India ranks fifth highest in terms of the impact from automation and ninth in terms of level preparedness, according to a recent research study conducted by Deloitte and commissioned by Autodesk Foundation.

The country faces a greater likelihood of being impacted by automation due to larger employment shares in agriculture, manufacturing and construction — all identified as high-risk industries by the report titled ‘The Future of Work is Now: Is APAC Ready?’

It explores the state of automation and future of work across 12 Asia Pacific countries including Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The report aims to help identify the labour markets most vulnerable to technological disruption in A-Pac and propose solutions to help workforces thrive as automation becomes a reality.

The research finds India, Bangladesh and Pakistan are most at risk and least prepared for the coming wave of automation.

Covid-19 has greatly accelerated the adoption of automation across the world. According to the report, close to half of all businesses intend to increase their adoption of robotic process automation over the next year.

“Automation creates opportunities for new, more meaningful types of work as it replaces mundane or repetitive manual tasks. But the state of preparedness of countries and industries will determine whether they benefit from these advances,” said Rajeev Mittal, Regional Director for India and SAARC at Autodesk.

“Improving digital literacy, supporting disadvantaged workers, and putting in place the right infrastructure and skills will help create new roles that workers can transition into,” he said.

A-Pac is a diverse region and the challenges facing individual countries when it comes to automation are vastly different.

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By Stephen Nellis

(Reuters) –Apple Inc said on Tuesday that a global chip shortage that has bit into its ability to sell Macs and iPads will start to affect iPhone production and forecasted slowing revenue growth, sending its shares lower.

Apple executives said revenue for the current fiscal fourth quarter will grow by double-digits but be below the 36.4% growth rate in the just-ended third quarter. Growth will also slow in Apple’s closely watched services business, they said.

In a conference call with investors, Apple executives also said that while the impact of the chip shortage was less severe than feared in the third quarter, it will get worse in the fourth, extending to iPhone production.

Shares of Apple, whose valuation has more than doubled in about three years to nearly $2.5 trillion, were down 1.7% to $144.24 in after-hours trading after the call.

Earlier in the day, Apple reported third-quarter sales and profits that beat analyst expectations as consumers bought premium versions of its 5G iPhones and signed up for its subscription services. China sales grew 58% to $14.76 billion in the quarter, which ended June 26.

Driven by the better-than-expected iPhone sales, total revenue hit $81.43 billion, above analyst expectations of $73.30 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Apple’s profits were $21.74 billion, or $1.30 per share, above estimates of $1.01 per share, according to Refinitiv.

During the investor call, Chief Executive Tim Cook said that chips affected by the shortages are made with older technology but are still needed as supporting parts to make the company’s flagship device, the iPhone.

“We do have some shortages,” Cook said, “where the demand has been so great and so beyond our own expectation that it’s difficult to get the entire set of parts within the lead times that we try to get those.”

Cook declined to predict whether the shortages would last into Apple’s fiscal first quarter, when it typically sees its biggest iPhone sales. Angelo Zino, an analyst with research firm CFRA, said Apple could be stockpiling chips for its next generation of phones to the detriment of current models.

“Apple will want as many chips as it can get its hands on,” Zino said. “But when you couple that with the existing supply constraints, Apple is likely going to have a more difficult time meeting demand this year.”

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By Akanksha Rana and Julia Love

(Reuters) –Microsoft Corp posted its most profitable quarter on Tuesday, beating Wall Street expectations for revenue and earnings, as PC sales declines stemming from a global chip shortage were more than made up for by a boom in cloud services.

Shares ticked up 0.7% after Microsoft projected that growth in its Azure cloud computing business will continue apace following a quarter in which sales climbed 51%.

Overall revenue rose 21% to $46.2 billion, beating analysts’ consensus by about $2 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

The pandemic-driven shift to remote work has boosted consumer appetite for cloud-based computing, helping companies including Microsoft, Amazon.com Inc’s cloud unit and Alphabet Inc’s Google Cloud.

Microsoft’s “guidance was off-the-charts strong and it shows the cloud growth story in Redmond is hitting its next gear,” said Daniel Ives of Wedbush Securities.

Revenue in Microsoft’s “Intelligent Cloud” segment rose 30% to $17.4 billion, with growth in Azure revenues handily surpassing the 43.1% jump projected by analysts, according to consensus data from Visible Alpha.

Microsoft’s market capitalization stands at nearly $2.2 trillion, after climbing nearly 30% so far this year, compared with 18% for the overall S&P 500 Index, according to Refinitiv Eikon data based on Monday’s closing price.

It has surpassed the price-to-earnings ratios of tech titans Apple Inc and Google, fueling concerns among some analysts that it may be overvalued.

“Microsoft’s stock has made a big run since the beginning of the pandemic, and is trading at rich multiples,” said Haris Anwar, senior analyst at Investing.com. “After such a powerful rally, its shares may take a breather, especially when investors are still unclear how the demand scenario will evolve in the post-pandemic environment.”

Revenue from personal computing, which includes Windows software and Xbox gaming consoles, rose 9% to $14.1 billion.

