Science and technology

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday blocked over 1.1 million social media IDs for uploading ‘illegal’ material and smear campaign against institutions, ARY News reported. As per details, PTA received more than 1,200,000 complaints including 134,000 against facebook and blocked over 1,135,000 IDs for posting ‘illegal’ content and involvement in a smear campaign against state institutions. PTA said more than 112,000 fake IDs were blocked on facebook. Furthermore, the regulator received 65,122 complaints for posting ‘immoral’ content on TikTok and after review, 63,000 IDs were blocked. More than 36,000 videos were removed from YouTube by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), while 31,860 IDs on Twitter were also blocked on the complaints. Read more: PTA announces restoration of telecom services in more flood-hit areas Earlier, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) announced that it has restored telecom services in more flood hit areas...

NEW YORK: Tech Giant Apple said it is working on a software update to fix an issue with the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max that makes the rear camera physically shake when used with some third-party apps like Snapchat, Instagram, or TikTok. In a statement, Apple said it is currently working on resolving the issue. “We’re aware of the issue for the camera shaking issue on iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max and a fix will be released next week,” a company spokesperson said. In videos and posts uploaded to social media sites, some users explained the issue only occurred when using the camera with third-party platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram. One YouTube user posted a video of the phone shaking while using TikTok. Other users on Reddit posted about similar issues. According to the Bloomberg news agency, the issue is the result of the optical image stabilization hardware malfunctioning in some cases with third-party apps. The new camera system on the iPhone 14 Pro, which includes ...

If an earthquake strikes in the not-too-distant future and survivors are trapped under tonnes of rubble, the first responders to locate them could be swarms of cyborg cockroaches. That’s a potential application of a recent breakthrough by Japanese researchers who demonstrated the ability to mount “backpacks” of solar cells and electronics on the bugs and control their motion by remote control. Kenjiro Fukuda and his team at the Thin-Film Device Laboratory at Japanese research giant Riken developed a flexible solar cell film that’s 4 microns thick, about 1/25 the width of a human hair, and can fit on the insect’s abdomen. The film allows the roach to move freely while the solar cell generates enough power to process and send directional signals into sensory organs on the bug’s hindquarters. The work builds upon previous insect-control experiments at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and could one day result in cyborg insects that can enter hazardous areas much more effi...

Iran has restricted access to Instagram, one of the last remaining social media platforms in the country, amid protests over the death of a woman named Mahsa Amini in police custody, internet shutdown observatory NetBlocks said. The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police in Tehran for “unsuitable attire”, last week has unleashed simmering anger. London-based NetBlocks’ data shows a near-total disruption to internet service in parts of Kurdistan province in west Iran since Monday, while the capital city of Tehran and other parts of the country have also faced disruptions since Friday when protests first broke out. Protests have been particularly intense in Kurdistan. Iran’s minister of communications said earlier on Wednesday he had been misquoted after news outlets cited him as saying the authorities might disrupt internet services for security reasons. read more Social media websites such as TikTok, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are routinely block...

YouTube unveiled a new way for creators to make money on short-form videos, as it faces intensifying competition from TikTok. The Google-owned streaming service announced Tuesday that it would introduce advertising on its video feature Shorts and give video creators 45% of the revenue. That compares with its standard distribution of 55% for videos outside of Shorts and TikTok’s $1 billion fund for paying creators. Hairstylist-turned-YouTube-creator Kris Collins, who goes by Kallmekris, lauded YouTube for offering revenue-sharing for Shorts. “Other platforms are focused on getting people their 15 seconds of fame, which is great,” she said. “But YouTube is taking a different approach. They’re helping creators make stuff in multiple formats.” The internet’s dominant video site has struggled to compete with TikTok, the app that got its start hosting lip-sync and dance videos and has subsequently burgeoned to 1 billion monthly users. YouTube responded in late 2020 with Shorts, minute-...

Saudi Arabia is planning to launch two astronauts to the International Space Station aboard a space capsule from Elon Musk’s SpaceX, becoming the latest Gulf nation to strengthen ties with private U.S. space companies, according to three people familiar with the arrangement. The sources, speaking anonymously to discuss the mission’s crew before its formal announcement, said the deal was signed privately earlier this year with Houston’s Axiom Space, which arranges and manages private missions to space on U.S. spacecraft for researchers and tourists. Under the deal, two Saudi astronauts will ride SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule to the space station for a roughly weeklong stay early next year, the sources said. The Saudis would be the first from their country to go into space aboard a private spacecraft. Axiom had no immediate comment. Officials with the Saudi Space Commission, Riyadh’s space agency founded in 2018, were not immediately available to comment. Private U.S. companies have ...

Apple said on Tuesday it will raise prices of apps and in-app purchases on its App Store from next month in all of the euro zone and some countries in Asia and South America. The new prices, excluding auto-renewable subscriptions, will be effective as early as Oct. 5, Apple said in a blog post. The U.S. tech giant periodically adjusts its prices in different regions and reduced prices for euro zone countries last year to adjust for currencies and taxes, dropping starting prices for many apps to 99 euro cents from 1.09 euros. The latest price rise increases those starting prices to 1.19 euros. A rapid rise in inflation, interest rates and energy prices this year has hammered the yen, the euro and most emerging economy currencies. The euro has dropped to two-decade lows this year and has been languishing around parity against the dollar for weeks. Apart from euro zone countries, the price increases will hit Sweden and Poland in Europe; Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, South Korea and Vie...