China working on homegrown OS to take on Windows, Mac OS X and Android

China could have a new homegrown operating system by October to take on imported rivals such as Microsoft Corp, Google Inc and Apple Inc, Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Computer technology became an area of tension between China and the United States after a number of run-ins over cyber security. China is now looking to help its domestic industry catch up with imported systems such as Microsoft’s Windows and Google’s mobile operating system Android.

The operating system would first appear on desktop devices and later extend to smartphone and other mobile devices, Xinhua said, citing Ni Guangnan who heads an official OS development alliance established in March.

Ni’s comments were originally reported by the People’s Post and Telecommunications News, an official trade paper run by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

“We hope to launch a Chinese-made desktop operating system by October supporting app stores,” Ni told the trade paper. Some Chinese OS already existed, but there was a large gap between China’s technology and that of developed countries, he added.

He said he hoped domestically built software would be able to replace desktop operating systems within one to two years and mobile operating systems within three to five years.

In May, China banned government use of Windows 8, Microsoft’s latest operating system, a blow to the U.S. technology firm’s business which raised fears China was moving to protect domestic firms. Microsoft is also under investigation for anti-trust violations.

In March last year, China said that Google had too much control over China’s smartphone industry via its Android mobile operating system and has discriminated against some local firms.

Mutual suspicions between China and the United States over hacking have escalated over the past year following revelations by Edward Snowden that U.S. intelligence planted “backdoor” surveillance tools on U.S.-made hardware.

The U.S. Justice Department, meanwhile, indicted five Chinese military officers in May on counts of extensive industrial espionage.

Ni said the ban on Windows 8 was a big opportunity for the Chinese sector to push forward its own systems, but that the industry needed further development and investment.

“Creating an environment that allows us to contend with Google, Apple and Microsoft – that is the key to success,” he added.

Sony Xperia C3 Dual 5MP selfie phone launched for Rs 23,990

Sony has launched its selfie phone for India, intensifying competition in the segment of the market that has seen most launches recently. The Sony Xperia C3 will be a Dual-SIM phone and is priced at Rs. 23,990. It will be available from Monday, September 1.

The Xperia C3 was announced in July, and it’s clearly targetted at those who can’t have enough selfies in their lives. The highlight features  of the Xperia C3 smartphone are all centred around the front camera. There’s a 5-megapixel unit, with a 25mm wide-angle lens that Sony claims delivers an 80-degree field of view. And to top it all, there’s a soft LED flash as well. The back camera also sports a similar flash with an 8-megapixel sensor.

The Xperia C3 also has a single-SIM version, but the specifications are identical. In India, the dual-SIM version runs Android 4.4 KitKat out-of-the-box, with the typical Sony customisations on top, as well as some Sony apps. The dominating feature on the front is a 5.5-inch HD (720×1280 pixel) Triluminos display which gets some help from the Bravia Engine 2 technology. The processor is the 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, which is also seen in the Moto G, coupled with Adreno 305 GPU and 1GB of RAM.

There’s 8GB of inbuilt storage and a micro SD card slot for expansion up to 32 GB. The battery life should be good considering the 2500mAh unit, which is rated for up to 24 hours of talk time and 1,071 hours of standby time, according to Sony. The C3 supports 4G LTE, Bluetooth 4.0, and GLONASS for navigation, besides GPS.

WhatsApp monthly active users now increased to 600 million, says Jan Koum

After announcing 500 million active WhatsApp users in April, latest figures claim that the number of active users have now increased to 600 million. This piece of news comes from WhatsApp CEO and founder Jan Koum who made the announcement on Twitter.


Last year in August, WhatsApp had 200 million users while the number doubled to 430 million in January 2014. The instant messaging space has been growing by leaps and bounds. Some of its competitors include WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Line and Hike.

Recently, Facebook announced to pull out the messaging feature from its mobile apps, forcing people to download  its standalone Messenger apps. Needless to say,  Facebook has bought WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion earlier this year. In a bid to woo users, WeChat has started offering 1GB cloud storage free to help them store documents, pictures and videos. WeChat, which launched its operations in India in 2012, has over 100 million registered accounts internationally. The messaging application was the second most downloaded application on iOS in India in 2013. The report earlier this month claimed that WeChat is inching closer to WhatsApp with 438 million monthly active users.

With the growing use of messaging apps in India has hurt been hurting telcos. Indian telecom companies have been quite vocal about their dislike for over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp, Viber and the likes. Last month there was a buzz around TRAI implementing fees on such app, but the most recent report claim TRAI has rejected telcos’ proposal to charge fee on popular services like WhatsApp, Skype and others.

Karbonn Mobiles expects to go public by 2016

Karbonn Mobiles, the third-largest smartphone maker in India, expects to go public by 2016 as it bets on sales of Android devices made in partnership with Google to boost revenue growth.

“Frankly, I’ve been delaying it for the last couple of years because I wanted to know my valuation … and now my valuation has gone much higher in the last few years,” Chairman Sudhir Hasija told Reuters.

Hasija said he is waiting for the Android One launch in September – timed with the start of India’s holiday shopping season – to boost revenue growth.

The company expects revenue to grow to 80 billion Indian rupees ($1.32 billion) in the year ending March 2015 from 45 billion Indian rupees a year earlier.

“I am almost looking at 20 percent revenue in two years now from exports to Europe, South Africa and Russia …,” Hasija said. “Google is also supporting us … Probably this gives us a very very big leap.”

Karbonn currently gets 5-7 percent of its revenue from exports largely to South Asian markets such as Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Google said in June it was working with three Indian manufacturers to develop a sub-$100 smartphone for the Indian market this fall, getting Android software into the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing mobile markets.

As prices fall, manufacturers see huge opportunities for growth as most buyers in India use feature phones and first-time buyers often opt for sub-$200 smartphones.

Apart from Karbonn, Google is partnering Micromax Informatics Ltd and Spice Group.

Karbonn’s Android phones retail between 2,699 rupees and 14,990 rupees.

“A new entry level price point is being breached by the Indian home grown vendors every quarter …,” research firm International Data Corp said in August. “This ultra low-cost segment may not sound a viable option to the repeat buyers, but it works well on the targeted segment.”

Sales of smartphones grew 84 percent in India in the second quarter of this year, according to IDC.

Smartphone users in India are expected to grow six times to 385 million by 2017 from 2014, according to a recent study by Google and A.T. Kearney. (bit.ly/1t6sTuJ)

Karbonn is also scouting for locations in states with ports such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh to build a factory to ramp up production.

The company, which ranks behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Micromax in India’s highly competitive smartphone market, currently sources its phones from China, Taiwan and Korea.

Karbonn shrugged off competition from the entry of China’s Xiaomi Inc into the Indian market in partnership with local online retail giant Flipkart.

“We know the Indian market very well … my main forte has always been distribution,” Hasija said.

“So for all these (China) guys to come and learn the whole distribution … especially going to tier 2 and 3 cities will take some time.”

Nokia Lumia 930 and Lumia 830 surface just ahead of IFA

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With HTC all set to unveil its renowned M8 running Windows Phone OS, Nokia seems to be all geared to ensure the device doesn’t steal its show.

News has it that the company has already unveiled the Lumia 930 in Nairobi just ahead of IFA, while an image of its rumoured Lumia 830 as well as a new device allegedly dubbed Lumia 830 have also surfaced online. 

