Wednesday 31 December 2014

Trai recommends cut in base price for 3G spectrum

The telecom regulator on Wednesday recommended a base price of Rs 2,720 crore per megahertz (MHz) for pan India 2,100MHz or 3G spectrum, which is 22% lower than the previous auction.

"Furthermore, the 15MHz of spectrum in the 2,100MHz spectrum being vacated by Ministry of Defence (MoD), in lieu of spectrum in the 1,900MHz spectrum, should be auctioned in view of the in-principle agreement reached with the MoD, even if it is not available immediately," the Telecom regulatory Authority of India said in a statement here.

This can be done as "actual assignments do not have to be made immediately", it said. The actual date of assignment may be given in the notice inviting application.

The government in 2010 had auctioned 3G spectrum at pan-India reserve price of Rs 3,500 crore per MHz.

The regulator has recommended that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) should take all measures to ensure that the 2,100MHz spectrum which was earlier assigned to STEL in three service areas — Bihar, Odisha and Himachal Pradesh — is also put to auction.

STel had shut its business in India after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 licences in February 2012 in the 2G spectrum case.

The auction for 800, 900 and 1,800 megahertz bands is expected to be held in February. The department of telecom is also thinking of auctioning 3G airwaves along with these three bands.

"The roll-out obligations that were mandated in the 2010 auctions for spectrum in the 2,100MHz band should be applicable for the upcoming auction of 2,100MHz band; however, a period of three years (instead of five years) should be prescribed to meet these obligations," it added.

Monday 29 December 2014

Best Ways to get your Blog Ranked at Google

Backlinks and SEO optimized articles are the only gateways that can get your blog ranked high at Google searches. There is no denying that Google is the most popular search engine and as per research and SEO technical terms, Google has Alexa Rank: 11 and Page Rank: 7. Let me tell you something about both these terms, Alexa Rank in SEO is defined as popularity of a site. Lesser the Alexa Rank, more popular your site is. Page Rank on the other hand has to be more. It is rated 1-10 and as you see, the page rank of site is 7, i.e. it’s quite a popular site and used by millions of users. You can install “Web Rank” SEO tool from Firefox add-ons and check the details about Google Search engine. For Google Chrome users, they can use tool named “MOZ Rank” to check the popularity of site.
Now, as you know the popularity of site, then you might also know the significance of getting ranked best at Google searches. In Blogging business, it’s all about climbing at the top position in Google searches and retaining your position. This is possible with the help of backlinks that you have with your site, plus by writing SEO optimized articles.
Before I explain you the concepts of getting your blog ranked best in Google searches, you need to know something about how Google conduct the whole scenario: Googlebot to shortlist newly arrived pages, crawling right pages and indexing them.
There are three components:
Googlebot
Crawling
Indexing
Googlebot
Googlebot is bot software by Google that is sent to collect information about fresh and newly arrived pages. These documents are then indexed in the searches of Google.


Crawling:

As Googlebot collects information about new or updated pages, Crawlers are then sent to visit and crawl those pages. The process of crawling takes place with the help of links that are used in the content.

Indexing:
Lastly, it is Indexing. Google after crawling the pages of your site extracts out some quality web pages withBest Ways to get your Blog Ranked at Google quality links and index them in its searches. Indexing is done with the help of keywords that further gives backlinks to your site, and whenever those keywords are searched at Google searches, your site is displayed.

So this is the whole process. All these three steps are followed by Google to display your pages at a top rank in its searches.
First of all, before beginning the marketing campaign of your blogging site, it is important to get discovered. There are few steps that are followed in Search Engine Optimization to get your Blog discovered in Google searches:

Creating Sitemap: Sitemap is a XML document file. It is created to get crawled by Googlebot. You can create it by visiting to site https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/, add your site’s URL and a XML file will be created automatically. You just have to download the file and submit the sitemap in Google Webmaster Tool. You can find the option of “Add Sitemap” in crawl tab. If you are a wordpress user you can install xml sitemap plugin.

Aamir Khan: I'd love to do 'PK' sequel

Actor Aamir Khan is not sure if a part two of his latest release 'PK' will be made or not, but he says he'd love to be a part of it.
Asked if a sequel to 'PK' is underway, he said: "Let's see. You all have to ask Raju Hirani (director Rajkumar Hirani) if he is interested in making a sequel. If they make it, it's good. I would like to do it."
The film's climax has actor Ranbir Kapoor along with Aamir, and several people have conjectured that it's a hint for a sequel.

Talking about it, Aamir said: "May be, Rajkumar Hirani is thinking of getting both Ranbir and me in the sequel."
'PK', which features Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma and Sanjay Dutt, has received rave reviews from critics and audiences alike.
The actor is happy with the response and says the movie leaves the audience with a message that humanity is the biggest thing.
"The message of this film is that the biggest thing is humanity. That's the biggest message of this film...that we all are equal. There is no difference between Hindus and Muslims....that trust and faith is the important aspect of our life. This is the main message," he said.

Thursday 18 December 2014

Apple suppliers accused of poor treatment of workers

Workers in Chinese factories making Apple products are poorly treated, with exhausted employees falling asleep on their 12-hour shifts, British broadcaster the BBC found in an investigation broadcast Thursday.

Reporters who took jobs undercover at the Pegatron factories found workers regularly exceeded 60 hours a week -- more than the company's guidance -- and that standards on ID cards, dormitories, work meetings and juvenile workers were also breached.

The broadcaster said promises made by Apple to protect workers in the wake of a spate of suicides at supplier Foxconn in 2010 were "routinely broken".

Apple said that it disagreed with the BBC's conclusions.
"We are aware of no other company doing as much as Apple to ensure fair and safe working conditions," the US consumer electronics giant told the BBC.

"We work with suppliers to address shortfalls, and we see continuous and significant improvement, but we know our work is never done."

The company said that it was common for workers to sleep during breaks, but that it would investigate whether they were falling asleep while working.

It also said it monitored the hours worked by over one million workers, and that staff at Taiwanese-owned Pegatron averaged 55 hours a week.

The BBC filmed a health and safety exam at a Pegatron factory in which workers chanted out answers in unison, meaning there was little chance of failing.

The footage also appeared to show workers had no choice to opt out of working nights or while standing.

One reporter had to work 18 days in a row despite repeated requests for a day off, the BBC reported.

The investigation by BBC flagship programme Panorama also found that tin from illegal mines in Indonesia where children work in dangerous conditions could be entering Apple's supple chain.

Apple, which promotes ethically sourced minerals, told the BBC it was attempting to drive changes, and that withdrawing from Indonesian mines altogether would be "the lazy and cowardly path, since it would do nothing to improve the situation."

Telecom imports rise to Rs 69,516.37 crore in FY14

The country imported telecom products worth Rs 69,516.37 crore in 2013-14 while exports of such items were at Rs 20,475.17 crore during the year, leaving a significant deficit of Rs 49,041.20 crore.

In the previous 2012-13 fiscal, imports of telecom products were Rs 57,208.78 crore and exports were at Rs 21,716.76 crore, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

In 2011-12, the import figure stood at Rs 55,466.54 crore while exports were at Rs 20,775.57 crore.

In a separate reply, Prasad said the production of mobile handsets in the country is projected to be down by more than half even as import of handsets is expected to rise by over 18% in 2014.

Giving details about the production and import of mobile phones in India, Prasad said that 130 million units were produced in 2013 and it is projected to be 60 million units in 2014 whereas the import figures stood at 185 million in 2013 and it is estimated to be 220 million in 2014.

The value of mobile phones produced in the country is expected to be down to Rs 18,900 crore in 2014 as compared to Rs 26,650 crore in 2013.

However, the value of imported mobile phones is estimated to rise to Rs 58,550 crore in 2014 as compared to Rs 42,200 crore in 2013.

The minister said smartphone market in India is likely to be around 200 million units by 2020 with an average annual rate of growth around 26%.

Sharing details, Prasad said smartphone market in the country in 2012 was 20 million units, which grew to 32 million units in 2013 and is estimated to be 70 million units in 2014.

The minister said government has taken various initiatives which will have a direct bearing on the promotion of mobile manufacturing in the country.

The government has imposed education cess on imported electronic products to provide parity between domestically produced goods and imported goods.

Government has approved setting up of two semiconductor wafer fabrication manufacturing facilities which would create necessary ecosystem for design and manufacturing of telecom equipments.

Under the electronics hardware technology park scheme, approved units are allowed duty free import of goods required by them for carrying on export activities, CST reimbursement and excise duty exemption on procurement of indigenously available goods, as per the foreign trade policy.

Wednesday 17 December 2014

FCC to slap $105 million fine on Sprint

US wireless carrier Sprint is expected to face a $105 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission in coming weeks over unauthorized charges on customers' cellphone bills, a practice known as cramming, according to FCC officials.

FCC commissioners are reviewing and will soon vote on the proposed fine over charges Sprint's consumers faced for services they never requested, FCC sources said.

