E-DAY

JIO SLOWING DOWN ! confirms Speedtest app maker

2016-10-15T09:06:00.002+05:30

When someone promises 4G speed reaching up to 135Mbps, in an internet-scarce country like India, the market can only go crazy. And so it did after September 5, when Reliance made the Jio SIM available to public under Welcome Offer. The situation has changed in the last one month. Numbers by Ookla, the company behind world's most popular speed test app, show that the Jio speed is down significantly compared to how it was earlier. Although, don't count out Jio yet. The same report by Ookla also says that despite its imperfections Jio is actually a big deal and has changed the 4G market in India

Ookla has recently released a report based on speed tests done in India since the launch of Reliance Jio. The report shows an exponential increase in 4G users across India. Since these numbers are based on people using Ookla's Speedtest app the real number should be higher. According to Reliance Jio, it has registered over 1.6 crore customers in Welcome Offer, which doesn't include users who registered before September 5.

India grabs Jio with both hands

A graphic presentation by Ookla shows a continuous increase in 4G speed tests in first nine months of 2016. These tests are conducted across all the networks providing 4G services. In January, only 97,630 people used the app to test 4G speed. In August the number was 2,742,413, and took a massive jump to 8, 214,512 in September 2016, the month when Reliance Jio became more widely available.

The metrics company has also presented a graph showing, first a gradual increase in 4G speed tests and then a sudden jump in September. The following graph shows Reliance Jio users in the blue colour and rest of the 4G users with purple colour.

By August 16, the number of people testing 4G speed stands at somewhere around 8 million across

country. Out of these 8 million people are shown to be using Reliance Jio. Then in the next one month, on Sept 16, the number of Reliance Jio tester jumps to over 21 million, which is about 5 million more than the officially recorded number of Welcome Offer users.

But what about the promised speed?

As we have seen, and continue to do so, queues of people outside Reliance Digital store, the popularity of Jio was never in doubt, what is up for question is the speed promised by Reliance Jio.

Users have continuously moaned and groaned about the falling speed but now since we have the numbers released by Ookla, we can confirm their groans are not fake. The struggle is real.

The data released by Ookla shows that mean download speeds for 4G capable phones dropped 23 per cent month-over-month. In September alone the mean download speed has fallen from 11.31 Mbps to 8.77 Mbps.

It should be noted that while the mean download speed is still 8.77Mbps, according to Ookla, it doesn't mean most users are getting the speed. In our experience we have registered speed as low as 0.5Mbps and also as high as 25Mbps. Reliance Jio users have also complained of abysmal speed on the network.
Good speed or not Reliance Jio has definitely managed to make its mark not just in India but globally as well. The 4G surge has been so powerful that the global data has also been affected. Take a look at this graphs.

The graph shows that global 4G test stayed at around 10 million throughout the year and from Aug

16 to Sept 16 the company recorded a jump to more than 20 million tests on 4G LTE networks.

do checkout the new flipkart app for special offers for eday users :http://fkrt.it/ZmwDAuuuuN

IRCTC website hacked, data of 1 crore customers stolen

2016-05-05T22:12:00.001+05:30

In what can only be seen as a rise in hacking incidents in the country, personal data of nearly 1 crore consumers might have been stolen from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s (IRCTC) servers.
According to a TOI report, the hacking incident could lead to miscreants forging documents with the stolen data. “Somebody can create forged documents on the basis of the stolen data,” a senior Railways official was quoted as saying. IRCTC’s e-ticketing website sees nearly lakhs of transactions daily with consumers even filling up details like Pan Card numbers on the site.
“The data is a valuable asset and can be sold to corp

orations who may use it for targeting potential consumers,” a source working at IRCTC was quoted as saying. He added that the Maharashtra government has been alerted. The IRCTC public relations officer said that the police is yet to share the data with them, after which they would look into the matter and issue a detailed statement. “IG Maharashtra police cyber cell has informed IRCTC about Data theft from its website but the details of the said data are still to be shared with IRCTC. IRCTC will be issuing a detailed press note later today,” he said.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 is Running Windows 10

2015-11-24T20:42:00.001+05:30

Xiaomi recently announced their latest products that include a tablet running on Windows 10. The Mi Pad 2 supports with a large 6,190mAh battery which supports 5V/2A fast charging via USB Type-C port.

Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 Specifications:
◾Processor: Intel Atom Quad-core X5-Z8500, 2.24GHz
◾RAM: 2GB dual-channel LPDDR3 RAM
◾Internal Storage: 64GB
◾Display: 7.9-inch IPS display | 2048 x 1536 resolution, 326PPI
◾Camera: 8MP f/2.0 primary camera | 5MP front camera
◾Battery: 6190mAh battery with 5V/2A fast charging
◾Dimensions: 200.4 x 132.6 x 6.95mm
◾Weight: 322 grams
◾Windows 10

This upcoming tablet will be available in two colors: dark grey or champagne gold. The 16GB version of this tablet will cost $156 and 64GB will cost $203. and will go on sale in late December in mainland China.

OnePlus X Is a $250 Phone That's Shockingly Good-Looking

2015-10-31T07:52:00.001+05:30

I’m a big fan of cheap phones, an obsession that’s been well documented. I’ve tried the Moto G, Nexus 5, and OnePlus One, and have loved them all. I’m completely convinced that a great smartphone and an expensive smartphone are not mutually exclusive. The new $250 OnePlus X is proof.

