Tag: india

Apple iPad Air 2 and Mini 3 to Make a Footfall in India Today

Cupertino-based giant Apple is reportedly planning to release the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 in India today. The company launched the iPad Air 2 as well as the iPad mini 3 last month. Popular PC vendor ITNET Infocom lately confirmed (via Twitter) that the new Apple iPad series slates will hit the Indian stores today. “iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 coming tomorrow,” said the ITNET Twitter handle.

The company has already announced the pricing for the products in India. The iPad Air 2 will be available at Rs. 35,900 for the 16 GB Wi-Fi only model, while the iPad mini 3 will sell at a price of Rs. 28,900. The iPad Air 2 models with only Wi-Fi comes in 64 GB and 128 GB of storage variants, and will cost Rs. 42,900 and Rs. 49,900 respectively. Besides this, the Wi-Fi only iPad mini 3 models with 64 GB and 128 GB of storage capacities will cost Rs. 35,900 and Rs. 42,900 respectively.

Ipad air 2 and ipad mini 3 coming tomorrow

— ITNET (@itnetinfocom) November 20, 2014

Apple India home page has been updated with iPad Air 2 photos saying ‘Change is in the Air.’ Previously, the page showed the iPhone 6 series images since its official launch in September. Now, the change in Apple’s home page has given way to the speculations that the new iPad series tablets might get released this weekend.

The new refreshed Air is 18 percent thinner with a thickness of just 6.1 mm. As expected, it is powered by the new Intel A8x Chip, a 2nd gen 64-bit architecture, which is 12 times faster than the current one. Apple claims that the graphics performance of the new iPad Air 2 is 180 times faster, which gives console-like gaming experience on the iPad Air 2.

iPad mini 3

On the other hand, the iPad mini 3 is a minor upgrade over last year’s iPad mini 2. It features a 7.9-inch (2048×1536 pixels) display and is powered by a 64-bit A7 dual-core processor paired with M7 co-processor and 1 GB of RAM. It also features a 5-megapixel rear camera, 1.2 megapixel front camera, a battery that is good enough to last 10 hours, and a TouchID sensor. On the software front, it too runs on iOS 8.1.

November 21, 2014
Xiaomi Hints at the Arrival of Redmi Note in India

It is been a while since Xiaomi has launched a new product in India. While the Chinese company is busy preparing for occasional flash sales and celebrating the new tag of being the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, it seems like the company is moving forward in the Indian market with new offerings.

In a recent post on Facebook, Hugo Barra (Vice President of International for Xiaomi) mentioned that the Redmi Note is finally ready for India. The device was expected to launch a month back, however, it didn’t happen. In an interview with a popular publication last month, Barra said that the Redmi Note will come to India in late October or early November. It looks like the early November in the Chinese calendar is here.

In the Facebook post, Bara mentioned “Mi Indonesia: 10,000 Redmi Note out of stock in under 40 secs today!” adding that the next in the list will be India. The post further mentioned that the Xiaomi’s Vice President’s may have landed in Bangalore, India for the same reason – launch of Redmi Note. Xiaomi India Head Manu Jain also confirmed that the company is aiming for the end of this month or early next month for the device.

Redmi Note is a 5.5-inch phablet, which comes with a MediaTek MT6592 octa-core SoC, and has a 13MP and 5MP rear back and front cameras respectively. The device also has a 8GB of internal storage, which is expandable up to 32 GB using a micro-SD card. The company has already announced that the Redmi Note in the country during Mi3 launch will be priced at Rs. 9,999. However, it is expected the Redmi Note will be available for Rs. 8,999, once it is launched.

November 13, 2014
Microsoft Plans to Use ‘White Space’ Tech to Deliver Free Internet Across India

Microsoft India is all set to provide free last-mile internet connectivity across the country. According to a report by Hindustan Times, Microsoft India is seeking approvals to deploy a project that will enable Internet connectivity using ‘White Space’ spectrum that is currently used for television transmission by Doordarshan.

