Microsoft has been incorporating AI in all its products and services, including LinkedIn. The professional networking platform is said to be working on an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that will help users look and apply for jobs. The tool may be called LinkedIn Coach, and reportedly, the company is testing it. The toll is aimed at supporting users through the application processes, teaching them new skills and helping in networking on the platform.The feature was first spotted by app researcher Nima Owji, who shared an image on Twitter — now X – suggesting the name and working of the feature. “Introducing LinkedIn Coach. Apple for jobs, learn new skills and find more ways to connect with your network — all backed by the power of AI,” the screenshot reads. The platform also gives an explainer saying, “Coach is new, and it may get things wrong.” The chatbot can provide answers to questions like, “How does Coach work?” or “What is the culture of Microsoft?”In an email sent to The Verge, LinkedIn spokesperson Amanda Purvis said that the company is “always exploring” new ways to improve user experience on the platform. Purvis adds that the company “will have more to share soon.”LinkedIn’s AI journeyMicrosoft-owned LinkedIn is one of the products where the technology giant is incorporating AI chatbots. As of now, the company has introduced Bing Chat to the Office suite of apps, Windows, Microsoft Edge, and GitHub. LinkedIn is already testing an AI chatbot that can quickly write posts about users. These posts then can be shared in the form of updates with their network. In a LinkedIn post, Keren Baruch, Director of Product at LinkedIn, said that the company is “starting to test a way for members to use generative AI directly within the LinkedIn share box.”LinkedIn has already introduced an AI-powered tool for suggesting multiple copies of an ad based on data from the marketer’s LinkedIn page and Campaign Manager settings. There is also an AI chatbot that can generate content for user profiles and job descriptions.

The rebranding of Twitter to X is now in full swing. The official Twitter account has been shut down. On the web and Android version, the bird has been replaced by the logo X. The logo is also set to go some other changes. It seems like a lot is happening and Elon Musk is set to bring another massive change. Musk feels that X should only have dark mode. “This platform will soon only have “dark mode”. It is better in every way,” Musk said in a reply to a tweet. Musk’s tweet does indicate that users will not have the option to move to the light mode. Currently, Twitter gives users the option to choose from both the modes. It also has a “Dim” mode which is a darker shade of blue. So the background is completely black but is still sort of dark. It’s not clear whether the Dim mode stays on Twitter or not. What is dark mode? As the name suggests, dark mode is nothing but an interface setting that changes the colour scheme of an application, website, or device from predominantly light colours to predominantly dark colours. In dark mode, the background is usually black or a dark shade of gray, and the text and other UI elements are displayed in lighter colours. This contrast reversal makes the content easier to read in low-light environments and can also reduce eye strain.Is dark mode beneficial?In low-light conditions or during nighttime, staring at bright screens with a predominantly white background can lead to eye fatigue and discomfort. Dark mode, with its muted colours, can alleviate this strain and provide a more comfortable viewing experience.Blue light, which is emitted by most electronic displays, has been linked to disruptions in sleep patterns and potential eye damage with prolonged exposure. Dark mode, especially when combined with blue light filters, can reduce the amount of blue light reaching the eyes.On devices with OLED or AMOLED screens, dark mode can save battery life, as each pixel in these displays emits its own light.

