HBO just dropped a trailer for The Idol, ahead of its premiere on June 5. Created by Abel 'The Weeknd' Tesfaye and Sam Levinson (Euphoria), the series serves as a twisted romance satire of the entertainment industry through the eyes of a fallen pop idol struggling to return to stardom. Exploitation, drugs, sex, and pop music run rampant in this final trailer, all of which were also the subject of controversy at the Cannes Film Festival — more specifically, the overtly graphic sexual scenes, alongside concerns regarding some on-set turmoil. Levinson also directs all six episodes of The Idol.
The Idol trailer opens with a voiceover from Tedros (The Weeknd), a self-help guru who also happens to be running a modern-day cult, slowly seeping into Jocelyn's (Lily-Rose Depp) life. “You're the American dream,” he tries to motivate her. “Rags to riches. Trailers to mansions. You are f--king Jocelyn. Just be you.” The aspiring pop idol is desperate for that kind of attention, in the wake of her nervous breakdown which caused her last tour to get cancelled. Jocelyn is in a freefall, so to speak, and needs to gain that extra edge that would help her reclaim her stardom. That's where the nightclub owner Tedros entered the scene, offering input on her life choices, wardrobe, and collaborators, hoping to turn Jocelyn into a star to be reckoned with. The Idol trailer depicts these changes through her overly sexual dance moves that cause worry among her team members.
“I'm telling you right now, these people in here are gauging whether or not you still got it,” manager Destiny (Da'Vine Joy Randolph) warns Jocelyn, highlighting how judgemental and exploitative the industry is. It's even more vexing taking the backup dancers and strippers into consideration, who are easily 'out-femmeing' her. Dyanne (Jennie Ruby Jane) is one such dancer who shows high promise — enough to replace Jocelyn as the lead performer. The Idol trailer then focuses on her peers who are concerned about Tedros' involvement, with voiceovers saying, “He's brainwashed her.” It's hard to convince her out of that relationship either, as the trailer implies that she has fallen in love with Tedros and that they are inseparable.
As The Idol trailer blends into a montage of flashing lights and celebrations, Tedros describes Jocelyn as a ‘star' and ‘not a human being', which she appears to be totally fine with, suggesting that she's probably in the dark about how much money and fame her boyfriend gains out of her exploitation. “Never trust a dude with a rat tail,” Destiny remarks, sitting inside a car. The Idol also stars Suzanna Son (Red Rocket), singer Troy Sivan, Dan Levy (Schitt's Creek), Rachel Sennott (Bodies Bodies Bodies), and Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds).
As mentioned before, The Idol wasn't without its fair share of on-set drama, with original director Amy Seimetz exiting from the show due to massive creative overhauls. Reports suggest that when Levinson came on board to replace her, he scrapped the nearly-finished $75 million (about Rs. 620 crore) project to rewrite and reshoot entirely. Co-creator Tesfaye/ The Weeknd reportedly seems to be the driving force here, who felt the show was heading towards a ‘female perspective.'
The Idol premieres June 5 on JioCinema in India. Regions with HBO/ Max available can stream the show on June 4, starting at 9pm ET.
The Chromecast with Google TV that runs on Android TV is here. When will Google learn how to name products? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
What are the biggest movies releasing in June 2023? In Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Miles Morales is catapulted across the multiverse and ensnared in an interdimensional web of a legion of Spider-People, to solve a major conspiracy. The ambitious sequel ramps up on the original Oscar-winning film by featuring six major art styles, depending on what worlds our heroes hop into. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse releases a day early in India — June 1. Shortly after that, on June 9, a group of extraterrestrial alien robots, adept at morphing into beast-like beings invade Earth, causing the Autobots to form some unlikely alliances and fight back. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is out June 9 in theatres worldwide.
Coming to local fare, we've got Bloody Daddy, an Indian adaptation of the 2011 French film Nuit Blanche, putting Shahid Kapoor on a desperate quest against a heinous drug lord. Frequent Salman Khan collaborator Ali Abbas Zafar directs the film, so fans can expect some mesmerising action sequences. It will be available for streaming June 9 on JioCinema, for free. Follow that up with a mythological drama charting the epic tale of Ramayana on the big screen — marking one of the most expensive Indian films made, with a reported budget of Rs. 700 crore. Adipurush is simultaneously shot in Hindi and Telugu, and is slated to release June 16 in cinemas.
Other notable releases this month include the long-gestating Ezra Miller-led The Flash movie, which draws from the Flashpoint story arc to serve as a reset point for the perenially-struggling DC Universe. It would directly pave the way for DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn's long-term plans for the franchise, which connects storylines across films, TV, gaming, and animation. For your convenience, we have curated the biggest June 2023 releases coming to theatres, JioCinema, and Netflix, which you can check out below. Also, feel free to browse our Entertainment hub to keep track of any other releases that might interest you.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
When: June 1
Where: Theatres
Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) has one thing on his mind — to establish himself as Brooklyn's friendly neighbourhood superhero whom everyone can rely on without hesitation, all the while juggling his school responsibilities and teenage life. A fresh new opportunity comes knocking from an other dimension when Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) invites him over for a multiversal mission that threatens its very existence, with the responsibility being placed on the shoulders of an elite crew of Spider-People. Miles is promised an induction into the group if he were to accept leader Miguel O'Hara/ Spider-Man 2099's (Oscar Isaac) plan, which puts the end result — no matter how disastrous — above the means to get there.