Yes. That phone pictured above is $250, no contracts. If you want to get even more fancy, there’s a porcelain option for $350. It looks great, too:

In person, the design feels a little iPhone 5-ish with the camera placement and the flat edges and Sony Xperia Z-like with the glass backpanel. But OnePlus says the move away from positioning the camera in the center was simply an issue of sensor space within the phone itself, and the edges actually have 7 notches that go around the device so its a little more textured that just straight aluminum.
As for the back, the glass actually bubbles up from the sides instead of just a flat pane straight across like an Xperia phone. OnePlus founder Carl Pei told us that the inspiration for the backplate came from the convex meniscus of an overflowing glass of water. Long story short, it’s what the iPhone display does but it’s on the back.
The porcelain version is slightly different. Instead of a curved edge, there’s a sharper angle that slopes toward the bezel, but from a distance you can barely tell the difference. The only unfortunate inheritance from using glass and porcelain is the X quickly becomes a fingerprint nightmare, so if you have OCD polishing tendencies, maybe avoid this guy—or keep a cloth handy.

OnePlus X Specs

OS: Oxygen OS 5.1 based on Android 5.1
CPU: Snapdragon 801 processor
Screen: 5-inch 1920x1080 AMOLED (441 PPI)
RAM: 3GB
Storage: 16GB + MicroSD up to 128GB
Camera: 13 megapixel rear (f/2.2 and 1080p video) / 8 megapixel front
Battery: 2,525 mAh
Dimensions: 5.51 x 2.72 x 0.27 inches
Weight: 4.86 ounces (5.64 w/ ceramic)
Colors: Onyx and Ceramic
Price and Availability: $250 - $350 (depending on material); Available November 5
Extra Notes: SIM tray can use nano SIM and microsSD or a microSIM, no USB Type-C

BSNL WITH CHEAP 2Mbps TRICK,YOU HAVE TO PAY FOR GETING MORE THAN 1 GB

2015-10-01T21:14:00.001+05:30

BSNL introduced a minimum broadband speed of 2 mega bit per second (Mbps) offer today was found to be cheting there customers...

our first reports says that after exceeding a small fup(1gb) it will pop up a webpage to upgrade your connection.

if you deny the offer you can go back in using the old 512kbps plan and if you wish to upgrade then it may cost you some cash

it appears that the upgrade for 20 gb will cost you around Rs.500 .The payment will be settled in the next bill.

so be careful before starting to putt all those things in your download queue to action

Finally, Facebook Is Getting A 'Dislike' Button

2015-09-20T21:55:00.000+05:30

Ever since the early days of its conception, Facebook has revolutionized the way we interact with information — one of the most important being the way we categorize it: with "likes," "comments" and "shares." There is one emotion, however — manufactured in large quantities on social media networks like Facebook — that's hard to neatly wrap up: empathy.

"I think people have asked about the dislike button for many years," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a Q&A at Facebook's headquarters. "Today is a special day because today is the day I can say we're working on it and shipping it."

The shift comes after a very palpable limitations to the way people interact with news on Facebook — "what they really want is the ability to express empathy. Not every moment is a good moment," says Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg is weary of the Reddit model, where upvotes get a post more attention while downvotes do the opposite. The whole idea of the upcoming "dislike" button is to let users express feelings other than simply "liking."

There is no word on when this feature will go live. All Zuckerberg offers is that "it's surprisingly complicated to make an interaction that will be simple."

Yu plans to sell 5 lakh Yunique phones by Diwali

2015-09-10T23:17:00.000+05:30

Yu Televentures Pvt. Ltd, a subsidiary of Micromax Informatics Ltd, has plans to sell about half-a-million (5 lakh) of its newly launched Yunique smart phones by Diwali this year.

“We want to become number one online brand of smart phones in India with our new launch targeted at the youth in the age group of 15 to 25 years by offering them the most affordable 4G LTE phone with best of the features in the price range”, Yu Televentures Chief Operating Officer Amarinder S. Dhaliwal said here on Thursday.

The company that came into existence in December last had already sold about one million smart phones through its previous three brands of YUREKA, YUREKA PLUS AND YUPHORIA, Mr. Dhaliwal claimed adding that the Yu was the first and only mobile brand in the country that had pioneered onsite doorstep service in 283 cities. “We believe that service is a big differentiator. We are providing handset replacement for in-warranty customers and customer service on doorstep to out-of-warranty customers”, he stated.

"With the launch of the YUNIQUE, Yu Televentures was introducing over 825 authorised service centres across 600 cities, where the customers could walk-in for software support, drop their handsets, if had any problem and get replacement at their doorstep”, Mr. Dhaliwal said adding that the service would be extended to all Yu devices soon.

About the new launch, General Manager (Devices) Saurabh Sharma explained that the smart phone would come with 4.7-inch HD-IPS display with new version of gorilla screen, 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 410 , 1.2 GHz quad core processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB ROM, 8 MP rear/2MP front cameras and 2000 mAh battery. The YUNIQUE phone is priced at Rs. 4,999 and is exclusively available on Snapdeal.

Registrations for the first flash sale scheduled on September 15 began on September 8, Mr. Dhaliwal stated.

Computer algorithm that choose the world's most creative art

2015-06-12T10:16:00.000+05:30

Who would you trust to determine history's most creative at? A room full of seasoned critics? Rutgers University researchers think a machine can do the job.

They've developed a computer vision algorithm that ranks the creativity of art based on how similar it is to earlier works in terms of everything from color and texture to the presence of familiar objects.

The code treats art history as a network -- groundbreaking pieces are connected to later derivatives, and seemingly unique content may have a link to something produced in the distant past.

So what are the top picks? In many ways, they match what you'd expect.

