Artificial Intelligence: Japan installs its first LED illuminated manholes with anime motifs

Tokorozawa, Japan: A Japanese city neighbouring Tokyo has spruced up its manhole covers with fans' favourite anime characters.

Since August 1, manhole covers across the city were illuminated with solar-powered LED lights in designs borrowed from popular anime television series such a "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Gundam", the city's Waterworks and Sewerage department said. The 27 designs that cover a total of 28 manholes were installed by a Japanese publishing firm and were specifically made to drum up anticipation for the November opening of the city's new entertainment complex "Tokorozawa Sakura Town". 

The designs can be found on manholes stretching from the local Higashi Tokorozawa train station and light up from 5:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. in the morning every evening. Residents such as 22-year-old Kotaro Kodaira said they made daily commutes enjoyable.

"I can look at them on the ground so the (walk) time seems shorter than before," he said. City officials said they hope the illuminated manhole covers will help minimize crime and contribute to the neighbourhood's safety at night.

Google turns Android phones into earthquake sensors; California to get alerts

California, US: Alphabet Inc's Google's Android phones on Tuesday started detecting earthquakes around the world to provide data that could eventually give billions of users precious seconds of warning of a tremor nearby, with an alerting feature first rolling out in California.

Japan, Mexico and California already use land-based sensors to generate warnings, aiming to cut injuries and property damage by giving people further away from the epicenter of an earthquake seconds to protect themselves before the shaking starts. If Google's approaches for detecting and alerting prove effective, warnings would reach more people, including for the first time Indonesia and other developing countries with few traditional sensors.

Seismology experts consulted by Google said turning smartphones into mini-seismographs marked a major advancement, despite the inevitably of erroneous alerts from a work in progress, and the reliance on a private company's algorithms for public safety. More than 2.5 billion devices, including some tablets, run Google's Android operating system.

"There are hundreds of millions of people around the world that live near earthquake fault zones. And every few seconds of notice that you can receive can give you time to you know get off of a ladder or move away from a dangerous object and overall take cover, so if you can get early notice that an earthquake is coming toward you, you can protect yourself, and that's an area where we think Android can help," said Marc Stogaitis, principal software engineer at Google.

Google's program emerged from a week-long session 4-1/2 years ago to test whether the accelerometers in phones could detect car crashes, earthquakes and tornadoes, said Stogaitis. Accelerometers - sensors that measure direction and force of motion - are mainly used to determine whether a user is holding a phone in landscape or portrait mode.

The company studied historical accelerometer readings during earthquakes and found they could give some users up to a minute of notice. Android phones can currently separate earthquakes from vibrations caused by thunder or the device dropping only when the device is charging, stationary and has user permission to share data with Google.

If phones detect an earthquake, they send their city-level location to Google, which can triangulate the epicenter and estimate the magnitude with as few as several hundred reports, Stogaitis said.

The system will not work in regions including China where Google's Play Services software is blocked.

Google expects to issue its first alerts based on accelerometer readings next year. It also plans to feed alerts for free to businesses that want to automatically shut off elevators, gas lines and other systems before the shaking starts. To test its alerting abilities, Google is drawing in California from traditional government seismograph readings to alert Android users about earthquakes, similar to notifications about kidnappings or flooding.

People expected to experience strong shaking would hear a loud dinging and see a full-screen advisement to drop, cover and hold on, Stogaitis said. Those further away would get a smaller notification designed not to stir them from their sleep, while people too close to be warned will get information about post-quake safety, such as checking gas valves. Alerts will trigger for earthquakes magnitude 4.5 or greater, and no app download is necessary.

At the U.S. Geological Survey, Robert de Groot, communication coordinator for the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning (EEW) system, said the bi-level approach that Google is taking is unique.

"Google is using is what we call bi-level alerting where there's two kinds of messages: what is called a be aware message and then a take action message. And that has a lot of implications.

That's a type of alerting we haven't seen done yet," he said. "But beyond being interesting, and beyond being innovative, if it's successful in protecting people, then it is a success." Stogaitis also said Google has not discussed its plans with Apple Inc, whose competitor to Android comprises half the market in countries including the United States. Apple was not immediately available for comment.

