Daily Bytes

08/04/2023

Rumors have suggested iOS 17 will introduce several nice-to-have features, and one may be a redesigned Control Center.
Apple updates iOS every year with new features, some big and others small, addressing bugs and improving performance. It was originally believed that iOS 17 may lean more toward more minor changes, but recent rumors point to more extensive updates.

According to a MacRumors forum member who previously shared an accurate leak about the iPhone 14 Pro's Dynamic Island, iOS 17 will refresh the Control Center. It's part of the system that offers quick access to controls for Now Playing media, Focus Modes, HomeKit, and system controls.

The leaker didn't provide specific details of the changes, but as Control Center turns ten this year, it's possible that Apple actually plans a major overhaul for the anniversary. The company introduced Control Center in iOS 7, and the feature has mostly stayed the same since iOS 11, when it was last overhauled.

Source: Apple Insider

11/03/2023

Bkash, a leading mobile financial service provider in Bangladesh, has recently launched a new payment speaker to simplify the digital payment process for merchants and customers. The Bkash payment speaker will provide instant voice confirmation of every payment, notifying merchants of the payment amount and confirmation without the need for them to check their mobile app.

Similar to Paytm's Payment Soundbox, the Bkash payment speaker leverages soundwave technology to enable quick and secure digital transactions without the need for an internet connection or physical payment terminal. When a customer makes a payment, the Bkash app generates a unique soundwave that is transmitted through the customer's phone speakers. The Bkash payment speaker then picks up the soundwave and instantly confirms the payment details to the merchant through a voice notification.

This new payment speaker will provide a more convenient and seamless experience for both merchants and customers. Merchants no longer need to manually check their mobile app to confirm payments, while customers will receive immediate confirmation of their transactions without having to wait for the merchant's response. The Bkash payment speaker is expected to make digital payments more accessible and user-friendly, particularly for those without access to smartphones or the internet. This new initiative by Bkash is a step forward in making digital payments more convenient and accessible for all.

But there is no official news or announcement about this device by bkash. This video was collected from a bkash official personnel linkedin profile

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/mozammel_bkash-paymentspeaker-activity-7028278019974733824-xLQ4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

07/03/2023

Police have filed a case against some 500-600 students of Dhaka College and Dhanmondi Ideal College for their alleged involvement in a clash at the Science Lab on Sunday (5 March).

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07/03/2023

At least 15 persons were killed and over 120 were injured in an explosion in a five-storied building at Old Dhaka's Alu Bazar area.

Dhaka Medical College Director Brigadier Nazmul said in a briefing that the bodies were brought to the hospital.

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13/01/2023

Azmeri Haque Badhan and Nasir Uddin Khan starrer 'Guti' is getting quite the praise for its courageous storytelling, led by director Shankha Dasgupta.
Badhan's gritty performance as a drug peddler in particular is getting a lot of praise. Now, Chorki has come up with a fun and witty promotion for the series, putting Nasir and Badhan in the iconic yellow coats of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman from "Breaking Bad".
The parody was titled "Getting Guti".
Hailed as one of the greatest series on television, the juxtaposition is due to the slight 'drug-dealing' similarities between both.
One will need a Chorki subscription to watch the series.

Source : The Daily Star

13/01/2023

NASA’s planet-hunting telescope, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), has discovered a second Earth-size planet within the habitable zone of a nearby star.

Named TOI 700 e, the planet is one of four known planets orbiting a cool star approximately 100 light-years away. The system was already known to host one planet, called TOI 700 d, in the habitable zone, but recent research that will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters reveals it is joined by another planet inside its orbit. The other two planets in the system, TOI 700 b and TOI 700 c, orbit closer to the star and, as such, are likely to have higher temperatures, putting them outside of the habitable zone.

The new planet “is nestled in there between planets c and d, so I’m very sorry they’re not in alphabetical order,” one of the researchers, Emily Gilbert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, joked in a briefing at the American Astronomical Society meeting on Tuesday, January 10th. Planets are given letters according to their discovery date rather than their position within a system, so there can be cases like this one when closer orbiting planets are discovered later than farther orbiting ones.

Source : The Verge

13/01/2023

Apple is working on Macs with touchscreens, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. While it’s uncertain whether the devices will actually come to market, Gurman says in a tweet that we could see a touchscreen MacBook Pro as early as 2025. The report also notes that the screens may use OLED technology, as opposed to the Mini LED displays that are currently in the 14- and 16-inch models.

The project seems to be in relatively early stages, with engineers being “actively engaged,” according to the report. Gurman says that there are no final plans for launching touchscreen Macs and that plans could always change — we’ve seen Apple scrap projects before, and the company has made prototype Macs with touchscreens that never saw the light of day, according to Craig Federighi.

