Asian Games 2018: India’s Varsha Gautham and Sweta Shervegar Bag Silver In Sailing

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In India, a game of Cricket was considered to be most loved sport to an extent that people didn’t even know the name of athletes in other sports. But with constant wins of sportsperson like Hima Das, PV Sindhu and Neeraj Chopra, sports like Racing, Badminton and Jwelin Throw at the Olympics has made people aware about other sports very well.

Indian athletes are making India proud as they continue to win medals at the Asian Games 2018.

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Roller Skater 

India’s Harshveer Singh finishes eighth while Amitesh Mishra fails to finish the race in the Men’s Road 20 Km Final.

Diving

After the fifth dive, India’s Ramananda Sharma jumps to the 10th spot in the Men’s 1m Springboard Preliminary and qualified for finals in the Men’s 1m Springboard.

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Sailing

India’s Nethra Kumanan finishes fifth in the Women’s Laser Radial Race 12.

India’s Varsha Gautham and Sweta Shervegar bag silver after they finish second in the Women’s 49er FX Race 15.

India’s Varun Thakkar Ashok and Chengappa Ganapathy Kelapanda win bronze in the Men’s 49er Race 15.

India’s Harshita Tomar bags a bronze medal in the Open Laser 4.7 event. 16-year-old Harshita totalled 62 after race 12 to finish third. “It is a great feeling to win a medal for the country. I can’t explain it. It has been a great learning experience for me,” said Harshita.

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India’s latest medal tally at the Asian Games 2018: (as of 3:50 pm On August 31)

Gold — 13
Silver — 22
Bronze — 27
Total: 62

Indians are really proud of the athletes for making the country proud by winning medals. Stay tuned to Laughing Colours for the latest sports news and updates.

Published by Bhaumik Raja on 31 Aug 2018

More Alexa ‘blueprints’ arrive, offering customizable voice apps for families and roommates

Earlier this year, Amazon rolled out a new feature that allowed Alexa device owners to create their own custom skills using preconfigured templates. Today, Amazon is expanding Alexa Blueprints, as the service is called, to include a handful of new templates designed for families and roommates.

These include a chore chart template, a house rules template for roommates, and others.

The Chore Chart template allows families to schedule and track children’s weekly chores, and even lets multiple kids (or anyone, really) compete to see who has done the most. Parents first configure the skill with a list of weekly chores and who those chores are assigned to.

Throughout the week, the kids can log their completed chores by asking Alexa. (“Alexa, ask Chore Chart to log a chore.”). Anyone can then check the progress by asking for the “Chore Score.”

Another blueprint is a variation on the existing “houseguest” and “babysitter” templates, which let you fill in useful information about the home, like where to find the TV remote or what the Wi-Fi password is, for example. The new “Roommate” blueprint, available now, lets you program in other information about the house, like the “house rules.”

You can have Alexa nag users to turn off the lights or run the dishwasher when they ask for the “house rules” for a given room. This passive aggressive roommate shaming system may not be the most useful – unless maybe used to poke fun – however, the template also lets you program in other important contacts, like the landlord or building manager.

The two other new blueprints are more lighthearted in nature.

One, “Whose Turn,” will have Alexa either randomly pick whose turn it is to take on a particular task – like walking the dog – or she can pick from the next name in the list, depending on how it’s configured.

Similarly, the “What To Do” skill will let Alexa make the decision when you’re stumped about what activity to do next. Alexa can pick what movie or TV show to watch from a list you configure, and can even suggest what’s for dinner, if you program in a list of favorite meals. This is also clearly intended more for parents with kids, who like to incorporate Alexa into family discussions and activities, as a third-party arbitrator of disputes, so to speak.

Many of the existing blueprints are already family-friends, like the family jokes, trivia, and stories. Amazon said in June that Alexa Skill Blueprints’ adoption has been higher than expected, when it introduced a way for people to share their custom blueprints with others.

The new blueprints are live now, bringing the total number of customizable skills to 41.

List Of Women Achievers Making Us Proud At Asian Games 2018

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Asian Games 2018 marked many woman achievers. It not only made us proud but they have really inspired us and made us believe that anything is possible despite all odds.

