a2z Information: 2012-11-04

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Google gives search results more room

Google began Tuesday serving up revamped search pages that give results more room by shifting the tools menu to the top of the screen.

The California-based Internet titanBSE 0.46 % said the change was intended to streamline search pages and make the layout on desktop computers consistent with those on smartphones and tablets.

"You'll notice a new simpler, cleaner design on the search results page," Google Search lead designer Jon Wiley said in a blog post.

Microsoft is dropping its instant-messaging program and forcing most users to switch to Skype.

Maintaining Windows Live Messenger made less sense after Microsoft Corp. bought Skype for $8.5 billion last year. A new version of Skype released a few weeks ago allows users to sign in with a Microsoft account. By merging the two services, people won't have to maintain two separate contact lists.

Microsoft says much has changed in how people communicate. There's more use of text messaging andsocial networking.

They have been panned by television critics and disavowed by their own industry. Even for the entrepreneurs-cum-co-stars of Bravo TV's "Start-ups: Silicon Valley," it is getting hard to put on a brave face.

"It's been a nightmare," confessed Sarah Austin, one of the series' six pretty twentysomethings who code, party and hustle their way to fame and riches - or at least try to - in San Francisco's bubbly tech fishbowl.

"I've had a lot of figures in Silicon Valley tell me that it was a mistake," Austin said. "I think sometimes that it wasn't worth it."

The government has decided to crack the whip on fraudulent multi-level marketing companies that have duped hundreds of investors in the country by blocking their websites and tracking their online transactions.

Corporate Affairs Ministry, the nodal department in this regard, has decided that its investigative arm - Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) - will coordinate with Department of Information Technology and Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) to identify suspect websites and transactions and take strict legal action.

Cognizant Technology Solutions reported a 22 per cent rise in quarterly profit as revenue rose 18 per cent. The IT company reaffirmed its full-year revenue guidance and increased the full-year EPS expectation.

Net income rose to $276.9 million, or 91 cents per share, from $227.1 million, or 73 cents per share, a year earlier.

The revenue of the company rose to $1.89 billion from $1.60 billion, a sequential rise of 5.4% and 18.2% year-over-year.

As Barack Obama was re-elected US President, India's IT industry bodyNasscom said opposition to outsourcing in the US is actually targetted at the manufacturing sector and not IT services.

"Every time there is anti-outsourcing topic, we always take it as it's for our industry (Indian IT services industry)", Nasscom President Som Mittal told reporters.

The wait is over. Nexus 7, the tablet made by Google and Asus jointly, will go on sale in India from tomorrow. Asus told TOI that the entry-level level model of the device would sell with an MRP of Rs 19,990.
"We will start selling Nexus 7 in Indian stores from tomorrow," said Alex Huang, managing director of system business group at ASUS India. Sources said Asus was ready to launch the tablet in India for quite some time but was waiting to get the go ahead from Google.

Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group said that the company's flagship Hon Hai unit is finding it difficult to cope with the massive demand for Apple Inc's iPhones.

"It's not easy to make the iPhones. We are falling short of meeting the huge demand," Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou told reporters after a business forum.

However, he declined to comment on brokerage reports saying that the group's other unit, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH), had taken on some production.

Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson announced on Wednesday that it intends to shed 1,550 jobs in Sweden in an effort to boost profits.

The cuts would fall widely, affecting people in sales, administration, research and development and procurement, but the networks division would be hardest hit, the company said.

Obama re,election not good for IT industry, Phaneesh Murthy, iGate

The re-election of US PresidentBarack Obama is not the best news for IT outsourcing industry, according to CEO of iGATE, Phaneesh Murthy.

"Not the best news for India or the IT outsourcing industry. However, we need to understand how much of the election rhetoric continues into 2013 and that will determine the full implications to us," Murthy said.

"The concern over the deficit and jobs will continue (in the US) and in my mind, will force the sluggishness to remain in the economy," he said.

Taiwanese hardware giant Huawei has launched two new tablets in its Mediapad family - the 7-inch MediaPad 7 Liteand MediaPad 10 FHD quad-core tablet. Both the tablets run on the latest Android 4.0 ICS version, and are targeted at the youth.

The ultra-portable and sleek Huawei MediaPad 7 Lite is 370 gram, comes in a metal unibody shell, is powered a Cortex A8 1.2GHz processor. Its super-clear 7-inch 1024 x 600 IPS multi-touch 1080p high-definition display is complemented by its 3G cellular voice function.

V-Moda, the audio company started by Val Kolton, a professional musician, has always made gear — headphones, earphones and amplifiers — that's durable and fashionable. Its latest offering, the Crossfade M-100 headphones, is no exception.

