Facebook-owned photo-sharing platform Instagram on Monday launched a “Parents Guide” to help young people be safe on the platform.

The guide is aimed at helping young people to be safe, by informing parents about all the safety features that exist on the platform.

“As the Internet permeates into our lives, especially the lives of young people, parents want to be adequately equipped with the evolving digital landscape,” Tara Bedi, Public Policy and Community Outreach Manager for Instagram, India, said in a statement.

“They want to understand how a platform works and feel comfortable with their children leveraging its opportunities for creative expression while knowing the safety tools available to them that enable that expression in a supportive environment,” Bedi added.

 The guide is a resource from Instagram, available across many countries, to provide parents with a better understanding of the changing digital landscape.

It acts as a conversation starter with their children, as it provides information about tools that exist to keep their child safe on Instagram, the company said, ahead of “Safer Internet Day”, which is observed on February 9.

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TAIYUAN, China (Reuters) – Huawei Technologies founder Ren Zhengfei said on Tuesday he was confident of the company’s ability to survive and that it had more means to overcome difficulties, even as its mobile business remains under pressure.

Ren, in his first media appearance since March last year, said the company achieved positive growth for both 2020 revenue and net profit, and that it continued to see significant levels of confidence from its customers.

He was speaking in the northern mining city of Taiyuan, as the company launched a 5G mining project with state-owned companies and the provincial government. Read Complete Article

The upcoming Apple iOS update will let users select a third-party default music service like Spotify when they ask to play a song using Siri.

When you ask Siri to play a song on the upcoming iOS 14.5, you would be prompted to select which app you want to use to play it, reports MacRumors.

Apple last week released beta versions of upcoming iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 updates to developers and public beta testers.

Apple has now added the ability to set a default music streaming service when using Siri to play songs.

First spotted by users on online discussion platform Reddit, Apple will let you ask ?Siri? to play a song in iOS 14.5 from installed third-party music streaming apps in addition to Apple Music.

Apple Siri? will also set a music streaming service as the default if you ask it to play from that particular app for the first time.

The iOS 14.5 is packed with several such exciting features.

You will soon be able to unlock your iPhone with Face ID even when with a Covid-19 mask on, but only if you are wearing an Apple Watch.

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Twitter Inc. is building a subscription product as a way to ease its dependence on advertising – a plan the social network has considered for years, and one that has taken on a heightened priority given the pandemic and pressure from activist investors to accelerate growth.

The majority of Twitter’s revenue comes from targeted advertising, which serves up promoted posts aimed at specific groups of users. That business has grown in recent years at a slower pace than competitors like Facebook Inc. and Snap Inc., and Twitter’s slice of the digital ad market globally remains at at a lackluster 0.8%, according to EMarketer.

Twitter, the thinking goes, would benefit from a separate revenue stream that isn’t as reliant on brand advertising. The company’s user base in the U.S., its most valuable market, has also started to plateau, meaning it can’t rely on simply adding users to juice revenue.

To explore potential options outside ad sales, a number of Twitter teams are researching subscription offerings, including one using the code name “Rogue One,” according to people familiar with the effort. At least one idea being considered is related to “tipping,” or the ability for users to pay the people they follow for exclusive content, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are internal. Other possible ways to generate recurring revenue include charging for the use of services like Tweetdeck or advanced user features like “undo send” or profile-customization options.

Subscriptions have always offered a tantalizing alternative to advertising, but social networks have traditionally stayed free as a way to encourage user growth and engagement, which is then subsidized with paid marketing posts. Still, Twitter Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal said on a call with investors last year that a subscription option of some kind would offer sales “durability,” and recurring revenue is more consistent than advertising spending. Segal cautioned in July that Twitter was not only “very, very early” in exploring a subscription service, but also planned to be picky about how it goes forward. “We have a really high bar for when we would ask consumers to pay for aspects of Twitter,” he said.

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Asian chipmakers are rushing to expand their production capacity to meet a global shortage that has been acutely felt by carmakers, but the firms warn that the supply gap may take many months to plug as they struggle to keep up with strong demand.

Automakers from General Motors to Stellantis and Honda Motor are shutting assembly lines due to the shortages, which in some cases have been exacerbated by the former U.S. administration’s sanctions against Chinese chip factories. Some firms have also furloughed staff.

Eight-inch chip manufacturing plants owned mostly by Asian firms, which tend to make older, less sophisticated chips, are particularly under strain primarily due to under-investment in recent years. The majority of such factories are used to make auto chips.

Consumer demand in China, especially for cars, has snapped back unexpectedly quickly from the coronavirus crisis, and orders for products such as laptops and mobile phones in regions still struggling with pandemic restrictions, such as Europe and the United States, have also picked up.

The global concerns about the chip shortage were underscored at recent quarterly earnings calls held by companies from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) to South Korea’s SK Hynix.

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Sony India on Saturday said that as pre-order date for PlayStation 5 comes closer, potential customers should avoid visiting the retails stores and first connect with them if the devices are available.

The company announced earlier this month that it will launch PlayStation 5 in India on February 2 and will start taking pre-order requests for the new gaming console from January 12.

“PS5 will be available for pre-order on various online and offline channels (until stock lasts at respective retailer) such as Amazon, Flipkart, Croma, Reliance Digital, Games The Shop, Shop at Sony Center, Vijay Sales and select other authorised retailers taking pre-orders,” Sony India said in a fresh statement.