Russia supported China, Russian foreign ministry said- "US TikTok move unfair"

Russia: U.S. efforts to clamp down on popular short video-sharing app TikTok are an "egregious" example of unfair economic competition for U.S. dominance in the international information space, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Saturday.

"The actions of the U.S. authorities run counter to the basic principles of a free market economy and violate rules of the World Trade Organization," Zakharova said in a commentary posted on the foreign ministry's website. U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order banning any U.S. transactions with Chinese tech firm ByteDance, owner of TikTok, starting 45 days from then.

Washington has also threatened to ban TikTok's business in the United States if it is not sold to a U.S. company before Sept. 15.

These restrictions have violated a wide range of Washington's international obligations to ensure the free and wide distribution of information, the free choice of its sources, and to encourage cooperation in this area, Zakharova said.

She said that Moscow is calling on Washington to reconsider its methods to preserve the monopoly of U.S. IT giants in international social networks and ensure they meet generally accepted values and international legal norms.

"We hope that specialized international structures and human rights organizations will react appropriately and give an impartial assessment of these actions," she added.

Innovation: 'Mozo' the robot takes orders and serve food in Cairo restaurant

Cairo, Egypt: As Egypt loosens coronavirus restrictions, one restaurant decided to let robot wait its tables in a bid to attract customers who wish to limit human interaction.

Adorned with its own name tag, tie and apron, the robot named "Mozo", which means waiter in Spanish, is programmed to take orders and deliver meals to tables. "Mozo" works in tandem with the restaurant's human staff, whose role is now limited to entering a passcode to confirm each table's order and then place the food platters on the robot's specially designed trays. Launched at Kimbo Restaurant & Cafe in Cairo on July 14, "Mozo" is the only robot in Egypt waiting tables so far.

"When the problem of the coronavirus began in Egypt, Egyptian culture started thinking more about social distancing," said Aladdin Al-Howainy, from MARSES Robotic Solutions, the Egyptian company that developed "Mozo". He added that the robot was designed to look as friendly as possible to Egyptians not used to being around a moving robot.

"Everyone is afraid", said Dana Mohamed, a customer being waited on by the robot. "(It helps) people who are afraid that someone else might touch their food before they do." Egypt has allowed cafes and restaurants to return to work after the coronavirus measures were lifted, under the condition that they close at midnight and limit their capacity to 50%.

The North African country has been reporting dwindling numbers of coronavirus cases, the latest being less than 200 cases a day. In total, Egypt has recorded 94,483 cases, and 4,865 deaths.

Samsung launches Galaxy Note Z Fold 2, foldable smart phone as pandemic shrinks market

Seoul, South Korea: Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its latest Galaxy Note smartphone and new version of its foldable phone, the Z Fold 2, on Wednesday, hoping to regain ground against rivals Huawei and Apple Inc as the smartphone market begins to recover from its COVID-19 slump.

Samsung launched its previous premium model, the S20, in February at the start of the pandemic but since then has ceded its top ranking in the smartphone market to China's Huawei, as people opt for cheaper models in tough times. The Z Fold 2 has a 6.2-inch (15.75-cm) screen when folded to provide a full smartphone experience even when it is closed, Samsung announced during a livestreamed event. Its unfolded display measures 7.6 inches (19.3 cm).

The new iteration is thinner than the first Fold, and the hinge is improved to be more resilient, Samsung said. Samsung did not disclose the phone's price, but said more details and preorders will be available on Sept. 1. The new Note 20 boasts a larger screen at 6.7 inches (17 cm), 5G connectivity, enhanced writing features with its S-Pen stylus, and access to more than 100 console and PC games via a tie-up with Microsoft Corp's Xbox cloud service.

It will go on sale on Aug. 21 in about 70 countries, including the United States, where the basic version will retail for $999 (USD), compared with its predecessor's $949. Apple fans are unlikely to jump ship to the new Samsung model as the 5G iPhone is likely to be launched later this year, analysts say.

Samsung posted a 29% on-year drop in shipments in the June quarter, the biggest fall among top vendors, according to researcher IDC. Apple, which launched the budget-friendly SE during the period, remained resilient with 11% on-year shipment growth, while Huawei posted only a 5% fall.

