Call drops: 2,000 mobile towers added in Delhi

 

NEW DELHI: Telecom operators have added over 2,000 mobile towers in Delhi in the last three months to check the menace of call drops.

According to an official in Department of Telecom (DoT), as many as 2,092 mobile sites (2G and 3G) have been added in Delhi service area in the past 12 weeks which has resulted in the call drop rate to come down considerably.

Sharing data, the official said that Bharti Airtel, whose call drop rate was in the range of 2.92-17.77 per cent earlier has come down to 0.08-2.98 per cent whereas that of Vodafone has dropped to 0.3-2.97 per cent from 1.53-6.63 per cent in Delhi.

Reliance Communications, which had earlier a call drop rate in the range of 1.53-24.83 per cent has come down to 0.02-5.15 per cent and that of Idea Cellular has decreased to 0.14-2.65 per cent from 3.34-10.90 per cent.

Across the country, the telecom operators have added 22,279 mobile sites in the last three months. Apart from addition of mobile sites, operators are also deploying in-building solutions to check the problem.

The operators, however, are complaining about sealing of sites by local bodies like MCD, which hampers their efforts to reduce call drops.

An operator on condition of anonymity said that if MCD seals one mobile site in an area, it affects the remaining sites also, which makes it difficult for them to provide good quality services to customers.

The problem of call drops had become acute in the past months though now it has started to improve. Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg had spoken to owners of telecom companies including Sunil Bharti Mittal and Anil Ambani to address the problem.

Google Glass assists cardiologists with heart surgery

In a world’s first, a group of cardiologists has successfully used the eye-wearable device Google Glass to guide the opening up of a chronically blocked right coronary artery in the cardiac cath lab.
Cardiologists from the Institute of Cardiology, Warsaw, Poland’s capital city, successfully restored blood flow in the occluded right coronary artery of a 49-year-old male patient assisted by Google Glass with an optical head-mounted display.
The display of 3D computed tomographic reconstructions in a mobile application equipped with a hands-free voice recognition system and a zoom function enabled the physician-operators to clearly visualise the distal coronary vessel.
It helped them verify the direction of the guide wire advancement relative to the course of the blocked vessel segment.
The procedure was completed successfully with implantation of two drug-eluting stents.
“This case demonstrates the novel application of wearable devices for display of data sets in the catheterisation lab that can be used for better planning and guidance of interventional procedures,” said lead investigator Maksymilian P Opolski from the Institute of Cardiology.
“It also provides proof of concept that wearable devices can improve operator comfort and procedure efficiency in interventional cardiology,” Opolski added.
Google Glass, consists of a wearable, hands-free computer with an optical head-mounted display worn by interventional cardiologists in the catheterisation laboratory.
The optical head-mounted display can show and capture images and videos while interacting with the surrounding environment.
This display is an example of the concept of virtual reality in which the user is supplemented with additional information generated by the device.
“Mobile technology offers an incremental opportunity to expand the existing open platform for mobile applications, which overcome the economic and capacity limitations of advanced angiography systems with dedicated monitors for projection of Computed tomography angiography (CTA) data sets,” Dr Opolski pointed out.
Furthermore, wearable devices might be potentially equipped with filter lenses that provide protection against X-radiation.
Several medical specialties are already using it to train physicians and assist diagnosis and it also has potential for treatment, said the report published in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Union Telecom Ministry issues notices to BSNL and MTNL for bad service quality!

The Telecom Ministry has issued notices to state-owned BSNL, MTNL and India Posts after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad personally took note of citizen complaints over service quality on social media since July.
Prasad, who has over 4.65 lakh followers on Facebook, received the complaints relating to the three departments under his ministry.
“Till date, 102 notices have been issued to departments under this ministry and 64 have been resolved. BSNL now has an official page on Facebook to connect with people,” an official said.
The Minister has asked BSNL and other concerns to use the social media, following which it held a workshop for officers in-charge of public grievance redressal in each telecom circle.
On top of that, BSNL has appointed an agency to look into issues raised by subscribers on social media sites.
When contacted, BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava confirmed that the complaint monitoring mechanism on social media is already up and running.
“We have started training our officers to handle complaint on social media following the minister flagging the issue. Whenever we get complaint on our Facebook page, we start forwarding it to the customer care department, which then reaches out to the aggrieved customer,” he added.
“BSNL reported operating profit after a long time and within 18 months of the new government coming to power. This is a sign of improvement in services.”
As part of its efforts to step up, BSNL has outsourced its call centre activity to a leading agency that handles similar assignments for leading telecom operators.
“Since we are deploying new equipment, our capacity to handle more customers is increasing. That is why we launched free night calling service as we can handle large traffic now. We have most widespread network in the country which we are rapidly improving,” Shrivastava said.
According to Trai rules, consumers can register their complaints by calling up the customer care or shooting off an e-mail to the telecom operator.

How to undo accidentally scrubbing video on the new Apple TV

The top half of the new Siri Remote for Apple TV is touch-enabled. When watching video, you can swipe across the pad to jump ahead or back in the video.

It's a cool feature, when you intend to use it.

But then there are those times when you pick up the remote and accidentally swipe across the pad and skip ahead 10 minutes. Frustrating.

In the past, when I've done this, I've painstakingly taken the time to get back to the right spot.

Thanks to a simple tip from iDownloadBlog, however, I can now undo accidental scrubbing with a press of a button.

