With the whirlwind of events that hit us throughout the week, it can be hard to keep track of the top news stories. But fear not, we have got you covered with the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top 5 stories that made waves in the world of technology. This week, Microsoft Windows faced a major global outage following a controversial Crowdstrike update, OpenAI ditched GPT-3.5 Turbo in favour of GPT-4 Mini, Apple announced its first public beta for iOS 18 and more.
Top 5 technology-related news of the week:
1) Microsoft outage wreaks havoc:
8.5 million Windows devices worldwide were affected by a ‘Blue Screen of Death‘ notification that left them stuck in ‘Recovery’ mode with the message ‘Your PC has encountered a problem and needs to restart’. The bug first appeared on Friday and affected businesses, airlines, government agencies and even emergency services.
“On July 18, CrowdStrike, an independent cybersecurity company, released a software update that began impacting IT systems globally… Since this event began, we’ve maintained ongoing communication with our customers, CrowdStrike and external developers to collect information and expedite solutions. We recognize the disruption this problem has caused for businesses and in the daily routines of many individuals. Our focus is providing customers with technical guidance and support to safely bring disrupted systems back online.” Microsoft said in a blogpost on the issue.
2) ChatGPT free versionow runs GPT-4o Mini:
OpenAI has released GPT-4o Mini, the company’s most affordable model to date. GPT-4o Mini (O stands for Omni) has replaced GPT-3.5 Turbo and is available free of charge. It will be available to enterprise users from next week.
The model is seen as an attempt by OpenAI to stay relevant in the face of increasing competition from deeper-pocketed rivals such as Google and Meta.
OpenAI said that GPT-4o Mini is priced at 15 cents per million input token and 60 cents per million output tokens, making it 60% more cheaper than GPT-3.5 Turbo. The model scored 82% on Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) and outperformed GPT-4 on chat preferences in LMSYS leaderboard.
3) Apple launches iOS 18 first public beta:
Apple launched the first public beta of iOS 18 earlier this week, along with beta versions for iPads, Macs, and other devices. This release offers users an early look at the upcoming features and enhancements that will be fully available with the official release.
The iOS 18 public beta introduces a limited set of features, with more to be tested in future updates. The new features brought during the iOS 18 beta update include Home Screen Customization, Icon Tinting, Revamped Control Center, Enhanced Photos App and Dark Mode Icons.
4) OnePlus Summer Launch event:
OnePlus launched a range of devices at the company’s Summer Launch Event in Milan, Italy. The showstopper at the event was the OnePlus Nord 4 powered by the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset, which features a 5,500mAh battery at a starting price of ₹29,999.
Also Read | OnePlus Nord 4 Review: Most balanced smartphone under ₹30,000
Meanwhile, OnePlus also launched OnePlus Pad 2 at the event, which is now powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and features a 12.1-inch 3K LCD display, with a starting price of ₹39,999. Other devices launched at the event include, OnePlus Watch 2R and the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro.
5) Google Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro Fold confirmed to launch in India on August 13:
Google India handle on X confirmed this week that the upcoming Google Pixle 9 Pro and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold will launch in India along with other global markets. Notably, Google is hosting its ‘Made for Google’ event on August 13 where it will announce the Pixel 9 series along with other hardware products.
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Published: 21 Jul 2024, 02:39 PM IST
