Industy Updates

Blue Origin Shoots NASA Experiments Into Space in Test Jeff Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, launched NASA experiments into space Wednesday on a brief test flight. The New Shepard rocket blasted off from West Texas, hoisting a capsule containing the experiments. The eight experiments were exposed to a few minutes of weightlessness before the capsule parachuted down. The rocket also landed successfully, completing its fourth spaceflight. "That, everybody, is a reusable rocket," said launch commentator Ariane Cornell, director of the astronaut and orbital sales. "Welcome home, New Shepard." This was Blue Origin's 10th test flight, all precursors to launching passengers by year's end. The capsules have six windows, one for each customer. Blue Origin isn't taking reservations just yet. Instead, the Kent, Washington, company is focusing on brief research flights. Wednesday's flight lasted just over 10 minutes, with the capsule reachin...

UberBoat, UberBoat XL Services to Start From February 1 in Mumbai Hoping to tap waterways transportation in the country's commercial capital, Maharashtra Maritime Board (MMB) has partnered with Uber to launch UberBOAT from February 1, a senior Uber official said here on Wednesday. This will be Uber's second global launch of UberBOAT. In June 2017, UberBOAT launched a similar service for tourists in Croatia who wish to explore the picturesque local islands. The on-demand speedboat service in Mumbai will provide transportation from three top coastal points - Gateway of India, Elephanta Islands, and Mandwa Jetty - as a pilot project. Riders can access two variants of speedboats based on seating capacity - 6-8 seater UberBOAT for Rs. 5,700 per one-way ride and a 10-plus seater UberBOAT-XL at Rs. 9,500 per one-way ride - depending on their requirements, said the official. Aiming to transform into a multi-modal transportation platform, UberBOAT will enable...

Mario Kart Tour for Android and iOS Delayed to Summer 2019 Nintendo's next mobile game, Mario Kart Tour has been delayed. Previously slated for March 2019, the company has now moved the Mario Kart Tour release date to a more nebulous, summer 2019. Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo's fifth mobile game after Super Mario Run, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, Fire Emblem Heroes, and Dragalia Lost. These followed its social media app Miitomo, which has now been shut down. It's being developed by DeNA and was planned to be free to start title much like Super Mario Run. The reason for the delay of the game, as Nintendo puts it, is to improve upon its quality. "In the smart-device business, Mario Kart Tour was scheduled to be released this fiscal year, but in order to improve quality of the application and expand the content offerings after launch, the release date has been moved to summer 2019," reads Nintendo's latest financial report. "As we endeavor to deve...

The Google Pixel 3a XL has logged a score of 1,640 points in the single-core tests and 4,973 points in the multi-core tests. Google Pixel 3 lineup is one of the best flagship smartphone series available in the market today. Both the Pixel 3 and the Pixel 3 XL packs some solid set of internals and offers the best single lens primary camera in the smartphone segment. The American tech giant is also said to be working on a cheaper version of its flagship smartphone which is called as Pixel 3 Lite. The upcoming Pixel 3 Lite has now been spotted on Geekbench which suggests a new name for the device.  The Google Pixel 3 Lite variants including the Pixel 3 Lite and the Pixel 3 Lite XL have been leaked online a number of times suggesting one or the other feature which the smartphones will pack. However, the Geekbench listing this time  reveals that Google might brand the upcoming Pixel 3 Lite XL smartphones as Google Pixel 3a XL. The Geekbench listing of the upcoming Pixel s...

The feature comes with a prompt that says -- 'Catch up on what's happened while you were away' Micro-blogging site  Twitter  is testing a new feature on  Android   that puts news stories at the top of the timeline to help users keep up with what is happening around the world. "With this update, we're making it easier for people to see the news and stories their followers have been discussing while they've been away right at the top of their timeline," Mashable quoted Wally Gurzynski, Product Manager, Twitter as saying on Tuesday. The feature comes with a prompt that says -- "Catch up on what's happened while you were away". Earlier in 2015 and 2016 Twitter released "While you were away" and "Never miss an important tweet" features but they were not to specifically highlight news stories. This feature, however, rather than just surfacing interesting and popular tweets, focuses on news stories from news ...

Snapdeal, ShopClues, others write to DIPP, commerce ministry forming anti-Flipkart, Amazon alliance. Domestic E -commerce  companies  Snapdeal  and  ShopClues , social commerce startups including  Shop101 , and a bunch of online-only brands have come together to oppose any extension of a February 1 deadline for online marketplaces to comply with FDI rules. This is the first time smaller online retailers have voiced their concerns to the government after last month’s review of norms on issues such as inventory and price control and equity ownership in vendors, which have hit their biggest rivals – Amazon and Flipkart – the most. Many of these companies have written to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and commerce minister Suresh Prabhu, lauding the government for clarifying the rules on foreign direct investment in the e-commerce sector. The government’s Press Note 2 issued in December bars online marketplaces and their group companies f...

Internet addiction is not a choice but an actual disorder and a disease. Teenagers get addicted to their electronics, reveal doctors. When Danny Reagan was 13, he began exhibiting signs of what doctors usually associate with drug addiction. He became agitated, secretive and withdrew from friends. He had quit baseball and Boy Scouts, and he stopped doing homework and showering. But he was not using drugs. He was hooked on YouTube and video games, to the point where he could do nothing else. As doctors would confirm, he was addicted to his electronics. “After I got my console, I kind of fell in love with it,” Danny, now 16 and a junior in a Cincinnati high school, said. “I liked being able to kind of shut everything out and just relax.” Danny was different from typical plugged-in American teenagers. Psychiatrists say internet addiction, characterized by a loss of control over internet use and disregard for the consequences of it, affects up to 8 percent of Americans a...

The deployment of AI has tripled in the past year with 52 % of telco organisations deploying chatbots and 38 % of healthcare providers relying on computer-assisted diagnostics. Given the level of ease and convenience that Artificial Intelligence (AI) brings with its implementation and use, the number of organisations that adopted AI in some way or the other globally has risen from 25 per cent in 2018 to 37 per cent today, global market research firm Gartner said on Monday. The deployment of AI has tripled in the past year with 52 % of telco organisations deploying chatbots and 38 % of healthcare providers relying on computer-assisted diagnostics. “Four years ago, AI implementation was rare, only 10 % of survey respondents reported that their organisations had deployed AI or would do so shortly. For 2019, that number has leapt to 37 % - a 270 % increase in four years,” said Chris Howard, Research Vice President at Gartner. The survey that was conducted to help Ch...

Java Card is a software technology providing isolation between secure hardware and software services Oracle’s Java Card platform, which provides security for smart card and limited-memory device applications, increases support for the internet of things in Version 3.1. Java Card is a software technology providing isolation between secure hardware and software services. Typical hardware platforms that use Java Card include embedded secure elements, smart card chips, and secure systems with a general-purpose CPU. Sensitive materials such as cryptographic keys can be provisioned. The development kit is free, but manufacturers using Java Card must get a paid commercial license to use the technology. Java Card 3.1 enables development of security services portable across a range of IoT security hardware. An extensible I/O model lets applications exchange data directly with connected peripherals over a variety of physical layers and application protocols. The new version also intr...