Here is a list of woman winners who won at Asian Games 2018. Have a look:

1. Swapna Barman

She won a gold in Heptathlon.

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2. Manika Batra

Bronze in Mixed Doubles Table Tennis.

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3. Dutee Chand

Silver in 100/200 meters.

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4. Hima Das

Silver in 400 meters.

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5. PV Sindhu

Silver in Badminton Singles.

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6. Saina Nehwal

Bronze in Badminton Singles.

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7. Pincky Balhara

Silver in 52 kg category Kurash.

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8. Malaprabha Yallappa Jadhav

Bronze in 52 kg category Kurash.

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9. Vinesh Phogat

Gold in 52 kg Wrestling.

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10. Sudha Singh

Bronze in 3000 meter Steeplechase.

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11. Ankita Raina

Bronze in Tennis singles.

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12. Naorem Roshibina Devi

Bronze in Wushu.

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13. Dipika Palikal

Bronze in Squash Singles.

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14. Joshna Chinappa

Bronze in Squash Singles.

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15. Neena Varakil

Silver in Long Jump.

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16. Muskan Kiran

Silver in Compound Archery.

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17. Madhumita Kumari

Silver in Compound Archery.

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18. Jyothi Vennam

Silver in Compound Archery.

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Do you also believe that women can do anything?

They have managed to be good in every area of life wherever they have stepped on.

We Congratulate all the women achievers and wish them Good Luck for their future endeavours!

Published by Minal Gupta on 31 Aug 2018

Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se Review: The film leaves you bored with extra long scenes

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Friday is here and another movie’s fate is in the hands of the public. Today, Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se has been released which stars the Deol family’s Dharmendra, Sunny, and Bobby alongside veteran stars Shatrughan Sinha, Rekha, and Asrani Nanu in cameo roles. The movie also stars Kriti Kharbanda, Binnu Dhillon, and Satish Kaushik. Before booking the ticket for this weekend, here’s the review of the Yamla Pagla Deewana Phir Se (YPDPS) for you.

We’re back with double the laughter! Book #YamlaPaglaDeewanaPhirSe tickets on @PaytmTickets and get 50% Cashback* up to ₹150. Use code: YPD3. https://t.co/0We6ShOJqh … @aapkadharam @iamsunnydeol @kriti_official pic.twitter.com/bRDIChXqmW

— Bobby Deol (@thedeol) August 31, 2018

The third installment of the film Yamla Pagla Deewana, this movie is the story of two brothers Pooran (Sunny Deol) and Kaala (Bobby Deol) who use the ‘Vajrakavach’ with various intentions and one of them is becoming rich. Parmar (Dharmendra), an erstwhile Casanova who is also a sharp and intelligent lawyer of repute, is the paying guest in the brothers’ house. He is a thorn in Kaala’s side. Enter Chikoo (Kriti Kharbanda), an ENT doctor in Surat who is so partial to alcohol that one wonders if she is really capable of surgery. Chikoo arrives in Amritsar to learn about the ancient practice of Ayurveda. Kaala falls in love with her instantly. They bond as they share a bottle of alcohol which is so obvious in YPD. She returns home and Kaala is heartbroken. After which a court drama happened for which Singhs came together and rent a flat next to Chikoo.

https://t.co/XBlvoKnwC5 Falling in love with this one … Kale & Chikoo’s love shines #Nazarbattu #NazazarbattuOutNow @ypdphirse @aapkadharam @iamsunnydeol @kriti_official @penmovies @jayantilalgada @saregamaglobal @SohamRockstrEnt#NavaniatSingh pic.twitter.com/b6iSknPoTt

— Bobby Deol (@thedeol) August 7, 2018

Obviously, the story came with a moral or message that traditional medicines made in India are far superior to Allopathy.

In short, if you wish to watch YPD again then this is almost the same with a new storyline. Bobby is being dominant in the whole movie as he has the most of the time on screen as compare to Dharmendra and Sunny. Violent Sunny aka Puran will give you the old vibes of funny Sunny Deol.

