Roshni Ankola

NASA Reveals James Webb Telescope’s First Cosmic Targets To Include Distant Galaxies, Nebulae, And More:

The James Webb Space Telescope, a joint project of NASA, ESA, and CSA, will soon reveal unequaled and in-depth views of the cosmos with the impending publication of its first full-color images and spectroscopic data. The US, European, and Canadian space agencies are preparing for a dramatic presentation of early observations by the $10 billion (approximately Rs. 79,330 crores) observatory, which is slated to disclose fresh insights into the origins of the universe on July 12.

An international panel chose the Southern Ring Nebula, which surrounds a dying star 2,000 light-years away, and the Carina Nebula, a gigantic cloud of gas and dust situated 7,600 light-years away, to be included in the first collection of full-color scientific images. One of the iconic towering pillars that makes up the Carina Nebula is the three-light-year-tall “Mystic Mountain,” a celestial peak that Hubble is credited with photographing.

Webb has also performed spectroscopy on the distant gas giant WASP-96 b, which was discovered in 2014. Spectroscopy is an analysis of light that provides comprehensive information. WASP-96 b is around 1,150 light-years from Earth and has a mass that is almost half that of Jupiter. It also orbits its star in about 3.4 days.

The next object is Stephan’s Quintet, a tiny galaxy 290 million light-years away. The list of cosmic objects that Webb chose for these initial observations is provided here. It will be made public on Tuesday, July 12 at 10:30 a.m. EDT during NASA’s live broadcast. Each image will simultaneously be made available on social media and the agency’s website.

The targets mentioned below constitute the observatory’s first wave of full-color scientific photos and spectra, as well as the official start of Webb’s general science activities. An international committee including members from NASA, ESA, CSA, and the Space Telescope Science Institute chose them.

• The Carina Nebula: The Carina Nebula, located around 7,600 light-years away in the southern constellation Carina, is one of the largest and brightest nebulae in the sky. Stars are born in stellar nurseries called nebulae. Many huge stars several times the size of the Sun can be found in the Carina Nebula.

• WASP-96 b (spectrum): WASP-96 b is a huge gas-filled planet located beyond our solar system. The planet is approximately 1,150 light-years away from Earth and orbits its star every 3.4 days. It was discovered in 2014 and has nearly half the mass of Jupiter.

• The Southern Ring Nebula: It is also known as the “Eight-Burst” nebula, is a planetary nebula, which is an expanding cloud of gas that surrounds a dead star. It has a diameter of roughly half a light-year and is about 2,000 light-years away from Earth.

• Stephan’s Quintet: Stephan’s Quintet is located in the constellation Pegasus, approximately 290 million light-years away. It is noteworthy for being the first compact galaxy group found in 1877. Four of the quintet’s five galaxies are entangled in a cosmic dance of frequent close encounters.

• SMACS 0723: Massive foreground galaxy clusters amplify and deform the light of objects behind them, enabling a deep field view into both the extremely far-off and fundamentally dim galaxy populations.

Webb can look farther back in time to the Big Bang, which occurred 13.8 billion years ago, as compared to any instrument before it thanks to its infrared capabilities.

Webb is able to detect the first stars’ light with an unparalleled level of resolution as it transitions from the shorter ultraviolet and visible wavelengths it originally emitted into longer infrared wavelengths as the cosmos expands.

The publication of these initial photographs signals the official start of Webb’s research activities, which will continue to investigate the mission’s core scientific issues. Teams have already applied for time to utilize the telescope in its first “cycle,” or year of observations, through a competitive process.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s leading observatory for space science. Webb will investigate mysteries in our solar system, as well as distant worlds orbiting other stars, and will investigate the intriguing architecture and origins of our universe and our place in it.

Roshni Ankola

I am a second-year student pursuing Liberal Arts from Nmims. I am a painter, I love reading and have a great interest in cooking. I am also a trained kickboxer. I’ve always had a passion for writing and hence in my free time, I work as a freelance writer.

Apple To Add ‘Lockdown Mode’ To iPhone Will Help From Pegasus And Govt Spyware.

