Usually i'm more than happy when a gadget goes back to its company. One less thing to look after. But saying goodbye to the LG G4 was an exception. I know I’m going to miss this phone which very quickly began to feel like it was mine and which is somehow just plain comfortable to use — for a big phone. While there’s nothing groundbreaking about it, using the G4 makes you realise there doesn’t always have to be. It’s a nice mix of everything, and that should be enough for most.The first thing that stands out on the G4 is its leather back — if you have that version and not the metallic looking one. I’d highly recommend the leather, stitched down the middle and very good looking. I had the tan, but there are changeable backs. The back panel opens up to let you add the SIM and memory card. Without the leather back, the G4 will look unremarkable. There’s a case that covers the front in addition to duplicating the back panel.The G4 is ever so slightly curved, which makes it a better face-fit. It’s pretty comfortable to hold. You have the signature LG buttons for power, volume and even camera trigger on the back and these are quite natural to use just where they are, except that you’ll likely use the knock-knock feature on the screen to wake up the device. There are patterns you can set to security-protect your phone from anyone who tries to pry. Actually, you can also lock down photos and files, even individual ones. Those can be separately code-protected.I rather like LG’s formulas for their screens. I found the G4’s “soothing,” and that’s saying something, considering I use a device practically all waking hours. It’s fine, has realistic colours and is generally easy on the eye while still being crisp and bright. Some reviewers in the US report unresponsiveness on the screen — possibly a software issue — but I didn’t encounter that at all. CHECK OUTXOLO CHROMEBOOKIf you’re in the happy situation of having 24/7 connectivity to the Internet and not a whole lot to do, you could make do with a Chromebook. I say make do because the Chromebook, Google’s bare-bones laptop is just the very basics of working online. Of course, in some enterprises where the work is specifically just online and say, on a website, a Chromebook is just what the doctor ordered, helping to keep costs low and altogether avoid Microsoft’s Windows and other software.You live a Google life, working on Google Docs, and use the Chrome browser and other Google services. At one time, Chromebooks cost too much and gave too little — but with budget versions out, a company can consider these for specific use cases. But life is not all work and no play on this Chromebook — you can use Android apps and games using the browser.The Xolo Chromebook, one of three, Google just launched in India, is a tidy no-nonsense laptop with an 11.6-inch non-touch display. The screen is adequately bright. The keyboard is pretty nice as well. It's gently stylised and not focused on looks. It’s 1.15kg and boots up at top speed and uses a 1.8GHz Rockchip 3288 with 2GB of RAM. You mostly store things online but there’s a storage card of varying capacities you can use. Battery life is 10 hours. There are two USB ports, but these are 2.0, not the newer 3.0. You do have good speakers, a headphones jack and a camera. The Xolo Chromebook costs Rs 12,999 and is available online at Amazon and Snapdeal.Well, you need a great screen to do justice to the camera. In this case, a 16 megapixel shooter that makes this one of the most recommended phones if you’re into phone photography. You have control over white balance, ISO, exposure, etc., and yet the app is simple and intuitive. You can flip to the 8MP front camera with a swipe. The optics are powerful and the images are really good and can even be saved as RAW files. You have optical image stabilisation as well. Low light images are fine, but not special. LG uses its own CSS flash technology which adapts to the environment — sometimes with passable results and sometimes not.The G4 has a powerful processor and an interface that doesn’t get in the way, so its performance is smooth. Incidentally, the Sony Xperia Z4 and HTC One M9 sport the 810 Snapdragon while Samsung uses its own. The LG skin, on top of Android Lollipop, doesn’t appeal to all, but it’s not problematic. There are specific widgets, such as a wordy weather one that annoys some people, and easy multi-tasking if you want it. It just doesn’t have any special features that pop out at you — but then Samsung was criticised for just the opposite: putting in too many features and making it all complicated. The G4 has useful capabilities while at the same time not being overwhelming.Peculiarly, I couldn’t find where to select certain mobile network settings. The battery wasn’t stellar and while I found it to be adequate for moderate use, reviewers have reported having to charge the device twice a day.Overall, the G4 is a well-equipped phone with all necessary tools. The camera stands out as good and there’s no shortage of processing power. However, it does not have any blow-you-over software features. (This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 27-07-2015)
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The selfie craze has been going on for quite a while and according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) taking selfies is a mental disorder. You may or may not like taking selfies, but this mental disorder might just become the newest security method for consumers to approve online payments as MasterCardis said to be working on a mobile app that requires users to use their smartphone’s camera take a selfie to make secure payments.The new software is being tested by the company and will basically scan the user’s face from the selfie, to confirm the identity to authorise payments. This new method is an upgrade to the ‘SecureCode’ password system for online payments and the company hopes by adding the two methods they will reduce password theft. Talking to CNN, Ajay Bhalla, President, Enterprise Safety and Security at MasterCard, believes that passwords can be a pain and forgetful, the new generation is into selfies and they will love it and embrace it.Facial recognition might not be the best or the most secure way as there are ways by which one can bypass this system. To address this issue, MasterCard will be using a system where the face scanner will require the user to blink to confirm that the person is actually real at not just a picture. Apart from facial recognition, the application will also be able to use the smartphone camera to identify a customer’s fingerprint. Even this method does not sound very promising as there could be concerns as to how efficient the scanning of fingerprints via a camera will be when compared to traditional hardware based fingerprint scanners.Using biometrics to confirm one’s identity definitely seems very fascinating, but there are a plenty of security concerns before they could be implemented in our daily lives. It is the initial phase and hopefully in a couple of years, software developers will make biometric verification safe and secure.
