Google kickstarts Indian Language Internet Alliance, focus first on Hindi

 Google on Monday roped in an array of partners to usher in the Indian Language Internet Alliance, a new platform to offer better content and technology for the Hindi speaking population. The search giant also announced the launch of the Hindi voice search in the country.
With most of the 200 million-odd English speakers already online, the growth of Internet in India will depend on lowering the entry barriers for the rest of the population. “To reach to our goal of 500 million Internet users by 2017 we need to make the Internet accessible to those who don’t speak English,” said Google India MD Rajan Anandan. He said most of the 5 million Internet users being added everyday are on the mobile and not all of them speak English. As a measure of the lack of Hindi content in the country, he said there were just 22,000 Wikipedia entries in the language while 400 million people spoke the language.
Inaugurating the initiative, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said he was confident that this can change the technology landscape of the country. “ We are very adaptive and have accepted new technology and techniques, be it in the farm or our workplace. It just has to be easy,” he said.

Google is developing cancer and heart attack detector

Google is aiming to diagnose cancers, impending heart attacks or strokes and other diseases, at a much earlier stage than is currently possible.

The company is working on technology that combines disease-detecting nanoparticles, which would enter a patient's bloodstream via a swallowed pill, with a wrist-worn sensor.

The idea is to identify slight changes in the person's biochemistry that could act as an early warning system.

The work is still at an early stage.

Early diagnosis is the key to treating disease. Many cancers, such as pancreatic, are detected only after they have become untreatable and fatal.

There are marked differences between cancerous and healthy tissues.

Microsoft drops Nokia name from Lumia smartphones, new devices will be branded 'Microsoft Lumia'

US software giant Microsoft said it will now start selling Lumia smartphones as 'Microsoft Lumia' device instead of calling them Nokia Lumia.
"Our global and local websites are going through a transition as we speak and in the coming days our social channels will get a new name too ? they will be called Microsoft Lumia," Microsoft's Senior Vice President of Marketing for Phones Tuula Rytila said on a blog.
"We have now started the transition from Nokia Lumia to Microsoft Lumia," the company said.

The move comes within 6 month of Microsoft acquiring Finnish telecom company Nokia's mobile device business for about USD 7.5 billion. The deal was completed on April 25, 2014.

PhotoMath App Makes Solving Maths Equations as Simple as Taking a Picture

MicroBlink's PhotoMath is making waves on the App Store across several countries, an iOS (and Windows Phone) app that can solve equations users scan in via the device's camera, and even provides the steps taken to solve.

With its augmented reality interface, PhotoMath users have to centre the desired equation to solve on their device's camera, and PhotoMath recognising the mathematical expressions works out the answer, providing a detailed listed of steps taken to solve.

Currently meant to help children, the PhotoMath app is limited to a middle school level of math, as noted by the company's blog post celebrating the app's success, "At this stage it can solve basic arithmetics, fractions, decimals, powers, roots, linear equations and functions like log, exp, sin, cos. It can recognize printed characters only, not handwritten text. The app doesn't solve word problems, geometry, or calculus."

BlackBerry Passport: A hybrid workhorse coming your way

“Is that a phone?” “Whoa, so huge!” “I thought it was tempeh.”

These were just a few of the many remarks that people in the crowd around me made as I used my brand new, square BlackBerry Passport. The latest model of the smartphone is expected to hit the local market by the end of the year, and it is fun to hear people light-heartedly comment on my gargantuan phone. 

My teenage daughter teased me as to why in the world I was still going around with yet another BlackBerry when most of the manufacturer’s local fans have shifted their loyalties to Android and iOS phones. 

Airtel-Samsung launch India’s first Integrated Digital TV

Airtel digital TV, the Direct-To-Home (DTH) service from Bharti Airtel, today announced its partnership with Samsung to launch India’s very first Integrated Digital TV (iDTV).

Samsung’s range of SmartDirect TVs will come designed with an in-built Airtel digital TV Smart Card which will enable DTH signal reception without the need for customers to install an external set-top-box (STB).

Gmail 5.0 for Android Spotted; Supports Outlook, Yahoo, and Other Accounts

Google is reportedly all set to roll out a significantly revamped version of its Gmail app for Android, with a pre-release build of the overhauled app doing the rounds of the Internet. Most notably, the Gmail 5.0 app now supports multiple accounts from different email providers.

