For months, complaints from tech companies against Apple’s and Google’s power have grown louder. Spotify, the music streaming app, criticised Apple for the rules it imposed in the App Store. A founder of the software company Basecamp attacked Apple’s “highway robbery rates” on apps. And last month, Epic Games, maker of the popular game Fortnite, sued Apple and Google, claiming they violated antitrust rules.

Now these app makers are uniting in an unusual show of opposition against Apple and Google and the power they have over their app stores. On Thursday, the smaller companies said they had formed the Coalition for App Fairness, a nonprofit group that plans to push for changes in the app stores and “protect the app economy”. The 13 initial members include Spotify, Basecamp, Epic and Match Group, which has apps like Tinder and Hinge.

“They’ve collectively decided, ‘We’re not alone in this, and maybe what we should do is advocate on behalf of everybody,’” said Sarah Maxwell, a spokeswoman for the group. She added that the new nonprofit would be “a voice for many.”

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Earlier this year, a Netflix drama ‘Jamtara’ became a big hit. The story was about a group of small-town young men running a lucrative phishing operation until a corrupt politician wanted to be in on the scheme and a cop wanted to fight it.

This web series highlights some real instances of ‘Jamtara’ — a sleepy little district in northeastern Jharkhand — that had emerged as a Phish pond in India. It also explains how a common man can be deceived and looted online by the exchange of some digits.

Online scams and money laundering are not a recent phenomenon. But it is back in the news again.

There are several instances of even common people becoming unwitting participants in money-laundering operations.

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Millions of employees now commute from their bed to a desk at home. After the initial euphoria of skipping traffic jams and cramped train compartments, a new reality has dawned in which the work day blends into the rest of life, like a never-ending video call. Microsoft has a solution for this.

The company’s Teams collaboration software is adding the ability to schedule a “virtual commute”. It won’t start your car, but it will remind users about the end of the work day, suggest tasks to help workers wind down and create a little mental space before kids’ homework, dinner, laundry and other obligations come crashing in.

For example, Teams will prompt users to list tasks as completed or add them to tomorrow’s to-do list, while asking workers to rate how their day went and suggesting guided meditation, through an integration with the Headspace app.

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Chinese electronics maker Lenovo-owned smartphone brand Motorola on Wednesday launched in India the Moto E7 Plus. Touted to be made in India, the smartphone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 system-on-chip and a 5,000 mAh battery. It has a 6.5-inch screen of HD+ resolution and boots stock Android 10 operating system. The Moto E7 Plus will be available exclusively on Flipkart at Rs 9,499, starting September 30.

The Moto E7 Plus sports dual-camera set-up on the back, featuring a 48-megapixel primary sensor of an f/1.7 aperture, and a depth sensor. The camera is supported by night vision feature for low-light photography.

Besides, there is high-res zoom and hyperlapse plus slow-motion video (120fps) features. The camera also features several AI modes, including auto smile capture, smart composition, shot optimisation, portrait mode, spot color, and more.

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Apple Store Online is now live in India. The digital store is a one-stop portal where you can purchase Apple products and avail of services. Said to deliver the same experience that is available at Apple Store locations around the world, the online store offers the shopping assistance feature through Apple Online Specialists, trade-in for iPhone, custom-built Mac, AppleCare+ and free no-contact delivery. Moreover, the online store offers multiple financing options on products — equated monthly instalments through credit cards. Let’s take a look at the offers currently available on Apple Store Online:Cashback offer from HDFC Bank

The Apple Store Online is running a limited time cashback offer in partnership with HDFC Bank wherein customers can avail a six per cent cashback on the purchase price of select Apple products. The cashback amount is capped at Rs 10,000 and it would be credited in bank account in five to seven days. To avail the cashback, the order cart value needs to be more than Rs 20,900.

According to the terms and conditions of the cashback offer, it is available only on HDFC Bank credit cards and credit cards EMI transactions. The cashback is limited to one order per cart. The offer is valid until October 16.

