<p>India's e-payment gateway for cashless transactions, the BHIM app, will be launched in Bhutan today. BHIM or Bharat Interface for Money is developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).</p>

<p>The BHIM app will help Indian businesses and tourists in the country with cashless transactions and will give a flip to Bhutanese businesses as well.</p>

<p>BHIM is the second Indian payment gateway to be launched in the country after RuPay.</p>

<p>The year 2019 saw the RuPay card being launched in Bhutan during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.</p>

<p>Phase 2 of RuPay was launched last year. RuPay is an Indian payment gateway like a visa or Mastercard and is now available in many countries in the region, like Singapore, Maldives, UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.</p>

<p>India and Bhutan share very close ties, defined as a "special relationship".</p>

<p>Amid the Covid crisis, India sent out medicines and vaccines to the country. Bhutan also reached out to India by supplying 40 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to Assam.</p>


India's e-payment gateway for cashless transactions, the BHIM app, will be launched in Bhutan today. BHIM or Bharat Interface for Money is developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

India's e-payment gateway for cashless transactions, the BHIM app, will be launched in Bhutan today. BHIM or Bharat Interface for Money is developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI). The BHIM app will help Indian businesses and tourists in the country with cashless transactions and will give a flip to Bhutanese businesses as well. BHIM is the second Indian payment gateway to be launched in the country after RuPay. The year 2019 saw the RuPay card being launched in Bhutan during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Phase 2 of RuPay was launched last year. RuPay is an Indian payment gateway like a visa or Mastercard and is now available in many countries in the region, like Singapore, Maldives, UAE, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. India and Bhutan share very close ties, defined as a "special relationship". Amid the Covid crisis, India sent out medicines and vaccines to the country. Bhutan also reached out to India by supplying 40 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to Assam.

Indian mobile payment App BHIM to be launched in Bhutan today 

<p>Application revenue earned from mobile phone users around the world jumped to record amount in the first half of 2021, market tracker Sensor Tower said on Monday.</p>

<p>Touching nearly $65 billion, the revenue drove Apple and Google app platforms (App Store and Google Play Store) to thrive even as the companies come under the radar of authorities for antitrust practices.</p>

<p>Initial figures from Sensor Tower suggest that $64.9 billion was spent on App Store and Google Play Store in the period between January-June of this year, inducting a 25 per cent jump from the same period in 2020.</p>

<p>According to the company, $41.5 billion was spent on Apple’s App Store in the first half of this year on subscriptions and other apps, including purchases within the applications. By the end of June, Google Play Store is expected to generate a revenue of $23.4 billion.</p>

<p><strong>Which apps topped the list?</strong></p>

<p>TikTok was the top grossing non-game mobile application. Users spent roughly $920 million on the app this year, denoting a 74 per cent jump from the first six months of last year, as revealed by Sensor Tower.</p>

<p>YouTube, which is owned by Google, followed TikTok and is the second biggest non-game generator of revenue, with users spending $565 million on the platform.</p>

<p>Spending on mobile games increased by 18 per cent this year, touching $44.7 billion. China’s internet firm Tencent had the top most grossing mobile game - Honor of Kings, which generated over $1.5 billion in the first half of 2021.</p>

<p>"While consumer spending in mobile games is growing at a slower clip than last year, this doesn’t indicate a downturn for the industry but rather a normalization after the surge in interest during the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic," AFP cited Sensor Tower as saying in a post.</p>

<p>The survey sheds light on the growing importance of the “app economy”.</p>

<p>Currently, Epic Games is trying to break Apple’s tight grip on the App Store, hoping to force Apple to open the store to third parties and to limit Apple’s earnings from apps.</p>

<p><strong>Also read:&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/facebook-hits-1-trillion-value-after-judge-rejects-antitrust-complaints-394581" hreflang="en">Facebook hits $1 trillion value after judge rejects antitrust complaints</a></p>

<p><strong>Also read:&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/twitters-interim-grievance-officer-for-india-quits-days-after-appointment-394478" hreflang="en">Twitter's interim grievance officer for India quits days after appointment</a></p>

<p><strong>Also read:&nbsp;</strong><a href="https://www.wionews.com/technology/wild-child-of-silicon-valley-the-rise-and-fall-of-john-mcafee-394249" hreflang="en">Wild child of Silicon Valley: The rise and fall of John McAfee</a></p>


Application revenue earned from mobile phone users around the world jumped to record amount in the first half of 2021, market tracker Sensor Tower said on Monday.

