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Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Google Play Store

Google’s initiative to cut Play Store fee might help ‘boutique’ apps but not big developers

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There are thousands of developers around the world that are new in the business world and face struggle due to the 30 percent fee for their apps in the Google Play Store. For new developers, cutting 30 percent fee is a lot as compared to their annual revenue. So, Google has decided to bring down the fees from 30 percent to 15 percent for the developers whose annual revenue is less than $1 million. However, for the big developers, the fees will stay intact to 30 percent fees for putting their apps on Google Play Store.

This new amendment by Google will come into action from 1st July 2021. The new reduction in commission fees by Google will affect the new start-ups, individual developers, and boutique firms in a very positive way, says Manjunath Bhat, Senior Director Analyst, Gartner to The Indian Express. He also added that “It will have little to no impact on large established application development companies in India.” (The Indian Express)

Boosting Developer Success

Sameer Samat, Vice President of Product Management, Google has written in a blog post on 16th March 2021 about how Google appreciates helping new developers make a big and sustainable business. Google always looks forward to helping new brands establish and support them with powerful marketing tools. This is because building a brand from scratch and putting the app on the record is not a very easy task. He also mentioned that Google is constantly striving to help these new developers bring their innovative ideas into real life and “give them an added boost.”

Google Play Store
Image Source: fiverr.com

He has specifically mentioned that the deduction of the commission fees from 30 percent to 15 percent is only for the first $1 million revenue earned by a developer each year. With the huge reduction in commission fees, around 99 percent of the total global developers will have a huge impact on their businesses. And, this amount of figure can be used by the developers to scale up their business, effective marketing implementations, hiring new employees, expanding geographically, etc.

Why cut the commission fees?

In an early-stage business, the investment is always high to set the business, hire people, create a position, and marketing. So, with the reduction in the commission fees, the developers will have a much stable early-stage start-up and open more doors for them to succeed. Google thinks that this is the first step on behalf of the company to help each and every developer out there. More details will be shared regarding this incentive in the upcoming months. Google Play and Android together are trying to build a better ecosystem thus scaling up to more business and uplifting the developers’ community. Moreover, small businesses contribute significantly to the GDP of a nation, hence if they start growing rapidly it will benefit the economy of the country.

Similar initiatives by Apple

Apple also took a similar initiative last year as the company brought the commission rate down to 15 percent from 30 percent as well. But, there is a difference in how Apple proceeded with the Apple Store Small Business Program. For the Apple Store, the reduction rate is only applicable to those who make less than $1 million a year in terms of annual sales. Once they start selling above $1 million, they have to pay the standard 30 percent fees. But, Google is considering a 50 percent reduction in commission fees on the first $1 million regardless of the total revenue earned by the developer.

In the last few months, both Google and Apple have come under big allegations because of their fees and other rules. It is true that these two tech giants control more or less the entire smartphone market and the tech industry. So, many developers have no option but to abide by the rules laid by these two companies. (The Indian Express). With the reduction rate in Google’s commission fees for Play Store, many people have made several positive comments on it.

For instance, Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of JetSynthesys, said, “I think in a way it helps support the Indian ecosystem, especially the smaller developers.” He also added that “ It’s a good move because with new developers coming in, more companies will engage with citizens through digital payments.” The main target of taking this initiative is to give developers better chances to scale their business and overall democratizing access to Play Store in India.

AMD Ryzen Pro 5000

AMD launches new Ryzen Pro 5000 series processors especially for professional laptops

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AMD announced on 16th March 2021 about the launch of AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 Series Mobile processors, thus bringing the Zen 3 architecture for business class laptops. With this new chip paired with Zen 3 core, the business laptops will become more efficient and provide uncompromising performance. A highly efficient laptop is a prerequisite in the professional world especially after how the pandemic has changed our lifestyle. The new Ryzen Pro 5000 Series chip will be paired with the designer’s suite of Pro technologies with high-security bits and fueled by the latest CPU design.

