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Net Neutrality vote: Our Internet is in Trouble

“Net Neutrality” – you might have heard this term in a passing reference on the internet or some news show. You may not know this yet, but this term directly has an effect on your life. We attempt to give you all the facts and tell you why you should care about net neutrality.

Tim Wu
Columbia Law Professor

The term, coined by Columbia media law professor Tim Wu in 2003, has been one of the major codes of conduct for the internet since its inception. It is the idea that internet service providers are not to discriminate between any content on the internet. The data packets which bring our services should all get equal access speed.

This basic principle has allowed the internet to be an environment which encourages open competition and has encouraged some phenomenal innovation. It has helped even the smallest business models to grow to become international conglomerates, the most prominent examples of this a Google and Facebook.

The Open Internet, Equal Access speed for all

The fact that general public doesn’t realize is that internet is not just a service anymore, it has now become a necessary utility. It is literally impossible to live without a decent internet connection especially in urban areas where it is used for bill payments, shopping, and admissions in universities; in fact internet has intertwined itself with all facets of our daily life.

The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) had codified the Net Neutrality principles into law in the 2010 Open Internet order. This order was unfortunately squashed by a federal court recently and can spell doom for the internet as we know it. This ruling can help create a precedent for internet companies to create a fast lanes for the highest bidder. This means wensites who agree to pay more will get a faster access while everyone else will end up getting sub par connectivity.

Without Net Neutrality ISP’s can charge for individual websites.

Imagine an internet where you have to pay to access individual websites. Like a Cable subscription where you have to pay more for bandwidth intensive websites such as YouTube or Vimeo. Most importantly it would kill smaller start-ups who aspire to someday become the next Google.

Mark Zuckerberg could only succeed because of an open internet

The free and fair internet till now has given a level playing field for competition for all. So even a college freshman could create the Forbes listed, world’s biggest social medium called Facebook. It was also because of free internet that even iGyaan could reach its readers. But in a non net neutrality world, these guys will face the same obstacles which are faced by the real world business of finding resources.

The opponents of net neutrality make a point that currently websites with higher bandwidth consumption pay the same price to reach the consumers like any other website. But when road traffic started getting congested, the government created wider roads and not special roads for rich people. They should consider the same. The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which are opposing net neutrality earn billions in profits each year. Instead of disrupting a unique ecosystem that is still evolving, it is ISP’s prerogative to invest in making the services more innovative and sustainable for them as well as the internet. The companies will make more money by providing quality services to its consumers instead of trying to squeeze the last penny off them.

Steve Wozniak is one of the major proponents of Net Neutrality. (Photo: Nichollas Harrison.)

The great Steve Wozniak makes an excellent analogy when he says that nobody charges you for your per kilometer travel, then why charge for telecom routes. When the roads require maintenance, the government comes to do their part and this must be the responsibility of the ISPs itself.

TRAI needs to formulate regulations now

In India though there are no specific laws safeguarding net neutrality. TRAI in its guidelines mentions non-discrimination, but it is not really enforced. The high cost of spectrum licensing in India and the ever growing burden of massive mobile devices market may lead companies to go for charging a premium on some websites. India’s BRICS companion Brazil recently enacted a brilliant piece of net neutrality legislation and we should ask our lawmakers for the same. All we as consumers can do is be vigilant and raise our voices when we see that happen.

There is going to be a vote at FCC on Thursday the 15th which will decide the future of our internet. This vote can go both ways, the commission can create a precedent where companies can charge websites for priority access. Or the commission can create a legally safe law in which internet will be treated as a telecom service thereby giving FCC complete authority to regulate it. The great news right now is that most of the commissioners are siding with the open internet platform but what happens on Thursday still remain to be seen.

There have been many times when governments try to bring laws which discourage the free exchange of ideas. SOPA, PIPA were some of the laws targeted towards decreasing the efficacy of the internet dialogue. But some good sense prevailed and saved our internet. Net neutrality advocates from around the world are wishing for the same and hope to keep the future of a free and open internet secure.

May 15, 2014
Moto E Dual Sim : Unboxing and Hands On
This is the Moto E box, its a simple box and a modern style of minimal packaging. Following along the lines of the Moto G, the box and the in box accessories are good quality, barring the earphones. Inside the box you will get the following:
- The Moto E
- Handsfree Kit
- English + Hindi Documentation
- USB Wall Charger
The Moto E is surprisingly well built and costs really less for that price, it runs Android 4.4.2 Kitkat out of the Box and has a decent set of specifications.
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 Chipset
- Dual Core CPU
- 1 GB of RAM
- 4 GB of Storage
- 4.3 inch 960 x 540px Display
- Gorilla Glass 3
- Smudge proof coating
- 1980 mAh Battery
- 5 MP Camera
The new Motorola Moto E is sold via online ECommerce website Flipkart and they are the only place you will be able to buy this handset. Flipkart is also responsible for support and warranties on this new handset. The Moto E may single handedly be the reason to switch from a feature phone to a smartphone. Check out our Unboxing above and Hands on below. You can also Buy the Moto E starting today using the link below.

