News Snippets

[commonman 228]

Nikon officially unveiled the Coolpix S800c, the main selling point here is that said "smart camera" is powered by a slick (and near-vanilla) Android 2.3.3 with Google services with the built-in WiFi.

Engadget review

http://www.engadget.com/2012/08/22/nikon-coolpix-s800c-android-camera-hands-on

Official website

http://www.nikonusa.com/Nikon-Products/Product/Compact-Digital-Cameras/26356/COOLPIX-S800c.html

Chinese hands-on posted in youtube

[sougatadc 358]

Amazon through their indian counterpart Junglee.com launches their immensely popular Kindle (reader) here in India. Kindle's 'e-ink' makes it unique in the sense that it is almost like a printed paper to read a book. The page is highly readable until it is refreshed to a new page. This technology uses very less energy, thus battery consumption is very little in Kindle.

These will be available at the Croma stores. Details below:

Kindle - the world's #1 e-reader for five years running - is now available for purchase at Croma retail stores across India.

Amazon Kindle is a convenient, portable device built for one purpose - reading. Its electronic ink display uses actual ink, so it looks like text on paper. Kindle is as thin as a magazine and weighs less than a paperback, and holds up to 1,400 books. A long battery life means you can read for up to one month on a single charge. With Kindle's built-in Wi-Fi, you can download your next book wirelessly in less than 60 seconds. Amazon launches the India Kindle Store with the biggest selection and lowest prices in India. You can now pay in Indian Rupees to get access to a vast selection of titles, new releases, bestsellers, and works from a range of Indian and international authors. Readers will also find exclusive Kindle books, as well as over one million free classics available to download and read on Kindle.

Amazon also launches Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) for independent authors and publishers in India. KDP is a fast, free and easy way for authors and publishers to make their books available to Kindle customers in India and around the world on both Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps. Authors and publishers in India can now set prices specifically for India, as well as receive royalty payments in Indian Rupees.

[raj_raj_in_in 1]

BGR India is reporting that Motorola Mobility will be shutting down operations in the Asia Pacific region, except in Australia and Korea. This decision was made after Motorola laid off 20 percent of its work force and decided to shrink its operations in Asian countries.

It is being said that Motorola will continue to sell products until stock lasts and continue to operate their service stations. Motorola will now be concentrating on making fewer devices and dropping the low-end ones.

Considering Motorola's general unpopularity in this region, the move won't come across as a huge shock to anyone, except for maybe those who own a Motorola device or were looking to buy one in future.

Source:- http://www.bgr.in/manufacturers/motorola/goodbye-moto-motorola-to-shut-shop-in-india-asia-pacific/

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

Reliance Communications lost 20.5 million mobile customers in July

Reliance Communications

lost more than 13 percent of its mobile customers in July as it cut off inactive subscribers who have not used their phones for two months, although the firm said the move would have no impact on revenue.

About 95 percent of the mobile phone users in India, the world's second-biggest mobile phone market, are prepaid customers and many have multiple accounts.

For the last year or so, carriers have been cancelling inactive accounts in a clean-up exercise, as focus shifts to increasing revenue rather than flaunting customer base.

Tata Teleservices

has reported a decline in customer base several times in the past months after the clean-up began, but the 20.5 million customer cutoff is the first time Reliance Communications reported a fall.

"This is in line with the industry practice and has no impact on customer experience or (the company's) revenues," Reliance Communications said in a statement after the sector regulator released July customer data for the industry on Friday.

Reliance Communications' total mobile subscribers fell to 134.1 million mobile subscribers at the end of July, from 154.6 million in the previous month, pu shing it one spot down to rank No.3 by subscribers.

Sixth-ranked Tata Teleservices also lost 2.4 million customers in July, shrinking its total to 77.8 million. Telenor's India unit, which is set to lose all its operating permits after a court order, saw its customer base declining 1.1 million in July.

Market leader

Bharti Airtel

gained 1.5 million customers in July to have a total of 188.8 million, while Vodafone's local unit signed up 1.2 million customers in July to boost its total to 154.9 million and became the No.2 carrier by subscribers.

India's total mobile user base fell to 913.5 million at the end of July, 20.6 million lower than June, the

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

said. About 76 percent of the industry subscribers are "active" customers, it said

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/reliance-communications-lost-20-5-million-mobile-customers-in-july/articleshow/16302260.cms

[Genius 817]

The great copy cat samsung is **** **** afraid of iPhone 5 - that they have got down the price to only $99

Just one day before launch

http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Android-Phone-Blue/dp/B00891P3QI

Baj gai Pungi

Edited September 11, 2012 by Genius

[aalok 442]

^ dak saab, pungi kahan hai....

