Fame might be the India's first live video entertainment app

<p><strong>Mumbai,Krishna Bahirwani:</strong> Fame, the digital entertainment network, has launched India's first live video entertainment application. Currently in beta, #fame is available on iOS and Google Play, enabling performers to beam live to fans and audiences using their smartphones. To generate enough content for its audiences, #fame plans to bring on-board more than 50,000 skilled and amateur performers targeting over 10 million downloads over the next six months.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/25/339524-fame.jpg" width="600" /></p><p>Built keeping the youth in mind, the #fame app offers a diverse portfolio of live and video-on-demand (VoD) original digital content. From celebrities and skilled talent to enterprising amateurs, the content on the application straddles a wide portfolio of genres including comedy, entertainment, live events, fashion, music, technology, food and citizen journalism amongst others. The application comes packed with a host of features including - social sharing, live chat and fan-based communities directly integrated into the application to create engagement between the performers and their audiences.</p><p>Since its launch in Sep 2014, #fame has concentrated it's efforts in the digital entertainment space in India, its debut market. The network has has been developing digital shows and properties and is one of the India's largest creators of original digital video content. Apart from the mobile application, #fame's digital video network spans several digital and social platforms including YouTube, Facebook, WeChat, Dailymotion amongst others. #fame strategically focuses on emerging and established talent to build digital video channels and communities around them.</p><p>fame has identified 5 additional markets in South-East Asia to build local digital video businesses. These include Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines. TO THE NEW Ventures, the parent company of #fame, has a strong strategic presence in these markets where it has built businesses in the SMACK space (Social, Mobile, Analytics, Content & Knowledge). ASTRO Overseas Limited, a leading cross-media operator in South-East Asia, is a key strategic investor in TTN Ventures.</p><p>Speaking on this development, Puneet Johar, MD, TO THE NEW Ventures said, " #fame is creating an exciting new LIVE category in the mobile video and entertainment space. Along with its proven record of breakthrough original digital content, we are confident of #fame achieving market leadership in mobile video in India and South-East Asia in the near future."<br /> Saket Saurabh, CEO, #fame commented, "The #fame app is pioneering not only because it is India's first live video entertainment app, but also because it will be home to original content from the country's hottest young digital stars. The app is a manifestation of #fame's vision of empowering millions of emerging talent in their journey as content creators and help them reach and engage with their audiences wherever they are and whenever they want."</p><p>With over 300 million internet users, including 185 million of them who access it on the mobile, India is consumes 5 billion video views a month and will exceed 200 million smartphone users, topping the US as the world's second largest smartphone market by 2016. Mobile application downloads will globally triple and grow six folds in India by 2015. In terms of monetization, digital video has grown faster than social with a 56% Compound Annual Growth Rate in the last 3 years compared to around 40% for Social and hence shows huge potential.</p>

Fame might be the India's first live video entertainment app

Mumbai,Krishna Bahirwani: Fame, the digital entertainment network, has launched India's first live video entertainment application. Cur...

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BlackBerry to cut jobs worldwide, impact on India unlikely

<p>New Delhi: Canadian technology firm Blackberry is cutting jobs globally as it plans to consolidates its various business verticals -- device software, hardware and applications.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/24/339381-blackberrygetty.jpg" width="600" /></p><p>"We have made the decision to consolidate our device software, hardware and applications business, impacting a number of employees around the world. We know that our employees have worked hard on behalf of our company and we are grateful for their commitment and contributions," Blackberry said in a statement.</p><p>However, the process is unlikely to impact jobs in India, an industry source told PTI.</p><p>In India, the company employs less than 50 people and thus the job cut announcement is unlikely to impact headcount here.</p><p>The Blackberry spokesperson did not offer any comment on the query related to a job cut in India.</p><p>The loss-making company has been running cost optimisation programme to reduce its operational expenses and turn profitable.</p><p>The company in 2012 announced to reduce headcount by 5,000 globally, equivalent to about 30 per cent of its total international workforce at that time.</p><p>On September 20, 2013, the company announced further reduction in the workforce by approximately 4,500 positions to bring the total strength to around 7,000 full-time global employees.</p><p>As of February 28, 2015, Blackberry had 6,225 full-time employees.</p><p>In 2013, Blackberry opened its Enterprise Solution centres in Mumbai and Gurgaon to focus on sales of its product to business organisations here.</p><p>"As the Company moves into its next stage of the turnaround, our intention is to reallocate resources in ways that will best enable us to capitalise on growth opportunities while driving toward sustainable profitability across all facets of our business," BlackBerry said.</p><p>In the third quarter ended November 29, 2014, the company narrowed its loss to $148 million, from $4.4 billion it posted in the same period a year ago.</p><p>"One of our priorities is making our device business profitable. At the same time, we must grow software and licensing revenues. You will see in the coming months a significant ramping up in our customer-facing activities in sales and marketing," the statement said.</p><p>During the third quarter, approximately 1.9 million BlackBerry smartphones were sold globally.</p>

BlackBerry to cut jobs worldwide, impact on India unlikely

New Delhi: Canadian technology firm Blackberry is cutting jobs globally as it plans to consolidates its various business verticals -- device...

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Ahead of split from Ebay, PayPal promises new services

<p>As PayPal(most used global virtual bank) prepares to split from its corporate parent, its new chief executive is promising to expand the popular online payment system, adding a variety of services for consumers to use when shopping on their phones or in traditional stores.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/23/339256-paypal2014logodetail.png" width="600" /></p><p>PayPal will be spinning off from parent company eBay later this year at a time when it's facing new competitive challenges. Alibaba, Amazon and even Facebook are promoting online payment systems, while Apple Pay and Google Wallet are competing to handle transactions in stores and on mobile devices.</p><p>Veteran executive Dan Schulman, who will be CEO of the new PayPal, says his company will compete by positioning itself as a "full-service" payments partner for consumers and merchants, handling mobile transactions, credit purchases and even customer loyalty rewards programs.</p><p>PayPal was best known for many years as a payment method for purchases made on desktop computers. But consumers are increasingly using mobile phones to shop online and even when they make purchases in traditional, brick-and-mortar stores.</p><p>Almost a third of transactions handled by PayPal are now made on mobile devices. "Those worlds are blurring," Schulman told The Associated Press in an interview yesterday. "When you go into a store environment, and you have your mobile phone with you, it should be a simple step to do a checkout from that device." Schulman spoke after an event where PayPal announced new partnerships with companies that help merchants sell goods online around the world, including in India and China. PayPal also touted a recent partnership with Burger King that lets consumers pay for their meals with a smartphone app.</p><p>"We want to be more than just a button on a merchant's website," Schulman said. "We really want to provide a full suite of services and products."</p><p>That includes expanding a PayPal credit service that lets shoppers spread payments over time and the Venmo mobile app that lets individuals exchange small sums when they split a bill or repay a debt.</p><p>PayPal, which is based in San Jose, California, has stumbled in one arena. Without admitting wrongdoing, the company agreed this week to pay USD 25 million over US regulators' allegations that it signed up some customers for credit they didn't want.</p>

Ahead of split from Ebay, PayPal promises new services

As PayPal(most used global virtual bank) prepares to split from its corporate parent, its new chief executive is promising to expand the pop...

