Archive for January 2013
BlackBerry 10 Event: RIM Rebrand, BB10 Phones, New BBM, Apps, PlayBook Gets BB10
Research In Motion has now been completely rebranded to BlackBerry, with
the promise of "one brand". As expected, two phones were unveiled, the
first phones on the BB10 ecosystem - the Z10 and the Q10. Existing
PlayBooks will also get BB10. First up, CEO Thorsten Heins announced that Research In Motion will be rebranded completely to BlackBerry.
"From this point onwards, RIM becomes BlackBerry. This is our promise
of one brand," he said. "Our employees already work for BlackBerry, so
from this day on we'll be known as BlackBerry." We believe it makes
sense, considering the brand unification makes it stronger over a period
of time.
Next were the main attractions of the
event – the BB10 devices. As expected, there were two BB10 smartphones
that were showcased. The first was the Z10,
which is a full touch BB10 device. The second was the Q10. With this
phone, BlackBerry stayed loyal to its majority demographic of users by
offering the physical QWERTY keypad along with a touchscreen. The slim
phone has a glass casing to protect against nicks and scratches.
Specifications of the Z10 :
- 4.2-inch 1280 x 728 pixel display and is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon
S4 Plus dual-core 1.5GHz processor.
- The device has 2GB of RAM, and there
is 16GB internal storage along with a microSD card slot up to 64GB.
BlackBerry has packed in an 1800mAh battery. The phone will run on LTE
in certain markets only.
- The Q10, on the other hand, is the more
traditional BlackBerry device we are used to.
- It has a 3.1-inch 720 x
720 pixel touchscreen with a full physical QWERTY keypad.
- The optical
trackpad has been done away with.
- The Q10 also has an 1800mAh battery.
The application ecosystem was one thing
that BlackBerry needed to get into shape before the launch of BB10. And
it seems to have full control over that. BlackBerry has announced Kindle
support. The Reminder app gets Evernote integration. Twitter, LinkedIn,
Skype, Foursquare, Whatsapp, Dropbox, TuneIn Radio are all there. The
list of released apps is as follows: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter,
Foursquare, Whatsapp, Amazon Kindle, New York Times, The Economist, ESPN
Scorecenter, CBS Sports, PGA Tour, NHL Gamecenter, SportsTracker, ATP,
UFC Cisco Webex, eMusic, Slacker, Songza, TuneIn Radio, Paper Camera,
Box, DropBox, ooVoo ,Bloomberg, Evernote, SAP, Citrix, Soundhound, The
Weather Channel, BBC Top Gear, United Airlines, Delta Airlines,
Dictionary.com, Flixster, and Stubhub. The pessimists will surely look
at this and remark, “where is Instagram”? We shall not nitpick on those lines!
Google+ Becomes 2nd Largest Social Platform, Ahead of Twitter and YouTube
The social networking segment has seen
intense competition over the months with the social networking giants
frequently rolling out updates and new features to keep user engagement
up. The competition is by and large dominated by Facebook but other
sites are catching up as well. And much to everyone's surprise, Google+
has moved to the second spot for social platforms while YouTube ranks
third, ahead of Twitter, according to Trendstream’s Global Web Index for
Q4 2012.
According to the report, Facebook's
active user count was around 693 million by 2012-end whereas Google+
had some 343 million users. Facebook clearly leads the race with a huge
margin while Google+ has quite a bit of catching up to do in the near
future. However, Google's social networking site has become popular enough to move past Twitter and Twitter.
“Data collected in GWI.8 (Q4 2012)
demonstrates the continued shift in usage from localised social
platforms to global ones with huge growth for Twitter, Google+ and Facebook. The fastest growing network in 2013 in terms of 'Active Usage'
(defined as 'Used or contributed to in the past month') was Twitter
which grew 40 percent to 288m across our 31 markets (approximately 90
percent of global internet population). 21 percent of the global
internet population now use Twitter actively on a monthly basis. This
compares to 21% actively using YouTube, 25 percent actively using
Google+ and a staggering 51percent using Facebook on a monthly basis,”
says the report.
Aircel Offers Free Roaming with 'One Nation, One Rate' Plan
Aircel has introduced a new tariff plan
that makes roaming across voice, SMS and data services free. Called the
'One Nation, One Rate' plan, subscribers will pay 1 paisa per second for
both STD and local calls in their home circles, as well as on roaming.
For local and STD SMSes, the operator will charge Re 1. Incoming will be
free. “This product will enable Aircel customers to enjoy one rate for voice,
SMS and data services in their respective home circles and even while
they are on roaming,” Aircel Chief Marketing Officer, Anupam Vasudev is quoted as saying.
Aircel's
One Nation, One Rate plan is available for Rs. 39 in Delhi with
validity of 30 days; pricing will vary in other circles. Take a look at
the table below for the full list of rates for the plan:
FaceWash Helps Clean Up Your Facebook Profile
Researchers from Kent State University have developed an app for Facebook that will help you clean up the potentially embarrassing “stuff” off your Facebook Profile.
Aptly titled “FaceWash,” the app scans
through one’s profile for any mention of questionable content such as
photos, posts, status updates, ‘liked’ pages etc. The app was developed
by Daniel Gur, Camden Fullmer and David Steinberg when they realized
that people might need a way to clean up their extensive Facebook
activity in order maintain good chances of future employment.
In order to cleanse your dirty wall, all you have to do is browse over to facewa.sh
followed by going to the app and giving it access to all your dirty
laundry. Once all necessary permissions have been granted, just click on
the Start icon and the app will start scanning for questionable
content. You can also define custom search words to look for, which is
pretty good for looking up posts that contain dirty slang. The app will
conclude the search with clearly marked results and show links to each
of the post to make their removal a breeze.
