Xiaomi POCO F3 GT Reviews

Before the official launch of the POCO F3 GT in India, a company executive has revealed details about the tentative price of the device. The spokesperson said it will come with a price tag of around 400 US Dollars. Previously, Xiaomi stated that the handset will launch sometime in the third quarter of this year but now, in an interview, the Country Director of POCO Indi, Anuj Sharma, has revealed that the device will launch in India later this month.

The executive said we can expect the device as early as 23 July though the original launch window of the company is between August and September. Sharma has also revealed information about the price of the POCO F3 GT. He said it will come with a price tag of around 30,000 INR. There might be more than one variant so we can expect the variants t to be priced in the +-30000 range. Sharma has confirmed that the highest variant will be priced under 35,000 INR. Keep Reading: Leaked iPhone 13 live photo show off a redesign of rear camera setup Note that the date of 23rd July is very close to the launch of the OnePlus Nord 2. Recently, Xiaomi eve trolled this upcoming handset from its rival. Both these smartphones will feature the same MediaTek Dimensity 1200 SoC. Other feature of POCO F3 GT includes an AMOLED display, HDR10+ support, and refresh rate of 120 Hz. The handset will be available in two colour variants: Gunmetal Silver and Predator Black, and offer Dual Stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos. Anuj said “The smartphone market has changed a lot in the last three years. We could have done a simple F1 successor which means cut out everything else and give a performance. But, in the mid-premium segment users are not happy with one aspect. Things like the build quality, glass back are all expensive. This would make the Poco F3 GT a lot more expensive than Poco F1 but at the price, will be unlike any other phone.”

Microsoft Build 2020: All the biggest announcements from annual developer conference

Despite the coronavirus pandemic putting large gatherings on hold, Microsoft Build – the technology giant’s annual developer conference – went ahead this week, albeit virtually.

The company announced numerous new features for the future of its operating system, Windows 10, including a search-bar similar to Spotlight on Apple’s computers and “Fluid Office” – a competitor to Google’s suite of online office applications such as Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Fluid Office is currently available as a preview, and works akin to a version of Microsoft Office content that exists on the web.

This contrasts from typical online services in a number of ways. Google Docs, and to a lesser extent Apple’s Pages, let users create a document or table that can be shared in its totality quickly and easily via a link or through downloading the file.

Fluid Framework, however, is focused on people creating components of documents – such as text, tables, lists, and graphs.These components can be updated and editable at any time, no matter where they are created or how they are shared. These can then be incorporated into other Microsoft products, such as Teams (its collaboration platform and Slack competitor).

In order to attract someone’s attention to a component that has been created, Fluid workspaces have ‘recommended’ lists and the ability to tag someone through what Microsoft calls “@mentions”.

Microsoft is hoping that this infrastructure will become the future of workplace collaboration. The Fluid preview and, it can be assumed, future versions of the software is currently available on the latest version of all major browsers: Microsoft Edge, Apple’s Safari (but only on Apple computers), Google Chrome, and Mozilla’s Firefox.Fluid Framework will also be open source – which means that it can be studied, changed, and distributed to anyone and for any purpose – so that “developers and creators to use key infrastructure from Fluid Framework in their own applications,” said Jared Spataro, corporate vice president for Microsoft 365 in the announcement. As such, third-party developers will soon be able to make applications that work with Fluid.

While the roll-out will take time, it will begin with the web versions of Office and Outlook before eventually coming to Teams later in the year. Eventually, Fluid will be compatible with all Office programmes including Excel, Word, and Powerpoint on the desktop.

As well as its new framework, Microsoft also announced developments for Teams including customisable templates, more manageable chatbots, and the ability to add custom applications to Teams with a dedicated button.​Outlook is also receiving new features including text predictions, which Google’s Gmail has had for two years, while Microsoft Edge is receiving sidebar searching (so you can search without opening a new window) and automatic profile switching. The latter will be a useful feature for those who use Edge for both work and personal browsing, as it will automatically switch to your work profile when it detects a link you’re trying to open needs specific credentials.

Finally, Microsoft is introducing new tools to PowerToys, its free system utilities, including “PowerToys Run”, a searchbar which allows users to quickly access system tools like the registry or the startup utility settings, while also letting you remap keys and search for files.

UK's first complete rocket test in 50 years takes place in Scotland

The first complete ground rocket test in the UK for 50 years has happened in Scotland, with the test of private space company Skyrora’s Skylark L rocket.

In a post announcing the news, Skyrora said that the construction of the mobile launch complex and test had been completed in only five days, with the 11-meter long vehicle being sent from Kildemorie Estate in North Scotland.