The company has asked permission to initiate a pilot project in two districts, after which it will be rolled out all across the country. The chairman of Microsoft India, Bhaskar Pramanik, said that Microsoft has sought clearance for a pilot program in two districts for its white space initiative. White space technology has previously been deployed in South Africa, Ghana, and the UK, although to this point, white space broadband hasn’t been deployed at a commercially meaningful scale.

“Wi-Fi has a range of only about 100 metres, whereas the 200-300 MHz spectrum band available in the white space can reach up to 10 km,” said Bhaskar Pramanik. “This spectrum belongs mainly to Doordarshan and the government and is not used at all. We have sought clearance for a pilot project in two districts.”

The company said if the pilots are successful, the project will be turned nationwide and could give a huge boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India initiative, which proposes to use technology to deliver authority to every citizen of India, even in remote areas.

“The challenge is the lack of digital infrastructure across India. This initiative addresses this challenge in a cost-effective manner and creates an eco-system that will benefit everyone, including manufacturers of routers and other technology devices, other technology companies, besides Microsoft,” Pramanik further elaborated.

However, the technology hasn’t been widely adopted anywhere in the world, but experts believe it can lead to a spurt in broadband connectivity in countries such as India. Engineers at Microsoft Development Centres in India have adapted this unlicensed technology for this country.

November 11, 2014
Google Launches an Initiative to Promote Indian Languages

India has a vast and diverse population. This population exists with multiple languages, customs and cultures, under one roof. In such a country, internet can be a great tool for the development of people from different languages to come and share their ideas. But for this to happen, it is essential that there is a language support system to assist people with the use of this information superhighway. Google has now formed an alliance that will work towards promoting Indian regional languages.

The alliance will work towards providing support to Indian language users to create and receive content in their languages with ease. Google intends to involve over 300 million users from India using the language initiative by 2017.

It is estimated that India will have about 500 million internet users by the end of 2017, up from 200 million users at present. It will surpass the whole internet population of the US. Creating content and accessibility options for regional language speakers will create a healthy future market for the internet giant. India also has a robust smartphone market, and Google can make heavy gains by providing language assistance to the people of India.

The company did a demonstration of its Hindi voice search capabilities on an Android phone. They also launched an aggregation website called hindiweb.com where people can find access to most sites that provide content in Hindi.

This alliance is, in fact, an appreciable initiative from the Silicon Valley giant. It is of course going to benefit Google by bringing in new users for its services, but it will be greatly beneficial to a whole new population of the country that has still not gained access to this essential utility. Google’s alliance will include companies like Times Internet, C-Dac, Reverie Language Technologies, LinguaNext Technologies, and Amar Ujala Publications and some others.

November 3, 2014
WhatsApp User-Base Reaches 70 Million in India

There is absolutely no doubt that WhatsApp is one of the most popular messenger services all over the world. Recently in an event, WhatsApp’s Business Development head Neeraj Arora revealed that in India, the user base of the application has grown to 70 million active-users, which is over a 10th of its global users.

“We have 70 million active-users here who use the application at least once a month,” said Arora at the fifth annual INK Conference in Mumbai. He further added to his statement that the total user base for the company is 600 million, including the one bought by Facebook in a $19-billion deal earlier this year.

India is one of the biggest markets for WhatsApp, a application which targets to connect billions. Arora stated that WhatsApp will continue to hold a stand-alone identity even after the Facebook acquisition and will not get merged with the social networking website.

The company also commented that with the team of just 80 people, WhatsApp is already getting benefitted through learnings from the social networking giant. Also, it could have been a pretty good deal if he would have paid some money to buy WhatsApp three years back, Arora stressed upon the fact that the company has grown a lot since then. That time, it would have been in “low tens of million” dollars. The user-base has exponentially grown to 600 million from the 30 million three years ago.

