Filming begins on Steve Jobs movie starring Fassbender

LOS ANGELES: Filming got under way in San Francisco on a new biopic about Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, with Hollywood's Michael Fassbender playing the role of the mercurial computer pioneer.

Sources told AFP that the German-Irish Fassbender, 37, took on the title role in the movie "Steve Jobs" after it was turned down by Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale.

Bale, Oscar-winning British star of "The Dark Knight" pulled out of the project in November, news reports said, after deciding he wasn't right for the part.

The screenplay for "Steve Jobs" is being written by Aaron Sorkin, who won an Academy Award for his script for "The Social Network," about Facebook and its co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Fassbender, one of Hollywood's most accomplished actors, is best-known for dark and intense dramatic roles in movies by British director Steve McQueen, including "Hunger," "Shame," and "Twelve Years a Slave." He also appears in "X-Men: Days of Future Past."

The movie is being directed by Danny Boyle, best known for "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Trainspotting," and is scheduled for release next year.

Jobs' sidekick at Apple, Steve Wozniak, is to be played by Seth Rogen, most recently seen on the big screen in the controversial movie "The Interview," about a US plot to enlist a pair of American journalists to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Other actors with major roles in "Steve Jobs" include Jeff Daniels and Kate Winslet.

The Apple inventor's storied life already has been rendered on the big screen in 2013's "Jobs" starring Ashton Kutcher, a film that received tepid reviews.

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Why investors are applauding Amazon earnings

NEW YORK: Amazon.com Inc's fourth-quarter earnings roundly beat analyst expectations, sending the Seattle e-commerce giant's stock soaring 11% in premarket trading Friday. Here's a closer look at what investors applauded and hope continues.

Smart spending
Operating expenses rose 15 percent to $28.74 billion but that was less than some analysts had expected Amazon would spend. Investors have long wanted Amazon to show some restraint as it invests in its business, and this metric seemed to be a sign that Amazon is willing to do that.

Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said the lower-than-expected costs were related to flat fulfillment expenses — what the company spends on its distribution centers and deliveries — during the holiday season even though Amazon shipped 100 million more free items. The company also spent less on marketing expenses since the launch of its new hardware like Fire TV and the Fire Smartphone are behind it.

"They're getting far more efficient at delivery," said Pachter. "They're spending like slightly tipsy sailors rather than drunken sailors."

Prime membership growth
Prime membership grew 53% in 2015. Two-day shipping costs Amazon a pretty penny but membership means more revenue from customers in the long run. Pachter estimates there are about 35 million Prime members worldwide. And he pointed out the company is making untraditional efforts to get more members. For example, it cut the price of its Prime membership to $72 one Saturday in January and let non-Prime members stream its Golden Globe winning series "Transparent" starring Jeffrey Tambor.

"Little promotions like that are going to drive prime membership and they'll continue to really promote it," Pachter said.

Will it last?
Some caution that one quarter of disciplined spending does not a trend make. In a call with investors, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster pointed out that over the past two years it has been a "little bit of a roller coaster" for Amazon's gross margin, a key metric that shows how big a percentage of revenue is spent on investing back into the company.

"There've been points of optimism followed by points of frustration," he said and asked the company how they plan to "smooth out some of this roller coaster mentality."

CFO Tom Szkutak acknowledged that Amazon has been in a "heavy investment cycle." He said the company is being "selective" about its investment opportunities but didn't give any details, saying it is still finalizing spending plans for 2015.

"The question is, is this a one-time hiccup or are they going to repeat it," Wedbush's Pachter said. "If I see this for two, three or four quarters I will believe it."

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Why most Motorola devices still dont have Lollipop

Android Lollipop is rolling out very slowly to most users, and Motorola fans are no exception.

The company today confirmed that the first and second-gen Moto G have received their Lollipop updates in India, as was previously rumored, as well as in Brazil, but what about the rest of the world?

The company's latest blog post doesn't offer any predictions or promises, but it does try to explain why it takes so long for a new update to come out.

"Though we try to make the process seem easy, it's actually pretty complicated," the post reads. "That's because we want to ensure a quality experience across every device that gets the upgrade."

The process

Apparently Lollipop is 'the biggest and most ambitious' Android release to date, and even though Google reportedly 'improved' the release process with this one, it's still a slow process.

It begins when Google releases the new version of Android to the Android Open Source Project — the 'public push,' in other words — and Motorola and other device makers begin testing it on various devices and carriers.

Motorola then releases updates to small groups for testing purposes before wider release commences.

The company encourages users still waiting for updates on their devices to check its software upgrades portal regularly.

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Infibeam introduces logistic platform for merchants

AHMEDABAD: Infibeam, Ahmedabad based e-commerce company, has announced the launch of yet another platform for solving the logistics need of millions of online merchants. Shipdroid is one stop logistics SaaS platform that enables ecommerce merchants to seamlessly integrate with a wide range of courier service providers in India on the single platform while maintaining uniformity of entire logistics and fulfillment process across all courier partners. Merchants have access to over 20,000 pin codes within India across 600 cities, the largest reach provided by any of the logistics partner alone.

Over the years, vast amount of data collected about pin code serviceability and delivery performance of logistics service providers has made Shipdroid.com the best performing platform and an affordable partner of choice for its clients.

Merchants can choose from variety of cost-based service-plans based on their needs, budget and products being sold. Merchants can also choose from variety of delivery commitment SLAs and mode of delivery.

On this occasion Sachin Dalal, co-founder and head of logistics platform, Infibeam said "As part of our ecommerce solutions offering, we at Infibeam are proud to extend our vast expertise in logistics as a technology platform for all ecommerce merchants. This is a big step forward in streamlining ecommerce experience for all marketplace sellers for whom logistics is the most challenging and costly part of selling online. Our technology and operations support will ensure that merchants find the platform convenient to use, increase delivery reach, save shipping cost per unit and at the same time improve their customer experience with easy and fast online tracking. In coming months, we plan to launch this platform to local sellers as well who wish to do three-hour delivery."

Shipdroid will allow merchants to opt for surface, rail or air mode and alternatively they can opt for express delivery time or regular delivery time. The platform offers innovative one stop shop of all logistics services right from automatic allocation of courier to dispatch to last mile delivery of packages.

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Alibaba faces possible US lawsuit after fake goods row

BEIJING: After a bitter row over sale of fake goods, the Chinese government and Alibaba Group warmed up even as the e-commerce giant faces a possible class-action lawsuit initiated by five US law firms.

The legal action comes after the company witnessed the biggest drop in its stock price since its debut on the New York Stock Exchange in September.

Pomerantz LLP, the Rosen Law Firm, Holzer & Holzer LLC, Howard G Smith and Bronstein, and Gewirtz & Grossman LLC of the US said on Friday they are investigating investor claims about Alibaba's business practices, state-run China Daily reported today.

This follows a critical Chinese government report about counterfeit goods being sold on the company's online platform.

The investigation, launched on behalf of Alibaba investors, is aimed at determining whether the company has engaged in inadequate disclosure and made false statements.

It is the latest development in a conflict between the company, which is based in Zhejiang province, and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC).

Alibaba and the administration quarrelled this week over a quality-check report from the watchdog that found that less than 40 per cent of goods tested on Alibaba's online platform Taobao were authentic.

Taobao said it had received unfair treatment, while the administration said in a report, which has since been removed from its website, that the quality-check result had been withheld until recently.

This was to avoid disrupting Alibaba's initial public offering in September, the world's largest.

In a statement issued on Friday, Alibaba said it will "vigorously defend the truth" and its reputation.

The SAIC said on Friday just before the New York Stock Exchange opened that Zhang Mao, head of the administration, had met with Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba, in Beijing.

Zhang and Ma agreed to strengthen cooperation to crack down on fakes online and to work together for the healthy development of China's internet economy, the Daily report said.

Hou Xiaotian, chief analyst at TH Capital LLC, a research and investment advisory firm, said nearly all big public companies are involved in class-action lawsuits from time to time.

"It takes years to reach a verdict," she said, adding that a lawsuit may not have a direct impact on Alibaba.

