Whatsapp Bill Payment Feature Android: WhatsApp, the widely used instant messaging platform, is constantly evolving to provide greater convenience to its 3.5 billion users worldwide. The Meta-owned app is reportedly testing a new feature that would enable users in India to make bill payments directly within the app, expanding its financial services beyond UPI-based peer-to-peer transactions. Fresh Challenge To Google Pay, PhonePe, And Paytm This move aims to streamline digital payments by eliminating the need to switch between multiple apps, positioning WhatsApp as a comprehensive utility platform. The new feature put WhatsApp in direct competition with platforms like Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm.  According to leaks, the bill payment feature has been spotted in WhatsApp’s Android Beta version 2.25.3.15. The feature is still in the testing phase. However, a timeline for its rollout remains unclear. According to media reports, the upcoming feature will allow users to pay a variety of bills, including electricity, water, mobile recharges, rent, and more—offering significant convenience for those who regularly manage household expenses through multiple platforms. WhatsApp UPI-Based Payment System This functionality is expected to integrate with WhatsApp’s existing UPI-based payment system, WhatsApp Pay. Currently, WhatsApp Pay enables users to send money to contacts and make payments to businesses via UPI. Notably, the platform launched its UPI payment service in India in 2020, initially available to a limited number of users due to regulatory constraints.   Market Share Of Google Pay, PhonePe In a major development, WhatsApp Pay recently received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to extend UPI services to all users in India. Earlier, the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) service was limited to 100 million users, but this cap has now been removed. As of November 2024, PhonePe held 47.8% of the market share, while Google Pay had 37%. Other competitors include Paytm, Navi, Cred, and Amazon Pay. 

New Delhi: Riding on the government’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, Apple has reached all-time high iPhone export figures from India at Rs 1 lakh crore for the 10 months (April-January) in the current financial year (FY25).  According to industry data, in the month of January, the iPhone exports reached around Rs 19,000 crore, an all-time high. The overall iPhone exports from the country grew more than 30 per cent in the 10 months this fiscal (April-January 2025) compared to the same period last fiscal (Rs 76,000 crore). “Another record performance under PLI scheme. PLI propels iPhone exports past Rs 1 lakh crore in just 10 months of FY25,” Union Minister for Railways and Electronics and IT, Ashwini Vaishnaw, posted on X social media platform on Monday. “Overall smartphones expected to cross Rs 2.25 lakh crore in FY25,” the union minister informed. More than 325 to 330 million mobile phones a year are being manufactured in India and on average there are about a billion mobile phones in use in India. India is a huge market for Apple and “we have achieved a December quarter growth record where the iPhone was the top selling model in the country for the October-December period of 2024,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said last month. He further stated that the iPhone was the top selling model in India for the December quarter. Notably, iPhones registered 7 per cent India smartphone market share in 2024, rising on robust local production and growing premiumisation trend in smaller cities. On year-on-year basis, iPhones registered 23 per cent growth and iPads an impressive 44 per cent growth in the country, according to data shared by CyberMedia Research (CMR). In the October-December quarter (Q4) of 2024, Apple, with its aspirational image and rising footprint, entered the top 5 smartphone players in India for the first time, garnering nearly 10 per cent market share by volume. Apple’s India shipments were set to cross 11 million marks in 2024.

