The Centre on Monday told the Delhi High Court that it views the new privacy policy of WhatsApp as a violation of the Indian Information Technology (IT) law and rules, and sought directions to the social media platform to make it clear whether it was confirming to the same.

The central government’s claim was made before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh during hearing of several pleas challenging WhatsApp’s new privacy policy, which according to the platform has come into effect from May 15 and has not been deferred.

WhatsApp told the bench that while its new privacy policy has come into effect from May 15, it would not start deleting accounts of those users who have not accepted it and would try to encourage them to get on board.

The platform said there was no universal or uniform time limit after which it will start to delete accounts as each user would be dealt with it on case-to-case basis.

The bench issued notice to the Centre, Facebook and WhatsApp and sought their stand on one of the pleas by a lawyer who has claimed that the new policy violates users’ right to privacy under the Constitution.

During the hearing, the Centre said that according to it the policy was in violation of Indian IT laws and rules.

It said it has written to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the issue and a reply is awaited and therefore, there was a need to maintain status quo with regard to implementation of the policy.

WhatsApp, opposing the contention, said it was conforming to Indian IT law and rules and added that its policy has come into effect from May 15, but it won’t be deleting accounts right away.

When the matter was initially listed before a single judge, the Centre had said that WhatsApp was treating Indian users differently from Europeans over opting out of its new privacy policy which was a matter of concern for the government and it was looking into the issue.

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Apple has announced that its music streaming service Apple Music will get lossless audio and Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos in June. Both the upgrades will be available for free to the Apple Music subscribers, including those on family and student plans.

According to Apple, the default Apple Music setting will let users automatically play Dolby Atmos tracks on all AirPods and Beats headphones with an Apple H1 or W1 chip, as well as the built-in speakers in the latest versions of iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Moreover, Apple Music will be adding new Dolby Atmos tracks and will be curating a special set of Dolby Atmos playlists to help listeners find the music they love.

“Apple Music is making its biggest advancement ever in sound quality,” said Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Apple Music and Beats. “Listening to a song in Dolby Atmos is like magic. The music comes from all around you and sounds incredible. Now we are bringing this truly innovative and immersive experience to our listeners with music from their favorite artists like J Balvin, Gustavo Dudamel, Ariana Grande, Maroon 5, Kacey Musgraves, The Weeknd, and so many more.

Subscribers will also be able to listen to their music in the highest audio quality with Lossless Audio. Apple Music as we know it is about to change forever.”

ALSO READ: Apple India logs record quarter: PC, smartphone, iPad biz grows rapidly

As for the lossless audio, Apple says it will have 75 million supported audio songs in its catalog by the end of the year. The lossless audio will be facilitated by Apple Lossless Audio Codec (ALAC). Unlike the Spatial Audio, Lossless Audio will be available as an opt in due to the large file sizes and bandwidth needed for Lossless and Hi-Res Lossless Audio to stream. To turn on lossless audio, subscribers must run the latest version of Apple Music and can go to Settings — Music — Audio Quality. Apple says, the Apple Music offers Hi-Resolution Lossless all the way up to 24 bit at 192 kHz.

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Home-grown audio accessory brand Zebronics recently launched the Zebronics Juke Bar 3800 Pro Dolby soundbar audio system. Priced at Rs 6,100, the soundbar is one of the few in entry-level segment to boast Dolby Digital Plus sound. Though it comes sans a woofer, the Zebronics Juke Bar 3800 Pro Dolby seems to be a value-for-money proposition in its segment. Is it? Let’s find out:

Design

The Juke Bar 3800 Pro Dolby looks similar to other Zebronics soundbars. It has a sleek and minimal design, and good build quality. The body is made mostly of plastic, with a metal grille at the front side covering the speakers. There is no dedicated subwoofer here but the speakers has a full range speakers to deliver ample bass. The soundbar is decently sized and looks ideal together with a 43-inch screen. You can mount the soundbar on a wall or place it on table top. It ships with a tiny remote control for ease of use.

As for the input ports, most of them are available on the back side of the soundbar. The most commonly used ones, however, are on the sides. For example, the USB port is on the left side and the right side there is power button and volume control keys. Complementing the design is the LED indicator lights, which show input mode, volume level and equalizer in use.