If you remove the extra long scenes from YPD3, you would be left with a 90-minute film which will be as heavy as piles of coats over you to spend in the theatre.

Taareekh badal gayi par hum nahi … hojaaye “little little” with #YamlaPaglaDeewanaPhirSe @ypdphirse @aapkadharam @iamsunnydeol @kriti_official @PenMovies @jayantilalgada @saregamaglobal @SohamRockstrEnt pic.twitter.com/TC0ZGUEGiW

— Bobby Deol (@thedeol) July 30, 2018

This movie shares the release date with Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor’s Stree which according to the critics is doing well at the box office but the Friday will remain the unpredictable and you never know which movie will hit the BO collections.

Published by Soniya Kaur on 31 Aug 2018

To boost Amazon Pay in India, Amazon reportedly acquired Tapzo, an ‘all-in-one’ aggregator app, for $40M

On the heels of Google rebranding Tez to Google Pay in India, and Walmart acquiring a majority stake in e-commerce marketplace Flipkart, Amazon is also making a run in India to hone in on the country’s growing economy.

According to multiple reports, Amazon has paid around $40 million to acquire Tapzo, a startup that aggregates a number of app-based services — such as Uber, Ola, food delivery services Swiggy and Zomato, Book My Show, bill payment service BillDesk and more — into a single app. Amazon is reportedly paying between $30 million and $40 million, and its intention is to leverage Tapzo’s one-stop services app to help grow Amazon Pay usage in the country.

Amazon Pay has reportedly been seeing a wider global push to spur adoption of the service. But in India, the drive to get people to use Apple Pay may be particularly strong. Rival wallet services like Paytm, PhonePe, Google Pay, Mobikwik and others have swooped in a market where payment card usage is not that widespread, and consumers are conducting a growing number of transactions on their mobile devices. If you can get traction for your mobile wallet, that puts you into a strong position for dominating in all kinds of commerce and transactions in Asia’s second-largest economy.

We’d heard talks between Tapzo and Amazon have been in the works for a while, but now that a deal has been done, the two seem to be downplaying the details.

Messages sent to Tapzo founder and CEO, Ankur Singla, did not get responses. Another Tapzo executive we reached on the phone said he could not comment but also didn’t deny the report. And in a statement provided to TechCrunch, Amazon also did not explicitly confirm the deal, nor did Amazon deny it.

“Our commitment to the vision of a less-cash India remains the same,” a spokesperson said. “Our goal is to make it easier than ever before for customers to make digital payments by improving the customer experience, affordability and daily routines.”

An email to one of Tapzo’s investors, Sequoia, also did not get a response. Tapzo had in all raised about $23 million, with other investors including Ru-Net, American Express and RB Investments.

The deal pairs together a startup that has had held a lot of promise but has also has been through several rebrands and pivots in search of a viable business model; with an e-commerce leviathan that has already invested billions of dollars money into India but is looking for a way of expanding its reach in beyond its own marketplace.

Tapzo has attempted to address a particular niche in the Indian market: Smartphone usage has taken off in India, with many using mobile handsets as their primary “computer” for getting online. That creates an opportunity for companies looking to connect with customers, but also a challenge: there is a lot of app churn, and an added pressure on publishers to provide lasting value to consumers whose devices might be space-constrained and wallets cash-constrained to use and pay for anything but the most top-priority data services.

“One of the worst-kept secrets of the mobile app industry is that almost all apps (except for the top 5-8 apps) see 60-80 percent uninstall rate within 90 days of users installing the app,” Singla wrote in a blog post when explaining the challenge in the market. “India probably has the highest uninstall rate in the world, so when an app says it has 20 million installs, you can do your math.”

Enter Tapzo: the idea is that by loading the Tapzo app with multiple services, it makes the whole app much more valuable to users, and having all the services existing within one app also means that a users of Tapzo do not need to dedicate as much space to multiple apps that could be more likely to get uninstalled on their own.

That formula appears to have hit the right note in the market: Tapzo claims to have over 5 million users across some 100 cities in India turning to Tapzo to connect with more than 40 different services. It says that to date it’s enabled over 25 million transactions.

