Cloud network integration is coming to global cloud services

Mike Sapien, Principal Analyst, Enterprise

Cloud services have been available for several years, and any provider of enterprise services or hardware is now a cloud service provider. Recently, new services have been emerging that offer different versions and types of cloud–network integration (CNI) services. Most cloud services are networks of cloud services or “clouds of clouds.”

To perform well, applications require strong integration and bonds between cloud services and related network services. This includes end user access to the network, as well as network connectivity between the different cloud service resources and vendors. Any telco that wants to remain strong in enterprise managed services must have a roadmap to CNI.

How are the rows of Business Intelligence driving Data Decisions

By Nikhilesh Tiwari

Did you know that a manager in any organization spends an average two hours per working time hunting for data? Half of that information later turns out to be useless, says Cindi Howson in her book on business intelligence, released in 2007.

The sheer volume, variety and velocity of data coming in at any terminal is reaching unprecedented levels now. Data becomes information after it has been processed to add context, relevance and purpose. As companies segregate data into information cells and store them in different formats, one may find that there is vortex of data combinations formed by the billions of rows of data the company has collected and keeps adding.

India big market for consumer electronics,wearable tech, Accenture

India is poised to become a huge market for wearable technology like smartwatches and fitness monitors, driven by keen consumer interest in these latest gadgets and increasing spending on consumer durables, consulting firm Accenture today said. 

According to Accenture's Digital Consumer Tech Survey 2014, respondents from India were most interested in buying fitness monitors (80 per cent), smart watches (76 per cent) and Internet-enabled eyeglasses (74 per cent). 

Nokia Lumia 1520 review, Small step into big boys club

The phablet (big screen phones) segment has mostly been dominated by Android, with Samsung ruling the roost thanks to its Note devices. Even Chinese players like Huawei and Indian brands have tried to capitalize on the new trend. Finnish handset maker Nokia finally seems to have realized late it had missed out on the frenzy. The result is its latest Lumia smartphone, the Lumia 1520. 

The Nokia Lumia 1520 not only features a 6-inch screen, it is also the first Windows Phone 8 device to sport a full-HD display and house a quad-core processor. Interestingly, it is the first device that runs Windows Phone 8 GDR 3 or Black (Nokia's build of the OS), the latest iteration of the mobile operating system. Does the Lumia 1520 have the potential to challenge the Android phablets out there? We try to find out, in our review. 

Samsung may launch Smart Home app

Samsung has come up with an integrated platform, Smart Home, that lets users connect and control all smartdevices from a single Smart Home application. 

Samsung announced that it plans to roll out the product during the first half of 2014. 

According to TechHive, the Smart Home application will have three main sections at first: Device Control, Home View, and Smart Customer Service. 

Infosys mulling double digit salary hike

 Infosys is considering double-digit pay raises as chairman NR Narayana Murthy looks to keep the workforce of 1.5 lakh motivated, people aware of discussions in the company said. 

Although growth is showing signs of picking up, several senior executives have left the Bangalore-based company in recent months, making it imperative for attractive pay raises to keep employee morale high. 

HP cutting 5,000 more jobs

A not so happy new year is in store for employees of HP as the firm has revealed that it needs to eliminate an additional 15% of its workforce before October 2014.

In its 10k filing with the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission), the company put it down to continued market and business pressures. The latest round of cuts comes only a few weeks after the company announced it would be cutting 1100 jobs in the UK as part of a 'restructuring' plan.

Ian Tonks, Unite national officer, said: "For the last five years HP has been addicted to a culture of job cuts in the UK to such an extent that its highly skilled workforce has little faith in the way the company is being managed and will be going forward."'

Let apps motivate you to get better physique

Whether you are trying to control alcohol consumption or forcing yourself every morning to jog, apps like iBeer and Zombies Run 2 can motivate you. 

Here's some fun apps to help you to focus on fitness, reports dailystar.co.uk: 

* iPint on iOS and iBeer on Android: If your friends are gulping down beer at parties, you can also join them with this virtual beer. The apps are available on phones that have mobile operating systems like Android and iOS. The best part is it won't cost you anything and you'll be hangover free in the morning. 

New system may spell end of accounts passwords

Researchers have developed a new system that logs your everyday activities and asks questions about them, offering a simpler way of logging in to your accounts than memorising passwords.

The system called 'narrative authentication' was developed by Carson Brown and colleagues at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

It uses software running in the background on a computer or smartphone to log your activities. The system can, for instance, note how long you spent playing a video game, which one it was and the time you stopped.

 

It also logs videos you posted to social networking sites and any check-ins you made on them, 'New Scientist' reported.

Users can also add their own events to the narrative, such as when they passed their driving test.

After being set up, the system will generate questions based on its records - making logging in a little like playing a text-based adventure game, Brown said.

CES 2014, LG unveils 105 inch 21 by 9 cinema style TV with eye watering price tag

We're sure we're not the only ones who want a home cinema, and thanks to the LG 105UC9 that dream can now become a reality - sort of.

