Washington DC: American multinational technology company Amazon recently announced Alexa integration for its Halo fitness-tracking gadget. This new feature will allow Halo owners to ask Alexa devices about various health stats, such as their sleep score or activity points obtained during the day. According to The Verge, this new Alexa integration will be off by default in the Halo bands and users will have to upgrade their devices to the latest firmware and OS version. The new feature roll-out started on Thursday and will continue over the next week. The Halo band from Amazon is the company’s first fitness-focused product and so far, has had a less than stellar reception since its announcement last fall. The $99.99 Halo, aside from the standard fitness things of tracking movement and sleep patterns, also has the ability to police the tone of your voice and tell you when you’re being dismissive or condescending with your words.

Washington DC: Apple is teaming up with non-profit organisation Common Sense Media to help parents find kid-friendly podcasts from its vast library of content. As per The Verge, the tech giant has launched a new Kids and Family podcast experience that will feature shows appropriate for young listeners. Common Sense Media will select each show featured, offering recommendations by age and collections like One More! for mysterious tales and action-packed dramas or Story Time for shows that transport listeners to new worlds. Creators of children-centric shows who will be featured include Tinkercast, American Public Media, Gen-Z Media, Pinna, Tumble, Highlights, WNYC Studios, Rebel Girls, and Nickelodeon.

Washington DC: Tech giant Google will finally be updating its map editing experience in order to allow users to add missing roads and realign, rename or delete incorrect ones. According to The Verge, the new experience dubbed as “drawing” will be similar to using the line tool in Microsoft Paint. This new updated tool will be rolling out over the coming months in more than 80 countries. At the moment, if a user tries to add a missing road, they can only drop a pin where the road should be and type in the road’s name to submit that information to Google. The aim of the new tool would be to make it easier to not only add missing roads but also to make corrections such as fixing a road’s name or its direction. It is obvious that Google will still oversee the corrections to make sure that they are accurate. After the submission of a change, Google will display a screen where it warns that it does not want a bike path to be marked as a road, or for someone to make a road intended to hurt people. That same screen also says that it will take about seven days for the company to review the submission.

Washington DC: Apple, the American multinational technology company, has reportedly reduced the production of iPhone 12 Mini because of its less popularity among buyers. One must have heard a lot of banter of Apple’s new tiny iPhone models online, which the company launched last year. But a new report from Mashable India claims that the company is vastly concerned about its popularity among people. Following which the techno giant has decided to cut all the iPhone mini orders by 20 per cent. Mashable India reported that earlier, the company told suppliers that it “wanted to produce 96 million iPhones for the first half of 2021. This would include the entire iPhone 12 range, along with older models like the iPhone 11 and 2020 iPhone SE. However, the reduced demand has forced the company to target production of around 75 million units.”

NEW DELHI: Czech carmaker Skoda is preparing aggressively for its much ambitious India 2.0 project. And now the first car under that project has been unveiled and it is called the Kushaq. The compact SUV is based on the MQB-A0-IN platform, which has been specially adapted by the brand for the Indian market. In order to achieve the best possible level of localisation in India, Skoda has set up a new MQB production line at its Pune plant. Most of the development is taking place at the new technology centre, also in Pune, which the Czech carmaker opened in January 2019. The name of the mid-size SUV is derived from Sanskrit, and it means a king or an emperor.

EXTERIOR

The clear-cut headlights of the SUV feature a two-part design. In the higher variants, this design consists of an LED module behind a clear lens in the upper part for low beam and high beam, and a thin, L-shaped LED module for the daytime running lights. The indicators come with classic bulbs, as do the fog lights in the lower section. The LED tail lamps feature the brand-typical crystalline structures in the familiar C-shape. There are a number of VISION IN concept cars on which this production model is based. The ribs of the wide grille are gloss black and the chrome grille surround extends to the headlights. The upper section of the front bumper is body-coloured, the lower part is black. The SUV is 4,225 mm long, 1,760 mm wide and has a height of 1,612 mm. Its wheelbase is 2,651 mm and the ground clearance is 188 mm. Depending on the variants you will get either 16-inch or 17-inch wheels.

INTERIOR

The cabin is dominated by a central, free-standing infotainment touchscreen and a two-spoke multifunction steering wheel comes as standard. The higher trims are upholstered in leather and the automatic transmission or DSG also feature shift paddles. The 10-inch touchscreen features a dual tuner, a Wi-Fi hotspot, and an external microphone for hands-free phone calls. There are two USB-C ports in the centre console as well as two at the rear console for connecting and charging mobile devices. The Kushaq also features the brand’s typical ‘Simply Clever’ solutions, which include a non-slip base in the cup holder in the centre console, allowing the driver to easily and conveniently open a bottle placed there with just one hand. The Style variant also includes the Phone Box in the front, in which a smartphone can be charged inductively, and smartphone storage pockets on the front seatbacks. The SUV gets a boot space of 385 litres.

ENGINE

When launched Kushaq will come with 2 advanced TSI Petrol engines. The entry-level 1.0 TSI produces 115 PS from its displacement of one litre. Power is transmitted to the front wheels via a 6-speed manual gearbox or a 6-speed automatic transmission. The 1.5 TSI has a power output of 150 PS which is delivered to the front wheels via a manual 6-speed gearbox or a 7-speed DSG. Skoda is promising low fuel consumption on both the models.

SAFETY

The brand is offering a comprehensive range of active and passive safety features and assistance systems on the Kushaq. The SUV gets multi-collision brakes, six airbags and ISOFIX and top-tether anchor points on the rear seats to fit child seats that come as standard. All headrests are height-adjustable, and the centre seat in the rear is also equipped with a three-point seat belt. In addition to this you also get hill hold control, cruise control, auto headlamps and rain sensing wipers. A tyre pressure monitor is an optional extra.

LAUNCH

The Kushaq will be launched in the market in a few months from now. The company has confirmed that orders will be taken from June with the first units to be delivered in July. The two colours, metallic Honey Orange and Tornado Red, will be offered with the SUV exclusively in India. In addition, it will also be available in Candy White, metallic Reflex Silver, and metallic Carbon Steel colour options. The SUV will take on hugely popular cars like the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos apart from the upcoming SUV from Volkswagen with which it will share its platform.

New Delhi: Micromax gearing up to launch a new smartphone in the Indian market. The company has shared an invite to the launch event on its website. The invite reveals that it is all set to launch the In1 on 19 March. Micromax will live stream the launch event on MicromaxInfo.com at 12 PM local time on 19 March. The company had made a comeback in the smartphone market in November with the Micromax In Note 1, the In 1B. Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma had confirmed earlier that the company will soon launch a 5G phone. He revealed that the engineers working at Micromax’s Bengaluru research and development center working on a 5G phone. Sharma had hinted that the smartphone could be launched somewhere in April. We do not know if he was referring to the in1 or not. If this turns out to be true, the in1 would come with 5G support. But since Micromax has not shared any specifications of its upcoming device, it would not safe to believe everything that is available on the Internet.