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Underscore is a symbol which we commonly use for showing visual spacing within a sequence of characters, where a whitespace character is not permitted like filename, email address, etc. But, did you know that the symbol was used to underline text on typewriters? Yes, the symbol underscore ( _ ), also called underline, low line or low dash, was originally used on the typewriter to underline words. To produce an underlined word, the word was typed and then the typewriter carriage was moved back to the beginning of the word, and the word was overtyped with the underscore character.

Casio co-founder and CEO Kazuo Kashio has passed away on June 19, 2018, at the age of 89. As per the reports, the cause of death was pneumonia. Kashio was the third eldest of the four brothers who founded Casio Computer in 1957. Casio's first product, in case you're wondering, was the all-electric 14-A calculator, and it led to the release of Casio Mini calculator in 1972. The Casio's current president is Kazuo's son named Kazuhiro Kashio.

According to the survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, it looks like the number of Americans getting at least a portion of their news from social media sites has increased by a significant margin. The survey says that Facebook is the most popular social media platform for US adults who get news from a social media. Out of the 66-percent of Americans who use Facebook, Pew Research Center says 45-percent of US adults get at least some of their news from the site. The second leading social media site for news in the US after Facebook is YouTube. Apparently, 18-percent of Americans get their news from Google video platform.

Truecaller, the popular caller ID solution for blocking spam calls, has ended support for its Windows Phone app. The same has been confirmed by Truecaller's Twitter handle. The tweet said, "Due to Microsoft stopping focus on developing Windows 10 Mobile, we have also discontinued support. Sorry about that." Going forward, Windows Phone users will have to look up numbers on Truecaller's website rather than on their phones. The Android version of the app, meanwhile, has received a small update that adds a brand new block section.

Qualcomm has unveiled the new Snapdragon 439 and Snapdragon 429 mobile platform at MWC Shanghai 2018, destined for budget devices this year. Both are said to improve performance and power efficiency by 25% each as compared to the last-gen Snapdragon 430 and 425. While the Snapdragon 439 features an octa-core CPU and Adreno 505 GPU, the 429 is backed by a quad-core CPU and Adreno 504. Both of these also feature the Snapdragon X6 LTE modem. Both of these chipsets also support up to 8+8MP dual cameras, so many new budget phones will have dual cameras this year. We can expect to see these devices in the second half 0f 2018.

The new Nokia 5.1 is now officially available for pre-order in the first market. The phone was unveiled in Moscow last month and Russia will be the first market to get the phone. The new Nokia 3.1 was also first launched in Russia. The Nokia 5.1 looks as stunning as the original Nokia 5 and has been milled from a single block of 6000 Series Aluminum. The new internals are going to give it a 40 percent performance boost, according to HMD Global. You can find the specs sheet of the Nokia 5.1 right here:

Xiaomi has begun the rollout of a new MIUI 9.5 stable beta update based on Android 8.1 Oreo for the Redmi Y2, which was launched earlier this month. As per an official post on the MIUI forum, the latest update fixes some of the bugs and performance issues introduced by the previous beta update, however, there is no information regarding new features. We recently tested the Redmi Y2 running MIUI 9.5 and discovered that the interface stutters and the navigation gestures are laggy. Hopefully, the latest MIUI beta update brings a fix for those issues.

After promising to plug security and privacy issues before bringing Kimbho back, yoga guru Baba Ramdev has said that it will take another two months to set up the messaging app. "During the testing phase of the app, we received large traffic. However, that was only the pilot phase. Preparations are currently underway. We will need around two months to set up the app, as we need to look into the intricacies of handling large user traffic."

Xiaomi's official online store, Mi.com, is now the third largest e-commerce platform in India with a market share of 14% when it comes to online smartphone sales in India. "Mi.com is now the 3rd largest E-commerce platform in India, wrt smartphone shipments!", tweeted Xiaomi's Global VP and Managing Director, Manu Kumar Jain citing Counterpoint's latest report. As per Counterpoint's market report for Q1 2018, Flipkart is the domain leader when it comes to online smartphone sales with a 54% market share, while Amazon takes the second spot with a 30% market share.

Cyber-security researcher Brannon Dorsey has published a research note that details how millions of IoT devices, smart home gadgets and media-streaming equipment from high-profile companies are all vulnerable to an old security flaw called 'DNS rebinding'. According to Dorsey, “Google Home, Chromecast, Roku, Sonos WiFi speakers, and certain smart thermostats could all be interfaced with in some way by an unauthorized remote attacker”. The vendors who have been contacted by Dorsey are all actively working towards mitigating the threat. Roku has already started deploying updates to plug the security loophole its Roku TV devices, while Google and Sonos are expected to start rolling out the patches next month.

Instagram has officially announced that it now has 1 billion monthly active users worldwide. The platform had passed 800 million users in September last year. As noted by The Verge, the platform seems to be adding 200 million users every year. Instagram has also launched a standalone IGTV app that'll feature long-form vertical videos in an attempt to compete with YouTube and Snapchat's Discover section. With 1 billion users on board, even legacy brands may be turning to content creators and opportunities on Instagram, just like they did for Facebook.