According to the company, the new series of chips for business-class laptops is a solution for working remotely. While the entire world has started working remotely, the demand for high security has also increased as the work environment is getting distributed widely. And, with the help of the AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 series, the laptops can suffice all the needs of professionals for maintaining quality performance and high-security features.

AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 Mobile Processors Series Security features

In a statement by Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD, he said, “The new AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 series mobile processors significantly increase the capabilities of ultrathin enterprise notebooks and deliver best-in-class user experiences with leadership performance, exceptional battery life and robust security features for every work environment.” The main two improvements focused on in these new series of chips are remote work management and improved security.

Ryzen Pro 5000
Image Source: techpowerup.com

The new chips are strengthened by multi-layered security with AMD Shadow Stack, Secured Core PC, and FIPS 140-3 certification. The AMD Shadow Stack will help the system to mitigate malware attacks by hardware-enabled protection. The security system will also have deep integration with Microsoft and OEMs. Apart from this, the Memory Guard will enable system memory encryption to bring down attacks and it will automatically be enabled on Microsoft Secured-Core PCs.

Performance and efficiency

With improved security, the AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 Mobile Processors series also excel in efficiency and multi-threaded performance. The AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U processor is coming with 8 cores and 16 threads. This processor will offer high-level CPU performance with a 57 percent increase in multi-threaded performance. This processor will also enhance the productivity and overall performance of the laptop by 23 percent as compared to the existing competition in the market. Though working remotely from home doesn’t call for battery trouble, the processor also comes with an improved battery life of 17.5 hours.

The users can expect the arrival of these new chip embedded laptops from HP and Lenovo from the second quarter of 2021. AMD also expects the sale of AMD-powered enterprise notebook will increase by at least three folds by the end of this year. There are three models of this new series expected to roll out, namely, AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U, 5650U, and 5450U. All of these have Zen 3 architecture. The processors are also featuring 18-months of planned software stability and 24-months of planned availability.

Statements of HP and Lenovo

With both HP and Lenovo to integrate this new AMD processor in their laptops, Andy Rhodes, Global Head, Commercial Systems and Display Solutions, HP, said that “ HP is committed to empowering employees and IT teams everywhere, and our continued work with AMD leads with innovation to deliver powerful and secure computing experiences to keep people connected and productive at home, in the office, or both.”

Jerry Paradise, vice president, Global Commercial Portfolio & Product Management, Lenovo PCSD, said that “At Lenovo, we have a long tradition of providing our enterprise customers with innovative systems that deliver excellent performance and security and we are pleased to continue delivering on this promise with new laptops powered by the latest AMD mobile processors,”

About AMD

AMD started its journey in 1969 as a Silicon Valley start-up. The company’s primary goal was to develop cutting-edge semiconductor products and has evolved with time. Currently, the company is focused on building high computing, graphics, and visualization technologies. Lisa Su is the current President and CEO of the company. The main products of the company are CPU, GPU, microprocessors, SOCs, motherboard chipsets, embedded processors, solid-state drivers, etc.

twitter

Twitter has launched new initiatives to tackle misinformation related to the Indian Assembly Elections.

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With the Assembly Elections of India knocking at our doors, Twitter has launched very thoughtful initiatives to tackle misinformation related to the election. These new initiatives will protect public conversation and will also encourage healthy and informed conversations between candidates, political parties, media, citizens, and society (Gadgets 360). There are a total of three new initiatives taken by Twitter ahead of the Assembly Election in India and all these will be available in six different languages, namely, English, Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Assamese, and Malayalam.

The Assembly Election 2021 in India will be taking place in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, and Puducherry. Twitter through these new initiatives will be primarily devoted to facilitating healthy political debates and enhancing civic participation in the election. Every citizen of India has a right to true facts and information. This will also enhance participation and enlighten citizens about every political party and the candidates who are representing them.