November 3, 2014
Company Confirms India-Specific OnePlus Invite System to Arrive Soon

OnePlus has already confirmed that it will launch its flagship handset OnePlus One soon in India. Now, the company has confirmed that it will release India-specific invites to prospective ‘One’ consumers online.

OnePlus One, which has been called a ‘Flagship killer’, will continue to sell on an invite-based approach, just like it has done everywhere else. The premium looking device packs in some high-end hardware specifications while maintaining a relatively cheaper price tag. But the phone has been criticized for one reason; its scarce availability.

The company director (Global), Carl Pei, in his latest blog post, besides wishing Indians’ a belated Happy Diwali, announced the cheerful news of releasing India-specific OnePlus One invites to the fans.

“We’ve made tremendous progress in just the last week and are grateful to all of our partners who took time during their holiday to help us move this forward. We’ll be ready to share some very exciting updates with you in the coming weeks. But for now, we wanted to talk a little about how you’ll be able to get the One in India.” Pei added.

The company said that like other countries, Indian users will be able to purchase the One with an India-specific invite. According to Carl Pei, invites have been immensely helpful for the company so far and they allow them to control their inventory, scale their team and support services to grow along with the demand and create an overall better experience for the users. “As this is our first experience with the Indian market, we didn’t want to be too ambitious. We are more concerned with offering outstanding service and experiences to users than getting the One in as many hands as possible. It will take us some time to learn, and the invites are a great way for us to do that.” Carl further stated.

Besides introducing invitation-only registration process, the company is also in talks with some e-commerce websites to offer OnePlus One in India. If all things fall in place, the flagship phone is expected to set a mark in the Indian market by December end for around Rs. 25,000.

October 29, 2014
Expert Believes ‘Digital India’ Plan Flawed, Needs a Practical Cyber Security Policy

The present Indian government has put particular focus on the communication infrastructure of the country. The focus is especially on making India a powerful force in the digital era. It envisions mobile connectivity for every Indian and developing the nation through an e-governance system. The Digital India program is the most visible action plan by the government. But experts are asking the Indian authorities to take a breather and first work out a clear strategy for cyber security.

Cyber Security is an important element of a communication infrastructure. It is not just necessary to establish these protocols but to enforce them as well. Currently, according to the Director of the cyber warfare program at the Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, Mr Gabi Siboni, the strategy arena is where India is lacking. This was reported by Economic Times.

According to Mr. Siboni, the paper published by the Indian government released last year on the subject lacked clear direction. The paper envisions a huge infrastructure that would employ over 5 lakh professionals trained in cyber security to protect the national interests in 5 years. But the paper doesn’t mention how these professionals will be acquired or trained.

The report points out that there has been a heavy increase in the number of cyber security attacks on this country’s institutions. According to data gained from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERTIn), the attacks have increased to a massive 62,189 until May this year from a meagre 23 reported incidents in 2004. This has also increased the costs to businesses whose infrastructure is targeted through such attacks.

Mr. Siboni has pointed out that currently the attackers are way ahead of the defenders. So it’s absolutely necessary to define the minimal defence strategy for civilian, business and government security. There is no fool-proof way of securing the cyber arena but if you have a clear strategy to deal with them, you can repel these attacks to a certain extent. We hope the Indian authorities are taking notice.

October 22, 2014
According to Survey, India Has Second Highest Number of Google Glass Owners Globally

According to a recently conducted research, India has the second highest number of Google Glass owners at six percent, South Korea being the number one with eight per cent. Google Glass is a type of wearable technology with an optical head-mounted display (OHMD). It displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format.

That’s not all. India is also said to have emerged as one of the most tech-savvy nation with 95 per cent of Indians find smartphones critically important, while 75 percent use their smartphone or tablet for online bookings, according to a survey by Expedia.

“The findings clearly suggest an increasing dependency on the mobile platform. Ninety five per cent Indian respondents feel that their smartphone is very or of critical importance to their daily life,” said Vikram Malhi, MD, Asia, Expedia . Further adding that Indians lead in app booking and data roaming plans globally.