[Genius 817]

^ dak saab, pungi kahan hai....

Ha ha ha Aalok jab yeh wali Pungi bajti hai tab dikhai nahi deti sirf aawaj aati hai

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[silent_god 121]

The lady is good in looks as well as deeds..indeed !!

Marissa Mayer offers all employees the hottest handsets -- including an unreleased Windows Phone 8 Nokia phone -- but leaves Research In Motion off the list.

Yahoo is moving away from the BlackBerry in favour of brand new smartphones running iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8.

The programme is called "Yahoo! Smart Phones, Smart Fun!". Yahoo is also going to pay its employees' data and phone bills. The program applies only to Yahoo's employees in the US.

It will discontinue the use of BlackBerry phones as its corporate phones, and no longer provide IT support for the phones.

BlackBerry has rapidly lost corporate support and is now being outsold by Windows Phone in the US and elsewhere.

Research in Motion, which makes BlackBerry phones, sells less than one eighth of the number of phones that run Google's operating system, Android.

http://www.telegraph...n-iPhone-5.html

Edited September 17, 2012 by silent_god

[csmart 472]

It rumored that Samsung Galxy S- IV (S4) will be launche din February 2013 and available from March. Read more here..

[phonegeek 588]

A lot of users all around the world are facing Google Sign-In Error. Stay Calm, Google On

Okay, maybe not panic but definitely confusion. If you’re currently the owner of an Android smartphone or tablet (and why wouldn’t you be?), you may have noticed your device prompting you about a “sign-in error” for you Google account. Attempting to follow the onscreen “touch to sign in to your account” directions will fail and take you back to the error screen.

But don’t freak out, everything seems to be working as normal. Apps can still be download and updated from the Play Store, Gmail is still syncing, etc. We’re not sure what the issue is, but we’re confident Google is hot on the case and everything will be fixed up shortly. For ROM flashers who were ready to wipe or flash a new ROM — STAHP.

http://phandroid.com/2012/09/19/google-sign-in-error-causing-mass-panic-in-the-android-community/

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

Reliance Communications hikes calling rates by 25%, rivals may follow suit

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/telecom/reliance-communications-hikes-calling-rates-by-25-rivals-may-follow-suit/articleshow/16484277.cms

RCOM's revised call rates will initially affect new customers and will be extended to its existing users when the validity of their current tariff plans expire. The company said it has revised its base price from 1.2 paise per second to 1.5 paise and this has initially been implemented in four states and be rolled out across the rest of the county within a month.

[alugobi 13]

BSNL introduces landline phones with video calling facility

http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-and-PDAs/BSNL-introduces-landline-phones-with-video-calling_10832.html

[rajanmehta 4,056]

Dive into the Great Barrier Reef with the first underwater imagery in Google Maps - Google Official Blog Post

Explore the ocean with Google Maps VIDEO

[deepv84 2]

Malware lets phone spy on you

An especially creepy piece of Android malware can infect your phone and take pictures without your knowledge..

Photos taken inside a victim's room or office are assembled to create complete images of that space.

An especially creepy piece of Android malware can infect your phone and take pictures without your knowledge.

It's called PlaceRaider and the name is mainly refers to its other nefarious feature: the ability to send those secret photos back to its host, who can assemble them into a 3D rendering of your room, office or wherever you leave your phone. In effect, your phone will turn against you.

And you thought it was annoying when a phone snapped pictures of the inside of your pocket.

The PlaceRaider app was built by researchers at Indiana University and the Naval Surface Warfare Center as an experiment to test if this type of spying would be possible. In a paper titled "PlaceRaider: Virtual Theft in Physical Spaces with Smartphones" they write that the malware "allows remote attackers to engage in remote reconnaissance and what we call virtual theft."

"Remote burglars can thus download the physical space, study the environment carefully, and steal virtual objects from the environment [such as financial documents, information on computer monitors, and personally identifiable information]." As an added level of sinister, the app mutes the camera's shutter sound.

read full story here

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/10/01/placeraider-android-malware-spies-victims

[phonegeek 588]

Android tablets near 50% market penetration in U.S.

A new report out of research organization Pew Internet & American Life Project tells us that Android tablets have risen to 48 percent of U.S. market share. Moving from 15 percent over the same period just one year ago, it shows that Android is finally getting serious traction in the tablet space. That’s a lot of Xyboards and Jetstreams, right? Not exactly.

That has lessened Apple’s dominance in the market. Now, just over half, 52%, of tablet owners report owning an iPad, compared with 81% in the survey a year ago. Android-based devices make up the bulk of the remaining tablet ownership, 48% overall, dominated largely by the Kindle Fire.