Facebook For iOS Updated with Video Recording and Voice Messaging
Before the update, iOS users had the ability to upload videos to Facebook
directly from the camera roll, but now this functionality is built into
the Facebook app. With the update, users can easily click pictures and
videos and share it directly via the Facebook app. The Facebook for iOS
version 5.4 update brings will now allow users to record and share video
and voice messages (just like the Facebook Messenger app) straight from the app.
Earlier, those who use Facebook on their
iPhone got the ability to make VoIP calls from the Facebook Messaging
app. Facebook has been testing free calling over Wi-Fi and cellular
data, and the service has been available to iPhone users in Canada and
the US. It is available through the Facebook Messaging app.
Making a voice call to another Facebook user is quite simple. Users need
to open a conversation with a friend, tap the "i" button in the
top-right corner, and hit the Free Call button. The call recipient will
then get a notification that a Facebook user is trying to call them. As of now, the service is restricted to
the US and Canada and to iPhone users. There is no information on when
the service will hit Android or Windows Phone devices in the US or when
the service will be available globally.
Pinterest Tests New Look with Bigger Pins, More Image Details
Pinterest has said it is testing a new
design of its website among a small number of users. The new design is
said to make things easier to find on the site.
Pinterest
is also working to improve a few key elements including making
navigation intuitive and faster. Pins will appear larger and feature
more image details. The new design will also bring a new related pins
side bar, which is supposed to make user stay longer on the site and
click through other boards. There will be a new grey gradient background
behind all the pins.
“We’ll preview the update with a small
group of people over the coming weeks. Once we work out the kinks, we’ll
share it more broadly. In the meantime, if you’re interested in being
one of the first to see the new look, send us your information,” says Vy
Phan, Software Engineer at Pinterest in a blog post.
Nokia and Airtel to Launch Nokia Xpress Browser in India
Nokia and Bharti Airtel will launch an
exclusive version of the Nokia Xpress browser in India, which will
feature access to Airtel's premium services and popular content. Like other versions of the Nokia Browser, the Xpress version which we first saw on the recently released Nokia 114 dual-SIM phone, compresses data in the cloud to ensure a smoother browsing experience on low bandwidth connections.
The Nokia Xpress browser claims up to 85
percent increase in efficiency when compared to the traditional mobile
browser. It also claims to make the browsing experience faster and
cheaper, which means that your data charge will be less. Along with speed, the browser will
optimize websites for use on the S40 and Asha devices. The browser will
be made available to users in the coming weeks and Nokia-Airtel users
will receive an automatic upgrade.
Nokia Introduces Music+ Service For Lumia Devices
Nokia takes on music streaming services
such as Spotify and Last.fm as the company rolls out an extension to its
Mix Radio app called, Nokia Music+. The new Nokia Music+ app is
available as a premium upgrade for the Lumia users.
Nokia Music+ features unlimited
downloads and unlimited music discovery. It also has unlimited skips,
allowing users to skip from track to track. The app promises to deliver
high quality streaming music. Even over a 2.5G connection, Nokia Music+
allows you to download music at 'eight times' the standard quality.
Moreover, there's option to access lyrics as well as a web-app for
desktop users.
“Nokia Music is great for discovering new music, and we’ve found that
there’s a core of users that want even more of it. This is how Nokia
Music+ came about. By introducing features like infinite skips and
unlimited downloads, we’re opening the doors for unlimited music
discovery at only €3.99 per month.”
Lenovo Serious About Smartphones; Eyes Possible RIM Partnership
Lenovo has registered a clear interest in a possible partnership. This comes at a time when Lenovo is looking to add a strong smartphone portfolio to go with its computing devices. Lenovo is currently on target to become the largest PC maker in the world. RIM, on its part, is fairly confident of a successful BlackBerry 10 launch, both for the hardware and on the critical operating system side.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Lenovo Chief Financial Officer Wong Wai Ming told Bloomberg, "We are looking at all opportunities - RIM and many others. We'll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders." This news was the latest good news for
RIM, as stocks went up 3% immediately. Incidentally, the same stocks had
seen a 13 month high when the CEO announced they are open to an alliance.
However, any partnership or deal for RIM
would not be very easy, whoever the other party may be. One of the
reasons for that is that Canada considers RIM as a “crown jewel”. After
Heins’ comments earlier this week, Canada's Industry Minister Christian
Paradis told Reuters that Canada may even go to the extent of reviewing a
sale of RIM's handset business if such a deal was proposed.
India Ranks 2nd Globally in Accessing Users' Details: Google Transparency Report
According to Google's
latest transparency report, India stood second with as many as 2,431
requests for data about 4,106 users. The U.S. topped the list with 8,438
requests for information about 14,868 users. France, Germany, Britain
and Brazil filled out the top six.
“[The data] shows the steady increase in
government requests for our users’ data continued in the second half of
2012, as usage of our services continued to grow,” says Google in a
blog post. "User data requests of all kinds have
increased by more than 70 per cent since 2009. In total, we received
21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users from July through
December 2012."
According to official figures, the government had ordered 690 webpages/URLs for having anti-national, objectionable and hate content last year. Out of 690 webpages, 663 were blocked during the last year. The Indian government has already come under criticism for its alleged attempts to impose web censorship.
Though the government has denied it intends to censor the Internet, it
has stressed for having a web monitoring mechanism. Last year, various
Internet companies were dragged to the court for having objectionable
content.
Google Updates Image Search with Inline Panel and More Image Information
Google has rolled out another round of update to its Image Search that is supposed to make the search faster and require less clicks. The update bring in a range of changes, the images now being presented via an inline panel.
