Garuda Aerospace To Open First Retail Outlet After Diwali


Homegrown drone maker Garuda Aerospace is set to launch its first retail outlet in Chennai after Diwali. The company plans to also have drone stores on wheels across the country. Garuda Aerospace intends to open 400 retail stores in the country, news agency IANS has reported. Garuda Aerospace has an order book of 400 drones from Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) and about 10,000 pre-bookings from various dealers. The company had recently raised Rs 25 crore from investors for working capital and other purposes.


Samsung's Bixy Text Call Feature In India 


Samsung has introduced Bixby Text Call feature for come Galaxy smartphones users in India. This functionality enables users to allow Samsung's voice assistant, Bixby, to answer phone calls on their behalf. After activating, users will have the option to view a Bixby Text call feature when they receive an incoming phone call.


Slack CEO To Head Dating App Bumble


Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder and CEO of the dating app Bumble, is said to resign from her position. The company has issued an official statement confirming Herd's plan to step down from her role in 2024. She will be replaced by Lidiane Jones, the current CEO of Salesforce’s Cloud-based messaging platform Slack. The succession will be completed on January 2, 2024.


Italy Slaps Airbnb With $835.5 Million Fine


Italian authorities have asked Airbnb, a leading player in hospitality, to pay $835.5 million (or 779.5 million euros) over alleged tax evasion. Per the allegations, Airbnb failed to collect taxes from landlords concerning approximately 3.7 billion euros in rental income, as detailed by a BBC report. Under Italian regulations, landlords are obliged to remit a 21 per cent tax on their earnings. Airbnb previously contested the legal mandate in Italy, which required the company and other rental service providers to retain 21 per cent of the rental income from landlords and remit it to the tax authorities.


YouTube Testing AI Chatbot For Videos


YouTube is testing a novel artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot designed to offer viewers seamless access to information while watching videos without disrupting playback. This conversational AI tool is intended to address viewer queries about a video and provide suggestions for related content. Google said in a support page: "We're conducting tests with two experiments that incorporate generative AI into the YouTube viewing experience. As these experiments are currently limited in scope, you may not encounter them yet."


The AI chatbot is currently accessible to a select group of individuals for a subset of videos. In the following weeks, YouTube Premium members using Android devices in the US will gain access to this feature.