Source : The Verge

11/01/2023

Apple could finally bring under-display Face ID to the iPhone 16 Pro. According to a report from the Korean outlet The Elec (via MacRumors), the technology used for Face ID will live directly under the screen, blending in with the rest of the display once it’s turned on and revealing only the cutout for the front-facing camera.

While rumors about the under-display tech first emerged last year, this never ended up panning out on the iPhone 14 Pro, and the iPhone 15 isn’t expected to come with it, either. The Elec’s reporting tracks with predictions from supply chain analyst Ross Young, who tweeted last year that he expects the iPhone 16 Pro to come with under-display Face ID.

Source: The Verge

11/01/2023

YouTube has announced that creators can start making ad revenue on Shorts starting February 1st, following a promise from September that the monetization option was on its way. The change is coming as part of a broader update to YouTube’s Partner Program, which will require everyone who’s currently part of it to sign new agreement terms, whether or not they’re looking to make money from Shorts.

Creators have been able to make some money from the format that rolled out in 2021 for a while via things like Super Chats and shopping integrations, as well as a creator fund that the company had set up, but that model wasn’t all that much better that TikTok’s monetization scheme. What TikTok doesn’t do, though, is directly share ad revenue with creators — something that YouTube has been doing for years for traditional videos and that it’s now bringing to Shorts.

More on: https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/9/23547059/youtube-shorts-ad-revenue-split-february-partner-program

11/01/2023

Apple will apparently start with a chip that replaces the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip it already uses from Broadcom, but down the line, it might make a chip that includes cellular functionality, too.
Read more : The Verge

14/12/2022

France set up a heavyweight World Cup final against Argentina after an early goal by Theo Hernandez and a late one from Randal Kolo Muani ended battling Morocco's dream run via an action-packed 2-0 semi-final victory on Wednesday.

Full back Hernandez stretched high after five minutes to hook in the first goal Morocco have conceded to an opposition player in the tournament after a scramble in the box, but the holders offered only occasional glimpses of their class.

Source : The Daily Star

14/12/2022

13/12/2022

An inspired Lionel Messi scored from the penalty spot and Julian Alvarez struck twice as Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 on Tuesday to reach their second World Cup final in eight years.

The two-times world champions, backed by a huge majority of the crowd at the Lusail Stadium, produced their best display of the tournament to ensure they will meet the winner's of Wednesday's semi-final clash between holders France and Morocco in Sunday's final.

Source : The Daily Star

10/12/2022

Defending champions France reached the semi-final of the ongoing FIFA World Cup 2022 after a dramatic 2-1 win over England in the last quarter-final at Al Bayt Stadium.

France are now one win away from becoming the first team to reach back-to-back finals since Brazil in 2002, and two wins away from becoming the third team to retain the trophy, following Brazil in 1962 and Italy in 1938.

France will next face Morocco in the semifinals on Wednesday. The Moroccans became the first African team to reach the semifinals at the World Cup by beating Portugal 1-0.

Source : The Business Standard

10/12/2022

Morocco wrote World Cup history on Saturday night as the first African and Arab country to reach the tournament's semi-finals, continuing their surprise run in Qatar with a shock 1-0 victory over the highly fancied Portugal.

Youssef En-Nesyri leapt high in the air to head home the game's only goal just before half-time at the Al-Thumama Stadium to strike a significant blow against football's established order and book a semi-final on Wednesday against either England or France, who meet later on Saturday.

The result will be widely celebrated across Africa and the Arabic-speaking Middle East, desperate to see one of their teams in contention for the biggest prize in football.

Source : The Business Standard

10/12/2022

Nagad, the mobile financial service provider of Bangladesh Postal Department, has recently been declared by the National Board of Revenue as the third highest VAT-paying company for fiscal year 2021-2022 in the service category, said a press release.

"The more customers use digital services, the easier their lives will be. And the benefits of Digital Bangladesh will reach every home. The government's revenue generation will also get a boost," said Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad.

The NBR will honour top nine VAT-paying companies at the national level for the last fiscal year in three categories -- production, service and business.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal as the chief guest will hand over the "Highest VAT Payers Award" to the digital financial service provider of Bangladesh Postal Department at a ceremony organised by the NBR in InterContinental Dhaka tomorrow, marking the VAT Week (December 10 to 15).

Source : The Daily Star

05/12/2022

Popular short video-sharing platform TikTok recently launched a campaign in Bangladesh called , in association with JAAGO foundation to help promote online safety among the youth of the country.

To combat the challenges of cyber crimes including social media harassment, scams and fraud, and to help build more understanding of the youth about online safety, TikTok and JAAGO will conduct day-long workshops in 16 districts of Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions for the local social media influencers and youth.

Source : The Daily Star
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05/12/2022

Uber recently completed a billion kilometers in terms of trips in Bangladesh.

