Apple showcased its new pair of smartphones, iPhone 6s and the iPhone 6s Plus, back in September and both the handsets made their way to India in October. Retail stores saw fans lining up in queues on the day of the launch, but according to some retailers the demand for both the smartphones has been comparatively low since last year. The primary reason is possibly the high pricing of the new duo. Apple is known to price its products higher than any other smartphone manufacturer but this year it raised the bar once again with the most affordable iPhone 6s model, sporting 16GB of storage, tagged with a price of Rs. 62,000. This is higher than what the pricing was last year when the iPhone 6 came out at Rs. 53,500, making India one of the most expensive country to buy the iPhone 6s and the 6s Plus.The story is however is not the same everywhere as early sales of the 6s and the 6s Plus outside of India saw record-breaking numbers of 13 million iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus units sold in just three days after the launch. The higher yield was not only due to the lower price, but also the newly announced iPhone upgrade program for US consumers where users can buy the new iPhones for $34 (Rs. 2,300 approx.) a month and upgrade to the latest iPhone every year.The upgrade program has not made its way here but the official Apple products distributor in India, Ingram Micro, has announced a special buyback offer that could tempt users to upgrade to a new iPhone. The scheme offers up to Rs. 43,000 off if you bring in your old iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus and exchange it for the new iPhone 6s or iPhone 6s Plus. There are certain price range bands set for the older iPhones where the actual cost depends on the condition of the device being returned. The new scheme is expected to roll out all across the country and will be offered by select Apple stores and retail shops.This is the first time ever Apple is offering a discount scheme months after the launch of its product. It is also the first of its kind buyback offer in the country where the company is closely monitoring and handling all the procedures. This was not the case earlier as buyback offers usually included indirect subsidies given to retailers as compensation, but this left the burden of taking ownership of the returned smartphones.This gives a clear indication that Apple is very much concerned about the slow sales of its latest smartphones India. While the scheme could lure in some owners to trade in their old iPhones, it is difficult to say if there would be a spike in sales as only consumers who already own a previous version get benefits of the offer. There isn’t any confirmation if the buyback would include trading of smartphones from other brands, but if that is the case, it could be a game changing move.
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Taxi aggregator Uber and healthcare platform Practo announce a global partnership to help people reach doctor easily. Arshad Khan reports The usability of the partnership has been kept simple. Whenever Practo will remind people with their appointment with a doctor, it will also show you the closest Uber available. Apart from India, the facility can be availed in other Asian countries like, Indonesia, Philippines and Singapore. “We realised that transportation issues often bring additional stress to a doctor’s visit – having to drive through traffic, then hunt for parking. Our goal with this partnership is to completely remove this anxiety by integrating with Uber’s incredible experience and bringing that to our consumers.” said Shashank ND, Founder & CEO, Practo. In addition, the driver's app will be prefilled with the final destination's address at the very beginning of the trip. The next phase of integration will involve notifying the user to request for an Uber, an hour prior to the appointment. “Our mission is to bring safe, convenient and reliable rides at the push of a button to everyone, everywhere. We are delighted to partner with Practo to provide people with convenient access to quality healthcare services. The technology integration through this partnership reflects our common commitment to create seamless experience for all our users," said Amit Jain, President of Uber India. New users who book their first appointment on the Practo app can use the promotion code - UBERPRACTOIN to avail two free rides, up to Rs 200 per ride, with Uber. This offer is valid till 31st December 2015.
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Application networking firm A10 Networks announced the A10 Thunder Convergent Firewall (CFW); a standalone security product that leverages the ACOS Harmony platform with cutting-edge innovations."We value A10's high-performance ACOS platform and the reliability and energy efficiency of the A10 Thunder Series platforms," said Chikara Miyake, General Manager Cloud Services Division of UNIADEX, Ltd. "By combining application networking with a data center firewall, we expect that Thunder CFW will help organizations like ours optimize protection for their servers at scale."The A10 Thunder Convergent Firewall (CFW) product availability will be in Q1 2016. aGalaxy Centralized Management System support for Thunder CFW will be available in Q2 2016.Thunder CFW key benefits include:High-performance Secure Web Gateway with integrated explicit proxy, URL filtering and SSL Insight. It enables security policy enforcement for client outbound HTTP/HTTPS traffic.High-performance data center firewall (DCFW) with integrated network denial-of-service (DoS) protection and Server Load Balancing (SLB). It provides Layer 4 stateful firewall and Layer 7 application-level gateway.High-performance Gi/SGi firewall with integrated network DoS and Carrier Grade NAT (CGN). The Gi/SGi firewall protects the mobility infrastructure with advanced policy enforcement.High-performance IPSec site-to-site VPN. It helps enterprises to secure application traffic between sites and it enables global enterprises to use public networks to transport application traffic securely.aGalaxy Centralised Management System support for Thunder CFW. aGalaxy provides device management, configuration, reporting and troubleshooting for Thunder CFW. (BW Online Bureau)
