Google brings new features to improve Chrome on Android

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Google brings new features to improve Chrome on Android

Tech giant Google has announced that it has rolled out two new features–Partial Custom Tabs and Chrome Custom Tabs– that will bring the best of Chrome to Android developers and users.

To keep users engaged with the developer’s application, Chrome now provides developers more control over tab height with “Partial Custom Tabs,” the tech giant said in an Android Developers blogpost.

Developers can also customize the tab in pixels for a partial overlay, allowing users to interact with the native application and the web simultaneously.

“Partial Custom Tabs is currently supported by a handful of browsers, including Chrome, and we look forward to additional browser support soon,” the company said.

Moreover, if users’ browser does not support Partial Custom Tabs, they will see the supported full-screen Custom Tab.

On the other hand, with the “Chrome Custom Tabs”, developers will give users a fast, safe, and seamless way to experience the web.

“Users will know that when they open the web from your app, it will be running in Chrome’ so they can use their most loved Chrome features like saved passwords and autofill,” it added.

Tesla to open 7,500 charging stations in US to other EVs by 2024

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Tesla to open 7,500 charging stations in US to other EVs by 2024

The Biden administration has revealed new initiatives to install 5,00,000 electric vehicle chargers on US roads by 2030 under its $7.5 billion plan, and as part of it, announced that Elon Musk-owned Tesla has committed to opening up 7,500 of its charging stations to non-Tesla vehicles by the end of 2024.

“Tesla, for the first time, will open a portion of its US Supercharger and Destination Charger network to non-Tesla EVs, making at least 7,500 chargers available for all EVs by the end of 2024. The open chargers will be distributed across the US,” according to an official announcement.

The company also confirmed this on Twitter, saying: “Select Tesla Superchargers across the US will soon be open to all EVs. Our US network will more than double by the end of 2024 to support our growing Tesla fleet and new EV customers”.

At least 3,500 new and existing 250 kW Superchargers will be built along highway corridors to extend accessibility to all EVs, as well as Level 2 Destination Charging at locations like hotels and restaurants in urban and rural locations.

All EV drivers will be able to access these stations using the Tesla app or website.

Moreover, other companies such as Ford, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo Cars, and Starbucks, among others have also committed to installing EV charging stations as part of the initiative.

Apple supplier Foxconn secures new manufacturing site in Vietnam after China turmoil

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Apple supplier Foxconn secures new manufacturing site in Vietnam after China turmoil

Apple’s biggest supplier Foxconn has secured a new site in Vietnam, as the Taiwanese giant shifts production away from China after facing major supply-chain disruptions late last year after the lifting of the zero-Covid policy.

According to South China Morning Post, Taiwan-based Foxconn (earlier known as Hon Hai Precision Industry) has signed a lease with Saigon-Bac Giang Industrial Park Corp to occupy a plot of 45 hectares for around $62.5 million to meet “operational needs and expand production capacity”.

In an exchange filing, the Taiwanese giant said the lease will run through February 2057.

“Foxconn signed a $300 million agreement with a Vietnamese developer last August to build a new factory in Bac Giang, where it already produces iPads and AirPods,” according to the report.

Foxconn is also planning to increase its workforce at its plant in India over the next two years.

The company announced a $500 million investment in its Indian subsidiary in December last year.

Apple CEO Tim Cook, in the company’s quarterly earnings, call earlier this month, said that the Covid-19 challenges “significantly impacted the supply of iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max and lasted through most of December”.

Meanwhile, the key Apple supplier reported strong revenue for January that surged 48.2 percent (year-on-year), after facing significant Covid-related disruptions in October and November of 2022.

“With operations returning to normal and product shipments increasing at the Zhengzhou campus, revenue in January delivered strong double-digit growth both on MoM and YoY basis,” said Foxconn.

The company reported better components supply and strong customer pull-in. Smart consumer electronics products and computing products showed strong double-digit growth.

Foxconn’s biggest iPhone manufacturing facility in China, hit hard by Covid-related disruptions, gradually recovered and production reached about 90 percent of maximum capacity in early January.

Foxconn Technology Group’s facility in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou is the world’s largest iPhone factory, which saw major disruptions in the last three months of 2022 caused by the pandemic controls.

In a New Year’s message, Foxconn Chairman and CEO Young Liu said the Taipei-based company might see a more complex and challenging path ahead.