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Avita continues to expand its laptop line-up in India. Known for its peppy looking thin-and-lightweight laptops, the Hong Kong-based electronics maker recently launched in India online exclusive Avita Liber V laptop. This Microsoft Windows 10 operating system-based laptop seems to be a feature-rich proposition powered by 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor. Is it as good as it seems to be on paper? Let’s find out:

Design, display and design

Being a thin-and-light laptop, the Avita Liber V looks neat and features a slim chassis that weights around 1.28 kg. Complementing the design is the minimal bezels around the display. The thin-and-light design makes it easy to operate and the compact form factor makes it easy to carry. The laptop’s silver colour unit (review unit) boasts blue coating on the top side of the display lid. While the coating enhances the looks, it might not age well and start to chip off in the long term.

On the inside, the laptop features a one-megapixel camera, accommodated on the top display bezel area, for video calls. Downside, the laptop sports a backlit keyboard, with keys spread in distance to each other for convenient usage. Though the keys spacing isgood, the keys are not big and feel inadequately sized, especially for someone with fat fingers. The keys might seem small to some but the laptop’s trackpad is big. It is easy to use and support Windows precision touch gestures. However, the touchpad placement makes it susceptible to accidental touches. The trackpad is home to the laptop’s fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello login. It is not accurate but nonetheless a good addition.

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Redmi India, a sub-brand of Mi India, on Thursday unveiled Redmi Note 10S along with its first-ever Redmi Watch in the Indian market.

The smartphone comes in two storage variants — 6GB+64GB and 6GB+128GB — at Rs 14,999 and Rs 15,999, respectively. It will be available across online channels from May 18.

Redmi Note 10S comes with a sleek design, stunning cameras, savage performance and smooth display. It will be the first device to come with MIUI 12.5 (interim) out-of-the-box, which is the cleanest MIUI experience ever, the company said in a statement.

The smartphone that sports a 6.43-inch full HD+ super AMOLED display comes with a quad-camera setup that features a 64MP primary camera, 8MP Ultra-wide lens, 2MP Macro camera with 2x zoom capabilities and a 2MP depth sensor.

There is a 13MP front in-display camera for quality selfies.

Redmi Note 10S is powered by a MediaTek Helios G95 chipset that is designed for the ultimate gaming experience, the company said.

Priced at Rs 3,999, the Redmi Watch allows users to accurately track their trajectory, speed, distance and calories burnt during workouts. It simultaneously also keeps a check on heart rate to provide a clear and detailed status for workout sessions.

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Consumer technology giant Apple registered record business in the January-March quarter, backed by an unprecedented surge in its all key product categories. The US major clocked the highest ever shipment in personal computers, regained top spot in the premium smartphones market, and grew its iPad business rapidly as consumers in India invested in electronic devices.

Apple was a fringe player in all key categories like smartphones, notebooks, and tablets till recently. But with the last quarter’s record-breaking performance, the brand has established itself in the country’s price-sensitive consumer electronics market.

According to the market research firm IDC data, in January-March Apple recorded its biggest quarter for personal computer (PC) shipment in India and captured fifth spot for the first time, matching the long-standing Chinese brand Asus.

As the shipment of Macs grew by a staggering 336 per cent year-on-year (YoY), the brand captured 5.4 per cent of the local PC market.

During the period, some 167,000 Macs were shipped against 38,000 in the corresponding quarter last year. In the consumer PC segment, Apple stood fourth, after HP, Lenovo, and Dell.

While leading players like Dell and Acer registered a decline in shipment over the previous quarter (October-December), Apple grew 45.3 per cent QoQ. Even though the PC market grew by 73 per cent, Apple’s growth rate was nearly five times of that.

Macs are the largest category for Apple after iPhones.

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India’s one of the oldest and largest music labels Tips Music on Thursday announced a music licensing deal with Google for the latter’s newly introduced short-video platform YouTube “Shorts”. As part of this deal, Tips will license its large catalogue to YouTube platform allowing the huge Indian diaspora across the world to create content inspired its ever popular and superhit music library in diverse Indian languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Haryanvi, Marathi, Gujarati, amongst many others.

“The deal will allow our community of fans to create fresh new content alongside their favourite music from Tips music library.