A $105 million fine would tie as the agency's largest. In October, AT&T agreed to pay $105 million to settle similar cramming allegations in a case negotiated by the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission.

FCC officials spoke on a condition of anonymity because the proposed fine has not been made public.

FCC spokesman Neil Grace declined comment. Sprint spokeswoman Stephanie Vinge Walsh said the company does not comment on rumor and speculation.

The FCC has also been investigating cramming complaints against T-Mobile US Inc. The FTC in July filed a cramming complaint against T-Mobile in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.

Prodded by state attorneys general, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon Communications Inc agreed in November to stop billing customers for third-party services.

FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, in announcing AT&T's settlement in October, estimated that 20 million consumers a year are crammed.

The National Journal was first to report the news of the planned fine for Sprint.

Monday 15 December 2014

Chipmaker TSMC optimistic for 2015, looks at mainland for growth

Taiwan's Morris Chang, the founder of the world's largest contract chipmaker, said on Monday he is upbeat about the global semiconductor outlook for 2015 and that his firm could play a helpful role as China develops its own chip industry.
"We expect to be able to play a supportive role in the recent mainland semiconductor plan," the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd told a Taiwan-China business conference in Taipei attended by senior Chinese officials.
China wants to champion its own semiconductor industry and catch up with more advanced rivals like Taiwan. Taiwan allows for restricted investments by its semiconductor industry into the mainland, but requires its most sophisticated technology to develop outside of China.
Chang cited new applications for semiconductors and economic growth in the United States, China, Japan and Taiwan as reasons to be optimistic on the chip industry next year. He did not give specifics.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding founder and executive chairman Jack Ma, speaking at the same event, said he wanted to see more Taiwanese goods sold in the mainland and more Taiwanese entrepreneurs in China.
"I hope Alibaba can play a productive role in bringing more Taiwanese young people to the mainland to learn and discover," Ma said.

Sunday 14 December 2014

Google Glass set to enter space station next week

The wearable eye device from Google is all set to enter the International Space Station (ISS) for a flatworm study next week.

Part of the package to be sent to the space station onboard the SpaceX launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on December 16, Google Glass will be tested as an augmented reality tool in the pre-flight integration and post-flight operations, the magazine Glass Almanac reported.

The mission will take a team from the Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology, in partnership with the non-profit Kentucky Space, to the ISS.

The team will "analyse the regeneration mechanisms of flatworms in the microgravity environment of space".

Google Glass will not be part of the actual mission but rather work as an augmented reality assistant during pre-flight and post-flight that will also allow workers to transmit images and communicate with the lab. This small experiment will help scientists utilize Google Glass as a human interface with Kentucky Space experiments on the ISS in 2015.

Friday 12 December 2014

Google to donate $2 million to San Francisco homeless groups

Google, which has been criticized for exacerbating income inequality in San Francisco, on Thursday said it will donate $2 million to help the city's large homeless population.

The internet search company, which is making the grant commitments through its philanthropic arm Google.org, said it would support three local homeless groups: HandUp, Hamilton Family Center and Larkin Street Youth Services.

The most recent 2013 tally of San Francisco's homeless population found that 6,436 adults were living on the streets and in shelters. The actual number is thought to be higher, despite the city's $165 million budget to make a dent in the homeless population through supportive housing and other efforts.

Hamilton Family Center will receive $1 million to reduce the waiting list for homeless families at shelters in San Francisco. Larkin Street said it will use its $500,000 grant for its college and career preparation programs.

Google said it has reserved the remaining $500,000 for San Francisco-based HandUp, an application for direct giving to homeless people. HandUp has received backing from such high-profile technology investors as Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff and 'Lean Startup' founder Eric Ries, among others. Through the month of December, HandUp said Google will match new recurring donations made to its San Francisco fund.

Technology companies have come under fire in recent years for adding to the problem of growing income inequality, with buses that ferry workers the 40 miles from San Francisco to its offices in Mountain View, California, becoming symbols of gentrification.

San Francisco has the second highest gap between rich and poor in the United States, second only to Atlanta, Georgia, according to a Brookings Institution report. And evictions in the city are at their highest levels since 2001-2, according to the latest report from the San Francisco Rent Board.

Google said it has given $100 million to Bay Area non-profit organizations since 2010.

Google.org's portfolio manager for the Bay Area, Justin Steele, said the storm that has been raging in San Francisco serves as a reminder of the important role of local non-profits to help vulnerable populations.

Thursday 11 December 2014

Apple-1 sold by Steve Jobs auctioned for $365,000

A fully operational Apple computer that company co-founder Steve Jobs sold out of his parents' garage in 1976 for $600 sold for $365,000 at Christie's on Thursday.

The Ricketts Apple-1 Personal Computer, named after its original owner Charles Ricketts, is the only known surviving Apple-1 documented as having been sold directly by Jobs to an individual from the Los Altos, California family home, according to the auction house.

The price fell shy of Christie's estimate of $400,000 to $600,000 and was far less than the $905,000 paid by the Henry Ford organization in October for one of the computers. Fewer than 50 original Apple-1s are believed to be in existence of the few hundred originally produced.

Also at the sale, Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, with the help of various foundations and private donors, bought a Bacchic figure supporting the globe by 17th-century artist Adrien de Vries for $27.9 million, well in excess of the sculpture's pre-sale estimate of $15 million to $25 million.

The Rembrandt Society, the BankGiro Loterij, VSB fund, Mondriaan Fund and others helped fund the purchase.

"It follows the trend of masterpieces achieving outstanding prices," said Jussi Pylkkanen, global president of Christie's and the auctioneer for the sale.

One of the expected highlights of the auction, which Christie's dubbed the Exceptional Sale, was withdrawn at the 11th hour when the estate of Joan Fontaine, who died aged 96 a year ago, pulled her best actress Oscar for the Alfred Hitchcock film 'Suspicion' from the sale of her

Proposed spectrum prices get a mixed response

The telecom industry has given a mixed reaction to the Telecom Commission's decision to augment the supply of airwaves in the 900MHz band as well as increasing the reserve price of both the 900 and the 800MHz airwaves.

The GSM industry body, COAI, welcomed the decision to expand the supply of 900MHz airwaves for commercial use by private operators but added a word of concern.

"It is critical that the telecom department increases the quantum of 900MHz to be auctioned in the upcoming February auctions," Rajan Mathews, director-general of COAI, told ET. He reiterated that the government must also auction 3G airwaves (2100MHz) along with the 800, 900 and 1800MHz in the upcoming auctions.

However, in its meeting on December 8, the Telecom Commission had specifically said while the supply of 900MHz must be increased by exploring various measures as suggested by the telecom regulator, it must be delinked from the issue of the upcoming spectrum auctions.

The government has scheduled a sale of airwaves in the 800, 900 and the 1800MHz in February . It hopes to mop up at least Rs 9,355 crore from these auctions. The Telecom Commission on Monday suggested a hike of 23% in the reserve price of 900MHz band and another 17% in the price of the 800MHz band over the Trai's recommendations.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

A wristband that turns your arm into a smartphone

A tiny new wristband can project a tablet interface onto your arm, effectively turning it into a smartphone every time you twist your wrist.

The Cicret Bracelet, designed over the course of 6 months, comprises a pico projector and a row of eight proximity sensors that point towards the user's forearm.

It operates as a standalone device and, when activated with a twist of the wrist, projects an Android interface onto the user's arm. The proximity sensors detect where the user's finger or fingers are and allow them to interact with the interface as they would any other Android device,'Gizmag' reported.

The device will also allow the users to send and receive emails, browse the web and play games.

It will also be possible for users to pair it with an existing smartphone, answer incoming phone calls and activate the speakerphone functionality on their smartphone.

The Cicret Bracelet features an accelerometer and a vibration module, along with an LED for notifications.

Fake impressions cost online ad firms $6.3 billion annually: Study

Almost one-fourth of video ads and 11% of display ads are viewed by fake consumers created by cybercrime networks seeking to take a chunk of the billions of dollars spent on digital advertising, according to a new research report released on Tuesday.

The study, by digital security firm White Ops and the Association of National Advertisers, is one of the most comprehensive looks to date at the persistent criminal activity involving online advertising. Specifically, it addresses "bots," automated entities that mimic the behaviour of humans by clicking on ads and watching videos.

These bots siphon money away from brands by setting up fake websites or delivering fake audiences to websites that make use of third-party traffic. The report estimates that advertisers will lose $6.3 billion to bots next year.

"We have long suspected and have long known there was fraud in our industry," said Bob Liodice, the president and chief executive of the ANA, an organization that represents thousands of brands. "We didn't know the exact amount or the reasons why it was happening."

The study included 36 ANA member companies, including Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, Ford Motor, Verizon Communications and Pfizer.

White Ops monitored 181 online advertising campaigns by the brands from August to October to determine fraud activity.

Bot fraud has long been part of the ecosystem of low-price ads that cost a few dollars or less. This study revealed, however, that many premium websites and publishers, which charge roughly 10 times more for an ad, are just as vulnerable.