The global smartphone market shrank about 16% on-year in the April-June quarter due to COVID-19 lockdowns and consumer caution, a larger contraction than in the first quarter, and is expected to improve only slightly in the second half, IDC said.

Artificial Intelligence: Star Wars-inspired 'smart skin' developed by Singapore scientists

Singapore: Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed an AI device with a sense of touch that can identify objects and textures.

The device, officially dubbed ACES (Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin), is composed of 100 different small sensors and is about 1 square centimetre in size. According to its developers, it can process information faster than the human nervous system, and has been trained to recognise 20-30 different types of textures and read braille letters, all with over 90% accuracy.

"So humans need to slide to feel texture, but in this case, the skin, with just a single touch, is able to detect textures of different roughness, and so in some sense, it's quite difficult to cheat this skin, especially when it's combined with AI algorithms that can learn very quickly," said research team leader Dr. Benjamin Tee.

According to Tee, the device is part of a series of other innovations that he and his team are developing to help make prosthetic limbs that can feel and sense-not just for detecting objects or textures, but also being able to feel temperatures and even pain.

"When you lose your sense of touch, you essentially become numb every single moment, and prosthetic users face that problem. They are unable to feel the world, just like us. So by recreating an artificial version of the skin, for their prosthetic devices, they can hold a hand and feel the warmth and feel that it is soft, how hard are they holding the hand. You know, they are able to do that, and they can regain some semblance of normal life," said Tee, demonstrating that the device could detect a squishy stress ball is "soft" while a solid plastic ball is classified as "hard".

Tee said that the concept was originally inspired by a scene from the original "Star Wars" trilogy when protagonist Luke Skywalker loses his right hand and had it replaced with a robotic one, and was seemingly able experience sensations of pain and touch again.

The recent projects has been in development for the past two years, although Tee previously spent over a decade working on this field.

Among the other patents they have developed is a water-resistant, self-healing transparent skin that that can repair itself when ruptured. Made from a fluorocarbon-based polymer with a fluorine-rich ionic liquid, the material can repair itself after being ruptured, and takes around a full day to completely "heal" from a large cut. His team has also developed a self-healing, light-emitting material that Tee said can be used for wearable electronic devices or even clothing.

Tee said that the technology is still in the experimental stage and has yet to hit the private market, but there has been "tremendous interest," especially from the medical community.

Facebook launches TikTok-like product inside Instagram

California, US: Facebook rolled out its own version of social media rival TikTok in the United States and more than 50 other countries on Wednesday, embedding a new short-form video service called Reels as a feature within its popular Instagram app.

The debut comes days after Microsoft said it was in talks to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations from China's ByteDance. ByteDance has agreed to divest parts of TikTok, sources have said, under pressure from the White House which has threatened to ban it and other Chinese-owned apps over data security concerns. The launch of Reels escalates a bruising fight between Facebook and TikTok, with each casting the other as a threat. Both have been eager to attract American teenagers, many of whom have flocked to TikTok in the last two years.

Reels was first tested in Brazil in 2018 and then later in France, Germany and India, which was TikTok's biggest market until the Indian government banned it last month following a border clash with China. Facebook also tried out a standalone app called Lasso which did not gain much traction. Similar to TikTok, Reels users can record short mobile-friendly vertical videos, then add special effects and soundtracks pulled from a music library.

Those similarities led TikTok Chief Executive Kevin Mayer to call Reels a "copycat product" that could coast on Instagram's enormous existing user base after "their other copycat Lasso failed quickly." Facebook faced similar charges at a congressional hearing on U.S. tech companies' alleged abuse of market power last week, with lawmakers suggesting the company has copied rivals like Snapchat for anti-competitive reasons.

Vishal Shah, Instagram's vice president of product, acknowledged the similarities in a Tuesday (August 4) video conference call with reporters and said that "inspiration for products comes from everywhere," including Facebook's teams and "the ecosystem more broadly."

