Apple to expand smart-home lineup with new displays, faster TV set-top box

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 20, 2023 | Technology

Apple Inc. is working on a slate of devices aimed at challenging Amazon.com Inc. and Google in the smart-home market, including new displays and a faster TV set-top box, after relaunching its larger HomePod speaker.

The push into smart displays will start with a tablet product — essentially a low-end iPad — that can control things like thermostats and lights, show video and handle FaceTime chats, people with knowledge of the plans said. The product could be mounted on walls or elsewhere using magnetic fasteners, positioning it as more of a home gadget than a regular iPad.

Apple has also discussed the idea of building larger smart-home displays, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

While the iPad already has smart-home features, standalone smart-home devices — often designed as countertop or wall-mounted appliances — have grown increasingly popular. Amazon sells a line of Echo Show products with displays, while Google offers its Nest Hub. And the latter company — part of Alphabet Inc. — is readying a Pixel Tablet with an optional stand. Apple also has discussed creating a home stand for its current iPads.

The Cupertino, California-based technology giant has struggled in the home space and has ceded much of the market to its rivals. Its current devices remain limited in their functionality, with Apple’s Siri voice-control service lagging behind Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant. The new devices — along with upcoming changes to Siri — are aimed at turning around Apple’s fortunes.

A representative for Apple declined to comment.

Earlier Wednesday, Apple rolled out the new HomePod speaker. The $299 device is revamped version of the original, running the same chip as last year’s Apple Watch. It has an updated media panel on the top and a new sensor for determining the temperature inside of a user’s home. Bloomberg reported that the new speaker was imminent earlier this year. The temperature monitor first appeared in the HomePod mini in 2021, though it wasn’t yet functional at the time.

The original HomePod was discontinued in 2021 after mediocre sales, with customers balking at the price and limited functionality. It initially launched at $349 before a price cut — a rare move for Apple — took it down to $299. Apple introduced a $99 HomePod mini in 2020 that has proven to be more popular, taking about 13% of the smart-speaker market, according to Strategy Analytics.

As part of its pursuit of smart-home customers, Apple has agreed to support the new Matter protocol, which lets rival gadgets work together. The company also recently redesigned the Home app that helps control its devices.

Beyond the future smart displays and new speaker, Apple is working on revamping its TV box. A new version with the current design is in the works for the first half of next year with a faster processor, the people said.

Apple last updated its TV device in October, giving it the iPhone 14’s A15 chip and a remote control that uses the USB-C standard. Despite regular efforts to improve the product, the Apple TV box has made limited headway in the market. It holds only a 5% share, according to Insider Intelligence, compared with 30% for Amazon and 28% for Roku Inc.

While the new version will support an upgraded chip, it likely won’t support 8K video streaming, a still nascent video format.

Work on a long-anticipated product that would combine the TV box with a smart speaker and FaceTime camera also has suffered setbacks, though that project is still ongoing. The device was initially targeted for release this year, but the timing has slipped. Likewise, the smart displays have seen their development schedules delayed and likely won’t launch until next year at the earliest.

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IIT Madras-incubated company develops indigenous mobile operating system

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 19, 2023 | Technology

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras)-incubated firm has developed an Indigenous Mobile Operating System that can benefit India’s mobile phone users.

Called ‘BharOS,’ this software can be installed on commercial off-the-shelf handsets. It provides a secure environment for users and is a significant contribution towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat.’

BharOS Services are currently being provided to organisations that have stringent privacy and security requirements whose users handle sensitive information that requires confidential communications on restricted apps on mobiles. Such users require access to private cloud services through private 5G networks.

The BharOS was developed by JandK Operations (JandKops), which has been incubated by IIT Madras Pravartak Technologies Foundation, a Section 8 (Not for Profit) Company established by IIT Madras.

The Foundation is funded by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, under its National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS). It aspires to put India on par with those few countries that currently possess such capabilities.

Addressing a Press Conference on Thursday to announce this Indian Mobile Operating System, V Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “BharOS Service is a Mobile Operating System built on a foundation of trust, with a focus on providing users more freedom, control, and flexibility to choose and use only the apps that fit their needs. This innovative system promises to revolutionise the way users think about security and privacy on their mobile devices.”

Further, Kamakoti added, “IIT Madras looks forward to working closely with many more private industry, Government agencies, Strategic agencies and Telecom Service Providers to increase the usage and adoption of BharOS in our Country.”

BharOS comes with No Default Apps (NDA). This means that users are not forced to use apps that they may not be familiar with or that they may not trust. Additionally, this approach allows users to have more control over the permissions that apps have on their device, as they can choose to only allow apps that they trust to access certain features or data on their device.

Karthik Ayyar, Director, JandK Operations Pvt Ltd., the start-up that developed this Mobile Operating System, said, “In addition, BharOS offers ‘Native Over The Air’ (NOTA) updates that can help to keep the devices secure. NOTA updates are automatically downloaded and installed on the device, without the need for the user to manually initiate the process. This ensures that the device is always running the latest version of the operating system, which includes the latest security patches and bug fixes.”

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Govt to hold public consultation on fact-checking rule for online content

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 19, 2023 | Technology

The government has invited public comment on a new rule asking online platforms to remove content flagged fake or false by its fact-checking mechanisms. Public consultation will be held on January 24.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), earlier this week, released the revised draft amendments to the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. The draft asks all online platforms, including social media, to remove content marked as false by the Press Information Bureau’s Fact Check Unit or other government agencies.