Hou attributed the nearly 10 per cent drop in Alibaba's stock price to the combined impact of the ongoing dispute with the regulator and the lower-than-expected earnings report released before the stock market opened on Thursday.

This report showed Alibaba had revenue of $4.22 billion in the quarter ending December 31, but its year-on-year growth rate dropped to 40 per cent from 66 per cent a year earlier.

"The unresolved dispute with the SAIC and the uncertainty over its business performance in the coming year led to heavy selling in premarket trading," she said.

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HBO tech executives leave ahead of internet launch

NEW YORK: Time Warner's HBO is preparing to sell a standalone service over the internet for the first time, in one of the most closely watched moves in pay TV history. Yet the road to the launch has been far from an easy one -- marked by changes in strategy, deadlines, and the departure of its chief technology officer along with two of his lieutenants.

Otto Berkes, who was previously a Microsoft executive, resigned from the CTO position in December, only a matter of months before HBO is expected to start selling the new product, and two senior vice presidents on the technology team, Mark Thomas and Drew Angeloff, are also leaving, sources familiar with the situation said.

The original plan discussed by the network's top executives was to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a sophisticated streaming platform that would make HBO, one of the best-known premium channels in the United States, capable of challenging streaming video services from Netflix and Amazon head on. Berkes, who was also a co-founder of Xbox, was a key part of that ambitious project -- he had been hired by HBO in 2011 to set up a new office in Seattle, initially hiring 80 engineers with plans to grow much bigger.

The idea was that the technology would not only support HBO but potentially other Time Warner offerings, such as Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. The platform, which would power a product that doesn't require a cable subscription, would be used globally and was supposed to be ready in 2016, said the sources, who worked on that effort.

But these sources said that much of the plan was changed when Rupert Murdoch's Twenty-First Century Fox made a surprise takeover bid for Time Warner last summer.

To justify to shareholders why they shouldn't consider the Australian-born media tycoon's overtures, Time Warner said that its own strategic plan would deliver more value to shareholders than Murdoch could.

Cost cutting
In October, at its first investor day in four years, Time Warner outlined a series of measures aimed at bolstering revenue growth and cutting costs. Among those was an announcement by HBO's CEO Richard Plepler that the standalone HBO was going to launch in 2015, news that quickly became the main headline from the event.

"Time Warner needed to show investors that they had a plan that the Murdoch bid was not factoring in," said Michael Nathanson, a media analyst at MoffettNathanson research.

At the time, HBO also decided to cancel the internal technology investment, and to use a third party to provide the new HBO service, a move in sync with a cost efficiency plan driven by Time Warner's Chief Financial Officer Howard Averill.

The more ambitious platform was going to eat up too many dollars and be too slow to come to market, sources familiar with Time Warner's thinking said.

The sources said the decision to speed up the standalone product was not related to the battle with Murdoch. They said this year was viewed as simply the right time for the initiative given that rival media companies were starting to debut online offerings outside of a traditional cable subscription. Dish Network is launching its own $20 per month internet service later this month and CBS has said that its Showtime network, the biggest direct competitor to HBO, will sell its own separate offering later this year.

Shortly after the October announcement, HBO told its engineering team about the decision to cancel plans to develop its own technology platform. Instead of being developed internally, technology would be handled by MLB Advanced Media, a subsidiary of Major League Baseball best known for powering the technology that streams live baseball games. Going with this vendor would save millions, one of the sources close to Time Warner said.

A person who had worked on the earlier HBO strategy said that pulling back from building its own platform may come back to haunt the network. "HBO and Time Warner lost the appetite for the investment required to go big here," the person said. "Old media lost its nerve."

The people who worked on the earlier effort say there are drawbacks to having a third-party handle distribution of the product, including having less control over how subscribers experience it. They say HBO could be missing out on the long-term potential of owning all of the software behind the standalone service.

An HBO spokesman, in a statement, said "any business strategy undergoes many iterations," and that it was confident in its decision. "We believe we landed in exactly the right place with MLB Advanced Media as our partner, and we will deliver a great product later this year that fully lives up to the reputation of the HBO brand," he said.

Departures
Among the casualties of the decision was Berkes. He left amid tensions with HBO management over his role following the change in strategy, the people who worked on the effort said. Thomas and Angeloff are leaving for similar reasons, these people said.

The 80 or so employees in Seattle still have jobs but HBO is without a CTO and has no immediate plans to hire a new one.

HBO declined to comment on the departures.

As for the big debut, the launch plans are still vague. Company insiders had anticipated an April start date to leverage off the fifth season of the top HBO series Game of Thrones. But a source close to the matter said HBO has other big shows beginning in the summer, such as a new series of True Detective, that any launch could leverage off.

The pricing of the new product and how it will be sold could not be learned. The company is exploring a number of options, including selling the standalone through pay-TV providers like Comcast, and through the likes of Apple and Amazon, one source close to the company said.

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India Post to launch e-commerce portal

Directly stepping into the cyberworld, India post is going to launch its own e-commerce portal in the shape of those like Amazon or eBay soon. The aggressive step of India Post, world's largest postal service, is a part of its massive IT based modernization initiative worth Rs 5,000 crore.

"At planning and designing phase now, the final rollover of the dedicated postal e-commerce portal may take another 6 months. But we are excited about this new avatar in our service basket," Mr. John Samuel, member of Postal Services Board told ET.

As he describes, the portal will be like popular e-commerce entities like Amazon or eBay. A conduit between buyers and sellers. But, it is not going to be entirely open for any item to be traded by anyone. Rather a moderated and scrutinized list will be followed. Local specialties like Tea from Darjeeling, Mango from Malda in West Bengal or Saffron from Kashmir will have emphasize in that.

India Post is tying up with different controlling authorities like Spices Board, Tea Board, or cashew Board to ensure 'quality trading of quality items only'-- as Mr. Samuel puts it.

In addition to the physical products, services of different public sector are also being planned to be included into the tradable items of the portal.

"Wide and fast growing coverage of internet through computer and mobile phones are bringing more and more people from even remote corners to the doorsteps of e-commerce. There lies our new opportunity. Moreover delivery of the items is a major issue for all e-commerce authorities. Here also India post excel's with its 1.5 lakh establishments and time tested connectivity network," he said.

In one hand we have Rs 4909 crore worth IT related infrastructure modernization plan and on the other hand, we are spending another Rs 2000 crore to have new vehicles to ensure faster delivery.

Indeed it is a new step to a new world that can give new life to financially crunched Indiapost. But, "We need to bring change in our own attitude at certain corners to churn out the best out of this initiative," accepted Mr. Samuel.

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WikiLeaks threatens to sue Google, US government

LONDON: WikiLeaks has threatened legal action against Google and the US government after the tech giant revealed its staffers' Gmail contents to US law enforcement agencies.

According to The Guardian, the targets of the investigation were not notified until two and a half years after secret search warrants were issued and served by the FBI, legal representatives for WikiLeaks said at a press conference.

Baltasar Garzon, the head of Wikileaks' legal defence team said that the company was looking at legal action not only with Google but to those who actually turned in the "illegal and arbitrary" order.

He said that "any information that would be used from the taking of documents [this way] will be considered as biased, illegal and will cancel the whole proceedings."

Meanwhile, a Google spokesman said that the company's policy was to intimate people about government requests for their data, except in limited cases where the company was forced to comply with a court order.

The spokesman for the tech giant added that the company had challenged many orders related to WikiLeaks which has led to disclosures to people who are affected, adding it had also pushed to unseal all the documents related to the investigation.

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Airtel to apply for payment bank licence

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Top mobile operator Bharti Airtel today said it will apply for a payment bank licence, while private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank will have a 19.9% stake in the proposed banking venture.

Airtel said it will apply to RBI for the licence, final norms for which were issued by the central bank in November 2014 and applications have been invited till February 2.

Airtel's proposed tie-up with Kotak is the first formal partnership announced by an existing lender and a non-bank entity aspiring to get into the space.

Earlier, Axis Bank had said it intends to tie-up with a new applicant and was talking to a few interested entities.

The payments banks are aimed to encourage savings and help with the remittances, although RBI has put a a cap on the stake which can be held by commercial banks in such entities.