But Tapzo’s success has not come quickly nor smoothly. The company has been through a number of pivots and rebrands since 2010, starting first as Akosha, a platform for businesses to communicate with customers; then becoming Helpchat, a personal assistant and chatbot; and lastly its most recent pivot to Tapzo. (And the company owning all three of these has yet a different name, Coraza Technologies.) VC Circle earlier this year reported that Coraza’s last round in January this year was a down round, from a peak valuation of about $85 million in 2016.

Tapzo in its latest incarnation potentially plays directly into Amazon’s strategy to build out its presence in India by way of Amazon Pay, Amazon’s payment processing service that competes against the likes of Google Pay, PayPal and the rest.

Tapzo and Amazon Pay had already been working together on promotional efforts: to encourage more people to integrate and use Amazon Pay for transactions on Tapzo, the two have run multiple promotions where users could get money back and discounts on a wide range of services you can access through Tapzo.

A closer relationship by way of acquisition could not only see Amazon Pay becoming a (the only?) default payment option, but it could give Amazon the chance to use the app to promote its own network of services and merchants, whether it’s for restaurant delivery or for a deal on a new mixing bowl to cook it yourself — a twist on the company’s classic marketplace model.

Amazon could also use it as a loyalty and points service: book your next Ola car through Tapzo, pay for it with Amazon Pay, and get money towards your next purchase on Amazon.in. That could be one way of fulfilling Amazon’s goal “to make digital payments by improving the customer experience, affordability and daily routines,” with Amazon getting a cut on those payments.

We’ll update this post as we learn more.

Manika Batra Is The First Indian Female Table Tennis Player To Win A Bronze Medal At Asian Games

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India’s first medal on Day 11 of the Asian Games 2018 came from table tennis as Manika Batra and Achanta Sharath Kamal bagged the bronze medal on Wednesday. The Indian duo lost in the mixed doubles semi-finals 9-11, 5-11, 13-11, 4-11, 8-11 against the Chinese pair of Yingsha Sun and Chuqin Wangin in a one-sided contest which lasted just 39 minutes to settle for the bronze medal. The final match will see an all-Chinese lineup as Yingsha Sun and Chuqin Wangin will battled it out against Lin Gaoyuan and Wang Manyu for the gold medal.

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This will be India’s second medal in table tennis at the Asian Games after the men’s team as it also saw Sharath Kamal in action. He won the bronze medal after going down 0-3 in the men’s team semi-finals against South Korea. Kamal and Batra played four matches in a day and only the opener against Malaysia was comfortable. In the lead-up to the event, Kamal had slammed the scheduling of the competition.

In the semifinals, Kamal and Batra made life tough for China’s Yingsha Sun and Wang Sun before going down 9-11, 5-11, 13-11, 4-11, 8-11. The semifinal was a best of seven games contest while the earlier rounds were played in the usual best of five format. Their pre-quarterfinal was against the strong a South Korean pairing of Lee Sangsu and Jeon Jihee but the Indians battled past them 11-7, 7-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-4.

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Next up for Kamal and Batra was the North Korean challenge posed by Cha Hyo Sim and An Ji Song. This was for a place in the semifinals and a guaranteed medal at the Games. Like the round of 16 match, the quarterfinal too went down to the wire with the Indians pulling off a 11-4, 10-12, 11-6, 6-11, 11-8 victory.

The combination of Kamal’s power and Batra’s deceptive play from the pimpled rubber proved too hot to handle for the Koreans.

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“In mixed doubles, the role of the female player is very important. More often than not, it actually decides who is going to win the match,” said Kamal.

“It has been an unbelievable campaign so far. Not even in my wildest dreams I thought of winning a medal at the Asian Games. Now I have got too. I am still pinching myself,” added Kamal, who will also compete in the men’s doubles and singles competiton.

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Manika is proving that her Commonwealth Games success is not a fluke and clearly she is the next big thing in table tennis.

