Volkswagen T-Roc SUV goes on sale in India once again, is now much more expensive

After the first batch sold out rather quickly in 2020, a second batch of the Volkswagen T-Roc has now been brought to India, and the SUV is now priced at Rs 21.35 lakh (ex-showroom). The T-Roc can be booked online on the Volkswagen India website for a Rs 50,000 booking amount. The 2021 Volkswagen T-Roc has seen a Rs 1.36 lakh price increase and will continue to be brought in as a CBU via the 2,500-unit homologation rule. The SUV will be imported in limited quantity again this time, but Volkswagen India hasn't announced an exact number.

Notable features on the India-spec T-Roc are a panoramic sunroof, 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlamps, DRLs and tail lamps, leather seats and the digital instrument cluster that debuted on the Tiguan Allspace. Safety features include six airbags, hill start assist, ESP and so on. There are six colour options available, five dual-tone and one single-tone shade. Dimensionally, the T-Roc is 4,234 mm long, 1,992 mm wide and 1,573 mm tall, with a 2,590 mm-long wheelbase.

The 2021 Volkswagen T-Roc remains mechanically identical to the earlier car. The 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine good for 150 hp and 250 Nm continue and will be shared with the Creta-rivalling Volkswagen Taigun. The motor comes paired with a seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic. Volkswagen claims a 0 to 100 kph time of 8.4 seconds and a top speed of 205 kph.

With these numbers, the T-Roc will compete with the likes of the higher-spec Kia Seltos, Hyundai Creta and the Jeep Compass. Volkswagen has started accepting bookings for the new batch of T-Roc SUVs in the country. Read our exclusive comparison review of the Volkswagen T-Roc and the related Skoda Karoq here, with real-world performance and mileage figures included.

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Bitcoin flash crashes by $2K in 5 minutes, liquidating $600M in longs

A flash crash on short timeframes for BTC/USD induces panic among long traders, but for analysts, it's business as usual.

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Netflix to achieve net-zero emissions by 2022 end; introduces Net Zero plus Nature plan

Streaming services Netflix is planning to achieve net-zero greenhouse gases emissions by the end of 2022. In a blog post, the platform has shared that they have planned a three-step solution to reducing their emissions. Written by Netflix Sustainability Officer Emma Stewart, the post states that the platform has a Net Zero + Nature plan. The carbon footprint of the company in 2020 was 1,100,000 metric tons out of which 50 percent was generated by the production of Netflix content. As much as 45 percent of their footprint comes from corporate operations while 5 percent is from the usage of cloud providers.

The first step of the Net Zero + Nature plan involves reducing emissions which will be achieved by Netflix, based on the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTI) Guidance. By 2030, they aim to reduce scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 45 percent. Their plan will include all the 10 guidelines by SBTI.

As per the blog post, Netflix aims to retain the existing carbon storage. According to their plan, the emissions that they cannot avoid will be neutralised by the end of 2021 as the company will invest in projects that will prevent carbon from entering the atmosphere. To meet the global climate goals, the company promises to conserve tropical forests and other at-risk natural areas.

Lastly, Netflix’s Net Zero + Nature plan includes the aim of removing carbon from the atmosphere. The projects that can capture and store carbon will include restoring healthy soils, mangroves and grasslands.

As a part of their plan, Netflix has also shared a video about their sustainability aim and how stories can help drive the change.

Netflix has invested in several other projects for the preservation of the environment. They are supporting the Kasigau Corridor REDD+ Project in Kenya which aims to protect dryland forest. Their investment in the Lightning Creek Ranch project in the US state of Oregon is preserving the largest bunchgrass prairie of North America.

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Astronauts can expect shrinking hearts, other changes from long stints in low gravity

In space, your heart gets smaller. In a study published on Monday in the journal Circulation, scientists reported that the largest chamber of the heart of Scott Kelly, who spent nearly a year on the International Space Station in 2015 and 2016, shrank in mass by more than one-quarter by the time he returned to Earth. That just adds to the litany of transformations that the human body undergoes without the steady downward pull of gravity. Astronauts also tend to have swelled heads, squashed eyeballs, shriveled legs and bones that become more brittle.

But a smaller heart did not appear to have any ill effects on Kelly.

“He did remarkably well over one year,” said Dr. Benjamin D. Levine, the senior author of the Circulation paper and a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas.

“His heart adapted to the reduced gravity,” Levine said. “It didn’t become dysfunctional, the excess capacity didn’t get reduced to a critical level. He remained reasonably fit. His heart shrank and atrophied kind of as you’d expect from going into space.”

Without the pull of gravity, the heart does not have to pump as hard, and like any other muscle, it loses some fitness from less strenuous use. For Kelly, the shrinkage occurred even though he exercised almost every day on the space station, a regimen that has proved effective at limiting the brittling of bone and loss of muscle overall.

But a smaller heart could be a concern for future missions to Mars.

Based on the experience of Kelly and other astronauts on the space station, “They’ll probably be OK,” Levine said. But problems could arise if an astronaut were injured or fell sick and could not exercise. Or if the exercise equipment broke. With weaker hearts, they could become lightheaded and faint when stepping foot on the red planet after months of weightless travel.

In the paper, Levine and his colleagues also compared Kelly’s heart to that of Benoît Lecomte, a long-distance endurance swimmer, when he attempted to cross the Pacific in 2018. Buoyancy in water has many of the same effects on the body as weightlessness. Lecomte was horizontal most of the time — up to eight hours of swimming and eight hours of sleeping on an accompanying support boat.

Scientists thought that the hours of swimming would be strenuous enough to maintain Lecomte’s heart, which was observed by periodic echocardiograms. Instead it shrank, almost as quickly as Kelly’s had in space.

Over 159 days — Lecomte had to abandon the swim less than a third of the way into a planned 5,650-mile journey after the boat was damaged in a storm — the left ventricle of his heart lightened from an estimated 6 ounces to 5 ounces. The left ventricle is the biggest and strongest chamber of the heart, pumping blood into the aorta and through the body.

“I was just shocked,” Levine said. “I really thought that his heart was going to get bigger. This was a lot of exercise that he’s doing.”

In an interview, Lecomte estimated that his heart rate was “maybe in the low hundreds” as he swam and described the intensity of long-distance swimming as “more like a fast walking, maybe, or a very slow running.”

NASA may now be able to design better exercise programs for astronauts. “There’s a big question as to the appropriate intensity and duration of exercise,” said Dr. James MacNamara, a cardiology fellow at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and another author of the paper. “Mr. Lecomte’s swimming gave us an opportunity to look at someone who did a whole lot” of low-intensity exercise.

On the space station, Kelly exercised six days a week, jogging on a treadmill for about 30 to 40 minutes or working out on a stationary bicycle. In addition, he used a resistance machine that mimicked the lifting of weights.

“It’s pretty strenuous,” Kelly, now retired from NASA, said in an interview. “You push it pretty hard, more weight than I would lift at home here certainly.”

And yet, over his 340 days in space, Kelly’s heart mass shrank to 4.9 ounces from 6.7 ounces, a decline of about 27%.

 

The hearts of both Kelly and Lecomte slimmed at a rate of about 1/40th of an ounce a week.

Kelly joked that he found the study interesting because it found “my heart acted similar to an elite athlete.”