When a choice is presented to prioritise the safety of every world over one person, Miles rejects it, spawning a war in which he leaps across dimensions, trying to escape from a multiversal band of Spider-Men, which also includes a Spider-Horse and a sharp-clawed Spider-Cat. The Spot (Jason Schwartzman) appears to be the enigmatic driving force behind the multiverse's doom, thanks to his portal-opening abilities that let him travel freely between universes. It's unclear as to exactly what threat he poses, but he does come across as clumsy — almost as if all his deeds are accidental.
Jason Schwartzman voices The Spot, the new antagonist in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Photo Credit: Sony Pictures
Bloody Daddy
When: June 9
Where: JioCinema
Bloody Daddy was a surprise drop during Jio Studios' content slate reveal in April, with its debut on a streaming platform. In it, an NCB officer (Shahid Kapoor) gets off on the wrong foot with a drug lord (Ronit Roy) during a narcotics bust, leading to the former's child being held hostage. To save him, our protagonist must now retrieve and hand over a bag of cocaine, which he does so by infiltrating his workplace, the NCB headquarters, where he soon uncovers several moles within his department. Of course, some righteous colleagues grow suspicious of his actions, leading to an all-out war between cops and criminals, with Kapoor unleashing his inner John Wick.
Armed with guns and a blazing flamethrower, our nameless officer hunts down goons in large numbers, while the film tries to display a level of morality within him, despite the irony of it. This is signified by the part where he hands over a bag of wheat flour to the crooks, instead of the actual drug. Expect tons of action by way of Ali Abbas Zafar's prior experience working on Salman Khan films, alongside some offbeat comedic segments. Bloody Daddy also stars Diana Penty (Cocktail) as an accomplice to our hero, and Sanjay Kapoor (The Zoya Factor) as the kingpin's right-hand man.
Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
When: June 9
Where: Theatres
Transformers' next globe-trotting adventure is set in the 1990s and finally introduces the metallic mayhem from the Beast Wars storyline — Maximals, Predacons, and Terrorcons — to the live-action universe. Unlike the familiar Autobots and Decepticons, these Cybertronians can transform into animal and bird-like forms, granting a range of new vicious moves foreign to our heroes in the franchise. It all starts with Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), a mechanical gorilla, teaming up with his ancestor Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) to defend planet Earth against Unicron, a colossal machine that literally devours planets.
Some time travel shenanigans seem to form the crux of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, with the Predacons and Terrorcons working independently — causing havoc on the streets and hunting the Autobots. As usual, some human allies are involved, starting with Anthony Ramos as Noah, who partners with the hologram-creating Mirage, and Dominique Fishback as Elena, who teams up with the iconic female Autobot, Arcee. Mirage is voiced by Pete Davidson, while social media influencer Liza Koshy voices the pink-hued Arcee, who is adept at skating around town.
Meanwhile, Oscar-winner Michelle Yeoh lends her voice to Airozor, the Maximal who can shapeshift into a soaring pelican, in what serves as a minor reboot of the Transformers film franchise. Steven Caple Jr. — best known for Creed II — directs Rise of the Beasts, which was originally slated to release in June 2022. Oddly enough, no reason was given for the pushback.
Mirage (L) partners with Noah (Anthony Ramos) in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts Photo Credit: Paramount Pictures
The Flash
When: June 16
Where: Theatres
The Flash is another film on this list touting a multiversal war, leading to the collision of two largely distinct worlds in the DC Universe. After learning the art of Speed Force in Zack Snyder's Justice League, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) decides to travel back in time to save his mother from death and be reunited with her. Unfortunately, this brings unintentional consequences to the timeline, with General Zod (Michael Shannon) entering the scene with plans to destroy the planet with no Superman present to save the world. Help arrives in the form of Michael Keaton's Batman, who comes out of retirement to lead one final battle for mankind's survival. It's really bizarre to see him in this film, given how overtly goofy but grounded in reality the Tim Burton films were.
Allen accidentally stumbled into a world without metahumans, so resources for battle are scarce — or so we're led to believe. Instead of Superman, we've got his cousin Kara Zor-El/ Supergirl (Sasha Calle), who'd be the prime counter-attack to Zod's ambush. Of course, there's the alternate timeline's Barry Allen as well, who gains his speedster powers through human intervention and puts on a makeshift Batman suit, spray-painted red with The Flash's lightning logo. I could see this film being polarising for those directly or indirectly affected by lead Miller's run-ins with the law in the past year. It might be even worse if you consider that you have to see two of them in The Flash.
Thankfully, this movie is meant as a reset point for the upcoming chapter in James Gunn's DC Universe, so this very well might be the last time you see Miller in this role. Ben Affleck also makes one of his final appearances as Bruce Wayne/ Batman, alongside Kiersey Clemons as Allen's love interest Iris West.
Ezra Miller in and as The Flash Photo Credit: Warner Bros.
Elemental
When: June 16
Where: Theatres
In the bustling Element City where fire, water, land, and earth residents live in harmony, Pixar's latest laser focuses on the blossoming relationship between a fiery young woman Ember, and a cool liquid, go-with-the-flow guy, Wade. All elements are represented as uneasy neighbours who cannot mix — a kind of racial allegory that is expressed through anthropomorphic, quirky characters. That inability to make physical contact with each other forms the crux of Elemental, as we're taken through a wondrous tour of how fire and water could come together — they cancel each other out.