Earlier this year in June, Apple made quite a splash when it unveiled Vision Pro, a brand new product which marks the company’s entry in a new category. Vision Pro is a headset designed to blend augmented reality, mixed reality or what Apple calls it spatial computing. This week Apple revealed that a Vision Pro Developer Kit will be sent out to a select developers to test, develop and run apps on the Vision Pro. A report by 9to5Mac reveals Apple’s strict guidelines for developers before using it. Passwords, locks and more Apple is an extremely strict company when it comes to secrecy. With the developer kit now being in open — in some way at least — Apple has issued strict guidelines for developers before they sign the agreement. According to the report, developers are not authroised to give access to or let anyone else use the Developers Kit (or DK as Apple has called it). Furthermore, developers are told that it should be used within areas that are “fully enclosed with solid doors, floors, walls and ceiling, and locks that can be engaged”. Apple has also said that no one else — including any family, friends, roommates or household employees — do not access, view, handle, or use the DK. The guidelines get stricter as Apple has told developers that the “DK should be in your positive control (on your person or within Your direct line of sight) at all times.”The developers kit shouldn’t be left unattended (in a bar or any public place) and that it is passcode protected. “When not in use, turn off the DK and store it in its locked Pelican case in a locked space that only You have access to (e.g., a locked room or closet, a safe or locked drawer).” Yes, Apple wants developers to keep it in a safe. Developers are also not allowed to move it from the address it has been shipped to without Apple’s prior written consent. “If you will be away from your workspace for more than 10 days, consult with your Apple point of contact about how to keep the DK safe while You are away,” Apple has advised developers.

India’s fifth largest IT services company Tech Mahindra reported a rough first quarter (April-June) as net profit plunged due to a sharp narrowing of margins. The Mahindra group company had reported a net profit of Rs 1,131.6 crore in the same period last year. In the preceding quarter, the same stood at Rs 1,117.6 crore. The company’s revenues slid to Rs 13,159 crore in the reporting quarter. Profit dips 40%Tech Mahindra has reported a nearly 40% year-on-year (YoY) decrease in net profit in the three months ending in June Toughest quarter in five yearsChief executive officer CP Gurnani said that the quarter was marked by large-scale slowdowns, particularly across communication clients. “This quarter is probably one of the toughest quarters I have seen in the last five years, but we believe that we will be able to bring back our growth trajectory,” Gurnani said. “There’s a speed breaker right now and it has influenced the industry. Deal conversions have been impacted. The numbers are not satisfactory on the EBITDA front. My belief is some of the challenges are temporary and we will bounce back over the next few quarters,” Gurnani said.Earnings breakupThe communications, media, and entertainment (CME) vertical, which accounts for about 38% of its revenue, was down 8.2% from a year ago. BFSI revenue was down 3.2% sequentially and 5.4% on-year. Its Europe revenues are down 6.7% over the prior quarter, while US revenues are down 0.5% on-quarter. The Americas, Europe, and RoW (rest of world) all witnessed sequential declines in revenue. The number of active clients dropped by 42 sequentially.CEO-designate and former Infosys president Mohit Joshi was part of the press conference to announce the June quarter results. Joshi will succeed CP Gurnani later this year.

Domestic brand Ptron has expanded its TWS product portfolio with new earbuds called Zenbuds Ultima. These new earbuds come with Hybrid ANC technology, TruTalk Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) technology, a quad-mic system and an IPX5 water-resistant rating. Ptron also promises 50 hours of total playtime for Zenbuds Ultima. These earbuds also offer the Apt Sense 40ms low-latency mode, Transparency mode and a gaming/ music mode. Announcing the launch, founder and CEO of Ptron, Ameen Khwaja said, “Zenbuds Ultima is an example of advanced products with its exceptional premium feature and with affordable pricing. 35dB Hybrid ANC blocks out distractions for pure auditory bliss, Quad Mic system with TruTalk ENC ensures crystal-clear calls, Apt Sense 40ms Low-latency mode for exceptional audio performance, Transparency Mode enables interaction with the external world & Impressive 50 hours of playtime- making this product competitive to the market trend. The launch of Zenbuds Ultima is just the beginning of an exciting new era for pTron and we remain dedicated to creating ground-breaking products that enrich the lives of its customers, setting new benchmarks in the industry”.Ptron Zenbuds Ultima: Price and availability The Ptron Zenbuds Ultima TWS earbuds will be available starting July 28 at a special launch price of Rs 1,499. These new earbuds will be available on the e-commerce website Amazon. Zenbuds Ultima will be available in a single black colour variant. Ptron Zenbuds Ultima: Key specsThe Zenbuds Ultima feature a quad-mic setup that supports the TruTalk Environmental Noise Cancellation (ENC) technology. These earbuds are also equipped with 35dB hybrid ANC technology along with an Apt Sense 40ms Low-latency mode that claims to offer improved audio performance. The earbuds also promise 50 hours of playtime and come with IPX5 water-resistant rating. Ptron Zenbuds Ultima Technical Specifications: Bluetooth Version BT v5.3 with 10m range, 1-step pairing & auto-reconnect Driver size 13mm Quad Mic, TruTalk ENC Audio Technology Quietsmart ANC (Active Noise Cancellation Technology) + ENC (Environmental Noise Cancellation Technology) Playtime Up to 50 Hours with charging case Charging Case 500 mAh Type-C Charging Case Product Weight 32g Charging case, 3.7g each earbud Other Features Touch Controls with Voice Assistant + IPX5 Water resistant Low Latency Audio & Video Sync with Stereo & Mono Bud Capability

