Google yesterday finally unveiled its Android One line of phones. The phones are brought in cooperation with three Indian companies, Micromax, Karbonn and Spice.
We check out Micromax’s Android One variant called the Canvas A1. The phone comes with the latest Android Kitkat V4.4.4 which is a plus. The phones also get Airtel’s 6 month data pack through which users get automatic updates and free app download. The specs are good for the price and it is a great buy for people shifting from feature phones to smartphones.
The two new phones by Apple – the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, announced last week, went up for pre-order on 12th September. Apple reports that within the first 24 hours they recorded more than 4 million orders. The deliveries of these phones will begin on Friday.
In terms of the previous models, for the iPhone 5, Apple took two million orders when it was first launched in September 2012. However, the company did not reveal the numbers for the editions that came in 2013; the iPhone 5S and 5C.
The new iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, have a 4.7 inch display and a 5.5 inch display respectively. The phones despite being bigger, are lighter and thinner. The iPhone 6 is 6.9 mm and the new iPhone 6 Plus is only 7.1 mm thick. At the mega-event held in Cupertino, Apple also announced that the iPhone 6 is up to 50% more energy efficient. The new A8 chip has up to 25% faster processing power and up to 50% faster graphics.
The major development with these iPhones was that Apple launched a new Apple Pay payment system that uses NFC and Touch ID. Virtual credit cards can be stored in Passbook, without the actual number being stored, for which Apple creates a secure temporary payment ID.
This year, Apple received quite a bit of criticism for slow adaption of technology. Clearly, these numbers speak otherwise. We’ll have to wait till next month to see how the Indian market responds.
Adidas, the German sportswear giant, has introduced a new smart watch called the miCoach Smart Run. The new smartwatch, according to the company, is the most advanced and intuitive wrist based running device in the market. The smartwatch, which will be available exclusively on the Adidas website, will also allow runners to track their runs using GPS mapping.
“There are no cables, straps and additional sensors with this all-in-one device — Smart Run uses optical technology to track heart rate from wrist, an in-built accelerometer counting every step to help monitor stride rate and GPS to track speed, distance and logs,” said the company in a statement.
The watch is priced at Rs. 24,999 and is exclusively available at shop.adidas.co.in. The new device sports a 1.45 inch color touch screen display and also a MP3 player with Bluetooth wireless audio delivers music and audible coaching guidance. The Adidas miCoach app is already available on iOS and Android devices.
The new emerging market of smartwatches is swelling in a rapid speed with new devices launching practically every week. Last week, Apple announced its much-awaited smart watch called the Apple Watch, which comes with expensive sensors and NFC. While new Apple Watch is not dedicated to healthcare or athletics, it support apps like pedometer and heart rate monitor to help users monitor various bodily functions.
The Xperia E3, shown off by the company at IFA Berlin 2014, is a handset with lower specs matching its lower price point. And Sony launched the Xperia E3 and its dual SIM variant in India today.
The Sony Xperia E3 Dual comes in white, black and lime colour variants. It is priced at Rs. 12,990. On the other hand, the Xperia E3 comes in black and white color variants and is priced at Rs. 11,990. Both the single SIM and dual SIM variants sport similar specs which include a 4.5-inch capacitive touch screen display offering a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. Both come powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon 400 (MSM8226) processor with Adreno 305 GPU. The latest handsets are backed by 1GB RAM and run on 4.4 KitKat.
They come with a 5 megapixel camera on the rear with LED flash capable of recording video at 1080p and a 0.3MP (VGA) front-facing snapper. The camera also includes Sony’s innovative auto scene recognition feature and HDR for pictures. The camera apps that come pre-installed with the Xperia E3 include – AR fun, Social live, Timeshift Burst and AR Effect.