The next time this happens to you, press the Menu button on the remote. Just once. The Apple TV will immediately jump back to the right place, and begin playing from that spot.

Nasa Calls on SpaceX to Send Astronauts to ISS

SpaceX received orders Friday from the US space agency to send astronauts to the International Space Station in the coming years, helping restore US access to space, Nasa said.

The announcement was a formal step in a process that began earlier this year when Boeing was given the nod by Nasa to send crew to the orbiting outpost by late 2017.

Both Boeing and SpaceX have received billions in seed money from Nasa to restore American access to the ISS, after the US space shuttle program was retired in 2011.

The announcement of $4.2 billion (roughly Rs. 27,765 crores) for Boeing and $2.6 billion (roughly Rs. 17,188 crores) for SpaceX was made in September 2014.

Boeing announced in January that it would be the first, sending a piloted mission aboard its CST-100 Starliner capsule by late 2017.

However, in Friday's announcement, Nasa said that "determination of which company will fly its mission to the station first will be made at a later time."

SpaceX is already flying cargo missions to the ISS, and is working on a crew version of its Dragon capsule to carry astronauts.

The announcement marked the "second in a series of four guaranteed orders Nasa will make under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts," the US space agency said.

"The Boeing Company of Houston received its first crew mission order in May."

Kathy Lueders, manager of Nasa's Commercial Crew Program, said "it is important to have at least two healthy and robust capabilities from US companies to deliver crew and critical scientific experiments from American soil to the space station throughout its lifespan."

The ISS is expected to remain operational until 2024.

Since the shuttle program ended in 2011, the world's astronauts have relied on Russia's Soyuz capsules for transport at a pice of some $70 million (roughly Rs. 462 crores) per seat.

"The authority to proceed with Dragon's first operational crew mission is a significant milestone in the Commercial Crew Program and a great source of pride for the entire SpaceX team," said Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating office of SpaceX.

"When Crew Dragon takes Nasa astronauts to the space station in 2017, they will be riding in one of the safest, most reliable spacecraft ever flown. We're honored to be developing this capability for Nasa and our country."

Watch How a Day - 6.4 Earth Years Long - Unfolds on Pluto

Nasa's New Horizons probe has captured some stunning images of how the day progresses on Pluto and its largest moon Charon.

Pluto's day is 6.4 Earth days long. The images reveal many details about Pluto, including the differences between the encounter hemisphere and the so-called "far side" hemisphere seen only at lower resolution.

The images were taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) and the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera on board New Horizons.

The more distant images contribute to the view at the 3 o'clock position, with the top of the heart-shaped, informally named Tombaugh Regio slipping out of view, giving way to the side of Pluto that was facing away from New Horizons during closest approach on July 14.

The side New Horizons saw in most detail - what the mission team calls the "encounter hemisphere" - is at the 6 o'clock position.

Charon - like Pluto - rotates once every 6.4 Earth days.

The side New Horizons saw in most detail, during closest approach on July 14 this year, is at the 12 o'clock position.

Intel Hires Ex-Qualcomm Executive Murthy Renduchintala to Run Top Unit

Intel Corp., the world's biggest chipmaker, said it appointed Murthy Renduchintala as a company president and gave him control of two of its biggest business divisions.

Renduchintala, who left Qualcomm Inc. after losing out in a leadership shakeup, will oversee a new unit including Intel's personal-computer chip and Internet of Things divisions its biggest source of revenue and one of its fastest-growing businesses, respectively, the company said in a statement.

"The caliber of leadership and experience Murthy brings to our executive team represents a significant move toward delivering the benefits of our strategy even faster than before," Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich said in the statement.

While Intel and Qualcomm are leading producers of microprocessors, they have so far failed to encroach on each other's turf. Intel has more than 80 percent of the market for chips that power PCs and all of the server market, but has racked up losses in a futile attempt to dent Qualcomm's hold on the mobile phone processor business. For its part, Qualcomm has only just announced its first test chip for servers and hasn't been able to find buyers for its designs for PCs.

Renduchintala was at Qualcomm for more than a decade and rose to be the co-head of its chip business. The company recently appointed Cristiano Amon to run that division.

"Murthy was offered another role within Qualcomm, but he chose to leave the company instead," the San Diego-based chipmaker said in an email.

While Intel has led the chip market in processing performance and manufacturing, Qualcomm's chip designers have delivered better systems on chips, semiconductors that combine the functions of several different devices into once piece of silicon. That type of chip, including communications, is increasingly taking over in mobile devices.

Pakistan YouTube Ban 'a Blot', Says National Daily

The government should have reversed the ban on YouTube through the same ordinance that installed it, a Pakistani daily said on Saturday, describing the ban as "a blot".

An editorial "Fixing YouTube" in The Nation said that after being consigned to the annals of obscurity, "the YouTube ban has once more been brought to the fore".

The Watan Party has moved the Supreme Court to reconsider the ban in light of the changing circumstance.

The apex court has asked the federal government and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to present their stances before the court, "beginning the long process that may lead to the misguided ban being reversed", said the daily.

The Supreme Court may be the best institution through which to peruse this issue.

The editorial said: "Ideally the government, assuring that the immediate crisis is over, should have reversed the ban through the same ordinance it installed it with. The court's proceeding will drag on and appeals and counter appeals are always a possibility."

"The government will probably contest the challenge - especially given PTA's conservative stance on the matter - when it really should be seeking to cooperate," it added.