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Latest Apple Watch update cuts back heart rate readings

<p>This might not be good news for heart patients but the latest update for Apple Watch has a bug that interferes with take heart readings.</p><p><img alt="dnaTechApple- Apple Watch- smartwatch" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/22/338734-apple-watch.jpg" /></p><p>Several Apple Watch owners are reporting that the device's heart rate sensor has been taking readings less consistently, ever since Apple released a software update, the Verge reported. The smartwatch is supposed to take one's heart rate every 10 minutes throughout the day by default, and the frequency of heart rate measurements jumps drastically during workouts so that the Watch can better track one's exertion in real time.</p>

Latest Apple Watch update cuts back heart rate readings

This might not be good news for heart patients but the latest update for Apple Watch has a bug that interferes with take heart readings. Sev...

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Internet shopping firm Snapdeal tie up with SBI to finance SMEs; lender to extend loans up to Rs 1 crore to small firms

<p><strong>Mumbai,Sumit Moitra:</strong> As small and medium enterprises latch on to the e-commerce bandwagon to reach out to global buyers, State Bank of India is ready to finance their ambitions.</p><p><img alt="Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, SBI with Kunal Bahl, CEO, Snapdeal" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/22/338614-smes.jpg" width="600" /><br /> Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, SBI with Kunal Bahl, CEO, Snapdeal</p><p>The nation's largest banker on Thursday joined hands with Snapdeal, country second largest e-commerce player and Paypal, world's leading payment solution entity, to finance lakhs of small businesses helping them scale up and tap customers both within and outside the country.</p><p>"There is a huge untapped market for very many beautiful things but the producers can't scale up and faces problems of liquidity which we would be addressing,'' said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman, State Bank of India.</p><p>Under the deal with Snapdeal, SBI would provide loans to SMEs, mostly without any collateral, up to a threshold loan amount of Rs 1 crore at an interest rate of around 11.35% with 25 basis points rebate to women entrepreneurs.</p><p>SBI has a SME client base of 9 lakh accounts with loan book of Rs 167,900 crore as on December-end.</p><p>Snapdeal, just three years old, is getting there fast. It has now 1.5 lakh sellers on its platform and chief executive officer Kunal Bahl wants to reach 10 lakh in the next three years.</p><p>Under its Capital Assist programme, Snapdeal has been joining hands with financiers, big and small, since August 2014.</p><p>"The biggest problem for the SMEs has been marketing and distribution. But as we solve those problems by offering them the e-commerce platform, there is a new challenge in the form of lack of liquidity," Bahl said.</p><p>"As these small business gets funds from the formal banking system at far cheaper rates, their profitability rises and they can pass on some of the benefits to consumers," Bhattacharya said.</p><p>Beyond providing accessing to funds, Snapdeal is now creating an ecosystem of sellers signified by a recent series of advertisements featuring actor Amir Khan.</p><p>"From an entrepreneur seeing huge demand for handy blood-sugar monitors in rural areas, to the artisans of Madhya Pradesh, with whom we have just tied up, we are building this ecosystem of small businesses," he said.</p><p>Beyond marketing support, Snapdeal is holding hands of these small businesses in many ways: leasing out warehouses in a no-profit-no-loss way, creating mobile apps and providing analytical support to determine creditworthiness and understanding their position against competition even creating professional product catalogues.</p><p>SBI's tie-up with Paypal is targeted to help such small business reach out to foreign customers using the payment major's global presence.</p><p>"When a customer in a far away country sees an exotic handicraft item from India but scared of dealing with an unknown entity, presence of PayPal would bring in the trust element," Vikram Narayan, MD and country manager, PayPal India, said, while signing a similar MoU with SBI during the day.</p>

Internet shopping firm Snapdeal tie up with SBI to finance SMEs; lender to extend loans up to Rs 1 crore to small firms

Mumbai,Sumit Moitra: As small and medium enterprises latch on to the e-commerce bandwagon to reach out to global buyers, State Bank of Indi...

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SBI, PayPal ink pact for enabling cross-border transactions

<p>Country's largest lender State Bank of India today signed an MoU with digital payments company PayPal for facilitating cross-border transactions.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/thumb/msid-43967179,width-310,resizemode-4/what-is-paypals-first-solo-move.jpg" width="600" /></p><p>SBI Managing Director and Group Executive (national banking) B Sriram said the pact will help its nine lakh SME customers make such transactions in a safe and secured manner.</p><p>Initially, he said, the MoU aims at facilitating cross- border transactions after which domestic payments would be covered.</p><p>Subsequently, SBI would look into e-governance areas like e-visas, e-travel documents, he said.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/21/338417-sbi.gif" /></p><p>The facility would also be available to SBI debit card holders.</p><p>PayPal has presence in 203 countries and processes 11.5 million transactions every day.</p><p>Later, the company would also look at the e-commerce and m-commerce space in India, he said.</p><p>PayPal has development centres in Bangalore and Chennai.</p>

SBI, PayPal ink pact for enabling cross-border transactions

Country's largest lender State Bank of India today signed an MoU with digital payments company PayPal for facilitating cross-border tran...

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Facebook is teenagers' most favourite social networking site; Google plus, Twitter follows:Study

<p>Facebook is the most preferred social networking site of teenagers, while Twitter comes a surprising third, after Google Plus, a 14-city Survey has said. The survey was conducted in 14 cities amongst 12,365 students studying in classes 8 to 12.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/20/338234-277806-facebook1.jpg" /></p><p>Almost 90 per cent of the students polled said they use Facebook, Google Plus followed with 65 per cent of the respondents using it. Twitter came third with 44.1 per cent. Interestingly, 45.5 per cent of those polled said they use the social networking sites for completing school assignments, the survey conducted by the country's largest software exporter TCS said . When it comes to studies, online resources like Wikipedia topped with 63.1 per cent of those polled saying they use it, followed by PDFs which were used by 50.9 per cent and online videos with 44 per cent. The growing proliferation of e-commerce was seen in this segment as well, with over 66 per cent saying they shop online.</p><p>Electronic gadgets top the list of the items bought online with 64.5 per cent, followed by books (61.2 per cent) and tickets (41.3 per cent), it said. Among messaging applications, WhatsApp tops the list with 72 per cent of those surveyed in Mumbai using it while interestingly, boys outnumber girls by a huge 42 percentage points. On the security front, it said nearly half of the parents monitored their children's online activities while 52.2 per cent said their parents also have access to the social media accounts. When it comes to keeping abreast with news developments across the world, the traditional television and newspapers retained the top slot with 76.3 per cent using it, while 52.7 per cent said they use online sources.</p><p>Over 20 per cent of the teenagers polled said they subscribe to newsfeeds, while 35.7 per cent said URLs shared on social networking sites help them. "The need to be constantly aware, always connected and make informed choices is in the basic DNA of the post- millennial students," TCS HR global head Ajoy Mukherjee said. The interviewed kids said they spend an average of one hour per day online, nearly three-fourths of them use smartphones even though nearly half of them use home PCs or desktops for accessing internet, it said.</p>

Facebook is teenagers' most favourite social networking site; Google plus, Twitter follows:Study

Facebook is the most preferred social networking site of teenagers, while Twitter comes a surprising third, after Google Plus, a 14-city Sur...