Google also explains what the tweak to its Image Search would mean for webmasters:
- We now display detailed information about the image (the metadata) right underneath the image in the search results, instead of redirecting users to a separate landing page.- We’re featuring some key information much more prominently next to the image: the title of the page hosting the image, the domain name it comes from, and the image size.- The domain name is now clickable, and we also added a new button to visit the page the image is hosted on. This means that there are now four clickable targets to the source page instead of just two. In our tests, we’ve seen a net increase in the average click-through rate to the hosting website.- The source page will no longer load up in an iframe in the background of the image detail view.- This speeds up the experience for users, reduces the load on the source website’s servers, and improves the accuracy of webmaster metrics such as pageviews. As usual, image search query data is available in Top Search Queries in Webmaster Tools.
Mozilla Enters Mobile Wars, Unveils Two Firefox OS Phones
Mozilla, best known for its very popular Firefox browser, has unveiled two handsets running the newly developed Firefox mobile OS.
Mozilla made the announcement on their blog and also revealed the look
and specifications of the two handsets, named Keon and Peak. The two
handsets are being developed by Spanish firm Geeksphone and will be made
available for purchase in February.
The Peak wields the specs of a
relatively mid-range smartphone and boasts of a 4.3-in qHD IPS display.
It runs on a dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor clocked at 1.2GHz and
512MB of RAM. The Peak also has dual cameras, an 8MP primary one
(complemented by a flash) and a 2MP front-facing one. The Peak also has
additional features such as microSD card support, WiFi (N) and GPS,
light and proximity sensors. The Peak is powered by an 1800mAh battery.
The Keon, on the other hand, is clearly
supposed to be a budget device. It has a single-core Snapdragon S1 1GHz
processor and 512MB of RAM. Imaging is taken care of by a solitary 3MP
camera. The Keon sports a 3.5-in HVGA capacitive touchscreen and is
powered by a 1580mAh battery. Additional features are the same as on the
Peak.
Mozilla has branded these handsets as
“developer phones” and they are specifically aimed at developers who can
use the handsets to develop apps for the Firefox OS. Along with the handsets, Mozilla has also released a desktop simulator for the Firefox OS.
Share of Spam in E-mail Traffic Registers a Five-Year Low: Report
According to Kaspersky Lab data, share
of spam in e-mail traffic slumped to 72.1 percent in 2012 – lowest in
last five years. The share saw year-on-year fall of 8.2 percent as
compared to 2011.
Kaspersky Lab says the slump in spam
volume is due to improved anti-spam protection in e-mail systems and
implementation of DKIM signature policies that verifies the domain from
which e-mails are sent. The slump is also due to availability of
affordable advertising on legal platforms.
The proportion of e-mails with malicious
attachments was very less though as such e-mails had 3.4 percent share.
The data ranks China as the top source for spamming, as it accounts for
19.5 percent of all spam mails. India ranks third behind the U.S. with
9.7 percent. Overall, Asia accounted more than half of the world's spam.
The report says India is among top
target for phishing sites as the country ranks sixth. The list is
however dominated by developed countries.
Samsung Announces 5-inch Galaxy Grand at Rs. 21,500
Samsung has added another device to its Galaxy portfolio. The device falls under the phablet category. Called the Galaxy Grand Duos, the device boasts of some impressive specifications. To start with, it has a 5-inch WVGA TFT display with a 480x800 pixel resolution. This makes the resolution at par with a few budget phablets available in the market today, though some, like the Micromax A116 Canvas HD, sport 720p HD resolutions.
Samsung Galaxy Grand Specifications :
- 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM.
- It runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean
straight out of the box and has Samsung TouchWiz UI.
- Quite slim at 9.6mm and weighs 162 grams.
- It has 8GB built-in storage
expandable up to 64GB via a microSD card.
- 8MP (BSI sensor)
rear snapper with the ability to record video in full HD and a 2MP front
facing camera.
- Bluetooth 4.0 and a 2100mAh battery.
- Looks just like S III.
On the software front, the Grand Duos
brings with it a few features found on premium Samsung devices. To start
with, the device brings with it multi-window functionality, i.e., you
can run two apps simultaneously on the display. You can also watch a
video in a small window and perform other work while the video plays –
true multitasking. The Galaxy Grand Duos also boasts of
dual-SIM functionality, hence the Duos moniker. No single-SIM version of
the device has been announced. It also boasts of a Smart Voice and Data
app. Put simply if one of your SIM cards isn’t catching network, the
call will be forwarded to your other SIM. Please note that here data
charges will apply.
Other Samsung apps such as S Voice,
Smart Stay (the display won't go to sleep if it knows that you are
reading), All share, Chat On and more are also present on the device.
With the Galaxy Grand, Samsung
has introduced a service called My Service. My Service gives users
access to My Movies (a library of more than 2000 movies), My Music (3
lakh songs in collaboration with Hungama), My Education (1200 text
books, 60 video books and 150 assignment papers based on the CBSE board)
and My Mobile TV (100 live TV channels).
With the Galaxy Grand, Samsung has an
introductory offer. It has tied up with Vodafone to give users 2GB data
for two months and My Service features worth Rs. 8,000. Users will also
get access to 50GB cloud storage from Dropbox.
The Galaxy Grand Duos is priced at Rs. 21,500 and will be available from the first week of February.
BlackBerry App World Gets a Makeover; BB Music Boasts of 'MILLION' Songs
Research In Motion is definitely hard at
work, in an attempt to give its offerings a complete makeover before
the BB10 launch at the end of January. The latest is the application
store, known till now as the BlackBerry App World. It has now been
renamed to BlackBerry World. And as expected, there will be a whole host
of new content on the store, apart from apps – music, movies and TV
shows included.
This change is pretty much an attempt to bring the BlackBerry application and media store platform at par with the offerings from Apple and Google. RIM seems to be riding a wave of
confidence. Earlier this month, they had reported that developers
submitted 15000 apps in less than 2 days at one Port-A-Thon event. Stock
prices have also seen an upward trend, in the expectation of the
success of the BB10 platform.