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By Sheila Dang and Nivedita Balu

(Reuters) –Google parent Alphabet Inc’s quarterly revenue and profit surged to record highs, the company reported on Tuesday, powered by a rise in advertising spending as more consumers shopped online.

Shares of Alphabet, the world’s largest provider of search and video ads, rose 3.3% in extended trading after the results, which handily beat analyst estimates. Shares of Facebook, which competes with Google in web ad sales and reports its own results on Wednesday, rose 1.3%.

Overall, it was a stellar day for the big U.S. tech companies – Apple and Microsoft also reported record earnings.

With consumers spending more time online during the coronavirus pandemic, retailers have been pushing to reach them there, whether they’re shopping for products using Google search or watching videos on YouTube. The nascent U.S. economic rebound that’s accompanied the vaccine rollout and the easing of restrictions is also helping as consumers are enjoying increased mobility and options for purchases of all kinds.

“Alphabet has benefited from the general return of ad spend to the market and especially the balance of that return, which is more focused on digital channels than pre-pandemic,” said Tom Johnson, chief digital officer at WPP Mindshare.

Alphabet said revenue from Google advertising rose nearly 70% to $50.44 billion during the second quarter ended June 30.

Retail brands were the biggest contributor to the ads business’ growth, said Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, during a call with analysts. The travel, financial services and media and entertainment sectors were also strong, he added.

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Three tech companies Apple, Microsoft and Google owner Alphabet reported combined profits of more than USD 50 billion in the April-June quarter, underscoring their unparalleled influence and success at reshaping the way we live.

Although these companies make their money in different ways, the results served as another reminder of the clout they wield and why government regulators are growing increasingly concerned about whether they have become too powerful.

The massive profits pouring into each company also illustrated why they have a combined market value of USD 6.4 trillion — more than double their collective value when the COVID-19 pandemic started 16 months ago.

APPLE

Apple’s first iPhone model capable of connecting to ultrafast 5G wireless networks continued to power major increases in quarterly revenue and profits for tech’s most valuable company.

With iPhone sales posting double-digit growth over the previous year for the third consecutive quarter, Apple’s profit and revenue for the April-June period easily exceeded analyst estimates. The Cupertino, California, company earned USD 21.7 billion, or USD 1.30 per share, nearly doubling profits earned during the same period last year. Revenue surged 36 per cent to USD 81.4 billion.

But in a Tuesday conference call with analysts, Apple CEO Tim Cook lamented that the steadily spreading delta variant of the coronavirus is casting doubt on how the rest of the year will unfold. The road to recovery will be a winding one, Cook said. That uncertainty has already led Apple to delay employees’ mass return to its offices from September to October. Most of Apple’s stores, though, are already open.

The iPhone 12, released last autumn, is shaping up to be Apple’s most popular model in several years, largely because it’s the first to work on the 5G networks that are still being built around the world. Apple’s iPhone sales totaled nearly USD 40 billion in the latest quarter, up 50 per cent from a year ago.

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·        Smartphone maker Oppo expects online sales to contribute about 50 per cent to overall business of the company in this year with its reach expanding to smaller towns as well through e-retailers, a senior company official said on Monday.

·        Oppo India Chief Marketing Officer Damyant Singh Khanoria told PTI that as part of its omnichannel strategy the company is looking to focus on its online presence.

·        “Our intent and ambition from the e-commerce platform is to really drive about 50 per cent of overall business through ecommerce. It’s Flipkart and we are also ramping up our own presence in e-commerce,” Khanoria said when asked about the business outlook of the company for the year.

·        Oppo has been primarily focussing on retail channel partners but now it will enhance partnership with ecommerce companies.

·        According to the market research firm IDC, Oppo’s business increased around 35 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 with the company clocking 12.2 per cent market share in the smartphone segment in India.

·        “Our omnichannel strategy has not kind of embraced e-commerce as aggressively as we are doing now. We have been able to build a kind of momentum with the Reno5 launch. This launch had very deep collaboration with Flipkart which we have not done in the past. What we are doing with Flipkart is a partnership that allows us to penetrate very deeply in tier 3 and tier 4 markets,” Khanoria said.

·        He said that Reno6 smartphones recorded 178 per cent jump in growth on the first day of the sale, compared to the response that company recorded for Reno5 smartphones.

·        “When we talk about the mood of the market and consumers, we are experiencing tremendous growth and it augurs well for us as we go into the Diwali season,” Khanoria said.

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American information technology company Hewlett-Packard on Monday launched in India the Victus 16 range of gaming laptop. Powered by AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processors, the Victus 16 laptops boast high resolution screen of fast refresh rate, enhanced thermal control features, and HP’s proprietary OMEN Gaming Hub. The Victus by HP E series laptops, powered by AMD Ryzen processor, will be available on Amazon at a price starting at Rs 64,999. The Victus by HP D series laptops, powered by 11th Gen Intel processor, is priced Rs 74,999 onwards.

It will be available on Reliance digital store in coming weeks.