Published by Minal Gupta on 30 Aug 2018

Asian Games Hockey Semifinals: India Lost To Malaysia By 6-7 In Penalty Shoot-Out

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The Indian Men’s Hockey Team performed exceptionally well at the ongoing Asian Games 2018. After making a total of 76 goals in 5 matches at the group stage, the Indian team successfully reached the semi-finals to have a face-off against Malaysia. The match commenced at 4:00 PM (IST) in Jakarata.

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There was no goal from India and Malaysia till the half time. Surender Kumar got a green card for a foul.  India was two men less on the field in the final quarter.  However, India was leading with 2-1 till then. However, the penalty corner of lead to the score of 2-2 and the full-time whistled. The match moved to the penalty shoot-out. Firan Ahsari  scored the first goal for Malaysia while Akashdeep Singh took India’s second penalty stroke taking the score to 1-1.

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There was a no goal at the second and third penalty stroke for both the teams.  It was nail-biting match with the following strokes until India lost with 6-7.

The score chart of India had been amazing with in previous 5 matches as against Indonesia (17-0), Hong-Kong China (26-0), Japan (8-0), South Korea (5-3) and Sri Lanka (20-0).

India has played Malaysia 116 times and won 81 of those encounters while the Malaysians have won only 17. And is we talk about Asian Games specifically, the the two teams had a face-off for 11 times and India had never lost to Malaysia until the 2010 edition at Guangzhou.

Published by Kanika Saini on 30 Aug 2018

Sennheiser announces $300 wireless earbuds

I suspect $300 wireless earbuds might have been a bit more easy to swallow back when the technology was still something of a novelty just a few years ago. Now that these devices are fairly ubiquitous, however, it’s going to be a tougher for a company to justify what’s essentially twice the price of a set of AirPods.

That said, the Momentum certainly look nice. And they probably are — Sennheiser makes nice, premium products. Announced at IFA in Berlin this week, the earbuds have 7mm dynamic drivers, support AAC and Qualcomm aptXTM for bluetooth high-def audio.

The headphones work with Siri and Google Assistant, via a touch interface. Battery life is pretty decent at four hours, plus 12 more via the recharging case. The case actually looks pretty nice too, with a fabric cover that’s got a real Google Home vibe.  All of that can be yours in mid-November for the totally not crazy price of 299.95 U.S. American dollars.

Indian Athletes Win Gold At Asian Games And Mark Their Glory, Story Is An Inspiration

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India is doing good at the Asian Games and making us all proud of the athletes there. We have won multiple Golds and Silvers. Their name will forever be etched in the history.

Swapna Barman had a toothache for two days and still, she managed to play with a bandaged jaw. Not only did she play, but also won a Gold for India. She won a Heptathlon gold medal, India’s first ever in Asian Games history. This is nothing other than magical for us as this is our first time.

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In 2016, ONGC did not renew Manjit Singh’s contract because they felt he was not doing enough on the tracks and he was too old to improve. Two years later, he turned history and proved them wrong as he won at the Asian Games gold medal in the men’s 800 mete run.

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Tejinderpal Singh’s father is battling cancer and he had to make plenty of sacrifices to attain glory for India. Finally, it all paid off as he won the shot putt gold at the Asian Games.

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Swimmer Sajan Prakash went for the event unaware of where his maternal family was in flood-hit Kerala. But he still managed to represent India in the men’s 200 meter.

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Swapna Barman added the fifth athletics gold for India at the ongoing Asian Games 2018 after winning the women’s heptathlon final on Wednesday.

“The wins & the money have helped my family & #SAI has been a huge help for me & my family.
I’m so thankful to everyone from @afiindia & SAI.” @Swapna_Barman96,gold medalist in women’s heptathlon,#TOPSAthlete & trainee at SAI COE Kolkata.
SAI is proud to support you, Swapna! pic.twitter.com/gFRsCR48mZ

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 29, 2018

Swapna Barman bagged the first ever gold medal for India in women’s heptathlon after finishing the seven-discipline event with 6026 points. It was India’s 54th medal at the Asian Games 2018 and the fifth gold in athletics alone.