Buy Now
May 14, 2014
Hands On : Newly launched Moto E for Rs. 6999

The budget smartphone market is ready to be disrupted, Motorola in collaboration with Flipkart in India has launched the new Moto E, a smaller brother to the Moto G smartphone from the company. The Moto E has been priced at Rs. 6999 and it may as be responsible for bringing a real smartphone to the masses.

Next to Moto G

The Moto E goes on sale at Midnight tonight (13th May 2014), for Rs. 6999 with same day delivery in some cities. Specs wise the Moto E is quite impressive too the front has a 4.3 inch display that has a resolution of 540 x 960 qHD resolution and a pixel density of 256 ppi. The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 and also is splash proof. A 1980 mAh battery is inbuilt and is non removable, the Moto E comes with Android KitKat 4.4 out of the box and promises “Guaranteed updates” to the next version of Android.

Powering it is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 A7 processor that is clocked at 1.2 GHz and is supported by 1 GB of RAM. On the back is a 5 MP camera that captures FVWGA video and the Moto E can playback 720p video.

The build quality is actually comparable to the Moto X and Moto G so the three devices are quite identical only to be disturbed by difference in specs. The back panel is exceptionally well built and the buttons seem very tactile to use. The device mostly feels much more premium in the hand and performs better than one can expect.

The Moto E makes a lot of sense for a market like India, and where major manufacturers have been reluctant to bring their devices in this price bracket Motorola has been brave enough to deliver a device with a promise of instant updates along with features and customizability that most fail to offer.

Buy Now

May 13, 2014
Identity Theft : How Safe is Your Personal Information Online?

Clicking on the ‘Buy Now’ tab on Amazon or Flipkart surely gives you that good feeling of owning the very product you wanted to have for long time. But have you ever thought of the possibility of you compromising your personal information in internet Eco-system; that may be used against you or for stealing your money. We’re sure you are aware of these crimes but you think they won’t happen to you. Well you are wrong, and statistics say otherwise.

According to ‘Internet Security Threat’ report that was recently released by Norton (Symantec), India has 42 million cyber crimes affecting 42 million cyber crime victims every year on a pan-India basis. During the last year, 52 per cent of such victims had suffered attacks such as malware, viruses, hacking, scams, fraud and theft. The report adds eighty people are vicitimised under various cyber crimes, every minute across India. The study reports seven out of 10 adults have been victims of different modes of cyber crime in their life time.

Anonymous Group Embelem

With the Internet becoming available at the touch of a button and wannabe computer whiz kids dabbling in hacking for sport, cyber crime has seen an unprecedented upsurge. What makes it infinitely more dangerous than any other crime is the comparative lack of awareness and identification. How could you be expected to know that behind the innocent looking website lurks a compulsive hacker, or worse, consummate identity thief?

History of hacking and identity theft can be traced back to 2004 with the rise of collective called ‘Anonymous‘ who targeted government organisations and corporate. Wikileaks is another major example of hacking and recent one’s like Heartbleed bug posed a major threat to many international organisations. Think if these hacker can bring down biggest names in the global business, where we stand in this mayhem of cyber-crime and identity theft.

Identity theft is a crime whereby criminals impersonate individuals, usually for financial gain. In today’s society, you often need to reveal personal bits of information about yourself, such as your social security number, signature, name, address, phone number, cell number or even banking and credit card information. If a thief is able to access this personal information, he or she can use it to commit fraud in your name.

Armed with your personal information, a malicious person could do any number of things, like apply for loans or new credit card accounts. This individual could request a billing address change and run up your existing credit card without your knowledge. A thief could use counterfeit checks and debit cards or authorize electronic transfers in your name and wipe out funds in a bank account.

Supposedly, Identity theft is one of the biggest practiced crime of our generation and you need to secure your self with these thefts. Almost every worldwide government agency responsible for identity theft issues will tell you the same thing: The first step to fighting identity theft is to minimize the risk.

To do this they urge consumers to protect their personal information. Start by asking companies how they use your information, and for online transaction, take a moment to review a website’s privacy policy. For Internet transactions, be sure the Web site offers secure data encryption and other services to protect your personal information.

