Asus launches Chromebox in India starting at Rs 21,000

MUMBAI: PC and motherboard manufacturer Asus today launched Chromebox, a compact home or office computer that runs on Chrome OS, in India.

"There has been an increase in demand for small form factor mini and home theatre PCs and the Chromebox would be a great alternative for such applications," Asus country head-component business Vinay Shetty told reporters here.

The product has the latest Haswell processors and supports 4K ultra high definition video playback. Besides, it also has built in virus protection system and updates automatically.

"With Intel's latest Haswell processors and 4K ultra high definition video playback and running Google's Chrome OS, the Chromebox is a great new device for customers looking for a mini PC," Shetty said. The Chromebox works right out of the box with apps for work, play and communicating online or offline, he said.

The product comes in three models ranging between Rs 21,000 and Rs 58,000. The three models are - Asus Chromebox CN60 (Celeron) at Rs 21,000, Asus Chromebox CN60 (Core i3) at Rs 36,500 and Asus Chromebox CN60 (Core i7) at Rs 58,000.

The company will initially make these products available in its 40 exclusive stores across the country.

"We have around 112 exclusive stores in the country and in the first phase, we will make the products available in 40 stores. Besides, it will also be available through online platform. If the acceptability of the product grows, we will also sell them through large formats," he said.

Explaining the features of the product, Shetty said, "Chromebox boots up in a flash and instantly syncs with Chrome across all the devices so you can bring the bookmarks, preferences and extensions with you. With 100GB of free Google Drive space free for two years one can access all the data and files in the cloud by logging into their Google account."

The box comes with high performance 802.11 b/g/n dual-band wireless, four USB 3.0 ports for fast data transfer, HDMI and DisplayPort for connecting to the latest displays and HDTVs, including support for dual displays and an SD card reader for easily accessing stored photos and documents, he said.

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Telcos want WhatsApp, Facebook regulated

NEW DELHI: Differing with over-the-top service providers like Skype and Whatsapp, which feel market should shape the evolving ecosystem, telecom operators sought Trai's intervention for a better level-playing field with internet companies.

"We want some kind of regulatory help to get a level playing field. There are so many regulations binding on us but the same don't exist for OTT players. We can do a lot more if level playing field is given to us," telecom industry veteran TV Ramachandran said on behalf of operators.

He was speaking at seminar organized by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on "Regulatory Framework for OTT services".

As per data shared by PwC Managing Consultant Neeraj Kataria, it is estimated that Skype, which offers free Skype to Skype phone calls using internet, is costing telecom industry around $36 billion per year globally.

Ramachandran said licence conditions bind telecom operators but not OTT operators.

"The regulator must give some consideration. OTT operators provide voice calls and messaging services which come under Indian Telegraph Act. OTT players can switch calls over web outside India but we can't do that. We have to pay interconnect charges which OTT don't need to," he said.

The Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) President CS Rao said that though OTT players provide services that mobile service providers offer but there is no rule to ensure that they provide quality service to customers. Also, they have no commitment on customer service, he alleged.

"Major regulatory realignment is needed when consumers are moving from minutes usage to megabyte usage era. I want TRAI to note issue of stressed capacity of network. If 20% of our customers start using OTT service, then burden on network will increase $55 per subscriber," Rao said.

On the other hand, Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) President Subho Ray said Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) should not intervene in the eco-system and it should be left to market forces to shape this ecosystem.

"It is a business to business thing. TRAI should keep completely keep out of it. This shows that there is clear evidence that relationship between OTT and telcos has failed. It is reverse of what we use to say about VAS to regulator that we are not getting revenue share. Same operators used to ask us don't go to telecom regulator," Ray said.

Meanwhile, TRAI said that the event was to understand the eco-system for OTT services with respect to current regulatory environment after telecom service provider (TSPs) approached it on several occasions.

"They (TSPs) wanted a sort of discussion on treatment of OTT services like WhatsApp, Skype and others which are actually cutting in to their revenue. The purpose (of seminar) is not to protect revenues of TSPs but to understand if there is any case of regulating such services," TRAI Secretary Sudhir Gupta said.

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Asus launches Chromebox in India starting at Rs 21,000

MUMBAI: PC and motherboard manufacturer Asus today launched Chromebox, a compact home or office computer that runs on Chrome OS, in India.

"There has been an increase in demand for small form factor mini and home theatre PCs and the Chromebox would be a great alternative for such applications," Asus country head-component business Vinay Shetty told reporters here.

The product has the latest Haswell processors and supports 4K ultra high definition video playback. Besides, it also has built in virus protection system and updates automatically.

