Archives February 2023

Continental rail service Eurostar has been getting in contact with customers with online accounts, requesting they reset their passwords as the company works to enhance the security of its users. 

However, technical issues have resulted in users being unable to reset them or even log in to their accounts, effectively locking them out entirely. 

Last year, Redmi unveiled a new entry-level A series of smartphones with the Redmi A1. Now, the company seems to launch the follow-up to the first Redmi A series smartphone, dubbed Redmi A2. Ahead of the official launch, WinFuture.de has revealed the renders and specifications of the Redmi A2.
Redmi A2: Specifications, features, and more (expected)
As seen in the renders, the Redmi A2 looks much similar to the Redmi A1. The upcoming smartphone has the same faux leather texture in two colours – green and blue. Moreover, we can see the camera module having two cutouts and a LED flash. On the front, the display has bezels with a waterdrop notch.
According to the report, the Redmi A2 will sport a 6.52-inch HD+ IPS LCD screen with a resolution of 1600 x 720 pixels.
The smartphone may be powered by an Octa-Core MediaTek Helio G36 12nm processor, which will be paired with IMG PowerVR GE832 GPU. The device could come with 2GB RAM and 32GB internal storage, which will be expandable up to 512GB with microSD. Further, it would boast a 5000mAh battery with 10W charging support.
The Redmi A2 is expected to run on Android 13 Go Edition out of the box and will feature dual-SIM support with nano + nano + microSD slots.
The device may have an 8MP rear camera with an LED flash and a 5MP front-facing camera for selfies.
Additionally, the device is said to include a 3.5mm audio jack, dual 4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS + GLONASS.
Redmi A2: Price, availability (expected)
While there is no word on the launch date of the device, it is expected to launch soon. In Europe, the release of the Redmi A2 is anticipated within the next few weeks, and it is expected to be priced at approximately 96.99 Euros (around Rs. 8,570 approx).

Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest aluminium producer, has introduced Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in its commercial process. The company claims that this makes Vedanta Aluminium the first company in the Indian metal and mining industry to use hyper automation for the entire commercial phase. Vedanta Aluminium has partnered with Indian IT company Crave Infotech for the implementation of the RPA process.
“Aluminium is the metal of the future, owing to its diverse applications in the clean technologies of tomorrow. As one of the world’s top aluminium producers, we aim to make our operations future-ready. This has seen us undertake the digital transformation of our plants and processes, harnessing the potential of Industry 4.0 and Web3 for manufacturing excellence,” said Vedanta Aluminium CEO Rahul Sharma. He added, “To this end, we are also working with nearly 40 technology start-ups in the areas of manufacturing, energy and healthcare, for value creation, volume growth, cost efficiency, excellence in business and ESG (Environment, Social & Governance).”

Crave Infotech CEO Shrikant Nistane, said, “We have been pushing the envelope for innovation in process automation, powered by Business Technology Platform (BTP) and structured through industry-specific intelligence. It’s great to work with Vedanta Aluminium, who’s also driven toward tech-backed process improvements. We leveraged our expertise in Digital Supply Chain, and enterprise intelligence to help bring this Industry 4.0 and RPA vision to fruition.”
How RPA promises to change commercial process in mining
Robotic Process Automation will bring a ‘significant’ change to how the commercial part of aluminium mining works. The new approach will replace human involvement in repetitive tasks and make them fast, accurate, ‘touchless’, and paperless.

The arrival of RPA also means real-time access to important metrics. This ability may prove crucial in instances where time is limited and faster decision making is required. On top of that, the company also aims to deploy RPA to make the commercial process “faster, seamless, and consistent.”

ChatGPT was launched last year. While some heap praises on the AI chatbot‘s ability to deliver human-like responses, others target both OpenAI and ChatGPT, accusing them of bias. The company has now addressed the issue explaining how ChatGPT’s behaviour is shaped and how the company plans to improve ChatGPT’s default behaviour.
“Since our launch of ChatGPT, users have shared outputs that they consider politically biased, offensive, or otherwise objectionable. In many cases, we think that the concerns raised have been valid and have uncovered real limitations of our systems which we want to address,” the company said in a blog post.
OpenAI also said that it has also seen “a few misconceptions about how our systems and policies work together to shape the outputs you get from ChatGPT.”