Domestic wearable brand Boult has launched its latest smartwatch Striker Pro. The made-in-India watch has an AMOLED display and supports Always on Display. Customers can also choose from the 150+ cloud-based watch faces that the smartwatch offers. The wearable comes with a zinc alloy frame and offers a variety of strap options. Commenting on the launch, Varun Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Boult, stated, “We have always poured our heart and soul into designing the smartwatches we offer so that they seamlessly integrate fashion, functionality, and the needs of our vibrant Gen Z community. We always keep pace with the latest tech advancements, and we strive to bring the freshest innovations as one of the top 5 smartwatch companies. With our latest launch, the Striker Pro, we are taking some major leaps forward in that direction, besides strengthening our portfolio in the fitness wearable segment.”Boult Striker Pro: Price and availability Boult launched the Striker Pro smartwatch at an original price of Rs 5999. However, customers can purchase the Striker Pro exclusively at an offer price of Rs 2499 on Boult’s official website (www.boultaudio.com) and Flipkart. The watch will be available in a variety of strap options, including Blue, Grey, Black and metal strap. Boult Striker Pro: Key specsBoult Striker Pro sports a 1.43-inch round HD AMOLED screen that supports 466×466 resolution, 750 nits brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. The smartwatch supports Always-On Display (AoD) and features an integrated speaker as well as a microphone for Bluetooth calling. The smartwatch is equipped with health monitoring capabilities, like SpO2 blood oxygen levels and heart rate monitoring. The watch even tracks the menstrual cycles of female users. Other health features include sleep tracking, hydration and activity reminders.The Striker Pro smartwatch offers 150+ cloud-based watch faces for users to customise according to their preferences. Apart from this, the watch also comes with an IP67 water and dust resistance rating. Some of its other features include — Smart Notifications, Calculator, and Weather Details. Striker Pro is also compatible with Siri, Google Assistant and also offers a collection of over 120 sports modes.

Digital engineering services company, Xoriant has launched a generative AI platform called Orian. The initial application developed on the ORIAN platform caters to the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). This application harnesses the capabilities of AI, ML, and analytics to automate and expedite the contact detection and inspection process for Contact Sport Analytics. Its primary goal is to support the NFLPA in ensuring and improving player safety, which remains a core objective for the organisation. Orian provides a wide array of use cases and models that empower clients to readily adopt AI and Generative AI in their operations, fostering efficiency and competitiveness. The platform seamlessly integrates turnkey industry solutions, an extensive partner network, accelerators, and ethical design frameworks for application development. This comprehensive approach enables businesses to harness the full potential of AI while maintaining a competitive edge in their respective industries.“We are thrilled with Xoriant’s ability to leverage technology, especially AI for enabling us in our objective of ensuring player safety with agility and accuracy. It has reduced our efforts by 90% in real-time illegal contacts identification and helps us to make quicker inferences through the player insight dashboard. With its self-learning attributes, it is a game-changer for us in this fast-paced sports of NFL,” said Richard Persons, Director, Information Systems, NFLPA.