Edvard Munch's iconic The Scream is considered exceptionally creative, as are Goya's Christ Crucified and Monet's Haystacks at Chailly at Sunrise.

At the same time, though, the algorithm knocks classics like Auguste Rodin's scuplture Danaid or Albrecht Durer's portrait of his mother.

However, it's important to remember that the software is looking for originality, not whether or not artwork is good.

Although the algorithm could easily apply to books and other artistic formats, it's going to take considerably longer before computers develop a critical eye.

now you can say more in twitter,Twitter is removing 140-character limit from Direct Messages

2015-06-12T10:05:00.000+05:30

Twitter has been overhauling Direct Messages over the past several months,

and today it's announcing an enormous change:

plans to lift the classic 140-character limit. Starting in July, DMs will seemingly be able to run as long as you'd like, turning it into much more of a typical instant message and group chat service.
The limit stays for normal tweets

It's a sensible movie — the 140-character limit was always more of a nuisance in DMs, since they're private and not meant to be the same type of quick info bite as a tweet. It'll also be a huge help to companies that run customer service on Twitter. Twitter has already made it easier for companies to do that by giving them the option to let anyone initiate a DM, and now they'll be able to send long messages back and forth, rather than being arbitrarily restricted.

Twitter traditionalists don't have to worry much: "You may be wondering what this means for the public side of Twitter," writes Sachin Agarwal, Twitter's DM product manager. "Nothing! Tweets will continue to be the 140 characters they are today."

There's no specific date on the change beyond "July." That should still give you enough time to prepare yourself.

GIONEE GOES BIG, LAUNCHES 2 NEW FLAGSHIPS

2015-06-11T09:29:00.002+05:30

Gionee’s global product launch event in Beijing made official two of the more highly anticipated phones of late.

The Elife E8 comes with flagship specs and focuses on photography, while the Marathon M5 aims to impress with battery life.

Gionee also launched the Gionee Wallet mobile wallet system in collaboration with WeBank. In an emailed statement, Arvind R. Vohra, Country (India) CEO & MD of Gionee Smartphones, said "Both M3 & E7 have seen massive success in the Indian market and with the announcement of the power packed M5 and next gen E8 we are sure that the Indian smartphone market will experience the future technology today," tipping a launch in India in the near future. The company at the launch of the Gionee Elife S7 in India had indicated the same.

my thoughts regarding this release is a bit uncertain , we are seeing smartphones getting cheaper and cheaper every day,at this time people are less likely to buy a chines flagship. what were gionee thinking while launching these beast? well one thing is for sure this is not ment for markets like india.

well what do you think , will you buy a 40,000(or 30,000) rs smartphone that's made in china and does not have any service centers

see the detailed spec and report here

what do yo think about these smartphones? do comment.....

Facebook Launches Games for Messenger App

2015-06-11T08:18:00.001+05:30

facebook messenger just hit more than 1billion downloads in the play store . We always had a notion that facebook wants to keep all there users in using there messenger app.

To keep such large amount of community interested is a tough task but now i think facebook has found a solution for it...GAMES!!

This is not the first time facebook launching apps for messenger,
Facebook launched its first round of apps for the Messenger back in March of this year, but no games were included with in it.

Most apps were for sharing gifs, still images and videos with friends, which makes the new Doodle Draw for Messenger the first game for Facebook Messenger

There where reports from May onwards , that Facebook was in talks with various developers to create games for the Messenger platform, so assume Doodle Draw will be the first of many games for Messenger.

The app is more-or-less a copy of Draw Something which, if you remember, was a game which took over the world for about five minutes in 2012, itself a copy of an extremely obscure game called Pictionary. If you don't remember either of those, one person draws something and the other has to guess: a perfect game for the Messenger platform if there ever was one.

Apps and games in Messenger are designed to keep users engaged with the app for a longer time. More engagement with the app would theoretically lead to more user engagement with Facebook's mobile and desktop platforms, which would help increase ad revenue.

TechCrunch Senior Writer Josh Constine is concerned that games could turn Messenger into a home for spam, much in the way that Farmville (and pretty much everything else from Zynga) made a mess of Facebook's desktop platform.

If you remember that dark period, you'll undoubtedly share this fear.

As Constine notes, Doodle Draw doesn't really assuage this fear as players earn in-game currency for getting more friends to play with them. It's not difficult to imagine Messenger being overrun with spammy games if Facebook doesn't do anything to discourage this.

If my guesses are correct its not far from a time that chat heads popup with ads...
I mean zuckerberg is not doing this for charity is he

Facebook Messenger for Android hits one billion downloads on Google Play Store

2015-06-10T16:12:00.000+05:30

Facebook crowed that an Android version of its Messenger app has been downloaded more than a billion times from the Google Play store. “Happy to make it to the very exclusive Android 1 billion+ downloads club,” the head of the Messenger team David Marcus said in an online post.
Other than Facebook, only Google boasts apps with more than a billion Google Play downloads onto Android-powered mobile devices, according to technology news website TechCrunch.
A chat forum on Messenger’s page at Google Play was rich with accolades but peppered with comment that the high download count was driven by Facebook spinning the widely used service out of the social network, compelling people to get the app. Facebook last year broke off Messenger from the main Facebook application for mobile users, creating a separate platform that claims more than 600 million users.
Facebook in April began rolling out video calling on its Messenger mobile application, enabling face-to-face conversations among users of the app around the world.
With the new feature, users can add video to calls to another person with the same application. Similar services are offered by Microsoft’s Skype, Google Hangouts and Apple’s FaceTime.
Free calling has been available for two years to users of Messenger, although people may be required to pay for data used during the connections.
The world’s biggest social network also opened up Messenger to outside developers as part of its strategy to create a “family” of apps that also includes Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook has offered few hints on how it will monetize Messenger, but recently unveiled a system of peer-to-peer payments which could be adapted as an e-commerce platform.
Messenger also lets users communicate with online merchants, essentially turning formerly impersonal Internet shopping into ongoing text message conversations.