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Missing the big picture on Big Data on Techno world

<p><strong>New Delhi, G. SAMPATH:</strong> Why is the government so anxious to make the ownership of an Aadhar card, which is officially voluntary, practically mandatory? Why did the online fashion store Myntra.com recently turn app-only, which means you can’t shop on it through the website or mobile browser but only by downloading the app?</p><p><img alt="Digital information on consumers is the new coveted treasure trove." src="http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/02411/TH-20-big-data-cit_2411333g.jpg" width="600" /></p><p>Why is Facebook developing solar-powered drones to beam Internet from the sky? And why do both Facebook and Gmail keep badgering you for your cell phone number?</p><p>What is the need for something called internet.org when there is already an Internet out there? Why does our government want to invest in ‘Smart Cities’ when it is unwilling to invest adequately on education?</p><p>The answer to all these questions, as Bob Dylan might have said, is flowing in optic fibre cables. If not, it is definitely stored in a non-meteorological cloud somewhere. Its name: Big data.</p><p>The UID-Aadhar project will be the largest such citizen database on the planet. The reason Myntra wants its customers to transact only from apps is that consumer data is most valuable when tied to specific individuals, as it enables a closer tracking of user behaviour. It is also why Google, Facebook, and other tech companies want your mobile number.</p><p>It is because Mark Zuckerberg does not possess a search engine like Google does — which, as the entry point to the Internet for most people, is the ultimate instrument for generating consumer data — that he wants to start another, smaller ‘internet’ for those who cannot afford the full-size one.</p><p>As for Smart Cities, it is a blatant scheme to ensure that every citizen is dragooned into a digital grid at all times, so that she secretes a non-stop data trail from birth to death. This data trail, or big data would be continuously captured and processed for optimal value extraction (read monetisation).</p><p>If a world governed on the basis of big data is indeed the future, then what does this bode for humanity? The dominant consensus right now is overwhelmingly positive. But if we delve deeper, the use of big data and what it would entail for the future of human lives will unravel a problematic picture.</p><p>ILLUSTRATION: SATWIK GADE</p><p>According to the optimists, big data — in combination with what is described as the Internet of Things (IoT), a world where the vast majority of gadgets, machines, and humans are connected to the internet and to each other — promises a future where all important decisions about business, life, and society would be taken purely (and happily?) on the basis of data.</p><p>Human judgment, which is typically partial, flawed, and conflicted — and often distorted by factors that are not measurable, and do not compute, such as moral qualms, or empathy — need never come into the picture. This, they believe, would make for greater efficiency, higher productivity, and the optimal utilisation of resources for the greatest good of the greatest number.</p><p>There is a name for such decision-making driven purely by big data analytics. It’s called ‘evidence-based decision-making’. Its semantic twin is ‘actionable information’. Evidence-based decision-making can and does pay off brilliantly in business operations — this is what enterprise software solutions do, and they were indeed the tech precursors of big data analytics. It is ideal also for, say, predicting the weather, or earthquakes, and for identifying bankable talent in team sports, as the bestselling book/ film Moneyball showed.</p><p>Besides, big data already plays a major role in the management of infrastructure and industry, not to mention security, military affairs, health, and geopolitics, as the Snowden leaks made amply clear.</p><p>Purveyors of technological determinism like to argue that, with the advances in cloud and mobile computing, the non-stop generation of data on a never-before scale is bound to change how humans think, and therefore act and live.</p><p>This was the contention of Chris Andersen, the former editor-in-chief of Wired magazine, in a widely debated piece titled “The End of Theory: The data deluge makes the scientific method obsolete”. Andersen’s logic is simple: since processing of big data can give us correlations that can predict accurately, causation is no longer relevant. So theory, or explanations of the world based on the model of cause and effect (which is how humans have traditionally made sense of the world), are now obsolete.</p><p>In other words, we no longer need to think. Collect data, feed them into the maw of analytics, and wait for solutions to emerge. In Andersen’s words, “With enough data, the numbers speak for themselves.”</p><p>Well, this is no longer solely the chartered accountant’s motto. It is the article of faith among the world’s movers and shakers.</p><p>The World Economic Forum, an annual gathering of the global power elite, notes in its 2014 Global Technology Report that data is “a new form of asset class”, adding, “data are now the equivalent of oil or gold. And today we are seeing a data boom rivaling the Texas oil boom of the 20th century and the San Francisco gold rush of the 1800s.”</p><p>In his foreword to this very report, John Chambers, the chairman and CEO of Cisco Systems, points out that, with the number of app downloads growing from 10 billion in 2010 to 77 billion in 2014, there is “a $19 trillion global opportunity to create value over the next decade.”</p><p>As per industry estimates, in India alone, it is set to touch $1 billion in 2015.</p><p>Will politics surrender to analytics?</p><p>No doubt, there is overpowering business logic to the rise and rise of big data analytics. But does this mean it should get a leading role in the domain of politics and public policy?</p><p>The answer to this question may already have been decided, going by the frequency with which “evidence-based policy-making” and “actionable information” pops up in government documents and the reports of bodies such as the United Nations or the World Bank.</p><p>India, too, is well and truly on board the bandwagon. On the one hand, the large pool of English-speaking engineering/ mathematics graduates makes India an attractive destination for the off-shoring of big data analytics, which Indian tech entrepreneurs are well placed to exploit.</p><p>On the other hand, with several citizen-to-government transactions, such as passport applications and tax payments migrating online, and the state unwilling to relax its grip on Aadhaar, and plans afoot to digitise medical records, it is clear that Big Data will come to play a major role.</p><p>Besides, many examples have been cited to prove that big data can be harnessed for social good. We have been told that cellphone call logs can help locate survivors during a natural disaster. Online searches can yield data to predict a disease outbreak (the principle behind applications such as Google Flu Trends).</p><p>And given the billions of dollars — the preferred term is ‘value’ — riding on the so-called ‘information economy’, it is unlikely that the raw material for data manufacture (also known as ‘people’) will have much say in the matter. We are already beginning to see this in India, with ‘evidence-based decision-making’ being trotted out as an argument against the precious few welfare schemes still left for India’s poor, such as the public distribution system (where data show that it is leaky), or the rural jobs scheme (where data show it is riddled with corruption).</p><p>A policy determined by such evidence alone would seek to scrap both schemes and replace them with cash transfers, as the incumbent government seems keen to do. But big data, by definition, is the wrong tool with which to understand the social consequences of giving cash instead of food grains — a critical policy input that can come only from politics, not analytics.</p><p>Where is big data taking us?</p><p>The exponential growth of big data analytics, and its increasing utilisation in government policy, is premised on many things, including growth in IT infrastructure, the digital inclusion of those hitherto excluded by poverty, and an overarching colonisation of the analog universe by the digital.</p><p>But what it needs above all is the erasure of the very concept of privacy. Many of us have already voluntarily surrendered our privacy, either for the sake of convenience or to save costs — by ticking the ‘I accept’ box when we sign on to a social media or email service.</p><p>But privacy — while critical for a functional democracy – is not the only casualty of big data. The graver threat is a digital replay of colonial era exploitation, with data replacing mineral resources and raw materials as the source of value.</p><p>We already have a bizarre scenario in several developing countries (including India) — a scenario that is somehow no longer perceived as bizarre — where people don’t have toilets (an amenity with tremendous public health consequences) but own cell phones, and their mobile data is being captured for ‘actionable information’ on the status of their health, and for ‘evidence-based’ framing of health policy.</p><p>It is in the context of such anomalies that a term coined by a Tanzanian health minister becomes relevant: data colonialism.</p><p>The expression gained traction when Najeeb Al Shorbaji, Director, Knowledge and Management at the World Health Organisation (WHO), gave a speech in 2013, titled ‘Data Colonialism’. Shorbaji used the term to describe a scenario where the West has been mining African nations for health data without the Africans benefiting in any way.</p><p>He uses the same data-as-gold metaphor used by the WEF report to draw an analogy between the flow of raw materials from the colonies to Europe, and the flow of data from the erstwhile colonies to the developed West today. The objective in both cases is the same: extraction of value.</p><p>Today, useless data (or ‘data exhaust’ as it’s called) has to flow from the developing markets to the West (via Google or Amazon or their equivalent) in order to be commodified as information. Shorbaji illustrates the social dynamic of data-driven exploitation with an example from a domain that is usually touted as a poster boy for the benefits of big data analytics: healthcare.</p><p>He describes how impoverished Africans, who are not even aware of the concept of informed consent, living as they do in countries with no legislative framework for data collection and usage, agree to become guinea pigs for risky clinical trials in exchange for a little money or free medical treatment.</p><p>The animating logic of big data</p><p>This brings us to the philosophical basis of big data, which is rooted in the abstractions of statistics. It is well known that statistics grew as a discipline to address the needs of the modern state, which had to administer populations on a big scale. In big data, the post-modern state has found a fitting collaborator for monitoring, and pre-emptively controlling, sections of the populations that, in circumstances of prolonged deprivation or injustice, can be prone to unseemly eruptions against those who control the levers of the state.</p><p>Typically, the ‘big’ of big data is construed as a reference to the sheer volume, velocity (of generation) and variety (of sources) of the datasets involved. But perhaps the real reason why ‘big’ data is big is that it seeks to decisively appropriate human agency and transfer it to data and algorithms.</p><p>Even the term ‘actionable information’, often invoked in the context of big data, suggests that it is not humans who have to decide what is to be done, and therefore take responsibility for the choices being made, but somehow the data or information itself which decides (for humanity) the action to be taken. This, finally, is the inescapable social cost of big data analytics.</p><p>And so, finally, we come to the big question about big data: Can analytics find solutions to humanity’s problems? Yes, but not to the problems that human beings choose not to address.</p><p>Many global problems have their origins in deprivation. We don’t need big data analytics to tell us this. It is common sense that if such widespread deprivation is addressed – which requires solving the problem of extreme inequalities in wealth and income – a lot many problems, such as hunger and disease, can be resolved.</p><p>In fact, there already is ample data, including an OECD study, which confirms that reducing inequality boosts economic growth. But this has hardly prompted a corresponding change in government policies anywhere. While evidence-based policy-making may be good for business and the tech industry, it is only politics-driven policy-making that can make a positive difference to people’s lives. For, as data evangelists never tire of pointing out, big data is no different from gold — it is firstly, and ultimately, a commodity.</p><p>Editor's note: The writer is the Social Affairs Editor of The Hindu. Email: sampathlives@gmail.com</p>

