Microsoft Opens First European Store in London's West End

Microsoft will open its first European retail store in London on Thursday, showcasing technology ranging from Xbox games and Surface tablets to augmented reality and LinkedIn masterclasses.

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Google Maps updated with an India-inspired Explore tab, new For You experience, and dining Offers

Google keeps updating its offerings and services, and it recently introduced some new features like ‘Stay Safer,’ live train running status, bus travel times and more in India, which were later rolled out globally. The company has now announced three new features for Google Maps, which are aimed at making the service more India-centric. The navigation app will now feature a redesigned, India-inspired Explore tab and a new For You experience. In addition, the app will now start showcasing dining Offers to help users save some money while eating out. The new features are rolling out today for Google Map users.

The redesigned Explore tab now features seven new shortcuts that are apparently populated based on top queries and the way people interact with Google Maps in India. These seven shortcuts are Restaurants, Petrol Pumps, ATMs, Offers, Shopping, Hotels, and Chemists. Google Maps will make use of machine learning to automatically identify the top suggestions across these categories in every city. Tapping an arrow beside the Explore Nearby option will also enable users to find out popular neighbourhood in their cities. The For You section in Google Maps features curated list of places and activities that the user might like. This section will now enable users to follow a business, receive pertinent updates, news on events and stay updated on offers they post to the ‘For You’ tab. 

In addition, Google Maps will now display a new Offers section where users will be shown deals that can be claimed at restaurants across 11 Indian cities. The feature is now live in Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Goa, Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Hyderabad. The new Offers section can be accessed from the Explorer tab or one can look up offers by searching for restaurants with offers. Google has teamed up with EazyDiner to launch the service and over 4,000 restaurants are said to be included. More categories and partners are slated to be added soon. 

Google Maps users will also get exclusive access to EazyDiner Prime offers for 15 days. This means they can avail at least 25 percent discount across more than 1,500 restaurants. They need to look out for Exclusive tag while exploring ‘Offers’ on Google Maps. 

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US-based firms will need a special licence to resume business with Huawei

Tensions between the US government and Huawei started to ease when US President Donald Trump announced, at the G20 summit in Japan, that American companies could now do business with Huawei, Later, all the US-based tech companies were told to treat the Chinese firm as a blacklisted company, which sent the tech industry into a state of confusion. In the latest development in this affair, Trump Administration has announced that it would grant special licenses to American companies that wish to continue business dealings with the Shenzhen-based tech company.

The announcement was made by Wilbur Ross, US Commerce Secretary, at the Bureau of Industry and Security Annual Conference on Export Controls and Security. He noted that companies getting special licences will still have to work under confinements, which were imposed earlier. It means that the companies will only be issued licenses after evaluating the potential of national security risks.

“To implement the President’s G-20 Summit directive two weeks ago, Commerce will issue licenses where there is no threat to U.S. national security. Within those confines we will try to make sure that we don’t just transfer revenue from the U.S. to foreign firms. Huawei itself remains on the Entity List, and the announcement does not change the scope of items requiring licenses from the Commerce Department, nor the presumption of denial,” Ross said.

“The future prosperity of the United States depends on our strategic advantage in advanced technologies. We cannot allow our most precious resource — our intellectual property —to be stolen, copied, or traded away for short-term gain. And we can no longer accept the decline of U.S. industries due to state-supported overcapacity, and the strategic — often clandestine — foreign purchases and investments in our most important technology enterprises,” he added.

Last week, Huawei Founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, said that eased restrictions on the company would not have “much impact” on its business. He noted that Huawei would continue to “focus on doing our own job right”. “Huawei is also willing to continue to buy products from American companies. But we don’t see much impact on what we are currently doing. We will still focus on doing our own job right,” he was quoted as saying.

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10 renders give early look at the phone and stylus

As the launch date for the Samsung Note 10 inches closer, more information about the device keeps leaking. This time, the leaker Ishan Agarwal has shared renders of both the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and the Note 10 Plus, along with the phone's Stylus. The renders look like the final thing, given how close we are to the launch date.

The renders show two colours of the upcoming flagship duo, a silver-blue gradient finish and another in jet black. The S-Pen can also be seen in the renders, looking pretty much the same as before. We can also see a button on the S-Pen, which we expect will also double up as a clicker or a shutter button for selfies.

What is of note in this recent most leak are images of both the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and the Note 10 Plus (earlier referred to as the Note 10 Pro). The Plus variant appears to just be a larger and wider version of the Samsung phone. Another thing that becomes clear is that the larger phone has a fourth sensor as part of its camera stack, potentially a Time of Flight or depth sensor of some sort. The front cameras are housed within the display as a punched hole and this is located right in the center of the screen.

Samsung is expected to unveil the Galaxy Note 10 and the Galaxy Note 10 Plus on the August 7.

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Virgin Orbits 747 jumbo successfully carries out rocket-launching drop test

Virgin Orbit’s first rocket drop test has gone off without any complications. The Virgin Galactic sister company performed its first-ever drop test on July 10. In the drop test, it released a LauncherOne rocket from its Boeing 747 carrier plane, over California's Mojave desert. However, the test did not involve a real rocket. The Boeing 747 carrier just dropped its 70 foot (21 meter) rocket some 35,000 feet (about 10,670 metres) to the receiving site in California.