"With Intel's latest Haswell processors and 4K ultra high definition video playback and running Google's Chrome OS, the Chromebox is a great new device for customers looking for a mini PC," Shetty said. The Chromebox works right out of the box with apps for work, play and communicating online or offline, he said.

The product comes in three models ranging between Rs 21,000 and Rs 58,000. The three models are - Asus Chromebox CN60 (Celeron) at Rs 21,000, Asus Chromebox CN60 (Core i3) at Rs 36,500 and Asus Chromebox CN60 (Core i7) at Rs 58,000.

The company will initially make these products available in its 40 exclusive stores across the country.

"We have around 112 exclusive stores in the country and in the first phase, we will make the products available in 40 stores. Besides, it will also be available through online platform. If the acceptability of the product grows, we will also sell them through large formats," he said.

Explaining the features of the product, Shetty said, "Chromebox boots up in a flash and instantly syncs with Chrome across all the devices so you can bring the bookmarks, preferences and extensions with you. With 100GB of free Google Drive space free for two years one can access all the data and files in the cloud by logging into their Google account."

The box comes with high performance 802.11 b/g/n dual-band wireless, four USB 3.0 ports for fast data transfer, HDMI and DisplayPort for connecting to the latest displays and HDTVs, including support for dual displays and an SD card reader for easily accessing stored photos and documents, he said.

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3 ways to secure your smartphone without passcodes

— Anick Jesdanun

NEW YORK: Passcodes are outdated.

They're a pain to use, and they aren't secure when they are based on easy-to-guess digits, such as a birth date or street address. Many people don't bother using them on phones, even though that means any thief can get instant access to email, banking apps and more.

Fortunately, smartphone makers have started to come up with alternatives to passcodes. Let's have a look at the most common security options available in smartphones today:

Fingerprints
Apple included a fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5S last year. Later, HTC included one on its One Max, while Samsung added it to its latest flagship phone, the Galaxy S5. Samsung's Galaxy Tab S tablets also have fingerprint sensors. With all of these, you can unlock the device with your fingerprint and avoid typing in numbers on the screen.

The iPhone's sensor still works well after nearly a year of use. I begin by training the phone to recognize up to five fingers. To unlock the phone, I simply touch the Home button for about a second. It works when my finger is upside down or sideways, but the sensor has trouble when it's wet or greasy. In such cases, I can go back to using the passcode.

Samsung's approach is similar, except it recognizes only three fingerprints, and it requires you to swipe down on the home button rather than simply touch it. The fingerprint can be used to authenticate purchases using the PayPal app or to unlock the device's private mode, which lets you hide photos and other documents you designate as sensitive.

HTC One Max's sensor is on the back rather than on the home button. Unfortunately, it often fails to recognize my print. I like that I can instruct the phone to open a particular app automatically depending on the finger I use. The sensor isn't available with the HTC One M8, which came out in March.

Many security experts have expressed concerns that once a finger's compromised, you can't replace it the way you can a passcode.

No one's saying these measures are foolproof. But they are better than no security, which is what happens when people turn off the passcode feature because it's too much of a hassle. Since the passcode can be used as a backup, don't make it easy to guess.

Android alternatives
Most Android phones have passcode alternatives under 'Security' or 'Lock screen' in the settings.

Instead of a numeric passcode, you can opt for a regular password. You improve security by choosing a combination of numbers and letters, some capitalized. You can throw in some punctuation marks, too. Though security improves, convenience drops.

Another option, called Pattern, lets you draw a pattern on the screen. You are presented nine dots, and you must connect at least four of them by swiping on the screen using a pattern you can remember. Your passcode is your fallback.

Though it's easier to swipe than to type, it's actually less secure. Someone with the phone can guess your pattern based on smudge marks on the screen.

Knock, Knock
LG's new G3 phone gives Pattern a twist.

Picture a square divided into four quadrants. You create a code by tapping on the various quadrants in an order you'll remember, such as upper left/upper right/lower left/upper right. You need at least three taps, but you can go as long as eight, for more than 80,000 possible combinations.

This approach, known as Knock Code, doesn't leave smudge marks the way Pattern does.

Plus, you have flexibility in the way you define your quadrants. You can divide the entire phone's screen into four quadrants, or you can pick a small corner and divide that into quadrants. That way, you're not being obvious with your taps when you're in a public place. You don't have to choose ahead of time. The phone figures it out.

After six failed attempts, you're required to use your passcode or sign in with your Google account.

All of these security measures do make it less convenient to use your phone, as it means an extra step to send a quick text message or view a photo. These alternatives aim to reduce the inconvenience enough that you'll have something in place if your phone falls into the wrong hands.