Application revenue earned from mobile phone users around the world jumped to record amount in the first half of 2021, market tracker Sensor Tower said on Monday. Touching nearly $65 billion, the revenue drove Apple and Google app platforms (App Store and Google Play Store) to thrive even as the companies come under the radar of authorities for antitrust practices. Initial figures from Sensor Tower suggest that $64.9 billion was spent on App Store and Google Play Store in the period between January-June of this year, inducting a 25 per cent jump from the same period in 2020. According to the company, $41.5 billion was spent on Apple’s App Store in the first half of this year on subscriptions and other apps, including purchases within the applications. By the end of June, Google Play Store is expected to generate a revenue of $23.4 billion. Which apps topped the list? TikTok was the top grossing non-game mobile application. Users spent roughly $920 million on the app this year, denoting a 74 per cent jump from the first six months of last year, as revealed by Sensor Tower. YouTube, which is owned by Google, followed TikTok and is the second biggest non-game generator of revenue, with users spending $565 million on the platform. Spending on mobile games increased by 18 per cent this year, touching $44.7 billion. China’s internet firm Tencent had the top most grossing mobile game - Honor of Kings, which generated over $1.5 billion in the first half of 2021. "While consumer spending in mobile games is growing at a slower clip than last year, this doesn’t indicate a downturn for the industry but rather a normalization after the surge in interest during the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic," AFP cited Sensor Tower as saying in a post. The survey sheds light on the growing importance of the “app economy”. Currently, Epic Games is trying to break Apple’s tight grip on the App Store, hoping to force Apple to open the store to third parties and to limit Apple’s earnings from apps. Also read: Facebook hits $1 trillion value after judge rejects antitrust complaints Also read: Twitter's interim grievance officer for India quits days after appointment Also read: Wild child of Silicon Valley: The rise and fall of John McAfee

People spent nearly $65 billion on mobile apps this year. Which ones topped the list?

<p>A few nights ago, after my weekly trip to the grocery store, I sat in my car glued to Clubhouse, the invitation-only social audio app.</p>

<p>While my ice cream thawed in the trunk, I dropped in on a room where Tom Green, the former MTV shock comedian and star of “Freddy Got Fingered,” was debating the ethics of artificial intelligence with a group of computer scientists and Deadmau5, the famous Canadian DJ.</p>

<p>When that was over, I headed to a room called NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys. There, I listened to college students playing a dating game in which contestants were given 30 seconds of stage time to try to seduce someone else in the audience.</p>

<p>And after a few rounds of that, I joined a room called the Cotton Club, in which users changed their avatars to black-and-white portraits and pretended to be patrons of a 1920s-style speak-easy, complete with jazz soundtrack.</p>

<p>Two hours later, my ice cream fully liquefied, I emerged from the car with the feeling that I had just experienced something special. It was all fascinating, surprising and a little surreal, like peeking into the windows of interesting strangers’ houses. And it gave me a flashback to a similar euphoria I felt years ago, when celebrities and creative weirdos started showing up on Facebook and Twitter.</p>

<p>I’ve been spending a lot of time on Clubhouse recently, and the parallels to the early, hypergrowth days of those earlier-generation social networks are uncanny. The 11-month-old app’s popularity — it has more than 10 million users, and invitations are selling for up to $125 on eBay — has set off a mad dash among investors, who have valued the company at $1 billion. Celebrities including Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey and Joe Rogan have shown up in Clubhouse rooms, adding to the buzz. And the app is spawning competition from Twitter and Facebook, which are experimenting with similar products.</p>

<p>Every successful social network has a life cycle that goes something like: Wow, this app sure is addictive! Look at all the funny and exciting ways people are using it! Oh, look, I can get my news and political commentary here, too! This is going to empower dissidents, promote free speech and topple authoritarian regimes! Hmm, why are trolls and racists getting millions of followers? And where did all these conspiracy theories come from? This platform should really hire some moderators and fix its algorithms. Wow, this place is a cesspool. I’m deleting my account.</p>

<p>What’s remarkable about Clubhouse is that it seems to be experiencing this entire cycle all at once, during its first year of existence.</p>

<p>I started using Clubhouse in the fall. At the time, the app seemed to be dominated by typical early-adopter types — tech workers, venture capitalists, digital marketing gurus — along with a sizable contingent of Black influencers and a number of “heterodox” internet figures who mostly used the platform to complain about the mainstream media and go on tedious rants about cancel culture.</p>

<p>From the start, there were signs that Clubhouse was speed-running the platform life cycle. Weeks after launching, it ran into claims that it was allowing harassment and hate speech to proliferate, including large rooms where speakers allegedly made anti-Semitic comments. The startup scrambled to update its community guidelines and add basic blocking and reporting features, and its founders did the requisite Zuckerbergian apology tour. (“We unequivocally condemn Anti-Blackness, Anti-Semitism, and all other forms of racism, hate speech and abuse on Clubhouse,” read one company blog post in October.)</p>

<p>The company has also faced accusations of mishandling user data, including a Stanford report that found that the company may have routed some data through servers in China, possibly giving the Chinese government access to sensitive user information. (The company pledged to lock down user data and submit to an outside audit of its security practices.) And privacy advocates have balked at the app’s aggressive growth practices, which include asking users to upload their entire contact lists in order to send invitations to others.</p>