Levine said another study looked at the hearts of 13 astronauts before and after six-month stays at the space station. That study, not yet published, provides a broader range of data that appears reassuring.

“What’s really interesting,” Levine said, “is that it kind of depended on what they did before they flew.”

For the most athletic astronauts, their hearts lost mass in space, just as Kelly’s had. But for those who were couch potatoes on Earth but then had to exercise regularly on the space station, their hearts, like the Grinch’s in the Dr. Seuss story, grew in size.

That was not because they were experiencing newfound kindness and generosity but simply increased exertion.

“The heart is like any other muscle, and it responds to the load that’s placed on it,” Levine said.

NASA has provided financing to study the heart health of the next 10 astronauts who spend a year in space.

Kelly said that his body, which experienced other changes, including bone loss, has almost returned to normal.

“I don’t have any symptoms from being in space, at least no physical ones,” he said. “Today, if you let me, I’d go do it all over again.”

Kenneth Chang. c.2021 The New York Times Company

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Killer T cells that 'remember' past infection boost immune response to COVID-19 variants: Study

The emergence of coronavirus variants has provoked concern about their impact on the effectiveness of vaccines, and whether people who were previously infected might be more susceptible to reinfection. But in welcome news, a new study on Tuesday showed that a key player in the immune response, called the "killer T cell," remained mostly unaffected. The finding is encouraging because although these white blood cells are not a first line defense against infection, they can help prevent severe disease. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and Johns Hopkins University analyzed blood samples from 30 people who had contracted and recovered from COVID-19 prior to the emergence of variants. They published their findings in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, an Oxford University Press journal.

The team wanted to know whether these cells, known by their technical name "CD8+ T cells," could still recognize three variants of SARS-CoV-2: B.1.1.7, first found in Britain, B.1.351, identified in South Africa, and B.1.1.248, first seen in Brazil.

What makes each of these variants unique is the mutations they carry, especially in a region of the virus' spike protein, structures that stud its surface and allow it to invade cells.

It has already been shown that mutations to this region of the spike protein make some variants less recognizable to neutralizing antibodies -- infection fighting proteins produced by the immune system's B cells.

This seems to be particularly true, for instance, of B.1.351, according to research on the impact of current generation COVID-19 vaccines.

Neutralizing antibodies are custom-made to fit an antigen, or a specific structure of a pathogen. In the case of the coronavirus, this is the spike protein, which the antibodies bind to, preventing the virus from infecting cells.

Killer T cells, on the other hand, look for telltale signs of cells that have already been infected with pathogens they have previously encountered, and then kill those cells.

In the new study, the researchers found that the killer T cell responses remained largely intact and could recognize virtually all mutations in the variants studied.

The researchers noted that larger studies are needed to confirm the results, but said that it nevertheless demonstrated that killer T cells are less susceptible to mutations in the coronavirus than neutralizing antibodies are.

Antibodies are still important to prevent infection in the first place -- and the reduced efficacy of vaccines to the variants seems to be evidence of this.

But a killer T cell response that kicks in later and aids in clearing off the disease, helps explain why the vaccines seem to be able to prevent severe disease and hospitalization, even though their efficacy at stopping infection by variants is reduced.

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Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G with Snapdragon 865 SoC launched in India at Rs 55,999

Samsung has launched the Galaxy S20 FE 5G in India today at Rs 55,999. Last year in October, the company had launched Galaxy S20 FE (Review) at Rs 49,999. The new smartphone comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset, 120 Hz AMOLED display and offers 8 GB RAM and 128 GB of internal storage. Galaxy S20 FE 5G is now available for purchase in India on Samsung.com, Amazon.in, Samsung exclusive stores and leading retail outlets.

Galaxy S20 FE 5G pricing, availability, sale offers

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G is priced at Rs 55,999. As a part of an introductory offer, the smartphone will be available at Rs 47,999.

Samsung Galaxy S20 FE 5G specifications

The smartphone features a 6.5-inch Super AMOLED Infinity O display that comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 pixels. The Galaxy S20 FE is powered by Snapdragon 865 chipset and offers 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage (expandable to 1 TB). It is likely to run on Android 11.

For photography, Galaxy S20 FE 5G sports a triple rear camera setup that houses a 12 MP primary sensor, a 12 MP ultra-wide lens and an 8 MP telephoto lens. The rear camera of the smartphone will allow 30x superzoom and 3x optical zoom. You can also record 8K videos using the Galaxy S20 FE 5G's rear camera. For selfies, it comes with a 32 MP front camera. The Galaxy S20 FE 5G's front camera will let you click self-portraits, that are converted from regular selfies.

The smartphone comes with a 4,500 mAh battery that comes with support for 25 W fast charging and wireless charging.

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Plastic pollution: How can chemical recycling technology help fix this global issue?

It’s impossible to imagine everyday life without plastics. Lightweight, durable and cheap, these materials outperform many others in a diverse range of applications

Plastics have brought about positive change in ways we often overlook. For example, the development of plastic components in electronic devices, such as the one you’re using to read this article, means we’ve never been more connected to the world around us.

But our love of plastics has come at an environmental cost. It’s been estimated that of the 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic made between 1950 to 2015, over 75 percent is now waste, with 79 percent accumulating in either landfill or the natural environment.

For scale, that’s more than all living things on Earth, and our oceans are drowning in plastic. Because of this, recent research efforts have focused on addressing these mounting environmental concerns. One of these is chemical recycling.

The value of plastic

To overcome the huge environmental concerns created by plastic we need to start valuing plastic waste as a resource. After all, the plastic waste contains a value in the form of stable chemical bonds, so at the very least we should try to recover that energy. In fact, the stability of these bonds is why plastics linger for so long in the environment.

Beyond burning plastic to recover this energy, we can also recycle plastic. The world currently relies on mechanical recycling, where plastics are sorted, melted and remoulded to create mainly lower-grade plastic products. But this process is limited. The harsh conditions involved mean each time a piece of plastic is recycled, its performance properties are negatively affected. This limits the number of times a piece of plastic can be recycled.

To make sure plastic keeps its value in the long term, we need alternative recycling strategies. Chemical recycling provides the potential for infinite recyclability. But the challenge lies in achieving it in a sustainable and economic way at scale. Traditional methods are usually costly and energy or resource-intensive, which has limited their widespread use.

Chemical recycling

Plastics are made up of long-chain molecules known as polymers, which consist of smaller repeating building blocks called monomers. These monomers come in different shapes and sizes, and the bonding between them determines the plastic’s material properties – such as melting temperature and toughness – which affects the way it is used.

While mechanical recycling involves melting, chemical recycling relies on a chemical transformation and thus breaking the links between monomers. Chemical recycling breaks the plastic down at a molecular level. This means the monomer can be recovered in what’s called closed-loop recycling or the plastic waste can be transformed into other higher-value chemicals in open-loop recycling. For many types of plastic, it’s possible to recover monomers or other useful materials.

Some plastics, such as polyolefins – the material in a polyethene plastic bag – don’t have weak monomer links, making it harder to chemically recycle them. In such cases, a process called pyrolysis is used, a different process to burning, which relies on high reaction temperatures to typically produce fuels and waxes.

Catalysis

Catalysts are used in around 90 percent of industrial chemical processes. They make the process more efficient by providing the reaction with an alternative route, much like the way Google maps optimises your journey. They can also allow us to be selective about what product is created and reduce waste. Such benefits are central to ensuring chemical recycling can be performed both sustainably and economically at an industrial scale.