Xiaomi has announced that the company now has 1,000 service centers in India across 600 cities and also has 500 service centers for Mi TVs, making it one of the largest service networks in the country. Xiaomi has also been voted the No.1 brand when it comes to providing the best after-sales service among the ten best brands in India, as per a study by Red Quanta. In a chain of tweets, the company also revealed the following stats: CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) score of 86 percent. Xiaomi's Field Failure Rate (FFR) is less than half of the industry average. 95% of service complaints resolved within 4 hours.

Facebook is now rolling out new features that will allow creators to engage more users in videos through Interactive Show Experiences. Now, creators can add live polling options and quizzes in live or Facebook Watch videos. This feature will let users play quizzes in a fashion similar to HQ Trivia or take part in other challenges. Some of the early partners include Fresno, BuzzFeed News, and INSIDER. Facebook will also roll out subscription features to more creators, and fans can get exclusive content from their favorites by paying a monthly subscription of $4.99.

Oppo's Find X and Vivo's Nex are two of the most recent smartphones to come with pop-up camera modules. While Vivo's Nex comes with a pop-up selfie camera module, the entire top portion of Oppo's Find X slides out to reveal the camera. So, how does it work? The entire mechanism, according to Oppo, is motorized and it pops up in half a second. Think of it like Nokia's 8110 'Matrix' slider phone, except in Find X's case, the mechanism is motorized and it pops out automatically either while using the cameras or while unlocking the phone itself. That being said, it remains to be seen how the motorized mechanism will hold up after an extended period of usage. Oppo says it has been tested for up to 3 lakh slides and there shouldn't be any durability worries for at least five years.

According to an ET report, Amazon is looking to organize its 'biggest-ever' Prime Day sale in India next month between July 7 and 15, to tackle the Flipkart's expansion plans after its acquisition by Walmart. Amazon is planning a 30-hour Prime Day, where it will further promote its own private labels, in a bid to get more new Prime subscribers. Amazon also plans to bring its Prime Wardrobe feature, which allows users to try out outfits before buying them, to India with the Prime Day sale next month. Wardrobe will also include next-day delivery according to the report.

Amazon has announced a special and customizable version of Alexa called 'Alexa for Hospitality' for use at hotels, vacation rentals, and other locations. Amazon says that hotels will be able to customize the experience as per their needs and guests can then use Echo speakers to inquire about various facilities such as pool timings, or order room service, or request housekeeping, besides the usual Echo functions such as playing music and controlling smart devices. Amazon says user accounts linked to hotel devices will automatically disconnect once they check out and no audio recordings will be saved. Amazon has partnered with Marriott Hotels for the pilot, which will go live soon.

According to Forbes World's Billionaires, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest person in the world, is now worth $141.9 billion. Jeff's net worth has grown over $5 billion and he is now richer than he has ever before. In case you're wondering, Bill Gates now has a total net worth $92.9 billion and Warren Buffett has $82.2 billion in wealth. That makes Bezos worth roughly $49 billion more than Bill Gates and about $60 billion more than Warren Buffett.

As per Bloomberg's recent report, Google's AI was able to predict a patient's percentile of death better than standard hospital computers. When a woman with late-stage breast cancer came to a city hospital, the hospital’s computers read her vital signs and estimated a 9.3 percent chance she would die during her stay. However, Google's new type of algorithm read up on the woman, analyzing a total of 175,639 data points and rendered its assessment of her death risk at 19.9 percent, which eventually did turn out to be her fate. Google plans to install their technology in clinics and allow doctors to focus more on medical work rather than analytical tasks.

WhatsApp beta users have begun receiving an update which enables group voice and video calling features in the messenger. To get started, make sure you have the latest beta version installed. While making a call, you can tap on the button in the top right corner to add a new contact within an existing call. The current feature allows you have up to 4 contacts in the group calls currently. You can be a part of the part of a group call even if you do are not a beta user but will not be able to add new members in the call.

As part of its ongoing Super Value Week sale, Flipkart is offering a great new deal on Google's Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL devices till June 24. With all the discounts and offers applied, buyers can technically pick up a Pixel 2 (64GB version) for an ‘effective price’ of just Rs. 8,999, while the 128GB model can be bought for an effective price Rs. 10,999. There are similar buyback-related deals for the Pixel 2 XL as well. It must be noted that you have to sell the phone on within 8 months to get the best value from this deal. For the full details, head on over to our website by tapping the first icon below. Buy the Pixel 2 / 2 XL from Flipkart (Starts at Rs 8,999)

Recent reports suggest that Instagram might be working on adding the ability to add "music stickers" to its Stories platform. Users will be able to search for specific tracks, genres or artists in the future, and their selections will most likely play in the background of Instagram Stories. The code inside Instagram’s app has an unreleased “Search Music” feature built-in beside its location and friend-mention sticker search options inside Instagram Stories. These “music overlay stickers” can be searched using tabs for “Genres,” “Moods,” and “Trending.”

As per recent reports, BitTorrent Inc recently made a deal to sell to Justin Sun, the founder of cryptocurrency TRON for $140 million. The acquisition comes in following a turbulent time for BitTorrent, the developer of uTorrent, the world's most popular torrenting client. While no details have yet been confirmed, the reports further suggest that BitTorrent will in part be used to “legitimize” TRON’s business. This is quite interesting considering BitTorrent itself has had issues in the past considering the constant debate around piracy and the company's internal management struggles.