<p>“Major privacy &amp;amp; security concerns, lots of data extraction, use of dark patterns, growth without a clear business model. When will we learn?” Elizabeth Renieris, director of the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab, wrote in a tweet this week that compared Clubhouse at this moment to the early days of Facebook.</p>

<p>To be fair, there are some important structural differences between Clubhouse and existing social networks. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which revolve around central, algorithmically curated feeds, Clubhouse is organized more like Reddit — a cluster of topical rooms, moderated by users, with a central “hallway” where users can browse rooms in progress. Clubhouse rooms disappear after they’re over, and recording a room is against the rules (although it still happens), which means that “going viral,” in the traditional sense, isn’t really possible. Users have to be invited to a room’s “stage” to speak, and moderators can easily boot unruly or disruptive speakers, so there’s less risk of a civilized discussion’s being hijacked by trolls. And Clubhouse doesn’t have ads, which reduces the risk of profit-seeking mischief.</p>

<p>But there are still plenty of similarities. Like other social networks, Clubhouse has a number of “discovery” features and aggressive growth-hacking tactics meant to draw new users deeper into the app, including algorithmic recommendations and personalized push alerts, and a list of suggested users to follow. Those features, combined with Clubhouse’s ability to form private and semiprivate rooms with thousands of people in them, create some of the same bad incentives and opportunities for abuse that have hurt other platforms.</p>

<p>The app’s reputation for lax moderation has also attracted a number of people who have been barred by other social networks, including figures associated with QAnon, Stop the Steal and other extremist groups.</p>

<p>Clubhouse has also become a home for people who are disillusioned with social media censorship and critical of various gatekeepers. Attacking The New York Times in particular has become something of an obsession among Clubhouse addicts for reasons that would take another full column to explain. (A room called, in part, How to Destroy the NYT ran for many hours, drawing thousands of listeners.)</p>

<p>It has also drawn scrutiny from governments. Dissidents in Thailand and Russia have been using the app to discuss government corruption and document human rights abuses. And the Chinese government banned the app this month, presumably after discovering that residents of mainland China were using Clubhouse to have long and free-flowing conversations with people in Taiwan and Hong Kong outside the grasp of censors.</p>

<p>But before I get tagged as a Clubhouse hater, let me sound a note of optimism. I actually like Clubhouse and think its core technological innovation — an easy way to create live, participatory audio experiences — is a genuinely useful one. Most rooms I’ve been in are civil and well-moderated, and if you scroll past the megapopular rooms filled with celebrities and clout-chasers, you can find some truly fascinating stuff.</p>

<p>In the past few weeks, I’ve listened to a Clubhouse room of Black doctors and nurses discussing their experiences of racism in medicine, and a room where a prominent psychologist led a workshop on mourning and grief. I’ve lurked in Korean karaoke contests, heard energy experts debating nuclear power and hosted civilized conversations about the media. The other night, after sampling a few dozen Clubhouse rooms, I fell asleep to the sounds of the lullaby club, a nightly Clubhouse gathering of musicians who sing songs to help one another fall asleep.</p>

<p>The ability to spontaneously drop in and out of rooms like these and toggle between passive listening and active speaking is part of what makes Clubhouse so compelling — and so different from listening to podcasts or attending a Zoom webinar. There’s also a refreshing randomness to Clubhouse that makes it more interesting than social networks where every piece of content is algorithmically tailored to your exact interests. (As Nicholas Quah wrote in Vulture, “There is something that feels alluringly new about being able to slide between various pop-up communities you didn’t intentionally seek out.”)</p>

<p>Granted, a pandemic that traps people inside their homes and starves them of social connection is an ideal environment for introducing a new social app, and Clubhouse may lose some users once they’re vaccinated and go back to IRL socializing.</p>

<p>In addition, Clubhouse, which is invitation-only and currently limited to iOS users, still has the benefit of being small enough to manage. As the app opens its gates wider, it will need to scale its moderation efforts or risk turning into the Parler of audio — a place so lawless that only hyperpartisans and professional grifters want to spend time there.</p>

<p>There is also the looming threat of competition from the giants, which could cut into Clubhouse’s growth. Twitter’s group audio chat feature, Spaces, launched this month, and Facebook is reportedly working on its own Clubhouse-like product.</p>

<p>But I hope Clubhouse survives, if only because it could create a more thoughtful, less outrage-driven alternative to the social networks we’ve been typing into for the last decade and a half.</p>

<p>If the platform can fix its issues and learn from the mistakes made by bigger companies before it, I might be in for a lot more late nights in my car.</p>


A few nights ago, after my weekly trip to the grocery store, I sat in my car glued to Clubhouse, the invitation-only social audio app. While my ice cream thawed in the trunk, I dropped in on a room where Tom Green, the former MTV shock comedian and star of “Freddy Got Fingered,” was debating the ethics of artificial intelligence with a group of computer scientists and Deadmau5, the famous Canadian DJ.

