a2z Information: 2013

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Truecaller joins hands with Twitter to lure users

Phone directory applicationTruecaller has announced it will partner with social networking site Twitter to increase its user base.

Under the partnership, Truecaller users in Indiawill be able to see if a number is connected with a Twitter account, and will be able to tweet or follow a person directly through the Truecaller app.

"With this new integration, a Truecaller user can instantly tweet back to a missed call that has a Twitter account connected to the phone number. This is especially valuable for users in India who are looking for a fast, free and reliable way to communicate," TrueCaller CEO and co-founder Alan Mamedi said in a statement.

As more and more young consumers look at mobile viewing to be an easy option, companies are also coming up with improved solutions to make this experience better. Due to this growing trend, young population need to also look at building skills which will be useful to organisations offering mobile viewing solutions. In conversation with Techgig.com, Arun Prakash, COO, Vuclip, shares his views on the various advantages of mobile viewing and much more…

Over the years, one has witnessed a sea change in the kind of competition that companies face – which undoubtedly has also brought tremendous amount of competition among the workforce. As a result, keeping a cautious eye towards the company’s/employees’ productivity has also become very crucial. Team collaboration, therefore, has become extremely important, according to industry experts.

The combined serial inkjet and page printer, copier and multifunction product (MFP) market in India totaled 861,212 units in the third quarter of 2013, a 13.2 per cent increase from the third quarter of 2012.

According to Zalak Shah, research analyst, Gartner, “Indian organisations are still largely paper driven, but there is increasing importance of digitisation and the need to access information anytime, anywhere. This represents an opportunity for print providers to expand their services into optimising the document workflow that support business processes.”

Photo-sharing service Instagram unveiled a new feature on Thursday to let people send images and messages privately, as the Facebook-owned company seeks to bolster its appeal among younger consumers who are increasingly using mobile messaging applications.

The new Instagram Direct feature allows users to send a photo or video to a single person or up to 15 people, and have a real-time text conversations.

A Norwegian comedy duo and South Korean rap music sensation Psytopped a list of hit videos shared at Google-owned YouTube this year.

YouTube's annual "Rewind" collection of online videos that won the most attention at the website was headed by Ylvis musically wondering what "The Fox" might say.

Fox outfits also wound up the most searched-for Halloween costumes this year, according to Google.

Angry Birds Go!, Finnish developer Rovio's new kart racing game, is now available as a free download on iOS, Android, Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 platforms.

First teased in June, the game features all the characters from the original Angry Birds games, this time racing their way through the Piggy Island in 3D through speedways, canyons, stunt roads and air courses in soapbox carts.

Microsoft's outgoing CEOSteve Ballmer has opened up about his biggest regrets during his 13-year tenure in the company.

His short answer was 'Longhorn', the repeatedly delayed and ultimately recast operating system that finally was released as Windows Vista in January 2007.

According to ZDNet, Ballmer said he considered it one of four defining moments of a good part of his CEOship.

Google extends GOSF on overwhelming response from shoppers

Technology giant Google extended its mega event, Great Online Shopping Festival (GSOF) by a day after getting a huge response from shoppers with over a million users visiting the site in the first 24 hours.

The second edition of India's GOSF, which started yesterday, will now go on till Saturday instead of Friday.

E-commerce firms said even the initial problems faced by the GOSF site on its launch day has not doused the enthusiasm of the online shoppers and they are witnessing growing numbers on their platforms.

The Internet of Things (IoT) will grow to 26 billion units by 2020, representing an almost 30-fold increase from 0.9 billion in 2009, as per IT research and advisory firm Gartner.

The Internet of Things is the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment.

The IoT product and service supplier, which excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services, in 2020. It will result in $1.9 trillion in global economic value-add through sales into diverse end markets.

Facebook seeks to get smarter with big data

WASHINGTON: Facebook is working to become your new best friend, getting to know you better by infusing the billion-member social network's software with artificial intelligence.

The California-based social network giant is hiring professor Yann LeCun of NYU's Center for Data Science to head up a new artificial intelligence lab, aiming to use cutting-edge science to make Facebook more interesting and relevant.

For now, Facebook feeds may seem like a random jumble, but LeCun argues these "can be improved by intelligent systems."

