Tech Launch Updates: PhonePe UPI services down because of its sole UPI infrastructure partner having a moratorium put on itself.
Tech News Highlights: One of the biggest developments surrounding India is the moratorium put on Yes Bank by RBI. Due to this many companies like Flipkart, Airtel and more are facing problems in operations. The most hit of these companies happens to be PhonePe, which solely relied on Yes Bank’s UPI infrastructure to handle all of its payments. And currently, the app is not able to function at its full capacity due to this.
Today Google released its ‘read it’ feature, which allows the Google Assistant to read out the text on the screen. The new feature was first unveiled at the CES 2020 when the company gave us a sneak peek at the functionality. Android users can ask the Google Assistant to read aloud web pages opened on their Chrome browser, Google Search, or the News app.
Users can simply say, “Hey Google, read it”, “Hey Google, read aloud” or “Hey Google, read this page” to activate the feature. Google says that the feature will be available in 42 languages including Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Sinhalese, Tamil, and Telugu.
In other tech news, NASA’s Mars 2020 rover just got its name. Perseverance will be the name of this rover that will soon reach Mars to accompany the Curiosity. Oppo also released its flagship Find X2 series in China. See the cards below for more details:
PhonePe UPI services are currently down due to it solely relying on Yes Bank's UPI platform to process payments. Yes Bank was placed under a moratorium by RBI on Thursday evening. RBI has implemented a cap of deposit withdrawals at Rs 50,000 per account for a month and suspended the current board of directors.
PhonePe is not the only entity that has been affected by this moratorium. Many other brands like Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Myntra, Jabong, Cleartrip, Airtel, Swiggy, Redbus, Hungerbox, MudraPay, Udaan, Microsoft Kaizala and PVR all are facing issues as they use Yes Bank's UPI platform.
PhonePe has put out a statement saying that its services have been partially restored, customers can now use credit card, debit card and wallet payment options. However, its UPI service is yet to be restored.
Oppo has launched its Find X2, Find X2 Pro smartphones globally via a livestream. Find X2 is priced at Euro 999 (approximately Rs 83,400), whereas, the Find X2 Pro is priced at Euro 1,199 (approximately Rs 1,67,300. Both the devices will be made available in Western European markets starting early May. The company has also teased the launch of its devices with 5G support in India soon.
Oppo Find X2
Oppo Find X2 sports a 6.7-inch QHD+ Ultra Vision display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor paired with 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage. It runs Google's Android 10 operating system with the company's own ColorOS 7.1 skin on top. All of this is backed by two 2,100mAh batteries (compiled capacity of 4,200mAh) with support for the company's own 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 Flash Charge fast charging technology. It comes with a triple camera setup on the back consisting of a 48MP primary sensor, a 12MP secondary sensor and a 13MP tertiary sensor. On the front, it features a 32MP sensor for taking selfies.
Oppo Find X2 Pro
Oppo Find X2 sports a 6.7-inch QHD+ Ultra Vision display with a refresh rate of 120Hz. It is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor paired with 12GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage. It runs Google's Android 10 operating system with the company's own ColorOS 7.1 skin on top. All of this is backed by two 2,130mAh batteries (compiled capacity of 4,260mAh) with support for the company's own 65W SuperVOOC 2.0 Flash Charge fast charging technology. It comes with a triple camera setup on the back consisting of a 48MP primary sensor, a 48MP ultra-wide-angle sensor and a 13MP periscope lens. On the front, it features a 32MP sensor for taking selfies.
Ghost of Tsushima from Sucker Punch Productions has finally received a launch date. Sony in a new story trailer for the game has revealed that the game will launch on June 26. It is currently available for pre-ordering for the PlayStation 4. It is a PS4 original title and will not be coming to PC or Xbox. The trailer shows how the gameplay mechanics will work. The Collector's Edition is priced a $169.99 (approximately Rs 12,500), the Special Edition is priced at $69.99 (approximately Rs 5,100), Digital Deluxe Edition is also priced at $69.99 (approximately Rs 5,100), whereas, the launch edition and the Standard Edition are priced at $59.99 (approximately Rs 4,400).
Infinix has launched the new Infinix S5 Pro. The highlights of the phone include a pop-up selfie camera, 48MP triple rear camera setup, and 4000mA battery. It is priced at Rs 9,999 for the 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage model and the first sale starts on March 13 at 12 noon. The Infinix S5 Pro features 6.53-inch Full HD+ Full View display with 19.5:9 aspect ratio, Helio P35 octa-core processor, 16MP pop-up selfie camera, 48MP+2MP+Low Light Sensor triple rear camera setup, and 4000mAh battery.
Twitter is testing a new feature called “fleets” — which is its own version of Stories. With this feature Twitter wants users to share their “fleeting” thoughts which can’t be tweeted or publically talked about. However, the new feature is not like tweets that disappear after 24 hours but resembles Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram Stories. Click here to read more about it.
Google has released its 'read it' feature for the Google Assistant. The new functionality will let Android users to command Assistant to read out web pages opened on their Chrome browser, Google Search, or the News app. To use the 'read it' feature, users just need to ask Assistant, “Hey Google, read it”, “Hey Google, read aloud” or “Hey Google, read this page”.
Google says that the feature will be available in 42 languages including Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Nepali, Sinhalese, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu. The company says that Google Assistant will automatically scroll the page and highlight words as it reads aloud the content to help users follow along.