Gadgets And Technology Daily News | 25 Jun 2023
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Meta to Face Legal Action in Malaysia for Failing to Remove 'Undesirable' Posts
Malaysia said on Friday it will take legal action against Facebook parent Meta Platforms for failing to remove "undesirable" posts, the strongest measure the country has taken to date over such content.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's administration has vowed to curb what it calls provocative posts that touch on race and religion since coming to power in November after a closely fought election in the Southeast Asian nation that has led to a rise in ethnic tensions.
Facebook has recently been "plagued by" a significant volume of undesirable content relating to race, royalty, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling and scam advertisements, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement.
It said Meta had failed to take sufficient action despite its repeated requests and that legal action was necessary to promote accountability for cybersecurity and to protect consumers.
Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
Asked what legal action it might take, the commission said in an emailed statement on Saturday that allowing abuse of network facilities or application services can be offences under Malaysia's Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The law also allows for officials of the company to be charged for "wilfully providing means and aiding criminal activity" if prompt action is not taken, it said.
Race and religion are thorny issues in Malaysia, which has a majority of Muslim ethnic Malays alongside significant ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
Commentary on the country's revered royals is also a sensitive issue, and negative remarks towards them can be tried under sedition laws.
The action against Facebook comes just weeks ahead of elections in six states that are expected to pit Anwar's multi-ethnic coalition against a conservative Malay Muslim alliance.
Facebook is Malaysia's biggest social media platform, with an estimated 60 percent of the country's 33 million people having a registered account.
Globally, big social media firms that include Meta, Google's YouTube and TikTok are often under regulatory scrutiny over content posted on their platforms.
Some Southeast Asian governments have frequently requested that content be taken down.
In 2020, Vietnam threatened to shut down Facebook in the country if it did not agree to government demands to censor more local political content on its platform. The government said last year that social media platforms operating in Vietnam had removed more than 3,200 posts and videos in the first quarter that contained false information and violated the country's law.
In Indonesia, Facebook in 2019 took down hundreds of local accounts, pages and groups linked to a fake news syndicate.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 Smartwatch With AMOLED Display, Bluetooth Calling Launched in India
Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 smartwatch has been launched in India. The smartwatch comes with a 1.43-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 466x466 pixels, Bluetooth calling, and smart health sensors like a heart rate monitor, sleep tracker, and SpO2 monitor. It also supports over 110 sports modes. The wearable has multiple cloud-based watch faces to choose from. The smartwatch has been claimed to offer up to seven days of battery life with normal usage and up to 20 days in standby mode.
The Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 smartwatch is priced at Rs. 2,499 in India and will be available for sale via the official Fire-Boltt website and Flipkart. It comes in four different colour variants — Black, Dark Grey, Grey and Pink.
Fire-Boltt's Apollo 2 smartwatch sports a 1.43-inch (466x466 pixels) AMOLED display. It gets a circular dial that has a metallic body and silicon straps. The watch supports Bluetooth calling, allowing users to make and receive phone calls directly from the watch. The smartwatch also comes with AI voice assistants like Google Assistant and Siri.
It features several smart health trackers like SpO2 monitoring, heart rate sensors, female health tracker, and sleep monitoring. Additionally, the Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 gets support for 110 sports modes. It also has multiple cloud-based watch faces to choose from.
The Fire-Boltt Apollo 2 is claimed to offer up to seven days of battery life with normal usage, up to 2 days with Bluetooth calling, and up to 20 days in standby mode. The watch also has an alarm, a timer, a stopwatch, a weather forecast, and sedentary reminders. The latest offering from Fire Boltt is IP67-rated for water and dust resistance. Other highlights of the watch are in-built games, smart notification, camera control, and music control.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Series Codename Tipped: Report
Samsung has reportedly started working on the next iteration of its high-end phones i.e., the Galaxy S24 series. The phones' expected specifications and rumours have already started doing rounds on the internet. In the latest development, the codenames of the handsets. in the series have emerged online. Samsung uses codenames for its high-end smartphones. This year's Galaxy S23 series was codenamed Diamond while the codename of the Galaxy S22 series was Rainbow. The Samsung Galaxy S24 series is likely to debut early next year.
A report by Galaxy Club in collaboration with Sammobile confirms that the Samsung Galaxy S24 series is being developed under the codename Muse. The Galaxy S24 Ultra has reportedly been spotted with the codename Muse3, and hence, the Galaxy S24 and the Galaxy S24+ are expected to use codenames Muse1 and Muse2, respectively.
Additionally, the report also says that the South Korean smartphone company wouldn't drop the Plus model for the series i.e., Galaxy S24+, despite several rumours. The upcoming Galaxy S24 series is speculated to include three models namely Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24+, and the Galaxy S24. However, there is no official information available on the specifications and features of the upcoming smartphone lineup.
Samsung has been using specific codenames for its high-end phone lineups. The Galaxy S21 series was codenamed Unbound. Additionally, the codename for the Galaxy S20 series was Hubble.
Recently, the purported Galaxy S24 Ultra's camera details surfaced online, hinting at minor camera upgrades over its predecessor. The report suggested that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will ship with the same camera setup as the existing Galaxy S23 Ultra. This means that the smartphone may sport a 200-megapixel Samsung HP2 primary sensor, a 12-megapixel Sony IMX564 ultra-wide lens the two other sensors with minor improvements.
According to the report, the phone will have a 12-megapixel Sony IMX754 periscope telephoto camera with 3x optical zoom and another 12-megapixel Sony IMX754+ image sensor with 10x optical zoom. Besides, the phone may also have an LED flash and a laser autofocus unit on its back panel.