Reported by Android Police, the new Gmail v5.0 app for Android can be seen in what appears to be a video by Google that introduces the new features for returning users. The video says the new app brings "all the features you love with a fresh new look."

The video adds, "you can access other email accounts like Yahoo Mail, Outlook.com, and more," and shows that users can switch accounts in Gmail 5.0 by swiping, or selecting the account from the dropdown.

Android 5.0 Lollipop: What's New and Updated

Google previewed 'Android L' at its Google I/O developer event in June, and since then, developers and consumers have awaited the final version, which was finally announced on Wednesday as Android 5.0 Lollipop. The company also launched the platform lead devices for Android 5.0 Lollipop, namely the Nexus 6, Nexus 9, and Nexus Player.
Since the Android L preview earlier this year, Google has added several new features to the final release of Android 5.0 Lollipop. While some changes are extensions of the themes introduced in Android L, some are relatively new, and other previously known features have now been detailed by the search giant.
Here are some of the biggest changes that Google brought to its widely-popular mobile and tablet platform with Android 5.0 Lollipop:

How To Setting up OS X Yosemite the way you want it

Apple's OS X Yosemite has dozens of new features and plenty of tricks to keep Mac users busy, but getting your system working just the way you want it to may take a few tweaks.


You and your UI

Yosemite has a new transparent view, but you may get slightly better system performance if you turn it off: System Preferences>Accessiblity>Display…"Reduce Transparency".

You can also set your menu bar and dock up to be darker, which you may prefer to Apple's default translucency. To use dark mode go to System Preferences>General…"Use dark menu bar and Dock".

Google's Android, Chrome software may converge, exec change suggests

Google may want one software platform to rule them all.

A top Google executive in charge of engineering for the company's Android mobile operating system is now also overseeing engineering for Chrome, software primarily used for personal computers, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's vice president of Android engineering, has taken on the duties of Linus Upson, his counterpart in the Chrome division. Upson has left the role, according to The Wall Street Journal, which earlier reported the news. While Lockheimer takes over engineering for Chrome OS, he won't be responsible for other Chrome-related products, including the Chrome Web browser, Chromecast TV streaming stick or Chromebook laptop hardware, according to the Journal.

A Google spokeswoman declined to comment.

From apps to Google Glass: Indians are some of the most tech-savvy in the world

Tech-savvy Indians have emerged as the most hooked on to gadgets globally with as many as 95 percent finding their smartphones “critically important” while 75 percent use their smartphone or tablet to book a hotel, says a survey by leading online travel firm Expedia.”The findings clearly suggest an increasing dependency on the mobile platform. 95 percent Indian respondents feel that their smartphone is very or of critical importance to their daily life,” Vikram Malhi, MD, Asia, Expedia said.

He further said that Indians lead in app booking and data roaming plans globally.

“In fact, 75 percent of Indians who have used their smartphone or tablet to book a hotel have booked a hotel stay using a mobile app (the highest of any country), he said.

The survey highlights the maturation of Indian traveller who is fast moving up the ladder of travel apps and is no longer hooked with conventional modes of bookings, the findings said.

Twitter to launch tools for app developers

Micro blogging site Twitter is likely to announce a number of tools at a conference on Wednesday to make it easier for programmers to build apps, according to media reports. 

Developers were irked a couple of years back about the strict rules in existence with regard to applications, which plug into the social media service. The current move is seen as a damage control measure from Twitter. 

"It is about relationship-building. If you start by offering services that are globally interesting to mobile developers and not just ones that are interested in traditional Twitter data, you can build a better relationship with more developers and introduce more of them to Twitter by delivering them value right away," Ryan Sarver, Twitter's former director of platform was quoted as saying in The Wall Street Journal. 

Microsoft set to jump into smartwatch tussle

Tech giant Microsoft is reportedly set to release a smart watch of its own within weeks, joining Apple, Samsung and others in the smart watch race.

According to PC World, the smartwatch will passively track a wearer's heart rate and work across different mobile platforms, and that it would be able to go two days when fully charged. That would be an improvement over many current smartwatches, which often need to be charged nightly.

Motorola Moto G 2014 – A Cheap Smartphone For Every Pocket

179 dollars, off-contract, this is the price of the Moto G second generation, a phone that took all the credits for Motorola’s success in 2014. And no, it’s not a high-end device, but it has a beautiful design, it works like a charm and doesn’t come with a mediocre camera.