The daily observed that alternatives to YouTube are present that "incorporate procedure that minimise the chances of offensive material being posted..."

"Proxy server and other applications also allow people to freely access the site, rendering the ban ineffective for all but those who lack the computing know-how. And that is the portion of the population that needs the site the most."

It observed that the Pakistani government has gone to great lengths to propagate the narrative of eliminating extremism in all its forms and variations, "however the YouTube ban still exists as a blot on the otherwise improving situation".

"The ban might have been useful to curb the outpouring of religious unrest in the country, but the longer it stays in place the more damage it is doing."

Intel Hires Ex-Qualcomm Executive Murthy Renduchintala to Run Top Unit

Intel Corp., the world's biggest chipmaker, said it appointed Murthy Renduchintala as a company president and gave him control of two of its biggest business divisions.

Renduchintala, who left Qualcomm Inc. after losing out in a leadership shakeup, will oversee a new unit including Intel's personal-computer chip and Internet of Things divisions its biggest source of revenue and one of its fastest-growing businesses, respectively, the company said in a statement.

"The caliber of leadership and experience Murthy brings to our executive team represents a significant move toward delivering the benefits of our strategy even faster than before," Intel Chief Executive Officer Brian Krzanich said in the statement.

While Intel and Qualcomm are leading producers of microprocessors, they have so far failed to encroach on each other's turf. Intel has more than 80 percent of the market for chips that power PCs and all of the server market, but has racked up losses in a futile attempt to dent Qualcomm's hold on the mobile phone processor business. For its part, Qualcomm has only just announced its first test chip for servers and hasn't been able to find buyers for its designs for PCs.

Renduchintala was at Qualcomm for more than a decade and rose to be the co-head of its chip business. The company recently appointed Cristiano Amon to run that division.

"Murthy was offered another role within Qualcomm, but he chose to leave the company instead," the San Diego-based chipmaker said in an email.

While Intel has led the chip market in processing performance and manufacturing, Qualcomm's chip designers have delivered better systems on chips, semiconductors that combine the functions of several different devices into once piece of silicon. That type of chip, including communications, is increasingly taking over in mobile devices.

US May Require Even Smaller Drones to Register

An aviation industry task force is recommending that operators be required to register drones weighing as little as a half a pound, a threshold that could include some remote-controlled toys, industry officials said.

Federal Aviation Administration officials who convened the 25-member task force on drone registration have said they want to avoid requiring the registration of toys. But the consensus of the task force is that the weight threshold that triggers registration should be set at 250 grams or above, which is about a half-pound, said people familiar with its deliberations.

The threshold is based on the potential impact a drone that size would have if it fell from the sky and struck a person or if it collided with a helicopter or plane, they said.

The recommendations were expected to be submitted to the FAA by Saturday. The FAA then can modify them, and hopes to issue the rules before Christmas to begin registering some of the thousands of drones expected to be purchased over the holidays. One industry official said the target date is December 21.

Four people familiar with the advisory group's deliberations described the conclusions to The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the FAA asked that the discussions be kept private.

The registration requirement would apply to drone operators rather than individual drones to avoid requiring operators who own multiple drones to register more than once. The operator would receive a single registration number, which would then be affixed to the body of each drone.

People who already own drones weighing more than a half-pound would have to register them.

Registration could be done through an FAA website where an operator can provide name, address, phone number and other contact information and receive a registration number.

The Consumer Technology Association estimates 700,000 drones will be sold in the U.S. this year, including 400,000 in the last quarter.

FAA officials said when they announced the formation of the task force last month that they hoped registration will help create a "culture of accountability" among drone operators and allow owners to be tracked down in the event of an accident.

The FAA now receives about 100 reports a month from pilots who say they've seen drones flying near planes and airports, up dramatically from last year. So far there've been no accidents, but agency officials have said they're concerned that even a small drone might cause serious damage if it is sucked into an engine, smashes into an airliner's windshield or collides with a helicopter's rotors.

Helicopters are the greatest concern because they frequently fly below 500 feet in the same airspace as small drones, said Jim Williams, the FAA's former top drone official now at an international law firm with drone-industry clients.

There are no studies on how much damage drones of different weight might cause to a helicopter or aircraft engine, he said. "I am not a fan of the weight limit because there's no science behind it," Williams said.

The weight threshold for drone registration in Europe is about 2 pounds, while Canadian officials are leaning toward a threshold of about 1 pound, industry officials said.

Williams said he hopes the FAA will add other requirements to the half-pound threshold that would eliminate most toys from the registration requirement.

For example, many drones can navigate independently rather than relying on the operator to be constantly steering, Williams said. Operators can preset waypoints to fly a drone beyond their line of sight. If the waypoints are incorrectly set for an altitude or location where manned aircraft fly, "that's where the risk really comes from," he said.

Williams said drones that can download real-time video are also a concern, because the operator becomes engrossed in the picture and is distracted.

Microsoft Announces 10 Days of 10 Cent Deals, Xbox One Offers

Microsoft has some sweet new deals for you as we head into the holidays particularly if you're a gamer.

There are a dozen deals for different flavors of the Xbox One console itself. Many of the deals come bundled with games that Microsoft is promoting heavily this season. Some of these bundles will start as low as $299 (roughly Rs. 19,700) a $100 discount.

Here's a full list of the bundles, which are available from Thanksgiving Day through the end of the month.