Keeping in tune with pretty much every other Disney animated movie, there's also the underlying theme of finding one's purpose. In this case, Ember not wanting to run her family's restaurant while trying to convince her — no pun intended — hot-headed father, who is willing to boil anyone alive, otherwise. The pair thrive through judgemental comments from onlookers and try living up to familial expectations, challenging the traditional beliefs about the world they live in.
Peter Sohn — best known for The Good Dinosaur — directs Elemental, which stars the voices of Mamoudou Athie as Wade, Leah Lewis as Ember, and Ronnie Del Carmen as her father Bernie.
Extraction 2
When: June 16
Where: Netflix
Black ops mercenary Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) is back from the brink of death, having barely survived the grievous wounds during his mission in Bangladesh. His mission in Extraction 2 is to rescue the battered family of a ruthless Georgian gangster from the prison where they're being held. Allied with returning characters Nik Khan (Golshifteh Farahani) and Yaz Khan (Adam Bessa), Rake now heads to the snowy tundras of Prague — eliminating militia, holding onto a running train, setting elaborate traps, and pummeling oncoming foes with a riot shield, in what appears as the film's main one-take sequence.
While the original film presented Rake as a seasoned action hero of sorts, the sequel focuses on the journey towards that form — specifically, the toll it took on him and even more so, on those close to him. It's essentially a backstory for our lead, bringing characters from his past into greater focus and revealing the family tragedy that started it all. Sam Hargrave returns to direct the follow-up from a script penned by Joe Russo, who is also funding Extraction 2 via his AGBO production banner.
The film also stars Olga Kurylenko (Black Widow), Tinatin Dalakishvili as Rake's target, and Tornike Gogrichiani as a ruthless Georgian gangster.
Adipurush
When: June 16
Where: Theatres
Adipurush depicts an epic that has existed through the ages, one of the Ayodhyan prince Lord Rama — here, Raghava (Prabhas) — who travels to the island of Lanka to rescue his abducted wife Janaki (Kriti Sanon) from the clutches of the demon king Lankesh (Saif Ali Khan). Boasting a stacked cast, an even bigger budget, and some shoddy CGI work, Om Raut (Tanhaji) brings the mythological drama to the big screen, reflecting one of India's most aged stories about the triumph of good over evil. Sunny Singh (Pati Patni Aur Woh) stars as Raghava's brother Lakshmana, Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire) as Janak, Devdatta Nage as Hanuman, and Rekha as Kaikeyi.
It is reported that the film has been shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu languages, but I'd suggest you take that with a grain of salt. Since the actors are from different regions, you can expect Adipurush to have some dubbing work done on either version. This was a common issue in most of S.S. Rajamouli's films as well, where no matter what language you watch his movies in — even the original Telugu — there would at least be one character whose lip movement does not sync with the dialogue audio.
No Hard Feelings
When: June 23
Where: Theatres
An Uber driver without a car, Jennifer Lawrence finds herself stuck in this modern-day raunchy comedy, when a wealthy couple promises her a Buick Regal in exchange for dating their introverted son Percy (Andrew Barth Feldman). The goal is to bring him out of his shell — a task easier said than done, as Maddie soon finds herself slowly getting pulled into his nerdy world of arcade games, laser tag, and convenient drinking helmets. She's got one summer to ‘make him a man' or lose it all, and therefore frantically barges into bedrooms at parties, skates around the school lots and more, looking for any edge that she could gain.
Gene Stupnitsky (Good Boys) directs No Hard Feelings from a script he wrote with John Phillips which itself was reportedly inspired by a real-life Craigslist ad. Matthew Broderick (The Lion King) and Laura Benanti play Percy's parents, while Natalie Morales (The Little Things) joins the cast as Maddie's close friend. FX's The Bear-fame Ebon Moss-Bachrach also stars as Gary, a vehicle tower and one of Maddie's bitter past flings.
Maidaan
When: June 23
Where: Theatres
Set during the golden era of Indian football, Maidaan is a biographical drama inspired by the real-life coach and manager Syed Abdul Rahim, who is regarded as the architect of ‘modern Indian football.' Ajay Devgn embodies this role, revisiting the 13 years — 1950 to 1963 — when he guided the team to win gold medals at the Asian Games, leading them onto the semi-finals of the Melbourne Summer Olympics, and more. The film was stuck in development for a while — starting production in 2019, only to be delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and some post-production work.
This marks Amit Sharma's third directorial work on a feature, following Tevar and Badhaai Ho, which lists Priyamani (Salaam Venky), Gajraj Rao (Maja Ma), and Rudranil Ghosh among the lead cast members.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
When: June 30
Where: Theatres
Harrison Ford dons his iconic hat and whip for the final time, as our titular archaeologist is summoned back to prevent an all-too-powerful dial, the Antikythera, from falling into the wrong hands — specifically the former Nazi Jürgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen), who now works for NASA. This is compounded by Jones' bitter divorce from wife Marion, his forced exit from his teaching position at the university, and a monotonous routine. Accompanied by his goddaughter Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), Indy heads out on a crazy adventure — riding horses across train tracks, brandishing his whip inside pubs, and speeding through narrow lanes on a tuk-tuk. Hot on their trails is Klaber (Boyd Holbrook), Voller's vengeful right-hand man.
The Chromecast with Google TV that runs on Android TV is here. When will Google learn how to name products? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
The SEC said Ishan Wahi and his brother, Nikhil Wahi, agreed to settle civil charges that they engaged in a scheme to trade ahead of multiple announcements regarding at least nine crypto asset securities that would be made available on Coinbase's platform, the regulator said in a statement.