"We found a lot of bots suddenly inflating the audience of websites we recognize that are clearly not being run by international organized crime," said Michael Tiffany, the CEO and co-founder of White Ops.

In one instance, White Ops found that 98% of video ads at a premium lifestyle site were viewed by bots. The report does not name the websites where the fraud was found.

"The ad industry was treating the bots as a faceless swarm," said Tiffany. "What no one was anticipating is that the bots are extremely effective of looking like a high value consumer."

Liodice said the report will help the industry develop an action plan to combat fraud.

"We have been less than fully active largely because we didn't understand the problem and because we were enamored by the success of digital to the marketing industry," he said. "We want to ensure that everyone has accountability."

Sunday 7 December 2014

Great Google mystery: The missing Nexus

This tale from a technology sector CEO illustrates an unusual thing about an iconic global technology giant. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm, is a devoted fan of Google's Nexus smartphone. Sharma is waiting to upgrade to Nexus 6 and has to wait patiently till it's available online on Flipkart, which is the only Indian outlet, online or offline, for the phone.

The Paytm CEO's frustrating experience is shared by many, many Nexus smartphone fans. Google, as formidable a marketing machine as any globally, has put its weight behind low-cost Android One phones in India, spending Rs 100 crore in the project. Nexus, on the other hand, is not marketed by Google and is rarely marketed by its hardware partners LG, Motorola and HTC either.

Even as Android One had a tepid start, market analysts and retailers say Google is missing a trick by not promoting the pricier Nexus phone more. "Instead of focusing on Android One, it would be a good call for Google to sell Nexus offline as it is a flagship product that has a good pull," says Satish Babu, founder of Chennai-based retail store chain UniverCell Mobiles, one of several large format chains willing to stock Nexus 6.

"There are takers for Nexus even at the high price," Babu said. He compared this with cheaper Android One phones, which have had a not-so-impressive run since their launch a few weeks back.

Other mobile brick and mortar retailers — for example, Himangshu Chakravarti of MobileStore — agree with UniverCell Mobiles' Babu. They say there's a lot of latent demand for the high performing Nexus phone but supply is a problem, and Google can tap that by selling offline.

Some Nexus fans are switching loyalty, not wanting to wait long for an upgrade to arrive. Paytm CEO Sharma says Xiaomi is one of the favourite options of those abandoning Nexus. "I've been waiting for it for some time now, but many Nexus 5 users waiting to upgrade to Nexus 6 have moved to Xiaomi's Mi 3 which offers almost the same specifications at roughly half the cost," Sharma says.

Xiaomi's Mi 3 was launched in July at Rs 14,999. Nexus phones are in the Rs 20,000 to Rs 30,000 price band. The LG-made 4.95-inch Nexus 5 was launched in November last year, the fifth successor to Nexus 1 introduced in 2010. Nexus 5 is priced between Rs 22,000 and Rs 33,000 on e-commerce sites. Nexus 6, powered by Google's Android Lollipop operating system, has been made by Motorola.

Nexus 6 was listed for pre-orders in the US late in October and all variants were reported to be sold out within a few hours.

The story was the same in the UK. In India, initial stocks were pre-booked within a day or two. When asked by ET, Flipkart did not share the number of pre-orders. Nexus 6 may be available in Google's 3-day online sale beginning December 10.

Hong Kong-based research firm Counterpoint Technologies estimates that around 2,00,000 Nexus 5 phones were shipped to India this year. Compare that with the 1.6-1.8 million Android-based smartphones that were sold in India this year in the same Rs 20,000-Rs 30,000 price band. Clearly, say analysts and retail traders, Google can sell far more Nexus phones than it is selling now — if it wants to.

On the other hand, in just two and a half months since mid-September, a little under 500,000 Android One phones have been shipped to India, more than double the year-long total for Nexus 5 phones.

But despite this, Android One hasn't quite taken off. In all 7 million smartphones in the Rs 6,000-Rs 8,000 price band, the range in which Android One phones are available, were sold in four months till October. With less than a half a million shipments, Google's low-cost smartphone was obviously a slow seller in this category.

That Nexus is a story of untapped potential in India is also clear from the fact that India accounts for just 3,00,000 of the 9.9 million Nexus phones sold globally since 2010, according to data from Counterpoint Technologies.

Android, both technology and mobile retail experts say, is a hugely popular operating system in India and Google's Nexus phones are ideally situated to exploit that popularity. Nexus, experts say, is the benchmark setting Android-based smartphone.

Just a showpiece?

Google responded to ET's query on undermarketing Nexus by saying: "We always introduce Nexus devices alongside our platform releases (such as Lollipop), as advances in computing are always driven at the intersection of hardware and software."

Other explanations from analysts and experts were more detailed. Google works with hardware partners to build Nexus devices, and the idea is to help push boundaries of what's possible, say analysts tracking the sector. Nexus serves as a reference for the Android ecosystem.

"Ideally, it would have been a good business case had Google entered into devices," said a Bangalore-based analyst who did not want to be named. He added that Google perhaps wants Nexus to simply serve as a reference point, a showcase for the power of hardware.

Counterpoint's telecom analyst Tarun Pathak says Google may not want to scale up Nexus distribution to "avoid stepping into its manufacturing partners' toes" and that Nexus phones "may be mostly a showcase that's meant for developers first and then consumers."

Wednesday 3 December 2014

Capgemini eyes Bengaluru to house all India operations

French IT giant Capgemini, with over 40% of its workforce in India, is looking to consolidate its Indian entities into a single holding company. Its consolidated operations are likely to be largely based in Bengaluru where the company is looking for a one-million-sqft office space.

Capgemini operates four entities in India - Capgemini Business Services, Capgemini Consulting India, Capgemini India, Capgemini Consulting India - which are headquartered in Mumbai. When TOI contacted Capgemini on its consolidation drive, the company said: "At this point in time, we've no comments on the legal structure."

The 11-billion-euro technology company has floated a request for proposal for over 1 million sqft of office space in Bengaluru. This is part of the company's consolidation and growth strategy here, said one of the sources privy to the development. The company's annual report last year said that approximately one-third of the office space absorbed by the company globally was located in India.

TOI could not ascertain how much of the new space being leased was creation of fresh capacity and how much was part of consolidation of some existing facilities.

"As part of our expansion, we're looking at expanding in several cities in India as well as in Bengaluru. We've increased our campus recruitment and we will continue to do so this year too," the company spokesperson said. Earlier this year, the company said its headcount in India had crossed 50,000. Company CEO Paul Hermelin had said on a visit to Bengaluru that the French IT firm was reporting robust growth figures of 15%-16% in India, compared with 3% in France.

Capgemini has employees in nine cities - Mumbai, Pune, Gurgaon, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Trichy, Salem and Kolkata.

The company, which provides technology and outsourcing services across government and public sectors, energy and utilities, telecom and financial services sectors, has been one of the most aggressive among IT MNCs in using India as an offshoring location. As of the September quarter, the company had 1.41 lakh employees. The India headcount is expected to rise to 70,000 by 2016.

Tuesday 2 December 2014

Flipkart’s Bansals pump Rs 6 cr in e-bike startup Ather

Flipkart founders Sachin and Binny Bansal have made an angel investment of Rs 6.1 crore in electric vehicle start-up Ather.

Incubated and supported by IIT Madras, Ather was started by Tarun Mehta and Swapnil Jain in 2013 with an aim to design high-speed electric two-wheelers for India. The funding will be a boost for Ather's product development efforts.

This marks the second round of funding for Ather and also includes investment from Raju Venkatraman, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Medall.

The start-up had raised its first round of capital in February this year from V Srinivas (founder of Aerospike) and the Technology Development Board of the government of India.

Ather currently employs a team of 15 engineers and designers.

Its founders are keen to develop technology to manufacture the "best electric vehicles for India".

Indian startup CEOs who have raised large funding are now turning angel investors and mentors to young entrepreneurs.

Bangalore-based Sachin, Mukesh and Binny Bansal have already invested in startups such as Zopnow and NewsInShorts in recent past.

Snapdeal co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have invested in Ola Cabs while Eka CEO Manav Garg is an investor in startups such as StayZilla, social media newspaper Frrole and enterprise software maker OrangeScape.

"We are very excited about this fresh round of funding. Sachin and Binny Bansal are leaders who have put India's e-commerce industry on the global map through disruptive use of technology. Their focus on technology and reinvention aligns with that of Ather," said Tarun Mehta.

Monday 1 December 2014

Apple shares plunge over 6%, cause unclear

Apple shares tumbled shortly after the start of trading on Monday, briefly suffering their largest price drop in at least three months on an unusual spike in volume.

Selling accelerated just before 9:51 am EST, with more than 6.7 million shares trading in a one-minute stretch, the heaviest minute of trading in Apple since October 29, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The stock lost over 3% in that minute, falling as much as 6.4% to $111.27. At mid-afternoon, it was down 3% to $115.45.