Missing the big picture on Big Data on Techno world

New Delhi, G. SAMPATH: Why is the government so anxious to make the ownership of an Aadhar card, which is officially voluntary, practically...

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Mixed decision for Samsung appeal in Apple patent case

<p>Washington DC: A US appeals court on Monday upheld most elements of the blockbuster patent case in which Samsung was found to have violated Apple iPhone patents, but invalidated some of the damages.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/19/337648-305742-apple-vs-samsung.jpg" /></p><p>The appellate panel in Washington gave Samsung -- ordered by a jury to pay US $930 million for patent infringement -- a partial victory by ruling that Apple cannot collect damages for Samsung's copying of the look and feel of the iconic smartphone. The latest decision sends the case back to a California federal court to recalculate damages.</p><p>The ruling could affect as much as US $382 million awarded to Apple on grounds the South Korean electronics giant hurt Apple's image by copying certain design features of the iPhone. The invalidated awards affect Apple's contention that Samsung violated the "unregistered trade dress" or design components of the iPhone such as "a rectangular product with four evenly rounded corners."</p><p>The court said Apple should not be awarded damages for these items because these were not purely design features of the brand, but rather a functional element of the smartphone. If the award were allowed to stand, the court said, Apple could have a "perpetual monopoly" of features which are needed for smartphone operation. "Trademark law allows for a perpetual monopoly and its use in the protection of 'physical details and design of a product' must be limited to those that are 'nonfunctional,'" the appeals court said.</p><p>But the court upheld the damages violation of Apple's registered design patents and other technologies such as scrolling and zooming on a smartphone. Neither company had an immediate response to an AFP query for comment.</p><p>In the long-running case between the world's two biggest smartphone makers, patents at issue in the case involve unlocking touchscreens with slide gestures, automatically correcting words being typed, retrieving data sought by users and performing actions on found data such as making a call after coming up with a phone number.</p><p>Samsung devices targeted by Apple include more than half a dozen smartphones from the Galaxy line, along with the Galaxy 2 tablet. The case filed in 2012 was part of a series of patent battles around the world. Last year, the two firms agreed to end patent battles outside the United States.</p>

Mixed decision for Samsung appeal in Apple patent case

Washington DC: A US appeals court on Monday upheld most elements of the blockbuster patent case in which Samsung was found to have violated ...

