February 2014
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Oppia focusses on elearning


Google has launched a new open source project titled Oppia that aims at creating eLearning content. Oppia allows users to create online interactive activities that Google calls explorations. These activities or explorations can be built and contributed to by multiple people across the world and doesn’t require any programming.

Basically, Google wants users to creative online activities or explorations that others can learn from. Oppia does this by modeling a mentor who poses questions for the learner to answer. Then, based on the learner’s responses, the mentor decides what question to ask next, what feedback to give, whether to delve deeper, or whether to proceed to something new, reveals the official Google Open Source blog.


One of the key highlights of Oppia is its ability to allow multiple people across the world to create and collaborate on explorations. Moreover, the explorations created on an Oppia server can be embedded in any web page.


The blog states, “Oppia gathers data on how learners interact with it, making it easy for exploration authors to spot and fix shortcomings in an exploration. They would do this by logging in, finding an answer that many learners are giving but which the system is not responding to adequately, and creating a new learning path for it, based on what they would actually say if they were interacting in-person with the learner.”


Oppia further uses this feedback for future learners.

Oppia is capable of dealing with numeric, text, and multiple choice inputs, and also clickable map and a code evaluator. Google has also built an extensible framework that lets developers extend the range of input types that Oppia can understand.
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Yet another budget Android

Adding to the brigade of sub-Rs 10,000 Android smartphones in the Indian market, Spice has just launched its entry-level offering, the Smart Flo Poise. It is a dual-SIM (GSM + GSM) smartphone priced at Rs 6,499. It will be available via online retailers at a market operating price of Rs 5,499 .



Sporting a 4.5-inch display with 480 x 854 pixels of resolution, the Smart Flo Poise is powered by a 1.3GHz dual-core processor (chipset not mentioned) coupled with 512MB of RAM. It runs on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean OS, and also comes with support for dual standby.



On the camera front, the Smart Flo Poise gets a 3.2-megapixel rear snapper with LED flash and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera. Like most budget phones, it includes 4GB onboard storage that is expandable up to 32GB via microSD card slot. The connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, A-GPS, GPRS and EDGE. The smartphones doesn’t support 3G and packs in a 1450mAh battery.



TM Ramakrishnan – CEO Devices at Spice Retail Ltd, said, “Smart Flo Poise is the perfect mix of the two with its premium looks and a slim body. The new smartphone features Ultra bright IPS display which makes it stand out and builds on our promise to constantly empower our users with superior technology. With strong market intelligence, we have launched Smart Flo Poise for an enhanced overall user experience.”
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Boeing Black is perfect for spies...in movies.

If you thought Snapchat’s self-destructing pictures were cool, wait till you get a load of this. US company Boeing has unveiled a new smartphone that appears to come straight from a James Bond spy movie.


In addition to encrypting your communication over the phone, any attempt to open the casing of the Boeing Black smartphone deletes all data and rendering the device inoperable. The secure phone marks an extension of the communications arm of the Chicago-based aerospace and defense contractor, which is best known for jetliners and fighter planes.


Made in the US, the phone runs on Google’s Android. The 5.2-by-2.7-inch (13.2-by-6.9 cm) handset, slightly larger than an iPhone, uses dual SIM cards to enable it to access multiple cell networks instead of a single network like a normal cellphone. “The Boeing Black phone is manufactured as a sealed device both with epoxy around the casing and with screws, the heads of which are covered with tamper proof covering to identify attempted disassembly. Any attempt to break open the casing of the device would trigger functions that would delete the data and software contained within the device and make the device inoperable,” the company said.


The self-destructing phone contains a rather small 1590mAh battery and is quite chunky looking from the renders Boeing has released. It sports a 4.3-inch 540×960 display of unspecified type and will play nicely with LTE, UMTS, and GSM networks. Customisation is also a major selling point for Boeing Black — the back door can be swapped out for add-on modules such as satellite radio, expanded battery packs, solar chargers, precise GPS receivers, secure discrete radio channels, biometric scanners, etc. The Black also sports a PDMI port that combines USB, audio, power, HDMI, and DisplayPort output in one connection. You will also find a a standard USB port for data and charging, along with a microSD slot.


An unspecified dual-core 1.2Ghz ARM Cortex-A9 processor is ticking within. Due to the phone’s security features, Boeing is releasing few details about the wireless network operators or manufacturer it is working with, and has not provided a price or date by which the phone might be widely available, but said it has begun offering the phone to potential customers. Boeing has not mentioned any specific details about the cameras on the phone, but we can clearly see one on the back


Boeing’s website says the phone can be configured to connect with biometric sensors or satellites. Other attachments can extend battery life or use solar power. The phone can operate on the WCDMA, GSM and LTE frequency bands and offers WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.


Such a phone might have prevented damage to Washington’s diplomacy in Ukraine from a leaked telephone call. A senior US State Department officer and the ambassador to Ukraine apparently used unencrypted cellphones for a call about political developments in Ukraine that became public.


Boeing’s tamper-proof phone is aimed at government agencies and contractors who need to keep communication and data secure, according to Boeing and filings with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission.


The company has been developing the phone for 36 months, said Boeing spokeswoman Rebecca Yeamans. “We saw a need for our customers in a certain market space” that Boeing could meet with its technology expertise, she said.


A sample purchase contract submitted to the FCC says the phone would be sold directly by Boeing or its agents. Yeamans said Boeing combined its own engineers with the talent of people who joined Boeing recently through acquisitions that included Argon ST Inc, Digital Receiver Technology Inc, Kestrel Enterprises Inc, Ravenwing Inc, and Solutions Made Simple Inc.
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Now available for Nexus and Google Play edition devices

Always wanted a Google Now-flavoured Android experience? Google has now released its Google Now Launcher on the Play Store. The catch, however, is that the launcher will work only on a Nexus or Google Play edition phone or tablet running Android 4.4 KitKat. You can get the launcher from the Google Play Store.



The launcher released officially by Google will give you quick access to Google Now, right on the home screen. You will only need to swipe right to enter Google Now from your first home screen and view your cards. The “always-on” voice command of Nexus 5 is not available for the Nexus 4, but you can still hit the voice icon on the persistent homescreen search bar to search or perform activities. You can also swipe up from the on-screen navigation buttons to reach Google Now.



