'Make in India' and 'Digital India', the government, in its last budget, pushed the total allocation to $936.2 million," said research analyst Priya Joseph.

--IANS
na/ksk/

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) Google has rolled out the ability to send multiple photos and videos simultaneously via its Chat.

You can now select more than one image or video at a time when sending a message in Google Chat.

This feature is now available across iOS devices and is rolling out on Android devices.

"You can attach files up to 200 MB from your computer, mobile device, or Google Drive directly to Google Chat messages," said the tech company in its update.

The Google Chat media picker will let users pick up to 20 photos and videos to send at one go.

Tech giant has already announced that it is now starting the process of migrating free, personal Hangouts users to Chat.

The company mentioned that users who wish to keep a copy of their Hangouts data to use Google Takeout -- to download their data before Hangouts is no longer available in November this year.

Google said that moving to Google Chat will let users edit Docs, Slides or Sheets with side-by-side editing, making it easier to collaborate while continuing the conversation. It also includes Spaces, a dedicated place for topic-based collaboration.

--IANS
na/

New Delhi, Sep 17 (IANS) Chip-maker Intel has bid goodbye to Pentium and Celeron processors and has introduced a new chip for upcoming essential segment or budget computers.

The company has introduced 'Intel Processor' that will replace Pentium and Celeron branding in the 2023 notebook product stack.

"The new Intel Processor branding will simplify our offerings so users can focus on choosing the right processor for their needs," said Josh Newman, Intel vice president and interim GM of Mobile Client Platforms.

Intel said that with this new brand architecture, it will continue to sharpen its focus on its flagship brands: Intel Core, Intel Evo and Intel vPro.

In addition, this update streamlines brand offerings across PC segments to enable and enhance Intel customer communication on each product's value proposition, while simplifying the purchasing experience for customers, the company said in a statement late on Friday.

Introduced in 1993, Pentium chips were first introduced in high-end desktop machines, and later to laptops.

Intel introduced Celeron for low-cost PCs in 1998. The first Celeron chip was based on a Pentium II processor.

The company said that the new 'Intel Processor' will serve as the brand name for multiple processor families, helping to simplify the product purchase experience for consumers.

"Intel will continue to deliver the same products and benefits within segments. The brand leaves unchanged Intel's current product offerings and Intel's product roadmap," it added.

The rebranding came as the company is geared up to launch its flagship 13th Gen desktop processors.

"Intel is committed to driving innovation to benefit users, and our entry-level processor families have been crucial for raising the PC standard across all price points,a said Newman.

--IANS
na/svn/

New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) Contrary to earlier reports of supply chain issues affecting Apple, an analysis by global investment bank Morgan Stanley has said that the iPhone 14 series production cycle is more robust than expected.

Using data from lead times and preorders, the Morgan Stanley note said that there is strong demand in the US and China for the iPhone 14 Pro models, reports AppleInsider.

Apple fans in China placed over two million orders for the Pro line-up in the first 24 hours, while India also saw a strong pre-order rush for the new Apple devices.

"The iPhone 14 has early lead times of six days, indicating lower interest in this model from consumers," the note claimed.

The iPhone 14 Plus has no lead time as it will only arrive on October 7.

Lead times throw light on Apple's supply chain and how it's affected by inflation and other global macro-economic factors.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said last month that the supply chain of the iPhone 14 series will remain unaffected by current geopolitical tensions.

On Twitter, Kuo said his survey showed "no impact on the supply chain of the iPhone 14 models".

"Although some investors have recently worried that the mass production and shipment schedule of the iPhone 14 models may be affected by geopolitics, my latest survey indicates that there are currently no impacts on the supply chain of the iPhone 14 models," Kuo said in a tweet.

Earlier, reports claimed that the iPhone 14 series will likely be delayed due to growing tension between China and Taiwan.

Meanwhile, Kuo also claimed that the next iPhone 15 is likely to be manufactured at the same time in India and China next year.

"The iPhone 14's mass production schedule in India this year is about six weeks behind China, but the gap has improved significantly. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that India and China will be able to produce the new iPhone 15 at the same time next year," Kuo said.

Apple first started manufacturing iPhones in India in 2017 with iPhone SE.A

The tech giant manufactures some of its most advanced iPhones in the country, including iPhone 11, iPhone 12 and iPhone 13, at the Foxconn facility, while iPhone SE and iPhone 12 are being assembled at the Wistron factory in the country.

--IANS
na/arm