According to UK’s Standardmedia, the Lumia 930 was unveiled in Nairobi by Patrick Henchie, head of product for Microsoft Mobile Devices in South and East Africa. Powered by Windows Phone 8.1, the Lumia 930 is powered by a quad-core processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. It sports a massive 20-megapixel PureView camera, along with support for HD video, microphones and integrated Dolby Surround Sound. Sporting a 5-inch 1080p display, the device features an aluminium alloy frame and a polycarbonate back.  

Image: Baidu

There have been reports around Microsoft working on the Lumia 830 that is expected to be launched at the IFA this year.

Now, new images of the device have surfaced on Baidu. First spotted by Nokiapoweruser, the image shows frontal look of the Lumia 930 as well as Lumia 830. “If you compare the actual size specs of Lumia 930 ( 137 mm x 71 mm ) to that of Lumia 830 ( 139.4 mm x 70.7 mm ), the above render looks pretty real and also matches to what we have seen in leaked certification images,” adds the report. If you take a closer look at the image, the Lumia 830 image shows “Nokia customary 8:30 time” while other device shows 9:30, further hinting at the next-gen Lumia devices.

According to a previous report by GSM Arena, the Lumia 830 will also feature a massive 20MP PureView rear camera, similar to the one we had seen on the Lumia 1520 and Lumia 930. This is a big jump from the 8MP camera we had seen on the Lumia 820. Other features include a 4.5-inch 720p display, a Snapdragon chipset with LTE support and16GB of internal storage. The phone is expected to run on Windows Phone 8.1 and will come with a micr0SD card slot.

Sony says PlayStation network back online, user data safe

Sony Corp’s PlayStation Network was back online on Monday following a cyber attack that took it down over the weekend, which coincided with a bomb scare on a commercial flight carrying a top Sony executive in the United States.

Sony said on its PlayStation blog that its PlayStation network had been taken down by a denial of service-style attack, which overwhelmed the system with traffic, but did not intrude onto the network or access any of its 53 million users’ information.

A Twitter user with the handle @LizardSquad claimed responsibility for the attack on Sunday, and said the attack was meant to pressure Sony to spend more of its profits on the network.

“Sony, yet another large company, but they aren’t spending the waves of cash they obtain on their customers’ (PlayStation Network) service. End the greed,” one post said on Sunday.

Sony’s network business has been hit by attacks before, with a security breach in 2011 dealing a major blow to plans at the time for a looser network designed to allow for the connection of a range of Sony devices.

Since then it has invested heavily in the system and is now hoping the network can serve as a centrepiece of its plans to rebuild its business after years of losses in its flagship electronics operations.

Lizard Squad said it had also targeted the servers of World of Warcraft video gamemakers Blizzard Entertainment, whose website was down. It threatened to attack Microsoft Corp’s Xbox Live network, to which some users said they had problems accessing on Sunday.

“We don’t comment on the root cause of a specific issue, but as you can see on Xbox.com/status, the core Xbox LIVE services are up and running,” Xbox spokesman David Dennis told Reuters.

Blizzard Entertainment was not immediately reachable for comment, though its customer support Twitter account said the company’s servers were stabilising.

BOMB SCARE
Lizard Squad also tweeted to American Airlines on Sunday to say they had heard that explosives were on board a flight carrying Sony Online Entertainment President John Smedley.

That followed an earlier tweet from a game player’s forum telling the airline: “I’m gonna send a bomb on your plane be ready for me tomorrow”.

A PlayStation spokeswoman in the United States said the FBI was investigating the diversion of the Dallas/Fort Worth to San Diego flight. The FBI had no comment on the incident.

American Airlines said on its Twitter account that it was “aware of threats” made over the microblogging service and had alerted security.

Google Nexus line to continue? Nexus 6 could be named Nexus X, may launch in Oct

While we were made to believe that Google plans to pull the plug on its celebrated Nexus lineup in favour of the new Android Silver series, several reports circulating the web have been suggesting otherwise.

A report last month suggested that it’s Motorola and not HTC who is building the next Nexus device codenamed  Shamu. Now, PhoneArena has further learnt that Motorola will be building the device and it would be named Nexus X and not Nexus 6.

Needless to say, it is the sixth iteration of the Nexus lineup.

So,  going by the previous nomenclature, it is assumed to be named Nexus 6. However, the report points out that the company cannot adopt the name due to copyright issues. “Google will not be using that name because of trademark issues. Google already had some troubles with the family of author Philip K. Dick threatening a lawsuit because of the use of the name Nexus,” states the report. 

The report further talks about the Nexus X aka Nexus 6 release plans. Google is reportedly planning a secret launch and the device is expected to be launched around October or November, without any big announcement. 

Just like the previous report, this one also suggests a large 5.9-inch display.

Apple is planning a large 5.5-inch variant for the iPhone and given the existing fad for giant screen devices in the market, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a large Nexus 6 phone. However, a 5.9-inch display appears far too large, even in this current market situation. After all, none of the 2014 flagships have exceeded 5.5 inches for display size. For now, let’s take this news with a pinch of salt.

Amazon buys Twitch, a live video startup for $970 million

Amazon.com snapped up live-streaming gaming network Twitch Interactive for about $970 million in cash, reflecting Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos’ resolve to transform Amazon into an Internet destination beyond its core retail operations. This puts an end to the chatter on the web claiming Google’s YouTube is acquiring Twitch.

The move, announced by the two companies on Monday, is the largest deal in Amazon’s 20-year history and will help the U.S. e-commerce company vie with Apple Inc and Google Inc in the fast-growing world of online gaming, which accounts for more than 75 percent of all mobile app sales.

The acquisition involves some retention agreements that push the deal over $1 billion, a source close to the deal told Reuters.

“Twitch will further push Amazon into the gaming community while also helping it with video and advertising,” Macquarie Research analyst Ben Schachter said in a note.

Twitch’s format, which lets viewers message players and each other during live play, is garnering interest as one of the fastest-growing segments of digital video streaming, which in turn is attracting more and more advertising dollars.

The deal, expected to close in the second half of the year, is an unusual step for Amazon, which tends to build from within or make smaller acquisitions. Tech rival Google was earlier in talks to buy Twitch, which launched slightly more than three years ago, one person briefed on the deal said.

Neither Amazon nor Twitch would discuss how the deal came together or comment on Google’s interest.

In an interview, Twitch Chief Executive Officer Emmett Shear said the startup contacted Amazon because its deep pockets and ad sales expertise would allow the startup to pursue its strategic objectives more quickly.

“The reason why we reached out to Amazon, the reason I thought working for Amazon, having Twitch being a part of Amazon, would be a great idea for us (because) they would give us the resources to pursue these things that we honestly already want to pursue and they’d let us do it faster,” Shear said.

Ethan Kurzweil, a partner at Bessemer Ventures, which has backed Twitch since its earliest days, said Amazon’s expertise in developer platforms through Amazon Web Services gave it a window into Twitch’s potential growth.

“They understand the power of engaged developer platforms,” he said, noting Twitch’s popularity with game developers and publishers was as important as its popularity with consumers.

Bessemer provided Twitch an introduction to Frank Quattrone, a banker at boutique investment bank Qatalyst Partners, with a view to “catalyzing interest in Twitch,” Kurzweil said.

Quattrone advised Amazon on its 1997 initial public offering.