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ASUS ZenFone 2 review: Ugly duckling, but a marvel in performance

<p>If someone were looking for a smartphone in 2013-14, at Rs 20,000 to 25,000, that could stand up to the Android flagships, there really wasn’t much on offer. Either you had to settle for a ‘dated’ flagship device or cut corners on one of the key areas like the processor or the camera. The Android landscape has seen a metamorphosis in the last 12-18 months. Established players have slipped, while newer brands like Xiaomi and OnePlus have stolen the thunder with clever, disruptive strategies. ASUS joined this innovative band that have redefined the smartphone value proposition with a set of three devices that had a huge impact in 2014; not just in India but in quite a few global markets. The ZenFone 2 is ASUS’ big roll of the dice for 2015 and it aims to better what the ZenFone 4, 5 and 6 achieved last year.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/asus/asus-zenfone-2-1.jpg" /></p><p>The ZenFone 2 is actually four devices that straddle price points between Rs 12,999 and Rs 22,999. That’s no easy task, given that the customer profile and expectations vary from one price point to the other. The differences are mostly in the hardware spec sheet – the display resolutions change and so do the processor/RAM, presenting ASUS with an unenviable communication challenge. We put the top-end - ZE551ML under the scanner; this variant’s price point puts it head to head with the OnePlus One. The ZenFone 2 continues with the same brushed metal finish that set the first generation of ZenFones apart; it might be plastic but it's ‘posh’ plastic. The power button sits rather awkwardly on the top of the device while the volume rocker moves to the rear (à la LG) just below the dual LED flash and the camera lens. We would have liked to see ASUS go the whole hog and move the power key to the rear as well. Overall it’s one of the best looking devices in the sub Rs 25,000 segment; especially the elegant slate grey option.</p><p>ASUS manages to cram in a 5.5-inch touch screen, by tweaking the screen to body ratio (72% on the ZenFone 2), thus making it a touch easier for one-handed navigation. At 170g, it’s certainly not feather light. The display packs an impressive 403 pixels per inch (1920x1080p). But the display is not the only improvement; ASUS ups its camera game with a 13MP shooter that gets a boost with its PixelMaster 2.0 and Pixel merging technology. The improvement is evident in low-light scenarios and we also like the ‘depth of field’ and Super HDR modes that give this shooter some serious zing. The 5MP front cam comes with a Selfie-Panorama option just in case you need to get your extended family into one frame. The ZenFone 2 takes the selfie obsession to new levels with a snap-on ‘lolliflash’, an external accessory that makes your selfies prettier with cosmetic add-ons. It’s one of many accessories that ASUS has crafted for the phone.</p><p><em><strong><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans', helvetica, arial; font-size: 12px;">The ASUS Zenfone 2, at first sight doesn't seem to have anything going its way. It looks okay, but not great, the volume rockers are on the rear, and it just looks in general like it won't turn any heads. And it won't. That is, until you demonstrate its capabilities.</span></strong></em></p><p>The ZenFone 2’s biggest claim to fame is its 4GB of RAM, becoming the first smartphone to achieve this distinction. The generous dollop RAM combines with a 64-bit Quad Core Intel Atom Processor (2.3GHz). Intel and ASUS have transitioned their long running relationship in the personal computer space to the smartphone arena and the results on the ZenFone 2 suggest that they are on a strong wicket. Our AnTuTu benchmark tests gave the ZenFone 2 a score of 43335, just a shade under the OnePlus One but significantly higher than the Xiaomi Mi4. The PCMark work performance score was an equally impressive 5693; higher than the Xiaomi Mi Pad and the Samsung Galaxy 6. The ZenFone 2 is ridiculously fast whether you are switching tasks or jumping from one web page to the next.</p><p>ASUS’ custom Zen UI gets a slight facelift to complement Android 5.0 (Lollipop), it’s not eye candy but we like the uncluttered and minimalist design. We were impressed with the ASUS ZenFone 2. It’s largely a workhorse phone that can handle almost any task you throw at it, thanks to its zippy processor and 4GB RAM that always has abundant ‘free space’ in reserve. The design language is elegant and yet there is no wow element that will make heads turn. Add a solid camera and a 3000 mAh battery that doesn’t tire easily and you have a successor to the first generation of the ZenFone that could ring the cash registers for ASUS yet again.</p><p><strong>AT A GLANCE</strong><br /> What we liked:<br /> Build quality, zippy processor with generous RAM</p><p>What we didn’t like:<br /> Slightly odd placement of power key</p><p>Price: Rs 12,999 to 22,999<br /> Specifications:<br /> Description<br /> Processor: 64-bit Quad Core Intel Atom (1.8 GHz and 2.3 GHz versions)<br /> RAM: 2GB and 4GB variants<br /> Memory: 16/32/64 GB variants with Micro SD Card support up to 64GB<br /> Display: 5.5" screen (1920x1080p) with 403 PPI (on the top-end version)<br /> Camera: 13MP primary shooter (Xenon flash) / 5MP front Camera (With Selfie Panorama)<br /> SIM: Dual SIM (With ‘dual active’ mode), 4G support</p>

ASUS ZenFone 2 review: Ugly duckling, but a marvel in performance

If someone were looking for a smartphone in 2013-14, at Rs 20,000 to 25,000, that could stand up to the Android flagships, there really wasn...

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Asian component makers take slice of Apple’s iPhone spoils