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3D imagery of buildings and terrain of India's major cities, including Rashtrapati Bhavan and PMO, could soon be seen in Google Earth with the government contemplating to give permission for uploading pictures of the country's metropolitan areas. Home Ministry officials recently held a meeting with representatives of Google and the issue was discussed threadbare. "Discussions are on and we are planning to give permission to Google to put 3D imagery of Indian metropolitan areas in Google Earth," a Home Ministry official said. If permission is given, apart from Rashtrapati Bhavan and Prime Minister's Office, which is located in South Block, 3D imagery of other sensitive buildings like North Block, Prime Minister's residence, headquarters of Army, Air Force, Navy could also also be seen in Google Earth. United States, the United Kingdom, China and many countries in the world have already given permission to put 3D imagery of their respective metropolitan areas. Google Earth is a very popular geolocation software. In Google Earth 7, the latest version, one can see complete 3D representations of buildings and terrain throughout metropolitan areas. 3D imagery provides an immersive experience as one can explore, just like the view when someone is flying over the city. As it is zoomed in, buildings and terrain will start to appear in 3D. Once you can see the buildings, pan, zoom, tilt and rotate to explore the 3D environment. Anyone can view 3D imagery by using Google Earth 7 on the devices like Android - any dual core device running Gingerbread (Android version 2.3) or greater iOS - an iPad 2, iPad 3, or iPhone 4S. (PTI)
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Housing.com was in news again on Monday (6 July) and again for wrong reasons. The site was down for sometime after being hacked and the twitter world was aflame with rumours about who had done it. Many pointed a finger at Rahul Yadav. Sreeraag Gorty @gortysreeraag said I am guessing #rahulYadav is behind it.. Who else knows the glitches btr than #ceo himself :PCS @chin80 said If the man himself is doing all this, it's really, very sad. #housingdownScoopWhoop said Website @Housing just got #hacked. Twice! And it says #RahulYadav all over: http://bit.ly/1G2GQe5 #housingdownThe hacker defaced the homepage of the company, which showed a mathematical equation and a number of hashtags.The website is back up and running now, but this incident has left the company and its investors red-faced.Yadav's frequent fracas with investors and media have not gone down well now after being unceremoniously booted out of the company he had built, he appears to be a loose canon. Nobody should be condemned as a criminal till proved but social media has already held him guilty in trial by tweets.As for the man himself, he denied any wrong doing and said in a tweet "I would have DESIGNED it better. #NotInvolved #LoveYouTechteamThe maverick ex-CEO and co-founder Rahul Yadav recently exited the company after a lot of controversy and while the company was dealing with bad publicity, the company’s website got hacked and supported Rahul Yadav.
