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When it comes to the smartwatch category, there is only one name that matters: the Apple Watch. Since Apple Watch Series 2, Apple has consistently been delivering the best smartwatch experience on any platform. Rivals powered by WearOS and Tizen OS significantly outnumber the Apple Watch, but the user experience is quite clunky. Due to this, the Apple Watch has never left the no.1 spot in terms of smartwatch sales and revenue. The Apple Watch upgrade from Series 3 to Series 4 was huge. In fact, so impressed was I with what I saw at the Apple hardware event that I rated the Apple Watch Series 4 launch as one of the most significant launches last year —  even more important than the annual iPhone refreshes. In comparison, the Apple Watch Series 5, as an upgrade, feels about as insignificant as the OnePlus 7T Pro's (855+ SoC upgrade) . The apathy I felt for the iPhone XS series launch last year was carried over to the Apple Watch Series 5. That wow factor was mis...

In today’s stressful world, mindfulness – a type of popular spirituality that strives to focus on the present moment – promises to soothe away the anxiety and stress of modern life. The Internet is full of popular cure-all mindfulness apps targeting everyone from busy urban professionals to dieters , those suffering from insomnia and even children . We are scholars of Buddhism who specialize in social media research . In August of 2019, we searched on Apple’s App Store and Google Play and found over 500 apps associated with Buddhism. The majority of the apps centered on the practice of mindfulness. The market has been flooded with apps related to Buddhism and most of them claim to teach meditation. Image credit; Pixabay Do these apps truly promote Buddhist ideals or are they a product of a lucrative consumer industry? Health benefits As it is practiced in the U.S. today, mindfulness meditation focuses on being intensely aware, without any sort of judgment, of what one is ...

After having announced the OnePlus 7T and 7T Pro smartphones globally, rumours are flying in thick about the OnePlus 8 which is expected to be announced next year. There have been a few renders of the device surfacing online and now we have a new report which states the possible launch timeframe for the devices. OnePlus 8 Pro renders. Image: OnLeaks This would make sense since that is usually the time when OnePlus announces its new phones just as it did with the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro this year. 8 and 8 Pro scheduled for Q2 2020 — Max J. (@Samsung_News_) October 29, 2019 As per the earlier report, the upcoming OnePlus 8 Pro is likely to feature a 6.65-inch punch-hole display and curved edges. The pop-up selfie camera is going to be dropped from the phones which could mean that there might finally be an official IP rating on OnePlus devices. On the back, the report suggests that there will be a triple rear camera setup with a 3D ToF sensor placed next to it. The LED flash ...

Apple Inc. shares gained nearly 2% to $247.77 in Wednesday’s extended trading after the company revealed its fiscal fourth-quarter financial report. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2PvpdUi

Conservationists fear hundreds of koalas have perished in wildfires that have razed prime habitat on Australia’s east coast. Port Macquarie Koala Hospital President Sue Ashton said she hoped wildlife carers would be allowed to begin their search of the fire zone for survivors on Thursday. The fire was started by a lightning strike on Friday in a forest in New South Wales state, 300 kilometres north of Sydney, and has since burnt 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres). Two-thirds of that area was koala habitat, Ashton said. Mama and baby koalas sitting on a tree. Image credit: Wikipedia “If we look at a 50 percent survival rate, that’s around about 350 koalas and that’s absolutely devastating,” Ashton said of the death toll. “We’re hoping it’s not as bad as that, but because of the intensity of the fire and the way koalas behave during fire, we’re not holding out too much hope,” she added. Koalas climb high into trees during wildfires and survive if the fire front passes quickly below the...

While Facebook stands firm on its decision to not fact-check ads run by politicians, Twitter will ban political advertising on its platform next month, the company's chief executive said on Wednesday, as social media platforms face pressure to block attempts to steer elections with false information. "We've made the decision to stop all political advertising on Twitter globally," said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a statement . "We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought." Social media companies, including Twitter rival Facebook Inc face growing pressure to stop selling ads that spread inaccurate information. Image: Reuters Dorsey pointed out that "while internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very effective for commercial advertisers, that power brings significant risks to politics, where it can be used to influence votes to affect the lives of millions." While internet advertising is incredibly powerful and very ...

Twitter's move comes in contrast to the Facebook policy that allows political speech and ads to run without fact-checking on the leading social network. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/3210QR9

There had been some rumours about the Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite being worked upon by the company as an inexpensive offering in the Galaxy S10-series lineup. Now it would seem that a device has landed on Geekbench and it appears that this could be the S10 Lite. Galaxy S10. The phone has the model number SM-G770F and it is packing in the Snapdragon 855 chipset along with 8 GB RAM and it is also shown to be running Android 10. The presence of Android 10 could mean that this device may be launched only after Samsung unveils the Galaxy S11. Looking at the scores we see that the phone has managed 724 points in the single-core department and 2,604 in the multi-core test. To put that in perspective, it is higher than both Exynos and Snapdragon versions of the regular S10. Unconfirmed rumours have suggested that the Galaxy S10 Lite could, in fact, be the Galaxy A91 smartphone. As of right now there is not much else to go on about the device, but we will be sure to update you as th...