Gloveone lets users feel virtual reality through the Touch sensation

2015-06-09T10:02:00.001+05:30

You would have sensed virtual reality through sight and sound so far. Now, you can touch the virtual objects, thanks to a new pair of gloves.

Gloveone, the new green and black gloves from Spain-based tech company NeuroDigital Technologies, will let you actually feel sensations like shape and weight when interacting with virtual objects.

The developers claim that the wearers will be able to feel rain and fire, and also something as ethereal as butterfly wings, Discovery.com reported. The technology translates touch sensations into vibrations and each pair has 10 sensors placed in the palm and fingertips. Four of those sensors, located in the palm, thumb, index and middle fingers, can detect each other, letting you fire a gun or grab an apple.

The gloves also include a 9-Axis inertial measurement unity (IMU) sensor, which can be placed beneath the gloves. An IMU sensor, often used to manoeuvre aircraft, can record velocity, orientation and gravitational forces using accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers.

In the Gloveone, the IMU sensor will track your hands within the virtual world to offer a more realistic experience.

The company describes the sensation of wearing these gloves as a “realistic perceptual illusion”, meaning that you can’t feel the weight of a virtual object the same as it is in real life, but you can compare weights within the virtual world.

The company has finished prototyping the product and created a Kickstarter page to finance manufacturing the gloves.

People can buy the gloves fitted in three sizes. Each “anti-bacterial, sweat-proof” pair features a Bluetooth wireless connection and offers more than four hours of battery life. Only thing, you will have to wait till 2016 before you enjoy the experience through Gloveone.

Taj Mahal to get free Wi-Fi on 16 June

2015-06-08T19:36:00.000+05:30

Come June 16 and the visitors at the Taj Mahal will get free Wi-Fi internet facility across the sprawling campus for 30 minutes.
Any browsing or usage like downloading, surfing after this period would invite charges at Rs.30 an hour, a Bharatiya Sanchar Nigam Limit
ed (BSNL) official said.
Chief General Manager of BSNL (UP-West) Pradeep Kumar told IANS that the trials have been completed and the service will be launched by union Telecom Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad in Agra on June 16.
He informed that while bandwidth is being provided by BSNL, the system integrator – Quadgen, a Bengaluru based company – is providing the wireless support.
Due to security and other reasons, the ASI has only permitted the Wi-Fi availability in a radius of 30 metres from the main gate of the Taj Mahal, officials further said.
Millions of domestic and foreign tourists visit the Taj Mahal, built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. Officials said there were frequent complaints from tourists, specially foreigners about the lack of Wi-Fi facility. Following this, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) requested the BSNL to work on the project to start the facility in the complex.
Wi-Fi internet facility at public places in Agra is currently available only at the Agra Cantonment railway station.
If the trial at the Taj is successful, BSNL plans to extend the facility to Fatehpur Sikri as well. The Taj Mahal a major draw for tourists the world over. In 2014, it attracted 60.72 lakh visitors.

ITS HERE, 'SELF HEALING' AIRCRAFTS THAT TO IN THE FLIGHT ITSELF

2015-06-08T10:04:00.003+05:30

Even the researchers involved in the project describe it as "verging on science fiction". A team of British scientists has produced aircraft wings that can fix themselves after being damaged, suggesting that self-healing technology will soon become commonplace.

Their research, due to be presented at a Royal Society meeting in London this week, is being billed as an important step in an emerging
field which could soon produce self-healing nail polish and a cure for cracked mobile phone screens.

A team at the University of Bristol has been quietly developing the technology for the past three years. Speaking exclusively to The Independent on Sunday, its leader, Professor Duncan Wass, said he expected self-healing products to reach consumers in the "very near future".

His team specialises in modifying carbon fibre composite materials, the strong but lightweight substances used increasingly widely in the manufacture of everything from commercial aircraft wings to sports racquets and high-performance bicycles.

Professor Wass and his team have been working with aerospace engineers at the university, who wanted to know if there was a way of preventing the tiny, almost undetectable cracks that form in an aircraft's wings and fuselage.

The team's ingenious solution started "on the back of an envelope" but has since developed into useable technology. It involves adding tiny, hollow "microspheres" to the carbon material - so small that they look like a powder to the human eye - which break on impact, releasing a liquid healing agent.

The agent seeps into the cracks left by the damage before coming into contact with a catalyst, triggering a rapid chemical reaction which causes it to harden.

"We took inspiration from the human body," Professor Wass said. "We've not evolved to withstand any damage - if we were like that we'd have a skin as thick as a rhinoceros - but if we do get damaged, we bleed, and it scabs and heals. We just put that same sort of function into a synthetic material: let's have something that can heal itself."

Laboratory tests have established that the material is just as strong after it has "healed", raising the possibility of aircraft wings that can repair themselves "literally on the fly" if a bird strike takes place in mid-flight, Professor Wass said.

The technology could also make airline safety checks far cheaper as a dye could be added to the healing agent causing any damage to an aircraft to stand out like a bruise. This would allow engineers to identify damaged areas quickly - and ensure that they do not miss anything as they examine the plane.

