How to get a Vodafone-Idea fancy number for free

A SIM card that supports a VIP number allows subscribers to obtain the fancy or VIP mobile number of their choice. Your family and friends may even find it easier to remember Vi's fancy numbers. Vodafone-Idea offers both free and premium VIP numbers. https://ift.tt/WG9HrnP

Oppo Reno 9 likely to come with 64MP camera and Snapdragon 778G chipset

Oppo is reportedly gearing up to launch its Reno 9 series smartphones. The handset has already been a part of several leaks and rumours lately and now a well-known tipster has revealed the specs and a couple of other details about the smartphone. https://ift.tt/4kblgXF

IT teams are hiring more freelancers and slowing recruiting full-time staff; Freelancer.com says software developer job postings rose 54.7% YoY in Q3 2022 (Angus Loten/Wall Street Journal)

Angus Loten / Wall Street Journal:
IT teams are hiring more freelancers and slowing recruiting full-time staff; Freelancer.com says software developer job postings rose 54.7% YoY in Q3 2022  —  New wave of IT freelancers prefer to tackle digital projects, then move on, recruiters say  —  Facing economic headwinds …

Study: Chinese netizens are permitted to air environmental concerns and criticize polluters on social media, resulting in lower emissions from some factories (Coco Liu/Bloomberg)

Coco Liu / Bloomberg:
Study: Chinese netizens are permitted to air environmental concerns and criticize polluters on social media, resulting in lower emissions from some factories  —  In spite of China's intensifying crackdown on political dissent, residents still have plenty of leeway to air their environmental concerns …

Meta begins rolling out AI-powered Instagram age verification to India and Brazil; the system uses AI to analyze video selfies or lets users provide IDs (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta begins rolling out AI-powered Instagram age verification to India and Brazil; the system uses AI to analyze video selfies or lets users provide IDs  —  Instagram, facing scrutiny from safety advocates, started testing a program in the U.S. earlier this year to verify users' age claiming to be 18 or older.

China's central bank: e-CNY transactions totaled ~$14B from December 2019 to August 2022, up 14% from ~$12.2B in December 2021, signaling slowing growth (Coco Feng/South China Morning Post)

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
China's central bank: e-CNY transactions totaled ~$14B from December 2019 to August 2022, up 14% from ~$12.2B in December 2021, signaling slowing growth  —  China's central bank digital currency transactions totalled 100 billion yuan (US$14 billion) from the start of the e-CNY initiative …

An internal Pentagon document says more than 80% of the US soldiers who used Microsoft's HoloLens experienced "mission-affecting physical impairments" (Anthony Capaccio/Bloomberg)

Anthony Capaccio / Bloomberg:
An internal Pentagon document says more than 80% of the US soldiers who used Microsoft's HoloLens experienced “mission-affecting physical impairments”  —  US soldiers using Microsoft Corp.'s new goggles in their latest field test suffered “mission-affecting physical impairments” …

Responding to outrage over Twitch's 30/70 fee split, an executive says Amazon expects the service to be "a sustainable, viable long-term business" (Nathan Grayson/Washington Post)

Nathan Grayson / Washington Post:
Responding to outrage over Twitch's 30/70 fee split, an executive says Amazon expects the service to be “a sustainable, viable long-term business”  —  Typically the big, pandemic-delayed return of Twitch's annual TwitchCon gathering in San Diego would be cause for celebration.

This is TikTok parent's plan to take on Spotify

China's ByteDance Ltd is in talks with music labels for expanding its music-streaming service globally to compete with industry leaders such as Spotify Technology SA, the Wall Street Journal reported. https://ift.tt/JfDsix7

NASA eyes Nov 14 as launch date for Artemis I Moon mission

The US space agency has now set the next launch attempt of the Artemis I Moon mission for November 14, after facing two failed attempts due to liquid hydrogen gas leak in one of the engines. https://ift.tt/GaRAXqt

PNB WhatsApp banking: How to register, use and avail services

Through WhatsApp, the bank provides services to both PNB customers and non-customers. PNB WhatsApp banking provides a wide range of account related services, including balance enquiry, last five transactions, etc. Even on holidays, these services are offered round the clock. https://ift.tt/nwSIRjH

Google rolls out support for signing in with passkeys on Android and Chrome to beta testers ahead of a wider launch in 2022 (Abner Li/9to5Google)

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out support for signing in with passkeys on Android and Chrome to beta testers ahead of a wider launch in 2022  —  Apple, Google, Microsoft, and others in the industry want to replace website/app passwords with “passkeys” that just require you to unlock your device.

What to expect from Microsoft's Surface event: Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, Surface Studio 3, and potentially a mini PC and Surface accessories (Jon Fingas/Engadget)

Jon Fingas / Engadget:
What to expect from Microsoft's Surface event: Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5, Surface Studio 3, and potentially a mini PC and Surface accessories  —  - Wildcards: A mini PC and Surface accessories  —  Microsoft is holding its customary fall Surface event on October 12th …

British artist Damien Hirst burns thousands of his paintings live on Instagram as part of an NFT project, "completing the transformation" from physical to NFTs (Halisia Hubbard/NPR)

Halisia Hubbard / NPR:
British artist Damien Hirst burns thousands of his paintings live on Instagram as part of an NFT project, “completing the transformation” from physical to NFTs  —  British artist Damien Hirst is among the many art-world giants who have set fire to their work, having burned 1,000 of his artworks Tuesday.

Japanese fabless SoC design company Socionext closes up 15.07% in its IPO debut, valuing it at ~$960M, in Tokyo's biggest offering so far in 2022 (Sam Byford/Reuters)

Sam Byford / Reuters:
Japanese fabless SoC design company Socionext closes up 15.07% in its IPO debut, valuing it at ~$960M, in Tokyo's biggest offering so far in 2022  —  Making its market debut on Wednesday, Japan's Socionext Inc (6526.T) bucked softening sentiment toward chips by surging 15% in Tokyo's biggest initial public offering of the year so far.