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The 2018 edition of the  Google for India event was held in New Delhi on Tuesday. The fourth edition for this India-exclusive event saw a number of announcements including new features and  a rebranding for   Google Tez ,  Project Navlekha , and  new capabilities for Google Go . Apart from all this, the tech giant also announced some statistics and features for  Google Maps . The popular navigational platform will get voice navigation for public transport alongside get-off alerts. The lighter version of the app,  Google Maps Go , will receive turn-by-turn navigation and an all-new homescreen with shortcuts -  Google said. Google said that Google Maps celebrates its tenth anniversary this year, and announced some important statistics. 50 million building identities were added to the platform in 2018 alone, it said. More than 20 million users are now using two-wheeler navigation in India, since its launch late last year. As for the recent floodi...

Uber  said on Monday it would appeal a ruling by a labour court in Brazil in favour of a driver who demanded to be considered an employee of the ride-hailing app, whose labour model views drivers as independent contractors. The ruling, however, will not be implemented until all appeals have been made, the judge wrote in a decision on Friday. Uber Technologies said in a statement that it will file an appeal before the nation's top labour court, saying there was "solid jurisprudence" to support its case. The company added that it has already won 123 similar lawsuits in Brazil, with judges ruling that Uber does not need to treat drivers as employees. In comparison, it has lost only four cases, the company said. The stakes surrounding labour lawsuits in Brazil are high - the country is Uber's second-largest market. Brazil's labour laws are strict and worker-friendly, including dedicated prosecutors who look for violations to present to the country's la...

India's first manned space flight,  Gaganyaan , is expected to send three persons into space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low Earth orbit of 300-400 km. Giving details of the programme at a press conference, Minister of State for Atomic Energy and Space, Jitendra Singh said GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability. He said two unmanned Gaganyaan missions will be undertaken prior to sending humans. The total programme is expected to be completed before 2022 with the first unmanned flight within 30 months. The mission will aim to send a three-person crew to space for a period of seven days. The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km. The programme is expected to cost less than Rs 10,000 crore," Singh said. The Gaganyaan mission was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address. He had said that by 2022...

Amazon  is taking an out-of-the box approach to answering its critics - paying workers to be "ambassadors" and tweet full-time about how satisfied they were at their jobs. One worker who Amazon says used to pack boxes at its warehouse in Jacksonville, Florida, tweeted about air circulation at the online retailer's warehouse being "very good." Plus, the worker whose account gives her name as Shauntrelle, says workers there get two 30-minute breaks during their 10-hour shifts, something she calls "a benefit." Others on social media were sceptical of her cheery messages, calling her a bot. Shauntrelle responded to them, too, even with a misspelling: "We are totally normal and not bots and we are totally happy working for an amazing company." The tweets are part of Amazon's plan to fight back against negative headlines and online chatter about poor working conditions at its warehouses. Workplace experts say negative tweets can be a tu...

Instant messaging app  Telegram  has received an update that brings the ability to let you easily export some or all of your chats, including photos and other media alongside text messages. The Telegram chats can be exported in JSON or HTML formats, and you need the latest version of  Telegram Desktop on your system to export chats. Alongside the new export option, Telegram has added an Exceptions option to its notifications settings that allows you to see which chats are excluded from the global notification settings. The team has also improved  Telegram Passport , the new feature that was  launched  last month with support for names in their original languages and additional types of documents. The end-to-end encryption has also been improved to better protect your data stored within Telegram Passport. Starting with the new Telegram has brought the option to export chats along with the media content you received in the chats. The option works with Tel...

Taking on  Jio ,  BSNL  has extended the validity of its  complimentary 2GB daily data offering  and is now providing the additional data benefits with 10 of its popular prepaid recharges until September 15. The additional 2GB data per day promotional offer was introduced under the 'Monsoon Offer' by the state-owned telco to rival the Jio Double Dhamaka offer back in June. The offer is applicable to all the prepaid recharges of Rs. 186, Rs. 429, Rs. 485, Rs. 666, and Rs. 999. The identical benefits of additional 2GB daily data benefits are also available with special tariff vouchers at Rs. 187, Rs. 333, Rs. 349, Rs. 444, and Rs. 448. Originally, the 'Monsoon Offer' came into effect on a pan-India basis for 60 days. BSNL has now, however, extended the validity of the offer until September 15. The offer is valid across major BSNL recharge packs, including Rs. 186, Rs. 429, Rs. 485, Rs. 666, and Rs. 999 as well as special tariff vouchers valued at Rs. 187, Rs. ...

Software major  Tech Mahindra  on Monday announced its partnership with Microsoft to create a Blockchain-based solution to fight the spam call menace. According to the  Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) , unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) or spam calls are a major nuisance to telecom subscribers across the country. TRAI has been working with industry stakeholders to curb this menace. "Blockchain as a technology is a powerful tool to combat the issue of spam calls and fraud risks, to protect user information, as well as the integrity of the telecom sector," Rajesh Dhuddu, Global Practice Leader of Blockchain at Tech Mahindra, said in a statement. This Distributed Ledger Technology (commonly known as Blockchain)-based solution will enable enterprises to stop financial frauds and perpetration of misleading financial information by unregistered telecom marketers who rampantly use the SMS service of telcos," Dhuddu added. The solution will bring ...