‘Trouble’ fixed, Twitter back after brief outage on iOS

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‘Trouble’ fixed, Twitter back after brief outage on iOS

Micro-blogging platform Twitter on Thursday said that it has fixed the “trouble” that many iOS users experienced earlier, and hoped things would be back to normal now.

The company tweeted from its @TwitterSupport account: “Pardon the interruption! iOS users may have experienced some trouble using Twitter earlier. Things should be back to normal now.”

User reports peaked at more than 8,700 on the online outage monitor website Downdetector.

According to the outage monitor website, over 85 percent of people had reported problems while using the application, 8 percent while using the website, and 7 percent with server connection. Taking to the platform, several users reported the issue.

While one user asked, “is Twitter down or did I get suspended,” another said, “why is Twitter down AGAIN? you are running this app into the GROUND Elon.”

Last week, the micro-blogging platform suffered a massive outage when several users globally, including in India, reported having issues while posting a tweet and sending direct messages (DMs).

After receiving multiple reports of the outage, the company posted from its @TwitterSupport account stating, “Twitter may not be working as expected for some of you. Sorry for the trouble. We’re aware and working to get this fixed.”

Later, Twitter CEO Elon Musk said that the platform was facing “multiple internal and external issues simultaneously” and would be “fully back on track later tonight”.

Musk ‘hires’ his dog as new Twitter CEO

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Musk ‘hires’ his dog as new Twitter CEO

Elon Musk on Wednesday said that he has hired a dog to replace him as Twitter CEO.

Musk tweeted a picture of his pet dog “Floki” sitting on the company’s CEO’s chair, with the caption: “The new CEO of Twitter is amazing.”

“So much better than that other guy!” he added. Musk later said that the dog is “great with numbers!” and “has style.”

Several users expressed their thoughts on Musk’s post. When one user said, “I guess he was the only one crazy enough to take the job.” Musk replied: “He is perfect for the job.”

“Will Twitter add the option of reporting animal abuse under the new leadership?” another user asked.

In December last year, Musk had said that he would only run the software and servers teams after he finds “someone foolish enough” to take his place.

He made the statement in a response to a poll he ran, where 57.5 percent of the respondents said that he should step down as the Twitter CEO.

Meanwhile, he had said, “No one wants a job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor… The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.”

Roomba vacuum maker iRobot to lay off 7% of workforce

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Roomba vacuum maker iRobot to lay off 7% of workforce

Robot vacuum cleaner maker iRobot has announced to cut around 7 percent of its workforce or about 85 employees.

The maker of the Roomba robot vacuum had 1,254 employees as of December 31, 2022.

Announcing its fourth-quarter results, the company said that it has initiated a new restructuring program that is expected to deliver net annualized savings of approximately $14 million.

“As part of this restructuring, the company plans to reduce its workforce by approximately 7 percent, or approximately 85 employees, primarily by streamlining certain functions across the company,” said iRobot.

In addition to the reduction in force, iRobot’s 2023 operating plan incorporates scaled-back working media and other demand-generation activities, limited investment in non-robotic product categories, and “minimal new hiring plans in 2023”.

The revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 was $357.9 million, compared with $455.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Full-year 2022 revenue of $1,183.4 million declined 24 percent from $1,565.0 million in 2021, said the company.

In August last year, the consumer robot company, acquired by Amazon for $1.7 billion, laid off 10 percent of its workforce — nearly 140 workers.

The company had said that to better align its cost structure with near-term revenue, it was in the process of initiating a “restructuring of its operations”.

iRobot introduced the first Roomba robot vacuum in 2002 and has sold millions of robots worldwide for cleaning, mapping, and navigation.

Twitter’s priority is to fix recommendation algorithm: Musk

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Twitter’s priority is to fix recommendation algorithm: Musk

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has said that the company’s “current top priority” is to fix the recommendation algorithm.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Musk asked: “What are your top requests for Twitter features & bug fixes?”

“We will prioritise by the number of likes times ease of implementation,” he added.

To this post, a user commented, “Feed refreshes for the ‘For You’ tab is weird. So is the font and paragraph spacing.”

Replying to the user’s concern, Musk said, “Fixing the recommendation algorithm is our current top priority. Twitter engineering has been working super hard on this. Proud of the team.”

Later, he posted: “Please stay tuned while we make adjustments to the uh.a ‘algorithm’.

Twitter’s CEO on Sunday said that the engineers resolved two significant problems on the micro-blogging platform during a “long day at Twitter HQ” with him.

Musk also said that oversized fonts and undersized paragraph spacing will be fixed this week.