Apple's strong fourth quarter performance in India come as a much needed respite, after it filed a 70 percent revenue decline in India for 2018-19. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/34fMa1V

Samsung has announced new additions to its laptop lineup in the form of the Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion which will be taking over from the earlier Notebook 9 Pen and Notebook 9 . Apart from the usual spec boost in the new laptops we also see a new redesign and improved displays. Samsung Galaxy Book Ion. The new Galaxy Books, having 13-inch and 15-inch screen sizes are Samsung’s first laptops to use QLED displays and the company says that they should be brighter with a peak 600 nits of brightness and more colour accurate than before. As far as the processing department goes, both the laptops run on the latest Intel’s latest 10th Gen chips wherein the Book Flex has the higher-end 10nm Ice Lake processors and the Book Ion has the 14nm Comet Lake chipsets. Galaxy Book Flex. Battery-wise the company says that you could expect up to nine hours of real-world battery life as both laptops are part of Intel's Project Athena. Apart from that both laptops also f...

All the new goodies that will be arriving with Season 10 for PUBG Mobile. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2q7nGsR

The United Nations had set a goal that 10 percent of the oceans were to be made Marine Protected Areas (MPA) by 2020. MPAs are protected areas of seas, oceans and lakes that can be used as wildlife refuges or research facilities. These areas restrict human activity and promote conservation. A new, one of a kind study has looked at the 10 internationally recognized maps that showed global MPAs. The team behind the study has compiled the results of multiple studies and provided a roadmap for creating more MPAs in the future. This study has provided a roadmap for the creation of MPAs. There have been various initiatives to determine important marine areas, but, they’ve all settled on different areas based on their varying test methodology. This study, undertaken by researchers from Stony Brook University, looked at all these initiatives, quantified their results, and conducted a gap analysis at a global scale to come up with these results. A gap analysis of a system essentially an...

Google's UPI-based payment service called Google Pay has been quite popular for digital transactions since the past year. Now the company is adding more convenience for payment authentication by implementing second fingerprint or facial recognition scan, instead of a biometric and PIN format. Google Pay. Before today you could only authenticate a transaction using a 4 digit PIN or a pattern. Now face and fingerprint authentication is also coming but the catch is that only device running Android 10. This is because Google has added biometrics support to the Android 10 app framework. The 4-6 digit PIN will, however, most likely still remain since the UPI PIN implementation is a core feature of the entire transaction, and not specific to Google Pay. The feature is currently live on Google Pay's latest app version which is v2.100. Since Android 9.0 happens to be one of the most popular Android version currently, it is possible that Google might update its fram...

Commonly called the Galaxy Fold 2, Samsung's new foldable smartphone could be pitched against the Motorola Razr. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2Jy4eMK

WhatsApp sued Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group on Tuesday, accusing it of helping government spies break into the phones of roughly 1,400 users across four continents in a hacking spree whose targets included diplomats, political dissidents, journalists, and senior government officials. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco , messaging service WhatsApp , which is owned by Facebook Inc, accused NSO of facilitating government hacking sprees in 20 countries, targeting over 1,400 users. Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain were the only countries identified. In an article authored by Will Cathcart, head of WhatsApp, in The Washington Post , he says that WhatsApp first found a cyberattack involving a vulnerability in their video-calling feature back in May , wherein users were being attacked with spyware via a malicious video call, that would affect their device even without them answering the call. This, Cathcart says, led to a month-long inve...

Google claims to have demonstrated something called “quantum supremacy”, in a paper published in Nature . This would mark a significant milestone in the development of a new type of computer, known as a quantum computer, that could perform very difficult calculations much faster than anything possible on conventional “classical” computers. But a team from IBM has published their own paper claiming they can reproduce the Google result on existing supercomputers. While Google vs. IBM might make a good story, this disagreement between two of the world’s biggest technology companies rather distracts from the real scientific and technological progress behind both teams’ work. Despite how it might sound, even exceeding the milestone of quantum supremacy wouldn’t mean quantum computers are about to take over. On the other hand, just approaching this point has exciting implications for the future of technology. The quantum computer that was created by Google. Image credit: Google Quantum...

Apple is resuming the use of humans to review Siri commands and dictation with the latest iPhone software update . In August, Apple suspended the practice and apologized for the way it used people, rather than just machines, to review the audio . While common in the tech industry, the practice undermined Apple’s attempts to position itself as a trusted steward of privacy . CEO Tim Cook repeatedly has declared the company’s belief that “privacy is a fundamental human right,” a phrase that cropped up again in Apple’s apology . In iOS 13.2, users can choose “Not Now” to decline audio storage and review. Now, Apple is giving consumers notice when installing the update, iOS 13.2. Individuals can choose “Not Now” to decline audio storage and review. Users who enable this can turn it off later in the settings. Apple also specifies that Siri data is not associated with a user’s Apple ID. (Also read:  Apple temporarily pulls iOS 13.2 update that bricked HomePods for many users ) Te...