Instagram is not yet planning to offer advertising or other ways for users to make money through Reels, although it did recruit young online stars like dancer Merrick Hanna and musician Tiagz - who was recently signed by Sony/ATV after rising to fame via TikTok memes - to test the product ahead of launch. The company paid the creators for production costs, Shah said.

Microsoft's rescue attempt of TikTok endears old company to new generation

Microsoft has emerged as a savior to young users of TikTok, who praised the tech industry giant for trying to buy parts of the social media company's operations, in hopes of avoiding a U.S. shutdown.

Bearing hashtags like #SaveTikTok and #Microsoft, which have attracted nearly 1 billion views combined, TikTok'ers - an overwhelmingly young group that uses the app to create short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos - embraced a company founded by people their grandparent's age and whose former chief executive's pre-internet-era onstage outbursts and profuse sweating are now a YouTube meme.

Microsoft has largely abandoned its historic practice of tying all of its products back to its Windows operating system or other properties. Minecraft apps have no obvious connection to Microsoft. Its sales have quadrupled over the six years since it was acquired and it now reaches 126 million monthly users. JT Casey, a TikTok user with 2.8 million followers, said he was initially worried about the idea of Microsoft's ownership, but concluded there is a potential change that could benefit video creators.

"I kinda started realizing that I'm sure Microsoft would want to figure out a way to monetize TikTok better, which would eventually lead into creators making more money as well as Microsoft. I guess after thinking about it for a day or so I would not be opposed to Microsoft buying it, seeing what they do with it. They are a very big company and would invest a lot of money into it," Casey said. Content creators are already looking at their options through other social media platforms while they wait and see what happens to TikTok.

"We were talking about 'oh look, Microsoft looks to buy it' and they were like 'Oh it's fake, don't believe that'. What's going through their heads is honestly like, where the next app is going to be. That's what I'm hearing, people are talking about people going to Triller, people are going to Byte, because the short video is never going to go anywhere, it's just a matter of is TikTok going anywhere," said Dimitri Robinson, a TikToker with 270,000 followers.

Ex-Google executive Anthony Levandowski sent to prison for stealing robocar secrets

San Ramon, US: A former Google engineer has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets before joining Uber's effort to build robotic vehicles for its ride-hailing service.


The sentence handed down Tuesday by US District Judge William Alsup came more than four months after former Google engineer Anthony Levandowski reached a plea agreement with the federal prosecutors who brought a criminal case against him last August. Levandowski, who helped steer Google's self-driving car project before landing at Uber, was also ordered to pay more than 850,000.

Alsup had taken the unusual step of recommending the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into Levandowski while presiding over a high-profile civil trial between Uber and Waymo, a spinoff from a self-driving car project that Google began in 2007 after hiring Levandowski to be part of its team.

Levandowski eventually became disillusioned with Google and left the company in early 2016 to start his own self-driving truck company, called Otto, which Uber eventually bought for 680 million. Before leaving Google, though, Levandowski downloaded a trove of Google's self-driving car technology, resulting in him facing 33 counts of intellectual property theft. He wound up pleading guilty to one count, culminating in Tuesday's sentencing.

The accusations turned Levandowski, once highly regarded for his early inroads into self-driving cars, into a notorious figure almost synonymous with greed run amok in Silicon Valley," his own lawyers acknowledged in court documents filed last week. The lawyers argued Levandowski deserved some leniency because there was never any evidence that he used Google's trade secrets while overseeing Uber's self-driving car division.

He lost that job in 2017 while asserting his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when Uber was still defending itself against Waymo's lawsuit. Uber settled its case with Waymo for 245 million a few days into a trial that featured its former CEO, Travis Kalanick, speaking about some of his discussions with Levandowski about the ride-hailing service's desire to win the race to build self-driving cars.

Levandowski, 40, faced a maximum prison sentence of 10 years and a 250,000 fine. Besides sentencing Levandowski to 18 months in prison, Alsup fined him 95,000 and ordered him to pay Waymo 756,499 to reimburse the company for the costs it incurred in helping the government with its investigation.

It appears uncertain whether Levandowski will be able to make the payments. He filed for bankruptcy earlier this year after another court upheld an arbitration ruling requiring him to pay Google 179 million, most of which consisted of a bonus he received for his work on self-driving cars.