Professor Wass said a bruise was a "good analogy" - but accepted that the dye would need to be tweaked to cater for nervous fliers. "We'd probably do it with something which is invisible to the naked eye that you'd need to put an ultraviolet light on, because you don't want an aeroplane wing with a big red splodge on it showing that it's been damaged."

Depending on the outside temperature, the material can take anywhere between a couple of hours and a day to recover. "If you're on a runway in Dubai it would probably heal in a couple of hours, but if you were on a runway in Reykjavik in winter it would probably be more like 24 hours," Professor Wass said.

The research was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's UK Catalysis Hub, a collaborative project between universities and industry. This week's conference, entitled Catalysis Improving Society, will be one of the first events at which the team's achievements have been detailed in public.

Professor Richard Catlow of the University of London, one of the organisers of the meeting, said the research showed that catalysis - which is already used widely in the petrochemicals industry - could offer enormous benefits in other areas, at a "relatively low cost".

The Bristol team's advances could be applied to all kinds of carbon fibre composite materials - meaning that self-healing golf clubs, tennis racquets, fishing rods and bike helmets could be just around the corner.

The cosmetics firm L'Oreal has also contacted the team to register its interest in self-healing nail varnish. This would require different technology, but Professor Wass said the general principle would remain the same.

"We're definitely getting to the stage where in the next five or 10 years we're going to see things like mobile phone screens that can heal themselves if they crack," he said.

The dawn of self-healing technology was heralded in 2001, when researchers at the University of Illinois in the US created a plastic capable of repairing itself when it cracked. Last year, the same team created a polymer, inspired by the human blood-clotting system, which patched holes up to 3cm wide.

How the technology is being used

Professor Wass's team at the University of Bristol has been focusing on the creation of self-healing versions of carbon fibre composite materials, which are used widely in the aerospace industry but also have many other applications.

* The BMW i8 electric sports car has a carbon fibre passenger compartment to make up for the weight of its heavy battery. The material is already attractive to car manufacturers as it is 30 per cent lighter than aluminium - and self-healing technology would make it safer too.

* The Airbus A380 passenger jet has a carbon fibre reinforced plastic fuselage for a lower fuel consumption. The researchers claim the new technology would allow wings to fix themselves in mid-flight, and allow engineers to spot cracks more easily.

* Offshore wind turbines could also benefit from self-healing technology, as they are often damaged by bird strikes. The carbon composite blades are 100 feet in the air, so maintaining them is notoriously expensive and difficult.

* Carbon fibre bicycle frames are popular with cyclists as they are so light, but they are also liable to crack. If they could self heal, their durability could be massively increased and the technology could also be applied to crash helmets.

* Sports equipment such as tennis racquets, fishing rods and golf clubs are often made from carbon fibre composites for the same reasons.

Mangalyaan to enter 15-day 'blackout' phase from Monday: Isro

2015-06-08T09:52:00.000+05:30

Starting Monday, India's low-cost Mars mission that has been orbiting the red planet will enter the "blackout" phase snapping all communication with the satellite as the sun will block Mars from the earth from June 8 to 22.

Mars Orbiter Mission(MOM) during this period will go into "autonomous mode" and will take its decisions, a senior ISRO official told PTI. "This will be for the first time that there will be a communication break for such a long period of about 15 days. During this period, there will not be any communication with the satellite," he said.

Expressing confidence about regaining control over the satellite once the blackout phase is over, he said, "the scenario has been tested for earlier; line of communication will be established." Stating that the spacecraft has been "configured" for the blackout, the ISRO official said, "we are not sending any commands to the spacecraft now, till 8th(June) few hours of signals will be sent by the spacecraft-that will be for about two to three hours per day."

The spacecraft's life was extended for another six months in March due to surplus fuel.
In May next year, the mission will have to go through a similar phase once again when the Earth will come between the Sun and Mars, if the mission is extended again.

Scripting space history, India, on September 24 last year, successfully placed its low-cost MOM spacecraft in orbit around the red planet in its very first attempt, breaking into an elite club of three countries.

The ISRO spacecraft was launched on its nine-month-long odyssey on an indigenous PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 5, 2013 and had escaped the earth's gravitational field on December 1, 2013.

National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) to set up office in Kochi

2015-06-06T15:36:00.001+05:30

With Kochi fast emerging as a prominent IT destination among tier II cities, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has decided to set up an office in the city.

It will come up alongside the proposed Startup Warehouse to be set up by Nasscom inside the Infopark campus. The office will turn operational simultaneously with the Warehouse by August.

The premier IT trade body has an office at Thiruvananthapuram. The setting up of the Kochi office will make Kerala the only state after Maharashtra to host two Nasscom offices.

“The main objective of setting up the new office is to engage with the fast growing city,” said Purushothaman K., senior director of Nasscom in charge of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry on the sidelines of Nasscom product conclave here on Friday. M.S. Sujith Unni, Nasscom’s deputy manager at its office in Thiruvananthapuram, will move to Kochi to set up the office.

Nasscom has lined up three sessions of Startup 20:20, a three-day entrepreneurial promotion programme held in college campuses, in three cities, including Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi from July by bringing together students from ten campuses at a time.

Already two such sessions were held in Thrissur and Kozhikode.

“We chose to hold it in Kerala at the instance of Technopark Technology Business Centre (T-TBI). That T-TBI has entrepreneurship development cells in campuses would make its organisation easier,” said Mr. Purushothaman.

He said that there is an ideal startup eco system in the State with the convergence of all four stakeholders–government, industry, media, and educational institutions. With the initiatives of Startup Village, TTBI and Nasscom, the State is likely to witness a lot of activities in the next couple of years, he said.