Oppo Find N5 Global Launch: Chinese electronics brand Oppo has finally confirmed the official launch date for its next-generation foldable smartphone, the Oppo Find N5, after teasing the device for over a month. The much-anticipated smartphone is set to launch globally alongside the Oppo Watch X2 smartwatch. The company claims that it will be the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone yet and has also revealed its design and colour options. According to the teaser video, Oppo has revealed the colour options of the Oppo Find N5. The device will be available in Jade White and Satin Black with a glass back, and a Twilight Purple variant with a leather back. Slimmer, stronger, more powerful  Discover the ultra-thin #OPPOFindN5 in Cosmic Black and Misty White.#SlimYetPowerful pic.twitter.com/3Zyzr1ovQN — OPPO (@oppo) February 10, 2025 Oppo Find N5 Global Launch Date The upcoming Oppo Find N5 will be launched at a global event in Singapore on February 20. The event will begin at 7 PM SGT (4:30 PM IST), according to the company. However, despite being labeled a global launch, there is no trace of this teaser on the Oppo India website. Based on previous trends, the Oppo Find N5 is expected to be rebranded as the OnePlus Open 2 and launched in India. The company has also disclosed that the Oppo Find N5 will be the first foldable smartphone to feature a 3D-printed titanium alloy hinge for improved durability. Oppo Find N5 Specifications (Expected) The upcoming smartphone is expected to feature an 8.12-inch inner foldable display, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC with a 7-core variant of the chipset. The device will come with 16GB of RAM, further expandable with 12GB of virtual RAM, and 512GB of internal storage. It will be backed by a 5,600mAh battery, supporting 80W wired fast charging and 50W wireless fast charging. Running on ColorOS 15 based on Android 15, the smartphone will boast a triple 50MP rear camera setup, including a 50MP primary sensor, an 8MP secondary camera, and another 50MP sensor, likely a 3x telephoto periscope lens. OnePlus Open Price in India (Expected) The OnePlus Open debuted in India in 2023 at a price of Rs 1,39,999. The upcoming OnePlus Open 2 is likely to launch in a similar or slightly higher price range.

Meta Layoffs 2025: Mark Zuckerberg–led tech giant Meta is set to lay off around 3,000 employees, about 5% of its workforce, according to a leaked internal memo, reports said on Sunday. The memo, posted by Janelle Gale, Meta’s Vice President of Human Resources, was shared on the company’s internal Workplace forum. It states that affected employees will receive an email on Monday morning informing them of their job status. For some international employees, layoffs will begin early Sunday at 2:30 a.m. IST. In the U.S., employees will be notified on Monday at 6:30 p.m. IST. An hour after receiving the email, they will lose access to company systems. The email will also include details about severance packages. Gale acknowledged the difficulty of the situation, especially for teams losing a manager or colleague. She mentioned that Meta offices will remain open, but employees who prefer to work remotely on Monday can do so. Since Meta follows a hybrid work model, requiring employees to be in the office three days a week, working from home on Monday will still count as an in-person workday. The company has not disclosed the names of the employees being laid off. Some of these roles may be refilled in the future, but there is no set timeline. Employees whose managers are laid off will be assigned new reporting heads. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously hinted at job cuts, stating that the company was raising performance standards. Typically, Meta phases out low performers over a year, but this time, the layoffs are happening on a much larger scale based on recent performance reviews. Meanwhile, Amazon recently laid off dozens of employees, while Salesforce cut about 1,000 jobs earlier this year. The trend of job cuts in the tech industry continues as companies focus on efficiency and cost-cutting. (With IANS Inputs)

New Delhi: The finance ministry has directed its officers not to download or use AI tools and apps such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek in office computers and devices, saying they pose confidentiality risks to data and documents. In a communication last month to all its departments, the ministry said AI tools/AI apps in office devices may be strictly avoided. Why Has India’s Finance Ministry Directed Its Officers Not To Download Or Use AI Tools And Apps Such As Chatgpt And Deepseek In Office Computers And Devices “It has been determined that AI tools and AI apps (such as ChatGPT, DeepSeek etc) in the office computers and devices pose risks for confidentiality of Govt, data and documents,” Department of Expenditure under the ministry said in a note on January 29. The move comes at a time when countries like Australia and Italy have shielded their official systems from Chinese DeepSeek over privacy and data safety concerns. Currently, Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, which has developed artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT is on a whirlwind tour to India. He is meeting top government officials, industry captains and participated in a fireside chat on Wednesday morning. DeepSeek’s latest AI offering has drawn global attention for its low-cost model — at just USD 6 million against global average of billions of dollars. Further, DeepSeek’s R1 used a fraction of compute power as compared to established AI models like ChatGPT. DeepSeek overtook ChatGPT as the top-ranked free app on Apple’s Appstore, as the US tech industry — that has long-justified injecting billions of dollars into AI investments — watched in sheer disbelief last week.  