Twitch raised $20 million in funding last September from game publisher Take-Two Interactive Software and firms such as Bessemer Venture Partners and Thrive Capital.

Other venture backers include Alsop Louie Partners and Draper Associates.

More than 55 million unique visitors viewed more than 15 billion minutes of content on Twitch in July.

Some video game live casters on Twitch have embedded links to the Amazon’s online store. Analysts said the deal may result in more product tie-ins and a deeper integration with Amazon Instant Video and Amazon devices like the Kindle Fire tablet and recently launched Fire TV set-top box.

Twitch and Amazon did not disclose details on new retail opportunities for Amazon through Twitch’s network of gamers.

“We have lots of ideas we’ve discussed, there’s a lot of interest and a number of things we can pursue,” Michael Frazzini, VP of Amazon Games, said in an interview.

Ready, set, buy: Flipkart to sell 20,000 Xiaomi Mi3 units today

Flipkart and Xiaomi are continuing their Tuesday mania, choosing the day in the week to release a limited number of devices into the market – 20,000 units at a time.

So the next Mi 3 flash sale will go live on today at 2 pm with another 20,000 units of the Mi 3 to go on sale exclusively on Flipkart, yet again. The company claims to have already received over 1,00,000 registrations by Saturday.

Mi 3 flash sale now on August 26

In its official Facebook post, the company had also announced Mi 3 accessories that are now available for pre-order. The accessories list includes flip covers in white, blue and black. Xiaomi has also put up a screen protector for pre-order on Flipkart. The flip covers are available for Rs 559 each, while the screen protector will cost Rs 179.

The buzz around the device just doesn’t seem to die. Together with Flipkart Xiaomi has been re-creating record sale theatrics week after week, and we assume this Tuesday won’t be any different. As soon as the Mi 3 went live on the site on July 22, Flipkart couldn’t handle the traffic and the site crashed temporarily. Within 40 minutes, Flipkart claimed the Mi 3 was out of stock, but the site promptly said it would bring in the next batch on July 29 while the registration would begin on July 28. And to top it all, the second batch apparently sold in five seconds.

Its third batch sold out at a record less than two seconds and we saw a similar figure of 2.4 seconds for its latest flash sale that took place yesterday. Two seconds may sound unbelievable? This was possible as Flipkart had changed the process for the second batch wherein users simply needed to add the device to their carts, and could make the payment any time later that day.

Xiaomi’s fifth batch of smartphones that went up on sale on August 19 at 2PM sold out within mere seconds, yet again. Even with the evident demand, Xiaomi has been releasing meagre units, much to the frustration of the masses.

At just Rs 13,999, the Mi 3 packs a Snapdragon 800, which is by far the cheapest high-end phone available in the market. It competes with the likes of the Nexus 5, Galaxy S4, Xperia Z at nearly half the price. Read our Xiaomi Mi 3 review, to find out if it is worth buying. For those who were unable to get their hands on the device at the fifth try, check out four alternatives to the Mi 3.

Amazon goes one up on Google: Here’s why it acquired Twitch

Amazon, and not Google, has finally acquired Twitch.

The Amazon-Twitch deal comes as a big surprise as we were made to believe that Google has already sealed the deal. From reports about Google eyeing twitch for YouTube, buying the company secretly and staying tight lipped on the acquisition, we’ve heard it all. Moreover, Google’s YouTube buying Twitch made more sense. Now, most of us are wondering why would a company selling books, apparels and electronics would do with a video streaming service that lets gamers around the world connect by letting them broadcast gameplay videos.

However, one should know that Amazon has been growing over the years, and has been striving to expand its ecosystem. Now, with devices like Kindle ereaders and tablets and a smartphone in tow, the company could be looking to spruce up its app stores. Amazon devices are known to completely camouflage the Android OS and push in its services and app store. This means, with twitch, the company is possibly looking to create its own content for the devices.

“Amazon has gradually been building up its in-house video game studios, with mixed success. Games are a hugely popular use case on many mobile devices. Americans also spend upwards of $15 billion a year on video game content, according to data released earlier this year from NPD,” states a report by Mashable.  

Amazon has the option to create content and also snap up a company that already generates millions of views. Looks like, Amazon has opted for the latter in this case. Twitch is a video streaming service that lets gamers around the world connect by letting them broadcast gameplay videos, watch these broadcasts, and chat from wherever they play. Yes, it lets you watch others play a video game live, too, which has made some gamers celebrities in the Twitch circuit.  Though, it may sound odd, the concept has a vast following, and its popularity has rocketed since 2011.

Twitch is currently known to have over a million unique users broadcasting every month, and during peak hours, its traffic rivals and sometimes surpasses even Google. Twitch is a native app in both the PS4 and Xbox One consoles, both of which have sold over 12 million units, so Amazon has a big user base to tap into.

As traditional online advertising matures, the search giant is exploring new ad models to generate revenue. Online video advertising is considered one of the most promising sources of future growth for Internet companies. And with Twitch’s massive and highly-engaged user base, YouTube will have a lot more captivated users to shill ads to.

There were reports about how Amazon is preparing to take on Google in one of its core businesses, Internet advertising. Amazon is developing its own program to target ads using the information it gathers about the preferences of its customers and it will start testing the platform later this year. As traditional online advertising matures, Amazon could explore new ad models to generate revenue. Online video advertising is considered one of the most promising sources of future growth for Internet companies. And with Twitch’s massive and highly-engaged user base, Amazon will have a lot more captivated users to shill ads to.

Finally, Amazon is an ecommerce company, and it could easily use Twitch to attract buyers. The online gaming community is fairly large and quite active. So it is quite possible that the company may also use it as a marketing tool to sell its gaming products.

Twitter reacts to Times of India’s new social media policy for employees

In a social media age, who owns the various Twitter, Facebook and Google+ accounts of journalists? Is it the individuals or the publications they work for? The Times of India thinks it’s the latter.

Quartz India reports that Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd, the publisher of the Times of India, Economic Times and other major news publications, has asked employees to hand over Twitter and Facebook login credentials and let the company post for them. The company has instituted a blanket ban on all news-related social media activity on all employee personal accounts. This is only possible if employees create a different account for the company, or if employees decided to ‘convert’ their personal accounts into company accounts. In that case, the company could tweet or post from these accounts, even when the individuals have left the organisation. This follows another major Indian news publication The Hindu’s ban on its journalists retweeting or tweeting stories from other publications or news sources.

Obviously this brings up lots of questions related to employee privacy and social media ownership of employee accounts, even when they are explicitly categorised as personal. What’s bizarre is that the company wants access to the Facebook accounts, which is used completely differently than Twitter by individuals and often has a lot of personal information that may not necessarily be the company’s business knowing.

In any case, the policy has brought out Twitter’s acerbic best. Here’s what some of the Twitterati are saying:

Facebook News Feed update shuns ‘click-baiting’ to prioritise summarised articles

Facebook has, quite altruistically, tried to reduce spammy posts on its News Feed with two new updates.

Annoying posts that grab your curiosity only to find that the page contains no meaningful content after you’ve clicked, have now been shown the door. Facebook’s new update tries to shun such ‘click-baity’ news, by scrutinising user actions. These links would earlier get higher ranks on the News Feed as they tend to draw in more clicks.