Meanwhile, Nasscom was buoyed by the extent of participation at its second edition of Kochi product conclave. Five best product start-ups selected by a jury were given time to showcase their products at the conclave

Idea hikes data tariffs by over 18%,and it's just the beginning

2015-06-05T11:10:00.002+05:30

Idea Cellular has hiked data tariffs by over 18% for its pre-paid subscribers in Delhi-NCR with effect from June 3.

The company may also hike data tariffs in five or six more circles soon.

While Idea has hiked 3G data tariffs by over 18%, 2G tariffs have gone up by 10-11 %. The company has also reduced the validity of data packs. Idea Cellular declined to comment on the tariff hike.

Idea subscribers will now have to shell out Rs 295 for 1 GB pack for 3G data services with a validity of 28 days, against Rs 249 earlier.

Similarly, a 1 GB of 2G data pack will now be priced at Rs 195 with 28-day validity against Rs 175 earlier.

The company has also reduced the validity of various packs. For instance, customers will now get a validity of 27 days with a recharge of Rs 247 for 1 GB while earlier it used to cost Rs 249 with 28 days validity.

Popcorn Buzz: Now enjoy free group call with up to 200 friends

2015-06-05T10:55:00.001+05:30

LINE, the world’s leading so called life platform, announced the official Android launch of “Popcorn Buzz” yesterday. Popcorn Buzz by LINE is a free group call app that allows up to 200 participants to simultaneously talk to each other.

In addition, there is a group call function that could come in handy for those on the move, and even in collaborative teams.

According to LINE, “Popcorn Buzz can be used to talk with friends and family, catch up with classmates, make plans with club members, and more.

On top of that, Popcorn Buzz is a perfect replacement for existing paid business-grade conference call services.

For users that need to talk to multiple people at once, Popcorn Buzz accommodates both personal and business usage, all for free.” According to LINE, the calls are free if made over WiFi networks.

However, additional mobile data charges may apply for use of 3G or 4G networks.

To get started with Popcorn Buzz, all you need to do is choose a username and upload a profile picture.

Once you create a unique URL for a group call, you can share the URL via email, SMS, or another communication method to start a group call.

LINE adds, “existing LINE users can log in to Popcorn Buzz with their LINE account to immediately synchronise their friends list data and get started making group calls with their LINE friends right away.”

During group calls, users can see all the other call members’ icons, and tell who is talking via the green dots that light up in the lower right-hand corner of current talking users’ icons.

Although available on Android, an upcoming iPhone release is planned, along with the implementation of additional features such as group video chat, interconnectivity with LINE groups, and more in the future.

“With its release, Popcorn Buzz seeks to redefine the limits of smartphone communication in a way that has never been done before,” LINE added in an official release.

Asus Zenfone Selfie First Look

2015-06-04T15:40:00.001+05:30

Asus announced the ZenPad series as well as the Asus Zenfone Selfie smartphone aiming at the selfie enthusiasts.

Asus decided to add on a selfie-focussed camera on the Zenfone 2 series which was announced earlier this year, Asus Zenfone Selfie on the show floor at Computex and here are our first impressions.

BUILD

The device looks smiler to zenfone 2 ,The body is made of plastic and has brush metal finish on the back.
it does feel like a well built device and has the typical curved arc shape with power button ,as expected on the top and volume rocker on the rear end.
The larger 13mp camera and duel led flash on both the front and rear gives the design some fresh look(a very small amount that is) in my opinion the centrally placed selfie camera does look sturdy.

UNDER THE HOOD

The Asus Zenfone Selfie is powered by a 64-bit octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 SOC ,2 or 3 gb of ram and 16GB or 32GB of inbuilt storage which can be further expanded up to 64GB via microSD card.

It is running on the Android 5.0 Lollipop OS with Asus’s proprietary ZenUI skin on top of it
In operation it was smooth and there was no unnecessary lag,switching between apps was a breeze.

WHAT MEATS THE EYE

The Asus Zenfone Selfie sports a 5.5-inch screen with a 1920×1080 resolution with 403 ppi
which is decent ,Its a typical zenfone display

THE EYE OF THE DEVICE

The main reason for the existence of this phone is its 13MP front-facing camera. It is powered by a 1/3.2-inch Toshiba sensor with an f/2.2 aperture and a 24mm focal length where as the rear camera has a 1/3.2-inch Toshiba sensor with an f/2.0 aperture with a 28mm focal length. Both the cameras comes with laser auto focus
The ui of the camera is similar to the one we saw with the Zenfone 2. The front-camera gets features such as HDR mode, selfie-panorama mode, selfie low light mode and so on. The image quality looked decent .

WHAT MEATS THE POCKET

Asus hasn’t announced a price for the device yet but we where expecting a price between 15-18k
lets see how it turns out.

well what do you think about the whole selfie idea? do comment ,share & like .
stay tuned and follow us for more content like this

Huawei Honor 4C review: Phone with a Stunning rear camera

2015-06-01T10:27:00.000+05:30

At Rs 8,999, Huawei Honor 4C is a nifty Chinese alternative for those who want to look beyond Xiaomi or Lenovo and are happy to spend more than Rs 7,000 on a smartphone. Honor 4C comes with a 13MP rear camera, which delivers excellent results for a phone that does not cost the earth.
We played with the Huawei Honor 4C for a week and here’s our review of the smartphone.

Specs: 5-inch 720p HD TFT IPS display| 64-bit 1.2GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 620 processor| 2GB of RAM, 8GB internal memory (expandable up to 32GB)| 13MP A/F rear camera with Flash, 5MP front camera | Android 4.4 KitKat with Emotion UI 3.0 | 2,550mAh b
attery | Dual-SIM, Bluetooth 4.0, A-GPS, Wi-Fi , 3G.

