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As the UN observes World Sustainable Transport Day on November 26, we take a look at what it means for Indian cities

All of us hate traffic jams. A person living in Mumbai spends an average of 9 days every year just being stuck in traffic, according to the India Traffic Report. 2019. There is a lot that citizens, like you and me, can do to change this Sustainable transport, according to the United Nations, can ease the pain of commuting through cities for everyone, including those with special needs.

Public transport

There are over 34 crore motor vehicles on Indian roads now, compared to a mere 14 crore in 2011 While the number of vehicles keeps growing meterorically, there aren't enough roads and parking spaces to accommodate all of them. The result -long winding traffic craints, parking problem , and a spike in road accidents.

At least one road accident was reported within every three minutes in India in 2022. A total of 1.68 lakh lives were lost. Despite all the data, faster bikes and bigger SUVs continue to be the aspirational purchases for the indian public, encouraged by loans and regulatory easements provided by the government. Mobility experts say public transport is the one and only panacea to this problem. it will help reduce road accidents, reduce carbon emissions, and resolve the space crunch that we are facing on roads and parking lots. But in the current form, public transport in India is plagued by many challenges.

Challenges to public transport. While policymakers keep pushing us to use public transport regularly, the fact remains that most of our casting systems are already full and overburdened. The Mumbai local trains, for instance, carry a whopping 80 lakh passengers a day By comparison, the local trains in Chennai ferry about 25 lakh Cities invested heavily in metro mil to reduce the burden on existing systems, and provide connectivity to new areas. While the public uptake has been encouraging, last-mile connectivity remains a challenge Last-mile connectivity means ensuring passengers have a reliable mode of commute from metro stations to their final destination. Providing rental or free cycles, ensuring metro stations are located near bus stands, commercial junctions, providing shuttle bus services, are some options that are being explored for last-mile connectivity on a trial-and-error basis. While these efforts are yet to bear fruit, lessons are being learnt across cities for implementation on a wider scale.

Pedestrians ignored

 Indian cities are fast becoming a nightmare for pedestrians. The Indian Road Congress has clearly laid out guidelines on the size of footpaths to be laid based on the size and category of roads. However, these norms are constantly flouted. Houses cutting into footpaths to build driveways and shops and illegally parked vehicles encroaching walking spaces are a common sight across our cities today.

A long-term study by IIT Madras showed that between 2009 and 2017, 80% of road accidents in Chennai involved pedestrians on footpaths or at road crossings. Since then, Chennai has tried to popolarise the concept of pedestrian plazas, by promoting big, dedicated walkways in various parts of the city. The initiative has been reasonably successful.

Electric vehicles

After walking and public transport, electric vehicles are the next best bet. While they do not remote universal access, they do mitigate the impact of vehicular and public transport, electric vehicles are the next best bet. While they do not promote universal access, they do mitigate the impact of vehicular pollution on the environment. Still, concerns remain as most of the electricity generated today in the country comes from burning dirty coal. The disposal of EV batteries-which are toxic to the environment is also a concern.

Sustainable transport is about building systems that can be used by anybody and everybody. It has to be affordable for the poor, accessible for the disabled, and seamless for the busy office-goers. As citizens, it is our duty to push the envelope with policymakers to make sustainable transport a reality in our cities.

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What one person wants from their Instagram experience is different from the next, and people’s needs are changing. To hide likes on your post, tap on the three-dot menu button next to an image and select 'hide like count. To pre-emptively hide likes on your posts when you create them, go to Advanced Settings and turn on 'Hide like and view counts on this post. To avoid seeing the total number of likes and views on posts from other accounts on your feed, go to Settings > Privacy> Posts and turn on Hide like and view counts'.

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Mobile Premier League (MPL) has become India's second gaming unicorn after Dream11 in 2019, raising funds at a $2.3 billion valuation (the term 'unicorn' refers to any startup that reaches the valuation of $1 billion, laying emphasis on the rarity of such start ups). The Bangalore-based start-up connects game publishers with players on its app. Users in India, Indonesia and the U.S. can access dozens of free titles - ranging from sudoku, speed chess and puzzles to shooting, fantasy and strategy games and participate in gaming contests and prize money tournaments. India is one the world's largest markets for game downloads with 840 million installs in June 2021, and the country has 400 million gamers. "Gaming is the only entertainment content where language is no barrier," says MPL founder Sai Srinivas Kiran. "Young India will make gaming so mainstream that one day soon gaming could become more popular than watching movies," he adds.

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YouTube Shorts lets you record 15-second videos and upload them. Open the YouTube app, tap on the plus icon at the bottom-centre and then on 'Create a Short'. On the recording page, tap on the 'Add Music' button at the top and choose one from YouTube's top trending songs or search for your favourite tracks. Hit the red record button to start recording. If you like a song and want to use it in the future, tap on the save icon beside it for easy access.