A few nights ago, after my weekly trip to the grocery store, I sat in my car glued to Clubhouse, the invitation-only social audio app. While my ice cream thawed in the trunk, I dropped in on a room where Tom Green, the former MTV shock comedian and star of “Freddy Got Fingered,” was debating the ethics of artificial intelligence with a group of computer scientists and Deadmau5, the famous Canadian DJ. When that was over, I headed to a room called NYU Girls Roasting Tech Guys. There, I listened to college students playing a dating game in which contestants were given 30 seconds of stage time to try to seduce someone else in the audience. And after a few rounds of that, I joined a room called the Cotton Club, in which users changed their avatars to black-and-white portraits and pretended to be patrons of a 1920s-style speak-easy, complete with jazz soundtrack. Two hours later, my ice cream fully liquefied, I emerged from the car with the feeling that I had just experienced something special. It was all fascinating, surprising and a little surreal, like peeking into the windows of interesting strangers’ houses. And it gave me a flashback to a similar euphoria I felt years ago, when celebrities and creative weirdos started showing up on Facebook and Twitter. I’ve been spending a lot of time on Clubhouse recently, and the parallels to the early, hypergrowth days of those earlier-generation social networks are uncanny. The 11-month-old app’s popularity — it has more than 10 million users, and invitations are selling for up to $125 on eBay — has set off a mad dash among investors, who have valued the company at $1 billion. Celebrities including Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey and Joe Rogan have shown up in Clubhouse rooms, adding to the buzz. And the app is spawning competition from Twitter and Facebook, which are experimenting with similar products. Every successful social network has a life cycle that goes something like: Wow, this app sure is addictive! Look at all the funny and exciting ways people are using it! Oh, look, I can get my news and political commentary here, too! This is going to empower dissidents, promote free speech and topple authoritarian regimes! Hmm, why are trolls and racists getting millions of followers? And where did all these conspiracy theories come from? This platform should really hire some moderators and fix its algorithms. Wow, this place is a cesspool. I’m deleting my account. What’s remarkable about Clubhouse is that it seems to be experiencing this entire cycle all at once, during its first year of existence. I started using Clubhouse in the fall. At the time, the app seemed to be dominated by typical early-adopter types — tech workers, venture capitalists, digital marketing gurus — along with a sizable contingent of Black influencers and a number of “heterodox” internet figures who mostly used the platform to complain about the mainstream media and go on tedious rants about cancel culture. From the start, there were signs that Clubhouse was speed-running the platform life cycle. Weeks after launching, it ran into claims that it was allowing harassment and hate speech to proliferate, including large rooms where speakers allegedly made anti-Semitic comments. The startup scrambled to update its community guidelines and add basic blocking and reporting features, and its founders did the requisite Zuckerbergian apology tour. (“We unequivocally condemn Anti-Blackness, Anti-Semitism, and all other forms of racism, hate speech and abuse on Clubhouse,” read one company blog post in October.) The company has also faced accusations of mishandling user data, including a Stanford report that found that the company may have routed some data through servers in China, possibly giving the Chinese government access to sensitive user information. (The company pledged to lock down user data and submit to an outside audit of its security practices.) And privacy advocates have balked at the app’s aggressive growth practices, which include asking users to upload their entire contact lists in order to send invitations to others. “Major privacy &amp; security concerns, lots of data extraction, use of dark patterns, growth without a clear business model. When will we learn?” Elizabeth Renieris, director of the Notre Dame-IBM Tech Ethics Lab, wrote in a tweet this week that compared Clubhouse at this moment to the early days of Facebook. To be fair, there are some important structural differences between Clubhouse and existing social networks. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, which revolve around central, algorithmically curated feeds, Clubhouse is organized more like Reddit — a cluster of topical rooms, moderated by users, with a central “hallway” where users can browse rooms in progress. Clubhouse rooms disappear after they’re over, and recording a room is against the rules (although it still happens), which means that “going viral,” in the traditional sense, isn’t really possible. Users have to be invited to a room’s “stage” to speak, and moderators can easily boot unruly or disruptive speakers, so there’s less risk of a civilized discussion’s being hijacked by trolls. And Clubhouse doesn’t have ads, which reduces the risk of profit-seeking mischief. But there are still plenty of similarities. Like other social networks, Clubhouse has a number of “discovery” features and aggressive growth-hacking tactics meant to draw new users deeper into the app, including algorithmic recommendations and personalized push alerts, and a list of suggested users to follow. Those features, combined with Clubhouse’s ability to form private and semiprivate rooms with thousands of people in them, create some of the same bad incentives and opportunities for abuse that have hurt other platforms. The app’s reputation for lax moderation has also attracted a number of people who have been barred by other social networks, including figures associated with QAnon, Stop the Steal and other extremist groups. Clubhouse has also become a home for people who are disillusioned with social media censorship and critical of various gatekeepers. Attacking The New York Times in particular has become something of an obsession among Clubhouse addicts for reasons that would take another full column to explain. (A room called, in part, How to Destroy the NYT ran for many hours, drawing thousands of listeners.) It has also drawn scrutiny from governments. Dissidents in Thailand and Russia have been using the app to discuss government corruption and document human rights abuses. And the Chinese government banned the app this month, presumably after discovering that residents of mainland China were using Clubhouse to have long and free-flowing conversations with people in Taiwan and Hong Kong outside the grasp of censors. But before I get tagged as a Clubhouse hater, let me sound a note of optimism. I actually like Clubhouse and think its core technological innovation — an easy way to create live, participatory audio experiences — is a genuinely useful one. Most rooms I’ve been in are civil and well-moderated, and if you scroll past the megapopular rooms filled with celebrities and clout-chasers, you can find some truly fascinating stuff. In the past few weeks, I’ve listened to a Clubhouse room of Black doctors and nurses discussing their experiences of racism in medicine, and a room where a prominent psychologist led a workshop on mourning and grief. I’ve lurked in Korean karaoke contests, heard energy experts debating nuclear power and hosted civilized conversations about the media. The other night, after sampling a few dozen Clubhouse rooms, I fell asleep to the sounds of the lullaby club, a nightly Clubhouse gathering of musicians who sing songs to help one another fall asleep. The ability to spontaneously drop in and out of rooms like these and toggle between passive listening and active speaking is part of what makes Clubhouse so compelling — and so different from listening to podcasts or attending a Zoom webinar. There’s also a refreshing randomness to Clubhouse that makes it more interesting than social networks where every piece of content is algorithmically tailored to your exact interests. (As Nicholas Quah wrote in Vulture, “There is something that feels alluringly new about being able to slide between various pop-up communities you didn’t intentionally seek out.”) Granted, a pandemic that traps people inside their homes and starves them of social connection is an ideal environment for introducing a new social app, and Clubhouse may lose some users once they’re vaccinated and go back to IRL socializing. In addition, Clubhouse, which is invitation-only and currently limited to iOS users, still has the benefit of being small enough to manage. As the app opens its gates wider, it will need to scale its moderation efforts or risk turning into the Parler of audio — a place so lawless that only hyperpartisans and professional grifters want to spend time there. There is also the looming threat of competition from the giants, which could cut into Clubhouse’s growth. Twitter’s group audio chat feature, Spaces, launched this month, and Facebook is reportedly working on its own Clubhouse-like product. But I hope Clubhouse survives, if only because it could create a more thoughtful, less outrage-driven alternative to the social networks we’ve been typing into for the last decade and a half. If the platform can fix its issues and learn from the mistakes made by bigger companies before it, I might be in for a lot more late nights in my car.