At 105 inches the 105UC9 is going to be pushing the dimensions of most living rooms, but its 21:9 aspect ratio and Ultra HD 5120 x 2160 resolution means that movies will look damn fine.

Obviously standard TV shows are not shot in 21:9, so you'll be losing a lot of screen real estate when watching your 16:9 and 5:9 programmes - hardly seems worth the outlay if half the screen is going to be off most of the time.

Lack of IT skills hurting unemployed in Europe

Week after week, newspapers issue a stream of hopeful headlines: Microsoft, PayPal, Fujitsu and scores of other companies are expanding their investments in Ireland, creating thousands of jobs as unemployment hovers near record highs. 

There is just one hitch: Not enough people are qualified to fill all the jobs. In some cases, the companies have had to look outside Ireland to recruit candidates with the right skills. 

After a five-year economic crisis, the mismatch represents one of the thorniest problems facing Ireland and many other European countries. Hundreds of thousands of people who lost work, and many young people entering the work force, are finding that their skills are ill suited to a huge crop of innovation-based jobs springing up across the Continent. 

Yahoo Sports app turns game highlights into GIFs

Yahoo has reportedly updated its Sports app for iOS7 that offers short clips or GIFs taken from game highlights and allows users to overlay text.

The Yahoo Sports' GIFs, dubbed Loops, can then be shared by a user with their community, with the GIF appearing inside a feed on the main game results page.

Senior product manager for mobile and emerging products, Josh Schwarzapel said that they have taken the mind set of Tumblr and Flickr-like creativity and applied it to sports.

Mobile chat apps a craze in India, challenges persist even as user base surges

Rather than surfing the TV channels or the internet, 42-year-old Anupam Gupta, a financial services professional in Mumbai, turns to his mobile phone for the latest buzz on the stock markets. A member of two groups on WhatsApp, a mobile chatapplication,hegets updates on the Sensex, snippets of the latest research reports and can hobnob with traders and analysts all through his work day. What used to be a task reliant on the desktop or laptop has gone mobile, literally. With 60 people to chat with overwork, breaks and meals,Gupta, a 14-year industry veteran, now has the pulse of the markets all the time. Over the past couple of years, millions of mobile phone users across India have noticeably changed their methodofcommunication.

Intex launches India s first octa core phone Aqua Octa for Rs 19,999

Homegrown handset maker Intex today launched India's first octa-core processor-powered device,Aqua Octa, priced at Rs 19,999.

The company had announced its strategic alliance with chipmaker MediaTek in November last year to bring the device in the Indian market.

Octa-core processor will enable the handset to offer speed of 1.7 GHz, enabling better user video and gaming experience.

BlackBerry s gambit for India, Cheaper phones, BES10, messenger and QNX technologies

Grammy winner Alicia Keys will not be working to sell BlackBerry 10 phones any more. She quit her association with the company last week. In India too we may forget about the jazzy ads about Black-Berry Boys. There are other ways to sell phones — a price cut is one of them.

Later in January, RIM India Pvt Ltd, the Indian arm of Research in Motion (RIM) that owns the BlackBerry brand, will announcea massive cut in the price ofQ5, its entry-level product on the BB-10 operating system. From around Rs 25,000 the price will come downto below Rs 20,000.

iPhone 6 to come in two screen sizes, Report

iPhone is once again in the rumour mill, with speculation mostly centred around the upcoming model's screen size. 

The latest report on iPhone 6 comes courtesy Chinese microblogging platform Weibo, where a user called C Technology has posted that the model will come in two screen sizes - 4.7-inch and 5.7-inch. Citing Foxconn executives, the post says that the two models will feature eye scanning biometric technology, along with the Touch ID fingerprint scanner. 

Your guide to the perfect online dating profile

Finding oneself with no one to kiss when the clock strikes midnight on New Year's Eve often leads people to add finding a partner to their list of New Year's resolutions. With the Bank Holiday revelries done with, 1 million people in the UK were expected to log onto a dating website on Thursday in an attempt to find love.

Now, a guide to the ideal online dating profile has been designed to help on the busiest day of the year for the United Kingdom's dating industry.

A study of more than 4,000 online daters has revealed the attributes that dating site users are most attracted to, with different results for men and women.

Samsung launches next gen Android camera

Samsung has upgraded its Android-powered Galaxy Camera, ahead of Consumer Electronics Show 2014. The new Galaxy Camera 2 has a faster processor, newer Android version, better battery life and more storage and memory, even though the key camera specs remain the same. The model will be showcased at CES in Las Vegas next week.

The new Galaxy Camera 2 has the same 16.3MP BSI CMOS sensor with 21x optical zoom and Xenon flash as its predecessor. It has a 4.8-inch HD Super Clear LCD screen, runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) and is powered by a 1.6GHz quad-core processor paired with 2GB RAM. The internal storage has been raised from 4GB to 8GB in the new model, with microSD card support up to 64GB.

TCS to open world s largest corporate learning centre

Country's largest software services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today said it will set up the world's largest corporate learning and development centre in Thiruvananthapuram with a total capacity to train 50,000 professionals every year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for the facility.