Using the voice commands, you will be able to not just access data from the Internet but you can also ask your phone to fire up apps, send a message or even play a song. The Google Now experience will also bring along full-screen viewing and larger viewing area and even the wallpaper extends across the phone.



The Google Now launcher is currently limited to a few devices that includes Nexus ones and Google Play Edition devices, which is bound to make a lot of people unhappy. Earlier, the KitKat experience on these devices looked and felt slightly different from the one on Nexus 5.



The opacity of the top bar, larger icons and new wallpapers and even easy accessibility to Google Now were missing from it. The official release should change this, though there’s no word on whether it will be available for other devices which are running Google Now. As you may know by now with Android KitKat, the launcher is actually a stub app within the Google Search app (better known as Google Now), which activates the launcher functionality.
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Flagship Motorola smartphone 'Moto X' coming to India

After receiving great response for its well-priced Moto G in India, the company is now prepping to bring the slightly premium Moto X to the Indian market in the next few weeks. The company revealed the details at a Q&A session held at Mobile World Congress. While responding to the query about the Moto X launch in Asia. It tweeted out the response stating, “In next few weeks Moto X will launch in India and Australia.”


The report claims that the Moto X will be launched in Western Europe and Mexico in the second quarter of the year, while it is expected to reach Australia in the next few weeks too. While Samsung and some other phone makers have started opting for Tizen, it is quite likely that Motorola may also have such plans as it is no longer a Google-owned entity. However, the company has confirmed that it doesn’t plan to employ other OSes like Tizen or Windows Phone.



Earlier this year, when the Moto X received a $150 price cut and started selling for $399 in the US, it was highly speculated that the phone will be launched in India with the revised price to compete more aggressively in the market against the likes of the Galaxy Grand 2 and a slew of other low-cost Indian brands.



The Moto X sports a Nexus 4-like 4.7-inch 720p touchscreen but its AMOLED display is said to enable better power savings and it also has some additional software features, exclusive to the phone. The Moto G is the more affordably priced variant of the Moto X and has received accolades for its performance, build and price.
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Sleek and slim at 5.5mm

Chinese phone maker Gionee has unveiled its newest smartphone dubbed Elife S5.5. Now, the name doesn’t imply a 5.5-inch display, rather the company wants to highlight that it is the slimmest smartphone with a thickness of just 5.5mm. Last year, some incredibly thin phones were launched such as the Huawei Ascend P6 at 6.16mm and Vivo X3 at 5.75 mm, and now the new Gionee smartphone takes a step further by breaking the 5.75mm barrier.



However, the Elife S5.5 isn’t just about uber-portability; it packs in a 5-inch full HD Super AMOLED display, and will be powered by an octa-core 1.7 GHz processor. The chipset is yet unspecified. On the camera front, the device gets a 13-megapixel rear snapper and a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.


Just like all other Gionee phones, it runs on company’s Amigo OS, a heavily skinned version of Android. The company hasn’t mentioned which version of the OS it will employ though. The smartphone supports 3G network working in six different bands and the company also plans to churn out an LTE version of the device by June.


The Elife S5.5 will be available in China at CNY 2,299 (approximately Rs 23,500) within a few weeks. The company is set to launch the device in 40 other countries in the second quarter. So, far, Gionee handsets have been targeting emerging markets including India and we expect the S5.5 to reach here too.
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The new Samsung Exynos 5422 processor. Image from Samsung blog

Samsung has shown off its new Exynos processors at the ongoing Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The South-Korean tech giant revealed the octa-core processor Exynos 5422 and the new hexa-core processor Exynos 5 Hexa (Exynos 5260), which we already experienced in the Galaxy Note 3 Neo. In addition to this the company has confirmed that it will launch a Galaxy S5 variant with the new octa-core variant.



According to Engadget, Samsung has already shown off such a variant at the MWC. Samsung had also put up an infographic on the Tomorrow blog detailing the evolution of the Samsung Galaxy S series. The infographic initially showed the S5 in two variants, which Samsung has since replaced with another that shows a single Galaxy S5 mode. You can view the original here.



The Exynos 5422 octa-core processor is based on ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture comprised of four ARM Cortex- A15 cores clocked at up to 2.1 GHz and four ARM Cortex- A7 cores up to 1.5 GHz. This is the same configuration that was seen in the last-gen Exynos processor, but there’s one major difference. The 5422 comes with Heterogeneous Multi Processing (HMP) technology, which allows it to use all eight cores or any combination of them at the same time for improved performance. According to Samsung, the chip delivers up to 34 percent higher performance than previous Exynos Octa models.



To ensure that the chip supports bigger screen resolutions WQHD (2560 x 1440) and WQXGA (2560 x 1600), Samsung says it has adopted new solutions with proprietary mobile image compression (MIC) and adaptive hibernation technology. It also supports 4K Ultra HD resolution.With MIC, display data is compressed into half to minimize memory bandwidth requirement. The chip has been developed using a 28 nm manufacturing process; Samsung promises up to 10 percent lower power consumption than 32nm chips. The Exynos 5422 is scheduled for mass production in the first quarter of 2014.
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Nokia XL is a 5-inch phablet with Android underpinnings

A big concern with Nokia’s X family of Android-based devices was compatibility with general Android apps. While Nokia was gung-ho about bringing hundreds of thousands of apps at the announcement at MWC 2014, we had our doubts about whether developers would want to put in the effort to port apps for the Nokia X platform.



But it would seem most Android apps are already compatible for the Nokia X phones. The Finnish company has released the Nokia X Services SDK to developers, which gives more details about how to begin making Android apps for the Nokia X. The official SDK page clearly says 75 percent of Android apps will be able to run on Nokia X without any changes necessary. That’s a huge chunk of apps and if true, Nokia has a good chance of convincing developers about the platform.



Nokia has also launched an app compatibility tool, which lets developers check whether any modifications are required. If at all they are, Nokia says it will not take more than 8 hours or a day’s work to make the porting happen. These changes will broadly involve replacing existing Google services sync for notifications, location services, in-app payments, etc. In its place, they will have to include support for Nokia In-App Payment, Here Maps, Nokia Notifications, distribution in Nokia Store, operator billing support, and the Nokia X icon toolkit.