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Light from digital devices trick the brain into thinking it isn’t really nighttime at all, and this disrupts the natural sleep-wake cycle, in the long term, impacting sleep architectureOne thing’s for sure: I’m in trouble. My eyes are barely open in the morning when I’m squinting at my phone, checking out mail, reading the news, canning messages and dismissing the notifications that plague my life. And late in the night, my phone slips out of my hand to one side as I reluctantly stop reading my ebook. Let’s not count the hours in between because, in brief, they amount to most of the day.Unsurprising then that I should find I suffer from eye strain and dryness. But that’s not all. The “blue light” from screens can and does harm the eyes.Blue light apparently reaches deep into the eye and causes damage to the retina maybe even speeding up age-related macular degeneration.That’s if lack of sleep doesn’t kill you first. Enough studies now show that screen-staring, specially close to bedtime, will affect the quality of sleep you get. The first thing you could do is to blink more. In fact there are even apps that remind you to look away from the screen and take a break. There’s the famous 20-20-20 format where you look away every 20 minutes at something 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. It sounds easy enough, but we soon tire of this and try ever persuading kids to look away from their screens for a break – they don’t even consciously experience the strain and yet, the damage to their eyes so early in life is frightening. Forget games, they sometimes have to do homework online. Mala BhargavaNor can one afford to ignore the impact of blue light on REM sleep. You may not feel it over a day or two, but consistent depletion of this most important phase of sleep in turn affects overall health. Light from digital devices trick the brain into thinking it isn’t really nighttime at all, and this disrupts the natural sleep-wake cycle, in the long term, impacting sleep architecture. A study by the AMA (American Medical Association) in 2012 recognized that exposure to blue light at night can disrupt sleep and exacerbate sleep disorders, specially in children and adolescents. Dim red lighting in the room is recommended to counteract the blue light somewhat.One would think manufacturers of electronic equipment would do something about it, but while enough work goes into protecting the screen, little or nothing is done to protect the user. Dhruvin Patel, optometry student, decided he should change this and invented a screen protector which can block up to 50 percent of the blue light. His product, Ocushield, actually helps reduce eyestrain and get better sleep. Patel developed Ocushield while he was at City University in the UK, winning a modest sum of funding for the product after a competition and later at Vision Express.From January this year, Ocushield is available for sale online. It’s manufactured in Hong Kong from where it’s quality controlled and sent out to distributors. It’s a film that’s a cut out and it fits onto a screen. “You don’t really notice a difference in coloration,” says Patel, “There’s no change in image clarity. “ Currently, Patel is getting Ocushield to hospitals and doctors, which he believes will establish the credibility of the product. The next step will be to get Ocushield to corporate and mobile companies. In the near future, if mobile makers take it up, we could look forward to at least some reduction in the damage to our eyes and claim back some of that sleep lost to digital devices. Meanwhile, if you can’t wait, head to http://ocushield.com.
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Twitter is the latest social networking site to enter the e-commerce space; it announced the testing of its new Product Pages, which will have information about products such as images and videos along with a description, price, and an option to buy, book, or visit the website for more information.Twitter has now joined other social media networks such as Google, Pinterest and Instagram that have recently come up with shopping features for users. Earlier, Instagram launched its call-to-action button that allows users to shop for products or install apps from a post directly. Pinterest too launched buyable pins, while Google launched a buy button on YouTube videos.In an official blog, Twitter says, “We’ll show you images and a description right above the Tweets that are most timely and relevant to you. These may be Tweets from accounts you follow, relevant news updates, or popular content about the [product].”Besides this, Twitter is also testing ways for people and brands to share Twitter collections of products and places. Users will be able to browse collections from influencers they follow and get more information about products or places they find interesting.Twitter is undergoing a leadership change at the moment as its CEO Dick Costolo is stepping down from the company effective 1 July 2015. The company has appointed its co-founder, Jack Dorsey (also co-founder of Square), as an Interim CEO till the board searches for a new candidate. Illustration by Champak BhattacharjeeBRAND BUZZHelp At HandSocial media management dashboard Hootsuite has launched Suggestions for mobile, a standalone iOS app that makes discovering, scheduling and sharing content on social media easier. The app allows users to obtain a real-time feed of suggested content that correlates with their interests; easily select relevant articles, which reduces the time spent searching for content or news; share content on any selected social network; and auto schedule to post content at the optimal time to reach followers.DIG THE DATAYoung & LoyalAccording to a Convince and Convert report, 66 per cent of Americans in the age group 18-24 are more loyal to the brands they follow on social media, while the same was true of only 39 per cent Americans aged 55 and older. It appears that brand enthusiasm, as reflected by social media engagement, dulls progressively in older generations.Brevity Is VirtueStatistics show that Tweets with around 110 characters (instead of the Twitter limit of 140) get a significantly higher number of re-tweets. Basically, re-tweets are easier with shorter posts; plus, followers needn’t edit tweets in order to add their own caveat when re-tweeting.LEADERDavid Cameron@David_Cameron Prime Minister, UK“We must end Labour’s welfare merry-go-round and aim for a higher wage, lower tax and lower welfare society.”Kaushik Basu@Kaushikcbasu Chief economist, World Bank“If the US protected its auto industry from global competition in the 80s/90s it would have a larger auto industry today and a smaller economy.”(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 27-07-2015)