Swapna is from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal and she was suffering from a severe toothache during the two-day heptathlon final and she still competed with a tape on her right cheek to lessen pain arising out of teeth infection.

What makes her gold-medal winning performance even more incredible is the fact that she has six toes on both her feet. Which is why getting the right shoe to wear during the competition became Swapna’s biggest worry ahead of the Asiad.

The extra width of her feet means every landing is painful and the shoes do not last long either, but she has so far resisted the suggestion to have her extra digits surgically removed.

“I have got this gold on the National Sports day, so it’s really special. I use normal shoes worn by people who have normal five toes. It really pains during training. It is very uncomfortable, whether I wear spikes or normal shoes,” Swapna said after her heptathlon gold.

“I used to eat a lot of chocolates, so I have a teeth problem. It started paining two days before the event. It was severe but I could not let years of hard work go waste. So I forgot the pain and gave my best,” Swapna said.

“First day, I thought I won’t be able to compete. It was unbearable. I thought what will happen to my hard work, I had to do it. I forgot the pain,” Swapna went on to add further.

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THE UNTOLD STORIES OF INDIA’S ATHLETES

Shot put champion Tejinder Pal Singh Toor had to leave his cancer-stricken father in a hospital back in Punjab to compete at the Asian Games in Jakarta.

Tejinder had to remain strong to pursue his passion. Finally, all his sacrifices were paid off as he won gold at the Asian Games. Not only did the 23-year-old from Moga won a gold, it came with a new Games record as he threw the iron ball to 20.75 m in his fifth attempt. It bettered a six-year-old mark, set by Om Prakash Karhana (20.69m). After winning the gold Tejinder said the medal means a lot to him and he just can’t wait to meet his family now.

A GOLD for #TejinderPalSinghToor!

With an #AsianGames record throw of 20.75m from our #TOPSAthlete we proudly bring to you our🥇winner in men’s shot put at #AsianGames2018!
You’ve brought us immense pride!
You’re great,Tejinder!#Athletics#SAI #IndiaAtAsianGames #KheloIndia pic.twitter.com/SnlqSO1KTj

— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 25, 2018

“This medal is my biggest achievement because a lot of sacrifices have been made. For the last two years, my father (Karam Singh) has been battling with cancer. My family though never let me get distracted. They allowed me to chase my dream. A lot of sacrifices have been made by my family and friends and all those have paid today.”

“My family never pressurized to attend my father in hospital and it was always my friends who took care of all the hospital formalities in my absence. I have not gone home much in this period since I was training in Dharamsala,” Tejinder, who trains with MS Dhillon, said.

“Now I will meet my dad but I will be there for only two days. I have to get ready for the next challenge. My coach M S Dhillon also needs to be credited for the hard work put in by him,” Tejinder said.

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Another winning his gold-medal, Manjit Singh was told that he was too old to improve on his past performances by his previous employer ONGC.

He was determined to bounce back and he approached army chief coach Amrish Kumar, who decided to take Manjit under his coaching. Manjit then trained with Kumar at the national camp at Ooty, while his father, who is a dairy farmer, bore the expenses for his out-of-job son. The success didn’t follow immediately as he failed to qualify for Asian Championships 2017 and 2018 Commonwealth Games 2018. Manjit then qualified for Asian Games after finishing second at Inter-State Athletics Championships in Guwahati.

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Indian swimmer Sajan Prakash competed at the Asian Games and his family was stuck in the floods which hot Kerela. Sajan went into the event unaware of where his maternal family, which hails from Idukki district.

The state of Kerala has been reeling under unprecedented flood. Sajan, however, was made aware of the situation only on Saturday as his mother chose to keep the news from him. In an interview given to a leading daily, after reaching the finals of 200m butterfly event, Sajan said he has no idea where his family is.

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Muhammed Anas Yahiya won the silver medal in the mixed 4x400m relay. He hails from Nilamel town near the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, which has been relatively better off. Even as Yahiay’s family was in a safe zone, his relatives and friends were still affected by the terrible floods.