Existing non-bank lenders, prepaid payment instrument issuers, corporate business correspondents, mobile telephone companies and super market chains have been allowed by the RBI to set up payment banks, which would not be have the entire range of banking services offered by full-fledged banks.

Airtel said its wholly owned subsidiary Airtel M Commerce Services Limited (AMSL) is seeking to convert its existing prepaid payment instrument license into a payments bank license to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India.

Subject to grant of a license to AMSL and all regulatory approvals, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited (Kotak) will acquire 19.90% stake in AMSL as an investor, it added.

AMSL currently offers mobile money services under the brand name 'Airtel Money.'

"The RBI guidelines provide an exciting and challenging opportunity for an entity like us to contribute in a meaningful manner to drive financial inclusion," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said.

On the tie-up with Kotak, Vittal added, "Kotak's banking expertise coupled with Airtel's strength in telecom will help deliver financial services to millions of unbanked citizens across the country."

Kotak Mahindra Bank's Joint MD Dipak Gupta said, "Payment banks have the potential to leapfrog India's financial inclusion agenda. Basic but critical services such as small savings accounts, remittances, etc will bring a large number of low income households and small businesses under the formal banking network."

He further said that Bharti Airtel's technology, physical infrastructure and distribution network, when combined with Kotak's banking expertise will be a 'win-win' for both.

As per RBI norms, those seeking to set up payment banks would need minimum Rs 100 crore of capital and fulfill the necessary 'fit and proper' criteria, among other conditions.

The payment banks will initially be restricted to holding a maximum balance of Rs 1 lakh per individual customer.

They will be allowed to issue ATM/debit cards as also other prepaid payment instruments, but not the credit cards. They can also distribute non-risk sharing simple financial products like mutual funds and insurance products, but non resident Indians will not be allowed to open accounts.

Airtel said it is the largest mobile services provider in India with over 215 million subscribers and with 31% revenue market share.

The company added it has deep and wide distribution reach especially in rural and remote parts of the country with a network of over 1.4 million retail points.

Airtel Money, launched in 2011 was the first mobile based pre-paid payment instrument service in the country.

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With cheap smartphones, mobile data booms

NEW DELHI: PK is playing on the screens at a theater in Nehru Place, but Kavya Gupta, a 17 year old eleventh standard student, is busy Snapchatting. "Hey, what's up?" flashes across the screen of her iPhone 5, a message from her friend Manya. Smiling, Kavya snaps a picture of the movie and sends it back to Manya.

"I use internet on my phone for all kinds of stuff," Kavya says. "I use it for social media — I use it for iMessage, WhatsApp — I use it for researching if I need to know something about something, you know?"

Young, social media savvy, and constantly on their smartphones, Kavya and Manya are part of an on-going "data revolution," just two of hundreds of millions of mobile data users in India today. Lured by online shopping, social networks, and tanking prices, Indians are rushing to buy smartphones and sign up for data plans.

India is the fastest growing smartphone market in Asia, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). 23.3 million smartphones were shipped in Q3 of 2014, nearly double the 12.8 million units that were sold the same time last year. Low prices are helping fuel the frenzy.

"We have the lowest rates for voice and data in the world," says Hement Joshi, a telecommunications analyst at Deloitte. Smartphone prices, too, have been dropping, with average prices hitting $135 this year and forecasted to drop further to $102 in 2018, says IDC research.

Because of the breakneck growth, the telecom business has seen a paradigm shift in its service business towards data. Mobile data revenue growth has been skyrocketing at all major telecommunications companies in the past few years, constituting an ever-large portion of service revenues — a trend with no signs of slowing down.

"What we've seen is a more than 50% growth in the last two quarters, and I think it's going to further accelerate," Joshi says.

At Airtel, India's largest telecommunications company, latest figures report that mobile data revenues grew 66.7% year over year. In 2012, mobile data made up only 3.5% of total service revenues; the latest figures released in October show it has hit 14.5%, with no signs of slowing down. Over at Vodafone, data subscription growth is eye-popping - in June 2011, Vodafone reported 26 million data subscribers - a figure that's more than doubled to 57 million this June.

3G — a service that only first appeared roughly four years ago — is also booming. Leading the pack is Reliance Communications. With 13 3G centers, Reliance has the largest number of 3G centers in the industry - and with 12.9 million subscribers, also the most 3G subscribers, nearly double what it was last year at 7.2 million.

"When I got a smartphone three year back, I got 3G," says Aalekh Sharan, an International Innovation Corps fellow working at a renewable energy company. "People want responses to your emails really fast. It's one of those things - you don't realize you need it, but right now I wouldn't be able to imagine if I don't have 3G."

However, despite off-the-chart growth, the industry faces challenges in mobile data growth as well. "The challenge is lack of spectrum — it's not enough to handle the volume of data," says Joshi. "The problem is coming out with some kind of roadmap. The broadcasting industry can vacate the spectrum which is very efficient for the data, and we need a confident plan for the auctions — right now it's all a little ad hoc."

Another major challenge is mobile data penetration into rural and regional markets, as most online content is online and geared towards urban, cosmopolitan customers. "Local regional content is very critical for further growth", says Joshi.

The total number of telecom subscribers has been growing along with mobile data, and now stands at 942.95 million people. However, it's been growing much slower — the year over year increase was only 4.41%, in contrast to the double and triple digit growth seen in mobile data.

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Xiaomi to set up research & development centre in India

NEW DELHI: Chinese handset maker Xiaomi will set up a research and development unit in Bangalore, its first such facility outside of its home country, as it looks to beef up presence in the booming Indian smartphone market.

The company, which expects the centre to be operational in the next few months, will focus on localizing its products and features for the Indian market through the unit.

"We have always stated that India is one of our most important markets. We are in process of signing the lease on a facility in Bangalore, which will be our R&D unit. This is the first one outside China," Xiaomi India head Manu Jain said.

Work on the facility is expected to commence by the end of March and in the next few months, it will be operational, he added.

Jain declined however to comment on investment details and the number of people who would work at the R&D centre.

"The R&D unit will focus on India-specific products to begin with. We will focus on localization, themes and then India specific features to cater to local requirements here," he said.

India is one of the largest markets for Xiaomi outside of China. The company has so far, launched three devices in India Mi 3, Redmi 1S and Redmi Note. The cumulative sales have crossed a million units since the first launch in July 2014.

The company today launched its latest device -- Mi 4 -- priced at Rs 19,999 in the Indian market, in partnership with e-commerce firm Flipkart.

The Mi 4 features a 5-inch display, 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, 3GB RAM and 16GB of internal memory and runs on a 3,080mAh battery. It has a 13MP rear and wide-angle (80-degree) 8MP front camera.

The device will be on sale on February 10 and pre-registration for the device will start at 6 pm on January 28.

The Chinese firm also announced that it will make MIUI 6, an update to its user interface (UI), available to its existing three devices by March.

"MIUI 6 is MIUI redesigned in its simplest form with beautiful colour and motion graphics throughout. It is visually stunning. MIUI is one of the world's most popular Android-based platforms with over 85 million users worldwide," Xiaomi's global vice president Hugo Barra said.

Xiaomi, which has five exclusive Mi service centres (66 in total), plans to take the total number to 100 by the end of the year as it looks to strengthen its after-sales service.

Besides, Xiaomi is also looking at bringing in its own e-commerce website into the country to sell its products here.

Founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur Lei Jun, Xiaomi is often referred to as the 'Apple of China' and featured in Boston Consulting Group's top 50 most innovative companies in the world list last year.

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Nintendo's console sales fall, but profit rises

TOKYO/OSAKA: Japanese video game maker Nintendo has issued a profit warning with a silver lining — even as it sells fewer consoles, the sharp weakening of the yen means overseas sales will inflate its net income this fiscal year.

The home of famed game characters like Mario the plumber said sales of its 3DS handheld device came up short in the year-end holiday season amid intense competition. While operating profit still grew nearly 50% in October-December from a year earlier, the third quarter is Nintendo's biggest by far and it won't make up the shortfall by end-March.

"We've made some progress in profit but in many ways we didn't score perfectly," chief executive Satoru Iwata told reporters at a briefing in Osaka. Iwata is hoping to steer Nintendo to its first annual operating profit in four years.