This partnership will open possibilities for creators and users to explore their creativity which may give us our next future star. What better way to celebrate our new generation of talent,” said Kumar Taurani, founder, Tips Music.

YouTube Shorts is a short-video service offering by Google which allows users, creators and artists to create short video content right on YouTube app. It lets YouTube channel owners to connect with new audiences with just a smartphone.

Tips is of one India’s oldest music label and holds the richest catalogue spanning across genres like film / non- film songs, devotional music, ghazals & indipop.

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Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus ex-founder Carl Pei’s technology start-up ‘Nothing’ is set to launch its first product in June this year. Named Ear 1, it is a pair of true wireless earbuds that will debut the brand in global consumer technology market. The earphones are also touted as the beginning of a long and exciting journey that will eventually expand in other product categories, including smart electronics that are expected to arrive later this year.

“Our mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future that looks, lives, and feels like nothing…

It (Ear 1) is the starting point that will define the artistry, confidence, and craftsmanship that will carry our products and services for years to come,” Carl Pei, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Nothing said in a blogpost.

Pei, in the blog, explained the reason for choosing earbuds as the first product in Nothing’s portfolio. “…we believe the earphones market was begging for differentiation, space where we can elevate design and deliver value from day one. Additionally, as an area of hyper-growth, the earphones market will provide a fertile backdrop as we strengthen our capabilities and prepare to enter new product categories,” he added.

Nothing has raised $22 million from a clutch of investors, including GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casey Neistat (YouTube personality and Beme co-founder), Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and Reddit Chief Executive Officer Steve Huffman. India’s entrepreneur Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED, also invested in Nothing, although the amount has not been disclosed.

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Asian cities face the greatest risk from environmental issues including air pollution and natural disasters, according to a report by research firm Verisk Maplecroft.

Of the 100 most vulnerable cities, 99 are in Asia, according to the report released on Thursday. Of those, 37 are in China and 43 are in India, the world’s first and third biggest emitters of greenhouse gases respectively. Globally, 1.5 billion people live in 414 cities that are at high risk from pollution, water shortages, extreme heat, natural hazards and the physical impacts of climate change.

Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, topped the list of combined risk based on all nine factors analyzed by Verisk Maplecroft. India is home to 13 of the 20 riskiest cities in the world, a result of its extreme levels of air and water pollution. China’s flood-prone Guangzhou and Dongguan topped the list of cities facing threats from natural hazards, followed by Japan’s Osaka and Tokyo for being vulnerable to earthquakes and typhoons. Lima is the only city outside Asia among the top 100 most at-risk cities overall.

A significant danger for many cities is how climate change will amplify weather-related risks, said Will Nichols, Verisk Maplecroft’s Head of Environment and Climate Change. “Higher temperatures and the increasing severity and frequency of extreme events will change the quality of living and economic growth prospects of many cities across the globe,” he said.

African cities face some of the worst risks from climate change and have the least ability to mitigate those impacts. Glasgow was ranked the safest among the 576 cities examined for that factor.

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Swedish audio streaming platform Spotify recently announced that it is making it easier for users to share their favourite track or podcast episode with friends through social media.

According to Mashable, the new updates in social sharing have been rolled out globally by Spotify for both iOS and Android users.

The company announced the details of the new features on its blog post where it stated, “We’re constantly evolving the Spotify experience to meet listener needs and working to provide the best possible audio experience for listeners around the world. These three updates make sharing music and podcasts easier than ever.”

The first feature to be added is Podcast Timestamp that will let users share podcast episodes beginning at any particular moment that they want their friends to listen to. This way the user’s friends won’t have to listen to the whole podcast episode.

Using this feature is super easy, all that needs to be done is tap the “share” button while listening to the episode, then use the “switch to share” feature at the current playtime.

Another update is that Spotify’s Canvas feature turns static song pages into video-art showcases. This helps ramp up the overall music listening experience. Moreover, users can also share their favourite tracks with Canvas via Snapchat now in addition to Instagram.

Lastly, Spotify has also come out with an updated sharing menu on mobile with a clearer layout. It offers a clear preview to users around what they’re sharing along with an improved destination list.

As per Mashable, Spotify said this will help users better visualise how the canvas will be presented on their social media profiles.

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