“The draft amendments to IT Rules are in pursuance of our commitment to an open, safe, trusted and accountable internet. We have circulated amendments for consultation with stakeholders. As is the practice meticulously followed by Govt these amendments will also be put through open consultations—to reflect, discuss and deliberate on these amendments or any other such effective means through which we can prevent misinformation or patently wrong information circulated on the Internet by State/Non-State actors,” said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology, in a press release.

Current rules say an intermediary must make efforts to cause the user of its computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that deceives or misleads the addressee about the origin of the message or knowingly and intentionally communicates any misinformation or information which is patently false and untrue or misleading in nature.

The amendment proposes an addition worded: “Or is identified as fake or false by the fact check unit at the Press Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting or other agency authorised by the Central Government for fact-checking or, in respect of any business of the Central Government, by its department in which such business is transacted under the rules of business made under clause (3) of article 77 of the Constitution.”

The rules require all platforms acting as intermediaries between users and the internet to ensure diligence while hosting content. The rules apply to social media intermediaries, ‘significant social media intermediaries’ (platforms with more than five million users), and online gaming intermediaries.

MeitY had earlier initiated a public consultation on the regulations for online gaming. Comments and suggestions on both amendments can be submitted through the MyGov platform by January 25.

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85% org hits by ransomware in past 12 months, up from 76%: Report

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 19, 2023 | Technology

Nearly 85 per cent of organisations were attacked by ransomware at least once in the past 12 months, up from 76 per cent, a report showed on Thursday.

Specifically, recovery is a main concern as organisations reported that only 55 per cent of their encrypted/destroyed data was recoverable from attacks, according to Veeam Software.

The survey found that companies are challenged with more complex hybrid IT environments and are raising budgets to fend off cyberattacks as well as keep up as production environments continue to diversify across various clouds.

Globally, organisations expect to increase their data protection budget in 2023 by 6.5 per cent.

Of the 85 per cent of organisations planning on increasing their data protection budgets, their average planned increase is 8.3 per cent and often in concert with increased investments in cybersecurity tools.

“IT leaders are facing a dual challenge. They are building and supporting increasingly complex hybrid environments, while the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks is increasing,” said Danny Allan, CTO and Senior Vice President of Product Strategy at Veeam.

This is a major concern as leaders think through how they mitigate and recover business operations from any type of disruption.

“Legacy backup approaches won’t address modern workloads – from IaaS and SaaS to containers – and result in an unreliable and slow recovery for the business when it’s needed most. This is what’s focusing the minds of IT leaders as they consider their cyber resiliency plan,” said Allan.

Due to its burden on budgets and manpower, ransomware and the current volatile cyber security landscape are taking priority for IT teams.

This is causing IT resources and budgets originally allocated towards Digital Transformation initiatives to pivot to cyber prevention.

“Not only do cyberattacks drain operational budgets from ransoms to recovery efforts, but they also reduce organisations’ ability to modernise for their future success; instead, they must pay for prevention and mitigation of the status quo,” said the report.

–IANS

na/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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India aims to become key semiconductor supplier for world: Vaishnaw

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 19, 2023 | Technology

Sensing a huge opportunity in the global semiconductor market, India has set in motion an ambitious plan to become a key supplier for the world with the government itself putting in USD 10 billion, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

Speaking at a session on ‘Learning from semiconductor supply shocks’ at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 here, the minister said there is a very large market that requires semiconductor and India has a huge potential in terms of infrastructure, talent pool and technology.

“Our university system that produces a large number of talent is also helping a lot as we have tied up with many universities to prepare right talent,” he said.

Asked about the government’s own investment plans, he said the government itself is putting in USD 10 billion and it has chalked out a long haul programme.

“We see a huge potential for India to become a key semiconductor supplier for the entire world, that too for the latest requirements including for electric vehicles and for all cutting edge technologies. We are convinced that the demand is going to be huge,” he added.

“The industry is going to double in size to USD 1 trillion in the next 6-7 years with the growth rate set to accelerate in a big way,” he added.

Vaishnaw also said the government is mindful of the environment and it will ensure that the new factories are supplied with green energy.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Apple may not bring design changes to next-generation Mac mini in 2024

by Hansraj Agrawal | Jan 19, 2023 | Technology

Tech giant Apple will reportedly not bring design updates to its upcoming next-generation Mac mini which is set to arrive in 2024.

According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the “next new Mac mini” will have the same “form factor design,” reports MacRumors.

The M2 and M2 Pro versions of the Mac mini that the tech giant had introduced on Tuesday have the same design as the previous-generation M1 models, with no major external updates.

Instead, the changes are all internal such as it features faster M-series chips.

There were rumours in 2021 and 2022 that the Mac mini would get a new look with a plexiglass top and other features, but that did not happen with this year’s release, the report said.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the iPhone maker had introduced a new Mac mini with M2 and M2 Pro chips — more powerful, capable and versatile than ever — starting at Rs 59,900.

The new M2 Pro chip delivers pro-level performance to Mac mini for the first time, enabling users to run high-performance workflows that were previously unimaginable in such a compact design.

–IANS

aj/shb/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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