Squeezed between console rivals like Sony and Microsoft on one side, and popular smartphone games on the other, Nintendo halved its operating earnings target for the fiscal year through March to 20 billion yen ($169 million) from 40 billion yen. Analysts on average had expected 36.6 billion yen, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Nintendo books over 70% of its sales outside Japan, and more than 40% in the United States. The sharply weaker yen — now worth about 15 less than this time last year against the dollar — inflates the value of sales overseas when translated back into the Japanese currency.

Nintendo books foreign exchange gains in its accounts separately from operating income. Boosted by those gains, it said it now expects a net profit of 30 billion yen this fiscal year, up from the 20 billion previously forecast, and a sharp turnaround from a net loss of 23.2 billion a year earlier.

Many of Japan's manufacturing companies have significant operations outside the country and are likely to see a positive impact on earnings from the yen's weakness. Separately Wednesday, camera and office equipment maker Canon also reported a profit boost helped by the yen's slide.

For Nintendo, the foreign exchange gains may ease short-term pressure to overhaul strategy.

But analysts have called on chief executive Satoru Iwata to shift to focus on mobile devices and to allow its games to be played on machines built by competitors. He has resisted such pressure so far, pinning hopes on making hits out of games such as 'Mario Kart 8.'

The company's operating profit in October-December rose to 31.8 billion yen from 21.7 billion yen a year earlier. That, however, was helped by a significant drop in costs as it drew down existing inventory rather than manufacturing more consoles.

Sales of the 3DS console slid nearly 40% to 7.08 million in October-December compared with a year earlier, prompting the company to lower its full-year device sales forecast to 9 million from 12 million.

Nintendo's numbers also signal an effective loss warning for its fourth quarter. While its full-year target for operating profit stands at 20 billion yen, after the first nine months of the year operating income already stood at 31.6 billion.

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First impressions: Xiaomi Mi 4

NEW DELHI: Xiaomi, the company known for its value-for-money smartphones like Mi 3, Redmi 1S and Redmi Note, has finally unveiled its 2014 flagship phone, Mi 4 in the Indian market. Although, the launch comes more than six months after the phone's China debut, the Mi 4 boasts of high-end hardware and modern software when compared to other options available at the same price.

We spent some time with the Mi 4 at the launch event and here are our first impressions of the device...

Unlike the Xiaomi Mi 3, which looks more tall and rectangular, the Mi 4 has rounded corners that create a softer aura. You can't help but notice the design's similarity with the iPhone 5/5S, mainly due to its solid stainless steel frame and chamfered edges. The latter give the phone a very premium look, which is missing in devices such as the Huawei Honor 6 or Lenovo Vibe X2, that are priced similarly. The frame also makes the Mi 4 a solidly built device.

The front of the phone (in White colour) houses a 5-inch full-HD (1920x1080p) JDI/Sharp display that comes with Corning OGS (One Glass Solution) for protection against scratches. The display has high colour saturation so colours look more vivid and good to look at. However, colour rendering is not accurate which means that colours don't look natural.

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The display offers wide viewing angles and is one of the brightest ones we've seen. The under-sun legibility was also good though the panel is slightly reflective. Touch response was excellent and made the phone more responsive.

The capacitive touch navigation keys are placed right below the display, backlit in white. The sensor array and the 8MP front camera sensor are placed above the display alongside the earpiece.

The volume rocker and power keys are made of metal and are located at the right edge while the sim card tray that houses a micro-sim is at the left edge. The buttons are responsive and offer decent tactile feedback.

The bottom edge houses the micro-USB port and a speaker grill while the 3.5mm headset jack and Infrared port sit at the top. There are two antenna bands on the top and bottom edges as well.

The back of the phone sports a slightly rounded plastic back cover with grating pattern design, which is essentially a diamond-style texture. The 13MP rear camera and LED flash are also placed at the back. The back looks slightly glossy and smudges easily though the smudges are not very visible unless you hold the phone under light.

Xiaomi Mi 4 is powered by a 2.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 quad-core processor, Adreno 330 GPU and 3GB RAM. Xiaomi has launched the 16GB internal storage variant of the phone and users get a little more than 12GB after setting it up. There's no external media slot, which is a downer.

In our brief use, we did not experience any lag or stutter while navigating the home screens, opening and switching between apps, browsing and taking pictures. The single-sim phone also features FM radio but unlike Mi 3, it doesn't offer NFC connectivity.

Also, worth pointing out is that the Mi 4 is not 4G-enabled. Xiaomi executives said the engineers had difficulty incorporating dual-mode 4G (TD LTE+FDD LTE) antenna in the phone as Indian cities will have 4G networks running on both bands. Also, during the initial developmental stages of the phone, the spectrum situation in India was unclear, the company elaborated.

Xiaomi Mi 4 runs MIUI 6, a new version of the company's operating system, based on Android 4.4 KitKat. The new OS boasts of a flatter design, smoother transition effects, better multitasking and notifications interfaces and gestures, among other features. We'll have a detailed look at MIUI 6 in our full review.

As mentioned above, the Mi 4 sports an 8MP front camera and a 13MP Sony stacked CMOS camera. We did not experience any shutter lag and pictures shot in good lighting conditions looked good. We'll need to spend more time with the phone's camera before giving a verdict.

The phone comes with a 3080mAh battery and according to Xiaomi, the battery would last one and a half day with normal usage and will offer quick charging, reaching 60% charge in an hour's time.

At Rs 19,999, the Xiaomi Mi 4 appears to be a great value-for-money device packing in high-end hardware in a well designed form factor. However, it will face fierce competition from the likes of OnePlus One, Lenovo Vibe X2 and Huawei Honor 6, which are priced similarly. The lack of 4G and limited storage space appear to be the major areas of concern but we'll take the Mi 4 through its paces before giving our final verdict. We'll have a full review of the phone soon.

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In pics: Xiaomi Mi 4 smartphone

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Eyeing $5 billion from digital vertical, TCS hires 1,500

MUMBAI:Targeting a revenue of up to $5 billion from the digital vertical in the next few years, the largest software exporter TCS said it has hired 1,500 experienced hands in the segment so far this fiscal.

"During the first three quarters of 2014-15 alone, TCS has made a lateral hiring of over 1,500 experienced professionals with core digital skills," a company spokesperson said.

The hiring includes data scientists and professionals in domains like design visualization, user experience and the Internet of Things.

It can be noted that the company, which employs over 3 lakh people, is facing flak on social media for laying off around 1,000 professionals in the country for non-performance and had vociferously defended its actions.

So far this fiscal, TCS had a gross employee addition of 16,561, taking the total headcount to 3.18 lakh, while the employee utilization was at 86.7%, excluding trainees.

The company's attrition stood at 13.4% and TCS said it would like to keep it at 12-12.5% range and that the increase is not due to any layoffs being carried out, as being speculated on social media.

About the sacking of the 1,000-odd for non-delivery, managing director and chief executive N Chandrasekaran on the Q3 earnings day had said the "involuntary attrition," where an employee goes out without tendering her resignation, is a normal process which the company carries out each year.

He had said that only 1,000 jobs have been lost in the country as part of the exercise, while 1,574 have also been asked to leave the company from outside the country.

The Tata Group company said it is targeting clocking $3-5 billion in revenues from the digital opportunity "over the next few years."

TCS had last October said it might not be able to achieve the $5 billion mark in the original target of 3-4 years.

Chandrasekaran, who has so far declined to give revenue from the segment in post-results interactions, said customers are ramping up in the digital space and the deal sizes are increasing.

"We are seeing adoption of digital by every company, across every industry, in every market. The size of deals is increasing from a few hundred thousand dollars to about a million dollars," he said.

The TCS spokesperson said digital is the "default" for businesses across the globe and companies from all sectors are investing in it.

"The company plans to invest more in automation technology to drive more efficiencies across businesses," the spokesperson said.

Earlier this month, TCS had reported a marginal dip in the December quarter net profit at Rs 5,328 crore due to lower margins under the IGAAP system of accounting, while its profit in the preceding September quarter stood at Rs 5,244 crore.

