Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Reliance Jio AirFiber vs Airtel Xstream AirFiber: Which is the better choice and why?

India's two leading telecom giants, Jio and Airtel, are also fierce competitors in the broadband arena. Both companies offer fixed wireless access (FWA) solutions powered by 5G technology – Airtel Xstream AirFiber and Jio AirFiber. Unlike conventional broadband setups, where the router is fixed at a permanent location using a LAN cable, these FWA offerings provide a degree of portability, allowing users to position them anywhere within their homes, provided there is adequate network reception. Notably, Jio AirFiber boasts widespread availability, setting it apart from Airtel's offering. https://ift.tt/zx0N1Ub

UK digital bank Monzo raised $430M led by Alphabet's CapitalG at a $5B valuation, up from $4.5B in December 2021, and plans to use funds to expand in the US (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
UK digital bank Monzo raised $430M led by Alphabet's CapitalG at a $5B valuation, up from $4.5B in December 2021, and plans to use funds to expand in the US  —  London-based digital bank raised $430mn from investors including CapitalG and HongShan  —  Monzo has secured a fresh round …



Sources: Chinese AI startup MiniMax raised $600M+ led by Alibaba at a $2.5B+ valuation; the round remains in progress and HongShan has committed funds (Jane Zhang/Bloomberg)

Jane Zhang / Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese AI startup MiniMax raised $600M+ led by Alibaba at a $2.5B+ valuation; the round remains in progress and HongShan has committed funds  —  - Minimax scores funding from investors including HongShan  — Alibaba has spearheaded two major deals so far this year



Monday, March 4, 2024

Lok Sabha Elections 2024: How to update address on voter ID card online, documents required, and track application status

An Election Commission ID card, commonly known as a Voter ID card, holds significant importance as it is a prerequisite for exercising one's voting rights. The Election Commission of India facilitates various online tasks for citizens, including the updating of residence addresses on Voter ID cards. If you have recently relocated or shifted to a different city, you can conveniently amend your address on the Voter ID card by completing 'Form 8' on the National Voter's Service portal website. https://ift.tt/3yIcVgM

Saudi Arabian e-commerce software startup Salla raised $130M from Investcorp, Sanabil, and others, in what is likely to be its last funding round before an IPO (Matthew Martin/Bloomberg)

Matthew Martin / Bloomberg:
Saudi Arabian e-commerce software startup Salla raised $130M from Investcorp, Sanabil, and others, in what is likely to be its last funding round before an IPO  —  - Sanabil, STV also participated in the pre-IPO fundraising  — Salla is part of bevy of Saudi startups prepping for listing



Sunday, March 3, 2024

A profile of Lanny Smoot, Disney's only research fellow, who holds 100+ patents and has built an omnidirectional HoloTile Floor to allow users to walk in VR (Marah Eakin/Wired)

Marah Eakin / Wired:
A profile of Lanny Smoot, Disney's only research fellow, who holds 100+ patents and has built an omnidirectional HoloTile Floor to allow users to walk in VR  —  If you've ever seen a lightsaber at a Disney park or marveled at BB-8, you've seen Lanny Smoot's work.



Some users turn to AI therapist chatbots, finding them cheap, quick, available 24/7, and easy to talk to, but experts warn about a lack of emotional connection (Alice Robb/The Guardian)

Alice Robb / The Guardian:
Some users turn to AI therapist chatbots, finding them cheap, quick, available 24/7, and easy to talk to, but experts warn about a lack of emotional connection  —  It's cheap, quick and available 24/7, but is a chatbot therapist really the right tool to tackle complex emotional needs?



A look at Apple's hubris that doomed the electric car project, spring hardware updates without a dedicated event, and Dan Riccio's retirement plans (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's hubris that doomed the electric car project, spring hardware updates without a dedicated event, and Dan Riccio's retirement plans  —  Apple's belief that it could create a better car than Tesla and the rest of the automotive industry ultimately led to the downfall of the project.



As music from Universal Music Group artists disappears from TikTok, creators turn to royalty-free, almost-contextless sound clips (Reece Rogers/Wired)

Reece Rogers / Wired:
As music from Universal Music Group artists disappears from TikTok, creators turn to royalty-free, almost-contextless sound clips  —  More Universal Music songs are disappearing from TikTok as the two companies fail to reach new agreements.  Sound clips are ready for their big break.



Saturday, March 2, 2024

AMD is unable to release an open source HDMI 2.1 implementation after the HDMI Forum rejected its proposal; the forum closed public specification access in 2021 (Michael Larabel/Phoronix)

Michael Larabel / Phoronix:
AMD is unable to release an open source HDMI 2.1 implementation after the HDMI Forum rejected its proposal; the forum closed public specification access in 2021  —  One of the limitations of AMD's open-source Linux graphics driver has been the inability to implement HDMI 2.1+ functionality …



Elon Musk's OpenAI lawsuit repeatedly cites a contentious paper by Microsoft's research lab, which said GPT-4 showed "sparks" of AGI, to argue that GPT-4 is AGI (New York Times)

New York Times:
Elon Musk's OpenAI lawsuit repeatedly cites a contentious paper by Microsoft's research lab, which said GPT-4 showed “sparks” of AGI, to argue that GPT-4 is AGI  —  In his lawsuit against OpenAI and its chief executive, Sam Altman, Mr. Musk relies on a provocative paper from the start-up's closest partner.



Q&A with FBI Director Christopher Wray on taking down a GRU botnet, Volt Typhoon, critical infrastructure attacks, lessons from surveilling threat actors, more (The Record)

The Record:
Q&A with FBI Director Christopher Wray on taking down a GRU botnet, Volt Typhoon, critical infrastructure attacks, lessons from surveilling threat actors, more  —  We have active investigations working with partners into a whole range of cyber units within the different Russian intelligence services …



How quick fixes and old code in systems compound technical debt and raise hacking risks, requiring an estimated $1.52T to fix and costing the US $2.41T per year (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
How quick fixes and old code in systems compound technical debt and raise hacking risks, requiring an estimated $1.52T to fix and costing the US $2.41T per year  —  Old code piles up and raises the risk of hacks and other breaches, even on new devices.  Our compounding ‘technical debt’



Friday, March 1, 2024

Australia's PM threatens action against Meta after it said it would stop paying media companies; News Corp says it threatens the viability of small media groups (Nic Fildes/Financial Times)

Nic Fildes / Financial Times:
Australia's PM threatens action against Meta after it said it would stop paying media companies; News Corp says it threatens the viability of small media groups  —  Prime minister pledges to respond to move that News Corp says threatens viability of some media groups



List of Samsung mobiles that will receive the Android 15 Update

With the initial rollout of Android 15 for Pixel devices, Samsung Galaxy smartphone users eagerly anticipate the arrival of this latest Android version on their devices. As one of the largest manufacturers in the Android ecosystem, Samsung's Galaxy lineup stands poised for the One UI 7.0 update based on Android 15. Here's a comprehensive overview of which Galaxy smartphones are expected to receive this highly anticipated update. https://ift.tt/wXoZYOC

Arizona's Maricopa County is set to have the second largest concentration of US data centers by 2028, as the state races to increase electricity production (Pranshu Verma/Washington Post)

Pranshu Verma / Washington Post : Arizona's Maricopa County is set to have the second largest concentration of US data centers by 202...