And that’s not it, the survey also revealed that India has the highest number of smartwatch owners globally, with 18 per cent owning and using the device. It was also reported that 85 percent of Indians own a laptop, ranking fourth in the world after Denmark (89 per cent), Austria (86 per cent) and Norway (86 per cent).

October 20, 2014
Nexus 9 Listed on Google Play Store in India for Rs. 28,900

Google on Wednesday announced three new devices, all attempting to enter a space which competitior Apple has enjoyed monopoly over the past years. Now, Google’s Nexus 9, the HTC-made tablet is “coming soon” to India.

The tablet has been listed on Google India’s Play store. It is not yet available but once it does, it will cost Rs.28,900 for the 16GB Wi-Fi model and Rs. 44,900 for the 3G version with 32GB memory. Three official origami-inspired leather covers for the tablet have also been listed. They will be available in three color variants, Black, Mint Intiqo and Lime stone.

Google describes Nexus 9 as a tablet that “is for work and play, with its just-right 8.9-inch screen and front-facing stereo speakers”. Now according to insider sources, the company will be bringing the Nexus 9 to India by the 2nd week of December, which come in line with this listing.

Nexus 9 is a slim, sleek and sexy looking tablet. Its processing might is taken care by a 64-bit NVIDIA Tegra K1 Dual Denver processor clocked at 2.3GHz. It comes with 2GB RAM and is available in 16GB and 32GB storage variants. The device has an 8.9 inch IPS LCD display with 4:3 aspect ratio. It has a resolution of 2048×1536 and is covered in Gorrila Glass 3.

The camera at the rear will not do 4K video because it is just an 8 MP snapper, but its a wide lens and a great module. The aperture is f 2.4 and the sensor is a BSI sensor. For power you get a 6700 mAh battery, that should last you through the day and then some.

It weighs only 425 gm for the Wifi only and 436gm for the LTE variant, keeping it light and extremely portable. The tablet is easily held with one hand and the back panel feels great as well. The device is one of the first devices to run the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop OS along with the Nexus 6.

October 18, 2014
HTC Brings Out the Desire EYE and One (M8) EYE in India

A couple of weeks back, the One (M8 EYE) quietly went on sale in China. Now, HTC unveiled the new One (M8 Eye) and Desire Eye smartphones in the Indian market at a press event in Mumbai.

According to the company, the One (M8 Eye) will go on sale tomorrow for Rs. 38,990, while Desire Eye will be released in late-November exclusively on Amazon India. The pricing of Desire Eye is a mystery at this moment.

HTC Desire EYE is the first of a kind phone designed to allow users to capture front and rear images in 13 mega pixels. Other specs mostly make it compete with several flagship smartphones out there, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 chipset clocked at 2.3 GHz.

The HTC Desire Eye also boasts a 5.2-inch full HD 1920 x 1080p IPS LCD display, along with BoomSound speaker config. The cameras however, are the highlight of the Desire Eye, with a set of 13 MP cameras, and dual led flash on both sides, the rear camera is a f/2 aperture lens equipped module, whereas the front camera has a f/2.2 aperture lens setup.

The M8 Eye looks like the standard model in every respect except for the fact that the 4MP UltraPixel shooter has been replaced by Sony’s 13MP IMX214, the same sensor used on the HTC Butterfly 2 and the HTC Desire EYE. However, unlike the Desire EYE, the front-facing camera is still a 5MP sensor.

The new M8 will ship with the same ‘Eye Experience’ software as the HTC Desire Eye the company announced two weeks back. The HTC One (M8 EYE) also includes the new HTC EYE Experience features like Face Fusion, HTC Split Capture, and advanced face tracking features for conferencing.

October 18, 2014

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 Arrives in India at Rs. 61,500

As expected, Samsung has unveiled its latest phablet Galaxy Note 4 in India at the price of Rs.61,500. The new addition to Note series, which was unveiled at this year’s IFA Berlin, will go on sale at midnight on October 17th. Along with that, the company announced the partnership with Vodafone to give 2GB Data free for the users for 2 months.