(The author is an AP technology writer)

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Garmin launches Vívofit fitness band at Rs 9,990

NEW DELHI: Satellite navigation devices company, Garmin has launched Vivofit (veevo-fit) fitness band at Rs 9,990. The band will be exclusively available on e-commerce website Flipkart. It comes in black and slate colours, in both small and large sizes in the box. Customers can also purchase purple, teal and blue colour belts.

The band was initially unveiled during CES 2014, earlier this year.

Vivofit allows users to set a personalized daily goal, track their progress and reminds them to commence activity. The band features an always-on, curved display that shows steps, goal countdown, calories, distance, and time of day.

Vivofit comes with user replaceable batteries that last over one year. The band is water-resistant(50m), and can be connected with ANT+ heart rate monitors to track fitness activities.

Vivofit learns users' current activity level, and then assigns an attainable daily goal. As the users achieve milestones, it adjusts the goal for the next day.

The band follows the users' progress and can stay on for more than a year without a battery change. It can also monitor the quality of rest if the band's sleep mode is turned on before going to sleep.

Users can wirelessly sync Vivofit with Garmin Connect, a free online fitness community with over four billion miles uploaded by users. Users can analyse their progress through reports and graphical representations, including reports for total sleep hours, as well as periods of movement and restful sleep.

Users can also join online challenges with other vivofit users or start their own competitions with friends to compete for virtual badges and bragging rights. Users can access this community from their computer or on their compatible mobile device via the Garmin Connect app.

"Garmin has been providing fitness monitoring devices for over a decade, and with Vivofit we say hello to the fitness band that knows your potential," said Tony An, Sales and Marketing Director, Garmin Corporation. "Being able to monitor the quality of rest after retiring for the night, being challenged by personalized daily goals and doing so without having to charge it every few days, makes vivofit a fitness band that should be on everyone's wrist.

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WhatsApp now supports Android Wear, offers voice reply feature

Android Wear is currently finding its feet in this whacky world of wearables, and getting itself decent apps like WhatsApp on board as quickly as possible will be the key to success.

The new version of WhatsApp has just been made available to download from the official website, bringing some welcome features with it.

The update brings full message preview, allowing you, unsurprisingly, to see the full message on your watch, where previously, in the dark and horrid times, you could only see a truncated version.

Welcome to the future: please wipe your feet

If that wasn't enough to cause you to leave work and find the nearest Android Wear emporium, you can now use the voice reply function to dictate a message straight into your wrist.

And finally, you can now read stacked conversation messages, which means messages pile on top of one another - you can jump to the next one by tapping the "+1 more" button.

The dream is here, people.

The update hasn't appeared on Google Play just yet, but you can go grab it straight from WhatsApp directly right now. With over half a billion people around the world now using WhatsApp regularly, there might be a few who are interested.

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Indian market can't support more than 6 smartphone brands: Ex-Apple CEO

NEW DELHI: The crowded Indian smartphone market, which currently has over 20 brands selling their devices, will not be able to support more than six successful firms in the long run, former CEO of tech giant Apple, John Sculley said.

Sculley, who has also served as the president of the soft drink giant PepsiCo, said his own firm Obi Mobiles will leverage expertise in marketing and sales to ensure its place in the top six.

Talking to PTI, Sculley said technology has now been "commoditised" and companies now need to focus on the brand and building customer loyalty. "Technology is a commodity ... I grew up in commodity markets and I love that. There is little difference in what's there in a Coke bottle and a Pepsi bottle. Its all in the brand and the loyalty that you can build with the customer," Sculley said.

He added that with commoditisation of technology, many players are coming in and trying to differentiate with different features. The experience in consumer businesses that have commodity technology is that one ends up with six companies in the market, he added.

"Markets, even as big like India, can't really support more than half a dozen very successful companies," Sculley said.

Sculley said that the market will see such a situation in about three years. "I think this thing will sort itself out pretty fast. Fast meaning, three years something like that. Its not driven by us, its driven by how things are happening." he added.

When asked, if the handset market will see consolidation, Sculley said, "I don't think people will be buying people, necessarily. I think eventually you have to make money. "Some companies will look at it and say, I've got beautiful products, but I can't figure out how to make money in India. Other companies will say I was just never able to achieve what I thought I could, so I'm dropping out. There will be people who will drop out."

According to research firm IDC, India saw the highest rate of growth - over 186% in smartphone sales in Asia Pacific region during January-March 2014, outshining countries like China. In the first quarter of 2014, vendors in India shipped a total of 17.59 million smartphones compared to 6.14 million units in the same period of 2013. Smartphone sales in India are expected to reach 80.57 million units by the end of this year, IDC added.

