Cred, a credit card payment app founded by ace entrepreneur Kunal Shah in late 2018, is now all set to foray into digital lending niche. Two very interesting fintech products have been launched by Cred for their million+ loyal users, which will help them to cope with the financial crisis unleashed by the coronavirus. Now, […]

The post Cred Will Offer Credit To Credit Card Users; Enables House Rent Payment Using Credit Card At 1.75% Fees first appeared on Trak.in . Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.

Govt of India has issued a strict warning against Zoom app, which has become India’s most downloaded app for March, even beating the likes of Whatsapp and Facebook, TikTok. Govt has issued guidelines on how to use this app, but more importantly, suggested not to use it. Govt of India: Zoom Is Unsafe After National […]

The post Govt Issues Strict Warning Against Zoom App; Says It’s ‘Not Safe’, Issues Guidelines Of Usage first appeared on Trak.in . Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) released a set of revised guidelines this week which included full fledged operation of the ecommerce companies from April 20. However the Centre has left it to the state governments to decide in which areas and to ensure compliance with rules of social distancing and sanitisation. Flipkart, Snapdeal and […]

The post These 4 States Allow Online Sales Of All Goods After April 20th; But There Are Exceptions first appeared on Trak.in . Trak.in Mobile Apps: Android | iOS.

Wind River, an IoT and industrial operating system owned by Intel will be acquired by TPG, global alternative asset firm. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Intel had bought Wind River Systems for $884 million in 2009

Wind River operates in several markets, including aerospace and defense, automotive, industrial, medical and networking technologies. Its core products in these markets are operating systems, software infrastructure platforms, device management, and simulation software. The IoT practice of Wind River provides consulting services for customers building IoT applications.

In a statement for Wind River, Nehal Raj, Partner and Head of Technology investing at TPG said “We see a tremendous market opportunity in industrial software driven by the convergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), intelligent devices and edge computing. As a market leader with a strong product portfolio, Wind River is well positioned to benefit from these trends. We are excited about the prospects for Wind River as an independent company, and plan to build on its strong foundation with investments in both organic and inorganic growth.”

Wind River’s main IoT product is Helix Device Cloud, a cloud-offering capable of managing deployed IoT devices and industrial equipment across a machine’s lifecycle. Helix can connect and manage devices remotely.

Helix platform’s key uses cases are gateway management, proactive maintenance, security updates, and device provisioning.

Amber Solutions, an IoT product company that sells smart outlets, switches and circuit breakers closed Series A Preferred Stock round of financing that equals $3.3M in gross proceeds. Amber will use the funds to support the commercial development of Amber's core technologies.

One of Amber’s product is solid-state circuit interrupter (GFCI) that basically stops harmful levels of electricity from passing through a person. It operates as a safety device alerting the homeowner of electrocution incidents in real time.

Amber Solutions’ core markets are builders that prepare smart home/smart building ready infrastructure, certified electrical contractors or remodelers, and electrical manufacturers.

Other latest funding news include Owlet’s $24M Series B, Axonize’s $6M Series A round and addition of Deutsche Telekom as its strategic investor, and $30M Series B raised by Palo Alto-based Armis.

Microsoft announced it has acquired Semantic Machines, a conversational AI startup providing chatbots and AI chat apps founded in 2014 having $20.9 million in funding from investors. The acquisition will help Microsoft catch up with Amazon Alexa, though the latter is more focused on enabling consumer applications of conversational AI.

Microsoft will use Semantic Machine’s acquisition to establish a conversational AI center of excellence in Berkeley to help it innovate in natural language interfaces.

Microsoft has been stepping up its products in conversational AI. It launched the digital assistant Cortana in 2015, as well as social chatbots like XiaoIce. The latest acquisition can help Microsoft beef up its ‘enterprise AI’ offerings.

As the use of NLP (natural language processing) increases in IoT products and services, more startups are getting traction from investors and established players. In June last year, Josh.ai, avoice-controlled home automation software has raised $8M.

Followed by it was SparkCognition that raised $32.5M Series B for its NLP-based threat intelligence platform.

It appears Microsoft’s acquisition of Semantic Machines was motivated by the latter’s strong AI team. The team includes technology entrepreneur Daniel Roth who sold his previous startups Voice Signal Technologies and Shaser BioScience for $300M and $100M respectively. Other team members include Stanford AI Professor Percy Liang, developer of Google Assistant Core AI technology and former Apple chief speech scientist Larry Gillick.

Arduino’s MKR family of products got two new wireless connectivity boards added to its range of products. These include MKR WiFi 1010 and MKR NB 1500, both aimed at streamlining IoT product/service development.

Arduino’s blog notes that “the Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 is the new version of the MKR1000 with ESP32 module on board made by U-BLOX.”

MKR WiFi 1010: For prototyping of WI-FI based IoT applications

The core difference of MKR WiFi 1010 compared to MKR WiFi 1000 is that the former can be put to use in production-grade IoT apps and it has ESP32-based module manufactured by u-blox. The former enables to add 2.4GHz WiFi and Bluetooth capability to the application. Additionally, it comes with a programmable dual-processor system (an ARM processor and a dual-core Espressif IC).

MKR NB 1500: For on-field monitoring systems and remote-controlled LTE-enabled modules

The Arduino MKR NB 1500 is based on new low-power NB-IoT (narrowband IoT) standard. This makes it appropriate for IoT apps running over cellular/LTE networks.

Key use cases of this board are remote monitoring systems and remote-controlled LTE-enabled modules. It supports AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Telstra, Verizon over the Cat M1/NB1 deployed bands 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 20 and 28.