Google's Gmail service will finally show images by default in emails. The company has done this by serving all the images users receive on its own proxy servers, instead of serving them from external host servers.

According to Google, this will improve the email experience without compromising security. In a post on the official Gmail blog, the company said: "Your messages are more safe and secure, your images are checked for known viruses or malware."

Cisco Systems Inc chief executiveJohn Chambers said that he is beginning to see the US market recover but cited challenges in emerging market economies such as Russia and Brazil.

Chambers said at the company's financial analyst conference in New York that while emerging markets are "extremely challenged" right now, he expects 6 percent to 10 percent growth there when those markets recover.

One97, SingTel to launch gaming platform in India

Mobile-internet firm One97 has tied up with Singapore Telecommunications to launch its gaming platform in India. One97 has also integrated its payment portal paytm.com with billing systems of leading mobile phone companies including Vodafone and Idea to create an in-app purchase and billing mechanism.

"The catalogue of games from SingTel will now be available for Indian mobile phone users, and One97 will be an aggregator and distributor of these games," said One97 CMD Vijay Shekhar Sharma, adding that the firm was in the final stages of creating a similar billing system for Airtel and BSNL. The platform is known as One97 Games.

Once upon a time, people who craved a tablet computer bought an iPad.

But Apple faces its strongest slate of challengers this holiday season, with several tablets besting the trend-setting iPad on price and features.

There are still plenty of reasons to get an iPad - either the full-size iPad Air starting at $499 or the iPad Mini at $399. Versions of both are available for $100 less, but you get a slower device with a lower-resolution screen. The Air is lighter and thinner than previous full-size models, and it feels nice in your hands.

Twitter restores ability to block unwanted followers

Twitter on Thursday restored the ability to block unwanted followers from peering at posts, quickly reversing a policy change that triggered a barrage of criticism.

"Earlier today, we made a change to the way the 'block' function of Twitter works," Twitter'sMichael Sippey said in a blog post late Thursday in California.

"We have decided to revert the change after receiving feedback from many users - we never want to introduce features at the cost of users feeling less safe. Any blocks you had previously instituted are still in effect."

The turn-around came just hours after the San Francisco-based company modified its blocking mechanism to let unwanted Twitter followers re-tweet, like, or peer at messages in public accounts of people who block them.

Apple calls the iPhone 5S its most forward-thinking phone, ever, despite the phone not looking any different from last year's iPhone 5. As they say, appearances can be deceptive and under the hood, the new iteration of one of the most popular smartphones, brings some major changes. Now that the iPhone 5S has finally hit Indian shores, we try to find out if it makes for a good buy at a rather high starting price of Rs 53,500.

Infosys chairman Narayana Murthybelieves the company has managed to retain its most promising senior talent, while voluntarily allowing "less promising" one to depart, Cowen & Co analysts wrote in note after a meeting him last week.

Infosys has seen a string of senior executives resign after Murthy returned to take the helm of India's number 2 software company in June. Last month, Stephen Pratt, who cofounded Infosys Consulting, became the sixth top-level executive to leave the company. Ashok Vemuri, who headed operations in the Americas, resigned in August to become CEO at iGate.

Government has initiated the process for sale of spectrum on January 23 and issued the notice inviting application (NIA), fixing January 4 as the last date of submission of applications.

The spectrum sale, in the 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz bands, is crucial for the cash-strapped government which expects revenues of over Rs 48,000 crore from the process which will see bids from top operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea whose licences start expiring from next year.

Google appears to be working on designing its own processors for its servers, according to a Bloomberg report.

The agency has reported citing a knowledgeable source that the Mountainview giant is leveraging technology from ARM Holdings to build processors inhouse.

According to this person, Google will be able to manage interactions between hardware and software in a better manner, by designing its own processors. The anonymous source, however, gave a disclaimer that the company's plans could change, as a final decision on the matter was yet to be taken.

Samsung patents transparent dual side screen

Samsung has reportedly patented a technology for a transparent touchscreen that would allow users to control the smartphone from both the sides.

This isn't the first time that techies have aimed at exploring the possibilities of having a transparent touch screen as seen recently with the introduction of Yotaphone that has a standard touchscreen on the front and e-paper display on the back.