The M-100 is built with a steel frame and a strong, flexible headband that can bend flat. The over-the-ear memory foam cushions are comfortable even after several hours of use. And the exterior of the cups feature interchangeable metal shields that can be customized in a variety of colours and engraved with a name or logo.

Chinese messaging app WeChat gains ground elsewhere

Chinese internet companies have long struggled to establish their products beyond the country's borders. In 2007, China's dominant search engine, Baidu, announced an ambitious plan to break into the Japanese search engine market; as of last year, the company said it had lost more than $108 million trying.

WeChat, a mobile messaging application created by Tencent Holdings, China's largest internet company, is aggressively trying to buck the trend and establish itself in the expanding global market for smartphone apps.

Atom Technologies, a subsidiary of Financial Technologies (India), has introduced Interbank Mobile Payment Service (IMPS) to enable merchants make interbank payments 24x7 through their mobile phones. Companies like Reliance Energy-through IVR, Next Retail India Limited, Univercell Telecommunications India Private Limited, Ferns N Petals, Annamalai University etc will be integrating IMPS operations in their portfolio through Atom Technologies.

Yes Bank, one of atom's key partners for IMPS operations, has stated that IMPS offerings will create the necessary transitional shift that will ascertain the transfer of funds in real time as per the requirements of the current day.

India has stressed upon the need for greater cooperation and exchange of information among nations to enhance cyber security and to address issues related to the management of the Internet.

"No nation can fight cybercrime or secure its cyberspace in isolation. Increased and focused cooperation among key players, governments, industry and international bodies, is essential to create a secure cyber space," said an official statement quoting Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal's speech at global event on Internet.

Sibal is in Baku, Ajerbaijan for a High Level Ministerial Meeting at the Internet Governance Forum.

Apple's iPad mini, which was launched last week, has been ripped apart by an online site to determine the real cost of the gadget.

The site, IH, said that the Wi-Fi 16GB base model costs roughly 117 pounds for Apple to build, and it sells them for 269 dollars each.

The 32GB and 64GB models cost an additional 19 pounds and 39 pounds to build, respectively.

Wipro Technologies said it is working on emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America to grow its sophisticated IT systems for banking services.

"We are working on emerging markets for our services in the three regions over the next three years," said Suresh Raman, the Singapore-based Head of Banking Sales for Asia Pacific & Japan.

Picture sharing website Instagram on Monday began rolling out online profiles that let people showcase themselves and photos they've taken with the Facebook-owned smartphone application.

The creation of an online home for Instagram images put a Facebook spin on the startup that the world's leading social network bought this year.

"Instagram web profiles are a beautiful new way to view and share Instagram on the web," said a message at the company's website.

Nikon India today announced the launch of the D5200 D-SLR camera, a compact and lightweight entry-level model that delivers exceptional performance via Nikon's all-new DX-format CMOS sensor, which has an effective pixel count of approximately 24.1-million pixels.

The Nikon D5200 will be available from December in three colors — black, red and bronze at MRP of Rs. 46,950 for D5200 body and AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR Kit Lens.

While hardware keyboards can be frustrating when trying to communicate by e-mail with people around the world, Google's new collection of input tools for its Gmail service helps expand the options for typing in different languages and non-Western character sets.

These input tools include on-screen virtual keyboards designed for languages like Korean, Hebrew and Arabic, as well as a transliteration feature that converts typed letters used for English words into the same phonetic sounds produced by another chosen alphabet.

Shunning Amazon, booksellers resist a transformation

Amazon prides itself on unraveling the established order. This fall, signs of Amazon-inspired disruption are everywhere.

There is the slow-motion crackup of electronics showroom Best Buy. There is Amazon's rumored entry into the wine business, which is already agitating competitors. And there is the merger of Random Houseand Penguin, an effort to create a mega-publisher sufficiently hefty to negotiate with the retailer on equal terms.

Facebook users, rejoice! Your days of repeatedly asking for Wi-Fi passwords at coffee shops may soon be over.

The social networking website is testing a newWi-Fi hot spot service for local businesses that grants users free internet access if they do a Facebook check-in.

Businesses would provide the access via a Facebook router that directs customers to its Facebook page once users check in, the 'Discovery News' reported.

Abiding by the ruling of a UK court, Apple has posted a notice on its website related to its feud with arch rival Samsung over the designs of their tablets. While Apple did not tender an apology per se, it did say the court has ruled that Samsung tablets do not violate its design patents.

At the bottom of the home page of its website, Apple UK currently has the following statement:

Learning solutions provider Pearson today launched a new tablet-based education solution for schools in India.