Arduino also pitches this board to be used in IoT apps which used to rely on alternative IoT networks such as LoRa and Sigfox. It promises to save power compared to GSM or 3G cellular-based connections.

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[News24Wire] The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) on Friday said it was perturbed about developments at eNCA, where news anchors Xoli Mngambi and Jane Dutton were taken off air after apologising for raising their views about the government's cigarette ban.

[Daily Maverick] Pension fund fraudster, J Arthur Brown, is one of around 19,000 low-risk prison inmates set to be released as part of President Cyril Ramaphosa's Special Covid-19 parole dispensation.

[News24Wire] Minister of Police Bheki Cele has revealed that a police officer accused of making blasphemous comments while arresting a group of Muslim men at a mosque last month, has been cleared of wrongdoing.

[Daily Maverick] The last legal challenge to the prosecution of former President Jacob Zuma and French arms company Thales has been dismissed by the Constitutional Court. On Friday, the apex court ruled that Thales' attempt to persist in having the prosecution permanently stayed had no chances of success.

[News24Wire] Only offenders who committed petty crimes will be eligible to be included in the 19 000 inmates who will be released on parole to combat the spread of Covid-19 in prisons.

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Researchers highlight risk of asymptomatic infection, as Europe begins easing lockdown

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More than 10 times as many people in Germany as thought may have been infected with coronavirus, researchers have said, as Italy led swathes of Europe out of lockdown and officials said the continent’s outbreak was mostly past its peak.

Researchers from Bonn University said on Monday that their preliminary study, based on fieldwork in the town of Gangelt in Heinsberg municipality, which had one of Germany’s highest death tolls, showed the risk of infection by asymptomatic carriers.

Coronavirus has infected more than 3.5 million people and caused nearly 250,000 deaths worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

China’s state broadcaster CCTV attacked the US secretary of state’s “insane and evasive remarks” on the origins of the pandemic. Mike Pompeo said there was “enormous evidence” to show the virus originated in a lab in China.

As Donald Trump presses states to reopen their economies, his administration is privately projecting daily deaths will almost double to about 3,000 by 1 June, according to an internal document seen by the New York Times.

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, extended the country’s national state of emergency to 31 May, adding that he would consider lifting it earlier if experts decided that was possible based on regional infection trends.

World leaders, with the exception of Trump, stumped up nearly €7.4bn (£6.5bn) to research Covid-19 vaccines and therapies, pledging the money would also be used to distribute any vaccine to poor countries on time and equitably.

5 May 1986: Moscow has seen many Russians arriving by train from Kiev in the disaster area

Moscow
The first real signs of alarm among the Soviet public began to emerge over the weekend as Russians arriving by train from Kiev in the Chernobyl disaster area, began saying frankly that they were worried by radiation.

In the last two days large numbers of unescorted children have been arriving here from the city by train, to be met by relatives and grandparents.

Related: From the archive, 30 April 1986: Russia admits blast as death fears rise

Related: Revisiting Chernobyl: 'It is a huge cemetery of dreams'

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A look at the best, the worst and the spiciest of the latest weekend of esports, which saw Sebastian Vettel making his long-awaited online racing debut.

Daniel Ricciardo has said that when racing returns the first grand prix could be chaos.

The National Hot Rod Association is working toward resuming the 2020 season in August, with fans in attendance, according to a Monday press release.

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Which 10-year span had the biggest stars, the brightest moments and the dirtiest secrets?

We break down the groundbreaking performances of the 2000s, featuring stars from Big Papi and Joey Bats to JV, Kershaw and the Freak.

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Top-10 NBA draft prospect Killian Hayes won't play in a season-capping tournament the German league plans to hold in June, a source says.

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Kuwait police break up riot by Egyptian workers after large numbers of jobs lost across the Gulf states

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India is to send its navy and a fleet of planes to repatriate migrant workers stranded by the coronavirus pandemic, as mounting tensions sparked a riot in Kuwait and alarm among large numbers of laid-off employees across the Gulf states.

The riot in a migrant camp in Kuwait on Sunday night was led by Egyptian workers, some of whom brandished furniture as security forces fired tear gas and sound grenades towards them.

Decades after Bhopal, lack of law enforcement and political will plagues Indian industry

The gas leak at a chemical factory in Visakhapatnam will immediately remind many in India and beyond of the 1984 Bhopal disaster, widely considered the world’s worst industrial disaster.

So far, the scale of the tragedies are very different. Eleven people are confirmed to have died in Visakhapatnam – but with hundreds hospitalised and thousands affected, there are fears the toll will rise. In Bhopal, 4,000 people died within days of the toxic gas leak from a pesticide plant in the central Indian city, and thousands more in the following years.

Everyone within 5km of the plant in Andhra Pradesh told to leave over fear of repeat of accident that has left at least 11 dead

Indian officials have evacuated more people from the area around a chemical plant in the south of the country that leaked toxic gas, killing at least 11 people and sickening hundreds more.

There was confusion about whether the wider evacuation orders were sparked by a renewed leak at the LG Chem factory in Andhra Pradesh, or by the fear that rising temperatures at the plant could lead to another leak.

Related: India's chemical plant disaster: another case of history repeating itself

Related: 'Bhopal’s tragedy has not stopped': the urban disaster still claiming lives 35 years on

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If college football is forced to play in the spring, it won't be the first time that has happened. You just have to go back to the 19th century.

Can any team challenge Memphis and UCF for the top spot in the best conference outside of the Power 5?

Here's why Clemson, Ohio State, Oklahoma and 22 more teams will have the top offenses through the next three seasons.