Design

If you were expecting a big visual improvement to the new Moto G, well, we’re sorry to be a killjoy, but we don’t have much to say about the new additions. The Moto G 2014 isn’t very

Google starts rolling out Play Store 5.0 with Material Design

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the expected unveiling of Android L, Google has started rolling out a new version of the Play Store that features Material Design elements, part of the new version of its mobile operating system.

Google Play Store version 5.0.31 comes with a flatter design but features bolder colours. The update also brings some UI changes in line with Android L.


The new version of the Google Play Store comes with a redesigned menu bar with colour coded section names. The 'what's new' section for app listings is also placed at the top and is highlighted with a different colour, so users no longer need to scroll down to check on recent changes. The update was spotted by Phandroid.

Motorola updates camera app, adds remote shutter for android wear

Motorola fans can rejoice as the company has just rolled out an update that now adds Android Wear support for its camera app. As we all know Android smartphone makers have recently begun to push out their core apps onto the Play Store in order to make updates for core functions easier without the need of a firmware upgrade. HTC started it and Motorola soon followed up.

As for the new update, its adds remote shutter control which basically allows you to click a picture from your Moto X, G or E’s smartphone camera via your smartwatch. Yes, the app runs on any Android Wear smartwatch, but you will need to have a Motorola smartphone to do the same.
  
The update makes taking photographs remotely a breeze. You simply turn on the camera app on your smartphone and your smartwatch will immediately prompt you with a notification, which then opens an app with a shutter button. No, there is no live view feed (similar to Wear

Zen Mobile to launch low cost Firefox handsets this month

Zen Mobile to launch low cost Firefox handsets this month. This is going to come with similar specs as other Firefox smartphones launched thus far.
Zen Mobile is all set to come out with a dirt cheap smartphone running on Firefox operating system. The handset will be the fourth in the country and is expected to be priced below Rs 2000.
The handsets from Zen Mobile is coming out with matching specs and features compared to the three other Firefox handsets that were launched in the last few weeks by the likes of Spice, Intex and Alcatel.

This seems to be just the beginning. There are many other smartphone makers who are just waiting to see the response that the Firefox handsets get in the Indian market and then take the plunge. It is really amazing to see India’s top smartphone maker Micromax still not deciding to come out with such an inexpensive smartphone.
But its acceptability may remain limited given the fact that these handsets run on a new operating system and despite their very low

Mark @India’s first minorities’ cyber village in Rajasthan

Mark Zuckerberg @India’s first minorities’ cyber village in Rajasthan. The Facebook CEO interacted with youth and children there
Mark Zuckerberg is meeting high and mighty across India. He has met almost every ‘who is who’ of business, tech and politics. He had a successful meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His company’s chief operating officer too had held meeting with the Indian Prime Minister in New Delhi, immediately after he became the Prime Minister of the country.
Now it was the turn of the Facebook chief executive officer and founder Mark Zuckerberg to have a one to one meeting with India’s prime minister narendra Modi who just had a successful trip of the country where Mark Zuckerberg’s company and top social networking site Facebook is based.

But he is not just meeting the high and the mighty in India. There are many other things, places and people on his minds to whom he is meeting and where he is going. And one of those places was a remote hamlet in Rajasthan that was the first minorities cyber village. I am sure not many of us had even heard about it. But Mark Zuckerberg was apparently made aware of it and he took time off from his very tight schedule to visit the place.
Chandauli, a little known village very close to

Apple needs to address iOS updating before it creates toxic hellstew of its own

Apple's iOS update mechanism has become so clumsy and cumbersome – not to mention iOS itself being buggy – that iPhone and iPad owners are holding off from upgrading to the latest release.

iOS 8 usage, as measured by Apple, currently stands at 47 percent, which is only one percentage point higher than it stood on September 21, four days after iOS 8 was released.

Zuckerberg wants to make internet connectivity a human right in India.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg today stressed on the need for bringing down the cost of accessing the Internet in India, as well as developing content locally to get more people connected to it.

In order to achieve its goal of connecting the two-thirds of the world who are not yet online, Facebook will focus on three key challenges in developing countries: making access affordable, using data more efficiently and focus on localising services — working with operating system providers and other partners to enable more languages on mobile devices, Zuckerberg said.