Google Search lets you combine and create new emojis: Heres how

The Emoji Kitchen feature, which was introduced as a part of Gboard for Android a couple of years ago, allows users to combine different emojis into a single sticker. The good news is that Emoji Kitchen is now available through direct integration into Google Search. This means that users can now use Emoji Kitchen from any device, including desktop computers and iPhones.

Before this integration, the only way to use Emoji Kitchen was through Gboard on Android and unofficial third-party sites, reports 9To5Google.

The new update was announced today by Gboard’s “Emoji Kitchen chef,” Jennifer Daniel, on X (formerly Twitter).

Also read: Google Maps’ new feature lets users add emoji to their maps and saved places

Google Search's Emoji Kitchen has a simplified design, with the option to either create random emoji combinations or select them manually. Users can manually select emojis which they want to combine, or they can also let Google randomly choose emojis for combining.

However, the available emoji combinations in Google Search's Emoji Kitchen are noticeably shorter in comparison to what's offered in Gboard for Android, the report said.

Users can copy the combined emoji to their clipboard once it has been created.

How to combine emojis in Google Search?

Step 1: On Google Search, search for “emoji kitchen”.

Step 2: You will see a collage of emojis. Select the ‘Get cooking’ option present below that collage.

Step 3: Now, you will see an emoji mixer. Select the emojis that you want to combine, or there is a dice icon which selects random emojis to combine.

Step 4: Once the combined emoji is created, you can copy it from the option present below it.

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Will Apple actually release its car in 2026 Heres what we know

There have been plenty of rumours circulating regarding the launch of the Apple Car, with dates ranging from 2024 to 2028. Now, fresh rumours indicate that the Apple Car may hit markets 2026. It is believed that this car will not be equipped with self-driving, will run on the Apple Silicon chip, and will be priced under $100,000. There had even been rumours in 2017 that Apple had given up on making their own cars altogether, and was moving on to focus on autonomous vehicle software instead. 

Apple cars won’t have the self-driving feature

According to Bloomberg, Apple is shifting the priority to getting a vehicle out in the market and is willing to sacrifice the self-driving feature for the same.  “In a significant shift for the project, the company is now planning a less-ambitious design that will include a steering wheel and pedals and only support full autonomous capabilities on highways, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.” said the report. The report went on to elaborate “Apple currently plans to develop a vehicle that lets drivers conduct other tasks — say, watch a movie or play a game — on a freeway and be alerted with ample time to switch over to manual control if they reach city streets or encounter inclement weather. The company has discussed launching the feature in North America initially and then improving and expanding it over time.”

What is Apple Silicon?

Apple Silicon is the proprietary chip on which the car will run. It is claimed to be “equal to about four of Apple’s highest-end Mac chips combined.”

Bloomberg states “The heart of Apple’s technology is a powerful onboard computer system — codenamed Denali after the tallest mountain peak in North America — and a custom array of sensors. The processor’s performance is equal to about four of Apple’s highest-end Mac chips combined and is being developed by the company’s silicon engineering group. The chip has reached an advanced state and is considered nearly production-ready, though Apple may scale it down before the car’s launch to lower costs.”

Apple car release date and price

The brand has not revealed the release date for the car as of yet and based on speculations, it will hit markets in 2026. It is believed to be priced below $100,000.

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in or head to our Google News page. 

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OLA S1 Air electric scooter comes with MoveOS 3: Here are its key features

Ola Electric recently unveiled a new variant of its S1 scooter, the Ola S1 Air. Ola Electric said the new scooter would offer a range of 100 kilometers on a full charge when used in eco-mode. It is built and looks similar to the predecessor but has got restructured powertrain and battery. The e-scooter also runs on MoveOS 3 and comes  at a starting price of Rs. 79,999. Here, we will be taking a look at some of those MoveOS 3 features.

Ola S1 Air’s MoveOS 3 features

1. Proximity Unlock which lets the scooter be unlocked by Bluetooth LE based Digital keys on your phone. So, as soon as you are in the Unlock Zone, the scooter will be unlocked and when you leave the proximity zone, the scooter locks on its own. 

2. Call Screen feature that shows the incoming call notification on the Ola S1 Air’s dashboard. There also appears to be some scripts that can be sent whence you can’t take the call.

3. Party mode syncs the lights on the Ola scooter with the music you are playing. You can set the controls for it from the proprietary app on your phone.

4. Customize Dashboard with vintage-looking or futuristic themes for instrument cluster and sounds.

5. Document Storage, Hill Hold, and Hypercharging features and Vacation mode (200 days on standby) are some of its other features.

The S1 Air is built on the S1 platform and retains the same design, but Ola will redesign its powertrain and battery pack for the new scooter. The company also said that its charging network, Hyperchargers, will initially go live with more than 50 Hyperchargers. However, deliveries will only begin in April of the upcoming year.

Bhavish Aggarwal, the founder of Ola Electric, said, "This product will shake up the market, and that is an understatement. Our objective was never to build a premium scooter or never to build only a scooter. It has been to transform the Indian mobility landscape to electric and also make India a global leader in electrification. And towards that goal, the next logical step for us is to launch a mass-market scooter, and that is what we have done today."

