Google to show Play Store reviews based on your device

San Francisco, Sep 15 (IANS) With an aim to make it more user-friendly, Google has reportedly introduced a new feature that will show reviews on the Play Store based on the type of device a person is using.

The update, promised to occur in "early 2022" in August 2021, now has arrived as Google prepares to introduce its own tablet and wearable, reports The Verge.

In the reviews section of the Play Store, there is now a notice to let you know that ratings are "verified,a and that you are being shown feedback from people using the same type of device as you, the report said.

This feature is becoming increasingly important as Android apps spread to even more form factors; someone using Google's upcoming Pixel Tablet will experience an app very differently than someone running it on a Chromebook.

"Early next year we will further update ratings to reflect the device type users are browsing Play on, whether it's: tablets and foldables, Chrome OS, Wear, or Auto," the company had said in a blogpost last year.

"This will give users a better impression of the experience that they can expect for the device they're using," it added.

The tech giant had mentioned that ratings help people decide which apps to download and they are taken into consideration for featuring and placement on Play Store.

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

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Gran Turismo Movie: David Harbour Reportedly Joins Film's Cast as Retired Racecar Driver

David Harbour has reportedly joined the cast of the Gran Turismo movie. As per The Hollywood Reporter, the PlayStation movie adaptation follows a teenage gamer, whose skills in-game guide him to become a real-life professional driver. Harbour plays a retired racecar driver, who guides the aspiring kid. The Gran Turismo movie is eyeing a theatrical release of August 11...

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Google slashes R&D projects as Pichai to make company 20 more efficient

San Francisco, Sep 15 (IANS) Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai aims to make the company 20 per cent more efficient hinting at job cuts, as the tech giant cancelled the projects at its in-house research and development (R&D) division called Area 120.

Addressing the gathering at the Code Conference in the US, Pichai said that the more the company tries to understand the macroeconomic conditions, it feels very uncertain about it.

"The macroeconomic performance is correlated to ad spend, consumer spend and so on," he told the audience.

TechCrunch reported that the company is slashing projects at its in-house R&D division Area 120 that has nearly 100 employees.

"We've recently shared that Area 120 will be shifting its focus to projects that build on Google's deep investment in AI and have the potential to solve important user problems. As a result, Area 120 is winding down several projects to make way for new work," a Google spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Affected team members "will receive dedicated support as they explore new projects and opportunities at Google", the spokesperson added.

Area 120 has launched several products, like gaming platform GameSnacks, an AirTable rival called Tables, an AI-powered conversational ads platform AdLingo, video platforms Tangi and Shoploop, and more.

Google has suspended hiring new employees and reportedly told some existing employees to "shape up or ship out" if expectations are not met.

As Big Tech companies lay off employees in the global economic downturn, Google executives have reportedly warned workers to either boost performance or prepare to leave as "there will be blood on the streets" if the next quarterly earnings are not good.

In a company message viewed by Insider, Google Cloud sales leadership has threatened employees with an "overall examination of sales productivity and productivity in general" and that if next quarter results "don't look up, there will be blood on the streets".

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

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Microsoft to allow real-time document signing during Team meetings

San Francisco, Sep 15 (IANS) Tech giant Microsoft has created a sample app for Teams that allow people to sign documents during remote meetings.

According to Windows Central, the application lets users add a document to a meeting for attendees to sign, such as a purchase agreement, invoice, or NDA.

The sample app was made by Teams Ecosystem Engineering as a proof of concept aimed at independent software vendors (ISVs) or other customers implementing it.

The entire project is available and documented on GitHub, which should help organisations that would like to use it within meetings, the report said.

The app allows users to add a document to a meeting to be reviewed or signed by attendees. It supports Teams single-sign-on (SSO) for authentication.

The report mentioned that it also supports sharing content during a meeting stage, adaptive cards, and the Teams people picker.

Microsoft noted that the app could be adapted to work with other scenarios that require signing off, such as reviewing and approving code or working together on a document.

The sample app is currently available for desktop clients of Teams. Mobile and web support is on the way, though Microsoft did not specify when in its Tech Community post announcing the feature, the report said.