Xbox One Limited Edition "Halo 5: Guardians" Bundle

Xbox One Elite Bundle

Xbox One 1TB Holiday Bundle

Xbox One "Gears of War: Ultimate Edition" Bundle

Xbox One "Rise of the Tomb Raider" Bundle

Xbox One "The LEGO Movie Videogame" Bundle

Xbox One Special Edition "Gears of War" Bundle

Xbox One with Kinect Bundle

Xbox One "Fallout 4" Bundle

Xbox One Limited Edition "Forza Motorsport 6" Console

Xbox One "Madden NFL 16" Bundle

Xbox One "FIFA 16" 1TB Bundle

Microsoft has noted that supplies for the "Forza Motorsport 6" and "Madden NFL 16" bundles are already running low, so you'll have to be quick with your mouse button when the deals go live to snag one.

If you're all set in the console realm, Microsoft is also running a little promotion for its existing customers. Currently, Xbox One and Xbox 360 users will be able to upgrade to premium Xbox Gold membership for a discounted rate: one month of the service for $1 (roughly Rs. 66), after which it will renew automatically at the normal rate. Xbox Gold costs $60 (roughly Rs. 3,900) per year or $25 (roughly Rs. 1,650) every three months, depending on the package you get, and gets you discounts on games.

Non-gamers are in for some Microsoft deals, as well.

Windows which happens to be celebrating its 30th birthday this week is going to launch "10 Days of 10 Cent Deals" on Windows 10. The company will be offering more than 10,000 music, movie and game titles for a dime in total, with different deals popping up through the end of the month.

On the Office front, there a couple of interesting deals, though they may not honestly be the most exciting gifts. Shoppers can get $10 (roughly Rs. 660) off a subscription to Office 365 Home or Personal, which normally costs $100 (roughly Rs. 6,600) per year or $10 per month. You'll also be able to nab $50 (roughly Rs. 3,300) off of the PC and Mac versions of Home & Student, which is Microsoft's normally $150 (roughly Rs. 9,900) bundle of Excel, Word, PowerPoint and OneNote.

And if you want to give your whole life over to Microsoft, they're also offering a "Work & Play" bundle that gives you a bunch of perks a year's subscription to Office 365 Home, Xbox Live Gold, unlimited world Skype calls and plus a $60 promotional gift card for digital entertainment content all for $149.

Apple Wins Patent Trial Against Pendrell Subsidiary

A US jury on Friday found Apple Inc did not infringe five antipiracy patents owned by a Pendrell Corp subsidiary at trial in a Texas federal court.

The jury also found that Apple did not prove that the patents were invalid. No damages were awarded to Pendrell subsidiary ContentGuard Holdings.

An Apple attorney declined to comment. Samuel Baxter, an attorney for ContentGuard, said they are disappointed by the outcome and evaluating options.

The trial came after a jury in a separate case in the same court in September cleared Google Inc of infringing the same five patents. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd was also cleared in that case.

ContentGuard sued Apple in 2013 and Google and Samsung in 2014 alleging infringement of several antipiracy patents that help to restrict content to authorized users.

The company claimed Apple infringed by making and selling its popular devices, which use the iTunes and iBooks applications, to distribute DRM-protected songs, movies, TV shows and books. Apple denied any infringement and said the patents are invalid.

ContentGuard emerged from a partnership in 2000 between Xerox Corp and Microsoft Corp to form a digital rights management business, according to court papers. It is now owned by Kirkland, Washington-based Pendrell Corp, a publicly traded patent management company, and Time Warner.

Through its subsidiaries, Pendrell holds about 1,200 patents worldwide.

Brazil Anti-Trust Watchdog to Investigate Actions Against Uber

Brazil's anti-trust watchdog Cade said on Friday it would investigate anti-competitive actions by some cab drivers and taxi groups against ride-sharing software Uber.

Some cab companies have used "abusive means to block the entry of Uber in the market" that includes violence against Uber drivers and passengers, the watchdog said in a statement.

As long as controversy over the legality of Uber in the country is not resolved, the software should be considered a competitor in the market, the watchdog said.

The country's main cities Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are moving to ban the mobile application after a series of protests by taxi drivers and strong lobby by local politicians.

President Dilma Rousseff blamed the application for increasing unemployment, calling on local authorities to regulate the service.

Smartphones to Help Track and Check Famines

Scientists have developed a way to monitor food security using a smartphone app, which combines weather and soil moisture data from satellites with crowd-sourced data on the vulnerability of the population to malnutrition and other relevant socio-economic data.

Drought and crop failure can often be predicted by monitoring the weather and measuring soil moisture. But other risk factors, such as socio-economic problems or violent conflicts, can endanger food security too.

For organisations such as Doctors without Borders (MSF), it is crucial to obtain information about vulnerable regions as soon as possible, so that they have a chance to provide help before it is too late.

The system developed by scientists at Vienna University of Technology and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria, has yielded promising results during tests in the Central African Republic.

"Today, smartphones are available even in developing countries, and so we decided to develop an app, which we called SATIDA COLLECT, to help us collect the necessary data," said IIASA-based app developer Mathias Karner.

The digital questionnaire of SATIDA COLLECT can be adapted to local eating habits, as the answers and the GPS coordinates of every assessment are stored locally on the phone.

When an internet connection is available, the collected data are uploaded to a server and can be analysed along with satellite-derived information about drought risk.

In the end a map could be created, highlighting areas where the danger of malnutrition is high.

