Archives 2023

NASA has discovered thousands of asteroids to date using its advanced ground and space-based telescopes. The list of asteroids includes a potentially life-threatening asteroid called Bennu which has a 1/2700 chance of impacting Earth between 2175 and 2195. With such possibility looming, the US space agency carried out a study of the asteroid by landing a spacecraft on it and collecting dust and rock samples, which recently returned to Earth. Now, NASA has repurposed the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to study another potentially life-threatening asteroid, one which could come very close to Earth within this decade! Know all about the NASA God of Chaos mission to study asteroid Apophis.

NASA God of Chaos mission

After depositing the samples collected from the Bennu asteroid back to Earth, NASA has repurposed the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft to study the close approach of asteroid Apophis during its close approach in 2029. While it will not collect a sample from this asteroid, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will dip within 16 feet of the asteroid’s surface, firing its thrusters downward.

According to NASA, this manoeuvre will stir up surface rocks and dust to give scientists a peek at the material that lies below. 

Dani Mendoza DellaGiustina, principal investigator for OSIRIS-APEX, said, “The close approach is a great natural experiment. We know that tidal forces and the accumulation of rubble pile material are foundational processes that could play a role in planet formation. They could inform how we got from debris in the early solar system to full-blown planets”.

What is asteroid Apophis?

This asteroid is named 99942 Apophis and has been given the designation Asteroid 2004 MN4 by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies. It is also being called the “God of Chaos” asteroid. The asteroid is named after Apophis, the demon serpent who personified evil and chaos in ancient Egyptian mythology.

According to NASA, the Asteroid 99942 Apophis asteroid will make an extremely close trip to Earth on April 13, 2029. On that day, this space rock will come as close as 38000 kilometers of Earth’s surface. This is closer than many geostationary satellites orbiting the planet. Astonishingly, it will be visible to observers on the ground in the Eastern Hemisphere without the aid of a telescope or binoculars! It will do so travelling at an approximate speed of 26712 kilometers per hour, which is nearly as fast as an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM).

The asteroid’s risk of potential impact in 2029 was ruled out by scientists, though 2036 and 2068 impacts remained a worry. The asteroid’s 2021 trip to Earth proved useful for scientists as they used powerful radar observations to extensively study the asteroid’s orbit and trajectory.

According to Davide Farnocchia of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, “A 2068 impact is not in the realm of possibility anymore, and our calculations don’t show any impact risk for at least the next 100 years.” Therefore, it has been declared that Asteroid 99942 Apophis is not expected to impact Earth’s surface for at least a century.

While artificial intelligence (AI) is capable of transforming societies in positive ways, it also presents risks that need to be better understood and managed, new research has warned. Joe Burton, a professor at Lancaster University, UK, contends that AI and algorithms are more than mere tools used by national security agencies to thwart malicious online activities.

In a research paper recently published in the Technology in Society Journal, Burton suggests that AI and algorithms can also fuel polarisation, radicalism, and political violence, thereby becoming a threat to national security themselves.

“AI is often framed as a tool to be used to counter violent extremism. Here is the other side of the debate,” said Burton.

The paper looks at how AI has been securitised throughout its history, and in media and popular culture depictions, and by exploring modern examples of AI having polarising, radicalising effects that have contributed to political violence.

The research cites the classic film series, The Terminator, which depicted a holocaust committed by a ‘sophisticated and malignant’ AI, as doing more than anything to frame popular awareness of AI and the fear that machine consciousness could lead to devastating consequences for humanity – in this case a nuclear war and a deliberate attempt to exterminate a species.

“This lack of trust in machines, the fears associated with them, and their association with biological, nuclear, and genetic threats to humankind has contributed to a desire on the part of governments and national security agencies to influence the development of the technology, to mitigate risk and to harness its positive potentiality,” Burton said.

The role of sophisticated drones, such as those being used in the war in Ukraine, are, says Burton, now capable of full autonomy including functions such as target identification and recognition.

While there has been a broad and influential campaign debate, including at the UN, to ban ‘killer robots’ and to keep humans in the loop when it comes to life-or-death decision-making, the acceleration and integration into armed drones has, he says, continued apace.

In cyber security – the security of computers and computer networks – AI is being used in a major way with the most prevalent area being (dis)information and online psychological warfare, Burton said.

During the pandemic, he said, AI was seen as a positive in tracking and tracing the virus but it also led to concerns over privacy and human rights.

The paper examines AI technology itself, arguing that problems exist in its design, the data that it relies on, how it is used, and its outcomes and impacts.

“AI is certainly capable of transforming societies in positive ways but also presents risks which need to be better understood and managed,” Burton added.

