Heena Sharma Blog

  India saw72,330 new coronavirus infections being reported in a span of 24 hours, the highest single day rise so far this year, taking the COVID-19tally of cases to1,22,21,665,according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The single-day rise in cassis the highest recorded since October 11, 2020, while the death toll increased to 1,62,927 with459daily new fatalities, the highest in around 116 days, the data updated at 8 am showed. Registering a steady increase for the 22nd day in row, the active cases have increased to5,84,055comprising 4.78per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 93.89 per cent, the data stated. As many as74,383new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours on October 11. The active caseload was at its lowest at1, 35,926 on February 12 comprising 1.25 per cent of the total infections. Read More

  In the continuing spike in Covid-19 cases , Telangana reported 887 new cases during the last 24 hours, health officials said on Thursday. This is the highest single-day jump in cases this year. The state had reported 684 cases the previous day. Greater Hyderabad, which was the worst hit in the earlier phase last year, is again witnessing the surge. The state's capital's daily count crossed 200. Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy districts bordering Hyderabad reported 79 and 76 cases respectively. Other districts also saw spike in cases during the last 24 hours that ended 8 p.m. Wednesday. Nirmal reported 78 new cases while 56 new infections were detected in Jagtiyal. Nizamabad saw 45 new cases followed by Sangareddy (36), Kamareddy (27), Karimnagar (23), Warangal Urban (23), Mahaboobnagar (22), Siddipet (21) and Nalgonda (21). Read More

  The low-end version of the battle royal game PUBG called Lite is officially closing down on April 29. PUBG Lite was introduced in 2019 for entry-level mobile devices. The Indian government banned both PUBG Mobile and PUBG Mobile Lite on September 2 last year. The news of PUBG Lite's shut down was confirmed by the developers Krafton via a message on its official website. "We are deeply grateful for the passion and support from the astounding number of PUBG Lite fans that have been with us. During the strenuous times of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hope that PUBG Lite was able to provide our fans a fun way to stay safe," the developer said. Read More

  Apple has announced to fix battery drain and other performance issues with iPhone 11 series devices via an upcoming iOS update . According to an Apple support document, the recalibration process will happen when you update an iPhone 11, 11 Pro, or 11 Pro Max to the upcoming iOS 14.5 update. "Recalibration for maximum capacity and peak performance capability will happen over time with regular charge cycles. If the process is successful, the recalibration message will be removed and your maximum capacity percentage will be updated," the iPhone maker said on its support page. The process is currently being tested in the latest release of the developer beta. If you see this message on your iPhone 11, it means the battery health reporting system on your iPhone is recalibrating. "Your battery health reporting system is recalibrating Maximum Capacity and Peak Performance Capability. This process may take a few weeks," the message will read. Read More

  Google's Maps app will start directing drivers along routes estimated to generate the lowest carbon emissions based on traffic, slopes and other factors, the company announced on Tuesday. Google, an Alphabet Inc unit, said the feature would launch later this year in the United States and eventually reach other countries as part of its commitment to help combat climate change through its services. Unless users opt out, the default route will be the "eco-friendly" one if comparable options take about the same time, Google said. When alternatives are significantly faster, Google will offer choices and let users compare estimated emissions. "What we are seeing is for around half of routes, we are able to find an option eco-friendlier with minimal or no time-cost tradeoff," Russell Dicker, a director of product at Google, told reporters on Monday. Read More

  The South Korean giant on Wednesday announced the launch of Samsung TV Plus , a service which offers consumers ad-supported select live channels and on-demand videos, with no additional device such as a set top box, in the India market. To access the service, the consumers will need is a Samsung Smart TV (2017 model onwards) and an internet connection, the company said in a statement. TV Plus will also be available on most Samsung Galaxy smartphones and tablet devices with O OS (operating system) or higher software version. Services for Galaxy smartphones are expected in April. The TV Plus app can be downloaded from both, Samsung Galaxy Store and Google Play Store. "Consumers now immensely value great media content, reason why we chose to introduce Samsung TV Plus in India. Over the next few months, we expect to scale TV Plus to add more channels and content," said Reshma Prasad Virmani, Director, Services, Samsung India. Read More  