The core Nokia X platform is built on AOSP v4.1.2, which supports API level 16, so it’s a fairly recent build, even if it’s not the most recent. One app that will most definitely make the move is popular called ID app Truecaller, which like predictive keyboard app SwiftKey, announced it will be dedicating resources for the X platform. It’s still early days, but things are looking up for Nokia X.
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If you haven’t heard by now, Facebook just made its biggest move ever, buying the messaging service WhatsApp in a deal worth some $19 billion. That’s 19 times what Facebook paid for Instagram two years ago.

The WhatsApp Service run by the team of just 32 engineers, handles more than 50 Billion messages daily, and approx 385 million active users.

WhatsApp acquisition has also brought out fresh criticism over security for the billions of messages delivered on the platform. Security Researcher at Praetorian Labs identified several SSL-related security issues in WhatsApp application using Project Neptune, a mobile application security testing platform.

"WhatsApp communication between your phone and our server is fully encrypted. We do not store your chat history on our servers. Once delivered successfully to your phone, chat messages are removed from our system." Company said in a blog post.

But researchers found that WhatsApp is vulnerable to Man-in-the Middle attack because the app has not enforced SSL pinning and hence user credentials can be easily stolen. SSL pinning prevents the user of the application from being a victim of an attack made by spoofing the SSL certificate. SSL pinning won't prove a great solution is not validated properly.

WhatsApp does not perform SSL pinning when establishing a trusted connection between the mobile applications and back-end web services. Without SSL pinning enforced, an attacker could man-in-the-middle the connection between the mobile applications and back-end web services. This would allow the attacker to sniff user credentials, session identifiers, or other sensitive information."

WhatsApp is allowing its backend servers to use weak 40-bit and 56-bit encryption schemes, which can be easily cracked using brute force attack. 'This is the kind of stuff the NSA would love,' researchers said.

WhatsApp team has confirmed that they are actively working on adding SSL Pinning to their app, but still that is not enough to protect our privacy.

Facebook and WhatsApp assured that nothing is going to change after the acquisition and WhatsApp will continue to function as an independent service, but is that statement satisfied? May be we can trust Facebook, Google, WhatsApp.. But we really can't trust the U.S. Government and the Security agencies like the NSA, that don't respect our privacy and freedom of speech.

Mobile messaging apps often used to deliver sensitive data or used for personal and corporate communications, so the data stored by the service provider should be encrypted end-to-end, which is not yet in the case of WhatsApp.

But there are many other free secure chat applications are available like Telegram, Surespot, ThreemaTextSecure, RedPhone etc., that you should use to keep your data private and Secure, until WhatsApp will not adopt end-to-end encryption.
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Nokia X and X+ announced

Nokia has finally made many a dream come true with the announcement of its first ever Android-based phone at the MWC in Barcelona. But unlike what we expected, Nokia arrived on the scene with three new Android-based phones. The Nokia X and X+ will be four-inch budget smartphones, while the Nokia XL will be the 5-inch phone that’s set to be the flagship X series phone.


Nokia has not announced India-specific availability or price, but says the Nokia X will start retailing for 89 euros (approx Rs 7,600), the X+ for 99 euros (approx Rs 8,400) and will hit stores in Q2 this year. Both phones have appeared on the Nokia India website with a coming soon tag.


While both phones run Android, Nokia has tied up the login and app data to Microsoft’s cloud services. The phones run a version of Android Open Source Project, with access to sideloading of apps, third-party app stores and Nokia’s own store. You will find Microsoft essentials such as Skype, Outlook and OneDrive on these phones, while search is powered by Bing. Users will get one month of free Skype calls to mobiles and landlines when they purchase the Nokia X.

Will feature Nokia’s Fastlane user experience

The specs aren’t the full story here, but we’ll go over them. The Nokia X and X+ feature a 4-inch display with a 800×480 pixel resolution. Nokia did not announce the chipsets on stage, but the two phones have a Snapdragon S4 SoC. That’s the same chipset that powers the ultra-popular Moto G. The dual-core processor is clocked at 1GHz. There’s 512MB of RAM on the Nokia X, while the X+ gets 768MB of RAM. Both have 4GB internal storage and the ability to take in micro SD cards up to 32GB in capacity.



The camera on the Nokia X won’t be winning any awards. The Finnish company has decided to go with a 3-megapixel primary shooter, and there’s no front-facing camera. That’s a bit of a disappointment for the selfie-obssessed and Skype users. Both phones get a 1500 mAh battery, rated for around 13 hours of talk time on 2G and 17 days standby time. In terms of connectivity, the X and X+ have dual SIM slots, 3G cellular data, Wi-Fi b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0.
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Voice calling Coming This Year

Following its acquisition by Facebook for $19 billion, WhatsApp is about to take its first major evolutionary step. The popular cross platform messaging app will be getting a voice calling feature come Q2 of 2014.



With the Mobile World Congress playing as the backdrop, WhatsApp’s CEO, Jan Koum has announced that the service will be adding a voice service to the app soon. “We are going to introduce voice in WhatsApp in the second quarter of this year,” he said. It’s interesting to note that the announcement’s come not only a few days after Facebook acquired WhatsApp but also on the service’s and Koum’s birthday. WhatsApp has turned five today, with the service having been founded in 2009.



Koum also announced that WhatsApp had now crossed 465 million monthly active users, a pretty impressive post-acquisition figure. There are also 330 million daily active users,a 15 million jump from the figures released just before Facebook acquired the service.



The CEO stressed on the need for WhatsApp to grow steadily while keeping competition at bay. TechCrunch has reported that WhatsApp first aims to bring Voice to Android and iOS first, followed by some Nokia and BlackBerry phones. Koum also stressed on the fact that there will be no planned changes to WhatsApp post Facebook’s acquisition; at least not yet. He said that there are still no plans of marketing and the company would continue doing service the way it has always done.



Both Koum and the WhatsApp team seem to be unperturbed on the service’s fifth birthday, despite having faced the biggest outage in the company’s history over the weekend. The service went down for a good three hours on Saturday following a network router outage, something that reportedly earned rival service Telegram 4.95 million followers.

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Five-year-old WhatsApp currently has about 450 million users globally and has been adding a million daily.