There are changes — some big, some small. We are talking about the new Galaxy Z Flip5 5G that now features a big 3.4-inch SuperAMOLED display as a cover. Along with that, there’s a lot of other things to talk about including the new slimmer profile, new Flex hinge that shuts flat and a handful of new features that are aimed at making the clamshell foldable experience better. We got a chance to experience the new Galaxy Z Flip5 5G at the Galaxy Unpacked in Seoul and here’s what we feel about it.What it is like to have a bigger display at the front Without moving around with the specs and features that Z Flip5 offers, let’s address the elephant in the room — the new bigger cover screen. Well, it looks fresh and different from other foldables out there. But, it makes things far more functional and practical for users. That means, there’s a chance you may not have to open the phone for everything. Flex Windows — that’s what Samsung is calling it. Keeping the name aside, the bigger display is sort of a curated widget space that lets users add widgets for several apps and keep themselves updated. There are a handful of them like weather, notification, timer, etc. Then there’s a pinch gesture that puts all the active widgets on one screen and lets users choose the one they want. While the idea for a secondary display is good and lets users do things that can be easily done on a screen of this size, unlike offering the entire main display on a tiny screen to make things look cluttered. Then there’s the option for quick replies as well as using the full QWERTY keyboard in Moving over, there’s now the option to access Quick Settings to enable or disable certain features quickly. Samsung is also making things better for Samsung Wallet users by allowing them to make payments directly from the cover display. All these appear to be pretty functional and interesting at the moment, but the full potential has to be unlocked by making developers add these kinds of widgets. For instance, an Uber widget or Swiggy/Zomato widget will make more sense by allowing users to track orders without continuously opening or closing the phone. But, the FlexCam is something that will grab users attention. The FlexCam now lets users take high-quality selfies by getting a preview of themselves on the cover display hands-free. But, there’s more, Samsung has provided users with the option to view and edit the shots on the go. This is a handy feature for users as well as creators. New hinge = New feel?Flex Hinge is Samsung’s term for waterdrop hinge design that let’s foldable phones close flat without any gap. Yes, the Galaxy Z Flip5 can close without any gap. Although, the thickness has gone down by around 2mm. Certainly, the new hinge mechanism is far more smoother than before. But what makes it different to hold is the completely flat design. The phone feels new, even though it borrows the design elements from previous generations. These new changes add to a good hand-feel as well as pocket-feel. It would be wrong to say that it is an entirely different feeling, but it is certainly a better move to make everything feel more polished and premium. Small changes are making all the differenceIt’s not that a lot has changed with the Z Flip5. Samsung has made small changes that make the entire experience better and more polished. The updated cover display adds to the user experience, plus the FlexCam, new Flex hinge feels like the changes in the right direction. Performance too has been updated, but it is a little too early to talk about it. Stay tuned for our full review to read more about how the phone stands the test of time in real-world situations.

