Google Maps now includes locations of COVID-19 food and night shelters across the country

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading fast and the worst hit due to the lockdown are the poor and daily wage labourers. The poor in India are walking hundreds of kilometres to get to their hometowns and villages because they don't have a place to stay or means of getting food daily. The private and public sector is coming together to offer food and shelter to such people, but how can one know if the nearest shelter is a stone's throw away? Google is looking to help with this situation. To help bring respite to people during this difficult time, Google Maps is now indicating the locations of food shelters and night shelters in cities across India.

According to a statement Google shared, “Google is working closely with state and central government authorities to surface the locations of these relief centres. To date, across 30 cities, people can now find these locations on Google Maps, Search and Google Assistant by simply searching for ‘Food shelters in ’ or ‘Night shelters in ’ in any of these Google products. This will soon be available in Hindi, with queries like ‘ में भोजन केंद्र’ or ‘ में रैन बसेरा’.”

People can enter the above search query in Google Search or the Google app on phones and can even ask the Google Assistant for this information. The search query will yield results on KaiOS devices as well. Google says that it is working on bringing this feature to other Indian languages as well in the coming weeks. It is also working on adding additional shelters in more cities across the country to the search results.

Google also says that in the coming days this information will be easier to access via quick-access shortcuts that will appear beneath the search bar on the Google Maps app, shortcuts on Google Maps on KaiOS feature phones, and food and night shelter pins appearing on the map by default when the Maps app is first opened.

Commenting on the launch of the feature, Anal Ghosh, Sr. Program Manager, Google India, said, “As the COVID-19 situation develops, we are making a concerted effort to build solutions that help people during these times of need. Highlighting the locations of food and night shelters on Google Maps is a step to make this information easily available to the users in need, and ensure they can avail the food and shelter services being provided by the government authorities. With the help of volunteers, NGOs, and traffic authorities, we hope to convey this important information to the affected people, many of whom may not have access to a smartphone or mobile device during this time."

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Skypes new Meet Now feature lets you video call anyone without an account, heres how to use it

Skype has added a new feature it’s calling Meet Now, which allows you to set up a video call with anyone without the need to sign-up to the service. As video conferencing has become the only reliant way for businesses to function amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, Skype’s new feature makes it easier for people to join their service. This comes at a time when rival video calling services such as Zoom are finding it hard to contain the massive surge of people signing up for their service.

If you’re familiar with Skype video calls, Meet Now offers similar options like recording the meeting, screen sharing and background blur. What’s more is that this feature can be used on any device, even if you don’t have the Skype app installed and the meeting link doesn’t expire as well.

Introducing a simple, hassle-free way to connect with the important people in your life on #Skype, no sign-ups or downloads required. Learn about Meet Now: https://t.co/yOw6oBlFxx

— Skype (@Skype) April 3, 2020

The video call recording and other data that are shared during calls via Meet Now are stored for 30 days and more, making it a good alternative for hosting webinars or interviews.

How to use Skype Meet Now

If you have Skype already installed on your phone or laptop, there should be a Meet Now button sitting adjacent to the Chat in the sidebar. Click it to start a new meeting and invite your friends to join the call.

For people who don’t have the Skype app, just head to the Meet Now webpage to start a meeting. Click on Create a free Meeting tab and you should have a sharable meeting link right away. 

Next, click on Start Call and you’ll be redirected to the Skype website asking whether to join as guest or Sign-up. Going forward as a guest, you will be asked to fill out your name and that’s it.

Select Join and your Meet Now Chat should be up and running in no time. Invite more people to the chat and start the video call.

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Apple could launch new 13-inch MacBook Pro next month

After refreshing the MacBook Pro 15” and the MacBook Air, its only natural that Apple also refresh the 13” MacBook Pro. According to leakster Jon Prosser, Apple is set to announce the new 13” MacBook Pro next month. Besides this, his tweet carries no details of what the refreshed model would include, but we can make a few educated guesses.

One of the most noticeable changes we expect the 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro to have is a new 16:10 aspect ratio display. Apple did that with the 15-inch MacBook Pro, making it a 16-inch display, but with the 13-inch model, we don’t expect the display to get any bigger. The reason for this is that the new MacBook Air already has a 13.3-inch 16:10 display, so the new aspect ratio does not lead to a bigger panel being used. Additionally, we expect that Apple would increase the base storage from 128GB to 256GB. We also expect Apple to use Intel’s 10th-generation CPUs, albeit ones with a higher TDP. The MacBook Air uses processors with a TDP between 9-10 Watts, while the 16-inch MacBook Pro (Review) uses processors that have a TDP as high as 45W (Intel Core i9).

Besides the bump in base spec, we also expect Apple to offer higher configurable storage and RAM. While the 13-inch model has not carried a discrete GPU with it, it would be nice to see Apple bring the option to the table.

Given the Coronavirus situation, practically every industry has been heavily impacted. We’re seeing product launches get delayed, movie releases being pushed to as much as a year later. Amidst all this, some brands have resorted to a soft-launch, for example, Apple announced the new iPad Pro via a press-release. Apple is also expected to announce a new budget-friendly iPhone at some point, with rumours suggesting April 15 as the date. However, there’s not been a lot of chatter around the new 13-inch MacBook Pro, so we will have to wait and watch.

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Google Duo testing closed captions on voice messages

Google showed off live captions back in 2019 and this was a brilliant wat to convert speech to text for Pixel users. Now, information suggests that Google is testing closed captions on Google Duo and the feature is only limited to voice messaging. There is no information if and when the feature will make an appearance in a live video chat. The feature is being tested in Google Duo v82 and XDA developers got their hands on it and have demonstrated how it works. 

