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Android 12

Leaked Screenshots Gives a Flash of the Android 12 Updated Features.

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There has been a history with the tech companies and their upcoming products’ information leak. We do not know that these companies leak the information purposely, or these are mere accidents. But those leaks have always been helpful for the general public to get a peek of new products before they get launched. This time we have got a chance to know about the features of Google’s upcoming OS for Android, i.e., Android 12, as some of the screenshots related to its features are out in the public, ‘accidentally’.

Android 12

With every Android OS release Google releases and shares the documentation and source code of the product with its partners so that they get enough time to prepare their devices for the same. This year too, before the beta release of the OS, Google shared the draft with its partners, but somehow, this draft along with some screenshots got leaked online, which is enough to derive a lot of information regarding the product.

Android 12
Image Source: androidpolice.com

Android 12 Features

The leaked documentation has got a defined summary of the features of Android 12, including the new UI and some functional changes made to the OS. Though the screenshots have revealed only a few features, these say a lot about the new Android OS. Looking at the screenshots, we can conclude that the company has done a lot of work on the UI of the new OS. The new OS has got a new notification panel, new privacy features, and a new widget selection feature.

The New UI

Android 12
Image Source: mobilesyrup.com

Google has given a new look to the notification panel of the OS, to make it look more attractive. In the previous Android OS versions, the notification panel is transparent, but the Android 12 has got an opaque light beige background. The notifications on the panel, too, have got a change in the form of an even more pronounced rounded corner for each. In the earlier OS versions, six quick setting icons would fit above the notifications, but now you will get to put only four, but bigger, icons there. The places of the date and time on the top has also been interchanged, and in the top right-hand corner, you can see new icons probably related to user privacy.

The Privacy Icons

There are speculations that these new privacy indicators are made to warn the user when an app is using their camera or microphone. The users will also have the option to turn off the camera or the microphone, through toggles. The new privacy feature will also let the users toggle their location access for the apps. In the previous versions of OS, the user could enable or disable the sensors of their device, but that was only possible if the developer’s option was enabled. But with the new advanced privacy features, there is a possibility that the option to turn the sensors on or off may be available on the Privacy settings of the device. These features have already been under tests for over two years, having them in the new OS would be an impressive move from the company.

The Converasation Widget

Apart from these new features, we can see a new conversation widget in the screenshots. Looking at the screenshot, we can guess that these conversation widgets will show recent messages, missed calls, or activity statuses from the user’s contacts. Since we can see that these widgets show pictures or avatars of the contacts sending messages or making calls and is comparatively smaller in size, it will only show one message/call/status at a time. According to the reports, we can see Google making these widgets mandatory for all its Android OS. This will act as a People’s shortcut for the contacts and will be managed under the PeopleManager class. Along with mandating the conversation widget, Google may also make the privacy indicators for the microphone, camera, and location mandatory for all its OSs.

These are the features that we have concluded from the leaked screenshots but will get to know more about the Android 12 only after the official release of the Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) for Android 12.  The OS will go under its Developer Previews and Betas later this month, and the final launch for the OS will occur by the end of the year.

Xiaomi Mi 11

New Xiaomi Mi 11 launched globally on a virtual event: Features, price, and availability.

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On 8th February 2021, Xiaomi’s new Mi 11 launch was announced globally at an online event. The new Mi 11 is the flagship phone of the company that was unveiled in China in December 2020. Xiaomi Mi 11 comes with the Qualcomm Snapdragon processor of 888 SoC and many other jaw-dropping features to get added to your cart this year. Mi 11 has a storage of 256 GB along with a 2K display and a hole-punch design. The company along with revealing the Mi 11 also announced the launch of MIUI 12.5. It will also roll out across the globe.

MIUI 12.5 is going to give the customers a revamped UI experience as it will reduce the CPU usage of apps by 22 percent and also increase power efficiency by 15 percent. The new MIUI 12.5 will be incorporated in the upcoming models of Mi including Mi 11 which will be available in the second quarter of 2021. So, let’s have a detailed look into the specifications of Mi 11 along with its price and availability.

