1. YouTube has announced several new features that make live streaming a better experience for creators and viewers. The most notable additions include live automatic captions, live chat replay, and location tags.
2. Driverless cars will be tested on California roads for the first time without a human being behind a steering wheel under new rules for the fast-developing technology. The rules approved by California's Office of Administrative Law also create the framework under which consumers can eventually buy driverless cars.
3. With the rise of more powerful small-screen smartphones every year, the larger screen tablets are constantly witnessing a slump in shipment numbers. 2017 was not an exception, according to the latest numbers compiled by IDC. According to the data analysis firm’s quarterly personal computing device tracker, a total number of tablets shipped in India include 7,17,000 units. This is 32% sequential decline in 2017 Q4.
4. Global ICT solutions provider Huawei has unveiled a full range of end-to-end (E2E) 5G product solutions at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2018. The range covers the core network, the bearer network, base station and terminals.
5. Soon, you will be able buy a certified refurbished iPhone in India under warranty. Top smartphone distributors, led by Ingram Micro and HCL, are entering the business of selling refurbished smartphones in the country where they will refurbish old handsets sourced locally and then sell them, which will help them bypass government restriction of sourcing old phones from abroad.
6. Google on Tuesday announced a strategic partnership with India's largest bank, State Bank of India (SBI), to focus on a deeper integration for SBI customers on the tech giant's digital payments app Google Tez. With this collaboration, users will be able to create an SBI UPI ID - @oksbi - allowing them to transact via the app.
7. Xiaomi launched Mi Band 2, its second-generation fitness tracker in September 2016 and its successor has been rumored to arrive soon. Meanwhile, the Chinese company has brought the Mi Band 2 back in stock in India, and, with a price cut. Originally priced at Rs. 1,999, the Mi Band 2 (Review) is currently on sale via Mi.com and costs Rs. 1,799.
8. Search giant Google has rolled out a new feature which will be of help to many of us. Google has introduced a new feature called ‘Symptom Search’. With this feature the company is aiming to improve the quality of search and also working on making it easier for patients to understand their medical symptoms.
9. Networking giant Cisco and Reliance Jio on Tuesday announced that both the companies are working together to leverage the power of multi-access edge computing, beginning with optimising and enhancing video experience over the network by developing a mobile content delivery network (CDN).
10. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC recently announced it has started rolling out Android Oreo update for its HTC 10 smartphone. Now, the update is finally available in India.
11. The RBI has said that e-wallet customers can continue to use money lying in their account for purchases even after February 28. They can also send the money back to their banks. However, remitting funds to others and reloading the e-wallet would require completion of know your customer (KYC) norms, for which the deadline is this month-end.
12. Vodafone Group CEO Vittorio Colao has called out the telecom regulator’s new regulations on predatory pricing as favouring Reliance Jio Infocomm, and said it should be legally challenged, raising the pitch of an ongoing battle between India’s older operators on one side and the regulator and the new telco on the other.
13. To take on Jio and Airtel in the Indian telecom sector, state-owned BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) on Tuesday introduced the new Rs. 448 Unlimited prepaid pack that offers unlimited voice calls (local/ STD/ roaming) and 1GB data per day (total 84GB).
14. Samsung’s newly-launched Galaxy S9 and S9+ smartphones are up for pre-registration and booking for Airtel customers. One of the country’s leading telecom operator is offering the smartphones to its postpaid customers. While the official price of the smartphones hasn’t been announced.
15. As a student, perhaps, the last thing you wish to hear is that learning is a lifelong process. But when those words come from Wipro chairman Azim Premji, attention must be paid. “I think one should never stop being a student...change is happening so rapidly today for a professional that unless he is always learning, he is getting himself obsolete,” Premji said at his company’s recent Earthian Awards, hosted in Bengaluru.
16. While the AR Emoji offering on the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ appears to have been inspired by Apple's Animoji feature, Samsung is refuting this allegation. The South Korean company even took a dig at Apple during the Galaxy S9 launch on Sunday by mentioning why it didn't favour a notch or the absence of a fingerprint sensor that both helped to make the iPhone X popular and a distinctive smartphone model.
17. The University of Bristol announced on Monday that it and two other British universities will debut an end-to-end 5G network at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Spain this week.
18. Google on Monday announced the rollout of Actions on Google Assistant in seven new languages. These new languages include Hindi, Thai, Indonesian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch.
