American tech giant Apple has the biggest share of the total 14.8 million 4G-enabled devices active across all important frequencies in the country, says a study by Nokia Networks. Among the top 15 4G models, Apple devices - iPhone and iPad - occupy the top two slots. iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 devices, which support 4G services in 1800 Mhz band, are top models with 10.46 per cent and 8.9 per cent shares respectively, as per the study. In India, Airtel is providing 4G service in 1800 Mhz band frequency while other companies are yet to roll out their services. At present, telecom companies hold spectrum in 1800 Mhz band, 850 Mhz band, 2300 Mhz band that can be used for 4G services in India. As per the study, Nokia Networks sees potential for providing using 2100 Mhz band for 4G services which is at present being used for 3G services. "LTE (4G) device penetration is still low at 1.61 per cent. 1800 Mhz enabled LTE devices leads with 1.45 per cent (13.3 million) followed by 2100 Mhz enabled devices at 1.2 per cent," the report said. Airtel has highest number of circles with 3G spectrum. The study shows that the number of 4G enabled devices in 2100 Mhz or 3G band connected to network is more compared to number of devices available for 4G service in 2300 Mhz band -- the band opted by Reliance Jio Infocomm to foray into the telecom business. iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 models have highest share of 18.12 per cent and 15.42 per cent respectively among connected devices that can support 4G services 850 Mhz band, says the study. Reliance Communications and RJIL are planning to jointly roll out 4G services using 850 Mhz band spectrum. Though Apple leads the segment of active 4G devices, the study also found that six out of top 10 devices in 1800 Mhz are priced below Rs 8,000. Lenovo A6000 follows iPhones among connected devices in 1800 Mhz band with 7.5 per cent share. It is again followed by Apple's iPhone 5 which has 5.78 per cent share. Xiaomi's RedmiNote 3 and Micromax Yu Yureka are at 5th and 6th spot among devices in 1800 Mhz band, as per the study. Samsung Galaxy A5 follows iPhones at 4th spot among top 15 devices capable of supporting 4G services. Nokia Networks spokesperson clarified that the data is not about shipment or sale of devices but only about devices that are active on networks and the kind of service that they can support.(PTI)
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Simar Singh Apple has rolled out heavy discounts and buyback options for its latest iPhone 6s and 6s Plus offerings in India. This is the first time that the Cupertino-based tech giant has put in place such schemes. These models were made available for sale in India last month, priced between Rs 62,000 to Rs 92,000 however, the response it met was lukewarm. Pre-booking orders of the devices fell short of company expectations and according to reports, Apple’s management had claimed that the pricing of the iPhone had an impact on sales with a 15 to 20 per cent dip in sales compared to last year. The buyback option which is now being offered to customers means that they can avail discounts of up to Rs. 34,000. Apple and its distributors will be buying back old models to ensure the authenticity of all transactions. On Snapdeal, iPhone buyers will get an assured buyback of 50 per cent within six months and 40 per cent beyond this, up to 15 months. In India, iPhones have been traditionally priced higher than the global average. Upon its Indian embarkment, the 6s priced around Rs 15,000 more, on an average. Recently, Apple also had to deal with a leak about their upcoming iPhone 7. It is believed that moving in congruence with the trend that started with the introduction of the 6 and 6 plus last year, Apple plans to expand its flagship phone’s sizing options to three, with a smaller screen handheld in the pipeline.
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The Creative Sound Blaster Free is one of the most feature rich wireless Bluetooth speaker available in the market today. Priced at Rs. 7,999 you get a lot more than just great sound.
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The Gionee Elife E8 is really a rather likable phone as long as you are okay with the size, writes Mala Bhargava Come with large and strong hands because the Gionee Elife E8 is a king-sized 6-inch almost-tablet. Better suited to male hands, it could give anyone with small hands carpal tunnel within the week. It's a heavy 210 gram chunk of phone, dressed here in a champagne gold, which seems to be the colour of the season. That back is plastic but doesn't look it. The display dazzles in a resolution of 1440 x 2660 with a pixel density of 490. Very vivid colours pop out at you especially with one of Gionee's wallpapers and themes. The preloaded Chameleon app will let fashion conscious use match the theme of the phone to what they're wearing - and it does a pretty accurate job at that. Chameleon is not the only preinstalled app. Several others take up a chunk of the generous 64GB of internal storage. Prising open the back panel takes some effort reviews very tidy interiors. the phone is a dual-SIM, has space for a memory card, and works with a 3,500mAh battery which really doesn't do too badly for itself. It's 2GHz octa-core Mediatek processor keeps it working fluidly with Android Lollipop. but the Chinese phone maker's own Amigo interface is an extreme annoyance rather than giving it uniqueness. The cameras are rather high spec with the primary being a 24MPH and the front camera being 8MP. They are a surprise. They fill an image with light. The shutter is fast and although there is some softness and noise in low light, using the night more seems to get rid of it. Daylight shots are great and pros have a professional mode to fine tune settings. Right under the camera on the back is a fingerprint sensor that works pretty well. The Elife E8 is really a rather likable phone as long as you are okay with the size and love a big screen and it's done everything it can to belong to the upper end of the mobile market. The only problem is that someone spending Rs.34,999 may want to go in for a better-known brand. But if Gionee wanted to start somewhere, it's done it.
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By Mala Bhargava If there's a smartphone that's taken the world by storm today, it's the BlackBerry Priv, which reviewers are delighted with in America. The Priv stands for Privelege and Privacy. Here in India, the Priv hasn't arrived yet, but it should all in good time. And BlackBerry fans are waiting eagerly. "They made a better Android than Android," says one poster on Twitter. The Priv in fact is already slated to get the Android Marshmallow update, leaving its current Lollipop behind. Many expressed the hope that the Priv would be good enough to make BlackBerry bounce back. BlackBerry has been seeing a market share of smartphones so low that even Samsung's relatively unknown Tizen-based phones seem to have beaten it, according to some reports. The BlackBerry Priv seems to be a feat of ingenuity in the way it's combined the look and the software of two entirely different ecosystems — BlackBerry's own, and Android's. On the design front, the Priv starts out like an ordinary Android phone, but then slides out a BlackBerry keyboard. People testing the phone say they're having a great time just sliding out the keyboard. And people really like the way it looks, specially with the tapered edges of the 5.4 inch 1440 x 2560 AMOLED screen. It's also well-built and sturdy. Sticking a keyboard on to the already substantial length of a regular sized phone is a tricky thing. It could make the device top heavy but few are reporting that. They do however find the keyboard is a bit cramped and point out that die-hard BlackBerry users may not find that they get the exact same experience they crave. The software also has a lego-bricked combination of Android and BB10. It's got the BlackBerry Hub to handle mail the way BlackBerry users always swore by. It also has BlackBerry's security built in, perhaps a special boon for an Android phone since Android is always thought to be an operating system that is particularly vulnerable to threats and attacks. The Priv has a 64-bit Qualcomm 808 processor, 3GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage with a micro-SD card slot that lets you expand to up to 2TB. The battery is a 3,410mAh and early reports say it's not spectacular but adequate. It does have quick charging though. The cameras are 18MP primary and 2MP rear. The 2MP has been written off by most reviewers while the 18MP is a mixed bag. Though there are some rave reviews of the BlackBerry Priv and fans are excited, it's difficult to see an Android phone saving BlackBerry as a company. If one wants an Android phone, there's no shortage of offerings there and those that still haven't overcome the fear of typing on glass are much fewer in number today. And on top of that, the device is very expensive at $699, hardly a price that will have anyone flocking to buy.
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By Mala BhargavaHuman values. Like how it isn't a good thing to hurt someone else. Or how wasting food isn't right. It's a form of thinking that human beings have always felt was limited to them, not shared with animals who obviously feel and express an array of emotions but seem to be guided more by instinct than values. And the last thing one will have expected is to imagine that inanimate objects would have values. But that's exactly what could be the next step in technology for robots. Already, people have been pretty successful at making robots seem to experience emotions. Or at least, they are able to express feelings and act on them. They're also able to identify emotions in humans and respond to that. Pepper isn't the only robot who can read a person's body language and expressions and respond accordingly, even attempting to cheer up someone who looks sad by going up and chatting, entirely on his own initiative. Mala BhargavaBut as we get better at almost replicating ourselves in robot form, what is going to happen when they start thinking on their own? Getting angry, attacking someone, doing physical damage, and so on. In fact, robots are being created for warfare as well and it isn't far-fetched to think robots could let fly aggression just the way people do. One way to put a check on the obvious threat to humans from feeling-acting robots and other pieces of technology is to program them to act on certain values. At least that's what Stuart Russell, Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkley, told the California Report. He said that with robots doing so much that humans do, it will be imperative to program them to recognise and work with values. The possible threat to humans has been obvious for a long time and scientists have been trying to develop new technology while minimizing threat. Now and again, nasty accidents have happened such as a robot leading to the death of a man at work but that was because of a misinterpretation or not enough programming to recognise unforeseen situations. In future, one will just have to make sure there aren't that many unforeseen situations and that a robot will think before it acts. For simplistic things like don't throw the dog into the dustbin while cleaning the house, this sort of programming is entirely within the realm of possibility. It's when tasks and interactions get more complex that we will have to seriously worry. Human beings haven't made sense of their own values which in any case do change from time to time, so expecting a machine to follow them will be interesting. But it's a minefield coming up.
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In an age of cloud and large capacity hard disk drives, tape is an obsolete means of managing and recovering data at enterprises.In a world that is increasingly driven by cloud and mobile forces, organizations need to reassess their storage, backup and security strategiesAs organizations increasingly look to information as a strategic source of business value and competitive advantage, the volume of data at their fingertips is growing at an exponential rate. A spike in the number of users and smart devices connected to the Internet makes the digital universe double in size every two years. By 2020, it will reach 44 zettabytes, or 44 trillion gigabytes, according to a recent IDC study. While this has unleashed a new wave of opportunities for businesses around the world, CIOs are now facing added concerns around data management and security. In Asia-Pacific, 72 per cent of organizations rate the exponential growth and increasing complexity of data as one of their top data management challenges (IDC/Commvault Whitepaper, 2015).A few years ago, the answer to addressing these data challenges was tape storage. Virtual tape, and later virtual tape libraries (VTL) had ruled the data center for many years. With the increasing volume of data that organizations have to deal with, the need for agility and flexibility in terms of backup solutions and strategies is now critical to support business success. While VTL was seen as a high performance backup solution in the past, it is now in its sunset phase and in many cases hindering innovation. Though tape is often viewed as a cost-effective and reliable solution for long-term retention, managing and recovering the data can be a labor-intensive task which doesn't scale.CIOs need to ensure that their most critical business data is available and protected, but also deliver a capability to restore data in a quick and easy fashion. Cloud has begun to offer more agile, cost effective and flexible solutions that makes one reconsider traditional in-house technology. We are near the tipping point where tape could be overtaken by cloud-information management in the enterprise.Why migrating to cloud may work for you!Cuts Costs and More ReliableBusinesses which utilize cloud services instead tape are able to cut 30 percent in costs by reducing unnecessary manpower, media and recall costs. This simplifies data management and improves reliability in recovering data. On the other hand, the quality of tape can also diminish over time and poses a risk of unrecoverable critical data.Easy to MaintainData growth forces tape-bound enterprises to increase the frequency of backups, which can be labor-intensive and expensive. Further, due to tape recording data sequentially, it can be time intensive to retrieve data. In comparison, backups to the cloud allow highly regulated companies to use a single platform to automate and tier backups, while ensuring easily and fast recovery of data.Offers Scalability and FlexibilityCloud services have facilitated a change in the way companies operate, by offering shared and virtualized infrastructure which is easily scalable. This allows quick and easy allocation of resources in a monitored environment where overloading is never a concern, as long as the system is managed properly. Highly ScalableCloud computing has also changed the way one pays for resources. In the past, tasks that required considerable processing power or space needed significant capital investments in hardware. Now, cloud computing allows these users to purchase scalable space for heavy duty data-crunching on demand, so that you pay only for what you use.Provides Additional SecurityEnterprises are often misguided to believe that storing tape on-site reduces the risk of data breach or loss. Ironically, this increases the chances of data loss or corruption. If your work site gets affected and your data is hosted in the cloud, it minimizes the impact on critical enterprise data, with an added benefit of maximizing accessibility of data from other parts of the world.In recent years, cloud computing has been providing a far safer environment for storing data. Migrating data from tape to cloud and following the relevant industry processes of encryption and security fundamentally provides a better level of security. Moreover, with recent advances in cloud computing, organizations can now have the assurance that their data is secure, while maximizing the cost benefits associated with cloud.No doubt, tape was seen as a high performance backup solution in the past. However, with the changing needs of enterprises, it is now in its sunset phase. As we see momentum gaining around cloud computing, it is inevitable that methods of storage will shift too.The author, Ramesh Mamgain, is area vice president - India and SAARC at Commvault
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By Mala Bhargava The Taiwanese phone maker, HTC, has been steadily making huge operating losses. So much so that the company recently announced it would no longer be giving forward guidance for now. Nonetheless, HTC has been braving it out with a new release of smartphones of which the HTC One E9s is a recent and quiet launch. The E9s is a mid-range phone, costing about Rs 21,900. It’s in a segment that has increasingly been squeezed by great offerings of budget phones below Rs 15,000. But even if it weren’t for those, the E9s has frightening competition to contend with: The Asus ZenFone 2, a few Lenovo phones, the OnePlus, and the Mi4 from the aggressive Xiaomi. It’s a dog eat dog market out there and HTC has just signaled that it isn’t bowing out. To look at, the E9s has got that signature HTC look with the special rounded edges on the top and bottom of the screen. It is the design HTC became famous and loved for, but now it’s run its course and badly needs a refresh or building on. It’s still a good design, but in the case of this model, is “de-premiumed” by the synthetic soft rubbery back panel. Not openable, of course. HTC promotes it by saying it is grip-friendly, which it is. There’s little more to say about the E9s’s design, except that all HTC phones have it and so does everyone who’s ever copied them. It does look more interesting in white. This smartphone is a mix of specs. It runs on an octa-core 64-bit 1.5GHz MediaTek processor, but has a 720x1280resolution screen. The display actually has a noticeable green tinge to it, which is odd and disturbing. Other than this aspect, which you can adjust by tinkering with the white balance, it’s comfortable and doesn’t have compromised viewing angles. The screen is 5.5 inches, so this is a big phone we’re talking about. It could have had better ergonomics because it’s a bit broad and not comfortable to hold over long periods, but then it’s also fairly tough and stable because it’s well-built, so you can change grips and even hold it from one edge for a bit. Performance is good enough, with the phone’s 2GB of RAM. Benchmarking tests pegged it as just below the Samsung Note 4. Internal storage is 16GB, expandable with a micro-SD card. The cameras are 13MP primary and 4MP “Ultrapixel”. The primary camera is average with nothing remarkable to it and the front camera is meant to boost light in low light shots. HTC has had this camera on its HTC One and while its pictures look ok on screen, they can’t be enlarged too much and are often soft. But the E9s has a lot else going for it. Pretty good sound, as is typical of HTC phones. You also have two modes of sound: regular and a theatre mode for any multimedia you might watch on it. It’s also a dual-SIM (Nano) and has 4G connectivity. The 2,600mAh battery could have performed better, but is manageable for moderate use. The competition for this smartphone however, just can’t be taken lightly at this point. There’s just too much going on in its price segment as well as the slab below.
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