In October 2023, several notable personalities, including members of the Opposition party alliance, the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), as well as journalists received a notification on their Apple iPhones. The device warned them of “state-sponsored attackers trying to remotely compromise” their Apple iPhones. These alerts raised an alarm among leaders as they posted screenshots of the same on their X accounts, seeking clarification for the same from the government. It caused the NDA government to also raise a query with the iPhone maker to share all the details about these alerts. Now, it has been revealed that the officials actually took action against Apple, according to a new report. Know all about it.

Govt action against Apple

According to a Washington Post report, officials demanded that the Cupertino-based tech giant soften the political impact of the alerts. The government reportedly also summoned an Apple security expert to a meeting and insisted they offer proxy explanations to the users regarding the alerts.

“The visiting Apple official stood by the company’s warnings. But the intensity of the Indian government effort to discredit and strong-arm Apple disturbed executives at the company’s headquarters”, the report said.

The alert – Who received it?

The leaders who received the alert include Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor, Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate, the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, the Shiv Sena’s Priyanka Chaturvedi, the CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, the Trinamool Congress’s Mahua Moitra, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen’s Asaduddin Owaisi. Interestingly, the same alert was sent to other high-profile officials in 150 other countries too on the same day.

Amid the commotion, Apple issued a statement on the issue. It said, “Apple does not attribute the threat notification to any specific state-sponsored attacker”. It also said that the attackers were very well-funded and sophisticated and that their attacks evolved over time.

“Detecting such attacks relies on threat intelligence signals that are often imperfect and incomplete. It’s possible that some Apple threat notifications may be false alarms, or that some attacks are not detected”, it added.

Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash Ambani on Wednesday said the country’s largest telco is working with Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay to launch a ‘Bharat GPT’ programme. The company, a unit of Reliance Industries, is also “comprehensively thinking” to launch an operating system for televisions, he said, adding that it has been working on it for a while now. Speaking at the institute’s annual Techfest here, the 32-year-old Ambani family scion said building an “ecosystem of development” is very important for the company, and added that work on the vision of “Jio 2.0” is already on.

“We have been working on a project with IIT Bombay to launch a Bharat GPT programme,” he said, while speaking about the partnership between Jio and the premier tech school, which goes back to 2014.

At present, we have just scratched the surface with large language models and generative AI and the next decade will be defined by these applications, he said.

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Ambani said artificial intelligence will be transforming every area of products and services and added, “We are working very hard to launch AI not only as a vertical inside our organization, but also horizontally across all our sectors,” he said.

The company will be launching products and services in the media space, commerce, communication and also devices, he added.

“We have been working on our own OS (operating system) for a while now for the TVs and we are comprehensively thinking about how to launch it,” Ambani said.

Ambani said 2024 is a special year for the family, as his brother is set to get married in the year.

He also said that the company is very excited about offering 5G private networks, where it will offer a 5G stack to any enterprise irrespective of its size.

Ambani called India as the “biggest innovation centre” for the next decade, and exuded confidence that the country will be a USD 6 trillion economy by the end of the decade.

AI is going to “consume everything”, Ambani said, describing how his brother-in-law showed him an AI app to control the temperature of his mattress yesterday. “To me, yes AI stands for artificial intelligence, but it also stands for all included,” he said.

He said at Jio, the company works with a belief that what it is pursuing is good for India, and termed money as the “byproduct” of the service rendered to the country.

Calling Jio as the largest startup in the world, Ambani said there is a need for young entrepreneurs to not be fearful of failing.

Ambani also asked the entrepreneurs to work for societal good, especially if one is dabbling in the consumer space, and also asked everybody to be deeply passionate about the work they do.

He said technology is a “great equalizer” for it transcends the boundaries including those of demographics and caste, and added that Jio always keeps an eye on the technology of the future.

Apple iPhone’s biggest manufacturer Foxconn has infused $55.29 million (about Rs 461 crore) in Bengaluru-based Foxconn Precision Engineering Private Limited. The Taiwanese electronics manufacturing services major revealed the same in a regulatory filing. According to the announcement made earlier by the Karnataka government, Foxconn is expected to create employment for about 50,000 people in the first phase at Devanahalli.
The company has made the investment through its Singapore-based subsidiary Foxconn Singapore Pte Limited. According to a report in news agency PTI, Foxconn Singapore has acquired about 46,08,76,736 shares at Rs 10 each, amounting to around USD 55.29 million (Rs 460.87 crore), according to the filing.
Foxconn Precision Engineering was incorporated around six months ago. Foxconn is part of Hon Hai Group, one of the world’s largest electronic contract manufacturer.
In July, Foxconn proposed to set up a Rs 8,800-crore supplementary plant to that of its unit at the Devanahalli Information Technology Investment Region in Karnataka.
The company has also bought 300 acres at Devanahalli. Officials said that the manufacturing facility is being set up within the Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) industrial area at Doddaballapur in Devanahalli Taluk.