The E3 and E3 Dual both come with a 2330mAh battery and Sony’s STAMINA mode for enhanced battery performance which delivers up to 12 hours 20 minutes of talk time, and up to 706 hours of standby time. The network and connectivity options include – 4G LTE, 3G, GPRS/ EDGE, Wi-Fi, A-GPS with Glonass, USB 2.0, FM radio with RDS, Bluetooth 4.0, and a 3.5mm jack.
Since Google has also announced its first lot of Android One handsets in India yesterday, the new Xperia E3 smartphones are here to face a ton of competition in the market.
The new Xolo Play 8X-1100 is a new edition of Xolo’s Play series. The new handset will be competing against the likes of Xiaomi Mi3 and Moto G (gen 2). Xolo Play 8X-1100 comes with a 5-inch 720×1280 display, powered by a 1.7GHz processor alongside 2GB RAM and a 13-megapixel rear camera.
The device runs on Android 4.4 KitKat, supports USB OTG and is powered by 2100 mAh battery.
World’s biggest E-tail giant, Amazon got a jolt from the Karnataka tax authorities yesterday. Amazon’s Bangalore warehouse was taken over by the authorities. The warehouse was dedicated to the ‘Fulfilled by Amazon’(FBA) segment of products. Amazon stores these products in its warehouses and takes care of its delivery to the customers.
A few days back WSJ reported, “The Enforcement Directorate of the Finance Ministry is investigating whether Amazon.com’s fully owned Indian subsidiary has been circumventing restrictions on foreign investment in retail by selling directly to customers while making it look as if the sales are being made by other companies.”
Using Amazon’s Fulfillment service sellers can reduce warehouse and shipment costs.
The Karnataka government went ahead and served notices to over a hundred sellers who used ‘Fulfilled by Amazon’ service. It has ordered them to desist from storing their products in Amazon warehouses. The notice also said the sellers cannot register Amazon’s warehouses as an additional place of business.
There aren’t any set tax regulations for e-commerce businesses as of yet and that lead to this arbitrary action by the authorities. The authorities are known to have said that they cannot let such a practice continue. They should rather find out ways of amicably solving the issue as this could dissuade e-commerce companies from scaling up their functions. This may hamper the growth of the burgoening market.
An Amazon spokesperson said in an email statement to LiveMint, “We understand this to be a case where the laws have not kept pace with the new-age online business models that enable a faster, convenient and nationwide access to customers for sellers, especially small and medium businesses, at significantly low costs. We look forward to an early resolution in order to avoid closing our local warehousing operations in Karnataka and to stay on course for bringing more investments in the state.”
E-commerce is a fast growing segment in this country. India’s e-commerce market was worth about $2.5 billion in 2009; it went up to $6.3 billion in 2011 and to $14 billion in 2012. This year saw many companies going for exclusive tie-ups with several e-commerce websites. E-commerce is also beneficial to the customers as it decreases marketing costs for the company which is passed on the consumer, as was the case with Xiaomi Redmi 1S. The need now is for the government to come up with proper regulations so that issues like this don’t happen in the future. It causes a loss, not just for Amazon, but along with it, the sellers as well as the buyers are left in a limbo.
Microsoft yesterday released a press statement saying that it has acquired Mojang in a massive $2.5 Billion deal. The Stockholm-based game developer is known majorly for its virtual world creation game, Minecraft. This will be a new addition in the list of several big money acquisitions that we have seen this year.
There were many interested parties who wanted to get the gaming company, but Microsoft moved fast to score a victory. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will acquire Mojang for $2.5 billion. Microsoft expects to close the acquisition in late 2014 and to be break-even in FY15 on a GAAP basis.
The Game lets users make complex structures using lego-like blocks.
Minecraft was introduced in 2009 and since then has sold more than 50 million copies for PCs, smartphones and videogame consoles. The game has a huge fan following. YouTube is full of tutorials on Minecraft. There is also an upcoming movie based on the game and Lego also sells toys based on the game. This almost seems like a safe bet from Microsoft and hence they sound so optimistic of their acquisition.