The enzymes that were working tirelessly during your last meal are naturally occurring catalysts that play an important role in digestion. Enzymes that can even break down plastics have been reported.

However, these processes are limited by their productivity and require specific process conditions – such as the right temperature and pH – to keep the enzyme active. But given how rapidly the field is advancing, using naturally occurring catalysts may be commercially viable in the future.

We’ve developed highly efficient metal-based catalysts for the chemical recycling of polylactic acid (PLA), a plastic made from plant starch. This work used cheap and abundant metals – such as zinc or magnesium – targeting chemicals called lactate esters, which are a potential green alternative to petroleum-based solvents.

This area remains in its infancy, but we expect significant developments, particularly in process optimisation, to be made as the field gathers momentum. This is in fact a general endeavour of the field because traditional methods typically use harsh chemicals, and can be resource and energy-intensive.

Beyond PLA, there is the potential to “up-cycle” other plastics, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), which is used for plastic bottles. Recent examples include building blocks for high-performance materials and antibiotics and corrosion inhibitors from PET waste.

Our recent work has also investigated the chemical recycling of PET, which is used far more extensively. PET is used more widely in plastic bottles and food containers, while PLA takes up a much smaller share of the market, used mostly for 3D printing, biomedical devices and certain packaging applications.

Looking ahead

Given societies diverse plastic use, a one-solution-fits-all approach is not feasible. Diverse and tailored recycling strategies are needed for both existing and new emerging plastics. However, commercial-scale chemical recycling operations are underway.

In the future, we expect chemical recycling to complement its mechanical counterpart, especially for difficult to recycle materials such as thin-films. One thing is for certain, plastics are here to stay. With production expected to exceed one billion tonnes by 2050, chemical recycling promises to be an exciting space to watch.

Matthew Jones, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Bath, University of Bath and Jack Payne, PhD Candidate, Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies, University of Bath

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Virgin Galactic unveils second piloted spacecraft VSS Imagine, test flight slated for May 2021

Virgin Galactic rolled out its newest spaceship Tuesday as the company looks to resume test flights in the coming months at its headquarters in the New Mexico desert. Company officials said it will likely be summer before the ship — designed and manufactured in California — undergoes glide flight testing at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. That will coincide with the final round of testing for the current generation of spacecraft, which will be the one that takes British billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson to the fringes of space later this year.

CEO Michael Colglazier said the addition of the new ship marks the beginning of Virgin Galactic having a fleet that will one day be capable of ferrying paying customers and scientific payloads from spaceports around the globe. The company is still aiming for commercial operations to begin next year following testing and a few months of downtime for maintenance and other upgrades.

Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before — the first time from California in December 2018. The company marked its second successful glide flight over Spaceport America last June. Virgin Galactic is one of a few companies looking to cash in on customers with an interest in space. Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January as part of test as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground.

The mirror-like finish on Virgin Galactic's new ship is as much about aesthetics as it is about function. A key part of the ship's thermal protection system, Colglazier said it also was chosen so the craft could take on the look and feel of its surroundings — whether it's on Earth, in the sky or in space. The other task of the engineers was to create a new version that would be easier to manufacture and to maintain.

“Obviously for us to take tens of thousands of people to space, we need a number of ships. But it really matters then how often can each of these ships fly,” Colglazier said. “We expect as we get going on this to see a much quicker turnaround time and that really will help us grow the business.”

First, Virgin Galactic needs regulatory approval for the current generation and that means successful rocket-powered test flights.

The first powered test from Spaceport America was scheduled for December but computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring toward space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to make an immediate landing.

The test was rescheduled for February but then scrapped as the team continued working on the interference issue. Colglazier said the flight now is scheduled for May.

The delay didn't help stock prices. Colglazier said while it's important to put points on the board and meet market expectations, the company's focus is on safety at each step and the decades ahead.

“I think this is moving as we want it to move. It is stepwise — that is what we want to do with human spaceflight," he said, “but you can also see the monument building. We’re excited for this unveiling today and we’re excited for May and we’re excited for the summer to come.”

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Benefits of 'drastic' measures to address emissions, warming outweigh costs: economists

The cost of global warming will far outweigh the cost of rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions, more than 700 economists from around the world said on Tuesday in an unprecedented call to climate action. A major international survey found that nearly three-quarters of the economists responding believed that “immediate and drastic” action was needed to limit the climate change fallout, warning that the costs of failing to slash carbon pollution would rapidly balloon to reach trillions of dollars every year.

Nearly nine out of 10 economists said they believed climate change would worsen global inequality, and they were nearly unanimous in believing that the benefits of net-zero emissions by mid-century would vastly outweigh the costs.

“People who spend their careers studying our economy are in widespread agreement that climate change will be expensive, potentially devastatingly so,” said Peter Howard, economics director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law, which conducted the survey.

“These findings show a clear economic case for urgent climate action.”

For years economists have been divided on the cost-benefit equation involved in funding climate action, with even Nobel Prize-winning academics such as William Nordhaus arguing that strong actions should be balanced against costs.

Most traditional models of climate cost focus on changes to GDP in a specific year — that is, a so-called “level impact.”

But more and more research has shown that climate change will reduce economic growth below what has been projected globally.

The consensus reached by survey respondents suggested that the projected economic fallout from climate change would reach US$1.7 trillion annually by 2025 and roughly US$30 trillion per year by 2075.

By contrast, 65 percent of respondents said that the costs of renewable energy technology such as wind and solar would continue to fall over the next decade and estimated that half of the world’s energy mix would be green by 2050.

Nearly 80 percent of respondents said their level of concern over climate had increased during the last five years.

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Apple WWDC 2021 to kick off on 7 June: Expected to announce iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and more

Apple has announced that it will host an online-only Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2021 from 7-11 June. According to the company, just like last year, the event will be free for all the developers. At WWDC 2021, Apple will "will offer unique insight into the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS". Apple has announced a Swiss Student Challenge for young developers. To participate in the challenge, students need to create an "interactive scene in Swift Playgrounds that can be experienced within three minutes". For the unversed, Swift Playgrounds is an app for iPad and Mac. This assignment needs to be submitted before 19 April.

Apple WWDC 2021: What to expect

At the event, Apple is likely to announce iOS 15, iPadOS 15, watchOS 8, macOS 12, and tvOS 15. This year, the company is also planning to announce hardware targeted for developers.

As per a statement by Susan Prescott, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations and Enterprise and Education Marketing, "We are working to make WWDC21 our biggest and best yet, and are excited to offer Apple developers new tools to support them as they create apps that change the way we live, work, and play.”

According to a report by MacRumours, Apple is expected to announce new Apple Silicone Macs. A 9to5 Google report suggests that Apple might also tease a much-rumoured mixed-reality headset at the event. According to the report, the headset is likely to launch as soon as 2022 and the developers will need to work on new games and apps prior to the launch.

