Tech

Bengaluru, Cloud software company NetApp on Friday announced that eight new Indian tech startups, part of its accelerator programme, are now innovating in the fields of deep tech, including artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), cloud and data. The new startups -- Data Sutram, FireCompass, Metabob, Maxbyte, Nife, Snapblocs, State of Mind, and Tongadive -- were graduated as part of the eighth cohort of the flagship NetApp Excellerator programme. The latest cohort of eight startups brings the programme to 50 startups, and over 40 per cent of the startups are led by women, the company said in a statement. "One of our participating startups, State of Mind, an AI-driven conversational intelligence platform, is working with our HR team to improve employee experience and well-being. This is yet another example of data providing business value," said Ravi Chhabria, managing director, NetApp India . Five of the eight startups -- Metabob, Snapblocs, Nife … [Read more...] about NetApp Excellerator startups in India innovating in future tech

Jeff Bezos-backed food-tech firm NotCo said on Monday it raised $235 million in its latest funding round that also included athletes Lewis Hamilton and Roger Federer, valuing the plant-based food company at $1.5 billion. It makes plant-based milk, burger patties, meat and ice creams, and plans to use the new funding to expand in Asia and Europe and produce newer products for the North American market. "Many companies have reached NotCo to say 'can you do a plant-based version of our products'. In that way, we can become the 'Intel Inside' of other products," NotCo Chief Executive Officer Matias Muchnick told Reuters . NotCo, which operates in six countries in the Americas, also plans to invest more on its artificial intelligence technology, Giuseppe, which explores new combinations of plants to replicate animal-based food products. The funding, led by Tiger Global, also saw venture capital firm DFJ Growth Fund and social impact foundation ZOMA Lab … [Read more...] about Jeff Bezos-backed plant food-tech firm joins unicorn club after latest funding

New Delhi: Bengaluru has been ranked eighth in the top 10 cities list among leading technology innovation hubs outside Silicon Valley, San Francisco, in the next four years, according to a KPMG 's report that also ranked India third in the list of countries and jurisdictions that show the most promise for developing disruptive technologies. The annual report titled, "Technology innovation hubs", surveyed more than 800 industry leaders and showed that Covid-19 has rapidly accelerated new ways of working, but the world's 'technology hubs' are here to stay although they may not be in the Silicon Valley. "India's presence among the top three countries, for the second successive year, for promoting disruptive tech nologies proves the nation's tremendous emphasis on developing well-organised technology hubs for fostering all-round economic growth. Despite the pandemic, India's silicon valley -- Bengaluru has been ranked eighth in the list of top ten world-class tech … [Read more...] about Industry: Bengaluru 8th in global list of leading tech innovation hubs

Many tech giants have found their plans for returning to work delayed as they demand that all employees are vaccinated and some reintroduce mask mandates. The mandates extend far beyond workers in Silicon Valley, as Netflix is mandating vaccines for actors in its productions as well. Bloomberg reports that on Wednesday, tech giant Google announced that it would be delaying its official office return until mid-October and requiring all employees to get vaccinated. The ridesharing company Lyft announced that its employees will not be returning to the office until February, while Twitter has now closed its recently reopened offices. Discussing the decision to close its New York and San Francisco offices just two weeks after their reopening, Twitter stated: After careful consideration of the CDC’s updated guidelines, and in light of current conditions, Twitter has made the decision to close our opened offices in New York and San Francisco as well as pause future office … [Read more...] about Big Tech in Turmoil as Companies Scramble to Mandate Vaccines, Masks for Workers and Even Actors

Nearly seven out of 10 consumers in India were targeted by a tech support scammer in the last 12 months, finds a report released by Microsoft . The report titled '2021 Global Tech Support Scam Research' looks at tech support scams and their impact on consumers. It is based on a global survey, commissioned by YouGov , of 16 countries, including four Asia Pacific markets -- India, Australia, Japan and Singapore. The findings showed that consumers in India experienced a relatively high scam encounter rate of 69 per cent in the last 12 months. In contrast, there was an overall five-point drop in scam encounters globally with a rate of 59 per cent over the same period. Almost half of consumers surveyed in India (48 per cent) were tricked into continuing with the scam, three times higher than the global average (16 per cent). Further, millennials (58 per cent) and males (73 per cent) were found to be most susceptible to losing money from scams. Unsolicited call … [Read more...] about 7 in 10 Indians encountered tech support scams in past year: Microsoft