OnePlus Nord Buds 2R India Launch Date Tipped: All Details
OnePlus Nord Buds 2R are expected to. be launched in India soon. The device's microsite has gone live on Amazon, hinting the timeline for revealing of various information regarding the earbuds. OnePlus Nord Buds 2R could debut in India on July 5, alongside OnePlus Nord 3. The earbuds' design and colour specifications have already been revealed via the Amazon product listing page. The earbuds are teased to come in two colour options and sport an in-canal design. There were unofficial reports about the earbuds arriving in India in June, but this seems to have been delayed for July.
Amazon has made the product page live for OnePlus Nord Buds 2R in India, confirming the launch timeline of the upcoming. device. The earbuds are said to debut in India on July 5. Several tipsters have shared the image from Amazon microsite which confirmed the date. However, it seems like the date has now been removed.
The product page has also revealed the design and colour options of the upcoming earbuds. The OnePlus Nord Buds 2R will come in two colour options including Black and Blue, and will sport an in-canal design with silicon earplugs.
The OnePlus Nord Buds 2R entire specifications haven't been revealed via the product page, but it suggests that the earbuds will be equipped with noise cancellation features. The company will reveal some of the key specifications, including the drivers, battery details and connectivity support, in the coming days.
Meanwhile, OnePlus recently confirmed the launch of the OnePlus Nord 3 in India through its “The Lab” campaign page. However, it did not reveal a specific date. The upcoming OnePlus Nord 3 has reportedly been spotted with a MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SoC on a Geekbench website. It has scored 1,153 points and 3,180 points in Geekbench's single and multi-core tests respectively.
The listing also suggests that the phone will pack up to 16GB of RAM. It is expected to be a rebadged version of the OnePlus Ace 2V, which was launched in China earlier this year.
Google to Set Up Its Global Fintech Operation Centre in Gujarat
Internet giant Google will set up its global fintech operation centre at GIFT City in Gujarat, its CEO Sundar Pichai said on Friday after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.
Pichai also said that his company continues to invest in India though its USD 10 billion (roughly Rs. 81,980 crore) India Digitisation Fund.
Modi is visiting the US from June 21 to June 24 at the invitation of President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. Besides Pichai, the prime minister at an interaction with top CEOs also met Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and AMD CEO Lisa Su, among others "Today we are announcing the opening of our global fintech operations centre in GIFT City, Gujarat. It will cement India's fintech leadership, thanks to UPI, and Aadhaar. We are going to build on that foundation and take it globally," Pichai said.
The Indian-origin CEO said it is exciting to see the progress that the country has made, particularly around the vision of Digital India and the economic opportunity.
"I met the prime minister in December, and we continued our conversation. We shared that Google is investing USD 10 billion in the India digitisation fund and we are continuing to invest through that, including in companies working on artificial intelligence. As part of that, we have a 100-language initiative. We are bringing bot to more Indian languages very soon," Pichai said.
He said that the prime minister's vision for Digital India was ahead of its time. "I now see it as a blueprint that other countries are looking to do so," Pichai said.
The ministry of external affairs in a tweet said Prime Minister Modi invited Pichai to explore further avenues of collaboration in the domains of artificial intelligence, fintech, and cybersecurity products and services, as well as mobile device manufacturing in India.
They also discussed collaboration between Google and academic institutions in India to promote research and development, and skill development, the ministry added.
In July 2020, Google had announced plans to invest USD 10 billion in India over next five to seven years as the search giant looks to help accelerate adoption of digital services in the key overseas market.
During his visit to India in December last year, Pichai had announced that a part of the India Digitisation Fund (IDF) is increasingly focusing on startups from India and one-fourth amount of USD 300 million from the fund will be invested in entities that are led by women.
Google had announced a collaboration with the Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science to collect speech data from 773 districts across India to fine-tune its language translation and search technology.
The internet major has announced a grant of USD 1 million (roughly Rs. 8,300 crore) to set up India's first responsible artificial intelligence centre at IIT Madras and a USD 1 million grant via Google.Org to Wadhwani AI towards using advanced technology for better agricultural outcomes.
Amazon to Invest Additional $15 Billion in India, Says CEO Andy Jassy
Amazon.com will invest an additional $15 billion (roughly Rs. 12,297 crore) in India, the company's Chief Executive Andy Jassy told Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his meeting on Friday.
The investment will take the e-commerce giant's total India investment across all businesses to $26 billion (roughly Rs. 21,314 crore) by 2030, he said.
Modi and Jassy spoke about supporting Indian startups, creating jobs, enabling exports, digitization, and empowering individuals and small businesses to compete globally, an Amazon blog post said.
This announcement follows Amazon's cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS) saying last month it will invest 1.06 trillion rupees ($12.9 billion) in the country by the end of 2030.
Separately, Google will open a global fintech operation center in GIFT City in India's western state of Gujarat, CEO Sundar Pichai told reporters in a video shared on Twitter by Reuters partner ANI company.
"We shared Google is investing $10 billion (roughly Rs. 81,980 crore) in the India digitization fund, and we are continuing to invest through that," Pichai said.
Google did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on further details of the new center, outside of business hours.
On the final day of his Washington trip, Modi met with US and Indian technology executives, including Apple's Tim Cook, Google's Pichai, and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, and appealed to global companies to "Make in India".
Recently, Amazon also made an announcement making it easy for Indian customers to exchange their Rs. 2,000 notes through top up on their Amazon Pay balances during cash-on-delivery orders. Customers can deposit cash of up to Rs. 50,000 per month, including notes of Rs. 2,000 denomination, Amazon said.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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