Galaxy Note 4 is now the company’s flagship phablet, which comes with a 5.7 inch QHD display. Samsung claims that despite the higher resolution, the Galaxy Note 4 will deliver 7.5% more battery life; it features a 3220 mAh battery with fast charging technology. Meanwhile, under the hood, the Galaxy Note 4 is powered by Snapdragon 805 chipset which is clocked at 2.7 gHz quadcore, coupled with 3GB RAM. It offers 32GB internal memory with support for expandable memory of upto 64GB.

It will have a 16MP rear camera with OIS, along with a 3.7MP front snapper allowing users to take wide-angle selfies. The company has added a fingerprint scanner feature along with a heart rate monitor on the back. The Korean manufacturer has also included a barometer and a hall sensor in the phablet.

The S-Pen also gets upgrades and added functionalities. The pressure sensitivity has been increased to give a more natural pen-like feel. The pen now also acts as a mouse with features like click and drag which lets you select multiple files at once. Samsung Galaxy Note 4 offers you the option of choosing between full-length, split or pop-up screens, thus enabling you to change the size and positioning of apps on the screen.? It also offers an improved ‘Fingerprint scanner’ with UV sensor for personal data security.

The Smart select feature lets you select text and images from multiple sources and lets you bring them all together. It also lets you easily share them on the internet. You can now access the multi-window feature through the recent apps menu. It has become a lot easier to resize, relocate or minimize the screens during multi-window usage.

Note 4 comes in four color options: White Black, Gold and Pink. It also provides customizability with 4 covers. There is the S-View, Flip wallet, S-view Flip wallet and LED cover similar to Dot case by HTC. Apart from the the Note 4 company also launched Gear S smartwatch for Rs. 29,500 and also announced that they roll out UltraPower saving mode for mid-segment devices soon.

SPECS	SAMSUNG NOTE 4
Display	5.7 inch QHD
Processor	Snapdragon 805 2.7 quadcore (not exynos)
RAM	3 GB
Storage	32 GB
Expandable Upto	64 GB
Main Camera	16 MP
Front Camera	3.7 MP
Battery	Removable 3220 mAh
Operating System	Android 4.4.4
Miscellaneous	S-Pen

October 14, 2014

IRCTC Launches its Official Android App

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), which is responsible for online train ticket bookings in the country, has finally released its official Android application on Google Play, called ‘IRCTC Connect’.

There are already quite a few third-party IRCTC apps available for Android, but they don’t offer the full functionality that’s available on IRCTC’s website. The official IRCTC Connect App can now be downloaded for free from Google Play India, and is about 12MB in size. The app is compatible with devices running Android 4.1 and above.

The travellers will be able to search and book Indian rail tickets, check out their existing reservations or cancel them, and get upcoming journey alerts in the IRCTC Connect application.

According to IRCTC, the app uses the existing IRCTC website login credentials to work and also allows the users to create new account directly within the app. In addition, the IRCTC Connect retains the passenger details for the recently booked train tickets, so that the travellers don’t have to enter their details again and again.

The app listing says, “Rail ticketing now made simpler just by swipe and shuffle, select and book. Install the newly launched IRCTC android app and book a railway ticket anywhere in India at your fingertips.”

Back in August, IRCTC launched its official ticket booking app for BlackBerry 10 smartphone users. The IRCTC app was available for download on BlackBerry World under the Navigation & Travel section, and was a 5MB download.

October 13, 2014
Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to Arrive in India on 14th October

Earlier we reported that Samsung Galaxy Note 4 would arrive in India on 10th October, however there seems to be a slight delay. Samsung has sent out invites for an event scheduled for 14th October where we can expect to see the highly anticipated Galaxy Note 4, the company’s new flagship phablet.

However, the invite does not clearly mention the Note 4, though says that Samsung will showcase ‘the neat galaxy’. The launch is scheduled two weeks before Diwali, one of the most prominent Indian festivals. We can also expect the phablet to go on sale before Diwali.