However, Samsung's patent takes the technology to the next level as it explores the possibility of a transparent screen with front and rear visibility and touch controls.

IT-ITeS industry body Nasscomhas joined hands with technology firms, including Google, Microsoft and Intel, to organise the second Digital Literacy Week(DLW) starting next week.

The initiative, part of the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM), complements the government's efforts in making at least one person per household, e-literate.

The week will provide an opportunity to employees from firms including Acer, Dell, HCL, HP, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, NIIT, Wipro and others, to impart practical and relevant digital skills to those with little or no computer knowledge, Nasscom said in a statement.

Marjorie Scardino is Twitter s first female board member

Twitter on Thursday announced the appointment of its first woman board member in a gender breakthrough at the globally popular one-to-many messaging service.

Twitter, which recently made a stellar debut on the New York Stock Exchange, said in a 'tweet' that proven London publishing executive Marjorie Scardino has been named as the eighth board member of the San Francisco-based company.

"Thank you," 66-year-old Scardino said in a message fired off at her @marjscar Twitter account. "There couldn't be a more exciting time in Twitter's history to join."

RBS says website briefly disrupted by hackers

Royal Bank of Scotland said its banking platform was briefly attacked by hackers on Friday, causing problems for some customers trying to access online accounts, just days after a more serious technology crash.

RBS said a surge in internet traffic directed at its NatWest website at about 1130 GMT was a deliberate attempt to disrupt its service. The method is known as a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, and is a frequent occurrence at many banks.

Banks typically do not comment on such events, but RBS released a statement to customers after a system crash on Monday left more than 1 million customers unable to withdraw cash or pay for goods.

Microsoft leads attack on search traffic thieves

Microsoft on Thursday announced it worked with police in Europe and the United States to disrupt a "dangerous" army of virus-infected computers used to hijack searches at Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Microsoft's digital crimes unit teamed with Europol's European cybercrime centre, the FBI and tech industry allies to tackle a "Sirefef botnet" that commandeers search results and routes queries to websites rigged to infect computers with malicious code, steal information or make money from bogus online ad "clicks."

The botnet, or network of machines infected with a virus that lets hackers take command, is also referred to as ZeroAccess and is believed to have spread across nearly two million computers around the world.

Google has announced the launch of Samsung Chromebooks in the country. Priced at Rs 26,990, Samsung Chromebook is the third Chromebook in the country after Acer C720 or HP Chromebook 14.

Chromebooks are light and portable laptops that are powered by Google's Chrome OS instead of Microsoft Windows. These laptops cannot run programmes available for Windows computers.

Aircel could become the second company to launch 4G services in India when it launches them in its established cities over the next 3-6 months, said a senior company executive.

The Chennai-based company will thus be competing with Reliance Industries-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm to be the second to launch such services after Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile phone operator. Airtel's services though haven't been a success, hurt mainly by quality issues.

Twitter to be available on mobile phones without Internet

Twitter Inc is tying up with a Singapore-based startup to make its 140-character messaging service available to users in emerging markets who have entry-level mobile phones which cannot access the Internet.

U2opia Mobile, which has a similar tie-up with Facebook Inc , will launch its Twitter service in the first quarter of next year, Chief Executive and Co-founder Sumesh Menon told Reuters.

Users will need to dial a simple code to get a feed of the popular trending topics on Twitter, he said.

A life-saver and a job-saver feature inGmail can let users undo the saucy email sent by error to an unintended recipient by a simple click on a button.

Google's Gmail settings can help users from the potential embarrassment but they have to be swift to hit the button.

According to news.com.au, to activate the feature, users can click on the cog icon in the top right corner, and select settings from the drop-down menu, followed by 'Labs' where the 'Undo Send' button can be enabled.

Mobile towers and mobile phone radiations have no health risks and do not cause cancer, a World Health Organisation (WHO) expert said.

"WHO studies have already proven that mobile phones do not affect human health. Cancer or brain tumour apart, it doesn't cause even headaches or sleep disorder," said radiation expert Michael Repacholi, the first co-ordinator of WHO's radiation and environmental health unit.