For Doctors without Borders, such maps are extremely valuable. They help to plan future activities and provide help as soon as it is needed.

The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Apple Pencil Almost Impossible to Repair, Finds iFixit Teardown

Earlier this month, iFixit, which is popular for product teardowns and DIY fix-it guides, found that Apple's recently launched iPad Pro is one of the most difficult to repair devices available on the market. Turns out, its accessory the Apple Pencil is even tougher to fix.

The iFixit team cracked open the Apple Pencil, a stylus accessory designed to work with the iPad Pro, to find that it is extremely difficult to open, and the components inside are "impossible to remove without shredding."

Once the outer plastic case has been opened, there is an inner housing made of metal. Inside it is a lithium-ion battery of rating 3.82V, 0.329Wh, offering just five percent of the charge compared to the battery on iPhone 6s. The battery is apparently impossible to replace.

There's also a pressure sensor and a tiny logic board inside the Apple Pencil. The board, which the team says is the smallest it has seen in any device, weighs just a gram. The company has actually folded the board to fit it inside the Pencil.

The logic board sports an ARM-based Cortex-M3 MCU chipset and Bluetooth Smart radio. In the tip, there are two emitters that sense the angle and orientation in which the device has been kept. The team also found two moving parts that are there to gauge pressure.

iFixit found the $99-priced device very difficult to repair. It gave it a repairability score of one out of ten. "The pencil is clearly not meant to be opened or repaired; you can't get inside without destroying the device," it concluded. For comparison, the iPad Pro scored a repairability score of three out of ten

Google Said to Be Planning 2016 China Launch of Google Play

Google, part of Alphabet Inc, aims to launch the China version of its Google Play smartphone app store next year, according to people familiar with the matter, its first major foray in the market since ending localised product support in 2010.

The Google Play app store would be set up specifically for China, and not connected to overseas versions of Google Play, two of the people said.

They said Google intends to comply with Chinese laws on filtering content that might be viewed as sensitive by the ruling Communist Party, and laws requiring the company to store the app store's data within China.

A Singapore-based Google spokesman declined to comment.

Google largely pulled its services out of China five years ago after refusing to continue self-censoring its search results. It has maintained a limited presence in the world's biggest smartphone market, but most of its services, including Play, have been rendered borderline inaccessible.

The US company would use a successful app store as a launch pad to place other products and services in China, said two people familiar with Google's thinking.

They said, however, that the company has not settled on which product might come next.

Chief Executive Sundar Pichai and other top brass have made no secret that the company wants to get back into China, and Google Play would likely be its first foray.

But critics say Google has lost basically all ground in most of its major services, especially search and video streaming, to Chinese players.

The biggest competition might come from products on the wrong side of the law, said technology analyst Rob Enderle.

"There are a substantial number of free ways people get music in China that makes it difficult for any service, especially from the West, to get into the market," he said.

Breaking the ice
For Google, having a product in China would be a symbolic gesture to show that the company values the market, said Shen Si, CEO of Chinese mobile advertising company PapayaMobile and a former Google employee.

"If they want to break the ice with the Chinese market then they have to pick a pretty important product to make available to the Chinese people and make it really localised," she said.

"Google Play would be a really good product for that because it's not very sensitive."

Chris MacDonald, a business ethics expert at Toronto's Ryerson University, agreed Google Play was a safer bet than search or Gmail in China but said Google should take its time deciding what product to bring to the market next.

"Which ones involve the least consumer data? Which ones are least likely to be politically sensitive or serve as a means of expression for political dissidents?" asked MacDonald.

If Google wants to penetrate the Chinese market in a meaningful way it has to be led by search, said Enderle.

"How do you use YouTube without search? Everything they've got hinges on search. In the end if they can't get search in everything it is going to be even more crippled than it already is," he said.

Google has had its employees working hard in China to lay the ground for the app store's launch, said one of the people with knowledge of executives' plans.

The US-based firm is hoping to launch Google Play in China some time after Chinese New Year in February next year, and before early summer, that person said. Another person at a company in China that works with Google said the store will go live in 2016.

The company hopes the app store will include as payment options Alipay, the online payment service from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's finance arm Ant Financial Services Group, and Tencent Holding Ltd's WeChat Payment, said the person familiar with executives' thinking.

Rather than requiring explicit approval from China's government to launch the app store, Google just needs to comply with Chinese laws including those governing data storage and content filtering, the person added. That was echoed by PapayaMobile's Shen.

Spokeswomen for Ant Financial and Tencent declined to comment.

Too big to ignore
China is too big a market for Google to ignore. Apple Inc complies with local laws and made $58.7 billion (roughly Rs. 3,88,059 crores) last in the year ended September 26 in Greater China, which includes the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, making it its second-biggest market.

Last month, Google said it would take a minority stake in Beijing-based artificial intelligence firm Mobvoi as part of a $75 million (roughly Rs. 495 crores) fundraising round, as the US search giant tries to rebuild its presence in China.

Because services like its search, e-mail and mapping are blocked in China, the US firm is trying to cement partnerships with domestic providers like Mobvoi, which offers technology similar to Apple's Siri and Google's own version.

