Archives February 2023

‘Rovio Classics: AB’, the remake of the original Angry Birds game, is set to leave the Play Store, developer Rovio has confirmed. On the other hand, its iOS version will stay up on the App Store but get a new name ‘Red’s first flight’.
Without going into the details, Rovio revealed that the decision came after a review of the game’s “business case” and its impact “on our wider games portfolio.” The Play Store delisting will come into effect on February 23, the company has confirmed.

Rovio will ‘kill’ the remastered original game to save the others
In a tweet, Rovio attached its announcement regarding the shutdown of ‘Rovio Classics: AB’ on the Play Store. The message read, “We have reviewed the business case of Rovio Classics: Angry Birds, and due to the game’s impact on our wider games portfolio, we have decided that Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will be unlisted from the Google Play Store on Thursday, February 23. Additionally, the game will be renamed to Red’s First Flight in the App Store pending further review.”

Taking note of the game’s popularity, the developer said, “We understand that this is sad news for many fans, as well as the team that has worked hard to make Rovio Classics: Angry Birds a reality. We are extremely grateful to the Angry Birds fans who have shown their love of the brand and this game from the beginning.”
Shifting the focus to its other Angry Birds games that feature microtransactions, unlike the remaster, it said, “We hope those fans can continue to bring that passion to our live Angry Birds slingshot games such as Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Friends, and Angry Birds Journey, where our goal every day is to craft the best possible experience for players.”

Game will be playable for those who download it before takedown
Although the game is soon to be pulled down for Android users, those who purchase the remaster – priced at Rs 95 – before the deadline will be able to play it as long as they don’t uninstall the game. The developer added, “Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will remain playable on devices on which the game has been downloaded, even after it has been unlisted.”

After many ups and downs with the new Bing, Microsoft is now bringing the new Bing and Edge to smartphones. And not just that, the new Bing is also coming to Skype.
Microsoft bets big on Bing and Edge
Two weeks after the release of the ChatGPT-powered Bing and Edge, over a million users from 169 countries have been welcomed into the preview program, and it is constantly expanding the preview to include more people, says Microsoft.
The Bing mobile app, available on iOS and Android, will offer a modern design and user interface. By tapping the Bing icon at the bottom, you can initiate a chat session offering the same features as the desktop version.
Microsoft says 64 per cent of searches come from smartphones, which is why the new Bing and Edge are coming to smartphones.
You can pose both straightforward and intricate questions and obtain answers and references. You may choose from various answer formats, including bullet points, text, or simplified responses. You can refine your inquiry by exploring the Bing chat function or even draft an email, poem, or list.
The new Bing mobile app now includes voice search, a highly requested feature by the preview community, which provides greater flexibility in delivering prompts and receiving answers. This feature will be available on both mobile and desktop versions.
Additionally, those with preview access can also enjoy the new Bing experience directly from the homepage of the Microsoft Edge mobile app.
Chat smartly with ChatGPT-powered Bing in Skype
To enhance your collaborative efforts with friends and family, Microsoft is introducing AI-powered Bing for Skype. With this new Skype, you can have a co-pilot for your group as you remain connected and plan your next gathering.
Add Bing to your group, like any other Skype contact, and ask Bing to answer questions and provide information for everyone in the chat.
For instance, if you are discussing a family reunion, you can ask Bing for suggestions on travel destinations, weather forecasts, and events during your trip, and everyone in the chat will receive the results. If you are catching up with friends, you can request Bing to fetch information from the web, such as the latest news or awards shows, to include in your conversation.
You can customise how you want your answers presented, whether in bullet points, text, or a simplified response, and Bing can accommodate your preferences. Also, Bing can speak more than 100 languages and translate between them.