TCS' operating margin dipped by 2.88% as compared to the same period last year, to 26.9%, but was up 0.21% over the preceding September quarter.

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Motorola launches 3 new phones in China

BEIJING: Motorola, the mobile handset maker bought by China's Lenovo Group Ltd from Google Inc for $2.9 billion, is optimistic about its prospects in the Chinese market, its president told Reuters.

Lenovo's acquisition, completed three months ago, ended Google's move into the consumer mobile handset business. The deal has turned personal computer-maker Lenovo into a challenger in the higher-end smartphone market, competing with Samsung Electronics and Apple Inc.

"The (Chinese) market itself is so big here and Motorola has no share today, so we believe that what we're really going to succeed in doing is hopefully take some share from other people in the market," Rick Osterloh, president of Motorola Mobility told Reuters.

Motorola will compete in China with Apple and Samsung in the premium smartphone market and with the world's third biggest smartphone maker Xiaomi Inc in mid- and mid-high level phones. Lenovo is already the number two smartphone maker in China.

"Our approach is to have global products tailored and customised for local markets," Motorola's Osterloh said. Motorola will also stick to relatively high-end products, he said.

Bryan Ma, a Singapore-based analyst at tech research firm IDC, said Motorola might test the waters with smartphones designed for the Americas, but in the next 12-24 months they could announce more localised products.

"They're trying to introduce themselves to a new group of friends and trying to establish street cred," Ma said. "What they have in their pockets is assets from the US."

"The good thing is Lenovo has enough of a strong cash position and local channel presence that they can bankroll Motorola in the country for while," Ma said.

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Turkish court orders Facebook to block pages insulting Mohammad: Media

ANKARA: A Turkish court has ordered Facebook to block a number of pages deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammad, threatening to stop access to the whole social networking site if it does not comply, local media reported.

The order made by the court followed a request by a prosecutor, state broadcaster TRT reported. No one from Facebook was immediately available for comment.

It was the latest move to crack down on material seen as offending religious sensibilities in the largely Muslim nation, where the government of President Tayyip Erdogan is seen pursuing an Islamist-leaning agenda.

Earlier this month, prosecutors launched an inquiry into a newspaper which reprinted parts of the French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in the wake of an attack by Islamic militants on its offices in Paris.

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Malaysia Airlines website targeted by hackers

KUALA LUMPUR: A group calling itself "Official Cyber Caliphate" said it hacked the official website of national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS), but the airline said its data servers remained intact and passenger bookings were not affected.

The website, www.malaysiaairlines.com, showed a photograph of a lizard in a top hat, monocle and tuxedo, surrounded by the messages '404 — Plane Not Found' and 'Hacked by Lizard Squad — Official Cyber Caliphate'. A rap song could be heard.

In a statement, MAS said the website was not hacked, but that users were redirected to a hacker website. It said the official site would be back up within 22 hours.

"Malaysia Airlines assures customers and clients that its website was not hacked and this temporary glitch does not affect their bookings and that user data remains secured," it said.

Some media reports said the hacked website had earlier carried the words "ISIS will prevail" but the slogan could no longer be seen. ISIS is the acronym of the militant Islamic State group that has proclaimed a caliphate after seizing territory in Iraq and Syria.

Malaysia Airlines lost two flights last year. Flight MH370 disappeared last March with 239 passengers and crew on board and Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, killing all 298 passengers and crew.

The Malaysian government took the airline private late last year.

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SAP sees cloud push hurting profit in the medium term

FRANKFURT: Europe's biggest software group SAP could eventually see its software delivered via the cloud deliver higher profit margins than its traditional packaged software, its finance chief told a newspaper.

"Such contracts become profitable over time. In the long term, they can definitely become more profitable than our classic licence sales," Luka Mucic told the Euro am Sonntag business weekly in an interview published on Saturday.

SAP said last week its push to deliver cloud-based products via the internet — which allow customers to access powerful remote data centers for processing and storage — would dampen profitability until at least 2018.

Unlike the packaged software SAP has been selling for decades, for which clients pay a immediate licence fee, cloud-based software is generally paid for by subscription over time, but most of the costs for the software provider are upfront.

Mucic said such contracts were loss-making for the first year of operation.

To strengthen its position in the fast-growing cloud market, SAP agreed in September to buy cloud-based travel and expenses software maker Concur for $7.3 billion in cash, its biggest takeover ever.

The company issued a triple-tranche, 2.75 billion-euro ($3.08 billion) bond in November to help finance the deal.

Mucic said SAP might add another, smaller tranche, perhaps as soon as the first half of this year, but said otherwise the company had no need for further capital.

"We are just examining whether this would be advantageous for us," he said.

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Google marks Republic Day with tableau doodle

NEW DELHI: Google paid tribute to 66th Republic Day with a special doodle done up as a tableau, showcasing the stretch of the ceremonial boulevard from Raisina Hill to India Gate, the centrepiece of the traditional parade.

The doodle shows a tableau rolling down the Rajpath with people in traditional Indian dresses waving to the crowd. The word 'Google' is embossed on its side matching with the colours of the majestic buildings on the two ends.

In an aerial view, the Raisina Hill, seat of the power and India Gate, the symbol of supreme sacrifices made by soldiers in wars, can be seen gleaming in the sun, accentuating their architectural grandeur.

The Hill section shows the majestic Rashtrapati Bhawan and the two secretariat blocks — North Block and South Block — surrounded by lush greenery while the historic memorial arch stands resplendently on the other end.

The colours used in the doodle reflect the original sandstone finish and adds an extra dash of grandeur to the whole set up.

The 66th Republic Day has as its chief guest, US President Barack Obama, the first American head of the state to attend the grand function.

The US-based search giant is known for marking important events across the world with engaging doodles.

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Samsung’s Tizen phone will be made in India

NEW DELHI: Buoyed by the market response to its Tizen OS-based smartphone in India, tech giant Samsung plans to manufacture the 'Z1' at its Noida facility soon.

The South Korean firm, which is the world's largest smartphone player, had launched the device earlier this month in India.

"The compelling proposition of an easy to use and clutter free interface (of Z1), along with premium design has met wide consumer acceptance... The Z1 will be manufactured in company's Noida plant in UP," Samsung India vice president marketing (Mobile and IT) Asim Warsi told PTI.

The Noida facility has a capacity of producing over four million mobile phones a month and manufactures both affordable and high-end devices here.

India is the first market globally, where the Z1 was launched at Rs 5,700, targeted at first-time smartphone buyers.

"The phone will soon be launched in Bangladesh," Warsi said.

According to industry sources, Samsung has sold about 50,000-55,000 units of Z1 since the launch on January 14.

Currently, only a few devices, including Samsung's smartwatch products run on the Tizen platform. A majority of Samsung's mobile phones are Android-based, which is also the dominant OS on most smartphones across the globe.

Samsung developed Tizen with Huawei Technologies and Intel Corp to challenge the Android software that powers most of the world's mobile devices.

It had, on several occasions last year, tried to launch a Tizen smartphone in Japan, France, Russia and India but every time balked at the last minute citing a lack of support from carriers and app developers.

One of its most affordable smartphones, the Z1 has Samsung offering localised entertainment apps and a simple user interface with the Tizen OS.

The dual SIM device is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 768MB RAM and 4GB internal memory expandable up to 64GB. It features four-inch display, 3.1MP rear and a VGA front camera and 1,500mAh battery.

The device was showcased at the Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco last year.

Previously, Samsung ran 'Bada' OS, which did not see much success. It has since been working on merging the platform with Tizen, which is backed by chipmaker Intel.

The other popular operating systems include Apple iOS, Microsoft's Windows Phone OS and BlackBerry's proprietary platform.

"Samsung Z1 sales have surpassed all expectations in a highly competitive and a fiercely fought price segment, which offers consumers the widest choice. We are also witnessing significant usage of the entertainment package with consumers downloading music and enjoying free movies and live TV," he said.

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HTC Desire 820 review

HTC's mid-range phablet, Desire 816 got a good response from Indian consumers with its good feature to price ratio (when it launched in June). Now, the Taiwanese company has launched the phone's successor that packs in a more powerful processor, a better front camera and Gorilla Glass 3 screen protection, among other improvements. Other than these, the phone is very similar to Desire 816. Is it a good buy? We try to find out in our review...