The New Initiatives by Twitter

The first initiative taken by Twitter ahead of the Assembly Election 2021 is an information search prompt. This search prompt is connected with the Election Commission of India and state election commissions which will make the path easier for users to receive appropriate information regarding the election. The users can find correct information about the candidates, polling booths, voting dates, EVM voter registration, and every other election-related query.

twitter

The next initiative is a custom emoji to encourage more civic participation. This initiative is mainly launched to initiate and simulate election-related discussions and will be available on the platform until 10th May 2021. Young Indians are expected to actively participate in these discussions and share their ideas and opinions about everything regarding the election. For making the election-related discussions more pronounced and active, Twitter is also launching a youth discussion series called #DemocracyAdda aimed at voter literacy and civic participation among young Indians for the upcoming elections (Deccan Herald).

The third initiative is the series of pre-bunks and de-bunks to eradicate the misinformation as much as possible on Twitter. This will appear on the Home page of every user and also in Search. There will also be information and guidance on how to register to vote and details on EVMs and VVPATs. Misinformation is a very damaging factor during the time of election and Twitter will make sure to tackle this misinformation with great caution. If every citizen receives the correct fact about any election-related topic, it will be easier for them to make a decision.

Spotlight on Women

Apart from these initiatives to enhance the overall political culture in India, Twitter is also bringing back a video series called #HerPoliticalJourney. This video series mainly focuses on women in politics, their political journeys along the leading women news journalists. Sharing personal stories and their struggles in the political journey will inspire several young Indian women to get actively involved in politics and journalism. This will also improve the voting ratio in terms of gender in our country.

Other Important Information

The voting for the Assembly Election will start on 27th March 2021. The counting of the votes in these five assembly elections will take place on 2nd May 2021. In response to these new initiatives taken by Twitter, Payal Kamat, Manager Public Policy and Government, Twitter India, said that public conversation is critical during elections, and “Twitter is where this unfolds” (Deccan Herald).

She also further added that India is gradually accelerating in the digital era, and thus with correct measures more people in India will now have access to credible information in the right time span. The main motive of Twitter through this bunch of new initiatives is to make more Indian people engage in election-related talks. Twitter has more than 1 crore Indian users and together by using these new Twitter features can initiate and maintain a healthy dialogue and active participation in the Assembly Elections 2021. And, to attract each and every Indian user, Twitter has decided to put the content in regional language as well so that no users can feel left out and keep themselves from participating.

Google

Microsoft and Google are openly feuding amidst hacks, competition inquiries

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The rivalry between Microsoft and Google is getting exposed in front of the public as both of them are trying to throw each other off the grid. Microsoft and Google are two of the biggest tech giants across the globe and competition between them are getting intense with time. The daily lives of common people in this digital era depend greatly on both of these company’s services.

When you are leading on the market, there are high chances of getting on the wrong side of companies you are trying to outrun. The same goes for American multinational companies, Microsoft and Alphabet Inc’s Google. Tension has been simmering between these two parties has grown due to the existing rivalry and has been unusually exposed to the public eye. The main reason for this sudden increase in tension is that the executives from both companies have been put on the defensive over competing crises (Reuters).

Problems faced by Google and Microsoft

Since both Google and Microsoft are multinational tech giants, both of their infrastructures are expected to top standards, especially on security terms. But, in the last few months, we have seen how Microsoft’s security system was compromised and recently the exchange email system was also hacked by alleged Chinese hackers. There has been more than one cyber attack on Microsoft in less than six months. Microsoft, for these cyber attacks, is facing regular scrutiny, and if continues people using Microsoft’s products will start feeling exposed. Big companies like Microsoft have data of millions of customers and thus if networks of such companies are hacked, the sensitive information of many people is jeopardized.

Google
Image Source: financialexpress.com

The first attack on Microsoft’s cloud server was allegedly the same Russian hackers who comprised the SolarWinds Corp and broke into more than one client’s server. The investigation also showed that these hackers might have accessed data from government agencies as well. Moreover, this hacking incident was one of the biggest cyberattacks ever witnessed by these tech firms. And, the second attack on Microsoft’s email server took place at the beginning of March 2021 and was committed allegedly by Chinese hackers to which Beijing declined.

