Technology News: Dell XPS 14: Design Innovation & AI Performance; Netflix, ISRO, WhatsApp Updates

Netflix axed its cheapest ad-free subscription plan within the US and UK last year, leading to recent social media posts that claim existing users must now move over to new higher-cost ad-free options. Pricing for the new plans comes in at $15.49 and $22.99 per month, which represents a sharp rise. Equally, Netflix is looking to expand its ad-supported options, having introduced an ad-based plan now extremely popular worldwide, having reached up to 40 million subscribers. However, the basic plan continues to be on offer in India for Rs 199 a month with ad-free viewing available on multiple devices.

ISRO will commemorate the first National Space Day on August 23 when Vikram Lander is going to have a safe landing on the moon with the Bharatiya Antariksh Hackathon. ISRO Chairman S Somanath announced the event, inviting under-graduate, post-graduate and PhD students from across the country to solve 12 problem statements in domains of geospatial, space science, image processing and AI/ML. Top teams will go to Hyderabad for the 30-hour-long 'Grand Finale', where they will strive with one purpose: to innovate space applications, and later, business models.

WhatsApp is widely used in India for communication purposes; simultaneously, businesses are using this app to reach out to customers. The Meta-owned app, in an attempt to make it more authentic, had given a green checkmark for verified channels. However, the WABetaInfo published a report that this would be shifted to a blue checkmark in the latest update of WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.20.18. The same branding was given on Facebook and Instagram by Meta. This change definitely will serve the twin purpose of enhancing trust among users and curtail the risks associated with impersonation. It's now available to some of their beta users and will be rolled out shortly.

A civil servant robot in South Korea working for the Gumi City Council has reportedly "committed suicide" by hurling itself down a flight of stairs, marking the country's first "robot suicide." The parts were found scattered inside the council building early on June 26. According to the Daily Mail, the robot named Robot Supervisor was stressed because of its excessive workload. Appointed in August 2023, it was tasked with the responsibility of delivering government papers and providing information to residents. Investigation into the cause of the incident is under way.

Within a year of its launch in 2022, the adoption rate became universal, and more than 90 percent of Indian offices started using ChatGPT. According to a DeskTime report, from January 2023 to March 2024, 40 percent of India's workforce became active users of this AI chatbot. Workplaces are quite aggressively adopting AI tools; while the pace of this new induction is welcome, upskilling is a critical factor. The incorporation of artificial intelligence into work settings has been led by tech behemoths such as Google and Meta. This will be in collaboration with OpenAI as Apple prepares the integrated ChatGPT on macOS and iPhones, despite earlier security issues.

Apple is trying to fit both Google's Gemini AI and ChatGPT inside iOS 18 that they will release later this year along with the probable addition of Anthropic's Claude AI. All these AI tools shall be free of cost initially and would gradually turn into a paid subscription-based model to generate money. While a few features, such as those for Mail and Swift Assist, may slide into late 2024 or even 2025 proper, most Siri AI updates are coming in 2025. Contrary to the rumor, Apple has no intention to add support to Meta's Llama 3 with the upcoming iOS version 18.

Jony Ive, who bid adieu to Apple in 2019, continues to have a powerful influence on the design of the company. In a recent podcast, Ive said that leaving Apple was not easy but essential for the new chapter of his career. Much credit was given by him to Steve Jobs for his creative license with ease and encouragement he had got there. After Apple, Ive started LoveFrom, with Apple as an early client. Ive waxed nostalgic, too, as he spoke about his time with Jobs and how things were forever changed by him. Recently, LoveFrom has been negotiating with OpenAI on hardware development based on AI.

The new Dell XPS 14 2024 model continues its heritage, being geared toward the AI PC era and equipped with Intel's new Core Ultra processors. It features an edge-to-edge OLED display for an even better viewing experience, given the reflective screen, which now sports a 120Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision support. On the design front, it is very similar, with the exception that it has innovated in the form of an invisible trackpad. Weight: 1.70 kg—so, a bit heavier than some others. Performance-wise, it can run heavy computing tasks without any problem but is not supported for gaming. The dedicated Copilot key improves the AI feature.