While Samsung is the category leader with a 35% market share, Micromax had 15%, Karbonn 10%, LAVA 6% and Nokia 4% in Q1, IDC said.

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For the first time ever, Android beats iOS in web usage

Apple has lost yet another battle to Android.

According to the latest data from Net Applications (via 9to5Mac), Android usage is now higher than iOS, Apple's iPhone and iPad operating system. Net Applications measures web traffic across 160 million monthly visits.

For the longest time, Apple CEO Tim Cook would mock Android - Android tablets in particular - by saying no one uses them. Last year he said, "I don't know what these other tablets are doing. They must be in warehouses, or on store shelves, or maybe in somebody's bottom drawer!"

But, he can't make fun of Android any more. Web traffic to Android is higher than iOS for the first time in history. This shows that Android users are getting more engaged with their devices, using them more and more.

What does this mean for Apple in the long run? It's hard to say. Android has been clobbering iOS in market share for years now, but Apple has been fine.

Apple is still minting cash, and the iPhone business continues to grow at a double digit pace on annual basis.

The risk for Apple in any of these situations is that developers abandon the platform for Android, which has more users, and, now, a more engaged user base. If Apple loses developer interest, then it will have worse applications, and iOS becomes a second-tier platform.

Apple has hundreds of millions of users and millions of developers. There are no signs that developers are getting bored with the platform.

So, this is mostly just an embarrassment for Apple right now.

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Google: Except for child pornography, we do not snoop your email

Even though a registered sex offender was recently arrested after Google tipped off authorities to alleged child pornography images in the man's Gmail, Google isn't searching your emails for other crimes, the company told Business Insider.

And it can't mistake an innocent photo for an illegal one. A Google spokesperson told us:

"Sadly all Internet companies have to deal with child sexual abuse. It's why Google actively removes illegal imagery from our services - including search and Gmail - and immediately reports abuse to NCMEC [The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children]. This evidence is regularly used to convict criminals.

Each child sexual abuse image is given a unique digital fingerprint which enables our systems to identify those pictures, including in Gmail.

It is important to remember that we only use this technology to identify child sexual abuse imagery, not other email content that could be associated with criminal activity (for example using email to plot a burglary)."

To unpack that a little ...

Internet companies have worked with the The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to create a database of child pornography pictures. Each one of those is given a unique numerical number like a fingerprint, known as a "hash" in the tech world. When Google scans Gmail or the web, it is looking for those fingerprints.

If Google finds one, it is legally obligated to report it, attorney Chris Hoofnagle, director of information privacy programs at the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, told Business Insider.

But your photo of your cute baby splashing around in the tub wouldn't be in that database and wouldn't be tagged with a finger print. So emailing that to grandma wouldn't cause Gmail to report you to authorities.

Likewise, this kind of search technique can't be easily translated to other crimes. It's not the same as a keyword search looking for words like "murder," "killed," "stolen" or "bomb." Think how many times people use use those words innocently. "My sister really overcooked those carrots. It was murder eating them." And so on.

That said, it doesn't mean that Google can't change its mind and start searching your Gmail for other things, warns Hanni Fakhoury, a staff lawyer for privacy watchdog organization the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"There's nothing in their privacy policy that precludes them from doing that. Nothing in the law precludes them for doing that, as long as the user consents," he told Business Insider.

In fact, Google's Terms of Service tell you that you must follow the law when using its services and warns you that it analyzes your email and other documents you upload to serve you ads and perform services like scanning for viruses.

It is similar to the terms of service for all internet providers.

That kind of leeway has led to strange decisions by other email providers, Fakhoury said, such as when Microsoft admitted earlier this year that it once searched a blogger's emails when it suspected an employee had leaked proprietary software to the blogger.

And, on a somewhat ironic note, a source close to Google tells us that the hash technology that Google, Facebook, and others use to scout out child pornography was developed by Microsoft.

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'Google Workshop' service to customize Nexus phones may arrive soon

NEW YORK: A new customized service is on its way for Google Nexus 5 smartphone owners.

Called "Google Workshop", it is a new tool that offers consumers the chance to get creative with their phone's design.

The device lets people take customizations to the next level by using a geographic location to create a case or a live wallpaper, media reports said.

You can pick a place on a map to generate a design and it can be augmented with splashes of colour and text.

"The other customization service is called 'Moments' and lets Nexus 5 users upload images that can be incorporated in the wallpaper or in the phone's case design," Android Police reported.

Currently, the feature is called MapMe.

When used to create a live homescreen wallpaper, it will also automatically integrate live weather data and tweets relating to the location, reports added.

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