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   The tech giant has chosen to release  new features for Windows 11  as and when they are ready rather than waiting for the annual fall update. While the headlining feature of the latest update is support for the AI-powered preview of “the new Bing,” which includes the infamous Bing chatbot, there are several other significant changes that enhance existing Windows 11 apps and features. The Notepad app has been updated to support tabs, allowing users to view multiple notes in a single window. The Quick Assist app has also been redesigned to streamline the process of remotely connecting to, viewing the screen of, and taking control of a PC for remote tech support. Additionally, the Snipping Tool has been updated to support recording on-screen videos, making it more helpful in recording app demos or other snippets. New widgets There are also new first- and third-party widgets seeking to make widgets more useful. A “collapsed,” icon-free version of the taskbar will now appear on convertib

 One of the components that sets the pro iPhone apart from its lower-end counterpart is the camera system. Not only do the pro iPhones include a zoom and macro lens but also a LiDAR sensor that helps the phone with not only augmented reality, but more precise photography and videography. Apple has seemingly used the same LiDAR sensor since it was brought to the pro iPhones with the iPhone 12 Pro, but that could be about to change. According to supply chain analyst Ming Chi Kuo, Apple is moving away from Lumentum and Win Semi, it's current partners for the sensor, to Sony for supply of the LiDAR sensor for all iPhone 15 Pro production. According to Kuo, "the critical design of Sony's ToF VCSEL solution is integrating VCSEL & driver IC, which can reduce power consumption or provide better ToF performance under same power consumption." This means that Sony's sensor could result in better battery life as well as performance for the camera and augmented reality. Th

  Meta, the parent company of   Facebook   and   Instagram , is launching a paid verification service that will give their users a blue checkmark. “This week we’re starting to roll out Meta Verified — a subscription service that lets you verify your account with a government ID, get a blue badge, get extra impersonation protection against accounts claiming to be you, and get direct access to customer support,” Mark Zuckerberg broadcasted on Instagram. The bundled service for Instagram and Facebook starts at $11.99 a month and $14.99 as an in-app purchase on iOS, which takes into account the 30% that Apple takes for its service. Meta Verified is rolling out in Australia and New Zealand first with “more countries soon.” Meta Verified is propped up to be catering to social media creators giving them “more protection from impersonation with proactive account monitoring for impersonators who might target people with growing online audiences.” Another advantage of the service is “help when y

  Twitter appeared to go down on Wednesday night, with thousands saying they were unable to send any tweets. According to website crash detection site  DownDetector  the outages spike around 9pm. More than 5,000 people reported problems with the platform. Users said they received a message telling them they were over their daily limit.

Google's launch event came a day after Microsoft unveiled plans to integrate AI chatbot ChatGPT into its Bing search engine and other products. Google published an online advertisement in which its much-anticipated AI chatbot Bard delivered an inaccurate answer.  The tech giant posted a short GIF video of   Bard   in action via   Twitter , describing the chatbot as a "launchpad for curiosity" that would help simplify complex topics. In the advertisement, Bard is given the prompt: "What new discoveries from the  James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can I tell my 9-year old about?  Bard responds with a number of answers, including one suggesting the JWST was used to take the very first pictures of a  planet   outside the   Earth 's solar system, or exoplanets. This is inaccurate. The first pictures of exoplanets were taken by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 2004, as confirmed by  NASA . The error was spotted hours before Google ho

Apple has reportedly overcome the production issues it’s been having with its unreleased smartwatch, the Apple Watch Series 7, and will now begin mass manufacturing the device in mid-September, according to a report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo   seen by  MacRumors . The news comes as Apple gears up for a major launch event on September 14th. The fall event will presumably be focused on its latest iPhone models with the new Apple Watch also expected to make an appearance. Late last month  Nikkei  and  Bloomberg  reported that Apple had temporarily halted production of its latest smartwatch while it fixed the problems. The issues were thought to be related to the Series 7’s revamped design, which is said to consist of “a flatter display and edges” than seen on previous models. The new design has reportedly forced Apple to use new production processes that created “reliability issues” in early test runs. Now, however, these issues are thought to have been resolved, with shipments expected t

  Samsung has announced six limited edition watch bands for the  Galaxy Watch 4  made of recyclable and eco-friendly materials including apple peel. The range was made in collaboration with Sami Miró, a fashion designer whose previous collections have made use of upcycled materials. The bands are available today, with prices starting at $39.99. There are six designs included in the collection. The “Midnight Black” and “Stratus Sky” bands are made out of 100 percent apple peel skin “recovered from the fruit industry.” Samsung claims the material has the “premium look of leather” while obviously not being sourced from animals. The other four designs (“Aurora Night,” “Cloud Navy,” “Earth Sunrise,” and “Dawn Atlas”) are made of a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) material which Samsung says is recyclable. Alongside the watch bands Samsung is also releasing a collection of three complementary free watch faces available for download from the Google Play store.