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Bharat Biotech, Biovet and Sapigen Biologix collaborate with CSIR-IICT on healthcare for humans, animals

Vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, Biovet and Sapigen Biologix on Monday signed a collaborative research agreement with CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT) here to collaborate on the development of novel platform technologies for biotherapeutics and vaccines to support affordable healthcare solutions for humans and animals. The Master Collaborative Agreement (MCA) was signed here by Bharat Biotech International, Biovet, Sapigen Biologix with the IICT in the presence of Bharat Biotech CMD Krishna Ella, CSIR DG Shekhar C Mande, IICT Director S Chandrasekhar and others. The collaborators would identify mutually interesting projects to pursue under the agreement, a CSIR-IICT release said.

As a part of the MCA, the Industry collaborators shall provide necessary financial support to CSIR-IICT for developing key raw materials required by the collaborators, and also perform "in-vitro and in vivo studies" for further development of potential vaccine candidates and bio-therapeutics formulations to be designed by the collaborators.

The broad-based MCA enables the partners to take up futuristic development activities in other related areas as well, it said.

The MCA follows the contribution by CSIR-IICT during February 2021, in developing a synthetic process route for adjuvant molecule TLR 7/8 to BBIL for Covaxin, the indigenous vaccine rolled out by BBIL.

The partners intend to strengthen the "excellent working relationship" between the organisations, by conducting studies on futuristic vaccines, bio-therapeutic formulations, delivery strategies and also explore innovative solutions to the vaccination administration process.

Biovet is a leader in animal vaccines, while Sapigen Biologix is engaged in research, design, development of technical know-how in all kinds of work in the fields of Biology, Bio-technology and others, according to the release. Addressing the gathering, Krishna Ella talked about the dependence on imports for some of the raw materials and the need to address the issue.

"When you want to leapfrog the vaccine field, we need other ancillary industries to come up, other technologies to come up along with it. Otherwise, I don't think, biotechnology field, we will go (far ahead). We will be importing a lot of stuff from other places..," he said.

Noting that some raw materials could not be obtained from the US due to certain restrictions imposed by that country, he said such problems needed to be anticipated in the future.

"That is one of the reasons why we said, let's partner (with CSIR)...," he said.

Asked about how the issue of shortage of raw materials would be addressed, Mande referred to the goal of ''Atma Nirbhar Bharat''and that the government is very keen on generating as many resources as possible within the country.

"Shortage of chemicals that probably is being asked is only one aspect of that. What we would like to take is a much larger view and try to see that as much as possible, we would like to be self-dependent," he said.

However, the statement of self-dependent on raw materials does not mean remaining inward-looking (that nothing will be imported) and the government is keen on having the capability, capacity and confidence that everything can be done in the country, Mande said.

About how the agreement would work, he said true collaborations involve exchange of ideas between different parties and working together and not working in isolation.

He said CSIR and Bharat Biotech are looking at bringing mRNA based vaccine platform in the country.

"For example, today there is a need felt that India must have a vaccine platform which is let us say mRNA based. Today, we don''t have an mRNA based vaccine platform in the country." "Dr Ella and us are already talking about it that how do we actually bring it and Dr Ella is very confident that in the coming few months we will be able to actually bring it, this particular platform," Mande said.

He said mRNA has emerged as one of the most powerful technologies in the COVID pandemic.

Asked if the mRNA effort would be COVID specific, he said the CSIR, in its collaborations with companies, would like to cover different areas and many diseases together.

"When we do collaborations with companies, we always do long term, many different areas, many different diseases together. COVID also is a part of that. But, what we want to do is generate a platform here so that any other diseases or future pandemics can also be dealt with this kind of a platform," Mande added.

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Epic Games files complaint against Apple to UK watchdog for alleged 'monopolistic practices'

Epic Games submitted a complaint Tuesday about Apple’s alleged “monopolistic practices” to the UK competition watchdog, which is investigating the iPhone maker over concerns it has a dominant position in app distribution. The move by the maker of the popular video game Fortnite is the latest salvo in its bitter battle over Apple’s App Store. Epic Games has also filed legal challenges in the United States and Australia, and an antitrust complaint in the European Union against Apple.

The game-maker’s complaint accuses Apple of anti-competitive behaviour and setting strict rules on app distribution and payments in alleged violation of UK rules.

Apple said it wasn’t surprised by Epic’s UK complaint “as we have seen them use the same playbook around the world.”

The Competition and Markets Authority confirmed it received the complaint and said it would be considered as part of its investigation opened last month into whether Apple’s practices result in higher prices or less choice for consumers.

The dispute stems from Apple taking a 30 percent cut from some purchases made through apps, which music streaming service Spotify and other apps have also taken issue with. Epic tried to bypass the App Store with a direct payment system, but Apple responded by dropping the Fortnite app from the platform.

“By kneecapping the competition and exerting its monopoly power over app distribution and payments, Apple strips UK consumers of the right to choose how and where they get their apps, while locking developers into a single marketplace that lets Apple charge any commission rate they choose,” Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney said in a statement.

“These harmful practices lead to artificially inflated costs for consumers, and stifle innovation among developers, many of whom are unable to compete in a digital ecosystem that is rigged against them,” Sweeney alleged.

Epic said it’s not seeking monetary damages but wants regulators to come up with fixes to prevent market distortion and manipulation.

Apple said Epic Games became hugely successful thanks to the App Store and now “wants to operate under a different set of rules than the ones that apply to all other developers. The result would be weakened privacy and data security protections for our customers, and we think that’s wrong.”

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Last two seats for SpaceX, Jared Isaacman's all-civilian space flight has been filled

A billionaire’s private SpaceX flight filled its two remaining seats Tuesday with a scientist-teacher and a data engineer whose college friend actually won a spot but gave him the prize. The new passengers: Sian Proctor, a community college educator in Tempe, Arizona, and Chris Sembroski, a former Air Force missile man from Everett, Washington. They will join flight sponsor Jared Isaacman and another passenger for three days in orbit this fall. Isaacman also revealed some details about his Inspiration4 mission, as the four gathered Tuesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

He’s head of Shift4 Payments, a credit card processing company in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and is paying for what would be SpaceX’s first private flight while raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Their SpaceX Dragon capsule — currently parked at the International Space Station for NASA — will launch no earlier than mid-September, aiming for an altitude of 540 kilometres. That’s 20 kilometres higher than the International Space Station and on a level with the Hubble Space Telescope.

What an amazing day at @NASAKennedy. @ArceneauxHayley and I are so happy to welcome @DrSianProctor and Chris Sembroski to the @inspiration4 crew. Thanks @SpaceX for making this announcement so special. https://t.co/OpQpA1Yubk

— Jared Isaacman (@rookisaacman) March 30, 2021

The capsule will be outfitted with a domed window in place of the usual space station docking mechanism for their trip.

Isaacman, 38, a pilot who will serve as spacecraft commander, still won’t say how much he’s paying. He’s donating $100 million to St. Jude, while donors so far have contributed $13 million, primarily through the lottery that offered a chance to fly in space.

Hayley Arceneaux, 29, was named to the crew a month ago. The St. Jude physician assistant was treated there as a child for bone cancer.

Also read: SpaceX, US billionaire tie-up for first 'all civilian' flight to orbit slated for late 2021

That left two capsule seats open. Proctor, 51, beat out 200 businesses and nabbed the seat reserved for a customer of Isaacman’s company. An independent panel of judges chose her space art website dubbed Space2inspire.

“It was like when Harry Potter found out he was a wizard, a little bit of shock and awe,” Proctor told The Associated Press last week. “It’s like, ‘I’m the winner?’”

