Technology

New Delhi: A defiant Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stressed that his platform has now become a 'Fifth Estate' in the world alongside traditional news media and people no longer have to rely on traditional gatekeepers in politics or media to make their voices heard. Delivering a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, DC on Thursday, he said social media platforms have decentralised power by putting it directly into people's hands.

"People having the power to express themselves at scale is a new kind of force in the world -- a Fifth Estate alongside the other power structures of society," said Zuckerberg, apparently challenging those who wish to break up the social networking giant. Senators and presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris are pitching hard to break up Facebook, amid regulators scrutinising the company over anti-competitive practices and privacy scandals.

New Delhi: Google might finally launch a Pixel Watch alongside the Pixel 4 at the company's hardware event scheduled on October 15. Rumours in 2018 suggested that the company was ready to launch its first Pixel branded smartwatch, but the search engine giant decided at the last minute not to unveil the wearable, Techradar reported. Google along with two new 4G Pixel smartphones is also expected to launch a 5G version of the same and a new smart notebook too.

Google Pixel smartphones, Pixel 4 and 4 XL, would feature 'Live Caption' that transcribes audio into subtitles and puts them on the screen. Going by the past leaks and speculation, both the Pixel phones were expected to come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset coupled with a 6GB RAM and dual rear cameras consisting of a 12MP main sensor and a 16MP telephoto lens. The smaller Pixel 4 would likely sport a 5.7-inch 90Hz 1080p+ OLED display and a 2,800mAh battery while the Pixel 4 XL is expected to boast a 6.3 inch 90Hz 1440p+ OLED panel and 3,700mAh battery.

New Delhi Google is reportedly interested in purchasing US-based social video app Firework that lets users share short videos like Chinese player TikTok. According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Chinese micro-blogging platform Weibo had also shown interest in acquiring Firework but "talks with Google are further along". Based in Redwood City, California, Firework that entered India last month was valued at more than $100 million in a fundraising round earlier this year. TikTok's parent, Beijing-based ByteDance, is valued around $75 billion.

Firework is part of a suite of apps created by Loop Now Technologies, a start-up that focuses on next-generation consumer mobile applications. Similar to Tiktok that allows users to post 15-seconed short videos, Firework allows users to create 30-second videos and with "Reveal", its patent pending technology, it will allow creators to take both horizontal and vertical video in one shot from their mobile device. The app is currently available on both iOS and Android smartphones with over a million registered users.

New Delhi: Search giant Google turned 21 on Friday and it celebrated the occasion with a special doodle that showed a 90s era desktop computer flashing its old logo on the screen. Google is a US-based multi-national technology bellwether that specialises in Internet-related services and products, which include an eponymous search engine, online advertising technologies and cloud computing. The colourful doodle, in sync with the company's online vibe, depicted a desktop computer connected to a CPU and a huge printer, typical of those in the 1990s, and the logo displayed prominently on the screen of the monitor.

New Delhi: The medical fraternity on Friday welcomed the arrival of the ECG app and irregular rhythm notification feature on Apple Watch for users in India, stressing that it will make people more aware about their heart health. Although the Apple Watch will not provide a final conclusion into whether a person is actually suffering from Atrial fibrillation (AFib) -- irregular heartbeat that can lead to blood clot formation in the heart which then embolises to the brain causing stroke -- the readings will make more Indians consult their physicians about their heart health, doctors feel.

Although accurate worldwide estimates are lacking, calculations suggest that over one per cent of the adult population is affected in the developed world, wrote Vijay Bohra, Gautam Sharma and Rajnish Juneja from Department of Cardiology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in their research. "In our country, there is virtually no data on AF (AFib), most of the data that has been derived is from international studies with an Indian cohort," the trio wrote, adding that there is "indeed a dearth of data on epidemiologic outcomes in patients of rheumatic AF in the country leading to inconsistent practice patterns as regards medical therapy, especially oral anticoagulation".