  Samsung on Wednesday launched in India the 5G variant of its Galaxy S20 FE (Fan Edition) smartphone, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip at an introductory price of Rs 47,999. "Galaxy S20 FE 5G brings all flagship innovations at an accessible price point. The launch is a testimony of our consistent efforts to deliver the best to our millennial consumers enabling them to do what they love," said Aditya Babbar, Senior Director and Head, Mobile Marketing, Samsung India. The phone features a 6.5-inch fullHD+ Infinity-O display of 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touch response rate. The Galaxy S20 FE sports a triple camera set-up on the back including a 12MP primary sensor, a 12MP ultra-wide sensor and an 8MP telephoto lens. The rear cameras support up to 30x digital zoom through its telephoto lens. The smartphone features large image sensors including AI multi-frame processing. Read More

  Petrol and diesel prices on Tuesday were cut for the third time within a week on the back of softening international oil prices . Petrol price was cut by 22 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise per litre, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. Petrol now costs Rs 90.56 per litre in Delhi and a litre of diesel comes for Rs 80.87. Rates have been reduced across the country and vary from state to state depending on the local incidence of taxation (VAT). In Mumbai, the petrol price was cut to Rs 96.98 a litre on Tuesday from Rs 97.19, while diesel rates were reduced to Rs 87.96 from Rs 88.20, the price notification showed. Read More

  India reported 56, 211 fresh COVID-19 cases and 271 related deaths in the last 24 hours, the union health ministry informed on Tuesday morning. With this, the total number of cases and the death toll in the country has surged to 1,20,95,855 and 1,62,114 respectively. The country also saw 37,028 recoveries in the last 24 hours, pushing the total number of recoveries to 1,13,93,021. At present, 5,40,720 cases are active in the country. On Monday, more than 68,000 cases were reported in the country, the highest single-day spike since October last year. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), 7,85,865 samples were tested on March 29 which pushed the total number of samples tested up to March 29 to 24,26,50,025. In what is billed as the largest vaccination drive in the world, as many as 6,11,13,354 vaccine doses have been administered till 8 am on March 30. Read More

  Aviation regulator DGCA on Tuesday told airports to consider imposing spot fines, with the help of police authorities, on passengers who are not wearing masks properly and maintaining social distance as per the COVID-19 rules . On March 13, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had asked airlines to de-board passengers who do not wear masks "properly" despite repeated warnings, and take action against them as per rules. In a circular on Tuesday, the regulator said, "During the surveillance of some airports, it has come to notice that compliance (of COVID-19 protocols) is not satisfactory." "All airport operators, therefore, are requested to ensure that the instructions on COVID-19 protocol from the standpoint of wearing face mask properly, covering nose and mouth, as well as maintaining social distance norms within the airport premises are followed scrupulously," it said. Accordingly, all airport operators can increase surveillance i...

  The upward trend in COVID-19 cases continued in Telangana with 463 new infections being reported, pushing the total positives to 3.07 lakh, while the toll rose to 1,694 with four more fatalities. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) saw the most number of cases with 145, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri and Ranariddh districts with 46 and 28 cases respectively, a state government bulletin said on Tuesday providing details as of 8 PM on March 29. The bulletin said 364 patients recovered from the infection on March 29. The cumulative recovered cases stood at 3,00,833, while 4,678 were under treatment. It said 42,461 samples were tested on March 29. Cumulatively, the number of samples tested was 1 crore. The samples tested per million populations was 2,71,238, it said. Read More

  A presentation suggesting the setting up of sewage and air surveillance systems in Parliament to detect the prevalence of COVID-19 was made before Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday. Elaborating on the relevance of sewage surveillance in his presentation, Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Shekhar C Mande said, "COVID-19 patients shed SAR-CoV-2 in stools. Apart from symptomatic individuals, asymptomatic people also shed the virus in their stools." Sewage surveillance provides a qualitative as well as a quantitative estimate of the number of people infected in a population and could be used to understand the progression of COVID-19 even when mass scale tests for individuals are not possible, an official statement said quoting the CSIR chief. It is a measure to comprehensively monitor the prevalence of the disease in communities in real time, Mande said. Read More

