An expenditure of Rs 255 crore has been incurred on chartered flights in the past three years on prime minister Narendra Modi’s foreign engagements. The Rajya Sabha was briefed about the foreign tours of the president, vice president, prime minister, external affairs minister yesterday in a written reply. Read more Here’s more top news of …

Apple has quietly pulled customer reviews from its online store, AppleInsider reported Thursday. It’s not clear why the iPhone giant removed the section, but it seemingly happened over the weekend.  Archives on the Wayback Machine show that the Ratings and Reviews section disappeared sometime between Nov. 16 and 17, AppleInsider notes. A tipster who reached out to AppleInsider said the …

Eko, an interactive TV startup that banked a reported $250 million investment from Walmart last year, dropped four new choose-your-own-adventure videos Thursday, with a couple of mini shopping experiences nested inside two.  Interactive TV is a format that’s held promise for years as television has migrated to the internet, but it’s largely remained on the margins as streaming has mostly stuck to traditional …

AT&T says it’ll switch on its 5G network at Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle in early 2020. By combining the new network with connected devices, augmented reality, virtual reality, cloud and its dedicated first responder network FirstNet, AT&T is creating a “smart base of the future” for the US Air Force, the company said on Thursday. Tyndall, …

Game 7 of the World Series was a few hours away when Fanatics tech chief Matt Madrigal met me in the Manhattan office of his sports-gear company. His voice was filled with excitement as he talked about an expected surge in customer sales that late October day after the new champion won — he just wasn’t yet sure which team …

President Donald Trump is making the most out of his visit Wednesday to a Texas plant that makes Apple computers. In addition to taking credit for the plant, which has been open since 2013 and is run by a separate supplier, he tweeted Thursday that he asked Apple CEO Tim Cook about getting Apple involved in “building 5G in the …

Twitter said Thursday it’s rolling out a feature globally that will let users hide replies to their tweets, a move that could help them filter out irrelevant, off topic or hurtful remarks. The company, which has faced criticism for not doing enough to combat harassment and bullying, has been testing this feature in the US, Japan and Canada. Twitter has …

T-Mobile and Comcast have teamed up with voice and messaging services provider Inteliquent to demonstrate the first end-to-end call over three networks using the Shaken/Stir framework, which validates where calls originate. The news is a big step forward in implementing the technology, which many hope will slow the growing pace of annoying robocalls.  The companies say they’ve worked out the …

Microsoft has been granted a license to export software to Chinese tech giant Huawei, as reported earlier Thursday by Reuters. It follows the US Commerce Department extending a temporary license to allow American companies to do business with Huawei earlier this week for another 90 days. “On November 20, the US Department of Commerce granted Microsoft’s request for a license …

If you use Gmail on your phone, you’ll soon be able to complete tasks like RSVPing for events or responding to a Google Docs comment without leaving your inbox, Google said Thursday.  The search giant calls this “dynamic email.” It came to Gmail on the web in July. Now, it’s arriving in the iOS and Android versions of Gmail too.  “You can …

One way to combat the impending onslaught of mashed potatoes, gravy, holiday cookies, and booze is the occasional healthy smoothie or low-sugar juice. Right now everyone’s favorite NutriBullet Rx single-serve blender is on sale, down $50 to just $100 — for today only — as Best Buy’s Deal of the Day, and is just the tool to introduce a healthy …

Google is launching Duplex on the Web, a booking service that’s basically autofill on steroids. The tool is designed to let people more easily buy movie tickets online, the company said Thursday. The service is available on Android phones. To use it, you’d ask the Assistant — Google’s digital helper software akin to Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri — to look …

Microsoft has apparently decided to delay the launch of its Surface Earbuds. The $249 wireless earbuds, which the tech giant unveiled in October, won’t be coming out until sometime in spring next year, said Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay in a tweet Thursday. The earbuds were originally expected to launch this year.  “Product-making is about the relentless pursuit to …

Google has announced an Android bug bounty reward of $1.5 million if you manage to hack its Titan M chip on Pixel devices and also find exploits in the developer preview versions of Android. Until now, the highest payout on Google’s Bug Bounty Program was just over $200,000, Google said when announcing the new reward on Thursday. Google’s total payouts …

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10 debuted earlier this year at $950. It’s currently on sale for $750 at a variety of stores: Best Buy, Walmart and others. Amazon, however, is currently offering the Galaxy Note 10 with free Galaxy Buds for $749.99. Those true-wireless earbuds would normally cost you $130 extra. (Samsung proper is also offering the free Buds, with …