“Keeping the current situation in mind, Sony India urges all customers to keep their health and safety in mind before physically visiting any store for pre-order and advise them to call the local retailer before visiting,” the company advised.

For contact details and address of the local retailers taking pre-orders, customers can also call the toll-free number 1800-103-7799.

The PlayStation 5 will cost Rs 49,990 for the normal edition while the digital edition will come for Rs 39,990.

The DualSense Wireless Controller will cost you Rs 5,990, the HD camera comes for Rs 5,190, the Pulse 3D Wireless Headset is for Rs 8,590, the media remote is for Rs 2,590 and the DualSense Charging Station is for Rs 2,590.

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Samsung will launch its next mid-segment smartphone Galaxy F62 on February 15, according to details posted on the ecommerce platform Flipkart.

Galaxy F62 will come with Samsung’s flagship Exynos 9825 processor manufactured using a 7-nanometer process technology, making it the fastest Galaxy device in the under Rs 25,000 price segment with this flagship mobile chip.

The Geekbench 5 score of the flagship Exynos 9825 processor is 2400, while the GFXBench 5 score is 68.

Flipkart has also created a microsite on Galaxy F62, with details such as the presence of a quad camera and Infinity O display on Galaxy F62.

Galaxy F62 will be Samsung’s second smartphone in the F Series. The F Series launched in India last year.

It will house a huge 7000mAh battery.

With the launch of Galaxy F62, Samsung will strengthen its play in the mid-segment, which is currently dominated by Samsung’s own Galaxy M51 and One Plus Nord in the online channel.

Samsung introduced ‘Galaxy F41’ as the first model in the company’s Galaxy F series in the festive quarter of 2020, hoping to further make inroads into the competitive mid-price smartphone segment.

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The LG Tone Free FN7 is a one-of-its-kind pair of true wireless earbuds that comes with a charging cradle powered by UVnano technology – that’s a fancy name derived from the words ultraviolet and its unit nanometer. The technology is touted to kill 99.9 per cent bacteria on the speaker mesh of the earbuds in 10 minutes while charging. The UVnano tech is not the only interesting pitch in these earbuds; they also boast active noise cancellation and Spatial audio, tuned by British high-performance audio tech maker Meridian. Priced at Rs 18,990, the LG Tone Free FN7 seems to be tech-rich true wireless earbuds. How does it perform in real life? Let’s find out:Design

The LG Tone Free FN7 is a pair of in-ear earbuds with a tiny stem protruding downwards from the body. Made of plastic, these earbuds have a glossy finish which makes it a little difficult to take them out of the case. Moreover, the glossy finish makes them susceptible to accidental slips from your hand in the absence of a proper grip. Thanks to soft and comfortable ear gels, the earbuds have a snug fit and the grip is not an issue when they are plugged into your ears for use. These are medical-grade ear gels made from non-toxic hypoallergenic silicone, something not many earbuds offer. Besides, these earbuds have a spiral design with vortex ribs for even distribution of pressure. That allows them to adapt to the ear shape and aid the earbuds’ passive and active noise cancelling capabilities.

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Popular social media app Snapchat that launched in-app Spotlight in November last year to take on Chinese short-video making app Tiktok, has seen the platform growing to over 100 million monthly active users in January.

Spotlight is a dedicated place within Snapchat where users can watch short, entertaining videos backed by music in a vertically scroll, TikTok-like feed.

“We are seeing over 175,000 video submissions per day on average, in part, due to our incentive program for creators, where we distribute over $1 million per day to the top performing videos,” Snap CEO Spiegel.

“Our product and ranking teams have been able to quickly improve our ability to match Spotlight viewers with the right content and we are now working on a broader rollout of Spotlight to our entire community,” he said on a call with investors on Thursday.

Spotlight combines a simple submission flow that allows people to submit their best Snaps in just one tap with a rigorous review and ranking process that allows us to filter out content that is inconsistent with our guidelines.

The result is a fun and safe product experience that services, the best of Snapchat, all in one place.

“Our primary goal in launching Spotlight was to build critical mass, both in terms of video submissions and audience in a select set of countries, so that we could begin to rapidly iterate on content ranking and the overall product experience,” Spiegel noted.

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Expanding its wide range of Gen 5 smartwatches, US-based fashion brand Fossil on Thursday unveiled a new smartwatch — Gen 5E — in India at Rs 18,495.

The smartwatch features an always-on 1.19-inch OLED display and options for personalisation including various interchangeable straps and watch faces.

“The new Fossil Gen 5E is testament to our teams’ effort in creating technology that will not only look fashionable but also help augment the user’s lifestyle,” Johnson Verghese, Managing Director, Fossil Group, India, said in a statement.

“With all the essential features of our Gen 5 smartwatch, the Gen 5E is keenly priced and will be available online for purchase on Myntra and Flipkart,” Verghese added.

Equipped with the new wellness enhancements that allow users to track sleep history, monitor restfulness, set activity goals and much more, its advanced sensors provide promising data to power all the health and fitness apps, the company said.

Additionally, with various smart battery modes inclusive of daily mode, extended mode, time only mode and custom mode, users can always stay connected with notifications for calls, texts and apps among others.

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