<p>As Apple basks in the unprecedented demand for its latest iPhones, suppliers from Tokyo to Taipei are sharing in the spoils. With iPhone sales up 40 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, Murata — a Japanese producer of energy-storing ceramic capacitors that counts Apple as its biggest customer — said its operating profit rose 116 per cent from a year earlier.</p><p><img alt="An Iphone 4S is arranged for a photo in Hong Kong China, on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg" src="http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/5f6e5466-b004-4512-b984-1cddefc28547.img" width="600" /></p><p>Earnings at Taiwan’s Largan, which supplies iPhone camera modules, were up 61 per cent, while those of the South Korean iPhone screen supplier LG Display were almost eight times the level of a year before.<br /> The booming earnings in Apple’s supply chain demonstrate the impact of smartphone market shifts on the web of Asian component suppliers and assemblers that are the bedrock of the industry.<br /> But the playing field for these groups is set to shift, as competition intensifies between key players in the increasingly mature smartphone industry.</p><p>“I’m worried about the overall smartphone market starting to slow,” says Steven Pelayo, head of Asian technology research at HSBC, who predicts unit sales growth “in the high single-digits” over the next three years — down from 28 per cent last year and 39 per cent in 2013, according to research group IDC.<br /> Concern is focusing on the prospects for the increasingly saturated Chinese market, the world’s biggest, where IDC says smartphone sales contracted by 4 per cent in the first quarter — the first such decline for six years. Slowing growth there has now begun to darken the outlook for the Chinese smartphone producers that have enjoyed explosive sales growth in recent years, whittling away the market share of global leader Samsung Electronics.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/93adc2c2-f864-11e4-8e16-00144feab7de.img" /></p><p>Even Xiaomi, which has surged over the past two years to become China’s leading smartphone provider, has suffered quarterly sales contractions in each of the past two quarters according to the research group Strategy Analytics, which warned that its “rapid growth is now coming to an end”.<br /> This trend has cast a shadow over the Taiwanese suppliers that service the Chinese smartphone brands. The share price of MediaTek, a Taiwanese group that leads the Chinese market for smartphone processor chips, doubled in the two years to last July, but it has since fallen almost a third.</p><p>Beyond the broad concerns about the Chinese smartphone market, the gloomier sentiment on MediaTek reflects a further threat to Taiwan’s huge component industry: the expansion of Chinese competitors into ever more sophisticated areas of the supply chain.<br /> As well as the US-based global market leader Qualcomm, MediaTek must contend with China’s Spreadtrum, a chip designer whose processors are gaining a growing share of the Chinese market. Meanwhile shares in Ningbo-based Sunny Optical, which supplies camera modules to the likes of Xiaomi and Lenovo, have doubled in the past year.<br /> “It’s clear the Chinese brands prefer to have Chinese suppliers,” says Nicolas Baratte, head of technology research for CLSA. “There is a different type of understanding between Chinese companies. The Chinese supply chain is amazingly flexible in terms of tolerance for specification change and redesign, and flexible payment terms.”<br /> Yet with the Chinese market slowing, he adds, some Chinese suppliers — notably phone assembly groups such as Wingtech and Longcheer — are increasingly pinning their expansion hopes on work for faster-growing brands from other countries, especially India.<br /> A reliance on foreign customers has been thrust upon Japan’s handset component suppliers by that country’s dramatic decline in the mobile phone market — but they have responded strongly according to analysts who say Japanese groups account for a third of the parts found in the iPhone, while achieving strong sales of high-tech components to Chinese producers.</p><p>Those two sources of demand provide contrasting opportunities to groups such as capacitor supplier Murata, says Shoji Sato, an analyst at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities. While the unit cost of the cutting-edge components it provides to Apple are up to 10 times higher than those supplied to Chinese producers, it is expecting growing demand from the latter as they buy parts to support a move towards phones with fast 4G data connections.</p><p>The Japanese supply chain includes major electronics groups such as Sony and Sharp, which have strong positions in camera sensors and screens respectively despite the collapse in sales at their own handset divisions.<br /> Sony plans to invest $1.7bn over the next year boosting sensor production to meet demand from clients including Apple, Samsung Electronics and Xiaomi, which it expects to drive a near-quintupling of its operating profit to Y320bn in its current financial year.<br /> Its peer Sharp has had a more traumatic experience in the smartphone supply chain, investing heavily in display panel production capacity only to lose market share to cheaper rivals in Asia. Last week Sharp announced an annual loss of $1.9bn and said it would lay off a tenth of its workers, with analysts citing its exclusion as a supplier for the iPhone 6 as one reason for its woes.<br /> In South Korea, Samsung’s components business has also become its biggest source of profits, with its world-leading memory chip business overtaking a handset business whose market share fell heavily last year.</p><p>Even as it competes fiercely with Apple in the premium smartphone market, Samsung’s logic chip business is expected this year to reverse the heavy operating loss of 2014 after winning a contract to produce processor chips for the next iPhone.<br /> That business is also benefiting from Samsung’s move to reduce its reliance on external suppliers wherever possible, helping it to protect margins at its smartphone business. The new flagship Galaxy S6 phone, at least in its early production, is forgoing Qualcomm processors in favour of Samsung’s own Exynos chip, as well as using baseband radio chips and power management chips made in-house.<br /> While Samsung’s components business has cushioned the effect of its handset troubles, there has been no such protection for the South Korean suppliers that piggybacked on its rise to smartphone dominance. Touchscreen panel supplier Iljin Display and Partron, which supplies antennas and camera modules to Samsung, saw operating profit decline 62 per cent and 51 per cent respectively last year.<br /> Shares in some of these suppliers have strengthened over the past six months on hopes for Samsung’s revamped handset strategy, but the companies themselves appear to be hedging their bets on the smartphone market, says Daniel Kim, an analyst at Macquarie.<br /> “Virtually every Korean component company is working really hard to increase business with Chinese companies,” he says. “The shock in 2014 from Samsung’s smartphone business was a wake-up call. They want to diversify.”</p><p>Smartphone sales beat records but shares in companies that make them have not<br /> Sales of the iPhone 6 may have smashed smartphone industry records, but shares in the company that assembles most of the devices have drifted lower since the product launch last September.<br /> Hon Hai Precision Industries, better known as Foxconn, is being hit by Apple’s efforts to secure its supply chain via greater diversification, notably among its Taiwanese partners.</p><p>Foxconn is losing assembly work to fellow Taiwanese group Pegatron, which will put together more than a quarter of iPhones made this year according to analysts at Nomura.</p><p>And while its Foxconn Technology subsidiary produced all of Apple’s phone casings as recently as 2011, its share is set to drop to 69 per cent this year, with smaller Taiwanese companies such as Catcher and Casetek filling more of the demand, Nomura says.<br /> Speculation is now focusing on the niche Taiwanese groups that could benefit from new features in the next iPhone: expectations of a more sophisticated touch screen system have been pushing up the share prices of screen component suppliers Flexium and Zhen Ding.<br /> And while Apple work is being spread more thinly among its Taiwanese suppliers, it remains indispensable to the sector, says Arthur Liao at Fubon Securities. “If Apple is good, Taiwan is good - that’s for sure,” he says.</p>

Asian component makers take slice of Apple’s iPhone spoils

As Apple basks in the unprecedented demand for its latest iPhones, suppliers from Tokyo to Taipei are sharing in the spoils. With iPhone sal...

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Microsoft backtracks on free Windows 10 upgrade for pirated versions

<p>NYC(web team): People pirating Windows are going to have to pay for their version of Windows 10. Or of course, they can just keep pirating. Now, if it sounds like that's a redundant statement, let me clarify.Microsoft chief Terry Myerson has rescinded his earlier statement, saying that users with pirated copies of Windows would get free upgrades to Windows 10, the same as Genuine State users.</p><p><img alt="" src="https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/9Fj6p4O2mk0CHEFEtZiUcumeH9I=/0x56:1019x629/1600x900/cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/46343052/windows10stock.0.0.jpg" width="600" /></p><p>Microsoft had, at their Windows 10 launch earlier this year, said that it was offering users running Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 free upgrades to Windows 10. But, more importantly, Windows chief Terry Myerson said that the free upgrade was available to those who had pirated their copies of the operating system as well. Then, some time later Microsoft released statements saying that though a free upgrade would happen, pirates would have to pay eventually. Their latest statement now backtracks on that entirely saying there will be no free upgrade for pirated versions of Windows. You'll have to pay up front.</p><p>In the offical blog post, Myerson says, "We are planning very attractive Windows 10 upgrade offers for their customers running one of their older devices in a Non-Genuine state." This would allow pirates to pay to be upgraded to an original version of Windows 10, but no details have been released yet. We're likely going to have to wait until the upgrade officcially rolls out (hopefully) later this year.</p>

Microsoft backtracks on free Windows 10 upgrade for pirated versions

NYC(web team): People pirating Windows are going to have to pay for their version of Windows 10. Or of course, they can just keep pirating. ...