NASA is sending a new rover to the moon to look at the water ice concentration on the South Pole. It will also sample water ice in the same area where NASA’s Artemis is expected to land. The Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover (VIPER) is about the size of a golf cart and is expected to roam several miles. It will have four instruments on board that will help it sample and analyse the soil on the moon. It is expected to roam the moon for about 100 days and collect data on the different kinds of soil environments affected by light and temperature – environments in complete darkness, occasional light and in direct sunlight. NASA is hoping to create a water map unlike any other that highlights water-rich areas on the moon. Artist illustration of NASA's VIPER on the south pole of the moon. Image credit: NASA Anthony Colaprete, VIPER’s project scientist said in a press release, “VIPER will tell us which locations have the highest concentrations and how deep below the su...

Apple is expected to sell as many as 110 million AirPods by the year 2021. Perhaps then, the expansion of the line-up was necessary to start off with. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2MYmqSc

Most of us today have two aspects to our lives, one in the real world and another in the digital or virtual world. The content we create, store or share in the digital world, our email accounts, cloud storage and social accounts, have become more personal and sensitive as our digital life expands. With a lot of them containing personal, financial and other private information, it is very important to take control and decide what happens to these accounts in your afterlife. Who has access to the data, owns the accounts, will your family or friends be able to access them, or will it self destruct? Representational image. A lot of this lies in your control and this article should help you plan your digital afterlife in case you decide to kick the bucket. Similar to choosing a nominee for your bank accounts or life insurance, most digital services allow you to choose the person or people who will be handed over keys to your complete online life, or parts of it, after the user has dece...

Stockholm : Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg on Tuesday refused to accept an environmental award, saying the climate movement needed people in power to start "listening" to science and not awards. The young climate activist, who has rallied millions to her "Fridays for Future" movement, was honoured at a Stockholm ceremony held by the Nordic Council, a regional body for inter-parliamentary cooperation. File image of Greta Thunberg. Facebook/gretathunbergsweden Thunberg had been nominated for her efforts by both Sweden and Norway and won the organisation's annual environment prize. But after it was announced, a representative for her told the audience that she would not accept the award or the prize sum of 350,000 Danish kroner (about $52,000 or 46,800 euro), the TT news agency reported. She addressed the decision in a post on Instagram from the United States. "The climate movement does not need any more awards. What we need is for our politi...

It was reported   earlier that  Xiaomi might host an event on 5 November in China and is likely to unveil its 108 MP camera smartphone — Mi CC9 Pro and Mi Watch. Now, the company has officially released some images of its new smartwatch confirming that it will soon be released. Per the teased image, the Mi smartwatch will look a lot like the Apple Watch. The design — the shape of the dial and the placement of the crown button on the right side — has an uncanny resemblance to the Apple Watch. The Mi smartwatch is expected to come in two colour variants — black and white. The Xioami smartwatch is expected to come in two colour variants. Image: Weibo The post  on  Weibo   also reveals that the smartwatch will come with Wi-Fi, GPS, and NFC support as well as a linear motor and a  speaker. The watch is likely to allow eSIM support that might help users make calls. In terms of processor, it is expected to come wit...

Xiaomi has launched a new product on its crowdfunding platform — Mi Smart Bedside Lamp 2. As the name suggests, the product is a smart lamp that can remotely be controlled using the Mi Home app. The lamp produces 16 million colours and comes with support for voice controls via Alexa, Google Assistant, as well as Apple HomeKit. Xiaomi says that it will start shipping the Mi Smart Bedside Lamp 2 from 3 December and it will be available on the  mi.com website. Mi Smart Bedside Lamp 2 Mi Smart Bedside Lamp 2: Pricing and availability The Mi Smart Bedside lamp 2 is priced at Rs 2,999. Currently, the product has been put up on Xiaomi's crowdfunding platform and the company has set a goal of 2,000 units. The backers currently have to pay only Rs 2,299 for the product, and if Xiaomi is able to meet its target funding in time, the smart lamp will be available via open sale soon. At the time of writing the story, Xiaomi already achieved 56 percent of it...

YouTube Music now has a desktop Progressive Web App and Android widgets that show album art along with music playback control options. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2Npkjpb

WhatsApp and the endless conversations it brings to the table, can be a tad less annoying now. from Top Tech News- News18.com https://ift.tt/2PqAVjf

Movie nights once required driving to the local video store to rent, rewind and return the latest blockbuster. Now on-demand video content providers offer countless binge-worthy options at the touch of a finger. But experts say the ease of streaming services comes with a hefty environmental price tag. Watching a half-hour show would lead to emissions of 1.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent, said Maxime Efoui-Hess of French think tank the Shift Project. That's equivalent to driving 3.9 miles (6.28 kilometres). Most of the online traffic is related to streaming videos, on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu. Image credit; Flickr/Stock catalog Last year, online video streaming produced emissions equivalent to Spain and that amount may double in the next six years, according to the Shift Project. While most of the online traffic — 34 percent — is related to streaming videos, on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, for example, the next biggest sector is online porn. "Digit...