Airtel Wynk Tube music and video streaming app launched on Android, rivals Tube Music

Airtel has launched its new Wynk Tube music and video streaming app on Android. The new app rivals other video and music streaming services like YouTube Music, Amazon Music, and Spotify, among others. One can download the Wynk Tube app from the Google Play Store and similar to YouTube Music, the Wynk Tube app enables users to stream songs from the company’s library of audio and they can also choose to switch to its video, if they want. Airtel says that the app had 10,000 beta users in January and a complete launch happened on April 11. 

As per the telco, out of 350 million internet users, there are over 100 million users who steam music in India. The company wants to target the masses and it is aiming to lure users by offering music in regional languages and with features like voice search, tailored music recommendations, easier content discovery, offline downloads and more. Airtel says it has been tweaking the apps’ recommendations engine, which is said to employ machine learning algorithms, since six months to refine and deliver better suggestions every time the app is used. The app will not replace Wynk Music but is an extension to it and is also available for Android Go phones. 

Airtel aims to capture users from tier 2 and tier 3 cities with its Wynk Tube app, which is merely 5MB in size and has launched with a library of over 40 lakh songs and related videos. While the apps’ interface language can currently be switched between English and Hindi, it will soon get support for a total of 12 Indic languages including support for Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, Bhojpuri and others. The app also pulls locally stored music files so that one need not switch to another app to listen to locally stored audio and also supports Picture-in-Picture mode.

 

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Google Pixel device sales takes a hit in Q1 2019, company confirms hardware launch at IO

The say les of the Google Pixel smartphones took a hit in the first quarter of 2019, the company confirmed during its earnings call. The company further announced the launch of Google hardware product at this year’s I/O scheduled to take place from May 7-9 at company headquarters. Company CFO Ruth Porat suggested that they sold fewer Pixel 3 phones than expected, and his thoughts were echoed by CEO Sundar Pichai, who blamed the drop on ‘headwinds’ that are putting pressure on flagship devices.

“With respect to hardware results, while the first quarter results reflect pressures in the premium smartphone industry, we are pleased with the ongoing momentum for Assistant-enabled home devices, particularly the Home Hub and Mini devices and look forward to our May 7th announcement at I/O from the hardware team,” Porat said, while announcing that Alphabet Inc, posted a net income of $6.6 billion on $36.33 billion in revenue in the Q1 2019.

Contrary to this, Pichai painted a positive picture by adding, “I think we are working through a phase where there is definite year-on-year headwinds. But I do think, especially since the ecosystem is constantly pushing it forward, I continue to be excited about the innovation speed.” Pichai, however, did not explain what “headwinds” caused the drop. “We are still early in our hardware journey. And when I look ahead at the portfolio that we created across Pixel, Home, and Nest, I feel really good about the range of products that we have,” he added.

The news comes at a time when Google is all geared up to launch two mid-range devices Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL. These phones have been leaked a lot, and have also been spotted on several certification as well as benchmarking websites. The Google Pixel 3a had also appeared as a link on Google’s own Play Store, and a tipster had also claimed that both the mid-range offerings from the search giant are being tested in India.

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Overwatch League Clears Another Hurdle With Sold-Out 'Homestand Weekend' Near Dallas

Overwatch League cleared its latest hurdle toward realising its ultimate goal of anchoring franchises in cities around the world.

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Microsoft survey reveals Siri and Google Assistant are the most widely used voice assistants

Microsoft conducted two online surveys. The first one was conducted from March to June 2018 and consisted of over 2,000 responses in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, and India. The second one was conducted in the U.S. alone and 5,000 people participated in it. The second online survey went live in February 2019. The key stats found in the survey highlight that 69 percent of respondents have used a digital assistant while 75 per cent of households will have at least one smart speaker by 2020. 41 percent of users reported concerns around trust, privacy and passive listening. Also, consumers will not divulge personally identifiable information without a substantial reward. Over half of consumers expect their digital assistants to help make retail purchases within the next 5 years. It must be noted that the 2000 global respondents are a mix of people from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and India. So, this data isn't exactly applicable for the larger Indian population but a niche that are early adopters of smart speakers and can access broadband internet at home.

Speaking about how people are engaging with voice assistants, the survey highlighted that 72 percent of respondents use voice search via a personal digital assistant such as Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant and Cortana. The voice search through a smart home speaker is at 35 percent. 36 percent of those surveyed use voice commands to operate a TV or smart home device that is not a smart home speaker and 31 per cent of voice commands were issued to a vehicle. 

Speaking of the most popular digital assistant, the survey notes that Apple Siri and Google Assistant are on top with a share of 36 percent each, followed by Amazon Alexa at 25 per cent. Microsoft Cortana is at 19 per cent and “others”  take up one percent. The Microsoft research notes that “The popularity of Siri and Google is likely due to the sheer volume of mobile phones (approximately 250M in the US) when compared with smart speakers (approximately 50M+ in the US). Both Siri and Google are more aligned with mobile phones while Alexa is more closely aligned with smart speakers (though Siri and Google are starting to infiltrate smart speakers, while Alexa can also be used on mobile phones)”.

Even though Alexa can be used on smartphones, it has to be installed and added as an app. Apple and Google provide their voice assistant natively through the smartphone making access to them easy and hands-free when using a voice command. Cortana is present on all Windows 10 PCs. Amazon has dominance in the smart speaker space and so do Apple and Google. 

Speaking of smart speakers, the survey found that in 2019 45 percent of people owned a smart speaker and 26 percent are planning to buy one, whereas 29 percent have no plans to purchase one. 

Speaking of which smart speakers do people want to buy, the survey says that in 2019 the echo is the most popular with a 43 percent response, and the echo dot has a 43 percent response. The Google home has a mere 17 per cent response and the Google Home Mini has a 31 percent response. The insights provided by the survey do highlight that talking to a digital assistant seems to be the way forward and it just might be the next natural evolution of how we access information. 