“Gaming is a top activity spanning devices, from PCs and consoles to tablets and mobile, with billions of hours spent each year,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Minecraft is more than a great game franchise – it is an open world platform, driven by a vibrant community we care deeply about, and rich with new opportunities for that community and for Microsoft.”
The weird bit of this sale is that the creator of the game Markus Persson and other founders will not be coming to Microsoft. They have decided to undertake new adventures. On his personal website, Markus said, “Thank you for turning ‘Minecraft’ into what it has become, but there are too many of you, and I can’t be responsible for something this big.”
The game has a massive fan following who share tutorials all over the internet
Impressing the fans now would be a big task for Microsoft. Some of them have openly stated that a big corporation will ruin the game. Microsoft though said that it will do everything in its power to sustain the loyalties of the gamers.
The CEO of Mojang, Carl Manneh has this to say “The ‘Minecraft’ players have taken the game and turned it into something that surpassed all of our expectations. The acquisition by Microsoft brings a new chapter to the incredible story of ‘Minecraft.’ As the founders move on to start new projects, we believe the high level of creativity from the community will continue the game’s success far into the future. ”
Microsoft has said that more details about the deal will be published after the finalization of the acquisition. Microsoft is no stranger to gaming and is a market leader in gaming consoles. The innovation it brings to this game remains to be seen. Let’s hope Microsoft doesn’t make a Vista out of this one.
As expected, Microsoft is all set to announce the new major version of the Windows OS. In line with the developing rumors, Microsoft has rolled out the invites of the Windows 9 event which is going to be held on September 30th in San Francisco. The event will focus on enterprise and power users of Windows, with Joe Belfiore and Terry Myerson leading a discussion about the future of Windows.
The company is expected to roll out the “Windows Technical Preview” at the event or soon after, so that developers and enterprise customers can test the number of changes the company has made. The recent rumors and leaks had suggested the addition of a new Start menu, a virtual desktops feature, and a Notification Center.
Microsoft is also expected to fine-tune its desktop user interface to improve and flatten the traditional icons along with some changes in the taskbar for Contara integration and virtual desktop. Other changes are expected to come on a regular basis. The Windows Technical Preview will be available until the operating system is complete and ready for release next year.
From the Creators of Halo and the company that brought you Call of Duty. In Destiny you are a Guardian of the last city on Earth, able to wield incredible power. Explore the ancient ruins of our solar system, from the red dunes of Mars to the lush jungles of Venus. Defeat Earth’s enemies. The Experience of startup gameplay is amazing and the graphics lead you to understand what an adventure lies ahead.
Whatsapp, the popular messaging app, has given a hard time to telecom operators by eating up their revenue. However, Whatsapp’s arsenal had been missing one big feature, Voice calling. Talks about the new voice calling feature on Whatsapp have been on since February. It all started when WhatsApp CEO, Jan Kuom, announced that the voice calling feature would be added to Android and iPhones first, followed by BlackBerry, Nokia and Microsoft platforms.
Now, it seems that the long-awaited feature will come to the app sooner than expected. A pop-up has been spotted on the app window that seeks user’s permission to use the microphone, hinting the voice-calling feature to be a part of their next update. The latest WhatsApp update was released for the iPhone on September 8. With it, WhatsApp added several features such as improved location sharing and fast camera access.
However, the release notes never mentioned about a pop-up, which requests access to the microphone every time the app is opened. The pop-up will only appear to those people who have not already allowed the app to access their device’s microphone.
WhatsApp is the world’s most popular messaging app with over 600 million users. The messaging app was acquired by Facebook earlier this year in a deal worth $19 billion.
YouTube is huge. It’s practically impossible for a single human being to watch all that there is on this massive website. Most importantly, the state of the internet in India is well known. The poor connectivity and the pricey access to internet lead many to stay away from watching multimedia-heavy content like videos. Watching videos on mobile data connection is a big no-no as they can incur massive costs.