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Amazon Appstore offers apps worth Rs 7,000 for free

<p>Amazon has a new "Free App of the Day" bundle available today, with 38 paid apps and games worth $110 (approximately Rs 7,000) available for free until Sunday 12:30 pm IST.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://ouyabrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Amazon-App-Store1.jpg" /></p><p>The bundle is a regular deal from the Amazon Apstore, so make sure you get it while it's hot. You'll need to download and install the Amazon Appstore for Android, to be able to download any of the apps on offer. You can find the full instructions here. Remember, you're going to have to check mark the "Allow Unknown Sources" option in your settings to download the Appstore and any other of the apps. And don't worry if that feels unsafe, you can uncheck it again once you're done with the installlations.</p><p>Another option is to visit the desktop website for the Amazon Appstore here, while logged in, and add the apps you want to your cart.</p><p>Here's what's on offer this weekend :</p><p><strong>Games:</strong></p><ul><li>Highrise Word Heroes+</li><li>Royal Envoy (Premium)</li><li>Rebuild</li><li>Five Nights at Freddy's 3</li><li>Angry Birds Seasons HD (Fire Edition)</li><li>Time Mysteries 2: The Ancient Spectres (Full)</li><li>Empress of the Deep: The Darkest Secret (Full)</li><li>Bloons TD 5</li><li>Angry Birds Seasons (Ad-Free)</li><li>Cooking Dash Deluxe</li><li>Grudgeball: Enter the Chaosphere</li><li>Sorcery! 3</li><li>Game Of Thrones - A Telltale Games Series</li><li>Star Traders 4X Empires Elite</li><li>Star Command</li><li>Bike Race Pro by Top Free Games</li><li>Mini Golf Mundo</li></ul><p><strong>Apps:</strong></p><ul><li>True Booster | Speed Cleaner</li><li>G-Stomper VA-Beast Synthesizer</li><li>Perfectly Clear</li><li>Language Coach</li><li>SUPER WHY ABC Adventures: Alphabet</li><li>Deep Sleep with Andrew Johnson</li><li>Daily Expense Manager PRO</li><li>Xtralogic Remote Desktop Client</li><li>AVG AntiVirus PRO Android Security</li><li>Peppy Pals Beach - Fun EQ for Kids</li><li>ShutterFolio</li><li>Alarm Clock Xtreme & Timer</li><li>My Weekly Budget - MyWB</li><li>Fleksy Keyboard</li><li>Smart Office 2</li><li>PicShop - Photo Editor</li><li>Toca Kitchen (Kindle Tablet Edition)</li><li>Photo Studio PRO</li><li>Genius Scan+</li><li>Mirroring360 - AirPlay Receiver</li><li>Sago Mini Space Explorer</li></ul>

Amazon Appstore offers apps worth Rs 7,000 for free

Amazon has a new "Free App of the Day" bundle available today, with 38 paid apps and games worth $110 (approximately Rs 7,000) ava...

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Government gives thumbs up to Aadhaar card, but does not make it compulsory

<p>New DELHI(web team): Stepping into the shoes of UPA govt, the Centre on Friday told Supreme Court that it would continue with Unique Identification (UID) or Aadhaar card scheme for its multiple benefit to public.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/16/336765-aadhar.jpg" width="600" /></p><p>Narendra Modi government made it clear that UID scheme is "voluntary" and not mandatory. The apex court, which had restrained the authorities from making the Aadhaar card mandatory for extending benefits to public in September 2013, had asked the Narendra Modi government to apprise whether it would like to continue with the scheme.</p><p>"There is a strong case for continuation of the UID scheme in view of the widespread use and the benefits being provided to the Aadhaar enrollees," the government said filing a joint affidavit including finance ministry, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and other authorities in response to the court's query on a PIL which challenged the validity of the Aadhaar card scheme.</p><p>"The enrollment to the UID scheme is purely on a voluntary basis and it is not mandatory upon any person to enroll with UID scheme and consequently part with their biometric information," the government added.</p><p>Opposing the PIL, which sought court to strike down the policy, government provided the data over the scheme saying, "As on March 31, 2015 a cumulative expenditure of Rs5,980.62 crore and over 1,000 crore on IT infrastructure has been incurred under the scheme."</p><p>"Over 80.46 crore Aadhaar numbers have been generated, 16.25 crore bank accounts have been linked to it enabling the public to get direct benefit transfer (DBT), over 37 crore LPG subsidy transfer transactions amounting to total of over Rs11,500 crore and a total of 61.04 lakh payment transactions have been done through DBT across the country for 34 schemes amounting to Rs681.14 crore," as stated in the affidavit while explaining the multiple benefits of the scheme.</p><p>It cited the example of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), the government claimed that the UID scheme has helped it in streamlining the MGNREGA database.</p><p>Countering the allegations in the PIL, the authorities said the UID has both constitutional and legal basis, the government said introduction of the scheme falls within the realm of positive duties that must discharge by the state.</p><p>Even though Right to Privacy Bill is under consideration, it laid emphasis on right to privacy and data protection. Explaing that it said, "Robust measures are being adopted to safeguard the information related to Aadhaar and its usage. UID scheme ensures data security protection."</p><p>The court was hearing a PIL filed by Bangalore based resident Mathew Thomas alleging that collection of data was being carried out by certain foreign companies with alleged dubious credentials which would impinge one's privacy.</p><p>Questioning the locus of the petitioner, the government wanted the court to reject the plea and allow it to go ahead with the scheme.</p>

Government gives thumbs up to Aadhaar card, but does not make it compulsory

New DELHI(web team): Stepping into the shoes of UPA govt, the Centre on Friday told Supreme Court that it would continue with Unique Identif...