The Skylark L rocket could be ready to launch from a British spaceport as early as spring 2021, the company said, with the hope that by starting with sub-orbital rockets it will be able to move to orbital rockets by 2023. The rocket can reach a height of approximately 100km, and carry a payload of up to 60kg.

“It is very hard to oversell what we have achieved here with this test; the whole team has pulled through again to deliver another UK first," said Dr Jack-James Marlow, who led the operations of Skylark L’s static fire testing.

"We have successfully static tested a fully integrated, sub-orbital Skylark L launch vehicle in flight configuration. This means we performed all actions of a launch but did not release the vehicle. The rocket engine successfully burned, with all vehicle systems showing nominal operation.”

Skyrora’s chief executive officer, Volodymyr Levykin said: “As the launch aspect of the UK’s new space industry starts to emerge, there will be many events that have never happened here previously and this is one of them. This was a mammoth effort in very trying circumstances, so it is quite an achievement to be proud of.”

The company claims this is the first static fire test of its magnitude since the Black Arrow Programme, a three-stage British satellite carrier rocket that was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971.

In September 1970, the Black Arrow attempted to carry a British satellite, Orba, into space, but failed to reach orbit. The next year, however, it did carry the Prospero satellite into space, which made the United Kingdom the sixth nation to place a satellite into orbit via a carrier rocket.

Twitter’s latest feature allows users to choose who replies to their tweets

Twitter is experimenting with a new way for its users to better control who can reply to their tweets.

People who are a part of the test will be able to choose whether they want everyone, the people they follow, or the people they mention to be able to reply to their tweet.

Other users will still be able to like, retweet and, presumably, quote-tweet posts that have this limit on it, but they will not be able to engage with the conversation.

Twitter said that “this allows the person tweeting to host fireside chats, interviews, and other types of invite-only [conversations] with just a small group or single person."

The test is happening on Android, iOS, and the web app for those users who have been chosen. "We're starting with a small percentage globally, so keep your eyes out to see it in action," the firm tweeted.

This is not the only change Twitter is making to its platform; the company is also testing asking users to “revise” their language when tweeting rude or harmful content, as well as a new way to see who has quote-tweeted you.

Google Chrome ad update will save users' battery life and data

Google Chrome will be more active in addressing bad ads, in an attempt to save users' data, processing power, and battery life.

Specifically, the company is tackling adverts which are badly programmed, cause unnecessary strain on networks, or mine cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency ‘mining’ is the process of generating new units of digital currency such as Bitcoin by using computers to solve complex mathematical problems.

Mining requires vast amounts of processing power and therefore malicious individuals have placed the code in adverts in order to use the devices viewing the ads – sometimes without the knowledge of the person whose device it is.

“We have recently discovered that a fraction of a percent of ads consume a disproportionate share of device resources, such as battery and network data, without the user knowing about it” Google said in a blog post. “In order to save our users’ batteries and data plans, and provide them with a good experience on the web, Chrome will limit the resources a display ad can use before the user interacts with the ad. When an ad reaches its limit, the ad's frame will navigate to an error page, informing the user that the ad has used too many resources.”

In targetting these adverts, Google found the ones that use more CPU or network bandwidth than 99.9 per cent of all adverts – meaning it should only be the most extreme ads that are hit by the new change.

The experiment is coming over the next few months, the search giant says, in order to give advertisers and tool providers time to adjust to the changes and limitations. The plan is that a stable version of this technology will come to Chrome in August. This is not the only update that Google has recently made to its Chrome browser. The company announced that it is rolling out a feature whereby users can group tabs by name, coloured labels, or emoji to better organise how users view websites.

Mark Zuckerberg ‘pretty confident’ Facebook can protect integrity of 2020 election

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said his platform is ready to combat misinformation during the oncoming US presidential election, as it fights an “arms race” battle against electoral meddling by foreign states.

In his first broadcast interview in five years, Mr Zuckerberg told the BBC that he and his company “have learnt a lot about how politics works online” since 2016, and that Facebook has been working with governments around the world to get ready for the upcoming onslaught of meddling between now and November.

“One big area that we were behind on in 2016 but I think now are quite advanced at is identifying and fighting these co-ordinated information campaigns that come from different state actors around the world.”

Saying the company has worked with governments around the world to get better at identifying these threats, Mr Zuckerberg stated that “countries are going to continue to try and interfere, and we are going to see issues like that.

“And I feel pretty confident that we are going to be able to protect the integrity of the upcoming election.” Facebook is under heavy pressure from US authorities to take more responsibility for the political content it hosts. According to a Princeton University study, no other internet platform facilitated the spread misinformation as quickly and in such volume.