The survey provides detailed insights into the adoption of smart speakers and digital assistants. However, it would be interesting to see an analysis tailored to the Indian market to understand the smart speaker and digital assistant adoption in the country and  which smart speakers do people want to buy?

Source

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Realme 3 Pro receives first OTA update, receives support for 960 fps super slow-mo video recording

Realme’s latest smartphone, the Realme 3 Pro, recently went up for sale in India. The company claims that it sold off over 1.7 lakh units of the handset in eight minutes and announced two more ‘surprise’ sales on the same day. Additionally, the phone manufacturer also rolled out an update for the device on the same day, which adds some new features to the phone’s camera. The update carries the build number RMX1851EX_11_A.12 and is 182MB in size. The update brings support for capturing super slow-motion videos at 960fps for the Realme 3 Pro. There are some improvements to the device’s camera quality and clarity, along with improvements to the phone system’s stability. 

The update doesn't update the Realme 3 Pro's Android security patch to April. While users of the device should receive a notification when the update is available for their units, they can check if the update is available manually in the Software update tab, in the handset’s settings. One can also download the latest firmware and flash it manually. However, do note that one will need to download the entire build that weighs 2.45GB in size and follow the instructions here to flash it.

The new Realme 3 Pro goes up against the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro (review) and other phones in the same price range. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 SoC and was announced in three variants with up to 6GB RAM and 128GB of internal storage. It sports a 6.3-inch Full HD+ display with a dewdrop notch design and runs on ColorOS 6.0 based on Android 9 Pie. Backed by a 4045mAh battery, the handset comes with VOOC 3.0 fast-charging support. 

In terms of optics, the Realme 3 Pro features dual-rear cameras where one is a 16MP sensor with an f/1.7 aperture lens, while the other one is a 5MP sensor with f/2.4 aperture lens. On the front, it features a 25MP sensor that is paired with an f2.0 aperture lens, supports AI beautification modes and face unlock. The device also features the Hyper Boost 2.0 software, which the company claims enhances the phone’s speed and gaming experience. 

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Scientists in Japan want to grow human pancreases in pigs for transplantation: Report

Yes, you read that headline correctly. According to a recent news report by Xinhua, scientists at the University of Tokyo intend to use human stem cells to grow pancreases inside pigs for future transplantation. The first project in such an endeavour that involves growing of human organs inside animals is expected to begin in about a year’s time. The project is pending approval from government and university committees at the moment.

Hiromitsu Nakauchi, one of the professors at the University of Tokyo leading the experimental transplantation project, says that the team will use human-introduced pluripotent stem cells (or iPS cells) to reproduce pancreases. More specifically, the team will inject human iPS cells into a pig embryo that’s genetically modified to lose the ability to develop a pancreas. The team of scientists will then place the embryo in a surrogate sow’s womb. For reference, a sow is a female pig. The team will then remove the foetus before delivery to study the amount of pancreas tissue derived from the human iPS cells and its ability to function.

The team of scientists in Tokyo hopes that these genetically modified pancreases can be used to treat patients with a serious case of diabetes in a period of ten years. According to Xihua’s report, the Ministry of Education and Science in Japan okayed the controversial research process involving the use of animals as hosts for growing human organs on March 1. The ministry’s decision to approve the undertaking of such a project could potentially open more doors for other Japanese researchers with similar experiments and studies.

That said, the Japanese government reportedly still prohibits the placement of fertilised animal eggs containing human cells in human wombs and the use of animals developed through such genetic engineering for the purpose of breeding. Many questions in the realm of ethics have been raised in the past. Recently, scientists in China injected monkeys with human brain genes in an attempt to create transgenic monkeys and study the evolution of human intelligence.

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Google Pixel 3a visits Geekbench ahead of expected official unveiling

Google is expected to announce two new smartphones, the Pixel 3a and 3a XL on the first day of Google I/O 2019. However, information regarding the two handsets has been leaking out rapidly ahead of the official reveal. Just recently, we came across two press renders of the Google Pixel 3a that showed off the phone in white and purple colour variants and now, the smartphone has popped up on Geekbench, where some additional information about it has been revealed. The listing suggests that the Pixel 3a is running Android 9 Pie with 4GB RAM. While the processor is not listed, the phone is speculated to be powered by the Snapdragon 670 platform. 

The Pixel 3a managed to score 1625 and 5206 in single-core and multi-core Geekbench tests. This is lower than the 1805 and 5790 single and multi-core test numbers of the Pixel 3a XL, which is in line with the rumours that the Pixel 3a XL might come equipped with a more powerful Snapdragon 710 SoC, which is also paired with 4GB of RAM. While the new Geekbench listing doesn’t reveal more about the Pixel 3a, an earlier report suggests that the handset might come equipped with a 5.6-inch OLED display. On the other hand, the Pixel 3a XL is rumoured to sport a 6-inch OLED panel. The two phones are speculated to feature the headphone jack, which Google ditched with the Google Pixel 2 smartphones.

Previously leaked images of the Pixel 3a revealed the phone’s design in its entirety. If the renders are to be believed, the Pixel 3a could sport a design similar to the current Pixel 3. It’s seen with an 18:9 display aspect ratio and comes equipped with a single camera and dual-tone frosted glass on the back. 

The fingerprint sensor is also present on the rear, along with the Google logo on the bottom. Renders showing off the device in white colour suggested that its power button could be in contrasting dark orange while it is bright yellow for the purple Google Pixel 3a. Additionally, both new renders of the device suugest May 7 as the set date, which is the first day of Google I/O 2019. This is speculated to be a hint of the date when the new phones could be announced. 

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