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The Super Mario Bros. Movie has officially joined the one billion-dollar club, in less than a month since its release. As of this past weekend, the animated film collected $1.02 billion (about Rs. 8,357 crore) at the global box office, becoming the first movie of 2023 to pass the milestone. Released on April 7 — April 5 in select regions — Illumination's latest has collected $532.5 million (about Rs. 4,356 crore) from markets outside the US, thanks to general word-of-mouth and the PG rating, appealing to both young and old moviegoers. The film earned $490 million (about Rs. 4,008 crore) within the US and Canada, refusing to slow down throughout the month of April. The Nintendo-produced film marks Illumination's third animated movie to set the record, after Despicable Me 3 ($1.034 billion/ Rs. 8,457 crore) and Minions ($1.159 billion/ Rs. 9,480 crore). It has also become the highest-grossing video game movie, besting 2016's Warcraft. It is also worth mentioning that The...

The news-rating group NewsGuard has found dozens of news websites generated by AI chatbots proliferating online, according to a report published Monday, raising questions about how the technology may supercharge established fraud techniques. The 49 websites, which were independently reviewed by Bloomberg, run the gamut. Some are dressed up as breaking news sites with generic-sounding names like News Live 79 and Daily Business Post, while others share lifestyle tips, celebrity news or publish sponsored content. But none disclose they're populated using AI chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and potentially Alphabet's Google Bard , which can generate detailed text based on simple user prompts. Many of the websites began publishing this year as the AI tools began to be widely used by the public. In several instances, NewsGuard documented how the chatbots generated falsehoods for published pieces. In April alone, a website called CelebritiesDeaths.com published an article ti...

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 design renders have leaked online, giving smartphone enthusiasts an idea of what to expect from the successor to the Galaxy Z Flip 4, which debuted last year. While the South Korean conglomerate is yet to announce details of the purported Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 this year, the leaked images hint at a much larger external display than its predecessor, similar to Motorola's upcoming foldable phone lineup and the Oppo Find N2 Flip that debuted globally earlier this year. Tipster Steve Hemmerstoffer (Twitter: OnLeaks) in collaboration with MediaPeanut, has leaked design renders of the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5. These images show the handset sporting a large external screen. It will be 3.4-inch display as per the leak, that is much larger than the 1.9-inch panel on last year's model. The display is also slightly larger than the Oppo Find N2 Flip , which has a 3.2-inch outer screen. The external display could allow users to interact with the phone witho...

The European Union is likely to reach a political agreement this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence ( AI ) law, the bloc's tech regulation chief Margrethe Vestager said on Sunday. This follows a preliminary deal reached on Thursday by members of the European Parliament to push through the draft of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act to a vote by a committee of lawmakers on May 11. Parliament will then thrash out the bill's final details with EU member states and the European Commission before it becomes law. At a press conference after a Group of Seven digital ministers' meeting in Takasaki, Japan, Vestager said the EU AI Act was "pro-innovation" since it seeks to mitigate the risks of societal damage from emerging technologies. Regulators around the world have been trying to find a balance where governments could develop "guardrails" on emerging artificial intelligence technology without stifling...

Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for his Twitter platform to allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with a single click. "This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article," the billionaire entrepreneur said on Twitter, adding, "Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public." He said the plan would begin next month, but provided no details on exact pricing or what cut Twitter would take. The announcement came as Musk has been struggling, amid frequent controversy, to make Twitter profitable. Rolling out next month, this platform will allow media publishers to charge users on a per article basis with one click. This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article.… — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 29, 2023 Media orga...

Samsung recently introduced skin temperature-based sensor for women's menstrual health tracker on the Galaxy Watch 5 series. The tech giant is now reportedly working on adding more health-tracking features based on skin temperature. However, there are no further details available about the update yet. Meanwhile, the menstrual cycle tracking feature is currently accessible across 32 countries including Korea, the US, and European regions. It uses an infrared temperature sensor to provide accurate data on menstrual cycles. A Samsung official, who is in charge of Samsung Health Service, has announced via the  Samsung community forum for Korea that the company will expand the usage of the skin temperature sensor to more health-tracking features. The new features using temperature sensors will be available in a future software update for the device, as per the announcement. However, he hasn't shared further details regarding the health tracking features that will be added or th...