The cause of the decline was not yet clear, though traders pointed to institutions using selling programs across a wide swath of stocks. Steve Hammer, a trading educator and founder of HFT Alert in Santa Barbara, California, which monitors algorithmic trading, said about 300 different stocks showed elevated price traffic beginning about 9:50 am EST, a sign of institutions putting on sell programs.

"When you see that kind of price action that is simply algos running stocks," he said.

As of 2:05 pm EST, more than 64 million Apple shares had traded, making it the most active issue in US markets.

A sharp price move coupled with high volume often prompts speculation about the influence of high frequency trading (HFT), when computer algorithms are used to trade stocks at an extremely rapid pace. HFT has been criticized for affecting the trading of stocks by sending in numerous trade quotes that slow quote activity without filling the trades when shares fall.

"What that is called is evaporation of liquidity, liquidity that was never there in the first place and it's a typical maneuver that goes on in the fragmented stock market we have now," said Joseph Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey.

However, determining the cause of the decline wasn't so simple. "The fact is we don't yet know what caused the drop, and blaming it on HFT is misleading," said Bill Harts, chief executive officer of Modern Markets Initiative, an advocate of high-speed electronic markets.

Similar declines on heavy volume, though not as dramatic, were seen in other stocks, including Alibaba Group Holding, which fell 1.4% in one minute, and the S&P 500 tracking, which had its busiest minute of trading on Monday at 9:51 am, when nearly 1.5 million shares traded.

At the day's low, Apple lost more than $40 billion in market value.

The recent ructions in the oil market were also cited as a potential catalyst for the selling in Apple. Traders said the need to free liquidity as oil and energy shares fell could have had an effect on other markets.

"Funds that suffered losses on their oil investments have to get out of their liquid securities in other sectors," said Sam Ginzburg, head of trading at First New York Securities in New York.

Morgan Stanley strategists dropped Apple's weighting in their strategic portfolio to 3% from 4% in an equity outlook note released Monday, but traders said the swiftness of the decline was too dramatic to be attributed solely to the note, which was released before trading opened.

Saluzzi said "maybe it was the Morgan Stanley news that kind of stimulated the event," but not enough to cause such a decline.

Sunday 30 November 2014

70% of e-commerce sales to soon come via smartphones

Shopping online through smartphones is expected to be a game changer shortly and industry experts believe that m-commerce would contribute up to 70% of their total revenues.

"In India, the mobile internet traffic now outweighs personal computer traffic. With increasing penetration of smartphones, India is all set to be a massive market for m-commerce. The marketing strategies for e-commerce companies will increasingly be tailored to suit the rising adoption of smartphones, social media and improving customer experience across touch points and platforms," Amazon India vice president and country manager Amit Agarwal said.

He said that more than 40% of their traffic comes from mobile devices.

Mobile internet users in India are estimated to be 120 million compared to 100 million users logging online on their personal computers.

"Close to 60% of our orders are coming over mobile now. It is growing really fast. We get more traffic on the mobile than we get on personal computers. Within the next 12 months over 75% of our orders will be on mobile," Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl said.

Fashion portal retailer Myntra.com expects close to 70% of revenue coming through mobiles this fiscal.

"Myntra.com has witnessed phenomenal activity on the m-commerce front, with smartphones gaining prominence as the preferred mode to access and shop for fashion brands in the country.

"Currently, close to 50% of our business is driven by m-commerce and with the launch of our Mobile App across all platforms (Android, iOS and Windows), we expect this figure to grow to 70% by end of this fiscal," Myntra chief product and technology officer Shamik Sharma said.

M-commerce is estimated to be 30% of the $3 billion e-tailing industry and is likely to grow to nearly 40% of the industry that is expected to be $32 billion by 2020, according to Technopak senior vice president, retail and consumer products, Ankur Bisen.

Flipkart senior director of marketing, Mausam Bhatt said e-commerce industry is gradually progressing to be a m-commerce industry.

"I think the way e-commerce industry is evolving it is becoming more of a mobile-commerce industry. If you look at Flipkart a year ago, less than 10% of our orders, transactions and visits used to come from mobile commerce. Now those numbers are greater than 50% for us. It is accelerating at a very rapid pace. We are seeing more than 2 times or 3 times growth from the mobile front compared to desktop, where Flipkart is growing overall but mobile is growing at a much faster pace," he said.

Friday 28 November 2014

Xolo launches Opus 3 ‘selfie’ phone at Rs 8,499

Xolo has launched a new budget smartphone, Opus 3, at Rs 8,499.

The phone sports a 5-inch (720X1080p) IPS HD display.

It is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and 1GB RAM. It comes with 8GB internal storage and supports microSD card slots of up to 32GB for expansion. The phone has a 2500mAh battery.

It runs Android 4.4 KitKat. The phone features motion control technology which makes the use of accelerometer and proximity sensor to control Music player, FM radio, Gallery, Camera and calls. It also allows access to multiple apps via Float Task on a dual window operation mode, for multitasking.

Xolo Opus 3 sports an 8MP Sony Exmor R rear camera with auto-focus, support for full-HD recording and dual-LED flash, and a 5MP front-facing camera with a 88-degree wide-angle lens, flash and BSI Sensor.

In terms of connectivity, the dual-sim phone offers 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS.

Online fashion commerce boosts Bestseller's 2013-14 revenue

Danish fashion niche retailer Bestseller, whose brands like Vero Moda compete with market leaders H&M and Zara, said its pre-tax profit rose 21% in 2013-2014 as it pared down on stores and boosted its internet business.

Revenues rose 5% to 20.1 billion Danish crowns ($3.4 billion) in the 2013-14 financial year while pretax profit grew to 1.7 billion crowns, the unlisted firm said late on Thursday.

Earlier this month the company said its Bestseller Retail Europe division, which runs physical stores and accounts for about 10% of its total revenue, would close every 20th store after profits for that division fell by 50%.

"Through an increased focus on our operations and through an even closer collaboration with our partners and customers, we have managed to grow and create better results in a challenging market," chief executive Anders Holch Povlsen said.

Povlsen, son of the founder of Bestseller and Denmark's second richest man, said the synergies between physical stores and e-commerce has become more critical than ever.

"Our goal is that the digital options available become a larger part of Bestseller's DNA and that the link between the physical stores and our online activities becomes even more natural," Povlsen said in the annual report.

Bestseller has more than 3,000 stores across 38 markets worldwide and an online presence in 70 markets, with mid-market brands such as Vero Moda, Pieces, Mamalicious and high mid-market brands such as Selected Femme and Selected Homme.

Despite a solid revenue growth of 5%, the company was behind H&M and Zara, which posted growth of 9% and 8% respectively at their last annual reports.

Thursday 27 November 2014

At $40 billion, Uber bigger than Twitter and Hertz

Uber Technologies investors are betting the five-year-old car-booking app is more valuable than Twitter and Hertz Global Holdings.

The startup is close to raising a round of financing that would value it between $35 billion and $40 billion, according to people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. T Rowe Price Group is in discussions to be a new investor and existing investor Fidelity Investments is also set to participate in the funding, the people said.

"At this valuation, investors appear to be thinking that when Uber goes public, it might be worth $80 billion to $100 billion," said Anand Sanwal, chief executive officer of CB Insights, a research firm in New York. "This type of mega-financing affords Uber a great deal of flexibility in terms of when they might go public."

If Uber completes the funding, the valuation of as much as $40 billion would more than double its $17 billion value from a June financing round. That would also put Uber at about 1.5 times the capitalization of microblogging service Twitter and at the same size as Salesforce.com, Delta Airlines and Kraft Foods Group. It would dwarf car-rental company Hertz, which has a market capitalization of $11 billion.

The funding talks show that investors' appetite for growth wasn't affected by the fallout from remarks made last week by senior vice president Emil Michael about prying into journalists' private lives.

"Uber has done a lot of ill-considered things, but I still wish I were its investor," said David Cowan, a partner at Bessemer Venture Partners.

Record Valuation

Uber is seeking to raise at least $1 billion, the people said. The financing hasn't closed and the terms and investor group may still change, one of the people said. T Rowe previously considered investing in Uber and may still end up passing this time, two of the people said. Representatives for Uber, T Rowe and Fidelity declined to comment yesterday.

Already in June, Uber's valuation was a record for a US technology startup in a direct investment round. That put it at the front of a pack of elite US technology startups that are valued in the eleven-digit range, including Airbnb and Dropbox.

Such valuations are spreading internationally. In China, smartphone maker Xiaomi is in talks for a funding round that would value it at $40 billion to $50 billion, people familiar with the matter have said.

Uber is raising more money to finance its international expansion, people close to the situation said earlier this month. The company, founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp and chief executive officer Travis Kalanick, has rolled out its car-booking services to more than 220 cities worldwide.

Uber has run into controversies during its fast expansion, including roiling established taxi and limousine industries and facing regulatory hurdles. Some drivers for the service have also complained about the company's commission structure.

Last week, Uber introduced a rewards program for drivers and hired law firm Hogan Lovells to conduct an internal review on its data-privacy.