Build & design

HTC Desire 820 looks very similar to the company's mid-range phablet Desire 816, complete with the unibody plastic shell, rounded corners and front dual stereo speakers.

Since the phone sports a big, 5.5-inch display, the overall footprint is also large. That said, it doesn't look unwieldy.

Unlike the Desire 816, the 820 sports dual-tone colours with the second colour making its presence felt in form of accents surrounding the front panel, volume rocker and power keys, micro-USB jack, camera lens and LED flash and the HTC logo.

The phone doesn't sport physical keys at the front and uses onscreen keys for navigation. Unlike the Desire 816, the Power/Screen lock and the volume rocker keys are located at the right edge of the phone and offer good tactile feedback. The left side sports a plastic flap that hides the two nano-sim card slots and a microSD card slot. Other than that, there's no major difference between the two phones in terms of design. Even the dimensions are almost identical.

The display is flanked by dual stereo BoomSound speakers on both sides. The speaker grill fits in a single line, with bigger holes unlike the HTC One's grill that is spread over four lines.

The 8MP front-facing camera lens sits above the display and is prominently visible. The 3.5mm headset jack sits at the top while the micro-USB port is placed at the bottom edge.

The back of the phone features the 13MP rear camera and an LED flash. It sports a glossy finish and gets easily smudged.

Although made of plastic with a glossy finish, the build quality of the Desire 820 is pretty good and exudes a premium feel.

Display

HTC Desire 820 sports a 5.5-inch Super LCD 2 display with a resolution of 720x1280pixels. Although, the number of pixels packed are less due to the large size of the display, we did not notice any pixilation and images and text appeared sharp and crisp.

The screen is optimum for watching videos and playing games thanks to its large size. Having said that, single hand usage becomes a little difficult due to this attribute.

Viewing angles were also good and colours appeared vivid, though not as vibrant as that on HTC One (M8). Under-sun legibility was also good.

Desire 820's display comes with Gorilla Glass 3 protection, improving upon the Desire 816, which was more susceptible to scratches.

Software

HTC Desire 820 comes with Android 4.4.4 KitKat with Sense 6, the latest version of HTC's custom UI, running on top.

Unlike HTC One (M8), Desire 820 does not offer support for gestures like 'double tap to unlock' and 'swipe to unlock' to a home screen/Blinkfeed. The gestures would have made more sense on 820 given its bigger form factor and the awkward placement of the Power/Unlock key.

While the UI looks very different from stock Android, we quite like the Sense 6 interface. It doesn't look very different from that of the previous version of Sense.

It sports the on-screen navigation keys which hide while playing games and using apps that make use of Android's new immersive mode. For more on the user interface, you can check out our HTC One (M8) review.

Camera

Just like the Desire 816, Desire 820 doesn't feature an UltraPixel camera. Instead, it includes a 13MP BSI sensor with f/2.2 aperture and a 28mm lens.

Desire 820 also doesn't come with HTC ImageChip. This means that features like the Zoe mode are not included and the camera takes extra time to process the image after capturing it.

Images shot with the phone in optimum light looked great. Colour reproduction, exposure and contrast were just right and images looked natural. We had some issues capturing macro images as the focus lock was not very responsive. We compared it with the Desire 816 and found that strangely focus-lock was faster and responsive on the 816. This could be a software issue.

Low-light photos (without the use of night mode) looked noisy and lacked detail. The camera also offers Panorama and HDR modes.

The phone is capable of capturing 1080p videos and did not disappoint us in terms of audio and video quality.

Desire 820's front-camera has an 8MP sensor with f2.0 wide angle lens for taking selfies. It also includes a timer switch and touchup feature for enhanced selfies. The phone clicks good-quality selfies and offers a number of options to eliminate blemishes, fix red eye and whiten skin tone. The 8MP front camera is the highlight of the phone and will please all self lovers.

Performance

HTC Desire 820 is powered by a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor and 2GB RAM. Even though it is a mid-range device, the 820 never felt underpowered with the hardware being capable of supporting multitasking and gaming without hiccups.

It's worth pointing out that the 64-bit architecture is not supported by Android 4.4. Also, phones still need more memory to fully leverage 64-bit capabilities (better memory management) and 2GB would not really suffice.

In our use, we did not notice any lag while launching and switching between apps, editing photos, browsing the web, clicking pictures, watching high definition videos, or playing graphics-heavy games on Desire 820.

In synthetic benchmarks, the phone scored 24,013 in Antutu, 10,861 in Quadrant, in 2515 Geekbench 3(Multi-core) and 59.9 in Nenamark 2 benchmark tests. Surprisingly, benchmark scores of the phone were lower than that of Micromax Yureka YU, which is also powered by the same processor and sports similar hardware specifications. The scores (barring Quadrant) are significantly better than Desire 816's scores though.

We don't endorse benchmark tests and do not recommend a phone based solely on benchmarks as real world performance is different at times.

We were able to play videos of popular file formats without any issues. Additional file formats can be played through third party video player apps. The phone also comes with FM Radio.

HTC Desire 820's front stereo speakers offer enhanced sound quality in addition to delivering sound that's much more powerful and clear compared to many phones.

Call quality was excellent and the phone works well even in weak signal areas. We also observed that 820 catches even weak Wi-Fi signals. The phone comes with GPS and A-GPS for navigation and maps, and it was easily able to lock a signal.

The phone supports Bluetooth 4.0 with aptX codec support. This allows the phone to deliver CD-like sound over Bluetooth (usually, the sound quality deteriorates over Bluetooth). We found that the phone offers good sound quality even when connected to a Bluetooth stereo headset.

The phone comes with a 2600mAh battery and will last you one day with moderate to high usage including about one to two hours of making calls, playing games, clicking some pictures, listening to music and browsing the web. We noticed that battery backup was inferior compared to the 816 even though both the phones have similar batteries. Perhaps this is due to the 820's new processor.

The phone comes with an Extreme power-saving mode, activating which will make the phone's battery last much longer. The mode restricts background data and offers access to Phone, Messages, Mail, Calendar, and Calculator apps.

Gaming

We were able to play games like Looney Tunes Dash, Leo's Fortune, Riptide GP2 and Asphalt 8 (with Visual Quality set to High and Engine at 100%) without encountering frame drops or freezes. The phone tends to get a little warm after long gaming sessions.

Verdict
At Rs 24,990, HTC Desire 820 is a not a bad smartphone to buy but the mid-range landscape has changed quite a bit and there are other good options available in the market.

While the Desire 820 offers a good mix of features and hardware specifications, the average battery life and plastic, glossy build are downers. If you want a better big-screen smartphone and are not hassled by the company's 'invite' system, the OnePlus One is a much better option that comes with a superior chipset, full-HD display and better build quality, at a lower price. Of course, it doesn't support dual-sim.

The Lenovo Vibe X2 and Huawei Honor 6 are great options if you can settle for a 5-inch display. The Vibe X2 even offers dual-sim. You can also look at Desire 820q, an inferior version of the Desire 820 which comes with a a 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 quad-core processor and has 1GB RAM.

You can also get Yureka YU, a 4G-enabled budget phablet if you're not finicky about the brand and are open to competing with thousands of prospective buyers in flash sales. It costs just Rs 8,999 and is a really good phone (Read our review).

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Tech talk: Swear by your mom

This is the only way we can make you stick to the pledge that you will no longer buy gadgets in blissful ignorance!

Have you ever thought why one power bank is costlier than another? Why hard disks are passe (almost)? Why you can still trust a cheating partner, but not a pirated anti-virus? How the dude who installed the `free wi-fi router' at your place made a fool out of you? How anti-radiation chips undo the harm done by the heap of devices around you? If you don't know the answers to the above, leave everything else that you are doing right now and read this buyer's guide.

Power Bank

Mobile makers have over committed and under-delivered on battery back-up, which is why power banks have become the new fad.Genius buys it like: I don't subscribe to the `I'll buy anything that's cheap and Chinese' school of thought because I want more than just the basics. My power bank should charge multiple devices simultaneously, not waste energy while charging the plugged-in device, and quickly charge itself and the devices. Then, it should automatically turn itself off when idle, should be certified for safety by safety certifications like EEE, 6 Way Circuit Protection or any other popular safety standard agency.