Sembroski, 41, donated and entered the lottery but wasn’t picked in the random drawing earlier this month — his friend was. His friend declined to fly for personal reasons and offered the spot to Sembroski, who worked as a Space Camp counsellor in college and volunteered for space advocacy groups.

“Just finding out that I’m going to space was an incredible, strange, surreal event,” he said.

He’s about to start a new job at Lockheed Martin and admits it will be a balancing act over the next six months, as the crew trains.

Isaacman insists they won’t cut any corners as they prepare for launch.

“You don’t go up on Everest, right, after just a hike in the backyard. You build your way to it,” he told reporters.

Proctor, who studied geology, applied three times to NASA’s astronaut corps, coming close in 2009, and took part in simulated Mars missions in Hawaii. She was born in Guam, where her late father — a “Hidden Figure” in her mind — worked at NASA’s tracking station for the Apollo moonshots, including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s.

She plans to teach from space and create art up there, too.

“To me, everything that I’ve done ... has brought me to this moment.”

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Comet 2I/Borisov is the most pristine visitor from outer space ever observed

A newly observed interstellar comet is the most pristine visitor from outer space ever seen in our Solar System, according to a pair of studies released Tuesday detailing its unique characteristics. Pristine, in astronomical terms, describes a comet that has never passed close enough to a star to be transformed by its searing heat. 2I/Borisov was discovered in 2019 by Ukrainian astrophysicist Gennady Borisov at the MARGO Observatory in Crimea and is only the second interstellar object detected in our planetary system.

The first — the asteroid known as Oumaumua, which roughly means "Scout" in the Hawaiian language — baffled scientists for its unprecedented properties.

Both objects had trajectories unbound by the Sun, suggesting they came our way through the emptiness of deep space from another Solar System.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, an international team describe how 2I/Borisov's coma — the nebulous envelope around the nucleus of a comet — polarised light at a higher rate than typical comets.

This is evidence that the comet probably didn't pass very close to its own star before embarking on its interstellar voyage.

The heat from a star can evaporate a comet's ice particles, liberating dust particles.

Lighter particles form the comet's tail while heavier ones fall back on to its surface, building a crust.

Observing the tail of a comet can help scientists see how pristine — or intact — it is.

Co-author Lioudmila Kolokolova from the University of Maryland's Department of Astronomy explained the findings with reference to the coma, the cloud of gases and particles enveloping the comet core.

"Since we have observed a very homogeneous coma, without any signs of jets and other features, we suppose that the comet does not have a crust," she told AFP. "Thus it is really a pristine object, not affected much by radiation and charged particles."

The researchers said that only one other comet —Hale-Bopp, discovered by amateur astronomers in 1995 — had exhibited similarly polarised light.

Extremely low odds

A second paper, published in Nature Astronomy, analysed the dust in the 2I/Borisov's coma and found it consisted of tiny "pebbles".

This compact pebble dust may have resulted from its formation, "perhaps due to gravitational stirring by giant planets much like in our own Solar system" according to lead author Bin Yang, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory.

She said that the indications were that 2I/Borisov's composition was "quite similar to a solar system comet".

There are likely to be far more interstellar objects out there in the vast expanse of space than the two observed so far in our Solar System, she added.

"We think there are many asteroids and comets around other stars," she told AFP. "However, because of the vast distance between us and other stars, the odds of finding these wandering objects is extremely low."

Even using the largest telescope available for comet-hunting, scientists expected to find just one such object every year, she said.

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Volkswagen Taigun SUV revealed in production form ahead of festive season launch

The 2021 Volkswagen Taigun SUV has made its world premiere today, giving the world its first look at Volkswagen’s brand-new midsize SUV for the Indian market. It was previewed in concept form as at the Volkswagen Group Night in Delhi last year, and is the group’s second model to roll out under VW’s ambitious India 2.0 plan after the Skoda Kushaq. Underpinning the Volkswagen Taigun is a tailored-for-India platform, and the midsize SUV is set to go up against formidable rivals such as the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos when it is launched in the coming months.

2021 Volkswagen Taigun design and platform details

Volkswagen Taigun images confirm the production-spec SUV remains largely identical to the concept showcased in 2020. It retains almost all of the design and styling cues of the concept, with the only changes being the addition of chrome strips for the door handles, smaller alloy wheels and the deletion of the C-pillar decals. Other notable design elements include black trim-encased tail-lights (which accentuate the width of the Taigun), faux front and rear skid plates, heavy body cladding, prominent roof rails and chunky alloy wheels.

The Taigun is based on Volkswagen AG’s customised-for-India MQB A0 IN platform, which is designed to accommodate up to 95 percent local content and will also form the base for the Taigun, as well as Skoda and Volkswagen’s new sedans, which are due at the end of this year. The Volkswagen Taigun has a wheelbase of 2,651mm, which is 41mm longer than that of the king of India’s midsize SUV space, the Hyundai Creta.

2021 Volkswagen Taigun interior and features

Taking centre stage on the Volkswagen Taigun’s dashboard is a 10-inch touchscreen infotainment system, and also present are body-coloured trim elements, which liven up the interior. One major difference for the Taigun compared to the Kushaq is the presence of a digital instruments display, which is missing from the Skoda.

Top-spec Volkswagen Taigun variants will be equipped with auto climate control, height-adjustable driver’s seat, ventilated front seats, connected car tech, and safety equipment will include up to six airbags, electronic stability control (ESC), hill hold control, cruise control and a tyre pressure monitor.

2021 Volkswagen Taigun engine and gearbox details

The Volkswagen Taigun will come with two turbo-petrol engine options – a 1.0-litre, three-cylinder unit making 110 hp, and a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder engine putting out 150 hp. A six-speed manual will be standard for both engines, but the 1.0-litre version will also be available with a six-speed torque-convertor automatic, while the 1.5-litre model will get the option of a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic (DSG). Those looking for a diesel SUV will be disappointed, because the Taigun will not be offered with a diesel engine option.

Expected 2021 Volkswagen Taigun price and rivals

With 92 percent localisation from the get-go, the Volkswagen Taigun is expected to be launched at a competitive starting price at the start of the festive season this year. Expect Volkswagen Taigun prices to be in the range of Rs 11-17 lakh (ex-showroom) when it arrives sometime between August and September, which will give it the momentum it needs to battle established players in the segment such as the Hyundai Creta and the Kia Seltos.

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Nic Carter takes aim at claims Bitcoin is an environmental disaster

Carter argues that mining is concentrated in areas where there is an excess of energy.

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WHO, EU, 25 countries push for global pandemic treaty to prepare for future

World leaders pushed Tuesday for a new international treaty to prepare for the next global pandemic -- and avoid the unseemly scramble for vaccines hampering the Covid-19 response. Leaders from 25 countries, the European Union and the World Health Organization (WHO) sought to get the ground rules down in writing to streamline and speed up the reaction to future global outbreaks. The treaty would aim to ensure that information, virus pathogens, technology to tackle the pandemic and products such as vaccines are shared swiftly and equitably among nations.

"The time to act is now. The world cannot afford to wait until the pandemic is over to start planning for the next one," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.

Without an internationally-coordinated pandemic response plan, "we remain vulnerable", he warned.

The call came in a joint article published in international newspapers on Tuesday, penned by leaders from five continents.