Two Democratic US senators on Thursday will add to the stack of bills going after Section 230 - a law that protects tech companies from being sued over content posted by users - making such platforms responsible for health-related misinformation. The legislation introduced by Amy Klobuchar and Ben Ray Lujan requires internet platforms such as Facebook to take down health and vaccine-related misinformation during public health emergencies or be held liable for that failure. It also directs the Department of Health & Human Services to issue guidelines on what constitutes health misinformation. "These are some of the biggest, richest companies in the world and they must do more to prevent the spread of deadly vaccine misinformation ," Klobuchar said. The bill quotes a study from the Center for Countering Digital Hate that found social media platforms failed to act on 95% of coronavirus-related disinformation reported to them. Kevin Martin, a vice … [Read more...] about US senators aim to stop vaccine misinformation by going after tech’s legal immunity

Well here's one to be proud of this Christmas, guys: the United Kingdom is the most advanced TV-watching country in the world! According to an in-depth international report by Ofcom, the UK leads the way in tech-savvy television consumption, with the only real challengers being Italy and Spain. While the US still watches the most TV overall (by some margin), they are technologically naive compared to most other countries polled by Ofcom. The graph (pictured above) pretty much says it all. In the last month, 81 percent of UK citizens watched a TV show or film online, 70 percent used a free-to-air catch-up service, and 16 percent watched catch-up TV on a tablet. By comparison, only 58 percent of Germans and 54 percent of Japanese people watched TV or films online in the past month. Where the UK really leads the pack is in free-to-air catch-up TV; no other country really comes close. But perhaps that isn't really a surprise, given that the bulk of the UK's original TV programming is … [Read more...] about UK most tech-savvy TV-watching country in the world

Every Friday, The Verge publishes our flagship podcast, The Vergecast , where our editors discuss the biggest stories in tech news this week. This week on The Vergecast , the show is split into three sections, hosted by Verge executive editor Dieter Bohn. In part one, Dieter and Verge managing editor Alex Cranz chat with Verge policy editor Russell Brandom to talk about President Biden’s criticism of Facebook’s handling of misinformation on its platform, the continuing fight for the right to repair, and the nomination of Google critic Jonathan Kanter to lead the Department of Justice’s antitrust division. Biden says platforms like Facebook are ‘killing people’ with COVID-19 misinformation Facebook pushes back against Biden remarks on COVID-19 misinformation Joe Biden says Facebook isn’t ‘killing people,’ but misinformation causes harm The Biden administration should take the First Amendment as seriously as Facebook misinformation FTC … [Read more...] about Vergecast: Jeff Bezos in space, RCS on Verizon, and Biden on Big Tech

A cross-platform counterterrorism program will start targeting white supremacist and far-right militia material, flagging content for moderation on Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox, and several other services. Reuters reported the news this morning in an interview with Nicholas Rasmussen, executive director of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT). GIFCT — launched in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube — maintains a database of terrorist content that helps member companies find it for review or removal. That database initially included material from a United Nations-designated list of sanctioned groups, which meant it focused heavily on Islamist extremist organizations like the Taliban and Islamic State, with exceptions around specific far-right incidents like the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand shooting . As Reuters outlines, GIFCT is expanding the list to include material identified by the UN Tech Against Terrorism initiative and the Five Eyes … [Read more...] about Tech company anti-terrorism initiative will increase its focus on far-right groups

President-Elect Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, raked in millions over the last two years representing multinational corporations in Big Tech and on Wall Street as a corporate lawyer, financial disclosure reports reveal. Since 2019, Mayorkas made more than $3.3 million as a corporate lawyer for a series of multinational corporations, financial disclosure reports show, including the tech firms Airbnb, Uber, and Cisco Systems, along with the Wall Street firm Blackstone. Mayorkas also represented T-Mobile, Intuit, the aerospace corporation Northrop Grumman, Clorox, MGM Resorts International, and the engineering company Leidos. Specifically while representing Uber, Mayorkas helped ensure that the tech giant was complying with federal immigration laws when it packs foreign workers into its driving jobs. While representing T-Mobile, Mayorkas advised the telecommunications corporation as they merged with Sprint to dominate … [Read more...] about Joe Biden’s DHS Nominee Raked in Millions from Big Tech, Wall Street