In its victim statement, Waymo told Alsup that Levandowski's misconduct was enormously disruptive and harmful to Waymo, constituted a betrayal, and the financial effects would likely have been even more severe had it gone undetected. In documents arguing why Levandowski deserved prison time, US Attorney David Anderson called his theft a brazen and shocking act that seemed driven by ego as much as greed.

Levandowski's actions suggest he wanted to be seen as the singular inventor of the self-driving car, the way Alexander Graham Bell is credited with inventing the telephone," Anderson wrote.

Brazil, hotbed for COVID-19 vaccine testing, may struggle to produce its own

Sao Paulo: Brazilian officials say they can start making COVID-19 vaccines developed by British and Chinese researchers within a year. Experts say it will take at least twice as long, leaving Brazil reliant on imports to slow the world's second-worst outbreak.

If Brazil's underfunded medical institutions are unable to meet their ambitious goals, it would mark the latest failure by President Jair Bolsonaro's government to control the virus. It would also leave Brazil vulnerable to a frenzied global scramble for vaccine supplies. Some of the most advanced COVID-19 vaccine candidates - including from AstraZeneca Plc in partnership with Oxford University, and China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd - are undergoing large clinical trials in Brazil, which has more than 2.7 million reported cases and almost 95,000 deaths, second only to the United States. Researchers can get results faster by testing vaccines where active virus spread is rampant.

As part of their agreements with Brazilian authorities, AstraZeneca and Sinovac have promised the federal government and the Sao Paulo state government, respectively, tens of millions of doses of their potential vaccines. They also pledged to transfer technology so Brazil can eventually produce them domestically at leading biomedical institutes Fiocruz, in Rio de Janeiro, and Butantan, in Sao Paulo.

The institutes say production of new vaccines will begin by the middle of 2021. Brazil's federal government has said it will invest 1.9 billion reais ($355 million) to process and produce the AstraZeneca vaccine. But three experts told Reuters money alone would not be enough, saying it could take between two and 10 years for Brazil to produce COVID-19 vaccines, due to the difficulty of transferring technology and years of under-investment in the two production facilities.

A former head of federal health regulator Anvisa, who asked not to be named to avoid professional conflicts, also doubted Brazil could become self sufficient in a timely manner. Brazil's Health Ministry said such predictions are premature and will depend on vaccine trial results. But officials have admitted the announced timeline may be hard to attain.

Brazil's state and federal governments are discussing additional late-stage coronavirus vaccine trials with U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc, China's Sinopharm Group and Russian diplomats. But they quickly made big bets on the first two candidates to start testing in the country from AstraZeneca and Sinovac.

The Sinovac deal obliges Butantan to invest 85 million reais ($16 million) to conduct trials of the Chinese vaccine. In exchange, the Sao Paulo government, which runs Butantan, will get enough doses to vaccinate 60 million people. The federal government's memorandum of understanding with AstraZeneca requires it to buy 30 million doses of its still-unproven vaccine at a cost of $97 million, even if it fails in pivotal trials. The deal gives Brazil priority to buy 70 million more doses if the vaccine works.

As part of that deal, Brazil pledged to invest 1.9 billion reais to produce the vaccine. About 1.3 billion will go toward technology transfer, and 95 million reais for updating Fiocruz facilities. The rest will be spent on processing the vaccine. 

Brazil's government has hedged its bets by joining the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative, which intends to guarantee fast and equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines, and aims to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.

Pizza restaurant launches Spain's first virtual waiter app as COVID-19 bites

Palafrugell, Spain: A restaurant on Spain's northeastern Mediterranean coast is pioneering a dining experience that allows customers to avoid most face-to-face contact with staff and minimise the risk of coronavirus contagion.

Customers at Funky Pizza, in Palafrugell on the Costa Brava popular with tourists, can browse the menu, order and pay via the "Funky Pay" app on their phones - the first time a purpose-designed app has been integrated into a restaurant's ordering system in Spain. A waiter does bring the order to the table. "Through this system we have tried to keep physical distance with our clients, which is what people are looking for during COVID," said restaurant owner Carlos Manich. Staff manage the orders from screens behind the bar.