Amazon’s shares have fallen by around 35% in the past year. And the steep fall is now likely to hit employees. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), employee salaries at Amazon can take a hit this year.
The report says that some Amazon corporate employees will be paid as much as 50% less than previously expected in 2023 because of the company’s falling stock price. The report says that salaries in 2023 are likely to be 15% to 50% lower than the estimations given to Amazon employees. Employees’ annual salaries are generally made up of cash compensation and awards of restricted stock units, however, as there’s been a 35% decline in Amazon’s stock this year, total compensation is set to drop sharply.
Stock units are issued to employees on the basis that the company’s share price will increase around 15% every year, sources told the Journal. The sources added that expectations were that the company’s share price would be around $170 this year, rather than the $97 where it currently trades.
In a statement sent to Business Insider, an Amazon spokesperson said, “Our compensation model is intended to encourage employees to think like owners, which is why it connects total compensation to the company’s long-term performance.
“That model comes with some year-to-year upside and risk because the stock price can fluctuate, but historically at Amazon, it’s had a history of working out very well for people who’ve taken a long-term view.”
Amazon stock not the only one
Amazon’s decreasing stock price reflects a wider economic slowdown affecting technology companies. Stocks of other technology companies including Google, Facebook, Intel and Microsoft too have seen a massive fall last year. Amazon has also cut back its hiring targets for its retail business.

Amazon announces back to office policy
Amazon recently asked employees to spend at least three days a week in the office. CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo on February 17 that he and the S-team, a tight-knit group of senior executives from almost all areas of Amazon’s business, decided at a meeting earlier this week that employees should be in the office “the majority of the time (at least three days per week).” Amazon plans to implement the change starting May 1.
“It’s not simple to bring many thousands of employees back to our offices around the world, so we’re going to give the teams that need to do that work some time to develop a plan,” Jassy said. “We know that it won’t be perfect at first, but the office experience will steadily improve over the coming months (and years) as our real estate and facilities teams smooth out the wrinkles, and ultimately keep evolving how we want our offices to be set up to capture the new ways we want to work.”

Google scientists claim to have achieved a new milestone. The company has claimed a breakthrough in correcting errors that are inherent in today’s quantum computers, marking an early but potentially significant step in overcoming the biggest technical barrier to a revolutionary new form of computing. This marks a major milestone in their quest to develop effective quantum computing, with a new study showing that they reduced the rate of errors — long an obstacle for the much-hyped technology.
Quantum computing has been touted as a revolutionary advance that uses scientific understanding of the subatomic world to create a machine with powers far beyond those of today’s conventional computers. The feat, reported in Nature, reportedly follows up on a 2019 experiment in which a Google quantum computer achieved ‘quantum advantage’ — by performing a calculation that would have taken thousands of years on an ordinary computer. The research published in the journal Google Quantum AI lab described a system that can significantly decrease the error rate.
Analysts believe that this could give the US tech giant an edge over its rivals such as IBM, which is also working on superconducting quantum processors.
What are quantum computers
While traditional computers process information in bits that can be represented by 0 or 1, quantum computers use qubits, which can be a combination of both at the same time. This means that a quantum computer can crunch an enormous number of potential outcomes simultaneously.
A problem called decoherence can cause the qubits to lose their information when they leave their quantum state and come into contact with the outside world. This fragility causes high error rates, which also increase with the number of qubits.
However Google’s team said it had demonstrated for the first time in practice that a system using error-correcting code can detect and fix errors without affecting the information. The system was first theorised in the 1990s, however previous attempts had just thrown up more errors, said Google’s Hartmut Neven, a co-author of the study.
Chinese dispute Google claim
In 2019, Google claimed that it had passed a milestone known as “quantum supremacy”, when the tech giant said its Sycamore machine executed a calculation in 200 seconds that would have taken a conventional supercomputer 10,000 years to complete. However the achievement has since been disputed, with Chinese researchers saying in 2022 that a supercomputer could have beaten Sycamore’s time.