New consoles, online games to keep market soaring to 2017

The global video gaming market is set to grow 11.1 percent a year until 2017, boosted by a new generation of consoles and the increasing popularity of online games, according to IDATE digital research and consultancy firm.

The market, estimated at 53.9 billion euros ($73.8 billion) this year, is expected to soar to 82.1 billion euros in 2017, the France-based firm said in a report.

Chef Kunal Kapoor, executive sous chef at The Leela in Gurgaon and a judge on MasterChef India, remembers posting his resume on Naukri.com 10 years ago, a move that was unusual at the time, especially for someone engaged in the culinary arts. Kapoor had just put in his papers at the Taj Holiday Village in Goa after working there for four years and was looking to move up to a sous chef from being a senior chef de partie.

Two months after uploading his resume, Kapoor got two interview calls through Naukri - from The Park in New Delhi and The Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. In the event, he didn't pick either but opted for a job in the Gulf with a higher pay package.

So, you've selected the gadgets to give your loved ones, and you're at the checkout line. Suddenly you're asked if you want an extended warranty or protection plan for a modest sum, and the line is piling up behind you. Do you opt for the foot-long receipt with terms and conditions that you'll have to keep in a secure place?

Even if such a plan is right for you, just say no.

Many plans can be started within 30 days of buying your phone, TV, camera or other gadget. Some online outfits will cover gadgets starting a year or more after purchase. Waiting will let you shop around to make sure you get the right coverage at a reasonable price. In many cases, you might conclude you don't even need it.

Gurgaon-based online health store Healthkart has named former Farmville executive Gaurav Agarwal as its chief technology officer and head of products, an announcement that highlights Indian internet companies' focus on attracting managerial talent as they look to ramp up operations.

Agarwal, 35, was earlier general manager at Farmville, the popular social network game launched by Silicon Valley-based gaming developer Zynga. He will also head Healthkart's products division, with a specific focus on taking forward the company's web and mobile initiatives.

The development of email authentication standards has finally reduced email phishing scams, according to Googlesecurity researchers.

Elie Bursztein, Google's anti-abuse research lead, and Vijay Eranti, Gmail's anti-abuse technical lead, said that these authentication standards, called DomainKey Identified Email (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF), are now in widespread use, CNET reports.

Internet industry and standards groups have been working since 2004 to get email providers to use authentication to put a halt to e-mail address imitation.

As smartphones age, they tend to slow down and lag too much while performing the simplest of tasks. But worry not, you can make your old gadget operate faster, just follow these three tips:

Updates
Firmware updates take care of lags, bugs, and other issues that you may not be aware of. Such issues crop up with reasonable frequency, so updating regularly will ensure the best performance for your phone.

US researchers have developed an algorithm for dating sites that uses a person's contact history to recommend partners with whom they may be more amorously compatible.
The team, led by assistant professor Kang Zhao, developed a model that combines two factors to recommend contacts: a client's tastes, determined by the types of people he/she has contacted; and attractiveness/unattractiveness , determined by how many of those contacts are returned and how many are not.

A blog can be a great outlet to express your personal opinions on any subject. But many people are not sure how to create a blog on the internet. Here are three tips to help you set up a blog from the scratch.
The blog address
The domain name is probably the most important when it comes to a blog, because it will be your calling card. If your blog is successful, it can become a status symbol as well as a brand by itself. Make sure you choose the right blog web address so that people can find it easier to search for you on the internet.

LG is slated to unveil its curved screen smartphone G Flex in India on December 11. The company has sent press invites for a launch event to be held in New Delhi.

Though the G Flex made its debut in October, its sales had been restricted to South Korea only. Last week, LG announced the international launch dates for the smartphone, though it did not revealed when the device will hit the Indian market.

Yahoo has reportedly acquired an online platform for live concerts, Evntlive, for an undisclosed amount.

Evntlive was founded in late 2011 and launched in beta in April 2012 after raising $2.3 million in funding from notable investors including Vint Cerf.

According to Mashable, post the deal, Evntlive will be shutting down its services and join the Yahoo team for their projects.

Twitter users, get ready for more ads

Once Twitter enters life as a publicly traded company, it will have to satisfy Wall Street's demands for constant growth.