"While the technologies at issue in this case may be new, the conduct is not," said SEC's enforcement director Gurbir Grewal.
A lawyer for Ishan Wahi declined to comment on the settlement. He previously pleaded guilty to related criminal charges that he tipped off his brother Nikhil and a friend with confidential information about digital assets that would be listed on Coinbase, one of the world's largest crypto exchanges.
Ishan Wahi was sentenced to two years in prison earlier this month. In January, Nikhil Wahi was sentenced to 10 months in prison. His lawyer did not respond immediately to request for comment.
Both brothers agreed they would not deny the SEC's allegations. Neither received a penalty and the disgorgement order by the SEC was deemed covered by the related criminal proceedings.
The case has drawn significant attention as the SEC has grown increasingly active in policing the crypto industry. The regulator has argued in lawsuits, including the one it filed against the Wahi brothers, that many digital assets are securities that fall under its oversight.
In pleading guilty to the criminal charges, Ishan Wahi said he did not believe any of the relevant tokens were securities.
The Wahi brothers had previously asked a judge to dismiss the SEC's case.
Coinbase is one of a number of crypto firms targeted by the SEC for allegedly violating securities laws. The firm was not a party to the SEC's allegations against the Wahi brothers but did file a brief supporting their motion to dismiss.
A spokesperson for the firm said it is “disappointed” the court will not have a chance to take up that motion. “The Wahi settlement involves no statement or admission that the crypto assets at issue are securities,” the spokesperson said.
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
The crypto market has remained consistently volatile for some days now, pushing most cryptocurrencies under the sector current. Bitcoin on Wednesday, May 31, saw a loss of 0.62 percent to trade at $27,623 (roughly Rs. 22.8 lakh). This range-bound movement from Bitcoin has remained slow for the last two weeks at least, on both national as well as international exchanges. The value of Bitcoin dropped by $92 (roughly Rs. 7,607) over the last 24 hours.
“BTC has displayed resilience by bouncing back from this important support level, indicating a restoration of its positive momentum. As long as Bitcoin maintains its position above $27,480 (roughly Rs. 22.7 lakh) level, there is a potential for further upward movement, with the next resistance level expected to be around $28,000 (roughly Rs. 23 lakh),” the CoinDCX team told Gadgets 360, commenting on Bitcoin's market movement.
Ether dropped by 0.98 percent to trade at $1,878 (roughly Rs. 1.55 lakh), showed the crypto price tracker by Gadgets 360 on Wednesday. The second-most expensive cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, ETH has slipped price-wise by $17 (roughly Rs. 1,405).
“Ethereum held on exchanges has reached a low-point that it hadn't since July 2016, as more and more ETH is being staked. This decline in exchange balances coincides with a surge in staked Ether. Generally, lower exchange balances indicate a bullish market sentiment because it implies limited availability of ether for purchase, thus exerting upward pressure on prices,” the CoinDCX team noted.
With BTC and ETH, both trading in losses, a bunch of altcoins reflected price slips on the chart.
The valuation of the overall crypto sector dropped by 1.32 percent in the last 24 hours. At the time of writing, the crypto market cap stood at $1.14 trillion (roughly Rs. 94,26,754 crore), showed the data by CoinMarketCap.
Stablecoins managed to reflect greens on the price chart. These include Tether, USD Coin, and Ripple.
“The prospective debt ceiling agreement fuelled these minor rallies. Asian regulations and Erdogan's re-election could further energise the market,” Rajagopal Menon, Vice President, WazirX, told Gadgets 360.
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
The Indian government is poised to deny crucial funding for Anil Agarwal's chip venture, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, a setback to the billionaire's ambition to build India's 'own Silicon Valley.'
The authorities are likely to inform the venture between Vedanta and Taiwan's Foxconn that it won't get incentives to make 28-nanometer chips, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The venture's application seeking billions in government assistance hasn't met the criteria set by the government, the report said. The project is still in search of a technology partner and a manufacturing-grade technology license for the construction of 28nm chips, it added.
India's technology ministry, Vedanta and Foxconn did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
The setback comes at a time when Agarwal's metals and mining conglomerate is already grappling with reducing its significant debt load.
Last year in September, Vedanta and Foxconn – formally called Hon Hai Precision Industry – announced they would invest $19.5 billion (roughly Rs. 1.6 lakh crore) to set up semiconductor and display production plants in the state of Gujarat, creating more than 100,000 jobs.
"India's own Silicon Valley is a step closer now," Agarwal had said last year after the announcement.
Back in May last year, Agarwal had said Vedanta would finalise a location for its semiconductor and display plants in India by mid-June and will have the first chip product ready in two years. "You have to create another Taiwan in India," Agarwal said at the time, noting that India would have to focus on bringing the entire semiconductor ecosystem locally for it to be a global powerhouse.
In February 2022, Foxconn had announced that it would make semiconductors in India in partnership with Vedanta. In a statement, Foxconn had said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with oil-to-metals group Vedanta to make semiconductors, calling it "a significant boost to domestic manufacturing of electronics in India."
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Delhi Metro commuters will now be able to travel on the Airport Line using a WhatsApp-based ticketing service launched on Tuesday.
The system allows commuters to receive a QR code-based ticket directly on WhatsApp, officials said.
"Further enhancing the travel experience for its commuters in an easy-to-navigate digital mode, Delhi Metro today introduced a WhatsApp-based ticketing service for travel on its Airport Express Line," the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) said.