  Sony has announced to shut down its PlayStation Store for the PS3 on July 2 and for hand-held video game console Vita on August 27. It means that the users will not be able to buy digital copies of games for the PS3 and Vita. "We are closing PlayStation Store on PlayStation3 consoles on 2nd July 2021 and on PlayStation Vita devices on 27th August 2021. Additionally, the remaining purchase functionality for PSP (PlayStation®Portable) will also retire on 2nd July 2021," the company said in an update. Sony launched PS3 in November 2006, and more than 80 million units of the console have been sold to date. Vita has sold over 10 million units. The company said that the users will still be able to re-download and play previously purchased game titles. Read More

  Indore, the worst-hit district in Madhya Pradesh in terms of COVID-19 outbreak , has reported 612 new infection cases, its highest single-day spike since the pandemic began, a health official said on Friday. These new cases were reported on Thursday, surpassing its previous high of 595 cases it had recorded on December 1 last year, he said. Taking serious cognisance of the spurt in cases, the district crisis management committee has decided to increase the night curfew timing by one hour. So the curfew will now begin at 9 pm instead of 10 pm, Indore Collector Manish Singh said. The administration has also decided to shut all religious places in the city, he said. Moreover, nobody will be allowed to step out of their houses to celebrate Holi on Monday, the collector added. Read More

  ' Spider-Man: Miles Morales ' is a standalone sequel to Insomniac Games' highly successful 'Marvel's Spider-Man' -- the PlayStation-exclusive released in 2018 that is still regarded as one of the best superhero games ever made. The latest spinoff retains much of what was good from the original game, but it also brings some definitive changes that seem a natural extension of the titular character, who is just learning the ropes of being a web-slinging vigilante. Released alongside the PS5, it also leverages the features of the new high-powered console. STORYLINE Spider-Man: Miles Morales takes place in New York, nearly a year after the original PS4 game, in which time our protagonist has moved back to Harlem, with his mother Rio Morales. The original Spiderman, Peter Parker, and Miles are working alongside, but, shortly into the game, Parker goes on a vacation with MJ to Europe, leaving Miles as New York's sole Spider-Man. He is soon involved in a co...

  Chinese smartphone maker Vivo on Thursday launched its flagship Vivo X60 series of smartphones, co-engineered with optics and opto-electronics major Zeiss. The X60 series consists of the X60, X60 Pro and X60 Pro+ and runs on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 series 5G Mobile Platform. A successor to the Vivo X50 Pro, the X60 Pro has brought several upgrades to the cameras, processor, and Vivo's gimbal stabilisation. We used the X60 Pro for about two weeks; here are our initial impressions: Design and display Vivo X60 Pro The X60 Pro has a 6.56-inch AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and full HD+ resolution. The display and the rear panel have Gorilla glass 6 protection. The rear panel has AG glass with a frosted finish and anti-fingerprint coating to prevent fingerprints and smudges. The camera module on the back has a dual-step design, similar to what the Vivo X50 Pro also had. The first layer has a flash while the second has all three cameras. Read More

  Coronavirus (Covid-19) infections continued to scale new highs in the country and were just shy of 60,000 on Thursday, with fatalities rising as well and the country registering 257 deaths. The death rate in the country, however, is nowhere near the peak during the first wave of infections. While India is recording 9 deaths per 1,000 cases at present, last year in September, when the country came close to recording 100,000 cases, this number stood at 14. However, the number of daily deaths have increased 2.2 times in just a month. The one-week average of deaths for the week ending March 25 was 226; on February 25, the weekly average of deaths was 102. Bihar, on Thursday, recorded 40 deaths per 1,000 cases—an increase of five times over the last month when the state recorded 8 deaths for every 1,000 cases. While this does not necessarily indicate that more people are dying in Bihar, it does hint at a faulty testing strategy, where the state finds fewer infections. Read More...

