It’s a wrap: News this week (Sept 30 — Oct 6)

There have been multiple developments this week on the tech front. From TCS-Asda deal to Google’s antitrust trial, this is the list of the most important developments for a quick catch-up:

Microsoft Translate supports 20 Indian languages

Microsoft India has added four new languages to the Microsoft Translate service, taking the count of supported Indian languages to 20. The new languages added are Bhojpuri, Bodo, Dogri, and Kashmiri, which will collectively impact 61 million people. This announcement comes a few months after Microsoft Translator expanded its language portfolio by including three Indian languages, Konkani, Maithili, and Sindhi, in May.
To be sure, Microsoft Translate supports Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Konkani, Maithili, and Malayalam, among others, covering languages spoken by about 95% of the country’s population; the company aims to cover all 22 official Indian languages.

Google Pixel 8 launch

Google organised its Made by Google event this week which was marked by a series of launches and announcements. The highlight of the show was the release of the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro phones. These phones come with upgrades to photo and video quality, resilience to sophisticated attacks, and work productivity tools. Notably, Google Photos now has Magic Editor which uses generative artificial intelligence to improve photo editing. Other launches include Pixel Watch 2 and Android 14. Google also announced the launch of Assistant with Bard, an generative AI-based personal assistant for users.

TCS-Asda deal

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced on Wednesday that it will support British retail firm Asda in its digital transformation and implement a new information technology (IT) model. The financial details of the multi-year deal were not disclosed. 
According to a statement from TCS, the strategic partnership will utilise TCS’ cloud, artificial intelligence, and security solutions to assist Asda, which was previously owned by US retail giant Walmart, in smoothly and securely delivering the divestiture on time. TCS will help Asda enhance customer experience and innovation capabilities. 

Nadella at Google antitrust trial

Microsoft chief Satya Nadella testified at the ongoing Google’s antitrust trial. Calling internet a ‘Google Web’, Nadella said that Google has a dominant status in the online search space making it difficult for his company to compete. Nadella’s testimony lasted more than three hours, where he said that Microsoft found it difficult to overcome Google’s multibillion dollar deals to be the default search engine on browsers and smartphones.