London, July 6 (IANS) Scientists using simulations in the lab have revealed that changes in the direction of the Earth's magnetic field may take place 10 times faster than previously thought.   The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, gives new insight into the swirling flow of iron 2,800 kms below the planet's surface and how it has influenced the movement of the magnetic field during the past hundred thousand years.   "We have very

San Francisco, July 4 (IANS) Facebook-owned Instagram is preparing to launch a huge redesign that would make easier to watch favourite Stories in one place.   Julian Gamboa, Marketing and Social Media Manager at Adweek, recently posted screenshots of the new layout to Twitter and wrote: "You have heard of two rows of Instagram Stories...Now prepare for SEE ALL STORIES.   The screenshots indicate that the main feed may soon include two rows of Stories at the t

New Delhi, July 3 (IANS) In a filip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for local ke liye vocal amid the ban on 59 Chinese apps, Reliance Jio has launched a free video-conferencing application called JioMeet that takes on various other such apps which are growing in leaps and bounds as millions of people work from home in India.   The application that has already been downloaded more than 1,00,000 times on Google Play Store within no time comes with enterprise-grade h

New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) As hacking threats increase from nation-state bad actors from China and North Korea, a staggering 89 per cent of CIOs in India say that cybersecurity remains to top investment area for them, a new Adobe survey revealed on Thursday.   The CIOs from India and Australia re-asserted that cyber security continues to be one of the most cited areas for planned investment.   Some of the most prominent areas of cybersecurity related issues for Indi

Hyderabad, July 2 (IANS) The Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H) on Thursday said its researchers are using computational methods to understand the factors and impediments in incorporating biofuels into the fuel sector in India.   This work has been spurred by the increasing need to replace fossil fuels by bio-derived fuels, which, in turn, is driven by the dwindling fossil fuel reserves all over the world, and pollution issues associated with the use of fossil

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Facebook on Tuesday launched a new feature 'Avatars' in India which would allow users to create a digital persona that's uniquely representative of the user and post in comments, Messenger chats or share it on WhatsApp.   Users will be able to make an Avatar, a cartoon-like version of themselves by choosing from a variety of faces, hairstyles and outfits that have been specially customised for India.   The Avatar creator enabl

New Delhi, June 29 (IANS) Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday announced the general availability of its fully-managed service AWS Outposts in India.   AWS Outposts extends AWS infrastructure and services to virtually any data centre, co-location space, or on-premises facility, allowing customers to run AWS compute, storage, database, and other services on-premises, while seamlessly connecting to AWS's broad array of services in the Cloud.   Customers in India

New Delhi, June 28 (IANS) Instagram is working on a new feature called video note for its standalone messaging app Threads that helps users stay connected to close or smaller circle of friends.   The new feature, reported by mobile developer and leaker Alessandro Paluzzi, will automatically turn audio in videos to live captions. "Instagram is working on a new feature for the Threads app: video note. This feature will turn the audio of the video into live captions t

New York, June 26 (IANS) A team of Facebook researchers has created an end-to-end system that helps users turn photos they take on their smartphones into 3D images within seconds.   The new framework provides users with a more practical approach to 3D photography, addressing several design objectives.   Users can access the new technology via their own mobile device and the real-time conversion from a 2D input image to 3D is seamless, requiring no sophisticated ph

Toronto, June 26 (IANS) Mobile phone use among women is associated with increased use of contraception, lower gender inequality, and lower maternal and child mortality, according to a new study which covered 209 countries.   The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, showed that giving women access to information they otherwise would not have, mobile phones are transforming lives.   Putting smart phones in women's

Chennai, June 25 (IANS) The proposed Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) could be turned into the sectoral regulator once necessary legal structure are there, according to K. Sivan, Secretary of the Department of Space (DoS) and Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).   On Wednesday the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gave its nod for opening up the space sector and for setting up of IN-SPACe to promo

New Delhi, June 24 (IANS) Digital influence on urban consumers has increased by 70 per cent for mobiles, around 60 per cent for apparel, and up to 25 per cent for the non-food consumer packaged goods categories due to Covid-19-induced changes, new reports from Facebook India and Boston Consulting Group said on Wednesday.   The results showed that 90 per cent of consumers who have purchased apparel online during the lockdown show willingness to continue.   Within c

New Delhi, June 23 (IANS) Three Indian developers have joined top 10 winners of Google Android Developer Challenge that encourages developers around the world to build apps using machine learning.   The three apps developed by Indians are AgroDoc, Leepi and UnoDogs.   Developed by Navneet Krishna from Kochi, AgroDoc helps farmers diagnose plant disease and make treatment plans.   Leepi, developed by Prince Patel from Bengaluru, helps students learn hand

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) Amid the rising India-China border tensions and a phishing attack alert by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), a key Indian government business department's website was hacked on Monday. The site of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), which has been responsible for curtailing FDI of Chinese companies into India, had a Chinese letter showing on its screen that seems to mean "meditation". How

San Francisco, June 21 (IANS) Microsoft is reportedly planning to launch its foldable smartphone Surface Duo in late July with Android 10 and would later update it to Android 11.   Microsoft has started working on Android 11 for its dual-screen device and that it would be rolled out within a few months of the launch, reports Windows Latest.   The next version of Android will probably be made official in September and that's when potential Surface Duo owners ca

New Delhi, June 20 (IANS) India is among six nations that may see a large cyber attack on June 21 in the form of Covid-19 themed phishing campaign from North Korean state hackers.   The attack are part of the Lazarus Group's large-scale campaign targeting more than 50 lakh individuals and businesses, including small and large enterprises, across six countries: India, Singapore, South Korea, Japan the UK and the US, according to a ZDNet report on Friday.   &quo

New York, June 20 (IANS) The US Army will soon be able to deploy autonomous aerial vehicles, or drones, that can change shape during flight, thanks to a new research that led to the development of a key tool.   The capability to change shape during flight will help optimise performance of the vehicle through different phases of flight.   "Consider an [Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance] mission where the vehicle needs to get quickly to station, or

Washington, June 19 (IANS) NASA has partnered with European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to unveil a global view of Covid-19 impacts.   This dashboard of satellite data showing the impacts of the global response to the coronavirus pandemic on the environment and socioeconomic activity will be released on June 25, NASA said on Thursday.   The "Covid-19 Earth Observation Dashboard" is a tri-agency collaboration that brin

San Francisco, June 18 (IANS) Microsoft has announced to resume optional non-security releases for Windows 10 and Windows Server next month.   In March, the company paused these optional non-security update releases (also referred to as ‘C' and ‘D' releases) for all supported versions of Windows client and Windows Server, to give organisations time to focus on business continuity in the face of the global pandemic.   "Based on feedback and

New York, June 18 (IANS) Researchers have detected a strange repeating rhythm of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) emanating from an unknown source outside our galaxy, 500 million light-years away.   Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are short, intense flashes of radio waves that are thought to be the product of small, distant, extremely dense objects, though exactly what those objects might be is a longstanding mystery in astrophysics.   FRBs typically last a few milliseconds,