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in.

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Meta Quest Pro launched with 1-2 hours battery life, upgraded processor, and controller: Know price and specs

Meta announced the Quest Pro, its full-color Mixed Reality headset at Connect 2022 keynote. It is codenamed Project Cambria, and was being rumored for a while. Well, finally now that it’s here, we learn that it brings a new Snapdragon XR2-Plus chipset, 4 times more pixels than Meta Quest 2, inward-facing cameras for tracking facial expressions and eye movements, and new avatars that mirror these actions and reactions. Let’s have a look at the Quest Pro internals and know when and for how much it will start retailing.

Meta Quest Pro specs and features

Meta has powered the Quest Pro with Snapdragon XR2-Plus SoC, 12GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and around 1-2 hours of battery life. It apparently takes 2 hours to top it up. 

As for the most important aspect of an MR headset, the display on the Quest Pro sports 1800 x 1920 pixels per eye, a 90Hz refresh rate, 75 percent more contrast than Quest 2, full-foveated rendering, swappable free-sliding lenses, and a calibration process for adjusting IPD (interpupillary distance). You can use some rubber blinders on each side or a full face ring for an immersive visual experience. 

The strap mechanism is now fastened using a wheel and not velcro.

The touch controller included with the Quest Pro is backward compatible with Quest 2 games. You get a hand-tracking facility too. 

All of these and the thing weighs 722 grams. 

Last but not least, Meta has partnered with Microsoft and so you could use Office, Windows, Teams, and even Xbox Cloud Gaming on the new MR headsets.

Meta Quest Pro price and availability

Meta has priced the Quest Pro at $1,499 (~₹1,23,300) and the new controllers are carrying a price tag of $299 (~₹24,594).

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features, and updates, keep reading Digit.in.

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Hero Vida Electric Scooter launched: Bookings to start from October 10

Hero Moto has launched its new Vida series of Electric Scooters in the Indian market. The Vida V1 is being offered in two variants which are Vida V1 Pro and Vida V1 Plus and they both have a top speed of 80kmph. Let’s take a detailed look at the new Hero Vida electric scooter.

Hero Vida V1 specifications and features

The Vida V1 is being offered in two variants which include the V1 Pro and the V1 Plus. Both the variants have a top speed of 80kmph and also come with swappable batteries. As for the range figures, the V1 Pro can go up to 165kms on a single charge while the V1 Plus has a range of 143kms on a single charge.

Along with the scooter, the company has also launched Vida fast charging network, and Vida Platform. Hero claims that the fast charging allows the V1 Pro to get to 0 to 100% charge within 2 hrs and 17 min and V1 Plus can charge from 0 to 100% within 2 hrs.

There is a 7” HD touch display along with features like cruise control with resume function which enhances ease of riding, and an Intelligent Two-way throttle for easier reverse and parking. Along with that, there is also Keyless control with features like S.O.S alerts that can help in an emergency.

Hero Vida V1 price and availability

The base Vida V1 Plus starts at ₹1,45,000 while the higher-end Vida V1 Pro comes at a price of ₹1,59,000. The bookings for Vida Electric Scooter will start on 10 October 2022 and the delivery will start in December 2022. Hero has confirmed that the launch will take place in different phases. The launch cities of Phase I include Jaipur, Delhi, and Bangalore. 

Pawan Munjal, CEO & CMD of Hero MotoCorp at the launch of the Vida V1 said, “We have only one planet and two choices – either do nothing pretending all is well. The other choice is to see the better tomorrow which is waiting to be born. Our new product Vida is the promise of a better world”

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 details leaked: Here is everything you need to know

Qualcomm’s Sanpdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC was announced earlier this year and as of now, it has been used in a few smartphones. Now it looks like the company is gearing up to launch the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 SoC, as a new leak about the SoC has revealed new some details. So let’s take a detailed look at the leaked specifications of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 details

Qualcomm is expected to announce the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 SoC soon. Popular tipster, Roland Quandt has revealed a few details of the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon SM7475 which will reportedly be the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 SoC.

If we take a look at the details, the SM7475 might have a tri-cluster design with a single Prime core, three Gold cores and four Silver cores. The Prime core could have a 2.4GHz peak clock speed, whereas the Gold cores might come with a 2.36GHz peak core frequency and the Silver cores should be clocked at 1.8GHz. 

The SoC is likely to feature Cortex A715 for the Prime and Gold cores, while the Silver cores could use Cortex-A510. While the SoC would offer very huge performance gains over the current Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC, it could be much more efficient. 

While Qualcomm still hasn’t made any announcement regarding the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2, chances for the launch are much higher now as the company will be hosting a Snapdragon Summit next month. The company will be revealing its new flagship mobile platform, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, so we might get to see the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 SoC there as well. 

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Tesla installs record 4K EV supercharger stations globally

San Francisco, Sep 14 (IANS) Tesla, an undisputed leader in the electric car market, has installed nearly 4,000 supercharger stations globally, growing 34 per cent year-on-year.