The service was launched by DMRC Managing Director Vikas Kumar at the Metro Bhawan here in the presence of other senior officials.
With the introduction of this facility, commuters on the Airport Line will now be able to use WhatsApp chatbot-generated QR code-based tickets from their smartphones.
This facility will make commuting more efficient and seamless for commuters, especially national and international travellers heading to or coming from the airport, using the Airport Line, as they can now purchase and use tickets generated in their phone itself through a dedicated WhatsApp chatbot (available in English and Hindi language) as per their convenience, the DMRC said.
To initiate the service, commuters will have to add the DMRC's official WhatsApp number 9650855800 in their phone's contact list, it said.
For single and group journeys, a maximum six QR code-based tickets can be generated for each passenger, the officials said.
The tickets will be valid till the end of the business day. But once entry is done, passengers should exit within 65 mins from the destination station. For exit at the source (origin) station, passengers should leave within 30 minutes from the time of entry, they said.
The tickets cannot be booked after business hours. The service does not allow cancellation of tickets.
The DMRC will charge a nominal convenience fee for transactions done through credit or debit cards. No convenience fee will be charged for UPI-based transactions.
Earlier this month, the DMRC introduced QR code-based paper tickets for travel on all lines, describing the development as a move towards a more transparent and human intervention-free mechanism.
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
The US has come to a decision regarding the imposition of excise taxes on Bitcoin miners operating from within the country. The US will not be adding any new tax layer upon the US' Bitcoin mining sector as the proposal extended earlier this month has officially been scrapped. The development was confirmed to the media by a regulator in the US. It is noteworthy, that this decision comes immediately after US President Joe Biden clearly refused to slash the existing taxes on crypto gains. It seems, not levying an excise tax on Bitcoin miners is the US' way to keep earning from crypto taxes while also not pressurising the industry from all sides.
Earlier this month, the US' Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) floated a proposal to have Bitcoin miners pay a tax equal to 30 percent of the total energy cost that they consumed in the crypto mining process.
The decision to pull the plug on this proposal could be part of a bunch of tax-related rebates introduced by the US administration as it finalised to raise the inflation-ridden nation's debt ceiling by two years, a report by CryptoPotato said.
For now, however, Bitcoin mining businesses remain protected from any new taxes. Bitcoin mining is an energy intensive process, that requires miners to solve a series of complex algorithms on advanced computers, that need to be always connected to the power source. Miners solve these algorithms to validate transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain, and earn rewards in return.
Often, areas surrounding Bitcoin mining hotspots face a shortage in electricity supply, leading to frequent power outages and causing major inconvenience to neighbouring residents.
The US authorities, previously, have said that even if clean energy is used to facilitate crypto mining, it slashes the availability of clean energy for others, increasing their reliance on electricity produced by fossil fuels while also making that energy more expensive.
In the backdrop of these issues and the environmental deterioration caused by the BTC mining process are reasons that nudged the idea of having Bitcoin miners compensate financially.
Submitting the proposal to tax Bitcoin miners, the CEA had said that an estimated $3.5 billion (roughly Rs. 28,639 crore) could be added to the US Treasury in the next decade via this Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) excise tax.
Had it been passed; it would have made running a crypto mining business extra costly and that could have dented the US' current reputation of being a safe haven for crypto miners after China shut its doors to crypto activities.
As of July 2021, 35.4 percent of Bitcoin miners were operating out of the US, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance had revealed last year. That's a 428 percent increase from September 2020, making US the biggest home for crypto miners.
American states of New York, Texas, Georgia, and Kentucky have emerged as popular hosts of crypto miners, CNBC had reported last year citing data from Foundry USA.
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Global leaders should be working to reduce "the risk of extinction" from artificial intelligence technology, a group of industry chiefs and experts warned on Tuesday.
A one-line statement signed by dozens of specialists, including Sam Altman whose firm OpenAI created the ChatGPT bot, said tackling the risks from AI should be "a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war".
ChatGPT burst into the spotlight late last year, demonstrating an ability to generate essays, poems and conversations from the briefest of prompts.
The program's wild success sparked a gold rush with billions of dollars of investment into the field, but critics and insiders have raised the alarm.
Common worries include the possibility that chatbots could flood the web with disinformation, that biased algorithms will churn out racist material, or that AI-powered automation could lay waste to entire industries.
Superintelligent machines
The latest statement, housed on the website of US-based non-profit Center for AI Safety, gave no detail of the potential existential threat posed by AI.
The center said the "succinct statement" was meant to open up a discussion on the dangers of the technology.
Several of the signatories, including Geoffrey Hinton, who created some of the technology underlying AI systems and is known as one of the godfathers of the industry, have made similar warnings in the past.
Their biggest worry has been the rise of so-called artificial general intelligence (AGI) -- a loosely defined concept for a moment when machines become capable of performing wide-ranging functions and can develop their own programming.
The fear is that humans would no longer have control over superintelligent machines, which experts have warned could have disastrous consequences for the species and the planet.
Dozens of academics and specialists from companies including Google and Microsoft -- both leaders in the AI field -- signed the statement.
It comes two months after Tesla boss Elon Musk and hundreds of others issued an open letter calling for a pause in the development of such technology until it could be shown to be safe.
However, Musk's letter sparked widespread criticism that dire warnings of societal collapse were hugely exaggerated and often reflected the talking points of AI boosters.
US academic Emily Bender, who co-wrote an influential papers criticising AI, said the March letter, signed by hundreds of notable figures, was "dripping with AI hype".