Online gaming companies will force users to register to play under their real identities and under-18s will only be allowed to play between 8pm and 9pm on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. The Chinese government has banned under-18s from playing online games for more than an hour a day, and then only between 8pm and 9pm on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and public holidays. The ban will be enforced by online gaming companies which are now required to strictly enforce rules requiring users to register accounts with their real identities in order to play. The new restrictions were announced on the Chinese social media platform Weibo by The People's Daily - the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party - and came from General Administration of Press and Publication. It follows shares in China's biggest online gaming companies slumping after  state media branded their products "spiritual opium"  and compared them to "electronic drugs" earlier this

It looks like it’s just a couple of weeks until  the next Apple launch event   when the latest Apple Watch will be unveiled, alongside a new crop of iPhones and AirPods 3. And as the rumors continue to appear, today comes one from a respected Apple leaker. In his  Power On  newsletter, the leaker says he believes that the next Apple Watch, doubtless to be called Series 7, will feature a new design and a different-sized display. That ties in with what other reports have said, and the leaker agrees that what’s coming is a design that leans on the flatter edges found on the iPhone 12 and iPad Pro, marking the biggest change to the Apple Watch design yet. Just as the flatter edges of the iPhone allowed for a bigger display size in the same size device, so an extra bit of display size will come with the new design. The new Apple Watch models will come in 41mm and 45mm sizes, instead of the current 40mm and 44mm versions. Sure, 1mm doesn’t sound much, but on a device this small, you’ll notic

 iPhone 13 series is expected to come with improved battery capacities over the previous generation.     iPhone 13 series has been tipped to launch on September 17 and the third generation AirPods have been tipped to launch on September 30. The latest leak comes via a tipster on Chinese microblogging website Weibo who shared a screenshot of four models of the iPhone 13 series that have been previously rumoured as well, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, and iPhone 13 mini. The next-generation AirPods have been listed as AirPods 3 but it is unclear if that will be the final marketing name.   Several leaks in the past have mentioned a September launch for the iPhone 13 series which is typically when Apple launches its new iPhone models, though last year the iPhone 12 series faced a delay due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This time, an exact date for the iPhone 13 series has been leaked and according to a screenshot from an e-commerce app shared by tipster Panda i

   The timing of Elon Musk’s plan to promote gains Tesla is making in artificial intelligence and as a leader in the technology this week has grown somewhat awkward as the billionaire CEO’s event will take place amid signs that tougher U.S. government scrutiny may be on the way.  Tesla is scheduled to livestream its “AI Day” event on Aug. 19, likely starting at 5 p.m. Eastern time. As was the case for 2020’s “Battery Day” presentation and 2019’s “Autonomy Day,” analysts and investors have been invited to join though, so far, news outlets have not been asked to participate.  The company’s tech showcase comes days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened up its biggest investigation to date of Tesla’s Autopilot feature, centered around 11 crashes with emergency vehicles that resulted in numerous injuries and at least one fatality. In each of the collisions, either Autopilot or Tesla’s Traffic Aware Cruise Control were found to be in use. Then on Aug

LG's K30 phone comes to T-Mobile in the US   LG refreshed its midrange phones at Mobile World Congress this year. And while we were all distracted with its flashy flagship devices this week, one of those affordable phones — the K30 — became available at T-Mobile. It’s a rebranded K10, which LG announced in February this year. It features a 5.3-inch HD display, 32GB of storage, a 13-megapixel rear-facing camera, a 5-megapixel front-facing camera, and a 2,880mAh battery. T-Mobile doesn’t even list the phone’s RAM (likely 2GB) or processor model, so that’s a great sign. It’s running Android 7.1 Nougat, unlike the K10, which runs Marshmallow, according to XDA-Developers and T-Mobile. Now, T-Mobile says the phone charges over USB-C on its website, but XDA-Developer s says that’s wrong and it actually uses Micro-USB. I want to believe USB-C is accurate, but my heart’s telling me it’s too good to be true. The K30 costs $225, or $9 per month for two years. The