"The MX Touch platform will give a greater number of school children access to more effective personalised and collaborative digital learning with rich digital content, 3D animations, quizzes and videos", a company statement said.

MX Touch is compliant with the school syllabus and comes bundled with tablets at a variety of prices to ensure it is affordable and accessible by the broadest possible cross section of students, it said.

Though Tech Mahindra has reported a moderate increase in sales and headcount for the September 2012 quarter, it is more because of integration with recently acquired Hutchison Global Services. The core business still looks sluggish with sluggish growth in the dollar denominated revenue, stagnant number of software professionals on its payroll and reduction in client accounts.

The company consolidated the performance of Hutchison Global for the month of September 2012. During the quarter, consolidated revenue rose sequentially by 5.7% to Rs 1,631.4 crore. Operating profit increased at a slower rate of 2.3% to Rs 337.7 crore reflecting higher selling and employee costs. Net profit fell by 26% from the quarter ago to Rs 139.4 crore due to higher foreign exchange loss.

Wipro, the third largest software exporter listed in the country, reported slower growth than its peers TCS and Infosys in the September quarter, but its addition of a record number of new clients kindles hopes of a better future.

Wipro's business volumes, measured in terms of billed working hours, were flat, up just .02% year-on-year in the second quarter, lower than 4%-5% growth reported by TCS, Infosys, andHCL Technologies, primarily due to weaknesses in key verticals of its IT division.

Software giant Microsoft is working on the design for its own smartphone handset, sources have claimed.

Officials at some of Microsoft's Asian suppliers said that the company is testing a smartphone design, although it is not yet clear whether the device will enter mass production.

One person said the screen of Microsoft's smartphone currently being tested measures between 4 and 5 inches, the Wall Street Journalreports.

Speculation has swirled for months that Microsoft would make its own smartphone, after the company unveiled its first homegrown computing device, the Surface tablet in June.

Consumer electronics major LG India is working on clipping at 25 per cent uptick in turnover at Rs 6,000 crore from the television vertical in this calender year, with focus on the 3D segment.

"From the 3D division (under display vertical) alone, we are expecting Rs 1,000 crore and going forward that will be our priority. The overall TV segment should be about Rs 6,000 crore by the end of this year. We are betting big on the 3D within the TV segment," LG vice president (marketing), Lakshmikant Gupta told here.

They say you should never take on people who spill ink by the barrel, but your odds are better when you traffic in terabytes of data. In the United States, Google and big media went at it for several years over Google Newsand Google won, taking its argument for a free and open Internet all the way to the bank.

It's a little counterintuitive, but large newspapers believed that Google was hurting them by generating a page of links - with headlines and a short summary - to articles that the newspapers had paid to create. Publishers said that what was supposed to be an index of the news had become the news, and was a disincentive for people to click through to the source.

To stop the menace of pesky messages, telecom regulator Trai has said only100 SMSes in a day per SIM card will be allowed at concessional rates.

For every SMS beyond the cap of 100 SMSes, a charge of minimum 50 paise will be applicable, the regulator said.

Subscribers have been facing the menace of receiving unsolicited promotional SMSes from unregistered tele-marketers who often take the advantage of concessional SMS offers by telecom operators.

Personal computer maker Lenovo today said it is seeking to replicate in India its success story in China to become a leader and "clear winner" in the smartphones segment.

Lenovo has launched five smartphone models in India and they would be initially available in Gujarat, as well as southern states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh in two-three days.

"We are replicating the (China) story here (in India)", said S S Bassi, who heads the smartphone business unit at Lenovo India, while noting that the company is number two in the smartphone market in China.

When I first wrote about the potential impact of the iPad mini on Apple’s profits, back in September before it was even announced, I enumerated the different factors that will negatively impact Apple’s profits: whether it serves customer needs; its competitive positioning; and cannibalization of profits from other product lines. More importantly I then wrote that the iPad mini is about profits as opposed to market share. If it’s not going to be another billion dollar product line, Apple simply would not consider it because of the significant opportunity costs.

Twitter has made a significant shift in how it responds to copyright complaints. In the past, such complaints caused tweets to vanish without a trace but now people can see the place where a tweet once stood — and the reaction to its disappearance.

The new policy, reported in a tweet by a member of Twitter’s legal team, can be explained with an example. Let’s look at the Twitter account of @mikko, an executive with computer security firm F-Secure. On Saturday, Mikko posted something that led a copyright owner to demand that Twitter take the tweet down. Here is what the tweet looks like now:

Apple’s new iPhone 5 has cleared the second-to-last hurdle standing in the way of its debut in China.