Rovio has announced that it will remove the ‘Classic’ version of Angry Birds from the Google Play Store. The removal will effectively cut off Android players. Starting today (February 23), “Rovio Classics: Angry Birds” will be delisted from the Google Play Store. This means that the ‘Classic’ version of Angry Birds will no longer be available for purchase on Android. The game, however, will remain accessible to those who have already purchased the game for $0.99.
Angry Birds ‘Classic’ was released on March 31, 2022. This means that it was available for less than a year. Angry Birds ‘Classic’ is a re-release of the original version of Angry Birds, which is among the first hit games on mobile devices. The original version of the game was delisted long ago as Rovio turned its attention to free-to-play spinoffs and sequels. As of February 22, Angry Birds ‘Classic’ is the only paid app Rovio distributes on the Play Store.
Why is the game shutting down
In a statement shared on Twitter, Rovio said that it has “reviewed the business case” for this game in particular and decided to pull it from distribution due to the “impact on our wider games portfolio.”
Rovio’s full statement on the removal
We have reviewed the business case of Rovio Classics: Angry Birds, and due to the game’s impact on our wider games portfolio, we have decided that Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will be unlisted from the Google Play Store on Thursday, February 23. Additionally, the game will be renamed to Red’s First Flight in the App Store pending further review. Rovio Classics: Angry Birds will remain playable on devices on which the game has been downloaded, even after it has been unlisted.

We understand that this is sad news for many fans, as well as the team that has worked hard to make Rovio Classics: Angry Birds a reality. We are extremely grateful to the Angry Birds fans who have shown their love of the brand and this game from the beginning. We hope those fans can continue to bring that passion to our live Angry Birds slingshot games such as Angry Birds 2, Angry Birds Friends, and Angry Birds Journey, where our goal every day is to craft the best possible experience for players.

Microsoft went all in to save its $68.7 billion acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard in Europe. Apart from trying to orally convince the EU regulators about offering multi-year deals to other platforms, Microsoft also announced two quick deals with Nintendo and Nvidia in a bid to counter regulators’ concerns. Here are the highlights of what happened at the hearing.
Microsoft secures two allies
Microsoft announced two deals on the day: The first is a 10-year deal with Nintendo where Call of Duty will be available on the console. The game makes a comeback on the platform after a 10-year hiatus.
The second 10-year deal was announced after Microsoft President Brad Smith met with European Union officials. The executive said that, effective immediately, its Xbox games will be available on Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud games service and it will bring all Activision Blizzard titles (like Candy Crush and Call of Duty) to the platform if the deal goes through.

“Combining the incredibly rich catalogue of Xbox first-party games with GeForce Now’s high-performance streaming capabilities will propel cloud gaming into a mainstream offering that appeals to gamers at all levels of interest and experience. Through this partnership, more of the world’s most popular titles will now be available from the cloud with just a click, playable by millions more gamers,” Jeff Fisher, Nvidia’s senior vice president for GeForce, was quoted as saying.
‘Call of Duty to become valuable over time’
Smith rejected regulators’ and Sony‘s concerns post-acquisition, Activision Blizzard games, especially Call of Duty, might become restricted to Xbox.
“This has never been about spending $69 billion so we could acquire titles like Call of Duty and make them less available. That’s not a great way to turn a $69 billion asset into something that will become more valuable over time,” he said after the hearing.

Microsoft targets Sony
Smith also compared both Microsoft and Sony’s gaming divisions saying that Sony is a “super dominant company” that is outselling Xbox consoles and opposes competition in the form of the Activision acquisition. Smith even questioned the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which raised concerns similar to Sony’s.
“Do you want to kill a deal and cement Sony’s position and its 80% share in the European Economic Area… or do you want to let the future go forward with behavioural guardrails and remedies and bring this title to 150 million more people. I think that’s the fundamental choice that most regulators are going to need to address,” asked Smith.
He pointed out that when Sony suffered supply chain constraints last year and saw its numbers dip, they came back strong.
“In the fourth quarter as their supply chain recovered, by our calculation on a global basis, Sony outsold Microsoft in the fourth quarter by a margin of 69 to 31. Pretty much consistent with the global market shares we’ve seen for 20 years,” he said.

The Microsoft president also said, “I walk around with an envelope that contains the definitive agreement that we sent Sony two days before Christmas.” He said the companies will reach an agreement with Sony over Call of Duty.
Activision Blizzard is hopeful
“We are confident regulators will find that our proposed merger will enhance competition and create greater opportunities for workers and better games for our players,” Activision Blizzard said in a statement.
It is to be noted that Microsoft’s proposed Activision Blizzard deal is the company’s largest ever and one of the 30 biggest acquisitions of all time.