NEW YORK: WhatsApp's 450 million worldwide users were unable to access the smartphone free-messaging service on Saturday, three days after Facebook declared it was lavishing up to $19 billion on it.

"Sorry we currently experiencing server issues. We hope to be back up and recovered shortly,"WhatsApp said in a message on Twitter that was retweeted more than 25,000 times in just a few hours and provoked ridicule because it comes so soon after Facebook's hefty acquisition.

Some WhatsApp users found they were unable to connect to the app, while others complained their messages were not going through.

WhatsApp has not indicated how long the outage would last or when it began.

However, the specialist website techcrunch.com suggested the problem might be down to "a surge of signups and usage that has overloaded its servers" after the publicity the app garnered after Facebook's announcement on Wednesday.

Facebook is betting huge on mobile with the eye-popping cash-and-stock deal for WhatsApp, which was only started five years ago but has quickly grown as a free alternative to text messages.

It is Facebook's biggest acquisition and comes less than two years after the California-based Internet star raised $16 billion in the richest tech sector public stock offering.

Neither WhatsApp nor Facebook were immediately available for comment. However, the outage was the source of much amusement -- as well as anger -- on Twitter.

"I expect you are all away from your desks on the ales drinking some of that Facebook cash!" one user, "leonclarance," replied to WhatsApp's tweet about the blackout.

Another simply tweeted: "Turn down Facebook's offer guys!"
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On Street View
First-time visitors to Indian normally have a day chalked off to see the Taj Mahal and take in the sights around Delhi. But from today, these very people can get a virtual tour of major landmarks in and around the capital, and in other parts of the country, thanks to Google Street View. Google, in association with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), is releasing the first 360-degree online imagery of 30 iconic Indian heritage sites, including the Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb, Red Fort and Agra Fort, on Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute.


The panoramic imagery of these 30 sites as part of their joint initiative to help make 100 of India’s premier heritage sites more accessible for everyone and not just for those who are able to make the round trip. “Google is deeply committed to helping preserve and showcase cultural heritage across the world. India is unique in terms of the sheer wealth of heritage and iconic historical monuments, and it has been our privilege to work with the ASI in collecting new 360-degree photos of 30 Indian heritage sites. We hope the imagery will help make India’s heritage and culture more accessible to people at home and abroad,” said Rajan Anandan, Vice President and Managing Director, Google India.


Today, this partnership with Google makes it possible for billions of people across the world to see and explore our magnificent heritage, to take a walk at the Rock Cut Jain Temple, to marvel at the Nagarjuna Konda Buddhist Stupas and to relive history in Fatehpur Sikri. With the release of these new panoramic images, we aim to create a dynamic, immersive online experience by which people within India and around the world can understand and engage more of India’s diverse cultural heritage,” said Union Minister of Culture Chandresh Kumari Katoch.


The images coming online today through Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute provide a new way for people around the world to view, interact with, and learn about some of the most important heritage monuments in India. We hope this new way of exploring national treasures such as the Taj Mahal, Agra Fort and Qutb Minar will help share more of India’s diverse culture with new audiences, and help preserve this part of India’s identity for generations to come,” said Pravin Srivastava, Director General of the ASI.


Google says it will announce the launch of more Street View imagery for other Indian heritage sites soon.
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Koum's family struggled and they lived on food stamps

With Facebook’s announcement to buy WhatsApp for $19 billion, its co-founder and CEO Jan Koum could be one of Silicon Valley’s greatest rags to riches stories.


37-year-old Jan Koum, born in the Ukraine, went to the US when he was 16-years-old. His family struggled living on food stamps, venture capitalist Jim Goetz revealed in a blog post. His house had no electricity or hot water. In fact, Koum’s family picked up their food stamps only a couple of blocks away from WhatsApp’s offices in Mountain View, California, reports Wired’s David Rowan.



A Forbes report notes, “Koum and his mother immigrated to Mountain View, a result of the troubling political and anti-Semitic environment, and got a small two-bedroom apartment though government assistance. His dad never made it over. Koum’s mother had stuffed their suitcases with pens and a stack of 20 Soviet-issued notebooks to avoid paying for school supplies in the U.S. She took up babysitting and Koum swept the floor of a grocery store to help make ends meet.”


In 2009, amidst the aftermath of the financial crisis, Koum and Brian Acton, longtime Yahoo employees, went on to create a messaging service that they hoped would become the biggest cross-platform in the world. Koum reportedly came up with the idea for his company in 2009 after his gym banned the use of cell phones. Koum became annoyed at missing calls during his workout and decided to create a solution, notes this Mashable report.


According to a Forbes estimate, Koum holds about a 45 percent stake in the company, while his co-founder Brian Acton’s stake is estimated at over 20 percent. That would make Koum worth $6.8 billion and Acton worth a at least $3 billion as of Facebook’s closing share price on Wednesday.


Acton’s story shows us that persevering in spite of rejection worked miracles for him. In 2009, Facebook turned Acton down for a job.



But Facebook wasn’t the only one to miss a golden opportunity, as Acton, who formerly worked at Yahoo, also appears to have been rejected by Twitter in 2009.




Five years later, here they are.

This story first appeared on www.firstbiz.com
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Shortly after moving to Silicon Valley in 2004, the young Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg pulled a prank on Sequoia Capital by making an investment pitch in his pajamas. The discussion never got serious, and Sequoia never invested in Facebook. But now, Sequoia is getting the last laugh.


With the sale of its protégé company message service WhatsApp to Zuckerberg’s Facebook for $19 billion, Sequoia found a way to make money from Facebook as well as solidifying its position as a titan of venture capital. And it establishes partner Jim Goetz, who landed the deal, as one of Silicon Valley’s top rainmakers.


“This would make a lot more founders want to work with Jim Goetz,” said Sam Altman, a partner at Y Combinator, a program for start-up companies whose previous startup was backed by Sequoia.


In a business where top firms come and go, Sequoia has proved remarkably tenacious. Its big wins take on particular significance in an era when venture firms must beat back challenges from individual investors known as “angels” and crowdfunding; new technology that makes early-stage investments less crucial than they once were; and critics who say that venture capital investments aren’t worth the trouble.


Facebook announced the acquisition deal on Thursday, astounding many with the price it paid for the service, which has 450 million users and is growing at 1 million a day.