Once you've found the YouTube Shorts section on the app's homepage, you'll see a selection of thumbnails for popular Shorts. Clicking on any of those videos brings you into the vertical video player, where you can watch the clip. You can like or dislike the video while it's playing by tapping the thumbs up or thumbs down icon. 

You can also share the Short or comment on it from within the player, although that will pause the video. At the bottom of the clip, you can subscribe to the Short creator's channel. You can also click on their channel name to see all of that creator's YouTube Shorts.

If the clip uses a song or sound from another creator, a waveform button will appear on the right-hand side of the screen. Tapping that button will show the original source video for the audio and all the other Shorts that use that song or sound in their clip.

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Designer Ben Vessey has created an alternative to the small battery icon on an iPhone's screen. Dynamic iPhone Battery Wallpapers or Dynamo utilize the built-in Shortcuts app to change dynamically based on your iPhone's battery life - turning your phone into a giant battery indicator. The wallpapers automatically switch to a design warning low battery life when the charge level hits 20%, and also change if the battery is in need of a charge or actively charging. Dynamo is available in four different packs, each containing three sets of dynamic wallpapers - the Mac pack (inspired by classic Mac wallpapers and the Finder symbol), the Album pack (inspired by album covers from artists like David Bowie and Pink Floyd), the Apple pack (easily-recognizable Apple designs and colour palettes) and the Faces pack (cartoon characters and the iconic black and yellow smiley face). Dynamo is optimized for every iPhone from the 65 onwards.

How do they work? Each collection, which go for about $5.50 each, includes video and PDF instructions for setting up four separate automations using the iOS Shortcuts app that automatically changes your iPhone’s background based on how much charge is left. There’s no jailbreaking involved and the setup is promised to take about 10 minutes. iOS 14 is required, but the dynamically changing wallpapers should work on devices dating all the way back to the iPhone 6S.

The wallpapers automatically switch out to a design warning low battery life when the iPhone’s charge level hits 20%, and each collection also includes a version that clearly indicates when the device is charging, to avoid those times when you think you’ve plugged in a power cable correctly, or have positioned it properly on a wireless charger, when in fact you haven’t and you return a half-hour later to find your device completely dead.

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Using underwater robots, Teleportal lets anyone swim through Australia's natural wonder - the Great Barrier Reef - from the comfort of their homes. Teleportal operates a fleet of underwater robots on the Reef, which can be controlled day or night using a web browser. Users can log into the online portal, buy credits to pay for a dive, and use their keyboards to take one of the remote-controlled bots around the reef (upto 328 feet in any direction). The bot captures live video with its wide-angle 1080p camera and streams it to the user's computer screen. The robots are solar-powered and have sonar obstacle avoidance, ensuring this fragile ecosystem's protection while users enjoy an eco-friendly experience. Multiple robots and dive sites are available on Teleportal so that users will always have a new coral reef to discover and plenty of passing fauna to make each dive unique.

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Google's new accessibility feature will let users control their phone with different facial expressions. The feature has been added to the Android Accessibility Suite as part of the upcoming Android 12 update. The Camera Switches feature will support setting gestures to specific controls. For example, the app can detect when a user opens their mouth and then map that to open the notifications panel. Alternatively, users can raise their eyebrows to return to their home screen. Possible face gestures include smiling, opening the mouth, and looking right, left or down. Users can set up these facial gestures and assign a task for each of them including select, next, previous, touch and hold, scroll forward and backward, home, back, notifications and more. Users will also be able to select how sensitive the gesture will be while recognising the facial expression by adjusting the gesture size and duration.

On Android 12, Google is offering different facial gestures such as open mouth, smile, raise eyebrows, look left, look right and look up. You can set up these facial gestures and assign a task for each of them. There are also options to choose the size of the gesture. For example, how big you want your smile to be so that the gesture can be recognised. Once you set up the gesture you can set an assignment for it.

There are different actions that you can perform through Camera Switches, and these include select, next, previous, touch and hold, scroll forward and backward, home, back, notifications and more.

When the feature is enabled, your Android phone will detect when you look into the front camera and make these gestures. A persistent notification is also shown when the Camera Switches feature is active to indicate that the camera is in use. XDA Developers also found this feature working on Android 11 devices by sideloading its APK, which means Google could make it available for devices running Android 11 or below.