Google Pixel Fold is expected to launch soon in the market. It is being speculated that the company may unveil the Pixel Fold at the upcoming Google I/O, scheduled for May 2023. However, Google is yet to confirm any detail officially. However, despite no official announcement, there has been a number of rumours about the purported smartphone. A recent leak by a popular tipster, displaying the design renders of the Pixel Fold, has provided new insights into the smartphone's cover design. The images shared by tipster Evan Blass (Twitter @evleaks) on a personal Twitter account, via 9to5Google, appear to be taken from a press render that the company could use for marketing. The leaked image shows the Pixel Fold's outer display with a centrally aligned punch hole, the Pixel Launcher home screen with themed icons, Google's stock apps, and a blurred At a Glance widget. Additionally, the smartphone appears to have a wider aspect ratio and a thinner hinge. In the shared images, ...

Realme 11 series smartphones, comprising the vanilla Realme 11, Realme 11 Pro, and Realme 11 Pro+, are confirmed to launch on May 10 in China. While the smartphones' debut is still more than a week away, the company has revealed the display specifications of the Realme 11 Pro+ via a Weibo post. Additionally, the smartphone has also appeared on Geekbench listing suggesting a few more details including the processor and software support. The listing hinted that the handset could run on Android 13 OS. It could be powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1080 SoC. Realme has teased  the design and display specifications of the upcoming Realme 11 Pro+ ahead of its launch in China. The smartphone, which is set to make its debut on May 10, will sport a 6.7-inch AMOLED display with a centrally positioned hole-punch cutout. It also gets curved edges with a 61-degree curvature. The display of the smartphone features a 120Hz refresh rate. The official poster also revealed that the Realme 11 Pro+ wil...

As recently as February, generative AI did not feature prominently in EU lawmakers' plans for regulating generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as ChatGPT . The bloc's 108-page proposal for the AI Act, published two years earlier, included only one mention of the word "chatbot." References to AI-generated content largely referred to deepfakes: images or audio designed to impersonate human beings. By mid-April, however, members of European Parliament (MEPs) were racing to update those rules to catch up with an explosion of interest in generative AI, which has provoked awe and anxiety since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT six months ago. That scramble culminated on Thursday with a new draft of the legislation which identified copyright protection as a core piece of the effort to keep AI in check. Interviews with four lawmakers and two other sources close to discussions reveal for the first time how over just 11 days this small group of politicians hamme...

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said on Friday that the social media platform will take a 10 percent cut on content subscriptions after the first year, as the company looks to monetize content on the website in a bid to diversify its revenue sources. Earlier this month, billionaire owner Musk said users of the social media platform will be able to offer their followers subscriptions to content, including long-form text and hours-long video. He had also said that the company will not take a cut for the first 12 months on content subscriptions. Musk has been bringing in changes at Twitter to boost revenue after the platform saw advertising income drop last year in the run up to his $44 billion (nearly Rs. 3,59,700 crore) acquisition that closed in October. He added that the company's cut from subscriptions on iOS and Android platforms will drop to 15 percent in the second year from 30 percent in the first. A few days back, Musk also has made an important announcement regard...

Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Wednesday blocked Microsoft's $69 billion (nearly Rs. 5,64,100 crore) acquisition of Call of Duty  maker Activision Blizzard over concerns it would hinder cloud gaming . The ruling was a shock after the regulator had already resolved its concerns about the consoles market, a sector dominated by Sony 's PlayStation and Microsoft 's Xbox , which dwarfs cloud gaming. Is the deal dead? Not necessarily. Microsoft said it remained fully committed and would appeal. The regulator's decision reflected a flawed understanding of the market, it said. How does the appeal process work? Microsoft can appeal to Britain's Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), an independent judicial body, which will only examine the CMA's decision-making process, not the merits of the merger. Microsoft will not be able to offer new remedies at this stage, such as offering to keep Activision content off its Xbox Game Pass , a subscrip...