The restaurant has had to adapt to social distancing rules by becoming table service only and reminding customers on entry they must wear face masks at all times when not at their tables. "The application is very user-friendly ... and you can also track your order and see when it is in the kitchen or when it will be arriving," said Claudia Medina, 26, eating at the restaurant. But some customers disagreed. "I think we lose the feeling with the waiter, for example when you order you can't ask about different preferences or quantities," said customer Javier Comas, 26.

Trump to give TikTok's Chinese owner 45 days to reach deal to sell - sources

US/China: U.S. President Donald Trump has agreed to give China's ByteDance 45 days to negotiate a sale of popular short-video app TikTok to Microsoft Corp, two people familiar with the matter said on Sunday, August 2.

U.S. officials have said TikTok under its Chinese parent poses a national risk because of the personal data it handles. Trump said on July 31 he was planning to ban TikTok in the United States after dismissing the idea of a sale to Microsoft. But following a discussion between Trump and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, the Redwood, Washington-based company said in a statement on Sunday that it would continue negotiations to acquire TikTok from ByteDance, and that it aimed to reach a deal by Sept. 15.

It was not immediately clear what changed Trump's mind. Banning TikTok would alienate many of its young users ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November, and would likely trigger a wave of legal challenges. Several prominent Republican lawmakers put out statements in the last two days urging Trump to back a sale of TikTok to Microsoft.

The negotiations between ByteDance and Microsoft will be overseen by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), a U.S. government panel that has the right to block any agreement, according to the sources, who requested anonymity ahead of a White House announcement. Microsoft cautioned in its statement that there is no certainty a deal will be reached.

The 17-year-old is one of three people charged Friday in the July 15 hack of Twitter

Two teenagers and a 22-year-old were charged with hacking the Twitter Inc accounts of famous people including former President Barack Obama, billionaire Bill Gates and Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk, the Department of Justice said on Friday, July 31.

Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office in Tampa said it had arrested 17-year-old Graham Clark. In a statement, Twitter said it appreciated the "swift actions of law enforcement." Clark on July 15 posted messages under the profiles that solicited investments in bitcoin, a digital currency, said the Florida State Attorney's Office. A publicly available ledger of bitcoin transactions showed he was able to obtain more than $100,000 that way. 

The Hillsborough County State Attorney's Office said it had no information in its system about who was representing him. Phone calls and an email to Clark's mother were not immediately returned. Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren told journalists that his office had filed 30 felony charges against Clark , who was in state custody.

Mason Sheppard, a 19-year-old British man who went by the alias Chaewon, was charged with carrying out the hack, as well as related wire fraud and money laundering crimes, according to a Justice Department statement. Orlando-based Nima Fazeli, 22, nicknamed Rolex, was charged with aiding and abetting those crimes. The Justice Department did not name the third defendant, Clark.

The FBI said that two of the accused had been taken into custody, without identifying them.Warren said the adolescent was being prosecuted under state rather than federal law because Florida law enabled the state to charge him as an adult.

NASA's new Mars rover launches from Florida to seek signs of past life

Florida, US: NASA's next-generation Mars rover Perseverance blasted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral on Thursday, July 30 atop an Atlas 5 rocket on a $2.4 billion mission to search for traces of potential past life on Earth's planetary neighbour.

The next-generation robotic rover - a car-sized six-wheeled scientific vehicle - also is scheduled to deploy a mini helicopter on Mars and test out equipment for future human missions to the fourth planet from the sun. It is expected to reach Mars next February. It soared into the sky under clear, sunny and warm conditions carried by an Atlas 5 rocket from the Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance. The launch took place after the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California where its mission engineers were located was rattled by an earthquake.

This marked NASA's ninth journey to the Martian surface.

Perseverance is due to land at the base of an 820-foot-deep (250 meters) crater called Jezero, a former lake from 3.5 billion years ago that scientists suspect could bear evidence of potential past microbial life on Mars.

Scientists have long debated whether Mars - once a much more hospitable place than it is today - ever harbored life. Water is considered a key ingredient for life, and the Mars billions of years ago had lots of it on the surface before the planet became a harsh and desolate outpost.