Wednesday 26 November 2014

Samsung retains top position in Indian smartphone market: IDC

Korean giant Samsung continued to be the smartphone market leader in India with 24%, followed by Micromax (20%) and Lava (8%), research firm IDC in a statement said.

The research firm said that Samsung has witnessed shipment growth in Q3 2014 but it has been lower than than the industry average.

"There is a contraction in their (Samsung) market share", IDC added.

The finding puts Karbonn (also 8% market share) together with Lava at third slot and said that more than 85% of Karbonn's shipment volume is supported by handsets priced less than $100.

"Lava's feature phone business shaped up well in Q3 2014. It was able to clinch the fourth spot in the overall mobile phone business surpassing Karbonn," it added.

The research firm ranks Motorola at fifth position with 5% of the smartphone market pie.

Vendors shipped 23.3 million smartphones during Q3 2014, IDC, in its quarterly mobile phone tracker report said and added that India is the fastest growing market in the Asia Pacific region

With 23.3 million shipments in the quarter, smartphones demonstrated 27% quarter-on-quarter growth and a robust 82% year-on-year growth.

"Smartphone with screen size between 4.5-inch and 5.5-inch are seen as the sweet spot for consumer preference. Consumer need higher screen size phone to enjoy media content and with the 4G rollout expected in CY2015, we expect Phablets segment to pick up again" Kiran Kumar, research manager, Client Devices IDC India said.

Samsung also led the overall market but it's gap with second place Micromax narrowed in the quarter, IDC said.

Thursday 13 November 2014

Snapdeal logs onto rural India

Online retail is poised for a hyper jump into rural India. To go one up on archrival Flipkart, Snapdeal — one of the country's largest e-tailers — plans to tap 50 lakh low-income households in slums and villages across the country. These include places such as Dharavi (Mumbai), which is Asia's largest slum, Govindpuri, one of the biggest slums in Delhi, and villages in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Haryana, among many others.

Snapdeal will launch around 5,000 e-commerce kiosks across 65 cities and 70,000 rural areas by the end of next year with the help of FINO PayTech, an Indian financial inclusion solutions company. These e-commerce centers will be manned by village-level entrepreneurs, have personal computers and tablets, and also serve as collection and delivery points of packages since most people living in these areas usually have no permanent addresses. Additionally, they will help consumers with zero internet connectivity to shop online.

"I am going into this thinking that we will be able to reach 5-10 crore new consumers in the next three years," Kunal Bahl, co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal, told TOI. At present, Snapdeal has around 3 crore registered users.

Interestingly, initial pilot runs by these kiosks have revealed that the average ticket size of purchases by rural consumers is not too far behind that of urban consumers. "It is Rs 1,400 compared to Rs 2,000 from urban areas," said Bahl.


Snapdeal will be offering a special assortment of utility-cum-aspirational products, such as speakers, juicers, solar lanterns, diner sets, cameras and mobile phones. These products will be curated on an exclusive page that will require login by a FINO agent, who would place an order, collect payment, receive and deliver to people who have no permanent address.

"This channel has great potential. For instance, we call people from Dharavi the HNIs (high net worth individual) of slums," said Rishi Gupta, executive director and COO of FINO PayTech.

Tatas plans e-marketplace foray

Tata Group has started putting together a team for its proposed big-bang foray into e-commerce marketplace under Ashutosh Pandey, former COO of the Group's bookstore chain Landmark.

The Group has also roped in Sarvesh Dwivedi, who has been heading the lifestyle division of eBay India, three people familiar with Tatas' plans told ET.

Gurvinderjit Singh Samra, who has worked with Tata Group's different arms, including its life-science and healthcare unit, Titan and Indian Hotels, has joined the e-commerce team, two of them said. "Obviously there is a small team as things are currently being sketched," one of them said.

Latif Nathani, managing director of eBay India, confirmed the departure of Dwivedi from the company, but said he is not sure where Dwivedi is headed. Prior to eBay, Dwivedi worked with Myntra.com and Reliance Retail among other firms.

ET had in September reported that the Tatas are preparing for an entry into India's lucrative e-commerce business with a marketplace model similar to Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. A spokesperson for Tata Sons said that the Group has "interest" in e-commerce, but refused to share details for the proposed venture. "As we had told you on September 22, e-commerce is of interest to the Tata Group, and we will share more information at the appropriate moment," the person said in an emailed reply to ET.

Tatas currently run e-commerce portals for its Croma consumer electronics chain and Landmark bookstores. Its proposed new e-commerce marketplace, which will provide an online platform for small and large vendors and retailers to sell their wares, is expected to be launched next year.

In the initial phase Tata Group plans to sell products from its own brands including Star Bazaar supermarket and Westside department store. The company is also in talks with its joint venture partner Inditex to get Spanish brand Zara on board as well.

E-commerce in India is expected to almost double in two years to $20 billion by 2015 from $11 billion in 2013, according to a just-released report by Motilal Oswal Securities.

Wednesday 12 November 2014

In net neutrality, some may be more equal than others

Internet businesses and content creators in India have reason to cheer US president Barack Obama's latest endorsement of "network neutrality", the notion that all internet traffic should be treated as equal by service providers. "We believe that even the smallest player should have non-discriminatory access to the pipes," said the Internet Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in a statement.

Unlike in the US, network neutrality has not become the subject of a major public debate in India yet. However, as subscribers shift to data-based services, telecom operators have been wanting to strike revenue-sharing deals with companies such as WhatsApp and Skype to make up for the income they lose from traditional SMS and voice.

Proponents of network neutrality fear that allowing service providers to strike such deals could create a discriminatory environment as companies with money can buy faster internet speeds to reach users and new businesses will lose out in the process.

Delhi-based media entrepreneur Nikhil Pahwa, who has been closely tracking the discussion on network neutrality in India, said, "I'm worried that telecom operators will create gateways to the internet." Pah wa said that if telcos — also large internet service providers in the country — create such gateways, it will stifle new internet businesses.

"Big companies will ultimately succeed and people like me will have to sign deals with them just to make my content accessible," said Pahwa of Medianama.

The practice of providing free access to certain services such as Facebook, as its founder Mark Zuckerberg proposed on his recent visit to India, is also being questioned for being discriminatory. Telecom company Airtel recently launched One Touch Internet, which allows access a limited set of services for first-time internet users.

Tuesday 11 November 2014

India now biggest market for Opera Mini web browser

Opera Mini, a popular mobile phone web browser, has achieved 50 million users in India, making the South Asian nation the largest market by this measure for the Norwegian company that's now scouting for possible acquisitions in the mobile advertising space in the country.

Opera Software chief executive Lars Boilesen estimated that the number of users in India would double to 100 million within a year given pace of growth of smartphones, a fourth of which are set to come from Nokia's Xpress web browser, which will further strengthen India's presence at the top.

"It's a mobile-first market and there are a lot of people here who haven't been connected to data," Boilesen said. The company's global operations will be centred on markets including Indonesia and Russia where users will access the internet for the first time via mobile phones.

Opera Mini has more than 300 million users worldwide. Microsoft acquired Nokia's mobile phone business for $7.5 billion in September and a month later, 100 million Nokia's Xpress web browser users have been asked to migrate to Opera Mini, which has become the default browser for Microsoft's feature phones and the Asha phones. A fourth of these users are in India. Microsoft will still service Asha phones already in the market.

The Opera Mini web browser compresses data by 90%, increasing browsing speed, reducing stalling and in turn increasing data consumption without driving up usage bills.

Monday 10 November 2014

Google, Facebook, Microsoft vie for a share of Digital India pie

US technology giants are tripping over each other to get a slice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India and Smart Cities projects. In less than three months, Google and Hewlett-Packard have followed Facebook and Microsoft to queue up in government offices to show off their technology wares, highlighting renewed foreign investor interest as India's economy recovers.

Google, the owner of the world's largest search engine, has sounded out the telecom department about providing 'inexpensive' internet access across India through a network of helium-filled balloons, currently being tested for efficacy under 'Project Loon'. The solar-powered balloons are being run as pilot projects in New Zealand, California and Brazil and are Google's answer to Facebook's solar-powered drones.

"Sundar Pichai wanted to meet telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and discuss the matter personally but their travel dates clashed on Pichai's recent visit to India," a person familiar with the company's plans told ET. Prasad was in Germany during the visit by Indian-origin Pichai, a senior vice president at Google, who is widely seen as the second-most important man in the company after chief executive Larry Page.

As a result, Google executives had met senior officials of the department, including telecom secretary Rakesh Garg. When contacted, the company said it didn't comment on market speculation.

Google, along with Facebook and Microsoft, are vying to deploy their alternative technologies to offer 'last-mile' broadband connections in remote and inaccessible parts of India to provide access to high-speed internet. Under an ambitious Rs 1.13 lakh-crore 'Digital India' initiative, the government plans to use the national optic fibre network project to deliver e-services in areas such as health, education to every nook and corner of the country .

