Indian Oil Corp. Ltd., the country’s biggest oil refiner and a large user of hydrogen, will partner with top renewable energy producer ReNew Power and Larsen & Toubro Ltd. to produce green hydrogen that’s fast gaining momentum in the South Asian nation’s clean push.

The three companies have signed a binding term sheet to jointly develop green hydrogen projects, while the state-run refiner and the engineering major will form a separate partnership for making electrolyzers for green hydrogen, according to a joint statement from the three firms. The partnership will focus on green hydrogen projects at Indian Oil’s Mathura and Panipat refineries in northern India.

Green hydrogen, produced from water and green electricity and considered the cleanest form of fuel, is a potential path to decarbonize heavy industries, such as steel, cement and oil refineries. India, the world’s third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, plans to take the lead and has won support from its richest billionaires, Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. India aims to produce 5 million tons of green hydrogen by 2030, when its demand for hydrogen is estimated at 12 million tons.

India’s refineries consume about two million tons of hydrogen annually, much of it by the Indian Oil group, which holds a third of the nation’s oil processing capacity. Indian Oil is already working toward producing 70,000 tons a year of green hydrogen by 2030, which will account for 10% of its overall consumption by that time. Refineries typically use hydrogen for the removal of sulfur from fuels like diesel.

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Samsung Electronics has laid out a vision for new innovative TV experiences and introduced its latest premium TV product.

During a live online event, titled Unbox and Discover 2022, the world’s largest TV maker by sales emphasised customised TV features based on Artificial Intelligence, as well as seamless connectivity, reports Yonhap News Agency.

Samsung’s technology “should be able to provide users with personalised services, and to perform necessary functions without having users learn about new products or technology”, Han Jong-hee, vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and head of its Device eXperience division, said at the event.

To achieve the goals, Samsung has intensified efforts to improve connectivity among Samsung’s home devices through SmartThings, a software platform that connects and controls devices, and upgraded the intelligence menu system, Smart Hub, with a new interface and various entertainment and health features, Han added.

“People will be able to do something with TV, not just watching it,” he said, adding that TV will serve as “a game console, a virtual playground and a working partner that will enhance your productivity”.

The South Korean tech giant also showed its latest high-end Neo QLED 8K TV during the event, which it said, can analyse videos through AI based deep-learning and offer “ultra-rich colour and deep contrast” that delivers vivid details.

Samsung has been working to diversify premium TV lineups and create various form factors. The company said an 89-inch Micro LED TV, Samsung’s highest premium TV segment, will be released after May.

Earlier this month, it launched its premium QD-OLED TVs, which use self-emitting quantum-dot (QD) displays and OLED technology, for the first time in select markets.

Samsung said QD-OLED TVs offer higher resolution, better picture quality and more lifelike visuals than conventional OLED panels, the segment where its rival LG Electronics dominates with a more than 60 per cent market share.

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YouTube TV on Thursday announced that it has started rolling out picture-in-picture (PiP) to its iPhone and iPad app.

“We are happy to share that picture-in-picture is now rolling out to your iOS 15+ devices. Simply select a video to watch and swipe up from the bottom of the screen to return to the device’s homepage. The video can scale down and move across your screen,” the firm said in a tweet.

However, picture-in-picture support is not yet available for all mobile users of the YouTube application.

“We really appreciate your patience while we worked on enabling this key feature for your iOS 15+ devices. We hope you enjoy this easy way to stream,” the firm added.

PiP makes watching videos easier, people can use their iPhone or iPad to multitask while also watching.

The feature will allow the video to stay on the screen in a minimised player with concentrated playback controls.

In addition, Google has also been testing picture-in-picture for standard YouTube content with its premium subscribers, but the feature has not yet rolled out beyond those who have a subscription.

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American chipmaker Intel has announced its maiden discrete graphic processing units (GPUs) for laptops. Called Intel Arc A-series, the GPUs are based on Intel’s new Xe Hyper Performance Graphics microarchitecture (Xe HPG). The first batch of laptop GPUs include Arc 3, Arc 5, and Arc 7. The Arc 3 is now available in laptops starting $899. The Arc 5 and Arc 7 will be available for advanced laptops later this year.