Meta-owned instant messaging service WhatsApp keeps on testing and adding new features to offer a seamless experience. According to a report by WABetaInfo, WhatsApp has started rolling out a new update through the Google Play Beta Program, With the latest beta version (2.23.5.3), the messaging service is testing a private newsletter tool which is expected to arrive for end users in the coming days. The report claims that the new feature’s name “seems a codename”.
WhatsApp newsletter feature: What is it
As per the report, the Newsletter feature will be a tool for broadcasting information. This feature looks like a new way to receive useful updates from people and groups. It includes local officials, sports teams or other organisations. With the Newsletter feature, users will be able to select the contacts who they want to hear from. Users can also access the feature to follow their preferred broadcasters inside WhatsApp.
WhatsApp is not expected to protect Newsletters with end-to-end encryption as it will be used to reach a large number of people. However, the phone number of the users who have created and subscribed to a newsletter is likely to be masked and hidden. This will prevent the user’s identity from being disclosed.
Newsletters are expected to be available in a separate (optional) section. The feature is likely to appear in the Status tab and not in the private chats section. This feature will not affect the end-to-end encryption of private messaging, the report adds. Messages and calls will also remain end-to-end encrypted.

This feature may not act as a public social network and may work as a personal space. The report claims that this new feature currently does not support any ads Neither does it have a sign of algorithmic recommendations, or social graphs pushing content to users.
The feature is expected to show content chronologically and may not support any magic priority. Furthermore, this feature will also support handles which will help users to find and join Newsletters by searching for them using a username right within WhatsApp.
This feature will even show users who they follow, regardless of whether they’re in their contacts list or not. Moreover, the Newsletter is also marked as a private tool as people who will create and join a Newsletter are in a private space as their phone numbers and personal information are always hidden by default.

Misinformation has plagued social media platforms like Twitter for a long time. Moreover, when tweets carrying false information get endorsements from notable figures, it becomes even more difficult for common users to determine the authenticity of such posts. Twitter’s Community Notes is a crowdsourced fact-checking program that helps in determining the authenticity of a piece of information.
To stop the spread of fake news the social media service will now leverage this feature to notify users who have interacted with tweets containing misinformation. Twitter will now notify users if a tweet that they have liked, retweeted, or replied to gets flagged by the Community Notes contributors for contextual information.
In such situations, the micro-blogging site will also allow users to withdraw interactions made on a fake post. In a tweet shared by the company, it claims that this feature will help “give people extra context that they might otherwise miss.”

How will it work
Twitter has been pushing its algorithmic feed for a while now. Whenever users like, retweet, or reply to a tweet, it gives the post relevance in the recommendation algorithms. If the original view of a post is exposed by the context provided by a Community Notes contributor, there is a possibility that people might remove their likes or retweets from the concerned tweets.

Twitter Community Notes program: More details
In 2021, Twitter introduced the Community Notes program under the name “Birdwatch” for US-based users. This program was later renamed to “Community Notes” after Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired the social media company in October 2022.
Twitter Community Notes started appearing for all users across the globe in December 2022. Later on, in January, the company started accepting notes from contributors based in countries other than the US which includes the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

You might have forgotten Bixby, but Samsung has not. For years, Bixby has been underwhelming compared to Google Assistant and Siri. But Samsung’s virtual assistant might catch up soon with others, as Samsung introduces enhancements to Bixby later this month.
Bixby is becoming faster and more intelligent, with enhanced language recognition abilities, improving user experience, says Samsung.
Bixby gets more personalised
Bixby will now allow personalised wake-up commands. Additionally, the virtual voice assistant can operate smoothly by recalling prior discussions with the user. It can now better comprehend the user’s purpose and provide improved responses for subsequent inquiries.
Now use Bixby without internet
Further, Bixby receives enhanced on-device AI assistance, allowing it to execute specific essential commands without an internet connection. It can perform tasks like capturing a screenshot or enabling the flashlight. The on-device AI feature will be compatible with Samsung’s pre-installed applications and supports English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Korean languages.
Bixby can now answer calls
Bixby Text Call, which functions similarly to Google’s Call Screen, is now expanding out of South Korea. The feature will let users respond to calls by typing messages, translating the user’s text into spoken words and conveying it to the caller, and vice versa.
This will be accessible to English-speaking users and can be found on the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 4, and Galaxy Z Flip 4, running on One UI 5.1 (One UI 4.1.1 for Korean users).
Users can personalise their Bixby Text Call voice using the Bixby Custom Voice Creator. They can capture various on-screen phrases, which Bixby looks to generate an AI-based voice. It will soon be accessible on all Galaxy S23 series, and Samsung intends to broaden its availability beyond the Phone app.
The new and improved Bixby will soon roll out to Galaxy smartphones in the coming weeks, starting February end with an upcoming update.

