Education on technology

Layoffs in the United States hit a more than two-year high in January as technology firms cut jobs at the second-highest pace on record to brace for a possible recession, a report showed on Thursday. The layoffs impacted 1,02,943 workers, a more than two-fold jump from December and an over five-times surge from a year earlier, according to the report from employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Companies from Microsoft to Amazon.com and Goldman Sachs Group cut thousands of jobs last month in a bid to ride out a demand downturn as consumer and corporate spending shrinks due to high inflation and rising interest rates. "We're now on the other side of the hiring frenzy of the pandemic years," said Andrew Challenger, labor expert and Senior Vice President of the employment firm. "Companies are preparing for an economic slowdown, cutting workforce and slowing hiring." The push to correct pandemic excesses has been most evident in the tech sector, whic...

Telecom regulator TRAI has called a meeting with telcos on February 17 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications. The meeting assumes significance as improvement in telecom service quality is bound to cheer mobile customers, irked by call drops and patchy networks. It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are rolling out across the country. So far, as many as 200 cities in India have seen launch of 5G services, the next generation of technology that promises turbocharged speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity. Issues around service quality have been in the spotlight over the last few months. The Telecom Department back in December met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberated on policy measures that can be considered for improving call quality. In a statement o...

Reliance Retail on Thursday, February 2, reportedly announced that it would begin using India's digital rupee CBDC across its stores in Mumbai. The retail giant has partnered with ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank to accept and process CBDC payments. The government of India has been rolling out its CBDC in select cities including Mumbai. Reliance Retail customers who wish to pay using the CBDC will need the banks' digital rupee app to facilitate the payment by scanning a QR code. The development was reportedly announced by V Subramaniam, the managing director at Reliance Retail, during a public event on Thursday. “I believe CBDC will be better than the UPI system . Transactions will be anonymous and protected. Moreover, acceptance across 17,000 Reliance Retail stores will play a role in getting CBDC adopted,” Subramaniam was quoted as saying. Built on the distributed ledger system of blockchain , the CBDC is a digital representation of India's fiat currency. Using CBD...

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 series laptops were launched on Wednesday during the Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event. The latest laptop lineup from Samsung includes new Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 and Galaxy Book 3 Pro models. Hours after the global debut, Samsung revealed the India pricing and pre-booking details of the new laptops. The top-of-the-line Galaxy Book 3 Ultra will set you back by Rs. 2,81,990 in India. The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra features up to 13th Gen Intel Core i9 CPUs with up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPUs. The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 and Galaxy Book 3 Pro laptops are powered by up to 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, coupled with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics. Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, Galaxy Book 3 price in India, availability Pricing for the  Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra  in India has been set at Rs. 2,81,990. The  Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is priced at Rs. 1,55,990 for the base model, while Galaxy Book 3 Pro's price starts at...

China, while accelerating its efforts to test and launch its CBDC, is still maintaining a blanket ban on all crypto-related activities. Huang Yiping, the former advisor to the People's Bank of China (PBOC), has voiced concerns that China is losing next-gen fintech opportunities that other parts of the world are already experimenting with. Yiping's warning to the Chinese authorities comes in the backdrop of its neighbour India, taking a comparatively friendlier approach towards crypto. China should reconsider its adverse and rigid stance on crypto activities, the economist reportedly alerted. In Yiping's opinion, opportunities in exploring the ‘very valuable' blockchain technology are enormous. Concerned about the misuse of cryptocurrencies for illicit purposes, Beijing imposed a blanket ban on activities in the sector. Crypto transactions are largely untraceable, and the scope of cryptocurrencies being used for money laundering, tax evasion, and terror funding hav...

China's Xiaomi said on Thursday it had imposed a CNY 1 million (roughly Rs. 1 crore) penalty on a supplier after it leaked early design drafts of an upcoming car model. On its official Weibo page, a spokesperson wrote Xiaomi had "dealt seriously" with a Beijing-based moulding technology company which on January 22 publicly revealed images of an upcoming car's front and rear bumpers, violating a confidentiality agreement. Xiaomi did not disclose the name of the company and Reuters could not identify it. As punishment, the smartphone-turned-car maker said it would impose "economic compensation" of CNY 1 million (roughly Rs. 1 crore) on the supplier. The spokesperson added it had instructed the supplier to strengthen its information security management, and develop plans to upgrade its confidentiality measures. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun also circulated the note on his personal Weibo page. Over the Chinese New Year, images purportedly showing mock ups of the fro...

Reality Labs, the metaverse-focussed division of Meta, lost $13.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,12,200 crore) last year. Between September and December last year, Meta's metaverse unit recorded its largest quarterly loss that amounted to $4.3 billion (roughly Rs. 35,200 crore). Despite these staggering losses, Mark Zuckerberg's hopes pinned to the metaverse have stayed unaffected. The Meta chief is ready to keep developing the technology for the prospects it has in the coming years. In Meta's earnings call on February 1, Zuckerberg said he has seen no signal to shift Meta's strategy for Reality Labs for a long term. In fact, Zuckerberg as well as Susan Li, Meta's Chief Financial Officer, expect to see more losses in the Reality Labs unit in 2023, CoinTelegraph reported . A fully functional virtual universe built on the decentralised blockchain networks, the metaverse will enable people to exist in a parallel world. Metaverse natives will be able to meet, work, party...

Realme GT Neo 5 launch date has been officially confirmed. The new premium smartphone from Realme will launch in China on February 9. Ahead of the official launch, the company has started teasing the key specifications and features of the upcoming Realme smartphone. The Realme GT Neo 5 is already confirmed to feature support for 240W SuperVOOC fast charging. The device is claimed to offer up to 2 hours of talktime battery life with a 30-second charge. The company has dropped another set of teasers that reveal the design and some key specifications of the Realme GT Neo 5. Realme took to Weibo to reveal the design of the GT Neo 5 . The phone has a curved back and frame. The rear panel will use AG Glass technology and offer a matte finish for the Purple Fantasy colour option. The device has a dual-tone rear panel, with the top portion sporting a huge rectangular block for the two circular camera cutouts, an LED flash module and the RGB lights. There are also two vertical stripes running...