The network, which is positioned to form the backbone of the Digital India programme, will be deployed only at the Gram Panchayat level. Reaching the end consumer — homes, schools, hospitals and other institutions — may require wireless technology, especially in hard-to-reach areas. Google's balloons, Facebook's drones and Microsoft's TV white space technology could fill this gap.

Google's Project Loon uses balloons placed in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 32km to create an aerial wireless network that could provide internet access at up to 3G-like speeds. The layers of wind in the stratosphere, which vary in direction and speed, can be used to steer these balloons to where they're needed. Users on the ground can connect to the balloon network using a special internet antenna attached to their homes or buildings.

The competitive edge between the US behemoths came to the fore when Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg recently played down the effectiveness of Google's balloons, saying they have a shorter life than drones and can't survive the rigour of weather patterns in the troposphere, which lies below the stratosphere, apart from lacking the precision and control offered by drones.

India, which has seen renewed interest from foreign investors after going through an image crisis post the Vodafone retrospective tax episode and the 2G telecom scam, seems to be the latest battleground for the US giants, which are focused on this hot investment destination.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government has tried to assuage foreign investors by terming the tax move — initiated under the previous United Progressive Alliance-II government — as a bad idea and has taken steps to attract overseas funds by opening up new sectors such as defence and manufacturing for overseas investment. Inflation is easing and economic indicators are off lows. The stock markets are at an all-time high, boosted by foreign portfolio investments, reflecting new-found confidence in the Indian economy.

Modi's trip to the US was a roaring success and was followed by high-profile visits of top honchos from the US corporate world, including Microsoft's Satya Nadella and Zuckerberg, and also that of Masayoshi Son, Softbank's billionaire founder, all pointing towards an increased investor confidence.

Friday 7 November 2014

Microsoft unveils free Office apps for iPhone, iPads

Microsoft is offering free upgraded versions of its Office software for iPhones and iPads, as the software giant further embraces the so-called "freemium" strategy favored by many newer companies seeking success online.

Give away a basic version of a popular service, and the world may beat a path to your door and be willing to pay a little more for extras, or so the thinking goes.

Microsoft, the longtime king of desktop software, has generally protected its model of getting paid upfront for what it developed. But as the company strives to stay relevant for workers and consumers in an increasingly mobile world — and better compete with Google, Apple and others — it is offering substantial versions of its most popular products free of charge for smartphones and tablets. Microsoft is hoping to keep people using its products across all their devices, while betting that many will ultimately pay for fuller-featured versions of the software.

"There's going to be a handful of tech companies that everyone depends on," for online software, said Maribel Lopez, a mobile tech analyst at Lopez Research. "Microsoft wants to make sure they're one of them."

As more workers use devices other than desktop PCs, they want to have the same capabilities on all their devices, says Michael Atalla, director of Microsoft's Office apps product management. "We want to make sure they can move seamlessly from one to another," he added.

The apps, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, replace a limited iPhone version and upgrade a more powerful set of apps that the company released for iPad tablets in March. The older iPhone version allowed users to create and view files for free, but had very limited features. Earlier versions for the iPad offered more capabilities, but creating new files required a paid subscription to the company's Office 365 subscription service.

The new apps have more of the capabilities found in Office desktop software and don't require a paid subscription for creating files and other functions. Microsoft is still reserving some premium features, including security tools for business users, for paid subscribers. Microsoft will continue to charge for Office 365 on PCs and for business users.

The company seems to be thinking, "We'll perhaps sacrifice a little bit of revenue on the consumer side to make sure Office remains the standard for everybody," said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at Jackdaw Research. Businesses are increasingly willing to buy technology that their workers use at home, and that could shore up Microsoft's lucrative commercial business, Dawson said.

Although most of Microsoft Corp's revenue still comes from traditional software, CEO Satya Nadella wants to shift the company's focus to mobile and web-based products. The Redmond, Washington company recently said it delayed producing a new version of Office for Apple's Mac computers so it could focus on mobile apps.

One big challenge for Microsoft stems from the complexity of building different versions of each app for competing mobile operating systems. Apple's iPhones and iPads are far outnumbered by smartphones and tablets that use Google's Android mobile operating system. But different versions of Android run on a variety of devices from different manufacturers. Microsoft also has its own mobile operating system, although it's not as widely used.

Microsoft is inviting Android users to sign up for a test version of its new Office apps for Android tablets this week, but Atalla said the finished apps won't be released until early next year. He said new apps for Android phones are in the works, but declined to give a time frame.

In another move to keep up with shifting work habits, Microsoft this week announced a software partnership with Dropbox, an online storage company that's increasingly popular with people that want to store documents, photos and other files and share them with others. The two companies are integrating their software so documents stored in DropBox can be easily edited with Microsoft's Office tools. Microsoft also has its own online storage service, while Google and Apple offer competing services with their apps.

Amazon launches Echo, a speaker you can talk to

Do you want to talk to your speaker? Amazon.com has launched "Amazon Echo", a speaker you leave on all day and give it voice directions, like Siri on an Apple Inc iPhone.

As well as taking commands such as "play music by Bruno Mars" or "add gelato to my shopping list", Amazon said the device accesses the internet to answer questions such as "when is Thanksgiving?" and "what is the weather forecast?"

Amazon said the speaker, which runs on Amazon Web Services, continually learns a user's speech patterns and preferences.

Users start the speaker up saying the wake up word, "Alexa".

They can then feed Amazon Echo commands or questions or, if they want, wirelessly stream music web services such as Spotify, iTunes and Pandora via their mobiles.

Amazon Echo is priced at $199, or $99 for members for the online retail giant's Amazon Prime loyalty scheme. It is available on an invitation-only basis in coming weeks.

Amazon has had an unusually busy year, developing a mobile phone, video productions and grocery deliveries.

Last month, the company forecast sales for the crucial holiday quarter that disappointed Wall Street and investors who are eager to see Amazon curtail its ambitions and start delivering

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Govt plans Rs 10,000cr fund to create tech giants

The journey of tech behemoths like Google, Apple and Facebook — from startups to global giants — has caught the fancy of the Indian government, which is planning a Rs 10,000-crore electronics development fund to support ambitious startups in attaining scale.

The government feels that India needs to incubate tech giants from its soil — like those emanating from the West —as the country has a fast-growing mass of internet users and possesses a rich list of highly-skilled techies. The basic groundwork for kick-starting the initiative has been completed.

"It is in the process of finalization and we will get an approval very soon," a source in the ministry of information technology told TOI. This is a different fund from the Rs 10,000-crore venture fund announced in the Budget for startups in micro, small and medium enterprise (MSMEs).

The government will not make the investments directly, but will rather route the money through venture capital funds that are focused on electronics hardware and IT startups. "We will take small subscription in them. Thus, we will invest in the capital of the fellows who do the investments," the source said.

Elaborating on the idea behind the creation of the fund, the source added, "Innovations are not happening in our country, products are not being made in our country. We are, at best, a labour market. Our highly-qualified boys and girls are doing research in Bangalore and other labs, but they are essentially creating intellectual property products for foreign companies. Why can't we have our own products where we have our own intellectual property rights?"

The government feels that India has missed the bus in terms of creating technology giants, both in software and electronics hardware. "For example, in software, a Google or a Facebook or a Microsoft Office has not been developed in India. Despite being such a big IT power, India has not been able to make any products. We are able to do just services," the source added. The government will create the electronic development fund to make the investments. "We are not directly funding the startups, but rather we will collaborate with some venture capital funds," the source said.

The segments earmarked for funds include electronics, components and software. "The idea is to create a startup culture, a product culture, and innovation," the source said. Both domestic and foreign venture capital funds will be targeted by the government to route its investments.

Sunday 2 November 2014

An era ends with Nokia smartphones

As the world moves rapidly towards the era of smartphones, a brand synonymous with mobile phones for two decades and one that actually introduced these more advanced devices to the masses will not be part of this future. Nokia, arguably one of the most popular mobile phone brands across the globe, will cease to exist among smartphones in the years to come as Microsoft, the new owner of Nokia's devices business, has decided to pull the curtains on one of the most iconic names of our time, even if only partially.

Microsoft will use the Nokia brand for 10 years for feature phones and has decided to re-brand the Nokia Lumia range of smartphones to Microsoft Lumia and discontinue the Asha and X ranges of smartphones. Redmond-headquartered Microsoft bought Nokia's devices and services business for $7.5 billion in April, along with the right to use the Nokia brand

"It's the end of an era," said brand consultant Harish Bijoor, who recalls that his second mobile phone was the Nokia Communicator, a brick-like yet swanky device that split open to become a mini laptop with a qwerty keypad and business apps. Owning this handphone at Rs 60,000 or Rs 72,000 more than a decade ago was akin to owning jewelry. It also meant you had arrived.

"Nokia is a loss. It's a brand that I have real affection for. It still has the largest brand recall," Bijoor added. Nokia made all the right moves in its heyday to become one of the most trusted brands among discerning Indian consumers who wanted value for money and high quality in any product they bought. It partnered with retailers, carriers and content makers and introduced a variety of models month after month to create a flourishing ecosystem for mobile phones in India, one of its top priority markets globally.