The signatories included Germany's Angela Merkel, Britain's Boris Johnson, France's Emmanuel Macron, South Korea's Moon Jae-in, South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, Indonesia's Joko Widodo and Chile's Sebastian Pinera.

Vaccine commitment

"Nations should work together towards a new international treaty for pandemic preparedness and response," the article said.

"We must be better prepared to predict, prevent, detect, assess and effectively respond to pandemics in a highly coordinated fashion.

"We are, therefore, committed to ensuring universal and equitable access to safe, efficacious and affordable vaccines, medicines and diagnostics for this and future pandemics."

Thank you so much @eucopresident Charles Michel for championing the call for an international #PandemicTreaty to make the world better prepared to respond to pandemics and health crises. @WHO strongly welcomes your leadership. https://t.co/sKnX39rnla pic.twitter.com/LyOLWmI7He

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 30, 2021

Leaders from key world powers including the United States, China, Russia and Japan are not among the signatories so far.

But Tedros said the mood music from Washington and Beijing was positive and insisted it was not a problem that they had not yet signed up.

Tedros hoped to have a resolution squared up in time for the World Health Assembly in May. The assembly is the WHO's decision-making body, attended once a year by delegations from the UN health agency's 194 member states.

The push to bolster common efforts comes as the planet struggles to combine forces to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic that has killed almost 2.8 million people worldwide and battered the global economy.

The spread of the virus has seen blame traded between capitals and accusations that rich nations have hoarded vaccines.

According to an AFP count, some 53 percent of the Covid-19 vaccine doses administered so far have been in high-income countries accounting for 16 percent of the global population.

Just 0.1 percent have been administered in the 29 lowest-income countries, home to nine percent of the world's population.

Building for future generations

The WHO said that while the existing 2005 International Health Regulations covered first alerts, travel measures and sharing information on how to break an epidemic, the Covid-19 pandemic had exposed gaps such as supply chains, research and development.

The joint article said the additional treaty should be aimed at "greatly enhancing international cooperation" on alert systems, data-sharing and reasearch to help track rising threats and the production of vaccines, medicines and protective equipment to tackle diseases.

First proposed by European Council president Charles Michel at the United Nations in December, the notion of a treaty has since been endorsed by EU and G7 countries.

I am very grateful to Prime Ministers:
🇫🇯@FijiPM
🇵🇹@antoniocostapm
🇬🇧@BorisJohnson
🇩🇪Angela Merkel
🇬🇷@kmitsotakis
🇦🇱@ediramaal
🇹🇹@DrKeithRowley
🇪🇸@sanchezcastejon
🇳🇴@erna_solberg
🇳🇱@MinPres
🇹🇭@prayutofficial
🇮🇹Mario Draghi
for their commitment to #PandemicTreaty.

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 30, 2021

"Now it's time to come together as one global community to build a pandemic defence for future generations that extends far beyond today's crisis," EU chief Michel told the joint press conference with Tedros.

The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations lobby group said the importance of incentives to develop tests, treatments and vaccines should be reflected in the treaty.

"The biopharmaceutical industry and its supply chain is part of the solution for future pandemics and therefore should play a role in shaping an international pandemic treaty," IFPMA chief Thomas Cueni said in a statement.

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OnePlus 9 Pro 5G is now available for purchase for Amazon Prime members

OnePlus 9 series that includes OnePlus 9, OnePlus 9R and OnePlus 9 Pro debuted in India recently. Today, the OnePlus 9 Pro is available for purchase on Amazon for Prime members. OnePlus has also announced that the Red Cable Club members can also buy the smartphone from OnePlus.in and the OnePlus Store app. The OnePlus 9 series highlights include Snapdragon 888 chipset, Fluid Display 2.0, Warp Charge 65T and Warp Charge 50 Wireless. In addition to the smartphone series, the company also launched its first smartwatch. OnePlus Watch offers up to 2 weeks of battery life.

(Also Read: OnePlus 9 vs OnePlus 9 Pro vs OnePlus 9R: What are the differences?)

OnePlus 9 Pro 5G pricing, availability, sale offers

OnePlus 9 Pro 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at 64,999 and the 12 GB RAM + 256 GB storage variant will be available at Rs 69,999. Stellar Black, Pine Green and Morning Mist colour variants.

Prime members can now buy the smartphone from Amazon. OnePlus Red Cable Club members can also get their hands on the handset from OnePlus.in and the OnePlus Store app.

Get more space for all the cool stuff you will capture on your OnePlus 9 Pro. Up to 6TB! with Red Cable Life.

Learn more: https://t.co/vtNwQDHiDJ pic.twitter.com/nfKCiaLWfp

— OnePlus India (@OnePlus_IN) March 30, 2021

For non-Prime members, the smartphone will go on sale on Thursday, 1 April.

In terms of sale offers, both Prime members and Red Cable Club members will get an instant discount of Rs 4,000 on SBI Bank credit cards and EMI transactions. In addition to this, Prime members will also get Jio benefits worth up to Rs 6,000. OnePlus has also announced that extra 5 TB storage will be given to the OnePlus 9 Pro users who activate Red Cable Life on or before 30 April 2021.

Red Cable Club will also receive a Red Cable Care plan for Rs 499, down from Rs 1,499 on purchase on OnePlus 9 Pro 5G.

OnePlus 9 Pro 5G specifications

OnePlus 9 features a 6.7-inch Full HD+ AMOLED display with 3,216 x 1,440 pixels pixel resolution. The display comes with Smart 120 Hz, LTPO, and Hyper Touch. The smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 888 chipset and offers 12 GB RAM and 256 GB storage. OnePlus 9 runs on Android 11 based OxygenOS UI.

OnePlus 9 sports a triple rear camera setup that includes a 48 MP Sony IMX789 sensor, a 50 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, an 8 MP telephoto camera and a 2 MP monochrome camera. It can support 8K videos at 30 fps and 4K at 120 fps. For selfies, it might come with a 16 MP camera sensor.

The smartphone is equipped with a 4,500 mAh battery that comes with supports for 65T fast charging and 50 W wireless charging.

Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd which publishes Firstpost

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Spotify delves into live audio with purchase of Clubhouse rival Betty Labs

Spotify announced Tuesday it had acquired "live audio" specialist Betty Labs to serve as a development vehicle in the booming sector. Following in the footsteps of podcasts, "live audio" – which offers broadcasts, talks and conversations between internet users – has taken off in recent years, driven by the app Clubhouse. Launched in 2018, Betty Labs specialises in the niche, and in October 2018 launched the app Locker Room, which hosts live audio exchanges about sports.

Spotify said Tuesday it will develop Locker Room into a platform open to "a wider range of creators and fans," according to a statement.

Among Betty Labs' initial investors is GV, the private equity arm of Google parent company Alphabet.

In late February, Spotify confirmed its ambitions to expand into non-musical audio.

(Also read: How audio chatrooms like Clubhouse are tapping anew into the age-old appeal of the human voice)

The group has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build an integrated podcast offering an advertising interface and exclusive content.

Several US media outlets have reported that Facebook is working on an offering similar to Clubhouse. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban is also working on his own version, called Fireside.

The Discord platform – which launched in 2015 – is currently valued at about $7 billion.

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Apple to rollout Independent Repair Provider program in India and 38 other countries, later this week

Tech giant Apple will be soon introducing its Independent Repair Provider program in over 200 countries, including India. The program will be introduced later this week. The program gives repair service providers access to genuine parts and tools for repairing Apple devices that are not in warranty, according to an Apple blogpost.