It’s worth pointing out that the Pew report does not factor in the Kindle Fire HD or the Nexus 7. Taking out the Amazon tablet, Android would hold around 27 percent market share. On the other hand, we understand that the Nexus 7 was not included in the research. Perhaps Android is doing even better in just the few months since data was collected?

Things could get really interesting with the Kindle Fire family and new NOOK HD stuff coming this fourth quarter. Factor in the rumors of an iPad Mini, though, and the balance could tip in the opposite direction.

http://www.androidguys.com/2012/10/02/pew-android-tablets-near-50-market-penetration-in-u-s/

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Rahul Always 87]

Google launches free SMS service on Gmail in India

Google has extended its free SMS chat service to Indian users. The Gmail SMS feature is now accessible to Indian users along with 51 other countries Asia, Africa and North America. Google had made this feature available to its users some African countries in 2011.

Using the free Gmail SMS service users can send text messages to mobile phones using Gmail Chat. Responses to the SMSs will appear as replies in Gmail Chat and conversations will be stored in users' Chat history, like regular chats. This feature was activated for Indian users on October 10 and is available for regular Gmail users as well as those on Google Apps.

In India the free Gmail SMS service is available on eight major mobile service operators: Aircel, Idea, Loop Mobile, MTS, Reliance, Tata DoCoMo, Tata indicom and Vodafone (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal & Andaman and Nicobar, Assam, North East).

This feature is not yet available on the Google Talk app, also referred to as GTalk, installed on computers.

Users are initially given a credit of fifty messages and for every message sent the credit decreases by one and for each message received in response to a text message sent via Gmail Chat, the user's credit increases by five, up to a maximum of 50. When the SMS credit goes down to zero, one credit is added after 24 hours. Google has built in the credit limit to prevent misuse of its free SMS service for marketing/spamming.

Users can also 'buy' SMS credit, when they've run out of them, by sending a text message to their own phone and then by replying to that message.

People who do not wish to receive SMSs sent from Gmail Chat can block future messages from the sender by replying to the message with the word 'BLOCK' and later if they wish to continue receiving messages they can reply to the message with 'UNBLOCK'.

If Gmail Chat SMS recipients in India do not wish to receive any messages on SMS from any Gmail user, they can stop the service from sending them messages by texting 'STOP' to +918082801060. To reactivate the service they can SMS 'START' to the same number.

To send an SMS from Gmail, on the Gmail Chat interface type the phone number you want to send an SMS to and click Send SMS and then add the recipient's name and country, then click Save. Then write in the message in the chat window and press Enter.

While sending SMS from Gmail Chat to phones is free, responding to Gmail SMSs from the phone may incur standard SMS charges.

Sources: IBN Live

Economic Times

Live Mint

Edited October 11, 2012 by rahulsid

[csmart 472]

Unitech to sell its stake in Uninor to Telenor and exit the telecom business. The differences between the two cos are settled out of the court. Read more...

[csmart 472]

Half tablet, half laptop: Sony unveils its Windows 8 hybrid Ultrabook

Source

Sony is launching a Windows 8 “hybrid” computer today that is both a laptop and a touchscreen tablet.

The Sony Vaio Duo 11 computer is one of many that will debut on Oct. 26 as Microsoft introduces its latest operating system. This machine will have a split personality, first as an Ultrabook (Intel’s brand name for super-thin, powerful laptops) with a full keyboard. You can also convert into an 11.6-inch tablet computer.

The Duo 11 is available in black and sells for $1,099.

The idea is to give you the flexibility of using a PC or a tablet at any time you choose. The Duo 11 Ultrabook can recognize 10-finger touches simultaneously, and it runs apps such as finger painting or full Microsoft Office programs. You can crop photos and graphics with Sony’s Active Clip app, which allows you to draw roughly around an object and then clips it out for pasting into another background.

You can also use the Note Anytime application for jotting down handwritten notes on the touchscreen. The Duo 11 weighs 2.84 pounds and comes with a pressure-sensitive digitizer pen that lets you write on the touchscreen. You can use swappable pen tips for a firmer or softer writing style, making it good for sketching.

It has a full high-definition touchscreen LCD display, a backlit keyboard, and an Intel Core processor (Core i3 to Core i7). It has a battery sheet that snaps on and extends the life.

The machine can share content with other devices via its near-field communications (NFC) wireless technology. The touchscreen has a spring-loaded sliding mechanism that makes it easy to remove and use as a tablet. It has five hours of battery life, but the sheet battery extends that to 10 hours.