China’s State Radio Managementhas approved two versions of the iPhone 5 for use on the country’s wireless networks. The first — the A1429 — is believed to be compatible with China Unicom’s 3G network; the second — the A1442 — is compatible with China Telecom’s CDMA network.

These approvals are the second round of certifications the iPhone 5 needs to be sold in China. The country’s Quality Certification Center approved the device late last night, granting Apple the required certification necessary to sell it. Now Apple needs only a network access license from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the iPhone 5 will be clear for sale in the world’s most populous country.

Back in September, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made an ambitious prediction: “One year from now — between Windows phones, Windows tablets and Windows PCs — we’ll see close to … 400 million new devices running those new operating systems.” Now, not two months later, Microsoft is 1 percent of the way toward that goal.

Speaking at the company’s Build conference this morning, Ballmer said Microsoft has sold four million Windows 8 upgrades since the operating system went on sale last Friday. “The level of enthusiasm we’ve seen is exciting,” Ballmer said. “I think we are really resonating across the board with the work we are bringing to market.”

Google has made good on its promise of improved voice search on Apple’s iOS operating system. On Tuesday, the company released a new Google Search app that brings natural language voice search to the iPhone and iPad.

A rival to Apple’s own Siri intelligent agent, Google’s app provides contextual answers to voice queries, along with pertinent Web search results. Those answers aren’t manually curated; they’re simply the Internet’s best guess. But thanks to Google’s Knowledge Graph — a sort of storehouse of semantic-search information — they seem to be generally pretty accurate. During a Monday demo, Google product manager Hugo Barr showed the Android version of voice search correctly and quickly providing information about local movie times and answering questions like, “What is a baby kangaroo called?”

Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry 10 and the devices that will run it are on track for their promised market debut early next year.

That’s the word from RIM CEO Thorsten Heins, who said Wednesday that some 50 carriers are testing BlackBerry 10, a crucial step in getting its next-generation smartphones ready for launch.

“I’m very pleased to confirm that we have passed a critical milestone in the development of our brand new mobile computing platform,” Heins said. “This process will continue in the coming months as more carriers around the world formally evaluate the devices and our brand new software.”

Starting in February, Jeffrey G. Katz grew increasingly anxious as he watched the steady decline of online traffic to his company's comparison-shopping website, Nextag, from Google's search engine.

In a geeky fire drill, engineers and outside consultants at Nextag scrambled to see if the problem was its own fault. Maybe some inadvertent change had prompted Google's algorithm to demote Nextag when a person typed in shopping-related search terms like "kitchen table" or "lawn mower."

Googles appeal against French tax searches rejected

A Paris appeals court has rejected a request by internet search giant Google to invalidate the search and seizure of documents by French tax authorities, according to a copy of the decision obtained by AFP on Friday.

The court rejected Google's arguments against the 2012 tax raid and ordered the US company to cover legal expenses for the appeal.

According to news weekly Canard Enchaine, French tax authorities have made a billion-euro ($1.3 billion) claim against Google over financial transfers between Google's Irish holding company and its French unit for four tax years.

The demerger of Wipro's non-IT businesses into a new unlisted entity, Wipro Enterprises, will open the doors to potentially large acquisitions for the company's consumer care business.
Vineet Agrawal, president of Wipro Consumer Care and Lightning (WCCL), told TOI, "The demerger will give us a lot more flexibility, if tomorrow we want to do a large acquisition. Earlier such a scenario could have been an issue viewed from the eyes of an investor, who's investing in Wipro."

Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and two other executives at the social networking company sold millions of dollars worth of stock this week as restrictions on insider trading expired.

Sandberg netted about $7.44 million by selling roughly 353,000 Facebook shares on Wednesday, according to a filing with the SEC on Friday. Sandberg still owns roughly 20 million vested shares of Facebook stock, including shares held in her trusts, according to the filing.

Facebook cancels shortcut log in over security concerns

What was supposed to be a shortcut for Facebook users to log into their pages ended up exposing their email addresses - and, in some cases, potentially allowing access to their accounts as well.

A Facebook spokesman said Friday that the company had created the shortcut, called auto login, to let some users go directly to their pages by clicking on a Web link sent to their email addresses. Once they clicked on the link, they could get into their accounts, rather than having to go to Facebook.com and log in.

Some of the links required users to type their passwords, while others did not, the company said.

Videocon has withdrawn its application to participate in the CDMA spectrum auctions, executives with direct knowledge of the development confirmed. Last month, it was the only company to submit bids for GSM and CDMA airwaves sale.