'Surprisingly non-biased'
Bender and other critics have slammed AI firms for refusing to publish the sources of their data or reveal how it is processed -- the so-called "black box" problem.
Among the criticism is that the algorithms could be trained on racist, sexist or politically biased material.
Altman, who is currently touring the world in a bid to help shape the global conversation around AI, has hinted several times at the global threat posed by the technology his firm is developing.
"If something goes wrong with AI, no gas mask is going to help you," he told a small group of journalists in Paris last Friday.
But he defended his firm's refusal to publish the source data, saying critics really just wanted to know if the models were biased.
"How it does on a racial bias test is what matters there," he said, adding that the latest model was "surprisingly non-biased".
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Fast X has become the first Hollywood film in 2023 to break the 100-crore mark at the Indian box office. Universal Pictures has confirmed that the 10th main instalment in the globe-trotting action franchise has collected an impressive Rs. 105 crore (about $1.26 million) during its 11-day run since its theatrical release on May 19. From a global standpoint, Fast X has made $515.6 million (about Rs. 4,266 crore), securing its place as the third-biggest studio release of the year. It currently sits right behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the former of which joined the billion-dollar club in less than a month.
The new Fast and Furious movie has made $402 million (about Rs. 3,327 crore) from areas outside the US and Canada, which includes the aforementioned $1.26 million from India. Despite the high numbers, a Deadline report notes that the figures saw a 58 percent drop across 84 markets. Fast X raked in another $113.5 million (about Rs. 939 crore) from the North America regions.
The film is currently competing with Disney's The Little Mermaid, which has only made $185.8 million (about Rs. 1,537 crore) at the global box office since its release last Friday. That said, analysts were quick to point out that the aquatic adventure's debut did not represent the biggest opening weekend for a live-action remake. Those are still held by The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast.
Fast X appears to be performing superbly well despite dinged reviews — even surpassing the set projections during its opening weekend. In it, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) has a new formidable enemy in town — Dante Reyes (Jason Momoa), who plans to break down the Toretto family in a quest for vengeance for his father's murder. In classic F&F fashion, the film promises plenty of swooshing cars, familial settlement, and explosions, with Dante even setting a spherical bomb loose out in the streets of the Vatican.
During the CinemaCon event in late April, lead Diesel confirmed that Fast X: Part 2 was eyeing a release sometime in 2025. For the uninitiated, the franchise's end is designed with a two-part finale — albeit, Diesel revealed in an interview that plans for a trilogy aren't out of the question. “Without giving away too much I can say this. Going into making this movie, the studio asked if this could be a two-parter,” he said. “And after the studio saw this part one, they said, 'Could you make Fast X the finale, a trilogy?'” Louis Leterrier will return as director for the sequel.
Fast X is now showing in theatres worldwide.
The Chromecast with Google TV that runs on Android TV is here. When will Google learn how to name products? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has sold over 50 million copies worldwide, publisher CD Projekt Red confirmed. The ridiculous feat, combined with the overall sales of the franchise, which includes 2007's The Witcher and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, makes it one of the most successful series of all time, with over 75 million units sold. The Witcher 3 now ranks ninth on the list of the best-selling titles in history, just short of Red Dead Redemption 2, which has sold 53 million copies. Those numbers are expected to grow in the coming years, largely bolstered by the newly released next-gen update, which brings ray-tracing support, improved performance on consoles, and a slew of quality-of-life changes.
“This shows the tremendous strength of the franchise,” Piotr Nielubowicz, CFO, CD Projekt Red said in a video summarising the company's Q1 financial results. “This makes us even more excited with what the future holds, and with our upcoming projects set in the Witcher universe.” The studio currently has a brand-new Witcher trilogy in the works and plans to release it within a six-year period, after the first one — codenamed Witcher Polaris — drops. The first of the said saga was unveiled in March last year with a snowy key art to go along. CD Projekt Red confirmed that it would be ditching its in-house engine for Unreal Engine 5. Of course, the sequels in the trilogy will benefit from the groundwork laid out in the first game, hence the plan doesn't seem unrealistic for the team.
The School of the Wolf is growing! ? Over 50 million people joined Geralt of Rivia on his Path of finding Ciri and defeating the Wild Hunt!
The studio will continue gaining support from Epic Games for its full-blown remake of the first Witcher game. Codenamed Canis Majoris, the reimagining will take an open-world approach, while charting the same story as the original 2007 game, which saw the gruff monster hunter Geralt of Rivia on a quest to regain his memories. And while it did receive a remaster with new models and general stability, this would be the first time CD Projekt Red is remaking a game from its portfolio. Also, there's the multiplayer spin-off title — codenamed Sirius — which underwent an internal overhaul, earlier this month. Its lead developer The Molasses Flood laid off 29 employees, citing a developmental restart to define a new framework for the game. Indeed, a story mode will be at the core of The Witcher multiplayer game.
We'll also be hearing about CD Projekt Red's other big title, Cyberpunk 2077, soon at the Summer Game Fest — specifically, regarding the Phantom Liberty expansion, which stars Idris Elba (The Suicide Squad) as Solomon Reed, an FIA Agent for the New United States of America. The presentation has been included in the Play Days category, which is a special invite-only preview event for media and influencers. Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest kicks off June 9 at 12:30am IST in India/ June 8 at 12pm PT in the US, live from the YouTube Theatre in Los Angeles. The event will be available to stream on all major live-streaming platforms, including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and TikTok.