In offline transactions don’t provide credit card numbers, financial account numbers, and personal identifying information over the phone unless you know the communication line is secure. Ideally, you should initiate the phone conversation.

Lastly, there are recommended everyday practices, such as keeping an eye on postal mail to ensure your bills are arriving when they should be, and taking the time to properly dispose of paper documents that may contain credit card numbers and other identifying personal information.

Remember: The more private and secure you keep your personal identifying information, the less susceptible to identify theft you are.

May 12, 2014
Apple’s Acquisition of Beats for $ 3.2 Billion Has a Reason

Since last morning tech columns and channels are abuzz with a takeover news. People are particularly elated with the fact that “Facebook” and “takeover” are not being said in the same sentence. Apple’s intention though is under serious questioning and there seems to be very few answers.

Beats headphones have quickly become the most visible brand across multiple medias. Especially the recent music videos have really gotten heavy on the “b” logo. But what does it mean for the company when one of the most creative corporations decides to spend $3.2 Billion on an audio equipment manufacturer who is currently valued at just $1 Billion.

Though the talks are still on and the deal could still be trashed, we try to comb through the noise to look at the facts as they stand now.

Apple has rarely invested in buyouts and takeovers. It mostly concentrates on getting technology from startups which helps it in its technological endeavors. It’s most recent purchase was of chipset manufacturer P A Semi, back in 2008 for their advanced chipset technology.

Beats on the other hand was a co-venture of Dr. Dre and legendary producer Jimmy Lovine back in 2008. The company recently took a $500 Million private equity firm Carlyle Group which took Beats’ present valuation at about $1 billion. This deal makes Dr.Dre the first billionaire rapper who could someday brag about his Spaceship in his rhymes. Which he totally deserves for giving humanity the gift called “Slim Shady”.

There is also a shadow loser in the game and it is HTC. The company even with its well appreciated products has recently been struggling keeping its market share. HTC owned half of Beats but sold all of its shares by September of last year.

The move also seems like Apple is putting its effort into creating some major hardware for the music industry, where the company has been prominent for a while with its iconic iPods. With the support from Dr. Dre and Jimmy Lovine, Apple may try to up its influence.

Steve Jobs had long emphasized that Apple’s greatest strengths lay in its software and in its ability to integrate hardware and software.

Beats had also released its music streaming service this January but it’s nothing the makers of iPod and iTunes can’t develop on their own. Also as the service is fairly new and area locked so it doesn’t have a massive consumer base like Whatsapp had when it was bought by Facebook.

It has also been contemplated that Apple would want to make profit in the non iPhone smartphone market. A healthy music equipment market seems like the right way forward.

So as of now between all the speculations the real intent of Apple behind such massive investment seems to be known only by Tim Cook’s men as of now. We just have to wait and see if this big step by Apple would bring next major leap in music industry or it will be a dud like the PowerMac Cube.

Late last night we got an “almost confirmation” by the Doctor himself, but we will still wait for the official announcement to confirm anything. You can absolutely feel the excitement in the air: It all starts with the words “Shit, the Forbes list just changed”.

May 10, 2014
Shop Online For The Perfect Mothers Day Gift

Mothers day is around the corner and we know most of you haven’t planned anything yet. Last minute shopping is a lousy alternative. Be we are here to give you some Ideas to shop online the perfect gift for your mom this Mother’s day. At iGyaan we want to make sure you pick just the right gift for the most important woman in your life.

Spa Deals

Buy a spa deal for a well deserved Sunday for your mom. There are various sites that offer such deals like groupon.co.in and dealsandyou.com

Gift sites

There are various sites which are dedicated to mothers . You can send her flowers, cakes, Jewelry etc. Some of these site who provide services are Indiangiftportal.com, mothersdaygiftgallery.com etc.

Cookbooks and Kitchen appliances

Is your mom always trying out a new recipe? Does she love cooking and feeding people? Gift her something that will help her show off those culinary skills to everyone else! You can buy her a cook book or a kitchen appliance online. You can order the cookbook on Flipkart or Amazon.

Gadgets

If your mom loves her gadgets then your life has just been made easier! Get her the latest Samsung S5 or the iPad that she’s been eyeing for a while now. You’ve noticed that she’s been putting up photos on Instagram lately; maybe buying her a new camera would encourage her to take up photography more seriously.

May 10, 2014
3 Ebook Reading Apps You Should Get Now!
Books are an essential element of our lives and a lot of us still like to read for pleasure. Eventhough it’s really hard to recreate the feel of a physical book many apps promise the next best thing. We find out which Ebook reading apps give book lovers might feel comfortable to switch to without emptying your pockets on tablets or ebook readers.