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Global e-commerce sales made through smartphones are expected to cross $638 billion by 2018, according to the joint study brought out by ASSOCHAM and Deloitte.D.S. Rawat, Secretary General ASSOCHAM, said, "E-tailers such as Flipkart, Amazone and Jabong now get 50 per cent of their revenues from consumers shopping on their mobile phones. Predictive analytics is helping the e-tailers to provide better solutions in real-time enabling compelling user experience even on mobile screens".However, while shoppers want real-time, relevant, and personalised information and offers, retailers will need to surround this service with very strong privacy and security. Trust, transparency, and protecting customer information will be critical in retaining loyalty as mobile retailing becomes the norm, noted the joint study.Online commerce companies should enable all features from search-to-purchase on mobile apps, such as facilitating product research, price comparison, view ratings and reviews, and payment.The launch of wearables, such as Google Glass and Apple Watch, opens new opportunities for reaching out to customers. E-tailers would keep an eye on developments in this arena, although it might only be an urban phenomenon at the moment.The e-Marketplaces are growing significantly with the increase in the Internet penetration and Smartphone usage. Internet enabled mobiles are making shopping a unique experience for buyers. e-Marketplaces provide a technology platform for sellers to participate and a trusted environment to scale up rapidly, increase profit and is highly valued by the customers. The non-inventory led B2C model also allows the e-commerce players to provide attractive discounts and offers which are difficult for inventory led brick-and-mortar shops as well as for pure e-Tailers.According to study, global Powers of Retailing 2015,” online marketplaces rather than pure inventory-led companies tend to serve as the primary e-commerce model in Asia. The high costs of holding inventory, poor logistics and supply chain challenges in India are shifting the inventory-led companies and new entrants to adopt marketplace model. Also, e-Marketplaces work well in India due to high fragmentation on supply side.The rise of online sales in the developing markets is encouraging retailers to go online for global expansion. The e-retailers are becoming exclusive partners for different brands. The Chinese Smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi, entered Indian market through Flipkart e-Marketplace that helped to reach a large customer base in a short time. 43 Similarly, OnePlus teamed up with Amazon India for exclusive partnership.Increasingly, Social media is becoming important for e-commerce players to understand reviews of people on products and services. The e-tailers can check their social media footprint with the number of likes and tweets about the brand and products. Social media provides a platform to directly interact with customers and respond to their queries.E-retailers can promote products as per the trending topics in social media channels. The brand pages can post expert opinions on the products in video or blogs and thus can help in better customer engagement. The social media also provides a suitable platform to perform extensive market research where the e-tailers can recognize changing customer habits, unmet demand, white spaces in market, get early feedback on test advertisements and can gain fast mover advantage.Online retail players have started to use social media analytics. The analytics can be used to mitigate risks and frauds, to know customer lifetime value, customer segments, forecasting and targeting. The analysis of social media data can provide information on product demand, competitors pricing, customers buying behavior, etc. Prior knowledge of this data can significantly help in customization of service offerings and enhancing user experience. Optimized pricing can be done based on price comparison with the competitor’s products and accordingly changes can be done in real-time.Cash on Delivery (CoD) is the most preferred mode of payment in India with 45 per cent of the shoppers using it while 21 per cent shoppers opt for debit cards and another 16 per cent go for credit cards. CoD mode has many issues ranging from high direct and indirect costs, security, or time taken to reverse logistics arising from CoD defaults. More people have banking access due to the financial inclusion project - Jan Dhan Yojna of the government. Digital companies such Paytm, Videocon D2H, and telecom operators such as Airtel, Idea are entering the banking arena with payment bank license. Emerging cashless payment solutions will boost the e-commerce sector.
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If you thought smartphone displays are too small to enjoy videos, then brace yourselves as a new app now enables you to watch YouTube videos on any Android Wear device. An app called Video for Android Wear & YouTube (Yes, that’s the full name) lets users watch videos from YouTube on the tiny displays of their smart watches. It does sounds impractical, but the developers are said to have done a fine job with the app.The app lets you search for videos via voice and gives all the relevant videos in a list. You can play, pause, seek through the videos and even control the volume. However, Android Wear based smart watches do not come with a built-in speaker so one has to connect a speaker wirelessly via Bluetooth to the watch itself and not to the phone. The app also with options to show the video description, suggest relevant and related videos and (ironically) an option to cast or beam videos on to a larger display or to the Chromecast. Doing so makes the smart watch act as a remote. This is probably the only useful feature of this app as you can quickly search and cast videos right from your wrist.The app comes right after Apple announced that its new watchOS 2 for the Apple Watch will support video playback. However, how seamless the experience will be is yet to be seen.
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