iQoo Neo 9 series has been launched in China on Wednesday, December 27. The lineup comes with two models – iQoo Neo 9 and iQoo Neo 9 Pro. They offer 16-megapixel front cameras and 5,160mAh batteries with 120W wired fast charging support. Both handsets feature 6.78-inch AMOLED panels and are available in three colour options and four RAM and storage configurations. The iQoo Neo 9 series is available for pre-order in China and will go on sale later this month.

iQoo Neo 9, iQoo Neo 9 Pro price, availability

Offered in Fighting Black, Nautical Blue, and Red and White Soul (translated from Chinese), the iQoo Neo 9 and iQoo Neo 9 Pro are available in four RAM and storage configurations. The base iQoo Neo 9 starts at CNY 2,299 (roughly Rs. 26,900) for its 12GB + 256GB option. Meanwhile, the 16GB + 256GB and 16GB + 512GB variants are priced at CNY 2,499 (roughly Rs. 29,300) and CNY 2,799 (roughly Rs. 32,800). The top-of-the-line 16GB + 1TB option of the iQoo Neo 9 is listed at CNY 3,199 (roughly Rs. 37,400).

iQoo Neo 9 Pro is priced at CNY 2,999 (roughly Rs. 35,100) for the 12GB + 256GB variant, whereas the 16GB + 256GB, 16GB + 512GB, and 16GB + 1TB options are marked at CNY 3,299 (roughly Rs. 38,600), CNY 3,599 (roughly Rs. 42,100), and CNY 3,999 (roughly Rs. 46,800), respectively.

Both iQoo Neo 9 smartphones are currently up for pre-order in China via the official Vivo website and will be available for purchase in the country starting December 30.

iQoo Neo 9, iQoo Neo 9 Pro specifications, features

The iQoo Neo 9 and Neo 9 Pro feature 6.78-inch AMOLED displays with a resolution of 2,800 x 1,260 pixels, a refresh rate of up to 144Hz, an aspect ratio of 20:9, and HDR10+ support. The iQoo Neo 9 is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC with Adreno 740 GPU, while the iQoo Neo 9 Pro gets a MediaTek Dimensity 9300 chipset with Immortalis-G720 GPU. The phones support up to 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 inbuilt storage. They ship with Android 14-based OriginOS.

For optics, both iQoo Neo 9 and Neo 9 Pro feature a 16-megapixel front camera sensor, housed in a centred hole-punch slot at the top of the display. At the back, the vanilla iQoo Neo 9 has a 50-megapixel Sony IMX920 primary sensor with optical image stabilisation (OIS) alongside an 8-megapixel sensor with an ultra-wide lens. The Neo 9 Pro also comes with the same main camera as the base model, but is paired with a 50-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera.

The iQoo Neo 9 and Neo 9 Pro pack a 5,160mAh battery with 120W wired fast charging support via a USB Type-C port. The phones support dual SIM support with 5G, 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, OTG, GPS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, and NFC connectivity. The handsets are also equipped with an IR blaster and an in-display fingerprint sensor.

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OnePlus Buds 3 TWS earphones are confirmed to launch in China soon alongside the OnePlus Ace 3 smartphone. Ahead of the launch, OnePlus has teased the design of the upcoming true wireless earphones. The company has also unveiled the colour options of the earphones. The price of the earphones has not yet been announced but they are currently available for reservations in China. These earphones are expected to succeed the OnePlus Buds Pro 2, which was introduced earlier this year in January.

In a Weibo post, OnePlus confirmed that the OnePlus Buds 3 will debut in China on January 4 at 2:30pm local time (12pm IST) alongside the OnePlus Ace 3. The company confirmed that the earphones will be offered in two colour options – Clear Sea Blue and Space Grey (translated from Chinese). They are also listed on the company’s website and open for reservations in the country. The price of the earphones has not been revealed.

The OnePlus Buds 3 earphones share their design language with the older flagship OnePlus Buds Pro 2, sporting a semi-in-ear design with a glossy stem and matte, silicone ear tips. However, the new earphones are monotonous unlike the dual-tone seen in the preceding models. The storage and charging case of the upcoming OnePlus Buds 3 appear to have a squarish shape, similar to the older model.

Previously, in November, the OnePlus Buds 3 were reportedly spotted on India’s Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) website and the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) database. The listings suggested that each earbud may carry a 58mAh battery, while the storage case of the earbuds is likely to get a 520mAh battery with 4.5W input and 1.2W output support. Earlier leaks said that these earphones may offer up to 33 hours of battery life along with the case.

The leaks also claimed that the OnePlus Buds 3 are expected to get 48dB Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) support. The earbuds are also said to come with Bluetooth 5.3 and Google Fast pair connectivity options. They have been tipped to support dual-connectivity and are also likely to come with an IP55 rating for dust and splash resistance.

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