Taiwan's top chip design company MediaTek is focusing more resources on chips for cars and AI computing as its smartphone clients face a supply glut and inflation and macroeconomic uncertainty dent demand for consumer electronics. "We are definitely moving our resources very, very rapidly towards the automotive and computing areas, because those areas will provide our growth in the next three to five years," MediaTek Chief Executive Rick Tsai told an earnings call. "In this very demanding environment, we are not reducing people. We're not increasing either. The critical thing is to allocate those precious resources," he said. Tsai said everyone, including MediaTek, was rushing to claim that they were able to support generative artificial intelligence, such as ChatGPT . "We're confident that we will be able to provide the capability to our customers," Tsai said. MediaTek is investing heavily in AI because the new areas the company is foc...

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes finally has a trailer. As part of its CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas, Lionsgate dropped the first footage for The Hunger Games prequel movie, which charts the younger days of Coriolanus Snow ( Tom Blyth ), long before he becomes the antagonist — the Capitol president — in the original Jennifer Lawrence-led trilogy. Francis Lawrence returns to direct this standalone arc, from a script by Michael Arndt (Little Miss Sunshine) and Michael Lesslie ( Assassin's Creed ). Of course, the upcoming film is adapted directly from Suzanne Collins' 2020 novel. The trailer for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes takes us back 64 years before the events of The Hunger Games, during the 10th edition of the annual Hunger Games, as head gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul ( Viola Davis ), introduces the creator of the games. “I have summoned you all here for the 10th Annual Reaping Ceremony, in which we choose two children from e...

Intel on Thursday posted a massive fall in sales for the first quarter of 2023 because of a steep drop in the demand for semiconductors -- or chips -- that power personal computers and smartphones. Intel's revenue fell 36 percent to $11.7 billion (roughly Rs. 95,629 crore) in the three-month period and the semiconductor giant posted a loss of $2.8 billion (roughly Rs. 22,885 crore), its biggest ever for a quarter. Rising prices, a global chip glut and poor demand for hardware also punished Intel's rival Samsung , which earlier on Thursday reported its worst quarterly profits in 14 years. The loss and sales collapse was slightly less catastrophic than expectations, but the stock still lost about two percent in post-session trading. Intel is one of the world's leading semiconductor makers that makes a wide range of products, including the latest generation chips along with Taiwan's TSMC and South Korea's Samsung. It was also affected by falling demand for chips...

Google Pixel 7a is expected to make its official debut at Google I/O 2023 alongside the Pixel Fold. Ahead of the expected launch, multiple leaks have exposed almost every detail about the upcoming smartphone. Now, a well know tipster has shared an alleged image of Pixel 7a in a new colour option. The new render leak shows off the handset in a new shade. Past leaks have suggested blue, grey, and white colour options for the Pixel 7a. It is expected to be powered by a Tensor G2 chipset. Known tipster Evan Blass (@evleaks) posted the alleged render of Google Pixel 7a on Twitter. The leaked render shows the handset in an orange shade. This colour option looks quite identical to the coral colour we've seen in past Google handsets such as the Pixel 6 and Pixel 4 . Previous leaks have also given us a look at the blue, grey, and white colourways. The Google Pixel 7a is seen with dual rear cameras similar to the outgoing Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro models. A Google logo is also placed ...

Online retail titan Amazon on Thursday reported that its cloud and ads units helped it beat earnings expectations in the first quarter of this year despite shoppers and businesses being more careful about spending. "For the first time in several quarters, Amazon may finally have a bit of wind at its back," said Insider Intelligence principal analyst Andrew Lipsman. Amazon shares spiked more than 10 percent shortly after release of the earnings figures, only to sink slightly below the day's closing price as it warned that customers were remaining watchful of their budgets. Amazon reported a profit of $3.2 billion (roughly Rs. 26,162 crore) on revenue that climbed 9 percent to $127.4 billion (roughly Rs. 10,41,616 crore) in the quarter. The net income was about a billion dollars more than analysts had forecast. "There's a lot to like about how our teams are delivering for customers, particularly amidst an uncertain economy," said Amazon chief executive s...