Scientists have developed a simple, low-cost clip that uses a smartphone's camera and flash to monitor blood pressure at the user's fingertip. The clip developed by researchers at the University of California (UC) San Diego, US, works with a custom smartphone app and currently costs about 80 cents (Rs. 5.6) to make.
The researchers estimate that the cost could be as low as 10 cents (Rs. 0.7) apiece when manufactured at scale.
The technology, described in the journal Scientific Reports, could help make regular blood pressure monitoring easy, affordable and accessible to people in resource-poor communities, they said.
It could benefit older adults and pregnant women, for example, in managing conditions such as hypertension, according to the researchers.
"We have created an inexpensive solution to lower the barrier to blood pressure monitoring,” said study first author Yinan Xuan, a Ph.D. student at UC San Diego.
"Because of their low cost, these clips could be handed out to anyone who needs them but cannot go to a clinic regularly," said study senior author Edward Wang, a professor at UC San Diego and director of the Digital Health Lab.
Another key advantage of the clip is that it does not need to be calibrated to a cuff, the researchers said.
"This is what distinguishes our device from other blood pressure monitors,” said Wang.
Other cuffless systems being developed for smartwatches and smartphones, he explained, require obtaining a separate set of measurements with a cuff so that their models can be tuned to fit these measurements.
"Our is a calibration-free system, meaning you can just use our device without touching another blood pressure monitor to get a trustworthy blood pressure reading," Wang said.
To measure blood pressure, the user simply presses on the clip with a fingertip. A custom smartphone app guides the user on how hard and long to press during the measurement.
The clip is a 3D-printed plastic attachment that fits over a smartphone's camera and flash. It features an optical design similar to that of a pinhole camera. When the user presses on the clip, the smartphone's flash lights up the fingertip.
That light is then projected through a pinhole-sized channel to the camera as an image of a red circle. A spring inside the clip allows the user to press with different levels of force.
The harder the user presses, the bigger the red circle appears on the camera.
The smartphone app extracts two main pieces of information from the red circle. By looking at the size of the circle, the app can measure the amount of pressure that the user's fingertip applies.
By looking at the brightness of the circle, the app can measure the volume of blood going in and out of the fingertip.
An algorithm converts this information into systolic and diastolic blood pressure readings.
The researchers tested the clip on 24 volunteers from the UC San Diego Medical Center. Results were comparable to those taken by a blood pressure cuff.
“Using a standard blood pressure cuff can be awkward to put on correctly, and this solution has the potential to make it easier for older adults to self-monitor blood pressure," said study co-author Alison Moore, from UC San Diego School of Medicine.
Samsung Galaxy A34 5G was recently launched by the company in India alongside the more expensive Galaxy A54 5G smartphone. How does this phone fare against the Nothing Phone 1 and the iQoo Neo 7? We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Xiaomi's Indian arm will start making wireless audio products in the country through a partnership with electronics manufacturer Optiemus in a push to further localise its operations, the company said on Monday.
Xiaomi India will make its first local audio gadget at Optiemus Electronics' factory in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, the company said in a statement, reiterating that it was targeting a 50 percent increase in the production of components locally sourced by 2025.
The push comes as the manufacturer of the Redmi brand of smartphones recently lost out to South Korean rival Samsung as India's top smartphones company.
The company did not say what kind of audio product it will make in the Indian factory, but it is "committed to forging more such collaborations for a wider range of categories, across our product line-up."
Xiaomi, which locally manufactures most of the smartphones and TVs it sells in India, did not say when it will start making the audio products. It sells speakers, ear-buds, wired and wireless headphones in India.
The Indian government has been pushing global companies to invest in local manufacturing as a part of its vision to make the country self-reliant.
Last week, Xiaomi reported an 18.9 percent drop in quarterly revenue as consumer demand for smartphones remained weak even as the economy recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
After China lifted its stringent pandemic controls late last year, the country's economy has recovered but consumers are spending cautiously. China's smartphone sector saw no bounce back over the period at all. Total sales in China fell 11 percent in the first quarter of 2023, research firm Canalys reported in April. Xiaomi's sales over the period fell 20 percent
India, once Xiaomi's top market overseas, has also proved less lucrative for the smartphone maker. Total smartphone shipments fell 20 percent across all brands in the first quarter, and rivals such as Samsung have eaten away at Xiaomi's share of the shrinking market. The company has cut prices on several of its models in India and China in the hope of spurring demand.
In March, Xiaomi was reported to be overhauling its India strategy after misjudging consumer tastes in mobile phones, a costly lapse that allowed Samsung Electronics to pip the Chinese company to the top spot in the world's second biggest market for the devices.
While Xiaomi remained focused on selling mobile phones under Rs. 10,000, Indian consumers were willing to pay up for better looking models with richer features. South Korea's Samsung launched products to meet those aspirations and offered innovative financing schemes that made them affordable to most.
Those moves have helped Samsung wrest leadership of India's competitive mobile phones market from Xiaomi, with data from Hong Kong-based Counterpoint Research showing it had a 20 percent market share for the last quarter of 2022 compared to the Chinese company's 18 percent.
Xiaomi launched its camera focussed flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened it's first stores in India this week. We discuss these developments, as well as other reports on smartphone-related rumours and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
Identifying counterfeit and fake products can be a difficult task and requires ample knowledge of the characteristics and appearance of the original objects. A new artificial intelligence-based app claims to identify whether a product is genuine based on a single photo clicked with a smartphone. The app uses optical AI to identify an object and does not rely on bar codes, holograms, markers, RFID technology, stickers, or engraved markings. However, it can only authenticate products that are already registered with the service.