  The PlayStation 5 isn't simply the latest iteration of the Japanese company Sony's highly successful series of gaming consoles, but a genuine leap in terms of possibilities in gaming. There are several changes, inside and out, that set up PS5 for a markedly different gaming experience from its predecessors. Let's dive into the details. The PlayStation 5 comes in two variants: with Ultra-HD Blu-Ray Disc, and the Digital Edition -- which is also Rs 10,000 cheaper. Our review unit came with the disc drive. DualSense Wireless Controller The most highlighted (and rightly so!) aspect of the PS5 is the DualSense Wireless Controller. With its haptic feedback and trigger resistance, DualSense is more than just an accessory to the PS5, and in fact becomes an integral part of the immersive and realistic gaming experience that lets you 'feel' the game. Read More

  Nepal on Thursday enforced new travel rules removing the quarantine requirements for foreign tourists who have got both doses of Covid-19 vaccine , in an attempt to give a boost to pandemic-depressed travel and tourism business in the country. According to new travel protocols, posted on the website of the Tourism Ministry on Thursday evening, vaccinated tourists entering the Himalayan Nation have to submit a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test report form within 72 hours prior to departure from the country of origin along with documents proving administration of both doses of anti-coronavirus vaccines has also been made mandatory for those flying by air. After they arrive in Nepal, they have to conduct another PCR test at their own cost and stay at the isolation in the hotel until the report is out. "If the report is positive, they should, as per the rules, remain for further isolation in the hotel at their own costs," says the new travel protocols that wer...

  The overall number of global Covid-19 cases has surpassed 124.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 2.74 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University. In its latest update on Thursday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 124,688,146 and 2,742,974, respectively. The US is the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 30,009,386 and 545,237, respectively, according to the CSSE. Brazil follows in the second place with 12,220,011 cases and 300,685 fatalities. Read More

  Spain's top health official has warned the country is at risk of another spike in coronavirus infections that has already struck many parts of Europe. We are facing a decisive moment, Health Minister Carolina Darias said after meeting with Spain's regional health chiefs on Wednesday. We must invert this tendency. We have to intensify our efforts. Daria’s says the spread of the more contagious variants is pushing up infections across Spain. A nightly curfew and other restrictions on movement had put a cap on infections until two weeks ago, when the figures started to increase. Darias made her appeal alongside Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, who said police will be extra vigilant to enforce bans on travel between regions and unauthorized social gatherings for next week's Easter holidays. Our goal is to save lives, says Grande-Marlaska. Also Wednesday, thousands of Spaniards lined up to get AstraZeneca shots again, the latest country to restart the vacci...

  India saw53,476 new coronavirus infections in a day, the highest single day rise so far this year, taking the nationwide COVID-19 tally to1,17,87,534, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday. The active caseload registered an increase for the 15th day in row and was recorded at3,95,192 comprising 3.35per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 95.28 per cent, the data stated. The daily rise in infections was the highest recorded in 153 days. The death toll increased to1,60,692 with 251 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed. As many as54,366 new infections were recorded in a span of 24 hours on October 23. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to1,12,31,650, while the case fatality rate has further dropped to 1.36 per cent, the data stated. Read More

  Swiggy , the on-demand delivery platform on Wednesday announced that it will vaccinate over 2,00,000 delivery partners against COVID-19 . This comes close on the heels of the Central government's announcement on the next phase of the nationwide vaccination commencing April 1, 2021, for individuals aged 45 and above, the company said in a statement. "In the first tranche of the programme, 5,500 of Swiggy's delivery partners, aged 45 and above will be eligible to opt-in for the vaccination. By the end of the program, Swiggy hopes to encourage 2,00,000 plus delivery partners with the choice to get vaccinated as they continue to provide an essential service. Swiggy is also requesting authorities for the prioritisation of delivery partners in the vaccine drive," the statement said. Read More