In a blog post, the company's representative described the test's intent as "We'll be monitoring and rehearsing a million things, but this test is really all about those few seconds just after release, as we ensure the rocket and aircraft separate cleanly and observe how the rocket free-falls through the air.”

Virgin Orbit is part of the Virgin Group, owned by Richard Branson. The company has achieved a number of milestones with LauncherOne and the carrier plane, which is known as Cosmic Girl, over the past year. However, according to Space.com, Virgin Orbit has not set a hard date for when it will progress to actually send LauncherOne test rockets into orbit, other than that the rocket needs to undergo significant testing beforehand. 

LauncherOne is capable of carrying satellites weighing up to 500 kilograms to a variety of destinations in low Earth orbit. Space.com says, “Cosmic Girl will carry the rocket up to about 35,000 feet (10,700 m), at which point the booster will separate and make its own way to space. The plane, of course, will come back down to Earth for a runway landing.”

 

Oh, and by the way, we've already started work on the next rocket, and the one after that, and the one after that too.

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Agent Smith malware infected 15 million mobile phones in India, 25 million worldwide: Check Point Research

Check Point Research, the Threat Intelligence arm of cyber security solutions provider Check Point Software Technologies Ltd, claims to have discovered a new mobile malware called 'Agent Smith.' This malware is said to replace existing installed apps with malicious versions without users’ knowledge or interaction. According to the firm, the malware, disguised as a Google-related application, has quietly infected around 25 million devices, including 15 million mobiles in India by exploiting known Android vulnerabilities.

Check Point Research says that the malware currently accesses the resources of a device to show fraudulent ads for financial gain, however it could easily be used for far more intrusive and harmful purposes, such as theft of banking credentials and eavesdropping. This activity resembles previous malware campaigns such as Gooligan, Hummingbad and CopyCat.

“The malware attacks user-installed applications silently, making it challenging for common Android users to combat such threats on their own. Combining advanced threat prevention and threat intelligence while adopting a ‘hygiene first’ approach to safeguard digital assets is the best protection against invasive mobile malware attacks like Agent Smith,” Jonathan Shimonovich, Head of Mobile Threat Detection Research at Check Point Software Technologies, said in a statement.

The research firm blames users for this malware attack. It found that Agent Smith malware was originally downloaded from the third party app store 9Apps and it mostly targeted Hindi, Arabic, Russian, and Indonesian speaking users. The primary victims are reportedly based in India, though other Asian countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh were also impacted. There has also been a noticeable number of infected devices in the UK, Australia and the US.

Recently, Check Point Research said that Emotet, the largest Botnet that was in operation until recently, has been taken down. The researchers from the firm believe that Emotet’s infrastructure could be offline for maintenance and upgrade operations, and if and when its servers are up, it could have new and enhanced threat capabilities. Emotet has been around as a banking Trojan since 2014. Since 2018, however, it has been primarily used as a botnet in major malspam campaigns and used to distribute other malware.

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Redmi 7A first sale today at 12pm via Flipkart, Micom: Price, specs and all you need to know

Redmi recently announced its Redmi 7A smartphone in the country, which is an entry-level handset. The device is aimed at first-time smartphone users who are transitioning from feature phones to smartphones. Redmi 7A is priced starting at Rs 5,999 and it comes equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC. It goes up against the likes of Realme C2 and other entry-level handsets. The phone also features a 12 PM camera on the back that is equipped with a Sony IMX486 sensor. 

Redmi 7A specifications

The Redmi 7A features a unibody matte finish and comes in Matte Blue, Matte Gold and Matte Black colours in India. The handset features a 5.45-inch HD+ Full HD display and as mentioned earlier, is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 439 SoC. It will be available in two storage variants, one with 2GB RAM with 16GB storage and another with 3GB RAM and 32GB of internal storage. There’s also a dedicated microSD card slot to expand its storage up to 256GB. 

In terms of optics, it comes equipped with a 12MP Sony IMX 486 sensor on the rear, which is paired with an f/2.2 aperture lens. The handset is said to soon receive an AI scene detection feature via a future OTA update. On the front is a 5MP camera that supports AI face unlock, AI Background blurring, AI Beautify and some additional features. Backed by a 4000mAh battery that is touted to deliver 17 hours of HD video playback, the handset also features a splash resistant design and is said to sport reinforced corners. The device gets a two-year warranty and also comes equipped with wireless FM radio feature.

Redmi 7A price, availability and launch offers 

The 2GB RAM + 16GB storage version of the Redmi 7A is priced at Rs 5,999, while the 3GB RAM + 32GB storage version costs Rs 6,199. The company is offering a cashback of Rs 200 to customers who purchase the handset in July. The phone will go up for sale at 12 pm on July 11 via mi.com, Flipkart and Mi Home. Xiaomi is also offering Rs 2,200 cashback to Jio users, along with additional 125GB data. On Flipkart, the handset will be available with 10 percent discount when bought via Axis Bank Buzz credit card.

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