On the other hand, Google is thrashed by bipartisan complaints and journalism ire for its role in gutting the media industry’s advertising revenue. Between October 2020 and December 2020, Google has faced three government antitrust lawsuits which claimed that Google was illegally maintaining a monopoly in general search and search advertising through anticompetitive conduct and contracts (CNBC). Apart from this, Google was also one of the company’s that was forced to make paid deals with local Australian media for content publishing. The Australian government enforced this law on huge tech giants who have massive power in the media industry.

The Blame game

On the hearing of last Friday at a House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, Brad Smith, President of Microsoft, shot fire at Google. Brad Smith said to the representatives that the media organizations are being forced to “use Google’s tools, operate on Google’s ad exchanges, contribute data to Google’s operations, and pay Google money,” according to excerpts of his testimony published by Axios (Reuters). Google didn’t take it lightly and fired back saying that Microsoft has found a newfound interest in attacking Google which is coming from the SolarWinds attack when the latter allowed many big customers to be hacked due to major vulnerabilities of Microsoft. Some of these customers also include government agencies, police agencies, NATO, hospitals, etc.

Sony IMX661

Sony launches IMX661 127.68 Megapixel Image Sensor with Global Shutter Function

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This week Sony has broken big news for the launch of a large-format CMOS Image Sensor that will come with a global shutter function. Sony has revealed the specifications and features of the product and the name of this image sensor is IMX661. According to Sony, the newly released image sensor has the highest effective pixel count in the entire industry. It is one of its first kind and the product will be starting to ship from April of this year.

Sony IMX661 Image Sensor

Sony IMX661 has the highest effective pixel count of 127.68 megapixels and this sensor will provide nearly 10 times larger optical sizes than a typical 1.1-type image sensor (Gadgets 360). The new image sensor is developed based on Sony’s Pregius technology. Pregius is defined as Sony’s global shutter pixel technology which is further based on Sony’s low-noise CCD structure.

Sony IMX661
IMX661 CMOS Image Sensor
(left: color model, right: black and white model)
Image Source: sony.com

The company claims that one of the best features of IMX661 is that it can capture moving objects much more effectively without causing distortion. Sony image sensor is designed in such a way that it is capable of four times faster image readout speeds as compared to any other typical CMOS image sensor. So, let’s have a detailed look at all the specifications and features of the Sony IMX661 image.

Major Improvements

The advent of the digital era and especially the AI revolution has increased the demand for CMOS image sensors exponentially. Today, in various fields across any industry, image sensors are of much importance as a part of industrial equipment. Sony via its newly launched IMX661 aims to solve many complicated challenges across many industries where image sensors are of much importance.

The new image sensor is a combination of Sony’s Pregius technology along with a 3.6-type large optical size. These are the two main technologies when combined together will deliver a high pixel count and distortion-free images of moving objects. The image sensor also captures highly efficient images using a wide viewing angle along with no motion distortion in a single operation.

Sony IMX661 delivers a high level of performance in terms of image processing and this image sensor also has improved precision for recognition. So, in the fields of crime detection, Sony IMX661 will help hugely in facial recognition with a plus point of the distortion-free image. Not to mention that Sony IMX661 is a boon for all wildlife photographers out there for whom one of the most important things is capturing moving subjects sharply.

Specifications of Sony IMX661

Sony IMX661 will be available in two colors, namely, black and white. The unit cell size of the product is 3.45 X 3.45 micrometer. This large-format CMOS image sensor has a diagonal optical size of 56.73mm. Sony said the sensor is the best option for using in wide-area monitoring and aerial photography. This brings us to one of the most important features of this image sensor, i.e., high resolution with extreme precision images.

Sony IMX661 is also rolling out with improved image readout speed to offset the increased signal processing volume (Gadgets 360). The new sensor is capable of delivering a frame rate of 12.9 fps for 14 bit, 19.6 fps for 12 bit, and 21.8 fps for 10 bit. Sony IMX661 also has improved AD converter processing functionality without increasing the product size. This is mainly due to Sony’s original configuration of the chip-on-wafer process.