Can Clubhouse move fast without breaking things?

<p>Spain is playing with new ways to counter the direct implications of COVID-19.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Public places like restaurants and malls remain at the highest risk of enabling coronavirus infection and causing new clusters to create.</p>

<p>A Spanish restaurant just came up with the perfect fix. The restaurant has come up with new ways to minimise contact among waiters and staff, which will effectively reduce the risk of coronavirus infections.</p>

<p><strong>All about the funk!</strong></p>

<p>Located in the country's northeastern Mediterranean coast, the the restaurant, called "Funky Pizza" has come up with a mobile application called "Funky Pay", which has been integrated in the restaurant's ordering system.</p>

<p>This means your server will no longer need to physically engage with you at all.</p>

<h6><img alt="An employee using the &quot;Funky Pay&quot; app informs clients that their order is ready, at Funky Pizza restaurant, where the app replaces waiters, in Palafrugell, near Girona, Costa Brava, Spain July 31, 2020" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="610559bf-c9bb-45d1-b327-02924e2354cf" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design-5_10.jpg" /><br />
<em>An employee using the "Funky Pay" app informs clients that their order is ready, at Funky Pizza restaurant, where the app replaces waiters, in Palafrugell, near Girona, Costa Brava, Spain July 31, 2020. | Reuters</em></h6>

<p><br />
The restaurant, situated in Palafrugell in Costa Brava is very popular with tourists. The best part of this move, is perhaps that the waiter does not bring the food to your table. The app has been specifically designed to cater to social distancing needs given the trying times.</p>

<p>"Through this system we have tried to keep physical distance with our clients, which is what people are looking for during COVID," restaurant owner Carlos Manich told Reuters.</p>

<p><strong>Literally zero contact!</strong></p>

<p>To make management of orders easier, the staff tracks the orders through screens behind the bar. Coronavirus has changed life for all of us, and this restaurant is no different - it has become table service only, and has made it mandatory for people to wear face masks at all times when away from tables.</p>