The ride-sharing platform recently made the announcement as it celebrated 6 years of operations in Bangladesh.

Source: The Daily Star

04/12/2022

USA's apparel import from Bangladesh increased by 50.98% in January-September compared to the same period of 2021, as it holds the position of the 3rd largest apparel import source for the US.

Meanwhile, the USA's apparel import from the world increased by 34.61%. in the same period, according to the data released recently by the US's official source "Office of Textiles and Apparel (OTEXA)".

In January-September 2022, the US imported apparel products worth $7.55 billion from Bangladesh.

Among the top ten apparel suppliers to the USA, year-on-year imports from India, Indonesia, Cambodia, South Korea and Pakistan increased by 53.39%, 54.66%, 46.58%, 39.61% and 40.11% respectively.

With an 8.54% share, Bangladesh remains the third apparel import source for the USA while China continues to hold the title of the largest apparel supplier to the US with a 22.48% share, followed by Vietnam with an 18.51 % share.

During the first ten months of 2022, USA's imports from China grew by 28.94% and reached $17.72 billion. At the same time, imports from Vietnam stood at $14.59 billion with 34.69% year-on-year growth.

Source: TBS

04/12/2022

The Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission (BERC) has raised the price of a 12kg cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) by Tk46 to Tk1,297 for the month of December.

Accordingly, the new price of LPG gas per kg would be Tk108.08

"The new price will be effective from this evening," the BERC Chairman Md Abdul Jalil said at a virtual media briefing on Sunday (4 December).

He added that the price of cylinders from 5.5kg to 45kg will also increase proportionally.

Source: TBS

04/12/2022

Efforts are underway to install solar panels on the rooftops of the country's primary and secondary schools in a bid to promote renewable energy, says State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid.

More on: TBS

17/11/2022

The ball that Diego Maradona handled to score his infamous "Hand of God" goal for Argentina against England in the 1986 World Cup sold at auction on Wednesday for £2 million ($2.4 million).

The white Adidas "Azteca" ball, which was owned by the Tunisian match referee Ali Bin Nasser, had been tipped to fetch up to £3 million ($3.6 million) when it went under the hammer at UK-based Graham Budd Auctions.

It comes six months after the jersey Maradona wore in the historic quarter-final in Mexico City sold at auction for nearly $9.3 million -- more than twice the value predicted by Sotheby's.

The auctioned ball -- inspired by the architecture and murals of the Aztec civilisation -- was used for the full 90 minutes of the 1986 game between Argentina and England, as it occurred years before the multi-ball system began in football.

Source : The Daily Star

16/11/2022

With a roar that lit up the night sky, NASA sent its colossal next-generation rocket soaring into space for the first time on Wednesday. The Space Launch System rocket, or SLS, took off at 1:47AM ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, signaling the start of a bold new era for the US government’s space program.

It also marks a major success for NASA’s Artemis program to return to the Moon, which has been plagued by years of delays, development mishaps, and billions of dollars in budget overruns. During the past few months, both hurricanes and technical difficulties caused launch delays — including two scrubs. Then, tonight, engineers managed to fix both an intermittent hydrogen leak and a “bad ethernet switch” in the hours just before launch.

NASA can now put many of those problems in the rearview as it looks ahead to the program’s future.

“For the Artemis generation, this is for you,” said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, Artemis launch director, as she gave the go-ahead for launch.

The SLS carried its Orion capsule to an altitude of just under 4,000 kilometers before the two craft separated and the core stage of the rocket fell back to Earth, falling into the Pacific Ocean. (The two solid boosters, which separated even earlier, fell back into the Atlantic.) Orion will continue onward to the Moon, which it will orbit for several days before returning to Earth. The capsule is scheduled to splash down in the ocean on December 11th. For this mission, Orion is uncrewed — save for a trio of mannequins, two of which were fitted with sensors to measure radiation levels.

Source : The Verge

16/11/2022

The latest Canary build of Google Chrome includes a neat feature that automatically picks a color scheme for the browser based on the wallpaper shown when you open a new tab. The feature was first spotted by u/Leopeva64-2 over on Reddit, who shows how changing the new tab wallpaper automatically adjusts the color scheme of the browser’s address bar and interface. It’s previously been possible to manually change Chrome’s color scheme to one of your choosing, but this simplifies the process.

According to Google’s software, the feature “enables setting theme color based on background image color when background image is changed in New Tab Page,” and is available on Mac, Windows, and Linux, as well as Google’s own ChromeOS and Fuchsia operating systems.

We were able to turn on the “Customize Chrome Color Extraction” feature in version 110 of Chrome’s Canary build (specifically 110.0.5418.0) to test it ourselves. It seemed to work best with more colorful wallpapers, whereas darker backgrounds tended to make Chrome’s interface a muddy black, brown, or gray — not much of an improvement over its default color scheme. We were able to get it working with Google’s own wallpapers, although the automatic color theming option didn’t work when we uploaded our own image. It’s unclear if this is a bug or by design.