A delivery executive of an e-commerce firm allegedly stole 10 iPhones by replacing them with dummy phones on the way to deliver them to the customer here, police said on Thursday. Station in-charge of Matrix Finance Solution, which delivers Amazon 's parcel, Ravi in his complaint alleged that on March 27 delivery executive Lalit was handed over a customer's parcel, which contained 10 iPhones and an AirPods , at his address, they said. However, instead of delivering the parcel, Lalit replaced the iPhones with replicas and sent his brother Manoj to deposit them back to the company claiming that the customer could not be contacted, Ravi said in his complaint. Suspecting some tampering with the packaging, the parcel was opened and the delivery company found the fake phones inside, police said. Meanwhile, upon not receiving his parcel, the customer also cancelled his order, they said. An FIR has been registered against Lalit under sections 420 (cheating), 408 (criminal breach ...

Microsoft's president Brad Smith said the UK regulator's decision to prevent its acquisition of Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard "had shaken confidence" in Britain as a destination for tech businesses. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which operates independently from government, blocked the deal on Wednesday, saying it could hit competition in the nascent cloud gaming market. Microsoft hit back on Thursday, saying it was "probably the darkest day in our four decades in Britain" and sent the wrong message to the global tech industry about the UK. "If the government of the United Kingdom wants to bring in investment, if it wants to create jobs (...) it needs to look hard at the role of the CMA, the regulatory structure in the United Kingdom, this transaction, and the message that the United Kingdom has just said to the world," he told BBC radio. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Smith's comments were...

SonyLIV and Applause Entertainment on Thursday unveiled their upcoming slate for 2023, including two new series as well as the return of popular shows such as Scam , Tanaav, Avrodh, and Undekhi. The two new shows are Kafas, a social drama directed by Sahil Sangha, and a suspense thriller 36 Days, a press release stated. Kafas features Sharman Joshi, Mona Singh, and Vivan Bhatena, while Vishal Furia-directed 36 Days stars Neha Sharma, Purab Kohli, Shruti Seth, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Amruta Khanvilkar, Sharib Hashmi, Shernaz Patel, Faisal Rashid, Chahat Vig, and Kenneth Desai in pivotal roles. The project line-up also includes the second instalments of Tanaav and Scam — Scam 2003: The Telgi Story — and season three of Undekhi and Avrodh. Directed by Hansal Mehta and Tushar Hiranandani, Scam 2003 will focus on the story of the infamous stamp paper scam by Abdul Karim Telgi. “It is with great pleasure that we announce our upcoming slate for 2023 at Applause Entertainment with SonyLIV. T...

Aadhaar holders have carried out nearly 2.31 billion authentication transactions in the month of March 2023, indicative of the growing usage of Aadhaar and the growth of the digital economy in the country. In a release, the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT said the March number is better than the February when 2.26 billion authentication transactions were carried out. A majority of the authentications transaction numbers were carried out by using biometric fingerprints during the month, followed by others. "Aadhaar e-KYC service continues to play a stellar role for banking and non-banking financial services by providing transparent and improved customer experience and helping in ease of doing business. More than 311.8 million eKYC transactions were carried out during March 2023, a jump of over 16.3 per cent against February," said the release. Another benefit of the adoption of e-KYC is it has also significantly reduced customer acquisition costs for financial institu...

Apple and its Android rivals saw sales slide in the first quarter in China, research firm Canalys reported on Thursday, as consumers continued to tighten their belts following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions. The iPhone maker was the top-selling brand over the first three months of the year, with 20 percent market share. But its overall shipments in China fell to 13.3 million units, a 3 percent decrease from the same period in 2022. Sales for all other top-selling brands also fell, with total smartphone shipments dropping 11 percent year-on-year to 67.2 million units, the lowest quarterly total since 2013. Despite being the best-selling brand in the quarter, Apple saw its total market share fall 3 percentage points year-on-year. Oppo and Vivo , Android brands that trail Apple as the second and third best-sellers, saw shipments fall 10 percent and 7 percent respectively. Honor and Xiaomi , which specialise in low-end models, saw shipments fall 35 percent and 20 percent resp...