<h6><img alt="Employees pick up the pizzas near an IPad with the &quot;Funky Pay&quot; app, which helps tracking orders of clients and where, with a system of colours, clients can see when it is in the kitchen or when it will be arriving, at Funky Pizza restaurant, where the app replaces waiters, in Palafrugell, near Girona, Costa Brava, Spain July 31, 2020" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="df80ac36-fe7f-478e-b896-524964429253" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/Untitled%20design-6_9.jpg" /><br />
<em>Employees pick up the pizzas near an IPad with the "Funky Pay" app, which helps tracking orders of clients and where, with a system of colours, clients can see when it is in the kitchen or when it will be arriving, at Funky Pizza restaurant, where the app replaces waiters, in Palafrugell, near Girona, Costa Brava, Spain July 31, 2020. | Reuters</em><br />
&nbsp;</h6>

<p>"The application is very user-friendly ... and you can also track your order and see when it is in the kitchen or when it will be arriving," Claudia Medina, 26, who was eating at the restaurant told Reuters.</p>

<p>Of course, not everyone agreed.&nbsp;"I think we lose the feeling with the waiter, for example when you order you can't ask about different preferences or quantities," said another patron&nbsp;Javier Comas, 26.</p>


Spain is playing with new ways to counter the direct implications of COVID-19. Public places like restaurants and malls remain at the highest risk of enabling coronavirus infection and causing new clusters to create.

Spain is playing with new ways to counter the direct implications of COVID-19. Public places like restaurants and malls remain at the highest risk of enabling coronavirus infection and causing new clusters to create. A Spanish restaurant just came up with the perfect fix. The restaurant has come up with new ways to minimise contact among waiters and staff, which will effectively reduce the risk of coronavirus infections. All about the funk! Located in the country's northeastern Mediterranean coast, the the restaurant, called "Funky Pizza" has come up with a mobile application called "Funky Pay", which has been integrated in the restaurant's ordering system. This means your server will no longer need to physically engage with you at all. An employee using the "Funky Pay" app informs clients that their order is ready, at Funky Pizza restaurant, where the app replaces waiters, in Palafrugell, near Girona, Costa Brava, Spain July 31, 2020. | Reuters The restaurant, situated in Palafrugell in Costa Brava is very popular with tourists. The best part of this move, is perhaps that the waiter does not bring the food to your table. The app has been specifically designed to cater to social distancing needs given the trying times. "Through this system we have tried to keep physical distance with our clients, which is what people are looking for during COVID," restaurant owner Carlos Manich told Reuters. Literally zero contact! To make management of orders easier, the staff tracks the orders through screens behind the bar. Coronavirus has changed life for all of us, and this restaurant is no different - it has become table service only, and has made it mandatory for people to wear face masks at all times when away from tables. Employees pick up the pizzas near an IPad with the "Funky Pay" app, which helps tracking orders of clients and where, with a system of colours, clients can see when it is in the kitchen or when it will be arriving, at Funky Pizza restaurant, where the app replaces waiters, in Palafrugell, near Girona, Costa Brava, Spain July 31, 2020. | Reuters "The application is very user-friendly ... and you can also track your order and see when it is in the kitchen or when it will be arriving," Claudia Medina, 26, who was eating at the restaurant told Reuters. Of course, not everyone agreed. "I think we lose the feeling with the waiter, for example when you order you can't ask about different preferences or quantities," said another patron Javier Comas, 26.

Spanish pizzeria takes social distancing to another level with new mobile application!

<p>It is said that science fiction is about making the improbable seem possible. Writers of the genre postulate a world of the future. And while some of their ideas can end up remaining a fantasy, there are a number of times when their predictions have been right on the money.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Here&rsquo;s 9&nbsp;times sci-fi writers were spot-on about technological advancements:&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Debit/Credit Cards</h2>

<p>When Edward Bellamy wrote Looking Backward in 1888, people only relied on paper money. His book introduced the concept of universal credit where citizens of his future utopia carried a card that allowed them to spend on goods and services without paper money changing hands. The book was a huge success.&nbsp;</p>

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false"><img alt="" draggable="false" src="http://wion.azureedge.net/photos/books_1-20161212084822.jpg" />
<div class="media-description">
<p>Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (WION)</p>
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="javascript:void(0)" id="jqclosemark">&times;</a></div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Earphones</h2>

<p>When Ray Bradbury published his dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, portable audio already existed, but the headphones were ungainly and heavy. In his book, he talked about &ldquo;little seashells&hellip; thimble radios&rdquo; that brought an &ldquo;electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk&rdquo;. Who would have then imagined that one day devices like in-ear earphones would become an integral part of people&rsquo;s daily lives.&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (WION)</p>
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<h2>Electric Cars, Violence And Hookup Culture</h2>

<p>John Brunner&rsquo;s Stand On Zanzibar was another piece of literature that was way ahead of its time. Published in 1969, his book painted a world that we are all too familiar with today: America plagued by random acts of violence like school shootings and terrorist attacks, cars powered by rechargeable electric fuel cells, men and women eschewing marriage for short-term and low commitment hookups. What was he thinking?&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner (WION)</p>
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<h2>Geostationary Satellite Communications</h2>

<p>In 1945, a pioneering science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote a manuscript called The Space-Station: Its Radio Applications. He introduced for the first time, geosynchronous satellites being used for telecommunications relays and most importantly for television signals. Imagine a world without our televisions and scores of channels.&nbsp;</p>