Meanwhile, on Monday, he had said that the Twitter team “completed” several works “overnight”, including improving the reach of retweets and “removing filter causing false negatives”.

Aero India 2023: HAL to provide MRO support for MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft engines

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Aero India 2023: HAL to provide MRO support for MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft engines

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Incorporated (GA-ASI) have jointly announced that turbo-propeller engines that power the state-of-art MQ-9B Guardian High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) will be supported by the HAL Engine Division at Bengaluru for the Indian market.

“HAL has been manufacturing and providing MRO support for TPE 331-5 engines for the last 40 years. We are also establishing facilities for manufacturing TPE 331-12B engines for the HTT-40 project.

“The engine used on the MQ-9B RPAS belongs to the same family of engines with upgraded configuration to adapt to the RPAS technology.

“I am glad that HAL Engine Division, Bengaluru would be providing MRO support to the engine for MQ-9B RPAS, one of the most sophisticated equipments in the world,” HAL Chairman and Managing Director, C.B. Ananthakrishnan said.

“GA-ASI is proud to collaborate with HAL on this prestigious project,” General Atomics Global Corporation’s Chief Executive Dr. Vivek Lall said. “HAL is the foremost Indian public sector aerospace and defense agency, and its vast experience in the domain of aero-engine technology makes it our natural partner in India.”

Though the turboprop engine fitted onboard the MQ-9B HALE RPAS looks similar to other commercial engines in its category, it is unique in its configuration and operation, requiring special training and equipment to maintain, repair and overhaul.

The Expression of Interest was exchanged between Lall, and HAL’s Executive Director, Engines, and IMGT, B. Krishna Kumar in the presence of Bengaluru Complex CEO Mihir Kanti Mishra.

GA-ASI and HAL eagerly look forward to formulating a comprehensive engine MRO program for upcoming HALE RPAS projects. This joint collaboration echoes India’s clarion call for ‘Atmanirbharta’ (self-reliance) while underscoring the deep industrial connection between the US and Indian aerospace companies.

Cloud communications firm Twilio cuts 17% of its workforce

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Cloud communications firm Twilio cuts 17% of its workforce

US-based cloud communications company Twilio has announced to lay off about 17 per cent of its global workforce amid cost-cutting measures.

In addition, Twilio will reorganize its internal organization and create two business units — Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications.

“We have to spend less, streamline, and become more efficient. To do that, we’re forming two business units: Twilio Communications and Twilio Data & Applications. And today, I’m unfortunately bearing the news that we’re parting ways with approximately 17 percent of our team,” Twilio co-founder and CEO Jeff Lawson wrote in an email sent to all Twilio employees.

In September last year, Twilio sacked 11 percent of its employees — more than 850 people from its 7,800-strong workforce globally.

All affected employees will receive health coverage and career resources, as well as 12 weeks of base pay plus one week per year of service, according to the company.

Moreover, the company is ending some benefits, such as book and wellness allowances, as well as Twilio Recharge, a four-week paid sabbatical offered to employees every three years.

Twilio also plans to close some of its offices over the next few months.

“As part of our shift to remote work, we plan to close some Twilio offices over the next few months, with the intent of maintaining at least a handful of global hubs and satellite offices,” said Lawson.

Apple releases fix for iPhone, iPad bug being exploited by hackers

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Apple releases fix for iPhone, iPad bug being exploited by hackers

Apple has issued a new security update to fix a vulnerability in iPhone and iPad’s operating systems that hackers have been exploiting in the wild.

The security patch is available for iPhone 8 and later, iPad Pro (all models), iPad Air 3rd generation and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 5th generation and later, according to the company.

“Processing maliciously crafted web content may lead to arbitrary code execution,” said Apple.

The tech giant admitted that it “is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited”.

Apple acknowledged The Citizen Lab at The University of Toronto’s Munk School for its assistance in discovering and alerting the company about the vulnerability.

The Citizen Lab is known for exposing government hacking spyware made by Israel’s NSO Group.

This latest bug was in WebKit, Apple’s browser engine that’s used in Safari.

The iOS 16.3.1 and iPadOS 16.3.1 security updates are now available for download to fix the vulnerability.

Last year, Apple released a major update (iOS 14.5) that allows users to tell apps to stop tracking them, adds 217 new emojis, and fixes a slew of 50 security bugs, according to Motherboard.

The company also released another update to fix two vulnerabilities that hackers were using to exploit iPhones in the wild.

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