Education on technology

A South Korean chip executive imprisoned over industrial espionage charges rejected allegations he had sought to build a copycat chip factory in China with sensitive information developed by Samsung Electronics . In a handwritten letter to Reuters, his first comments to the media since he was detained on May 25, Choi Jinseog elaborated on his defense plan and said the allegations against him regarding the Xian plant were not substantiated. Prosecutors earlier this month indicted the former Samsung executive for illegally obtaining secret information to build a semiconductor plant only 1.5 km (1 mile) from a Samsung factory in Xian, China. Choi is in custody at a detention center in Suwon, a city south of Seoul where Samsung has its headquarters. He previously denied all the charges through his lawyer. In the letter, Choi said the factory was planned for Taiwan's Foxconn , for early test production of DRAM memory chips, while Samsung's plant in Xian was designed to manufactu...

Google said on Thursday it plans to block Canadian news on its platform in Canada, joining Facebook in escalating a campaign against a new law requiring payments to local news publishers. Alphabet -owned Google will remove links to Canadian news from search results and other products in Canada when the law takes effect in about six months. Facebook -owner Meta Platforms made a similar announcement last week after the passage of Bill C-18, or the Online News Act. Canada's media industry has called for tighter regulation of Internet giants to allow news businesses to recoup financial losses suffered in the years that Facebook and Google gained a greater share of the online advertising market. The independent budgetary watchdog in Canada estimated last year that news businesses could receive about CAD 330 million (roughly Rs. 20,436 crore) per year from deals mandated under the legislation. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez, who introduced the bill last year, has said the pla...

Volkswagen is in talks with Tesla to adopt its North American Charging Standard (NACS) technology, while the German automaker's charging network unit Electrify America has already agreed to use the system. The announcement comes as a slew of automakers and charging equipment makers choose Tesla's charging design on concerns of losing out on customers if they offer only the Combined Charging System (CCS) design, which is backed by automakers like Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor . Ford , General Motors and ChargePoint . are among the companies that have signed up for Tesla's charging design in the past few weeks. "Volkswagen Group and its brands are currently evaluating the implementation of the Tesla North American Charging Standard (NACS) for its North American customers," Volkswagen said. Electrify America, Volkswagen's EV charging network unit, has more than 850 charging stations with about 4,000 chargers in the United States and Canada. During the NACS...

Inflection AI , a startup backed by several Silicon Valley heavyweights, said on Thursday it had raised $1.3 billion (nearly Rs. 10,670 crore) from investors including Microsoft and Nvidia , amid a boom in the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The investment, a mix of cash and cloud credit, valued the one-year-old company at $4 billion (nearly Rs. 32,840 crore), a source familiar with the matter told Reuters. Inflection released its chatbot Pi last month. Founded by Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, it focused on building consumer-faced AI products and is considered a top rival of OpenAI . Pi uses generative AI technology, similar to ChatGPT , to interact with users through dialogues, allowing people to ask questions and share feedback. Inflection said it wants to build a personal AI that will help people plan, schedule, gather information and perform other tasks. Palo Alto, California-based Inflection AI has about 35 employees...

Honor Magic V2 is scheduled to be unveiled on July 12. The announcement was made by the Shenzen-based company at the Mobile World Congress 2023 in Shanghai on Thursday. The phone has previously been tipped to launch with two SoC variants. The book-style foldable smartphone is expected to succeed the Honor Magic V , which was released in January 2022. The preceding foldable comes with an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and a 4,750mAh battery with 66W Honor SuperCharge technology support.  Honor CEO George Zhao announced in Shanghai during the Mobile World Congress 2023 keynote address on Thursday that the Honor Magic V2 will be unveiled in China on July 12, a GSMArena report mentioned. Zhao claims that the model will "revolutionise the foldable experience." The Honor Magic Vs launched in November 2022. The smartphone had a considerably lighter body and a redesigned hinge, as compared to the Magic V model. Therefore, the expectation from the Magic V2 is to delive...

Mobile components manufacturer SFS, which is interested in setting up a unit by investing Rs. 250 crore, has sought 30 acres of land in Belagavi from the state government. Minister for large and medium industries M B Patil said in a statement that on Wednesday SFS delegates led by CFO of the company Faras Shaw met him to exchange ideas regarding its proposed project. Welcoming the proposal, the minister told them that the decision will be taken after reviewing the proposal, the statement read. “SFS has already set up an aerospace components unit in Belagavi and is operational. The company, which is also a manufacturer of mobile components for companies such as Apple, is interested in setting up its unit in Belagavi. This is estimated to generate 500 direct jobs for technologists in the next three years,” according to the statement. Meanwhile, multiple global technology players are moving their production to India. As per a recent Bloomberg report , Alphabet's Google is scouting ...