Techxpert: Sudip De, vice-president, Adata, says, "Unlike the power bank, your mobile device is not cheap, so, if you buy a faulty product, it will damage your device."

Anti-Virus Software

If you ever meet someone who has purchased an anti-virus and not downloaded a pirated version of it, most likely, you are hallucinating because such people don't exist, and this, when anti-virus is one of the most crucial computer tools.Genius buys it like: Does my system have the RAM and processor required to run the anti-virus? Is the software itself compatible with my system? Will I be able to erase the data if the system gets stolen and click pictures of the thief when he uses my system? Does it have bootable rescue?

Will the anti-virus be able to defend itself when a virus tries to disable it? If it does all of this, I will buy it.Techxpert: Pankaj Jain, director, Eset India, says, "Sadly, security comes last for an anti-virus purchaser; price is first. The biggest loss of a pirated anti-virus user is that they don't get the support from the developer, so if one fine day, the system crashes, the user will have no one to go to for help."

An anti-virus should be anti-virus, anti-malware, antiTrojan, antirootkit, antiphishing, give email and instant messaging protection, be certified by independent testing agencies and labs, be fast, scan cloud and have 24x7 support mechanism.

Mobile-scan app

With growing internet activity on smartphones, a mobile scan app will soon be a must.Genius buys it like: My scan app should not consume too much battery, it should provide add-on features like tracking over and above basic scanning, blocking inappropriate websites and prohibiting downloads from non-Apple and non-Android app-stores, Most importantly, it should let me completely wipe out the data on the phone in case of theft.Techxpert: Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan, says, "The app should warn any transmissions of contact lists and should have the ability to block the same, detect transactions that use mobile-wallets andor other forms of mobile-money and store records, transaction details on the cloud."

Routers

Don't just blame your mobile operator for the snailpaced internet; your `free' router might be at fault.Genius buys it like: I will buy a router that is capable of handling high-speed, that lets me create small networks with limited use for guests, has parental control, is low in radiation and lets me manage media and connects multiple devices.Techxpert: Subhodeep Bhattacharya, regional director, India & SAARC, Netgear, says, "A router is the hub of the digital ecosys tem, and if it's built around an ignorantly purchased router, all the thrill that you expect from your high-end gadgets will come to a naught."

SSDs

These compact, superfast, durable and energy-efficient data storage solutions will change the way you store data.Genius buys it like: I'll buy an SSD as it's smaller, sturdier and faster than hard disks. It should preferably fit in the camera too, and have shockproof capabilities for accidental drops.Techxpert: M A Mannan, country manager - India, Corsair Memory, says, "No SSD is a poor performer but one with a 40,000 IOPS or more is better."

Radiation protection chip

With wireless gadgets starting to rule our lives, an anti-radiation chip, which protects you from electromagnetic radiation emitted by phones and other personal electronic devices, is a must-have.Genius buys it like: The chip has to be tested and approved for its capabilities at warding off the side-effects of benefits, by a medical institution in India.Techxpert: Pranav Poddar, MD, Synergy Environics, says, "A phone should not be used for more than six minutes in an hour and be kept at least 15-25 mm away from the body at all times. Since this is not possible, you need something, like an anti-radiation chip, that will let you use devices for extended time."

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How to choose better gadgets

This is the only way we can make you stick to the pledge that you will no longer buy gadgets in blissful ignorance!

Have you ever thought why one power bank is costlier than another? Why hard disks are passe (almost)? Why you can still trust a cheating partner, but not a pirated anti-virus? How the dude who installed the `free wi-fi router' at your place made a fool out of you? How anti-radiation chips undo the harm done by the heap of devices around you? If you don't know the answers to the above, leave everything else that you are doing right now and read this buyer's guide.

Power Bank

Mobile makers have over committed and under-delivered on battery back-up, which is why power banks have become the new fad.Genius buys it like: I don't subscribe to the `I'll buy anything that's cheap and Chinese' school of thought because I want more than just the basics. My power bank should charge multiple devices simultaneously, not waste energy while charging the plugged-in device, and quickly charge itself and the devices. Then, it should automatically turn itself off when idle, should be certified for safety by safety certifications like EEE, 6 Way Circuit Protection or any other popular safety standard agency.

Techxpert: Sudip De, vice-president, Adata, says, "Unlike the power bank, your mobile device is not cheap, so, if you buy a faulty product, it will damage your device."

Anti-Virus Software

If you ever meet someone who has purchased an anti-virus and not downloaded a pirated version of it, most likely, you are hallucinating because such people don't exist, and this, when anti-virus is one of the most crucial computer tools.Genius buys it like: Does my system have the RAM and processor required to run the anti-virus? Is the software itself compatible with my system? Will I be able to erase the data if the system gets stolen and click pictures of the thief when he uses my system? Does it have bootable rescue?

Will the anti-virus be able to defend itself when a virus tries to disable it? If it does all of this, I will buy it.Techxpert: Pankaj Jain, director, Eset India, says, "Sadly, security comes last for an anti-virus purchaser; price is first. The biggest loss of a pirated anti-virus user is that they don't get the support from the developer, so if one fine day, the system crashes, the user will have no one to go to for help."

An anti-virus should be anti-virus, anti-malware, antiTrojan, antirootkit, antiphishing, give email and instant messaging protection, be certified by independent testing agencies and labs, be fast, scan cloud and have 24x7 support mechanism.

Mobile-scan app

With growing internet activity on smartphones, a mobile scan app will soon be a must.Genius buys it like: My scan app should not consume too much battery, it should provide add-on features like tracking over and above basic scanning, blocking inappropriate websites and prohibiting downloads from non-Apple and non-Android app-stores, Most importantly, it should let me completely wipe out the data on the phone in case of theft.Techxpert: Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan, says, "The app should warn any transmissions of contact lists and should have the ability to block the same, detect transactions that use mobile-wallets andor other forms of mobile-money and store records, transaction details on the cloud."

Routers

Don't just blame your mobile operator for the snailpaced internet; your `free' router might be at fault.Genius buys it like: I will buy a router that is capable of handling high-speed, that lets me create small networks with limited use for guests, has parental control, is low in radiation and lets me manage media and connects multiple devices.Techxpert: Subhodeep Bhattacharya, regional director, India & SAARC, Netgear, says, "A router is the hub of the digital ecosys tem, and if it's built around an ignorantly purchased router, all the thrill that you expect from your high-end gadgets will come to a naught."

SSDs

These compact, superfast, durable and energy-efficient data storage solutions will change the way you store data.Genius buys it like: I'll buy an SSD as it's smaller, sturdier and faster than hard disks. It should preferably fit in the camera too, and have shockproof capabilities for accidental drops.Techxpert: M A Mannan, country manager - India, Corsair Memory, says, "No SSD is a poor performer but one with a 40,000 IOPS or more is better."

Radiation protection chip

With wireless gadgets starting to rule our lives, an anti-radiation chip, which protects you from electromagnetic radiation emitted by phones and other personal electronic devices, is a must-have.Genius buys it like: The chip has to be tested and approved for its capabilities at warding off the side-effects of benefits, by a medical institution in India.Techxpert: Pranav Poddar, MD, Synergy Environics, says, "A phone should not be used for more than six minutes in an hour and be kept at least 15-25 mm away from the body at all times. Since this is not possible, you need something, like an anti-radiation chip, that will let you use devices for extended time."

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E-commerce business may need to hire 1 lakh people in next 6 months

The author has posted comments on this articlePTI | Jan 25, 2015, 07.24PM IST

The USD 12 billion plus rising Indian e-commerce business market is witnessing a rush of hiring and may need one lakh people over the next six months, industry experts have said.

MUMBAI: The USD 12 billion plus rising Indian e-commerce business market is witnessing a rush of hiring and may need one lakh people over the next six months, industry experts have said.

"Support service sectors such as recruitment consulting firms are witnessing a rush of hiring in the e-commerce space. The country's e-commerce space is estimated to hire one lakh people in the next six moths period," global head-hunting firm InHelm Leadership Solutions' Country head Prasanth Nair told PTI here.

