Google Maps Testing Features to Map Oxygen, Hospital Beds
Google is testing a new feature in Maps application that enables people to ask about and share local information on the availability of beds and medical oxygen in select locations amid massive Covid-19 surge in the country.

The announcement comes as a part of the tech giant’s efforts to support the relief efforts amid the deadly second wave of the pandemic.

The company is testing a new feature using the Q&A function in Maps that enables people to ask about and share local information on availability of beds and medical oxygen in select locations. “As this will be user generated content and not provided by authorised sources, it may be required to verify the accuracy and freshness of the information before utilizing it,” Google said in a blog post.

IBM Unveils World’s First 2 Nanometer Chip Technology

IBM has unveiled the world’s first chip with 2 nanometer nano-sheet technology.

Demand for increased chip performance and energy efficiency continues to rise, especially in the era of hybrid cloud, AI, and the Internet of Things. IBM’s new 2 nm chip technology helps advance the state-of-the-art in the semiconductor industry, addressing this growing demand. It is projected to achieve 45 percent higher performance, or 75 percent lower energy use, than today’s most advanced 7 nm node chips.

The potential benefits of these advanced 2 nm chips could include:

• Quadrupling cell phone battery life, only requiring users to charge their devices every four days.
• Slashing the carbon footprint of data centers, which account for one percent of global energy use. Changing all of their servers to 2 nm-based processors could potentially reduce that number significantly.
• Speeding up a laptop’s functions, ranging from quicker processing in applications, to assisting in language translation more easily, to faster internet access.
• Contributing to faster object detection and reaction time in autonomous vehicles like self-driving cars.

ServiceNow to Acquire Lightstep

ServiceNow has signed an agreement to acquire next generation observability leader Lightstep.

By acquiring Lightstep, ServiceNow will solidify and accelerate its position as the world’s leading enterprise platform for digital businesses. ServiceNow is already a recognized player in IT service management, IT operations management and digital workflows. With Lightstep, an emerging pioneer in next generation application monitoring and observability, ServiceNow will help DevOps engineers build, deploy, run and monitor state‑of‑the‑art, cloud‑native applications. Together, ServiceNow and Lightstep will extend the benefits of observability across the enterprise through digital workflows that convert real‑time insights into action across all the technologies, people, and processes that enable digital business.