The United States military is not the unrivaled force it once was, but Alexandr Wang, CEO of startup Scale AI, told a congressional committee last week that it could establish a new advantage by harnessing artificial intelligence. “We have the largest fleet of military hardware in the world,” Wang told the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Information Technology and Innovation. “If we can properly set up and instrument this data that’s being generated … then we can create a pretty insurmountable data advantage when it comes to military use of artificial intelligence.” Wang’s company has a vested interest in that vision, since it regularly works with the Pentagon processing large quantities of training data for AI projects. But there is a conviction within US military circles that increased use of AI and machine learning are virtually inevitable—and essential. I recently wrote about that growing movement and how one Pentagon unit is using off-the-shelf robotics and AI software to more efficiently surveil large swaths of the ocean in the Middle East. Besides the country’s unparalleled military data, Wang told the congressional hearing that the US has the advantage of being home to the world’s most advanced AI chipmakers, like Nvidia, and the world’s best AI expertise. “America is the place of choice for the world’s most talented AI scientists,” he said. Wang’s interest in military AI is also worth paying attention to because Scale AI is at the forefront of another AI revolution: the development of powerful large language models and advanced chatbots like ChatGPT. No one is thinking of conscripting ChatGPT into military service just yet, although there have been a few experiments involving use of large language models in military war games. But observers see US companies’ recent leaps in AI performance as another key advantage that the Pentagon might exploit. Given how quickly the technology is developing—and how problematic it still is—this raises new questions about what safeguards might be needed around military AI. This jump in AI capabilities comes as some people’s attitudes toward the military use of AI are changing. In 2017, Google faced a backlash for helping the US Air Force use AI to interpret aerial imagery through the Pentagon’s Project Maven. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has softened public and political attitudes toward private sector collaboration with tech companies and demonstrated the potential of cheap autonomous drones and of commercial AI for data analysis. Ukrainian forces are using neural deep learning algorithms to analyze aerial imagery and footage. The US company Palantir has said that it is providing targeting software to Ukraine. And Russia is increasingly focusing on AI for autonomous systems. Despite widespread fears about “killer robots,” the technology is not yet reliable enough to be used in this way. And while reporting on the Pentagon’s AI ambitions, I did not come across anyone within the Department of Defense, US forces, or AI-focused startups eager to unleash fully autonomous weapons. But greater use of AI will create a growing number of military encounters in which humans are removed or abstracted from the equation. And while some people have compared AI to nuclear weapons, the more immediate risk is less the destructive power of military AI systems than their potential to deepen the fog of war and make human errors more likely. When I spoke to John Richardson, a retired four-star admiral who served as the US Navy’s chief of naval operations between 2015 and 2018, he was convinced that AI will have an effect on military power similar to the industrial revolution and the atomic age. And he pointed out that the side that harnessed those previous revolutions best won the past two world wars. But Richardson also talked about the role of human connections in managing military interactions driven by powerful technology. While serving as Navy chief he went out of his way to get to know his counterparts in the fleets of other nations. “Every time we met or talked, we got a better sense of one another,” he says. “What I really wanted to do was make sure that should something happen—some kind of miscalculation or something—I could call them up on relatively short notice. You just don’t want that to be your first call.” Now would be a good time for the world’s military leaders to start talking to each about the risks and limitations of AI, too.

WhatsApp allows users to quickly record voice messages and send it to personal or a group chat. The feature comes handy in situations when a user has to send a long message because writing a lengthy note can be a tedious task as it consumes a lot of time and effort. The Meta-owned app is now rolling out the ability to quickly send videos in a similar fashion. “New for WhatsApp – we’re adding the ability to instantly record and share a video message in your WhatsApp chats. It’s as easy as sending a quick voice message,”Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in his Instagram Channel.Video messages have begun rolling out and will be available to everyone in the coming weeks. WhatsApp says that video messages are protected with end-to-end encryption. “Video messages are a real-time way to respond to chats with whatever you want to say and show in 60 seconds. We think these will be a fun way to share moments with all the emotion that comes from video, whether it’s wishing someone a happy birthday, laughing at a joke, or bringing good news,” it said. How to send a video messageCurrently, users have to tap the “Camera” icon on the message bar, choose the “video” option, record a clip and then send it to the user or group. Now, users can now tap the ‘microphone’ button adjacent to the message bar and it will change the option to video. Users can then tap and hold the video button to record a video. When you release your thumb, WhatsApp will automatically send the video to the user or group. Just like when sending an audio clip, users can swipe to the left to cancel the recording.If users want to record a long video, they can also swipe up to lock and keep recording the video hands-free. There is a camera swap option so that users can send a video from the front camera. Furthermore, videos will play automatically on mute when opened in a chat, and tapping on the video will start the sound.