India's e-commerce market was worth about USD 3.8 billion in 2009 and went up to USD 12.6 billion in 2013. It is growing at an estimated 30 per cent CAGR vis-a-vis a global growth rate of 8-10 per cent.

"The biggest challenge in e-commerce sector is to retain key people. Compensation - immediate, short term and long term - are all important but employees in this sector look beyond just money. Unlike other sectors, empowerment, working culture, and focus on innovation are also critical, Nair said.

Due to massive scale up plans, several e-commerce companies are turning to consultants who have expertise in these areas for boosting recruitment, he said.

Nair said retail sector is facing challenges from the fast growing ecommerce players like Amazon and Flipkart. However, retail players can survive, but they require to re-strategise their plans and reach to tier II and tier III cities by adopting new technologies.

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TCS CEO Chandrasekaran: Going digital a necessity, not an option

DAVOS: Betting big on the Internet of Things (IoT) as the third major wave in technology space, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) chief N Chandrasekaran has said that going digital was no more an option, but a default now.

While digital economy and emerging trends in the technology space remained a key point during various sessions at the World Economic Forum, Chandrasekaran said IoT would transform every company, industry and even the society going forward.

Taking over as the chair of the IT governors' steering committee of the WEF, the TCS managing director and CEO said, "Going digital is no longer an option for all of us, it is the default."

IoT is the interconnection of uniquely identifiable and embedded computing devices within existing Internet infrastructure.

As the chair, Chandrasekaran will work with WEF and CEOs of other global IT companies in 2015-16 to define an agenda of priorities for the IT industry, as they help other industries navigate an era of transformational change.

As per the discussions here, over 50 billion devices are expected to be connected to each other by 2020, driving a large-scale re-imagination of how societies live, interact and do business.

In his opening remarks during a Harvard Business Review breakfast session on IoT, Chandrasekaran said: "The Internet of Things will transform every company, industry and society. This is the third wave of the connected economy -- the first wave through the world wide web allowed sources of information to be connected."

"In the second wave, the social web allowed for individuals to connect, and now in the third wave, have IoT connecting multiple electrical and electronic devices across homes, offices, factories and cities."

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How Microsoft Windows has changed over the last 30 years

Earlier this week, Microsoft gave the world its first comprehensive look at Windows 10, its latest operating system.

Windows 10 aims to provide users a unified experience across various devices be it a PC, tablet or a smartphone.

So how did we get here? The story began three decades back -- in 1985. Here's how Windows has evolved over the past thirty years.

1. Windows 1.0: 1985

January 23, 2015

The first version of Windows was basically a simple layer on top of MS-DOS, the character based operating system that ran most PCs then. It was not widely used.

2. Windows 2.0: 1987

January 23, 2015

This was the first operating system to run Microsoft Word and Excel. It also caused Apple to file a "look and feel" lawsuit against Microsoft for ripping off some elements of the Macintosh and Lisa. Apple did not win that case.

3. Windows 3.0: 1990

January 23, 2015

Windows 3.0 did a lot more to hide the underlying MS-DOS guts with graphical icons like the Program Manager. Not surprisingly, it became the first really popular version of Win.

4. Windows 3.1: 1991

January 23, 2015

This is the version of Windows that really made it the standard on most IBM-compatible PCs back in the early 1990s. It's also the last version that kind of looked like MS-DOS.

5. Windows 95: 1995

January 23, 2015

Windows 95 was a big break with the past, emphasizing the desktop and introducing icons for almost everything. Internet Explorer, the Recycle Bin, and the Start button were all introduced here. The basic design for Windows hardly changed from this up until Windows 8, which came out in 2012.

6. Windows 95 was a huge deal at the time

January 23, 2015

It's hard to understate how big Windows 95 was. Jay Leno joined Bill Gates on stage at the launch event. The Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up" was used in ads. People lined up to buy it — like they do with the iPhone today.

7. Windows 98: 1998

January 23, 2015

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This update looked and worked just like Windows 95, but was more stable and had a few extra features.

8. Windows ME ("Millennium Edition"): 2000

January 23, 2015

This was basically Windows 98 with a few new consumer features. It didn't sell very well. Most people waited for XP, which was known to be coming soon.

9. Windows for Pocket PC: 2000

January 23, 2015

Around the same time, Microsoft began putting out its first versions of Windows for mobile devices. It was based on a completely different underlying technology called Windows CE. Microsoft tried to keep a lot of Windows branding front and center, like the Windows logo and the Start button.

10. Windows XP: 2001

January 23, 2015

In 2001, we got Windows XP. It was the first big update since Windows 95, and the first consumer version of Windows to break completely from MS-DOS and use the same underlying technology as Windows NT — the more stable and powerful version of Windows that had been used on servers and "workstation" PCs.

11. Windows Mobile 5: 2005

January 23, 2015

Meanwhile, Microsoft was still putting out new versions of Windows Mobile, trying to compete with the BlackBerry and Nokia phones, which were dominant at the time. It had no idea the iPhone was about to come along and change everything.

12. Windows Vista: 2006

January 23, 2015

Windows Vista took Microsoft five years to build, and there were a lot of missteps and resets along the way. It was not a hit, and former CEO Steve Ballmer has said that the time and effort the company spent on Vista — instead of pursuing new opportunities in mobile — was one of his biggest regrets.

13. Windows Mobile 6: 2007

January 23, 2015

This is where things really started to go south. Windows Mobile 6 was a continuation of Microsoft's five-year-old mobile platform, and came out in February 2007 — right after the first iPhone was announced.

It was still built for use with a stylus and keyboard, not finger touch, and it looked ridiculously rudimentary next to the iPhone. But Microsoft in public downplayed the threat, with Steve Ballmer doubting anybody would ever pay $500 for a smartphone.

14. Windows 7: 2009

January 23, 2015

Fortunately for Microsoft, it was able to recover from the Vista debacle on the desktop. Windows 7, which came out in 2009, was basically a polish-up of Vista, but much more stable.

It's still very popular in businesses. In fact, one of the big challenges with Windows 10 will be getting enterprises to upgrade from Windows 7.

15. Windows Phone: 2010

January 23, 2015

At the same time, Microsoft knew it needed an answer to the iPhone. In 2010, it released the first version of Windows Phone. It was a clean break with Windows Mobile, with a totally new finger-friendly design and a bunch of new features.

But the iPhone and Android were already growing by leaps and bounds, and the new platform did not take off.

16. Windows 8: 2012

January 23, 2015

The iPad came out in 2010, and its early success spooked Microsoft into another misstep. Instead of continuing to adapt on 30 years of of desktop success, Microsoft took a lot of the concepts from the unsuccessful Windows Phone operating system and brought them over to the main version of Windows.

The goal was to make an operating system that functioned equally well on touch-screen tablets, to compete against the iPad and regular PCs. The main interface had no start button, huge colorful boxes instead of icons, and changed how basic tasks were done.

17. Windows 8 still had the desktop...

January 23, 2015

...but it was buried under the new interface.

As a result, a lot of traditional Windows users were confused or put off, and Windows 8 never took off. Instead of coming up with an operating system that was great on both PCs and tablets, Microsoft had built one that was great on neither. PC sales have plunged more than 12% in the two years after Windows 8 was released, although this can't be blamed entirely on Windows 8 — people have more choices now, and the overall economy has been weak.

18. Windows Phone 8: 2012

January 23, 2015

Microsoft also updated its mobile platform at the same time as it released Windows 8. It looked the same on top, but there was a lot of new work under the covers: basically, Windows Phone was now based on the same underlying technology (Windows NT) as Microsoft's PC and server operating systems.

19. Windows and Windows Phone 8.1: 2014

January 23, 2015

Last year, Microsoft updated both its PC/tablet and mobile operating systems, and began to bring them closer together. It also used Windows 8.1 to reverse some of the big changes it had made with Windows 8, like returning the Start menu.

Windows 10 is expected to continue in this vein, bringing the PC, tablet, and phone platforms even closer together and making the traditional Windows desktop more easily available if you're using a keyboard and mouse.

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