<\/p>\n
During the whirlwind of events that strike us throughout the week, it could be hard to keep a track of top news stories. But fear not, we have got you covered with the Weekly Tech Recap, where we take a look at the top 5 stories that made waves in the world of technology. This week, Microsoft Windows faced a major global outage following a controversial Crowdstrike update, OpenAI dumped GPT-3.5 Turbo in favour of GPT-4 Mini, Apple announced its first public beta for iOS 18 and more.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
8.5 million Windows devices were affected worldwide after a \u2018Blue Screen of Death\u2019 notification that saw these devices getting stuck at \u2018Recovery\u2019 stage with the message \u2018Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart\u2019 text getting displayed. The error occured first on Friday and affected companies, airlines, government offices and even emergency services.<\/p>\n
“On July 18, CrowdStrike, an independent cybersecurity company, released a software update that began impacting IT systems globally\u2026 Since this event began, we\u2019ve maintained ongoing communication with our customers, CrowdStrike and external developers to collect information and expedite solutions. We recognize the disruption this problem has caused for businesses and in the daily routines of many individuals. Our focus is providing customers with technical guidance and support to safely bring disrupted systems back online.” Microsoft said in a blogpost on the issue.<\/p>\n
OpenAI released GPT-4o, the company’s most cost effective model to date. GPT-4o Mini (O stands for Omni) has replaced GPT-3.5 Turbo and is available to use for free. Meanwhile, it will be offered to enterprise users starting next week.<\/p>\n
The model is being seen as an attempt by OpenAI to stay relevant with increasing competition from more deep pocketed rivals like Google and Meta.<\/p>\n
OpenAI said that GPT-4o Mini is priced at 15 cents per million input token and 60 cents per million output tokens, making it 60% more cheaper than GPT-3.5 Turbo. The model scored 82% on Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) and outperformed GPT-4 on chat preferences in LMSYS leaderboard.<\/p>\n
Apple launched the first public beta of iOS 18 earlier this week, along with beta versions for iPads, Macs, and other devices. This release offers users an early look at the upcoming features and enhancements that will be fully available with the official release.<\/p>\n
The iOS 18 public beta introduces a limited set of features, with more to be tested in future updates. The new features brought during the iOS 18 beta update include Home Screen Customization, Icon Tinting, Revamped Control Center, Enhanced Photos App and Dark Mode Icons.<\/p>\n
OnePlus launched a range of devices at the company’s Summer Launch Event in Milan, Italy. The showstopper at the event was the OnePlus Nord 4 powered by the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 chipset, which features a 5,500mAh battery at a starting price of \u20b9<\/span>29,999.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, OnePlus also launched OnePlus Pad 2 at the event, which is now powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset and features a 12.1-inch 3K LCD display, with a starting price of \u20b9<\/span>39,999. Other devices launched at the event include, OnePlus Watch 2R and the OnePlus Nord Buds 3 Pro.<\/p>\n Google India handle on X confirmed this week that the upcoming Google Pixle 9 Pro and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold will launch in India along with other global markets. Notably, Google is hosting its \u2018Made for Google\u2019 event on August 13 where it will announce the Pixel 9 series along with other hardware products.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n5) Google Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro Fold confirmed to launch in India on August 13:\u00a0<\/h2>\n