So get ready, Twitter users: You are going to see more ads in your message stream, especially if you live overseas.

You may also see Twitter become more like a flash-sale site, with offers to buy products appearing in your message stream along with a way to buy them with a quick click or tweet.

In documents filed on Thursday to inform investors ahead of its initial public offering of stock, Twitter noted that it had been greatly expanding its inventory of advertising slots, especially for promoted tweets, which are sponsored messages that use the same format as the 140-character postings, or tweets, that are the core of the service.

Experts in eating disorders are concerned about an internet-fueled trend in which teenage girls and young womenpursue an elusive and possibly dangerous weight-loss goal: to become so slender that their thighs don't touch even when their feet are together.

Specialists say achieving a so-called thigh gap is risky and virtually impossible. But some exceptionally thin models have the gap, which is upheld as a beauty achievement on countlessTumblr pages, blogs and other social media sites.

A new survey has revealed that young adults in the age group 18 to 24 years are increasingly experiencing back pain as a result of slumping their shoulders and slouching the middle and lower back, called 'iPosture', with excessive gadget use.

The survey states that young adults lost 1.5 more days of work on average due to back pain, as compared to older adults.

Experts said that excess screen time was likely to blame for the health implications, as young adults averaged 8.83 hours in front of digital devices each day.

Traditionally, if you want to really customize your Android experience, you have to root your phone and flash a new ROM -- essentially a whole new version of Android -- that has the features you want.

If you don't want to go that far, or you only want to tweak specific parts of Android, you have another option: It's called the Xposed Framework, and you can use it to customize your phone from top to bottom, all without flashing a new ROM.

HTC One mini, the smaller version of HTC One smartphone, may finally be launched in India soon.

Though the phone has been listed on the Taiwanese company's Indian website for long, there has been no word when the company would launch it in the country. But online retailers have started selling the smartphone, even though it continues to be listed as 'Coming Soon' on HTC India's site.

The race for the first curved smartphones is on and South Korean giantsSamsung and LG are eyeing to draw first blood. Samsung has already announced its plans to launch a phone with curved screen this month, while LG has not confirmed plans to unveil such a device yet.

After rumours of LG bringing out the curved G Flex phablet hit the internet, specifications of Samsung's curved smartphone have also leaked online.

Tech website AndroidSAS has leaked the specifications of the upcoming Samsung smartphone. Contrary to earlier reports, it says that Samsung would not be bringing out a curved variant of the Galaxy Note 3, but instead would release an all-new handset.

In a first-ever self examination survey, Facebook will be gauging its users' attitudes towards the site, and how the attitudes evolve over time.

The social media giant has formed its first 'feedback panel', where people will be surveyed for six months to check their level of satisfactions with the site and why they change.

According to Huffington Post, the site will be analyzing how users respond to ads and stories in their News Feed in a bid to learn which ads make its members happiest.

Oracle defends CEO Larry Ellison s pay

Oracle is facing a potential shareholder revolt against a compensation formula that has consistently made its billionaire co-founder, Larry Ellison, one of the best-paid CEOs in the world.

The business software maker staunchly defended Ellison's pay in a letter sent to shareholder activist firm CtW Investment Group in an effort to rally support for its board of directors before the 11 members stand for re-election at Oracle's annual meeting on October 31.

Buoyed by growing preference for tablets in education and enterprise sectors, the Indian tablet PC market is expected to cross $2 billion in revenues this year, global research firm TechSci Research said.

"The acceptance and usage of tablet PCs in various sectors will contribute to the market growth and it is expected that India Tablet PC market will cross $2 billion revenues by the end of 2013," the firm said in a report.

Increasing usage and preference for tablets in the education sector, private enterprises and growing demand from the smartphone and laptop users would drive the market for tablet PC over the coming years, it added.

Anand Sankaran, global head of Wipro's infrastructure services business, the company's second largest service line, has quit.

"Wipro confirms that after a sterling career of over 24 years with Wipro, Anand Sankaran, currently senior vice president for Global Infrastructure Services and Wipro Infotech, has decided to pursue a career outside of Wipro," the company said in a statement in reaction to media reports about Sankaran's exit on Thursday .