Facebook does this by noting how much time users spend away from Facebook’s website after clicking on such a link. Lower browsing times mean that the news isn’t meaningful enough to engage the reader. Facebook also takes the number of likes and comments into account to deduce if the post is something a user will want to read.

Click-baiting posts such as this don’t reveal much

The second update will change the way social media marketers publish stories on Facebook. Posts that display the title with some text explaining the context will now get higher precedence over posts with just a link and a large picture.

Facebook post without the link format

This allows users to see whether the link to the post contains relevant content or not. Facebook insists that the link format shows some additional information associated with the link, such as the beginning of the article, which helps you decide if you want to click through.

Facebook post in the link format gives some context

According to Facebook, posts with link format (which appears when you paste a link while drafting a post) receive twice as many clicks compared to links embedded in photo captions. Not only is this something that social media managers should take notice of, but it also means common users get to read some part of the webpage before clicking on them.

Xiaomi Mi 3 on sale from 2PM today: Bust the Flipkart queue with these tips

The next batch of one of the most coveted smartphones this season will go live tomorrow on August 26 at 2 pm. This time there will be  20,000 units of the Xiaomi Mi 3 going on sale.

If you’ve tried buying one before, you’ll know that grabbing a unit on Flipkart is not easy. The sales always close in seconds, leaving a bunch of people high and dry. This time, Flipkart has received 1,00,000 registrations for the phone, which means it is going to be even harder to bag the phone.

But if you are determined to get your Mi 3 smartphone this time, here are a few tips that can up your chances of getting one:

1. Start early: Flipkart tends to crash or takes time to load closer to the opening of the sale. So make sure you have logged on to Flipkart with your registered account at least two hours before the sale starts.

2. Enable cookies: Cookies allow websites to recognise you when you return to them, which makes the browser to load webpages faster. When you register on Flipkart and save your contact details, make sure you’ve enabled cookies on your computer. To do this, you’ll  need to go to your browsers Settings page and look for the cookies option.

3. Use multiple web pages: To better your chances of getting a phone, try opening the page on separate devices such as a tablet or a smartphone. If you don’t have a separate device, open the page on multiple browser windows (windows, not tabs). Press Alt+Tab to quickly switch between windows. Getting a friend to click on different pages for you might be useful.

4. Use a single account: Many may tell you to register more than one account to boost your chances of obtaining an Mi 3 smartphone. However, Flipkart’s policy is against people trying to buy the phone using multiple accounts. Even if you do manage to buy the phone doing this, there’s a good chance of the purchase getting cancelled later on.

5. Type quickly: All of Xiaomi’s sales in the past have lasted for no more than 5 seconds. This means you’ll need to type in your details as fast as you can. If you can’t, try getting a friend who can type fast for you. One of our readers suggested memorising card details to speed up the purchase time. Also, try keeping your typing-time to the minimum by save your shipping address and contact details beforehand.

6. Click before you see ‘Buy Now’ : Don’t wait for the countdown to end to click on Buy Now. Like an impatient kid, start clicking few seconds before you see the button. Make sure you place the mouse pointer slightly above the countdown box, as that is where the button would appear.

7. Ignore add-ons: Gift wrapping, 1-day deliveries etc can wait, but the Mi 3 smartphone does not. Opting for these add-ons could complicate the purchase process and crash the website, so stick to the normal delivery mode to keep the process as simple as possible.

8. Buy until you get a confirmation: According to one of our readers, stop only once you’ve received a confirmation of your purchase. To be sure that the phone has been added to your cart, check the orders page. Flipkart has now allowed users to complete the purchase after adding phones to your cart. This means you can try adding as many phones you want and pay Flipkart later that day.

For those too lazy to follow the steps, e-tailer Buyhatke.com has a one-click extension that claims to add the device to your cart immediately. You can check it out here. 

If you are wondering why the the Mi 3 has attracted so much of attention, note that it packs high-end capabilities for a meagre Rs 13,999. Read our Xiaomi Mi 3 review, to find out if it is worth buying. For those who don’t wish to be a part of the herd, check out some alternatives to the Mi 3.

LG L60 pops up on Amazon.in: Entry-level KitKat phone priced at Rs 7,999

LG has quietly released its L60 dual-SIM entry-level smartphone in India, as we can see a listing on Amazon.in. It is available for Rs. 7,999 on the e-commerce website and like many of its rivals nowadays in this price segment, runs Android KitKat .

The dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) device is powered by a dual-core processor (unspecified) clocked at 1.3GHz, while there’s 512MB of RAM on board too. The budget offering has a small 4.3-inch TFT display, quite like the Moto E. There’s also a 5-megapixel rear camera like the Motorola phone, though LG has thrown in an LED flash as well. There’s also a front-facing 0.3-megapixel camera.

Connectivity options on the LG L60 include GPRS/ EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n for data connection, while Bluetooth 4.0, GPS and Micro-USB round off the list. There’s a meagre-sounding 1540 mAh battery too, but no rated battery life. Interestingly, the phone on the listing page shows Russian language text from the phone’s launch in that country, which does hint at a half-baked launch by Amazon, even though the seller on the site is LG. We will have to wait and see if LG will eventually launch the phone at the listed price. Seeing as Xiaomi has launched its much-awaited Redmi 1S in India for Rs 5,999, the competition will be scrambling to slash prices as far as they can.

The L-60 is clearly not part of the L-series phones that were announced last week. The L Fino and L Bello were clearly inspired by the LG G3, while the L60 looks plain in comparison.

NSA built ICREACH, a Google-like search engine to share your user data with other agencies

The National Security Agency has built its own secret “Google-like” search engine for about two dozen US government agencies to search information through more than 850 billion communications records, including phone calls, emails and internet chats, a media report has said.

Reported by The Intercept from the classified documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the Google-like secret search engine is considered to be key to searching information from over 850 billion records that the US government collects over multiple agencies. It was a mastermind of the recently retired National Security Agency (NSA) Director Gen Keith Alexander.

Christened ‘ICREACH’ the search engine REACH contains information on the private communications of foreigners and, it appears, millions of records on American citizens who have not been accused of any wrongdoing, said The Intercept.

Citing various classified documents under its possession, it said the search tool was designed to be the largest system for internally sharing secret surveillance records in the US, capable of handling two to five billion new records every day, including more than 30 different kinds of metadata on emails, phone calls, faxes, internet chats, and text messages, as well as location information collected from cellphones.

A US official familiar with the system is quoted as saying by The Intercept that while “it enables the sharing of certain foreign intelligence metadata,” ICREACH is “not a repository (and) does not store events or records.”

The Director of National Intelligence acknowledged the existence of such a search engine, noting that sharing information had become “a pillar of the post-9/11 intelligence community” as part of an effort to prevent valuable intelligence from being “stove-piped in any single office or agency.”

According to a 2010 memo outlining the sharing tool, more than 1,000 analysts from 23 government agencies had access to the NSAs trove of records about emails, phone calls, Web chats and cellphone location information collected without a warrant.

Documents were routinely shared with the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and CIA, according to a separate slide, the website said.

China’s Microsoft monopoly probe extends to Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player

The head of the Chinese government agency investigating Microsoft for alleged monopoly actions said Tuesday the probe includes the way the US technology giant distributes its media player and browser.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) announced last month that it was investigating Microsoft over its Windows operating system — which is used on the vast majority of computers in China — and the Office suite of programmes. Zhang Mao, head and Communist Party chief of the SAIC, told a news conference in Beijing that Microsoft had failed fully to disclose information about its software.