Nonetheless, it has resisted calls for sweeping changes, and in for criticism at the start of this year when it announced it would not make changes to its advertising policies, including the micro-targeting that allows political actors to send crafted messages to extremely specific groups.

Mr Zuckerberg, who exerts total individual control at the company, was also asked about the spread of misinformation around the coronavirus pandemic, including unfounded claims that 5G infrastructure is playing a part in the virus’s spread.

“If some crazy person decided to start telling people to drink or inject bleach” – alluding Donald Trump effectively did recently – “what is the Facebook algorithm’s response to that?” Mr Zuckerberg replied that when it comes to “harmful misinformation that puts people at imminent risk of physical harm”, Facebook will take it down – but that even where someone isn’t at immediate risk of physical harm, “we don’t want misinformation to be the content that is broadly going viral across the network”.

That, apparently, applies to all users and public speakers, no matter how powerful. “There was a case where the Brazilian president said that it was proven by all scientists that there’s a drug that was proven to cure coronavirus. That’s obviously not true … so we had to enforce that.”

Still, the Facebook CEO said that there are two tiers of misinformation. “If you’re saying something that’s going to put people at imminent risk of harm, we take it down. If you’re saying something that is just wrong, we don’t take that down, but we stop it from spreading, generally. That’s a much more sensitive topic, because there are a lot of things in society that someone thinks is bad, but other people on the other side of that issue think it’s good.

“I think unless something is very clear that it’s going to cause real damage to someone in the near-term, I think you generally want to allow as wide an aperture of expression as possible.”

Artificial eye that 'sees' like a human could transform robotics

Scientists have developed an artificial eye that could provide vision for humanoid robots, or even function as a bionic eye for visually impaired people in the future.

Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology built the ElectroChemical Eye – dubbed EC-Eye – to resemble the size and shape of a biological eye, but with vastly greater potential.

The eye mimics the human iris and retina using a lens to focus light onto a dense arrays of light-sensitive nanowires. Information is then passed through the wires, which act like the brain’s visual cortex, to a computer for processing.

During tests, the computer was able to recognise the letters ‘E’, ‘I’ and ‘Y’ when they were projected onto the lens.

The artificial eye could in theory be connected to an optic nerve to relay information to a human brain, the researchers said, while also improving camera-based eyes currently used on robots. “Biological eyes are arguably the most important sensing organ for most of the animals on this planet,” the researchers wrote in a paper describing the breakthrough.

“Mimicking human eyes, artificial vision systems are just as essential in autonomous technologies such as robotics. Particularly for humanoid robots, the vision system should resemble that of a human in appearance to enable amicable human–robot interaction, in addition to having superior device characteristics.” The proof-of-concept device currently has a low resolution, as each of the 100 nanowires used in its construction only accounts for one pixel. However, the researchers said that further development could allow the artificial eye to have even better resolution that human eyes.

Up to 10-times more nanowires than biological photoreceptors could potentially be used, allowing the artificial eye to distinguish between visual light and infrared radiation.

This would allow a human user of the bionic eye to see smaller objects and further distance, while also gaining night vision capabilities.

A paper detailing the research was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

Scientists deny finding evidence of parallel universe where time goes backwards

Despite numerous reports, scientists have not found evidence of a parallel universe where time runs backwards.

A number of outlets reported this week that researchers in Antarctica had “found evidence” for a parallel universe based on an experiment where scientists found particles that seemed to break the laws of physics.

All of the reports cite the same source: a story from New Scientist from April 2020, about a finding made in 2016.

The report focuses on findings from the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA), which uses an array of radio antennas suspended from a helium balloon flying at a height of about 37,000 meters to detect radio pulses sent out by cosmic neutrinos during flights in December 2006 and December 2014.

Normally, these are sent from space to the earth, but the researchers found some anomalous events where the neutrinos seem to have come from the planet’s interior – something which cannot be explained by current physics.

All this confirms, however, is that these are particles that deviate from the Standard Model (the theory that describes three of the four known fundamental forces in the universe, as well as classifying all known elementary particles) rather than evidence of a new universe.

Another paper published in 2018, which showed more high-energy particles travelling upwards, said that the particles have a less than 1-in-3.5 million chance of being part of the standard model. Physicists have proposed multiple explanations for these cosmic rays, including “sterile neutrinos” to “atypical dark matter” inside the Earth. Alex Pizzuto from the University of Wisconsin, who has worked with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory that carried out a similar experiment in the 2018 study (but did not find similar results) suggested that it could be due to properties in the ice itself.