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Mala BhargavaFacebook wants it all. Search, photos, videos, shopping, and of course, news. A lot of news content and articles are already extensively shared on Facebook via publishers’ pages and users’ posts, but Facebook has decided to collect it all its own aggregation – where it has control over everything. Publishers are a little stuck. If they stay out, they stand not to gain new readers. If they hop on board, they bow to Facebook’s control – which means anything can be changed any time, as even regular users are well aware. The articles, from publishers with whom Facebook has signed up, will appear in Facebook’s app. Instant Articles was already available for iOS devices, and now it has arrived on the Android app and specifically for India. Facebook has 130 million users in India and Mark Zuckerberg is extremely keen on getting his next chunk of users from India, that being the country that will make for the next surge of user growth for the social network in any case. Instant Articles is free and is being gradually rolled out to users in India and then other locations in the world. You can read the articles available within the feature anywhere else, of course, but here they are beautifully formatted and are supposed to load fast. They’re also interactive and you can zoom into photos which you can tilt to see more details and listen to accompanying audio captions. Video is also on the platform and you can zoom into maps as well. To begin with, Facebook has Quint, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Aaj Tak and India Today on board with their content. This list will be expanding soon. For publishers, the tools are difficult to resist, as is the ease of uploading content to Instant Articles. But this isn’t the first time Facebook has tried aggregating news articles. Using a property they called Paper, Facebook tried to get users to flock to this special site for news, but it didn’t work. This time, Facebook has a much richer platform and of course, lots more technology has gone into it to ensure a better experience. Whether users will take to it, we will soon see. But according to the Wall Street Journal, the imitative doesn’t allow a lot of advertising to fit in and isn’t bringing in a lot of money for publishers, when tested in the United States.
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All of us carry a smartphone today and it has become like an indispensable part of our lives and why not as it has the capability to do so many things like playing your music, take pictures, send emails and so on. But do you know that your smartphone is actually way more smarter than what you think? Today the smartphone is not just a tool to make calls and use the internet, it is far more beyond that. Here are five things that you dint know that your smartphone could do. Become a Mobile HotspotAn important feature that a number of users still don’t know is making a Wi-Fi hotspot which basically means you can share your mobile 2G/3G/4G data from your phone to nearby devices like a laptop, PC or a tablet when you are on the move. This works both for Android and iOS smartphones, but make sure you don't exhaust all of your data. Scan documentsAll new smartphones today have a powerful cameras that apart from shooting pictures, let you scan almost any kind of document. There are a number of apps for iOS and Android that allow you to turn any picture that you take into a PDF format thus allowing you to keep digital copies of business cards, important documents, receipts, notes, etc. You can even share these saved digital documents via email directly from your smartphone or directly print them out. Measure Speed and DistanceSmartphones also have the capability to measure distance and even speed thanks Smart Tools. It offers a variety of apps on Android ranging from distance, speed, height, and even sound by using the combination of your smartphones camera, microphone, and the variety of embedded sensors. Heart Rate MonitorMeasuring your heart rate has become a piece of cake for smartphones. While some smartphones, like the Samsung Galaxy S5, S6 have a built in sensor, you also use a bunch of apps that check your pulse rate by simply placing your finger on the provided sensor or the camera LED flash. While it might not be very accurate, it still gives you approximate value. Become a Mouse or KeyboardDid you know that you can use your smartphone as a mouse or even a keyboard for your PC or laptop? Apps like Remote Mouse and Wi-Fi Mouse, let you connect your smartphone through Wi-Fi or even Bluetooth and use it to control your PC with ease. You can even type on the regular keyboard of your smartphone to type onto your PC.
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Gone are the days when one needed a complicated setup to listen to music. Today wireless speakers have taken over the sound system market and quite frankly have made life a lot easier for music lovers. Here we list down five wireless speakers that offer value for money as well as quality sound under a budget of Rs. 10,000. Logitech X100 This is a tiny speaker that fits easily in your pocket and also offers a nice looking design with peppy colours and a rubberized finish. For its size, it delivers a nice amount of volume and a 5-hour battery life. If you want quality sound in a small package, the X100 is a wise choice. Connectivity options include Bluetooth and a standard 3.5mm audio jack. Price: Rs.1,799 JBL Flip II Update to the original Flip, which was a great speaker in itself, the new Flip II brings in better sound in terms of clarity and as well as power than its predecessor. It also replaces the proprietary charging port to a standard microUSB making it easier to charge. There hasn’t been a major improvement in the battery life so you get somewhere around 5-6 hours of backup. Connectivity options include Bluetooth, NFC and 3.5mm audio jack input. Price: Rs. 6,499 Creative Sound Blaster FRee For its price, the Sound Blaster Free offers a lot of features. Firstly it is splash proof, so you can use it under light rain or around the pool. It comes with dual passive radiators that produce a wider bass and crisp sound. The speaker has Bluetooth, 3.5mm audio jack input, a microSD card slot to read music directly from a memory card and also a microUSB input to use it as a monitor via a PC or Mac. Price: Rs. 5,999 Pioneer XW-SMA1-K This wireless speaker is perfect for someone who likes to stream music from Wi-Fi. This speaker doesn’t support Bluetooth but you can play music via AirPlay, Wi-Fi Direct or even DLNA through the inbuilt Wi-Fi chip. Apart from a 3.5mm auxiliary jack, there is an ethernet port and a USB port for playing AirPlay directly from your phone or tablet and even charge them. The sound output is great especially if you are very particular about bass. Under 10k, this is one of the best Wi-Fi based speakers to buy. Price: Rs. 9,999 Harman Kardon Esquire MiniIf you are style conscious, then Harman Kardon is here. The Esquire Mini looks like a small clutch with tan or black textured speaker grill along with a nice metal frame. It also doubles as a power bank and can charge other devices as well. The sound is pretty loud but not the best, so if you are looking for a super-rich sound, this might not impress. But if you want good looks and a good amount of volume, this is a good choice. Price: Rs. 9,820