Apple admits some iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models have disabled microphones during phone calls   Apple today admitted that some iPhone 7 and 7 Plus models running iOS 11.3 or later may have a bug that disables the microphone during phone calls, MacRumors spotted through a leaked document. The few users with the affected devices may see their speaker button grayed-out when making calls or video chatting through FaceTime. The issue seems to only affect phones running that version of iOS or versions after 11.3. Some users on Reddit and Twitter have reported experiencing such microphone issues in the past few months and the leaked document, sent out to its Apple Authorized Service Providers network, apparently confirms Apple is aware of the problem. Apple is recommending these tech support workers tell customers to first unpair or turn off any Bluetooth devices and accessories that were connected to their iPhones, as a possible solution. If that doesn’t work, tech s

Samsung’s Galaxy S9 AR Emoji are kind of horrifying   One of Samsung’s messages with the new Galaxy S9 is that it’s “Built for the Way We Communicate Today.” And while that’s a laudable goal, one of the key features behind that message AR Emoji doesn’t feel like it connects with the way anyone communicates now, or will want to in the future. At least I hope not. AR Emoji will widely be seen as a response to Animoji, the new iPhone X emoji that use face scanning technology to convert facial movement into animated animals that you can send as messages. But the idea and implementation is actually very different. The Galaxy S9 relies entirely on conventional photos from the selfie camera rather than Apple’s complex 3D sensor array, yet attempts to produce something more ambitious and fraught with potential disaster: realistic, yet cartoonist, depictions of your own face. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results are mixed. We'll have to spend more time with the

The rumored Moto E5 Plus doesn’t have dual, rear-facing cameras, even though it looks like it does Lenovo is expected to announce an update to its E line of Moto phones at some point this spring, and today,Evan Blass leaked an image of the rumored Moto E5 Plus. The device doesn’t look wildly different from last year’s E4 Plus, although it does have something resembling dual, rear-facing cameras, which aren’t actually dual cameras, at least according to Blass. It also might have a taller, thinner display with minimized bezels along with a rear fingerprint sensor, as the Motorola logo looks slightly raised and less like a decal. The headphone jack remains intact.A supposed render of the E5 leaked earlier this year and depicted the same rear fingerprint sensor. The E5 might not have the new aspect ratio, at least going off this leak. We don’t have a release date for these phones, but now that the leaks have started, we can assume it’ll be relatively soon.

BlackBerry’s upcoming Ghost is a bezel free, high end Android phone for the Indian market The newest BlackBerry phone is made by yet another company that is not actually BlackBerry.The BlackBerry Ghost is a high end Android smartphone designed for the premium market in India.  It’s made by Optiemus, an Indian telecommunications giant that acquired the license last year to develop and sell BlackBerry products in the country. Optiemus also acquired rights to BlackBerry for Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal. In every other world market, Chinese multinational TCL handles manufacturing, distribution, and design of all BlackBerry devices under the brand name BlackBerry Mobile. It’s unclear how much the phone will cost, or if it will ever make its way out of India unlikely. Still, the Ghost looks like an impressive handset that brings BlackBerry’s brand up to speed with the rest of the high end smartphone market.

Facebook signs music licensing deal with European rights company ICE  Facebook has signed a deal with London-based International Copyright Enterprise Operations (ICE) to provide royalty payouts on music the company represents, as reported by TechCrunch . ICE is a European online rights hub with a catalog of about 31 million works, representing STIM in Sweden, PRS in the UK (and other territories), GEMA in Germany, and more. This is the first time Facebook has signed a multi-territorial license with an online hub. The deal will cover licensing and royalties whenever music represented by ICE is used on Facebook, Instagram, Oculus, and Messenger. The deal excludes WhatsApp, as that service is purely a private messaging tool that doesn’t require music licenses.  Facebook has struck other licensing deals in recent months. In January, it signed an agreement with Sony Music covering the use of music on Facebook, Instagram, and Oculus. Facebook and Universal Music Group al

 Globalization is an oft-talked about concept that encompasses the coming together of the various         peoples of the world through technologies such as the internet and advances in aviation and collaboration. In Ghana, the effects of globalization are very much in evidence, with many foreign nationals living and working here. Ghanaian today do not find it strange to encounter or work in foreign-owned businesses or to hear of project collaboration between the Ghanaian and a foreign government. It is thus necessary for the understanding and appreciation of foreign cultures to be a part of our educational system. Many schools around the country now attach the term ‘International’ to their names, yet few of these can be said to be truly international in respect to having a diverse foreign student population. The technology of today such as video-conferencing facilities and social media can allow students in classrooms in Ghana to interact with other students from around th