China Reportedly Mulling Its Own 'Secure' Smartphones

As China, the world's largest smartphone market, grows wary of US surveillance, it is mulling its own "secure" smartphones in an attempt to insulate them from surveillance.
The effort - another step in the country's quest to build a homegrown tech industry - would involve state-owned companies as well as some of the private players, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has joined with China's ministry of public security to develop a mobile operating system for police officers that it bills as more secure.
The country's largest chip-design company, Spreadtrum Communications Inc., separately said it would begin mass producing a set of chips that run a Chinese operating system by year-end.
In China, almost all handsets are either iPhones or are powered by Google's Android operating system - something not to the liking of Chinese officials.
Even the Chinese-made ZTE Nubia Z5 smartphone runs on Android and includes a Qualcomm Inc. processor.
Now, ZTE Corp. is working on a secure smartphone for government agencies using an operating system developed in-house, and a processor chip from a Chinese supplier, a company spokesperson was reported as saying.
However, ZTE's secure phone reportedly would not boast of features like camera, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connections to minimize security risks. But without these features, the phone is not likely to appeal to the general public.
At the same time, a ZTE spokesman said that it was not possible to use exclusively Chinese-made hardware and software in a smartphone, but to meet the needs of government agencies it is trying to use domestic suppliers as much as possible.

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual review

NEW DELHI: Sony's new Xperia M4 Aqua Dual, priced at Rs 24,990, seems like a fish out of water compared to smartphones by Chinese brands that offer better hardware at much lower prices. But in a way, it's supposed to be that, considering it is the only affordable water-resistant smartphone available in the market today.

Now, if you are looking for a water-resistant smartphone, then your options are very, very limited. So we review Xperia M4 Aqua Dual to tell you if the Sony smartphone is worth a buy at a rather high price tag of Rs 24,990.

Design

Xperia M4 Aqua follows the same OmniBalance design language that Sony has used for the past two years, which translates pretty well considering the company has not used premium materials in its construction. The back panel made is of shatterproof plastic with glossy finish; the back panel tends to get smudged and scratched easily.



Along the sides is a polycarbonate frame with metallic finish, and you are likely to assume it is actually metal, not plastic. Like Sony smartphones of the last two years, the right side sports the Power, Volume and Camera hardware buttons. Above the Power key is the housing for the two sim cards, covered by a flap to protect the internals from water damage. Same is the case for the microSD card slot, which is located on the left side.

However, the microUSB port sports a nano-coating that maintains the water resistance despite no flap; this is a good thing because struggling with a flap every time you need to charge the phone can get tiresome after a while.

The fit and finish is pretty good and you will be pleasantly surprised with the overall build quality of the handset. The body is pretty thin (7.3mm) and light (136 grams), so slipping it in and out of the pocket will not seem like a chore. In fact, you would be forgiven to confuse Xperia M4 Aqua with a higher-priced Sony smartphone.

However, not everything is fine and dandy. While using the smartphone with one hand, we always muffled the sound, since the speaker is located at the bottom.

Water-resistance

Xperia M4 Aqua Dual comes with IP68 rating, which means it is dust-resistant and can stay working even after a 1.5-metre, 30-min dip in the pool. In our tests, the smartphone gave no problem after being submerged in water for 15 minutes. You cannot operate the touchscreen when the smartphone is under water, but if you wish to take a photo you can use the hardware Camera key to take the snap.

Display

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual has a 5-inch screen of HD (720x1280p) resolution, which is rather disappointing since most smartphones above Rs 20,000 now offer Full HD (1080x1920p) displays. The display quality is good, but like most Sony smartphones the colours are ever so slightly oversaturated. Nevertheless, the smartphone's display panel is pleasant to look at, with no noticeable pixelation.



The brightness levels of Sony Xperia M4 Aqua's screen are sufficient, even though the colours pale more than we expected them to under direct sunlight. Nevertheless, the contrast as well as viewing angles of the smartphone are more than sufficient, and the overall viewing experience is good.

Hardware

Sony has used the mid-end 64-bit Snapdragon 615 octa-core processor (four 1.5GHz Cortex A53 cores + four 1GHz Cortex A53 cores) in Xperia M4 Aqua Dual. This is the same processor powering Xiaomi's Mi4i and Xolo's Black smartphones, which are over Rs 10,000 cheaper than the Sony model.



Backing the chipset is 2 gigs of RAM, which seems a little less considering we can now get phones with 3GB (Huawei Honor 6 and Honor 6 Plus) and even 4GB RAM (Asus Zenfone 2) at the Rs 25,000 price point.

The India version of Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual has 16GB of internal storage, which is sufficient for downloading a large number of apps; additionally, you can slip in a microSD card to store data. The camera on the back has 13MP resolution, while the front-facing snapper has a 5MP sensor. Battery capacity of Xperia M4 Aqua is rated at 2,400mAh.

Software

Sony is among the few major players who do not customize the software on their smartphones. So you get an Xperia skin on top of the Android 5.0 (Lollipop) flavouring that gives a colourful look to the OS without adding too many features from its side.

Among the OS-level features you will notice include floating apps that you can place anywhere on the screen even when you are running an app, as well as the provision to customize the widgets in the notifications menu. Material design influences are everywhere to see in Sony's custom software skin.

As is its wont, Sony has preloaded a number of proprietary services in Xperia M4 Aqua Dual, such as Music, PlayStation, Liv, Xperia Lounge, Album, Movies. Apart from this, you will find a number of preloaded apps on the smartphone, like Facebook, MovieCreator, Line, TrackID, and AVG, among others. You can uninstall some of these apps, but not all.