Wipro did not specify the reason for the exit of Sankaran, who joined the company in 1989. Sankaran also headed Wipro's business in India, Middle East and Africa.

Apple fans who updated their smartphones to iOS7 are reportedly facing issues while sending or receiving messages through iMessage feature.

Apple's Trudy Muller said that the company is aware of the issue affecting a fraction of a percent of their iMessage users, and they will have a fix available in an upcoming software update.

Muller further asked users to refer to the troubleshooting documents or contact AppleCare to help resolve their issue, ABC News reports.

The internet is fast eroding people's memories of world-changing events in history, making them more forgetful as they increasingly bank upon Google to provide the information, a new UK study has found.

The study of 2,000 adults found less than half of people surveyed could name the year when Princess Diana died, even though it happened as recently as 1997.

Many respondents did not even know the year in which the terror attacks on the World Trade Center took place while many others were clueless about when the Berlin Wall fell, the 'Metro' reported.

As US President Barack Obama's new health insurance plan takes effect this month, Indian outsourcers handling customer care for insurers there are expecting a big boost in business.

These BPOs are betting on confused customers jamming phone lines and cluttering inboxes seeking clarity on what kind of health coverage they are eligible for, what they need to do to sign up and how much it will cost them.

The landmark overhaul nicknamed Obamacare, which brings an additional 30 million Americans into the health insurance net, is already being targeted by Indian IT services companies, such as Cognizant, Infosys, HCL Technologies and Wipro, who are vying to build parts of the technology backbone of online health exchanges that link customers to insurance plans.

LG G2 is the newest entrant in the overcrowded smartphone market of India. It is undoubtedly among the best of the lot and can easily take on -- and in some cases even beat -- today's most popular handsets, such as Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One and Apple iPhone 5.

Available at a starting price of approximately Rs 40,000 in the market, this phone also has the design and specs that measure up to justify the price tag.

Besides, the three (Back, Home and App Switcher/Options) on-screen keys for navigation, LG G2 has three small, well-designed hardware keys at the back (right below the camera lens). This makes the unit "more ergonomically optimized", claims LG. But the prospective buyers must know if this is a novel innovation, or just a designer quirk that would affect the routine usage.

Amazon's new Kindle Fire HDX tablet resembles Google's Nexus 7 in many ways - from its light weight to its sharp display. Both tablets run a version of Google's Android operating system, and they even have the same starting price of $229.

The similarities end when you turn them on.

Amazon.com modifies Android so much that it no longer resembles Android. The company calls it Fire OS 3.0, or Mojito. Amazon's services are front and center on the Fire, and Google's are nowhere to be found. It's the other way around on the Nexus 7 and other Android devices. For a day or two, I even forgot the Kindle Fire can do much more.

Google has acquired gesture recognition startup Flutter. The San-Fancisco-based company is founded by Navneet Dalal and Mehul Nariyawala of Indian origin.

No details on the price or the terms of the deal have been released.

Flutter develops gesture recognition technology that controls popular apps like YouTube, Pandora and Netflix via webcam.

Curved screen smartphones seem to be the next big thing in the technology world. Close on the heels of Samsung announcing its curved smartphone, comes the news that its south Korean rival LG too plans to launch a curved screen smartphone in November.

According to media reports, LG is working on a 6-inch curved smartphone being dubbed as theG Flex, which the company plans to bring launch next month. The phone is speculated to have an OLED display and use LG's new Plastic OLED (POLED) technology.

Cisco Systems and Facebook said they will work with big businesses such as hotels and retailers to provide free wireless internet access to consumers who sign in using a Facebook log-in.

The companies have been testing the concept with smaller businesses for about a year but will work together to support bigger companies that want to improve customer loyalty or learn more about their customers through offering free Wi-Fi.

Speculations about the upcomingGoogle Nexus smartphone are rife, with almost all specifications of the device leaked by various sources. The upcoming device -- likely to be called Nexus 5 -- is expected to be showcased by the internet giant soon, accompanied by the newest version of Android named KitKat.

The latest rumour about the Nexus 5 comes courtesy technology website AndroidSAS, which claims that the smartphone will be unveiled on October 30. Google launched the current Nexus phone in October last year as well.

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