The program will be rolling out to India, Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Guam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tonga, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, and Vietnam, later this week. The program will be extended to several other countries and regions, later this year.

Apple is providing access to free training to repair providers, who are participating in the program. As Apple Authorized Service Providers (AASPs), they can get genuine tools, repair manuals, diagnostics and parts. Apple has over 5,000 AASPs providing repair for both in and out of warranty products.

Any repair providing company can join Apple’s Independent Repair Provider program by committing that only an Apple-certified technician will provide repairs. They can purchase the tools and parts at the same price as AASPs.

The Independent Repair Provider program will be available in most of the other countries including Chile, Egypt, Libya and Venezuela by late 2021.

In 2019, the program was launched in the US and then expanded to Canada and Europe. Combining the three regions, there are currently 1,500 Independent Repair Providers.

Speaking about the program, Nils Weber, project manager in Germany’s Pro Repair GmbH said that the access to parts during the Covid-19 pandemic helped them to gain access to the high demand from their mail-in customers. Nils insisted that the program has been a positive experience for them and their customers.

Scott Baker, who is the owner of Texas’ Mister Mac in Wimberley, also said that being a part of the program has been a huge benefit to their business, as per the blog on Apple.

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Redmi Note 10 Pro with a 64 MP quad camera setup to go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com

Redmi Note 10 series that includes Redmi Note 10 (Review), Redmi Note 10 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro Max debuted in India recently. Today, Redmi Note 10 Pro will go on sale at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com. The highlights of the smartphone include a 64 MP quad rear camera setup, 8 GB RAM, 33 W fast charging, 120 Hz refresh rate display and Snapdragon 732 G chipset. Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will go on sale tomorrow (1 April) at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com.

(Also Read: Redmi Note 10 Pro Max Vs Redmi Note 10 Pro Vs Redmi Note 10: What's the difference)

Redmi Note 10 Pro pricing, availability, sale offers

Redmi Note 10 Pro comes in three storage variants. The 6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage variant is priced at 15,999, the 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 16,999 and 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at 18,999.

The smartphone will be available for purchase at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com.

Xiaomi has also announced that consumers buying Redmi 10 series smartphones will also get up to Rs 1,500 off on ICICI Bank debit and credit cards.

Redmi Note 10 Pro specifications

Redmi Note 10 Pro features a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display that comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It is powered by Snapdragon 732 G chipset and offers up to 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. It runs on MIUI 12 based on Android 11.

Redmi Note 10 Pro features a quad-camera setup that houses a 64 MP Samsung GW3 primary sensor, a 5 MP Super Macro lens, an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle lens and a 2 MP depth sensor.

It is equipped with a 5,020 mAh battery that supports 33 W fast charging.

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One BTC will be worth a Lambo by 2022, and a Bugatti by 2023: Kraken CEO

Amid the threat of dollar debasement, Kraken’s Jesse Powell believes Lamborghinis and Bugattis may be a better measure of Bitcoin’s value in the future.

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The blacklist: Marathon only mining ‘fully compliant’ Bitcoin transactions

Marathon plans to divert all hash power to its new, regulatory compliant Bitcoin mining pool from May 1.

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Digital ruble is ‘highest form of money’, Russian Bitcoin critic says

The digital ruble will become an integral part of national settlements by 2023 or 2024, Anatoly Aksakov of the Russian State Duma predicted.

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Iowa House approves bill to legally recognize blockchain smart contracts

The bill would give legal recognition to transfers and registrations made through blockchain smart contracts.

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Redmi Note 10 Review: The people's phone

Redmi Note 10 is the base version of Redmi’s new Note 10 series, which includes the Redmi Note 10 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. Historically, the Redmi Note is not the phone for cutting-edge performance, but rather provides good value and a good screen. We find out whether the latest base version live up to this reputation.

Build and Design

The Redmi Note 10 has a very comfortable size, and fits well in the palm of your hand. I tested the “Frost White” colour variant, which is somewhere between a white and a light grey. It’s a nice colour option. What I love about the back panel is the matte texture; it has a satin feel and doesn’t feel as slippery as a glossy back. The matte texture also keeps it free from annoying fingerprints. The provided plastic cover does a good job of protecting the phone, but the textured feel of the back and the colour are lost.

This phone, despite its price, feels premium. In a blind test of build quality, few would be able to guess the value segment that this phone plays in. We have gotten to a place in phone manufacturing where I think most companies are able to execute a premium feel, even with affordable devices. The Redmi Note 10 also has all the bells and whistles abandoned by other phone makers, such as the lovable headphone port, the super-useful infrared port and stereo sound. The Note 10 also has a MicroSD card slot for upgradable storage, so you can add up to 512 GB more.

On the inside, the phone features a Snapdragon 678 SoC. While this isn’t a top-end mobile processor, it is no slouch either. The Redmi Note 10 consistently performed well while browsing, watching movies and listening to music. There were no dips in performance. Most games also played well with this device. I could play Garena Free Fire with no issues, however heavy games such as Genshin Impact had visible issues and stuttering, but were still playable. The phone does heat up while gaming, but it remains reasonable to hold onto the device.

The one thing the Note 10 is lacking is 5G; the processor used in the phone can only do 4G+ or lower. This would have been problematic for a flagship, but in this segment, it doesn’t matter. We are at least a year or more away from 5G coverage. While some pockets might get 5G early, most people won’t have 5G access before the end of 2022. I would rather have a cost benefit than a feature I can’t use for at least the next entire year.

Specifications

Display: 6.43-inch Super AMOLED, 2400 x 1080 pixels

Chipset: Snapdragon 678

Graphics: Adreno 612

RAM + Storage: 4 + 64; 6 + 128

Expandable storage: MicroSD up to 512 GB

Primary Camera: 48 MP, f/1.79 aperture

Secondary cameras: 2 MP Macro, 8 MP Ultrawide and 2MP Depth sensor

Selfie Camera: 13 MP

Battery: 5,000 mAh

Software: Android 11 with MIUI 12

Colours: Frost White, Shadow Black, Aqua Green

Display

The display on the Redmi Note 10 is one of its highlights. It’s a 6.43-inch FHD+ Super AMOLED display that features a 4,500,000:1 contrast ratio. The screen is bright enough to read the text under direct sunlight, and is protected by Gorilla Glass 3. It’s ideal for media consumption and paired with its stereo speakers, this thing is a winner. The bright screen is a power guzzler, so if you plan to watch hours of video content, have a power bank or the charger handy. This display doesn’t have a high refresh rate like its Pro Max sibling. This is not an issue because this is not a gaming phone and at this price, the trade-off is a good one. Xiaomi has made a lot of good choices here, and this is reflected in the end product.

Software

During the early days of Xiaomi, I loved their UI – there were a lot of customizations, no adverts and it still performed very well. Over the years, the software has stopped taking risks and are going straight for the bank. The operating system is very generic. It still performs all functions well and you won’t find it lacking in any way, but there is no creativity here.

The OS has a good selection of utilities built-in, but comes with a lot of bloatware. The bloatware apps included get annoying fast, and there is no way to remove them. Though the level of intrusion is better than before and Xiaomi is taking feedback well, it is still a lot for my tastes. They still have a way to go, but I think they are getting there.