The folks, who do have regular access to a decent internet connection, still prefer to save the videos through some semi-illegal means to avoid buffering. Now Google is going to officially allow Indian YouTube users to watch their favorite videos offline for as many times they want.
Ceasar Sengupta, Google Vice President Product Management said “YouTube is popular here. You watch some videos again and again. How awesome would it be if you could keep watching them again and again without having to pay for data, and take the videos with you wherever you go?”
India still is a massive video subscriber as a whole. According to comscore, the total online video audience in India saw growth of over 70 per cent in 2013 with the average viewer watching 18 per cent more videos and spending 28 per cent more time viewing them. YouTube alone gets over 60 million unique users a month and about one-third of the traffic coming from mobile phones. The country as a whole watches about 3.7 billion videos per month.
This will be the second gift to India from Google after the launch of the Android One devices. India has no shortage of amazing YouTube talent. Sure iGyaan is awesome, but there are folks who are doing some amazing stuff too. This move by Google will help take these talents even further as people can just save the videos offline and take them to areas with no internet and propagate the video. Though that won’t increase the view count on YouTube, it will still bring the awesomeness of Indian YouTubers to a new, wider audience.
It appears that Google is seeing India as a major market. India is the first country where Google has introduced the Android One line-up of phones. It can also be the case that the huge Indian diaspora at Google is helping to develop their homeland. Whatever the case may be, the Indian population can only benefit from the inflow of innovative resources from this gigantic corporation. Let’s hope to see this partnership grow and hopefully someday soon, India will become testing grounds for the Google Fibre. That day will be celebrated as a second Diwali.
We check out the uber affordable Xiaomi earphones. They’re priced at Rs. 999 and are available exclusively on Flipkart. You can buy a pair using the link below.
So, we have waited long for the Android One devices. The phones were announced at the Google I/O this year, and they are finally here for the world to see. Today Google launched the three phones that it had announced previously.
The Micromax Canvas A1, Karbonn Sparkle V And Spice Dream Uno is the trio that will begin the big Android One experiment. The phones are presently only available online and will be in stores from next month. They went on sale at 3.30PM today.
Canvas win has a recognizable camera design which is the best amongst competitors
As mentioned earlier, Android One is Google providing standard specifications to OEM’s so that they can provide those features to low-cost devices directly. These devices come with the latest Android operating system, i.e., KitKat 4.4. They all have similar specs and are different only in the way they are designed. Out of these three devices, Micromax gets the pole position on the designing front. The Canvas A1 has a beautiful wooden-like platform for the main camera on the back of the device.
Karbonn Sparkle V comes in many color options.
All these devices have a 4.5 inch FWVGA (854 x 480 Pixels) displays and are powered by a 1700 mAh battery. The processor on the devices is a MediaTek SoC with a 1.3GHz quad-core processor and Mali 400 GPU paired with 1GB of RAM. On the back, the devices have a 5 MP camera with LED Flash. For selfie convenience, the phone provides a 2 MP camera.
It can be observed that the specifications on these devices seem limited in comparison to devices like the Moto E and the Redmi 1S. The advantage these devices have is automatic updates from Google, which keep them up-to-date. This can be a great device for people wanting a stock Android experience.
The companies have chosen different online retail partners for their devices. While Micromax chose Amazon as their exclusive Android One partner, Spice and Karbonn chose Flipkart and Snapdeal respectively. You can expect some competition amongst these e-tail giants too.
This is just the beginning for Android One. Google plans to involve new partners. It has announced that Acer, Alcatel, ASUS, HTC, Intex, Lava, Lenovo, Panasonic and Xolo will soon be launching smartphones under the Android One program.
These phones are pocket friendly and will encourage others to make similar devices
On the price front, the Karbonn Sparkle V is priced at Rs.6399. The Micromax Canvas gets a price tag of Rs. 6499, while the Spice Dream Uno is the cheapest with a tag of Rs. 6299.
