Week in tech: Video, audio calling coming to X, Free Fire returns

Free Fire, the popular battle royale game from Garena, is returning to India on 5 September

Nitin Sreedhar
Published3 Sep 2023, 12:00 PM IST
FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and owner of Twitter, now X, attends the Viva Technology conference n Paris, France, June 16, 2023.
FILE PHOTO: Elon Musk, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla and owner of Twitter, now X, attends the Viva Technology conference n Paris, France, June 16, 2023.(Reuters)

The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched the Aditya-L1 mission earlier this week, on 2 September. This is India’s maiden space-based observatory-class solar mission to study the Sun. You can read more about the mission here.

Here’s a look at what else made news in the world of science and technology this week.

Garena's Free Fire returns to India

Singaporean global online games developer and publisher Garena announced earlier this week that the game Free Fire India will be launched on 5 September. Garena's Free Fire, a popular battle royale game in the country, was removed from the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store after the government banned it in February 2022, citing security issues. Garena said that the app will be available for download for free starting later this month. “India is home to very passionate communities of esports enthusiasts and we are excited to be able to support our fans from Bharat with the launch of Free Fire India,” Gang Ye, the co-founder of Garena, said in a press statement. Garena has also partnered with Indian company Yotta, that will provide the local cloud hosting and storage infrastructure for Free Fire India. The company also unveiled former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni as the new brand ambassador for Free Fire India.

Garena announced earlier this week that the game Free Fire India will be launched on 5 September.

Audio and video calling to come to X: Elon Musk

Tesla and SpaceX co-founder Elon Musk announced earlier this week that audio and video calling features will soon be coming to X, formerly known as Twitter. Musk posted on X on 31 August that both these features will be available on Android, iOS as well as computer devices, with no need for phone numbers. He said X would become the "effective global address book.” This announcement marks yet another step in Musk’s plan to make X an “everything app.” According to an Associated Press report, the company also updated its privacy policies that will allow for the collection of biometric data and employment history, among other information.

A combination picture of NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) images shows the surface of the moon on June 27, 2020 and August 24, 2023, before and after the appearance of a crater, likely the impact site of Russia's Luna-25 mission.

Crashed Russian Luna-25 mission left a crater on the moon: Nasa images

On 1 September, US space agency Nasa said it had spotted a small new crater on the Moon that was likely caused by the Russian Luna-25 probe crash landing on the lunar surface around two weeks ago. The Luna-25 probe had crashed on August 19 as Russia attempted a soft landing on the lunar south pole region. An AFP report said the crater finding was made by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter by comparing before and after images of the estimated impact point, provided by Russian space agency Roscosmos. In a statement, Nasa said: "Since this new crater is close to the Luna 25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor." The new crater is about 10 meters (32 feet) in diameter, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) short of Luna-25's intended landing point, the AFP report adds.

Also read: The long, slow journey of Isro's women scientists

(With inputs from news agencies)

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First Published:3 Sep 2023, 12:00 PM IST

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