Vi 5G Services In India: Vodafone Idea (Vi) has officially launched its 5G services in the Indian market. These services are initially available in 17 telecom circles across the country, arriving two years after Vi secured spectrum in the 5G auction alongside competitors Airtel and Jio. While Airtel and Jio rolled out their 5G networks soon after the auction in 2022, Vi’s entry into the 5G space comes much later. The new services are accessible to both prepaid and postpaid users, leveraging the 3.3GHz and 26GHz (mmWave) spectrum for deployment.  Vi 5G Services In Select Cities: Check Full List Here  State/Region City Location Rajasthan Jaipur Near Galaxy Cinema, Mansarovar Industrial Area, RIICO Haryana Karnal HSIIDC, Industrial Area, Sector-3 West Bengal Kolkata Sector V, Salt Lake Kerala Thrikkakara Kakkanad Uttar Pradesh (East) Lucknow Vibhuti Khand, Gomtinagar Uttar Pradesh (West) Agra Near J.P. Hotel, Fatehbad Road Madhya Pradesh Indore Electronic Complex, Pardeshipura Gujarat Ahmedabad Near Divya Bhaskar, Corporate Road, Makarba, Prahladnagar Andhra Pradesh Hyderabad Aida Upal, Ranga Reddy West Bengal Siliguri City Plaza Sevok Road Bihar Patna Anishabad Golamber Maharashtra Mumbai Worli, Marol Andheri East Karnataka Bengaluru Dairy Circle Punjab Jalandhar Kot Kalan Tamil Nadu Chennai Perungudi, Nesapakkam Maharashtra Pune Shivaji Nagar Delhi Delhi Okhla Industrial Area (Phase 2, India Gate, Pragati Maidan) Vi 5G Services: Price And Plan Vi 5G offers both prepaid and postpaid plans for users. For prepaid customers, a Rs 475 plan is required to access 5G services. On the other hand, postpaid users can enjoy 5G benefits with the REDX 1101 plan.   Vi 5G Services: Dual Spectrum Coverage Excluding Bihar  Vi has rolled out both the 3.3GHz and 26GHz mmWave spectrum bands in all the cities listed above, except for Bihar, where only the 3.3GHz spectrum is available. Currently, the 5G service is commercially accessible in select areas. Vi users in other cities can look forward to improved connectivity and faster internet speeds as the company continues to expand its network in the coming months. 

New Delhi: Tech giant Apple’s chipset shipments increased to 18 per cent globally in the third quarter this year (from 13 per cent in Q2 2024), due to the launch of its A18 chipset. According to a Counterpoint Research report, the Cupertino (California)-based tech giant recently launched two chipsets – A18 and A18 Pro. The iPhone 16 base models come with A18, while the iPhone 16 Pro models house the A18 Pro. A18 Pro delivers unprecedented efficiency. The new 16-core Neural Engine is faster and more efficient than the previous generation, powering remarkable on-device performance for Apple Intelligence. At the top, MediaTek’s overall shipments increased slightly to 36 per cent in Q3 2024, from 34 per cent in Q2. “5G shipments remained flat while LTE chipset shipments increased. Premium-tier shipments are expected to increase due to the early launch of the Dimensity 9400,” the report noted. Qualcomm’s shipments declined (on-quarter) to 26 per cent in Q3 2024 (from 30 per cent in Q2), due to seasonality. “Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Fold 6 series will drive momentum for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 shipments. Qualcomm recently launched the Snapdragon 8 Elite. It already has design wins with multiple OEMs,” the report noted. Samsung’s Exynos saw a slight increase in shipments sequentially in Q3 2024 with the launch of the Galaxy S24 FE with the Exynos 2400. Also, shipments of the Exynos 1480 and Exynos 1380 have increased due to the high shipment volumes for the Galaxy A55 and A35. Another chip player UNISOC’s shipments declined sequentially in Q3 2024. “UNISOC continues to gain share in the low-tier price bands (under $99) driven by its LTE portfolio. Also, UNISOC launched a new chipset – T620 – in Q4, which already has design wins with itel for the SS25 and SS25 Ultra,” the report said.