Developed by Washington-based Alitheon, the FeaturePrint app can be installed on a smartphone and used for "identification, authentication, or traceability" of a product. Without special scanners or cameras, a user can point their smartphone at a product and identify an authentic product for high value items like gold bars and luxury items, while tracing supply chains and detecting counterfeit items.
According to Alitheon's website, the FeaturePrint optical AI technology can recognise small surface details of any physical item and then convert them into a mathematical set of numbers. Instead of identifying a class of products like other services, this method allows the user to identify a specific object that has already been registered with the FeaturePrint system.
"Proxy" authentication systems like barcode labels, seals, or engraved markings are regularly used to mark products as genuine, but Alitheon point that these markings can be damaged or lost over time. They can also be manipulated and copied in order to commit fraud. In contrast, the company claims that its FeaturePrint service can identify even damaged or broken products, works even when the products are rotated or captured from a different orientation, and supports versioning for audit histories of individual products.
While the company's website has multiple videos showing the product in action, there are no details on how products are enrolled into the FeaturePrint system and how a user can identify an authentic product. Unfortunately, FeaturePrint isn't available to the public to download via the Google Play store or the App Store, while it appears that corporate clients can gain access the service.
Google I/O 2023 saw the search giant repeatedly tell us that it cares about AI, alongside the launch of its first foldable phone and Pixel-branded tablet. This year, the company is going to supercharge its apps, services, and Android operating system with AI technology. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
The Last of Us multiplayer game has reportedly hit a snag, with developer Naughty Dog scaling back the team working on the project. As per Bloomberg, publisher Sony has slowed down work on the long-gestating multiplayer experience, as a means to ‘reassess its quality and long-term viability.' The news comes briefly after the studio put out a tweet claiming that the game needs more time to cook, in addition to announcing an undisclosed brand-new single-player title. Fans were expecting updates about The Last of Us multiplayer game during the PlayStation Showcase event, held last week, but Naughty Dog was a no-show.
In a blog post from January, Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann claimed that the studio was preparing to reveal more information on The Last of Us multiplayer game, sometime ‘later this year' — meaning, it probably wasn't eyeing a launch in 2023. The Bloomberg report notes that while the title has not been cancelled, several of its developers have been reallocated to other projects. Since Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has heavily invested in live-service games — even acquiring Halo and Destiny 2 creator Bungie last year. It brought on the Seattle-based developer to evaluate the game. The report suggests that Bungie raised concerns about The Last of Us multiplayer project's ability to keep players engaged for long periods. Hence the developmental shake-up.
The Last of Us multiplayer game marks the first project in the post-apocalyptic franchise, where Druckmann isn't serving as a lead writer or director. “What the team has put together is so cool. It's very different from what I would do but that's part of the exciting thing about it, with other people playing in this world,” he said in an interview, back in March. Players will be thrown into a new post-apocalyptic region — presumably San Francisco — with a friend and be forced to experience its ‘brutality,' combined with a new cast of NPCs and story. It has been in development for at least four years, starting life as a complementary game mode to The Last of Us Part II, after which high ambitions led to its diversion into a standalone affair.
Back in March, Druckmann also confirmed that Naughty Dog had chosen its next game, which is probably the ‘new single-player experience' mentioned in the tweet. Currently, it's unclear whether this game is The Last of Us Part III, though a story outline for the same has been written, which Druckmann hopes sees the light of day. It's also unlikely for the next project to be an Uncharted game since Naughty Dog previously alluded to moving on from the franchise. One thing fans can expect, however, is some influences from Elden Ring — specifically its minimalist storytelling style, which the creator was heavily intrigued by. “To me, right now, that's some of the best joy I get out of games that trust their audience to figure things out,” Druckmann said in an interview in January. “Games that don't hold your hand, that's the stuff I'm really intrigued by going forward.”
Currently, there are no release details for The Last of Us multiplayer game.
BGMI was relaunched in India on Monday, and the popular battle royale game can now be played on iOS and Android smartphones, nearly a year after it was banned in the country. Developer Krafton says it has imposed restrictions on playing Battlegrounds Mobile India, with daily time limits. The latest update to the game — the first to arrive since June last year — brings a new map based on a small resort island located in a tropical zone, along with new in-game events, and updates to classic maps in the game.
On Monday, Krafton announced the relaunch of BGMI in India, two days after it allowed Android users to preload the game in advance. Both iOS and Android users can now download BGMI via the App Store and Play Store respectively, but Krafton says that playability will be staggered and users will be able to login in phases within 48 hours.
According to Krafton, BGMI will restrict playtime for users in India based on their age. Minors playing the game will be limited to three hours a day, while users above the age of 18 can play for up to six hours. The game will continue to limit daily spending for gamers under the age of 18 and parental verification will also remain in place, the publisher says.
The latest BGMI 2.5 update that is available to download via the Google Play store and App Store features Nusa, the smallest map in the game to date. It is set in a tropical environment and features ziplines, a Super Recall feature, a tactical crossbow, and a two-seater off-road all-terrain vehicle. Each match in Nusa will last eight minutes, according to Krafton.
BGMI has been granted a three-month "trial approval" by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) after Krafton addressed and complied with issues of server locations and data security. MoS IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar announced earlier this month that the government will monitor these issues, along with concerns related to gamer addition and user harm over the next three months during the "trial" period.