Performance

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual is not the best performer considering that it is in the company of OnePlus One, Huawei Honor 6 Plus, Asus Zenfone 2 and the likes. Nevertheless, it is sufficiently fast and does not lag while running most apps. Heavy games like Real Racing 3, however, take their toll as we noticed some frame drops and slight sluggishness, which happens with many smartphones. Playing casual games like Temple Run is a breeze on Xperia M4 Aqua.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 615 chip is said to suffer from some overheating issues, which we did notice on Xperia M4 Aqua Dual. However, a software update in the middle of the review period fixed them, and since then we have had no problem concerning the phone's temperature levels, something that still plagues the company's top-end Xperia Z3+ smartphone.



The call quality of the Xperia M4 Aqua Dual is pretty standard, with no sudden call drops. The smartphone also does a decent job in clinging to 3G networks even in basements.

As a multimedia device, the Sony smartphone is good, but as mentioned above, we muffled the audio many a time due to the placement of the speaker. The sound quality is pretty good, with rich tones without much distortion even at high volumes. The display is of decent quality, so you can watch videos without much issue on the handset.

The 2,400mAh battery of Sony Xperia M4 Aqua Dual is pretty good, consistently delivering battery life of just over a day. Though you would be advised to start hunting for a charger as the day nears its end, Xperia M4 Aqua can eke out a few extra hours with the built-in battery saving feature.

Camera

Sony Xperia M4 Aqua's camera is certainly not the best you can find in this price range. The 13MP rear shooter's delivers images with decent colours, but leaves them suffering from overexposure. Moreover, we noticed inconsistency in the colours and contrast levels delivered by the smartphone's rear camera. The front camera, sadly, takes photos with too much noise and videos turn out a little too dark as the front camera's sensor fails to capture enough light.



As we mentioned above, the hardware camera key on the right edge can be used to capture images under water.

Verdict

In this market, it is hard for any smartphone to compete against the products offered by Chinese brands, and same is the case with Xperia M4 Aqua Dual. The Sony smartphone is a decent device to buy, but with the democratization of the market, it faces an uphill battle.

But as the only mid-range water-resistant smartphone in the market today, it is well positioned to score a few sales. Buy this smartphone if you want a smartphone with a decent screen, good battery life and attractive design, though the inconsistent camera can be a deal-breaker.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (2015) review

Amazon has upgraded its Kindle Paperwhite front-lit reader with a higher resolution 300ppi display, new typography and layout features and double the RAM, keeping the price the same as its predecessor. We take a detailed look at the new e-reader in our review to find out if it's worth a buy...

Look and feel
The Kindle Paperwhite (2015) does not look very different from its predecessor. The device is more or less a light weight rectangular slab with a 6-inch display. The display is placed between the black bezel. The screen is slightly sunken like a photo frame but this doesn't really affect usage.

You'll find a micro-USB port, an LED indicator (for charging) and a physical Power button at the bottom edge. There are no other ports or buttons on the device. The back of the Kindle Paperwhite sports a soft-touch matte finish. It feels good to hold and the surface offers a good grip. At just 205 grams(the 3G version is 217grams), it's easy to hold the device for a longer period of time.



Display
The Kindle Paperwhite(2015) sports a 6-inch 300ppi (the 2013 Paperwhite had a 212ppi display) display with Carta e-paper technology. The display is free of glare, making it easy to read outdoors under sun light. The Paperwhite's display offers 16-level grey scale and offers great contrast. The high pixel density makes text look crisp and sharp, and close to a real paper book. It's even better than the previous-generation Paperwhite.

Unlike tablets, the Kindle Paperwhite's display is front-lit. Amazon claims that the new Paperwhite features an improved front light. We felt that the lighting was uniform across the display.

Amazon also claims the touch grid on the Paperwhite is 19% tighter. We found the touch panel to be very responsive though the implementation of touch in the user interface remains quite limited compared to tablets.

Overall, the Kindle Paperwhite's display is impressive and the display resolution is now at par with the top-end Kindle Voyage.

Software and UI
The Kindle Paperwhite third-generation more or less runs the same software found on its predecessor with a few new additions. Among the new improvements, the major one is the addition of Bookerly, a font designed from the ground up for reading on digital screens.The new Kindle Paperwhite also offers an all-new typesetting engine and includes hyphenation and improved spacing, better character spacing, and better layout control even with larger font sizes. The new typography and layout improvements help reduce eyestrain are available on over half a million books as per Amazon. It claims the new typesetting engine that lays out words 'just as the author intended.'



The home screen features three most recently read books though you can also re-arrange them by recency, title, author and collections(enabled if you have a collection of titles). The book covers also feature a bar that shows how far you've read. You can also see books that you've purchased and have not downloaded by tapping on the 'Cloud' option. It's very easy to download books that you've purchased. You just need to tap on the book cover icon and it will synchronise!

The other part of the home screen features four suggested book titles from Amazon that you can buy. Recommendations are an integral part of Amazon's ecosystem.

The top menu bar features the Home button, a back button, a toggle for the front-light intensity, a search button, a button to invoke Goodreads (an online network of book lovers), a shortcut key to the Kindle store and a drop-down menu that offers shortcuts to Kindle FreeTime, Vocabulary Builder, web browser (experimental) and Settings. The menu also allows you to create a new collection and switch to a list view of your library.

Opening a book is pretty simple. You just need to tap on the cover and it'll open the page you were reading, the last time.