New Delhi: ChatGPT, one of OpenAI’s most popular Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools on Thursday faced a global outage as millions of users were unable to access the service.  Many frustrated users took to social media platforms like X on Thursday to report that ChatGPT was not working for them. The complaints indicate that the issue is widespread, with reports coming in from different countries. According to Downdetector, a platform that tracks online outages, thousands of users have been affected by the outage. The website’s data showed a sudden spike in ChatGPT outage reports early this morning, and the numbers continue to rise as more people face issues. Some users are struggling to log in, while others say the AI is not responding to commands at all. The heat map (a technique that uses colour to represent data values) on Downdetector confirms that the outage is based on user-submitted complaints. So far, nearly 90 per cent of users have reported problems with the ChatGPT app, while others are facing issues on the website as well. OpenAI has not yet shared any official statement on the cause or extent of the outage. Meanwhile, frustrated users are flooding X with posts and memes about the situation. One user humorously wrote, “Today, I lost access to ChatGPT for 20 minutes, and it felt like it was 2015 and Google Search had gone offline for a couple of hours.” Another user added “Everyone coming to X to confirm chatgpt down” with a meme. “ChatGPT down again ??! surprised not surprised !!!,” a user said. Another X user also chimed in, “Chatgpt is always down in the middle of doing my assignment.” “Watching everyone freak out when Chatgpt is down and they have to use their brains we truly r doomed,” another user added. ChatGPT was still down till the time of the filing of this report. Meanwhile, today’s outage is not the first time ChatGPT has faced technical issues. Recently, on January 23, the AI chatbot experienced a similar global disruption, preventing users from accessing it on both the web and the app. During that outage, Downdetector recorded over a thousand user complaints, with many frustrated users taking to X to share their concerns about the malfunction.

New Delhi: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued a warning regarding multiple security vulnerabilities affecting Android devices, particularly those running on Android 12 and later. The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), in collaboration with MeitY, has highlighted that these vulnerabilities could expose users to serious cyberattacks. The flaws are primarily in the Android framework, though there may also be issues with the chipset components. What Could Happen if These Vulnerabilities are Exploited? It mentions, “Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Android which could be exploited by an attacker to obtain sensitive information, gain elevated privileges, execute arbitrary code or cause denial of service (DoS) conditions on the targeted system.” In simpler terms, these vulnerabilities could allow hackers to steal personal data, gain unauthorized access, run harmful programs, or cause the device to stop working.  What You Can Do This warning is one of the most serious security concerns. The agency explains that the level of severity is determined by how much damage exploiting the vulnerability could cause to a device. As a result, CERT recommends that users of Android 12, 13, 14, and 15 update their devices to avoid any potential attacks. How to Protect Yourself from These Threats Update Your Device: Make sure to install the latest security updates to fix vulnerabilities. Download Apps Safely: Only download apps from the Google Play Store and avoid installing from unknown sources. Enable Google Play Protect: Turn on this feature to scan and block harmful apps. Check App Permissions: Review and remove unnecessary access to your personal data. Avoid Suspicious Links: Don’t click on unknown or suspicious links in messages or emails. Regularly Back Up Your Data: Store your data securely in the cloud or on external storage to avoid losing important information.//

New Delhi: India-manufactured flagship Galaxy S25 series of smartphones saw a record over 430,000 pre-orders in the country – 20 per cent higher as compared to Galaxy S24 series last year, the company said on Friday. Samsung is manufacturing Galaxy S25 series at its Noida factory for the consumers in the country. “Galaxy S25 Ultra, Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25 smartphones set a new standard as true AI companions with Samsung’s most natural and context-aware mobile experiences ever created,” said Raju Pullan, Senior Vice President, MX Division, Samsung India. “We have seen strong demand for the Galaxy S25 series among young tech-savvy consumers, who are at the forefront of Galaxy AI usage,” he informed. For Galaxy S25 consumers in India, Google’s Gemini Live will be available in Hindi since the start, underscoring the importance of India for Samsung. On the Galaxy S25 series, AI agents with multimodal capabilities are integrated within the One UI 7 platform to perform complex tasks seamlessly across apps and enable natural user interactions through speech, text, videos and images. Now, ‘Brief’ tool provides tailored suggestions to guide through the day and Now Bar offers a new hub for ongoing activities, said the company. From enhanced productivity with Writing Assist to limitless creativity unleashed by Drawing Assist, the expanded capabilities of Galaxy AI continue to empower users in every aspect of their daily lives. Additionally, Google’s enhanced Circle to Search now gives users more helpful information with AI Overviews and one-tap actions. Powering the Galaxy S25 series globally, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform for Galaxy fuels on-device processing for more responsive AI experiences. Starting February 7, the Galaxy S25 series will be available across retail stores and online platforms, said the company. “This year, we widened our flagship distribution network to 17,000 outlets, which has helped us tap demand in smaller cities,” said Pullan.