To make the output interface faster, Sony has also embedded Scalable Low Voltage Signaling with Embedded Clock which has comparatively high-speed interface standards. Some of the other included features in the Sony IMX661 that are especially helpful in industrial equipment include trigger synchronization, Region of Interest (RoI) gradation compression, multi-exposure, pixel binning readout, etc.

Availability of Sony IMX661

Though the company is launching the IMX661 image sensor for industrial equipment, Sony might embed the high pixel count feature in consumer products as well. The product will start shipping in April 2021. The basic colors of the model will be either black or white, specifications of other colors are not provided in detail yet.

Verkada camera

Verkada camera breach caused by hackers exposing Tesla, Jail, and Hospitals.

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Another massive hacking incident shook the world as a group of hackers successfully compromised the security camera systems of Verkada Inc. Verkada Inc is a Silicon Valley startup and the company’s camera security system is used widely from companies to hospitals around the world. The hackers have said that they were able to collect a massive amount of security camera data and have also gained access to live feeds of a hundred thousand cameras. These cameras are set up inside hospitals, police departments, schools, prisons, etc.

The hackers have also exposed a few footages of companies including Tesla and Cloudflare Inc (San Francisco, Austin, London, and New York offices). But, this is not it as they also broke into the camera systems of women’s health clinics and also hacked the camera system of Verkada’s office. The cameras that were hacked also use facial recognition systems to identify people from the live footage. Since the hackers claim to have full footage of Verkada’s every customer, the intended damages cannot be fathomed if it is true.

Verkada camera details of exposed videos

Since the hackers claim to have access to full surveillance footage of Verkada’s customers, a few of them were revealed. Video footage taken by Verkada camera system inside Halifax Heath (Florida-based hospital) shows that a total of eight hospital staffers tackling and pinning a man on his bed (reported by Bloomberg). Another video that was revealed by the hackers was of Tesla warehouse in Shanghai. The video footage showed workers on an assembly line. The hackers have claimed to hack 222 cameras in total within Tesla. The organizations who were exposed in the leaked videos declined to comment immediately.

Verkada camera
Image Source: bloombergquint.com

There was another video from the surveillance footage witnessed by Bloomberg showed a police station in Massachusetts. A police officer was questioning a man in the video. The hackers also got into the camera security system of Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Connecticut. There is not a single place that was spared by the hackers, as they also accessed 330 security cameras inside Madison County Jail, Alabama. The hackers were not only able to access live footage but also archived videos (including audio in some cases) in high-resolution quality.

Who hacked into the camera system?

The hacking into the Verkada’s camera system was done by International hackers who wanted to show the world the pervasiveness and ease at which this system can be infiltrated. Tillie Kottmann is one of the hackers who has claimed the responsibility for the hacking incident. Tillie has also previously admitted the hacking into Intel and Nissan Motor. Tillie said some of the major reasons why this chain of hacking surveillance footage has been carried out by the group is mostly out of curiosity and constant fighting for the freedom of information and against intellectual property. Kottmann also mentioned that it is too much fun not to do it.

Apart from taking credit for accessing all camera footage, Kottmann also mentioned that they have found the root access on the cameras. This means that they can now execute their own codes in each and every camera. In doing so, this will further help them to hack into the broader Verkada network and use the cameras as a platform to launch similar hacks in the future. Kottmann also mentioned that “Obtaining this degree of access to the camera didn’t require any additional hacking, as it was a built-in feature.” (Bloomberg)

A group of hackers got into the network of Verkada’s camera system as they found an exposed user name and password information on the internet. The information was of an administrator account and after Bloomberg contacted Verkada regarding this, the hackers lost all video footage of both live and archive data.

The action was taken against hacking

In the light of the information regarding the camera system comprising, a Verkada spokesperson said that “We have disabled all internal administrator accounts to prevent any unauthorized access.” The company also mentioned that both the company’s internal security team as well as external security agency have started investigating this matter. They have also contacted law enforcement.

The controversial fact about this entire hacking incident is someone or the company has been careless enough that such sensitive information was lurking freely on the internet. Anyone can get into the surveillance system if they have a correct user name and password, but how easily are this information leaked is the main question. This will hurt the trust build between Verkada and its customers.