Speaking of the Arc 3 series, it comes in two variants — A350M and A370M. The A350M has six Xe-cores, six ray tracing cores, and a power envelop of 25-35W. The A370M has eight Xe-cores, eight ray tracing cores, and a slightly higher power envelop of 35-50W. Both the variants have 4GB GDDR6 memory, and 64-bit wide memory bus.

According to Intel, the Arc 3 is an entry-level discrete GPU with up to twice the performance of Intel’s integrated Iris Xe graphics. The GPUs support features such as DirectX 12 Ultimate, Ray tracing, variable rate shading, mesh shading, etc. Like Nvidia, the Intel’s GPUs include AI engine for machine learning and AI-acceleration that

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OnePlus on Thursday launched the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G smartphone in India. Alongside, the Chinese smartphone maker launched the Bullets Wireless Z2 earphones. Both the products will go on open sale in India from April 5. Check out the specifications and prices of the OnePlus 10 Pro 5G and OnePlus Wireless Z2 earphones:

OnePlus 10 Pro 5G: Specifications and price in India

The OnePlus 10 Pro 5G is OnePlus’s maiden premium smartphone to launch after its integration with OPPO. The OnePlus 10 Pro 5G has a 6.7-inch fluid AMOLED screen of 120Hz refresh rate. It is a 10-bit display with LTPO 2.0 for variable refresh rate adjustment. The screen boasts several value-added features such as nature tone, eye comfort, image sharpener, video color enhancer, screen color mode, color personalization, color vision enhancement, screen color temperature, bright HDR video mode, night mode, multi-brightness color calibration, vibrant color effect pro, and ultra-high-resolution video.

As for the build, the phone has Gorilla Glass Victus protection on the front, and Gorilla Glass 5 protection on the back. The frame is made of metal with glossy paint over it to match the overall colour theme of the phone. Speaking of colours, the phone will be available in emerald forest and volcanic black colours in India.

Powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 system-on-chip, the phone will be available in two configurations – 8GB RAM + 128GB storage and 12GB RAM + 256GB storage. The phone runs on Android 12-based OxygenOS 12.1 interface. It packs a 5,000 mAh battery, supported by 80W fast wired charging tech and 50W wireless charging tech. The phone has USB 3.1 Gen 1 (type-C) for charging, data transfer, and audio out. It, however, does not have a 3.5mm audio jack.

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British tech firm Dyson on Wednesday said it will launch its first wearable air purifier with headphones.

Dyson has unveiled air-purifying headphones Dyson Zone, which is a set of noise-cancelling, high fidelity over-ear headphones which simultaneously deliver immersive sound to the ears, and purified airflow to the nose and mouth.

Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones will simultaneously tackle the urban issues of air quality and noise pollution, said a company statement.

Dyson Chief Engineer Jake Dyson said, “The Dyson Zone purifies the air you breathe on the move. And unlike face masks, it delivers a plume of fresh air without touching your face, using high-performance filters and two miniaturised air pumps. After six years in development, we’re excited to deliver pure air and pure audio, anywhere.

This is also Dyson’s foray into the world of audio, it added.

It is also the smallest in any Dyson machine to date, two motors sit in each earcup and are the beating heart of the Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones.

“The Dyson Zone air-purifying headphones will be available globally from Autumn 2022. Timings will vary by geography,” the company said.

Dyson, which mainly operates in floor care, environmental care, personal care, and professional care, had started operations in India in February 2018.

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To her 1.4 million followers on social media, Vica Li says she is a life blogger and food lover who wants to teach her fans about China so they can travel the country with ease.

Through my lens, I will take you around China, take you into Vica’s life! she says in a January video posted on YouTube and Facebook.

But that lens may be controlled by CGTN, the Chinese-state run TV network where she has regularly appeared in broadcasts and is listed as a digital reporter on the company’s website.

While Vica Li tells followers she created all of these channels on her own, her Facebook account shows at least nine people manage her page.