Sequoia, which invested $60 million and made around $3 billion from WhatsApp, according to a source familiar with the situation, has squeezed a considerable sum out of Facebook, even if it never did invest in the social-media behemoth. Sequoia also backed photo-sharing service Instagram, which Facebook bought in 2012 for $1.01 billion.


By contrast, Accel Partners, the biggest venture investor in Facebook, held $7.64 billion worth of Facebook shares at the time of that company’s 2012 IPO.


Launched in 1972 by Don Valentine, a founder of National Semicondutor, Sequoia was one of the nation’s earliest venture-capital firms. As most others of the earlier generation faded from the scene, Sequoia held its own, going on to fund companies including Apple Inc, Oracle Corp, Paypal, and Google Inc.


Today, it is involved with many of the hottest startups, including accommodation service Airbnb, file-sharing service Dropbox, invitation service Eventbrite, and stereo and bluetooth headset maker Jawbone.


“We were so excited to meet with them,” said David Rusenko, co-founder of web-hosting service Weebly, recalling his early interactions with Sequoia before the firm invested in his company three years ago. “Sequoia is the gold standard, as far as we were concerned.”


Of course, not everyone holds that view. Silicon Valley impresario Sean Parker, for example, blamed Sequoia for contributing to the downfall of his online-address book company, Plaxo, after he was forced out. Others complain the company is too hard-nosed when it comes to negotiating. And it has missed out on some big success stories, such as Twitter.


But among start-ups, the firm holds a reputation for being ahead of the curve on business. For example, Sequoia nudged its portfolio companies to embrace mobile more forcefully and earlier than other venture firms, Rusenko said.


He and other founders say that the firm, based on Silicon Valley’s legendary Sand Hill Road, is adept at competing with other venture capitalists when a start-up is seeking funds. It also excels at courting companies that aren’t actively seeking funding and persuading them to take it — like WhatsApp.


“The notion of them marching up and down Sand Hill with a Powerpoint deck is comical,” Goetz told Reuters, referring to WhatsApp founders Jan Koum and Brian Acton. He had cultivated them since 2010 before closing Sequoia’s first investment the following year.


Goetz, who holds a master’s degree in computer systems from Stanford, co-founded health company VitalSigns, providing the type of first-hand company-building experience that start-up founders prize.


In keeping with the firm’s more discreet ethos, he holds a low profile compared with partners at other venture firms, or even Sequoia’s own star partner, Mike Moritz. He rarely speaks at conferences, refrains from blogging, and has sent out just 180 tweets. But people who have worked with him say he speaks with quiet authority.


“He clearly was the most intelligent about our market, and had done better research,” recalled Jive Software co-founder Matt Tucker about the days Goetz was courting him and co-founder Tony Zingale.


After Sequoia first invested in Jive in 2007, Goetz took Tucker along to a board meeting at fellow portfolio company Palo Alto Networks so he could learn how other companies handled those events. Goetz bought good wine to mark company milestones, invited Tucker and Zingale to parties at his home, and showed an interest in their lives outside work – but stayed focused on the business.


“In no way would you confuse Jim as a tender-hearted cuddly bear,” Tucker said.


Staying focused is crucial in the venture-capital industry, which has come under fire for lackluster returns at all but a small group of top firms. As results have disappointed, venture capital firms have raised less money, just $16.7 billion last year compared with $25.93 billion in 2008, according to the National Venture Capital Association.


Sequoia is part of an elite group of funds whose results stand out from the venture-capital pack, investors say. It can raise money for each of its venture funds in a matter of days, with so many existing investors clamoring to reinvest that there is little room for new ones.


Last year, it raised $1.17 billion for three funds, including $533 million for its flagship Sequoia Capital XIV, according to regulatory filings.


Its popularity endures as other parts of the venture business are competing with new sources of funding, such platforms that make it easy for rich individuals to make “angel” or early stage investments. Meanwhile, because the cost of so much technology, such as servers, has dropped drastically in recent years, many start-up founders can build their companies to sizeable levels without the need to turn to venture backers.
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Apple in need of new products. AP

Apple Inc is looking at cars and medical devices to diversify its sources of revenue as growth from iPhones and iPads slows, according to a San Francisco Chroniclereport.


Apple’s head of mergers and acquisitions, Adrian Perica, met with Tesla Motors Inc founder Elon Musk at the company’s headquarters last year around the same time analysts suggested that Apple acquire the Model S electric car maker, the newspaper reported on Sunday, citing a source.


The company is also exploring medical devices and sensors that can help predict heart attacks by studying sound blood makes at it flows through arteries.


The company’s senior vice president of operations, Jeff Williams, has met with US Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Margaret Hamburg and Dr Jeffrey Shuren, who oversees the agency’s approval for medical devices, to discuss “mobile medical applications,” the paper reported, citing FDA records.


Apple could not be reached for comment.


Rival Google Inc recently bought thermostat maker Nest Labs for $3.2 billion, robot maker Boston Dynamic and artificial intelligence startup DeepMind Technologies Ltd. The company has also been working on projects including Google Glass and self-driving cars.


Investors hope that Apple, which last came out with a new device – the iPad – in 2010, has something up its sleeve for 2014. Speculation currently revolves around a smartwatch or even a long-rumored TV product.


Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 6, a mid-range smartphone, and may also launch wearable devices such as iWatch, in the second half of the year.


Others say Apple can use its huge iPhone and iTunes base to get into mobile payments or advertising.


Apple reported lower-than-expected iPhone sales for the holiday shopping quarter and gave a weaker-than-expected revenue forecast. The company has been ceding ground to Samsung Electronics Co and other rivals in China, its No. 2 market.
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Android malware has increased by nearly 63 percent between 2012 and 2013, say a new report by ESET, which provides anti-virus software and Internet protection.

The report also states that not only is Android the market leader in Mobile OS but the most attacked as well. The number of malware types has also increased. The report points out that in 2010 there were only three families of Malware for Android, this had increased to 51 families reported in 2011; 63 families reported in 2012; and 79 as of October 2013.

This isn’t the first report to highlight the problematic connection between Android and malware . A Kaspersky Security report had said in that ninety-nine percent of newly discovered mobile malicious programs target the Android platform.