Lets understand the formats first. Epubs are a great way to read books as they have fluid movement which helps to optimize the content according to the screen on which it’s being used. PDF on the other hand is more widely known and used document more rigid as it’s designed to keep the document intact and hence requires zooming in on smaller screens. If you have a library of PDF ebooks that you would like to read on your mobile, there are many websites which offer free conversions to EPUB so that you can have a comfortable time reading them.
1. Aldiko Book reader: This is a great one stop solution for book lovers. The reader gives you some of the classics bundled with the app. Apart from that the best part of the app lets you import Epubs from your personal collection. The app is to reading books as VLC player is to listening to music and videos. There are multiple ways to sort your books and categorize them according to titles, authors, date last read, ratings, etc. Apart from these it also gives access to the feedbook store where you can buy the books or choose from the huge free library.
1. Amazon Kindle App: Unlike the Aldiko, you need to make an account with Amazon to access the Kindle app. But with that comes the access to Amazon’s Kindle store, the biggest library on the internet. The UI is empty after installation and you need to find the books which you want to read in the kindle store. The app is great for Kindle purchases for folks who don’t want to invest in a real Kindle fire.
1. Moon+ reader: This is a great Epub reader with amazing customization ability. There are options for horizontal and vertical reading, options for 3D page flip animations, options for highlighting, adding annotations and an option for installing a dictionary. The app also helps you take notes which will be helpful for academics on the move. Moon+ also supports EPUB3 through which it can play multimedia contents(video and audio). Also the app helps you chose themes to recreate your own personalized reading experience.
May 9, 2014
6 Things To Make Your Daily Social Networking More Productive

There is no doubt that social networking is the thing of our generation. Moreover with the growth of social network there are an impeccable amount of sources and opportunity. Twitter is on track to hit 500 million accounts by February. At the same time, Facebook is looking at hitting 1 billion users in August.

And it seems as if every day there are profusion of achievement stories of how people found a job through Twitter, how they found new clients or speaking gigs via Facebook, or connected to new people to expand their network. So the profit from using social networks proficiently are extremely powerful. Yet building up your personal brand through Twitter and Facebook is often a hard and overshadowing task.

So here are some tips to make your daily social networking more productive.

1. Like Maps

The great bit about having a social network that reaches over a billion people every month is that you can find all kinds of interesting information using data users share. That’s right, I’m referring to none other than Facebook, besides sharing bathroom selfies, Facebook is an awesome place to effectively promote your business in many powerful ways, one of which is the ability to attach the physical address of its location. Many pages we like on Facebook may have a physical address, but Facebook doesn’t offer a way to locate them using an interactive map of sorts. That’s what “Like Map” has tried to do, a web app that enables you to find your liked pages or search for new ones using the Google Maps API. Not only does this let you use Facebook as something like the yellow pages for finding an address, but it also makes it very easy to find other places close to the ones you’ve already visited.

2. Frequency

Frequency is a personal video service that lets you watch videos from anywhere on the internet in one place. Frequency turns the best websites and social media sites into video channels, gathering all the videos you love in real time. You’ll find videos from all of your favorite sources and all the videos your friends are sharing on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more. You can just sit back, get some popcorn and watch you whole news feed comfortably lying on your bed.

3. Jumptuit

With so many cloud storage services and social networks out there, it can get fairly hard to manage them all. Many of us try to be everywhere at once, while others need a unified place where they can easily keep an eye on their virtual presence. If you’re looking for an easy solution to consolidate your life on the cloud, Jumptuit is a new cross-platform service that aims to help you organize, move and copy files between multiple cloud storage and social media services without much hassle. It boasts a decent interface, offers a ton of great features, and supports multiple mobile and desktop platforms. Jumptuit allows you to connect a ton of different cloud and social media services including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Flickr, Facebook, Vimeo, Box, YouTube and more. Once that is done, you can easily move files from one service to another, or access the same content from multiple devices thanks to the native apps available for supported platforms. It even has a web interface that can be used in any web browser on your mobile or PC.

4. Tweetbits

Nothing beats Twitter when it comes to micro-blogging. The service has proven to everyone that much can be said in 140 characters, and the ability to gain a strong following online is very much plausible for anyone who puts the effort into it (you might have heard of them Twittelebrities). Twitter fame aside, letting you organize your favorite Tweets isn’t exactly a strong point of Twitter when it comes to its native features. And if you’re one of those people who love favoriting one tweet after another, you would know how tedious it can become to find a particular previously favored tweet from the list at a future point. Enter Tweetbits – a third-party web app for Twitter that lets you organize your favorite tweets by grouping them in custom categories.