19. Flipkart has started its ‘Apple Days’ offer starting today (February 27), which will go until March 2.
20. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio today escalated the war against the telecom association COAI, of which it is one of the members, saying the body was spreading patent falsity in denying that the recent press statements were directed against it.
21. Apple has provided an acknowledgement for the first time that it is relying on rival Google's public cloud for data storage for its iCloud services, according to the latest iOS Security document that the Cupertino-headquartered giant updated on its website.
22. The HP Spectre laptop series in India got a refresh on Tuesday as the company announced the launch of the next-generation Spectre x360 model. The price of the new HP Spectre x360 starts at Rs. 1,15,290 for the variant with Core i5 processor, and goes up to Rs. 1,57,290 for the Core i7 option.
23. Leading Indian telecom operator Airtel has entered into partnership with Google. As part of the association, the companies will be launching low-cost smartphones powered by Android Oreo (Go edition) to the Indian market. After this partnership, India will become one of the first countries to commercially roll-out smartphones running on Android Oreo (Go edition).
24. It seems that Blackberry is trying hard to gain a strong foothold in the Indian smartphone market. The company is said to be working on a new smartphone code-named ‘Ghost’ which it will launch in India soon.
25. Mobile phone company HMD Global is likely to roll out new smartphones from April and a new version of its 22-year-old handset Nokia 8110 from May in India.
26. The US Supreme Court on Tuesday wades into a major privacy rights fight between Microsoft Corp and the Justice Department, weighing whether US law allows prosecutors to compel technology companies to hand over data stored overseas.
27. Facebook has apologised, saying it regrets promoting a Virtual Reality (VR) shooting game named "Bullet Train" on its stand at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference 2018 (CPAC) in the US, a week after 17 students were killed in a Florida school shooting.
28. PS4-exclusive God of War release date is April 20. Aside from the standard edition of the game that costs Rs. 3,999, there are two special variants, the God of War Collector's Edition and God of War Limited Edition. Both versions of God of War will be coming to India in addition to the standard edition.
29. The RBI has said that e-wallet customers can continue to use money lying in their account for purchases even after February 28. They can also send the money back to their banks. However, remitting funds to others and reloading the e-wallet would require completion of know your customer (KYC) norms, for which the deadline is this month-end.
30. The European Commission wants to tax large digital companies' revenues based on where their users are located rather than where their headquarters are, at a rate between 1 and 5 percent.
31. The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said on Monday the agency plans to launch new auctions of high-band spectrum starting later this year, to speed the launch of next-generation 5G networks.
32. Lava International on Tuesday announced its first Android 8.1 Oreo (Go edition) - aka Android Go - smartphone, the Lava Z50.
33. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is said to be working on next generation flagship smartphone Mi 7. It is expected that the company might launch the smartphone the smartphone in June this year.
34. Aircel's woes have deepened after Vodafone India became the second carrier after Idea Cellular to stop most interconnect services across all circles to the beleaguered telco, including messaging, STD and international calling facility, due to non-payment of outstanding dues.
35. Captain Marvel has added another female star to its ranks. Gemma Chan – best known for her role as the synthetic Anita/ Mia in AMC-Channel 4's sci-fi drama Humans – has been cast as Minn-Erva in the Marvel superhero film.
36. Samsung Electronics Co. and HARMAN International on Tuesday introduced JBL "Club", "GTO" and "Standard" speakers to its JBL range of aftermarket car audio speakers and amplifiers in India.
37. Airbnb, the 10-year old tech-hospitality platform that started in 2008 in a flat in San Francisco, California, out of a necessity to pay rent, has now turned into one of the world’s largest platforms for accommodation. With 4.5 million properties across 81,000 cities and over 300 million guests.
38. Amazon has added 15 new fulfilment centres to create a specialised network for its Amazon Now hyperlocal grocery delivery business. The new centres are based in the four cities where Amazon Now is currently available—Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad — helping it take on players like BigBasket and Grofers.
39. Marvel's The Punisher, the Netflix spin-off centred on Jon Bernthal's Daredevil character, has added three new characters for its in-production season two: Josh Stewart (Insidious: The Last Key, Shooter), Floriana Lima (Lethal Weapon, Supergirl), and Giorgia Whigham (Scream, Sierra Burgess is a Loser).
40. If you were expecting a PlayStation 5 (PS5) release date any time soon, you can rest easy. Well, at least according to NPD analyst Mat Piscatella. He stated that Sony’s PS4 and PS4 Pro successor isn’t due till 2020.
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