MHRD Partners With HCL To Rollout 35$ Laptops

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

HCL Technologies Ltd will help MHRD manufacture 100000 35$ laptops and roll them out to students. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rajasthan will carry out intensive laboratory and field tests across the country using the devices. If the laptops pass the field tests, the government will procure 1 million units in the first phase, and make them available to undergraduate and postgraduate students across the country. There are 12.4 million higher education students in India. The report of trials prepared for the ministry, will also act as the base for the scaling up of production of such low-cost computing device in future. MHRD plans to make these low cost tablets available to university-level students from the second half of next year.

35 laptop

Some Insights

For a change, let us not criticize our government agencies and appreciate their work. The work towards rolling out 35$ laptops has been very swift till date. With the current rate of progress, I am sure that these laptops will be available to the university students within the targeted time frame. Partnering with HCL, MHRD has clearly stated that these laptops can be mass produced and distributed at this cost and is not something to be restricted to the IIT labs (as was being speculated by some critics). This would be the government’s first tangible success towards its goal of providing One Laptop Per Child.

Do you think the $35 laptop will be available as per schedule?

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Now Tweeting – 145 Million Users

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

The Twitter bird has had much to keep up with lately. With over 145 million registered users now, the micro blogging website is concentrating on how the tweeting experience can be made as available and simple as possible.

Twitter applications moved to OAuth, an authentication which lets you use apps without them storing your password, just a few days back. This required all third-party app makers to move to the more secure environment. This did create some discomfort to the developers because they were notified about the move after the requirement was effected.

twitter

Additionally, Twitter has been rolling out its own clients for Blackberry, Android and iPad devices. The explanation offered has been rather “corporate” in nature – veiling the actual motive (ring in profitability at last) with a “user experience” jingle. Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter, wrote, “We did iPhone user tests and confirmed that even though there was a plethora of third-party Twitter apps, people were having trouble finding and selecting one because none were called “Twitter.” This kept them from using Twitter at all. For this reason, we acquired Tweetie and turned it into Twitter for iPhone, complete with a new user sign-up experience. We quickly understood that we were doing users a disservice by not having a great client on each of the major mobile platforms. So, we took a similar approach with Twitter for BlackBerry (developed by RIM) and Twitter for Android, which launched a new version this week.”

This may have come off the back of some interesting statistics that he pointed out in his blog which showed that after the Twitter and mobile Twitter websites, smart phone clients and third-party clients appeared in the top 10 Twitter apps. While Twitter is still trying to make sure developers feel comfortable, it is consistently trying to plug the gaps that developers have exploited immensely. In fact, there are almost 300,000 registered apps using the API!

I really think Twitter, being such a thoroughly user integrated service, should openly declare its motives to the users behind every move it makes. People are insanely smart to not notice corporate interests and it puts them off when it is disguised and made to sound like some social activity. Twitter can, actually, leverage their relationship with its users and become a truly loved corporate entity.

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Airtel App Store For Fixed-Line Broadband Users

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

It was just earlier this year that Airtel launched Airtel App Central for mobile customers. This app store was a big success and on those lines Airtel is planning to launch an app store for fixed-line broadband users. Bharti Airtel currently has 3.1 million fixed-line telephone subscribers out of which 1.3 million have broadband connection. With this move, are Airtel trying to convert the remaining subscribers? Does fixed-line broadband have enough potential?

airtel-broadband

Airtel says

According to Airtel, three years ago the revenue from voice alone was 80% for fixed line broadband subscribers. However, the number has now changed to 50-50 between voice and data, and this number is rising increasingly in favor of the latter. Airtel believes that this transition is happening due to the increased speeds that fixed line broadband users can achieve today. From almost 95% subscribers getting a speed of less than 256 kbps a few years ago, today no subscriber gets a speed of below 512 kbps and this has given rise to the increase in date transfer in fixed-line broadband.

What about portability issues?

The one question that always pops up when talking about fixed-line broadband is portability issue which is definitely the biggest drawback in fixed-line. How will increased speed ensure the success of this app store for example? Well, maybe it is in the end a numbers game. It was recently reported that one in four houses in urban India now have a PC. So though mobility might be an issue, Airtel still has a huge market to play with and this might be the reason to bring about an app store for fixed-line broadband subscribers.

Will mobile be a hindrance for the growth of fixed-line broadband?

We are not just talking about mobile broadband here but also mobile devices that can access the internet. With smartphones increasing by the day in our country, the convenience of surfing the net from just about anywhere might render fixed-line pointless. However, we would like to again point to the numbers where though mobile will take over India, there most probably will still be more than enough PCs in our country for companies like Airtel to increase fixed-line broadband customer base.

What is your take on this?

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Source: Anish Sadanandan

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pinkWhale Initiates India’s First All-Inclusive Online Healthcare Service

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

It comes as a pleasant surprise for all us Indians to witness a revolution in the Online Healthcare industry. A first of its kind in India , Internet Healthcare firm – pinkWhale offers not only valuable health related information like other online websites do, but provides a complete array of medical services just like a regular health clinic or a general hospital does.