"When all phones were limited to few colours, Nokia launched the full colour screen phone, which was my first mobile phone," said 32-year old graphic designer Krishnaraj Singh, who has since used more than a dozen Nokia phones. Nokia's durability was another killer feature that no mobile phone can match today. "The phones wouldn't break even if I were to throw them," said 30-year old Kavita Kapoor, a public relations professional at a clothing brand in Gurgaon.

"It's a brand that has captured the imagination of every single person," said PepsiCo India Chairman and Chief Executive Officer D Shivakumar, who spearheaded Nokia's growth for almost half of its 18 years in India, during which it set up India's first mobile phone manufacturing factory in Sriperumbudur near Chennai in 2009.

At its peak, the factory produced 25% of all Nokia phones sold, which was 11% of the world's cellphones. From November 1, the factory will stop functioning. The plant was excluded from the Microsoft deal after its assets were frozen in tax-related proceedings.

"Nokia was more than a brand. It was consistent as a brand and as a culture, humble, honest, caring and empathetic," Shivakumar added. Not everybody feels that the former pride of Finland has lost its legacy. The brand will live on, even if it is restricted to feature phones used by 71% of India's 900 million mobile phone owners, which is only diminishing as they upgrade to smartphones.

"The brand equity will remain intact," said a former senior executive at Nokia, who did not want to be identified. "It will only move to Microsoft, which is not an unknown brand in India. I have seen customers walking into Microsoft retail stores that were earlier Nokia Priority Dealers with the same ease and confidence they had in Nokia," he added.

Many consumers believe that in terms of recall, the brand will prevail even for smartphones because it will take a while for the change of brand to register. Customers, especially those who have used or are using Lumia devices, are likely to habitually keep referring to them as Nokia Lumia instead of Microsoft Lumia.

"Buying a Microsoft Lumia is just not the same as buying a Nokia Lumia. For a generation that has grown up with the idea that a smartphone equals N Series or E Series, not being able to buy a Nokia smartphone will leave a void. Ten years later, no one will reminiscence about their iPhone 5, 6 or 10, it will be the Nokia N95 that they will recall," said Vaibhav Sharma, a lawyer and tech blogger who has followed Nokia for several years.

"If Nokia's demise proves one thing, it is that nothing stays forever in the world of technology. So don't be surprised if you see Nokia make a comeback in 2016. Remember, they didn't sell their patents or the HERE mapping division to Microsoft," he added

Under the terms of the deal, Nokia, which now operates telecom equipment, HERE maps and technologies businesses after the acquisition, will continue to own and maintain the Nokia brand. After the transaction closes, Nokia cannot license the Nokia brand for use in connection with mobile device sales for 30 months and cannot use the brand on Nokia's own mobile devices until December 31, 2015.

Friday 31 October 2014

Single strand of fibre optic to carry net data?

A new type of fibre optic cable developed by researchers in the US and Netherlands has smashed data transfer records, managing to squeeze 255 terabits of information per second down a single strand of glass fibre.

This means that a single fibre optical cable made using this technology could carry as much data as the entire internet at peak times.

To achieve this feat engineers from Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Central Florida created a multi-core strand of glass fibre; a development that they say is tantamount to letting "three cars [...] drive on top of each other in the same lane". Normal fibre optic cables mostly contain thousands of strands of glass fibre, each strand a little thicker than human hair.

These transfer information by bouncing beams of light through the glass - imagine sending a message using morse code by flashing a torch on and off. By managing to scale down these glass fibres, cramming seven cores into a single glass strand, this new technology has achieved transfer speeds of 32 terabytes a second (a byte is eight times as big as a bit) or enough to shift 1,000 gigabytes in 31 milliseconds. This is faster than the total capacity of all the fibre optic cables currently buried under the Atlantic Ocean.

Thursday 30 October 2014

Apple Watch has to be charged everyday : Tim Cook

The much-awaited Apple timepiece will not hit the market till next year, but CEO Tim Cook has revealed that users may only get a day's use before needing to recharge it.

While trying to evade a discussion on Apple Watch's battery life, Cook said that tech enthusiasts will use it so much that they will end up charging it daily. However, his statement has fuelled speculations about the gadget's battery life as it has been a key concern for the company ever since the watch was unveiled on September 9, The Daily Star reported.

Although Apple is confident that their watch will be received well by users yet uncertainties about its battery life persist. Many other smartwatches in the market have similar issues with their battery life.

The device will bring alerts and notifications directly to the user's wrist and will also act as a health tracker and a walkie talkie.

Google Glass may enter emergency room at Reliance Foundation Hospital

Mumbai's Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre will soon be bringing Google Glass to its emergency room, that will allow its doctors to use the cutting-edge technology to access past medical records for quick response.

Google Glass is a tiny computer mounted on eye glasses created by search engine giant Google.

The renovated hospital, inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, will be the first in the country to use the search giant Google's smart-eyewear in its everyday operations. The project is still in its pilot phase and will be deployed across the hospital within a month's time, according to Mukesh Jain, CIO at the 345bed, multi-specialty hospital.

Doctors wearing Google Glass can access lab reports of a patient by just tapping on the device, and instead of scribbling notes; they can just talk to the Glass, which in turn will type in all the notes for them. The data can then be transferred to the hospital's information system via 'We Care', an app provided by SAP.

"This remarkable app has the potential to bring patient care to new heights," said Jain. "SAP has blended perfectly with We Care solution — smooth clinical workflow and the smartphone hands-free format of smart glasses — for the potential use of any physician anywhere."

To start with, Reliance is looking at applying Google Glass in emergency care. When a patient is brought into the ER, doctors wearing Google Glass would be able to look up the patients' past records, including x-rays, and collaborate with other departments.

"Usually, in the healthcare environment, it is only the patient who is stationary — everything else is mobile," said Andy David, healthcare director, SAP APJ. "With the help of Google Glass, doctors can attend to multiple patients, engage with them and see almost twice as many patients during the rounds. Doctors can take accurate notes on Google Glass itself. The data is stored automatically and can be accessed when required."

The 'We Care' application, designed by SAP India Labs, could soon turn into a product that will be available to hospitals worldwide. Google Glass costs $1,500 a piece. With increase in usage, its price is expected to drop.

In June this year, Dr Pavan Kumar, head of cardiac surgery at Mumbai's Nanavati Hospital used Google Glass to record a surgery. Nanavati Hospital is also working on an application that will let it use Google Glass for telemedicine.

Tuesday 28 October 2014

Why Apple killed iPod Classic

Tim Cook has finally spoken up about killing the iconic iPod Classic media player after the iPhone launch event in September this year.

In an interview at the WSJ.D conference in California, Cook said that iPod Classic met its demise because Apple was unable to procure parts for the music player.

He said, "It wasn't a matter of me swinging the ax, saying 'what can I kill today'. The engineering work was massive, and the number of people who wanted it very small. I felt there were reasonable alternatives."

iPod Classic, which featured a click wheel, last got an update five years ago as iPod touch gained popularity. It was removed from Apple Store website in September this year, marking its official discontinuation.

With storage capacity of 160GB, iPod Classic could store as many as 40,000 songs. iPod touch has maximum storage capacity of 64GB; other iPods in Apple's portfolio are iPod nano and iPod shufle.

Monday 27 October 2014

A cracker of a Diwali for e-tailers


This Diwali, Indian online retail industry joined the mainstream with the top three players Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal hogging the limelight throughout the festive month of October, helped by massive sales and high-octane marketing.

However, the heavy-duty sales with discounts of over 75% also exposed the industry's weakest link — last mile delivery. Logistics infrastructure of online retailers struggled to deal with the sudden rise in the flow of shipments, leading to pile-ups at airports and packages failing to reach customers on time.

"Online retailing has become mainstream this festival season," said Mukesh Bansal, board member at Flipkart. "A large number of customers have come online. This has been a record month for us with the highest sales ever," said Mukesh Bansal of Flipkart. He declined to reveal the exact number of orders the Bangalore-based company received.

Bansal, who heads fashion at the company, admitted that there were problems too.

"We all found out that the capacity of the logistics network is not enough for the industry," he said.

However, with top companies exceeding their targets, experts said the positives far outweighed all the negatives.

"The online retail industry is the winner this season with all companies beating their own internal targets," said Saurabh Srivastava, director at advisory firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) India.

Flipkart, for example, was targeting $3 billion (over Rs 18,300 crore) in overall value of goods sold by end of the fiscal and $4 billion (over Rs 24,500 crore) by mid-2015.

"They are now targeting to reach $4 billion by end of this fiscal itself," said a person with knowledge of the company's sales.

Another person in the know said: "Flipkart has already seen over 80 lakh orders this month and is targeting to do about double next month." In June last year, Flipkart's peak sale was 1.3 lakh orders in one day. During the Big Billion Day, Flipkart's biggest sales event on October 6, the company sold 20 lakh products worth about $100 million (over Rs 600 crore).