5. Mypermission Cleaner

Every time we get on the internet, we put our privacy at stake, owing to the fact that the very services we heavily rely on are leaking our private info to third parties. That the data is mostly mined by marketing companies for advertisement purposes, or lately by intelligence agencies like NSA for mass surveillance of internet users. Though recently, a new breed of personal data collection has emerged in the form of app permissions. If you’ve ever used cloud services like Dropbox or SkyDrive and social network such as Facebook and Twitter, and have linked one of your accounts to a new web app, you might already be aware what app permissions are. MyPermissions Cleaner is a web service with a Chrome extension and apps for iOS and Android that lets you quickly clean up any previous app permissions of web apps that you may have granted during sign up process. MyPermissions Cleaner automatically scans your major online accounts on services like Google, Facebook, AOL, Dropbox, Microsoft, Instagram, Flickr etc. and lets you know what apps have access to your personal data, allowing you to manage these permissions under one roof, as well as revoke the ones you don’t need anymore.

6. Cortex

They say sharing is caring, and in today’s modern society, the internet is the best resource to gather and share information with others. Therefore, people are constantly engaged in sharing pictures, photos, videos and other form of media through social networks and other content sharing services. But if you still find it hard to instantly share any type of content with your friends and others on social media, and use Google Chrome as your primary web browser, Cortex is probably one of the best extensions to help you tackle this problem. It lets you share photos, videos, news, blog posts, graphics and other type of links to a wide array of networks with a single mouse click. Cortex supports pretty much every popular online sharing service as of this writing, including Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instapaper, Pocket, Gmail, Backplane, Postrous as well as Share to all. In addition, it allows you to share almost any kind of content you come across the web.

May 9, 2014
Up Your Instagram Game: Top Apps for the Power User
There isn’t a dearth of third party apps which support Instagram. Just to name a few, we have – Insta Frame, Insta Greeting Card, Insta Collage Effect, Insta Photo Fx, Insta Editor, and Insta Split Cam – the list goes on.

We sort through the mess and round up the top apps you should download. They will definitely make you the most Insta-saavy person around.
1. Pixsta
  
  Sometimes we feel that the creators of Instagram purposely made the app with certain restrictions. We can’t think of a reason why they’d only allow us to access our accounts via mobile devices. The desktop version is only useful if you want to scroll through your newsfeed. You can download Pixsta to access it better. Drawbacks? Compared to Instagram, the interface is quite cluttered and they still haven’t figured out a way for us to post pictures.
2. Instasize
  
  We get it, the sole idea of Instagram was to click and share instantly – the style and idea reminiscent of the Polaroid Kodak. But what about all the pictures that have already been clicked in the 4:3 aspect ratio. The kinds we need for Throwback Thursday, Flashback Friday or Way Back Wednesday? This distinctive feature, which restraints us to the square shape, has annoyed us on several occasions. We refuse to stay within the box! Insta Size helps beat the crop box, by re-sizing images.
3. Flipagram
  
  You threw a party and can’t wait to share what an amazing time you had. Instead of boring your followers by posting all the pictures separately, use this app to create a quick video slideshow. You have an option of choosing the speed of the pictures and titles can also be included. It’s the easiest way to tell your story, without the countless posts. Depending on the feel of your party, you can even select your soundtrack.
4. Afterlight
  
  Instagram filters are great and have a knack for making everything more beautiful. But you have to see the adjustment and options that Afterlight has to offer – it gives you further options which make your images look more artistic. You have a varied choice between filters, textures, frames, cropping and transforming tools. A paid app, but worth every penny spent.
May 7, 2014
Quick Tip: Sync Your iPod to a New Desktop Without Losing Music

Picture this: You’ve recently bought a new computer (the last one died out on you.) Once you sync your iPod to it, all your old songs vanish. Still aching from pains of your laptop dying, losing out on all the music you’ve collected through the years – might just be too much to handle.

There is an alternative, it’s quite a simple task to change the sync settings on your iPod. Here’s what you need to do:

Things You’ll Need

[icon name=”square-o”] iTunes

[icon name=”square-o”] iPod

Instructions

[icon type=”rectangle” size=”small” name=”e-check”]Download and install iTunes on the new computer.

[icon type=”rectangle” size=”small” name=”e-check”]Connect the iPod you’re syncing to the new computer using the player’s USB cable.

[icon type=”rectangle” size=”small” name=”e-check”]Open the iTunes software. Wait a few seconds and the name of the player will appear in the left iTunes column (under “Devices”). Click the iPod name.

[icon type=”rectangle” size=”small” name=”e-check”]Various tabs will appear listed near the top of the iTunes program

[icon type=”rectangle” size=”small” name=”e-check”]Click the “Summary” tab. Options will be visible in the middle of iTunes.