And given that Android controls nearly 80 percents of the smartphone market, the spam and malware problem needs to be taken seriously. So what can users do to protect their mobile phones? Here are some tips.

• Lock your screen with a Pin or password: This might sound like an unnecessary hassle, but once you’re using your Android, use the lock screen by giving PIN or password instead of going for patterns.

Protect apps: Install ‘App Lock’ to protect individual apps. This can be particularly useful for personal apps such as email, Facebook, Twitter etc and ensure that if the phone does get into the wrong hands, they can’t access the app without the required password.

• If you’re sharing any devices, be careful with Google Now as it is linked to your Gmail account.

• Using your Android for work: It’s best to talk to your IT department first as nearly 30-40 percent of devices in workplaces fly “under the radar” of threats unless users are educated about risks.

• Google’s Android Device Manager Page is particularly useful to activate especially when you’ve lost the phone. You can provides more options by logging into your Google account, and you will be able to force a device on silent mode to ring, remote-lock a device, and view its location on a map.

• Keeping sensitive information on your smartphone such as Bank account, etc: Make sure not to store it on a removable SD card, which makes it easier for attackers to access data from SD card. Store this data in internal memory with strong password.

• Encrypting your phone WILL slow it down, but it will keep your data safe: You can activate this by going to Settings/Security/Encryption in your Android. Choose Encrypt Device and Encrypt External SD Card, and then wait while the device crunches your data.

• Rooting your Android might not be the best solution: Rooting a phone opens users up to new risks and cuts off many of the protections built into Android itself. Malicious apps with root access can cause far more damage than normal ones.

Google’s Play store: Don’t download everything you see there. More importantly don’t download apps from ‘unofficial’ stores

Permissions: Read the “permissions” screen EVERY time you install an app

Banking apps: These are important apps and you should only install them from the official Google Play Store. It’s recommended that you don’t ever install a banking app from a link that emailed or sent via SMS.

Mobile Payments: You should be extremely careful while making mobile payments since you are store information about your debit or credit card on the phone.
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LG's new Series L III smartphones. Image via LG

Over the weekend, LG announced the latest in its mid-range L-Series phones. The new L Series III range of budget and mid-range smartphones will be officially unveiled at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014, where more details about their availability may be announced.


LG has announced three devices as part of the series; namely the L90, L70, and L40. Impressively, all three smartphones will run Android 4.4 KitKat. “In addition to inheriting the refined design aesthetic that is synonymous with LG’s premium devices, the L Series III provides an array of user benefits that extend far beyond a simple upgrade,” Dr Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company was quoted as saying in a press release.


L90 has a 1.2 Ghz quad-core processor, a 4.7-inch qHD display with 960 x 540 resolution. It has 8 GB of internal memory, 1 GB RAM, and an 8-megapixel rear camera and 1.3 megapixel front camera. The battery is removable and 2,540mAh. The L90 supports 3G (HSPA+), and more information is awaited about other connectivity options.


The L70 has a 1.2 Ghz dual-core processor, 4 GB of internal memory and 1 GB RAM. The screen is 4.5-inches with 800 x 400 resolution. As far as the camera is concerned LG is launching two versions depending on the market. There’s one with an 8-megapixel camera on the rear and another with a 5.0 megapixel camera on the rear. In either case, the front camera is a VGA unit. The smartphone also supports 3G (HSPA+), and here too more information is awaited about GPS, Wi-Fi drafts and other options.


Lastly, the L40 has a 1.2 Ghz dual-core processor but a smaller screen at 3.5-inches. It also has 4GB of internal storage, but RAM is lesser than the other two at 512 MB. The camera is only a 3-megapixel unit, while the battery size will vary according to markets. The two battery sizes are 1,700mAh and 1,540mAh.


LG has also announced Quick Window smart covers for all three devices. The Quick Window cover is a flip cover case that protects the smartphone covering both the screen and the rear. It features a special cutout in the middle of the top portion of the case in order to provide access to the screen. Swiping across the window exposes users to more features, including time, wealth, messages, and music player. The covers will be available in three colour
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A blank Firefox tab is seen in this screenshot.
New Delhi: Multiple vulnerabilities have been detected in popular web browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and cyber security sleuths have advised Internet users in the Indian cyberspace to guard against arbitrary activities on their systems.


In view of these suspicious virus-based activities, Internet users have been asked to upgrade their personal versions of these two most used web browsers on their work stations.


Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey which could be exploited by a remote attacker to bypass certain security restrictions, disclose potentially sensitive information, gain escalated privileges, execute arbitrary code and causes denial of service condition on the affected system,” the Computer Emergency Response Team of India (CERT-IN) said in its latest advisory to online users in the country.


The CERT-In is the nodal agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian Internet arena. ”The two web browsers are an important tool for Internet surfing among Indian online consumers. The anomalies have been detected recently and it would be advised that users upgrade their existing versions sooner than later. These activities are mischiefs on part of hackers or they are harmful viruses,” a cyber security expert told PTI.


The agency, in its advisory, said the vulnerability is caused “due to improper restrict access to ‘about:home’ buttons by script on other pages in Mozilla Firefox”.


“A user-assisted remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability using a crafted website or webpage. Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow user-assisted remote attacker to cause a denial of service condition,” the CERT-In said.

Similar issues have been reported in the popular browser offered by Google. ”Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Google Chrome which could be exploited by a remote attacker to cause denial of service condition or execute arbitrary code on the target system,” the agency said.

The maximum damage these vulnerabilities can cause, the advisory said, was memory corruption, unwanted downloading of files, loss of sensitive information (when Mozilla Firefox is used in Android phones) and cause of denial of various services on the Internet to the user.


The agency advised Internet users to either user proper security patches (Mozilla Firefox) or upgrade the browser version (Google Chrome).


The affected software systems include “Firefox versions prior to 27.0, Firefox extended support release (ESR) versions prior to 24.3, Thunderbird versions prior to 24.3, SeaMonkey versions prior to 2.24 and Google Chrome prior to version 32.0.1700.102.”
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5-inch Canvas power with quad-core processor and 4,000mAh battery

Micromax has launched a new sub-Rs 10,000 smartphone in its Canvas series dubbed Power and we have a feeling this one will sell like hot cakes. The Canvas Power A96 is now available on the company’s official store for Rs 9,990, but it’s not just the price which is appealing.