Design and Screen: Honor 4C does not have a stunning design. The wide-rectangular style with rounded edges is common to many smartphones. The Honor 4C is also very heavy at 162 grams. But the slight matte finish on the rear means it’s not entirely an ungainly sight. The rear cover is removable but the battery is not.

The screen is 5-inches with a 720p HD TFT IPS display. But it is prone to smudges and in my case quickly became an ugly mess. There is no Gorilla Glass for extra protection, so a screen-guard is a must.

The 720p display is good for reading indoors. It is fairly sharp and given the price point it does not disappoint, even if you keep the brightness levels at half, which is what I did. Also reading on the phone under Delhi’s harsh sun did not give me any problems.

Processor, RAM, Performance: Honor 4C comes with a 64-bit 1.2GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 620 processor, 2GB of RAM and 8GB internal memory. The 8 GB storage is disappointing, because only around 4GB is available for users and you run out of that pretty quickly once you start downloading apps.

Where performance scores go, the phone scores 29,127 on Antutu which puts it above Redmi Note, Asus Zenfone 5 in the list. On GeekBench 3, it scores 1624 on multi-core, putting it above LG Nexus 4, Xperia Z devices, which puts it fairly down the line.

Cones:
There was some issues getting the phone to respond when unlocking the screen, pulling down the notifications/shortcuts bar from the top, but other than that it was fairly responsive. Apps worked fine , which includes browsing on Facebook, Twitter, and even games worked without any lag.

The 2GB RAM on the 64-bit processor means the phone functions well, given its price point, but it is not particularly zippy and yes apps will crash, eventually, even if they don’t in the beginning.

in terms of call quality, the phone does the job, although I will not vouch for listening to music on this device. For some reason, while listening to YouTube videos with headphones there was a distinct jarring sound in the background

UI and Android: Honor 4c runs Android 4.4.2 which is a shame given that new phones comes with Android 5 have hit the market in India long back. What really does not work for me is the Emotion UI, and I do not see the point of including a separate browser with Chrome. As a user, I’m unlikely to ever try out the application.

Huawei’s Emotion UI feels like a bit like a mish-mash of Android and Apple. For instance, on the lock screen there is a little control panel you can swipe up which has the option for torch, camera, calculator, and recorder. It also has the play settings if you are listening to music and you can just pause, stop, etc from the lock screen.

There are a lot of applications in here I just did not feel the need to use, given how dependent I am on the Google universe. Thankfully, the phone comes pre-installed with Facebook and Twitter, which I think a lot of users will appreciate.

Camera: The USP of the Honor 4c is the camera. It delivers really good shots under low-light, the photos do not look over-saturated and it has a number of settings options for users who want to tinker with ISO, Shutter, etc.
To find more settings on the camera, you need to tap the three lines on top and options like Panorama, HDC, All Focus (lets you change focus point of a picture after you have taken it), Settings which lets you change ISO, add geo-tagging etc, will pop-up.
Array of features side, as an average smartphone user, you are unlikely to feel the need to do so many of these, especially if you want a quick picture. From that perspective, the camera does deliver, both on the front and rear and there is little lag when you are clicking.
Of course, the front camera also has a beauty mode and once again I found no use for it. Although I must say, Huawei’s beauty mode does not make you look entirely plastic, which is an achievement.

Battery: The battery is not something to boast about on this device. While it impressed me on Day 1, once I sat down to download apps by the dozen, the phone’s battery levels dropped quickly. In addition to this, it gets heated up pretty fast and if you are constantly online, the battery life is not much.

Verdict: The USP of the Honor 4c is the big 5-inch screen and the 13 megapixel rear camera. These are the two features that most OEMs think are good enough to convince customers to try out a new phone. If you don’t want to push your budget beyond Rs 10,000 and are fine with less storage space, the Honor 4c is a decent option.
You should keep in mind after sales-service when going for budget devices, and while Huawei has quite a few authorised centres in cities like Mumbai, Kolkata it has just one in Delhi. In my opinion, for this price-point, Honor 4c gives a stunning camera, which is what puts it ahead of the crowd.

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Be carefull before selling your android, Study shows User Data can Be Recovered even after factory reset

2015-05-25T17:06:00.001+05:30

Thinking of selling your old Android smartphone? Watch out, as its data may be retrievable even after wiping it, finds a Cambridge study.