Download YouTube Videos Offline Laptop: In today’s time, everyone loves YouTube for its endless entertainment, information, and educational content. But what happens when you want to watch a video during a flight or journey with no internet? The solution is simple—download the video for offline viewing. Whether it’s a tutorial, a favourite show, or an educational clip, saving it on your PC, Mac, or laptop ensures you can watch it anytime.  Meanwhile, YouTube Premium also offers an official way to download videos, there are other methods you can use as well. You can also search for third-party YouTube video downloaders to download and watch a YouTube video offline on a PC, Mac or laptop. Users can download YouTube videos offline using YouTube Premium. This method requires a YouTube Premium subscription, which costs Rs 149 per month.  It is important to respect copyright laws and use downloaded content for personal use only. So, you can follow these steps to download and enjoy YouTube videos offline on your PC, Mac, or laptop.  How To Download A YouTube Video  Step 1: Open YouTube on your PC, Mac, or laptop and sign in to your YouTube Premium account.  Step 2: Search for the video you want to save for offline viewing and open it.  Step 3: Below the video player, locate the Download button (next to the share option) and click it. Step 4: Once downloaded, access the saved video through your YouTube library for offline viewing anytime.   How To Locate YouTube Videos Offline  Step 1: Open youtube.com on your PC, Mac, or laptop.  Step 2: Click the hamburger menu (three lines) on the left-hand side and select Downloads. Step 3: Access all your saved videos in the Downloads section and enjoy them anytime offline.  YouTube allows downloaded videos to be played offline for up to 29 days. After this, you’ll need to reconnect to the internet to continue accessing them. 

Restore Deleted Pics From Google Photos: The Google Photos app comes pre-installed on phones, allowing users to manage their photos and videos. However, sometimes people accidentally delete a photo and later get upset about it. They think that the photo cannot be recovered. But that’s not true. You can restore a deleted photo from Google Photos.  Google Photos is a cloud-based service provided by Google that allows users to store, organize, and manage their photos and videos. It automatically backs up images and videos from your phone, tablet, or computer, making them accessible from any device with internet access. Google Photos also offers features like intelligent search, automatic organization by people, places, and things, and advanced editing tools.  Here’s how you can recover deleted photos from Google Photos.  Check the Trash Folder When you delete a photo from Google Photos, it goes to the Trash folder. You can retrieve it from there. However, you can only restore photos and videos that are still present in the Trash folder. To restore a photo, find the one you want to recover, and then click on the Restore option. After that, the photo will be restored to your phone’s gallery or Google Photos library. Check the Archive Folder Sometimes, people accidentally archive photos and forget about it, later thinking they have deleted them. If you’re unable to find your photo, make sure to check the Archive folder. If the photo is there, choose the Unarchive option to restore it. The photo will then appear back in your phone’s gallery. Get Help from Google Support If you had stored your photo in Google Drive, you can request Google for assistance to recover it. Step 1: To restore the photo, go to Google Drive and click on the Help page. Step 2: On the Help page, click on the Missing or deleted files option. Step 3: You will then see two options in a pop-up box: Request chat and Email support. You can choose either one based on your convenience. Step 4: Here, you can explain to Google why you need the deleted photo or file back. If possible, Google may be able to retrieve your deleted photo or file.

New Delhi: Google’s list of the most popular searches in India this year reveals a mix of interests with cricket leading the way. The Indian Premier league and T20 World Cup topped the charts. This captured the nation’s passion for the sport. Election results and the Bharatiya Janata Party followed closely. The  upcoming 2024 Olympicsalso sparked controversy and made it to the top five. Here’s a glimpse at what India searched for the most this year. Google Search is our go-to tool for looking up word meanings, and this year, Indians were curious about terms like “All Eyes on Rafah,” “Akaay,” “Cervical Cancer,” “Tawaif,” and “Demure.” To make things easier, Google has even grouped these searches into different categories. Google Year in Search 2024: AQI and Onam Sadhya Top ‘Near Me’ Searches Google’s Year in Search 2024 revealed that Indians used “near me” searches for both practical and cultural needs. “AQI near me” ranked at the top as concerns over air quality in cities like Delhi and Mumbai grew. Food and traditions were also popular, with “Onam Sadhya near me” and “Ram Mandir near me” following closely, the latter gaining attention after the Ayodhya Ram Mandir’s inauguration by PM Modi in January. Other top searches included sports bars, bakeries, trendy cafes, polio drops, and temples. This highlights a mix of everyday needs and cultural interests. Here are the most searched movies in India this year: – Stree 2 – Kalki 2898 AD – 12th Fail – Laapataa Ladies – Hanu-Man – Maharaja – Manjummel Boys – The Greatest of All Time – Salaar – Aavesham Along with movies, popular web series and TV shows like “Hiramandi,” “Mirzapur,” “The Last of Us,” “Bigg Boss 17,” and “Panchayat” also captured people’s attention. These trends give us a glimpse into the diverse cultural, environmental, and global issues that shaped India’s digital curiosity this year.  Some queries were political, like “How to vote Lok Sabha,” while others were more lighthearted, such as meme-inspired searches like “Pookie meaning” and “Moye Moye.” The global Palestine conflict also sparked local interest, with many looking up “All Eyes on Rafah.” India’s search trends this year went beyond just environmental concerns. People searched for topics related to festivals, famous landmarks, food trends and entertainment. 