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Dutee, who clinched her second silver medal at the Asiad after finishing second in the women’s 200m final on Wednesday, had to depend on the controversial ‘gender’ rule to be revised before competing at the Games here.

The 22-year-old Dutee clinched a silver each in the women’s 100m and 200m in her first Asian Games here as she was not allowed to participate in the 2014 edition while serving a ban under the hyperandrogenism policy of the IAAF (international athletics federation). She filed an appealed against this policy before the Court of Arbitration for Sports and won it.

“I have faced a lot since 2014. No one has gone through such a bad phase. I am glad that I could win two medals for the country. As of now there is no issue but there is no guarantee (of any ban),” Dutee told the reporters.

On Day 11 of the Games, Dutee crossed the finishing line of the 200m final in 23.20 seconds, behind Bahrain’s Edidiong Odiong who won gold in 22.96. The bronze went to China’s Wei Yongli (23.27).

“It feels great to win two silver and that too with my personal best time in the semifinals. I was little tight today because I had given my all in the semifinal. I could not give my best (in the final race) but I have trained hard,” Dutee said.

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Arent there stories an inspiration for you? They tell us about their determination, hard work , will power and courage to overcome all odds and win. Their power to believe in themselves and efforts have made India’s campaign at the 2018 Asian Games memorable.

These are stories of human endurance and bravery. These are stories that teach you how to go far, how to push hard and try till you succeed.

Published by Minal Gupta on 30 Aug 2018

#BachceFitTohDeshFit, Rahyl Deskhmukh’s New Fitness Challenge As He Passes It On To Other Star Kids

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Initially, the challenge of #HumFitTohIndiaFit was started by the sports minister Raghvendra Rathore. This was carried on by others as they posted a video of them doing a workout and challenging others alongside.

The entire #HumFitTohIndiaFit campaign was ignited by the Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore who posted a video of himself on social media, doing push-ups in his office. He urged his followers on Twitter to post pictures and videos of them engaged in activities to keep themselves fit. Through the video, he also put out a #FitnessChallenge to Hrithik Roshan, Virat Kohli and Saina Nehwal. And, in true Indian political tradition, Rathore thanked Prime Minister Modi for inspiring him to stay fit.

This time around it’s the kids who have taken up this challenge and have challenged it by tagging other kids too.

Genelia took to her Twitter and shared this video. Have a look:

Rahyl accepts his Baba’s #FitnessChallenge … He further challenges the Bachcha Gang….. #BachceFitTohDeshFit

Here is the video:

Rahyl accepts his Baba’s #FitnessChallenge … He further challenges the Bachcha Gang….. #BachceFitTohDeshFit pic.twitter.com/5zfA0AUxRK

— Genelia Deshmukh (@geneliad) August 29, 2018

The IPL final at Wankhede stadium last Sunday may itself have lacked fizz and nail-biting excitement, despite Shane Watson’s gritty century, but the highlight on television was surely a carefully crafted 120-seconds long #HumFitTohIndiaFit commercial with a voice-over by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi interspersed with footage of him as well as famous celebrities — politicians, sportspersons and Bollywood stars — promoting a fitter, healthier India. The commercial which ran at least 10 times during the match must have been a last minute super bonanza for the broadcaster, Star TV, bringing in at least Rs 25 crore of unexpected revenues.

Rahyl has challenged Lakshya who is Tusshar Kapoor’s son, Taimur Ali Khan who is Kareena and Saif’s beloved kid, Ahil who is Ayush and Arpita Sharma’s son, Roohi and Yash who are Karan Johar’s children.

So, are you kids also ready to take up the fitness challenge?

Let us know in the comment section below as to what would you do plan to do.

Published by Minal Gupta on 29 Aug 2018

Apple buys Denver startup building waveguide lenses for AR glasses

Apple has acquired Akonia Holographics, a Denver-based startup that manufactures augmented reality waveguide lenses. The acquisition was confirmed by Apple to Reuters who first reported the news.

An Apple spokesperson gave TechCrunch the company’s standard statement, “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans.”

This acquisition offers the clearest confirmation yet from Apple that it is investing resources into technologies that support the development of a lightweight augmented reality headset. There have been a number of reports over the years that Apple is planning to release consumer AR glasses within the next few years.