User data is routinely retrievable from second-hand Android devices that have been wiped through a factory reset, the Cambridge study warned.
Most Android handsets offer no easily acce
ssible way of deleting user data including access tokens, messages, images and other content, researchers said.
The factory-reset shortcomings uncovered by researchers at the Cambridge University affect an estimated 500 million Android handsets, and pose a problem for organisations that routinely resell such devices. These 500 million handsets may not properly sanitise the data partition where credentials and other user data is stores, while up to 630 million handsets may not properly sanitise the internal SD card where multimedia files are generally saved.
They examined 21 second-hand devices running Android versions 2.3 to 4.3 from five manufacturers that had been wiped using the operating system's built-in factory reset feature.
Researchers said the problems also exist with third-party data deletion applications, and pointed to a separate study on the same. Similar problems are likely to persist in newer versions of Android, the team said.
The team was able to recover data including multimedia files and login credentials from wiped phones, and many of the handsets yielded the master token used to access Google account data, such as Gmail. Both phone contact data and
Such data can be recovered even from handsets protected by full-disk encryption, researchers said, as the 'crypto footer' file that stores the decryption key isn't erased after a factory reset.
The problem results from multiple issues, including the inherent difficulty of fully deleting data from the flash memory used in smartphones, something due to the physical nature of such memory chips, according to the research. Other issues include vendors' failure to include necessary drivers to fully wipe flash memory used for non-volatile storage.
The researchers were able to recover the master token in a device and found that after reboot, it successfully re-synchronised contacts, emails and other data.
The master token, used to access Google accounts, was found to be retrievable in 80 percent of the devices that had a flawed factory reset mechanism.
Actual solutions for users are currently scarce. The team discussed a few ways to mitigate flawed factory resets, including filling up the partition of interest with random-byte files, in the hope of overwriting all unallocated space. This could be done third-party non-privileged apps after the built-in Factory Reset. This would require the app to be installed manually by users after a Factory Reset is performed. The drawback of this method is that it requires privileged (i.e. root) access to devices, and will therefore not be suitable for ordinary users. While the method does not provide thorough digital sanitisation, an attacker cannot recover data using public APIs exposed by the Linux kernel.
Another solution is enabling Full Disk Encryption (FDE) on first use of the device. Enabling FDE only before performing a Factory Reset may only provide logical sanitisation, not thorough digital sanitisation (plain-text data could still be present on the flash drive). The use of a complex user PIN longer than 6 digits is also recommended to prevent brute force attacks.
For vendors, the team recommended use of a recent eMMC with support for digital sanitisation, and to properly expose it in the Bootloader, Recovery and Android kernels.

Is Google really playing tricks on wp developers??

2015-05-24T15:26:00.000+05:30

Windows Phone developers are highly suspicious these days.

Commenters on websites where Windows developers chat are abuzz with claims that Google is trying to strangle the platform by cutting advertising.

Could it be true that Google is trying to strangle the viability of developers creating apps for Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone?

“That what at least some Windows Phone developers believe, with reports over the weekend that ads returns from Google’s AdMob mobile advertising service plummeted off a cliff following the announcement at Microsoft’s Build 2015 conference that the Redmond,
Washington-based tech giant was going to make it easier to port Android apps to Windows Phone,” notes a story at Silicon Angle. The grumbling began on a Google Groups support forum where developers complained of massive drops in ad serve rates, and corresponding “huge reductions in the amount of money they were earning.” “The fill rate now is kissing the floor… 99 percent to 7 percent in one day” one user wrote,
with another claiming “now the AdMob is a waste of time and money.

No reply from support, really bad ads/fill rate/rpm…AdMob is only profitable on Android, as iAds is profitable on iOS and pubCenter on WP. Or AdMob is dying (I think no) or trying to kill us.” The posters are suspicious, indeed.

“It is no secret that Google has done everything in its power to stifle Windows Phone … the drop may be a coincidence, but an alternate explanation is that Google may be getting ready to starve Windows Phone developers into submission,” said another poster.

Of course, some aren’t convinced Google is up to anything: after all, advertising is Google’s raison d’etre, regardless of where the dough is coming from

Facebook Messenger now gives breef info about the people contacting you for the first time

2015-05-22T16:00:00.002+05:30

Getting messages from someone you don't know can be a pretty intimidating experience. How did they find you? Why did they reach out?

To make new connections less jarring, Facebook Messenger is introducing a new feature on Thursday that gives you bits of information about someone messaging you for the first time, whether the person is one of your Facebook friends or not. The Messenger team is rolling it out to iOS and Android users in the U.S., UK, France and India over the next few weeks.

Think of it almost like an icebreaker, or "a way to give you more context about new conversations in Messenger," Mashable reported.
When someone messages you for the first time, Messenger plucks bits of information from their Facebook profile, like what their job is, which town or city they live in, and who your mutual friends are (if you have any), then displays that info above their first message, alongside their profile name and photo, like so

The new feature is similar to one offered in Hello, the app Facebook quietly rolled out in April, which gives Android smartphone owners tidbits of information about the person on the other end of the line

But the feature people will see in Messenger is a tad more savvy. It shows information Facebook thinks will prove most useful, while respecting both users' privacy settings. That's key, especially if you and the other person aren't actually friends on Facebook — in which case, only publicly available information on your profiles is used.
It's a small feature in the big scheme of things for Messenger but one that makes sense. Facebook already sits on data from 1.44 billion active monthly users, so why not use some of their publicly available information to give a little context about new folks who message you? And of course, if the feature helps boost Messenger's user engagement — the more friends you message, the more time you spend on the service — it's a win-win.

OnePlus 2 specs leaked in benchmark test

2015-05-21T21:22:00.002+05:30

It has been almost a year since OnePlus One hit the stores, but it still remains one of the best mid-range flagship smartphones available in the market. And now all eyes are on its successor.

Some features of OnePlus 2, as the successor is being called at present, have leaked online courtesy benchmarking app GeekBench. Though the app names the device OnePlus One A2001, it is widely considered to be OnePlus 2 since the original smartphone's model number is A1001.

The data shows that the unit being tested is running on Android 5.1 (Lollipop); OnePlus may, therefore, use the Oxygen OS software based on the latest build of Android.

On the hardware side, OnePlus 2 will run on Qualcomm's high-end 64-bit octa-core Snapdragon 810 chipset, the data shows. Interestingly, the clock speed of the unit tested on GeekBench is limited to just 1.55GHz. Like the first-generation model, OnePlus 2 will have 3GB of RAM.

Previously, the company has confirmed that OnePlus 2 will be unveiled in the third quarter of 2015. Rumour mill suggests that it will be priced approximately $400, whereas the predecessor was priced at $299 at launch.