The web version of the BlackBerry World is already Live here, while the applications for smartphones and tablets will be rolled out “in the coming weeks”. Along with the store refresh comes the
new BB Music service, which boasts of “millions” of songs. It will be
available for an initial 30-day period free of charge, but will be
charged at at US$4.99 per month in the U.S. There is still no word on
the international pricing.
Sony to Launch PS4 After the Next Xbox
Sony CEO, Kaz Hirai has said in an
interview, 'Why go first, when your competitors can look at your
specifications and come up with something better?' Keeping this strategy
in mind, Sony plans to launch the next generation PlayStation, the PS4
after the competition Microsoft launches the next generation Xbox.
This strategy doesn’t seem to be perfect and it looks like Sony
is the one that wants to see what the competition has to offer. As the
next generation console launch is just around the corner, its doubtful
that any major changes can be made to the hardware at the last minute.
GDC is happening in March and we think that is where Sony and Microsoft
will give the world the first glimpse of their next generation home
consoles. We think the pricing and launch details will be reserved for E3 2013, which will happen later this year. Sony had the first mover’s advantage
with the launch of the original PlayStation over the N64 and that paid
off extremely well. Even with the PS2, Sony nailed the launch when
compared to the competition. The Xbox 360 however was launched a year
before the PS3 and at a cheaper price tag giving it the first mover's
advantage.
We think this has more to do with the
pricing of the consoles than anything else. Sony really messed up with
the pricing of the PS3 when it launched.
Micromax A116 Quad Core Canvas HD Display Jelly Bean Announced
Micromax has added another device to its
smartphone portfolio, the A116 Canvas HD. The device will be available
from the first week of February and Micromax will start taking
pre-orders for the device after Republic Day. Micromax didn’t announce a
final price for the product but said that it will cost under Rs.
15,000.
In terms of specifications, the A116
Canvas HD is a powerhouse. To start with, it has a 5-inch IPS display
with a 1280x720 pixel resolution. Under the hood, it has a 1.2GHz
quad-core MediaTek MT 6589 processor along with 1GB of RAM. It also
shows off a PowerVR SGX5 GPU. The A116 boasts of dual-SIM capabilities.
It has 4GB built-in storage expandable up to 32GB via a microSD card.
The rear of the device houses an 8MP camera where as the front has a
0.3MP shooter for video chatting. It also has a 2100mAh battery.
The Micromax A116 Canvas HD smartphone
is the first smartphone from Micromax’s stable to run on Android 4.1
Jelly Bean. After launch the device will be upgradable to Android 4.2
JB.
Government Developing a Cyber Security Architecture: NSA
In a bid to deal with the sabotage,
espionage and other forms of cyber attacks, the government is developing
a national cyber security architecture. The facility will be also
responsible for safeguarding the country's information information
infrastructure and networks as well as offering certification to service
providers and vendors to ensure additional security measures. The
revelation was made by National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon.
An Economic Times report
quotes Menon as saying: "It will also involve capacity and authority
for operations in cyber space. The goal is to prevent sabotage,
espionage and other forms of cyber attacks that could hurt us.”
The National Security Council has okayed
the architecture in principle even as the implementation details are
being chalked out with the ministries and agencies, "which we hope to
take to the Cabinet for approval soon", Menon said. A national cyber
security coordinator in the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS)
will be responsible for bring this work together.
The Indian government has been taking
various measures to secure its network. Last year, the then Home
Minister P Chidambaram revealed the government was planning to set up National Threat Intelligence Centre in view of rising cyber crimes such as identity theft, hacking, financial fraud, child pornography and corporate espionage. Despite various efforts, the government
sites and networks have continued to be attacked by cyber criminals and
hacking groups. According to recent CERT-In data, more than 14,000 websites were hacked till October last year,
witnessing a steep hike of 57 percent from 2009. Minister of State for
Communications and IT Milind Deora revealed in the Parliament about 294 websites of various government departments and ministries were attacked by hackers during the period between January-October 2012.
Over 200 Billion Photos Uploaded, 1 Trillion Connections Created on Facebook
Facebook users have so far uploaded a
whopping 240 billion photos and created 1 trillion connections, revealed
the social networking company's CEO Mark Zuckerberg at its press event
in Menlo Park.
On an average, a normal Facebook
user would have uploaded more than 200 pics and made a thousand
connections. The staggering feat comes months after Facebook announced
in October that the company had gone past the 1 billion active users mark. The social networking as a service is also now believed to the most popular online ever.
“Facebook’s mission is to make the world
more open and connected. The main way we do this is by giving people
the tools to map out their relationships with the people and things they
care about. We call this map the graph. It's big and constantly
expanding with new people, content and connections. There are already
more than a billion people, more than 240 billion photos and more than a
trillion connections,” says the company in a blog post.
The revelation comes in conjunction with
Facebook's announcement for the Graph Search feature within the social
networking website. The new feature is believed to put Facebook in
direct competition with Google, which is the largest Internet search
engine. The Graph Search is also believed to have a lot of potential to
generate revenues for the social networking giant. Read more about Facebook's Graph Search feature here.
HTC Butterfly Expected To Launch in January-end In India, @ Rs. 44,000
HTC is planning to bring its first
phablet to India. The device is expected to hit store shelves towards
the end of January, for Rs. 44,000. In the US the device is called the
HTC Droid DNA but in the rest of the world, it is called the HTC Butterfly or HTC Deluxe. The device has been available globally since December 2012.
- 5-inch display with a full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels) giving it a pixel density of 441ppi.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro quad-core processor clocked at 1.5GHz, Adreno 320GPU
- 2GB of RAM power the device.
- 16GB built-in storage expandable via a microSD card up to 32GB.
- 8MP rear facing camera and a 2.1MP front facing camera.
- 2020mAh battery.
- It will run on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.
- Priced @ Rs. 44,000 will be the most expensive Android smartphone available.