One of the most complex maneuvers in Perseverance's journey will be what mission engineers call the "seven minutes of terror," when the robot endures extreme heat and speeds during its descent through the Martian atmosphere, deploying a set of supersonic parachutes before igniting mini rocket engines to gently touch down on the planet's surface. Aboard Perseverance is a four-pound (1.8 kg) autonomous helicopter named Ingenuity that is due to test powered flight on Mars for the first time.

This was scheduled as the third launch from Earth to Mars during a busy month of July, following probes sent by the United Arab Emirates and China. The state from which the rover was launched, Florida, is currently one of the hot spots in the United States for the coronavirus pandemic.

CEOs from Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple faced jabs for alleged abuse of their market power!

Washington, DC: Tensions between lawmakers were high during a much-anticipated congressional hearing on Wednesday, July 29 with four of America's most prominent tech CEOs in the hot seat.

When Republican Jim Jordan concluded questions about fears that Google's powerful search engine might steer voters to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Representative Mary Scanlon criticized Jordan's line of questioning. "I'd like to redirect your attention to antitrust law rather than fringe conspiracy theories," she said. "There is no fringe conspiracy," Jordan snapped back, prompting lawmakers to shout "Put your mask on!"

The issue of masks has been contentious between House Republicans and Democrats, especially following another positive case from one of their own colleagues on Wednesday, July 29. Republican U.S. congressman Louie Gohmert, who has steadfastly refused to wear a mask during the coronavirus pandemic, said on Wednesday he had tested positive for COVID-19, leading at least three of his colleagues to say they would self-quarantine.

The moment with Rep. Jordan came during an hours-long hearing in which Google and Facebook took the sharpest jabs for alleged abuse of their market power from Democrats and Republicans.

Facebook Inc's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon.com Inc's Jeff Bezos, Alphabet Inc -owned Google's Sundar Pichai and Apple Inc's Tim Cook - whose companies together represent about $5 trillion of market value - parried a range of accusations from lawmakers via videoconference before the House Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.

On the Republican side, Jordan accused the companies of taking a long list of actions that he said showed they try to hamper conservatives from reaching their supporters."Big Tech is out to get conservatives," he said. The companies have denied allegations of political censorship. Jordan's allegations come after President Donald Trump, who has clashed with several of the biggest tech companies, on Wednesday threatened to take action against them.

"If Congress doesn't bring fairness to Big Tech, which they should have done years ago, I will do it myself with Executive Orders," Trump said on Twitter. The president did not provide details but in the past has been irritated by tech companies, including Facebook and Twitter, which have occasionally taken action on his postings on issues such as treatments for the coronavirus. He has also clashed with the Washington Post, which is owned by Bezos.

Facebook's Zuckerberg took a series of questions about the company's purchase of Instagram in 2012, and whether it was acquired because it was a threat. Zuckerberg responded that the deal had been reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission and that Instagram at the time was a tiny photo-sharing app rather than a social-media phenomenon.

Cicilline's subcommittee has been looking in to allegations by critics that the companies have hurt competitors and consumers with their business practices and seemingly insatiable appetite for data. The hearing marks the first time the four CEOs have appeared together before lawmakers, and was also the first-ever appearance of Bezos before Congress.

A detailed report with antitrust allegations against the four tech platforms and recommendations on how to tame their market power could be released by late summer or early fall by the committee, which has separately amassed 1.3 million documents from the companies, senior committee aides said.

Microsoft India most attractive employer brand: Survey

New Delhi: Technology giant Microsoft India has emerged as the country's most attractive employer brand, followed by Samsung India and Amazon India in the second and third place, respectively, says a survey. 

According to Randstad Employer Brand Research (REBR) 2020, Microsoft India scored high on financial health, strong reputation and utilisation of the latest technologies. The REBR revealed that in 2020, work-life balance emerged as the top Employee Value Proposition (EVP) driver for the Indian workforce while choosing an employer as it was cited by 43 per cent respondents, followed by attractive salary and employee benefits (41 per cent) and job security (40 per cent).