Source : The Verge

11/11/2022

Australia will provide $135 million in 2022-23 for the Rohingyas and other communities in Myanmar and Bangladesh to assist with the delivery of life-saving food, water and shelter as a part of the Albanese government's commitment to supporting the humanitarian response.

The package of support builds on $480 million provided since 2017 to people across Myanmar, and Rohingya and host communities in Bangladesh.

The package will also deliver essential protection, education and health services for those most in need, including women, girls and people with disabilities, according to a statement of the Australian foreign ministry issued today (November 10, 2022).

Since the military coup in February 2021, the number of people in humanitarian need in Myanmar has surged from 1 million to an estimated 14.4 million.

Australia commends Bangladesh's ongoing support to over 919,000 displaced Rohingya who rely on humanitarian assistance to survive, while recognizing the ongoing impact on communities hosting the Rohingya.

Source: The Daily Star

11/11/2022

Uber Bangladesh recently suspended hundreds of riders on its platform temporarily.

When asked, Md. Ali Armanur Rahman, Region Head of East India & Bangladesh, Uber, confirmed the news to The Daily Star, citing that riders had been notified several times for excessive ride cancellations and refusal to accept digital payments.

An employee of Uber, requesting anonymity, has informed that the drivers who were purged had complaints against them. These complaints ranged from asking for tips to enticing off-platform trips.

In response to a few queries from The Daily Star, Uber shared a statement where an Uber spokesperson said that these riders have been proactively communicated.

Source : The Daily Star

11/11/2022

Australia design app Canva is the latest creative platform to launch a text-to-image AI tool. The company began testing the feature in September and is now rolling it out to the app’s more than 100 million users.

The feature is an implementation of open-source text-to-image model Stable Diffusion, with a few extra safety filters and a custom UI to help steer Canva’s users to get the results they want. Canva, which is available as a free app as well as a paid version with extra features, will give all its users the ability to generate 100 images a day with the tool.

Source: The Verge

09/11/2022

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to lend Bangladesh $4.5 billion in loans in seven installments, says Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

"We are getting the loan just the way we wanted. Total $4.5 billion will be lent to Bangladesh," he told media during a briefing in Dhaka on Wednesday.

"The amount will be disbursed in seven installments till December 2026. The first installment, $447.78 million, of the loan will be cleared in February next year. The rest will be $659.18 million each."

"Interest rate of the loan will depend on the market rate at the time of maturity. The finance ministry has calculated that the rate would be around 2.2%.

"IMF has advised to reduce non-performing loans and increase revenue collection," the minister added.

As per an IMF press release issued in this regard, "IMF staff and the Bangladesh authorities have reached a staff-level agreement to support Bangladesh's economic policies with a 42-month arrangement of about $3.2 billion under the Extended Credit Facility (ECF) and the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) as well as of about $1.3 billion under the Resilience and Sustainability Facility (RSF).

ECF's grace period is 5.5 years and payment period is 10 years. EFF's grace period is 3.5 years and its payment period is also 10 years.

Meanwhile, grace period for RSF is 10 years and payment period is 20 years.

Source: TBS

08/11/2022

After all the speculations and confusion, a letter was published by the Ministry of Information today, which contains the permission for the arrival of Canadian born Indian actress Nora Fatehi.

The note clearly mentions that they have permitted the arrival of the artiste, which was appealed by the Women's Leadership Corporation seeking permission to shoot for a programme at Global Achievers Award titled "Women Empowerment in Bangladesh". The shooting will be packaged as a documentary.

Israt Jahan Maria, President, Women Leadership Corporation, confirmed the news to The Daily Star. "We had appealed for the permission on October 26," she shared. "Our appeal was pending, and due to some miscommunications, some rumours were spread. However, it is confirmed that Nora will be visiting Bangladesh on November 18."

Source : The Daily Star

08/11/2022

Pathao is relaunching its car ride-sharing service tomorrow, November 8, under a new model that will enable users to find rides faster and at fair prices.

In the traditional ride-sharing model, a user's ride request is dispatched to a single driver by the app and the pricing of the ride is set using a pre-established algorithm. In the revamped Pathao Car model, the user can request a ride at a fare suggested by the app or can name their own fare. The request is then dispatched to multiple drivers at once. If the user receives multiple offers, they can pick based on the driver's counter-offer price, estimated time of arrival (ETA), vehicle model and rating, or can offer a revised fare.

Similarly, a driver can choose from among several requests, accept the request that suits them best, or suggest their own price.

Pathao claims that in this model, drivers would be able to maximise earnings by reducing their idle time while users would be able to find a ride faster by negotiating fares.

Source: The Daily Star