“Biases are bugs”
In the blog, OpenAI acknowledged that many are rightly worried about biases in the design and impact of AI systems. It added that the AI model is trained by the data available and inputs by the public who use or are affected by systems like ChatGPT.
“Our guidelines are explicit that reviewers should not favour any political group. Biases that nevertheless may emerge from the process described above are bugs, not features,” the startup said. It further said that it is the company’s belief that technology companies must be accountable for producing policies that stand up to scrutiny.
“We are committed to robustly addressing this issue and being transparent about both our intentions and our progress,” it noted.
OpenAI said that it is working to improve the clarity of these guidelines and, based on the learnings from the ChatGPT launch, it will provide clearer instructions to reviewers about potential pitfalls and challenges tied to bias, as well as controversial figures and themes.
As a part of its transparency initiatives, OpenAI is also working to share aggregated demographic information about the reviewers “in a way that doesn’t violate privacy rules and norms,” because this is an additional source of potential bias in system outputs.
The company is also researching on how to make the fine-tuning process more understandable and controllable.

After a ‘rocky’ financial year, Ubisoft will bank on two major mobile games to turn around its fortunes. As announced by the gaming giant in its Q3 FY2022-23 report, ‘Rainbow Six Mobile’ and ‘The Division Resurgence’ will roll out for mobile gamers “next fiscal year” or by March 2024.
Talking about the new slate of game releases, co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot said, “As we are focused on building on our strengths, we are prioritizing our efforts on big brands and long-lasting live games. While the macro environment impacted the video game market and our Q3 results, our established franchises and Live games have performed solidly. In an intensely competitive environment for shooter games, Rainbow Six Siege has performed remarkably well. This momentum, seven years after the game’s release, is promising as we look to launch Rainbow Six Mobile next fiscal year.”
“Similarly, we are looking to bring The Division to a larger, global audience, with the release on mobile of The Division Resurgence, also next fiscal year,” he added.
Ubisoft’s lineup for 2023-24 features some big titles
Besides these two mobile games, Ubisoft has several games – including a few highly anticipated titles – planned for the forthcoming financial year. With ‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage’ set for release this year, Ubisoft is going back to the roots of the franchise in a bid to appeal to long-time fans. Another major title, ‘Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora’ – a game based on the namesake movie franchise – will roll out in 2023.
Beta programmes for Skull and Bones, The Crew Motorfest, and XDefiant
The France-based gaming giant revealed that certain games have beta programmes lined up for the near future. Talking about the same, Ubisoft CFO Frédérick Duguet said, “Fueling our expectations for strong revenue growth, next fiscal year will see the release of a meaningful line-up, including new titles within the Assassin’s Creed, Avatar, Rainbow Six and The Division universes. In the coming months, players will have the opportunity to test and discover several of our upcoming long-lasting Live Games, including The Crew Motorfest, Skull and Bones, as well as, starting today, our first cross-platform technical test for XDefiant.”

Amazon Deal of the Day is here. Buyers who are looking for a discount on laptops and other gadgets can take a glance at today’s deals on Amazon. But with so many different models and brands, it can be tough to even choose a model. That’s why every day Amazon has offers on laptops and other electronics that you can choose from. Some of these deals are listed below, so don’t miss out
HP 15s 11th Gen Intel Core i3: Available at Rs 42,990 after 15% discount
HP 15s laptop features a 15.6-inch FHD screen. The display supports 250 nits of brightness. It has pre-installed Alexa and comes equipped with dual speakers.
HP 15s, 11th Gen Intel Core i5: Available at Rs 52,490 after 13% discount
HP 15 laptop sports a 15.6-inch FHD screen. The display has 250 nits of peak brightness. The laptop has a 720p HD camera which is integrated with dual array digital microphones.
Asus Vivobook 16X (2022): Available at Rs 48,990 after 29% discount
Asus Vivobook 16X (2022) comes with a 16-inch screen. The laptop is powered by AMD Ryzen 5 5600H mobile processor.
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3: Available at Rs 51,990 after 47% discount
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 features a 15.6-inch FHD screen. The display comes with a 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution and has 250 nits of peak brightness. The laptop is powered by the 11th-Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor.
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5: Available at Rs 62,990 after 34% discount
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 has a 14-inch display with 1920×1200 pixels resolution. The 360-degree laptop promises to deliver 7 hours of battery life and comes with a 52.5Wh battery. It is powered by the 5th Gen AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor which is clocked at 2.1 GHz (Base) a nd 4.0 GHz (Max).