Currently we have the Samsung Galaxy S III priced at Rs. 31,900 and the Samsung Galaxy Note II priced at Rs. 37,400. We have the iPhone 5, which is the most expensive (non-luxury) smartphone available in India starting at Rs. 45,500.
The launch of the Butterfly comes at the
heels of the largest global smartphone event, MWC 2013, which will take
place in February in Barcelona, Spain. We expect to see quite a few
flagship smartphones at the event such as the Samsung Galaxy S IV,
Samsung Galaxy Note III, LG Optimus G2 and more.
Chinese Internet Users Spent 19 Million Years on Social Media in 2012: Report
A study was conducted in China called
‘We Are Social’s Guide to Social, Digital and Mobile in China (2nd
Edition, Jan 2013)’. One of the interesting facts pointed out in the
study was that Chinese people logged into social media spent 167 billion
hours across a variety of networks in 2012. The average estimate time
per day was 46 minutes.
Phenomenal statistics include - China gained more than 50
million Internet users in 2012; the total number of Internet users has
increased to 564 million; China has more than 1.1 billion wireless
subscribers; there are 420 million people in China who log on to the
Internet from their phone.
TheNextWeb spoke to Simon Kemp, the
research firm’s managing director. He said, “Mobile! No secret there,”
he said, adding that he thinks it’s becoming more and more personal.
“It’s all converging on a ubiquitous data layer to people’s everyday
lives. 25 million new users every month at the moment is massive growth,
and brands are starting to get in on the action too. It’ll be tricky
for [the brands] though, as they’ll need to have an even better think
about how they can add value to the more intimate ‘instant messaging +
microblog post’ environment,”
The 211 slides of the slideshow discuss
figures about China’s population, Internet usage, social media and the
mobile industry along with ecommerce, location-based services and online
video sites. Those interested can take a look at the 211-slide presentation here.
Google Chrome 25 Beta Released, Lets You Chat Up Your Browser
Google
has implemented the Web Speech API in the beta version of Chrome 25.
Google says it goes much further beyond what you would expect – just
doing web searches. The browser is currently available for Windows
users, and is in beta.
In its blog post, Google says, “Using
your voice to search on your computer or phone is handy, but there’s so
much more you can do with voice commands. Imagine if you could dictate
documents, have a freestyle rap battle, or control game characters with
your browser using only your voice. With today’s Chrome Beta release,
this future is closer than you think.”
Google has also released a demo of the Web Speech feature at this link,
but weirdly, it will only work after you have actually upgraded to the
Chrome 25 beta. Upgrade first, see if you like it or not later?
Apart from the voice control feature,
Chrome 25 will bring in security and performance enhancements for all
extensions, a new search and tab page and better HTML5 support.
As we had mentioned earlier, to take
advantage of this futuristic feature, you will need to upgrade from the
current stable version to the latest beta version. On Windows, the
installation will by default disable extensions, which users can
re-enable later. We, for once, will not be the first to download this,
because a beta version as your primary web browser is never a good idea
in terms of stability and bugs. But you can surely visualize a future
where you will be composing mails by talking to your computer.
Microsoft Next-Gen Xbox and Sony PlayStation To Be Priced Between $350-400: Analyst
Analysts suggests that the next
generation home console from Microsoft and Sony will launch by the end
of the year. Both the consoles will be priced around the $350 to $400
price point. It is expected that the Sony’s PS4 will launch in October
where as the next Xbox, the Xbox 720, will be available in November. Bot
the consoles will be made available just in time for the year-end
holiday season. Relevantly, another batch of rumours indicate that the
two consoles will possibly be unveiled at GDC ahead of E3 this year,
though we'll take that news with a pinch of salt.
When Microsoft launched the Xbox 360
back in 2005, the top end version of the console cost $399 for the 20GB
variant. The price of the 360 was significantly lower than its rival the
PS3 that launched a year later at $499 and $599 for the two models. The analyst suggest that the new consoles will be unveiled at E3 2013 in June, but other speculations on the Internet suggest that Sony and Microsoft
may hold their own events just before E3 to give gamers a “first
glimpse” of the consoles. When Nintendo unveiled the Wii U it did so at
E3, but it did hold its own events in subsequent months leading to the
launch of the console which gave us more information about the launch
and games lineup for the system.
Analysts also suggest that the next
generation consoles will be built from off the shelf PC hardware. The Xbox 360 had backward compatibility with a limited library of
games, but the backward compatibility was pretty good. The PS3 on the
other hand, well the less spoken the better. The fear of backward
compatibility is a lot more when it comes to the PS3 games working on
the PS4 rather than the Xbox. This
will not only enable them in cost control during production, but will
also make the process of game development a lot easier. The Sony chose a
unique Cell-based architecture for the PS3, which was not only more
powerful than the Xbox 360, but was also more powerful then some high
end PC’s at the time of the console's launch. The downside was that the
PS3 was priced way too high for the average gamer and the process of
developing games for the system was a nightmare.
Initially, both the PS3 and the Xbox 360
were sold at a loss, but the 360 had the first mover’s advantage
(launching a console before the competition), and also had an easier
game development cycle. The war for online and exclusive games started a
bit later.
Dropbox For Android Updated, Simplifies Photo Sharing Ability
Dropbox has updated its Android app to
make the process of photo sharing a lot easier. Users can choose their
favourite photos and videos from their library and share it with a few
simple taps. To view the shared photos, the viewers don’t need a Dropbox
account. Dropbox has made it easier to switch between their personal and Dropbox
for Teams accounts on the Dropbox website. The switch is as simple as
clicking your name in the top right corner, selecting ‘Switch Accounts.’
Sharing the photos is really simple.
From the Photos tab, users can tap the button on the top right, and
select the pictures they want to share. Users can add them to a named
album to save for later, or just grab the link to share via email, Facebook, or Twitter.