He added the agency, one of the government bodies which enforces China’s anti-monopoly law, was also looking into “issues” with Microsoft’s media player and browser, according to a transcript posted online.

Microsoft has previously faced anti-trust investigations in other markets for tying the company’s Windows system to its other products.

The European Commission fined it $731 million in March last year for failing to offer users browser choices beyond its own Internet Explorer.

“Through repeated contact with Microsoft, their top-level executives have shown respect for China’s laws, (and) cooperated with China’s anti-monopoly investigation,” Zhang said.

Microsoft has said it seeks to comply with Chinese law. Its comments came after the official announcement of the investigation, which included raids on its offices in the country. In May China also banned the use of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system on all new government computers, as reports alleging security concerns circulated.

State media have blasted Microsoft for its share of the operating system market in China, claimed to be as high as 95 percent, saying it forms a “de facto monopoly”.

China — which is embroiled in a long-running cyberspying row with the US — is planning to introduce a homegrown operating system as early as October to reduce the country’s reliance on Microsoft, the official China Daily newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The Microsoft probe comes as foreign firms doing business in the huge Chinese market face apparent greater scrutiny.

Fujifilm X30 launched for $600: Advanced compact with high-res EVF and dual control rings

Fujifilm has announced a new entrant to the X-series - Fujifilm X30, its latest premium advanced compact camera aimed at both enthusiasts as well as professionals. The X30 is an update of the Fujifilm X20, and comes with a Real Time viewfinder (an electronic viewfinder) and dual-control rings around the lens. The X30 will be priced around $600 or approx Rs 36,350 (excluding taxes and duties).

Fujifilm X30 houses a 12MP 2/3-inch XTrans II CMOS sensor along with an EXR Processor II image processor

The Fujifim X30 comes with the same 12MP 2/3-inch XTrans II CMOS sensor that was seen on the X20 compact. This is again paired with the EXR Processor II. Fujifilm has also kept the same lens as the X20 – having an equivalent focal length of 28-112mm with the  maximum aperture range going from f/2.0-f/2.8. It comes with phase-detect auto-focus for quick focus-locking while shooting.

The Fujifilm X30 has a manual zoom ring and a control ring around the lens element

While the interiors are the same, Fujifilm has gone ahead with a new design element for the X30. You now have a more pronounced palm grip as compared to the X20. The biggest addition is on the viewfinder. While the X20 employed an optical viewfinder, the X30 uses an electronic viewfinder which it is calling as a Real Time Viewfinder – just another fancy name for an EVF. On the technical side, the EVF has a 2.36-million dot resolution and provides a magnification of 0.65x and has a display lag time of around 0.005 secs only. According to Fujifilm, this is the largest and fastest viewfinder in its class. We shall reserve that judgement till we test the camera.

Fujifilm X30 features a 2.36-million dot Real Time Viewfinder and a 960k-dot tiltable LCD screen

The rear LCD screen has also been upgraded from a fixed 2.8-inch LCD to a tiltable 3-inch 960K-dot LCD.  Fujifilm X30 now includes two rings – a manual zoom ring and a control ring. The control zoom ring is placed behind the manual zoom ring. It helps with adjusting the aperture, shutter speeds and one can also assign functions such as ISO sensitivity, film simulation, white balance and so on to the control ring.

Fujifilm has added a Classic Chrome film simulation mode to its famed film simulation library. It helps “reproduce warm skin tones, brighter blue skies and rich green trees”. It can record full HD videos at 6ofps at a 36Mbps bitrate. The NP-95 Li-ion battery it houses is rated at 470 shots on a single charge.

Fujifilm X30 will start selling from late September onwards for $600 or approx Rs 36,350.

Flipkart and Textiles Ministry team up to offer online marketing platform for weavers

Textiles Ministry Monday inked a pact with homegrown e-retailing major Flipkart to provide an online marketing platform to handloom weavers across the country, an initiative to boost the handloom sector, empower the weavers and uplift manufacturing in the country.

Responding to queries raised on choosing a particular company for the agreement, Textiles Secretary S K Panda said, “What we are starting now is only on a pilot basis, nobody is compelled to sell only to a particular agency. Our aim is to eliminate middlemen, assist the master weaver… After a period of 3 to 6 months we will go for bidding”.

Textiles Minister Santosh Gangwar, who was present on the occasion, emphasised that the focus of this association should be to help weavers and weaver entrepreneurs to produce products in tune with the buyer requirements and grow them significantly so that they may become manufacturers not only at a local but also at a national level.

Through this exclusive agreement, Flipkart will provide weavers in India an online marketing platform, infrastructural support in data analytics and customer acquisition to help them get remunerative prices for their products and scale up their business.

“This (MoU) will help us reach out to thousands of weavers across India… Through this initiative we are giving a direct platform to the weavers to reach out to the end-customers. There will be no middlemen. The customer will get access to variety of products across India. Flipkart will help them (weavers) to list on the marketplace,” Ankit Nagori, Vice President-Marketplace at Flipkart told PTI.

“We will charge weavers a 3 to 4 percent commission on sale. There will be no listing charge or any other thing. If a sale happens, then he (customer) will have to pay 3 to 4 percent commission on that sale. However, we will charge 15 percent commission from readymade garments suppliers,” he added.

“This kind of a coordinated effort has been planned and executed for the first time with Flipkart for handloom weavers which will bridge the missing linkages of market intelligence, market access and logistics and help the Indian weavers in getting remunerative prices for their products,” the Textiles Ministry said.

The weavers will sell their products under their brand name and evolve as an entrepreneur selling his products directly to buyers across the country without stepping out of their workplace.

The Data analytics and market intelligence provided by Flipkart will help the weavers focus only on producing better saleable product ranges. This in turn will help them plan their production and inventory and expand their business.

“We are confident about the success of the programme and in 3 to 6 months time we would like to expand the programme.

For this initiative the first event is in September in Varanasi where we will inv

Amazon buys Twitch: Here’s what you should know about the gameplay video service

It’s Amazon and not Google that has acquired Twitch. Google has been eyeing Twitch for some time and certain reports even claimed that the search giant’s YouTube has already sealed the deal. YouTube buying Twitch made a lot of sense, after all. However, the big surprise comes as Amazon has finally snapped the live video startup company for $970 million. So, what’s it about Twitch that two industry giants operating in different spaces have been vying to acquire the startup. For those not in the know how, here are five thing you may need to know about Twitch:

Twitch is a popular video streaming service that allows gamers across the world to connect by letting them broadcast gameplay videos, watch these braodcasts, and also chat from wherever they play. You heard it right! It lets viewers watch others play a video game live, too. This has also helped turn some gamers into celebrities in the Twitch circuit.  Though, it may sound odd, the concept has a vast following, and its popularity has increased since 2011.

It is believed to have more than a million unique users broadcasting every month. In fact, during peak hours, its traffic is believed to rival and sometimes surpasses even Google.



With native apps for the PS4 as well as Xbox One consoles, Twitch is a popular option for gamers who want to show the world their skills and tactics. Both of these have reportedly sold over 12 million units so far, so whoever acquires Twitch has a big user base to tap into.