Galaxy Note 4 is now the company’s flagship tablet, which has a 5.7 inch QHD display. Samsung claims that despite the higher resolution, the Galaxy Note 4 will deliver 7.5% more battery life; it has a 3220 mAh battery which features fast charging technology. Meanwhile, under the hood, the Galaxy Note 4 will be powered by an octa-core processor (1.9GHz quad-core + 1.3GHz quad-core) coupled with 3GB RAM. It offers 32GB internal memory with support for expandable memory of upto 64GB.

It will have a 16MP rear camera with OIS, along with a 3.7MP front snapper allowing users to take wide-angle selfies. They’ve added a fingerprint scanner feature along with a heart rate monitor on the back. The Korean manufacturer has also included a barometer and a hall sensor in the phablet.

The Galaxy Note 4 will be available in four colour variants namely Charcoal Black, Frost White, Bronze Gold, and Blossom Pink.

October 10, 2014
Skype to Terminate Free Local Calls Within India

Skype has announced that it is withdrawing the Skype call service to Indian landlines and mobiles in India, starting from 10th November. The Microsoft-owned company has not given a concrete reason for the same.

The discontinuity of the service is said to be the result of law and regulation in the country. As per current laws, VoIP calls originating from within India cannot be terminated on mobiles or landlines in the country, however the companies have been routing calls internationally to avoid this regulation until now.

While Skype users in India will no longer be able call Indian landlines and mobiles, they will still be able to send SMS messages to mobiles within India.

In a support page, Skype said, “If you’ve bought a subscription to India specifically to call within the country, you can cancel your subscription to avoid being billed in the future. Keep in mind that before 10 November 2014, you can still use your subscription and Skype Credit to call within India, so be sure to use up any remaining minutes or credit you have before then.”

October 6, 2014

LG Brings Out the Pen-Enabled G3 Stylus in India for Rs. 21,500

LG has launched a new variant of its flagship G3, LG G3 Stylus in India for Rs. 21,500. The LG G3 Stylus is a pen-enabled smartphone that offers a large display and many of the premium user experience features of the G3.

The Stylus version of the G3 comes with a 5.5-inch qHD IPS (960 x 540) display and mounts a 13 MP rear camera along with a 1.3 MP front camera. The LG G3 Stylus runs on a 1.3GHz quad-core processor with 1 GB of RAM and Android 4.4.2 KitKat operating system. It offers 8 GB of internal storage which is further expandable via microSD card slot and is powered by a 3000 mAh battery.

The G3 Stylus boasts the same Floating Arc design with gradually tapered edges, thin bezels and metallic skin back cover that was first introduced on the LG G3. According to LG, the proprietary Rubberdium stylus pen feels comfortable in any hand.

“We believe that the G3 Stylus is perfect for consumers looking for a powerful display and sophisticated design with a reasonable price tag. The G3 Stylus smartphone offers not just a stylus experience but also the same premium user experience and design heritage of the G3,” said Amit Gujral, Marketing Head, LG Mobiles.

This smartphone is equipped with G3’s key camera features such as Touch and Shoot, Gesture Shot and Front Camera Light. Additional UX features that have become standard offerings across LG’s newest smartphones include Dual Window, Smart Keyboard and Knock Code. Optimized for various 3G markets’ wireless networks, the G3 Stylus will be offered in Dual SIM with NFC capability in three colors: Black, White and Gold.

Specifications	LG G3 Stylus
Display	5.5-inch qHD IPS (960 x 540)
Processor	1.3 GHz Quad-Core
Storage	8 GB MicroSD slot
RAM	1 GB RAM
Camera	Rear 13MP, Front 1.3MP
Battery	3,000mAh (removable)
Operating system	Android 4.4.2 KitKat
Add-on	Stylus Pen

October 6, 2014

Tag: india

SPECS

SAMSUNG NOTE 4

Specifications

LG G3 Stylus