Specifications of Mi 11

The new Mi 11 will run on Android 10 integrated with the newly revealed MIUI 12.5. This new smartphone is featuring a dual sim (nano), 6.81 inches 2K display with 1440X3200 pixels AMOLED display Mi flagship product. The weight of the phone is 196 grams. The display of Mi 11 has Corning Gorilla Glass Victus protection along with 1,500 nits of peak brightness (Gadgets 360). The refresh rate of the display is 120Hz and the touch sampling rate goes up to 480Hz. As mentioned above, the phone is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Soc. It also has an LPDDR5 8GB RAM.

The Mi phones are also famous for having a good quality camera system within an affordable price range. The new Mi 11 has a brilliant camera system that will be the first choice of many budding photographers and content creators out there. This new Mi 11 has a triple rear camera flaunting a primary sensor of 108 megapixels with a lens of aperture f/1.85. The lens is also provided with great optical stabilization. Along with it, the secondary lens has a 13-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide-angle view.

Xiaomi Mi 11
Image Source: zee5.com

The aperture of the secondary lens is f/2.4 with a field of view of 123 degrees. Sit tight because that’s not all of it. The new Mi 11 has a telenacro shooter of 5 megapixels. It’s really unbelievable that a phone camera is decked up with so many features for the camera system and not to mention the integrated Artificial Intelligence system for adding features like Time Freeze, Freeze Frame, Magic Zoom, etc. The selfie camera, i.e., the front camera has a 20-megapixel sensor and that is the entire camera system of Mi 11.

The storage of Mi 11 is also adequate with 256 GB UFS 3.1 storage. The network connectivity options are 5G, 4G, LTE, Wifi, 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2. Mi 11 has a USB Type-C port and some of the other connectivity options are GPS/A-GPS, NFC, and Infrared (IR). The fingerprint sensor which is present in the display of Mi 11 can also be used as a heart rate sensor.  The battery of Mi 11 is a 4,600 mAh battery. Mi 11 supports the Mi Turbocharger of 55W and wireless charging of 50W. The reverse charging support of Mi 11 gives up to 10W of wireless charging. 

Price and availability

The price of Mi 11 starts from Rs 65,800 approximately. This price is set for the Mi 11 model with an 8GB + 128GB variant. The price of the Mi 11 providing 8GB and 256GB of storage is roughly Rs 70,100. Another variant of the Mi 11 which comes with the 12GB and 128GB combo is limited to the Chinese market. The phone comes in three color options which are Cloud White, Horizon Blue, and Midnight Grey. The phones offer a two-year warranty and one-time screen replacement which is for one year. Apart from the upcoming Mi 11 models this year, the company will also launch Mi 11 special edition which is going to be very exclusive.

Facebook

Facebook Starts a Three-Step Initiative to Fight Fake News and Misinformation

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Though social media was developed for entertainment purposes, it has become the biggest source of spreading misinformation and fake news. We have seen the impact of all the misinformation in the form of major steps taken by the general public, violence being one of them. Being the biggest social media platform, Facebook is the one that is most of the time blamed for spreading misinformation and hate among people.

Last month too, after the Capitol Hill riots, Facebook had to face a lot of criticism and had to suspend a few groups for spreading misinformation and call for violence. For the past many years, too, the company has been warned by several governments to work on its moderation policies.

Now, after the misinformation spread about COVID-19, the company has come up with its new three-step policy, to help to reduce the rate of spread of rumors. The three steps include, “Remove, Reduce, and Inform”. Maybe, the company has finally realized that it is losing its credibility. So it has to take some serious steps to maintain its position as one of the most used social media platforms.

Facebook Three-Step Initiative Remove, Reduce, and Inform

Facebook on Thursday held a small briefing session, where it addressed the issue of the spread of fake news and rumors. In this virtual meeting, the company talked about its new “Remove, Reduce, and Inform” policy, which would help curb the spread of fake news and misinformation in the coming future. Facebook already includes the option to report and take down posts related to hate-speech or misinformation. It also has its native similarity detection system used to filter the content posted on the platform. Now, for the new policy, Facebook has tied up with more than 80 fact-checker companies, including Fact Crescendo and Boom. These companies deal in over 60 languages and are certified by the nonpartisan International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

Facebook
Image Source: Pixabay

These fact-checkers will help Facebook identify false, altered, or partly false information on the platform. Currently, the company along with its partner fact-checkers is working towards labeling and checking vaccine-related posts, such that to identify their authenticity. It is also keeping a check on the ads and posts that includes selling of COVID-19 vaccine. The visibility of the groups that are spreading any sort of fake or partly false information about COVID-19 and its vaccine, has also been reduced, such that to lessen the reach of their posts.