In June 2011, Twitch.tv was launched by Justin.tv co-founders Justin Kan and Emmett Shear as a subsidiary of Justin.tv that focussed on gaming-related content. It was built only when the founders noticed that the site’s gaming channels managed to attract significantly large numbers.

By 2014, Twitch grew so huge that the parent company was rebranded as Twitch Interactive, according to Techcrunch. Twitch has managed to raise $35M since it became independent.

Intex Cloud FX first impressions: Price and simplicity nail entry-level smartphone needs

Mozilla’s second Firefox-OS smartphone (after the Spice Fire One) is officially out in India, and this one is billed as India’s cheapest smartphone. The Intex Cloud FX is priced at Rs 1,990 and will be exclusively available on Snapdeal. Intex has also teamed up with Aircel to provide Aircel users who buy the phone 1GB Data free for two months.

As far as the smartphone is concerned, the specs aren’t something that would make any smartphone lover drool. A 2 megapixel camera, 128 MB RAM, a 3.5-inch screen, none of this sounds like a dream phone. And the truth is that it’s not trying to be a dream phone – at least not for users who have already bought their first Android or Windows phone. Firefox and Intex are targetting an audience that is buying their first smartphone, often in Tier-II and Tier-III cities, and the budget for these users is similar to how much they would spend on a feature phone.

It should be remembered that according to the latest IDC numbers, out of the 63.21 million units of mobiles that were shipped in India in Q2 in 2014, 71 percent were still feature phones. Vendors shipped only a 18.42 million smartphones in India in Q2 2014. But the good news is that the smartphone market is growing at a faster rate (close to 84 percent) and this growth will continue. And this where Intex and Firefox are hoping to fit in. Keshav Bansal, Director Marketing at Intex told Tech2, “The expectations are very high. As far as short-term is concerned, we are looking at half a million smartphones of Cloud Fx.” He added that the USP of this smartphone is the product is user-friendly.

Intex Cloud FX is priced at Rs 1999.

“Price is the biggest attraction for this product. It’s not very complicated to use. So for someone upgrading from a feature phone to smartphone, Mozilla should be a phenomenal experience,” he said.

Given that both Mozilla and Intex are targetting an audience that is buying their first smartphone, we also asked whether it was restrictive to make this product available only on an online platform like Snapdeal. Bansal said they didn’t see it as restrictive. “Snapdeal’s core strength is the presence in the Tier-II and Tier-III market as compared to the other e-commerce guys. And this where we are hoping to grow, so I don’t see this being a limitation at all,” he said. Bansal added that Intex would user “a lot of marketing tool”, and would “aggressively promote this product.”

The Cloud FX is a basic smartphone; it’s got a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen with 480×320 pixels resolution. Intex has packed in a 1GHz Spreadtrum processor along with 128 MB of RAM with 256 MB total space. It has a 2 megapixel rear camera and comes with dual-SIM support. However, this is a 2G-only phone (which is a big drawback in our opinion) with support for Wi-Fi for further Internet connectivity. The Cloud FX takes in microSD cards, but support is limited up to 4GB only. It comes with a 1250mAh battery.

But for the price point at which this smartphone is starting, which is Rs 1999, it stands ahead of the competition. For starters, the 3.5-inch screen is bigger than most feature phones for under Rs 2000. Most feature phones in this range have a 1.8 screen with a keyboard. The screen size in this category goes up to 2.6-inches at the most in case of Micromax Bolt X287 and Lava KKT 27i which has a 2.8-inch screen. But neither of these are smartphones with an app ecosystem to speak of.

Intex Cloud FX has a little social hub as well.

The smartphone doesn’t look particularly great and would probably remind you of a smartphone from 3 or 4 years back, but the fact that Intex wants you to pay Rs 2000 for this, is actually great. With the device that we tried out, we noticed that it did take time to respond to touches, which is not surprising given that it has minimal RAM and only a single-core processor. And sure the 2 megapixel camera isn’t the most appealing, but then you’re paying pittance for the phone.

The most important feature of the phone that needs discussion is the Firefox OS. It should be noted that everything on the OS is web-based, and that apps are actually much smaller in size than they would be on Android. For instance, the Facebook app is around 400 KB on this. All apps are supposed on HTML-5 and yes the Mozilla Marketplace doesn’t quite have all the apps. For instance, the smartphone doesn’t have WhatsApp but something called ConnectA2 where users can put in their telephone number, nickname and message share with friends on WhatsApp. Apps are going to be an issue that Firefox needs to deal and quickly, especially if it wants to sell smartphones at the mid-range level as well.

For a basic smartphone, this one carries high expectations.

While we did see apps like Facebook, YouTube, even a version of Instagram and Twitter on the phone, the limited functionality of these apps,  is a definite barrier to the growth of the Firefox OS.

The other problem is that since everything is web-enabled, you need constant internet connectivity to use stuff on the smartphone. Given that this is  a 2G phone, constant internet can be a bit of a problem in a country like where 2G is a truly poor network to be on. For a first smartphone user, who is limited to 2G that is slow and doesn’t always work, a Firefox phone could end up being a big turn-off. The bad news for Firefox could be that lot of people who buy this device might not want a Firefox OS phone again simply because of the 2G issue. A Firefox device with 3G at a slightly higher price point would have been much more effective, but perhaps these are already in the works.

On the flip side, the Intex Cloud FX could also be the device that convinces first time smartphone buyers that smartphones are a great idea after all and mobile Internet connectivity is the way to go. The only problem is that after using Firefox OS for a few months, they might want to upgrade to a smartphone that offers more in terms of features, apps and performance.

Xiaomi Redmi 1s launched in India: How does it stack up against Moto E and Zenfone 4?

After the success of its Mi 3, Xiaomi is all set to bring yet another uber-affordable smartphone with awesome specs in India. The company is all geared to officially unveil the Redmi 1s priced at Rs 6,999. Well, the pricing may sound familiar, as most entry-level devices come in a similar price bracket and aim to compete with the reigning budget Android, the Moto E.Another device that fits the bill is the Asus Zenfone 4, which has two variants with different displays. All three devices carry similar price tag and are also being sold exclusively via Flipkart, so which one is a better bargain. We’ve thrown them into  the ring to see which one emerges as the winner, at least on paper.

Comparison table

The Redmi 1s steals the show when it comes to the display. It not only sports a larger screen but also packs in 312 ppi pixel density thanks to the HD resolution, compared to the Moto E and Zenfone 4. The other two lag behind with 256 and 217 ppi respectively. This doesn’t mean the Moto E is bad, at the price point, it’s a pretty decent display. All three devices come across highly portable and the Zenfone is the lightest at 133 grams. However, it isn’t as sleek as the Redmi 1s.

The Mi 3 runs on Xiaomi’s customised UI called MIUI that is built upon Android. It is a highly customised UI that lets users choose from a plethora of themes for almost everything from homescreen to boot animations. It supports all the popular games and apps found on the Google Play Store too. However, if you are looking forward to stock Android, then Xiaomi may not be the device for you. The Asus Zenfone is also customised to some extent. The Moto E runs stock Android and comes from a seasoned OEM, with some pretty inoffensive customisations. On storage front, the Zenfone does a better job with 8GB onboard storage that is expandable up to 64GB. The Moto E does a mediocre job when it comes to the camera, and lags behind the competition.