Sony is also offering updates to its laptop families, including the T series, E series, L series, and S series.

Sprint is in advanced talk to merge with Japan's Softbank... Source

[Rahul Always 87]

Facebook lists user phone numbers for all to see

There's no easy way to look up someone's mobile-phone number. White pages? Nope. Directory assistance? Uh-uh.

It's something that drives telemarketers and pollsters crazy, as there are millions of people, especially young ones, who don't have any landlines and can't easily be reached by strangers.

But it turns out Facebook has been openly listing mobile numbers all along, as Indian security researcher Suriya Prakash discovered recently.

Needless to say, he wasn't happy about it.

"I would consider my most 'personal' data saved on Facebook to be my mobile number as it is somewhat of a bridge interlinking both my personal and online life," Prakash explained in a blog posting this past Thursday. "I would not like people I don't want getting a hold of it."

Prakash had earlier told Facebook about his discovery, but the company told him there were no security issues involved as the rate of queries from a particular source would be limited as a guard against automated attacks.

Prakash found that that was true for the desktop version of Facebook, but not the mobile one.

[11 Facebook Privacy Steps to Take Now]

Try it yourself

To use Prakash's method, log into Facebook on a desktop browser, copy this URL and paste it into the address bar:http://m.facebook.com/search/?query=123456789

Then substitute a Facebook friend's mobile number for the number string and hit "Enter." (Be sure to include the country code prefix — "1" for the U.S. and Canada, "44" for Britain, "33" France and so on.)

If your Facebook friend has listed his mobile number on Facebook, or if he's got a Facebook app on his smartphone, it'll show right up. In many cases, it works for "friends of friends" and for total strangers.

Why? As Prakash found, the default Facebook privacy setting for "Who can look you up using the email address or phone number you provided?" is "Everyone."

(To see it yourself, click on the downward facing arrow next to the "Home" button in the upper-right corner of your Facebook page, then click "Edit Settings" next to "How You Connect.")

Contacted by TechNewsDaily, a Facebook representative said this was a feature, not a flaw.

"The ability to search for a person by phone number is intentional behavior and not a bug in Facebook," the representative wrote in an email.

"By default, your privacy settings allow everyone to find you with search and friend finder using the contact info you have provided, such as your email address and phone number. You can modify these settings at any time from the Privacy Settings page.

"Facebook has developed an extensive system for preventing the malicious usage of our search functionality and the scenario described by the researcher was indeed rate-limited and eventually blocked. We are constantly updating these systems to improve their effectiveness and address new kinds of attacks."

Gold mine of information

Until yesterday (Oct. 8), a savvy telemarketer could have created a computer script generating possible mobile-phone numbers, then harvested whatever real names were matched to them through Facebook.

To prove it, Prakash did exactly that, running through thousands of possible mobile numbers in India and in New York City. (Unlike the rest of North America, New York an area code dedicated to mobile numbers.)

You can see a small subset — 850 names — of Prakash's results here. If you've got a New York mobile number in the format (917) 5x2-xxxx, you may even be on it.

Another researcher, Tyler Borland, wrote an even faster script that looked up 10 numbers at once.

"I was able to verify data for 1 phone number every second," Borland told Computerworld.

With a botnet of 100,000 hijacked computers, Prakash estimated, the entire Facebook mobile-phone-listing database could have been harvested in a few days.

Facebook tweaked its settings to limit the number of responses it would give to a specific IP address. But the method still works manually.

TechNewsDaily was able to find the mobile numbers of four strangers, all of whom had presumably not tweaked their default privacy settings, by slowly running through a list of 20 possible New York numbers.

Stumbling into it

Prakash discovered this Facebook feature after he noticed that his smartphone Facebook app suggested adding friends from his phone's contact list, based on his contacts' mobile-phone numbers.

In fact, he could see his contacts' profile photos and link to their Facebook profiles, even without having "friended" them on Facebook.

"What it does is that it compares the contact list from your phone to the FB database to see if you have any friends that are in your contacts but not on your Facebook account," he wrote. "I also later figured out that simply 'searching' a person's phone number (including country code) will show you their account."

Source: Fox News

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

Airtel, Vodafone, Telenor & others file applications for 2G spectrum auction

Telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone,

Idea CellularBSE -0.19 %

, Telenor and

Tata TeleservicesBSE -1.20 %

(TTSL) today submitted applications for participating in spectrum auction starting November 12.

Sources at the Department of Telecommunications confirmed that

Bharti AirtelBSE 0.34 %

has submitted application to bid for airwaves frequencies at pan-India level.