That portfolio of accounts is just one tentacle of China’s growing influence on US-owned social media platforms, an Associated Press examination has found.

As China continues to assert its economic might, it is using the global social media ecosystem to expand its already formidable influence.

The country has built a network of social media personalities who parrot the government’s perspective in posts, operating in virtual lockstep as they promote China, deflect criticism of its human rights abuses and advance Beijing’s talking points on world affairs like Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Some of China’s state-affiliated reporters have posited themselves as trendy Instagram influencers or bloggers. The country has also hired firms to recruit influencers to deliver carefully crafted messages that boost its image to social media users.

And it is benefitting from a cadre of Westerners who have devoted YouTube channels and Twitter feeds to echoing pro-China narratives on everything from Beijing’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims to Olympian Eileen Gu, an American who competed for China in the most recent Winter Games.

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WhatsApp has announced a slew of features for voice messaging on its platform, including playback of a voice note before sending it, pause and resume recording, playing the messages outside of the chat and more.

“When we first launched voice messaging in 2013, we knew that it could change the way people communicate. By keeping the design simple, we’ve made recording and sending a voice message as quick and easy as writing a text,” the company said.

“Every day on WhatsApp, our users send 7 billion voice messages on average, all of which are protected by end-to-end encryption to keep them private and secure at all times,” it added.

The Meta (formerly Facebook) -owned messaging platform will also enable waveform visualisation to show a visual representation of the sound on the voice message to help follow the recording, a remember playback tool so that if a user pauses when listening to a voice message, they can pick up later where they left off, and playback of voice messages at 1.5x or 2x speeds to listen to messages faster on both regular and forwarded messages.

“Voice messages have made it quick and easy for people to have more expressive conversations. Showing emotion or excitement through voice is more natural than text, and in many situations, voice messages are the preferred form of communication on WhatsApp,” the company said.

“It’s simple for anyone to use – for your family members who prefer to avoid typing, for your friends who love to tell stories, for your peers who need encouraging words, or for when you want to hear your partner’s voice at the end of a long day,” it added.

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India’s cricket board has set a combined base price of Rs 32,890 crore for the media rights of the Indian Premier League (IPL) under four packages, seeking to double the amount from the last five-year rights cycle ending in 2022.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India, in the previous cycle, sold IPL media rights for Rs 16,348 crore. This year’s IPL season has 10 teams—two more than last year—and 74 matches. The board seeks to garner Rs 100 crore per match, the Economic Times reported.

Media network Star India paid Rs 16,347.5 crore in 2017 to win IPL media rights for five years, competing in a consolidated bid. This time there will be four categories and interested parties have to bid separately for each.

The first category, with a base price of Rs 49 crore per game, is for television rights in the Indian subcontinent, The New Indian Express website quoted an IPL governing council member as saying.

The television rights base price means each season will bring the BCCI at least Rs 3,626 crore. For a five-year period, it comes to Rs 18,130 crore. Category II is for digital rights, which has a base price of Rs 33 crore per game. 

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Korean electronic major Samsung on Tuesday unveiled slew of smartphones under the Galaxy A Series as part of revamping exercise, according to a company official.

The company launched Galaxy A13, A23, A33 5G, A53 5G, A73 5G aimed at offering a complete package of the latest Galaxy range of smartphones at an affordable price making awesome technology

“The Galaxy A series epitomises that belief by making flagship like features accessible at an affordable price point. The five new models we are launching are curated to inspire consumers with style, power and versatility,” company Director and Head of Retail and Marketing operations – India, Mahesh Alanthat said.

“Galaxy A73 5G stands out with best in segment 108MP OIS Camera, features like Object Eraser and AI Photo Remaster 120Hz super AMOLED+ display, water and dust resistance…,” he said.

The Galaxy A73 would be open for pre-book on the company website Samsung.com and also in leading retail stores and select online portals. The A53 5G priced up to Rs 35,999 for 8GB/128GB variant, A23 at Rs 20,999 for 8GB and 128GB variant.

A13 priced at Rs 14,999 for 4GB/64GB variant and goes up to Rs 17,499 for 6GB/64GB variant, the company said.

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