[icon type=”rectangle” size=”small” name=”e-check”]Click on the box that is positioned directly next to the “Manually manage music and videos” option.

[icon type=”rectangle” size=”small” name=”e-check”]Click the “Apply” button, found under the previous mentioned options. The iPod will sync to the new computer without any damage.

May 6, 2014
The Z-2: Next Generation Space Suits by NASA

Ever since Yuri Gagarin set a milestone for the human race in 1961, the quest for leaving the gravitational restrictions of planet earth and floating in the mammoth void of space has gained momentum. Over the last 50 years human space flight technology has taken a giant leap. Space suits are required to provide astronauts with: Protection from extreme pressure variations, protection from the Sun’s and cosmic radiation, mobility, breathable air, regulation, communication systems and the ability to collect both solid and liquid wastes of the human body.

Clearly, space suits have to perform exceptionally in all the above aspects as they are to be entrusted with a highly trained human life. As NASA plans to set a human base on Mars in 2030, there is a race to get the technology for interplanetary travel up to speed.

NASA’s Z-2 Spacesuit is a project under the Advanced Exploration Systems Division which pioneers the development and demonstration of new technologies for future human missions beyond Earth orbit as part of the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.

They asked the general public to vote on three options dubbed Technology, Bio mimicry and Trends in Public. The Technology option won easily, with almost 60% votes, most likely because of its Tron-like appearance. But the picture released by NASA seems to resemble more like Gru’s(Despicable Me) Suit.

The Z-2 will go under extensive testing sessions. Engineers will conduct multiple vacuum chamber tests, including one series at full vacuum, mimicking the lack of atmosphere found in space. The tests will take place at the Neutral Buoyancy Lab – the huge indoor pool used to train astronauts to spacewalk. Also, the rocky Martian surface tests will help evaluate the suit’s mobility, comfort and performance for the Red planet. Ultimately, all of these tests will guide engineers in designing the Z-3.

Engineers and scientists around the world are working hard to develop super technologies. They’re hoping that astronauts will, one day, use them to live and work on Mars and return safely home after taking a giant leap for humanity.

May 5, 2014
Meet Rajeev Suri – As He Takes On The Reigns of Nokia

The Legend has fallen, sounds like a Transformers title, but in Nokia’s case it’s true.

After an indomitable hegemony in the mobile phones market for more than a decade, the company sold its mobile phone division to Microsoft corporation in a $7.2 billion takeover. The takeover happened because of continued losses during the last 3 years, so much so that the company was forced to sell their headquarters and lease the premises. Now the company has decided to put strong efforts in hopes for a turnaround. It has decided to concentrate on its Network, Softwares and Maps divisions. Nokia also has a huge patents division which might help it reclaim its lost throne, unfortunately though they don’t have any dragons.

For this task they have recruited the Indian born, Singaporean Citizen Rajeev Suri as Nokia’s CEO. In the past couple of years, Suri was responsible for the turnaround of Nokia’s main telecoms network business. He took his chair on the 1st of May replacing their Ex-CEO Stephen Elop who is directly blamed for Nokia Mobile’s demise.

Rajeev Suri did his graduation in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology, India (class of 1989). This school’s other famous alumni includes Microsoft’s present CEO, Satya Nadella. This must be a proud moment for the institution’s history.

Mr. Suri who joined Nokia in 1995, previously headed the networks division and it proved to be profitable for the company under his leadership. He has extensive experience in the fields of strategy, mergers & acquisitions, product marketing, sales, major account leadership, regional and business unit leadership and has lived all across the northern hemisphere except the America.

Suri also stands apart from the others because he is one of the rare few to reach such great career heights without an MBA or PG degree under his belt. So if your parents are pressuring you to get another diploma in higher education, you now know whose example you should quote.

He is definitely going to face some challenges as the CEO. Even though Nokia’s networks division accounted for about 90 percent of sales from the group’s continuing businesses last year, it faces tough challenges from companies who still have deep pockets in game like Ericson and Huawei. Also he will have to take some tough decisions to bring down the debt by 2 billion.

The entire world will have their eye on this guy to see if he can recreate the magic he showcased as the head of the networks division. We at iGyaan, wish him the best and hope he will be the savior that Nokia desperately needs.

May 3, 2014
Websites We Wish We Had in India

The last decade saw the entrance of e-commerce giants Ebay and Amazon, in India. The interest of overseas websites in the Indian market has consistently increased. Undeniably, our country has a huge untapped market of online users. Yet we’re still waiting and wishing to experience some amazing websites, which are a part of everyday lives abroad.