Though the company is taking Stringent steps to fight misinformation, the Facebook Product Policy Manager, Misinformation Alice Budisatrijo admitted that it is impossible to combat this issue completely. “However, we take our responsibility seriously. We are a service for more than 2 billion people around the world. So we know how essential it is for people to have access to credible information, and for us to remove harmful content,” she said. “Even with the combination of artificial intelligence and the human reviewers that we have all over the world, we can never 100% guarantee that content that violates our policies is not on the platform,” she added.

Losing Credibility

Facebook has been facing a lot of criticism from around the world for being a major source of misinformation and hate spread. According to Rahul Namboori, co-founder of Fact Crescendo, Facebook was one of the most used social media platforms to cause chaos and hate among people in India in 2020. The year started with misinformation about the CAA and NRC bill proposed in India and lead to spreading fake news about COVID-19. 2021 also started with another protest about the Farm bill and people around the world have witnessed what happened on 26th Jan in Delhi, because of the misinformation on different social media platforms, including Facebook.

Facebook has also marked a ban from the Myanmar government recently, so to oppose possible violence over the military coup due to fake news in the country. After facing so much criticism from all around the world, the company is now trying to fix its image by added new policies against misinformation. Recently, it took some steps to oppose the spread of fake news about COVID-19 and its vaccine. It has removed many posts as well as suspended a few pages on the platform that included false information about the disease.

Controlling the Fake News on Other Platforms

Apart from Facebook, the company is going to strict its policies for its other platforms, i.e. Instagram and What’s App, too. On the other hand, Twitter is also taking some stringent actions on the same. It has started to label the posts that offer baseless rumors, disputed claims, incomplete information, and the information that is out-of-context for COVID-19 vaccines. Even Google has announced a fund of $3 million to fight the misinformation regarding the COVID-19 vaccines, such that it will try to show the most authentic results about the disease and its vaccine on every search on Google.

Timnit Gebru

Two Google engineers resigned after the company fired AI researcher, Timnit Gebru

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A lot of disputes have been taking place in Alphabet Inc’s Google regarding ethics and work culture among the company’s employees. The intensity of the situation has been rattled as two engineers of Google resigned after the company dismissed the AI researcher Timnit Gebru. From the engineering department, one engineering director and a software developer quit Google and it’s a sign of not approving of the departure of Timnit Gebru.

Diversity and ethics have become a point of conflict on Google for some time now as David Baker, an employee of Google resigned last month. He worked at Google for sixteen years and during his departure, he said that Gebru’s dismissal “extinguished my desire to continue as a Googler”(witnessed by Reuters). David Baker worked as a director in the user safety division in Google. He also mentioned that the environment of Google was acting against the belief of diversity though it claimed otherwise. His exact words were “We cannot say we believe in diversity, and then ignore the conspicuous absence of many voices from within our walls.”

Resignation of Kannan

Vinesh Kannan, a software engineer who worked at Google resigned on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he tweeted about his resignation and that Google mistreated Timnit Gebru. He also mentioned April Christina Curley, an ex-employee of Google who claimed that she was wrongly fired by the company. The dismissal of April took place last year which means that the tension regarding diversity in work culture is going on in Google for a long time. Kannan also mentioned that both of them were wrong but Google declined to comment on this. The company has assured that it is trying its best to restore trust between the company and its employees, also it disputes April’s accusations.

Why the sudden disputes?

The tension regarding the departure of Timnit has been growing for the last few months. The workers in Google have demanded academic freedom and management commitments in the company’s research organization. In December, around 2,600 employees of Google signed a letter supporting Timnit, and last month more than 800 people joined a union to bring advancement in workplace protection.