The feature is currently available only
for Android and there is no word on when the feature will reach iOS. We
hope it will happen soon. Android users need to be running Android 2.3
or higher to be able to avail this new feature. The cloud storage service has crossed 100 million users, according to
the company’s founder, Drew Houston. Users can update the app
on their Android device or download Dropbox from the Google Play store here.
Apple iPhone Users in US Get Free Voice Calling via Facebook Messenger
Facebook has been testing free calling
over Wi-Fi and cellular data, and the service has been available to
iPhone users in Canada for some time. Now the service has reached iPhone
users in the US as well. It is available through the Facebook messaging
app. As of now, the service is restricted to
the US and to iPhone users and there is no information on when the
service will hit Android or Windows Phone devices in the US or when the
service will be available globally.
Making a voice call to another Facebook
user is quite simple. Users need to open a conversation with a friend,
tap the "i" button in the top-right corner, and hit the Free Call
button. The call recipient will then get a notification that a Facebook
user is trying to call them.
The service is a very nice addition to
the messaging app. This means that you can make free calls without
making your cellular bill go up. If you have a great data plan, you can
make calls via cellular data and save your phone bill. Facebook was testing VoIP calling and voce messaging via its messaging app in January. Facebook yesterday announced the new Graph Search engine
on its social networking website, making search results more relevant
to you on a social scale. Data accumulated from user profiles over the
years make results closer to you and your friend's circle.
Videocon to Launch 4G Services in India This Year
Videocon Mobile Services is set to
launch its 4G services in India in the second half this year. The
company will be using 1800MHz spectrum it won in 2012 to roll out the
fourth generation mobile wireless network in the country.
According to a report in The Telegraph India,
the operator says it had purchased “liberalised” spectrum licences that
means it could offer services on 2G, 3G, or 4G networks. The telco is
likely to come up with services such as HD video streaming,
video-on-demand and online games using the high end network, which is
believed to be 10 times faster than the 3G.
An Economic Times report
quotes Bali as saying the company had bagged liberalised spectrum in
the telecom circles of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Gujarat,
Uttar Pradesh (East and West), Bihar and Jharkhand. Currently, only Airtel offers 4G LTE data services in the country. The telecom giant is reportedly to expand its 4G services in the country as it seeks government approval to test voice services
on the fourth generation networks. According to reports, Reliance
Industries-owned Infotel Broadband has a pan-India 4G licence and is
likely to soon receive the DoT nod for testing voice services on 4G.
Microsoft Windows 8 Fails to Boost PC Market, Drop Shipments
According to research firm Gartner, the
global PC shipments have declined by 4.9 percent in Q4 2012 as compared
to the same quarter in 2011. The Q4 2012 saw shipments totalling 90.3
million units. The research firm also noted Microsoft’s latest Windows 8
OS failed to kick-start the PC market.
Gartner
further says growing popularity of the tablets have slowed down PC
demand across the world. “Tablets have dramatically changed the device
landscape for PCs, not so much by ‘cannibalizing’ PC sales, but by
causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing
older PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
"The
disenfranchised PCs are those with lighter configurations, which mean
that we should see an increase in PC average selling prices (ASPs) as
users replace machines used for richer applications, rather than for
consumption.”
HP is rated as the top computer maker in the industry with 16.2 percent market share. Lenovo has the second spot with 15.5 percent of the market whereas Dell has at the third position with 10.2 percent. Rounding out the top five are Acer with 9.5 percent of the market and Asus with 7.2 percent.
Gartner also noted that Microsoft’s latest Windows 8
didn't have much impact on PC shipments in the fourth quarter.
According to analysts, “some PC vendors offered somewhat lackluster form
factors in their Windows 8 offerings and missed the excitement of
touch. New products are coming to market, and this could drive churn
within the installed base.”
People Remember Facebook Updates More Than Faces and Literature
A recent study has shown that people
remember posts that they have seen on Facebook a lot easier than they do
names, faces, or even information they read in a book. Researchers from the University of
Warwick and UC San Diego suggests that the gossipy nature of the
conversations that happen on the social networking website make it
easier to remember than something that is written in a more formal and
informative manner.
These findings can be a great help for those interested in finding
better tools for imparting education, communications, giving out
information or just plain advertising. It can also be used as a tool to
spread relative information about the current happenings as well as
spread general knowledge. What remains to be seen is how some people
find a relevant way to misuse this information.
The report goes on to say, “In the first two experiments, participants’ memory for Facebook
posts was found to be strikingly stronger than their memory for human
faces or sentences from books—a magnitude comparable to the difference
in memory strength between amnesiacs and healthy controls. The second
experiment suggested that this difference is not due to Facebook posts
spontaneously generating social elaboration, because memory for posts is
enhanced as much by adding social elaboration as is memory for book
sentences.”
Gaana Music Streaming Service Now Available For Mobile Platforms
Times Internet group has launched mobile apps for its Gaana music streaming service. The app is now available for Android, iOS, BlackBerry and J2ME devices. The service is free for users. The app features one-click abilities to favorite a song or share a playlist, via Facebook, Twitter, or email and curated playlists from radio channels.
Other features include:
- Access to over 1 million songs, including Bollywood, Hollywood, Tamil, Telegu, and regional music- Social listening - see what your friends are listening to
- My zone: an ability to see your history, your favourite songs, playlists, albums and artists across your computer or mobile phone (automatically synced in real-time across all devices)
- Radio mode: make your own radio station automatically, based on any song you play, using our proprietary recommendation algorithm
The service competes with the likes of
Saavn, Dhingana, MusicIndiaOnline and Raaga. According to Comscore (Nov
2012) figures quoted by Gaana.com, the music streaming service has
nearly 3 million visitors per month, who spend nearly 2.5x more time per
visit than visitors of other music sites in India.
Download Gaana.com mobile app from here.