Though pinkWhale has its presence online it boasts of bestowing patients with direct medical treatment by way of innovative services like ‘Call a Doc’. Apart from this, pinkWhale also allows web users (patients) to call for a second opinion as there exists a complete team of specialist doctors each expert in his/ her medical field. There are, however, other Healthcare services providing firms that exist online like www.free-medical-service.com and more popularly Web MD, with the latter being very similar to pinkWhale.

pinkwhale

There have been many scenarios where, individuals hailing from an urban background find it a very time-consuming and energy grueling activity to first avail a doctor’s appointment and the to drive down to the hospital for even a medical necessity that is as small as a general medical check – up. Extending this point, the scale of time and energy that is wasted for other ailments that are a little more serious than general check – ups would be even higher. There also lives a certain set of people who are so busy in their daily work routine, that they can’t afford to take time off and visit doctors or hospitals located far from their homes or offices.

Those people who prefer convenience over wasting time and energy, fall part of pinkWhale’s target audience. pinkWhale caters to this particular TA who can avail solutions for minor medical queries over the internet in quick time and gain access to expert doctors. pinkWhale grants privacy for user-patients who do not seek to reveal their identity and has also tied up with third-party service provides who help pinkWhale in performing medical tasks such as collecting blood and urines samples for diagnostic tests from users’ homes. pinkWhale members can also create their own health records online and perform regular reviews whereby they can keep a track of their current and previous medical status.

Though pinkWhale seems to have it all in terms of the provision of healthcare solutions, there are still certain hassles that do exist. Patients in India can be resistant to changing the way medical treatment takes place (from conventional treatment to online healthcare service). pinkWhale’s TA though involves the urban population, the larger medical problem in India exists in the semi-urban and rural areas. Its service predominantly provides medical aids to minor health defects, however in cases that are a little more serious pinkWhale’s services may not be preferred. Understandably, pinkwhale’s expertise lies in offering solutions for minor medical glitches, but these are just some areas that pinkWhale can work on and excel in the Online Healthcare Services industry.

Do you think online healthcare services in India will be a success?

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AppleTV & Ping – New Game Changers For Apple?

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Apple on Wednesday unveiled a number of additions to its current offerings which included revamped range of IPods, new versions of iOS software, iTunes 10 with a new logo and improved features but the offerings which have elicited tremendous response from followers and critics are the introduction of re-designed version of Apple TV and Apple’s foray into social networking with Ping, a place to discover music and follow friends and artists.

New life into Apple IPods

Truly Spectacular! This is the phrase which comes to my mind after witnessing the latest roll out of IPods. The new IPod shuffle is much smaller and smarter than the previous one. It supports Genius mixes and has 15 hours playback.  Its 2GB, costs $49, and comes in five different colors. The new IPod Nano is multi-touch. It is 46 percent smaller and 42 percent lighter than its predecessor with 24 hours playback.

IPod touch has also inherited some exciting features from IPhone. It’s even thinner, but more remarkable with Retina Display, featuring 4X pixels, 326 ppi, 24-bit color and LED. It has Apple A4 chip, 3-axis Gyro and a program called FaceTime with front camera. The touch has 40 hours of music playback time. It can edit videos and has a Game center.

Apple_TV

Refurbished AppleTV

The re-formulated Apple TV is much smaller in size than its predecessor and costs around $99. It will allow users to rent TV shows for 99 cents or first-run movies for $4.99 each. Unlike other Apple devices, content on Apple TV cannot be purchased but only rented. It has no local storage and streams all of its content like  music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, radio stations, photos from Internet, Mac, PC, iPhone or iPad. The device also has an inbuilt support for Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and Apple’s MobileMe.

Sure, this is another attempt from Apple to shift the TV viewing behavior, something which hasn’t changed for over 50 years now. And it is not alone in the race. There are number of players in the market who are trying hard to marry the web to Television. So the stage is all set for mass market adoption and it remains to be seen whether AppleTV can do the same to television what iPhone did to Phones three years ago.

Ping, the new Social Network !

Steve Jobs, Co-founder of Apple also used the opportunity to announce Apple’s expansion into Social-Networking through its Music-Centric social Network Ping. The idea is to provide the users with an option to discover new music in ITunes, which according to Steve contains more than 12 million songs. So the result is Ping which seems more like Facebook and twitter integrated into ITunes. Ping will be integrated into new iTunes 10 and can be accessed from iPhone and iPod Touch. It will enable the users to follow their favorite artists and friends. It will also feature a stream of activities and customized Top 10 lists based on music tastes of various users.

PingiTunes

What’s in it for us?

While introducing Ping, Steve jobs mentioned that Apple is opening the service to 160 million existing ITunes users across 23 countries. Sadly, India does not appear in the list of those 23 which means that Ping is not available to ITunes users in India. (It took some time for me to figure this out not before I tried some tweaks like changing  country in ITunes, but in vain). That’s a bit strange because Apple has described Ping as a Social-network for discovering music. One reason could be that Apple wants to link the new Ping with its ITunes Music store. Though ITunes store is available in India, it is yet to emerge as a popular destination for buying music. But If Apple has any serious aspirations to grow Ping into a global social networking powerhouse; it should strongly consider making it available to everyone.