The biggest USP of the phone is that it has a 4,000 mAh battery, something we’ve recently also seen in the Xolo Q3000. The battery promises up to up to 5.5 hours of talktime and up to 450 hours of standby time and we reckon it will easily last through the day, especially considering the other specs.



In what is fast becoming the standard for most Indian-branded smartphones these days, the Canvas Power gets a 5-inch TFT display but with a lowly 480×854 pixels of resolution. Under the hood, it is powered by a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6582M processor with 512MB of RAM. Both these aspects should help in keeping power consumption to a minimum. The Canvas Power comes with dual-SIM slots (GSM+GSM) and ships with Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean OS.



The device packs in 4GB of onboard storage that can be expanded further up to 32GB via a microSD card. On the camera front, the Canvas Power comes fitted with a 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash. The official site doesn’t mention a front-facing camera, though one can be seen on the phone’s image there. The connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS and Bluetooth, so there’s no NFC. The Power will come preloaded with apps such as Kingsoft Office, Hike, Opera Mini and M! Live, in addition to BlackBerry Messenger. Currently available online through the Micromax store, the company promises to deliver the device in 7 to 10 business days.
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The skirt features 35 Nokia Lumia 1520s

It’s not often (more like never) we get to write about skirts on our site, but Nokia has made this one possible.

The company has teamed up with Fyodor Golan Fashion House to create a skirt made out of 35 Nokia Lumia 1520 units with images changing according to the wearer’s movement. The skirt made an appearance at the London Fashion Week 2014.

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A bespoke app was made for the purpose of changing images according to the wearer’s movements

Design house KIN employed a combination of sketches, 3D-printing and software programming to help Nokia with the technological aspect of the skirt. The phablets will display pictures that will change hue and pattern according to the wearer’s movement. “As the skirt moves, images on the screens change color, creating a synchronised shimmering effect that emulates real-world fabric. To form this illusion, a bespoke app was conceived that employs GPS technology to align the wearer’s movements with the skirt’s sparkle,” Nokia’s Conversations blog says.

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GPS technology monitors the movements

When asked what it was that prompted this move, KIN said, “It was the opportunity to work with Windows. We’ve developed on lots of platforms over the years, but by far the most technology we’ve built is for desktop PC’s running Windows. The opportunity to develop for the mobile version opened up interesting new possibilities for us.”

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Don’t expect to go dancing in this dress

Congratulations to Nokia for this unique project, but since we are feeling wicked this Saturday, we can’t help but think this is just a way to use some of the unsold Lumia 1520 stock. In any case, if you are looking to get this skirt in your wardrobe, you might have to shell out more than a pretty penny, considering one 1520 costs around Rs 46,000. We did the math; 35 x Rs 46,000 equals Rs 16,10,000 and we aren’t even factoring in the design cost. In any case, there’s no word about whether this skirt will go up for sale post the Fashion Week debut.

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The Lumia skirt at the London Fashion Week 2014

All images courtesy Nokia.
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Airtel 4G on iPhone 5s and 5c in Bangalor
Bharti Airtel along with Apple has launched India’s first 4G on mobile service today. Airtel users in Bengaluru who have an Apple iPhone 5s or iPhone 5c will be able to experience 4G on their mobile at current 3G prices.


The introductory offer is valid for both prepaid as well as postpaid customers and all that’s required is a 4G SIM to start 4G services. Customers will not have to migrate to a 4G plan from their existing 3G data plan. Unfortunately, for non-iPhone users, this offer is only restricted to the latest smartphones from Apple. Airtel claims that with 4G, HD videos can be streamed with zero buffering and 10 movies can be downloaded in less than 30 minutes. However, there’s no way to verify these numbers just yet.


Through the introductory offer, those using 2G/GPRS plans can also switch to a 3G plans and get 4G speeds. For heavy data users, Airtel announced a new 4G plan giving customers 10GB data for a rental of Rs 1,000. While data browsing will be on 4G network, voice calls will be routed on 2G/3G seamlessly with the CSFB (circuit switched fall back) technology.


Airtel mobile customers using the iPhone 5s and 5c can start 4G on their phones immediately. New customers can just buy the 4G SIM and avail of any 3G data plan to get started with the 4G experience. All 3G plans in Bangalore will automatically be converted to 4G if the device is compatible. 4G SIMs will be available at all Airtel stores across the city, while customers can also SMS 4G to 53636 or call 121 or visit the Airtel site to know more about the offer.


Announcing the launch, Srini Gopalan, Director – Consumer Business, Bharti Airtel India said, “Airtel has always set the technology trends in India and was the first operator to introduce 4G to the country. Today, we are proud to announce the launch of the much awaited Airtel 4G services on mobile in partnership with Apple. We will together give customers in Bengaluru the power to upgrade to cutting edge 4G LTE technology at no additional cost.”
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The super-slim Vibe X available in India now
Who can forget the pain of lugging around a laptop that seemed to weigh a ton after a tiring day at the office, while juggling with a mobile phone the size of a brick? Thankfully, mobile technology has grown leaps and bounds since that era and the options facing consumers today are mind-numbing. Laptops have become more powerful, slimmer and lighter. Mobile phones have turned almost as powerful as PCs and offer a delightful variety in terms of user experience with innovative shapes, sizes and forms. These are the devices that literally jump-started the age of the Internet.


And then, the tablets arrived, bringing new highs in terms of ease of use and alluring consumers across age groups all over the world. But this trend had a flipside to it. Users were forced to carry and manage both, their tablets and the mobile phones, on the go. This is where the segment between phones and tablets come in, born out of the sheer necessity for a device that was manageable, comfortable and could offer the functions that its parent devices did. Ergonomics is the key here.


There has been an avalanche of launches in this segment lately (called phablets by some), from brands, old and new. Five-inch phones are currently ruling the roost. With a display large enough to offer marvelous full HD experience, these phones are competing in size and durability. But the question still remains, what should be an ideal size for a handset that can not only make calls but also manage apps, games, emails, camera, et al?