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The Tesla Bot is a humanoid robot designed to perform tasks considered repetitive or too dangerous for humans. It stands 5'8" tall and weighs 57 kgs. It can deadlift 68 kgs, reach a top speed of 8 km/h, carry 20 kgs, and lift 4.5 kgs with its arms extended. It has a screen where it displays "useful information" in lieu of a face, along with eight cameras. The robot, code-named "Optimus", is based on the same chips and sensors that Tesla's cars use for their self driving features. The bot is at the concept stage currently, but Tesla hopes to unveil a working prototype next year. Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, claims that the robot will have a personality "intended to be friendly, of course". He also stated that people must be ready for robots to undertake menial chores and, eventually, work alongside them, if not completely replace them in the workplace.

The robots will be designed to handle “tasks that are unsafe, repetitive or boring,” the company’s website reads, but little else, at least at first. (There, the bot is simply called “Tesla Bot.”) “I think essentially in the future, physical work will be a choice, if you want to do it you can,” Musk said.

Musk revealed drawings of the robot near the tail end of his company’s “AI Day” event, where it showcased some of the artificial intelligence and supercomputer technologies that it’s working on with the goal of one day powering self-driving cars. The company also had a mannequin version on the stage, which wasn’t working.

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ATMS (Automated Teller Machines) doling out cash is a familiar sight in most cities and towns. But have you heard of a "Grain ATM'? The Haryana Government has recently set up its first ATM machine for dispensing food grains in Gurugram district. Let's find out more about it.

First of its kind

The country's first food grain ATM has come up at Farrukhnagar, and is named "Annapurti" (Automated, Multi Commodity, Grain Dispensing Machine). Installed as a pilot project -a small-scale implementation to test the viability of the project- the ATM as of now will provide three types of grains - wheat, rice, and millet. It is said that each machine can dispense 70 kg of grains in under seven minutes at a time.

The machine has been installed under the UN's World Food Programme, which works closely with several countries to address issues of food scarcity and hunger.

Why has it been set up?

The purpose of the Annapurti ATM, according to Haryana's Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala, is to make the process of distributing grains at government-run ration shops easy and hassle-free. On successful completion of the pilot project at Farrukhnagar, the government plans to install these machines at all ration shops across the State.

How does it function?

The grain ATM has a biometric system with a touch-screen, where the beneficiaries have to enter their Aadhaar or ration card number to get their grains. This is to ensure the right quantity of grains reaches the right beneficiaries. As it is an automatic machine; the scope of error in measurement is said to be negligible. On biometric authentication, the machine will dispense the foodgrains the bags placed under the machine. Besides helping prevent pilferage, the system is expected to bring in greater transparency in the public distribution system and reduce waiting time of beneficiaries.

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A job application filled by Steve Jobs in 1973 when he was 18 years old has fetched US$3,43,000 (Rs 2,54,78,897) in an online auction. It's said to be the only job application that he ever filled out as he, along with Steve Wozniak, started Apple in 1976. On it, Jobs listed "electronics tech" and "design engineer" as his special abilities and interests, and other skills such as "computer" and "calculator". "The Steve Jobs Job Application from 1973 is a unique piece of history from the exact moment that a dreamer changed the world. It's a snapshot into the mind of a future genius at a moment where any small deviation from the path ahead would have meant a very different world today," the auction website said.

This auction, however, was the first of its kind in several aspects. For starters, it did not just have a physical copy of the job application. It even sold it off in an NFT or Non-fungible token format.

In fact, this was one of the main reasons the auction was conducted. A group of friends under the alias Winthorpe Ventures held the auction to understand if the digital asset had a similar value to its physical form. So while people bid for the physical job application in US dollars, the NFT was being auctioned off using Ethereum.

The group got the answer it sought by the end of the auction. The auction concluded with the print copy of the job application by Steve Jobs going for over four times what the NFT version received.

So, we now know that people are more interested in the actual letter written by Jobs himself, and not a mere digital copy of it. Can this principle apply to the rest of the art forms too? The answer will likely shape the future of NFTs in the world.

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Tech start-up, Ampere, wants to help you protect your eyes with Dusk, the "world's first smart sunglasses". Unlike classic transitional glasses made with photochromic lenses that automatically switch tint in response to brighter light, Dusk's are made with electrochromic lenses that change tint in response to electrical signals. The lenses block 100% of UVA/UVB rays, and the frames weigh just 26 grams. A button on the underside of one arm cycles through three preset tint levels; for more detailed control the Ampere app has a sliding bar that lets users pick from zero to 100 per cent tint; the tint switch happens in 0.1 seconds. Favourite settings can be saved to find later. Dusk also has speakers and a mic for hands-free phone calls, summoning Siri and Google Assistant or listening to music, audiobooks and podcasts. The speakers are "open ear", but only the wearer will be able to hear them. Use the Ampere app to sound an alarm to help you find them; there's also space for Apple's Air Tag in Dusk's charging case, so that you never misplace it. Dusk's IP65 rating means they can withstand dust, rain and other elements. The Dusk comes with 7 days of use when running just the tint-control features.

