Nasa to broadcast live 360-degree video of rocket launch

Nasa, in coordination with commercial cargo provider Orbital ATK and launch service major United Launch Alliance (ULA), is set to broadcast the world's first live 360-degree stream of a rocket launch on April 18.

The live 360-degree stream of the cargo resupply mission liftoff to the International Space Station may be viewed on the Nasa Television YouTube channel starting 10 minutes prior to lift off, the US space agency said.

Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft will launch on a ULA Atlas V rocket carrying more than 3,447 kg of science research, crew supplies and hardware to the orbiting laboratory.

The launch is targeted for April 18 during a 30-minute window that opens at 11:11 am EDT.

To view in 360, you need to use a mouse or move a personal device to look up and down, back and forth, for a 360-degree view around Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

Not all browsers support viewing 360 videos. YouTube supports playback of 360-degree videos on computers using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera browsers.

Viewers may use the YouTube app to view the launch on a smartphone.

Those who own virtual reality headsets will be able to look around and experience the view as if they were actually standing on the launch pad, NASA said.

While virtual reality and 360 technology have been increasing in popularity, live 360 technology is a brand new capability that has emerged recently.

Recognising the exciting possibilities opened up by applying this new technology to space flights, Nasa, ULA and Orbital ATK seized this opportunity to virtually place the public at the base of the rocket during launch.

The minimum viewing distance is typically miles away from the launch pad, but the live 360 stream enables viewers to get a pads-eye view.

Self-driving truck passes test in China

A Chinese-made self-driving truck has passed a navigation test, heralding a new era of intelligent, automated heavy vehicles, official media reported today.

FAW Jiefang, the leading truck manufacturer, debuted the self-driving truck at FAW Tech Center in Changchun city, Jilin province.

The truck, which FAW Jiefang plans to commercialize as early as next year, was able to recognize obstacles, slow down, make a detour and speed up, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The intelligent driving vehicle reacted correctly to traffic lights, adaptive cruise control, remote commands and successfully overtook, the report said.

Hu Hanjie, FAW Jiefang General Manager, said the company has built a whole industry chain partnership to develop, manufacture, sell and service self-driving trucks.

The participation of more firms across the sector will accelerate the technology's use on heavy-duty vehicles, Hu said.

Leading Chinese tech firms, including Baidu and Tencent, have invested in self-driving entities.

Baidu, for example, has tested driverless mini cars at the annual World Internet Conference for the last two years.

The technology may prove more practical when it is used on trucks than private cars as truck drivers are more likely to drive tired, the report added.

Paytm achieves another milestone

The popular mobile payment and e-commerce platform Paytm has announced that it is now 200 million wallets strong. The company is the biggest success story of demonetisation announced by Prime minister Narendra Modi in November 2016. Within hours of the PM announcing the banning of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, Paytm user base jumped almost 150%. For weeks after that, the company's app ruled both Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store.

Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma tweeted the news of the company crossing the 200 million wallets milestone. Sharma also thanked Paytm users for the feat and said that he hopes that the company crosses 500 million-mark by the year 2020.

He also said in his tweet that the company is adding 7 lakh users per day and that the total balance in the wallets stood at Rs 899 crore.

The company also said in a press release that Paytm has become a preferred method of payment for use-cases ranging from mobile and DTH recharges to electricity and water bill payments as well as offline payments at grocery stores, pharmacies and parking among others.

"At Paytm, our goal is to help merchants and consumers transact digitally at zero extra cost. Reaching 200 Mn registered users and more than half a million users on a daily basis is a great showcase of the country's trust in our payment solution and reaffirms our belief in the need for a quick and easy cashless payment method. Going forward, we would continue to drive strong consumer-focused innovation in the category to reach the widest set of merchants and consumers in India," Deepak Abbot, senior vice president said.

Get Your Pan and pay tax via app

You may soon get PAN in minutes and pay your income tax via app, here's how

You may soon be able to get a permanent account number in minutes and also pay income tax through your smartphone.

As part of its drive to make life easy for taxpayers, the Central Board of Direct Taxes is working on issuing PAN on a real-time basis using Aadhaar's e-KYC facility, which allows an individual to verify his or her details such as address using biometric identification features like thumb impressions.

