A Quick 2019 Technology Quiz!

The Indian government has demanded Whatsapp, the Facebook-owned messaging application, to digitally fingerprint messages that are sent on its platform without breaking the encryption. The move is to ensure traceability of all content shared through the WhatsApp platform, without reading the message. This decision is in line with draft amendments to intermediary guidelines of the Information Technology Act released in December 2018, which requires all internet platforms to ensure traceability of the origin of all content shared through them.

Facebook introduced Calibra, it's digital wallet, which will provide financial services and it will be integrated into Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and other approved third-party wallets.Libra Association has 27 partners which includes venture capital firms, nonprofit organizations, crypto firms, and massive corporate financial, telecommunications, and technology service providers like Coinbase, Mastercard, Visa, eBay, PayPal, Stripe, Spotify, Uber, Lyft, and Vodafone.

Social networking giant Facebook announced its first interactive game show, titled "Confetti" in India. It is Facebook's first official show in India. It aired from Wednesday to Sunday on Facebook Watch, Facebook's dedicated video platform. The participants stand a chance to win Rs.3 lakh as cash prize every day on challenge of answering pop culture trivia questions.

Facebook has announced a digital currency called Libra that will allow its billions of users to make financial transactions across the globe. Libra is being touted as a means to connect people who do not have access to traditional banking platforms. Technology to make transactions with Libra will be available as a standalone app - as well as on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger platforms - as early as 2020.

In an attempt to enable users shop better using Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities, Facebook has acquired US-based virtual search start-up, GrokStyle, at an undisclosed amount. GrokStyle was founded in 2015 and is based in San Francisco, USA.

WhatsApp launched an India-focused fact-checking feature to combat fake news and rumours starting with the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. Developed in collaboration with India-based media skilling startup PROTO, the tip line feature will help create a database of rumours to study misinformation during elections as part of a research project commissioned and assisted by WhatsApp.

A web mapping service, Google map launched three India-First features targeted at Public transport users to access public transport quickly and easily. It stated that Google map users now can see the bus travel times from live traffic data across 10 cities, get to know the real-time train status on the platform as well as get commute suggestions that combine public transport and auto-rickshaws. The 10 cities are Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow, Chennai, Mysore, Coimbatore, and Surat.

Google unveiled its on-demand video-game streaming service Stadia, built for Chrome, Android and TVs, at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California. Stadia's 'Crowd Play' feature will let people, watching a YouTube live stream, to actually join the streamer's game. The service will initially be launched this year in the US, Canada, the UK and Europe.

A new seller-funding programme named 'Amazon Wings' has been launched by Amazon India to help the small businesses and entrepreneurs to raise funds through the crowd funding platform. With this initiative, the small businesses and entrepreneurs of this platform can raise the funds for their business expansion, product development, and foster innovation or community development. Amazon India sellers can use the Ketto's platform for a subsidized fee which is around 50 percent to initiate fundraisers. Also, it launches a dedicated microsite to feature fundraisers initiated by sellers by which they can raise small ticket funds starting from as little as Rs 50,000 by means of crowd-funding through multiple individuals. Presently, Amazon India runs a programme called 'Launchpad' that helps product start-ups get a wider reach on the platform.

Xiaomi launched Mi Pay, a UPI (Unified Payments Interface) Based mobile payment service in India to send money from one bank account to another or between UPI (Unified Payments Interface) accounts. The service provider of this application is ICICI Bank. It was certified by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). A customer can pay various types of bills, make DTH recharge with the help of this application.

Maharashtra topped the 2nd edition of the US Green Building Council's (USGBC) list. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu bagged No 2 & 3 spot respectively. The list consists of India's top 10 states that have a maximum number of LEED certified green buildings. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated supercomputer 'Param Shivay' at IIT-BHU.The supercomputer of 833 teraflop capacity built at the cost of Rs 32.5 crore. Additional Information: India's first supercomputer called PARAM 8000 was launched in 1991. He released commemorative postage stamp on completion of 100 Years of IIT BHU.

Two 1 terabyte microSD cards were revealed by companies Western Digital-owned SanDisk and Micron during Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The 1TB SanDisk Extreme UHS-I microSD card, which the company claims to be the world's fastest, reaches speeds of up to 160 Mbps. While Micron's card, claimed to be the world's first, reaches speeds of up to 100 Mbps.

ETMONEY India's largest app for financial services has integrated with Unified Payment Interface (UPI) as a payment method. The reason for this was to double its monthly user base by the end of 2019. This integration would simplify the mutual fund payment for millions of ETMONEY users. ETMONEY is owned by Times Internet which is a part of the Times Group.

Google has introduced a new open platform called Anthos to run and manage apps from anywhere. Based on the Cloud Services Platform that Google announced in 2018, Anthos lets users run applications on existing on-premise hardware investments or in the Public Cloud. Anthos is a Kubernetes-powered technology to build and manage hybrid applications, for on-premises or cloud deployments. Google also announced Anthos Migrate in beta, which auto-migrates virtual machines (VMs) from on-premises, or other clouds, directly into containers in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) with minimal effort.

Pulkit Sapra, 26, from Delhi and Suman Muralikrishnan, 27, from Chennai, former students and researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi have created a laptop for visually-impaired called "DotBook". It is claimed to be the first in India, the laptop has an interface in the form of dots or Braille instead of a visual one. Instead of a screen, the laptop displays embossed text in Braille through a touchpad and the users get to feel everything a website has by touching the pad. It is built in Linux and comes with 4 GB internal storage which is expandable up to 64 GB and it can be connected with mobile phones and other laptops to provide a visual display for sighted persons. They have launched two versions of the laptop, one with 20 cell version (Rs 40,000) and another 40-cell version (Rs 60,000) - each referring to the number of characters displayed in one line. The 20-Cell Braille Variant has Perkins Keys while the 40-Cell Braille Variant with QWERTY keyboard.

The Chennai Traffic Police introduced a road safety robot named ROADEO, to help in traffic management and assist citizens. With this, Chennai became the second city after Mumbai to induct robots in traffic management. The robots would be integrated with traffic signals and could be managed manually via Bluetooth devices. The robot has been developed by schoolchildren of a private robotics lab.

AntBot is the first walking robot to have navigational capabilities without GPS or mapping. It has been designed by French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille University researchers at ISM, on lines similar to desert ants who use polarised lights and UV radiation to navigate in space. It consists of an optical compass which determines its movements by the help of a polarised light. An optical movement sensor directed to the sun is used to measure the distance covered. It provides a precision of up to 1 cm after covering a total distance of 14 metres. It has six feet to enhance mobility and facilitate movements in complex environments. Celestial compass is used to measure its heading with precision by cloudy or clear weather.