Sources at Bharti Airtel, Idea and

Vodafone

also confirmed that companies have filed applications but did not disclose details of the application like number of

telecom circles

in which they will bid for airwaves frequencies and the spectrum band in which they will bid.

DoT is conducting auction of airwaves frequencies in 1800 Mhz, being used for GSM services at present, and 800 Mhz band, being used for

CDMA

services, after Supreme Court cancelled 122 telecom licences belonging to eight different companies in 2G scam.

DoT sources confirmed that

VideoconBSE -0.75 %

and Telenor, whose Indian joint venture Uninor lost licence has also submitted application but no immediate comments could be obtained from the company.

The cancelled licences included 22 permits of Uninor (joint venture between Unitech Wireless and Norwegian firm Telenor), Loop 21, Sistema-Shyam (SSTL) 21, Etisalat-DB 15, S Tel 6, Videocon 21, Idea 9 and three licences of TTSL.

Official sources confirmed that TTSL submitted application to bid in three telecom circles where it lost its CDMA permits.

Status of application from SSTL, which runs services under MTS brand, could not be ascertained.

The apex court has asked government to complete spectrum by January 11, 2013 and warned that failure to meet the deadline would invite "contempt" action against erring officials with "exemplary" cost.

Government will auction maximum of 11 blocks of spectrum in 1800 Mhz band, being used for GSM services, each having 1.25 Mhz of airwaves frequencies.

New players and companies whose licences were cancelled by Supreme Court in

2G scam

will have to bid for minimum of four spectrum blocks in a service area to start their services.

Cabinet has fixed Rs 14,000 crore for 4 blocks of pan- India spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band.

Existing players, or companies whose licences were unaffected by the apex court judgement will be allowed to bid maximum of 2 blocks in 1800 Mhz band.

In case of 800 Mhz band, which is being used for CDMA services, there is shortage of spectrum and the government will auction 3 blocks 1.25 MHz each in 19 telecom circles. In Punjab and Andhra Pradesh circles, the government will auction only two blocks.

There will be no auction for spectrum in 800 Mhz in Rajasthan circle.

The auction for spectrum in this band will start two days after results of 1800 Mhz band are declared.

Spectrum in 800 Mhz band has been priced 1.3 times to that of airwaves frequencies in 1800 Mhz band.

Each pan-India block of 1800 Mhz band will cost minimum of Rs 3,500 crore and each block of 800 Mhz band will cost Rs 4,550 crore.

The government has set target to get Rs 40,000 crore revenue from the airwaves in this fiscal.

http://economictimes...ow/16878630.cms

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/2g-auction-application-rel-comm-sistema-ril-abstain_771293.html#toptag

RIL, RCOM and Sistema will not be participating

Does it means RIL will ride on RCOM or any other Operator for Voice?

Edited October 19, 2012 by SUDYEcaZ

[SUDYEcaZ 67]

CNBC has just given the following news

1. M&M is coming into telecom and might partner with Telenor

2. RIL might buy/alliance with Videocon in near future

[sougatadc 358]

Kingfisher airlines will not fly any more. Govt has suspended its license today.

[krishnendu halder 24]

actually not cancelled permanently,its temporary suspensation.

[KanagaDeepan 1,084]

So the DRAMA still continues......

[silent_god 121]

It's all nuisance going on @ KFA & govt, dgca, banks etc are playing a big circus since last few months (or years !!). At the end common public (who have their money in psu banks) & staff is suffering.

When, it air line was making losses since 2005, what where the banks doing ? Did they ever realized the need to extrapolate this losses & see a bleak future ? They kept on giving loans & in turn KFA became a spoiled child of a rich dad, as it was money all the time. Refer a lengthy post somewhere on this forum about how a large part of the debt was converted into equity by banks @ a very very high price of share (60 Rs +) & in turn banks also became share holder (20%+) of the KFA. Now when KFA is staring at shutdown, there will be no taker for those papers !! As if only giving loan was not sufficient, banks also became share holders. Joke all the time.

Even with continuing operational problems since last one year DGCA was enjoying all drama & never bothered to raise an alarm bell. Even after so much of delay they gave 15 days notice & after 15 days they merely suspended the license (which is still not taken seriously by promoters), as it seems to be an eyewash, for common people (to make them believe that they are there !!)

Mgmt is taking it one such letter from DGCA with a statement that once we submit our revival plan, we can continue with this license & also ensure that now employees can cry for 8-9 months of unpaid salary instead of 7 months.

Apart from owners, two main culprit here, govt/dgca & banks. Banks are even bigger culprit, as it was not only KFA's future, but even their money was also at stake. Same PSU banks, will screw people out (in terms of collateral / security) for buying simple house or car etc..pathetic.