TecQ: Xenobots, Samsung, WhatsApp Dark Mode, Zomato & More
TecQ is our weekly round up of the technology stories from across the world.
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TecQ is our weekly round up of the technology stories
1. Uber to Own 9.9% of Zomato After Selling Food Delivery Business
Zomato on Tuesday, 21 January, said it has acquired the Indian business of Uber Eats in an all-stock deal that will give Uber 9.99 percent stake in the Indian food delivery and restaurant discovery platform.
This development was first reported back in December 2019, when talks between Uber Eats and Zomato were claimed to have reached an advanced stage.
Uber Eats, which entered India in 2017, has about 26,000 restaurants listed on its platform from 41 cities. But most people were enticed to use the platform because of its attractive discounts and low delivery charges. However, its restaurant listings didn’t expand as one would have expected, forcing its partners to stop taking delivery orders from the platform.
Read the story here.
2. Microsoft Admits Data Breach Exposed Details of 250 Million Users
Microsoft is the latest technology major to report a data breach incident, which is likely to have affected over 250 million of its users from across the globe.
The breach was first reported by Bob Diachenko, who is part of the security research team at Comparitech, who mentioned that all of the Microsoft customers' data was accessible to anyone with a web browser, with no password or other authentication needed.
Microsoft claims that it hasn’t found any malicious use case of the breached data, and it was merely being transparent about the incident with all its customers.
Read the story here for more details.
3. ‘Xenobots’ Could be Stage-1 of a Real Terminator-Like Robot
Let’s start with first congratulating the group of scientists and researchers who made the impossible happen.
Brainiacs from Tufts University, the University of Vermont, and the Wyss Institute at Harvard have created something called a ‘Xenobot’ which is a programmable robot grown from stem cells. Think of it as the world’s first “living machine”.
According to the researchers, this robot has the ability to heal itself after being cut and can survive for weeks.
Read more about this interesting subject over here.
4. WhatsApp on Android Finally Gets Dark Mode, Here’s How It Works
The wait is finally over guys, WhatsApp users are now getting to see the final design of the dark mode on Android. The theme has been in testing mode forever, and looks like the messaging app is finally convinced about the feature, which is now rolling out to beta users on the platform.
The tip was shared on Wednesday by reliable source WABetainfo, and they have even shared screenshots of how the final design of the dark mode looks on WhatsApp.
This update comes almost a month after the same source had mentioned that the dark theme update is almost ready for the Android beta version of the messaging app.
Read the full story here.
5. Samsung Galaxy Note10 Lite vs OnePlus 7T: Which Is a Better Bet?
When OnePlus came into the Indian market its only objective was to offer flagship-level features at affordable prices. As the company grew, it moved up the ladder of the premium segment and as a result of that we have the OnePlus 7T launching at over 35K.
Samsung as a brand, on the other hand, focused more on flagship-level products but has now understood that the real action is in the sub-40k category which is why it has launched not one but two phones in this price segment, the Galaxy Note10 Lite, and the S10 Lite.
Since the Note10 Lite intrigues us more (obviously because of the stylus), read the story here to know if Samsung could be a challenger to the OnePlus 7T in this price segment.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)