K4 Tech

  Fifty-one years ago, on April 22, 1970, millions took to the streets to commemorate the first-ever Earth Day celebration, demanding clean air and environmental protection. Since then, irrespective of where you stand on the climate change debate now, it's clear that all the technology we use every day has a massive effect on the world we live in and the world we will continue to live in in the future. The theme for Earth Day 2021 is Restore our Earth. Thus, this year we should give this a serious thought and work towards a sustainable lifestyle by reusing, recycling, and reducing. Earth Day is an ideal time to introspect on how to contribute to environmental sustainability. It’s no surprise that technology is playing a significant role in this endeavour. There are several different new and upcoming technologies that can reduce humanity’s carbon footprint. It will also maintain the comforts and amenities we are accustomed to. In India, we are concerned about pollution related to th...

  On Thursday, China's technology giant Baidu has announced that it is launching paid driverless robotaxi services in Beijing from May 2. Technology firms across the world are working on their driverless cars, and Baidu's robotaxi launch will make it one of the first companies globally to offer autonomous driving service. Baidu has named its driverless taxi, Apollo Robotaxi. It will be launched in Beijing's Shougang Park. The company said that there won't be a safety driver behind the steering wheel, signalling its confidence in its driverless technology.  Users can hire an Apollo Robotaxi through the Apollo Go App. Baidu was seen testing its autonomous driving technology on public roads in Beijing since October last year. The company had set up its autonomous driving unit Apollo in 2017, and has been working on developing smart car technologies with other automobile manufacturers.  While announcing the launch of the service, the general manager of autonomous driving te...

  NASA's Mars Ingenuity helicopter missed its fourth scheduled flight on Thursday, with the space agency blaming a software glitch and vowing to try again the next day. "The helicopter is safe and in good health," said a statement, adding the rotorcraft had failed to transition to "flight mode." The team plans to attempt the flight once more on Friday at 8.16 pm IST (10:46 am Eastern Time) with data expected back at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory around three hours later. The software issue is thought to be the same one that delayed Ingenuity's maiden voyage, the first powered flight on another planet. Initially scheduled for 11 April, the historic feat occurred on 19 April. The reason was a glitch associated with the aircraft's "watchdog timer," which alerts Ingenuity to potential problems and pauses its processes if it thinks it has detected an error. Engineers made a coding tweak that allowed Ingenuity to overcome the problem and trans...

  Revolut Europe’s largest startup Revolut is setting up its India operations. Revolut offers everything from money transfer and exchange, to stock trading, wealth management, loans, peer-to-peer payments and even cryptocurrency trading. The startup recently announced former LendingKart and Flipkart exec Paroma Chatterjee as its India chief executive office and said that it is set to hire 300 people for its India office. “Revolut has recruited Heads of Operations and Legal for the country and is leveraging India’s strong talent pool to recruit across multiple functions including HR, Finance, Growth, Marketing, Recruitment, Compliance, Risk and Technology,” the company said. Coinbase For all you crypto fans out there, US-based cryptocurrency firm Coinbase is setting up its India operations and is hiring aggressively.The firm has hired Pankaj Gupta, Google Pay’s engineering lead in India and Asia Pacific, as the VP of engineering and site lead for India. The company is now aggressive...

  Ferrari chairman and interim CEO, John Elkann, has confirmed in an annual shareholder meet that the Italian supercar manufacturer will launch its first all-electric model by 2025. This is a turnaround from Ferrari's earlier stance on the subject, previous CEO Louis Camilleri had stated in 2019 that a Ferrari EV wouldn't arrive until after 2025. No other details on this EV are known so far, although in a statement Elkann assured that the designers and engineers in Maranello were working on a car that stays true to fans and owners expectations from a Ferrari. It is expected that the Ferrari electric supercar will follow the now set layout of these cars, with one electric motor on each wheel. This will give it AWD and more precise torque-vectoring capabilities. Patent filings have shown that the new EV architecture will house a battery pack in the floor of the car, and will also be capable of housing a mid-mounted internal combustion engine for a hybrid variant. As has been the ...

  The six-wheeled robot has converted some carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere into oxygen, the first time this has happened on another planet, the space agency said Wednesday. "This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars," said Jim Reuter, associate administrator for NASA's space technology mission directorate. The technology demonstration took place on 20 April, and it's hoped future versions of the experimental instrument that was used could pave the way for future human exploration. Not only can the process produce oxygen for future astronauts to breathe, but it could make hauling vast amounts of oxygen over from Earth to use as rocket propellant for the return journey unnecessary. The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment -- or MOXIE -- is a golden box the size of a car battery and is located inside the front right side of the rover.  Dubbed a "mechanical tree," it uses electricity and chemistry to s...

  India is struggling to overcome the COVID-19 second wave that is consuming life at a rapid pace. People across the country are gasping for oxygen, which is one of the major symptoms that you’re infected with COVID-19 virus. If you have fever and cough, first thing which you should do is check your SpO2 level using an  oximeter . Given hospitals are running out of beds and oxygen supply, it is suggested to stock up your home will require medicines and medical equipment. Here are 5 health gadgets you must have to beat the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. Oximeter Having an  oximeter  at home is a must-have health gadget these days, especially with the rise in COVID-19 cases in India. There are several oximeters available from various brands but unfortunately, prices of the oxygen saturation machine have gone up drastically. You will be able to buy a good oximeter from any e-commerce website, be it Amazon, Flipkart, among others. Blood pressure monitor An automatic blood pres...

  In September 2020, a report from Pierer Mobility, the parent company of KTM and Husqvarna, revealed that there was an upcoming Husqvarna electric bike called the E-Pilen   that was to go on sale in 2022. The Husqvarna E-Pilen concept has now been teased by the Swedish company and there are quite a few differences to what was originally mentioned in the Pierer Mobility report . It is Likely to be built in Chakan,Pune , Expected launch next year Husqvarna E-Pilen design The design seen on this concept is similar to the current  Husqvarna Vitpilen 250 and svartpilen 250  with a unique, minimal take. However, the shape of the bodywork itself is quite different, with plenty of air visible through the chassis area. Things like the wheels, single front disc and 43mm USD fork all look similar to those on the 250’s, however, there are some red adjusters visible on the top of the fork, similar to those on the export-spec KTM 390 Adventure. The Husqvarna E-Pilen gets a tradem...

The frontline workers including doctors, healthcare professionals, and researchers in the scientific community have pushed their limits to provide care for COVID-19 patients.  In honour of such frontline warriors, the world renowned search engine, Google has come up with a unique doodle. Google on Monday (April 26, 2021) changed its display in the honour of the health workers worldwide. Google's doodle displays a 'thank you' message to express gratitude to the  COVID-19 health workers  around the globe.  On hovering the mouse over the doodle, Google shows a message, which reads, "To all the public health workers and to researchers in the scientific community, thank you." The vibrant doodle captures the unshakable spirit of the  COVID-19 front line warriors  and is acting as a hope for the rest of the world.  The search engine is known for speaking up in the time of need and drawing attention to the pressing issues.  Earlier, another Google doodle ...