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<p>The Space-Station: Its Radio Applications by Arthur C. Clarke (WION)</p>
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<h2>Moon Landing</h2>

<p>Jules Verne wrote From The Earth To The Moon and predicted many aspects of the 1969 manned lunar landing of Apollo 11. Verne&rsquo;s astronauts were launched from a Florida site in an aluminium capsule. In the book, he even gave accurate calculations as to the amount of force that would be needed to propel the rocket out of Earth&rsquo;s atmosphere. We have gone much beyond the Moon now!</p>

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<p>From The Earth To The Moon by Jules Verne (WION)</p>
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<h2>Nuclear Weapon</h2>

<p>Robert Heinlein&rsquo;s 1940 short story Solution Unsatisfactory predicted a future world where America develops an atomic weapon that ends World War II unilaterally. After they use it, it spurs the rest of the world into a nuclear arms race to keep up. The story was written even before the United States entered World War II and five years before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.&nbsp;</p>

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<p>Solution Unsatisfactory by Robert Heinlein (WION)</p>
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<h2>Security Cameras</h2>

<p>George Orwell wrote the book 1984 in 1949. In it, he spoke about the concept of a dystopian state monitored by an interconnected web of security cameras. It seemed absurd back then, but it is a reality now with round-the-clock security surveillance, cameras in both public and private spaces, GPS tracking and online tracking by government agencies. Orwell wrote about it all in his book.&nbsp;</p>

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<p>1984 by George Orwell (WION)</p>
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<h2>Tanks</h2>

<p>H.G. Wells wrote the story The Land Ironclads which was published in the Strand Magazine in 1903. His story took the then-current technology of metal-hulled warships and put them on land, creating war machines- tanks. Wells&rsquo;s conceptualised modern day tanks were approximately 100 feet long and rolled on eight pairs of wheels, each of which had its own independent turning axle. A tower in the top of the machine let the captain survey the scene. In reality, the first tanks were deployed on the battlefield in 1916 during the battle of the Somme.</p>

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<p>The Land Ironclads by H.G. Wells (WION)</p>
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<h2>Video Chat</h2>

<p>The first demonstration of consumer video conferencing was in the form of &lsquo;picturephone&rsquo; at the 1964 New York World&rsquo;s Fair. The technology has now come a long way with FaceTime and Skype becoming the standard means of long-distance communication. But all of this traces back to Hugo Gernsback&rsquo;s novel Ralph 124c 41+. The story was first printed in Modern Electrics magazine in 1911. It spoke about a device called the &ldquo;telephot&rdquo; that let people have eye contact while speaking across long distances.</p>

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<p>Ralph 124c 41+ by Hugo Gernsback (WION)</p>
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<p>(Contributed by: Zeba Khan)</p>


Paperless money, security cameras, nuclear weapons and more just stepped out of a book into our reality

It is said that science fiction is about making the improbable seem possible. Writers of the genre postulate a world of the future. And while some of their ideas can end up remaining a fantasy, there are a number of times when their predictions have been right on the money. Here’s 9 times sci-fi writers were spot-on about technological advancements: Debit/Credit Cards When Edward Bellamy wrote Looking Backward in 1888, people only relied on paper money. His book introduced the concept of universal credit where citizens of his future utopia carried a card that allowed them to spend on goods and services without paper money changing hands. The book was a huge success. Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy (WION) × Earphones When Ray Bradbury published his dystopian classic Fahrenheit 451 in 1953, portable audio already existed, but the headphones were ungainly and heavy. In his book, he talked about “little seashells… thimble radios” that brought an “electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk and music and talk”. Who would have then imagined that one day devices like in-ear earphones would become an integral part of people’s daily lives. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (WION) × Electric Cars, Violence And Hookup Culture John Brunner’s Stand On Zanzibar was another piece of literature that was way ahead of its time. Published in 1969, his book painted a world that we are all too familiar with today: America plagued by random acts of violence like school shootings and terrorist attacks, cars powered by rechargeable electric fuel cells, men and women eschewing marriage for short-term and low commitment hookups. What was he thinking? Stand On Zanzibar by John Brunner (WION) × Geostationary Satellite Communications In 1945, a pioneering science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote a manuscript called The Space-Station: Its Radio Applications. He introduced for the first time, geosynchronous satellites being used for telecommunications relays and most importantly for television signals. Imagine a world without our televisions and scores of channels. The Space-Station: Its Radio Applications by Arthur C. Clarke (WION) × Moon Landing Jules Verne wrote From The Earth To The Moon and predicted many aspects of the 1969 manned lunar landing of Apollo 11. Verne’s astronauts were launched from a Florida site in an aluminium capsule. In the book, he even gave accurate calculations as to the amount of force that would be needed to propel the rocket out of Earth’s atmosphere. We have gone much beyond the Moon now! From The Earth To The Moon by Jules Verne (WION) × Nuclear Weapon Robert Heinlein’s 1940 short story Solution Unsatisfactory predicted a future world where America develops an atomic weapon that ends World War II unilaterally. After they use it, it spurs the rest of the world into a nuclear arms race to keep up. The story was written even before the United States entered World War II and five years before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Solution Unsatisfactory by Robert Heinlein (WION) × Security Cameras George Orwell wrote the book 1984 in 1949. In it, he spoke about the concept of a dystopian state monitored by an interconnected web of security cameras. It seemed absurd back then, but it is a reality now with round-the-clock security surveillance, cameras in both public and private spaces, GPS tracking and online tracking by government agencies. Orwell wrote about it all in his book. 1984 by George Orwell (WION) × Tanks H.G. Wells wrote the story The Land Ironclads which was published in the Strand Magazine in 1903. His story took the then-current technology of metal-hulled warships and put them on land, creating war machines- tanks. Wells’s conceptualised modern day tanks were approximately 100 feet long and rolled on eight pairs of wheels, each of which had its own independent turning axle. A tower in the top of the machine let the captain survey the scene. In reality, the first tanks were deployed on the battlefield in 1916 during the battle of the Somme. The Land Ironclads by H.G. Wells (WION) × Video Chat The first demonstration of consumer video conferencing was in the form of ‘picturephone’ at the 1964 New York World’s Fair. The technology has now come a long way with FaceTime and Skype becoming the standard means of long-distance communication. But all of this traces back to Hugo Gernsback’s novel Ralph 124c 41+. The story was first printed in Modern Electrics magazine in 1911. It spoke about a device called the “telephot” that let people have eye contact while speaking across long distances. Ralph 124c 41+ by Hugo Gernsback (WION) × (Contributed by: Zeba Khan)