The third edition of India’s biggest gadget awards is set to take place on March 10. The Times of India Gadgets Now Awards aim to honour and celebrate the best gadgets released in India during the year. The theme of this year’s awards is ‘Time to decide the game changers’. There are two sets of awards: ‘Jury Choice’ and ‘People’s Choice’. While the ‘People’s Choice’ awards for each category are based on online voting for the nominated products, the ‘Jury Choice’ awards are picked by an esteemed jury who go through the process of carefully selecting the distinguished winners. Here’s the jury of Gadgets Nows Awards 2022.
Sameer Seth, Director, Marketing, India, Dolby Laboratories
Sameer Seth has been serving as Director, Marketing, India at Dolby Laboratories for more than five years now. A media professional with diverse experience spanning over two decades, Sameer has previously worked with some of India’s most esteemed corporations like Star India, Network18, and the Essel Group.
Sameer is passionate about Brand Advocacy, Stakeholder Management, and Digital Marketing initiatives. He also has extensive knowledge and expertise in P&L Management, Business Planning, Strategic Marketing, Marketing Communications, ROI-driven digital initiatives, and Partnerships across the Consumer and Entertainment category. His keen understanding of consumer technology and solutions enables him to drive business transformation, competitiveness, and customer ethos.
He recently completed the Management Development Program in Business Administration and General Management from Wharton University. An alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur, Sameer is passionate about news, gadgets, movies, and sports.
Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group, CyberMedia Research (CMR)
Prabhu Ram heads the Industry Intelligence Group at CyberMedia Research (CMR). He is a much sought-after and broad-based analyst with cross-functional expertise across industries. He provides expert strategic advice to technology companies in Asia and elsewhere through proprietary and custom technology research. He is an adept strategist, storyteller, speaker and writer, amongst others.
Atul Tripathi, Ex Big Data Consultant, NSCS (PMO)
Atul Tripathi was part of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence consultant in the National Security Council Secretariat (Prime Minister’s Office, New Delhi, India) working in the field of application of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data for National Security. He has 20+ years of experience in Artificial Intelligence. Atul is a member of Leaders Excellence at Harvard Square and GARP (Global Association of Risk Professionals). He has been teaching AI, Data Policy, AI Ethics, Anti Money Laundering, Risk Management, ESG Analytics at various universities, institutions and industries. He is an author of Machine Learning Cookbook (PACKT Publications). The book has been translated into Chinese. Atul is an advisor for setting up a data science center at IISER, Mohali. He is advisor to various Academic Councils to a number of universities.
Abhijit Ray, CTO, DigiBoxx
Abhijit Ray is the Chief Technology Officer at DigiBoxx, a Made in India cloud storage & digital asset management platform for individuals, freelancers and businesses.
Abhijit focuses on strategy, drives adoption of DigiBoxx’s SaaS storage platform, and lends his expertise to strengthen product offerings for a seamless customer experience. Abhijit is a tech and gadgets enthusiast, with extensive experience in managed cloud services and data analytics. He has spent over a decade working with companies like Oracle, Hitachi Consulting, Genpact and OSI Digital.
Manisha Singh, Technology Editor, TOI Digital
Manisha has been part of the industry when digital media was referred to as “online” media, “dot coms” were quite the rage and content creation wasn’t a part of the lexicon. Manisha has covered the tech industry for close to two decades.