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MA Student arrested, denied bail for 'defamatory' post on WhatsApp against a community

<p><strong>Muzaffarnagar(PTI):</strong> A college student has been arrested and sent to judicial custody for posting a defamatory message against a community on a social networking site in Khatauli town in Muzaffarnagar.The accused, identified as Gaurav, an M.A. Student, was arrested on Thursday.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://stech2.firstpost.com/tech2images/640x359/proportional/jpeg/gallery/2012/aug/logo_final_cover_251717268547.jpg" width="600" /></p><p>Chief Judicial Magistrate Narendra Kumar on Friday rejected his bail plea, saying that "there is no case for bail" and sent him to judicial custody till May 28.</p><p>Police on May 12 had registered a case against unknown persons under section 295 (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the IPC, for allegedly sending a defamatory message against a community on WhatsApp, following a protest by members of the community.</p>

MA Student arrested, denied bail for 'defamatory' post on WhatsApp against a community

Muzaffarnagar(PTI): A college student has been arrested and sent to judicial custody for posting a defamatory message against a community o...

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Google claims their self-driving cars accidents not company's fault

<p>Google has come to the rescue of their self-driving cars, after reports claimed they were involved in 11 accidents in the past nine months, saying that it was never the fault of their cars.</p><p><img alt="dnaTechLaunch, Google- Self driving cars- autonomous driving" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/14/336303-google-car.jpg" /></p><p>The tech giant company published a post on Backchannel on Tuesday, clarifying that seven accidents involved another vehicle rear-ending the Google car, two were sideswipes, and one involved another car that ran a red light, the Verge reported.</p><p>However, it is believed that Google clarifying the accidents is a PR stunt and a smart message to get out into the world right now, as city, state, and federal governments struggle to wrangle the nightmarish web of regulation that will be required to make truly autonomous vehicles road-legal.</p><p>Google and other companies who have been working on this technology have showed that the technology exist to prevent these cars from hitting people, other cars, bicyclists, and to generally make sure they are not doing stupid things on the road.</p>

Google claims their self-driving cars accidents not company's fault

Google has come to the rescue of their self-driving cars, after reports claimed they were involved in 11 accidents in the past nine months, ...

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Dell launches new 3000 series of Vostro notebooks

<p>New Delhi: Dell today announced the next generation of its Vostro line of productivity notebooks, the Vostro 14 and 15 3000 Series.</p><p><img alt="dnaTechLaunch- Dell- laptop" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/13/335943-dell-vostro-15-3000.jpg" /></p><p>Phil Bryant, vice president, Consumer and Small Business Sales, Dell, said, “The Vostro line has long been synonymous with productivity for the working professional and small businesses, and the next generation Vostro 3000 Series notebooks will pack the optimal processors, graphics options, connectivity ports and design details to help customers or business users get more done during their workday.”</p><p>The new 14” and 15” Vostro notebooks attempt to deliver the right balance of features and performance for working professionals who demand fast processing power and performance and no-nonsense business features to get their work done. Powered by the latest Intel Processors, available up to core i5 , the Vostro 14 delivers up to 9 hours of battery life for everyday mobile productivity, while the Vostro 15 lasts up to 8 hours 42 minutes. The devices have built-in GPU's from NVIDIA with up to 2GB memory and up to 4GB of high-speed RAM with 2 DIMM slots.</p><p>The new Vostro 3000 Series notebooks are less than 1.85 mm thin, slimmer than the previous generation for improved portability. Available in default Solid Black and Matte Metallic Red colour options, the micro-stripe textured cover enhances tactility, making the device less prone to scratches from everyday use and commutes.</p><p>The Vostro 14 3000 Series notebook is now available in India on Dell.co.in starting at Rs 38,990, and the Vostro 15 3000 Series notebook is now available in India on Dell.co.in starting at Rs 32,990.</p>

Dell launches new 3000 series of Vostro notebooks

New Delhi: Dell today announced the next generation of its Vostro line of productivity notebooks, the Vostro 14 and 15 3000 Series. Phil Bry...

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Direct Selling on Facebook : testing a new product sale page in news feed

<p>The social networking website is testing a page that will show posts from across buying and selling-specific groups.</p><p><img alt="dnaTechLaunch- Facebook- online sales" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/12/335631-facebook.jpg" /><br />Facebook- online sales (Reuters)</p><p><br /> Facebook has been testing a new option in its news feed that shows a united view of items on sale across user groups and adds the ability to search public groups.</p><p>Earlier this year, the company had begun allowing users that are a part of 'buy and sell' groups to attach prices, locations, photos and descriptions to posts about items for sale. Now, the new 'all sales groups' option shows items available for purchase across all groups a user belongs to, providing a unified outline of options that are for sale. Also, it provides a search engine that provides the ability to search for items across public groups and filter results based on a category. It has categories for items like event tickets, sporting equipment and even real estate.</p><p>According to thenextweb.com, this feature is being tested right now but will be released worldwide in the coming weeks. By selling goods directly on Facebook, users avoid fees associated with third party sites and keeps users on the social network.</p>

Direct Selling on Facebook : testing a new product sale page in news feed

The social networking website is testing a page that will show posts from across buying and selling-specific groups. Facebook- online sales ...

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New app Rewind lets you share photo timelines with friends

<p>There's a new app in market with which you can share photo timelines with your friends, but only for a day.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/11/335426-rewind-app.jpg" /></p><p>The newly launched social photo-sharing app Rewind, is very much like it's name, and while you can post your most recent pictures quickly by sliding your finger to scroll through Rewind's "timeline" feature, the images disappear from the app after 24 hours, TechCrunch reported.</p><p>Co-founder and CEO Anthony Duca, said the idea was to "let users share as many photos as they want, without feeling like they're spamming their feeds or being too noisy."</p><p>The app is different from Instagram, which slows the sharing process by making one carefully choose the photos worthy of being edited and shared, and just motivates one to share all the snaps.</p><p>Users can also take a series of photos, the feature present in iPhone camera's burst mode, by pressing the button and holding it.</p><p>The San Diego-based startup also launched the app with Apple Watch support to enable viewing on the watch's small screen.</p><p>The app has $450,000 in seed funding and is a free download on iTunes.</p>

New app Rewind lets you share photo timelines with friends

There's a new app in market with which you can share photo timelines with your friends, but only for a day. The newly launched social ph...

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Facebook testing in-app search engine to stop users from leaving site

<p>Facebook is reportedly testing an internal search engine for its mobile app.</p><p><img alt="" src="http://static.dnaindia.com/sites/default/files/2015/05/10/335079-314224-facebook.jpg" /></p><p>For now, a few iOS users are seeing an "add a link" option next to the buttons to add photos, locations, and feelings. After users enter a keyword in the search bar, Facebook suggests related news articles to post. However, it is not clear if the update will be available to everyone, reported The Verge.</p><p>Posting links to Facebook using a smartphone is quite cumbersome and therefore, the update may be aimed at tackling that problem. It could also be related to Facebook's plan to get publishers to post content to its site directly.</p><p>By hosting content and allowing users to search for stories in its own app, Facebook is not just trying to make it easier to read and share content but also preventing people from leaving the website.</p>

Facebook testing in-app search engine to stop users from leaving site

Facebook is reportedly testing an internal search engine for its mobile app. For now, a few iOS users are seeing an "add a link" o...

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