1. Non-practicing entity Portal Communications has filed a lawsuit against Apple for alleged infringement of three patents related to natural language voice query systems -- the technology being used by the iPhone-maker in its products in the form of the Siri virtual assistant.
2. The Bajaj Electricals has launched Bajaj Cool.iNXT, billed as the first of its kind Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled air cooler.
3. Moto X5, the smartphone that was leaked in January this year, is reportedly being cancelled by the company as part of a layoff exercise. The company has confirmed the layoffs in its Chicago office, but announced the Moto Z series of modular phones is emerging unscathed.
4. European nation Estonia today said it is looking to build cooperation with India in cyber security and e-government development space and also invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit the country.
5. Popular image sharing and multimedia mobile app Snapchat and Instagram have temporarily removed their Giphy GIF sticker features after users saw a racist GIF as an option to add to their photographs.
6. China does not recognize Bitcoin and other digital currencies as legitimate forms of payment, the central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, said on Friday.
7. Facebook on Friday announced a licensing deal with Warner Music, the last of the major label groups to sign with the social media behemoth which is promising more personalised music. The 2 billion users of Facebook will soon be able to post in more creative ways with the catalogue of Warner, whose artist roster includes Ed Sheeran, Coldplay and the late Prince.
8. Amazon Alexa has reportedly gained a new feature that will let users make successive requests without the requirement of an Echo speaker's trigger word. It is often annoying while using digital assistants that you have to speak a particular ‘wake’ word after every request, such as "Hey Siri" in the HomePod, "Ok Google" in Google Home, or "Alexa" in Amazon speakers.
9. A US national security panel has ordered Singapore-based chipmaker Broadcom to provide it with five business days' notice before taking any action toward redomiciling to the United States.
10. Chinese mobile maker Oppo is all set to unveil a new flagship smartphone in India, the Opt F7. Oppo India has released a teaser of the new smartphone, announcing the launch of its latest product. As per the image posted by the company, the Oppo F7 will come with a full-screen display and an iPhone X-like notch.
11. Google-owned Waymo on Friday said that its self-driving trucks will haul cargo bound for the internet giant's data centres in Georgia.
12. An international team, including Chinese researchers, has demonstrated a large-scale integrated quantum photonic circuit, which may pave the way for manufacturing massive components for the realization of an optical quantum computer.
13. Google is set to make its voice-enabled assistant more flexible as it is letting developers build device-specific commands for it. Earlier, developers were able to create custom commands to an extent using Actions, which essentially are apps that users control with their voice when talking to Google Assistant.
14. Facebook is getting deeper into the professional sports streaming game, partnering with Major League Baseball to air 25 afternoon games in an exclusive deal. The games will be available to Facebook users in the US on Facebook Watch, the company's video feature, via the MLB Live show page.
15. Bose has announced that it developing a pair of augmented reality glasses, which focuses on audio. Rather than superimposition of data over visually, like Google Glass or Intel's Vaunt glasses, Bose's AR technology adds an "audible layer of information and experiences."
16. Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ are just beginning to make their way to pre-order customers across the globe, but Samsung doesn't seem to waste any time to keep its flagships up-to-date. The first over-the-air updates for the company's latest smartphones have reportedly started to hit in some markets, but the deployment may vary depending upon the region and carriers. Additionally, Samsung has also reportedly released the update for its Galaxy A8 (2018) smartphone as well.
17. "As per the information reported to and tracked by Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a total number of 49,455, 50,362 and 53,081 cyber security incidents were observed during the year 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively," IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha today.
18. Onavo, the data-security app maker that Facebook acquired in 2013, launched and then quickly deleted an Android app that let users lock other apps on their devices. While the purpose of the Bolt App Lock, on its face, was to protect other apps from unauthorised access, it apparently also collected data on the apps and services consumers used on their smartphones - and then sent it back to Facebook. The Bolt App Lock was deleted soon after its launch, with a Facebook spokesperson reportedly calling it a "small, brief test."
19. Microsoft has started selling a customised version of the newly-launched Samsung Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ on its store. The "Microsoft edition" smartphones will give users access to a range of Microsoft's apps such as Excel, Skype, Cortana, OneNote, PowerPoint, Word and Microsoft Launcher after setting up the phone.
20. Vodafone India today said its initiative 'Project Comfort' has been extended to the digital platform with the launch of Vodafone Comfort point map on International Women's Day.
21. Microchip maker Intel Corp responded to a news report that it is considering a possible bid for Broadcom Ltd by saying that it is focused on integrating previous acquisitions, raising doubt over the idea.
22. EU antitrust authorities said they take "very seriously" doubts among Google's rivals that the US Internet search giant has met demands from Brussels to stop favouring its shopping service.
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