One Thing Today in Tech
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TCS wins $1.81 bln BSNL order; ChatGPT iOS app out; AWS to invest $12.7 bln in India by 2030
Leaders of the Group of Seven nations have called for the development of technical standards to ensure trustworthy artificial intelligence, Reuters reports. Meanwhile, OpenAI has introduced an official iOS app for ChatGPT, bringing its popular AI chatbot to mobile devices, according to a blog post from the company over the weekend. Also in this brief, Amazon Web Services, the world's biggest cloud provider, has announced a massive investment in India; IBM announces a new quantum computing R&D partnership and Krafton gets another shot at India for PUBG aka BGMI
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Apple announces new accessibility features; Wipro among Vice's creditors — report; WeWork's Mathrani quits
Apple yesterday announced new software features for cognitive, speech, and vision accessibility. These updates, set to launch later this year, include assistive access, live speech, personal voice, and point and speak in the magnifier app, the company said in a press release. Also in this brief, Infosys and bp signed an MoU to deepen their partnership. This helps Infosys "solidify" its 20-year-old relationship as the primary provider of IT application services to the British energy company, India's second-biggest IT company said in a press release yesterday
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QuickTake: IPL, Disney+ Hotstar, Jio Cinema and India's OTT wars
In today's quick take, we teamed up with our own Naini Thaker, an avid IPL watcher and OTT aficionado, to help us make sense of the news that Disney+ Hotstar lost 15-16 percent of its India paid subscriber base between October 2022 and March 2023. Naini also walks us through the news that a substantial portion of HBO's premium content will now only be available on Jio Cinema. She unpacks what this means, including Jio Cinema's emergence as an OTT force that you will have to embrace to find your favourite HBO show
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Apple contractor Foxconn to invest $500 mln in Telangana; EU clears Microsoft's $68.7 bln Activision deal
Foxconn, a key Apple contractor, is set to invest $500 million in setting up manufacturing plants in Telangana. This move demonstrates Foxconn's intent to expand its presence in India as Apple pushes its biggest partners to step up efforts to help it reduce dependence on China. The EU has okayed Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, making it a direct competitor to Sony and Nintendo. Also in this brief, WhatsApp has added a security feature to protect "intimate" conversations, and Amazon is laying off employees across various functions in India
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QuickTake: Apple's AR headset at WWDC — Milind Manoj at PupilMesh unpacks the tech and the rumours
Apple is likely to unveil a high-end mixed reality headset at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in June, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. The headset will likely have an internal screen for virtual reality and outward-facing cameras for augmented reality overlays. It is said to be experimental relative to other Apple products, with a waist-mounted external battery pack, and a price tag of around $3,000. We invited Milind Manoj, co-founder and CEO of PupilMesh, an AR hardware and software tech startup in Bengaluru, to give us his perspective
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Elon Musk, in CEO transition, accused of helping censorship in Turkey; Apple headset, M3 this year
Elon Musk, amidst a transition to a new CEO to take his place at Twitter, has come under criticism for allegedly giving in to government pressure to censor tweets ahead of national elections in Turkey. Apple's next more powerful processor, the M3 chip is expected later this year, according to Bloomberg. The company is also expected to unveil its long-anticipated virtual reality and augmented reality headset at its worldwide developer conference next month. Also in this brief, India is developing a nationwide system to help people block their lost mobile devices
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Quick Take: Linda Yaccarino, Twitter's rumoured incoming CEO, and what it might mean for India
After Elon Musk's tweet that he has found a new CEO for Twitter and that he would take the CTO's role, the name of Linda Yaccarino, a senior executive at NBC Universal Media in the US, has emerged as the person who is tipped to lead Twitter. In today's Quick Take, we talk about if this will have any bearing on Twitter's plans in India and how Yaccarino, a top marketer, might bring her perspective to one of the world's biggest social media platforms. Twitter with its strong tech underpinnings, also has a vibrant base of users among India's startup entrepreneurs
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Hyundai to invest $2.45 bln in India in EV push; WhatsApp moves to curb phishing; Julia 1.9 released
Hyundai Motor has pledged to invest $2.45 billion in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over the next decade to boost its electric vehicle plans, according to multiple reports yesterday. WhatsApp has rolled out back-end updates to address the surge in spam calls, which have been a major problem for users in India. Also in this brief, Julia programming language's version 1.9 is out, and Google has launched its latest budget smartphone, the Pixel 7a, in India at a price of Rs43,999, TechCrunch reports
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Google I/O 2023: Generative AI in search, cloud and workspace; PaLM2 and new Pixel devices
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, yesterday, delivered the keynote address at the 2023 edition of its annual flagship conference, Google I/O, highlighting the company's latest advancements in AI and machine learning. The company is bringing its technology in generative AI to individual users through a new Labs project. Separately, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian provided an update on how the company is bringing generative AI tech to the enterprise user. On the personal tech front, Google announced three new devices, including the next Pixel phone, a foldable phone and a new tablet
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OpenAI developing explainability tool; IBM releases Watsonx AI; Nintendo Switch sales fall
Researchers at OpenAI, the company that made ChatGPT, have open-sourced datasets from a nascent effort aimed at building an automated tool to explain how large language models work. They discussed their efforts in a paper they published yesterday on their website. IBM, at its annual think conference yesterday released a new AI platform and tools. And for fans of the Nintendo Switch, the eponymous company's latest results won't bring any cheer. Sales of the hand-held console have dropped, dimming the prospect of an update to the product
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LinkedIn lays off 716 staff; Google I/O to spotlight generative AI; Razorpay to shift domicile to India
LinkedIn is cutting 716 jobs, about 3.6 percent of its staff, to streamline its operations. It will also phase out its local jobs app in China, InCareers. Google is expected to announce several generative AI updates at its annual developer conference, tomorrow, including the launch of a general-use large language model called PaLM 2, which incorporates over 100 languages and has been operating under the internal codename "Unified Language Model", CNBC reports. And Razorpay is moving its legal base back to India, ET reports