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Graphics designer Arun Raj has created a SpaceX TravelCard that can be used to book a travel plan and double up as a ticket for a visit to the moon, Mars, Saturn, and even Jupiter! Posted to the r/SpaceXLounge on Reddit, the 30-second video showcases a digital, touchscreen device that fits in the palm of your hand. Launch the booking process with fingerprint identification and specify your current location and destination. Users can book flights to different planets and the Moon, select the date and number of travellers, and receive a boarding pass. On the video, the cost of heading to Mars from Earth costs about $500,000 per person! With the SpaceX Mars programme aiming to land the first humans on Mars by 2024, this card concept may be a reality soon.

There was once a time where air travel seemed like a farfetched dream. While we’re a long way (and a few, massive paychecks) from booking a flight to the moon as easily as we can head to Florida, it’s fun to dream, and Reddit user armedialabs knows this.

Armedialabs shared an animated video of what they imagine space travel will look like in the future. Posting to r/SpaceXLounge on Reddit, the SpaceX Travel card shows what booking a SpaceX Starship ticket may look like in the future. The travel card is imagined to be as big as a credit card and easy to use with one hand.

With the touch of the screen, users authenticate their identity with a thumbprint which opens to the booking screen. From there, users can choose which planet they want to visit or which moon. Then it’s as simple as choosing a date and selecting how many people will be traveling. From there, you complete the confirmation of booking, and the boarding pass pops on the card, and it’s all ready for travel time.

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The Moorebot Scout Robot is a palm-sized robot that's being billed as the world's first autonomous home robot for intelligent monitoring. Users manually steering the Scout through a patrol route in their home, using an accompanying iOS/Android app. The robot's software records that route, then subsequently guides the Scout along it as the bot makes its scheduled patrols. The Scout rolls across floors on four independently-powered Mecanum wheels, each made up of a series of angled powered rollers, which allow it to move from side to side while still facing forward. The Scout wirelessly connects to your home's Wi-Fi so that you can view real time video from its 1080p night-vision camera online, a handy feature if you are out of the house or on vacation. A three-hour charge of its 2,000-mAh lithium battery offers 2.5 hours of runtime; when the battery gets low, the Scout automatically returns to its docking station for a recharge. The Scout can be voice-controlled via Alexa or Google and doubles as a pet companion and educational device for youngsters.

Digital assistants like the Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant are also compatible with many self-monitored security systems. Scout, Abode, and SmartThings all integrate automatically with Amazon’s Echo and Echo Dot for truly automated home security. These assistants aren’t fully compatible with AI-powered devices like those from Lighthouse or BuddyGuard yet, but with digital assistants dominating the smart home market, integration could develop quickly.

The rest of your smart home’s tech can often be leveraged to enhance your security, convenience, and comfort. You can connect your smart hub to sprinkler systems and appliances to control them from anywhere. And many of the current-generation automated light fixtures can learn your routine over time (keeping unneeded lights off to save money) and mimic your lighting habits when you’re away to make it appear like someone’s home.

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Turn your pictures into stories with Speaking Photo, an app that lets you add sound to any photo. It allows you to tell a story along with the image before you share it on Facebook, YouTube or via email. The storyboard feature gives users a chance to select multiple photo/audio pairs and customize their play order, creating a larger movie to share. Available for iOS and Android.

With SpeakPic, the voice of the translator will be really fun for you and friends.
Have you thought about making your friend sing his/her team's anthem? Or maybe an unexpected declaration of love. With SpeakPic, anything is possible.

You can change the voice with different effects to make the end result even funnier.
There are dozens of voices to choose from, in multiple languages.

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Light emitted from displays of tablets and similar devices causes suppression of melatonin (the hormone that controls the night-day cycle), affecting our natural body clock. Darkness causes increased production of melatonin, signalling the body to prepare for sleep while light decreases melatonin production signalling the body to prepare to be awake. Using a self-luminous display for 2 hours before bed, suppresses melatonin by 22% making it harder to fall asleep.

Night-time melatonin secretion is suppressed by a relatively dim light when pupils are dilated. This has been suggested as the main way through which prolonged use of devices such as laptops and smartphones before bedtime can have a negative impact on melatonin secretion, circadian rhythms and sleep.

In addition to its production in the body, melatonin can also be taken in capsule form. The clinical uses of melatonin include treatment of age-associated insomnia, jet lag, and shift work. When administered at an appropriate time of day, it can reset the body’s circadian rhythms (see the articles on jet lag and circadian rhythm sleep disorders). This resetting effect of melatonin has been reported for many dose strengths, including those that are equivalent to the concentration of melatonin naturally produced by the pineal gland. Higher doses of melatonin can reset circadian rhythms, bring on sleepiness and lower core body temperature.

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