New Delhi: As the race to build new and better artificial intelligence (AI) models heats up, Google has announced to make the updated Gemini 2.0 AI generally available to all.  Developers can now build production applications with Gemini 2.0 Flash. The company is also releasing an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Pro, its best model yet for coding performance and complex prompts. It is available in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI, and in the Gemini app for Gemini Advanced users. “We’re releasing a new model, Gemini 2.0 Flash-Lite, our most cost-efficient model yet, in public preview in Google AI Studio and Vertex AI. Finally, 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental will be available to Gemini app users in the model dropdown on desktop and mobile,” informed Koray Kavukcuoglu, CTO, Google DeepMind, on behalf of the Gemini team. Google said that as the Gemini model family becomes more capable, it will continue to invest in robust measures that enable safe and secure use. “We’re also leveraging automated red teaming to assess safety and security risks, including those posed by risks from indirect prompt injection, a type of cybersecurity attack which involves attackers hiding malicious instructions in data that is likely to be retrieved by an AI system,” said the company, In December, the company kicked off the agentic era by releasing an experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Flash. All of these models will feature multimodal input with text output on release, with more modalities ready for general availability in the coming months. The experimental version of Gemini 2.0 Pro has the strongest coding performance and ability to handle complex prompts, with better understanding and reasoning of world knowledge. “It comes with our largest context window at 2 million tokens, which enables it to comprehensively analyze and understand vast amounts of information, as well as the ability to call tools like Google Search and code execution,” said the company.

New Delhi: Amazon is set to introduce a major upgrade to its voice assistant, Alexa, by incorporating cutting-edge generative AI technology, according to a report by Reuters. This new update is the most significant change to Alexa since its launch over 10 years ago with plans to improve the capabilities beyond simple taska like setting timers or checking the weather. The tech giant will reveal the exciting update during an event in New York City on February 26, hosted by Panos Panay, the head of Amazon’s devices and services division. Alexa to Become a More Advanced The upgraded version of Alexa is set to go beyond its traditional role as a voice assistant. It aims to become a more advanced, multifunctional agent. This new Alexa will be able to handle multiple requests in a row and take actions on behalf of users without needing continuous input. With the power of generative AI, Alexa will also become more conversational, remembering your preferences and offering personalized suggestions for things like music and dining choices. Limited Access and Future Subscription Fees for New Alexa The new version of Alexa will initially be available to a select group of users and, for now, will be free. However, there are talks about eventually charging a subscription fee of 5 dollars to 10 dollars per month. The classic, free version of Alexa will still be available even though Amazon won’t be adding new features to it. The generative AI-powered Alexa, codenamed “Banyan,” will be launched more widely once it meets specific quality standards, after facing multiple development delays. Technical and Competitive Challenges  As Amazon works to improve Alexa’s AI capabilities, it faces both technical and competitive challenges. Generative AI models are known to sometimes provide inaccurate or misleading information, so ensuring Alexa provides reliable and accurate responses—especially in environments like cars, homes, and workplaces—is crucial. Amazon Partners with Anthropic  Amazon is also teaming up with AI startup Anthropic, in which it has invested 8 billion dollars, to boost Alexa’s AI capabilities. At the same time, competitors like Google, Apple, and OpenAI are rapidly advancing their own AI-powered assistants. Google’s Gemini and Apple’s Intelligence are expected to deliver more natural AI interactions, while OpenAI’s ChatGPT has already become a favorite AI assistant for many users. Updated Alexa to Work with Existing Devices If Amazon goes ahead with its February 26 announcement, the updated Alexa will work with current Alexa-enabled devices. While the company will still offer the free “Classic Alexa,” it’s no longer adding new features to that version.