Here’s a list of websites, we’re hoping launch here soon:

Television and Movies

Netflix

Netflix, Inc. is an American supplier of on-demand Internet streaming media accessible to viewers in North and South America, the Caribbean, and parts of Europe. They also have a service of flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States, where mailed DVDs are sent via Permit Reply Mail. Whenever you try to access Netflix India, they crush your hopes and send you a notification informing you that it is not available in India. Though, they ask you to register and promise to inform you when it launches.

Hulu

Hulu is a website subscription service offering on-demand streaming video of TV shows, movies, webisodes, trailers, clips, and behind-the-scenes footage from NBC, Fox, ABC, TBS, WWE, and many other major networks and studios. Hulu videos are currently offered only to users in the United States, its overseas territories and Japan.
Earlier many people outside the US used to access Hulu from their respective nations. But now TV streaming service supplier is functioning on rigid rules to make sure that people out of the country are not able to access its program library. Going a step further. the company is now trying to make sure that it is able to stop anyone trying to access its library from virtual private network (VPN) or through proxy.

Red Box Instant

Redbox Automated Retail, LLC is a contributory of Outerwall, Inc. specializing in DVD, Blu-ray Discs, and video game rentals via computerized retail kiosks. As of the end of November 2012, Redbox had over 42,000 kiosks at more than 34,000 locations. Redbox titles can be rented or purchased, in SD or HD quality. Redbox is also cheaper than Netflix. For $8(Rs 480 approx) a month, Redbox Instant provides unlimited streaming of movies and lets you borrow four DVDs. When customers rent a title, they have 30 days to begin watching it and then 48 hours to watch it as many times as they like. It seems like we are a long way from seeing Redbox kiosks or any similar services in India.

Music

Spotify

Spotify is a profitable music streaming service providing digital rights management-restricted content from record labels including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group and Universal. Music can be browsed by artist, album, genre, playlist, or record label, as well as by direct searches. Spotify was launched in 2008, and now it is available in over 40 countries all over the world, however India is not a part of that exclusive list.

There are many websites and apps which are tagged as ‘Indian Spotify’ such as Saavn, Dhingaana and Gaana but none of the as good as Spotify. These websites are trying hard to compete with each other, but none of them have impressive music lists or social media integration – which Spotify is known for.

Vevo

Vevo is a video hosting service owned and operated by a joint undertaking of Universal Music Group, Google, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media. It launched on December 8, 2009. The videos on Vevo are syndicated across the web, with Google and Vevo sharing the advertising revenue.

Since launching in 2009, Vevo has become the go-to place for watching music videos online. But it hasn’t been available everywhere. Though you can watch most of Vevo videos on its YouTube channel, it doesn’t have the entire collection of videos launched by them.

Pandora Radio

Pandora Radio is a music streaming and automated music recommendation service operated by Pandora Media, Inc. It is only available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. It is a feedback-based music recommendation in which the user provides positive or negative feedback for songs chosen by the service, which are taken into account when Pandora selects future songs. While listening, users are offered the ability to buy the songs or albums at various online retailers. Over 400 different musical attributes are considered when selecting the next song.

India’s internet market, not only misses Pandora, it currently has no such service available. Last.fm has similar features, but it is not as user-friendly as Pandora Radio.

May 2, 2014
Print Goes Pocket Size

Some people say print is dead. With pendrives and cloud sharing, printing documents and pictures seems unnecessary. But what if you could carry a printer in your pocket or you bag. Wouldn’t that be awesome?

ZUtA Pocket Printer is a simple, softball sized and is compatible with any electronic device and can be used anywhere, anytime. The idea was born when a team of students in Jerusalem College of Technology got together to add some innovation to the printing industry. As students they finishes assignments in library’s, trains, parks, and cafes. Once their work was done, they always had a hard time finding a place to print. Hence, they came up with the idea of this portable printer.

Since it doesn’t necessitate any special drivers, it can be accessed via computers, smart phones or tablets, by using the traditional print function or an app. It will work with paper of any size and will print roughly 1,000 sheets of paper on a standard, disposable ink cartridge. The printer will last for up to an hour on full battery and can be recharged via a USB cable.

Its teardrop design allow users to line it up with the angle of the paper to make sure their documents come out straight. It then rolls athwart the blank sheet on small, multi-directional wheels while ejecting ink. The printer is intended not only for smaller documents, such as tickets or notes from a meeting, but also for larger documents with multiple pages. It will be designed to wait for the user to place it on a new sheet of paper before continuing the job. An average page of text will be able to print in approximately 40-45 second.