According to a group of journalists and Amnesty International, NSO Group’s software has been used for years to follow government employees, journalists, and human rights campaigners. That’s in spite of claims made by the Israeli spyware company that it exclusively sells to law enforcement organizations that use it to apprehend criminals. The Pegasus spyware is intricate. In a nutshell, it works by utilizing zero-day, zero-click exploits on Android and Apple mobile devices. Zero-day exploits are vulnerabilities that have not yet been discovered by phone manufacturers and may frequently be remotely installed on a target’s phone using just a text message or other emailed link, requiring no user participation (thus the name “zero-click”).

Once Pegasus is installed, the NSO customer targeting the user can access and observe almost everything the target does on the phone. Pegasus spyware from NSO has been referred to be a danger to democracy. One of the reasons Apple launched a lawsuit against the corporation, aiming to prevent it from using Apple’s devices and services, is that it uses them to target journalists and human rights advocates. The NSO would have a considerably harder time locating zero-day flaws for Apple devices as a result.

However, Apple is not just relying on the legal system in its conflict with the NSO Group, Pegasus, and spyware producers worldwide. According to the firm, “Lockdown Mode” will soon be available on its iPhones, iPads, and Macs.

The feature is what Apple refers to as an “extreme” solution for users who may be targeted by Pegasus and other very sophisticated spyware, and it will be available this autumn as part of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura. It is clear why Apple views Lockdown Mode as excessive given that many iPhone functionality would become inaccessible when customers enable it. This is how it goes: Users can instantly activate Lockdown Mode in the Privacy & Security section of the Settings app if they suspect they may be at risk of or are informed that they are the targets of a spyware assault.

Users’ iPhones, iPad, or Mac will restart after selecting Lockdown Mode, and the following features won’t be available:

Except for photographs, all message attachments are in the Messages app from all senders.
Calls on FaceTime from individuals you have never FaceTimed before.
Several online browsing technologies, including cutting-edge ones like just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compilation, are prohibited.
Requests for new shared picture albums and shared photo albums in the Photos app.
If the iPhone is locked, wired connections (using a USB cable) from the iPhone to another device are possible.
Apple Services invitations from users you have never engaged with before.
configuration profiles, like those employed by school networks or VPNs.

These prohibited features share the trait of regularly serving as delivery vectors for zero-day, zero-click vulnerabilities.

The majority of Apple users, thankfully, won’t ever need to worry about Lockdown Mode because they are unlikely to be targeted by sophisticated malware like Pegasus. Lockdown Mode, however, should be a major help for individuals who are in danger because it instantly closes all known malware access points to an iPhone.

Lockdown Mode will be made available to all users with the public release of these operating systems this autumn and is now present in the development betas of iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura. This news came over a month after Italian spyware vendors RCS Lab and Tykelab Srl stated that new spyware code-named Hermit was aimed at high-profile government figures. After allegations that a number of journalists, opposition politicians, activists, and businesspeople were targeted by the Pegasus spyware, a zero-click Trojan virus created by NSO Group, the Pegasus controversy gathered traction in 2021. In essence, it gives cybercriminals complete access to the victim’s smartphone and all of its contents, including its photos and messages.

Roshni Ankola

Twitter Takes Orders To Court Over The takedown of Content.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Roshni Ankola

Twitter, a US microblogging platform, has requested a legal review of many requests for material removal it received from the Indian government. A lawyer and official from the Information Technology (IT) Ministry who were aware of the matter acknowledged that Twitter had submitted a case to the Karnataka High Court opposing the takedown requests. According to sources with knowledge of the situation, Twitter has taken legal action against some of the government letters demanding it removes particular content uploaded on the microblogging website in its most recent dispute with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology.

Twitter received a letter from the IT Ministry last month requesting that it comply with its directives by July 4 in order to maintain its safe harbor status under the intermediary rules.

The social network business filed a lawsuit against the Ministry’s content-blocking orders under Section 69(A) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 on Tuesday, alleging excessive use of power by government representatives. It has been learned that Twitter argued in its filing that many of these banning orders violate Section 69(A) of the Act both procedurally and substantively. This includes things like removing user-posted content without giving them a prior warning.