This leaves Tata Teleservices as the only participant in the CDMA sale and that too in just three circles.

Videocon's exit may force the telecom department to do away with the CDMA spectrum auctions and will also reduce the government's estimates of garnering more than 45,000 crore from the upcoming 2G airwaves sale.

Tracing Microsofts journey from text to touch

With recent release of the touch-centric Windows 8 software, Microsoft continues more than three decades of making operating systems for personal computers.

Microsoft got its start on PCs in 1981 through a partnership with IBM. Microsoft made the software that ran IBM's hardware, and later machines made by other manufacturers. That first operating system was called MS-DOS and required people to type instructions to complete tasks such as running programs and deleting files.

It wasn't until 1985 that Microsoft released its first graphical user interface, which allowed people to perform tasks by moving a mouse and clicking on icons on the screen. Microsoft called the operating system Windows.

Lenovo eyeing 10 percent share in Indian smartphone market

Chinese electronics manufacturer Lenovo has targeted a 10% share in the smartphone market of India within two years, a company official said on Friday. The company is the largest player in the personal computer market in India and hopes to replicate the results fast growing smartphone market.

"We plan to corner 10% share of the smartphone pie of the country. As of now we have launched only five phones from our portfolio of 47 in China. We can launch 2-3 phones every month depending upon the choiceof the customers," said SS Bassi, head of MIDH verticle. MIDH stands for mobile, internet, DTH and home.

Social networking giant Facebook is testing out a new, slimmer Timeline layout featuring a single column of posts, instead of the current double column.

The test layout keeps the boxes that highlight friends and activities on the right side.

According to Inside Facebook, the firm is currently rolling out the test to a small number of users.

"This is a new design Facebook is testing with a small percentage of people to make navigating timeline even easier," CNET quoted a Facebook spokeswoman, as saying.

Thousands of smartphone applications available for download from Google's Play Store may be collecting too much data from users, a security firm has said.

According to the security firm Bit9, about one-quarter of over 400,000 apps studied are "suspicious" or "questionable" because of what they do in the background, such as location tracking, accessing contact lists or harvesting the contents of email messages.

Satellite radio WorldSpace is making a comeback in India with Bharti Airteltying up with Timbre Media, the licensee of the brand, for broadcasting it on its DTH platform.

As part of the partnership, Airtel Digital TV -- the DTH arm of Bharti Airtel -- will offer the radio service on its iMusicSpace application, the company said in a statement.

Mobile handset-maker Micromax has launched two Superfones in India.

Micromax Superfone A110 Canvas 2 sports a 5-inch FWVGA screen with a resolution of 480X854 pixels. The phone is powered by a 1.0 GHz dual core processor and runs on Android4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

A Paris appeals court has rejected a request by Internet search giant Google to invalidate the search and seizure of documents by French tax authorities, according to a copy of the decision obtained by AFP on Friday.

The court rejected Google's arguments against the 2012 tax raid and ordered the US company to cover legal expenses for the appeal.

Microsoft today said response in India to the recently-launched Windows 8 has been overwhelming, and 300 apps developed at the recent AppFest organised by the company here are in the process of getting into the Windows Store.

Within four days of the launch of Windows 8 last week, there have been four million downloads globally which is "clearly indicative of adoption rate", Microsoft India chairman Bhaskar Pramanik said.

Amina Begum had never seen a computer until a few years ago, but now she's on Skype regularly with her husband. A woman on a bicycle brings the internet to her.

Dozens of "Info Ladies" bike into remote Bangladeshi villages with laptops and internet connections, helping tens of thousands of people - especially women - get everything from government services to chats with distant loved ones. It's a vital service in a country where only 5 million of 152 million people have internet access.

Two weeks before a high-stakes trial pitting Google's Motorola Mobility unit against Microsoft, Google made what has become a common request for a technology company fighting for billions of dollars: A public court proceeding, conducted largely in secret.

Google and Microsoft, like rivals embroiled in smartphone patent wars, are eager to keep sensitive business information under wraps - in this case, the royalty deals they cut with other companies on patented technology. Microsoft asked for similar protections in a court filing late on Thursday.

India's third-largest technology services company Wipro said the energy and utilities segment reported the highest growth among all its verticals in the second quarter. The segment grew 8.4% sequentially and 15.5% from last year. It also reported a decline in the percentage of revenue contribution from its telecom vertical. Telecom now makes up 14.4% of the total IT revenue, down from 15.7% a year ago.

Wipro had acquired the energy technology business of Science Applications International Corporation last year for Rs 675 crore. Energy and utilities now contributes 15% to Wipro's revenues.

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