India to create appeals body for social media complaints; Apple shows off new MacBooks; Zomato to buy Blinkit

India’s central government is planning to create an appeals body where people can complain against social media posts, instead of having to go to the courts, according to a press release on Monday by the country’s ministry of electronics and information technology. The appeals body will be called the ‘Grievance Appellate Committee’. Users will have the option to appeal against the grievance redressal process of the intermediaries before this new appellate body, according to the press release. ‘Intermediaries’ refers to companies such as Google, Meta and Twitter, which own and operate platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Apple started its annual worldwide developer conference, or WWDC, yesterday and announced a brand new MacBook Air, new software for the iPhone, iPad and watch, and a new 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop and also a buy-now-pay-later service on Apple Pay. The laptops run on Apple’s own M-series chips, including the new M2 processor, all of which are said to offer longer battery life than the previous models that used Intel’s chips. The new software includes iOS 16, iPadOS 16, MacOS Ventura and WatchOS 9. iOS 16 will be available around September, for iPhone 8 and higher models. Zomato’s board will likely meet on June 17 to clear a proposal to acquire the quick delivery startup Blinkit, formerly the online groceries venture Grofers, almost two years after the two first discussed a potential deal, Economic Times reports. Under the proposal, Blinkit’s shareholders are expected to get about a 10 percent stake in Zomato. Blinkit’s largest investor, SoftBank Vision Fund, will get close to a 4 percent stake in the loss-making food delivery company that went public last year. Blinkit’s investors may have to compulsorily hold Zomato’s shares for at least six months, according to ET. Solid Power, a US-based battery technologies startup, is a step closer to commercialising its solid-state batteries, TechCrunch reports. The company has opened up a new facility that will turn out what are called ‘B-samples’ of 60Ah and 100Ah cells. B-samples are close-to-commercial products. Solid Power is aiming to deliver the B-samples in the first half of 2024, and according to the company’s timetable, a commercial solid-state battery that is ready to go into an EV could be available as early as 2028, according to TechCrunch. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds