Mala BhargavaIt's more than a little frightening that the big tech companies will already have the ability to know what's on your smartphone screen, anytime. The technologies that will make this happen include image recognition, so that not is text understandable, so are photographs and icons. In fact, Microsoft refers to it as Snapshots on Tap. This capability is coming to the next version of Android -- Marshmallow -- and it's called Google Now on Tap. It's the most interfering and most awaited feature of the system upgrade, in fact. But Android M is still a few months away. Meanwhile, Microsoft has jumped to it and come up with a similar feature, available via its Android app, Bing. Or rather, it's beginning to be rolled out. Right now it just presents the Bing search box. It occurs to me that soon one will have to choose between Google Now on Tap and Bing on Android, since you can't really have both fighting to read your screen and give you contextual information at the same time. And wait till Microsoft's Cortana joins the mix. Meanwhile with Bing, once it's installed and you sign in with your Microsoft account, a long press on the Home button will wake it up and the app will have a good look at what you're doing and give you relevant information. So, if you're looking at the title of a movie, it should present snippets of information about it. Or if you're looking at the photo of something well known enough to have a Wikipedia.entry, it'll pull that up. In time, like every other technology, it'll have collected enough information about you to pop up more relevant information. "The more technology adapts to you, the more you can be yourself," is the alluring promise of Bing. Google Now on Tap is to do all that Bing does and perhaps more as it works inside apps, specially Google's own such as Gmail and search and maps, overly used much more than Microsoft's are on Android. This feature was introduced by Sundar Pichai several months ago. "You’re deluged with a lot of information on your phones," said Sundar Pichai. "We have the biggest investment in machine learning over the last few years, and we believe we have the best capabilities in the world." It's going to be an interesting time as these features, both with Google and with Microsoft develop but users should probably never lose sight of the fact that all that fancy machine learning is scooping up every bit of information about them. Although it looks like it's untouched by human hands, ultimately it affects the human -you-in ways you may not necessarily have agreed to.
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Functional programming languages are not exclusive to the Java/JVM world. The Microsoft technology stack supports all the appropriate paradigms and capabilities to enable functional programming through the .NET framework. Developers can use C# or F# on the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to satisfy all of their functional needs.The capabilities and benefits of functional programming on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) through supported programming languages (like Scala) are well known. The real world is much more diverse, with many organizations choosing to fully invest in the Microsoft technology stack. The Microsoft ecosystem provides a very complete and capable JVM equivalent known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR). The CLR provides virtual machine-like functionality including garbage collected memory, an intermediate language (Microsoft IL), core system libraries, and support for a high-level of interoperability with native code. Amongst other things, the CLR supports languages and constructs with object-oriented and functional programming capabilities.Microsoft created the .NET framework of technologies to support building and running applications on the CLR. One such language in the .NET framework on the CLR is C#, which is to the CLR what Java is to the JVM. Microsoft designed the C# language with some useful functional capabilities from early on. C# allows the developer to use a function object as any other object type, define function types, assign values to function objects (references), and create complex functions through strongly typed delegates.Language Integrated Query (LINQ) is a powerful extension of the .NET framework that can be used to conveniently extract and process data from standard data structures in a functional manner that resembles SQL code written against a database. Other uses include the construction of event handlers or monadic parsers. LINQ also defines a set of standard query/sequence operators to translate fluent-style query expressions into lambda expressions and anonymous types.The functional options on the .NET framework don’t end with C# and LINQ. The CLR supports F#, a strongly typed functional language (with object-oriented capabilities) influenced by a host of other functional languages, like OCaml, Haskell, Scala and Erlang. F# is an expression-based language using eager evaluation, type inference, function currying, partial function application, algebraic data types, lambda expressions, continuation passing, and true tail call optimization. Microsoft is actively supporting and evolving F# to keep it relevant in today’s object-oriented and functional programming world. Not surprisingly, F# is popular in complex algorithmic programming, financial and scientific applications.The CLR is a powerful, open platform. Clojure has been ported from the JVM to run on the CLR. There is an implementation of Python on the CLR called IronPython. Similarly IronRuby is an implementation of the Ruby language on the CLR. There is IronScheme and a host of other ported languages. Developers can seamlessly incorporate code and libraries from the various CLR languages into their application. The CLR, C#, LINQ, and F# clearly demonstrate that the Microsoft ecosystem is fully enabled and capable of supporting first-class functional development on par with the Java / JVM world.The author, Dharmendra Kapadia, is senior director-solutioning at Ness Software Engineering Services (SES)
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A nasdaq listed compnay FireEye, has revealed the details of an advanced campaign which appears to target information about ongoing border disputes and other diplomatic matters.The advanced persistent threat (APT) group behind the operation, which FireEye believes is most likely based in China, sent targeted spear phishing emails containing Microsoft Word attachments to its intended victims.These documents pertained to regional issues and contained a script called Watermain, which creates backdoors on infected machines. The campaign’s attacks were also detected in April 2015, about one month ahead of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first state visit to China.FireEye has observed Watermain activity since 2011. Over the past four years, this threat group has used Watermain to target over 100 victims, approximately 70 percent of which were in India. The group launching Watermain attacks has also targeted Tibetan activists and others in Southeast Asia, with a focus on governmental, diplomatic, scientific and educational organizations.“Collecting intelligence on India remains a key strategic goal for China-based APT groups, and these attacks on India and its neighbouring countries reflect growing interest in its foreign affairs,” said Bryce Boland, FireEye chief technology officer for Asia Pacific. “Organizations should redouble their cyber security efforts and ensure they can prevent, detect and respond to attacks in order to protect themselves.”APT attacks on organizations in India and neighbouring countries are now commonplace. In April, FireEye revealed the details of APT30, a decade-long cyber espionage campaign by suspected China-based threat actors that compromised an aerospace and defence company in India among others.(BW Online Bureau)
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Plan events with friends, set reminders or create groups on Facebook with these appsBy Kunal KhullarSimplify Event Planningtechnology has taken over us and frankly speaking we are becoming slaves of the virtual world and if you think that your friends are getting hard to reach, then maybe this app can help. Developed by Microsoft, Tossup is a simple app to help you simplify event planning with your friends. Users can together, make decisions on what they would want to do and also decide when and where to catchup. You can ask questions that are already fed into the app or even make up your own. In case your friends are not using the app, the app can send a link via email or SMS so that they can join in to give their opinions. Apart from event planning, the app can be used to have a simple poll with just a yes or a no as an answer. Tossup is free of cost and is available on iOS and Android.Set A Reminderdon't you hate it when your friends manage to fetch everything for a party but forget to bring a very crucial item? Or when you forget to tell your colleague to post that important letter to your boss? RemindZapp is an interesting app that helps you send reminders to your friends, family members or anyone in your contact list at any defined date and time. The app has a simple layout and one can simply type in text or even record a voice note. Once that is done, you can set the time and date as to when you want the reminder to reach the recipient. Your contacts automatically sync with the app and you can send reminders to multiple contacts or a group of friends. You can use the RemindZapp app on your Android or iOS device free of cost.Managing Facebookfacebook is the most popular social networking website today and it has a brand new app called Facebook Groups. This, just like Facebook Messenger and Pages Manager, is a standalone app to manage private groups on Facebook. Since a lot of people have a large list of friends on Facebook, it makes it easy and a lot of sense to create a group and manage them through this app. Once you have made a group you can add members, assign administrative rights, post pictures or text, create events and even have a group chat. This app is suited for people who just can’t live without their Facebook friends and want an organised and simple way to communicate with them. The app is free of cost and available for Android and iOS platforms.(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)
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Bang & Olufsen’s Beoplay H8 headphones are expensive but have superb sound with lots of featuresby Mala BhargavaMany people invest in loud music setups for their cars and homes, quite forgetting the utter delight of a top-notch set of headphones and the solitary pleasure these can give. I’ve been coming across several of them lately and coveting each for a different reason.Bang & Olufsen’sBeoplay H8 On-Earheadphones are something I’d give an arm and a leg for. Turns out what I really need to do is give Rs 39,990 — not a sum I have for headphones, sadly.All the same, I enjoyed my time with it and find there are a lot of reasons to recommend it.Sound in StyleFirst, the inescapable fact that the Beoplay H8 is an extremely stylish pair of headphones. There are two colours, the lighter of which was sent to me, and it looks really good. The headband is metal with leather and the earcups are liquid-soft with smooth pale champagne disks on the outside. This set is stylish without trying too hard, without having to flash it in your face. In the box, you get the headphones, a micro-USB cable but no charger, a direct cable and a velour soft pouch. And the usual literature that no one reads, of course. Price Rs 39,990Mostly ComfortableI’m particularly sensitive to anything that disturbs the comfort in headphones, but I’ll have to say this pair is very comfortable. Absolutely all headphones fall off my head if I look down, but this one shows a willingness to stay on a bit. It’s got a good grip without feeling heavy at all. I was able to go quite a few hours with it on, as long as I was careful not to let them fall off. I head-tested them on others and can report that they fit others well. But afterwards, you do feel like rubbing your ears and they take a while to recover from being pressed up under gripping earcups that may be soft but are a problem in a hot country.Shut Out the NoiseFor an on-ear pair of headphones, the H8 does a good job of active noise cancellation. Steady sounds like air conditioners, etc. just disappear. I once had my phone in my hand and it rang and I couldn’t hear it. The quiet on the outside leaves you to close yourself in with some truly fabulous sound, balanced but wide-ranging and rich. You get a bit of everything here: reasonable bass, good detail and high notes. Some reviewers do feel it could have had a more “open” sound but I’m not wholly convinced on that count. I like that the sound is balanced without being flat. The sound can also get pretty loud in there and the vocals sound particularly good. I’m not sure what an audiophile would miss but for the average listener, this is a treat. It’s when you take the headphones off that the ambient sound around you hits you with a shock.While You’re AwayThe sound is all the more impressive considering it comes from headphones on Bluetooth 4.0. It’s a particular joy to be untethered and on the go with good music. The range is the usual Bluetooth, so don’t stray too far away from the playback source.The controls on the Beoplay H8 are nice and innovative, mostly housed in the disk over the right earcup and active when you’re on Bluetooth. You can turn the set on or off, answer calls, change songs, and adjust volume with a swipe over the touch-sensitive cap. That’s clever and convenient but be warned that there can be accidental touches.You could reach up to brush your hair away and end up touching the highly sensitive surface of the earcup and find your music has come to an abrupt halt. If you listen using the cable, the controls go inactive and you have to use the device.The earcup also houses the battery which you can swap, if you get hold of a duplicate. But I’d say the 15 or so hours of play you get should be enough at a go since more than that isn’t particularly good for you anyway. The battery obviously lasts more if you don’t use the Bluetooth and the quality of sound also changes a little, increasing the treble and overall seeming more forceful. Noise cancellation, which you can turn off, also affects battery somewhat.The Beoplay H8 is a wonderful pair of headphones but pretty expensive, though if you can spare the money, you get a lot of features with that sound. There are other headphoens that are also good in their own way, some of which have been recently reviewed right here. Bang & Olufsen have several of these themselves, some at lower prices, so consider carefully when buying. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)
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The immensely popular Moto G gets a makeover for 2015by Mala BhargavaIt's back. The smartphone that two years ago showed the world it didn’t need to join the specs race or demand a staggering price for good performance and user experience. The Moto G went on to become Motorola’s most popular phone ever, largely thanks to India, where the now Lenovo-owned company just launched the third generation of the device.The smartphone market is now, of course, nothing like it was two years ago. In a space where the dynamics are constantly changing, the top flagship phones are being squeezed by an explosion of budget devices that combine good design, top-notch specs and shockingly low prices. So now the Moto G can’t be sure of ruling the Rs 12,999 segment it first started. But, it stands more than a good chance.If I were to use just one word to describe the new Moto G, that word would be ‘comfortable’. As I was initialising it and setting it up, I had the feeling of meeting an old friend. And that’s no reference to the “BFF” or best friends forever campaign Motorola is running. It fit right into my hand like it belonged and didn’t feel like it was designed to impress, never mind everything else.The design, which still has echoes of the original Moto G and hasn’t veered off into a new and unfamiliar look, is unpretentious right through. The back is a textured synthetic material which is both good to hold and easy to grip. That back comes off to let you get at the two SIM card slots — both micro and both 4G capable (one at a time), and the memory card slot. You can’t pull out the battery. In fact, the rest is all sealed up good because this phone is IPX7 rated or water resistant. That’s rare to non-existent in devices at this price though everyone keeps saying the feature should now be standard for all phones.The water resistance depends on your closing up the back panel securely, making sure all ends are pressed down and snapped into place. Only after that can you be comfortable with making a phone call in the rain or not have a heart attack when your glass of water tips over on the phone. The device will actually live through being submerged in three feet of water for 30 minutes, but it’s not a recommended daily ritual.Motorola has a collection of back panels and flip cases in nice colours and I wouldn’t hesitate to pick up a few to refresh the phone’s look every now and then — because otherwise, it’s not very special in the looks department.Motorola has hit upon a great size of 5 inches so it can look like a big phone but be as comfortable as a smaller one. It’s one from a diminishing breed that let you use it one-handed without resorting to software tricks.The screen isn’t a Quad-HD like expensive ones today. But again, there’s that word — comfortable. It’s easy on the eyes and uncompromised without being in that very crisp category. The more important thing is the way the screen responds to your touch and that’s smooth. The Moto G is more or less stock Android and still every bit a Google phone.Lenovo has kept its hands off the Moto phones, sensibly earning trust points with customers and allowing the experience on these devices to grow incrementally from their popular base. Naturally, the Android version is the newest Lollipop 5.1.1 and the phone should be among the first to upgrade to the next version of the operating system.For running power, the Moto G certainly doesn’t have anything equivalent to even other budget phones, let alone the over-Rs 30,000 ones, but the performance is just fine for average use. Though it won’t do brilliantly on benchmarks, the Moto G does things like play video for hours without heating up.One thing that’s a distinct improvement over the previous Moto G is the camera set which is 13MP primary and 5MP front. You get perfectly adequate images for casual use and find yourself using a simple Google app. The camera can also be activated super quick with a double twist of the wrist, as can the torch with a karate chop action. For those who have a 2nd gen Moto G in good working condition, there isn’t a compelling reason to upgrade except for the camera and the fact that there may be interesting exchange offers. For someone buying afresh, the Moto G is a great deal.mala@businessworld.in(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 07-09-2015)
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By 2016, average data usage per subscriber in India is expected to double and the number of smartphones is expected to cross 200 million, says Haider AliMobile apps are becoming an integral part of our lives. The shift from e-commerce to m-commerce is accelerating, with Indians engaging with their mobile shopping, news and personalized apps almost round the clock, making Indian mobile app usage outpace global app usage, resulting in India app usages growing by 131 per cent. Google, IBM, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), Impetus Infotech (India) Pvt. Ltd, Vserv, Junglee Games and many entrepreneurs and organisations associated with developing, producing or consuming Mobile Apps, converged at Apps India 2015 at New Delhi on Wednesday (19 August). Mobile Apps are playing a pivotal role in creating employment and entrepreneurs, enabling ease in doing business and driving inclusive development through e-Education, e-Governance, e-Health Apps and e-Commerce. The number of smartphones using mobile apps of e-commerce companies has gone up from 1,680 (21 per cent in May 2014) to 4,320 (54 per cent in May 2015). It is based on real-time mobile usage data across 8,000 handsets in the country. Around 9 billion apps will be downloaded in India in 2015, more than five times the number of apps downloaded in 2012 (1.56 billion) at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 75 per cent. “App economy has created about 75,000 direct jobs in India, and has the potential to reach 6,00,000 over a period of time. India App ecosystem is estimated to be in the range of Rs.2,000 crore by 2016,” said Sandeep Ladda, Partner & India Technology and e-Commerce Sector Leader at PwC. The revenues from paid apps are estimated to exceed Rs. 1500 crore in 2015, up from Rs. 900 crore in 2014, driven by increased app usage on smartphones. “Also, expansion of 3G network coverage and the rollout of 4G networks in 2015 are expected to further boost smartphone sales in the country,” the report said. India is expected to have the largest number of software developers by 2017. It has around 300,000 app developers and is already the second largest Android developer community in the world. By 2016, average data usage per subscriber in India is expected to double and the number of smartphones is expected to cross 200 million. With more than 300 million internet users, India has the second largest internet user base in the world. It is estimated that the number of Internet users in India will touch 503 million by 2017. “Indian Mobile Apps is being driven by the increased usage of smart phones coupled with low mobile tariffs bridging the digital divide between metros, non-metros and rural areas. Users accessing the Internet through their mobile devices have become a key driver for the growth of mobile apps,” said Ashay Padwal, Co-Founder at Vserv.
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Tolexo.com, India's largest online marketplace for business goods & supplies has launched its B2B Ecommerce mobile app for 47 million SMEs. This is the first step towards building a whole new mobile-focus eco-system which disrupts the way businesses buy & sell currently. It is also investing $2 million in building the mobile product, framework & technology, to accelerate the development. The company has also hired Gaurav Jain Ex- Engineering Manager for MobileApps from Snapdeal, to lead the mobile technology initiative. Buoyed by the fact that its mobile site already has 400,000+ businesses using it every month, the company is making the buying experience all the more seamless for B2B buyers and sellers. “We have witnessed consistent growth in the number of users interacting on our mobile site, proving the transition of the traditional businesses to the online way of buying. The further investment in the mobile tech will ensure that we stay ahead of the curve and provide the best user experience to businesses.” said Harsh Kundra, Co-founder, Tolexo. At present, more than 90 per cent of Tolexo’s customer base includes small and medium businesses, with the maximum traction coming from Tier 2, 3 & 4 cities. With an increase in the appetite of businesses for convenience & transparency in business buying, coupled with high growth rate of smartphone penetration in India, B2B E-commerce in India is all set to be a $700 billion opportunity by 2020 (as per Walmart report). Therefore, leveraging the mobile opportunity is a key focus for Tolexo.
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