Another report claims that the business claimed MeitY failed to show how some of the content it wanted to be removed was in violation of Section 69. (A). Twitter has argued on many occasions that the criteria used to identify various accounts and pieces of information by the Ministry are “overbroad and arbitrary” or “disproportionate.”

According to a source, Twitter has also informed the court that some of the Ministry-identified content might relate to official political party accounts, and removing them might violate their right to free expression.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Railways, Communications, and Electronics and Information Technology, said that nations around the world, including India, are moving toward making social media accounts. She was speaking to the media at the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India in Gandhinagar. He said,

“Social media is a powerful medium. It has a lot of influence in our lives today. Its accountability is a valid question across the world. Countries and societies across the world are moving in the direction to make social media accountable.”
Source: indianexpress.com

Multiple accounts and a few tweets from the international advocacy organization Freedom House, journalists, legislators, and backers of the farmers’ protest had been requested to be blocked by the government on Twitter.

Between January 2012 and June 2021, Twitter—which has over 24 million users in India—received over 17,000 demands from the government to remove Twitter accounts and tweets, of which it cooperated with only 12.2%. Around 1,600 accounts, 3,800 tweets, and 6,300 items were withheld in violation of Twitter’s terms of service.

According to the regulations governing these blocking orders, the government must submit any requests for blocking to a review committee, which subsequently provides these instructions. The majority of blocking orders issued under Section 69(A) of the IT Act are private in nature.

Days after giving the firm “one final opportunity” to abide by its blocking orders, the Ministry was sued by Twitter. The Ministry issued a warning in a memo late last month, stating that the company ran the risk of losing its immunity as an intermediary if the microblogging site did not remove content it had reported. Twitter had until July 4 to abide by the Ministry’s banning instructions.

India accounted for the fourth-highest number of lawful material takedown requests to Twitter between January and June 2021, according to the company’s most recent global transparency report. In the reporting period, Twitter received 43,387 legal requests to remove information referencing 196,878 accounts, with 11% of all requests coming from India.

Twitter noted a 1,060 percent rise in blocked accounts during this time period, noting that this was specifically due to Twitter’s compliance with an Indian blocking order issued under the Information Technology Act of 2000 in India.

Roshni Ankola

Moto G42 With Snapdragon 680 SoC, 50MP Triple-Camera Setup Launched In India.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Roshni Ankola

Motorola unveiled the Moto G42 in Europe in early June. Almost a month later, the smartphone arrived in India as planned. Motorola, which is owned by Lenovo, has a large choice of phones in various price categories. The brand is well-known for its basic Android Moto phones that lack any UI customization. Motorola has partnered with Google’s Android One program to provide Moto phones with faster and more security updates. Motorola is well-known for producing low-cost and mid-range smartphones, but the company also produces a premium smartphone, the Moto Edge+. Motorola’s main smartphone lineups include the Moto G, Moto E, and Moto X series.

The Moto G42 is a brand-new smartphone that was introduced in India for less than Rs 15,000. The low-cost smartphone is the latest addition to the G-series, competing with the Redmi Note 11, Realme 9i, Samsung Galaxy M13, and other smartphones priced under Rs 15,000.

The Moto G42 will be available in India through Flipkart and other big retail outlets. The Moto G42 pricing in India, specifications, and features are all shown here.

Specifications And Features

The Moto G42, like most Motorola-branded smartphones, has a plastic body. For splash resistance, the device is IP52 certified. It has dimensions of 160.61 x 73.47 x 8.26mm and weighs 174.5g.

The gadget has a 6.47-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels (FHD+), a peak brightness level of 700 nits, and a PPI of 409. The centered punch-hole panel has a refresh rate of 60Hz and an aspect ratio of 20:9. It is equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 680 SoC, LPDDR4x RAM, and uMCP storage. It runs a near-stock version of Android 12 with My UX enhancements. MicroSD cards are supported via a dedicated slot, and there is a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The phone has two stereo speakers that are compatible with Dolby Atmos. It employs a side-mounted fingerprint sensor for biometrics.