In terms of processing speed, all three devices should be fairly good. In our review, the Moto E powered by dual-core Snapdragon 200 did a pretty good job and isn’t laggy for a budget Android. The Zenfone 4 running dual-core Intel Atom could be slightly better, but Xiaomi seems to have stepped up performance with the Redmi 1s that runs a quad-core Snapdragon 400, clocked at 1.6GHz, higher than the competition. In terms of performance and efficiency, the Redmi 1s could go beyond the other two, but we will have to reserve judgement till we put it through the paces in our labs.

In a nutshell, the Redmi 1s comes as a great pick for the hardware it offers at the price point. However, the OS could also be a deciding factor for many. Moreover, the Moto E and Zenfone 4 are easily available, while we wouldn’t be surprised if Xiaomi continuous its drama of playing hard to get.

Xiaomi Redmi 1s Flipkart sales registration begins today, priced at Rs 5,999

Xiaomi has unveiled its next smartphone Redmi 1s for Rs 5,999 at an event in Delhi. The all new Redmi 1s will go on sale on September 2 and the registrations for the phone will begin at 6PM today.  Looks like, Xiaomi along with Flipkart will follow the same flash sale strategy.

In July, Xiaomi had announced that the Redmi 1s will be sold at Rs 6,999 for the Indian market. However, the price has been dropped to 5,999 to further intensify the competition in the budget mobile segment in India. Despite the affordable price tag, the Redmi 1s comes with high-end specifications such a jaw-dropping quad-core 1.6GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8228 processor, 1GB RAM and an Adreno 305 GPU.

The Redmi 1S sports a 4.7-inch 720p IPS display. It comes with 16GB of onboard storage and a microSD card slot that further expands it up to 64GB. It is fuelled by a 2000mAh battery and runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean with Xiaomi’s MIUI layer on top. There’s a 8MP rear shooter and a 1.6MP front camera.

Compared with smartphones in the similar price range, the Redmi 1S sports a larger and sharper 312 ppi display thanks to the HD resolution. In terms of processing speed, it should offer a tad better performance than the Moto E and Asus Zenfone 4. Take a look at how it stacks up against the Moto E and Zenfone 4.

At the event, Xiaomi’s Hugo Barra has also announced four exclusive service centres to be set up in Chennai, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Hyderabad.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos to launch exclusively on Flipkart

The Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini Duos will be the next smartphone to get an exclusive Flipkart launch, after popular sales of the Moto G, Xiaomi Mi 3 and  Asus Zenfone 4. Exclusive Flipkart launches helps brands scale out to a wider audience at cheaper costs. Luckily for consumers, smartphones selling exclusively on Flipkart tend to go at cheaper prices, so we can expect the Galaxy S5 Mini to keep up with the trend.

The Galaxy S5 mini is a watered down version of Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S5. There’s a smaller 4.5-inch display, slower processor and lacks the awarded 16MP camera on its older brother. On the brighter side, the S5 mini comes with the same software features as the S5 and also has the heart rate sensor, fingerprint scanner, and supports for the Gear series. It also sports a private and kids mode, along with the battery-saving Ultra Power Saving Mode, and also has the same dust and water resistant (IP67 certified) body.

Just like the S5, it runs Android 4.4 KitKat with TouchWiz on top, and comes with 16GB internal storage and a microSD card slot for expansion up to 64GB. There’s a decent-sounding 2100mAh battery, while the usual accelerometer, digital compass, gyro, proximity, and ambient light sensors are present as well.

As we had mentioned during the time of the announcement, the Mini is missing the S5′s best feature and that’s the 16MP camera, which would have the S5 Mini a veritable contender in the market. As it stands though, the Mini is just another watered-down flagship with middling specs.

In terms of its looks, the S5 mini sports the same dimpled back cover and a part-metal frame as the S5, while the smaller display also means it will fit into smaller hands and pockets. The Galaxy S5 retails at a premium Rs 51,000, so we hope the S5 mini will be more affordable considering the watered-down specs. Also, with strong brands such as Xiaomi, Lenovo and Asus foraying into the mid-range smartphone segment with premium specs, pricing the S5 mini right will be crucial in order to become a worthwhile purchase.

Intex Cloud FX with firefox OS launched for Rs 1,999

Ready for the invasion of budget Firefox phones? Intex has one-upped Spice by becoming the first company to launch a Firefox OS phone in India. The Intex Cloud FX has been launched at a scarcely-believable Rs 1,999 and will be a Snapdeal exclusive for now.

For the price, what potential buyers would get is a phone with a 3.5-inch display of HVGA (480×320 pixels) resolution. Firefox OS is designed to run with minimal hardware requirements and Intex has packed in a 1GHz Spreadtrum processor along with 128 MB of RAM

Firefox OS UI

Intex claims this is the most affordable smartphone in India and we have to say the specs don’t seem half bad when looking at the price. Moreover, the phone packs a 2 megapixel rear camera and comes with dual-SIM support. However, this is a 2G-only phone with support for Wi-Fi for further Internet connectivity.

A compact phone

The Cloud FX takes in microSD cards, but support is limited up to 4GB only. It comes with a 1250mAh battery, that sounds decent, but we are not sure how long it will actually last. The phone can be charged and connected to a PC using the microUSB port and there’s Bluetooth support as well.

Later this week, Spice will launch the Fire One Mi-FX 1 that also runs Firefox OS. The Firefox phone from Spice is priced at Rs 2,299, but it sports a front camera, justifying the price increase.

Beyond Android, iOS and WP8: Alternate mobile OSes you may not have heard of

Which newcomer will have the most impact?

Finally, Firefox smartphone now arrives in India. Though Mozilla’s Firefox OS as a smartphone operating system has had a negligible impact on the market, but all that could change very soon as the first Firefox smartphone has been announced for India. The Spice Fire One has predictable low-end specifications and a greatly attractive price tag of Rs 2,299.

Though iOS, Android and Windows Phone remain the leading mobile OSes (sorry, BlackBerry), there are relatively smaller players still trying to win newer audiences as a smartphone-first world takes shape.

After Mozilla’s Firefox OS, Finnish firm Jolla’s Sailfish OS is all set to enter the Indian market in the next couple of months. And there are plans for Ubuntu OS and Samsung’s Tizen too. Let’s take a quick look at some of these mobile OS alternatives.

Sailfish OS

Jolla Sailfish OS

Sailfish OS comes from ex-developers of the cult-favourite Meego operating system. The ex-developers formed their own company, dubbed Jolla, after being laid off from Nokia. A few months later, we had our first look at what they’ve been working on behind the scenes. Now, the Jolla Sailfish device is all set to enter the Indian market. It is already available in Europe for $546 (approximately Rs 32,900), but there is no word on the pricing here. The company had always been open about its plan to expand to other regions like Russia and Asia.

The design of the UI is best explained by the developers. It isn’t about single views. The UI, as the developers describe, is all about verticality. The home screen has nine large rectangles, similar to an elongated tic-tac-toe board. These are filled with up to nine of your open apps, so you can instantly get to any one.  In fact certain actions can be performed right through this grid. The OS will be able to seamlessly switch between “screens” by using gestures. These gestures can be cancelled to simply get a look at the homescreen while continuing using whatever app you were using in the first place. Again, Jolla has opted for a gesture-based interface instead of having on-screen buttons like Android.

You can tap to open an app, but what’s neat is you can reach a task directly by pressing gently on the rectangle and dragging your finger. For the mail app, drag from the left to create a new message, or drag from the right to refresh messages. For the phone app, drag from the left to get the dialer, or drag from the right to get your list of contacts.