The REBR sought views of over 1,85,000 respondents (general public, aged 18-65) on 6,136 companies in 33 countries. "Employer branding is an evolving journey based on newer and deeper insights that unravel with time, so organisations must make this a strategic business agenda," Randstad India MD and CEO Paul Dupuis said.

Dupuis further noted that "this process has become increasingly important since the onset of COVID-19, when the job market is undergoing a paradigm shift and the need for organisations to transform their employer branding proposition to make it more "humane" in the new world of work becomes even more critical".

Others in the top 10 most-attractive employer brands in India for 2020 include Infosys Technologies at the fourth place, Mercedes-Benz (5th), Sony (6th), IBM (7th), Dell Technologies Ltd (8th), ITC Group (9th) and Tata Consultancy Services (10th).

The survey further said 69 per cent of respondents indicated that they stayed with their employer in the past year and 81 per cent agreed that non-monetary benefits like company phone/car, childcare services and support, flexible working hours are equally important when choosing an employer.

As per the survey, 38 per cent of Gen Z (18-24 years) are looking for good training opportunities from their employer, while 34 per cent of the millennials (25-34 years) are attracted to forward-thinking and tech-savvy organisations and deem the use of latest technologies as a very important attribute.

Around 46 per cent of Gen X (35-54 years) find good work-life balance a very important pull-factor towards an employer, whereas 32 per cent of the boomers (55-64 years) find a convenient location as the key factor.

The survey noted that the Indian workforce prefers to work for companies operating in sectors like IT, ITeS & telecom, automotive, followed by FMCG, retail & e-commerce and BFSI.

India: After ban on 59 Chinese Apps, 275 more apps including PubG on security agency radar

New Delhi: The government of India may soon ban Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) in India. PUBG is one of the most popular smartphone mobile games in India and many other countries. suggesting a ban on 275 apps have started to surface online a month after the Indian government banned 59 Chinese apps, including popular ones like TikTok, UC Browser, citing data security concerns.

PUBG has been developed by a South Korean video game company called Bluehole. However, Chinese multinational conglomerate Tencent holds a considerable amount of share in the popular game. The government is considering a ban on the battle royale format game over data security concerns. Several apps have been on the radar lately owing to alleged data-sharing practices with the Chinese government.

PUBG has been subject to heavy criticism several times in the past but for a different reason. After receiving several complaints from parents and guardians, some state governments across the nation put a temporary ban on the gaming app for its addictive nature that had a psychological impact on players, especially youngsters.
For PubG, India is its largest market, according to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower estimates, generating about 175 million installs to date, or 24% of the total downloads. PUBG had, then, assured to take feedback from parents, educators and government organisations to create a safe ecosystem that would enhance the game playing experience. 

India’s neighbouring country, Pakistan, too has banned PUBG earlier this month on the grounds of addictive nature of the game that is detrimental to the player’s health. Later, on July 26, a Pakistan court lifted the ban. 
Asia’s fifth-largest economy is now the battleground for Chinese and American internet majors that are vying to dominate one of the world’s largest and most open internet markets, with an estimated base of 450 million smartphone users.

French hospital tests new breathalyser machine to detect COVID-19

Lyon, France: A hospital in the southern French city of Lyon is testing patients with a new machine that enables them to breathe into a tube to see whether they have COVID-19 in a matter of seconds.

The machine is entering a second trial phase after three months of use on dozens of people, among which about 20 were patients with the virus, and others without. Unlike the uncomfortable standard PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests, the machine is not invasive and provides an immediate result.

"It's the same principle as a classic breathalyser test," Christian George, director of research at the National Centre of Scientific Research at the la Croix-Rousse hospital, told. "The machine will register the molecules in the exhaled air and then detects the traces of the sickness," Christian George, director of research at the National Centre of Scientific Research at the la Croix-Rousse hospital told.

Jean-Christophe Richard , head of intensive care at the Hospital La Croix-Rousse, said the objective was to have the machine fully operational by the end of the year. Bruno Lina, an independent virus expert who has been consulted on the machine, said it was a step in the right direction, but at this stage was too expensive for widespread distribution at hospitals.