As expected, the phones come with 6-month free update and app download package from Airtel. In a press statement, the Chief Product Officer of Bharti Airtel, Anand Chandrasekaran said, “Android One customers on Airtel will be able to stay updated on the latest Android version and update all their apps at no additional data charges. Customers can enjoy 100 MB of data per month for 6 months for software updates and 200 MB per month for 6 months for app downloads and updates on the first prepaid active Airtel SIM inserted in the Android One device.”
The phones come with 6 month data plans from Airtel
Overall, the Android One line of devices seem like Google’s direct link to the lower-end consumers. The biggest issue with Android platform is high levels of fragmentation, devices running older versions of the OS are still available for sale in the market. With the lessons learnt by this initiative, the Android team may be able to provide a better integration of its OS across devices.
It will be interesting to see how this experiment pans out in India as Google intends to expand the initiative to Indonesia, Philippines and other South Asian countries by the end of 2014. It also plans to take to more countries in 2015. It seems the end of woes of lower-end Android customers is close to being over.
Google has unveiled the first Android One phone in India. The phone will come from the Indian Phone company, Karbonn and will be called the Sparkle V.
The Karbonn Sparkle V is a Dual Sim phone. It comes with Android Kitkat 4.4 out of the box. It has a 4.5 inch FWVGA (480×854) display. The device carries 1 GB RAM and is powered by a 1700 mAh battery.
The internal memory on the device is 4 GB and is expandable up to 32 GB. Sparkle V has a 5 Megapixel camera on the back and a 2 MP camera on the front. It also comes with sensors such as G-Sensor, Proximity sensor, Light sensor, E-Compass and Gyro Sensor.
The phone is future proof as it will automatically update to the next available version of operating system. The makers claim that the phone is capable of handling HD games and provides smooth multi-tasking ability. The phone offers users a variety of applications and features which are pre-loaded in the phone.
Android One is an initiative by Google to bring a standard Android experience across all Android devices. They want to decrease the burden of R&D on small smartphone companies by providing them with standard hardware options for their devices.
Google has been bringing its devices in partnership with various companies. For its Nexus lineup of devices Google had partnered with the likes of Samsung, LG, Asus and others. Now for its affordable line-up of devices the company will be partnering with some prominent Indian brands such as Micromax, Karbon and Spice. But how does this matter to the average smartphone buyer? Well, here is how.
1. Quality Control
Through this project Google can make sure the end customer is getting the same experience that it had intended. The phones will be marketed at a price of Rs.6000 but will not be light on features as it will have Google approved hardware.
2. Specifications
The phones are expected to feature the standard set of features such dual-core chip, 5MP camera, removable SD card, 4.5 inch display and Media Tek processor. Further specs will be cleared after the launch.
3. Full Android Experience
Services such as Google Play are absent from some low-cost devices which make it hard for users to get access to important services. With Android One, this problem goes out of the window. Google will ensure full functionality of these devices.
4. Updates
Android updates are a giant pain. The large variation of devices makes it difficult to provide updates for each specific phone. The Android One phones are expected to get regular updates. The updates will help fix various bugs that diminished the performance of the devices over time.
5. Free Data Services
Google says that it has partnered with networks to provide free access to updates. It means that the users wouldn’t have to wait for access to Wi-Fi hotspots to get system updates. How this works, would be made clear at the launch.
If the Android One devices are successful, Google will be able to easily maintain its lead in the mobile OS game. Android has already percolated to various devices. Google can concentrate on making Android more desirable on device apart from smartphones, thereby giving a standard, recognizable operating system that will bring an ease in dealing with multiple devices.
There is a lot hanging on the success of Android One. The initiative has already attracted a lot of attention from the competitors. The launch today will clear if Google’s latest experiment is appreciable or just a marketing gimmick. Keep checking this spot for more.