“We are on the cusp of a major gaming boom in India based on the rising popularity of gaming witnessed in the last few years. For youngsters in India, gaming is increasingly becoming a passion point like music or any other sport. In fact, HP India’s recent Gaming Landscape Report 2021 suggests that over 90 per cent respondents agree that gaming is a viable career option. Believing we have merely touched the tip of an iceberg, the Victus Line up is created for mainstream players, giving them access to an elevated, gaming experience,” Vickram Bedi, Senior Director (Personal Systems), HP India Market said.

Victus by HP E series configuration:

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H and Ryzen 7 5800H Mobile Processors
• Graphics: Up to NVIDIA GeForce RTXTM 3060 Laptop GPU (6GB)
• Memory: Up to 16GB, upgradable up to 32GB DDR4 RAM
• Storage: 512GB PCIe
• Colour: Mica silver

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Chinese electronics maker Lenovo on Monday launched in India the Legion 5 Pro gaming laptop. Powered by AMD Ryzen 5000 H-series processors, the gaming-centric laptop boasts up to 140W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 discrete graphic processing unit. Priced at Rs 1,39,990 (for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, 16GB) and Rs 1,59,990 (for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, 32GB), the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is now available for pre-ordered on Amazon India and Lenovo online portal. It will be available at retail stores from August.

As for the specifications, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is powered by the Ryzen 7 5800H processor, which is built on AMD’s ‘Zen 3’ architecture. According to Lenovo, the gaming laptop is equipped to deliver competitive gaming and productivity performance with lightning-fast frame rates and uncompromised battery life of up to 8.1 hours.

The Legion 5 Pro comes with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series discrete graphics processing unit. These GPUs boast Nvidia’s 2nd Generation Ray Tracing, 3rd Generation AI Tensor Cores, etc. According to Lenovo, the Legion 5 Pro is capable of peak graphics performance at up to 140W without thermal throttling. The laptop comes with Lenovo’s Coldfront 3.0 thermal management technology, which helps the machine in maintaining thermals.

ALSO READ: HP Victus 16 gaming laptops with AMD Ryzen, Intel Core processors launched

The Legion 5 Pro is touted by the company to offer a 90 per cent screen-to-body ratio. It sports a 16-inch QHD resolution IPS screen of 165Hz refresh rate and up to 3ms response time. It is a 16:10 aspect ratio screen with support for NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync technologies. This screen supports Dolby Vision, VESA Display, and HDR 400. Besides, it is 100 per cent sRGB rated for colour accuracy, and is touted to hit peak brightness of 500 nits.

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By Elizabeth Culliford

(Reuters) – A counterterrorism organization formed by some of the biggest U.S. tech companies including Facebook and Microsoft is significantly expanding the types of extremist content shared between firms in a key database, aiming to crack down on material from white supremacists and far-right militias, the group told Reuters.

Until now, the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism’s (GIFCT) database has focused on videos and images from terrorist groups on a United Nations list and so has largely consisted of content from Islamist extremist organizations such as Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Over the next few months, the group will add attacker manifestos – often shared by sympathizers after white supremacist violence – and other publications and links flagged by U.N. initiative Tech Against Terrorism. It will use lists from intelligence-sharing group Five Eyes, adding URLs and PDFs from more groups, including the Proud Boys, the Three Percenters and neo-Nazis.

The firms, which include Twitter and Alphabet Inc’s YouTube, share “hashes,” unique numerical representations of original pieces of content that have been removed from their services. Other platforms use these to identify the same content on their own sites in order to review or remove it.

While the project reduces the amount of extremist content on mainstream platforms, groups can still post violent images and rhetoric on many other sites and parts of the internet.

The tech group wants to combat a wider range of threats, said GIFCT’s Executive Director Nicholas Rasmussen in an interview with Reuters.

“Anyone looking at the terrorism or extremism landscape has to appreciate that there are other parts… that are demanding attention right now,” Rasmussen said, citing the threats of far-right or racially motivated violent extremism.

The tech platforms have long been criticized for failing to police violent extremist content, though they also face concerns over censorship. The issue of domestic extremism, including white supremacy and militia groups, took on renewed urgency https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-administration-unveils-plan-tackle-domestic-terrorism-2021-06-15 following the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

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Chinese smartphone maker OPPO has been consistent in upgrading its Reno line of smartphones, but the changes that successive editions have brought are mostly incremental. Take for example the recently launched Reno6 Pro 5G. A successor to the Reno 5 Pro 5G (review), this smartphone brings a slightly more powerful processor (MediaTek Dimensity 1200) and OPPO’s new camera-centric innovations. Priced at Rs 39,990, the Reno6 Pro 5G is about Rs 13,000 more expensive than the Realme X7 Max (review), the only other MediaTek Dimensity 1200 system-on-chip-powered smartphone currently available in India.

So, should you pay for the Reno6 Pro 5G more than you would pay for its peers in the same league just for its camera innovations? Or is there more to it that makes it a worthy package? Let us find out:

Design

OPPO keeps experimenting with the back cover design in its Reno smartphones. There is some of that here, too. Though the smartphone looks similar to its predecessor, it has a flashy gradient matte finish (Reno Glow design) on the back cover for novelty. The smartphone is easy to hold and operate, and has a good in-hand feel. The phone has a compact form factor, lightweight build (177g), and thin chassis (7.6mm) for comfortable ergonomics.

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