“In my opinion, the results are strongly suggestive of an association, but not conclusive yet,” Princeton University’s Maria Petropoulou said about the 2018 study. “It could be possible, for example, that other sources lying in the same region of the sky could contribute to the neutrino flare detected by IceCube. Regardless, these results bring us one step closer to unveiling the sources of astrophysical neutrinos.”

Asked about such theories Peter Gorham, the Professor of Physics at the University of Hawaii quoted in the New Scientist article, said that the research “had nothing to do with the development of the parallel-universe idea.”

“Unfortunately the journalism on this has not distinguished very well between our experimental work which identified some anomalies in the data, and the theory proposed by some physicists who are not a part of our collaboration,” Professor Gorham told The Independent.

“While I am not opposed to free speculation regarding the anomalies we have observed, our own opinion is that they are more likely to be explainable in terms of physics that is likely to be much less exotic.”

A blog post by the University of Hawaii speculated in 2018: “One possibility is that cosmic rays from a bright supernova blasted all the way through the earth.”

Robot sheep dog herds animals in New Zealand

Demonstration of Boston Dynamics' robot Spot included patrolling orchards and other autonomous farm work

Farmers in New Zealand have used a four-legged robot to herd sheep, patrol fields and perform other agricultural tasks.

The feats were carried out as part of a demonstration of Spot – a robotic dog developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm Boston Dynamics.

Equipped with software developed by robotics company Rocos, Spot was controlled remotely to shepherd sheep across a mountainside.

“The age of autonomous robots is upon us,” claimed Rocos chief executive David Inggs. “Our customers are augmenting their human workforces to automate physical processes that are often dull, dirty, or dangerous. Organisations can now design, schedule and manage inspection missions remotely.”

Spot’s abilities include climbing stairs, traversing rough terrain, and even opening doors. Its versatility means it can be adapted for a variety of rolls, with one recently deployed in a park in Singapore to enforce social distancing measures.

Since 8 May, a version of the robot has been patrolling a two-mile stretch of pathway in the Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park. Using its array of sensors to monitor the park’s occupants, the robot is programmed to “bark” a warning at people standing too close to each other.The emergence of the coronavirus pandemic could lead to a new era of robotic human helpers, according to some researchers, who cite the rapid development of robots designed to reduce human exposure to the deadly virus.“Already, we have seen robots being deployed for disinfection, delivering medications and food, measuring vital signs, and assisting border controls,” a leading group of experts wrote in a recent editorial in the journal Science Robotics.

“Opportunities lie in intelligent navigation and detection of high-risk, high-touch areas, combined with other preventative measures. New generations of large, small, micro, and swarm robots that are able to continuously work and clean could be developed.”

A variety of robots are already being used in different roles around the world, from a fleet of robots in Spain designed to boost the country’s Covid-19 testing capacity, to robot porters delivering food at a hotel in China.

World’s fastest internet speed sees download speeds 1 million times faster than current broadband

A rate of 44 terabits per second is fast enough to download 1,000 HD films in a single second, Researchers in Australia have achieved a world record internet speed of 44.2 terabits per second, allowing users to download 1,000 HD movies in a single second.

A team from Monash, Swinburne and RMIT universities used a “micro-comb” optical chip containing hundreds of infrared lasers to transfer data across existing communications infrastructure in Melbourne.

The highest commercial internet speed anywhere in the world is currently in Singapore, where the average download speed is 197.3 megabits per second (mbps).

In Australia, the average download speed is 43.4 mbps – 1 million times slower than the speeds achieved in the latest test.

“There’s a bit of a global race on at the moment to get this technology to a commercial stage, as the micro-comb at its heart is useful in a really broad range of existing technologies,” Dr Bill Corcoran from Monash University, told The Independent.

“I’d guess that we could see devices like ours available to research labs in two to three years, and initial commercial use in about five years.”

The coronavirus lockdown has placed significant strain on internet infrastructure in recent months.

In Europe, streaming providers were asked to degrade their services in March in order to cope with increased traffic. Netflix and YouTube were among those who agreed to reduce picture quality for users.

Implementing the micro-comb device would alleviate this problem, according to the researchers.

“In the UK, daytime data demands have more than doubled, and there have been special efforts to make sure that connections are reliable,” said Dr Corcoran​.

“What this extra usage gives us is a sneak-peek at capacity issues networks will see in just a few years time – especially as we start bringing on line data hungry tech such as 5G, self-driving cars and the ‘internet of things’ more broadly.

“So, we’re going to need new compact technologies like our fingernail-sized device to expand the data carrying capacity of our networks gracefully – to reduce space and power consumption, as well as costs, while increasing overall data rates. Our demonstration also shows that the device we produced is compatible with the optical fibre infrastructure that is already in place.”

The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications on Friday.