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As the pandemic takes its toll on the well-being of workers globally, Microsoft has announced a unique feature in its video meet app Teams which will take you to office as you used to before the work-from-home scenario, virtually though.

Called ‘Virtual Commute’, the upcoming feature in Teams will let you create mental bookends for your remote workday and make it easier to productively start and mindfully end the workday.

“We’re also excited to share that we are partnering with Headspace to bring a curated set of mindfulness experiences and science-backed meditations into the flow of your work in Teams,” the company announced during its ‘Microsoft Ignite 2020′ conference on Tuesday.

“Think about what we were going into in the day and think about clearing up what we are coming out of in a day. And so this virtual commute experience allows you to take a step back, again going into and coming out of your day to just organise your thoughts and to make sure you’re really processing, doing some pre- and post-processing of your work,” explained Jared Spataro, corporate vice president, Microsoft 365.

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Xiaomi spin-off smartphone brand POCO on Tuesday launched in India the POCO X3. The smartphone is the first smartphone powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G system-on-chip, which was announced in August. Moreover, the phone features a punch-hole screen of 120Hz refresh rate, 64-megapixel based quad rear camera, 6,000 mAh battery with fast charge support, and stereo speakers. The phone will be in 6GB + 64GB, 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB configurations, priced at Rs 16,999, at Rs 18,499 and Rs 19,999, respectively. The Flipkart-exclusive smartphone will be available in shadow gray and cobalt blue colours from September 29.

As for the specifications, the POCO X3 sports a 6.67-inch fullHD+ screen of 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch sampling rate. The phone boasts dynamic refresh rate switch function, which allows the screen to automatically manage its frame rate from the available 50Hz, 60Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz depending on the on-screen content requirements. The phone has stereo speakers and POCO has added self-cleaning feature to ensure the speakers output does not get muffled in the long run.

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Microsoft has announced several updates for its digital collaboration service Microsoft Teams at its annual developer meeting Ignite. The updates include additional scene in Together Mode that let you get into your office’s conference room for meeting but in virtual environment. Apart from that, the update brings custom layouts, breakout rooms and automated recaps. Besides, the Microsoft Teams will soon allow up to 1,000 participants to connect through a group video meeting.

From October, the Microsoft Teams will support breakout rooms in a group video meeting that will allow participants to form a smaller group without leaving the meeting.

Moreover, the group meeting presenters will have the option to make announcements to all sub-meeting rooms, check the breakout rooms, and close them to bring back all the participants into the main meeting.

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In a bid to help creators and publishers manage their intellectual property related to images, Facebook has introduced Rights Manager for images.

The new version uses image matching technology to help creators and publishers protect and manage their image content at scale.

To access Rights Manager, Page admins can submit an application for content they’ve created and want to protect.

“Rights Manager will find matching content on Facebook and Instagram. Settings can be adjusted to match things like ownership that should apply worldwide or only in certain locations,” Facebook said in a blog post on Monday.

In addition to the free content management tools to help combat infringement, Facebook said it also has a fast and effective IP reporting system, a repeat infringer policy and other measures.

“We want to ensure Facebook is a safe and valuable place for creators to share their content.

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Intel on Tuesday made it official to bring its 11th Gen Core processors codenamed Tiger Lake to Chromebooks.

The 11th Gen Intel Core processors come with Iris Xe graphics and the Intel Evo platform for thin and light laptops.

“10th Gen Intel Core-based Chromebooks continue to deliver leadership performance and experiences, and our internal benchmarking shows that we will extend this leadership with 11th Gen Intel Core processors with Intel Iris Xe graphics,” the company said in a statement.

In the last five years, Intel’s processors have powered more than 57 million Chrome OS devices shipped, accounting for more than 90 per cent of all Chrome OS devices.

Compared to 10th Gen Intel processors, the current top performing CPUs for Chrome OS, Intel 11th Gen Core processors will enable people to load web pages up to 28 per cent faster and experience a new class of gaming performance with 2.7 times faster graphics.

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