New Delhi: ChatGPT faced major global outage on Thursday, hours after the OpenAI’s AI-powered chat tool announced integration with iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The AI prompt services were inaccessible across the world. However OpenAI has now restored services for millions of its subscribers. OpenAI in its status report said,ChatGPT, Sora, and the API remain down. We have identified the issue and are rolling out a remediation. We are working as fast as we can to return service to normal and apologize for the downtime. We have reports of API calls returning errors, and difficulties logging in to platform.openai.com and ChatGPT. We have identified the issue and are working to roll out a fix.”     We’re experiencing an outage right now. We have identified the issue and are working to roll out a fix. Sorry and we’ll keep you updated! — OpenAI (@OpenAI) December 12, 2024 We are continuing to work towards remediation. API traffic recovery is ongoing and we are bringing ChatGPT traffic back up by region. Sora is partially beginning to recover. API, ChatGPT, and Sora traffic has largely recovered. We are monitoring the situation to ensure full resolution, added OpenAI.

New Delhi: To improve communication and user experience, the instant messaging platform WhatsApp is launching new calling features, such as the ability to select group chat calls, add video call effects, and improve desktop app calling. With more than 2 billion calls made every day, WhatsApp is constantly enhancing its calling services for both desktop and mobile users.  New effects in video call Ten new video call effects are being added by WhatsApp, such as karaoke microphone effects, underwater appearances, and puppy ears. Video calls will be more entertaining with the addition of this feature. Choose who you want to call With the new feature, users may choose which individuals to invite to group calls, limiting the number of people they can talk to from a bigger group. This is a big step up from the last approach, which involved everyone in the conversation. Improved video call quality Call quality will now be better for users making video calls. WhatsApp makes one-on-one and group talks on desktop and mobile devices more pleasurable with its greater resolution and sharper picture quality. Improved calling features in WhatsApp desktop app Better calling features have been added to the WhatsApp desktop app, making it easier to initiate calls, and generate call links, and dial numbers. This simplified configuration is especially helpful for people who prefer making calls on their desktops.

New Delhi: A shocking case of fraud has surfaced involving WhatsApp. This has left users alarmed about the growing risks of online scams. A man from Tripunithura, Kerala fell victim to a scam and lost Rs 4.05 crore. This happened after he downloaded a malicious app from a link sent via WhatsApp. What makes this incident even more disturbing is that the scammers duped him over two and a half months without raising any suspicion. This incident in Kerala began when the victim was approached on WhatsApp by a woman named Avanthika Dev. She posed as a representative of a well-known private financial services company. She further persuaded the victim to download an app called Br-Block Pro. The app was presented as a tool for profitable share trading, according to a report by The Times of India. The scammer used fake reports to showcase impressive returns and quick profits and claimed other users had benefited from the scheme. She finally gained the victim’s trust through convincing promises and fabricated success stories. The victim believed her assurances and installed the app. After this, the victim started investing money through it. The victim made multiple deposits between September 26 and December 9 and expected significant returns. However, when he tried to withdraw the money he was denied access. After realising that he had been scammed, the victim reported the fraud to the cyber police, who have since registered a complaint. This case is part of a growing trend of scams across India where fraudsters use platforms like WhatsApp to lure victims with promises of guaranteed profits. Once the money is invested, it is misappropriated and leaves victims helpless. Tips to Stay Safe from Scams: Think Before Clicking: Avoid clicking on links or downloading files from unknown sources on WhatsApp or other messaging platforms. Be Wary of Unknown Contacts: Ignore messages or calls from unfamiliar numbers. Stay Alert for Unrealistic Offers: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is—beware of promises like huge returns, free gifts, or lottery wins. Avoid Unofficial Apps: Only install apps from trusted sources and steer clear of third-party apps you’re unsure about.