Social media platform Twitter has gone through several changes since Tesla‘s CEO acquired it in October 2022. From mass layoffs to significant policy changes, Musk has done it all. Now, the latest move that the company has announced under the billionaire is to start charging a fee for using SMS messages for two-factor authentication (2FA). Twitter has updated its blog post to announce that Twitter will start asking Twitter Blue users to set two-factor authentication over SMS for their respective accounts from March 20. This change will be a notable one for the users of the social media platform and will also affect non-Twitter Blue users.
Why Twitter is charging for SMS 2FA
Twitter allows three methods of 2FA — text message, authentication app and security key for users to sign into their accounts. In the blog post, the company explains that phone-number-based 2FA has been “abused” by cybercriminals for a long time. For this, Twitter will stop accounts from using the text message/SMS method of 2FA unless they are Twitter Blue subscribers. The company has also mentioned that the availability of text message 2FA for Twitter Blue may vary by country and carrier.
Twitter 2FA methods for non-Twitter Blue users
Non-Twitter Blue subscribers that are already using this method will have 30 days to disable this method and enroll in another. Twitter has confirmed, “After 20 March 2023, we will no longer permit non-Twitter Blue subscribers to use text messages as a 2FA method. At that time, accounts with text message 2FA still enabled will have it disabled.”
However, disabling text message 2FA won’t automatically disassociate the user’s phone number from their Twitter account. The company has encouraged non-Twitter Blue subscribers to consider using an authentication app or security key methods like Google Authenticator, 1Password, Authy and other platforms instead. These methods need users to have physical possession of the authentication method and are an efficient way to ensure the security of accounts.

The next-gen graphics card war is heating up between AMD and Nvidia, with both putting out seriously powerful GPUs in the past few months, but a new regulatory filing hints that a new AMD Radeon RX GPU might be launching soon, and it could be a huge winner for AMD if it beats Team Green to market with a midrange or budget offering.

The best graphics card in AMD’s lineup, the Radeon RX 7900 XTX, is definitely a beastly GPU with a lot going for it, but price isn’t one of them. Yes, it’s a flagship-class graphics card under a grand, but only by the slimmest of margins. 

Samsung’s virtual assistant Bixby is used by many of its Galaxy device users. The smartphone maker keeps on improving and adding new features to Bixby in order to improve the user experience. Now an online report reveals that the Samsung Bixby is available for kids.
A Samsung user Yash Agarwal posted a screenshot of Bixby for kids on Samsung’s community portal. The company has started rolling out the feature and it is available for kids under the age of 13 years. After installation, the assistant will gain the ability to work with your child’s account.
The screenshot shared by the user also explains what’s new in Bixby. The screenshot reads:
– Bixby is now available for kids!
Through your Samsung account, create a group for your family to set up child accounts that they can use on Samsung devices.
Children under 13 (or the applicable age in your country) can do similar things as adults like:
– Ask Bixby questions
– Listen to stories
– Play music
– Play games
Bixby responds to your kids with age-appropriate and kids-friendly content. This feature is currently supported in the US and Korea, with more countries to be added gradually. Additionally, functional improvements and bug fixes have been applied.
Samsung Galaxy new Fan Edition smartphone may launch this year
Meanwhile, it was reported that Samsung is expected to launch a new Galaxy S Fan Edition smartphone in the second half of 2023. Earlier, rumours suggested that Samsung may discontinue the Fan Edition lineup. However, the latest report claims that the company is likely to announce the Galaxy S23 FE smartphone and may not launch the Galaxy A74.
The report also claims that Samsung may ship the Galaxy S23 FE in more countries compared to the Galaxy S21 FE. The company launched its last FE edition smartphone only in some Asian countries, Europe, and the US.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has introduced the ‘mPassport Police app’. The app aims to streamline and expedite police verification during the passport issuance process. Police verification is an integral part of the passport issuance system and over the years several steps have been taken to streamline it. To further expedite this important process, the external affairs ministry has introduced ‘mPassport Police app’. The ministry of external affairs is the nodal ministry for the issuance of passports in the country.
Who all can use the mPassport Police app
The mPassport Police app is available for download to the Police Station users. These include those who are already accessing the PSP Police (Web) application for the purpose of police verification processing of the passport services applicants for recording the input (details) of field verification processing done at the applicant’s address. This means that the app is intended for police personnel who will visit passport applicants’ home for verification.
Police personnel given tablets for passport clearance
The Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Delhi said that the city police are being given mobile tablets for the same. On the occasion of Delhi Police’s Raising Day on February 16, Union Home Minister Amit Shah dedicated 350 mobile tablets to personnel of Delhi Police Special Branch. These devices are aimed to enable the process of police verification and submission of reports to become paperless.

To reduce passport issuance time by 10 days
The mPassport Police app endeavours to reduce the police verification time from 15 days to 5 days, as per MEA. This would effectively reduce the Passport issuance timeline by 10 days. In 2022, to address the surge in demand for Police Clearance Certificates (PCC), the MEA decided to include the facility to apply for PCC services at all online Post Office Passport Seva Kendras (POPSKs) across India.
Important ministry notice for passport applicants
On its website, the ministry warns passport applicants against fake websites. The official website of the government of India for applying passport services is www.passportindia.gov.in. There is no other website, the MEA notice on the website warns users. This website is available across India and is for all citizens of the country.