The learning facility will be built over area of 6.1 million square feet and will have the capacity to train 15,000 professionals at one time and 50,000 professionals annually, TCS said in a statement.

HTC One 2 specifications leaked

Taiwanese handset giant HTC is said to be working on its next flagship smartphone which is rumoured to be codenamed the HTC M8 orHTC One 2. 

A number of reports claiming to shed some light on the phone's specifications, features and and design, have already surfaced online, though the company is yet to make an announcement related to it. The latest to join the bandwagon is Twitter user @evleaks who had also posted images and details related to specifications of the HTC One, last year. 

Facebook faces suit for data mining private messages

Facebook has been hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging the social networking behemoth gleans data from purportedly private messages, in violation of users'rights.

Two plaintiffs claim the site scans private correspondence between users for links to third-party websites, sharing that information with the likes of "advertisers, marketers and other data aggregators."

The suit accuses Facebook of violating the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and California privacy laws.

Kapil Sibal calls for global pact on cyber security

Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today warned that till the time the global community join hands for a secured cyber space, it will remain prone to attacks which can bring down interconnectivity. 

"We need a global pact on issue of security. That's fundamental to this interconnected world being a successful story in this 21st century," he said. 

He said communication technology can revolutionise the way people live in this world. It can connect people across globe, share information, research and facilitate medical treatment. 

Facebook sued for spying on users chats

Social networking giantFacebook has reportedly been sued for allegedly snooping on private messages of users without their prior consent in order to mine the data for its own profit. 

The class-action suit has been filed by Matthew Campbell and Michael Hurley, who have accused Facebook of scanning private messages with URLs in them 'for purposes including but not limited to data mining and user profiling.' 

RIP Symbian Nokia ends support for apps, updates

Months after selling its mobile business to Microsoft, Nokia has officially ended support for Symbian and MeeGo   apps. The Finnish company has abandoned the two home-grown mobile operating systems in favour of Microsoft's Windows Phone. 

The Symbian Signed Team announced the end of support for Symbian and MeeGo apps via Twitter. The tweet said, "That was it; we are officially closed. Thank you all for the past years!" 

Cloud has democratized technology, CA Tech

Mike Gregoire, CEO of CA Technologies, has spent nearly 25 years in the software and IT services sector where he has done everything from writing a code, to managing large consulting businesses and leading a cloud-based software company. A native of Ontario, Canada, Gregoire is an avid cyclist and enjoys mountain biking races. In an interview to TOI, Gregoire talks about the company's mainframes business and how cloud is disrupting the technology space. Excerpts:
We have seen a higher adoption of BYOD, a transition from mainframes and PCs to smartphones and tablets. Is mobility the next big wave?

Lenovo launches Vibe Z, its first 4G phablet

Chinese handset maker Lenovo has globally launched its new phablet, Vibe Z, at a price point of $549. The device was earlier launched in the Chinese market.
The Lenovo Vibe Z will be available starting February in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the Philippines. 

Equipped with a 5.5-inch Full HD (1080x1920pixels, 400ppi) IPS display, the phablet is Lenovo's first 4G-capable device. It is powered by a 2.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. 

What Snapchat s hacking reveals

Even as Snapchat has become the latest internet darling, daring to reject multi-billion dollar acquisition deals, the young company has masked what some consider to be a dirty little secret: Its security may not be all that different from that of other big messaging services.

That secret was laid bare when a group of security researchers exploited a weakness in Snapchat's systems to snag and post usernames and telephone numbers for 4.6 million Snapchat users.

Snapchat has long marketed itself as a private and more secure alternative to services likeFacebook and its subsidiary Instagram. The app lets users send photo and video messages that disappear once they are viewed. That self-destruct feature initially gave the app a reputation as a favorite tool for so-called sexters, or those who send sexually suggestive photos of themselves, but eventually it went mainstream.

Online training courses for entrepreneurs

Koenig Solutions, an information technology services trainer, is introducing a new course to help entrepreneurs sharpen their internet skills and capabilities. 

The New Delhi-based firm was recently in the news for providing software training in 2010 to Edward Snowden, who exposed the large-scale global surveillance by the United States government. The company expects a number of web-entrepreneurs to choose this new course that will be delivered from its Delhi and Dubai offices. 

Nepal to become a free Wi Fi zone

The Nepal government has announced a unique and ambitious plan to turn the Himalayan country into a free Wi-Fi zone, government officials said. 

Due to lack of resources and absence of necessary infrastructure necessary for the purpose, the plan has surprised many, Xinhua reported. 

To prepare basic foundations, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MoIC), which introduced the plan, formed a task force last Wednesday to hold a feasibility study on implementing the plan. 

Now, taste your favourite food online

Bored of 24X7 online viewing, listening and chatting? It's time to satiate your palate in the virtual world now. 

If we believe scientists, a digital device can actually recreate the taste of virtual food and drinks by non-invasive electrical and thermal stimulation of the tongue. 

A team led by Nimesha Ranasinghe, an engineer of Sri Lankan origin at the Keio-NUS Cute Centre in Singapore, has invented a simulator that can let you taste your favourite food online. For free, literally.