The story of Timnit Gebru

Timnit Gebru is one of the most leading Black women who have a very impactful contribution in the field of ethical AI. Last year, Timnit was promoted by Google as the co-leader of a group focussed on ethical AI due to her remarkable performance in annual employee appraisal. After she was promoted, Jeff Dean, head of Google AI, only made a single comment regarding what she and her team are supposed to focus on. He mentioned that Timnit and her team should look forward to building software for processing human language that should abide by the AI principles of the company.

Timnit Gebru
Image Source: miro.medium.com

There was an exchange of email conversations between Timnit and Jeff during October 2020. Timnit informed Jeff that her team was working on a paper which was regarding the same area of understanding the complexity of language while Jeff told her that he would be interested in reading it. And, after six weeks of that conversation, Timnit was surprisingly fired by Google. She was on her vacation when she received the news.

Explaining Timnit’s departure

After Timnit was fired by Google, Jeff tried to explain the situation to his other employees. Jeff mentioned that the paper she and her team was working on didn’t meet the publication bar of the company. He also mentioned that the paper was missing relevant information regarding the recent improvements done in this field. While Timnit’s superiors tried to convince her to retract the paper Google’s Research team mentioned that the previous works of authors who claimed benefits of large language models were not scrutinized properly before approval. This created a lot of fuss questioning Google’s scrutiny process.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos To Quit as the CEO of Amazon by the End of Third Quarter of 2021

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The former richest man in the world, and the founder of the largest e-Commerce business, Amazon, Jeff Bezos has announced he’s stepping down as the CEO of Amazon. Bezos on Tuesday told its 1.3 million employees through an e-mail that he would be stepping down from his position of CEO of Amazon by the end of the third quarter of this year. After leaving his post as the CEO, he will join as the executive chairman of the board of directors of the company. On the other hand, Andy Jassy, the head of Amazon’s cloud division Amazon Web Services (AWS), will replace Bezos as the CEO of Amazon.

More About Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos is the founder of Amazon, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in the world. He is a 57 years old American entrepreneur who founded Amazon on July 5, 1994. The company started as a seller of music and videos and became public only in three years of its founding. Today, the company is one of the biggest players in the online selling and purchasing business, offering major sales in grocery to electronics. Along with e-Commerce, the company is a major cloud computing provider, and the subsidiary that provides the service is called AWS (Amazon Web Service).

Jeff Bezos
Image Source: cnbc.com

Other than that, Amazon’s products and services include Kindle, FireTv, Alexa, Amazon Prime, Amazon Drive, Echo, Amazon Wireless, etc. Last year the company recorded a total sales of $386 Billion, 38% more than its sales in 2019. Jeff Bezos, too, for the past three consecutive years has been named as the richest person in the world by Forbes, having $202 billion net worth in 2020. Though this year he was replaced by the Tesla supremo Elon Musk.

What the Letter Said

Amazon’s current CEO, Jeff Bezos, announced he’s stepping down as the CEO of Amazon through an e-mail. He wrote, “I’m excited to announce that this Q3 I’ll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO. In the Exec Chair role, I intend to focus my energies and attention on new products and early initiatives. Andy is well known inside the company and has been at Amazon almost as long as I have. He will be an outstanding leader, and he has my full confidence.” In the letter, he talked about his 27 years of journey with Amazon and mentioned all the hard work put by his 1.3 million employees into the growth of the company.

Addressing his employees, he said, “I find my work meaningful and fun. I get to work with the smartest, most talented, most ingenious teammates. When times have been good, you’ve been humble. When times have been tough, you’ve been strong and supportive, and we’ve made each other laugh. It is a joy to work on this team.” He even talked about how Amazon has been helping the world with innovation, and about the rise in competition in this field, that too, inspired by Amazon only. He also wrote that the company like now will be focusing on new products and services for the people.

Not the End

Though Bezos is quitting as the CEO, he will be chairing the board of executives of the company. Also, being the major shareholder in Amazon, he will have most of the company’s operations under his control. On the other hand, the upcoming CEO of Amazon, Andy Jassy, has been working with Amazon since 1997 and has played a major role in the growth of AWS. About Andy Bezos said that since Andy has been working with Amazon since the beginning, everyone inside Amazon is familiar with him and Bezos has all the confidence in Andy.