Currently, the app only works with users from the same organisation or tenant. Guest and anonymous user support are also on the way, it added.

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

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Poco M5 Review: Chic and formidable

The Poco M5 is one of the most good-looking phones you can buy without emptying your pockets. It’s got a good display for watching videos, a powerful processor in the Helio G99 which will serve your daily tasks with utmost ease and a great primary camera.

The Poco M5 is an affordable phone priced under ₹15,000 in India and is packed to the brim with essential features. The main attraction here is MediaTek’s Helio G99 processor which was unveiled in August and is the beating heart of Poco M5, Redmi 11 Prime and the Infinix Note 12 Pro, to name a few. Though the Poco M5 is a 4G phone, it’s got all the bases covered with features such as the 50MP main camera, a large 5,000mAh battery to boot and an unmatched design in this price range. In this Poco M5 review, we’ll try and find out whether buying the Poco M5 4G makes sense or if you should go for a 5G phone instead. 

Poco M5 review: In The Box

In the retail box, you will find the Poco M5, a 22.5W charging adapter, a TPU protective case, Type-C cable, SIM ejector tool and some paperwork. 

Poco M5 review:  Key Specifications at a Glance

Price: ₹12,499 (4GB+64GB) | ₹14,499 (6GB+128GB)

Display: 6.5-inch LCD, FHD+, 90Hz refresh rate, Gorilla Glass 3

Thickness: 8.9mm

Weight: 201g

Platform: MediaTek Helio G99

RAM: 4GB/6GB LPDDR4X

Built-in storage: 64GB/128GB UFS 2.2

Expandable storage: Yes, upto 1TB

5G support: No

USB-C: Yes

3.5mm jack: Yes

OS: MIUI 13 based on Android 12 

Rear Camera: 50MP (f/1.8) + 2MP macro + 2MP depth sensor

Rear Camera Video: 1080p (30FPS)

Front Camera: 8MP (f/2.0)

Speakers: Single speaker

Battery and charging: 5,000mAh, 18W wired

Colours: Poco Yellow, Power Black, Icy Blue

Poco M5 review: Build and Design

Right out of the box, the Poco M5 feels nothing like an affordable smartphone as it has a leather-like textured finish on the back panel which gives it a premium look and feel. Poco has tried to stand out from the ordinary smartphone design in the affordable segment and it’s clearly successful in evoking that wow factor with the M5.

The Poco M5 isn’t the slimmest or lightest smartphone in this price range yet it’s one of the best-looking phones you can get under ₹15,000. Even though it's largely made from plastic, the Poco M5 is durable for daily use and the screen upfront has a layer of Gorilla Glass 3 protection.

Poco M5 review: Display

The Poco M5 features a good display that’s perfect for watching videos and much more. It supports a 90Hz refresh rate which makes every interaction smooth and helps while playing games. The M5 has a waterdrop notch and a rather wide chin but that doesn’t come in the way of your viewing experience. The display gets bright enough for both indoor and outdoor use but isn’t legible in direct sunlight.

In our tests, the display of the Poco M5 produced 360 nits of maximum brightness which is slightly less than the claimed peak brightness of 400 nits. Being an LCD panel, the Poco M5’s display doesn’t get pitch black levels but the minimum brightness we recorded was 2 nits. The display produces accurate colours and is vibrant with crisp visuals which are good enough for most users but an AMOLED display here would have uplifted the viewing experience by fourfolds.

Poco M5 review: Performance

The MediaTek Helio G99 inside the Poco M5 is no slouch in day-to-day performance and easily keeps up with usual tasks such as browsing, social media apps, watching videos on YouTube or movies on Netflix, Prime Video and more. I did not face any lags and the general animations remained slick during my use. It also helped that the display was set to 90Hz always as it made the overall experience snappy.