In late 2017, we reported that Apple had acquired Vrvana, a mixed-reality headset company with a device that offered users pass-through augmented reality experiences on a conventional opaque display. This latest acquisition seems to offer a much clearer guide to where Apple’s consumer ambitions may take it for a head-worn augmented reality device.

Waveguide displays have become the de facto optic technology for augmented reality headsets. They come in a few different flavors but all of them share the quality of an image being beamed in from the side of a piece of glass and bouncing off an etched glass lens towards a user’s eyes.

A reflective waveguide display built by Lumus.

They’re popular because they allow for thin, largely transparent designs though they also often have issues with color reproduction and the displays can only become so large before the images grow distorted. Akonia’s marketing materials claim for their “HoloMirror” solution says it can “display vibrant, full-color, wide field-of-view images.”

Waveguide lenses are currently used in AR headsets developed by Magic Leap and Microsoft.

While many of Apple’s largest technology competitors have already experimented with AR headsets, Apple has directed the majority of its early consumer-facing efforts to phone-based AR technologies that track the geometry of spaces and can “project” digital objects onto surfaces.

Apple ARKit

The most unclear question regarding Apple’s rumored work on its AR glasses is whether the company is looking to ship a higher-powered device akin to Magic Leap that would track a user’s environment and be built upon Apple’s interactive ARKit tech, or whether it’s first release will be more conservative and approach AR glasses as more of a head-worn Apple Watch that presents a user’s notifications and enables light interactions. Moving forward with waveguide displays would certainly leave both options open for the company, though given the small window that even today’s widest field-of-view waveguides have, I expect that Apple may opt for the latter pending a big tech breakthrough or a heavily delated release.

Indian users soon get to talk to Google Home in Hindi

Pravir Gupta, director of software engineering and who has a key role in Google’s efforts to support local Indian languages in its services, told a leading daily that Hindi support for Home speakers was high on Google’s priority and that this support would be rolled out soon.

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“I can’t specifically tell you a date because we want to get it right but it is something that is in the works and we hope to bring Hindi support for Google Home and Home Mini soon,” he said.

Pravir, who is based in Google’s Mountain View office, is in Delhi for the Google For India event. At the event on Tuesday, he also announced a number of other measures related to Google’s efforts to make its services more accessible to first-time internet users. There were two specific announcements. One, Google Feed — you may know it more popularly as Google Now — that shows news stories and important updates is going to be bilingual in India. It will show news stories in both Hindi and English unless users switch off one language option.

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“This is because in India, people are bilingual so we believe it will be more useful for them,” says Pravir.

The second big announcement was related to Google Assistant on phones. The Assistant got support for Hindi commands on phones — but not on Home speakers — earlier. Now, Google is adding support for Marathi to it.

“Marathi is one of 8 more Indian languages that we hope to support on Google Assistant soon. The other languages are going to include Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati and Malayalam,” says Pravir.

According to Google, in India almost 28 per cent Google searches are done using voice commands, and when it comes to voice, support for local languages is important. Pravir says once Hindi support has been added to the Home speakers, users will be able to say “Gana bajao” or “Aaaj kya khabar hai” and get the appropriate response from the smart virtual assistant in the device.

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While it is impressive, it is still based on direct commands. The conversations with virtual assistants, whether in Hindi or in English, are yet to feel entirely natural. This is also something that is probably not going to change soon. Pravir says that making conversations with virtual assistants natural is “always a moving problem.”

“We have made good progress in the last five years. For example, we have rolled out continued conversation feature to the Google Assistant, and users don’t need to say Okay Google again and again on smart speakers. But completely natural conversations, like the way humans talk, are still a few years away,” he says.

Though, Google Duplex — the AI that can talk almost like humans and which was demoed at Google I/O — is expected to shake things up. “The duplex should launch soon,” says Pravir. “If we are demoing something at I/O, it means the product is quite ready.” Though for now Duplex will only support English, he adds, even if internally the company is experimenting with more languages, including Hindi, for it.