Music is one of the few subjects which can arouse passion and conversation. So it makes perfect sense for a music service to be social, and Ping has just done that. But I feel that there is more to it. The success of Ping can give rise to new trend of niche social networks with fragmented groups sharing various enthusiasms. What do you think?

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Source: Achalla Venugopal

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Sony re-hauls e-reader line, increases price

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Sony re-hauls e-reader line, increases priceSony has re-hauled their e-reader line, increasing the price while adding new features.

The new Reader Pocket Edition will cost $179, up from $149 for the last edition.

Sony’s revamped Touch Edition will jump to $229, and the high-end Daily Edition will cost $299.

Each of the devices now features a slimmer and lighter body, more sensitive touchscreens, and higher contrast e-ink screens with better clarity.

Sony’s biggest rivals, the Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook sell for under $150, so Sony may be facing an uphill battle trying to steal market share from cheaper and more established devices.

Furthermore, B&N and Amazon have repeatedly cut the prices of their devices while updating new features. Just last week, Borders said it was slashing the price of the Aluratek Libre e-readers to $99.99, the first e-reader to drop under the $100 threshold.

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Source: Pradeep Rao

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Samsung to prioritize Android, Bada

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Samsung to prioritize Android, BadaSamsung, the world’s second-largest phone maker has said today that it will prioritize the Android and Bada mobile operating systems, making them key software platforms for their smartphones.

Says YH Lee, head of marketing at Samsung Mobile: “We are Prioritizing our Android platform. Android is very open and flexible, and there is a consumer demand for it.”

Android has quickly become the third biggest mobile OS in the world, behind Symbian and RIM, surpassing Apple and Microsoft, which had head starts.

Samsung launched the Bada OS last year and have introduced two phones running the software, the Wave and the Wave 723.

Lee says the company will launch a full lineup of Bada phones in the upcoming quarters.

Despite prioritizing the other smartphone OS’, Samsung does say they are releasing a Windows 7 device later in the year.

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Source: Pradeep Rao

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72 percent of adults now text

Posted by On September - 3 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

72 percent of adults now textAccording to a new study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 72 percent of American adults now text from their phones, with 87 percent of teens texting, as well.

Adult texting use is up from 65 percent in September 2009 and 58 percent in the same period of 2007.

While more adults are texting now than ever, they still don’t do it very often. Typically, adults only send and receive 10 texts per day. Teens average over 50.

Pew surveyed 2,252 adults earlier this year.

“We’ve reached a point where enough other people are texting that (adults) are drawn into using it because they can finally use it to communicate with a substantial number of their friends and family,” writes Amanda Lenhart, Pew senior research specialist, via MSNBC.



“It may be that folks have been pushed by pricing into unlimited texting plans, which has the effect of encouraging people with those plans to text more, because they no longer think of the cost, and then text more people more often.”

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Source: Pradeep Rao

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Verizon 3G phones now available with pre-paid plans

Posted by On September - 2 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Verizon 3G phones now available with pre-paid plansVerizon has announced new monthly pre-paid data packages for users that have 3G smartphones and “multimedia” phones.

For $30 per month, Verizon is offering unlimited data. If you opt for the cheaper $10 multimedia phone plan, you will only get 25MB, with each extra MB costing 20 cents.

The unlimited plan is available to users with the BlackBerry Curve 8330 and 8530; BlackBerry Storm 2; BlackBerry Tour; BlackBerry Bold 9650; Palm Pre Plus; Palm Pixi Plus; Motorola Droid; Droid X; Droid 2; Droid Eris; Droid Incredible; and LG Ally.

Verizon “multimedia” phones include the LG enV Touch; LG enV3; LG Chocolate Touch; LG VX8360; Samsung Alias 2; Samsung Renown; Nokia Twist; and the Casio EXILIM.

Both bundles are available in-store as of today and online on the 28th.

“Our prepaid customers will now have the freedom to enjoy all of the capabilities that these phones have to offer, while controlling costs and without being tied to a contract,” added Jim Sullivan, director of marketing for Verizon Wireless.

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Source: Pradeep Rao

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Barcamp Bangalore 9 is here!

Posted by On September - 2 - 2010 ADD COMMENTS

Most popular community driven tech event in Bangalore and one of the popular barcamps worldwide Barcamp Bangalore is here. After a long break it is back for 9th edition. If you are new to barcamp, take a look at this wikipedia entry.

Head over to BarcampBangalore.org and register yourself for the event.

Related posts:

  1. Barcamp Bangalore Again!
  2. Barcamp Bangalore (BCB4) happening this weekend
  3. Wikipedia featured Karnataka on it’s main page on occasion of Kannada Rajyothsava


Source: Prashanth

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