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Arshad Khan Globally, 45 million unique people had 198 million interactions about Diwali between November 7 and November 11, says a release from Facebook. Though Diwali is celebrated worldwide, India leads in the top 5 countries in terms of per cent of Monthly Active People (MAP) engaging with Diwali. Other than India, countries which were most attached in celebrating Diwali on the Facebook account where Guyana, Nepal, Singapore and Bhutan respectably. Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg said he missed being in India this year as he shared his photo and wished his Indian fans on the festival via a post on the social network site. Also, celebrities shared their memories of the festival.Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cricketers Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Bollywood actors Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan and so on wished their fans the message of happy Diwali on their Facebook account.The Social message on FacebookFacebook also ran a campaign called i-Light where a group of moms join together to help out those who have never seen the Festival of Lights to make sure that the light of the festival reaches to everyone. Ritu Gorai and other mothers in her Journey About Mast Moms (JAMMs) Facebook Group decided to bring light into the lives of those who have never seen the Festival of Lights: the visually impaired. Ritu and her team launched the i-Light initiative on October 2. Through a Facebook campaign that encouraged people to donate to a social cause instead of buying Diwali crackers or gadgets, i-Light raised Rs 80,000 ($1,210.86) and had to shut down their campaign due to the overwhelming generosity. The money is being used to provide 550 blind people with white canes and dark glasses that are distributed at celebratory events that include fun activities, singing and motivational speeches. "Only thanks to Facebook we were able to run this whole social drive and get together and contribute for this cause," said Ritu.
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All major camera makers have been competing to get the best picture quality and heavy pixel count ever since the camera went fully digital. But Ricoh has taken a different approach altogether with its slender looking Theta camera. The chocolate bar shaped camera can shoot spherical panorama pictures with just a click of a button. Using two fish eye lenses on either sides, it instantly stitches two panorama pictures to create a magnificent looking spherical photograph. The design is very simple yet elegant. As mentioned earlier, there are two ultra-wide lenses on each side and a simple button in the middle to take the picture. One of the edges has two round metal buttons to switch the camera on or off and to turn on the inbuilt Wi-Fi for transferring or viewing images. At the bottom there is a microUSB port for charging the camera and to transfer pictures onto a PC. There’s also a standard tripod screw mount so one can easily mount it anywhere. It comes quite handy when you want to take a time-lapse. There are a bunch of fish eye cameras out there but the Theta is quite unique and fun. Both the lenses take pictures of the front and back at the same time and then the camera combines them to produce a single picture. They protrude out of the main body of the camera and are prone to getting scratches or even minor cracks, so one needs to be a little careful. The saved images are stored on the 4GB of inbuilt memory which can be viewed or copied through the Theta app on your Android or iOS device by connecting the camera via Wi-Fi direct. The image that the camera takes covers everything around you, left to right and top to bottom quite similar to Google’s Photo Sphere. You will even be able to see a bit of your hand holding the camera, yup the lenses are that wide. The pictures look impressive due the sheer wide coverage. However upon noticing the pictures closely, you’ll find that the quality is just average. The pictures aren’t very sharp and sometimes the exposure and colours don’t turn out very good. The final output is a 6.4MP picture which doesn’t sound that bad, but pictures taken indoors or in low light suffer from high amount of noise. The main control is done through the Theta app which is simple to use and lets you take pictures from your smartphone remotely, which is advisable if you want a more natural looking shot rather than 360-degree selfie. You also set intervals through the app to take a set of time-lapse photos and apart from that you also need the app to view pictures saved on the camera or copy them to your smartphone. Sadly there is not live view option on the app which makes composition a bit irrelevant since it captures every single thing around it, but of course the placement of the camera is all that matters. Since a lot of platforms don’t directly support 360-degree pictures, you get flattened panoramas which are basically two long 180-degree shots stitched together. But you can share proper spherical images from the device to Ricoh's dedicated theta360.com website to Facebook and Twitter. The camera can’t shoot videos either which is a big bummer as videos in a 360-degree view would’ve been just brilliant. The Ricoh Theta brings a new perspective to your photography, but it comes at a high cost. The Theta is priced at Rs. 34,770 but is currently available for about Rs. 29,900 which is still a lot to ask for a camera that can only shoot spherical pictures. Maybe a bunch of more features would have justified the price, but if you want to have some photography fun and don’t have budget constraints, the Theta is fun gadget to own.
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