According to data compiled by Finbold, Tesla had 3,971 supercharger stations globally, recording a growth of 33.88 per cent from the 2,966 recorded during a similar period in 2021.

During the first three months of 2022, the Tesla stations stood at 3,724, representing a growth of 7.13 per cent from the previous quarter.

In total, during Q3 2021, the company had installed 3,254 stations globally.

Elsewhere, Tesla also witnessed a spike in the number of supercharger connectors, which stood at 36,165 during Q2 2022, representing a YoY growth of 34.44 per cent.

During the first quarter of 2022, the connectors stood at 33,657, growing 6.85 per cent from 31,498 in Q4 2021.

Tesla managed to record growth in the supercharger segment despite operating in a period marred by the economic effects emanating from the pandemic.

"Interestingly, Tesla has managed to record supercharger growth despite facing challenges mainly from the chip shortage. Notably, in recent years, charging infrastructure companies raised concerns due to chip shortage factors derailing the momentum of rolling out public charging options," according to the Finbold report.

Overall, Tesla is likely to accelerate the installation of supercharger stations as the company adopts innovative technologies to reach more locations.

Tesla still faces rising competition as more EV makers continue unveiling new products.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in

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Instagram Reels nowhere near TikTok in short-form video game

San Francisco, Sep 13 (IANS) Meta-owned Instagram is struggling to woo creators as its short-video making Reels engagement falls against a formidable competition that is coming from its Chinese rival TikTok.

An internal Meta document accessed by The Wall Street Journal shows that Instagram users are spending 17.6 million hours watching Reels daily -- less than a tenth when compared to 197.8 million hours users spend on TikTok a day

The report, published in August, claimed that Reels engagement had fallen 13.6 percent over the last four weeks, and "most Reels users have no engagement whatsoever".

Among the key reasons is that Instagram has struggled to recruit people to make the right kind of content and the lack of original content on Reels.

"Roughly 11 million creators are on the platform in the US, but only about 2.3 million of them, or 20.7 per cent, post on that platform each month," according to the document.

A Meta spokesperson, however, said that Reels engagement currently is up on a month-to-month basis.

"We still have work to do. But creators and businesses are seeing promising results, and our monetisation growth is faster than we expected as more people are watching, creating and connecting through Reels than ever before," the company spokesperson added.

To attract people to make content for Instagram and Facebook, Meta has earmarked $1 billion for creator payouts through the end of the year.

Instagram Reels creators have received a total of $120 million to date.

Reports surfaced last month that threatened by the meteoric rise of TikTok, Instagram and YouTube have introduced new features to discourage their short-video app users from cross-platform sharing.

When creators now make a video on YouTube Shorts, they will not be able to download the video and cross-post it to other apps without a "YouTube watermark".

"If you're a creator who downloads your Shorts from YouTube Studio to share across other platforms, you'll now find a watermark added to your downloaded content," YouTube said in an update.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in

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Harvard-backed startup develops EV battery tech with over 10K cycles

New York, Sep 3 (IANS) US-based startup Adden Energy has achieved solid-state battery charge rates as fast as three minutes with over 10,000 cycles in a lifetime in lab settings.

The startup has now been granted a technology license from Harvard University to scale innovative lithium-metal battery technology for commercial deployment.

"We have achieved in the lab 5,000 to 10,000 charge cycles in a battery's lifetime, compared with 2,000 to 3,000 charging cycles for even the best in class now, and we don't see any fundamental limit to scaling up our battery technology. That could be a game changer," said Xin Li, associate professor of materials science at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

The battery also offers high energy density and a level of material stability that overcomes the safety challenges posed by some other lithium batteries, according to results published in Nature and other journals.

Harvard's Office of Technology Development has now granted an exclusive technology license to Adden Energy.

Adden Energy has closed a seed round with $5.15 million in funding led by Primavera Capital Group, with participation by Rhapsody Venture Partners and MassVentures.

The license and the venture funding will enable the startup to scale Harvard's laboratory prototype toward commercial deployment of a solid-state lithium-metal battery that may provide reliable and fast charging for future EVs to help bring them into the mass market.

The startup aims to scale the battery up to a palm-sized pouch cell, and then upward toward a full-scale vehicle battery in the next three to five years.

"If you want to electrify vehicles, a solid-state battery is the way to go," said Li.

"We set out to commercialise this technology because we do see our technology as unique compared to other solid-state batteries," he added.

The technology developed at Harvard, which includes core innovations in solid-state battery design and electrolyte production methods, may offer other crucial advantages.

"Typically, lithium-metal anodes in other solid-state designs develop dendrites, twig-like growths that can gradually penetrate through the electrolyte to the cathode. We defeat the growth of dendrites before they can cause damage, by novel structural and material designs," said Luhan Ye, CTO of Adden Energy.

As a result, the device can sustain its high performance over a long lifetime, he added.

(Except for the headline, the rest of this IANS article is un-edited)

For more technology news, product reviews, sci-tech features and updates, keep reading Digit.in

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