In benchmark tests, the Helio G99 showcased similar, if not better CPU and GPU performance over the Helio G96, Snapdragon 695, 680 and the Dimensity 810 chipsets. The thermal management has also improved on the Helio G99 from the G96 and that shows when playing intensive games like COD Mobile at a stretch. The Game Turbo 5.0 keeps games like COD Mobile and Genshin Impact running albeit with some frame drops here and there but nothing that’s going to spoil your overall experience.  We also ran the CPU throttling test where the Poco M5 delivered 94% of its maximum potential in the 15-minute run and 92% in the 30-minute run. This proves that the Poco M5 is more than capable of handling daily tasks without compromising on thermal performance and battery life.

Poco M5 review: Battery Life

The Poco M5 has a large and sufficient battery capacity of 5,000mAh to boot which offers a long battery life. In my opinion, the battery life of the Poco M5 is really great and a major plus point for buyers because it can last for over 2 days on casual use. If you’re a power user, you’ll still be able to get around a day’s worth of battery life on a single charge. Moreover, the Poco M5’s battery offers unprecedented stand-by time wherein the battery didn’t even drop by a per cent for 10 hours the phone was kept idle.

However, when it comes to charging the Poco M5’s battery, most of your time will be spent in anticipation of when it will get fully charged! It took us around 2 hours and 45 minutes on average to charge the phone from 0-100% which is an excruciating wait for charging a phone in 2022. To make matters worse, Poco bundles a 22.5W fast charging adapter in the box yet the Poco M5 supports only 18W charging speeds which is a bummer.

Poco M5 Camera review

In adequate lighting conditions, the Poco M5 produces sharp and visually appealing pictures from its main 50MP camera. The images have a nice and natural depth of field and the camera app locks down the focus quickly. The textures in subjects such as flowers or walls are also well processed as it doesn’t smooth out the pictures. The portrait mode works well, lending a shallow depth of field effect to pictures but loses out a bit on textures and natural colours. 

At night, the pictures from the main camera have a lot of grain and artefacts and switching to the night mode solves those issues as it reduces the noise and bumps up the highlights and exposure levels. The macro camera takes decent close-up shots and nothing extraordinary because the sensor is of a low resolution which is only able to capture so many details.

Poco M5 review: Verdict

The Poco M5 is one of the most good-looking phones you can buy without emptying your pockets. It’s got a good display for watching videos, a powerful processor in the Helio G99 which will serve your daily tasks with utmost ease and a great primary camera. Though, one of the major highlights of the Poco M5 is its long battery life which is only eclipsed by the fact that it takes aeons to fully charge. But when it's full, you can spend over two days with the phone without even thinking about the charging time. Starting at ₹12,499 (available for as low as ₹10,499 during sales) the Poco M5 is a great value for money phone that is meant for students, casual phone users and those looking for a secondary phone that runs for days at a stretch.

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Apple fixes new zero-day bug being actively exploited by hackers

New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS) Apple has fixed fresh vulnerabilities in iOS and macOS, including a zero-day flaw being actively exploited by hackers.

The zero-day flaw, known as CVE-2022-32917, allows a malicious app to run arbitrary code on an affected device with kernel privileges, Apple said in a security update.

Apple fixed the bug in updates for iOS 15.7 and iPadOS 15.7, macOS Monterey 12.6 and macOS Big Sur 11.7.

Apple warned that it is aware that this flaw "may have been actively exploited".

According to TechCrunch, this is the eighth zero-day vulnerability fixed by Apple this year.

In addition to these fixes, Apple also released a fix for a Safari browser flaw that could lead to address bar spoofing.

The security fixes were released along with iOS 16, which brings several security and privacy features, including support for Apple Passkeys and Lockdown Mode.

"Keeping your software up to date is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your Apple product's security," said the company.

After a software update is installed for iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS, it cannot be downgraded to the previous version.

Last month, Apple released new software updates for iPhones, iPads and Macs to fix two security vulnerabilities known by the tech giant to be actively exploited by attackers.

The two vulnerabilities were found in WebKit, the browser engine that powers Safari and other apps, and the kernel, essentially the operating system's core.

The tech giant had said the WebKit bug could be exploited if a vulnerable device accessed or processed "maliciously crafted web content (that) may lead to arbitrary code execution".

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

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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)

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