The design for the ZUtA Pocket Printer was stimulated by private inevitability. Elbaum, co-founder of ZUtA Labs, said that as an entrepreneur he has often found himself functioning on the go and it befuddled him that, given everything else we can do, we still can’t print from mobile devices. Other devices advertised as portable are constrained to the size of the paper they use, which means that they can’t be nearly as mobile as the ZUtA product.

The Kickstarter campaign for the ZUtA Pocket Printer has been widely successful. It has raised more than $450,000 out of a $400,000 goal with 12 days still on the clock. The device, which will retail for about $240, is expected to go to production in September and be shipped to Kickstarter backers in January.

May 2, 2014
Major Tech Blunders of the Last Decade

If you are a 90’s kid or have lived through them, you’ve had the wonderful opportunity to witness the physical evolution of the electronic devices in front of your very own eyes. I remember being 13 and having access to internet for the first time. It was a thrill to wait 30 minutes to wait for a single image to load. We saw the transition from pagers to cellphones to smartphones. The noughties was an era of innovation explosion, almost reminiscent of the gold rush.

As with every new innovation, the success path is paved through by a series of failures. So here is a list of some of the major tech blunders of the past decade:

1. Microsoft Zune:

You may ask, “what’s a Zune?”, well, that’s exactly the point we’re trying to make. Microsoft’s “iPod killer” was no match for Steve Jobs’ marvel contribution to consumer electronics. The device wasn’t as bad as it has been played out to be, it just wasn’t any different from the iPod. In fact, the Zune HD was appreciated by a lot of people. The problem could be that it was launched way late into the game – while the iPod was released in 2001, Zune was released in 2006. By that time Apple had settles comfortably into the market, with large number of existing consumers. It also trampled Zune’s reputation by launching massive marketing campaigns to ridicule it across various medias. In 2011 Microsoft finally gave up and pulled the plug on it.

2. HD-DVD by Toshiba:

It was called the war of the HD Discs. The reason for the war was to find the right media forward for high definition content. Blu Ray won the war easily. One of the major reasons for the HD-DVD shutdown was Sony. The company used its production studio might to convince all other major studios to back Blu-Ray and help it become the release standard for High definition content. The final blow to HD-DVD was Warner Bros. and WalMart siding with Blu-Ray. Toshiba ended up losing a billion dollar because of this attempted venture.

3. Palm:

Palm were the manufactures of portable wireless devices and operating systems. They were the creators of the WebOS, an innovative and cutting edge operating system. They were also one of the first manufacturers of smartphones. By 2009 they started dealing with multiple production delays and the company was slow to realize that consumers wanted wireless voice and data combined in one device. Palm was taken over by HP, who after just eight months of marketing the new devices based on the webOS, shut down the program and sold the webOS to LG. Now LG has incorporated the OS in their new line of Smart + TV’s.

4. Windows Vista:

Not to be too hard on Microsoft, but they brought this upon themselves. Vista was heavy on the processor, took 50% computing power to run the OS and was even incompatible with a lot of older systems. Vista was marketed as 6 different versions, further confusing the users who decided to stick with their Windows XP. There were regular glitches with the Vista which further persuaded users to stick with the XP. Most of the issues of the Vista were later corrected in the Windows 7 operating systems. The famous Justin Long featured Apple commercials also did major perceptional damage to the Vista.

5. Nokia N-Gage:

This was a dream phone of every teenager which burst as soon as they got their hands on it. It was novel idea during the time of its release but the lack of game selections and crummy design spelled its doom. If it was planned better it could have become one of the top selling gaming phones and would have given a real competition to the PSP or Game Boy Advance. Instead here is a poorly designed phone which was priced twice as much as a PSP.

6. Apple Cube:

This would probably be Steve Jobs biggest blunder. Apple Power Mac G4 Cube was a Cube shaped personal computer suspended in an impressive acrylic glass casing. While it got rave reviews for its design, the system was impractical to upgrade. Also, there were numerous complains about cracks in the clear plastic casings. The product was only sold for a year before being shut down to put more emphasis on the iMacs.

7. Segway:

You might remember Akshay Kumar riding it in Desi Boyz or if you are a Marvel fanboy like me, you would have seen the most badass Iron Man villain, Jeff Bridges, riding it in the first movie. It was prompted as the replacement of “Walking”, yes that biological function that can be done for free, while on the other hand a Segway could set you back $5000. It was supposed to prevent the rider from falling which was proved wrong when the former US president George W Bush fell off it. The plan was to sell 50,000 to 100,000 units in the first year, instead only 30,000 Segways were sold between 2001 to 2007. Now its mostly used by mall and airport security.

May 1, 2014