The reaction of the Rivals

Amazon’s major rivals, including Sunder Pichai from Google, Marc Benioff from SalesForcea, and Satya Nadela the CEO of Microsoft, congratulated Bezos on joining as the chairman of the board of directors of Amazon. Sunder Pichai toasted Bezos for his two major projects Day 1 and the Earth Fund through his official Twitter account. Satya Nadela also took it to Twitter to congratulate the new Chairman and the upcoming CEO of Amazon for their new job roles. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce also expressed his joy by writing on Twitter that Amazon could not be in better hands.

Google Stadia

Google announced the shut down of Stadia in-house game development studios

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On 1st Feb 2021, Google announced to shut down its internal game development for Stadia for not being able to meet high rising costs of the same. “Creating best-in-class games from the ground up takes many years and significant investment, and the cost is going up exponentially,” said Phil Harrison, VP, and general manager of Google Stadia, in a blog post. From now on, Google’s game streaming service will be entirely dependent on the titles of other external game developers and game publishers. It is really unfortunate to witness the internal cloud-based game streaming service of Google shut down within a couple of years.

When Stadia was launched in 2019, the internal game development unit was expected to make titles for the service. But, with a heavy chest, the company has declared yesterday about shutting the internal game development unit. The in-house game development is costly and monetarily the company is not planning to invest in it. Phil Harrison also mentioned that Jade Raymond, Head of Google Stadia’s Games and Entertainment, will quit the company.

About Google Stadia

Google Stadia is a platform where one can play any online modern games using your smart devices. One doesn’t need to download or install the Stadia platform. Anyone who wants to play online games on Stadia can do it from television using a Chromecast Ultra, desktop, laptop, smartphone ( currently Pixel 3 and 3a models). If one has an internet speed of at least 35Mbps, Google Stadia can stream 4K resolution gameplay with HDR at 60fps.

Google Stadia
Image Source: pcgamer.com

In 2019, the company revealed the full online gaming platform where it provides two different options for playing games. One needs to buy a $10 per month Stadia Pro subscription. The user can either access Stadia’s game library on a remote server or can download and install the games on the computer. Some of the available games on Google Stadia are Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Attack on Titan 2: Final Battle, Baldur’s Gate 3, Borderlands 3, Cake Bash, Celeste, Crayta, The Crew 2, etc.

Future prospect of Google Stadia

Google launched the Stadia platform with the hope to stream online games across the globe. The best advantage of playing in Google Stadia is you don’t have to download or install any software and have access to the game anywhere and anytime. Recently with the success of Cyberpunk 2077, Google Stadia has proved the flexibility of this online game streaming service at a global level. Though the internal game development studio has been shut down, Google will still invest in the Stadia platform to give its users and potential customers the best cloud gaming experience ever. In the blog post by Harrison, he also mentioned that Google Stadia will still work to stream games on every possible screen in the future.

Google Stadia in 2021 has plans to invest and help the independent game developers take advantage of the Stadia platform and deliver their games directly to the players. Stadia’s gaming infrastructures are impressive and thus Google here has an opportunity to partner with interested gaming companies who want a streaming service for their games. In this way, Stadia can become a long-term sustainable solution for many game developers out there and big enterprises in the gaming industry as well. The internal development team, SDG&E will move to different roles in the Stadia. Currently, Google Stadia will focus more on establishing strong partnerships.

Other gaming opportunities

With Google Stadia’s in-house game development shutting down, new opportunities are also rising simultaneously in other companies. Asus in partnership with AFK Gaming has launched the ROG Academy Programme in India. This new program is bringing immense opportunities for all the budding game developers to participate in this contest and win existing opportunities. The gaming culture is constantly evolving in India and abroad thus opening new windows of opportunities and taking gaming seriously as a profession. The independent game developers can also use Google Stadia to stream their games and deliver them to the users if they are good enough. With time, more chances will come in the way of game developers in the upcoming years.