Facebook Unveils a Smarter Search Engine
Now we know what Facebook is building: A better internal search system.
Speaking at a much-hyped event at Facebook HQ, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a raft of improvements to "graph search" — that is, the ability to search within your social graph for specifics.
The search improvements involve the ability to ask questions in regular English, such as "which of my friends live in New York?" The search is now intelligent enough to rank your friends based on how much interaction you've had — so that closer friends will appear higher up the results list.
It can also search based on stories or photos you've Liked. One example Zuckerberg offered: the site can now display which of his friends have Liked the HBO show Game of Thrones. You can search for people who Like multiple products or services, which seems likely to be a bonanza for marketers.
Photos can also be ranked by which have the most Likes, based on the people most important to you in your Friends list. And one of the most useful use cases appears to be searching for local businesses that have received a thumbs-up from friends (and their friends).
Graph search starts today in beta, and will appear as a large blue search bar at the top of your Facebook page. You can sign up for the beta — or rather, join the Waiting List for a beta invite — here. Zuckerberg was careful to emphasize that Graph Search is a new and limited product. For now, it will focus on four areas: people, photos, places and interests.
Internet Emits 830 Million Tonnes of CO2 Annually
Internet is usually believed to be an
environment-friendly alternative to the traditional usage of paper for
communication. Businesses across the world are now looking to switch to
the cloud-based technology from the physical hardware. However, a study
conducted by the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications (CEET)
and Bell Labs portrays things differently - Internet and other
components of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) industry
are responsible for emitting more than 830 million tonnes of CO2
annually and are likely to double emissions by 2020.
According to researchers, the ICT
industry, which includes the web, video and voice and other cloud-based
services, are responsible for emitting about 2 percent of global CO2
emissions, equivalent to what the aviation industry releases. The report
further predicts the ICT's share for CO2 emission to double by 2020.
The report has been published in journal Environmental Science & Technology.
The researchers have also come up with
some new models of emissions and energy consumption that are supposed to
slash the carbon emissions. The study suggests setting up of models
that consider the data traffic, energy use and CO2 production in network
and other related things of the industry.
Describing the existing assessment
models as inaccurate, the study further endorses development and testing
of two new models that will help more accurately assess the energy
consumption and CO2 emissions. According to the researchers, more
efficient use of energy-efficient equipment and renewable energy sources
are likely to help minimise ICT emissions of the greenhouse gas.
Oracle to Fix Java Security Flaw ‘Shortly’
Oracle Corp. said it is preparing an update to address a flaw in its widely used Java software after the US Department of Homeland Security urged computer users to disable the program in Web browsers because criminal hackers are exploiting a security bug to attack PCs.
“A fix will be available shortly,” the company said in a statement released late on Friday.
Company officials could not be reached on Saturday to say
how quickly the update would be available for the hundreds of millions
of PCs that have Java installed.
The Department of Homeland Security and computer security
experts said on Thursday that hackers figured out how to exploit the
bug in a version of Java used with Internet browsers to install
malicious software on PCs. That has enabled them to commit crimes from
identity theft to making an infected computer part of an ad-hoc computer
network that can be used to attack websites.
The Department of Homeland Security said attackers could
trick targets into visiting malicious websites that would infect their
PCs with software capable of exploiting the bug in Java. It said an attacker could also infect a legitimate
website by uploading malicious software that would infect machines of
computer users who trust that site because they have previously visited
it without experiencing any problems.
They said developers of several popular tools, known as
exploit kits, used by criminal hackers to attack PCs, have added
software that allows hackers to exploit the newly discovered bug in
Java.
Security experts have been scrutinizing the safety of
Java since a similar security scare in August, which prompted some of
them to advise using the software only on an as-needed basis. At the time, they advised businesses to allow their
workers to use Java browser plug-ins only when prompted for permission
by trusted programs such as GoToMeeting, a Web-based collaboration tool
from Citrix Systems Inc.
Facebook Users Can Message Mark Zuckerberg For $100
According to a Mashable report, users can pay the social networking company to send a message to Zuckerberg that would appear in his Inbox - it would otherwise normally appear in the 'Other' folder.
“In our tests from multiple accounts, it
appeared to be the case that users only get this message if they're not
one of Zuck's 16 million followers. That, however, could still be
coincidental,” noted the report.
The report further points out that the new feature could be an upgraded form of the $1 pay-to-message plan
that the social networking company has been testing for quite some
time. The company had previously hinted it would be experimenting with
other 'paid' features.
The reports of Facebook's new service comes days after the social networking site rolled out new and improved controls for content management on the social networking website. The update includes a new icon on the
toolbar, which gives users access privacy settings from whatever page
they are on.
Google Updates Gmail, Allows Adding Label, Star from Compose Box
Google has been updating its Gmail web
client for quite some time now. The recent update brought in ability to
compose a new mail with a new pop-up method, improved search engine and
deeper integration with Google+ social networking site. Google kicks off
2013 with yet another round of updates to its Gmail services.
The new update allows users to add Labels and Stars to the message from the new compose feature. Gmail
users can do this by clicking on the More options menu in the bottom
right and hovering over Label. Earlier, users needed to first send the
message and then go to their Sent folder to access the message sent,
open it and then could add a Label or a Star to the mail.
“This makes it easy to reference any other emails without ever having to
close your draft. You can even do a search or keep an eye on new mail
as it comes in". Google had launched the new Compose feature in October last year. The feature is available as an option from users' inbox.
Serious Security Flaw Spotted in Java
Security experts and researchers have
discovered a new loophole in the popular Java software that could allow
attackers to infect your computer with malware. The US-CERT group has released
an alert saying that Java 7 Update 10 and the previous versions of the
software come with the zero day vulnerability that allows attackers to
remotely run arbitrary code. The attack can be induced if someone visits
a website set up with the malicious code.