This saves time once you get used to the gestures. To close an app, you can swipe down from the top edge like a window shade. If you’re already on the home screen, swipe down to lock the phone.

Swipe from the left or the right edge within an app to get the home screen. Do that from the home screen to change background, ring tones and other settings. Or if you replace your phone’s back cover with a customised The Other Half cover, you get special content.

Sailfish OS will have a multitasking implementation similar to what we’ve seen in BlackBerry 10. The currently-running apps will be shown in a grid-styled interface that shows the whole window of the running app.  The OS will have compatibility with Android apps thanks to the built-in Alien Dalvik layer from Myriad Group, better known for running Android apps on the Nokia N9. The Sailfish OS will also have API-level compatibility with Ubuntu apps.

Last year in August, Jolla has now closed the first batch of orders before the general release of the Sailfish OS-sporting smartphone. The phone has a 4.5-inch display, a Snapdragon 400 dual-core processor clocked at 1.4 GHz, Adreno 305 for the graphics, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal memory. Users will also have the option for microSD card expansion, if needed. For the photographers, the smartphone is equipped with an 8 megapixel shooter on the back with LED flash and a 2 megapixel front-facing camera. Keeping the smartphone alive is a 2,100mAh user-replaceable battery, which Jolla claims can give 9-10 hours of talk time and 500 hours on standby.

Firefox OS

Firefox phones

Mozilla Corporation’s Firefox mobile OS is aimed at lower-end devices that will be released in emerging markets, rather than high-end OSes like Ubuntu mobile. The most recent reports reveal the company’s plans to enter the Indian market. The company is hoping to use Firefox OS to completely replace feature phones. All of the software on the OS is based on HTML5 and JavaScript. This essentially means that the phones running on the OS can run any web apps as long as they were created using those languages.

When launched in Latin America and some European markets in July 2013, Firefox OS smartphones sold about one million units, said company COO and Mozilla Taiwan CEO Gong Li. Mozilla could partner with only one or two telecom operators in launch countries which brought a relatively lukewarm response towards these ultra-cheap smartphones. However, it expects to meet a different fate in India as Mozilla is seeking cooperation with more than 10 retail chains in India.

The OS has been specifically designed to run smoothly on low-end and low-cost hardware, so as to improve smartphone usage numbers in emerging markets. The interface itself should be quite familiar to Android and iOS users. It has typical rows and columns of icons with a dock on the bottom of the screen having four of your most-used apps. It also has a notification centre. Since the OS will be launched in emerging markets where people pay for their data plans by the megabyte, the apps being based on HTML5 means the overall app sizes will be much lower than usual.

Now, the catch is you need an Internet connection to use apps that aren’t on your phone, but many apps need that access anyway to refresh news, social networks or restaurant guides. Firefox OS also has a universal search for all content on the phone and online.

There’s another neat feature coming to Firefox OS. Swipe from the left side of the screen to flip through recent apps one by one, just like hitting the back button on a Web browser.

Currently, companies like ZTE, Geeksphone and Alcatel are developing and, in some cases, selling smartphones based on Firefox OS. The two initial Firefox phones —Keon and Peak by Geeksphone –  seemed to have been aimed towards developers more than consumers. Moreover, ever since the Geeksphone devices actually went up for sale, they have been out of stock. In Idnia, Spice has announced its all new Fire One running Firefox OS for Rs 2,299.

Ubuntu mobile

Ubuntu mobile OS

Ubuntu mobile carries forward the same general look-and-feel that can be seen in the desktop version of the OS. Interestingly, it opts for a completely button-less interface, with most, if not all, actions being based on gestures. A swipe to the right will show you the launcher (Unity, the same as the desktop version), while a swipe to the left will open the last-opened app.

App development on Ubuntu mobile is based on HTML5 and QML. HTML5 will be a simple way to port desktop web apps to Ubuntu mobile. The QML toolkit will allow developers to make more powerful native apps for the operating system.

Interestingly enough, since both Ubuntu and (to some extent) Android are based on Linux, early test builds have been released for some Nexus smartphones. This heavily hints towards the idea that users will be able to install the OS on any Android-based smartphone as long as the hardware’s architecture isn’t too radically different. Canonical has straight out told OEMs that this is possible, but whether it’s possible for regular consumers is currently unknown.

Canonical had kicked off a crowdfunding campaign for a smartphone, dubbed the Ubuntu Edge, that started off well, but eventually ended up as the most successful failed campaign on the website. The Ubuntu smartphone will be able to dual-boot on both Android as well as the open-source Ubuntu Mobile operating system. The handset is quite powerful, judging by the predicted specifications. Especially worth nothing is the “at least” 4GB of RAM and the “fastest available multi-core processor” that will power the handset.

Currently, there are quite a few carriers that are supporting Ubuntu mobile, all of which are part of the Carrier Advisory Group for the OS. These carriers include Deutsche Telekom, China Unicom, SK Telecom, Verizon and SK Telecom, among others. However, no official devices have been announced, which takes away a lot of sheen from Canonical’s efforts.

Tizen

Samsung Z running Tizen

Tizen is the product of Intel and Samsung joining hands to create an open-source operating system, but this one too has its roots in Meego. It has a lot of things in common with pre-existing operating systems, such as homescreens for apps and widgets, a pull-down notification centre. Samsung’s hand is quite evident even by simply looking at the interface, which is identical at times to TouchWiz on their Android phones. The camera app looks almost identical to the one found in Samsung’s Androids.

As an open source OS, Tizen is founded on the same principles as Android. Having a new OS to fall back on, makes Samsung less dependent on any one platform, in particular Android. And as far as manufacturing phones is concerned, Samsung will not face many issues as it is currently the world’s largest phone maker.

Tizen has faced a ton of delays so far, and many are going as far as proclaiming the OS dead before it even hit shelves.


But Samsung did launch the Z, a smartphone with a 4.8-inch HD (720p) Super AMOLED display, which sounds to us to be the same one used in the Galaxy S3. The smartphone comes with 2.3 GHz quad-core processor, though we will hear more about the graphics side of things at the event soon. The Samsung Z hosts a 8MP camera on the back, and a 2.1MP front camera which also feature many presets seen in Samsung’s Android phones such as Mini mode, Quick shot, Best Photo, Drama Shot and Panorama mode. The smartphone sports 2GB RAM with an internal memory of 16GB which is expandable up to 64GB through the microSD slot.

Since it runs Tizen, the Samsung Z features a distinctive home and application layout. Using Dynamic Box and Color Theme settings, users can tailor their device to what suits them best. The app drawer seems to have been ditched with an iPhone-like all icons on the homescreen approach. In terms of design, the Z has squared-off edges, which remind us of some of the company’s Bada-based phones. The back cover has the same faux-leather design popularised by the Galaxy Note 3 last year. The phone will be available in gold, as well as dark grey colours.

The OS has support for both native as well as web apps. Meanwhile, we also saw Samsung launch a series of smartwatches running the Tizen OS. Click here, to take a look at the Tizen in action.

So those are the new contenders in the OS battle. It will be no easy task unsettling Android, the world leader, or iOS, the second-ranked mobile OS. But those who have tired of the familiar three-way battle of mobile OSes, finally have a bunch of new options coming along.