In terms of optics, there’s a triple camera system on the back that includes a 50MP primary sensor, an 8MP ultra-wide sensor, and a 2MP macro snapper. The handset’s front-facing camera is nestled inside the punch-hole. The smartphone’s connectivity options include 4G, dual-SIM, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, GNSS, and NFC. Finally, it is powered by a 5,000mAh battery with 20W rapid charging capabilities.

Price And Availability

Priced at Rs 13,999 in India, the Moto G42 is readily available. Starting on July 11, it will be available for purchase on Flipkart. Due to an immediate reduction of Rs 1,000 for SBI Bank cards, people may be able to get it for Rs 12,999. Additionally, customers can get discounts of up to Rs 2,000 on Jio recharges and Rs 549 on ZEE5 annual memberships. So take the Moto G42 into account if you’re looking for a cheap Android phone that provides a close-to-stock Android experience.

About Motorola

Motorola, Inc. is a wireless communications and electrical systems firm based in the United States. Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions were spun off in 2011. The company’s headquarters are in Schaumburg, Illinois. The Galvin Manufacturing Corporation was formed in 1928 in Chicago by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin. Its first product was the “battery eliminator,” a gadget that connected direct-current, battery-powered radios to the alternating current common in nearly two-thirds of American houses at the time.

In the mid-1990s, the company pioneered the concept of flip phones, mobile phones, and clam phones. It was also one of the first smartphone manufacturers to use Google’s open-source Android mobile operating system. The Motorola Droid was the first phone to run the Android operating system, and it was released on November 2, 2009. As part of the agreement, Google retained primary ownership of the Motorola Mobility patent portfolio, while Lenovo obtained a license to the patent and intellectual property portfolio.

Roshni Ankola

Byju’s Lays Off Over 2500 Employees Across Whitehat Jr And Toppr.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Roshni Ankola

Start-up unicorn in edutech in order to aggressively decrease expenses, Byju’s has laid off nearly 2,500 employees throughout its group firms. India’s thriving ed-tech company is going through its most difficult phase ever. After Unacademy and Vedantu, Byju’s, India’s largest and most successful ed-tech company, is struggling to stay afloat. During the covid-induced lockout, WhiteHat Jr stole the spotlight in order to make coding accessible to children. According to a Moneycontrol report citing sources, demand for edtech services has cooled following two years of hypergrowth.

Full-time and contract employees from Byju’s group firms, including Toppr and WhiteHat Jr., were among those thrown off. According to the article, the layoffs have occurred across sales and marketing, operations, content, and design teams.

Toppr alone has laid off approximately 1,200 staff, including 300-350 permanent personnel. Another 300 employees have been asked to resign or have been notified that they would not be paid for the next 1-1.5 months. According to the article, those laid off include approximately 600 contractual staff whose contracts were set to expire in October or November of this year.

The Moneycontrol report said,

“While on June 27 and June 28, Byju’s laid off over 1,500 employees from Toppr and WhiteHat Jr, the two companies it acquired over the last two years, on June 29, it sent out e-mails to nearly 1,000 employees from its core operations teams,”
Source: news18.com

BYJU’s denies the report, calling it misinformation

The corporation denied laying off 2500 workers. They even tampered with MoneyControl’s report. According to Byju’s spokesman, the company is optimizing teams from their group companies in order to realign the company’s business priorities and accelerate long-term growth.

Around 300-350 Toppr permanent employees were laid off, while another 300 were asked to resign or were notified that they would not be paid for around a month and a half.

In addition, 600 contract workers whose contracts were slated to expire in October or November of this year were sacked.

“There are just about 100 employees left at Toppr right now,” stated the person.

A BYJU’S representative dismissed the report’s findings, saying,

“We strongly deny the misinformation presented by Moneycontrol. To recalibrate our business priorities and accelerate our long-term growth, we are optimizing our teams from our group companies. This entire exercise involves less than 500 employees from across Byju’s Group companies.”
Source: thequint.com

This year, renowned Indian start-ups such as Unacademy, Cars24, and Vedanta laid off almost 5,000 staff. In January-March of this year, Ola let off over 2,100 people, followed by Unacademy (over 600), Cars24 (600), and Vedantu (400).