9 predictions by science-fiction writers that actually came true

<p>Instagram on Tuesday said it will start testing features that let smartphone or tablet users easily buy items they find on the popular photo and video sharing service.</p>

<p>The test slated to begin next week in the US will be tailored for Instagram applications on Apple mobile devices, according to a blog post by the Facebook-owned service.</p>

<p>The move will build on a strategy by the world&#39;s leading online social network to connect shoppers and shops, earning revenue from purchases.</p>

<p>&quot;Mobile has changed the way people shop,&quot; Instagram said in the blog post</p>

<p>&quot;We&#39;re excited to announce an easier experience to shop the products you love on Instagram.&quot;</p>

<p>Instagram cited industry statistics indicating that smartphone purchases are commonly used in the US to browse or research options regarding potential purchases.</p>

<p>Twenty US retailers including Kate Spade and JackThreads will take part in the Instagram e-commerce test, sharing posts that provide more information along with &quot;Shop Now&quot; icons for streamlined purchasing, according to the blog post.</p>

<p>&quot;This test is going to change the scope of what we, as retailers, are capable of offering on mobile,&quot; JackThreads chief marketing officer Ryan McIntyre said in the post.</p>

<p>&quot;Our customers will be able to shop seamlessly from their social media feeds -- allowing us to reach guys where they&rsquo;re already hunting for what&rsquo;s new.&quot;</p>

<p>Rival firm Pinterest last year dove into e-commerce with &quot;pins&quot; that let people buy items they like at the popular online bulletin board.</p>

<p>Pinterest became a hit, particularly among women, by giving people virtual bulletin boards that they can decorate with pictures showcasing interests in anything from food to sports, to fashion or travel.</p>

<p>(AFP)</p>


Instagram cited industry statistics indicating that smartphone purchases are commonly used in the US to browse or research options

Instagram on Tuesday said it will start testing features that let smartphone or tablet users easily buy items they find on the popular photo and video sharing service. The test slated to begin next week in the US will be tailored for Instagram applications on Apple mobile devices, according to a blog post by the Facebook-owned service. The move will build on a strategy by the world's leading online social network to connect shoppers and shops, earning revenue from purchases. "Mobile has changed the way people shop," Instagram said in the blog post "We're excited to announce an easier experience to shop the products you love on Instagram." Instagram cited industry statistics indicating that smartphone purchases are commonly used in the US to browse or research options regarding potential purchases. Twenty US retailers including Kate Spade and JackThreads will take part in the Instagram e-commerce test, sharing posts that provide more information along with "Shop Now" icons for streamlined purchasing, according to the blog post. "This test is going to change the scope of what we, as retailers, are capable of offering on mobile," JackThreads chief marketing officer Ryan McIntyre said in the post. "Our customers will be able to shop seamlessly from their social media feeds -- allowing us to reach guys where they’re already hunting for what’s new." Rival firm Pinterest last year dove into e-commerce with "pins" that let people buy items they like at the popular online bulletin board. Pinterest became a hit, particularly among women, by giving people virtual bulletin boards that they can decorate with pictures showcasing interests in anything from food to sports, to fashion or travel. (AFP)

Facebook-owned Instagram getting into shopping

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