"If a SIM can be issued through e- KYC, then the same can be done for PAN," said an officer adding that the process may be crunched to five-six minutes from two-three weeks at present. While the number will be issued, the card will be delivered later.

The CBDT and the ministry of corporate affairs have already tied up to issue PAN to new companies incorporating through a combined form in four hours. The idea, again, is to move to real-time issuing of PAN, which will also become the business identification number for companies.

Separately, the tax department is developing an app that will help you pay taxes online and perform a host of other services such as apply for PAN or track your returns. While the department is offering several services online through its portal, the app is expected to make life simpler for seniors as well as young taxpayers.

The two projects are being done in-house with the directorate of systems coordinating with CBDT, said sources.

Apple iPhone 7 updates

Apple iPhone 7 Matte Black coating chips off, raises quality concerns

Apple's products are generally renowned for their premium build quality. But it seems that the company's newest flagship smartphone - iPhone 7, isn't exactly one of them.

According to several user reports on Apple's Discussion forums, several Matte Black iPhone 7 models are chipping off paint, exposing the silver aluminium underneath.

"At first I thought it was just the dust. I try to wipe it using microfibre cloth as usual. Until I look closely and see it is the metal part of the body. It seems that the black anodized paint had been chipped off from the phone body. I am really disappointed with what happened to the phone because I was using it very carefully," posted one of the users on the forum.

What's more disappointing is that after having a word with Apple's Customer Support, some users found out that the damage is not covered under warranty since it's cosmetic damage.

"I am in the UK and got my phone (Matte Black 7 Plus) on 1st Nov. I found first paint chip on the top left of the phone on 25th Nov... just had it less than a month," remarked a user.

Some even tried giving some cheap solutions. "Yours is quite visible. Try to touch up using Black paint. I use matte Black paint."

For those who are facing the issue, it is quite a disappointment that Apple is not covering it under any kind of warranty. This also raises questions on the product quality standards maintained by the company for its products.

At the time of launch, the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus' Glossy Black version also faced some criticism by users, due to being immensely prone to minor scratches.

Payments Bank of Paytm gets Rs 218cr infusion

Paytm Payments Bank has received Rs 218 crore in fresh capital as it prepares to start operations this month from Uttar Pradesh. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and CEO of Paytm who holds the payments bank licence has infused Rs 111 crore, while One97 Communications and One97 India Communications, the parent of Paytm, put in the rest of the amount, as per latest regulatory filings sourced via business research platform Tofler.

Earlier in January , Sharma said he had managed to get the final nod from RBI to kick-start the bank. Paytm Payments Bank has issued 2,18,000,000 shares to the three shareholders.

The development comes on the back of two other payments banks -Airtel Payments Bank and India Post Payments Bank launching their operations.

TOI had reported its in December 9 edition, about Sharma selling 1% of his personal holding in Paytm's parent firm One97 Communications for about Rs 325 crore to invest in the payments bank. Sharma holds 51% stake in Paytm Payments Bank, as per RBI guidelines. Paytm had planned to start its payments bank last year but had to postpone the launch multiple times due to regulatory delays. After getting RBI nod, Sharma had said that about Rs 400 crore would be pumped into the payments bank.

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Here’s why Facebook needs to thank Reliance Jio

Reliance Jio's free data offer and subsequent moves by competitors to reduce data charges look to have had a dramatic impact on Facebook usage in India. The impact was so much that it took Facebook's global monthly active user (MAU) numbers to record highs.

In its December-quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, the social media giant said the quarter was a "fantastic" one for the "overall growth of the Facebook community." The quarter witnessed Facebook's "strongest absolute MAU and DAU (daily active user) additions year-over-year since being a public company", CFO David Wehner said.

In response to a question on where the increases came from, Wehner singled out India and said "India was our strongest growth market." He indicated much of that increase came on account of "third party promotional free data plans."

Asia saw a sequential growth in Facebook MAUs of more than 44 million in the quarter, said to be the biggest increase ever.

Wehner added that Facebook Lite for Android has also helped the social networking major to expand its usage and reach in emerging economies including India. Facebook Lite is a light app that allows for faster downloads on cheaper Android phones.

Facebook has its largest user base in India with around 195 million accounts, according to Statista, a data collecting platform. The US comes second with 191 million users. Other emerging economies like Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico follow.

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