While gaming on this device, a little gaming console pops out. It lets you record the screen, take screenshots, allows casting and aids with clearing memory. It's useful and nice to see included in this phone as well.

Camera

The Redmi Note 10 has a quad-camera setup with a 48 MP main camera, an 8 MP ultrawide, a 2 MP depth sensor and a 2 MP macro. The camera’s output both in video and photos is excellent during the day. Colours are reproduced well, and the wealth of colourising options and modes make for interesting pictures. Where it doesn’t do well is with night photography. Without “Night Mode” activated and with indirect light, the pictures turn out dark and grainy. With the mode turned on, the same pictures are visible, but still too grainy to use. However, with a decent light source – even in the dark – the camera can produce very good contrast in images, with very little grain.

Click here to see the camera samples:

There is no super macro mode here like in the Note 10 Pro Max. Instead, there is a regular macro mode that produces very good results – even in video – as long as the subject is well-lit. Daylight images from the main camera, wide-angle and macro are all of very good quality. However, like its more expensive sibling, this one is not a good slow-motion camera. It produces way too much ghosting, even in daylight.

The 13 MP selfie cam is decent. You have beautification turned on by default; you may want to turn it off if you want good quality images.

Battery

The Redmi Note 10 has an impressive battery and it gave me around 6 hours of heavy gaming. In regular use, this should last more than a day. If you turn on all the battery saving features and are judicious with your phone use, I can see the battery life stretching to 48 hours. The phone took 25 minutes to get a 50 per cent charge, while a full charge takes a little over an hour and a half. This is thanks to the included 33 W fast charger.

Verdict

At 11,999, I think the price for the Redmi Note 10 is very fair. The device does not have cutting-edge specs and a stellar camera like a flagship, but everything it has worked well enough to use daily. Nothing feels underpowered or out of place for a normal phone; everything is balanced while offering a great VFM experience, with a large battery and a nice, big screen. It’s a phone for anyone that doesn’t need a beast under the hood, but appreciates a reliable daily-driver.

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Google aims to be the anti-Amazon of e-commerce; it has a long way to go

Google tried to copy Amazon’s playbook to become the shopping hub of the internet, with little success. Now it is trying something different: the anti-Amazon strategy.

Google is trying to present itself as a cheaper and less restrictive option for independent sellers. And it is focused on driving traffic to sellers’ sites, not selling its own version of products as Amazon does.

In the last year, Google eliminated fees for merchants and allowed sellers to list their wares in its search results for free. It is also trying to make it easier for small, independent shops to upload their inventory of products to appear in search results and buy ads on Google by teaming up with Shopify, which powers online stores for 1.7 million merchants who sell directly to consumers.

But like Google’s many attempts during its two-decade quest to compete with Amazon, this one shows little sign of working. Google has nothing as alluring as the $295 billion that passed through Amazon’s third-party marketplace in 2020. The amount of goods people buy on Google is “very small” by comparison — probably around $1 billion, said Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of Marketplace Pulse, a research company.

Amazon is a fixture in the lives of many Americans. It has usurped Google as the starting point for shoppers and has become equally essential for marketers. Amazon’s global advertising business grew 30 percent to $17.6 billion in 2020, trailing only Google and Facebook in the United States.

But as the pandemic has forced many stores to go online, it has created a new opening for Google to woo sellers who feel uneasy about building their businesses on Amazon.

Sellers often complain about Amazon’s fees — which can account for one-quarter of every sale, not including the cost of advertising — and the pressure to spend more to succeed.

But since 2002, when it started a price comparison site called Froogle, a confusing play on the word “frugal” that required a rebranding five years later, Google has struggled to chart a cohesive vision for its shopping experience.

Last year, Google brought in Bill Ready, a former chief operating officer at PayPal, to fill a new senior position and spearhead an overhaul of its shopping strategy.

Daisuke Wakabayashi [c.2021 The New York Times Company]

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Poco X3 price slashed in India, will be available starting Rs 14,999 from 1 April

At the Poco X3 Pro launch event on Tuesday, Poco announced a price slash for the Poco X3 smartphone. The Poco X3 was launched in India in September 2020 and was priced starting Rs 16,999. Now, the Poco X3 will be available starting Rs 14,999 in India. The new pricing for the Poco X3 will be effective starting 1 April 2021. The variant-wise pricing of the smartphone has not yet been revealed. At the time of writing the story, Flipkart still showed the older pricing for the Poco X3 smartphones.

You can read our review of the Poco X3 smartphone here.

Poco X3: Specifications and features

Recalling the specifications, the Poco X3 is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G chipset. It features 6.67-inch FHD+ display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 240Hz touch sampling rate.

It is fueled by a 6,000mAh battery, which supposedly lasts up to two days on a single charge. The device supports 33W fast charging, which allows a 60 percent charge in 30 minutes.

The Poco X3 sports a 64 MP main camera, a 13 MP ultra-wide angle camera, a 2 MP macro camera and a 2 MP depth sensor at the back. On the front, the device sports an in-screen 20 MP selfie camera.

For video enthusiasts, the Poco X3 brings 4K video recording and features like smooth video zoom, focus peaking and standard features including AE/AF lock. It also sports dual stereo speakers that can self-clean.

The Poco X3 features side-mounted fingerprint sensor and AI Face unlock feature.

(Also read: Poco X3 Pro India launch LIVE Updates: Priced starting Rs 18,999, first sale on 6 April)

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Poco X3 Pro with a 48 MP quad camera setup launched in India at a starting price of Rs 18,999

Poco launched the much-awaited Poco X3 Pro in India today. The smartphone joins the company's X-series that already includes Poco X3 (Review) and Poco X2 (Review). The highlights of the smartphone include Snapdragon 860 chipset, a 120 Hz refresh rate display, a 48 MP quad rear camera setup, up to 8 GB RAM and 33 W fast charging. The smartphone sports a punch-hole display and as claimed by Poco, offers 2-day battery life. Poco X3 Pro will be available for purchase on Flipkart.

Poco X3 Pro pricing, availability, sale offers

Poco X3 comes in two storage variants. The 6 G RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 18,999 and the 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 20,999. It will be available in Graphite Black, Steel Blue and Golden Bronze colour variants.

The smartphone will go on sale on 6 April at 12 pm on the Flipkart website.

The company will offer an instant discount of Rs 1,000 on ICICI Bank credit cards.

Here’s everything amazing about the #POCOX3PRO’s #PROformance summarized. pic.twitter.com/8dzY36bVdM

— POCO - Madder By the Minute (@IndiaPOCO) March 30, 2021

Poco X3 Pro specifications

Poco X3 Pro features a 6.67-inch FHD+ DotDisplay that comes with 2,400 x 1,080 pixels resolution and a 120 Hz refresh rate. The Poco X3 Pro uses Corning Gorilla Glass 6 protection on the display and supports an IP53 rating. The smartphone is powered by Snapdragon 860 chipset and offers up to 8 GB RAM and up to 256 GB of internal storage.

In terms of camera, Poco X3 Pro sports a quad-camera setup that includes a 48 MP primary sensor, an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 2 MP depth sensor and a 2 MP macro lens. For selfies, it comes with a 20 MP  front camera.

Poco X3 Pro is equipped with a 5,160 mAh battery that supports 33 W fast charging.

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