Rivals Snapdeal and Amazon have been equally impressive.

"We received daily orders of about 3 lakh," said Sandeep Komaravelly, senior vice president of marketing at Snapdeal.

He said sales in October have more than doubled from September, and the company saw 250% growth month-on-month.

"There was massive adoption of online shopping by the country's consumers, which in turn, saw e-commerce in India growing by almost 200-300% over the past few months, with Snapdeal growing at about 600%," Komaravelly said.

Industry insiders expect Snapdeal to touch gross merchandise sales of over Rs 700 crore in October, significantly higher than its sales of Rs 450-500 crore over the preceding three months. The company has crossed $1 billion (over Rs 6,000 crore) in sales this fiscal.

Amazon India has seen over four-fold jump in transactions, according to a person with knowledge of the company's sales. The company saw a jump in traffic of up to 300% on various days during its 30-day festive season sales. "The response has been beyond our wildest expectations," said Amit Agarwal, country manager and vice president at Amazon India.

Arvind Singhal, chairman of retail advisory Technopak, said: "I don't see a single clear winner among the top three. The growth overall has been spectacular. The aggression shown by them has ensured accelerated growth." The aggression was in the form of highly visible advertisements and brand promotions.

E-commerce companies are estimated to have spent about Rs 200 crore on advertising just this festive season.

Snapdeal alone got on board 28 celebrities and created 50 advertisement films.

The company had blocked up to 2,000 ad spots a day across television channels.

A senior executive at a logistics firm said: "Average shipments per day were at about 1 million before the festive season for the industry and that has almost doubled." The online retail boom was not a big city phenomenon.

"The small locations have seen big volumes. We are fulfilling about 200 orders a day in a small centre like Theni," said TA Krishnan, chief executive of ecommerce focused logistics firm Ecom Express.

Flipkart said it now reaches about 1,000 cities and towns in India through its inhouse logistics team and third-party partners, compared with under 900 before October. Amazon, which did not share the exact amount of sales during the month, said over half of all orders were from non-metros.

But the problems in the industry were also brought into sharp focus this season.

Delay in delivery, chocked airports and increased focus by tax authorities were just some of the troubles that may continue to hobble the rapidly growing sector for some time.

After Flipkart's sales event, traders body Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has demanded a probe into pricing models used by e-commerce companies.

While commerce and industry minister Nirmala Sitharaman clarified there is no investigation into Flipkart's October 6 sale, state tax authorities have taken notice. "The tax authorities in almost all states are saying if they have so much money to spend on advertisements why not pay tax in their state," said a senior ecommerce executive, who declined to be named. "In Bihar, authorities are already cracking the whip against logistics players who are making deliveries by telling them to pay value added tax." The biggest problem by far is delay in deliveries.

On online consumer complaints platform Akosha, online retail-related complaints have shot up from 700 a day to 3,000. "A number of customers were shopping for Diwali and their orders have not reached in time for Diwali," said Ankur Singla, chief executive officer at Akosha.

About 30% of complaints are about delayed delivery.

Typical delivery period has increased from under five days to over 10, according to logistics executives.

"The biggest letdown has been the aviation capacity. Packages were not picked up by airlines for 2-3 days, resulting in backlogs," said a senior executive at a logistics firm. "We were stopped from entering top airports like Delhi for a few days due to excess packages and have had to use trains and road to move goods." The last-mile hurdles could have a positive impact, said experts. "This has made it clear that e-commerce is dependent on logistics for growth and there is an opportunity for scaling up. We can expect more investments in this space," said Singhal of Technopak.

The logistics executive said his company doubled its revenue to over Rs 17 crore in October compared with September.

Friday 24 October 2014

Apple iPad Air 2

If I've seen you taking photos with a tablet computer, I've probably made fun of you (though maybe not to your face, depending on how big you are). I'm old school: I much prefer looking through the viewfinder of my full-bodied, single-lens reflex camera, even though it has a large LCD screen.

But as I tested out Apple's new iPad Air 2, I see why people like to shoot pictures with a tablet. Images look great on the large screen, and there's less guesswork about whether or not small details, such as lettering on a sign, will be in focus.

And what you see — and get — with the iPad Air 2 is a better camera. The rear one now matches the iPhone's 8 megapixels, up from 5 megapixels, and incorporates features such as slow-motion video. Packed with a faster processor, the 9.7-inch tablet is also 18 percent thinner and 7 percent lighter than the previous model, at about a quarter of an inch and just under a pound.

Apple is also updating its 7.9-inch iPad Mini, though the cameras, processor and dimensions haven't changed.

The tablets go on sale this week, starting at $499 for the iPad Air 2 and $399 for the iPad Mini 3. Both now have fingerprint ID technology to expedite online purchases through Apple Pay. Gold joins silver and grey as color choices, and pricier models have twice as much storage as before.

Improved camera
The iPad Air 2 takes sharper images. I can tell even before snapping the shot because I see all that detail on the screen. I'm able to read the small name tag on a baby bottle. Lettering on a van across the street looks clearer.

Last month's iOS 8 software update brought panorama and time-lapse features to the iPad. With the iPad Air 2, you can snap 10 shots per second in a burst mode — great for restless kids, as you can choose the best shots later. You also get slow-motion video, though only at 120 frames per second. The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer 240 frames per second as well, so motion looks even slower.

The new Air's front camera gets a burst mode, too, and the front sensor is better than before at capturing light for indoor and night selfies.

Unfortunately, the iPad still doesn't have a flash. Although I prefer taking shots with natural light anyway, a lot of people like the flash. My advice is to light subjects with the iPhone's flashlight.

Better viewing and sound
An anti-reflective coating reduces glare on the iPad Air 2. It's a first for Apple and possibly a first for any consumer mobile device. I was dubious until I watched video with light shining in through my window. The coating didn't eliminate glare completely, but made video viewable. The glare was too distracting on last year's Air.

The coating also promises to improve contrast. However, I had to look hard to notice differences in some dull-color scenes in Showtime's "Homeland." In many cases, the quality of the video stream makes a bigger difference.

To me, the iPad Air 2 also has better speakers. With the volume cranked all the way up, sound is louder on the new model. Apple says there shouldn't be a difference, though I'm not complaining. (My neighbors might, though.)

Other changes
I'm glad to see the fingerprint ID sensor for unlocking both new tablets. Passcodes seem so last century, not to mention inconvenient.

That fingerprint can now be used to authorize Apple Pay purchases in apps. Unlike the new iPhones, the iPad doesn't have a wireless chip needed for in-store transactions. Then again, I'd probably mock anyone who tried to wave a giant device over a cashier's payment terminal. But I can see myself choosing a tablet over a phone for online shopping, and the fingerprint with Apple Pay will work nicely for that.

For the iPad Air 2 only, there's a faster Wi-Fi technology called 802.11ac, though you need new home-networking equipment to take advantage of it. The Air also gets a barometer sensor to track elevation in fitness apps.

The bargain
Last year's iPad Air was a huge improvement over the 2012 iPad, so this year's update seems small by comparison. The improvements might not be enough for existing iPad Air owners to upgrade, but there's enough there for those who have older models or are getting their first tablets.

The update in the iPad Mini is less pronounced. That makes it less tempting to save $100 by going for the Mini. For the same price as an iPad Mini 3, you can get last year's full-size iPad with similar technical specifications. Bargain hunters should consider previous versions of the Mini, including the original model for $249, the cheapest iPad yet.

If you can afford it, though, spend more for added storage. For $599, you get an iPad Air 2 with 64 gigabytes, compared with 16GB in the $499 base model. For $699, you get 128GB. You'll be surprised how quickly your iPad fills up with photos and video — especially now that I won't mock you.

Wednesday 22 October 2014

Microsoft officially replaces Nokia name with Lumia

It's almost official! Microsoft is in the process of replacing the Nokia brandname with Microsoft Lumia.

The rebranding exercise will start with France with the company's regional social network accounts set to being renamed from Nokia to Microsoft Lumia. It communicated the same via a Facebook post. Nokia France's Twitter account also posted a link to the post. Following the post, the Redmond giant confirmed the move to The Verge it would start the rebranding exercise in other countries in the coming weeks.

The move comes shortly after Microsoft rebranding Nokia's native apps to Lumia and launched new Microsoft Mobile Devices site redirecting users from the Nokia.com mobile website.

Although Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's handsets division was completed in April for $7.2 billion, we've still seen devices released under the Finnish brand over the past several months. The company's recently launched Lumia 730 and 830 phones sport Nokia branding but it's believed the two devices are the last ones to carry that name.
It's also expected that Microsoft will soon do away with the 'Phone' in the name of its mobile operating system Windows Phone. During the unveiling of Windows 10, Microsoft had announced that it will merge all platforms under a single Windows product.

It's worth pointing out that Nokia still exists as a brand and a separate company based in Finland that focuses on location based services including Here maps, and network equipment. Nokia had agreed to not make a smartphone or phone carrying the Nokia brand till the end of 2015.