When recording a message, there is a new CC button in the Message Player. This button lets you toggle the captions on and off. Once toggled on, the user will be able to see the captions in his/her video. XDA developers highlight that the audio content is shared with Google to enable the transcription but the audio is not stored by Google. XDA developers said, “The captions themselves were not absolutely accurate, but we did have some background noise in the audio and we also had to speak softly.”

There is no information when the feature will be made available publicly, but it is nice to see a closed caption feature implemented. When talking to people or listing to messages, it is hard sometimes to understand someone's accent. In such cases, CC is a great option. 

If you need to see closed captions during a live call, sadly the feature is not available on Google Duo. It is however available on Skype. Live captions & subtitles in Skype let users read the words that are spoken during an audio or video call. Live captions & subtitles are available in Skype on Android (6.0 or higher), iPhone, iPad, Windows, Mac, Linux, Web, and Skype for Windows 10 (version 14). 

In other Google-related news, Dolby has announced that their app called On is now available on the Indian Google Play Store. The app is designed for musicians to help record and stream their audio or video performances. The app was already available on iOS but is now also available on Android. You can read more about it here.

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An iPhone 8 with IP67 rating was recovered after 2 months in a river - And it still works

The iPhone 7 series was the first iPhones to come with water resistance. Apple launched the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Pro with IP67 water resistance which was carried over to the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Pro. But just how long can an iPhone 8 stay underwater? If this report is to be believed, it can survive for as long as two months submerged a river and still work like nothing ever happened.

According to the Mirror, 29-year old Bussolo-Viera was feeding the swans in early February when her new iPhone 8 fell out of her pocket and into the river. The phone had a lot of photos that weren’t backed up on iCloud. Naturally, Viera was “devastated”.

Two months later, Viera was walking down the same spot with her fiance in Surrey, England when she spotted the iPhone on the riverbed. The phone was submerged two meters underwater and the river was fast-flowing.

Viera and her fiance went home and returned with a home-made fish net made with a kitchen sieve stuck at the end of a broom. The phone was recovered. Although neither of them expected it to turn on.

They dried the iPhone 8 overnight and connected it to a charger. The phone turned on. Just how the iPhone managed to survive for two months underwater remains unknown at this point. But in the process of getting an IP67 certification, the device needs to have all holes and ports to be sealed against liquid and dust.

Theoretically, the iPhone 8 can only last for 30 minutes under three feet of water (or 0.9 meters). But in practice, it looks like it can survive for much, much longer. Two months to be precise.

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Leak suggests Apple iPhone 12 Pro may come with new rear camera design, LiDAR sensor: Report

Apple recently unveiled a new 2020 iPad Pro with a LiDAR sensor and it looks like that tech might make its way to the 2020 iPhones as well. An image that was first shared by Concepts iPhone a while back and now shared by Twitter user @Choco_bit, gives us a look at what the camera module of the upcoming iPhone might look like. Concepts iPhone reportedly claims to have gotten the image from iOS 14. 

The image suggests that the 2020 iPhone (probably called the iPhone 12 Pro) will feature a triple rear camera setup like the current iPhone 11 Pro, along with the addition of a LiDAR sensor. The new design suggests that Apple will mode the flash to the centre of the module, to make room for the new sensor. However, the leaked image does not give out too much information about the iPhone 12 Pro’s other design features.

As mentioned before, Apple introduced the LiDAR sensor in the new 2020 iPad Pro models. The new sensor is essentially a ToF sensor and should help improve the Augmented Reality (AR) capabilities of its new device. Apple did not go into detail about the LiDAR system used in the 2020 iPad Pro but did note that the system had a functional range of five feet, regardless of whether the user was indoors or outdoors. If the leaked image is correct and Apple does employ the sensor in the new iPhones, expect it to work in a similar fashion. 

Apple usually releases its iPhone in the latter half of the year. However, the ongoing COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic might affect its release date. We’ll just have to wait for a confirmation from the Cupertino-based company to know more.

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OxygenOS 1035 update rolling out to OnePlus 77 Pro users with improved RAM management, fixed slo-mo recording and March 2020 security patch

OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro users, brace for a new update. The stable update to OxygenOS 10.3.2 is now rolling out to users in India. The update brings the March 2020 security patch and performance enhancements. This updated build number is applicable only to users in India while for EU and global users, the build number is 10.0.5.

The update was delayed after the coronavirus outbreak led to offices being shut for the time being. The 10.3.2 update improves RAM management on the OnePlus 7 series devices. Stability too has been improved according to the changelog.

No major features have been added, sadly. The changelog reads --

System - Optimized the RAM management - Improved system stability and fixed known issues - Updated Android Security Patch to 2020.03 Gallery - Improved system stability for recording videos in slow-mo - Fixed the random disappearance of screenshots in Gallery - Now play videos without any lags

Recording slo-mo videos have also improved with the screenshot-disappearing bug now solved. OnePlus also claims you can now play videos on the device without any lag. As always, the update will be rolled out in stages. First, a limited number of users will get the update followed by a broader rollout in the next few days provided there are no critical bugs.

OnePlus is also gearing up to launch the OnePlus 8 series on April 14. Initially scheduled for a global launch event in New York, the coronavirus pandemic has turned it into a live-stream only event. The upcoming OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will introduce new features like a 120Hz refresh rate display, the latest Snapdragon 865 SoC, LPDDR5 RAM, 30W fast charging, punch-hole screens and more. They are also confirmed to be 5G-ready and will support wireless charging for the first time.

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