You just need to lightly tap or swipe on the right edge of the screen to turn to the next page, tap on left to turn back a page and tap the top edge for the secondary and main menu. The secondary menu lets you change the fonts, font size, line spacing and margins; Go to a particular page, chapter or annotation, use the X-Ray feature, bookmark or share an annotation on social networks.

The bottom left corner features the page number and time left in the book and chapter while the right corner displays the percentage read. This makes it easy to track your reading progress and improve the reading speed.

The new Paperwhite also includes Dictionaries (Oxford English and New Oxford American Dictionary) and a Vocabulary Builder. The latter saves the words that you look up while reading and offers them as flashcards. Students and language enthusiasts would find this feature quite useful.

When you select a word by tapping and holding it, the Kindle brings up the Dictionary offering its definition. The same pop-up also offers tabs for X-Ray, Translation and Wikipedia. X-Ray is a reference tool that brings up the biography of a character, compiled by Amazon, while the Wikipedia tab brings up the Wikipedia page. Of course, you'll need an active internet connection for the Wikipedia feature. The UI for this feature has been slightly tweaked and is now based on a dropdown menu. It looks much more streamlined.



One can also highlight, add a note, share, translate and report an error through the menu. Those options pop to the front if you highlight more than one word.

The new Paperwhite also includes FreeTime, that allows parents to create profiles for their children and encourage reading with the help of gamification. FreeTime lets parents create personalized profiles for kids and give them access to titles from their collection of books. Children can be rewarded with achievement badges keeping track of their personal reading accomplishments. The utility creates a progress report that keeps parents updated on total time spent reading, number of words looked up, badges earned and books read.

It also offers access to the Goodreads social network where book lovers share their reviews and recommendations. It even offers integration with Facebook and Twitter for sharing quotes and annotations.

The Kindle Paperwhite offers an experimental WebKit based browser that lets you browse the web over WiFi. There's a reason why it's called 'experimental' - you'll not be able to open graphics-heavy, complex web pages.

It's worth pointing out that the 3G-enabled version of the Paperwhite comes with a crippled 3G connection though it comes with unlimited access without the user incurring extra monthly charges. Over 3G networks, it only allows access to the Kindle store. You won't be able to browse the web or access Goodreads without connecting to WiFi.

Battery life & storage
Amazon claims that a single charge lasts up to six weeks if used half an hour a day without connecting to the internet and light set to 10, but even with moderate to high usage, it'll last for more than a week or even two.

Paperwhite comes with 4GB internal storage. It's estimated that you can store thousands of books at a given time. We feel that is more than sufficient for most users. Also, with access to the cloud, you can remove or add titles easily from Amazon's servers.



Is it worth a buy?
At Rs 10,999 for the Wi-Fi only version and Rs 13,999 for the 3G+Wi-Fi variant, the Paperwhite continues to be the best e-book reader you can buy. The sharper display offers a richer reading experience compared to its predecessor and the added RAM reduces page turn time and e-ink ghosting cycles. The Kindle Voyage, which costs Rs 16,499 offers the additional benefit of adaptive lighting, page press sensors and is brighter and whiter, but you're also paying a lot more.

The previous-generation Kindle Paperwhite is also available at Rs 8,999 (Wi-Fi only) on the Indian store and will satisfy most e-book lovers. However, we'd recommend going for the latest version if you're buying your first front-lit e-book reader.

Apple Pay launches in Britain

The service is one of Apple's biggest bets, a way of binding customers more tightly to its phones and new smart watches, as well as taking a small slice of every retail transaction.

LONDON: Apple introduced mobile payments in Britain, hoping to make a splash with consumers familiar with using cards for tap-and-go purchases, as resistance from hold-out banks and stores appeared to evaporate.

Starting Tuesday, Apple Pay is set to be available in 250,000 sites, from Tube stations to coffee shops, supermarkets and travel services, making it more widely available than when it was first introduced in the United States nine months ago.

Users first load their credit and debit card details into an app on their Apple phones or watches. To pay, customers hold the device near a contactless terminal with the user's fingerprints confirming their identity.

The service is one of Apple's biggest bets, a way of binding customers more tightly to its phones and new smart watches, as well as taking a small slice of every retail transaction.

Apple Pay will eventually be supported by all major British banks. The last hold-out, Barclays, confirmed on Tuesday its debit card users and Barclaycard credit card customers will be able to use Apple Pay in the future.

However, there also were some first-day teething problems. Another major bank, HSBC Holdings said it was having technical problems that will lead to a two-week delay before its clients in the United Kingdom can sign up to the service.

Morning subway commuters in the capital were greeted by advertisements from several major banks encouraging the fraction of their customers with the latest-model Apple phones, tablets and smartwatches to link their payment cards to Apple Pay.

Tube-operator Transport for London and big retailers Boots, the British pharmacy business of Walgreens Boots Alliance; Costa Coffee, a part of Whitbread; supermarkets Marks and Spencer and Waitrose all lined up to support Apple Pay.

Part of Apple Pay's appeal to banks and merchants is its higher level of security than most other electronic payment methods to date, and its ease of use, once customers wade through the bureaucratic process of connecting their accounts.

But unlike the consumer electronics business, where Apple regularly releases new computers or phones in dozens of countries at once, there is no such thing as a unified payments market, slowing expansion to further markets.

So far, Apple has been reported to be working to introduce its mobile payments service in China, South Korea and Canada.