This is the most recent round of major layoffs in the education technology industry in 2022. Vedantu and Unacademy sacked over 2,500 staff earlier this year, and organizations like LIDO learning and FrontRow also laid-off workers.

Apart from that, e-commerce firm Meesho lay off 150 staff, furniture rental start-up Furlenco 200, influencer-led social commerce start-up Trell 300, and OkCredit 40.

Although start-ups are laying off staff for cost-cutting reasons, figures show that overall investment for these new-generation enterprises during January-April this year is nearly the same as last year, and the number of companies raising more than USD 100 million is also greater than last year. However, according to analysts, companies are laying off a personnel to save cash for shoring up profitability, as big-ticket funding is currently decreasing due to the ongoing unpredictable market conditions.

Leading venture capital company Sequoia Capital recently advised founders of its portfolio firms in a 51-page note that the era of being rewarded for hypergrowth at any cost is soon coming to an end, with investors gravitating toward companies that can demonstrate present profitability.

Roshni Ankola

Google Hangouts Is Shutting Down After Nearly 9 years.

Leave a Comment / News, Tech News / By Roshni Ankola

Google Workspace users were transferred to the more modern “Google Chat” software in February, replacing the outdated “Hangouts” feature. Later this year, the company intends to completely phase out older Hangouts and transition all current users to Google Chat. Google indicated in a recent blog post that users of Hangouts on desktop and mobile devices will be encouraged to move to Google Chat before Hangouts is withdrawn in November 2022. Users will be able to export all of their Hangouts data before the platform is retired, and conversation data from the Hangouts platform will be instantly available on Google Chat. After nine years, Google is ending support for its multi-platform instant messaging service. The internet giant is urging users to transition to Google Chat, which will debut in October 2022. Hangouts Chrome extension users will also be invited to switch to Chat on the web or download the Chat web app. Chat in Gmail will also be available to users of Hangouts on Gmail’s web platform beginning next month.

Hangouts, which debuted in 2013, will be discontinued in November of this year, and Google wants users to download all of their data before that time. Although most users’ discussions will be automatically transferred from Hangouts to Chat, the firm nevertheless urges customers “who prefer to save a copy of their Hangouts data to utilize Google Takeout to retrieve their data when Hangouts is no longer available in November” to use Google Takeout.

“Starting today, people using Hangouts on mobile will see an in-app screen asking them to move to Chat in Gmail or the Chat app. Similarly, people who use the Hangouts Chrome extension will be asked to move to Chat on the web or install the Chat web app. In July, people who use Hangouts in Gmail on the web will be upgraded to Chat in Gmail,” according to a blog post by Google.
Source: techzimo.com

Hangouts users will continue to get in-product notifications for at least one month prior to the termination of Hangouts web. Following that, Google Chat web will begin automatically redirecting visitors from the Hangouts web.

According to Google, users of Hangouts in Gmail on the web will not be prompted to switch to Chat until July. Google said it will tell customers “At least one month” before moving the Hangouts website to Chat. It will remain available on the desktop site until November. If you still use Hangouts, Google should automatically migrate all of your current conversations to Chat. When Hangouts is formally retired in November, the firm had given the chance to download a copy of your data using its Takeout service.

Compared to Hangouts, Google Chat offers a number of new features, including side-by-side editing of Docs, Slides, and Sheets. Additionally, it has a location designated -for cooperation on specific topics called Spaces. Through chats, teams and groups may collaborate on documents, manage projects and files from a single spot, and share ideas.

Additionally, Google is advising users to download their data via Google Takeout, the company’s data exportation service, before Hangouts is discontinued in November. Google is also providing new features like direct calling, establishing in-line threads in Spaces (formerly known as Rooms), viewing and sharing multiple photos, and more to make things interesting and draw users.

“As we take this final step to bring remaining Hangouts users to Chat, we hope users will appreciate our continued investment in making Chat a powerful place to create and collaborate,” google mentioned in the blog.
Source: indiatoday.in

Roshni Ankola

Follow Us