Here, Lenovo’s Vibe X has managed to stand out in the wide gamut of gizmos available. With an incredibly light body of 121 g, thickness of 6.9mm and a 5-inch full HD display one can happily slip the Vibe X into a purse or a pocket without a worry. And yes, it is the lightest ever, till date!

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Vibrant Full HD Display

With a body this sleek, Lenovo Vibe X also packs in a 13-megapixel rear camera and a five megapixel secondary front camera. It features the MediaTek MT6589T chipset (one of the fastest in the market at 1.5GHz), Android 4.2, 16/32 GB internal memory along with 2 GB RAM. Its brilliant 440 ppi display can trick you into believing that it’s an AMOLED display, even though it’s very much an IPS panel. There’s a layer of curved Corning Gorilla Glass 3 which gives the display a scratch-proof protective layer, a feature yet to be seen in any smartphone at this price point.
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Sleek profile, premium build materials

                                 
More importantly, the smartphone comes with the assurance of Lenovo – a brand associated with making innovative, reliable processors and durable PCs and tablets, that sets it apart from the crowd.

Giving a new meaning to the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’, Lenovo seems to be leading the way when it comes to featherweight new-age smartphones.
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San Francisco: For the first time, Facebook Inc is letting users of its online social network identify themselves as a gender other than male and female.

The basic user profile for members in the United States now includes a customizable category among the gender types that users must select, the world’s No.1 Internet social network announced on Wednesday, the day the feature became available for U.S. members using the site’s English-language version.

Those who select that option can select up to 10 gender identifications, including “transgender,” “intersex” and “fluid.”

The company said it worked with a leading group of gay and transgender advocacy organizations to come up with the selection of identity options.

Until now, Facebook’s 1.23 billion members could only select male or female for their genders, which Facebook requires users to state in their profiles. Users of rival Google Inc’s Google+ social network already had an “other” option for gender.

Facebook said users also can control the audience who can view a custom choice, noting the challenges that some people may face in publicly sharing their gender identity.

Users can also choose the personal pronoun to which they are referred publicly. A message on Facebook might now invite a user’s friend to write a birthday message on “their” wall, instead of “his” or “her” wall.

We want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self,” Facebook said.
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Seattle: Microsoft Corp’s Windows 8 system has racked up more than 200 million license sales since its launch 15 months ago, according to Tami Reller, its head of marketing, lagging Windows 7 which sold 240 million within its first year.

The latest Windows 8 sales figure, announced by Reller at a Goldman Sachs technology conference on Thursday, is the first that Microsoft has made public for more than six months.

The relatively slow sales of Windows 8, and its latest incarnation Windows 8.1, reflect a steady two-year decline in personal computer sales, as smartphones and tablet sales explode. Sales of tablets are set to overtake PCs worldwide next year.

Windows 8 was designed as a flexible new system that would work equally well on desktops PCs and touchscreen tablets, but it ended up alienating many traditional users, while the company’s Surface tablet has not won over many Apple Inc iPad users.

More worryingly for Microsoft, the number of people actually using Windows 8 is persistently low. While many businesses technically have purchased Windows 8 licenses, few have installed the system on office machines.

According to tech statistics firm NetMarketShare, only about 11 percent of PC users worldwide are using Windows 8 or 8.1. Meanwhile, 48 percent are sticking with Windows 7 and 29 percent are still running Windows XP, which is more than a decade old.

Windows 7, helped by the fact that it replaced the generally unpopular Windows Vista, is Microsoft’s most successful operating system to date, selling more than 450 million licenses.
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Music Video On Demand

Love your music videos? Google has a tweak up its sleeve for you. Now when you search for a song that’s been playing in your head, Google Search will throw up a huge card that displays a YouTube video of the song for you to view.

Search Engine Watch reported that Google has now taken to using large Google Now style cards to push YouTube video links when users search for particular songs. While it is not necessary that every song you search for will have a music video, Google will show you links to even audio-only YouTube music videos, so you need not go on to a music streaming website.


Of course, you will not be able to play the song right inside the card, and watch the video on a smaller screen, despite the fact that it has a play button right in it. You will, however, be able to click on it and let it take you to the YouTube page.


The search results will mainly show your results from official artiste pages and even from VEVO, but clearly the art hasn’t been perfected by Google Search as we’re being able to see results from general users too. The best part about this Search tweak is that you need not add “video” as a keyword to your search query to trigger this card. In fact the larger card with the video does not appear when you use the word “video”. You need to merely type in the name of the song.


This was already available in September 2013 when you searched for an artist and then clicked on a song – you’d see a preview of the music video if it was available to display,” said a Google Spokesperson. “Yesterday we made it easier to get to – you can now just search for a song directly and see the video screenshot right away.


According to the company, while most of the links being displayed are from YouTube, other sources of music videos like Vimeo, Dailymotion and more are being put to use too for some results. Of course, it would be obvious that Youtube being a Google product will get far more footage on the Search results.


Despite the rise of music streaming services like Spotify and Rdio, YouTube has maintained its position as one of the top destinations for users to simply listen to some music. YouTube has a lot more going on for it than the random cat videos. With this Google Search push, YouTube’s ever-increasing popularity will only end up getting a push.
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The government is trying to use social media to disseminate regional cinema internationally


New Delhi: Classics from regional cinema may soon be available at the click of a mouse as a parliamentary panel has asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to utilise social media platforms to disseminate films made in the country.


In a report that was tabled in the Parliament earlier this week, the Committee on Estimates, while looking into the performance of National Film Archives of India (NFAI) suggested that Youtube, Facebook and Twitter could be explored to disseminate Indian films internationally.


“Ministry of Information and Broadcasting should explore the possibility to optimise the use of social media platforms of the Internet like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc as a way of popularising and disseminating Indian cinema all over the world,” the committee said in its report.
The panel in its report also added that the Information and Broadcasting secretary was “receptive” to the idea of uploading regional classics in the Internet as it would ensure wider reach besides fetching revenue from downloads.

The panel in its report expressed disappointment that priceless works of Indian cinema had been lost, and made a key suggestion that there should be a legislative provision that filmmakers and private collectors should part with a copy of their films to NFAI for preservation.

The panel said films like “Alam Ara”, India’s first talkie, are also reportedly lost and the government should institute a comprehensive review of NFAI with a view to revamping the organisation.