An independent malware researcher,
Kafeine, spotted the exploit "in the wild" that is being extensively
used in attacks -- on his blog on Thursday. The researcher also shared
samples of the exploit with security companies. "This could be mayhem,"
he said. "I think it's better to make some noise about it."
The exploit has already been added to
the popular Blackhole exploit toolkit used by cybercriminals, as well as
to Cool Exploit Kit, a more exclusive spin-off of Blackhole, Botezatu
said
Bogdan Botezatu, a senior e-threat
analyst at antivirus vendor Bitdefender, also confirmed the exploit.
"We reproduced the exploitation mechanism on Java 1.7 Update 9 and
Update 10. Other versions may be vulnerable as well, we're currently
analyzing whether other older updates are vulnerable,” Botezatu is
quoted by ComputerWorld as saying.
Researchers at Alien Vault Labs were able to reproduce
the exploit in a fully patched new installation of Java. “The Java file
is highly obfuscated but based on the quick analysis we did the exploit
is probably bypassing certain security checks tricking the permissions
of certain Java classes as we saw in CVE-2012-4681,” note the
researchers.
Samsung Reveals Galaxy S II Plus with Jelly Bean and Dual-Core Processor
Samsung has announced the Galaxy S II
Plus. The smartphone runs on Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean straight out of
the box. The Galaxy S II plus will be available in two variants – one
with NFC and one without. No details of the pricing or availability of
the device are available yet.
In terms of other specifications, the Galaxy S II Plus
shows off a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus WVGA display with 800x400 pixel
resolution. A 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM power the
device. It boasts of 8GB built-in storage expandable up to 64GB via a
microSD card. Under the hood, a 1,650mAh battery powers it. The rear of
the camera houses an 8MP camera and the front has a 2MP camera for video
chatting.
Samsung launched the Note II in 2012, which improved upon the
specifications and the performance of the first generation Note. It
sports a 5.5-inch display, quad-core processor, runs on Jelly Bean and
improved upon the functionality of the S-Pen.
DataWind and UN Launch App Development Contest for Women's Empowerment
DataWind and the United Nations Office
for Partnerships in coordination with the other international bodies -
Agnite Education, American Digital University, Applications for Good and
Equal Access International - have announced a ‘Global Apps to Empower’
competition.
Under the competition, the app
developers have to create apps that encourage women's empowerment in
various sectors including jobs and entrepreneurship, education and
conflict resolution. Winning apps will be receive cash prizes and the
opportunity to have their apps listed in DataWind’s Ubislate educational tablet, the commercial version of the Aakash tablet.
The competition will be held from now through April 30, 2013 while the winners will be announced in July 2013. Visit www.AppsToEmpower.org for more and detailed information on contest rules, a complete list of judges, deadline and submission guideline.
Nokia Launches Lumia 920 and 820 in India, Announces Lumia 620
NOKIA LUMIA 920
The wait is finally over. Nokia has
announced the availability of its first Windows Phone 8 powered devices
in India. The Lumia 920 and the Lumia 820 will be available from
tomorrow in select cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad,
Bangalore and Calcutta. They will be made available in the rest of the
country in the due course of time.
Features of Nokia Lumia 920 :
The Lumia 920 has an MRP of Rs. 38,999.
- Designed with a polycarbonate shell, and come with PureView
technology, however, without the massive sensor of the original 41MP Nokia 808 PureView
(despite the 920 being 10.7mm thick).
- 8.7MP camera
with an LED 'pulse burst flash', which is capable of 1080p HD video
recording at 30 fps.
- Features floating lens technology, which
supposedly rivals the optical image stabilization (OIS) of DLSRs, and
enables the sensor to capture more than 5-10 times the light of regular
smartphone cameras.
- 4.5-inch curved
glass IPS LCD display, which with Nokia’s PureMotion HD+ technology,
delivers a “better than HD resolution” of 1,280x768 pixels (WXGA).
- Touchscreen will also be navigable with gloves on.
- Nokia Lumia 920
supports wireless charging with Qi interoperability standards.
- 1.3MP front facing camera with 720p HD video recording
- Weight
of 185 grams
- 2,000 mAh battery rated to deliver up to 17 hours
of talktime, and 400 hours of standby time.
- It will surprisingly not
come with a microSD card slot.
NOKIA LUMIA 820
The 9.9mm-thick Nokia Lumia 820
has an MRP of Rs. 27,559 and is almost identical on the specs sheet,
except for a smaller 4.3-inch 800x480 pixel AMOLED display, and the lack
of a PureView camera - 8MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics and dual-LED
flash instead (also capable of 1080p HD video recording), coupled with
front-facing VGA camera.
Features of Nokia Lumia 820 :
- Nokia Lumia 820 also supports wireless
charging, when coupled with a removable shell case, which will ship with
the device.
- Smaller 1,650 mAh battery that’s rated to
deliver up to 14 hours of talktime, and 330 hours of standby time.
- Unlike the Lumia 920, it supports a microSD card slot, up to 32GB.
NOKIA LUMIA 620
It was also showcased at the event. Pricing and availability of the Lumia 620 will be announced in February,
but Nokia has said that its pricing will be between the current price
of the Lumia 610 and the Lumia 710. Your guess of the price is as good
as ours.
Features of Nokia Lumia 620 :
- 3.8-inch handset with a ClearBlack WVGA display
- Powered
by a 1 GHz dual-core processor
- 512 MB of RAM
- 5MP camera.
- MicroSD card slot that supports up to
64GB of storage.
- Lumia 620 come
in a selection of shades, each of which have switchable backs thanks to
a single base layer on top of which the coloured shell sits.
- The Lumia
620 comes with a 1,300mAh battery with a stand-by time of 330 hours and
14.6 hours of GSM talk time.
- Included is a VGA front camera
for video conferencing along with a Wi-Fi radio that can handle a/b/g/n
type connections.
